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I like and prefer cinematic games over artsy indie titles...

AppleBlade

AppleBlade

Member
I really want to like the artsy/trendy/acclaimed indie titles like Limbo, Flower, Braid, Super Meat Boy, Super Stardust HD, Pap & Yo, etc.

As someone who is engulfed in gaming and gaming culture (listen to podcasts, regular NeoGAF visitor, own all the systems, and of course play as much as I can) I get the impression that someone who doesn't prefer those games over the typical big budget cinematic games has poor taste. I think I've even uttered things to that effect.

However, I have to be honest with myself and the truth is that it feels like a chore when I play those games. Games like Skyrim, and Uncharted, and Gears of War are the games that excite me and make me feel like a little kid. Now those are great games and that is understandable, but I find even 2nd and 3rd tier big budget games like Singularity, Enslaved, and the Darkness are much more fun and exciting for me than any of those indie titles.

Am I alone in this? Does anyone else feel like this? Or do I just have poor taste (as decided by the connoisseurs of gaming culture aka GAF)?
 
Enter The 36 Chambers said:
I don't care about indie games either
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I think Journey/limbo/flower etc are horse shit because outside of a pretty art style there is nothing left.

Bastion/Hotline Miami/Super Meat boy Look/Sound/Play better than games with 100 times their budgets.


Saying you don't care about indie games means you haven't looked hard enough.
 
I love both to be honest..... its like loving to watching Lord of the Rings...but y'know sometimes I want to watch little Miss Sunshine...or maybe Dogtooth....the more genres and different ways of approaching what a videogame is, the better
 
Skyrim and Gears of War aren't what I'd call "cinematic."

People seem to really like calling popular games cinematic because it's an easy way to insult them.
 
LuchaShaq said:
I think Journey/limbo/flower etc are horse shit because outside of a pretty art style there is nothing left.

Bastion/Hotline Miami/Super Meat boy Look/Sound/Play better than games with 100 times their budgets.


Saying you don't care about indie games means you haven't looked hard enough.
Click to expand...

This is pretty much my thoughts.

There are indie games that are fantastic and in some cases much better than the AAA titles that reviewers swoon over.

But yea, Journey/Flower/Braid are all more style over substance.
 
Super Meat Boy is the best indie game ever. Well maybe that and World of Goo. I feel like there´s ample room for both kinds of games in my library.
 
You are playing the wrong indie games then.

Pick up Spelunky, Binding of Isaac, Papers Please, FTL, Dont Starve, Orcs Must Die, Mark of the Ninja, Rogue Legacy, something along those lines.
 
Both big-budget AND indie games "make me feel like a little kid." I can't say I prefer one over the other, because when it comes down to it, the games speak for themselves. No single individual's subjective opinion can really ever generalize which is better.
 
Fuck both of em, and clarify what you mean by "cinematic" before everyone else fuck up your point. I'm guessing you mean narrative driven.

[edit: fuck indies to a degree. I think I'm more against the term than anything.]
 
It's fine. Most indie games are shovelware, simplistic, or repeats of 80's games. There are some great gems, but you're not a gamer with poor taste if you don't like them. We all have different tastes and different games are fun for us.
 
I play both of them. I even play classics. A while ago on steam, i played Guacamelee and then I spend some time with Tomb Raider, the old one with the triangle boobs.
 
Same. I like story, cutscenes, voice acting and pretty graphics. And as far as I'm aware, no indie has that.

This is why I'm not enjoying my Vita.
 
Some indie games worth checking out: Bastion, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, World of Goo, Mutant Mudds, Cave Story, SBCG4AP...I'm sure there are many more I'm forgetting.
 
So you only like games that cost hundreds of millions to make? Ok fair enough, but it seems odd that the enjoyment you get from a game is directly proportional to its budget.
 
It's weird to hear them being called "artsy" as their defining characteristic, because a lot of my favorite indie games either have blistering fast gameplay (Hotline Miami, Super Meat Boy), excellent puzzle design (Antichamber, Swapper, a billion others), or strategy (FTL). They all have great art, but that's just one of benefits. I can see not liking games like Flower, Journey, Proteus, etc., but not because they're "artsy," but rather because they have more passive and relaxed gameplay than most titles.
 
The perfect title will makes you feel something intense in what Seems to be cinematic while being completly done by you.
 
Skyrim's not cinematic.

Also, Indie games tend to have their vision focused to a single thing. This makes for very fun experiences if you like the thing they're focused on, and not fun experiences if you don't like that thing.

Also, calling Super Meat Boy "artsy" is pretty ridiculous.
 
I've just gravitated more towards indie games recently because they're more dynamic and gamey these days. Today's big cinematic games take control away from the player way too much, and are way too similar to each other. The most innovative and original games I've played in the last couple years have all been indie.
 
RedSwirl said:
I've just gravitated more towards indie games recently because they're more dynamic and gamey these days. Today's big cinematic games take control away from the player way too much, and are way too similar to each other. The most innovative and original games I've played in the last couple years have all been indie.
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This.
 
Lumping all these titles under the classification "indie" is a disservice to the games themselves. They are just games, and they are as, if not much more diverse than AAA titles like the ones you enjoy. Perhaps you have not looked hard enough.

Also, not sure of your age, but the appeal of a lot of indie games, at least to me, is that they bring back some nostalgia to games of old. Super meat boy is 2d platforming perfected, for example.
 
Toxi said:
Skyrim's not cinematic.
Click to expand...

I was gonna say this too. Skyrim is a massive, big-budget AAA game with lots of voice acting and story, but in 65 hours of playing it I've seen precisely zero cut scenes. That's why I'm honestly not as quick to shit on Bethesda as a lot of people on GAF. Maybe it's because I didn't start playing Bethesda games (or WRPGs at all) until Fallout 3, but among all the other huge cinematic rollercoasters, at least Fallout and Elder Scrolls still offer near 100 percent player agency. That's where I hope games in general keep going.

Ubisoft is starting to take the hint too after Far Cry 3 sales. I like that game a lot because it gives me a lot more freedom than most modern big-budget shooters. Ubisoft's comments suggest they're trying to go more in that direction with Splinter Cell and Assassin's Creed.

...and why the fuck are we shitting on Limbo? Aside from being artsy I remember Limbo having pretty excellent level design and really clever puzzles.
 
I like games with stories too. Uncharted, Dead Space, Last of Us, and even Mass Effect series despite its lousy ending. I want to play as characters I can root for so things like GTA is a turn-off for me. Although something like Sleeping Dogs does a good job of bridging the two extremes.
 
MrVargas said:
I really want to like the artsy/trendy/acclaimed indie titles like Limbo, Flower, Braid, Super Meat Boy, Super Stardust HD, Pap & Yo, etc.

As someone who is engulfed in gaming and gaming culture (listen to podcasts, regular NeoGAF visitor, own all the systems, and of course play as much as I can) I get the impression that someone who doesn't prefer those games over the typical big budget cinematic games has poor taste. I think I've even uttered things to that effect.

However, I have to be honest with myself and the truth is that it feels like a chore when I play those games. Games like Skyrim, and Uncharted, and Gears of War are the games that excite me and make me feel like a little kid. Now those are great games and that is understandable, but I find even 2nd and 3rd tier big budget games like Singularity, Enslaved, and the Darkness are much more fun and exciting for me than any of those indie titles.

Am I alone in this? Does anyone else feel like this? Or do I just have poor taste (as decided by the connoisseurs of gaming culture aka GAF)?
Click to expand...

You think Skyrim and Gears of War are cinematic, OP? Really?
 
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