Druckmann is a fan of Elden Ring's environmental storytelling; intrigued by games that don't hold their audience's hand

He must have seen how badly GOWR got eviscerated by Elden Ring and is trying to avoid this fate. He knows he'll eventually have to release a game in the same year as From some day.

That's a refreshing take, especially the part about trusting the audience to figure it out.

Can't have two popular games in a single year, nope, one got eviscerated by the other. Eventhough the two have completely different audiences.

I'm glad he's recognizing there's greater ways to tell a story in games than cutscenes. Hopefully he's inspired to be a better game director.

Well, he said the same about Half-Life and wanted to create Half-Life 3, imagine that and then he followed up with UC4 or TLOU2, I can't exactly remember.

Well, cows likes to hide behind scores/GOTY etc. so they will have to live up to the consequences of their own actions.

@R4gn4r0k: Plenty of room for great games. God of Walking: Journey of Boy just wasn’t one of them.

Without giving away spoilers: you think it's worse than GOW 2018 or just insultingly more of the same?

Worse. I wouldn't even have complained if it was more of the same. The combat has improved but damn near everything else has taken a step back.

Games relying on cutscenes is an archaic method of storytelling games. When games do this, they are simply becoming another medium instead of taking full advantage of what games can offer.

With that said, Elden Ring storytelling is pretty terrible.

And if you're gonna add a million cutscenes, make them skippable. Walking sections are basically cutscenes that you cannot skip.

Walking cutscenes are worse than unskippable cutscenes because it requires brain dead input to progress while the other would end on its own.

If you're up for a long one, this is a great one:

Damn, that does sound bad, and that also kinda sounds like my experience with Horizon: FW: Where I was expecting more of the same, but I ended up getting a worse game, better in some ways, but definitely missing the magic of the first.

That was my reaction to FW. I was a huge fan of the first and the sequel was just a downgrade.

Yeah I'm struggling to play through it (God of War 1) on PC because of the pacing. That first 20-30 minutes was god awful. The rest of the game is not much better, very disjointed.

If that's worse in the second game, I might have to pass on it.

@jaydan: I will check it out.

Sounds great if he means it. Got no interest in his movie games myself.

It's not even the story, heck the side quests are pretty awesome. But it just feels downgraded and the combat (the moment-to-moment gameplay) just feels awful now.

I also agree. I have not played it since the first two weeks when it launched, so I don't know if it has improved.

really encouraging video. tlou2 had some fantastic gameplay moments that overall were drowned out by heavy handed narrative and cinematics. anything that suggests they'll dial these back and explore more subtle ways of plot delivery in future is a win in my book. nice to hear him recognise the positive effect of minimal hand holding on the player experience too

They have been pretty consistent with improving and patching.

For example they added a 40fps mode and improved the 60fps mode so gameplay should definitely feel more responsive, if you're into that sort of thing :)

My main beefs is the gameplay itself. Her movement, interaction and combat. Stopping the player to harvest material is a major downgrade and breaks the flow. Being easily stunned in combat makes encounters annoying and some arena fights frustrating. Also, the combat just doesn't feel as impactful as the prequel. It is good that they improved the frame rate because there were odd times where it tanked hard.

Intrigued doesn't equate to actually implementing.

Yup, dumb fanboys in a nutshell. Its like they dont want options anymore. They only live one game per year

Half life has plenty of slow NPC talking moments ala ND games, yet PC fans dont have a problem with those for some reason...

Yeah, the only game who actually gave competition to one of the best games of all time wasnt one of them... would love to see BotW having its a** whopped hard by ER had it released this year

Edit: Just for perspective: Bloodborne lost GOTY to the Witcher 3 in its respective year, yet is still considered one of the best games from last generation and regarded as the GOAT by many people. Hell, I think I see it being meantioned and receiving more love than The Witcher 3 these many years later

@R4gn4r0k: I'm loving ragnarok 🤷🏻‍♂️

@vatususreturns: There was no competition. Elden Ring mopped the floor with this walking simulator.

Bring back Barlog and never let that hack Eric Williams direct a GOW game ever again. That guy belongs in ND. Ragnarok will age very poorly.

@mrbojangles25: when gow is good it’s prettier damn amazing, however it has way to many bad side quest, semi boring story moments not to mention some very uneven combat difficulties… personally I ended up lowering the difficulty to normal and just power through the last 25% of the game so I could be done with it… didn’t help that the ending was terrible

Convince yourself that. 94 on meta. Its not the "opinion" of a fanboy who clearly hates everything Sony (I mean, you definitely dont waste an oportunity to trash sony related stuff, even if itsnt called for) that will change that fact.

GoW was the second best game this year going by critical appraisal. Its not your Sony hatred boner that will mean jack sh*t

@vatususreturns:

> Who hates everything Sony

And that’s where you’re wrong. I simply have a visceral hatred for story-heavy games that constantly wrestle control away from the player and most Sony games happen to be like that. I love R&C, Demon’s Souls, GOW 2018 (a story-heavy game), Sackboy, and even like Horizon Zero Dawn.

However, I hate games like TLOU, A Plague Tale (not a Sony game), Hellblade (again, not a Sony game), etc. See the trend?

And please at "competing" Elden Ring won the highest % of GOTY awards ever. Ragnarok was no competition. It got decimated. Fan opinion has also been much more divisive. The first game has a 9.1 user score. The second game is currently sitting at a 7.9.

PLENTY, yeah sure! It has an opening sequence in HL1 and that too didn't make a return in the sequel. Oh and those walking segments aren't forced. Most of them actively contains the failed state with figuring out what to do unlike ND 'games' where it's literally pushing the joystick forward or QTEs. Like the bridge crossing in HL2 which doesn't tell you the that you're at a height and hence in danger of falling because you would if you took a wrong step unlike UC where Nathan blabbers some stupid sh*t about it's too dangerous while all you had to do was push a stick forward. One is an example of environment story-telling while the other is downright B, I mean C- straight to DVD movie.

That's the reason why PC fans or any gamer doesn't criticize Half-Life while actively dunking on ND's non-games. Of course cows wouldn't recognize that because a) they are a cult/hive mind/hypocrites and b) doesn't know anything better because they don't play anything better that isn't a press 'X' to play movie game.

Same. I for one really enjoy Ragnarok on PS5, I was really investing its storytelling and everything Norse Mythology was perfect. The only thing that was a bored and should have been out was the Ironwood section but I can overlook it due to the fact it's part of the story.

All in all, Ragnarok is my GOTY over ER but ER is second place for me that is.

Woah, first Sony First Party title I might enjoy since Demons' Souls? :O

Half life never took control from player hand. doesnot disable sprint. even in talking segment you can do anything. you are on control.

If this was ND game. you were doing nothing. just holding W key.

I would argue it was always outdated. Games have been telling their narratives before they even got digitized

Weird, considering his games have been all about hand holding.

@jaydan: there's nothing wrong with cutscenes. We don't all like the same things.

The rare cutscene can work.

But relying on them? That is just bad game design, and does nothing to take advantage of the actual medium.

Nice. Can't wait to see what he brings us next. Dude is on fire.

You are right, and I embrace the fact people like different things; which is why I can't get behind those of you who get behind these types of games while trashing everything else.

Well my fellow poster that is a trait of the Hatredoftheps5success syndrome. If any other exclusive was successful and popular next to Elden Ring, either no one would’ve cared or both games would’ve gotten praises.

He's a fan of it but let's be serious, naughty dog doesn't have the chops to make anything close to elden ring.

True! Microsoft Windows PC is gonna be LIT!

So not only will their next game will have an incredible production, but they'll be borrowing elements from the best in the business. What a legendary developer.

Everyone does, but this game does trigger haters pretty darn heavily.

Yes 1 is for gamers the other is for casuals who don't like video games and think 30 fps is good.

This is good news! Maybe tlou3 hasn't gone too far in the development cycle that they can reverse the movie game aspects.

You like the UC series, so you shouldn't be bothered by movies whatsoever.