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DrBloodmoney's Super Scientific Ranking of Games!


DrBloodmoney

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20 minutes ago, AJ_Radio said:

 

Look at games like Call of Duty: World at War and inFamous. inFamous has in many respects, not aged well. We all know the graphics aren't that good anymore but comparing graphics to modern, post 2015 - 2017 era games is completely futile. There's no real argument to be won there because the fact is older games like inFamous had worse graphics because the technology just wasn't there to produce too much better. Even Uncharted 2: Among Thieves looks rather dated when compared to 2020 AAA games.

 

Gameplay wise, inFamous has several gameplay mechanics that haven't aged all too well. Just controlling Cole in general can be at times frustrating. Contrast that with Sucker Punch's newer games, and I think we can both agree they play far better from a gameplay standpoint.

 

Now if we were to play something like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War on the hardest difficulty setting or were to earn all the trophies, some of these AAA games are still very challenging and difficult. But if we're going to compare AAA games of this generation to those of the PS3 generation in terms of just playing casually and beating the story, I'm going to say the games of the PS3 generation were far more difficult. That's because there have been substantial improvements to game mechanics, how gameplay is being handled, how fluid the game actually runs, and just being a bit more solid as a game.

 

Look at inFamous 1, then look at Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. How the games play and how they perform is literally night and day. Sucker Punch improved and evolved over time.

 

Those aren't unreasonable points, but it seems like you are approaching this on the grounds that gameplay improvements have made games less difficult, rather than an active decision to make games more or less challenging on the part of the developers.

 

There, I agree with you... but I don't think it should matter for this kind of list, and I don't think it's something to look back on with rose-tinted glasses. 

 

For starters - difficulty that stems from bad (or at least, less refined) mechanics is not the good or fun kind of difficulty. As I said in the Moon Cresta Review - that game is almost broken in its difficulty, but that is because, well, the game is almost broken.

It's not by design - it's an accident, and that kind of challenge isn't good or fun to play, and is certainly not something we want to return to.

 

I think in terms of deliberate challenge, AAA games are roundly the same as a decade ago. Yes, they can feel less difficult, purely by the virtue of a lot of the 'accidental' difficulty being smoothed out of them, but really - no one wants accidental difficulty. We want deliberate, fun, challenge - not broken mechanics or poor checkpointing - to be the reason we keep coming back to a game over and over - and on that front, the Indie and smaller A games have us covered now in a way they never did in the PS3 era... much to my delight ☺️

 

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?☣️☣️!!SCIENTIFIC METHODOLOGY UPDATE!!☣️☣️?

 

After a (very reasonable) request from @GonzoWARgasm, I have made some additions to the main list post, adding a 'Batch Number' to each game on the list, and a set of links, allowing anyone to jump directly to the specific scientific update that contains the review for a specific game, if anyone wants to jump to one (for example, after being OUTRAGED by a game's placement on the list, and wants to pick apart my reasoning! ?)

 

I'm also going to ditch doing the intermediary 'special updates' (Like I did with Twin Mirror) for new games I get the S-Rank in as separate posts, and just add the new ones onto whatever batch is currently being worked on, just to keep them all neatly together for these batch numberings.

 

Hopefully, this is all clear, helps keep the scientific methodology user-friendly, (and works!) - it seems to, but let me know if it is useful, as this is the method I'll be using going forward unless otherwise advised/ yelled at!

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6 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Those aren't unreasonable points, but it seems like you are approaching this on the grounds that gameplay improvements have made games less difficult, rather than an active decision to make games more of less challenging on the part of the developers.

 

There, I agree with you... but I don't think it should matter for this kind of list, and I don't think it's something to look back on with rose-tinted glasses. 

 

For starters - difficulty that stems from bad (or at least, less refined) mechanics is not the good or fun kind of difficulty. As I said in the Moon Cresta Review - that game is almost broken in its difficulty, but that is because, well, the game is almost broken.l It's not by design - it's an accident, and that kind of challenge isn't good or fun to play, and is certainly not something we want to return to.

 

I think in terms of deliberate challenge, AAA games are roundly the same as a decade ago. Yes, they can feel less difficult, purely by the virtue of a lot of the 'accidental' difficulty being smoothed out of them, but really - no one wants accidental difficulty. We want deliberate, fun, challenge - not broken mechanics or poor checkpointing - to be the reason we keep coming back to a game over and over - and on that front, the Indie and smaller A games have us covered now in a way they never did in the PS3 era... much to my delight 263a.png

 

We always had the option to adjust the difficulty. That's exactly the same now as it was over a decade now. But despite that, I'm deliberately not trying to look at this through rose-tinted glasses, because there were quite a few AAA and AA games from the PS3/Xbox 360 generation that have not aged well. inFamous 1 is one example.

 

I can argue that the grenade spam on Call of Duty: World at War was a bad gameplay mechanic, you would be inclined to think so as well if you played on Veteran difficulty like I did over 10 years ago.

 

What I'm stating is older games, a majority of them fell under bad mechanics. That's why I mentioned Battletoads for the NES. Innovative and groundbreaking for its time, but a game with several bad designs and bad game mechanics. Many old games fell under accidental difficulty, I would be an idiot to say otherwise.

 

People mentioned Jak II earlier in this thread, that's an even better example. The checkpoints were awful, the open world layout was purely to increase game time at the expense of the player, some of the missions had very noticeable difficulty spikes, and the controls were at times unresponsive. That's not me being nostalgic or seeing the game through rose-tinted glasses. That's me judging the game for all the flaws that it had.

 

All the indie games I mentioned to you have deliberate, fun challenge. Resogun especially. Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number has some bullshit A++ requirements, and the game puts far too much emphasis on windows and you often die a lot from gunshots off screen. Compared to some older games, Hotline Miami 2 still challenges the player in a good way.

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14 minutes ago, AJ_Radio said:

 

We always had the option to adjust the difficulty. That's exactly the same now as it was over a decade now. But despite that, I'm deliberately not trying to look at this through rose-tinted glasses, because there were quite a few AAA and AA games from the PS3/Xbox 360 generation that have not aged well. inFamous 1 is one example.

 

That's true - I tend to try and judge games based on whatever they consider their 'normal' difficulty primarily (though, I will take into account the highest difficulty if that is required for the platinum, and mention it if it is particularly of note.)

 

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I can argue that the grenade spam on Call of Duty: World at War was a bad gameplay mechanic, you would be inclined to think so as well if you played on Veteran difficulty like I did over 10 years ago.

 

Agreed - I did complete WaW to platinum - It isn't eligible to rank on this list, as I don't have the S-Rank (due to dlc), but while I though that was one of the best CoD games I played, the Veteran playthrough bordered on broken. Particularly the sections where it was a virtual necessity to completely clear out sections before moving forward, which on all other difficulties, were supposed to be chaotic 'duck and dive' runs through a hail of bullets, and Veteran turned them into a long, slow, painfully dull exercise in patience-testing.

 

 

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People mentioned Jak II earlier in this thread, that's an even better example. The checkpoints were awful, the open world layout was purely to increase game time at the expense of the player, some of the missions had very noticeable difficulty spikes, and the controls were at times unresponsive. That's not me being nostalgic or seeing the game through rose-tinted glasses. That's me judging the game for all the flaws that it had.

 

Don't get me started on Jak II - one of my most hated games, as my review here attests!

 

Quote

 

All the indie games I mentioned to you have deliberate, fun challenge. Resogun especially. Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number has some bullshit A++ requirements, and the game puts far too much emphasis on windows and you often die a lot from gunshots off screen. Compared to some older games, Hotline Miami 2 still challenges the player in a good way.

 

I roundly agree on this - we don't have a 1:1 overlap of challenging indie games, but we do have quite a bit of crossover, including Resogun and Hotline 2 - and Hotline 2, while still good, did overshoot the bullshit-difficulty that the first game managed to nail perfectly - an error that, I'm certain, will be reflected in it's placement relative to Hotline Miami when it gets ranked!

 

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On 5/5/2021 at 7:43 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

 

*sigh*

 

 

Okay mate, listen...

 

I don't like ruining the fun, and so this will be the only post in which I do this...

 

 

I can't believe I actually have to spell this out to you...as it is so plainly, clearly and obviously apparent from the very beginning on my thread - and has been completely understood by everyone else, including people from all over the world whose first language is not even English -

 

  Reveal hidden contents

THIS BEING 'SCIENCE' IS A JOKE.

 

It is tongue in cheek!

Of course these are opinions!

Jesus Christ - a fucking child could understand that.

 

I mean seriously, get a grip on yourself - did you actually even read the intro to my little project here?

Did you actually think I, or any of the people following along are under the impression that i am conducting real 'science' here or am under any obligation to be 'objective' - whatever that could even be, where criticism of entertainment is concerned?

 

These are my opinions, obviously - I am ranking MY GAMES, on MY PROFILE, and doing it on MY CHECKLIST.

 

I am having some fun ranking my games, and some other people are following along.

 

I'm happy to engage in spirited debate about my analyses, and I love passionate debate about games - but to complain about the whole endeavour conceptually, just because you are the one person in the entire site who didn't get the joke, and then to fill up massive posts like yours whinging about it,  to the extent that I have to drop the fun of it for a moment, take you by your angry little hand and explain that to you, is so sad to me.

 

You are only embarrassing yourself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just had to have a laugh at this. I made a status update on a certain game a few months ago and he tried to hijack it by saying my opinions were woefully wrong and that I needed to correct my position. Not surprised to see he is criticizing the entire purpose of this thread.

 

Some people on these forums... I don't know. We argued to each other for a while but once I read more of your posts I can see you are someone who is really well invested in this trophy hunting hobby and you express a lot of care and work into it. I can't say the same for everybody.

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5 minutes ago, AJ_Radio said:

 

I just had to have a laugh at this. I made a status update on a certain game a few months ago and he tried to hijack it by saying my opinions were woefully wrong and that I needed to correct my position. Not surprised to see he is criticizing the entire purpose of this thread.

 

God, I know ? - I had to spoiler tag that just because I want this thread to remain a positive one, but...yeah... well done guy... way to miss the most obvious joke of all time! ?

 

5 minutes ago, AJ_Radio said:

Some people on these forums... I don't know. We argued to each other for a while but once I read more of your posts I can see you are someone who is really well invested in this trophy hunting hobby and you express a lot of care and work into it. I can't say the same for everybody.

 

Hey man, you and I might have had some run-ins here and there, but this thread is about nothing but the almost-fetishistic love of games in all their forms, and that is one area that I can't get enough of, and is something that (should) bring everyone on these forums together.

Hell - we all ended up here because of one thing we all have in common - we all love games!

 

 

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newtestsubjects.jpg

 

⚛️!!SCIENCE UPDATE!!⚛️

 

 

The next 10 (somewhat) randomly selected games to be submitted for scientific analysis shall be:

 

 

Dead Cells 
Final Fantasy XIII
Heavy Rain
Jacob Jones
Mass Effect 2
Rayman Origins
Shatter
The Spectrum Retreat 
The Wolf Among Us
Zombie Driver HD

 

 

Subjects in RED marked for ❎PRIORITY ASSIGNEMENT

[Care of @GloriousFury9414 , @The_Kopite & @elpoko ]

 

 

 

Can 'Current Most Awesome' game, Prey, cling to its title, or will it be a one-round champion?

 

Is last-in-show Watchmen: The End is Nigh going to have any competition for 'Least Awesome Game' ?

 

Let's find out!

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41 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

?☣️☣️!!SCIENTIFIC METHODOLOGY UPDATE!!☣️☣️?

 

 

I approve, for what it's worth :)

 

 

14 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Hey man, you and I might have had some run-ins here and there, but this thread is about nothing but the almost-fetishistic love of games in all their forms, and that is one area that I can't get enough of, and is something that (should) bring everyone on these forums together.

Hell - we all ended up here because of one thing we all have in common - we all love games!

 

Yeah, it should... It saddens me to see so much hate towards the smaller differences amongst each other instead of embracing what makes us similar. But I guess that's the internet and the state of the world right now... (and you can even argue human condition).

 

Anyways, related to Jak II... of the 3 mascot-platformer trilogies of the PS2 era, Jak & Daxter was the only one I couldn't finish back in the day. I adore Ratchet & Clank, I had great fun with Sly (actually, I skipped 1 initially because I couldn't find the PS2 disc on sale anywhere), and while The Precursor Legacy had me hooked from start to finish, I couldn't play past the first hour of Jak II. I couldn't look past the drastic change of tone and more GTA-esque mission structure.

I eventually went back and played through all three collections on PS3 (and even the sequels and most spin-offs), cementing my younger self's opinion that overall Ratchet > Sly > Jak.

Obviously, to each their own ;) 

 

 

7 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Final Fantasy XIII

[snip]

Can 'Current Most Awesome' game, Prey, cling to its title, or will it be a one-round champion?

 

Oooh! I'd like to see how Prey fends off FFXIII :D

 

 

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1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

?☣️☣️!!SCIENTIFIC METHODOLOGY UPDATE!!☣️☣️?

 

After a (very reasonable) request from @GonzoWARgasm, I have made some additions to the main list post, adding a 'Batch Number' to each game on the list, and a set of links, allowing anyone to jump directly to the specific scientific update that contains the review for a specific game, if anyone wants to jump to one (for example, after being OUTRAGED by a game's placement on the list, and wants to pick apart my reasoning! ?)

 

Hopefully, this is all clear, helps keep the scientific methodology user-friendly, (and works!) - it seems to, but let me know if it is useful, as this is the method I'll be using going forward unless otherwise advised/ yelled at!

 

YESSSSSS let the outrage commence ?

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Thanks for including my suggestion Dead Cells in your next update.

It's an excellent game but the Platinum is really frustrating and almost forces you to cheat and that it takes a lot of the fun away but maybe that says more about me than the game.

From your last update I've only played Demon Souls. I agree for the most part with your assessment but I think you concentrate too much on the technical aspect of the gameplay leaving out what is the games best asset and thats the atmosphere it creates. I've never played a game before or since that creates such a sense of aloneness and isolation.

I look forward to your thoughts on Dead Cells.

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18 hours ago, Soraking1991 said:

Yeah, it should... It saddens me to see so much hate towards the smaller differences amongst each other instead of embracing what makes us similar. But I guess that's the internet and the state of the world right now... (and you can even argue human condition).

 

The way I see it, we live in a woke society that is overly politically correct. Everything is on the table nowadays to be erased, altered, changed, etc. I recommend the book The Coddling of the American Mind, which was a book someone recommend me a couple years back and I decided to buy it and read it for myself. Much of what you see today can be found or talked about somewhat in that book.

 

That's not to say the past was any better, we got lucky or whatever. After having been on forums for the past 10 - 15 years and seeing my opinions get shot down no less than a few thousand times, I just had to do some research. And it turns out there is far more going on in the background than we think.

 

You are from Spain, so some of the stuff written in that book probably doesn't apply but from what I read out of it I like to include the western world. If petty differences is enough for people to start spreading hate, then seeing hate on something as trivial as trophies is just sad.

 

18 hours ago, Soraking1991 said:

Anyways, related to Jak II... of the 3 mascot-platformer trilogies of the PS2 era, Jak & Daxter was the only one I couldn't finish back in the day. I adore Ratchet & Clank, I had great fun with Sly (actually, I skipped 1 initially because I couldn't find the PS2 disc on sale anywhere), and while The Precursor Legacy had me hooked from start to finish, I couldn't play past the first hour of Jak II. I couldn't look past the drastic change of tone and more GTA-esque mission structure.

I eventually went back and played through all three collections on PS3 (and even the sequels and most spin-offs), cementing my younger self's opinion that overall Ratchet > Sly > Jak.

Obviously, to each their own ;)

 

Ratchet is definitely #1 in my book. Sly Cooper's first few games were good, but I didn't like Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time all that much. I enjoyed Jak 3 a lot moreso than Jak II, partly because it had a far more open open world as opposed to a closed off Haven City which was the entirety of Jak II.

 

The Precursor Legacy is a great classic, and one that a lot of people shouldn't miss.

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12 hours ago, elpoko said:

Thanks for including my suggestion Dead Cells in your next update.

It's an excellent game but the Platinum is really frustrating and almost forces you to cheat and that it takes a lot of the fun away but maybe that says more about me than the game.

 

No problem my friend - happy that you are along for the ride, and keep the suggestions coming if there's anything you'd like to see in future ☺️

 

I've written and ranked Dead Cells provisionally now (I do these one at a time in a notepad before I actually put a batch up,) and let's just say... I loved going back to it for a bit of a refresher, and it has done well ?

 

12 hours ago, elpoko said:

From your last update I've only played Demon Souls. I agree for the most part with your assessment but I think you concentrate too much on the technical aspect of the gameplay leaving out what is the games best asset and thats the atmosphere it creates. I've never played a game before or since that creates such a sense of aloneness and isolation.

 

Oh, for sure, Demon's Souls has atmosphere seeping from every sweaty pore! ?

There's only so much I can get into in each review - these have already grown from a few sentences to a pretty sizeable write-up, especially for games like Demon's Souls, where they are getting a high placement, and need an appropriate amount of explanation, so these reviews are certainly not exhaustive, but I will try to be more cognisant of the overall 'game feel' in future reviews.

 

Tone and atmosphere are very important elements in a game for sure - and the Souls games do it marvellously - but in the Demon's Souls reviews, I guess I kind of feel like I need to be getting into more of the nitty-gritty of the actual mechanical differences between them, as the tone and atmosphere are basically brilliant across the board - it's not really a distinguing factor between Souls games, as every one of them does those aspects almost perfectly!

 

 

On a side note - if you are looking to delve into games that use their mechanics to effectively create an incredible sense of isolation, I recommend checking out Dear Esther - a short game for sure, but one I found to be so lonely and poetically bleak that it almost brought out a tear!

 

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Thanks for the ME 2 review. Certainly based on your glowing praise I'll have to play it sometime soon. I'd been advised to play it quite a number of times in the past, so was expecting a fairly high placement but perhaps not as high certainly when up against Dark Souls, Bioshock, TLOU, Dishonoured. 

 

Love the passion you put into this. Tempts me to do a list of my own sometime!

 

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13 minutes ago, GloriousFury9414 said:

Thanks for the ME 2 review. Certainly based on your glowing praise I'll have to play it sometime soon. I'd been advised to play it quite a number of times in the past, so was expecting a fairly high placement but perhaps not as high certainly when up against Dark Souls, Bioshock, TLOU, Dishonoured. 

 

Love the passion you put into this. Tempts me to do a list of my own sometime!

 


yup - it’s a hell of a game - actually, doing this review was bringing ups such good memories of the game, that I just bought the new ‘Legendary Edition’ trilogy myself ??

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Hello, my humble Doctor, I have come to request some medicine. A really severe ache ails me, one that can only be cured by... bowling. Lots and lots of bowling. Preferably with a cousin, for some good company. And maybe some yellow cars too, if that can be arranged. 

 

Jokes aside, really neat idea and will be keeping an eye out for this. Also, if anyone doesn't know what I'm talking about, I'm referring to GTA IV. Admittedly, haven't checked the thread to see if it's been suggested before, but if it has, consider my suggestion as yet another person in need for some bowling in their life. :P

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1 minute ago, BRKs_Eagle said:

Hello, my humble Doctor, I have come to request some medicine. A really severe ache ails me, one that can only be cured by... bowling. Lots and lots of bowling. Preferably with a cousin, for some good company. And maybe some yellow cars too, if that can be arranged. 

 

Jokes aside, really neat idea and will be keeping an eye out for this. Also, if anyone doesn't know what I'm talking about, I'm referring to GTA IV. Admittedly, haven't checked the thread to see if it's been suggested before, but if it has, consider my suggestion as yet another person in need for some bowling in their life. :P

 

Absolutely mate - hasn't been suggested so far, and so I have added to the Priority list, courtesy of your good self ?

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On 15/05/2021 at 0:07 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

Choppy -Choppy

 

Those are some great write ups man, I really enjoyed reading through those, its nice to see so much  time effort and passion going into all of this. Nice and light hearted too for the most part, this isn't about me obviously, but I'm a little worried I've derailed my own thread a bit the last few days by posting about some fairly as Neil from the Young Ones would say "heavy" subject matter, so I'm looking forward to returning a bit of light hearted fun myself.

 

Nice to see Final Fantasy XIII getting a fair critique as well, I feel like too often people just hammer that game into the ground like a tent peg. It isn't perfect sure, but I could think of plenty of worse JRPG's and even Final Fantasy games that deserve a good old hammering way more.

 

I couldn't agree more with your musings on David Cage in your Heavy Rain write up either. I can't help but enjoy his games -  but man does he think he's gods gift to Screenwriting. The irony is if he was actually a film-maker I don't think he'd be viewed in that different a light to Uwe Boll. (Maybe not that bad, it depends how much control he has over how the "camera work" is utilised in his games.) I used to think that MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, you could put the fact his use of exposition feels so stilted and just "off" sometimes, is due to the fact he isn't a native English speaker; to be honest though, I think that's cutting the guy a bit too much slack. The problem is he just gives a bad account of himself in interviews, I think he really believes that he's the video game equivalent of Ingmar Bergman or Francois Truffaut. You hit the nail on the head with the whole "self awareness" thing when talking about Heavy Rain's plot as well I would say. Like, in that part of the game where an old guy gets bonked by a phone. For a tubby lad, Scott Shelby either moves faster than Usain Bolt on a cocaine bender or he just defied physics and summoned all his chi energy and teleported across a room. It is what it is, I suppose.

 

I had to smile about what you put about Zombie Driver as well. that game is almost remarkable in how unremarkable it really is, astonishingly so.  I've actually fallen into the trap of playing a game to tick a letter off myself, so that did make me chuckle a bit. Mine was Q if you were wondering haha!

 

As I'm sure everyone is, I'm really enjoying these. Great stuff.

 

 

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59 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Those are some great write ups man, I really enjoyed reading through those, its nice to see so much  time effort and passion going into all of this. Nice and light hearted too for the most part, this isn't about me obviously, but I'm a little worried I've derailed my own thread a bit the last few days by posting about some fairly as Neil from the Young Ones would say "heavy" subject matter, so I'm looking forward to returning a bit of light hearted fun myself.

 

Thank you very much mate - that's really nice to hear ?

 

I do enjoy writing these - the intention at the outset was never to do a full 'review' for each game per-se, but they were getting longer and longer anyways, so really, they are getting closer to that. To be honest, now the list is bigger, I need to collect my thoughts in order to rank the games, so I figued I might as well write down everything I'm thinking of - that way I remember it all, and people can at least see where I'm coming from, even if they massively disagree ?

 

I wouldn't worry about your own list btw - you write well, and its a good read - and to be honest, I can't speak for everyone but for my part, as a reader, in these checklist type threads I think that variety is the best way to go.

Obvious this one has a more specific goal, but when I read someones personal checklist, I like that it feels less like a specific topic thread, and more like checking in with friend about the games they've been playing - sometimes it's a gushing recommendation, sometimes a tear-down of something crappy, sometimes just a checklist of stuff, and sometimes it goes way off piste, and end up wildly off topic ?

 

 

 

Quote

 

Nice to see Final Fantasy XIII getting a fair critique as well, I feel like too often people just hammer that game into the ground like a tent peg. It isn't perfect sure, but I could think of plenty of worse JRPG's and even Final Fantasy games that deserve a good old hammering way more.

 

Absolutely. Is it the best FF? Not even close.

Does that mean it's terrible? No way!

Frankly, even if it was the worst one, the worst in a great series in still worth playing - and better than plenty other games. I don't think it was the masterpiece some of its predecessors were, but it had some really good aspects and some smart ideas - and it's a shame they tend to get overlooked by people only concentrating on what it didn't have or didn't do so well.

 

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I couldn't agree more with your musings on David Cage in your Heavy Rain write up either. I can't help but enjoy his games -  but man does he think he's gods gift to Screenwriting. The irony is if he was actually a film-maker I don't think he'd be viewed in that different a light to Uwe Boll. (Maybe not that bad, it depends how much control he has over how the "camera work" is utilised in his games.) I used to think that MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, you could put the fact his use of exposition feels so stilted and just "off" sometimes, is due to the fact he isn't a native English speaker; to be honest though, I think that's cutting the guy a bit too much slack. The problem is he just gives a bad account of himself in interviews, I think he really believes that he's the video game equivalent of Ingmar Bergman or Francois Truffaut. You hit the nail on the head with the whole "self awareness" thing when talking about Heavy Rain's plot as well I would say. Like, in that part of the game where an old guy gets bonked by a phone. For a tubby lad, Scott Shelby either moves faster than Usain Bolt on a cocaine bender or he just defied physics and summoned all his chi energy and teleported across a room. It is what it is, I suppose.

 

Yeah - I would still call myself a tepid Quantic Dream fan too - I still like the games, and will play any future one, but I think DotNod have proven false the old argument that Cage's writing is as forgivable as we all once considered it. They also aren't native English speakers, and can have some clunky dialogue, but in their games they have a bit less self-seriousness, a bit more humour, and a slightly ironic wink once in a while - and it goes a hell of a long way. (or, should I say, a Hella long way ?)

 

 

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I had to smile about what you put about Zombie Driver as well. that game is almost remarkable in how unremarkable it really is, astonishingly so.  I've actually fallen into the trap of playing a game to tick a letter off myself, so that did make me chuckle a bit. Mine was Q if you wondering haha!

 

Aw man - I had to choose a Q game too - but that one was a nice surprise - I did Quest of Dungeons - not a brilliant game, but far better than I was expecting, and actually a pretty neat little dungeon crawler.

 

 

Edited by DrBloodmoney
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5 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I do enjoy writing these - the intention at the outset was never to do a full 'review' for each game per-se, but they were getting longer and longer anyways, so really, they are getting closer to that. To be honest, now the list is bigger, I need to collect my thoughts in order to rank the games, so I figued I might as well write down everything I'm thinking of - that way I remember it all, and people can at least see where I'm coming from, even if they massively disagree 1f602.png

 

I totally get that yeah, I don't know if you are the same, but I'm almost finding I'm having more to say about things I've played years ago than things I've played in the last few days. Strange old thing the memory. I feel similar, in that you might as well get it down and then at least it reads as much like your thoughts as possible, one of those where its better to get it down than to just let that fall out of your brain. One of my lecturers years ago always use to say "Don't get it right, get it wrote"  I know you can pick holes in his grammar but English wasn't his first language so he deserves a free pass I think, because the sentiment is a good one.

 

Also, even if people  do massively disagree then at least it opens another avenue for discussion. I'm genuinely thankful you helped me see the "Trophy Shop" thing from NieR in a different way. severe lapse of perspective on my part. So the more healthy debate the better I think.

 

5 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Yeah - I would still call myself a tepid Quantic Dream fan too - I still like the games, and will play any future one, but I think DotNod have proven false the old argument that Cage's writing is as forgivable as we all once considered it. They also aren't native English speakers, and can have some clunky dialogue, but in their games they have a bit less self-seriousness, a bit more humour, and a slightly ironic wink once in a while - and it goes a hell of a long way. (or, should I say, a Hella long way 1f602.png)

 

Another good shout. Although admittedly my experience with DontNod are fairly brief at the moment. I've only played Life is Strange and I don't think the prequel was done by them. Not touched The second Life is Strange as I've heard a lot of people say its a whole lot of, well not a lot I suppose.

 

I guess I should play it myself and see. I started Vampyr recently though which DontNod did, and I really dig their approach to storytelling, it looks like they had quite a concise plan with how all the characters interlink with one another, which if it actually sticks the landing will be quite the feat considering how many characters the game seems to have. Ambitious but brave.Unlike the more seat of their pants style of writing Quantic Dream tends to use, where I think sometimes Cage just forgets pieces of his own plot's which are usually quite important and hopes nobody else notices.

 

5 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Aw man - I had to choose a Q game too - but that one was a nice surprise - I did Quest of Dungeons - not a brilliant game, but far better than I was expecting, and actually a pretty neat little dungeon crawler.

 

Not much to pick from really is there haha. You might have had a better choice than mine though - I went with an Artifex Mundi game, I kind of figured you know what to expect with those so I knew it was a fairly safe bet for that one. The real irony is after going out of my way to get that last letter I've still yet to actually post in that A-Z of platinum's thread, which seems a bit daft. I might have a look at Quest of Dungeons just to see what its like.

 

 

 

Edited by rjkclarke
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16 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Nice to see Final Fantasy XIII getting a fair critique as well, I feel like too often people just hammer that game into the ground like a tent peg. It isn't perfect sure, but I could think of plenty of worse JRPG's and even Final Fantasy games that deserve a good old hammering way more.

@DrBloodmoney and @rjkclarke I couldn't agree more. It was rather refreshing to see an honest and respectful analysis of FFXIII. It was my wife's first proper FF and she really enjoyed it, and from there I was able to get her to play more FF's properly, so it will always hold a special something for that alone, but it certainly isn't the worst FF ever like some want to claim. 

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10 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

@DrBloodmoney and @rjkclarke I couldn't agree more. It was rather refreshing to see an honest and respectful analysis of FFXIII. It was my wife's first proper FF and she really enjoyed it, and from there I was able to get her to play more FF's properly, so it will always hold a special something for that alone, but it certainly isn't the worst FF ever like some want to claim. 

 

That's an awesome story. I love that video games essentially have the power to do that sort of thing.

 

Strange to think of FFXIII being a gateway drug to the series for some people, but in reality its probably quite common, all the Lightning avatar's all over the place probably cement that.

 

I can't say I've played every single Final Fantasy game myself, but I do consider myself a big fan of the series. Probably the most glaring one I haven't played is IX actually, I've owned it on several consoles and still just never gotten around to it, but I do plan to soon. As the good Doctor said above, even if XIII was the worst one its still worth playing.

Edited by rjkclarke
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newtestsubjects.jpg

 

⚛️!!SCIENCE UPDATE!!⚛️

 

 

The next 10 (somewhat) randomly selected games to be submitted for scientific analysis shall be:

 

 

Arcade Archives: Crazy Climber
Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink
Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin
LEGO Legends of Chima (Vita)
Metro 2033 Redux
MotoGP 13 Compact
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Shadow of the Colossus (PS3)
Shadow of the Colossus Remake (PS4)
Skeleton Rider

 

 

Subjects in RED marked for ❎PRIORITY ASSIGNEMENT

[Care of @Copanele & @Soraking1991 ]

 

 

 

Can 'Current Most Awesome' game, Prey, cling to its title once more?

 

Is last-in-show Watchmen: The End is Nigh going to ever have any competition for 'Least Awesome Game' ?

 

Let's find out!

Edited by DrBloodmoney
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3 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

- start of quote
Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin
- end of quote

 

Let's find out!

Oh boy, the "bear seek seek lest" game is here! Prepare the Estus Flask and raise your adaptability stat lads!

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