Best Telltale Season?

[AlmostApollo]

I have to agree with Avistew here. The increased focus on merging video games with movies (and even vice-versa) is really beginning to bug me. Video games are all about immersion. Movies are about being along for the ride.

Lately, though, it seems like people think that they should switch. Don't get me wrong, I loved Tales. I thought it was great. It seems as though people are trying to make their games "cinematic" and with that comes these new dynamic characters, which are sometimes great. The more complicated and dynamic a character is, though, it makes it harder to relate. It's much easier to "feel" like you're Master Chief than it is to feel like you're Guybrush. Not even due to the first person angle, but because the Chief is quiet and doesn't say much. Guybrush says what he wants to and is a great character, but he doesn't feel representative of ME anymore. I am occasionally given an option of what to say, but even that is sometimes taken away with Guybrush saying something different, letting me know that he is his own character. In the older games when Guybrush showed less emotion it was easier to put yourself inside the character's head. I really enjoyed what Telltale did with the season, so don't take it as I don't, I'm just using it as an example to show the trend in games that is bugging me right now.

It's even happening the other way in movies. Movies like Avatar and the rising trend of making 3D movies where the film-maker tries to put you into their world are good examples. I just don't understand this. Did I feel like I was on Pandora? Sometimes. Did I feel "immersed" and important? Of course not. These events would have happened whether I was there or not. No one was there talking to me. So, I guess I just wanted to say that I don't understand these new trends. Video games have the tools to be immersive and movies have the tools to be, as Avistew said, passive and being along for the ride. To me it just makes sense to use the best tools for what the creator wants to do.

[Falanca]

Originally Posted by avistew

I totally understand how you can disagree with me. I realise my vision is a minority thing and most people feel more like you.

I think games and movies are in opposition though. One is active and one is passive, by definition. Adventure games are about it being you doing things. It's not "Guybrush did this" it's "I did this". When it's a movie, it's not "I did this" anymore, not as strongly. It's at least the way I felt.

Now that I've finished playing it once, I actually don't see myself replaying it anytime soon. However, I've been watching walkthrough, or extracting the sounds to listen to some of the lines. I'm even making some kind of "radio play" version with just sound to load on my mp3 player to listen to. Now you might think it means I really loved the game, but the way I see it is I love the movie.

I don't want to go back and use items on things a second time. Instead, I want to watch to the part where Guybrush says that and so and so answer that.
To me, it feels much different. Games I like I play over and over and over again and would never consider watching a walkthrough of them because I take my enjoyment from playing them. Tales, well, I could see myself never playing it again, ever. Why play it when I can do better: watch it, and by doing that skip the boring parts?

If Sam and Max 3 is indeed similar to Tales, I have no doubt that I will enjoy it immensely, but it's quite possible that I will play it only once period, and then watch it.

You might feel that the two can be merged without a problem, but I just feel differently. To me they're as different as writing a novel versus reading a novel. I enjoy both, but they're not the same.

The general points of our thoughts are similar, but opposite.

I can never categorize those two genres like that, to be honest. Time to time I form an empathy with a character in a movie, or feel like I'm showing the way to a totally different person when playing a game. It's sometimes (if not always) that you feel like what the game/movie/book wants you to feel like.

Since I played the entire season but the last episode from a friend of mine, I'm just waiting for Telltale to do a discount on Tales to buy it and play it again, because simply there are a lot of things that I missed in some episodes that I really want to find out and/or experience again. Uhm, yes, I mean, we kinda differ that way. Sorry for the details and all. It's just... there are sooo many possible lines that I missed, I'd really really want to try everything and get the responses accordingly to the action I've taken. I don't really read novels commonly, so I can't make my own comparison, but I can say that I love seeing the details in things.

I played the Season One 4 times and Season Two for twice (only once the third episode because I don't own that one), and to me those seasons lacked something that Tales had. And, thanks to my sheer luck I guess, I'm getting what I want. And I'm pretty sure Telltale will do an awesome job again and I'll just *ahem* whore the episodes for a looong time.

[Avistew]

Originally Posted by Falanca

I don't really read novels commonly, so I can't make my own comparison, but I can say that I love seeing the details in things.

What I meant with that comparison is that for one I think "Mmh, what should I do next?" and for the other "Mmh, I wonder what happens next".

Adventure games have always been a mix of the two, since you play a game, but there is a real story taking place. But for Tales I felt like I was just doing what I was told to do without doing much thinking about it. It was like watching a movie, then the main character says "okay, I'll go get you a glass of water", and you make him go get a glass of water, then the movie starts again. You're kind of doing something but you're being told what to do so plainly that you might has well just watch the character do it right away, the rest is just the boring part of having to move him yourself.

I guess in the end, it's a mix of "it was more cinematic" and "it was easier", that left me an impression like I hadn't really played the game, it played itself and I watched. And although I enjoyed it, I don't find that as rewarding from the gaming point of view.

As far as "I want to know every possible thing that happens", I agree there are lots of easter eggs but in the case of Tales I felt it went over the line of "it's not worth replaying just to find them". I'm talking for myself, of course.