Bjorn

If I still had access to a PS4, I'd have at least played through the DLC and messed around some more, but even then, it still didn't give me the urge to replay it like earlier Souls games did.

The lady found the game to be nearly impossible to watch, particularly any of the animations that included ducking or climibing over rocks, so she just listened to it, and would watch when I was doing things mostly standing still. A lot of that was because she wasn't in control, but it was definitely more severe than other first person games she's watched.

Good point, she does make his job duty very clear. That's just not how I could have done it, I'd have to be building shit, clearing trails, fixing shit. There's just no way I could hang out in that tower for a few months without finding all sorts of chores to do every week.

Oh man, I feel like most of my commentary has been kinda negative so far, when in reality I'm glad I bought Firewatch and played it right away, and it's obviously something I found intriguing enough to have spent my day pondering, all good things! Buuuuttttt, I was super disapointed Henry never got to use the fire triangulation tool thingy I really wanted a scene where we got to figure out exactly where a fire was in the forest (I'm assuming by triangulating data between multiple towers).

I actually would have preferred to hike back to the tower and manually end the day myself every day, though that would sacrifice a few good narrative "cut to card" moments after something was said. The first couple of times, the sudden cut caught me off guard, as I was planning on doing exploration on my way back from having checked out whatever it was I needed to do for the day. Take care of my job first, fuck around after. But once I realized that wasn't going to be an option, if I wanted to do any exploring, I needed to do it before Henry went and took care of whatever, which felt weird that he was supposed to go do this thing, and I just wandered off instead. At least once, Delilah even called me out for that, so the game felt like it didn't want me exploring before doing the thing it wanted. I also would have been fine with a few other days spread out over the one big jump, with having to do some mundane tasks. This also could have helped set some stuff up. Like Delilah could have told him to go clean up the girl's campsite, only for Henry to return and discover that it was all gone (I did this on my own, but there was no acknowledgment of it being clean, so I didn't know how to read that. Was Henry weirded out that everything was gone? Why wouldn't he notice that the place had been scrubbed clean of any trace of them? It's that weird line of not knowing whether my reaction has any validity within the context of the game when some things are reacted to and others aren't.). But of course, part of the problem with having him do any mundane tasks is that part of the gating set up is that he lacks certain tools, like a good saw or axe. Anything that would have let him do certain chores would also have let him get past some of the thorn barriers preventing access to other parts of the map. I think if any of the gaminess bothered me, it was that. I can't imagine putting myself into a situation where I was going to do his job for a few months and not have a certain collection of tools with me. You could make an argument that Ned had stolen all the useful stuff from his tower, but it seems like that would have been something else good to mention to further setup the mystery.

Oh, on the racoon horror story, the actual racoon leaping out made me jump, scream and throw my controller all at once. I had already been to Hawk's Next once and explored it and found nothing. Then, weeks later I was walking past it again and thought maybe I should check to see if anything had changed. I don't know what the trigger for the racoon is, but I'm guessing it is seeing it (or another one) in the forest, or just after a certain point. But the fact that I had opened the stove up once with nothing happening made the littler fucker jumping out the second time all the more startling. I think you can safely assume her skipping you wasn't an animation issue. There are multiple ways I can think of that they could have had her visit the tower without needing to show her. She could have snuck up in the night and whispered through a window, with the very real explanation that if they were being surveilled that he shouldn't come out and she shouldn't' go in. Obviously they weren't going to animate anyone, but I generally think that was pretty limited on how it shaped the story. She didn't want to meet face to face because that would bring a sense of reality to the relationship she didn't want.

Yeah, there were definitely mementos of Brian in the hideout. It's probably not fair to characterize it as no relationship, but the disconnect between what it felt like and what it was (from my Henry's perspective) was such that the reality was so much closer to meaningless that it might as well have been. I could have played a more guarded, less open Henry, and the relationship may have felt more equalized in the expectations of the relationship. But even then, after two and a half months of working and daily talking, I think an expectation of having made a deeper connection with someone is a reasonable one to have arrived at (and the way I treated my Henry). All that said, I think Henry is nearly as bad as Delilah and capable of being just as bad had I wanted to shape him that way. The opening of the game is a pretty big indictment of his character, even though it was a hell of an emotional gut punch to think about what I would do if I was in that situation (both the lady and are are near those ages). Also, the game is top-notch in soooo many ways it's ridiculous. Visually stunning, great voice acting and several very nice touches throughout that just elevate it above other similar style games. I need to actually go read that Tom Chick piece now. I think I still disagree with the core premise, but I can appreciate his argument more now that I've finished it.

That makes a lot of sense to me, and matches with my own interpretation of the game. Ultimately, I'm left feeling very unsettled by Firewatch. Which isn't a criticism, I think that's one of the potentially intended things the game is designed to make you feel. Ultimately Henry and Delilah are both selfish people, and really not very good people. Delilah would rather people come to harm, even die, than deal with minor inconveniences in her life. She doesn't think of it that way, until Brian actually does die. But her actions throughout the game reinforce that (not reporting the girls, not getting the hiker list, not reporting Ned or his son, even after they disappeared). At the end, I asked her to wait, to hold the helicopter until I could get there. And of course she didn't. Because even staying in the relative safety of her tower, with the helicopter waiting, and keeping a vocal lifeline thrown out for her friend who was scared, surrounded by fire and just learned that he had been sharing a forest all summer with a crazy, stalker hermit was too much for her. It was the final indictment of her character. Henry was no more to her than any of the other strangers who moved through the park. This leaves me with a very empty feeling about much of the game. Not just that my actions as a player were meaningless, but that the heart of the game was hollow. There wasn't a relationship. Which I think exploring a relationship like this is an interesting and worthwhile endeavor. But it bugs me because the effect of that is it sapped the life out of the rest of the game for me. Ron and Dave's story is a reflection of Henry and Delilah, it's foreshadowing. Dave thinks they are friends up until he needs someting from Ron, when Ron makes the boundaries of the relationship very clear, that he's not the kind of friend for things like that. Edited to add: The lady pointed out that in addition to the "ships in the night" element, it's also very reminiscent of a lot of Internet friendships, that aren't ever quite as real as other friendships in meat space.

I'm slowly going through the thread, but yeah, I did this exact same thing and it was driving me and the lady crazy trying to figure out where they were.

Tygan at least once should just be like, "mmmm, that's interesting" and then not explain anything. Because that would be like every scientist/doctor I've known irl.

Oh, fwiw, there doesn't appear to be a penalty for murdering civilians. Caught a couple in a grenade blast last night and no one mentioned it.

Oh wow, I totally didn't realize it. Looking some stuff up, it appears there are 14 possible bonuses that are randomized (spoilered for people who would prefer to just discover them over time) It's neat that there are so many more potential bonuses, but that also means you can't really plan and time things to take advantage of certain bonuses the way you could in EU.

Yeah, I'm waiting to finish it before I read it so I can really dig into what he has to say. I mainly say it is a disservice over the comment about "it would be better as a novel, or movie, or play or radio drama", but I want to see more of his reasoning first.

Oh, I thought of another example, though a bit different. We bought a second 360 primarily to play Mass Effect 3 MP with each other. We knew there would be other games we'd play as well, but that was what sold us on doing it since we both enjoyed that game so much. That was during the time period when local co-op had all by been abandoned it seemed, and almost all co-op was online.

I'm looking forward to reading that piece. I've seen it described in Slack chat, but if I'm understanding his argument well (and I may not be), I think he's done a disservice to the collective work of the team at Campo Santo and full range the game has.

I just got that! Asia was my starting position, but it's taken me forever to get all the regions contacted (longer than it should have, honestly).

Congrats Miff!

Oh yeah, I totally bought a PS1 after playing Final Fantasy 7 at a friend's apartment. Totally forgot about that.

Wow, I waited way to long to research plate armor. I just bumblefucked my way through a mission without even really meaning to. I was going to quit for the night, but wanted to play with all the new toys I just built to load into the second utility slot at least once (mimic, flash bang, viral rounds and battle scanner). The new Battle Scanner is rad. In EU it was pretty much trash due to it's limited throwing range and size. I just spent the first round that I found aliens throwing all my new toys on the ground to see what they do, and by the time it was done the pod was dead and no one was so much as scratched (even though I finished half my people's turns out of cover just to have the range to throw stuff out). Just went ahead and finished it after that. ProTip: Viral Rounds on a sniper applies to her pistol as well. With up to 3 shots a round, that means that she can put out 12-15 damage plus any poison damage the next round on anything not dead. I hadn't checked, do the weapon upgrades on the sniper rifle apply to the pistol? It wouldn't make sense for them to, but that doesn't really mean much in this game. It also says they can't ever be removed from a gun, then they get automatically transferred between guns when you upgrade weapons.

Trucking along just fine on my PC, which is reaching the age where it generally can't run the newest games on high anymore. Looks fabulous and I have it set to Ultra. I got to the end of Day 2 and called it quits for the night. The lady was starting to doze off watching me play and she wanted to see the rest of it. My favorite little touch so far in the game is just how it loads. Boom, title screen. No logos, no lawyer print, no bullshit. It's classy in a way that I didn't know starting a game for the first time could be.

Your cat is very calm about this situation. Trying to get clothing of any sort on any of them would likely result in a trip to the emergency room. Also, that kitty has the prettiest eyes.

I have bought new computer hardware because of a specific game, usually more RAM or a new video card, but I don't know that I've ever just bought a console because a single game sold me on it.

It tells you when it happens. So if you haven't been seeing notifications pop, then you likely haven't missed anything (or not much). At least I assume that wasn't a one time popup. I've only seen it once, but I generally don't blow up enemies, just soften them up like Dewar.

According to Steam, I've played ~15 hours (probably more like 12-13 actual playtime), and I haven't even got my first continent bonus yet. I'm assuming this run will take in the 30-40 hour range, which feels about right I think.

So I got a Workshop built the last time I played, and had I realized what that did, I would have prioritized it as one of the earliest buildings I got up. If you haven't built one, it lets one or two engineers staff it to control two or four drones who can act as engineers in any of the four connected rooms. This includes digging out other rooms. I'm thinking about a future Ironman playthrough as I learn on normal, and I can see where an early Workshop with three uncleared rooms on each side would let you clear rooms, gain supplies from clearing and have space to expand much, much faster. Low power usage and its cheaper than buying a new Engineer from the base, so it should be the cheapest and fastest way to get new engineers working early on, and you should have plenty of time to pick up a couple of new human engineers before the downside of limited placement with the drones comes into play. Edited to add: Another thematic element of 2 that I'm liking is feeling like the Resistance is out there doing shit without me. Feeding us tips, gathering intel, sabotaging trains, etc. In EU, it always felt like the rest of the world was just like "fuck it, we have XCOM, don't need to do shit." It's mostly flavor rather than mechanical, but it makes it feel more cohesive as a world to me.