Zeusthecat

Thanks for that, it was quite awesome. Upon resuming last night, I spent a good chunk of time just going back through each area and trying random things out. As I went through this process I made 2 key discoveries. The first was that I could fill up my measuring cup with seawater and combine it with the cork and magnetized pin to complete my compass. The second was that I could take the portrait that I picked up from the wall of the lodge and put it on the door at the top of the stairs. Unfortunately, even after completing those two steps I remained stuck for awhile and didn't see any obvious next step involving the compass or the portrait. So I continued going back through all the areas thinking that I would somehow need to fake my own death and get in that crypt in order to progress further. As I was going back through all the areas I eventually found myself staring at that poster again and decided that maybe I should spend a little bit more time focusing my efforts there instead. So I went through a few items and found that I could cut the face out of the portrait and then use the porthole to spy on the Goodsoup bartender guy. He went on for a bit about how he loved having so much money before commenting on how creepy the painting on the door looked and going back downstairs. At this point, I still had the cut out face from the portrait so I followed him down to try using that on a few things. Luckily, it didn't take long for me to discover that I could swap out the face for the mirror and after doing so, I was finally able to fix the mirror in the lighthouse. With the mirror fixed, I headed back to the beach where the Lost Welshman was waiting. I talked to him for a bit and was able to convince him to take me to Skull Island after I gave him my homemade compass. After arriving at Duck Island, I made my way to the top of the cliff where a dweeby guy agreed to lower me down to the pirate hideout. Unfortunately, he lost control halfway through and dropped my ass on a big rock. So I went at it a second time and found that I was able to use my umbrella while falling to slow my descent and help me land right where I needed to. After entering the hideout, I had an interesting conversation with the main pirate in charge and was excited to see that he was a reseller of treasure and stuffed animals and wanted to pass the savings on to me. Since I didn't have any money, he agreed to give me the diamond I was looking for if I could beat him and his henchman at a game of poker. Unfortunately, I had no money for the buy in so after I wandered around some more and attempted to steal some of their treasure a few times, I got tired and stopped playing for the evening. I've given it some thought since last night and I think I know roughly what I'll need to do to get the money for the buy in, beat them at poker, and get the diamond. Since Goodsoup was going on about how much money he inherited, I assume I'll be able to get some once I fake my death and end up in the Goodsoup family crypt. Then, during the poker game, I'm betting I will have to switch out my cards with some of those death tarot cards whenever the dweeby guy opens the door and causes the lights to almost go out. This should net me the diamond which will finally let me lift the curse on Elaine and Guybrush will immediately get clocked in the face.

Couldn't agree more. She's the worst thing that's happened to this state. It's really sad that the majority of voters in this state are dumb enough to keep her in office for multiple terms.

Well that is good news. I don't know what fucking took her so long.

I hate living in Arizona.

Wow, so some people did fall for that "documentary"? I remember it being controversial when it came out because there was almost no indication that it was intended to be a fake documentary.

Weirdly, 2 games I think had excellent endgames were Shadows of the Empire and Goldeneye 007 for N64. Both games encouraged you to play through on each difficulty level and rewarded your mastery by feeding you various cheats that let you break the game in interesting ways.

If thinking gifs of kittens puking is kind of cute and hilarious then yes, I am a monster.

All right all right, I deleted it. They were baby animal gifs though.

I volunteer to help raise the baby if your relationship doesn't end up working out.

Looks like King is abandoning it's 'Candy' trademark I wonder if it has anything to do with their IPO.

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Maybe it's a rhetorical thread?

I'd say the 2nd one is probably my favorite of the original three as well. The soundtrack in that game was amazing.

Am I the only one here who loves me some Donkey Kong Country? Those games were awesome.

Ah yes, Poop. Poop was also the hero of about every RPG I played growing up. He was usually joined by his fearless companions Ass, Dick, Fart, Turd, and Piss Basket.

Guess what? I'm fucking breaking that loop right now. Edit: Aaaand he deleted his post.

Good call. My apologies for dragging this out for longer than was necessary.

Bjorn, your point is well taken and if the situation at Irrational is truly the norm, then you're right, he doesn't deserve all this scrutiny more than anyone else. However, based on the information that's been made available and the stories being run, it does appear that the turnover at Irrational was exceptionally high and that the churn was significantly higher than at other companies. When claims of high turnover are made doesn't that come with the insinuation that it is high relative to other game companies? Maybe they are being unfairly singled out so these stories can sound more sensationalist and their turnover is just as bad as everyone else in the industry but I am skeptical that that is the case considering the rumbles and grumbles we've been hearing about the culture there (which, again, could be the norm I suppose) and the stories of multiple people leaving due to their frustration with working with Ken.

I made quite a bit of progress over the weekend. Everything has been pretty obvious and straightforward on Blood Island so far and I feel like I might be getting kind of close to the end. After first arriving on Blood Island, I went through all of the areas and worked through all of the interactions available to me in each area. I picked up a number of new objects including a cushion, a magnet, 5 Death Tarot cards, an auger, a hammer, a chisel, a big block of tofu, a pepper, some brochures, a recipe book, a bottle of shaving cream with a cork lid, and possibly a couple other things. From my interactions with various characters around the island I found that I needed a hangover cure for the guy at the lodge place, a tar substitute for my barber pirates, and some kind of disguise to trick the island cannibals into letting me join them for their volcano sacrifice. With these items in hand and these goals in mind I started getting to work. The first thing I did was to systematically go through every item and attempt to use it with every other item in my inventory since these are often the easiest interactions to miss and it doesn't take long to go through them all. In doing this, I found that I could put the pin through the cork and magnetize it with the magnet (it looks like I'll be making a homemade compass with this at some point), I was able to use the auger on the tofu to create a mask which I assumed would work as my cannibal disguise, and I was able to put shaving cream in the pie pan. After going through this process, I then revisited each area to start knocking out some puzzles. Several puzzles came pretty easily at this point. I was able to use the auger (or chisel?) to get a bunch of cheese which I was then able to give to the lactose intolerant volcano after using my disguise to trick the cannibals. Then, thanks to the new lava presence, I was able to use the remainder of the cheese with the pot on the barbecue pit and take that to the barber pirates as a tar substitute, scoring me some hand lotion in exchange. Then, I discovered that I could give the biscuit I had to Old Blind Pew and take some of his fur afterwards to use as one of my hangover cure ingredients (which was spelled out in the recipe book I had picked up). Next, I was able to get the egg out of the tree at the beach by putting the cushion on the ground and using the mallet to hit the tree and knock the egg down. This gave me all three of the ingredients I needed (the pepper being the third) and I was able to cure the guy's hangover. After talking to him and learning about his family history, I ordered a few drinks and ended up with an umbrella in my inventory. Then, after poking around some more I found that I was able to "borrow" his tip jar and was able to use my mallet on a nail sticking out of the wall in the room upstairs which netted me the nail and a painting. With the hangover cured, the pirate tar situation resolved, and the volcano erupted, I took a minute to go back through my items. This time, I found that I could magnetize the nail I had picked up, I could take the lid off the jar, and I could poke holes in the lid. After doing this it was clear that I would need to use the jar to capture those fireflies near Elaine but without some kind of bait or other incentive, it appeared that I didn't quite have what I needed yet to get them. So I continued on and ended up finding the solution shortly afterwards when I discovered that I could use my umbrella on the windmill to get up to where a barrel full of sugar water was. I was then able to put some sugar water in my jar and use that to capture the fireflies. With my new lantern in hand, I then went to the lighthouse and found that I was able to put it on the lantern post. I played a bit more beyond this but did not make any further progress. From what I can tell, the two most obvious things I need to figure out are how to get into the crypt and how to repair the mirror in the lighthouse. I'm not sure about the mirror but I am pretty sure I will need to fake my death somehow to get into the crypt. I suspect there is something I will need to do in the area with Old Blind Pew to make this happen but haven't quite figured it out yet. I'm thinking that I maybe need to slide one of my death cards through the crack in the door and hopefully that will lead to the grave digger/tombstone chiseler guy being convinced I am dead and putting me in the crypt.

Sure, but as others have pointed out he didn't quite have the same position of power and prominence in the company during that time than he did during the development of Bioshock Infinite. The fact still remains that he was running a company with a high turnover rate and that that company ultimately got shut down.

This is true but I think the circumstances around this whole situation would suggest that the original dude is likely the one most responsible for the high turnover and closing of the studio.

I know we're going to continue to disagree but please at least consider these two facts: Irrational had a high turnover rate and Irrational got shut down. I think it is safe to say that companies with high turnover rates are more often than not in that position because of incompetent management. Then when a company that is already in that position gets shut down, it makes an even stronger argument for that being the case. Considering that, I think it is perfectly reasonable to come to the conclusion in a case like this that the dude in charge is incompetent.

I didn't think I had anything to contribute to this thread until this mention. I'm right there with you.

What's fucking dumb is coming onto a forum and telling people that they are stupid for having the opinions they have and then go on a fallacy ridden rant about how none of us have the right to draw different conclusions from those that you have drawn. All you have done is come on here and attack people and when you are challenged on your points, you put up a straw man in the hopes that no one will notice that you aren't actually capable of providing an intelligent response to the specific counterpoints that people have brought up. Yes, Ken Levine comes off as ignorant to me. I have read enough about this situation that that is where my brain ended up. It appears that he was difficult to work for, couldn't keep his project under budget, and just generally had a negative impact on a lot of people who worked for him. So he seems ignorant to me. That's the thing about opinions, we all have them and sometimes we offer them up. You seem to have a very hard time accepting that. And that whole 'liberalism' thing from earlier was real classy too.

Aperson, I would respond to you but others have already pretty much nailed all the points. Just remember that an idiot is a person who is ignorant, straw men are very flammable, and a frog that calls a tree green is racist.