Video Game Thread 2.0

[Distind]

I had one person insist that video games were purely for challenging the player, and that "playing for fun" was a terrible reason to play games and the reason that the video game industry is "going downhill".

Not purely, but a game that doesn't have some level of challenge is just a movie with a set of inputs and a desperate need for traveling montages. I mean how much of the fun of a game comes from accomplishing something that was difficult to do? Hell, some games are managing new kinds of difficulty, like the new Wii mario games, nothing like draging your friends with you to your doom.

Games are going 'down hill' because of the graphics boners people have and the sheer size of a team required to produce realistic graphics. At that level of investment you have little choice but to do something with the greatest mass appeal you can manage to recoup your expenses or close. So everything looks the same (because real is brown) and plays the same (because it's what people are used to), so nothing seems new anymore and thus sucks compared to what did the same thing before. Unless your an Xbro and will buy a copy of the same game every year or two for better graphics and the ability to shoot your friends who are suddenly back into the game since a new one came out.

[chitoryu12]

Not purely, but a game that doesn't have some level of challenge is just a movie with a set of inputs and a desperate need for traveling montages.

So Medal of Honor: Warfighter?

Nerd Cubed dissected the game and pointed out how ridiculous it was. It's literally 100% linear: if you don't follow a command or perform a scripted action, the game will outright refuse to move forward until you do it or fail you if you do anything else. The first thing you do in the game is pop a guy at point blank range in the back of the head, and you can stand there literally forever until you press the button the game tells you to. He demonstrated in one early level how you can shoot HUNDREDS of insurgents in a building, with bad guys constantly respawning until you call in an airstrike.

It really is just a movie with controls. You can't do anything but what the game tells you to do, and the only difference between playthroughs is minor variations in how fast the nameless mooks die and how many bullets you fire.

[Art Vandelay]

Well, I just finished Primordia. Well, I don't know what it is about Wadjet Eye Games, but pretty much everything the develop and even publish is pure adventure gaming gold (except for maybe Gemini Rue and its stupid combat sequences).

[chitoryu12]

Got Crysis 2 for the PS3.

It's really really....optimized for the PC.

[Distind]

Not purely, but a game that doesn't have some level of challenge is just a movie with a set of inputs and a desperate need for traveling montages.

So Medal of Honor: Warfighter?

Nerd Cubed dissected the game and pointed out how ridiculous it was. It's literally 100% linear: if you don't follow a command or perform a scripted action, the game will outright refuse to move forward until you do it or fail you if you do anything else. The first thing you do in the game is pop a guy at point blank range in the back of the head, and you can stand there literally forever until you press the button the game tells you to. He demonstrated in one early level how you can shoot HUNDREDS of insurgents in a building, with bad guys constantly respawning until you call in an airstrike.

It really is just a movie with controls. You can't do anything but what the game tells you to do, and the only difference between playthroughs is minor variations in how fast the nameless mooks die and how many bullets you fire.

Yeah, that's how you do a game very much wrong.

The Yakuza series, I love it, but it's largely a movie with some action sequences you play. And that's awesome, because it doesn't tie needless half assed mechanics in to tell the story when the game itself is larvely about hitting people really, really hard. Occasionally with bicycles or street signs. It switches between story telling cut scenes(generally pretty damn long, but reasonably good) and roam/fight sequences.

[chitoryu12]

See, I can handle a linear game if it's done right. Really good gameplay, or something unique and fun, or both. But Warfighter is just another bog standard modern war FPS that relies on pretty graphics (at least on the surface) to attract people. Outside of the lighting and explosions and the big setpieces that you can show off in trailers, the graphics are actually kinda mediocre and tend to suddenly pop in. And it can get pretty glitchy sometimes, which Dan is always good at finding.

Some of the most hilarious stuff is the lack of paths. They do the Battlefield "Turn back or you will be killed" thing if you ever try to take an open path that's not the one the game wants you to take. He kept trying different paths that are really wide open and look like a way you can go, and then game literally threatens to kill your character if you try to use them. And it gives you so little time to get back that if you try to sprint down one of these pathways, you'll be milliseconds from not getting killed by the time you realize your mistake and run back.

[ironbite]

So Skyrim: Legendary Edition is out now.

Ironbite-all three DLC for the low price of the 59.99

[Witchyjoshy]

Ugh, that just reminds me of how "linear" has become a buzzword for "bad", like any buzzword that isn't the "hardcore" buzzword.

...Still though, that Medal of Honor game sounds terrible.  Seriously.  Killing you for going down a wrong hallway?

I mean, if it was one of those classic Sierra Quest moments where you had to learn through trial and error what not to do, great, but this isn't even those.  It's just... "You went down the wrong hallway.  So you're just going to die right there.  No justifications.  No cutscenes.  Just ... death."

[chitoryu12]

Ugh, that just reminds me of how "linear" has become a buzzword for "bad", like any buzzword that isn't the "hardcore" buzzword.

...Still though, that Medal of Honor game sounds terrible.  Seriously.  Killing you for going down a wrong hallway?

I mean, if it was one of those classic Sierra Quest moments where you had to learn through trial and error what not to do, great, but this isn't even those.  It's just... "You went down the wrong hallway.  So you're just going to die right there.  No justifications.  No cutscenes.  Just ... death."

I don't mind a linear game if it can be good. Some games are meant to tell a story, and sometimes the story would fall apart if you were given too many choices. A good example of a linear game would be the Crysis series: you don't get to choose how the plot unfolds, but you DO get options for how to do it. Instead of just a corridor shooter where you run down the same path, you're given an open area and/or multiple paths and various options for going about it. Crysis 2 even gives you "tactical options" in your visor so you can see various vantage points to get a better view, supplies, vehicles, etc. You still follow the same path, but you're given some choices in exactly how to handle each situation.

Medal of Honor doesn't do that.

Here's the video in particular. I love Dan Hardcastle because he's funny and just plain cool, but this video does a very good job of pointing out the flaws:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuPISfamUvY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuPISfamUvY</a>

[kefkaownsall]

It's mroe like Doorfighter.
There was one thing we all agree was awful about Skyward.  The Imprisioned

[Witchyjoshy]

It's mroe like Doorfighter.
There was one thing we all agree was awful about Skyward.  The Imprisioned

RRRGGGHHHH!! Dx

[chitoryu12]

It's mroe like Doorfighter.

Dan also pointed out the silliest part of all the door breaches: you unlock new breach animations by earning headshots during said breaches, but every single one you unlock is slower than the standard "kick it in" selection. So it's nothing but useless switching of animation that makes the game take longer.

[Art Vandelay]

Warfighter is the very embodiment of a shitty Call of Duty clone. Everything about it is just a badly designed mess. Even the name of all things is fucking stupid.

[chitoryu12]

I was rewatching the video, and my God it's hilarious. That crane that nearly falls on you in the first mission? Not only does it look like a decade-old model, it has no clipping! You can walk straight through it! And it's not even off far on the side behind a bunch of invisible walls to keep you from finding it; Dan just walks to the left a little while still on the main path and goes through it!

How do you skew your focus so much on a video game that you don't even bother making sure that all of the props your players can touch are actually physically there?

[Southern Comforter]

After years of not being able to play it, I finally beat MGS 2 two days ago. I just got my hands on 4 today.

Oh, and even though I just beat 2 and never played 4, you should all know that I'm a big big big big big big HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE fan of MGS.