Sir, You Are Being Hunted (procedural, open world robot escape)

faetal on 24/4/2013 at 10:49

Quote Posted by EvaUnit02

Yet are you fine with them being tea swirling, pipe smoking, posh robots who wear top hats and monocles? They even coined "tweedpunk" to describe their art direction and presentation. If you don't like dry British humour then I'm sorry, it probably won't be the game for you.

See my response to Thirith.
I love dry British humour, but I produce music, so am a stickler for audio production values.

Thirith on 24/4/2013 at 11:07

Quote Posted by faetal

Only when they are mis-matched against what I see as the game's mood.

Out of interest, have you seen Terry Gilliam's Brazil and did you like it?

To me, if used properly a contrasting aesthetic can be very effective in heightening the mood. Brazil IMO does something similar to what you mention - it takes a bureaucratic dystopia but gives it an aesthetic that's primarily cartoonish (which also fits the story). In veering between humour and seriousness, I find Brazil more effective than most 'straight' dystopias - more engaging and more effectively chilling.

IMO a more 'expressionistic' aesthetic is also among the rarest thing in computer game visuals, so I'm usually glad if someone tries their hand at it. Especially with the Bioshock games that, whether successfully or not, try to say something about politics; in some ways, their aesthetic choices remind me of the paintings of people like George Grosz or Otto Dix, Germans who painted in the early 20th century and especially after WW1, using elements of caricature and the grotesque to highlight what they thought was going wrong in their country. Paintings such as these:

(http://lh4.ggpht.com/_T1-sfygTukg/SdOhrTZv7YI/AAAAAAAABmg/ARReD4z2Tx0/GeorgeGroszApoyoalasociedad_thumb1.jpg?imgmax=800)
(http://humanities31.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/grosz2.jpg?w=800)
(http://uploads6.wikipaintings.org/images/otto-dix/pragerstrasse-1920.jpg)
(http://www.artexpertswebsite.com/pages/artists/artists_a-k/dix/Dix_InvalidsOfWarPlayingCards1920.jpg)

(Come to think of it, Kevin O'Neill, comic book artist of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen fame, does similar things too, achieving a heightening effect that would be difficult with a more realistic style, at least when he's at his best.)

To be honest, the Bioshock aesthetic didn't altogether work for me either, but I'm still glad they went and did something entirely new to games.

Jason Moyer on 24/4/2013 at 11:18

I think the robot chatter is one of my favorite bits of the game.

EvaUnit02 on 24/4/2013 at 11:37

faetal: no more tears formula

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faetal on 24/4/2013 at 11:44

Quote Posted by Thirith

Out of interest, have you seen Terry Gilliam's Brazil and did you like it?

I wanted to. So, so much. But no, and probably for the same reasons.

Quote:

To me, if used properly a contrasting aesthetic can be very effective in heightening the mood. Brazil IMO does something similar to what you mention - it takes a bureaucratic dystopia but gives it an aesthetic that's primarily cartoonish (which also fits the story). In veering between humour and seriousness, I find Brazil more effective than most 'straight' dystopias - more engaging and more effectively chilling.

You're right that it does that, but I guess my personal taste is at odds with it.

Quote:

IMO a more 'expressionistic' aesthetic is also among the rarest thing in computer game visuals, so I'm usually glad if someone tries their hand at it. Especially with the Bioshock games that, whether successfully or not, try to say something about politics; in some ways, their aesthetic choices remind me of the paintings of people like George Grosz or Otto Dix, Germans who painted in the early 20th century and especially after WW1, using elements of caricature and the grotesque to highlight what they thought was going wrong in their country.

I agree with the principle, but since Bioshock was a console game trying to appeal to a wide audience, it didn't try to be very clever and so fell short of the threshold of being a competent expressionistic juxtaposition.

I've just had another listen through and it is just the production value of the sounds used. The beeping is very generic sounding and the vocoder is very rough sounding. I'm reserving judgement, as it may be a whole different ball game when playing it, but those are my observations from that video. Everything else about it seems aces (except perhaps the gun floating in mid-air, but I'm guessing that's WIP).

Muzman on 24/4/2013 at 16:39

Quote Posted by EvaUnit02

God the re hash of the cybermen pissed me off. Lame Dalek repeats. It was like they never even watched any of the originals before bringing them back.

Anyway. I must admit I wasn't wild about the Hunters sounds when I first heard them. I'll wait and see how it goes when I play it first, but I'm already thinking I might try and mod in some new ones.

Renault on 24/4/2013 at 16:51

I was in on the kickstarter effort on this one, I'll have to check and see if that gives me some kind of early alpha/beta access or something.

Muzman on 24/4/2013 at 16:53

They haven't said yet, precisely, but I'm hoping so.

faetal on 24/4/2013 at 16:54

The cyber men shouting "delete" just sounds like they got one of the audio technicians to do it or something.
I know a chanted monotone hardly needs years of acting school, but I can't help feeling that an actor would have made them sound a bit higher quality.

Yes yes - in this thread faetal gets anally retentive about anything to do with audio...

EvaUnit02 on 24/4/2013 at 17:44

They wanted to give the Cybermen a memorable and marketable catch phrase (a la Exterminate) and it worked.

Faetal should probably avoid Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, since he seems unable to enjoy light-hearted, embellished satire at face value. (Nitpicking over a self-aware children's programme like Dr. Who, really now?)

Quote Posted by faetal

You remember correctly.

Only when they are mis-matched against what I see as the game's mood.
Best example I can think of is Bioshock 1 - scary sci-fi horror in a subaquatic technocrat utopia gone wrong, with essentially an aesthetic and character that is more comical than it is scary. The circus vending machines, the plasmid advertisement videos, the clunky little flying security robots. Just at odds with the setup IMO. I'm re-playing it again now and while I am enjoying it, I don't find its setting to be very well realized other than the architecture and water. They created an amazing place and then filled it with a slightly gorier take on Adam West era Batman henchmen.

I completed a replay of Bioshock 1 the other day myself and honestly what got to me the most was it like playing Wolfenstein 3D with smatterings of Doom at times. I.e. successive enemies charging you blindly single file through doorways/hallways, ready to be killed for your convenience, a la Wolf 3D (Infinite was guilty of this to degree as well, namely the mooks with billyclubs. There was some decent squad AI that would effectively flank you though.). BS1 also has a fondness for Doom-esque monster closets/item bait traps.

The concept of vending machines stocking ammo, weapon upgrades, hacking aids, etc in these supposed Utopian cities of the Bioshock games will always be jarring. Infinite might do away with "hacking by stuffing money into it", but unlike the Rapture titles you never see enemies using Vigors aside from the occasional "Heavy Hitter" (namely the Firemen, Handymen and the crow guys).