Zeusthecat

I mostly agree with this but I generally tend to lean a little bit more towards I Saw Dasein's perspective in regards to narrative versus gameplay. While some games are more about the story I think the fact that we are calling them 'games' kind of does imply that that is what it is first and foremost. I personally don't have much of an issue with the way games tell stories. If I want a particularly deep or meaningful story there are books and movies that deliver on that front. Video games with stories have to walk a fine line where they need to provide enough interaction to be a 'game' while also trying to make sure that the interaction that is there fits within the context of the narrative and restricts the player enough so that the story still works. Too much interaction (i.e. game-y stuff) and the narrative suffers. Too little interaction and it is like a series of cutscenes. Because of these considerations I just don't expect as much from a video game story as I would from a book or movie because I would rather have stronger gameplay that negatively impacts the story than a stronger story that negatively impacts the gameplay. I'm sure there are some games that do all this shit right but hell, even Bioshock had all that game-y stuff that, in some cases, probably held the story back just a little bit.

I haven't been here long and already wish I could delete some of my stupid posts. It all seems fine in the heat of the moment and then later I find myself wondering what the fuck I was thinking. Actually, now that I think about it, this happens with almost every single post including this one. Fuck, I'm going to regret this.

Oh yeah, I don't think I mentioned in any of my other posts that I am still looking for a vacuum tube (I think?) so Bernard can fix the radio. I am experiencing similar confusion. I've come to the conclusion that several of the areas (the pool and the room with the easel to name a couple) don't come into play with the combination of characters I have.

Well said. I think my mindset is very similar to what Nick described on the cast about how kids are more tolerant of the boring shit in a game. For some reason I still have a very high tolerance for that kind of stuff and it just doesn't bother me that much. I guess you could say I am a man with a baby brain. But I still like to think that repetitive actions can mean something and add to a game if done right.

It is interesting how often narrative differs from reality. In my life narrative I am engaging in the same activities over and over for years. Then maybe a few things happen and the process repeats. From that perspective I don't mind a game that has a narrative where the protagonist engages in the same activities over and over. I like it because it is more reflective of life in general. But that's just me and I could be retarded.

I definitely missed the package. I saw it delivered but just assumed it was a random story moment and continued on with whatever I was doing. Oops.

I'm the exact opposite. I much prefer things to be long and drawn out. My problem with shorter movies or shorter games is that I feel things are usually distilled to a point where you only get big scenes or profound moments (or at least a much higher density of them compared to the mundane stuff). For me it is the mundane moments or non-critical story moments that you get in longer movies/games that draw me into the story more. 99% of my life is filled with mundane moments and every once in awhile something profound happens so when a movie or game more closely reflects that reality it is more satisfying to me. This is a big reason why I like Final Fantasy and Elder Scrolls games so much. Instead of a 6 hour Call of Duty style campaign where you get non-stop crazy moments you have a 40+ hour experience with a lot of mundane and less exciting stuff that is punctuated every once in awhile by a big moment. I can totally see how this would be a turnoff for a lot of people but I love that shit.

They've definitely done a good job in re-affirming my belief that God does not exist.

Flash a-ah Savior of the Universe Flash a-ah He'll save every one of us

Cool, good to know I've actually made some real progress. Speaking of which, I made a little more last night. Per recommendation, I spent some more time calling Edna and found that I could send one of the other kids into her room while she was on the phone and she didn't notice. There didn't seem to be any new interactions when I did this and I couldn't give anything to Edna so I'm not sure what I gain by calling her to distract her versus having her leave the room to take one of the kids to the dungeon. Doing this did lead to a pretty cool moment though. As I was investigating the room I went back up into the attic and stared at that picture on the wall for a little bit. It looked suspicious that there was a lone picture in the attic. After a few minutes I thought "I bet there is something behind that fucking picture" and tried to 'open' it with no success. Then I tried to 'pull' it and sure enough, there was a goddamn safe behind the picture. I tried Edna's phone number as the combination with no success and was about to leave when I noticed there was some small text scribbled on the wall below the safe. The text was too small to read and I didn't have anything in my inventory to magnify it so I think I need to do one of two things. I either need to find a magnifying glass or something of that nature (I was bummed to find out that I couldn't magnify it using the jar full of water) or I need to find a camera to take a picture of the text and use the enlarger in the dark room after developing the picture. So far I am still stuck at this point. I also realized a couple other things last night. First, I can heat up the jar of water in the microwave but it is too hot to take out. I tried using several items with the hot water as it stood in the microwave but I'm thinking I probably need to find an oven mitt or something that would enable me to pick it up. The other thing I realized is that since Wendy is a writer, I was able to get her to write in the manuscript to make it 'better'. She also made a comment about showing it to the whole world so I'm still pretty sure that I need to mail it out but I don't have a stamp (which the game seemed to indicate I would need at one point). Maybe I'll try mailing it anyways to see what happens. I'm starting to feel like I'm hitting a wall at this point even with the discoveries I made last night. I have scoured every room and I feel like I've grabbed everything but there is either something I am still missing or some item in my inventory that I haven't used in the right place yet.

I...what...how? I am so sad that there are human beings that despicable.

Just curious, how far would you guys say I am into the game? Halfway?

Thanks. I will ponder. I got some 'old batteries' right after getting into the mansion. Don't remember where exactly but they went dead pretty quickly after turning on the flashlight. Maybe there are some more batteries but I haven't found them yet. Something else to ponder.

I made a bit more progress last night. After looking around for awhile longer I finally went outside with Dave and tried opening the garage door. To my surprise it opened. I had kind of dismissed it before as another locked door that I didn't have a key for but after thinking about it some more I vaguely remember the game telling me the door was too heavy or something. So I bet I was able to open it because I lifted those weights with Dave. That's kind of fucking cool. Once in the garage I was able to use one of my keys to unlock the trunk of the car and get the tools. I also got the faucet handle for the shower upstairs. From there it didn't take me too long to figure out that Bernard could fix the phone with the tools and that I could call Edna's room from that phone using the phone number written on the wall behind the shower. I'm not sure where it goes from here though. Edna answered the phone but nothing seems to happen from there. I also tried the number on the wanted poster thinking maybe I could get the police to stop by or something but nothing happened when I called that number. So now I have a chainsaw with no gas, a flashlight with dead batteries (i used up the old batteries pretty quickly), a sponge, a couple more unused keys, a key card, a hamster, and a bunch of other seemingly useless stuff and items that have already been used. My thought process right now is that I need to figure out how to fix the wires to bring electricity to the arcade room and use my dimes on an arcade for some reason. I also think I can fix those stairs that are out of order but I don't think I have what I need yet to fix it.

I won't try to hide it, I'm a huge Final Fantasy fan and I am very much looking forward to this. I've finished IV, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, and XIII and loved every one (even though the story was horrible in XIII I loved the combat system more than any other FF game). I always found that the visuals, story, and music came together very well in these games and resulted in a very unique atmosphere that I don't see often in other games. Yay.

Amen brother!

I thought for a second that you were posting in the wrong thread. Then I read it a little more closely and... you win. Awesome post!

Thank you! I was hoping someone else would at least give an honorable mention to my F-GOAT.

Minecraft. My friend and I play our world non-stop for a couple months at a time then get burnt out and stop for a couple months. We have gone through this cycle several times now and each time we come back it is still fucking amazing.

I did go through a period where I would get bad migraines regularly when I was a teenager. About a half hour before a migraine hit I would start to have blotchy vision and would have a really hard time focusing on what I was seeing. Headaches fucking suck. I'm sorry you have to go through a bad one every week.

It is weird looking back on that stuff from an adult perspective. My mom used to always think I was depressed and made me go to some bullshit therapy as a kid where they tried to make me put a collage together out of magazine clippings that would supposedly represent my feelings or something. I just thought it was stupid and a waste of time. To this day she stills tries to push anti-depressants on me even though I am one happy bastard. Not saying that our situations are the same but kids go through a lot growing up and act out in different ways. It's got to be hard as a parent to always make the best judgment call. Another weird side story about my mom. I came home from school with a headache once in 8th grade. My mom freaked out and took me to the hospital where she convinced the doctor to give me a spinal tap. She was a nurse and thought I might have meningitis. She was/is also a major hypochondriac. I didn't have meningitis but I did have less spinal fluid after that whole ordeal.

I feel very lucky to be playing these for the first time at my current age. If I had played these as a kid I might not fully appreciate how special that first time through one of these games is and just taken the experience for granted. I think that is partly why I am putting so much effort into solving the puzzles without using a guide. Those little bursts of glee when you finally solve a piece of the puzzle make everything worth it and would probably never be experienced again on subsequent playthroughs. I am having a blast with these games and being able to share this experience with others makes it even better. It will be a sad day when I reach the end of my journey. Another thing I am starting to realize is that the process of blind puzzle solving (as you put it) in these games is starting to impact the way I think about problems in real life. It isn't really a significant impact but I have noticed now when I am troubleshooting a problem with our software at work, the way I organize my thoughts and eliminate possible causes is just slightly different. Likewise, the way I troubleshoot problems at work has had an influence on the way I approach puzzles in this game. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I feel like these games are tangibly improving my thought process when working through a puzzle, that is until you have to hypnotize a monkey to use him as a wrench.

Update from last night: I went back through the rooms to search more thoroughly and found a few more things that I had missed before. I found a sponge in the bathroom, a key card in the room with the hamster, and dimes in the piggy bank. I also messed around more with the tape recording and found that when I played the recording from the 'record' downstairs the chandelier shattered and I was able to get the rusty key. I also tried giving that tape to the depressed tentacle and he promptly raped me to death. If I didn't know any better I would think my last sentence was a joke but he seriously said something about that music being mating music, rushed me, and then I had a tombstone outside of the house. Fucking weird. I used the sponge with one of the water faucets and eventually found that I could put the water in the developer tray in the dark room. I'm not sure if water is supposed to go there or something else but I bet I will need to develop a picture at some point. I also tried using the sponge in various slime puddles but had no luck. As far as the keys and key card goes, I have no idea what they are for. I have several keys now and none of them seem to work on any of the locked doors, drawers, or cabinets. Maybe there's another area in the house I haven't reached yet? I am also thinking the dimes I found will be used on the arcades once I can get power to them. I am hoping that fixing the exposed wire in the attic room will do the trick but I'm not sure yet how I might do that. I made enough progress last night that I'm still not quite ready to use hints, although I did click on the spoiler for items you can use early that make the game un-winnable. Thanks again for that!

I've been playing Resident Evil 5 over the last week and have had some of the best Xbox Live experiences that I've had in a while. One random dude played with me for about 3 hours straight and even went out of his way to not use his overpowered weapons to make the game too easy. It is really weird how every person I've played with in that game has been so awesome.

Ouch, that's not nice.