The Original Mafia game is generally criticized for being a linear game in an open-world, but I think its linear nature is one of its strengths, because it gives the narrative a tight, driving focus that open world games tend to lack.
this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2024
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I've only played 2 and I feel the same way about it. I wish more games did this approach of using an open world as a setting for a linear game to perform.
You get the best of both worlds with this approach. The feeling of the world being more real and lived in, whilst having the tightness of the storytelling of a linear game.
I've always defended how mafia 2 did it and never understood why people wanted it to be more open world. The story had me gripped too much to even think about that stuff.
I always find it weird in some open world games where something in the story is described as being a race against time or so important it needs to get done now, but as the player you can just forget that for a bit and go do something else before continuing. Even just the ability to do that takes me out of it.
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Shadow of the Colossus was linear, but I don’t recall anyone complaining.
I think Mafia received that criticism because of its surface level similarity to GTA, which is known for packing a ton of random side content in its open world.
In Mafia there is genuinely nothing to do out in the world when driving around outside of the main story missions, except for occasionally a mechanic at a garage will offer you some small mission to steal a newer and faster car. Because of that, people complained that the open-world part was pointless and a waste.
Is this the one where I kept trying to go visit my mom (as part of my belligerent insistence on looking for stuff to do in the open world after every mission), but the game wouldn't let me go into any building that wasn't the next story mission, and then later the main character got chewed out by his mom for never visiting her? I did find that annoying.
That might've happened in the sequel? I don't think you ever see the main character's parents in the first game, but I do recall visiting them when you come back from WWII in the second game.
I wasn't a big fan of the sequel, since I found the main characters to be unsympathetic assholes.
I think you're right, it must have been the sequel!
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Red dead redemption 2 was pretty linear and I think it's one of the best games
In the case of rdr2, it has a linear story, but a plethora of side content the player can engage with outside of the main missions. In Mafia, there was a single person that would sometimes offer you little missions to steal faster and better cars, but otherwise had no side activities whatsoever in between driving to and from the story missions. The lack of side content was the main complaint.
People have a boner for Simpsons seasons 3-8, the Conan years.
The Simpsons were excellent pretty much through season 12, much of seasons 13 and 14 are still legit.
I don't disagree that most of the best episodes are in that era... But Trilogy Of Errors is forever my favorite Simpsons episode, and that's S12E18. (Linguo... Dead??? "linguo IS dead.")
I woukd go as far as to say that seasons 9 - 13 all contain at least one 'top 30 of all time' episode.
The fall off was not swift with Conan's departure.
Omg I love that episode too. I quote that grammar robot so the time "shuddapa yer face" "shut up your face"
I also am a software developer and use 123 fake street for testing forms all the time.
I'm surprised at how late it was, would have assumed it was pre double digits
I thought he was a party robot 🤖
The truth is there are SO MANY great episodes of The Simpsons. Even the current seasons have a lot to offer.
I also think that the earlier seasons get an advantage because they're the episodes we've all seen dozens of times.
Obviously I won't deny that the earlier seasons have 10/10 episodes. Maybe there are fewer 10/10 as you go along, but even a "bad" episode will have some great jokes in it.
In fact the "I'm a sign, not a cop" meme/macro, that's a season 20 episode.
At the time I thought there was a noticeable drop as of the movie. Never really pinned down what season that is to watch either sides of to see if my theory stands, but, that's what I recall.
Between season 18 and 19 was when the movie came out it IMDb's dates are correct.
The newest season has a nicer animation style I've noticed. It feels almost season 8ish, and has none of that digital gloss that pervaded in the last ten seasons. I'm genuinely interested to see if they stick with the classic almost hand-drawn style.
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Joker: Folie à Deux.
The first movie was not about Joker, it is about Arthur. Joker is the unfortunate identity he takes on as a result of the events of the first film. But at the end of the day, he was just a guy. He was delighted but bewildered at the people rallying behind him.
!Folie a Deux picks up is after the police inevitably apprehend Arthur. He is on medication, and speaking to a mental health professional regularly. He doesn't want to be Joker, but everyone around him expects him to be. The tragedy of the ending is that Arthur rejects the love and admiration he has earned, knowing it will not redeem him to the people who hate and fear him now. He chooses to be completely alone and powerless to stop hurting people.!<
As far as the musical numbers went, they were infrequent and clearly a representation of the connection between Arthur and Lee. There was at least one scene where we view Arthur from the perspective of onlookers after he finished singing and dancing, but all they saw was him staring at a TV or something. I always felt like the songs added to character development, but even if they weren't your thing they were brief and heavily outweighed by scenes with just dialogue.
I heard a lot of complaints about the twins in borderlands 3.They're shallow, they're obnoxious, they remind you of wanna be tiktok influencers, on and on.
That's not a bug, that's a feature. Guys, Handsome Jack was bottled lightning. He was a masterpiece of good writing, good design, well placed improv, and just plain dumb luck. They were never going to pull that off again. You'd need to open a real vault to find that level of treasure.
The Calypso's are exactly what they say on the tin. They're all those obnoxious, unfunny things I mentioned because sometimes villains aren't well thought out, complex characters. I fucking love shooting Troy in his smug hot topic weeb face. I don't need to consider the complexity of a man driven to an extreme or the show erosion of one's moral character in pursuit of power, they were two shitty kids on an ego trip with no regard for the damage they did. It is plain, and simple, and easy.
Are there problems with the rest if the story? Absolutely. Are there some awful plot-holes? Oh my fuck, yes. But are the Calypsos the thing that ruined the game? Fuck no, they're fine and perfectly shootable as a bad-guy needs to be.
Just gonna chime in to say I bought Tiny Tina's Wonderlands cause it's on sale right now for like $12 on steam (the season pass is only $5 too) and MY GOD IS IT AN ABSOLUTE BLAST TO PLAY!
I'm just having straight up fun with this game, and I'm already wishing there was a sequel coming out tomorrow so I could dive right in when I finish this one. The bright vibrant world is fun to explore, the enemies are entertaining to fight with their quips and banter, the new mechanics (spells instead of grenades, new dedicated melee weapons and inventory slot, enchanted rings/amulets/armor to change that can all act as individual class mods to switch up your play style a bit) feel right at home in the fantasy setting.
I've heard about the lack of endgame and DLC stories, but I don't care. I'm just having fun with my bowguns and magic missile launchers.
Everyone shits on Star Fox: Assault for shit controls. Which is half true at best, as in it makes you chose between 3 options (option C being the correct modern one) and the one the cursor starts on (A) is indeed shit. I mean it's remotely annoying once, but like come on, it's not even a hidden setting, it MAKES YOU CHOOSE!
I just beat Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and they said it was long and tedious but I really enjoyed it. It's a lot darker than the other games and had the potential to be my second favorite after 2 had they remade it (and maybe favorite if they kept multiplayer and revamped it to allow it in story mode). Just watching the "HD" cutscenes reminded me just how much of a missed opportunity that was.
I never thought a game could give such an emotional gut punch by asking ::: who am I going to eat ice cream with?! :::
I didn't read the GOT books. That said, I enjoyed the show through to the last episode and wouldn't have thought twice about any of it if the fans weren't so angry. Idk why but I just don't have the ability to be critical of (or follow very well) story or writing, or anything really. Maybe I'm just too good at suspending disbelief?
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Forspoken is low key incredible and like, exactly one sound bite sealed it's fate, once it became a meme, people already made up their mind about it.
It was one of the best games I played last year and I found the story to be compelling and the gameplay fresh.
I think it'll be regarded as a hidden gem in the future unironically.
Almost every case of movie purists. The Hobbit trilogy was great. The new Star Wars trilogy was great. The old ones are great too.
I have similar issues with music and video games. I almost always love the most hated albums or games in a series based on the loudest commentary online. I also find the most popular entry to be kind of meh. I think average people have boring taste or just follow a crowd or something.
Whenever certain keys words are thrown around to criticize something, you bet it’s actually not as bad as everyone is making it out to be. I went through the entirety of The Last Us Part II and she-hulk just because of the hate, and boy was the hate overblown.
Felt the same about Ms Marvel, you'd think it was some crime against humanity. There were a couple cheesy moments (and I love cheese) for sure but I enjoyed it.
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I'm right there with you on Eps 7 and 9 of Star Wars. TFA was loads of fun, and goofy though some of it was, I still loved TRoS.
Hated TLJ though, for what it's worth :-)