Epic Slash writes: It always seems like stories are getting flak for characters that don’t do what the audience thinks they should be doing. If characters are meant to mimic real life enough to be believable, why do we condemn them when they do exactly what they should.
Why can we not accept characters that act like humans?
A chat with MGS Delta Snake Eater producer Noriaki Okamura about the past and future of Konami's stealth-action series.
It's not going to be the same without him regardless so honestly it would probably be better just to try to do your own thing while staying in the same genre and general gameplay style.
The story in metal gear solid 4 was already a huge step down from the first three. Then the story in V was minimized and totally forgettable. One of Kojimas art directors could definitely make a solid metal gear sequel.
Also when you compare Stranding to Kojimas previous games he could easily be a Neil Druckman type where most of his best ideas were from people he worked with.
For example all of the MGS covers and the art style associated with Metal Gear wasn't even created by Kojima.
I think someone could take the torch, but they’d really have to be a mega fan and understand the narrative and quirkiness and humor of MGS and just Kojima’s design principles. Make bosses that revolve around “themes” and “gimmicks” and bring freaking David Hayter back for the English dub.
I have been saying for years that Kojima is not needed to continue this franchise. Revolver Ocelot could have a trilogy on his own with the established lore and it would be fantastic
Blaze Entertainment has today announced the next cartridge collection for Evercade from its ongoing partnership with Crystal Dynamics with the Legacy of Kain Collection.
There's rumours of this series getting remasters, so I'll wait and see if either of these two games get one. But if they don't, I'll pick this up instead.
I may get this because of these games. They have some decent retro stuff but this would be the best games out of all of them so far
Salman From Tech4Gamers writes "Once a big deal in gaming, stealth gaming, all about sneaking around, planning, and staying cool under pressure, seems to have faded away."
"The decline of the stealth genre can be traced back to several factors. One big problem is that many games today sacrifice stealth for more action-packed scenes.
Even titles labelled as “stealth” often turn into loud shootouts soon after starting. The emphasis has shifted from sneaky strategies to just charging in and shooting, with stealth almost forgotten."
And that's what disappointed me the most about MGS4. While still a good game, it largely abandoned it's stealth roots that made the series so compelling. Since, I've gotten my stealth fix from the likes of TLOU, Hitman, and less popular tiles like Shadow Tactics.
Interesting, I would however add that I think part of the decline in interest in many recent stealth games, Assassin’s Creed as a prime example, has been that instead of the stealth play being the fun, it’s been RPG’d as a character choice akin to playing as a mage or a thief with all the same drawbacks and things which turns many players away (upgrade grinding, obscure overly complex skill and equipment upgrade trees). One thing about MGS, Splinter Cell, early Hitman and early Assassin's Creed etc was that they were games you picked up and played with the game the feature, not supplemental to homework hidden in the pause menu.
The novelty has worn off for 'pure' stealth games. They are too tedious. I personally like a good mix.
Question, who doesn't accept characters that act human? Isn't it more that people condemn the characters for behaving unrealistically to situations? I am kind of confused what the article is trying to say. Is he saying that characters should be more human? Is he saying people don't accept human characters? Is he saying that characters should make more mistakes to seem more human? I think we have reached the point where we have accepted many characters that are obviously not perfect and flawed. I also don't understand him with the hero winning. Of course the hero must win in the end. The question is what does he sacrifice along the way to win. Many characters win but sometimes at great cost.So unless I read it wrong, I really don't understand what he is trying to say.
Nice article, and yes is time to have complex, deep characters in our games
deep story and characters aren't easy to create. If they were we'd have so many of them... only very few games have made me care.
Okay first of all Game of Thrones is a long going series with enough room for the characters to grow, make mistakes and be developed. Games stories don't last as long as that and because of the short time they have to develop a story there usually isn't any room for the deep character development you are speaking of.
Secondly like I said in my post above we have many characters in modern times who not only make mistakes but pay for them. May be not always permanently scared or have a horrible demise but many times characters pay for their reckless behavior, arrogance or thoughtlessness. I think we have come very far from the perfect image hero of James Bond. For example Kratos has a complex personality that most people can't seem to see beyond just simply being angry or a 'jerk'.
Now don't misunderstand I know what you mean. I believe certain themes are over used. Like for instance instead of simply having one side be good and one side be bad in a conflict why can't both sides have ample reason for wanting to fight instead therefore making both sides plausible or have the character believe he his fighting on the right side and half way through he realizes he was the bad person all the time.
But I think the level of character complexity you are talking is too great for a game. A game is not a novel with hundreds of pages and several volumes or a television series going on for several seasons.Even games like Mass Effect's story still comes out sounding contrived and corny. It's not easy to create characters and plots equal to other media especially when you have game play and other factors to consider. Movies, television series and books HAVE to try and make their stories and characters connect because that is usually their only concern.Trying to make a character seem genuine in a game is not as important to many developers especially the growing fact that many people don't seem to care anymore.
I'm always puzzled by the people who demand a Zelda timeline, or a Mario games to include a story backdrop. I'm willing to except that each title for a specific franchise, takes place in different generations, or galaxies.
Not all titles need to be based on specifics.