toxicitizen

I imagine my PS2 copies of Zone of the Enders and MGS2 Substance would be the most valuable. Both bought used but in great condition. Other than that, I have a few DS games that I think are a bit hard to find these days like Dragon Quest IV and the Ace Attorney games, but I don't think they're too valuable.

Some books do! I mean novels, damnit! Yes. And I still think they have very little in common.

Which is basically what I've been saying from the beginning. The term is outdated and the definition has changed to be more than just that exclusively. I still think that something like Dear Esther has more in common with video games than it does with anything else, though. Lol. What? Why? Because they're both written in code and run on a computer? That doesn't even make sense. The inner workings are kind of irrelevant. One is a tool and the other is for entertainment. That's like saying a book has more in common with a wooden hammer because they both come from trees.

Nah, gamification is manipulative bullshit. Nothing to do with actual games. Linger in Shadows is an interesting example, though. That was basically an animated painting. It played and all you could do was rewind and maybe move the camera a little bit to find hidden symbols or some shit. It only did the barest of minimum to even try to qualify as a "game". I feel like it supports my point that the purpose or intention behind it makes for a better distinction. I think that one was more about being an art thing than providing you with an interactive experience. Ah, but that's just the format then. At their core, TV and movies are really the same thing. They're made through very similar processes and generally provide the same experience, just on a different scale. And, yeah, normally it kind of annoys when when just two or three posts get chopped off and sent off elsewhere, especially when they're mostly jokes. But in this case I'm starting to think this probably warrants its own thread. edit: uh, looks like it happened while I was typing this somehow. Anyway, I'm off to class for now.

If you bring the amount of interaction literally all the way down to zero, then yeah, of course. Now all you have is an animated movie. But even these so-called interactive experiences retain some basic form of interaction, movement and/or exploration. Zero interaction is no longer arbitrary. I think a better way to make that divide would be "what is the purpose of the experience?". Dear Esther is all about atmosphere, story and experiencing the environment. It's a beautiful walking simulator but there's a bit more to it than that. On the other hand, the only thing I can think of that I might be inclined to agree isn't a game was that interactive trailer they did in the Source engine for Super 8. It was a commercial, plain and simple. A very short level, no more than a few minutes long, with no other purpose than to hype you for the movie. It was kinda cool but yeah, I wouldn't argue that it's a game or even an experience. It was just a fucking ad.

Isn't the line of thinking basically the same, though? If it becomes less of a game the more mechanics you remove, then surely at some point it won't be a game anymore?

Umm... okay? What the hell are they then? They're directed by a filmmaker and present a "narrative" albeit in a different form. People who like them watch them for entertainment. Uh, actually, you know what? Nevermind. I don't really want to turn this into parallel discussions... I feel like interactive experience is even vaguer than that. More akin to saying quadrilaterals, which is about as unspecific and broad as you could possibly get. Using an ATM is an "interactive experience". Yeah, like I said, I think the bigger issue is with how the term "video game" can paint our view of the medium. I obviously take the "game" part of the name less literally than some. I mean, it's not like I don't get where you're coming from. I just think there shouldn't be such an arbitrary line as to say "this isn't a video game anymore", especially when it comes to lack of mechanics or content.

The problem with that is how exactly is Gone Home an "interactive experience" yet standard games aren't? It's way too vague. Why can't there be room for different types of experiences in video games? I mean, documentaries don't tell you a story in the same narrative sense but we still think of them as movies.

I kind of get where he's coming from, to be honest. To say that something isn't a game simply because it lacks mechanics you'd normally expect from one is doing the medium a disservice, I think. Video games have evolved beyond being merely "games" in the strictest sense of the word. Titles like Dear Esther or Proteus don't present a challenge so much as an experience but why draw an arbitrary line there? I guess the bigger issue here is that the name "video games" is starting to be outdated and it colors the way people look at the medium.

So, I gave Incognita a few runs. First off, they're not joking when they say alpha. There is very little content in it at the moment. There's just the one map. The layout is procedurally generated but it's always the same office level. You also always have the same two guys, a robot engineer and a trenchcoat-wearing spy, and there's no character progression or customization yet. That being said, I find the core mechanics to be pretty damn solid. It's insanely fun considering how little content there's currently in it. I can see this turning into a really great game once they start fleshing it out. My biggest complaint is that you can't rotate the camera. It's a 2D game, though, so I'm not sure if that's something they'll be adding. Also, you move the camera by either holding left-click and moving the mouse (which I don't really like) or with the arrow keys. I really hope they allow rebinding or change it to something more like XCOM because it feels awkward as fuck to constantly have to move my hand to the arrow keys. WASD for camera and numbers for abilities is the way to go. Right now abilities are bound to 1,2,3 and QWERT, which feels kinda weird.

I guess. I mean, I can imagine that you don't make something like Uncharted without loving the hell out of your characters. I just can't help but feel cynical towards short dev cycles.

Because when a series is as successful as Uncharted, there's always going to be publisher pressure to make sequels over trying new things. I would also expect a team to want to make something different when they've been doing the same thing for an entire generation. Naughty Dog used to be a one team studio but expanded after Uncharted 2, probably as a compromise between the two. Of course, this is all assumption on my part. You might well be correct that they wanted to make U3 as much as they wanted to make TLoU. I'm slightly skeptical, though. I felt like U3 was missing something. Lol.

The Last of Us. Shit, man. What a game. Ending kinda feels like a gut punch but, like, a warm and fuzzy gut punch. This is definitely my GOTY so far and, honestly, I doubt anything else coming this year will top it. I kind of want to make a "Citizen Kane of gaming" joke here but I feel like the fact that people say shit like that seriously is funnier than anything I could ever come up with. Anyway, now I actually kinda hope that Naughty Dog's PS4 project isn't a new Uncharted game. If this is what happens when they're allowed to do whatever they want, then I want more of it.

I wasn't planning on buying it considering I never got really far into the original and I still have Outlast to finish. But I ended up trading my extra copy of Incognita for a few TF2 keys and was able to trade for it and only needed to buy two more keys. So, it cost me less than 5$. Hard to argue with that price. I should be able to wrap up TLoU by friday, then I'll go back to Outlast. But once that's done, I'm really not sure if I should play Machine For Pigs right away or go back to play The Dark Descent first...

It's basically a one hour long walking simulator with a narrated story. I liked it but it really wasn't everyone's cup of tea.

Ah ok. Well, I don't know if you've played the original Amnesia but that didn't have combat either. It's more about atmosphere and hiding from the horrible things. But considering this one was made by TheChineseRoom, the guys who made Dear Esther, I wouldn't be surprised if they emphasized atmosphere on this one. I kinda want to get A Machine for Pigs but I still need to play the original. Also need to finish Outlast. I haven't touched it since I started The Last of Us. Makes it doubly difficult to find the time when it's a game you really can only play at night to get the full experience.

Ha, while I can see the similarity, I think I'd be a little more upset about screwing up a test. Seriously. I feel like I've already played through an entire Uncharted worth of content. I also methodically scour the environment for all the supplies I can find, so I'm probably progressing very slowly compared to someone just advancing through the story. I'm a little bit after that now, though. I made it to winter and

What does that even mean? On topic, I'm still working my way through TLoU though I haven't had a lot of time to play the past few days so I haven't progressed all that much. Other than that, a few days ago I finally accomplished my first significant milestone in Spelunky! So far, I had been focusing on unlocking the shortcuts to each worlds so that I can get back there easily and practice until I can actually take two steps into them without dying. It was going pretty smoothly, there's a tunnel guy waiting for you when you reach a new world that asks you for some items. Ropes or bombs, usually. Do it three times and he builds a shortcut so you can start directly at that world. The plan was to unlock all the shortcuts and, once I got the last one opened, then try to beat the game from there. Then I reached the last requirement for the last shortcut. Suddenly, bombs and ropes weren't enough, motherfucker asks me for a key. That key is found on a level in the very first world. So suddenly I had to start a run and not only survive through the entire first three worlds, I had to do it carrying that goddamned key. Meaning, I can't carry a weapon. It seemed goddamned impossible. I had a few close calls last week, including one time where I made it to the end of the last level and could see the fucking exit. But I somehow dropped the key into a fucking abyss. I wasn't even mad. I was just confused as to how that even happened. Then a few days ago I finally pulled it off! This game is so fucking satisfying when you can tell how much your skill level is rising. Next up, trying to beat the game.

Yeah, they announced it kinda quietly over the summer, with basically just that pic I posted and no in-game screenshots or anything. Then they did a gameplay stream on twitch like a month ago and that's about it. Seems kinda weird to take such a low-profile approach. But yeah, it looks pretty sweet. The last thing I expected from them after Mark of the Ninja and Don't Starve was some XCOM-like strategy game. Gonna try it out now.

Since this is completely unrelated, I guess I'll double post. Pre-order/early access alpha kinda deal. I don't think it's available to purchase through Steam just yet but they're already selling it through Humble Store and it's a Steam key anyway. Went with the soundtrack bundle and, as with Don't Starve, they actually give you two copies of the game.

Mike does tend to come across as a huge dick at times, though. There's nothing really wrong with that, I guess. And I don't think it should necessarily reflect on the company as a whole. I don't remember ever having a problem with anything Jerry ever did. The only things they've ever done that bugged me were their two kickstarters. The first one merely seemed unnecessary. Kinda weird but not a big deal. But it's hard to see the second one and its 10$ goal as anything other than them exploiting their fanbase for a cash grab. "Hey, you've been asking us to bring back our old podcast for years. We're gonna do it! But first you have to give us money. Any amount will do. We just want money." Kinda makes them seem like huge hypocrites when you take into account this old comic.

The Last of Us. Holy shit, Naughty Dog, you masterful bastards. This game is something else. Don't know how far along I am but I've been playing it a lot the past couple days and I am loving the hell out of it. It feels like more of a survival horror game than the games that actually call themselves that. Those usually end up showering you in ammo and before long resource management becomes trivial. Here, not so much. I constantly find myself keeping track of what I have and how to most efficiently use it. "Alright, these two guys haven't seen me yet. Can't sneak up on them but I'm almost out of handgun ammo so I better not start shooting. I'll toss this molotov instead and only use a bullet or two to finish them off if necessary." It really makes for satisfying gameplay. At least, it does when the enemies aren't being blind and stupid. And I'm not talking about the clickers here... I think I must be at least halfway through it by now but I feel like not a whole lot has happened storywise, so it's hard to tell for sure. But yeah, really glad I picked it up. edit: Holy shit! Earlier tonight I got to the part where Up until that point, I didn't really get why people were saying that TLoU is a great game but not a "fun" one. I mean, I get why someone might say that about Spec Ops: The Line but I had been having a lot of fun with TLoU prior to that. It was tense as fuck but I enjoyed that. Now I get it a bit more...

Grabbed it on my way back from class. I was initially planning on getting Splinter Cell Blacklist if I had enough left after paying for tuition fees and books. But the fact that ACIII still won't fucking run even after a GPU upgrade made me rather reluctant to throw another 60 bucks at Ubisoft. I was actually tempted to pirate it purely out of spite, to at least feel like I got something out of the 70$ I paid for ACIII... Then I remembered I still needed to play this. I'm sure it's a much better game anyway.