The Last of Us Part II

Note: This review contains spoilers for The Last of Us, The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Undertale and Spec Ops: The Line.

Ever since the PS2 Jak and Daxter games, I’ve been a fan of Naughty Dog and their work, even when they shifted to a narrative-driven style with the Uncharted series onward. I even enjoyed Uncharted 4 and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy in spite of their flaws and found The Last of Us to have some of the best character writing I’ve ever seen in a video game. When they originally announced The Last of Us Part II, directed by Neil Druckmann, I was intrigued, but news of overly intense crunch periods soured my willingness to play it. Once the game actually released during the early months of the global COVID-19 pandemic, I opted to watch a playthrough of the game and a few videos to see if I had really missed anything.

Although I wasn’t impressed with what I had seen, I eventually decided I should witness the story and gameplay for myself. Considering the praise that the game received, and its numerous Game of the Year awards, I wondered if maybe I had missed something and might change my mind if I actually played The Last of Us Part II. During my 25-hour journey, I did form my own opinion of the story separate from what I had already heard and found that I actually liked a couple ideas. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to like the game, I felt so thoroughly disappointed by such a painfully average experience that I now question if I can still eagerly support a company I once loved.

Lifeless Planet

While some games attract me based entirely on their art direction or general gameplay concept, some are based on the ideas they present for their narrative. One such game is Lifeless Planet, developed entirely by David Board, with some audio assistance. After stumbling upon it while flipping through my Steam recommended for a sale event, the concept of an unknown planet that was once visited by Soviets intrigued me enough to consider buying it in the future, though I would not get around to doing so for some time, and due to monetary concerns I had to pass over a physical release via Limited Run. Eventually, I would finally pick up the Premier Edition of the game when it was at a deep discount during a Steam sale, opting to play it not too long after getting a copy. I overall found it worth the wait, even with some minor shortcomings.

Onward

I will admit that when Onward, the first in Pixar’s lineup post-Toy Story 4 to consist entirely of new IPs, was first announced, I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it based on the trailers and so I opted to skip out on it at first. Not helping matters was that the movie suffered from some very bad timing, releasing on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic and just before movie theaters were forced to close as a result. Not long after, the movie was put out for digital download and on Disney+, though we would not invest in a Disney+ account until much later, with the release of Phineas & Ferb the Movie: Candance Against the Universe. Since we’ve been watching more streaming services during the pandemic, we decided we may as well actually watch Onward before the end of the year. While it did turn out better than I expected, it’s not one of Pixar’s better movies.

Stubs - The Last Picture Show

The Last Picture Show (1971) Starring: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn, Eileen Brennan, Clu Gulager, Sam Bottoms, Sharon Taggart. Directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Screenplay by Larry McMurtry, Peter Bogdanovich. Based on the novel The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry (New York, 1966). Produced by Stephen J. Friedman. USA Run time: 118 minutes. Black and White. Drama

Sometimes films that have gotten big praise don’t always live up to it when you finally see them. Such was the case with Five Easy Pieces and I can now add The Last Picture Show to that list. I wasn’t really planning to watch the film, though I had hoped to possibly record it for future viewing when it was recently on TCM. However, at the last minute, I caught the film in progress, and while I was able to go back to the beginning, I couldn’t record it, so I, along with my family, had to watch it.

This is one of those films that I wasn’t able to see when it first came out since I was too young at the time for an R rating. And somehow, through the years I only seemed to catch the film already in progress. So, for 49 years, I had missed seeing this film.

Injustice 2 Legendary Edition

After the success of 2013’s Injustice: Gods Among Us, NetherRealm set to work on the follow-up, Injustice 2, which released in 2017. Considering the track record with NetherRealm’s releases since Mortal Kombat (2011), I waited until the complete Legendary Edition in 2018 so that I could play without also buying all the DLC. However, it was only during the COVID-19 pandemic that I finally found time to play it. I don’t regret finally getting around to it, but the implementation of GaaS mechanics holds it back more than it should.

The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales

I first heard about The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales (French: Le Grand Méchant Renard et autres contes…) when I stumbled upon it while browsing the Shout! Factory website, then read about it further through the GKIDS website. What really captured my attention was the unique art style and the premise of the title story, in which a fox ends up mothering chicks while raising them to be food. I then found out that it was partly based on a graphic novel, The Big Bad Fox by co-director Benjamin Renner, and that Renner had also been a director on the acclaimed French animated film Ernest & Celestine, which also caught my interest. Sometime later, I received both The Big Bad Fox and The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales as a birthday gift, deciding to read the original comic before watching the movie to see how accurate the adaptation was. Regardless of its creative liberties, I absolutely enjoyed the movie and thought it worked perfectly on its own merits.

Wattam (PS4)

When Wattam was first announced, the initial teaser trailer was enough to make me curious about it, especially since it was a product of Keita Takahashi, the creator of Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy, the former of which is one of my favorite game series. When it initially launched in 2019, I will admit I didn’t pick it up right away since I still wasn’t sure what exactly the game was about. I did, however, become more interested when I stumbled upon a physical copy of the game through iam8bit, which featured three different covers (Sun, Apple and Sushi; I picked up the Sun cover from Best Buy). After finally getting a chance to play this game, I thought it held up with Takahashi’s previous work, despite some frustrations.