Are you a "storyfag"?

I can play either gameplay focused games like 3d platformers or story driven games like Dwarf Fortress and the first Walking Dead game. The best games incorporate both. New Vegas managed to take what was an accepetable at best gameplay from F3 and make it something I still love today despite the aiming issues. I love it for both.

Holistic game design! :-o
 
It has more to do with Bethesda's game engine creating good sandbox design for autists to mod all these years later. If New Vegas was unmoddable nobody would give a flying fart fuck.
 
TorontoReign said:
It has more to do with Bethesda's game engine creating good sandbox design for autists to mod all these years later. If New Vegas was unmoddable nobody would give a flying fart fuck.
Click to expand...
Funny enough, I played Fallout New Vegas because of Fallout 3. In turn I discovered Fallout 3 because of a gaming magazine convince me this is fps life simulator like no other, back when mainstream gaming was dominated by CoD.
 
eissa said:
Funny enough, I played Fallout New Vegas because of Fallout 3. In turn I discovered Fallout 3 because of a gaming magazine convince me this is fps life simulator like no other, back when mainstream gaming was dominated by CoD.
Click to expand...
I once went on a guilt trip and stopped playing FPS like MoH in respect for all the war dead. RIP. Then I missed killing so I played Serious Sam, Postal2. Half Life2. I felt no guilt whatsoever killing mutated humanoids that were not perfect specimens like me.
 
I think the best kind of games are the ones that manages to mix both story and gameplay elements seamlessly, and by that I do not mean those overrated new sony games that are filled with long and interrupting cutscenes or a bunch of scenarios with "fake gameplay" aka just press foward while you hear exposition type of thing.

The main example of a game that manages to do this thing masterfully are the Half Life series, especially Half Life 2, it is safe to say that around 90% of the story and narrative of that game are delivered by the gameplay, most of the things you learn from that world are discovered in the form of exploration and observation instead of the traditional cutscenes or long expositions sequences. And on the very few moments that player agency are completely removed, and you are forced to go through a longer sequence of exposition or a disguised cutscene, it is always given an very good reason on why you are in this situation.

What I mean by that is that at least for me, a game only explores the full potential of the medium when it recognizes that interaction is hwat differenciates a game from every other form of media, most modern games don't seem to get this and take too many leassons from cinema or tvs, thus not fully exploiting what they are truly capable of.
 
The_Citzen said:
long expositions sequences
Click to expand...
Half Life 2 has plenty of these, you just waiting around while NPCs finish talking. The first game did this better by making them short.

The_Citzen said:
And on the very few moments that player agency are completely removed, and you are forced to go through a longer sequence of exposition or a disguised cutscene, it is always given an very good reason on why you are in this situation.
Click to expand...
More than a few and sometimes it's not justified.

Basically Half Life 1 is the better game, specially gameplay wise.
 
The_Citzen said:
The main example of a game that manages to do this thing masterfully are the Half Life series, especially Half Life 2, it is safe to say that around 90% of the story and narrative of that game are delivered by the gameplay, most of the things you learn from that world are discovered in the form of exploration and observation instead of the traditional cutscenes or long expositions sequences. And on the very few moments that player agency are completely removed, and you are forced to go through a longer sequence of exposition or a disguised cutscene, it is always given an very good reason on why you are in this situation.
Click to expand...

Pretty much this. I actually really liked HL2's sequences like this myself. Then again, I was deep into the story and lore. You could usually look around or even mess with stuff during these like the portal cactus or chef vortigaunt in Mesa east.These scenes can be nice if done well and in a clever way. I feel like they only present an issue for replays once you're familiar with it all.
The_Citzen said:
What I mean by that is that at least for me, a game only explores the full potential of the medium when it recognizes that interaction is hwat differenciates a game from every other form of media, most modern games don't seem to get this and take too many leassons from cinema or tvs, thus not fully exploiting what they are truly capable of.
Click to expand...
I feel like Naughty Dog dove into this the hrdest. Going from Jak & Daxter to very self serious cinematic experiences like Last of Us. Really hoping someone buys up the Jak ip one day and makes something cool from it.
 
I mean who replays Halflife 2 anyway? The first one is better.
 
TorontoReign said:
I mean who replays Halflife 2 anyway? The first one is better.
Click to expand...
Rather amazingly (to me), I have had Halflife 2 installed for years—and have not launched it once.

*Not that I don't want to play it... but I've never bothered to run the game yet.

______
It's the very same situation with Dishonored 2.
 
I feel like the load times would be long but I seem to recall playing it on console in Iraq so that explains that.
 
Gizmojunk said:
It's the very same situation with Dishonored 2.
Click to expand...
Kinda interesting, with me it was the opposite, although Dishonored 1 has clearly a better story I literally can't go back to it anymore, the improvements made by D2 on both the level design and gameplay makes it hard for me to come back without thinking that I could be playing D2 for the 12th time...
 
How could you play any of those games for the 12th time? Games like that are a one and done for me.
 
TorontoReign said:
How could you play any of those games for the 12th time? Games like that are a one and done for me.
Click to expand...
I do have an somewhat easy time replaying games but usualy I give a big interval of time between playthroughs. But Dishonored and other ImSims? God I think I start a new game right after finishing a playthrough, hell you only truly beat Dishonored after you play at least 2 times and get the high and low chaos variation of the events. This is especially true on Dishonored 2 that not only has 2 different characters with different powers but also a lot more variation and consequences to your choices.

But what keeps bringing me back to those games are mostly the gameplay and level design (also the atmosphere), there are so many ways to do everything that everything seems to always be fresh and new. Without any exageration, I am literally still discovering new things and new ways to go through a level even after all those runs.

Completely unrelated but beacuse we were talking about Half Life I recalled a detail about the Dishonored, the art director of Dishonored 1 is the same guy that also did the art direction of Half Life 2, so similarities between those two games are not a coincidence.
 
I enjoy and criticize games for what they are. If I think the story is good, I'll commend it; if I think the opposite, I'm going to explain where it failed. This "storyfag" label or whatever is just dumb.

Speaking of Dishonored...
The_Citzen said:
Kinda interesting, with me it was the opposite, although Dishonored 1 has clearly a better story I literally can't go back to it anymore, the improvements made by D2 on both the level design and gameplay makes it hard for me to come back without thinking that I could be playing D2 for the 12th time...
Click to expand...
I still replay both games from time to time, but I do tend to lean towards the first game. D2 definitely had plenty of QoL changes to its gameplay, but everything feels a bit more stiff. It's weird that you can't just one-hit unsuspecting mooks from behind as you can in the first game — only animated assassinations count. Some of the powers that carried over don't seem as useful as before either (can't specify on that point, though) the Chaos system wasn't improved much (it might've been even worse, actually). It's still way more fun to do Low Chaos run in D2, though. Feels badass sliding through levels and performing takedowns. Much more satisfying than killing everything. Can't believed D1 will be a decade year old in October...
 
5545Trey said:
I still replay both games from time to time, but I do tend to lean towards the first game. D2 definitely had plenty of QoL changes to its gameplay, but everything feels a bit more stiff. It's weird that you can't just one-hit unsuspecting mooks from behind as you can in the first game — only animated assassinations count. Some of the powers that carried over don't seem as useful as before either (can't specify on that point, though) the Chaos system wasn't improved much (it might've been even worse, actually). It's still way more fun to do Low Chaos run in D2, though. Feels badass sliding through levels and performing takedowns. Much more satisfying than killing everything. Can't believed D1 will be a decade year old in October...
Click to expand...
You actually can still perform this kind of assassination it is just extremelly inconsistent and requires a very specific distance and positioning from your target, and about the powers I felt the exact opposite, Corvo's powers are way more op on D2, especially considering that he gets some new upgrades that make him much more like Daud on the dlcs. Still I agree with you that D1 feels smoother, killing targets on a quick succesion feels much more satisfying without some of the long animations from D2, wish they just added the option for us to choose to use only the smaller animations. Arkane seem to be getting a bit better on this point tho, Deathloop managed to have an gameplay much more smoother than D2 in general.
 
The_Citzen said:
You actually can still perform this kind of assassination it is just extremelly inconsistent and requires a very specific distance and positioning from your target, and about the powers I felt the exact opposite, Corvo's powers are way more op on D2, especially considering that he gets some new upgrades that make him much more like Daud on the dlcs. Still I agree with you that D1 feels smoother, killing targets on a quick succesion feels much more satisfying without some of the long animations from D2, wish they just added the option for us to choose to use only the smaller animations. Arkane seem to be getting a bit better on this point tho, Deathloop managed to have an gameplay much more smoother than D2 in general.
Click to expand...
Forgive me for the late reply.

Anyway, I'm not just talking about the simple animation where the player characters make a simple slashing animation, I mean just pressing the attack button without that unique swing animation playing. Now, don't get me wrong, the powers are still very fun to use in the second game; I just don't care for the changes made for Dark Vision, and while it's nice that D2 Corvo's Blink is basically Daud's, with the addition of being able to teleport kick people into oblivion, you can't Blink down from a high distance as you can in D1 (at least, not safely), so it somewhat makes Blink not as useful for traversal as a result. By the way, it's weird that characters don't have any death sounds when these animations are played out. It's a strange audio error that I noticed when I went back to the first game after D2, because characters still have those sounds played when they die, regardless of how they're killed.
 
5545Trey said:
Forgive me for the late reply.

Anyway, I'm not just talking about the simple animation where the player characters make a simple slashing animation, I mean just pressing the attack button without that unique swing animation playing. Now, don't get me wrong, the powers are still very fun to use in the second game; I just don't care for the changes made for Dark Vision, and while it's nice that D2 Corvo's Blink is basically Daud's, with the addition of being able to teleport kick people into oblivion, you can't Blink down from a high distance as you can in D1 (at least, not safely), so it somewhat makes Blink not as useful for traversal as a result. By the way, it's weird that characters don't have any death sounds when these animations are played out. It's a strange audio error that I noticed when I went back to the first game after D2, because characters still have those sounds played when they die, regardless of how they're killed.
Click to expand...
I think I know what those slashing animations you are talking about, although they don't happen that often with me on D1, only way I can pull them off reliably is by blinking between enemies really fast. Also you are not the first person that I hear complaining about the Dark Vision from D2, but I really can't say much because it is a power that through out all my playtime I never ended up using (I think only once to see what I did, and to spend my spare runes).

The thing that truly transforms the sandbox of D2 for me isn't simply the improvements from the normal powers, it is what you unlock after beating the game. If you start a NG+ game not only you get to keep your runes that you've spend but you also unlock all the powers from the other character, meaning that you can mix and match between Emily's and Corvo's powers, using the doppelganger and domino alongside some corvo's powers is simply amazing, and almost create an unlimited amount of possibilities.

Another thing that I noticed coming from D2 to D1 is how much the level design improved, it surely made me appreciate way more D2 level design (which is probably still the best one in the whole industry), I bet that the smallest level in D2 manages to be bigger or at least more densely packed than most D1 levels.
 
The_Citzen said:
The thing that truly transforms the sandbox of D2 for me isn't simply the improvements from the normal powers, it is what you unlock after beating the game. If you start a NG+ game not only you get to keep your runes that you've spend but you also unlock all the powers from the other character, meaning that you can mix and match between Emily's and Corvo's powers, using the doppelganger and domino alongside some corvo's powers is simply amazing, and almost create an unlimited amount of possibilities.
Click to expand...
NG+ just about doubles the replay value. Every game should have this mode.

Another thing that I noticed coming from D2 to D1 is how much the level design improved, it surely made me appreciate way more D2 level design (which is probably still the best one in the whole industry), I bet that the smallest level in D2 manages to be bigger or at least more densely packed than most D1 levels.
Click to expand...
I believe Arkane made the levels larger to accommodate for "No Powers" runs. I actually did that on my first playthrough.
 
Depends on the focus of the game. For example if I am playing a long RPG that has a terrible story even if the systems are good I am not gonna enjoy it. And obviously this is even more pronounced on a Visual novel/Graphic adventure where there aren't even any mechanics to fall back on.
If the game is relatively short and has more of a focus on mechanics and flow of gameplay, like an action game or a competitive RPG then I will give the story less weight and can ignore if it's mediocre.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top