"I tend to discount production value when discussing a game's merits."

But...that's silly. It's like discounting cinematography in film.

(Well, arguably; you could possibly make the argument that cinematography is more analogous to gameplay mechanics, but whatever.)

Regardless, it's not the only factor in a game's…

I guess I just appreciated how...meta the whole thing was. The entire present-day thing is practically an extended satire of the game industry.

The email exchanges? The trailers? Oh, god, the marketing analysis slideshows? Genius.

I think calling those "shitty games" is a pretty big stretch.

"Games I did not like", sure. But shitty? Yeah, probably not.

(The same is true, incidentally, of Naughty Dog's output.)

You could definitely make that argument that GTA 5 is a more polished, coherent game that hangs together a little bit better (even if it has significantly less to say).

Honestly, between the two, I like Bioshock Infinite more (as it's less self-impressed and shallowly mean-spirited), but the seams are pretty apparent…

There are two things I love about this list in particular:

1: Someone else liked the modern-day stuff in AC4! That stuff was hilarious!

2: Someone else actually played Trauma Team!

Oh good, the "hipster" accusation: the last refuge of those with no actual argument to make.

It's funny you bring that up, because I see a lot of people (including the Ian Bogost article linked above) saying, "Well, if this were a book or a movie, would people still think the story was so exceptional?"

Well...no. Probably not. That's because different forms of media function differently. An experiential form…

"Yup. Now tell me, is this book a game? Since it's quite obviously a book, it can't be."

Ahem:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamebook

(Seriously. Why would the fact that something is a book prevent it from being a game? Board games are games. Athletic activities are games. There are improv games that are nothing more than…

Best comment I've seen so far:

"I've heard that if you bury him in the ground and then dig him up 2 years later, he'll work just as well as he did before you buried him."

...too soon?

"Take the mechanical interaction, for example - it is essentially a substitute for the menu-based system of most VNs."

But...that's a -totally different- method of interaction. Leaving that aside, though:

"But a VN is not a game."

But...why? I mean, clearly, I disagree. To me, that statement relies on an overly-narrow…

Not really, no. It's no more a visual novel (lacking pretty much all of the standard mechanical elements) than it is a first-person shooter (lacking only shooting).

(Besides which, I think the distinction between "visual novel" and "game" is pretty blurry at best, and it's usually used as a bludgeon to separate things…

That's kind of what I suspected, but I've seen people elsewhere freaking out because "OMG she deserted!" I appreciate the actual insight.

I've never actually played a main-series SMT game before. I've never even finished one of the Persona games. In general, I have a fairly low tolerance for JRPGs and an even worse track record when it comes to actually finishing them. I'm not, as a rule, interested in highly detailed, fiddly RPG mechanics.

...and…

It's bittersweet, like most of the game. There's a pervasive sadness to the entire game that's not limited to the plot; the lighting, music, etc. all reinforce that feeling.

It's happy in a way, because the two of them are reunited. It's less happy because, well, they're teenage runaways, and that's a story that rarely…

Or, y'know, they gave it high scores because they actually liked it.

There are valid criticisms of Gone Home to be made that have nothing to do with homophobia.

There are ALSO a lot of criticisms being made that are clearly homophobic (or at least...homophobic-adjacent, I guess?).

I don't think Gone Home was perfect, but I do think it's worthy of a lot of the praise and recognition it's getting.

A solid list with solid reasoning behind the choices.

It also touches on one of the things I liked about Saint's Row IV as compared to GTA 5. Whereas GTA 5 often seems mean-spirited and self-impressed in its satire, Saint's Row IV doesn't take itself it all seriously. The satire is generally good-natured and…

If there's not at least an area in the game called "The Synyster Gates", I will be sorely disappointed.

I know people like to make jokes about pinball, but Zen Pinball is actually pretty great.

(So is Pinball Arcade, which takes a totally different approach: faithfully re-creating classic tables instead of making new, all-digital ones like Zen does.)

And actually, both are free on Steam, so there's really no excuse not to…

Your point is well taken, but...actually, Pinball FX/Zen Pinball is pretty awesome.