Pictures of your Games 11 - The Quickening

[Epaminondas]

I tried to be the good guy and solve things peacefully, whereupon one side attacked me for being weak. After we'd finished, the other bastard didn't want to come peacefully to prison where he belonged, and so I had to kill him.

 

The quest was Deal with the Devil... and I dealt with both of them.

 

 

Yeah... I know... I shouldn't have Val and Tristan is weaksauce and Jeathal is... whatever. On normal, you could take my wife's kindergarten class and mow down the bad guys.

[Fenixp]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hurlshort]

So The Witcher is an RPG but Red Dead isn't? They kind of look like the exact same game in those screens.

[the_dog_days]

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/4a/4aee5737f48eab9e8cb6db02bfa99554ed1fe9ae28ff1deee18ab36755feb89c.jpg

[Huinehtar]

With all new space games, is it insane to play this?

 

 

 

 

[LittleRose]

So The Witcher is an RPG but Red Dead isn't? They kind of look like the exact same game in those screens.

It's not about the looks, it's about the gameplay and the character system.

Edited December 15, 2018 by LittleRose

[Lexx]

So The Witcher is an RPG but Red Dead isn't? They kind of look like the exact same game in those screens.

 

Eh.. not sure if you're serious. "Looks" make RPGs now?

 

 

/Edit: To fit the thread..

Edited December 15, 2018 by Lexx

[Hurlshort]

So how is the gameplay different? Because it "looks" like a big part of the gameplay is exploring a big world, riding a horse, and sitting by campfires.

 

Yes, I am being a bit facetious, but I do think it is funny how similar the two are.

 

Both force you to play a specific character too. At least I get better hair and wardrobe options in RDR2.

Edited December 15, 2018 by Hurlshot

[Lexx]

Ugh, not again. Here's the short version:

 

- No choice and consequences in dialogues.

- Not even dialogue trees or anything remotely similar.

- No choice and consequences in any mission.

- No player driven character development outside of buying new guns.

- No skills or perks or anything like that.

- The game world is not influenced by players actions.

- It's a shooter.

 

Yes, both have a big world you can walk around in and hunt animals, but that doesn't make it an RPG.

 

In a way, the online mode is more an RPG than the story mode, as you can choose from various bonus / perk cards that give you special abilities (higher bullet resistance, etc), but they are super expensive to level up so I didn't really bother with them yet.

 

/edit: Another screenshot.

 

In story mode that town was full. In online it feels so empty.

Edited December 15, 2018 by Lexx

[Epaminondas]

What game is that, Lex?

[Oner]

Red Dead Redemption 2

[Epaminondas]

Red Dead Redemption 2

duh! lol Sorry, I've been gaming stunted for a while now.

[Hurlshort]

My responses in red.

 

Ugh, not again. Here's the short version:

 

- No choice and consequences in dialogues.

 

Mostly true. You can say yes or no to a few quests, and you can choose to antagonize or placate people. I only played the first two Witcher games, but I remember all of those 'choices' still made me sound like a cynical Batman.

 

- Not even dialogue trees or anything remotely similar.

 

Ok, kind of the same as the first one. Is this what defines an RPG?

 

- No choice and consequences in any mission.

 

Mostly true. You get a few options to not kill people in story missions.

 

- No player driven character development outside of buying new guns.

 

False. I can be an emaciated murderer, riding around on a giant steed hopped up on painkillers, killing everyone who looks at me wrong. I can be an overweight card shark who spends all day in the saloon. I mean, I'd argue you have more character range here than being forced into the role of a monster hunter.

 

- No skills or perks or anything like that.

 

False. Maybe you didn't like the system, but you did level up your skills, finished challenges and collections for perks, etc. It even had a full fledged crafting system.

 

- The game world is not influenced by players actions.

 

Mostly true. There is a reputation system, but the main story is linear and the world changes in a set way. Is the Witcher more reactive? Is that what makes it an RPG? Or does that just make it a good game? 

 

- It's a shooter.

 

So is Fallout 4.

 

Yes, both have a big world you can walk around in and hunt animals, but that doesn't make it an RPG.

 

So is it just missing a decent dialogue tree?

Edited December 16, 2018 by Hurlshot

[Hurlshort]

I should probably state that I don't really care either way and am just playing devil's advocate. I think all this genre blending is the wonderful thing about games.

[Fenixp]

It's not exactly rocket science, the difference is that TW3 has been built and marketed from the grounds up as an RPG, where even small side quests get multiple, diametrically different resolutions. RDR2 has not. With sufficient mental gymnastics, you can make anything into RPG really - important thing is whether the game was designed as one or not.

[Epaminondas]

It's not exactly rocket science, the difference is that TW3 has been built and marketed from the grounds up as an RPG, where even small side quests get multiple, diametrically different resolutions. RDR2 has not. With sufficient mental gymnastics, you can make anything into RPG really - important thing is whether the game was designed as one or not.

That sounds more like something a designer would say to me. The final answer to me seems to be that a game is what you make of it. Unless you're bound and determined only to like games you can qualify as an RPG, it doesn't matter. Either you like the game or you don't. If it has those elements that you like and you consider it an RPG, then, by God, you're the consumer and that's what it is. Even better, you can come online and argue with some other yutz about why you're wrong about it being an RPG. I kind of thought of games like Sundog (from waaaaay back in the day), Temple of Apshai, or even Zork (You do get more 'hit points' of sorts), as RPGs back in the day. Misguided to be sure, but I enjoyed them RPGs or not.

[Fenixp]

That sounds more like something a designer would say to me.

Well, duh. The whole point of genre labels is to provide a superficial description of intent. Where genre labels actually matter is for marketing, stores, databases, those kinds of things. At the point of you actually playing or discussing a game, as you have pointed out yourself, genres are entirely meaningless as, at that point, you've made up your mind on whether you're interested or not based on a much wider spectrum of qualifiers than just a label slapped on the box.

 

We can do a pissing contest on whether RDR2 is an RPG or not, but nobody else will really give a rat's arse about it and they'll just classify it as whatever Rockstar classifies it as. Of course, when a massive shift in a formula happens, genres get changed or new ones get created - but neither TW3 nor RDR2 is that.

[Katphood]

/edit: Another screenshot.

Meet the power of my 1X, minion!

 

 

[Lexx]

Looks much smaller than my screenshots.

[Huinehtar]

 

 

Time to sell my old Tarsus or not?

[Hurlshort]

That game still looks great.

[ShadySands]

Here is my Romulan Engineering Warbird the RRW Araerim.

Edited December 17, 2018 by ShadySands

[Mamoulian War]

So I have run the video thingy at the PS4 site, and it showed me this thing as well, I am impressed by myself   (still working on one trophy which is even more rare )

[Katphood]

Managed to capture this:

 

Some moments are truly memorable in RDR2.

[Lexx]

Should have waited till they start burning.

 

There's so many of these details in the game, it's really amazing.

Edited December 19, 2018 by Lexx