I don’t think necessarily think it’s evil. The inclusion of cinematic storytelling in video games has certain skyrocketed the medium higher than most would’ve thought it could reach. And the sense of immersion in media is making its way into video games, which is no doubt part of the reason why the video game industry is bigger than the film and music industries combined.
Of course it lost some of its grass-roots feel, but that’s just how it goes. People thought the movie industry would die with talking films, and Elvis and the Beatles were hated by the older generation.
Cinematic storytelling and immersion skyrocketed sales, but are destroying games, turning them into interactive movies rather than actual games. Complexity and difficulty are replaced with cutscenes. That’s definitely a bad thing. Just imagine if someone tacked storytelling and “immersion” into chess.
The way games are headed now just don’t satisfy my needs for a complex game that lasts years, like a Super Turbo or a Dragon Blaze. So I got over it already and stick to older games that weren’t ashamed of being games, and the rare new release that values the game system over its cutscenes.
It’s a point of contention. There’s plenty of cinematic storytelling in LA Noire and that game was fantastic (minus lack of an actual open world, and poor gun play). Heavy Rain was also another great game with a deep and engaging story, and it also a very bold and fun game. Pretty much every Bioware game has been known for its extremely engaging setting, characters, and storyline, and they’re awesome.
Of course on the flip side. MGS4 was basically an interactive movie that you occasionally got to play. And COD pretty much floods your screen with non-stop fireworks, explosions, missiles, evil terrorists and Russians, while you’re able to stop and breath to regain health.
Just gotta learn to pick out the gems in a pile of shit. It goes for all forms of entertainment. Gotta filter the good from the bad from the horrible.
I disagree about Heavy Rain being a good game (to me it’s basically the perfect example of everything that’s wrong with modern games). As for Bioware games, I think Mass Effect 2 is great indeed; it has great level design and Vanguard runs on higher difficulties can give arcade games a run for their money. The rest have some crippling flaws that prevent me from considering them actually good.
Aside from the PC doujin scene that has released some excellent games, I had a hard time finding new games I like. Gothic 2 and the first Risen, The Witcher 2, ME2, Civilization IV and it seems like Dark Souls too are some of the few games I managed to enjoy. The Witcher 2’s Insane difficulty setting is so great. From an interview with the developers
More modern developers should follow that mindset.
I suppose Heavy Rain is a hate it or love it type deal. It is pretty unique and doesn’t follow the standard “gaming” formula, which may throw some people off from it. That being said, you can’t deny that it tried to stand out amongst the COD-clones and other copy cats in its genre, and it certainly has very good artistic and visual appeal. The music was amazing as well, it did a great job to set the mood and complement the visuals.
Mass Effect 2 was great. Mass Effect 1 was clunky, but it’s forgiveable, as it’s the first of its series. It tried to stick closer to Bioware’s RPG roots, while giving you a chance to explore it’s beautiful world. For the first entry in the series, it had its flaws, but it set the stage for what is to be one of gaming’s favorite trilogy, regardless of its negative reviews. Mass Effect 3 felt like ME2+, with worse story, lackluster characters, minimal character development, and a HIGHLY unpolished end scene. I’m actually fine with the original endings themselves, but they brought VERY little closure as to what happened to the universe after Shepard’s decision. I’m glad they tried to fix it by adding additional scenes and dialogue in the DLC, but their alternate ending felt too forced and counter-intuitive to their original plot design. Basically they wanted to bring that happy ending that everybody wants and needs. I would’ve preferred it to stay more realistic, and for there to have been serious consequences, as it is in reality.
From what I briefly played of Witcher 2 and Dark Souls, they were very enjoyable games. The high difficulty only gives you a heightened sense of accomplishment when you DO achieve something, which most modern games don’t deliver on. However, Witcher and its sequel did an absolutely terrible job with the intro tutorials. Half of the time, you have to figure out for yourself how to beat a certain boss without being allowed to at least experiment. This is terrible game design. Some people say that it’s best to prod and poke, but it’s not, that’s just lazy. A game as complex as Witcher should make KNOWN their available game systems and combat alternatives, before allowing you to dive deeper and experiment with it.
Ever played Shadows of the Colossus? Absolutely brilliant game in its simplicity. It required a lot of strategic thinking, a touch of physical dexterity, gorgous visuals, amazing musical score, and surprisingly, a very intriguing story, despite its extremely limited dialogue or character interaction. It felt like I was playing a modern day NES game, that understood what made those classic games so popular.
Thats not true at all, i finished ME2 on insanity 9 times with every class, even with the adept cosidered by the fans like the worst and “imposible” class to finish insane difficulty.
Also people hated the sentinel, and it was the most broken class in the game, in fact the sentinel was my favorite class, its a shame it was overnerfed in ME3.
NOTES: The top down stages aren’t done, probably won’t be. Player projectiles aren’t implemented, I found the boxes, they’re all constants in code, I just never got around to implementing their boxes. Other than that it’s complete.
Enemy colors:
Red = Can be touched and hit with projectiles
Green = Can be hit with projectiles but has no collision
Yellow = Can touch you, cannot be hit with player projectiles
White Axis in middle of box = Box is invulnerable
The ending got a little fucked up cause for some reason Fraps acts stupid after a while but I left it that way cause these are really long uploads and I wanted the Last part of the ending with akuma in the video
I got a challenge for the SNES fans:
[LIST=1]
[]set Contra 3 on hard;
[]start a 2-player game;
[]allow 2P to die;
[]finish the game as 1P.
[/LIST]
This demands much more skill than in 1P mode, as bombs, missiles and flame only do damage every other frame.
