Zeusthecat

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Everything posted by Zeusthecat

  1. The Big LucasArts Playthrough

    I started The Curse of Monkey Island I haven't made it too far yet. After choosing Mega Monkey mode (I assume this is the standard puzzle difficulty and the other one is easy mode?) I watched the opening cutscene and then had to figure out how to escape from LeChuck's ship. After talking for a bit to the pirate that was in the room with me, I discovered his true identity (yay Wally!) and made him cry by telling him he was a shitty pirate. Once Wally became a sobbing, unresponsive mess, I picked up a nearby ramrod and Wally's hook and, after poking around a bit, I discovered I could combine them into a ramrodhook device. After looking out the window and talking to the floating skull out in the water, I then discovered that I could use the ramrodhook to pull in his detached arm which happened to still be holding on to a cutlass. Then I tried to use the ramrodhook on the skull but ended up just knocking it into the water. Finally, I was able to use the cutlass to cut the rope that was attached to the cannon and, after a little more toiling, discovered that I needed to fire the cannon again (I had already destroyed all the ships with the cannon at this point) to free myself from the room. After firing the cannon, the ship capsized and I found myself stuck in a room full of random objects and a single exit above me that seems to be out of reach. I was able to pick up a diamond ring and a bag full of wooden nickels but so far haven't managed to figure out what to do next. I've tried using some of my items on everything in the room but haven't had any luck yet. There is so much shit to interact with that I suspect I'll either eventually find the right combination of items to use or I'll have to pixel hunt to find an obscure item somewhere in the mess that will help me reach the exit. At first the aesthetic changes for this game were pretty jarring for me. After becoming accustomed to the sprite graphics and lack of voice acting in the earlier games, it didn't immediately feel like I was playing a Monkey Island game. However, as I've been playing I've started to warm up to the new aesthetic and it is perhaps not as out of place as I thought at first. It is a pretty impressive shift from the look of all of the games that came before it. I'm not quite sold yet on the voice acting though. It seems pretty good from what I've heard so far but I'm just a little disappointed that they don't quite sound how I expected them to in my head.
  2. Basic income

    Something doesn't quite add up for me. Let's say this basic income becomes a thing. Then if you are already working, are your new wages equal to your old wages minus the basic income? Or do you continue to make the same wages and the basic income amount is just completely removed as taxes since you already receive this amount from the government? If this fundamentally changes the way wages work I'm curious what kind of taxation would have to be in place for wages above the basic income to ensure that there is adequate tax revenue to support this.
  3. Gone Home from The Fullbright Company

    Thoughtful perspective here, Tycho.
  4. The Big LucasArts Playthrough

    The Dig completed! Total play time was 27 hours. I ended up using a total of 3 hints throughout the game: the two provided by thorn over the last several posts and one additional hint to figure out that I needed to click and hold on the button to activate each light bridge. After following the last tip from thorn, I was finally able to use the last rod with the map device to locate the missing green triangular piece. After putting it in the machine however, Brink showed up and took the last of the crystals from us. After a few cutscenes, I agreed to use the machine piece in Brink's device so he could get more crystals and in exchange we would split them 50/50. Unfortunately only two crystals came out and I had no choice but to take both of them since I needed them both to activate the device. This pissed Brink off and he ended up falling off a cliff and dying like an idiot after losing his balance while trying to crush Boston's head with a rock. With Brink out of the picture, we made our way back to the cathedral area with the life crystals and triangle piece in hand. I ended up getting stuck again for another hour around this point. I used the crystals and triangle piece on the console but couldn't figure out how to make anything happen. Upon talking to Maggie, she indicated that all five light bridges had to be pointed at the center hub for the machine to work. I thought I had already done this previously but I went around again anyways and hit the button on each one again and had no luck. Then I spent a bunch of time going back through all the areas doing pointless shit before I finally got fed up and resorted to using the Universal Hint System (I think I was just ready for the game to be over at this point). It turns out I was supposed to click and hold on the button for each light bridge to make the bridge extend. Considering every single interaction in the game besides this one involved a simple click and release, I found this solution infuriating. Seriously, why the fuck would anyone think it was a good idea to randomly make the player hold the click button down in this one limited circumstance without making any attempt to broadcast that this was even an option. Anyways, after finally turning on all the light bridges, I was able to get Maggie to start up the machine which ended up killing her in the process. Even though I had promised not to use a life crystal on her, I did anyways because I'm a dirty liar and as soon as she came to, she realized what had happened and jumped off a cliff to kill herself again. This left nowhere else to go but across that light bridge and as soon as I started to cross, a big dog beast ran onto the bridge to scare me off. Luckily, I was able to quickly dispatch him by turning off the bridge and, after turning it back on, I was finally able to enter the eye and finish the game. Overall I enjoyed this game a great deal up until where I got stuck for 9+ hours. I feel like the puzzles were difficult, but fairly logical up to this point and there was a steady flow of progress in the puzzles and story. However, after hitting that part where I was stuck, the rest of the game was very fucking irritating. I also felt that the story was pretty good until the answers and explanations started coming, then it kind of lost it's luster. I would have preferred that the characters stayed dead and that Boston wasn't the hero of the universe but whatever.
  5. The Big LucasArts Playthrough

    Thanks for the tip thorn. Sure enough, it was right there in front of the alien and was completely indistinguishable from the yellowish stone background (even though the rod was light blue). I have to call bullshit on this. The alien should have either directly handed them the rod or they should have at least made a comment along the lines of "let's pick up that rod that the alien just placed in front of us". I don't see the point of expecting the player to notice an object on the ground that is colored exactly the same as the background and not have the characters make a single mention about that object even though it was placed right in front of them.
  6. Intoxication in Video Games

    Speaking of WOW, I loved how the game slurred whatever you typed into chat when your character was drunk. For the longest time I thought people were just role playing when their characters were drunk.
  7. The Big LucasArts Playthrough

    I double checked and I don't have any new rod in my inventory, just the rods I had before. I've talked to the alien a few times now and haven't received anything.
  8. The Big LucasArts Playthrough

    I haven't made much more progress since getting past the part I was stuck on. I got the final metal piece from the island that appeared when I showed Maggie the tablet. Then I placed the metal piece into the alcove and unlocked the final door. This led me to an area with a control panel, some additional consoles, and the fifth lens/panel thing. I had to clear a bird's nest off of the lens and was then able to hit the button on the panel. I expected something to happen here since I had activated all 5 of the devices and aligned all the crystals properly, but hitting the button on this one didn't seem to do anything. Next, I put a few life crystals into the main console in this area but wasn't able to make anything happen since it was still missing a triangle shaped piece. Finally, after getting a call from Brink, I had to save him from the crevice by cutting off his hand. As usual he was an ungrateful asshole. I've pretty much been stuck since going through the whole ordeal with Brink. I've gone back to the alien to ask him about the triangular piece for the console but I haven't been able to use his clues to get anywhere. I think he said something about the map but I can't remember exactly what he said and he won't repeat it, saying instead that he's already said everything there is to say. So I'm stuck again with the same items in my inventory and the one new area. I've spent about an hour so far trying to figure out what I need to do next and haven't gotten anywhere.
  9. The Big LucasArts Playthrough

    First time for this game yeah. I'm kind of bummed that I couldn't figure this one out on my own but I can at least take solace in the fact that I did get through a few of the games without using hints. And the solution to my 9+ hours of being stuck was kind of fucking lame. I mean, Maggie couldn't have remembered that beach area any of the other dozens of times I showed her that tablet? She really needed me to specifically show it to her there? I say fuck that. Oh well, at least that's all behind me now.
  10. The Big LucasArts Playthrough

    Alright, I give up. Spoiler time.
  11. The Big LucasArts Playthrough

    I'm very close to clicking on that first one thorn. I've still got just a tiny bit of fight left in me.
  12. The Big LucasArts Playthrough

    Still stuck and quite frustrated at this point. I've put in over 8 hours trying to figure this out and I just can't stop obsessing over it. My latest thought is to try going to each panel thing and adjusting the lens to various other positions to see if something happens. At this point I've hunted just about every goddamn pixel in this game. I also still really feel like there should be something for me to do in that area with the crevice. And what's up with that fucking crack in the planetarium? And why is there an empty beach area? I've enjoyed this game for the most part but now it's starting to really piss me off.
  13. Intoxicated:

    There was definitely a shift in tone after Nick originally left. Those early episodes were fucking hysterical. I got a kick out of them constantly laughing at themselves and talking about the most random, horrible stuff. Unfortunately, I joined these forums before I got to the later episodes and didn't get the memo that dick and poop jokes were a thing of the past.
  14. The Big LucasArts Playthrough

    Congrats on finishing. Another hour wasted on my end and I'm still stuck. My focus right now is on the area around Brink. I'm starting to think that relic will somehow open a staircase that will allow me to go down the cliff. There is a display in the museum that I think supports this idea and I can't think of any other reason the game would have an area with the description of "down".
  15. ObjectiveGameReviews.com - A Subtle Journey of Discovery

    Congrats Tycho! That's some pretty awesome stuff.
  16. The 'Does this thread exist?' thread

    I agree. I'd much prefer if similar threads could stay consolidated. Otherwise I'm likely to miss out on interesting discussions that get fragmented into separate threads over time. Also, I'm super guilty of the 'completed games' thread abuse that you speak of.
  17. New year's resolutions

    A podcast dedicated to people who are missing one or more limbs: Idle Stumps. (I feel like a bad person for writing that)
  18. The Dancing Thumb (aka: music recommendations)

    One other request: is anyone familiar with opera and if so what would you recommend? I've heard some amazing stuff in the past that I really liked but never made an effort to incorporate this type of music into my normal listening habits.
  19. I Had A Random Thought...

    One listen down and it's pretty good.
  20. New year's resolutions

    I have half a dozen straightened out paperclips covered in resin that I regularly have to use to clear out my apparatuses. So any level of cleaning it requires couldn't be as annoying as the sticky mess I have to deal with on a daily basis. Also, a podcast about fruit ripening: Idle Plums.
  21. The 'Does this thread exist?' thread

    Thanks for the input. At the very least I hope this thread helps when it comes to finding general topics that might be hard to search for otherwise. If this ends up going anywhere then I'll keep the original post updated with a list of topics as they are posted here. And now for a real request. Is anyone aware of any existing threads that cover the way intoxication is represented in games?
  22. The Big LucasArts Playthrough

    Thanks thorn, glad my posts are proving helpful for you! Those spoilers are tempting as hell but I think I've got a little bit more in me before I throw in the towel. I did play another 2 hours last night and still haven't gotten anywhere so I might just be clicking on those in the near future.
  23. New year's resolutions

    Oooh, I want one... for my tobacco of course. Jake maybe, but Nick strikes me as a gas mask type of guy.
  24. I Had A Random Thought...

    It's really weird how people get about music (myself included). There seems to be a very strong inherent skepticism when it comes to listening to unfamiliar music. I always force myself to listen to new stuff a minimum of three times before I make any kind of judgment. I find that I usually like stuff a hell of a lot more after a few listens than I did at first.
  25. I have to agree with Sean on the Spelunky talk. I think at this point it has exceeded Far Cry 2 and DOTA as the most talked about game on the cast. I can't help but empathize with Chris though because the same thing happened to me with Minecraft. That game destroyed me for months at a time (and continues to do so 2 years later) and I still feel guilty every time I choose to play it instead of one of the other dozens of games on my backlog.