Videogame Criticism

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Videogame Criticism

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It's insane just how much meaning Crowbcat manages to convey through editing alone.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but this video made me want to play Far Cry 2. What is the world coming to?
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Chopper
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Re: Videogame Criticism

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Far Cry 2 is the best!

(I look forward to testing this hypothesis when I replay it for the podcast later in the year).
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Videogame Criticism

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ThirdMan wrote: April 14th, 2018, 2:53 pm (Btw, could someone explain how to post images? I've tried using the image tags with a Flickr URL but it's not working? Thanks).
Click on the ninth icon from the left in the upper bar (the one with the landscape motif) and insert the image's URL between the two tags that appear. Please note that there are certain restrictions in place, such as that images have to be smaller than 1000 pixels in any direction for the board to be able to display them correctly. I don't know about Flickr, but certain URLS don't work for some reason.

It works for gifs as well, here's an adorable example. Just quote this post to see how it looks in the code:

Image

Happy posting! :)
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Videogame Criticism

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I'm only 40 seconds in, but Matthewmatosis has already hit the nail right on the head as to how I feel about the GoW reboot. I assume the rest is also well worth watching, as usual.

Edit: Yeah, he (and others) is a tiny bit more negative than I am, but I completely understand where he's coming from and the very last section about the homogenization rings particularly true for me.
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Stanshall
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Re: Videogame Criticism

Post by Stanshall »

It's so refreshing to see that level of deconstructive insight towards a game that I found thoroughly mind numbing in every aspect, besides graphics. His issues with the automated combat rung especially true. I felt no thrill fighting enemies after the first few minutes because the entire system seems to have been created to look cool, rather than feel robust. I hadn't realised why it felt so unsatisfying but that assisted movement must explain it.

As for the effort and sacrifice of the 'one take' camera, I was always quite wary when I first heard that was the approach. It's more of a circumstantial detail to brag about than an innately effective storytelling approach. The fact that the illusion is immediately broken when you enter the menu screen is ignored in favour of the reverence for technical expertise above all, which I find sometimes plagues the medium and the fanbase.

I think the game is some serious Emperor's New Clothes shit.
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Videogame Criticism

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Stanshall wrote: August 26th, 2018, 8:49 am His issues with the automated combat rung especially true. I felt no thrill fighting enemies after the first few minutes because the entire system seems to have been created to look cool, rather than feel robust. I hadn't realised why it felt so unsatisfying but that assisted movement must explain it.
Yeah, I agree with this. The encounters against multiple enemies definitely put the flaws of the combat system under a microscope, but I'd also like to point out that some of the late-game boss fights against singular enemies are cut from a completely different cloth. Some of them are thrilling and very satisfying and I'm a bit surprised he didn't mention those.

Stanshall wrote: August 26th, 2018, 8:49 am I think the game is some serious Emperor's New Clothes shit.
Well for what it's worth I genuinely enjoyed my time with the game, despite acknowledging the issues with it. And I certainly didn't hype myself up beforehand by way of superficial reviews. Quite the contrary, in fact. I guess it's simply greater than the sum of its parts in my eyes.

There's definitely some potential there that I hope the sequel might be able to better tap into.
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Videogame Criticism

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I’m confused as to what “Emperor’s New Clothes shit” means. Is it that those of us who enjoyed God of War 2018 either didn’t actually enjoy it, or that we are foolish for enjoying it?

Is it that the many reviewers who (independently of one another) *really* enjoyed it were somehow either misguided or being disingenuous in some way?

Perhaps it’s just that - as with all games, and as we have been trying so hard to emphasise for seven years on the podcast - different people enjoy different things, and that quality is entirely contextual and subjective.

Which is why “underrated” and “overrated” are banned descriptors on the show.
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Videogame Criticism

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Well, I think what Stanshall might have meant is that considering how the new GoW is a breath a fresh air in many regards (one of this year's tentpole AAA titles with great polish, voice acting, storytelling and without shoehorned multiplayer elements, loot boxes or microtransactions), people might understandably be more likely to give it a pass when it comes to some of its flaws. I certainly do.

There is also the issue, like we discussed a few weeks ago, that due to the short time frame that many reviewers have to work with, some of the issues with the repetitive structure will perhaps become more apparent weeks after release when people have had more time to sink their teeth into the game. And I personally do not remember reading any review mentioning the issues with the combat system explained in the video, for example.

I don't think it's uncommon for games to be viewed more critically by long-time fans and dedicated players than by reviewers. But this doesn't necessarily stem from dishonesty, just different priorities / standards / sets of circumstances on both sides.
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Re: Videogame Criticism

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I really enjoyed the combat in God Of War, and found it easily on par with the earlier games. Once you'd unlocked lots of extra moves etc it was fairly deep and well rewarded variety of attack.
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Re: Videogame Criticism

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I can’t currently watch the above vid as I’m on my phone on a beach, nor can I type well, however...

I think the level of insight and discourse brought to gaming by the likes of Mathewmatosis and Mark Brown is truly excellent, often supremely insightful - in fact exactly the type of discourse we are aspiring to with the podcast and - to be honest - offen falling short.

However, what I observe is that sometimes the findings of or position taken in these videos (and this is also the case with film and TV criticism) are sometimes held up as objective reasons why you should or shouldn’t enjoy aspects of the topic at hand.

It just doesn’t work like that. I have enjoyed games very much, even when I have seen through the smoke and mirrors they use or held up certain shortcomings against other titles.

It does sometimes happen that someone points out an element which does go on to undermine (or enhance) any future time spent with a game, but more often than not my actual personal experience of a game overrides that.

I find the intellectual exercise of analysis is stimulating and worthwhile, but it does not mean that anyone’s experience was somehow ‘wrong’.
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Stanshall
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Re: Videogame Criticism

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ratsoalbion wrote: August 26th, 2018, 9:39 am I’m confused as to what “Emperor’s New Clothes shit” means. Is it that those of us who enjoyed God of War 2018 either didn’t actually enjoy it, or that we are foolish for enjoying it?

Is it that the many reviewers who (independently of one another) *really* enjoyed it were somehow either misguided or being disingenuous in some way?

Perhaps it’s just that - as with all games, and as we have been trying so hard to emphasise for seven years on the podcast - different people enjoy different things, and that quality is entirely contextual and subjective.

Which is why “underrated” and “overrated” are banned descriptors on the show.
I'll apologise and take back the sweeping statement of 'Emperor's New Clothes shit', not least because it reads as directly insulting towards all those who enjoyed it. I should have either kept my criticisms purely focused on the game where I could reference specifics, or been clearer about my issues with the broader response.

And on that note, to clarify what I meant by the phrase, the thing I find most perplexing about the game is the eyebrow-raising level of praise it received in the press. Does it bother me how other people feel about it? In itself, not at all, but having been tempted to drop fifty quid day one after an avalanche of praise for this meisterwerk, I felt that its achievements were grossly exaggerated and its many flaws airbrushed.

To be clear about my opinion of the game, I would place it as just another in the strong lineage of TLOU and HZD, though I find it considerably less satisfying or interesting than either of those, but the media adulation - and the exact wording of many reviewers - would have me believe that it raised the bar for the medium and for single-player gaming in a number of respects. I think that's transparently untrue, from whichever perspective I look at it.

It would be shitty of me to insinuate that people didn't enjoy it as much as they say they did - and I genuinely didn't mean to suggest that. However, I do question the media response. God of War 2018 is slick, mechanically robust, makes the player feel powerful, it looks incredible, the voice work is very professional and the overall presentation has cinematic ambitions and execution above most of the medium. It ticks lots of boxes and it's a worthy 'advert' for the gaming industry. It's also, in my opinion, a sluggishly formulaic, cookie-cutter slog, packed with crafting, looting, skill trees, needless XP upgrades, walkie-talkie sections, heavy-handed exposition and characterisation and it feels like an amalgamation of the most familiar moulds of single player gaming in 2018. As such, I found the media reaction at best superficial and, less generously, dishonest.

It's been refreshing to see a more measured assessment among the gaming community as a whole (outside of the PS4 subreddit) in the months since its release and it's why I welcome the more in-depth and balanced criticism from Matthewmatosis. It's a very well made game, just a very conservative one.

Edit:

And having seen your further reply, Leon, I also want to say that I agree, of course, that each of us has a subjective response which is equally valid, though I don't think that all criticism is therefore equal. That said, I certainly don't believe in or aspire to some objective truth which devalues anyone else's enjoyment. One of my favourite games ever is Dark Souls 2 and while I can acknowledge its failings in many areas, I don't feel any differently about it. I love it warts and all. On the other hand, I couldn't recommend it in good faith to someone with their wallet open without giving them a better-rounded assessment of what they would get for their fifty notes.

And enjoy your hols!
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Re: Videogame Criticism

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Cheers Stanshall, appreciate it. And the reply.
🙂
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Re: Videogame Criticism

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Mark Brown isn’t really doing games criticism though, he’s doing analysis. A fine line, but he’s not saying “is this game good” he’s saying “how does this game work?”. He tends to focus on one mechanic across multiple games more now as well, he hasn’t done many single game videos for a while.
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Re: Videogame Criticism

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I do agree on the whole.
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Re: Videogame Criticism

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On the tenth anniversary of Far Cry 2, Clint Hocking has reactivated his blog to link to the best pieces of writing about the game.
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Re: Videogame Criticism

Post by Joshihatsumitsu »

Chopper wrote: October 30th, 2018, 2:21 pm On the tenth anniversary of Far Cry 2, Clint Hocking has reactivated his blog to link to the best pieces of writing about the game.
Thanks! Bookmarked for later reading! :D
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Re: Videogame Criticism

Post by Flabyo »

Here’s an interesting curio, quite possibly the first ever piece of video game criticism from 1982 is coming back into print...

Invasion of the Space Invaders, by Martin Amis

Yes. That Martin Amis.

It’s essentially a primary source for historians of the medium, and it’s been a nightmare trying to find a copy of the thing because there’s not really been any demand to put it back into print. But now they have.
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Re: Videogame Criticism

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We talked a little about this on our Space Invaders podcast earlier this year.
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Re: Videogame Criticism

Post by Joshihatsumitsu »

As a nerdy librarian and gamer, I would love to get my hands on that book... if only it were posible.
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Michiel K
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Re: Videogame Criticism

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Friggin' love this video.

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