God of War, Red Dead Redemption II and other 'Movie' type games..

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

I finally have a computer that can play these games..I bought Red Dead Redemption II and started to play, honestly its kind of engaging in a way, but I can't really tell if what I am clicking on or doing really matters during the action part of the game..it sort of feels like a movie is happening and I am just randomly clicking shit and stuff happens, and then its over. Its cool to look at, but I feel almost a little like I am playing a modern version of that old Arcade Game from the 80's 'Dragons Lair' where it looks really cool but ultimately you don't really have much control over anything. Maybe I just suck at these types of games.

Anyway, I never play games like this, and mostly because when I have had a computer that can this has been my general experience, I don't hate the games, but they actually don't feel very much like games to me and I get kind of bored after 20 or 30 minutes. I guess I am asking this because 'God of War' is on sale on Steam and has like 97% favorable reviews and 'Overwhelming positive'...but is it really basically just the same thing? How do you get max enjoyment from these games? I don't want to play with friends or people online either...maybe I am just bad at the games? But it seems like I am progressing fine in the game, and doing what is supposed to be done, so I am not sure. I simply don't understand these games I guess..lol..but they look cool and I want to like them...

 

[Ivan]

no, Red Dead 2 is one of those rare cases IMO (explains why it's so divisive). God of War is a much more traditional AAA action game with frequent action, spread over some boring exposition bits that can't be skipped (sailing).

I myself had fun with it, particularly the option tough boss fights.

 

[Bigg Boss]

The best open world is the one you made along the way.

+Open world games usually are boring unless the theme really appeals. I bought Mad Max for a couple bucks. Have not played much but I plan on zoning out in between harder games with it.

 

[Rocket-Propelled Game]

All the side things in RDR2 make me wish it had been designed as a cowboy simulator 1st and a prequel to RDR1 second. Hate that robbing trains isn't terribly viable outside of story mode missions, but at least I can take a scenic first person ride on said train clear across the map.

 

[Ezekiel]

God of War reboot sucks. Play the original trilogy if you haven't already.

Like I said before,

"Hate what this game represents.

"Force a camera perspective PURELY because it's the trend. The designers can claim it was for cinematic purposes all they want, but they used the same kind of language in God of War III interviews when talking about the camera angles, which were highly cinematic without being obtrusive or so limiting. There's nothing really impressive about telling a CG story with a single shot. It makes for boring photography. The camera is always so close to the character and can never pull out much to emphasize the scale of the level or setpiece. Having such a limited field of view that doesn't capture the full player character means no jumping, which means fewer ways to evade, which means more simplistic, monotonous combat, not to mention more basic level design. Stop using the interconnected world design to claim the level design is good. Most individual areas have very little going on. The camera also limits the kinds of action setpieces you can have. They're still there, but you have far less control over them than you used to, usually just button prompts on screen as the character you can't control plays out the cutscene. Jesus, the field of view is so bad, I can't emphasize it enough. That you need triangular warning prompts to know what's happening around you really says it all, doesn't it? The dodge button is on the face of the controller, and you're dodging so much that you can't really keep your thumb on the camera stick, so you mostly just push it into the most convenient position you can and then wait as the more pressing danger leaves the screen again. Rapidly back and forth from the Cross button to the stick. Massive downgrade.

"The combat becomes more boring and limiting after you get the other weapons, because then it turns into a color match game where the fire weapon is needed for the ice enemies and the other weapon is needed for the fire enemies. There should have been one or two more weapons, because there really isn't enough going on in the combat to carry the game for as long as it goes. Same giant troll type enemies over and over, with the same execution animations again and again. I might be mistaken, but I think there's only three types of bosses: the aforementioned giants, the villain Baldur and the Valkyries. The few others are more like interactive cutscenes.

"Why have a companion if you must press Square to make him shoot? I rarely used the arrows in combat, because I found it so unnatural to prompt a basic action that he should have been performing on his own that I simply forgot I had him."

What they should have done was replace Kratos. People kept complaining that the character had become totally unlikable and the story had declined since the original. So instead of turning the same simplistic character into someone he could never be, they should have replaced him with a different god of war from another pantheon. They should have kept the fixed, cinematic camera angles, but given him or her a completely new combat system with mechanics tailored to their style and weapons. We get few enough exceptions to the cramped over the shoulder perspective with shoulder button attacks/shooting among the cinematic AAA developers as it is. In the spirit of the original trilogy, the reboot should have had the same entertaining, sadistic over the top violence and gore, the sexuality/tits and the awesome setpieces. The game should have been linear and the production values slightly simpler, so that the game wasn't stuck with only the same few troll enemies and the Valkarye-types for bosses. It's hard to even consider that white trash Baldur and the dragon as bosses, since so much of them is just cutscene with occasional player input. The game should have gone light on the story moments and kept the narrator as a way to move it along. No persistent companion, because that just means more walking and talking that silences the music. It's dull, with the dialogue all too often sounding real world rather than mythical. The pondering, the quips and the idle everyday talk came off as really pretentious because of how fantastic the world is supposed to be. Immortals and gods talking almost like regular folk. White trash Baldur comes to mind again.

 

[Zarniwoop]

You finally have a computer that can play console games from 4 (four) years ago?

The first Red Dead Redemption is about 100x better than the second one. The second one is just a slightly interactive movie. Your description was good - it's a modern version of Dragon's Lair. But that's what shitlennials want, minimal interactivity. One of the biggest things on the interwebs is watching other people play games. No, I'm not kidding.

 

[ferratilis]

Since you have a new computer, do yourself a favor and play Kingdom Come Deliverance. The only game that made me not regret building a new PC. I completed RDR2 and felt kinda meh about it, played some of these popular open world games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone, AC Origins, Metro Exodus, Death Stranding etc. but honestly couldn't last more than a few hours in each because they were all about graphics and repetitive gameplay. But Kingdom Come will pull you in, and stay with you even after you finish it.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Rdr2 is a fun cowboy sim with some gay story shit attached.

 

[Bigfass]

I thoroughly enjoyed RDR2 but I can see how it can be a shitty on-rails experience if you're not into the open world stuff.

There's plenty of busywork: hunting/fishing for legendary animals, taming horses, leveling up skills, whatever. And a lot of sidequests, some of them funny or interesting. I don't think any of this is needed to see the final cutscene though. It's just a fun way to immerse yourself in an SJW-infested version of the Old West:

 

[Bigfass]

Oh for fuck's sake youtube. I think this isn't age restricted:

 

[Athena]

In many online communities, it feels like RDR2 became immediately forgotten a couple of months after release despite all the fanfare of being art, advancing video games as a medium and all that. Basically the Bioshock Infinite of the current generation. Only guy who bought it IRL that I know of was really disappointed with the game as well. Rockstar expected the player to be vowed with the graphics and the slow animations for everything as to enhance immersion, but at the end of the day the player wants to have some fun. Still, there's no shortage of pseuds ready to push pretentious crap to heavens even if they themselves don't play games.

 

[HereticGuy]

How do you get max enjoyment from these games?

You can't have enjoyment with these kind of games, because these product doesn't aim gamers. Cinematic games are similiar to FIFA, NBA or these kind of games developed for mass audience; for non-gamers. An average Joe doesn't want to be challenged, and these kind of auto-pilot games makes them believe that they are accomplish something. Also, movies are cool; and if they make games like movies they sell more.

This is one of the reason why team based multiplayer games exploded since a decade, whereas deathmatch type arena shooters died. In a deathmatch game like Quake or Unreal Tournament; you can't blame others. It is either you are good or dogshit. New generation can't accept that obviously. In a objective based team game, you can easily blame your teammates :" healer suckz / our tank is a n000b etc. ". In reality the individual sucks balls; but the developers cracked the code and created an enviroment for these kindergarden kids.

 

[Ezekiel]

How do you get max enjoyment from these games?

You can't have enjoyment with these kind of games, because these product doesn't aim gamers. Cinematic games are similiar to FIFA, NBA or these kind of games developed for mass audience; for non-gamers. An average Joe doesn't want to be challenged, and these kind of auto-pilot games makes them believe that they are accomplish something. Also, movies are cool; and if they make games like movies they sell more.

This is one of the reason why team based multiplayer games exploded since a decade, whereas deathmatch type arena shooters died. In a deathmatch game like Quake or Unreal Tournament; you can't blame others. It is either you are good or dogshit. New generation can't accept that obviously. In a objective based team game, you can easily blame your teammates :" healer suckz / our tank is a n000b etc. ". In reality the individual sucks balls; but the developers cracked the code and created an enviroment for these kindergarden kids.

Going off topic, but notice also that every multiplayer game now has features that reveal your position on the map, from sonar to kill cams. The player expects to be babied. If they can't tell where they are being killed from, they perceive it as unfair, maybe even think the other is cheating. It killed strategy in shooters.

 

[Ezekiel]

Incline? You think kill cams and player dots on a map made multiplayer better, Rusty? Why? Unless I'm misunderstanding your rating.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

You finally have a computer that can play console games from 4 (four) years ago?

The first Red Dead Redemption is about 100x better than the second one. The second one is just a slightly interactive movie. Your description was good - it's a modern version of Dragon's Lair. But that's what shitlennials want, minimal interactivity. One of the biggest things on the interwebs is watching other people play games. No, I'm not kidding.

my old computer could play them, but it was a laptop and would get really hot, so I did not really try even though the computer could actually do it. My new computer is a desktop with much better cooling. I don't even usually play games like these though, but thought I would try...

The camera issue is a lot of the problem as Ezekiel brings up in his comment above, I hate the forced close in camera views, but actually Red Dead Redemption II seems to have a fairly good and flexible camera and I have not been that annoyed by it..sounds like God of War might have a more annoying camera and that would bother me and make me not want to play it.

 

[HereticGuy]

Going off topic, but notice also that every multiplayer game now has features that reveal your position on the map, from sonar to kill cams. The player expects to be babied. If they can't tell where they are being killed from, they perceive it as unfair, maybe even think the other is cheating. It killed strategy in shooters.

Unfortunately that's all true. I've tried some new shooters a few years ago and whenever an enemy plays good and owns the noobs, someone types "x is hacking / cheating". These kind of people deserves to forcefully play DM17 (Quake III) / Facing Worlds (UT 99) and get railgunned / sniper rifled all day along. And whenever they cry about it, a Metal Gear should slap their pink asses.

 

[Zarniwoop]

How do you get max enjoyment from these games?

You can't have enjoyment with these kind of games, because these product doesn't aim gamers. Cinematic games are similiar to FIFA, NBA or these kind of games developed for mass audience; for non-gamers. An average Joe doesn't want to be challenged, and these kind of auto-pilot games makes them believe that they are accomplish something. Also, movies are cool; and if they make games like movies they sell more.

This is one of the reason why team based multiplayer games exploded since a decade, whereas deathmatch type arena shooters died. In a deathmatch game like Quake or Unreal Tournament; you can't blame others. It is either you are good or dogshit. New generation can't accept that obviously. In a objective based team game, you can easily blame your teammates :" healer suckz / our tank is a n000b etc. ". In reality the individual sucks balls; but the developers cracked the code and created an enviroment for these kindergarden kids.

Going off topic, but notice also that every multiplayer game now has features that reveal your position on the map, from sonar to kill cams. The player expects to be babied. If they can't tell where they are being killed from, they perceive it as unfair, maybe even think the other is cheating. It killed strategy in shooters.

Miss the good old days of Counter-Strike when you had to rely on dead teammates floating around like ghosts and telling you where to go to get the bastard.

 

[Zarniwoop]

You finally have a computer that can play console games from 4 (four) years ago?

The first Red Dead Redemption is about 100x better than the second one. The second one is just a slightly interactive movie. Your description was good - it's a modern version of Dragon's Lair. But that's what shitlennials want, minimal interactivity. One of the biggest things on the interwebs is watching other people play games. No, I'm not kidding.

my old computer could play them, but it was a laptop and would get really hot, so I did not really try even though the computer could actually do it. My new computer is a desktop with much better cooling. I don't even usually play games like these though, but thought I would try...

The camera issue is a lot of the problem as Ezekiel brings up in his comment above, I hate the forced close in camera views, but actually Red Dead Redemption II seems to have a fairly good and flexible camera and I have not been that annoyed by it..sounds like God of War might have a more annoying camera and that would bother me and make me not want to play it.

Yeah God of War remake sucks ass. Both as a game and especially with the camera jumping onto your shoulder all the damn time.

I have the PS5 version and it sucks even there, can't imagine how much worse it would be on a PC.

 

[Delphik]

In many online communities, it feels like RDR2 became immediately forgotten a couple of months after release despite all the fanfare of being art, advancing video games as a medium and all that. Basically the Bioshock Infinite of the current generation. Only guy who bought it IRL that I know of was really disappointed with the game as well. Rockstar expected the player to be vowed with the graphics and the slow animations for everything as to enhance immersion, but at the end of the day the player wants to have some fun. Still, there's no shortage of pseuds ready to push pretentious crap to heavens even if they themselves don't play games.

There's nothing memorable about having to wait five seconds to pick up an item, with RDR2 it felt like they leaned too heavy on the realistic side and it turned into a life simulator rather than a game, they invented nothing, risked nothing and achieved nothing, such is the way with every modern AAA title.

But you can see the horse's cock! what amazing feats technology can bring!

 

[Ezekiel]

You finally have a computer that can play console games from 4 (four) years ago?

The first Red Dead Redemption is about 100x better than the second one. The second one is just a slightly interactive movie. Your description was good - it's a modern version of Dragon's Lair. But that's what shitlennials want, minimal interactivity. One of the biggest things on the interwebs is watching other people play games. No, I'm not kidding.

my old computer could play them, but it was a laptop and would get really hot, so I did not really try even though the computer could actually do it. My new computer is a desktop with much better cooling. I don't even usually play games like these though, but thought I would try...

The camera issue is a lot of the problem as Ezekiel brings up in his comment above, I hate the forced close in camera views, but actually Red Dead Redemption II seems to have a fairly good and flexible camera and I have not been that annoyed by it..sounds like God of War might have a more annoying camera and that would bother me and make me not want to play it.

Yeah God of War remake sucks ass. Both as a game and especially with the camera jumping onto your shoulder all the damn time.

I have the PS5 version and it sucks even there, can't imagine how much worse it would be on a PC.

I imagine it would be better on a PC, since your thumb wouldn't constantly be moving back and forth between camera and dodge. Your hand would rest on camera as you dodge. Doubt I'll ever play it again, though.

 

[Mega Black]

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a very compelling game but how much you enjoy it depends a lot on how much you're able to immerse yourself in the setting, and since so much of the open world's dynamicism is random it can alternate between utter emptiness to feeling lively and fun.

Also, random events don't respawn so eventually the world is just dead as a doornail.

I still like it more than GoW just because it knows what it wants to be and isn't a movie poorly retrofit onto an action game

 

[Machocruz]

I don't care for either of them, but I think RDR2 executes better at what it's trying to do than GoW does. The latter does not pass muster as an action game. I wasn't even the biggest fan of the old trilogy, but 2 and 3 absolutely destroy it. Better enemy variety, bosses, arenas, FoV, movesets, and even spectacle. And they have an actual cinematic style, you know, with varied camera angles.

RDR2 is arguably the best western game and/or open world action game ever made, overall. Certainly the most ambitious, the most detailed, most immersive. Probably the best attempt at being a cowboy sim. I think the first one is better, it's a cleaner, tighter game, which I like. Gun and Call of Juarez do some things better. But at least a case can be made for 2. GoW is not even in the conversation of hack and slash action games.

And Kratos is still a dick. Still a caricature of what utter dorks think being "tough" is like. But even that worked better in the other games due to their tone.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

God of War is awful and I have no idea how it's anywhere near as popular as it is.
RDR2 at least is a good cowboy simulator, God of War is a good ??????

 

[Mega Black]

God of War is awful and I have no idea how it's anywhere near as popular as it is.
RDR2 at least is a good cowboy simulator, God of War is a good ??????

It's a good Journalist game because it plays itself and has a story they only had to sit through once, hence, Game of the Year.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

I don't care for either of them, but I think RDR2 executes better at what it's trying to do than GoW does. The latter does not pass muster as an action game. I wasn't even the biggest fan of the old trilogy, but 2 and 3 absolutely destroy it. Better enemy variety, bosses, arenas, FoV, movesets, and even spectacle. And they have an actual cinematic style, you know, with varied camera angles.

RDR2 is arguably the best western game and/or open world action game ever made, overall. Certainly the most ambitious, the most detailed, most immersive. Probably the best attempt at being a cowboy sim. I think the first one is better, it's a cleaner, tighter game, which I like. Gun and Call of Juarez do some things better. But at least a case can be made for 2. GoW is not even in the conversation of hack and slash action games.

And Kratos is still a dick. Still a caricature of what utter dorks think being "tough" is like. But even that worked better in the other games due to their tone.

one reason I made this thread is that playing these types of games after not giving them a try for many years I was expecting to dislike RD2 right away, not really be interested in it and just toss it aside and be satisfied w/ ignoring the genre for another few years, but I was actually surprised I did not totally hate it. I did not love it for sure, but it made me consider that maybe I should try others, but I sort of think I not and I don't think I would like God of War..besides its not like I will ever be able to really do all the content in R2D. I think I may try Kingdom Come though...