"So the playable characters in my new game are going to be a fugitive, a cop and someone useless to the plot". -David Cage whenever he stops taking his pills.
That counts for Fahrenheit, heavy rain, beyond two souls & Detroit. Fahrenheit: fugitive: Lucas Cop: Carla Useless: Tyler. Heavy rain: Ethan: fugitive Cop: Jayden or Shelby Useless: Jayden and/or Mallison Beyond: Elliot: fugitive Cop: Nathan or Ryan Useless: basically every one else. Edit:(No, wait. Only Jodie is playable. Nathan & Ryan are still "major" characters). Detroit: fugitive: Markus Cop: Connor Useless: Kara
That opening where he wants “choices in fiction” when he ignores RPGs and ChooseYourOwn books is like Mark Zuckerberg ignoring HabboHotel pitching Meta.
David Cage truly is the worst case of an "auteur" in video games. The only one that for me comes close is Yu Suzuki with his shenmue games. People who don't care about video games, don't understand them, probably don't even like them, but design video games carried by the story and characters... the problem being that they're absolute shit at writing those aswell. And both of them only could bank on their brand because their first game was seen as ambitious, even though that was about game specs, not writing. Also gotta love that auteur went from a rather neutral term to basically meaning "pompous hack whose ego overshadows their actual talent by far". Just saw your quiet man video and jesus yeah that guy also is a fucking auteur.
@@youtube-kit9450 Yu Suzuki at the very least have made something good pre-Shenmue, especially in the arcade days. A more apt comparison would be Yuji Naka. Arrogant prick even from the start, barely made anything good past the OG Sonic trilogy (probably except NiGHTS, or at least I like that game), a Xenophobe (read up how he is in Sonic 2's development, how he refused to borrow NiGHTS's engine for Sonic X-Treme, an American based STI developed game, as well as how Geist Force on Dreamcast was cancelled), as well as a hack, proven by Bland Blunderworld...sorry, Balan Wonderworld's release.
I remember a coworker describing Indigo Prophecy like this, “I tell you what, once I hit the twist I thought I was having a stroke.” And that was a positive review.
I know of no better way to form a bond with someone than to play Heavy Rain together, stoned and full of pizza, finishing the game in one sitting - dusk to dawn. In the morning you go to kitchen and you see fucking controller prompts hanging over cabinets... did this with people I am friends with to this day. Heavy Rain is.. and experience.
Ironically enough Cage HATED those parts of the game. Clancy Brown and Brian Dechant actually did manage to take away some of Cages control to work out how their character should have their relationship develop and he didn't like that.
Their storyline owes alot to Clancy Brown and Bryan DeChart having amazing on set chemistry and being talented enough actors to make the dumb dialog sound natural.
It really do be like that. Detroit become human is what happened after Cage was told about MLK in the history class. "My civil rights leader will be a cool robot and stuff"
The whole thing about David Cage's games is that he thinks games are innately inferior to movies both as an art form or as pieces of media. Which is an idea game critics and journalists holds as well. So he tries to mimic movies as much as possible with crappy writing and game critics and journalists eats it up like the second coming of Jesus.
Quantic Dream games are kind of a guilty pleasure of mine. I've got some enjoyment out of them but they've got some truly bizarre shit going on in them and David Cage has the self awareness of a house plant. Who can forget the scene in Indigo Prophecy where two characters play basketball outdoors in basketball jerseys and shorts in the the middle of a sub zero blizzard?
Wow, do I feel like a complete idiot now. I've played through Indigo Prophecy more times than I care to admit, and not once did it ever occur to me how inappropriate those clothing choices were. Lol
Yeah, i think Fahrenheit starts ok, it's intriguing! . But then it's just *everything scott says in the video*, i still enjoyed it when i played it, i think i was like 13 or 14. Sometimes i think about the game and i think: man that game really was a train wreck
In Shelby's defense, I have severe asthma and used to have a 20 minute 5 K. He did hit that inhaler quite a bit, though. 🤣🤣🤣 The most unrealistic portion of this game, at the time, was being able to buy inhalers OTC.
What I knew from each game Indigo Prophecy - By saving a kid from freezing to death, you are free from all murder charges because that’s how the law works. Heavy Rain - You will die if someone else shield you from a car crash. Madison should have been the Origami Killer. The set up was right there but as usual, they only used her for boobs and sex while Shaun was drowning to death. Beyond Two Souls - Suicide is good. Detroit Become Human - You can undress a little girl in this game and letting the enemies killing each and everyone of you can make your political cause successful because that’s how revolutions work.
In heavy rain it'd also explain how she kidnapped children. Ig they'd believe a strange woman more than a big guy like Shelby+she cared for Ethan for no reason. But cage is as usual doing some insane twists that don't make any sense
"Where is Omrikron" "Omrikron wen?" The reason why you don't see it here, is due to not being a part of the current timeline of DC's work. And could be a 3 hour video on it's own.
Well, let's be real here. The way most SW content has been written, DC's "eclectic" style will add something to the proceedings.. take that for what you want lol
Jodie's "friends" in the bar scene aren't running late. It's implied that they never intended to be at the bar in the first place and knew what they were doing when they gave her that address. So not only has DC ham fisted this scene in for the sake of conflict, he's had a bunch of teen girls deliberately send her there with the intention of having her get assaulted.
And Split was grade-A schlock in the best way possible. Cage never had a Sixth Sense, an Unbreakable or a Split. He had a The Happening and Lady in the Water is probably his pride and joy. Misunderstood auteur and all that.
Signs is actually a very beautiful movie. If it were made today but you told people it was directed by someone well liked (like Bong Joo-hoon) it would be nominated for best picture.
2:55:26 looking at twitter’s current situation, it’s surprisingly realistic that a billionaire owner of a technology company didn’t thought about such a basic feature
I really enjoyed playing Detroit but I always found it so confusing that the android are able to take off the blue Chip on their head and every character being like "yup, that's definitely a human" Also Kara knowing the girl is an Android but treating her as a human to have a huge reveal for the player is so fucking stupid 😂
about the suicide moment as a person who have had experience with this stuff (unfortunately) I think they could have played it out right, maybe make her regain the will to live mid fall and have the aiden only save her at the last moment make it a wholesome moment full of gratitude from her to Aiden I think that could work theoretically
As a person similarly touched by ideation, & with friends + family who also tried, including some lost...yes. But I'd also sincerely like to see you create something with the experiences + thoughtfulness + care you have on that subject, much more than I'd like Cage to create...lol well, anything? But seriously, you seem like you would create something good + valuable + necessary. All the best to you, may your sorrows be behind you & your traumas repaired❤🔥
Loved the KrimsonRogue usage. Separately though, had a full moment of actual, physical whiplash when the FFVIII Garden music just started to haunt the vid. The flashbacks, man. The flashbacks.
I was intrigued by Lauren but like so many other "Cage's Idea Of Characters" ("Cage-acters"???) she's so poorly served narratively & in scenes, but somewhere along the very rough line, they must've boosted her role, bc she does as much or more in some versions of the story as "fully face-rendered" Cage-acters, & yet Lauren's face render is...Unghnnhh . Obviously they could've + should've reworked her design/render/mocap when they embiggened her role; it's jarring as hell when she interacts with so many meh-to-fine-to-oh!-actually-good! Cage-acters bc she almost always is the most plastic face Uncanny in this particular Cage Valley, & our genius Gamesmaker couldn't even let the camera or motivated-lighting show Lauren's face model a shred of kindness. Like they didn't even TRY to flatter or obscure the design more creatively if they were committed to cheating out on the actor/model herself. Unless that WAS a Cage Creative Idea bc he thinks sex workers just...Unghnnhh . I'm not going to finish that thought & go take a Silkwood Shower for my Brain.
Your bloober video was brought to me via the home page's algorythm, and this David Cage retrospective ha convinced me to subscribe and stay, you have some serious good material here good sir!
I was already glad I’d found this video; remaining completely hooked throughout the whole thing. I was happy that I’d found a new channel to watch and was going to look forward to new stuff from the creator. AND THEN, the Androids theme played at the end. Nice.
@@ScottsGameAsylum that makes a lot of sense, I’ve never been too moved by Charlie Brooker myself but if he’s influencing great content like this then he must be doing a lot right!
When I was a kid, I used to get those PlayStation magazines with the demo disc's. The diner scene/very start of Indigo Prophecy was the demo. I was intrigued and really wanted the game, but never did pick it up. Years later I watched a playthrough of the game and my mind was blown at how fkn radically different the rest of the game is, to put it mildly... It's borderline misleading. I thought it would be a murder mystery, not whatever the hell this was. Turns out I didn't need the game, I already played the best part.
0:00-0:10 yet there are scenarios where the choice you made doesn’t even matter in indigo prophecy, heavy rain, beyond two souls, and Detroit become human.
2:55:13 Something funny about you bringing up the "why no kill-switch" thing is that in one of the endings, it's revealed that Cyberlife programmed the artificial life into the androids and the events that unfolded were a way to sell newer models; I'm not joking, this is real and it's as dumb as it sounds.
Re: The Black Lives Matter fist, has history forgotten that Feminism used the fist going up a hole just before that? From Wikipedia: "Raised fist The raised fist, or the clenched fist, is a long-standing image of mixed meaning, often a symbol of political solidarity. It is also a common symbol of communism, socialism, and other revolutionary social movements. It can also represent a salute to express unity, strength, or resistance." In Cage's defense, the raised fist would've been an obvious choice, regardless of what other movements are using it contemporaneously. I agree with the commentary though.
David Cage is an easy target but I really do have to give him credit for really trying out the interactive movie concept, something I'm annoyed hasn't taken off (despite the earliest games basically being interactive movies). And as soon as I say that, it's his high profile fumbles that scare studios away from the concept and dry up investment.
The conclusion is off, because against every law of the universe Cage's trashfires are "successful". They get praised when they come out and they sell pretty well. There are plenty of cinematic games out there, hell half of all AAA games these days are more movie than game. And Telltale was doing the low budget version of that. The real "interactive movie" crap are those FMV games that have always sucked and will always suck. Metal Gear Solid, Journey, Disco Elysium, Mass Effect.... those are all games that use different cinematic techniques and ideas and make them work in games. They are some of the best of their individual genres, because they know to be a game first, a movie second.
@@angeloalvarez5520 You know, you could just put it into google and instantly find out instead of vaguely hoping that I will reply to an 8 months old post. But because I am so nice I will spoonfeed you. FMV = Full Motion Video. It's those bad games where you watch a movie basically and make choices that will alter the scenes.
Every now and again when I watch videos like this I start worrying that I’m feeding into similar issues in my own writing, that my characters are flat and lifeless and the plot is contrived. And then I actually watch clips from some of Cage’s games and am reminded that, while I’m still not a fantastic author, I have never written anything this shamelessly tone deaf and wooden.
I really, really didn't expect to watch a 3-hour disemboweling of David Cage's "creative" achievements all the way through, but that's exactly what I did and I'm very, very glad I did it.
I was gonna write a long ass paragaph about how much I dislike Cage but I realized that'd be too much thought to spare on someone like him. On a more positive note though, I just found your channel through the Bloober video but enjoyed both that and this. Good shit man.
I wanna believe the car that "hit" jason didint really hit him and stopped on time but what killed him was ethan jumping and crushing jason body with full might of his weight.
15:41 Honestly games are the one medium where an invincible character can work really well because it can work as a vehicle for really fun, spectacular, action-oriented gameplay. Ironically, Fahrenheit has no gameplay lmao
Didn't one these games leak Elliot's nudes as they were in the source code because DC is a pervert and required them for some motion capture in the game. Only reason Detroit is bearable is due to the actors as you start getting into the handfisting allegories, questionable messages, and then comparing them to actual atrocities after that it just feels gross
No that is misinformation. There were nude models constructed for the character beyond the wishes of the actor, which were then found in the games code.
Excellent! I finally found this channel again, and good thinking compiling all these together. Now, I am gonna go for a beer, an a good game (Evil Within) while I listen to this in the background. I just wanna say I love the way you make these videos, I usually hate humor in analysis videos but you have a good balance of jokes and critique and you're genuinely funny sometimes! What you've done here, well I must say its a wonderful escape from all of life's bull sh*t. Thank you for that man. Never stop doin your thing Mr. Scott. Also I never realized just how much David Cage is a pretentious creep. I'll never look at those games the same again. Like when I found out Niel Druckman mo-capped both characters in Abbs sex scene in TLOU2. My eyes have been irreversibly opened... HAHAHA!!
nailed it with saying Heavy Rain is depressing af. don't know how you slogged thru 4 x. tried playing it again after my first time and maaaaan it's so depressing.
@@ScottsGameAsylum PS : one of my friends was an independent games journalist in the early 2010. One day, he got the opportunity to interview David Cage, one of his first question was to ask him how the development of Heavy Rain went and how he managed such a big team, since the development of the game was notoriously tumultuous. David Cage proceeded to verbally abuse my friend, yell at his subordinate who introduced him, and storm off the interview by telling my friend he doesn't know anything about videogames. Maybe that answers your "why didn't anybody stop David Cage?" questions throughout the video.
I love David cage games. My wife always gets sucked in while I'm playing so we play the whole thing together and have a good laugh at the inevitable absurd moments the game presents.
@@ScottsGameAsylum Have you ever played it? If you assume that it's another Cage game, you're dead wrong, mate. The nomad soul is NOTHING like his other games. If you liked Blade Runner, that game would be right up your alley. Seriously, try it, you'll probably have a great time and then think about all the great games he could have make instead.
Yes, still hate my life lol Okay for real, yes I played it on the Dreamcast around the time it came out. I love cyberpunkish stuff so I was intrigued. Played it for a few hours and dropped it afterwards. The reason why it's not in this video is due to it being completely different to what they would later make. And tbh you could make a multi hour review on it alone. I have been playing it off and on for about 6 months in preparation for a future video. No ETA when that will be but yes I know about it.
Oh, I remember this sequence where Shelby mauls the guy to his demise. I have an additional peeve with this sequence: you can access character's thoughts while holding L2, or something, I played this game many years ago... But when you're controlling Shelby, in this moment, you can hear some of his thoughts, and in one of those he is questioning himself about the identity of the Origami Killer. The way I see it, the little time window Shelby had to do it adds a lot of contrivance to the scene, but the fake thought is just plain lying to the audience. Also, the game goes out of its way to suggest that Ethan may be the Origami Killer. They drop a lot of red herrings about it in the early midgame. And then they just stop suggesting this is the case, and nobody ever brings it back.
The 'self not living anymore' seemed like the obvious choice. Before it was brought up as an irresponsible depiction, I was thinking it was an obvious choice. He literally has proof there's an afterlife and his family is there. seems a little dramatic to cause a reality ending cataclysm.
Tbh I’m very hopeful Cage will actually see the Neil Breen film canon some day. Oh please oh please oh please. Just think of what could happen! Not just on laptops!
Liked it for the most part, but just curious, where did you get the quote that the average film script is 250 pages long? Professionally it's usually about 1 page per minute, so the average is between 90 and 130 pages.
That's good question, I can't remember the source, but I think it was an interview with cage when he was flexing about his girthy scripts. It wasn't a hard number. But you already know that.
1:33:57 Am I wrong or does the “late teens/early 20s” date outfit the Beyond game considers to be “sexy” seem disturbingly identical to common jr-intern baby-workwear that most young people/women who are new graduates or interning alongside degrees in starter-jobs that aren’t trades or have uniforms pretty much all wear??? 😬🤮🤡
"...look at myself in the mirror without cringing...". I have to wonder whether this is what David Cage thinks of his works in the interactive medium... :-p Thanks for the analysis !
lol I bet asthma inhalers cost like a buck in Cage Worlds too 🫁 Also in an odd case of musical synchronicity, Havergal's 'Lungs For The Race' just came up on my shuffle...
Hey Scott's Game Asylum - idk if you have a place to submit requests or if that's even something you'd ever consider but I absolutely love your perspective regarding the "interactive movies" video games and was wondering if you'd ever consider playing SuperMassive games? A while back there were a few video essays defending Until Dawn as being a great and Im replaying it right now and it's so extremely surface level, sure there's some charms (somewhere.) but overall it's a lot of the same issues - billed as extremely varied based on choices but there's only like 5 that actually matter lol even if you aren't open to recommendations i wanna say this is one of my videos and i often come back to the david cage videos when i crave brutal honestly - some games. are bad!
Is there a full version of that song at the end? It's an outro for a very obscure punk band but it's oddly charismatic, it kind of sounds like the end credits theme of an 80s tv show or anime.
Man. I didn't come here to experience war flashnacks. But you had to come here and mention BL3. The sense of internal implosion I experienced is beyond: words.
I dont think he cares about the incest part or even gave it thought. He literally self-inserts as Aiden, becauise he wanted to bang Ellen Paige and "protect" her.
"Press X to Jason" is part of my "Stuck on an Island" Playlist. Along with "Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf" and all of Rammstein's discography. I know, I'm tipping the scales a little there.
On a more serious note, as a trans gaming nerd, hearing a fun ranty gaming video that correctly genders another trans person made me comfy. I know it’s not much, but that sort of explicit support means a lot to me, at least. Good shit over here, you’re cool people.
Uh sorry to say, you missed one pre-Indigo Prophecy, called Omikron: The Nomad Soul, was I think David Cage's directorial debut, and is also a work from Quantic Dreams. It's a good bit different too and isn't talked abt as much as the more narrative focused they're known for so really hoped it would be covered in a video like this. I'll still give it a gander since yk, love seeing some David Cage slandering, but whether in a separate vid or not, deffo give Omikron a look, is smth that really makes you wonder what was going through his head at that time.
re: the auteur vs. small team thing, writers like Amy Hennig (she wrote the Legacy of Kane and Uncharted games) routinely churn out extremely right, efficient game stories by working closely with a team. We might not know her with the same reflexivity as Hideo Kojima but her influence is massive and she seems to actively avoid the whole genius auteur image. Then again, she also wrote on Battlefield Hardline so maybe she's also an example of how too many chefs / executives meddling with a story can fuck up a product lol
@@ScottsGameAsylum a good practice. But yeah, it’s a shame more people don’t know about him since he kind of grandfathered this whole video game analysis genre on RU-vid, or at least how most of these videos are structured, hell even before HBomb on Fallout 3 or the bigger Gaming Brit vids.
