So the fact that pretty much everyone loves it makes it overrated? I think that's a sign for something else (hint - that it's an amazing game).
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I'd hardly consider Portal a game. It was incredibly short, bland, lame graphics, nerd humor (which is not funny), and an uninspired, lame plot that essentially went no where.
It was originally a tech demo that was included with a package of 4 other games. The comedy was timed well and thought out, the strategy was fun which made the end result of succeeding exciting, and they turned a tech demo into one of the most talked about games all year.
I disagree. Portal is only talked about via the internet. Most people who don't avidly browse the internet have never even heard of Portal. The only people who rave about it are people who find nerd humor funny, and is something mainly appreciated by those who lurk on the internet. And the fact is, it is still a tech demo. "Your" suck? What the fudge is that?
Why would anybody argue with Charles as of late? His opinions about everything have been extremely flawed.........................was that nerdy enough?
GTZ Steam First Meet will be Some Time Soon
We will be meeting around {insert time here}
#455 posted January 1, 2008 at 9:30am (EST) edited January 1, 2008 at 9:31am (EST)
MyAlterEgo wrote: > I'd hardly consider Portal a game. It was incredibly short
there is no minimum length to be a game.
Remember back in the days of the NES where most games could be beaten in an hour or two?
And they were still fun anyway?
> bland,
And getting into random battles and pressing the attack button for 40+ hours (except in boss fights when you might have to cast a heal spell also) isn't bland?
> lame graphics
I'd rather play a fun game with mediocre graphics than a crap game with great graphics. Heck I STILL play the old Commander Keen games
> nerd humor (which is not funny),
When a game requires you to think critically and solve puzzles (i.e. use your brain), which demographic do you think they are catering to?
HINT:
It's not the football player crowd.
It is my opinion that the higher your intelligence, the more you can recognize and appreciate any kind of humor. Your belief that "nerd humor" isn't funny (as opposed to just not being funny TO YOU) is quite telling in that department.
Personally, I don't like "show biz" humor, but the people who are in that industry love it, and I can see why they enjoy it. I just don't give a fudge about the inner workings of that industry, and so humor about that kind of stuff turns me off.
> and an uninspired, lame plot that essentially went no where.
That was the point... kinda like Napoleon Dynamite. If you wanted a deep plot about young heroes coming of age and leaving home to save the world, buy a JRPG (99% of them fit that description).
And again - plot is entirely unnecessary for a game to be fun. What's the plot of Guitar Hero? OMG I'M GUNNA BE A ROCKSTAR!!! What's the plot of Tetris?
Oooh - tangent. First person to write a decent 3 paragraph Tetris fanfic in this thread will get two months of subtime.
#456 posted January 1, 2008 at 10:29am (EST) edited January 1, 2008 at 11:49am (EST)
Hahahhaaaaa.
The Existential Block, Who, Upon Finding Hope, Dies
I am an L-shaped block. I have no point in life. I see that I am in line, but for what? I keep moving up, but I have received no direction in life, well, what one may call "life"... perhaps, for lack of a better term. Perhaps... perhaps existance? Yes, I exist, that much is true, but for what? To continually move upward? I would hardly call this a "life." I see the square block above me, the straight block below me, but neither has attempted to get to know me to any degree. Both of them continue to move ever upwards at the same rate as me, content, uncomplaining... they have everything they want in life, in existence. I have decided that life, existence, is meaningless. I would die if I knew how, but I'm not sure if I'm even alive in the conventional meaning of the word. All I need is contentment, is direction, is a little hint or push or....
LIGHT! I see a light! It's faint now, but seems to get brighter as I move up! Yes! It is getting brighter! The line's changing! Square block... he's, he's moved sideways! He's beside me now! Now he's gone! Disappeared? Fallen? Free? Am I blesssed (condemned?) to the same fate? I... I am above a vast empty space now! No, not empty... through the haze I see vague shapes, structures if you will... if you can... below me! I'M FALLING! What a rush! What a difference! What a... wait, will I die when I land? Is this the end? Has my entire, until-now meaningless existence been all for naught? Is my end extremely fudging nigh? I'm drawing nearer, I'm almost there....
I, I can't see... it's too bright... it's too foggy... is this Hell? Is this Heaven? Purgatory? I feel no pain... yet, I feel no peace, either. I'm just... here. My sight is becoming clearer, yes, the haze is lifting. I appear to be... yes, yes, I am. I am in... a box. I'm not moving up, nor am I moving down. There appears to be no way in this box, nor out. How did I get here? How do I leave? Do I merely blink? Panic? Resign myself to a lifetime of existing in this box, this... prison? I can't do it. I WON'T do it! I must... I will... I... I, can't. I'm done, finished, offed. Life has dealt me the joker - death, undoing, chaos, he grins his evil, telling grin. "I know your fate," he wheezes, "your... ka." I regard him carefully, measure my response as if I'm baking a cake: "I... am... in... THIS BOX!" What fate is there for such as I? What purpose beyond BEING? My mind screetches at the grinning apparition as he begins to fade. Sigh... I am doomed. I am forever relegated to this dungeon, this... THE LIGHT! IT HAS RETURNED! Once more, I am falling! My existance, my LIFE, has meaning again! I can move sideways as I fall! Freedom! Ah, true freedom such has never been felt! It's honey on my lips, it's love in my heart, it's... I'm stuck. I'm... STUCK! I, I can't move, stuck between my brothers! They're not complaining, true, but how cruel! The freedom was so sweet, it was so... divine. I felt as if the Creator was guiding my life for the first time. At least there is still the light... THE LIGHT! It's, it's being eclipsed! Something's coming down on me! I struggle, but nothing can move me from this mud, this wall... what a cruel life, what a cruel (it's getting darker) existence... (the light is almost gone) I feel the oppressive weight of existence upon me (beginning to suffocate), a sudden weight, so heavy... suffocating (darkness)... blank.... (the end is here)
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Guru wrote: > Sky Blazer - 9/10 - Great platformer. It's one of the few, few non-Mario
> platformers I heart dearly. Shame not many people know about it.
> :(
>
> Tales of Symphonia - 9/10 - This is probably one of my favorite action/RPGs...I've
> beaten it 3 times (and it's like a 35 hour game, too)
Took me 80 hours the 1st time through...but atleast 10-20 of those was leaving the game on while i do something else...in my top 5 rpgs i actually wanted to finish it not force myself to
I played around two hours of ToS. I couldn't get into though. The voice acting and cutesy anime character art turned me off a bit, I think. I was REALLY excited about getting the game, too.
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Cid wrote: > Guru wrote: >
>> Tales of Symphonia - 9/10 - This is probably one of my favorite action/RPGs...I've
>> beaten it 3 times (and it's like a 35 hour game, too)
>
> I need to play ToS one day.
>
> shags
>
>
Admiral - Sky Blazer is really tough... I'm probably on like the 6th level and the boss is dropping me. It's fun though. The uh.... rented version runs perfectly.
It's a lil of both I spose, with the brevity and the type of game coupled with the portal technology and the HL2 engine.
> Back when games were just about fun, and didn't worry about whether
> or not they lasted longer than your typical workweek.
Meh, you're bringing too much of your own baggage to the table, you've preached this same sermon for years, don't use Portal as just another pulpit. You'll never understand that smart people find those "other" games entertaining and fun, and they might even be intelligent mortals with different tastes (shudder the thought, ben). You're too blinded by your own towering, immortal genius to understand something outside of your own box.
> I think that's why it's getting all the praise, simply because it
> is a fun game and nothing else.
It's definitely a fun game, but it is more than that, especially coupled with the wonderful collection that is The Orange Box. I think I just talked myself into appreciating it a bit more, I hate when that happens, lol. Anyway, The Orange Box is amazing as a whole, but Portal alone is overrated IMO--a neat diversion with interesting humor and technology.
Cid said it quite clearly, benstylus. One of the main things that make your argument hard to withstand is you try to mix fact with your opinion, benstylus. It's fairly obvious when I'm stating my opinion, but when you go on to say that "back then" games were just about fun and length didn't matter, you are trying to mix in your personal feelings with it.
Portal got a lot of positive reception probably because it was included in The Orange Box, which made it quite a deal. As a standalone game, it doesn't hold crap to a full-length game.
#474 posted January 1, 2008 at 2:54pm (EST) edited January 1, 2008 at 3:03pm (EST)
MyAlterEgo wrote: > Cid said it quite clearly, benstylus. One of the main things that
> make your argument hard to withstand is you try to mix fact with your
> opinion, benstylus. It's fairly obvious when I'm stating my opinion,
> but when you go on to say that "back then" games were just about fun
> and length didn't matter, you are trying to mix in your personal feelings
> with it.
Actually, it's my personal feelings that I'm trying to convey... the facts that I include are only there to supplement - to let you know why I feel the way I do.
And I'm not saying games today aren't about fun... but that they're not JUST about fun like they were years ago. You really can't deny that more often than not games nowadays have filler in one form or another to extend the play time.
MyAlterEgo wrote: > Portal got a lot of positive reception probably because it was included
> in The Orange Box, which made it quite a deal. As a standalone game,
> it doesn't hold crap to a full-length game.
If they tried to sell Portal alone for $60, I'd agree with you.
But if they tried to sell Portal for $60, it'd probably have a lot more content (for better or for worse).
With NES games, I agree with the fact that the length of teh game was not factored in when it was created so much as it is today. However, back then games were still in a premature stage, and people most likely did not expect to get a 20 hour game like most people do today. And yes, I agree with you that most games have some sort of filler to extend playtime. Apparently a lot of people like it if the developers still are still making games with fillers.
MyAlterEgo wrote: > With NES games, I agree with the fact that the length of teh game
> was not factored in when it was created so much as it is today. However,
> back then games were still in a premature stage, and people most likely
> did not expect to get a 20 hour game like most people do today. And
> yes, I agree with you that most games have some sort of filler to
> extend playtime. Apparently a lot of people like it if the developers
> still are still making games with fillers.
up until recently, developers were adding filler because they were practically forced to - if a game didn't last X number of hours, reviewers would slam it for being too short. If developers could get away with shortening game lengths, they would have, as it means less money to develop. Instead, they put in backtracking or other side goals that increased the play time without a significant increase in development cost.
Now, the trend of adding filler is slowly dissipating (which, I believe, is largely due to the success of the Wii and it's more simplistic games). A lot of high profile action (3rd person action,FPS, etc) games are clocking in at under 10 hours to complete now, some as low as 6 or 7.
The RPGs are even starting to get a bit shorter - most of them seem to be in the 30 hour range now, whereas just a few years ago, there were a LOT of 60+ hour RPGs.
Developers may have discovered that people don't really want the filler, and instead of adding extra play time at a nominal development cost, they can actually get better reviews now by leaving the filler out. It's the next trend in the gaming industry, and I believe it's a positive one.
#478 posted January 1, 2008 at 3:38pm (EST) edited January 1, 2008 at 3:39pm (EST)
I don't think I'd really consider DKC a collectathon (though sailorneorune certainly might) since pretty much everything available to collect is entirely optional. DKC was about as cookie-cutter of a 16-bit platformer as you can make. Quite straightforward.
If people want to make filler (collectathon or otherwise) as an optional portion of the game (such as "Motor Kombat" in MK:Armageddon) then I've got no problem with it - if I don't like it, I don't have to play it. I just don't like it when it's forced upon you to get the real ending (Collecting 70 fudging well-hidden Chao in Sonic Advance 3, for example).
#479 posted January 1, 2008 at 5:18pm (EST) edited January 1, 2008 at 5:18pm (EST)
Guru wrote: > HighFiveYEAH wrote: >> The voice acting
>> and cutesy anime character art turned me off a bit, I think.
>
> How stale is your marriage, exactly?
How dare you?! Maybe "turned me off" wasn't the best choice of words.
> I'd say the voice acting is mediocre...while it doesn't stand out
> like Final Fantasy XII or something, it gets the job done.
