JPF presumably already knows this, but for those who don't, the Prey DLC Mooncrash feels in some ways like Arkane experimenting with ideas that they'd develop more fully in Deathloop. It's very much worth a look.
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BIOSHOCK.
- Thread starter BEAT
- Start date
JPF presumably already knows this, but for those who don't, the Prey DLC Mooncrash feels in some ways like Arkane experimenting with ideas that they'd develop more fully in Deathloop. It's very much worth a look.
Plasmids in Infinite were so crappy... hard to upgrade, expensive to use, the game gives you a ton of them but no reason to experiment with them. I often felt I was given the opportunity to upgrade a plasmid whose purpose hadn't yet really been revealed. Total bunk.
Bioshock failed to live up to System Shock. Seeing as he worked on SS2 and the original Thief gam, it's probably more a case of not having an editor or constraints imposed on him in BS.
All of them looked good and probably still look at least decent? I dunno since it's been a decade-ish. The shooting of dudes with guns and bees and bee guns and lightning bolts felt good for my brain.
Literally everything else about the games has aged like a fine wet noodle. Infinite took the bold stance of "racism and classism is bad" and then walked that back for some neo liberal centrist shit, and then tried to one-up Bioshock 1's twist by making a twistier twist that double twists and collapses on itself into a stupid singularity; a black hole of stupid.
Don't watch this show, fuck Bioshock, Bioshock sucks ass everyone I know hates Bioshock, don't be a nerd and come hate Bioshock with us
Literally everything else about the games has aged like a fine wet noodle. Infinite took the bold stance of "racism and classism is bad" and then walked that back for some neo liberal centrist shit, and then tried to one-up Bioshock 1's twist by making a twistier twist that double twists and collapses on itself into a stupid singularity; a black hole of stupid.
Don't watch this show, fuck Bioshock, Bioshock sucks ass everyone I know hates Bioshock, don't be a nerd and come hate Bioshock with us
I watch things that suck ass all the time, it's a hobby
Ludendorkk
(he/him)
Bioshock 2 has a level set in a Objectivist theme park and it's hilarious
muteKi
Geno Cidecity
Bioshock was genuinely afraid of this because Levine's big mind baby is all about the value of anti-extremism, not about any sort of coherent ethical principles. In all seriousness this really is the biggest ideological flaw in Bioshock, second place of course going to the world's absolute funniest moral binary
I mostly liked these games because being underwater is Cool and Scary and I thought they pulled off that part well (also, BS2 was def the best one).
This isn't necessarily directed at anyone on this forum, but when I need to have my ideological impulses validated, video games are the last place I'm looking for it. I feel like the same people who wanted to tell me how deep and good Infinite was are the same people who wanna tell me about how good Rick and Morty or MCU movies are (and my advice to those people is to read a real book).
Probably the most bait-y part of this post is that, on top of all this, I think its probably impossible for a huge AAA title to have any ideological merit (the kind of Lefty merit we of course all loudly identify with), because left leaning shit just won't ever have a AAA budget because... why would it? What modern megacompany would knowingly invest in a project whose Message actively undermined its very existence? What AAA budget game could exist without exploiting labor? Etc etc etc.p
This isn't necessarily directed at anyone on this forum, but when I need to have my ideological impulses validated, video games are the last place I'm looking for it. I feel like the same people who wanted to tell me how deep and good Infinite was are the same people who wanna tell me about how good Rick and Morty or MCU movies are (and my advice to those people is to read a real book).
Probably the most bait-y part of this post is that, on top of all this, I think its probably impossible for a huge AAA title to have any ideological merit (the kind of Lefty merit we of course all loudly identify with), because left leaning shit just won't ever have a AAA budget because... why would it? What modern megacompany would knowingly invest in a project whose Message actively undermined its very existence? What AAA budget game could exist without exploiting labor? Etc etc etc.p
I don't think it's unreasonable to ask more of games that present themselves as having Something to Say, which the Bioshocks definitely did.
FF7R has a very front-and-center environmental message and some pretty direct things to say about the evils of capitalistic excess, despite being a for-profit venture and the CEO of the company recently going on about NFTs and such. Mainstream entertainment is rarely primarily about progressivism, but there is certainly room for elements of it existing in a AAA game without tanking sales.
FF7R has a very front-and-center environmental message and some pretty direct things to say about the evils of capitalistic excess, despite being a for-profit venture and the CEO of the company recently going on about NFTs and such. Mainstream entertainment is rarely primarily about progressivism, but there is certainly room for elements of it existing in a AAA game without tanking sales.
Counterpoint it's actually VERY FUCKING EASY and nonthreatening to the bottom line to consistently say racism is bad.
I mean hell the last few Wolfenstine games did really fucking well with the premesis of "Actually destroying fascists with violence is cool as shit."
EDIT: And as Sarcasmorator said: these games were HEAVILY FUCKING MARKETED as being games with a POWERFUL MESSAGE. This being the case, there is absolutely nothing foolish or ignorant about going "Well okay then what exactly is that message" or calling said message out when it turns out to be some weakass both sides bullshit.
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Phantoon
I cuss you bad
you're not my mum
FelixSH
(He/Him)
Even if the game doesn't itself argue, that it has something to say, does it make sense to demand more from them, then just to be time wasters. If we don't, games will never be anything more than that. Without an interest in this, we wouldn't have something like Undertale, Planescape Torment or Christine Loves games.
They might not be great literature, but they definitely have interesting things to say. If one finds nothing, but something to have a good time (which is, of course, absolutely legitimate) in, say FF VII (or, honestly, each FF), that person isn't looking deep enough. Again, fair enough, but that doesn't mean that there is nothing there.
I seem to remember a scene in one of the gameplay teasers in which someone threatens Elizabeth, and Booker can make them back off by just drawing his gun. This part of the final product is full of people who are always hostile.
How sad is it that I was excited by the prospect of solving a problem by merely threatening violence rather than committing it, and that I didn't even get that?
Not only does BI offer that choice, it immediately invalidates your decision while refusing to comment on your choice in any way, then throws you into an extended combat sequence, probably in the hopes that you won't have time to think about how dumb that whole scene was.
air_show
elementary my dear baxter
Chiming in to be one of those people who actually really enjoyed Bioshock 2. It was more fun to play and actually made its themes and gameplay come together in a more satisfying way. Granted that was a low ass bar set by the first game's crap endings.
I've probably said this before but what really sucked about the evil route of Bioshock 1 was how the ending was just lame and stupid. The game makes this big deal about how the Big Daddification process is irreversible but then in the ending Tenenbaum reverses it for no reason at all, just so you can threaten her and become the oppressors now. Why would she fucking do that? The most perfect and poetic ending would have been her condemning you to be a servant of the Little Sisters for your deeds. Fucking ball dropped.
I also thought Bioshock 2 with you being a literal big daddy the whole time was going to be a low-key retcon of that shit bad ending.
I've probably said this before but what really sucked about the evil route of Bioshock 1 was how the ending was just lame and stupid. The game makes this big deal about how the Big Daddification process is irreversible but then in the ending Tenenbaum reverses it for no reason at all, just so you can threaten her and become the oppressors now. Why would she fucking do that? The most perfect and poetic ending would have been her condemning you to be a servant of the Little Sisters for your deeds. Fucking ball dropped.
I also thought Bioshock 2 with you being a literal big daddy the whole time was going to be a low-key retcon of that shit bad ending.