Professor Video Games

$50 for second place!? That's some generous bar trivia. Where all things go eventually, the wrong thread.

Ah that sucks. I said it was way spoiler heavy! It's really interesting with those puzzles. I stumbled on them very early on but it's very possible to totally miss them. They actually talk about it in the video...how even some of the more direct clues in the game can be missed (and that some reviewers obviously did) but that there's a balancing act required so that figuring them out feels worthwhile.

Giant Bomb put up a lengthy video interview with Jonathan Blow. It's way spoiler heavy, but it's definitely worth checking out once you've finished the game. Lots of insights into the history of the game, the puzzle and world design, etc. Plus they have him play through the final (final) part of the game...pretty fun to watch. http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/we-play-the-witness-with-jonathan-blow/2300-10990/

Got to listen to this over the weekend and just wanted to say I thought it was a great cast and I'm looking forward to more.

Finished up the cave area over the weekend so I think I can say I'm done with this guy. In honor of the occasion I'm giving myself a username promotion. Maybe I'll go through and hunt for + puzzles another time, but I don't feel especially compelled to do so now. Ended up somewhere around 510+90. Some endgame spoiler talk:

God, Scott's casualness and the ease with which rescues all three Kerbals (in a single mission!) was such a hilarious contrast to the constant panic and anxiety of the BEAST crew missions. It was a great idea to have him do this before they attempt their rescue, since now I'll know exactly how they're bungling things. They're especially fucked on that guy that's escaping Kerbin's gravity, since there's no way they'll know to have him jetpack back into orbit and as a result they'll have to mount a way more challenging mission to rescue him. I wonder how long it will take for them to succeed? I mean, if they even rescue the closest guy on the next episode I'll be surprised.

It's too late for that. We're in too deep.

Ahhh that screenshot is perfect, thanks. When they started directing the Kerbal away from the ship to plant the flag, I was so nervous he would drop off another unseen cliff. The head lamp was picking up nothing! My stomach was in knots.

God Project BEAST is so good. I kinda wish they had done a time warp while on Mun so we could've seen the crazy terrain they landed on in daylight. Though maybe it's better we only ever saw it with the most dramatic of ship lighting instead.

I had the same understanding of the blue blocks as Mington.

Yeah, I'd really like him to write something up as well. Worst case they should do a spoiler talk at the end of an episode once Vinny and Jeff have also finished.

You've probably already discovered this but there's an autosave right before the end.

I see...

I've definitely gone through the game quickly, but I think it had more to do with the game design itself than my desire to be in the conversation. The puzzles are pretty bite-sized and aside from the occasional stumper I can knock them out pretty quickly, so I found myself getting deep into a "just one more" mode. I mean there's usually a pretty glowing wire leading to the next puzzle in an area...it's hard to resist just taking a peak at what's next. Then all of a sudden it's 2am and I'm very upset with myself.

I too got to the end. Had somewhere over 400+70 but unlike Mington I used graphing paper quite a bit, including little cutouts of tetris blocks. I still have three areas that I have mostly done but want to go back and finish (the town, Flower Tower, and the uh...desert temple thing), plus I'll probably try and track down all the solo doors. Dunno how diligent I'll be about the remaining +1 puzzles. That could get...tedious.

Chris, Sean, and Jake did a decently long interview for the Playstation Blog podcast (starts about 55 minutes in) promoting the game that's pretty good. Games discussed: Firewatch, Far Cry 2, the Corn Love Forever PS4 Theme, some other less important stuff. https://soundcloud.com/playstation/playstation-blogcast-episode-194-firewatch-the-skies

I'm at 323+55. I've continued to really enjoy myself. I just wanted to mention one of my favorite +1 moments (it's for the Keep area). There's some people down on the sound puzzles, but they provided one of my favorite ah-ha moments so far

I was stuck for a while in the Flower Tower puzzle last night and had to take a break from that area to give my poor eyeballs a rest (but mostly because I was/am totally stumped). I didn't check before I quit, but I think I'm at around 150 +15 now...200 at the most. Game is good.

When I figured out the solution to the 4th one of those I felt like a total puzzle lord for sure. The thing that's allowed me to pull away when stuck is the appeal of exploring the island. Now after I've explored everywhere and I get stuck...that will be when the dark times come.

I looked up one solution too (with the same reaction). I'll bet it was for the same puzzle. Regarding The Witness, I haven't messed with this, but there's both a "Start a New Game" and "Load Game" in the pause menu, so I think you can have multiple games going at once.

I played for 2-3 hours last night and by the end was feeling pretty queasy. They need to add options for FOV and look speed. Based on skimming Blow's twitter, it's something that will be addressed soon. I'll just have to keep my play sessions short for now. That said, I like the game a lot so far. The way the island and puzzles are intertwined is a lot of fun. I've already come across several puzzle solutions that made me feel cool for solving them (along with several I couldn't figure out...). Think I'll steal some graph paper from work today. Also this game is gorgeous. The colors are so vibrant...I love it.

Saying the game is hard and a guide would ruin it is akin to saying something like DOOM is easy when you turn on the cheats. Now if he thinks the puzzles are unreasonably difficult or the solutions intuitive, that's a valid criticism but that doesn't sound like it was his problem. Now as far as rewards go, while solving a puzzle is generally its own reward, it's possible the high number of puzzles diminishes the thrill of finding a solution after a while. I imagine that's something that will vary a lot from person to person.

Reviews are coming in now. Looks like it really is all about those line puzzles and is very well designed and at times brutally tough. The thing I was concerned about, how well the puzzles, story, and environment all come together, seems to have been pulled off successfully, though reviews are deliberately vague about how that is actually done. I think this is one I'll pick up at launch and then have going alongside other games I'm playing (so I have something else to do when I inevitably get very stuck and can keep myself from looking up solutions). http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/01/the-witness-review-an-island-where-knowledge-mystery-are-the-treasures/ http://www.polygon.com/2016/1/25/10817632/the-witness-review-PC-PS4

Nah don't skip it just based on that little bit. Only a few lines in the book bothered me (that one being the worst by far) and like nonintrospection said, there are some parts where the prose is really good. Of course that being said, I had pretty mixed feelings on the book overall haha.

*throws book out window*