IGN Bows Down to Sony and Playstation: The Games With the Best Stories

https://www.ign.com/articles/spider-man-2-proves-playstation-is-still-king-of-story-driven-games

We are so spoiled as Playstation gamers

Isnt it crazy how much of a desert Xbox and Nintendo are in comparsion?

Richard Hoeg had an interesting take on his Twitter:

"I truly believe it’s articles like these that have resulted in the bloated, ponderous, momentum-free storytelling that practically defines PlayStation nowadays."

Shots fired!

Frankly I feel stories like these are the direct result of undue influence for having Sony headquartered right next to all these bay area gaming media outlets.

Well of course. GoW2018 as a random example, has a better story than ALL Nintendo exclusives made since the very first Nintendo console was released. The same applies to Microsoft. Its like Sony are the only ones who are even trying cuz compared to the other two, its like they're clueless or something.

It's the worst thing about Sony. All of their games have become so dialogue and cutscene heavy. Rift Apart had cinematic walking. Imagine that shit in a RaC game.

But journos love not playing games and love being able to draw a comparison between a video game and some movie in IMDB's top 50 list.

@DarthaPerkinjan: The old saying that Sony games are best played on YouTube is still true 🤣

TLOU & GOW 2018 had the best stories ever.

But I have also played good story games on both Nintendo and Xbox, but just not as good

Spider-Man 2 is said to be 6-8 hours of cutscenes with maybe 4-6 hours of gameplay just to get through the main story.

If I wanna story driven cutscene game I'd play a Telltale game, or Dontnod (Life Is Strange), or Supermassive (Dark Pictures Anthology) game, Quantic Dream title. Games like Spider-Man 2 should be more gameplay than cutscenes by larger margins.

You don't play Sony's games, you watch them. I guess IGN (and most gaming media), like that 🤷

Books / TV-series / movies have better stories. If it's good stories you're after, playing PlayStation games is the worst medium of those.

Do people actually watch PlayStation games on YT? I'd rather do that than fucking pay for them, but it's incredibly boring to do. Those stories aren't good enough to sit down and watch, lol.

I would argue it's a sign of overspecialization and, because if this, should be a criticism, not praise.

It's literally the only thing Sony first-party games have going for them at this point, and that's tragic. It's why TLOU was a better TV show than it was a game.

It's one thing for a game developer to specialize like this (Dontnod, Telltale, etc) but for an entire platform? That's not good.

Yeah, agree with this. Read a book, watch a show, listen to an audiobook.

Also a good story in a video game is not really high praise to begin with. Your average Netflix schlock is better written, better voice acted, and has a better story. Video games both currently and historically tend to suffer from poor story.

I play games to play, not watch.

@lamprey263: why lie?

This....

IGN?????

How about you put the site you are shilling on's review scores up..knowing you won't i'll happily do it for you..

HZD,GOWR and Spiderman 9️⃣

Spiderman 2 8️⃣

HFW 8️⃣

TLOU 8️⃣

TLOU2 8️⃣

Ghosts of tsunami 7️⃣

Miles Morales 7️⃣

Not that spoiled,but hey deathloop xbox studios 10/10 saves the day for PS

CowGN, Cowspot, the list goes on.

Fake news, fake reviews, fake awards. They can all go Fake off. lol :P

Typical Nintendo story: character must save Princess.

Sheep: omg, I had no clue he was going to save the Princess!!

It’s a game. If I want a deep interesting story I’ll read a book or watch a movie…I don’t want to spend literally the last 20 minutes of a game watching an unskippable cutscene because “story”.

It's a shame what has happened to Playstation's first party lineup. Anytime you bring up how heavily cinematic and watered down they are Playstation fanboys deny it despite praising their games for being like that. When this trend of cinematic third person action adventure games started taking over the PS4 first party lineup I remember cows like Quadknight saying it is okay that Sony is only focusing on that because 3rd parties can handle multiplayer games and other genres. That definitely backfired with Microsoft buying some of the biggest 3rd party developers and IPs. Now Sony has no exclusives in those genres that can compete with them because they axed almost every studio that wasn't making cinematic 3rd person action adventure games and are now focusing more of their resources on live service games to make up for their one trick pony lineup.

I can't help but think the gaming media is biased towards Sony. I played some of the most recently praised modern Playstation exclusives. While they aren't bad games I couldn't help but notice major flaws that would definitely be brought up in reviews if they were Xbox exclusives but were swept under the rug because of the Playstation label and how much influence Sony has with their popularity.

Very true. At the same time, the messaging from the media is what Sony and its devs are adhering to. With no meaningful critique, they will continue to produce the same games to nauseam. Not bad games, just samey.

I was thinking about this when replaying Spiderman, Miles Morales as SM2 was coming up. I also thought about Uncharted, God of War, The Last of Us, and other games with good stories in general.

It adds a lot to a game when you can witness characters in situations and see their struggles and motivations.

It does feel rewarding when you have a big moment in the game and the characters have a chance to react, you get to see side stories develop and there is foreshadowing for when things all come together, or there is a big reveal.

In an overarching story, events don't take place only through your character's eyes or through the gameplay camera, and it adds a lot seeing these things in a well framed, presented/produced, and cinematic way.

It can make a moment bigger when the camera cuts during gameplay to set up a big setpiece, or to punctuate phases of a battle. When you fight Vulture & Electro, or Doc Ock, etc, those scenes are very cool and I want to see them, and having a moment to appreciate them during a cutscene is cool and I welcome that.

Games can be a storytelling medium, and that's one of the reasons I play games. It blew me away when I saw games delivering compelling storytelling and cinematics, even people who weren't into games would appreciate it. It's gotten praise over the years in games like Mass Effect, Silent Hill, RE, AC, Ni no Kuni, and things like the characters and story are what drew people in to certain games like Guardians of the Galaxy, it keeps people coming back to new entries like Yakuza, it's part of what sets some games apart and lets them stand on their own in the franchise like Jedi Fallen Order.

And it's not all presented through the character's eyes or completely diegetic. In some games they do that, and some they don't, there's a variety out there. But there's always been appreciation for games that took it to the next level like Ninja Gaiden on the NES and FF7 & MGS on PSOne, not just for the spectacle but the atmosphere and to enhance the impact of the gameplay.

I appreciate when they do a good job with this aspect in games and it's nice to have different successes highlighted.

Amen, it took me 7 hours to watch Spider-man 2 on Youtube. Was a fun game though. 8/10.

I agree with you here, Sony movie games is popular right now so many reviewers are jumping on the bandwagon to praise them, but I think this is much worse for Nintendo especially their well known franchises. Sony really tried A LOT of things back in the PS3 days, I kinda liked that (even if they do something like DriveClub and failed) at least they're trying something different. More variety. But I guess they found out making blockbuster movie games gets them the most cash so all they're doing is that now.

While a high score is good SW ammo, harsh critiques makes a dev. better, which is what matters.

@me2002: Reviewers love movie games. Easy to review, easy to write up a bunch of stories, and easy to make money quick.

No one buys a Nintendo game for the story. lol

But wouldn't reviewers deduct points for being short?

That's a big part of the reason why Sony 1st party are loved so much. Great story AND gameplay. When you have both: you got an example of the best quality single player experience you can find. Nintendo focuses on gameplay and party, Xbox focuses on online mp and Sony focuses on single player. It's a different offering and there's value in that. What part of that is so hard to believe?

And no, TLOU is a great game AND show.

Heck no, thats easy money. They get paid the same whether it takes them 4 hours to beat the game or 140 hours. They get paid the same whether the game is super easy or super hard that they have to have developers assist them in the review. Example Elden Ring paid people to assist reviewers in reviewing the game. Fromsoftware also gave guides and maps to companies for free to help them make money off helping gamers in Elden Ring.

Fair enough. I think they're more loved because of their quality and production values, and less because of their game design, but to each their own.

I just remember giving both TLOU and Uncharted an honest-to-god chance--like I was excited to play them--and I could not tolerate them. It was a big letdown. Hell, even God of War was hard to play because of the interruptions.

If people like the constant interruptions that cinematics and story bring and setpiece design, I am genuinely happy for them; I just don't understand the appeal.

Last Sony game I recall vaguely enjoying was Days Gone and Horizon: Zero Dawn (looking forward to the PC port coming!).

@freedomfreak: " Rift Apart had cinematic walking. Imagine that shit in a RaC game."

No wonder I didn't like it compared to previous games I played in the series.

@mrbojangles25: The interruptions you mentioned are only bad if that's your only source for gaming but for someone like me: there are already tons of games that I play filled with gameplay and less narrative. So a game like Uncharted and Last of Us comes around to focus more on narrative and it's a breath of fresh air. They're enjoyable enough that it makes up for whatever time was lost watching cutscenes and after playing games like Metal Gear Solid 4: the interruptions aren't nearly as bad as everyone says. It makes me glad that Kojima refuses to work with Sony exclusively. He's a quack and doesn't value your time in the slightest. I don't blame you or anyone who can't enjoy those Sony 1st party games but those who do genuinely have fun playing them. I can say that much.

Awww yeahhhh! SONY is killing it!

The story driven aspect in their games are what's turning me off ps first party games. I enjoy a good story, but I'd rather it be told during gameplay than to take control from me so I can watch hours of dialog and action sequences I should be in control of.

I much prefer a game like Fromsoft games where the story is told thru notes and short little dialogs. Bloodborne was amazing in this regard.

It irritates me so bad in the boss fight of Uncharted 1 when you were about to beat him, it took control and the end of the fight was a cutscene. The gameplay is fun, but the constant interrupting takes me out of the game not pulls me in.

Just my opinion of course.

For me, it’s hit or miss. I beat both Horizon’s but wasn’t a fan. I beat Death Stranding but wasn’t a fan. I beat Miles Morales but wasn’t a fan. I beat TLOU2 which was a pathetic disaster. However, I loved Days Gone, God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, TLOU1, Spiderman 1, Uncharted games. So while I love playing Sony exclusives, there’s a lot I don’t like.

I’m playing through the Gears of War games right now, on Gears 5, next will be Tactics, and I am loving every second of these games. Happy that I’ve put my focus more on Xbox lately, really been enjoying the buffet on Game Pass. Such a step above PS+ it’s not even funny.

I have never given much of a flying f**k about story.

This isn't a good thing imo. All it's done is added a boat load of cutscenes to games. Long cutscenes and cinematic walking is the antithesis of what gaming should be about.

The beginning of a lot of these games are like interactive cutscenes where you cinematic walk for what feels like half an hour until you're allowed to "play" the game.

This is why Ocarina of Time was such a master piece for me. Instead of changing the pace, withholding control or grinding to a stop, it used music and other components to tell the story.

Also, in my experience so far, gaming stories and cutscenes always felt like they'd struggle against the lower quality content on TV. But because it's flashy and computer generated, some how it's considered good?

I don't mind story in terms of helping to explain what you're doing and why you're doing it. But I don't play the games for the story.

Outside of God of War 2018 and the first last of us, I haven't run into a story in a Sony game that has resonated. Not saying they don't make fun modern games, but video game stories are generally really poorly executed.

It's refreshing to see SONY recognized for all its excellence being done in the Video Game space.

Yeah because Demon Souls, GT7, and SacBoy Adventure were mostly cutscenes.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

@ermacness: Lol, clutching at straws much?

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Honestly aside from few 1st party games, the story is not something to write home about in most of their games .. and I actually find their games to be lackluster in the last 3-4 years ..

They heavily focus on making cinematic (voice) acted, cutscenes focused, walking simulator movie games. The most important thing for them is graphics and cinematic cutscenes and acting .. what happened to games being fun in the first place?

@Life-is-a-Game: You are right. Gameplay in Sony games has taken a backseat to graphics and spectacular cutscenes, hence we call the games "movie games". I gotta say that Sony games have state of the art presentation and production value, but I had much rather have good gameplay any day.

After 4 generations, if you haven’t realized that Sony is where all the best games are, there is something wrong with your ability to reason, and if you wasted your money on an Xbox, you deserve that garbage.

@DarthaPerkinjan: Well, if you want to go as far as to say "Nintendo and MS vs Sony", I'm first going to laugh really hard. Second, I will say:

Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Star Fox, Halo, Gears, Forza, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Starfield vs any conceivable list by Sony is a 100% hard beat down to Sony.

They do a great job at the cinematic experience but the writing is gradually getting worse.

The Last of Us and Bloodborne are the only two Sony exclusives that I've cared about for ages.

your moving regularly in rift apart while they are talking? you don't walk and talk? not allowed to talk while your walking? story driven games are the game people remember.

what god of war ragnarock had great writing over the last one, so does spiderman 2. even the reviews say spiderman 2 best story. uncharted 4 better story over 3.

ghost of tarashma (spelling) awesome story, death stranded, rift apart for a ratchet and clank game was great. I think they are just as good in quality as the last games.

only one that is not is last of us 2.

Problem with current PlayStation, is they aren't pumping out enough cinematic gems these days. They are relying entirely too much on third party content. In contrast, Nintendo has had a record year with amazing games with superior game play, something gamers tend to prefer over movie watching content.

I love Spider-Man 2 but they made Peter a self loathing bitch and they are going out of there way to promote Miles above him. I'm also tired of them constantly reaffirming how bad ass Mary Jane is. It's cringe inducing and nobody wants to play those lame stealth missions. Overall it was a great game and a great Story but they took the best elements of that story right from the comic books. It's mostly inspired by 1987's " Kraven's Last Hunt". The story was great because it was taken from a Marvel comic when Comics were actually good. Uncharted 4 was a great game but had loads of bad writing. The Nadine Ross character was completely pointless and they forced you to have two unwinnable fights with her just so they could show you how bad ass she was.

Ghost of Tsushima was great, death stranding story was nonsense ( although that's not even a Sony First Party game). Rift apart was great. So I guess it depends really.

@silentchief: yeah I knew Sony made miles the hero that saves Peter. I don't mind as long it's done right. Without making Peter look weak and degrade him.

I don't mind a female bad ass either. Just do it right. Like the way the new misson impossible did.

It isn't done right. Mile's saves him like 5 times in the game. A guy who's been doing this for a year is already better then the guy doing it for 8 years. It's shitty millennial activist who just can't help themselves. Peter is a self loathing incompetent puss in this game.