The Hot Topic Returns

[Sly Reflex]

L4D2 is still super buoyant on PC, you'd never not get a game. The issue is everyone playing is a fucking jedi now because they have thousands of hours played.

 

As for the question, I don't know. Maybe something that has a daily mission where you have a rogue like thing going on.

[Nag]

 

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Nag says... "What's you favourite narrative in games? And are the stories in games an important aspect to the experience for you?"

 

[shinymcshine]

Through the fragmented nature of periodic gameplay over a good few weeks / months the whole aspect of main plot is often lost or too dispersed to actually recall for a lot of games.

 

So instead it's those small pockets of narrative that often stand out the most, or sometimes a character's personal side quest.

 

So best examples were the short tales you'd find within Lost Odyssey or some of the companion quests in Pathfinder WotR.

 

Or maybe just the Lusty Argonian Maid books that you find in Oblivion..... 

[DANGERMAN]

I was talking to someone about Everybody Has Gone To The Rapture the other day, plus that bit in Nier Automata with village children, both of those games would be right up there 

 

Beyond that it's the stuff I always mention, To The Moon, Finding Paradise and The Music Machine. Spec Ops The Line too

 

More recently, I can't remember everything it was about but 1000xResist was brilliant. Same for Mouthwashing, what starts as a bit of a frustrating way of telling a story really pays off 

[one-armed dwarf]

In recent years for me it's Morrowind. It builds its world so well, I didn't know that Elder Scrolls was that cool before playing through that game.

 

https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/27/18281082/elder-scrolls-morrowind-oral-history-bethesda

 

I like how ambiguous its lore and history is, and the way they don't tell you what happened to the dwarves. All you know is something super fucked up happened.

[Maryokutai]

Playing through Eternal Strands I realised it is important, as the little dialogue segments and its narrative thread do make the experience better for me. Also having played a lot of Xenoblade X recently, which is mostly a system and gameplay driven game, I'm always happy to do one of the few story missions or engage with some of its inhabitants whose storylines flesh out the lore. But I also just mentioned two RPGs, it's obviously genre-dependent.

 

As for favourite narratives I do tend to prefer those who just focus on it, because the byproduct of that is that there's usually little fluff that pulls your attention away and drags the experience out. I still have a soft spot for the first Life is Strange, or titles like Firewatch and Ethan Carter. But there's also been occasions of larger games having an engaging storyline and I think it's mostly because it allows you to grow fond of the characters over their enormous runtime (Persona 4 or Witcher 3 being good examples).

[Sly Reflex]

Most recently it's been Strangers Wrath.

 

Spoiler

The games starts and Stranger is this badass that shows up and starts taking care of everyone's problems, he's seen as a hero to the townsfolk he meets and they start idolizing him even though for the most he's just in it for himself, just straight up robbing people if he gets the chance to do it and nothing is stopping him. He has an operation to pay for and no money will be refused, even if it comes from more nefarious means.

 

On his travels he comes across a village of these people that are even more cowardly than the chicken people you have been collecting bounties for. These outcasts that are the lowest rung of the low on the whole caste system, a tribe of people who's god went against them and are waiting for another god to replace the one they lost and reverse their fortunes.

 

Upon finding out why Stranger needs the money for the operation, the chickens, whom right before were very friendly with Stranger see him as subhuman and want to cash in on his bounty, forcing the hunter into the hunted, Strangers appearance changing and him eventually finding solace with the other outcasts mentioned earlier.

 

The game switches from a focus on money and changing yourself, to doing what is right and accepting the things that cannot and should not be changed, as leading the underdogs against the people that have been persecuting them rallies them to not be put upon any longer.

 

It's particularly well written in that you have all these story threads that role into a nice fat rope at the end. In this case the god that left them became the main villain of the game disguised as something he is not, and the villain of the game come to them disguise and became truer to himself.

 

Honestly, that game is a work of art. It's so well written that it blows a lot of modern games stories out the window. It's full of minute details that the more I think about it, the more apparent it becomes.

[Maryokutai]

I don't remember any outlet I read back in the day talk about this aspect of it. I always wanted to play it but can't recall why I ultimately never picked it up, but you're giving a good sales pitch. Unless I'm mistaken it's available on modern systems, so maybe I'll get to it at some point.

[HandsomeDead]

I played a good chunk of it back on the Xbox but it's something I've meant to properly go back to.  I do have it on Switch.

[Nag]

 

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Nag says... "Simple question... have gamers become overly critical and do you think the gaming space has become one mostly seen as negative?"

 

[one-armed dwarf]

I don't think being critical or even negative is a problem really, there's plenty worth being critical and negative about in the current shape of things WRT the cost of everything, how unsustainable AAA is, business practices etc. I think the main issue is how incurious a lot of gamers are, or the ones you see on twitter at least, maybe they are a loud minority. It's something I've been thinking about with all the layoffs in gaming journalism, you have this exodus of people who were paid to write thoughtfully about games, in both positive and negative senses. Now they are likely to be replaced by 'influencers' who sort of just talk more at the base level, like Asmongold. I think motherfuckers like that don't even know why they are angry and complaining about things, because they have such a limited mental model to digest things with. They see a pronoun and that's it, they short-circuit and get tilted. Nothing else matters

 

Reminds me of populism a bit

[DANGERMAN]

I'm not sure what my point is with this really, but there's a podcast I listen to called Knowledge Fight. One of the hosts said once that the reason we've got so many angry young men around is that previously they/we would have been thinned out by wars. We're treated by society like we're still the most important group because of that, but actually there's nothing for us/them to do 

 

Basically they need to start lacing energy drinks with arsenic 

 

 

In terms of gaming, I think because it's so tied to tech we get exploited more than other pass times. The big sports aside, football generates as much anger I think. In the same way though, they're both things you put a bit of yourself in to. 

 

So I think there's valid anger, then there's the anger from the 1st part of my post where people forget that not every single thing needs to be for them just because they're the largest or most vocal group. Then, for some reason, can't distance themselves from it and realise that they don't become lesbians just because they played a game with one 

[mfnick]

Most of the negativity is deserved IMO. MTX, broken releases, trend chasing, price gouging, constant layoffs and studio closures - sometimes while bragging about the popularity of the same games those studios created. It all gets tiresome. 

[shinymcshine]

I think there's just a greater degree of influence - where people are more beholden to the views of others (i.e. certain luminaries on social media etc) and are simply repeating the same options rather than having the experience and thought process themselves.

 

i.e. still the same old emperors new clothes, sheepish type neg fanboy behaviour

[Nag]

 

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Nag says... "Do you make a night of it when you game? Do you make time for drinks and snacks or do you grab what gaming time you can when you can?"

 

[DANGERMAN]

I fucking wish. My commute means I have no time during the week, or at least if I want to exercise, or I'm just too knackered. Weekend's are freer but with trying to do other things too, stuff I'd maybe have done during the week previously, it's just not something I can sit and do the way I used to 

 

Generally it's just having a coffee in front of me and maybe a can of something. The snacking happens completely independently from gaming 😆

[OCH]

Playing Switch the OH (present tense, don't ask), we do play it with snacks and drinks. Traditionally playing video games with friends in the past, we didn't. Which is ironic, considering we used to play for hours without end. 

[mfnick]

I do a night of it at weekend if the OH goes to bed early. It’s never planned though and I never make a deal out of it - like sorting food out. Most I’ll do is get some beers. 

Sometimes I’m just too tired still though so I can’t be arsed. It’s shit. Just tired all the time. Fucking work and chores. 

 

[spatular]

I don’t know about making a night of it, sometimes I guess, if I have a new game I’m looking forward to playing or something like that. Similar to others though I’m sometimes to tired to play much during the week  don’t snack often when gaming, don’t like having a greasy controller.

[Nag]

 

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Nag says... "We can all name some games which are looked at as genre defining, Halo, Doom, Final Fantasy 7 and Street Fighter II to name a few... but what game would you say is genre defining to you and why?"