Steam lists around 2800 games in the open world category.
Given that Steam a) is home to all manner of absolutely shit games that barely count as playable, and b) lets both devs and users tag game genres themselves without stringent checks, meaning anything could be labelled as open world, I hold that number in serious doubt. But you keep reaching on this one, if proving a point makes you feel better against the fact Bri's actually enjoying games again.
Well that's that then.
Don't worry Mart, arguing in the Soc about whether a game is a "7/10 classic" or a "7/10 kinda forgettable" has been a major part of videogames for me since 2004.
Sorry, I forgot my place there.
Blah blah game completed something something Martanomics or whatever.
Wow, a scientist presents some robust statistics to support a claim and quickly everyone's just had enough of experts. moggTM
When you say "robust statistics" are you referring to the post where you use numbers from Metacritic?
Next slide please.
Thread of the year!
When you say "robust statistics" are you referring to the post where you use numbers from Metacritic?
I'm afraid my new press secretary Ms Kussenberg will be taking questions as I have in important international conference to attend with my overseas counterparts in the videogame statistics industry.
Additional PLAY:
The Gunk - 71 on Metacritic. It's perfectly fine and playable, if a little repetitive (though I've just hit 'the twist' and it might open up a bit.
Additional BIN:
Cats and Soup - There must be at least a few decent mobile games out there that aren't shitty clickers, match-3 or otherwise advert-rammed bullshit. I don't have the patience any more.
Play
Halo Infinite - It's brilliant, obviously. I'm surprised that the launch was a bit botched, with various problems with the gamepass version. For me, it still sometimes doesn't launch, and sometimes launches three times on top of itself, but a reboot always fixes things. Gamepass PC just isn't the most perfect bit of software ever. Microsoft in slightly crap software shock! Who would've believed it?
The game, as I say, is great though. Master Chef is a psychopathic villain, a Michael Myers figure who murders the weak as they flee from him, cares nothing for his companions, and refuses to stay dead. It's always fun to play the villain though, and from a gameplay perspective this is the best FPS I've played in years and years. It feels perfect. Completely satisfying.
I do wish they hadn't gone open-world though. Open world games are rubbish. It's a stupid type of game. You get a map full of icons, and endure the irritating trudge from one to the next until there aren't any icons left. The story parts are massively devalued in every open-world game. Narrative games work better with big set-piece moments, not caves you clear out until you find a boss. The early escape from the exploding space ship is much more exciting than anything that has happened in the open world so far. A sequence of corridors is better for FPS games. It just is. Bulletstorm is not exactly regarded as a classic, but structurally, and from a story point of view it is better than Halo Infinite. Halo couldn't give you moments like a huge wheel-shaped structure accidentally coming off it's axis and chasing you along, or entering an area that appears to be a stealth section, even having your companion tell you to use stealth, before your character immediately knocks something over, which sets off a mad domino effect leading to a nearby building collapsing. Never mind something along the lines of the spectacular set-pieces in the Uncharted games. In open world games, the world is by neccesity too immutable to allow this kind of stuff, or anything that feels like you're affecting the world itself. Instead, they're to-do lists. I like a to-do list, but from a narrative game I'd like a bit more spectacle, a bit more actual narrative.
Want
More time to play board games with my family. We've stocked up on too many Mice and Mystics expansions and need to finish them, as we also have a Stuffed Fables expansion and flipping Gloomhaven to get to.
Bin
The governmental structure of the entire planet, basically. The response to Covid is a frightening indicator of what the response to climate change will probably be over the next few decades. Wait until it's too late do even acknowledge there is a problem. Use the problem for political capital by trying to appeal to the most ignorant areas of society. Introduce measures too late. Use the introduction of measures more as an exercise in lining the pockets of cronies and self than actually saving lives. reduce measures too early in an attempt to gain political capital. Get partially bailed-out by the scientific community. Refuse to take the measures which would allow the amazing work of the scientists to really solve the problem. Fail to consider the idea of a global response to what is a global problem. Continue to pander to the worst idiocy of the voting public and thereby undermine the scientific solutions. Sense that the public is bored of the crisis and wants to get back to normal, so declare that the crisis is over arbitrarily thus further undermining the scientists. At the point where the scientific solution is teetering on the brink, now fatally undermine it by continuing to refuse to introduce much needed measures during a crucial moment of crisis, which sets back all the previous good work which you didn't even contribute to in the first place. Throughout, show contempt for the concept that these measures have at any point applied to the actual people in government who are imposing them. Train the public to accept a certain number of deaths every single day, as this is easier than trying to reduce the number of deaths. Quietly align yourself with the idiots, the deniers, and the conspiracy theorists as appeasing them is far easier than appeasing those with any understanding of the situation. Ride this popular wave of cretins to election, oblivion and extinction. Meanwhile, billionaires continue to accumulate wealth for themselves while not paying back into society, thereby reducing our chances of ever fixing the world. Yet they somehow fool stupid people into thinking they're helping by building penis rockets and firing themselves and their fucking cars into space.
I fear, with every fiber of my being, what the world will be like for our children.
I agree with all of that, but contend that Bulletstorm is a stone cold classic. Halo Infinite needs more dick jokes.
I agree with all of that, but contend that Bulletstorm is a stone cold classic. Halo Infinite needs more dick jokes.
Hard agree on both points. Bulletstorm is not generally regarded as a classic, but I certainly do regard it that way, or I wouldn't be able to instantly recall sections of the game as examples. Halo does have some good jokes in it, despite being considered a bit po-faced. Some of the stuff the grunts say is pretty funny. No dick jokes though, which is a shame.
No game has ever had a joke as perfect as the bit at the end of Bulletstorm where you have to escape a ticking bomb, you rush out through the only exit, go down a few linear corridors, through some twists and turns, and come out back in the room with the bomb.
Bulletstorm is without a doubt the best game I can never remember the name of.
Trishka Novak:
Go f** yourself! You sht piles give chase, I will kill your d*cks!
Grayson Hunt:
What? What does that even mean? You're gonna kill my dick? I'll kill your dick! How 'bout that, huh?
I loved the gate that you kick open right at the start which bounces back and smashes your face.
Carrier Command 2
A late PWB for the year, but I've put a good few hours into this co-op and have enjoyed nearly all of it. It's a reimagining of the original game, which I was a huge fan of. Graphically it has a wonderful, clean, low poly look (it's only a 1gb install) and pretty much takes the original game template (two carriers fighting over a series of islands) and adds a few tweaks and updates and wrinkles for the modern era. Most importantly, it's co-op. Up to 16 can play, though at an extortionate £30 entry fee I think it's unlikely you'd find that many people to play it. We've been playing 2 player (2 people on 1 boat) and it's been great.
It's all real time and all coherent and one gameworld. In other words, you're on the bridge of your ship. You can step outside and watch drones taking off and landing on the deck. You can take control of vehicles and look at the world through their cameras. One person can designate a target with a drone while another fires the carrier's weapon systems. And so on and so forth. Everything happens in a beautifully integrated way. It's hard to describe, but not since AV-8b harrier assault on the PC have I felt such a strong connection to a living, breathing gameworld that is integrated so well with my player view of it.
It has long periods of downtime, which makes it quite meditative. But then can have periods of intense terror. We accidentally rolled up on 4 gunboats last night and the scenes of chaos as we took out two but lost our boat were like something out of a war movie. Damage calls, misinformation, torpedoes launched the wrong way, an aircraft blown out of the sky at the last minute, narrowly missing torpedoes coming towards us with a last minute turn, the loss of power to half the ship, yelling to get the guns back online etc…. It's a lot like Captain Sonar (a chaotic board game) but in videogame form.
So it's great. But the downsides are the cost (ridiculous) and also the bugs. It has quite a few. Vehicle AI is patchy which means they often get stuck and sometimes things just don't work as they should. But then it also appears to blight the enemy side, so you could argue it adds a layer of what war is really like, with non-functioning, non-perfect tech.
I challenge anyone to get through that late-game corridor slog in Halo Infinite and still think shooters need corridors.
That was two boring hours.
I challenge anyone to get through that late-game corridor slog in Halo Infinite and still think shooters need corridors.
That was two boring hours.
Didn't we already learn that in the first Halo, when you fight your way all the way into the thing, then literally have to turn around and go all the way back? Or am I misremembering that?
Additional Play and immediate Bin - Lawnmower Simulator. Might be a good game but all the text is so ridiculously small I can't read it without squinting. Uninstalled.
Additional PLAYS for the immediate future:
It Takes Two - We're starting this today, I'm hoping it's everything it's been billed to be.
LEGO Dimensions - I built my main Christmas present yesterday (the big LEGO Super Mario 64 ? Block) and it got me in the mood to go back to this since I own every figure for it, but never played much of the side content or additional story packs. Sadly, I don't use my PS4 any more but I managed to find a starter pack for Xbone (compatible with Series X) on eBay for €50… that'll be here Wednesday, so that's that in the gaming plan for the foreseeable future.
Due to a combination of weird values of in-game credits, Microsoft Rewards gift card amounts, and Martonomics, I had £2 of Xbox credit left, so I've grabbed the 3-months-for-£1 offer on Game Pass PC.
Queued up the Halo Infinite campaign and Psychonauts 2 already - what else is essential that I might get through in three months?
Crackdown 3 is definitely worth a look, and you'd be doing yourself a disservice not checking out Yakuza Zero or Like a Dragon, even if you might not make it all the way through either.
I don't know that I've ever made it through a YouTube video of a Yakuza game; I can't say it's a series that ever really appealed to me. Mind you, for £1…
Due to a combination of weird values of in-game credits, Microsoft Rewards gift card amounts, and Martonomics, I had £2 of Xbox credit left
Welcome to my TED talk.
Don't forget that Game Pass also includes EA Play, so there might be the odd game or two in there that's worth messing with. Honestly can't think of anything that's 'essential' but Psychonauts 2 is very decent.
It Takes Two - We're starting this today, I'm hoping it's everything it's been billed to be.
I have thoughts on this. Many thoughts. But they really won't be good.
Crackdown 3 is definitely worth a look, and you'd be doing yourself a disservice not checking out Yakuza Zero or Like a Dragon, even if you might not make it all the way through either.
Yakuza Zero, Kiwami 1 and Kiwami 2 leave the service in a matter of days, so make it Like A Dragon if you are thinking of checking the series out.