the story overides the graphics

[ailevation]

:cheers: Final Fantasy 6 is the best Final Fantasy; it has 32 summons!

 

[Lep]

:cheers: Final Fantasy 6 is the best Final Fantasy; it has 32 summons!

I second that. :afro:

 

[Warbie]

Games are still a young medium and developers are still trying to figure out the best way to tell a good story, in fact it's only recently people have decided to tell stories in games at all!

You can't really compare the story in a game to the story in a book because they're just not the same. People have had many many years to figure out how to write good books. In a few years we'll see superb stories in games.

Relative to other video games, games like Half-Life and Max Payne DO have good stories.

I guess my point is - do video games even need a good story?

I don't think so. There has to be some plot, but other than that it's all about immersion and gameplay. The whole point of video games is that we make our own 'story' while we play. Surely?

 

[Warbie]

I second that. :afro:

I third that.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

I guess my point is - do video games even need a good story?

I don't think so. There has to be some plot, but other than that it's all about immersion and gameplay. The whole point of video games is that we make our own 'story' while we play. Surely?

Nooo...???
I'm a big fan of Sam Lake, I think he wrote an excellent plot for Max Payne, its very well written. The fact that the games looks good and are fun to play are of course big, big bonuses.

 

[Warbie]

Nooo...???
I'm a big fan of Sam Lake, I think he wrote an excellent plot for Max Payne, its very well written. The fact that the games looks good and are fun to play are of course big, big bonuses.

It was written to sound extremely cheesey - like a bad detective novel. Which suited the game well but not what i'd call a good story (a very cool idea nevertheless)

 

[Kouler]

I finished HL and it's expansions many times *points to sig*
The immersion is just...amazing...the story is awesome. The gameplay kicks ass, now i try using weapons that i normally dont use (like tripmines) and they get me extreme ownage For example, in Xen, when you go to the cave where the Gargantua is, as he chased me, i ran backwards and planted a small path of tripmines and 1 det pack. As soon as the garg stepped near it, BOOM. Owned

 

[Someone]

I think for me graphics are overrated, but CAN add to a game if done the right way. I am not really convinced good graphics can make a bad game, good, however.

Take a game like Doom3 for instance. The graphics and lighting will surely add to the scare factor....but....IF the game sucks beyond that than those pretty graphics and lighting won't be all that important after a few hours of playing. The "ohhhh!" factor will die and we'll just be looking at a tech demo.

Now with a game like HL1, and hopefully HL2, the game is based more on feel and interaction and immersion than look. So if the makers are able to pull us into the game, than we can overlook average/bad graphics because we are already enjoing the game itself. Adding pretty graphics to that formula will certainly make the game better though, at least on some level, but they're not really needed to "make the game."

To each his own with this though. Some people like graphics more, but I guess growing up in the 70's and 80's with text games like Zork proved to me that you can have a fun game no matter how advanced it's look or sound is.

I think that's why I have a problem with the VS threads. Seems too often the quality of a game in those threads it based strictly on look.

 

[VeZ]

you know what i would like to see..is a pic of half life 2 at high settings, and then one at low settings and see the difference

 

[brink's]

It was written to sound extremely cheesey - like a bad detective novel. Which suited the game well but not what i'd call a good story (a very cool idea nevertheless)

He's right
Max Payne's story fitted the atmosphere of the game really well and therefore was a success and we got a great game out of it. But if it was a novel id be in the 50% of section at Safeway.

 

[The Monkey]

In 1998, when HL1 came, the graphics were the best on the FPS-market.

 

[brink's]

Many would argue the Unreal had better graphics.

 

[Xeni]

Many would argue the Unreal had better graphics.

The New Unreal Engine is more beautiful...but the Source engine in all its realisticnesss is really impressive, and we wont see that new Unreal engine in a game for a while.

 

[Tarkus]

if most of you dont mind having a crappy looking game, as long as it has a good storyline/gameplay and whatnot, why the hell did you spend all those $$$ in new comps just for hl2???

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

heheh, thats the exact reason I dont want to post in this thread...


I find gameplay much more important than gfx... but still..

I spent muchos cash on a pc for HL2... so I really shouldnt comment lol.

 

[el Chi]

The story is ok in HL1. Doesn't hold a candle to some books written..

I doubt Laidlaw ever set out to use the plot of HL 1 or 2 to try and beat Orwell, Heller, Burgess or Shakespeare (to name but a few examples) especially as the plot was vaguely tongue-in-cheek B-movie-esque. Point being is that HL's plot is far in advance of most other games; more involving, etc.
Although I know what you meant - there was a guy here on another topic who said he didn't read books like it was a good thing :hmph: Moron.
The_Monkey: The original Unreal had better gfx, let's face it.
Tarkus: Perhaps the plot and immersion are the main draws to this game, but seeing as the gfx are so good, it'd be nice to be able to experience that too. Hence, money spent on rigs. Shucks.
And I agree with Marksman... I'm guilty of the same thing.

 

[The Monkey]

What? Did you guys acctaully bought new computers only so you could buy HL2?!?!?! :thumbs:

 

[brink's]

The New Unreal Engine is more beautiful...but the Source engine in all its realisticnesss is really impressive, and we wont see that new Unreal engine in a game for a while.

I meant the original Unreal compared to HL1.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

What? Did you guys acctaully bought new computers only so you could buy HL2?!?!?! :thumbs:

I didn't... I wanted to but it costs way too much.

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

I bought a new computer for games in general because pretty soon we are gona see a whole load of fantastic games coming out.

 

[Someone]

I bought a new computer for games in general because pretty soon we are gona see a whole load of fantastic games coming out.

Same here. My last computer was had a Duron 600 with 192 meg of ram and a geforce 1 ..so it was about time

I can't speak for anyone else, but I pretty much HAD to upgrade, to run the game (or ANY new game) at all. So it was either spend some money, or not play anything new.