The Hot Topic Returns

[DANGERMAN]

Kiryu level fighting ability would be cool but I'm not sure how useful it would be day to day, although if it comes with barely aging like him then I'd take it

 

I think being ridiculously fit would be nice, I used to be able to run for ever as a teenager, now matter how much time I put in to the gym I'm never getting that back

 

More practically, something like House Flipper so I could fix things at home

[shinymcshine]

If only life and work had a quest log of who to speak to, when and with what, in order to progress, without stupid personal agendas and or office politics...

[Maf]

I’m not sure what kind of skill it is but basically anything video game characters do seems to generate money so that please 

[mfnick]

Instant and full healing against any ailment or injury from just having a drink like in Dark Souls or wrapping a bandage around my arm like Joel in TLoU or something. 

Wake up with a bad back? Have a drink.

Got a cold? Have a drink.

Break every bone in my body? Have a couple drinks. 

[shinymcshine]

2 hours ago, Maf said:

I’m not sure what kind of skill it is but basically anything video game characters do seems to generate money so that please 

 

So long as you're not playing Papers Please....

[Sly Reflex]

Quote

What game do you think has the best first hour?

 

[one-armed dwarf]

Best for me is probably Half Life,  but picking something recent I think Clair Obscur has a strong opening, establishing its setting and predicament and introducing lots of characters

Spoiler

Who get summarily slaughtered Andy Serkis

 

[Maf]

Bioshock Infinite has an incredible first hour before it loses itself. The subversion of how the lighthouse works and the sky turning red with those crazy loud horns. The revealing of Columbia. The forced baptism. The usage of alternate American history. Lincoln painted as the devil and Booth as a hero. The barbershop quartet singing the Beach Boys song. When it presents the interracial couple and tries to get the player to throw a ball at them. The opening is an amazing mixture of shock value, curiosity, uncomfortableness and mind fuck. The sky rail mechanics are fun in the beginning, too.
 

It just falls apart after and makes lots of, err, choices. 

The other one has to be Majora’s Mask. Actually it might be the best one. It strings together a sequence of deeply strange, disempowering and Alice down the rabbit hole style events leveraging the familiarity of Ocarina to make it even weirder. Everything from the first time Link performs a side flip and somersault jump with a differently decorated shield up until you rewind time to escape a looming, bloodshot eyed and gritted teeth moon with a countdown timer that’s about to hit 0 is actual mindfuck, with no fall-off like Infinite.
 

Every touch uses things you know and things you don’t to set the tone, mechanics and idea of the game in an hour. Considering it reuses 80% of the OoT assets and still manages to feel completely different is a testament to how good its introduction is. 
 

I guess these picks point to what I like. Games that know you are familiar with the idea and then fuck with you

[Nag]

Dead Space 2 has an incredible opening... full on survival mode straight off the bat. The sense of relief when you finally get a weapon and that Rig is amazing. 

[mfnick]

God of War 3

 

The Last of Us 1 & 2

 

Mass Effect 2

[Metroid66]

Oblivion, perhaps. 

 

That intentionally claustrophobic fight through a dark dungeon then coming into the light and suddenly the unchecked freedom that many (I, for one) had never experienced in a game before.

[DANGERMAN]

Resident Evil 4, especially when you're back in on a 2nd play and have good weapons and ammo

[one-armed dwarf]

Looking through the steam library, Sons of Liberty is the obvious one I forgot. Just a massive generational leap, I don't remember what the first really impressive PS2 game was but this to me was the tech showpiece for the hardware for years and years, and the intricate design and cinematic flair that it unlocked. It's all so well paced and structured in that opening tanker chapter

 

The pacing falls to shit in the plant section, which probably is also why this opening still stands out

[OCH]

Demon's Souls. Arguably the initial Boletaria Castle could take up the first hour on your first playthrough. But it has enough set pieces and spectacle to get you hooked.

 

Majora's Mask. Due to the nature of the three day set up. You can experience quite a lot in your first hour. More so than many other Zelda's. Which hold your hand extensively for the first few hours.

[Sly Reflex]

Bioshock's is really good.

 

GTA:SA and GTAIV have great intros as well.GTAIV's especially is good with how they show you the grime of NY with that insane theme tune preceding over it. I just watched this again and one of the immigrants that bumps Niko at the end says "Entshuldigung, die Americanish traum!" and now I am wondering why a German speaker would need to sneak into the country, unless they speak German in parts of the Balkans?

 

The Last of Us has a decent start.

 

Batman: Arkham Asylum is crazy good at setting the scene in that first 10 or so minutes, really carries the feel.

 

Resident Evil 1 and 2 also have a lot of front end stuff on them. I still need to play the remake of RE2. 

 

The Walking Dead with the intro of Lee and Clem.

 

Dead Rising with the chopper ride into the Willamette. 

[Sly Reflex]

Quote

What game completely changed your opinion of a developer?

 

[one-armed dwarf]

Naughty Dog with TLOU2. I didn't beat it, the whole thing with that game reminds me of the Peter Griffin Godfather meme ("it insists on itself").

 

But it shows that ND can actually design a really strong stealth/action Rambo sandbox. The gameplay of TLOU1 was super ordinary but the sequel knocks it out of the park, it's got an almost MGSV level of fluidity, flexibility and expression, with some very convincing enemy reactions. So I'm expecting their Supergalactic whatever it's called to play really well also

 

It makes me think tho that this medium needs to find ways to tell stories about things other than revenge and violence, at least in the AAA space and especially at Sony

[spatular]

Evolution, with I was going to say driveclub then remembered the top down motorstorm rc which is also great, I know this isn’t going to be a popular opinion as people generally like the older motorstorm games but I never got on with the handling, though it was boring.

[DANGERMAN]

I liked Layers of Fear quite a bit, and Observer, but it seemed that Bloober had lost whatever they had with those games. Their take on Silent Hill 2 though is really, really good. Maybe not perfect, but so much better than I expected a remake of Silent Hill 2 from anyone to be, then that Chronos seemed to be pretty good too

 

I'd also say that team that made Robocop Rogue City, I know the Terminator game they did is supposed to be good, but I played the Rambo game. It's kind of nuts that they made such a good Robocop game 2 games later

[Maryokutai]

I agree with Naughty Dog, my hot take about them is that they actually hadn't done a truly good game until both Last of Us games. I have a soft spot for Jak & Daxter but had kind of written them off after Uncharted.

 

Both Rocksteady and Mercurysteam, for similar reasons, because their output pre Arkham/Lords of Shadow was mediocre at best, to the point people were questioning the choice of developer at the time for those two big IPs.

 

Maybe also Alien: Isolation, because Creative Assembly looked like the ultimate one trick pony prior to that game, but they also build an entirely new team for that game so it's a bit of an edge case.