What are you currently playing?
Oct 17, 2016 3:18:05 GMT
Obsidian Gryphon, Hrungr, and 2 more like this
Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2016 3:18:05 GMT
Finished Rise of the Tomb Raider, had plenty of fun with it. Optional tombs are top notch. Loved the acrobatic puzzles of the Orrery, great aesthetic and fun to solve. The gladiatorial battles that followed border on Souls-esque, making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Wow wow wowie.
Mafia 3
There’s a charming, if somewhat two-faced allure to the life of a gangster. Well-suited men with bourbon and a brand new car, tied to the criminal underworld they’ve wandered in to earn it. The excitement of sin, and the luxuries of its reward. While Hangar 13’s preceding story is a familial tale of Italian stallions, Mafia III branches into something a bit outside the norm for number three. Instead of donning the Fedora Fantasy, we get an outsider being hurled into the criminal world, and an appropriately unconventional solution out is built in the process. While Vito and Clay do share some narrative tropes, how both of these stories play out are hardly the same; Our “hero” hasn’t exactly grown up into a family of crime, but the path taken draws a strange line in that eminent domain. Incidentally, the era used to tell a story of rebelling against deep-rooted regimes couldn’t have been more apt.
The 1960’s have been popularized as a transitional time between the chic innocence of its opening years, to a radical exploration of culture and reform; If you’ve seen Mad Men or Forest Gump, there‘s little need for further explanation. Our locale’s the fictional New Bordeaux, and the inspirations for it lean very close towards the historical. Besides obvious allusions to the bayous and smalltown feel of New Orleans, I’ve spent enough time in downtown Detroit and Pontiac to notice NB’s particular parallels of that well-worn urban look, down to the mid-city tunnels with sepia lighting fixed on the top. Little details like backpacks strapped to the tops of cars help bring some authenticity to the time as well. This sort of chronological replication has grown quite a bit in gaming trends, if in due part to the Assassin’s Creed franchise and GTA5’s intricate detailing of western cityscapes. But New Orleans does bring a very different flavor to the table, Mardi Gras galas included; Anyone who’s played the last game should be familiar with the team’s flair for building a sense of place, but this stems beyond visual indicators while driving around town.
Somewhere in the last few paragraphs, I neglected to mention the full name of our leading man, Lincoln Clay. A name like Lincoln’s a bit on-the-nose, but it’s my only criticism for the character - he’s managed to become one of my favorite personalities of the year. Past & Present, This is a man who’s been regularly tossed into what would normally scar a man from the inside; With time spent in the horrors of war from Vietnam, a semblance of morality’s been tied to a militaristic background that guides his particular style for justice. It holds a vague liking to the PTSD Counter-Revolutionary from Rambo: First Blood. You know, before doing Action Hero sequels and when the premise was half-interesting? This, combined with being of African-American race during a pivotal time of racial reform and equality makes Clay a bit of a Wild Card to the Mafiosos.
Facilitating most of this story are the cinematics, which are *Mwah* spot-on. It’s clear as day that Hangar 13 have an appreciation for cinema: Strong attention to lighting(especially the Sal Marcano scenes), good use of focus change, and solid cinematography. The quality animation for the character cinematics are pushing the boundaries for mocap, presumably without using an Ultra-Expensive studio similar to Rockstar’s in last generation’s L.A. Noire. A twist of the mouth from a smirk, the wrinkling of lines in a forehead, and even the reflections off teeth; These sorts of details bring to life something that would otherwise seem like just *another* piece of dialogue thrown into the Unspeakable-Cthuhlu-Mocap-Automaton that developers unremittingly churn around in the deeper recesses of cubicle space.
Ah, but what are these cinematics doing though? Beyond filling in gaps in the 1968 story, Mafia III drops the chronological framework in light of something closer to a documentary…
…which takes place at least as far as 1999? What on earth went on in the game for the timeframe to last three decades long? It’s an intriguing thought, one of several pieces to the foreshadows of film. Seems they’ve found a healthy mix between a Search-For-Facts Investigator, a sense of humanity from Father James, and the lore-building, toenail-clipping shenanigans of one Mr. Donovan. Back to the past, the greatest part I carried from the story told was how they built into the characters. The antagonist is *still* an asshole, but his change in agenda mid-game makes for interesting commentary on the protagonist himself, particularly due to Clay’s stance after-the-fact. Many of the “Boss” cinematics give you a glimpse into how they’d been strung along(or willingly joined), sometimes reflecting what Clay might become. Few of the people in this game on either side could qualify as “Good”, but characters with clear-cut Good-and-Evil personalities are rarely compelling.
Rise-To-Criminal-Glory stories aren’t anything new, but the type they’re doing here feels altogether different. Maybe like me, you’ll notice there’s something a bit *off* that the only way to bring down a kingpin involves eerily similar tactics to how that kingpin rose up in the first place? It’s not that obvious at first, but it creeps up soon enough; I’ve little doubt that was part of the developer’s intent. Is this “The good life”? That’s up to you, and vicariously…
Playing a game for narrative still requires you to *play* them, so what are we doing to find all this out? After undisclosed events for the sake of not spoiling the game(or at least any further), the game “Opens up“. This greater focus on open world in Mafia III allows Clay to conquer and command the villain’s own crew, and break it down piece-by-piece. Do enough damage to an Underboss’ business, he comes out of hiding. Kill a few Underbosses to reach *the* boss, and the empire falls from within. Are the smaller objectives to get to these sections worth the trouble? I’ve found myself mixed on this subject. Games like Witcher 3 and GTA5 seem to have a consistent quality in both smaller oddjobs and larger main quests when it comes to open world design. I hate to say it, but Mafia III leers closer to Dragon Age: Inquisition where it’s clear that the qualitative hierarchy has greater focus on certain key missions, and is a bit weak on the rest.
Let me start with the good on questlines. The “Boss” missions are really well done, with around 10 of them in the game. These manage to find creative ways in blending parts of New Bordeaux and the boss characters: Two later missions in particular involve the best use of a Video Game Steamboat I’ve seen to date(probably the first?), and the other has the sort of dark intent for game goals that feels like they were ripped out of a Hitman game.
Back to the mixed stuff. The locations are new, but many of these story quests early on boil down to either kill or interrogate, and most of them feel very bare bones in terms of interesting activity after the first time. The Associate Quests similarly suffer from being essentially the same bloody objectives - the dialogue between them adds *quite* a bit to the characters, but the gameplay‘s eventually going to get dull if done in succession. Occasionally you’ll get speech banter mid-mission in story quests, but it often boils down to killing your way to kill your way *further* to victory.
I’m not necessarily saying it has to be an ultra-scripted sequence - I can play Mario 3’s Many-Houred obstacle courses just fine without a high word count, and I‘m given enough context beforehand to know why I‘m killing these terrible dudes. But there’s just not enough to separate so many of these Kill/Interrogate/Steal sequences: The AIs are near identical, and most indoor locations can feel exactly the same. I think it worked much better for GTAV: They’d found ways to make every mission memorable through either a major set piece, a new idea, or *something* more. Even the finest wine’s going to get old if you drink it nonstop, and I think the whole repetitively-bashing-your-way-to-better-things may be Mafia III’s greatest caveat.
To be fair, the gameplay is far smoother than their previous incarnation of Mook, and H13 have seemingly become experts at blending setting-exclusive bits as part of its gameplay. I’d battered down small winery shops tied to the mob, set explosives to radioactive moneymakers, and killed a laundry list of kinky VIPs by the final mission. The game needs more of these newer types of objectives, and its first half is especially lacking that special something.
Made Man Vito Scaletta’s style of fighting was identical to his foes: Duck and Cover, and Tommy Gun. On the other side of the bayou, Clay seems more privy to stealth - its first debut in the series. Not entirely sure how I feel about this Drakeonian take on hiding in the shadows though, and I think it’s due to a lack of challenge. A la Uncharted, you’ll get Button prompts to takedown your foes which can be done while in or out of cover. In one too many cases, level design and a liberal AI vision simply allow too much opportunity to not get caught. It’s very rewarding, but also very easy.
Most of them tolerate 2-3 seconds in clear view before trying to even search for you. Even instances where I’d violently stabbed one of two people next to each other, the other wise guy barely bats an eyelash. Even if he *does*, most will give you that “surprise” gesture from V:tmB and enough time to eviscerate him without alarming the others. Combine this with some indoor levels that keep line of sight to a minimum, and you have a rewarding stealth system that can sporadically linger on effortless for the player. Instead of continually painting a picture through verbal generalizations, here’s my successful first try in confronting a bad guy without firing a single bullet:
You’re not alone in this game, and Mafia III makes great use of it. The leadership is as wide-ranging as the fictional melting pot it’s centered in, and adds a long list of, eh, let’s call them “RPG Elements”. As you make your merry way from one cesspool of racketeering to another, you’ll gain some nifty swag from your underdog comrades, “Associate Benefits” - I.e. a van as a means of mobile gun-shopping, and a “Consigliere” who stashes away the blood money. Since you’ll lose it all when health reaches 0, it’s a wise idea to either conceal it post-mission, or spend it at the gun shop. Interesting though is that as you get farther in the game, you’ll have to choose a shift of power to one racketeer leader, and leaving others in the dust can have serious consequences. Playing favorites multiple times in a group of ruffians is not the easiest experience, and it certainly props up the idea of Realistic Mafia Management - they even took the time to alter racket “Confront” dialogue if you’d ignored one person but set them up for something smaller.
So despite it sounding like half of this review was tetchy towards the gameplay, this is one of the better AAA games of the year. Thing is, these games still exist in an industry that’s constantly pushing the envelope toward greater content. As with DA:I, I don’t see every mission as consistently superb. Still, I think it’s clever in its use of story to get players wondering if that type of life is worth fantasizing about in the first place, but from an initially *reverse* role? The characters tow an interesting spot between our moral compass, and H13 naturally paints a vivid scene of what virtual new Orleans would be like.
I fed people to gators, 10/10. (Still a better love story than No Man's Sky)
Yume Nikki. A very strange experiment in psychological horror that relies on retro-phantasmagoric imagery and a type of open sandbox design that feels just as unbounded as the dreams you're wandering in. One visual trait of the game is a clear influence to a later game, and the observant will find items that were also paid homage to. Playing it at night using headphones is, well... good luck with that. lol (Worth pointing out that the game is free to boot)
Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.
Sipped from the Dark Side this round: While I’ll never be a big fan of the original combat, Force Storming 8 people at once is a very satisfying experience - the dark robe and violet blade doesn’t hurt, either. Recruited Hanharr & Disciple, and built HK for the first time - his banter with G0T0 was payment enough for the effort.
Similar to how Kreia uses you to rebel against the unseen forces of fate, KOTOR2 uses the games’ mechanics in very subversive ways; Party members fighting in conflict with their own belief systems is a cognitive dissonance of Role-Playing games that I’m sure dates back to BG and earlier; The game tackles this both in light of its protagonist and one of its main themes. Her viewpoint on leadership(among other things) is a degree of pragmatic spoken so casually that it still makes me a bit uncomfortable - or is that discomfort from truths we’d rather overlook? Wisdom is not always the kindest friend, and perhaps others prefer and welcome more joyful company instead.
Manipulation is a common word in her language, but its meaning isn’t the predictable “big baddie pulling strings for the sake of power“ bit we see very often in storytelling. Virtually all actions can manipulate in smaller ways, so does one’s intent factor *that* much if the outcome is the same? Besides video gaming, I’ve been reminded of this often in real life. Every day of work is one less that someone else could’ve filled in, ergo one’s own existence is a barrier for someone else’s pursuit of employment; Things we take for granted can have larger ramifications than one might expect.
A while back, I said “Most Stories entertain, some impress, but few can humble you.” This is true, but there can be far more to stories than how well they astound you. Philosophy has always revolved around prodding questions to broaden the boundaries of self-perception, and one of the game’s gifts is using its own narrative to open up our own. Good & Evil is a great selling point, but it’s a very straightforward one that can all too often exaggerate its own characters along that path, alter and manipulate them into something as simple as Day & Night. At least the way I see it, the force becomes a symbol of destiny; Again, a great selling point but very basic. From her view, it may as well be the antithesis of free will and self-reliance. Probably because it is. The fact that someone can ponder and breed new ideas to a story they’d experienced years ago is a great illustration of how testing the borders of the mind and belief can bring about meaningful self-reflection, and deeper stories as a result. In that regard, Knights of the Old Republic II is a great example of this.
Mafia 3
There’s a charming, if somewhat two-faced allure to the life of a gangster. Well-suited men with bourbon and a brand new car, tied to the criminal underworld they’ve wandered in to earn it. The excitement of sin, and the luxuries of its reward. While Hangar 13’s preceding story is a familial tale of Italian stallions, Mafia III branches into something a bit outside the norm for number three. Instead of donning the Fedora Fantasy, we get an outsider being hurled into the criminal world, and an appropriately unconventional solution out is built in the process. While Vito and Clay do share some narrative tropes, how both of these stories play out are hardly the same; Our “hero” hasn’t exactly grown up into a family of crime, but the path taken draws a strange line in that eminent domain. Incidentally, the era used to tell a story of rebelling against deep-rooted regimes couldn’t have been more apt.
The 1960’s have been popularized as a transitional time between the chic innocence of its opening years, to a radical exploration of culture and reform; If you’ve seen Mad Men or Forest Gump, there‘s little need for further explanation. Our locale’s the fictional New Bordeaux, and the inspirations for it lean very close towards the historical. Besides obvious allusions to the bayous and smalltown feel of New Orleans, I’ve spent enough time in downtown Detroit and Pontiac to notice NB’s particular parallels of that well-worn urban look, down to the mid-city tunnels with sepia lighting fixed on the top. Little details like backpacks strapped to the tops of cars help bring some authenticity to the time as well. This sort of chronological replication has grown quite a bit in gaming trends, if in due part to the Assassin’s Creed franchise and GTA5’s intricate detailing of western cityscapes. But New Orleans does bring a very different flavor to the table, Mardi Gras galas included; Anyone who’s played the last game should be familiar with the team’s flair for building a sense of place, but this stems beyond visual indicators while driving around town.
Somewhere in the last few paragraphs, I neglected to mention the full name of our leading man, Lincoln Clay. A name like Lincoln’s a bit on-the-nose, but it’s my only criticism for the character - he’s managed to become one of my favorite personalities of the year. Past & Present, This is a man who’s been regularly tossed into what would normally scar a man from the inside; With time spent in the horrors of war from Vietnam, a semblance of morality’s been tied to a militaristic background that guides his particular style for justice. It holds a vague liking to the PTSD Counter-Revolutionary from Rambo: First Blood. You know, before doing Action Hero sequels and when the premise was half-interesting? This, combined with being of African-American race during a pivotal time of racial reform and equality makes Clay a bit of a Wild Card to the Mafiosos.
Facilitating most of this story are the cinematics, which are *Mwah* spot-on. It’s clear as day that Hangar 13 have an appreciation for cinema: Strong attention to lighting(especially the Sal Marcano scenes), good use of focus change, and solid cinematography. The quality animation for the character cinematics are pushing the boundaries for mocap, presumably without using an Ultra-Expensive studio similar to Rockstar’s in last generation’s L.A. Noire. A twist of the mouth from a smirk, the wrinkling of lines in a forehead, and even the reflections off teeth; These sorts of details bring to life something that would otherwise seem like just *another* piece of dialogue thrown into the Unspeakable-Cthuhlu-Mocap-Automaton that developers unremittingly churn around in the deeper recesses of cubicle space.
Ah, but what are these cinematics doing though? Beyond filling in gaps in the 1968 story, Mafia III drops the chronological framework in light of something closer to a documentary…
…which takes place at least as far as 1999? What on earth went on in the game for the timeframe to last three decades long? It’s an intriguing thought, one of several pieces to the foreshadows of film. Seems they’ve found a healthy mix between a Search-For-Facts Investigator, a sense of humanity from Father James, and the lore-building, toenail-clipping shenanigans of one Mr. Donovan. Back to the past, the greatest part I carried from the story told was how they built into the characters. The antagonist is *still* an asshole, but his change in agenda mid-game makes for interesting commentary on the protagonist himself, particularly due to Clay’s stance after-the-fact. Many of the “Boss” cinematics give you a glimpse into how they’d been strung along(or willingly joined), sometimes reflecting what Clay might become. Few of the people in this game on either side could qualify as “Good”, but characters with clear-cut Good-and-Evil personalities are rarely compelling.
Rise-To-Criminal-Glory stories aren’t anything new, but the type they’re doing here feels altogether different. Maybe like me, you’ll notice there’s something a bit *off* that the only way to bring down a kingpin involves eerily similar tactics to how that kingpin rose up in the first place? It’s not that obvious at first, but it creeps up soon enough; I’ve little doubt that was part of the developer’s intent. Is this “The good life”? That’s up to you, and vicariously…
Playing a game for narrative still requires you to *play* them, so what are we doing to find all this out? After undisclosed events for the sake of not spoiling the game(or at least any further), the game “Opens up“. This greater focus on open world in Mafia III allows Clay to conquer and command the villain’s own crew, and break it down piece-by-piece. Do enough damage to an Underboss’ business, he comes out of hiding. Kill a few Underbosses to reach *the* boss, and the empire falls from within. Are the smaller objectives to get to these sections worth the trouble? I’ve found myself mixed on this subject. Games like Witcher 3 and GTA5 seem to have a consistent quality in both smaller oddjobs and larger main quests when it comes to open world design. I hate to say it, but Mafia III leers closer to Dragon Age: Inquisition where it’s clear that the qualitative hierarchy has greater focus on certain key missions, and is a bit weak on the rest.
Let me start with the good on questlines. The “Boss” missions are really well done, with around 10 of them in the game. These manage to find creative ways in blending parts of New Bordeaux and the boss characters: Two later missions in particular involve the best use of a Video Game Steamboat I’ve seen to date(probably the first?), and the other has the sort of dark intent for game goals that feels like they were ripped out of a Hitman game.
Back to the mixed stuff. The locations are new, but many of these story quests early on boil down to either kill or interrogate, and most of them feel very bare bones in terms of interesting activity after the first time. The Associate Quests similarly suffer from being essentially the same bloody objectives - the dialogue between them adds *quite* a bit to the characters, but the gameplay‘s eventually going to get dull if done in succession. Occasionally you’ll get speech banter mid-mission in story quests, but it often boils down to killing your way to kill your way *further* to victory.
I’m not necessarily saying it has to be an ultra-scripted sequence - I can play Mario 3’s Many-Houred obstacle courses just fine without a high word count, and I‘m given enough context beforehand to know why I‘m killing these terrible dudes. But there’s just not enough to separate so many of these Kill/Interrogate/Steal sequences: The AIs are near identical, and most indoor locations can feel exactly the same. I think it worked much better for GTAV: They’d found ways to make every mission memorable through either a major set piece, a new idea, or *something* more. Even the finest wine’s going to get old if you drink it nonstop, and I think the whole repetitively-bashing-your-way-to-better-things may be Mafia III’s greatest caveat.
To be fair, the gameplay is far smoother than their previous incarnation of Mook, and H13 have seemingly become experts at blending setting-exclusive bits as part of its gameplay. I’d battered down small winery shops tied to the mob, set explosives to radioactive moneymakers, and killed a laundry list of kinky VIPs by the final mission. The game needs more of these newer types of objectives, and its first half is especially lacking that special something.
Made Man Vito Scaletta’s style of fighting was identical to his foes: Duck and Cover, and Tommy Gun. On the other side of the bayou, Clay seems more privy to stealth - its first debut in the series. Not entirely sure how I feel about this Drakeonian take on hiding in the shadows though, and I think it’s due to a lack of challenge. A la Uncharted, you’ll get Button prompts to takedown your foes which can be done while in or out of cover. In one too many cases, level design and a liberal AI vision simply allow too much opportunity to not get caught. It’s very rewarding, but also very easy.
Most of them tolerate 2-3 seconds in clear view before trying to even search for you. Even instances where I’d violently stabbed one of two people next to each other, the other wise guy barely bats an eyelash. Even if he *does*, most will give you that “surprise” gesture from V:tmB and enough time to eviscerate him without alarming the others. Combine this with some indoor levels that keep line of sight to a minimum, and you have a rewarding stealth system that can sporadically linger on effortless for the player. Instead of continually painting a picture through verbal generalizations, here’s my successful first try in confronting a bad guy without firing a single bullet:
You’re not alone in this game, and Mafia III makes great use of it. The leadership is as wide-ranging as the fictional melting pot it’s centered in, and adds a long list of, eh, let’s call them “RPG Elements”. As you make your merry way from one cesspool of racketeering to another, you’ll gain some nifty swag from your underdog comrades, “Associate Benefits” - I.e. a van as a means of mobile gun-shopping, and a “Consigliere” who stashes away the blood money. Since you’ll lose it all when health reaches 0, it’s a wise idea to either conceal it post-mission, or spend it at the gun shop. Interesting though is that as you get farther in the game, you’ll have to choose a shift of power to one racketeer leader, and leaving others in the dust can have serious consequences. Playing favorites multiple times in a group of ruffians is not the easiest experience, and it certainly props up the idea of Realistic Mafia Management - they even took the time to alter racket “Confront” dialogue if you’d ignored one person but set them up for something smaller.
So despite it sounding like half of this review was tetchy towards the gameplay, this is one of the better AAA games of the year. Thing is, these games still exist in an industry that’s constantly pushing the envelope toward greater content. As with DA:I, I don’t see every mission as consistently superb. Still, I think it’s clever in its use of story to get players wondering if that type of life is worth fantasizing about in the first place, but from an initially *reverse* role? The characters tow an interesting spot between our moral compass, and H13 naturally paints a vivid scene of what virtual new Orleans would be like.
I fed people to gators, 10/10. (Still a better love story than No Man's Sky)
Yume Nikki. A very strange experiment in psychological horror that relies on retro-phantasmagoric imagery and a type of open sandbox design that feels just as unbounded as the dreams you're wandering in. One visual trait of the game is a clear influence to a later game, and the observant will find items that were also paid homage to. Playing it at night using headphones is, well... good luck with that. lol (Worth pointing out that the game is free to boot)
Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.
Sipped from the Dark Side this round: While I’ll never be a big fan of the original combat, Force Storming 8 people at once is a very satisfying experience - the dark robe and violet blade doesn’t hurt, either. Recruited Hanharr & Disciple, and built HK for the first time - his banter with G0T0 was payment enough for the effort.
Similar to how Kreia uses you to rebel against the unseen forces of fate, KOTOR2 uses the games’ mechanics in very subversive ways; Party members fighting in conflict with their own belief systems is a cognitive dissonance of Role-Playing games that I’m sure dates back to BG and earlier; The game tackles this both in light of its protagonist and one of its main themes. Her viewpoint on leadership(among other things) is a degree of pragmatic spoken so casually that it still makes me a bit uncomfortable - or is that discomfort from truths we’d rather overlook? Wisdom is not always the kindest friend, and perhaps others prefer and welcome more joyful company instead.
Manipulation is a common word in her language, but its meaning isn’t the predictable “big baddie pulling strings for the sake of power“ bit we see very often in storytelling. Virtually all actions can manipulate in smaller ways, so does one’s intent factor *that* much if the outcome is the same? Besides video gaming, I’ve been reminded of this often in real life. Every day of work is one less that someone else could’ve filled in, ergo one’s own existence is a barrier for someone else’s pursuit of employment; Things we take for granted can have larger ramifications than one might expect.
A while back, I said “Most Stories entertain, some impress, but few can humble you.” This is true, but there can be far more to stories than how well they astound you. Philosophy has always revolved around prodding questions to broaden the boundaries of self-perception, and one of the game’s gifts is using its own narrative to open up our own. Good & Evil is a great selling point, but it’s a very straightforward one that can all too often exaggerate its own characters along that path, alter and manipulate them into something as simple as Day & Night. At least the way I see it, the force becomes a symbol of destiny; Again, a great selling point but very basic. From her view, it may as well be the antithesis of free will and self-reliance. Probably because it is. The fact that someone can ponder and breed new ideas to a story they’d experienced years ago is a great illustration of how testing the borders of the mind and belief can bring about meaningful self-reflection, and deeper stories as a result. In that regard, Knights of the Old Republic II is a great example of this.