Your video game hot take(s) thread

[hanselthecaretaker]

It’s increasingly difficult for me to want to spend money on another AAA PlayStation exclusive because it’s frustrating how often they push gameplay aside to serve the movie they’re trying to make.

Talk talk talk talk talk.

On a somewhat similar note I’m sure GoW Ragnarok will be good but I’m not looking forward to upgrading Kratos's various skill trees again, plus Loki’s. It’s a drag doing this in these character driven sequels in general, like with The Witcher and even Horizon. They’re overwhelming, tedious, and the vast majority of stuff presented within is primarily there to pad game length and unnecessarily complicate the gameplay loop vs providing meaningful engagement.

 

[Dalisclock]

It’s increasingly difficult for me to want to spend money on another AAA PlayStation exclusive because it’s frustrating how often they push gameplay aside to serve the movie they’re trying to make.

Talk talk talk talk talk.

On a somewhat similar note I’m sure GoW Ragnarok will be good but I’m not looking forward to upgrading Kratos's various skill trees again, plus Loki’s. It’s a drag doing this in these character driven sequels in general, like with The Witcher and even Horizon. They’re overwhelming, tedious, and the vast majority of stuff presented within is primarily there to pad game length and unnecessarily complicate the gameplay loop vs providing meaningful engagement.

Yeah, honestly it does get tedious to upgrade the same character in sequel after sequel with often the flimsiest justification. I have no idea how they're gonna do it in the new GOW because I don't think sending Kratos to hell yet again is gonna cut it this time.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Yeah, honestly it does get tedious to upgrade the same character in sequel after sequel with often the flimsiest justification. I have no idea how they're gonna do it in the new GOW because I don't think sending Kratos to hell yet again is gonna cut it this time.

That’s really saying something too when the last games were very linear in their progression, to where just following the path most of what’s available could be obtained easily. Now add character progression on top of the story and it’s like, having a transfer system for people that have Kratos already loaded from the first game would be awesome. I think MGS Ground Zeroes had something like that for saves, and pretty sure a few others may have too to some extent.
It wouldn’t be that hard to balance either since it’s basically already done with NG+. It would just be carrying over to the next game vs playthrough. But the wrench in the works will be story-specific stuff that doesn’t exist in the first game.

Idk how to solve it when this type of design is so common place now that it’s almost taken for granted. It probably needs a buzz word like *ugh* ludo-narrative dissonance.

 

[BrawlMan]

On a somewhat similar note I’m sure GoW Ragnarok will be good but I’m not looking forward to upgrading Kratos's various skill trees again, plus Loki’s. It’s a drag doing this in these character driven sequels in general, like with The Witcher and even Horizon. They’re overwhelming, tedious, and the vast majority of stuff presented within is primarily there to pad game length and unnecessarily complicate the gameplay loop vs providing meaningful engagement.

Yeah, honestly it does get tedious to upgrade the same character in sequel after sequel with often the flimsiest justification. I have no idea how they're gonna do it in the new GOW because I don't think sending Kratos to hell yet again is gonna cut it this time.

This is a problem a lot of single player DMC style action games face that involves sequels. DMC included. Starting with the fourth game, enemy step was a move had to buy as an upgrade for. In the previous games, it was a default move given to you from the start. This rears is ugly head in the fifth entry. But justification for this one is that Nero had his demonic arm ripped off, and Dante had his sword, Rebellion, smashed. All the more aggravating is that newcomer V, gets his double jump from the start. The justification for that one is that he has familiars and Griffon acts as his double jump. That's not getting into the fact that for nearly every single game, you had to buy an upgrade to get a double jump.

No More Heroes 3 has a similar problem where they take out some well known and useful default moves, and made them upgrades you have to buy. Even God of War is guilty of this with Ascension.

As far as exclusive Sony's titles go, I just don't care for most of them. The only one that give me any interest are the new God of War games, Spider-Man, and the announced Wolverine game. Any other exclusive Sony seems to forget and do not want to bother preserving for history. Their other exclusives are stuck on last generation hardware. They have more than enough money to port these over, but don't want to or under the most arbitrary restraints. They claim video games are art in their case, but are more than happy to quickly abandon them when they're no longer needed, don't produce all the money in the world, or critics aren't gathering it up and praising it constant 100% adoration.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Eh, I don't mind having the dialogue and re-introduction to skills or whatever in sequels. First of all, each game really has to favor players new to a franchise so that everyone can play. A lot of gamers are younger and sometimes sequels come out on entirely different console generations, you have to build experiences for new people first.
But to me it's also part of the experience. "Tropes" are used as a dirty word but they're not, it's just about if it's done well. Just like romantic comedies and action movies have predictable rhythms, so do story-based video games. Sure if you think about it, why would Kratos or Geralt or Ezio or any of these heroes have to re-learn skills and upgrade equipment again but, you know, video game.

I just started Horizon: Forbidden West, talkin' about Sony, and yeah, she "lost her gear" or whatever. It's fine, I played the first game like, what, 3 years ago? I honestly can't imagine someone being mad they have to upgrade Aloy. I know some players do that thing where they re-play the previous game(s) in a franchise to "catch up" but then that's on them if they get bored with it.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Yeah, honestly it does get tedious to upgrade the same character in sequel after sequel with often the flimsiest justification. I have no idea how they're gonna do it in the new GOW because I don't think sending Kratos to hell yet again is gonna cut it this time.

They're just gonna have him fight a really "tough" fight in the intro that'll drain his moves from the first game. Maybe he'll fight Thor early on and Thor'll crack his axe or whatever, seeing as his moves are tied to his axe.

I don't know, I mean get that it's perfunctory, but I don't mind games going this route. But then I also don't mind skill trees as much as a lot of people recently seem to. Let's say Ragnarok from the start keeps all of Kratos' skills from the previous game, I'd have take a while to familiarize myself with all of it anyway. I think having the character semi-start from scratch is a good way to build up that skill knowledge in combination with introducing new skills and takes on new skills. A happy medium is how the Arkham games handled it, where certain moves like the instant take-downs, the wire walk, and the grapnel boost, which were unlocks in one game are ready from the start in the sequel.

 

[BrawlMan]

Eh, I don't mind having the dialogue and re-introduction to skills or whatever in sequels. First of all, each game really has to favor players new to a franchise so that everyone can play. A lot of gamers are younger and sometimes sequels come out on entirely different console generations, you have to build experiences for new people first.
But to me it's also part of the experience. "Tropes" are used as a dirty word but they're not, it's just about if it's done well. Just like romantic comedies and action movies have predictable rhythms, so do story-based video games. Sure if you think about it, why would Kratos or Geralt or Ezio or any of these heroes have to re-learn skills and upgrade equipment again but, you know, video game.

You see, that type of thing only works if you're playing as a new character in a sequel, or the old character gets a new style of combat or weapon, or the overhaul the entire combat system. Ninja Gaiden got this right between the first two games. Where you actually kept some of his moves Ryu could do the Izuna Drop by default with the Dragon Sword. Then 3/Razor's Edge happened and it's back to the character for some reason not knowing the move, even though only a year or two has passed at most.

I honestly can't imagine someone being mad they have to upgrade Aloy. I know some players do that thing where they re-play the previous game(s) in a franchise to "catch up" but then that's on them if they get bored with it.

I can. It doesn't matter how long it's been since you last beaten the game. A person can still be in the right to criticize something that's not necessary, or just lazily repeating mechanics from the last game.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Yeah, honestly it does get tedious to upgrade the same character in sequel after sequel with often the flimsiest justification. I have no idea how they're gonna do it in the new GOW because I don't think sending Kratos to hell yet again is gonna cut it this time.

Maybe they keep about half his upgrades from the last game and make you get other new ones instead. That's usually a good compromise.

Conversely, Kratos turns into a Heartless and his Nobody has to merge with him in Castle Oblivion.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Banjo-Tooie was ahead of it's time.

 

[Dalisclock]

They're just gonna have him fight a really "tough" fight in the intro that'll drain his moves from the first game. Maybe he'll fight Thor early on and Thor'll crack his axe or whatever, seeing as his moves are tied to his axe.

I don't know, I mean get that it's perfunctory, but I don't mind games going this route. But then I also don't mind skill trees as much as a lot of people recently seem to. Let's say Ragnarok from the start keeps all of Kratos' skills from the previous game, I'd have take a while to familiarize myself with all of it anyway. I think having the character semi-start from scratch is a good way to build up that skill knowledge in combination with introducing new skills and takes on new skills. A happy medium is how the Arkham games handled it, where certain moves like the instant take-downs, the wire walk, and the grapnel boost, which were unlocks in one game are ready from the start in the sequel.

Actually, I think I figured it out. The Long Winter(I can't remember how to spell the actual norse word for it) arrives at the end of GOW and it's clearly still going on in Ragnarok, per the myth(I'm assuming that they're broadly following the norse mythos still). I can only imagine that since Krato's axe is based on Frost and cold, they'll say "Well, now that Winter is Here, a lot of the enemies are cold based and thus the axe doesn't really affect them much if at all". Kinda like Kratos going to Helheim and he had to go get the Blades of Chaos to fight anything there.

Maybe he ends up getting Thor's hammer or something like it and bashing everything with lightning powers? Because that sounds like something Kratos would totally do. Hey Helios, didn't see your head there.

 

[Dalisclock]

Conversely, Kratos turns into a Heartless and his Nobody has to merge with him in Castle Oblivion.

I have no idea what that means. To be fair, I haven't played Kingdom Hearts but I'm worried I still wouldn't get that even if I had.

 

[Worgen]

I have no idea what that means. To be fair, I haven't played Kingdom Hearts but I'm worried I still wouldn't get that even if I had.

 

[BrawlMan]

Well, now that Winter is Here, a lot of the enemies are cold based and thus the axe doesn't really affect them much if at all". Kinda like Kratos going to Helheim and he had to go get the Blades of Chaos to fight anything there.

He still has his Blades, as seen in the trailer, so the reset move list would not make sense for the fiery weapons. That would still hurt them by a lot.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Impossible. Video length is 4:02, not 4:02:00.

 

[Dalisclock]

I've seen it before but not sure it helped

 

[Worgen]

Ice seen it before but not sure it helped

There isn't really any helping. Its more convoluted then the plot line of the Fate series.

 

[Gordon_4]

I thought the Quarians had no idea their tech was becoming sentiant and ended up freaking out when it started looking like it might be. Cause I can totally see us doing that, our society isn't setup very well for us accidently creating intelligence that is just better then we are. For instance, if you create music, it needs to have a human create it, you can't have a computer do it without human input. There is a good reason for this, someone already used an ai to create every single melody and if they could just copywrite that then anyone who makes any music would have to pay them to do it. How could we on the outside know that an ai was truly intelligent or if it was just mimicking it and if it could do similar should it even be allowed to?

The Morning War was basically kicked off when one Geth unit asked it’s Quarian overseer “Does this unit have a soul?”.

I’m not a philosopher or an expert on Artificial Intelligence but I was given to thinking that someone or something that can contemplate and ask that kind of self-reflective question is a sapient being. And as Mass Effect 2 showed, the animosity wasn’t universal because there was a very active resistance to the attempted extermination. And one of the Geth platforms was willing to give itself up for its Quarian compatriot.

The Quarians fucked up; they fucked up badly. It’s just by the time we get to addressing it in-game it’s been like 300 years and it’s all sins of my fathers.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

The Quarians fucked up; they fucked up badly. It’s just by the time we get to addressing it in-game it’s been like 300 years and it’s all sins of my fathers.

Until, you know, ME3 where the Quarians decide to re-ignite the war during the Reaper Invasion.

Dumb. As. Dogshit.

 

[Gordon_4]

Until, you know, ME3 where the Quarians decide to re-ignite the war during the Reaper Invasion.

Dumb. As. Dogshit.

Honestly I got the impression that was happening ANYWAY in Mass Effect 2 because by the end of the game the only people with any power to stop it are Tali and Zal’Korris and they get outvoted by Shala’Raan, Xen and Han’Gerral. And be honest; how difficult would it be to whip the migrant fleet populous into a war footing if the promised prize is the Homeworld?

Dumb as dogshit is right, but it wasn’t exactly a surprise.

 

[Worgen]

The Morning War was basically kicked off when one Geth unit asked it’s Quarian overseer “Does this unit have a soul?”.

I’m not a philosopher or an expert on Artificial Intelligence but I was given to thinking that someone or something that can contemplate and ask that kind of self-reflective question is a sapient being. And as Mass Effect 2 showed, the animosity wasn’t universal because there was a very active resistance to the attempted extermination. And one of the Geth platforms was willing to give itself up for its Quarian compatriot.

The Quarians fucked up; they fucked up badly. It’s just by the time we get to addressing it in-game it’s been like 300 years and it’s all sins of my fathers.

I would say that something that can be self reflective like that would be more of a sapient being, but how do you prove sapience and not just clever programing. I mean technically its impossible to prove that other people aren't philosophical zombies, trying to prove that machines are more then one is even harder since we know that at one point machines are programed.