Be Excellent To Each Other

...topics at the moment?

But anyway, this is a post zombie apocalypse game that's getting universal praise at the moment. It's currently at 96% on Metacritic, which puts it equal with Uncharted 2 and Batman: Arkham City.

It's shaping up to be the first PS3 game I've bought since Mrs Grim... accidentally got me the PS3 copy of GTA4.

http://www.edge-online.com/review/the-l ... us-review/

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013- ... -us-review

Yes! YES! I was only thinking last night about starting this topic. Out 14 June I believe.

I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm actually tempted by a PS3 game... But I was also tempted by Bioshock Infinite and that seems to have passed so I'll see how it goes.

I've got 3DS games to buy first.

Is it PS3 only?

Yes (although probably playable on PS4 when it comes out)

Its a game i'd be buying if i still had my PS3

Aye, Sony own Naughty Dog. 360 has got State of Decay.

This kind of hype doesn't fool me anymore. Bioshock all over again. Citizen Kane of videogames blah blah blah.

Videogames don't need a Citizen Kane. They already have Super Mario, Zelda, Castlevania and so on. This kind of inferiority complex really doesn't do gaming journalism any favours.

In fact, most 95+ metacritic games aren't that good. I found that the best games are always in the low 80's. Too bad this game isn't going to be released on PC because i would like to hear RPS take on it.

I'm buying this on release day.

I've been loving my PS3 lately. Mostly thanks to Sony's generosity over PS+, I've spent tenfold more time with the PS3 over the last six months than I have with the 360. I have no plans to renew my Live Gold when it expires next month either.

Most people loved Bioshock. That'll be a fine outcome.

This kind of hipsterish raging against games journos getting excited about a game seems very nihilistic to me. I'd rather be excited about things, and sometimes let down, than be permanently cynical and enjoy nothing.

Let's face it though, Bioshock was always going to be more Bioshock-of-a-kind "If you liked Bioshock you'll like Bioshock in space... etc" whereas Naughty Dog have always produced some fabulous spectacles of games. Actual mind blowing stuff - not just "look at this floating city in the background" stuff or "It's so clever! Wow" stuff. I've got every ounce of my person believing that this will be nothing short of awesome.

... which reminds me that I had an exclusive demo of it from God of War: Ascension. Which I've since traded in. Bah.

Well now, no-one said they don't enjoy games - so it's more a case of being excited and sometimes let down, or cynical and sometimes pleasantly surprised.

Actually it's more of anti-hipsterism. Like i said, it really annoys me this need for "cinematic" experiences and comparing games to the best of hollywood. Let games be games.

Bioshock was good, but was it 10/10 good? It wasn't even half of the game System Shock 2 was.

Instead of Bioshock i could mention GTA4. 98 on metacritic. Riighhttt. The magnificent Just cause 2, on the other way, its on the low 80s.

Yup.


GTA4 and LittleBigPlanet are the only to in the 95%+ section (beside odd iPhone games that only have a few reviews) that I have issue with, but I completely understand the score for GTA4 - every time I play it it feels like the best game in the world. Then I stop playing it.

I expect I'll play this, depending on what actual players think after they have played it for a few days...

Maybe it's a weakness of having to write reviews to deadline? I mean, I fucking loved GTA4 when I first started playing it but by the end I was flagging and I've never bothered finishing it.

Bioshock actually was amazing though, wasn't it? I always felt it's biggest problem was that, by the end, you realise that free will in the game is a total illusion and it's actually very linear - and probably the biggest problem of all there is that the game's twist actually serves to highlight that fact.

As for Last Of Us, now I've seen it getting favourable review scores, I'm getting it. Naughty Dog know how to put together some fantastic games.

I said it in the Bioshock infinite thread by i'll say it again. Mainstream game journalism value presentation and production values in general way more than game mechanics. Bioshock looks gorgeous but for a shooter, the shooting itself is mediocre. I'd rather play Painkiller all over again than that thing.

It certainly was.

You mean it values game presentation more than you do. Other opinions also exist.

Also, there was nothing wrong with Bioshock's mechanic.

Bioshock Infinite's trap mechanism certainly didn't really work though. It seemed like a remnant of 1 & 2 and had no place in Infinite which favoured arena style shoot outs.

Also, I wouldn't put Bioshock 1 in my top ten of all time, probably not top twenty, or fifty come to think of it, although I did enjoy it muchly.

But anyway...that The Last of Us.

Obviously we have to agree to disagree then.

But my main beef is with mainstream journalism. Some months ago, i saw on a videogame program on TV an early trailer of Last of Us being shown on an theater full of journalists with a live orchestra doing the score. After the trailer (which was only cutscenes, and had no gameplay whatsoever) was shown, the whole audience cheered while standing up like if they had seen the return of Elvis. I know it's ok to be excited, but that trailer was only cutscenes. WtF? If you think there's nothing wrong with this kind publisher-journalist relation, then we have to disagree again.

Really looking forward to this game. I'll probably play it before deciding whether or not it's shit. Crazy or what?

Are you sure? The cheering at the Xbox One announcement was later confirmed to be coming exclusively from Microsoft staffers throughout the auditorium. The journos were all too busy typing.

Is that so surprising, after all the scandals (like "Doritos-gate"/"Tomb Raider-Gate") that we've seen?

Bioshock 1?

It's okay, but nothing special. After it lost an hour of my playing time, I have little-no desire to replay it to see more.

It's geek porn, basically. I would liken it to Matrix at the movies. Deffo not a 10/10.

And I don't see any resemblance to The Last Of US at all, thankfully.

I'm 100% on the side of RuySan. Games like The Last of Us, Uncharted, and Bioshock aren't really made for people like "us", if I can shamelessly pidgeonhole us. These sorts of 'games' aren't system/process/mechanics driven like, e.g. Tetris or Kerbal Space Program. They're Hollywood style blockbuster games that put the audio-visual experience at the headline and most important part, with the narrative/story/voiceovers being a firm second, if not equal first, importance. I guess at some point they design some game mechanics to shoe-horn in there as well to hold the bits of story together? Usually without the slightest hint of irony that your 18 year old innocent girl is now mass-murdering 5000 different people or allowing the player to absorb a billion bullets, only to be killed in a cutscene etc. I'm honestly not sure why they bother with adding a game to these interactive explosion sequences. I imagine they'd be better audio-visual interactive experiences if they just dropped the pretence of being a game, but I don't think I can properly comment as I'm not really the target audience.

I guess I'm just angry/jealous that there's a clear divide between these sorts of games and the other type, and that these ones are the most popular and get the most media coverage. But then arcade-style gaming has always being marginalised and counter-culture, ever since it's inception.

ANYWAY, what makes me most angry is that it promotes complete shite like this video. I'd like to think I'm not anti-intellectual in the slightest, but most of this video is complete bullshit. It's a review by Adam Sessler on "The last of us".





On the one hand, I can see what he's trying to say: "All of the greenery overtaking the man-made city really emphasises the survival aspect of the game and puts humanity's dominance/the idea of anthropocentrism into question". But by trying to be so elaborate, he's masked what he's saying.

Not only does it require a bit of through to actually process what he's saying, but I think it's really ambiguous! e.g. in that quote, from a straight reading, as far as I can tell he's saying that humanity's uncompromising ability to survive and focus on itself has placed it at the centre of the natural order... Yet he called it the 'fallacy of anthropocentrism', so he clearly doesn't think that? I don't know. Perhaps he should spit out the thesaurus and he might be able to make some sense? He even compares it to movies later, as if that's a worthy comparison to make.

But all of the reviews for 10/10 omg Bioshock and The Last Of Us are usually along these lines. "I loved the theme and the characters. I also liked that I only pressed a button 8 times during the whole thing. It's almost like a film without actually being a film! I played it on easy as I wanted to experience the story."

One day I imagine that one day they'll be some epic battle between both sides, and I hope that our flag is a tetris piece, y'know?

i.e. cinematic 'experiences' can jump in a fucking lake.

Brilliantly put Pod! I think similar thoughts but can't put them down as well as you have.

Will I have to do something as antiquated as buying an actual physical disk to play this? Or do I wait till it gets released for free on ps+ in 6 months time...

Just so we're clear, there's room in gaming for arcade experiences and cinematic experiences. Hell, gaming has lots of experiences.

Lets not write off cinematic gaming just because the press coverage is universally terrible these days.

And lets not forget that BeeX's favourite game of all time, Resident Evil 4, is a cinematic experience and just so happens to be gaming at its finest.

The pre-order digital copy on PSN is about £50 isn't it? It might be more. But look at Tomb Raider which had a couple of sweet discounts over the months after release (as low as £20/30 at various points).

Well, we'll have to wait until someone here actually tries it, but from what I've seen and heard, The Last Of Us, is not going to be another Uncharted 3, but will present a more gamey and sandboxey experience.

And to be fair to Bioshock, I don't think it fits into the cinematic genre either any more than, say, the original Doom, if it had had cutscenes once in a while (which it probably would have had, had it been possible at the time). Had. It does try to present a lot of options to the player, it just doesn't consistently provide a coherent or satisfaying gameplay experience.

That's a "good" comparison, since RE4 has brilliant combat and great level design. Even if has cinematic ambitions its story and dialogue are absolutely shit, but the game got deservedly good reviews because from a gameplay point of view, it's great.

Another in the same league, albeit a very inferior game is Gears of War. Shit characters, shit cutscenes and dialogue. Fun shooting (even if it lacks any kind of depth).

Arkham City hits the money note, does it not?

And Uncharted 2. Hell, I'd say Uncharted 3 was a pretty awesome cinematic experience too.

That sits nicely in the middle of the spectrum. The PUNCHING and JUMPING are really well implemented, and the Batman lore crap was alright.

Hang on, I'm totally disagreeing with this, man (albeit belatedly). The story, atmosphere and "cinematic experience" was awesome to start with. Rolling up with the cops, the first attack in the house, jumping out the window and getting attacked, the town? Everyone disappearing into the church? Meeting the presidents daughter? A master class of awesome.

It's only the second disc when the story goes a bit "Resi" but up until then it was a compelling story. Lets compare to Resi 6 where the "gameplay" was all shooting with no cinematic experience and fack all story and that was an utter bag of shit.

Should be getting my copy tonight. Woo!

I often read Tom Chick's reviews because his feelings and views towards games often resembles my own. (Though I think he enjoyed Tomb Raider more than I did -- he really likes collecting things, I think?). So it looks like I probablywouldn't enjoy this game.

You can always find a killjoy to dislike anything.

HYPE TRAIN WOOWOO

The Hype Train sucks.

Depends how fast the the HYPE TRAIN is going and which ticket you bought.

If you find the product is nothing like the HYPE TRAIN promised and it's going sufficient fast, then there's a mega HYPE TRAIN COLLISION which is utterly devastating and kills all enthusiasm for a product, causing you to go on Amazon and give it 0 stars. It'd have been less crushing to have heard nothing about the product and gone in with zero expectations. It might even have been an positive experience overall, had the HYPE TRAIN not being going full speed ahead. (aka 3 stars)

BUT if you've got a first class ticket on the HYPE TRAIN and believe everything the conductor says, then you might be ok when the HYPE TRAIN inevitably crashes. As you gave lovingly at your product, stroking it's cute little dimples, you'll hardly notice as you're flung from from the collision into the safety of a tree or something.


I bet Dr G is a first class member of the hype train?

HYPE TRAIN ABANDON RATIONAL THINKING

Seriously though;
A) I love Naughty Dog's other stuff, back as far as the Crash Bandicoot games on PS1
B) I love games in this survival horror / stealth / combat / puzzles mould
C) Almost everyone has given it 10/10, barring single-figures people who disagree. I'm not swayed by one or two high marks but when everyone loves it I think that's worth paying attention too.

This may be the best game intro I've ever played.

My Tesco order is "partially ready to despatch".
Partially?

Which bit are they struggling with?

I'm totally getting on the HYPE TRAIN. Choo-Choo! I might pick this up tomorrow now.

I've spent far too much on games recently. BUT I HEAR A TRAIN COMIN'!

I don't have a PS3 but I'm on the platform with my jotter ready to scribble down the Hype Trains number.

I'm on the train. I've got metro:last light to send back to lovefilm. An enjoyable enough story driven FPS. Deleting remember me off my rental list and leaving the last of us on until I get it. I bet I have it by Wednesday.

On a metaphorical train. Not a literal one.