Topic: The PlayStation Fan Thread

Well if all games are anymore is hedonism why wouldn't some of them be out and out titivation? It's not like most of the rest of the industry's sexism is any subtler.

Yeah and the failure to move completely to digital is contributing to global warming.

@NEStalgia I find that to be such a weird aspect of Japanese culture. There's no shortage of stuff like that in anime, either. Obviously there are JRPGS and anime that aren't basically soft-core porn, but there's certainly plenty of them that are, too.

Not that Western media doesn't have plenty of boobs, too, but it seems really prevalent in Japan.

@KirbyTheVampire Japanese culture is incredibly conservative and polite. Any time that's the case, there's going to a weird underbelly where suppressed urges are expressed.

There are times I have to raise an eyebrow at this sort of thing, but there's a real audience for it both in Japan and abroad, and I'd feel better about playing a game where women gather power in their breasts than a game where you can kill hookers and have to torture someone with a car battery. One is light-hearted and eccentric, the other is just...

Yet the latter is the best-selling game of all time in the U.S.

@Ralizah I suppose that's true. And yeah, some of the stuff that you can do in GTA just makes me uncomfortable.

Yeah I'd take the sexually suggestive stuff over hooking a car battery to someone's chest, breaking their knees with drills, smashing their teeth out and injecting them with chemicals into their eyes.

Sadly though, I'd probably be frowned upon more for anime girls who are voluptuous than a torture scene.

Western culture is weeeird.

@KirbyTheVampire Part of it is also that Japan is just more generally open with that sort of thing. Where the west has plenty of boobs on display it represents something of a counter-cultural almost juvenile "aha, we're doing naughty things!" mentality. In japan there's a line that's crossed, where actual porn has just as bad, if not worse, a stigma as it does in the US, more display of the body in general is just more "normal" rather than countercultural.

@Ralizah there's also the aspect that Japanese art is generally much more metaphorical than Western art, so the idea of breasts as a tool and weapon for accumulating power also likely carries some symbolism with it, etc....(though no doubt the producers consisted of male staffers giggling like 8 year olds, and relatively flat female staffers saying "let's make them bigger!") Or at least it's a more believable excuse to justify it there than here

As for the GTA reference......I also found it amusing how illiterate to physics the game is. Torturing someone with a car battery outputting DC power......is not going to be all that effective without providing a path to ground....DC is kind of useless for torture without an alternator. I guess you could get it to arc across plates and use the arcing as a torture device.....but that's not what the game did.

Also don't forget starting most chapters and saving your games in the strip club. Which really goes back to breasts, anyway.

@Haru17 Games are not hedonism. Thong and bustier armor is critical hardware for taking on a Lv98 Deathspawn infestation with nothing but a kitchen knife!

@KirbyTheVampire At least that scene has a positively vicious satirical subtext that (somewhat) justifies its existence, but the same can't be said for a lot of Western AAA gaming that positively revels in all manner of barbarity and inhumanity.

Not that I'm complaining: there's money in games that have you inflict horrifying violence on virtual people, just as there is money in making games where you poke at virtual women on your PS Vita, and, in both cases, there are no wronged parties or obvious moral infractions that I can see.

@NEStalgia I was a little shocked when I started playing GTA V and I realized just how graphic the strip club scenes were!

@Ralizah Honestly the nutjob's whole character really turned me off the game. I didn't like the graphic content so much, but I could enjoy the game with Franklin and Michael. But as soon as they introduce whatshisface the nutjob in such a grotesque way my tolerance for the game soured fast. No doubt the adolescents love him most. He was a satire, as is the whole game.....but there's a certain point where dark satire stops being satire and just becomes dark....and his character crossed that line several laps in a row. Never did finish the game.

Yeah....not to mention the "how long can you keep touching the stripper during a lap dance without the bouncer noticing" minigame. That almost seems Japanese.....but a lot worse....at least the anime girls are naieve but consenting......GTA does it for money... [Insert NBC joke.]

People freaked about the Fire Emblem petting game (which IMO I'd rather not have in my Fire Emblem), but then GTA is the #1 seller for years on end.

@NEStalgia Not to mention that most of the satire is VERY obvious in that game. At least, based on what I've played. I need to go back and play through the whole thing one day. Honestly, the most impressive thing about the game to me was that there were entire, scripted TV shows you could watch. Wonderful attention to detail. Oh, and, of course, the talk radio programs, which are always hilarious in these games.

By the way, you're thinking of Trevor.

I'm still unhappy with how poorly FEF was localized. Entire minigames cut out. Memey dialogue. Characters being flanderized. My only consolation is that the game itself wasn't very good (especially Conquest, which has one of the dumbest plots I've ever seen in a video game). Sold the Special Edition for a bit more than I paid for it and never looked back!

...Should I explain how shipping works or are you content in proving my point?

@NEStalgia Oh, I see. I almost prefer that to the very purposeful-feeling perversion in a lot of Western media.

@Ralizah I'm fine with realistic portrayals of violence, but when it goes overboard or when people use brutal violence as a type of humor, it just doesn't really work for me. For example, the Fatalities in Mortal Kombat absolutely repulse me. I'm not trying to sound holier-than-thou or anything, I'm just not comfortable with really graphic violence that isn't justified from a story-telling perspective, or violence that's completely overdone to the point of being sickening.

Yeah, Mortal Kombat 10 is just gross. I'm not sure when the fatalities got HD enough for me to be bothered by them because I don't really play fighting games, but it just looks like gross plastic torture porn not, not even like realistic extreme violence. I can't even look at Injustice 2 without being grossed out by how the characters animate. You can literally see how every model and hit used to be programmed to crumple in so they were biting their brain or something gratuitous.

No problem with Last of Us though, they cut away from the gory stuff. The trailer for 2 sucked though, I hope that game doesn't disappoint narratively like Uncharted 4 did for me.

Speaking of satire, shipping, and things flying over ones head......

@Ralizah Everything before you meet Trevor (ugh) was reasonable tongue in cheek satire that while obvious, made its point well and made you smile, even if sardonically. Once you meet Trevor all the wheels fall off the bus and it becomes as much crude vulgarity as one can possibly take. Exactly the kind of character you want if your target demographic is 13-17 year olds and you desire to alienate most other people. Yet, unfortunately, it seems most other people want it too. For me it became so cringey that I tried to force myself through it and then just totally lost interest. The main missions would still be fine, but I hadn't enough interest to play side missions.

Yeah, I found myself listening to the radio stations and such a lot. That was neat. But it also goes into repeat a bit too much once you're well into the sandbox.

I don't recall any memey dialogue in FEF, actually. Though it just dragged out so much I might have stopped paying attention. I shouldn't be upset with "too much gameplay" but the game just seemed like it dragged on way longer than it should have, and the story stretched too thin with too many unrelated side steps. And Camilla remains a travesty. She's not even waifu bait, she's just plain old softcore. In a game that actually encourages waifu bait with direct rewards. Between the two Conquest is arguably the "better" one beyond the idiotic plot hole that nobody can figure out king daddy is evil, while they serve a kingdom where everyone dresses in black, red, and purple, and rides wyverns and has them making overtly questionable attacks. Also, no matter which path, having the family fawning all over Corrin, step-sibling or not is a little creeperish. Camilla seemingly flirting with her ACTUAL siblings both male and female is a lot more creeperish. sigh it was such a mess and it didn't have to be. Forcing "three editions" kind of broke it.

I'm hoping for FE:Switch they figure it out after Echoes went over so well. FE overall has become so bloated with excessive systems use. I've found that FE:W has reminded me what FE used to be...which is sad. Maybe I just want Advance Wars now Or Valkyria works too. Though that was getting bogged down too since the masterpiece first one (crazy difficulty spike aside.) I swear that's the only PS3 game I actually REMEMBER at this point.

@Haru17 I personally thought Uncharted 4 was a high point in their story telling, though I admit the whole Lawrence of Arabia thing in 3 was a high point for pure "fun" adventure time. 2 was amazing in the first half but fell apart after the temple. And 1......I'll pretend it didn't exist. I'm cool with that.

@NEStalgia Uncharted 4 was insanely good on a storytelling front. Plus, it was actually a fairly decent action game! It's also one of the few games where I don't hate the vehicle segments.

Haven't played LL, but in terms of the numbered games, Uncharted has drastically improved from sequel to sequel. Which, you know, is good: credit to ND for learning from their mistakes and improving their games. Maybe The Last of Us 2 won't be a generic and boring post-apoc story like the original was? That's probably asking too much.

@NEStalgia Are you saying that something has flown over my head, your head, or their head?

But anyway, I think Uncharted are pleasant games but I couldn't get over how their 2007 action adventure youth characters were being retrofitted into Last of Us-style serious drama. Nathan Drake just isn't as deep of a well as Joel. I really just can't bring myself to care about Uncharted because I'm not into pulp fiction or Indiana Jones, although I vehemently disagree with the critiques leveled against them for being linear, scripted, and very intentionally crafted. The Last of Us was also really constrained with its small core cast of two characters, which I prefer.

Regardless of naysayers, I think The Last of Us is Naughty Dog's most gripping work. That's why I want them to create a new IP, not Uncharted 4, not TLOU 2 — because I can't get an experience like playing through The Last of Us again with a sequel to a game meant to stand alone.

Yes, I was being facetious rather than sarcastic. It actually does add to global warming I'm sure.

@Haru17 Since I don't do horror I miss out on TLOU and TLOU2, but I can't disagree that I want a new IP from them. It's time. But they did just come up with TLOU as a new IP. And honestly Jak & Daxter was so overrated, and Uncharted 1 was so meh, I'm not sure if a new IP is a good thing or if it resets them away from having something to learn from.

@Dezzy considering the likelihood of a Maraunder Minimum and the pending Little Ice age we should be shipping as many retail games as possible if so

@NEStalgia Wargroove should do fine for an alternative to Advance Wars.

@NEStalgia I'm not a fan of horror either. Resident Evil? Nope. But The Last of Us is far from traditional horror. And once you've seen your first clicker, they're not that scary anymore. No jump scares either.