Yeah, it's misogynistic but I've also read arguments that it's the LEAST sexist game on the shelves today, if for no other reason than allowing either gender to wear both genders' clothes and for allowing you to play the game as a woman doing the same "misogynistic" activities. I view it as just an over-the-top exploration of the way these sorts of sandbox games work.
But at the same time - you're not wrong. I've had the same thoughts.
Run Roo Run for iPhone - get it, it's great!
nathan smart!
http://www.nathansmart.com
The older I get, the harder time I have shrugging this kind of stuff off. In better hands, it could be an interesting exploration, but most videogames are written by idiots. The whole game is just over the top for the sake of being shocking. It just comes across as desperate and juvenile. Those elements just end up leaving me feeling bad for playing it. On the other hand, the over the top-ness is great when it comes to the gameplay. They're constantly chucking wild new stuff to do at you and it's constantly fresh and fun. It's exactly what an sandbox game should be, here's a bunch of toys.. do what you want.Originally Posted by ASR
this is from the IGN review, and I agree...
That's the beauty of Saints Row: The Third: it's not trying to be anything more than a fun game. It's not realistic, it's not "art," it's just a really good time.
That said, some of the immature characters, dialogue, and premises do make me cringe. People often swear for no reason in a way that feels really forced, and a pimp that only speaks in auto-tune and calls every girl a bitch gets old fast.
I just got done playing 9mm (Smart Phone game), and I have pretty much the same concerns regarding dialogue.
Even though I am supposed to be playing a hard boiled cop character, I still feel like the dialogue was forced. Mother Effing this, mother effer that. It's hard to misuse the work fuck, but they did!
The new batman game also received criticisms for this kind of stuff. The Catwoman character is referred to as 'bitch' literally thousands of times, in scripted dialog as well as in barks (barks are those phrases that non-player characters blurt out either due to a condition being met or just randomly).
I was watching a stream of someone playing it yesterday and it is pretty much terrible. They want to make the bad guys seem as gritty and badass as possible, and a lazy lazy way to do so is have them say 'bitch' a lot.
Also catwoman's "crawl" animation is here slinking around on all 4s with her butt way up in the air. After getting over my initial reptile brain reaction of titillation I found that to be another unecessary sexualization of the character.
If you guys want game news from a more open-minded perspective you should check out the Border House blog where lots of woman and lgbt folks write about games.
Meanwhile I just picked up Bayonetta, the game where the higher your hit combo rises, the less clothes the main character wears... so who am I to judge? (I heard the combat is well designed! I swear!! Even bought it second hand so the publisher gets no cash and I NEVER buy second hand games)
Speaking of writing. I just finished this 360 RPG called Nier.
If you have 20 or so hours, and don't mind a game who's combat system is a tad easy and a lil bit repetitive, you MUST check out this game. Best writing I have ever heard in a game, great voiceover work, and tons of great, funny and heartbreaking story points.
At one point the game becomes a text adventure, for like 15 - 20 minutes!! No joke! (it's a good thing)
Nier.
And, I will say as little as possible about this, once you beat it you can new game + it to get additional endings, one of which is pretty much groundbreaking.
Y'know what, you're reminding me of my initial opinions of the game. When I saw it being advertised in early trailers, I couldn't be more annoyed. I had the same reaction as you: they were just being shocking for the sake of being shocking. I guess I changed my mind somewhere along the line as I fell in love with how silly it looked and the promises of fun gameplay. I have a different opinion now, but I figured I might as well share that my initial reaction was right in line with yours.
That's the most frustrating thing about video games, we get older but they don't seem to mature along with us. It's so depressing to realize that games like Saint's Row: The Third are being written by people in the 25-40 age range, adults like us who should have the professional sense to see that what they're writing is incredibly stupid, even if they're doing it with tongue-in-cheek irreverence.
OKAY! I got Skyrim for the 360. Only did one quest so far but I think I'm gonna like it. Some things about it are really really fun. With these types of games I always worry I'm leveling up the wrong attribute and that eventually I'll get to something I'm unable to complete and then I'll get mad and throw my controller at the wall.
I dunno, I seem to like it and I already lasted longer than I did the last time I played an RPG. (Fallout 3)
Most of these games do a good job with the leveling systems that you don't have to worry about it. I think I read that Borderlands and Fallout were some of the big ones that had a problem with that (and that's bad design, of course).
nathan smart!
http://www.nathansmart.com
I'm determined to play Skyrim for as long as I can without power-playing or reading up on anything. So far at level 30, it's going alright, although I'm still having a really hard time with giants. But I don't want to affiliate with any guilds or pick sides in the civil war, and I think that's probably untenable in the long run.
I picked a side in the civil war based on which side's boss I ran into first. Sorry, Stormcloaks!
Mysterious Exhortations | @monty_ashley on Twitter
The civil war quest line is designed to make you feel like shit, regardless of which side you pick.
I picked up DeathSpank and Limbo on the PSN. Absolutely love both.
I'm waiting until I'm a really high level in Skyrim before I join the civil war. Then I'm going to betray my side and kill all the important NPCs it will allow. Because yes, they're all dicks. I was all about the Stormcloaks in the prologue, then you go to the castle and they're all bloodthirsty, backwoods Nazi archetypes. Unlike the Imperials who are cold-hearted, wealthy Nazi archetypes.
My gamertag was compromised, 1600 points stolen. And so starts the battle with support.
Since my points were bought via one of those pre-paid cards I was told that basically I'm screwed of my points. He gave a 500point credit but that's all he can do.
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