Sign in to follow this  
Jake

Idle Thumbs 96: Historical Beef

Recommended Posts

I went ahead and watched the Tomb Raider trailers on Steam and it seemed to me that they were just going with the theme--in my opinion a compelling one--that the hero just can never catch a break. It didn't look like a great execution exactly, but in theory I'd love to play a game that made me fail all the time, even if it was purely scripted. Again this is purely from watching the trailers on Steam, but I saw zero material that made me feel like she was being sexualized. Except or the scene where some dude starts sexually assaulting her and she kills him. The only things in the trailer that turned me off were the numerous QTE scenes.

That Alien game sounds amazing.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think it's funny that my email about MMORPG's never reverting back to an older version of the games was written around Jagex doing this... Man, 13 year old me freaking loved Runescape. 

 

Also, to the point of the whole gendered violence debate: while I don't personally feel any satisfaction or see any attraction in violence being mixed with sex there's plenty of people who do unfortunately. As feelthedarkness said the world has been portraying women (especially nowadays) as sexual objects and we can't just pretend that it hasn't happened. And in regards to the "Drake's gut shot" vs. "Lara's rebar to the gut" I think it has a lot to do with the tones of the games; Uncharted is way more whacky, cartoony and bright compared to Tomb Raider's new dark and gritty lick of paint. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The Mass Effect discussion reminded me of this episode of the Play of the Light podcast, which is two guys - Jason McIntosh and Matthew Weise - talking at length about video games.

 

The latest episode 6 was about Zombies in games (and films), with frequent mentions of The Walking Dead.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Reading the Idle Thumbs wikia entry for Space Cop a few minutes before listening to the cast made the discussion of Mass Effect particularly ... arresting

 

sorry

but also:

TC_SPACECOPS.jpg

Man, I was all set to make a Photoshop of a Mass Effect cover as Regular Ordinary Space Cop, but nothing I could do would measure up to this majesty.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Also, was it this week or last week where the thumbs mentioned the Laserdisc games full of anime clips? Becuase my favourite example of that is Cliff Hanger, a Laserdisc game that just takes clips from Castle of Cagliostro and retroactively adds terrible dubbing and a bunch of QTEs. It's like Dragon's Lair if Dragon's Lair used footage of a pre-existing movie, and that movie was a quiet action classic.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It would've been perfect if when they said "you're here to steal new memes, such as fuck Brad Shoemaker" at the start, Brad would've said "actually it's Fuck Ryan Davis".

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Has anybody played Tokyo Crash Mobs? I'd like to know where the story goes after the GB Quick Look left it. Definitely more than just sexy Tetris.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Looking at videos of Tokyo Crash Mobs it looks like the actual pace of play, movement of stuff on screen, controls etc, have very little in common with Zuma. Just the "shoot things to make match 3 in the midst of a chain" part is shared. That's clearly a big part of the game, but the feel of Zuma is a large reason for why it's fun, not just the ruleset.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah. Whatever one wants to say about the actual types of games, rule sets and core mechanics of PopCap's output, they are masters of the nuanced physical feeling of controls, of player feedback, etc. it's easy to dismiss their stuff because of the wacky rainbow sparkles that come out of everything, but the weight and readability of control at the crucial points where your input is interpreted by the game as intent and represented physically and visually in the game world is so tight it'a almost invisible and easy to take for granted.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Speaking of the history of the computer, and everything related to that, you should listen to this talk by Jason Scott on just this. How do we preserve our digital culture. http://2012.dconstruct.org/conference/scott/ He's the dude who was behind getting all of geocities archived in all it's horrible glory before yahoo! pulled the plug.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah. Whatever one wants to say about the actual types of games, rule sets and core mechanics of PopCap's output, they are masters of the nuanced physical feeling of controls, of player feedback, etc. it's easy to dismiss their stuff because of the wacky rainbow sparkles that come out of everything, but the weight and readability of control at the crucial points where your input is interpreted by the game as intent and represented physically and visually in the game world is so tight it'a almost invisible and easy to take for granted.

 

These are the reasons why I like Zuma, and even prefer it over the games it clones. Like, I could fire up the Nuon and play Ballistic (Puzz Loop renamed to sound more badass), but Zuma "feels" better. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hey, that's why Counter-Strike guy loves Peggle.

Good kineticism is the kind of thing that always makes or breaks my experience with games. I wonder if its just my bias or if its inherently (what a weighted word) good game design. I try to play indie games a lot, and the huge breaking point for me is when it feels wrong. I recognize I'm hugely biased there (Mario feels almost ideal, I can't stand Sonic), so maybe I'm robbing myself of great experiences that way.

When I was really playing around with Source, I kept finding all these weird quirks in the movement. When I took then out, the movement felt totally wrong. Totally unintuitive stuff too, like, if the player is a certain distance from the ground, he'll snap down to the nearest floor. It looks super weird in 3rd person, but in an FPS it's totally natural.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I really liked Remo's answer in the email section to standardized features/controls in games. I don't mind genre games cribbing from each other, but the expectation from the audience that there are 'standards' that have to be adhered to is a little counterproductive. When people start thinking of controls as 'optimal' rather than 'interesting', you dump all the idiosyncrasy and creativity out of action games. I spent an absurd amount of time with the latest Kid Icarus game because it had weird controls.

 

It's all about that tension between people who want to 'finish the story' and people who want to master something new. It's hard to please both crowds.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've played a bunch of TCMobs and it doesn't have that PopCap polish at all.  It's a fun distraction for a bit but I didn't find myself digging in to complete it like I have with the PopCap games I've played.

 

With regards to Brad Shoemaker needing a nickname, and given giantbomb's track record for shameless nickname nicking, I'm surprised they don't call him 'Brad "Shoe" Hsumaker'.  Winky smile / Vid games!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this