For me it’s probably Jazzpunk, but I liked Disco Elysium too. I’ve been looking for something to scratch that “Jazzpunk surrealist comedy itch” for a while and not many games have come even close.
Hatoful Boyfriend has some really great moments, especially if you pursue Anghel or Okosan. It also will make you cry your eyes out in the true ending, so there’s a good balance.
Definitely Grim Fandango. First game to make me laugh out loud, personally it’s clever and witty, and I love it to bits.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/316790/Grim_Fandango_Remastered/
First game that came to mind was The Looker.
I think the hilarity depends a lot if you played “The Witness” and got to taste it’s self importance.
Conker’s Bad Fur Day.
First off, Rare had a reputation for good games, but they were cute, child friendly games. Conker was even a cute character with child friendly games. Then they made this… thing, which starts with Conker hungover from a night drinking and quickly descends into him fighting a giant poo monster. The game was rated R/18, which was crazy for Nintendo. The amount of little movie references everywhere was insane, also.
Only seen bits of it, but it has the most hilarious opera song I have ever heard.
Just recently played A Hat in Time. We’re never told, but every detail points at this being the fantasy adventures of a little girl with A LOT in common with Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes, an overabundance of imagination and hyperactivity. Charming and funny (well, save for Queen Vanessa, which I feel was instead a masterpiece in ambience). Loved it, gotta try the DLC. Just be ready for hard platforming at many places.
Disco Elysium is the most recent game that was just chock full of humor, though maybe not focused on it specifically… beyond that the only games I can even really think of that had a focus on comedy were the old LucasArts classics. Sam & Max, Full Throttle, Monkey Island… And Borderlands.
I was just thinking about how this doesn’t seem to be a thing anymore. Where are the comedic oriented games? Why is everything so damn dark, and serious and brooding nowadays?
But I haven’t played that Not-Really-Rick-and-Morty-shooter. I heard that was funny.
Ultimate Chicken Horse might be one of the top party games for getting a laugh for me. It’s always fun to see someone hyperfocused to make a jump, only to get hit by an arrow, followed by a wrecking ball hitting them into a sawblade.
No One Lives Forever though it’s ancient now. I remember sneaking around just to listen to the bad guys talking to each other.
I remember a long discussion about correlation vs causation re being a criminal and drinking beer
Fucking love the game, will have to play again.
Really wish GOG could could release NOLF1+2 – I’d love to have them in my library.
NOLF is stuck in license limbo as far as I know. You can get it here for free: http://nolfrevival.tk/
Wonderful, thank you
Either Jazzpunk or Octodad: Dadliest Catch
Both had me laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes at various points.
Whiplash back on PS2
South Park: Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole I’d guess people either hate it or laugh their way through it.
It’s really hard to top Jazzpunk…
I know right? it’s so great I reinstall it every few months just to experience it again. It never really gets old
Never heard of jazzpunk. Just added it to my steam wishlist, interested to play it.
I think it’d have to be Portal…mmm, the first one. I think learning about Glados the first time is a little better than the whole potato thing.
Portal 2 has some jokes that did not age well too.
This is a new take to me, anyway. What do you mean?
There are a lot of fat jokes, and they aren’t punching up at all.
removed by mod
Wow, you still think fat jokes are funny in 2023. how embarrassing for you.
“You do thing I no like, how embarrassing for you”
Lmao maybe if you keep saying it it’ll be true?
I always sort of read those jokes as illustrative as GLaDOS being a bad person fielding weak material more than like, an earnest expression of the game writer’s values. Like, the game itself doesn’t present the remarks themselves as funny so much as GLaDOS being rude, snippy, and actively incorrect given that Chell is mega-fit.
I agree, especially considering Wheatley makes fat jokes the moment
spoiler
he takes over for GLaDOS.
I’ve always assumed it’s Gabe Newell getting revenge for all the fat jokes he’s endured.
The cake is a lie.
Yeah, that always came across as “I’m trying to neg you but I ran out of my best insults like an hour ago so I’m throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks.” Same with the adopted joke.
I get that context, and I think that was for sure the intent, but they did not stick the landing. We already knew GLaDOS is evil. Casual fatphobia was not necessary. Plus the fact that some people won’t get that context or choose to ignore it and just think it is funny, as evidenced further down this thread.
Edit: The person saying they would replay it for the fat jokes was removed, so my last sentence makes less sense, but that was the reason I said that
There’s an extremely long list of creative works made to be satire that idiots don’t understand. The Colbert Report, Starship Troopers, hell there are people that think Homelander is the good guy in The Boys. I think it’s a little too restrictive if someone can’t make a point that certain jokes are lame out of fear of how a few idiots might misinterpret it (many times deliberately). There are people right now arguing that the Barbie movie is actually “anti-woke”.
Also consider how many people actually did get the message. They heard how lame the jokes sounded and realized how stupid fat jokes are. From what I recall, the game really makes an effort to deconstruct these jokes. There is no audience within the game laughing at the jokes, and the evil AI explicitly states that it’s making the jokes solely to to negatively affect the protagonists psychological well being to prevent her from achieving anything. And the jokes are directed at the player, so someone that might have made these jokes themselves hears someone else directing these jokes at them and can hear how lame they are. The evil AI comes across as lame, petty, and desperate. Someone who made fat jokes before playing that game might have had the realization “is that how I sound?”
I feel like the people that didn’t get the context likely made fat jokes before playing the game, and would be making fat jokes even if they never played the game. So I don’t think there was any negative impact. Someone that committed to being an idiot isn’t going change in either direction from any kind of media.
Like I said, I understand the context. I don’t need more of it.
Jokes like this and the other examples require either a very deft hand or an extreme level of satire. The jokes did not achieve either of those for me. The harm it causes by folks misinterpreting or ignoring context is not worth the people who get it. I have friends that would 100% understand the context and would still be made uncomfortable by the delivery. That to me is the best indicator to how well it aged.
Also, posting a wall of text full of ableism is also not a great way to convince me otherwise
Whoa, do you remember any specific examples? I haven’t played since it came out
There are a lot of fat jokes, and they aren’t punching up at all. Don’t remember specifics since it has been about a year since I last played.
But wasn’t that the evil AI very explicitly trying to psychologically hurt the protagonist and being really lame about it? I mean it’s the evil AI doing it and I remember the point of it being that fat jokes are lame.
I get that context, but see my other comment about that. https://beehaw.org/comment/1142644
Sorry don’t want to have to copy pasta on 2 threads covering the same topic. Probably should have not replied to both comments initially
Giants: Citizen Kabuto
Oh man, this jogs old memories of when I almost every weekend went to this lan game cafe. We mostly played counter strike, quake arena and age of empires.
But at one point every night we would fire up this game and the whole place would turn in to chaos. It was great.
Fun times
