Playstation 4 Or Xbox One? (See mod warning in the first post)

Timmyctc

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Actually I Am Legend, book rather than the film adaptions, is a better fit, it has plenty of 50s/60s dystopian Scifi in there, with a generous helping of 70s/80s body horror film to boot.

It's a fine example of story telling and atmosphere, tied together with a solid game engine and mo cap work that doesn't build a lot on what was used in Uncharted 3, but then that was well put together too.
The gameplay though, again it's solid, but it's not terribly remarkable.

Agree, but not every game has to be remarkable for it to be a great game. I mean at the end of the day from what I've experienced N64 - WiiU, Mario Kart is a remarkably similar game each iteration but a damn sight better than most games. Platformers in general rarely add features you'd label 'remarkable' but can still be extremely good games worthy of praise.

TLoU did story telling in an absolute unparalelled way imo and thats where the majority of praise comes from, the gameplay just seemed refined and enjoyable. Anyways this is OT.
Fuk u xbox m8 il wrek u

Timmyctc

On topic now.
PS4 getting some new updates for the UI in and outta games.
Linksy poo

Magill

Folder for games is a very welcome change.

tok9

Timmyctc wrote: »

On topic now.
PS4 getting some new updates for the UI in and outta games.
Linksy poo

All fake unfortunately.

Magill

pffttt... i dont even want a game folder, #ps4life

Timmyctc

tok9 wrote: »

All fake unfortunately.

Really?

Xenji

Timmyctc wrote: »

Really?

Confirmed by Sony themselves.

calex71

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Actually I Am Legend, book rather than the film adaptions, is a better fit, it has plenty of 50s/60s dystopian Scifi in there, with a generous helping of 70s/80s body horror film to boot.

It's a fine example of story telling and atmosphere, tied together with a solid game engine and mo cap work that doesn't build a lot on what was used in Uncharted 3, but then that was well put together too.
The gameplay though, again it's solid, but it's not terribly remarkable.

Book is another example of a unique take on post-apocalypse/plague/outbreak, only read it for the 1st time last year, aged very well considering it's 60 this year !!!!

richymcdermott

Magill wrote: »

I know its personal opinions and all that, and really TLOU for me might just squeak into my top 10-15, but what games do you think have done a better job ?

Silent hill 2 is the pinnacle on my list personally , atmosphere that is just as haunting as the story itself and that the game drags you along in the state of a messed up mind as James sunderland and the characters around him. It keeps you guessing and then when everything is actually shown to you you feel disturbed and almost broken.


It also needs to be corrected for that the only game to show that you can create tension without the need to use high temp orchestra music and that having silence is terrifying in itself.

Silent hill 1 and 3 stories are also fantastic told but less intriguing because of being religious cult that surrounds it as that has being done before.

I should have stated before going on about the last of us , what I feel is a story we seen before It has some of the most powerful scenes with david , that scene is the most terrifying in its slumber due to they did not explicitly say that

he was a pedophile

such you can sense it in itself. I also credit it for the use of characters as there way of settling in the world have different ways of living and surviving.
What I give most last of us credit for is being one of the better post apocalyptic stories in games that quite are few that I played.

Bioshock series I felt were great story games and personally the complex of infinite story and how that was all summed up in the end was really really fun, I really love the open to interpretation plots that makes you think.

CiDeRmAn

calex71 wrote: »

Book is another example of a unique take on post-apocalypse/plague/outbreak, only read it for the 1st time last year, aged very well considering it's 60 this year !!!!

An amazing writer, Richard Matheson
Lots of his fiction made it onto the cinema screen but, more importantly, he wrote some great Twilight Zone episodes, which is what TLOU most resembles, in the best way possible, paranoid, scary, humane and familiar, with the worst of the monsters being the survivors themselves and what they do to each other.

Retr0gamer

Timmyctc wrote: »

TLoU did story telling in an absolute unparalelled way imo and thats where the majority of praise comes from, the gameplay just seemed refined and enjoyable.

It just told its story through cutscenes mostly which is hardly the most elegant way of doing so in a game. Games can be so much mo than just trying to ape cinema, I'd like if naughty dog got a little bit more creative with their storytelling in whatever they do next. It could be interesting.

On the other hand though, those cutscenes did do a good job of disguising some extremely long loading times.

FlyingIrishMan

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It just told its story through cutscenes mostly which is hardly the most elegant way of doing so in a game. Games can be so much mo than just trying to ape cinema, I'd like if naughty dog got a little bit more creative with their storytelling in whatever they do next. It could be interesting.

On the other hand though, those cutscenes did do a good job of disguising some extremely long loading times.

It told the general story through cutscenes, but without the gameplay, and the banter between Joel and Ellie inbetween the story wouldn't have been half as effective.
Anybody who attempted to just watch the cutscenes clipped together on youtube would have done themselves a great disservice.

johnny_ultimate

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It just told its story through cutscenes mostly which is hardly the most elegant way of doing so in a game. Games can be so much mo than just trying to ape cinema, I'd like if naughty dog got a little bit more creative with their storytelling in whatever they do next. It could be interesting.

Try Left Behind. It manages to come up with some very inventive gameplay tools and mechanics to explore its themes and relationships. It's quite a bit more radical than I expected from some DLC. I've mentioned it in a few threads over the last week, but it seriously impressed me.

While Last of Us does communicate a lot of its information through cutscenes (although there are only a handful of truly great game stories that don't take control away from the player when presenting key story points or themes), many of the best dialogues and interactions emerge more dynamically through gameplay. Wandering around an abandoned house and triggering a conversation with Ellie feels more natural - it's still pre-scripted, but the player is allowed find it and engage with it through play and exploration. While it would be great if every game successfully allowed for a 'choose your own adventure' style storytelling that evolves as per the player's input, developers can do so much with pre-determined scripts. We've had this argument before, but The Last of Us' success largely stem from its creation of fully-rounded, believable characters - thanks to strong direction, technology acting and writing. Even just seeing the way the characters move around the world and interact with each other in such an organic way is a pretty revelatory moment for storytelling in gaming. Naughty Dog are close to working in a league of their own in that regard, along with some prestigious others like Valve. I'd certainly be reluctant to describe Last of Us' cinematic side as a purely negative thing, given its borrowing many of the right things from cinema. Games like Bioware's output may offer more player input in the way conversations play out, but they can't help but seem stilted and unnatural compared to something like The Last of Us.

While other games certainly stretch the storytelling limits of the medium in more unusual and more experimental ways (Papers, Please or Journey or Virtue's Last Reward or whatever), what The Last of Us suggests is there'll always be a place for high-quality, writer and character driven storytelling as well, even if they have to rely on cutscenes to achieve that. Gaming has enough room for all manner of different types of experience, after all. With the technological tools available on the new consoles, there are few reasons why this won't be pushed much further during this generation - playing Last of Us Remastered, more than anything, makes me incredibly excited for the dedicated One and PS4 games from developers like Naughty Dog.

Will I Amnt

Yeah, it's a bit disingenuous to suggest the story was told almost entirely through cutscenes. There's almost constant interaction between the characters right the way through the gameplay.

Timmyctc

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It just told its story through cutscenes mostly which is hardly the most elegant way of doing so in a game. Games can be so much mo than just trying to ape cinema, I'd like if naughty dog got a little bit more creative with their storytelling in whatever they do next. It could be interesting.

On the other hand though, those cutscenes did do a good job of disguising some extremely long loading times.

You've played the game and you know fine rightly there's much more to the game than "Cut scenes that hide loading times" so I wont bother going in circles arguing it with you again. You dislike the game. It's well established from basically every post you've basically ever made in the TLoU thread :pac:

CiDeRmAn

There were moments that told oodles of story without cutscenes,

like seeing the makeshift school and nursery while moving back through the wreckage of infection, and you realise that the infected were the survivors.
Also the scenes where the young boy is infected and asking Ellie about what happens to the souls of those who turn, I found that the most moving moment in any media form in some time, more so as you only realise the gravity of it afterwards. The ending was more trope stuff, step here, trigger that, and so on.

kunst nugget

A lot of the criticism on here about TLOU is basically like someone giving out that the apple they ate wasn't an orange.

CiDeRmAn

No, I don't think so, no one is saying the game was anything but not impressive, but you'd be doing yourself a disservice not to see the areas of weakness there.
Being a "fan" of something can often mean we ignore the things that don't fit in our worldview and focus on only the good.
The Last of Us is a very very good game, with tons to be impressed by and is certainly the shining jewel of Sony's output on the PS3.
It is good for those players of 360 only that gen, who have made the move to the PS4, that they can pick it up at a reasonable price for their new machine and appreciate it fully.
But the game does have some issues, if only that they didn't quite shine as brightly as many other elements of the game.
The actual mechanics of the game are cookie cuttered from Uncharted 3, and that's fine, it works well, but it doesn't really build on it at all.
And, on a personal note, the scenes with Ellie

wandering in the snow, hunting that should have been far far longer, but it really built into, outside of the story building cutscenes, into a wander around in a fogged area and sneaking around in an on fire area.

And that is unfortunate.
But they only appear weaker in comparison to the rest of the game, which was wonderful.
I don't think Retr0 actively dislikes the game, but he isn't shy about pointing out the weaknesses, and the tricks that programmers and developers use to hide functional parts of PS3 games, like cutscenes and such.
People really need not to take criticism of a game as a personal attack, I doubt very much it was meant as such.

kunst nugget

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

People really need not to take criticism of a game as a personal attack, I doubt very much it was meant as such.

I don't take criticism of the game as a personal insult and there are things that irked me about it and broke the immersion for me -

the part where Joel is hanging upside down and the part where you have to use the sniper rifle

- but I think some of the criticism about the game is people actively trying to find flaws in it. No game is ever going to be 100% and this game certainly isn't but saying the game should have been more experimental I think does a disservice to how extraordinarily well crafted the game was is nitpicking imo. Sure, it could have been more experimental but it could have been a lot poorer for it.

Bioshock Infinite wasn't anything in comparison to it and a bit of a borefest tbh.

richymcdermott

kunst nugget wrote: »

I don't take criticism of the game as a personal insult and there are things that irked me about it and broke the immersion for me -

the part where Joel is hanging upside down and the part where you have to use the sniper rifle

- but I think some of the criticism about the game is people actively trying to find flaws in it. No game is ever going to be 100% and this game certainly isn't but saying the game should have been more experimental I think does a disservice to how extraordinarily well crafted the game was is nitpicking imo. Sure, it could have been more experimental but it could have been a lot poorer for it.

Bioshock Infinite wasn't anything in comparison to it and a bit of a borefest tbh.

I can completely understand this in a gameplay standpoint as there was times I wanted to quit playing and it took some going trying to beat it but I felt the story was far more intriguing than the last of which is essentially go from point A to get to point B but saying that I still enjoyed it but as I said previous post I much prefer complex stories where you are spoon fed information then being all pieced together that really I found quite enjoyable.
I felt more attached to elizabeth than ellie if I were to compare the two because there is a relationship there that I could understand but in the end both her and ellie I believe are two of the most powerful female characters in videogames since samus and zelda.

It is interesting that troy baker had a hand in it and while the games are totally different in different aspects there story telling is quite similar cept one had quite a monumental religion /political push on its back and another is about survival of the fittest to make good use out of what you can.

two games I am so glad I have played but two flawed games , but I applaud two studios as I feel infinite gameplay would of been much different without the publisher on its back and the last of us proven yet again we can have successful new ips without the need for fps military shooters.

I am currently on my second playthrough on last of us on ps4 and gameplay is quite at times wonder and taking in the writings on the wall , the carnage mother nature put on the world and people try to survive and how each character you meet has difference way of living

sam cant be a kid , ellie never experiencing life outside of the closed walls shes trapped in. tommy isolating himself from the quarantine , tess finally found hope she entrusted to joel.

there was just stupid moments of okay here comes the endless enemies for people to keep on playing because some like action more than looking at environments while others appreciate more things like looking at a painting.

FAILSAFE 00

Might be helpful.

The Last of Us thread

CiDeRmAn

Bioshock Infinite was a borefest you say.
In regards what?
The gameplay?
Yes, too many sections you were locked into until a set amount of enemies were defeated.
But the story was brilliant, and the ending was every bit as impressive as the work done in TLOU, it was complex, it made sense, it was well written.
My biggest problem with it was the under utilisation of the dimension tearing, once again a game comes up with a USP and instead of allowing the player to explore the full consequences of the power they turn it into a way of conjuring up grappling points, health, ammo or cover.
That said, there was some great uses of the concept during the game, and it was integral to the gameplay, and there was a significant section or two set in alternate realities though, ultimately, the whole game is an alternate reality.
Finding flaw with Bioshock Infinite is ok though, and it's right to accept the flaws while celebrating the successes, and so it goes for TLOU, Portal/2, HL2, DS/2 and so on.

Retr0gamer

Timmyctc wrote: »

You've played the game and you know fine rightly there's much more to the game than "Cut scenes that hide loading times" so I wont bother going in circles arguing it with you again. You dislike the game. It's well established from basically every post you've basically ever made in the TLoU thread :pac:

I think it's a fantastic game and interesting enough that it warrants discussion so don't be too quick to jump to ridiculous conclusions.


I wasn't actively critiicising the cutsenes either, I'm in two minds about them. I think it's a very jarring way of telling a story but then if there weren't there you'd have something as ridiculous as in MGS4 with snake smoking while you wait for the game to load. They're kind of a necessary evil in a way.

There's really nothing wrong with telling a story with cutscenes and Last of Us is certainly at the high point of doing it in games. However I feel it's really just games aping cinema. Even outside of the cutscenes I feel that the Last of US is still quite close to cinema. There's nothing really different with how the Last of US tells it's story that hasn't been done before, it's more the quality of the writing is up with the very best the medium has offered so far. In comparison something like Journey I feel is something new and exciting.

In summary I don't think Last of Us does anything new when telling it's story but what it does do it's pretty much top of its game.

Retr0gamer

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Bioshock Infinite was a borefest you say.
In regards what?
The gameplay?
Yes, too many sections you were locked into until a set amount of enemies were defeated.
But the story was brilliant, and the ending was every bit as impressive as the work done in TLOU, it was complex, it made sense, it was well written.
My biggest problem with it was the under utilisation of the dimension tearing, once again a game comes up with a USP and instead of allowing the player to explore the full consequences of the power they turn it into a way of conjuring up grappling points, health, ammo or cover.
That said, there was some great uses of the concept during the game, and it was integral to the gameplay, and there was a significant section or two set in alternate realities though, ultimately, the whole game is an alternate reality.
Finding flaw with Bioshock Infinite is ok though, and it's right to accept the flaws while celebrating the successes, and so it goes for TLOU, Portal/2, HL2, DS/2 and so on.

Thought the story in Bioshock Infinite was utter twaddle in fairness. It might make sense but it doesn't mean it wasn't stupid and Ken Levines shtick of all of humanity is evil and only out for themselves is grating and totally unrealistic.

I really did not enjoy Bioshock Infinite. Boring gamepaly, poor story and no real pay off. I did enjoy the final piece of DLC, the stealth actually worked surprisingly well. The first bit of DLC was a bit crap and had some really awful writing. The second one had a cringe inducing moment of retconning as well that made no sense.

richymcdermott

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Thought the story in Bioshock Infinite was utter twaddle in fairness. It might make sense but it doesn't mean it wasn't stupid and Ken Levines shtick of all of humanity is evil and only out for themselves is grating and totally unrealistic.

I really did not enjoy Bioshock Infinite. Boring gamepaly, poor story and no real pay off. I did enjoy the final piece of DLC, the stealth actually worked surprisingly well. The first bit of DLC was a bit crap and had some really awful writing. The second one had a cringe inducing moment of retconning as well that made no sense.

did we play the same game ?

Retr0gamer

richymcdermott wrote: »

did we play the same game ?

Well maybe you can tell me why the story was so great. All it came down to is everyone is a dick, even the player.

Pushtrak

I didn't take it as commentary on all of humanity. The setting was Columbia, where the inhabitants had their city as a floating city to get away from the rest of humanity. It was commentary on certain aspects of humanity, but not humanity overall. I think it was showing what would happen if a certain segment of the population were to have their own city that was highly insular and the resulting echo chamber, etc. etc.

Retr0gamer

Well I got all that from it, that's only a small part of the story. I just found no reason to actually care about any of the characters or what was happening.

calex71

Wasn't overly gone on Infinite either, but 10/10 for elizabeth. that's how you implement a supporting character if there has to be one. It was like having Miss Calex playing along throwing ammo and snacks when I needed them then takes care of herself the rest of the game. :pac:

CiDeRmAn

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Well I got all that from it, that's only a small part of the story. I just found no reason to actually care about any of the characters or what was happening.

Ah here, you think the series has been in a sliding decline since System Shock 2!