I Had a Random Thought (About Video Games)

[tegan]

Man, I forgot how insufferable the camping trip in Persona 4 is. Not giving the player any option but to put up with or encourage Brosuke's casual homophobia and sexism is just the worst, and I really detest how they designed and wrote Hanako as being both incongruously grotesque and completely deserving of all the crap that happens to her. The whole bit is this huge spike of immaturity in an otherwise remarkably mature game. The worst part is that all I got for it was one lousy Expression bonus.

[Reyturner]

!!!!!

 

[tegan]

 

 

Shoulda listened to you, Male student.

[tegan]

"Don't worry about it" is to Persona 4 as "How ya holdin' up?" is to The Walking Dead.

[Griddlelol]

I've all but given up on persona 4 again. I played 50 hours and got way further in the story than last time I tried but after the 50 hour mark I just lose interest. I really wish I didnt have to force my way through it, especially as I was enjoying it so much right up until I just stopped caring. Bleh I want to finish that game.

[Merus]

A glimpse of a potential future ahead of us. Imagine if there was more room for critiques like this in the games press. Imagine if Kotaku or Polygon - imagine if Gamespot or IGN - had the bottle* to run a piece like Austin Walker's critique of Battlefield: Hardline.

 

* a bit of British slang that solves the problem with saying something 'takes balls' that feels more visceral than saying 'guts' or 'nerve'

[Ben X]

feels more visceral than saying 'guts'

 

Words...losing...all meaning....gack!

[dartmonkey]

Had a realisation about Best Game^TM Banjo-Kazooie while firing her up after a few years away. B-K is the source of my camera inversion confusion. After training myself to push the stick in the direction I want the camera to point I realise now that Banjo instead pivots the camera around the characters, so pushing right makes the camera scooch around them showing more of screen left. It's unalterable and I've played more Banjo than any other game. It must be the source.

[Merus]

oh I knew what I was doing, Ben

[Gormongous]

A glimpse of a potential future ahead of us. Imagine if there was more room for critiques like this in the games press. Imagine if Kotaku or Polygon - imagine if Gamespot or IGN - had the bottle* to run a piece like Austin Walker's critique of Battlefield: Hardline.

* a bit of British slang that solves the problem with saying something 'takes balls' that feels more visceral than saying 'guts' or 'nerve'

Careful and fascinating work that's totally on-point. Tip: even on Paste, don't read the comments.

[Zeusthecat]

The intro to LittleBigPlanet is the best intro in all of gaming

 

[clyde]

I'm not sure how this sounds to other people, but this tweet describes an experience I've been having for a while with such accuracy that it made me smile.

https://twitter.com/arthousegamesss/status/582767104350273536

[SuperBiasedMan]

I wish I wish I could recommend the (sort of) obscure French surrealist RPG OFF to so many people, but most people will either tune out with either RPG or surrealist French.

[clyde]

I wish I wish I could recommend the (sort of) obscure French surrealist RPG OFF to so many people, but most people will either tune out with either RPG or surrealist French.

I actually played an hour or so of OFF, but I've never been able to get into JRPG's the combat becomes incredibly tiresome for me. I remember enjoying the sound-effect when the cat talked and how it was a great Cheshire Cat kinda character.

I also seem to remember an interesting box-puzzle of some sort that I managed to solve.

[SuperBiasedMan]

Yeah it showcases the poorest of RPG maker producing generic combat. Being turned off by the label RPG is a very fair response. Which is a shame because it's so narratively deep and fascinating, it's one of my favourite stories ever let alone stories in games.

[clyde]

How long does it take to finish OFF?

[SuperBiasedMan]

It's been a while but I think it was about 8 hours. If you want to give it another go, as shitty as grinding is it will smoothen your progression through the game and mean you can pay less attention to the battle mechanics (I left it on auto battle after a while, except against bosses).

[N1njaSquirrel]

is OFF an acronym for something? or is it just called OFF?

[clyde]

is OFF an acronym for something? or is it just called OFF?

http://forum.starmen.net/forum/Fan/Games/OFF-by-Mortis-Ghost

[N1njaSquirrel]

http://forum.starmen.net/forum/Fan/Games/OFF-by-Mortis-Ghost

     Thanks! I shall download it when I get home!

[SuperBiasedMan]

I feel proud of what I've done here today. (that'll dissipate when you both rip the game apart critically)

[Zeusthecat]

This is such a disturbing and hilarious collection of stories about people doing horrible things in The Sims: http://kotaku.com/the-sims-players-confess-their-most-evil-deeds-1694855714

[Bjorn]

Holy shit, that's better than most horror collections I've read. 

[Dewar]

While we're talking random RPG Maker games, my wife would love me to recommend Ib.  

 

http://www.vgperson.com/games/ib.htm

 

I've had fun when I've played it, but having worked with RPG Maker before also makes me critical of some of the design choices.

[eot]

I played both Dark Souls games with kb/m and I've seen comments saying that it's unplayable that way more times than I can count. Obviously I'm playing Bloodborne with a controller and having gotten used to it I don't see what the big fuss is about. I'd even go so far as to say I prefer kb/m. With a controller you get analog movement, which so far for me has had basically zero impact on my ability to play the game well. You also get to change targets with the right stick. This is the biggest difference, since you can actually point at targets and not just cycle through them horizontally.

 

Now, the problem I have is that there are eight(!) buttons I can't press without letting go of the two most important inputs, which are the character and camera controls. Maybe you can do some weird grip and press those buttons with some finger other than your thumb but that seems awkward. This is a difference that actually matters when I play. I can't sprint and control the camera, if someone's sneaking up on me from behind I can't dodge away and turn the camera 180 degrees at the same time etc. Sure, you're locked on most of the time so it's not a huge deal, but it's something I noticed. The dpad is probably worse because if I want to change weapon or item during a boss fight I need to stand still for a moment. Finally, when you lose lock-on say when a boss does a leap attack or something, the precise camera control you get with a mouse really helps.

 

It's a perfectly good way to play, it's just not dramatically better.