Death Stranding

[DisturbedSwan]

Luigi's Mansion 3 (GOTY) - 86% MC Average

Outer Worlds - 85% MC Average

Death Stranding 84% MC Average

 

But somehow DS is divisive and those other games aren't? I'm baffled quite frankly from some of the reactions I've read on Era and elsewhere. The game has got 11 Mixed Reviews, 1 Negative Review and 59 Positive Reviews out of 71? I just don't get people at all.

[one-armed dwarf]

Are you reading some of the things people are saying about the game or just looking at numbers? MC's way of weighting scores has always been useless for games like this.

I think you turn MC into a weird competition tbh. MC is particularly meaningless with a game that produces reactions like the ones DS is getting. It's equally easy to find a review full of effusive praise (like Kotaku's) and find reactions like Mike Mahardy's and Jason Streicher's who don't like it at all. The Edge reviewer is so down on the game that they are not able to release a review because they aren't even allowed due to the way the embargo is formed.

 

Interestingly, none of these reactions are recorded on Metacritic. Not even the really positive Kotaku review cause they don't give scores. The embargo isn't allowing people who didn't play the whole way through to review the game, which means a lot of the response is going to be heavily weighted in favour of people who are so into it that they can stick with it for more than 50 hours. So MC is rubbish here as it doesn't capture the feelings of people who didn't enjoy it as much.

 

I think you also equate divisiveness with something being rubbish. Hereditary is divisive but I think it is excellent. People are allowed to react against things and most of the best art comes out of taking the most extreme risks. Look at any list of the greatest films and books and you will see a list of things which some people really really hate (any James Joyce or Thomas Pynchon book, the latter of which I keep seeing referenced in relation to DS). 

 

You can't just make boundary pushing art in this safe space where everyone has to like it, which I think is what Kojima is trying to go for here. This is the difference between a game like Death Stranding and a game like Luigi's Mansion.

[Maf]

I think this game will be played depending on where the person’s priorities are.

 

If you are that starved or desperate for something that even looks familiar to intellectualism in games then you will want this just for something to talk about. Hoping that it will stimulate you but knowing it won’t so spend forever talking about it’s failures dying to make something interesting out of it. These people will play it. 
 

Or you will not like it because it’s a bad game. And these people will not play it. 

 

I think these are the only two options. 

 

Also listening to the Beastcast, Kojima was always dumb. I don’t think I realised it but somewhere through time MGS’s dumb philosophy pondering wank somehow got reversed and revered and now it has no story to hide behind everyone is like oh this is really stupid. 
 

Yo, the main character’s name in MGS was Solid Snake. Kojima was always stupid, heavy handed and never clever when it came to themes of shit. He just told a really epic, anime spy story with fun characters. 

 

For me I’m on the fence because I think it’s a good idea but then I see it being played and I’m like but not like that. I don’t know where my priorities are yet 

[one-armed dwarf]

I think MGS stumbled its way into interesting topics. MGS1 was pretty simple and preachy about nukes, but MGS2 in the latter stages went deep into how the nature of public discourse and ideas are spread on the internet could be exploited by malevolent agents, the Patriots. 

 

All of that stuff ends up feeling very poetic and deeply meaningful now cause how literally the way the Bush gov spied on people was called the 'Patriot Act', and now we live in a world where people are so paralyzed by the amount of information available that they can't focus on what is true anymore. The MGS2 Colonel talked about that stuff in a way, with the stuff about coraling and sanitising all the information deemed socially important and useful and censoring all the stuff that was not.

 

But also as you say it's important to remember that MGS2 only became about that at the very end and didn't make it its focus, and for most of it was about something else. Which I think is the nature of expectation and the challenge of living up to it. You know you can't do that, so you deliberately do the exact opposite and make a game where Snake isn't even the main character and the whole thing is a bunch of dumb bullshit where nothing matters cause it's all a simulation/experiment by an AI

 

These are two completely separate rambling points but I always kind of like MGS2 for sticking it's foot in like that and making a genuinely disruptive, yes disruptive, AAA game. But I also think it's overly credited as being some sort of profound masterpiece when most of the time it is reassembling Orwell for the internet age, it just so happened that the things it was saying ended up being pretty relevant. Outside of the Octopus president and vampires and things.

 

Death Stranding feels like it's trying to return to this particular well except this time everyone kind of knows what to expect (maybe, who knows what the full game will be like). Probably it's about divisions in society (ironic) and trying to heal that. Trump and climate change seems like a big deal for him. But on the surface you have this very Ueda looking game where it seems like a bunch of nothing and empty space which clearly isn't going to work for everyone the same way. It no longer has the nice cover of being a cool super spy game with supernatural elements and anime boss fights. But as a massive try hard I need to know for myself so yes I will be buying this because yes I am starved for interesting games which take risks, even as I know I probably won't enjoy this at all

[Maf]

I want to buy it and play it because I like Kojima and want what he wants from a game. But I just feel pretty confident he hasn’t done it this time and if I do buy it I’ll regret losing the money. 

[HandsomeDead]

I do want to try it and go in pretty blind so I've been avoiding everything.  Though I did see a long Tim Rogers video go up and his takes on Kojima's stuff is always really interesting so I may cave on that one. 

 

I might be due a game just to mostly hang out in.  I've not played something in that vein since Breath of the Wild but I'm reluctant to get it now due to real life stuff like needing money, but then going by the reactions it might be on sale sooner rather than later. 

[DisturbedSwan]

Here’s that Tim Rogers video by the way folks if you want to check it out, he is excellent (no idea if there’s spoilers in it or not):

 

 

[mmmark]

3 hours ago, Blakey said:

Luigi's Mansion 3 (GOTY) - 86% MC Average

Outer Worlds - 85% MC Average

Death Stranding 84% MC Average

 

But somehow DS is divisive and those other games aren't? I'm baffled quite frankly from some of the reactions I've read on Era and elsewhere. The game has got 11 Mixed Reviews, 1 Negative Review and 59 Positive Reviews out of 71? I just don't get people at all.

You knew what you’re getting with two of those games before they even came out. Divisive doesn’t = bad. 

[DisturbedSwan]

20 minutes ago, wiivo 2.0 said:

You knew what you’re getting with two of those games before they even came out. Divisive doesn’t = bad. 

 

True.

[retroed]

 

 

?

[Manicm]

I must be tired but just watched the trailer and I don’t get it....game visually and music looks sounds immense but I don’t get the different styles in game play or the story the trailer doesn’t explain what’s going on, read a review which didn’t help...proper confused!!

[DisturbedSwan]

Just one man’s opinion @retroed and he’s entitled to it.

[retroed]

Well aware of that, @Blakey. ?

 

I'm still not buying it, though.

[DisturbedSwan]

 

 

[AndyKurosaki]

I’ve watched several reviews and have definitely decided I’d rather rent this than buy it. Lugging packages around the place looks a massive pain in the arse. I know it’s certainly not a game I’d pay full price for. I usually enjoy Kojimas output. But nothing about this is making me feel “I MUST play this now”.

[mmmark]

I read that one part has you walking in snow slowly for 50 minutes and you’re just pressing forward the whole time. A lot of people couldn’t handle the first 30 minutes of read dead 2.

 

I think DS might be Kojima’s Adam Sandler film Jack and Jill. Both Kojima and Adam got all the attention, both products are full of hollow vanity driven cameos, Both look awful on paper. I don’t know if DS has dunkin donuts in it tho.

 

 

[one-armed dwarf]

Well I already knew that this was a galaxy brain game, but now that its received the endorsement of Rick and Morty I'm thinking that I just wont have a big enough IQ to play it.

 

 

 

(This meme dont get old)

[DisturbedSwan]

A game with great reviews that no one of us here has played compared to a shitty Adam Sandler film, Jesus Christ ?

 

I’m not sure I’m even gonna post my impressions when I’m actually playing the game at this rate, it’s not worth the hassle.

[one-armed dwarf]

You cant just take my "screw you guys I'm going home" post and turn it on us like that, that isnt fair

 

Anyway @Blakey I hope we're all wrong and you enjoy this game as much as you expect to, but I'll be honest watching the EZA review and knowing what you think of SotC I'd be very surprised. But still interested to hear your thoughts

[mmmark]

If you think I need to play it to properly compare it to Jack and Jill you’ve misunderstood my point that honestly I wrote half asleep but stand by 

 

You post your impressions and I’ll never mention it again.