Hot takes

[TruxtonTatsujin TruxtonTatsujin]

I've only played the Max Payne games. The only thing I know about Alan Wake II is Max Payne shows up in it, and that automatically makes it good. Also RIP James McCaffrey , this would have been his last performance of the character.
As for a hot take.... idk. I've never liked the two Norse God of Wars either. It's not the setting or story that bothers me, it's the gameplay. I much prefer the more arcade-y feel the previous games had. Also the over the shoulder camera that's way overused in modern games is a terrible choice for a game like this. They obviously knew this was a problem so they put little reticles pointing to off screen enemies. Zooming the camera out like the old games would have been a much better option, or just do what the Arkham games do and just zoom it out when you reach a combat encounter.
One more hot take, I don't like FPS games, like, any of them. There's a few I think are kind of neat but it's never for the gameplay.

 

[GoodGods]

Xenoblade 3's Ending Sucks. What sucks even more is I love Xenoblade 3 outside of that.

Also, I love the world of Xenoblade X. Exploring Mira is awesome.

 

[Frickinfrik]

Sonic hasn’t been good since 2005.
There I said it. Feel free to unleash your fury onto me.

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

I'll second not being able to get into the GTA series very much. I didn't grow up with the PS2 games, and by the time I got to them I was hit with a case of "Seinfeld is unfunny" due to having played games that were inspired or derived from them first, like Saints Row. I'd probably appreciate the series more if I had nostalgia for it, but without it it's just another open world TPS in a sea of open world TPS's.

 

[Metroid_Hybrid]

Sonic hasn’t been good since 2005.
There I said it. Feel free to unleash your fury onto me.

Why only 2005? I would say since last century!

 

[X y b e r - S k u ll]

90% of indie games are actual garbage and are often just pale imitations of the games they clearly wear on their sleeves as inspirations. I also second everyone saying those AAA movie/prestige type games (Whatever you wanna call them) are not good.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Almost every single game out there is simply a refinement of an already-existing formula, whether it's RTSs copying Dune II or FPSs making a prettier version of Wolfenstein 3D.

 

[Metroid_Hybrid]

90% of indie games are actual garbage and are often just pale imitations of the games they clearly wear on their sleeves as inspirations. I also second everyone saying those AAA movie/prestige type games (Whatever you wanna call them) are not good.

The Pareto distribution at work..

 

[Sunnyside]

Realism should not be the primary selling point of the medium. We have a form of entertainment with endless possibilities for all sorts of fantastical worlds, and the market fixates on the most bland settings possible.

Then there's the whole graphical arms race that should have died a long time ago. Any visual improvements are so minor that it just doesn't matter at this point. Yet people spend luxury prices on GPUs that waste tons of energy, all for a slight visual upgrade. Worse than that is companies saw this and decided all the games they develop will be graphically demanding.

Basically, screw AAA and AAAA games. We should be regressing to AA.

 

[Kamako]

People who disconnect when they're invaded in a Soulslike game are clearly not ready for online gaming and should have every surface in their house covered in foam and bubble-wrap.

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

Realism should not be the primary selling point of the medium. We have a form of entertainment with endless possibilities for all sorts of fantastical worlds, and the market fixates on the most bland settings possible.

This 100%

Just look at past gen games for proof. Game's that went for realistic graphics age like milk visually, meanwhile games with more stylized art styles often still hold up.

 

[Sunnyside]

Sonic hasn’t been good since 2005.
There I said it. Feel free to unleash your fury onto me.

No no, you're 100% correct. I will die on this hill with you.

 

[Kamako]

Sonic hasn’t been good since 2005.
There I said it. Feel free to unleash your fury onto me.

No no, you're 100% correct. I will die on this hill with you.

Sonic Mania is brilliant, and I hear Generations and Colours are both at least ok.

I'm over the Feudal Japan setting that many triple AAA franchises have been leaning into recently. Before that it was Aztec themed games. I'm ready for the next flavour.

 

[Sunnyside]

Sonic Mania is brilliant, and I hear Generations and Colours are both at least ok.

Sonic Mania is fantastic but I don't think it's fair to count it. The game exists purely out of fan passion and the executives being willing to contract the work. Which does deserve some praise. Still though, post-2005 Sega never could have made a game like that.

 

[Kamako]

Sonic Mania is fantastic but I don't think it's fair to count it. The game exists purely out of fan passion and the executives being willing to contract the work. Which does deserve some praise. Still though, post-2005 Sega never could have made a game like that.

I'm inclined to agree. It's strange that SEGA seem to treat one of Sonic Mania's lead Dev's (Christian Whitehead) like some sorta sub-contractor, when clearly they should've just hired him ages ago and given him whatever resources they could to fully rejuvenate the Sonic brand.

 

[virtua_willdu]

I'm kind of going back to my naive post with the Vita in May of this year:

I still stick with my PS Vita, and I still do like it, but looking at the 3D games that I was attracted to, I think that it should had release in 2013 before the PS4 that year with a slightly faster CPU than what it now has, 1 GB of RAM (either from its launch, with the 1000 model or was the same deal with the PSP: having the 2000 model gain that amount of RAM) since there were ports from PS3 and, most specifically, PS4 with its 8GB of RAM really suffered, and there should have been 64GB of internal storage like the PSPGo.

I probably still don't know a lot since I was younger within the 2010's so I never anything about tech specs, emulation, phones finally be able to use PPSSPP by 2015, and the PS Vita controversies (even though I've seen the Vita in the stores) till I personally got on the web by 2021.

 

[fake-kun]

Every game should allow you to change the difficulty at any time. Yes, even those games.

 

[Kamako]

Every game should allow you to change the difficulty at any time. Yes, even those games.

Where's the skull emoji react when ya need it

 

[skramz]

ooh boy, let's do this
1. half life 1... isn't good. don't get me wrong, i understand that it was a big milestone in gaming, and a buttload of games came out based on the HL engine, but truth be told, i've always preferred quake over half life.
why you may ask? well...

- movement has always felt more fluid in quake. sure, you got gordon moving at the speed of light, but it was never as fun as it was in quake.

-the weapons. my. god. apart from the tau cannon and the crowbar, half life doesn't really have memorable weapons... quake gave us a kickass shotgun, a super nailgun to nail the demons to the cross, and the thunderbolt? yummy yummy.

-multiplayer. quake HUMILIATES half life in terms of multiplayer. don't give me any of that counter strike bullshit, quake multiplayer RULES!

i could go on about the gameplay and scenary, but i'll add one final thing.

did trent reznor make the ost for half life? exactly.

2. saints row three and four are not bad games.

i know, i know. "BUT THEY KILLED THE FRANCHISE WAA THERE IS NO SAINTS ROW BECAUSE OF THEM WAA"... shut up.

yes, they went real far away from the gangster vibe of the first two sr games, and it's quite obvious that the best saints row games remain one and two.

but taking our gangster friends turned superstars turned politicians turned alien slaves turned destroyers of the world turned rulers of the universe at face value, these games are still super fun.

i actually ended up 100% sr3 and 4 before playing sr2, and while yes, i did enjoy sr2 more, flying around steelport (or collecting sex dolls in the third) still felt very fun.

3. pirating indie games is not wrong and/or immoral.

i might get the most smack for this, but i don't care if the game i pirate is an indie title or a AAA one, i'm broke, and the least i can do to help the dev is to spread the word about their game,

that way, someone actually may buy it, and support the dev. but that won't be me (unless it's a tycoon/sandbox ;) )

4. final one i swear.
killing floor 1 is THE zombie game.

no i won't elaborate. just listen to the ost, and you guys will understand.

 

[Sorion]

I'm kind of going back to my naive post with the Vita in May of this year:

I still stick with my PS Vita, and I still do like it, but looking at the 3D games that I was attracted to, I think that it should had release in 2013 before the PS4 that year with a slightly faster CPU than what it now has, 1 GB of RAM (either from its launch, with the 1000 model or was the same deal with the PSP: having the 2000 model gain that amount of RAM) since there were ports from PS3 and, most specifically, PS4 with its 8GB of RAM really suffered, and there should have been 64GB of internal storage like the PSPGo.

I probably still don't know a lot since I was younger within the 2010's so I never anything about tech specs, emulation, phones finally be able to use PPSSPP by 2015, and the PS Vita controversies (even though I've seen the Vita in the stores) till I personally got on the web by 2021.

Honestly I think it was the GPU and CPU that was holding the vita Back, 512MB was fine, it was enough memory to port the whole backlog of xbox360/PS3 games, it was the dedicated 128MB of DDR2 VRAM that came with the vita that limited held the console back, the bandwidth was very limited, if the vita had come with an 700-800Mhz quad core CPU and DDR3 memory instead, replacing the OLED screen with an LCD to compensate the cost, it would have had enough power to get ps3/xbox 360 ports at decent performance, back then it would have been an impressive selling point, a portable ps3, just like the PSP was almost a portable ps2

 

[gwardojones]

I’m not sure how many would agree with me on this, but I think The Last of Us, God of War (2018), and other so-called “cinema games” are a big part of why modern gaming lost its soul. I’m really not a fan of how dominant they’ve become in the current console generation.


I’m not discrediting the craft that goes into these games or calling them bad by default. But since the PS3 era — with Uncharted being the likely catalyst — a large share of AAA releases now feel more like Oscar bait than actual games. Titles like Metal Gear Solid had cinematic ambition long before this trend, yet they still kept the essence of gameplay first. In contrast, modern “cinema games” often boil down to walking sims padded with light RPG mechanics, repetitive actions, and shallow interactivity between long cutscenes (like with puzzles to pad out game time).


Maybe that’s a matter of taste, but to me, gameplay has clearly taken the back seat to story and production value. And if that’s the focus, I’d rather watch a film than pay $70 for a movie pretending to be a game.

Came here to say this. Cinema games are my least favorite part of modern gaming. Last of Us Part 1 is overrated nonsense with extremely unlikeable characters and narrow, shooting gallery combat sections. Part 2 has a little more going for it mechanically, but I'd take a game with complete gameplay systems where I have the ability to express myself with the tools given, over doing what the "auteur" game director thinks I should be doing. Nintendo may be evil, but at least they still remember what makes games fun and interesting. Sony, Microsoft, and the Big Three never knew.

Also, Kingdom Hearts 2 is kind of shit. Everything it does, KH1 does better, except for combat, which KH2 blunders every chance it gets despite its improvements. There! It's been said!

Wow. I feel lighter now!

 

[Tonberry]

I love video games, I think voice-acting almost always make text-heavy/non-cinematic games worse, and I think people berating others for the entertainment products they choose to spend their money (OR pirate) on are losers with way too few worries.

Real talk though; do we really need more threads like these??
The normal shitty Hot Takes thread (and it's non-gaming sibling) is already constantly active with people screaming their sub-zero opinions at brick walls. At least take a gander among the ongoing threads.

 

[ThatOneLum ThatOneLum]

People who judge how others enjoy games are insecure as fuck.

 

[PhaseJump]

SNES hardware is poorly designed trash compared to the Genesis with the 68k.

Bomberman is a better mascot than Sonic the Hedgehog.

Modern consoles are pointless and standardized PC hardware should replace them entirely.

 

[moonbits]

Real talk though; do we really need more threads like these??

yes, we do.