Your video game hot take(s) thread
- Thread starter Dany_the_penguin
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Well, MGS2 is kind of a wierd meta-everything and not so much a war game. Don't get me wrong, I like MGS2 a lot but Spec Ops is a very focused "Take That!" to COD type games whereas MGS2 defintely has aspirations to that regard but also has a bunch of stuff about memes and screwing with the players head. Also Raidan's GF not shutting the fuck up about their anniversary on work calls when the poor guy is just trying to save the president and defuse giant bombs.
Also Otacon getting molested by his step mom while Huey tried to drown his step sister, because.....that was important for us to know for some reason. Kojima, it was okay for you to just say EE didn't like the water(She would still have been obnoxious regardless). We didn't need the child molestation/attempted child murder part in there. It's okay to leave some details out. I know I bring this up but it really stands out as something really creepy for no reason and makes me wonder about Kojima.
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Don't forget the part where EE totally has the hots for her stepbrother, to the point where she flat out asks him to look at her as a woman, not a sister.
I think I did forget that. Perhaps my brain scrubbed it intentionally. And now I remember it.
Kojima telling people to be ashamed of their words and deeds was some intense projection on his part.
That's a misconstrument everybody does or gets mixed up. Spec Ops take that wasn't to just COD, but violence in all games. Whether it be war or not. The only take that to COD, was the white phosphorus part.
Kojima was showing the harsh reality that is a marriage. Don't you know that?
It's deep character lore and exploration! He's a baby that needs coddling and protection, damn it!
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Specs Op the Line, like Half-Life, is just a big whole in my gaming history experience because I wasn't really gaming during that time.
I am planning to get an XBox-S at some point like in 2023, I wonder if playing it would be interesting or just way too old at that point.
Overall though I think the whole meta-commentary thing may be of more interest to professional critics and reviewers than us normies I wonder? I played the Stanely Parable very recently and, sure, I giggled a bit, but if it wasn't constantly praised by critics I'd have never given it a second thought. It's a cute game but more a light entertanment, like a cute animal youtube video, not a "great game" to me.
Like those artsy movies about movies... who outside of industry people and obsessives are really into that stuff?
I am planning to get an XBox-S at some point like in 2023, I wonder if playing it would be interesting or just way too old at that point.
Overall though I think the whole meta-commentary thing may be of more interest to professional critics and reviewers than us normies I wonder? I played the Stanely Parable very recently and, sure, I giggled a bit, but if it wasn't constantly praised by critics I'd have never given it a second thought. It's a cute game but more a light entertanment, like a cute animal youtube video, not a "great game" to me.
Like those artsy movies about movies... who outside of industry people and obsessives are really into that stuff?
The problem with Spec Ops is that once you play it, there's not much else to it, and it's message does not work and falls apart, when thinking about it for more than a few minutes. Other than playing on FUBAR, and getting alternate endings, there's not much else to it. Everything Spec Ops did, MGS2 did better. The funny thing is, most YouTube critics were indifferent or did not like Spec Ops, because they saw it as another modern military shooter. It wasn't until a year after, that they started picking up on it, but most we're just trying to get street cred or jumping the bandwagon.
Hipsters and people who are that bored with gaming and have super strict tastes. Overcompensating on games are art and trying to impress people who don't play video games or despise the medium.
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I'll try to be succinct with this. "Normal" people can and do enjoy that stuff when being subversive isn't the only leg the work stands on. Being subversive has a shelf life and even if it can wow people in the short term, if it doesn't have more to it than that then it'll soon be passed by by time as a curiosity.
Yes that is the most succinct and accurate and fair summary about it.
Like 4th wall breaking- it's cute if the audience is already invested and it's just one element.
I'm assuming Spec Ops was actually a good shooter before it started subverting everything.
The shooting in Spec-Ops is average at best, and mediocre at worst. There is nothing new you haven't already seen before. You want a cover shooter with excellent shooting? Play Vanquish.
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I’ve never played either, but kinda wonder how a game would be remembered if it had the premise and thematics of SO:TL along with the gameplay of Vanquish.
There would be a huge dissonance, and people complaining about how the excellent arcade style shooting wouldn't fit with the theme or some shit. Now if the shooting was just regular good, and not Vanquish good, there would be less complaints and less people trying say the controls were done bad on purpose.
I disagree with Gaming Brit on several things:
- If Miles Venom powers didn't work on limited uses, or charge times, all of his attacks would be game breakers. In fact, there are several when you know exploits or get max upgrades for stats and moves.
- I like the characters, and don't think they're over earnest. Don't know where he is coming from on that. There are a couple of meh jokes, but nothing that bothered or offended me. Plus, not everything has to be near or mid cynical. You can still be down to earth and positive or be around positive people. The whole theme is about community, so it makes sense. GB, I know you are British, but that did not stop people who are non-American/US from connecting or understanding these characters. I feel that is his cynicism talking.
- Miles will age fine. I don't consider the look bland. Maybe a little safe, but not bland. The game is beautiful to look at.
- I have not played Second Son, and have no interests, but last I checked, not everyone was exactly positive about that game. SS has it fans, but feels like add-on unnecessary to the overall franchise. I feel like GB is making himself the odd man out to say the Spider-Man games are average. He's entitled to his opinion, but he is once again coming off as a contrarian. This is nothing new and he keeps doing this even when he's trying to be "nice" about it.
- While enemy variety is slightly low, the AI aren't chumps. Especially when you're fighting the Tinkerer's goons or the Roxxon goons. You have to know when to use your powers, dodge, or attack. He has some minor points, but it feels like he barely played and immediately wanted play something else and move on.
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It's good enough but you're probably not gonna be impressed if you play FPS's all the time. Other people have pointed out already that the irony is that you have to be interested enough in military FPS games to even get into the game enough to see and get the subversive part. Which kinda works against it on two levels, because people who are into War shooters enough to play it without knowing the true point of the game probably didn't appreciate being called out by it, and people who would appreciate the subversion probably aren't the people who would pick the game up to begin with without knowing there was something different about it.
It's mentioned in the video that Yahtzee may have done a lot to get people aware that this was something a bit different then a lot of the other Brown Modern War Shooters all over the place at the time, though I have no idea how accurate that is. Presumably someone at Jaeger certainly thought so.
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Just, Amen to this.
I don't like thing in gaming now where it's like, big AAA games have to be cynical and cruel and mean, and indy games are childish cutesy baby cartoons.
Yes obviously I'm over-simplifying to an extreme but after this month of industry presentations and coverage it just really highlighted this trend.
Which makes it all the more hypocritical on GB's part. He says he hates overly cynical games like Last Of Us, and I'm assuming Part II as well, but dislikes Miles for being "too earnest or feels false". You can't have it both ways. This is the same guy that at one point said that the fourth God of War game is not a "true God of War game". It's a person yelling at an oncoming tornado. You're not going to convince many people; especially when money has already been made, and people still enjoy the game. His whole, "both of these Spider-Man games will age poorly!" stance, is even worse, cuz people are replaying them right now to get excited for the new one. I have my many problems with the AAA industry as well, but I'm not going to be a complete downer on people for enjoying these games, nor act like the smartest person in the room. Stick to reviewing older games GB. You seem happier there, so don't even bother playing the newer ones, if you're that cynical. I know you take requests, but you can always say no. Nothing is stopping you GB, and you have your audience. You've already convinced the majority of them of your like-minded opinions.
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I would actually be interested in how other people from New York feel about the tone of the Spidermen, especially Miles Morales.
I grew up there and still have people there, and playing Miles was an absolute delight- it presented a best-of-all-worlds version of the feeling of the city. I know a lot of gamers cringe at the diversity and multiculturalism thing, but it is REAL in a city like that. The afro-latino influence and all that. Being married to an afro-latina while both of use grew up in different areas of Brooklyn while going to school or work in Manhattan, the game's presentation and characters really hit home for me.
And it's corny but that is part of its appeal- Spiderman is corny! "Your friendly neighborhood Spiderman"- Peter Parker was always a big ol' nerd and, yeah, so Is Miles Morales, and it's absolutely charming.
Especically against the backdrop of New York dealing with rents so high people like Miles' family can't afford to live there any more, plus crime going up, plus being one of the earliest and hardest-hit focal points of Covid... playing through this version of NYC was very affecting for me.
I grew up there and still have people there, and playing Miles was an absolute delight- it presented a best-of-all-worlds version of the feeling of the city. I know a lot of gamers cringe at the diversity and multiculturalism thing, but it is REAL in a city like that. The afro-latino influence and all that. Being married to an afro-latina while both of use grew up in different areas of Brooklyn while going to school or work in Manhattan, the game's presentation and characters really hit home for me.
And it's corny but that is part of its appeal- Spiderman is corny! "Your friendly neighborhood Spiderman"- Peter Parker was always a big ol' nerd and, yeah, so Is Miles Morales, and it's absolutely charming.
Especically against the backdrop of New York dealing with rents so high people like Miles' family can't afford to live there any more, plus crime going up, plus being one of the earliest and hardest-hit focal points of Covid... playing through this version of NYC was very affecting for me.
Here are people from New York that love the games.
The only gamers that cringe at diversity or multiculturalism are ignorant and racists/prejudice sods who spends their entire lives living on Twitter, Reddit, and YouTube. Last I checked, they don't represent the entire gaming community. There are lots of gamers out in the US and World at large. Those type of "GAMERS TM" don't even make up a quarter of the gaming community. Most people don't have problem with it, and most definitely did not have a problem with Miles being diverse.
Most of AAA gaming seems to have moved on from that with the start of the 8th generation. Really just TLoU2 is the only one that had a hankering for that early 00's edgy cynicism. Even Ghost of Tsushima, with how stacked it is with torture, death, and war crimes, never really succumbs to this.
What I will say about both Spider-Man games is that the characterization can be a tad... lukewarm. There's just a level of pazazz that's missing, but then this is something I feel that's missing in general from many realistic, mo-capped games. And I think it's the realistic visuals and performance capture that oddly enough gets in the way of the more natural performances you'd get otherwise.
Also, Spider-Man games... Fix your goddamn villain designs, they fucking suck. Doc Ock looks pretty swell, but every other villain just has a bunch of 3-D printed, plastic armor bits all over them. These are villains called the Rhino, the Vulture, the Shocker - I think we can afford to dress them up in cool, silly spandex outfits, and make them actually look like super villains out of a comic. The Prowler in Miles Morales looks like garbage, and the Prowler suit you find later for Miles actually looks like a better Prowler look. I know I'm comparing Miles Morales' Prowler to the Spider-Verse one, maybe unfairly, but too bad, that's the world we live in now and Insomniac had better learn to compete. Make heroes and villains spandex again.
They used to do that with the early 00's Spider-Man games. I remember Vulture from back then just being an old dude in green spandex and wings on his arms.