ariskany_evan

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Posts posted by ariskany_evan

  1. Posted

    A theory about the country:

     

    Going away to the country does seem to be this society's euphemism for death/disconnection.  That word might be used because their current lives are completely controlled.  There is no nature.  There is no change that isn't chosen.  So the country representing overwhelming nature becomes the metaphor for heaven, because it's something that no longer exists.  (It could also be that in the non-virtual world (I'm assuming Cloudbank is a virtual world) humans have obliterated nature, and it becomes a myth to them).

     

    The fight at the end with Royce (I keep seeing people mention that they fight Grant, but he was one of the two men who committed suicide) is odd.  First and foremost, I found that Supergiant gave us a final boss fight with different mechanics than the rest of the game to be a weird choice (such a video game cliche!).  I feel like they wrote that AI in an interesting way.  He paused, he fumbled.  It felt like a real person.  It also felt like somebody who had just gotten their own Transistor.  Royce obviously understands how to use it, but lacks the finesse that Red has gained.  So the final fight felt off and weird, but it makes sense with the story.

     

    So Royce and Red are inserted into the transistor, but as power users?  As administrators of the transistor?  They're running around a bunch of circular pylons that we can guess represent the funtions() that the transistor gains/can gain.  But the setting is in the country with a barn that matches the barn of the ending shot.  That makes me think that Red and Royce are battling it out for admin rights.  Whoever wins gets full control over the transistor, and can leave.  But Red noticed that she was able to shape the setting of the transistor to match her idea of heaven, of the country.  This made her suicide an easy decision.  If she is accepted into the Transistor as an admin, then she can "free" her man.

     

    One thing that was confusing is that you can gain Royce's function() prior to meeting him at the end.  This leads me to believe that Royce inserted himself ALIVE into the transistor long ago, but in such a way that allowed him to make use of a proxy.  It would make sense for him to be the first test of his own invention.  And he could still have the proxy to help the Camerata with their plans.  And that might make more sense of the final boss?  Both Royce and Red are inserted while they're still alive?

     

    Sorry about the jumbled writing.  Just wanted to get some thoughts down before work.  I'm still very confused about the Spine of the World.

  2. Posted

    In the first 2 hours or so I was resetting my build at every save station so as to maximize the lore, but after unlocking 7 or so fully, the clear pattern of "super talented and beloved-by-the-public figure overreaches in their field and gets paid a visit by you know who" made me refocus on just finding battle styles I enjoyed playing.

     

    I know this is super cynical, but the proliferation of artistic geniuses who are adored by the population rubs me the wrong way.  The realization that it's a myth that someone can consistently be at the top of their field and be completely in control of and totally assured in their creative output was something I hated coming to terms with as I aged.  The fact that they've all been murdered, but their "powers" live on is an idealistic bit of world building that I can't get behind.

     

    I know that as a 16 year old I would have LOVED this game.  The intersections of genius and superpowers and coolness just don't jive with me anymore.  Now it feels a bit put on.

     

    I'm not totally down on Transistor, just have had some time to sit with the way it made me feel.

  3. Posted

    Man, I'm starting to feel like I'm getting my PS4's worth just from buying the system and having PS+. Sony, congrats on continuing to earn my loyalty as a customer.

     

    I'm holding out to get PS+ for the PS4 until they start giving away bigger titles.  I don't expect that'll be at until the Fall if not later, but there's a distinct chance they'll have a good month after E3 with some HOT game being added.

     

    (That, or if they put HBOGO behind the paywall.  I would absolutely pay $50/year to be able to access my parent's hbogo account on the ps4.  hooking up my laptop is tiresome!!! :P )

  4. Posted

    You skipped a two minute video?

     

    I imagine he meant clicked-through, looking for gameplay footage.  (I agree with Twig, cinematic trailers are the worst!)

  5. Posted

    Anyone tried out the android phone (or any phone platform) version of XCom?  Sounds like it's pretty decent, but I'm curious to hear some first-hand accounts of playing on such a small screen.

     

    edit: nevermind!  Downloading now.  I promise I'll give my impressions once I've had time to play a bit.  3.6gigs on mobile.

     

    Speaking of console games to mobile.  Dragon Quest 8 is out on android.  I played the heck out of the ps2 version, and mostly loved it, but I remember it being unnecessarily long and grindy, so I won't be picking it up for a second playthrough.  Love that intro music, do:

     

  6. Posted

    Picky eater in the sense that she doesn't like to try new things and McDonald's is a familiar taste.

     

    Whoa.  She'd be kicked out of my family*!  Our vacations tend to have spreadsheets of breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks for each day.  Helps us to learn each city we visit.  I've found good food tends to be situated in interesting/non-touristy sections of town.

     

    * - my family being my wife and I, so I'd probably first kick her out because the whole multiple wives thing doesn't vibe with my feminism (though I'm sure my wife would protest as she'd probably love to have a wife), but then if I was like, sure, fine, we've all worked out a way for this to make sense as a family, we'd plan this whole trip and my wife and I would should in unison, you're outta here!! (because of the picky-eater thing)

  7. Posted

    Polygon's headline calling it a "stylish WWI game" seemed kind of bizarre.

     

    Remember the most deadly and yet most boring war in history?  Well, yeah, it was pretty boring, so forget all of that trench warfare.  We're imagining WWI as if it was a multiplayer deathmatch arena.  We're keeping the guns, though. It'll be really authentic, just like WWI!  No, actually, scrap that, none of the guns.  In our alternate universe gunpowder is banned.  The design of the melee weapons will at least be true to the techonology of the time:  "... soldiers fight each other in up close and personal battles using technology of the time."  You know, like a "retro-futuristic" sword that "can transform into a shield".  Or a character that can cloak.

     

    The way thoughts are brought up and then concluded in this article make for a very confusing game reveal.

     

    http://www.polygon.com/2014/5/28/5755698/battlecry-preview-bethesda-softworks-pc

     

    (I wasn't a big fan of Zeno Clash or using the melee character in Borderlands, so the premise for this game aside from the confusing PR doesn't seem super exciting)

  9. Posted

     I usually fall asleep easily with any kind of music, but found it impossible with Swans.

     

    That is the best way to describe Swans!!!!!!  I find their recent stuff to be really exhilarating and dynamic!  Their early stuff is fun, too, just a bit more punishing in a no-wave kinda way:

     

     

    Haven't found the space in my life yet to listen to the most recent "To Be Kind", but I love loved loved "The Seer".  Just the track times get me psyched:  8:05, 12:40, 7:08, 34:05, 5:09, 17:01, etc.

  10. Posted

    I always had a problem with real-time systems with pause, especially with the standard version found e.g. in Infinity Engine games.
     
    These systems often feel inelegant to me, especially when a game simulates real-time reality on a scale people tend to operate on in their everyday lives, e.g. controlling a group of characters. There is something uncanny about observing fluid real-life-like action being paused and resumed repeatedly (Try doing that when watching a video. Sure, not the same situation, but I believe it's relevant.).
     
    These systems also require players to rapidly change the way they interact with the game. It's a constant back and forth between "Hm, let's take a sip of hot beverage of my choice and carefuly think about what actions should I take here." and "Everything is happening so much! The goblin missed, should I do something (or pause) now? What about now? Maybe now?" Both extremes are valid gameplay approaches in separation or even when they alternate slowly (e.g. different tactical and strategic phases), but pausing systems tend to change them very rapidly and make the changes hard to anticipate. I personally find it exhausting.
     
    I like how Transistor deals with these two problems (read SecretAsianMan's post if you're not familiar with the mechanics). The first "uncanny simulation pausing" problem is solved by the fact the planning phase is clearly presented as a separate gameplay phase both visually and aurally. This prevents my brain from thinking "oh god, time has stopped, reality is breaking". The planning phase is also much more powerful than and qualitatively different to the real time phase which also helps with the paused reality feeling. The second "brain mode oscillation" problem is solved by planning phase having a cooldown, the changes are not that often and it's clear to see/anticipate the right moment to switch.

     

    Totally agree about Infinity games.  They move way too fast when unpaused, and yet feel so slow when you constantly pause.  I could never find a happy balance.

     

    I'll add this about Transistor's systems: 

     

    Transistor's pause system is advantageous to the player.  I can line up shots, try out combos, position themselves out of harm's way, and then when unleashed, the game stays paused until I've executed all the commands.  There's a cool-down on all abilities, so as not to completely over-power the system, but it does create an uneven playing field.  The enemies all have predictable and singular attacks and movements, and they never get to pause.

     

    I absolutely prefer the Transistor implementation, because it requires less strategy.  I don't have to guess what my opponent will do, as as long as I learn each new enemy, they will behave predictably.

     

    Genuinely turn-based games stress me out, so that also plays into why I appreciate a pause-mechanic that plays to the player's favor.  I'm not interested in playing real-time (or regular for that matter) chess.

  11. Posted

    Finished up Monument Valley last night.  I enjoyed my time with it, but it's the first time in a while that I wished a puzzle game was harder.  I had heard a lot of comparisons to Echochrome, but found this was a fallacy as there were only one or two puzzles that required shifting a perspective to create a new pathway.  Most puzzles took less than 20 seconds of thought.  Usually I'd just try out whatever popped into my head and it would work.  I'm terrible at puzzle games, so this was a bit disconcerting.

     

    The story felt like another cryptic post-civilization morality tale with an "uplifting" ending.  It's cool that games are attempting to make us feel things other than awesomeness, wonderment, and puzzled, but the "thatgamecompany trope" felt trite in the first place (executed ham-fistedly in Flower, less so in Journey), and now we're getting copycats...  :(

     

    It's super pretty, but otherwise not recommended.

  12. Posted

    I recently discovered The War On Drugs and really started listening to them and fell in love with a few tracks this week. "An Ocean Between The Waves" and "Red Eyes" are my favourites. They sound a bit like less energetic Bruce Springsteen with more dreamy and spacey guitars and obscure lyrics.

     

     

    (haven't actually seen this video, I mostly listen on Deezer/Spotify)

     

    I agree with your Bruce Springsteen comparison, but I like to also throw in a Wallflowers and Dire Straits for good measure.  They're so amazingly Dad-Rock, and yet... are so good.

  14. Posted

    DJ airhorn sounds kill me. I wish it would become the new rimshot. It's also the perfect punch-line for "sick burn" jokes. 

     

    It would need to be OVERBEARINGLY loud when executed, too.  Just really awkwardly loud.

  15. Posted

    Kombucha with Yogurt does wonders!

    Also, life is motherfucking great. The person I'm seeing is going well and I'm going to be cooking dinner for her tomorrow.

     

    Speaking of Kombucha...

     

    I've been considering not drinking alcohol at home.  I tend to go for outlandish flavored cocktails or beers, so I was thinking of replacing my drinking habit with a kombucha habit.  It's the only drink I can think of that hits all sorts of weird flavors (that I find satisfying).  There's also the need to replace the "effect" of drinking alcohol with something else that has an "effect" on my body.  I think the placebo effect from the anecdotal stories about how it helps to fight cancer seems like a positive trade with the slight inebriation I tend to feel 4-5 nights a week.

     

    Plus it's cheaper!

  17. Posted

    Feels like there's a lot of learning to regarding the different kinds of attacks.  My current strat involves hiding behind obstacles, pausing, using the dash to get in close, then randomly rotating between all of my other moves until I run out of "turns".  Finally started to notice the tiny type that literally says "overkill" when I'd hit someone too hard.  Seems like they give a ton of visual cues, it's just gonna take some time to parse it all out.

     

    Glad to hear there are practice spaces!  It'll be nice to be able to get that stuff internalized.

  19. Posted

    I just realized the other day while crossing the road that I most often will look at the front of cars rather than the actual drivers. My theory for this is that my brain subconsciously recognizes the front of the car as the face of the beast that's currently running down the road. Any passengers are just that. It's the car itself that decides whether it will let me cross the road or not.

    Basically my brain is going "Hello Carbeast! Will you slow down for me? Ah! You will! Thank you carbeast! Who's a good carbeast? You are! You are!"

     

    Additionally I just realized that in a couple of years my brain will be completely right once all non-self driving cars will be outlawed.

     

    My wife and I do the thing where we pretend like we just saw something in the sky that's really interesting at an intersection so that we won't have to interact with the driver who might be nice enough to wave us on.  So my de-peopling of cars is moreso a way to detour my social anxiety. :)

     

    That's gonna be weird at cross-waks with self-driving cars.  They'll probably have some sort of voice thing that tells us it's OK to cross?

  20. Posted

    These reactions serve to stymie the creation of art. Perhaps it will be awful, gaudy art that negatively stereotypes an entire continent and deserves all of this pre-release ire. But can't we save our collective judgement until we've all actually had a chance to experience the game first hand?

     

    Can you elaborate more on your thoughts about this kind of criticism stymieing the creation of art?  I can think of a lot of ways to interpret that thought.

  21. Posted

    I dig that Shigeto.  That whole jazz-inflected electronic beat-heavy music thing is so delicious and easy to be in.

     

    ------

     

    Yay! The Todd Terje is on spotify.  I do that horrible thing where I hear a good thing about a new release, check to see if it's on spotify, and if it's not, completely forget about it.  Thanks for the reminder!

     

    ----------

     

    Tinymixtapes are killing it with their features!  Re: the Pixies new album and the criticism swirling around:

     

    "And perhaps this is the nub of the problem, with the trio being a self-extension, an existential prosthetic for so many of us that we find it difficult to accept a 21st century Pixies. We can't look at the reflection the band offers us in the present context, since it tells us, "You're not special," "You listen to a homogeneous band and must therefore be a homogeneous person," and so we retreat into insanely pointless 10.0 reviews of albums everyone already knows about, into the comfort of musical folklore, where assorted figures preside as inimitable singularities that reinforce our own deluded sense of singularity."

  22. Posted

    I don't know, it's a big ass sword, swords are heavy and neither singers nor linguists need a lot of arm strength, so it makes sense that Red wouldn't be able to carry the Transistor. I like the choice: it emphasizes that while Red is cool and badass, this is not something she was ever prepared for or perfectly suited to.

     

    I think you're right!  It was a first impression reading of it, mixed with the fact that I had been hoping I'd be playing as a "strong" female lead, and that first impression (can't carry sword, is told what to do by gruff-sounding man) left me a bit bummed.

     

    Played more last night and it's clear that your reading is right (can't read Codicier's thoughts until I'm finished (in a few weeks? gulp)).

  23. Posted

    Vinny's been the only guy on the podcast that I've enjoyed hearing from recently.  Jeff sounds like he needs to take a sabbatical and not play games for a bit (or has he always been this jaded and Ryan just managed to bring out the positivity in him?).  I've never been a fan of Brad's presence other than as the straight man, but now that Drew is on the cast, they seem to be battling over the top-spot for personality least suited for entertaining.

     

    I'm being hyperbolic, but I do think Vinny leaving is like breaking up the band.

  24. Posted

    Sat down to play a bunch of this with my wife last night.  Her initial comment was:  why can't she just carry the sword.  Not a knock against the game, but just an artistic choice that didn't sit well with both of us.

     

    Love that they drop you in.  No menus or anything.  Not even a cutscene!  Just:  here's your character in a space, move her around.  She's already got a weapon.  I, too, found her movement speed kind of sluggish, but I'll get used to it.  The immediate battles felt fine to jump into, but I can imagine for someone not versed in the language of these kinds of games that there'd be a lot of clumsy fumbling to start.  There's no context for why these things are bad, if they're bad, etc.  I liked the mystery of it, though.  Made me feel like I'm apart from the characters.  Curious to see how they both unfold and if they open up to the player.

     

    The battle system seems fun!  Sadly that sort of tactical arena-combat type didn't make for very compelling spectating, so we only played for 20 minutes before turning it off.  I'll be playing this one solo!

     

    I saw on twitter later that you have to manually enable the sword's voice to play through the ps4 controller.  Odd that that wouldn't be automatically selected, since it's such a neat-o feature kind of thing.

     

    Overall, psyched to get back to it!

  25. Posted

    Yes, The Toast is consistently one of my favorite websites to visit. Mallory is truly wonderful.

     

    One of my favorite bits that she has ever written: http://the-toast.net/2013/11/15/empowered-female-heroine/

     

    "She strolled up to the bar and planted a firm-yet-sexy pump-encased foot down on the rail. The bartender looked at her and started pulling out little frilly umbrellas and Malibu and speared slices of ********* to make some kind of girl drink, but she held up her hand. “A whiskey,” she said, her voice low in her throat. “Neat.”

    Behind her the pool table exploded. Every man in the bar immediately grew a beard. The jukebox made a record-scratching sound, even though it was an mp3-playing jukebox."

     

    Edit: I forgot that ********* is banned on this forum.

     

    "Then she kicked another guy through a window, and he fell all the way."  That last bit of detail is worded so perfectly.

     

    I haven't been here long enough to understand why ********* is banned, but I approve.