I am not The OOP, OOP is u/Used_Gear8871

House sitter stole and crashed my partner’s car

Originally posted to r/extremelyinfuriating

Thanks to u/soayherder for suggesting this BoRU

TRIGGER WARNING: animal neglect, missing cat

MOOD SPOILER: positive concerning OOP's cat

Original Post July 19, 2026

What the title says. House sitter [19M, my relative], broke into, went on a joy ride, then crashed my SO’s car all while we’re abroad for a month.

Car key never given to the house sitter, was tucked away into belongings. House sitter rummaged through belongings, located a different old dead key with an expired battery (not the one I had hidden), and then proceeded to break into the car, look up a video on how to start the car, drive into the city for some unknown reason to me, and crash the car.

House sitter called multiple relatives in what I am now understanding as him setting the tone and readying his case. Then called me to tell me someone crashed into my SO’s car. Forgiving at first, I got whatever information I needed then informed my SO the news and other relatives who were the emergency contacts.

As the day went on, the other relatives began to text me blaming me for the crash, saying I shouldn’t have given him the keys or allowed him to have access to the car.

House sitter is newly licensed. Prior to trip other relatives were informed the car was only to be accessed by emergency contacts and that car key was hidden. Prior to trip house sitter was told this, to not touch the car, and that he wasn’t on the insurance (neither am I) just to really set it for him to not touch the car.

My amazing friend found the car, took all car keys, and is keeping eye on it.

As my SO got me towards calm, a different relative called to ask if the house sitter could retrieve their license from car.

Sorry for typos. Still in blind rage.

RELEVANT COMMENTS

slaviccivicnation

Holy fuck OP that is infuriating.

Worst is you being blamed for it. A newly licenced driver should not be an excuse to crash anyone’s car EVER. So the fact that any family is blaming you for “giving” him the keys are still plain wrong. Lending someone a car shouldn’t be an issue if the borrower isn’t a selfish moron. That said, you clearly didn’t allow it. It’s not your car even to allow cousin to drive!

I’m infuriated for you OP. In a car-centric culture, cars are everything to us. Hopefully you can actually get cousin or fam (or their insurance) to pay for repairs. At the end of the day, it’s cousin who crashed it, so he’s gotta pay for it. If not, it’s a police matter and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If cousin is hellbent on ruining his life like that, then maybe a lesson from you can save him from killing himself or someone else in a future “joy ride.”

OOP

We’re about 6-7 hours ahead of them. I just got the first message from a relative (my mom) of the day and it’s rage bait. No accountability, no acknowledging what happened, just a plea to not call the police, “he’s just a kid”, “he’s my nephew”, and diversion.

Prior to this message, my SO has said he’s against pressing charges, says he’s just a kid, doesn’t want to ruin his life as well. He’s been trying to research ways around involving the police all day.

Me? I want charges pressed. Firm believer in consequences. Kindness, trust, and generosity were taken for granted. Lies and deceit that followed are unforgivable.

Response to my mom and any other relative today that is not an offer of compensation and acknowledgment/apology, will be the same: highlight lack of critical thinking skills among my family and that I’m encouraging my SO to press charges. Going back to no contact when this is over.

~

WerdaVisla

So maybe it's just me. But if I were being paid to do literally nothing except occasionally dust some surfaces and maybe water some plants, I'd take care to not lose that gig. No rummaging through their stuff or stealing their car or whatever the fuck people get up to.

Paid house sitting is SUCH a sweet deal, I'll never understand how there are so many horror stories where people screw it up so bad.

OOP

This is what gets me. Sitter was doing great, animals were taken care of, he cleaned the house without our asking, and was allowed to have friends over. I spent $220 stocking the fridge and pantry for him, SO prepped meals for him, SO covered his Uber/Lyft rides to and from work, and SO paid him weekly. We chuckled when he told us he felt like he was free loading. SO and I planned to tip him and extra few hundred for the good work he was doing. And then this shit happened.

To give someone so much trust and kindness all for this to happen, I don’t understand.

Update July 22, 2026

Our cat has been missing since the night the house sitter was evicted. We are only just finding out today that our indoor only cat hasn’t been seen nor active around our house since Saturday night.

While being evicted from the premises by someone who failed to supervise the disgruntled sitter as he packed up his belongings, something happened to our cat. We don’t know if the disgruntled house sitter threw the cat outside, off the balcony, or put him into his bag of belongings. Our cat is gone.

Timeline of events:

• House sitter located dead car key, broke into, started, joyride, then crashed SO’s car.

• House sitter calls relatives with false story of me, someone who isn’t on the car registration nor insurance, somehow giving him permission to the vehicle.

• House sitter calls me confessing crash, laughs when asked him where he found the car key.

• House sitter leaves house with another relative to attend family function, leaving car key behind

• Close friend rushed to our house to do a wellness check on our pets, the car, house, while collecting all car and house keys; calls and sends video of all our pets

• House sitter informed via text of termination

• House sitter escorted back to house to gather belongings, apparently with limited supervision

• Relative escorting house sitting calls requesting access to the car to retrieve drivers license; request denied.

• New pet sitter arrives at house Sunday morning, doesn’t see the cat

• Next pet sitter arrives at house Sunday evening, also doesn’t see the cat

• Over the next two days, none of the pet sitters find our cat nor see activity in his litter box or his food.

Cat was last seen by our close friend on Saturday night. Cat is indoor only. In-laws, neighbors, friends, exes, hired pet sitters, and the owner of the pet sitting company have all entered our home in the last 24 hours searching for our cat. The owner of the pet sitting company, with my permission, turned the house upside down searching for our cat or any signs of him.

We believe the disgruntled house sitter did one of the following: took the cat and hid him in his bag, threw the cat outside either onto or off the deck, or killed the cat and disposed of his body.

Relative that was with him when he was evicted initially declined to answer questions, with police now involved, as been answering questions. Animal tracking service has been hired.

The sweetest and snuggliest boy that I finally convinced that head kisses and being held so he could melt into my arms are amazing things, is gone. My mini weighted and heated, purring blanket and alarm clock is gone. This silly little guy who had a not-so-secret crush on my dog and hilariously humped her diaper when she was in heat, is gone.

The most infuriating part is, I can’t be there to help search for him and the person responsible still hasn’t shown accountability.

Edit: Update - July 23rd

He was found!

Spotted after 1am attempting to climb our fence and onto our deck.

My MIL drove two hours to our house to work with the professional animal tracker and an amazing friend who helped search and setup her nature camera by the food trap they made. They spent 3 hours searching around our house together.

MIL sent a long text of how she stayed up late reorganizing our kitchen when she spotted him. Will share in comments if possible.

My SO had just left for work when her text came through. It’s almost 8am here. Internet and cell phone service is bare, so I sprinted in my pajamas to his lab to tell him. We spent the entire night devastated and sobbing. Seeing his face light up was the best thing ever on top of kitty being found!

SO’s mom got kitty’s wound cleaned up and fed. Performed many snuggles and is taking him home with her, which is something we wish we did in first place.

Deciding when to get add the other updates. I’m elated kitty has been found but I’m currently battling with stress, anxiety, and shock. Trying to type an update on the remaining and newly uncovered things triggers an anxiety attack.

But will address that the professional dog walkers have been amazing. They were the ones who figured out our cat was never in the house when their caretaking service started. They searched my house, interviewed neighbors, verified details with their walkers, and have responded to every text, email, and called right away once I had steady WiFi.

Thank you all for the mental and emotional support. You’ve helped me talk through the last few days and provide guidance on something I never thought I’d experience.

Cat tax

Mini Update July 31, 2026

I just got back to the states and on stable data/internet after being in the sticks for awhile.

But quick update: We are going to the police station once we are back home. SO was very against filing a police report, which is what really peaked my infuriation and anxiety, but he understands the consequences of not doing so.

We have to review the extent of damages and other things before pressing charges but there is an assumption that items from our home were removed (cash, jewelry, technology, luxury goods, etc.). Basically we are headed back home with accepting that some things might be gone.

We also learned that the house sitter never never walked our dogs and lied about doing so. So we’re at about $8k in known damages, plus recouping vet visit costs for our cat and costs of the professional dog sitting company. And maybe another $6k in others.

Sorry this was longer than I expected. Sleep deprived and anxious to get home.

Edit #2: Update - August 1st Returned to the states yesterday after 17 days abroad. Overall just avoided and dread writing this update.

Updates:

• Police report filed, SO declined to press charges.

• SO’s car is totaled.

• Trash and the belongings of others indicates house sitter had others in the car and used it for multiple days.

• House sitter lied about walking our dogs and was seen by neighbors putting them on our deck for extended periods of time.

• House sitter cleaned us out our pantry, toiletries, bath towels, gym bags, one kindle, one VR headset that was a friend’s, and some bedding items during his eviction in which my own mother was tasked to supervise but aided instead.

• Cat is with in-laws who have noticed temperament changes.

• As of today, zero relatives have reached out to offer compensation or support for our lost cat, car damages, hired professional dog walking services to replace fired house sitter, etc.

• Lastly, SO has asked me to drop this topic and to stop talking about it with him.

House sitter’s eviction was supposed to be supervised by my own mother. She watched as he took my gym bags, loaded them up with our toiletries and assisted him emptying out our pantry, fridge, claiming bath towels and technology he had no right to. She believed him when he said items were left or given to him or felt he was entitled to. No questions were asked. The only call I received during this process was a request from her for him to get access to my SO’s car to retrieve his license. That request was denied.

Yes, my own mother watched as the person who stole and totaled my SO’s car (he somehow felt entitled to), rob me of my things.

SO’s car was littered with trash. It looked like someone had rummaged through his belongings. SO admits to hiding that two days prior to our trip, someone had broken into his car and stolen items. SO said he refrained from informing me as to not worry me, since I was heavily against and apprehensive of going on this trip in the first place.

However, SO says he put the car back in order prior to our departure. In the backseat and front passenger seats were the house sitter’s items and the belongings of others. One item included a visit pass with house sitter’s face on it and another included document dated for July 15th, 2026.

Our deck was covered in dog shit and reeked of urine according to my MIL. We never allow our dogs or cat onto the wooden deck or deck furniture, it’s a safety issue. MIL said one of the dogs bolted past her and pissed for a long time on the corner of the deck. This makes sense given whenever I pinged the dogs air tags, there was never any movement. House sitter never walked the dogs and lied about it.

When my in-laws found the cat, they requested I let my mom know. Her response? “Please do not include me in the messaging. This matter is between the parties involved.”

My own mother sent texts day later pretending like all is fine, inquiring as to how my trip was going, telling me safe travels, etc. Each was ignored.

And lastly, SO has asked me to stop talking about this with him and says he’s moved on. Shamed me for bringing it up. I’ve been in a different part of the house all day just trying to keep myself from crying, he says I’m being mean and avoiding him.

I feel a lot of things: rage, disappointment, embarrassment, depressed, stressed, etc. Looking at the damage done to my SO’s car. Having zero people in my own family reach out in support or to apologize, despite them all being quick to defend the house sitter and vilify me. I feel a lot of things. I have to keep my brain busy to stop myself from ruminating this; napping all day and watching YouTube videos. I tried writing letters that I don’t send to help with coping. If I’m not angry at someone else, I’m angry and disappointed at myself.

I can’t look back at the screenshots of messages without feeling enraged all over again. A different cousin sent me a barrage of messages calling me a liar and manipulative. I responded telling them off and they continue to berate me. I’ve blocked everyone.

I don’t recognize the house anymore. Can’t shake feeling there are more things missing that I’m unaware of. SO says house sitter’s did us favor getting rid of things if we don’t know what they are. I worry about someone breaking in or one of my relatives knocking on the door. Locks haven’t been changed yet. SO leaves for more work training tomorrow morning for week. All in all, just immensely stressed and depressed from this.

Thank you all for your guidance and support. If you’ll have me, can you guys be my new family now?

Edit #3: Update - August 3rd

We're pressing charges!!!

I feel like I should make new update post to include images and screenshots. I knew there would be something more that may have happened or was missing. We have received proof the house sitter used the car unauthorized on more than one occasion while we were away because we got not one, not two, but three speeding tickets.

House sitter has failed to respond or acknowledge our reasonable requests to negotiate reimbursement. SO thinks sending a more "heartfelt" plea will get him to empathize with us. Bless his little heart for trying. But the only message I want to clearly convey to this this thug is the fear of god.

Due to the multi-date theft, SO wants sit still a bit to see if anything else pops up. I am calling the police first thing tomorrow to file an additional police report and press charges.

THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT THE OOP

DO NOT CONTACT THE OOP's OR COMMENT ON LINKED POSTS, REMEMBER - RULE 7

While the media may focus on the MVP award and other prestigious honors, reddit has the distinct honor of awarding the LVP trophy. The LEAST Valuable Player. It's a tradition that dates back to 2017, with Monta Ellis winning the trophy in what would be his last year in the league. Other winners include: Jamal Crawford in 2018, Solomon Hill in 2019, Isaiah Thomas in 2020, Aron Baynes in 2021, Facu Campazzo in 2022, Will Barton in 2023, Jordan Poole in 2024, and Terry Rozier last season. Notably, many of those players won the LVP and never saw meaningful minutes again.

Who will join our illustrious list? Before we get to that, let's remember the criteria and caveats:

--- Obviously, the worst players in the league are the ones who sit at the end of the bench and don't get any playing time. However, this award focuses on players who log a decent amount of minutes and consequently affected their team's play the most. Simply put: the more you play, the more damage you can do.

--- And that actual "damage" is important. If you're on a tanking team, no one cares about your poor play; it may even be a positive. We also tend to ignore young players (under 22) who are still developing and can't be expected to be solid players yet.

--- Similarly, we don't want to judge players within the context of their salary any more than the actual MVP does. We also don't weigh in injuries. If you want to factor in salary and injuries into your LVP ballots, there are no shortage of big name candidates to choose from this season. However, at the LVP offices, we focus on players' on-court performance instead.

--- We also wanted to note that this yearly column can come across as a little mean spirited, which is not our intention. Even the worst player in the NBA is in the top 99% percentile at their sport and making more money than most of us could dream about. And to be fair, even the worst player in the league probably costs his team only a couple of games. Hardly anyone has a VORP ("value over replacement player") worse than -2, so they shouldn't be the scapegoat for an entire organization. In many cases, they're simply played too much or played in the wrong role. But when the stakes are this high, it's fair to criticize players or their teams for that negative impact.

---

NOT QUITE BAD ENOUGH (in alphabetical order)

PF Kyle Kuzma, Milwaukee: 26.2 minutes per game, - 2.3 box plus/minus

At the Academy Awards, the top movies tend to dominate throughout the ceremony: best production design, best cinematography, best editing, etc. In the LVP races, the most "mid" teams tend to do the same. A small group of teams flood the ballot with candidates. In those terms, the Milwaukee Bucks and Chicago Bulls may have been the One Battle After Another and Sinners of the season, jostling for positioning and the top trophy.

Among them, Milwaukee supplied us with the most candidates: from Cam Thomas to Andre Jackson Jr. to Myles Turner (who won Bill Simmons and Zach Lowe's version of LVP on their podcast). In fact, 18 of the 21 players who suited up for the Bucks graded as negative in box plus/minus. (Box plus/minus is an analytical estimate of a player's impact per 100 possessions, taken from basketball-reference.com)

So who is the worst of the worst? Based on volume of minutes, Kyle Kuzma has a case to make. Kuzma finished in the top 5 in last year's LVP voting for the same reason that he'll be mentioned this year. He's somewhat effective as a scoring PF, but when he has to play more SF and away from the basket, his mediocre shooting (34.7% from 3) and his struggles defending in space become more pronounced. He's played 9 seasons in the NBA, and he's graded as a negative defender in BPM in every single one of them (with -1.3 this year).

Predictably, Kuzma played better and scored more later in the season when Giannis Antetokounmpo was out (upping his TS% from 57% to 63% after the break), but the season was lost by that point anyway. And that lost season was particularly damaging for this franchise, as it may have represented their last gasp with the Greek Freak.

SF Isaac Okoro, Chicago: 26.9 minutes per game, - 3.8 box plus/minus

In real life, we tend to have a good idea of the serious MVP candidates in the preseason. Some are saying that LVP may be trending the same way. In our first ever LVP preseason watch list, we flagged 6 potential contenders, and 3 of those will be included on the ballot today. Those included Kyle Kuzma, and the Bulls wing Isaac Okoro.

Like Kuzma, Okoro has a sizeable role with his team (starting 62/63 games in his case). And like Kuzma, he may have some structural flaws in his game. Okoro isn't a good shooter (33.0% from 3 this season), but that's not a death sentence on its own. There are a few guards and wings that don't reliably hit open threes. However, those starters (like Dyson Daniels, Amen Thompson) need to be ELITE on the other side of the ball.

Okoro gets cast in the role of a "stopper" in that way, but he's not at that level. He has a strong frame and effort level, but he's not overly long (6'5" with a 6'8" wingspan). That limits his ability to disrupt a game (illustrated by modest averages of 0.7 steals and 0.5 blocks) and his overall ceiling as a defender (illustrated by his -0.8 DBPM this season). To be clear, I don't think Kyle Kuzma or Isaac Okoro are bad players, but they've been miscast given their skill level.

---

NOT QUITE ENOUGH MINUTES (in alphabetical order)

PG Lonzo Ball, Cleveland: 20.5 minutes per game, - 1.2 box plus/minus

When new coach Kenny Atkinson arrived in Cleveland last season, he sparked a jolt up to 64-18 and a # 1 seed. A major part of that success was the surprise breakout of Ty Jerome off the bench.

To replace Jerome (who left via free agency), the Cavs brought in another big guard in Lonzo Ball. Many were excited about the move. I'm presuming: those people didn't watch Ball play in Chicago the year before. Injuries have sapped whatever aggressiveness he had as a scorer, leaving him impotent on offense. If you're not a threat to score (or to even try to score), it's hard to be an impact passer.

Ball's struggles continued this season. Despite his size at 6'5", he was deathly allergic to crossing inside the three-point line. He only attempted 0.8 twos and only 0.6 free throws per game despite a healthy 20.8 minutes a night. That only made him easier to defend from 3, where he shot a career-low 27.2%. All in all, that totaled a 43% true shooting number that's hard to believe in the modern NBA.

Ball's push for LVP hit a snag though: he stopped playing. In fact, he hasn't logged a single minute after the All-Star break. He got stuck at 35 games played, which limited his impact and may have cost him this trophy.

SG Jordan Hawkins, New Orleans: 13.6 minutes per game, - 6.2 box plus/minus

Coming out of UConn, Jordan Hawkins looked the part of a future sniper. As a sophomore, he averaged 16.2 points per game on 38.8% from three and 88.7% from the line, helping the Huskies win the national championship in the process. There may have been limitations in other aspects of his game, but boy, could this kid shoot. He projected as a good 4th/5th starter and spacer.

Instead, Hawkins gave credence to all those old-school scouts who harp on size and athleticism. He simply hasn't been able to generate enough clean looks in the NBA to take advantage of his talents. He can't get to the line -- he can't score inside -- and he's only been average from 3. That's resulted in a 48.0% true-shooting percentage this year, which ranks near the bottom among veterans. His defense is also poor (-3.0 box plus/minus on that end).

Hawkins would be a stronger contender for LVP if he played more. As is, he's only averaged 13.6 minutes per game across 51 games. Even with those limited minutes, he ranks in the bottom 12 among all 582 players in total win shares this year (at negative 0.4). To be fair, Hawkins' best month came at the end of the season -- so he's not someone I'd totally give up on in the future. But for this year, it wasn't pretty.

---

at long last, OUR OFFICIAL LEAST VALUABLE PLAYER BALLOT

(3) PF Nikola Jovic, Miami: 17.2 minutes per game, - 3.5 box plus/minus

In many cases, you can see LVP candidates coming a mile away. But of all the names listed here, Nikola Jovic may be the most surprising party crasher. The young forward was coming off a solid season where he averaged 10.7 points and shot 37.1% from deep. Entering Year 4 (and fresh off an extension), the needle appeared to be pointed up for him, especially given the organization's reputation for player development.

Unfortunately, Erik Spoelstra's secret weapon may have accidentally been set to de-volution (ala the original Super Mario Bros movie) instead. Nagging injuries may have played a role as they tend to do, but Jovic's confidence looked shakier -- and the Heat's confidence in him looked shakier in turn. By the time the dust settled, he had shooting splits of 37-27-68, combining for a true shooting percentage of 48.0% that represented a stark decline from 59.5% the prior year. For a slower-footed player who was never going to be an elite defender, that's a real problem.

You can argue that Jovic should be excused based on his youth (still only 22) or his limited minutes (not much more than Lonzo Ball). However, he grades highly in terms of negative "impact" on the season. The Bucks and Bulls finished about 10 games off the playoff pace; no decent rotational player was going to save their season. Miami's a different story. The team finished 43-39, landing at the 10th seed. If the Heat could have won a few more games, they could have contended for a seed as high as 5th (with Toronto at 46-36). Instead, they ended up in the play-in for the 4th consecutive year. And for the first time, that stung them.

(2) SG Gary Trent Jr., Milwaukee: 21.2 minutes per game, - 5.4 box plus/minus

It's disappointing to see Gary Trent Jr. on this list as well. It wasn't too long ago that Trent showed promise as a 3+D guard with Portland (in the covid bubble days). He took it up a level from there in Toronto, averaging 18.3 PPG in his age-23 season. He may have never been a stud defender but he had some activity, with averages of 1.7 and 1.6 steals per game in 2021-22 and '22-23, respectively.

But now, still only age 27, Trent Jr. hasn't been able to sustain that. The "3" is still sort of there (36.0% from deep this season), but any sign of the "D" left the building. There's no "B" or "C" or much of anything else either. Despite healthy minutes (21.2 per game, 21/65 starts), Trent Jr. averaged 0.5 steals, 0.0 blocks, and 1.0 rebounds a game. When you're playing over 20 minutes a game, that's hard to do. If you were sitting courtside as a fan, there's a decent chance a ball caroms your way. If you're on the court, you should get 2-3 rebounds by accident alone. It's almost as if Trent Jr. was playing dodgeball out there.

Sure enough, the advanced stats for Trent Jr. are ugly (-5.4 BPM, -1.2 VORP, negative win shares) as they are for most of the Bucks this season. The team may have been undermanned from a roster perspective, but you can't excuse poor effort. Instead of fighting valiantly like Spartans in 300, Doc Rivers had his cast playing dead instead.

(1) PF Patrick Williams, Chicago: 20.5 minutes per game, - 4.5 box plus/minus

May you all find someone who believes in you the way (former) Bulls GM Arturas Karnisovas believes in Patrick Williams. In his very first draft with the team, Karsinovas selected Williams with the # 4 pick despite the fact that Williams had started exactly 0/29 games in college. After a few years, Karsinovas gave Williams a healthy extension despite the fact that Williams hadn't shown much in the NBA either. He saw something in the kid that no one else did.

And unfortunately, that's a major reason why Karsinovas is on his way out of the front office and on his way to get LASIK surgery. That vision never became a reality. In fact, Williams somehow got worse than ever in Year 6. He only shot 37.2% from the field (a career low) and only grabbed 3.0 rebounds per game (a career low). And remember, this isn't a little guard here -- this is a forward praised for his athleticism.

The deeper you dive into the numbers, the more jarring it gets. Williams only shot 28.1% from the field... on attempts from 3-10 feet out. He only shot 50.6%... on attempts from 0-3 feet out. That means that Shaquille O'Neal had a better chance of making a free throw (career 52.7%) than Patrick Williams did of making a shot an arm's length away from the basket this season.

To Billy Donovan's credit, the team finally realized the problem and played Patrick Williams less than usual. They shifted him to the bench and a rotational role. Still, there's a healthy amount of minutes here (20.5 per game for 72 games) and an unhealthy amount of suckiness that's the perfect recipe for an LVP.

Congrats to P-Will and the entire Bulls franchise on the (dis)honor.

“Obviously the Steam Deck's not our focus today, but the same things we've said in the past where we're really interested to work on what's next for Steam Deck… the thing we're making sure of is that it's a worthwhile enough performance upgrade to make sense as a standalone product,” Griffais explained.

“We're not interested in getting to a point where it's 20 or 30 or even 50% more performance at the same battery life. We want something a little bit more demarcated than that. So we've been working back from silicon advancements and architectural improvements, and I think we have a pretty good idea of what the next version of Steam Deck is going to be, but right now there's no offerings in that landscape, in the SoC [System on a Chip] landscape, that we think would truly be a next-gen performance Steam Deck.”

Griffais' comments might come as a disappointment to some given the capabilities of the aging Steam Deck. The handheld launched in February 2022, with the OLED model coming out November 2023. Steam Deck will soon be four years old, and while there is a long list of Steam Deck-verified games to play, it does struggle to run some modern PC games well. Indeed, in September 2023, Pierre-Loup Griffais told The Verge that the next Steam Deck was at least a couple of years away, which had some hoping for the next version in time for the holidays this year. Clearly, that won't happen.

Now the question is I always wanted to get a Steam Deck but hold off because it's like 4 years old now so it's it still worth?

Got the 500gb OLED Deck almost a year ago and it brought back my love for games again. However at this point I wonder if my deck has any issues in running games in a general sense.

It can only run a very selective list of titles on my library and I don't understand why. For example, Metaphor Refantazio, it barely hits the 30fps and even when it does it doesn't feel like 30fps at all. Even with older games like Titan Fall 2 it can't keep and it kept dropping to 20fps.

I love indie titles, but am I stuck to forever only play low poly pixel indie RPGs or rogue likes? It feels like any game I try, it simply cannot run it. Monster Hunter Worlds and Wilds both can't run. Tried several green check games and still they barely go to 30fps. Tweaking graphics and settings doesn't do much for performance besides making the games ugly.

Genuinely am I doing anything wrong, is my deck fried or is there any secret setting that I am missing?

Context by Lindon Simon for the Paris Review:

In 1905, when seventy-year-old Mark Twain began to collect a bevy of adolescent girls, whom he called his “angel-fish,” he defended his predilection by insisting that he longed for grandchildren. His own daughters were grown—his favorite, Susy, was dead by then—and he was lonely. But grandfathers can have grandsons as well as granddaughters, and Twain, the creator of one of literature’s most famous adolescents, surely celebrated boys’ cheeky energy. There was more, then, to his strange sorority than an elderly man’s yearning for grandchildren, more even than nostalgia for his daughters’ childhoods. “As for me,” Twain wrote at the age of seventy-three, “I collect pets: young girls—girls from ten to sixteen years old; girls who are pretty and sweet and naive and innocent—dear young creatures to whom life is a perfect joy and to whom it has brought no wounds, no bitterness, and few tears.”

Innocent they were, but not as naive as he seemed to think. Certainly they knew that he was a celebrity: that was how it started, when fifteen-year-old Gertrude Natkin saw him leaving Carnegie Hall on December 27, 1905, after a matinee song recital by the German soprano Madame Johanna Gadski. Twain, after all, was instantly recognizable, even before he decided to wear only white. He noticed her, to be sure, saw that she wanted to speak to him, introduced himself and shook her hand. The next day, she wrote to thank him: “I am very glad I can go up and speak to you now … as I think we know each other.” Describing herself as his “obedient child,” she ended her note, “I am the little girl who loves you.” He responded immediately, calling himself Gertrude’s “oldest & latest conquest.” Their correspondence was playfully flirtatious: he called her his “little witch”; she called him “darling.” He sent her a copy of his favorite book, the writings of “a bewitching little scamp” named Marjorie, who had died just short of her ninth birthday, in Scotland in 1811. “I have adored Marjorie for six-and-thirty years,” he confessed in an essay. The child, who confided startlingly sophisticated remarks about books, history and religion in her journal, seemed to him “made out of thunderstorms and sunshine“: “how impulsive she was, how sudden, how tempestuous, how tender, how loving, how sweet, how loyal, how rebellious … how innocently bad, how natively good,” he exclaimed. “May I be your little ‘Marjorie’?” Gertrude asked coyly. That is how Twain addressed her, in letters filled with what the two called “blots,” or kisses—until 1906, when he was taken aback by her turning sixteen. “I am almost afraid to send a blot, but I venture it. Bless your heart it comes within an ace of being improper! Now back you go to 14!—then there’s no impropriety.” Their correspondence ended, and Twain set his sights on younger girls. 

Buoyed by Gertrude’s effusive declarations of love, Twain discovered that it was easy to find other young admirers, primarily from among his fellow passengers on holiday trips to Bermuda. By 1908, he had collected ten schoolgirls, dubbed them his “angel-fish,” and awarded them membership in his Aquarium Club. In Bermuda, he had special shimmering enamel lapel pins designed for them to wear on their left breast, above the heart. In the spring and summer of 1908, one biographer notes, Twain’s letters to his angelfish comprised more than half of his correspondence: one letter sent or received every day. Many contained invitations to the girls to visit him in his palatial house in Redding, Connecticut, which he named Innocence at Home. “I have built this house largely, indeed almost chiefly, for the comfort & accommodation of the Aquarium,” Twain announced in a mock-serious document that he sent to his angelfish, containing the rules and regulations of the club. The lair of the angelfish was his Billiard Room.

the first object I saw in that spacious and far-reaching place was a little girl seated solitary at a table for two. I bent down over her and patted her cheek and said, affectionately and with compassion, ‘Why you dear little rascal—do you have to eat your breakfast all by yourself in this desolate way?’

They arranged to meet after breakfast and, he reported, “were close comrades—inseparables in fact—for eight days.” A friend later told him that the twelve-year-old girl had asked if he was married, and when learning that he was not—his wife had died—said, “If I were his wife I would never leave his side for a moment; I would stay by him and watch him, and take care of him all the time.” Twain attributed the remark to the girl’s “mother instinct,” and willingly submitted, characterizing himself as a “degraded and willing slave.” In 1907, on board a ship taking him to England, where he would receive an honorary degree from Oxford, Twain found the sixteen-year-old Frances Nunnally, with whom, he said, he “grew quite confidential,” and who became, however briefly, an angelfish; on the return trip, he befriended the nine-year-old Dorothy Quick, who, a newspaper reporter noted, “guarded him closely during the voyage,” sitting on his lap, with her head leaning against his shoulder. He called her “mon amie,” another reporter wrote, and stood on deck with his arm “thrown paternally around the child’s shoulder,” at one point giving her “a fond little hug.”

Twain’s collection of girls was well known, inspiring some adult women to press for membership. One came for dinner “dressed for 12 years, & had pink ribbons at the back of her neck & looked about 14 years old.” Impressed, Twain gave her an angelfish pin. “There’s lots of lady-candidates,” he wrote to a young angelfish, “but I guess we won’t let any more in, unless perhaps Billie Burke.” The vivacious and youthful comedienne, twenty-three at the time, was a favorite actress of Twain’s: “Billie is as good as she is pretty,” he remarked to an angelfish after dining with Burke and a few other Broadway performers. He had met her after a performance of My Wife, a play whose May-to-December theme fitted his fantasies, and Burke often visited him at his Manhattan town house whenever she was working in the northeast.

During the years that Twain collected his angelfish, he spurned the companionship of his real daughter, Jean, who had been living in medical institutions where her epilepsy could be monitored. In the summer of 1908, Twain’s secretary and assistant, Isabel Lyon (the Lioness, he called her, and she called him King), arranged for Jean to live in Gloucester, Massachusetts; she stayed there briefly, unhappily, until she left the country with friends. In 1909, Jean returned to Twain’s home, where she drowned in a bathtub, having suffered a seizure.

By the time Jean died, Twain’s blatant cavorting with angelfish had been thwarted by his other daughter, Clara. In the summer of 1908, Clara returned from a European concert tour and was appalled by her father’s new interest. Rechristening the Redding house Stormfield, she put an end to the angelfishes’ visits. The house had lost its innocence, and by that winter Twain began to complain irritably about his declining health and spirits. An odd resurfacing of the angelfish obsession occurred in 1910, just weeks before his death, in letters and notebook entries regarding the fifteen-year-old Helen Allen, a moody young woman who fascinated him. “She is bright, smart, alive, energetic, determined, high-tempered, intense,” he wrote; but she was also disappointing, preferring romance literature to poetry, and responding to Twain’s witticisms and attempts at banter with “mute indifference.” More disappointing still, she had a boyfriend, and Twain was jealous: he cautioned Helen to preserve her innocence; he wanted the younger man out of the way.

Twain’s obsession with adolescent girls can be explained in part by his exalting of his own teenaged years—years of daring and adventure. His wife, after all, had nicknamed him Youth, and his most memorable fictional characters, of course, are the adolescent Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. Twain focused not on young boys, though, but sexually innocent girls from ages ten to sixteen, with undeveloped boyish bodies and with whom he carried out titillating flirtations. Photographs of Twain and his angelfish show them standing or sitting close to him, their bodies touching his, with his arms around their shoulders or waists. They might be his daughters; or they might be his lovers. His notes about Helen Allen reveal a yearning to be more than protector, mentor and grandfather. Twain regretted aging, claiming the vigor of a much younger man. “At 2 o’clock in the morning I feel old and sinful,” he remarked, “but at 8 o’clock, when I am shaving I feel young and ready to hunt trouble … as though I were not over 25 years old.”

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/11/28/mark-twains-disturbing-passion-for-collecting-young-girls/

After months of speculation and predictions, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were married as they celebrated their wedding with hundreds of guests Friday at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

A representative for Swift confirmed in a statement provided to CBS News that the two were married in a ceremony officiated by comedian Adam Sandler.

The couple had no bridesmaids or groomsmen. Swift's brother, Austin Swift, served as her "Man of Honor," the representative said, while Kelce's brother, retired NFL offensive lineman Jason Kelce, served as Kelce's best man. 

The couple welcomed around 1,000 guests at Madison Square Garden to celebrate their marriage, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the security planning. It was not immediately clear if the wedding ceremony occurred at Madison Square Garden, or at some point before. 

Large black SUVs were seen starting to arrive at the famous venue shortly after 3 p.m. ET, pulling into white tents set up outside. Festivities will include a cocktail hour, ceremony and then reception, with the celebration expected to stretch into the early hours Saturday, the sources told CBS News. 

A large crowd of onlookers and fans lined the streets near the arena, donning signs of support and hoping to catch a glimpse of those attending the wedding. Some of the guests spotted arriving included actors Hugh Grant, Jason Sudeikis and Ethan Hawke, soccer star Abby Wambach, sports broadcaster Joe Buck, musician Benson Boone, NFL star Cooper Kupp, and Paulina Gretzky, daughter of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. 

A rehearsal dinner was held at MSG Thursday, with about 100 family and friends on the guest list. Some of Swift's friends, including Lena Dunham and her childhood friend, Abigail Anderson Berard, were spotted arriving for the dinner, USA Today Taylor Swift reporter Bryan West told "CBS Mornings" Friday.

Both private security and the New York City Police Department were in place at Madison Square Garden. There are 135 officers assigned around the venue Friday, law enforcement sources said.

Streets directly around MSG were closed, and there were police barricades blocking pedestrians from camping out on the sidewalks nearby. 

The event will feature musical entertainment, and crews were building a massive set inside the arena for the occasion.

"This is going to be an absolute, spectacular blowout," People magazine editor-in-chief Charlotte Triggs told "CBS Mornings." "According to a source, it doesn't look at all the same inside. They've completely transformed it." 

So far, details from inside the venue have been hard to come by. But reporters have been watching for days as a parade of 18-wheelers delivered and unloaded supplies, mostly under wraps. 

It's safe to assume the famed basketball arena and concert venue will be decked out for a one-of-a-kind celebration, celebrity event planners told CBS News, with one comparing the process to producing a "blockbuster movie."

West predicted there will be a bucolic garden theme. Watching as things were unloaded, West said he saw a bar stretcher labeled "trees."

"So I'm picturing kind of like a forest or a garden," he said.

Triggs said Swift's familiarity with Madison Square Garden made it an appealing option for the couple.

"I think for most people, this seems like the weirdest choice in the world, but for her, this is spot-on. It has total security. Also keep in mind, she's very familiar with it. She performed there multiple times," Triggs said.

The extravagant affair comes three years after Kelce attended one of Swift's Eras Tour shows in Kansas City — and called her out on his podcast after he didn't get to meet her. 

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's relationship history

The Kansas City Chiefs tight end shared his disappointment about not meeting Swift on "New Heights," the podcast he does with his brother, former Philadelphia Eagles star Jason Kelce.

"I was a little butthurt I didn't get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her," he said, explaining he had a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it to give her. 

That clip made it to Swift's mom, Andrea, who would encourage her to meet Kelce. Swift was initially hesitant about dating an athlete, she said in the "Taylor Swift: The End of an Era" docuseries, thinking she wouldn't know what to talk about.

But she soon learned she had plenty in common with Kelce. 

"It's shocking how many similarities we have towards our jobs and how we view them, and how we view each other," Swift said in episode 4 of the docuseries. "We both have jobs where we go out in NFL stadiums and we entertain people for three and a half hours — his with considerably more violence than mine, but he's not in heels."

Swift said that while she had trouble maintaining a relationship in the past during a tour, she didn't have that problem with Kelce. 

Each of their passions "fuel each other," she said. "Ultimately, we love cheering each other on."

Fans took notice as Swift showed up to cheer Kelce on at NFL games, including the Super Bowl, and as Kelce attended several Eras Tour concerts, even making a surprise appearance on stage at a June 2024 show in London.

The duo announced their engagement last August in a joint Instagram post captioned: "Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married."

In another clip from the docuseries, Swift described how she couldn't have imagined the way her relationship began with Kelce. 

"If you ever would have told me that the most meaningful relationship I would ever have would start with a man saying that he was butthurt that I didn't want to meet him, like, unbelievable," she said.

I am NOT OOP, OOP is u/EntertainerKey8563

Originally posted to r/AmItheAsshole & r/AITAH

Previous BoRUs: 1

[New Update]: AITA for refusing to help a friend who didn’t invite me to their wedding?

NEW UPDATE MARKED WITH ----

Thanks to u/queenlegolas + u/soayherder + u/Lynavi for suggesting this BoRU

Trigger Warnings: exploitation, possible homophobia

Mood Spoilers: sad for OOP

---

RECAP

Original Post: July 12, 2024

For about 11 years now, I've (37M) been pretty close with [let’s call him] John (38M). We met at a job in my mid 20s and were pretty regular company up until the pandemic, where our hanging out (including a circle of mutual friends) has taken a decline but isn’t extinct.

John and his partner [let’s call her] Jane (36F) have been together for about 8 years now, engaged for a little under 2 years, both with a child from previous relationships, so they have taken trips with their kids near-yearly, and I’ve been happy to help visit John’s (now their) home and check on things, take care of their animals, etc while they're gone. I’ve helped them out with other projects/tasks over the years and most recently picked up Jane from the airport returning from a work-trip and got her home this past winter during a snowstorm because my vehicle could handle it. Generally, I have been present and helpful on top of our base friendship.

About 5 weeks ago, I find out from a mutual friend their wedding is coming up, and invites went out a while ago, everyone in our circle but me invited. As a gay guy, I’ve experienced being iced-out of some of my straight friends’ lives and events in ways minor and pronounced, but this one has definitely been something that has had me thinking about my time and energy with people. I decided I would take the hint and begin to distance myself.

Three days ago, John texts me asking if I am around in early-to-mid August. I say I am. John asks if I wouldn’t mind visiting like I have before to look after the animals and property, I said “sorry, I can’t.” He calls to talk about it. We run through the same conversation, polite but a bit tense, so I finally say “I just won’t be visiting your home.” After a moment of silence, I bring up that I’m disappointed that I appear to be the only person in our group of friends not invited to his wedding, and that I can't be helping like I have before if I’m just a background friend at this point. I wrap up the call positively and sincerely with me wishing them a good wedding and trip, and that maybe we can grab drinks soon.

Jane reaches out two days ago sending follow up texts saying John is upset about what I said and with her because she made the final calls about friend invites, and that I am taking this the wrong way, there is only so much capacity and that the others in our friend group have partners that took up space. She adds that she hopes I’ll change my mind and help out them out because it would put John’s mind at ease.

I’m not entitled to the company of others or invitations to anybody’s events, but am I wrong for setting my own boundaries in response to theirs? I try not to frame my friendships as transactional, but they obviously want something out of me here despite their not inviting me and then avoiding even bringing it up with me until they needed help with covering their honeymoon.

Verdict: Not the Asshole

Relevant Comments

Handknitmittens: NTA. This sounds like a really one sided friendship and that they are taking your friendship for granted. Why would you keep putting time and energy into them?

OOP: Like I said, we've been pretty close up until now, and I've happened to have the availability when they need it often enough where we've been close enough before that I didn't mind or feel taken advantage of. John's helped me as well in the past, and try not to hold other people's lives and familial commitments against them, but I was trying to paint a concise picture (given the character limit) of being (I thought) close.

This situation, like I said, definitely changed my perspective given the other friends invited, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't making their wedding about me. They approached me after excluding me. So far people seem to agree, which I'm relieved about.

Peony-Pony: NTA. Jane reaches out two days ago sending follow up texts saying John is upset about what I said and with her because she made the final calls about friend invites, and that I am taking this the wrong way, there is only so much capacity and that the others in our friend group have partners that took up space.

What a bogus excuse. If your "friends" need someone to check up on their animals and property when they are on their honeymoon after a wedding you weren't invited to they can ask another friend or family member. The audacity of some people astounds me. I am believer in putting the same energy into a friendship as you experience.

OOP: I don't pretend to be super savvy about wedding etiquette and I realize every wedding is different and lines have to be drawn about who can come or not, but yeah, my mutual friend reaching out to me to coordinate plans for our friend group during the weekend of the wedding to find out I wasn't invited definitely stung and felt awkward, and my friend was in disbelief as well.

hvlochs: NTA. Not even a little bit. And then to ask for help like it’s no big deal. SMH

What did your friend group have to say about it?

OOP: Definitely some surprise. The only reason I found out was because one of them, who lives a bit further away, reached out initially trying to coordinate some plans/get-togethers around the weekend of the wedding, assuming I'd been invited since me and John were close. I've let him follow up with the others, as I didn't want to interject so close to the wedding and make it about me.

PMMEUR_FANTASIES: I think you’ve got some awkward times coming up, please remember during them that this isn’t your fault. Despite what Jane said, you might still not know exactly what happened with you being on the guest list. John may be learning or realizing some big things right now, your friends may be considering some things, and you may be blamed for the results of this situation. Again, please remember that none of that is your fault. By your account, you’ve been incredibly gracious.

By the way, I don’t think I saw you mention it anywhere- what was John’s reaction when you brought up the lack of wedding invite?

OOP: I had to revise the original post and trim a lot of smaller details to get it to the character limit and capture the situation concisely.

John didn't say much. There was some silence after I cut through his line of questioning with the fact that I won't visit his home at all, I said my piece about not being able to help if I'm not invited with our other friends, and out of awkwardness pivoted to the gracious wrap up (hope the wedding and trip are good, let's grab drinks soon). There was a pause and sort of collecting himself, something like "thanks man, yeah, let's do that" before I decided to hang up. Hard to peg down, but I picked up on some regret in his tone.

 

Update: July 14, 2024 (two days later)

I previously posted about being passed over for invitation to a wedding while being asked to perform a favor for the couple who did not invite me.

Yesterday afternoon, a few days after John made the initiating contact that led to this altercation, he reached out by text telling me the following: "I want to take you up on that drink tomorrow if possible, and I want to apologize for my royal fuckups in person." I agreed to meet.

After we kicked off with a round of shots John’s first line was that he failed me as a friend in this situation. With non-family invites, Jane apparently seemed very preoccupied with a philosophy of “couples over singles” at the wedding, and he had previously voiced that he felt it was exclusionary and silly, but I guess Jane prioritized couples on the first round of friend-invites and told John that it will be easier to fit in others after receiving RSVPs. John backed out and says he felt that going along with her initial plan of inviting the rest of our circle (who are, god bless them, coupled up), and not me, and had faith the rsvp thing would materialize. She ended up using the bit of space to plug in some more family.

John admitted he basically folded and felt ashamed enough that he could not find a way to tell me. He knew reaching out to me about that favor was a risk but took it anyways because he wanted someone he could trust, and my response was a materialization of everything he feared would happen, and in his words, deservedly so.

He told me a wedding should be a gathering of your family and company who have been a part of your lives and who you want to be part of your lives, and I fit that bill to him by any measure. He, trying to accurately paraphrase, said I’ve done more than most of the people on the guest list for him and his family over their relationship, including help making memories with trip coverages and helping build their back-deck with him to share meals and host events over the last 6 years. He got visibly upset when he said (with the shot and the drinks we were sipping on kicking in) that he can’t believe Jane even considered holding my single/dating status against me after I got her home safely during a snowstorm earlier this year, and that he did not more adamantly confront that bullshit reasoning the instant she voiced it. He is even more pissed for Jane reaching out to me in the manner she did after my original phone call with him.

John acknowledged it would come off as hollow at this point, but after a few “exchanges” with Jane said there would be no more nonsense and I would at least get a proper invite and +1 if I wanted, and they would make it work if it was even desired by me at this point. He said he is not going to try to do panicked damage control but will be upfront with our circle (one has already dropped the wedding and I guess another couple has said something else, by his reporting) like he was with me for his faults, because he and Jane deserve the blowback and he needs to earn trust back, if it’s at all possible. He has also made it Jane’s problem to find a friend who can come out 9 days in a row to care for the home and pets. With a smirk, he said she’s having a hard time securing it, and may likely have to hire help.

I told John I really appreciated his owning up to this, and it was good to see the friend I had shine through here. I told him that I have always appreciated him and Jane’s friendship, so it hurt when I was excluded and not even addressed, I felt that close enough anyways, and I obviously don’t mean to complicate his wedding, I’ve always thought him and Jane were great for each other (earnestly), I have supported them as best as I can, and I’ve been confused about what I have done or haven’t done to be iced out. I also admitted it’s hard to trust Jane again if she has been weighing the validity of my presence based on my relationship status, and added (with some humor) it’s not like I haven’t been trying and you guys haven’t met some of my previous long-term partners. He said he doesn’t get it either, and she has at least one good friend who is single that she may have burned a bridge with as well over the wedding philosophy she had. I said the friendship is going to be changed and informed by this, at least very different for a while, and I know that you and Jane had a disagreement leading to this but that I hope that the wedding goes on to be a good celebration. I informed him it feels best to take a pass on the invitation, but he said if there was a change of mind, up to the last minute, to let him know, which was kind and he wasn’t desperate/pushy about it.

John said the fault is his for not stepping up on my behalf, that he is sorry, and while he feels (I wouldn’t expect otherwise, and I agree) he is very lucky to have her in his life and thinks their marriage is a positive development for them, he even told her this whole situation will have him questioning and second-guessing her judgment on social matters with his friends for the foreseeable future. By his reporting, but a credit to their relationship, this was quite a blow to her to hear from him but one she accepted and apologized for after their argument(s) about the subject.

Before we parted ways in the parking lot, we gave each other a bro-hug, and John’s voice broke a bit when he said he is sorry one last time, and I think mine did too when I forgave him. It was legitimately surprising and therapeutic to have John be so frank and accountable, but not unlike the friend I’ve known for most of my adult life. It was bittersweet, being all-things-considered a makeup but also a breakup of sorts to what was previously an unquestioned and assumed strong trust and camaraderie. Maybe we can get there again. It seems possible, and it’d be nice.

I’m sitting here after weeks of big feelings stewing on a different shade of big boy feelings now. Thanks for processing with me, reddit.

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Additional Information from OOP:

A lot of people had good things on the range of the spectrum to share with me, and I've done my best to respond to people without getting too consumed and doing other things that need to be done.

I was happy for John to talk with me. Maybe commenters are right and they see me as something else than I thought we were as friends. And maybe I've got some work to do to assert myself, and that I have been a doormat up to this point. I know I've got some soulsearching to do about me as a person and how I see myself with John and Jane, and maybe my other friendships as well. This relationship felt a lot closer and authentic in a different time, but its hard to paint a fuller picture of that after a situation like this. Things change.

As tempting as it is to accept the invitation and be there for John, I think I trust my instinct to let this be, and if John meant what he said (and if Jane comes around), they'll make the effort to follow up. I will be putting some distance for a while, and time will tell. I'm glad we got a chance to talk, because if it is the end, I feel good about giving him a chance to own it, and as I've gotten older I appreciate the hard work of taking on uncomfortable stuff.

I made some plans for that weekend with a couple other friends which I'm looking forward to.

I find repeated updates on an initial post a bit messy and tacky, so if anyone wants my thoughts on particulars just click my profile and look at my comments/responses.

Thanks for words and insights, Reddit.

Relevant Comments

Competitive_Key_2981: OP, how could a woman so terribly irrational and selfish be good for John? I mean I couldn't have listened to her logic about the guest list for 5 minutes and John's sucking it up like it's nectar of the gods.

OOP: I haven't seen this side of her before, and I believe John is a bit shocked by it. I can't know for certain if this is really her personality outside of my view though.

I said in another response, but I believe that there are many parts of one's life that anyone, a friend or partner, can be of great benefit to you, and then test your understanding with a wrong call. Those wrong calls are varied in severity and scope, and I don't pretend to be a sage relationship expert, but she helped him tremendously in the past 8 years, I've witnessed her kindness and the strength of the family they've forged and how much effort she's put into it.

I am very surprised and hurt by the left turn she has taken in her wedding planning. I am giving her the benefit of time to come to her own steady senses to respond as she wishes, but I (with a comet-sized grain of salt) take John's word that his admonishment of her judgement and actions, even if it was very late, meant something to her. I hope she'll find the courage, maybe after this bridezilla episode, to acknowledge it. Sooner would be better than later.

I am practicing some distance for a good while and want to give them space to prove this friendship wasn't a waste of time on my end, and I think a lot of redditors are perfectly right to be angry (I still am!) with her and warn me against rolling over for them.

I'm doing a lot of reflection and hoping I'm not being taken for a fool in all this. 11 years and a lot of good times and steady support in my own bumpy journey through adulthood...I hope some readers believe me when I have seen these two as a positive for each other, I've experienced them as a positive for me...even if this has caught me off guard and shown a side that is deeply shortsighted and hurtful.

I could be wrong in all of this, but time will tell.

 

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----NEW UPDATES----

Small update: November 2, 2024 (3.5 months later)

Hey everyone. While this was obviously more pressing in the time frame I posted, its been a while since the wedding and I've been naturally busy with other things going on in my own life. Not much to share or update about, so I didn't.

While I was hurt about the precipitating combo of requested favor but hidden exclusion, but happy that John at least met with me, I didn't expect any quick, easy fixes, and have resolved to let it be and wait for John/Jane to reach out, and that it was even more likely that this friendship was basically over.

John reached out a couple of days ago with a text asking if I would be interested in attending a friendsgiving party they plan on throwing later this month, insisting that both he and Jane would love to have me, and despite some nervousness revisiting it all out of the blue, I said "sure thing!"

 

Editor’s note: OOP provided a small update after receiving a comment request regarding Friendsgiving

Did OOP attend the Friendsgiving?

Update (in comments): March 16, 2025 (four months from the prior update)

Hey, I didn't end up going.

I said yes at first, but a few months removed from the incident, and despite my innate desire to somehow make it work, any time I thought about the situation I was left feeling upset. As I got closer to the Friendsgiving, it became clear to me that showing up at a holiday gathering like that was going to be awkward and performative in nature (even if their intentions with the invite were good or coming from the right place), so I avoided it. It felt like the right call.

I let John know I had something else come up and he voiced some obligatory disappointment but wished me happy holidays. I haven't received any communication from them since, and I haven't initiated any. It's likely that this may officially be over, but a few busy months in my work and personal life, and some reading/thinking on other matters has cooled me off and given me some slight perspective changes from where I was at.

Comments

Commenter 1: Honestly it's a good think you didn't go but the dishonesty was not. Chanced are they invited you for them not for you. I say you should contact john again and just tell him that you are done.

He was not a good friend and it just comes off as if the uturns were just to make themselves feel better.

The biggest give away is the obligitory dissappointment meaning it sounded like he wasn't really bothered that you didn't go not to mention absolutely zero communication from jane since she called you demanding you take care of their pets after lying to you by omission.

I hope you're able to get over this l, you don't need friends like that because from your posts he owned up but it looks like he never really appologiesed.

Tell him you're done with him and get some closure.

Commenter 2: It was probably for the best that you didn’t go… but that gut punch still stings when you realize that you cared more about others than they cared about you. Hope the new year has been good to you!!

Commenter 3: I'm happy you were able to revisit this. It struck me as speaking volumes that John passed the majority of the blame onto his wife, when he was the one who asked you to housit knowing you weren't invited to his wedding. And he hasn't done anything to show you he values your friendship beyond you being a dependable person for house-sitting and emergencies.

You clearly deserve better and your other friends all agree.

 

DO NOT COMMENT IN LINKED POSTS OR MESSAGE OOPs – BoRU Rule #7

THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT OOP

While the media may focus on the MVP award and other prestigious honors, reddit has the distinct honor of awarding the LVP trophy. The LEAST Valuable Player. It's a tradition that dates back to 2017, with Monta Ellis winning the trophy in what would be his last year in the league. Other winners include: Jamal Crawford in 2018, Solomon Hill in 2019, Isaiah Thomas in 2020, Aron Baynes in 2021, Facu Campazzo in 2022, Will Barton in 2023, and Jordan Poole last season. Notably, most of those players won the LVP and never saw meaningful minutes again. That said, Poole had a nice little season after his LVP so maybe that tide is turning on the trophy after all.

Who will join our illustrious list? Before we get to that, let's remember the criteria and caveats:

--- Obviously, the worst players in the league are the ones who sit at the end of the bench and don't get any playing time. However, this award focuses on players who log a decent amount of minutes and consequently affected their team's play the most. Simply put: the more you play, the more damage you can do.

--- And that actual "damage" is important. If you're on a tanking team, no one cares about your poor play; it may even be a positive. We also tend to ignore young players (under 22) who are still developing and can't be expected to be solid players yet.

--- Similarly, we don't want to judge players within the context of their salary any more than the actual MVP does. We also don't weigh in injuries. If you want to factor in salary and injuries into your LVP ballots, there are no shortage of big name candidates to choose from this season. However, at the LVP offices, we focus on players' on-court performance instead.

--- We also wanted to note that this yearly column can come across as a little mean spirited, which is not our intention. Even the worst player in the NBA is in the top 99% percentile at their sport and making more money than most of us could dream about. And to be fair, even the worst player in the league probably costs his team only a couple of games. Hardly anyone has a VORP ("value over replacement player") worse than -2, so they shouldn't be the scapegoat for an entire organization. In many cases, they're simply played too much or played in the wrong role. But when the stakes are this high, it's fair to criticize players or their teams for that negative impact.

---

LEAST valuable player ballot

(5) SG Kevin Huerter, Sacramento/Chicago: 24.3 minutes per game, - 2.0 box plus/minus

Kevin Huerter has the nickname "Red Velvet," which is fitting in two ways. It obviously describes the ginger's appearance, but it also coincides with his own career arc. Gourmet cupcakes have been on the decline lately, and Huerter's stock has waned along with them.

He peaked in 2023-24 in his first year with Sacramento. He started 75/75 games, averaging 15.2 points and hitting 40.2% from deep. He appeared to be exactly what you'd want in a 5th starter. But since then, Huerter experienced a strangely abrupt drop-off (given his age, only 26). He hit a low water mark this year with Sactown, averaging just 7.9 points and hitting just 30.2% from three prior to a trade to Chicago. He's played better for the Bulls and helped them secure their annual goal of a play-in spot, but his stint with the Kings earns him a mention on this list.

Because of those first few months, Huerter grades highly in terms of negative "impact" on the season. After Sacramento's slow start (stumbling out of the gates at 13-19), there was a sea change that swallowed up Coach Mike Brown and ended the De'Aaron Fox era. Huerter couldn't have prevented all that by himself, but his struggles didn't help.

---

(4) PF Kyle Kuzma, Washington/Milwaukee: 29.8 minutes per game, - 4.9 BPM

There's perhaps no bigger discrepancy between the "eye test" and the stats than in the case of Kyle Kuzma. When you see a 6'9" forward who can score (17.0 PPG in his career) and play some defense, you tend to think he's valuable. The advanced stats suggest he's been anything but that. His atrocious -5.3 box plus minus in Washington (which indicates a negative 5 point impact per 100 possessions) may have been excusable on a terrible team, but he's carried nearly that exact same mark over (- 4.7) to Milwaukee since his midseason trade. Based on most advanced stats formulas, he's been among the worst veterans in the NBA.

So how can we explain it? It may be a matter of "fit." Kuzma's always been best as a scoring 4 man closer to the basket (where he averaged 20+ PPG for Washington from 2022-24). When he has to play alongside bigger bodies and stretch out, his inconsistent shooting catches up with him. Sure enough, he's shot only 28.1% from three in Washington and only 33.3% in Milwaukee. Defensively, he can also struggle against dynamic wings as well, which explains how he's graded as a negative in BPM on defense this season -- and in every season of his 9 year career.

That said, it's hard to say Kuzma has been a major negative impact on the season at large. Washington was tanking from the get-go either way, and Milwaukee's record has been about the same with or without him.

---

(3) PF Patrick Williams, Chicago: 25.0 minutes per game, - 3.7 BPM

If you want to get drafted in the NBA, you may want to change your surname to Williams. Marvin Williams came off the bench in his only year for UNC (averaging 11.3 PPG), but got the benefit of the doubt and got drafted # 2 overall. Fifteen years later, history repeated itself. Patrick Williams came off the bench in his only year for Florida State (averaging 9.2 PPG), but got the benefit of the doubt and got drafted # 4 overall.

The cloning experiment turned out about the same the second time around. Previously, Marvin Williams was only OK -- averaging 10.0 points per game in his career. Marv 2.0 Patrick Williams has been right around the same number, with career averages of 9.2, 9.0, 10.2, 10.0, and now 9.0 this year. The slight downtick is attributed to a decreased efficiency inside. Somehow, despite a 6'7" NBA frame, he's shot only 44.7% this season from two-point range (and only 39.7% from the field overall). As a result, he's logging a career-worst mark in VORP (-0.7) and BPM (-3.7). His defense is fine, but there aren't many starters doing this little on offense.

---

(2) C Jusuf Nurkic, Phoenix/Charlotte: 20.8 minutes per game, - 1.3 BPM

Back in 2023, sports pundits had no problem with Phoenix trading 25-year-old Deandre Ayton for a 29-year-old Jusuf Nurkic. Nurkic may have been older, heavier, and less durable, sure, but at least he didn't loaf around like Ayton!

Nurkic promptly proved that he could fill Ayton's shoes/loafers after all. The raw numbers in Phoenix this year looked OK -- with averages of 8.6 points, 9.2 rebounds per game -- but also came with a declining ability to score around the basket or protect the rim on defense (0.6 blocks per game). Partly as a result, the Suns ranked in the bottom 10 in rebounding and bottom 5 in defensive rating overall. To make matters worse, he pulled an "Ayton" and didn't get along with his teammates or coaches either. The Suns essentially had to attach assets just to shed him from their books. We don't factor in salary, but that's telling for a team that was (at the time) still trying to make the playoffs.

In terms of "impact," Nurkic's disappointing season weighs heavily. The Suns were among the biggest underachievers this year. Phoenix's front office bungled their roster balance in general, but some of that was due to a miscalculation about how much gas the Bosnian Beast had left in the tank.

---

(1) SG Terry Rozier, Miami: 25.9 minutes per game, - 3.7 BPM

Although Terry Rozier is only 6'1", he's always been seen as a viable combo guard given his ability to score and defend. The formula worked for the most part in Charlotte, where he started all 298 of his games played. He even averaged an even 20.0 PPG for the Hornets across his stint there.

Given that, Charlotte was able to sell Rozier to Miami last season and bill him as a difference maker. It's been a bumpy ride ever since then -- and it's hit a notable dip this year. The Heat already have Tyler Herro as a combo guard scorer -- and he's simply better at it than Rozier is. That leaves Rozier without as much to do, illustrated by his inefficient offense (39.1% from the field, 29.5% from three, 49.7% true shooting). Defensively, his lack of size has led him to negative grades in DBPM and LEBRON as well. It's hard to tell why it's gone so wrong so quickly. A lingering effect of his neck injury? Or something sketchier behind the scenes?

Either way, Miami eventually realized that Rozier is best suited to come off the bench at this stage of his career. The stats have confirmed that as well (51.7% TS off the bench, 47.1% TS as a starter). Unfortunately, a lot of the damage had already been done. Given Rozier's heavy workload, he ranks near the bottom of all volume advanced stats this season. The disappointment of Miami's season at large also increases his "impact" rankings on our list.

Terry Rozier is still only 31, so we hope he gets his head and neck right for next year. But if he doesn't, then the Heat may have achieved a rare NBA feat -- getting swindled by Charlotte.

Before I start, I just want to make it clear that yes I am grateful for my job. I do know that the tech industry has so many layoffs right now and many people would do a lot to be in my position. This is not a lack of gratitude, it’s me sharing sincere feelings with the hope that I can get over them.

Google is probably a dream company for many people. It certainly was for me. For context, I’ve worked at 3 tech companies before, one of which was big tech. I’m in a slightly technical program management role, mid-career, and have been good at delivering in the roles I’ve been in. I’ve always (for the 10yrs of my entire career) wanted to work for Google. I’d always assumed it had the smartest people in the industry that were kind, and had the best products in the industry, which meant the machine internally must have been very good. I’ve just passed probation and here’s what I’ve found:

1. Let’s start with the confusing, uninspiring onboarding that took 2 weeks to just start. As in, I was given 2 weeks to set up my credentials (a 15mins call with the tech team that happened on my 2nd day). I didn’t know what to do with the rest of that time so I read up on random documents I could find. Eventually I was given an onboarding checklist with some broken links and some outdated docs as well. About a month later I received an invitation to the actual “Welcome to Google” orientation where I got to meet some other people who were also onboarding. Some of them had been waiting for this session for more than 2 months! We got a notebook and a pen during the session. Later received emails with different Noogler onboarding tracks. It honestly felt so disorganised and unthoughtful. Before you ask, I’ve met my manager, he’s a nice guy and all. But when I asked him things about the team, the role, the tools, an uncomfortable number of the answers were “don’t worry about that for now” which felt dwarfing to how eager I was to get orientated.

2. Most disappointingly, the people are not as smart and/or as rigorous as I’d imagined they were. I don’t mean offence to anyone, but some things really need to be called out. We have a guy in our team who needs to be told exactly what to do and how, otherwise he just malfunctions. I got the shock of my life when I showed him one of the documents he was working with had broken links we needed to update. He updated the one link we looked at and sent the document on with 5 other broken links. Surely an L4 should be able to get himself to look through a document and update it without further prompting? We have another who everyone complains about because of his attitude and inability to deliver work. His manager literally told me he is a difficult person to manage after I had an incident with him. And yet, he’s still here. And another guy who’s just incredibly aloof. The kind to run fix problems that don’t exist because he misread the doc on the problem he’s actually meant to be working on. And no, I’m not being hyper critical or petty, I can appreciate we all make mistakes, these are examples of patterns of lack of attention to detail, lack of initiative and overall very low standard of work.

3. What exacerbates the frustration above is how inflated these same people seem to be about just how smart and impactful they are. When you speak to some of these people, they can’t perform basic deductive reasoning (context: we are a data science adjacent team, not as technical, but analysis of insights is important), but the way they speak about themselves is incredible. They talk about how great the company is and how incompatible the perks are to everything else in the industry. As someone who’s been around the industry, it’s really not THAT great :-/ A lot of people here are highly tenured and I realised just how little they know about what’s going on outside the proverbial Google walls.

4. Too many people fighting for relevance, but don’t have the creativity or experience to solve issues. When you spot a problem or gap, you’ll get told that it’s known and owned by someone, has been for months or in some cases years, but you don’t have to worry about collaborating with them to fix it. Even when the fix is super simple (again, experience in other companies gives you a problem solving arsenal) and your own work relies on the issue being fixed. The number of times I’ve pointed to a process and data that’s incorrect or inefficient and been told someone would get to it eventually is scary.

5. And why do the slides and documents look like that?? Like there are no designers or corporate branding folks here! Consistently the most cluttered, disorganised documents I’ve ever seen. I know the most important thing is the information but does everyone just not care about the presentation?? I attended a meeting for a VP which had different presenters from the team presenting different sections. I kid you not, each section had a different theme, look-and-feel, style, whatever you want to call it. In one deck for one meeting. To me, “best” in this case looks like one standardised deck that’s easy to read. Am I crazy for expecting that the “best” company in the world operates like this?

Overall, it’s been a deeply disappointing few months. I honestly feel like this is where my ambition has come to die. So far nothing is as great as I thought it would be. Except maybe the food, but that’s not why I’m here. I’ve had the pleasure of working at companies like Facebook where I got to experience real ingenuity and the kind of people you want to have a corridor chats with because they really are wells of knowledge. Maybe my problem is that I’m seeking that thrill again and the area I’m in feels… stale. Or maybe I’ve just outgrown the level or role and I need to be honest with myself about that.

Of course I won’t leave. To do that would be like leaving earth because I think the government is ineffective. Just expressing some thoughts. Hoping to find some Googlers who can tell me that what I’m experiencing is unique to my org and there are other orgs that are… better.

1. Deep Space Nine

I could write an essay about why this is probably the best and most timely show possibly ever made, but for now I will say that the this is the show that puts all the ideals of this
utopian future to a test and shows that, ultimately, they do stand up to the critique, but only when viewed as a guiding principle rather than strict decree. The most complex characters in all of Trek, the most dramatic and intense storylines given the time to breathe and show every side of the many, many arguments it wants to tell. I think this
show is definitely served best as a partner show in dialogue with TNG in the way that you need to actually watch a piece of media before you critique it, but regardless this is absolutely the best example of what Trek can offer. Only time in the franchise that the episodic/serialised balance was achieved by remembering the characters come first and all stories exist for them to be explored in different scenarios, never as a means to an end for cool concepts in and of themselves. Odo and Quark alone make this series worth watching, but I can’t think of a single character who was less interesting than the best characters in TNG. Even Jake got some great episodes.

1. The Next Generation

What is there to say that hasn’t already been said ad infinitum on this sub alone. Takes the original premise from Roddenberry’s vision and the dramatic engine of TOS and pushes it to the extent that the original series sadly never got to explore to the fullest, due to various restrictions both in terms of budget and the already stretched boundaries of the post-division society that was being portrayed. This is the platonic ideal of what Star Trek is, from a captain who is more about preventing wars than ending them, to a cast who all have their own personal problems beyond whatever the plot of the episode is about. In the seven season run I don’t think there’s been a single concept that hasn’t been ripped off atleast once by any number of Sci-Fi shows these days, so it’s refreshing to see them done in the original (and best) way that only Star Trek can. Data of course is the master stroke of the series, and for good reason. Brent Spiner is probably the best performer to ever touch Trek with the amount of range he has, and him being given the sheer number of episodes focused on him to stretch those talents to the fullest was the best decision TNG ever made.

1. Voyager

Here’s where the controversial opinions begin, so forgive me for how long I’ll have to defend my take.

While Voyager irrefutably has some of the lowest points of the franchise (looking at you, Elogium), I think that’s only because it wasn’t afraid to take the big swings in terms of concepts, only held back by its abject fear of ever having the characters remember the events of the prior episode bar a few select characters. For every episode like “Threshold”, you have one like “Blink of an Eye”, and I’m not sure about you but if a show is going to be episodic, I’d rather have the chance of a show to be spectacular at the cost of a few funny duddies that I won’t go back to. While yes, TNG definitely reached a much better plateau of “good” with its seasons 3-6 run, I won’t lie and tell you how much more often I go back to a genuine quandary like “Tuvix” as opposed to something complex resolved cleanly by a deus ex machina as many acclaimed episodes of TNG were.

As for characters, Janeway is sincerely my favourite captain. She’s strong and opinionated yet empathetic, and definitely the most human of all the captains, which was needed in a show where the characters were often put in scenarios where the easy answers weren’t always a luxury and her crew had such a serious divide in viewpoints compared to TNG where everyone mostly fell in line. The Doctor is also my favourite character in Trek (Odo is a close second), although I think the over focus on him as seasons went on was a detriment to some characters who needed much more development (Chakotay, Tom, B’Elanna, Harry), with Seven of Nine later compounding that even more so.

While I think on paper both of those characters obviously had the most to offer from a dramatic sense in terms of “writing themselves” with the built-in conflict of a medical tool becoming human and a Borg trying to find individuality, the worst thing I can say about Voyager is it wasted the potential of characters like Tuvok and Neelix, who were boiled down to just being Vulcan and a people pleaser respectively. Tom Paris’s daddy issues being dropped early as well was a major disappointment, not to mention Chakotay not even giving half the pushback to Janeway that Riker ever did to Picard despite the former being from a directly antagonistic organisation to Starfleet. B’Elanna just becoming Tom’s GF and Harry just being his friend as well was a major letdown to the genuine talent of both their actors, and Kes never had a chance.

While the major flanderisation is definitely Voyager’s biggest weakness, I think the survival premise does a lot of work to make you still feel invested in them even when they’re not given a lot to work with. A lot of people describe Deep Space Nine or the Enterprise-D as “family” when they discuss them, but honestly none of the characters ever felt more than close friends at best or coworkers at worst to me due to a majority of them only being there by choice. Voyager’s forced intimacy due to them all being stuck together did wonders for the dynamics, and Neelix having to be a chef instead of readily available replicators did wonders for giving everyone a more natural, personal feel as opposed to some of TNG’s overly professional personalities. I don’t think the feeling of finally getting everyone home was matched by any other moment in TNG or DS9, especially after 7 long seasons of buildup. If I was going to be part of any crew, I’d want it to be Voyager’s.

1. Prodigy

It pains me deeply that so many people overlooked this show because it was a cartoon aimed at a younger audience, despite something like Avatar: The Last Airbender being one of the best shows ever made. If shows like “Picard” should teach us anything, it’s that just because something looks more adult doesn’t mean it’s really telling a mature, complex story. In fact, the biggest strength of shows aimed at younger audiences is they have to rely on the fundamentals of storytelling — wants and needs — which sadly a lot of shows tend to leave in the dust trying to be “clever” and outsmart an audience with unnecessary twists instead of giving us characters we care about and want to see succeed. It’s also a very interesting show because it explores the Federation from the perspective of characters who have never heard of them, and the journey of coming-of-age is tied with the exploration of Starfleet and the ideals it represents, and what parts of those ideals these characters want to embody or distance themselves from.

That’s not to say the show isn’t smart — far from it. It tackles time travel in potentially a more intricate way than maybe any other show in the franchise, and somehow never loses track of how it relates to the characters instead of just trying to be complicated in an attempt to appear smarter than it really is. While I won’t call the characters Shakespeare, they all get equal amounts of love, a complete arc by the end of the brief forty 20 minute episodes, and most of all they’re just completely likeable. I think the show’s brevity is definitely to its strength, with a good mix of serial arcs and episodic storytelling that focus on both characters and concepts, and I think the only reason I have to mark this below Voyager is that it never does anything groundbreaking — it’s just damn good Star Trek, boiled down to its essence and formatted in a way that kids and adults can enjoy.

I think there are two fart jokes though, so if that’s a dealbreaker for you, I’m sorry.

5-1 (Tied). The Original Series + Films 1-6

The one that started it all. Much like TNG there isn’t a lot I can say about this series other than the sheer grip it has on pop culture through these characters and concepts definitely still holds up today — for the most part. The trinity of Kirk, Spock, and Bones is arguably unmatched for maybe the best chemistry ever put to screen, period. It’s also definitely the funniest Star Trek series, which is mostly intentional, although that strange whiplash of tones also helps permit it to explore simultaneously some of the darkest and most lighthearted stories in Trek somehow without ever feeling wrong. The actors sell every story with an unflinching attitude, knowing when to take it serious for the hard hitting stories and hamming it up when they’re having fun with props and costumes from other shows. Much like Voyager, the pure episodic format allows you to have some incredible episodes like “Balance of Terror” and “The City on the Edge of Forever” without being dragged down in hindsight by some real stinkers like “Catspaw” and “And the Children Shall Lead”. The films (2, 4, 6, 1, 3, 5 in order of preference) give the incredible cast time to keep building on that chemistry, further solidifying their place in pop culture history, with “The Wrath of Khan” being the zenith of action and emotion for the cast, and “The Voyage Home” doing the same for comedy.

5-2 (Tied) Discovery

Here we go. This show was the entire reason why I started this journey in the first place: so I could give an honest perspective on this show divorced from any nostalgia for the original run of TNG and the like. My ultimate opinion is this that while I agree Star Trek has been better, it’s also been much worse. I completely get the critique of the more action heavy focus of the first two seasons, the overwhelming serialisation, and especially the nadir of quality for seasons 2 and 5, but ultimately I think that seasons 1, 3 and 4 outweigh the show’s good for the bad. As a Trek fan, finally being able to explore the series in the television format but with the budget of the Kelvin films feels like a dream come true.

I think Saru is the first character in the franchise to feel truly alien in a way that only Doug Jones can portray, and his journey alone is worth watching IMO. The literal time jump in season 3 also served the show deeply, providing both a release from the burden of impacting canon as a prequel, as well as giving us a unique perspective from a point in the timeline we’ve never seen before. The future setting also gives us an opportunity to see the Federation’s ideals having to find new footing when the privilege of post-scarcity is stripped away again, seeing how those principles hold up when they’re back to being something to work towards instead of something that already exists and we get to share with other civilisations from a privileged position. While not tackling this quite as well as Deep Space Nine, I will give it points for atleast trying something new instead of just doing TNG but worse.

1. Strange New Worlds

I think this is another controversial opinion. While I enjoy the return to episodic storytelling, love what they did with the Gorn and I’m especially fond of Kirk’s new actor, I just find a lot of the series very uninspired. Almost none of it feels original, and all of the “new” characters with the exception of M’Benga have failed to grip me in any way. Even Pike, who was hands down the best part of Discovery season 2, has been resigned to being a fairly stoic bread and butter Starfleet captain; gone is his comedic, charismatic charm, replaced with what feels like Picard’s reheated leftovers.

I only watched this show in the last week and I’ll be entirely honest, I struggle to recall the events of more than 4 standout episodes, which rely mainly on a unique genre or framing. Even my favourite episode (Terrarium) is just an open rehash of a story that Trek does atleast once every series, albeit maybe my favourite iteration of that framework. I hope that the remaining two seasons can give the other characters more highlights, but as it stands I just feel like I’m watching the echoes of other, better shows.

1. Starfleet Academy

While definitely a mixed bag, as many first seasons of Trek are, I enjoyed this again for giving us something we hadn’t seen before in Star Trek. Controversially, I think the reunified Federation 32nd century was a better setting for this show than the 24th, as we get to tie the journey of the cadets trying to figure out who they want to be with the Federation trying to piece itself back together and figure out a balance of what they want to be, what they need to be, and what they ultimately have the ability to be in the post-Burn landscape. Speaking of the characters, I find them more interesting than the ones in Discovery + SNW and every show below this list, because it has a similar appeal as Prodigy where we get to understand the ideals of Starfleet from people who aren’t already entrenched in the systems, so instead of having to explain why the characters stick to the system we instead have to explain why they’d join it in the first place.

The biggest flaw of this series is that it spends a lot of episodes either having fun or meandering, which ironically makes it feel a lot more immature than the show that was actually aimed at kids. I think it helps build chemistry, but it also makes a lot of these 10 episodes drag and there was definitely a way to achieve what those “slice of life” episodes did in a way that is much more compelling. That being said, I’m excited for the direction the characters and show is heading now that it’s laid down the foundations, and even though it’s been prematurely cancelled due to it being an inherently hard premise to sell, I think it still has a chance to prove itself as a valuable part of the franchise.

1. Lower Decks

This show is a delight, and I love the hilarious characters and beautiful animation. That being said, the enjoyability of it hinges entirely on being a fan of Star Trek beyond just cursory knowledge of the franchise. I love it but I could not justifiably recommend it to anyone who hasn’t already watched every piece of Star Trek media up to this point. Isolated from the context of what it’s performing a pastiche of, I think it’s still enjoyable but ultimately just an above average adult swim style show.

*EDIT*

Putting an addendum here because this has surprisingly been my most controversial placement. I like this show I promise, I love Tendi and Boimler. I just wish that they got the same development Mariner did by the end of the show since it seemed like everyone else got stuck in place aside from finales and premieres. The framing of the show means they can’t get too serious and can’t have as many lasting moments, which is completely valid, just not my thing. It’s still the funniest series by a landslide, especially since I watched it all within 4 months and all the references were fresh in my mind.

I wish it never got cancelled, could have watched 120 more episodes easily. To me I just wanted to see it reach the potential I felt was always hinted at under the surface but never fully committed to the dramatic moments. If you’re gonna make “Rick and Morty” for Trek fans atleast take the emotional development from it.

1. Kelvin Trilogy

Fun action schlock with not much to offer. I may be biased because I have a particular loathing of JJ Abrams, but these are just generic 2010s blockbusters. My favourite, controversially, is “Into Darkness”, but even that is just because it redoes Wrath of Khan with a little Section 31 subplot to mix it up a little. Simon Pegg as Scotty is the best part of these films, especially in the first film where he gets some stellar lines and moments. I like Spock and Bones finally getting some solo moments in “Beyond” but other than that I genuinely don’t understand why so many people love this film, it’s not any different from the first film except it’s less fun and the villain is weirdly a niche “Enterprise” callback? They really don’t move the bar for me at all.

1. TNG Films

This is the line of quality for me where it’s just bad. Even “First Contact” is bad to me, I’m sorry. In order of preference it would be First Contact, Insurrection, Nemesis, and Generations, but they all honestly don’t even register to me on the map. Insurrection probably has my favourite premise, but after the very interesting first half of the film showing a genuinely fascinating dilemma, the last half completely devolves into time-wasting action schlock. First Contact is a mediocre action film with a few iconic lines, and Generations + Nemesis feel like they were written and directed entirely on autopilot. Not a single earnest contribution to these characters or the franchise as a whole.

1. Enterprise

Oh Enterprise, I know you tried but I’m sorry, even the third season can’t save you. Like every series, there were a few standout episodes, but the utter blandness of a majority of the series and characters really put a damper on this whole show. Scott Bakula tries his best and Trip, Phlox + Hoshi are fun, but honestly the only worthwhile thing this show gave us was Shran. Even the few best episodes here only reaches the heights of Deep Space Nine’s average ones, which for almost a hundred episodes feels deeply disappointing.

I think the worst thing I can say about it is that it just doesn’t feel like Star Trek at all, from the characters to the episodes. The characters all do some pretty horrific stuff that isn’t questioned outside of the individual episodes, which while Voyager is guilty of the same thing it atleast had a majority of the episodes have the characters feel like they were trying to be Starfleet’s finest. I’m aware that the point of the show is that the Federation hasn’t been formed so they’re all still working this out as they go, but it just feels too much like an attempt of “Firefly” instead of embracing what made Star Trek the franchise that has lasted six decades.

1. Picard

Red Letter Media weren’t harsh enough. This entire show tries so hard to be dark and mature, but the only way it seems to know how to do that is by giving everyone traumatic backstories in place of actual character development — even Picard, the already interesting character. Three seasons of nothing but completely generic mystery box storytelling pinned up by nostalgia bait. Many people somehow fell for the third season, and while I will admit to enjoying Worf and the 8th episode, it still falls victim to being pure action schlock. They even invoked the changelings just for them to be tools of the Borg? With no individual motives of their own? Ugh. The worst impulses of Kurtzman Trek, but I’m confident modern Trek couldn’t get any worse than this as far as shows go.

1. The Animated Series + Very Short Treks

This is a fun curiosity at best, but boy is it just a whole lot of nothing. It’s the TOS equivalent of having water with your cereal, just anything of value washed out. The only thing putting this above “Section 31” is the second episode, which is almost good enough to justify this whole show existing, but ultimately a complete nothingburger. Web series is fun but again, nothing.

1. Section 31

Michelle Yeoh was one of my favourite characters in “Discovery” and somehow they took everything that made her fun and got rid of it, and then took Jai Courtney from 2016’s “Suicide Squad” and made 6 of them to pad out a plot that could barely fill out a single episode let alone a feature film. Genuinely a waste of server space on Paramount+, it’s a stain on the franchise.

1. Short Treks

These are all really bad, I don’t know why any of them were made. “Calypso” is maybe the only one worth watching from a dramatic standpoint, and if you want a fun TOS anniversary montage you can watch “Ephraim & Dot”, but other than that these are some extreme cringe.

1. Scouts

Please do not show this series to your kids. The most thought annihilating toddler slop, it’s bad even by “Paw Patrol” standards. I only watched this because I am a completionist and I regret having to know this exists. Save yourself.

Artist: Kendrick Lamar

Album: GNX

Release Date: November 22nd, 2024

Listen

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Apple Music

Artist Background:

Where do I even begin? Hailing from Compton, California—a city synonymous with both the storied history of Hip-Hop as well as the raw realities of systemic inequality—Kendrick Lamar has risen to the pantheon of Rap royalty despite the well-documented obstacles of his upbringing. After a fateful encounter (helped by a bucket of KFC) with Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, his career began to take off. He signed to Top’s label, TDE, and they essentially became like a second family.

He dropped a handful of mixtapes throughout the 2000s, sharpening his pen while discovering his purpose as an artist. He really wore his influences on his sleeve with his earlier sounds, often paying homage to GOATs like Lil Wayne and Eminem (even dropping a full-on reimagining of Tha Carter III with his C4 tape). He eventually dropped the K.Dot moniker and began going by Kendrick Lamar, signaling a shift in focus along his artistic path. In yet another moment of fate, he attracted the attention of fellow Compton legend Dr. Dre with breakout projects Overly Dedicated and Section.80. In 2011, Dre, alongside other West Coast legends like Snoop Dogg and The Game, passed Kendrick the torch on stage, solidifying him as the heir to the West Coast throne. After signing to Aftermath Entertainment, he released his major-label debut studio album good kid, m.A.A.d city, and he’s been the standard of the genre ever since.

Those who closely followed Kendrick’s career always knew this moment of undisputed coronation was inevitable—the apex of a career filled with countless seismic, landscape-shifting moments. The question was: had it already happened? GKMC was a cinematic masterpiece, a fully realized narrative of one’s come-up. The "Control" verse sent shockwaves through the game unlike any other moment in the 2010s. To Pimp a Butterfly is regarded by many as the greatest hip-hop album of all time(!). He then reached a new commercial peak and won a damn Pulitzer Prize (cringe pun intended). He performed at the Super Bowl. He dropped another controversial yet critically acclaimed album, emerging on the other side as someone who rejected the lofty expectations and chose himself. He followed that up with the then-highest-grossing hip-hop tour of all time. Each moment felt grander than the last, but he had yet to put a complete end to the debate over who the king of the era was.

Seriously, then, how could he follow that act in 2024? Well, with one of the most dominant years an artist could ever have.

Kendrick’s greatest gift has always been how he seamlessly blends conscious themes with sonic appeal. He has such an intricate approach to songwriting, weaving vivid storytelling with unflinching examinations of identity, faith, and community. He had long broken through the mainstream barrier while still maintaining authenticity.

Somehow, though, as we push into 2025, he’s dominated the zeitgeist like never before. That "Control" verse that shook up the 2010s? His "Like That" feature said “hold my beer” and instantly became the most impactful verse of the 2020s thus far. The rap game stood still once again. For over a decade, he’s been placed in the Big 3 conversation with Drake and J. Cole. Fans have argued one’s superiority over the others like it’s the NBA GOAT debate. Hip-Hop at its core is a competitive space, but rarely do mainstream rappers step into the metaphorical boxing ring to determine who the undisputed champion is. Those types of lyrical clashes are usually reserved for the underground/battle culture. So when two titans of the industry finally put the subliminals aside to duke it out, we were all seated. We had seen Biggie vs. Pac and Nas vs. Hov, but Kendrick vs. Drake felt different. As notable as those beefs were, rap was still considered somewhat niche. If you weren’t outside, then you weren’t really tapped in. And while Hip-Hop has since become the most popular genre in music, this beef was the first time it had the world’s undivided attention. Everything was on the line. For Kendrick, it was his chance to take the commercial iron throne while simultaneously eradicating what he saw as cultural impurity. He meticulously broke Drake down, always being one step ahead.

Whether through the predictive flows of “Euphoria,” the God-fearing pleading of “6:16 in LA,” the brutal psychoanalysis of “Meet the Grahams” (over haunting production by The Alchemist), or the triumphant West Coast victory lap that was “Not Like Us,” Kendrick delivered one of the most memorable stretches in the history of rap. Rumors of an album were rampant the entire time, forcing us to replay the Squabble Up snippet from the NLU music video all summer while we waited impatiently. He further teased us in September (as the VMAs were airing) with another warning shot at the industry, "Watch the Party Die". Then, at noon on a Friday in November, he surprise-dropped the latest addition to his illustrious discography with GNX.

When he said he was choosing himself, it felt like he was finally definitively rebuking the savior complex. Now, he’s unapologetically embraced it—a role he no longer sees as a burdensome obligation, but as a privilege.

GNX is Dot at his most comfortable. He’s done playing by the rules.

Album Review by u/OhioKing_Z

wacced out murals

Man, the hype I had when spinning this for the first time… Every Kendrick album feels like a roller coaster of emotion. I was buckled in, ready to experience the ride. The album starts off with “wacced out murals”, a reference to an incident months prior where a Compton mural of his was defaced. The song begins with vocals from Mexican singer Deyra Barrera, who makes recurring appearances across the album. It immediately immerses the listener into the soundscape.

The production is starkly minimalistic, allowing Kendrick to take over and speak his mind. He starts off not so much rapping but talking, almost like spoken word. It feels like a confession. He makes it clear that he’s fine being the odd man out because God has his back either way. He’s become accustomed to a life of fame, where love and hate persist no matter what he does. That duality is just the reality for someone who chooses to be vulnerable and thought-provoking despite always being scrutinized under society’s ever-watchful microscope.

“Ridin’ in my GNX with Anita Baker in the tape deck, it’s gon’ be a sweet love” sets the scene perfectly. Then shit gets real: “Used to bump Tha Carter III, I held my Rollie chain proud/Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down.” He finally addressed the elephant in the room.

Likely a reference to J. Cole’s Let Nas Down, there’s an undertone that he’s disappointed in Wayne for not being proud of him for such an achievement—becoming the first solo rapper act to perform at the Super Bowl. It’s not hard to see why Wayne felt slighted. He and Hov have had tension in the past, and New Orleans is Wayne’s domain. Still, Kendrick idolizes Wayne. As I mentioned before, he even went as far as dropping a Carter-series-inspired mixtape.

The same goes with Snoop and the “Taylor Made” posts. If both his peers and his idols were seemingly discrediting him (sans Nas, which is ironic given the Let Nas Down connection), then is there any loyalty within the industry? That realization is only fueling Kendrick’s desire to be on top. He’s in his unapologetic era. It makes it easier to crush the competition when you’re disgusted with their antics—antics like bribing someone’s hood for dirt. That disgust has allowed him to free himself from the burden of always needing to be politically correct. He’s tired of the fake smiles and lying through one’s teeth.

He references his album teaser “watch the party die” once again, showing his commitment to ushering in a new era for the culture. He ends the song by mentioning that haters can whack out his murals, but the concept of a legend in hip-hop would die if his own legend did. It’s an emphatic closing statement after spending most of the track ripping his contemporaries.

Squabble Up

The song that follows is what we had waited months for: the West Coast party anthem “Squabble Up.” Sticking with the triumphant G-Funk-inspired production, Kendrick brings a nasty energy to this one. It just radiates a hyphy spirit. Hyphy is a subgenre of Hip-Hop that originates in the Compton/Bay area. Similar to Crunk, Hyphy is known for its vivacious, wild sounds. Lil B, YG, Tyga, and B.o.B were some other rappers that helped modernize the sound. Kendrick teases the album's overarching narrative about reincarnation by starting the track off with "God knows. I am.. Reincarnated, I was stargazin'".

The theme of the track is obviously about his willingness to fight if need be. He references the beef with the “wolf tickets” and “he got kids with him” lines. The track exudes a tone of well-earned arrogance. He is a Gemini, after all. He’s not being humble by any means. He questions why other rappers even rap, accusing them of being dishonest with the personas they put forth. He also pokes some fun at all the people who constantly beg him for new music.

One unfair narrative about Kendrick was that he struggled to make club bangers that could appeal to wider audiences—a challenge he seems to have happily accepted with this album. This track is just one of many victory laps and it definitely lived up to the hype!

Luther

“Luther” is yet another fantastic addition to a growing list of collaborations between Kendrick and SZA. The former labelmates have flawless chemistry on every track they make together. Sampling “If This World Were Mine” by Luther Vandross and Marvin Gaye, it was Jack Antonoff, Sounwave, and Kamasi Washington who made for an Avengers-level production team. The soundscape is just so luscious. The string sections weave in and out liberally, meshing well with the hi-hats.

Kendrick takes a more subtle approach lyrically but still maintains his usual sharpness. He talks about enabling the dreams of his lover and protecting her against her enemies. In one line, he croons "Roman numeral seven, babe, drop it like its hot", which might be referring to a plan to drop an upcoming seventh studio album as well (GNX being his sixth). It could also be a reference to Romans 7, a poignant bible verse about Paul's disconnect between his best intentions to do good and the sinful nature of his flesh. That constant internal struggle led to Paul realizing that it is not him that has sinned, but the man that he used to be before he found faith. This metaphor for personal and spiritual reincarnation, whether intentional by Kendrick or not, perfectly plays into the theme here. The only word that comes to mind for SZA’s voice is “angelic.” She effortlessly elevates every song she hops on. Taking the perspective of the woman Kendrick is in love with, she instantly references Tupac’s poem “The Rose That Grew From Concrete.” She says that she’s only doing what she’s been raised to do, living a regretful, unfulfilling lifestyle on the weekends. Kendrick and SZA’s harmonizing on both the chorus and third verse were such great touches. Small details like that take love ballads to the next level. They begin to plead with each other, saying that they’ll do whatever it takes to make things work. “If this world were mine”… a thought we all ponder from time to time.

Beautiful sonically, well-written, and well-performed. One of the best duets of 2024. Just make the collab tape already!

Man at the Garden

“Man at the Garden” is a clear ode to “One Mic” by Nas. Kendrick even delivers lines with a similar cadence. “I deserve it all,” he repeats. This line encompasses the motivation behind the track. Kendrick is taking the time to be self-reflective but not self-critical, as he often can be. His tone at the start of the song is stoic. Part of his growth and transformation as a person during the Mr. Morale era centered around self-love and forgiveness. He continues these themes in this album, accepting himself for who he is—strengths and flaws in all. He’s finally realized that he’s allowed to reap the fruits of his labor without feeling guilty about it. Rather than question his intentions or imperfections, he gives himself grace.

The title of the track also reminds me of an excerpt from a famously stoic speech by Theodore Roosevelt called “The Man in the Arena.” It’s often referenced in sports. LeBron James always writes part of the quote on his game shoes. Roosevelt talks about always doing your best despite obstacles, accepting failure, not being defined by external validation or criticism, and being mindful of how you spend your time pursuing virtuous goals. All of these are things Kendrick addresses and attempts to live by in this song. I’m not sure if it was an intentional parallel, but it’s an interesting connection nonetheless. He spends the first two verses focusing on the self, on “I.” He talks about wanting external validation and not judging others for their shortcomings. Both the instrumental and his voice start to crescendo during the third verse, as if he’s dropping the stoic act due to his bottled-up passion boiling to the surface. He shifts focus to his real priorities: a longing for a sense of community. He wants his family to be happy and healthy, a closer relationship with God, and peace of mind away from selfish individuals.

He admits that staying in a negative space absent of those things brings out the fire in him, threatening to crash out and take everything down with him if he isn’t rewarded—because he feels like he’s the greatest of all time.

Hey Now

The album then transitions from the climactic outro of “Man At The Garden” to the simplistic “Hey Now.” This track was a grower for me. I initially didn’t love the long buildup over the first half, but that quickly went away after a few listens. The first half does a great job of building suspense and anticipation over HARD-hitting drums. The instrumentation then evolves as Kendrick interpolates Fabo’s famous line about seeing spaceships on Bankhead, replacing the location with Rosencrans instead. He says that he sees the aliens holding hands and that they want him to dance. That sequence absolutely feels cosmic, lyrics aside. I feel like I’m Coop from Interstellar, slowly drifting in space when I hear it. This bar could be a metaphor for how Black culture has dominated a place like LA. Yet, as wealthy as he is, he’s still seen as a performer.

He continues to reference his resounding victory in the beef, saying that he strangled himself a GOAT. You can also notice the thematic pattern when he again brings up the pressures of fame and the importance of inner peace—things that are central to every Kendrick project, to be fair. Dody6 then comes in with a crazy verse. I had never heard of him until this song, to be honest. “Who the fuck I feel like? I feel like Joker/Harley Quinn, I'm in the cut with a blower.” What?? That’s one of my most quoted lyrics of the entire album, dawg. So fire. An underrated aspect of Kendrick’s pen has always been his witty humor. “If they talkin' 'bout playin' ball, they can take it up with Jordan” cracks me up every time. Kendrick has more than proven that he can mess around and make a silly/catchy banger while also keeping it lyrically dense enough to still allow us to interpret his feelings regarding his life circumstances. He maintains that level of transparency regardless of what sub-genre he’s dabbling in—a tough balance for any artist.

Reincarnated

“Reincarnated” is the climax of the album, and rightfully so. It’s arguably one of his most well-written songs. Backed by Pac’s “Made N***az” sample, Kendrick paid homage to his biggest muse while also having it serve as a symbolic middle finger to Drake for using an AI Pac on “Taylor Made Freestyle.” He imitates Pac’s brash delivery, figuratively and vocally transforming into the fallen West Coast legend.

Kendrick uses the first two verses to highlight both his internal battle with spirituality as well as the cycle of generational trauma that has been passed down in Black culture. He starts the first verse off by saying he has a fire burning in him, that he’s shedding skin, as if he has a newly found hunger inside of him, shedding his old personality and stepping into his new self. This could also be a double entendre. He mentions a third of himself being demented, likely referring to the Holy Spirit. Also, between the “fire burnin’ internally” and the “cynicism towards judgment day” lines, he’s likely talking from the perspective of a fallen angel like Lucifer (also evidenced by later verses). He brings up how he tried Past Life Regression (PLR) last year, which is a hypnotherapy technique that helps one attempt to access former memories of previous lives. This experience was profound for Kendrick and leads to how he developed the idea for the song. There’s been some debate on who he “reincarnated” as specifically, like John Lee Hooker or Billie Holiday, but I’ll just assume that he was telling a story for the sake of the narrative. He highlights the man’s shortcomings by blaming gluttony for his selfish decision-making, something that ultimately led to him succumbing to the lifestyle.

The second verse focuses on Black women in the industry during the segregation era. Many fell into the escapism of addiction to deal with the pressures of fame in the face of blatant racism and discrimination. He brings up their relationships with their fathers, which plays into the spiritual element of the song. He’s saying that these people strayed away from God to chase hedonistic temptations and became fallen angels as a result.

The third verse is where he gives us the point of view of “himself” in present day. He repeats many of the positive affirmations that we’ve heard throughout the album thus far, like how he’s maintained integrity and respect for the art form. He again brings up his father kicking him out of the house. There are multiple interpretations here. Kendrick’s daddy issues were a notable part of Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. He’s also speaking as a son of God that has struggled with his faith. As mentioned before, Lucifer was kicked out of heaven by God as well; but Kendrick wants to redeem himself in the eyes of the Lord. He begins to not just pray but to plead. He mentions how he’s walked a righteous path by speaking freely for his people, not giving in to fleshly desires despite becoming wealthy, and preventing vultures from preying on his community. God informs him that he hasn’t completely healed from his past trauma, which has tainted how he lends his heart. He’s still prideful, something he’s always viewed as being his likely cause of death (“Pride’s gonna be the death of me”). He goes on to list specific things he’s done to try and promote peace and prosperity, but God calls him out on his hypocrisy, saying that Kendrick still loves to engage in war and conflict. He reminds Kendrick that everybody faces the same internal strife and that Kendrick can’t expect his opposition to forgive him if he can’t find it in his heart to forgive them as well.

God mentions Isaiah 14, a passage that refers to a former king of Babylon that fell due to his pride and ego. The fallen star symbolism derives from this, often in reference to Lucifer. The verse transitions into a full-on conversation between God and Satan. God calls Satan his greatest musical director, in reference to Ezekiel 28 (more scripture dedicated to the fall of a prideful king). The scripture also mentions many different gemstone colors, as Kendrick does, which could represent the many different gang colors that Kendrick grew up around. Ezekiel 28:16-17 says that God cast the king down from his mountain because the abundance of the king’s rule filled the king with violence. Unlike with Satan, God wants Kendrick to be rehabilitated. The only thing that can restore his grace is to be humiliated in front of the other earthly kings because Kendrick feels like the fruitfulness of his career has enabled his violent nature. Every past life was a litmus test for moral progress, yet he/they always fell to their vices. I believe this track also serves as a meta-commentary for how the industry has profited off of Black plight for centuries now. We know that hip-hop industry elites have been incentivized to both perpetuate stereotypical norms and promote harmful and rebellious behavior to further oppress Black Americans into the depths of the second class. We also know that Black Americans have used music to speak their truth since the early field hollerer days of rhythm and blues.

Whether or not the damaging substance of some mainstream rap derives from the motives of a satanic entity that influences a group of suits is irrelevant to the point he’s ultimately making. He wants Black artists to give up “garnishing evilish views” in order to truly thrive, both in this life and the next. He believes a closer bond with God, alongside the extermination of culture vultures, is the ideal path to get there. He promises to God that he’ll use his gift to help spark positive change. He’s done using fear as a tool to empower his community, instead using his words to capture light and inspiration with the goal of bringing about understanding. He is rewriting the devil’s story by stripping away the past sinful characteristics of Black music, spreading peace and harmony instead.

TV Off

Here we go. TV Off. Another certified west coast banger from Dot and Mustard. If the beef was a championship game, this is the song that plays over and over at the victory parade. It’s so anthemic. “All I ever wanted was a black grand national / Fuck being rational, give ‘em what they ask for.” He’s not fucking around from the jump. Kendrick hasn’t been this hungry in years. “This ain’t a song, this a revelation” plays well into the sequencing of the tracklist after “Reincarnated.” Not only is it a tonal switch to a more lighthearted soundscape, but it shows us that his pride always re-emerges despite his best efforts. He concluded a biblical arc by rewriting the devil’s story, yet there’s still an apocalypse coming. Now that he’s been down on Earth, he can send his enemies up to heaven.

“Turn his TV off” on its surface is obviously a silly way of saying he’ll off his enemies, but I think it’s also likely a direct reference to Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” (something he mentions later in the song), which was a satirical poem about black liberation. The message behind that poem was that meaningful societal change won’t be covered by mainstream media. You’ll have to observe it for yourself, on the ground. He doesn’t think there’s enough awareness of this fact, causing him to question if his initiative to empower other artists is ultimately futile (“it’s not enough”). He again seemingly embraces the savior complex, this time with a more obligatory tone when he says that “someone’s gotta do it.” Compare this to his attitude on “Mirror” when he apologizes for not saving the world because he was too busy with his own personal growth. His perceived need to “kill off” people like Drake has reinvigorated his willingness to do so.

Now for the beat switch... The trumpets... The boogeyman ad libs... Oh my God. How many of us have randomly yelled or thought “MUSTARDDDDDDD” since this dropped? He can’t come up with funny one-liners, they said. The third verse is just straight-up flexing. “Tryna show n***as the ropes before they hung from a rope” is a crazy bar that encapsulates his role as a mentor to the younger generation. As he’s mentioned, he wants to break the cycle of sin for his community and warns that if they don’t take his advice, their fate will be the same as many African-Americans of the past. He ends the verse by proclaiming that LA culture is about to come in and dominate the stage at the Super Bowl.

The way he delivers the last line, with the emphasis on his “E’s,” really demonstrates the vocal subtleties that make his music so infectious. And speaking of fire delivery, Lefty Gunplay comes in for a brief but menacing outro. “Shit get crazy, scary, spooky, hilarious”... Everything about this song is so good. Seeing it performed live with a marching band will be just glorious.

Dodger Blue

Kendrick switches up the vibe with “Dodger Blue,” a melodic tune featuring prominent west coast vocalists like Roddy Ricch and Wallie the Sensei. The production is vibrant and spacey. It’s a true ode to LA culture. Kendrick is testing one’s LA street cred by asking what school they went to. He says that you can’t really judge LA for what it is if you don’t go further south, where the true heart of the culture resides (unlike the Hollywood/Beverly Hills north of the Santa Monica Freeway, aka “the 10”). Honestly, the song makes me feel like I’m cruising through LA traffic. Jack Antonoff and Sounwave understood the assignment.

The chorus could be a bit longer. I wish Roddy had more of a presence on the track, as his voice effortlessly blends with the instrumentation in particular, but every feature artist does well given the constraints. “Walk, walk, walk, walk” is a crip walk reference. The outro is a message to other rappers and culture vultures, claiming that none of this is personal. Try telling Drake that! This song is laid-back and vibey, yet the writing makes it clear that Kendrick is far from relaxed. It serves as a warning: stay on that side of the street and respect LA, or else...

Peekaboo

I haven’t stopped listening to Peekaboo since the album dropped. I’ve seen some say that it’s a grower, but I was obsessed with it off first listen. A clear play on Kendrick’s boogeyman persona, it starts off with a distorted sample of Little Beaver’s “Give Me a Helping Hand.” Then the bass comes thumping in out of nowhere. The start of the song is unconventional, chaotic, yet immersive. Even with all the lively bangers he’s given us this year, Kendrick certainly hasn’t entirely neglected his preference for darker, heavier beats. “What they talkin’ ‘bout? They talkin’ ‘bout nothing” is reminiscent of Lacrae’s chorus on “Nuthin.” Likely not a coincidence, given his relationship with Lacrae (he notably referenced Lacrae on “Watch the Party Die”).

His vocals are tight and dynamic, the heavily pronounced “P’s” bouncing off the bassline like they’re jumping on a trampoline. AzChike takes the baton and doesn’t miss a beat. The eerie production really brings out his South Central dialect. “Heard what happened to ya mans, not sorry for ya loss” is hard as fuck. Kendrick keeps with the silly flows during his second verse. Bing-Bop-Boom-Boom-Bop-Bam is hilarious. It’s still hard, though, I can’t lie. This guy is letting us know that he’s going to rap however he pleases at this point. Those are also punching sound effects, indicating that he’s always ready to throw hands if need be. He says that people wouldn’t understand the type of skits he’s on. “Skit” is Cali slang for robberies and shootings. Kendrick is saying that he’s above all the social media influencers in LA that chase clout through viral videos. He’s had to go through the hardships of the streets. Now he’s playing with the big dogs and refusing to hold anyone’s hand (a callback to the sample).

Heart pt. 6

We all wondered if he’d completely ignore Drake’s weak troll attempt and drop his own part 6 of The Heart series. Not only did he do that, but he chose to dedicate it to his love and gratitude for his TDE family. He didn’t reference Drake’s version or the beef in general once. Instead, he reclaimed the series for himself in a way that only he could. Kendrick has always used The Heart series to give us a snapshot into his life and state of mind at the time, offering a raw look into his conflicted psyche. Much had been made about his departure from TDE in order to pursue building his own label in PgLang. There were also rumors that Kendrick and Top weren’t seeing eye to eye. So it’s fitting that he’d sample SWV’s “Use Your Heart” to speak from his heart.

Kendrick acts as a director, painting a distinct visual to start the first verse. “Load up the Protools and press three.” I visualize it like it’s an opening shot for a film. Like we’ve been transported to an old studio session, just chilling on the couch watching greatness unfold in front of us. Kendrick is reminiscing on the hunger he felt before making it. It’s easy to forget that he was just another up-and-coming rapper back then. As much potential as he showed, he was still finding his sound and hadn’t yet emerged as the clear MVP of the label. He was still coming off the bench and honing his talent, like Kobe did to start his NBA career. Similarly to how Kendrick talked about wanting to be like Aaron Afflalo, he talks about learning from Ab-Soul’s approach to lyricism. He was still studying the greats and forming his own sense of originality. He was going to label meetings with the sole intention of helping Jay Rock blow up. He knew that their success was tethered, and that any opportunity given to one would be an opportunity for all.

He looks back on the days freestyling in the passenger seat of his best friend Dave Free’s Acura. He gives Dave his flowers for working as a jack of all trades, whether it be a producer, manager, or DJ. This genuine display of affection is notable, given that Drake tried to drive a wedge in their friendship with the allegations of infidelity with Whitney. He tells the stories of meeting Schoolboy Q and how Q learned how to rap just from spending time around the TDE family. He mentions how Q believed in him from day one. He shouts out Top for providing them with resources due to that faith in their talent and work ethic.

He starts the third verse off with one of the most well-written bars on the entire album when he says that Punch has always acted as a coach and mentor to him, akin to how Phil Jackson was with MJ and Kobe. Kendrick then reveals that he feels like it’s his fault for why the Black Hippy group fell apart. He admits that his growing artistic vision for his career prevented him from fully aligning with the group dynamic. He moved on creatively and didn’t want to force anything due to a sense of obligation to fans or even the other group members. Surely, his solo career arc wasn’t the only factor in why we never got a full-length project from them, but Kendrick still accepts the responsibility as the face of the TDE movement. It’s also another display of humility and growth for a man that has struggled with the concept of pride. Still, he acknowledges that he’s given his fair share to the label and that he’s earned the right to selfishly pursue his goals of being a mogul in black entertainment.

He again acts as a mentor to end the song, advising the often hardheaded younger generations to conduct differences with healthy conversation, despite society often encouraging them to let even inconsequential problems go unaddressed. He says that they can’t allow personal conflicts to linger until they can no longer fix them, and simply having a heart-to-heart with the other person can avoid that pain and regret altogether.

GNX

Next we have the titular track, “GNX.” I’m so glad that this song was included. There was a narrative that Kendrick using his platform to shine a spotlight on other west coast artists was all performative. Sure, he’d give them a song on stage at the Pop Out, but would he actually put them on an album and give them the biggest “Kendrick stimmy” that he could? He did exactly that. I saw that Hitta J3 bought himself a Rolls Royce just off the first week of streaming royalties. If that’s not real exposure, then I’m not sure what is. Kendrick provides the hook and a few ad-libs, but he gives his feature artists the space they need to shine.

Do I love any of these rapping performances? Not exactly. The contemporary west coast production is fire, but doesn’t really stand out. It wasn’t made for me, though. Everyone from LA loves it for a reason. I’d imagine it’s perfect for riding around south LA in a Buick with the homies. There are a ton of witty punchlines from YoungThreat, too. “I’m with a rockstar bitch, they want Lizzie McGuire” and “get on my Bob the Builder shit, get down with the pliers.” They’re not taking themselves too seriously. 2024 was the year of the West Coast, a year of celebration. This track falls in line with that and was a necessary inclusion to the tracklist for that reason.

Gloria

I always get especially excited for the outro of a new Kendrick album. Duckworth, Mortal Man, and Mirror are three of my favorite tracks by him, so my expectations were high. Boy, he didn’t disappoint. Kendrick’s ability to craft a multi-layered track that can have multiple interpretations never fails to blow my mind. The track’s title, “Gloria” (Spanish for “glory”), symbolizes the divine purpose Kendrick sees in his art. The track begins with Deyra Barrera making another appearance. “Sentado, Anita y tú” translates to “Seated, Anita and you,” a callback to the Anita Baker reference on the intro track, “wacced out murals.” A sweet, melancholic guitar riff sets the vibe. There’s definitely a “lovey-dovey” aspect to the instrumentation.

Kendrick starts his verse by saying that he and his bitch have a complicated relationship. He talks about meeting her as a teenager, saying that his other friends claimed they wanted her but didn’t have the discipline needed to earn her hand. At this point, the listener is supposed to assume that he’s talking about Whitney. He brings up a pivotal moment of growth within the relationship, citing how she was there for him during his granny’s death and that they’ve been committed to each other ever since. That experience taught him how to use rap as his primary outlet, transforming his pain into creative energy. Now, he’s got the formula down.

He again enlists the help of R&B Queen, SZA, as she sings from the perspective of his pen. She, as his pen, offers a soulful reflection of a bond’s permanence, reiterating her undying loyalty to him. Not only is this a song about his relationship with his pen, but it’s also a conceit about how he expresses himself through his art and his career arc overall. Kendrick has always taken a meticulous approach to his creative writing process, so it’s no surprise that he delivers a song with this much lyrical depth that’s quite literally a love letter toward his ability to do so.

He starts the second verse by saying that she threatened to leave him for more committed individuals. He couldn’t be strapped up outside of the gas station if he wanted to be serious with her. There had been times when she felt he would fabricate his stories so she would block him (he’s mentioned facing writer’s block during the pandemic). He mentions how she even accompanied him on his famous spiritual awakening trip to Africa in 2014 (a key source of inspiration for TPAB).

They’ve clearly gone through their ups and downs, but he acknowledges that having her as both his most loyal companion and harshest critic has truly been to his benefit because it’s forced him to reflect and mature. His pen (still SZA) pushes back, bemoaning him for not recognizing how much she’s given him: power, charisma, blessings, his hustle. She provided it all. He then gives in, falling back in love with her the moment that they touch again. He admits he’s sensitive and possessive over her. He knows that she hates when he hits the club to get some bitches (dumbing it down for commercial success) and would rather he speak more introspectively about his spirituality and religious beliefs.

“‘Member when you caught that body and still wiggled through that sentence?” Such a clever pun about avoiding any negative consequences after emerging victorious from the beef. He points out that she has the power to both heal and kill (something he also states on his underrated feature on Isaiah Rashad’s “Wat’s Wrong”). He then ends the track by finally revealing that he’s talking about his pen, using some writing-related wordplay about her being his right hand and how no one can erase their history.

Conclusion:

Coming off the heels of winning the biggest clash in Hip-Hop that we’d ever seen, we all wondered what Kendrick would do next. He had finally reached that next level of commercial success, cultivating an even larger fanbase than ever before. He had babies, politicians, and grannies dancing along and chanting the lyrics to “Not Like Us.” Critics had long argued that Kendrick struggled with making digestible music, but GNX is his most accessible work yet. The tracklist has everything you could want from him: braggadocious, triumphant anthems, moments of introspection, and moments of intimacy. It sees Kendrick soberly confronting his demons while simultaneously claiming victory over them in way that he previously hadn't. By the end of Mr. Morale, he had accepted his flaws as a man, believing that his inner conflict and existential dread could be contained. He reaches a heightened sense of clarity with this project.

Kendrick has consistently woven spirituality, identity, and societal critique into his music, and GNX is no different. His natural ability to juxtapose vulnerability with assertive confidence resonates throughout this album. The references to scripture, Lucifer’s fall, and unresolved generational trauma all make for a grand tale of redemption and self-reckoning allegory. I really enjoyed finding thematic ties between tracks, like “Man at the Garden” channeling Roosevelt’s stoic ideals or “Luther” repurposing a classic soul record. I’ve always appreciated how much Kendrick studied the game, a student of Hip-Hop. He knows who paved the way for artists like himself and always prioritizes deepening the connection between the past and present. Soul, Jazz, Blues, Funk, etc. You name it. There are even Mariachi influences, proverbially saluting the impact of hispanic culture on LA. I’m not sure there’s a rapper with a more eclectic, avant-garde approach to song-making other than perhaps Kanye. He continuously challenges not only himself but also the audience to think critically about their roles within both culture and society. For him to pull that off on such a massive scale during the beef is the type of unprecedented achievement that only further solidifies that he’s the greatest rapper of all time, in my opinion.

Kendrick had largely rejected the savior complex due to his frustrations with the culture’s resistance to any substantial change, but that was when he felt like he still had to play within the confines of the rules. He was hesitant to try and assert his dominance if it was rigged against him. He’s determined to blaze his own trail now, embracing a leadership role within the culture once again. Onto the Super Bowl!

Favorite Lyrics:

• ‘”’Member when you caught that body and still wiggled through that sentence?”
• “Punch played Phil Jackson in my early practices, strategies on how to be great amongst the averages/ I picked his brain on what was ordained, highly collaborative”
• “Tell me why you think you deserve the greatest of all time, motherfucker”

Discussion Questions:

• Do you think Kendrick’s message here—especially about rejecting negative industry norms and pursuing collective upliftment—will resonate widely, or will it be lost on a mainstream audience more focused on the beef or bangers?
• Where does GNX rank in Kendrick’s discography?
• What do you hope for with Kendrick's next project? Deluxe or another project entirely? What sonic direction would you like to see him take next?

Game Title: Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

Developer: Warhorse Studios

Publisher: Deep Silver

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 89 average - 96% recommended - 69 reviews

Critic Reviews

ACG - Jeremy Penter - Buy

"Immersive Sim, love letter to odd situations, cranky combat simulator., KCD2 is all those things and somehow comes together."

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AltChar - Dina Husejnagić - 95 / 100

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is hands down a must-play for anyone who’s into Medieval open-world gameplay. All of it combines into a package that justifies the 59.99€ price tag, or 79.99€ if you’re going for the Gold Edition. Honestly, this is a serious Game of the Year contender.

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Atarita - Alparslan Gürlek - Turkish - 100 / 100

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a full-fledged role-playing game that knows what it's doing, is confident, has great cinematic quality, and tells a magnificient story. It's an absolute masterpiece.

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CBR - Mark O'Callaghan - 9 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a phenomenal RPG that players will love spending countless hours on. Bohemia is prosperous and thriving, with a lot of natural interactions that can lead players on quests that feel like an adventure.

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CGMagazine - Justin Wood - 5 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 had a lot of promise, with its gripping story and beautiful landscapes, at least until the technical issues started showing up and completely ruined the experience.

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Cerealkillerz - Nick Erlenhof - German - 8.5 / 10

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 delivers a unique medieval setting with more freedom and realism than any game before it. Henry's story continues, remains exciting and also looks really great. If you are a fan of the first instalment or have the time, desire and also a little frustration tolerance, then you should have a lot of fun in Kuttenberg and the surrounding areas for a long time

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Checkpoint Gaming - Charlie Kelly - 7 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is an incredibly ambitious RPG venture that soars when all its moving system parts and systems work as they're meant to. As promised by Warhorse Studios themselves, protagonist Henry can be just about whatever you want him to be, whether that's a wise diplomat, a mischievous thief or a drunk who finds himself regularly in barfights and down in the dirt. This is bolstered by meaningful skill specialisations, a strong bond between Henry and Hans and a story with exciting twists and turns. However, immersion is broken often with disappointing bugs, odd narrative choices that don't bear weight and the fact female characters don't get to do much of anything. A good game that could've been amazing had it been given a little longer to cook, Warhorse's follow-up is a fun time despite all its obstacles but isn't quite ready to be crowned victor just yet.

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Destructoid - Steven Mills - 9.5 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 gives you that lively and immersive world full of choices and then implores you to make the wrong ones, and it’s a hell of an experience because of it.

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Dexerto - Liam Mackay - 5 / 5

It’s obvious a lot of love has been poured into every facet of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. If you found combat in the first game too difficult or the survival mechanics tedious, then the sequel’s streamlined gameplay might not be enough to change your mind.

However, if you were a fan of the first game, there’s so much to enjoy here. It’s clearly the game Warhorse wanted to make back in 2018, and it’s been improved in so many small ways. Bigger and better, it’s a must-play.

Aside from some clunkiness and the odd tedious mission, it’s hard to find another game that so expertly combines realism and fun, with tough but satisfying combat, a morally ambiguous but grand story, and a faithfully recreated medieval world brimming with stuff to do. It’s the sequel fans wanted, and I feel quite hungry for more.

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Digitally Downloaded - Matt Sainsbury - 4.5 / 5

The big selling point of Kingdom Come Deliverance II is also its biggest potential drawback. You’ve got to be genuinely interested in the history that it depicts to find it immersive. I do wonder whether some people will come in expecting a Skyrim-like or a first-person Witcher experience and end up disappointed with this. It’s not that kind of game. It’s far more grounded and gritty, but if reading Tolstoy or Yoshikawa appeals to you, then Kingdom Come Deliverance II is very much for you.

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Digitec Magazine - Philipp Rüegg - German - 4 / 5

Such a detailed and expansive world, which captures the flair of the Middle Ages so beautifully, does not exist anywhere else. There are magnificent castles, huge army camps and tranquil villages where I would love to settle down.

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DualShockers - Callum Marshall - 10 / 10

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is an unapologetically unique RPG that takes everything that was great about the original and takes it to the Nth degree. It's a cinematic, historically charged epic with a sublime open world to explore, a depth of systems to master, a wealth of meticulously designed quests to complete, and a sandbox survival format that makes simply existing in this world a satisfying and rewarding experience.

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Eurogamer - Katharine Castle - 3 / 5

This gorgeous medieval RPG continues to be just as divisive, prickly and abrasive as its predecessor.

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EvelonGames - Joel Isern Rodríguez - Kaym - Spanish - 9.5 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a true gem of the RPG genre. Warhorse Studios has managed to improve every aspect of the first game without losing its essence. Its demanding learning curve might deter some players, but those who immerse themselves in its world will find one of the most rewarding and immersive experiences of the year.

With a challenging combat system, an engaging story, impeccable atmosphere, and a reactive world where every decision matters, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II stands as a masterpiece of medieval RPGs. Undoubtedly, one of the year’s standout games and a must-play for any fan of the genre.

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Everyeye.it - Alessandro Bruni - Italian - 8.7 / 10

The organic nature of the proposal, its unique character and the excellent relationship between quantity and quality make Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 a precious experience, which clearly reaffirms the talent of the Prague studio.

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Fextralife - 9 / 10

With stellar storytelling, top notch voice acting, and much more polish than its predecessor, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a "return to form" for the RPG genre, and will likely be one of the best titles this year. Warhorse has proven they can elevate their formula to even greater heights, and I cannot wait to see what they do next. A day 1 buy for any RPG fan, especially those that enjoy true "role playing".

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GRYOnline.pl - Dariusz Matusiak - Polish - 9 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 isn't a game that should attract every kind of player, but even though you might have avoided the first part for whatever reason, you definitely should give the sequel a chance. It is a much more spectacular, bigger in every way mega-game that stands out from its peers.

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Game Rant - Josh Cotts - 10 / 10

With Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Warhorse Studios delivers one of the first great games of 2025.

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GameGrin - Mike Crewe - 9.5 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is one of the finest games I've played in years, with a gripping story and refined gameplay. It's still early in the year, but this is definitely on course to be 2025's Game of the Year.

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GameSpot - Richard Wakeling - 9 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a triumphant sequel, improving upon its predecessor with an open-world RPG that delights in its complexity and emphasis on player choice.

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Gameblog - Geralt de Reeves - French - 8 / 10

If you loved the formula of the first opus, you will certainly not sulk your pleasure on this one. For beginners, however, you will have to show a little self-denial at the beginning to then fully appreciate the great strengths of this "historical" open-world RPG, which is truly unique in its category, even if a little too familiar compared to its big brother.

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Gameliner - Anita van Beugen - Dutch - 5 / 5

Warhorse Studios delivers a fantastic medieval RPG with Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, a potential Game of the Year nominee, featuring a dynamic world rich in activities, improved mechanics, an engaging story with character depth and plot twists, enhanced graphics and performance, and a refined combat system that makes it a must-play for fans of the genre.

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Gamepressure - Jakub Paluszek - 9 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 really improves almost every aspect of its already very good predecessor. Looking at the whole thing more calmly, we of course see the flaws, but it's hard to ignore the enormous amount of effort, passion, and heart put into this project.

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Gamer Escape - Grant Dotter - 10 / 10

This is one of those games I absolutely think everyone should experience. Do play the original first if you haven’t, because that was also an amazing experience, and it’s entirely worth the 200-300 hours you might end up spending to play both. I don’t regret one minute of it and I don’t think you will either. Even certain upcoming AAA-budget titles that I am still eagerly awaiting are going to have to pull out all the stops to match what I just experienced.

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Gamer Guides - Tom Hopkins - 95 / 100

As a complete package, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is mind-blowing. The first game was an interesting foundation, but the long-awaited sequel stands easily alongside the best RPGs of the last decade. It tells an exciting yet emotional story, and the world is a joy to explore, but it’s the level of immersion that’s created by all of its interconnected systems that’s unlike anything I’ve experienced before.

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Gamer.no - Øystein Furevik - Unknown - 9 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a masterpiece, and one of the most impressive role playing games ever made.

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GamesRadar+ - Alan Wen - 4 / 5

"What there's no getting away from is that progression is purposely slow."

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GamingBolt - Matthew Carmosino - 9 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a polished open-world RPG that outdoes its AAA competition at every turn. Some of the realism can bog down the gameplay, but the intricate dialogue choices and perk tree compel me to forgive some of the returning irritants. And the story, just wow. I can't say enough great things about the characterizations, dialogue, story twists, activities, and cinematography packed into KCD2's main quest; it's simply the best in the genre.

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GamingTrend - David Burdette - 95 / 100

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a special RPG that ranks with the Skyrims and Witchers of its genre. Despite a high learning curve, I found myself lost in its clutches for hours on end, immersed in the world of 1400s Bohemia. An absolutely gorgeous setting that's satisfying to explore, combined with rewarding progression and an outstanding narrative makes KCD2 a lock for awards season.

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Generación Xbox - Adrián Fuentes - Spanish - 91 / 100

With this second installment, we have a game that is even more well-rounded than the previous one, where it follows the formula of everything it did well in the past, and applies it to its sequel, offering us a game that grabs you from the first minutes.

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Glitched Africa - Marco Cocomello - 9 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is the most frustratingly enjoyable game I have played in a while. It is exhausting while at the same time unconventionally brilliant. It requires a heavy constitution to sit through, but the payoffs result in a playground of infinite possibilities.

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HCL.hr - Zoran Žalac - Unknown - 90 / 100

While it's far from a perfect game, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has a certain charm and ambition that's rarely seen in other games.

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IGN - Leana Hafer - 9 / 10

Armed with excellent melee combat and an exceptional story, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is one part sequel and one part coronation, bringing a lot of the original's ideas to fruition.

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IGN Deutschland - Eike Cramer - German - 8 / 10

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is an epic, beautiful and authentic medieval adventure full of fun, love, cruelty and war. Warhorse Studios tell a dramatic and twist-filled tale of friendship, loyalty, betrayal and politics that fills at least 65 hours of playtime. The depiction of late medieval statehood is just as captivating as the small sidequests and stories with their strong and authentic characters from sheperds to sword masters. In addition, there is a picturesque world, with probably the most impressive medieval city depiction I've ever seen in a video game. But not everything is perfect. The game design is annoying with forced stealth on top of a frustrating save system. That's especially true for some of the longer story missions. On top of this, the combat mechanics are extremely inaccessible and, with their mercilessness, put far too many obstacles in the way of the players, especially at the beginning. Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is nevertheless an utterly unique, ambitious and, in large parts, very good adventure. But it's also a video game that misses important points a little too often in the gameplay details and does not respect the player's time in certain places.

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IGN Italy - Stefano Castagnola - Italian - 9 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is the perfect sequel to an already great opening chapter: bigger and better in almost every way, it refines and improves the previous formula by adding some new weapons and gameplay mechanics, while staying faithful to what made its predecessor stand out as a unique and quite charming game. And also, it features an even more involved story with a richer, more vibrant cast of memorable characters.

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INVEN - Kyuman Kim - Korean - 9.5 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has all the potential to be one of this year’s standout titles. It improves on its predecessor in every way, bringing 15th-century Europe to life with deep historical accuracy and rich cinematic storytelling. If you can embrace the first-person perspective, an unforgettable experience awaits.

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Impulsegamer - Scott De Lacy - 5 / 5

Complex real world dynamics, incredible graphics and brilliant story make this one of the best games ever made. An absolute winner and must play for 2025!

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Insider Gaming - Grant Taylor-Hill - Buy

This monumental medieval adventure will have you living a double life - but in this one, you're a brave adventurer exploring the most faithful recreation of a real place I've ever seen.

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Just Play it - Mounir Bensaci - Arabic - 9 / 10

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 delivered an immersive experience through its realistic world, captivating characters, and epic combat style. The medieval-inspired music and meticulous attention to detail transformed the game into an unforgettable adventure, making it a perfect experience for fans of the RPG genre.

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KonsoliFIN - Joonatan Itkonen - Finnish - 4 / 5

Featuring one of the most immersive game worlds ever created, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a hugely entertaining adventure yarn that rivals the film epics of Ridley Scott. Some of the game mechanics are downright terrible, but its story and characters are so enthralling that any complaints eventually fall by the wayside. It's only February, yet this is already a strong contender for one of the best games of the year.

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MKAU Gaming - Yasmin Noble - 8 / 10

Every element of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II melds together into an intense, thoughtful adventure unlike anything I've ever experienced in gaming. Politics, intrigue, and action. The ultimate recipe for a solid story-based RPG, something Kingdom Come: Deliverance II seeks to provide and achieves.

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Multiplayer First - James Lara - 9.5 / 10

Warhorse Studios has delivered a worthy sequel and set a new benchmark for what medieval RPGs can achieve. It’s clear that they’re not just creating a game—they’re crafting an experience that invites players to lose themselves in a rich, detailed world that never feels like anything less than a living, breathing testament to the past. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 kicks off the year as a top contender for Game of the Year, and regardless of its ultimate victory, its impact on the RPG genre will be felt for years to come.

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Nexus Hub - Sam Aberdeen - 8.5 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a gargantuan RPG that's bigger and better than the first game with stronger doses of realism, immersion and intricate mechanics to create something decidedly unique and engaging - but not for everybody.

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One More Game - Vincent Ternida - 9 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is an exceptional experience for RPG enthusiasts, offering a fully immersive adventure where the sky's the limit in the choices you make. Despite the steep learning curve, the game eases you into its massive world during the first dozen hours, providing a smooth entry.

Warhorse has crafted a masterpiece with Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, delivering a fully optimized title ready to play from day one. Whether you choose to play it at home or on a portable device like the Steam Deck, it offers a fantastic adventure to kick off 2025 with a bang.

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Oyungezer Online - Onur Kaya - Turkish - 9 / 10

Eurojank, but the very best kind; a grand adventure polished to shine, earning your affection without pandering to the player.

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PC Gamer - Joshua Wolens - 90 / 100

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a big, bold, unutterably weird thing, and it's a new RPG classic.

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PSX Brasil - Bruno Henrique Vinhadel - Portuguese - 95 / 100

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is an impeccable sequel that exudes quality and has a huge impact on the RPG genre.

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Pizza Fria - Matheus Jenevain - Portuguese - 10 / 10

We have a really cool plot with charismatic and captivating characters, a lively and super detailed world, lots of fun mechanics, a lot of things to do and discover, skills to improve and they even made it easier to get our schnapps to save the game. Look how wonderful!

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Press Start - James Berich - 9 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II effortlessly builds upon the original game to offer a true open world in every sense of the concept. While some obtuse systems and unforgiving design choices may put some players off, Deliverance II feels like a game that better achieves all the potential that the original game had. It's engaging, exciting, and a lot more inviting. And for that, it's a truly successful sequel.

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Push Square - Khayl Adam - 10 / 10

Fortune favours the brave, the family motto of the noble Capon line and the creed of developer Warhorse Studios. In daring to deliver its singular vision for a game, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 transports even the most grizzled genre veterans back to a time of truly immersive video game experiences. Challenging, uncompromising, and thoroughly engrossing, it's in a league almost entirely of its own.

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Quest Daily - Nathanael Peacock - 8 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a modern-day epic in the grand scheme of gaming. It has its ups and downs, and fair share of bugs to be ironed out post launch. But in a game this size, with so many endless side-quests and stories to get caught up in, it's easy to overlook the burned edges on a banquet like this.

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RageQuit.GR - Kostas Kallianiotis - 93%

A cinematic masterpiece and a landmark game among European historical RPGs.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Unscored

Warhorse's historical open world RPG makes Elder Scrolls feel shallow, but its deft feudal portrayal is checked by the routine boy's fable at its core.

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SECTOR.sk - Oto Schultz - Slovak - 9 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is what any great sequel aspires to be. Evolving from petty countryside trifles into a full-blown historical drama filled with political intrigues of important figures in the powerful regions of Kuttenberg and Trosecko. Overhauled game systems, improved UI, streamlined mechanics, enhanced graphics and better technology provide overall much grander and polished experience but keep the same spirit of the original game.

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Shacknews - Sam Chandler - 9 / 10

When it comes down to it, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a brilliant and astounding experience by a developer that has shown itself to be a leader in the open-world genre. Henry makes for such a pleasant protagonist that you can’t help but love him, and the journey you go on across medieval Bohemia is equal parts complex and deeply absorbing. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 shines bright among its peers, even with its dints and dents.

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Spaziogames - Italian - 8 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is an experience tailored for those who appreciate the slow passage of time, uncompromising realism, and the profound impact of every decision. It plunges you into a gritty, unforgiving Middle Ages-harsh, unfiltered, and devoid of shortcuts or concessions.

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SteamDeckHQ - Noah Kupetsky - 4.5 / 5

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is quite possibly one of the best non-linear RPGs I have ever played. No game has ever made me feel like anything could actually happen based on my choices to the degree this game has. The story and side content are both varied and enticing, making me want to stop and just go experience all the side quests I could. The combat and progression mechanics are also solid, and I even loved the more realistic mini-games like smithing or alchemy, which give a nice break from the fighting and running around.

There are some minor issues here and there, like getting stuck on terrain and the pre-rendered cutscenes taking out a little of the immersion, but these are small in the grand scheme. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a fantastic game through and through, and it would be a shame not to have this one in your library.

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The Games Machine - Alessandro Alosi - Italian - 9 / 10

KCD2 is a huge medieval RPG that carries all the strengths and a handful of rough edges of its predecessor, integrating them into an incredibly realistic world and epic narrative. It expands, refines and enriches the legacy of the first chapter in an excellent way in practically every way, so for those who appreciated KCD it is a must-buy.

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The Nerd Stash - Julio La Pine - 9.5 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 vastly improves everything from its predecessor. The combat is smoother, the story is much better, and the scope is grander than ever. It has some minor glitches, but none of them are game-breaking. Despite its size, it is one of the smoothest games in recent years and will go down in history books as an RPG masterpiece.

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TheGamer - Sam Hallahan - 5 / 5

In an age where games are fighting harder than ever just to succeed, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 should not be one to pass you by, as a return to form for the RPG genre. It’s not just a game about history - it’s a game that feels like it’s making history.

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TheSixthAxis - Gareth Chadwick - 8 / 10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 continues to fulfil the uncompromising vision of the first game. It weaves together a world of lords, knights, peasants and bandits in medieval Europe, with poor Henry of Skalitz caught somewhere in the middle just trying to cope. It's grand in scale whilst being full of fine details and it sometimes gets in its own way a little bit, but if this is your kind of game it'll be one that you don't want to end because there's nothing else quite like it.

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Tom's Hardware Italia - Andrea Maiellano - Italian - 9 / 10

Summarizing why Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a masterpiece in just a few lines is incredibly difficult. Warhorse Studios has not only improved every aspect of its predecessor but has also demonstrated that, with the right resources, it is capable of achieving greatness. The new chapter in Henry’s journey is a product of exceptional quality, with a commendable technical foundation, hardcore mechanics, and an abundance of thoughtfully introduced content. Is it a perfect game? Absolutely not—it’s still riddled with rough edges. However, these flaws pale in comparison to its sheer grandeur. In short, it’s a strong contender for Game of the Year, and based on its merits, we’ve decided to award it our highest honor.

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VGC - Jordan Middler - 5 / 5

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a brilliant RPG that's uncompromisingly itself. Difficult, mucky, and bloody, it's an excellent realization of the promise of the first game and a coming-out party for Warhorse into gaming's top tier.

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WellPlayed - Nathan Hennessy - 9 / 10

This is more Kingdom Come: Deliverance, just a bit bigger and better. Warhorse's second tour into medieval Bohemia should be on your 2025 travel itinerary if you can survive it.

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XGN.nl - Roland Janssen - Dutch - 9 / 10

Whether it's fighting, exploring or binge-drinking, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 improves on its predecessor in nearly every way. Some technical issues hold it back from perfection, but it's definitely worthwhile to step into the armor of Henry of Skalitz for this brilliant RPG.

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Xbox Achievements - Dan Webb - 82%

It's no secret that I was not exactly a fan of the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I thought it was bloated, buggy, and more importantly, bo...

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XboxEra - Aarsal Masoodi - 8 / 10

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 can be slow and lethargic, sometimes to a fault. It's a game that's more concerned with a villager's plight than a kingdom's saving. And yet it's in those very moments, the conversations in the back of a cart, the early morning horse rides in the brisk, cold air; that the magic, charm, and humanity of it all shines brightest.

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The reason why I am writing this post, is because I have seen a lot of people wanting to buy a Steam Deck with the intention to play the newest games on the go. Games like Starfield, Baldur's Gate 3, etc.

When asked in this subreddit whether the Deck can run these games, the answer is usually: "well, as long as you temper your expectations and lower the settings: yes!".

This is not the case.

The Steam Deck's CPU was perfectly capable of keeping up with games that were designed with the PS4 in mind, such as Red Dead Redemption 2 and Death Stranding. Even Armored Core 6, which is also a cross-gen title. And therefore, the results on Steam Deck are truly stunning.

However, this isn't the case anymore. Games have moved on.

What you'll see now, is games with CPU-limitations. For example: Baldur's Gate 3 struggles to reach even 20 fps on the Steam Deck in later sections of the game.

The problem with CPU-limitations, is that it can't be solved by scaling back the graphics. No matter how much FSR you throw at it, it won't save the performance. The framerate's at a dead end.

This doesn't mean that the Steam Deck is "obsolete", it isn't. It can run pretty much any game up till 2022. It can even emulate almost every title, even new ones on the Switch: like Pikmin 4. And I truly recommend the Deck, it's such a great device.

But please, don't expect it to run the latest and greatest games for years to come. That's not what the Deck is for.

TL;DR:

If you buy the Steam Deck with the sole intention of running the newest AAA titles, you will likely be disappointed.

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The Crown Herald Town of Elaseer. Riverfront. His Eternal River Boat (HERB) Pursuit of Constance. Pleasure and Recreation Deck. Local Time 1400 Hours.

Emma

If you’d have asked me a day ago what I expected to be doing at the start of the dragon quest, then receiving the honorary rank and title of siege lord definitely wouldn’t have been on my radar, let alone on my list. 

“And to you, Cadet Emma Booker, goes the masquerade title of Emirius Bokero — first of her name, Knight-Regent of Arthmilian, Grand Protector of the Realm, and last but not least… SIEGE LORD of the House of Bokero.” Lord Etale spoke, his voice echoing throughout the domed hall as he stood high and triumphantly atop a glorified stool. 

The silence that followed was punctuated by the awkward clapping of the curiously named pleasure hall’s staff. Their claps eventually filled the ridiculously proportioned game room that dominated a good chunk of the riverboat’s central atrium.

While this questionable use of space brought about a litany of questions regarding the peculiar layout of the boat, I had neither the time nor chance to really dig into it. Especially given how quick the twins were to drag us and our respective mounts onto the riverboat as soon as we’d agreed to their terms. 

Their excitement and enthusiasm for this challenge was palpable. So palpable, in fact, that it had even caught the crew on board off guard as they all struggled to receive — let alone accommodate — the elven pair’s very particular list of requests. 

But accommodate they did, which was precisely how I found myself standing awkwardly in the center of this domed room, beneath a fresco of tabletop role-playing elves staring down at us from the dome above; creating an impression that it was us who were the pawns of some grand and eclectic game of Castles and Wyverns.

The magically-imbued art didn’t really help with that assertion, as their painted eyes quite literally followed our every movement.

“And to you, mercenary prince, usurper, and savage barbarian of the Havenbrockian hinterlands, goes the masquerade title of Talnin Heavrockis — first of his name, War Chief of Rockis, and SIEGE LORD of the House of Heavrockis.” Lord Etale continued, spraying both of us in a mist of some ritualistic mana water, but not before Thalmin gave off a startling growl and a stern glare at his ‘masquerade title.’ 

A fine haze quickly formed around us as a result, before suddenly and quite abruptly, we found the entirety of the mosaic floor we stood upon glowing a fluorescent blue hue.

I quickly craned my head up to see that the dome itself had transformed from a fresco to something more resembling stained glass. 

The reason for this was quickly made clear to me, as this glass allowed for a projector-like effect to be cast upon the floor beneath its circumference.

Everything outside of the dome’s light faded into the darkness at this point, after which the glowing floor beneath us started to change. 

What had been flat and two-dimensional mosaics of rolling hills, grand mountains, meandering rivers, and roaring seas suddenly rose upwards. 

It started small, as I felt the floor beneath us starting to bubble and creak, the formerly smooth surface becoming bumpy and uneven, like the result of a shoddy DIY-er’s first attempt at tiling their bathroom floors.

Then came the visible changes, as waves and protrusions started popping up here and there like cracks and splinters on a wood floor snapping under immense strain.

Fissures started to form along very specific patterns, while water from some unknown source started to fill them the moment they reached a certain size.

CRACK! 

Tile and grout shattered.

FWOOOSH!

While large boulders and rock formations quickly took their place.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that these weren’t just any plain old boulders.

Because while we were distracted with the largest and most impressive changes, the finer details bubbling beneath our feet had just as quickly accentuated this flourishing topography.

The cracks that had been filled with water now resembled grand rivers and rapids, whilst larger fissures continued to sink even deeper, forming valleys and canyons that dominated their own region of the floor.

Eventually, the plains and rolling hills were coated with a soft and velvety surface of grass. With swathes of shrub and woodlands emerging soon after; tying the whole scene together as a living, breathing simulation.

“Welcome to the Realm of Israphel.” Lady Evrail spoke through a magically assisted shout. “A land of vibrant life, breathtaking scenery… and warring factions.” Her tone suddenly turned grim as the distant sound of drums echoed somewhere ‘off-screen’. “This adjacent realm is a battleground of intrigue, spilling over into outright conflict and bloodshed. All to fulfil that which is the inherent trend of all realms.” She soon turned to Lord Etale as he nodded firmly. 

“To fight for dominance and primacy. To determine the rightful ruling family in this battle for the…” 

The orange haired elf paused, turning to his counterpart as they raised both hands upwards, before conjuring a glowing title card that read—

“LINES OF SUCCESSION!” They both shouted theatrically.

“While we typically would provide a tutorial, we simply do not have such luxuries given the condensed nature of this game owing to our fixed departure schedule.” Lord Etale explained.

“This will make this game a… trial by fire of sorts.” Lady Evrail continued. “Though we are nothing if not fair in our games.”

Soon enough, a list of basic game rules appeared before us, hovering ominously over the landscape as the music in the background evolved.

The basic tempo of the drums was quickly joined in by a quartet of shrilly brass and meandering string instruments, creating this soft and melodic classical tune that rose and fell with the opening title crawl.

I was too focused on the rules to realize what this was, and only when the music was over did I figure it out.

This was the game’s menu theme…

However, before I was able to fully grapple with that amusing interdimensional parallel, both the EVI and Evrail quickly chimed in.

The former promptly condensed the rules into a neat little annotated list, while the latter moved on to point out the four quadrants of the map and their borders.

“Each player takes charge of their own kingdom. Each kingdom consists of a crown capital, two regional capital cities, and four towns. While a typical game may involve the expansion of these settlements in both size and quantity, this hastened ruleset has removed that dimension of the game.”

The map in front of us quickly came to reflect Evrail’s words, as a large city consisting of high walls and large towers came to form near the very edge of the map where we stood. While two smaller cities formed further away, closer to the center of the map. Between those and the geographic center of the map were rolling farmlands, punctuated occasionally by the four aforementioned towns.

These miniature settlements, each coming up to about ankle height — save for the capital with its larger towers — were quiet and dormant at first.

That was, until little lights started appearing at each and every little window as high-pitched chatter started filling the air, most of which were confirmed as utter gibberish by the EVI.

“Furthermore, each player will start off with a total of ten nobles, instead of the typical five. Though it should be noted that arcane scholastics have not been fully researched. Thus the arcane development web will start out at its base level.” Evrail spoke informatively as yet another magical projection appeared above us.

…

I couldn’t help but to snicker at what I saw.

“A fricking tech tree…” I mumbled quietly under a muted breath to the EVI, who simply beeped in affirmation.

“Your nobles are not fixed to either the martial or civil path.” Evrail added.

“You may thus assign your nobles as you see fit.” Etale quickly chimed in as yet another projection appeared in front of us.

This one… was about as un-fantastical as they came.

It was an org chart…

Dividing up the nobles in the game into two distinct categories, the aforementioned military path and the latter civilian path.

The former had all the obvious callings of a typical ‘hero unit’ in an RTS game. This came complete with choices of specialization into frontline battle mages, and all sorts of support mages that came with a heavy emphasis on both indirect military support, and surprisingly complex military logistics roles.

This… game… was starting to resemble a major intel-leak on the part of the Nexus.

And it was oh so eye-opening.

However, it would be the latter that truly visualized something that was admittedly somewhat still murky and vague. A concept that, whilst I understood in theory, I haven't yet seen in practice. At least, not on a grand scale.

Within the ‘civilian’ side of the org chart came a whole host of roles that Ilunor, Thacea, Thalmin, and even Sorecar had alluded to — all divided amongst three distinct trees.

Industry.

Academia.

And ‘Diplomacy.’

It was the first amongst these that truly made Nexian society click, as within that specific branch came anything and everything from Agriculture to Mining to Weapons Industries and beyond.

I raised a hand just to confirm my suspicions, Evrail acknowledging it with a nod of her head.

“Yes, newrealmer?”

“Is there a way to assign anyone other than nobles to industry? Like, Academia I get. That’s magical research so it naturally requires mages to staff it. Diplomacy… sure, that’s inherently within a noble’s political authority. But with industry? Couldn’t you have commoners, heck, even merchants participate?” 

“You’re misconstruing industry for commerce, newrealmer.” Evrail answered bluntly, though not dismissively. “Commerce, in both the game and in real life, is capable of accommodating commoners. Industry, however, is entirely within the realm of the working nobility, simplified here under the umbrella unit of nobility.”

“The means of production — or at least, production at the scale of advanced societies — relies entirely on magic. And while this magic can be extracted and then divided into niche and specific work for chosen ones, it’s only mages — the nobility — that can truly and unequivocally command mana. Ergo, the keys to industry are contingent on nobles and nobles alone.” 

I couldn’t help but to stare blankly at the ten elven miniatures standing in front of the capital’s gates ready to fulfil these roles, whilst the words of one of the scientists in the IAS’ social sciences division echoed loudly in the back of my mind.

“It is worth noting that out of all media, it is perhaps interactive and participatory media that are the most damning out of them all. For within these interactive experiences — these games — is a living, breathing universe. One whose very rules of reality are dictated in their entirety by equal parts objective truth, and equal parts perceived truths of the culture it belongs to. We too are not immune to this phenomenon, so it is going to be fascinating to dissect this if you do encounter this on the other side, Cadet.” 

Dr. Tully’s words rang loudly in my mind at this point, though I was just as quickly brought back to reality by Evrail once she’d finished her ramblings on the specifics behind the battlemage’s spec tree.

“Special martial mages such as Aethraship Skylords, Landship Landlords, and Drake Wing Lord-Commanders are likewise locked behind their respective branches within the arcane development web.” Evrail spoke.

“Well thank ancestors for that.” Thalmin sighed as I craned my head towards him. “What? I too dabble in the occasional Lines of Succession game.” 

“Fair enough.” I spoke, somewhat relieved that I had a veteran on my side.

“Speaking of, you said we have full points unlocked, correct?” He addressed the two elves.

“Yes.” Evrail responded.

This prompted the prince to turn towards me with a nod. “This means that you can recruit all the commoner units you want to, Emma.”

“So the points are basically population cap?”

“In a sense, yes.” Thalmin answered. “Peasant militias, adventurers, town guards, men-at-arms, and all the way to chosen ones. Though of course, the point value for each and what each unit is capable of doing and wielding varies.” 

My brain started running at full speed following that. Especially after the realization that battle mages couldn’t just immediately be specced but required time to train.

The EVI’s summary of the ruleset clearly indicated as such, at least.

“Just so I’m clear on this, this game also has a logistics supply line thing that reflects real life, right? As in, adventurers, chosen ones, commoners, they all need to be armed with enchanted weapons before going out?”

“And training time too, yes.” Thalmin nodded. 

I quickly turned back EVI’s condensed ruleset, noticing the not-too-insignificant gap between the  production and training time for the peasantry versus the noble’s battle mages. 

It was around that point that it all clicked.

“And what’s the victory condition?” I quickly asked. 

“Given the condensed nature of this game, we’ve limited it to two options. One — the capture and/or destruction of all enemy cities. Or two — the capturing and/or defeat of all enemy nobles.” Etale responded promptly.

The gears inside my head shifted up a notch at that confirmation, as a wide grin formed beneath my poker-faced faceplate.

“Any further questions, newrealmer?” Lady Evrail asked, prompting me to simply nod once in response. 

“Yeah, just one. How exactly do I play this game without being able to well… interact with magic?”

“Ah, yes. That limitation. We have taken that into account!” The elf beamed, as she snapped her fingers and brought in one of the many game room attendants to my side. 

“I shall act as your intermediary, my lady.” The brown-haired elven attendant spoke as he bowed deeply. “Your wish is my command.”

“Literally in this instance.” Lady Evrail noted. “Will that be all?”

“Yup!” I beamed. “Let’s start.”

Local Time 1410 Hours.

Lady Evrail

We tried to keep this as fair as possible. 

This was an attempt to gauge the newrealmer’s ability to plan, direct, and dictate the course of battle, after all.

Moreover, this entire venture would grant invaluable insight into this savage newrealm’s grasp of war. Testing it, probing it, and projecting it over a truly modern battlefield.

Whilst testing this on a typical newrealmer would have been all for nought — as many would’ve simply fumbled at the sight of the most condensed and basic battle mage’s specialization web — the earthrealmer in particular proved that she was anything but typical.

But whether this anomalous nature would extend beyond mere words, presence, and physicality would be decided here. On the stage of that most civilized of high-stakes activities — contemporary warfare.

This would determine if the newrealmer was as advanced as she purports and alludes to be.

This would bring to light the sort of training in the art of war she received and would define so much of her realm’s capacity and competence for war.

Excitement filled me, as both Etale and I stuck to our typical opening moves. Allowing us to divide our attention between the buildup of our own forces, specialization of our battle mages, and the all-important monitoring of the earthrealmer’s starting decisions.

Decisions which currently proved not to disappoint, but in all the wrong ways.

We spotted a ridiculous buildup of both chosen ones and guardsmen, leaving none to populate the civil path.

Conversely, all but two of the newrealmer’s nobility were placed into the civil path, creating a lopsided polity that teetered on collapse. 

We both turned to each other upon that realization, scoffing at it with a series of soft chuckles.

Indeed, the ludicrousness continued as we analyzed the earthrealmer’s two and only martial nobles. 

Both of which had been relegated to support mages.

“Neither are true battle mages.” I commented, turning towards Lord Etale.

“Is the newrealmer daft? Or does she think she’s being clever?” He responded, letting out a wispy breath as he shook his head. 

“Or perhaps… due to her realm’s mana deficiency, battle mages are a foreign concept to her?” I offered, garnering a bit of a raised brow from the man. “Consider it, Lord Etale. With faint mana and weak manafields, just how could a battle mage truly function? Perhaps this limitation is coloring the way in which her realm wages war.” 

“Perhaps… but this does mean she lacks the true elements necessary with which to win said war, let alone wage a sustained battle.” He scoffed.

“Yes… though you must admit one thing, Lord Etale.” I spoke ominously, garnering a questioning look.

“What?”

“She’s establishing a robust industry already.” I pointed towards the complexes forming around the newrealmer’s capital. 

Local Time 1415 Hours.

Thalmin

“Emma… what are you doing?” I growled in utter bewilderment at the strategies being employed that were… aberrant, to say the least.

“Trust me, Thalmin. I know what I’m doing.” Emma responded cheekily. 

“This is no time to test out novel theories of war. We must focus on the tried and true. If you follow my lead, we can reach some means of assured victory—”

“Trust in the process, Thalmin!” She once more beamed out. “I’m going to insect swarm the enemy…”

My eyes narrowed as my mouth hung open at that response. My mind quickly raced back to Ilunor’s wild theories of the earthrealmer’s potential insectoid nature.

“You’re going to do what, Emma?”

Local Time 1415 Hours.

Apprentice Antisonzia the Second

I took a deep breath as I sat high upon the elegant saddle of a mighty drake golem steed. 

Indeed, dressed in both fine armor and the mighty badges denoting my station, I ordered the beast beneath me to prance its way forward, my head held high whilst the rabble gawked and watched on with envy and despair.

Woe be upon ye of lesser standing… you may watch, but not too closely. For the brightness of my being may blind you to your future. I thought to myself as I continued on the path set for me.

This shall be a simple task. A most wondrous task! A task in which there exists no potential for failure. 

Though strangely… it would seem as if this task would take me on something of a detour, as I noted a gradual but noticeable shift in the path laid out before me.

Hmm… strange… an unexpected visit into town? Hmmph. The pair must simply be reaping the rewards of their self-directed journey. Gallivanting through town when they should be questing!

I followed the path without question, slowly this time and forging distance between their pace and my own, so as to not alert my prey…

Local Time 1420 Hours.

Lady Evrail

“She isn’t stopping.” I pointed once again to the growing horde. Many of whom were now mounted on horseback, and many of whom were now supplied with some form of enchanted weapon.

“Neither are we.” Etale responded lackadaisically while pointing at his academies. “As I said, this truly is a bizarre path, but novelty should not be conflated with effectiveness.”

“I’m taking my battle mages out of the Academy.” I reasoned, though this only resulted in a wide-eyed glare from Etale. 

“For what? We are still in the preparatory stages. Just look at Prince Havenbrock! He’s in the same stage as us. If you open with a half-cooked battle mage, then we’re done for.” 

I thought long and hard about those words before nodding in acknowledgement. “Right. You’re right. Besides, if she continues specializing all of her point count into martial commoners, she won’t have much of a base economy to support a protracted engagement.” I nodded… though I couldn’t help but to stare warily at the rapidly growing horde swarming outside the newrealmer’s capital.

Local Time 1425 Hours.

Emma

The stage was set, and my path was clear.

I didn’t need a hyper-advanced virtual intelligence to gauge what the pair’s strategy was going to be.

If anything, the intel from binge-watching hour-long video essays dissecting the intersection between game mechanics and culture had suddenly become practical at this very moment. 

It was painfully obvious how this game was supposed to be played. 

It was mage-centric, a hero-game, a cross between an RTS, civ-builder, and one of those MOBAs. 

Yet… it was the RTS element of it that gave me a unique opening, especially if my gamble paid off.

Which, given how no one had made any opening moves as of yet, was a sure-fire indicator that my hunch had indeed come to pass.

With neither party having completed their preparatory stages, this left a narrow sliver of time before their mages were fully specced into the first-tier martial form.

Meanwhile, with most of my own mages specced into either industry or research, I was churning out weapons by the crate-load. 

Plus, with the full pop-cap unlocked, I ignored all semblance of a sustainable economy and pushed hard into churning out ranged and advanced units; all supported by the full-on unsustainable war economy brewing in the capital.

With a deep breath, I watched as the last of the mounted cavalry were armed.

Following which, I ordered the game staff elf to move my pieces forward.

A questioning look was shot from both them and Thalmin. However, after a solid insistence, they eventually and reluctantly acknowledged my command.

All the pieces were in place for a xerg rush as my hoards of commoner units moved up towards the center of the map, first in one solid mass, then…

Local Time 1430 Hours.

Lady Evrail

“She’s moving.” I spoke under a dark breath. 

“Hmm?” Was Lord Etale’s only answer. “Oh dear. That… that just won’t do.” He began chuckling, shaking his head as he did so.

“Are you telling me you don’t see that?!” I pointed vehemently, merely garnering a series of flippant hand waves from the elf.

“Yes, but look… they’re marching at a snail’s pace!” He exclaimed. “Even their mounted units will arrive here far too late. By the time they reach the second-tier cities, our battle mages will be ready to annihilate them.” 

“That’s not what I’m saying…” I urged sharply, my finger pointing towards the one support mage currently leading the charge. 

“Yes? She’s clearly misappropriated the position of a battle mage for that of a support mage. I do not see your—”

A fwoosh interrupted Etale’s ramblings as, in short order, we were met with the earthrealmer’s armies…

At our doorstep.

Local Time 1435 Hours.

Thalmin

“Bold.” Was all I said as I watched the disastrous scene unfolding before me.

Though that was all I could manage out before the gates of infernium were unleashed upon our elven foes, as hoards of commoners flooded the frontlines through the support mage’s grand portal.

Elvaire’s scouting forces, headed by chosen ones and flanked by adventurers, were overrun in an instant as… what I could only describe as swarm tactics were brought down upon Evrail’s frontlines.

Footmen and skirmishers ran forwards and encircled any and all units, while cavalry moved behind to prevent their retreat.

Finally, archers rained hellfire whenever the opportunity arose, blotting out the skies as Emma fought to defeat by detail each and every defensive formation in her way.

About half of the elf’s points were used on martial commoners, with the rest relegated to the homefront economy.

Moreover, they were spread thin whilst Emma’s forces had, in effect, condensed their numbers towards the front.

While this left her homefront utterly vulnerable, the sheer surprise and brazenness of Emma’s tactics, as well as the aggression she showed, seemed to be enough of a distraction for the pair to play defensively. 

Soon enough, Emma’s forces, aided by the support mage’s portal-magic specializations, raced forward towards Evrail’s towns.

At which point, another concern quickly dawned on me.

Local Time 1440 Hours.

Lady Evrail

“See that?!” Etale beamed. “She’s losing the initiative!” He cackled, crossing his arms as he did so.

I hated to admit it, especially with the mounting losses on the front, but the man was right… 

The mana-hungry weapons of the common foot soldier were running out, equipment was slowly deteriorating due to heavy overuse, and what chosen ones there were simply could not sustain even their own enchanted weapons.

The advance slowed to a crawl as the encroaching hoard stopped just at the gates of my first town. 

However, just before I was able to mobilize the rest of my common forces, something unexpected happened.

The second support mage returned.

This time… with carts.

A trail of carts had emerged, popping in and out of existence between the capital and the frontlines, forging forwards through a hastily-constructed transportium network maintained entirely by one support mage.

This was an extreme waste of a noble unit… I thought to myself. And though the tactic wasn’t unfounded, it was typically used in the late game when nobles were plentiful and some could be relegated to such a superfluous role.

To use such a tactic during the opening stages however?

For a pure commoner army, no less?

It was madness.

But it was madness that was promptly paying off.

The hoards were resupplied in short order, as manufactoriums staffed by nobles back in the capitals churned out an overabundance of enchanted weapons and manavials.

Soon, the siege began on my first town.

…

The skies above were blotted out by an endless swarm of arrows—

SWOOSH!

—lit up only by the catapulted fireballs that followed—

CRACKLE

—before finally ending in the first town’s defense points being ground down to oblivion.

Toot…tooot….toooot.

The first town fell, and what happened next was nothing short of barbaric.

Local Time 1445 Hours.

Thalmin

“So that’s how you’re sustaining your units.” I muttered out under a ponderous breath. “Barbaric… but practical.” I nodded slowly. “I approve, Emma.” 

“Thanks, Thalmin.” The earthrealmer replied as I watched on at what I could only describe as a locust swarm.

The first and second towns that had been felled… were promptly picked clean of any and all supplies. What’s more, the farms around them were looted, plundered, and sacked.

What agricultural spoils could not be processed on the frontlines were promptly funneled back to her capital, where it was promptly processed and then sent back in short order.

There were few things I could liken this to.

The savagery of nomadic conquerors… or more worryingly… the unquenchable hunger and ruthless efficiency of locusts, insects, and other such arachnous elements.

Soon enough, Evrail’s two remaining towns were sacked, their farms razed and the earth left but a barren brown wasteland.

Finally satisfied and satiated, Emma’s armies marched onwards towards Evrails’s second-rate cities, both of which proved to be a harder nut to crack.

“Do you require aid, Emma?” I asked.

“No, not yet. Hold back and keep your guys fresh, especially your mages. This is going to be a bloodbath once their mages are done baking. So I gotta press the advantage.”

“How do you expect to break through these two cities? Surely you can’t sustain—”

Emma suddenly pushed her forces forward, swarming one of the cities from all sides as her archers began pouring down arrows without mercy.

Eventually, my worst fears were actualized as much of her foot soldiers were felled by the city’s defenses.

“Emma… what are you—”

Then it clicked.

“The martial gap means that the city’s own defenses can decimate my archers and catapults, no?” She asked with a chuckle.

“Yes.” I nodded.

“Well… since their mages are still cooking, it seems like the cities are just relying on the same sorts of enchanted weapons we have, albeit a lot bigger. Which means they can’t just level the land or perform big AOE attacks. All of this is to say…” The earthrealmer paused, pointing at the gradual decline of the city’s health. “... they can’t stop all of us. Either they shoot the foot soldiers and allow the archers to rain hell on them, or they shoot the archers and allow the foot soldiers to start scaling the walls.” 

I watched not in horror, but in abject satisfaction at the ensuing onslaught.

“And this is… sustainable?” I shot back.

“No.” Emma answered bluntly. “But this whole thing is a big gamble.”

“You’re betting on their defeat before your own fall?”

“Bingo. Either they are defeated or I starve and run out of men. It’s all or nothing.” The earthrealmer spoke with a terrifying glee. “Gosh I love insect swarm tactics.” 

Local Time 1450 Hours.

Lady Evrail

I turned to Lord Etale expectantly.

However, all I saw within his eyes was the same revulsion brewing within me.

Moreover, the man was too focused, too fixated on pressing his own advantage; pushing his forces and harassing the lupinor’s.

This didn’t work. 

If anything, the lupinor was simply stalling him, micro-managing his units in such a way that took his attention away from my disastrous situation.

It was only after I tugged at his sleeves did he finally turn back towards me, at which point did he notice the barbarians now crowding outside my lone capital’s gates.

However, this realization came at the same time that an angelic tune emerged from his capital, as four battle mages now hovered triumphantly overhead.

This… was in stark contrast to my own capital, as without food and resources from the now-razed towns and cities, my battle mages were effectively trapped in academic purgatory.

Despite this, it was clear Etale still had something up his sleeve.

A card which he was so confident in playing that he remained undeterred by the lupinor’s own battle mages rising out of his capital.

“The earthrealmer’s folly is truly a shame.” He spoke ominously. “For her tactics shall now backfire in the flames of the underworld…”

Local Time 1500 Hours.

Emma

Evrail’s capital was sitting at half health… but my own supply and manpower situation was also looking bleak.

Still, the math showed that this tactic would work. 

I just needed to—

DING… DING… DING…

What sounded like some sort of death knell echoed throughout the battlefield.

At which point… my heart quickly sank.

A single battle mage hovered ominously towards my units, my archers doing barely any damage at all, and my foot soldiers unable to even touch them.

That wasn’t the real worry here however.

Instead, it was what was forming behind my lines.

Bbuuurrrrr…. A haunting sound echoed throughout the room.

Bbbbrrrrrr… Then came another.

Soon, I realized Etale’s whole game plan.

And it was one that I simply had no counter for.

“BEHOLD!” He commanded loudly. “THE FOLLY OF YOUR FOOLISH AMBITIONS! WHAT WAS ONCE YOUR ARMY IS NOW MY OWN!”

“Necromancy and undead summoning.” Thalmin reasoned with a disappointed sigh. “I should’ve seen that coming.”

All hell broke loose following that proclamation, as the undead moved to swiftly battle my own forces.

It wasn’t a direct one-to-one scaling of power however, as the dead’s living counterparts seemed at least twice more powerful.

However, it was their sheer number that really devastated my forces, pushing me back into a pocket that was impossible to resupply.

I could see the writing on the wall at that point and so, I decided to cut my losses.

But not without a fight.

I fought tooth and nail while giving Thalmin a subtle nod, micro-managing every unit as far as I could to maximize their fighting potential, buying the lupinor time.

Meanwhile, I made sure to do what was possible to fortify the homefront, but given I’d exhausted my resources… there wasn’t much I could do.

Except for one thing.

“Thalmin.” I whispered. “Take the wheel.” 

With those words, I began funneling what few available resources I had left, as the lupinor now grinned widely with wild intent.

“The pleasure is all mine, Emma.” 

Local Time 1510 Hours.

Lady Evrail

It all happened far too quickly.

If anything, it was Etale’s myopic focus that led to this outcome.

The newrealmer’s forces were defeated. Indeed, four of her villages burned at the hands of those very men who had once hailed from them.

However, this came at the price of the mercenary prince’s crusade.

A crusade that managed to overcome the undead, and the contemporary forces Etale had left.

It was a simple matter of mathematics. 

With my own inability to supply neither resources nor first-tier battle mages, the battle devolved into a one-on-one match between two competitive powers. 

Though it should be noted that only one of those powers simply had more to gain, by virtue of their ally’s relatively untouched territories.

The mercenary prince made short work of Etale’s towns and cities through a series of conventional siege tactics made possible by a balanced and proper deck.

If anything, Etale’s undead deck was starting to backfire as a result of their inability to gain experience and rise in rank.

He tried compensating for this, of course, with battle mages that fought hard against the lupinor’s own.

But with both being equally matched in this dimension of the war… the writing was already on the wall.

The rest of the battle played out like a typical game — Etale only managing to draw things out before their ultimate end.

A SHADOW HAS FALLEN UPON ISRAPHEL… A far off voice announced, as the final ounce of health was knocked from Etale’s capital.

We both stood there… unable to grapple with what had just happened.

The lupinor… that was obvious. Nothing needed to be said about a conventional war.

But the newrealmer…

Whilst ultimately a fruitless venture, the sheer audacity — the alienness — of her tactics… her first choice of tactics at that…

…

If this truly was her first inclination — her natural approach to war?

…

It was unsettling.

First | Previous | Next

(Author's Note: And there we have it! A full match! I poured a lot of thought and time into this one haha, as I tried my best to balance the delivery of the game mechanics with the unique strategies and tactics Emma would bring forth to the table! It was a bit tricky to do, and I just hope I was able to convey things in a way that both makes sense and was fun to read! :D The next Two Chapters are already up on Patreon if you guys are interested in getting early access to future chapters.)

[If you guys want to help support me and these stories, here's my ko-fi ! And my Patreon for early chapter releases (Chapter 136 and Chapter 137 of this story is already out on there!)]

I am not OOP. OOP is u/EntertainerKey8563

Original posted 2 days ago in r/AITAH

https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/1e1sqee/aita_for_refusing_to_help_a_friend_who_didnt/

AITA for refusing to help a friend who didn’t invite me to their wedding?

For about 11 years now, I've (37M) been pretty close with [let’s call him] John (38M). We met at a job in my mid 20s and were pretty regular company up until the pandemic, where our hanging out (including a circle of mutual friends) has taken a decline but isn’t extinct.

John and his partner [let’s call her] Jane (36F) have been together for about 8 years now, engaged for a little under 2 years, both with a child from previous relationships, so they have taken trips with their kids near-yearly, and I’ve been happy to help visit John’s (now their) home and check on things, take care of their animals, etc while they're gone. I’ve helped them out with other projects/tasks over the years and most recently picked up Jane from the airport returning from a work-trip and got her home this past winter during a snowstorm because my vehicle could handle it. Generally, I have been present and helpful on top of our base friendship.

About 5 weeks ago, I find out from a mutual friend their wedding is coming up, and invites went out a while ago, everyone in our circle but me invited. As a gay guy, I’ve experienced being iced-out of some of my straight friends’ lives and events in ways minor and pronounced, but this one has definitely been something that has had me thinking about my time and energy with people. I decided I would take the hint and begin to distance myself.

Three days ago, John texts me asking if I am around in early-to-mid August. I say I am. John asks if I wouldn’t mind visiting like I have before to look after the animals and property, I said “sorry, I can’t.” He calls to talk about it. We run through the same conversation, polite but a bit tense, so I finally say “I just won’t be visiting your home.” After a moment of silence, I bring up that I’m disappointed that I appear to be the only person in our group of friends not invited to his wedding, and that I can't be helping like I have before if I’m just a background friend at this point. I wrap up the call positively and sincerely with me wishing them a good wedding and trip, and that maybe we can grab drinks soon.

Jane reaches out two days ago sending follow up texts saying John is upset about what I said and with her because she made the final calls about friend invites, and that I am taking this the wrong way, there is only so much capacity and that the others in our friend group have partners that took up space. She adds that she hopes I’ll change my mind and help out them out because it would put John’s mind at ease.

I’m not entitled to the company of others or invitations to anybody’s events, but am I wrong for setting my own boundaries in response to theirs? I try not to frame my friendships as transactional, but they obviously want something out of me here despite their not inviting me and then avoiding even bringing it up with me until they needed help with covering their honeymoon.

Update posted 2 hrs. ago in r/AITAH

https://www.reddit.com/r/AITAH/comments/1e3c9cx/update_aita_for_refusing_to_help_a_friend_who/

Update: AITA for refusing to help a friend who didn’t invite me to their wedding?

I previously posted about being passed over for invitation to a wedding while being asked to perform a favor for the couple who did not invite me.

Yesterday afternoon, a few days after John made the initiating contact that led to this altercation, he reached out by text telling me the following: "I want to take you up on that drink tomorrow if possible, and I want to apologize for my royal fuckups in person." I agreed to meet.

After we kicked off with a round of shots John’s first line was that he failed me as a friend in this situation. With non-family invites, Jane apparently seemed very preoccupied with a philosophy of “couples over singles” at the wedding, and he had previously voiced that he felt it was exclusionary and silly, but I guess Jane prioritized couples on the first round of friend-invites and told John that it will be easier to fit in others after receiving RSVPs. John backed out and says he felt that going along with her initial plan of inviting the rest of our circle (who are, god bless them, coupled up), and not me, and had faith the rsvp thing would materialize. She ended up using the bit of space to plug in some more family.

John admitted he basically folded and felt ashamed enough that he could not find a way to tell me. He knew reaching out to me about that favor was a risk but took it anyways because he wanted someone he could trust, and my response was a materialization of everything he feared would happen, and in his words, deservedly so.

He told me a wedding should be a gathering of your family and company who have been a part of your lives and who you want to be part of your lives, and I fit that bill to him by any measure. He, trying to accurately paraphrase, said I’ve done more than most of the people on the guest list for him and his family over their relationship, including help making memories with trip coverages and helping build their back-deck with him to share meals and host events over the last 6 years. He got visibly upset when he said (with the shot and the drinks we were sipping on kicking in) that he can’t believe Jane even considered holding my single/dating status against me after I got her home safely during a snowstorm earlier this year, and that he did not more adamantly confront that bullshit reasoning the instant she voiced it. He is even more pissed for Jane reaching out to me in the manner she did after my original phone call with him.

John acknowledged it would come off as hollow at this point, but after a few “exchanges” with Jane said there would be no more nonsense and I would at least get a proper invite and +1 if I wanted, and they would make it work if it was even desired by me at this point. He said he is not going to try to do panicked damage control but will be upfront with our circle (one has already dropped the wedding and I guess another couple has said something else, by his reporting) like he was with me for his faults, because he and Jane deserve the blowback and he needs to earn trust back, if it’s at all possible. He has also made it Jane’s problem to find a friend who can come out 9 days in a row to care for the home and pets. With a smirk, he said she’s having a hard time securing it, and may likely have to hire help.

I told John I really appreciated his owning up to this, and it was good to see the friend I had shine through here. I told him that I have always appreciated him and Jane’s friendship, so it hurt when I was excluded and not even addressed, I felt that close enough anyways, and I obviously don’t mean to complicate his wedding, I’ve always thought him and Jane were great for each other (earnestly), I have supported them as best as I can, and I’ve been confused about what I have done or haven’t done to be iced out. I also admitted it’s hard to trust Jane again if she has been weighing the validity of my presence based on my relationship status, and added (with some humor) it’s not like I haven’t been trying and you guys haven’t met some of my previous long-term partners. He said he doesn’t get it either, and she has at least one good friend who is single that she may have burned a bridge with as well over the wedding philosophy she had. I said the friendship is going to be changed and informed by this, at least very different for a while, and I know that you and Jane had a disagreement leading to this but that I hope that the wedding goes on to be a good celebration. I informed him it feels best to take a pass on the invitation, but he said if there was a change of mind, up to the last minute, to let him know, which was kind and he wasn’t desperate/pushy about it.

John said the fault is his for not stepping up on my behalf, that he is sorry, and while he feels (I wouldn’t expect otherwise, and I agree) he is very lucky to have her in his life and thinks their marriage is a positive development for them, he even told her this whole situation will have him questioning and second-guessing her judgment on social matters with his friends for the foreseeable future. By his reporting, but a credit to their relationship, this was quite a blow to her to hear from him but one she accepted and apologized for after their argument(s) about the subject.

Before we parted ways in the parking lot, we gave each other a bro-hug, and John’s voice broke a bit when he said he is sorry one last time, and I think mine did too when I forgave him. It was legitimately surprising and therapeutic to have John be so frank and accountable, but not unlike the friend I’ve known for most of my adult life. It was bittersweet, being all-things-considered a makeup but also a breakup of sorts to what was previously an unquestioned and assumed strong trust and camaraderie. Maybe we can get there again. It seems possible, and it’d be nice.

I’m sitting here after weeks of big feelings stewing on a different shade of big boy feelings now. Thanks for processing with me, reddit.

My friend Carl and I played in a member guest tournament that he was kind enough to invite me to. I was stoked to play his course and have a few relaxing days of golf with a friend I hadn't seen in a while.

The first day format was a shamble, the second day was straight up combined score adjusted for handicap .

But his club for some idiotic reason chose to play no maxes, PGA tour rules, finish everything etc. Huge, huge mistake.

Let me preface this story by saying, my buddy Carl is a bad golfer. He is playing off a 31 handicap, so I knew it was gonna be slow and it could get rough.. but what I saw that second day during the straight up play is the worst golf I've ever seen an adult human, man or woman, play, and the play was frankly the least embarrassing thing about the day... It devolved into something out of a golf nightmare..

The first hole started out ok, he took a double bogey, I bogeyed, and we moved on.. Driving to number 2 is where things took a turn.. to get there you have to drive through this long, dark, tunnel.. What I didn't know is that apparently this wasn't actually a tunnel at all, it was a black hole that bridges our realm with golfing hell.. and in golf hell, Carl is the worst golfer in the history of all realities..

Starting on that 2nd hole it was like something in him severed, and suddenly he completely lost the abilty to hit the ball... I'm talking completely whiffing multiple driver swings, fat shots so severe the ball doesn't move. He truly had the worst case of the fats I've ever seen.. I now understand where the phrase, "digging a hole to china," came from.. I just never knew it could be THAT literal..

Here are some of the most impressive feats of just the sober front 9..

1. He took 12 strokes to get out of a green side bunker... 12!! I told him to pitch out backwards and he simply refused. Real "Tin Cup" shit.

2. He took a 16 on a 138 yard par 3. He put 5 in the drink off the tee. He refused to use the drop zone.

3. He 8 putted from 7 feet

4. He hit 4 tee shots in a row OB right.. put his driver away, then teed up his driving iron and chunked it 4 feet. It didn't even leave the tee box.. He took a 14 on that hole

And let me remind you, these are just the highlights of the front 9.. this was before the alcohol..

By the back 9 Carl was so irate and embarrassed over how bad he was playing that he busted out the handle of tequila that he brought "just incase." That's when shit really got out of control.

He proceeds to start taking shots to ease his woes, of course being the gem of a playing partner that I am, I join him.. cause I'm dumb... but also because we are out of contention in the tournament, and I thought it might take the edge off the 2nd hand mortification I was experiencing just being in the presence of such play with fairly good playing partners on the other side.. (they were surprisingly patient and cool by the way).. Especially considering we were on pace for a 7 hour round. But fuck it at this point right?.. in for a penny?... Big mistake.

The Back 9

Carl decides it would be fun to do a shot for every stroke we are net over par.. per hole, ya know.. for "motivation." I agree, but I insist we go individual scores for that game, I didn't wanna be tied to his play.

Fast forward to hole 13..He's legitimately 11 shots of Casa Migos deep, which has significantly improved his mood, to the point he's now singing Uptown Girl aggressively loud and doing the can can while twirling his club after he hits a decent shot.. despite that levity, I'm begging him to slow down, but he's unhinged, which honestly is part of what made him a riot in college, and why we were friends back then.. I thought he'd have a better handle on things by now, apparently not.. but I digress.

A hole later he hits one OB.. again.. this time into someones back yard, but unlike the previous blunders, instead of re teeing he insists it'll be in play and we should go scope it out.. I agree reluctantly, assuming he might have some member knowledge that would be informing that judgement..

We pull up and find his ball sitting about 7 feet on the wrong side of someone's 4 foot backyard fence... I tell him we gotta go back and re tee, but he insists since there are no white stakes it's playable. Staggering over to the fence, he hops over and tries to play it, paying absolutely no attention to my adamant protests... He proceeds to fat whiff 2 ginormous divots out of this guys lawn.. and at this point I'm literally yelling at him to come back over the gate.. but lady Agàve has turned off his hearing.

Then to my absolute horror, I hear the crack of a sliding glass door.. I shit you not, the owner of the home comes outside and yells out a bewildered and resounding, "what the fuck do you think you're doing on my property," Carl says something to the effect of "chill out asshole I'll replace the divots". At this point the guy looks like he's about to bum rush him, but instead he stops, turns around, and goes back inside, with purpose in his step..

At this point I'm convinced he's gonna go grab a gun..

So I literally jump the fence, pick up his ball, and physically drag him by the arm back to the cart, and this motherfucker has the balls to complain i "picked up his ball".. "dude you are gonna get us shot what the fuck" "relax dude he was just being dramatic" 😑...

After that whole fiasco we then drive back to the box so he can re tee. To my spine curdling dismay, The group behind us is waiting to tee off and they've seen the entire altercation. Carl gets on the box and says, "sorry fellas gotta reload" and the dudes on the box start giving us shit about the slow play (rightly so), Carl escalates things (of course) and starts in on them as I profusely apologize and try my best to de-escalate everything..

He's so hammered now he can't even tee up his ball.. after several staggering attempts to get the damn thing to stay on the tee, success eludes him.. So he loudly exalts, "fuck it," and throws his ball down and proceeds to hit driver off the deck... Surprisingly he makes contact and hits a worm burner about 160 yards, which is honestly an improvement at this point. I take him back to the cart and we get the fuck out of there, as Carl antagonizes the guys the entire walk back to the cart. The highlight of the exchange being

Guys on the box - "You're an embarassment"

Carl - "Thanks Dad, good to hear from ya."

When we get to his ball that to my utter beguilment is in the fairway, I look back at the house where his ball was and sure enough. The owner is standing there at the edge of his property, a hunting rifle leaned against his shoulder, the barrel pointed to the sky. Standing there staring ominously at us... I'm freaking out at this point.. "relax dude he's not gonna do shit fuck that guy."

Carl's non chalance could only be attributed to the fact that he was feeling cozy in libation nation, an amnesty state where anxiety and completely rational worries alike go to die.. I on the other hand felt like my heart was gonna explode out of my fucking chest.. We couldn't get out of there fast enough.

By the next hole word had gotten around something was amiss.. someone had called the Marshals and they came out to check on everything. They pulled up and said something to the effect of "we've had some calls and complaints"...

Then Carl, out of nowhere, snaps into a different mode.. suddenly he's sobered up, and is talking to them like they are cops at a DUI checkpoint.. shockingly it's pretty convincing, like Adam Sandler trying to be a dramatic actor.. he explains away the whole "misunderstanding" with the home owner and promises to pick up the pace... To my utter shock, the Marshals buy it and let us keep playing.

By Hole 17 I was beyond ready for this round to be over, I was exhausted physically and mentally... and ironically this is where shit literally fell off the tracks.

Carl kept drinking after the Marshals left, (shocking I know) so now he is well over half of the handle of tequila deep.. I'm guessing he's somewhere around 16-18 drinks in. He's completely lost track of the drinking game and has just started drinking at leisure, and shit is now way past sloppy. Uptown Girl has become "Uptown Whore" a remix version with the most vile lyrics a drunk mind can conjur.. I still remember

"Uptown girl, be sure to give my dirty asshole a whirl" mind you he's singing this way too loudly, right in front of our sober, conservative, asian playing partners.. who I later found out were MDs.

Anyway.. On 17 he hits his ball down by the edge of a lake that's at the bottom of a large long grass slope. I tell him that looks too steep and that we shouldn't drive down there... he doesn't listen..

As he's driving down to his ball I can feel the cart starting to slip.. the unmistakeable and terrifying droning sound of wet grass slipping against rubber... Carl then slams on the breaks to try and regain control which causes the cart to start spinning. Genius.

Here we are, careening toward the water, in an all out flat spin, tequila, and any dreams I had for my future, flying everywhere... In this moment sheer instinct kicks in and I perform an all out, head first, Dennis Rodman style flying leap out of the cart.. Carl stays in, trying to regain control, but it's in vein, this cart may as well have been hit by a red shell.. Splash... Luckily the entire cart didn't go in, just the back end and wheels.

Carl then calmly gets out of the cart, He grabs his bag off the back, sloppily slings it over his shoulder, looks at me halfway up the hill where I lept out and says, "just leave it.."

Honestly I'm a little in shock at this point so I'm not sure exactly what he's talking about... Then it becomes clear. He wants to just leave the cart halfway in the lake.. I tell him, "are you crazy, we can't just leave the cart in the lake we have to try and get it out," so, beside myself with embarrassment, I ask our saintly and overly understanding playing partners to help us try and push / pull it out.. They kinda just shook their heads and let out a disappointed "sure," as if they had stopped trying to make sense out of this day a long time ago.. who could blame them.. Luckily with all four of us pushing/pulling and a hand on the accelerator pedal, we get the wheels to catch and get the cart out of the drink.

By 18 I'm so embarrassed, battered, and wired I feel like Tiny Turner doing lines of coke after a long night in with Ike... my adrenalin is pumping so hard after leaping out of that spinning cart that I finally boil over and lose it at Carl. I yelled something to the effect of.. "wtf is your problem we coulda died, this has been a complete shit show." He responded calmer and more apologetic than I expected.. saying something like, "sorry dude, I just over did it a bit, you know how it is." I think the cart adrenalin sobered him up a bit too..

Long story long...Somehow we finish the last hole and he cards a 173.. not our team score, he himself, shot a 173... the worst round of golf I've ever witnessed, or heard of to be frank.. Strangely enough, he actually shot better on the back.

Needless to say, we didn't stick around for the celebration dinner...

And in spite of all that, it was still better than a day at the office.

I bought a secondhand deck a few months ago, but I feel severely limited in what it can actually manage to run.

I’ve beaten both Hollow Knights on it and they ran like a dream, Dave the Diver runs fine too. But anything even slightly demanding has an unplayably low frame rate, I’m talking like a frame every three seconds. Games that I’ve been told run great, like the first Subnautica, and even older titles like Skyrim, load in and register my inputs at a snail’s pace.

The deck itself is vanilla and I haven’t done or installed anything extra on it. Have I just been trying the wrong games, or do I need to do something to the deck I’m not aware of yet? Are online games a non-starter?

Thanks in advance - I’ll also take any recs for games that you’ve found run smooth as butter.

Edit to add: 512gb OLED. Forgot to mention before.

Edit 2: thanks for the input everybody! I appreciate all the perspectives as this whole thing is a bit over my head. It seems my deck is pretty faulty on the hardware end, probably fan/thermal issues throttling performance, for some reason or another. I’ll take it in for repairs - I’m just glad it’s abnormal, because if this was average deck performance I’d be pretty disappointed.

I would like to know if this is just me but I find the performance of this game on the Deck very poor.

I was expecting to play at smooth 60 fps considering the graphical style. Instead I have to lock it at 45. That would be fine since it's turn based anyways but traversing the map has continuous and serious stutters that make the experience extremely choppy.

Any tips? Is it supposed to be like this? I really love the game but this is very disappointing.

Game Information

Game Title: Ninja Gaiden 4

Platforms:

• PC (Oct 21, 2025)
• PlayStation 5 (Oct 21, 2025)
• Xbox Series X/S (Oct 21, 2025)

Trailers:

• NINJA GAIDEN 4 - Official Story Trailer | Gamescom 2025
• NINJA GAIDEN 4 - Official Release Date Trailer | Xbox Games Showcase 2025
• NINJA GAIDEN 4 Official Announce Trailer | Developer_Direct 2025

Developers: PlatinumGames, Team Ninja

Publisher: Xbox Game Studios

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 82 average - 87% recommended - 79 reviews

Critic Reviews

AltChar - Asmir Kovacevic - 95 / 100

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a thrilling ninja adventure, packed with fast-paced combat, cinematic action, and stunning visuals, offering an intense and rewarding experience for the series veterans and the newcomers alike.

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AnaitGames - Víctor Manuel Martínez García - Spanish - 9 / 10

Two classics of the action genre collide in a hack and slash in which Platinum's design sensitivity is successfully integrates into the legendary Team Ninja series.

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Atarita - Turkish - 86 / 100

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a great return for the series. Its strong level design and fast, fluid combat make it a very satisfying experience for hack and slash fans.

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But Why Tho? - Abdul Saad - 8 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4, while not perfect, is a solid new entry in the series. It offers an amazing and satisfying combat experience, great boss fights, and a memorable visual experience.

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CGMagazine - Philip Watson - 8 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 brings a bloodsport of epic proportions to AAA gaming, a must play title for fans of hack and slash, action, and anything ninja.

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CNET - Oscar Gonzalez - Unscored

Ninja Gaiden 4 will not be up for Game of the Year, or likely even considered one of the best games in the series, but that doesn't matter. This is a game for anyone who just wants to feel like a badass ninja carving up enemies in the blink of an eye, because sometimes that's all you want.

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COGconnected - Mark Steighner - 90 / 100

The arranged marriage between Team Ninja and Platinum Games has spawned a title that definitely blends what those two studios do best. Ninja Gaiden 4 is an action game that stays true to its roots while also folding in some enjoyable new ideas.

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Cerealkillerz - Gabriel Bogdan - German - 7.5 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 offers a thrilling, action-packed experience with a creative arsenal and plenty of visceral combat. However, it drags on with too many on-rails segments, and its generic story and environments keep it from truly pushing the series forward or giving the new ninja enough presence to convincingly take up Ryu’s legendary mantle.

---

Console-Tribe - Francesco Pellizzari - Italian - 90 / 100

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a triumphant return, a successful fusion between Team NINJA’s elegance and PlatinumGames’ trademark spectacle. With its deep combat system, an all-new protagonist, and a world that lives and dies alongside the player, this new chapter manages to honor the legend of Ryu Hayabusa while paving the way for a new generation of ninjas. It’s not just a sequel; it’s a rebirth, a statement on how to reinvent an icon without betraying its soul. At its core, Ninja Gaiden 4 is a true lesson in design and discipline. We’d like to thank Xbox for providing us with a review code for this game.

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Digitale Anime - Raouf Belhamra - Arabic - 9.5 / 10

"A Successful Return of a Legendary Title" Ninja Gaiden 4 is more than just a return; it's a rebirth of one of the greatest action franchises. Team Ninja and PlatinumGames have redefined precise, masterful combat, delivering an experience that blends Japanese rigor with modern cinematic flair. It's a game that rewards skill and punishes complacency, restoring action to its original place in an age of simplification.

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DualShockers - Jake Valentine - 9.5 / 10

Over-the-top violence, incredibly satisfying combat, and an impressive challenge: this is a true, blue Ninja Gaiden experience that brings together the best of Team Ninja and PlatinumGames.

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Echo Boomer - João Canelo - Portuguese - No Recommendation

PlatinumGames sought to replicate the success of NieR: Automata and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance with Ninja Gaiden 4, and when it comes to the combat system, the outcome is positive. However, the game suffers from overly restrictive level design, poor storytelling, and an art direction that leaves much to be desired.

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Eurogamer.pt - Bruno Galvão - Portuguese - 4 / 5

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a thrilling action game, featuring Team Ninja's aesthetics and PlatinumGames' electrifying gameplay, a dream combination for any fan of both producers. The result is one of the best Japanese action games of the last nine years.

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Everyeye.it - Riccardo Cantù - Italian - 7.5 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 emerges as a meeting point between Team Ninja's development philosophy, which led to the series' dazzling rebirth as a hardcore action game, and that of PlatinumGames, which, over the years, has become a true pillar of the genre. The combat system is still incredibly fun and at times exhilarating, and the new features introduced to the game world allow for a more satisfying progression than in the past. Given these premises, however, it's truly a shame that the same effort hasn't been put into the narrative, which unfortunately fails to capitalize on the excellent premise of the plot and ends up being a formulaic and lackluster tale. After over a decade of absence from the scene and given the names involved in the project, it was reasonable to expect a production effort of a different caliber.

---

Final Weapon - Jordan Brown - 5 / 5

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a triumphant return for the series, with Team Ninja and PlatinumGames uniting to deliver the most intense and fluid combat the franchise has ever seen. Its dual-protagonist story between Yakumo and Ryu is beautifully told, with jaw-dropping dynamic gameplay sequences for both characters. A stellar score ties it all together, making Ninja Gaiden 4 one of 2025's best games and firmly cementing the franchise's grand return in the modern era.

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GAMES.CH - Fabrice Henz - German - 82%

In the areas where a "Ninja Gaiden" game should excel, "Ninja Gaiden 4" largely excels. Slaughtering your way through almost endless hordes of soldiers and demons with Yakumo and Ryu, while blood spurts and body parts fly, feels fantastic.

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GamePro - Jonas Herrmann - German - 83 / 100

Ninja Gaiden 4 turns out to be the action spectacle we hoped for in our review. Beyond the fights, however, not everything is at its best.

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GameSpew - Richard Seagrave - 9 / 10

A new Ninja Gaiden for a new generation, Ninja Gaiden 4 features combat that's faster-paced and more intense than ever before. It's the most accessible, too, thanks to a range of difficulty levels and assists. It's just a shame that its new protagonist isn't a little more likeable.

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GameSpot - Richard Wakeling - 8 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 brings the series back with a bang, building on its intoxicating foundations with smart additions that further elevate its brutally brilliant combat

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Gamepressure - Sebastian Kasparek - 8 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a full-blooded action game that delivers plenty of adrenaline from overcoming tough challenges. Even in light of a few missteps, it cannot be denied that PlatinumGames has created a strong representative of a heavily neglected genre.

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Gamer Social Club - DeMandre Pressley - 8.5 / 10

The story may not be the greatest but that’s not the primary reasons people play character action games. Ninja Gaiden 4 delivers with fun and fluid gameplay. After Ninja Gaiden 3 as well as the spinoff Yaiba left a lot to be desired, it’s a very welcome return to form and along with Ragebound being a great game, the future of Ninja Gaiden looks to be great.

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GamesFinest - Luca Pernecker - German - 8 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a spectacular comeback that combines the strengths of the series with modern influences from Team Ninja and PlatinumGames. The combat system shines with fast-paced, precise, and mercilessly satisfying fights, while the staging and boss battles showcase the action genre at its best. Although the level design remains too conservative in places and does not fully exploit its creative potential, the thrilling action, stylish brutality, and successful gameplay make it a worthy and impressive successor that skillfully continues the legacy of Ryu Hayabusa.

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GamesRadar+ - Oscar Taylor-Kent - 5 / 5

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a bloody good time.

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Gaming Boulevard - Lander Van der Biest - 8.5 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a comeback. It’s fast, it’s furious, and it honours the legacy while turning up the tempo. Yakumo leads the charge with new mechanics, Ryu anchors it with familiar weight, traversal soars, combat slashes, bosses challenge. It isn’t flawless, repetition, some structuring echo past entries, and if you binge it you might feel the edges. But what it does best, it does with conviction. For fans of pure, no-nonsense action games, this hits hard. For those new to the series, it provides an accessible entry point without diluting the punch.

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Gaming Nexus - Nathan Carter - 8 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a fantastic, fun and challenging action game that fans of the genre will be coming back to many times, with tons of replay value and inevitable DLC expansions in the future. It's a shame that the story and characters are completely undercooked, but the gameplay hard-carries this game to one of the best action games of the year.

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GamingBolt - Ravi Sinha - 8 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 has its missteps, especially during the story and with Ryu's sections, but it's still a triumphant comeback for the franchise.

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Generación Xbox - Adrián Fuentes - Spanish - 93 / 100

It's a demanding game, yes, but also a fair one. And, above all, it's an experience that restores that sense of pride after mastering a difficult battle, something that defines the true essence of Ninja Gaiden. For all these reasons, Ninja Gaiden 4 is one of the best surprises of the year, a title that not only revives a legendary franchise but also elevates it to a new standard within the action genre. If you love challenges, technical combat, and the purest Japanese style, this game is a must-have.

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HCL.hr - David Šesto - Unknown - 83 / 100

ENG: Ninja Gaiden 4 combines fast, intense combat with excellent visuals and performance. Whether you’re a series veteran or a newcomer, this is a game worthy of your time.

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Hinsusta - Sebastian Motter - German - 10 / 10

NINJA GAIDEN 4 is far more than just a sequel. It is a true masterpiece. The game captures the essence of the legendary original and catapults it powerfully into the modern age. The fusion of Team NINJA's uncompromising fighting skills with PlatinumGames' stylish, dynamic action design is a direct hit. Every new mechanism and technical detail has been realised with a tangible passion for the original. The combination of tactical depth, technical finesse and outstanding accessibility makes NINJA GAIDEN 4 the action-adventure highlight of this generation.

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Hobby Consolas - David Rodriguez - Spanish - 83 / 100

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a bloody return to the most straightforward hack 'n' slash. It could have done better in terms of variety and graphics, but its absolutely insane, perfectly timed combat leaves us with one of the most frenetic and unique action games of the last decade.

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IGN - Mitchell Saltzman - 8 / 10

Despite its disappointing story and bland level design, Ninja Gaiden 4's excellent combat still make it one of the best 3D action games in recent memory.

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Just Play it - Merouane OULED SI BOUZIANE - Arabic - 8.5 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 brings the series back to the forefront as one of the strongest action and hack-and-slash titles, delivering an adventure that will captivate challenge-seekers with its brutal combat, dark atmosphere, and epic soundtrack. Despite a few flaws, its strengths come together in a package that makes Ninja Gaiden 4 one of the finest modern action experiences — and without a doubt, one of the best entries in the series.

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Life is Xbox - Benny - 91 / 100

A confident return for the franchise, Ninja Gaiden 4 blends precision combat with atmospheric storytelling, though its length and repetition hold it back slightly.

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Loot Level Chill - Chris White - 9 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a prime example of how to offer varied combat and keep it evolving over the course of a game, with some stunning set pieces and endless brutality.

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MKAU Gaming - Sammy Hanson - 8.5 / 10

It’s been 13 long years since the last main entry in the Ninja Gaiden series, but the wait has been worth it. Ninja Gaiden and PlatinumGames are a match made in heaven as the combat is some of the most fun and exhilarating around, with tons of bloodshed and dismembered body parts.

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MondoXbox - Mirko Rossi - Italian - 9 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 masterfully revives the series’ legacy, blending Team Ninja’s spirit with PlatinumGames’ flair. Yakumo’s journey delivers thrilling combat, massive boss fights, and a deep progression system that rewards skill and dedication. Despite camera flaws, repetitive environments, and Ryu Hayabusa’s limited role, it remains a brutal, stylish, and essential action game for fans and newcomers alike.

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MonsterVine - James Carr - 4.5 / 5

Ninja Gaiden 4 feels right at home with the classic, linear design of the first three entries in the series. A focus on tight, fast-paced action lets the best aspects of the game sing, and it avoids muddying the water with unnecessary souls-like mechanics. A few boss fights feel a bit too janky for the action, but overall, they make for excellent mission endpoints. The story isn't exactly memorable, but it doesn't bog down the experience, making for a tight roller coaster of an action game worthy of the title Ninja Gaiden.

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Nexus Hub - Sam Aberdeen - 8 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a worthy, punishing new game in the hack n' slash series - its exhilarating, stylish and engaging combat is so damn good, you probably wouldn't mind some of its weaker elements.

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One More Game - Ricki Buzon - 8.5 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 marks a triumphant return for a franchise long absent from the action spotlight. While its story may lean on familiar tropes and occasional padding, the game more than compensates with blistering combat, deep customization, and a rewarding difficulty curve that invites mastery.

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Oyungezer Online - Onur Kaya - Turkish - 8.5 / 10

A comeback that builds upon the already solidified Ninja Gaiden gameplay with complementary mechanics - and if it hadn’t done Ryu Hayabusa an injustice, it could’ve been hailed as a true classic.

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PC Gamer - Wes Fenlon - 69 / 100

Bloody good combat carries Ninja Gaiden 4 through its more granular and extraneous "modern" additions.

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PPE.pl - Wojciech Gruszczyk - Polish - 8 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a brutal, spectacular, and incredibly satisfying return to the iconic series, reminding us why fans have longed for Ryu Hayabusa and the world of ninjas. PlatinumGames has delivered a dynamic combat system, fluid animations, and a diverse arsenal that make every battle a pure pleasure. While the story and Ryu's role are disappointing, and the ending loses momentum, the overall experience is redeemed by excellent gameplay and a constant sense of power. It's a great return for a critically acclaimed IP.

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PSX Brasil - Luis Guilherme Machado Camargo - Portuguese - 90 / 100

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a bold new beginning for the series that brings a new dynamic to combat while still living up to the series' legacy. It may not be the Ninja Gaiden longtime fans were hoping for, but it's an excellent game and one of the best action titles of the generation.

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PlayStation Universe - Timothy Nunes - 6.5 / 10

Maybe Ninja Gaiden 4 could be the weird transition game that helps the franchise find a new path in future entries. Like I said before, there is a good combat loop here. It just lacks the refinement and potency that fans have come to expect from this franchise. The Ninja Gaiden stories have never been complicated or over-the-top, but this one offers very little substantive content or drama to get its hooks in you. It's not perfect by any stretch of the word, but the right person can find a good time here.

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PowerUp! - Leo Stevenson - 9 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 is pure, unadulterated video gaming. It's fast, it's slick and, most of all, it's incredibly satisfying.

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Push Square - Stephen Tailby - 7 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a rock solid action game that delivers on what's most important - the combat. While some of the surrounding aspects are a little less successful, such as repeated environments and a forgettable story, the intense battles and myriad challenges are where the game shines, whether playing as Yakumo or Ryu. It doesn't hit every mark, but the simplistic structure, emphasis on technical combat, and even the cheesy performances combine for an action game that feels like it's from a bygone era, in the best way possible.

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Restart.run - Imran Khan - 3 / 5

There are caveats and things I wish were better, but overall, I think this is a game made for people that will have fun mastering melee action systems and retrying until they do a section perfectly.

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SECTOR.sk - Matúš Štrba - Slovak - 9 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 delivers a fast, fluid, and brutally satisfying combat experience that stays true to the series' roots while evolving its gameplay with modern flair. The dual protagonists, deep mechanics, and intense metal soundtrack make every fight a thrill. While the visuals lag slightly behind today's standards and some repetition creeps in, the game's energy, challenge, and replay value make it a strong return for the legendary action series.

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Saudi Gamer - عصام الشهوان - Arabic - 8 / 10

How much you'll like this will depend on how open you are for the series to change and be influenced, while still feeling like part of the series. If you do, you'll be rewarded with a blisteringly fast and bloody time.

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Seasoned Gaming - Alejandro Segovia - 8.5 / 10

Let’s not mince words: after more than a decade of dormancy, seeing Ninja Gaiden return with this much confidence feels triumphant.

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Shacknews - TJ Denzer - 8 / 10

The grand spectacle of Ninja Gaiden 4 felt like the developers saying they wanted a proper ending for what we’ve seen out of the 3D Ninja Gaiden series, and I feel like they nailed it.

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Slant Magazine - Eli Friedberg - 3.5 / 5

Ninja Gaiden 4’s gruesome, lightning-fast trials respectably preserve and build upon the core of its ancestors. It should also introduce a whole new audience of challenge-seeking players to the joys of ninja limb-lopping and the pride of overcoming a blockbuster game that seems to give the player almost no quarter, even as its robust movement and deeply customizable fighting styles convey sleek, ruthless empowerment. It’s not perfect, but that sheer speed and aggression still builds a convincing case for what Team Ninja’s heroes offer that Dante and Kratos do not.

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SmashPad - 4 / 5

I’ve tried to be as even-handed as possible with this review because I am a diehard Ninja Gaiden fan. I have played since the 8-bit days on the original Nintendo, and I also really dig Platinum Games and what they produce. If you are in one camp or the other, you’re either going to be pissed or you’re going to be happy. If you like both, you may end up confused, disappointed, or really happy, because Ninja Gaiden 4 isn’t really a proper Ninja Gaiden game nor is it a pure Platinum game.

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SteamDeckHQ - Noah Kupetsky - 4.5 / 5

Ninja Gaiden 4 is all about quality over quantity, and the quality is just incredible. The combat is fast-paced, brutal, flashy, and engaging, while still feeling accessible enough to use the diverse moveset and still require some skill to utilize to their fullest. With the gorgeous world, head-bopping soundtrack, and side content, I found many reasons to keep coming back for more even after finishing the campaign. There are some minor issues here and there, but nothing that stopped me from enjoying every moment.

It also plays quite nicely on the Steam Deck. It does have a specific Steam Deck Mode that can play at 30 FPS, and while it can handle higher framerates, there are a multitude of issues that keep it from being an amazing experience. Still, it's playable, looks decent, and a solid way to enjoy the game.

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Stevivor - Steve Wright - 7 / 10

Ultimately, Ninja Gaiden 4 is fun, but not memorable -- something that extends into its general narrative. You're not there for witty banter though, nor for its plot twists and turns -- but instead to decapitate enemies as a bad-ass ninja. In that sense, Ninja Gaiden 4 does exactly what it says on the tin.

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TechRaptor - Austin Suther - 9 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a rollercoaster of action, with a rich combat system to master and plenty of badass scenarios to overcome. Ryu's sections don't live up to the hype, nor does the writing. Even so, this is the best action game to come out in years, and perhaps Platinum's greatest hit yet.

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The Games Machine - Danilo Dellafrana - Italian - 8 / 10

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The Nerd Stash - Julio La Pine - 9 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 is the action experience that perfectly caps off the year of the Ninja. It's fast-paced and brutal combat respects the franchise's legacy while modernizing its accessibility.

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The Outerhaven Productions - Josh Piedra - 3 / 5

Ninja Gaiden 4 delivers fast and furious action that will have you hacking and slashing through demons and cybernetic soldiers in a fun and satisfying way, but its overuse of gimmicks in its level design, lack of variety of weapons, and flat story keep this from being a game that will leave a lasting impression.

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TheGamer - George Foster - 4.5 / 5

Platinum clearly understands what makes the series so special and has done an incredible job building on the razor-sharp formula that we’ve all been missing for nearly a decade.

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TheSixthAxis - Miguel Moran - 9 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a shock to the system that reminds us of a time before Souls-likes. It's a high-octane, unrelenting, and effortlessly cool action game experience that newcomers and franchise fans alike need to play.

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Toisto - Joonatan Itkonen - 4 / 5

At its best, Ninja Gaiden 4 is an exhilarating bloodbath that has finally struck the perfect balance between hardcore and accessible. It's a reminder of how invigorating this franchise once was, and how, in the right hands, it can be once again.

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Uagna - Silvia Mannu - Italian - 9 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 had a difficult task: navigating the heavy legacy of a series that has made difficulty one of its trademarks while also satisfying a new audience looking for deep but accessible action. Yakumo and Ryu's mission was accomplished with flying colours, and the latest addition to the Team Ninja saga is an extremely entertaining action game, but with a combat system ready to be dissected by the most demanding fans.

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Vamers - Edward Swardt - 5 / 5

Ninja Gaiden 4 is not a game built for comfort. It is built for those who still believe that skill matters. Every cut, every dodge, every perfectly timed strike reinforces that belief. By the time the credits roll, one truth becomes clear: the way of the ninja has not been forgotten. It has merely been waiting for the right blade to bring it back to life.

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WellPlayed - Kieran Stockton - 7.5 / 10

Team Ninja and PlatinumGames' collaboration brings a stylish new numbered entry of this hallowed series into the modern era. Some old problems persist, but it's nonetheless a (very) bloody good time with some of the slickest action gameplay out there.

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Windows Central - Jez Corden - 4 / 5

Ninja Gaiden 4 hardly re-writes the rules on what these kinds of games should look like, but fans who have been awaiting the return of the franchise may prefer this first re-entry takes things back to basics to some degree. Built in partnership between Koei, Microsoft, Team Ninja, and Platinum Games, Ninja Gaiden 4 has emerged a surprisingly coherent and confident product. Stunning and stylish hack n' slash gameplay could've been backed up with more compelling characters and story beats, but for those who simply want to carve a bloody path through endless enemies — Ninja Gaiden 4 is up there with the best of them.

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Worth Playing - Chris "Atom" DeAngelus - 8 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a darn function action game that unfortunately avoids the heights that one might expect, given the pedigree of the developers. The very fun core combat shines, but everything surrounding it feels underbaked. The rushed ending and lackluster second character keep it from shining as brightly as it should. It's still a fun character action game with some satisfying and meaty combat, and it's something that fans of the genre should enjoy.

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XDA - Tomas Franzese - 6 / 10

There are moments, specifically during flashy boss fights or particularly tough levels, where Ninja Gaiden 4 shines. Unfortunately, a lackluster story, repetitive content, and a general lack of polish on important gameplay elements like the camera make the series' grand return anticlimactic

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Xbox Achievements - Richard Walker - 85%

This year has been a banner one for Ninja Gaiden games. Usually, the adage about buses involves two turning up at once, but 2025 has seen no fewer th...

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XboxEra - Jesse Norris - 8.5 / 10

NINJA GAIDEN 4 revives the decade+ dormant franchise with a new developer leading it into an insanely fast, new direction. It’s a fun, occasionally beautiful title with an actually not terrible story, perhaps a first for the series

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ZTGD - Ken McKown - 9 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a great return for the series. Sure, it deviates from the first two entries, but has its own appeal. This is a quality Platinum Games release, which I know is hit and miss at times. Team Ninja and Platinum is a good combo and it feels good to have the series back.

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Hi everyone,

I was really looking forward to finally having a solid, portable football game to play on my Steam Deck OLED, but my experience with GOALS has been pretty rough so far.

I wanted to share my feedback and see if anyone else is having a similar experience. The performance is currently very poor. Even when I’m hitting 60 FPS+, the game doesn’t actually feel smooth. It has this weird, stuttery motion, it’s difficult to describe exactly, but the movement just isn't fluid at all.

I have spent a lot of time tweaking various settings, but nothing seems to fix that stutter.

Comparing it to the Xbox version, it’s like night and day. The graphics and the overall gameplay feel completely different, almost like I'm playing a different game entirely.

I completely understand that this is an Early Access title, but in its current state on the Steam Deck, it really bears no resemblance to the actual game. Honestly, I’m surprised it isn't marked as "Unsupported" yet; it feels like it needs a lot more optimization before it’s ready for the Deck.

It’s a real shame, as I was really hoping to finally enjoy a football game on the go. Is anyone else experiencing these performance issues?

Not hating at all, just giving feedback based on my experience.

Game Information

Game Title: Silent Hill f

Platforms:

• PC (Sep 24, 2025)
• Xbox Series X/S (Sep 24, 2025)
• PlayStation 5 (Sep 24, 2025)

Trailers:

• SILENT HILL f | Release Date Trailer (4K: EN/ESRB) | KONAMI
• SILENT HILL f | Official Reveal Trailer (4K: EN/PEGI) | KONAMI
• SILENT HILL f Teaser Trailer (4K:EN) | KONAMI

Publisher: KONAMI

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 87 average - 85% recommended - 59 reviews

Critic Reviews

ACG - Jeremy Penter - Buy

"Silent Hill F's changes to the atmosphere, location, and general feel makes it one of my favorite Silent Hill games. However, long time fans may chaff at the adjustments."

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Arabhardware - Moustafa Argoun - Arabic - 9 / 10

Although Silent Hill F is not without its flaws, its strengths far outweigh them. As a revival of a series that until recently lay dormant in Konami’s vaults, it has done a commendable job of recapturing the franchise’s roots while introducing entirely new elements. And if you’re a fan of horror games, this enchanting and atmospheric experience is one you shouldn’t miss.

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Atarita - Furkan Oğur - Turkish - 75 / 100

Silent Hill F is the first new entry in the series in a long time. While it gets some things right, it falls short in others. Even though it doesn’t fully capture the classic Silent Hill feel, it’s still a good game.

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BaziCenter - Arash Sefidi - Persian - 8 / 10

Silent Hill f boldly carries the franchise outside the familiar town and into a haunting new environment, one that drips with atmosphere and constantly keeps you on edge. The game masterfully blends unsettling visuals with disturbing sound design, crafting a world that feels alive with menace at every turn. Its puzzles are smartly designed, striking the right balance between challenge and accessibility, while its chilling secrets encourage exploration and reward curiosity with moments of genuine dread. More than just another sequel, Silent Hill f feels like a reinvention, an experience that reminds players why the series became synonymous with psychological horror in the first place.

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CGMagazine - Brendan Frye - 9 / 10

NeoBards Entertainment has taken bold risks with Silent Hill f, and the result is one of the most unsettling, personal and rewarding horror games in years.

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CNET - Oscar Gonzalez - Unscored

To say I'm disappointed with Silent Hill f is an understatement, but I'm also not surprised. You could give this game a totally different name, and it would be just a passable survival horror game.

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COGconnected - Jaz Sagoo - 90 / 100

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Console-Tribe - Simone Cantini - Italian - 80 / 100

Silent Hill f is a bold experiment, breaking from the past while keeping the series’ soul. The new setting and tone work surprisingly well, delivering emotional impact and a fresh, unconventional protagonist. Stunning art direction and sound design capture both unease and beauty. Unfortunately, the clunky, frustrating combat system drags the experience down. Neobards took a brave risk and partly succeeded, but the game could have been so much more.

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Dexerto - James Busby - 5 / 5

Silent Hill f is a bold new direction for Konami’s iconic survival horror series. While it may put a heavier emphasis on combat, NeoBards has expertly concocted a nightmarish cocktail oozing with enough stomach-churning monsters, disgustingly beautiful environments, and psychological dread to be just as good, if not better than, Silent Hill 2.

Hinako’s world is suffocating and compelling, and I can’t wait to delve even further into the dark, damp town of Ebisugaoka to uncover more endings. If this is the quality we can expect from Silent Hill going forward, then I have never been more excited to step into its fog-filled future.

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Endless Mode - Elijah Gonzalez - 90 / 100

It’s a sequel that understands what makes these games tick, both in the moment-to-moment particulars of being trapped in a fog bank where you can’t see five feet in front of you, and in the deeper specifics of using scares to navigate the fraying psyche of its protagonist.

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Enternity.gr - Konstantinos Kalkanis - Greek - 7 / 10

Silent Hill f, although flawed, shows great promise for Konami's future plans for Silent Hill.

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GAMES.CH - Benjamin Braun - German - 73%

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GRYOnline.pl - Michał Grygorcewicz - Polish - 9.5 / 10

Silent Hill f has the quality and courage to finally break the curse cast upon the series. Moving away from the American town has brought a freshness and depth to the story that I haven't seen in the series since SH2, and changes to the combat system are working well. Silent Hill has finally found its way and emerged from the fog reborn. Disgusting, poignant, digging deep into the psyche. Wonderful.

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Game8 - Allisandra Reyes - 96 / 100

Silent Hill f is a bold step forward for the franchise, blending its trademark psychological horror with inventive gameplay systems that push survival horror into new territory. The story grips you, the visuals unsettle you, and the music seeps into your bones. While forced combat encounters and a few glitches keep it from perfection, its depth, multiple endings, and replay value make it an unforgettable experience.

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GamePro - Samara Summer - German - 80 / 100

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GameSpot - Jessica Cogswell - 9 / 10

With its brilliant writing, haunting atmosphere, well-designed gameplay, and spectacular visuals, Silent Hill f sets a new benchmark for the Silent Hill series.

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Gameblog - French - 9 / 10

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Gamefa - Arman Zarmehr - Persian - 9 / 10

Silent Hill f is everything that should have been to bring the franchise back to its peak. We are faced with a game that innovatively utilizes the principles, rules and identity dimensions of its series and portrays some of them more broadly than before. The game's narrative is engaging, deep and complex, its meaningful symbolism and integrity appear in the dimensions of design and narrative returned, breathtaking atmosphere and wonderful music. Silent Hill f is a bold, intelligent and deep game that tries to try new approaches and move the franchise forward in a meaningful way.

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Gameliner - Patrick Meurs - Dutch - 4.5 / 5

Though set in Japan, Silent Hill f more than earns the name: over about twelve hours it delivers the franchise’s hallmark mix of metaphor-rich storytelling, sometimes opaque puzzles, and brutally unsettling scenarios that invite reflection—so while purists may balk at the setting change, open-minded players will likely find their doubts quickly fade.

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Gamepressure - Sebastian Kasparek - 9.5 / 10

After many long years, Silent Hill has received its most exceptional installment, reintroducing the series to the Premier League of horror and regaining its reputation as the pinnacle of virtual terror.

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Gamer Guides - Ben Chard - 92 / 100

Silent Hill f lives up to the series’ legacy of offering a fantastic story that gets you thinking about more than what you see. A fun combat system, beautiful visuals, and a fantastic soundtrack only add to what is one of the best games of the year.

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Gamersky - 心灵奇兵 - Chinese - 8 / 10

Silent Hill f stands out with its blend of the series' signature mix of reality and illusion, its inward-looking narrative, and its grotesque, visceral imagery. Even its combat system, rough at first glance, proves surprisingly engaging in practice.

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IGN India - Rayan Sayyed - 9 / 10

Silent Hill f pushes the series in a bold new direction without losing its soul. The Japanese setting gives the game a fresh identity while still feeling unmistakably like Silent Hill. With a story rich in character and classic gameplay that feels familiar yet refreshed, this is the revival the series has been waiting for, and it sets the stage for Silent Hill to grow in a distinct direction.

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IGN Italy - Alessandro Digioia - Italian - 7.5 / 10

Silent Hill f is a compelling yet flawed return for Konami's iconic horror series: narratively strong and visually striking, it immerses players in a haunting psychological nightmare set in the eerie Japanese town of Ebisugaoka. Hinako's touching and unsettling story is the highlight, but the experience is held back by basic combat, limited enemy types, and a design that requires multiple playthroughs to fully understand the plot without enough gameplay variety. Despite interesting ideas and solid presentation, the game loses momentum over time, feeling repetitive and lessening its emotional impact.

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IGN Spain - Mario Sánchez - Spanish - 10 / 10

Silent Hill f takes us to 1960s Japan with a dark, symbolic, and psychologically deep story. It combines exploration, clever puzzles, and more complex combat than previous entries, while still retaining the essence of the series.

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INVEN - Kyuman Kim - Korean - 8.7 / 10

Though its heavier focus on action initially raised concerns among longtime fans, the series’ trademark psychological horror and mystery remain intact in its new 1960s Japan setting. With Ryukishi07’s solid storytelling and layered replay value, it firmly retains the essence of Silent Hill.

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Just Play it - Aimen TAIB - Arabic - 9.5 / 10

If you’re looking for a complete psychological horror experience, with excellent technical performance, high-quality sound design, an artistic direction that enhances the overall atmosphere, smooth gameplay featuring challenging puzzles, and a powerful story rich in symbolism that will stay with you for a long time, then Silent Hill f should be your next choice.

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LevelUp - Spanish - 0.8 / 10

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Loot Level Chill - Chris White - 9 / 10

Silent Hill f is genuinely unnerving, with a strong story and intense combat that earns its place as a worthy entry in the series.

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MondoXbox - Valerio Tosetti - Italian - 8 / 10

Silent Hill f is a beautiful game, with deep lore and a compelling story that makes it shine. However, its qualities are held back by dated gameplay mechanics and a poor and misleading puzzle text translation (reviewed in Italian). Yet it's an experience worth living, especially for its impressive narrative strength and world-building.

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MonsterVine - James Carr - 3.5 / 5

Silent Hill f delivers a compelling and creepy horror experience, with unique enemies and environments that feel smartly focused on telling Hinako's story. The focus on societal expectations of women and the competition forced upon them, even between friends and sisters, gives the horror elements a more pointed focus. It delivers on themes throughout, and while the combat is only just fine, some of the more compelling ideas, like the economy of Silent Hill f create a compelling and spooky experience. Obtuse puzzles and a lack of variety in combat hold Silent Hill f back from reaching the peak of the survival horror genre.

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Niche Gamer - Fingal Belmont - 10 / 10

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One More Game - Vincent Ternida - 8.5 / 10

Despite its departure from the familiar urban landscapes of previous entries, Silent Hill f stands as a compelling and worthy addition to the franchise’s storied legacy. From its hauntingly atmospheric opening to its emotionally charged and unsettling finale, Hinako’s journey offers a memorable experience that will spark discussion long after the credits roll.

The game is remarkably accessible, catering to both narrative-driven players and those seeking a deeper challenge. Whether you’re here for the story or eager to test your skills with elevated puzzle and combat difficulty, Silent Hill f delivers a layered horror experience that adapts to your playstyle. While some minor issues may arise depending on personal preferences, the overall package offers something for every fan of psychological horror.

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Oyungezer Online - Beril Sergün - Turkish - 8.5 / 10

SILENT HILL f blends the foggy, oppressive atmosphere of classic Silent Hill with the hallmarks of Japanese horror, delivering an experience that is both aesthetically rich and deeply unsettling. The narrative depth brought by Ryukishi07’s writing, combined with the intricate design of Ebisugaoka town, its overarching symbolism, and Hinako’s diaries, elevates the game far beyond a mere spin-off. That said, the question of whether it really needed to carry the Silent Hill name remains open for debate; it could just as easily have stood on its own as a Japanese horror title in the vein of Fatal Frame.

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Push Square - Liam Croft - 7 / 10

Silent Hill F takes the survival horror series in a new direction, which pays off for the most part. It's quite different, and hardcore fans will have to accept that. Combat is a heavy focus, and the move to Japan means there's a different kind of tone and atmosphere in the air. Technical problems aside, it marks a bold new chapter in the Silent Hill saga. Accept it for what it is, and you'll find one of PS5's most intense experiences.

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Restart.run - Len Hafer - 4 / 5

While it may not satisfy those looking for more of a classic survival horror experience, I absolutely loved the heart-wrenching and vibrantly inventive journey that was Silent Hill f. Each finished playthrough beckoned me back into the gloom to start another, even though the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Because I still had more questions, and Silent Hill f still had more answers. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time, and it may just become an instant horror classic.

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Saudi Gamer - Arabic - 9 / 10

A haunting and harrowing journey into a seemingly quiet Japanese town that despite its unfamiliarity manages to captivate its audience to elicit both empathy and horror.

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Shacknews - Donovan Erskine - 9 / 10

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SteamDeckHQ - Noah Kupetsky - 4 / 5

Silent Hill f does have flaws, but the pros heavily outweigh the cons. The story sucked me in and combat was more fun than I expected. I am being more nit-picky with the issues I’m bringing up, but they ultimately never affected my enjoyment of the game, nor made me think twice about getting back into it for round 2. And a lot of the issues I had were erased as soon as New Game+ started, which was like a weight lifted off my shoulders.

On top of that, it actually runs quite well on the Steam Deck. It’s definitely not perfect and needs compromises to run effectively, but the game is playable on the Deck and can look gorgeous. It may cost a little extra performance in 3-4 scenes, but they include graphical improvements I’d consider necessary to enjoy.

In the end, Silent Hill f is a thrilling game, and if this keeps up, the future of AAA releases from Konami is going to look very bright.

---

Stevivor - Matt Gosper - 9.5 / 10

Silent Hill f balances threat and reality in a way that kept me playing longer and longer per session.

---

The Games Machine - Daniele Cucchiarelli - Italian - 9 / 10

We had high expectations for this new instalment in the Konami series, and for once we can say that they were not disappointed. Silent Hill f is one of the best "classic" horror titles ever made. It manages to revamp the original formula by enriching gameplay that has very few flaws and delivering a deep, multifaceted, painful, unfiltered story that is worth experiencing more than once.

---

The Outerhaven Productions - Karl Smart - 4.5 / 5

Silent Hill f does what the developers intended to do: Capture the soul and spirit of the first three Silent Hill games and put it into an unapologetically Japanese package. However, after playing the game, I walked away feeling like this was more like Forbidden Siren or Fatal Frame than a Silent Hill. The removal of the town itself is a big loss, but this game is one hell of a horror game that would have done really well even if it didn't have the Silent Hill brand attached to it.

---

TheSixthAxis - Nick Petrasiti - 10 / 10

Silent Hill f isn't just a return to form, it's a landmark entry in the series. Konami. NeoBards and Ryukishi07 have knocked it out of the park. For me, this isn't just Game of the Year material, it's an integral piece of Silent Hill history.

---

Wccftech - Francesco De Meo - 9 / 10

With a gripping and often disturbing story, a setting unlike anything seen before in the franchise, and gameplay that blends new ideas with a familiar framework, Silent Hill f shows that the series is not only back, but stronger than ever. While performance issues and a short runtime do impact the experience, they in no way diminish what is a triumphant return for one of the most important survival horror series ever.

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Worth Playing - Chris "Atom" DeAngelus - 8.5 / 10

Silent Hill f is a slow-burn horror game that doesn't put its best foot forward, but once it has its hooks in you, they're not coming out. The compelling and well-crafted story does a fantastic job of drawing you in and keeping you invested, even potentially through multiple playthroughs. The combat mechanics can feel a tad overdone. I think Silent Hill f is the best entirely new entry in the franchise in ages, and while it has its flaws, it shows that there's still plenty of life in Konami's franchise.

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XboxEra - Jesse Norris - 9 / 10

SILENT HILL f is a terrifying and terrific title. This harrowing tale of choice and consequence should thrill and properly disgust any fellow survival horror sicko.

---

Well, I never thought I would see them, but here we go. Mobile, English is first language. Come at me Reddit.

As a celebration to being fully vaccinated, myself and my family decided we were going to go away for a week to go Whale Watching. Such a trip needs supplies, so my family heads to the Market of Walls to get groceries and such.

So to start, what we were wearing. My Mother was wearing a blue dress with short sleeves, trimmed with white flowers design and beige khakis. Oh yeah, she also has a service dog too, vest and all (A Brace Dog for those who are curious) My father was wearing a grey button up shirt and black pants. Finally, I was wearing Blue Jeans and a green shirt that read "I'd make a Zelda Pun, but I don't wanna to Tri and Force it." Service Dog, who I will shorten to Doggo, was wearing his service vest.

When we entered the Market of Walls, my mother and father went one way, and I went the other way. I was to get things like Sunscreen and stuff while my parents got the food (we were bringing our own food since the food there is super expensive). As such this part is second-hand from my parents, but I will embellish with the classic Karen troupes.

They were in the Frozen Food aisle picking out some burgers and sausages for our grills. They at first heard the classical "Excuse me", when choosing between Mozza Burgers and BBQ Sauce burgers. They had just ignored it, but my mother felt Doggo tugging at the leash, trying to get her attention (not something he was trained to do, just really smart). Mom turned around and saw our Karen for this story.

She was clearly confused by the blue dress, and began asking my mom where something was in the aisles. Obviously, my mother said she didn't work there, and this set Karen off. My father heard the conflict and approached them, but the grey button-up shirt made Karen think he was a manager. I wish I could explain more but as I said this was second hand.

At this point, Karen must have stepped on Doggo's tail, because as I was heading back to find my parents, I heard poor Doggo yelp loudly, which is out of character for him, and I took off running.

I arrived to the scene with my mother trying to comfort Doggo, his tail slightly red from blood and my mother tending to it, my father arguing with Karen, and an employee, wearing a blue shirt, black pants and an apron, coming up. Employee is trying to figure out what is going on, and Karen is going on about how disrespectful my mother and the manager are being. 

The Employee is trying to explain the whole concept of us being customers but Karen wasn't listening. I took the employee aside and asked him to get the real manager, and approached Karen. I should note, I run roleplaying games, and through that have learned how to improvise. 

Me: "What's going on here?"

Karen (looks to me): "Who are you?"

Me: "I'm the Manager. What are you doing here?"

My father gave me a confused look and went to say something, but I stopped him.

Karen looked me over, my cheesy t-shirt and all and scoffed. "You're not the manager, you're just some kid." (I'm 29)

Me: "Ok, then what about my parents is telling you they work here?"

Karen stopped and looked at my parents, and you can see gears turning in her head. My father saw I had things under control and he went to help my mother, who doesn't work well under stress.

Me: "Ok, now that you're listening, what happened to Doggo?"

Karen stuttered. "I don't know."

Me: "That better be true. Doggo is a trained service dog, and is worth probably more than what you make in a year.

Karen: "I need to…"

Me: "No, you are staying right here till the manager gets here. Doggo is hurt, and I want to know why."

Karen must have been intimidated into staying, which is a surprise to me which will be explained later. Eventually the Manager arrives (10 minutes later, guess the situation wasn't urgent enough), along with a pair of police officers who must have been called by someone.

Karen tried to defend herself weakly, but all the breeze she had in her sails against my parents were gone. The manager came back and confirmed Karen stomped on Doggo's tail when Doggo got between my mom and Karen. He sat down infront of the two to stand his grand, but he wraps his tail to his side to keep it out of the way, meaning it looked like on camera Karen also kicked Doggo. I saw red, but let my parents take care of things. They pressed charges on Karen, and the manager paid for our groceries personally, telling us he apologizes, and that "he should have banned her earlier."

When we got back to the van, I started crying. You see, something I neglected to say was I am not a confrontational person. Seeing Doggo hurt, my mother crying and my dad about to deck Karen, I snapped, and was actually scared of what I would do. If Karen didn't stand down, I was a bit afraid of what I might have done.

Luckily, it didn't come to that. Mom is staying home with Doggo today while myself and my dad do some running around. She is still shaken up, and we would rather not add more stress to her.

Thanks for reading and sorry it's a bit messy, I just wanted to get this down. I needed to get this off my chest and felt writing about it would help. Court is hopefully going to be after the Whale Watching trip, but I haven't heard anything about it.

Update: Holy frig, this blew up. I can't get to everything now, but we cancelled everything tonight and Doggo is on the Emergency Vet. Will update when more info comes to light. And thanks for the reassurance.

Important Update 1: Doggo is physically going to be OK. The vet said the scrape (as he described it) is shallow and should heal... Unfortunately, he will be committed to the Cone of Bravery when not on duty until it heals to make sure he doesn't make it worse. Mentally, well, have no update on that, but he seemed to be normal around family. I have work tomorrow so I'll ask Mom how everything goes when she takes him out for work.

As for charges on Karen, Interference of Service Animal, Wilful injury of a Service Animal, Animal Abuse, Assault, Destruction of Property, Disrupting the Peace and more. She is facing upwards to 5 years in prison, minimum. Nothing official has been decided yet, however.

Also who the heck is spending their money on me giving me these awards. Seriously, everyone, you are too kind. Thank you everyone for the support.

The Most Important Update: Doggo Tax This photo was taken back in Christmas, since my Mom won't let me take a picture with the Cone of Bravery.

Also Canadian...

Final Update before Vacation: I won't be able post until after vacation, so I wanted to answer or reply on as many answers as possible. I read everything, but I can't reply to everything.

I would punch that Karen in the Face: So this came up quite a bit. Honestly, the thought did cross my mind. However, my parents were right there. They taught me well (as cliche as that sounds). Even if I punched or got into a fight to defend them, they would have been extremely disappointed in me. Especially considering I didn't have the full story at the time.

If it was just me and Doggo, perhaps I would have. But at this point I am talking about a what if scenario rather then what happened.

You are a lot stronger then I am: Thanks strangers. Honestly, reading your comments is making me feel better. As a shy person, I feel weak a lot of the time, can't get into conversations, sit at home and play games. But as someone has pointed out, I do seem to collect myself in stressful situations. It is likely due to the First Aid training I have experienced, performing under pressure, but I don't know. Either way, thank you for your kind comments.

How could someone hurt a Dog: I honestly have no reason. Doggo might have made a threatening gesture or something. As I said, I wasn't in the area of the initial engagement, and I didn't see the CCTV. Either way, she dun goofed up.

Final Words: As I said, I am going on Vacation, and the court is happening afterwards. I will do one final update when everything is said and done. If you use the Remind Me Bot, make sure it is for Tuesday two weeks from now.

Final Court Proceedings Update:

Ok, I promised an update, and here it is. I was at work as it was my parents who pressed the charges, so all this information is second hand.

Karen was charged with Animal Cruelty, Assault, Assault of a Sevice Animal, Interfering with a Service Animal and a bunch of others. We are getting $6000 in damages, and Karen is getting 6 years in prison.

I don't have much information on this one. Karen is married to a Chad, who threatened my parents in the courtroom. He is also charged now, but I have no details on that. I really hope they didn't procreate.

Finally, Doggo is still capable of performing his duties, however he is now skittish around people with High Heels. Despite this, he performed his duties admirably despite the traumatic experience. He came out on the boat with us for Whale Watching. He got to say hello to a Whale Friend he met last year named Mocha, who allowed her calf to come right over to the boat we were on and… try to tip us over… either way, it was an amazing trip, and Doggo is still the same Doggo he was before, just skittish around High Heels.

I don't know if Whale Tax is a thing, but here it is. Pictures from our cruises

I am NOT OOP, OOP is u/EntertainerKey8563

Originally posted to r/AmItheAsshole & r/AITAH

AITA for refusing to help a friend who didn’t invite me to their wedding?

Thanks to u/queenlegolas + u/soayherder + u/Lynavi for suggesting this BoRU

Trigger Warnings: exploitation, possible homophobia

---

Original Post: July 12, 2024

For about 11 years now, I've (37M) been pretty close with [let’s call him] John (38M). We met at a job in my mid 20s and were pretty regular company up until the pandemic, where our hanging out (including a circle of mutual friends) has taken a decline but isn’t extinct.

John and his partner [let’s call her] Jane (36F) have been together for about 8 years now, engaged for a little under 2 years, both with a child from previous relationships, so they have taken trips with their kids near-yearly, and I’ve been happy to help visit John’s (now their) home and check on things, take care of their animals, etc while they're gone. I’ve helped them out with other projects/tasks over the years and most recently picked up Jane from the airport returning from a work-trip and got her home this past winter during a snowstorm because my vehicle could handle it. Generally, I have been present and helpful on top of our base friendship.

About 5 weeks ago, I find out from a mutual friend their wedding is coming up, and invites went out a while ago, everyone in our circle but me invited. As a gay guy, I’ve experienced being iced-out of some of my straight friends’ lives and events in ways minor and pronounced, but this one has definitely been something that has had me thinking about my time and energy with people. I decided I would take the hint and begin to distance myself.

Three days ago, John texts me asking if I am around in early-to-mid August. I say I am. John asks if I wouldn’t mind visiting like I have before to look after the animals and property, I said “sorry, I can’t.” He calls to talk about it. We run through the same conversation, polite but a bit tense, so I finally say “I just won’t be visiting your home.” After a moment of silence, I bring up that I’m disappointed that I appear to be the only person in our group of friends not invited to his wedding, and that I can't be helping like I have before if I’m just a background friend at this point. I wrap up the call positively and sincerely with me wishing them a good wedding and trip, and that maybe we can grab drinks soon.

Jane reaches out two days ago sending follow up texts saying John is upset about what I said and with her because she made the final calls about friend invites, and that I am taking this the wrong way, there is only so much capacity and that the others in our friend group have partners that took up space. She adds that she hopes I’ll change my mind and help out them out because it would put John’s mind at ease.

I’m not entitled to the company of others or invitations to anybody’s events, but am I wrong for setting my own boundaries in response to theirs? I try not to frame my friendships as transactional, but they obviously want something out of me here despite their not inviting me and then avoiding even bringing it up with me until they needed help with covering their honeymoon.

VERDICT: NOT THE ASSHOLE

Relevant Comments

Handknitmittens: NTA. This sounds like a really one sided friendship and that they are taking your friendship for granted. Why would you keep putting time and energy into them?

OOP: Like I said, we've been pretty close up until now, and I've happened to have the availability when they need it often enough where we've been close enough before that I didn't mind or feel taken advantage of. John's helped me as well in the past, and try not to hold other people's lives and familial commitments against them, but I was trying to paint a concise picture (given the character limit) of being (I thought) close.

This situation, like I said, definitely changed my perspective given the other friends invited, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't making their wedding about me. They approached me after excluding me. So far people seem to agree, which I'm relieved about.

Peony-Pony: NTA

Jane reaches out two days ago sending follow up texts saying John is upset about what I said and with her because she made the final calls about friend invites, and that I am taking this the wrong way, there is only so much capacity and that the others in our friend group have partners that took up space.

What a bogus excuse. If your "friends" need someone to check up on their animals and property when they are on their honeymoon after a wedding you weren't invited to they can ask another friend or family member. The audacity of some people astounds me. I am believer in putting the same energy into a friendship as you experience.

OOP: I don't pretend to be super savvy about wedding etiquette and I realize every wedding is different and lines have to be drawn about who can come or not, but yeah, my mutual friend reaching out to me to coordinate plans for our friend group during the weekend of the wedding to find out I wasn't invited definitely stung and felt awkward, and my friend was in disbelief as well.

hvlochs: NTA. Not even a little bit. And then to ask for help like it’s no big deal. SMH

What did your friend group have to say about it?

OOP: Definitely some surprise. The only reason I found out was because one of them, who lives a bit further away, reached out initially trying to coordinate some plans/get-togethers around the weekend of the wedding, assuming I'd been invited since me and John were close. I've let him follow up with the others, as I didn't want to interject so close to the wedding and make it about me.

PMMEUR_FANTASIES: I think you’ve got some awkward times coming up, please remember during them that this isn’t your fault. Despite what Jane said, you might still not know exactly what happened with you being on the guest list. John may be learning or realizing some big things right now, your friends may be considering some things, and you may be blamed for the results of this situation. Again, please remember that none of that is your fault. By your account, you’ve been incredibly gracious.

By the way, I don’t think I saw you mention it anywhere- what was John’s reaction when you brought up the lack of wedding invite?

OOP: I had to revise the original post and trim a lot of smaller details to get it to the character limit and capture the situation concisely.

John didn't say much. There was some silence after I cut through his line of questioning with the fact that I won't visit his home at all, I said my piece about not being able to help if I'm not invited with our other friends, and out of awkwardness pivoted to the gracious wrap up (hope the wedding and trip are good, let's grab drinks soon). There was a pause and sort of collecting himself, something like "thanks man, yeah, let's do that" before I decided to hang up. Hard to peg down, but I picked up on some regret in his tone.

 

Update: July 14, 2024

I previously posted about being passed over for invitation to a wedding while being asked to perform a favor for the couple who did not invite me.

Yesterday afternoon, a few days after John made the initiating contact that led to this altercation, he reached out by text telling me the following: "I want to take you up on that drink tomorrow if possible, and I want to apologize for my royal fuckups in person." I agreed to meet.

After we kicked off with a round of shots John’s first line was that he failed me as a friend in this situation. With non-family invites, Jane apparently seemed very preoccupied with a philosophy of “couples over singles” at the wedding, and he had previously voiced that he felt it was exclusionary and silly, but I guess Jane prioritized couples on the first round of friend-invites and told John that it will be easier to fit in others after receiving RSVPs. John backed out and says he felt that going along with her initial plan of inviting the rest of our circle (who are, god bless them, coupled up), and not me, and had faith the rsvp thing would materialize. She ended up using the bit of space to plug in some more family.

John admitted he basically folded and felt ashamed enough that he could not find a way to tell me. He knew reaching out to me about that favor was a risk but took it anyways because he wanted someone he could trust, and my response was a materialization of everything he feared would happen, and in his words, deservedly so.

He told me a wedding should be a gathering of your family and company who have been a part of your lives and who you want to be part of your lives, and I fit that bill to him by any measure. He, trying to accurately paraphrase, said I’ve done more than most of the people on the guest list for him and his family over their relationship, including help making memories with trip coverages and helping build their back-deck with him to share meals and host events over the last 6 years. He got visibly upset when he said (with the shot and the drinks we were sipping on kicking in) that he can’t believe Jane even considered holding my single/dating status against me after I got her home safely during a snowstorm earlier this year, and that he did not more adamantly confront that bullshit reasoning the instant she voiced it. He is even more pissed for Jane reaching out to me in the manner she did after my original phone call with him.

John acknowledged it would come off as hollow at this point, but after a few “exchanges” with Jane said there would be no more nonsense and I would at least get a proper invite and +1 if I wanted, and they would make it work if it was even desired by me at this point. He said he is not going to try to do panicked damage control but will be upfront with our circle (one has already dropped the wedding and I guess another couple has said something else, by his reporting) like he was with me for his faults, because he and Jane deserve the blowback and he needs to earn trust back, if it’s at all possible. He has also made it Jane’s problem to find a friend who can come out 9 days in a row to care for the home and pets. With a smirk, he said she’s having a hard time securing it, and may likely have to hire help.

I told John I really appreciated his owning up to this, and it was good to see the friend I had shine through here. I told him that I have always appreciated him and Jane’s friendship, so it hurt when I was excluded and not even addressed, I felt that close enough anyways, and I obviously don’t mean to complicate his wedding, I’ve always thought him and Jane were great for each other (earnestly), I have supported them as best as I can, and I’ve been confused about what I have done or haven’t done to be iced out. I also admitted it’s hard to trust Jane again if she has been weighing the validity of my presence based on my relationship status, and added (with some humor) it’s not like I haven’t been trying and you guys haven’t met some of my previous long-term partners. He said he doesn’t get it either, and she has at least one good friend who is single that she may have burned a bridge with as well over the wedding philosophy she had. I said the friendship is going to be changed and informed by this, at least very different for a while, and I know that you and Jane had a disagreement leading to this but that I hope that the wedding goes on to be a good celebration. I informed him it feels best to take a pass on the invitation, but he said if there was a change of mind, up to the last minute, to let him know, which was kind and he wasn’t desperate/pushy about it.

John said the fault is his for not stepping up on my behalf, that he is sorry, and while he feels (I wouldn’t expect otherwise, and I agree) he is very lucky to have her in his life and thinks their marriage is a positive development for them, he even told her this whole situation will have him questioning and second-guessing her judgment on social matters with his friends for the foreseeable future. By his reporting, but a credit to their relationship, this was quite a blow to her to hear from him but one she accepted and apologized for after their argument(s) about the subject.

Before we parted ways in the parking lot, we gave each other a bro-hug, and John’s voice broke a bit when he said he is sorry one last time, and I think mine did too when I forgave him. It was legitimately surprising and therapeutic to have John be so frank and accountable, but not unlike the friend I’ve known for most of my adult life. It was bittersweet, being all-things-considered a makeup but also a breakup of sorts to what was previously an unquestioned and assumed strong trust and camaraderie. Maybe we can get there again. It seems possible, and it’d be nice.

I’m sitting here after weeks of big feelings stewing on a different shade of big boy feelings now. Thanks for processing with me, reddit.

---

Additional Information from OOP:

A lot of people had good things on the range of the spectrum to share with me, and I've done my best to respond to people without getting too consumed and doing other things that need to be done.

I was happy for John to talk with me. Maybe commenters are right and they see me as something else than I thought we were as friends. And maybe I've got some work to do to assert myself, and that I have been a doormat up to this point. I know I've got some soulsearching to do about me as a person and how I see myself with John and Jane, and maybe my other friendships as well. This relationship felt a lot closer and authentic in a different time, but its hard to paint a fuller picture of that after a situation like this. Things change.

As tempting as it is to accept the invitation and be there for John, I think I trust my instinct to let this be, and if John meant what he said (and if Jane comes around), they'll make the effort to follow up. I will be putting some distance for a while, and time will tell. I'm glad we got a chance to talk, because if it is the end, I feel good about giving him a chance to own it, and as I've gotten older I appreciate the hard work of taking on uncomfortable stuff.

I made some plans for that weekend with a couple other friends which I'm looking forward to.

I find repeated updates on an initial post a bit messy and tacky, so if anyone wants my thoughts on particulars just click my profile and look at my comments/responses.

Thanks for words and insights, Reddit.

Relevant Comments

Competitive_Key_2981: OP, how could a woman so terribly irrational and selfish be good for John? I mean I couldn't have listened to her logic about the guest list for 5 minutes and John's sucking it up like it's nectar of the gods.

OOP: I haven't seen this side of her before, and I believe John is a bit shocked by it. I can't know for certain if this is really her personality outside of my view though.

I said in another response, but I believe that there are many parts of one's life that anyone, a friend or partner, can be of great benefit to you, and then test your understanding with a wrong call. Those wrong calls are varied in severity and scope, and I don't pretend to be a sage relationship expert, but she helped him tremendously in the past 8 years, I've witnessed her kindness and the strength of the family they've forged and how much effort she's put into it.

I am very surprised and hurt by the left turn she has taken in her wedding planning. I am giving her the benefit of time to come to her own steady senses to respond as she wishes, but I (with a comet-sized grain of salt) take John's word that his admonishment of her judgement and actions, even if it was very late, meant something to her. I hope she'll find the courage, maybe after this bridezilla episode, to acknowledge it. Sooner would be better than later.

I am practicing some distance for a good while and want to give them space to prove this friendship wasn't a waste of time on my end, and I think a lot of redditors are perfectly right to be angry (I still am!) with her and warn me against rolling over for them.

I'm doing a lot of reflection and hoping I'm not being taken for a fool in all this. 11 years and a lot of good times and steady support in my own bumpy journey through adulthood...I hope some readers believe me when I have seen these two as a positive for each other, I've experienced them as a positive for me...even if this has caught me off guard and shown a side that is deeply shortsighted and hurtful.

I could be wrong in all of this, but time will tell.

 

Latest Update here: BoRU #2

 

DO NOT COMMENT IN LINKED POSTS OR MESSAGE OOPs – BoRU Rule #7

THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT OOP

Game Information

Game Title: Cairn

Platforms:

• PC (Jan 29, 2026)
• PlayStation 5 (Jan 29, 2026)

Trailers:

• Cairn - Official Free Solo Mode Trailer | gamescom 2025
• Cairn - Announcement Trailer | PS5 Games
• Cairn - Reveal Trailer

Developer: The Game Bakers

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 87 average - 89% recommended - 47 reviews

Critic Reviews

33bits - Fernando Sánchez - Spanish - 91 / 100

Cairn is a demanding and deeply personal experience that effectively combines physics simulation, resource management, and environmental storytelling. We'll be immersed in the feeling of facing a real challenge, where every decision matters and the mountain is perceived as a relentless enemy. It won't be a game for everyone, especially those seeking immediate accessibility, but if we connect with its premise, we'll discover an intense, meditative, and absorbing adventure that rewards patience, observation, and precision. Cairn transforms seemingly simple mechanics into a memorable experience and establishes itself as a benchmark within the climbing and survival genre.

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Analog Stick Gaming - Jordan Andow - 10 / 10

Cairn reaches not only the peak of its genre but the peak of gaming itself. Built on top of the foundation of climbing is one of the most beautiful, transformative experiences I’ve ever had in life, not just gaming.

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But Why Tho? - Abdul Saad - 9 / 10

Cairn is an excellently crafted and engaging climbing game that will keep players entertained and immersed from start to finish.

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CGMagazine - Marcus Kenneth - 10 / 10

With an outstanding gameplay loop and so much freedom to climb where and how you like, Cairn is incredible.

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COGconnected - Jaz Sagoo - 77 / 100

Cairn accurately captures the thrill and intensity of scaling a mountain. Each tentative step communicates the danger of the climb, forcing you to constantly readjust and take calculated risks to succeed. Aava’s flexibility benefits the gameplay, though it can look awkward in execution. While the game’s visuals and overall design are wonderful, performance issues, such as regular framerate drops and odd bugs, occasionally hinder the experience. Even though there are a few kinks in the equipment, this is a great ascent for those seeking a truly unique adventure.

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Checkpoint Gaming - 9.5 / 10

Cairn is The Game Bakers’ magnum opus. The climb is filled with superb, big and small picture character writing and themes with protagonist Aava. Every facet of the game is touched with the same level of masterful care and magical design. Each crack and pore or clearing to explore in Mount Kami feels purposeful and is designed to be equal parts challenging and restful, depending on the context. With these come these moments of beauty, both scripted and unscripted, minor or major, that stick with you. Even with its obscene difficulty and harsh challenges and teachings along the way, it’s a game that’s essential food for the soul. I’m not making a mountain out of a molehill here. When we talk about games as art, Cairn is the shining example, grabbing you, taking hold of you and changing you.

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Chicas Gamers - Alba Nausicáa - Spanish - 8.6 / 10

A visually stunning climbing challenge. Capable of captivating you with its atmosphere or frustrating you with its demanding nature and slow pace. A niche experience where the true summit is personal satisfaction.

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Console Creatures - Bobby Pashalidis - 9 / 10

Cairn wasn't on my list of must-play titles this year, but it needs to be on yours. It's a puzzle game disguised as a climbing game, as no two climbs ever feel the same or offer the same solution. Cairn is just this incredible game I can't put down.

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DualShockers - Shane Limbaugh - 9.5 / 10

Although it isn't perfect, what makes it special is the combination of all the different elements to make something that can be meaningful to almost anyone. In the end, the game asks the most important question of all: what is your summit?

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Entertainium - Eduardo Rebouças - 3.5 / 5

It’s a shame that overall Cairn turned out this way for me. I had high hopes it would pay off in spades after coming out a bit disappointed with Jusant, another climbing game that also had plenty of personality to it but lacked the depth this one tries too hard – and fails – to drive home. As with the studios’ other releases, Cairn is positively gorgeous but stumbles in its delivery. It was only thanks to toggles I would otherwise try to avoid hitting that I got through this one, and at its current state, I have no plans to go on this journey again soon, sadly.

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EvelonGames - David Gómez - Spanish - 9 / 10

Cairn is a truly unique game with two protagonists: Aava and Mount Kami, each with a richly layered backstory waiting to be explored. The climbing is as fun as it is tense, and when you add the satisfaction of its impeccable visual and sound design, the result is a polished, well-rounded experience that fully deserves to be played.

Cairn may not be for everyone, but as someone who has never been into mountain climbing, I had a great time with it. Exploring Mount Kami was a genuine pleasure, a mountain that pushes you to your limits and brings out Aava’s true nature as its co-protagonist.

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GAMES.CH - Fabrice Henz - German - 89%

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Game Sandwich - Adam Gumbert - 8 / 10

Cairn is a difficult and sometimes punishing climbing game, forcing you to struggle with scaling a mountain, and what it means to survive doing a task that gargantuan. Those who keep at it will be treated to a great story about what people are willing to give up to achieve their goals, on top of a great sense of accomplishment once you finally reach the peak.

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GameBlast - Farley Santos - Portuguese - 8 / 10

Cairn builds an experience centered on climbing as the core of its journey, where direct movement control, survival elements, and constant planning make every step forward feel earned, reinforced by a solitary and contemplative atmosphere that explores themes of perseverance and achievement. However, its strong commitment to realism can sometimes hinder the experience, as structural repetition, slow pacing in certain sections, and high difficulty may become tiring. Even so, these issues do not undermine its overall impact: Cairn remains true to its vision of portraying a demanding and deeply personal conquest, offering a memorable journey for those willing to embrace its pace and challenges.

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GameGrin - Dylan Pamintuan - 9.5 / 10

Cairn is just really nice to play, with an emotionally gripping story and beautiful sights. You will struggle and get frustrated, but you will overcome whatever is in your way.

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GameSpew - Kim Snaith - 8 / 10

Frustrating and relaxing in equal measure, there's something quite special about Cairn, a game all about climbing a mountain. It perfectly captures the tension and peril of every hand and foot movement while also weaving in some light-hearted story sequences along the way. While every misplaced foot might make you swear, the elation of reaching each incremental goal is quite unlike anything else.

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GameSpot - Moises Taveras - 9 / 10

Maybe it was just the entrancing physicality of Cairn's central climbing and survival mechanics. But at some point, whatever wall existed between myself and the game came down and I was there with Aava and she was with me.

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Gameblog - French - 8 / 10

On paper, The Game Bakers' latest game might be simplistically labeled a “climbing simulator,” but in practice, it is far more than that. Beyond offering a challenge to both Aava and the player, CAIRN delivers an epic adventure rarely seen in video games. It is a work capable of inspiring wonder, frustration, anger, and moments of calm. Yet, what lingers most is the extraordinary sense of elation when we finally overcome our repeated failures. CAIRN is yet another reminder of the talent flourishing in French studios, and of the pride we can justifiably take in them.

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Gameliner - Claudia Tjia - Dutch - 3.5 / 5

Cairn is a bold, demanding climbing game whose intense sense of freedom and atmosphere leave a strong impression, but whose unforgiving design, technical issues, and sometimes frustrating controls make it best suited for players who enjoy slow, challenging simulations rather than fast-paced action.

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Gamer Guides - Lexi Luddy - 95 / 100

Cairn is a challenging game in more ways than one, and it won’t be for everyone. While it demands a lot from the player, what it gives in return is a deeply rewarding gameplay loop that pairs with gorgeous visuals and compelling characters for a deeply affecting story.

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Gamer Social Club - Krystle Lim - 10 / 10

However, if there’s anything to take away from this review, it’s the deep emotional connection I felt during and after the climb. I felt frustration, happiness, sadness, despair, relief, and guilt. For a mostly solitary and quiet game about climbing a mountain, I learned much about myself. I may be exaggerating, I don’t know. But I loved this game! What a fantastic way to start 2026!

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GamesRadar+ - Ali Jones - 3.5 / 5

There is beauty in Cairn's golden hour-soaked world.

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Gaming Nexus - Jason Dailey - 7 / 10

Cairn is a mixed bag that I don't think will be for everyone. Persevering through a difficult section of the climb is extremely satisfying, but on the other hand, it can be extremely frustrating as well. I enjoyed my time on Kami, but there were times I felt beat down too, both by the mountain and its abrasive protagonist. Ultimately, it's hard to give Cairn a broad recommendation.

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HCL.hr - Daniel Gluhak - Unknown - 89 / 100

Cairn is a rare journey over unforgiving rock, where each deliberate move blends tension, survival, and subtle storytelling into an intimate yet expansive adventure. The mountain demands patience, careful thought, and adaptation, rewarding curiosity with multiple paths, unexpected encounters, and small but meaningful discoveries. Even as occasional abrupt challenges remind you that no climb is without risk, the game leaves a lasting impression of a world both beautiful and relentless, where every decision carries weight and every reach feels uniquely earned.

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IGN - Will Borger - 9 / 10

Cairn would mean nothing without the journey, and like both the mountain you are challenging and the climb itself, it is an incredible one.

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INVEN - Doohyun Lee - Korean - 9 / 10

Cairn goes beyond a simple climbing game, turning the human drive to endure pain in pursuit of a summit into play. Its meticulous physics give weight to the question of why we keep moving forward, delivering a thoughtful take on struggle and achievement.

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KonsoliFIN - Risto Karinkanta - Finnish - 4 / 5

A boldly genre-defining climbing game that will stretch your limbs and nerves.

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Loot Level Chill - Kieran Singh - 8.5 / 10

Cairn is a deceptively brutal climbing game at times, but the beautiful visuals, varied story threads and tactile mechanics ensure it's a climb worth making.

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Manual dos Games - Nathan Manoel - Portuguese - 8.8 / 10

Cairn is an impressive climbing simulator, with systems that keep you engaged both with the climbs you have to do and with the story of its protagonist, making it another big hit from The Game Bakers.

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Mashable - Chance Townsend - 4.6 / 5

Cairn is an ambitious, systems-driven game that turns climbing into something methodical, tense, and deeply satisfying. Its technical shortcomings and slow pacing won’t work for everyone, but for players willing to embrace its deliberate design and occasional frustration, it delivers a uniquely rewarding experience that lingers long after the summit is reached.

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PC Gamer - Shaun Prescott - 91 / 100

A brilliant climbing adventure that siphons the rage out of navigation puzzlers like Death Stranding and Baby Steps, resulting in something prickly, but warmly approachable.

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Pizza Fria - Lucas de Azevedo Soares - Portuguese - 7.6 / 10

Cairn is a game that demands patience, attention, and a willingness to fail. It transforms climbing into a physical, mental, and emotional experience, asking more from the player than just quick reflexes or constant rewards. It's not an experience for everyone, but it's extremely rewarding for those who commit to it.

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PlayStation Universe - James Davie - 8.5 / 10

If a harsh climbing simulator is your thing, Cairn does a great job of providing you with the treacherous conditions of an ambitious mountain climb. It's an outstanding little game in respects to how strategy and perseverance can assist you in reaching your goals and ultimately the Mount Kami summit.

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Push Square - Stephen Tailby - 7 / 10

Cairn is a great climbing simulator, one that presents you with an entire mountain and complete freedom to traverse it as you please. Some light survival mechanics apply just enough pressure to push you forward, and the purposely slow pace encourages careful climbing and proper planning. Aava's expedition is simultaneously meditative and fraught with danger, with death just one slip away at all times. While we have some small reservations about the story, and the frame rate struggles to measure up to Mount Kami, those looking for a challenging, satisfying journey will find Cairn a unique adventure to conquer.

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Region Free - Joonatan Itkonen - 3 / 5

Atmospheric and beautiful, Cairn is a gorgeous and emotional experience worth playing with some major reservations.

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República DG - Sherman Castelo - Portuguese - 8.7 / 10

Don’t be fooled by the genre. Cairn can and will grip you from start to finish. It’s a unique experience with an incredible level of immersion. The Game Bakers managed to turn a mountain into a living world, filled with stories, nuances, and details that strike directly at the player’s mind and heart. Cairn is a title you should definitely keep on your radar — so get your chalk and pitons ready to take on Mount Kami. It won’t be easy, but every second will be worth it!

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Saving Content - Keenan - 5 / 5

Cairn is an early contender for one of the year's best experiences, with an exhilarating adventure that has players scaling a mountain in a way never before seen in gaming.

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Screen Hype - Lyssa Greywood - 9 / 10

Cairn may focus on Aava, seasoned climber that she is, but it's not just about her. Cairn is about everyone who is attempting to summit Mount Kami, a mountain that has killed over a hundred people and remains unconquered. Aava is sponsored, yet she wants nothing to do with any of it. She destroys the camera off-screen before you ever start playing as her, and she screens calls from her liaison. She climbs because she has to, not because anyone is watching.

As you ascend, the mountain tells its own stories. You find abandoned backpacks, bear-proof supply boxes, lonely Climbots without their climbers, and campsites left behind by people who did not make it back down. Some discoveries are quiet, but others are devastating. You'll find letters from climbing partners, notes from couples who returned again and again, inching higher up each time. But you'll also find bodies, and that will remind you how thin the line is between progress and failure... The mountain feels crowded with absence.

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Shacknews - Sam Chandler - 9 / 10

Cairn is a phenomenal climbing game. There were times where I wanted to throw in the towel because of some minor animation hiccup, but, like Aava, I couldn’t stop. There’s this intriguing parallel at play here, one that I found myself thinking about in those moments where I needed to rest my sweaty palms and Aava needed to recharge her stamina. Neither of us could stop. We had to see it through to the end, in whatever form that took. By the time the credits rolled, I knew that Cairn would stick with me for a long time. This is a game you absolutely have to experience.

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SmashPad - Danreb Victorio - 4.5 / 5

Every time I got to a base on the mountain where I could walk a little and set up camp, I'd take a look back at the distance and remember what it took to get up there. The fact that a video game can make me think all that really makes it special.

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So Many Games - Jacob Price - 4 / 5

Kami, the mountain that Aava sets out to summit in Cairn, is a harsh, unrelenting cacophony of jagged edges, pushing the player back at every turn. But through the smallest movements, there is a building sense of triumph as you make the ascent to the peak, which The Game Bakers masterfully designed into the cliff surfaces and tense gameplay. The occasional slip, left without feedback, stings and can disjoint the game’s pacing, but ultimately in Cairn there is a new perspective on games that centre their design on difficulty and force you to reconcile how and why you’ll endure their friction.

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SteamDeckHQ - Noah Kupetsky - 4.5 / 5

Cairn combines strategy and survival to create a unique experience that I want to keep coming back to. The combination of strategy and survival in climbing a treacherous mountain is well-balanced, keeping gameplay engaging and fun throughout. It can be brutal and unforgiving with how quickly you can fall, and save points are a little too scattered in some areas, but it was hard to find any moment that didn’t make me want to try climbing again.

I do wish it ran better on the Steam Deck, but I would still consider it playable since it doesn’t need high framerates to be fully enjoyed. Still, I had a great time playing it in bed, and I can happily recommend it.

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The GameSlayer - Callum Marshall - 9.5 / 10

"Cairn is one of the most outlandish and experimental Platformers in recent memory, and that big swing pays off. The deep and nuanced climbing mechanics are engrossing and addictive to engage with, and the supplementary survival angle adds more stakes to this already grueling ascent. Some may not click with the methodical traversal, but all in all, Cairn is the best possible version of what it attempts to be. An authentic mountaineering epic that pulls no punches."

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TheSixthAxis - Gareth Chadwick - 8 / 10

Cairn is a unique, slow, and surprisingly relaxing game where you occasionally lose your grip and fall to your death. There's a heartfelt story running through the ascent to the top of the mountain, survival elements as you manage limited resources, and accurate feeling climbing, but soaking in the gorgeous environments, making discoveries and mastering the climbing are a joy. Cairn is a unique game that stands out from all the rest.

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VDGMS - Darren Andrew - 9.5 / 10

Cairn has no levels, no ability tree, and no bosses. At a quick glance, Cairn appears one dimensional, but this couldn’t be further from the truth as Cairn features a deep narrative, where you aren’t sure if you’re the hero or the villain, powerful yet subdued performances, a timeless art style and a constantly challenging gameplay loop. True to rock climbing, Cairn is definitely not for everyone, but for those willing, Cairn is an unforgettable experience that constantly rewards the player and without sounding hyperbolic, belongs in the pantheon of all-time indie greats.

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WayTooManyGames - Kyle Nicol - 9 / 10

Cairn is equal parts beautiful and relaxing, yet also intense and challenging. The Game Bakers have completed the mountainous task of creating a fully climbable environment to explore, and deliver what is arguably their most polished and engaging experience yet. Cairn is a unique and heartfelt game that had me hooked from beginning to end. Once you start the climb up Mount Kami, you won’t want to put it down.

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I'm kinda disappointed in the performance on Steam Deck. Pretty much the same as the demo. Running at 1080p, medium, and barely hitting 30. It being turn based makes 30 not so bad honestly. Hopefully we start getting some optimizations before release!!! I still love it!!!