A Weird Uncle Pretends to be Batman in WATCH_DOGS [VLP]

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > A Weird Uncle Pretends to be Batman in WATCH_DOGS [VLP]

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Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Tempo 119 posted:

I liked this game, I had fun playing it and the story is an incredible trainwreck (with a couple of sincerely great moments) which I love. The amount of venom it attracts always weirds me out because there are much much worse games out there that get shrugged off or forgiven pretty quickly.

It is better to be hot, or cold. That which is merely lukewarm is spit out with far more vehemence.

# ¿ May 3, 2015 07:35

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 16:54

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Much like Assassin's Creed, I don't think Aiden could dress, act, or look more suspicious if he tried.

# ¿ May 3, 2015 08:22

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Midnight Voyager posted:

And I'm pretty sure he borrowed that suit from Kazuma Kiryu.

Exhibit A:

I fail to see any sort of problem.

# ¿ May 3, 2015 21:00

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

"You pay me right, I'll do whatever. I DO work for a paycheck."

That line is why Jordi would work better. Dude is self aware. He knows he's a mercenary. He's cheerful about being a criminal mercenary, does his job, and is the exact kind of guy you could see sliding around loopholes in a system and doing shady poo poo until he accidentally gets pulled into something Big.

# ¿ May 3, 2015 21:28

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

chiasaur11 posted:

Saints Row IV was also on the recent side. PLUS there was Sleeping Dogs for your morally ambiguous crimefighting in a game with Dogs in the title needs. And Sleeping Dogs actually looks gorgeous, instead of just looking good in previews.

(Wei Shen is a much better protagonist than Aiden. It's not even close.)

Sleeping Dogs was loving awesome. Best Heroic Bloodshed movie I've ever played.

# ¿ May 4, 2015 08:54

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

The whole reason Serial Killers are so hard to catch is because they aren't generally committing crimes of passion on people they knew. Most murders happen because someone's angry at someone and very loud about it, and a lot of investigation focuses on 'who knew this guy, who wanted them dead, and did they say anything about it beforehand'.

# ¿ May 9, 2015 20:08

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Speedball posted:

Garret the Thief in Thief was a less dishonest thief.

Garret's general self awareness in the original trilogy is one of the big draws and the reason his character arc works so well.

# ¿ May 13, 2015 08:30

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Accordion Man posted:

Dishonored's design has both stealth and combat be equally viable and the only thing that feels anemic is non-lethal combat options but that was rectified more in the Daud expansions. It helps that it doesn't have an EXP system.

The new Wolfensteins also allow different but equal playstyles.

The best part is if you get caught in Wolfenstein, thinking quickly and pulling out two automatic shotguns while slide-tackling Nazis is a completely viable 'oh poo poo button'.

# ¿ May 14, 2015 18:21

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

haplesscardsharp posted:

I think a few skill trees do a pretty good job of limiting the player so the game doesn't get boring fast, but I also agree that marginally improving yourself seems tedious. But the best skill trees are the ones where you start off improving yourself in simple ways (like being able to carry more ammo or reloading faster) and by the end of the skill tree you are literally a god that survives bullets and explosions without flinching.

Also, I know it's a video game, but why aren't there any ambulances? You'd think in the wonderful city of with Aiden Pierce in it, hospitals would be a thriving business.

One great thing in Sleeping Dogs is that you can punch a guy until he falls over, then while the paramedics are busy trying to help him, steal their ambulance while laughing and listening to cool pop music and running over traffic meters to hoover up the spare change.

Sleeping Dogs will always be the superior Dog game.

# ¿ May 15, 2015 09:34

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

TheLoser posted:

Of all the random places in Illinois to use, Pawnee? A tiny village south of loving Springfield? If you wanted a to use a quieter town outside of the city, why not pick Kankakee or Crystal Lake?

It does have an excellent parks and recreation department.

# ¿ May 21, 2015 02:28

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

SWMadness posted:

Just imagine another vigilante's phone buzzing with a "CRIME IN PROGRESS" alert, who comes out of nowhere in the cutscene to beat the tar out of Aiden with a nightstick.

This would've absolutely made that cutscene.

# ¿ May 21, 2015 05:42

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I like that his bodyguard nearly hosed it up and the henchman almost got control of the gun. That would've been a hilariously embarrassing way for a crime boss to die: "Incompetent henchman messed up executing other henchman, shot in the face by the henchman you were having executed."

# ¿ May 21, 2015 08:25

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Neruz posted:

Uncle Po is one of the most convincing organized crime bosses I've ever seen in fiction. Also he scares the poo poo out of me. I can easily imagine a real life mob boss with the same sort of character and it just works.

There's also the fact that you absolutely know he could in fact have the characters killed at any point, and that he has done quite a few people. He just doesn't do it pointlessly because he'd prefer his Triad not be full of constant infighting any more than it already needs to be and because he really likes making huge amounts of money. His dossier also mentions he really likes being seen as a reasonable and benevolent person and enjoys donating to charity both to launder his money and to make sure people in his territory won't betray him to the police. He's that guy who read the Prince and realized it advises being loved AND feared.

Heck, when you read his background dossiers, one of the big reasons Big Smile Lee is so potentially bad is that he really is sort of Joker level, the kind of short-term vicious mindset that might get him to power in the near run, then get a lot of people and bystanders killed as he burns out.

I'm not really seeing what people see in Quinn though, to be honest. He just seemed like kind of a jerk.

# ¿ May 21, 2015 18:00

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Spiritus Nox posted:

Although, even just 'guy who wants money' could be made to work if you use it as setup for an entertaining story and don't try to make it mean anything. I just finished GTA V and there were so many points where I'd find myself wishing that they had just dropped the whole vague pretension of being a satire of all America and the schizophrenic attempts to make us either hate or give a poo poo about the protaganists, and just made the entire game a cycle of prep-work and big fun heists and actually emphasized their best properties.

Hell, if you want to go the Garret route, have him be some rear end in a top hat who uses the glitches in the System for crime, but doing so gets him noticed as a potential threat by the Blume guys and leads to him having to help out the resistance against his wallet and better judgment because it's his best chance not to get destroyed when he's in over his head. The anti-hero who does the right thing while protesting they only care about the money, their pride, and their own skin is a classic character type.

# ¿ May 21, 2015 22:16

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Rhonne posted:

I kind of wish that the thief really did shot Quinn just to see what would happen. Like, oh poo poo, this random crook just killed the biggest mob boss in the city and I'm the one who drove him here, this probably won't end well.

Yeah, the more I think on it, the more that would've been one of the more interesting possible outcomes.

# ¿ May 22, 2015 02:32

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Spiritus Nox posted:

I am not a Night Spirit, sadly.

Nor am I. Nor do I have anything to do with meaningless strings of numbers.

# ¿ May 22, 2015 18:44

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

The best part is, even if she didn't want to gently caress with him before, I can see why she'd want to now after being threatened.

I mean, I'm sure she did exactly what she said she would and it'll work out fine for Aiden, but still. "I'm going to piss someone off then give them the source of all my power." is not a wise sequence of events.

# ¿ May 22, 2015 20:22

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Bobbin Threadbare posted:

You know, that brings up a point I hadn't stopped to wonder at before. Why on god's green earth is a civilian security force in a friendly city packing frag grenades? I think even SWAT teams prefer flashbangs and CS gas grenades to straight-up shrapnel.

So they can be violently exploded by the PC. Similarly, why does a civilian gun shop sell grenade launchers and 40mm HE/Frag?

# ¿ May 30, 2015 08:48

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I remember when I was playing Second Sight and you check a dead guard's computer. He's IMing his wife, and she's getting increasingly panicky and upset in real time that he's not responding.

I didn't kill a single additional human being outside of the ones absolutely required for the rest of my play through of that game after that. Watch_Dogs doesn't even have the class to use its gimmick to make murder feel consequential.

# ¿ May 30, 2015 20:39

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Keeshhound posted:

They're making another one?

I think this game sold super well on hype alone.

# ¿ May 31, 2015 00:58

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

SpookyLizard posted:

Honestly even if it didn't change the takedowns based on an idea of justice, it would be cool if takedowns varied based on useful physical information. The profiler pulls of random weaknesses/strengths of the various guards, so your take downs focus on a dudes weaknesses or avoid his strengths. This might actually make for a good reason as to why aiden has an "instantly beat the poo poo out of people" button, because his iphone can just tell him the weakspot on everyone.

That was hinted at in the reveal trailer, where Aiden sees two routes he could go and knows he needs to take down a bouncer, and sees one's just an out of shape cop moonlighting and the other's a martial artis instructor from the profiler, so he goes the route with the cop and takes him down easily.

# ¿ May 31, 2015 06:04

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

chiasaur11 posted:

And I'm thinking of Sleeping Dogs again, and how so much of the cast was likable. I mean, Winston was a murderous gangster with major anger issues, but he was a good guy to hang out with. Would give you the shirt off his back if you asked. You even spent a whole mission helping his fiance prep for the wedding.

Sleeping Dogs was so good.

Or Wei. Wei had his problems, but you knew about them and got the sense he was fundamentally not a bad guy. Plus, he was just such a cool guy that you liked him even when he was doing stuff that wasn't that great. Or Uncle Po. Or Inspector Teng. There were a ton of likeable cops and crooks both, and some real shitheels on both sides.

I need to replay Sleeping Dogs.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2015 03:45

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Cleretic posted:

I've been playing Sleeping Dogs for the first time recently (just got past the wedding), and yeah, it's actually pretty striking that pretty much all the central cast are cool people that I like. Even that rear end in a top hat police lieutenant that keeps trying to pull me off the case because I'm too much of a loose cannon that doesn't play by the rules.

My only problem is that I don't get enough time with the cool people. I wanted to spend more time with Winston's fiancee and mom, I want to go on more dates with Not Ping, I want more of Jackie claiming he's in tight with everyone...

The adventures of Asian Adam Jensen Cosplayer are amazing.

Even with Raymond, he's trying to pull Wei off the case because he actually legitimately cares about Wei's safety and because he's a good cop, if a bit inflexible. Raymond, too, is a cool guy. It's hard to think of characters outside of the actual villains who are not Cool Guys.

Contrast that to here, where the only likeable character is the rear end in a top hat mercenary who actually admits he's an rear end in a top hat and enjoys his work.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2015 05:20

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

The big thing that strikes me is that no-one in Watch_Dogs is *having fun*. The protagonist is the biggest wet blanket, sure, but almost everyone seems bored or grim or like they're kinda going through the motions. That could work is the story was about the crushing loneliness and ennui that can come from the digital age, maybe, but that's sort of hard to make an open world crime game around.

Someone besides Jordi needs to love this poo poo, damnit.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2015 06:19

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

bbcisdabomb posted:

You know what would have been thematic and good for that suicide privacy invasion? You hack in, hear the first part of the girl psyching herself up, and you get a hack prompt. Hit it and the phone rings, connecting to a suicide hotline on speakerphone. Boom, Aiden doesn't have to actually interact with another human being and he does some good. Then you can hack $300 or whatever from her afterwards.

It's pretty notable that there is absolutely no way to use the hacking bullshit for positive interactions. It is only used to sabotage, spy, and kill.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2015 20:11

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

MonsieurChoc posted:

I got Sleeping Dogs for 8 bucks on steam ebcause of how it kept getting talked up in this thread, but it seems like even on the lowest graphics settings it will make my computer melt.

Man, my computer sucks.

This is a legit tragedy because now you won't be able to throw a man onto a bed of swordfish.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2015 02:12

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

MonsieurChoc posted:

Stop trying to get me to upgrade my computer, I don't have the money! I spent it all on books and videogames!

Seriously, the fishery fight is just brutal. Dudes being thrown onto swordfish, tossed into cages of electric eels, flung into tubs of lobsters...

Wei Shen is the best aquaman ever.

To get back to Watch Dogs, something else Sleeping Dogs does well is that Wei takes quests straight from people who need his help sometimes. Cheerfully telling them he'll help out and all that. I don't think I've ever seen Aiden express any sort of genuine helpful urge with anyone, even if it's feigned.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2015 04:10

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Snak posted:

If that plot was that ctOS was opening up everyone firewalls to a cyber-white walker vulnerability and Aiden had to save the city from an ancient cyber-evil, I would have been down with that.

That is basically an actual thing in the Assassin's Creed universe, where this supposedly takes place.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2015 15:27

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Snak posted:

I stopped following assassins creed when AC3 made a bunch of bizarre retcons that changed meaning of everything from the previous games. So I don't remember this. Unless you're talking about what happens in AC3, in which case I do, but it was dumb as gently caress.

I don't know what this is, but probably.

It's from AC4. A wizard ghost escapes into the wild internet or something.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2015 15:36

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Veotax posted:

I'm pretty sure that someone from Ubisoft said that Assassin's Creed and Watch_Dogs don't share a universe, AC4 and Watch_Dogs just have a few references to each other.

I never thought I'd say this, but I genuinely wish they did because a wizard ghost from space would at least make something happen in this goddamn game.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2015 23:21

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Snak posted:

I think it's hilarious that in Assassin's Creed you walk around wearing an Assassin's uniform, covered in Assassin's emblems. When you stealth murder someone in a crowd, no one sees you stab him, but... you're the only person advertising that you have a hidden blade strapped to your arm. That's like your thing. "But maybe the average person doesn't know about Assassins" yeah that's why they all yell "ASSASSIN-O!" when they see you kill someone.

In 4, the Templars you infiltrate while pretending to be an Assassin Defector all immediately identify the 'distinctive costume of your Order'.

This seems like a bad trait to have.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2015 04:22

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Snak posted:

Yeah, it's heavily implied that Wei has murdered someone before the events of the game.

The other difference between Aiden and Wei is we have no information on why Aiden was a criminal. With Wei, he grew up in a bad neighborhood (his cover is 'I came back to town to look for work with old friends', after all), moved, his sister died from her interactions with the Triads and crime in the US, and he immediately responded by joining the police to fight the people he saw as responsible for killing his sister. At the same time, he sympathizes with them because he comes from a very similar background.

With Aiden, all we've gotten is a throwaway about how his dad was probably maybe a career criminal and he was too. Like, the Aiden/Wei comparison is productive because they're both going to kill dozens and dozens of people, but one manages to stay likeable.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2015 17:12

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Actually, the hardened criminal thing could've been used to get him involved with CtOS. Have him give up the game and try to live honestly, then get attacked by either a vigilante or grabbed by the cops because he happened to walk close to one of the guys who hit his niece and someone's Crime Probability Radar went off, then get him involved with people opposing Blume.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2015 17:45

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Felinoid posted:

That's not how CtOS works, though (at least so far). It's not simply a matter of having opportunity and motive, you have to have a plan, and then talk about it in an area that it can track. It's not prescient, it's just taking text conversations like:

"You're going to have to take care of him."
"Yeah, I told Bob to meet me at the docks in an hour."
"You know where to hide the body."

...and reaching the incredibly obvious conclusion.

Fine, then change it a bit and have an old contact (Jordi or someone) text him with 'Hey, man, I know you're out, but I found The Guy.' and him reply, in the moment, with 'Where is he? And can you get me a gun?' and then have a scene of brooding about it before deciding not to go through with it, moments before the cops burst into his apartment and arrest him.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2015 17:57

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Kai Tave posted:

I wonder what whatsisname in the leg brace's plan was gonna be if the gaggle of Chicago cyber bounty hunters he'd set after Aiden actually succeeded. "poo poo, all I wanted to do was see if his skills were still sharp before suggesting we team back up again except now he's dead and I owe some guy named RadMan_420_noscope fifty grand."

The guy's entire character is 'the only guy in the game who is as much of a pointless rear end in a top hat as Aiden', it looks like.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2015 16:54

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Kai Tave posted:

The point is that whatever you have to say about Sleeping Dogs it's at least more interesting than Watch_Dogs because being less interesting than Watch_Dogs would require some serious effort.

I have a genuinely hard time thinking of games less interesting than Watch_Dogs, come to think of it.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2015 19:00

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Oh, yeah. I'm interested in watching them dissect this incredibly uninteresting game, because it's such a muddled failure that it's intriguing to watch someone experience it.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2015 02:32

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Kai Tave posted:

Now that Aiden's learned how to make IEDs he's ready for his next mission which involves breaking into a prison to execute a man. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen.

In a game with the slightest shred of self-awareness the game would end with Aiden being killed by the girl whose uncle we just murdered as she becomes a vigilante herself.

He's got to do this to protect his family!

By hitting everyone else's.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2015 09:22

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

The Vosgian Beast posted:

It's a Clockwork Orange thing. He's evil, but at least he's not a dour hypocrite in addition to being evil.

It's also a thing where he's the only character who is having any fun. Everyone else is wallowing in misery and he's at least having a good time. Which is ostensibly what one plays a game to do.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2015 18:54

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 16:54

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

David Copperfield posted:

Aren't you supposed to make the main character likeable if you make them a bad guy? That has to be one of the cardinal rules of storywriting.

Yes. The audience needs to understand and see why the person is doing wrong things, as well as see that the things the person is doing are wrong. Writing a villain as the viewpoint character is a lot like boiling a frog. You've got to raise the temperature slowly so it doesn't notice, until that cathartic moment where the audience (or character) realizes they're targeting a guy's family to try to revenge targeting his family and HOLY poo poo WHAT AM I DOING.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2015 22:09

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > A Weird Uncle Pretends to be Batman in WATCH_DOGS [VLP]

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