If not, you need to go out and buy it.
I think videogames are pretty much the worst waste of time known to man. For the most part I think its up there with watching hours upon hours of Two and a Half Men.
However once in a while a game comes along that I would consider “art”. A game so good that it manages to teach you something. Would you put Fallout 3 in that mix?
The most recent games that I think transended the realm of “videogames” would be…
Metal Gear Solid 1 and 4 - 2008
Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow/Chaos Theory Multiplayer - 2004
Mario 64 - ?
It doesn’t sound like you’ve played Fallout.
All games are bad except for the ones you like. Okeydokely.
I didn’t enjoy Fallout 3, to me it’s just Oblivion with guns. Mount and Blade, Garry’s Mod 10, Team Fortress 2, Left4Dead are all much better.
sigh
MJK… Good games are exemplification, not transcendence. Movies, whether good or bad, are just movies, they don’t go onto a higher plane. And how exactly are they the worst waste? Justify your claim cause I see it as groundless, they’re no worse than movies or t.v., books or music. Hell, they actually improve your hand eye co-ordination and puzzlesolving abilities, which is more than can be said for the former two.
Not that I actually think that the vast majority of games are art pieces in themselves, they may be partially art pieces but it’s usually lost. However my position is not based n a dislike of games but something fundamental about how they operate. However this discussion is not for this thread.
Zeus… Fallout 3 is WAAAAAY more than ‘Oblivion with guns’. There are some faint similarities of course, it’s the same engine and the same developers and they obviously have their ideas on how a good should be, but that is hardly doing the game justice. Starting with the most obvious first:
It looks totally different. Not just in a, ones a high fantasy setting the others the end of the world kind of thing, but because: Almost all the locations are not separated by loading screens (except for the two main cities), you’re essentially wandering around one valley that’s dominated by the same landmarks all over the place, here you actually move between areas and places have a different feel
Combat: Well, yeah there are guns. However, in Oblivion, there were essentially two enemies in the game, just with various different power levels and skins. One charged at you and hit you, the other shot you from distance. Now, you might say that if you generalise enough that’s what all games reduce to, but Oblivion only had two AI routines to attack! Everything was literally the same, even magic and arrows ran on the same code so they were basically the same. Now we have: Exploding zombies, Mirelurks who charge and cover their weak spot, grenade users, robots, people who use cover as well as people who use missiles, and hand to hand enemies that are actually dangerous (Deathclaws). Further, combat in Oblivion was one button, two if you used a shield. It had the most boring, repetitive combat I’ve ever played in. Obviously, since it’s a shooter, it’s kinda the same for Fallout, but I think it’s done much better. Plus the VATS system. Seriously, combat has been massively improved.
Dungeons: Most of the dungeons in Oblivion are copy pastes of the same thing, even down to the same rooms. Whilst there aren’t as many ‘quests’ in Fallout (an issue complicated y the fact a fair number of them never appear in your log) each location is much better designed and has a story behind it, not just some mere cut and paste. It actually gives you a reason to explore the world because the world is interesting to explore. Hell, even the traps are far better, honestly, if you got caught by the stupidly obvious traps in oblivion then you’re a moron, whereas in Oblivion I’ve actually been caught by a couple, or used them against their owners. Much more fun
I can’t be arsed to carry on listing the really significant differences (and I don’t want to spoil the game for anyone) but the dark humour, the radio, the completely different levelling system… Fallout 3 is a game in its own right. Calling it oblivion with guns cheapens them both. Not that I think F3 is a perfect game. It isn’t, it has massive flaws, but they’re it’s flaws.
No. There are plenty more games that I feel are valid and exceptional peices of art. They are few and far between but those are the ones I loved.
Videogames in general are nothing more than mental masterbation.
Appearently today is the official “Break your videogame” day. I thought of this thread right away.
Who are the people who make these days anyway? Didnt we just get passed “Turn off your TV week”?