Good but flawed games

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

10 minutes ago, Paton said:

Mass Effect trilogy. Loved the series, but felt as though it could have offered more.

It gave us Jack. That is enough.

[Paton]

40 minutes ago, ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster said:

It gave us Jack. That is enough.

Very true. 

[JasonM]

Any and all David Cage/Quantic Dream games. Omikron, Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy, Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, Detroit: Become Human.

They're all decent fun, I even have to say the early game of Fahrenheit I utterly loved (When it was a murder mystery and before it went completely off the rails). Same with Heavy Rain in many aspects. All games have gameplay that definitely make them something you at least want to play once.

But holy shit, so many flaws. And most of them are endemic to Quantic Dream and David Cage's 'vision' in particular. Ham Fisted social commentary, sexualizing Female Protagonists to further plot points, Game devolving into completely non-sensical trite after the half way mark, over-reliance on QTE's and other 'busiwork' rather than true gameplay, super hokey acting performances in major roles, and probably a bunch more things that I definitely missed.

Doesn't help that David Cage is a deluded bellend himself too, but I guess that's to be expected by a man that sees his games as art over entertainment.

But still, I have played all QD titles expect Omikron, and I got to say all of them had a lot of good in between the insane.

[BuddyAwesome]

On 19/04/2019 at 11:39, lanky316 said:

I've played and generally enjoyed most of them over time but there's always been problems. Things like far too many collectables, repetitive side quests (not an AC problem but gaming one that) and extra things to do which makes burn out a problem with the games. The animus, precursors and all of the modern day stuff is the worst misstep to me. Not only does it over complicate things (I think the assassins/templars never ending war should be enough myself...) but the "run around a location for 10 minutes to read an email or two then go back to the fun story" bits just drag. It's been there since the beginning so I would love to know why they felt the games needed that framing device. 

You haven't had to do any of that in quite some time. I think since Unity. I don't recall Syndicate having any of that nor the games following. But I'll agree those parts were frustrating. 

Edited April 22, 2019 by BuddyAwesome

[Krabby]

I concur that the whole modern day bit was a mistake to add in how they did. I think the idea itself had some merit if something more was actually done with it, but the execution of it just wan't there and kind of turned me off of the series. Not that I wouldn't go back and play more AC but at the time, defs turned me off.

[Pooker]

On 21/04/2019 at 03:56, Jasonmufc said:

But still, I have played all QD titles expect Omikron, and I got to say all of them had a lot of good in between the insane.

Omikron is one of those games where I wished I was older when I had played it. Feel like I was way too young to really understand what was going on. I just remember how crazy the opening video was with David Bowie singing and not being able to skip it (I restarted the game A LOT) and how weird it was to die and come back as a different  character.

[lanky316]

10 hours ago, BuddyAwesome said:

You haven't had to do any of that in quite some time. I think since Unity. I don't recall Syndicate having any of that nor the games following. But I'll agree those parts were frustrating. 

I think there's still a little bit but it's greatly reduced which is for the better. As an example this topic inspired me to finally play Odyssey earlier and there was a brief bit in the modern day after the tutorial stage but I was back in the animus pretty quickly afterwards. As an example (early game Odyssey spoiler)

I assassinated my father, who told me that he actually isn't my father and that I need to talk to my mother for further details... Then his general confronted me and I escaped and ran out to sea. In older games that would have been a moment when I came out to mope in the real world and wish I could get back to the story I was enjoying but instead the game just carried on. It was a refreshing change from my memories of the series

It's a lot better and what little I have done (literally one brief interruption so far) has been good entertainment and while still a big game does seem to be more "streamlined" around the game and extra bits and bobs.  I have however been resisting the "there's a location let's investigate and do the objectives!" temptation which has helped,   Now I'm just annoyed by the fact the Oracle of Delphi theatre seems to be about 100 feet away from where my memories suggest it should be  (recent memories, I'm not suffering a bleeding effect from great, great x howevermany grandmother Kassandra on my brain)

[The Buscher]

I have to throw Madden in here.  The series was around forever but it was absurdly fun to play in the mid-2000s and I got the game every year.  I specifically remember being in high school and one Saturday I fired up Madden 04 and powered through an entire season in franchise mode in a day.  And on top of that, the NFL2k series was churning out excellent games as well.  Both series felt uniquely different, and as someone who mostly played sports games I had no qualms about playing two NFL games at the same time.

Madden 05 is usually said to be the series' peak and really that's not too surprising as a few months after release, EA reached an exclusive license with the NFL which effectively killed the NFL 2k series.  And with no competition, EA just powered down and turned their game into an annual roster update.  I don't think they made any sort of wholesale changes again until Madden 12 or so.

But even at its best Madden's had some wonky CPU issues.  You'd hear the same stuff every year.  Warping linebackers, nanoblitzing, god-tier defensive back play no matter how good your QB and WR are or how bad the other team you're playing is, impossible to block field goals one year and then the next year blocked field goals seem almost scripted.

Despite this it gets a good-to-great rating every year because it's still a game you can pop in and mindlessly spend a few hours playing.  The problems were never game-breaking to me because I'm able to adjust to whatever quirks the CPU has that year.  I don't let stuff like that completely torpedo the game for me.

That said, I also only buy the game every three or so years now.  I take a more casual approach with it and I don't look to view the game with a critical eye.  Meanwhile you have longtime Madden fans swearing they're done with the series only to drop $60 each and every year to do nothing but complain.

[Darnez FC Forever]

On 21/04/2019 at 17:56, Jasonmufc said:

Any and all David Cage/Quantic Dream games. Omikron, Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy, Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, Detroit: Become Human.

They're all decent fun, I even have to say the early game of Fahrenheit I utterly loved (When it was a murder mystery and before it went completely off the rails). Same with Heavy Rain in many aspects. All games have gameplay that definitely make them something you at least want to play once.

But holy shit, so many flaws. And most of them are endemic to Quantic Dream and David Cage's 'vision' in particular. Ham Fisted social commentary, sexualizing Female Protagonists to further plot points, Game devolving into completely non-sensical trite after the half way mark, over-reliance on QTE's and other 'busiwork' rather than true gameplay, super hokey acting performances in major roles, and probably a bunch more things that I definitely missed.

Doesn't help that David Cage is a deluded bellend himself too, but I guess that's to be expected by a man that sees his games as art over entertainment.

But still, I have played all QD titles expect Omikron, and I got to say all of them had a lot of good in between the insane.

I came in here just to mention Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy. I bought the remastered version a couple of days ago and finished it and oh my god the constant QTEs were the absolute worst. I played the original version when I was younger and never remembered them being so frequent.

And the story going absolutely bonkers halfway through was another thing I didn’t recall (or realise when I was younger). It’s such a shame too because the first part in the diner (and the follow up investigation) is possibly my favourite opening in a video game ever.

 

[Krabby]

6 hours ago, Darnez FC 2017 said:

I came in here just to mention Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy. I bought the remastered version a couple of days ago and finished it and oh my god the constant QTEs were the absolute worst. I played the original version when I was younger and never remembered them being so frequent.

And the story going absolutely bonkers halfway through was another thing I didn’t recall (or realise when I was younger). It’s such a shame too because the first part in the diner (and the follow up investigation) is possibly my favourite opening in a video game ever.

 

Yeah I concur with that - the opening and the beginning premise is awesome, really draws you in. The story going so bonkers wouldn't be half as bad either if that story was told better. It's like they expected the craziness of it to mask the lack of depth - and they were wrong