Your video game hot take(s) thread

[BrawlMan]

I've said this before, but I am adding more elaboration to my opinion. Evil Within 2 I find a better Resident Evil game than RE4-RE8. While EW2 does have plenty of action, it still focuses and has greater emphasis on the psychological factor. The problem I have with later RE games, and those that follow RE4 specifically, is that they drag on too long. RE6 being the worst of course, but RE4 I don't like playing much has gotten way overpraised and over rated to the detriment of other survival horror games. I don't like the QTEs, the loop takes too long to get started. RE5 is only really fun when there is co-op, and the less said about RE6, the better.

What EW2 has over all of these games, in addition to the horror, are open ended level design, better emphasis on exploration, and optional objectives side quests. Many of them that reward you with either weapons, ammo, character reveal/development, lore, or just neat little Easter Eggs Tango did not have to do. More interesting side character, that I actually care about. RE4 has Luis, and RE5 has Josh, so I give Capcom some credit there. EW2 has better Ada Wong than Ada Wong. Her name is Julie Kidman. Ironic, because she started off as a somewhat shallow version of Ada. Unless you bothered to play both DLC campaigns of the first game. Tango managed to do more for Kidman, than Capcom did for Ada within 3 years, compared to the latter's over two decades and we still no nothing about Ada or who she is constantly working for. Something Capcom more or less dropped and gave up on with RE7.

Speaking of RE7 & 8, they're not bad games, but I just don't find them interesting compared to EW1 or 2. RE7 took some risks, but is literally RE1 in first person with lame enemy variety, and a character that moves way too slow. RE8 is just RE4 without the QTEs and universal monsters instead of a parasitic virus. Seriously, RE4 gets way too much attention, love, and nostalgia blinding, it is infuriating. Even more infuriating, because Capcom plans on remaking RE4 any way, nearly making RE8 pointless on a gameplay scale. If you want to count EW1 in to the mix, this will be the 3rd time RE4 will be remade. EW1 was just RE4, but Nightmare on Elm Street/The Cell Edition. I can argue that both Evil Within games are the best modern Silent Hill games, from the AAA side at least. Definitely, better than whatever Konami has put over the past decade; which is nothing.

Extra: I acutally prefer Shadows of the Damned over all the later RE games, 4-8.

 

[BrawlMan]

This is a repeat of my earlier post somewhat, but I hate games like Returnal and Death Loop. I hate seeing the rogue lite mechanics creeping sits way into AAA gaming. Dying once and restarting is not fun. It is tedious, stupid and ridiculous.

My feeling is that now that many of us have caught on to the trick that open-world design has become a way for game companies to add bloat to pad playing times for games, loop mechanics are the next trick. While both certainly have games that use those mechanics well, they're also ways to avoid doing crafted design and just add uninteresting content.

Remember, Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap. And when something gets popular nearly everyone will follow for better or worse. Usually the worst.

 

[Drathnoxis]

This is a repeat of my earlier post somewhat, but I hate games like Returnal and Death Loop. I hate seeing the rogue lite mechanics creeping sits way into AAA gaming. Dying once and restarting is not fun. It is tedious, stupid and ridiculous.

Permadeath can be very fun. There's nothing more tense than being 6 hours into a run on Nethack and realizing suddenly that the monster you're fighting has just taken you down to 1/4 health and if you don't think of a way to carefully extricate yourself from the situation you're going to lose and have to start all over from the beginning. You just can't get that feeling from restarting from the last checkpoint 2 minutes ago.

 

[Fallen Soldier]

Permadeath can be very fun. There's nothing more tense than being 6 hours into a run on Nethack and realizing suddenly that the monster you're fighting has just taken you down to 1/4 health and if you don't think of a way to carefully extricate yourself from the situation you're going to lose and have to start all over from the beginning. You just can't get that feeling from restarting from the last checkpoint 2 minutes ago.

Or very frustrating. No thanks.

 

[Dalisclock]

Or very frustrating. No thanks.

Both are true.

Though I'm good with the Souls version of venturing into a new area, not knowing where the next safe spot is or what's waiting around the next corner and getting increasingly anxious the farther you get from the last bonfire. Even if some parts of Souls feel like complete BS in level design and bonfire placement(PTSD of the Iron Keep)

 

[Fallen Soldier]

Both are true.

Though I'm good with the Souls version of venturing into a new area, not knowing where the next safe spot is or what's waiting around the next corner and getting increasingly anxious the farther you get from the last bonfire. Even if some parts of Souls feel like complete BS in level design and bonfire placement(PTSD of the Iron Keep)

At least souls doesn’t have permadeath and they give you the opportunity to get your stuff back after death.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Permadeath can be very fun. There's nothing more tense than being 6 hours into a run on Nethack and realizing suddenly that the monster you're fighting has just taken you down to 1/4 health and if you don't think of a way to carefully extricate yourself from the situation you're going to lose and have to start all over from the beginning. You just can't get that feeling from restarting from the last checkpoint 2 minutes ago.

Channeling the masochistic bits of my psyche I can faintly see the appeal, but then snap back to the reality of hey, there goes a big chunk of what scarce time I have for fun that I’ll never get back, and I’m no further ahead in this bloody game.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Channeling the masochistic bits of my psyche I can faintly see the appeal, but then snap back to the reality of hey, there goes a big chunk of what scarce time I have for fun that I’ll never get back, and I’m no further ahead in this bloody game.

But if the game is good enough, it's still fun to play even if you keep starting from the beginning, and the satisfaction of overcoming the challenge is all the greater because of how insurmountable it feels when you first began. Obviously, not every game is good enough to hold up to this sort of difficulty structure, the ones that are, however, have the potential to be far more rewarding than your standard 'hold forward until you win' AAA experience.

Also, maybe this is completely unfounded since I'm only basing this off of my personal experience, but I think that permadeath games are good for people on a personality development/refinement level. It's good to learn how to deal with frustration, and how to handle things that are difficult and unfair. It takes a lot to make me angry or frustrated about anything IRL, and I attribute a lot of this to my time spent playing Nethack in my teenage years. You learn how to just take a deep breath and laugh at the absurdity after you've thrown away a few 15 hour runs by making stupid mistakes right at the very end.

 

[Fallen Soldier]

But if the game is good enough, it's still fun to play even if you keep starting from the beginning, and the satisfaction of overcoming the challenge is all the greater because of how insurmountable it feels when you first began. Obviously, not every game is good enough to hold up to this sort of difficulty structure, the ones that are, however, have the potential to be far more rewarding than your standard 'hold forward until you win' AAA experience.

Also, maybe this is completely unfounded since I'm only basing this off of my personal experience, but I think that permadeath games are good for people on a personality development/refinement level. It's good to learn how to deal with frustration, and how to handle things that are difficult and unfair. It takes a lot to make me angry or frustrated about anything IRL, and I attribute a lot of this to my time spent playing I Wanna Be The Guy and Nethack in my teenage years. You learn how to just take a deep breath and carry on after you've thrown away a few 15 hour runs by making stupid mistakes right at the very end.

I can understand why some people who like hard games will love the permadeath stuff, but for the more casual guys like us where time is valuable. Losing 15 hours because of a dumb mistake isn’t great.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I can understand why some people who like hard games will love the permadeath stuff, but for the more casual guys like us where time is valuable. Losing 15 hours because of a dumb mistake isn’t great.

But you aren't really losing it. Those 15 hours were enjoyable in themselves, and the next time you play the game will be different and your new character will have their own story based on what items you find and what monsters and situations you find yourself in. The best roguelikes, like Nethack, have enough procgen and randomization to make each run feel unique and fresh until you've put hundreds of hours into the game.

I can remember more details about some of those failed 15 hour runs on Nethack years later than I can about some entire 15 hour games that I've played through to the credits that I think back on and realize I don't remember any of the characters or what happened in the plot at all.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Those 15 hours were enjoyable in themselves,

This is what it's all about right here, right? Primary gameplay loop and all that.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Not sure if this is even on any spectrum of takes at all these days, but the lead woman voice actor for the fem option in AC Valhalla is such a huge letdown after the wonderful Kassandra in Odyssey. It mostly sounds like she's forcing a gruff voice but also remaining rather monotone and stilted for most the time, leading to moments where attempts at banter left me feeling cold and joyless, a little too much like my real life I'm afraid, videogame!
It's the problem I have with Geralt's voice actor in The Witcher series, though I don't think he's forcing the gruff, merely he was picked solely for the gruff and nothing else, so when he also attempted anything like banter or basically any other speech where a variety of cadence would immensely help endear himself as a human and memorable character, instead comes off consistently flat and lifeless (in other games too, it's not intentional!).

So for the first time in forever, and thanks to the game providing the option to do so at any point in the playthrough, I changed gender to Le male. I sigma'd right up. And yes it thankfully is an improvement. The VA has a soft Sean Harris style husky whisp and a more natural intonation. It'll do I s'pose.

 

[Fallen Soldier]

Not sure if this is even on any spectrum of takes at all these days, but the lead woman voice actor for the fem option in AC Valhalla is such a huge letdown after the wonderful Kassandra in Odyssey. It mostly sounds like she's forcing a gruff voice but also remaining rather monotone and stilted for most the time, leading to moments where attempts at banter left me feeling cold and joyless, a little too much like my real life I'm afraid, videogame!
It's the problem I have with Geralt's voice actor in The Witcher series, though I don't think he's forcing the gruff, merely he was picked solely for the gruff and nothing else, so when he also attempted anything like banter or basically any other speech where a variety of cadence would immensely help endear himself as a human and memorable character, instead comes off consistently flat and lifeless (in other games too, it's not intentional!).

So for the first time in forever, and thanks to the game providing the option to do so at any point in the playthrough, I changed gender to Le male. I sigma'd right up. And yes it thankfully is an improvement. The VA has a soft Sean Harris style husky whisp and a more natural intonation. It'll do I s'pose.

I agree Kassandra has a wonderful voice actress doing such a great job on her. The female lead stinks.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

The gameplay would also get worse like the open world Ghost Recon games have such shit 3rd-person shooting when Future Soldier had really good shooting. The Division's shooting was horrid too, I played the beta for an hour and deleted it.

I do greatly miss Future Soldier's gunplay. No bullet sponges, satisfying headshots, manageable but present recoil. Did you hate The Division's gunplay for how the guns themselves felt, or because of how much enemies absorbed gunfire? I myself never really bothered to try it, although I was tempted at times.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

It's the problem I have with Geralt's voice actor in The Witcher series, though I don't think he's forcing the gruff, merely he was picked solely for the gruff and nothing else, so when he also attempted anything like banter or basically any other speech where a variety of cadence would immensely help endear himself as a human and memorable character, instead comes off consistently flat and lifeless (in other games too, it's not intentional!).

This might be mean, but I always kinda assumed that Geralt's voice actor just isn't very good at voice acting. I thought they hired some cheap new talent for Witcher 1 and ended up sticking with him until the last game.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

But you aren't really losing it. Those 15 hours were enjoyable in themselves, and the next time you play the game will be different and your new character will have their own story based on what items you find and what monsters and situations you find yourself in. The best roguelikes, like Nethack, have enough procgen and randomization to make each run feel unique and fresh until you've put hundreds of hours into the game.

I can remember more details about some of those failed 15 hour runs on Nethack years later than I can about some entire 15 hour games that I've played through to the credits that I think back on and realize I don't remember any of the characters or what happened in the plot at all.

There is definitely truth to this. I’m currently on the last level of Wolfenstein: TNO and like many other story-driven, cinematic focused AAA games lately where the gameplay is broken up by these sequences trying to be like movies, it reminds me of an old saying:

Spoiler

It’s why I’ve mostly lost interest in games that do this. I’m supposed to be playing a game, and very few games with spoonfed stories feel genuine and interesting with enough sincerity to even care to remember. They mostly just feel like interruptions, disconnected from what you’re actually doing, and often like they’re designed to be the “cooler” or more “badass” portions of the game, as if the gameplay itself is merely a means to those ends. The voice acting typically doesn’t do these games any favors either, although there are exceptions.

The Uncharted games are pulpy fun because the premise, tone, VA talent, cinematography, etc. are all done well enough to be entertaining, and often at least try to meld that stuff with gameplay in the set pieces for example. Stuff like the hotel collapse and plane crash keep you engaged right in the action of stuff that would’ve probably just been cutscenes in other games.

The new God of War also does a masterful job of blending the two pillars of story and gameplay to where it pretty much feels like one whole.

Half-Life 2 might have laid the groundwork for this sort of thing too. The story unfolds during gameplay and is far more effective because of it.

 

[BrawlMan]

Permadeath can be very fun. There's nothing more tense than being 6 hours into a run on Nethack and realizing suddenly that the monster you're fighting has just taken you down to 1/4 health and if you don't think of a way to carefully extricate yourself from the situation you're going to lose and have to start all over from the beginning. You just can't get that feeling from restarting from the last checkpoint 2 minutes ago.

No thanks. Not worth it to me. I rather deal a standard game and continue system please. If I need frustration that badly, I'll go back and play Comix Zone.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

This is a repeat of my earlier post somewhat, but I hate games like Returnal and Death Loop. I hate seeing the rogue lite mechanics creeping sits way into AAA gaming. Dying once and restarting is not fun. It is tedious, stupid and ridiculous.

Just a minor correction but Death Loop isn't a roguelike.

 

[Fallen Soldier]

Just a minor correction but Death Loop isn't a roguelike.

Whatever it is called, you still have to start over if you die again. No thank you.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

On the topic of Roguelikes. Let me just reference one game for this which is Slay the Spire. To me, the point of a Roguelike is variety. By being given random options on the path of finishing a session of a game you end up discovering and trying out different builds whereas in non Roguelikes, I don't experiment much. Necessity encourages me to experiment where full freedom of choice does not.

I could play Ironclad and go for a Power build or a Block build or an Exhaust build depending on what I'm offered and trying to pull a build together to overcome the final challenges is part of the fun.

This is a Roguelike done well. Not a huge time sink and losing just means you can get back up and try something new. A Roguelike done poorly is when it takes a long time to do anything, doesn't have much variance and makes you start out the same way every time you start with little variance until you get far in the game. A lot of early Mystery Dungeon style games are the later type and are the main thing I think most people that don't like Roguelikes are actually thinking of.