Do people understand that there's a difference between "good" and "different?

[Andy of Comix Inc]

There's also a difference between "different" and "interesting".

Some games are different and boring. Some games are different and curious. I mean like, Dear Esther is different but it is terribly unexciting and none of its new ideas are any fresh or invigorating. Meanwhile, Mirror's Edge is different and while it doesn't quite execute its originality perfectly it's still a rather exciting mix of disparate elements that make it an experiment well worth playing. Taste permitting, of course.

 

[likalaruku]

I've been told that I have horrible taste in movies, preferring the low budget indie movies & spoofs with terrible special effects or beyond horrendous CG, wooden acting. bad voice overs, poor lip syncing, bad translations, crappy editing, & confusing plots. They're either intentional bad spoofs, no-f**ks-given exploitation films, or unintentionally hilarious B movies played straight.

They cross the line twice & sometime two wrongs DO make a right. So offensive they're charming, so ugly they're beautiful, so wrong they're right, so bad they're good. I don't think they're horrible, I think they're different.

 

[The Wykydtron]

How does different instantly give it more quality? Nice to see you're trying something new but... Really OP, you're bringing a David "Emotions" Cage game into this as a positive example? Yes. It's different. The writing is a pile of wank, characters make no sense, nothing is consistent, it dips into so many different (lol) and bizarrely out of place themes at breakneck pace with no attempt at good pacing, David Cage still is incapable of writing scenarios around female characters without using a creepy sexual molestation/attempted rape scene (Though that was more of a Heavy Rain deal) and every other scene is a "homage" to something and OH MY GOD I don't even want to go into the farce of a timeline he has going.

But it's different so hands tied, 10/10 GOTY Forever.

If you want an example of different and good see Spec Ops: The Line. I actually load that up for the gameplay would you believe, it's the most fun TPS I have played for a long time. The soundtrack and bright colour scheme elevates it above everything else. Playing precisely into the plot of course but hey, fun gameplay is fun gameplay.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Beyond: Two Souls didn't do anything different. It was the same lame brain attempt at storytelling that Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain were. It was yet more millions of dollars wasted on David Cage taking movie scenes he likes and just throwing them together, consistency be damned. The only difference being B:TS somehow managed to be even worse.

But atleast it gives us the Two Best Friends let's plays.

 

[Directionless]

Yea, it is different, so what?

Because in this young and imperfect medium, where stagnation is already taking place, different is a fucking necessity. Anything that tries something different should be given props, even if it fails.

 

[Johnny Impact]

Because games that try to be different could have just of easily been a COD/WOW/GOW/etc clone. So I am going to make an analogy with food

lets say you like hamburgers and there is this one place that makes the perfect burger you go there all the time, pretty soon other restaurants decide to sell their own burgers but they all fall short. Some places try do the exact same recipe, some change the ingredients slightly but very rarely do any of them ever improve on the burger because it was done so well in the first place. Then one day the joint across the street comes up with this new thing called pizza you decide to give it a try but it's not exactly what you wanted there are olives and pineapple on it and its just not for you. It's no where near as good as the burger but it was very different and maybe once in a while you get tired of the same old burgers and want some pizza even if it is not as good objectively. But then next year they come up with a new kind of pizza with peperonni and mushrooms and it tastes amazing and it's just as good or better then the burgers so now you are glad they tried something so different because they were able to build on their failure and make something better.

so yeah if a company decides to make something really different they should be celebrated for trying because making a shitty original game and making a shitty clone of another game are not the same thing

variety is the spice of life

Your mistake was ordering olives and pineapple in the first place. =D

OT: Different definitely scores points. Example: I love, love, LOVE Brutal Legend. At the same time, I'm ready to acknowledge that it's nothing special in the gameplay category. It doesn't have to be, because it's different. How many games have used the premise of "alternate universe operates using heavy metal in place of logic and physics"? I can only think of one. I could list fifty games that use the premise of "it's a real military combat simulator, m'kay".