Minnesänger wrote:

Yossarian wrote:

I just figure that truly great storytelling is really hard to achieve in a linear narrative medium, the vast majority of stories aren’t great. Adding in the complexity of branching paths must make that close to impossible.

Oh for sure, and there’s more bad “branching narratives” than good ones by far. Fundamentally think you’re probably more likely to get a semi-competent story if it is sth tightly curated and funnelled but I’ve played enough games that buck that trend to know that it’s not just one or two teams getting lucky.

Keep an eye on Obsidian, now that they’re a MS team - whatever they stuck up next on Gamepass after Grounded (presumably their big RPG project) is almost certain to have some decent player choice and great writing.

It’ll likely be Avowed next up from Obsidian.

I’ll almost certainly try it.

Minnesänger wrote:

Keep an eye on Obsidian, now that they’re a MS team - whatever they stuck up next on Gamepass after Grounded (presumably their big RPG project) is almost certain to have some decent player choice and great writing.

Even Grounded has some branching narrative, especially around the hedge maze

Yeah my weekly playtime isn't much more than that. How you gonna stand a chance of getting into something like Elden Ring with that little amount of free time.

I'm not bored of games, but time constraints mean I'm limited to something more bitesize or at most a 10-15hr long contemporary story driven game.

I'm genuinely envious at the time some badgers get to game.

I was always bamboozled by the idea that hefty narrative games were for "grown ups" or "mature" gamers.

A great many "grown ups" don't have the time to play hefty narrative games.

quite. 

stellavista wrote:

Having just got a PS5 I was eager to get into Horizon Forbidden West but have so far been put off by the dialogue, which doesn’t seem to have moved on at all since PS3 era

GTA5's probably still my go-to for bad writing, for making a song and dance about Trevor's dissonance rather than Houser losing some ego and trimming his story right down.

In terms of mission approaches it was more restrictive than the first 3D pair, the polar opposite of their appeal, which III seemed to recognise with its nonstory (Tony Montana was also unobtrusive). There needs to be a big effort from somewhere to evolve the link between actions and story, else one always has to be compromised for the other.

I also feel every gen since the PS2's has been underutilised on the tech side, and don't fancy there's anything groundbreaking around the corner. If you'd told me in the '90s that games'd be thirsty for TV-level writing in future (and they're still a long way from that), I'd have said ‘But they're games?!’.

Don't fret about the way Returnal handles its story, it's one of the better efforts. Non overbearing, drip fed chef's kissy stuff.

Good to hear and looking forward therefore to the new PS+ subscription thing.

Another game that did this well was Fire Watch. The gameplay was on the face of it boring but the story was decent and kept me in it. I think jaded is probably a better name for how I feel towards games and I’m hoping the new shinies can give more also on the emotional investment.

There's definitely a trend for the bigger games to have as much talking as possible. Just look at Horizon: FW or Ratchet. But then there's still others that avoid it or use it smartly like Elden Ring or Returnal. Plus Indies will always be good at this stuff.

I'm surprised people think it's still a good idea though to have so much dialogue. Must be a burden on the recording crew and it's just so tiring as the player. Continuouy breaks you out of your play

I'd play that

Can I be the face in the police station floating out of screen

I'd like to add that a lot of my current issues also stem from the group of friends I play games with, some of whom I have played with since the early 2000s - they never really lost their appetite for the hardcore which often leads to stressful environments for me as I really don't want to play games in that manner any more. For example, V Rising came out on PC yesterday and some of them are already at 20+ hours. I've not played anything in awhile, since I started Elden Ring and fell off it so I loath when I am presented with this kind of FOMO because the people I play with just consume games at a ferocious rate.

The second reason games lately frustrate me stems from this universal output from content creators that insist you "don't make these mistakes" - leading of this kind of 'if you don't listen to this advice you're gimping yourself' outlook on the game - I really hate this. I just want to play and explore the world and discover things organically, not make my way down through a check list. I know this is a choice but again, the people I play with will always 'optimise' their route through a game so as to not waste potential rewards ect.

Just a few things that often lead me to disengaging with games and moving to movies and tv shows...

Probably my most played game of all time is slay the spire. I kind of just play it because it’s comfortable. I can get in die and and get out and go in and die and get out and get in and so on.

An absolute gem in a sea of brilliance. Games are getting better and Spire is the best.

I do miss the pace of change though. The thrill of better gfx has gone and it was a key thing for most of my youth, then 3D, and then the Modern Warfare internet MP thing was wide-eyed amaze, but now that thrill has gone too.

Games are better now but da yoof is way less excited than we ever were. I was excited when we got a colour tv and later, bigger sprites. The snes had big sprites! Like the arcade! All of that is gone. Ah well.