whatchu playing now

Felt the same when I played it - it was fine. Pretty big gap between Uncharted 1 and The Last Of Us, in time and quality.
That's why I put off playing the sequels to this day. Should get around to them eventually, though

As I understand it, the writing and gameplay improves steadily through the series, with the 4th one and the Lost Legacy spinoff considered not just the best but a couple of the best games of their generation. And apparently they are better if you've spent time with the first three games, so I figured, sure, why not, they're not that long (for once).

Lost Legacy is great

Thief's End was very impressive but the mechanics all started wearing a little thin. Traverse, sneak, shoot shoot shoot, puzzle, cut scene, traverse, sneak, shoot shoot shoot, cut scene, etc. I felt manipulated or like a rat in a maze or something.

I feel like i've outgrown the linear action -> cutscene -> repeat style of game. I quit Marvel's Spider-man after the tutorial because I could see the pattern already.

"Spider-man" is a little more open-world than that. There seemed to be plenty to do independent of the plot (as such) and whenever I felt like getting back on track to the linear action -> cutscene progression I did. I still got bored of it, eventually, probably because the story/writing gap between scripted stuff like "Last of Us" or "RDR2" and stuff like "Spider-man" felt pretty huge. It's a good question, though, how to construct a good plot and characters without relying on that familiar linear action/cutscene/repeat pattern. "Control" seemed to successfully shake up the formula here and there.

Uncharted 2 is pretty much the same dumb fun as its predecessor, at least two thirds of the way through, but it's neat to watch the subtle evolution of the gameplay. Slightly better mechanics, more things to do, more impressive set pieces, that sort of stuff.

I feel like i've outgrown the linear action -> cutscene -> repeat style of game. I quit Marvel's Spider-man after the tutorial because I could see the pattern already.

press-x-to-win

come on, this isn't fair. you also sometimes have to find the transparent X on the screen. where the heck is it? oh, over there. it's somewhere. then, you might have to hold X, or tap it.

I have no history with these games or anything, but they're almost not really games, more like interactive cartoons or something?

there are games that are kind of like that (heavy rain is a decent one), but i was just exaggerating with Uncharted. Uncharted definitely has many, many "press X to climb the ladder" kind of moments, but it also has running around, timing, guns and stuff

To be clear, by "no history" I mean I missed that era of gaming originally so have no nostalgic affinity for these games. But the two I've been playing or played so far have been a kind of fascinating hybrids of stuff. Platforming, guns, puzzle solving, etc. Nothing particularly challenging (at least on normal), but I like how they integrate gameplay into narrative. That's something other games I've played for sure have done better, including Last of Us, but I can see how a series like Uncharted might have played an important role in single-player game evolution. Certainly they're the types of games I might show to someone who knows nothing about games to demonstrate what they're capable of doing, at least from a flash standpoint.

I guess Uncharted is kinda the king of this, but there was a total glut of games 15-ish years ago aiming for “cinematic” and it was such a depressing era. Copy/paste Ubisoft open world games, funneled through corridor whack-a-mole FPS’s, and press-x-to-win dumbing down of everything. Kinda gruesomely laid bar the rat and cheese mechanics.

I remember a journalist at the time describing this as "content tourism", like you are being driven thru a safari park and are supposed to ooh and ahh at the scenery.

hah! that's too cynical for me

apex

tbf to Naughty Dog, they at least did that thing better than most. I don't like the Uncharted games, but I found the two Last of Us games very engaging.

At some point I'll probably play nu-Tomb Raiders, I'm curious how similar they are to Uncharted.

The Tomb Raiders are a decent option if you want something similar. They share a lot of mechanics and have a similar mix of shooting stuff to exploration. TR has maybe slightly more puzzles and more focus on collecting and crafting. imo Uncharted's writing and acting is way better - the character interactions are more entertaining and it doesn't take itself as seriously.

Tinykin is very good. It's a Pikmin type game (i.e. little dudes increasingly follow you around), but the platforming is rock solid. The level design kind of reminds me of Katamari Damacy.

OK, finished "Uncharted 2." Follows the sequel formula of "same, but more," with bigger set pieces and scale/scope, plus some nice character beats and (even more) self awareness. Kind of like every "Indiana Jones" movie all at once, silly fun (where you are also a relentless merchant of death).

So looks like two years separates each of the first three games, and then a big gap of five years comes before the fourth? Curious what two more years of game design brings to part 3 but also curious what five years (and "Last of Us") brings to part 4.

I found Uncharted’s gunfights prohibitively difficult. Slightly easier in the sequel but still non-fun

I dig the decadent 2000s vibe though

Interesting. I'm playing on "normal" and it seems pretty easy to me. I think it helps that unlike, say, "Last of Us," all you have to do is take cover to automatically heal, then come out blazing when you're al better again.

the '00s Gears of War cover shooter formula, basically, right?

I dunno, don't know that one.

Started "Uncharted 3." It's fun to play these in quick succession, because it makes the slight changes/improvements/additions more apparent. In this one the enemy AI is more clever, as is the banter (relatively speaking; Drake is still the dumbest smart person on earth, or maybe vice versa). The puzzles are trickier, or at least more annoying, and the set pieces continue to grow. The escape from the burning castle early on was really well done, though every time yet another thrill slowed me down (falling beam! broken bricks! collapsing floor!) it got pretty funny. Graphics-wise, I know this was redone by Bluepoint, who are great, but stuff like water and foliage looks really good. Characters ... they move right, but the faces are still pretty cartoony, with uncanny valley glimpses of hyper realism. I have a hunch it will be a big leap to Uncharted 4/Lost Legacy, which have both also been optimized for PS5.

Because it was on sale I bought "Inscryption," which I'd heard such good things about. It does seem cool, but maybe it's because I've never played any of these card games (no Pokemon, no Magic, nada) I literally had no idea what I was supposed to be doing, or at least no idea what was going on. What I presume was the tutorial felt like the first round after the tutorial. I'll have to give it another shot when I have more time to pay attention.

i think the point of that one is that it does a bunch of cool subversive stuff with the genre so it might help to have played something like Slay the Spire that plays it straight first idk

Good (bad?) to know, thanks.

no matter what i think you'll still appreciate what they were up to w that game!

yeah i'm sure thats the case i just meant if you cant wrap your head around the core mechanic at all it might not be the best one to start on?

I'm sure I'll be able to eventually figure it out, I was just surprised the game sort of drops you right in with little to no preamble. Regardless, it'll be weeks before I get to it in earnest, lol.

My one Inscryption tip is to make sure to get up and explore the cabin

downloaded prodeus and sunset overdrive… playing… apex season 15

not sure how many hours I have now. 1000+?

Cult of the Lamb is ruling my life right now.

I also bought Inscryption in the sale, just got to the end and holy wow I loved it. I mean, I'm a pathetic sucker for anything meta so probably the exact target audience, but I thought it did it *so* well. There were definitely a few secrets I didn't discover, and I'm not a big one for replaying, so I might just google for them at some point instead.

Yes, I loved it, although I was a little thrown by some of the pacing and what was going on plot-wise towards the end.

Finished "Uncharted 3," which was a little bit frustrating. The set pieces are bigger, more ridiculous and more fun, but the shootouts are pretty much all rote. The character writing is better, but the story is dumb and the villains even dumber; I felt like I missed a cut scene or two, because I wasn't quite sure what was going on, and there were so many cliches at work that it almost felt intentional. And I don't know whether to blame Bluepoint or Naughty Dog or both, but the animation was weirdly hit or miss, some a slight advance and other stuff (like the face work) almost a step back, and there were more glitches and bugs in this one than in both of the other two combined. Good time regardless. May play something else before I get to "4" and "Lost Legacy," or maybe I'll just storm through them.

played the first couple of hours of Tales Of Arise
holy crap people weren't lying when they said this game is a huge step up for the series

berseria was one of the best jrpg stories so there's not much room for it to improve there imo. but everywhere else yeah sure. looking forward to getting to it at some point

yeh no idea about the story yet, more in terms of graphics, controls, UI, battle movement etc.
you can really feel the extra budget they must have put into it

ciderpress are you gonna do a JRPG sunstuck or tumblr or something I rly want to know your top 10 or 50 of the decade or since 2000 or whatever

i honestly don't feel like i've played enough to do that.. i stalled out real hard a couple years ago and haven't played pretty much anything from 2020-2022 yet. nor have i played anything from the ps2 era which is a pretty big knowledge hole

Death's Door is pretty great

deaths door is SO GOOD. I want more of the same but not Dark Souls and not Tunic, other recs welcome, obv zelda but I've played all those

Endgame tip get all the level ups before the end boss bc once you finish the first stage you can't go back to the main game. the game doesn't warn you about the point of no return

Ended up starting "Uncharted 4" and, boy, what a big leap. Granted, I was playing remasters of PS3 games for the PS4, and this is a PS4 game optimized for the PS5, but the writing, gameplay and graphics are already impressive, even in the pre-credits sequence.

U4 is Naughty Dog's first post-TLOU, and the groundedness of the latter really shows up in their games from then on.

So what changed, exactly? Did it suddenly click with Druckmann (or whoever) that it was time to (creatively) "git gud"? Those first three Uncharteds are fine and fun, but TLOU is a huge leap, and U4 seems to continue that streak. Was it just better technological capabilities available? Did they earn a longer leash to get more ambitious?

Btw, I totally forgot about TLOU2, which I have not played and which has (against all odds) remained unspoiled for me. If I'm not Naughty Dogged out after all these Uncharteds, maybe that would be a good winter game, though I'm still debating playing the (remade) TLOU again first, depending on sales. That, fwiw, is why in my admittedly limited experience I'm so willing to go to bat for these playable movies. If the story is good and compelling, it's ok if the gameplay is kind of rudimentary. At least imo. Something like the From games, those are all about gameplay; while I couldn't really give a poop about figuring out the opaque lore, I can see why playing them again, but differently, could be appealing. Something like Last of Us, the gameplay *and* story would of course remain the same for a second play, more or less, but I can see myself enjoying it a second time like a would rewatching a movie or re-reading a book.

Just play TLOU2!

After these last two Uncharteds! I already own TLOU2, and I'm a sucker for PS5 optimized PS4 games, so that's a step in the right direction.

Just spitballing, but the Uncharteds were basically updated Indiana Joneses, so the tone was mostly going to be breezy and quippy. I think with the critical success of TLOU, Druckmann's cinematic, grim/gritty aspirations became a viable commercial approach. (He was also only a designer on the first Uncharted, a co-producer/co-writer on 2, and not involved much with 3 because that was when he was working on TLOU.)