Quote: "so your telling me that you wont play a game that has amazing graphics, amazing gameplay, but a cliche story line?"
Dam, you got me!
I should retract my previous statement and rephrase to this:
I refuse to play a game unless it has a great story or it has an overwhelmingly good gameplay. It's ONE of those, or to have it good in both aspects. If either aspect drops below "good", then the other better make up for it.
As for the story of Halo being degraded below that of a "realistic" game. That in an of itself is what makes me despise the stories behind said "realism".
Allow me to take a nice example from Slayer:
Quote: "Also, killing every character except for the main one is NOT good story design."
No, it isn't, but it's realistic. There's just as good of a chance that a single person is going to come back from a suicidal, rediculous, and haphazardly placed battle plan as there is that ANYONE is going to come back. Sure, the AI in the game may feel realistic and at times downright stupid for being "too good", but that's what makes it so UNrealistic. It's not the real world, you don't have the real world flaws in aiming. Human aiming is not like in a video game. It never will be, no matter how realistic you try to make it. People waver when aiming through a scope and I see that in games, but people can master it and waver less. Your skill at aiming matters naught in a game. You're either going to waver the same amount ALL the time or you're not going to waver at all. The AI is predictable and unrealistic. Even the most "advanced" AI that I've seen in an FPS game becomes predictable. It doesn't even matter if it's random. The AI is restricted to the rules of the game. They're not going to decide "Hey, I heard a noise over there, but I'm going to pretend that I didn't hear and secretly go tell my guys to set up an ambush on the roof where the player isn't allowed to go so that we'll be safer from their fire!"
You can't do everything in a game that you can in real life. Definitally not as easily or as accurately to say the least. I have yet to see a game that allows you to use your bazooka to blast shortcuts through a level. Nor have I seen a game allow AI from miles away to hear that blast and send backup to their soldiers. If the AI gets backup, it's ALWAYS because it's supposed to happen. If YOU get backup, it's because it's supposed to happen.
Games are unrealistic. That's why we love them so much. Sh*t happens in a game that is never going to happen in real life.
This is why I despise games that try to be "realistic". Sure, make the physics more accurate, that's a natural system to have in a game and makes the gameplay all that much more enjoyable. Sure, make the AI randomized and try to get the player to stay on their toes. That makes the gameplay more enjoyable. But don't you EVER tell me that your game is "realistic", until it has actually happened in the real world and everything that CAN be done in the real world can be done within the game. Face it, there HAVE to be those indestructable structures in a game. The debris HAS to disappear at some point. The engine just wouldn't be able to handle it all at some point.
Until I can do what I want, when I want in a game, it is going to be unrealistic.
The graphics of games certainly look great, but they're far from realism.
Give me an enthralling story and/or some engulfing gameplay and I'm happy. Don't try to over-shadow the greatness of a game by pretending that it's something it's not.
You want to know what games I play? I play RPGs for the story. I play Mario Kart for the great UNREALISTIC racing gameplay. I play Fire Emblem on the Wii for it's tactical gameplay. I play CHESS. I play CHECKERS. I play Smash Brothers. I play anything that devoids itself of reality! Why? Because if I wanted to play a realistic football game, then I'd go outside and play football. If I wanted a realistic shooter, then I'd go outside and play paintball (With paint machinegun and paint landmines). The feeling of reality is never going to be in a game. You will never feel the pain of a shot to the chest. You will never feel the G's of turning in a vehicle, nor the rumble of an explosion shuddering throughout your body.
Videogames are devoid of realism! And I despise those that advertise otherwise!
The one and only,
