Instead of debating about the semantics and rhetoric surrounding this brave, bold, and interactive medium, let’s talk about the stuff that actually matters: the content of the experiences themselves.
Dave writes: "If you’re a fan of walking simulators, then the name probably sticks in the throat, but let’s ‘own it’ and chuck the best and mightiest of the genre into a bear pit and let them have at it! Hoo-rah! As with most genre lists, there’s some controversy about what does or doesn’t constitute a walking simulator. Dialogue and navigation is preferred over puzzles and more intensive interaction like combat or QTEs. Jumping/crouching is positively frowned upon. Strap on your hiking boots and let’s ramble!"
David at SQUAD writes: "Over the past few months, I’ve found myself lost in a number of books set in my home-land of the United Kingdom. At first, it was by chance, but then I found myself seeking them out. Then I got some games in a few sales -- Assassins Creed: Syndicate and Vampyr, if you must know -- and realized I’d done it again. This got me thinking: does the video game industry do a good enough job of setting games in a diverse set of locations, and how many games are set in the UK anyway?"
Yep, ZombiU was indeed. A game I actually saw recommended a few times. It's weird that it stuck with so many people.
Starting today, Drawful 2, Gone Home, Hob, and Totally Reliable Delivery Service are free at Epic Games Store. The free game offers run until April 9 at 10 AM. Once you claim them, they’re yours to keep.
I played gone home when it was free on ps+ and I have to say "game" is about as lose a term as you could apply to whatever the hell gone home was. I never deleated a game so fast in my life. How do I know it was pure shit? Cause even my wife, who is an sjw, laughed at me for an hour after the final dumb-assed credits rolled.
There may be a place for those games but to me they are pretty unimpressive especially considering where games appeared to be going back in the days of the 64 and ps1.
What about visual novels like Psycho Pass, or Steins Gate? Are they games too?
"Walking simulators" are not some new type of gaming that's diluting the industry. Adventure games have been around since the inception of gaming. So-called "walking simulators" have been a part of the gaming world since the beginning of 3d gaming. Doom came out in 1993. So did Myst.
Just because you can't get into one type of gaming doesn't make it any less "real".
And to anyone who thinks that 2d platforming is the definition of "real" gaming, you forgot to evolve more than twenty years ago.