Dance Inferno
Unconfirmed Member
Yes, it is. Quote the second post of the thread to see a list of eligible games.
Got it, thanks.
Yes, it is. Quote the second post of the thread to see a list of eligible games.
okay, finally able to crack this bad boy open and start puting some things down.
where's the list of released games? doesn't someone usually have an excel or something?
Quote the second post.
I don't get it.
*Fantastic post*
1. Rocksmith 2014 ; This tops my list for one simple reason: I learned to play guitar this year. Thats all I need to say about it. In the space of a few months, I have gone from never having once plucked a string before to now being able to play a number of songs almost unaided, this is perhaps the greatest gaming-related purchase I have ever made.
Heres what tickled my fancy the most.
1. Rocksmith 2014 ; This tops my list for one simple reason: I learned to play guitar this year. Thats all I need to say about it. In the space of a few months, I have gone from never having once plucked a string before to now being able to play a number of songs almost unaided, this is perhaps the greatest gaming-related purchase I have ever made.
A no-bullshit tutorial mode that is a ton of fun, no locking of options or modes or features behind completion goals (fuck you every game ever that has that - especially racing games these days. Seriously, lose licensing as a gate, forget XYZ-class racing leagues as progression gates: I just want to race on tracks with cars of my choosing from the getgo - I gave you $90 already you fucks. Turn10/Polyphony etc: you are all doing it wrong) & a multitude of learning tools that were clearly designed by people who cared about the product they were making & just as importantly, cared about the audience they were appealing to.
No higher praise can be given.
How old are you? I ask because I've always wanted to learn guitar (or piano) and I worry that I'm too old I tried as a kid and I got easily frustrated, but playing along with rock songs might make it more fun for me.
The big three-oh (30). I just jumped in, head first, not knowing if it would be a waste of $300 or not.
Turns out, it totally wasn't. On the lowest difficulty on easy songs, it is as easy to play Rocksmith as it is to play Guitar Hero or Rockband, for sure, but so much more satisfying.
And in no time at all you'll progress to basic chords and if you're anything like me, hit a wall with chord changes (they're tough!)
But persevere, sleep on it a bit, come back after a break, work in the tutorial/lessons and suddenly, you'll just 'get it' and away you go. The tracklist is fantastic, too, which helps no end. Similar to GH/RB, it only takes one or two songs that you really like outside of instrument playing, to get you on your way.
A massive recommendation from me, even have new calluses to show for it!
The Stanley Parable ; I played a lot of games this year. This was the only game that I genuinely enjoyed enough to actually make a vote for. The reason why is precisely because The Stanley Parable is a commentary on videogames with all of the intact tropes. It does not subvert them so much as it subverts the player into thinking about escaping them. It is the game Portal always wanted to be, gleefully aware and feigning ignorant of its interactions. The purpose of the game is to be aware of videogames, of play, of what value a game affords its player in the process of interactivity. More than all of this though, it's also funny and a game I wouldn't feel embarrassed to show to somebody disinterested in videogames. I want more games like it, more games where the goal isn't numbers go up or shoot all the things. More games where I feel like I have to question if what I'm doing is playing a game or the game is playing me. Because if I'm being honest, most of the mega-successes of this year are very much the latter, and The Stanley Parable makes me question them as anything more than a genuine waste of time (pressing buttons).
This brings to mind an argument I once made to you on strong desires for subversion (e.g. "anti-FPS" FPS games) and how it related to the amount of interest one holds for videogames. This is exactly why people should link their top 10s (or top 1s); it's the most illumination you can hope to get on not only tastes, but perhaps ideas from a single glance and no one has time to figure out where even a fifth of GAF is coming from.
My general issue with this is that I think most would see the lists outside of their context. My personal top 10 would be very different from a top 10 list of games I would recommend to other people. There would assuredly be some overlap, but for me at least, not to the extent that I suspect those ten overlap for most. I think people should keep that in mind if they are going to make such a list. It feels irresponsible to encourage certain games in the same breath.This brings to mind an argument I once made to you on strong desires for subversion (e.g. "anti-FPS" FPS games) and how it related to the amount of interest one holds for videogames. This is exactly why people should link their top 10s (or top 1s); it's the most illumination you can hope to get on not only tastes, but perhaps ideas from a single glance and no one has time to figure out where even a fifth of GAF is coming from.
My general issue with this is that I think most would see the lists outside of their context. My personal top 10 would be very different from a top 10 list of games I would recommend to other people. There would assuredly be some overlap, but for me at least, not to the extent that I suspect those ten overlap for most. I think people should keep that in mind if they are going to make such a list. It feels irresponsible to encourage certain games in the same breath.
In addition, I think games are too long generally and saying "these are the ten games you should play this year" sounds prescriptive and overly burdensome. I would rather recommend people play one genuinely great game than ten mediocre games.
I don't think anyone shares an exact set of tastes either, but I do think that one should separate what they enjoy, what they waste their time on (games that "hook" them for one reason or another) and what they would genuinely like to see more of and share with others.Well, the problem there is that I don't think any two people share an exact set of criteria for how they make and qualify their selections. I tend to lean hard on games which I spent the most time with during the year without getting bored of them, regardless of how long their campaigns are. At the same time, I tend to inject games I would recommend other people play because I think they are of high enough quality and uniqueness in craftsmanship and mechanics/systems to be worth the time and money investment. Ultimately though, the list only contains games that I felt I enjoyed playing the most.
Except that a personal list is both of these things, while a list of games recommended to others is one and not the other, or at least it is not intended as such (probably? Wouldn't want to cast judgments on that).I guess I don't see why a top 10 list couldn't be both recommendations and a sort of taste litmus test at the same time. Technically, the only explicit context that could be missed here is that the reason the list exists is for a vote tally.
I don't think anyone shares an exact set of tastes either, but I do think that one should separate what they enjoy, what they waste their time on (games that "hook" them for one reason or another) and what they would genuinely like to see more of and share with others.
If it was just a time estimate, Borderlands 2 was my game of the year, but I frankly wouldn't recommend that game to anyone. It touches on the collector in me, but I'm not going to applaud its addictive tactics nor encourage others to take part in its manipulation. I certainly wasn't glad about playing it for all that time, much as there are books I've spent a good time reading, yet I find absolutely turgid.
Except that a personal list is both of these things, while a list of games recommended to others is one and not the other, or at least it is not intended as such (probably? Wouldn't want to cast judgments on that).
As is the case with most threads on GAF. What's worthy of discussion is rarely also popular enough to survive a long time on a forum so constantly concerned with being up-to-date.I find the "why" of people's choices very interesting certainly, and I think it deserves its own thread, but I have little faith that it wouldn't just become lingering drive-by bait or die after about 20 posts.
Enjoyment can come with reservations. I may enjoy a lot of things, but I also try to be realistic and aware enough to see something I enjoy as a waste of time. I do not think this is wrong or bad, just an awareness that not all things a person enjoys exist in some kind of pure bubble that isn't informed by reality. I can feel that World of Warcraft is both enjoyable and a waste of time. I think it requires a certain amount of introspection to realize that there is probably a lot of horrible shit you enjoy. But unless you're aware enough to recognize that and realize that the criticisms mounted against something you enjoy probably aren't that far off, you'll be spending an eternity trying to defend indefensible things.I'm curious about the idea of something with a certain hook that you spend a lot of time with being a waste if you're enjoying it. I don't find something that doesn't have at least some variety and emergent depth to remain enjoyable even if the fundamental mechanics seem addictive, so I don't find myself hooked for long by anything that I think is a one trick pony. So basically, if I enjoy something, I don't think it was a waste of time, and what I'd like to see more of are games which I enjoy. That sounds horribly simplistic when I actually write it, but there it is.
Submission isn't all there is though. To some degree I seek to complete games I feel like I should complete. This has been an ever-growing problem, as I am more and more chastised for not having finished a game when I felt there was nothing to finish. In all honesty, if a game cannot interest me in two hours, I don't feel like it deserves more of a chance. Yet the experience is degraded for you. You're not "allowed" to talk about the game if you didn't finish it. That's a real cultural problem that I'm oft competing with when deciding to put a game down and not look back. It becomes a question of how deep into the cesspool you must go to know that you're drowning in feces. I primarily play games to discover, and that hasn't happened lately, for me, with modern games. There are bright spots, and while people shout at me every year, "how can you only like one game?," my frequent response is, "how can you like more than one, given what's available?" But we're not there yet. I know that. You can't be a conscientious objector without being willing to submit and suffer like everyone else. It's not a flagellation I'm terribly appreciative of, but it's the one necessary for anyone to have a conversation with you about the media.Borderlands 2 is an interesting example as it's one of the games I found the most boring and devoid of redeeming qualities all last gen, largely because of what I just mentioned in the previous paragraph. For me, it's a game whose systems seem haphazard and barely designed, whose fundamental mechanics feels one-dimensional throughout, and whose predominant time consuming exercise is picking up and dropping equipment. I don't continue to play such a game because the repetition is acceptable and carries a superficial illusion of being satisfying. That illusion is broken for me because my desire to explore possibilities is stifled by the lack thereof. It bores me, and when something bores me, I stop submitting to it.
DLC is the first step to that reductionist nightmare, but the reality is that most videogames have always been reductive, they were just visually agreeable enough to sell their brand of repetition at the highest prices. There are times where I enjoy such simplicity, but it's certainly far more rampant than I would hope. I don't actually think the videogame industry is aware of how to use their tools (or perhaps more pertinently, what their tools actually are-design and not graphical power). The technology available promotes sameness, rather than difference, because the nature of tools available doesn't promote design. Consumers are guilty of this as much as developers and manufacturers.Having said that, it took me an embarrassingly long while to realize I was submitting to it. I spent a good portion of the first half of last gen wondering why I was falling asleep (literally, I'm not being silly for effect here) playing games I thought I should be enjoying. The volume of high concept, low execution, one dimensional games I had played had numbed me to my own ability to discern what I even really enjoyed anymore. Thankfully, the industry is full of different ideas and types of games (AAA, indie, whatever), and there's still places to find what I love. I had just gotten lazy, really. This is the reason for my central, mostly irrational fear of games devolving from the incredible potential for complexity and development of player technique they could offer, to being just some kind of reductionist Pavlovian nightmare.
Not disagreeing, but I believe a personal set does give a better idea of taste than those you would recommend to others.Well, logically, you're right, but I'm not sure someone could make a list based on their own feelings and not have someone able to glean some idea of their tastes from it even if the context was very specific.
Haha, damn, that's pretty much my age exactly (30 in a couple months). I'll have to look into this more seriously!! Thanks for explaining your vote and answering my Q.
Pretty different tastes from mine, but great writeup, elfinke.
Submission isn't all there is though. To some degree I seek to complete games I feel like I should complete. This has been an ever-growing problem, as I am more and more chastised for not having finished a game when I felt there was nothing to finish. In all honesty, if a game cannot interest me in two hours, I don't feel like it deserves more of a chance. Yet the experience is degraded for you. You're not "allowed" to talk about the game if you didn't finish it. That's a real cultural problem that I'm oft competing with when deciding to put a game down and not look back. It becomes a question of how deep into the cesspool you must go to know that you're drowning in feces. I primarily play games to discover, and that hasn't happened lately, for me, with modern games. There are bright spots, and while people shout at me every year, "how can you only like one game?," my frequent response is, "how can you like more than one, given what's available?" But we're not there yet. I know that. You can't be a conscientious objector without being willing to submit and suffer like everyone else. It's not a flagellation I'm terribly appreciative of, but it's the one necessary for anyone to have a conversation with you about the media.
Oh I dunno. I play games and watch shows based on friends' recommendations from time to time. It is not as if I always do this, but I will certainly say that I'm influenced by others with regards to the choices of games I play. It is not the sole factor, but it certainly contributes. Sometimes I feel obligated to continue a game I otherwise would not because of flavor of the month attitudes and my general wish to not feel behind. Other times it is genuine desire, or a game which didn't hold my interest enough to finish, but one I would still finish if given the time. In the end, I don't really think it's a bad thing, but it's not always pleasant either.You sure as hell shouldn't be doing this to yourself out of any obligation to anyone else. There's nothing wrong with discussing what you didn't like about the part of a game you did play. The peanut gallery isn't paying for your time and games.
I guess I'm pretty lucky, this year has shown there's still plenty of the kind of games I want to play being made. I just hope that the kind of budgets backing up "visionary" projects where the player is barely part of the equation will start becoming available for a broader spectrum of more niche titles. I do think the success of some Kickstarter projects is opening some publisher's eyes.