Execution / Game

[Bridge]

@ Bridge: MGS4 is pretty tiresome. You're explained a whole timeline of events up to that point in the first 1/4 of the game. Then a big important character comes in and shatters everything you were forced to watch and memorize. THEN another character does the SAME thing and then AGAIN. It got tiresome. It made me look back on my experience of MGS4 poorly because of it.

The fact that you use the words "forced" and "memorize" suggest to me that you weren't that invested in the storyline in the first place. MGS has never put any strain on me - I love absolutely every second I play one of those games. I guess I'll see when I play it.

And as for TLOU: watching isn't the same as experiencing it first hand. Watching a lets play of a videogame is sort of the equivalent of being told what happened in a movie without seeing it.

It isn't the same experience, but it is not the equivalent of being told what happens in a movie. In fact, watching a Let's Play is like watching a movie period. I perceived and noted all of the nuances you mentioned and appreciated them, that does not mean the game is not full of overused ladder and pallet "puzzles", features too many inorganic and uninspired zombie encounters and stealth/shootout sections and has gamey contrivances like upgrades. Still, the game has some beautiful art and level design and solid story/characterization. The music I was mostly neutral about. At times it was impressive but it was mostly boring (even if it "fit" the game).

Case in point:

Spoiler below!

The scene where Ellie is trying to start the car and the player has to stop pushing it every 5 seconds to fend off zombies. Both me and the let's player were just frustrated and annoyed at an otherwise tense scene being padded out by such unnecessary interruptions.
Having to dismount the horses to fight off enemies when Joel and his brother are looking for Ellie. Completely unnecessary and adds nothing to the scene. They even lampshade the fact that Ellie managed to get by them unnoticed.
The wave of enemies that comes from seemingly nowhere near the start of the winter level.
The sewer section that is crawling with enemies.
Basically every other normal fight, if not more.

These are offset by other sections that are amazingly executed, but I found the majority of the gameplay to be unrepresentative of the story. Besides, the mere fact that characters utter a line or two of spoken dialogue after or during combat for example doesn't necessarily mean the story and gameplay are connected. There were certain scenes where it was, but not always in my opinion. This is in no way my attempt to bring it down a peg or anything like that. I've already said I consider the whole to be irreducible and singling out certain aspects while sometimes useful is not how you critique a game. I'm just arguing that the game doesn't marry its elements as well as you say, certainly not enough to warrant being called the most perfect game or anything like that. Discredit me for not having experienced it first-hand if you wish, but I experienced basically the same aspects as you did with the exception of one - which I have some insight into.

Morrowind is incredible. It's a great game. It's a masterpiece. Wouldn't call it high art. Its gameness brings down other elements, which is where my whole stance on the topic rests on.

In the strictest definition of high art, it's not possible to call any videogame that. If you mean that you don't consider it to have artistic merits in general - then why? I realize it may be hard to explain, but I really am curious. The game is full of nuanced details and subtleties that just bring the world alive to me.