Various video game stuff not deserving its own thread

[Trickster]

I did not think Mass Effect looked visually appealing.

I'm very disappointed in you man. Don't you play anime games that almost everytime look the same? The same generic fantasy/sci fi.

Please tell me where this is visually unappealing.

Credit where it’s due: at least this doesn’t look like every generic sci-fi ****. Small victories.

[Tangerine]

What the **** do I play for the next 10 days?

Trudograd.

[asf]

I'm really enjoying MineCraft more than I expected that I would. I'm not sure if enough people in this site also play MineCraft or similar sandbox games to justify creating a whole new thread for MineCraft though.

gay

[DemoGraph]

I'm really enjoying MineCraft more than I expected that I would. I'm not sure if enough people in this site also play MineCraft or similar sandbox games to justify creating a whole new thread for MineCraft though.

I played Minecraft up to about v1.11 or so, because it had great mods Mystcraft (write new otherworldly worlds like in Myst series and teleport between them via books) and Thaumcraft 4 (do puzzle based research, alchemy and enchanting, create golems to automate resource gathering, fight cooler mobs, etc). But they're not supported in modern Minecraft.

I guess, Kenshi and Valheim are also sandboxy.

[rusty_shackleford]

I'm really enjoying MineCraft more than I expected that I would. I'm not sure if enough people in this site also play MineCraft or similar sandbox games to justify creating a whole new thread for MineCraft though.

Vergil doesn't want you to know this, but you can just make threads. You can make threads for minecraft, or sandbox games, nobody is going to stop you as long as it's in the right forum.

[Oyster Sauce]

I'm really enjoying MineCraft more than I expected that I would. I'm not sure if enough people in this site also play MineCraft or similar sandbox games to justify creating a whole new thread for MineCraft though.

HQ Minecraft server coming 202X

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I'm really enjoying MineCraft more than I expected that I would. I'm not sure if enough people in this site also play MineCraft or similar sandbox games to justify creating a whole new thread for MineCraft though.

I had a lot of fun during the first two years playing survival, and then touring other people's creations, and then playing on those Hunger Games servers (battle royale before PUBG and Fortnite came out). But it's something I did and don't feel an inclination to go back and do again. Probably my biggest issue with Minecraft is that the blocks are too big, so you can't make smaller detailing like in Lego Universe or Everquest Next Landmark. LU also allowed you to program your bricks so you could make elevators or minigames. Peria Chronicles was going to let you do the same thing, but Nexon cancelled that game.

[asf]

minecraft is the gayest thing since vergil

[rusty_shackleford]

don't think any other video game genre is as failed as comedy
there's maybe 4-5 funny video games made total, and yet 'comedy' makes up at least half of all games I see now if not more

[psychic_dream]

Your post reminded me of this game. Not only does it make fun of every known stereotype there is, but it’s also an air racing vidya, a genre that often gets little love and appreciation these days. Our current reality is so feminized and lame, man

[MrTwinkls]

don't think any other video game genre is as failed as comedy
there's maybe 4-5 funny video games made total, and yet 'comedy' makes up at least half of all games I see now if not more

Making a comedy game is always a gamble and major publishers don't like to risk it. But I do miss them.

► Show Spoiler

[gerey]

I think comedy actively works against games. It removes any feeling of gravitas and makes everything the player does feel cheap and fake.

I don't mind developers peppering their titles with the odd joke here and there to lighten up the mood, but if the whole game is banking on being funny, or worse, is trying to be subversive or self-aware, then it generally kills any motivation I have for playing it.

[A Chinese opium den]

7th gen: Color is taboo. Here’s your bald, stoic, cokehead protagonist #2069 in a leather jacket
I didn’t miss this era of gaming. Not one bit.

Am I going senile or did someone make this exact post like 3 months ago?

[Manny V]

7th gen: Color is taboo. Here’s your bald, stoic, cokehead protagonist #2069 in a leather jacket
I didn’t miss this era of gaming. Not one bit.

Am I going senile or did someone make this exact post like 3 months ago?

pretty sure we saw someone post about this going on about muh 'boring hetero buzzcut late 2000's protatonists' ye

[pol_345polex]

I think comedy actively works against games. It removes any feeling of gravitas and makes everything the player does feel cheap and fake.

I don't mind developers peppering their titles with the odd joke here and there to lighten up the mood, but if the whole game is banking on being funny, or worse, is trying to be subversive or self-aware, then it generally kills any motivation I have for playing it.

Divinity original sin comes close to this. That's why i didn't enjoy the narrative.

[gerey]

Divinity original sin comes closeto this. That's why i didn't enjoy the narrative.

I've thought about it a bit more, and since the Sims are such a hot commodity on the HQ currently, I do think there's a place for comedy in games, but realistically only ones that don't focus too much on the narrative or aren't trying to sell you a cool premise.

As an example, Theme Hospital would be a much worse game if the devs had taken a more serious approach. Instead of funny diseases and comedic deaths you'd be confronted with the grim reality of running a hospital, with all the nastiness that comes with the territory.

On the other hand, a franchise like Emergency can allow itself to lean into the realism, since the premise is cool - you're coordinating all the various rescue services and saving people from danger.

Same with the Sims, Marxis made the right call to lean into the more absurd elements.

And yes, Larian games do oftentimes miss the mark entirely. Their writers are so desperate to make sure how cool they are and that fantasy is beneath them that audiences completely disconnect from the plot. If the writers and the characters they've created are treating the whole thing as a farce, why should I care?

That's the same problem modern Hollywood has, everyone is constantly quipping at each other, throwing around "cool" one liners and generally doing everything in their power to let the audience know the characters are not taking the situation seriously that it evaporates any sense of gravitas.

I stopped watching MCU slop around the first Thor movie, but from the few snippets from the later movies I've seen, it's really pathetic to see how inept their current crop of writers actually are. The first Iron Man knew when to add comedy to a scene and when to dial up the seriousness.

[PixiGreen]

How about Saints Row? An absurd comedy but (minus the last game, of course) lived for quite a while. Or the game from South Park "The Stick of Truth" - pure comedy too and quite fun. There were point-and-click adventures like Monkey Island - also comedic.
There are people who can pull it off.

[Tangerine]

Divinity original sin comes closeto this. That's why i didn't enjoy the narrative.

I've thought about it a bit more, and since the Sims are such a hot commodity on the HQ currently, I do think there's a place for comedy in games, but realistically only ones that don't focus too much on the narrative or aren't trying to sell you a cool premise.

As an example, Theme Hospital would be a much worse game if the devs had taken a more serious approach. Instead of funny diseases and comedic deaths you'd be confronted with the grim reality of running a hospital, with all the nastiness that comes with the territory.

On the other hand, a franchise like Emergency can allow itself to lean into the realism, since the premise is cool - you're coordinating all the various rescue services and saving people from danger.

Same with the Sims, Marxis made the right call to lean into the more absurd elements.

And yes, Larian games do oftentimes miss the mark entirely. Their writers are so desperate to make sure how cool they are and that fantasy is beneath them that audiences completely disconnect from the plot. If the writers and the characters they've created are treating the whole thing as a farce, why should I care?

That's the same problem modern Hollywood has, everyone is constantly quipping at each other, throwing around "cool" one liners and generally doing everything in their power to let the audience know the characters are not taking the situation seriously that it evaporates any sense of gravitas.

I stopped watching MCU slop around the first Thor movie, but from the few snippets from the later movies I've seen, it's really pathetic to see how inept their current crop of writers actually are. The first Iron Man knew when to add comedy to a scene and when to dial up the seriousness.

Deus Ex is one of the funniest games ever made.

[Unhelpful Contrarian]

[Cipher]

I think comedy actively works against games. It removes any feeling of gravitas and makes everything the player does feel cheap and fake.

I don't mind developers peppering their titles with the odd joke here and there to lighten up the mood, but if the whole game is banking on being funny, or worse, is trying to be subversive or self-aware, then it generally kills any motivation I have for playing it.

I agree. JC has such one liner gems precisely because the game takes itself seriously. I don't think those would land in a more whacky setting.

[Classix]

I think comedy actively works against games. It removes any feeling of gravitas and makes everything the player does feel cheap and fake.

I don't mind developers peppering their titles with the odd joke here and there to lighten up the mood, but if the whole game is banking on being funny, or worse, is trying to be subversive or self-aware, then it generally kills any motivation I have for playing it.

I agree. JC has such one liner gems precisely because the game takes itself seriously. I don't think those would land in a more whacky setting.

" Suuuure "

[gerey]

Just look at the mongoloid protagonist, literal La Creatura right there.

[Cipher]

Divinity original sin comes closeto this. That's why i didn't enjoy the narrative.

I stopped watching MCU slop around the first Thor movie, but from the few snippets from the later movies I've seen, it's really pathetic to see how inept their current crop of writers actually are. The first Iron Man knew when to add comedy to a scene and when to dial up the seriousness.

The real problem started with the Avengers, since had Joss Whedon "le hecking quirky dialogue" all over and then James Gunn refined it for Guardians of the Galaxy. Since Guardians was such a smash hit from a team of literally whos for all normie cattle, and even a lot of folks that liked Marvel comics, Feige just decided to bottle it up into the "MCU formula" and from then on every Marvel movie became Guardians of the Galaxy.

Watching the original phase 1 films before Avengers feels very differently. Specially Iron Man and Captain America. Iron Man was just a movie about an egoist and vane genius and party hound that through his hubris got crippled and through the sacrifice of the person who helped him reclaim his freedom, learned about humility and experienced both a literal and a metaphorical "change of heart". Sure, it has jokes but those are mostly through Downey's delivery.

Captain America is just a war movie and the hero's journey, the story of a man that had the heart of a hero but not the body of one and the message that power doesn't corrupt only reveals who you really were all along.

What I am saying is that those were movies with themes that so happened to have superheroes in them. That's true for the best comic runs in general and the ones that are fondly remembered years and even decades later. Feige got lost in the sauce, hard and then kept chasing money and popularity just so he could ram his feminist propaganda down everyone's throat to spectacular failure. Worse, because of the runaway success of Guardians of the Galaxy and the now refined "MCU Formula" Disney decided to not just copy it into everything Marvel, but everything Disney. And I do mean everything.

Andor is not good. The only reason think its good is because it has less "MCU formula" than the other Disney Star Wars projects. The MCU died on Infinity War, not Endgame. And if we are really honest, the crippling blow was dealt by Whedon in Avengers with the death knell being Guardians of the Galaxy.

[Tangerine]

I think comedy actively works against games. It removes any feeling of gravitas and makes everything the player does feel cheap and fake.

I don't mind developers peppering their titles with the odd joke here and there to lighten up the mood, but if the whole game is banking on being funny, or worse, is trying to be subversive or self-aware, then it generally kills any motivation I have for playing it.

I agree. JC has such one liner gems precisely because the game takes itself seriously. I don't think those would land in a more whacky setting.

Deus Ex knew not to beat a joke to death. If a modern writer had done the the orange soda bit you see in the UNATCO HQ breakroom, they would have referenced orange soda constantly throughout the rest of the game and given you some ****** "funny" dialogue if you had an orange soda in your inventory when you faced off against Gunther the last time.

[rusty_shackleford]

The point of my original post was that many devs seem to default to comedy despite it probably being the single hardest video game genre to write for. I can't tell if it's because they think they're funny, or they're just copying popular games they like.

I consider games like this to be 'comedy':



And …eeeeehhhhh??? I'd probably play it if it was serious. It just doesn't actually look funny to me. Most comedy is more of a "lol so whacky zany!!!! just like my children's cartoons I still watch as an adult!!!!!!!'

[Tangerine]

The point of my original post was that many devs seem to default to comedy despite it probably being the single hardest video game genre to write for. I can't tell if it's because they think they're funny, or they're just copying popular games they like.

I consider games like this to be 'comedy':



And …eeeeehhhhh??? I'd probably play it if it was serious. It just doesn't actually look funny to me. Most comedy is more of a "lol so whacky zany!!!! just like my children's cartoons I still watch as an adult!!!!!!!'

Comedy is the hardest to do well but the easiest to scapegoat the audience for "not getting it."

[Acrux]

The point of my original post was that many devs seem to default to comedy despite it probably being the single hardest video game genre to write for. I can't tell if it's because they think they're funny, or they're just copying popular games they like.

I consider games like this to be 'comedy':



And …eeeeehhhhh??? I'd probably play it if it was serious. It just doesn't actually look funny to me. Most comedy is more of a "lol so whacky zany!!!! just like my children's cartoons I still watch as an adult!!!!!!!'

Isn't that second one made by some YouTube comedians? I don't know anything about them, but I can see why they would make a game like that. It feels like the kind of thing that would have been a Flash game a decade or so ago. But I don't see any appeal in comedy games.

[gerey]

Dave the Diver is a mechanically sound game with a wealth of content, but the "lol fat man diving" angle really adds nothing to the premise.

In fact, it would have been much funnier if he had been the straight man (literally and figuratively), surrounded by a bunch of quirky and whacky characters, kinda like how Lucas Arts handled most of their adventure games, reflecting the bewilderment/amusement/resignation/frustration of the player himself.

EDIT: How dare you disagree with me. The Day of the Rake can't come soon enough. Kanata Delenda Est.

[Unhelpful Contrarian]

The point of my original post was that many devs seem to default to comedy despite it probably being the single hardest video game genre to write for. I can't tell if it's because they think they're funny, or they're just copying popular games they like.

Bit of column A and a bit from column B.

[KnightoftheWind]