What You've Been Playing This Week

[fishbowlhead]

Is Nate a villain? I’m only on Ch 12.

I just get the feeling he’s caught tween a rock and a hard place. He ****s on his wife, and he’s got Stark-esque addiction to thrill, but his heart is in the right place concerning his brother. Unless bad things come soon?

I mean Nate has killed just about EVERYONE in all 4 games that he comes across, Im sure he has to sit himself down at some point and say to himself, am i the bad guy here?

[prinnysquad]

Ha!

Those are mercs. They don’t count!

[Neon Ignition]

Uncharted 5 will follow the personal vendetta against Nate by the CEO of Mercs R Us

[Paddy]

Uncharted 5 will follow the personal vendetta against Nate by the CEO of Mercs R Us

I won't spoil anything in Uncharted 4 for you but if that's how the next one's titled I'd laugh my arse off!

Have you ever played/finished the one on the PS Vita? Its not bad at all for a portable entry and will give you more of your Uncharted fix if you need it.

[prinnysquad]

Yeah, it’s far from perfect. I do think it’s cool how they tackled the dissonance of the games though, that clean cut good guy Nate has to massacre about 5000 people to get the job done. I really liked that.

And while the macro was flawed, I loved the micro. Dialogue between characters in cutscenes was actually engaging and to some extent believable, rather than something that felt like it was just there as a bit of connective tissue from one level to another. It’s one of the few games with actual characters, rather than simply plot devices and cardboard cutouts.

The script was the most important aspect to delivering that for me, but the physical direction of cutscenes and the facial technology helped to sell this, too.

I can’t really think of many games that do this stuff nearly as well.

I find myself really studying the characters in cut scenes. Somehow they’ve managed to capture a lot of the communication that’s non-verbal. The eyes, the body gestures, the twitches, the pauses. Usually, cut scenes are just connecting tissues tween gaming sections, with only the most basic attention paid to them (usually half-competent voice acting), but those of U4 are really well done on many levels, and make the character interactions very engaging.

[Dogg Thang]

Right, I'm going to make the case that the quality of writing, acting, visuals and graphics can work against ND's games. At least for me. Because what it does is highlight a massive disconnect between what I see in cut scenes and what's actually the game. I don't think for a moment about all the demons I slaughter in Doom. In Uncharted, it becomes pretty horrific that we're killing people and totally ridiculous that it takes so many bullets sometimes precisely because the cut scenes and animation establish a level of realism that is not carried through to the gameplay. It's why Last of Us felt like it was made by several different studios who didn't ever speak with each other. Realistic cut scenes contrasting with what amounted to Pac-Man which also contrasts with murder sim sections that are basically just Nathan Drake versus pirates. These things don't fit together for me and the quality of cut scene shines a huge spotlight on the crude gamelike nature of the majority of the experience, something that I probably woudn't notice otherwise.

[wakka]

Yeah, I’d definitely agree with that. Have you played Uncharted 4, [MENTION=3144]Dogg Thang[/MENTION]? It actually tries to tackle that dissonance in its story. It’s really quite clever, if imperfect.

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah, I’d definitely agree with that. Have you played Uncharted 4, [MENTION=3144]Dogg Thang[/MENTION]? It actually tries to tackle that dissonance in its story. It’s really quite clever, if imperfect.

No, I still haven't got a PS4 after all these years but good to know they've acknowledged that and tackle it.

[Golgo]

They acknowledge a bit of that 'cognitive dissonance' stuff in UC2 as well, where the big bad Russian dude chides Drake - who is trying to get him telt all preachy-like - with something like "And how many men have you killed just today?" So it's acknowledged, then it's back full on to the shooty stuff. The thing about Drake is that he's a right psycho and clearly gets off on the kills ("Woo! Shave and a haircut!!" for headshots). Personally I don't give a ****, mind, as the stories are Saturday Matinee gash anyway.

[wakka]

Definitely give it a try at some point. It’s an interesting one and a significant step forward from the earlier games (and from TLOU) in terms of narrative.

[Dogg Thang]

They do a bit of that in UC2 as well, where the big bad Russian dude chides a preachy Drake with something like "how many men have you killed just today?" So it's acknowledged, then back full on to the shooty stuff.

Yeah, I think that made it worse for me.
[MENTION=5490]wakka[/MENTION] Yeah, I will eventually someday get a PS4 and it is on my list of games to get when I do.

[prinnysquad]

Bit of PES 2020.

It makes no sense. I’m struggling like hell in Division 2. My players are outmuscled by every other player. I seem to concede from every corner and every free kick.

The refereeing is atrocious. Fouls given for nothing, yet my blokes are wrestled to the ground and nothing is given. It took until my 8th game for the opposition to concede an offside.

It’s so inconsistent. I was 3-1 up vs Reading, and they scored a worldie free kick from a ludicrous angle that my keeper didn’t even move for. Then a Platt-still volley, totally unchallenged. Yet I managed to smash Wolves 4-0 away in the cup. Their players felt softer and my keeper actually made a couple of saves.

I don’t even know if I’m enjoying it.

[Neon Ignition]

This weekend:

Nintendo 3DS
Into the final set of levels on Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. It's a very well done port though still the weakest of the three versions available.

Nintendo Switch
Back up to around 800,000 Bells now so a few more before Turnip time on Sunday to hopefully get to half the final loan cleared on Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

PlayStation 4
Decided to switch to something simple to cleans the third person palate so halfway through Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered

[Paddy]

Still pressing on with Ys VIII on the Switch. I think I'm in the late game now as I've explored 90% of the island, rescued quite a few castaways and the means to escape the setting the characters are in is nearly in reach. I keep checking the in-game clock as I was hoping to complete it in 50 hours but I'm past that point now.

The game has been great 85%-90% of the time which is more than I can say for other JRPGs that I felt had just kept going when I was ready for them to end 10-15 hours earlier. I hope it doesn't fall at the last hurdle but even so this is a great effort by Falcom. I hope Ys IX is equally as good when it gets localised for the West.

[Junko]

Project Diva and AC mostly