The Big Gaming in the 2010s Discussion Thread (the 2010s-Defining Game currently being discussed)

Jaster has I think found the actual winner. Lovely Pikmin art!

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I don't like the Luigi's Mansion 3 one very much though, I just think it looks off with Gooigi upside down!

That's my favourite thing about it.

I looked through my 3DS collection and I found a couple of other nice ones:

Spoiler:

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

EDIT: I was going to do one of these a fortnight until the end of the year, and I just drafted together ideas the other night. By all means jump in though - maybe let this box art one run until the weekend and then fire away with your question 

I'll chuck mine into the mix on Monday probably.

You know what? I think that MHS box art might be the best one out of all the monster hunter games and it took me a second to spot the Khezu after you mentioned it, the artist has definitely snuck that one in at the last second, haven't they?

I'm imagining the conversation with his creative lead going something like this:

'Can I put the penis monster on the box?'
'You cannot put the penis monster on the box.'
(creative lead leaves; designer looks from side to side)
'I'm putting the penis monster on the box.'

Cut to just before the game is due to go out...

I'll post a new discussion tomorrow, unless Balladeer wants to ask his question first...

ARGH.  Sorry.  

A week or so late, let's talk about best writing in games in the 2010s.  That's a fairly broad church: could be well-realised characters, could be a good plot, could be just loading screens with some text on that made you laugh.  It needn't be a particularly wordy game either, so long as the words in it were well chosen. The bottom line is, you liked how they did the text of the game.

~



It needn't be a wordy game... but this one is. Ghost Trick came out right at the start of the decade and, despite the odd new Ace Attorney, a cavalcade of RPGs, and Tangle Tower, I reckon it still has the best writing of the bunch (although it's in close competition with Last Window which released in the same year). I loved the character design, I loved the writing, I loved the twists and turns of the plot. I still think, in this day and age of the Internet, that it's unfair to reveal some of the details behind the main character's identity for those who haven't played it. It's like a great book attached to a good puzzle game and it's at number six of my games of all time, ten years later.

How about y'all?

Good question. I had to think quite hard about this, as my types of games are the ones where you can mash A to skip the cutscenes.



I think my answer is Thomas Was Alone. I thought it's story was cleverly told, with these little fragments and snippets told to you over time, and each characters being narrated by the same voice actor. For a game about coloured rectangles, it had a lot of personality, and that mostly came from it's writing.

Despite how much I overhyped it, I do feel that the writing was incredibly strong in Undertale. The way the game mechanics worked with the overall story was rather clever indeed and I enjoyed my time with the characters a lot. I can't think of anything that impressed me from a story perspective as much as UT did.

Honourable mentions go to The Walking Dead Season One, Mass Effect 2 and Doki Doki Literature Club.

First thing that come to mind was Gone Home and there's a lot of other story driven games I play but not a lot with in game writing or not a lot I can think off, even though I do like a VN.

Gone Home was a good 'un too. I wouldn't rank it up there with my favourites of the decade, but I can still see where you're coming from. The way you unravelled the story by progressing through each area of the home was great.

Undertale is a solid pick for its writing, even if it's not actually Mother 3 2. I've never played Gone Home or Thomas. I get the feeling I should play Thomas at least, everyone says good things.

Ghost Trick would definitely be my number one pick here but since Balla has already mentioned that I'm going to highlight Witcher 3 instead as it's just chock full of great characters and moments not only in the main quest but there is some real excellent side quest stories as well.

Wait you've never played TWA, that's surprisingly especially as I remember it's like the one game most like on here and bunch seemed to play it at the same time.

I should probably play The Witcher 3 too I guess! But I'm more likely to wishlist TWA in the nearish future.

I've not played many games with a lot of writing or dialogue, and stuff like Gone Home and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture didn't connect with me. I love Life is Strange, but the writing in that was a bit dodgy at times. So my choice is The Stanley Parable, because it's both funny and clever.

My sister keeps telling me to play Stanley, but it presumably involves a lot of replaying and fiddling about with gubbins and I don't think it's for me...

It's like that Superliminal game we played but way better

I did get that feel. 'Way better' than Superlimited is not hard to be fair.

I'd forgotten about this. I said I'd support it until the end of 2020, and I'll try to do that. So, here's a new question. 

"If there's one game that defines the 2010s, then it's surely..."


Loads happened in gaming during the 2010s. Mobile gaming grew massively in popularity, the traditional gaming market became more popular than ever, and it was all been built in a whole new image. I feel that the 'freemium' models, the battle royale template, countless crossovers and the rise of open-ended gameplay in randomly-generated worlds are all hallmarks of the last decade in gaming. Which game sums it up the 2010s for you?


I'm keen to read your thoughts. 

A game that does a lot of the things you mention, even though I've barely played it (once one evening with the lads) feel the answer is Minecraft

I feel like Rocket League sums up the 2010s. A game that launched fairly lowkey, then went wild when on PS+. It was a game built around the physics of a ball and better than a ton of physics-driven games like Goat Simulator and Octodad, and was fun alone, with friends or with randoms. I always considered an indie game to be something 2D and lower budget, but Rocket League just felt like the arrival of the 3D indie game. Bit of a weird thing to say. But yeah, I'll go with Rocket League. Especially as it is now a Free-to-Play game. GTA V is a good shout too, which I can see going Free-to-Play soon.

To be entirely predictable, I'm going to say . . .Dark Souls.

It was a hugely influential game, for starters; it showed how game design could be used to tell stories that other media couldn't tell, it brought a level of difficulty and mechanical crunchiness back to action games, and it started a trend in social, single-and-multiplayer at the same time gaming.

It's also a great example of how a game's community can outgrow the game itself. All the git gud, it's so hard, it's actually not hard, praise the sun memery was impossible to avoid even without liking the game. The meme of Dark Souls' difficulty was so prevalent it influenced how the developers went on to make the sequels.

Plus . . . really good, innit?

Dark Souls is a good shout but, much though it created its own genre (like that true masterpiece Death Stranding), I don't feel like it encapsulated the true ethos of gaming in the 2010s. No, I think that dubious honour goes to Overwatch. It did cartoony multiplayer shootybang before Fortnite got in on it, was wildly successful, has continually released more heroes in a nod to what would become live service gaming, and was the first real populariser of lootboxes. In doing so it opened the gates to a whole host of freemium nonsense that I feel defined gaming business practices in the 2010s. It was by most accounts a pretty decent game as well. The good and bad of the decade in one game.

Dark Souls wishes it was good as Death Stranding

I was trying to be slightly less pessimistic and cynical, Balla . . .