Your video game hot take(s) thread

[NerfedFalcon]

Too bad SatAM ended on a cliffhanger, and the Archie comics was more or less a "continuation", but the latter already had its own continuity set up already. So most Sonic fans I knew or were friends with at the time would cope by just saying the comics are the sequel to the show. It's surprising how dark the IDW comics get, and reminds me of the Archie days. As for Sonic Prime, it's just nice to see an Sonic show with good action in it again! Sonic Boom is funny and entertaining, but the action was either lacking in the first season, or not that good due to budget in the first season! Season 2 fixed this somewhat, but come on, we all know Sonic could better in his 2D animated outings! Even AoSth has better action in most of its episodes than anything in Sonic Boom combined.

Sonic Boom the show strikes me as having been made with no expectations and no budget due to the game being... well, the game, but by people who still wanted to make something good anyway. They couldn't make crazy action sequences or deep, arc-based plotlines, but the writers and actors could (and did) have a lot of fun with the premise and setting. It knows what it is and it plays to its strengths, and I respect that a lot. And even if it's not exactly the same, I think it has the closest energy to Adventures since Adventures, which - and this isn't a video game hot take, but it's Sonic, so close enough - I think is better than SatAM.

As for the whole 'Ovi Kintobor' thing, my understanding is that Adventure was meant to be a hard continuity reboot, so everything from before that wouldn't apply going forward. Admittedly they did go backwards after that to circle 'Classic Sonic' back in since Generations, but even then, as was pointed out, it was never part of the games except in American manuals. The current version of Robotnik's/Eggman's past involves Gerald Robotnik, Ivo's grandfather (Adventure 2, Shadow the Hedgehog), and the doctor we know having adopted the name 'Eggman' to take away Sonic's ability to use it as an insult about his weight.

 

[BrawlMan]

Sonic Boom the show strikes me as having been made with no expectations and no budget due to the game being... well, the game, but by people who still wanted to make something good anyway. They couldn't make crazy action sequences or deep, arc-based plotlines, but the writers and actors could (and did) have a lot of fun with the premise and setting. It knows what it is and it plays to its strengths, and I respect that a lot.

Exactly why I like it, and will take it any day over Sonic X or Underground.

which - and this isn't a video game hot take, but it's Sonic, so close enough - I think is better than SatAM.

I made the Movie, Music, and TV Hot Takes Thread. So there you go.

Movie, TV, Web Series, and Music Hot Take(s).

TMNT (2014) and Out of the Shadows are good movies and better than Secret of the Ooze, III, and TMNT (2007). Most of the Phase 2 films in the MCU are not good and I dislike heavily. The only great one is Winter Soldier. Wonder Woman 1984 is not as good as the original, but it is not a bad movie...

forums.escapistmagazine.com

I find AoStH better than SatAM. I still have fond memories of SatAM, but the more I saw recently back in the late 2000s, the more I realized Sonic is too much of a cocky jerk in that one. It's a problem in Sonic Underground as well, but still worse in SatAM. Tails having a reduced role doesn't help matters, and he gets even less to do in the second season. Tails doesn't even exist in Underground. AoStH and Archie didn't have these issues, or made/developed Tails to be more like his actual game counterpart in the comics. By the time of Sonic Adventure, the writers knew to keep Tails active and make him exactly like his game counterpart.

BTW, check out this cool fan project. You too @Hawki. They've been developing this thing for 3 years, and I just heard about it 3 days ago!

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[BrawlMan]

I find it crazy that with Hyrule Warriors and Age of Calamity especially; that this is the closes the Zelda franchise has ever gotten with DMC/Bayonetta style combat. AoC even has Witch Time. Which is the dodge mechanic taken from Breath of the Wild, but modified to be for faster reaction time. No one talks about this! My point being, Nintendo should hire Capcom, and make a DMC style spin-off! Give each playable character a battle theme with lyrics! Hell, give the bosses themes with lyrics too!

I will buy it; no questions asked and will give me more of the replay value I need! AoC I did have a great time, but after I did most of the end game stuff, not counting DLC, I got bored quick and traded it in. AoC does have much better combat than HW, so it lasted longer for me there, than HW ever did. Go for it Nintendo! You had no problem outsourcing to Capcom for your Oracle of Seasons GBC games. Or you can go to Platinum, if you want to save some money.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

The "active time lore" feature of FF16 worries me.

Yes, I know we have another thread on this game but this thought isn't about this game it's about how this feature might affect other games I'll be playing.
So for those that don't know, this feature is that when you're watching a cut scene, you can pause and bring up wiki style descriptions of the characters and topics it's about. This is to help the player keep up with all of the many many characters and countries and all the wacky stuff going on.

And while that's fine, it's been received so universally positively across the board and we know this is an industry of copycats.
My biggest complaint about FF16 is the pacing and story presentation. My concern is- will this make it even easier for game designers to use lore entries as a crutch for poor quest design?

There are already so many motivations for poor quest design in big games: scope creep, pushing mtx, clashing systems, etc. Now that they know people are happy to read articles in the middle of cut scenes even, are they even gonna have to care about actually presenting clear narratives?

Also in the game, there are TWO NPCs that you can go to to read MORE lore.

At least FF16 is a quality-made good game. On the flip side you have Gollum which valued its lore entries so much it charged you more for them lol.

But what about your beloved Witcher 3 doesn't it have endless pages of lore? Yes- but you don't have to read any of it to follow the story and understand the quests. This is the difference. And this is true for many of big story games that get criticized justifiably for many other reasons. But at least they got basic story presentation right- go do this because that. I mean I'm not asking for much here.

In Skyrim, you can find lore books- and they are just pure 100% lore dumps, for the tiny percentage of people who actually care about that (it's the only Elder Scrolls I played so I dunno if the others do that). I like that approach, too. It helps that the actual game story is so simple.

I just love how video games offer a way to experience simple narratives with common themes and tropes in the most visceral, rewarding way and I would hate to see it lose that in favor of trend chasing.

 

[BrawlMan]

The "active time lore" feature of FF16 worries me.

Yes, I know we have another thread on this game but this thought isn't about this game it's about how this feature might affect other games I'll be playing.
So for those that don't know, this feature is that when you're watching a cut scene, you can pause and bring up wiki style descriptions of the characters and topics it's about. This is to help the player keep up with all of the many many characters and countries and all the wacky stuff going on.

And while that's fine, it's been received so universally positively across the board and we know this is an industry of copycats.
My biggest complaint about FF16 is the pacing and story presentation. My concern is- will this make it even easier for game designers to use lore entries as a crutch for poor quest design?

This is nothing new for most big budget action games or smaller games in general. The "active lore feature" is nothing more than a glorified beastriary or character glossary info you would find in your standard pause menu or extras menu. As for everybody else copying it, you should not worry too much. What can they copy that hasn't already been done for the past 20 to 30 years. I see nothing to be concerned about. Whatever can get worse won't be by much, when it already exists.

 

[BrawlMan]

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[Absent]

Yeah you want a hot take ? There you go, chew on that :

Mass Effect. The Mako was great, and driving it over random planets was a lot of fun. They should have kept it.

 

[Nox]

Yeah you want a hot take ? There you go, chew on that :

Mass Effect. The Mako was great, and driving it over random planets was a lot of fun. They should have kept it.

How dare you?

Joking aside, I kinda agree. My main issue with ME was never Mako but the fact Shepard was such a big dull dud. Guess that's my hot take on the subject.

 

[BrawlMan]

Joking aside, I kinda agree. My main issue with ME was never Mako but the fact Shepard was such a big dull dud. Guess that's my hot take on the subject.

You'll find a majority of Mass Effect fans agreeing with you on that.

 

[meiam]

Yeah you want a hot take ? There you go, chew on that :

Mass Effect. The Mako was great, and driving it over random planets was a lot of fun. They should have kept it.

Mako was fine, boring planet with nothing in it were not.

 

[Nox]

You'll find a majority of Mass Effect fans agreeing with you on that.

Had a few people get very upset about it. Especially when I mention I adore Hawke.

 

[BrawlMan]

Had a few people get very upset about it. Especially when I mention I adore Hawke.

Sucks to be them.

 

[Gordon_4]

Had a few people get very upset about it. Especially when I mention I adore Hawke.

Shepard and Hawke are very different people in very different settings. I love them both dearly, but one is a career special forces professional soldier and the other is a small time mercenary on an upward trajectory. I also think Hawke's younger than Shepard (at least at the beginning of Act 1) so there's still some youthful irreverence there.

 

[Nox]

Shepard and Hawke are very different people in very different settings. I love them both dearly, but one is a career special forces professional soldier and the other is a small time mercenary on an upward trajectory. I also think Hawke's younger than Shepard (at least at the beginning of Act 1) so there's still some youthful irreverence there.

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying Shep doesn't fit the game. He is absolutely a faithful representation of most solider types I've ever known. Placing a rogue like Hawke in ME would require a rewrite of the whole story. I just, personally, don't like those types of people/characters. Purely subjective take from me.

 

[Gordon_4]

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying Shep doesn't fit the game. He is absolutely a faithful representation of most solider types I've ever known. Placing a rogue like Hawke in ME would require a rewrite of the whole story. I just, personally, don't like those types of people/characters. Purely subjective take from me.

See I only ever played Man!Shep once, and I'm telling you now, BioWare stifled Mark Meer a lot because that guy has got fucking personality for days. I much preferred Hale as Fem!Shep because she was much more at home in the role from day 1. Meer took until around ME2's halfway point to sound comfortable in Shepard's boots and by ME3 both of them were at top of their game.

And a Rogue similar to Hawke wouldn't require a rewrite, because they already added that character in Mass Effect 2; her name was Kasumi and she fit in just fine.

 

[Nox]

See I only ever played Man!Shep once, and I'm telling you now, BioWare stifled Mark Meer a lot because that guy has got fucking personality for days. I much preferred Hale as Fem!Shep because she was much more at home in the role from day 1. Meer took until around ME2's halfway point to sound comfortable in Shepard's boots and by ME3 both of them were at top of their game.

And a Rogue similar to Hawke wouldn't require a rewrite, because they already added that character in Mass Effect 2; her name was Kasumi and she fit in just fine.

I've been told Jen was much better but I just never got around to replaying those games. Thought MELE would change that but I thought it would just end up being one game, rather than three, and I just don't feel like modding three games all over again.

I meant Hawke as an MC. And rogue not Rogue, which is a personality type, not a class. Think Starlord. Although, now that you mention it, I forgot one of the reasons I adored Hawke was that the VA managed to do serious, as well as sarcastic, with equal expertiese.

Really wish DA2 was DA1.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

"Making games is hard"

This is the catchphrase from games journalists and commentators reporting on the wacky goings on with the games industry- the delays, the cancelations, the ever-growing development time, the crunch, the scope creeps, the disappointments, the failures, etc...

WARNING POLITICS

You know what? Everything is hard. Yes, making games is hard. Being a nurse during and since (and before!) Covid is hard. Being a teacher is hard and now asshole rightwing parents are yelling at them... that is hard. I'm running a project to move a whole IT network over to a new building, that is hard- and I have it easier than most. I got family, friends, neighbors dealing with rising rents, constant threats of job loss due to Covid (yes, that's still a thing), right-wing lunatic parents threatening livelihoods by yelling the latest bullshit they read on Infowars, medical bills, on and on... that shit is hard.

Yes, making games is hard. But I feel like when talking about long-term projects, that kind of talk implicitly sympathizes with senior management. And we don't to sympathize with them. If it's intended to sympathize with regular workers- devs, designers, etc- well, sure, fine, but honestly we're talking about people who are relatively doing pretty good in this economy. And I am against crunch and for unions, of course (QA especially is the shit-end of this business) but I don't think this pro-labor sentiment is really where folks are at when explaining why, say, Redfall is a shit-show or whatever.

It's just a dumb phrase that makes me think about the rest of the labor force that has it much harder and it's annoying.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Portal on the Switch runs at 60fps while consoles are limited to the old 30fps build from the bronze age of the orange box still. Valve? Come on now, give your best babies some love, what you doing with all this emotional neglect?

 

[Absent]

"Making games is hard"

This is the catchphrase from games journalists and commentators reporting on the wacky goings on with the games industry- the delays, the cancelations, the ever-growing development time, the crunch, the scope creeps, the disappointments, the failures, etc...

WARNING POLITICS

You know what? Everything is hard. Yes, making games is hard. Being a nurse during and since (and before!) Covid is hard. Being a teacher is hard and now asshole rightwing parents are yelling at them... that is hard. I'm running a project to move a whole IT network over to a new building, that is hard- and I have it easier than most. I got family, friends, neighbors dealing with rising rents, constant threats of job loss due to Covid (yes, that's still a thing), right-wing lunatic parents threatening livelihoods by yelling the latest bullshit they read on Infowars, medical bills, on and on... that shit is hard.

Yes, making games is hard. But I feel like when talking about long-term projects, that kind of talk implicitly sympathizes with senior management. And we don't to sympathize with them. If it's intended to sympathize with regular workers- devs, designers, etc- well, sure, fine, but honestly we're talking about people who are relatively doing pretty good in this economy. And I am against crunch and for unions, of course (QA especially is the shit-end of this business) but I don't think this pro-labor sentiment is really where folks are at when explaining why, say, Redfall is a shit-show or whatever.

It's just a dumb phrase that makes me think about the rest of the labor force that has it much harder and it's annoying.

Almost relatedly :

"Playing games is hard"

No it's not. Life is hard. That's why you escape from life in games. For a break. Risk-free, consequence-free, in over-simplified models when not downright power fantasies. That's why it's entertainment, and not work. That's why you pay for it, we don't pay you for it.

Damn, this should go without saying, but some gamers...

 

[Nox]

We're in for a decade of generic and souless crap from nice people because everyone who is truly creative is also a massive asshole and was, rightly, removed. i.e. Ubisoft, Blizzard.