betvisa888 cricket betStory Beat Archives – Destructoid - bet365 cricket - Jeetbuzz88 //jbsgame.com/tag/story-beat/ Probably About Video Games Wed, 28 Dec 2022 10:59:35 +0000 en-US hourly 1 //wordpress.org/?v=6.4.5 211000526 betvisa cricketStory Beat Archives – Destructoid - آن لائن کرکٹ بیٹنگ | Jeetbuzz88.com //jbsgame.com/2022-was-an-amazing-year-for-narrative-games/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=2022-was-an-amazing-year-for-narrative-games //jbsgame.com/2022-was-an-amazing-year-for-narrative-games/#respond Wed, 28 Dec 2022 22:00:23 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=355775 immortality sam barlow trailer pc gaming show fmv

This is the stuff I live for

The horizons of my video game tastes have broadened pretty significantly over the past few years, but my undying love for narrative games first and foremost has never wavered. While 2022 has been a great year for games in general, from heavy hitters like Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarok to indie darlings like Cult of the Lamb and Vampire Survivors, I think this past year has been one? of the best we've seen for narrative games in a good while due to the breadth of stories that were told both thematically and mechanically.

Whe?ther those stories were rooted in lighthearted, optimistic sentimentality or a grounded, gritty introspection, I was reminded time and time again why I'm so excited for games to continue paving the way forward as our youngest and most dynamic storytelling medium. Here are some highlights of what?? I consider to be some of the most compelling narrative games to have come out in 2022 �if you're interested in interactive storytelling and haven't played through these yet, I suggest adding them to your backlog ASAP. Keep in mind that I'm only touching on my absolute favorite narrative games of 2022 with this short list, so if I missed a truly groundbreaking game narrative this year, make sure to let me know down in the comments!

Stray

I was so pleasantly surprised by Stray. It's a game I excitedly jumped into as a cat lover, but I'll admit that I didn't expect much more from it than some cute yet vapid interactions and some run-of-the-mill gameplay??. While I actually found myself enjoying the platforming mechanics that helped me see the world from a cat's perspective (especially in the game's most open hub section, The Slums), it was its story that I found to be unexpectedly poignant and uplifting.

I certainly didn't expect to come to care for a tiny AI robot whose introduction at the time seemed to only be for tutorial purposes, or that a game with a cat as a protagonist would provide one of the most delicate and thought-provoking stories about the end of the world that I've seen as a fan of apocalypse fiction.

For me, what really worked for Stray was more in its minute, subtle interactions with NPCs and the environment than in its overarching narrative itself, but the game managed to keep its hold on me the entire way through to my tearful conclusion of its story. This is a game I've thou??ght about a lot over the months since I played it, and I look forward to returning to it sometime in the future.

NORCO

NORCO console release

I've followed NORCO since it was previewed at Tribeca's Games Festival back in 2021, and while it was absolutely snubbed at this year's Game Awards, I'm still so pleased that it's gotten the love that it has. Being from the South myself, I'm partial to southern gothic storytelling, and NORCO did the subgenre proud as the best to delve into the American South since Kentucky Route Zero.

Also similar to Cardboard Computer's modern classic, NORCO leaned hard into surrealism and used it to deliver some truly unforgettable commentary about capitalism and our connection to the land on which we live. NORCO's writing is poetic and sometimes downright hilarious, and it has ??some of the most beautiful pixel art I've ever seen in my life. Some of the gameplay elements weren't exactly my favorite, but it's overall a good time if you like point-and-clicks, and its storytelling should certainly not be overlooked.

Signalis

Signalis

Signalis is a game I wasn't sure I was going to be able to play at all on account of my aversion to horror, but I'm thrilled that I was able to push through. Signalis' story is told in a less traditional manner, and in more of a way that I can only describe as "vibes" outside of its journal entries scattered around the map, and I think it was brilliantly done. I love a story that poses a lot of questions, and while Signalis provided many more questions than answers, it succeeded tremendously at exploring the lengths we're wi?lling to go for the people that we love, especially when we have nothing to lose.

As you make your way through a ruined space station, the story of Signalis almost feels like it's already happened, with the player left to wander around in the aftermath wondering how it all could have gone down differently. It lea??ves you with this sense of futility, and yet somehow still h??ope. It's a story you feel more than think your way through, and in that sense, it has more heart than any game I've played in a long time.

Pentiment

Pentiment

I feel like there are two types of gamers in the world: those who like Pentiment, and those who don't. Point-??and-click is already a polarizing genre, but I feel like when people saw the game's authentic medieval art style, they decided right then and there that the game was or wasn't for them. To those who were quick to write it off, I'm begging you to reconsider, because this is one of the most compelling murder myst?eries I've ever played in a game, which is also helped by the streamlining of some of the more cumbersome point-and-click conventions.

Pentiment is a game that surprised me again and again in the absolute best ways, but what really stands out the most is how it refuses to give the player definitive answers, w??hich not only re-contextualize?s the whodunit genre, but also how a lot of us think about video game storytelling in general. This is a game that has incredible replay value, so I'll likely be starting another playthrough before the year's out just to see how much everything changes on a different path.

Immortality

Immortality review

To me, Immortality is not only the best narrative game of the year, but also a milestone of the medium's continued innovations in storytelling, following in rank with Disco Elysium and The Last of Us as one of my favorite interactive narrati?ve experiences of all time. It explores its themes so intimately and in such compelling ways, and I can't get over how well the three "movies" of Marissa Marcel play off of each other. This game has some of the most incredible acting performances of recent year?s as well, and the gut-wrenching twist is one of the gaming moments that will truly stick with me for the rest of my life.

When people talk about video games as art, especially a storytelling art, Immortality needs to be at the top of th??at list. It's a narrative?? that could truly only be told through an interactive experience. I feel like I could write volumes on the depth and complexity of this game, and I likely will in the future after subsequent playthroughs. For now, though, I'm still kind of basking in it �and of course, going back, again and again, to try to find every last clip that I'm missing.

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Setting fear aside for new possibilities

My entire life,?? I’ve been really, really sensitive to horror. I usually chalk it up to being raised in a fundamentalist Christian family where I was told from a very young age that not only are Satan and demons real, but they are coming to get me and I have to actively fight them from taking control of my mind. Either that or I’m just a little too sensitive. Who’s to say?

Regardless, some of my childhood memories involve scary movies, or rather, my aversion to watching them. At my best friend’s sleepover birthday party in middle school, I s??pent an entire two hours upstairs by myself because I was too scared of whatever crappy C-tier horror flick they t??urned on that night. I once fled a family viewing of What Lies Beneath in tears because it was just too much for me.

W??hen I played video games ?as a kid, somehow this anxiety was heightened even more. I remember playing a childhood favorite, the ever-mild Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue, and being so stressed when I encountered an enemy that could harm me, I would barely eke through the level with sweaty palms and an elevated heart rate. The enemies in question? Skunks and porcupines. Not big, monstrous versions of the woodland creatures, but normal, small, adora?ble skunks and porcupines. 

Bioshock Infinite ElizabethI didn’t dare touch anything more intense than that,? although I greatly enjoyed watching my dad and brother play games like Ratchet & Clank, Jak & Daxter, Fallout, and Bioshock. I liked to chide myself for being the world’s biggest wimp, but looking back, it’s a shame my internalized trauma kept me from p?ursuing a hobby that I now enjoy so much, I’ve built my career around it.

The survival horror story that started it all

Ironically enough, The Last of Us became my new favorite hyperfixation when I was in college, to the point that I shifted my entire life plan to work in the video game indust??ry. I was enthralled by the emotional father-daughter story that was ultimately about love and hope, but I also had to deal with the game’s glorified zombie enemies to get to it. It is, ?after all, a survival horror game.

At first I needed a lot of emotional support from my friend, and the first time thro?ugh she had to play the hotel basement level for me �easily the scariest level in the game, even on easy mode. In my subsequent playthroughs, I think it was my sheer love of the narrative that powered me through, because I was able to make it th??rough the whole game without any help.

the last of us part i gameplay video trailer remake ps5

 

Then I moved on to the Uncharted series, the Walking Dead and Tales from the Borderlands Telltale games, and more. Naughty Dog's The Last of Us helped me get over that initial video game anxiety, so I appreciate it for that, among other things. Of course, while the game had its scarier moments, for the most part it was more of a stealth/action game than straight-up horror. Maybe it was a lack of supernatural elements, but I played and re??played TLOU, e??ven if it did make me squirm every once in a while.

Fast forward a few years, and horror was still an issue for me. My frie?nds helped take up the mantle of slowly easing me into scarier movies, like Coraline and It Follows??. Most of the horror games that came out during this time didn’t real??ly strike my fancy, so I steered clear. That was, until I heard about Signalis.

Trying something new

Our very own Eric Van Allen reviewed it, a??nd after reading through his summary, I had to admit I was intrigued, to say the least. I adore games that go all in on a unique art style, and there was something about the game’s story? that grabbed my attention over its dark subject matter, similar to Last of Us back in the ?day. Eric’s 9.5/10 score certainly piled onto my curiosity.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na4KadSK770

And so, after a few ??weeks of mulling it over and hyping myself up, I started playing Signalis. I’m not sure if I’ve just been desensitized?? to horror af??ter doing QA on The Last of Us Part II, or if the therapy and medication are rea??lly working, but I realized the prospect of taking on a horror game suddenly didn’t seem as im??possible as it used to.

I was slow going at first, unsure of what to expect and easing my way arou?nd every corner, but I got the feel of the controls and mechanics soon enough. Part of my anxiety also comes from the unknown, which is why I would often look up the plot for a scary movie or game online, so I at least kn??ew what to expect. I told myself that I was absolutely not allowed to look up anything about Signalis, and while I broke my own rule once to find the s?olution to a puzzle I was stuck on, I’m otherwise proud of ?myself for holding to it when it came to the horror elements.

 

While I was certainly still frightened of the enemies, at least a little bit, I found that it was less of the genuine, visceral fear I was used to, and more of the “I’m allowing myself to be afraid because I want to�kind of a thing �which I’ve come to understand is the usual appeal of horror for a lot of people. It was exciting to have that kin??d of autonomy in a situation that usually leaves me in a puddle on the floor, and regardless of any enduring fear, I managed to push through, even when my mind fought against me.

As it turns out, Signalis is just an awesome game, and despite my apprehension, it was one of my gaming experiences of the year. The atmosphere it created was distinct and emotionally charged; the worldbuilding was tragic and engaging, begging me to discover more; the mechanics were clunky in a way that further immersed me in the combat; the protagonist’s story was obscured in mystery yet endlessly compelling; its visual style was specific, strong, and consistent. Signalis is just a stylish, well-made piece?? of interactive media, and looking back, I?’m appreciative that I was able to overcome my fear enough to really enjoy it.

Don't let fear keep you from art you love

There is so much great art out th??ere, and for a long time, my long-held anxieties kept me from being able to experience and enjoy a whole category of it. There’s something quite empowering about not only being able to play through a horror game, but truly ??being able to enjoy it, because for a long time that wasn’t something I was able to do.

Signalis safe room

I can’t promise that Signalis will ?magically help other scaredy cats get over their fear of? horror games overnight, but it was just the right game for me to keep me coming back for more even when I wasn’t always comfortable doing so. If you’re looking to expand your horror horizons, I recommend finding a game that strikes your interest in its story, world, visual style, or mechanics, and then focusing on your favorite feature to carry you through. Having a friend or two around for emotional support certainly doesn’t hurt, either.

I mean, it worked for me. I may have started Signalis to appreciate its artistic vision, but as I played it, I was able to reconcile with its horror being part of that vision. Hats off to the developer rose-engine, because they were able to convert a mousy little gamer like me into a fan. I’m not sure which horror?? game I’m going to play next, but whatever it is, I’m looking forward to it.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post Signalis’ gorgeous design helped me overcome my fear of horror games appeared first on Destructoid.

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The following feature contains a spoiler for Telltale's 2014 title Tales from the Borderlands. Just go play it, because that's basically the conclusion of this article, anyway.

Or maybe even better...

A couple of weeks ago, I had the displeasure of reviewing Gearbox's New Tales from the Borderlands. I try to give every game I review the benefit of the doubt, but this game just kept letting me down again and again and again, and in the end it turned out to be a pretty miserable experience �and I gave it a 3/10. The whole time I was playing, I couldn't stop thinking about how awesome I thought the first game was, to the point that it is one of my favorite games of all time. Before I even finished the first episode of New Tales, I knew I had to go back and se??e if the original held up in the way that I thought it did.

Turns out Alice Bell over at Rock Paper Shotgun and I think alike, because she had the exact same idea. New Tales from the Borderlands was so bad, it actually made more than one of us return to the original to make sure we hadn't created some kind of false, reverent memory as a coping mechanism. But the conclusion is the same, and it seems to be unanimous: Tales from the Borderlands is still one of t??he best stories ever tol?d in a game.

A sense of momentum

Right off the bat, the game grabs you. It opens with this mystery of who kidnapped Rhys, one of the player characters, and after a few quips, he launches into a narration of how he got to where he is in the first pl?ace. The s?tory gets rolling right away, and it never really slows down after that.

The dialogue is smart and snappy, and perfectly paced while also giving us exposition at the same time. Compared to New Tales' slow, clunky exposition dumps, the original Tales' sharp, focused writing is all the more noticeable. It's also just funny as hell. There are still bits from this game that I quote to this day, and d??on't even get me started on the finger guns fight in Episode 4.

Then there's the musical opening, and while all of them are particularly great (shout out to the slo-mo rocket launch sequence from episode 4 �the entirety of the penultimate episode is nothing short of excellent, honestly), but episode 1's heavy beat and funky synth banger "Busy Earnin'" by Jungle is will be one of those gaming moments I remember for the rest of my life. It just sets the tone for the entire series, the song is dripping with style and swag, and it??? really hammers home the feeling that there's a whole adventure ahead of you. Perfection.

That sense of momentum is maintained throughout the entire rest of the series, except for maybe the last half of the final episode, which I can excuse because it makes way for the most video game-y section of Tales �the final boss fight. Other?wise, the rest of the episodes are?? jam-packed with plans, obstacles, and random happenstances that send the group reeling, and then we have a blast seeing how they manage to scrape by and eventually come out on top.

One particul?arly clever story technique they used a few times was having the characters lay out their plan, and then use that to narrate them actually carrying out those parts of the plan, which is just efficient writing in my opinion. They don't waste a second of my time, let alone hours at a time like another game I can think of.

Cause and effect

Right off the bat, we know exactly who the characters are and what they're after. As their goals slowly shift as the series go on, we can see who they are changing, in real-time, as?? they react to and deal with the circumstances that are placed in front of them. Of course, you as a player are part of shaping that arc, and the game feels satisfying and reactive every step of the way.

I never understood the criticism of the "they will remember that" messages in the top corner of the screen, especially in regards to Tales. The Telltale devs get awesome mileage out of the mechanic, by constantly changing up how they use it for the sake of jok??es, and, more sparingly, impactful emotional moments.

Something else that surprised me when I started Tales from the Borderlands is how often you interact with the game. It's baby stuff compared to full-on action games, but it might as well have been Breath of the Wild next to New Tales from the Borderlands. You have dialogue choices really often, sometimes as many as three or four choices a minute, and you spend a good amount of time each episode exploring the environment and doing some point-and-click stuff. Again, it's pretty basic, but it's far and away more interaction than you get in New Tales.

You don't know Jack

I also have to take a second to talk about how insanely good Jack's death scene is. Handsome Jack is already dead as of Borderlands 2, but he makes a posthumous return as an AI living inside Rhys' head in Tales from the Borderlands. Not only are all of the exchanges between Rhys and Jack e?xcellent throughout ??the whole game, but their final confrontation is something straight out of Shakespeare's bibliography, and I don't say that lightly.

Wh?ereas Rhys started out as nothing more than a fanboy, he's learned and grown a lot since his first encounter with Jack. Plus, you know, he doesn't want to die so that Jack can just his body as his own personal meat puppet. That's less sexual than it sounds. Anyway.

An ultimate confrontation in the wrecked remains of Helios, paired off with expert cinematography, thrilling, existential writing, and stellar performances from Troy Baker and Dameon Clarke make for some of the ??best storytelling in games you're ever going to see. I mean, we get Handsome Jack cont?emplating the true nature of death and Rhys ripping out his own arm and eye to kill his nemesis once and for all. What more could you possibly want? That's peak drama, baby.

I did not misremember... Tales is the GOAT

Tales from the Borderlands has always stuck in my mind as one of my favorite game?s of all time, but I don't think I realized in the years since I've played it how much it stuck with me, and even influenced my own writing sensibilities. It's a fast-paced, ridiculous adventure, but at its core it's a really moving character piece t??hat manages to give each one of its characters a compelling arc, even outside of the main six cast members.

I could continue to sing its praises for thousands more words, but you get it. Just go play it, and if you've played it before, play it again. Telltale was on some next-level shit in the first half of the 2010s, but if you ask me, Tales from the Borderlands is their best work.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post Tales from the Borderlands is just ?as good as I re??member appeared first on Destructoid.

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Tears of the Kingdom can't come soon enough

One of the many things I love about the Zelda series is that each game has its own unique vibe �from the cartoony wholesomeness of Wind Waker to the downright spooky atmosphere of Majora’s Mask. Of course, I’m excited to see how the upcoming Breath of the Wild sequel, which we now know is called Tears of the Kingdom, will innovate on the gameplay mechanics from its predecessor, but even moreso, I’m pumped to see how the story of the world has changed since we last checked in with the Hylian hero.

When people ask me what my favorite video game stories are, they’re usually confused to hear that I add Breath of the Wild to that list. The game has minimal st?orytelling aside from the optional memories you can go around and find. What I think it does better than just about any other game, though, is creating a world that not only feels lived-in, but that has a rich history hiding just under the surface.

You’re constantly coming across these ruins and wondering exactly what happened, usually left without any definitive answers. Most importantly, though, you’re seeing the world after all of the exciting stuff has already happened �Ganon has already won, and the inhabitants of Hyrule are surviving, not flourishing. It’s an idea that probably sounded risky during early development, but paired with some of the most pitch-perfect game design we’ve ever seen, it created one of the most hauntingly peaceful and y?et endlessly fascinating game worlds in recent memory.

A shift in tone

Enter Tears of the Kingdom �from the get-go, it’s easy to see how the game will be using the same art style and ?building upon the same mechan??ics. However, the tone has shifted significantly, and rather than seeing the world through an innocent incarnation of Link, our hero looks like he’s been through a lot based on his left arm alone.

At this point, trying to deduce any significant story from the minimal details we’ve gotten from the trailers so far would be a waste of time, but I think it’s fair to say that Tears of the Kingdom will see the series return to a darker vibe �even just from the title alone. I’d wager to say that it’s the perfect time for some edgier Zelda content, considering we haven’t gotten a mainline entry that wasn’t a remaster with a gritter tone since maybe Twilight Princess back in 2006.

The world has changed a lot sin??ce 2017, which feels like the understatement of the century. Things are worse now on the whole, and by saying anything otherwise, we’d be outright lying to ourse??lves.

Finding meaning in darkness

It’s always great to see Link and Zelda return, but this time seeing them face darkness in a visceral, immediate way feels pretty timely. Seeing the scattered remains of Hyrule floating in the air is a beautiful image, and maybe I took one too many college-level English courses, but it feels very symbolic of their world being altered beyond recognition, and having to do what they can to survive with th??e remaining pieces.

Regardless of my over-analyzation, we need stories of overcoming darkness against impossible odds now more than ever. Tears of the Kingdom’s release is anticipated for so many different reasons �gameplay innovations, beautiful worldbuilding, a return to classic characters we know and love �but one of the things I’m looking most forward to is its story refle?cting the darkness that always seems to be looming over our heads.

Part of me wonders how much Tears of the Kingdom’s story and aesthetics were already planned out years in advance, or if they’re a more immediate reaction to what we’ve been facing. Either way, I have nothing but complete faith that Nintendo is going to knock this one out of the park, and the? anticipation of its release on May 5, 2023 will be what keeps me going until then.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post It’s the perfect time for another dark Zelda game appeared first on Destructoid.

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Freak me out like it's 1998

Not gonna lie, I’m partial to a gimmicky video game experience. Whether it’s VR, huge arcade-style cabinets, or a giant chunky plastic peripheral you have to buy for your controller, I’m fascinated by it all. I’ve even followed the niche community of streamers who make unconventional controllers, like one player who’s been grooving her way through Elden Ring on a dance pad controller.

As hardware continues to improve, it’s cool to see how we can innovate on using the physical components we interact with to further immerse us in a game’s world. Of this ninth console generation, we’ve seen PlayStation take some impressive steps forward in this regard. Putting aside what I think about the new Last of Us remake, I have to admit that using the controller’s haptic feedback to allow players t?o “feel�the dialogue is a genius move, especially in how it wi??ll allow disabled players to experience the game.

There are also the adaptive triggers, which I find to be more interesting in theory than in practice. It can be interesting to have certain guns feel different with the adaptive trigger, but the implementation of the feature is still young enough that I think we have more to see in how devs use it for story purposes. I’ll be keeping a watchful eye on new releases that ??claim to use the triggers more.

As far as what Xbox or PC modd?ers are up to in this regard, I have no idea considering I have fostered a PlayStation household, but I’m sure someone will let me know in the comments.

the last of us part i gameplay video trailer remake ps5

Gaming hardware moments I love

Of course, this is just a modern example that comes to mind considering it’s been in the news?? recently. Over the years, there have been countless mechanics in games that require you to do something special with the hardware, whether it’s for story purposes or not.

The first thing I thought of in regard to my own encounters with unique hardware-centric game mechanics was that when I played Nintendogs as a kid, you could blow into the microphone to blow bubbles at your puppies. It was a small, simple mechanic within the larger scope of the game, but my little nine-year-old mind w?as blown nonetheless �it might as well have been magic, as far as my little brain was?? concerned.

Another small moment I love is the section of What Remains of Edith Finch that focuses on Lewis �particularly how he escapes into his own mind while working at th??e cannery. The game utilizes a simple control scheme where the use of each joystick is tied to the different realities he is torn between. To start, you use the right stick to chop fish, while the left stick starts controlling a knight character in Lewis�imagination.

As the sequence goes on, the fantasy takes up more and more of Lewis�attention, therefore taking up more of the screen, and players must continue the steady rhythm of chopping fish with his right hand while navigating increasingly complicated environments w??ith the left. It’s no??t world-shattering use of hardware in a story moment, but using a simple, narratively-relevant control scheme to hit home the point of the vignette is something I find incredibly moving every time I play it.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQBlSnsT5bc

No one can do it like Metal Gear

The example that inspired this feature, though, is from a game I’ve never actually played before: Metal Gear Solid. I had heard whispers ??of players�encounters?? with Psycho Mantis being some of the most chilling in games, but when I heard the whole story as to why, my mind was blown.

For those who aren’t familiar, the iconic boss fight from the first game in the series features an enemy that can read your mind, and uses some tricks that sti?ll feel innovativ??e today, let alone when the game came out in 1998.

First Psycho Mantis “reads�the player’s memory card, making taunting comments to them about other games they’ve played. Next, he asks you to place your controller on the ground so he could show off how powerful he is before the controller starts rumbling like crazy. Apparently if you placed the controller on a table, it might also go crashing to the ground spectacularly. Finally, Psycho Mantis e??vades all of the player’s attacks, stating that he can read their mind, and it’s not until the player moves the controller to the second controller port that the player can land a hit on him, because he can’t “read their mind�??anymore.

Metal Gear’s legacy is so multi-faceted, but this gameplay sequence has to be my favorite thing to come out of the series by far as someone on the fringes of the franchise. It’s such creative game design, and while I certainly didn’t play it when it came out considering I was two years old, the way people talk about it makes me wish I could have seen? its impact back in the gaming landscape of 1998.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDJebjf_DkQ

In conclusion

I can’t imagine how unsettling that must have been at the time, and the fact that I’m still talking about it today clearly shows how influential that moment and by extension, the entire Metal Gear series, has been to games as a whole.

I’m sure there are tons of other cool examples of hardware-centric story moments in games, but that’s the only one I really know of that’s directly tied into t??he narrative experience �and it’s certainly done more masterfully than any other attempts at bringing hardware into a game that I’ve seen. Sound off on any other moments like that that I may have missed, but otherwise, this is my plea to game designers to implement more story moments that are told through innovative hardware mechanics. It’s creative, it’s unique, and it’s something I haven’t seen hit as hard as it did in 1998, even with all of our next-gen innovations. Make it happen, devs.

The post ??I want?? more storytelling through hardware in video games appeared first on Destructoid.

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If you could only pick one game, what would it be?

Sometimes I'm so immersed in my little narrative bubble in the games industry, I forget that there are some people who have never played a story-centric game in their lives! Considering the industry is more flooded with titles to choose from than ever before, it can be difficult to branch outside of the comfort zones of our favorite genres because there's so much to play. No judgment �it honestly just gets me more ??enthused that I could have the opportunity to introduce someone to some of my favorite games of all time. That's exactly what happened this weekend when I got to chatting to a friend who works in es??ports (something I know equally little about as she does narrative games). She asked me for a recommendation, and in my excitement, I started rattling off a huge list of games before I could stop myself.

I make it no secret that The Last of Us is my favorite game of all time. It has some of the most tight, character-focused writing you're going to find in games, the mechanics play really well off of the story, and it also just holds a special place in my hear?t.

However, when I started telling this friend about narrative games, I was surprised to find myself recommending Disco Elysium first and foremost. I think maybe it's been on my mind recently because I just had an in-depth conversation with a friend about it, but the more I thought about Disco Elysium, the more I thought that maybe it'??s a better representation of what narrative games have to offer.

Ellie from The Last of Us

Sometimes your favorite isn't the best way to go

The Last of Us is a really great game, but I understand some of the criticisms that it's too linear -- although the "playable movie" kind of thing is Naughty Dog's bread?? and butter.

Anyway, Disco Elysium is a game that not only has cho??ices and branching narrative, ?but you can significantly alter the narrative or characters based on how you choose to play. It also has such an organic feel based on what you find or don't find, and while you can miss out on some cool moments, finding them can make for a magical experience.

While The Last of Us has its merits as one of the greatest narrative games ever made, Disco Elysium's story is?? one that I think is greatly enhanced by the fact that it's a game, even in its weaker moments. Overall, I think there's a case for it being the better narrative game recommendation. Of course, it? also depends on who your audience is.

I love reading, so a text-heavy game like Disco Elysium is something I naturally gravitate towar??ds. The endless walls of text might make someone bounce off, therefore rendering my recommendation unsuccessful. There's also the fact that in some instances, the game relies on prior knowledge of tabletop tropes and mechanics.

If the prospective player has never touched a d20 in their life, it might be another reason for Disco Elysium to feel alienating. All of this to say, I t??hink it's still one of the best examples of game narrative an?d I'll gush about it to anyone who will listen.

Disco Elysium is our first narrative game recommendation

My honorable mentions

Other ?recommendations?? I sent to this friend as some of my favorite narrative games are as follows:

For all my ramblings, I want to know, which game do you think best represents video game storytelling? Which game comes out on top of a story game battle royale as the best ambassador to ou??r non-story-gaming friends? What games make up your honorable mentions list? Let me know down in the comments!


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post What’s the first narrative game you recommend to someone? appeared first on Destructoid.

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Clicking on static text has never been so exciting

Narrative games may be a small niche within the gaming industry as a whole, but there’s an even smaller subsection of the genre that a lot of gamers don’t know about: interactive fiction also known as IF. With the exception of some UI upgrades or a musical score, the vast majority of IF is just simple text on a screen that the player clicks through. It exists in the space between my two favorite things: literature and video games. Technically interactive fiction got its start in the late 1970s with text adventures like Zork, but now?? the world of text-based games has taken on a whole ??new life.

I’ve always dabbled in the world of IF, but when I came across this thread on Twitter, it reminded me that the co??mmunity surroundi??ng this genre is more active among the writers and narrative designers in games than one might think.

I love inter??active fiction for a few reasons, chief among them being that I love reading, but also because IF does something that a vast? majority of games do not �it puts story above gameplay. I know this is kind of sacrilegious in the games space, but in the world of IF, interactivity is used more for artistic narrative expression than anything else.

This one is really growing on me

Take the piece titled �a href="//lizengland.itch.io/growth" target="_blank" rel="noopen??er">grow?th�??by Liz England, for example. I recommend playing it (it’s short, like two minutes tops) before you proceed, because I’m about to spoil it.

It starts with the player finding a growth on their hand, and gives them a few options like “Call a doctor�and “Call a friend.�As they start making the??se choices, however, they realize?? that nothing they can do will really help to make the growth go away. The choices soon become more and more unhinged, and eventually end with the player cutting off the growth themselves, which they then realize is their thumb.

I love “growth�because it’s essentially an interactive poem that meditates on losing control of your thoughts. It’s short and simple, but it does a great job of illustrating how quic??kly we can devolve into our own intrusive thoughts. The twist at the end of the growth being your thumb all along is a jarring return to reality, and has a twinge of silliness to it.

“growth�is also a great example of how IF uses a lack of autonomy in its favor. You can click on the options in any order you want, but ultimately, you will always arrive at the same conclusion. ?Not to go all textual analysis on you, but it ties into the narrative so well because the player character can’t even stop sawing off their own thumb even ?when they want to.

Choices don't matter, and that's great

A lot of gamers seem to have come to the conclusion that if your choices don’t matte??r in a narrative game, then the game is poorly designed. What these players m?ean, of course, is that they want their choices to alter the game’s narrative in a way that feels noticeable.

The irony here is that choices never really “mattered�anyway, because until we have AI and procedural generation that’s strong enough to create a story on the fly, developers and writers had to create every possible scenario that the players could encounter. It’s much less about players having real control than it is making? them think that they do.

Another must-play in the IF genre that also illustrates this point beautifully is �a href="//mat?thewseiji.itch.io/twwds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Writer Will Do Something�by Matthew S Burns and Tom Bissell. The premise is that you’re playing as a games writer who’s sitting in on a meeting for the AAA game that they’re working on. Not only is this game hilarious, but the whole b?it is that no matter what the writer says or does, the outlook of the meeting keeps getting bleaker and bleaker, and the executives are convinced that “the writer will do ?something,�hence the title.

It’s an eerily accurate depiction of what it’s like to make games at a big studio (unsurprising considering Bissell worked on franchises like Gears of War and Rocksteady’s Batman), but it’s also effective in usi??ng choices that don’t change anything to make you feel incr??easingly hopeless and dejected.

Making your own IF

The other awesome thing about IF, especially for those who are just getting started as writers, is that the tools to make them are really accessible and easy to use. The two most popular are Twine and Ink, both of whic??h ?can be ported to Unity and have also been used to create commercial games. They’re both open source as well, so they’re free, have active communities, and the companies behind them are always working hard to improve the software.

My personal favorite is Ink because it’s a custom scripting language, so there’s a lot of functionality t??here. However, if you’re more of a visual learner, I recommend Twine because you can chart your whole story with boxes and arrows that connect all the pieces.

I’m only scratching the surface here of what IF can do, so if any of this sounds interesting to you, I’d encourage you to check it out. There’s a whole wo??rld of interactive storytelling out there that runs the gambit of experiment??al, emotional, weird, exciting, and beautiful, and while I love a classic gaming experience, interactive fiction will always hold a special place in my heart.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post Interact??ive fiction: the fascinating?? space between literature and games appeared first on Destructoid.

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Let's kick it

Who doesn't love a good video game sidekick? I've been playing through some of the old Ratchet & Clank games with a friend, and while A Crack in Time is one of the best of the series, my biggest gripe is t?hat we don't get enough Ratchet and Clank quality time. Maybe I'm just too sentimental, but I really love seeing best buddy characters in my games, and Clank makes just about the best sidekick a girl co??uld ask for.

He's got it all �an ado?rable personality, quippy dialogue, useful game mechanics, he never gets in the way, and his gameplay sections break things up and provide some cool puzzle mechanics. Clank is so awesome, he got me thinking about some other great �and not so great �sidekicks in video games.

No one likes a useless sidekick

The most classic example is Ashley from Resident Evil 4, and one of the most tedious, awful escort missions in the history of gaming. I haven't played any of the Resident Evil games because I'm too much of a wimp, and even I know about this trainwreck. Players have used Ashley as the prime example of annoying sidekick characters and escort missions for years now, to the point that her name is evoked at game studios when discussing what not to do. She's?? whiny, she gets in the way, and requires help to do basic tasks like using a ladder, which then triggers a long animation you have to wait through.

Leon and Ashley

Ashley is less of a sidekick and more of a walking embodiment of frustrating game mechanics. ?Having another character around to bo??unce off of both narratively and in gameplay can be a huge asset, but when buddy AI is bad, it's really, really bad.

Then we have characters like Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite or Ellie from The Last of Us, who feel like direct answers to the Ashleys of the world. They don't get in the way, they help you ?out in combat and restock your ammo, and they play a big part in the story as well-written, complex characters. Ellie still needs help crossing any body of water because she can't swim, but I find that small annoyance pretty forgivable considering she's one of the best video game characters of all time.

Joel and Ellie

The best of the best

Luigi is another character who always makes the best sidekicks lists, which isn't surprising considering he was pretty much the first famous sidekick out there. He's so iconic he even graduated to the main characte??r of his own games, which is more than most oth??er characters on this list.

Then there are the characters like Navi, Cortana, or Ghost who serve as a utility as well a??s side characters, which is a pretty good way to do things when you want the player to have ultimate freedom, but still convey important information to?? them in an interesting way.

B-12 from the recent release Stray is another great example of a sidekick character who is super helpful in gameplay, but also adds a ton to the narra??tive. Plus, even sidekicks like these that don't get a ton of screen time? are still beloved by fans because they're well-written (maybe with the exception of Navi on this one) and add to the game's overall narrative experience.

Master Chief and Cortana

With single-player games seemingly on the decline these days, the sidekicks are fewer and further between, so this is my plea for developers to put more adorable, funny, interesting side characters in our games. In the past, they may have hurt the experience more than they've helped it, but the more recent sidekicks have come away being one of the best parts of their respec??tive game's experience. Just gimme a little buddy, and I'll be happy.

Who is your favorite video game sidekick?


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post There’s nothing better than a good video game sidekick appeared first on Destructoid.

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Put down the controller and break out the reading glasses

Odds are if you're talking to someone who loves storytelling in video games, there's lore from at least one game that they can recite by heart. Especially when it comes to games that really focus on the gameplay first, like League of Legends or Bloodborne, lore is a great, indirect way to get players engaged in the story of your world if?? there isn't much time in the gam??e itself to tell that story.

It can be a case of "come for the game, stay for the story," or sometimes players get into a game because they learned about all the lore first, but either way, loving a game for the world it creates for us is a beautiful thing. But I have to be honest. For someone who loves story in games like, a lot, I ??just can't bring myself to get into video game lore. I know, I know, bring out the torches ??and pitchforks.

Bloodborne screenshot

I think a lot of the problem for me is that learning about lore requires a lot of reading. Now I do consider myself an avid reader, so usually that's not a problem for me, but when it comes to reading anything longer than a paragraph in a game, well, I just can't do it. It's because when I turn on a game, I want to play the game.

Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain

In his video "Naughty Dog's Game Design is Outdated," YouTuber NakeyJakey explains a phenomenon he affectionately calls Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain, which means you have "little to no patience for anything that isn't fun or engaging second-to-second gameplay." When I first started getting back into games, it was because I was watching cutscene compilations on YouTube. I thought for sure I cared about story and story alone, but as I started branching out and playing more and more games, I caught Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain. I think it was Hades that did me in.

//youtu.be/QCYMH-lp4oM?t=193

When I play a game, something in my brain switches, and I have Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain. I still love to sit down and ?read a book, but I know when I do so, that's all I can expect to be doing. Now if I'm presented with more than a hundred words at a time, it doesn't matter how compelling the lore is, I'm just not gonna read it.

Of course, this doesn't mean I ?don't like story in games at all anymore. I just prefer when the narrative design is really baked into the moment-to-moment gameplay. I've found that not only when it comes to games, but all kinds of storytelling, I like character-focused narratives over world- or lore-focused stories every time. Give me someone to root for, and then I'll care.

I'm not saying that video game lore can't be awesome or doesn't have its merits, I just thi??nk it's not for me. I'd love to be proven wrong here, but I'm hard-pressed to find a game that makes reading codexes or reading up on the game while I'm not even playing it compelling to me in absolutely any form. I don't want to have to interrupt my playthrough to feel like I'm doing research for a school essay, you know what I mean?

Lore done right: Disco Elysium

Disco Elysium screenshot

I think a great example of a happy medium for me is Disco Elysium. That game is a masterpiece of interactive storytelling on so many levels, but one thing that blows me away about that game is that they actually do tell you a ton about that game's world �its geography, its politics, its socioeconomic status, and ?so on.

The thing is though, it's not hidden away in journal entries or codex entries, but instead, it's woven into how you interact with the world itself. You get introduced to the ideologies, religions, politics, etc. of the world because y?ou're always hearing about them through the lens of what other characters think.

You hear about the war through René's melancholy, patri?otic recollections, and you learn about Humanism through Kim's reserved stance on the religion. It's so elegantly done that I walk away from each playthrough amazed at how much I learned, and care, about Revachol, i?ts history, and its inhabitants.

If e?very game presented me with lore like that, I think I'd be a whole lot more interested in backstories a??nd events that happened before I showed up. So, how do you feel about lore? Which game do you think has the best lore out there? Let's discuss in the comments.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post Let’s talk about video game lore appeared first on Destructoid.

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How games depict America, for better and for worse

It was fun to sit on my rooftop and watch the fireworks over the Los Angeles cityscape for the Fourth of July this year, but I gotta be honest �it didn’t feel like there was much to celebrate this year. Regardless of the depressing state of our country, the holiday got me thinking a??bout Americana in video games and how they dep??ict our country, for better and for worse.

Aside from Japan, the United States is the world’s leader in video game production, so it makes perfect sense that ??developers would borrow themes, imagery, and i?conography from their country of origin. Sometimes it’s to pay homage to where they came from, other times it’s with the express purpose of critiquing the systems and ideals that run our nation, and sometimes it’s a mixture of both.

Small Town Life

[caption id="attachment_291280" align="alignnone" width="1400"]Life is Strange: True Colors Life is Strange: True Colors[/caption]

Having grown up in one myself, games that take on the American small-town setting will always hold a special place in my heart. One of the series that portrays the classic “small down with a dark secret�trope well is Life is Strange �and it does an excellent job of capturing on a smaller scale that America has a lot of dark secrets hiding under the surface, many of which have come to light over the past few years. For so long our country pushed this narrative of being an i?deal, almost?? utopian place (at least for some), but the whole thing was built on a broken system to begin with.

Night in the Woods nails this theme as well. Most of the game has the player making friends, hanging out around town, and dealing with the fallout of poor decisions that are really manifestations of trauma. However, there’s a cult running around murdering people because they think they’re doing their part ??to keep the town running. Sounds a l??ittle familiar, right?

The American Dream is Dead

[caption id="attachment_265358" align="alignnone" width="1920"]Kentucky Route Zero screenshot Kentucky Route Zero[/caption]

Another classic tale of Americana in video games is big corporations decimating middle America �a phenomenon so common, it’s the subject matter of multiple games, including Kentucky Route Zero, NORCO, Night in the Woods, and Life is Strange: True Colors. Coercion, cover-ups, and b??uyouts ar??e the name of the game, and in a country that’s run by some corporations in a trench coat, it’s a fitting narrative, to say the least.

What I love about games like Kentucky Route Zero and NORCO as well is that they’re so specific to the regions in which they are set �Kentucky and New Orleans, respectively. The games' settings use iconic American imagery like gas stations, highways, and factories to great effect. The creators are from these areas and also did a great deal of research, so you?? can really feel both the love and the heartbreak that emanates from these titles as you play them. They may take place in very different parts of the country, but the story of a giant corporation coming in and killing off not only industry, but actual citizens, is disturbing in how true to real life it is.

[caption id="attachment_314922" align="alignnone" width="1876"]NORCO review NORCO[/caption]

I also can’t mention Kentucky Route Zero without bringing up one of its interludes: The Entertainment. This sequence portrays a fictional play in the game’s world, which depicts a mundane and somewhat depressing sequence of events in a bar that has seen better days. The whole thing feels so evocative of American playwrights of the twentieth century, like Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. Kentucky Route Zero’s di??alogue is formatted like a script throughout the entire game as well, further evoking a theatrical framework throughout the rest of th?e episodes.

For God and Country

Of course, we can’t have a conversation about America and not mention religion, because our country has pretty much become synonymous with evangelicalism. No other game showcases our country’s obsession with religion, American exceptionalism, and racism better than BioShock Infinite. It doubles down on Americana in a video game like I've never seen before, and what it lacks in nuance, it makes up for in style. While it’s still a dated game, and its social commentary could have been greatly improved even in its time, Infinite doesn’t shy away from the ugli??er parts ??of our history, which is more than many games do.

Then there’s a game like Far Cry 5, which I still haven’t played, but it’s certainly on my list considering my fascination with Americana. All I know is that it takes place in Montana and t?he main antagonistic force is some kind of militaristic doomsday cult. I remember when the game came out in 2018 that its story felt like an exaggeration of the way m?any in our country practice religion, but these days, it’s feeling a little bit too on the nose.

[caption id="attachment_324071" align="alignnone" width="1920"]BioShock The Collection Epic Games Store BioShock Infinite[/caption]

Tangential to America’s obsession with religion is our obsession with the military. There have been dozens and dozens of games that feature the United States armed forces in some capacity, but the series that encapsulates this the best is definitely Call of Duty. They have been some of the most popular games out there since the series started back in 2003, depicting wars from World War II all the way up to the present, and some might argue, glorifying them to a certain extent. Don’t get me wrong, I myself have played and enjoyed Call of Duty games, but we can’t separate the games from real life when the military is straight-up using these games to try and recruit players into their ranks.

Man Versus Nature

One of the most American story types ever created is the western, which of course we see in the Red Dead Redemption serie?s. These games are an extension of America’s deep-seated love of cowboys and outlaws, which rose to prominence thanks to the westerns that were made popular in the twentieth century by actors like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.

Of course, plenty of the games we have now put a new spin on the western genre �The Last of Us is one that immediately comes to mind. Having a deadly infection going around definitely makes for a hostile environment, and Joel is something of a lone wolf you might say (at least until Ellie breaks through his shel?l a little). I find it pretty interesting that our updated version of a western has you walk awa??y with the idea that opening yourself up to the idea of love in a harsh world maybe isn’t such a bad thing after all.

[caption id="attachment_105941" align="alignnone" width="620"]The Last of Us screenshot The Last of Us[/caption]

In conclusion

The games I mentioned here are some of my favorites, or? at least the ones that stood out to me, but there’s a myriad of other titles out there? that reflect American culture in various ways. There are tons of other games out there that touch on topics I haven’t mentioned, especially when it comes to the stories of marginalized people, and I know I’d love to see more of those stories highlighted in the future, especially because most of those come from the indie space.

The history of American media reflecting the country’s culture is a long, difficult, but also beautiful one, and it’s exciting to see Americana in video games becoming part of the canon in that regard as well. As games continue to tell innovative and compelling narratives, I look forwa??rd to seeing how a new generation of developers uses the medium to express their relationship to Americana moving forward.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post A storied history: Americana in video games appeared first on Destructoid.

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You could go without them... but why would you?

Audio diaries �you'll find these little nuggets of storytelling scattered all over a game's world, taking the form of whatever diegetic theming fits best into the narrative. They can be called voxophones, audiographs, audio logs, or straight-up tape recorders, but it's always the same experience. You walk up to an object, interact ?with it, and you can hear characters talking to themselves, other characters, or even directly to the player themselves. We're going to call them audio diaries for simplicity's sake.

It's one of those mec?hanics that's in almost every single third- or first-person action game that has any semblance of narrative, and based on who I've talked to about audio dia??ries, they're a pretty polarizing mechanic at that. Some people I talk to hate them because they don't want to have to go out of their way to get story content and then spend extra time listening to it, while for others, hunting down all of the audio diaries and piecing together the stories they tell can be one of the most enjoyable parts of the game.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=usj21KlUVcQ

Where it all started

I'm somewhe??re in the middle, I think. It can depend on what the stories are that the diaries are actually telling me, and how difficult it is to find them in the game world.

It's kind of ironic that I think the series that does audio diaries the best is BioShock, because while it wasn't the first game to include them, it was certainly the game that popularized them and set the standard for how they're included in many games today. Yet another reason why BioShock is one of the most influential games ever ma??de, especially when it comes to interactive storytelling.

Before BioShock premiered the classic audio diary setup to the world, other early examples included games like Carmine, Lunar, and Chrono, wherein the story content took the form of video logs. System Shock 2, Doom 3, the Fatal Frame series, and the original Metal Gear also included various types of rudimentary audio? diaries.

The importance and challenge of player autonomy

One of the most challenging things about creating interactive narratives is that while yo??u want to let the player experience a game however they want, you still want to maintain the order of story conventions to a certain extent. For stories that lean more heavily on the side of linearity, it can be especially difficult to create a game that tells that narrative while not taking too much autonomy away from the player. Hence the genius of audio diaries �it??'s non-linearity baked into a linear story.

When an audio diary is playing, the player doesn't have anything in particular they need to look at, or any one place they need to remain in for the diary to be heard. That means that placing diaries in locations where players already have some less intense, but still crucial, tasks to do �like explori?ng, scavenging for supplies, or solving simple puzzles �is kind of a perfect option. Then the player is getting some fun story content on top ?of the other stuff they were already doing. It's kind of like listening to a podcast or audiobook while you're cleaning your house.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxxTUhjqPts

Of course, there are potential problems with this setup. When players have complete control, they might walk into an unskippable cutscene or scripted section while an audio diary is playing �or similarly, the audio dia?ry might be playing over some important dialogue from a nearby NPC. Thankfully more recent games will give you the option to replay diaries in the menus, but it's still annoying to have an immersive in-game story moment interrupted by something you weren't aware was going to happen.

What I think is especially interesting, though, is that writers and narrative designers have to create audio diaries with the assumption that a good portion of players won't listen to them at all. This isn't a big deal with one-off diaries meant to fill out the world, but whe??n you have multiple diaries that tell the perspective of a prominent side character, they have to be designed so that they can make sense individually or with one or two missing, while also creating a cohesive story across multiple entries.

Filling out the world

Most games that implement audio diaries as a mechanic tell great ?stories even if the player doesn't find a single one, but games that use audio diaries the best are the ones that leave you walking away glad you tracked them all down, because the world feels so much more full after having listened to them. Combined with the fact that they're super easy to listen to, they're p??retty much the best way to give players lore without just dumping everything into a codex (sorry codex lovers, but it ain't for me).

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNm4lGQMiKA

Audio diaries are also a great way for side characters to shine when we may not be spending a whole of time with them. Some of the best monologues and character bits in games like Deathloop or the Borderlands series actually come from obscure audio diaries, and while it's a shame that some players will miss out on tho??se moments, it makes it all the more special that you have to go out of your way to find them.

Whether you ??tend to skip audio diaries, or if you go out of your way to find every single one of them, you can't deny the impact that this single mechanic has had on interactive storytelling. Personally, I'm always going to go out of my way, but I guess the beauty is that everyone gets to experience a game's story exactly how they want.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post T??he unseen story: audio diaries in video game narratives appeared first on Destructoid.

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betvisa888 liveStory Beat Archives – Destructoid - Jeetbuzz88 - live cricket tv today //jbsgame.com/most-anticipated-narrative-games-shown-not-e3-2022/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=most-anticipated-narrative-games-shown-not-e3-2022 //jbsgame.com/most-anticipated-narrative-games-shown-not-e3-2022/#respond Wed, 15 Jun 2022 21:00:43 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=330256 2022 narrative games

The future is lookin' bright for narrative games

So, that's another year of summer game announcements on the book. There are a few more streams on the horizon, but for now, we've gotten a taste of just about all of the upcoming games we can handle. Developers threw what felt like an endless stream of new titles at us, and while a lot of the space horror games kind of blurred together after a while, there were plenty of titles that stuck out to me as games I'd be looking forward to the most. Naturally, most of them are narrative games, and so for my sake and yours, I decided to compile a list of what I think are the best-looking n?arrative games that were highlighted these past few days/weeks.

Keep in mind that some of these don't advertise the story being the central mech?anic or the main focus of the game, but the narrative looked intriguing enough that it's one of the features that drew me to it the m?ost. Whatever, it's my list and I'll do what I want.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmx0w-eAoTk

The Invincible �Annihilation meets Firewatch

This one kind of came out of nowhere, and it was one of the most pleasant surprises of the weekend for me. Based on the influential 1964 hard sci-fi novel of the same name, The Invincible follows a scientist named Yasna as she attempts to piece together what happened to a? lost crew on a hostile alien planet. The premise alone doesn't sound like anything to write home about, but the trailer sent a ??chill down my spine.

I consider myself a pretty voracious reader, so hearing that we're getting a game based on a novel definitely makes my ears perk up. The trailer had a slow-paced sense of dread that really works, and while I haven't read The Invincible, I imagine it captures the feeling of the novel quite well. I just finished reading the first book in the Southern Reach trilogy, Annihilation, and I think the trailer?? we saw captured a similar sense of awe mixed with horror.

Like I said, I had never heard of The Invincible before I? saw the gameplay trailer during the PC Gaming Showcase, but now it might just be the one game I'm l??ooking forward to the most.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpT-74avAR0

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals �a return to an old favorite

This is one of the games I was fortunate enough to play a preview of for the Tribeca Games Fest this weekend, and I am pleased to report that it's everything I want from an Oxenfree sequel, considering the first one is one of my favorite narrative games of all time. It's got the same spooky flair and atmosphere you'd expect from? the series, but one of the things I'm most excited about is seeing the series move away from a cast of teenagers to a protagonist in her 30s.

The new player character Riley is returning home and dealing with her past after being away for a long while, which I think is a cool direction to move in after the first game was about high schoolers trying to figure out their places in the world. I've done a lot of growing up myself since I played the first Oxenfree, so having each game relate to me at different parts in my life is a pretty cool thing. I'm looking forward to the creepy, sentimental rollercoaster ride that Oxenfree II: Lost Signals is likely to be.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBgA7zRbhKY

American Arcadia �The Truman Show with a twist

I'm not gonna lie �I love The Truman Show. When I saw that there was a game on the horizon inspired by the film, I knew it was going to be right up my alley, and it turns out, it very much is. American Arcadia is another game I got to preview for Tribeca, and it exceeded the expectations I had going in. Not only does it look absolutely stunning with its colorfu?l-retro-future-70s aesthetic, but it has a ton to offer by way of gameplay.

It's part 2.5D sidescrolling platformer, part puzzle game, part first-person stealth game �and while I was worried that it had too much going on, it all fit together surprisingly well to create an experience I've never quite seen before. Sure, any individual element of American Arcadia isn't exactly reinventing the wheel, but it's the final product that I think is going t?o blow me away. As f?ar as narrative games goes, it ticks all the boxes for me so far.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEStlPKIGL8

Immortality �FMV is yet again revolutionizing narrative games

Sam Barlow has been one of games' most creative minds for years, and now he's back with his most ambitious project yet. Immortality is a full-motion video game (a rare breed at thi??s point) that centers on the disappearance of a woman named Marissa Marcel. Players are tasked with going through old reels of three different unreleased films she starred in to piece the mystery together, and it's one of the most stylish-looking games we got to see this weekend.

I'm always looking for games that are doing things we haven't seen before, and Immortality looks like it's going to give us a newer, even more complex take on the ideas that Barlow masterfully executed in his earlier titles. The writing team includes talent that worked on shows like The Queen's Gambit and Mr. Robot, so I have nothing but high?? hopes for this narrative-centric FMV mystery.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXq20gant-4

Pentiment �Ye old video game

Wacky art styles are a surefire way to get me interested in a game, and in that regard, Pentiment had my attention right out the gate. It's a medieval-themed narrative game that looks balls-to-the-walls crazy, and we certainly haven't seen anything like it from Obsidian, the studio behind The Outer Worlds and Pillars of Eternity. They had a smaller internal team break out to work on Pentiment �something I would love to see from more big-budget studios who have the capacity to make some awesome ??smaller-scale projects.

It's got a painterly, storybook art style that's evocative of the period it's set in, and features classically medieval thing??s like writing beautifully decorated manuscripts, discussing the latest news from Italy, and of course, violent mobs burning buildings down. It looks like an exciting adventure full of twists and turns, and as something of a casual history buff, this one is already sitting pretty on my Steam wishlist.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=au_ek16Bm-o

The Alters �Clones? Clones.

The newest title from 11 Bit Studios, The Alters follows Jan, who creates alternate versions of himself to survive on an isolated planet. In terms of gameplay, each one ???of the clones is supposed to have different powers that the player can use to their advantage, but each will also have a different personality that's based on different moments and paths in Jan's life.

The announcement trailer didn't give us much information about what it will feel like to play just yet, but on premise and 11 Bit's reputation alone, I can tell that this is going to be one hell of a ride. The studio always does an awesome job of incorporating a well-told story into games that also have really solid gameplay, so I'll be looking forward to hearing more about The Alters as the studio continues its development.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCk1__TYksU

High on Life �The Rick and Morty guys finally got me onboard

Okay, I'm gonna be honest here, I've never seen Rick and Morty. Maybe I just never got around to it, maybe it was the fandom that turned me off, but it was never something I felt drawn to. That's why I was so surprised when I saw the trailer for High on Life, and actually thought? it seemed l?ike a hilarious, goofy time.

The idea is that you're a bounty hunter who needs to take out aliens who are using humans as some kind of drug. It's got a colorful, eccentric art style, the quippy, zany tone you'd expect from Squanch Games, and of course, the real highlight of the trailer, talking guns. Games like High on Life aren't usually my kind of thing, but it looks so out there and different that I know I'm gonna be itching to try it. Plus, I'm just a sucker for an FPS, and this one looks like it'll have some really unique shoo?ting mechanics.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4l6uWxe-vk

Stray �/em> a cat-centric narrative game

This one is such a no-brainer it's ridiculous. You get to play as a cat with a backpack in a world of robots that have little smiley face screens for faces. Okay, so I might be making Stray out to sound a little more light-hearted than it looks, but you know that as a cat mo??m, I am nothing but pumped about this one.

I think it's a really creative idea to give us a story from a cat's perspective, especially in what appears to be a big city, because they can go all kinds of places that people, and robots I guess, normally couldn't. Not sure exactly how narrative-heavy Stray will be, or if it will be more ?of a vibes situation, but either way, I can't wait to step into the world of that little orange tabby cat. This one's coming out real soon (July 19, to be exact) so it'll be here be??fore we know it.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post My m?ost anticipated narrative games shown at not-E?3 2022 appeared first on Destructoid.

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betvisa888 betStory Beat Archives – Destructoid - آن لائن کرکٹ بیٹنگ | Jeetbuzz88.com //jbsgame.com/video-game-settings-are-characters-of-their-own/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=video-game-settings-are-characters-of-their-own //jbsgame.com/video-game-settings-are-characters-of-their-own/#respond Thu, 09 Jun 2022 00:00:40 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=328603 Video game settings

The following contains spoilers for Episode 2 of the BioShock Infinite DLC Burial at Sea. Proceed at your own risk.

It's like I'm really there

One of the things I love about games is how much they lean into genre fiction. Games have never been afraid to lean hard into sci-fi, fantasy, westerns, apocalypse stories, and so on. This means we get a lot of stories that stand out with their unique characters, mechanics, and lore, but one?? of my favorite aspects of games has to be how settings take on a whole personality of their own. Rather than serving as a backdrop for the action, so many game settings take a front seat in the story, driving home its the?mes and moving the plot forward.

Perhaps my favorite example of great settings in games comes from the BioShock series. Cities like Rapture and Columbia are built out with compelling, storied histories, complete with uncannily beautiful vistas that conceal proletariat factions at war with oppressive figures. They're gorgeous, but with the?? express purpose of highlighting the games' more sinister themes. Visually stunning locations like Fort Frolic and Monument Island show us how the respective founders of the cities chose to showcase the?ir love of excess, while also making us understand how each city met its downfall.

[caption id="attachment_328607" align="alignnone" width="710"] [Image Source: Reddit][/caption]

Case study: Burial at Sea's Paris opening

Look, I just really love the BioShock series (where's that fourth game, 2K?), and a recent playthrough of BioShock Infinite's Burial at Sea DLC only reminded me? of?? that. I have to highlight just one more moment from that series, because I think it's so masterfully done.

Episode 2 opens on a street in Paris, where Elizabeth is sitting at a cafe enjoying a view of the Eiffel Tower. In this sequence, all of the citizens greet her happily by name, birds and butterflies flit about, and artists and musicians showcase their talents on the street �there's even a little boy dancing around with a baguette, you know, like the French are prone to do.

Of course, it's all too good to be true, because Elizabeth runs into Sally soon enough, a little girl who she used to kill this universe's version of Booker. The whole thing devolves into a stunning horror set piece, whe??re Elizabeth is co?nfronted by a tortured Little Sister version of Sally, having to confront her guilt before facing her difficult present in Rapture.

//youtu.be/5OF-XNDCLA0

This opening is not an accurate representation of Paris, and it was never supposed to be �it was instead an idealized, sentimental one. One of the very first things we learned about Elizabeth in Infinite is that she used this rose-colored version of France as a form of escapism. Wh?en she was locked away in her tower, the idea of someday getting to see Paris is what kept her going. Showing players how the weight of all that she has done has permeated to even her happiest of fantasies is a chilling image, and one that shows us exactly how far Elizabeth has come as a character, for better and for worse. It's one of my favorite sequences in all ?of gaming.

The personality of a place is important

BioShock isn't the only series that makes good use of its setting, however. The barren, hostile wasteland of The Last of Us' America basically places the characters in a pressure cooker, which forces them to make the difficult, often brutal choices that make them who they are. Mass Effect's expansive, varied settings speak to the epic, large-scale storytelling of a massive space opera, especially when contrasted to the cozy??? familiarity of the Normandy. Those are just a few of dozens of examples.

I think game settings stick out in our minds so much because we get to spend way more time in them than in other media. We have to choose to explore them ourselves, and can then take as much time as we want to acquaint ourselves with them as we please. We're not limited to what a director or author wants to show us �if we see something interesting, we can go check it out, organically discovering something that is of interest to us. Great game designers know how to draw the player's attention to important set pieces, story beats, or areas of importance, and a strong artistic hand will only help a game feel like it has some nice momentum to it, even if we can't percei??ve it at first.

When I boot up a game that I love but haven't played for a while, it can feel like home in a way that I don't e??xperience with other media. Downtime in a game is really important, especially in the gameplay loop of action games, because it's a moment to breathe after a combat encounter, recoup, find items and power-ups, etc. That downtime is not only a great way to get to know the characters, but also the setting.

Learning every nook and cranny, remembering where an item is so you can come back and get it later, discovering a ??hidden room you've passed by a million times �only games can do that, and I think that's beautiful.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post Video game settings are characters of their own appeared first on Destructoid.

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betvisa888 liveStory Beat Archives – Destructoid - براہ راست کرکٹ | Jeetbuzz88.com //jbsgame.com/welcome-to-the-game-world-how-video-game-title-screens-tell-their-own-stories/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=welcome-to-the-game-world-how-video-game-title-screens-tell-their-own-stories //jbsgame.com/welcome-to-the-game-world-how-video-game-title-screens-tell-their-own-stories/#respond Thu, 26 May 2022 21:00:36 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=323813

Press any button to continue

One of the things I love most about video games is that they have a whole new set of standards and c?onventions not shared by any other medium. Fail states, collectible bits of story in the form of journals or audio diaries, and randomly generated content are only a few examples of features that can only be found in an interactive medium, but today, I want to hone in on one factor of a game's overall experience that has a special place in my heart �video game title screens.

A game's title screen, also known as the start screen, is the first thing you're going to see �you know, it's what appears after you boot up the game but before you actually start playing it. It's usually accompanied by music and some animations. Back in the arcade days, these title screens had to be as flashy and exciting as possible to draw players in, because that was most of the appeal. As the years went on and games e??volved a lot, title screens have also changed significantly.

A feature unique to games

To me, though, one of the coolest things is that title screens don't really exist in other media in the same way �they're mostly uni?que to games. Books have cover art, movies have posters, and games have box art, all of which are a static image that features the work's title, who made it, and some art to give consumers an idea of what that thing i?s all about. Game title screens have the same kind of idea, but taken to the next level.

It's not usually just static art �you're also getting some animation and music to really set the tone of what you're about to?? be in for. I guess the next closest thing is the menus on ?a DVD (oh my god, remember those?), but while those menus could have a lot of personality baked into them, they were never a core part of experiencing a movie. Title screens on a game are inescapable, though, and usually for the better. I can even find them meditative, as an image or feeling to sit with for a moment before I dive into the rest of the game.

A single, striking image

When I think of really great video game title screens, the most immediate answer that comes to mind for me is The Last of Us, which should come as a surprise to approximately no one who has read this column before. The image of the solitary window with vines growing in it is one of the most iconic to come from the game, and I find its simplicity incredibly brilliant. There's also the detail of the scene changing ever-so-subtly after you finish the game, but I won't spoil that if you haven't done so yourself yet. I find it really interesting as well that this isn't an image that's ever shown to us in the actual game �it could be any window, anywhere �but it shows us the beauty we can find in an impossibly harsh world. The title scree??n reflects Joel and Ellie's story, and by extension the thesis of the game, perfectly.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcnLYrxLlhU

In a game that has some of the most tense, white-knuckled combat encounters, and some of the most gut-wrenching story sequences in any game ever, there's something haunting about how peaceful and understated this opening image is. There's a constraint in its design that mirrors that of the game itself, and that constraint is hard to find in other bloc??kbuster games �especially in the next game in the series ?that would come along a few years later.

What's this game all about?

On the flip side, Naughty Dog's Uncharted games have some really great title sequences that also do a great job of previewing what players have in store. With the exception of Uncharted 4 (which was unfortunately Last of Us-ified more than I would have liked), Uncharted's title screens gave us a taste of the adventures we were about to embark upon. While the first game in the series is honestly my least favorite, it does have my favorite title screen of the series �it's simple, with the game's title front and center, various closeups of Nate's notes and other old documents fading in and out of the background, and of course, the bombastic, swelling theme?? of the series is on full blast. We're about to embark on a treasure-hunting adventure, and the game is letting me know that straight away.

Another favorite of mine is Animal Crossing �so much of those games (at least early on in the series) was about getting to know the villagers that inhabited the town and spending time with them, so having the game focus on a different character each time the game was booted up was another very simple, sweet choice. I know exactly what I'm in for with the AC title screen, and sometimes I'm tempted to ??just leave it up as a screensaver because it's so fun to just watch my favorite?? villagers take a leisurely stroll around town.

A new insight

Then there's the modern classic, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the title screen of which depicts Geralt resting or meditating by his camp. I love this because it shows us a part of the game we never get to see: our favorite Witcher resting and recouping by a fire, presumably recovering from or preparing for one of his many adventures. Taking a moment to just sit with Ge?ralt like this before diving back into the game is a really nice touch, because it's vulnerable in a way we usually don't get to see from this character.

The list could go on and on from here: Stardew Valley's title screen is quaint and endearing, Mass Effect's is beloved for its musical theme and soothing visuals, and I haven't even played Xenoblade Chronicles, but that red sword? in a sunset-soaking field has to be one of the most iconic images to come from gaming over the last decade.

The thing I love too is that while there are trends in what a title screen might look like, a lot of games tend to feature a single focus on a specific scene or item, for example (which goes all the way back to the original Final Fantasy VII title screen). However, there are no hard, ?fast rules of what a title screen can look like, and I think as?? games continue to evolve, we're going to see developers get even more creative, which is exciting to look forward to.

I'll admit that I've never designed a title screen, so I'm not quite sure how these developers wer??e able to capture this magic the way they did, but it's really cool to see how something that started as a necessity to draw customers in back in the arcade age has evolved into one of the most succinct ways to express what a game is all about.

Title screens are just another?? way for games to express their artistic vision, and there really is nothing else like them out there. It's not always a sure thing, but from my experience, a good title screen is a sign that I'm about to play a really amazing game.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post Welcome t??o the game world: how video game title screens tell their own ?stories appeared first on Destructoid.

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betvisa888 casinoStory Beat Archives – Destructoid - Jeetbuzz88 - live cricket tv today //jbsgame.com/painting-with-pixels-how-unique-game-art-style-can-heighten-narrative/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=painting-with-pixels-how-unique-game-art-style-can-heighten-narrative //jbsgame.com/painting-with-pixels-how-unique-game-art-style-can-heighten-narrative/#respond Thu, 19 May 2022 21:00:37 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=322525 NORCO console release

Learning from Picasso's iconic art style

Photorealism in games can be really fun. Having characters and environments that look just like real life can help immerse you in a game's world, and it can be excitin?g to see how graphics continue to improve year after year. But here's the thing �I sometimes feel like we can obsess a bit ??too much over how real or not real a certain game's art style is, picking apart every environment and every little detail on the character models.

I think back to the PS1 era, when people thought that the first Metal Gear game was as realistic-looking as they come. Players gushed about the immersion because of how lifelike it was. We laugh about it now, but anecdotes like that really speak to how much our mind?s fill in the gaps when it comes to storytelling, something I don't think we give ourselves enough credit for these days.

Picasso's philosophy

A thread I saw on Twitter the other day does an excellent job of starting a conversation about how different styles of art can be effective in different scenarios. The initial tweet is a meme about photorealistic versus stylized art, but it's actually referencing a famous quote from the classical painter Pablo Picasso. You know, t??he guy famous for making everyone look like a bunch of colorful shapes. Picasso was prodigious from an early age, and could paint at a level that was basically photorealistic when he was still a young child. Of course, as he got older, he developed one of the most iconic art styles in history �one that many argue portrays human emotion better than photorealism ever could. As the quote goes: "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."

The Weeping Woman

Wait, isn't Destructoid a video game website? Why are we tal??king about ??art history?

Well, I think that this point can also be applied to video games, too. Just like how in visual arts, many mark photorealism as the height of one's skill as an artist, we tend to think the same of games. Realistic art can and has been used to great effect in games, but sometimes, having a rea?lly distinct art style can boost the game's story and themes into the stratosphere.

Making ugly beautiful

A great example of this is NORCO, a narrative point-and-click that is so far my game of the year. While NORCO has some of the most beautiful pixel art I've ever seen, it also straddles the line of ugly/beautiful most of the time, while also leaning into the grotesque. Some of the characters look terrible (intention??ally so), the environments are dingy and run down, and the whole thing just kind of gives you this sense of dread, like you want to get far, far, away from this place. And it's ?amazing.

NORCO

Using a harsh, ugly art style works so well for this game, because it exactly mirrors what's going on in the narrative. Those moments of beauty are contrasted against a landscape of bleak, sometimes horrifying pictures, which again ties beautifully into the moments of hope buried deep in the game's plot. NORCO's art style is as much part of its storytelling as its characters or dialogue, and when developers use e?very part of a game to point toward a single artistic vision, well, that's how we get some of the best games?? ever made.

Making cartoony serious

Another game that comes to mind is Firewatch �its art style is really beautiful, but also kind of cartoony. The game is full of bright, saturated c??olors, which show off the landscapes and sunsets really nicely. So much of the game is about nature and our enjoyment of it, so that aspect of the art ties into the story nicely.

Then there's the fact that the game has a dramatic tonal shift, and suddenly the cartoonish nature of the art feels othering and uncanny. What was once pleasant and added a sense of ease at the start has turned into something that makes the darker subject matter of the latter part of the game somehow feel even more menacing. While Firewatch's art didn't get nearly as ??much at??tention as its writing or voice acting, I do think it's a key component in how we experienced its narrative.

The li??st of games with gorgeous but also effective art styles is endless. I could go on and on, but I think you get my point here.

Firewatch

Other art style considerations

On top of what a good, unique art style can add to a game's experience, there's also the fact that it makes both development and playing a game much simpler, and sometimes b?etter. The more photorealistic we make our games, the longer it takes to perfect them (any slight deviation from real life suddenly veers us into the uncanny valley), the bigger the f??iles get, and the more susceptible our games are to crashes and bugs. I'm a huge proponent of simpler being better sometimes, but I know not everyone shares that sentiment.

There's a reason why most of the games that make bold choices when it comes to their art are indie games �it takes huge teams with tons of resources to make a game look photorealistic, and even the most monolithic of AAA studios can struggle with perfectly lifelike art sometimes. The limitations plac??ed on indie studios have not held them back, but have instead propelled them forward into making some of the most stylish titles out there. My bias is showing again, but I never understood the push to turn games into the new Hollywood blockbuster when we can ?make pieces of art that look unlike anything anyone has ever seen before, regardless of medium.

I'm not saying that we can never have a photorealistic game again, or even that people don't appreciate stylized art in games enough, because they certainly do. I just want to emphasize how important art can be ??in hammering home a game's message, whatever that might look like, and I don't want that to ever be discounted. Raphael and Picasso both have their merits, but I find Picasso a whole lot more fun to look at.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post Painting with pixels: how stylized art can heighten a game’s narrative appeared first on Destructoid.

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betvisa liveStory Beat Archives – Destructoid - Jeetbuzz88 - live cricket t20 2022 //jbsgame.com/video-game-food-more-than-just-some-extra-health/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=video-game-food-more-than-just-some-extra-health //jbsgame.com/video-game-food-more-than-just-some-extra-health/#respond Thu, 12 May 2022 21:00:39 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=321508 Video game food

Telling stories through the dishes we love

Food. It's one of the most quintessen?tial parts of being alive, so it only makes sense that we would find a way to include it in a medium like video games that often tries to replicate real life.

Ever since the early days of gaming, food has been a way to get health or energy back. The first thing that comes to mind when I think about video game food has to be the meat you find in the walls of a spooky castle in Castlevania, or the hilariously anachronistic gyro and fries you can pick up in Hades. It's something that can seem really silly on the face of it, and the way we use food for health in video games has been memed and parodied to death. Admittedly, it is very funny to imagine your character in a game stopping in the middle of a scuffle to shove fo??urteen wheels of cheese into their face before diving back into the fight.

But when you think about it, is there any other analogy that w??orks better? I don't think so. Food is our fuel, it's what gives us energy to do the things we need to do �a simple, given fact of life that is still somehow easy for me to forget on an almost daily basis.

Cooking is the name of the game

[caption id="attachment_256206" align="alignnone" width="1280"]Video game food icon Cooking Mama Cooking Mama: Cookstar.[/caption]

While food remains an important mechanic to most games out there, we also have games that place their entire focus on food. Take the classic and beloved Cooking Mama series for example �there's literally nothing else to do in those games except make food. You'd think it would get too repetitive or boring after a while, but Mama always finds new ways to keep it just as interesting and challenging as? trying to make food in real life.

As someone who has had varied success on their journey to learn new recipes and make nutritious-enough food so as not to drop dead one day as an adult fending for myself, it's interesting to have games that turn what is usually a struggle for me into an enjoyable gameplay loop. Although, any Cooking Mama connoisseur can attest that the game can be equally as challenging, so may??be it's a little too true to life there.

Tell me a story...with food

[caption id="attachment_321519" align="alignnone" width="1280"]A food quest in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.[/caption]

My absolute favorite, though, is when games use food as a storytelling mechanic. This is less common than just using food as a health supplement, but we still see it fairly often in games. One of my favorites includes Stardew Valley, where food becomes the center of multiple holidays in the game, and is also a core way to "get to know" your favorite villagers and endear them to you.

Another game that comes to mind is Breath of the Wild. Some of the adventures I go on in that game have nothing to do with saving Hyrule, but instead finding the ingredients I need to make the perfect, most delicious-sounding meal. There are even quests that in?volve bringing someone food they like, or gathering ingredients for a favorite recipe.

These stories may seem small up against the epic, heroic backdrop of saving the world, but I t??hink they reflect on our humanity in a r??eally sweet way. I'm sure there are tons of other games out there that have equally engaging storylines surrounding food, I just need to search them out. Food is in many ways at the heart of how we interact with each other and the world, so having characters interact and bond over food reminds me of how special those interactions can be in real life.

Venba: a story of food and family

[caption id="attachment_321582" align="alignnone" width="1920"]Cooking a meal in Venba Venba.[/caption]

That's what gets me so excited for games like Venba, an upcoming narrative cooking game that is being featured at this year's Tribeca Games Festival. It centers on an Indian mother who immigrates to Canada with her family in the 1980s, and "will cook various dishes and restore lost recipes, hold branching conversations and explore in this story about family, love, loss and more," according to the game's website.

The cooking gameplay makes it look like a spiritual successor to Cooking Mama in certain ways, but the addition of the narrative in parallel with that cooking mechanic is what has me the most excited about Venba.

I'll be the first to admit that I don't know a whole lot about Indian culture, but what I do know is that food is a very important factor. I'm not only looking forward to playing Venba, but also learning more about food from another culture, and how that food ties into the family dynamics of first-generation immigrants. Of all the games coming to Tribeca this year, I think it's safe to say that Venba will be one to look out for.

If the go?al of telling stories is to help us all connect and understand what it means to be human, food is a natural extension of that. It will always be fun to consume foods in-game to replenish health or receive a buff, but I love the idea of highlighting our relationship to food within game stories, rather than always using it as a means to an end. We have some great games out there that incorporate food into their narratives, but I'm looking forward to seeing more food-centric stories in games.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post Video game food: more than just some extra health appeared first on Destructoid.

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Be the hero of your own story

Sappy. Sentimental. Downright cheesy. If there's a video game story (or really any other media, for that matter) that is going to make me cry from pure emotion, you can ??bet your bottom dollar that I'm going to love it. With the world becoming an increasingly horrific dumpster fire that somehow burns hotter ?every day, media can be a welcome respite from the chaos.

Don't get me wrong here, I love dark, provocative stories in certain contexts, but sometimes, what you really need is so?mething that knows what it is, and leans as hard as it can into that fantasy. I'm not talking about dragons and wizards, but a different kind of fantasy �the fantasy of play (although there ?is quite a bit of overlap between those two). Allow me to explain.

Stating the obvious here, but when we play a video game, we're engaged in very active play: pressing buttons to manipulate what we see on the screen, and engaging with gameplay systems that designers have put in place t?o provide us with a fu?lfilling experience. We love exploring the constraints of those systems, and using their rules to create scenarios where we come out on top.

Another kind of play

But when we add in the storytelling elements of a game �the setting, characters, plot, and so on �we're engaging with another type of play: make-believe. Similar to how a child might play princ??????????????????????????ess or knight, there's something in us that loves the fantasy of being someone else. It's the same thing in us that lo??ves immersive experiences, which can include anything from an engrossing movie to an all-enveloping real-life experience like going to Disneyland or a Renaissance Faire. In those scenarios, we allow ourselves to shed our identities and put on new ones �something that can be incredibly freeing �and we do the exact same thing when we allow ourselves to give in to the fantasy of a video game.

A lot of games tend to be pieces of genre fiction like sci-fi, fantasy (now we're talking about the dragons-and-wizards variety), and even westerns, and that's because genre fiction is especially good at helping us get out of our own heads and into something that feels like more of an adventure. The best genre fiction knows what it is and leans into it hard, and by that, I mean that its creators understand the conventions and tropes of a piece's respective genre, and instead of shying away from them, they embrace those conventions whole-heartedly and without irony. What's even better is when a game's mechanics allow for emergent storytelling, becaus??e when we create our own story beats without any scripted help from the game, we feel even more ownership of our own narrative that we're playing out.

Think of the rousing speeches spoken triumphantly over the intercom on the Normandy in Mass Effect, or the swell of the music when you first lay eyes on the beautiful pirate ships that you know contain treasure in Uncharted 4. These moments could definitely be considered cheesy or over-the-top to some, but giving in to those indulgent moments is what helps us really feel like we're living our dreams as a space commander, or a treasure hunter. People joke about games like God of War being nothing but a power fantasy, but ??honestly, that's what it's supposed to be, and I don't think there's anything wrong? with that.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYjCGSLX8VE

The Blank Slate

In other media, having a Blank Slate protagonist can be more of a problem?, because they can come off as bland and uninteresting most of the time. But in games??, having your main character be a hollow shell can actually be a big advantage, because, given the nature of play, players already have a tendency to project their own chosen persona onto that character.

There are some instances where having a more specific character can be just as affecting, too �my go-to example is always The Last of Us, because t??hat game does a great job of using play, specifically how intense and harrowing it can feel at times, to make you feel for the characters and the journey they're going through. If you let yourself give in to the fear and desperation that some of the more intense mo??ments of that game present you with, suddenly the emotional highs and lows hit a lot harder.

Giving in to the fantasy

When we talk about games being so emotionally impactful, I think this is why. Giving ourselves over to story, especially in such a strong and sometimes perso??nal way that games ask of us, can mean really moving and enriching gaming and storytelling experienc??es.

Not all, but a vast majority of beloved, classic games give into one form of fantasy or another. Pokémon: going on an adventure with companions who fight loyally at your side. The Legend of Zelda: becoming the stoic, loyal, heroic warrior who saves the princess and the rest of Hyrule. Stardew Valley: moving to a quaint seaside town and living the peaceful life of a farmer while also making friends and finding love. The list goes on and on �?there are an endless number of little fantasies like this, and an endless number of games that help us fulfill them.

We don't have a lot of occasions in life as adults to get to engage in make-believe, but we do have video games. Having a consistent place where we can go and be a hero or fall in love with an imag??inary friend for a while may sound silly to some, but if we're willing to let go of the part of us that cringes a little bit and embrace the cheese, engaging in play can be an incredibly gratifying experience.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

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Higher risk, higher reward

I'll be the first to admit that I'm pretty bad at video games. The hardest difficulty I'll usually land on is normal, and even then I can have some pretty embarrassing gameplay moments. Games have come a really long way in terms of their accessibility, and offering better options for less skilled players like me, but every time a title comes out that relies on its difficulty as one of its main features, we have a whole new round of Discourse about wheth?er the game needs easier options to play on.

The way Elden Ring has taken over the news cycle the past few months is a great example of this �it's a notoriously tough game, and in response, we saw a whole slew of articles, posts, and tweets about how there need to be easier skill level options. Mods even started popping up for players to download th??at make the game more palatable for players who prefer an easy mode, like increasing damage output, decreasing damage taken, increasing healing, etc.

The inclusion of easier difficulty settings often, but not always, overlaps with accessibility. It's important to include accommodations so that differently abled players can play and enjoy games, too, which often includes other settings outside the typical easy mode features like damage reduction. Special sound settings can allow visually impaired or even fully blind players to play through a game?? without any outside assistance, for example, which is only one of the ways that games have recently made tremendous strides to become more accessible to all kinds of players.

[caption id="attachment_319061" align="alignnone" width="1920"]Flying Dragon Agheel [Image Source: SawhorseDVD][/caption]

Difficulty with intent

At the same time, though, there are some games out there that include difficult gameplay as part of their artistic vision. Classic examples include all of the Soulsborne games, Cuphead, Super Meat Boy, Nioh, Darkest Dungeon, and The Binding of Isaac, just to name a few. The question, then, is whether a game's focus on difficulty by way of how it overlaps with artistic and narrative experience means that it should never be played with easier settings. This topic has been very controversial online, with many fans feeling that such games including an easy mode wo?uld be compromising their artistic vi?sion, and therefore mean a watered-down version of the experience the developers intended.

The challenge developers have, then, is finding ways to present players with a difficulty level that scales to them, and presents them with the appropriate level that challenges them without also frustrating them. That's why we have so many levels of difficu??lty these days, usually including some equivalent of extra easy, easy, normal, hard, and extra hard. Sometimes, though, they want to throw that all out for the sake of making the game they want to make, and I think that's perfectly fine.

Returnal's game director Harry Krueger just went on the PS I Love You XOXO podcast last week to discuss Housemarque's most recent title, and the conversation turned to its difficulty. Krueger shared his thoughts on the importance of Returnal's difficulty and how it relates to its story:

“Celine is talking about dying over and over, and about insurmountable odds. There’s this descent into madness that is happening purely because of the challenges that she’s facing, and her challenges are the players�challenges as well. If you were just allowed to power through a boss without any challenge, or just go like A B C through narrative points, it almost feels like that would create a bit of dissonance.�/p>

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTqH4mKQIkE

Aside from players missing a main theme of the game if they weren't presented with enough of a challenge, Kruger also mentions that players wouldn't see a lot ?of the game's story beats and audio logs ??if they didn't die on a regular basis.

Thinking about theme

The discussion of difficulty always makes me think of The Last of Us, a game that my friends and I love to play together and discuss, particularly when it ??comes to the relationship between difficulty and story. On my first few playthroughs, I played on easy, because I simply didn't have the skill to play on anything higher than that. One of those friends really opened my eyes, though, when he told me about going through the game on the Grounded difficulty setting, and it makes perfect sense in retrospect.

Because the game's story is so much about the brutality of survival, he said the narrative hits a lot harder when you as a player are on edge the whole time, feeling like you can die at any minute. The scarcity of ever-useful crafting materials also plays a big role, because you really have to put yourself in Joel and Ellie's shoes when it comes to scrounging to survive. I'd definitely have to train up for such a tough playthrough, but The Last of Us is one of those games that's ??important enough to me, I just might do it s?omeday.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1200"]The Last of Us' Grounded Mode game difficulty [Image Source: Cultured Vultures][/caption]

Self-imposed difficulty

The way we play Pokemon is a great middle ground, in my opinion. The series is intended for children, so for the most part they're easy to play. I know for a fact that I could power through my Let's Go Pikachu playthrough with little resistance with literally only my starter if I felt like it. Ther??e are plenty of more seasoned players who want a more challenging Pokemon experience, however, so what did they do?

They created the Nuzlocke, a series of self-imposed rules to ratchet the difficulty of those games way up. Some truly amazing, heart-wrenching, and triumphant moments of emergent storytelling come from Nuzlocke runs because of the restraints that players place on themselves. (Jaidan Animations has some awesome Nuzlocke videos that demonstrat?e this.) The best part, though, is that they're entirely optional, and you can make them as hard or easy as you want depending on which rules you decide to adopt.

I am of the opinion that nuzlocking gives you an even more intense emotional connection to your own story because of how attached you ??get to your Pokemon, but I've also not been able to do one yet due to my skill level, so take that with a grain of salt.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=plSyrHqUh78

Some games are created specifically to be as hard to beat as humanly possible, and there's not really a way around that. I love easier games and benefit from them as someone who doesn't have a lot of technical skill in shooting, platforming, etc, but sometimes there are games that I just can't play due to sheer difficulty. I've heard Celeste is a truly amazing game, but if I'm being honest,?? I don't think I could ever beat the whole thing. I don't have a problem with players modding games to make them easier, but if a game is intended to be tough, it's the developers' preroga??tive to make it that way.

Triumph is the best reward

However, the times I have really challenged myself, like when I beat Hades' 32 heat ?optional challenge mode, I felt so incredibly rewar?ded by that experience. The joy of overcoming the challenge of playing a hard game is something only the medium of games can do, and I don't think that that's to be discounted.

Games are literally inventing new means of conveying emotions when it comes to storytelling, and when they use ou?r investment in the act of pl?aying a game for that purpose, it can be more powerful than some of the best writing out there.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1000"]Hades' Pact of Punishment game difficulty modifiers The difficulty-modifying Pact of Punishment in Hades.[/caption]

I would encourage anyone who considers themselves an "easy mode only" person to find a game they really enjoy and push themselves a le??vel above what they're usually comfortable with �as someone who was scared to try new things, I promise it's incredibly rewarding once you give it a shot. Sure, the lows can be lower, but the highs are totally worth it.

I do ??think that people take the conversation about difficulty way too seriously, because at the end of the day playing video games is supposed to be about having fun, so people should be able to play whatever game they want however they want. How adamant you are about playing games that are intended to be hard on harder difficulties comes down to how much you value the developers' intent, and it can be a lot of fun to honor that intent. It's just important to remember that while one player might enjoy difficulty and the narrative immersion it can bring, other players want to breeze through.

However you pla?y, just don't be a dick about it to other people, that's all I ask.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post For some video game stories, the only option is to ‘git gud’ appeared first on Destructoid.

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The truest form of Choose Your Own Adventure

I think by this point it's pretty clear that my favorite thing about games is how they can tell stories in whole new ways. Usually that m?eans games that put narrative design at the forefront, with cinematic cutscenes or branching storylines that let you choose how the characters move forward through the plot. One type of narrative design I don't think about as often as?? I should, though, is the idea of emergent storytelling in games, which has been around for years.

What is emergent narrative?

It's a bit of a complex topic, mostly because emergent storytelling has a ton of crossover with the design of gameplay systems. The idea is that emergent stories aren't plotlines that were placed there by the dev??s for you to find, but instead, they're the stories that you create on your own based on how you play.

These narratives come about in just about every game genre, with the only real criteria being that they're stories that the devs didn't put there intentionally. They may have put the tools in place for you to be able to create a narrative of your own, but you're the one ??who has to put the pieces together.

//www.reddit.com/r/Breath_of_the_Wild/comments/u43s6h/totally_didnt_just_run_across_a_?half_of_hyrule/

One of the best ways I've heard to know if something has an emergent narrative is if you tell your friends stories of your time playing the game. You know, the classic "you had to be there" story. It's like trying to tell someone about something awesome that happened in your Dungeons & Dragons game, or a really cool dream that you had.? We love to share these stories regar?dless �you see them all over Reddit and Twitter.

The stories write themselves

I recently started playing Pokémon for the first time ever as an adult, and the way the gameplay is designed, it's so perfect for making you feel like you're on your very own adventure. I had one of those classic narrow escapes where I? was about to be team-wiped, bu??t then one of my benchwarmers swooped in to triumphantly save the day, and it was awesome.

The list of video games with these types of stories is endless, from open-world games like Breath of the Wild to rhythm games like Beat Saber. While I find conversations about more structured, traditional kinds of stories in games can be equally as gratifying, there's something so special, so electric about creating your own stories from the pieces the developers gave you. When we give in to the fantasy of the game we're playing, whatever that might look like, it gives us the autonomy to make-believe in ways that we haven't done since we were kids. ?I also love that no one sets out in a game thinking "I'm going to make a really cool story happen." Instead, these meaningful moments come about as a direct result of us just playing and trying to have a good time.

//ww??w.reddit.com/r/AnimalCrossing?/comments/u3ih7k/gayle_thievery_is_wrong/

Trying to tell other people about our endeavors may feel a bit like an attempt to relay something that happened in a dream �you kin??d of had to be there, but that's kind of what makes it feel significant. It was a singular moment that only you were there for, where you truly felt something based on how you chose to interact with a virtual world. Sometimes it's thrilling, other times it's somber and moving, and som?e of the most enjoyable moments of emergent gameplay are when you've accidentally launched yourself off a cliff, and suddenly you're busting a gut at what a ridiculous, futile end the hero of the game has just suffered.

The freedom to explore

There's some really great literature out there that discusses how we can use games to explore new ways of seeing?? the world. It's a super low-stakes environment, because whatever happens, you can always restart the level, or create a whole new save file, or just shut the game off for good. Even with the heaviest of in-game consequences, there will never be any real-world consequences for what we do in a video game, withholding obvious exceptions. In a world that demands perpetual perfection from us, being able to enter a space where we can just throw ourselves at the wall to see what sticks without any? fear of judgment, I think, is one of the most freeing things we can do. It's why I love picking the mean dialogue choices in games �that's not something I do in the real world (or at least I try not to).

//www.reddi??t.com/r/Eldenring/comments/u45yj1/i_invaded_someones_swamp/

Then there's the world of multiplayer, which allows for a whole new slew of emergent narrative possibilities. The Soulsborne games are an amazing example of emergent multiplayer gameplay, and if you need convincing, go and watch any Bloodborne invasion compilation on YouTube. Epic sagas of betrayal, humiliating moments of crushing defeat, genuinely touching moments of unspoken friendship �it's all there,? and it's all because those situations arise organically from players interacting with each other online. It's amazing, and it's so unique to games.

I think that's what really gets me about this whole thing. Games can do their best to replicate film or TV, or even carve their own path by ??taking well-known story conventions and reimagining them for the interactive medium, but the kinds of stories that come from the act of play itself? Only games can do that, and at ??risk of sounding so cheesy, I think that's beautiful.

That sentiment is one of the hardest things to get non-gamers to understand, and yet it's one of the most important things to telegraph if you want them to see why we love not only the art of games themselves, but the art that comes from playing them. Try as I might, there will always be important people in my life who will never be able to understand the gratification and artistic autonomy that comes along with the act of play, and hone??stly, that makes me really sad for them.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post The art of make believe: emergent narr??ative in games appeared first on Destructoid.

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Is it too much to ask for the real treasure to be the friends we made along the way?

Aside from games, reading is my other favorite pastime. I've gotten through quite a few books this year, with most of them fa??lling into the young adult or children's literature genres, and this got me thinking -- why don't we have more gam?es like this?

For as long as I've played games, there seems to be a clear divide between games that are made for kids and games that are made for adults. Kids' games are often simple, and pretty pristine in terms of subject matter, but developers do a good job of making them equally fun for adults. Good examples of this are Minecraft, Animal Crossing, and the Super Mario franchise.

Then we have, well, the majority of the gaming market, which are games made for adults and adults only. They're usually very violent, have lots of swearing, sexually explicit content, et cetera. If you've been around this industry for more than like two days, you know the drill. Older kids and young adults can technically play titles like Uncharted, Horizon Zero Dawn, and God of War, but those are still about adults doing adult things that a younger audience can't really relate to. Games like Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto, and Call of Duty are among the most popular AAA games that children are also playing �and those titles are chalked ful??l of enough adult themes to leave any kid tra?umatized.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1200"]Animal Crossing: New Horizons review: a much-needed escape - Polygon [Image Source: Polygon][/caption]Now don't get me wrong, this is far from a pearl-clutching moment; I love and play those "explicit" games all the time. However, my inner child can't help but notice that there's a discrepancy in ??the type of content game studios are putting out there. The YA genre is a huge part of the film and literature industries, but it's something that games rarely seem to touch.

Of all the books I've ever read, some of my absolute favorites are series like Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, The City of Ember, and Gregor the Overlander. I have a real affinity for these?? sort of coming-of-age adventure stories, and unless I'm missing something big, I don't see much of that at all in the games industry. I like stories about revenge, murder, or other intense adult things as much as the next person, but these types of "children's" tales have a certain hope and optimism that I'm missing from games.

I guess the closest thing I can think of to what I'm describing is Breath of the Wild, but that game's narrative was a bit bare. I've been told Pokemon fills this role for a lot of people, but unfortunately I missed that boat growing up so I can't speak to the franchises' impact as much. There's also The Walking Dead Telltale series where the player gets to watch Clementine grow up, but those games are so bleak and sad, they still don't quite scratch that itch for me. Minecraft is pretty YA-friendly, but it's a bit too open-ended. I'm asking for something tha??t's s??pecifically story-driven, because I want a game to take me on a ride sometimes, rather than making my own fun. I know I'm being picky, but it's my column and I'll do what I want.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1878"]Life Is Strange review | PC Gamer [Image Source: PC Gamer][/caption]Life is Strange feels like it's the closest to what I'm describing, but that game leaves a lot to be desired, in my book. The real problem here, though, is that its tone is a bit too dark, too pessimistic to be the next uplifting magical friendship adventure. Oxenfree also falls into this category somewhat, and while I do like it better than Life is Strange, it?? also leaves you feeling a bit more sad than when you first start?ed it.

Plus, where are the games about friendship? I'm? getting down into the weeds now, but I'm sorry, I just don't need another story about how "we were the real monsters all along." So many of these children's series have a through line of the characters having each others' backs and forming unbreakable bonds, and I really think games could use a good injection of that kind of friendship into my games.

I would bet money on the fact that there are tons of great little indie games out there that are exactly what I'm looking for, and if that's the case p??lease let me know in the comments. As for the AAA studios, I think this is a whole market that they're leaving untapped.

All I want is for a kid or young adult to be able to load up a game and have it be a magical, formative experience for them akin to what Harry Potter was for my generation (JK Rowling can kick rocks, though). I know Hogwarts Legacy is right around? the corner, but like, I'd rather stay away from that fra??nchise from now on, thanks.

I'm certainly not planning on having kids anytime soon, but if I did, I would want t??hem to be able to play games that speak to their maturity as they age, while still remaining age-appropriate. I would want them to experience that same sense of adventure and fun you get from the aforem?entioned books, just, you know, in game form. Hell, I want that for myself right now.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

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betvisa888Story Beat Archives – Destructoid - Jeetbuzz88 Live Casino - Bangladesh Casino //jbsgame.com/storyteller-game-demo-exceeded-my-literary-loving-expectations/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=storyteller-game-demo-exceeded-my-literary-loving-expectations //jbsgame.com/storyteller-game-demo-exceeded-my-literary-loving-expectations/#respond Thu, 17 Mar 2022 20:30:33 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=312663 Storyteller game

Putting a new spin on classic tales

Ever since it was announced at the Annapurna Interactive Showcase last year, Storyteller has been pretty high on my list of most anticipated games. The trailer also let us know that there was a playable demo up on Steam, and for reasons that would take far too long to explain, I didn't get around to playing it until this week. I may be late to the party when it comes to the demo, but the gam??e still doesn't have a release date yet, so at least I didn't miss out there.

Let me tell you, as someone who loves both narrative design and puzzle games, Storyteller is an absolute delight. I only got about half an hour with it before I exhausted the demo content, but I can already tell you that this is one of my favorite indie games ever. When I first heard that Annapurna was publishing Storyteller, I knew it was going to be great because they never seem to miss, but I?? was still pleasantly surprised when I sat down to play.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=evbrPS8xw8w

Gameplay-wise, it's simple, but so addictingly fun to figure out. You're presented with a prompt you have to complete, a series of empty panels?? to create your stories in, as well as settings, characters, and plot devices to choose from. From there, you just drag and drop different elements to create a story t??hat fits the prompt that the game gives you. Like I said, simple, but it's a puzzle game format that feels really unique and refreshing. It's a story game, sure, but the stories are so beautifully married with the gameplay and emerge so naturally from how the player chooses to interact, that this is one of the more creative examples of narrative design I've ever seen.

What really puts Storyteller over the top for me, though, is how polished and well-themed it is. The whole game takes place in one giant storybook, with the title page serving as, well, a title page, as well as the credits. The level select pages look like a table of contents, and when you select your level, it flips through a bunch ??of pages to land on the one that you need. The animations are really smooth and responsive, and although it's a little thing, a menu that feels good to navigate can really add a lot to a game.

Sticking with the theming, the art style is also a lot of fun. It maintains a restraint that makes it feel minimalist, but not overly so. Ev??erything that's on-screen is only what needs to be there, and no more. The characters are drawn so adorable, and each set of levels is themed to a different era of literature, and pays homage to their respective inspiration in really cute ways. Not to spoil anything, but I did get an achievement for recreating the plot of a very famous work of literature, and that made my heart really happy.

I obviously love games, but I often tell people that literature was my first love, so much so that it's actually what my degree is in. Classic lit and games don't often overlap, so when they do it's a magical thing for me. I also think Storyteller is exceptional because my writer friends and I often discuss how trying to make a story work in real life feels like a puzzle, so seeing that recreated so elegantly i?n game form is pretty amazing to me.

One of the things good art can do is communicate complicated real-world ideas in ways that make sense to someone who hasn't experienced that before, and I think Storyteller does this quite we?ll. I imagine that someone who is unfamiliar with writing stories could play ??this game and get a sense of what it's like, albeit in a much simpler, cuter, and more entertaining way.

Even so, I am so excited to see a game out there that's showing gamers how much fun literature can be. Storyteller falls under the umbrella of games that were made pretty much entirely by one person, so we might be waiting a bit for its official release, but I'm perfectly fine with that. The developer, Daniel Benmergui, can take as much time as he needs, and unti?l he's ready to put it out, I'll be doing my part to spread the word about how charming this game is.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post Storyteller’s demo exceeded my literary-loving expectations appeared first on Destructoid.

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betvisa loginStory Beat Archives – Destructoid - آن لائن کرکٹ بیٹنگ | Jeetbuzz88.com //jbsgame.com/uncharted-movie-i-have-mixed-feelings/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=uncharted-movie-i-have-mixed-feelings //jbsgame.com/uncharted-movie-i-have-mixed-feelings/#respond Thu, 24 Feb 2022 22:00:29 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=309894 uncharted movie trailer tom holland

This post contains major spoilers for the Uncharted movie. If you still want to be surprised, come back to this one later!

Strap in folks, this one's a doozy

I like to consider myself a pretty devout Uncharted fan. I've played all of the games, some of them multiple times, and I even worked at Naughty Dog for a hot minute there. When I heard there was going to be a movie based on the series, though, I was skeptical. Part of that is the usual skepticism that comes along with video game movies, but then there's also the fact that Uncharted are some of the ?most movie-like games out there. Why would they need to make them into ??actual movies? Certainly it's because they have their own fresh take to put on it.

That's what I was thinking�at least until I saw who they cast as Nate and Sully. Look, I'm all for giving e??veryone a chance to prove themselves, but I was unsure of those choices from the get-go. Even if we were going for an aged-down origin story take, sure, that's something I can get behind in theory.

[caption id="attachment_309901" align="alignnone" width="1920"] [Image Source: PlayStation][/caption]

Questionable casting

Honestly, the cast was one?? of the most egregious things about this movie. I think the issue was that every??one just made boring choices. They were saying the lines, but there was no flavor, you know what I mean? It wasn't giving me anything, let alone getting close to capturing the essence of these characters, who are larger than life in the games.

Sure, Tom Holland is an action hero type, but he's lacking a certain maturity that's innate to Nathan Drake. If he's supp??osed to be younger, that's fine, but he still didn't have that charisma that we're used to from Nate. There are moments in there where the writing is capturing Nate, for sure, but Tom's delivery was a bit too flat for me to make it work. I'm sorry Tommy, I love you as Spider-Man, but this one's a no from me.

Sully was also ??lacking his usual charms. Mark Wahlberg is still the worst casting choice for reasons already stated, but he also just spoke in his normal Marky Mark voice. There was no zest, no flavor in his voice, which is a letdown from the booming presence that Sully's gravelly voice has in the games. That's not to say that Mark Wahlberg couldn't have ever worked as Sully, but his white bread acting choices certainly didn't help.

[caption id="attachment_309896" align="alignnone" width="1920"]Chloe and Nathan in the Uncharted movie [Image Source: GamesRadar][/caption]We do get to see a credits sequence where Sully gets a mustache, and I can't for the life of me figure out why they didn't give him one in the movie.?? It makes him look so much more like the character, and they even could have written a funny quip about why he chose to grow it. Seems like a real waste of an opportunity to me.

Side note: seeing Sully's arc reduced to "gold or friend" was honestly so laughable to me. He's one of my favorite characters of the games �he obviously cares about the treasure, but?????????????????????????? he also has a heart of gold and we can really tell how much he cares for the people in his life. He is more than a greedy loner who just wants gold! ??Justice for Sully!

Chlo??e wasn't my favorite either. In the games, she's so charismatic and mysterious. In this movie, well, she's just as boring as everyone else. I also don't understand why they changed her backstory when the one in the game is so much cooler.

//www.t?iktok.com/@destructoid/video/7068083942594743558

What is Uncharted really about? Friendship.

The single worst thing about the Uncharted movie to me, though, is that it misses the one quintessential piece of what makes Uncharted what it is �it's not the treasure, but the camaraderie. To me, Uncharted is just as much about people as it is about swashbuckling adventure. All anyone in this movie seems to talk about is how you can't trust anyone b?ecause they'll turn their? back on you.

Then they all betray each other and it's like, yeah no shit, that's all you've talked about. Why not show me how these characters come to trust each other and become real friends, but then when the betrayals happen they actually feel like they hold some weight? Not only does the constant (and I mean constant) contention make the twists visible from a mile away, but it also doesn't evolve to reveal anything new to us about the characters, or help capture the spirit of "the real treasure is the friends we made along the way" vibe that Uncharted always nails.

[caption id="attachment_309897" align="alignnone" width="1926"]Tom Holland in the Uncharted movie [Image Source: GamesRadar][/caption]

Who is Nathan Drake?

Take Nate's character, for example. Sure, he wants the treasure because he wants to be rich �who wouldn't? But more than that, he grew up in a broken family, and more than anything, he wants to feel like he's ?a part of something greater than himself. That's why he and his brother hold so tightly to this idea of being descendants of Sir Francis Drake. It ties them to a family that has done great things, something they always wished they could have. Sic parvis magna, remember?

This idea is core to Nate's character �it's why he's so proficient in treasure hunting in the first place, having studied it his whole life. It's why when the wonders that he finds are destroyed so that they will never be able to show anyone (and monetize off of it), he brushes it off, because he loves the thrill of finding it in the first place. It's why he is always willing to chase what he's after to the point that it might even hurt the people he loves, which was explored at length in the story of Uncharted 4.

[caption id="attachment_309898" align="alignnone" width="1920"] [Image Source: The Nerd Stash][/caption]Naughty Dog did a great job of fleshing out Nate's character over the course of the game series to be mo??re than just a bland treasure-hunting dude, and it's what made the series shine brightest. That's why I was so disapp?ointed to see any similar characterization missing from the film, even in short. We get the setup that Nate and his brother think they're Drakes, which explains their fascination with history, but that's about all we get.

It's also mi??ssing th??e implication that this is entirely untrue, which is what gives that idea its depth in the first place. If these characters are willing to convince themselves of an untrue lineage to connect to a feeling of greatness and a family to be proud of, that tells us a lot about who they are and the choices they make. If it's just another fact spit out at us, it's just exposition and nothing more.

Another small but incredibly important gripe I have is about the accents. Sam's Boston accent was nowhere to be found, and that's a huge problem for me and my roommate. It's fun, it's kind of his thing, and not having it that was a huge bummer. Chloe's accent was�not good at all. She's played by Sophia Taylor Ali, an American actress, and while she looked a great deal like Chloe (or a younger version of her), I cou?ld not distinguish what kind of accent she was going for. It changed every other line, and there were times that I couldn't even understand what she was saying.

Some positives

The most enjoyable parts of the Uncharted movie for me were the action and puzzle sequences, for sure. There would be moments where they step away from the lousy character stuff and just focus on treasure hunting, and those were such a blast. I'm already a huge fan of this genr??e, so they already had me going in, but I have to admit that seeing the characters use artifacts to follow clues to solve puzzles felt more like the games than any other parts of the movie.

We get nods all the way through the film to iconic moments from the game, like the cargo plane set piece from Uncharted 3 that we saw in the trailers. There's Chloe's introduction and a bar scene like Uncharted 2, but it pulls most heavily from Uncharted 4 with Sam, an auction scene, and the pirate ships.

[caption id="attachment_309895" align="alignnone" width="1155"] [Image Source: Distractify][/caption]It was cool to see how the Uncharted movie took on some of our favorite moments from the course of the series, but with all the referencing, it often just made me wish I was playing the games instead. It's evoking these moments from the games that, for the most part, feel really strong in their respective contexts. When you pull them out of that format and just throw them into a blender with other vaguely Uncharted elements, they don't ??quite have that same punch behind them. I think they would have been much better off either picking one game and adapting that, or just making an entirely original plot and going from there.

Th?ere was one sequence in the movie that I thought was spectacular, aside from the fact that it was the biggest set piece of the whol?e run. The climactic scene features two giant pirate ships that are helicoptered out of a cave, and then all of the characters have to fight each other on these giant flying ships.

This was really the only moment in the movie where I looked at it and went, "that's SO Uncharted!" It's something I would expect to see in one of the games, but it was an entirely original set piece for the movie that had just the right amount of ridiculousness to make it feel really fun. Unfortunately it's?? the only time where I felt like they took the inspiration of the games and iterated on it, giving us something original and fun, but at least I was able to enjoy it as it was happening.

Fun in a bad way

[caption id="attachment_309899" align="alignnone" width="1920"]Uncharted 4 [Image Source: Pinterest][/caption]Overall, the Uncharted movie wasn't the best experience. Any scene where the characters were talking had me saying "I hate it," but then we'd jump to a??n action scene and I'd be having a great time. It was a "so bad it's good" movie until a brief, shining moment that I was actually able to enjoy it unironically, before it would revert back to blandness. This is definitely something I would only want to watch on the big screen, so I recommend it if you can do so safely. I'd see it again too, but only if I was drunk, you know what I mean?

The thing is, as muc??h as I kind of hate this movie for missing some of the most important parts of its namesake, I had a really fun time watching it. I had to go in with an "it's so bad it's good" mentality, and in that sense, I was having a blast. Then, a moment would come out of nowhere and be genuinely enjoyable, and I was able to drop the irony for just a second.

So we're obviously getting a series out of this �Sony has said as much. Knowing me I'll probably go and see the second one in spite of my mostly negative feelings. That line of reasoning is likely why the movie is doing as well as it is in the first place. In my heart of hearts, I'm an Uncharted fangirl, which means I probably liked it more than someone who doesn't care about the games would. Sadly, Uncharted is yet another in a long line of disappointing video game movies, and the only thing that carries it are those momen??ts that remind us of the moments we love from the games.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post I have mixed feelings on the Uncharted movie appeared first on Destructoid.

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betvisa liveStory Beat Archives – Destructoid - Jeetbuzz88 - live cricket t20 2022 //jbsgame.com/what-remains-of-edith-finch-family-curse-ambiguity-game-storytelling-done-right/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-remains-of-edith-finch-family-curse-ambiguity-game-storytelling-done-right //jbsgame.com/what-remains-of-edith-finch-family-curse-ambiguity-game-storytelling-done-right/#respond Fri, 04 Feb 2022 00:00:21 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=306865 What Remains of Edith Finch ambiguous family curse

Sometimes not knowing is half the fun

This post contains huge spoilers for the entirety of What Remains of Edith Finch. If you haven't played it yet, go do yourself a favor and take care of that, and maybe come back to this one later.

Five years after its release, I still think of What Remains of Edith Finch as one of the best interactive stories ever told. The performances are stellar, especially that of Valerie Rose Lohman as the titular role, the art is beautiful, and the game revolutionized narrative design on multiple occ?asions. It's a must-play for anyone who likes story-focused games, and it was my most recent replay with a friend, because it seems that when I find something I like I'll just keep going back to it until I die someday.

There was so much to appreciate on this second playthrough, and so many details I missed the first time, but what really struck me in our conversations after the game was finished was just how well Edith Finch uses ambiguity. There are so many stories out there ??that suffer from what we like to call "ambiguitis" �they don't want to give players or readers or viewers concrete answers so as to seem deep or thought-provoking, but in doing so, don't say anything meaningful about the the?mes or characters at all.

What Remains of Edith Finch is steeped in ambiguity. The stories that Edith is relaying to us are often outlandish and obviously embellished, and come from a host of unreliable narrators, from a ravenous eleven-year-old girl, to a puzzled psychiatrist, to a deeply traumatiz?ed great-grandmother. There is never really a way to know for certain what happened, but at the same time, the game hints that the truth of what really happened is out there, if you're willing to go and look for it.

Is the curse even real?

The biggest question my friend asked me after the credit??s rolled was, "do you think that the curse was real?" Ironically, my answer was ambiguous: "Yes, and no?."

If you don't remember, the Finch family curse is that they're all doomed to die tragically, and most of the time, very young. As we learn from Edith, it's something that they have dealt with for three generations now, with her son being the only known surviving member. As she does her best ?to tell him what happened to each one of his deceased relatives through her journal entries, we start to get an idea of how the family dynamic worked when she was growing up.

Edith's ?great-grandmother Edie is a staunch believer in the curse �she spoke about it her whole life. She would even go to the local paper and sensationalize her own family members, like her husband's death by dragon (he was actually crushed by a slide that he built to look like a dragon), or the "mole man" who supposedly lived under the Finch house (who turned out to be Edie's own son, Walter).

Edith's mother Dawn, on the other hand, fought against the idea of the curse for her entire life. She did her best to shield her children from Edie's stories, in case they might i??nternalize them and continue to make the supposed curse a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The evidence

[caption id="attachment_306870" align="alignnone" width="1600"] [Image Source: What Remains of Edith Finch Wiki][/caption]Some of the death stories are more cut and dry, like Calvin falling off the swing and over the cliff, or Walter being hit by the train, or Sam being pushed to his death by the half-dead deer. Some of the other stories, though, have more ambiguous endings. We have plenty of evidenc??e to deduce what most likely happe??ned to them, but there's no way to know for sure.

Like Molly, for example. Her story is one of the most fantastical of the bunch, but it can most likely be chalked up to a death by poisoning after she went to bed without dinner, ?with her final moments journaled whi?le she was in a holly-berry-and-1940s-toothpaste-induced fever dream.

Then we have Barbara, the death that probably has the least amount of explanation associated with it. A former child horror film star, Barbara is supposedly killed by a murderer with a hook for a hand �or at least that's what the sens??ational comic that Edie left on Barbara's shrine says. If you ask me, the context clues seem to imply that her boyfriend killed her after their argument, and although it's an unsubstantiated answer, all the pieces are there.

Who is the real villain of this story?

[caption id="attachment_306879" align="alignnone" width="1680"] [Image Source: Moby Games][/caption]When we consider the likely answers to these mysterious deaths, all signs point t??o great-grandma Edie being the secret villain of the sto??ry.

According to my friend, her own negligence is what caused so many of the deaths, and in order to absolve herself of her guilt, she doubled down on the idea of the curse. Even having played through What Remains of Edith Finch a few times at this point, I really hadn't thought of it that way. Once he started talking through the hidden details of the game in more depth with me, though, I realized that all of the ??clues were there all along.

Maybe Molly wouldn't have died if Edie had let her have some food. Maybe Calvin wouldn't have died if Edie hadn't let him play on a swing right next to a cliff. Maybe Sam wouldn't have died if she had taught him to be more careful. She keeps shrine?s of all of her dead relatives in their otherwise untouched rooms. This is either the behavior of a deeply troubled but benign woman, or one who is actively ??harming her own family in order to make herself feel better. It's all speculation with no real way to confirm or deny.

And that's what makes for some incredible ambiguity, and for some fun for us as players as we're trying to figure it out. Explanations are left in plain sight, but not over-explained to the point that they leave us without any room to question things. Look at Walter,? for example �maybe he was just an eccentric old man, so afraid of the curse that he locked himself away, drove himself mad in isolation, and broke his way out in a frenzied state of unconscious mania. Or maybe Edie locked him down there herself to keep him safe, and when he was finally ready to leave, he was too scared to confront Edie if he went upstairs, so he instead opted to break out through the wall, only to meet his untimely demise.

Either scenario seems equally as likely based on the information the game presents us with, because of some impressively restrained and careful writing, and that type of care is ubiquitous throughout the entirety of What Remains of Edith Finch. There is no definitive truth to any of the stories �whether or not the player buys into the supposed supernatural elements of the narrative is up to them. I am kicking myself, however, for missing hugely important details on my own, and not seeing at first just how deep and ???rich this text really is.

If you want to play a game that will leave you thinking about it for days, go play (or replay) What Remains of Edith Finch, and get to thinking about whose si?de you might have been on: Edie's or Dawn's. That's something I'm still trying to figure out for myself.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post What Remains of Edith Finch’s family curse is ambiguity done right appeared first on Destructoid.

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betvisa loginStory Beat Archives – Destructoid - jeetbuzzشرط بندی کریکت |Jeetbuzz88.com //jbsgame.com/supergiant-games-other-masterpiece-transistor/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=supergiant-games-other-masterpiece-transistor //jbsgame.com/supergiant-games-other-masterpiece-transistor/#respond Thu, 27 Jan 2022 22:00:00 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=305823 Supergiant Transistor art

Welcome to Cloudbank

In my eyes, Supergiant can do no wrong. Everything they release is a banger, they have some of the most talented developers working in all of the games industry, and by all accounts they have really good labor practices. Hades has continued to get the love that it so rightfully deserves, and while its massive success has introduced a score of new players to the studio's work, that also means that there are tons of fans out there who haven't yet checked out the rest of their catalog, which needs to be remedied immediately. That's why I'm dedicating this week's column to Supergiant's 2014 action RPG Transistor.

I recently played through it with a friend, and was immediately blown away. Its story follows a woman named Red, who wakes at the start of the game to see the aftermath of an attack that was unleashed with a giant sword known as the Transistor. Formerly a singer, Red's voice becomes trapped in the weapon, along with the soul of ??an unnamed man who was killed in the attack. I don't want to give too much more away, because figuring out the plot of the game is half the fun. Do yourself a favor and don't look up anything about the game before diving in yourself.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJmtn6JP7Ug

What I will say, though, is that Transistor is easily one of the most stylish games I've ever played. The word that comes to mind when I think about it is sexy, but not in a horny way, in like a "wow, that car is sexy," kind of way, you know what I mean??? Everything is themed around coding and feels very cyberpunk-y, and the story is told out of order in really small, subtle ways.

That's something I appreciate most about Transistor �how restrained it is in its storytelling. I'm not usually one to enjoy a game where I have to seek out the lore too much, but Transistor gives you enough bits and pieces that putting it all together makes you feel like the coolest detective in town. It's a refreshingly unique take on interactive storyt??elling, and one I hadn't seen prior.

Because most of its story takes ??place in the aftermath of the inciting incident, its themes are explored in small moments, but when you put them all together, you're left with a bi??g, beautiful tapestry that interweaves the world and its characters.

I honestly missed out on most of it my first time through because I was focusing so hard on trying to get the mechanics down, because they are complex in their own right. Transistor is certainly harder to wrap your head around than something like Hades, which I believe is part of the reason why it didn't take off as much as its successor, and you have to play through the game a few? times to really g??et the full effect.

That may sound daunting at first, but Transistor is meant to be played multiple times �it's designed that way. The run time only comes in at around six hours, plus it has modu??lar difficulty settings (something Supergiant has always done spectacularly well), so you can challenge yourself on subsequent playthroughs.

The gameplay system is also one of the coolest I've seen. The combat is a hybrid of real-time and a frozen time mode called Turn(), which allows you to plan your moves and unleash them all at once. Your power-ups are called Functions, and each one has its own unique properties when used in one of four active ability slots, as well as passive abilities and upgrade slots. I've heard that there are over 900 different permutations of builds you can run with all of the Functions in different slots, which easily makes it one of the most complex gameplay systems I've ever seen. It was overwhelming to dive into, but once you get the hang of it, it feels so good to play.

[caption id="attachment_305824" align="alignnone" width="1909"]Functions in Supergiant Games' Transistor [Image Source: Transistor Wiki][/caption]And the performances. Oh my god, the performances. Logan Cunningham, who also voices Hades, Poseidon, Achilles, Charon, Asterius, and The Storyteller in Hades, is a particular standout. He just won a BAFTA for his work, and rightfully so. He's always great, but the voice he uses for Transistor, man, I could ?listen to him read the phonebook. Twice.

If Hades is a stylish but approachable sedan, Transistor is a sports car. It may be harder to drive, but man, does it have some punch. I don't know to whom Supergiant sold their souls to be such talented devs, but they never miss the mark, and with all of the rightful love Hades got, I just want to encourage people to give their other projects some attention. Long story short: if you haven't already, go play Transistor. If you already have, go and play it again.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post We need to talk about Supergiant’s other masterpiece: Transistor appeared first on Destructoid.

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betvisa888 casinoStory Beat Archives – Destructoid - bet365 cricket - Jeetbuzz88 //jbsgame.com/wide-ocean-big-jacket-was-the-hilarious-camping-getaway-i-needed/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wide-ocean-big-jacket-was-the-hilarious-camping-getaway-i-needed //jbsgame.com/wide-ocean-big-jacket-was-the-hilarious-camping-getaway-i-needed/#respond Wed, 19 Jan 2022 22:30:19 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=304893 Wide Ocean Big Jacket

A pine-scented breath of fresh air

When I'm feeling overwhelmed with all the games I want to play, sometimes the perfect antidote is putting on something short that I can finish in an afternoon. After perusing through an itch.io bundle that I've had sitting around for over a year, I decided on Wide Ocean Big Jacket, and tha??nkfully it was everything I needed fr?om games right now.

Published by Tender Claws in February of 2020, Wide Ocean Big Jacket is the debut title from indie studio Turnfollow. It's certainly one of the quirkier games I've played of late, and I mean that in the best possible way. It's a really simple walking sim game with a simple, offbeat art style. The story is told in a series of short vignettes, telling the story of a young girl named Mord, her boyfriend Be??n, her aunt Cloanne, and uncle Brad as they spend a night camping.

After the past few years of quarantine, I've really been missing the outdoor time my family used to spend together when I was growing up at the foot of the Appalachian mountains. Wide Ocean Big Jacket felt really familiar to me in a way that I didn't expect, and even though the art style is super minimal, this game came in to take me right back to those summers hiking the Blue Ridge Mountains. It's a game that makes you kind of stop and take it all in, which I didn't realize how much I needed unt??il I got it.

And Wide Ocean Big Jacket is hilarious. I was fully laughing out loud at points, especially when it came to Mord and Ben's dialogue. It's really difficult to write kids, but it's even har?der to write them in a way that's both believable and stylized. Both of them have such fun, distinct personalities, and perfectly capture ?the awkwardness of a first relationship.

For all its restr??aint, the game r??eally manages to use everything at its disposal to great effect. Even the interact preview text seems to have a mind of its own, and makes for some of the best jokes of the whole run. I was also impressed with the sound design, because the attention to detail there is what really made the environments feel alive.

While being a sweet little slice-of-life game, Wide Ocean Big Jacket also ??manages to land some genuine emotional beats. I was impressed with its ability to maintain its unique tone and charm while still touching on tough topics like divorce, losing one's virginity, and the marital dilemma of having children. It feels more like these are real people that we're looking in on, with all their quirks and flaws and strengths.

I can't stress enough how impressed I am with these characterizations �Wide Ocean Big Jacket ??manages to create some of the most distinct style and characters in a game I've ever seen, and all under a two-hour runtime.

Any skepticism I have about the current state of games is entirely my own fault, because the indie scene has never been stronger. If your library is feeling a bit stale these days, I really recommend you go seek out some small, simple indie games to try, because recently they've completely revitalized my hope in the industry. I may be late to the party on a lot of these titles, but? at least I still showed up, right?


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post Wide Ocean Big ????Jacket was the hilarious camping getaway I needed appeared first on Destructoid.

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betvisa liveStory Beat Archives – Destructoid - Jeetbuzz88 - live cricket asia cup //jbsgame.com/i-miss-short-linear-games-too-many-open-worlds/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=i-miss-short-linear-games-too-many-open-worlds //jbsgame.com/i-miss-short-linear-games-too-many-open-worlds/#respond Thu, 13 Jan 2022 22:00:37 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=304148 Too many open world games, not enough short linear games

Please, not another fetch quest

So there's been a lot of talk going around about Dying Light 2 supposedly having up to 500 hours worth of content, if not more, and this wasn't exactly news I was jumping up and down about. Not because of the game itself, necessarily, but the way it plays into the trends of the industry as a whole away from short, linear games. In the past few years, it feels like completion times that clock in at hundreds of hours have become someth??ing of a badge of honor, and the discourse surrounding it has seemed to lean toward the idea that the longer a game is, the better.

Listen, I'm all for getting the best bang for my buck. When I see that I've played a game for hundreds of hours, there's a sense of pride there, because that was money well-spent. But at this point it feels like players keep p??ushing for games to be longer and longer, and that's not always a good thing.

For one thing, a super long game with ambitious scope usually (not always, but usually), means more work and crunch for game teams that are already burned out. The prime example here is Cyberpunk 2077. CD Projekt Red promised that the game would be one of the most detailed open-world RPG experiences ever while it was still in early development, and the game then suffered from multiple delays as the team tried to keep up. Ultimately, Cyberpunk was a massive disappointment on release (although recent updates ?have helped), and it all could have been avoided if CD Projekt Red had maintained realistic expectations.

[caption id="attachment_304152" align="alignnone" width="1280"] [Image Source: cyberpunk.net][/caption]There's also the fact that shorter games can also mean less time in development. In theory, if the bigger studios dedicated themselves to making shorter, more polished experiences, you could chop a good year or two off of the development cycle, at least. I always wondered what it would be like if a studio that had the talent and money of a CD Projekt Red dedicated themselves to an indie-style project that had a three-to-four-hour runtime. But, because those a??ren't nearly as lucrative, I guess we'll never know.

Then you just have the content of the games themselves. When you scale up a game to be so big and nonlinear, it's almost impossible to keep the content interesting. The world, the quests, and the characters can all start to feel repetitive and hollow. In creating a game that's hundreds of hours long, developers simply don't have time to put the time and attention into many details of the game �they're just trying to fill out the biggest map they can in a way that doesn't make it feel entirely empty. But there are so many games that I've played that do feel empty, in spite of everything that the game puts in my way, and I'm not alone in this sentiment.

In contrast, I've been playing through BioShock Infinite again recently. It's obviously very different from a big, hundred-hour endeavor, with an average run time of about twelve hours. But when I started playing it again, I realized how much I've missed these short linear games. For example, I seriously cannot get over the environments in BioShock Infinite. Every room you walk into has this perfectly composed setting that looks like it's straight out of a concept art painting. That's because the devs know that the player will be entering a room from exactly one position, and they're able to compose the environment around t??hat, and to great effect.

[caption id="attachment_304149" align="aligncenter" width="600"] [Image Source: Reddit][/caption]The pacing is excellent too, because they obviously planned out exactly how much and for how long you'll be interacting with combat, story sections, and exploration. ??Sometimes I don't want to have to go out of my way to find combat or a quiet space to enjoy the scenery, and linear games just have them lined up, ready to go when you n??eed them. Like a perfectly balanced screenplay, the game knows exactly what you want, when you want it, and gives it to you.

Maybe I'm not being fair by comparing games that are meant to provide such different experiences, but I really can't seem to find any big-budget AAA studios that haven't succumbed to this formula. I mean, look at what happened to The Last of Us se??ries. The first one also had a runtime of about twelve hours, a?nd in my opinion, was pretty perfectly paced from both a gameplay and storytelling standpoint.

[caption id="attachment_304150" align="alignnone" width="1280"] [Image Source: IGN][/caption]Then you have the sequel, which is over twice the length, with huge open areas that grind the pacing to a halt. I'm not saying Naughty Dog isn't capable of making? a good open-world game, I just don't understand why they deviated from what they did so well when it came to the scope, especially within a beloved franchise that used its small-scale linearity to great effect.

Long story ??short, I just really mi??ss short linear games with a focus on story.

I can certainly go back and play through all my old favorites like BioShock, The Last of Us, and Portal 2, but it's hard to find any games like?? this that are newer than around 2015. Sometimes I don't want choice �sometimes, I just want to be taken on a ride, a thrilling, bombastic ride that only the resources of a AAA studio can provide, but they seem to be fewer and further between these days.


Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post I miss short, linear games appeared first on Destructoid.

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betvisa888 liveStory Beat Archives – Destructoid - bet365 cricket - Jeetbuzz88 //jbsgame.com/insomniacs-spider-man-hits-different-in-2021/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=insomniacs-spider-man-hits-different-in-2021 //jbsgame.com/insomniacs-spider-man-hits-different-in-2021/#respond Thu, 16 Dec 2021 22:00:42 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=301141 Spider-Man swinging

Retrospect in a pandemic

The following contains major spoilers for the main story of Insomniac's Spider-Man (2018). You have been warned.

I recently jumped back into my old Spider-Man save file from 2019. I was in college when I started it, and I don't quite remember why I didn't finish the game, but I left it at about 75% co?mplete. Jumping back into the middle of it was a bit jarring at first because I had lost some of the story beats over time, but a quick read through the ??Wikipedia page and I was good to go.

A friend and I have been doing a watch-through of all the Spider-Man movies in preparation for the release of No Way Home, so that's really got me in the mood recently. Even though superheroes aren't usually my thing, Spidey is by far my favorite �he's just a normal high school kid who's trying to cope with this tremendous responsibility, which always delivers on some interesting emotional conflicts. I know some people think he's been overdo??ne with the half-dozen franchises we have focused on the character (and that's just the movies and games), but I think it's cool to s?ee so many different interpretations of Peter and Miles. It's like our own modern mythology.

Spider-Man combat

One thing I wasn't expecting when I jumped back into Spider-Man would be just how different it feels to play in 2021. Part of that is just because I'??ve improved a ton mechanically as a player, so I could enjoy the combat and swinging a lot more by getting combos and building out my suit to my p??referred specifications. I wasn't very gameplay-focused back when I tried it the first time, and I can see now that it actually limited my enjoyment of the overall experience.

The biggest difference between playing it now v??ersus then, t??hough, is the game's main story. The whole narrative hinges on the release of a mutant bioweapon that, as you recall, manifests as an airborne respiratory infection. I remember back when I was playing it for the first time, this plot point felt serviceable but a bit cliched to me. Now I can't help but gawk at how uncanny it feels.

As I progressed into the final hours, I fe??lt myself cringing internally as I started to hear coughing absolutely everywhere �from J. Jonah Jameson on the radio, from groups of sickly civilians huddled together on the streets, and even from some o??f my enemies. Shots of Aunt May in her hospital bed covered in sweat and breathing through an oxygen tube were almost too much to bear. "Antiserum" tents that were set up around the city after the antidote was acquired looked eerily similar to the tent where I got my booster shot just last week.

I had no idea Aunt May was killed off in this game. I actually ended up really enjoying how her character was written this time around, and I found myself tearing up a l?ittle bit during her final scene ?where she revealed to Peter that she knew he was Spider-Man.

"Take off your mask. I want to see my nephew."

Oh my god, have some mercy on my sad, sentimen??tal heart, May.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3hAt1uWo8M

So yeah, it hurt to see he?r go because I liked her character a lot, but man, having her die of a fictional, manufactured disease with a name like Devil's Breath, the effects of which look and sound so similar to how Covid patients are affected in real life �that was hard to wrap my head around. Suddenly an already-tragic death scene has the weight of over five million deaths behind it... and that's heavy. Anyone who has had a loved one struggling with Covid understands Peter's dilemma in this scene with a new, raw co??ntext.

It's even more upsetting to think that New York suffered as America's worst hot spot right at the start of the outbreak, something the game predicted all too well. Something out of science fiction became all too real, and it's uncanny that Insomnia??c released this only a few years before i??t all went down.

Besides how much these parallels to real life shocked me, I had such a great time with the last quarter of this game. I challenged myself in ways I never did the first time I played it, and it was cool to tangibly see how much I've improved as a gamer. Finishing up Spider-Man's main story got me reflecting a lot on both my past and my present, which is what good art is sup?posed to do. Now I've?? just gotta finish up all those side missions.

Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post Insomniac’s Spider-Man hits different in 2021 appeared first on Destructoid.

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betvisa888 betStory Beat Archives – Destructoid - jeetbuzz88.com - cricket betting online //jbsgame.com/video-games-remind-me-of-the-people-and-found-family-im-most-thankful-for/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=video-games-remind-me-of-the-people-and-found-family-im-most-thankful-for //jbsgame.com/video-games-remind-me-of-the-people-and-found-family-im-most-thankful-for/#respond Thu, 25 Nov 2021 22:00:13 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=297658 Reflecting on video games with a found family

Finding family in unlikely places

Video games have always been a way to escape, but recently, they've become my favorite way to leave everything behind for a while. That interactivity is pretty strong stuff, because o??f late I find myself much more immersed in game narratives than those of other media. I'm thankful for the distraction �these days, I really seem to need it.

Like everyone else, I've had a rough go of it the last year or so. Every part of my life went through some really significant changes, and many of them for the worse. It's kind of ironic that games were both the catalyst for that change ?�my desire to work in the games industry got me to move across the country and confront my own rose-colored ideals �and now what I use to help me cope with it.

This Thanksgiving is causing me to get a bit more introspective than usual, I find, because I'm spending it away from my family. My family has always prioritized spending the holidays together, but recently, things have shifted, and circumstances have changed. I find myself feeling somewhat alone, because well, I am. My house is not bustling with familiar voices and the smells of delici??ous food cooking. It's just me, my cats, and my delivered meal from a restaurant I've eaten from twice already this week, and I can't help but acknowledge the contrast.

Stardew Valley is a video game with one big (mostly happy) family

So how do video games fall into this depressing mix? Well, they've actually helped me remember?? what I'm m??ost thankful for �the people in my life who may not be my biological family, but make up almost the entirety of my support system.

I think back to games that I've played that are special to me because of the relationships they depict �The Last of Us, Tales from the Borderlands, Life is Strange: True Colors, and Stardew Valley come to mind most immediately. These games all depict a?? version of characters finding solace in the relationships they create with people who were once strangers over the course of their respective runtimes. Not only are their storylines so moving and comforting to me, but the act of playing these games versus reading or watching them made me feel all the more endeared to these characters.

For a long time, I used these fictional relationships to make up for something I felt I lacked in my real life. I'm such a sucker for found family stories, and now I'm realizing it's becaus??e my found family is one of the things I value most in my life.

Tales from the Borderlands depicts a great found family

I also appreciate games because my relationship to them in the real world is what helped me craft those relationships with others. The people who are now closest to me are the people I met at my various jobs within the industry, or even the people I met while playing multiplayer games online. I even went to one of my online friends' weddings a few years ago, with that day being the first time (and as of now the only time) we ever saw each other in real person. It's a silly thing, but I can't help but be grateful for games that I have loved and ?played in the past for existing, because without them I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't have these people.

So I may not be back home with my family, but I have my Friendsgiving to go to this weekend. And you can bet your bottom dollar that I'm going to be jumping online to wish my Call of Duty friends a happy Thanksgiving.

For me, the most difficult part of becoming an adult was how much everything changed, but if I can find happiness in these fictional stories, I c?an find them without a controller in my hand, too. And at least I know that no matter how tough things get, my?? favorite games will be there waiting for me, just as I remember them.

Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post Video games remind me of the people I’m most thankful for appeared first on Destructoid.

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betvisa cricketStory Beat Archives – Destructoid - Jeetbuzz88 - live cricket t20 2022 //jbsgame.com/mishaps-in-the-preview-text-of-choice-based-adventure-games-story-beat/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mishaps-in-the-preview-text-of-choice-based-adventure-games-story-beat //jbsgame.com/mishaps-in-the-preview-text-of-choice-based-adventure-games-story-beat/#respond Wed, 17 Nov 2021 22:00:07 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=296043 Choice-based preview text in Oxenfree

I can't go back, can I?

Everyone loves a good choice-based game. They're simple, but often very effective in allowing us to interact with the game's world in a more substantial way. ?Of course, they also present a pretty difficult design challenge, because writers have to make sure the players know what they're getting themselves into with just a few words, often known as the preview text.

Preview text is obviously a necessity, because there's no way you can fit all of the text you need into a little tiny button for the player to press, but it can sometimes cause the player some problem?s. Short lines with easy-to-convey message?s are a piece of cake, but what do you do when things get a little more complicated? This is the exact problem I ran into when I was writing a choice-based game for the first time.

It's not something you really tend to notice that much when you're playing them, but there are tons of different ways that games try to conve??y their message using preview text for a choice. There are a few different ways that games will telegraph to you with previews of what exactly it is you're going to be saying or doing, to mixed results. Some games will do their best to make the sample text verbatim what the player character is going to say, but this can be difficult with longer or more emotionally complex lines.

Dialogue options summed up in just a few short words

Oxenfree is a good example of this -- for the most part you say exactly what's written in the speech bubbles you can choose from, give or take a word, and then if there's more to elaborate on, Alex will continue saying the line. Personally, I think Nightschool did an awesome job of telegraphing exactly what you meant to say when you said it in Oxenfree, so I had very few moments of frus??tration w?hen it came to the dialogue choices.

Then there's the method of using a different wording in the preview, but in a way that accurately sums up what the character will be saying. It's more of a sentiment, if you will. Mass Effect uses this technique most often, and while it usually works fine, I do recall quite a few occasions when I chose a certain line, only to get a slightly different meaning in the real dia??logue. One particularly cringy moment happened when I thought I was just being polite to Kaidan, only for it to come off as flirting. I like you, Kaidan �just not like that.

Choice-based preview text in Game of Thrones: A Telltale Game Series

The last method is the most simple, but can work just as well �basically, you just describe the function of what the player is going to say, rather than the actual words they'll be saying, like "agree with him," "spare his feelings," or "tell her the tru??th." This tech??nique was generally used in older, text-based adventure games, but we can sometimes see it mixed in with newer games, depending on the situation. If I had to guess, I would think it's fallen out of fashion because it feels less immersive to play.

The reality is that any of these methods could work, it just comes dow?n to making sure the way you phrase what those choices are is as unambiguous as possible, especially in high tension situations or when there are a lot of complicated emotions involved.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=8os2LBgSCAs

Considering this is an easy problem to encounter when devs are writing hundreds of pages of dialogue, inevitably there are moments where the preview text doesn't convey what you're actually going to do or say with any level of accuracy. These moments can range from frustrating to downright hilarious �one of the most classic examples comes from a Wolf Among Us choice that reads "[Glass him]." I personally chose this one on my first playthrough without having seen any of the memes because I thought it me??ant Bigby would cheers the Woodsman or something, but I instead got the shock of a lifetime when Bigby sma?shed his glass over this poor man's head.

Another well-known (and well-loved) example comes from Mass Effect, during a tense but otherwise civil conversation with the salarian scientist Chorban. One of the choices the player is presented with during the conversation is simply "[sigh]," and if chosen, Shepard actually says "I should kill both of you idiots." Wait, what? While the Wolf Among Us scenario is an examp?le of text that imperfectly portrayed its meaning, part of me wonders if this was just a mistake that s??omehow made it through into the game, because that reaction is so different from what it feels like it should be.

These are really funny scenes in retrospect, but in the moment it can be annoying to have an outcome feel so different than the choice you picked. I mean hell, there are plenty of lists out there chronicling how rid?iculous these scenarios can ??be.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoTzM8xFCMQ

One of the reasons I love choice-based games so much is beca??use they pose such an interesting question when it comes to writing �how do you stay true to this character while also allowing the pla??yer to have as much autonomy as possible? The closest thing I can think to this idea is improvisational theater, where actors are making it up as they go, but also have to stay in character as best they can. Ah, I love when games and theater overlap!

If you enjoy writing and have never tried writing a branching storyline before, I definitely recommend trying it with programs like Twine or Ink because it's a ?great way to stretch those creative muscles.

What's your favorite choice-based game? Are there any scenarios that you felt played out differently than you wanted because of some sketchy preview text? What??'s your most memorable moment from a choice-based ?game?

Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post Mish?aps in the preview text o??f choice-based adventure games appeared first on Destructoid.

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betvisa888Story Beat Archives – Destructoid - jeetbuzzشرط بندی کریکت |Jeetbuzz88.com //jbsgame.com/exploring-the-hilarious-metanarrative-of-character-creators-story-beat/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=exploring-the-hilarious-metanarrative-of-character-creators-story-beat //jbsgame.com/exploring-the-hilarious-metanarrative-of-character-creators-story-beat/#respond Sat, 13 Nov 2021 00:00:52 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=295376 character creators

No middle sliders

When a game gives you a character creator, that mechan??ic can be more fun than actually playing the rest of the game. How you choose to make your char??acter can say a lot about you �maybe you want an in-universe version of yourself to roleplay with, or an original character, or maybe you're just trying to make the most hilarious monstrosity you can think of.

Sometimes playing around in the character creator becomes the point of the game entirely �this can happen often with The Sims, especially those who enjoy making Sims that look as close to their favorite celebrities as possible. Some even go out of their way to create meme icons like Shrek or Handsome Squidward. And I can't be the only one who has made multiple joke Bloodborne charac??ters without playing wi?th them at all, right?

[caption id="attachment_295385" align="alignnone" width="1280"]Bloodborne's silly character creator [Image Source: YouTube user Dalaric Wolfborne][/caption]No matter what you make your character look like, something that always interests me is the metanarrative that can emerge from custom character designs. Players often prescribe their own narratives outside of the game's story to their characters,? with players eventually overwriting the built-in narrative with their own, like how people will watch a movie with the sound turned off and make up the dialogue to their liking.

An awesome example of this is the series Monster Factory created and hosted by Justin and Griffin McElroy of My Brother, My Brother, and Me, and The Adventure Zone fame. If you haven't seen this series on Polygon's YouTube channel, it's absolutely worth a watch. It started back in 2015, and regardless of how you feel about the McElroy's, you can't deny that the series has produced some true co??medy gold during its run.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1jGnFt78H8

Each character they make in a new game, which usually constitutes at least a few episodes of the series, has its own personality and story that the hosts impose on it, which can lead to some downright hysterical roleplaying moments. My personal favorite is The Final Pam from their Fallout 4 series, which is so ridiculous and goofy and something that ??still makes me laugh to this day when I think about it.

While games obviously let us live out our stories while playing, I think character creators go even further, because they allow us to attach our story that extends beyond the game's own. This kind of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking is often more aligned with tabletop games, but I honestly ?think that's because most of us don't realize we're ev??en doing it.

I personally don't plan for my own original characters to be any certain way when I play them, but lo and behold, it ends up happening anyway. Take my Mass Effect playthrough, for example. I started playing through the series with my friends, and after learning that I could in fact get with some aliens through the course of the series, I decided to camp up my character creation a bit. I decided my version of female Shepard was there to save the universe, of course, but also had a highly prioritized side goal to hook up with Garrus, and in turn created her to look as close to the Instagram beauty standards as possible, with blonde hair, a tiny nose, and huge lips. After much debate, I ended up naming her Boney Shepard for obvious reason?s.

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition

While I definitely found this a great deal funnier than my friends did, it was a really fun way to blow off some steam, and create my own version of a classic character, e??ven if it is a purposefully silly one. More serious roleplaying in a game can be equally as fun, but I can't think of any other media that would let you experience its otherwise very serious story w?ith the same level of whimsy, and I find that delightful. The whole thing ends up feeling much more personal, as you create your own memories of the experience that otherwise wouldn't be there.

So what's your favorite way to roleplay in a game with character creators? Do you have any fun stories of your characters' advent??ures? Which game has your favorite character creator of all time?

Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post Exp?loring the hilarious metanarrative of character creators appeared first on Destructoid.

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