MY BRAIN HAD A THINK ABOUT A GAM3

Exactly!

I can't comment on Jak, but you look from Crash to Last of Us, which The Last of Us Part II has Halley Gross co-writing along with Neil.

That studios evolve overtime and why Naughty Dog is the best of the best.

Especially when hear what's happening with Xbox Game Studios, takes time to be that good not let's buy studios and hire peeps.

I don't even know where to start with some of those recent posts.

EDIT:

Buska wrote:

I've liked games' stories but usually, like yourself Jim, because they're tied to the gameplay or expressed through the gameplay or whatever.

If a game feels like watching a TV show or reading a book, I'd usually rather actually watch a TV show or read a book. For one thing, they're different headspaces and when I'm up for one I'm not necessarily up for the other.

This from Buska pretty much covers how I feel though & why I said elsewhere on here that no one recently has done it better than Hades because everything is just so interconnected that if you remove one element then the game is worse off for it.

Because I have a bunch of different games on the go at one time, having one game that feels like a book amongst them isn't a problem for me. I can fit it in when the headspace is right. (Also maybe my headspace is perhaps less sophisticated, i.e. if it's on a games machine and there's some level of interaction beyond the cerebral then it's a game to me. Nonetheless Fata Morgana definitely occupied a slightly different space in my schedule than, say, Beast Breaker.)

OrangeRakoon wrote:

Balladeer wrote:

I agree with this for the most part, but what's the difference between story and plot?

As I understand it to be usually differentiated, plot is the series of events, the logical cause-and-effect, the bullet point list of scenes that objectively happen. Story is described in themes, it's the message, the moral, the Point with a capital P. Plot serves the story. Something can be well plotted without any substance, or conversely full of plot holes (logical errors in how events unfold) but with a compelling story.

The Last of Us Part II has a very compelling story about the futility of revenge, the cycle of hate, and the effect of perspective on empathy. It's plot is full of contrivances in people just happening to bump into each other so that events can play out. That's what I am meaning!

Ah, okay! Is this an officially defined distinction? Because otherwise I think I'd just call that, 'story/plot' vs. 'themes' or 'thematics'.

I agree that the themes are a different aspect of storytelling to the plot though. It is however not one I tend to think about much in videogames, because in the videogames I play there's not so much emphasis on thematics, or they're often quite trite. When I do notice it it's when a game has done it wrong, like Ys IX's treatment of rebelling against oppressors and how you shouldn't. (Yes really. ('Ys really'?))

I've also heard that distinction made, though I think rather than plot they used the term incident. It was at, of all places, the Harry Potter Studio Tour. The director of Goblet of Fire was talking about how the studio asked him to split it into two films, to which he replied that while there is plenty of incident, there isn't enough story.

Story to me is themes, yes, and things like character development, the point of it. In a Sherlock Holmes, for example, the story is that a murder happened and Sherlock solved it, but the plot is him investigating the clues and discovering the truth out of order.

In a game, then, we could say the "story" is that a character overcame such-and-such a challenge and developed in whatever way, but the "plot" includes all the gameplay stuff we did to get them there.

Balladeer wrote:

Ah, okay! Is this an officially defined distinction? Because otherwise I think I'd just call that, 'story/plot' vs. 'themes' or 'thematics'.

I don't think there exists some authority that can make it "official", but no I am not formally educated on it or anything so I have no idea, it's just what I've read like

'Official' the wrong word, 'commonly recognised among writers' perhaps. I'll take the Transphobe Studio Tour's word for it! Although the way Buska spins it, I think I'd still be inclined to break down story into themes (which I care about little), worldbuilding maybe? (which is fine), and character development - which, as mentioned above, can be make-or-break for me.

Guys I meant I just like running and jumping and finding stuff

Why my suggestion of play Kirby not Horizon stands.

Writing can improve running and jumping and finding stuff! Or make it worse.

A story in three parts.

Chapter 1:

Chapter 2:

Chapter 3:

If for some reason you're going to see Chip 'N' Dale: Rescue Rangers, this counts as a spoiler. For the rest of us, really nice 'gaming' cameo!

It's on Disney+ I believe, I'll coherse my daughter in to thinking she wants to watch it so I can see it myself, it didn't work with Sonic 2 but watching at home seems much more achievable.

Yeah I'll be watching on Disney+, quite excited for it.

The closure of G4TV feels like a huge shame, and a massively missed opportuniuty. Now who'll broadcast my long-wished-for TV programme idea, where Buskalilly tours Nagano, Sapporo, Cowdenbeath and Yokohama shouting "SPLAAAAAATOOOOOOOON! SpLaTOOOOOOOOOOooooooOOOOOONnnnnn! SPlaaaaaaaTTTTTooooNNnnNNN!" into his phone camera? I hope BBC or ITV pick it up.

As much as I liked a lot of the personalities broadcasting from G4TV, I think the reboot was always going to be a doomed concept in this day and age. A lot of gaming media and coverage has shifted to YouTube and Twitch and whilst G4TV did run via livestreaming for the majority of their shows, it was never going to be tenable employing the number of staff that they did for what was essentially at times just a livestream.

Even here in the UK, GamesMaster had to chuck their recent reboot episodes onto YouTube. Broadcast TV and games just don't mix very well in this day and age.

Also, laughing at how much notoriety Cowdenbeath is gaining around these parts since Buska visited.

If I holiday in Scotland, sod going to Celtic all about a night at Cowdenbeath FC.

I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy, Mas!

My favourite thing about Cowdenbeath is how it describes the meat making process in it's name.

I completely forgot G4TV existed. Was that even a thing over here?

I'd not heard of it until Cappa mentioned it here, but my telly knowledge isn't exactly great.

The first time I heard about G4TV was when it was closing down.

I think the problem is that the majority of people who are really into games are also not particularly into watching broadcast television. We're all online and that's where we find the media we need. It's the same reason, sadly, that print magazines are on the way out.


When Mas goes to Cowdenbeath, I recommend the pizza cruch.

I was watching a stream a few days ago where a guy mentioned how a lot of big games are hitting their 25 year anniversary this year so I looked it up & there really is some great stuff.  

Just go name a few:

Resident Evil 2
Marvel vs Capcom
1080 Snowboarding
The House of the dead
Tekken 3
StarCraft
Radiant Silvergun
Gran Turismo
Banjo-Kazooie
ISS '98
F-Zero X
Metal Gear Solid
Spyro the dragon
Pokemon Yellow
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
Grim Fandango
Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus
Half-Life
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Most had some sort of remake/remaster in the past but Spyro Anniversary thing was spotted on Christmas card.

Then The Snitch seems to be teasing Metal Gear Solid.