kerzain
3481
That is what it sounds like when he loves something.
Yeah, I came away with the impression that he really liked it.
Did you watch the one where he had only one real complaint (the scanning), one half-hearted complaint (the difficulty of combat), a few jokes about alien sex, some complaints about ME1 (Mako and inventory) and finished with a credits sequence which included the phrase ‘Will Nitpick For Food’ above the URL for his website?
If so, yes.
Istari6
3484
To be fair, I haven’t started ME2 yet, so can’t properly judge Bioware’s writing in this new chapter. It’s sitting on my shelf and awaiting a stack of new gear en route from NewEgg. So ME2 + the future ME3 may end up outshining Planescape Torment, but it does set a high bar.
(Yes, I replayed it recently so I’m not looking through the +3 Rose-Tinted Glasses of Nostalgia :>)
Chris
Equis
3485
I quite like ME2’s writing and I do find it to be Bioware’s best effort to date, but in no way does it outshine Planescape: Torment. No way at all.
MattKeil
3486
For some, I doubt a game penned by Shakespeare himself could displace Torment as the sacred cow of game writing. Wish I had time to replay it before summer.
Equis
3487
I don’t think Shakespeare might get the vocabulary of writing for computer games…
Equis
3488
I doubt Shakespeare understands the vocabulary of writing story for games.
MattKeil
3489
I have a feeling he could pick it up quickly enough.
Well, I did point out it wasn’t the yawning abyss that is your typical JRPG writing.
I can’t really agree. OK, granted, Dragon Age is definitely weaker, but I can’t say Mass Effect 1’s writing ascends to “good,” and from what I’ve seen of Mass Effect 2 so far (just a few hours) it’s roughly the same. Uh, except for the part where everyone you know has joined a rogue black ops group you hunted down in the last game for performing Joseph Mengele experiments on alliance troops, that’s doesn’t exactly make sense.
The Mass Effect 1 / 2 writing is not precisely bad, either, it’s just uninteresting for the most part. That wouldn’t be an issue if you didn’t have so much to wade through. All those dialog trees, looking for Paragon points and quest hooks. If I could safely say “get to the point” in every conversation without damaging gameplay, I would. I really don’t give a flying f why my two engineering officers are part of Cerberus, but I asked anyway because I might get to say something pointlessly nice in response for points.
In contrast, I’ve played games where I’ve explored practically every dialog branch just to hear what the characters will say. Monkey Island 1-2, The Grim Fandango, and Star Control 2 all come to mind.
So your compulsion to min-max ruined the narrative experience for you?
What a damning condemnation of BioWare!
I’m playing through ME1 right now for the first time, (a little late to the party,) and good god is the writing terrible. Conversations between Shepherd and Liara in particular are laughably bad.
Personally, I hold Grim Fandango up as the paragon of game writing, and I’ve yet to see it beaten. And yes, I’ve played Torment. It’s awesome, but I still prefer GF. Chalk it up to personal tastes.
And then there’s KOTOR:
“Thanks for saving me.”
“I only saved you FOR LAST!” [Attack]
How in the world is wanting to skip boring dialog min-maxing?
Planescape Torment does not have great writing. Common misconception, understandable. It has its good aspects though, I guess. There are games with great writing though - most of them have already been mentioned. Guess it’s a short list.
I should say that yahtzee’s taste is highly questionable - remember this is the guy who frequently lists Silent Hill 2 as his favorite game ever, and that’s because of its (bad) writing.
Rimbo
3499
You say that about everyone, though. ;) ;) ;)
Factory
3500
Get out. For saying this.
(I haven’t actually played Planescape for more than 5 minutes so I can’t tell him to get out for that)
