I'm playing a fun FPS,
Far Cry 3. Speaking of which, IRC copypasta time:
<Saddam> An old lady tells me that she just saw a plane crash
<Saddam> I go check it out and a guy there tells me that the plane crashed ten years ago
<Saddam> He also says that there is no old lady where I just was
<Saddam> What a twist?
<Saddam> Seriously, does Ubisoft think that's clever writing or something?
<Saddam> "Wow, guys, we're so deep! The gamers will totally be scratching their heads wondering what it all means!"
That sidequest is pretty much representative of the quality of the writing in this game, which is bad. Really, really bad. The dialogue is stupid, most of the characters (especially the protagonist) are annoying and unlikable, and of course, it's huge on the whole "privileged white guy dominates foreign culture and emerges as their savior" trope. And what particularly bugs me about that last one is that apparently it was done intentionally, because...reasons:
http://penny-arcade.com/report/article/double-talk-far-cry-3s-lead-writer-explains-the-deceptive-nature-of-thI can definitely tell that the trope is deliberately exaggerated, but that's really all the game does with it. There's no parody, no deconstruction, no real criticism, nothing. It's like they made this huge elaborate setup for a joke and then forgot to deliver the punchline. And yeah, the writer talks about the twist ending and how that single-handedly manages to totally subvert all the dumb clichés that preceded it, but that's crap. It's a weird game full of many weird moments, and that ending is just one of them. Nobody's going to think that it's really some kind of refutation of colonialism.