In the My Favorite Game series, get to know us better as staff writers share the game they love most and why.
When thinking about my favorite game, I have to consider the many things I love about games. Yes, the gameplay is important, as is the presentation (especially the music), but I’ve come to realize that I really appreciate when a game attempts to tell a story and succeeds at it. When you think of Metal Gear Solid, “good” or even “cohesive” narrative may not come to mind at first, but when the original game came out I was absolutely inspired. Fast forward to 2008 and the release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and you had a game that completely blew my mind from beginning to end. READ MORE
Check out part one of this feature here.
From this point forward, all of Goichi Suda’s projects would veer away from the same brand of craziness that was Killer7, focusing more on developing the gameplay. That’s not to say we never saw more of Suda51 trappings in his games, they just felt more subdued in comparison. Suda and Grasshopper Manufacture went on to create other projects after Killer7, but it wasn’t until 2008’s No More Heroes that we saw their real return to form. READ MORE
Usually in New Game+, I discuss components of games, gaming culture, and the industry as a whole that I find engaging and worth talking about. I’m going to do something a little different this time. To celebrate the release of Goichi Suda’s latest project, Lollipop Chainsaw, I feel it’s time to discuss the man behind such cult hits as Killer7 and the No More Heroes games. Not only am I a fan of Suda’s work, but I find the ideas that fuel these strangely compelling experiences absolutely fascinating. READ MORE
Capcom is attempting something entirely different with Dragon’s Dogma. Similar in some respects to their popular Monster Hunter franchise, this fantasy RPG seems to be Capcom’s take on popular western RPGs such as the Elder Scrolls series. It features an expansive, open world and an interesting take on RPG combat. This is one of the strangest games I have ever played, leading me to wonder if I can actually call this a huge success or a complete failure. Maybe it’s a bit of both. READ MORE
As an interactive medium, games have a lot of opportunities to tell stories in different ways that differ from the standard movie-like cutscenes you would expect. A lot of Valve’s games, Half-Life and Portal most of all, do a great job of immersing you in the story while still allowing for player control. That is a great way to seamlessly blend the narrative with gameplay, but my favorite storytelling method is actually something that is even more reliant on player interaction than any other. It answers the question: How do you tell a story without directly telling a story? READ MORE
