Stuart

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Posts posted by Stuart

  4. Posted

    I watched a stream of this, which is admittedly not the best way to be introduced to this game and probably also not the best way to present it...but the streamer started out being totallly open to the game with no knowledge of what it was about, and I think she gave it a fair chance until it really started to get on her nerves. The plot and the acting were what sunk this for me. And as someone watching it on a stream, I didn't get to experience the mechanics - so I wound up hating Her Story. There are just so many scenes where the writing is so bad

     

    "His fucking magic sperm," all of the guitar scenes, all of the fairy tale scenes, the ending twist, and the fourth wall breaking "SB" character float to the top of my mind.

     

    UtqWL99.png

     

     

    Think about how the plot of The Wire is structured - there are rarely any "whodunit" points - you usually know, and the interesting part of the story is watching it unravel. That works great for a TV show, but for a game like this, you need something a bit more outrageous so that you mind doesn't immediately jump to the obvious conclusion.

     
    The Wire's characters are people though. Her Story relies on a cliche as a character. A condescending cliche that thinks its deeper than it is.

  5. Posted

    It's true that Her Story doesn't have the most nuanced plot, regardless of what ending theory you ascribe to, but what it lacks in nuance it certainly makes up for in gameplay. If the game was weaker mechanically, maybe then it would be harder for me to overlook it narrative, but since the mechanics are strong, it really doesn't matter. I think that's why the ending of the game fails for me, because it takes away the interesting mechanics and all you're left with is the plot. (The other reason why the ending bothers me is because I think it really pushes towards one particular theory and I'm disappointed that it's not left more ambiguous.)

     

    I personally feel that overall the mechanics felt wasted because of the plot. A waste of an interesting and somewhat novel mechanical framework. The "game" is outside of the virtual space which you are provided, its in your notes, in your head, and that's astounding. I commend them for that, but...Sam Barlow...he cannot write. I was actually astounded as to how similar this game was to his most well known game, Silent Hill Shattered Memories, considered the best western Silent Hill game (which isn't saying much). Similar heavy handed metaphors, reliance on "high brow" references, pseudo-psychology, and even...

     

    the same ending. Literally, Shattered Memories ends with "You were the daughter the whole time oooooh!"

     

    I'd enjoy if something like this was done again, as long as it's an actually substantive, honest story. Not this.

  6. Posted

    Finished playing it today. I'll be the odd one out here. I really didn't like it. Trashy, Fincher-like plot drowns out any sort of honest attempts to portray mundanity and humanity. An overwrought cliche, airport novel pulp, leaves you with nothing but the rush of "discovering" a story that is just familiar, overdone, exploitative, depraved thrills. In other words, you find nothing. 

     

    Tempted to write something up on it, so I won't go too much in-depth. For now, I'll link this review by Ed Smith, which reflect my thoughts:

     

    https://shutupvideo games.wordpress.com/2015/06/29/shut-up-her-story/

     

    (i know how angry and snotty this all reads. Sorry but not sorry? This game really disappointed, I dunno what else to say)

  8. Posted

     

     

    Also, since Stuart is falling behind on posting RTJ videos:

     
    imo, their latest RTJ videos have been weak as hell. The one for Early was very good, this one was very awkwardly paced and shot. Also, the eye-rolling thematic implication of cop being on the same level of who he oppresses. But that's a different convo for a different place for a different time.

  13. Posted

     

    GTA Online wasn't really cooperating yesterday. It wouldn't let Lu en ysbreker exist in the same world.

    We eventually went along with a smaller group playing the sadly correctly named playlist "random crap".

    Probably the most interesting event along this playlist was this helicopter race which took much longer than expected:

     

     

    Nothing can beat the legendary helicopter chase between me and Miffy (and whoever was with Miffy, I forget. Dibs?)