Forget Halo Reach....

[mmajunkie]

the teddy bears? lol i'm at the Fort somethin or other now

getting the feeling like I'm just being used to carry out someone's dirty work this doucher i'm supposed to meet never seems to be where he says he's gonna be lol

[Imoutgoodbye]

The ending from saving them all and the all around impact of the game on my mind made my eyes water up more than if I'd chopped ten onions right before the end credits rolled.

[Dale]

No way. Aeris dying in FFVII was the best part of any video game.

If I had a ps3 I would buy this (10$ psn!)

And you guys would never see me.

From mating chocobos to finding and mastering all materia to killing ruby and emerald I can and have made the timer stop on that game more than ten times.

Omni-slash + mimic = epic.

[Dale]

Also the rewards from saving them are better than harvest.

[mmajunkie]

-shrug-

Meeting Ryan wasn't all you cracked it up to be guys...was definitely a pivotal moment in the game, but unless you are a naive person, the idea of being used or betrayed isn't really that crazy. In any game I always think about the decisions I make. The guy wanting me to kill little girls when there was a chance at saving them seemed odd...him never meeting up with me when/where he said he would...just all seemed like I was being led on.

Good game though, it looks amazing on this 27" iMac. Might have to play the sequel.

[Kyzarius]

the sequel is aweome as well (online death match gets added too).

a 27" imac? you carry aruond a TV and call it a notebook?

[mmajunkie]

Your joke is lost on me I'm afraid...I've never called this computer a notebook.

[Imoutgoodbye]

-shrug-

Meeting Ryan wasn't all you cracked it up to be guys...was definitely a pivotal moment in the game, but unless you are a naive person, the idea of being used or betrayed isn't really that crazy. In any game I always think about the decisions I make. The guy wanting me to kill little girls when there was a chance at saving them seemed odd...him never meeting up with me when/where he said he would...just all seemed like I was being led on.

Good game though, it looks amazing on this 27" iMac. Might have to play the sequel.

You missed the point. It's not that you were used or betrayed. It was the lack of free will. The entire time you think you're "helping" this guy and willingly achieving these goals, the truth is that the phrase "would you kindly" is FORCING you to do these things. This is what the encounter with Ryan shows you. Trust me, I didn't want to kill the man. He was defenseless and I was going nuts on my controller trying to stop my character. He didn't even put up a fight, just kept using my verbal trigger to control me.

That is what made it a mind trip for me. It's not about whether or not one is naive. It's about how hard are you thinking about what everything in that game means.

[Pali]

You missed the point. It's not that you were used or betrayed. It was the lack of free will. The entire time you think you're "helping" this guy and willingly achieving these goals, the truth is that the phrase "would you kindly" is FORCING you to do these things. This is what the encounter with Ryan shows you. Trust me, I didn't want to kill the man. He was defenseless and I was going nuts on my controller trying to stop my character. He didn't even put up a fight, just kept using my verbal trigger to control me.

That is what made it a mind trip for me. It's not about whether or not one is naive. It's about how hard are you thinking about what everything in that game means.

Agreed. It also made me spend some time thinking about how ALL games are like this - just to varying degrees.

[mmajunkie]

You -were- used and betrayed. Your free will was taken by someone who pretended to be your friend, someone who acted innocent and in need of your help. He used you to do his dirty work.

The game had a hard set storyline that you had to follow to advance through the game.....just like MOST video games. So whether or not you were forced to do them, you were going to have to do them anyway to get through the game. So the option of free will would have been lost anyway.

I didn't want to kill him either. As I said before, I always think about what I'm doing in video games and what all things mean within it. Was a fun game...just had a predictable plot twist. Maybe you felt like you were helping him....but I knew somehow I was a puppet dancing for my master.

[Pali]

*shrugs* Like all art, it's appreciated differently by different people.

[mmajunkie]

I concur :-) I appreciated the game and enjoyed the way the story was handled and the twist it was given. I just think, like some artsy people, it shouldn't be read too deep into.

Play FF7...this whole time you think you're this person.....you're not. Very hard to see that one coming! The guy that you ARE is barely even mentioned in the game. Then when it all comes together, you're like holy crap, wow omfg what just happened...epic game, epic story. Crisis Core was great in tying up loose ends.

Probably one of the better CGs from Crisis Core is the fight between Sephiroth vs Angeal and Genesis

[Pali]

To be fair, unless you're done with Bioshock, you've got a lot more to learn about the story and who you are.

[mmajunkie]

Bioshock the series, or just the 1st one? Beat it when I made that post.

[Pali]

Then I find it very odd that you say "Play FF7...this whole time you think you're this person.....you're not. Very hard to see that one coming!" as a way to differentiate it, when in Bioshock guy you are playing has a similar character twist happen after the Ryan scene.

[Deykari]

FF7 is fantastic. The scene you're talking about I sort of have to agree. I was thinking "Yeah... this is temporary right? There's no WAY they'd do that... phoenix down plz?"

No phoenix down.

I wasn't all that too keen on Bioshock. The plot/setting/atmosphere I thought were superb... however, the mechanics and 'feel' of it as a first-person shooter I didn't like all too much, and it detracted from my enjoyment of it somewhat.

Sonic 2 is another game with a great moving storyline. Without revealing too much to you guys who have yet to play it, it involves Dr. Robotnik, Tails and some counterfeit golden rings...

Dey

[Dale]

Sonic 3 is far better! (Than sonic 2)

[Imoutgoodbye]

You -were- used and betrayed. Your free will was taken by someone who pretended to be your friend, someone who acted innocent and in need of your help. He used you to do his dirty work.

The game had a hard set storyline that you had to follow to advance through the game.....just like MOST video games. So whether or not you were forced to do them, you were going to have to do them anyway to get through the game. So the option of free will would have been lost anyway.

I didn't want to kill him either. As I said before, I always think about what I'm doing in video games and what all things mean within it. Was a fun game...just had a predictable plot twist. Maybe you felt like you were helping him....but I knew somehow I was a puppet dancing for my master.

Bzzzzt! Thank you for playing, please come again.

The game had a hard set storyline? And it's not as deep as free will? Who makes you play these games anyways? LOL. Not saying your analysis is wrong, just saying I'm taking it one step further and applying it not just to the game, but outside the game.

When I met Ryan, I wanted my revenge. I was "given" my free will back by the good doctor and I chose to continue on in the game. I could have shut the system off and made up my own ending in my head. I didn't have to finish it up the way the game was designed to. THAT, my friend, is what made it all so trippy.

And while I agree art is interpreted in different ways, I don't view script/text/conversation as art. That would make it an object that is approachable. American schools have taught us that reading is being able to approach a text and that it contains some absolute truth.

But I don't see it that way. There's so much contained in text.

This man can probably explain it a little better, if you have the patience to watch it all.

EDIT: Just to re-iterate, not saying you are wrong, but I think you can take it one step further and continue to apply it beyond.

[mmajunkie]

Well of course you can. You can turn the game off...but then that defeats the purpose.

[Pali]

If a book is art, if a movie is art, I do not understand how a video game cannot be considered art in the same ways.

[Raargant]

You can turn off any game at any time.

[Pali]

The real difference here is that games are interactive in a way that other art mediums are not - games incorporate the actions of the player in the experience, whereas in other artistic mediums the viewer is a passive observer. The point that Bioshock was making that Valek and I seem to appreciate more than others is that games incorporating player actions also often foster an illusion that the player's actions are actually chosen by the player - Bioshock wanted to make you feel as much as it could as if this was the case, and then smack you over the head with "NO IT'S NOT!" as hard as possible (and then throw you off the deep end by tearing apart who you thought you were and how you thought you ended up where you are).

It's a game based around player immersion - if it succeeds at really drawing you in, it has a lot of impact. If it doesn't, it won't.

[Mmm Coffee]

Demon's Souls

For all this talk about best-games, etc....did anyone here play (and stick with) Demon's Souls? Unfortunately, it's PS3-exclusive but it takes gaming to a whole new level with PK character-building being very popular. In my opinion, it should have won game of year last year...not just best RPG.

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/rpg/demonssoul/index.html?tag=best-of-2009%3Bwinner-title

[Imoutgoodbye]

I could have swore Dragon Age: Origins won RPG of the Year.

[Mmm Coffee]

Well, it depends on who you ask:

From wikipedia:

"In their 2009 Best and Worst Awards, GameSpot awarded Demon's Souls with Overall Game of the Year,[58] Best PS3 game,[59] Best Role-Playing game[60] and Best Original Game Mechanic for the online integration.[61] Game Trailers awarded it Best RPG[62] and Best New intellectual property[63] while RPGFan awarded it Best RPG for the PS3[64] and Best Console Action-RPG.[65] IGN also awarded the game Best RPG for the PS3.[66] X-Play awarded the multiplayer Best Gameplay Innovation.[67] PC World awarded it Game of the Year.[68] RPGamer awarded Demon's Souls RPG of the Year 2009, including Best Graphics and Best PS3 RPG.[69][70][71]"