i'm defining it in my head as "necessary and unavoidable play activity included by designers for [fullness of experience / game balance / inclusivity / customization / anticipation for the next climax / lore building] that is, nevertheless, not fun"
― Four Seasons Total Manscaping (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 14 November 2020 05:07 (three years ago) link
i'm not sure you can avoid adding some broccoli in almost any gamelike you wouldn't think Mortal Kombat has any but then you rememberhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfwTG1EvL2c
― Four Seasons Total Manscaping (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 14 November 2020 05:10 (three years ago) link
gaming broccoli is a great term. especially as a category it generates some interesting onward thinking (is the way kojima serves his broccoli the main part of what makes his games distinctive? because *so much broccoli* you could even argue he made a virtue of it in death stranding). but yeah, how do we get the action/character from a-b, i suppose we’d better make this mission an escort mission, let’s send the character here before they can encounter x boss or get y upgrade, or *time for a laborious info dump to explain stoopid premise of the next mission. all classics of their genre.
― Fizzles, Saturday, 14 November 2020 08:44 (three years ago) link
I'm not sure that I'd find the term that useful (sorry forks) - I mean FFVII arguably is a materia management sim with some very large mini games - is the story broccoli?
And most stealth sections levered in are less "we should do this" and more "we have to expand this sequel, what are the kids into".
So I'd see (keeping on that kind of example) the Spyro sequels where the charging around and head butting / flaming things is interspersed with dull levels where you have to play other characters - I'd see a line separating that from the Starcraft missions where there's no new resources, you have a small team in an enemy base and you'll get reinforcements at specific points. The latter seems a lot more like "what does our toolkit allow us to do?"
― Andrew Farrell, Saturday, 14 November 2020 10:12 (three years ago) link
But maybe I'm wrong, maybe Insomniac had a burning desire for more Sheila the Kangaroo, and Blizzard had to be forced at gunpoint to make soloish levels so that the players had heroes to 'identify with'.
I've probably mentioned before but I was overjoyed to get to the bottom of the high-up dungeon on the home island in Wind Waker, because the game gave me the thing I went in there for, and a portal out, AND an entrance to more levels!
Which yeah, you like a game if you like the gameplay, but the concept of gameplay isn't a monolith. After I finished Ico, I hipped a friend to it, and she came round to play it. She really loved it - apart from the bits where you whacked at the shadow kids with your sword, where she'd hand the controller back to me. But the fighting parts are still part of the game, and contribute to the tone (and mounting horror), right?
I'm hesitant to push this theory too far, as the end point may be the claim that watching a progress bar fill is protected gameplay, which is basically the Anti-Life Equation.
― Andrew Farrell, Saturday, 14 November 2020 10:29 (three years ago) link
i dont think story/cutscenes are ever broccoli unless they're interrupting a good gameplay sequence and breaking up your flow
― ciderpress, Saturday, 14 November 2020 15:00 (three years ago) link
Spidey But Better is like Spidey, but better!
I really like the new supercharge not-stolen-from-infamous power but not had much fun with my invisibility cloak yet.
Early days yet so I have lots to work out with gadgets and upgrades and skill trees.
― Clean-up on ILX (onimo), Tuesday, 17 November 2020 19:59 (three years ago) link
Looks nuts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrPZSq5YXqc
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 24 May 2023 23:22 (eleven months ago) link
did they remember to put spider-man in this one?
― ciderpress, Thursday, 25 May 2023 00:41 (ten months ago) link
goddamn it now i have to get a PS5
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 25 May 2023 07:17 (ten months ago) link
i for one am excited to play as play as spider-man 2 in SPIDER-MAN 2, insomniac’s game about spider-man 2 starring two spider-men
― rick semper moranis (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 25 May 2023 11:33 (ten months ago) link
Look Who's Spider-Man Too!
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 25 May 2023 11:37 (ten months ago) link
Spider-Man all symbiote'd out fighting Kraven? Sure, why not
― mh, Thursday, 25 May 2023 13:53 (ten months ago) link
lol the story and cut-scenes in this are so shit
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Friday, 19 January 2024 22:59 (three months ago) link
so glad they inserted a walking simulator section where you clean the kitchen
The first game or the second (or Miles)? I think I read that the sequel cost significantly more than the first game, like triple, and also that the game, despite strong sales, hasn't come close to breaking even. But I've also heard that it looks and plays more or less the same, or at least as more of the same, which is fine by me. I liked Spider-man, but I think I have low game standards.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 19 January 2024 23:20 (three months ago) link
oh all the fighting and swinging is great. i'm not a huge fan of the tag-team dynamic, the main effect of which is to make you forget which button to mash as they have one shared abilities tree, as well as separate ability trees. it's just astonishing how much attention they can put into like a million dolby atmos sand droplet effects but none into making the faces look like they're actually talking human words
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Friday, 19 January 2024 23:25 (three months ago) link
just so much stupid sub-sitcom stuff like peter’s nervous that MJ won’t like the clutter in his house so you have to make him throw the “old” fruit away yet the bananas are still yellow and the apples are fine. his mortgage is more than 4k per month on his aunt’s huge place and he doesn’t have the money and MJ’s like “i’ll pay for it!” and peter’s like “i don’t deserve you! *snuggles*” like whatfeels like they’re trying to take a few pages from naughty dog’s book but it’s harder to make this stuff work than it looks. at one point miles, as spider-man, says “i gotta go tell spider-man!” uh you are spider-man budjust playing now, noticed peter can apparently stick to foam tile drop ceilings. how does the physics work here
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Friday, 19 January 2024 23:43 (three months ago) link
peter’s shooting hoops with his old school friend. now, if you’re going to do a basketball minigame, could it at least be fun? if not, could you at least mimic the shot mechanic of 2k, which is how millions of people all over the world play video game basketball? anyway, they’re just trading shots in street clothes as they reminisce and bro down, and say one point pete’s friend says “hey what’s the score?” the score? you are just trading shots. there’s no score. it’s not a game. it’s not even horse. every bit of non-action gameplay and scripting appears to have been written by an ai
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Friday, 19 January 2024 23:49 (three months ago) link
oh and i’m piissed i didn’t get a trophy for swishing every shot
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Friday, 19 January 2024 23:50 (three months ago) link
Who's laughing now?
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 20 January 2024 00:12 (three months ago) link
early on spidey is talking to a fellow nerd on some kind of comm as he swings around the city and his friend is like “the city’s communication grid is down! but i have an idea.. maybe we can set up our own network to communicate!” and spidey says back “ok great idea” except with more wisecracking obviously, and then his friend is like “get to the top of that building and find a launcher, that’ll send up a drone which will form the first node of the network, then we can communicate” and spidey says back, into his comms device, “that’s brilliant”
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 20 January 2024 00:20 (three months ago) link
It's not about the destination, it's about the journey. Like, literally.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 20 January 2024 02:45 (three months ago) link
i did like the underwater nightmare sequence tbf
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 20 January 2024 22:26 (three months ago) link