The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
What makes a good game? Graphics? Sound? Gameplay? In my opinion, none of those. What makes a good game, is plot. And having a good plot just boils down to the writers and their story-writing competence. Many developers nowadays are putting all their resources towards the graphics and gameplay, and lobbing on a story at the end as an extra add-on. While a developer can still make a jolly good game like this, it'll never be propelled to the dizzy heights reached by the likes of Final Fantasy, Zelda and Half Life, purely because it doesn't have a gripping plot to captivate and entrance the player. While some genres aren't really the type for having a plot, talented developers can still add plot-like elements. Such as in SSX Tricky, and Airblade. Elements of a plot still hold together a game which would otherwise not be as good as it could.
However, just having a plot doesn't constitute a great game. You still need the elements such as graphics, sound and gameplay, but a plot is also essential. As mentioned before, Airblade does have a plot, but it isn't a brilliant plot, and isn't the type to hold the audience. Therefore, it is just as ineffective as not having a plot at all. But those games that do have a good plot are all the better for it. I couldn't leave Final Fantasy 9 for days; I spent almost every day of last Easter playing it, mainly because I wanted, no, needed to see the next plot advancement, I just had to see what was awaiting the heroes around the next corner.
So I have established that plot is an important issue. As stated before, a good plot purely depends on the competence of the writers. But the script also holds together a game.
Take a Net Yaroze game, a fairly decent, if technically laid-back game, translated by the Japanese Uni-student who made it. "Cave is by a large dragon enforced", was a sentence I once came across whilst divulging in a game on the Demo-discs of old. Now I know that in every mediocre+ game this isn't a problem, but some of the top games of the time still suffer from having a bad script.
Devil May Cry: (Spoken by big bird-boss) "Flock off, feather face - or you can stick around and find out the hard way". Hmmmm. Or how about (Spoken by Scorpion boss) "I hope you've got something inside that big body of yours". More Hmmmm.
Often lazy, ignorant or just totally stupid developers will offer such a stupid or unimpressive translation that the game suffers for this too. Dumb-assed one liners are often what developers resort to, and it is downright shameful. The 'wit', if actually present, is so terrible that a five year old with an under-1,000 vocabulary could do better.
But plot and script are often bad, some games have such ingenious and downright funny scripts that they become more of a stand-up comedy than just an ordinary theatre lay. Some of the in-jokes in Rare's games are hilarious, yet contain that subtle humour that only devoted gamers would understand. Plotwise, RPGs are easily the most advanced, and until the re-arrival of Interactive Movies, will be the choice for people wanting a good captivating banter.
So while I know that there are ten times as many bad games as good, often the worst games can contain the best plot, and until developers decide to put a little time into weaving a wonderful tale, plot will always be bettered by graphics or gameplay, and often both. Only games with truly absorbing plots become the best, so to be in with a chance, the plot should be a much bigger aspect in vide-game development.
However, just having a plot doesn't constitute a great game. You still need the elements such as graphics, sound and gameplay, but a plot is also essential. As mentioned before, Airblade does have a plot, but it isn't a brilliant plot, and isn't the type to hold the audience. Therefore, it is just as ineffective as not having a plot at all. But those games that do have a good plot are all the better for it. I couldn't leave Final Fantasy 9 for days; I spent almost every day of last Easter playing it, mainly because I wanted, no, needed to see the next plot advancement, I just had to see what was awaiting the heroes around the next corner.
So I have established that plot is an important issue. As stated before, a good plot purely depends on the competence of the writers. But the script also holds together a game.
Take a Net Yaroze game, a fairly decent, if technically laid-back game, translated by the Japanese Uni-student who made it. "Cave is by a large dragon enforced", was a sentence I once came across whilst divulging in a game on the Demo-discs of old. Now I know that in every mediocre+ game this isn't a problem, but some of the top games of the time still suffer from having a bad script.
Devil May Cry: (Spoken by big bird-boss) "Flock off, feather face - or you can stick around and find out the hard way". Hmmmm. Or how about (Spoken by Scorpion boss) "I hope you've got something inside that big body of yours". More Hmmmm.
Often lazy, ignorant or just totally stupid developers will offer such a stupid or unimpressive translation that the game suffers for this too. Dumb-assed one liners are often what developers resort to, and it is downright shameful. The 'wit', if actually present, is so terrible that a five year old with an under-1,000 vocabulary could do better.
But plot and script are often bad, some games have such ingenious and downright funny scripts that they become more of a stand-up comedy than just an ordinary theatre lay. Some of the in-jokes in Rare's games are hilarious, yet contain that subtle humour that only devoted gamers would understand. Plotwise, RPGs are easily the most advanced, and until the re-arrival of Interactive Movies, will be the choice for people wanting a good captivating banter.
So while I know that there are ten times as many bad games as good, often the worst games can contain the best plot, and until developers decide to put a little time into weaving a wonderful tale, plot will always be bettered by graphics or gameplay, and often both. Only games with truly absorbing plots become the best, so to be in with a chance, the plot should be a much bigger aspect in vide-game development.
Odd how I have a topic in this very same forum called "What makes games good"... and that went up a couple of days ago...
Odd that
Sonic
Odd that
Sonic
½pint wrote:
> But
> games that do have plots have to have good plots.
--------------
Well, duh!
> But
> games that do have plots have to have good plots.
--------------
Well, duh!
VenomByte wrote:
> ½pint wrote:
> What makes a good game? Graphics? Sound? Gameplay?
> In my opinion, none of
> those. What makes a good game, is plot.
No,
> you're thinking of books, not games.
A game needs no plot. No sports sim
> needs a plot. No puzzle game needs a plot. No first person shooter of 3D
> adventure really needs a plot. 'Shoot the enemies'.
'Beat the bad guys' is
> generally all you need to know.
The only genre which really has any need for
> a plot, is an RPG. And that's only by definition.
--------------
It I suppose maybe. But games that do have plots have to have good plots.
> ½pint wrote:
> What makes a good game? Graphics? Sound? Gameplay?
> In my opinion, none of
> those. What makes a good game, is plot.
No,
> you're thinking of books, not games.
A game needs no plot. No sports sim
> needs a plot. No puzzle game needs a plot. No first person shooter of 3D
> adventure really needs a plot. 'Shoot the enemies'.
'Beat the bad guys' is
> generally all you need to know.
The only genre which really has any need for
> a plot, is an RPG. And that's only by definition.
--------------
It I suppose maybe. But games that do have plots have to have good plots.
½pint wrote:
> What makes a good game? Graphics? Sound? Gameplay? In my opinion, none of
> those. What makes a good game, is plot.
No, you're thinking of books, not games.
A game needs no plot. No sports sim needs a plot. No puzzle game needs a plot. No first person shooter of 3D adventure really needs a plot. 'Shoot the enemies'.
'Beat the bad guys' is generally all you need to know.
The only genre which really has any need for a plot, is an RPG. And that's only by definition.
> What makes a good game? Graphics? Sound? Gameplay? In my opinion, none of
> those. What makes a good game, is plot.
No, you're thinking of books, not games.
A game needs no plot. No sports sim needs a plot. No puzzle game needs a plot. No first person shooter of 3D adventure really needs a plot. 'Shoot the enemies'.
'Beat the bad guys' is generally all you need to know.
The only genre which really has any need for a plot, is an RPG. And that's only by definition.
perfect dark was going fine until elvis the alien woke up
doesn't make it that much less of a good game though.
doesn't make it that much less of a good game though.
All my favourite games have virtually no plot (except for Shenmue), so I disagree. But I do agree that storylines need to improve - most are just cliched predictable nonsense. Graphical style and addictive gameplay is what's most important for me when buying and judging a game.
What makes a good game? Graphics? Sound? Gameplay? In my opinion, none of those. What makes a good game, is plot. And having a good plot just boils down to the writers and their story-writing competence. Many developers nowadays are putting all their resources towards the graphics and gameplay, and lobbing on a story at the end as an extra add-on. While a developer can still make a jolly good game like this, it'll never be propelled to the dizzy heights reached by the likes of Final Fantasy, Zelda and Half Life, purely because it doesn't have a gripping plot to captivate and entrance the player. While some genres aren't really the type for having a plot, talented developers can still add plot-like elements. Such as in SSX Tricky, and Airblade. Elements of a plot still hold together a game which would otherwise not be as good as it could.
However, just having a plot doesn't constitute a great game. You still need the elements such as graphics, sound and gameplay, but a plot is also essential. As mentioned before, Airblade does have a plot, but it isn't a brilliant plot, and isn't the type to hold the audience. Therefore, it is just as ineffective as not having a plot at all. But those games that do have a good plot are all the better for it. I couldn't leave Final Fantasy 9 for days; I spent almost every day of last Easter playing it, mainly because I wanted, no, needed to see the next plot advancement, I just had to see what was awaiting the heroes around the next corner.
So I have established that plot is an important issue. As stated before, a good plot purely depends on the competence of the writers. But the script also holds together a game.
Take a Net Yaroze game, a fairly decent, if technically laid-back game, translated by the Japanese Uni-student who made it. "Cave is by a large dragon enforced", was a sentence I once came across whilst divulging in a game on the Demo-discs of old. Now I know that in every mediocre+ game this isn't a problem, but some of the top games of the time still suffer from having a bad script.
Devil May Cry: (Spoken by big bird-boss) "Flock off, feather face - or you can stick around and find out the hard way". Hmmmm. Or how about (Spoken by Scorpion boss) "I hope you've got something inside that big body of yours". More Hmmmm.
Often lazy, ignorant or just totally stupid developers will offer such a stupid or unimpressive translation that the game suffers for this too. Dumb-assed one liners are often what developers resort to, and it is downright shameful. The 'wit', if actually present, is so terrible that a five year old with an under-1,000 vocabulary could do better.
But plot and script are often bad, some games have such ingenious and downright funny scripts that they become more of a stand-up comedy than just an ordinary theatre lay. Some of the in-jokes in Rare's games are hilarious, yet contain that subtle humour that only devoted gamers would understand. Plotwise, RPGs are easily the most advanced, and until the re-arrival of Interactive Movies, will be the choice for people wanting a good captivating banter.
So while I know that there are ten times as many bad games as good, often the worst games can contain the best plot, and until developers decide to put a little time into weaving a wonderful tale, plot will always be bettered by graphics or gameplay, and often both. Only games with truly absorbing plots become the best, so to be in with a chance, the plot should be a much bigger aspect in vide-game development.
However, just having a plot doesn't constitute a great game. You still need the elements such as graphics, sound and gameplay, but a plot is also essential. As mentioned before, Airblade does have a plot, but it isn't a brilliant plot, and isn't the type to hold the audience. Therefore, it is just as ineffective as not having a plot at all. But those games that do have a good plot are all the better for it. I couldn't leave Final Fantasy 9 for days; I spent almost every day of last Easter playing it, mainly because I wanted, no, needed to see the next plot advancement, I just had to see what was awaiting the heroes around the next corner.
So I have established that plot is an important issue. As stated before, a good plot purely depends on the competence of the writers. But the script also holds together a game.
Take a Net Yaroze game, a fairly decent, if technically laid-back game, translated by the Japanese Uni-student who made it. "Cave is by a large dragon enforced", was a sentence I once came across whilst divulging in a game on the Demo-discs of old. Now I know that in every mediocre+ game this isn't a problem, but some of the top games of the time still suffer from having a bad script.
Devil May Cry: (Spoken by big bird-boss) "Flock off, feather face - or you can stick around and find out the hard way". Hmmmm. Or how about (Spoken by Scorpion boss) "I hope you've got something inside that big body of yours". More Hmmmm.
Often lazy, ignorant or just totally stupid developers will offer such a stupid or unimpressive translation that the game suffers for this too. Dumb-assed one liners are often what developers resort to, and it is downright shameful. The 'wit', if actually present, is so terrible that a five year old with an under-1,000 vocabulary could do better.
But plot and script are often bad, some games have such ingenious and downright funny scripts that they become more of a stand-up comedy than just an ordinary theatre lay. Some of the in-jokes in Rare's games are hilarious, yet contain that subtle humour that only devoted gamers would understand. Plotwise, RPGs are easily the most advanced, and until the re-arrival of Interactive Movies, will be the choice for people wanting a good captivating banter.
So while I know that there are ten times as many bad games as good, often the worst games can contain the best plot, and until developers decide to put a little time into weaving a wonderful tale, plot will always be bettered by graphics or gameplay, and often both. Only games with truly absorbing plots become the best, so to be in with a chance, the plot should be a much bigger aspect in vide-game development.