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Half-Life 2 isn't trying too hard.
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Beyond: Two Souls - Review Thread
- Thread starter DukeBobby
- Start date
Half-Life 2 isn't trying too hard.
Half-Life 2 has better writing. Storytelling 2stronk.
I completely disagree. What made Heavy Rain great wasn't the choices. It was how the story was told (direction) as well as the emotions the plot evoked. The script wasn't all that great but it captured the mood nearly perfectly and took us to such emotional highs. The dramatic focus helps establish some of these feelings.
"THIS IS BULLSHIT! THIS IS NOT A GAME!!!!!"
6/10
But you could say the same thing for most games out today. Take for example most linear games such as Uncharted (3 has similar horse chase) and Tomb Raider. Do they really give you that much freedom to roam around in the environments that hasn't been designated by the programmer as in that scene show?
It is disjointed, awfully paced, has no conflict or anything until the latter part of the game. Most of things you see and play have no meaning to the story and can be easily regarded as fillers. It's a paranormal slice-of-life anime with some action in the mix.
EmptySpace
Banned
gametrailers 7.2
http://www.gametrailers.com/reviews/7s2qid/beyond--two-souls-review
kotaku yes
http://kotaku.com/beyond-two-souls-the-kotaku-review-1442368071
forbes 9
http://www.forbes.com/sites/games/2013/10/08/beyond-two-souls-review-paranormal-interactivity/
the verge no score
http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/8/4814072/beyond-two-souls-review
pushsquare 8
http://www.pushsquare.com/reviews/ps3/beyond_two_souls
joystiq 2.5/5
http://www.joystiq.com/2013/10/08/beyond-two-souls-review-bc07eda2/
You're absolutely right. "Game" open to interpretation, anyway. The real issue here is that storytelling through the medium is continually taking steps forward and steps back. The problem with games like Heavy Rain and Beyond comes from the fact that they are trying to be an interactive movie. In a general concept, there is nothing really wrong with that. It's a new medium. It may be a "Video game", it may not, whatever.
The problem comes from the standards we apply to that new "medium". I'm sure as hell going to hold a game like that up to a higher standard in narrative and character development than I would, say, Grand Theft Auto, where most of the fun and excitement is coming from the gameplay and not the story. And that's the real issue. I've seen enough movies and read enough books that I know Heavy Rain has a contrived, boring, and unemotional story, only saved by it's novel factor and the fabricated illusion that you are in control of a character.
If gaming wants to evolve as a medium that can tell great stories, one must either
a) seamlessly intertwine the narrative in with the gameplay, by weaving a simple yet provocative story that mirrors the gameplay elements (The Last of Us is a pretty good example, although I'm not a huge fan of it's gameplay, to be honest)
b) make some sort of role-playing game with a fully-fleshed out world. I think this one's pretty obvious.
or
c) commit to a fully-fledged story-driven interactive experience (a la The Walking Dead). For this one, your studio better have some damn fine writers, artists, and designers to make a game that has interesting characters, an intriguing story, an excellent pacing. That last one is damn near essential to an interactive videogame, methinks, and an issue I feel like Heavy Rain really missed the boat on (especially in the last half of the game).
My point is, Quantic Dream is obviously going for option c. The problem is that they don't have the talent to make that a reality, and everyone's going to hold their game up to the standard's of a film.
Yeah man, his games are so shit and his career is so over that he's making another game on the PS4 and advanced his gameplay from No More Heroes, strange stuff.
"You like games that focus on story,drama and hollywood spectacle?then David Cage gives you more of it." While severely making it less of a game.
"You like games that have QTEs?Then David Cage gives you more of them." While severely making it less of a game.
"You like automatic,streamlined gameplay?Then David cage gives you more of it." While severely making it less of a game.
"David Cage takes overly scripted and overly cinematic moments like these and takes them one step further by making them even more feel like movies" He takes many steps" forward" by removing almost the entirety of the gameplay in those.
thehypocrite
Member
True. If only the fans did the same thing.
Similar to a movie this game might fall victim to the mood of the reviewer at the time. These games are short and I imagine for many reviewers, is played in one session. Whereas a game like GTA V and pretty much every game for that matter they would play over many days and so the experience would encompass several moods of the reviewer.
The more snooty auteurs we have around, the more people realize that snooty auteurs are like zits during this industry's adolescence. They'll appear whether you like them or not, and most of them will fail and be ostracized.
Can we finally be settled on the fact that David Cage can't make actual GAMES? He is nothing more then a silicone valley wannabe who sees bigger money in the gaming industry then in movies and is riding that train all the way to the station and gamers are actually buying into it.
We universally roast games like Ryse on a spit for being QTE fests with no substance yet this game is just "divisive".
We universally roast games like Ryse on a spit for being QTE fests with no substance yet this game is just "divisive".
I'm not sure what half of the reviewers were expecting from a David Cage game... It's not really a surprise it's more like an interactive movie after his previous games, nor is that a bad thing really...
Not to mention, you seem to be holding Heavy Rain to far higher standards than even the movie industry. Most movies don't have amazing stories, and yet, they still get funding, and aren't down right panned.
That is rather subjective though. I mean, Heavy Rains story had it's flaws, but I don't think it was bad, unemotional, or boring.
Not to mention, you seem to be holding Heavy Rain to far higher standards than even the movie industry. Most movies don't have amazing stories, and yet, they still get funding, and aren't down right panned.
Deified Data
Banned
Mixed reviews or no, I'd rather play this than your average AAA 10/10 blockbuster.
I won't be playing either of those things, though.
I won't be playing either of those things, though.
I really enjoyed Heavy rain, watched the IGN video review, and the Gamespot video review, the Gamespot 1 is 10x better with alot more context to what is going on and evidence to what he is saying, the IGN review is the worst I have seen in a long time from IGN, Lucy is good in the podcasts but damn that video review was very very poor and not because of her opinion, but based on its content, monotone and lack of conveying her distaste.
Well I'm not surprised about most of the scores, HR wasn't good at all, even as interactive show it wasn't good and the story (which is the only thing left) was just bad, this is Cage again and he seems to not want to change his style of making "games" so this was very expected.
I think Sony need to drop QD after this immediately, it's really sad to see them throwing millions and millions on Cage for him to pretend to be a movie director instead of giving the money to their own studios it's just bad thing to do and kinda unfair.
I think Sony need to drop QD after this immediately, it's really sad to see them throwing millions and millions on Cage for him to pretend to be a movie director instead of giving the money to their own studios it's just bad thing to do and kinda unfair.
Ummmm...you can go 50 different directions in Tomb Raider at times.
Ok, maybe not 50...but after the initial setup...you can go all over the place...and approach situations in many different ways. Yes, it has very linear moments...but it also has very open areas you can approach from multiple angles. You can also backtrack everywhere.
(You're also somewhat free at times in TLoU too)
v0mitg0d
Member
Hola!
Ok so here is my 10 second (Tweet) review. Before you ask, yes I really enjoyed Heavy Rain.
Beyond Two Souls: A insecure game looking for itself around every corner. It runs, stumbles, smiles, and then leaves w/o saying goodbye.
It has its moments where it's really great, but those moments are too few and far between the sort of boring ones. The game isn't bad, its just 'pretty good' and not wonderful or awesome. Remember, this is just my humble opinion--you might love this game.
Ok so here is my 10 second (Tweet) review. Before you ask, yes I really enjoyed Heavy Rain.
Beyond Two Souls: A insecure game looking for itself around every corner. It runs, stumbles, smiles, and then leaves w/o saying goodbye.
It has its moments where it's really great, but those moments are too few and far between the sort of boring ones. The game isn't bad, its just 'pretty good' and not wonderful or awesome. Remember, this is just my humble opinion--you might love this game.
ReturnOfTheRAT
Member
Can't wait to play it.
BEYOND isn't CallofDuty-enough! ;P
GravityMan
Member
If there's one game that makes Metacritic's metascore useless, it's this one. For most games, an "average" in the low-mid 70s would mean that the game is mediocre, since about 80-85% of the scores are in that ballpark and the remaining 15-20% are outliers.
But for Beyond, there is no consensus at all, scores seem to pretty evenly cover the spectrum between 4/10 and 10/10. For those on the fence, this game is probably a perfect candidate for Redbox (or wait to buy it at a deep discount)...you just want to try it for yourself without dropping $60 on it.
Edit: I'm getting the impression that Cage is trying too hard; we'll see once I play it.
But for Beyond, there is no consensus at all, scores seem to pretty evenly cover the spectrum between 4/10 and 10/10. For those on the fence, this game is probably a perfect candidate for Redbox (or wait to buy it at a deep discount)...you just want to try it for yourself without dropping $60 on it.
Edit: I'm getting the impression that Cage is trying too hard; we'll see once I play it.
Your definition of a game is what's going to hold the medium back. Do I think David Cage's work is immune from criticism? Absolutely not. But only thinking a game can be game if it does x, y and a bit of z is detrimental to the whole medium.
No, not yet. Need to see at least 50 more games first.
DR2K
Banned
His games are successes, Sony is kind of short on that for their first parties.
Can we at least settle on the definition of a "game" being where the actions of the player actually have some tangible influence over anything? Instead of a one button prompt to queue a scripted event, where each choice doesn't really deviate that much from the overall plot. That's no better then turning the page of a book just to find out how the story continues.
brickarts295
Member
shadowsdarknes
Member
These lower scores sort of make me want the game more.
I personally do not care what these big websites think oabout games.
I personally do not care what these big websites think oabout games.
dragonbane
Member
Controls are fine. Really not a problem.
Actually it is Jodie above everything else. Her character is the central focus, the story serves her.
Sterling is a tool. His emotion and polygon video should have told you yo never take him seriously with this game.
Well, to be devils advocate, most games don't have tangible influence over what happens. You either don't do the actions and the game just stays at that same point/you fail, or you do the actions and proceed. Very few actually give you 'choice' in what happens.
I think they're trying to say the impression of a wide-open space is completely undercut as soon as the player tries to use that space. The execution for that particular stretch seems sort of ham-fisted. The amount of interactivity (in the sense of any player control at all) looks superficial. There is a point at which I think it's fair to call out a videogame not being an interactive experience.
ComputerMKII
Banned
David Cage summed up his wave of reviews before they even went online: "Different people, different tastes, different games."
Yeah, I found that odd too. Having not played the game yet, I can't say much about the rest of his review, but I definitely think he's wrong about the graphics, at least from what I've seen.
Absolutely not. By giving a definition to "game" in respect to video games we will be limiting ourselves to new and interesting experiences. Film has already been forced to establish certain norms, like length of time, narrative flow etc., and I certainly don't want games to go down that road. In the end if you really don't like the direction of a certain game you could simply not buy it or play it instead of trying demonize people who do.
James Sawyer Ford
Member
Reviews are expected, polarizing, but overall good.
I haven't read through all of them -- are there any reviewers that liked Heavy Rain but were disappointed in Beyond?
I haven't read through all of them -- are there any reviewers that liked Heavy Rain but were disappointed in Beyond?
Anaitgames (spanish blog): 7/10
http://www.anaitgames.com/analisis/analisis-beyond-ps3
http://www.anaitgames.com/analisis/analisis-beyond-ps3
dragonbane
Member
"Environments are bland, and overall the visual quality fails to stand out in this day and age."
Sure Sterling. What a hideous looking game. Also he is hypocritical considering he wrote this at the beginning:
"It demonstrates, beyond doubt, that Hollywood actors, cutting edge-visual technology"
Seems like he just wanted to reduce the score a little bit more, so he had to find something.
That's some spin there :lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbJPWNme9Ws
Adam Sessler suggests that Beyond is actually more of a game in his eyes than Madden. Oh dear.
When did I demonize anyone? I'm simply saying if you want to refer to it as a "game", you're certainly welcome to do that, but to make such a claim is certainly debatable at the very least. We're perfectly content with putting visual novels into a separate category but not something like Beyond?
Adam Sessler suggests that Beyond is actually more of a game in his eyes than Madden. Oh dear.
When did I demonize anyone? I'm simply saying if you want to refer to it as a "game", you're certainly welcome to do that, but to make such a claim is certainly debatable at the very least. We're perfectly content with putting visual novels into a separate category but not something like Beyond?
sublimit
Banned
Shit is still shit regardless of quantity.
Yes he removed the pew pew from these games while he also gave you more cinematics and QTEs."OMG David Cage doesn not make games!!!!"
Fine Ham Abounds
Member
Oh, I wasn't criticizing you, I was just commenting in general. I know those things get fixed in short order, one of the best things about wikipedia.
"Environments are bland, and overall the visual quality fails to stand out in this day and age."
Sure Sterling. What a bland game. Also he is hypocritical considering he wrote this at the beginning:
"It demonstrates, beyond doubt, that Hollywood actors, cutting edge-visual technology"
That screenshot does not do you any favours. And there's also a different between the the visual technology (he means the faces) and the visual quality (he means the textures).
karasu
Member
Since when was the medium being held back?
SargerusBR
I love Pokken!
Where's the Giant Bomb review?