I genuinely hate Rockstar mission structure, it is a scourge of poor narrative pacing and game design that I hope whoever coined it first gets fired off a cliff. That being said, Red Dead Redemption is an alright time overall, mostly because when the narrative actually decides to hit, it does.

Red Dead Redemption is one part really weak open world with middling side stuff, one part gameplay that just barely passes, and one part great narrative poking fun at Wild West revisionism and revisionism in general that is somewhat taken apart by shitty pacing thanks to its meandering structure. That ends up all combining to make something cohesive and somewhat immersive, not really a match of gameplay and story because the mission mechanics undercut the freedom you can have (hey there's a NakeyJakey vid on this you should see for RDR2). But it works, at least.

I really do find however, that the story elements it offers are genuinely great and competent to be worth the venture. Rockstar's writing while not perfect does end up generally understanding and evaluating the culture and time period it works with, putting up heralded ideals of Wild West storytelling and then cutting its limbs, pointing out the issues of its supposed "freedom" as you go from Mexican war where both sides are narcissists, wanted lists that give no real glory, the old guard completely exploited by the police and government as capitalism decides the real truth. And even with all of that subtext, RDR still manages to bring out a last act that hits home with core family tenants. Again though, a lot of this is terribly paced, with a shitload of "do this favor for x so you can get to y, and then do another favor for x or maybe even y this time! And then after you've done this 5 times we'll actually continue the fucking story." It's grating, but I think the heart of it shines through over time.

Overall, it's an alright game where the positives while strong are cut under by the scope and structure it works with. It's fine, worth trying out at least but maybe not finishing. (6/10)

It's kind of the "Free Bird" of video games. It's thematically thin, but just fatalitic enough to feel poetic. It's a cornerstone of modern American AAA games the way Free Bird is a cornerstone of 70s rock. Both a very much for Your Dad. And its legacy is ultimately tied to its vastness.

Just as Free Bird goes on and on and crescendos with a long guitar solo, so does Red Dead Redemption go on and on and then crescendos spectacularly... although crescendo is the wrong word. This isn't a game that leads to a big, violent set piece, but rather leads a series of quiet domestic chores as you reacclimate to life around the family farm. But in contrast to how loud much of the preceding game is, it feels a bit like a crescendo, like an inverted guitar solo.

I do wish this game wasn't so cartoonish. It feels like a game that could easily bare more of its soul. Red Dead Redemption 2 certainly comes closer to doing that. But here, just about every mission from after you leave Bonnie's ranch until you get back to Blackwater is filled with nonsense comic characters, with a few exceptions (Marshal, Landon, Luisa). Nothing wrong with having a sense of humour but in a game that's attempting to be as sombre and "authentic" as this is, the stereotypes just feel lazy and insecure.

Anyway. Good ending. I liked riding around the old west. And when I first played this I wasn't a very big gamer and it spurred 16 year old me on. I still have a poster of Bonnie on the wall of my old room. I don't know that I'll ever be able to NOT see through all of this game's warts.

I remember seeing pictures of Silent Hill 2 in gaming magazines, and for the longest time just the mere sight of a still image from this game was enough to creep me out. Every part of the Emotion Engine was used to make this game feel more rotten, diseased, and inhospitable than the first. At the same time, Team Silent wasn't exactly trying to reinvent the wheel with Silent Hill 2's gameplay, and much of my praise and criticism of the original carries over here.

One notable improvement, however, is in Silent Hill 2's level design, which feels a lot more thought out than the first. Gone is the open grid-like structure of the town. Players have to make their way through tighter alleyways, ducking around closely spaced buildings that provide little room to anticipate and react to danger. The various locations you visit are tailored to protagonist James Sunderland's psyche, adding an extra layer to the horror as what he did before arriving in Silent Hill slowly reveals itself. It gives the monsters you encounter an extra edge too, as they all have some personal connection to James rather than simply being byproducts of a town consumed by evil.

Much like the previous game, James is not alone here, though the characters he encounters seem far more tortured and close to madness. They're experiencing their own private hell, much like James, and it's interesting to see how they fall apart the more you progress through the game. The voice acting isn't great, but honestly I find it to be pretty charming. I've heard someone try to excuse this once as being the result of them perceiving the "reality" of Silent Hill differently, not even carrying on the same conversation James is trying to have with them due to this disconnect. I guess that kinda works, but it's honestly hard to tell if that's the case or just the result of bad direction and clumsy writing. No matter the case, I like it. It's weird and it adds to the atmosphere.

I think Silent Hill 2's conclusion is the strongest in the series, not sure if that's a controversial take or not. It's also one of the poorest kept twists in gaming, and I already had it spoiled for me at least a decade-and-a-half prior. Not that I think it really ruins the ending to know about it beforehand, the story does a good job of working towards that point and it feels earned. James' backstory is told in subtle ways and I like how the full picture really only comes into focus upon reflection.

Silent Hill 2 is a very good game. Maybe it won't live up to its hype for some people, but I was very surprised by how much it sucked me in. I was expecting this to be another case of hearing about a game that people think is damn near perfect or genre defining or whatever and just seeing a ton of faults with it, but that's not the case. I like it a whole lot and I wish Pyramid Head was my dad. Things would be different around here...

it is a really good joke, in retrospect, that james sunderland's silent hill is the easiest to deal with of any of them. even james' psychosexual torture purgatory coddles the crap out of him; at one point point in the midgame i had 11 health drinks, 14 first aid kits, and like 5 ampoules. i almost wanted to beg the game to stop giving me consumables, i felt nauseatingly overstuffed. things like that really sell this sadsack nega-wife guy shit as a grim spiritual joke rather than the heart of the narrative, which is centered in the peripheral cast. i won't say much about it because it's never worth spilling blood and tears on the page for games writing (to me) but angela is such a smartly written and well-understood character by the narrative (probably one of a handful of times mainstream games actually got "trauma" "right") and eddie's inferiority complex turned self loathing turned misanthropy turned paranoid violence hits a perfectttt balance between empathetic and uncomfortable. but enough said, there's nothing new to add here, really just another marker that i finished one of these games

edit: stray thought i wanted to write down so i don't forget it but it's funny that anyone could think downpour was trying anything new by addressing "the prison system" when this game literally has an extended sequence about prison as an occult torture maze built for exculpating authority structured by spatialized m.c. escher contortions of the logic of sin and absolution that runs laps around whatever ill-conceived green mile mike flanagan prestige tv shit was going on in that game

I think it's weird that the bros attacks were turned into items. It doesn't change anything since they constantly give you more of them. If anything, it just made those attacks easier to spam since you don't need BP to do them anymore.

The game overall is fine. Even the worst Mario and Luigi game is still pretty damn good. (Honestly shows how great the entire series is.)

Also, my save file corrupted after I beat the final boss. I like to think the Shroobs got so pissed after I killed their princess, they decided to just delete my entire save file.