Eedo Baba

Not as good as Monkey Island 1 or 2, if that's what you're expecting. I'd blame the fact that Tim Schafer wasn't on board writing for it.

Alright. By the way, I think Portal 2 relies almost more on story than the puzzles, and that was actually something that lots of people criticized about it. There were actually entire chapters that had no big puzzle chambers to speak of, Well, to explain, Myst is one of the prime examples of classic adventure games, alongside games like Monkey Island. In myst, you solve puzzles without an inventory. Puzzles in adventure games that rely on combining and using items your carrying in your inventory are rightfully called "inventory puzzles" (duh). Puzzles like those in Myst that mainly involve physically interacting with the environment without carrying things around, are called "Environment Puzzles". The only characters you talk to in Myst are live action cutscenes that play out without any intervention by the player (though which cutscenes play is a result of player choice). Myst is a brand of adventure game opposite that of Monkey Island, which I get the feeling is the sort of thing you're used to. Monkey island is a third person adventure game based on inventory puzzles. Myst is a first person adventure game based on environment puzzles.

You just described Myst.

I'd personally say there's no such thing as a puzzle game that relies on a lot of story. If it does, it's just an adventure game.

One thing that annoys me about game genres is the complete disregard of the proper definition of an Adventure game. For example, if you go to Amazon right now and look at games listed under the "Adventure" genre, you get games like Just Cause 2, Fallout: NV, Saint's Row 3... To clarify, these are not adventure games. The character may be literally going on an adventure, but that's not what the term adventure means when applied to games. This seems like the simplest thing, but so many people and sites seem unable to grasp it. Here is wikipedia's reasonably wide definition of an adventure game: This would include games like Monkey Island, LA Noire, Myst, and perhaps more loosely a game like Portal. Personally, I think Portal and Portal 2 fit Adventure better than Puzzle, because it's more story based than the label "Puzzle" allows.

You're right in that the setting would be repetitive, though I don't think the gameplay would be, I can think of hundreds of different things you could do to cause problems in an office in a game. It would likely take a ridiculous amount of programming. There would have to be a lot of cutscenes, things like board meetings, private conversations between managers, etc. to keep the story aspect interesting. There wouldn't be specific objectives for you to do. If you did nothing, work would go on as usual, no change. Changes would only occur based on things you've done. It would almost be the player's responsibility to make it non-repetitive. Getting half your department fired, thus it gets relocated due to a smaller staff size, sabotaging the bathroom so employees have to travel to different floors to use it, starting a trash fire that spreads, so part of the floor ends up getting sealed off, there would be lots of ways to keep it going. I'd like this idea more if it was corporate espionage. The character you play as was sent in undercover to destroy this company by any means necessary, without being traced back to the competing company.

I think once we get fusion power working, that will be a better option by far, but for now, nuclear fission is the best choice. Contrary to popular belief, it is very safe, and if well organized and perhaps built further from urban areas, the risk is greatly reduced. Personally, I seriously think that we should be considering space based nuclear power. Geosynchronous nuclear stations that transmit power via laser grids. Persistent radioactivity would be a negligible problem, for the station would run autonomously, and nuclear power in zero gravity actually erases some of the inherent problems associated with the process. Waste products could be stored in vacuum sealed inflatable containment bladders, inside expanding structures, to be disposed of on earth, far into the future.

I already played it. My opinion was that I thought the first half was fantastic and the second half was just kind of dumb and got worse from there. I think the turning point for me was when the game switched from having a very down-to-earth setting and situations combined with increasingly eroding reality to doing supernatural Matrix-style kung fu moves versus the entire police force. Yeah, that's pretty much my own view of the story as well. The first half sets it all up as a character driven story where the characters react to the weirdness of the goings on, then it does take a 180 towards some half-hearted action and takes focus off the characters.

I feel like a lesbian trapped in a man's body... I guess that just makes me a heterosexual man.

As would be expected, Ross, your ideas are the best. On the subject of a story driven games where reality breaks down for a normal main character, you should look at Indigo Prophecy. It has it's fair share of big problems and the gameplay is never amazing, but in terms of a surreal and just bizarre story, it does get the job done.

Well yes, but it has to be a game that's built around that. In Elder Scrolls, you can shoot things from first person, but Elder Scrolls is undeniably a role playing game. It's an FPRPG, if you want to be ridiculous about it. Same for Portal. You can shoot portals from your gun, but it's certainly defined most often as a puzzle game. It's an FPPG, a first person puzzle game.

So if you die in game, you die in real life? The body cannot live without the mind... Seriously though, I'd say that when you die you'd just suddenly be ejected from the game or perhaps if it's a more lenient game, immediately respawn at the last checkpoint.

Batman Arkham City. Here's the last hour of gameplay in a nutshell: "Augmented Reality Training activated." "Augmented Reality Training failed." "Augmented Reality Training activated." "Augmented Reality Training failed." "Augmented Reality Training activated." "Augmented Reality Training failed." "Augmented Reality Training activated." "Augmented Reality Training failed." "Augmented Reality Training activated." "Augmented Reality Training failed." "Augmented Reality Training activated." "Augmented Reality Training failed." "Augmented Reality Training activated." "Augmented Reality Training failed." "Augmented Reality Training activated." "Augmented Reality Training failed." "Augmented Reality Training activated." "Augmented Reality Training failed."

Well, in my own far into the future idea, the game would run by intercepting and inserting brain functions directly, kind of like the Matrix.

You can't have the perfect game without the perfect system. But the topic is about the perfect game, now that you have described the perfect system, what would be like the perfect game in that system? Well, as I said, a game like Skyrim, with a massive open world would be the best choice for virtual reality. Having a strictly linear or chapter based system would feel too contrived to fit with the realism. I think a science fiction or fantasy game, set in an open world, I would dig the most. Being in a world that's unbelievable and fantastical would be 10x better than exploring a totally realistic world, because it would be like living in a dream. Gameplay in a truly realistic game would need to be unstructured and unorganized. If there's a chair nearby, with a guy sitting on it, you should be able to pick it up and smash it over a person's head. It shouldn't be disqualified from such action because it's not *categorized* as a weapon. The same would go for the rest of the gameplay. You'd be given basic goals from AI characters, but it would be entirely up to you to figure out how to proceed. There would be no HUD or map system in a virtual reality of course, so you would have to purchase or draw a map yourself, and keep track of it manually. You'd have to store things physically in pouches and belts. There would be no hard limit on what you can carry, but you'd feel physically weighed down if you tried to carry too much. Anyway, yeah, basically I would want to step into a real world and explore. That would end up being an issue in violent games... Perhaps the game could have an option to limit painful sensations... People wouldn't be laughing about taking arrows in knees if they had to actually feel it.

You can't have the perfect game without the perfect system.

Virtual reality indistinguishable from real life. Imagine exploring a world like Skyrim from the shoes of your character. You'd taste the food, feel the weight of the sword and armor. Maybe they could even recreate the feeling of energy coursing through your body when you fire off a self healing spell. Just imagine for a moment how awesome that would be.

Well Portal obviously isn't an FPS. Wikipedia has a reasonable definition of an FPS in that it's "a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective". I think we can agree that Portal doesn't focus on weapon-based combat. I think you guys are making the mistake of labeling every "first person" game as a "first person shooter". By that same logic, Myst was a first person shooter. Anyway, my favorite FPS games is a short list. Half Life 2, TF2... Most of my favorite shooters are third person.

Batman Arkham City I think I heard one of the inmates make a Lost reference. Out of nowhere, "Hey, did they ever actually explain what the island was?"

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Good to know. You playing the ps2 version, or the new "hd collection" by the way? I played MGS 2 and 3 in that collection. 3 looked absolutely amazing in HD.

*Sigh* Worst MGS by far. If you happen to be playing the series for the first time, don't be put off by MGS2. 3 is the best in the series, and in my opinion 4 is great as well, so you've got a lot to look forward to. Still, I'd reccommend finishing 2 if you want any hope of understanding the story in 4.

Who needs a shortstop or mad milk when you have a quick fix medic? I think we're making the assumption that your entire team is utterly incompetent.

Well, pyros are generally a great reason to opt for the shortstop, because you can stay out at medium range away from the flames. Not as much damage as the scattergun, but it has different uses like that.

Mad Milk will save you constantly if you're dealing with pesky pyros. Aim at the ground and fire, and you're no longer on fire.