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General discussion (archive)Played any cool walking sims lately?(66 posts)(66 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted December 10, 2014
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MarioFanaticXV: I tend to think of the Elder Scrolls series (including the Bethesda Fallout) as walking sims.
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ET3D: I think they were more like jumping simulators, where you jumped everywhere to up the acrobatics skill.
Or just to scale a mountain (because I'd rather spend five minutes jumping up a mountain than ten walking around to find the right path).
Posted December 10, 2014
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KasperHviid: Personaly I have never played any walking sim. I have had my eyes on Proteus for a while though.

But is walking simulator a genre in its own right? Is there a common thread in the games with that label, or is it merely a derogatory term?

Anyone tried out the genre? If so, what's your judgement?
OP, I liked Proteus. It's short, and imho really cool exploring and experiencing the environment and how it interacts w/ you. It's probably a game you'll play just once, but I left it installed on my machine to play again after a while once I've sortof forgotten some of it. If you enjoy exploring for the sake of exploring, it's cool.

I think walking simulator is a derogatory term, but I've found I like games that they call walking sims - so it's sortof useful in that sense.

Others that are pretty good that I've heard that term applied to are:
Lifeless Planet (really cool visuals, strange world/story, and quite a bit of platforming too, some fairly easy puzzles), Dear Esther (more of a story than exploration- more a true walking sim imho where the story really just plays out for you as you move through it), and I've just started Gone Home.which seems kindof cool to me so far. I'm not too far into it but there's more stuff to dig through in the house to uncover the story - more adventure-game-like in that sense.
Post edited December 10, 2014 by fartheststar
Posted December 10, 2014
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NoNewTaleToTell: I'll give another shout out to The Path. It's somewhat debatable as to whether or not it's a walking simulator (though it's commonly tagged as one), it has things to do, things to collect and interact with and conditions for "winning" (based on discovering things) so you could peg it into the adventure genre if you wanted to.

It has stunning visuals (aided by the exceptional art direction and style), beautiful audio (including the reactive music) and a overall mood and atmosphere that goes from creepy to calm and warm to absolutely surreal. The story is told without dialogue, relying on symbolism (some heavy handed, some light and some completely abstract) and environment based storytelling. All in all I absolutely adore The Path, but I've yet to finish it.
If you're talking about The Path from Tale of Tales, then yes, it's a very good one.

You can play this game more than once. You take control of six sisters, who are asked to "go to grandmother's house and stay on the path", something they really don't want to do. As you go deeper in the forest, you have to make crucial decisions for them, who lead to different conclusions, especially if the sisters encounter their "Wolf". It's a dark fairy tale similar to the Little Red Riding Hood.
Posted December 10, 2014
Just finished Dear Esther and it's awesome.
Posted December 10, 2014
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NoNewTaleToTell: I'll give another shout out to The Path. It's somewhat debatable as to whether or not it's a walking simulator (though it's commonly tagged as one), it has things to do, things to collect and interact with and conditions for "winning" (based on discovering things) so you could peg it into the adventure genre if you wanted to.

It has stunning visuals (aided by the exceptional art direction and style), beautiful audio (including the reactive music) and a overall mood and atmosphere that goes from creepy to calm and warm to absolutely surreal. The story is told without dialogue, relying on symbolism (some heavy handed, some light and some completely abstract) and environment based storytelling. All in all I absolutely adore The Path, but I've yet to finish it.
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_Slaugh_: If you're talking about The Path from Tale of Tales, then yes, it's a very good one.

You can play this game more than once. You take control of six sisters, who are asked to "go to grandmother's house and stay on the path", something they really don't want to do. As you go deeper in the forest, you have to make crucial decisions for them, who lead to different conclusions, especially if the sisters encounter their "Wolf". It's a dark fairy tale similar to the Little Red Riding Hood.
I am indeed speaking of The Path by Tale of Tales. Excellent game. I think I had completed four of the sister's paths but lost that save when my old laptop went the way of the dodo and haven't gotten around to giving it another dedicated playthrough yet. Either way, marvelous game, one that took a lot of chances (with most of them paying off).
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Klumpen0815: Just finished Dear Esther and it's awesome.
If you give it another playthrough it's supposed to have some alternate dialogue and scenes in a few place.
Post edited December 10, 2014 by NoNewTaleToTell
Posted December 11, 2014
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NoNewTaleToTell: I am indeed speaking of The Path by Tale of Tales. Excellent game. I think I had completed four of the sister's paths but lost that save when my old laptop went the way of the dodo and haven't gotten around to giving it another dedicated playthrough yet. Either way, marvelous game, one that took a lot of chances (with most of them paying off).
Apparently, The Girl in White, that mysterious girl who leads the sisters back to the path when she's encountered in the forest, is also a playable character. To unlock her, you have to find all the sisters' wolves...
Posted December 11, 2014
My counter to this topic would be 'has anyone actually walked somewhere lately?'
Posted December 11, 2014
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NoNewTaleToTell: I am indeed speaking of The Path by Tale of Tales. Excellent game. I think I had completed four of the sister's paths but lost that save when my old laptop went the way of the dodo and haven't gotten around to giving it another dedicated playthrough yet. Either way, marvelous game, one that took a lot of chances (with most of them paying off).
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_Slaugh_: Apparently, The Girl in White, that mysterious girl who leads the sisters back to the path when she's encountered in the forest, is also a playable character. To unlock her, you have to find all the sisters' wolves...
Don't remember that. But she was the playable character in the technical demo
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micktiegs_8: My counter to this topic would be 'has anyone actually walked somewhere lately?'
3 km evety morning and every evening to go to work. 12-25km in the forest during the weekend when the weather is good. Week-long trails in national parks every year in june and september. I love hiking ^^
Post edited December 11, 2014 by Kardwill
Posted December 12, 2014
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Kardwill: 3 km evety morning and every evening to go to work. 12-25km in the forest during the weekend when the weather is good. Week-long trails in national parks every year in june and september. I love hiking ^^
Fantastic! I wish I could do the same but 1) I don't work 2) my study is distance 3) I fear for my safety sometimes.

I'm guessing it's nice where you are. Jealous now!
Posted December 12, 2014
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Fenixp: You mean aside from the bunch of genuine, adventure game puzzles that Gone Home contained? They weren't particularily difficult, sure, but they were puzzles nonetheless. Oh wait, so all easy games are not videogames? What if I'm a reall good player, I suppose I should rename my hobby now because I find vast majority of videogames easy? ... ... Or we could just call all highly interactive media 'videogames' until someone comes up with a better term, that sounds good to me.
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JKHSawyer: Please, tell me what "genuine" puzzles it had? Tell me what I missed from this interactive book?

Easy games are still games, checkers is easy to play, you can lose, you can win, and there is a specific goal and challenge to overcome to get to that goal.

Gone Home is you walking around, looking for doors and buttons to hit, to advance a simple minded narrative and shallow story. You are not overcoming any challenge, you cannot lose, you are in an interactive book. You look at things, read a lot, and explore a bit. It really is in every definition of the word a walking simulator.

It's not like I'm the only one with these views, just look at the reviews on the web after the hype blew over. If people like this stuff I could care less, but the fact it's labeled a game drives me up the wall.
I don't see how the narrative is simple minded. The majority of the story is told through the environment. If you're only listening to the audio you miss out on most of the story.
This idea that something isn't a game if it doesn't have lose states is idiotic. By that logic Monkey Island isn't a game.
Posted December 12, 2014
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Kardwill: 3 km evety morning and every evening to go to work. 12-25km in the forest during the weekend when the weather is good. Week-long trails in national parks every year in june and september. I love hiking ^^
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micktiegs_8: Fantastic! I wish I could do the same but 1) I don't work 2) my study is distance 3) I fear for my safety sometimes.

I'm guessing it's nice where you are. Jealous now!
Those ninja koala bears, I'm guessing. I heard Australia is a dangerous place.
Posted December 12, 2014
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micktiegs_8: Fantastic! I wish I could do the same but 1) I don't work 2) my study is distance 3) I fear for my safety sometimes.

I'm guessing it's nice where you are. Jealous now!
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monkeydelarge: Those ninja koala bears, I'm guessing. I heard Australia is a dangerous place.
lol what?! Oh, America stop it. Yes it's Armageddon what with all the koalas falling on you, snakes filling the streets and spiders bursting out of the walls. Oh and kangaroos with boomerangs.
Posted December 12, 2014
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JKHSawyer: Please, tell me what "genuine" puzzles it had? Tell me what I missed from this interactive book?
Come on, don't pretend to be stupid - there was a bunch of fairly simple "find the password" things and I believe the game tasked you with finding hidden locations at some point. Simple? Yes. Could impede your progress to the point of not proceeding? Possibly. Not being able to proceed is too a failure state, as TotalBiscuit who popularized this definition repeatedly said (sorry if you got it from somewhere else.)

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JKHSawyer: It's not like I'm the only one with these views, just look at the reviews on the web after the hype blew over. If people like this stuff I could care less, but the fact it's labeled a game drives me up the wall.
Why do you even care? Why do any of those people care? We have genres to make the distinctions between various forms of videogames, interactive experiences, whatever you want to call them. Creating an entirely new media form because some people are not happy with where some minor parts of their media is moving is, quite frankly, ridiculous. We don't have 'Movies', 'Moving Fantasies' and 'Romantic Comedy' as three distinct types of media, because that would be completely bonkers. Similarily, the term videogames is constantly spreading wider to encompass an incresingly larger audience and products - does it call for a rename of the entire media? Possibly. Is it a bad thing? No bloody way, innovation comes from variability.
Posted December 12, 2014
Are we seriously unironically using the term "walking simulator now"??

Sigh, well, I've been playing Vanishing of Ethan Carter recently and I'm really digging it.
Posted December 12, 2014
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Austrobogulator: Are we seriously unironically using the term "walking simulator now"??

Sigh, well, I've been playing Vanishing of Ethan Carter recently and I'm really digging it.
No, we're not.
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This is my favourite topic
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General discussion (archive)Played any cool walking sims lately?(66 posts)(66 posts)
(66 posts)