Your video game hot take(s) thread
- Thread starter Dany_the_penguin
- Start date
I'm glad it's franchise is getting a new entry, but why couldn't they do a pixel art style? A revamped one would have been fine too. I check City Connections website, and they got either pixel games in their library or upcoming was about to be released later.
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Gaming Brit called this out back in 2017 with Resident Evil 7, and it still applies now. I admit Capcom has gotten better with this in certain regards, but I do wish certain bonus features that were always unlocked after beating the game didn't become relegated to DLC (sometimes free and/or sometimes paid depending on the developer and publisher). Some AAA studios get this right, but most others do not. Once again, most Indie and AA games gets right by remembering to keep the old-school designs that work in terms of unlocking bonus content for more replay value.
There is nothing wrong with Alan Wake II taking a slower and more methodical approach to combat and gameplay. Remedy straight up admitted they were taking their inspirations from RE2 Remake and some older style survival horror gameplay (Alone in the Dark, Silent Hill, etc). Not RE4 nor RE4R. I don't know why certain critics like GManLives, certain fans, and "fans" and a few others were expecting/just wanted more of the same like the first game. I like the first game, but combat got repetitive at a certain point, and by end the game, AW I would just throw waves of mooks and possessed objects (glad they got rid of them) at you by late game as if it was going out of style. Not to mention the Extra Story DLC did nothing for me.
I actually like that there's fewer combat encounters compared to the first game. While you fight fewer enemies, they're more durable and either come with new attack patterns or some new enemy types. It makes the combat all the more engaging for me. I do admit that I am mainly referring to Saga's chapters. Alan's chapters unfortunately don't have as much enemy variety and mostly limited to the shadow guys. Whom you're better off avoiding most of the time, if you can. Besides, Saga's final chapter, you fight a whole bunch of Taken for a certain duration, so that more than makes up for it, and is kind of difficult.
I hate it when people just constantly want more of the same for shallowest reasons or constantly expect every sequel to be like the last one. It's been 13 years, Remedy didn't want to do the same thing over and over again. Their game design changed for a good reason and I am all the more happy for them. Also, the first game had way more forced walking sections than the second game. At least in II, you can skip most of them. No such luck in the original, nor its remaster. People love misremembering things or embellishing the truth too much to fit their narrative/opinion. Also, Quantum Break played itself more than Alan Wake II ever could. I have no idea where GManLives nor Seraphim17 were coming from on that one.
I actually like that there's fewer combat encounters compared to the first game. While you fight fewer enemies, they're more durable and either come with new attack patterns or some new enemy types. It makes the combat all the more engaging for me. I do admit that I am mainly referring to Saga's chapters. Alan's chapters unfortunately don't have as much enemy variety and mostly limited to the shadow guys. Whom you're better off avoiding most of the time, if you can. Besides, Saga's final chapter, you fight a whole bunch of Taken for a certain duration, so that more than makes up for it, and is kind of difficult.
I hate it when people just constantly want more of the same for shallowest reasons or constantly expect every sequel to be like the last one. It's been 13 years, Remedy didn't want to do the same thing over and over again. Their game design changed for a good reason and I am all the more happy for them. Also, the first game had way more forced walking sections than the second game. At least in II, you can skip most of them. No such luck in the original, nor its remaster. People love misremembering things or embellishing the truth too much to fit their narrative/opinion. Also, Quantum Break played itself more than Alan Wake II ever could. I have no idea where GManLives nor Seraphim17 were coming from on that one.
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I have to thank @Old_Hunter_77, and I agree with him. The whole Mary Jane was deliberately made ugly is bull crap and she looks good. It's the same jackasses in the 'they're intentionally making our women ugly or not good looking!" crowd. The same assholes who want their *precious waifu* to look exactly the same every single time, nor want them to age. The same thundering dumbasses crying about puddle gate. Don't give these imbeciles any more attention than they deserve. Ignore them and they'll move on to something else. Game is doing great anyway, so their opinions don't mean crap.
First of all, who cares, really? Secondly, a lot can change from scanning in a face, to actually creating an animation rig that they fit onto the actor's face. Example; the actor who plays Dina in TLoU2 has a smaller mouth than the face model for Dina, so they ended up changing the character's mouth so it would read better.
I don’t, just think it’s odd and pointless to use someone who turns out looking completely different. They might as well have just gotten Kirsten Dunst.
Sure a lot can change and need tweaking, but there are plenty of games even from last gen that show it’s very possible to get pretty accurate in-game representations from facial scans. With Spider-Man 2’s portrayal of MJ this clearly wasn’t a goal. Stephanie must’ve thought “…? Oh well at least it was a paycheck.”
You might as well raise that complaint to Capcom. You know how many different face model Chris Redfield has had over two decades?
Even with the RE Engine games, they changed faces for certain characters like Nero (to make his resemblance to Vergil more apparent).
Who knows. The face still looks similar - you match the hair and eye colour and skin tone and it's pretty undeniable. The eyes in the game model are a bit further apart. Might have something to do with Laura Bailey having a slightly larger face than the face model.
In either case, her face looks no less wonky than any other character's face in this game, and trying to attribute any uncanny features to deliberate sabotage by the developers is paranoid.
Yes it's almost as if focusing on HER over the other characters is about more than just the game's overall visuals. Like, for some reason, even though all the faces are similar changes from previous game, the primary focus on the one woman character, who is not even one of the main playable characters. Gee I wonder what that can be.
But, no, no, there's no sexism in gaming culture, don't you dare suggest that.
Oh, edit to add: I'm almost done I think and holy shit am I having fun with this game. The Miles vs Peter thing came to a head and it was amazing. So that's what I'm doing with Spidey 2. It's the best action game AND the best Marvel movie I've enjoyed in years.
Peters face changes like every damn game to the point my memory is now filing it as one of those shifting image suits from A Scanner Darkly, yet he still always looks like a fckin asshole
This less a hot take but more a feeling that my become a hot take, I dunno...
But I was skimming Polygons' review of Jusant and this phrase hit me hard when it was talking about the game's focus and simplicity:
" There’s no leveling here, no endgame, no customization, no meta goals to tick off."
I already bought the game because when it was advertised I already was interested and the reviews have been positive but specifically I'm do down for this whole minimalism thing.
Maybe here is hot take: why do I need "leveling" in a single player game? I mean... to be the level of non-human things? Just make the things good things to fight, or whatever. Or if not fighting, wtf I need numbers and stars for? At least for the type of games I play.
I'm loving Spiderman 2 but when it tells me I reached level 40 I'm like... so? Level 40 compared to what, I'm the only person playing this game.
I know I had a post a while back expressing reservations about this being one of the greatest years for gaming but if Cocoon and Jusant prove to sort of set a new standard for minimalistic, focused gaming experience, then I'll add my chorus to the praise.
But I was skimming Polygons' review of Jusant and this phrase hit me hard when it was talking about the game's focus and simplicity:
" There’s no leveling here, no endgame, no customization, no meta goals to tick off."
I already bought the game because when it was advertised I already was interested and the reviews have been positive but specifically I'm do down for this whole minimalism thing.
Maybe here is hot take: why do I need "leveling" in a single player game? I mean... to be the level of non-human things? Just make the things good things to fight, or whatever. Or if not fighting, wtf I need numbers and stars for? At least for the type of games I play.
I'm loving Spiderman 2 but when it tells me I reached level 40 I'm like... so? Level 40 compared to what, I'm the only person playing this game.
I know I had a post a while back expressing reservations about this being one of the greatest years for gaming but if Cocoon and Jusant prove to sort of set a new standard for minimalistic, focused gaming experience, then I'll add my chorus to the praise.
It wasn’t just limited to HER though -
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Actor Addresses Peter Parker's Face Change Controversy
Yuri Lowenthal, the voice and motion capture artist behind Spider-Man, weighs in on the divisive facial change in the game series.
www.gamespot.com
https://www.reddit.com/r/SpidermanPS4/s/etbTurTAnB
But apparently that was for technical reasons and Ben being a better match for the voice performer. However if that’s the case then they may as we have just cast the game’s writer as Mary Jane’s face.
Fans think MJ looks different in Spider-Man 2 but aren’t sure why
Fans of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 are confused as to why MJ looks different compared to the last Insomniac game, despite using the same face model. Stephanie Tyler Jones reprises her role as Mary Jane…
nichegamer.com
My hot take in all this is that Insomniac is *still* kinda shit at character modeling (specifically faces). C’mon Sony; aren’t you supposed to be sharing your tools/know-how seeing as they’re under your umbrella now?
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Not that hot really. I'd put them a notch above NetherRealm. Though with Insomniac I'd say their biggest issue is just character design. Their go-to for hero and villain design is armor plating or body armor. And Peter, M.J., and Harry would look fine if they just added a pinch of flair to their look, but instead they look about as interesting as a 90's sitcom protagonist.
Because "RPG elements" in games went from the new standard to just the standard. There are still plenty of single player games I play that don't have leveling nor XP. Leveling up in non-RPGs isn't new, but was either groundbreaking or experimental at the time of the 8-bit,16-bit days, and 32-bit. It wasn't really until the mid PS2 days and early 7th generation, where RPG elements in games became more common place. The only reason so many do them is because others had done to them varying degrees of success. It's only there to make the player feel like they're accomplishing something, dopamine effect, or just padding.
Very few games land on doing RPG elements correctly and most from today are pointless grinding. I know you said you missed out on gaming in 6th generation, so you're locked out the loop of how it got so popular and put into many AAA games.