General Gaming Thread

[KONGO]

The whole thing was plug and play. Kind of had to be just because the gameplay has to remain linear, but they were definitely working against the medium when they built this. They made a very expansive story but did not do much to make it personal to Shepard, then had interchangeable characters so it's tough to get close to their problems. Everybody has Crew Role, Tone/Attitude, and Troubled Past. That's the ultimate depth and it's just not enough for me. Putting the universe in peril makes it the premise of a game, not a compelling story.

[Your Mom]

You depress me Kong

[Liam]

I'm not a huge Mass Effect fan either, to add to your list.

[EWB's Best Poster.]

Just because worlds were being destroyed and you had to save everything doesn't count for much with me.

[KONGO]

I wish I could beat the first... stage? Suite? Whatever you call it, the first run of levels in the Binding of Isaac. Unless the game is just like four stages long, then I wish I could beat the game. Always get far but then die. I kind of want to not look stuff up because it's more fun that way (especially in a game like this where there are a ton of different items but none is especially necessary to complete the game), but there are several items and things that I could not figure out even after getting them multiple times and there are no definitions in the game.

[Skummy]

Some random notes...

Little Big Planet Karting is great. It's so much more fun than I expected it to be. Just good, no-nonsense gaming. It's fun. That's what video games should be! Also, being able to decorate your "pod" is completely pointless, but so much fun, just because I have a giant picture of a "1950s Dad" looming menacingly behind the window.

Been helping the present Lady Skumfrog out with Bioshock: Infinite a little bit, too. It's not really the sort of game either of us play much - she's generally pretty awful at first-person shooters, and I just don't tend to enjoy them, though I'm much better at them than I used to be - but we wanted to check it out just to see what all the fuss is about. So far, I'm not really seeing it all that much.

I've not played the previous Bioshock games, so I don't know if I'm missing something - though I've been told I don't need to - but it's nothing special so far. We're early on still, so I'm expecting it to get a lot better, but so far I don't see what's warranted the countless awards and 90%+ ratings. It's pretty, and the setting is pretty cool, but the fairly tongue-in-cheek "get it? Because the past" oldy-wordly videos and whatnot get old pretty fast. So far, it's fairly standard steampunky sci-fi fare, and the story's not all that compelling.

Again, I'm expecting that has to get better, as I've seen so many reviews say it's some of the best storytelling in gaming history, and so far it's been fairly cookie-cutter stuff. I'm also not really sold on Booker Dewitt as a central character, as he's too much in the surly man of few words mold that most FPS games require for me to really have any emotional attachment with him, and in a game that's at least somewhat driven by characters and their relationships, I think the genre holds it back.

As a whole, I think it lacks focus, but has potential to turn into something brilliant...I'm hoping it will, but we'll see.

[TKz]

Bioshock Infinite really doesn't have anything special outside of the final hour or two of the game. It's a really watered down version of the first Bioshock in respect of the gameplay, too. I found the actual gameplay horribly boring, especially compared to how much less linear the first game is.

You should play Sonic & Sega racing/racing transformed, Skummy. It's a wonderful Kart racer that's way more refined that LBP Karting ended up being.

[KONGO]

I don't know how you've got in BioShock Infinite, but the part that grabbed me was getting the girl. That whole entrance had me hooked, and though I guessed the reveal and everything, I thought the whole mood of that place was very well done in that I seriously did doubt my correct initial guess. If it doesn't grab you by then, I'd say you can put it down. Gameplay is pretty boring, I will totally agree with that, but I don't think FPSes generally have exciting gameplay anyway.

[Skummy]

I don't know how you've got in BioShock Infinite, but the part that grabbed me was getting the girl. That whole entrance had me hooked, and though I guessed the reveal and everything, I thought the whole mood of that place was very well done in that I seriously did doubt my correct initial guess. If it doesn't grab you by then, I'd say you can put it down.

I'm quite early on, but;

I've just gone through the "tear" into the alternate universe. I'm intrigued where a few things are going, and what things mean, but I'm not dying to find out - the way it's been reviewed make it sound like a masterpiece of storytelling, and thus far it really isn't. I'm genuinely surprised that it's being heralded as one of the best games ever.

Gameplay is pretty boring, I will totally agree with that, but I don't think FPSes generally have exciting gameplay anyway.

I think that's pretty much the main problem - it just doesn't feel like the right genre for the story they're trying to tell.

You should play Sonic & Sega racing/racing transformed, Skummy. It's a wonderful Kart racer that's way more refined that LBP Karting ended up being.

I have done - my girlfriend has it on the WiiU, it's tremendous fun, though we've not played it in months. Some of the tracks and game modes/objectives started to annoy me after a while, but when it's just a straight race it's a lot of fun. Gorgeous game, too, and some of the levels are wonderful.

As a Sega nerd in childhood, I geek out a lot playing that game too, which I suppose is kind of the point. I pretty much exclusively play as Alex Kidd, though before I unlocked him I played a lot as Amigo due to how utterly ridiculous he is.

[KONGO]

Yeah, Skummy, when Mass Effect is heralded as an amazing story, BioShock Infinite just has to be reasonably relatable and gripping to be a huge step forward in game storytelling. Have played a lot of games where I was told there were good stories and they are just polished. I feel like Infinite actually has a heart and wants to tell the story more than it wants to lead you through a game.

But yeah, the story isn't amazing, it's just very well told, has good and interesting characters, and the game serves as a vehicle for it rather than the other way around which enhances it in my opinion. That plus the fact that I was controlling the main character in the story sucked me in.

And also, on DeWitt, he changes.

[KONGO]

Mega BioShock Infinite Spoilers (should stay away, Skummy, gives away the end):

I was super let down by the ending twist, though. I didn't see it coming because I had thought Anna was like an old flame or something, just something that Comstock knew about but was hiding, but when I put it together I felt real dumb. That said, I think the story would have been better if it Anna and Booker had not been related, I felt really strongly about it when it was a freelance dude who just decides to help this random chick in trouble, but when it was revealed that she's his daughter so he just has some kind of spiritual connection with her, felt really cliche. Doesn't really ruin the great storytelling they'd employed up until that point but it was a significant blemish.

Not help by the fact that the final "boss" fight is shit and extremely anti-climactic.

[SeanDMan]

THAT was your biggest issue with everything?

[KONGO]

An issue != the biggest issue

Biggest issue is boring gameplay, which was already covered and would be boring to discuss further.

[SeanDMan]

I meant with regards to what you learn from the ending.

[KONGO]

Well, it's a shit and overcomplicated twist as well, and there's too much of an epilogue with no real gameplay (again, Skummy's right, probably not the right game for the story they wanted to tell), but character-wise that was my issue. At least, that's the main thing that I haven't seen discussed but has stuck with me about that part. The whole tears thing is ridiculous in general and the ending didn't make me buy it any less, was pretty consistent with the rest of it.

[SeanDMan]

Anna.

I think finding out that Anna is Elizabeth, and that you've thus been protecting your own daughter the entire time, is somewhat convenient, but it doesn't diminish Booker in any way; in fact, it humanizes him, because from the beginning it's seemed like he's a mercenary with a debt who wants to kidnap and sell a child to make good, when in reality, that evil deed was done long ago, and he's trying to even the karmic balance. I think it deepens his story and I'm fine with that.

The tears.

The "every world has a lighthouse" revelationwas more interesting to me because it means you can continue to do Bioshock games in unique settings. Many people wondered why we went from Rapture to Columbia and the answer was generally "Because", but now we know that depending on how various threads unspool, we can play games in the same setting with different settings. And that's neat.

Booker.

To me, "Booker is Comstock and Comstock is Booker" was utter bullshit, and the idea that what separates you as the hero from you as the villain is a splash of water to the face is absurd. That part made me a little sour, but the rest of the ending I thought was fine.

[Cactus Drags]

Can anyone recommend any good sites for importing games? I want to pick up NCAA 14 on the PS3.

[KONGO]

Spoiler things!

Yeah, you are right about Booker/Comstock, forgot that bit. I think for me it was all so wrapped together with the end, and also I didn't much care about the Booker/Comstock thing as it served the story. Was more disappointed to learn about the Elizabeth/Anna thing, honestly. And my take on the Anna bit is that Booker showed all those qualities you were talking about but for a stranger, which always makes it more powerful to me. With family you kind of have an obligation; if you fuck it up, people chastise you, but if you do well, nobody really gives you praise or anything. In this situation, I initially had no qualms about saving her, but then I grew to care about her and wanted to help her out; if it had been a game with choices, I would have chosen help her every time. To find out the whole twist is that it's his daughter is like, ultimately, he could have just known it was his daughter and that would have provided the impetus. The twist adds nothing to the feeling except a little "oh." moment.

And the "tears were ridiculous" bit was more in that "it's an unreal thing," not that I thought it was a bad device. Just trying to say that it's already jumped into time/dimensional shifting and such, so anything that comes out of that is at least plausible given the setting.

I think essentially I just have a problem with "incestuous" storylines where all the major characters are directly connected by elements other than the plot situation. People suddenly turning out to be related or a best friend thought to be dead and now living under a different name just strikes me as a very tired device to make things feel significant. They'd already done the work of making me care about Elizabeth, I didn't need an extra reason by the time they decided to reveal that bit.

[Toe]

None of my friends know you can run in Super Mario Bros. AND THEY ARE ALL 26 AND OLDER.

I never let go of the run button when I play.

[Skummy]

Oh, yeah, my girlfriend had no idea about that when we started playing the WiiU one. And she struggled to hold the button down the whole time, and I just couldn't understand how she never knew about it.

A guy I went to college with had played Super Mario Bros countless times, and could do some insanely impressive speed runs on it. Turned out, though, that there were entire levels he had literally never seen, as every single time he's played the game, for probably twenty years, he had always used the warp zones.