Zero Punctuation: Detroit: Become Human

Erttheking

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Wait, did the abusive dad really fucking talk about how much he was going to enjoy beating his daughter? Is that an actual scene or Yahtzee being hyperbolic? Because if so, I seriously have to question how people can view that as a shocking look at domestic abuse.

Also

what, did the asshole buy a fucking robot daughter and then a robot maid? For an asshole who lives in a dilapidated house, he sure has a lot of money to throw around. And why the shit would he do that?

So I'll just throw something out there, anyone who's interested in a robot focused game where inequality and lost jobs caused by automation is actually a theme (granted not the only theme) play Subsurface Circular. It's by the guy who made Thomas Was Alone, and while it's a short game that's mainly about a robot cop having talks on the subway, it's a thousand times more interesting than anything David Cage ever made.

Plus it's only six bucks.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
If they wanted a real twist they would have included Undertale and just let you play that after the half way point so people would feel something.
 

Callate

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I was concerned for a moment, there, that the "David Cage Twist" was going to involve a broom handle.
 

Canadamus Prime

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You really do get the impression that David Cage would much rather be making films.

EDIT: Besides hasn't the concept of humanity, AI, and androids been explored much better in other mediums? Things like Blade Runner, Bicentennial Man, AI: Artificial Intelligence, Star Trek: The Next Generation...
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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So has anyone actually seen David Cage? Like in person? Or talked to him? 'cause the more I hear of his shit games, the less I think he's a real person. Kinda' like Keyser Soze except its a group of like 15 random people who all just throw out single ideas or thoughts, they're jumbled together into something approaching a character and instead of putting their names on it, they just use David Cage.
So every character has a dozen distinct personalities, multiple backstories and actions, none of which ever gel together into a real person because every one was written one sentence at a time by 15 different people. And for completion, in 12 different languages and then Google translate is used to explain the terrible grammar and sentence structure.

it just seems like someone this bad at acting human and knowing what humans act like can't possible exist. In a vacum if I were to say David cage games are actually written by an AI program that only knows of humans from Fanfic.net searches and Twitter it'd make more sense than the thought of a grown man writing this soup.
 

Apothecary2

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erttheking said:
Wait, did the abusive dad really fucking talk about how much he was going to enjoy beating his daughter? Is that an actual scene or Yahtzee being hyperbolic? Because if so, I seriously have to question how people can view that as a shocking look at domestic abuse.

Also

what, did the asshole buy a fucking robot daughter and then a robot maid? For an asshole who lives in a dilapidated house, he sure has a lot of money to throw around. And why the shit would he do that?

So I'll just throw something out there, anyone who's interested in a robot focused game where inequality and lost jobs caused by automation is actually a theme (granted not the only theme) play Subsurface Circular. It's by the guy who made Thomas Was Alone, and while it's a short game that's mainly about a robot cop having talks on the subway, it's a thousand times more interesting than anything David Cage ever made.

Plus it's only six bucks.
It is later shown that Kara only costs $800. Under 2038 inflation. The androids became very cheap. The question of why he would is also answered at the end of the game if you make the correct choices.
 

Apothecary2

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Canadamus Prime said:
You really do get the impression that David Cage would much rather be making films.

EDIT: Besides hasn't the concept of humanity, AI, and androids been explored much better in other mediums? Things like Blade Runner, Bicentennial Man, AI: Artificial Intelligence, Star Trek: The Next Generation...
Well he certainly does much more with the interactivity of gaming than Neil Druckmann does. And while Kojima has great interactive playfulness in his games, his actual storytelling is just bloated cutscenes.

Academically it is believed that since video games are a newer medium with unique ways to experience them, games stories to not have to be original in the grand scheme of things. Interactivity can be used to tell old stories in new ways. The same way film is treated differently from novels.
 

mysecondlife

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I always look forward to a David Cage game videos, especially since Peter Molyneux has gone silent.
 

darkrage6

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Eh I personally dig Cage's games and think this was his best one yet. Wonder if Yahtzee will check out State of Decay 2.
 

darkrage6

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Silentpony said:
So has anyone actually seen David Cage? Like in person? Or talked to him? 'cause the more I hear of his shit games, the less I think he's a real person. Kinda' like Keyser Soze except its a group of like 15 random people who all just throw out single ideas or thoughts, they're jumbled together into something approaching a character and instead of putting their names on it, they just use David Cage.
So every character has a dozen distinct personalities, multiple backstories and actions, none of which ever gel together into a real person because every one was written one sentence at a time by 15 different people. And for completion, in 12 different languages and then Google translate is used to explain the terrible grammar and sentence structure.

it just seems like someone this bad at acting human and knowing what humans act like can't possible exist. In a vacum if I were to say David cage games are actually written by an AI program that only knows of humans from Fanfic.net searches and Twitter it'd make more sense than the thought of a grown man writing this soup.
I'm personally in agreement with Laura Kate Dale on David Cage, this dialogue always seemed fine to me, but then again I have autism(as does Laura) so that might be why i'm not bothered by it. Her review largely sums up my own thoughts on the game:http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2018/05/24/detroit-become-human-succeeds-by-focusing-on-small-timely-stories
 

darkrage6

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Canadamus Prime said:
You really do get the impression that David Cage would much rather be making films.

EDIT: Besides hasn't the concept of humanity, AI, and androids been explored much better in other mediums? Things like Blade Runner, Bicentennial Man, AI: Artificial Intelligence, Star Trek: The Next Generation...
I don't know, I think he's happy playing around with what a game truly is, and i'd certainly put his works above that of the Chinese Room.
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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darkrage6 said:
Silentpony said:
So has anyone actually seen David Cage? Like in person? Or talked to him? 'cause the more I hear of his shit games, the less I think he's a real person. Kinda' like Keyser Soze except its a group of like 15 random people who all just throw out single ideas or thoughts, they're jumbled together into something approaching a character and instead of putting their names on it, they just use David Cage.
So every character has a dozen distinct personalities, multiple backstories and actions, none of which ever gel together into a real person because every one was written one sentence at a time by 15 different people. And for completion, in 12 different languages and then Google translate is used to explain the terrible grammar and sentence structure.

it just seems like someone this bad at acting human and knowing what humans act like can't possible exist. In a vacum if I were to say David cage games are actually written by an AI program that only knows of humans from Fanfic.net searches and Twitter it'd make more sense than the thought of a grown man writing this soup.
I'm personally in agreement with Laura Kate Dale on David Cage, this dialogue always seemed fine to me, but then again I have autism(as does Laura) so that might be why i'm not bothered by it. Her review largely sums up my own thoughts on the game:http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2018/05/24/detroit-become-human-succeeds-by-focusing-on-small-timely-stories
Does david cage has autism? I hadn't heard but if he does that might explain it. If he doesn't though, I'm not sure what to make of him. As someone who doesn't have autism, his dialogue is random bordering on non sequitur, with every character acting like someone out of Alice in Wonderland or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
 

Burnouts3s3

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I enjoyed this interactive movie from David Cage, but Yahtzee is absolutely correct in his assessment in Cage's writing. It's still really amateur and doesn't work all the way through. I felt that the Deviant Hunter, Connor and Clancy Brown's character, Hank, had the best story in the game and their dynamic worked like gangbusters. But Markus' story, where he's this Android Messiah who's going to be a Civil Rights leader, falls completely flat.

One of the things I liked was the 'fail states are not game overs' mechanic Cage brought over from Heavy Rain. So if a certain character dies, the game goes on without them which I thought was pretty smart.

erttheking said:
what, did the asshole buy a fucking robot daughter and then a robot maid? For an asshole who lives in a dilapidated house, he sure has a lot of money to throw around. And why the shit would he do that?
Todd, the abusive asshole, is a drug dealer who's wife left him and took his biological daughter. Todd bought the robot child to 'prove' that he can be a good parent only to show he can't an even to a robot he's still an abusive asshole. Again, it doesn't really 'work' as a narrative but it's sort of interesting.


Kara and Alice can get into a scenario which they are taken to the Recycling center(It's basically a concentration camp for robots. Yes, really). Kara can have a number of options but Alice will also be in danger as well. The purpose is to have Alice also be in danger. If she was human, she wouldn't be in the same situation as Kara and be safe.

Again, Yahtzee is right in that the story was much stronger when the player thought Alice was human but then we wouldn't have that ending.

Like I said, I enjoyed the game but it's flawed as all hell.
 

Darth_Payn

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Wait a minute: A.I., advanced robotics, and social inequality in Detroit? That lazy ************, Cage just stole that from Deus Ex: Human Revolution! I definitely didn't ask for this!
 

Canadamus Prime

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Apothecary2 said:
Canadamus Prime said:
You really do get the impression that David Cage would much rather be making films.

EDIT: Besides hasn't the concept of humanity, AI, and androids been explored much better in other mediums? Things like Blade Runner, Bicentennial Man, AI: Artificial Intelligence, Star Trek: The Next Generation...
Well he certainly does much more with the interactivity of gaming than Neil Druckmann does. And while Kojima has great interactive playfulness in his games, his actual storytelling is just bloated cutscenes.

Academically it is believed that since video games are a newer medium with unique ways to experience them, games stories to not have to be original in the grand scheme of things. Interactivity can be used to tell old stories in new ways. The same way film is treated differently from novels.
If you can call what you do in David Cage games "interactive," sure. Well that's not really fair of me to say since I've not actually played any of them and I'm mostly going of other people's reactions to them and clips I've seen. I do get the impression that some people just don't know how to use the medium of games to tell a story, David Cage included.

You're right, games do have the potential to tell old stories in new and interesting ways. I get the impression though that this game fails to do that.
 

Schadrach

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erttheking said:
Wait, did the abusive dad really fucking talk about how much he was going to enjoy beating his daughter? Is that an actual scene or Yahtzee being hyperbolic? Because if so, I seriously have to question how people can view that as a shocking look at domestic abuse.

Also

what, did the asshole buy a fucking robot daughter and then a robot maid? For an asshole who lives in a dilapidated house, he sure has a lot of money to throw around. And why the shit would he do that?

So I'll just throw something out there, anyone who's interested in a robot focused game where inequality and lost jobs caused by automation is actually a theme (granted not the only theme) play Subsurface Circular. It's by the guy who made Thomas Was Alone, and while it's a short game that's mainly about a robot cop having talks on the subway, it's a thousand times more interesting than anything David Cage ever made.

Plus it's only six bucks.
I assume the housing situation is a result of his technophilia.
 

Igor-Rowan

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I'm watching the Best Friends play the game, because I knew for a fact when they get to the part with the bus and the Androids in the back it would be hilarious.

My favorite moment so far is the Maid Android getting in front of the TV while she cleans the house, and when she gets yelled at she programs an invisible wall for herself in order to not do it again. That's clever, I want more of that.
 

darkrage6

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Silentpony said:
darkrage6 said:
Silentpony said:
So has anyone actually seen David Cage? Like in person? Or talked to him? 'cause the more I hear of his shit games, the less I think he's a real person. Kinda' like Keyser Soze except its a group of like 15 random people who all just throw out single ideas or thoughts, they're jumbled together into something approaching a character and instead of putting their names on it, they just use David Cage.
So every character has a dozen distinct personalities, multiple backstories and actions, none of which ever gel together into a real person because every one was written one sentence at a time by 15 different people. And for completion, in 12 different languages and then Google translate is used to explain the terrible grammar and sentence structure.

it just seems like someone this bad at acting human and knowing what humans act like can't possible exist. In a vacum if I were to say David cage games are actually written by an AI program that only knows of humans from Fanfic.net searches and Twitter it'd make more sense than the thought of a grown man writing this soup.
I'm personally in agreement with Laura Kate Dale on David Cage, this dialogue always seemed fine to me, but then again I have autism(as does Laura) so that might be why i'm not bothered by it. Her review largely sums up my own thoughts on the game:http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2018/05/24/detroit-become-human-succeeds-by-focusing-on-small-timely-stories
Does david cage has autism? I hadn't heard but if he does that might explain it. If he doesn't though, I'm not sure what to make of him. As someone who doesn't have autism, his dialogue is random bordering on non sequitur, with every character acting like someone out of Alice in Wonderland or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
I don't know for sure if he does, but it wouldn't surprise me if that was he case.