Best Videogame Writing Since 2005, Any Genre?

[rado907]

LA Noire's writing primarily suffers from having to carry a shitty fucking non-game by itself (I guess with some help from the neato facial animations). And no, it's not good enough to do that even if it wasn't a shameless fucking rip-off. Which it is.

That's like saying Vice City is a rip-off of Scarface. Yes, it is. So?
Also, the detective minigame "non-game" - which was heavily reminiscent of the old adventure games (e.g. Discworld Noir) - was hardly the only module in L.A. Noire. The game featured plenty of decent driving and shooting.
Someone also mentioned that the detective cases in the game are heavily railroaded. Of course they are. So? You have imperfect information and you can fail a case - isn't that "choices and consequences"?

Still not sure why L.A. Noire is so hated; but it sure is hated.
---
Edit: My best guess would be that people expected a GTA but got a Discworld Noir (which was a fun but flawed game) instead. Anyway, I liked L.A. Noire well enough, but it's hardly my favorite title ever, and so I don't intend to defend it beyond this post :/.

 

[pakoito]

EDIT: And all that comes before I bring up pakoito's double standard of trying to diss me for bringing up recent titles with half-decent writing, while he mentions "Unepic" - a game that has some of the flattest writing I've seen in quite some time.

Unepic had a couple of funny dialogues, but I don't know how well they translate into English.

Apparently not very well.

 

[valcik]

I think Czech game Inquisitor (2009) has excellent writing.

 

[Latro]

I liked consolefag Deadly Premonition.

I'm playing through Pathologic HD with the re-translated script. Not finished yet but it's done very well enough to keep my attention and I'm still only on the Bachelor's path.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Wouldn't say best writing ever,but there is couple of games in last few years that made me actually interested about the world and stories the npc tell.Path of Exile,Age of Decadence and the first Witcher.

 

[Ludo Lense]

Why are people equating atmosphere to good writing? Saying Dark Souls has good writing is like saying Ron Fricke's Baraka has good writing.

Games aren't books and it is quite possible to create an emotional response without having a literary component.

 

[Trotsky]

Deus Ex HR. Good atmosphere, interesting factions and in the end it turns out the damsel was smarter than you and didn't need you, which makes a lot of sense because you're a glorified security guard and she's a leading biotech researcher.

 

[United Nations]

I liked consolefag Deadly Premonition.

I'm playing through Pathologic HD with the re-translated script. Not finished yet but it's done very well enough to keep my attention and I'm still only on the Bachelor's path.

I booted that up last night, and man... The graphics are beyond bad.

The game was released in 2005, right?

They look about as bad as Tomb Raider 1 (1996).

Plus the view distance is done very poorly too.

 

[United Nations]

Why are people equating atmosphere to good writing? Saying Dark Souls has good writing is like saying Ron Fricke's Baraka has good writing.

Games aren't books and it is quite possible to create an emotional response without having a literary component.

Games sure aren't books, but they can be movies.

Soul Reaver #1 has two full hours of scripted cuttscenes.

Frictional Games (Penumbra, Amnesia, SOMA) all have good stories.

 

[laclongquan]

Fallout New Vegas has good writings.

The Witcher 1. I havent played 2 and 3 so I cant say about the sequels.

Academagia. It's text heavy, so it's a very good job been done to glue player to that small screen full of text.

NWN2 OC, MOTB, and SOZ.

I think Prince of Qin fit the time period. it's nothing great, but enough to glue me to screen for 3 complete run through, 7 endings. (Seal of Evil is complete shit~)

 

[Trotsky]

Where does Mass Effect rank overall? It was the first video game that attempted to be a single story trilogy so the ambition was commendable. The first title had a pretty amazing universe/atmosphere and some pretty good factions/characters as well. The second game went in a different direction but it was still a good direction. Even ME2 was interesting in that a secondary antagonist group was elevated into a leading role with their exact motives far from clear. The third game was crap almost start to finish really hurting the brand's reputation. I don't think any story could recover from what happened in the third installment. I'd rate the Mass Effect trilogy as the most squandered potential.

 

[WhiteGuts]

Mass Effect is subpar in most aspects.

 

[Latro]

I liked consolefag Deadly Premonition.

I'm playing through Pathologic HD with the re-translated script. Not finished yet but it's done very well enough to keep my attention and I'm still only on the Bachelor's path.

I booted that up last night, and man... The graphics are beyond bad.

The game was released in 2005, right?

They look about as bad as Tomb Raider 1 (1996).

Plus the view distance is done very poorly too.

It's all very, very shit. Just play-pretend you're messing with a Twin Peaks PS2 game, instead of a really shitty looking Twin Peaks PS3 game.

 

[Jack]

Just play-pretend you're messing with a Twin Peaks PS2 game

It was actually a PS2 game that got ported to the PS3 during development, so technically it is a PS2 game even if that version never saw a release.

Where does Mass Effect rank overall? I

Low down, they had one good writer on the project (Chris L'Etoile) and one mediocre one (Drew Crapshyn), the rest were awful. Chris wrote most of the lore, all codex entries, all planet descriptions, that cold snowy planet with the labs and the good parts of Legion and more. He was the reason the game seemed to have so much potential, he is a proper science fiction fan and wrote interesting stuff. But most of his work was relegated to the background as window dressing. Drew was responsible for the actual plot that you experienced during the game and that was rather inane stuff that didn't take advantage of the setting much at all. So sure there was potential but in the end it was the same lazy Bioware trite as usual, the setting was fresh but with the same old formula as always it wasn't anything noteworthy.

However if you look at the trilogy as a whole then the series is truly awful because it just doesn't work as a trilogy.

In terms of atmosphere the first game was great but that doesn't have anything to do with its writing at all, the best part about Mass Effect is its soundtrack.

 

[pippin]

What was the novel that this Drew Kar-something dude wrote to shit on Kotor2's events? I heard he kind of undid every event of the game with that one. In hindsight it's hilarious, considering that's not canon anymore. Or is it? Last time I heard, games like Republic Commando were still canon.

 

[Space Insect]

What was the novel that this Drew Kar-something dude wrote to shit on Kotor2's events? I heard he kind of undid every event of the game with that one. In hindsight it's hilarious, considering that's not canon anymore. Or is it? Last time I heard, games like Republic Commando were still canon.

Revan maybe? I skimmed it a while back and I hadn't played KOTOR2 back then so I don't know if it butchered the lore.
It might be canon still since I believe it was marketed with that MMO.

 

[made]

Why are people equating atmosphere to good writing? Saying Dark Souls has good writing is like saying Ron Fricke's Baraka has good writing.

Games aren't books and it is quite possible to create an emotional response without having a literary component.

DS creates its mood with a, quite unique I find, blend of audiovisuals, gameplay, and the very scarcity of spoken/written word. The quality of writing that is there is average at best, and huge text dumps/endless dialogues would only have cheapened the experience.
Closest thing in terms of atmosphere would probably be Another World, and that gets by with no text or speech at all (save some unintelligible grunts).

 

[Trotsky]

What was the novel that this Drew Kar-something dude wrote to shit on Kotor2's events? I heard he kind of undid every event of the game with that one. In hindsight it's hilarious, considering that's not canon anymore. Or is it? Last time I heard, games like Republic Commando were still canon.

I think that probably had more to do with Lucas Arts and EA which basically destroyed KoToR as a story themed alternative to the main Star Wars crap.

For what its worth the Old Republic mmo is well written if you exclude the Revan/Exile stuff which was needlessly tacked on ruining the value of choice.

 

[sweeneezy]

Far Cry 2, personally. Something about that game just kicked me in the gut. I have to listen to the Jackal and Predecessor tapes reliably once a year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCJBOZC7XdQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1-h59E8KJY