dabe

I preferred Electronics Boutique in Eldon Square & The Metro Centre personally. FUCK GAME.

At some point, you just grow up, mature and realise that Japanese games designed for teenagers aren't for you. The melodrama is too much, the character designs are jaw-droppingly bad and the psuedo platitude ridden philosophy the game spews just doesn't fit with the mind of someone above the age of 21.

Then again, most games are like this.

This doesn't make logical sense. Time-limited DRM won't stop pirates and it won't endear ACTUAL buyers. (See what I did there...EMPHASIS,,,whoa Keanu, settle down).

Film is great, black & English Steve McQueen is enjoyable and ignorant immaturity should return to a more receptive place (IGN boards circa 2003).

@AhmadMetallic: Oh we're both joking and I'm totally aware of this.

If we're talking strictly game mechanics and how they can portray narrative (or at least reinforce it), then things like Passage, Braid, Gravitation, Time Flows But Does Not Return, Axel & Pixel and The Void could all be mentioned. Just to note, dynamical meaning is a phrase coined for this concept of mechanics holding narrative importance.

If we're looking into diegetic (inferred/in-world) storytelling, then Valve does a splendid job in most of their games (see Half Life, Portal & Left 4 Dead). Bethesda also deserves a mention, as do games like Silent Hill, Yakuza & Shenmue.

Cutscenes are only a valid or effective means of conveying story when symbiotically linked with the mechanics/gameplay. Otherwise it's a film. Ergo, the only way to prove video games are a viable way of telling stories is through their gameplay first, then the accompanying custscenes/dialogue/FMV etcetera. A convincing world & characters given interactivity can overshadow the lesser written elements of the story -- see DragonAge for a good example & FFXIII for a bad one.

@AhmadMetallic said:

@dabe said:

@AhmadMetallic said:

First time I played Assassin's Creed II, when I climbed through Christina's window and watched the two lovers talk, and then i tapped a key on my keyboard that allowed Ezio to drop her clothes and make love to her, I was fascinated by this game design achievement because for a second there it made me feel like I controlled Ezio even in that romantic cinematic moment. In other words, I felt like I'd just gotten laid.

This is probably the saddest paragraph I've ever read.

Hey man I was 18 and it was my first QTE (I think).

I still don't know whether to laugh or cry.

@AhmadMetallic said:

First time I played Assassin's Creed II, when I climbed through Christina's window and watched the two lovers talk, and then i tapped a key on my keyboard that allowed Ezio to drop her clothes and make love to her, I was fascinated by this game design achievement because for a second there it made me feel like I controlled Ezio even in that romantic cinematic moment. In other words, I felt like I'd just gotten laid.

This is probably the saddest paragraph I've ever read.

As for the discussion. Cutscenes in general aren't gamic -- there are exceptions -- ergo they don't need arbitrary mechanics attached to them. They are designed to be a small moving image, not some interactive ass-fest.

Diegetic narrative, dialogue & plot elements are something that would always be preferable to me over "interactive" cutscenes. Valve do a superb job of this in most of their games.

Just played it, a few thoughts (from someone who would highly rate the first game)...

* Voice actor for Jackie doesn't sound or feel right and is certainly not as suitted to the role as Kirk Acevedo.

* Buying, purchasing or upgrading anything seems unecessary given the previous game didn't require it (needless upgrade systems can be decent but too gamey in this instance).

* Highlighting things in the world with a purple light is also too gamey for my tastes. Having a glowing red ball inside each enemy telling you they can be thrown is also the same. I want to feel immersed, not abstracted into mechanics.

* Gunplay still feels good and I'm happy they've effectively remained similar mechanically speaking.

* Cel-shading doesn't suit the game (predicate to it being a sequel and the art style already being set). The seriousness of the plot/narrative/world/environment doesn't proliferate as well when black lines border everything (and purple thing mentioned above is spewing into the UI everywhere).

* Opening story beats seem uninspired and generally poor. I'm, not sure if they're copying off the comics, but having some weird deformed man try and suck the darkness out of Jackie was a bit shoddy for me. Also, "he feels sticky" is a line that should never be in anything other than pornography.

* It's a demo so I understand, but the van crashing through a building and bombast shown in the early game felt like a cliched pastiche between the previous game & some other bad FPS'.

* Jenny should not be a part of this game in some weird schizophrenic manifestation (whether the darkness or Jackie is the one doing it).

* Did they play the first Darkness and are the developers aware of what happened at the end of the game? Also, why is he a mob boss now & why does it go against his character (in the first game at least).

All in all, I won't be buying this. The gunplay holds up, the cel-shaded bombast & lead voice acting does not. C'est la vie, I wasn't expecting much of anything from this game (even if Starbreeze (before half of them left) were making it).

Rise of The Argonauts is one of my favourite "overlooked" games from the last 10-15 years. Take a Bioware style RPG (Post KoTOR-Pre Mass Effect) and set it in and around greek mythology and you have this game -- with a few additional combat quirks & bugs.

Anyways, it has loads of Dialogue, Achilles, Paul Eiding, an arena sequence and centuars. Good enough for me.

3-0.