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Denver, 3:41 AM
Sun Nov 15
21 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/02/08
Back to Zelda, this doesn't happen a lot but there was one bt in Wind Waker that pissed me off enough to mention... the bit just before the final boss fight where Ganondorf's talking to Link. I know what Ganon's talking about but Link's gawking at him like an absolute 'tard. I get that I obviously know more than Link could possibly know and care a lot more about the history of Hyrule and all that, but I still wanted to punch him there.
11/01/08
Games like Mass Effect actually achieve this because the story shapes around the players actions; there are plot doors that open and close depending on what you decide. In Half Life, the only choice you can make is, how will you progress from A to B? You could, I guess, not fight, but that means not finishing the game. Nothing you do in Half Life shapes anything, so I really don't see how this guy figures it's personal.
It's more frustrating than anything when studios pull this move, and I'd much rather see an attempt at an actual story with a main character. I mean really, what kind of credible story can you have where every single character around you magically holds a conversation without someone participating?
11/01/08
11/01/08
11/02/08
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11/01/08
(Sarcasm metre explodes, and Thunderbolt Games goes -9001 on the scale, for having a douche like Matt Smith write for them. Wow. It's pathetic. Seriously, this was noted by ALL my friends when we first played HL1 in 1998 or 1999.)
11/02/08
11/02/08
Also, any "insult" I may have written was not personal. Just reflecting.
11/01/08
Thinks like climbing a ladder and both hands just keep holding the gun, there are no legs on it etc just make it feel really weird. Or standing near the edge of a ledge where you are just floating over it with no body.
They don't need to give your character a voice but it would be nice if your character actually existed in the game world instead of being a viewpoint moving around. When you get knocked back by an explosion see your body etc. Look down and see yor chest and legs. You can still always keep the game in first person.
11/01/08
I remember when I first heard about Mass Effect's dialogue system. Total control over what gets said, tons of options. And what do I get? The same options I had in NWN, except I cant tell if I'm going to be an asshole, slightly less of an asshole, murder someone, or do something nice while sounding like an asshole. I'm having the same problem playing through Fallout 3, most of the time there are a ton of dialogue options that fit what I want to say, but then sometimes it'll be the same thing, said three ways. I understand it can't be totally 100% expansive and free-form, but sometimes it feels like I'm being roped into saying something I really didn't want to say in ANY way.
But I digress, Half Life doesn't have this problem, because there isn't any audio input. Any commands that you issue to another character is qualitative, with no room for misinterpretation. You tell your squad-mates to go do something, and they respond. "On my way Dr. Freeman. I can't do that Dr. Freeman. You should reload Dr. Freeman". It's never a situation where I get a dialogue option to tell them to go somewhere, but since that was the option to say it like a dick, they mumble and grumble along the way. This keeps it very narrow to an extent, but Valve is great on expanding even on the narrow rails that the game keeps you on.
You can not communicate direction with anybody in the entire game directly, but you can indirectly. I shine a light at Alyx, she covers her eyes. It gets tense, my flashlight battery dies, so Alyx starts groaning like a zombie, and goes "Haha! Gotcha!". Or when I accidentally throw a grenade at her, she gets hurt and says anything from "Ow!" to "Why'd you do that?!".
Maybe that's why I feel more connected with all of the characters of HL2, compared to Halo. In Halo 1, you spent the entire game with Cortana, she was your Alyx, you hardly saw her, hardly interacted, and most of the time she was just talking to you, telling you what to do, you passivly communicated with her through your actions. She tells you to go to a navpoint, you go there, she responds.
By the time Halo 3 rolls around, I have no connection or feeling for any character in the entire game. Not one, not the black sergeant whose name I never caught, not Keyes' daughter, nobody. But that first Halo, the feeling of isolation, with what hardly constitutes other humans, the marines, around you to keep you company, leaping to their death, shooting at you, blowing themselves up, didn't establish much of a connection.
Gordon should be silent, because not only has he always been silent, players have been playing out the dialogue that they'd say in their heads for years.
11/01/08
Mario is about 12 years past awkward at this point.
11/01/08
11/01/08
You'd probably have dialog interactions far more along the lines of say, Beyond Good & Evil or Metal Gear, or even the Left 4 Dead cinematic they just made.
Of course, then we'd have less variety in storytelling style from Valve, so I think it's fine the way it is.
11/01/08
Look at Cloud from FF7.
Some games don't give the main character any character and it's kinda frustrating. I felt this in Dead Space. "Who are and why should I care?"
11/01/08
11/01/08
But Freeman is still the shit. Half Life has a great story (minus, perhaps, Zen and the doctor who randomly shows up at the end of Episode 2).
11/01/08
11/02/08
Word of Freeman's actions spread over the course of 20 years or so.
11/02/08
Freeman excels at everything.
11/02/08
11/04/08
Still, glad someone caught that. Cheers, man!
11/01/08
11/01/08
See: Crono.
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11/01/08
(kind of. She *does* have a log.)
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11/01/08
When I sit and watch something like the opening to Phantom Hourglass and compare it to the opening of Half-life 2, one feels like I'm watching a mime on a pirate ship while the other almost feels like you're actually there.
I think the perspective and the amount of emoting and assumed talking Link does is what ruins the effect.
11/01/08
They obviously put a large backstory in there, and Samus seems to have a pretty prominent personality, so really they've already killed any attempt to do this.
However, that doesn't mean she wouldn't make a fantastic, story/dialog heavy character if they actually cared to do so.
11/01/08
I disagree greatly with that notion.
While it's true that in Half-Life the main character doesn't react or say anything so one might feel more like that character, that is actually what makes me feel more alienated from a character. It draws away the sense of realism for me and reminds me that "I'm just controlling polygons on a screen."
On the other hand when I can see characters and their reactions I can at least relate to that character. Rather than think I'm playing as an apathetic mute.
11/01/08
11/01/08
No I understand that's the case, but the reality of the situation is that people find it easier to relate to a character who actually has some "character" to them.
A good example of this is why we prefer movies with dialogue to silent films.
11/01/08
It's hard for you to feel like you ARE the character if you keep seeing him and his reactions on screen, but if you don't see it, it's harder to relate to the character.
The thing is the way you think about the game. Theres "i'm controlling this guy named ... and he's cool. i like him. I don't want him to die!" and there's "i am this guy. I don't want to die!"
11/02/08
Ah, I see. That makes a lot of sense. Nice post.