Yesterday I played the demo of the new game Dispatch and it is all beautifully written, but at some point, while presenting the team in-game, there was a casual funny line, pronounced by a voice off-screen, so without graphical support and I just burst out laughing (I was alone at home, so not pressed by social influence of any kind).
When I stopped, I realized how uncommon this has become lately. As a kid, I found LucasArts games extremely funny and I laughed more than occasionally, but this aspect of video game entertainment has been dying out.
When was the last time you actually laughed out loud while playing a game for something that was actually designed as funny (no Fortnite or CoD shenanigans stories please)?
The wife and I are currently playing through Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. Tina has been making us laugh for years now, there’s something about Ashley Birch’s deliveries that just works. Quite a lot of the lines given to the PCs to say randomly as your are fighting are great too. Always hardest with a game that is meant to be funny, but they pull it off.
I replayed through Red Alert 2 and Yuri’s Revenge recently. The live action cutscenes are beautifully campy. Top notch. In the Soviet campaign, you steal the Allied time machine and use it to go back to stop Yuri; but you quickly learn that “our Soviet power supply is too efficient, and it sent us back 65 million years!” You then spend a minute defending against an onslaught of T-Rexes before it recharges to send you to the correct time period. A whole “level” for that one-off joke! They don’t make em like they used to…
Summer Trip Cruise on the first run.
The whole thing is just so plain silly and the music fits perfectly.
Expedition 33, Verso talks Monoco into coming with them to Old Lumiere.
This was my exact answer too. So many conversations with Monaco and Esquie are genuinely laugh out loud funny.
Expedition 33 got me to laugh pretty hard a few times.
Cyberpunk 2077, overheard two NPCs sharing a joke:
What does a corpo say before he offs himself?
spoiler
Guys, please don’t shoot.
Tactical Breach Wizards
Outer Worlds 2, baby! It takes itself more seriously than the first one, which I think adds to the comedy.
What got a chuckle out of me was this statue in the first town you visit. It’s a beautifully-designed, marble statue of some hero. The Auntie’s Choice corporation that’s colonized the area used an advertisement drone to project an image of the CEO’s face over the statue’s head.
There’s also the Protectorate members that have tried to integrate into corporate society saying things like, “I only recently learned that artificial means good!”
I love dry humor, and this game is much more dry than the first.
I didn’t know this was already out! Hell yeah
Not technically. I got the edition with the prerelease.
This is the only game I’ve been excited about all year, but with Avowed’s mixed reception I was waiting for the prerelease reviews to roll in, and they were pretty glowing a few days ago. Even some of the ones calling it “woke” still recommended it, which I think speaks a lot to the quality of the game. So, I bought it.
Yeah, I love it so far. Super skill-heavy. Most conversations I’ve had have had some kind of option for a skill check. Plus some exploration has been gated behind a trait or skill as well. If you liked the first one, it fixed all those problems.
Oh nice, that all sounds good to me. I was going to get it anyway since Obsidian usually delivers the sauce. I’m suprised whenever chuds can comprehend when Outer Worlds was woke. It seemed too subliminal to trigger them.
Did you play avowed? That was the first Obsidian game I’ve hesitated on
I did not play Avowed. I may get it on a sale, but OW2 is like the only game I’ve been waiting for. I think it may actually have been worth the money I spent for the prerelease, but time will tell.
Disco Elysium. The dialog options are so cracked
My partner always levels half light and physical instrument to get the most unhinged dialogue and it’s great.
Half light is the biggest troll in the game, surpassing even Electrochemistry in how unhinged it is.
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Hades 2 when I finally stumbled upon Dionysus. He’s wearing a leopard print speedo in it and his bulge is as subtle as a kick in the shin.
I love that they gave him a massive bulge. Found him in a run last night.
Thank Goodness You’re Here was good for a few laughs.
It’s a watering can’t.
It’s such a fun and cozy little game, I honestly want the creators to make it into a show or something. I love all the characters and I want to see more of them!
And the soundtrack was absolutely gorgeous too.
Came here to say the same! That game cracked me up all the way through.
The Stanley Parable is very funny. I don’t want to spoil it, especially because reading or watching videos is not the same as interacting with the game, but the narrator reacts to what you do, even if you try to do something absurd there’s a good chance that it has a special reaction for that.
South Park games also are very funny, the first one (Stick of Truth) especially. But it is a very dark humor, e.g. the difficulty slider also changes your skin color.
Stanley Parable is amazing, not something I personally would laugh out loud at, but truly a masterpiece of a game.
The Paper Mario games have several laugh-worthy jokes and scenarios
Spiritfarer has a couple
Animal Crossing New Horizons has a couple
The South Park games got a few laughs out of me.
Borderlands games have a few good gags sprinkled throughout.
These are the only ones I can think of as well.
