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Donating my Xbox

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Re: Donating my Xbox

#51

Post by msabalau »

kenshi wrote: post #8
iMark wrote: post #7

I'm not a games developer, but I can relate to what Daniel wrote about game forms, after playing Bioshock Infinite. I love the game, but I did so mostly for elements of the design and story, rather than the game play. That it was an FPS connecting the story rather than a puzzle game, for example, was almost incidental to my enjoyment of it, and given the story, I think a series of Myst-style puzzles would have been a…

The reason I am not going to buy Bioshock Infinite is precisely because it seems like a pretty mediocre FPS, married to an interesting narrative and/or exploration game. Don't get me wrong, I love FPS shooters. So when I want to play one, I want it to be good. I also enjoy exploration games, and from what I have seen of Bioshock Infinite (I watched the ending and playthroughs on Youtube), it seems like it would have…

For what it's worth, I'm generally indifferent to the FPS genre, play them very badly, and still managed to gulp down this game in four evenings (on the least challenging setting). Approached this way, the gameplay simply becomes part of the emotional texture of the narrative.

Of course, a FPS connoisseur might find that their more refined knowledge of what makes a good game of that type breaks their immersion, in the way that (some) lovers of classical music find that they can't enjoy (some) popular music.

Bioshock Infinite does have exploration elements, you can hunt around for recordings and other evidence that reveal more about the background of what's going on. Oddly enough, for me, rushing in guns blazing seemed more in character, as opposed to carefully checking behind a store counter, seeing if there is something more I could learn.

Re: Donating my Xbox

#52

Post by jaimebuelta »

I totally understand him, as I am also "that kind of gamer". I don't have a taste for FPS and I've never owned a console. I play mostly on iOS devices, and before that, Flash games on the PC.

But let's not forget that those games are HIGHLY successful, and it clearly seems that there is a huge market for those. I am not surprised that some game companies (MS among them) treat those games like "the only true way". Fortunately, it looks like the gaming industry is expanding and other alternative games are also being created and are easily accessible... Probably the game industry will be more diverse and fragmented as a result, which is great for gamers with not a taste for blockbusters... But while enough people like to play violent FPS, the games are going to stay...

Re: Donating my Xbox

#53

Post by jasonpbecker »

I sympathize a lot with what was written. I grew up on the Nintendo consoles (my father got an NES from my mom for their first anniversary, which was less than a year before I was born). I really enjoyed playing games straight through my N64 I had as a young teen. But games after that lost a lot of appeal.

At the time I thought it was because I was growing up and just wasn't into it any more. Sure, I used to think spending hours playing Super Mario RPG, Diddy Kong Racing, Banjo Kazooie, or Megaman X was a fun afternoon. Maybe I just grew up.

But there have been a few games that have come out since that I have really, truly enjoyed. Games like Psychonauts, Portal, Pikmin, and maybe a few other non-P games (e.g., Twilight Princess which is a half-P). Increasingly I have begun to feel like I didn't stop loving games, the games I loved just didn't exist anymore or were too hard to find.

I like using a controller. I like playing something I laugh at. I like playing something that stitches together a few basic motions/controls in complex ways to challenge me. I like playing games that are fun with friends or fun for friends to watch you play.

So for now, I mostly try and keep an eye on indie games that are cheap on Steam that work well with an Xbox 360 controller (which is really quite nice) on my Mac Mini. Occasionally I come across something fun and well done. But whereas I could rattle off 50 games I would love to play with my kids one day that I consider "classic", almost none of them were created post-Xbox. That's a shame.

Re: Donating my Xbox

#54

Post by benihana »

unalone wrote: post #23
thomholwerda wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"When Halo came out"? As opposed to the endless steam of first person shooters that came before it that were even more straightforward, simplistic, and violence-driven? Blaming Microsoft for this is insane. There is virtually no difference between Wolfenstein and Doom on the one hand, and Halo and Gears of War on the other - except for better graphics. If you think this is a trend of the past decade, then you either…

Wolfenstein and Doom were simple, playful, colorful. Even as game devices became more powerful, there was a playfulness to FPSes that you can see in titles like Perfect Dark and the Unreal series. One of Halo's major innovations was that it removed the health bar. In a shooter like Doom or Goldeneye, you have let's say 100 HP, and different weapons deal a different amount of damage. It's just like any fighting game w…

>Wolfenstein and Doom were simple, playful, colorful.

You were in middle school when Halo came out, so I can be fairly certain you were too young to remember Wolfenstein and Doom being released. And you're completely wrong. Those games were not simple and playful and colorful. They were gory, and violent, and brutal and complex. I had to play them when my parents weren't paying attention because of the excessive gore and satanic overtones. Doom was not some simple little game, it introduced the concept of circle strafing and multi-level enemies in FPS.

>The jittery feeling of older games, where every shot counts and you always have to be on the lookout for your opponent

Ha, really? Quake introduced the term run-and-gun. You didn't make every shot count, you just fired a barrage of rockets and bullets all towards your enemies.

>Halo was "grittier" and less silly than previous shooters had been

Yeah, demons from hell with miniguns for arms and blood dripping off their fangs are super silly. And the those Covenant grunts run around comically when you throw a sticky grenade to them... so gritty.

Re: Donating my Xbox

#55

Post by hnal943 »

DanBC wrote: post #47
astar wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Halo was a standout because of it brought multiplayer to console, wasn't it the first console game to have 16 players? The coop campaign was also really fun. Maybe the article-writer thinks that Halo made FPS too mainstream? Unlike Doom/Quake, it was cleaned up enough in a pretty blockbuster-wrapper to make it the new model of gaming to follow?

Saturn Bomberman had 10 players for multiplayer. I'm not quite sure I follow OPs point. Playstation had a bunch of thoroughly unfun uncute games.

Absolutely. It was the PlayStation that first marketed itself as the system for hardcore gamers.

Re: Donating my Xbox

#56

Post by icebraining »

groovy2shoes wrote: post #44
unalone wrote: post #15

When I was a kid I hated the Xbox, hated Halo, and hated how it seemed to create a new model for playing games. It was released when I was in middle school, and I remember there being a sudden and abrupt shift in what kind of gaming mentality there was. Prior to the Xbox, console games were largely focused on lush, whimsical landscapes with mechanics that required some puzzling to figure out. At least, the games that…

Halo (at least the first one) wasn't completely serious. The Covenant often said and did silly things, as did your fellow marines if you shot them. The graphics were also more vibrantly colorful than any game in the Quake series. Microsoft even threw resources at Rooster Teeth for producing Red vs Blue, which is an absolutely silly and hilarious series. Halo 2 brought some of the best multiplayer I've ever seen on a…

I wouldn't define Portal as a "shooter"; it's a puzzles game which happens to use a weapon-shaped tool.

Re: Donating my Xbox

#58

Post by hnal943 »

mbrock wrote: post #29
unalone wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> God forbid other "bro types" enjoy games too. Being a bro isn't, like, something you're born into. It's a certain mentality, a certain way of approaching the world. And while I like many facets of bro-dom, and enjoy the hell out of sitting down for some Smash with a couple of friends and a six-pack of Yuengling, there are some bothersome things about bro culture which that particular category of game emphasizes. I…

Have you seen Punch-Drunk Love? The thing about that movie is that it takes Sandler's film personality, but abstracts it out from the context of blatant comedy and inserts it into a low-key tragedy, with the skill & taste of an auteur writer/director (Paul Thomas Anderson). It's quite wonderful, and now I'm thinking about what the equivalent for Halo would be. Maybe a game that brings out the tragic aspects of war --…

One of the things that attracted me to the first Halo series was the humanity of the writing. Halo (especially the first one) never glorified violence in the lore of the game. There is much lamenting the horrifying situation that Master Chief finds himself.

This is of course completely lost in multiplayer, but I'm not sure how you can blame bungie for the non-authored parts of the game.

Re: Donating my Xbox

#59

Post by hnal943 »

danabramov wrote: post #30
unalone wrote: post #15

When I was a kid I hated the Xbox, hated Halo, and hated how it seemed to create a new model for playing games. It was released when I was in middle school, and I remember there being a sudden and abrupt shift in what kind of gaming mentality there was. Prior to the Xbox, console games were largely focused on lush, whimsical landscapes with mechanics that required some puzzling to figure out. At least, the games that…

Born in 1992, I felt this way as well. I literally spent months playing Crash Bandicoot when I was 9-13 years old. When I finally got a computer, I realized I don't like the aesthetic of the newer games at all, and so got into programming without ever finishing a single game on the computer.

I'm sure now you've heard of the Lucas Arts adventure games, but that's definitely what you should have been playing!

Re: Donating my Xbox

#60

Post by icebraining »

danabramov wrote: post #30
unalone wrote: post #15

When I was a kid I hated the Xbox, hated Halo, and hated how it seemed to create a new model for playing games. It was released when I was in middle school, and I remember there being a sudden and abrupt shift in what kind of gaming mentality there was. Prior to the Xbox, console games were largely focused on lush, whimsical landscapes with mechanics that required some puzzling to figure out. At least, the games that…

Born in 1992, I felt this way as well. I literally spent months playing Crash Bandicoot when I was 9-13 years old. When I finally got a computer, I realized I don't like the aesthetic of the newer games at all, and so got into programming without ever finishing a single game on the computer.

There's no such thing as the aesthetic of newer games. Sure, there's a bunch of blockbusters which share a similar aesthetic, but there are (and were) plenty of different games.

The best sellers of 2001 (the year of Halo) were The Sims and Rollercoaster Tycoon; not exactly dark and violent games.

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