Viewing entries tagged
bad story
I'll be the first to admit that mechanics aren't the first thing I look for in a game, and many games I love have very light gameplay systems and mechanics at the end of the day. However, I'm not all about the stories and I still enjoy a fun challenge from a game that doesn't really care about story all that much, opting for fast and frantic combat as the main selling point from start to finish.
Taste is a wonderful thing that separates us all and shows off the kind of diversity that makes human existence so interesting and wonderful. Either that or I'm trying to justify the fact that my own taste often differs from many others' that I come into contact with. Whether it's books, movies, music, or video games, I seem to always find the thing that everyone hated, and enjoy the hell out of it.
Every now and then a game is released to mediocre reviews and practically non-existent hype, but I enjoy it all the same. The first Mirror's Edge was criticised for its empty world and bland story, while offering unique and compelling gameplay. It was short and sweet, but I loved everything about it, so the sequel must be right up my alley… right?
Like a lot of people in the world, I'm not American, which might seem a relatively banal thing to say, but games are pretty good at reminding me. Especially when the big shock of a first person shooter is that it takes place on American soil, which doesn't mean a whole lot in reality. Maybe it's shocking and interesting to have your home featured as a battleground, but if that's what you're whole game is riding on, you might need to rethink it for foreign audiences.
Straight up, I've never played the first Azkend and I only gave this one a go because it was a Playstation Plus game at some point. It's easy to try something that just shows up in your library unexpectedly, but I like this match-three adventure enough to write something about it.
I think it's fair to say that narrative focused games got a real boost when TellTale came out with their version of The Walking Dead. It was arguably when the mix between visual novels and point and click adventures became popular. So why haven't we seen more clones of the formula? Why is it that Life Is Strange feels like the only direct competitor around?
You know how no-one can eat all the eggs? Well sometimes in the midst of artistic narrative story telling games, I need a diversion from abstraction and meaning. It's why I'm a fan of button mashing games like the Dynasty Warriors series, and it's why I enjoyed the B-Movie hack and slash antics of Onechanbara Z2: Chaos.
This year has been insane so far when it comes to quality big game releases. So much so, that my backlog of recently released games is pretty stellar with Nier: Automata and Horizon: Zero Dawn waiting patiently for their turn. However, after being convinced by the beta, I did manage to spend over a hundred hours messing about in the huge open world of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands.
