kraznor

Everyone knows kung-fu, your character has a massive dragon tattoo and you pray at Buddhist altars to increase your health. In short, yes, and it is most certainly hard to take seriously.

@bvilleneuve: Sigh, same story, different clothes. Tarantino takes a genre, slots in his dialogue and stylistic trappings and gets celebrated each time he does it. Yes, to fill 2 hours and 45 minutes of course there is a bit more going on than pointing at slavery as a problematic chapter in American history, but the other themes you touched on are hardly new for him either. Plenty of his dialogue over the years has centered around storytelling (usually cinematic, but given this predates cinema sitting around the campfire swapping German folktales substitutes). He is covering well-trod ground, albeit, very well in terms of performance and presentation. I still assert its still not especially edifying when all is said and done. Maybe there is some cultural differences playing a role in this film not resonating with me especially profoundly, but I think you may be overstating a pretty widely held opinion in regards to the genius of Mr. Tarantino.

And in regards to video-game violence getting a pass as it is generally over-the-top, I guess I'm just tired of it. Just tried playing "Sleeping Dogs" and found myself bothered at the thought of an undercover cop finding it justifiable to knife several two-bit thugs without batting an eye. Until game writers are prepared to take what they are implicitly saying with every such action in their games, I may just find myself on the opposite end of the critical spectrum for some time.

@Animasta: You're probably right, but if I won't, who will?

@bvilleneuve: I'm curious where you stand on the way games handle violence given the list of cautions you give concerning approaching the topic of rape in a game. An extremely high percentage of games concern extremely violent actions that are not of a sexual nature, yet almost no justification is given in many of those cases. Murder is a more upsetting crime to me than rape as a life ends rather than traumatized, yet many games have reckless violence with little to no thought paid to what kind of message is being conveyed.

And I have indeed thought about Django Unchained a great deal since I saw it and I find it a strangely duplicitous film. Yes, Tarantino says in this interview that there are two types of violence in the movie, but that is kind of the problem for me. If violence is happening to an underdog, it is awful. If it is happening to a racist bigot, who cares? Violence isn't a good solution to problems, but it almost always is in the fantasy universe of Tarantino films. The last third of the movie is filled with the "cathartic" violence he talks about, but it also flies in the face of the unflinching violence seen earlier in the film that serves to ground it in a reality not often seen. Slavery was a miserable, cruel thing and the movie showcases that quite well, but then it still decides to end with a goofy, over-the-top action comedy segment. Kind of like how Spielberg will force a happy ending at times when it doesn't seem to fit (War of the Worlds springs to mind), Tarantino can't help but fall into the "Revenge film" pattern. I like this interview as it challenges stagnancy in opinions on the matter. Yes, Tarantino addressed similar concernes twenty years ago but not the exact same ones as this is a different film in a different time and a lot has changed since then that remains unacknowledged by Tarantino, and that bothers me. And calling some of his behavior here anything more than petty is apologetic to a fault. He treats this interview on a news show as an ad, or plug for his movie. He has no qualms selling it, but doesn't want to deal with people questioning its merits. Its flat-out embarassing, frankly, that he can't stand up to the barest hint of criticism on the subject.

@Animasta: Relativity is a wonderful thing. I finished Deadly Premonition, couldn't be bothered with Undead Nightmare. Got to the point where you become undead and just lost interest.

I guess my main issue is, if you are translating a certain motif into a different medium, it won't really resemble the original work if done correctly. A lot of modern games are a weird middle-ground between games and movies what with the lionshare of the narrative content taking place in cutscenes, which rely on filmic techniques to convey their stories, so they aren't really the videogame equivalent of those things, they are more or less just another example of those with interactive segments. Its a nitpicky qualification, but I stand by it. The same criticism applies to both Red Dead and Deadly Premonition, both of which I loved but neither of which I'd call the perfect example of anything. Games are still growing and evolving and figuring basic things out in regards to conveying narrative and both of those are no exception.

Before you go praising Tarantino for his maturity and expert use of violence, may want to watch this interview. His refusal to answer or change his thoughts on the matter over a twenty year period says to me he really doesn't think through these things as much as I'd like him to.

@Sweep: The Walking Dead is more or less a slightly interactive movie though. I guess if we're arguing why things like that can't be addressed in cutscenes,fine, but then I'd ask what role cutscenes should have, if any, in games going forward as they are pretty much never my favorite part of a game.

And I'd actually ask for clarification in that Sean Vanaman wrote much of The Walking Dead, so unless you are addressing something specifically in episode 4 that slipped my mind, credit where credit is due please.

@YI_Orange: A thing that is a perfect example of a particular quality or type.

Asserting that this is the perfect representation of a B-movie in game form is bothersome to me. This game is far from perfect in all respects. That isn't to say it doesn't have qualities, but don't use words like "epitome" if you can't back up the claim.

@Animasta: That would divorce gameplay from storytelling and that doesn't fly anymore. IF a game can't marry its gameplay to its storytelling, it isn't doing a great job. Mechanical complaints are story complaints in the world of video games. And I beleive I did highlight the fact that the game builds up a cast of likable characters, then replaces them for a huge chunk of the game before bringing them back rather unceremoniously in the closing chapter. That really undercut the relationship-building component of the game.

"Binary Domain is the epitome of a B-movie in video game form. No other game in recent history succeeds in that regard, both in it's production to the reception from critics and the audience. It is endearing and should be played."

I really don't like broad, generalized statements like this. The epitome? Really? Care to quantify that rather than just baselessly asserting it as fact? You liked it, that's fine, but why phrase it as though anyone who hasn't played it is an idiot? I beat it last night, decent game, but the level of counter-critical praise this game is receiving is approaching hyperbole.

Does this game fix everything about the third-person, cover-based action genre in regards to pacing and storytelling?

Does this game have a bizarre gap in logic between what takes place in cutscenes and what you are capable of in gameplay?

Are there numerous QTE segments that arguably become pretty tedious towards the game's end?

Is Shindo a terribly voiced and underwritten character that features way to prominently in the story considering the rest of the cast is more or less ignored for a large stretch of the game?

Is there a fairly lengthy section that could be described as a corridor crawl?

Is there a protracted turret sequence that is not especially fun or engaging to play?

Those are some issues I had with this game that people may want to consider. This game has qualities worthy of admiration but it isn't a flawless gem by any means.