Your video game hot take(s) thread

[BrawlMan]

Hell, one of the least awful and homicidal characters in the game, the Writer, is a direct stand-in for the 'just looking for answers' crowd (you can even play him as a murderous psychopath to make his sections easier by allowing you to use guns and quicker executions to further drive this home).

I know and remember him.

Plus, I feel like thinking that the ending being a 'fuck you for playing' is a bit like thinking that Saving Private Ryan is saying fuck you for watching because Tom Hanks dies at the end.

That's how I feel and my feelings won't change on the matter.

I mean, I don't think you can get anymore blatantly on the nose than the characterization and story of the Fans. I brought them up because they were the most obvious of this idea, but it shows up elsewhere too, such as the stories of the Actor and the Detective. The Actor tries to explain away his role in commiting violence with a 'I'm only playing a character' (while being weirdly into it), and the Detective is a stab at the people who thought they were playing some sort of hero (even while standing over the piles of corpses you leave in your wake).

I noticed. It still doesn't excuse how they did the ending for me. I will say I like the bits with the Detective, because it came a time when corruption from police and police brutality were really coming out, front and center. Most players actually hate this character, and it is not hard to see why. This is even more important now, and why that section of the game, and Metal Gear Rising are just as relevant now as they were back then.

I mean...okay? I never said it was art, that you couldn't criticize it or even that you had to like it.

I wasn't talking to you. My rant is against blind fans who like the smell of their own and creators farts.

I just feel reducing the whole thing to being some sort of nihilistic farce is a bit of a stretch.

Not really. Especially when I am not the only one who came to the nihilistic conclusion. If you believe it's not, have fun with that. Me personally, I've already seen plenty of other games stab at deconstruction better than this.

​

 

[Dalisclock]

Probably not much of a hot take but I was watching KC and Marty play MGS and MGS2 on stream and while it's been a few years since I played through the series, I'm reminded just how much wierd jank MGS has. Notably in combat where trying to fight anything is basically a pain in the ass because everything does far more damage to you then you do to them even if you're using the preferred optimized method to beat them. Hell, the end game boss-rush can take hours even if you know what you're doing because of how the boss fights are set up(particulary at the end where you're fighting liquid under a 2.5 min time limit, but he can kill you in a few hits, you have no health refills and he gets Iframes whenever you hit him). Hell, everyone you hit has i-frames which means it takes forever to kill anything. MGS2 in comparison controls much better and combat generally works and you have the ability to actually hit things further then 10 feet away.

MGS is also really padded by having an insane amount of backtracking. You probably have to run the entire length of the base at least twice because plot and then there's that weird bit at the end where you have to keep running between the freezer, furnace and control rooms which exist right next to each other for some bizarre reason seemingly only to extend playtime.

But of course, both games have the issue with Kojima being in love with his own writing. Liquid spends a good 10-15 minutes monologuing at you in the final boss fight, snakes support will call him every few minutes to spout 5 minutes of dialogue at you, often in between cutscenes which also run minutes at a time. Yeah, the writing is entertaining because of it's weirdly over-detailing but also super campy, but oh my god they want you to hear all of it.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Probably not much of a hot take but I was watching KC and Marty play MGS and MGS2 on stream and while it's been a few years since I played through the series, I'm reminded just how much wierd jank MGS has. Notably in combat where trying to fight anything is basically a pain in the ass because everything does far more damage to you then you do to them even if you're using the preferred optimized method to beat them. Hell, the end game boss-rush can take hours even if you know what you're doing because of how the boss fights are set up(particulary at the end where you're fighting liquid under a 2.5 min time limit, but he can kill you in a few hits, you have no health refills and he gets Iframes whenever you hit him). Hell, everyone you hit has i-frames which means it takes forever to kill anything. MGS2 in comparison controls much better and combat generally works and you have the ability to actually hit things further then 10 feet away.

MGS is also really padded by having an insane amount of backtracking. You probably have to run the entire length of the base at least twice because plot and then there's that weird bit at the end where you have to keep running between the freezer, furnace and control rooms which exist right next to each other for some bizarre reason seemingly only to extend playtime.

But of course, both games have the issue with Kojima being in love with his own writing. Liquid spends a good 10-15 minutes monologuing at you in the final boss fight, snakes support will call him every few minutes to spout 5 minutes of dialogue at you, often in between cutscenes which also run minutes at a time. Yeah, the writing is entertaining because of it's weirdly over-detailing but also super campy, but oh my god they want you to hear all of it.

Your comments about boss i-frames brought me back a decade to when I was a kid literally crawling his way through MGS4. The feeling of unloading your whole magazine on the sexy octopus lady and only a couple of the shots actually registering had me confused, annoyed, and panicked. Good times.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Your comments about boss i-frames brought me back a decade to when I was a kid literally crawling his way through MGS4. The feeling of unloading your whole magazine on the sexy octopus lady and only a couple of the shots actually registering had me confused, annoyed, and panicked. Good times.

I think there’s even a trophy for getting a combat high from sustained automatic gunfire.

 

[BrawlMan]

I never liked the QTE sequences in RE4. Why most fans only started hating them in Umbrella Chronicles, RE5, and RE6 is beyond me. That second sentence is sarcasm. Don't bother answering it.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I never like the QTE sequences in RE4. Why most fans only started hating them in Umbrella Chronicles, RE5, and RE6 is beyond me. That second second sentence is sarcasm. Don't bother answering it.

They turned me off of the game so hard. They came out of nowhere, stopped the pace of the game dead in its tracks, and frustrated me to no end. I had to force myself to get through them so I could get back to the fun part of the game.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I never liked the QTE sequences

You could just stop there and I'd agree. A blight on games.

 

[BrawlMan]

You could just stop there and I'd agree. A blight on games.

There are some games that got QTEs right, or knew at least how to keep them a minimum or fun, but most were shit and annoying. A hot take I already mentioned, but Asura's Wrath still has the best and most unique use of QTEs in the entire video game industry.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I think there’s even a trophy for getting a combat high from sustained automatic gunfire.

Yeah I remember that one, got it while fooling around the in VR training thing. Good times.

 

[thebobmaster]

There are some games that got QTEs right, or knew at least how to keep them a minimum or fun, but most were shit and annoying. A hot take I already mentioned, but Asura's Wrath still has the best and most unique use of QTEs in the entire video game industry.

Of all games, another one that did QTEs well was Mortal Kombat X's story mode. There were QTEs, but failing inputs didn't get you a game over. Instead, it just changed the cutscene a bit, and you'd start the next fight with a bit less health. Do it perfectly, you start at full health. It rewarded you for doing well without overly punishing you for screwing up.

Supermassive Games...games are also pretty good about QTEs, but those games are more interactive movies for the most part, so it's a bit of a different story.

 

[BrawlMan]

Of all games, another one that did QTEs well was Mortal Kombat X's story mode. There were QTEs, but failing inputs didn't get you a game over. Instead, it just changed the cutscene a bit, and you'd start the next fight with a bit less health. Do it perfectly, you start at full health. It rewarded you for doing well without overly punishing you for screwing up.

That's pretty much how Asura's Wrath works. QTEs will rarely kill you, outside of one or two certain gameplay factors. Mainly in the brawler sections when playing on Hard Mode, with the Mortal Gauge, or both.

Supermassive Games...games are also pretty good about QTEs, but those games are more interactive movies for the most part, so it's a bit of a different story.

Pretty much. They're high budget choose your own adventure novels with some point and click going on. My big bro is a big fan of those games.

Next? Tell them Sterling!

​

 

[BrawlMan]

Thank you Max. Not every game in general has to be made from platinum and diamonds.

​

 

[BrawlMan]

Open Worlds Don't Matter.

​

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Uncharted has always been known for animation and to a lesser extent its platforming, but when factoring both together they are highly overrated. Only in the most recent games does it look anything other than jarring and clunky, because ND finally implemented good animation blending techniques for motion capture.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Open Worlds Don't Matter.

​

His praise of BotW illustrates the conundrum inherent with open world design, given that he himself admitted and somewhat criticized the fact that BotW doesn’t really have a story to tell along the way. It’s also the reason why it’s so challenging to balance and pace an open world game.

Speaking of RDR2 for instance, there is pacing and impactful narrative moments that would’ve been lost if missions like An American Pastoral Scene or Blood Feuds, Ancient and Modern granted more player agency, but at the same time there are other missions where more freedom would be appropriate.

Generally it would be ideal if story and gameplay were in complete harmony but barring that, it’s ultimately up to developer discretion as to which should take precedence.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Open Worlds Don't Matter.

​

Aye, it's Raz!

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

His praise of BotW illustrates the conundrum inherent with open world design, given that he himself admitted and somewhat criticized the fact that BotW doesn’t really have a story to tell along the way. It’s also the reason why it’s so challenging to balance and pace an open world game.

Speaking of RDR2 for instance, there is pacing and impactful narrative moments that would’ve been lost if missions like An American Pastoral Scene or Blood Feuds, Ancient and Modern granted more player agency, but at the same time there are other missions where more freedom would be appropriate.

Generally it would be ideal if story and gameplay were in complete harmony but barring that, it’s ultimately up to developer discretion as to which should take precedence.

Also a bit ironic to me that he used Witcher 3 as an example where the main quest urgency conflicts with open-world design- it is a commonly cited example and I get it (i.e., "why is Geralt playing Gwent and clearing random monster nests when Ciri is in danger") just because Witcher 1 & 2 actually does exactly what he suggests about breaking down the open-world into sections with individual urgent main quests so that you can still explore without and it feeling too weird.

But also, a couple of the Witcher books are also about Geralt putzing around the world while Ciri is in danger. Again, that's not a justification of the game design, just something I find a little ironic.

I have complained about Elden Ring's open-world design but it has this going for it- there is no urgency to become Elden Lord. This is an advantage it inherits from the other From games. Only Sekiro has a sense of urgency, but it also the least "open-world" From game.

I honestly can't think of a game I've enjoyed just "exploring" more than Skyrim, because it has weird stuff that had nothing to do with anything and it benefited from having an infamously lame main quest. Not finishing the main quest is like a point of pride with some players.

 

[FakeSympathy]

https://screenrant.com/god-war-amazon-show-adaptation-new-story-timeline/

Piss off

 

[Ezekiel]

PS1 and Dreamcast had the best disc game cases. CD jewel cases look much nicer and use up MUCH less space than keep cases. Also cheaper to replace. Then the PS2 with its DVD functionality came out and Sony and Microsoft decided their game cases had to match ugly, oversized movie cases. Ever since, all cases have wasted so much vertical space for no reason at all. Have no idea why Nintendo made the same dumb decision with the Gamecube when it couldn't play movies anyway. The discs are only 1.2 mm thick and yet the case thickness wastes six times that. Movies, music, games, if it's optical and 12 or 8 cm in diameter, it should use a jewel case. Exceptions could be made for large anthologies or booklets that won't fit in the square. Jewel case inserts and booklets also fit better than the inserts in keep cases. They're almost exact, whereas keep cases often have the paper fold sliding to one edge of the case or sticking out above/below the transparent plastic slightly, and because the part keeping the paper doesn't fold upon itself and open, there's less chance of the paper sliding around.

 

[BrawlMan]

PS1 and Dreamcast had the best disc game cases. CD jewel cases look much nicer and use up MUCH less space than keep cases. Also cheaper to replace.

While part of me misses this type of packaging, at the same time, I'm glad this practice disappeared. Don't get me wrong, the packaging looks awesome with most games, with the cool inserts on the inside of the jewel case, but that was the major flaw with these type of cases: they broke so easily. Even when you're being careful they would break. I have had plenty of PS1 cases break on me or crack for just opening them. And God help you if the game you owned was a 2-Disc/Multi-Disc game and the case breaks or wears down due to age or accidental handling. Those types of cases are usually harder to find and replace. At least with plastic cases, there is less risk damaging them, or cracking up. I've seen plenty of replace cases you can find on Amazon for cheap for at least PS4/XONE. Hell, there are plenty of replacement cases you can find for Switch, if you bother.

Also responding to Yahtzee's recent video on Silent Hill. Silent Hill 3 is not overrated Yahtzs, but you more than have a habit of over praising Silent Hill 2. To the point of needlessly bashing other horror games and other SH games. Let's cut the bullshit and stop with the whole "Silent Hill X is overrated" stupidity. It's crap like that and arbitrary lines that hold the medium back. The original trilogy of each game got the proper recognition they deserved and serves as a great (but no less flawed) trio of horror games. The only thing we can agree on is that we do not need more Silent Hill.