cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/52327207
But why put Mario Bros in 1972?
this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2026
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Gaming
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Video games in many cases now cost more to make than movies / tv. And for years video games have out sold movies.
Yet to this day the movie / tv industry still treats the gaming industry as an unloved red headed step child.
They do their own thing and the movie or tv show ends up flopping.
Rinse and repeat.
Yeah, kinda sucks actually. I remember having to jump on Combine and insert another coin when i want to get a Gravity Gun in Half Life 2.
There were no good games in 2004. None. I remember building building a computer with 1gb RAM, Pentium 4, and an ATI Radeon 9800xt... And just having nothing good to play.
/s
Was it really that good? It was just jump scares and ego-gun-tripping...mixed with decent voice acting...
It's good historically. Publishers and developers didn't really care much about story in their games before then (2013). "Video Game story" was often horribly bad, like porn acting; but more often it was just forgettable. Like mandatory lubricant to keep the gameplay going, rather than a feature to make good. Think, Far Cry 3, Borderlands 2, Dishonored, etc. They're ok, but they don't make you really "feel" something. Mostly you just go around killing everything until it's done. Heck, speaking of which, even Doom Eternal (2020) has a coherent storyline and lore.
After The Last of Us, publishers suddenly realised that people actually really like it when their videogames have good stories, that make sense narratively, have twists, low plot holes, emotional investment and climax, etc. Now we have even better stories like Ghost of Tsushima, Expedition 33, Baldur's Gate 3, etc.
It's a bit dated now, but 13 years ago gaming was very different. It's actually expected nowadays for games to have a reasonably good story. Today, I would probably recommend the TV show instead for most people, or maybe a Let's Play.
You're conclusion isn't wrong but you're giving it credit for the wrong things. All of those elements were present in games that came long before, TLOU was just a lot more marketable.
The story-first approach made you feel in control of a zombie movie during peak zombie mania. You just binged The Walking Dead, what if you could play an episode...
In that sense, you're right that its success opened up a whole new market that we all benefit from. I knew so many people whose game libraries were like NBA 2k 2011, NBA 2k 2012, and The Last Of Us. It made a lot of non-hobbyists realize that games can be art.
It's a good game that would have earned a place in video game history regardless BUT it wasn't particularly innovative. It just did what it did very well
Your comment feels like it's trying to simultaneously agree with me and vaguely correct me at the same time. I'm not really sure what to make of it.
The Last of Us had the best story in gaming in quite a while. That's my opinion, backed up by the huge amount of media coverage and acclaim at the time. Yes, other games had stories in them, but they mostly sucked. They don't suck as much anymore, because that game made publishers and developers and players care more. That's my point.
Half Life (1998) was considered revolutionary for putting all its cut scenes in game and you had to press E to listen to characters.
Final Fantasy 6 (1994) and 7 (1997) were considered masterpieces of storytelling
Myst was 1993
Sid Meier was making story based games in the mid 80s.
What's your point?
You said
It's good historically. Publishers and developers didn't really care much about story in their games before then (2013). "Video Game story" was often horribly bad, like porn acting; but more often it was just forgettable. Like mandatory lubricant to keep the gameplay going, rather than a feature to make good.
[...]
After The Last of Us, publishers suddenly realised that people actually really like it when their videogames have good stories, that make sense narratively, have twists, low plot holes, emotional investment and climax, etc. Now we have even better stories [...]
My reply gives counter-examples
I played it about a year ago. I was pleasantly surprised. It's very well-done for it's time. It's a bit dated now but not in a bad way. I'd recommend it if you like horror and/or adventure games.
When I played the original back on PS3, I would definitely say it's that good. To me, it did feel like it was the game making the generational leap. It's not so noticeable these days now that technology and game design has advanced so much, but my first playthrough was wonderful.
As a note: I haven't played the sequels, the remasters on modern consoles, or watched the TV show.
Yes.
I think it depends a lot on how much you like serious stories in your video games. I prefer lighthearted games so I didn't even make it through the first one, but my best friend loves them.
In this household, you jump on an enemy, and they invert and fall off the screen, unless they have spikes
I mean The Last of Us was really good, I cat think of a better game /jk (The Last of Us was good though)
I dog of plenty of better games
Lmao I just saw the typo. I wish we had physical keys still for phones.
You could probably carry around a small keyboard to plug into your phone if you really wanted to. I don't know how well it works with iPhone, but it should work just fine on Android.
Works just fine on iOS too.