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Giant Bomb Thread #5 - We love you, Ryan Davis

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EmCeeGramr said:
You basically go back and forth between a first person game where creepy shit happens and a haunted Dragon Quest clone full of glitchy graphics and people saying creepy shit.

http://lparchive.org/Nanashi-no-Game/
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Hmm, that's a little more overt than I would like, but that's still a really cool idea.

There's another game that does something similar without letting on up front what you're getting into - or at least, pulls a cool bait and switch - but talking about it is hard because it then becomes a massive spoiler.
 
LackingSaint said:
Did you make it to the end of Bill's Town? I was ready to put that game down and never come back to it after about my 3rd hour with it, but then once things opened up in Bill's Town and the characters started to gain some depth, I got super invested in the game. My GOTY now.

(For the record, the game is barely even about zombies once you get past the second major area. It becomes clear they're more just framework for putting mankind in a desperate situation.)
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No I didn't, the combat is just so unsatisfying/boring to me that at this point I'm probably going to find a playthrough on youtube/fast forward through the combat sequences and just watch the rest like an extended movie.
 
XANDER CAGE said:
Hmm, that's a little more overt than I would like, but that's still a really cool idea.

There's another game that does something similar without letting on up front what you're getting into - or at least, pulls a cool bait and switch - but talking about it is hard because it then becomes a massive spoiler.
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Name of the game please?
 
shadyspace said:
Name of the game please?
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I'm not really sure how to properly spoil tag something like this, so suffice to say that you shouldn't reveal this unless you think you know what it is/won't mind having the knowledge going into the game should you ever play it.

Eversion

It's not super fantastic or anything, but it's one of the few games I've seen that tries to deceive players into thinking it's just a regular game.
 
funkystudent said:
Saints Row 4 looks like a game that shouldnt be full price.
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Having played the modded version of 3rd that lets you take the superpowers out of the DLC, I feel like I've pretty much played this game. I've also already finished crackdown and prototype. If they had remodeled the city to be half as interesting as the one in Crackdown, it would be worth it, but it doesn't seem fun to explore.
 
rudds said:
Charlie Murder is very quick to pick up and play, has enough charm and humor to keep me going, and isn't going to demand I put in 30 hours to get anything out of it. Dragon's Crown was horribly ponderous and had zero personality beyond the admittedly gorgeous background art. I found it really boring and tedious to engage with.
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I disagree about dragons crown having zero personality. It has a TON of charm and little jokes and poking fun at itself/fantasy in general, but it does admittedly take HOURS to get to where that stuff is all prevalent.

I have 30 hours in dragons crown right now and Im just starting the final difficulty so I totally understand and agree with the sentiment, at least.

Charlie Murder to me just looks as uninteresting as possible while I can't get enough of dragons crown.

video games, yall
 
Error 53 sucked.

They were potentially onto something with the corrupted texture maps on the formerly cute characters. That was actually kind of disturbing and I was hoping the game would take the idea of existing inside of a corrupted computer game full of friendly things turned warped and frightening to some interesting places. But then DEATH_DEATH_DEATH_ and screamers. :(
 
SRIV quick look had the complete opposite effect on me than people here apparently. Not the quick look itself as much as just Jeff talking about it and such. He obviously didnt wanna give too much stuff away but I believe in his enthusiasm (+ all the other good reception it's gotten). And the traversal crackdown/prototype stuff looks fun. I feel like i'll enjoy it more than the third.

im excited for it
 
LuchaShaq said:
No I didn't, the combat is just so unsatisfying/boring to me that at this point I'm probably going to find a playthrough on youtube/fast forward through the combat sequences and just watch the rest like an extended movie.
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Ah, that's a bummer to hear, I really feel like it's the sort of game that doesn't hit nearly as hard when you're just watching a playthrough rather than going through it yourself. Guess you can't help it if you aren't enjoying yourself, though!
 
Not that it means much, but I just donated all my Humble Bundle money to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation in memory of Ryan. I know AIDS is nothing to do with him but I felt like I was keeping the money somewhat local to his community.

Always on my mind Ryan.
 
The combat is Saints Row IV looked really fucking stale. I loved all the previous, and I know it's all exactly the same so I'm not sure what's changed. Maybe it was a shit part of the game, maybe Jeff didn't give it enough justice, I don't know, but I thought it looked really weak. The powers look fun, but that's all been done before. I'll still buy it, but consider my hype lowered. Maybe that's a good thing?
 
The QL (esp the PC footage) sold me on SRIV. picked it up for PC with the GMG code for $40.

Superpowers and SR dumbass humor combined into one sounds great to me.
 
LuchaShaq said:
I wish they showed more of gone home, the quicklook did nothing to make me understand all the game journalist hype around this thing.
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I watched a little bit of it but I already knew I wanted it. It seems like a story/atmosphere driven game. So if you don't dig stuff like Journey/Brothers/Papa&Yo etc, I doubt something like this will grab you.
 
I can see that. I understand them not wanting to spoil anything as it seems that the story is everything - on the other hand it didn't sell me at all. Not like the game is $5 either, so I kinda needed selling.

Also. Not super in to that "american high school girl" VO.
 
LuchaShaq said:
No I didn't, the combat is just so unsatisfying/boring to me that at this point I'm probably going to find a playthrough on youtube/fast forward through the combat sequences and just watch the rest like an extended movie.
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Have you tried playing pure stealth? That's how I played it, and I had a great time with it. The first few hours are pretty tough since you don't have much equipment.

I would advise against watching a play through. There are so many little things in the atmosphere and interactions with Ellie that make that game special.
 
ArjanN said:
I watched a little bit of it but I already knew I wanted it. It seems like a story/atmosphere driven game. So if you don't dig stuff like Journey/Brothers/Papa&Yo etc, I doubt something like this will grab you.
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It comes across as more Proteus or Dear Esther than Journey/Brothers/Papa &.Yo.
 
FStop7 said:
For me SR3 was lightning in a bottle. I haven't been really enthused about SR4 and the QL didn't do much to change that.
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The fact that it's basically Crackdown 3 wrapped in a Saints Row story definitely perked my attention more than if it was just Saints Row The Third 1.5.
 
So Gone Home is a first person adventure game. Why is it getting the praise that its getting?

It looks great but I feel like games like this have been around its just media tends to ignore them. I mean can't you compare this to the FrogWare Sherlock Holmes games and the Dracula games? Is it that you are alone like the Slender: The Arrival? Is it because it has soda cans like Soda Drinker Pro?

Why is this game important to games as a medium?
 
Fox318 said:
So Gone Home is a first person adventure game. Why is it getting the praise that its getting?

It looks great but I feel like games like this have been around its just media tends to ignore them. I mean can't you compare this to the FrogWare Sherlock Holmes games and the Dracula games? Is it that you are alone like the Slender: The Arrival? Is it because it has soda cans like Soda Drinker Pro?

Why is this game important to games as a medium?
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Cause it's all emotional brah
 
The last bit of Patrick's review seems to touch on what's probably getting people so excited:

Prepare for a nostalgia hit, too, and not just '90s references. Gone Home will remind you what it’s like to be young, naive, and full of passion. Everything mattered and nothing mattered. No one understands you and no one ever will. The world is both infinite and unfathomably small. As the story unfolds, what’s remarkable is just how unremarkable it really is. Gone Home is an epic story, but its definition of epic is far removed from how we usually talk about scope and drama in games. It’s epic, personal and revelatory to the people involved, and that’s why it’s so special. The moments in my life that I cherish the most--my first love, realizing my brother was my best friend, moving to San Francisco, getting married--would not register against saving the universe from an alien threat, but these are the epic moments in my life. Gone Home grounds itself by reveling in life’s quiet, defining moments, the ones you might write down in a diary, underneath a set of books, only to find years later.

What a crazy kid you were.
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The game's achievement seems to lie in its ability to tell a small-scale story that doesn't rely on massive stakes to be emotionally resonant. Good game stories tend to have intimate moments but are set against some crazy Hollywood backdrop like an apocalypse or alien threat or what-have-you. This game eschews that to focus purely on the intimacy. This is all just conjecture on my part, of course.
 
I'm guessing here, because I haven't played it yet - but I imagine Gone Home is important because it's not about things like Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, or some other fantastical heroic thing. From what I am getting from the reviews, is that the fact that this focuses on a family, and particularly the relationships between the character you control and her sister- is what makes this special. Is what makes it important.

It may be in a packaging you recognize, but it's content seems radically smaller in scope than anything else you listed. The fact that it's pulled this off to the degree to which people are raving about it, I think speaks to the fact that it's an extremely difficult thing to do to create that kind of familial intimacy our of thin air.
 
Fox318 said:
Why is this game important to games as a medium?
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While I don't really share Brad's extreme enthusiasm, this game definitely does something that I've always wanted adventure games to do: have all kinds of items and stuff lying around that serves no purpose (but is still interesting and interactive) and make the player figure out what's important. It always kind of breaks the immersion when every item you can interact with is part of a puzzle and everything else is just a static prop. Next step in making adventure games better: multiple solutions to puzzles/problems.
 
Beelzeboss said:
yeah the quick look really soured me on it.

It reminds me of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon but at full price
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I would pay $60 for a 9 hour version of Blood Dragon. I'm completely fine with Saints Row IV. Seems odd to me that anyone could suggest a game that's not completely serious shouldn't be more than a $15, three hour bit of fluff.

funkystudent said:
Saints Row 4 looks like a game that shouldnt be full price.
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You're objectively wrong, sorry.
 
Pops Maellard said:
I would pay $60 for a 9 hour version of Blood Dragon. I'm completely fine with Saints Row IV. Seems odd to me that anyone could suggest a game that's not completely serious shouldn't be more than a $15, three hour bit of fluff.



You're objectively wrong, sorry.
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Really? The game runs like shit on consoles and is admittedly built on the framework of Saint's Row 3, down to the city being largely the same. Expansion packs went away for 7 or 8 years, now they are back and being sold for $60.
 
Bedlam said:
While I don't really share Brad's extreme enthusiasm, this game definitely does something that I've always wanted adventure games to do: have all kinds of items and stuff lying around that serves no purpose (but is still interesting and interactive) and make the player figure out what's important. It always kind of breaks the immersion when every item you can interact with is part of a puzzle and everything else is just a static prop. Next step in making adventure games better: multiple solutions to puzzles/problems.
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Haven't their been adventure games similar to Gone Home that have come out? Game looks great but I'm shocked with the levels of high praise that the game has been getting. I usually expect Patrick to be the person who gets all wrapped up in the so called importance of a game and its artistic merit.


Brad if you aren't doing the review write an editorial about the game if you feel so strongly about it.
 
Fox318 said:
So Gone Home is a first person adventure game. Why is it getting the praise that its getting?

It looks great but I feel like games like this have been around its just media tends to ignore them. I mean can't you compare this to the FrogWare Sherlock Holmes games and the Dracula games? Is it that you are alone like the Slender: The Arrival? Is it because it has soda cans like Soda Drinker Pro?

Why is this game important to games as a medium?
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Dunno. Have not played it yet. I don't think it necessarily needs to be important and I don't believe it has much in the way of puzzles or adventure. If the plot is the only thing that stands it out then reviewers have a hard time expressing this without potentially ruining it.
 
sixghost said:
Really? The game runs like shit on consoles and is admittedly built on the framework of Saint's Row 3, down to the city being largely the same. Expansion packs went away for 7 or 8 years, now they are back and being sold for $60.
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Can't speak to the console issues as you're entirely right. I'm pretty surprised that anything runs on current gen at this point, but I suppose that's really just a sad commentary on how gimped everything has been for the last 4 years or so.

I paid $40 for it on Steam, and I probably would have stomached $60 even with some of the recycled content. As a video editor, I've learned to appreciate and respect iterative changes. As you work on something, you come up with a ton of ideas on how to improve it and new things you'd like to try, but you can't implement any of this until the next project. I'm not saying sheer laziness is acceptable, but it's obvious that isn't the case with Saints Row IV.
 
Patrick's just biased cause of them X-Files tapes.

I'm onto you, Klepek. Isn't Patrick the one who never watched Twin Peaks also despite seeming like a TOTAL Patrick show?
 
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