Video Game Thread: Atari vs. Commodore Debate...

How does Witcher 2 compare to Skyrim and Oblivion? Also, I'm thrown off a bit by your preferences. You enjoy a medieval RPG but yet you dislike Zelda. That's unusual. Curious what about Zelda made you feel bored? The hand holding would be my guess. I get that.

Not really like TES games (which I love); it's much more story driven and the combat is... less straightforward, I guess I would say. Like Cy, Witcher has some sandboxy elements, but it's not in the same ballpark as Skyrim. I'm not super far into the game yet, but it's got some unique-ish elements compared to the standard hack/slash RPGs.

But it is definitely not like Zelda. There are like titties (no mustard... yet) and bad words. It's all gritty and stuff. The game has personality. I never really got personality from the Zelda games I've played.

I don't actively dislike Zelda. I'll play the games from time to time, but they don't capture my attention like they seem to do for so many, and so I've never actually gotten to the end. In general, I don't really connect with the whole Nintendo aesthetic, I guess. Everything always seems so... wholesome? I ain't got time for wholesome. I haven't had a Nintendo console since the N64 since none of their flagship titles really do it for me.

For perspective, here's the games I've put any actual time into and enjoyed during the last year or so:

Skyrim
Fallout NV
Civ 5
Witcher 2
Torchlight 2 (Diablo-style clicker; great for turn-off-your-brain, adventure killing, but gets old after awhile; didn't finish, as the story was basically nonexistent; maybe one day)
Out of the Park
 
I've always appreciated the zelda games but like meta they never were games I went out of my way to play. Ocarina was probably my first open world game I've ever played. The zombies that would walk out in Hyrule Field when you're young link would scare me...
 
Errrr...See, this why I need to get my computer fixed. I need a new motherboard and can't afford it. I really want to play through Witcher 2 before the third comes out. I have the original and liked it, but I hated how they repeatedly reused assets and that the game took so long to get going.

Never played 1; kinda read some stuff that led me to believe I'd be better off jumping into 2, and there is a prequel video to catch you up; #2 definitely takes a little bit to get going; there's kind of a lame tutorial quest about the control system and then a prologue that takes awhile. But I think they are kind of necessary to help you ease into the game proper.
 
Just finished the John Marston segment of Red Dead Redemption (pretty much the main game). Man, what an incredible game. The only reason I just got around to playing it is because I was waiting for it to eventually come to PC, like every other Rockstar game. For some reason it never did though, and I remember reading a quote not too long ago from Rockstar saying that they had no plans to do so. Anyway, it's a great game. It's probably tied with LA Noire for my 2nd favorite Rockstar game after the original Max Payne.

And Meta, Zelda games have all of the personality in the world. And Nintendo games are about being video games, not interactive movies. They get accused of not telling stories, but they do. They just usually do it through gameplay instead of dialogue and cutscenes. Not that there is anything wrong at all with the latter (see the previous paragraph), but that's one of the reasons why Nintendo is my favorite game company. They just make games, and they're fun as hell.

P.S. Nintendo has plenty of games that are more mature-oriented than Mario and Zelda (although Zelda often straddles that line, See: Majora's Mask).
 
Red Dead Redemption is my favorite Rock Star game. LA Noire was a hair too repetitive for my liking but it's story was very good and it was original.
 
And Meta, Zelda games have all of the personality in the world.

I guess I'll defer to people who've obviously played a lot more Zelda than I have (basically nothing close to recent), but it just seems like all the characters were always... boring and one dimensional? What is Link's personality? What is Zelda's personality? Ganon is bad, whoopdidooo...

Maybe I'll go find a rom of Majora's Mask and it'll change my mind. Never played that one.
 
I guess I'll defer to people who've obviously played a lot more Zelda than I have (basically nothing close to recent), but it just seems like all the characters were always... boring and one dimensional? What is Link's personality? What is Zelda's personality? Ganon is bad, whoopdidooo...

Maybe I'll go find a rom of Majora's Mask and it'll change my mind. Never played that one.

Well, yeah I can't argue with main characters not being cardboard cutouts. But, that's mostly because Link is just the avatar for the player. The side characters you meet are certainly more interesting though. And I'm really talking about the world in general having a lot of character, since that's what it's really about.
 
Yeah I would say that starting with Majora's Mask Nintendo stepped up the game on the story and characters in Zelda... moreso the story.

Still though nintendo is always going to build games on gameplay first and sort of create a story that fits in with that gameplay. There are some good story driven games on recent nintendo platforms, but they aren't made by nintendo, just published by nintendo.
 
Yeah I would say that starting with Majora's Mask Nintendo stepped up the game on the story and characters in Zelda... moreso the story.

Still though nintendo is always going to build games on gameplay first and sort of create a story that fits in with that gameplay. There are some good story driven games on recent nintendo platforms, but they aren't made by nintendo, just published by nintendo.

The Fire Emblem and the Mother (Earthbound) series are both story driven and made by Nintendo.
 
Red Dead Redemption is my favorite Rock Star game. LA Noire was a hair too repetitive for my liking but it's story was very good and it was original.

One of the only things that I didn't like about about LA Noire was how they tried to shoehorn in a plot at the last minute, after the first 20 hours was just a straightforward detective game. And, naturally, that plot ended up being horrible. The main character we've been getting to know and care about turns out to be an asshole and then dies for no reason.
 
One of the only things that I didn't like about about LA Noire was how they tried to shoehorn in a plot at the last minute, after the first 20 hours was just a straightforward detective game. And, naturally, that plot ended up being horrible. The main character we've been getting to know and care about turns out to be an asshole and then dies for no reason.

Yeah, I forgot about the ending until you brought it up. But the story up til that point was good.
 
I don't know if you'll have the same experience as myself who played it when I was like 10 or something like that so it has added nostalgia maybe more than it does for you. But it's such a good RPG. SNES was the best system for RPGs
 
It's pretty good. Not a huge fan of the combat system, but there's something about the psychedlic backgrounds that has a lot of charm. The writing is very witty and while the story is about a bunch of kids, it has pretty mature undertones.
 
It's pretty good. Not a huge fan of the combat system, but there's something about the psychedlic backgrounds that has a lot of charm. The writing is very witty and while the story is about a bunch of kids, it has pretty mature undertones.

That and Chrono Trigger to me are the peak of great RPGs. Chrono Trigger has a combat system I love.
 
I have Chrono Trigger, is it any good?

Also, I probably have the most powerful pc on our forum, but I don't play any games except one, WOW and even if I play that it is rare. I used to play games all the time, but watching my kids growing up and reading books form Fanfiction.net, I find myself getting away from games. The kids play the Wii but the wife and I refuse to play with them, they are sore losers both of them if they are losing and drama is really high.

I might start Mass Effect this fall when it gets cooler. I have all three and I have all of Bethesda games, Fallout and Skyrim, and Origins.
 
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