Journey

[Yeargdribble]

If it's too similar to Flower I'll probably pass on it. I'm sure it was a beautiful game for some, but it just got boring and slightly annoying to me.

^This...... except the exact opposite.

I loved Flower. I loved how different it was from where gaming is going these days. It was truly unique and beautiful, relaxing experience.

These guys have an incredible eye for their art-style. I have full faith that I'm going to love Journey. Was jazzed the second I heard about another game from the makers of Flower and was double jazzed when I saw some screens.



EDIT: Have you ever played a big game with an interesting world and found it interesting to explore, but generally you realize there's no reward in doing so. It's not part of your goal to explore the gameworld.... so you stop and go finish your fetch quest.

Very few games let us get out of that. SotC did a little. Sometimes you just wanted to see some of the world, but ultimately you still felt goal driven.

What if you had a game that was an amazing world that had no goal. What if the goal was simply to enjoy exploring and understanding the world given to you. No XP. No silly quests. Just your own interest driving you to find out more without ridiculous scripted quests and dialogue.

Remember when games were fun for fun's sake? I think these guys do. I think their games let us enjoy the arbitrary fun-for-fun's-sake aspect that you can find in small throw away flash games... but on a larger and more beautiful scale.

Of course some will never enjoy these types of games. They need guidance and direction. They need people to shoot. They need levels to gain. They need specific puzzles to solve. And if, at the end, they aren't given some trophy or at least a badass cutscene.... "@#%$ this game." Why can't enjoyment be its own reward in gaming anymore?