General gaming chatter

[Pixie]

I favor mechanics and their stuff barely count as games.

Insert epic eyeroll here.

[Sssith]

Hey...I think he is entitled to be wrong...no need to roll your eyes at him.    <-- I need a better tongue in cheek emoji.

BTW max, the best game in Tell Tales arsenal is Walking Dead.  It is also more 'gamey' than there other ones.  And yes, the game mechanics are rather more simple, but it is still a game.  It is obviously about the story immersion that those games achieve that makes them notable. Walking Dead is probably in my top five games that I have played this decade.  Not every game can be ME:2, that has a great story and in depth game mechanics.

[maxbeedo]

There's a particular mental itch I need to scratch with mechanics, something I can dive into and absorb so my brain will finally stop thinking about work or other annoying things.  I would be surprised if any of you didn't understand that considering our shared obsession with Diablo 2, unless you're the opposite and "slogged" through the gameplay just to finish the story (if so then hats off to you because that's quite a slog comparably).  Playing a Telltale game is essentially like watching a good movie but one that turns off every few minutes unless you hit a random button on the screen.  Or, if you prefer, the story and voice acting is way out of proportion better than the "game" around it, which other series have problems with sometimes too (Metal Gear Solid, Uncharted, Bioshock, etc.).  They're still games I'm happy to "have played" when I'm done, but I don't get a lot of enjoyment "during" them and will never go back to.  If there is no effort put into designing the gameplay, there's a certain cutoff point at which I'd rather it just be a movie. 

I would be hyped for a Borderlands 3 with the same characters though. 

[Pixie]

Sounds like the problem is with you, not with the definition of what counts as a game.

[maxbeedo]

What is your definition then? 

[Timinator]

From what you read, it sounds like just being immersed to forget about "real life dramas".  A shame the breaks get in the way for you. Some people really get into the dialog, the puzzles etc, and try to think about all the possible paths, and how they would try to do something different next time.

[Timinator]

When Steam trading cards first came out, I got a foil for Half life 2.  I could have sold it for $17 but didn't .. something about it seeming so shiny and rare.   Some years later I decided to finally get the other 7 cards.  I've acquired 6 more and have sold some other cards from booster packs.  The price to buy has seemed just out of reach.  Recently I've managed to get a few sales, but as other ones sell, it seems the price is still just out of reach which is quite annoying!

I now have $1.45 NZ, but need $1.52.

I see others have sold recently for $1.34, $1.35, $1.37, $1.39!!

Call me obsessed but I must have it!

[Timinator]

Bitching always works, I wake up and my buy order at a lower price went through.  I have 11 cents to spare

[Lego]

I got talked out of selling my xbox one out of spite, but I'm still dismayed at the recent "story based games have no place here" comments

[Timinator]

I got talked out of selling my xbox one out of spite, but I'm still dismayed at the recent "story based games have no place here" comments

I think thats going a bit far, he is just saying it doesn't float his boat, and its only one person.

[narsica]

Telltale games look boring as shit.

[Lego]

Telltale games look boring as shit.

Thanks Tim. That's actually good news.

[Timinator]

The telltale sign its from an angry Canadian is it says "Narsica" next to the post, not my name.  I've had some fun .. haven't actually finished one yet (started 3 different ones so far)

[Lego]

Oh man I LOVED the Telltale Walking Dead games. The plots and branching storylines were awesome.

[Godji]

TBF, I don't mind "narrative" games (loved Gone home, Heavy Rain mixed tedious and absolutely brilliant, Beyond : Two Souls was a disaster) but Walking Dead was just quite poor I found. The thing with narrative games is that they're only just as strong as their story, and WD felt like a collection of overplayed zombie clichés, only decent chapter was the one with the farm which had a reasonably original twist.

Branching is an illusion : none of the choices have any lasting impact whatsoever, you largely have the same chars dying in the same situations, you will switch which char dies to situation A and which to situation B. Choices with no consequences are no choices at all (recent major disappointment on this topic : Quantum Break). While it is obviously still limited, I LOVED how Heavy Rain dealt with this situation and had extremely interesting replay value, if you didn't get to play it and you do like narrative games, it has its (big) defaults, but deals with some of these aspects better than any game I've seen; go play it.

And I've heard they have cut out those parts since in other games, that WD was the first and they were still unsure they wanted to ditch the point & click heritage, but the very little gameplay there was actually detracted from the game : most puzzles were absolutely trivial, and GOD THE CHARACTER WALKED SLOWLY. Seriously, watch in hand, it took more than two or three minutes to navigate the farm I mentioned earlier just to go talk to character B after character A. I felt I spent more time walking than actually having anything happen, it drove me mad. Well, madder.

I got Tales of Borderland for free too since I do have a PSN subscription, but most likely will skip it too (not having played any Borderlands game doesn't really help).