My first name is
Lou, but my second name isn't
Chou. That's a bit I stole from an amazing movie called "All About Lily
Chou Chou" to round off my gaming handle.
Like seemingly 90% of the internet, I aspire to write about video games professionally. The culture, community, and to some extent the industry surrounding gaming are something I'd like to live from day to day.
I've been playing video games since I was about 3. My older brother traded 2 packs of cigarettes for his friend's Commodore 64. His friend was ludicrously rich, so it was a pretty amazing deal. I used to play a lot of Paperboy and Batman on that thing. The latter would give me a fucking headache though, they only used, like, 2 colors when they developed that thing.
The best game I've ever played is Final Fantasy VII. I'm sorry I can't pick something obscure and cool, but it had a profound effect on me. I mean, to the point where I was having FFVII-based dreams every other night. I fucking loved that game, and I wouldn't dare play it again now. It needs to stay in that period of time for me.
I have a personal gaming blog, which may well live here:
GAMINGBULLSHIT!!!
Lou Chou's blog
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what would gta be without this freedom? Bullshit!
Some people like sandbox games. Others don't. So just don't play it if you don't like it. Their still makeing linar games, look at Bioshock, Call of Duty, Halo 3. Trust me, their are still going to be games that tell you exactly where to go and what to do.
Sandbox games are open, non-linear worlds. That's the design of the games. Hell, you even got your wish in some small way with each of the three GTA games from last gen. The islands were locked down for a portion of the game, remember?
;)
Come on man, there are plenty of linear games for you to get your fill and still leave room in the market for all the great sandbox-style ones. Hell, most of the supposed sandbox games (GTA, for example) are as straight as a homophobic Roman road, they just give you the freedom if you want it.
Leave the sandbox alone. Go and play on the slide.
while i appreciate that people do like this style of gameplay, the whole "don't like it - just avoid it" mindset completely destroys the purpose of this site, of blogging, and of the opinion in general, no? if everyone on this site remained quiet on the things they disliked then both the blogging and commentary systems would be vacant.
by all means, argue against why the sandbox rocks balls, but don't argue against the fact I have an opinion. that much is pointless.
Sandbox Batman game please.
I've never had much problem with games like Crackdown or GTA. If I want to to a mission I can, if I want to drive around I can. Even if I get distracted, it's still always fun. You also don't have to buy them, as pointed out. I don't much care for animal sim games, so I don't buy them.
... I didn't know there were animal sim games? you mean like Nintendogs?
Now that i think about it, I liked Catz... hmm.
The internet is serious business, so if you say your going to shit on something, people take note :-)
I don't know, that kind of sounds like you're having fun. And if you're not motivated to complete the game because playing around is too fun, that doesn't strike me as a huge issue.
Being more likely to get accidentally lost or misdirected in a sandbox game seems like a legitimate gripe, though.
Now, I also own CoD4 and am playing through Bioshock now. Both of those games are recent games that are VERY linear(although you have to explore in Bioshock). CoD4 suffered from bottlenecking you and then throwing unlimited enemies at you. Bad game design really, as this does nothing but frustrate the player.
But specifically what sandbox games are you talking about? Mercenaries, Crackdown, Saint's Row, GTA or something else? Otherwise, NFS:U wasn't a true sandbox title, it just had elements of it.
The point of a blog is to express your opinion. That is the right of free speech which Niero gives us. That means you can write about whatever you want, even if it is wrong.
By that same token, we, as commenters and readers, suck it, have the freedom of speech to tell you that your opinion is stupid, ignorant or just downright idiotic, which some have done.
By all means, come and blog and whine and complain about a genre of games that a majority of us enjoy playing and that you don't. You like being told what to do? Cool, go ahead, and play those games. I for one prefer having the freedom to make my own choices.
So really, now it's down to this: I enjoy the wonderful freedom to exploring a world or city and doing whatever the hell I want in it. You enjoy being told what to do and led by the hand through the game. Fair enough.
Just next time, try to come back with some original thought on maybe, how sandbox games could be better. If you have criticism, try to say how it could be improved instead of just saying why you hate it. Otherwise, you look like a dick.
Having said all that, although I prefer to be given the choice to do what I like doesn't mean I don't like games that are more linear as well. To the contrary, which is why I can enjoy Western RPGs and JRPGs equally. That's why I take no personal offense at your opinion, because I can respect your take on it; some people want to have more control on the story than others.
If I had to say anything negatively about sandbox games, it would be the fear that the "freedom" we receive from a free roaming environment like this could easily be exploited to provide artificial "content" to an otherwise shallow game (like collecting the aforementioned agility orbs, which was fun for me, but tends to make the game about, oh 3 times longer than story provided). That is, of course, a theory and not a concern.
Just my take. Thanks for the pink sidebar, by the way. My eyes are killing me.
Probably ether.
P.S.,
I like to drop a combo of both ritalin AND ether. Coco the monkey himself doesn't make a better breakfast cereal...
Are you trying to channel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas?
SpaceInvader: Sandbox is cool in some circumstances, but a lot of the time it feels almost an institution; like developers implement this just because they believe its the standard to do so.