van HellSing on 11/6/2009 at 17:38
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
you probably wont finish it
How so?
Dresden on 11/6/2009 at 17:45
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
Guillermo del Toro recently talked about how gaming will eventually see its Citizen Kane. I doubt that we'll reach that plateau with either super linearity and/or ultra heavy scripting. As much as Designers like to try, the ingredients that work for film and written literature just never seem to gel properly.
It was called Planescape: Torment.
Dear Esther was nice, but the removal of the run key causes me a great deal of rage. Interactive books would be pretty neat though, like the next step past audio books.
Vivian on 11/6/2009 at 19:20
If removing the run key pissed you off, then you missed the point
june gloom on 11/6/2009 at 20:05
Quote Posted by Dresden
It was called Planescape: Torment.
I think the game has to also be fun to play. I'd suggest Deus Ex instead.
Koki on 11/6/2009 at 20:19
Quote Posted by dethtoll
I think the game has to also be fun to play.
I'd say I missed you, but I was banned as well.
Anyway, before game can be fun to play it has to be a game in the first place - and most of the artistê games out there barely qualify. Like The Path - it's as much a game as dating sims, where you just use one button to scroll the dialogue and up/down to select plot branch every half an hour. Dear Esther seems to be guilty of this as well.
Sacrificing all of gameplay for narrative is piss easy and anyone can do it. Combining both, now that's something very few games did well.
Stitch on 11/6/2009 at 20:30
Both you fuckers were banned? Christ, Gen Gaming was a three day slice of heaven and I didn't take the time to enjoy it.
Vivian on 11/6/2009 at 20:38
it's not a game, it's not trying to be a game, it's an immersive narrative. The point is that the environment you move about in resonates with the narrative as it unfolds, lending extra depth. In this case the semi-fantasised damp bleakness of the Hebrides matches the nihilism of a humanist facing the inevitable end of his love and his existence. The freedom to explore coupled with the realistically labored movement draws you in but leaves you feeling fragile and unimportant. There is no focal camera tracking your specific movemen as in a film, you are just there, and the rock and course grass are more than just backdrop, they are landscape. besides, most games have narratives that would stand up terribly if you stripped the 'game' part out.
Dresden on 11/6/2009 at 20:41
Quote Posted by Vivian
If removing the run key pissed you off, then you missed the point
Not really. I had no idea where I was going a lot of the time.
june gloom on 11/6/2009 at 20:59
Quote Posted by Stitch
Both you fuckers were banned? Christ, Gen Gaming was a three day slice of heaven and I didn't take the time to enjoy it.
I missed you too.
van HellSing on 11/6/2009 at 21:37
OK, finished. I was a bit afraid it might be disappointing as I somewhat hyped myself up for it yesterday.
It really is very good.
On the technical side, while the gameplay is indeed pretty much nonexistant (absolutely no interaction is required or even encouraged, and the physics are broken anyway), some old tricks are used (apparitions which disappear once you get close etc), it does manage to introduce some new things to the table - most of them having to do with the narration.
My favourite part was probably where you fall into that hole in the caves. This is an old trick that I've seen first in the original HL: control oveer the situation taken away for a moment, a brief shock signified by sound effects of the character breathing loudly etc - , but DE adds a whole new different level by foreshadowing it through the narration, at a moment when you're probably already wondering about the identity of the narrator(s).
And the story... I'll just say this: honestly, I hardly remember the last time I was this moved by a game.
