[ChairTax]

Going off of spectralsound's astute observations, I started playing King's Field IV and I've been enjoying it quite a bit. At first, I thought the game was going to be too slow and that I wouldn't have the patience for it. As a new-comer to the King's Field series, it does take some getting used to with regard to your character's movement and turn speed. Fortunately, I rather easily found a groove with this game and I've been playing it late at night, when I'm better able to slip into a sort of meditative groove with the game.

The most impressive thing about the game so far has been the way in which its aesthetic eases you into the slow, deliberate combat and exploration. Musically, it's funereal and plodding and often pretty damn beautiful. Visually, the game achieves the same effect. Enemy movement speed is rarely faster than your own and it typically matches the bpm of the soundtrack. There's an almost filmic quality brought out in the movement speed, as if you're tracking through and across the environments. In this regard, the movement speed is doubly suited for the exploration of the varied, impressive landscapes and buildings. These elements make the game very easy to sink into. And in this way, it's best suited to 2-3 hour sessions.

Here's a particularly enjoyable track from the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV3Tzl0jYaI

(It was spectralsound's stream, and, more specifically, the music from the stream that made me pick this up off my shelf in the first place.)

[ChairTax]

[ChairTax]

[ChairTax]

Played through Syndicate (2012) on PC. Loved the sound design and mostly liked the cribbed, blue-for-yellow swapped Human Revolution environments.

The best part of the game is absolutely Starbreeze's secret Swedish immersion talents. I mean, those guys just rock the first-person perspective. I took something like 50 screenshots all evidencing their knack for body awareness and movement.

Here's a nicer (albeit bloomy) one from the first few minutes when the HUD isn't as crowded

[ChairTax]

You're definitely right that it's something that can very quickly unimmerse you. And given the fact that Syndicate relies very heavily on scripted, tap-f sequences that move slowly and that you can utterly break by, y'know, not tapping f, it's not something that works always. I'm willing to concede pretty much all points I quickly made about its immersive effects give what you said. It's something I've certainly been wrestling with over the few days I played it. That said, I found several of these sequences to work and to work very effectively. Perhaps I'm not even really thinking of immersion per se. Because it's not exactly bringing me into the game and/or causing me to have some sort of 1:1 mindmeld with the character. (In this case, Kilo.)

So yeah, for now I'd happily concede to you here. And regardless, there's an undeniable verve to way these body presence animations are done that I found really attractive. And, outside of the actual body presence animations (a nice term, I think), I love Starbreeze's active gun positioning and that's something that I've always enjoyed from them. It's less floaty in Syndicate than in Butcher Bay or Dark Athena (moving to The Darkness next) and they eke out some really great depth effects when appropriate. Their attention to detail with this is definitely something I find worth praising.

[ChairTax]

Gonna retroactively give thanks to community here (since sycophant's reminding me) considering I played Dog Days for the first time about about three months ago and I've since played through it about 7 times. Twice by myself, once with my friend in Florida, another time with my friend in Boulder, again with a friend in Germany, and twice with a friend, his brother, and some beers. Had a really great time each time, but unfortunately burnt myself out on it trying to spread the love. I'm sure there are other excellent examples out there, but that game really excels at having all the incidental dialogue sync up with the action/your movement. It works especially well when you've got a friend who's willing to milk sequences by manipulating the camera for particular effects or by walking slower/not sprinting because it seems more appropriate. Was interesting watching all these different people react to the game.

Chief takeaway experience for me was the moment in my first playthrough that I started gunning down innocent civilians because I thought they might be armed and I felt like I was going insane.

[ChairTax]

I still maintain that the best part of Red Dead Redemption is everything and anything related to completing the treasure maps cause it's the only thing that encourages you to engage with the environment and landscape in a way that isn't a-to-b mission to mission movement. When I think back on that game, my fondest memory is when, after having been in Mexico for a day or two, I decided to spend an hour or two looking for one particular treasure. It was night in the game and I'd just crested the ridge of a mesa. (I'd managed to blanket a few square miles since sundown.) The moon was mostly full, and the canyonlands below me were more or less illuminated. I pulled out my binoculars, spotted what looked like a pretty good geological approximation of what my treasure map showed, and I took my horse slowly down the ridge, carefully switchbacking till I'd reached the floor. From there, it was about a mile-long trot to the formation. (And, of course, the treasure.) This was after several hours of awful Mexico missions and the purity of "pay attention to your surroundings" was a revelation in the midst of moving from location to location blasting dudes.

Currently playing Burnout: Revenge on 360 and listening to SSION's "BENT" while doing so. Having an absolute blast. Also going through Gears of War with a friend in online coop. Act 2 was excellent and much better than Act 1.