Video Games...Discuss Them

[Dukefrukem]

My jaw dropped at several points during this video...

[youtube]QWWzhpjS62I[/youtube]

It's amazing how opposite we are. Nothing about this is jaw dropping to me. Looks just like the previous 3 games and the lack of detail is strange to me.

[Dukefrukem]

Playing Assassin's Creed for the first time. At first I didn't like it, then I went to Damascus and the game felt like it was coming together and I liked it, but now I've finished two assassinations and it's already pretty old. I thought maybe the middle and rich districts of each city would have different types of investigations, but apparently all you "do" in this game is pickpocket, interrogate and eavesdrop, all of which involve you just walking up to people and pressing a few buttons. Running and climbing is fun though.

Are you playing the first? I feel like the first game is a beta of what the series eventually evolves into. The second game is a real step up. And check out this footage of the third game. Looks very impressive, and I am not a fan of this franchise.

[youtube]imPxEsAsgXk[/youtube]

[Mr. McGibblets]

Man, I hated the first Assassin's Creed. I felt like whatever city I was in, everything was exactly the same and it was basically repeating the same missions over and over again. Couple that with the inability to affect the plot in any way and you get a really bad game.

[Dukefrukem]

Here is what Final Fantasy might look like on a Next Gen system

[youtube]UVX0OUO9ptU[/youtube]

[D_Davis]

I'm really liking Diablo 3. The whole thing is so mechanical and primal, and Blizzard has streamlined the experience to such a degree that I doubt they could reduce it any more and still have a game. Click, click, click - loot - repeat one million times. Sometimes while playing it I wonder if it would be any different if I were simply clicking my mouse on a blank screen to have rewards pop up randomly every once in awhile.

The enemy design and attention to detail in the world is incredible. And this is where the game shines. It's all so so amazing to look at and listen to.

[Ezee E]

Sounds so boring to me...

[D_Davis]

Sounds so boring to me...

Totally understandable. Sometimes I wonder why I have so much fun playing these games. I think it has as lot to do with the moment to moment action, of seeing a huge mob and taking them down with a god-like character.

[number8]

That's what's so addictive about it. I spent a gazillion hours playing Diablo in middle school, and after a while I realized that I'm not really doing anything but clicking on various points on the screen.

[shaun]

Angry Birds Space has made over $100m in 2 months. Does Rovio even have anything else?

[D_Davis]

That's what's so addictive about it. I spent a gazillion hours playing Diablo in middle school, and after a while I realized that I'm not really doing anything but clicking on various points on the screen.

Well, to be fair sometimes you press the shift-button too.

[number8]

Well, to be fair sometimes you press the shift-button too.

The truly leet of us program hotkeys to the spell menu options so we can sometimes press F4. Perhaps even F6!

[Ezee E]

Angry Birds Space has made over $100m in 2 months. Does Rovio even have anything else?

Wow.

I like that one though. Heck, the whole series is perfect puzzle-based game.

[Idioteque Stalker]

Yeah, it seems Assassin's Creed 2 deals with most of my problems. The economy and tomb stuff alone make it look much better. I'll check it out.

And that footage from AC 3 is exciting.

[D_Davis]

The real draw of Diablo 3 is something that stems from old school pen and paper RPGs, and that is character progression. One of the best things about old school RPGs is leveling up, finding new gear, and tailoring your character to your liking, making him or her into a super powerful force. The Diablo games focus on this aspect with laser-like precision, almost to the detriment of everything else. They basically just add some gameplay mechanics around a character leveling/creating system. Everything you do only has one purpose - to get more stuff to make your character better.

[Dukefrukem]

The real draw of Diablo 3 is something that stems from old school pen and paper RPGs, and that is character progression.

This is something Blizzard excels at... in addition to the incredible cut scenes and dialog written story line.

[number8]

I don't want to do that. Can I just level up with DLC items I buy with my real monies and skip all that playing?

[D_Davis]

I don't want to do that. Can I just level up with DLC items I buy with my real monies and skip all that playing?

Of course you can! The real money auction house will open soon. You can also pay someone right now to power-level you up to lvl60, for about $150 I think.

[D_Davis]

This is something Blizzard excels at... in addition to the incredible cut scenes and dialog written story line.

As much as I generally hate cut-scenes, Blizzard makes the only ones I will actually watch and be entertained by. Also, in general, their dialog and lore is well-written. So while they rely on out-dated, video game story telling techniques, they are the best in this particular area.

[Dukefrukem]

Of course you can! The real money auction house will open soon. You can also pay someone right now to power-level you up to lvl60, for about $150 I think.

They are going to make a fuckin fortune.

As much as I generally hate cut-scenes, Blizzard makes the only ones I will actually watch and be entertained by. Also, in general, their dialog and lore is well-written. So while they rely on out-dated, video game story telling techniques, they are the best in this particular area.

Yes.

Edit: The only other developer that matchs their quality in Dialog/Story driven scenarios is Valve and (maybe) Bioware.

[Stay Puft]

Wow. Blizzard? Bioware?

The writing in Diablo III is terrible and the cutscenes are terrible (and terribly encoded, which shows how much these assholes really care). Mass Effect's narrative belongs in a romance paperback in an airport shop.

I dunno, maybe I'm just too cynical here when it comes to games and stories. I don't buy that anybody is doing a good job. I'd throw Valve under the bus, too, if it wasn't for Portal.

[number8]

O hai, Jonathan Blow.

[D_Davis]

In general, the writing and dialog in video games is absolutely terrible. Even the best examples (of which I think Blizzard is), only stack up to the most mediocre of genre fiction. Very few transcend this lack of of quality.

I do think that Blizzard produces good looking CGI, though, and I've been entertained by the writing in Diablo 3 so far, on numerous occasions. I also think that the ink-painted cut scenes look very nice, and they have fantastic style.

[Stay Puft]

Blizzard produces expensive-looking CGI cutscenes, and then compresses the shit out of them for no good discernable reason. I do like the style of the ink cutscenes, but again... compression artifacts ruin a lot of the detail.

O hai, Jonathan Blow.

The writing in Braid sucks, too.

I'll stop the hate train, now.

[Irish]

Wow. Blizzard? Bioware?

Blizzard has good stuff around some of their lore, but then they also tend to be randomly stupid too (naming the leader of a nation state, who is an escaped slave, "Thrall" or positing a world where orcs are ... space aliens).

Disagree about the cutscenes, from what I've seen. Blizzard's "Wrathgate" sequence in Lich King was worth the price of the expansion alone. I've rolled my eyes at a lot of the things they've done but that, even if you knew just a little of the backstory, was amazing beyond belief.

Bioware has a lot of b-level writing, but a good sense of pacing. Personally, I've always thought it amusing that they continually return to the same tropes in nearly every game, and people keep falling for it.

[D_Davis]

or positing a world where orcs are ... space aliens).

That was straight up stolen from Warhammer/40k.

Basically, everything Blizzard has done has been a rip-off of Games Workshop, but they do it well.