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Denver, 10:08 PM
Sun Nov 22
16 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/05/09
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Also - journalists: please stop asking japanese game-makers about when they're going to make an fps. It just makes you look stupid, even if you edit out your own question from the exchange. No one else but you admire the "mature story telling" done by Bungie or Infinity Ward.
10/05/09
(and I gotta say on a "mature storytelling" point that ODST has probably handled the theme's from Dante's book than EA's Dante's Inferno game looks like it's even gonna get close to. Ugh, unbaptized baby spider-monsters, seriously?)
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So.. one crazy strawman with a personal attack. And there's the "all is equal argument" as well, along with a silent approval for the suddenly decided truth that Ueda probably should make an fps.. Wow. How sophisticated we are here at Kotaku..
10/05/09
Again, I'm not saying I agree with all these arguements. Before someone goes off and flames me for insulting Ueda, I enjoy his work and would not personally be one to make the previously described arguement myself, but I'm using this arguement that has been made by others as a counterpoint to the arguement that his studio is somehow on a so much higher plane than Bungie or Infinity Ward who often become easy targets of people who like to insult what has mainstream popularity because they think it makes them sound more intelligent somehow, when really, making the previous arguement about Ueda's games is just as unfair and ridiculous as saying, "No one else but you admire the "mature story telling" done by Bungie or Infinity Ward."
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Um... you know I can't tell if you're being ironic? So you have to spoil me before I understand it, with "/sarcasm" tags at the end. Or else I'm not going to understand, and throw an embarassing and revealing hissy-fit or something.
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Case in point: Bioshock. Story would have been a lot more interesting if, y'know, they'd done more than have people babble about it in the background while I was killing stuff, then have me beat a dude to death with a golf club.
10/05/09
How about a game where you're a ten year old who has to learn to shoot dudes to protect his family, then gets pressed into military service? Also, it's set in a fantasyverse. And there are dragons. That you shoot with a barret .50 cal (Your arm gets broken because you're ten).
10/05/09
While I think cutscenes can be great for telling story and giving the player a bit of a rest in between chapters,etc I do think that games could really benefit and even improve their storytelling capabilities if developers look at ways to innovate within them or from them.
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i'm not sure i've played any games where i literally felt "immersed." which isn't to say it's a bad thing, it's just not why i play games. and seeing my character talk while i put the controller down is no less "pulling me out of immersion" than the phone ringing or a friend/sibling watching who talks.
i was a lot younger at the time, but i remember getting so excited for the CG FFX cutscenes (which i referred to as the cutscenes with "good graphics" because i didn't know the difference between CG and ingame graphics.) most likely because of my age, that was the most enthralling "epic" video game experience up until that point.
how do you think people would respond to movies completely in first person? :p
10/05/09
He takes an aspect of a particular video game genre, and strips away everything boring or tedious about it. I'm having trouble articulating this but here goes...
If you look at a game like Zelda. It's a dungeon crawler. But Zelda games also have alot of other stuff to do outside the dungeons. I don't think there's any argument that the dungeons, and their puzzles, are the main draw of any Zelda game. So what Ueda has done with Ico is take the dungeon-crawling aspect and made an entire game out of it. The entire game is one huge, incredibly elaborate dungeon.
Now look at a game like God of War. It's an exciting hack-and-slash action game. But that excitement peaks at the game's many climaxes (pun intended!): the boss battles. What Ueda's done with SOTC is take those boss battles and made an entire game out of it.
The fact that he can tell such compelling stories without removing the player from these situations is a testament to this man's skill as a game designer and an artist. "Saving the princess" is a gaming cliche as old as games themselves. But who knew something like ICO would come along and turn it on its head so fantastically. How much more engrossing is it when the princess you are trying to save is right there with you the entire time? No other game has ever made me feel so selfess, so heroic, as ICO or SOTC. Nor has any other game ever made me truly question what it means to be a hero. Is Wander trying to resurrect his dead girlfriend for her sake, or for his own sake? Is his slaughter of those seemingly peaceful colossi justified?
I'm not sure where I'm going with this other than to say: if he can do to FPS games what he has done with the genres he's already tackled, I will be first in line to play it. And I don't really like FPS games.
10/05/09
It also sounds as if QTEs are something he wants to implement and while I can see the advantages to such a mechanic, many hate them.
But I digress, Ueda should get The Last Guardian done and dusted before thinking of what he's going to do next.
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It is possible he could do something amazing with the FPS genre. Its always good to get to give it hands of someone new to take a new direction of the genre. No matter how many shooters there are, there is room for a game that would be as unique as his.
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...where'd you get that its a shooter from, though? Headline = misleading.
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his example is a shooter, sure. but he's not referring to FPS gameplay/bullet physics or anything like that. for example, if Suda were to say he digs the level of detail kojima puts into his MGS games, regarding let's say, weapons or military tech in general, id not read that to say "SUDA WANTS TO DO AN MGS GAME /CONFIRMED" , you know? i mean, regardless of how awesome that could be.
10/05/09
So what if Ueda comment has been taken out of context, the discussion being had is not harmful, on the contrary, its quite interesting.
If we can talk about our favorite developers, companies or games, in a positive light, whats the problem.
10/05/09
if you're ok with quotes taken out of context, i cant tell you otherwise. but its inexcusable in other forms of media, and being a gamer, i hate seeing it here just to increase website traffic - its much worse, my opinion, when its given a free pass. this site has been better than that in the past.
10/05/09
Has the FPS genre become such a mangly beast that you can't say "first person" without people adding the word "shooter" in their head?
Mirrors Edge is first person, and yes there are gunning parts in it, but it's not the main part of the game.
I think he's wanting to talk First Person so you control the camera, you see what you want to see in the cutscene, move about and be more flexible. Not as in shooters.
Portals another First Person game, without shooting being the focus. so "first Person" doesn't need to add the mental "shooter" at the end.
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So you don't shoot stuff... but it IS a shooter you say. hmm
10/05/09
i mean, seriously...
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I'm not a bit FPS fan, to be honest, there my least favorite genre. But if someone can bring something new to the table, im open to see the idea.
The FPS is the strongest genre on the market, guns sell, blood sells, death sells.
I don't think that the inclusion of an Ueda shooter is going to create a greater in flux of FPS's into the FPS market.
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I don't remember the movie veering away too much from the content of the book though.
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I thank you and everyone else for telling me that happens in the end of the game I want but haven't been able to locate.
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Oh, and not cool with the spoilers even though it's fake. Had I not have played Shadow of the Colossus and knew that was Agro's death was just an illusion casted on you by the last boss, I would have raged it at you right now. I wub Agro...
10/05/09
I am hoping for the Blu-Ray port for a reason.
@dowingba: Oh yeah? People talk about what an emotional moment it is when the horse dies.
Great emotional moment it's gonna be when I'll know from the get-go.
It's gonna be just like with Aeris.
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...
Damnit, can't unapprove
10/05/09
Hell even putting spoiler warnings on a game that is 2 years old is pushing it. We live in an era where one has to go to extreme lengths to avoid spoilers for anything new, so who cares about the old?
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Not spoiling something is being considerate.
Hell, I am even reluctant to go around and spew the ending of FFX
10/05/09
Trust me, when Wander wakes up and it turns out it was all a dream, and then he hugs his stuffed animal horse, you will be pleasantly surprised.
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It's not really hard not to spoil something.
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His games so far have shown fantasy worlds of the teams own design. Which have always added greatly to the game.
But, if there was a First Person game set in a pure fantasy environment, that would be pretty good.
Yes, there are FPS games set in different fantasy type worlds. But the world itself usually plasy very little part.
This would be interesting to say the least.
10/05/09