juffowup

My 7-year-old is crazy about takiing pictures, but frustrated by how few the game lets you save. She's found an amazing loophoole, by putting them in the hyrule compendium. If you look up fish in the hyrule compendium, you'll find pictures of all the people in Kakariko village, each with a fish at their feet. If you look up shields, you get the Hateno villagers walking past shields! I love it!

I thinking of the fourth paragraph after the break, where I read him as answering the question of "why does Firewatch not work even though Gone Home did" with the choices in Firewatch not having consequences. After a day and a half, here's the biggest problem I'm having with Firewatch: I keep unpacking all the motivations behind the plot points, and they all keep coming back to how the plot entirely circles around the one moment when Ned overhears me saying I want to explore the cave later this summer. This immediately leads me to think some difficult thoughts about how it's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you // there's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do. I think this game may have me blessing the rains down in Aaaaafrica in my head for a month or so.

Mind blown at this one... I'm really chafing against Tom Chick's and others' claims that it's not a good video game because your choices don't matter. This seems to be completely harmonious with the themes of the game---there is no decision you can make in the opening that can prevent Julia's Alzheimer's. There is no decision Ned can make that can bring back his dead son. Henry and Delilah watch a fire burn and are powerless to stop it; they aren't even the ones who get to make decisions whether or how to stop it. And neither Henry nor Delilah is ready to begin a relationship right now, no matter what you say, no matter whether you get her to agree to wait. These are all stories about powerlessness. This game has me thinking about a Vonnegut line about humanism, something about how the decisions we make in life aren't important because they'll make a difference; they're important because they're all you have. I really really loved this game. I loved the tone; I loved talking with Delilah; I loved being crazy about Delilah and only realizing with some distance that man she was kind of a terrible person. Others have said The problems I had were also about gameyness, but more about the realities of games. Yes it sucked that the open world wasn't as open as it seemed. I didn't like how during the scariest parts, I kept telling myself that there's no one standing around the corner; people are way to expensive to animate. I wish I knew Delilah's not staying was a character decision, and not also coincidentally related to the fact that animating a human is super expensive. I hate that I couldn't just go to Delilah's tower to talk things over; that she hiked right past my tower to leave a radio in a cache box rather than just coming in and handing it to me.

Thoughts I had: --I found two baseball caps and wore them every day. I kept hoping the game would acknowledge I was wearing two hats at the same time like an idiot. --During the scary parts, instead of reassuring myself that it's only a game, I was reassuring myself that modeling and animating people is expensive to there's definitely not going to be anyone there. --Near the medicine circle, I found the path south early in the game (before the controlled fire opens it up). Not knowing there would be a path there later, I assumed that there would later be a scripted sequence where I had to hide there, so I was terrified of this area and went around whenever I could. --I love the invented stats on the Wizards and Wyverns character sheet. --Weird to me that Delilah thinks revealing Brian's body means saying she knew he was there. She can't say Ned lied to her about him not being there, but Henry found out he actually was? That she said the kid waving at the planes was Ned because Ned said it was? --During the credits roll I felt bad that half the pictures I took were of glitchy trees. I'd love to order prints, but I think I'll get a better video card and play again. --Bummer that the press-y-for-text text on my psyche eval was different than the text that appeared on the image in my inventory. Nice to know that yes, it was reactively created I guess. --I sure would like to assemble the saga of Ron and Dave. I wonder to what extent their correspondence was altered by the fact that someone was stealing all their notes to each other. --In my playthrough I kept thinking that the twine-ish intro went way more different places than I guess it does; that my dementia backstory was just one of many possible. It seems like it's always that though I guess.

There isn't a point of no return; the game makes a save at the end. I can see that someone would load that save and panic, thinking they can't go back and explore the island anymore from that point but you can. (Look down.)

I thought that also for a bit, but the puzzles where you're forced to go back are (mostly) the ones where you need to look closer at your environment to figure out what's going on. I think the 'go back and do the last one' is really more of a 'staring at this puzzle won't show you what you're missing'. I'm at 510+35, and I assume the vast majority of the ones I'm missing are in the +n side. I ended the game with 7 lasers, got a (pretty unsatisfying) ending, and then found the weird credit sequence. Then I got eleven lasers, spent forever figuring out what changes in the world when you get all eleven, discovered another hint that points toward the hidden credit sequence I'd already found, as well as an area with a very difficult puzzle.. Spent a day on the very difficult puzzle, and got through it to find... an achievement, and possibly something if I find all the [so far, terrible] windmill unlocks.. I'm on the fence whether I should work on getting all the +n mazes. There are clues in-world at how to deal with them, and I'm just starting to make maps to try them out, but my suspicion is that this will add up to a few dozen hours to get an achievement. Really, this might be fine except that Braid had such a nice a-ha moment at its ending. I was really hoping for the same from this. People have complained about the reviews that say the game is unrewarding. I think there's a big distinction to be made between a puzzle game where solving the puzzles is its own reward and a puzzle game that rewards you with

Beat the game with seven lasers tonight... went back in and quickly found an amazing and strange secret that is basically the credit sequence I think...I can't tell if it was there the whole time or if it unlocked after beating the game. Does anybody know what I'm talking about who hasn't seen an ending?

Throughout the opening, I couldn't stop thinking of the opening line of Catcher in the Rye: "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, an what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." I don't know if the life story of Lotto's parents is going to turn out to be relevant, but since I read that line in high school it's felt weird to start a character's backstory this far before their birth. I sure hope Mathilde gets the same treatment eventually?

My 6-year-old spent some time tagging along with the Talos Principle, and I told her about this game a few months ago. I played for a few hours before she got home from school, at which point I made her a new save file and handed her the controller. I think this is the first time she's controlled a first person game comfortably, and I keep being blown away at how fast she's picking up the stuff. After the tutorial, at the two big 'lessons' you get right outside that area, she got through all those tricky ones basically right away. Proudest moment: [spoiler for what the +n means I guess]

So my six-year old and I finished Dropsy together last week and I thought I'd respond if anyone had the same question--- The nightmares in the game are the scary parts; you can play through the first few minutes of the game before showing your kid to see the scariest one and decide if it's safe. If think you don't want your kid to see that kind of thing, you can avoid sleeping in the game and never see thenightmares. (You will have to sleep a couple times but it's not unexpected when it happens so you can time it when your kid isn't in the room.) Also there's a scary sequence right at the end; when you see posters advertising it you'll know it's coming. My six-year-old was fine with all of these. The heavier thing in this game is that it is in large part about coping with the death of a loved one. Many many puzzles are about helping people grieve. If you haven't had the serious talk about death with your kid yet, you might steer clear of this one. On the other hand, my daughter found out about death over the summer when my father died and has been uncomfortable talking about it---whenever I tried to bring it up she would just say "I don't want to talk about that." Playing through this game together gave us a chance for us to start those conversations in a safer way, and I think it's really helped her become more comfortable expressing her feelings. I'm really grateful that we got to play it together. Also, some ending stuff:

Hey can anyone recommend a point-n-click adventure game that a dad and first-grader can enjoy figuring out together? She's almost done with Monkey Island 2, and I'd kind like to have that thing where one person is at the wheel, but both of us are calling out ideas of things to try.

I'm glad the board game I sent got through! Hope you guys get a chance to play it. If anyone was curious, The game i's a dungeon management sim called Dungeon Lords, and so could be labelled a Lords Management game; it's kind of an attempt to make a board game out of Dungeon Keeper but without the license.

So can anyone comment on whether this game is safe to play with a 6-year old (who isn't especially afraid of clowns)?

Here's a thing I'm not sure about: Ray had to get drug tests for his visitations... So did he get high to psyche himself up to give up his son, or did he give up his son because he'd gotten high. Not that there's much distinction, but I like when a scene has two parts each of which motivates the other.

Man oh man the saddest thing to me is that Ray's kid probably asked to watch Friends because it's an old show that he assumes his dad would probably like it too. I bet he walked around all week thinking man this Friends show from my dad's era is great! I'll show my dad that I like the kind of tv he used to like too! Hey was this the first ep of season 2 without a scene in the bar?

I'm on A5 or so so far and have only found one star. I can't tell if I should be trying to clear them out as I go. Will I be able to find/reach any of them that are in a room as long as I can solve all the puzzles in a room?

The harder question to me is how there's a rumor that Ray killed the guy who raped his wife without there also being a rumor that this is the specific guy that Ray killed. If that guy exists and was murdered, then finding the actual rapist shouldn't really dispel the rumor to the State Attorney, right?

For me that line was clarifying... I had spent the episode up until that point wondering whether he killed the wrong guy or he had chickened out of killing the right guy. Considering that up until then he had avoided explicitly saying he had killed anyone, I was expecting it to be the other. (And even after the scene at Frank's doorstep, I'd have been left wondering if he's just mad that it turned out to be a different guy than Frank had said.) I get the feeling this might be about them being a couple who doesn't like to acknowledge the existence of previous partners. I know a couple like that, for whom it's sort of a religious thing, although for Frank I might assume he's possessive or jealous or something. Unrelated to this episode in particular but I noticed: At the autopsy we found that Caspare was being tortured for a long time up until the shotgun blast that indirectly killed him. Later (we assume) the killer has the same shotgun loaded with rubber bullets. Is it likely that the killer accidentally killed Caspare while meaning only to continue torturing him with a shot in the groin with rubber bullets? I don't know anything about shotguns, but is is possible that this is that scenario where someone forgot about the one in the chamber or something?

Weird timing on the Disneyworld vs. Funeral riff. This week I was supposed to be driving my daughters to a family vacation in Orlando, but instead we went to Texas to help my Mom take care of things after my Dad's death.

I feel like everyone is reading a lot more into Ani's porn-watching than I did... She was stuck at a hotel for the night, had been left unsatisfied by her partner a day or two before, so she watched some porn. I don't think this is super-uncommon, or indicates that she's damaged or anything, except maybe that she's unsatisfied in her relationship which we alread knew. I had the impression that the uncomfortable angles and music overlayed with the scene weren't about her feeling weird about porn, but were about making the audience feel weird for watching her... Random other thoughts Man Ray had a weird journey in the audience's eyes. His introduction was that he's trying hard with a kid who might not be his.... I can't think of a better shorthand for "this is an unimpeachably good guy" that clearly Ray turns out not to be. No flashbacks in episode 2. I had assumed we'd pick up from Ray and Vince Vaughn in the bar 10 years ago, just so that this season has something in common with season 1 structurally. In the "next time on" from the previous episode there was a very brief glimpse of Vince Vaughn's thug with the very long beard---I was sure he was going to turn out to be Ginger from season 1.

I'm probably gonna be thinking about this angle all week. I'm really suspicious of Vaughn for letting Farrell (or anyone really) enter a building that could possibly have Vaughn's 10 million dollars in it on the assumption that he'll return it without even knowing it's Vaughn's. How do underworld types even transmit that much money? Is it cash? Vaugh seems to think that whoever killed Caspare has taken it so it must be something pick-up-able, right?

So my rising 6 year old is a pretty strong reader. She's played two of the Freddy Fish games (Ron Gilbert's post-Lucasarts kids point n click adventures) but they're really for pre-readers and I thought she might be ready to graduate to Monkey Island. She had a fun time through the game, but was always scared ot getting in trouble: she was terrified to go back into the governor's mansion when all the stuff had happened behind the walls. Also at the end of the game when the cut scene shows Herman Toothrot wondering if he got ditched, she panicked and asked how to go back and save him. It was pretty adorable. The problem was the part when Shinetop throws you in the water. (You're tied to the idol with all the blades just out of reach?) I remembered that if you took too long there was a thing where Guybrush turns blue... I didn't give her a hint so she could see him turn blue. Well in the enhanced edition, the blue version of guybrush is pretty graphic and it really freaked her out. Three days later (after she'd already started Monkey Island 2) she told me that she can't stop thinking about dead Guybrush floating in the water and she keeps having nightmares and unwanted thoughts. I'm feeling pretty terrible about it and I'm pretty sure I should cut her off of MI2 but this idea isn't so popular with her right now either.