For me, 1) Everybodys gone to the rapture. That just completely threw everything out the window, there's a story and the faintest path to follow but its just exploring a town with no NPCs in it to find out what happend. and 2) Horizon Zero Dawn, no so much for gameplay but more for the photo mode. It took screenshoting to an entirely new level with how you could change filters, angles, time, lighting. It essentially added a mission of getting that one perfect picture!
naturally cod4 with the "you just died thing" but i was amazed in jak 2 renegade when you actually take control of your side kick daxter when jak goes missing, its such a cool experience and really fleshes out the characters as you see them looking at you with a different perspective. never seen that done in a game before
These are quickly starting to rival Friday Features. I like the change of pace from being less scripted and more loosely structured. It's less an analysis of a game and more just a bunch of nerdy mates talking about games they really like. Obviously there's no MGS tally so it can never truly be on the same level as the FF.
Dave's description of Superhot intrigued me enough to play it on my twitch channel, and I thought it was awesome for all the reasons he described! It was really well done, thanks for bringing it to my attention!
I got a game that threw the rulebook out the window. Okami. To this day I love that game. Like the way you can turn night to day and vise versa and create lightning bolts and fire balls and more.
Life Is Strange re-writes the rules for story based games with choices, usually you make a decision and your stuck with it but with time travel you don't have to be, but the game is clever in that it never makes it clear that all choices may have negative consequences
funny you mention that game i just bought it the other day and i just finished episode 3. I was thinking about it during this video. I am glad it was on sale for $5 on psn or i would have just passed on it again.
I think Brother:A Tale of Two Sons deserves a mention, as they used the controller to elicit emotion in a poignant moment at the end of the game. The control scheme was already forcing us to use the controller in a different way than normal, but the end just blew me away. It's such a creative element that really added to the scene and I can't think of any other game that even tried to do something like this before.
I'm thinking The Last Guardian because Tricos AI makes him so realistic you forget he's just part of a game. Like when you call him and he doesn't respond or come over on the first call or even when you feed him and he'll stand their pawing at the barrel if it's too close to a wall so that he can eat it. One of my favourite ps4 games, would 11/10 keep Trico
You may read this comment and assume it is not very interesting, but it is just my opinion. So here goes: This show is Bloody Brilliant. If we didn't have people on this show like Nathan, Holly, Rob and David RUclips would SUCK ! Thanks for the video.
I suspect that I would have enjoyed Abzû a lot more if I hadn't played Journey first. To me it felt like they tried do make Journey 2 under water, but just a little bit less good. Not saying it was bad, quite the opposite. I'd recommend anyone to play it, I just thought Journey was a little bit better. Also, if you liked Abzû and Journey, I'd suggest taking a look at the game Submerged. It's a small and fairly straigh-forward game that is easy, looks nice and is just similar enough to those games to satisfy, but dissimilar enough to not be redundant.
I frickin loved this video and then as soon Nathan started talking i was just speechless ❤I love when someone praises Mirror's Edge, and i know it had its flaws but it was a very nice and new experience and for me it was and is one of my all time favorites. Thanks Nathan, now i have to go replay it again ;)
Spec Ops: The Line was the most jarring experience of my life. I went in expecting a stupid cover based 3rd person shooter and it was so so much more than that. Emotionally devastating...
I think it’s really obvious that Rob is used to his “style” where he talks to us rather than the rest of Access because he keeps looking at the camera. Makes me laugh
Borderlands for me. It rewrote the book on what a good shooter needs to be. And I never forgot when, at the Spike Video Game Awards, Borderlands 2 best Black Ops II, Battlefield 3, and Medal of Honor for Shooter of the Year. It's gameplay was crazy yet sharp. The story is funny and engaging and it never took itself too seriously all the time. I love it. Always will
Nier Automata was a refreshing take on game design and perspectives. It seamlessly transitioned from a sandbox to a side scroller to top down bullet hell style shooter keeping the gameplay fresh. On top of this, subsequent playthroughs let you play as other characters again changing the perspective by allowing you to view more story from an alternate viewpoint.
late entry 😀 I'm around 4 hours into Hellblade and have to say, I don't think I've experienced the use of audio to such amazing results. Through headphones the 3d voices mixed with narration and environment is pretty special and really gives a sense of Senua's mental illness.
I gotta say that I really enjoyed the game Catherine because it was a puzzle platformer that was exceptionally tricky. Once you learn the behavior of the blocks, climbing becomes easier, and it's exactly at that point that the tower becomes more complex, with different types of blocks, different block structures, and they also become much taller. I also liked how in between the nightmares there was an arcade mode of the game that, rather than giving you a limited amount of time, gave you a limited number of moves
I was a bit surprised that games like mgs2, ico, shadow of the Colossus, gta3, witcher 3 were not mentioned. This games really changed the gaming world, heck we can see their influence in other games.
couldn't agree with Hollie more on Abzu. I played it after finishing Persona 5 as a sort of transitional game before starting Horizon Zero Dawn. Also I think another game that definitely deserves a spot on the list is Dying Light
How does a list like this exist without mentioning Nier: Automata? That game took the rules of practical game design and turned it on it's head. You beat the game once, and you get to play again as another character that gives you an entirely new perspective on the events taking place. When you beat that playthrough though, the real game begins. You realize during your third playthrough when everything goes to hell that you've just been playing introductory level stuff. The opening title comes up and your mind is shattered. Not to mention how the game is practically 5 genres all rolled into one seamless, perfect experience. Not to mention how it has an ending for every letter of the alphabet, and the true ending is insane in itself.
Bravely Default. Just being able to save up moves in a JRPG and then blast all of them out at once, or even interrupt the combat round completely to do something critical, was just absolutely wonderful to me. Having the sense of control within the turns really messed with how I strategized each round.
Rob! So glad you mentioned Inside... I love that game (and literally just played it like 2-3 days ago!)! It kinda has a similar feel of 'The Swapper' ...
For me it's defiantly Rainbow Six Siege, because we're in a time where first person shooters are the norm, where it's always just running and gunning trying to kill the other person faster. But Siege fixed that into a more tactical sort of way, with the amazing sound mechanics, and making communication absolutely key in successes, making you not run but walk and think things through, but also going beyond that is the completely destructible environments that the game holds, coming from battlefield and that being destructible, and seeing Siege bring destruction to a whole new level, just glorious, probally in my top 5 games of all time.
I love Hollie's near mad enthusiasm for things she loves, which is why she is my favorite host (also because #TitanMasterRace). Sometimes I wish I still had that level of fascination for games the way I did as a kid. Super jealous. Great video!
Yeah, journey was incredible but there was something about Abzu that I simply fell in love with and for me it stands out. Maybe because journey was so much more fantasy based while Abzu was almost something I could connect with. The idea of being so free underwater; exploring and interacting with that world resonated with me - Hollie
I love how when talking about FEZ Rob mentions Doctor Who because Fezzes are cool (obvs) and then goes on to talk about all the dimensions stuff which in turn relates to an episode of Doctor Who (Flatline) where 2D creatures discover 3 dimensions! =O
The hash tag for our responses to Tuesday checklist should be something like #checkmates or like #relatabletuesday lol. My #checkmate would be the first time I ever saw portal and undertale. Both games that are very different, but completely changed the ways I thought about narrative and level design, truly reshaped what a game could be in my mind.
I think Indigo Prophecy for the PS2 really did a great job with adding new mechanics and story-like choose your own adventure elements to gaming, since then David Cage has been on a roll.
For me, No Man's Sky. The ability to go anywhere. Like Hollie said about Abzu, its a case of doing things at your own pace at in your own time. The updates have only added to the foundation released last year. It has a great just 10 more minutes vibe and enjoy going back to it. Also the 65 Days of Static soundtrack really helps with the sci-fi vibe. Dave - I agree, The Witness was such an inventive (and unforgiving) game.
I watched a video recently of a game called Time Rifters, where you have to destroy blocks in an area. You get to enter the area 4 times, and every time the previous entries are there doing what you did last time, so you need to plan and strategise to be able to get rid of all the blocks.
A game I think rewrote the rules was Dark Souls. It broke so many rules you previously relied on in action rpg style games. There was barely any tutorial, no hand holding or telling you where to go. No explanation for levelling up. No classes or skill trees. No bloke telling you every detail of the story. You had to figure everything out yourself and learn by doing and experimenting. And dying. A lot. And then when you 'git gud' you still have to figure out the story and piece the clues together to try and figure out where to go! I absolutely love it and it's one of my favourite games of all time.
First things first, LOVE the Check LIst. I am a little-surprised Rob didn't pick Metal Gear Solid, though Inside and Fez are epic picks as were the rest, as it kind of played by its own rules by having bits like Meryl's code being on the box, the Mantis reading your memory card and moving your controller and Liquid secretly being Master Miller the whole time. I can't personally think of a game that had done anything like that before it.
Nathan, the 4th dimension is time. We are 3D beings and thus forever stuck in right now inbetween the future and the past, in the present. Imagine being able to move freely though time, you could see a building be being built and then just "walk" a bit further and see a finished building. Or you could be somewhere and try to give Dave instructions how to get there and say: Go past the dinosaurs and Cavemen and if you see dolphin people you have gone to far, come back. ( the last example Is courtesy of the excellent Rick And Morty). Disclaimer! I am NOT a physicist, I am however a geneticist with an interest in physics.
Rob: "What if there's like four or five dimensions, we're sitting here in three dimensions, and we're being played in a game and all of a sudden we could see 4D space...." Star Ocean Till the End of Time. I love it.
I think the game that did it for me was monster hunter. Before there was nothing like it. It was all either fps, 3rd person shooter, 3rd person beat em ups, puzzle games, driving games, ect, but a game like monster hunter? Nope. I remember booting up the game and seeing the intro, i was amazed and filled with wonder as i saw what the game had in store for me. Usually games that have griding aren't fun right, but monster hunter changed that by giving you a variety of weapons to use, multiple monster to fight and making each hunt feel diffrent and satisfying. Each time i worked towards an armor set or weapon i was filled with a sense of accomplishment as i knew that i did that and that i would do it again so i could hunt the biggest and baddest monsters around. Since then many games have tried to replicate what monster hunter has created and while fun nothing can compare to the original.
Hollie's literally the only person I've heard say that Abzu is better than Journey. but man is she looking good these days. She was always really good looking but she's turned it up to 11 as of late.
Jesus christ. How about we talk about how funny or insightful she is rather than her appearance, ya know like how commenters discuss Rob, Nath and Dave?
Im loving these new types of videos. It was only friday feature i was interested in before, coz outside xbox do all other stuff better but now these are great. Keep it up :D
Just had an idea for your office. Switch the whiteboard out for a digital screen and have a selection of screenshots that fans submit during the week on in the background.
I would just like to add Dragon Quest Builders to this list. It starts off like any other World Building game like Minecraft, but so much more! It's like an RPG; but not. It's a combination of both worlds in one! You wake up alone; with only a voice telling you that you are the Lengardy Builder, and must set the world right! Then you start off in one area; building up your little town, as more and more people come with more and more quests to complete. You get blueprints and recipes and have to build, cook and create new things all the time! Once you're done; you're off to the next part of the world with more people and more quests and another town to build, and so on! It was truly amazing, and I can't wait for Dragon Quest Builders 2 to come out!
NieR: Automata buttfucks the rulebook. Fourth Wall breaks being literal game mechanics, constant genre-shifting on-the-fly, player choice to do the wrong thing (like abandoning boss fights) being legitimate story canon, and the game recording what you do and adjusting itself accordingly... *Spoiler...* And then encouraging you to delete your game files to break the IRL never-ending cycle that the fictional characters and world are stuck in.
I'd add gravity rush to the list, when l first played it l didn't knew what to expect and after a brief intro the game tells you that you can switch your gravity point to any direction you want... oh and it's open world too. l still remember the feeling of true freedom it gave me.
If Fez spoke to you, Miegakurve might also be of interest. I don't know if it came out or ever will but it certainly has an interesting concept of playing in four dimensions.
Fez is not about seeing the third dimension, its about traversing it to access a different plane on the second dimension. When you get the sunglasses though, its straight up perceiving the third dimension.
I actually really started to like Hollie after I've heard her a bit more in these Tuesday episodes. She kinda looks like she could change everyone's mood with her smile lol
I know this isn't about this checklist, but I want to say, after I watched and heard Rob talk about ffxii, I went and bought it, and it has been the only game that I been playing the last few days, I think I found my next Platinum, cause I don't think I can plat ffxv.
I would say MGS1 or MGS2, but I will go with Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. It encouraged you to try and collect soldiers via Wi-Fi hotspots, which at the time was revolutionary. Also, I have a suggestion for a topic: 6 Levels that are almost perfect. For me, it's A Hero's Way in MGSV: The Phantom Pain. It's basically a tutorial, but everything feels organic and is builds to so perfectly to a the escape; and the best part, is everyone's experience of this level is completely different.
Fez is so good that *possible spoilers* you get to a point where you create a QR code by revolving the level which you can actually scan with your mobile! to get a number code which will unlock a door! Please tell me I'm not the only one who got that far? hehe ☺
Xcom because it gives you limits and rules until you have a fully levelled squad with the best equipment then the ai moves as much as it wants and never misses
Abzu is seriously one of the most beautiful and relaxing games I've ever played :) ThatGameCompany and Giant Squid Studios are wonderful independent developers!
EXCUSES EXCUSES: My brother and I had been playing borderlands on PS3 for days so that we could take on crawmerax the only boss who can drop pearlescent weapons (the rarest kind). When we finally were strong enough to take him on we started farming him. The rules were that my brother would get the first pearlescent and after hours of killing that idiot crab it finally dropped it. When you kill crawmerax (the crab) he drops a sea of weapons so we spread out to see what he dropped. I saw the weapon and the human thing to do would be to tell my brother I found the pearlescent..... I didn't
Finally, made the 301 club. The most heartbreaking thing in video games for me was when my ps hard drive crashed with my 75% completed skyrim game on it. I was so devastated I didn't play the game again for at least 3 years. I'm going to finish it on ps4
I don't know if it exactly threw out the rulebook, but if not it certainly rewrote massive parts of it--The Talos Principle. Basically a puzzle game. Unlike The Witness, there is an actual story--but it doesn't really have a narrative if that makes sense. You get the story from computers and recordings scattered around the puzzle levels. And it has that same kind of empty-world feel of The Witness or Everyone's Gone to the Rapture (although occasionally you will see someone else playing the game because it's a persistent world, but you can't interact with them directly). There are only two NPC-type characters you interact with--one is an AI on the computers you find, and the other is some booming God-like voice from above you. It's a very odd little game, that delves surprisingly deeply into the philosophical questions of what it means to be human, how do you define sentience, can an AI ever be considered to have free will, and so on. Definitely worth checking out.
Portal - The Portal mechanic is so good that it was the entire game, it didn't need anything else. Puzzle games are always interesting but this took it too the next level, using your own character as a tool to complete puzzles (if that makes sense) Heavy Rain - This is literally a game without gameplay. Just choices and QTE. It redefined gaming as a cinematic experience. I believe games like Tell Tale games even TLoU owe a lot to this game as it made games a cinematic experiance. RDR - (Spoiler alert) Big open world? Not exactly new. Horses? Not new either. Western? Pretty sure Gun came out before it and also Revolver was obviously before Redemption, not too sure about Call of Juarez. So how did it tear up the rule book? Because they killed the protagonist. This is the first huge game (that I know off) that did this. And it wasn't just any protagonist, it was John Marston, and instant icon and a guy that everyone loved. Yes other games have had important characters die but imagine if it was Cloud that died and not Aries, completely different situation Gravity Rush - You mess around with gravity, enough said The Stanley Parable - All logic out of the window, and yet, hugely enjoyable SoTC - A game where you are not told the narrative, and yet know what the narrative is. A game where you have no body to fight, just bosses. And those bosses are puzzles. On paper a younger me would call you an idiot for recommending this, but having played it, it just works MGS - Ok so I have only played the first and do not remember a lot from it, we are talking like 15-20 years here. But it broke the forth wall, and I did not expect any of it. Check the CD cover they said, got called out for using turbo in the torture scene, oh and most importantly that one boss that bugged my playstation so I had to use controller 2 port That's all I got for now EDIT: Honourable mention. TLoU. Not for the story or the story telling. But a single mechanic. Walking and running. In every other game I have played characters walk and run at the same pace, not Joel. He doesn't need to break into full sprint when searching an empty area, so he doesn't, in the midst of battle he does and so he does. It makes sense for this to be a thing and in my opinion was one part of the many reasons the characters felt so human
I know you guys are contractually obliged to talk about PlayStation titles but Undertale was that kind of game for me. I've never loved a game and it's characters so much. It got to the point where the game asked me not to play it again so that the characters would have a happy ending ... And I listened. I haven't picked up the game since but it's still one of my favourites to this day.
Digimon Cyber Sleuth in my opinion changed the rules, because it showed it was possible to take the monster capturing abilities from certain games mixed in a bit of persona and produced and extremely enjoyable but hard hitting story...... Plus I picked this game doesn't get the acknowledgment it deserves so it needs a shout out :P
Two games that I'm supprised haven't been mentioned more in the comments: LotR Shadow of Mordor and Alien Isolation. Both for their AI. The Nemesis system in SoM is amazing! Being able to manipulate your enemies ranks to take a "red shirt" and get him promoted to general and then turn him and all of his subordinates is brilliant. And the AI on the Alien in Alien Issolation is horrifying at times. You can spend an hour studying it's movements and then the moment you think you have it sussed and you make a move it does something you've not seen it do before and you have to run for your life! Easily 2 off the best games of 2014 and the best AIs in any games.
The game Shadows Of Destiny there was no killing no anything like that it was all about altering time and exploring time and figuring out how causality created the various timelines you find yourself in
There's no way you're talking about game which tore up the rule book and don't mention No Man's Sky. Yes, it was a massive let down. Yes, there was very little 'game' to it. And yes, it all got a little samey after a while. But seriously, the use of procedural generation was so fresh and was what got people hyped in the first place! That kind of tech will be a staple of exploration games in the future - it just takes a few goes to get the recipe right ...
Rob surely Metal Gear wrote the rule book, when it made you think your Playstation was hacked. Time for another Tuesday Ticklist next week (yes I changed the title and rewrote the rule book...ha ha)
One game that comes to my mind is the original Drakengard, usually you work towards getting the best ending in the game but every new ending you unlock is worse then the last, the first ending is a kinda generic bittersweet ending and the nendings that followed became more and more dark and hopeless until just everything goes to hell with giant floating babies that eat people. And the way you do it is to play more unlockable chapters that reveal what terrible people the protagonists are, it's like peeling an onion of lies until you get to the truth. Then you get magically transported to Tokyo and have to fight the final boss in a rythm game. I thought my brain melted after that.
Abzu is deffinetly the better of the games. The music and just the general atmosphere of the game was brilliant. I’ve never been so chill playing a game
Oh, Rulebook! There's an idea. Are there many games out there that punish you for your reading the rulebook? I know that in Vexx there's a heart you can't get without the rulebook because the code you need in that mission is written near the back of it.
Loved the video. Very brave of you to mention the word 'gif'. I hope you're ready for the cavalcade of comments about the correct pronunciation. I'm in the Golf camp, rather than the Geoff camp.
Farcry 4 if you don't move then the time of day never changes. The sun and moon never move if you don't. You can make the time of day speed up by using your curser to spin around really fast.
For me, 1) Everybodys gone to the rapture. That just completely threw everything out the window, there's a story and the faintest path to follow but its just exploring a town with no NPCs in it to find out what happend. and 2) Horizon Zero Dawn, no so much for gameplay but more for the photo mode. It took screenshoting to an entirely new level with how you could change filters, angles, time, lighting. It essentially added a mission of getting that one perfect picture!
EGttR would have been my second choice. Incredible stuff! - Hollie
Totally agree with you on Everybody's gone to the rapture!
I JUST FOUND OUT THAT MAD MAX HAS A GREAT PHOTO M... damn caps lock!!!! ... photo mode like this.
I love when games have photo modes, ah yes infamous ss, shadow of mordor, order 1886, and mad max were the games of my best screenshots
Then get in on Hellblade, that photomode is amazing too - Hollie
naturally cod4 with the "you just died thing" but i was amazed in jak 2 renegade when you actually take control of your side kick daxter when jak goes missing, its such a cool experience and really fleshes out the characters as you see them looking at you with a different perspective. never seen that done in a game before
These are quickly starting to rival Friday Features. I like the change of pace from being less scripted and more loosely structured. It's less an analysis of a game and more just a bunch of nerdy mates talking about games they really like. Obviously there's no MGS tally so it can never truly be on the same level as the FF.
Dave's description of Superhot intrigued me enough to play it on my twitch channel, and I thought it was awesome for all the reasons he described! It was really well done, thanks for bringing it to my attention!
I got a game that threw the rulebook out the window. Okami. To this day I love that game. Like the way you can turn night to day and vise versa and create lightning bolts and fire balls and more.
Life Is Strange re-writes the rules for story based games with choices, usually you make a decision and your stuck with it but with time travel you don't have to be, but the game is clever in that it never makes it clear that all choices may have negative consequences
funny you mention that game i just bought it the other day and i just finished episode 3. I was thinking about it during this video. I am glad it was on sale for $5 on psn or i would have just passed on it again.
SpawnOnYoMom it was free on PS Plus, thats why I played it
i just got a ps4 last month so i missed it :(
I think Brother:A Tale of Two Sons deserves a mention, as they used the controller to elicit emotion in a poignant moment at the end of the game. The control scheme was already forcing us to use the controller in a different way than normal, but the end just blew me away. It's such a creative element that really added to the scene and I can't think of any other game that even tried to do something like this before.
When watching these guys for entertainment becomes like having friends over to talk of games because they are just that natural and fun. :D
I'm thinking The Last Guardian because Tricos AI makes him so realistic you forget he's just part of a game. Like when you call him and he doesn't respond or come over on the first call or even when you feed him and he'll stand their pawing at the barrel if it's too close to a wall so that he can eat it. One of my favourite ps4 games, would 11/10 keep Trico
This list is missing Nier: Automata. That game shredded so many rules I'd need an essay to cover them and why it's amazing.
You may read this comment and assume it is not very interesting, but it is just my opinion. So here goes: This show is Bloody Brilliant. If we didn't have people on this show like Nathan, Holly, Rob and David RUclips would SUCK ! Thanks for the video.
Every time i see the title i think it is a friday feature and then i forget what day it is
Abzu was sooo brilliant. Holly you're sooo right it's all about the balanced diet. :)
One of my favs from last year!
If you like that soundtrack check out Rime. It's got wonderful influences from Austin and it's on Spotify! - Hollie
I suspect that I would have enjoyed Abzû a lot more if I hadn't played Journey first.
To me it felt like they tried do make Journey 2 under water, but just a little bit less good. Not saying it was bad, quite the opposite. I'd recommend anyone to play it, I just thought Journey was a little bit better.
Also, if you liked Abzû and Journey, I'd suggest taking a look at the game Submerged. It's a small and fairly straigh-forward game that is easy, looks nice and is just similar enough to those games to satisfy, but dissimilar enough to not be redundant.
Hi Hollie,
Still waiting for you to get your own weekly feature. Anyway, you new hairstyle is great!
-Grantham
This one is for Rob, Dave and Nath: please play outlast 2, with dave on the controls again!
I frickin loved this video and then as soon Nathan started talking i was just speechless ❤I love when someone praises Mirror's Edge, and i know it had its flaws but it was a very nice and new experience and for me it was and is one of my all time favorites. Thanks Nathan, now i have to go replay it again ;)
Spec Ops: The Line was the most jarring experience of my life. I went in expecting a stupid cover based 3rd person shooter and it was so so much more than that. Emotionally devastating...
Please never get rid of this series, it's brilliant, especially the ending discussions
It's like Friday feature but not rob. We got robbed of are rob. Lol just kidding
spartan kitty games I was thinking that
spartan kitty games our rob*
i loved this style of vid. it's nice to see them talk, and joke with each other. Doesn't seem so scripted
I think it’s really obvious that Rob is used to his “style” where he talks to us rather than the rest of Access because he keeps looking at the camera. Makes me laugh
Rob is in there though.
Borderlands for me. It rewrote the book on what a good shooter needs to be. And I never forgot when, at the Spike Video Game Awards, Borderlands 2 best Black Ops II, Battlefield 3, and Medal of Honor for Shooter of the Year. It's gameplay was crazy yet sharp. The story is funny and engaging and it never took itself too seriously all the time. I love it. Always will
Nier Automata was a refreshing take on game design and perspectives. It seamlessly transitioned from a sandbox to a side scroller to top down bullet hell style shooter keeping the gameplay fresh. On top of this, subsequent playthroughs let you play as other characters again changing the perspective by allowing you to view more story from an alternate viewpoint.
late entry 😀 I'm around 4 hours into Hellblade and have to say, I don't think I've experienced the use of audio to such amazing results. Through headphones the 3d voices mixed with narration and environment is pretty special and really gives a sense of Senua's mental illness.
Apparently Rob was forbidden from mentioning Metal Gear Solid here...
I gotta say that I really enjoyed the game Catherine because it was a puzzle platformer that was exceptionally tricky. Once you learn the behavior of the blocks, climbing becomes easier, and it's exactly at that point that the tower becomes more complex, with different types of blocks, different block structures, and they also become much taller. I also liked how in between the nightmares there was an arcade mode of the game that, rather than giving you a limited amount of time, gave you a limited number of moves
I was a bit surprised that games like mgs2, ico, shadow of the Colossus, gta3, witcher 3 were not mentioned. This games really changed the gaming world, heck we can see their influence in other games.
couldn't agree with Hollie more on Abzu. I played it after finishing Persona 5 as a sort of transitional game before starting Horizon Zero Dawn. Also I think another game that definitely deserves a spot on the list is Dying Light
How does a list like this exist without mentioning Nier: Automata? That game took the rules of practical game design and turned it on it's head. You beat the game once, and you get to play again as another character that gives you an entirely new perspective on the events taking place. When you beat that playthrough though, the real game begins. You realize during your third playthrough when everything goes to hell that you've just been playing introductory level stuff. The opening title comes up and your mind is shattered. Not to mention how the game is practically 5 genres all rolled into one seamless, perfect experience. Not to mention how it has an ending for every letter of the alphabet, and the true ending is insane in itself.
NoCoolName Joe yeah it would be revolutionary if NIER hadn't already done it you idiot
Seamless, perfect experience... Play it on a mouse and keyboard and say that.
Bravely Default. Just being able to save up moves in a JRPG and then blast all of them out at once, or even interrupt the combat round completely to do something critical, was just absolutely wonderful to me. Having the sense of control within the turns really messed with how I strategized each round.
Rob! So glad you mentioned Inside... I love that game (and literally just played it like 2-3 days ago!)! It kinda has a similar feel of 'The Swapper' ...
11:26 omg The Witness. I had this notebook covered in these like arcane drawings. I must have looked like A Beautiful Mind to my wife lol.
This section and the Friday features are amazing, keep it up.
For me it's defiantly Rainbow Six Siege, because we're in a time where first person shooters are the norm, where it's always just running and gunning trying to kill the other person faster. But Siege fixed that into a more tactical sort of way, with the amazing sound mechanics, and making communication absolutely key in successes, making you not run but walk and think things through, but also going beyond that is the completely destructible environments that the game holds, coming from battlefield and that being destructible, and seeing Siege bring destruction to a whole new level, just glorious, probally in my top 5 games of all time.
I love Hollie's near mad enthusiasm for things she loves, which is why she is my favorite host (also because #TitanMasterRace). Sometimes I wish I still had that level of fascination for games the way I did as a kid. Super jealous. Great video!
I think we need more under water exploration games, big, realistic and open world 😊
Abzu, Inside and Firewatch, 3 relatively cheap games that are just art and are games I really enjoyed...
I'm glad Abzu was mentioned and I know its going to sound cliche now but yeah, Journey rewrote everything for me. white robe baby
Yeah, journey was incredible but there was something about Abzu that I simply fell in love with and for me it stands out. Maybe because journey was so much more fantasy based while Abzu was almost something I could connect with. The idea of being so free underwater; exploring and interacting with that world resonated with me - Hollie
I love how when talking about FEZ Rob mentions Doctor Who because Fezzes are cool (obvs) and then goes on to talk about all the dimensions stuff which in turn relates to an episode of Doctor Who (Flatline) where 2D creatures discover 3 dimensions! =O
The hash tag for our responses to Tuesday checklist should be something like #checkmates or like #relatabletuesday lol. My #checkmate would be the first time I ever saw portal and undertale. Both games that are very different, but completely changed the ways I thought about narrative and level design, truly reshaped what a game could be in my mind.
I think Indigo Prophecy for the PS2 really did a great job with adding new mechanics and story-like choose your own adventure elements to gaming, since then David Cage has been on a roll.
For me, No Man's Sky. The ability to go anywhere. Like Hollie said about Abzu, its a case of doing things at your own pace at in your own time. The updates have only added to the foundation released last year. It has a great just 10 more minutes vibe and enjoy going back to it. Also the 65 Days of Static soundtrack really helps with the sci-fi vibe.
Dave - I agree, The Witness was such an inventive (and unforgiving) game.
I watched a video recently of a game called Time Rifters, where you have to destroy blocks in an area. You get to enter the area 4 times, and every time the previous entries are there doing what you did last time, so you need to plan and strategise to be able to get rid of all the blocks.
A game I think rewrote the rules was Dark Souls. It broke so many rules you previously relied on in action rpg style games. There was barely any tutorial, no hand holding or telling you where to go. No explanation for levelling up. No classes or skill trees. No bloke telling you every detail of the story. You had to figure everything out yourself and learn by doing and experimenting. And dying. A lot. And then when you 'git gud' you still have to figure out the story and piece the clues together to try and figure out where to go! I absolutely love it and it's one of my favourite games of all time.
First things first, LOVE the Check LIst. I am a little-surprised Rob didn't pick Metal Gear Solid, though Inside and Fez are epic picks as were the rest, as it kind of played by its own rules by having bits like Meryl's code being on the box, the Mantis reading your memory card and moving your controller and Liquid secretly being Master Miller the whole time. I can't personally think of a game that had done anything like that before it.
Nathan, the 4th dimension is time. We are 3D beings and thus forever stuck in right now inbetween the future and the past, in the present. Imagine being able to move freely though time, you could see a building be being built and then just "walk" a bit further and see a finished building. Or you could be somewhere and try to give Dave instructions how to get there and say: Go past the dinosaurs and Cavemen and if you see dolphin people you have gone to far, come back. ( the last example Is courtesy of the excellent Rick And Morty). Disclaimer! I am NOT a physicist, I am however a geneticist with an interest in physics.
Rob: "What if there's like four or five dimensions, we're sitting here in three dimensions, and we're being played in a game and all of a sudden we could see 4D space...." Star Ocean Till the End of Time. I love it.
I think the game that did it for me was monster hunter. Before there was nothing like it. It was all either fps, 3rd person shooter, 3rd person beat em ups, puzzle games, driving games, ect, but a game like monster hunter? Nope. I remember booting up the game and seeing the intro, i was amazed and filled with wonder as i saw what the game had in store for me. Usually games that have griding aren't fun right, but monster hunter changed that by giving you a variety of weapons to use, multiple monster to fight and making each hunt feel diffrent and satisfying. Each time i worked towards an armor set or weapon i was filled with a sense of accomplishment as i knew that i did that and that i would do it again so i could hunt the biggest and baddest monsters around. Since then many games have tried to replicate what monster hunter has created and while fun nothing can compare to the original.
Hollie's literally the only person I've heard say that Abzu is better than Journey.
but man is she looking good these days. She was always really good looking but she's turned it up to 11 as of late.
MikeyHNCC1701D so true....
Jesus christ. How about we talk about how funny or insightful she is rather than her appearance, ya know like how commenters discuss Rob, Nath and Dave?
Are you saying Rob and Dave are not hot?
Robs a sexy beast
Andy Rushent Rob, Nathan and Dave are Super Hot.
I always liked Rob. When he said Fez's are cool I fell in love! He watches Dr who!!!
Im loving these new types of videos. It was only friday feature i was interested in before, coz outside xbox do all other stuff better but now these are great. Keep it up :D
Just had an idea for your office. Switch the whiteboard out for a digital screen and have a selection of screenshots that fans submit during the week on in the background.
I would just like to add Dragon Quest Builders to this list. It starts off like any other World Building game like Minecraft, but so much more! It's like an RPG; but not. It's a combination of both worlds in one! You wake up alone; with only a voice telling you that you are the Lengardy Builder, and must set the world right! Then you start off in one area; building up your little town, as more and more people come with more and more quests to complete. You get blueprints and recipes and have to build, cook and create new things all the time! Once you're done; you're off to the next part of the world with more people and more quests and another town to build, and so on! It was truly amazing, and I can't wait for Dragon Quest Builders 2 to come out!
NieR: Automata buttfucks the rulebook. Fourth Wall breaks being literal game mechanics, constant genre-shifting on-the-fly, player choice to do the wrong thing (like abandoning boss fights) being legitimate story canon, and the game recording what you do and adjusting itself accordingly...
*Spoiler...* And then encouraging you to delete your game files to break the IRL never-ending cycle that the fictional characters and world are stuck in.
I'd add gravity rush to the list, when l first played it l didn't knew what to expect and after a brief intro the game tells you that you can switch your gravity point to any direction you want... oh and it's open world too. l still remember the feeling of true freedom it gave me.
Dave's explanation of "the witness" was a better review than anything ive heard.
So agree with you about Inside. It was six or seven hours which never felt samey, and always kept me intrigued. Such a brill game!
Wow rob didn't say MGS. is that his evil twin?
If Fez spoke to you, Miegakurve might also be of interest. I don't know if it came out or ever will but it certainly has an interesting concept of playing in four dimensions.
Really really enjoying this series. Great work guys! Keep it up!
Thomas Was Alone is the game I would pick. It is an Indy puzzle game but it has a compelling story you would not expect.
ABZU!!!! Damn that game needs more love. I played Journey first but when I played ABZU I knew I had found my new favorite chill game.
Fez is not about seeing the third dimension, its about traversing it to access a different plane on the second dimension. When you get the sunglasses though, its straight up perceiving the third dimension.
I actually really started to like Hollie after I've heard her a bit more in these Tuesday episodes. She kinda looks like she could change everyone's mood with her smile lol
Another moment has to be
Arkham Asylum!! That moment it 'glitches'. I mean holy crap, genius.
I know this isn't about this checklist, but I want to say, after I watched and heard Rob talk about ffxii, I went and bought it, and it has been the only game that I been playing the last few days, I think I found my next Platinum, cause I don't think I can plat ffxv.
There is one big rule Abzu broke that Hollie didn't mention: friendly shark.
I would say MGS1 or MGS2, but I will go with Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. It encouraged you to try and collect soldiers via Wi-Fi hotspots, which at the time was revolutionary.
Also, I have a suggestion for a topic: 6 Levels that are almost perfect. For me, it's A Hero's Way in MGSV: The Phantom Pain. It's basically a tutorial, but everything feels organic and is builds to so perfectly to a the escape; and the best part, is everyone's experience of this level is completely different.
Fez is so good that *possible spoilers* you get to a point where you create a QR code by revolving the level which you can actually scan with your mobile! to get a number code which will unlock a door! Please tell me I'm not the only one who got that far? hehe ☺
Rob, this is an intervention - we're here because we love you and we want to help. Please put the mushrooms on the table and walk away slowly...
Anyone else completely confused by Dave and this whole taking over your computer bit?
Xcom because it gives you limits and rules until you have a fully levelled squad with the best equipment then the ai moves as much as it wants and never misses
Well said, Dave. I always thought Superhot was a puzzle game too.
my brain started to hurt just listening to Dave talk about The Witness xD
Abzu is seriously one of the most beautiful and relaxing games I've ever played :)
ThatGameCompany and Giant Squid Studios are wonderful independent developers!
EXCUSES EXCUSES: My brother and I had been playing borderlands on PS3 for days so that we could take on crawmerax the only boss who can drop pearlescent weapons (the rarest kind). When we finally were strong enough to take him on we started farming him. The rules were that my brother would get the first pearlescent and after hours of killing that idiot crab it finally dropped it. When you kill crawmerax (the crab) he drops a sea of weapons so we spread out to see what he dropped. I saw the weapon and the human thing to do would be to tell my brother I found the pearlescent..... I didn't
One of the most innovative shooters I've played in years.
Finally, made the 301 club. The most heartbreaking thing in video games for me was when my ps hard drive crashed with my 75% completed skyrim game on it. I was so devastated I didn't play the game again for at least 3 years. I'm going to finish it on ps4
I don't know if it exactly threw out the rulebook, but if not it certainly rewrote massive parts of it--The Talos Principle. Basically a puzzle game. Unlike The Witness, there is an actual story--but it doesn't really have a narrative if that makes sense. You get the story from computers and recordings scattered around the puzzle levels. And it has that same kind of empty-world feel of The Witness or Everyone's Gone to the Rapture (although occasionally you will see someone else playing the game because it's a persistent world, but you can't interact with them directly). There are only two NPC-type characters you interact with--one is an AI on the computers you find, and the other is some booming God-like voice from above you. It's a very odd little game, that delves surprisingly deeply into the philosophical questions of what it means to be human, how do you define sentience, can an AI ever be considered to have free will, and so on. Definitely worth checking out.
Portal - The Portal mechanic is so good that it was the entire game, it didn't need anything else. Puzzle games are always interesting but this took it too the next level, using your own character as a tool to complete puzzles (if that makes sense)
Heavy Rain - This is literally a game without gameplay. Just choices and QTE. It redefined gaming as a cinematic experience. I believe games like Tell Tale games even TLoU owe a lot to this game as it made games a cinematic experiance.
RDR - (Spoiler alert) Big open world? Not exactly new. Horses? Not new either. Western? Pretty sure Gun came out before it and also Revolver was obviously before Redemption, not too sure about Call of Juarez. So how did it tear up the rule book? Because they killed the protagonist. This is the first huge game (that I know off) that did this. And it wasn't just any protagonist, it was John Marston, and instant icon and a guy that everyone loved. Yes other games have had important characters die but imagine if it was Cloud that died and not Aries, completely different situation
Gravity Rush - You mess around with gravity, enough said
The Stanley Parable - All logic out of the window, and yet, hugely enjoyable
SoTC - A game where you are not told the narrative, and yet know what the narrative is. A game where you have no body to fight, just bosses. And those bosses are puzzles. On paper a younger me would call you an idiot for recommending this, but having played it, it just works
MGS - Ok so I have only played the first and do not remember a lot from it, we are talking like 15-20 years here. But it broke the forth wall, and I did not expect any of it. Check the CD cover they said, got called out for using turbo in the torture scene, oh and most importantly that one boss that bugged my playstation so I had to use controller 2 port
That's all I got for now
EDIT: Honourable mention. TLoU. Not for the story or the story telling. But a single mechanic. Walking and running. In every other game I have played characters walk and run at the same pace, not Joel. He doesn't need to break into full sprint when searching an empty area, so he doesn't, in the midst of battle he does and so he does. It makes sense for this to be a thing and in my opinion was one part of the many reasons the characters felt so human
M Wadud the law of ueki?
Both Mirror's Edge games are underrated.
Who else can see the whiteboard with "Konichiwa" written on it lmao
I know you guys are contractually obliged to talk about PlayStation titles but Undertale was that kind of game for me. I've never loved a game and it's characters so much. It got to the point where the game asked me not to play it again so that the characters would have a happy ending ... And I listened. I haven't picked up the game since but it's still one of my favourites to this day.
Digimon Cyber Sleuth in my opinion changed the rules, because it showed it was possible to take the monster capturing abilities from certain games mixed in a bit of persona and produced and extremely enjoyable but hard hitting story...... Plus I picked this game doesn't get the acknowledgment it deserves so it needs a shout out :P
Two games that I'm supprised haven't been mentioned more in the comments: LotR Shadow of Mordor and Alien Isolation. Both for their AI. The Nemesis system in SoM is amazing! Being able to manipulate your enemies ranks to take a "red shirt" and get him promoted to general and then turn him and all of his subordinates is brilliant. And the AI on the Alien in Alien Issolation is horrifying at times. You can spend an hour studying it's movements and then the moment you think you have it sussed and you make a move it does something you've not seen it do before and you have to run for your life! Easily 2 off the best games of 2014 and the best AIs in any games.
I might actually have spent more money on paper, trying to work out the puzzles, than I actually did buying 'The Witness'!! XD
Welp there's the superhot spoiler I'd managed to avoid until now.
Played that demo they made ages ago and loved it, but I just cannot imagine playing regular Super Hot after the VR one :(
This video is like a reward because I got the notification just as I beat crash 1!
The game Shadows Of Destiny there was no killing no anything like that it was all about altering time and exploring time and figuring out how causality created the various timelines you find yourself in
There's no way you're talking about game which tore up the rule book and don't mention No Man's Sky.
Yes, it was a massive let down. Yes, there was very little 'game' to it. And yes, it all got a little samey after a while. But seriously, the use of procedural generation was so fresh and was what got people hyped in the first place! That kind of tech will be a staple of exploration games in the future - it just takes a few goes to get the recipe right ...
I'm surprised Nathan didn't talk about Dark Souls
Rob surely Metal Gear wrote the rule book, when it made you think your Playstation was hacked. Time for another Tuesday Ticklist next week (yes I changed the title and rewrote the rule book...ha ha)
Hollie seems to have the same taste in games as me ^^ Final Fantasy 8 as best Final Fantasy, ABZÛ as best for the Giant Squid games :p
You guys could use some friendlier lighting, it looks kind of dramatic.
Good Kid M.A.D. City that's exactly what I was thinking, it looks like a documentary and these people are telling their perspective of an event
yeah and maybe some friendly music like in Friday feature.
well that's the vibe they are going for.
You mean this isn't about the survivors of a plane crash?
Good Kid M.A.D. City I love it
One game that comes to my mind is the original Drakengard, usually you work towards getting the best ending in the game but every new ending you unlock is worse then the last, the first ending is a kinda generic bittersweet ending and the nendings that followed became more and more dark and hopeless until just everything goes to hell with giant floating babies that eat people. And the way you do it is to play more unlockable chapters that reveal what terrible people the protagonists are, it's like peeling an onion of lies until you get to the truth. Then you get magically transported to Tokyo and have to fight the final boss in a rythm game. I thought my brain melted after that.
Mr. Futago yeah yoko taro's games are so good in this regard and pretty unique as well.
Abzu is deffinetly the better of the games. The music and just the general atmosphere of the game was brilliant. I’ve never been so chill playing a game
Oh, Rulebook! There's an idea. Are there many games out there that punish you for your reading the rulebook? I know that in Vexx there's a heart you can't get without the rulebook because the code you need in that mission is written near the back of it.
Loved the video. Very brave of you to mention the word 'gif'. I hope you're ready for the cavalcade of comments about the correct pronunciation. I'm in the Golf camp, rather than the Geoff camp.
metal gear, psycho mantas, controller swap and the heavy story that held it all together.
The Witness is amazing, I'm so close to the platinum, I just have The Challenge in my way now and it's bloody annoying
Farcry 4 if you don't move then the time of day never changes. The sun and moon never move if you don't. You can make the time of day speed up by using your curser to spin around really fast.
Superhot is the most innovative shooter I've played in years.