Questioning the legitimacy of online chatter that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a GOTY game

Once I'm home and if i can be assed i will 100% dig out some classic Sony fans comments about masterpieces. Basically what you are explaining is exactly what is happening in this thread about indy.
Do something more constructive like cleaning your house. Nobody doubts that you will find posts about Spider-Man 2, God of War 2, Horizon 2 oder FF16 being praised as god given masterpieces during release / the honeymoon phase. You will also find "criminally underrated gem" comments about Days Gone, The Order etc.

Everybody here knows how it is when it comes to exclusive games. A hating/downplaying B+C, A praising/hyping A, B hating/downplaying A+C, B praising/hyping B, C hating/downplaying A + B, C praising/hyping C.
 
It's a fine game if you can get past the first person perspective. It isn't a goty or goat. It would have been better in 3rd person. It isn't woke and that goes a long way.

The goty people knew that not many people had played it so they were gaslighting you. Also, Xbox fans who were happy they finally got a good single player sony style exclusive were in the honeymoon phase of this game when all that shit came up.

I mean, do you not know who Colt Eastwood is?

My advice would be to don't buy everything you read or hear online.
 
Imagine if Insomniac took the spiderman license and made it a first person immersive sim. People would laugh and mock them until the publisher cancelled the game which is what shouldve happened here.
Why would they do that when Spider-Man travels significantly faster than Indiana Jones, and this wouldn't work in 1st person on a fundamental level? That is a baseless comparison.

Indiana Jones works as a primarily 1st person sim experience; The Great Circle has just… Showcased that perfectly. Had it not, then it wouldn't have received the praise that it has, nor secured the spot for best selling game in the US on PlayStation.
 
Yep. They are so best that every single immersive sim game from Prey to Dishonored, Deathloop, and now Indiana Jones has flopped. The studios either shutdown or will be shutdown after one bomb. Not to mention the fact that they dont ever win GOTYs. Bioshock 1 was literally the only GOTY contender immersive sim and it came out nearly 20 years ago.

They are as niche as they come. They have a dedicated fanbase who clearly enjoy these games but these games barely even sell a million copies nowadays. Something like Indy should be an action adventure game with some immersive sim elements, not the other way around.
Here is where we get into technicalities, what AKSHULLY is an immersive sim? I would argue that Dishonored, Deathloop, Indiana Jones, and Bioshock are not. People seem to think that any game that integrates exploration and NPCs with combat is an immersive sim, but it's really not. Prey is the only one you mentioned.

And also - EVERY immersive sim has bombed, with the possible exception of Deus Ex and Human Revolution. Every single one. You're totally right, it's a very niche genre and it's never going to catch on.
 
You've got to be at least 40 years old to even be eligible for Indiana Jones enjoyment. Hollywood Gen X people have a giant blind spot for how popular the character is. Reminds me perfectly of gaffers who think the gaming public is urgently crying out for a Banjo Kazooie remake or sequel.

I haven't played the game. As someone who looks up the solution to any gaming puzzle if I can't solve it in 3 minutes, is it even worth it for me to check out? The concept sounds like it's just the boring parts of Tomb Raider and Uncharted with much less of the actual fun and excitement.
 
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There is a tendency to label every exclusive GOTY on these boards. This happens with every game including Nintendo games so i dont pay too much attention to it.

The game is simply boring and it should be an insult to all indy fans to make a boring indy game. The developers shouldve been blasted for making a first person immersive sim instead of an action adventure game. The whole thing is wrong and everyone responsible for this is literally retarded. Imagine if Insomniac took the spiderman license and made it a first person immersive sim. People would laugh and mock them until the publisher cancelled the game which is what shouldve happened here.

Arkhane is making Blade. Watch them turn it into a first person immersive sim too.

This.

The issue goes beyond the immersion breaking (yes, breaking) first person perspective. - i've talked enough about how not seeing Indy on screen for the majority of the playtime actually harms the "really makes you feel like Indiana Jones" objective. You don't take one of the most iconic silhouette's in movie history and relegate that to third person cinematic cutaways.

The real crime though is stretching the game out far too long. Pacing needed to be very compact and movie-like, much like an Uncharted game, which usually tops out at about 10 hours. Uncharted already figured out the formula for an Indiana Jones game back in 2007 and perfected it. All Machine Game had to do was copy that formula, but it's not in their wheelhouse. Giving this IP to them was forcing a square peg in a round hole.
 
Indiana Jones works as a primarily 1st person sim experience
indiana jones father GIF
 
Why would they do that when Spider-Man travels significantly faster than Indiana Jones, and this wouldn't work in 1st person on a fundamental level? That is a baseless comparison.

Indiana Jones works as a primarily 1st person sim experience; The Great Circle has just… Showcased that perfectly. Had it not, then it wouldn't have received the praise that it has, nor secured the spot for best selling game in the US on PlayStation.

If you are going to use critical praise and sales as your metric then that works against the game being GOTY as there were games that received more praise and sold more than Indy. I'd say Indy does "work" as a first person game, but it would have been better in third person. That's just an opinion, but I think it would have had more praise and sales in that perspective.
 
You've got to be at least 40 years old to even be eligible for Indiana Jones enjoyment. Hollywood Gen X people have a giant blind spot for how popular the character is. Reminds me perfectly of gaffers who think the gaming public is urgently crying out for a Banjo Kazooie remake or sequel.

I haven't played the game. As someone who looks up the solution to any gaming puzzle if I can't solve it in 3 minutes, is it even worth it for me to check out? The concept sounds like it's just the boring parts of Tomb Raider and Uncharted with much less of the actual fun and excitement.

It's worth it as probably the best thing Indiana Jones has been associated with since 1989.

This would have slotted in very nicely as an Indy focused story in the original trilogy as well.

The game itself can be customized in difficulty both for combat and exploration / puzzles, so those things can be turned into very small inconveniences if you want a breezy experience through.
 
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It's not gonna happen this year guys. Don't worry. Indiana Jones will never be able to claim any goty consensus, so you are worrying about nothing.

If you are upset you bought the game, then you probably should have researched and found out it was a FPS with uncharted gameplay. Not good folks. If you continued on after that then you rolled your dice. You probably got lucky it was a decent non-woke game because it could have been way worse.
 
Playing on PC I'm probably halfway through the Egypt bit. Great game tbf, but not sure about GOTY.

Weirdly, it reminds me of Last Crusade and Fate of Atlantis, despite the graphical style. On that basis, I suspect it will not please many - you have to have been born pre-1980, tolerate FPS, enjoy puzzles and not really care for combat.
 
Nobody loves Indiana Jones more than me, but they should have made it more like an Uncharted style adventure, and definitely in the third person.

I quite liked the new game, but if it wasn't an Indy game I'd never have finished it.
 
Game was much better than I initially expected, but calling it GOTY is honestly not correct. It's an 8~8.5 game imo.

The game genuinely peaks in its early half.. The Vatican and Giza areas are faaaaaaar better than that Thai location, that place was a chore and a half to work through with that shitty slow boat.

Also calling it an immersive sim is incorrect imo because you really don't have a lot of tools to get past situations (also once you get the final disguise in every area you can basically go anywhere and do anything).
 
A stealth focused game with a dumbass ai that you can exploit all you want without a sweat is not exactly good either, you can have good stealth with more smart\aggressive ai, old thief games, mgs5 all games that are considered pinnacle stealth and have decent\good ai.

Ai being THIS dumb in indy is not the positive you think it is, it make look the game cheap, same for the combat.

Dishonored desn't have excellent ai behaviour but on the hardest mode their sight\hearing sense are super acute.

I know people use the power fantasy excuse but that is why you have different difficult modes, easy\normal for people who want power fantasy and smashing an entire base of nazi with bare hands and hard mode for people who want to actually sweat a little, it is not a good excuse at all.

It looks to me like the game doesn't even know what it want to be, i read that even the puzzles are pretty easy.
AI isnt as bad I would say. Player still cannot come in line of sight.

Its just that when they turn around, they do that in a dumb way and are completely oblivious to Indi's presence. Player can feel safe when they are turned around.

In MGS games, sneaking around is basically what the game is. So its kept slightly more challenging. Here, player is looking for interesting stuff to find in between enemies.

It looks to me like the game doesn't even know what it want to be, i read that even the puzzles are pretty easy.
Its Indi simulator. Game is pretty sure what it wants to be.

It also has a lot of granularity in difficulty settings. One can set puzzle difficulty at highest to get the challenge, if thats what you want out of it.
 
Why would they do that when Spider-Man travels significantly faster than Indiana Jones, and this wouldn't work in 1st person on a fundamental level? That is a baseless comparison.

Indiana Jones works as a primarily 1st person sim experience; The Great Circle has just… Showcased that perfectly. Had it not, then it wouldn't have received the praise that it has, nor secured the spot for best selling game in the US on PlayStation.
So you agree that fast traversal is a core pillar of Spiderman?

So you would also agree that a game based on an ACTION franchise filled with plane, motorbike, car, trucks, tanks, and fucking blimps should be focused on those action setpieces and not immersive sim elements.
 
So you agree that fast traversal is a core pillar of Spiderman?

So you would also agree that a game based on an ACTION franchise filled with plane, motorbike, car, trucks, tanks, and fucking blimps should be focused on those action setpieces and not immersive sim elements.
Best parts in Batman Arkham games are when Batman acts like a detective.

It all depends on how its implemented.

A grounded Spiderman game with smart use of his abilities can absolutely work.

It won't be for everyone though, I agree.
 
The game being first person is the only reason I chose to skip it.

I love Indy, but I just can't play an Indy game as first person, it breaks the immersion
 
Im an Indiana Jones Glazer/ top three movie IP for me.
Game is beautiful and well acted, its a good game. Not GOTY for me- the First person makes me struggle to connect with the character and everything going on.
Its a me thing. But I am enjoying the game- i just unfortunately dont love it as much as a I should.
Will buy any sequel
 
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Bro, what?

- The action escape for the jewel with all the moving parts in the scene.

- The diving into the car with Short Round driving chase and race to the airport.

- The airplane with no pilots or parachutes heading towards a mountain and having to dive out in an inflatable raft.

- The escape in the mining carts bouncing around the tracks.

- The bridge scene where it was cut.

Etc.
Did you look this up or it's all straight out of memory? Damn, I can't even remember details of what I watched yesterday!
 
It's only a decent chunk of the game if that's how you choose to engage with it. The way I played it, i tried to avoid combat as much as possible and only resorted to it when i had no choice. Exploration and stealth were my main ways getting through the game and i had a great time with it. I'm playing it again on PS5.
I mean, that's fine but also the stealth isn't good either.
 
Indiana Jones is a good game but it's not GOTY material but I understand that Xbox fans want to get something into the Games Awards after a decade of nothing.
 
Did you look this up or it's all straight out of memory? Damn, I can't even remember details of what I watched yesterday!
Memory, lol.

I'm sure there was more, like the blood drunk stupor where Indy had to fight out of it and not body Short Round while in the mines prior to the cart escape scene.
 
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Great story, excellent audio visual presentation, great voice work and a generally very good presentation. This isn't the kind of game where you want to be engaging in a lot of open combat, but when you do, you can use parrying, whip pulling etc to isolate enemies and take them out.

It's ok if you didn't like it, that's what an opinion is, but it's a bit weird to criticize combat so much for a game where it isn't the primary thing. No one criticizes the recent Hitman World of Assassination games because you can't shoot your way out of all encounters like a third person shooter.





meh.

Before The Great Circle, the only other Indy game most people would talk about in a reverent way was Fate of Atlantis, which is a point and click game.

No one ties Indiana Jones as a gaming franchise to 'action adventure' only.

Would you find the way they do Tomb Raider to be a better overall formula? I stated to someone else that the problem isn't just the combat, the stealth isn't good either. And Hitman has several different options for stealth aside from throw rock and hide in shadows. Even the 90s GOAT game Thief had better stealth options.
 
Would you find the way they do Tomb Raider to be a better overall formula? I stated to someone else that the problem isn't just the combat, the stealth isn't good either. And Hitman has several different options for stealth aside from throw rock and hide in shadows. Even the 90s GOAT game Thief had better stealth options.

The last couple of TR games, especially Shadow, were practically full on shooters. Thematically, that's not what Indy, as a character, has been. He's mostly just running away from shit and only occasionally partaking in fights.

The game, for me at least, did a great job at being an entry friendly Immersive-Sim Lite, which gives you the option to combat out of situations or just stealth or disguise your way out, not unlike how the character would in the movies.

As a fan of the original trilogy, it's an excellent representation of that experience for me.

Obviously I can't comment on folks who wanted a third person action focused romp here, I think it's a fine game without trying to be that.
 
The last couple of TR games, especially Shadow, were practically full on shooters. Thematically, that's not what Indy, as a character, has been. He's mostly just running away from shit and only occasionally partaking in fights.

The game, for me at least, did a great job at being an entry friendly Immersive-Sim Lite, which gives you the option to combat out of situations or just stealth or disguise your way out, not unlike how the character would in the movies.

As a fan of the original trilogy, it's an excellent representation of that experience for me.

Obviously I can't comment on folks who wanted a third person action focused romp here, I think it's a fine game without trying to be that.
To each their own. I'm not knocking it for any reason as I went in overly hyped and I didn't see a bunch of complaints about how the game felt until I played it. It's not the worst Indy game, I'm mostly focused on the GOTY comments because I played a ton of better games last year even if they didn't look as pretty.

The voice acting though, I love this in the Indy. And the story. I'm going to power through for the story because it's better than the 2000s+ storylines for Indy for sure.
 
Just about every damn first party game is going to be called a "masterpiece" by someone. We've got folks calling Hellblade 2 a masterpiece as well. What's hiliarious is that you obviously only see this shit when it is "Sony fans".
But Mr. Moose is doing exactly the same. He is talking as only xbox fans do this and that's just bullshit, even talked about the Horizon games, when the 1st came out was like the 2nd coming for many people. We can even go futher back with games like Infamous or Killzone 3 when they came out. Xbox fans do the same obviously, there's no way someone is being impartial when calling Redfall a goty.
 
it was just incredibly immersive to play for me
i liked puzzles and almost all gameplay elements, even the stealth
it was quite joy to explore and discover things in maps they carefully crafted. every corner of every map is full of details and meaningful, unique content. you get this sense that only rare games like hitman achieved that vatican and gizeh really lives and breathes. you can sense that you're in an actual place, not a place that is pretending to be place (see, most ac games where npcs being there for the sake of being there, buildings placed for the sake of being placed there).

I mean I didn't play astro bot. I don't have a ps5, and I would never get one for playstation exclusives (I will rent one for gta 6 though for a couple months and maybe then I could give that game a try). maybe astro bot would've been my GOTY idk.

only other games I've played from 2024 are black myth wukong and hellblade 2. black myth wukong definitely has the better gameplay but story didn't really interest me much. it's a culture that I'm not that interested. I just like vatican mysteries and ancient egypt tombs better than chinese myths. that is just what it comes down to actually, if I liked chinese myths more than ancient tombs indiana jones often explores, I'd probably say black myth wukong is the better game. but in the end I just enjoyed "playing" indiana jones more. black myth, I just enjoyed it as a souls like. the characters and stories did not captivate me like elden ring did (elden ring's lore is its own thing and it managed to capture my interest).

hellblade 2, I didn't even like the story and direction they've taken with this one. no gameplay to speak of either. actually I think gameplay combat is much worse than the 1st game somehow. puzzles were nowhere near fun or meaningful as indiana jones. not that they could be, with how slow and sluggish senua moves

I really liked a lot of things they've done with indiana jones. for starters it gave me a perspective how much more fun puzzles can become with a FPS perspective rather than TPS perspective. I feel like some puzzles they did there would not go well with a TPS game.

anywas in the end it is what it is, it is my 2024 goty.

"The story I'm going to give praise, but that's not why we're playing video games. That's just part of the package."

see that's a big problem there. that's you. I play a lot of games for their story. I want better story telling to be a standard in gaming. if a game has story elements that I'm not interested it or find lackluster, I usually stop playing them
 
I absolutely love Indiana Jones and always have. Anyone that was remotely born in the 70s/80s probably has some attachment to the series. I was not one that hated on the reveal of Great Circle just because Microsoft made it. After finally getting it on PS5 and playing it on the Pro, I will say I'm not very impressed and I don't know what made some people online claim it was the GOTY last year. It's better than a lot of Indiana Jones games for sure, it looks good, but the gameplay is really mediocre if not just plain awful sometimes. Even with that said, I'll still finish it.

The first person aspect I didn't think I'd care about since I love first person games, but the moving from 1st to 3rd feels stupid and looks kind of bad. It's more confusing that they have a cinematic camera option, but then force the game in first person. I'm even more in the camp this game should have been an Uncharted/Tomb Raider clone. There's some benefits to the first person, such as looking at the details of objects but outside of that, there's not a single benefit I've seen for having this in first person. It's more of a disadvantage since the game is a stealth fist fighting game. There's also breakable weapons, which is fine for glass bottles, but when you hit someone in the head with an iron skillet, it's a bit much for it to break after a few hits.

The way the combat is just feels really bad. The loop is sneak around the braindead AI or go fist fight them. The sneaking gets boring quickly and it's mostly useless since you can just run up on someone and parry attack everyone for a nice few hit combo kill. I'm not sure if anyone who loves this game played Wolfenstein II, but it has this same feeling combat in it when you melee someone. It doesn't even feel good to knock someone out.

The story I'm going to give praise, but that's not why we're playing video games. That's just part of the package. But I do love the story and I feel it's better than a lot of the past 20 years of Indy stuff out there from that angle. And I find the voice acting to be top notch. But again -- that's not GOTY just to have good graphics and a story.

So for those who found it to be GOTY last year, is this the only game you played or something?

What gameplay aspect wowed you so much that you felt this was a GOTY game?
OP the answer is mostly this
They were all green rats. Every game from MS is GOTY, some said the same about Redfall.

Harrison Ford GIF



It's a hell of a game and don't be surprised if you see it in contention for awards from PS centric outlets this year.
An example
 
It's carried by the presentation which is top notch, but it's an otherwise mediocre experience.
 
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I started it when I had GamePass, got out of the library/museum opening and stopped playing and never looked back.
It looked great but felt like a mid 2000s game. Search every room for every clue before you can move on but no idea where to look.
I scratch my head when I see high praise for it.
I'm guessing if a game gets the nostalgia correct, it gets massive bonus points.
I'd take Far Cry over it every time.
 
It's the sum of its parts and a damned good game, especially for Indy fans who have seen the license lay dormant since the glory days of Lucasarts.

Not that I need to justify it as my own personal GOTY to anyone else...
 
Best story I have played in years. Package is a great one, although nothing revolutionary. It doesn't need to be revolutionary to be the best, it just needs to have all of its parts be put together solidly and a great whole.
 
Honestly, aside from the AI issues at times, the game was fantastic. An absolute blast. I just want more at this point because I'm a greedy fuck.

Why wouldn't I love sneaking around and smashing heads with shovels and shit? That was fun as hell.
 
I can't buy the 'first person takes me out of the immersion' point folks are making.

The whole point of the first person perspective is to immerse you in the game AS Indiana Jones himself - seeing through his eyes.

I don't see how you can forget you are ever playing him. It's an Indiana Jones game, there are many lengthy cutscenes featuring him, you speak as him…

I think it was a great choice, but if it is alienating players then maybe it should have been an option 🤷‍♂️
 
Do something more constructive like cleaning your house. Nobody doubts that you will find posts about Spider-Man 2, God of War 2, Horizon 2 oder FF16 being praised as god given masterpieces during release / the honeymoon phase. You will also find "criminally underrated gem" comments about Days Gone, The Order etc.

Everybody here knows how it is when it comes to exclusive games. A hating/downplaying B+C, A praising/hyping A, B hating/downplaying A+C, B praising/hyping B, C hating/downplaying A + B, C praising/hyping C.

Think Dota 2 GIF by Alliance


Best GAF post in awhile
 
I can't buy the 'first person takes me out of the immersion' point folks are making.

The whole point of the first person perspective is to immerse you in the game AS Indiana Jones himself - seeing through his eyes.

I don't see how you can forget you are ever playing him. It's an Indiana Jones game, there are many lengthy cutscenes featuring him, you speak as him…

I think it was a great choice, but if it is alienating players then maybe it should have been an option 🤷‍♂️
Its immersive until you do something and it turns into a 3rd person game for a segment then back in lol

Did you play this game?
 
I can't buy the 'first person takes me out of the immersion' point folks are making.

The whole point of the first person perspective is to immerse you in the game AS Indiana Jones himself - seeing through his eyes.

I don't see how you can forget you are ever playing him. It's an Indiana Jones game, there are many lengthy cutscenes featuring him, you speak as him…

I think it was a great choice, but if it is alienating players then maybe it should have been an option 🤷‍♂️
Just sounds like people are whining for no reason. It's like playing Goldeneye and saying it doesn't feel like James Bond. Of course it does. It's easy to know that you're James Bond, and I've never seen anyone claim that it just feels like a random guy with a gun. It's the same for this game. You know you're Indiana Jones. There's really no breaking of that connection in the game. I never used the whip to swing somewhere and saw Indy and was like, "OH shit. I forgot I was Indiana Jones." If you're that disconnected from it, then I don't know what to tell ya.
 
Remember, the more the Bootlickers complain about something made by MS, the better it probably is. This needs to be iterated in every thread like this. It was a great game, end of. If you don't like it, tough, you don't matter.
 
Remember, the more the Bootlickers complain about something made by MS, the better it probably is. This needs to be iterated in every thread like this. It was a great game, end of. If you don't like it, tough, you don't matter.

Why contribute to this thread at all? If going to label everyone with legitimate points about the gameplay 'bootlickers'.

Seems these kind of shit posts are the only contributions you actually make around here.

It'll be woke! Wrong.

It'll be shit! Wrong.

It will be a sales disaster! Wrong.

Is there anything the bootlickers can get right about this game?

The way the bootlickers can't handle this game and try to control the narrative is hilarious. Indy really is the game that keeps on giving. Thank you MS you beautiful bastards.

The bootlicker shills can't handle that it is a great game not on their $800 doorstop so it needs ramming down their throats by every outlet until they finally understand. Blame the bootlickers not the game.

You can tell how good anything Xbox is by the amount of crying and whinging from the PS bootlickers.
 
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it's mid at best.
2 perfect reviews that 100% describe what I felt when playing this game




also. It's just boring after vatican, should be 3rd person, controls are clunky, eating 3 different foods makes for more hassle than it's worth... and tons more.
also.. uncharted 4 is 10x better
 
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Remember, the more the Bootlickers complain about something made by MS, the better it probably is. This needs to be iterated in every thread like this. It was a great game, end of. If you don't like it, tough, you don't matter.

"It was a great game, end of. If you don't like it, tough, you don't matter."

Amazing debating skills friend...

Everyone else is wrong, everyone else's opinion doesn't matter, 'cause why would it, it's only your opinion that it's correct and the only one that matters, correct ? 😁
And you have the gall to call others "bootlickers" ? Again, you can't make this shit up...

And then you people wonder why others consider you a cult and one of the most toxic fanbases around, the amount of both mental gymnastics and complete and utter lack of self awareness is always off the charts, the way things are going for your favorite plastic box and multi trillion company have sent you boys into full tilt mode, no 2 ways about it when you keep reading opinions like these...
 
Do something more constructive like cleaning your house. Nobody doubts that you will find posts about Spider-Man 2, God of War 2, Horizon 2 oder FF16 being praised as god given masterpieces during release / the honeymoon phase. You will also find "criminally underrated gem" comments about Days Gone, The Order etc.

Everybody here knows how it is when it comes to exclusive games. A hating/downplaying B+C, A praising/hyping A, B hating/downplaying A+C, B praising/hyping B, C hating/downplaying A + B, C praising/hyping C.


You just killed GHG GHG 's entire GAF career.
 
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