Indeed. One problem I see is that the demo only shows the early game. While that's better from a story perspective it means you don't get a real feeling for combat.
right KDR---generally the whole man in the sky thing, and the whole burning thing.
They are are not 'indoctrined' in any beliefs as far as I know, but are rather generalized-for-the-uneducated-masses-of-previous-centuries ideas to make it easier to 'get' metaphysical concepts.
As far as the indian religion goes, I think it's a pretty refreshing take to see it in a game....a lot more interesting than all those games with demons and hell (I usually cringe at the idea of those now...it's just cheesy!)
And it's not like it's being disrespectful, evangelical, or glamourizing of that backdrop---it's merely using it as a story and character element.
[ QUOTE ]
sounds like a standard misconception of nearly all monotheastic Abrahamic religions to me, not limited to but including christianity, judiasm, and islam.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, it was a rather vague comment, which is why I asked.
I guess If spirit walking is a problem then WoW is out of the question.
Wait, doesn't every videogame ever made feature resurrection?! The problem with taking a stand against themes that trouble you in this media, is where the heck to draw the line. It all starts to get a bit silly. Especially silly given that the core pastimes in many games are extreme violence (hence my comment above about the graphic depiction of slaughtering of children in Prey). Just my two penneths worth on the subject. One that should probably go away now anyway. We all know where threads of this subject usually end up.
i think this thread is getting derailed quite a bit ..
i think we need to respect LS's opinion regarding the game .. But I also find the "spirit walking" and "death" in the game quite refreshing and innovative, they just happen to tie in some spiritual/religious backdrop..
If the rest of the game's level design and puzzles are done well i think they got a real winner on their hands
Having reread the thread a bit, sorry for the derailment - that's my fault, and I probably should have just PM'd LordScottish to ask my question. That said, I'm totally fine with his opinion as he explained it. It's the examples like Darren cited that annoy me, the video gaming equivalent of Jack Chick's anti-DND crusade or somthing. It seemed very odd that any Polycounter would have that opinion, which is why I was curious in the first place.
I seem to have forgotten to give an actual opinion on Prey, didn't I? Having played part way through the demo... well, I think the setting is terrific and the production value is top notch, but I feel kind of like danr in this case. Yeah, it's spiff, but in this faintly Hotel California "haven't I done all this before?" sort of way. I am currently of the opinion that good FPS games need to start out like good action movies - dropping you immediately into the excitement. Exposition is keen and all, but I was just wandering back and fourth at that bar bored to death, certain I was going to have to beat up the asshole drunks yet waiting for the developers to finish playing amateur movie producer and let me whack the bastards with my wrench. Tapping my fingers impatiently whilst waiting for the quaintly colorful dialogue to wrap up doesn't make me think 'good gameplay'.
Also, I hate the Doom3 engine. I have Doom3, Quake4 and now the Prey demo, and each game is disappointingly plastic and shiny and artificial. It's doing what it set out to do, but I just don't find it appealing compared to, say, the Source engine (Valve's shitty UV mapping notwithstanding).
I downloaded this expecting to dislike it. The idea of Native American mysticism in a SciFi shooter doesn't sit well with me either. It would only seem fair to mod the game, replacing the main character with young man in his sunday best being guided by Jesus through a hostile alien mothership. With each death you are sent to heaven, where god forgives you, and brings you back for more ass kicking. Yeah!
I loved the new gameplay mechanics. Wall walking, and the box planet really surprised me. The portals were implemented very well. Spirit walking adds to the puzzle element.
I hate Doom 3 lighting. Hate it. Everything that's not a dark, shiny, organic corridor looks like ass. Ironic, as most of this game looks like anus.
I'm getting tired of seeing people being impaled by large mechinery. It does nothing for the game play watching an old man getting blended.
Take out all the native american spirituality, ugly shadows, bad voice acting, senseless impalement, the option to kill innocent victims...and the game is actually fun. I think of it as a great game, with lots of useless, offensive elements thrown on top to hinder it's success.
The new twist on Multiplayer DM play is fantastic. I'd buy that half of the game alone. Actually, I won't buy any part of this game. But I'll keep the demo installed for DM.
I really enjoyed the polish of it all, and it was pretty fun. I especially dug the dying mini game.
But overall, it was just a big mish mash of too many ideas. It seemed like the designer wanted to include every hairbrained idea he ever had for a game into one package. Wall walking, box portals, running around a sphere planet inside a glass case is all well and good, but WHY?
I imagine this will all be explained as soon as our protagonist stops his yelps of vengence and ever so sharp one liners, but having sat through the hour or maore this demo offered, I feel as though nothing made any sense.
Overall, the entire alien ship consisting of cyborg aliens, possessed children, crazy Escher rooms, box portals, flesh covered walls, regualer steel walls, rock music (not the soundtrack mind you) and convenient native american 'symbols' strewn about the place, was just a big disaster in good design, or at least convincing design.
I can't believe it, but I think Turok had a far more 'believeable' world.
I think Nick's post summarizes how I feel betetr than my own post did. I can see various bits that are both good and interesting, but the whole is less than the sum of it's parts due to... I dunno, trying to cram all that graham, I guess. I personally love the Native American aspect of it, because it's a largely untapped mythos for gaming entertainment and because it works on multiple levels. While it's South American Indian rather than the variety in Prey, the Nazca lines in Peru have some science-fiction speculation attached to them, and it's easy to imagine thunderbirds and Great Spirits and the like also linked to extraterrestrial concepts.
I didn't really get the world either. What bothered me a bit was that on one hand, the Aliens (or whatEVER they are) were all high-tech, sci-fi laz0r dudes, and on the other hand, there are a lot of living rooms, walls throwing up at you, and whatnot. And that is combined with the whole thing being in a rock, combined with the spores and the crazy gun, that fall somewhere in between sci-fi and gross living stuff. Overall, it's hard to really define the style of these aliens. At least in Doom3, you knew the sci-fi stuff was human, and the gore was demonic... stuff. Here, it's all part of the same faction. Makes them characterless, in a way, because you can't pinpoint their... well, culture isn't the right word, but you know what I mean.
As for the engine, horrid. I had some weird looks back in 2004 when I said I thought Doom3 was ugly, but it seems I'm not the only one. The creatures you come up against first are actually pretty well done, because they're supposed to be shiny and wet and gross.
As for the impaling, I don't know what kind of use it serves either. Looks like just a way to make the alien dudes look more evil, but that's pretty lame.
... And as for the native American mythological stuff, I'm not too fond of it either. Not that I don't respect that, mind you, but being raised in Europe, having seen only European culture, and having zero contact with nature whatsoever, I'm having a bit of trouble getting into a character that DOES have a relation with this kind of stuff. For me, personally, nature and spirituality have no relation.
i think there is a decent plot behind all the weirdness .. considering that the ship is it's own sort of ecosystem/planetoid .. and that there is a sentient presence monitoring your progress ..
all i am saying is we should give them the benefit of hte doubt
i thought at one point i was looking out a window and you could see the curvature of the earth as if you were in space....so I was surprised to find out that the ship was still at the bar...anyone else find this?
[ QUOTE ]
i thought at one point i was looking out a window and you could see the curvature of the earth as if you were in space....so I was surprised to find out that the ship was still at the bar...anyone else find this?
[/ QUOTE ]
The ship wasn't still at the bar, it picked the bar up when it took the main character.
[ QUOTE ]
Not that I don't respect that, mind you, but being raised in Europe, having seen only European culture, and having zero contact with nature whatsoever
[/ QUOTE ]
Not sure where you're from, but the Europe I grew up in was completely bombarded with American culture! Heck I grew up watching Westerns. And waddya mean, zero contact with nature whatsoever? You live in an inner city towerblock and never ever left it or something?!
ahh k I figured that was a possibility too but i missed whatever detail showed it being picked up, I think I was too busy playing with the jukebox or stoked to see it had the Blue Oysters Cults cowbell song!
The story is enjoyable over all tho, textbook joseph campbell but all the small details like the technologies make it all really interesting. And joseph campbell is not a bad guideline by any means.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Not that I don't respect that, mind you, but being raised in Europe, having seen only European culture, and having zero contact with nature whatsoever
[/ QUOTE ]
Not sure where you're from, but the Europe I grew up in was completely bombarded with American culture! Heck I grew up watching Westerns. And waddya mean, zero contact with nature whatsoever? You live in an inner city towerblock and never ever left it or something?!
[/ QUOTE ]
And what about Europe's own ancient peoples? Weren't the folks who built Stonehenge presumed to be a bunch of hippie nature lovers or something? As I understand it, there's a some nature-bound spirituality in Nordic mythology as well... Of course, if you don't relate to Native American myth, that's all that matters. I'm big on Japanese lore, but the mystical mojo of Africa holds no appeal to me at all, etc.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Not that I don't respect that, mind you, but being raised in Europe, having seen only European culture, and having zero contact with nature whatsoever
[/ QUOTE ]
Not sure where you're from, but the Europe I grew up in was completely bombarded with American culture! Heck I grew up watching Westerns. And waddya mean, zero contact with nature whatsoever? You live in an inner city towerblock and never ever left it or something?!
[/ QUOTE ]
I'm from the Netherlands, and it's true that we've had our share of Americanisation as well. But the American culture is just an expansion pack on the European one, and it's still the same religion. Much closer to the European culture than the native American one is.
As for the contact with nature, zero is a bit little, but I don't have much contact with it. And apart from insects, I can't remember ever having seen any wilds animals. Bit of a contrast to the native American live-off-the-land culture.
hang on european culture 2000+ years old, modern american culture (since independence) 231 years old. american culture = european 2.1 (addition plugin)
Verm: Yes, the old religions had a relation to nature but then came the christian church and called all that barbaric and declared nature as something God gave man to do with as he wishes.
[ QUOTE ]
hang on european culture 2000+ years old, modern american culture (since independence) 231 years old. american culture = european 2.1 (addition plugin)
[/ QUOTE ]
I suppose that's true if you ignore the Aztecs, Mayans, and every other native American culture, which is what we were talking about anyway.
A big part of the culture comes from the actual geography. Europe has no cowboys because there isn't any place in Europe suitable to the cowboy lifestyle. In this way America is much more diverse than Europe. Just in the US, you have everything from artic to desert to swamplands.
ok ok. i did say "modern american" culture, which is pretty seperate to what came befor it. but yeah your points were valid.
oh by the way we have most of that crap too. northern finland to greece sortern tip of italy and spain. no cowboys though plenty of sheep rustlers (check out the big country(Wales))
I don't want to derail the thread too much but I think this is pretty intersting.
The cowboy lifestyle thrived because the land was too dry to grow any decent crops. This required huge areas of grazing land to support any animal. I figure they chose cows over sheep because they have longer legs (and can therefore move faster) and can cope with the heat better. The differences in culture come about because it is completely different to spend your evenings in the cool crisp desert air under the stars hundreds of miles away from other human beings than it is to be able to take a jog down to the pub and have a drink with your mates.
But that is the way small differences in initial conditions result in big differences between cultures.
yeah i get the differences, but having experienced the high plains of spain (my mum has a house there) until recently many people made a living with there stock camping out, in not too disimilar conditions to american deserts (infacxt when i first went it really struck me as how similar the landscape could be too many old spaghetti westerns)
but there arnt the great open spaces like in the us (big spaces but not great)
anyway my point is pretty pointless, my original post was juast a Jibbe
[ QUOTE ]
I thought they chose cows because they were native to the area...I've yet to hear about the massive herds of sheep on the plains...
[/ QUOTE ]
Maybe you are confusing cows with Bison? Cows were domesticated before recorded history in the fertile cresent and are not native to the Americas.
SHEPEIRO: I know you were just kidding. At the same time I think the native cultures are important and have a lot of pull in some ares (like Oklahoma where I live, where almost everybody has some indian blood). I haven't played the demo. The idea of playing some trivialized and retarded hollywood take on native religion turns me off.
vermillion, the sheer number of the "two kinds of people" slams I could make in response to that post is staggering... If only I wasn't such a nice guy!
but, interesting stuff nonetheless... learn something new everyday!
hang on european culture 2000+ years old, modern american culture (since independence) 231 years old. american culture = european 2.1 (addition plugin)
hoho
[/ QUOTE ]
I hope I've not said anything really stupid. That tends to happen to me when I think too much : )
I simply figured that with the male-female relations, religion, not housing your grandparents when you grow up, non-belief in spirits in nature, large degree in individualism, low respect for leadery persons, etc all being the same in the European and American culture, they're pretty much the same thing, if you compare them to the native American one (which was the case, since this started out as something about Prey : P).
All I said that the whole nature-spiritualism never really got me, perhaps because of my culture, perhaps it's more the specific upbringing. Either way, I'm not brought up with the idea of spirits in nature, and find it harder to get into a game that does use things like that. Might just be my short-sightedness though.
(That said, it's nice that they do try out something different than WW-II or regular demonic invasions. Just that this try didn't interest me a whole lot, but I could probably have overlooked it if I liked the gameplay.)
I think it's more about your specific upbringing. The thing about London (the 'Europe' that I grew up in) is, that it's extremely multi-cultured. My stepmother is East Indian, my friends back there come from all sorts of backgrounds, half my family are Scottish. So I guess I dont see 'my culture' as anything in particular. What is English culture anyway ffs? Bowler hats and bangers & mash? 'Culture' is a tenuous thing these days I think.
But my point is, I do not understand why previous non exposure to a concept means that its "harder to get into a game that does use things like that". I've never fired an automatic weapon. Doesn't mean I can't play Battlefield. It's a videogame! Ely said it best and I think most people missed it: "Spirit walking adds to the puzzle element."
If you play through the demo, the spirit walking element does indeed do just that. There is no need to 'buy into' anything. It's simply a gameplay mechanic. shrug, I dunno. This is kind of an odd thread.
[ QUOTE ]
vermillion, the sheer number of the "two kinds of people" slams I could make in response to that post is staggering... If only I wasn't such a nice guy!
but, interesting stuff nonetheless... learn something new everyday!
[/ QUOTE ]
Haha - thanks, I appreciate it! For those who don't know, each of the main characters in TG,TB,ATU has a quote during the film that starts with "There are two kinds of people in this world..."
Funny how this thread started with a video game review, went to a semi-religious debate and is now on westerns. Man, I could talk about westerns all day - America's mythology, there are just so many good stories.
I believe it was "...those who have loaded guns, and those who dig."
I'm actually quite surprised that video gaming is accompanied by such a thought process. Yes, it's nice when the games have characters and stories that you can identify with, but I don't find it to be essential. Daz has already pointed out that it's quite hard to put yourself in the shoes of any first person shooter character.
I wonder what games real space marines play? Probably mundane task simulators. I hear that "Drive to Work" is selling well.
Oh, for those gffx 5x00 folk who suck at fps on this game, try setting r_renderer to NV20 and restarting (or add this to the shortcut "+r_renderer NV20" without quotes)
Well, I installed the demo on my laptop this evening, it runs really smoothly, and looks really good even at medium detail at 1024x768. I'm not really seeing what some of you guys said about "omg plastic and dark doom3 engine sux0rs!", half the shader stuff I've seen so far at least is a fair approximation of real materials. Granted some of the specular is a bit desaturated, but on the whole I think the materials look very nice.
They're sharp, effective and stylish. The animation seems pretty good too.
I'm liking how interactive the environment is so far, and the scripted stuff is giving me a nice reminder of HL2 style stuff in a D3-ish environment, which is no bad thing IMHO.
I'll probably buy this when it comes out, it seems like fun to me. And it certainly doesn't look bad by any stretch of the imagination.
[ QUOTE ]
So I guess I dont see 'my culture' as anything in particular. What is English culture anyway ffs? Bowler hats and bangers & mash? 'Culture' is a tenuous thing these days I think.
[/ QUOTE ]
Come to Middlesbrough, there is no culture at all.
I suspect Rooster may be able to back this up as I think he is uncomfortably close to here.
I've been once, when I looked at uni of Teesside.. The lasting impression I got was 'dead', although I'm sure its not as bad as that . Lemme know if your ever passing through newcastle though, I'll demonstrate how easy I get drunk these days
Replies
They are are not 'indoctrined' in any beliefs as far as I know, but are rather generalized-for-the-uneducated-masses-of-previous-centuries ideas to make it easier to 'get' metaphysical concepts.
As far as the indian religion goes, I think it's a pretty refreshing take to see it in a game....a lot more interesting than all those games with demons and hell (I usually cringe at the idea of those now...it's just cheesy!)
And it's not like it's being disrespectful, evangelical, or glamourizing of that backdrop---it's merely using it as a story and character element.
sounds like a standard misconception of nearly all monotheastic Abrahamic religions to me, not limited to but including christianity, judiasm, and islam.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, it was a rather vague comment, which is why I asked.
Wait, doesn't every videogame ever made feature resurrection?! The problem with taking a stand against themes that trouble you in this media, is where the heck to draw the line. It all starts to get a bit silly. Especially silly given that the core pastimes in many games are extreme violence (hence my comment above about the graphic depiction of slaughtering of children in Prey). Just my two penneths worth on the subject. One that should probably go away now anyway. We all know where threads of this subject usually end up.
i think we need to respect LS's opinion regarding the game .. But I also find the "spirit walking" and "death" in the game quite refreshing and innovative, they just happen to tie in some spiritual/religious backdrop..
If the rest of the game's level design and puzzles are done well i think they got a real winner on their hands
I seem to have forgotten to give an actual opinion on Prey, didn't I?
Also, I hate the Doom3 engine. I have Doom3, Quake4 and now the Prey demo, and each game is disappointingly plastic and shiny and artificial. It's doing what it set out to do, but I just don't find it appealing compared to, say, the Source engine (Valve's shitty UV mapping notwithstanding).
I loved the new gameplay mechanics. Wall walking, and the box planet really surprised me. The portals were implemented very well. Spirit walking adds to the puzzle element.
I hate Doom 3 lighting. Hate it. Everything that's not a dark, shiny, organic corridor looks like ass. Ironic, as most of this game looks like anus.
I'm getting tired of seeing people being impaled by large mechinery. It does nothing for the game play watching an old man getting blended.
Take out all the native american spirituality, ugly shadows, bad voice acting, senseless impalement, the option to kill innocent victims...and the game is actually fun. I think of it as a great game, with lots of useless, offensive elements thrown on top to hinder it's success.
The new twist on Multiplayer DM play is fantastic. I'd buy that half of the game alone. Actually, I won't buy any part of this game. But I'll keep the demo installed for DM.
The game ran super smooth for me.
But overall, it was just a big mish mash of too many ideas. It seemed like the designer wanted to include every hairbrained idea he ever had for a game into one package. Wall walking, box portals, running around a sphere planet inside a glass case is all well and good, but WHY?
I imagine this will all be explained as soon as our protagonist stops his yelps of vengence and ever so sharp one liners, but having sat through the hour or maore this demo offered, I feel as though nothing made any sense.
Overall, the entire alien ship consisting of cyborg aliens, possessed children, crazy Escher rooms, box portals, flesh covered walls, regualer steel walls, rock music (not the soundtrack mind you) and convenient native american 'symbols' strewn about the place, was just a big disaster in good design, or at least convincing design.
I can't believe it, but I think Turok had a far more 'believeable' world.
As for the engine, horrid. I had some weird looks back in 2004 when I said I thought Doom3 was ugly, but it seems I'm not the only one. The creatures you come up against first are actually pretty well done, because they're supposed to be shiny and wet and gross.
As for the impaling, I don't know what kind of use it serves either. Looks like just a way to make the alien dudes look more evil, but that's pretty lame.
... And as for the native American mythological stuff, I'm not too fond of it either. Not that I don't respect that, mind you, but being raised in Europe, having seen only European culture, and having zero contact with nature whatsoever, I'm having a bit of trouble getting into a character that DOES have a relation with this kind of stuff. For me, personally, nature and spirituality have no relation.
all i am saying is we should give them the benefit of hte doubt
i thought at one point i was looking out a window and you could see the curvature of the earth as if you were in space....so I was surprised to find out that the ship was still at the bar...anyone else find this?
[/ QUOTE ]
The ship wasn't still at the bar, it picked the bar up when it took the main character.
Not that I don't respect that, mind you, but being raised in Europe, having seen only European culture, and having zero contact with nature whatsoever
[/ QUOTE ]
Not sure where you're from, but the Europe I grew up in was completely bombarded with American culture! Heck I grew up watching Westerns. And waddya mean, zero contact with nature whatsoever? You live in an inner city towerblock and never ever left it or something?!
The story is enjoyable over all tho, textbook joseph campbell but all the small details like the technologies make it all really interesting. And joseph campbell is not a bad guideline by any means.
[ QUOTE ]
Not that I don't respect that, mind you, but being raised in Europe, having seen only European culture, and having zero contact with nature whatsoever
[/ QUOTE ]
Not sure where you're from, but the Europe I grew up in was completely bombarded with American culture! Heck I grew up watching Westerns. And waddya mean, zero contact with nature whatsoever? You live in an inner city towerblock and never ever left it or something?!
[/ QUOTE ]
And what about Europe's own ancient peoples? Weren't the folks who built Stonehenge presumed to be a bunch of hippie nature lovers or something? As I understand it, there's a some nature-bound spirituality in Nordic mythology as well... Of course, if you don't relate to Native American myth, that's all that matters. I'm big on Japanese lore, but the mystical mojo of Africa holds no appeal to me at all, etc.
[ QUOTE ]
Not that I don't respect that, mind you, but being raised in Europe, having seen only European culture, and having zero contact with nature whatsoever
[/ QUOTE ]
Not sure where you're from, but the Europe I grew up in was completely bombarded with American culture! Heck I grew up watching Westerns. And waddya mean, zero contact with nature whatsoever? You live in an inner city towerblock and never ever left it or something?!
[/ QUOTE ]
I'm from the Netherlands, and it's true that we've had our share of Americanisation as well. But the American culture is just an expansion pack on the European one, and it's still the same religion. Much closer to the European culture than the native American one is.
As for the contact with nature, zero is a bit little, but I don't have much contact with it. And apart from insects, I can't remember ever having seen any wilds animals. Bit of a contrast to the native American live-off-the-land culture.
Unfortunately my computer doesnt have the spoecs to run any next gen game ... but from the critics i heard it seems to be well deserved the upgrade!
But the American culture is just an expansion pack on the European one....
[/ QUOTE ]
Wait, what? ROFL... Comedy gold.
I'm waiting for my new laptop to get here to play the demo, but I'm looking forward to it.
hang on european culture 2000+ years old, modern american culture (since independence) 231 years old. american culture = european 2.1 (addition plugin)
hoho
lol
hang on european culture 2000+ years old, modern american culture (since independence) 231 years old. american culture = european 2.1 (addition plugin)
[/ QUOTE ]
I suppose that's true if you ignore the Aztecs, Mayans, and every other native American culture, which is what we were talking about anyway.
A big part of the culture comes from the actual geography. Europe has no cowboys because there isn't any place in Europe suitable to the cowboy lifestyle. In this way America is much more diverse than Europe. Just in the US, you have everything from artic to desert to swamplands.
oh by the way we have most of that crap too. northern finland to greece sortern tip of italy and spain. no cowboys though plenty of sheep rustlers (check out the big country(Wales))
The cowboy lifestyle thrived because the land was too dry to grow any decent crops. This required huge areas of grazing land to support any animal. I figure they chose cows over sheep because they have longer legs (and can therefore move faster) and can cope with the heat better. The differences in culture come about because it is completely different to spend your evenings in the cool crisp desert air under the stars hundreds of miles away from other human beings than it is to be able to take a jog down to the pub and have a drink with your mates.
But that is the way small differences in initial conditions result in big differences between cultures.
but there arnt the great open spaces like in the us (big spaces but not great)
anyway my point is pretty pointless, my original post was juast a Jibbe
I thought they chose cows because they were native to the area...I've yet to hear about the massive herds of sheep on the plains...
[/ QUOTE ]
Maybe you are confusing cows with Bison? Cows were domesticated before recorded history in the fertile cresent and are not native to the Americas.
SHEPEIRO: I know you were just kidding. At the same time I think the native cultures are important and have a lot of pull in some ares (like Oklahoma where I live, where almost everybody has some indian blood). I haven't played the demo. The idea of playing some trivialized and retarded hollywood take on native religion turns me off.
(infacxt when i first went it really struck me as how similar the landscape could be too many old spaghetti westerns)
[/ QUOTE ]
oooh, now here's something I CAN chime in on...spaghetti westerns were mostly filmed in italy, not the states at all!
they have sheep in africa so i dont think the heat is a problem. but for european sheep it may have been.
man can you tell i was brought up on a farm
[ QUOTE ]
(infacxt when i first went it really struck me as how similar the landscape could be too many old spaghetti westerns)
[/ QUOTE ]
oooh, now here's something I CAN chime in on...spaghetti westerns were mostly filmed in italy, not the states at all!
[/ QUOTE ]
heh, why else would they be called spaghetti westerns?
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
(infacxt when i first went it really struck me as how similar the landscape could be too many old spaghetti westerns)
[/ QUOTE ]
oooh, now here's something I CAN chime in on...spaghetti westerns were mostly filmed in italy, not the states at all!
[/ QUOTE ]
heh, why else would they be called spaghetti westerns?
[/ QUOTE ]
Ooh, no soup for you boys. Spaghetti westerns were generally NOT filmed in Italy. The famous ones, the Eastwood-Leone pics, were shot in the Almer
but, interesting stuff nonetheless... learn something new everyday!
haha
hang on european culture 2000+ years old, modern american culture (since independence) 231 years old. american culture = european 2.1 (addition plugin)
hoho
[/ QUOTE ]
I hope I've not said anything really stupid. That tends to happen to me when I think too much : )
I simply figured that with the male-female relations, religion, not housing your grandparents when you grow up, non-belief in spirits in nature, large degree in individualism, low respect for leadery persons, etc all being the same in the European and American culture, they're pretty much the same thing, if you compare them to the native American one (which was the case, since this started out as something about Prey : P).
All I said that the whole nature-spiritualism never really got me, perhaps because of my culture, perhaps it's more the specific upbringing. Either way, I'm not brought up with the idea of spirits in nature, and find it harder to get into a game that does use things like that. Might just be my short-sightedness though.
(That said, it's nice that they do try out something different than WW-II or regular demonic invasions. Just that this try didn't interest me a whole lot, but I could probably have overlooked it if I liked the gameplay.)
But my point is, I do not understand why previous non exposure to a concept means that its "harder to get into a game that does use things like that". I've never fired an automatic weapon. Doesn't mean I can't play Battlefield. It's a videogame! Ely said it best and I think most people missed it: "Spirit walking adds to the puzzle element."
If you play through the demo, the spirit walking element does indeed do just that. There is no need to 'buy into' anything. It's simply a gameplay mechanic. shrug, I dunno. This is kind of an odd thread.
vermillion, the sheer number of the "two kinds of people" slams I could make in response to that post is staggering... If only I wasn't such a nice guy!
but, interesting stuff nonetheless... learn something new everyday!
[/ QUOTE ]
Haha - thanks, I appreciate it! For those who don't know, each of the main characters in TG,TB,ATU has a quote during the film that starts with "There are two kinds of people in this world..."
Funny how this thread started with a video game review, went to a semi-religious debate and is now on westerns. Man, I could talk about westerns all day - America's mythology, there are just so many good stories.
if I remember, that was one of them...
I'm actually quite surprised that video gaming is accompanied by such a thought process. Yes, it's nice when the games have characters and stories that you can identify with, but I don't find it to be essential. Daz has already pointed out that it's quite hard to put yourself in the shoes of any first person shooter character.
I wonder what games real space marines play? Probably mundane task simulators. I hear that "Drive to Work" is selling well.
I wonder what games real space marines play? Probably mundane task simulators. I hear that "Drive to Work" is selling well.
[/ QUOTE ]
I hear The Sims is the best selling games series of all time...
They're sharp, effective and stylish. The animation seems pretty good too.
I'm liking how interactive the environment is so far, and the scripted stuff is giving me a nice reminder of HL2 style stuff in a D3-ish environment, which is no bad thing IMHO.
I'll probably buy this when it comes out, it seems like fun to me. And it certainly doesn't look bad by any stretch of the imagination.
So I guess I dont see 'my culture' as anything in particular. What is English culture anyway ffs? Bowler hats and bangers & mash? 'Culture' is a tenuous thing these days I think.
[/ QUOTE ]
Come to Middlesbrough, there is no culture at all.
I suspect Rooster may be able to back this up as I think he is uncomfortably close to here.
i loved the gravity shit!