Professor Video Games

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Posts posted by Professor Video Games

  1. Posted

    Went to trivia last night and took second place (the best our trivia team has done), now we've got a $50 gift certificate that will cover next weeks drinks for our team.  Pretty jazzed about that. 

     

    $50 for second place!? That's some generous bar trivia.

     

     

    Didn't Jake Rodkin just make this thread? Where did that go?

     

    Where all things go eventually, the wrong thread.

  2. Posted

    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.

  5. Posted

    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:

     

    That last challenge...man it took me dozens of tries to get. The first time I made it through the triangle puzzle room I thought I was done, only to realize there were two more column puzzles to do which just crushed me. Also once I had time run out when I was literally inches away from finishing the second column. I actually did a Darth Vader "Noooo!" as the puzzle powered down. There's obviously some luck involved in finishing quickly, but even still, I really liked it...a fun final/optional challenge to cap things off.

     

    Oh, and on the + puzzle in the theater with the eclipse video...I rolled my eyes a bit when I realized that they make you sit through that entire GDC talk to get the symbol to complete (which I then did).

  6. Posted

    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.

  10. Posted

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

    i.e. that they could delete any blocks, not just in that shape. But I could be wrong because that's the only puzzle where it comes into play that I've done. A good way to test it out would be to try solving this puzzle different ways. Might try it when I get home from work.

     

    Doors behind the theatre

     

    I've opened both doors :P Twig, if you're wondering where the other side of that door goes, there's an entrance from the room in the town that has the big orange container in it. The one right by the dock. No point getting back there until you open the doors though...it's basically just a shortcut path.

  14. Posted

    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.

  15. Posted

    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.

    For the most part I liked the puzzles in the final area. Didn't like the ones that were just normal puzzles with busted screens and the changing color panels are just hard to look at. But I liked the big floor puzzle, the puzzle where you have to go back and forth with the two paths (I feel they could have done more with this concept actually), and especially the one where you have to solve an increasing number of puzzles simultaneously.

     

    There's that white panel on the ground right before the column puzzles. I assume it lights up if you've found/solved all the others? Even though I've solved several, I still don't have a strong grasp on how those puzzles work.

     

    As for the ending itself...eh, I get it I guess but it's certainly underwhelming. I like that the theme of the game is so positive though.

     

    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.

    Gotta watch all those sweet vids

     

    Dunno how diligent I'll be about the remaining +1 puzzles. That could get...tedious.

  17. Posted

    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).

    In the Keep, with the pressure plate puzzles, they are also +1 puzzles when viewed from the top of the tower, but from that view it imposes additional constraints on the solutions due to pillars and whatnot obstructing your view of certain paths. Most of the other +n puzzles I've encountered so far are just about being observant and I like how this layered extra challenge on existing puzzles. Pretty neat!

     

    There's some people down on the sound puzzles, but they provided one of my favorite ah-ha moments so far

    when I realized the sound I assumed was "interference" was actually the solution. Not necessarily the hardest puzzle, but I laughed at myself when I realized the solution (I was stuck on it for a while).

  18. Posted

    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.

  19. Posted

    Oh man, solving the garden mazes in the castle first attempt made me feel like a god damn genius.  Let's ignore the countless others I've just walked away from. ¬¬

     

    When I figured out the solution to the 4th one of those I felt like a total puzzle lord for sure.

     

    EDIT: I hate being stubborn and obsessive about my puzzle solving. I have a hard time moving away from a puzzle until I've solved it. Maybe this game will finally give me the skills to do that.

     

    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.

  20. Posted

    There was one puzzle I ended up looking up a hint for. It wasn't necessarily harder than other puzzles, but there was something I didn't know about the mechanics so my reaction was less "aha!" and more "well, I didn't even know that was something you could do". I never got stuck on any of the other puzzles for all that long. It's a challenging game but also maybe not as hard as its reputation might lead you to believe. Unlike something like SpaceChem that piles on complexity, Braid's puzzles are always quite small so to say.

     

    Anyway, regarding The Witness, I think I'll get it on PS4. From what I've gathered though, there's not much save management going on in that game, so what's the best way for two people to play it simultaneously? Do I have to make a second PSN account just for that?

     

    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.

  21. Posted

    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.

  22. Posted

    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.

  23. Posted

    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

  24. Posted

    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.

     

    I enjoyed reading about Lotto's youth, the struggles of their marriage, and the evolution of their social life. The book started to lose me around when Lotto met up with Leo Sen though. It was just way, way too melodramatic for my tastes and it's the point where Lotto went from a little naive but interesting to just a big baby.

     

    And then the second half kicks into gear and while I was surprised that Lotto died I was ready to either get a similar treatment of Mathilde's life and/or learn about her as she tried to move on from Lotto, which it kind of does. But really it just went all in on this crazy plot with secret lives and twenty year schemes and an oedipal thing that I still don't get the point of. I think there were too many aha moments and the lack of focus really hurt things. The only thing these reveals did was confuse me about Mathilde's character and her and Lotto's marriage (except that the sex was definitely amazing). I came away from it all feeling like the book was trying to say something and I just missed it.