algroth

I guess I see it as a video game, first and foremost, and in that respect (that is, gameplay), it's just an okay platformer. Are there a couple of new ideas? Maybe...but it's nothing special, even so. In regards to the setting and atmosphere...that one, I still just don't get. People just rave about the setting and atmosphere, and, as you say, "the sheer amount of detail"...and I went through the entire game thinking, "Moving onto random set piece #42..." For me, the game didn't flow together at all like it seems to have for other people, and the resulting effect was that the game felt incohesive and poorly detailed and explained, not the opposite. Like it was just banking on its "surreal" atmosphere while never doing much of anything with it...and furthermore, surreal atmospheres aren't anything special if they don't make the player actually *feel* like it's a surreal experience, and Inside felt much more silly and over the top than actually surreal to me. So yeah, I just don't get it at all, Difference in perspective, I guess. Gameplay is important to me only inasmuch as how relevant it is to the game in question - hence my love for Planescape: Torment despite recognizing its poor combat. I didn't find Inside to be poor in this regard at all myself, but to me it was less about how challenging it was in its mechanics and so on, and more about the sheer emotional and intellectual experience, both of which I found very worthwhile. Again, when it comes to emotional response it's impossible to reproach one for their disagreements, but personally I do think the game did a lot with its atmosphere and I did get the oneiric experience from it, it felt closely related in feel to the likes of Mamoru Oshii's Angel's Egg for example. And what's more, I think that saying it's just "banking on its surreal atmosphere" is a tad unfair considering the sheer amount of work that went into its visuals and sound design, as well as the rhythm present through these. Were it a game where the entirety of the "surrealism" comes from an atonal soundtrack and the occasional bit of manipulated sound I could agree, but this is hardly a case in which their approach to the atmosphere was anywhere near that flippant. The ending might be a tad over the top but I for one enjoyed the weirdness of it, and it certainly did trigger something in me, whether for being weird as it was or else. But all this is very much down to getting some value out of it or not, emotional or otherwise, and that's the extent to which one may or may not "get it". Sorry to hear it didn't work as well for you.

I don't understand the love for Inside whatsoever. I really don't, not even one bit. It's just a kinda meh/average platformer with a pretty forgettable setting that feels like it was made specifically to be "artsy", but really comes across more as "not made very well". I don't understand how you don't find it well-made or the setting to be forgettable myself, but it goes to show how opinions differ I guess. To my mind it's all about the sheer amount of detail into the setting, into the visuals and sound design that make it such a wonderful, surreal experience. It's not just a very well-made game, it's outright virtuous.

A lot of people equate game length with value and it's a heck of a lot easier, faster, and, therefore, cheaper to fill your giant open world with mindless kill X creatures quests and tons of random bull**** to waste your time collecting for quests, stronghold upgrades, and stupid crafting (in case my disdain for crafting isn't coming through clearly, I really loathe crafting) than making meaningful, interesting, compelling side content that will pad out an equivalent amount of gameplay time. So long as the publisher can say "look our giant open world has 60+ hours of content" that's enough for a lot of people, even if 90% of said content is mindless busy work. I still hold Inside as one of the best games of the decade (if not the best), and you can pretty much finish it in an afternoon. I agree, length is always welcome so long as it's justified, but having a game be long for the sake of it is a mark against it, not in its favour.

The person who already had donated $333 increased their pledge by the same amount. Thus they have donated the magic amount of $666 You sure that certain anonymous donator in question is not a ginger fellow who likes to go by Lucy indoors?

Someone really ought to sticky one of these threads so that they don't keep flooding up the board.

Bad combat is still bad combat. It'll be annoying whether it plays a major role in the game or not.

Horizon: Zero Dawn in a nutshell:

The Salesman. So... No surprises that Asghar Farhadi remains one of the best and most interesting filmmakers of the 21st century. This is kinda more of the same but the fact that it blends a theatre play along with the harder realism he's usually known for means it's also the most plastic film I've seen of him yet (plastic as in, aesthetic and the likes, not as in fake). An extremely tense, nuanced film, featuring some great performances and showcases of cinematic tension throughout. Recommended!

I'd say the her epilogues were pretty definite, unfortunately. I wouldn't mind seeing the voice actress work on a voice set for the protagonist myself.

Personally I'm imagining more of a "Rolonda Watts as Illaoi"-type voice actress for Maia, I feel like she ought to sound much larger than the Devil for one. Think female, less bookwormy Kana. For the most part I do agree that the voice acting for the companions was good, though I did find both the Devil and Maneha a little too preppy and sassy for my liking, in ways that didn't seem to fit the characters all that much (though I did also feel the characters were pretty all over the place too, in terms of personalities matching their histories and problems and the likes).

I've heard a lot of complaints about the sound and music. That's interesting and suprising, considering it's where Torment excelled at the most, writing and voice acting aside.

I've yet to play it, but everything I've heard so far does point that way. It also sounds to me that the game was eventually rushed to release, despite (or maybe as product of) the many delays there were on its release date.

Perhaps some of the more humorous comments regarding Tides is the lot that go "HOW DARE THEY CALL THIS A SUCCESSOR TO PLANESCAPE: TORMENT! SHAME ON THE CREATORS FOR TARNISHING THE GAME'S IMAGE AND DECEIVING US THIS WAY!". It's always fun to read the fanboy butthurt that follows a franchise being revived almost two decades after the fact. Personally I'm always glad of seeing a game take some influence from Torment - even copying it outright may lead to an interesting product, being itself so unique a piece in the medium. Some will work better than others, that's usually the risk you take with any artistic endeavour, and at the very least I find the ambition here worth applauding.

There was also that player poll a couple of months back that strongly hinted towards one being in the works, or at least to the idea of one being in the air. We'll have to wait and see, but here's hoping!

Does it tell you your real name?

Agree with Sands - with the content promised via stretch goals you can't help people have an idea of the game that was more expansive than what it actually turned out to be (which, I understand, is a pretty compact and short game despite the text length). The game may be great but you'll still feel disappointed for not seeing everything that you were expecting to see.

What a ladies' man...

I usually don't, but I generally know to some extent or another what I'm getting into, by means of a general Wiki description, some screenshots or the likes. I only really read reviews following the games, though I may skim one or two prior.

Some of the remarks are very funny, yes. However, whilst I still haven't played the game it does occur to me that some of the most recent iso-RPGs have been a little too obsessed over length and word-count, using observations such as "Tides of Numenera has more words than the Bible" as bragging rights of some sort, and in turn feel a little exhausting and baggy. Torment works for me because the text is not there to fill a mininum word-count quota but to actually describe or expand on things of interest, thus making the writing seem adequate throughout. If the things being described aren't interesting and long conversations involving branches within branches become a norm beyond what is necessary (see Tyranny for the latter, for example), eventually that can make the game feel like a chore and the prospect of another conversation somewhat daunting, even for players with the right mindset for games like these. Again, I cannot say if this is the case for this game in particular, and I am acting as Devil's advocate here. I have read a couple saying that Tides feels less writing-heavy than Tyranny, which makes me quite happy to hear - and I do say this as someone who's all the same enjoying Tyranny at the moment as well, so it's not a deal-breaker/sealer for me anyhow.

That's Kawai himself on percussion, isn't it? (I don't mean the solo percussionist, mind, rather the dude on 0:10.)

I absolutely loved that in Icewind Dale 2, I agree. Very reminiscent of Hisaishi's work for Princess Mononoke too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMYqWpzCo8k

That could be an issue if copyrights for those characters come into play. I know for one that Avellone spoke about not being able to include Ravel or a Ravel-like character into Tides of Numenera precisely because the Planescape setting and the characters of Torment were not owned by them at the time. If this was an issue for him I can see how the above could be an issue with Obsidian. Which sucks, of course.