Super Bunnyhop

I started off feeling a bit apprehensive about this video, but after seeing the last 2 games I ended up loving it.

I really want to get my hands on Punch Club, and I kinda want to read up on the Telepath games despite not being a huge tactical RPG fan. I might track down the developer's blog later on.

I've been listening to the That One Video Gamer podcast lately, which George is a big part of. If you're into podcasts and video games, it's pretty good.

Making Sense of Shenmue 3

edited 30th Jul '15 9:33:09 AM by YoKab

"Hundreds of Hours of Content"

I feel like with a lot of these games it's not intended for players to experience and see every little thing the game has to offer. I put 60 hours into Fallout: New Vegas. I experienced pretty much more than half of the overall game, yet I still felt like I played a full game, and was satisfied with them. Like it was stated in the video, each quest is kind of a self-contained story that doesn't really pertain to anything else outside of some small threads. So you're not missing out on anything vital by not doing them.

The important thing is that when you offer content in such games, the story structure needs to be consistent and coherant, which is a thing I think The Witcher 3 succeeded at. It's not a game where you're supposed to finish all of it.

edited 6th Aug '15 10:54:45 AM by YoKab

That is not really the point. The point is that all the side content in an open world game should feel both thematically appropriate for the world and tell a self contained story of its own, like an episode of a series. The problem pointed is that many games don't do that. They just create content for the sake of having more content. Content that breaks the immersion and don't really tells anything about the world or its characters. Fallout News Vegas, btw, was cited as a successful example, while your standard Ubisoft game, such as Watch Dogs, was an example of a failure.

I don't think it's as bad in Assassin's Creed's case though because you're not playing as Altair or Ezio or so, you're playing as a guy controlling Ezio and Altair from "the future" for the sake of helping a certain organization in that future.

The Framing Device is a good explanation for why they'd have so many historical docs for one, which would otherwise be seemingly pointless. Unless, say, you're like me and just like when Lore and Worldbuilding come together.

edited 6th Aug '15 11:29:07 AM by SaintDeltora

I actually got the point, just wanted to lay out how I feel about these types of games. Quantity needs to have a quality on its own, when you build a world you wil need to be good with the "thread and needle", a thing many developers tend to forget. Hopefully with these better examples showing up these days we'll see bigger companies considering.

edited 6th Aug '15 11:39:33 AM by YoKab

Fair enough, my bad.

Personally, I feel the video helped me to understand why I am not a fan open world games. Bunny Hop compared the best examples to a serialized show that you can watch out of order. Each episode/side quest is self contained but tells a bit more about the world its Seeing minor characters being introduced every side quest just to be forgotten immediately after is not particularly interesting to me, because I want to see how these characters interact and develop.

For me, the open world kind of game only really work if I have a party by my side. Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, etc. When I have a small cast of recurring characters with their own character arcs that develop through the game. In these, the side quests are still not that interesting on their own, but they also serve to flesh out how the different characters react in different situations.

Summing Up The Witchers

That made me want to read the books and play the game myself.

edited 4th Sep '15 3:23:41 AM by YoKab

I've been wanting to check out this guy for some time because he seemed like my cup of tea. Got a chance to watch his P.T. video and I think the guy has me sold with his presentation and humor (the opening gag had me), compared to the more hot-blooded fare I'm used to. Definitely gonna' check more of this guy's work. Thanks TV Tropes for reminding me this exists.

edited 21st Sep '15 10:17:10 AM by StarvingGecko

Well worth the wait.

I mostly agree with him, but I don't mind the Side Ops so much. I'm tired and found myself nodding off a bit during the video, but I enjoyed what he had to say.

Nice video.

Btw, I second the suggestion to go into Undertale without knowing what to expect. I did come into Undertale know some of the basics, but the game to have its way to surprise you with the simplest things. Just play the demo without knowing what to expect and you are golden.

Trust me, you really want to be blind, reading stuff on the internet spoiled my second playthrough and I concluded "I don't think I can enjoy this now". Once you know about the surprises, the charm is gone.

I am slightly surprised he did not mention Citizens of Earth since mentioned LISA.

I want to, but everything I do on the internet is done through my phone, the default (and unchangeable) download folder is on my nearly-full phone as opposed to an SD card, and the process of moving the file to my computer is more hassle than it's worth.

Bellyaching aside, George's recommendation has me a bit more curious about Undertale than before. Everyone's playing it, from Vinesauce to the Game Grumps, so I was feeling a bit ehh. Things get oversaturated after a while, and I've been sliding deeper into hipster-dom for years now. But with this and a Tumblr blog I've followed for a couple years being into the fandom and reblogging fan comics, I'm at least positively interested in the game.

I kinda like the direction he took, not outright making an Undertale video. The topic feels a bit flimsy considering how into Undertale he sounds when the topic does come up, like the rest was active padding so he could make the short less-spoilery Undertale section, but it's not bad

i've only seen his video on dark souls, but it was a very good video.

i'm going to watch the hundreds of hours one when i get the chance, but from what i'm hearing it seems like he and i are of the same mind. i honestly have never cared for open world as a design philosophy, exactly because they encourage a quantity over quality approach. give me 15 good, memorable npc's that feel like real people over 50 incredibly bland and lifeless ones. ditto for everything else.