Giant Bomb #9 | More Dan Meets The Eye
- Thread starter Hot Coldman
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Fantastapotamus
Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
While we're at it, if Vinny (I asume Vinny is constantly reading this thread) want to get your hands on this hot game I saw yesterday, just send me a PM.
Also there are like 500 other amazing simulators, ever wanted to experience the fun and adrenaline of model railway without actually buying model railways? There is a simulator for that. It's like a simulator for a simulator.
Also there are like 500 other amazing simulators, ever wanted to experience the fun and adrenaline of model railway without actually buying model railways? There is a simulator for that. It's like a simulator for a simulator.
stump sock
Member
Simulation Game Developer Simulator 2014
Jimmyfenix
Member
flappy birds hd
da fuq?
da fuq?
Hot Coldman
Banned
Move over Mario World
Which is better: World of Simulators or Bros. 3 of Simulators?
stump sock
Member
Bro Simulator 3.
I will admit that I didn't recognize it as a tumblr post. My mistake. Also, the jab at games journalism 2.0 was needlessly snarky, I apologize, it was the wrong thing to do.
I think you are an excellent writer and love your embedded with developer pieces, but when it comes to talking about game design outside of the thematic, atmospheric, character, etc. elements, there seems to be this glossing over what makes the actual 'play' of games interesting. You touch on linking player driven actions (including entirely superfluous ones to set up more character building), but it is in directive of building thematic weight.
But I still believe criticism of criticism is valid. Game developers read your work, and like the standards that developers are held to for the things they say in off hand comments outside of specific work pieces, so are critics. It speaks directly to the way a person sees a project; what they value, what jumps out at them as the biggest problems, and how they frame the gestalt.
The language around games and how they are criticized is directly influenced by the high end writers like you. A game is more about what you do than why you are doing it. The actual play of it. Tomb Raider '13 is a game about shooting and jumping on structures. There was no talking about how to improve the encounter design (there's not even proper codified language to talk about encounter design). How to improve the situational awareness. How to improve the AI of enemies both singularly and in packs to improve flow. No talk about adding air control, stripping down climbing mechanics, reducing automation, reducing or increasing animation lag, crafting a proper jumping arch, anything about the actual control structure. No talk about the macro design of abilities, whether to create retraceable areas for meaningful discovery, whether to leverage stealth mechanics for hunting, whether to implement a push/pull of resources or make them basically infinite. How to create puzzle design that doesn't completely stop play. Whether it is a good idea to completely stop play in an otherwise free flowing action game. Do you/how to integrate active puzzles which require dexterity along with mental stress.
The things that actual go into the game that is played.
Games are still spoken about like movies: the action scenes should be shorter, the dialogue snappier, the characters more developed, the mood created appropriately, the heroes more defined, what the characters do more extensions of their personality. The cinematography. The writing. The pacing. The characterization.
Yet what you do in the game is jump on things and shoot things. You said you liked Tomb Raider, but the things you do in that game you barely spoke about at all. So I guess those parts were fine? You didn't talk about them at all. I don't think I've ever seen anyone really talk about them as in depth as they have the thematic elements.
For the record, I did not work on Tomb Raider and thought Tomb Raider '13 was an okay but not amazing game. I thought the writing was flat and the fights went on too long too. I think that some of the the thematic elements and statements made
by Eidos PR/devs were in very poor taste. I do not and have not ever terrorized game journalists on Twitter or anywhere else. I do not think that there should be less coverage of social issues in games press and I think there should be more female and minority representation in both development and in actual games.
I also think that the discussion of games as they actually play is incredibly limited and often misguided. I wish that the language of design would improve and the leading and best writers (which includes you) would strive to speak more succinctly about the actual play of games.
EDIT: Well, it turns out I'm on the wrong side of history. That's cool. Everyone loves the piece here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=876611
I agree, but also - baby steps. Most journalists (not Cara, of course) fail to even reach a remotely adequate level of hermeneutic discourse, and you are already asking for complex structural analysis. Gaming criticism will evolve and improve like every other form of criticism has, don't worry.
Edit: woops, double post
stump sock
Member
some kind soul on GB arranged a list of all the Flight Club videos, in chronological order.
http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/twolines/lists/flight-club/76685/
GB's search is the worst for finding videos.
edit: lol "American Trucker."
I want Beijing Moped Simulator.
http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/twolines/lists/flight-club/76685/
GB's search is the worst for finding videos.
edit: lol "American Trucker."
I want Beijing Moped Simulator.
I don't believe that I'm asking for complex structural analysis. Sometimes I feel like games are discussed like if movies were analyzed mostly for their audio score. Paragraphs upon paragraphs of talking about how the score elevated the movie, how it evoked emotional reactions, the character's dialogue seemed to queue perfectly with the notes being played. Then a line saying that the humans on screen did a good job and the events that transpired seemed appropriate for how the music was composed.
I get that different people enjoy different aspects of games and that different games focus on different things ("If they didn't want me to analyze the story, why did they spend so much game time and development budget putting such junk in there?"), that's all valid. But when there is almost no one outside of certain vocal developers and a few forum dwellers who can speak aptly about the play part of games, it gets disheartening.
I don't think we can go on for another generation saying "The shooting is good" and have every single reader interpret it differently. Elaborate. Analyze. Do you even know what you are playing?
Of course, one could post "Well, if everything were right with the world, we wouldn't be talking about the shooting at all." But that is a straw man. The most bloated genre in the world and no one can aptly describe WHY an optimal experience exists in their favourite one.
stump sock
Member
TR '13 had a pretty good shotgun. Would shoot mans with it again.
But would you tear them in half with it at close range again?
Well, if you aren't asking for it, then I am.
This is a step in the right direction, imo, and one I would like to see repeated. Not because it is the end-all-be-all way of criticism but because a hardcore structuralist counterweight is deperately needed. After that, it can level out and continue to build an identity of its own.
Not everyone's cut out to analyse and distinguish. Unless you're only talking about the people who do it professionally. In that case, as criticism evolves, so will critics. And the ones who don't (which is the majority of people right now) won't matter.
I liked the bow. Bows in general are satisfying weapons.
Pocky4Th3Win
Member
I got like 30 demos for PS1, thinking about sending them in to GB. Would love to see Dan and Drew go through some of them.
Dan is probably getting flooded with all sorts of demo discs. I say wait and just send in the ones they don't have. Up to you, though, obviously. Awesome that you're considering sending them in.
Pocky4Th3Win
Member
Been thinking about sending in lots of my classic games to GB, I just don't know what to do with many of them. I think I want to get rid of them more than my wife does.
SteveWinwood
Member
i want brad to get into competitive pokemon
tryagainlater
Member
I'm trying to enjoy UPF but their video player is so shit. None on the settings improve it 
I really liked the last tomb raider. Less combat and more exploring and puzzles and the sequel could be great. They had the basics down solid.
download and watch locally?
I'm trying to enjoy UPF but their video player is so shit. None on the settings improve it
download and watch locally?
stump sock
Member
Haunted
Member
:lol
Joking aside, that's actually a pretty good indication for the strength of the German PC game retail market.
Tell people that you want to put that shit on a disc with all the production costs involved anywhere else in the world and you'll get laughed out of the room.
super-famicom
Member
While we're at it, if Vinny (I asume Vinny is constantly reading this thread) want to get your hands on this hot game I saw yesterday, just send me a PM.
Also there are like 500 other amazing simulators, ever wanted to experience the fun and adrenaline of model railway without actually buying model railways? There is a simulator for that. It's like a simulator for a simulator.
Dat kultige spiel.
stump sock
Member
Joking aside, that's actually a pretty good indication for the strength of the German PC game retail market.
Tell people that you want to put that shit on a disc with all the production costs involved anywhere else in the world and you'll get laughed out of the room.
Nah, I was in Target yesterday and decided to take a stroll through the games aisle for lulz and there was definitely a whole rack of garbage like that in the PC section. Like trash flash games that someone pressed to disc and was selling for $3.99
also they had a half a shelf of OUYAs, so that was pretty funny. They even had the anti-theft devices on them. You know, in case someone tried to steal an OUYA.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
This thing oughta already be on the way to GB BEAST right now.
Oh, it's done been here for over a decade, it's just not getting the monetary reward it deserves for it. That's why Polygon drops long-form missives and "YOULL WANT TO PROTECT HER" is a thing and pushed forward so.
Hot Coldman
Banned
Brad is exactly the kind of person who'd get hype over a Pachirisu play
Coonce
Member
I thought he got strafed? He accidentally loaded up a combat scenario and got shot at by AI.
stump sock
Member
Sure, that's what he says. I rewound it a couple of times and I'm not sure I believe him.
Jimmyfenix
Member
Sometimes I just want to buy a stack of all the cheap ones to send them over, but they will probably be just in German over here.
Yeah, you can get tons of great games and great games for basically nothing.
Also, I was surprised how many new releases still get a disc version. A lot of indie titles, too.
This was my thinking exactly. The combat arenas just got tedious.
Servbot #42
Unconfirmed Member
I kinda digged into that and i couldn't bother reading it all but it involved cheating and giantbomb censorship and Zoe Quinn being a bad person. Now it could all be bullshit but the account seems pretty damn detailed to be bullshit and he posts some proof so i dunno.
stump sock
Member
And this is what happens when crazy dates crazy. I've been there.
Moving on...
Moving on...
Not read it, but I've always found something off about her... timing. And the fact she publicly applied for an editorial job while involved in multiple video game projects with other people already committed to them. Professionals don't do that.
AuthenticM
Member
The youtube comments are terrible. They are all jumping on her and defending the guy as if he had done the world a favor by publicly humiliating her.
If half of what that guy says is true, then I have little sympathy for her. Ugly stuff.
Hot Coldman
Banned
idea: this maybe should just be the giant bomb thread, and not the public defamation of c-list games industry people thread
Indeed, but there's little to be gained by publicly outing her. It just comes across as spiteful.
stump sock
Member
Nothing like that is ever a one-way street, and it's obvious he has plenty of his own problems.
This isn't the place to talk about it though, and knowing how fast these discussions can spin out of control, it's probably a good idea to drop it.
This isn't the place to talk about it though, and knowing how fast these discussions can spin out of control, it's probably a good idea to drop it.
SuperSonic1305
Member
I can't believe Dan said mean things about the Yakuza games. You can suplex guys onto benches. He should love them.
Broder Salsa
Banned
If any of the giantbomb guys could be your grandfather, who would it be?
Jimmyfenix
Member
Jeff
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