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[Darryl]

*awkward face*

That makes no sense...

my point was that most people who play games aren't looking to play them.

also its funny that you were the one who replied to that because i was reading one of your posts when i was inspired to make that complaint.

Doesn't the same go for pretty much every gaming demographic worldwide. Heck, every other week there is an article on how the Japanese look down on Otaku for their game playing habits.

no i agree, but my complaint was more about how frequent TV watching used to be a big problem in the united states, it's becoming less of one, but now gaming has taken on similar traits to resemble TV.

 

[Zwei]

I find Flo from those Progressive commercials to be really attractive.
(its gaming related because Sonic is in one of the commercials)

 

[EmCeeGramr]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a game starting slowly to introduce you to the world, plot, and gameplay mechanics.

Games can use tons of words and writing, there is nothing inherently wrong with language in a video game. Gamers and armchair game designers insisting that every game needs to be a silent Limbo-like pantomime are severely narrow-sighted, really don't understand what "Show, don't tell" actually means, and are simply engaged in an act of pseudointellectual masturbation.

 

[Raging Spaniard]

So a really bad 11 hour game can be $60 while a terrific 9 hour game can't?

Pretty much!

 

[djtiesto]

The problems Japanese games face is that they're stuck with an image problem. The Japanomania fad of the late 90s / early 2000s did create an anime-hipster fanboy hybrid that glommed onto everything Japanese for identity. Unfortunately, this has lead to a very popular and highly flammable strawman: if you like Japanese games, you're an anime fanboy who thinks they're good because they're "exotic".

The cloud from the burning tends to obscure that Japanese game design has a number of things it's objectively good at; good because it's good, not just the novelty of the foreign confused with quality. It also has led to a huge anti-Japan backlash, where everything Western is considered superior just because it's Western, and west = new and better and Japan = last gen and outdated. Regardless of that being true in each particular case.

This is an interesting way of looking at things. I come from a different boat where I never really was hardcore into anime (though I do like some of it), nor did I ever use one small aspect of my interests (video games in this case) to definie who I was... I grew up playing NES, SNES, Genesis, classic arcade games, with dreams of one day becoming a game designer. So, whenever I play a game, the mechanics become one of the first things I focus on. And the genres I latched onto at a young age were run 'n' guns, platformers, shmups, and console RPGs - these are genres I have continued to play today, and genres that Japan is best at.

And it's not like I've never played a western RPG before recently. One of the first RPGs I played was the NES port of Ultima Exodus (shortly after DQ1), and when I got my first computer for middle school graduation, got Pool of Radiance as a graduation gift from the neighbors. Back then when I was little I didn't even really think much at all of the Japan/West divide in game making. It's only within the PS2/GC/Xbox generation that this stuff has hit the forefront.

I'm hoping the anti Japan backlash ends soon, since trends eventually change (who thought there would be a fighter revival this gen)...

 

[EvilMario]

So a really bad 11 hour game can be $60 while a terrific 9 hour game can't?

$2 per hour maximum for a game. If it's a 10 hour game, I'm waiting for it to bottom out at $20.

Rough estimate. I don't actually go into a store with this mentality, but I do wait for prices to drop on most titles.

 

[ronito]

Shenmue is a shit game.

A few years ago I would've hung you by your toenails for such blasphemy but I recently picked up Shen Mue 2 and realized that, yeah, as a game it's pretty terrible. QTEs, moving books and crates. It's a wonderful universe. But it's a terrible game.

 

[Genesis Knight]

Perfect, a 13 page dump thread where I can get this off my chest and nobody will notice:

Nintendo franchises blow. Not because they have bad gameplay - they don't - but because their cutesy, day-glo childlike designs are just too embarrassing to actually put up with. An exception would be Metroid Prime or Donkey Kong Country Returns. But I'm not going to subject myself to Mario and Kirby. Stuff doesn't have to be all blood and guts and grim, but there's a time for putting off childish things. It's not even really a problem here and there in, say, XBLA or indie games. But I hate how Nintendo's entire library is like that.

Most Japanese games suck for similar reasons. Japanese arcade games from the 90s and earlier are great, but all the modern moe/loli bullshit is just too much. It blows my mind that people can actually get excited about JRPGs with staggering casts of gender-neutral, whiny, high-pitched preteens. Who the hell wants to play that shit instead of, say Deus Ex or Skyrim? An exception would be Bayonetta because it was obviously ridiculous and I wasn't expected to actually empathize with any of the walking sets of breasts in fetish gear.

 

[Gravijah]

$2 per hour maximum for a game. If it's a 10 hour game, I'm waiting for it to bottom out at $20.

Rough estimate. I don't actually go into a store with this mentality, but I do wait for prices to drop on most titles.

gimme some dap

 

[Alchemy]

That Skyward Sword is fucking atrocious.

 

[The Albatross]

Sports games are good.

 

[Carlisle]

Ooh, fun:

- Suikoden and Wild ARMs should have died with PS1
- Final Fantasy should have died with PS2
- FFXI is not the worst game in the series
- MGS4 is amazing
- Bethesda games, while technically impressive and ripe with content, suck and are boring
- PS Move is the best motion gaming this gen has to offer
- Waggle is better than dual analogs for FPS

 

[Derrick01]

This is an interesting way of looking at things. I come from a different boat where I never really was hardcore into anime (though I do like some of it), nor did I ever use one small aspect of my interests (video games in this case) to definie who I was... I grew up playing NES, SNES, Genesis, classic arcade games, with dreams of one day becoming a game designer. So, whenever I play a game, the mechanics become one of the first things I focus on. And the genres I latched onto at a young age were run 'n' guns, platformers, shmups, and console RPGs - these are genres I have continued to play today, and genres that Japan is best at.

And it's not like I've never played a western RPG before recently. One of the first RPGs I played was the NES port of Ultima Exodus (shortly after DQ1), and when I got my first computer for middle school graduation, got Pool of Radiance as a graduation gift from the neighbors. Back then when I was little I didn't even really think much at all of the Japan/West divide in game making. It's only within the PS2/GC/Xbox generation that this stuff has hit the forefront.

I'm hoping the anti Japan backlash ends soon, since trends eventually change (who thought there would be a fighter revival this gen)...

It's only going to end when they can pick up the slack in the writing department and stop with the anime cliches. I mean some elitists will say all video game stories suck and blah blah, but japan's stories and writing is much much worse and painful to sit through. I'm mostly talking about rpgs here but it works with other stuff too, like bayonetta's story and cutscenes make me want to eat my own brain. And I know the fans don't care because "omg fighting game gameplay" but I like a whole game and I won't play something that is so bad in those areas that I have to wonder if they were actually trying to make it that bad in some sort of ironic, funny way.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

Crono Cross is a gaudy disaster with terrible characters defined by their retarded, obnoxious accents. The music is good, that's it.

Was better in Japanese. Also, incredible music and great battle system. Plot was more fun in Japanese too, because I had to guess at most of the stuff going on, and it largely worked better that way.

Dreamcast is obscenely overrated and has aged horribly and its constant fanboy nostalgic fellating makes me vomit. The only thing that redeems it for me is JSR.

The Dreamcast had an ecclectic mix of fun to admittedly mediocre games. Its strength was in the variety of unique and (at the time) experimental genres it offered, and hardware that managed both 2D and 3D games well. Not being a huge fan of Japanese shooters, I haven't revisited the system very often, but PSO, Soul Calibur, and Jet Set Radio alone justify it still sitting on my entertainment center, whereas my Wii has been in its box in the closet for 2 years.

 

[hutna]

Video games are not art.

No video game has ever had anything approaching a good story.

 

[Satchel]

1. We are currently experiencing the best generation of gaming so far. By a street.

2. The games we (most of us over 25 or so) played as kids are not as great as we remember. I tried playing Super Metroid a few months ago and only lasted 10 minutes. What a fucking boring game. How the hell did I like it as a kid?

3. DLC fucking rules. All forms of it.

 

[hey_it's_that_dog]

I've never enjoyed a 3D Mario game.

I didn't really like OoT when I first played it. I might like it now but I have no way to play it.

I think people who are still entertained by a game like Super Mario Bros. 1 or Sonic the Hedgehog are probably dullards.

I don't really have a problem with online passes, yet.

Story and writing in videogames, even the best, are almost always a waste of time if you possess the ability to read a book. Not saying they can't ever be good. Just that they aren't. (Thanks for the reminder hunta)

 

[Christine]

In point of fact, Nintendo DOES need to apply their considerable ability with character design (there's a reason why they last so long) to create new characters. Nintendo's conservatism is legendary, but it both helps and hinders. It HAS kept them alive, and made them one of the few companies able to actually make money cleanly. It also does make them very hesitant to invest in untested IP.

The relative merits of Nintendo's 'slap mario on newly developed game concept for extra $$$' are up for debate, but I do tend to think that some people have unrealistic expectations in that area. Mario, Zelda, Samus, Donkey Kong and Kirby were all vague little avatar sprites to begin with, and it's only through decades of technical and thematic evolution that they've become iconic.

That sort of opportunity just doesn't exist anymore, at least not in the same way. It's kind of sad, but it's not really Nintendo's fault. It does highlight one of their big weaknesses, though: they're not actually good at character design. Masters of character design evolution and maintenance, to be sure, but not of ginning up details and characteristics of an entirely new design.

 

[LuchaShaq]

The Zelda games on DS are complete trash.
Dragon age 2 would be a very good game even better than the first if it wasn't for the reused areas and awful ending (both story and gameplay wise).
Every disc based ps3 exclusive besides uncharted series is awful.
Mario galaxy 1-2 and DKCR would be substantially better games if they never had waggle tacked on.

Despite gafs hate of game stories, they fail to realize how god awful the stories and acting are in the most popular movies (avatar/twilight/transformers/adam sandler shit) If you sit there and tell me those are any better than even the bad stories in the COD series you are crazy imo. That's not to mention games with actual good stories, or middling stories with great characters. Sure oscar worthy is a joke but I'll take the characters in GTA4/mass effect 1-2/Red Dead/L.A. Noire/Persona 3-4/Uncharted 1-/Assassin's creed series over the majority of movies. Over things like inception/ides of march/king's speech/the artist? HELL NO, over the typical crap action/crap rom-coms? Any day.

 

[Derrick01]

Dreamcast is obscenely overrated and has aged horribly and its constant fanboy nostalgic fellating makes me vomit. The only thing that redeems it for me is JSR.

Yeah this is another one. Everything and everyone who dies early seems to be looked back on as legendary when in reality it's usually the opposite. It was an over ambitious system with a bunch of mediocre AT BEST games, and it was crushed by a system who was living in reality and was able to pull much better game support than Dreamcast ever would have.

 

[BobsRevenge]

my point was that most people who play games aren't looking to play them.

also its funny that you were the one who replied to that because i was reading one of your posts when i was inspired to make that complaint.

I play games to be entertained, and not to be challenged, mostly... if that's what you mean. I mean, challenge is good to force you to be more creative, and that's what I typically play games for. To be creative, hopefully while thinking on my toes.

Or, in the case of CoD, to have my mind sand-blasted with over-the-top shit.

So I do it for escapism rather than to excel at it. I think that's where your distinction is, you just misunderstand your position and characterize it in an obviously narrow-minded way. If I'm wrong, than your position still escapes me, and it's hard for me to figure out since you aren't being very articulate about it.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

i think most western gamers who play video games aren't actually looking to play a video game, they're trying to relabel their countless hours they would usually spend watching TV in a more socially acceptable manner (its not cool to spend all day watching TV anymore, but its sick if you can put in 100 hours in skyrim over the weekend)

Actually, that would be fucking amazing and every physicist on Earth would love to meet them if they could.

I find Flo from those Progressive commercials to be really attractive.
(its gaming related because Sonic is in one of the commercials)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s8Os_32qQY

 

[FLEABttn]

- Final Fantasy should have died with PS2

I would have taken this a step farther and went with the PSX. I found the PS2 entries insufferable.

 

[BobsRevenge]

Actually, that would be fucking amazing and every physicist on Earth would love to meet them if they could.

They put their consciousness into a quantum field and play the game in two locations at once.

 

[LeleSocho]

•Super Mario Galaxy 2 is retail-priced DLC. Always was. Always will be.

Thank god i'm not the only one.

 

[Kai Dracon]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a game starting slowly to introduce you to the world, plot, and gameplay mechanics.

Games can use tons of words and writing, there is nothing inherently wrong with language in a video game. Gamers and armchair game designers insisting that every game needs to be a silent Limbo-like pantomime are severely narrow-sighted, really don't understand what "Show, don't tell" actually means, and are simply engaged in an act of pseudointellectual masturbation.

i like you mister

 

[Bigfoot]

Ok...

• I enjoy the COD games for the singleplayer and rarely touch the multiplayer.
• Black Ops had the best COD singleplayer campaign (haven't played MW3 yet).
• I will never buy another handheld because of my iPhone and iOS gaming.
• I really enjoy the Uncharted games but don't often stand up for them on GAF because I think the Uncharted fanboys are the worst of the NeoGAF fanboys (even worse than Zelda and MGS fans).
• The GameCube was the best console last gen.

 

[mxgt]

Uncharted games are awful

 

[BobsRevenge]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a game starting slowly to introduce you to the world, plot, and gameplay mechanics.

Games can use tons of words and writing, there is nothing inherently wrong with language in a video game. Gamers and armchair game designers insisting that every game needs to be a silent Limbo-like pantomime are severely narrow-sighted, really don't understand what "Show, don't tell" actually means, and are simply engaged in an act of pseudointellectual masturbation.

Show don't tell style gameplay is meant to stimulate your sense of discovery. Obviously everyone's mileage is going to vary on how entertained they are by that, but I love it. I thought Limbo did a good job of it...

I do agree that the idea that it is, by nature, superior is narrow-minded though.

 

[wutwutwut]

Here's another controversial opinion: the best games released/updated in the past couple of years are the best games ever created (I'm thinking Portal 2, TF2 and sorts).

 

[Darryl]

I play games to be entertained, and not to be challenged, mostly... if that's what you mean. I mean, challenge is good to force you to be more creative, and that's what I typically play games for. To be creative, hopefully while thinking on my toes.

Or, in the case of CoD, to have my mind sand-blasted with over-the-top shit.

So I do it for escapism rather than to excel at it. I think that's where your distinction is, you just misunderstand your position and characterize it in an obviously narrow-minded way. If I'm wrong, than your position still escapes me, and it's hard for me to figure out since you aren't being very articulate about it.

nah you managed to figure it out. i didn't think people in this thread were actually listening to other people so i wasn't being very articulate. my point is that video games are the new TV. it's now socially acceptable to sit around all day and play video games, so plenty of people choose to do just that to escape the stigma. in doing this, many video games are taking on similarities to TV. the games that allow you to play and think less are selling more. it's getting worse each year, and I DONT LIKE IT!

edit: also rereading what you said, i think you may have actually misunderstood me and tried to characterize my opinion in an obviously narrow-minded way

 

[abercrombie]

Rockstar Game's IPs are puerile and predictable.

 

[Tain]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a game starting slowly to introduce you to the world, plot, and gameplay mechanics.

Games can use tons of words and writing, there is nothing inherently wrong with language in a video game. Gamers and armchair game designers insisting that every game needs to be a silent Limbo-like pantomime are severely narrow-sighted, really don't understand what "Show, don't tell" actually means, and are simply engaged in an act of pseudointellectual masturbation.

The people you're complaining about sound really annoying.

 

[NinjaBoiX]

And pulling the trigger on the pad "doesn't feel remotely close" to pulling the trigger on a gun? How's that? Come on man, it rumbles violently and everything!

Holding a gun

Holding a 360 controller

Not even close...

Yeah, because that's what I meant...

 

[Dug]

I actually liked Duke Nukem Forever!

 

[The Albatross]

It isn't. It's based on the "gaming on a desk reminds me of work" excuse. The gamepads advantage is in other genres like platforming/sports etc...

I really don't care about the FPS debate (frankly, I think keyboard + mouse is better, but that's just my preference, I still enjoy console controller FPS games)... BUT...

That mouse is the most stupid thing I've ever seen. The way you "twist" the mouse to aim looks like the worst carpal tunnel creator of all time.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

I actually liked Duke Nukem Forever!

So did I. Certainly a flawed game with some really mediocre levels, but I had fun with it.

 

[Gully State]

nah you managed to figure it out. i didn't think people in this thread were actually listening to other people so i wasn't being very articulate. my point is that video games are the new TV. it's now socially acceptable to sit around all day and play video games, so plenty of people choose to do just that to escape the stigma. in doing this, many video games are taking on similarities to TV. the games that allow you to play and think less are selling more. it's getting worse each year, and I DONT LIKE IT!

edit: also rereading what you said, i think you may have actually misunderstood me and tried to characterize my opinion in an obviously narrow-minded way

Not that I don't disagree with you but the watching TV all day stigma is very much alive in video games.

 

[BobsRevenge]

nah you managed to figure it out. i didn't think people in this thread were actually listening to other people so i wasn't being very articulate. my point is that video games are the new TV. it's now socially acceptable to sit around all day and play video games, so plenty of people choose to do just that to escape the stigma. in doing this, many video games are taking on similarities to TV. the games that allow you to play and think less are selling more. it's getting worse each year, and I DONT LIKE IT!

I'll agree with that. While I have an appreciation for stupid fun, a game that requires some thought and creativity is what I most love.

I also love experience games that try to communicate an idea. I love seeing how a designer contextualizes it. That's one reason I always look forward to games from Rohr or That Game Company. Noby Noby Boy also made a cool attempt at it, though the idea wasn't as coherent. Noby Noby Boy was kind of like a modern art curiousity. :lol I ended up playing it a lot for reasons I never understood.

I definitely would appreciate more sophistication in game design.

I don't think it's socially acceptable though. More than it used to be, especially for popular games, but still.

edit:

edit: also rereading what you said, i think you may have actually misunderstood me and tried to characterize my opinion in an obviously narrow-minded way

I think you deliberately tried to make it abrasive, which made it a more narrow-minded argument. I do understand where you're coming from though.

 

[Ikael]

- The whole "WRPGs are soooo much more creative and better than JRPGs nowadays" is a load of horseshit. It still boogles my mind why games like Dragon Age gets more hype than Devil Survivor, Resonance of Fate, Valkyrie Chronicles or the likes, other than "I like dragons better than animu"

- Dual analog controls for FPSes are an aberration. Yes, this has been a long and boring generation of consoles for me.

- Linearity, if anything, is underrated. Open worlds sometimes are just a pisspoor way of saying "I don't know about level design"

- GameDev History is one of the best games of 2011

- Civilization: Revolutions is pure genious, while Civilization V is a disgrace to its noble name

- Heavy rain was a good game, with some flashes of pure genious

- Konami is a has - been, pretty much like Squarenix

- Ico > Shadow of the Colossus

- ffXII was a snorefest

- ffVIII is a poor game, and has the worst plot of its saga

- The greatest breaktroughts in game design nowadays are being made in the downloadable / flash area, not in any standarized console

- If there is no next gen console focused into cheapass gaming, the industry will be in serious trouble

 

[Struct09]

It's good to have these garbage dumping ground threads every once in a while.

-I can kind of understand why people like Demon's Souls, but even after completing it I still hate it. No desire to play Dark Souls.
-I don't like any Resident Evil games, not even 4. But Dead Space is awesome.

 

[The Albatross]

1. We are currently experiencing the best generation of gaming so far. By a street.

2. The games we (most of us over 25 or so) played as kids are not as great as we remember. I tried playing Super Metroid a few months ago and only lasted 10 minutes. What a fucking boring game. How the hell did I like it as a kid?

3. DLC fucking rules. All forms of it.

I pretty much agree with all of this. Only problem I have is #3, I love DLC, but I don't like it when shit that was packed onto the disc in an older version is now sold as DLC in the newest versions. A lot of FPS' do this because they can release maps later, so they release the game with 8 maps, and then offer DLC that should have been on the disc, and charge premium for it. I also don't like it when DLC fractures a community. This is terrible in Battlefield this year.

 

[qq more]

I think people who are still entertained by a game like Super Mario Bros. 1 or Sonic the Hedgehog are probably dullards.

Wow.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

It's good to have these garbage dumping ground threads every once in a while.

Yeah, there's some obvious collective catharsis going on in here.

Opinions You've Always Had But Were Too Scared to Otherwise Share on GAF |OT|

 

[sp3000]

Video games are not art.

No video game has ever had anything approaching a good story.

That's because you haven't played one with a good story. This is pretty much like only seeing the mainstream Hollywood stuff that is shoved out every summer and claiming movies don't have good stories.

The Uncharted games are embarrassing lowest common denominator entertainment. Story, dialogue, characters, gameplay, the whole thing is laughable. AK-47 and grenades, cover shooting waves of generic enemies, automatic platforming.

"damn I just took on 30 highly trained paramilitary soldiers on my own and survived"

hot chick appears

"wow does your ass looks good in those jeans"

Pretty much true.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

I didn't like the Half-Life games And honestly don't care for a single game made or published by Valve.

 

[RockmanWhore]

I kinda want Nintendo to stop making console and become a third party editor. I'd rather play Zelda and Mario on my PS3 than on my Wii. Some for most DS games that I would have liked more on PSP. And the same applies for all those 3DS games that would be better on PS Vita...

 

[Seraphinianus]

Yeah, there's some obvious collective catharsis going on in here.

Opinions You've Always Had But Were Too Scared to Otherwise Share on GAF |OT|

and laugh as you watch as people angrily respond in futile hopes of proving you wrong or making you look bad.

 

[frequency]

I think the opinions my friends make fun of me the most for having are:
- Final Fantasy XIII is one of the best games this generation.
- Skyrim is a bad video game.
- Japanese games are constantly innovating and coming up with new and fun things.
- Western games have been stagnant for the last few years, and outside of a few outliers, there is very little innovation and freshness. It's all rehashing the tried and true "AAA" formula.
- Video game stories, on paper, are not as good as a book. But with the interactive and visual aspects, video game stories in general are better than stories in other mediums.
- Online gaming is the worst thing to happen to consoles this generation.
- The PSP is the best console, by far, this generation.

 

[rpmurphy]

Wow.

Lol. This thread is a gold mine.