HH

what are the chances that private interests have their own space program underway that no-one knows about, and by the time nasa gets to mars there'll be a bunch of texans and russians already there, mining, and carrying guns.

Viking Battle for Asgard, Sacred 2 Fallen Angel, The Bureau, Space Marine

'you care about them because..."

this is a notion that has come about through a culture of criticism and evaluation and hollywood tests screenings and focus groups and all that mass-market nonsense, it has nothing to do with the essence of storytelling, which is this game's only concern.

i don't really want to derail the thread into a discussion of one game, but it's only fair i stick up for Starbreeze here -

the puzzles in Brothers are only meant to be challenging in so far as how smoothly you can execute them, something which i appreciate in all games, and while I agree the controls could do with more finesse, there is enough room to maneuver that controlling the avatars has yet to become repetitive for me after four or five playthroughs. Besides, none of that takes away from how stunning the world looks, or how arresting and refreshing it is to have truly socially-preserved mythological elements, as opposed to some developer's imagination, to interact with. And the emotional crux is not a ploy, but rather an age-old recurring theme from those mythologies, handled with the same touch as everything else in the game, no more and no less.

As far as incentive to care about the characters goes - when you read a one-page fairy tale about, I don't know, hansel and gretel or whatever it may be, where's the incentive there? this preoccupation with making characters sympathetic is far too overvalued and overworked these days, and more often than not it burdens the audience with clumsy and unnecessary dialogue, which this game is thankfully free from.

anyway it shouldn't be that hard to see the appeal.

I wouldn't be surprised if they found common ground in respecting the polish and class of The Last of Us.

• Ni No Kuni
• Injustice
• Bioshock Infinite
• State of Decay
• Shadowrun Returns
• Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
• The Last of Us
• Tomb Raider
• The Bureau
• GTA V
• Dragon's Crown
• Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
• Metro: Last Light

and the winner for me is Brothers

the direct quote is right there dude.

and how can you say it's not a movement gaining strength when Microsoft and Sony are only now starting to employ it in their first party titles? And did you even listen to the interview with John Riccitiello provided in the OP?

you seem so sure that you know what's going to happen, and yet all you've done is make unfounded accusations and a preposterous claim that the prevalence of micro-transactions hasn't gained any momentum since the beginning of last gen.

Rogue Legacy looks like something i'd enjoy, with Metro done i'm gonna get to that right now, woooooo yeah december

huh? i said maybe DA3 will do it, because they're owned by EA. i don't appreciate micro-transactions and i don't play SWTOR or the multiplayer in ME3 because of them, and you seem to think that the core game of dragon age will be safe from harm because nobody's announced anything to the contrary, fair enough, but no-one can deny that this is a movement, gaining strength, and with EA at the forefront. so how is it asinine to anticipate further developments along those lines?

and don't presume to misinterpret what i said into some bizarre quote like that thing up there.

i'd say Icewind Dale - design your whole party, don't have no dude with a hamster to deal with, just get into those dungeons and see if you can stand the heat.