Zeusthecat

I see. These are all pretty good points and I won't dispute how ridiculous the premise is behind a lot of these interactions. And I definitely overlooked how obscure that golf ball grabber + hand + magnet combination was. For me though (with a few exceptions) the random object interactions worked well in this game because the game and story itself was fucking insane and random as hell. As long as I could derive some obscure hint from one of my interactions I felt that the game was pretty consistent and fair in it's craziness.

When I was a kid there were a lot of questions about God I never thought to ask:

Oh my god! I think Mick Jagger, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Willem Dafoe are all alternate versions of each other.

Super Mario Sunshine was an awesome game primarily because you got to fight bowser in a giant bathtub with crazy dangerous bath toys.

Sam and Max Hit the Road Very fun game. I liked it a lot. Saints Row 2 Also a very fun game. I completed the campaign and all of the side activities and ended up with 92% completion. The city is honestly kind of foggy and ugly, the graphics are pretty weak, and the AI is pretty bad at times (and oh man their traffic simulation is horrible; cars crashing into each other left and right) but the game is super fun despite all that. I also really appreciate that the story basically reinforces the fact that you are a cold blooded dickface of a human being which lines up nicely with how you actually play the game. I really liked the story and thought it was a perfect mix of goofiness and badassery that didn't take itself too seriously but felt very earnest. The side activites were pretty exceptional in this game. I expected it to be a slog but there was such a variety of stuff to do and the difficulty of the activities ramps up just enough to be hard but not overly frustrating. I especially found my zen with Heli Assault, Insurance Fraud, and Trailblazing. The main downside to this game was the overall buggy-ness. It crashed on me over a dozen times and I had some pretty crazy framerate drops for long periods of time. Normally this kind of stuff doesn't bother me too much but it happened enough in this game to drag the whole experience down slightly.

Sam and Max Hit the Road completed! My total play time was about 11 hours. The only hint used was Udvarnoky's hint that there was another door right in front of my dumb face in the bigfoot party area. So thanks to Udvarnoky, when I started up again I was able to immediately progress by going through the door to the right of the stage area (I feel so stupid for never noticing that was there before). After going through the door I found myself in a kitchen where I was able to pick up an ice pick and saw that there was a freezer door that I could open and close. There didn't seem to be anything else of interest so I headed to the door at the back of the room but before I had a chance to open it, Conroy Bumpus and his security guard burst through the door. Thinking I was a bigfoot, Conroy ordered his security guard to grab a net from their car while he held me hostage with some kind of crazy taser. I found that I wasn't able to move during this sequence but I was able to use items so I went through a few different items before eventually trying to 'use' my bigfoot costume that I was wearing. Once I did that, Sam and Max took off the costume to reveal their true identity. Conroy then had the bright idea to use the bigfoot costume himself to try to blend in with the bigfoots and learn their ways. Then, when Conroy and his security guard went into the freezer to change into the costume, I locked their sorry asses in and turned down the temperature, freezing them into a solid ice block. Once Conroy was taken care of, the elder bigfoot approached me and expressed his gratitude by making me some kind of honorary chieftain. This finally gave me access to the pool area (and I felt pretty dumb for thinking I would need to dye my fur white or something like that to get back there; sometimes my brain jumps to really weird conclusions). At the pool area I found 4 totem poles with etchings on them. I investigated each one and figured that they all represented some kind of item that I would need to provide. I tried using a few obvious items on the totem poles with no success and after toiling for a bit I discovered that there was a jacuzzi area in the back where the elder bigfoot was hanging out. So I made my way over to him and asked him about each totem pole to get more information on what they all represented. The dinosaur tooth and hair tonic (picture of person with long hair + chieftain referencing the words 'rapid growth' = hair tonic) were super obvious so I gave those to him right away. The one with the picture of an old dude seemed to match the picture I had but the chieftain wouldn't take it so I figured there was something else I was missing or something I needed to do with the picture first. Finally, the totem pole with the vortex etching was also pretty obvious but I still needed to figure out how to open my bottle of wine so I could use the cork with the vortex globe. With the two totem poles remaining, I decided to tackle the old dude one first. Luckily during my last stretch of toiling before finding out about the door to the right of the stage, I had at one point considered bringing the picture to the vegetable lady to see if she would do anything with it but never got around to trying it since I was able to continue on after all. Additionally, I think either Sam or the bigfoot elder made a brief comment about vegetables when referencing that totem pole. So after seeing that he wouldn't take the picture itself, I went straight to the vegetable lady and found that I was able to give her the picture so she could make a vegetable out of that old dude's face. Then I drove around the map for a bit to give her time to finish, went back to pick it up, and successfully gave it to the bigfoot elder which cleared the third totem pole. This left me with one final puzzle to solve. I knew I needed to use the globe with the vortex machine and I was pretty certain I needed to use the cork from the wine bottle as a stopper, but I still had no idea how to open it. The only thing that stood out was that Sam said something different when I tried to use the ice pick to open the bottle versus when I used other items with it. So once again I started combing back through some of the areas to see if there was a corkscrew that I was missing. As I was exploring one of the areas and going through my items, I had a sudden realization while I was looking at my bent wrench. I realized that if that dude at the top of the ball of twine could bend a wrench he could also probably bend my ice pick to make it more suitable for opening a bottle. Sure enough, he was able to turn my ice pick into a corkscrew and I quickly opened the wine bottle, retrieved the cork, and then went back to the vortex place to capture that mystical fucking energy. Then I brought it to the elder and finished the game. This puzzle was definitely one of my favorite ones in the game and it was really fucking cool to have a great puzzle solving moment during that final puzzle. As I mentioned before, I wasn't too blown away (IGN.com) by this game at first but now that the game is finished I would say it is easily up there with MI 1 and 2, FOA, and DOTT. The characters were great, the story and settings were awesome, and it had some of my favorite puzzles so far (I also appreciate that this game had a healthy dose of 'cartoon logic' puzzles similar to DOTT). Earlier, I had mentioned that I wasn't too impressed overall by the music but after finishing the game, I have to agree with Udvarnoky that this game does have one of the better soundtracks. A number of areas had somewhat forgettable music but there were several places where the music was truly exceptional. My favorites were probably Trixie's trailer, Conroy's mansion, the vegetable fields, and the bigfoot party. So all in all, I think this was a great game. Also, now that I'm finished, I'm curious what other people thought of the overall puzzle design in this game. I get the sense that this game has a reputation for having some bullshit puzzles but I would contend that they were generally well designed. I was able to derive hints for a good portion of the puzzles in this game by going through each interaction with all of the objects and people in the environment and just paying close attention to whatever Sam said (e.g. him saying that the stopper was missing in the globe, him saying that we needed something to glue the bigfoot hair to the pants, elder bigfoot referencing "rapid growth" for the hair tonic, etc.). And for puzzles where there weren't many hints, there was usually some level of logic to follow. For instance, I thought most of the Tunnel of Love puzzle was pretty logical after finding the broken flashlight (excluding the fact that winning the flashlight from that game was totally not obvious). I already had a bulb so I knew the bulb needed to go in the flashlight. Then the only dark area where it would make sense to use the flashlight was the tunnel of love. Then when the flashlight uncovered the dark areas it was obvious that I needed to use something with the electrical panel and since I had a limited number of items it only took a couple attempts before finding that I needed to use Max to short circuit the panel. The only puzzles that I think were kind of bullshit in the end were the magnet/door puzzle in the vortex, the gator golf segment (which I feel I only solved so quickly because I got lucky thinking that lining up the gators would make a path; I kind of thought it was a stupid idea at first), and the VR segment in Conroy's mansion (even though it was fairly straightforward it was kind of a stupid puzzle). If anyone cares to respond, I'm curious what others think.

I would find and post the original YouTube video of this one but I'm on my phone and that's too much touch screen bullshit for me. http://kotaku.com/two-grown-men-re-enact-a-justin-bieber-one-direction-fa-147004938

Dude, thank you so much. These are the kinds of hints that I totally don't mind being given since they involve things that are visually obscured or hard to interact with. I was pretty damn thorough with that room and clicked all over the place but I clearly didn't use the right interaction in the right spot. On another similar note, when I first arrived at the hotel it took me a solid 10 minutes to figure out where to go. I first tried to immediately go to the left since it looked like there was a path to the left of the volcano and wasn't sure why the game wouldn't let me. It was only after walking all over the outside that I accidentally clicked on the hotel door and went inside. I never realized it was there because it was directly adjacent to Sam's car and I thought his car was still the object I was hovering over. I think this is one weakness of the interaction system used in this game versus the verb system used in the previous games.

I could have sworn I did. I only saw the main party area and the pool area (I think?) that the lady bigfoot won't let me access. If this turns out to be another "third magnet in the magnet room" type situation I'm gonna want that hour and a half of my life back.

I'm stuck now. I played for an hour and a half last night and got nowhere. I went back through every area on the map and tried using a bunch of items all over the place but had no luck. Some unused items that I have right now are a pillow with hair tonic, a framed picture of some old dude, a bottle of wine, the vortex snow globe, and a dinosaur tooth. There's probably some other stuff too but those are the main items of interest in my mind. I've been pondering what I should do since I woke up this morning and some of the possibilities I came up with are: Switch out the framed picture with another picture or poster or something. Find some kind of corkscrew or something to open the bottle of wine. Stab some asshole with the dinosaur tooth. Find a bald guy who might appreciate some hair tonic. So my ideas are pretty lame right now.

Huh, you're probably right. By the time I get to writing these posts some of the dialog gets hazy and I tend to misremember. I could have sworn she said something about only certain bigfoot types being allowed back there and for some reason the color white stood out. Oh yeah, and I can't quite remember exactly what the elder bigfoot said in his speech but I think it was basically some super philosophical shit about the plight of the bigfoots. Edit: Okay, I just talked to her again and she said only yeti elders are allowed back there. I guess I just assumed the yetis (aka abominable snowmen) were the bigfoot creatures with white fur and jumped to the conclusion that I would need to make my fur white to get her to think I am a yeti. I'm stupid.

Thanks synth. I think I owe a lot of my progress to the fact that I've been playing these games one after another for a few months now and I've gotten pretty familiar with the design that is common between all the games. My strategy for each area I enter pretty much boils down to identifying all the objects, going through each interaction type with each object, going through my items and using them with each object in the environment where it makes sense, and listening carefully to every bit of dialog that results from my interactions to glean any possible clues. I also make sure to always watch out for any movement or things acting dynamically because that usually means there is some sort of unusual interaction, specific timing of the usage of one of my items, or character that I need to follow. Then there are the environmental three switch style puzzles which are usually pretty straightforward. The vast majority of the puzzles seem to operate within that possibility space but each game still manages to throw something new into the mix like that tunnel of love black light puzzle. So I try to go through my usual motions while keeping an open mind and not getting too cocky.

If you guys haven't already I recommend reading all of the Thousand Years of Dreams stories. The stories themselves are beautifully written and they genuinely affected me emotionally. And if you read them make sure to pull up a video of the sequences rather than just reading the text by itself because the music and visuals that go along with them add a lot. Edit: thanks for the link Mington

I will finally be able to transform into a super saiyan.

I say right leg so I have an excuse to not have to drive any more. Being stuck in traffic for 1 1/2 hours each day has killed any desire to ever operate a vehicle if I don't have to.

Lost Odyssey - I really liked this game even though it wasn't generally well regarded. It had great music and a very mediocre story but the way immortals and non-immortals leveled up and gained skills is what really kept me engaged for 80+ hours. Plus I thought Kaim was a pretty cool character. I also feel like the dream segments had some of the best storytelling I've seen in a game. Also, I still really like JRPGs so I am probably a little biased.

I got a little further last night and after unlocking a few more areas I realized I wasn't as close to the end as I thought. Upon starting, I immediately left Bumpusville and headed over to the place with the mini volcano. After going inside the hotel I found a bigfoot dude with injured feet that wouldn't let me into the back room where the bigfoot party was taking place. I did find, however, that I was finally able to use the stilt walker pants with the dressing room in the lobby. Unfortunately, when I tried it on the bigfoot dude mocked my pitiful attempt at subterfuge so it was pretty clear that I would need to somehow spruce up my outfit. Before leaving, I talked to the lady at the front desk and picked up the brochures which caused a dinosaur place and a celebrity head vegetable place to show up on the map. With nothing else to do at the hotel I then headed off to the vegetable place. There wasn't much to do when I got to the vegetable place. I was able to pick up a Conroy Bumpus eggplant and talk to the lady there but that was about it. So as soon as I did that I headed over to the dinosaur place. After arriving at the dinosaur place, I first went over to the dinosaur/woolly mammoth exhibits and listened to their hilarious nerd voices (that was seriously an awesome little touch). Once I finished listening to them I went through the standard set of interactions and when I looked at the woolly mammoth Sam made a comment about how similar that fur looked to the bigfoot fur. So naturally I figured I would need that fur to spruce up my bigfoot costume. I tried a few items and was eventually able to get the fur by getting Max to bite it all off. I then tried using the fur with the stilt walker pants but Sam indicated that I would need some glue to make it stick to the pants. Before heading to the next area, I spent some time trying to interact with the dinosaur and found that I could use the rope if the dinosaur's jaw was angled down first. So I used the exhibit speaker near the dinosaur's feet a few times to make him talk and was eventually able to get him to stop talking at a point where his mouth was open. With the mouth open I was then able to use the rope to pull one of the dinosaur's teeth out. Next I went over to the tar pits and after talking to the little shithead kid, I went up to the bungee jump area. After putting on my harness I jumped off and found myself bouncing up and down just over the tar pit. I figured the tar would probably suffice as glue for my bigfoot costume so as I was bouncing I tried using a few items and was able to get a cupful of tar by using the golf ball grabber + hand + cup. With the tar, I was indeed able to glue the mammoth hair to my stilt pants and had what I thought was a pretty slick bigfoot costume. So I went back to the volcano hotel place to try the costume on again but it was still not convincing enough to the bigfoot guy at the entrance. I obviously needed something else for the costume and after thinking about it for a bit I formulated a plan that I thought might work. I was pretty sure that I would need Conroy Bumpus' wig to complete the costume since that was the only outstanding item I hadn't been able to pick up yet. However, since the wig was attached to a mannequin head that tripped the alarm whenever I tried to pick it up, I figured I would need to somehow trick the security system to get the wig since I couldn't shut it off. As I looked through my inventory I had an epiphany when I examined the Conroy Bumpus eggplant. I realized there was probably a 98% chance that I would need to use the eggplant head with the wig to perform some kind of Indiana Jones switcheroo; especially considering the ties between the Indiana Jones franchise and the LucasArts games. Sure enough, it worked... sort of (and I even got a cool little cutscene)! I still tripped the alarm and got kicked out but I at least finally had the wig. It's probably also worth mentioning that this might have been my favorite puzzle in the game because of how it all came together. It was one of those instances where I feel like the game subtly nudged me to the exact conclusion without any obvious hints just based on the style of humor in the game and some of the vague parodies they had done up to that point. So with my completed bigfoot costume I went back to the hotel again and while I wasn't able to fool the bigfoot guy, I was able to at least impress him with my sweet costume. He still wouldn't let me through but he gave me a not so subtle hint that he would let me through if I did something for him that would make him feel inclined to like me. I remembered his feet were bothering him so I tried a few items and found that the rasp was what he needed to soothe his feet. After helping him out he finally let me into the party. The bigfoot party kind of blew my mind. When I first walked in the old bigfoot guy was giving his speech and I was taken aback by some of the stuff he was saying. Then he kept going and going and going and by the end I was completely bewildered at what I had just witnessed. The shit he said was totally unexpected and it was some truly amazing dialog. Then I went around the room and talked to all the bigfeet (or is it bigfoots?) and was delighted at their amazing personalities and the great dialog each one had. While in the room I also picked up a wine bottle which I assume I will be able to open at some point and use the cork in the vortex globe so I can capture vortex energy or whatever. Before I quit playing I tried to go in the room near the lady bigfoot and she indicated that I would need to be a yeti or have white fur or something to get in there. So my next course of action will be to try to figure out the use for the wine bottle and try to figure out how to make my fur white or do some other thing so I can get into that room. I am starting to really like this game a lot. At the beginning I wasn't too blown away by the story or mechanics but at this point I have seen so many awesome characters and heard so much great dialog that I am completely won over. And the puzzles have turned out pretty decent too, for the most part.

Wow, that's pretty awesome.

I have to say, that Forza 5 drivatar feature looks really fucking cool. That type of technology could make a pretty substantial difference in how we experience single player games if it actually works well and takes off.

I think there's this thing called Facebook that might qualify.

I'm probably just being shortsighted but as far as non-indie games go, I just don't feel like there was as much innovation as prior generations (which isn't to say there hasn't been an abundance of creativity). I look at the N64/Playstation gen which brought us 3D gaming with Mario 64 and laid the framework for modern fps games on consoles with Goldeneye. Then the previous gen perfected the console fps with Halo's control scheme and introduced modern open world sandbox style gameplay with GTA3. However I struggle to think of any games this generation that provided the same level of innovation that we've seen before. Assassin's Creed is a good example but aside from the whole "automatically climb up walls" thing I don't think it did much that games weren't doing before. I don't necessarily see any of this as a bad thing though. I view this generation as one of iteration and refinement and I feel like the overall quality of games has had a positive trajectory. Of course, my argument goes to shit when you consider indie games which regularly blow my fucking mind. But I kind of see those as independent from a console generation for the most part(and that's just like, my opinion man). Also, on a separate note, would it be accurate to consider motion controls as innovative if they have since been largely abandoned in favor of the control mechanisms that had been used for decades prior to their introduction?

I gotta say that in general, this last generation was one of my favorites. While I agree that there weren't as many innovations in video games, I do think that there was more innovation in video gaming then we've ever seen in a generation.

That's very hipster of them.

Nailed it. And also yes, that is Perfect Dark in it's rightful place. Man the hundreds of hours I sunk into that game...