Your video game hot take(s) thread

SilentPony

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Honestly this guy comes off as pretty fucking pretentious. Like he's the only one smart enough to understand action game mechanics, like move set or dodge mechanics.
Also calling From Software games cookie cutter, put the square block in the square hole gameplay is a pretty big swing and a miss. You can level a lot of criticism at From Software, but lack of player choice and clear instructions is not one of them. How many tens of thousands of different builds does Elden Ring have? Not really lacking in freedom of expression or allowing for each player to find their own path to victory.
And Im not sure I get the criticism of Soulsbourne style games expecting you to use all your moves and skills to win. Like...yeah? And? What's wrong with game mechanics using their mechanics? I think it smacks of either poor game design, or not understanding the assignment if you can get through all of Bloodborne without needing to dodge, or can ignore the combo system in Devil May Cry.
He comes off too much like a contrarian, which normally I'm all for, but with no clear point or foundation other than vague ideas of gaming journalism hive mind and neckbeard circle jerking over Soulsbourne because they're not smart enough to appreciate a real action game.
and he doesn't list what he considers a good action game, just that he blames Soulsbourne for people not understanding what makes a good action game.
 
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BrawlMan

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Honestly this guy comes off as pretty fucking pretentious. Like he's the only one smart enough to understand action game mechanics, like move set or dodge mechanics.
Also calling From Software games cookie cutter, put the squad block in the square hole gameplay is a pretty big swing and a miss. You can level a lot of criticism at From Software, but lack of player choice and clear instructions is not one of them. How many tens of thousands of different builds does Elden Ring have? Not really lacking in freedom of expression or allowing for each player to find their own path to victory.
And Im not sure I get the criticism of Soulsbourne style games expecting you to use all your moves and skills to win. Like...yeah? And? What's wrong with game mechanics using their mechanics? I think it smacks of either poor game design, or not understanding the assignment if you can get through all of Bloodborne without needing to dodge, or can ignore the combo system in Devil May Cry.
He comes off too much like a contrarian, which normally I'm all for, but with no clear point or foundation other than vague ideas of gaming journalism hive mind and neckbeard circle jerking over Soulsbourne because they're not smart enough to appreciate a real action game.
and he doesn't list what he considers a good action game, just that he blames Soulsbourne for people not understanding what makes a good action game.
So I am not the only alone on this then. I had a similar feeling to your reaction. I may not be a Souls expert, but even I can tell he was bullshitting, and it's him shifting blame on a franchise that was doing its own thing, and had nothing to do with DMC. I get where he's coming from on the journalists, and they need to be brought down by a many pegs, but this is not the way to do it. BTW, BeeG set the video to private. That's usually what happens to these contrarian videos, where the user knows they're in the wrong. So they it to private to be criticized or only have liked minded individuals/"friends" agree in their echo chamber. GamingBrit did the same thing with one of his Silent Hill videos involving the Silent Hills Demo. Got his ass tore out for that one, and tries to act like it doesn't exist.

Sorry for wasting your time @CriticalGaming, @hanselthecaretaker2, @Dalisclock, @Dirty Hipsters, @Old_Hunter_77, @FakeSympathy, and @SilentPony. BeeG set it to private now, so no one can view it, unless you're on his friends list. You can disregard the previous message.
 
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FakeSympathy

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Now he put it back up!

Hmm, so he's calling out anyone who DOESN'T experiment with all the mechanics in a game, and they can't criticize how difficult a certain boss is or the game itself is bad? And to top it off, he's blaming soulsborne games for influencing us to accept its type of combat as the norm and making us hate other action games?

That sounds like an assumption that we can't tell the difference or enjoy the different game styles, which is complete bullshit. I'm pretty sure I enjoyed Souls, GOW, DMC 5, and Arkham games all the same. And all of them play completely differently. I didn't need to experiment with all the options I had in DMC 5 (I didn't know there were so many possibilities as pointed out in the video), but I still enjoyed it.

By the same logic he calls people out for, can't it be argued the guy is doing the same? If the game allows us to stay vanilla and basic, why can't we enjoy that. Like, what is up with this obsession of creativity beating familiarity? Does this guy even consider giving so much room for experimentation can overwhelm a player? I recently gave up on finishing BOTW and didn't even bother touching TOTK, because both games seems to actively punish me for not being creative by making everything more challenging.

And I'm willing to bet this guy haven't touched games that are REALLY dull in terms of combat; Thor: God of Thunder (The 2011 movie tie-in game), Witcher 1 (great story tho), The 2021 Avengers game, and a bunch of other games I probably can't think of right now.
 
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BrawlMan

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Does this guy even consider giving so much room for experimentation can overwhelm a player?
He doesn't mention this, and why it's important to have difficulty options. So much for lack of self-awareness, and being the thing you became.

Like, what is up with this obsession of creativity beating familiarity?
By being so creative, I am the SMRTEST smartest HARDCORE GAMUR on the planet! It's funny how he mentions in this video and in some of his God of War videos (in the video descriptions), how the Norse GoW games "too simplistic" and does not offer enough experimentation/creativity and variety. As we've seen from the COMBO MAD God of War community, BeeG is full of horse shit right now. You can get more experimental in any God of War game, Greek or Norse, compared to all of Grasshopper Studios hack n slash games. Keep in mind, I am big fan Grasshopper and Suda. The most experimental and highest combat potential games they've ever made are No More Heroes 2, and Killer Is Dead. NMHIII does have great combat, but Suda streamline to where Travis only has 1 sword, but it can morph based on his attack power and what type of attack he's doing, and they took away his non-melee weapon/punch attacks. Those were turned into simplified grapples, but successfully grabbing a stunned enemy nets you a full battery meter for Beam Katana.
 
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sXeth

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I had to giggle when he was talking about not playing a game like a job and had Setsuna R&R in the background as a counterexample <_< Like the combat in that may (eventually) get fun but that game is the grindiest slog on earth I've played in recent memory (and I play Warframe.. Monster hunter... Dauntless....lol)

Even as a noted person on the field of the Souls games being too grounded for their own good to work well as an "action game" and too.... nonexistent manythings in terms of "RPG game", dudes got maybe like two or three salient points buried in a bunch of weird whinging over what I assume is review scores that are more related to which publishers can pay for ads and throwing out free review copies (smaller indie or pseudo indies that make more niche action games, no so much) then anything
 
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Gordon_4

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Borrowing this link, @FakeSympathy.

These are the actual remakes worth complaining about and calling out on being lazy! All of the Modern Warfare games don't need remakes! I don't know how certain anti-remake fans will biatch about Dead Space Remake or RE4R, but either won't say anything about COD, or go "it's the business/Activision, whatta ya gonna do?!". Fuck off you, hypocritical shits!
I can’t speak for MWII, but at the very least Modern Warfare (2019) is most certainly not a remake of CoD4. The two games share a couple of common characters but their stories and locations are entirely different.
 

BrawlMan

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I can’t speak for MWII, but at the very least Modern Warfare (2019) is most certainly not a remake of CoD4. The two games share a couple of common characters but their stories and locations are entirely different.
I just checked, MW2019 is a full on Continuity Reboot/"Reimagining". So you are not wrong, but it makes things all the more lazy and confusing when trying to talk about which one. Still a dumb and confusing naming convention that will involved a date and parenthesis.
 

Gordon_4

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I just checked, MW2019 is a full on Continuity Reboot/"Reimagining". So you are not wrong, but it makes things all the more lazy and confusing when trying to talk about which one. Still a dumb and confusing naming convention that will involved a date and parenthesis.
I agree it’s a very lazy reuse of the name and characters. But if we’re going to pillory it, we should at least do it for its actual sins, and it has enough that we don’t need to dream any up.
 
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FakeSympathy

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I just checked, MW2019 is a full on Continuity Reboot/"Reimagining". So you are not wrong, but it makes things all the more lazy and confusing when trying to talk about which one. Still a dumb and confusing naming convention that will involved a date and parenthesis.
Seriously, I am questioning what exactly was the point of that sequel-bait ending in MW2Re, because they know people were gonna buy the next game anyways.
 
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Bob_McMillan

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Watching the Spider-man 2 trailer again gives me a sneaking suspicion that the wingsuit is going to be a little too OP. It looks fun for sure, but also looks like it would make a good chunk of web swinging obsolete.
 

BrawlMan

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Seriously, I am questioning what exactly was the point of that sequel-bait ending in MW2Re, because they know people were gonna buy the next game anyways.
Because the original MW2 did it and sold even better than the first. That's the only thing I can think of; history repeating itself.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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Now he put it back up!

This is a silly video.

The complaint is that people don't want to experiment with combat systems. Ok let's assume that's true at face value. People don't want to experiment with a combat system if there's no reason to do so. Asking people to experiment with a combat system without any incentive or benefit is silly. You can have the deepest combat system in the world but if every enemy dies in one or two hits no one will know that attacks combo into one another because they'll never have a reason to press more buttons to find that those combos exist in the first place.

Take for example the most recent Lego Star Wars game, Skywalker Saga. It turns out that the game has a surprisingly deep combat system, but the only place that you can use it is in one area with children because children don't take damage, and therefore survive long enough to be comboed, unlike the enemies in the game. There's no real reason for this combat system to exist in the game. You can't utilize it to it's full potential in actual gameplay, all you can do is basically juggle a dummy. According to the logic of this video that would be an ultimately great combat system because it has depth.

Combat depth without actual utility in the game is pointless. Punching on a dummy in a training room in Street Fighter doesn't make for a compelling gameplay experience, and styling on enemies that have no hope of doing damage to you is just ultimately not engaging for people long term.

The reason that people like the Soulsborne games is specifically because attacks are easy to execute and the combat is relatively easy to master, but the games force you to completely master the combat system and then throw you into situations where you can only succeed through that perfect mastery. You get satisfaction through using the combat system to beat challenges, not from the combat system directly.

He talks about Dante from DMC5, and basically states that Dante's combat in DMC5 is good because Dante gets so many options, and the enemies are easy enough to fight that you get to experiment with those options. The argument hinges on the idea that if the enemies were more difficult to fight people would be less likely to fully engage with the combat system, and that's just plain WRONG. The reason that Dante's combat in DMC5 is so fun is because the game incentivizes you to use as much of the combat system as possible through the style scoring system. If there was no style scoring in DMC5 people wouldn't interact with the combat system anywhere near as much regardless of the amazing depth of options Dante has. At the lower difficulties the challenge of DMC5 is SSS ranking your way through encounters, and that's also where the satisfaction of mastering the combat system comes from.

In games where style adjudication is not a mechanic, and your ability to interact with the combat system isn't graded the only measurement of mastery that the player has is their ability to defeat difficult enemies. That's why the Souls games are satisfying. Getting through a difficult encounter is satisfying because it proves a level of mastery of your character even if put into sub-optimal or unfair situations.

Edit: I definitely spent too long writing this. I basically stopped arguing on the internet years ago because of how much of a time sync it is, and because I have better things to do. Why did you make me watch this @BrawlMan? Was it just because you missed the dulcet tones of my perfectly structured arguments reverperating in your years?
 
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BrawlMan

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You can have the deepest combat system in the world but if every enemy dies in one or two hits no one will know that attacks combo into one another because they'll never have a reason to press more buttons to find that those combos exist in the first place.
Devil May Cry 2.
 
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BrawlMan

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Why did you make me watch this @BrawlMan? Was it just because you missed the dulcet tones of my perfectly structured arguments reverperating in your years?
I just needed some extra perspectives, nothing more. I wasn't expecting you to go on for an entire 1 page essay length. I do find it saddening, annoying, and disappointing that some people I either subscribed towards, or had respect for, are doing either these weird/bad garbage takes or are throwing hissy-biatch fits, because the thing they like it not as popular, or using the "this new thing or remake is (more) popular than the thing I do like! Waaahhh!". Either of these fit BeeG or Crowbcat especially. What really sucks in the latter's case, is that he already made and articulated the problems with game journalism or other gamers analyzing combat in action games incorrectly in shorter videos without much commentary done so much better. Whatever few points he did have in this one, BeeG shot himself in the foot, and the conclusion of those 8 minutes boil down to "Here's Why Game Jurnos Suck!". With adding blame towards a genre that did nothing to those people he's disliked and just regular gamers in general. Those specific journalist or people were already lazy asses or jack asses to begin with, and Dark Souls/Norse God of War didn't change them or whatever perception they have of other action games. That was all them on their own. BeeG is unfortunately another user falling into the angry grift racket, when he never needed it to begin with. The man is allowed to have whatever opinion he wants, but I came here for the combo vids and how to be a better DMC/Action game player, not this shit I've already heard a million times for every other "Gaming expert/YouTuber with too much free time".
 

CriticalGaming

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So I am not the only alone on this then. I had a similar feeling to your reaction. I may not be a Souls expert, even I can tell he was bullshitting and it's him shifting blame on a franchise that was doing its own thing, and had nothing to do with DMC. I get where he's coming from on the journalists, and they need to be brought down by a many pegs, this is not the way to do it. BTW, BeeG set the video to private. That's usually what happens to these contrarian videos, where the user knows they're in the wrong. So they it to private to be criticized or only have liked minded individuals/"friends" agree in their echo chamber. GamingBrit did the same thing with one of his Silent Hill videos involving the Silent Hills Demo. Got his ass tore out for that one, and tries to act like it doesn't exist.

Sorry for wasting your time @CriticalGaming, @hanselthecaretaker2, @Dalisclock, @Dirty Hipsters, @Old_Hunter_77, @FakeSympathy, and @SilentPony. BeeG set it to private now, so no one can view it, unless you're on his friends list. You can disregard the previous message.
First of all, fuck this dude for calling me DSP.

Second of all, this video is dumb because it shows a fundamental understand of both games and (ugh do I have to defend this?) Journalists.

Look I'm no defender of games journalists, mostly because I think 90% of them don't want to be writing about games in the first place. However his argument about people's opinions regarding actions games basically boil down to "Oh the game gets better after 100 hours." Which as we all know isn't an argument, nor a justification of anything at all.

And he is wrong to suggest that a play should want to experiment with the toolkit provided. Games should encourage experimenting without requiring it. If someone button mashes their way through the game and had fun, then cool. If they learned all the flashy combos and thought it was the best thing ever, cool. My problem with game's journalists rarely comes from reviews because I know most reviews stem from upfront shady business practices from publisher/magazine relationships. Gotta suck some dick to keep getting games early, though what's interesting about this is reviewers on youtube will get early copies and still shit on the game so I wonder why the mainline review sites can't. Oh it's probably because the "journalists" there don't give a fuck and are willing to be bullied.

Anyway the point is this video made no sense and it really didn't do anything to blame Souls games except to say that for some reason journalists like them? Okay man whatever you say.