You know what really grinds my gears?

[Chrisksaint]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

I feel like a lot of games try to tell these stories and show off their writing/graphics, but lack great gameplay which is really what's going to get me to keep playing.

I liked LA Noire, but it just got boring and repetitive after awhile. Or an even better example for me would be FF13, I liked the story and was extremely interested but the gameplay just made me quit and never finish

[cavsfan2]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

I feel like a lot of games try to tell these stories and show off their writing/graphics, but lack great gameplay which is really what's going to get me to keep playing.

I liked LA Noire, but it just got boring and repetitive after awhile. Or an even better example for me would be FF13, I liked the story and was extremely interested but the gameplay just made me quit and never finish

Yeah I think that's why "playthroughs" of games on YouTube have gotten so popular. People can experience the story even if the gameplay isn't that great and they save 60 dollars.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

Watch_Dogs and LA Noire, to me at least, just show that the method of telling the story is getting better. Not that the stories themselves are better. It will come with time, I hope. I miss some of the grand, sweeping epic stories we got in past games. Same thing with Heavy Rain. I enjoyed all 3 (though out of those 3, Watch_Dogs was by far the worst of them personally.) LA Noire and Heavy Rain didn't have stories that I would write home about, but the delivery method for them was refreshing and hopefully something that can get explored more as this generation rolls on.

I think GTA5 is a step in the right direction as far as story-telling goes. Only having one playable character and seeing everything from their POV will always limit the scope and development of a story. When most of the characters in a story are simply mission givers then they fail to really have a character worth remembering - much less able to convey motivations and any legitimate involvement in the story. Other forms of story-telling have the benefit of having the capabilities of focusing and following multiple characters. Plus, most of the story exposition is delivered via dialogue and not necessarily crafted in gameplay or any memorable cutscenes. Sometimes you have a good story, but with 40 hours of gameplay against 5-10 hours of story its hard to stay interested and keep up in that aspect.

As games become more cinematic in delivery and atmosphere it will be interesting to see if story-crafting can take that leap to the next level. All of them are still pretty basic and have been for as long as I can remember. "Go meet X and do this for him and listen to him dialogue out this story that we can't figure out a good way to weave into gameplay."

[areobee401]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

Video game stories need to start covering more topics that currently relevant. Make characters more human. Make me relate to them in some level. I feel voices acting is anything culprit in subpar video game story telling. Most voice acting I hear lacks any real sense of emotion.

For me the best job at making me relate to a video game character is Michael in GTA V. While the two of us have very little in common on the surface, there were many elements of his life and story I could related to.

[LambertandHam]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

Video game stories need to start covering more topics that currently relevant. Make characters more human. Make me relate to them in some level. I feel voices acting is anything culprit in subpar video game story telling. Most voice acting I hear lacks any real sense of emotion.

For me the best job at making me relate to a video game character is Michael in GTA V. While the two of us have very little in common on the surface, there were many elements of his life and story I could related to.

Bald space marines and Steve Blum . Very few games do humor well either. We need something like the Timesplitters series again.

[slickdtc]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

My gear grinder today? Myself, and why I put off the simplest tasks.

Just filed some paperwork that should've been done a month ago. Now it cost me $60 to do so because of late fees and all that.

Stupido!

[TheMatrix31]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

Gift ideas. I consider myself to be very generous but man, I hate coming up with ideas. It never ends with the gift-giving. I'm just not creative enough for the amount of times we have to get things for people throughout our lives.

[~LiverpoolRed~]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

This just happened today. I'm pumping gas and an employee comes over and tries to sell me headlight cleaner and offers to clean them for me with a demonstration. Just let me get my gas and piss off!

[TheShizNo1]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

I'll read a book or watch a movie if I want a great story.

Batman series, Skyrim, RDR, God of War, and CoD are pretty much the only non sports games I've really enjoyed in the last 4-5 years. 2 of those being my favorites have nothing to do with the stories (GoW/CoD).

[VTPack919]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

I'll read a book or watch a movie if I want a great story.

Batman series, Skyrim, RDR, God of War, and CoD are pretty much the only non sports games I've really enjoyed in the last 4-5 years. 2 of those being my favorites have nothing to do with the stories (GoW/CoD).

This guy gets it. I want great gameplay in a videogame, all else is secondary.


I am willing to overlook a game with horrible storytelling if the gameplay is great I will enjoy it.


On the other hand, a game could have a story penned by the greatest storyteller of all time. If the gameplay sucks I'm not touching it.

[Chrisksaint]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

I tend to agree which is why I've always gravitated to RPGs, I just like progressing characters with gear, levels, good/bad choices, etc. If the game happens to have a good story then it probably ends up being one of my favorite games, aka. KOTOR and stuff

[The_Wise_One]

You know what really grinds my gears?

This guy gets it. I want great gameplay in a videogame, all else is secondary.


I am willing to overlook a game with horrible storytelling if the gameplay is great I will enjoy it.


On the other hand, a game could have a story penned by the greatest storyteller of all time. If the gameplay sucks I'm not touching it.

This is also why indie games have become so popular. Replay value is infinitely higher with solid gameplay mechanics. I enjoy games like Bioshock, uncharted and last of us every now and again. But after one playthrough, much like a movie, it becomes stale. I play a multiplayer game like battlefield 1000x longer because of the gameplay.

[mgoblue]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

I can be tougher finding a game with great gameplay that isn't too repetitive when the story sucks....IMO story can patch some minor gameplay issues, but if a game's story is atrocious why would I want to even play at all?

I guess with me I have limited time so I can be pickier and play more games with at least decent story and gameplay or better.

[bcruise]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

This guy gets it. I want great gameplay in a videogame, all else is secondary.


I am willing to overlook a game with horrible storytelling if the gameplay is great I will enjoy it.


On the other hand, a game could have a story penned by the greatest storyteller of all time. If the gameplay sucks I'm not touching it.

Yeah, I've seen both sides of this with all of the RPG's I play. I did like FFXIII's story, but I just had such a painful time with the paradigm switching battle system (and several other design decisions like no towns and shops) that it just made it a chore to slog through. I did beat XIII-2 also but didn't think the story was all that great, and I haven't even played the third game and probably won't until it gets a big price drop.

And then there's Tales and Star Ocean - two series that IMO make up for somewhat lackluster storytelling (and voice acting in SO's case) with great battle systems and just fun gameplay in general. Have to say Xillia, which I just finished in the last few days, had a better story than other Tales games I've played though.

[jeremym480]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

I can be tougher finding a game with great gameplay that isn't too repetitive when the story sucks....IMO story can patch some minor gameplay issues, but if a game's story is atrocious why would I want to even play at all?

I guess with me I have limited time so I can be pickier and play more games with at least decent story and gameplay or better.

I'm the same way. Currently my favorite games are Telltales' The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us. They're just point and click games, but they're stories are so good that their continuations will probably be on the top of my Best Games of 2014 List.

Thinking back my favorite games were always games like The Last of Us and Heavy Rain because I thought both had compelling stories/characters that really sucked me in. I also really like the Uncharted series. I know I lot of people don't like the whole nerf gun thing, but too me the story and amazing action sequences more than made up for it. Games like Max Payne 3, Tomb Raider and Batman Arkham Asylum (Arkham City not so much) also fall into this "decent stories, good game play, fun" category.

I'm usually enjoy linear games more than sandbox games simply because the story usually isn't as good in sandbox games. I enjoyed RDR and GTA but both games had meh stories in my opinion. Really the only sandbox game that I really enjoyed the story as well as the game play was Sleeping Dogs.

I'm still waiting on a NG game with a decent story. If anyone knows of one I'm all ears.