The Errant Signal Thread

[Metro]

Watched a few more, his Duke Nuke'em Forever one was spot on. Especially at the end when he points out the flaws in most modern game critics.

 

[sea]

This is one of this guy's best videos yet. Enjoyed the commentary and I think he was spot-on with everything. Definitely glad to see more of this stuff.

 

[TripJack]

i can dig it

except

It’s actually something Half-Life 2 did really well – the entire Ravenholm section was made scary in party by simply reducing the amount of health and ammunition available to the player any given time.

 

[Aldebaran]

Thanks for the link.

After enjoying the video, I decided to take a look at the rest of his videos and was continually impressed. Even on the points that I disagreed with him, he did have decent arguments to back them up, and his presentation is quite civil. He didn't convince me that DE:HR improved the augmentations, but it was a passing point that I likely misheard. I would agree that a good number of the augmentations were disappointing. That said, things like increased jump height really changed the ways you could play game.

A shame he has so few views.

 

[Infinitron]

Chris now has a kind of partnership with Shamus Young (he's joined their LP crew), so perhaps his audience will grow.

 

[Oriebam]

Though I find the "this game better because labor of love" and "it's special because it's a personal statement about the developers by them" thing kind of pointless

the way the guy talks is also annoying

 

[Oriental European]

It’s actually something Half-Life 2 did really well – the entire Ravenholm section was made scary in party by simply reducing the amount of health and ammunition available to the player any given time.

Wha... i've never heard anyone saying that they were afraid of Ravenholm because the game didn't give enough ammo or health. A lot of people afraid of Fast Black Zombies tho. Anyway,

Half-Life 2

Did something really well

Haha. No.

First of all: colored keys, man. They were an awful McGuffin when every level had you looking for the same damned cards/skulls over and over. But at the same time, they drove gameplay forward mechanically – you were always in pursuit of a specific goal, be it a key or a door or an exit.

Ugh... really? You weren't looking for keys, you were fighting through hordes of monsters from Hell with your shotgun, chainsaw, and bare fist(s).

It was the use of discreet, ludic indicators of progress that gave the gameplay context and purpose.

Motherfucker, FUN is what gives purpose to play Doom, FUN you hipster, do you even remember this word? Gee, what gives more fun, finding a key and unlocking a door, or PWNING an Arch-vile, while dodging Revenants's homing missiles? Argh MOTHERFUCKER.
And how the hell a game mechanic can be a McGuffin at the same time? Lame.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Well, he was hitting on a good point there though; the entire point of artistic things is to express something, even if only subconsciously. Imagine how shitty a book or movie would be if it had to go through 120 editors; each of them editing about 10% of the book, so none of them have control of the whole thing and each part gets dicked with by a dozen people. Would be fucking horrible. That's basically the state of AAA game development these days. Proper management makes things a little better, but it's still a crapsack compared to a solid team of a dozen guys working closely together. I would imagine this is a big part of why Diablo one had a very solid gothic theme and foreboding atmosphere while diablo 2 had catgirls, no cohesive theme, and a themepark atmopshere of shoving new enemies and terrain in front of you every 10 minutes for the sake of newness. The guy designing the outdoor map areas was clearly not trying to make the same kind of game as the guy placing the waypoints or the guy designing the loot system, since all 3 of these aspects do very different things to the game's flow and don't mesh together well at all.

You know damn well when the shotgun was getting made for Doom, everyone on the team knew what it looked like, how it sounded, how powerful it was, and meshed all this stuff together, so the sound fits the damage which fits the animation which fits the pace of the game. And they were all trying to make more or less the same game because of that level of communication.

 

[Infinitron]

Haven't you heard, man?

“Art” Is Not the Opposite of “Fun”

On that note, I think the Codex needs some kind of "smirking hipster" emoticon.

 

[Kalin]

This fellow seems to be a fairly good writer, but it is also clear that he is no orator. His tone is very monotonous and he speaks way too fast. A shame, since he put some actual effort into writing his speech and editing his video.

One minor cause for concern is his failed lore check on Wolfenstein. If you are pedantic, it should actually be pronounced [ʃtaɪn], i.e. shtein.

 

[Infinitron]

This fellow seems to be a fairly good writer, but it is also clear that he is no orator. His tone is very monotonous and he speaks way too fast. A shame, since he put some actual effort into writing his speech and editing his video.

I prefer him over yet another Nostalgia Critic/Egoraptor-style EXTREME shouting douchebag.

 

[Metro]

This fellow seems to be a fairly good writer, but it is also clear that he is no orator. His tone is very monotonous and he speaks way too fast. A shame, since he put some actual effort into writing his speech and editing his video.

I prefer him over yet another Nostalgia Critic/Egoraptor-style EXTREME shouting douchebag.

 

[Oriental European]

Art

Year 1940, Katyn. You are walking through a narrow, badly lit corridor, with NKVD soldier behind you. At the end of the corridor there is a heavy metal door, which is now open. When you enter the room, you see blood on one of the walls, and on the floor. NKVD soldier commands you to face the bloody wall. You want to live. You say to yourself, "God, please save me from this nightm" *CLICK* BANG.
No God, only words and stone temples.

Year 1939, 31st of August. You are sitting in your study, behind big desk, with accurately stacked piles of books on top of it. Dante, Tolstoy, Cervantes. The music of Mozart flows from gramophone. You look outside, on the beautiful architecture of an ancient city. Krakow, a pearl of Poland. The sight excites you, makes you remember your beautiful wife, whom you met on these beautiful streets. Ah, humans, kings of nature, entities bound to create and enjoy their creations...

You know what will happen tomorrow.

No Art, only words and stone and marble and paint and pictures of buttholes in an art gallery.

This is also another answer to Captain Shrek from that Obsidian thread.

 

[Infinitron]

GRIMDARK AS FUCK

 

[Davaris]

I find it amazing how some people can find so much to say about such simple games.

 

[Oriental European]

When designing levels for Doom, Romero came up with several rules, among them:
always changing floor height when I wanted to change floor textures
using special border textures between different wall segments and doorways
being strict about texture alignment
conscious use of contrast everywhere in a level between light and dark areas, cramped and open areas
making sure that if a player could see outside that they should be able to somehow get there
being strict about designing several secret areas on every level
making my levels flow so the player will revisit areas several times so they will better understand the 3D space of the level
creating easily recognizable landmarks in several places for easier navigation

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/58509-the-design-of-e1m1/

 

[Infinitron]

When designing levels for Doom, Romero came up with several rules, among them:
always changing floor height when I wanted to change floor textures
using special border textures between different wall segments and doorways
being strict about texture alignment
conscious use of contrast everywhere in a level between light and dark areas, cramped and open areas
making sure that if a player could see outside that they should be able to somehow get there
being strict about designing several secret areas on every level
making my levels flow so the player will revisit areas several times so they will better understand the 3D space of the level
creating easily recognizable landmarks in several places for easier navigation
must add bugs and frogs

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/58509-the-design-of-e1m1/

FIX'D

 

[Lyric Suite]

This is pretty spot on, but it seems to ignore some of the strengths of the original, such as, for instance, the way Valve attempted to avoid some of the very pitfalls their style eventually led to. I guess in the sequel they got so impressed by their own success that they forgot all about striking a balance between a rigorous show, don't tell narrative approach (which they actual brake on occasion in the sequel, which sorts of misses the point of what they tried to do in the original) and the very appropriate converse rule when it comes to video games, do, don't show, which in the original they respected to a degree despite all the pointless diversions they attempted to trow at you. Half Life had many moments of brilliant gun fighting, and sometimes the scripting actually enhanced the experience (such as the totally fake but still somehow convincing artificial intelligence of the marines). In the sequel, they actually dropped the ball on trying to make gunfights dynamic in any way or form, and scripting often got in the way of the actual game play. Not as bad as the style of modern shooters, where there is no actual gameplay to speak of, but still. Even the jumping puzzles of the original, which, while annoying, still constituted as gameplay, got watered down with all those stupid physics gimmicks.

What i find puzzling about people like this is that, even on the rare occasion their opinions are at all correct and right on the mark, they still try to belong to some sort of established image of what a mainstream gaming personality is supposed to be. They never talk critically of modern trends, and if they do, they generally try to either make their critique specific to the game or to ascribe the problem to some larger issue within the industry, but they are always careful not to make their opinion too harsh or accusing. For once i would love to see somebody go all Codex on the collective asses of the gaming industry.

 

[DraQ]

Though I find the "this game better because labor of love" and "it's special because it's a personal statement about the developers by them" thing kind of pointless

It isn't.

It's the same with say, Wizardry 8 or Divinity 2 - those games are corny as hell, have lackluster derpy plots, derpy worlds and derpy characterization. If they were soulless products of design by committee I would probably not stand them for single full playthrough, as they are, in their quirky "heh having fun riding mah imaginashun while making this game" way, I want to replay them time and time again.

Hell it's even one of the differences between Morrowind and Oblivious - in Morrowind you could imagine disorganized bethesda rabble (because MW sure as fuck isn't a product of any coordinated effort) having fun adding little details and placing hidden stuff everywhere, putting in subtle leads to certain dungeons and so on, in Oblivious, otoh it's hard to imagine anything but a bunch of sad, faded people punching clock after applying enough of specular polish to a rock.

 

[Infinitron]

What i find puzzling about people like this is that, even on the rare occasion their opinions are at all correct and right on the mark, they still try to belong to some sort of established image of what a mainstream gaming personality is supposed to be. They never talk critically of modern trends, and if they do, they generally try to either make their critique specific to the game or to ascribe the problem to some larger issue within the industry, but they are always careful not to make their opinion too harsh or accusing. For once i would love to see somebody go all Codex on the collective asses of the gaming industry.

Well, there are VD's interviews on RPS.
Campster's audience is small as it is - he can't risk alienating people by saying YOUR FAVORITE GAME SYMBOLIZES THE DECLINE.

But besides that, there's something I've noticed about this new generation of critical "game design hipsters", like this guy or Shamus Young - they've never really been the biggest fans of the classical Codexian "walls of text" tactical party-based RPG.
While they can enjoy RPGs, and appreciate the greatness of something like Planescape Torment, their greatest love is the broadly defined genre of well-designed "thinking man's shooters", like System Shock, Deus Ex or Half-Life.

So, they simply aren't feeling the decline as much as we are.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

What i find puzzling about people like this is that, even on the rare occasion their opinions are at all correct and right on the mark, they still try to belong to some sort of established image of what a mainstream gaming personality is supposed to be. They never talk critically of modern trends, and if they do, they generally try to either make their critique specific to the game or to ascribe the problem to some larger issue within the industry, but they are always careful not to make their opinion too harsh or accusing. For once i would love to see somebody go all Codex on the collective asses of the gaming industry.

Well, there are VD's interviews on RPS.
Campster's audience is small as it is - he can't risk alienating people by saying YOUR FAVORITE GAME SYMBOLIZES THE DECLINE.

But besides that, I've gotten a certain impression about these "video game design hipsters", like this guy or Shamus Young - they've never really been the biggest fans of the Codexian "walls of text" RPG.
While they do enjoy RPGs, and appreciate the greatness of something like Planescape Torment, their greatest love is the broadly defined genre of well-designed "thinking men's shooters", like Deus Ex or Half-Life.

So, they simply aren't feeling the decline as much as we are.

Well, he did make a video about Half Life 2 being a theme park game, which by the way I totally agree with, so that probably isn't the holy grail of gaming to him. And if you're going to put Deus Ex on the pedestal, then there's not many games of that kind coming out either. Is Bioshock a "thinking man's shooter"? I wouldn't think so. Campster clearly liked DX:HR, but he still complained a lot about the shallow depiction of transhumanism in that game. I mean, modern FPS are basically embodied by BF3 and Modern Warfare, and that's as far from Deus Ex as humanly possible in the genre. They are better off than RPGs though, I'll give you that.

I'm actually sort of curious what he thinks about a game like Stalker, which is sort of an open world FPS (which he seems to like in general), but with a bunch of RPG-ish and survival horror mechanics. and a very good synergy between narrative and gameplay. Maybe I'll post on his blog and ask about that.

 

[Gragt]

Even then, he was incredibly afraid of hurting anyone's feelings with HL2. He can be interesting but the way he does things I doubt he'll ever do anything of depth.

 

[Oriebam]

Though I find the "this game better because labor of love" and "it's special because it's a personal statement about the developers by them" thing kind of pointless

It isn't.

It's the same with say, Wizardry 8 or Divinity 2 - those games are corny as hell, have lackluster derpy plots, derpy worlds and derpy characterization. If they were soulless products of design by committee I would probably not stand them for single full playthrough, as they are, in their quirky "heh having fun riding mah imaginashun while making this game" way, I want to replay them time and time again.

Hell it's even one of the differences between Morrowind and Oblivious - in Morrowind you could imagine disorganized bethesda rabble (because MW sure as fuck isn't a product of any coordinated effort) having fun adding little details and placing hidden stuff everywhere, putting in subtle leads to certain dungeons and so on, in Oblivious, otoh it's hard to imagine anything but a bunch of sad, faded people punching clock after applying enough of specular polish to a rock.

It isn't

alright, replace labor of love with "subtlety/creative effort/lack of timidity" and I'll agree

this is almost like a semantics issue but I believe "this game quality because labor of love" is not an absolute therefore people should stop saying that and attribute it to actual competence rather than "sou2uj9iewqjpwkd1 what the fuck am I saying you're right

 

[Destroid]

Even then, he was incredibly afraid of hurting anyone's feelings with HL2. He can be interesting but the way he does things I doubt he'll ever do anything of depth.

He seemed extremely critical in the video, and I don't even like HL2 (or 1).

When talking about Alyx:
"...facilitating Gordon Freeman as a masturbatory aid for the player."
"...she still just exists to circle jerk the player into feeling good about themselves."

Are not exactly nice things to say, especially given how into Alyx most big HL2 fans I know are.

 

[Gragt]

Contrast those "not exactly nice things to say" — which are the kind of painfully obvious things that shouldn't need to be pointed out — to the start of the video where he spends a minute or two explaining that he's not saying, not at all, that HL2 is bad but probably a little bit overrated.