Purkake

Yup, back when "verticality" was all the rage.

I guess we reached the end of that road.

@Will: So Gears of War isn't art because you don't like it? @Oner: Someone really needs to pin that stuff down. We can't have a word with such an elusive definition.

So if I take three sheets of paper and 1) Print the word "art" on the first 2) Write the word "art" on the second in normal handwriting 3) Paint the word "art" on the third in a somewhat creative manner Which one is/isn't art and why?

So to get a glass of milk you go all the way to the Carpathians, milk a cow and then go all the way back? Life in Hungary is worse than I thought.

Jawsome!

Once you manage to derail a thread enough to get firmly on the "what is art" rails, the next stop is hell.

You must have huge fridges then.

In other news: water is wet.

Biker Mice From Mars or bust!

Killian, You're nearing the critical mass of trolling. Flames incoming... Because that's the object of art, to make sure as many people like it as possible. That's why they invented focus testing during the renaissance. I was replying to Oner, who said that people didn't buy Torment, because they didn't know how fun it was. My point was that he was overestimating people.

Do you honestly think that if everyone in the world played Torment, even half of them would like it?

Fanboy!

Yes, Torment had gameplay and it was bad, luckily the writing made up for it. This a very rare occasion and not recommended for other game developers to try at home.

The developer has one of the worst track records I have seen in recent years. This could actually be worse than the movie-based game.

What about Red Faction: Guerrilla? Sure the story sucked, but breaking things in spectacular ways made it the most fun game ever. As I said in some other thread before, expect different things from different games. Not every game needs to have a PST-level story to be good, in fact, everyone trying to insert what they think is the best thing since Dostoevsky, is part of the reason why video game stories are a joke these days. Unfortunately every game needs gameplay, which is usually the part that makes it fun, otherwise you could just watch a movie. Developers should concentrate on their strengths and not try to do it all because they think the market demands it. If you can't make a good complex story, make a good simple one. Being unique and innovative will get you more points than trying to be smart and failing.

I always found that really weird, like some of the audio was bugged or the files missing. All or nothing for me, thanks.

The thing you're ignoring is that they probably have a bigger budget which means that all the aspects could have improved equally, you just haven't seen any other than graphics. And that doesn't take into account the fact that they have most likely optimized the engine and know the engine better now that they have already made one game using it.

Go Jinxed, Luck 10 and hand-to-hand. Hilarity will ensue.

ME2 quite obviously has a bigger budget than ME1 did. Also writing and graphics design aren't exactly equal, adding more writers doesn't make the writing any better at a certain point, while having a thousand artists do every every texture and animation will make the overall game look better than it would with less artists. While it is possible that what you're saying is true, it is wholly illogical to assume that having better graphics would make any other part of the game worse and not in fact, better. Especially considering that they most likely have a higher budget for ME2. @Boo: There's no saving you, your soul is forever lost in the abyss of irrational hate for fun things.

I don't think it the graphical improvements are at anything else's cost. If you throw enough time and resources at a game you can optimize the hell out of it, especially when there's only one hardware configuration. The experience from doing ME1 probably helps as well.

I guess you missed the part where FO3 burned down the naysayers villages and murdered their parents. They're vengeance will never cease.

We have the normal cardboard ones as well. I don't know why they keep putting it into bags, I guess it's slightly cheaper. We also have real black bread here, take that western hemisphere!

That really shows how Mass Effect is really all about the production values. You say it like it's a bad thing.

You will always have you dreams.