Artsygamer

Wow, this is a seriously reverent (and to me moving) review. They didn’t even start with the usual wordplay on the good/bad game…
This game is soooo going on my TODO list. As for the cutscenes: I’ve only played MGS3 but it has convinced me that it is actually possible to be playing a game and yet not only not be bored by cutscenes but be impressed by their cinematic qualities and on the edge of your scenes for their story.
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I must say I’m surprised: i didn’t expect it to live up to so many expectations and yet everybody who’s seen it seems to give it the thumbs up. But while that means a lot of people like the gameplay what does this mean for the artwork? Well, I have yet to play it, but from research so far this is what my intuition has to say: GTA 4 may not end up being one of my sweethearts, but I can certanly respect it.
"Why not"s:
- it has a urban ordinary environment, it doesn’t stimulate my creativity or imagination with original settings or unique society (i’m talking things like some surprising races, giving rise to interesting phylosophical questions through their varied ways of thinking)
- cars. and cars again. and vehicles. and then gadgets which are basically vehicles… well, not only am I not a big vehicle fan but it is a very repeatin structure
- drive, kill, drive, kill… minigame, drive, kill
- it seems to have done some sacrifices for the censors

but wait, I’m actually not here to criticise the game, because like I was saying, though I don’t see it as an absolute artsy game I do think it has some great values and a lot of stuff that inspires my respect. So, onto "Why yes"s:

+ a lot of content, a lot of value, a great polish
+ music! a ton of it! great radio stations! that’s artwork, that is. It may not be music I like (90% probably), but that doesn’t matter, what matters is that that is content. True content. Not generated, not recycled, not replayed, a fresh experience! And that will give a large group of people a large dose of satisfaction. 10% for each of us means a lot of niches covered… which is AMAZING!
+ sure, the world may be unoriginal, but you can do a lot of stuff in it. And because of it’s openness you can get creative and "make your own story", at least in little personal ways
+ things sound really good from the story point of view. It gives me great hope to hear that the story stands up to movies…
+ though I’m not very multiplayer-ish the idea of playing a "deathmatch" in which a whole city could be the weapon… well, that’s a dream come true. Well, actually for it to be that it would have to be a game in which you could actually end up playing a political strategy game influencing territory wars or reputation hits until you get to your enemy… but hey, even just the thought of running away from your friend in a 3 wheeled car only to set up an ambush for him where 20 cars fall on him sounds surprisingly exciting (i liked the touch in the vid where the fall of a guy triggered an alarm. shows attention to detail).
+ a lot of content but with easy difficulty. No useless dying. Easy… awesome!!! Even so, what to others is easy may prove hard to me or some… but I’m hoping… there’s hope… In a sea of games that "challenge" with impossible difficulty, repetition and frustration this would be sooo great

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It’s a tragedy how quickly games "grow old"… well, it’s also great news of the speed of their evolution, but what I mean to say is that I understand how hard it is even a few years later to see the beauty in something that by our present standards is antiquated. So I was very happy when I saw somebody writing about this one because I thought it is an amazing masterpiece. If you’re willing to overlook it’s age the graphics is superb, original, the story is shockingly interesting and the music creates a mood that I’d call one of the best "gothic" moods I’ve ever experienced. Unluckily for me I never did finish it. I was sure I had gotten close but now looking around the web it seems the game is even more huge and awesome than I experienced… just had to write about it a bit…
Some screenshots from the game can be seen here.
Reading it’s wikipedia page I realize the main character is a true anti-hero, and since I’ve played this quite a long time ago, but blogged about it quite recently I’m reminded of a quote which I believe is from Anne Rice’s vampire books which (i think) goes something like: ‘over the centuries we don’t change, but become more and more ourselves’.
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The thingie at the end, i mean after the normal show… sooooo worth watching. So pushes the emotional buttons. The first screen soooo reminded me of the Outlaws intro cinematic.

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Sounds very promising. The serious story combined with the choices with consequences (way too rare these days) make it very attractive imho.

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And again I my express my alignment with Yahtzee’s lign of thinking: I didn’t play the expansion just saw Marius play the original FEAR. I had suspected this about the expansions but it’s sad to have it confirmed that it’s more of the same, which for me is a bad thing because while I agree that the horror short scenes are quite good bordering on the brilliant, the game seems alllll the saaaameee to me. I expect my shooters to take me to a different setting every level, or at the very least every 3 levels so that throughout a game I will have gone through settings ranging from ghostly houses and sci-fi cathedrals to volcanic hell pits and flying islands above the clouds. Instead FEAR only seemed to have 3 types of settings (office, sewers and warehouse?) enlessly recycled and even those not made in an art awe inspiring fashion.

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        Well what do you know? it’s wednesday again! And Yahtzee is faithfully back! Thank you wednesday… ummmm, I meant ot say Yahtzee!
More on the point: haven’t played the game but I’m happy to see him picking on originality/repetition of content and forced backtracking with filler fights.
Why happy? Because the more people notice this the bigger the chance that game companies will stop doing it. Deep, huh?

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