let’s play as spider-man in SPIDER-MAN, insomniac’s game about spider-man starring spider-man

i'm not sure you can avoid adding some broccoli in almost any game
like you wouldn't think Mortal Kombat has any but then you remember
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfwTG1EvL2c

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.

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?"

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.

i dont think story/cutscenes are ever broccoli unless they're interrupting a good gameplay sequence and breaking up your flow

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.

Looks nuts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrPZSq5YXqc

did they remember to put spider-man in this one?

goddamn it now i have to get a PS5

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

Look Who's Spider-Man Too!

Spider-Man all symbiote'd out fighting Kraven? Sure, why not

lol the story and cut-scenes in this are so shit

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.

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

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 what

feels 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 bud

just playing now, noticed peter can apparently stick to foam tile drop ceilings. how does the physics work here

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

oh and i’m piissed i didn’t get a trophy for swishing every shot

Who's laughing now?

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”

It's not about the destination, it's about the journey. Like, literally.

i did like the underwater nightmare sequence tbf