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Games with the worst humor

PaulloDEC said:
What? No it wouldn't.

It's about the effort on the developer's part to aim high rather than aiming low.
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why applaud mediocrity

giving them a giant golden "you tried," star doesn't make the game's brand of humor any funnier nor does it do anyone any favors when people see that this sort dumb, uninspired writing become popular.
 
Can't agree about R&C. It has some funny moments and I don't think any of the gags are awful. A few of the voice actors on the other hand...
 
Honestly, I would think that meme-heavy humour is by definition neither wild nor new. It's safe because it's tested, it's old because it's repurposing someone else's joke.

I don't think there's anything wrong with people liking it, as much as I don't, but I do think it's really strange to present it as ambitious.
 
PaulloDEC said:
In a comparison between good writing and bad writing, they're both still writing.

In your comparison, one is food and the other is actual shit. Not a fair comparison.

A better example would be one chef who makes a flavourless rice cake, and another who tries to make a more ambitious dish, but fails to get it right.

Who do I admire more: the chef who aimed as low as he could and succeeded, or the one who tried to do something interesting and failed?

Spoiler alert: it's the second guy.
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A better example are two chefs that know they can only make rice cakes. One acknowledges that fact and makes a rice cake, but the other is so clueless they think mixing shit into the rice cake will make it better.

Then the rice cake with shit in it chef makes you eat 10 of their rice cakes with shit in them.
 
diggmcbadass said:
I think Borderlands from Gearbox are some of the most unfunny games, but I think Borderlands from Telltale is one of the funniest games ever made.
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This is so very, very true. I like the Borderlands universe and the game play well enough, but the writing in the second game was so bad I ended up muting the dialogue in order to get through it. I went into the Telltale game assuming it would be more of the same and no, no it wasn't. It was genuinely funny--to the point where it was able to make some of the least funny characters from the core series actually likeable (in a manner of speaking).

I desperately want Telltale's writing staff to tackle the next Borderlands. Obviously it's not happening, but let me dream...
 
Sacred 3. Writing was never the strength of previous games in the series, but they hit a whole new low for the third game, as well as stripping out pretty much everything that made it Sacred.

But man, the jokes in that game were bad. Real bad.
 
PaulloDEC said:
So rather than at least try to write something funny, people would prefer writing with no flavour at all?
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I'd rather it not waste time (both mine and development) and just get to the gameplay if it's Borderlands 2 quality. Anthony Burch's writing ability lies in 2 minute skits of getting abused by Ashley, not 20/30 hour video games. LucasArts adventure games set a bar in the 90s and Borderlands 2 takes a massive step back with overdone obvious references and shoehorned in "internet humour" that just bloats the dialogue.

p.s. Fuck Claptrap. He was so irritating that I made gameplay choices just to spite him.
 
DJ_Lae said:
Sacred 3. Writing was never the strength of previous games in the series, but they hit a whole new low for the third game, as well as stripping out pretty much everything that made it Sacred.

But man, the jokes in that game were bad. Real bad.
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I was going to suggest something else but this... this is on a whole different level of bad.
 
Besides Borderlands 2, who should be winning in a landslide victory, I have to give it to GTA V. Shit like Chakra Attack is funny, but other than that it's just a lot of cringe worthy satire thats extremely thin and not thought out well enough. Instead of spoofing parts of American culture, they decided to spoof ALL of American culture, even if there's no humor to be found in many of these things. The older GTAs didn't have this problem, and San Andreas had the San Fierro 69ers.
 
PaulloDEC said:
So rather than at least try to write something funny, people would prefer writing with no flavour at all?

I'll give a pass to games that try to funny in most cases, because being funny is really fucking hard, and being funny to a majority of people is borderline impossible. I admire developers who are willing to make an effort to write something with some character, even if it doesn't land.

Plenty take the easy way out by either writing nothing, or writing something bland enough that it can't evoke any reaction at all.
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Good post
 
I'm genuinely shocked that to this day we've really had, what, one modern game that was actually designed to be a comedy? And that was South Park.
 
Torokil said:
Besides Borderlands 2, who should be winning in a landslide victory, I have to give it to GTA V. Shit like Chakra Attack is funny, but other than that it's just a lot of cringe worthy satire thats extremely thin and not thought out well enough. Instead of spoofing parts of American culture, they decided to spoof ALL of American culture, even if there's no humor to be found in many of these things. The older GTAs didn't have this problem, and San Andreas had the San Fierro 69ers.
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I disagree about GTA V being that unfunny, but I agree about the earlier ones being funnier. GTA 3's ChatterboxFM still remains my favorite comedic radio station.
 
It's weird, when I think of games that have made me laugh the most, the Borderlands games are definitely up there. But I think that is mostly due to trying so hard. When nearly every line of dialogue or piece of text in the game is a joke, pun, or reference SOMETHING has to go through. So by all accounts it's a very funny game...but with an absolutely awful joke to laugh ratio that makes it too annoying too enjoy.

Torokil said:
Besides Borderlands 2, who should be winning in a landslide victory, I have to give it to GTA V. Shit like Chakra Attack is funny, but other than that it's just a lot of cringe worthy satire thats extremely thin and not thought out well enough. Instead of spoofing parts of American culture, they decided to spoof ALL of American culture, even if there's no humor to be found in many of these things. The older GTAs didn't have this problem, and San Andreas had the San Fierro 69ers.
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GTA is the same way: If EVERYTHING is funny, eventually nothing is. And like Borderlands it can still occasionally tell a funny joke or make a good observation. The problem with GTA's writing, for me anything, is that they've been making the exact same jokes since GTA3. The names and references change with the decade being lampooned but at the end of the day it's still the exact same satire. "Pop Culture is stupid! Americans are violent and fat! People are overly materialistic! Har Har Har!" GTAV just crossed the line for me by being so damned mean spirited about everything in addition to being so repetitive. The older games at least had a certain amount of fondness and self-awareness for how they basically existed to perpetuate the same stereotypes they shit on, but GTAV feels too cynical and stuck up its own ass to even have a good time.
 
DJ_Lae said:
Sacred 3. Writing was never the strength of previous games in the series, but they hit a whole new low for the third game, as well as stripping out pretty much everything that made it Sacred.

But man, the jokes in that game were bad. Real bad.
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LOL. I was going to pick Final Fantasy, but this is much worst !
 
Torokil said:
Besides Borderlands 2, who should be winning in a landslide victory, I have to give it to GTA V. Shit like Chakra Attack is funny, but other than that it's just a lot of cringe worthy satire thats extremely thin and not thought out well enough. Instead of spoofing parts of American culture, they decided to spoof ALL of American culture, even if there's no humor to be found in many of these things. The older GTAs didn't have this problem, and San Andreas had the San Fierro 69ers.
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It's been a problem since GTA 3 imo. Another example of writers trying way too hard and flopping nine times out of ten. The writing is probably the one aspect of GTA that could still use a major overhaul.
 
MGS4's "humor" is pretty bad, with johnny being the worst offender. in the previous games he was a just minor joke character, which was fine, but then they upgraded him to a supporting character in 4 and dialed up his toilet humor even more. there's also drebin and his monkey, but they're nothing compared to johnny, ugh

DJ_Lae said:
Sacred 3. Writing was never the strength of previous games in the series, but they hit a whole new low for the third game, as well as stripping out pretty much everything that made it Sacred.

But man, the jokes in that game were bad. Real bad.
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holy crap, that was awful, lol
 
Paper Mario Sticker Star in it's own merits and beyond so when compared to the other games in the series.

The writing in Paper Mario games are practically brimming with great humor, but whenever someone says or does something in Sticker Star -- rare as it was -- I could barely force a chuckle. At the most I chuckled at the game's use of the paper aesthetic at times and even that was rare.

Most of the game's dialogue came from Kresti. And I guess someone thought it was funny for her to snap at Mario every time he saved her? Because it wasn't. She just acted like a complete bitch.
 
Duke Nukem Forever was the absolute worst for on top of being a shit game.

I actually liked Bulletstorm in how it didn't shy away from portraying Grayson as an idiotic, fuckup who screws everything up.
 
Most games that try to be funny are not.

Still, anything Gearbox-related gets a special mention from me. They are dreadful at writing comedy.
 
Cipher Peon said:
Saint's Row. Thought Saint's Row 3 was extraordinarily unfunny.

However, I LOVE the humor in Borderlands. Makes me crack up every time!
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Oh, the GAF anti-me. Haven't seen you around in a bit!

Borderlands has awful, awful humour but I have to agree, Saints Row doesn't do it for me either.


I can't remember any humour in Ratchet, funny or not. Must have not been trying that hard, I guess?
 
Games that try to be funny are never funny. With that said I actually find Claptrap and the Redneck mechanic from Borderlands pretty humorous, otherwise the rest tries too hard.

R&C is definitely another one where I cant stand the humor. Deathspank also comes to mind or really any of the Monkey Island games, they are just not funny...at all.

I was playing FFXV and some random dialogue had me cracking up at a game for the first time in a long time though:

Fighting in an Ice dungeon:

Prompto: "Dude your tips are frosted"
Noctis: "How does it look"

The way it was delivered had me cracking up.
 
l_OKyzht_original.jpg
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Every moment was cringeworthy.
 
DJ_Lae said:
Sacred 3. Writing was never the strength of previous games in the series, but they hit a whole new low for the third game, as well as stripping out pretty much everything that made it Sacred.

But man, the jokes in that game were bad. Real bad.
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I... feel like I will never be able to laugh again in my life.
 
Something like sunset overdrive really annoys me to the point, where I don't want to play it, but trying and failing to be funny all the time.

It can be done though. I think some older adventure games are genuinely funny, and so is psychonauts or something like the Stanley parable.
 
DJ_Lae said:
Sacred 3. Writing was never the strength of previous games in the series, but they hit a whole new low for the third game, as well as stripping out pretty much everything that made it Sacred.

But man, the jokes in that game were bad. Real bad.
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Say what you will about Borderlands(and there is a lot), but this...damn, it was painful.
 
Ratchet and Clank's writing really isn't bad, it's aimed towards a younger audience and hits it just fine. It isn't laugh out loud funny nor do I even think it is meant to be, but it's just being silly in a cleverly self aware way.

Borderlands 2 and GTA5 now they try way too hard. Jokes aren't funny when they're constantly bombarding you with how obnoxiously edgy they're being.
 
I'm willing to bet that Randy fucking Pitchford had a saying or something to do with that awful writing and stupid jokes in Borderlands 2.
 
tiebreaker said:
Xenoblade X' Potatsu......
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Winner.

MechaX said:
I have to give the writers one thing; they had balls to drag out that joke until the very fucking end of the game.
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There's something to be said for the, "It was so dumb that it became funny when it never quit," type of joke. This was not that.

Slate Soda said:
Every moment was cringeworthy.
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I give bullet storm a pass mainly because the idiocy seems to have been meant to make you hate certain characters, or at the very least, convince you they are assholes. I believe that was the intention, and as such, I think it works (Everyone hating your character for example). Now, on the other hand, of they thought they were just being funny, it would be terrible. I think the marketing might make you think the latter, but the game feels more clever than that. Maybe I'm giving the creators too much credit.
 
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