“Entertaining” and “high quality” are meaningfully distinct characteristics. Mortal Kombat came out in the same year as Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, and Shawshank Redemption. Tomb Raider came out with Gladiator, Crouching Tiger, and Chocolat. Resident Evil was the same year as Fellowship of the Ring.
None of your examples compare, even for their time, with the higher echelons of what is considered (by general critical consensus rather than personal preference) artistic achievement in their medium. That’s what “good” means in the context of the article. That being said, the article points to the Mario movie as evidence of its claim, and my personal preference would consider that movie cheaply derivative (sprinkled with passion for its source material as it may be).
I think this is my reason. I like lithe, acrobatic archetypes and will, for instance, usually prefer playing stealthy character classes when given the option. Guy bodies in games are (or at least used to be) blocky rectangles; they look like walking refrigerators. Gals usually have a more dynamic and nimble appearance.
Two more relevant reasons: (1) traditinally, non-customizable main characters are predominately male, so when given a choice I’ll choose the less common option to mix it up and (2) I am a guy in real life and am bored enough of it that I feel incentivized to play the other side in game world.
I finally picked up Subnautica Below Zero. For some reason I had it in my head that it was an expansion or 1.5 type release rather than a full sequel, so I had put it off longer than I would have otherwise.
I’ve played a handful of survival/crafting games since completing the first Subnautica a couple years ago, and nothing I’ve seen or played does what Subnautica does so well: the progression path is perfectly tuned and focused to keep you obtaining new things at just the right pace while enabling further and further exploration. There’s a really addictive feeling of empowerment that comes with each accomplishment, going from bare swimming to zooming with the seaglide, to building a better tank to stay underwater longer, to eventually having massive vehicles and scanning equipment and defensive weapons. Mix it all together with the excitement from finally reaching and exploring new spaces you could only glimpse before, finding new supplies and equipment, and it’s just an incredibly fun and rewarding time.
I think a common complaint with Below Zero was that it didn’t do enough differently, but that doesn’t bother me at all. I think the biggest problem I have with other survival/crafting games is that they all seem designed for perpetual play (e.g., No Man’s Sky). Both Subnautica games are single-player at their core, with the attendant intentional elegance, and Below Zero strikes that near-perfect balance as well as its predecessor (so far).
I don’t understand what Bloober is doing to secure these partnerships. I enjoyed Observer for the visual spectacle, and I appreciated The Medium for what it was trying to do despite it feeling mechanically and thematically incomplete.
I’m not attached to Silent Hill so I’m not terribly invested in their remake, but figured it would be a fair proving ground for them to grow up from the ambitious-but-flawed style that has marked their other games. Maybe this deal is a sign that Skybound has already seem something they like?
Interesting that you call out story and visuals, I’d say those are the two elements that actually do rise above standard fare. Not necessarily the graphical fidelity (it’s great, but not ground breaking), but the art and production design, use of colors, they’re all magnificently cohesive and create some really stunning environments. Story’s more subjective but the performances were commendable, the theme of honor and victory was consistent and tragic, pacing was nicely balanced.
It’s the actual gameplay that I’d say was…fine. Combat is tight and varied, but eventually repetitive, and the open world loop is exhaustingly uninventive.
Finished Paradise Killer early last week. I liked it a lot, it got to be pretty addicting uncovering new pieces of the mystery. Whenever I had to put the game down, I’d come back to it thinking “Oh shit, I discovered x last time I played, can’t wait to see how that pans out.” The one negative thing I’ll say is that there’s not a lot of actual detective work on the player’s part. The actual mechanics of the game are pretty much just running back and forth over the island, talking to the same characters, and chasing collectibles. But I enjoyed the loop, so it worked out.
Started up Moonlighter for a low-commitment game. I’ve played about 10 hours and enjoyed it so far. It’s got a pretty well-balanced progression loop (explore the dungeon, sell your stuff, afford a small upgrade, get a little further in the dungeon, sell your stuff…) which is a big draw for me. Not sure it’ll keep my interest to the end but I’m fond of the time I’ve spent.
Spent some time with The Ascent, wish I liked it more than I did. I was looking for a good pick-up-and-play game, but the save mechanics in The Ascent are…not clear. If it supported a save anywhere/anytime feature I probably would have gone a lot further.
But never being quite certain where I’d pick back up killed my motivation to play too many times.
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.”
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.
Haha ok, just curious. You said pleasantly surprised on both counts, which I took to mean you were happy it didn’t win any awards.
I’m super excited about playing Spider-Man 2 (as well as Alan Wake 2), but I’m also a patient gamer so just keeping an eye out for even a little bit of a sale.
Weird trailer. Not really sure what they were going for with mashing up highlights of the movie but with…unknown custom character in place of the movie characters.
An honest-to-goodness single-player Arkane game, with Dishonored 2’s caliber of level design, would probably be the catalyst that finally convinced me to get an Xbox.
I was almost relieved that Redfall arrived as such a dud because I didn’t have to make this decision on that game’s behalf. Still boggles my mind Bethesda took the minds behind the greatest modern immersive sims and assigned them a live service game. What a waste.