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Motherfucker
Jul 16, 2011

I certainly dont have deep-seated issues involving birthdays.

cat doter posted:

bastion IS amazing but don't you dare say that genres are bad at describing unique games or motherfucker is gonna troll the poo poo outta you

no please tell us more about how bastion is a transcendental experience which defies definition.

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razorrozar
Feb 21, 2012

by Cyrano4747

Motherfucker posted:

no please tell us more about how bastion is a transcendental experience which defies definition.

If you don't want to hear people :spergin: about games what are you doing on the something awful dot com games forum

Motherfucker
Jul 16, 2011

I certainly dont have deep-seated issues involving birthdays.

razorrozar posted:

If you don't want to hear people :spergin: about games what are you doing on the something awful dot com games forum

I'm genuinely interested in hearing how video game genres are 'woefully inadequate' at describing video games following a common trend.

razorrozar
Feb 21, 2012

by Cyrano4747

Motherfucker posted:

I'm genuinely interested in hearing how video game genres are 'woefully inadequate' at describing video games following a common trend.

Succinctly, because Bastion is more than the sum of its parts. Saying it's an isometric platformer slash beat-em-up is like saying Pachelbel's Canon is a piece of music written in the key of D major and 4/4 time. It's technically accurate but it kind of misses the whole point.

(I am not saying Bastion is as culturally relevant as Pachelbel's Canon nor am I saying it has the same artistic value. I don't want to open the whole 'video games/art' :can:. It's just an analogy.)

Motherfucker
Jul 16, 2011

I certainly dont have deep-seated issues involving birthdays.

razorrozar posted:

Succinctly, because Bastion is more than the sum of its parts. Saying it's an isometric platformer slash beat-em-up is like saying Pachelbel's Canon is a piece of music written in the key of D major and 4/4 time. It's technically accurate but it kind of misses the whole point.

(I am not saying Bastion is as culturally relevant as Pachelbel's Canon nor am I saying it has the same artistic value. I don't want to open the whole 'video games/art' :can:. It's just an analogy.)

If you're not gonna open the :can: I am~ The purpose of Genres is to define a product (what games usually are, especially games bankrolled by Warner Brothers) and when nerds decide arbitrarily because something is good that it defies genre cheapens things that actually do. Half life two is a FPS, Pachelbel's Canon is a piece of music and Bastion is definitely an isometric beat em up, a good one, but still one.


Its more than the sum of its parts is a nothing statement.


Spot the guy whose sick of hearing how great bastion was.

razorrozar
Feb 21, 2012

by Cyrano4747

Motherfucker posted:

If you're not gonna open the :can: I am~ The purpose of Genres is to define a product (what games usually are, especially games bankrolled by Warner Brothers) and when nerds decide arbitrarily because something is good that it defies genre cheapens things that actually do. Half life two is a FPS, Pachelbel's Canon is a piece of music and Bastion is definitely an isometric beat em up, a good one, but still one.


Its more than the sum of its parts is a nothing statement.


Spot the guy whose sick of hearing how great bastion was.

You know what? Honestly, I can't argue with that. You made a good point and you made it effectively.

This may be the best discussion I've ever had that started with "shut the gently caress up".

cat doter
Jul 27, 2006



gonna need more cheese...australia has a lot of crackers

Motherfucker posted:

If you're not gonna open the :can: I am~ The purpose of Genres is to define a product (what games usually are, especially games bankrolled by Warner Brothers) and when nerds decide arbitrarily because something is good that it defies genre cheapens things that actually do. Half life two is a FPS, Pachelbel's Canon is a piece of music and Bastion is definitely an isometric beat em up, a good one, but still one.


Its more than the sum of its parts is a nothing statement.


Spot the guy whose sick of hearing how great bastion was.

Video game genres are poo poo at defining games, have been for a while now. Genres were being established when they had like one principle mechanic. Calling Super Mario Brothers a platformer was adequate when all you did was jump.

Combine that with the fact that like half the reason Bastion is good is because of its art and music and there you go, woefully inadequate. It's not that complicated.

Pomplamoose
Jun 28, 2008

On a related 'time is money' topic, and this mostly applies to console games, but I really hate it when people complain about games being too short, like when people feel slighted that they only got 20 hours out of a $60 game. It should be about the quality of time spent, not the quantity. Long games tend to have more filler, and overall, less people will play them to completion.

Stick Insect posted:

:hfive: I'm not even sure how I got Bastion. Bundle crap? Gift? Both? Never started once. Not a game I'd ever choose to buy, isometric action platformer? Totally not my cup of tea.

It certainly is an isometric action game, but the appeal is more about the audiovisual presentation, including the narrator that describes the setting and actions taking place as they happen. Just describing it, it probably sounds kind of shallow, but you really have to experience it to appreciate it. Not to say you should force yourself to finish it if you hate it, it's not one of those things where you have to 'wait until it gets good.'

Rush_shirt
Apr 24, 2007

I've been backlogging for a while now and I've found a few helpful tips:

1. Add only games that you intend to beat. Don't add games you bought on impulse during a sale and don't care about anymore, or got in a bundle with games that you actually wanted.
2. Set a realistic, personal goal for beating each game. Decide on the difficulty level you want to play on, whether you want to do any side content, etc. You shouldn't just want to beat a game, but play it the way you want so that you actually have fun playing video games. FAQs and Wikis can help you determine what's in the game for you to do; just look out for spoilers.
3. "Complete" only games that you really enjoy playing. Don't go on pointless collection quests or do a hundred of the same side mission just to get a 100% progress rating. Admittedly, my OCD forces me to collect all the stupid packages and orbs in games, but I at least zone out to a podcast or music while I do it.
4. Don't add open-ended or multiplayer-only games. You'll play them when you feel like it and you'll enjoy them then.

Regarding new purchases, I would echo another poster's advice and say that you should just purchase the games you really want at whatever price they're being sold at at that moment. Waiting for sales to buy a game you're interested in can result in you losing interest. Waiting for sales to buy a boatload of games you're only moderately interested in (if that) leads to huge backlogs of games you probably won't ever end up playing. Both of those scenarios result in wasted money. $10 for a game you never enjoy is more expensive than $60 for a game that you do.

Rush_shirt fucked around with this message at 08:58 on Jul 20, 2014

EightDeer
Dec 2, 2011

My backlog is just "games I bought but haven't played yet". If a game doesn't grab me within an hour, I just check it off and stop worrying about it.

The Taint Reaper
Sep 4, 2012

by Shine
I got sick and tired of restarting skyrim from scratch so one day I decided to sit down and beat everything.

I still wanna beat Morrowind but the controls are awful and I have no idea how quests complete themselves.

kater
Nov 16, 2010

Does having data on a HDD cause seek times to rise? Am I losing time and or money by having games I will never play installed?

Please tell me. I've had Assassin's Creed Revolution installed since the day it came out and everytime I think about it I wonder how much it's still costing me.

cool new Metroid game
Oct 7, 2009

hail satan

actually playing games is for losers. I just buy games to make the number of owned games in my steam library grow bigger. :awesome:

bloodychill
May 8, 2004

And if the world
should end tonight,
I had a crazy, classic life
Exciting Lemon

kater posted:

Does having data on a HDD cause seek times to rise? Am I losing time and or money by having games I will never play installed?

Please tell me. I've had Assassin's Creed Revolution installed since the day it came out and everytime I think about it I wonder how much it's still costing me.

If you keep your drive defragged and usage under 70-ish percent, then no. Changes in seek time are trivial unless your drive has some serious fragmentation.

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MonkeyforaHead
Apr 7, 2006


God, you vindictive bitch, why can't I ever have any "me" time

I've made two separate junk categories for my Steam library: games that I know are trash, and games that I'm just not going to bother investing time in anymore. Between those two I probably have a third of my Steam library covered.

And yet still all I do is go back to playing TF2. :v:

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