@colonelkilgore on an unrelated note, it would convenient to be able to upvote thread comments without needing to reply, not that I mind either way, just here to extend the thumbs up back, ol chap 👍
Discord: yousef. (All lowercase with fullstop at the end)
Or message me in Xbox chat.
You can contact me just to say hi. <3
@colonelkilgore Actually, you are pretty spot on. The genre similarity is actually looser than it would seem at first glance. The ‘ancient treasure hunter’ setting is only one small piece of how each game functions. I suspect this will become even more apparent when the third franchise, Indiana Jones, releases its game this year. The setup and gameplay of IJ and the Great Circle looks distinctly unique from Uncharted and Tomb Raider, despite our temptation to put the three in one genre together.
I suppose it’s like saying Sea of Thieves and Assassin’s Creed Black Flag are in the same genre. Or Ghost of Tsushima and Nioh. I don’t know — there’s definitely a spectrum there where these games that share a setting can probably be lumped together sometimes but it can do a disservice to the finer points of the game.
Nevertheless, I have to admit, even though two games may share only a setting and may be very different mechanically, I usually don’t want to play them back-to-back because the atmosphere and backdrop of a game is one of the first things that attracts me to a game. So I wouldn’t follow Jedi Survivor with Star Wars Squadrons, merely due to my need for a change in scenery. I played Marvel’s Midnight Suns pretty quickly after Spider-Man 2 and I think it eventually took some of the shine off of the game to have so much superhero stuff all at once.
@Yousef- As luck would have it, the colonel has already claimed the title of “the gameplay king” but I suppose we can have a Queen of gameplay as well.
And I say that a game’s story is ever so slightly more important to me only because I just finished (and enjoyed) Life is Strange: True Colors and have a whole stockpile of walking sims, visual novels, and choice-and-consequence (Telltale/Quantic Dream/Supermassive) style games that I adore. If I really had to have good gameplay then I wouldn’t have liked any of those nearly as much as I did. And I don’t understand why I like video game stories so much. We have TV and movies for that. But I just do. For some reason gaming stories hit harder.
@Malaise I think with Lara, there’s been an attempt to reinvent the character a few times and so it’s created some discrepancy in her arc. Having multiple teams and creators attempt to tell her story has also made for an inconsistent feeling. I think that’s one area that Nate and company have which helps. If rumors are true and the next Uncharted is made by a team outside of Naughty Dog, it might end up having the same problem, although the change of main character is likely to soften the situation.
And that the irony, is that Tomb Raider’s greatest asset is Lara, and so the franchise is completely dependent on her. Without Lara Croft, it’s not Tomb Raider. Uncharted was able to have an (arguably better) game with a protagonist separate from Nate.
Lara needs to go on an adventure where she discovers a half sister in Ecuador and somehow gets another strong character in the mix. 😅
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
-The Order: 1886 is a top ten PS4 game for me.
-I like Evil West more than God of War: Ragnarok (but not as much as God of War 2018).
-I prefer Greek-era God of War to the Norse saga (but the new ones are still outstanding!).
-I like the Batmobile in Arkham Knight. One of the few vehicles I like in any game.
@Th3solution Glad to meet another fan! I so wish we had gotten a sequel to The Order.
Evil West is great! Very combat-driven, like a blend of modern God of War and modern Doom. The story is largely negligible, but the vibes are fun: vampires and werewolves in the old American west!
@BuddhaBabboo That’s a pretty useful comparison. It really has my interest now. For some reason I can’t differentiate Weird West and Evil West in my mind — both games came out around the same time, are smaller AA types of games, have very similar titles, are set in supernatural old West backdrops, both were fairly well received, and both came to PS+. Weird West is the one that look more like a crpg or Diablo type of game, which interests me less, so it’s Evil West that I need to check out of its like Doom meets GoW.
I’ve yet to play Ragnarok, but very much enjoyed GoW and Doom 2016 also. And the whole historical fiction setting sounds intriguing (kind of like The Order). Since I have Evil West in my library because of PS+ I need to add it to my backlog list.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
-I like the Batmobile in Arkham Knight. One of the few vehicles I like in any game.
Yup. And just overall, Arkham Knight was actually awesome to me. Asylum is still my favorite, but Knight is a very close second. Really satisfied me as an open world experience in a way that City never did.
Also kinda blows me away how good it still looks on PS4.
While I see a lot of people is choosing FFVII Rebirth as their GOTY so far. I don't think it's even close and I find the game has a lot of issues when it comes to story pace and unbalanced mini-games. It's fun game though but it's solid 8 for me.
@Khwarezm89 I'd back you on that - I've not yet played Rebirth, but I hear it still prevails in advocating a lot of the issues I experienced with Remake (long 'corridor' sections, tedious side-quests etc).
This year is a strange one for me in terms of GOTY.... previous years I've always been convicted about my 'personal choice', but so far I've yet to be blown away. I've really enjoyed the like of Balatro, Shadow of the Erdtree, Hades 2, Tekken 8 - and especially the new Prince of Persia - but none have wow'd me like previous years.
For reference, 2021 for me was Returnal (runner up Metroid Dread), 2022 was Elden Ring (runner up Immortality) and 2023 Baldurs 3 (runner up Lies of P / Mario Wonder).
I kinda hope Astro-bot wins 2024, or even the new Zelda perhaps... but its a pretty open playing field I think
Honestly, this has been a weird year for gaming in general. I feel like they frontloaded the first three or so months and its basically been almost a complete wasteland ever since, save for the odd indie or games that probably got more conversation than they would have if it was a more normal year (Wukong, etc).
It looks like some potential bangers are coming in the last three months of the year too, but I dunno what happened during the middle six or so months, there. Not really sure why publishers can't plan out their releases better, like the last couple of years where every publisher seemed to decide to release their flagship title for that year in February. Like come on everyone, spread your releases out.
My game of the year is probably Infinite Wealth, and that's crazy to me cause I am pretty sure I finished that at the end of January.
@CJD87 I didn't even mention how bad is the side quests in FFVII Rebirth . So far for me this year I think Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth surprised me and it was pretty awesome that it has became my first Yakuza title that I got a Platinum on. I started Astro Bot recently and I can see it as a GOTY contender. I hope Dragon Age The Veilguard as well will live to my expectations as a big DA fan.
@Khwarezm89 Yeah I wasn't a fan of the minigames generally - and the game was a bit of a slog during the Costa del Sol part especially due to this. And I can understand criticism about the story pacing, although I was enjoying myself too much to care.
Ultimately though the highs were just too high for this not to be my game of the year. Heck, I think it's my favourite Final Fantasy full stop. The world, the characters, the combat...I just don't feel anything else I've played in the series comes close.
Yeah to this day I dunno why Elden Ring and Breath of the Wild are held in such high regard by the same people who spit on an AC Odyssey or whatever. Both ER and especially BOTW still borrow heavily from the Ubisoft formula, but just have a lot less structure. And people seem to see that as a good thing, but I just feel like it makes you experience aimless. I think TOTK was better, but BOTW is just a lot of meandering through empty fields. ER is also a lot of meandering through empty fields, only you get one shot by an enemy off screen too. This isn't an upgrade to the Ubisoft Formula to me, its a poor imitation.
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