Thread:Lucky107/@comment-4059927-20171227100613/@comment-26358727-20180101224325

You know, I think I can understand that. My father's not overly strict, or even particularly cold or manipulative, but on account of my parents' separation when I was quite young I never really got a chance to know him. It doesn't help that he can be such an asshole - towards everyone - without realising it. It's like everything I say is the wrong thing and there's never a missed opportunity to throw it back in my face, even five or ten years later. As much as I would love to change our awkward and damningly distant relationship before it's too late, for most of my adult life he's been a major driving force behind my evolution into what's become crippling social anxiety.

Christ. I can't believe I actually just put that into writing. It's crazy, the things you can articulate so plainly to a complete stranger on the Internet that would otherwise die on your tongue in a face-to-face sit down with, say, the therapist. I guess I've just done a little bit of 'coming of age' myself.

I can only really speak to Bully and Red Dead Redemption when it comes to Rockstar (never really got into the GTA series), but I certainly agree with you 100%. Red Dead Redemption still holds the place as one of my favourite games ever just because I could get lost in its open world forever. It was, I think, the first game that ever so fully immersed me into the environment that I lost myself in the game for hours. Or maybe I just always wanted to be a cowboy. (

The one gripe I have about Bully, though, is that the characters are all caricatures of typical high school stereotypes. I appreciate the rating on the game and that it deals with the light-hearted aspect of high school, but there's so much more room for depths within the characters. There's so much room for background and growth opportunity, even just throughout the course of Jimmy's year at Bullworth Academy. But that's what makes the fanon community so great; there's so much room to expand on the characters, to transform them from high school stereotypes that Jimmy preceives them to be into living, breathing people.

I have never played GTA IV, but I find it incredibly interesting how much your perspective changed on the game just on account of when you played it. Expectations can be a powerful thing, especially when you're coming off the high of a stellar predecessor. It's great that you're getting a chance to enjoy the piece for everything that it is now, though. As someone with no idea how it's going to turn out, I hope it's a good one, haha!