Shenmue 3 review – a return to slow pleasures www.theguardian.com

For a moment in 1999, Shenmue represented the future of all video games.
As such, the game was filled with daily chores, repetitious part-time work, all the stuff that, ostensibly, people play video games to escape.
Grand Theft Auto 3’s arrival in 2001, with its cinematic set pieces and celebrity voice actors, changed the arc of video game design, probably inevitably.
At the time of Shenmue’s original release, it was understood that video games offered an escape from the boredom of reality.
It proves once again that when a big-budget video game can admit that it’s not a film, magic can be found in the everyday tedium of life between the highlights.