Die Another Friday: Episode 013

Three Billboards FTW

Three Billboards was so mediocre.

I've always thought Solitaire was a better Bond girl than Honey.

How the hell has Dan managed to get this far in 00 Agent using the 1.1 Honey control scheme?

wrt Breath of the Wild,

To be fair, we're just over 2 years removed from BotW's launch, which some might argue counts as a few. I think Dan has been pretty obviously holding back on these kinds of proclamations about the game for long enough.

I have issues with the game. I want far more enemy diversity, and the game needs better dungeons and a more seamless integration between overworld and dungeons.

But it pushes the state of the art, in terms of world traversal and emergent play, so unprecedentedly far ahead -- and without compromising in software robustness (a feat not managed by Bethesda, Ubisoft, CD Projekt Red, ...) -- that it kinda makes every other advancement in 3D action-adventure development this generation look also-ran by comparison.

The moment at 1hr 15 is fantastic

I'll second that, it's such a good game! I just played through it again last month, and it still has some of the best level design of any game I've ever played.

I think the best game of all time has to have really, really strong cohesion between mechanics and narrative. The Last of Us is a well-written book, or could be a pretty incredible movie, but the moment-to-moment action is completely against the story that they're trying to tell. It's hard to sell that Joel is grievously injured when you can spend a whiskey and a piece of old newspaper to make a medkit in gameplay, you know?

Edit: Also Bioshock Infinite is a messy video game. It's leagues away from being a good story and is actually actively offensive in a lot of aspects, and the gameplay is little more than a gussied-up pure FPS, which is a shame considering the roots of that series and the genre it was born out of. It's not only a disappointing game in its own right, but it's doubly so considering the legacy of the team behind it and the genre it ended up in.

I hope this series ends with a Film & 40's of Goldeneye, the best bond film.

Not really. The people who were critiquing the game on its themes, combat, etc. are a different audience than the video game reviewers (IGN, Giantbomb). The initial reviewers praised it, and once everybody else got their hands on that game, then came the wave of (rightful) criticism on that game.

@bluewolverine: Going to have to agree to disagree with you on this one. And, considering the games commercial and critical success, I don't think that "everybody else" is as many people as you think it is. This is an example of a game's detractors continuing to shit on a game years after everyone else has moved on until they've managed to convince enough people who didn't play the game that they're right, in order to change the public perception of the thing in question. It's happened quite a bit over the years with various standout games that people have a chip on their shoulder about, and it'll continue to happen for years to come. It reminds me of this effect I've noticed, but don't yet have a name for:

If one feels that something or someone has received what they believe to be either undue criticism or unearned praise, they will seek to counter that force with an equal or greater amount of the opposing sentiment.

This episode contains the first and possibly only instance of the words 'subtle' and 'Adam Sandler' appearing in the same sentence.

@loophole572: Seconded

I'm with Vinny, BoTW is amazing and one of the best Zalda's, but "of all time" seems a bit much.

This is the actually on point comment about Infinite.

The first Bioshock is one of my favorite games of all time but Infinite failed to live up to what the first delivered in almost every way. There was no "revisionism", it's just that word of mouth eventually overtook the critic reviews.

There are certainly reasons to appreciate the game, I get what people like about it; but it will go down in history as a flawed sequel to an actual classic.

Couldn't help but notice this about 19:45 in...

Regarding enthusiastic crowds on game shows, particularly the ones where the contestants are picked from the audience. My sister was on Let's Make A Deal a few years ago and the producers before the taping started told the audience to be excited and energetic to be there at all times and they reserve the right to take back your prizes if you're not looking enthusiastic enough.

if we are talking about the current decade (that I've played (not counting 2010)) I would say last of us, skyrim, portal 2, BOTW. those four i feel are pretty universal and unarguably "classic" in a way that sort of defies genre and taste. dark souls and witcher 3 I feel are really close but are kinda unfriendly to non "casual" gamers in a way... but whatever. depends on how you define a classic.

Hot take: BOTW is Witcher 3 for people who like Zelda games.

@drachmalius: Agreed on both counts of video gameism. And for the record, I hated Infinite to begin with, Dan.

That last attempt is maybe the hardest I've laughed since, I don't know, probably the last Mario Party Party? Man, that was bullshit enemy durability there.

Dan nominating Infinite as a classic, and Abby saying Three Billboards is a bad film.

Oh boy.

The sheer amount of guys at the beginning of the level is like something that was put in as copy protection

So no DAF episode for March 15th?

It's still baffling to me how Dan thinks Breath of the Wild is maybe the best game of all time, yet he argued for PUBG to be GOTY back then. I really don't think there's a distinction between "best game of the year" and just "game of the year".

Assassin's Creed 2 was always a game that seemed to overshadow AC1 for no discernible reason, but that may be because I really don't like Ezio as a character and therefore far prefer the first game. Either way, coming off of Prince of Persia, I think AC has done a lot for environment traversal, and utilizing vertical rather than horizontal elements in terms of using an open space to tackle an objective.

bioshock infinite is not fun to play and fails to understand the weight of discrimination it is trying to deal with

I wonder if these guys have heard of David Fincher and Christopher Nolan

I know this is late to the party but alex is tagged in this video and he is DEFINITELY not. haha!

Chu-Chu Rocket

Nezumi o tasukerou!

Chu-Chu Rocket

Neko wa kowai!

Chu-Chu Rocket

Rocket wa su-go-i!

1:24:30