Comments on: Stop and Smell the Roses

By: Syros

Syros — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 20:36:01 +0000

Great article! "Stopping and smelling the roses" is one thing I love to do in games. To me, the games I play are first and foremost about immersion in the game world. I always take my time to walk around, peek in every corner and just take it all in.

When I played Mass Effect 1, I liked it when they dropped me in the middle of nowhere on planets, rather than straight into the action like in subsequent games. That roaming around helped me feel like I was exploring vast expanses of the galaxy. Fast travel functionality is convenient, but it diminishes the perceived scale of the game's world.

By: John

John — Sun, 08 Sep 2013 18:52:54 +0000

In reply to @aMediocreGatsby. I will contend that one of the greatest game experiences of the previous decade was driving around Vice City in a Vincent Black shadow listening to Gary Numan's Cars.

By: Vulgar_Monkey

Vulgar_Monkey — Sun, 08 Sep 2013 16:14:05 +0000

I agree that the specific example of never usually being able to sit down in chairs is annoying in games, just in terms of generally low levels of interaction with the environment at any meaningful fidelity.

However, in the case of gta (gta4 especially) I feel it kind of makes sense. GTA 4 is very much a study or satire of modernity, it's all about life in the big city. And a big part of that is being constantly on the go, never having a moment of peace without some sort of stimulus or demand.

I myself constantly find that I dont have time to stop and take stock…..too much stuff to do. I'd like to just sit at a restaurant……but I need to be somewhere. I do actually treat my flat as a refuelling station, a pitstop between other destinations or activities. To me this all sounds very familiar.

But yes, that's thematic. In something like RDR or Fallout I would expect the pacing to alter accordingly.