Official PC Thread

[bVork]

I don't entirely agree. The problem is when you think that it is a problem. I was about to post a comment on how any game that takes away player control for a decent length of time in order to tell a story is either poorly implemented or poorly written, but then I recalled how much I enjoyed Mortal Kombat's story mode, which will happily spend five minutes between fights on pre-rendered cutscenes. It all depends on the subjective worth of the cutscenes to each individual player. I know people who eat up the codec conversations in Metal Gear Solid, and yet I think that they are terrible and ultimately worse than useless. I love the way Half-Life 2 handles story exposition, and yet I know people who think that being locked in a room while characters jabber is the worst possible way to implement a story.

By the way, do you know where the word cutscene originated? It came from Maniac Mansion, to literally describe the scenes where the game would cut away from the player's characters to depict an event happening elsewhere.

[Uriel]

The only thing that irks me is when people don't understand the concept/value of a silent protagonist. I'm not talking about simply having a distaste for it, but considering it an objectively inferior narrative decision.

[Compass]

That's because it usually is.

[Uriel]

That's because it usually is.

Let me rephrase that for you: An inherently inferior narrative decision.

[Frogacuda]

I think it stems from a belief that players want to feel like they are the main character, and hearing them say things they wouldn't diminishes that. I never felt that way. When I play RPGs with a create-a-character, I feel no particular compulsion to make the characters resemble me, but instead try to make the character whose story I'd like to hear.

It's a convention that mostly seems to plague RPGs and first-person games because they have the association with role-playing and immersion respectively. And RPG-esques like Zelda, I suppose.

[Yoshi]

When I play RPGs with a create-a-character, I feel no particular compulsion to make the characters resemble me, but instead try to make the character whose story I'd like to hear.

ProTip: TNL is an RPG.

[Diff-chan]

worst rpg ever

[AaronChance]

The only thing that irks me is when people don't understand the concept/value of a silent protagonist. I'm not talking about simply having a distaste for it, but considering it an objectively inferior narrative decision.

It works well in specific situations, but I think it's used more often than it should. It was ideal for Portal 2, but Bioshock 2... man, did I want to shout back at some of these characters. Being unable to respond to some things, especially what Lamb would say, diminished the game before me.

[epmode]

Frozen Synapse is finally out of beta and is available on Steam for $20 (usually $25). This also includes a free key for a second player.

You should be interested because it's a ridiculously unique take on strategy games. As the guy in this video explains, it's as though someone made a full game out of the planning stages in early Rainbow Six games.



Skip to about 5:40 for a gameplay demonstration.

So:
Turn-based/realtime hybrid
Randomized levels
Multiplayer-focused with an extensive single-player campaign
RAD SOUNDTRACK

Eurogamer review: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...synapse-review
9/10

It had seemed doubtful, months back, that this would ever be a convincing single-player game. It seemed wholly designed for player-versus-player, and a Brink situation of strung-together bot matches seemed the most likely outcome. Frozen Synapse is an excellent and inventive multiplayer game, but it is, truly, also an excellent and inventive single-player game - one that provides its own distinct challenges and rewards even as it effectively tutors you to be a multiplayer champ.

But the dizzy thrill of defeating an implacable human opponent - after all that panicky guesstimation, all your courting of the mendacious spacebar - is the sweetest song the game has to sing. That's why your $20 or £15 buys two copies of Frozen Synapse, making an already fair price for a smart and slick game all the fairer.

Frozen Synapse takes the old, the stuffy and the traditionally glacial and it makes it brand new, instant and brutal. It's such an achievement.

[Uriel]

Big Clancy sale today. How is HAWX? It and it's sequel are the only ones I'm really interested in ($6.79 and $16.99 respectively).