they’ve been wrong about two open world games being bad in a row. Soon a third time!
Unironically though most gamers are far too reactionary to have good takes on art. Like it or not, all media is artistic, and reactionaries are intrinsically unable to process art in a way that is productive for discussion and which contributes to its culture. Gamers shouldn't talk about games because they actually don't have a meaningful relationship with the content they consume
how would one go about creating a meaningful relationship with content
considering the cultural context of the content you consume and what you actually prefer is probably the first and last step to that
This first part might seem banal, but when you approach content try and discern in as concrete terms as you can what you feel about that content and why, and then examine those reasons. Does this game grab you because it's mechanics are interesting or it has a nice art style? Do you like the narrative? What is it about those aspects that you like and dislike, and how does that inform your perspective on the whole? Is there personal bias coming into play? I, for example, am an art geek and really need to have good aesthetics in a game in order for me to think highly of it; but ultimately what counts as good aesthetics is informed by my broader artistic sensibilities. Again this might sound simple, but lots of gamers can't say much more than "I think the gameplay is nice" and then fail to consider how or why the gameplay captivated them.
The second part is a bit more intellectual, but I recommend learning and practicing media analysis. Media analysis is important form an individual perspective because it allows upi to not just consider what you liked and why, but also place the work in broader context and make evaluations based on that. To use an example, the Star Wars prequels are an absolute wreck of a movie series that deserve to be panned for all the reasons they are. And yet, out of the entire series, they lay the foundation for some very poignant criticisms of liberalism and contain the most adult story in that sense. Yeah it's a bloated trilogy with corny ass lines, but there's also an undercurrent there you can discern out that has value and could have been executed on better. Being able to understand what art is about, not in a surface level rote recitation of its plot but rather what it's themes and motifs are and how it constructs these aspects or what these aspects actually serve to be in the final exection of the plot, that's all really important stuff you never see gamers do. And missing all of that, missing what a work is really about being "this is it's story" means you're leaving so much behind about a work that you just aren't looking at and appreciating.
You don't have to look at every game through that lens. Some of my favorite games amount to me loving the art style and the ludonarrative experience they have more than deep theme or whatever. But, what we like and why tells us a lot about ourselves and in a lot of cases also the culture we see the world through. Some of my favorite play experiences say a lot about me when you look at them from a specific angle, but to see that angle you need to first be willing to analysis a piece of media and your own relationship to it. Art isn't a thing where you go "oh yeah that's pretty" or where you go "yes I know what the story behind this painting is". Art is something that you cultivate a personal relationship with, to the point where you might start saying stuff like "I like how pretty this is" and understand why that is and what that means for you personally. You don't have to be deeply enthralled by everything, but you're better served being able to look at your own point of view on media cititcally, and also on the media itself critically
Cyberpunk 2077 is a really good walking sim. Maybe I'm easily impressed but I really dig how all the neighborhoods look different. There will be different ambient sounds too. I dunno I like cool environments and huge buildings. Some parts of the map seem like a real future city layout.
They have done A LOT of work making the environment have npcs and shit. It was eerie for so long because there was essentially nobody in it but copies of copies of the same NPCs block after block and there was only ever a sparse handful of them. I guess the visual and sound design of the literal city has been good.
Was looking at mods for Cyberpunk last night and I'm assuming Projekt Red didn't include tools for people to make their own story content so it's just a bunch of costumes and AI fixes.
I periodically check the updates to see if they've made accessible tools for user created content.
Ironically, i installed the PS5 version and it's running stably. It's kinda fun, hacking people and stealth killing, but like, I cannot get hype after the shitshow of installing the previous version and having it crash every hour.
what open world games are you talking about op, i genuinely have no clue i haven’t kept up with new releases in a while
breath of the wild - turns out good legends are us - turns out good sonic frontier ? I wonder??
v excited for sonic frontiers. sometimes you just want to run
this one was also good. they had a bunch of original songs about being friends with sonic and you listen to them as you're being friends with sonic
Bruh they created the main villian Infnite to the be the edgiest sonic villian in all of history. He was so absurdly edgy that somehow it caused an integer overflow and he became cool again. Then they said he did all this shit for Eggman because shadow called him weak once.
In a dlc :angery:
Forces Tails when encountering Chaos 0: "Help me sonic Im too weak."
Younger Tails when encountering chaos 3: "UNLIMITED POWER!!!"
i stopped giving a crap about sonic plotlines after adventure 2. at a certain point you gotta accept that things are never gonna get better
Thats the thing, the character customization and the wisps powers were cool but the levels are all extremely short. It feels like if you blink you'll miss the gameplay. Do even need to mention classic sonic? Also the whole war aspect was implemented into the gameplay worse then an ubsoft game ffs. I hate that this game makes me want to play Shadow the Hedgehog instead.
I thought he was supposed to be a foil for the create-a-character; a random goon who got lucky and powered up with a magic artifact. Him being a paper tiger is very much on purpose.
If they really wanted him to be a foil the simplest way to do that would've been to make the custom character have some sort of relation to him. Likely being apart of the squad he had. Imagine the custom character being his tails and he gets possessed by the phantom ruby protecting them? Im not the first person to bring something like this up it seemed to be a common assumption of where the story was going. It was the idea that there seemed to be something like that behind his edge that made him appealing to so many people. I just don't understand how a character like how Infinite is now could ever be considered remotely interesting in a series were actually cool edgelords like Mephilis are not hard to find. Infinite is basically just a wallmart version of ChakraX's Nazo.
