The Video Game Thread v3

[devo22]

I have such a love-hate relationship with Uncharted, it's not even funny. I love the characters, the story, the setting and so on ... but I don't think I have ever played a more frustrating and/or boring series in my life in terms of gameplay. Blindly shooting at wave after wave after wave after wave ... that's why, for me personally, Uncharted has never even gotten close to my love for TLOU.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Nathan Drake storyline is as good or better than TLOU as are the characters. Both are top notch, and obviously made by the same studio.

Nope.

Early Uncharted games had a ton of cheesy writing, the fourth is the only one that's even worth discussing in the same conversation. And Uncharted 4 is exactly what it sets out to be: basically a knock-off Indiana Jones story. It's fun, fairly mindless and very entertaining blockbuster-style stuff that's pretty well excuted, but that's all it is. And not surprisingly, the characters have about the same depth as what you'd find in a knock-off Indiana Jones summer blockbuster.

That's one of the big issues - there seems to be an unwritten rule that in order to write a video game story it needs to be a blockbuster style of thing. And it's not even clear that that's wrong - if you're investing the time and money it takes to produce a title that involves an enormous amount of motion capture and facial animation and the thousand other things required to execute something like Uncharted 4, it's understandable that you want it to have a type of blockbuster appeal rather than being focused on character studies and the exploration of deep thematic questions - for the same reason that people don't make movies like that with the expectation of billion dollar box office returns.

[Erick Estrada]

I have to agree on Uncharted. While they do a fair job with the story and the characters are likeable, it's basically a shameless Indiana Jones knock off. It's still very good but not very original and not breaking any new ground. The post apocalyptic zombie storyline isn't overly original either but the TLOU storyline quality is something that TWD could only dream of as it's a survival story of a man and a young girl and focuses on the growth in their relationship over their travels. You feel emotionally connected to these characters while Uncharted is wink, wink action adventure. It's definitely peak Naughty Dog as TLOU2 was a mess.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

It definitely is... in terms of interactive storytelling. It's basically the only video game that has actually had consistently competently-acted cutscenes that are technically executed to a point where competent acting comes through, and a character-driven story, and with characters that are halfway believable as actual humans to boot. That's not a high bar for film or TV obviously but in the video game space it's apparently totally impossible to clear for some reason.

Granted I still haven't made a ton of progress through RDR2, so caveat that one. But I have played more or less everything else that could possibly try to make the claim to do likewise and... nope. Even when someone actively sets out to try to make a game that's basically an interactive movie like Detroit: Become Human, they just can't seem to pull it off.

RDR2 is definitely on the same level as TLOU for acting and storytelling, and I'd put the new God of War games in that same tier

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by devo22

I have such a love-hate relationship with Uncharted, it's not even funny. I love the characters, the story, the setting and so on ... but I don't think I have ever played a more frustrating and/or boring series in my life in terms of gameplay. Blindly shooting at wave after wave after wave after wave ... that's why, for me personally, Uncharted has never even gotten close to my love for TLOU.

So much this, I've tried so hard to get into this series but I just can't, the gameplay is so dull and repetitive. I always found the new Tomb Raider trilogy quite underrated compared to Uncharted, it's gameplay is so much better

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

RDR2 is definitely on the same level as TLOU for acting and storytelling, and I'd put the new God of War games in that same tier

I guess I'll find out about RDR2, and obviously Ragnarok isn't out yet but the first "new" God of War game was not close. Still very, very much a video game in its acting, writing, storytelling generally - almost quintessentially so. To be clear, that doesn't mean it's bad, just very much a creature of the genre.

[OutOfTheCube]

I think if your measure of "best video game ever" is purely on the non-interactive elements (story, characters, graphics, performances, cut scenes, etc.) than yes, Naughty Dog cinematic action games really are unmatched.

"Best video game ever" for me though is something that plays really well too and is really engaging, addicting, and interesting just to play. Something where if you stripped away all the tech and graphics and cut scenes, you'd still be left with something you really want to play. Naughty Dog games don't pass that test, I think.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

"Best video game ever" for me though is something that plays really well too and is really engaging, addicting, and interesting just to play. Something where if you stripped away all the tech and graphics and cut scenes, you'd still be left with something you really want to [I]play.

Which is fine, but yes I'm specifically talking about the video game as a medium for a piece of art rather than as a fun diversion. Artistic merit is obviously somewhat subjective in itself, but there are also standards of criticism that can be applied across more or less across the board.

For gameplay, it's almost too subjective to have standards besides basic mob rule - i.e., do lots of people seem to find it fun. There are things that work within genres obviously - you can establish standards about what makes good first person shooter gameplay, for example. But you can't say that person X is right or wrong because they don't happen to find first person shooters fun to play, or that person Y is right or wrong because they do. Apply that to city builders, or rhythm games, or metroidvanias, and so on ad infinitum.

So in that more gameplay-focused context I don't even think it's worth arguing about what the best video game ever is, or even a list of the top 100.

[CroFlames]

Why don't you just marry TLOU

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Nah, I'm more compatible with Disco Elysium.

[CroFlames]

Science has proved TLOU is not the Greatest Game of All Time.

https://forum.calgarypuck.com/showth...highlight=game

[photon]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

So much this, I've tried so hard to get into this series but I just can't, the gameplay is so dull and repetitive. I always found the new Tomb Raider trilogy quite underrated compared to Uncharted, it's gameplay is so much better

Funny when I was playing through Uncharted 4 and now doing the Lost Legacy DLC this is exactly what I thought.

I'd played Uncharted 1 and 2 waaay back.. and played the new Tomb Raider stuff, then playing Uncharted 4 it definitely feels shallow in terms of gameplay loop.

Tomb Raider is still kind of on rails compared to an open world but the progression of your skills or stats and the variability does add a lot compared to Uncharted.

I still really enjoyed Uncharted 4, but it did make me appreciate the new Tomb Raiders a bit more and made me want to go replay them.

EDIT: Walking into Shiva's Temple in Lost Legacy, heck all the ruins and temples in Lost Legacy are really amazing to look at though.

[kcin]

I'm really looking forward to Tactics Ogre: Reborn on November 11. One of my favorite games of all time is Ogre Battle 64 - hopefully this is a close replica of that experience.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Science has proved TLOU is not the Greatest Game of All Time.

https://forum.calgarypuck.com/showth...highlight=game

Man I forgot about that, that was fun

[Sainters7]

I really feel like I missed the boat on Uncharted - the setting / Indiana Jones vibe sounds so up my alley. But when it launched it was my only generation on Xbox, so I was never able to until PS4, and by then it was so deep into the ongoing story I figured I was hopelessly behind so there was no point playing it. Console exclusive series drive me nuts, so dumb.

My buddy lent me his PS4 Nathan Drake Collection disc with all the old games on it, but I just find it hard to play old games with outdated graphics when I never played them the first time around and thus have no nostalgia tied into them, it wrecks the immersion for me. I never even put the disc in my PS4 due to it, and eventually just gave him the disc back without trying it.

Had I gone with PS3 instead of Xbox 360, I bet I would've loved that series.

[btimbit]

The visuals of the remaster still hold up, and they updated the controls and whatnot in that bundle as well. You should still give it a go if you can

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Science has proved TLOU is not the Greatest Game of All Time.

https://forum.calgarypuck.com/showth...highlight=game

Can't argue with science. As a gamer going back to the 80's, the Witcher 3 is easily the best game I have ever played.

[Wastedyouth]

The Last of Us was the first game I ever played, that when I finished it, it actually gave me a "wow" moment.

Never had that feeling with a video game before and never have since.

[Max Cow Disease]

Originally Posted by devo22

finished A Plague Tale: Requiem. Maaaaaan ... that was great. Like I said, the framerate drops in some areas were annoying as ####, but I loved pretty much everything else. Playing both games back to back was a lot of fun.

Great game, and an improvement on an already solid prequel. Just enough meat on the bone gameplay-wise to keep things interesting, but it’s the setting, story, and characters that make it relatively special to play through.

[White Out 403]

holy ####

i downloaded victoria 3 tonight, and, good jesus i cant believe this is a video game. i dont even know where to start. its literally like a world simulator.