???Manly Sniper Lounge v73®???. Edition EX2+ Turbo. ??? Hyper Posting.

video game stories are shit but i think you're underselling them a bit there.

Undertale does not have a good story. The humor is good, but the story wasnt all that great.

Gabriel Knight is more well written than any of the games you mentioned.

On average, it's not really that much better. At best they've taken themselves more seriously and got better at presenting when being cinematic? But that's not anything to write home about if the story n characters.

Small game that goes under the radar has a good story? That's how it's always been though, it's what the point and click was.

Yeah Witcher 3 is really good, The Last of Us is top notch on the writing, but the other stuff isn't that much better than the cheese fests we used to get, they take themselves more seriously. Bioware's been sloppy as hell, Obsidian is a bit too robotic, Rockstar has a tendency to have an absurd amount of filler that bogs down the middle of the story (and in the case of GTAV, the story is straight lousy and ends pretty poorly).

Battlefield and CoD are fucking shlock at best, and that's not that much better than what they've always been. Never been big on Halo, but even that is clearly worse. A lot of stuff gets praised more for trying, than actually nailing the story. Naughty Dog and CDPR I can get behind because the writing is there, but the other stuff? And I'd disagree with Maroxed, I'd say Undertale's story is quite good. At the least, triple A equivalents had more risk takers and stuff that was at least exploring how to tell the story through systems (Silent Hill, Shadow of the Colossus, Soul Reaver), less so with the Triple A equivalents of today.

And in the case of Titanfall 2's campaign being good, it has nothing to do with the story, that shit is cliche as **** (although BT is endearing). It's more so the level design and gameplay sequences are genuinely fun and well thought out. Doom as a campaign is the same way, people responded positively to a more mechanically driven game because Doom's formula didn't need to die out.

And David Cage games are straight sewer water.

Yeah and it took a whopping like 8 years before we got another class based mp game up to snuff in TF2 territory with Siege. It's still fundamentally more unique in its space. Battleborn plays nothing like it, and the TF2 similarity ends quickly if you've played both of those games. The moba elements absolutely give Overwatch a completely different feel and values to what TF2's gameplay is.

In contrast the other 3 having a campaign is: Battlefield went from dog shit, to kind of mediocre on the campaign front. Call of Duty, it's probably the same mindless roller coaster it's been for awhile, but now it's "self aware". And Doom is "you know what this game from 1994 is somehow still better than the lion's share of FPS games in the triple A space we should go back to that method". But as far as showing that you can have a successful FPS single player, I don't see how they had to show shit, when regardless of what anyone thinks of their quality. Far Cry has been a success, Bioshock has been a success.

So impact is being used really loosely here, especially if Naughty Dog's influence is the cinematic, which was a direction this medium was taking well before them. Even in 07, we had another Half Life 2 episode (a series built on making a more cinematic game) and CoD4. Naughty Dog is more good for their execution, not their innovation or creative vision. They've been basically been the studio that takes a bunch of well established concepts, and just polishes that shit up in a neat package. And 3 times it's been a good game. In the case of The Last of Us, terrific. But "influential", come on.

You are right, I should have said not great.

The way the writing kept subverting your expectations was exceptional indeed.

The campaigns of these FPS you linked are not as good as those found in Half Life 1 (which I maintain was a much better game than the sequel), Doom 1 or 2, Painkiller, Quake 1, Serious Sam and many more. In fact, Doom 4 was essentially painkiller in many ways. Both for hte better and worse. The campaign was quite the power fantasy, but I felt it lacked the exploration aspect of the originals. Especially the whole, explore to survive bit which I sorely miss.

My sister started playing Tales of Symphonia (original GameCube version) just today. Both of us were impressed at how well the framerate holds up on that version, yet somehow the PlayStation 3 and PC versions don't have it (I kind of understand why for the PS2 Japan only version though).

mmhmm, plus the game uses the gameplay in neato ways for its story. My beef is the ghetto shmup stuff/combat system isn't really satisfying to play. Were that stuff better, shit would be the best ugly video game of all time.

I finished watching Westworld. I liked. A lot. Shame I must now wait a year for Season 2.

On the topic of Undertale, I hated everything about it. The gameplay especially.

Dishonored 2 was doing a no kill run, got 2 "kills" don't know how (I'm guessing rats ate dead bodies or some shit). So I beat mission 4 on easy to just restart the mission from scratch (because there is no restart mission option), and the game then proceeds to not have a restart mission after you beat it in the mission summary. So I restarted because I'm stubborn as ****. My pettyness knows no bounds Arkane.

Russel Westbrook isn't human.

After the monumental reveals about the Man in Black and earlier with Bernard, I have to re-watch the series from the beginning with this new perspective.

Utterly amazing series! And I wonder how many who have seen it also saw the original movie from the 70's? Or know that it's based on a Michael Crichton novel?

Yeah, Undertale was one of those rare examples where the narrative actually benefited from being a video game.

Doing a genocide run in the demo was when the game first truly caught me offguard when the game edited the manual after you beat it.

Did the opening mission of Doom 4, on Nightmare. 3 things

1. Eww that pistol

2. Why does this game start with a story?

3. Doom, no quick save, is this real life?

4. I'm too old man and scrub for Nightmare

So I bumped it down to Ultra Violence and had a blast.

1. Doom guy hates the story more than I do. lol
2. THAT SHOTGUN THOUGH
3. MY SHOTGUN SHOOTS A ROCKET
4. MMMMMMMMMMMM Doom

This game gets me. ^_^

Yup, Doom left a pretty poor first impression.

@jg4xchamp:

Yeah, Ultra Violence is the sweet spot in that game. I would have preferred Nightmare to stack up on the enemies rather than modifying health. I came across a handful quality of Snapmaps that throw hoards at you while increasing player speed, kinda made it hard to go back to the campaign lol.

And dude, just wait for the super shotgun with the double tap upgrade. Not gonna say it renders the other weapons useless, I still like mixing it up... but damn it's too good.

Goddamn, I feel so embarrassed to be swedish right now. To be associated with those... frauds. Just unbearable.

The Super Shotgun is amazing indeed.

Maybe I should give the game another run on UV then. I did feel the HP bloat on Nightmare got a bit out of hand near the end.

@Maroxad:

Yeah, UV is the way to go. Kind of a shame too, I would like to play a harder version of the campaign, just not the way they went about it.

Which brings up the biggest bummer about Doom 4. No real mods. There could've been so much cool content out there and so many cool modifiers to the main game by now. I've managed to find a few enjoyable Snapmaps, but it's just not the same. :(

Westworld was fantastic, a nice surprise that i didn't expect. It's a shame it's over, there's nothing worth watching anywhere. I'd give anything to erase my memories of Breaking Bad, and watch that again.

How can you hate Undertale?

Like I said before, given the provocative revelations at the end, surrounding the Man in Black and Bernard, it's worth re-watching Westworld from the beginning, and taking your new insight into the earlier story development :)

I got lost in Deus Ex Mankind Divided sub quests. Damn!!!

Yeah, same here, lol.

Yup, i got the calibrator to enhance my experimental skills without overheating. Thats a good start lol. Rest sub missions i guess i'll keep finding and finishing before doing any main quests as i read they get lost if you progress too much into the main storyline lol.

Got to say, it is one beauuuuuutiful game. And it felt good getting back into this cyberpunk world. Still has my favorite hacking gameplay design, more than just puzzle mini-games, it just "feels" so authentic in navigating the system directory while evading the intrusion detection software and trying to outrun its timer. I seriously love it and always focus a majority of my upgrades on the hacking skill trees :)

People be mad, yo. TLG certainly hit a nerve somewhere :P

Titanfall 2 campaign is pretty alright. At least mechanically it's super interesting.

Finished this one mission where they add a time manipulation wrinkle with the parkour. Other games would have built the whole title around it, but they use it just long enough that it doesn't get stale.

Between this and Doom 4, shooters are starting to get a little interesting again. yay.

@darkspineslayer:

TF2 campaign is super fun. Loved it.The final two missions/levesl are amazing. The MP is also amazing btw, got addicted to Bounty Hunt recently. Super stressful to have loads of money on you since you can die even as you're depositing it.

I was actually considering buying it during the Black Friday sale. But having already picked up a 29" ultrawide monitor, Mass Effect trilogy, Borderlands 2 GOTY edition, and Darksiders II Deathinitive edition... plus just looking at my backlog of games begging me to play... gave me pause to click that add to cart button.

Not to mention being torn between that and BF1, and having only so much time that I could put into the games that need a considerable investment to build up your character status.

woulda, coulda, shoulda, I guess :P

So just so I'm clear. Any time a woman is going to be the lead in a game, or the main character will be gay, or damn them to hell, not a white dude, there will be cats that are automatically going to assume it's sjw/politically correct bullshit, and not an actual design decision on part of the designers?

Yeah. I get it, though I don't think that it is every single character. I do think some of them are trying to cash in on a trend... like many companies. However, being a black woman of course I would want to see someone of a different background in a game. I do want it to be like a story they will tell if the character was white and not focus on them and their background unless the story is like history based for example. I guess a better example of the way I wouldn't like the game is basically see Hillary's campaign with her "look at me i'm a woman". I may not agree with sjw like tactics but if they are getting more diverse characters in gaming... I guess it couldn't hurt. People can choose not to buy it. I do think it is strange that some dudes complain about playing women in games talking about they can't relate (which I don't know why genitals matter in terms of relation but okay) but sheesh that was most of my gaming life playing dudes and I didn't complain. lol

@AdobeArtist:

I fully intend to rewatch the entire season now that I know all this critical information. Usually I watch most shows twice, introducing someone I know to it on the second run while also taking the opportunity to pick up on things I might have missed the first time around. Westworld gave me a reason to watch it again despite already having planned on doing so in the near future.

As for the '73 original film, I looked it up shortly after the series premier, just to have a better idea what the show would be about before actually seeing the pilot episode. But now I want to track it down and watch the whole film for more comparisons. Fun times await!

@Lucianu:

Erasing my memories of many things is something I wish were possible. Not just shows, but certain games and books, too. Alas...

As for Undertale: it's not fun. I played for one hour and I wish I could get that hour back. Everything about that hour from the gameplay to the story left such a sour taste in my mouth I could not put it into words better than I am doing now. Most people I know like the game for various reasons. More power to them; I've also upset more than a fair share of people because I was so vocal about my disdain for the game. Because clearly my not liking something they like is grounds for ending all contact with me.

@jg4xchamp:

Yup. Personally, I hate it more when people demand they change an existing idea/story to include the opposite gender or orientation or what have you. At that point you're telling someone how to write creatively, and that's a big no.

lol what a casual. i finished the game without killing anyone. they're supposed to add new game plus and a mission restart this month

Wow, those people are so sad.

That is how Bruno ended contact with me. Because I didnt like Guild Wars 2. But only before a lot of verbal abuse from him. I was laughing so hard at him at that time. Actually it is still so funny how much my dislike for that game bothered him.

Of course, the outrage when a game happens to feature anything but a nathan drake clone is amusing. Funny how these people call themselves pro free-speech. Bunch of frauds.

Speaking of which...

Here in Sweden (very recently) there was a controversy over an ad which merely happened to feature a bunch of Santa Lucia's and one of them happened to be brown. This was followed by Right Wing PC outrage, and all sorts of violents threats directed towards the child who happened to act for the ad. To the point where the ad had to be removed.

@Maroxad:

It's a silly thing to get upset over. Short of outright insults it shouldn't matter that I don't like something you don't like.

You and I for example butt heads plenty often over games like Persona, Dragon Quest and Fire Emblem. But that doesn't mean I'd want to never speak to you again. I understand my viewpoint is not the only one that exists, and finding an opposing one from someone who is also capable of carefully and methodically detailing arguments as to why they disagree is a rare treat. A welcome one at that.

But I knew Bruno plenty well, and his adoration of GW2 was strong stuff. I didn't take kindly to the game at first, but I did enjoy my time with it last year because I played it with my best friend. But a lot of the problems I have with the game are valid criticisms, and I'm sure we'd agree on them if we ever sat down and had a chat about it.

If there were no differences in opinions and everyone agreed on everything. GS would have been quite the echo chamber indeed. And an echo chamber is barren grounds for discussion.

That is why I welcome differing opinions.

Provided of course, that they aren't completely unfounded.

This thing is perfect.

@jg4xchamp: Dang, where did you find that lol. It's amazing

To an extent I agree. A lot of stuff, especially in a critical sense is gassed up simply for a diverse change, and not necessarily well written. But the half step of someone at Naughty Dog going "what if this character was a woman", and Neil Druckmann going "you know what, why not" isn't pandering or anything, it's just recognizing hey we sort of go on auto-pilot and make all the people a bit too similar without taking into account that we could have a more diverse group. Bad writing is bad writing.

Uncharted 4's really good with most characters, it's pretty bad with how it finishes Nadine. But even that has nothing to do with pandering. Mass Effect 3 with Cortez might have been an issue, because that character is nothing more than "bro, i **** dudes". And not because I believe gay characters need to be "subtle" and not "in your face" or "stereotyped", because that's silly too. The whole someones sexuality, ethnicity and all that doesn't define them is a bit nonsense. It's not your only character trait, but it has an impact on your upbringing and who you are as a person. So it doesn't need to be subtle.

And given how safe this industry can be (and any story telling medium for that matter), it doesn't hurt them that someone says hey, maybe be a bit more diverse. Do I think the politically correct crowd is a bit too reactionary? Sure, it's overkill. The Killing Joke (the graphics novel, not the shit movie) was perfectly fine as it is. Alan Moore not liking it, is whatever, because Alan Moore is also a creep. Plenty of people didn't like Ghostbusters 2016, because it looked lame and it was lame.

But nowadays it's like one ups manship between both sides seeing who can overreact to the sky being blue harder.

On what medium?

And mother fucker, I knew I should have waited another week or two lol.

Aljosa, he probably got it from Neogaf.

On hard.

I wouldn't mind if devs just switched it up to add or place a different type of character because it is their work and also it could be interesting with the what ifs. I don't think that would be pandering because hey if it flows in the story then I wouldn't complain... well to be honest I wouldn't anyway I would just say well I did not like that direction and move on.

Sure, write about their life story, tragic or not but I guess if something feels annoyingly stereotyped I am most likely not going to be interested in it. I'm not going to cry about it on reddit. If other people want to experience those types of characters then they should be able to without people getting in their face about it. The whole representation is important to many people. I do also want their own stories/games and give them a chance to show that they can be fantasy characters such as witches and such.

Like I said, I would love it. No complaints here about more diverse characters. There is a lot of this PC stuff going around and while I do think some of it is insane, recently I have seen how the other side likes to dig for gold in places where it never was at as well. I would have even watched Ghostbusters if the trailers made it look... well... interesting.

Every time I see UC4 mentioned I remember the terrible shooting in this game. Gaf has to be smoking something to say it has the best shooting mechanics in a TPS.

The best shooting mechanics is an over statement. It does however have pretty darn good shooting. Unfortunately they put it on the back burner to tell a mediocre story.

The guy is averaging a triple double. Didnt think that was possible in this day and age. The guy often gets alot of flak for crashing the board instead of running back on transition, but now people want him to do so.

Indeed, TBH enjoying it more than HR lol. How far are you already? I'm doing HQ Prague Mission right now along with Cult sub quest. Hacking so far has been easy for me in starting stages, Fortify, quickly capture or nuke/worm before Timer ends lol.

Its imo second weakest Deus Ex game (IW bieng worst) but still great game.

Its nowhere near as good as HR which was masterpiece especially game has only one hub and not have enough variety. plus it suppose to be one big game but square enix cut it for sequel.

I really hope sequel will be vastly different.

@jg4xchamp said:

This thing is perfect.

So much win.

Ever since The Orangutang with a Bad Combover won. I have seen a massive rise of these "arguments". Especially the genetic fallacy, with idiots trying to discredit the media because the media predicted that Hillary would win. Even though the discussion has absolutely NOTHING to do with the election. Any journalist, facts and data is disreputable to them. Because they came from journals (be it the press or the academia) it is automatically disqualified and conspiracy theories and personal hunches rules the day.

Man, the anti-intellectualism has been on the rise in the past month.

LOL poor iandizion713 Ha XD