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Re: Echoing Sentiments... by FABIO 11/01/2004, 1:15am PST
Berlioz wrote:

FABIO wrote:

Although, I did enjoy it a hell of a lot more when I was wondering "what is this castle?", "why was this chick caged up and who is she?", and "why do these shadow things want her so badly?" and I was happy to be wondering all this I explored what is still to this day some of the most gorgeous scenery ever in a videogame, hoping to unravel everything.


Then I read the freaking MANUAL and it spoiled everything. That was the last time I've read a manual to any game with any sort of plot, and I remained stumped why in each and every incarnation of Silent Hill they insist of making the intro to be a montage of massive spoilers.

...and other less subtle reach arounds.

The entire game is simply plotted out in the manual.

WHY? I can only assume it involved tongues being clucked and a marketing troll asking, "Well what if they don't get it?"
To which the synopsis of the ENTIRE FUCKING game was included, without preamble, in the manual.


Ever since Out of This World, I've been in love with the idea of being dumped into a totally different, beautiful alien world in a game with absolutely no setup or background story. Couple that with an invisible interface so I can just marvel at the scenery and I'm in heaven (any recent games like that I've missed?).

Ico grabbed me in exact same way during the demo, and for the first 30 minutes in the retail version before I made the massive mistake of reading the manual. It's like including Aeris' death in the FF7 manual. The only other experience of "game-ruining magnitude within the boxed materials" I've ever run into is with Fatal Frame 2 and it's dumping of THE FINAL AND MOST SHOCKING PLOT ELEMENT IN THE GAME right on the very back of the box. It was so tragically unnecessary that it almost seemed a non-sequitor final sentence that was tacked on by a bitter graphic designer, like a giant "FUCK YOU" to all the players. It was like if "Kevin Spacey IS Keiser Socei" or "Bruce Willis is a GHOST" concluded the back of box for The Usual Suspects or The Sixth Sense.

Fuck manuals. They've been obsolete since the late 1990's. Advances in intuitive, uniform interfaces (within genres at least) and superb in-game tutorials have made reading instructions totally unnessecary. From Ico's and Silent Hill's entire plot to who's going to join your party in RPG's, all they can do is ruin things. Any game that requires you to read the manual to get the hang of it is automatically docked 2 points on the 1 to 10 scale.
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Wanda and the Colossus by Berlioz 10/30/2004, 9:29pm PDT NEW
    Trailer by Berlioz 10/30/2004, 9:39pm PDT NEW
    Ico love by FABIO 10/30/2004, 9:59pm PDT NEW
        Echoing Sentiments... by Berlioz 10/30/2004, 10:45pm PDT NEW
            Everyone loved Ico, actually. by Fussbett 10/31/2004, 12:07pm PST NEW
                Re: Everyone loved Ico, actually. by Berlioz 10/31/2004, 5:11pm PST NEW
            Re: Echoing Sentiments... by FABIO 11/01/2004, 1:15am PST NEW
                Dude, no. by Arbit 11/01/2004, 10:51am PST NEW
                    Re: Dude, no. by Ice Cream Jonsey 11/01/2004, 11:14am PST NEW
                        Re: Dude, no. by laudablepuss 11/01/2004, 4:23pm PST NEW
                    the manual was the only good part of Arcanum NT by FABIO 11/01/2004, 8:29pm PST NEW
                Beyond Good and Evil comes closest NT by Mischief Sellout 11/01/2004, 2:08pm PST NEW
                Re: Echoing Sentiments... by Mood: Perplexed 11/02/2004, 3:36pm PST NEW
 
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