I've been guilty of being overly negative myself. I like to think of myself as a critical person, someone who can point out the good and bad qualities of something, but it's a lot easier to write about the bad qualities of something than it is to write about something's good qualities, so sometimes I have to just stop myself and think "am I representing my actual opinion well?"
There are a lot of things I like about Bastion and Transistor - art, music, storytelling methods - and I keep telling myself I'll play through them both one day, but I just find myself kinda bored when playing them.
So is this in response to Mike's comment? Poor guy, only has three consoles to dislike, whereas you can hate on a different game every morning if you want.
Looks like you're over halfway to a proper "I don't hate every game" 2016 list, at least.
I'm kidding! It seems like you took that comment a little personally, though. I thought it was a little weird, too, I could have sworn you post about things you like and dislike as much as anyone else.
I don't know if anybody has mentioned it, but I feel like Deus Ex Human Revolution did a lot of what the author wants to see back in 2011. Its prequels probably did this back in 2004 and 2001, but I didn't play much of either so I can't comment on them.
Human Revolution rarely forced players to kill anybody. Last time I played it, my body count for most of the game totaled 6, not including bosses (after Jensen woke up on the ship, I was ready to get to the end of the game and I had more resources than I knew what to do with so that number got well beyond 6, though I still don't think it went over 50, which is ridiculously low for a shooter or RPG where you can kill pretty much anyone in your way if you choose).
In any case, as others have pointed out, there are plenty of games out there for those who want better justification for killing, or for those who want something more peaceful. The Witcher 3 provides a way more complex story than most games, there's Deus Ex and Thief and Dishonored if you're looking for something that's dark but also gives you a choice in how you handle things. If you're looking to create and nurture rather than destroy, Minecraft, Terraria, and Stardew Valley all scratch that itch pretty well.
I haven't played The Division but it seems to be taking some of this flack for including stuff like we see in @furiousjodo's post. If you're going to tell me to mercilessly slaughter a bunch of guys, don't then try to humanize one of them by saying he's got a kid without also giving me some other way around it.
I played a few hours of Monster Hunter 4. That seems like a pretty awesome game that I need to play more of!
I've never heard of Boxboy, I'll have to give that a try.
I have heard people say that they like Xenoblade Chronicles's cast of characters, shame that X's characters don't quite measure up. Still, man, that game world really does look huge. I kinda want to play X just to see how well it can fit all of those systems together.
The Witcher 3 lost me right after the best piece of gaming content I played this year--the Bloody Baron quest.
The rest of the game has plenty of great moments like that. I wouldn't even say the Bloody Baron quest made my top 5 moments for that game.
That wouldn’t have made me pull it off my list, until I realized everyone I talked to that played but didn’t finish TW3 stopped right there.
Those people should have also continued playing. The part immediately after that - Novigrad - is where the game really opens up and has some of the best side quests in the game.
This is like fighting to get people to try Dark Souls all over again. "I heard things."
There seems to be some sort of echo chamber within the industry about how The Bloody Baron stuff is the high point of that game because that is where everyone stopped.
Yep! Although, if you're looking for great pacing, Novigrad is going to be hard to push through. For some reason, CDPR seem to have great first and third acts but their middles are where the good things start to falter and the bad things feel worse. It's just unfortunate that the stuff in Novigrad comes after the excellent Bloody Baron stuff.
Also worth noting that the last third of the game does start to fall more into standard fantasy tropes, whereas the Bloody Baron stuff comes across as less theatrical and fantastic and more like "how would this real world problem play out in grim fantasy-land". Still a shame that that's where industry people seem to stop, though.
Mr. Ismail, if you like good pacing, you probably should continue to play The Witcher 3 and do every sidequest that branches off of the main quest. The way those sidequests play out in the last third, if you've participated in them, might be one of my favorite parts of the game, and it all weaves together in such a satisfying and natural way. I can't believe that people who decide to run straight through the game will miss so much of that content.
I wonder if any fans of the previous witcher games hated the Dandelion stuff in Novigrad as much as most of games media? I enjoyed the Novigrad arc but I had developed an affinity for the character due to the first 2 games. Bloody Baron was great but it kept going for me personally. I don't know.
Anyway I like how this list was written, Rami. I promise to finally play Nuclear Throne someday, I feel bad I didn't grab it sooner.
I finished The Witcher 2 a week or two before starting The Witcher 3. I wouldn't really say I'm a fan of the previous games - I've only played a few hours of The Witcher 1 - but I knew who the character was. And I was somewhat fond of the character, too! But suddenly the main quest wants you to spend what feels like dozens of hours doing something that should have been a minor quest that took an hour or two. Suddenly chasing down the comic relief is our most important goal and it's stretched over quite a long time? Bleh.
The PC version of IV is a port of the DS version. Some people prefer this version, but I played the PSP version and it left such a great impression on me that I never want to play any other version. Also, the DS version is supposed to be significantly harder, though I can't confirm that. I beat IV on PSP in 20 hours, so it's definitely one of the shortest FF's.
VI is a better game all around, although IV is no slouch. VI is also longer. I have the PS1 version and its load times aren't that bad, but I also have the Steam version and it's instant. The Steam version isn't a great port but it starts and runs and controls fine and doesn't crash and that was good enough for me.
In short - IV and VI are great starting places for good Final Fantasy - VI is a better game and story but it's twice as long. Also, some might argue great ending places for Final Fantasy.
It saddens me greatly that it will probably be totally ignored by most people aside from the "hardcore" JRPG crowd.
I can sympathize with that feeling, but I saw the Quick Look and this game looks like it has systems upon systems upon systems, all or most of which you need to both learn how to handle and grind out some kind of points for, plus the world just seems ridiculously huge and MMO-like. It seems like a hell of a lot to handle and I'm not really sure to what end, plus the combat and gameplay just don't seem like they justify all of those things. It looks like a lot of shallow systems piled on top of each other to make it seem complex and deep without actually being either of those things - I think Vinny asked about this in the Quick Look and Austin didn't have a pretty solid, straight answer.
None of this means that I'm not interested in giving the game a shot myself, just those are my impressions from everything I've absorbed about that game. Even if it's not what it looks like, I just don't think I have the time or patience to learn all I need to learn just to play this one game.
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