It's completely nonsensical and ridiculously contrived, but not in an endearing way.
It's total fucking bullshit.
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which game this gen is the WORST story-wise?
- Thread starter nickcv
- Start date
It's total fucking bullshit.
Ruthless_Barbarian
Member
Relaxed Muscle
Member
How do we explain things, give answers and retcon things? Nanomachines...
H_Prestige
Banned
FFXIII and it's disgusting spawn.
Er... isn't that what makes the series so awesome? I mean, that's my favorite part of MGS. Screw sneaking around, I just love how they start to piece things together in an interesting way, take it to 11, say screw it, try to pick up the pieces, and start over again. It also does a better job than any other game to take itself so seriously and not seriously at all at the same time. MGS4 was the epitomy of this, which is why it's far and away my favorite. Followed by the latter part of MGS2. Maybe I just love japanese craziness.
XBOX HIVES
Banned
Anything by
Especially MGS4 ugh. Kojima is a terrible fucking director/writer
Especially MGS4 ugh. Kojima is a terrible fucking director/writer
Shrennin
Didn't get the memo regarding the 14th Amendment
Relaxed Muscle
Member
Um..no?
One of the good points of the series for me was that mix up between the paranormal stuff and the tech stuff. We never get the explanation behind Psycho Mantis powers in MGS or The Sorrow...and it wasn't needed.
The fact that MGS4 throws that away and goes and start explaining shit with nanomachiones is lazy and stupid...Vamp? nanomachines. Ocelot becoming Liquid? Nanomachines... and so on.
diffusionx
Gold Member
No, that game's story is awesome.
Does the Third Birthday count as this gen?
Because it is legitimately, objectively, quantifiably, provably the worst story of this gen and quite possibly the worst Square Enix has ever put out.
Cross Edge
Star Ocean 4
Mass Effect 2
Bionic Commando '09
Tales Of S.: Dawn Of The New World
Enslaved
The Saboteur
Two Worlds 2
Hunted: The Demon's Forge
...
Sooo much suck this gen. Not just in quality, but also in volume. Even "match three gems!" type of games now all have at least a dozen characters.
Star Ocean 4
Mass Effect 2
Bionic Commando '09
Tales Of S.: Dawn Of The New World
Enslaved
The Saboteur
Two Worlds 2
Hunted: The Demon's Forge
...
Sooo much suck this gen. Not just in quality, but also in volume. Even "match three gems!" type of games now all have at least a dozen characters.
Yep. MGS 4 was the final nail in the coffin in terms of me caring about stories in games.Anything by
Especially MGS4 ugh. Kojima is a terrible fucking director/writer
Just troll answers, I knew before even clicking on the thread that MGS4 or Heavy Rain would be in the first reply.
I'll go with most fighting games.
Demon Lizardman
Banned
How do people forget Other M!? It bastardized Samus and the entire plot of the franchise!
Fox Mulder
Member
Bionic Commando
Rad Spencer and Super Joe from the original NES game are now enemies due to political reasons. Bionic terrorists set off a nuke in the very city they wish to recover bionic technology from, which really just sets up the method the games uses to restrict your movements. Radiation! You have to fight terrorists as you look for some deadly device, who of course Super Joe ends up working with. The game's notorious twist is that your arm is infused with the soul of your wife so it would work. After a fight, Super Joe ends up with the item you were looking for, and uses it to activate an army of mechanical vultures. In what ends up being the final fight of the game, you hook onto a few vultures and rip them apart with QTEs and somehow find Super Joe's mech in the giant swarm of robots and headbutt him to death, via cutscene. You both fall to the earth as the credits begin to roll.
This was the stupidest fucking game I've ever played.
Rad Spencer and Super Joe from the original NES game are now enemies due to political reasons. Bionic terrorists set off a nuke in the very city they wish to recover bionic technology from, which really just sets up the method the games uses to restrict your movements. Radiation! You have to fight terrorists as you look for some deadly device, who of course Super Joe ends up working with. The game's notorious twist is that your arm is infused with the soul of your wife so it would work. After a fight, Super Joe ends up with the item you were looking for, and uses it to activate an army of mechanical vultures. In what ends up being the final fight of the game, you hook onto a few vultures and rip them apart with QTEs and somehow find Super Joe's mech in the giant swarm of robots and headbutt him to death, via cutscene. You both fall to the earth as the credits begin to roll.
This was the stupidest fucking game I've ever played.
Forsaken82
Member
Yeah i heard SO3 was atrocious... never played it... Hell, I don't even know how SO4 leads into the prior games as I assumed it served as a Prequel.
SniperHunter
Banned
Star Ocean 4 probably
dragonbane
Member
You are.
It's a bad red herring, not a plot hole. A plot hole is something that can't be explained. If the game just showed me Ethan waking up with an origami and nothing else, it would be a plot hole in my book. But the game showed me Ethan waking up in the same street where Shelby's brother died and in the end it revealed to me that Shelby stalked Ethan since Jason's dead. This alone can be used to create tons of explanations. Shelby could have taken him there and given him an origami figure. Why? Maybe to make him feel guilty, to strengthen his will to save Shaun, because Shelby finally wants a father to succeed. Maybe he was so impressed with Ethan trying to save Jason, he thinks he found a person who could understand why he is is doing what he is doing. So it's a desperate cry for help or understanding.
It's not very well handled, but it's not a plot hole. Since it can be explained with the facts the game presented to you. We don't know how a killer's mind works, so anything could be the reason.
That being said, the game does have its fair share of real plot holes.
Personally I think LA Noire is far worse. Things like the recorded video tape (??) of the bad guys discussing all their plans just laying around in an abandoned movie studio is inexcusable and not defendable.
Now, I make no defense here of FFXIII and XIII-2's stories, but people who think that that's the WORST this gen need to at least see someone try to explain T3B's ending, because that's Toriyama at his "finest". I mean, at least in XIII you know what's going on, and in XIII-2 you kinda understand.
The Third Birthday is like MC Esher's famous "Perspective" painting, but with a plot. The more you look at it the less you're likely to understand it. If it has any depth, it's so much that you fall back to the top in it. Every time you think you've figured out what's going on, the game stops telling you that story and starts a new one. Except the old one has no ending and you're 3/f through the new one. And in that new one 3/f is an actual fraction. As you play it, you develop a sort of Stockholme Syndrome for it. Because Shimomura and Nomura and Tabata and their teams did such a good job with it you WANT to like it. It has bonus costumes you WANT to get. It's fun. But the story slithers back in there and ruins your feelings for it. You're like "Hey it's Yvonhe Strahovsky, so that can't be bad." except you can tell that even Yvonhe has no idea what the hell is happening and can't understand the bullshit that is her script.
Then you go crazy and you try to make sense of it by pretending it IS FFXIII. Because then you can just say that Aya is actually Lightning/Vanille, and Gabrielle is Fang. The kid is Hope, Kyle is Snow and Cray or Clay or whoever is obviously Sazh. And Boring is Barthandelus and the fat guy is a Queen Brahne in reverse drag.
Then the game french kisses you and shanks you at the same time. You're confused but kinda turned on and you can't distinguish between pain and pleasure anymore. You begin to think that Aya's kinda hot and maybe that shower scene is worth it until the game tells you how big of a creep you are for thinking that with the "reveal" in the ending. The FBI is monitoring every person who ever purchased that, checking their browsing history just to be sure.
After she's gotten on your good side, the plot invites you to abandon reality all together. Cause and Effect? You don't need that. Events not occurring chronological order wouldn't be that big of a problem if it weren't for the fact that there are no more rules of time travel and there is no narrative structure. It becomes like that episode of Ed, Edd n Eddy where they take away Jimmy's outline. You feel naked without it, lost, confused. Why does Hyde know Maeda's term for the High Ones when he just came up with it, you ask, then you remember that Aya being with Maeda is never even explained in the slightest, but before you can question that, Salvador Dali comes in and he just kinda takes a crap except it's a clock and you just can't shake the feeling that you've seen this plot somewhere.
Then you realize that Aya's struggle to save her sister is Lightning's struggle to save Serah's struggle to save Lightning's struggle to save Serah. You want to cry when the ending rolls around. You want to scream. You want to ask so many questions but you don't know where to start because you lost track of how things begin and end back in the third chapter. Dajh is there but now he's a girl and I wish that Chocolina stuff was just a rumor but you begin to understand why Aya was pointing that gun at her head in the promotional art.
Then you find out there's a secret movie and you don't watch it until right now.
The Third Birthday is like MC Esher's famous "Perspective" painting, but with a plot. The more you look at it the less you're likely to understand it. If it has any depth, it's so much that you fall back to the top in it. Every time you think you've figured out what's going on, the game stops telling you that story and starts a new one. Except the old one has no ending and you're 3/f through the new one. And in that new one 3/f is an actual fraction. As you play it, you develop a sort of Stockholme Syndrome for it. Because Shimomura and Nomura and Tabata and their teams did such a good job with it you WANT to like it. It has bonus costumes you WANT to get. It's fun. But the story slithers back in there and ruins your feelings for it. You're like "Hey it's Yvonhe Strahovsky, so that can't be bad." except you can tell that even Yvonhe has no idea what the hell is happening and can't understand the bullshit that is her script.
Then you go crazy and you try to make sense of it by pretending it IS FFXIII. Because then you can just say that Aya is actually Lightning/Vanille, and Gabrielle is Fang. The kid is Hope, Kyle is Snow and Cray or Clay or whoever is obviously Sazh. And Boring is Barthandelus and the fat guy is a Queen Brahne in reverse drag.
Then the game french kisses you and shanks you at the same time. You're confused but kinda turned on and you can't distinguish between pain and pleasure anymore. You begin to think that Aya's kinda hot and maybe that shower scene is worth it until the game tells you how big of a creep you are for thinking that with the "reveal" in the ending. The FBI is monitoring every person who ever purchased that, checking their browsing history just to be sure.
After she's gotten on your good side, the plot invites you to abandon reality all together. Cause and Effect? You don't need that. Events not occurring chronological order wouldn't be that big of a problem if it weren't for the fact that there are no more rules of time travel and there is no narrative structure. It becomes like that episode of Ed, Edd n Eddy where they take away Jimmy's outline. You feel naked without it, lost, confused. Why does Hyde know Maeda's term for the High Ones when he just came up with it, you ask, then you remember that Aya being with Maeda is never even explained in the slightest, but before you can question that, Salvador Dali comes in and he just kinda takes a crap except it's a clock and you just can't shake the feeling that you've seen this plot somewhere.
Then you realize that Aya's struggle to save her sister is Lightning's struggle to save Serah's struggle to save Lightning's struggle to save Serah. You want to cry when the ending rolls around. You want to scream. You want to ask so many questions but you don't know where to start because you lost track of how things begin and end back in the third chapter. Dajh is there but now he's a girl and I wish that Chocolina stuff was just a rumor but you begin to understand why Aya was pointing that gun at her head in the promotional art.
Then you find out there's a secret movie and you don't watch it until right now.
Grizzlyjin
Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
The entire Kingdom Hearts franchise. Listening to someone try to explain it is like listening to the ramblings of a nutcase.
your rules are stupid and wrong.
TreasureHunterG
Banned
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Transformed a very nice Tom Clancy-like story into a explosion Michael Bay-like fest.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
Soviets against... Japan? WTF? Really.
Transformed a very nice Tom Clancy-like story into a explosion Michael Bay-like fest.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
Soviets against... Japan? WTF? Really.
whalleywhat
Member
It's not really a good story at all, it's just extremely well told.
It's definitely not the worst, but I haven't been let down by a game story like that in a long time. The first 2 or 3 chapters were so great, then just went no where.
Krappadizzle
Member
Nail meet Head.
This is my view too. I liked the stories better then 3, and I liked all the references to the first game, and the fact I actually got to explore a bunch of planets. The dailogue and voice acting was godawful. Its a shame that Tri-ace seems to have lost all their competent writers. Resonance of fate had a shit story, but at least the dialogue was great.
Raonak
Banned
Im one that finds a game with a nonexistant story to be the worst.
I don't care if the story is filled with plotholes, doesn't make sense or is a convoluted mess (infact, convoluted stories are my favourite) but if a game is lacking a story i get annoyed (half the FPS games out there. abysmal stories.)
especially looking at KZ2 and 3 because they had potential.
I don't care if the story is filled with plotholes, doesn't make sense or is a convoluted mess (infact, convoluted stories are my favourite) but if a game is lacking a story i get annoyed (half the FPS games out there. abysmal stories.)
especially looking at KZ2 and 3 because they had potential.
Can't agree with that, there were some parts where you HAVE to killl a LOT of people which became repetive. e.g when you were crossing the river on the boat.
But overall it was good.
Halo 3 - You're coming off the awesome story of Halo 2 (cliffhanger aside) and you follow up "finishing the fight" for Earth by teleporting across the galaxy (again) to do a complete rehash of the Maw. Cortana is supposed to be rampant, under control of Gravemind and who knows what has happened to her. So what happens? Trot through a terrible level and she's so overjoyed and happy to see Chief that it's all forgotten about. Characters die simply to check off a list of "emotional" moments in the trilogy finale. The Prophet of Truth is turned from a character whose motivations aren't necessarily clear in Halo 2 to full-blown religious zealot in Halo 3. He had depth in Halo 2, keeping you wondering whether he believed the shit he spouted, or if it was just a way for him to further his goals. But nope! He's just a two-dimensional nutjob in Halo 3. No explanation as to why Grunts and Hunters -- who betrayed the Covenant in Halo 2 -- are suddenly enemies again. It was terrible all the way around, and much worse than any of the Gears games that often get ridiculed.
I actually can't think of any modern shooters(as a theme, not as in any shooter made recently) with a good story except for Medal of Honor 2010.
I also thought it was weird how much praise Spec Ops got for blatantly ripping off Apocalypse Now/Heart of Darkness. I guess it was different from the usual stuff, but it was nearly plagiarism.
I also thought it was weird how much praise Spec Ops got for blatantly ripping off Apocalypse Now/Heart of Darkness. I guess it was different from the usual stuff, but it was nearly plagiarism.
No, I don't think so.
I'm STILL trying to figure out how the hell I made it through the game with all that awful dialogue, kay.
Mister Zimbu
Member
Anyone saying Diablo III is just wrong.
The story is just one big long string of cliches and predictable "twists", yes, and by no means is it even a *good* story, and the dialogue and voice acting are both downright terrible, but there are plenty games out there with godawful or incomprehensible stories that would make D3's look like a masterpiece in comparison.
The story is just one big long string of cliches and predictable "twists", yes, and by no means is it even a *good* story, and the dialogue and voice acting are both downright terrible, but there are plenty games out there with godawful or incomprehensible stories that would make D3's look like a masterpiece in comparison.
weekend_warrior
Banned
timetokill
Banned
This is really poor reasoning in general.
And yes, Heavy Rain's story is one of the worst this gen, and made worse by the fact that it's pretty much the only thing it has going for it and so it should have gotten it right above all else.
Magicpaint
Member
Has to be Other M for me. Not just bad, but also offensive. That takes skill to get to me like that because I have a high threshold for bad videogame stories.
Couldn't agree more.
Only time I've been more disappointed from a general plot ending was Conduit 2, and that was disgraceful.
The sheer number of unjustifiable red herrings and nonsensical twists in this plot steered the game from something refreshingly unique into something of a David Cage fan-fiction of Se7en.
Introducing Ethan's neurosis / fugue-state episodes and ending each of those scenes with him waking up in the same intersection next to a passing freight train - only to throw-off suspicion from the real-killer while never actually divulging what the heck actually happened during these 'blackouts' felt like an absolute joke.
I didn't realise there were games out there that could insult the intelligence of those playing it; after re-watching those bullshot scenes with Shelby, I realised I had spent hours wasting my time on one of them.
AHA-Lambda
Member
For me it still has to be Crysis 2. Seriously one of the most nonsensical pieces of Sh*t I've ever seen; only made worse by the writer hyping up his story before the game came out by saying "most FPS stories are crap but his would be amazing."
akachan ningen
Member
super mario galaxy 1-2
I think a distinction should be made between games that attempt to weave together narrative threads but do so terribly (e.g. Crysis 2) and those, such as Rage, that intentionally have paper-thin plots.
Monocle
Member
There are games with less coherent stories (Soul Calibur 5 and Bayonetta, to name a couple), but MGS4 is full of hammy nonsense and improbable intrigues delivered with excessive gravitas. Given how the plot has always been central in the MGS series, and how so much of MGS4 is arranged to support its narrative, it's possibly the worst offender of this generation in terms of fulfilling the demands of its story-focused structure.
When plot is important in your game, you have to nail it. If it's not so important, subpar storytelling is excusable.
Full disclosure: I've only watched MGS4 playthroughs. I haven't personally completed the game.
When plot is important in your game, you have to nail it. If it's not so important, subpar storytelling is excusable.
Full disclosure: I've only watched MGS4 playthroughs. I haven't personally completed the game.
I never trust that kind of crap unless the person's made a name for themselves, or to a lesser extent if it's a smaller title because an AAA shooter is most likely going to have a story I don't give a damn about, or at least won't one I REALLY like.
Admittedly there's the argument to made for when even those plots fail in a big way. It'd take something bigger though I figure, perhaps long-ish, unskippable cutscenes like NiGHTS did. Or just one of the few plot plots is very, very frustrating. Though given that RAGE DOES seem to try harder than most FPSes by having quests and whatnot I wouldn't consider it innocent at all in the way I do Vanquish.