Games you're playing, and games...

[Nitefly]

I do have a high attention span, but this game seems to be all about the graphics and not a lot else.

The controls are so convoluted and random (why does x sometimes loot, and why is it sometimes y? Why are there so many buttons with tap for one function and hold for another?), all of the animations are stiff and awkward, there are a lot of filler chores put in the game for some reason, and my horse appears to be mentally challenged. Oh, and combat is too easy as there's "snap to the enemy" auto aim.

I recently found a fondness for open world games with Zelda, Skyrim, Horizon, and Witcher 3 but this one just seems like I have really enjoy all the rubbish parts of games to enjoy it. A bit like a vegetarian "enjoying" food



Nope.

Edit: I can see this being like The Last of Us, where having an above average story for a video game gets it heaps of praise despite the gameplay being pretty poor.

It wasn’t a dig - I was just saying you need quite a forgiving attention span not to get bored by the chores. I found them chore like to. Life is too short for virtual chores!

 

[K1LaW8tt5]

RDR2 is brilliant if you can overlook its weak points. I cannot overlook them myself.

Strengths:

Highly appealing theming / aesthetic
Interesting / intriguing slow-burn cinematic story
Beautiful world
Sandbox freedom

Weaknesses:

Core ‘mission gameplay’ is weak (travel to here, do something, travel back)
Filler

I get bored of the GTA games for the same reason. The story and all the other pros cannot let me get over the fact that there is so much bull**** filler. I don’t want to run needless, unrewarding errands. There is no payoff from marching your horse all over the place for the millionth time on the way to a mission. It’s just not intense, not challenging and not FUN.

If you are perfectly happy with that sort of gameplay mechanic or have a higher attention span, I can see you rating the game more highly.

Oh, one tip.... pretty much always wear your bandana - stops you from becoming wanted when you accidentally run over a chicken or whatever.

Yeah I'm finding it hard to go back to it and if I do, I only do 1 mission and then quit because the next mission is halfway across the map.

 

[Nitefly]

Got stuck on Symphony of the Night... completely stumped how to get to the second part of the game. I absolutely despise looking things up as I feel like I’m cheating, but having looked it up... lol that is beyond impossible - who could possibly figure that out! That’s bend down by a wall and hold the crystal to make a tornado appear levels of obscure.... ok, maybe not that bad.... but ludicrously obscure. People must figure it out by chance / ****ing around.

Spoiler:

Spoiler

Getting to the catacombs by luring an enemy over to blow up a bridge - wut!

That sort of thing does annoy the poop out of me ><

 

[Kreeeee]

I had to look up that part too.

 

[Nitefly]

I had to look up that part too.

Well that makes me feel a little less useless

If there was something hinting towards using that as... a 'mechanic', earlier on, then I could understand it. Everyone must have to look that up

I was just hopelessly sat there in the room with the clock holding the 'gold ring' for an hour going 'fuuuuu open!!!!' NOW it 'makes sense'

Spoiler

Needed another ring, grrr!!!

 

[Kerplunk]

Going to give Persona 5 a go, stepping outside of games I usually play and exploring other titles I wouldn't usually play - i've heard good things about it!

Any tips?

 

[jcr]

have returned to destiny 2 after a break of about 2 years

 

[mid_gen]

I must be missing something with Red Dead Redemption 2. It’s really slow and clunky, and maybe even tedious to play.

There is a good story told throughout it, and good characters. The gameplay is terrible through, just riding around on a horse and then a shooting gallery section, rinse, repeat.

I would have enjoyed it more if Cinematic Mode worked for the whole game, rather than just travelling, and I could have just watched the game play itself out.

 

[mid_gen]

Just finished off TLOU again, and going through the DLC.

Also just started the AC:Odyssey DLC.

Shame that none of TLOU2, Cyberpunk, or AC:Valhalla could have come out during the lockdown!

 

[Amatsubu]

There is a good story told throughout it, and good characters. The gameplay is terrible through, just riding around on a horse and then a shooting gallery section, rinse, repeat.

I would have enjoyed it more if Cinematic Mode worked for the whole game, rather than just travelling, and I could have just watched the game play itself out.

I enjoyed it tremendously, TBH. There's a lot to take in and discover when you just roam around and it's hard to do a western game without focusing on riding horses and shootouts. It's all about immersion and level of detail, it made the gameplay work for me. If someone doesn't enjoy travelling and discovering this epic map and side stories then it's just not for them as it's like half of the fun.

There's horse-riding, minigames, hunting, crafting outfits, fishing, cooking, duelling, horse taming, upgrading camp, treasure hunting, robbing shops and trains, completing challenges plus a hefty amount of interesting places filled with notes and random events.

Not much else they could've done with the gameplay and every game can be summed up like that. TLoU is one of my favourite games ever and what's the gameplay other than sneaking or shooting? None, it has less mechanics than RDR2.

The problem is, when you just focus on the story and go from mission to mission, it'll get stale if you don't enjoy travelling and the dialogues. It wasn't for me because I mixed it up and I was immersed even riding through the scenery and listening to the characters.

It's a massive game and an immersion-focused slow-burner with a repetitive mission structure if you only do that so I can't imagine it appealing to everyone.

 

[mid_gen]

I enjoyed it tremendously, TBH. There's a lot to take in and discover when you just roam around and it's hard to do a western game without focusing on riding horses and shootouts. It's all about immersion and level of detail, it made the gameplay work for me. If someone doesn't enjoy travelling and discovering this epic map and side stories then it's just not for them as it's like half of the fun.

There's horse-riding, minigames, hunting, crafting outfits, fishing, cooking, duelling, horse taming, upgrading camp, treasure hunting, robbing shops and trains, completing challenges plus a hefty amount of interesting places filled with notes and random events.

Not much else they could've done with the gameplay and every game can be summed up like that. TLoU is one of my favourite games ever and what's the gameplay other than sneaking or shooting? None, it has less mechanics than RDR2.

The problem is, when you just focus on the story and go from mission to mission, it'll get stale if you don't enjoy travelling and the dialogues. It wasn't for me because I mixed it up and I was immersed even riding through the scenery and listening to the characters.

It's a massive game and an immersion-focused slow-burner with a repetitive mission structure if you only do that so I can't imagine it appealing to everyone.

All those other activities are just pointless fluff though, there's no gameplay loop associated with them. You can breeze through the game using the same rusty old crap revolver you start with, same camp, same horse, none of it makes any material difference to the core game loop. The whole thing feels like it was made by disparate groups of people that never spoke to each other, the inconsistent controls are symptomatic of it.

I did enjoy the travelling and the dialogues (mainly because you can put it on autopilot and just watch). I still rate the game highly, but it just lacks a coherent overall design direction that could have made it something great.

TLOU had much more limited scope in terms of what you can do, but all of it was meaningful and had an impact on the core game progression. If you just burn through the story without stopping to explore, you'll struggle with gear and supplies.

 

[Hedge]

Going to give Persona 5 a go, stepping outside of games I usually play and exploring other titles I wouldn't usually play - i've heard good things about it!

Any tips?

Fancy this myself. Everyone raves about it.

 

[Gooner Leroy]

After finishing GoW I thought I'd give Bloodborne a go. Just played 30mins. Seems errmm a bit different.

 

[Amatsubu]

All those other activities are just pointless fluff though, there's no gameplay loop associated with them. You can breeze through the game using the same rusty old crap revolver you start with, same camp, same horse, none of it makes any material difference to the core game loop. The whole thing feels like it was made by disparate groups of people that never spoke to each other, the inconsistent controls are symptomatic of it.

Well, it enriched the gameworld for me and allowed more options. The way I behaved also changed the reactions of gang members and those around. That's all that really matters in a game thriving off immersion. Even stuff like filling the encyclopaedia. I had fun hunting legendaries, collecting and modifying weapons etc.

The fact that you can finish the game with base stuff isn't really relevant, all that mattered is that I wanted to have a great horse, some nice outfits from the trapper, all the upgraded satchels to store stuff and a solid set of modified weapons.

TLoU has difficulty levels, you can put it on easy and breeze through all the same, granted it's not the "correct" way to experience the game but the situation is different. Besides, even on hard it wasn't that hard to get through when you slacked off with exploration. I didn't anyways because I found it fun, like RDR2.

The same way, if you just burn through the story in RDR2, you miss half the details and optional stories/encounters that make the game alive and exceptional. I clocked 100h on PS4 and I'm still seeing new stuff on PC.

Maybe it's just a differece of perspective but I didn't find it incoherent, it actually has the most believable and detailed gameworld this gen. All I can agree on are the janky controls and repetitive mission structure down the road.

After finishing GoW I thought I'd give Bloodborne a go. Just played 30mins. Seems errmm a bit different.

Stick with it, it's great, worth it for the atmosphere alone.

 

[mid_gen]

Well, it enriched the gameworld for me and allowed more options. The way I behaved also changed the reactions of gang members and those around. That's all that really matters in a game thriving off immersion. Even stuff like filling the encyclopaedia. I had fun hunting legendaries, collecting and modifying weapons etc.

The fact that you can finish the game with base stuff isn't really relevant, all that mattered is that I wanted to have a great horse, some nice outfits from the trapper, all the upgraded satchels to store stuff and a solid set of modified weapons.

TLoU has difficulty levels, you can put it on easy and breeze through all the same, granted it's not the "correct" way to experience the game but the situation is different. Besides, even on hard it wasn't that hard to get through when you slacked off with exploration. I didn't anyways because I found it fun, like RDR2.

The same way, if you just burn through the story in RDR2, you miss half the details and optional stories/encounters that make the game alive and exceptional. I clocked 100h on PS4 and I'm still seeing new stuff on PC.

Maybe it's just a differece of perspective but I didn't find it incoherent, it actually has the most believable and detailed gameworld this gen. All I can agree on are the janky controls and repetitive mission structure down the road.

But the core gameplay loop just isn't enjoyable in RDR2. Left trigger, right trigger, left trigger, right trigger, watch horse riding cinematic, left trigger, right trigger, left trigger, right trigger. The shooting is just bad, which isn't really forgivable for a western, there's no nuance to it, no benefit from employing any tactics or strategies (most of the shooting is on rails anyway). Shooting a pistol at someone 50 yards away feels and behaves exactly the same as firing a scoped rifle at them.

There are two core experiences in RDR2 - Dialogue and storytelling sequences, and shooting, plus a load of extraneous fluff. The dialogue and story telling is wonderful, some of the best in any game. The shooting is garbage.

A coherently designed game would have all these extraneous systems feedback into the core game experience, so that spending time doing X would make doing Y easier, or encourage tactic Z. There's none of that, just a bunch of completely standalone systems that don't work together.

It's a frustrating missed open goal tbh. Could have been great, but in the end is a flawed, but good game.

 

[Kreeeee]

In addition to the awkward disjointed systems and controls in RDR2 I've been conned before when people said TLoU had an incredible story, so I'm not too keen on wrestling with the unnecessarily tedious stuff to get to the good stuff.

Sure TLoU had a decent story, for a video game. The quality of the story telling was massively over-exaggerated because everyone rating it so highly were considering video games in isolation, not comparing it to all forms of story telling. I expect RDR2 to be the same from what I've seen so far.

I found the old Westwood RTS games had better stories than TLoU, at least they weren't so predictable

 

[Bigpig]

The voice actors Naughty dog hire are basically the best in the business so that helps with pushing the story.

Bring back the old C&C red alert cut scenes!!

 

[mid_gen]

In addition to the awkward disjointed systems and controls in RDR2 I've been conned before when people said TLoU had an incredible story, so I'm not too keen on wrestling with the unnecessarily tedious stuff to get to the good stuff.

Sure TLoU had a decent story, for a video game. The quality of the story telling was massively over-exaggerated because everyone rating it so highly were considering video games in isolation, not comparing it to all forms of story telling. I expect RDR2 to be the same from what I've seen so far.

I found the old Westwood RTS games had better stories than TLoU, at least they weren't so predictable

It wasn't the storyline that made TLOU stand out, it was the storytelling. Horizon had a better, more interesting story, but wasn't told nearly as well as TLOU.

 

[Amatsubu]

But the core gameplay loop just isn't enjoyable in RDR2. Left trigger, right trigger, left trigger, right trigger, watch horse riding cinematic, left trigger, right trigger, left trigger, right trigger. The shooting is just bad, which isn't really forgivable for a western, there's no nuance to it, no benefit from employing any tactics or strategies (most of the shooting is on rails anyway). Shooting a pistol at someone 50 yards away feels and behaves exactly the same as firing a scoped rifle at them.

There are two core experiences in RDR2 - Dialogue and storytelling sequences, and shooting, plus a load of extraneous fluff. The dialogue and story telling is wonderful, some of the best in any game. The shooting is garbage.

A coherently designed game would have all these extraneous systems feedback into the core game experience, so that spending time doing X would make doing Y easier, or encourage tactic Z. There's none of that, just a bunch of completely standalone systems that don't work together.

It's a frustrating missed open goal tbh. Could have been great, but in the end is a flawed, but good game.

Well, what can I say. I found it fun, even with the tanky controls, because the physics and animations during shootouts were satisfying. I think you're making a bit of a caricature of it and we're focusing on different things.

Shooting is miles better on PC anyways, as is the overall gameplay in 60fps, so that might somewhat explain this.

I tried all the weapons and shooting a shotgun is definitely different than a pistol, apart from the obvious effects of a shot from close up You even have to use different weapons not to destroy animal pelts.

As for tactics, you're somewhat right, I didn't concentrate on that and don't think it was a big deal as I still had fun in shootouts. RDR1 was like that as well and still awesome.

I got a fair share of fun in this game from hunting and and doing most of the fluff, maybe it's just me and it felt pretty enriching for the setting even though it was "pointless" in the sense you didn't have to do it to just go through the story.

The systems feeding back into the gameplay loop, well, you scavenge more resources, you have an easier time replenishing Dead Eye, you craft the satchels, you can hold more healing items and stuff, you spend time hunting, you get access to unique outfits. You care for yourself, you don't look like a bum (or you do).

It's not drastic in any way because if it was, I can bet you'd be complaining that you're FORCED into doing all the "fluff" like hunting, collecting plants, caring for weapons and all that jazz just to survive through the story. But it's there for people who enjoy this sort of immersion.

We'll just have to agree to disagree, beside Kreeeee has already demonstrated above how it all works Though, the storyline was average, the storytelling wasn't.

 

[Plainsong]

Playing Uncharted 4 again. Just got to Madagascar. Beautiful game and a lot of fun. Gun play is a lot meatier than the early games. So many impressive little details and the scale of the environments is stunning.