horsebaggins

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  1. Idle Thumbs 112: The Cast Of Us

    There is actually a singular and beautiful reason for the repetition. But your feelings about this game currently are of course valid. I felt the same way at this stage of the game. Radiator Blog- "Press F to Intervene"- a brief history of the Use Key Genre http://www.blog.radiator.debacle.us/2013/06/press-f-to-intervene-brief-history-of.html Is a critique as to how Bioshock Infinite's rote interaction undercut it's emotional resonance.
  2. The Last of Us

    twmac, i'd have to cordially say that isn't always the case. A specific example from very early on. The first infected encounter with spores, while with Tess in the city. Most players will be safe after they sneak past the mushroom kingdom, and after they drop down and out of the dilapidated 2-floor building, Tess remarks about the fresh air. In a subsequent playthrough I ran while on the 2nd floor, the not-nzumbe saw me through the hole in the floor and I dropped down outside the building. The athlete's foot people actually sprinted after me into what was previously to be a safe area. Some toadstool punching later, Tess then savored the fresh air. An area clearly marked as safe for the majority of players can, even in the tutorialized portions of the game, become fuzzily unsafe if the geometry supports it. Similar to how youmeyou just described the stealth and combat loops as being fungible. But if you want the shroom flock to relentlessly follow you from coast to coast like a DayZ Phish concert. That, I'd kindly have to say is literally asking for the Benny Hill line dance. At some point for practical purposes, specifically the flow of electrons through a medium, things need to be gated, elegantly in my opinion in The Last of Us. Opposed to DayZ's charm, which is unwavering impracticality on a bicycle. Much like Phish fans. Bill Murray cosplaying QWOP
  3. The Last of Us

    But I'd personally find more clever game design to be honestly distracting in The Last of Us. It would add to the cloy quotient. Even for me Half Life 2 was skirting the edges of being overbearingly clever. Portal's fiction alleviated that for me. But even the most knee-slappingly clever of environmental puzzles, once solved, entail the same mental load as: put plank here, walk the plank. You're getting wet either way, cleverness is delaying the inevitable, torturous even. In this instance the spell would be broken in the time before the solving.
  4. The Last of Us

    Clint Hocking might know.
  5. The Last of Us

    That was an unnecessary apology. Accepted¿ Golly, if I'd used the dreaded and concise term: ludonarrative dissonance, I'd likely been burnt at the stake. Luckily I saw that coming like the poor souls in Far Cry 2 see a car careening in their direction, perpetually, for eternity, like Groundhog Day with mosquitoes. artist unknown http://www.shapeshift3r.com Mike Edwards http://www.ericspitler.com Eric Spitler Even though cinematics are deeply unfashionable currently, it's amazing how much of this story is conveyed through facial micro expressions. Not to mention realtime body language.
  6. The Last of Us

    twmac, Yes there's infinite ammo by way of Bioshock Infinite style partner tossing, which is present and consistent with the rest of the game. I went in with 18 bullets and came out with less. For me the circle was unbroken. Would you consider that it was your actions in the game which broke the ethos of the rest of the gameplay? I don't consider that a bad or good thing. And certainly not to say "You're playing it wrong". Considering I played this sequence as you described also. It's testing the game's boundaries. Patronization was not my intention. You answered the question as to what you thought was wrong with the sequence. The magic was lost, you didn't write that in your first post. Partners are situationally invisible but not invincible. when asked the question: So mechanically and fictionally I consider it an escort mission. Those lines clarify who is being escorted. I'd be interested to hear why you disagree. I turned off listening mode in class, I swear! Turret sequences aren't usually used to convey reliance and vulnerability, they're usually used as violent catharsis. What The Last of Us stole is theirs as far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't without pain however say they owned. dmarlett, I was in the middle of Jagged Alliance 2 1.13 Urban Chaos which has interesting parallels in the incidental banter. The "I hate to look at that kind of thing" (crow pecked corpses of my own destruction) mirroring the "Jesus Joel!". but jokingly, I wouldn't consider leaving mountains of men unconscious to choke on their own tongues exactly a humane revolution.
  7. It's not the years, Indie, it's the mileage

    On this issue one is responsible for one's own world weariness. I tend to blame the Mario flute. Not everything in gaming has to be a secret hidden portal to the strikingly original. This is very wonder inducing game http://gorogoa.com/ Gorogoa Preview & Demo Walkthrough
  8. The Last of Us

    yes! hugging kills, killing is caring. You're a killer that killed. It's absurd to forcefully hug 100 men then expect to have the world love and respect you. We put assholes in jail for that dumb shit. Yet I do it anyways, because dead men tell no dialogue trees. Kill them with kindness. BTW I haven't played Deus EX Revolution, but this is amazing. This guy turns it into an artistic game of AI pathing tetris. Crate Blocking Ghost + Double Takedown playlist I adore this kind of absurdity
  9. The Last of Us

    If you weren't expecting transcendence then the use of the word threw me off. No malice intended. What kind of experience were you expecting? I had no expectations other than hoping that it wasn't overly cloying. Then pleasantly surprised at a complete lack of cloy. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the Silent Hill 2 of The Last of Us's Let the Right One In. no cynicism! Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Silent Hill 2 are single imperceptible moments in a relationship splayed out into a series of events and onto the world. The Last of Us and Let the Right One In are adolescent genre stories told with undue yet appreciated sensitivity.
  10. The Last of Us

    The story of photographer Erwin Blumenfeld https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylpfuRhA5I0 saw this last night. The first thing you see in this game after being given direct control was a Silent Hill 2 mirror. As youmeyou said scavenging closes the gap for me of linearity versus exploration by being embedded into the nature world. I can hardly think of a item that is out of place and wouldn't go about collecting so much as voyeuring. The pendants are a bit wacky, but I excuse the placement like I accept shoes will inevitably find their way strung up on telephone wires (shoe gnomes I suspect, fairies freak Ellie out). I accept this concession to playability. But early on I disabled hearing mode on hard. This slows down the resources and pace and you're only moving to cover in small increments and for the most part your partners will stay close and often hide from enemy gaze. It's when you aggressively maneuver yourself that the Benny Hill music starts playing. Turning hearing mode off is is akin to playing the Witcher in Polish or Dishonored in French. If you feel comfortable taking something away it can add. This sequence actually took into account bullet count, but didn't show the HUD, probably because it would be visually distracting considering the inverted perspective. Was there anything that you could say that was wrong with this sequence other than familiarity? Considering this entire game was an escort mission. These probably became pejoratives because of overuse. But what happens when a borrower becomes a thief? That's a bit much to expect from anything other that a burning bush.
  11. The Last of Us

    This term is so poisoned with cynicism. In terms of software The Last of Us has features lifted directly from other games. But they don't mean what they mean in the games they are lifted from. "We Can Kill The Industry With Cynicism" - Ken Levine - Bioshock The lack of cynicism toward the player in The Last of Us is the world of difference. I don't know if Bioshock Infinite was a product of cynicism, pessimism, or neither.
  12. The Last of Us

    The mechanics are interesting in that the more game literate the player might be, the more they work to unsettle their perceptions about what's happening in the game. For me as a player it solved a huge problem. If Mario 64 solved how to move in 3D space, and RE4 solved how to shoot a thing in that space. The Last of Us solved the problem of what to tell your future children when asked what you did in the Great War. If Metal Gear 4 was the last of games then you'd have to tell them you were a secret agent who's cover was a film projectionist. If Max Payne 3 was the last, then you'd have to say you were a grumpy Olympic pole vaulter who killed people. If Dishonored was the last, and if you played the game like Chris Remo or myself then you'd have to say you were the sneakiness hugger. If Bioshock Infinite was the finite then you'd say to your kids you were a schizophrenic freegan who killed people. Now I can tell them the truth, I was a killer that killed (according to the game stats) on average 10 men a day sporadically by hugging and shooting. The Drake dichotomy was solved by simply being honest! My feeling is that it lifts a weight off my chest by letting me feel the weight of the situation.