Videogame Criticism

[Chopper]

The Real Life Landscapes of Fallout 1, Fallout 2, and Fallout: New Vegas

Long (1"30') but good if you are into that type of thing.

[Chopper]

Interesting critique of Bloodborne. The site reads better on mobile than on PC, I think.

Bloodborne uses the classic Souls style of storytelling where there isn't much overt storytelling that explains what's happening or why you're doing the things you're doing; rather, you have to piece everything together yourself by reading item descriptions and interpreting random off-hand comments made in passing by other characters. In contrast to other Souls games, however, Bloodborne gives you practically zero introduction to any of its characters, locations, or concepts before thrusting you right into gameplay on a main quest to find some nebulous MacGuffin known as "paleblood" so that you can "transcend the hunt," an objective which is only given to you by a scrawled piece of paper when you wake up. The introductory cutscene gives zero explanation of Yharnam's history, what blood ministration is, what the purpose of a contract or a blood transfusion is supposed to be, what a "hunter" is and why you've become one, what the "hunt" is supposed to be, what those zombie-children are or what they did when they crawled on top of you, why a beastly monster spawned from a pool of blood and was set on fire, and most importantly, what paleblood is and why you should care about finding it.

[Alex79]

In contrast to other Souls games? I'd say *exactly* like in other Souls games!

[KSubzero1000]

He's back!



Another great video from Matthewmatosis, this time on the concept of sequels and how they can relate to their predecessors. Top shelf commentary, as usual.

[Chopper]

I have a feeling there's a better thread for this, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

Anyway, this is a short piece inspired (and funded by) The Long Dark. Very interesting if you know the game, don't know how it would be perceived if you didn't. Apparently they are also making a full movie based on the game, produced by the guy that did the Resident Evil films, though I can't see much mention of this past the initial announcement in 2017 so who knows where that's at.

Background: The Long Dark is set in a region where economic collapse was followed by a geomagnetic storm which has led to widespread disruption of electronic devices, and slowly changing weather patterns - a quiet apocalypse.

[Alex79]

I'm interested in this game. People were talking about it on here a while back I think - is it the one where you can either play story mode or survival (endless) mode? It looks right up my street, but I've not got round to getting it yet.

[Chopper]

Yeah, I love it, Alex. It's a beautiful game, but a very harsh survival experience.

The story mode is kind of universally acclaimed as a bit of a disaster - at least in comparison to the sandbox side. That being said, since I played it, they hired a load of people from a nearby failed studio and completely redid the two story mode episodes that they had released, so it's likely some rough edges have been sanded off. Episode 3 (story mode is not finished yet) is out soon so if you see the game at a price you like in a sale...

However, the survival mode is sublime. As you note, there is no 'end goal' in this, just survive for as long as possible (there are various challenge modes too, where a set scenario - eg reach this point on the map and shoot off a distress signal). Still, there is a lot to see and do along the way.

[Chopper]

Yeah, it's a tough one to recommend, for sure. It's a very specific experience. The price seems to regularly go down to about GBP 7.50 on Playstation, if anyone was curious.

[Chopper]

I may have linked to this Dead Space article before:

".. ultimately the market showed us something obvious, which is that Wii customers didn’t want a survival horror."

[in regard to Dead Space Extraction].

https://www.usgamer.net/articles/dead-s ... mes-horror

[Michiel K]

PAGING KSubzero1000

[KSubzero1000]

Yeah, this guy completely nails it. Gives much deserved props to the amazing combat system so many players underestimated but trashes everything else about this absolute dumpster fire of a game. I like his sense of humor, too.

...I spend way too much time thinking about this dumb series.

[Michiel K]

Haha!