Starker on 15/6/2018 at 13:59
Hard to tell without playing the game. Context matters and all that. The trailers give the "woman wronged" vibe of an exploitation flick, but the game should be smarter than that, if the first game is any indication.
Renault on 15/6/2018 at 14:02
Quote Posted by Judith
it's done 10 times more tasteful and mature way than anything TLoU2-related so far. That's 1 for movie industry grown-ups and 0 for videogame industry manchildren.
Hey Judith, did Neil Druckmann stop by and kill your parents and then run over your dog with his car? I think you're being a little over the top with your criticism.
Judith on 15/6/2018 at 20:21
Nah, it's just I have little patience with that kind of stuff. I like calling things for what they are, and this industry loves kidding themselves, or just outright lying. Like Bethesda talking about epic stuff happening in Skyrim, while there's nothing like that going on screen. Or Ubisoft pretending to make a stealth game, with guy in white costume sitting on benches. Maybe it works for some people, I feel like I'm treated like an idiot.
Also, been playing games since I was 12, killed tons of enemies in tons of games already. Seeing years of development in visual fidelity since 8-bit era, and little development in gameplay ideas is really tiring . Games may live in a bubble and pat themselves on the back, pretending to be mature, but that will never be acknowledged in the oustide world, until devs find other means of player expression than repeatedly shooting enemies in the head.
Sulphur on 15/6/2018 at 20:31
Huh. Koki was with us all along. We just never knew.
EvaUnit02 on 17/6/2018 at 14:06
Quote Posted by Judith
Yup, the biggest thing here I guess is the animations. It looks like every character has their weight and momentum, and they took extra care to create these moments of agony, when characters are stabbed to death. That looks disturbing and with all the fidelity it looks like it would fit into some serious narrative. Like a really good book, or movie, where violence is dosed carefuly, and killing someone carries its weight, so there's like one or two dead bodies for the whole story. But here it's just a dressing to typical shooty bang-bang. Audiovisual department is hanging out with the big dogs, but gameplay design team is still a bunch of puppies.
God forbid that people make an entertainment product which they want to be financially successful. Those "serious" indie games which the likes of "gaming journalists" praise? Bugger all people actually buy "games" like Sunset and Where the Water Tastes Like Wine. Action-adventure games with a lot of shooting are things which sell.
Several "gaming journalists" moaned about the action gameplay of BioShock Infinite. I can guarantee you the game wouldn't have sold anywhere near enough to recoup its budget if it had just been a Chinese Room-esque walking simulator.
Quote Posted by Judith
The violence would be more meaningful, if there were fewer acts of it, and if the combat didn't mean slaughtering people by the numbers. And it all falls further apart, when she gets shot, and she reacts to it as if it was a moskito sting, and not something really serious.
Obviously it's only a small slice of the game. Apply some common sense, you're only going to be shown so much in PR material. tLoU1 was a 12ish hour experience with many mundane moments/a lot of "down time"/etc. I highly doubt that the sequel will veer much from the trail left by the first in this respect. Given the pacing of tLoU,1 I felt it was fairly successful in the balancing act of being a cinematic storytelling experience and a gritty, atmospheric action game.
Don't forget that they're making a fucking game aimed at the masses of normies, so they have to make the actual gameplay be FUN for that particular audience. Making some concessions to realism is a common thing in game design to achieve an experience which is FUN for players. Eg player characters having super-human resilience; respawning in multiplayer games; running over health packs to recover statistics-based health; magically refilled gun magazines upon reloading; etc.
There certainly is an audience for hardcore simulations, but it usually isn't the Joe Average PlayStation owner.
Quote Posted by Judith
Also, been playing games since I was 12, killed tons of enemies in tons of games already. Seeing years of development in visual fidelity since 8-bit era, and little development in gameplay ideas is really tiring . Games may live in a bubble and pat themselves on the back, pretending to be mature, but that will never be acknowledged in the oustide world, until devs find other means of player expression than repeatedly shooting enemies in the head.
Ah, so you're using this thread as a portfolio piece for your job application to Polygon? Gotcha. Shoot Malygris a message too, he writes for a similar agenda pushing outlet, PC Gamer.
Renault on 13/3/2020 at 15:34
Also, a movie version of TLOU has been in development hell for many years, but it looks like they finally decided to make a TV series out of it instead. Sounds like a good decision to me. Seems likely Part 2 would become Season 2 if all goes well.
(
https://www.techradar.com/news/the-last-of-us-hbo-tv-show)
SubJeff on 14/3/2020 at 22:39
Has Eva posted a positive thing about a game, ever?