all those "emotional" games -some spoilers for walkin dead and spec ops the line-

[ischmalud]

soooo, thanks to steam selling everything off atm (curse you bastards taking all my money!!) i got myself the walking dead and even spec ops the line - well mainly since there was such a hype about both of them and they were SO cheap i had to....yea I know I?m looking for help about that as we speak
Anyway probably BECAUSE they were so hyped neither game really turned out to be all that special to me. Did that happen to anyone else besides me or am I just too cynical by now?
Where to start hmm well since i just finished walking dead might as well go with that
now I?m guessing all those big emotional rollercoasters people where talking about was really just the last 2 minutes of act 5. the rest of the game the closest I got to any real emotion was the cheering and dancing on the ceiling when i had the option to bash in Larry?s head apart from that it was very much a point and click exercise....reminded me a bit of those interactive movies they released in the 90s anyone remember those? sort of entertaining but overall....not much of a game in the sense of challenge, but i understand that?s not what the game was meant to be.
Now what I do see is a potential for replay simply by making different choices and seeing how they play out. Now the main issue I have is that they still got to end up in the jewelry store in savanah so I?m not sure how much time and effort I?ll put into seeing all the possible ways to get there.
somewhat off topic: molly is OP as fuck and in general the amount of 1 armed-chin-ups that are done in that game are ridiculous considering that these are supposed to be normal people - I mean think about it any of you could ACTUALLY pull themselves up a ledge on 1 arm? hell most people couldn?t do it with 2 arms anymore....not to mention that people don?t seem to help Lee anymore after he chops that arm off...yea let the guy with 1 arm carry the ladder - makes total sense
Anyway I?m getting sidetracked.
So overall I got to say I?m happy it was so successful cuz it proves ADVENTURE games aren?t dead - hopefully zombie games are dead forever - i.e. the idea won?t be recycled again for another 10-15 years.
Spec ops the line;
Well I don?t understand AT ALL why people think this game is special, sorry. So u shot yanks....k....well so what? Admittedly that?s new for Americans I take it to blast their compatriots in a single player scenario since we all have been doing it forever in multiplayer but really does that make the game special? The story itself is summed up as: *oh someone watched apocalypse now and decided to make a game depicting the effect of modern warfare on the human psyche*
Now fair enough maybe it?s because ApoNow is one of my favorite movies ever, hence I must have seen it a million and 5 or 6 times by now but I didn?t see anything new or particularly deep in that game. I mean hell the radioman is almost 1-1 Dennis hopper from the movie - just imagine he gotten in charge of Kurtz?s mob....crap guess I should put a spoiler warning for the movie into the headline as well. anyway, it could also be that having spent way too many Friday nights at university/college parties where u always run into that "deep and meaningful" guy that rattles of 4-5 half memoriesed Nietzsche or Dante quotes to prove just how clever he is, that the rather generic *doom and gloom* of the game had no real affect/appeal.
Now I haven?t served in any armed forces myself but I could understand if it was a game that has a lot of meaning to vets. now the few vets I know don?t even play computer games so I simple can?t comment on that - maybe there are some here who could enlighten me in that regard?
Apart from that I don?t think anyone is going to tell me that it?s the future of the shooter genre in regards to its mechanics or grafix etc. felt very generic and at times simply broken - now the 3.50$ I paid for it was well spent but tbh if I had paid full price for this I be pissed - MUCHO
So in summary I guess all I meant to ask if anyone can explain to me what was so new/special/insightful about those 2 games since I clearly don?t get it.
I?ll say one thing though in TWD's defense - if "The Last of Us" female character has half the personality that clementine has than fuck all those haters (with railroad spikes) who think that girl (sorry can?t remember her name atm) shouldn?t be so big/ prevalent on the box art

*rant protocol terminated*

 

[endtherapture]

Spec Ops is a really clever deconstruction of the Modern Military Shooter enre, as well as being a comment on PTSD which is why it is so special. It's 4th wall breaking and speaks to you as a gamer directly in a subtle way. Plus it's good just as a comment on PTSD. There's different layers the game can be analysed in, from simply a comment on war, a study of PTSD, and a deconstruction of games. The more you think about it, the deeper you can get. It's very clever.

I think you missed the point of it to be honest.

I haven't played TWD but I plan to.

 

[ischmalud]

well apart from the 4th wall again thats "apocalypse now" or "heart of darkness" (the book that inspired the movie), but i guess u got a point something doesnt have to be new/novel idea to be clever. The breaking of this 4th wall has been done quite a bit lately - lol come to think of it they do it in the Walking Dead as well .
yet interssting that you got all that from the game. now im not assuming or am i asking but again that might be related to a difference in personal/ life experiences.

 

[alphamalet]

Spec Ops the Line redefines how a game can acknowledge the player and instill a sense of accountability to what transpires, as well as makes a comment about the most over-bloated genre in gaming. So I'll say that it is unfortunate you didn't see what was special about it.

The Walking Dead is a game that wants so badly to be a movie. The gameplay got in the way of things, and the choices you made really don't matter. I agree with you that The Walking Dead was nothing special.

 

[ischmalud]

HAHA this is kind of funny with all the hype i would have thought there be legions of people telling me what an ass i am that i dont think TWD was this great emotional revelation instead i get 2 people who point out things about spec ops.

Spec Ops the Line redefines how a game can acknowledge the player and instill a sense of accountability to what transpires, as well as makes a comment about the most over-bloated genre in gaming. So I'll say that it is unfortunate you didn't see what was special about it.

whilst i agree with you about shooters being the most over-bloated genre in gameing (at this point in time) i would have to say this isnt the first game which has done something like that, back during the hey days of adventures there is a sequences in monkey island...i wanna say 3(?) where guybrush has a whole monloge that goes for about 5minutes talkin about how it messes him up that for some unexplained reason he keeps trying to combine all the wierd things in his inventory and than use em with stuff arround him. obviously a much lighter tone in how that lvl of satire gets depictate but essentially the same. during the *age of rts* there was a similar sniped of film between missions (I wanna say it was one of the eart2140 games but i cant remember 100%)
so this just tells me that shooters is at the moment the flavour of the month - but we all know that and i think most of us are sick and tiered of them by now, good news is that in both those previous *incarnations* of self-realisations they where also the final bell letting us know that these fads had run their course - for now since im sure it will all be coming back eventually and the market will be oversaturaded with the same tiered ideas again.
so sorry to break it to you it doesnt redefine anything since thats all been done before, sure they try to make it more doom and gloom in how they do it but i even found that patronising and when they did it in rts it was the same/ fairly similar mood.
somone giving you a speech how all these little specs on your screens are just soldiers they are people with families etc etc ill try and dig up which game that was for you

 

[Guffe]

HAHA this is kind of funny with all the hype i would have thought there be legions of people telling me what an ass i am that i dont think TWD was this great emotional revelation instead i get 2 people who point out things about spec ops.

I have played neither but I also came here to watch the comment section xD

It is true these games are / were hyped about for reasons but then again on this site I think most people might point out something in a friendly way but still understand your point of view. Very few things actually start flame wars on this site and usually it's the same people. Which I think is a good thing.
You have arrived to the classy part of the inernet now, son.

I was expecting some feedback on you WalkingDead analysis thou

 

[ischmalud]

I was expecting some feedback on you WalkingDead analysis thou

i hear you, as i said think its funny that people defend spec ops althought i disagree with their statments to some degree - but at least there is some lvl of opinion present

honestly go on steam and buy those 2 games now while they on sell was like 14$ for both of them and they are defenitly worth that

 

[Corven]

I'll just be that guy and say, opinions and taste are different for everyone, man.

You're not wrong for not having the same exact reaction to these games as it seems most others have.

 

[T3hSource]

Here are some vids about Spec Ops: The Line that might alter your perspective,or you can just dismiss them as pretentious bullsh*t,doesn't matter...

Spoiler: Errant Signal

Hopefully this was thought provoking.

Spoiler: Extra Credits

Spec Ops is special to me because it made me self-conscious and made me feel something,which pretty much a first time for a game to do that to me.And I have seen those vids before I played it,but they didn't hamper my experience it was still very harrowing to me.

And now I'm playing the anti-thesis of these games: Hotline Miami and I'm loving it just as well.It disregards story and just gives basic "quest" orders to the player without context and all the meningeal stuff that's irrelevant to gameplay.

I'll just be that guy and say, opinions and taste are different for everyone, man.

You're not wrong for not having the same exact reaction to these games as it seems most others have.

^
This is also the truth,there are even people who thought the ME3 ending was fine.