an easy demonstration that these games never needed to be open-world "see that mountain?" games.

the open world of this game -- the towns, the cities, the industrial areas, the swamps, the coast, the glowing sea -- is wonderful, and about 10x better than the equivalent in new vegas or fo3.

yet, new vegas is unimpeachably the better game, possibly because it chose not to focus on such things and let the player fill in the gaps between the characters and the core conflicts of the game. you can make a world, or you can make a damn sweet 3d model of one -- this game chose the latter

for that reason, people will still be modding the fuck out of this game in 2025 though, i can guarantee it. god bless them!

absolutely archetypal Content Game. transformed itself many times over its lifetime, and ever for a price -- paid in both dollars and manic complexity. understanding even the basics of this game requires understanding 9 years of patch notes. expertly demonstrated the flaws in live service games while fortnite was but a twinkle in the milkman's eye

this game is a familiar home that has taken 2 thousand and change of my hours on this planet. i know how it works down to the source code level. i've run these heists far too many times. the weird movement, gunplay and interaction mechanics are just a day at the spa to me. i can't give it an impartial rating -- frankly, i can't even give it a personal one

an orkish collection of mechanics and concepts that don't really work very well as either an fps, a stealth game or a co-op game, held together by a mind-boiling variety and the greatest (dynamic!) soundtrack ever seen in a cooperative video game