argyle wrote: ↑Tue Nov 14, 2023 2:45 pm
Mass market. Elden Ring & TotK are definitely outliers, they're insanely innovative and unique. Both of those worlds are just a joy to explore just to see what you find - not to collect the next widget or bauble to check something off a list.
I'm definitely not saying ALL open-world games, and I'd be a fool to say that the genre doesn't have room for growth or innovation, because it clearly does. The problem is that when most devs sink the amount of money that's needed to make a huge open world with the graphical level that most mainstream gamers require, they can't afford NOT to play it safe. Well, most can't. R* can do whatever they want to with GTA & it will sell like gangbusters, so I'm hoping they do something really fresh with the new one. And I'll be in for From Software's next open-world game day-1, whatever it is.
I think really my frustration is more with Sony than anything else. I was going to go through and check the stats, but I'm lazy, so I'll make my point and everyone here has been around long enough that you all know what I'm saying is true: Sony used to be the king of the offbeat game. They put out games in every conceivable genre on the PS1 - they even invented some genres, like the rhythm game for example. Tons of RPGs, action games, platformers - a first person platformer where you're a robot rabbit? Sure! A clown in an ice cream truck blowing the crap out of other cars? Yes! A pink-haired guy fighting pigs? Definitely. Introduce our new 2-joystick controller with a game about catching monkeys with a net? Oh, yes. This innovation carried into the PS2 days. It was still there with the PS3 and PS4 even, although there were signs that they were becoming more conservative. But this gen that creative spirit is just gone. The closure of Japan Studio was the signal that they had closed that chapter. I miss the Sony that got me back into console gaming. Maybe the change in leadership will bring some of that back, we'll see. In the meantime, indie games are filling that void for me.
OK, we're on the same page on both counts.
That second point is why I'm hesitant to buy a PS5. All that Japan Studio/wacky stuff was what made me a fan of Sony, and it seems to have largely dried up. Unfortunately, Xbox and Nintendo don't seem to be filling the void. It seems like no one wants to take the business risk of investing in an even a mid-tier game that's super wacky and different. I'm probably missing some of the more interesting indie stuff, but most of the time I see some game getting acclaim, it's a variant of a 2D Metrovania or the like. Nothing as wildly fresh as Loco Roco or Stacking or Patapon or Ape Escape or Katamari or Puppeteer or... on and on. It is a big bummer how things have gone since the PS2 era.
As argyle mentioned, and what both of you touched on is why I've drifted away from the current state of mainstream gaming, at least to a fairly significant degree. Gaming for me has always been about enjoying the passion projects of developers, developers that *wanted* to make something because it *interested* them, and that drive was easily perceptible in those games. It was clear (to me) that someone was making something that was born from a place of desire to create...to speak...to share, rather than just a desire to make money. And whether I ended up liking them or not, I respected them and enjoyed them as the curiosity they were even if they didn't resonate personally for me on a deep level. Indies still carry that spirit most of the time, and I find that their development is, more often than not, driven by that same creative fire that used to be more easily found in the mainstream space.
argyle wrote: ↑Tue Nov 14, 2023 8:18 amIt was late when I posted that last night, so to elaborate on Spidy a little...
It's a great game, very well done, extremely polished. I'm really digging the story, combat gets better as you unlock more moves (and kicking it down to easy didn't hurt...) and of course it's fun to swing around the city. There's nothing wrong with it, and anyone looking to pick it up will probably really enjoy it.
I think I've said this in the past, but I just feel like I'm getting burnt out on the AAA open world games. This is definitely one of the better ones, being an Insomniac joint, but still. These games are like summer blockbuster movies. They're tons of fun - and heck, some of my favorite movies are summer blockbusters. But after a while you just get burnt out on the spectacle and want something a little more nuanced.
I played a little of the first game, and it just seemed like a somewhat better version of the open world Spider-Man games that I played before. It failed to really grab me for that reason, because it basically felt like something that I had already played a few times before. I’m also not as big of a Spider-Man fan now as I was when I younger, or as big of a fan of super heroes in general for that matter.
As for AAA games and open world games, I’m just not into them now as much these days. I’ve been into more linear AA games, Japanese games and indie games lately. A lot of big budget AAA stuff now just seems to be made to appeal to the largest audience possible to make lots of money. Games made to primarily make money don’t tend to appeal to me as much since they’re usually aimed at a more mainstream audience.
I *have* been having fun w/ the Spidy photo mode...
"When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed
if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I
became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the
desire to be very grown up.” ― C.S. Lewis
Bought: Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (Jesus H Christ, I LOVE the title of this game, it's so dumb )
This week: Ok. I MIGHT get to play something this week. Maybe. Possibly. We'll see. It WILL be Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name if I get to play anything.
Hope all's well fam, I'll chime in a bit more next week with Thanksgiving getting here and getting a tad less professional responsibility for bit.
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