Josh Phelan

A photograph of some hills and gullies covered in brown grasses and some shrubs that fall off towards the Pacific on the left side of the photo. The sun is dead center, just above the horizon in a clear blue sky with a marine layer of clouds underneath.

Today's View From a Run: the golden hour at White Point. Had a late start to my run, today, so had to shorten it up a bit. Gorgeous weather, so no complaints there.

A photograph of the Cabrillo Marina, with some fishing boats docked in the center. Around the boats are a couple dozen seagulls circling overhead.

Today's View From a Run: the seagulls give a clear indication of which boats are the fishing boats.

If that child survives to adulthood they will be unstoppable.

A photograph of a dirt trail going straight down the middle, with green trees and bushes on either side, and a blue sky overhead.

Today's View From a Run: A trail heading down the hill from Miraleste. You wouldn't know it from looking, but this is actually in the median of a fairly busy road.

A photo of sunken city along the Pacific coast. Out on the water there are multiple groups of tiny sailboats in the midst of a race. The sky is blue and dotted with clouds on the horizon and it's a bright, sunny day.

Today's View From a Run: the Pacific Ocean? Well, yes, but not JUST that. It's a sailing race! But they're *itty bitty* so you have to really squint. Are they far away? Well, that's part of it, but mostly no, they're just really small boats. This is the ILCA 4 Youth World Championship, apparently.

Reed's great and all, but he is absolutely punching above his weight when it comes to Sue.

So, yeah. I absolutely love the gameplay (and will be back for Death Stranding 3: The Silk Road, or whatever it will be), but I definitely like this game in spite of Kojima in many places. Anyway, I have a few more people to connect to the chiral network.

They force you to use that stupid weapon (instead of ANY of your gear) just because it's "cool"? Give me a shotty and I could finish this in half the time! Then the absurd "let's spell everything out real obvious like" flashbacks. That wasn't necessary! We get it! Let me go deliver packages! 9/

And that ending. Yeesh. DS1 had a laborious ending, so I was expecting one here, too... and it WAS. You could have easily shaved 2 hours off of that ending and NOTHING of value would have been lost. The last 2-3 sections with the final boss were so insanely tedious. 8/

But the game tries to be serious more often than not, which feels at odds to a game that can turn slapstick at a moment's notice if Sam trips on a rock. That said, the crying technology was legitimately impressive. Best tears I've seen in a game. 7/

The game's story works best when it's being silly. The entire "reveal" with Pizza Atami is GOLD. The director of RRR waking up (after being lugged around like a corpse) to give you a winning thumbs up before passing back out? Whimsical af. Basically everything related to Dollman is great. 6/

The story is... fine? Death Stranding 1 kind of immunizes you to the absurdity of it all. I will say there's a "surprise" villain in the third act that... has zero bearing on the gameplay. It's revealed and resolved entirely in cut scenes. Thanks, I guess? 5/

The music is fabulous, but that's going to be largely down to how you and Kojima vibe in taste, I think. Apparently I would 100% listen to KJMA: Radio Kojima (where Radio is obviously pronounced like Hideo). I'm just sad when the music stops off the chiral network - download your songs, Sam! 4/

The systems design is SO GOOD. Creating trails by traveling over the same ground repeatedly is immensely satisfying. Building roads and monorails releases those good chemicals in my brain. I love getting bridges and shelters from other players. Flooding and brushfires are great added pressures. 3/

The combat in the game feels very unresponsive. The enemies serve an important role in creating pressures in route selection, but any time you're forced to fight it's rarely satisfying. The boss fights are the worst (and the final boss fight is even worse due to stripping your equipment). 2/

Rolled credits on Death Stranding 2! Like the first game, it was a game with incredible and unique gameplay (exploration, connection, infrastructure building, resource management) and world-class systems design hampered by combat ranging from decent to tedious and a story that feels disconnected. 1/

Hmm... the chiral density DID feel a little high in this area

A photograph of some bluffs along the Pacific Ocean. The sky is grey and slightly overcast. There's a dirt trail that winds its way up the hillside to reach the top of the bluffs; it's a mix of stairs and gentler inclines. The hillside is otherwise covered in green and brown shrubs and other plants.

Today's View From a Run: the path up the bluffs at Ocean Trails Reserve. That trail is a bit too steep to run, so I tend to go the longer way around.

The Women of Death Stranding 2 Are Stuck in a Sad Cycle In Death Stranding 2 gender essentialism is load-bearing. Men are one way, women are another way, and these roles are immutable.

I'm enjoying Death Stranding 2. Something about building out infrastructure really activates some sicko part of my brain. That said, I'm enjoying its gameplay in spite of the glaring issues Maddy brings up here:
www.endlessmode.com/video-games/...

A photograph of a person's yard. It's mostly cobblestone, with a patch of grass and a brick wall in the back with a metal gate. In front of the gate is a peahen waiting for two chicks in the middle of the patch of grass.

A photo of a person's yard. There's a cobblestone path running through a patch of grass and heading to a metal gate set into a brick fence. There's a peahen and two chicks just about to pass through that gate (the chicks having caught up to their mother from the previous photo).

Today's View From a Run: babies! I once again found myself running through peacock country, and this mama peahen followed by her two chicks crossed the sidewalk in front of me and headed into this person's yard. You can see her patiently waiting for the chicks to catch up before moving on. So cute!

I'm stupidly excited for this, but filled with so much dread about actually buying tickets.

Though I think there's a difference, sometimes, between understanding how sausage is made - in general - versus how a particular piece of sausage was made. Like, GTA games are fun, but having lived through R* hell my excitement for them is nil (because that sausage ain't kosher).

A photo of a peacock standing centered in front of the front door of a house, at the top of some stone steps. The peacock is on full display, with its tail feathers at attention.

Today's View From a Run: We can't stop here, this is peacock country!

This absolute King decided to strut his stuff as I was running by. This was after passing two different family units of peafowl (including babies!), but they weren't interested in having their picture taken (unlike this boss).

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I actually met Bruce Coville several times growing up (he lived in Syracuse) and even won a contest from the local radio station when his book, The Dragonslayers, was made into a musical (I got lunch with Bruce, tickets to the show, and a limo ride). I still remember the songs from that show.

My favorite author as a kid was Bruce Coville; some of his books were very popular, but my favorite were actually the lesser-known A.I. Gang trilogy, about kids whose parents were working on AI and they secretly fed it lots of pop culture to help it become sentient... it... hasn't really aged well.

Yeah, mechanically the game is balanced assuming you're going to go straight to the end when Act 3 opens up; that's not how I play games, so I did most of the optional side content (I started running out of steam and made myself stop before I lost focus) and the last section was a joke.

A photograph of a dirt trail running straight ahead through trees and tall brush growing up on both sides. The trail continues into the trees that cover the path, shrouding it in darkness. Above, the sky is sunny and blue.

Today's View From a Run: A trail running through Peck Park. Doesn't the way it disappears into the trees just make you want to see where it leads?

Sorry to anyone on the other side of the country, today; it was a lovely 70F here, today. Sunny with a stiff breeze. Absolutely lovely.

100% same here. Kind of wish I hadn't known that going in.

A photo of a narrow dirt trail. On the right side of the trail is a bush absolutely covered in pinkish-red flowers. There are short trees on either side and thick tree branch crossing the trail at roughly head-height. Beyond that the sky and ocean are a bright blue.

Today's View From a Run: part of the trail that runs along Western near the ocean. Look out for low-hanging branches and giant spider-webs.

This is the nicest part of this trail; the entire thing is really narrow and a lot of it is crumbling towards the road, 15 feet below (a *little* precarious).