Author Topic: Posthuman and Transhumanist Vidya Games?  (Read 24867 times)

Henry Hankovitch

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Re: Posthuman and Transhumanist Vidya Games?
« Reply #15 on: November 05, 2015, 10:18:17 PM »
Minerva: Metastasis doesn't actually deal with transhumanist themes in any depth, but could be seen as existing in that sort of world.  It's a mini-campaign taking place in the Half-Life 2 universe, where the player is some sort of Combine trooper that has been hijacked/modified by an AI entity, and sent to destroy an island installation.  All the while, the totally contemptuous AI is alternately guiding and taunting you via text message.

It does have interesting elements regarding the player's humanity and free will, but that's a background theme rather than an explicit part of the game.

HapexIndustries

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Re: Posthuman and Transhumanist Vidya Games?
« Reply #16 on: November 06, 2015, 02:04:59 AM »
I'd give caution as far as Stasis goes. I enjoyed my time with it because of the atmosphere and the puzzles being logical for the most part, but the last act goes bonkers in my opinion and lost much of my good faith. Plus, that stasis medicine puzzle was kind of infuriating.

Hm, I don't really remember the last act bothering me too much but it's kind of a blur, I beat the game over night a couple weeks ago now.  The ending didn't bother me, I know that.  And yeah, that stasis medicine puzzle was a pain, I looked that up.  I also looked up the furnace puzzle but it turns out that was bugged.  Anyway, I would recommend Sanitarium over Stasis despite its age and ugliness anyway.

Minerva: Metastasis doesn't actually deal with transhumanist themes in any depth, but could be seen as existing in that sort of world.

Wow, I remember looking at this about 8 years ago when it wasn't finished, and then again a couple years back and it still wasn't finished.  Next time I load up Halflife2 I'll give it a shot (probably next time I get a harddrive considering I've filled up all 5 tb of mine).  Thank you for the suggestion, friend!

TRNSHMN

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Re: Posthuman and Transhumanist Vidya Games?
« Reply #17 on: November 06, 2015, 09:16:37 AM »
A lot went down that bugged me, from plot points that never went anywhere and the antagonists becoming cartoon villains with improbable setups (an elaborate room whose only function seems to be to be a big fuck you to the PC) to asinine, dumb gameplay design (only way to progress is to trigger a flag by inspecting a specific fluff/background element in a room full of them). Also the monsters you see were pathetic and not at all threatening, despite them apparently being able to rip armed people to shreds.

HapexIndustries

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Re: Posthuman and Transhumanist Vidya Games?
« Reply #18 on: November 06, 2015, 08:09:21 PM »
A lot went down that bugged me, from plot points that never went anywhere and the antagonists becoming cartoon villains with improbable setups (an elaborate room whose only function seems to be to be a big fuck you to the PC) to asinine, dumb gameplay design (only way to progress is to trigger a flag by inspecting a specific fluff/background element in a room full of them). Also the monsters you see were pathetic and not at all threatening, despite them apparently being able to rip armed people to shreds.

Ok, that's ringing a bell now.  Yeah, I was let down that there was no greater plan the antagonist had, and the progress trigger you mention, yeah, I dealt with that as well and it pissed me off.  As for the monsters, meh, I guess I assumed they attacked en masse?  I didn't really think about it much, it's like wondering how Raccoon City got taken over by shambling zombies, lol, but I'm sure your point is correct.

I'm trying to think of another, comparable game but I'm failing.  The last adventure game I enjoyed was Spirits of Xanadu but I can't recommend it without some serious caveats, and even then not at the full asking price of 10$ (I got it for 5$ on sale).

TRNSHMN

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Re: Posthuman and Transhumanist Vidya Games?
« Reply #19 on: November 14, 2015, 10:28:49 AM »
Somewhat worthless addition incoming, since if you don't already know you probably won't care.

Black Ops 3 kind of has an early Eclipse Phase vibe in that it has what are basically mesh implants, cortical stacks (but without infomorphs and sleeving) and tacnet. Sadly, the game's campaign seems pretty fumbly and doesn't do much interesting with it so far.

HapexIndustries

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Re: Posthuman and Transhumanist Vidya Games?
« Reply #20 on: November 17, 2015, 07:55:38 PM »
Somewhat worthless addition incoming, since if you don't already know you probably won't care.

Black Ops 3 kind of has an early Eclipse Phase vibe in that it has what are basically mesh implants, cortical stacks (but without infomorphs and sleeving) and tacnet. Sadly, the game's campaign seems pretty fumbly and doesn't do much interesting with it so far.


Sigh, sounds like Activision staying the course.

I'm afraid I'm pretty down on the Big 3 of videogaming (Ubisoft, Activision and EA, the last of which I boycott entirely and Activision and Ubi are coming close); I haven't played a CoD since BO1 and even that I only played for 2 hours before getting sick of hitscan enemies and corridors disguised to not look like corridors.  I don't do symmetrical competitive MP either (except for playing the medic every now and then in TF2), and I wouldn't drop the money just for the horde mode.  Killing Floor was the MP game I played the most in recent years, though I haven't picked up the sequel (in Early Access now).  I didn't get into Left 4 Dead as I'm pretty much zombied out (sorry Ross), but I am seriously considering Warhammer End Times: Vermintide when I finish Fallout 4, though I'll probably wait until the Steam Winter Sale to get it for 10$ or something, ha.

Thanks for the heads up, though.  And I have to ask what is the point of cortical stacks if there is no resleeving?