Originally Posted by directhex
i won't attempt to disagree with your list because, frankly, i can't - there are some real corkers in that list. i even agree about the shoddiness of of silent hill 4 - but i disagree with your reasoning of why you like those games
the first rule of statistics is "correlation does not imply causation". you like good games adult games - but that does not mean adultness causes goodness. there are a plethora of games with adult themes which are, frankly, childish in execution and tone (e.g. the punisher, or manhunt, or whatever. i could list a few hundred if it makes you feel better)
the games you list are great games because they have deep, moving stories, immaculate presentation. the characters provoke emotion, you care about their stories, and the atmosphere of the game draws you in enough to immerse yourself in the experience. silent hill 4 falls flat not because you're bored of the concept, but because it's got characters more wooden then keanu reeves, and four cliche'd levels (which you have to play through twice) full of unfair monsters and illogical settings
and just as you can find some real dross "for kids" (e.g. any THQ movie-licensed game), you can equally find some games with all the same tickboxes as your first list - say, Psychonauts, Okami, Beyond Good & Evil.
it's not gore that makes a game appeal to adults, it's experiences more engrossing than "lol i r teh violent killar", which is equally shallow whether the target is throwing someone in a wood chipper versus jumping on a cliche'd platform monster's head
i enjoy being told a story. pixar tell good stories as much as tarantino.
Good point here.
It's like with
Psychonauts. I've played thousands of Platform games since I was a kid. It's not something I want to play now. No doubt for anyone that
Psychonauts is a well made and has a great story to it. For me the platform jumping around killed it for me. And
Beyond Good And Evil just couldn't get me hooked either.
I wouldn't call
Manhunt and the
Punnisher adult games. They are violent. but they are so dumbed down. it's just childish, unrealsitc and not immerssive at all.
It's that Arcade expireince.
And this is my very point when it comes to Adult titles.
Consoles and PC's are becoming capable of producing very realistic worlds. This is adding more depths to games. Like in
The Darkness light is an important factor in it. Also you now have physics and stuff and more ways to interact with the enviroment. Since FPS shooters and violent games with a strong horror theme are probably my more prefered type game, I believe that this requires a product aimed at adults. Since the games are becoming more and more realistic.
The Darkness is a very believeable world. Same with
Bioshock. You set someone on fire and they dive into water to put themselves out.
I agree, Pixar probably could tell just as good a story as Tarantino. But what kind of storys do you like to be told? And do you still want to be jumping about on monsters heads when games of today can offer so much more?
I already have played through
Bioshock on the PC twice. But I found the story flawed and the twist in in it not very good.
Thanks for the suggestion of
Condemed 1 & 2 though. I think I'll hunt them down after I get through
The Darkness.
I'm not sure about
Dead Rising though. It looked a bit repetive and shallow?