Ima be real here but if someone didn’t watch the Game Awards then they’re probably not going to watch a video about the game awards. Especially when everything in it could be made text with zero loss of information.
Yeah, I feel like I gave the impression this is just a full gameplay video or something. It’s not, it’s a critical analysis.
He does essentially review each game, but he also talks about stuff like the different paradigms of art in games: narrative, gameplay, choice, environmental design and storytelling, as well as their intersections (or their lack). For this series especially, he highlights those elements in contrast between the Interplay/Obsidian games and the Bethesda games.
I’m not actually interested in playing the games, but I love this kind of critique.
Well, there’s an audience for it. I love long-form critiques, to the point where I’m generally less inclined to bother with anything less than around 45 minutes because it’s just not enough time to explore anything with the kind of depth that interests me the most (that’s a pretty loose rule though, some topics can be incredibly interesting but just don’t need a long-form analysis).
This essay actually covers about…9 games in the series I think? (1, 2, Tactics, Brotherhood of Steel, 3, New Vegas, a mobile game, 4, and 76). That includes all DLC as well, so it averages about 1-1.5 hours per game (variably, BoS and the mobile game both get significantly less time). And it is split into chapters with the YouTube feature.
I do know that’s still not appealing for everyone. I appreciate the top comment on the video: “Sweet baby Jesus.”
I’m coming back here a day later to say that in the couple hours I’ve played this game, I don’t think I’m having fun.
Maybe if you want a really light survival sim, this would be good. But as a building game, it’s not that enjoyable. You are not going to quickly or easily build up interesting structures like in Minecraft (or even Dragon Quest Builders). I spent so much time trying to make my own little shack, but the roof piece they provide wouldn’t fit on my walls at all until it was structured more like their pre-made recipe of how a shack should be.
And I couldn’t even really tell why my roof wasn’t attaching because I was on the ground. There’s no quick way to build up some makeshift stairs like you might in those other games to get a better view. You just have to stand on the ground and try to maneuver the piece somewhat blindly.
There was a moment that I needed an axe because I needed wood because I needed to build more walls. But my workbench was out in the open and it started to rain. You can’t craft anything in the rain; it has to be sheltered (and I was trying to build up shelter for the darn workbenches to begin with!). So your option at that point is to punch trees/shrubs for wood. Not the end of the world. But it’s just frustrating you can’t craft a tool in that situation. So if you want to explore out and make a new camp, you definitely have to cover any new workbench. And in something like Minecraft, that’s trivial. That’s like 20 seconds. But here it’s a process.
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