| Mnementh said: I have to say, I disagree with you on this one. Sony is in my opinion the least innovative they have been since entering console gaming. Just let me add: I don't think games like TLOU2 or Ghost of Tsushima are bad games, on the contrary. But they are games based on safe formulas. I also have to say, that Game of the Year awards are a bad indicator. That is because reviewers these days tend to prefer one pattern of game: games like movies with elaborate plots, awesome visuals and safe well-known gameplay finely polished. These games are fine - but if they always end up with the GOTY, it gets a bit predictable. For four years the game awards were won by the winner of the action adventure category, and all fit more or less the description I gave above: BOTW, God of War, Sekiro and TLOU2. Again, all are fine games, but where is the innovation, if it is always an action adventure, always with the same basic patterns of focus on plot and probably dark themes. One of the most innovative, risky and creative games of all time has to be Katamari Damacy. But I don't see todays reviewers showering it with GOTYs. More innovative or creative games of the last years are games like Minecraft, Undertale, Return of the Obra Dinn, Persona 5, Dragon Quest Builders, Untitled Goose Game, Among Us, Outer Wilds, Octopath Traveler. These games tried new things - in gameplay, plots, visual style. The likes of TLOU2 and God of War are great games, but not exactly innvoative, brave or creative, as they follow a formula that jibes well with reviewers.
And this is a joke of Ryan. Sony was in the past way more willing to support creativity. Gravity Rush, Loco Roco, Parappa the Rapper and the absolutely lovely Patapon. There are these games today? Sony just isn't willing to risk anything anymore. It's the next Naughty Dog game and Santa Monica game, which looks gorgeous, no question, but is playing the same formula. And because you mentioned Nintendo is about the fanservice. Actually Nintendo is doing all of this risky and creative stuff still today. Games like Arms, 1-2-Switch, Labo, Game Builder Garage or Ring Fit Adventure are showing off, that devs at Nintendo indeed have a lot of creative freedom to come up with new ways to play. A lot of it is hated by 'classic hardcore' gamers, because it is different, weird, quirky. But different, weird, quirky are exactly properties of creativity. And sometimes that ends becoming a Splatoon. But hardcore gamers usually love the more safe games they are used to, like TLOU2 and God of War. And reviewers are in the end hardcore gamers that play for a long time. But the reality of gaming these days is, that we have more and more gamers that don't fit that classic hardcore gamer box. They don't care if you now murder another human being with more realistic blood spatter, they want a fun exercise experience like Ring Fit Adventure, or feel their creativity with Minecraft or lie to their friends in Among Us. So, all your rant is telling me is that you are finally a hardcore gamers that looks down on all these new gamers that have fun with games taht you see as inferior. Welcome! I am a hardcore gamer for quite some time now and I know the feeling. But I also learned, that it is quite wrong. If people have fun, let them. And letting it go to see the inferiority in some games, I found stuff I loved as well and wouldn't have touched because of my core gamer instincts. EDIT: Oh, by the way, Death Stranding has indeed some interesting ideas, probably the reason it is hated a lot. |
First and foremost, I have a technical question: How did you do that with getting the quote box to appear in the middle of your post rather than defaulting to the top where you can't type above it? That could be very useful knowledge to have in the future if I wish to like quote from a news article sometime without having to use the spoiler boxes that hide the text unless you click on them.
Secondly, well obviously I'm a hardcore gamer or else I probably would be here on a dedicated forum about video games. Doesn't mean I've got something against casual games. I don't! I play a bunch of them myself! Crypt of the NecroDancer. Cadence of Hyrule. Flower. Proteus. Robot Unicorn Attack 2. Super simple games made to be played in short bursts; games designed for anyone to just jump right into and out of again on a whim. I get the appeal. I don't gauge a game's awesomeness in degrees of complexity! I'm also (obviously) not against Nintendo and can appreciate the cleverness of franchises like Splatoon and the childlike wonder of gimmicks like Labo. I do have personal limits with gimmicks though. Collecting amiibos, for example, is not for me. Well anyway, it's a fair point you make really. But it's also totally disingenuous to characterize games like The Last of Us Part II as a "safer" to make than these examples. You know what I'm getting at. Games like that don't just generate passive dismissal from core gamers or something like how many casual games are treated, they face active rage, up to and include death threats against the creators. Wii Sports never got that reaction, I guarantee you.
You have also followed many of my threads and know full well that honestly, in general, indies like Untitled Goose Game and Return of the Obra Dinn and Butterfly Soup and What Remains of Edith Finch and Spiritfarer and Hades and Undertale and There Is No Game and so on usually do tend to be my favorites. I don't know why you seem to feel that the existence, creativity, sincerity, and overall excellence of these games, however, should preclude me from also appreciating that of Naughty Dog's titles just because they fall into the AAA landscape. TLOU2 is one of the most audacious games ever made for only a million different self-evident reasons that we've discussed at-length on this forum innumerable times (typically with the conclusion of the thread getting closed) and you know it. It's just ridiculous and highly dishonest to suggest otherwise.
I feel that many of Sony's modern titles have a depth to them that the sorts of older titles you mentioned liking better from them didn't and that's certainly part of the appeal to me. I enjoyed Parappa the Rapper and Katamari Damacy as much as the next person, but it doesn't preclude me from also appreciating Returnal or Death Stranding even more. I see the latter sorts as boundary-pushing titles in ways that go a little deeper.
I'd keep going, but I've lost track of what it is we're even arguing about here because it's too stupid.
Last edited by Jaicee - on 27 June 2021
