toblix

Phaedrus' Street Crew
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Posts posted by toblix


  1. Finished it, having completed all sigils and all stars, with almost no use of FAQ (I checked maybe five times, and even then just for hints.) What a pleasure to play a puzzle game that feels so perfectly tuned and designed. I was expecting the later puzzles (red sigils and star world puzzles) to be frustratingly convoluted and impossible to figure out, but they managed to never once take things too far. I could always keep track of all the parts of the puzzle in my head, so the challenge was just to figure out what to do, and in what order. I especially appreciated the puzzles where I had a sudden realization and worked out a solution, and then behind the last gate was another gate, and I had to sort of twist and turn the solution right there so I could pull another jammer free. The meta-game and worlds around the puzzles were also beautiful and interesting to explore, and the computer interaction stuff were nice distractions along the way. Definitely one of my favorites of 2014, along with Wolfenstein and probably some more games. Was GTA V this year?

     

    Special fuck yous to the one star solution in world A4.


  2. Yo, it's me, I'm back again, to describe how this game has blown my brain. All of the puzzles I've played so far, have been perfectly crafted (except that one star.) Expertly tuned to my restless mind, each puzzle takes just the right amount of time – alt-tabbing Talos/Firefox is now a habit of mine. The way the stars tie the worlds together is such a sweet treat, at first glance ridiculous, impossible to beat; but then you walk around, study each puzzle once more, and you see all these details you didn't before; how this one cool fan trick shoots a crate over there, which you can stack with this other thing and get just clear of some fence or whatever with the color beam you need to open the gate that lets you proceed. I'm not all the way through, probably at about seven eights, so my final verdict will have to wait, but this game may well turn out my game of the year, to sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air.


  3. The stars, man. I'm still flabbergasted by that A4 star, because all the other stars – and I've done a good number by now – have had great, satisfying solutions, and that one is a dumb outlier. I wonder if I have to go back and see if I was missing an obvious clue all along. It seems more and more likely as I go through the later levels. There was another star solution that involved a crazy new mechanic that I think is unique to that one level, but at least there they cleverly tease you into discovering that mechanic using a mirror.

     

    But this game. So good. If The Witness is this satisfying, 2015 will be the year of fucking amazing first person puzzle games.


  4. I have to say, I haven't so far encountered any other puzzles with as lame solutions as the A4 star. They tend to be really, really good, and a satisfying way to finish up each world, as most of them tie several of the world's puzzles together in interesting ways.


  5. Well, fuck this game. Actually it's brilliant, and I love it, but seriously, the solution to the secret star in world A4 can fuck right off. At least, that's what it seem like to me. All the other stars I've found have had brain-racking solutions, but they all made sense, were consistent with the rules the game had taught me so far, and were deeply satisfying to work out. Then there's world A4, which, as far as I'm able to figure out, has a crazy, unheard of, out-of-place, ridiculous and infuriating element as part of the solution. After struggling for over an hour, searching everywhere and trying all sorts of insane set-ups, I get so frustrated I – for the first time with this game – resort to a hint guide, and it tells me someone put a

    goddamn laser reflector in a tree!

     

    So now I don't know if a star has a great solution that I'm just not getting, or if I'm wasting my time because the real trick is to wait until midnight and unplug my keyboard for five seconds or some similar nonsense.


  6. Time to commence internet stalking, and by that I mean reading every forum post going back however many years to see if I can glean any juicy details.

     

    I just wanted to confirm since there was some discussion earlier in the thread, we settled on $20-$25, correct?

     

    Yeah, though postage alone being over 25 USD, that would make for a terrible, empty box.


  7. Toblix - a weird choice to watch the director's cut after not having seen the film in so long. What made you go for that?

     

    Oh, that's weird? I always assumed the DC of any movie is the best version, closest to the original vision or whatever? DID I MAKE A MISTAKE?


  8. I watched Alien today, for the first time – I realized as I watched it – in over ten years.

    • It was the director's cut, which I don't exactly know what entails.
    • The cutting between fake rubber Bilbo head and prosthetic head was like totally jarring.
    • There was much more ass-crack and crotch in the final parts than I remembered.
    • I may not have paid enough attention, but I didn't exactly catch what happened in the parts before Ripley escaped in the pod. Why did she go down into the "kill me" room? Why did she try to disable the auto destruct?
    • The danging milk-mouth head fight scene was ten thousand times more awesome than I remember.
    • There was much less beard than I thought I remembered. Such clean-shaven.

  9. The trailer was very impressive, and I haven't seen any actual gameplay videos, but I have a question about the character animation in the trailer. Is there a school where people go an learn how to animate CG kids? Every little expression and movement of that little rascal felt pulled from somewhere, but I can't place it. Is there a repository of "excited kid shoots finger pistols" animations somewhere, or a popular how-to series of instructional videos? It's driving me insane; I feel like I've seen this exact stuff somewhere else before, like some sort of CGI character animation deja vu.


  10. It seems like a lot hinges on there being enough players actually trying to maintain the conceit of being a sneaky person on a ship, and not being a cool gamer jumping on chairs and railings. I felt like there were very obviously two "classes" of characters – the AI people who would awkwardly walk in place and hang out, and other people who very determinedly were on their way to their quarry. At no point did I feel like I ought to be a smooth James Bond and pretend to enjoy the view or whatever, which – if everyone did it – would probably make things more fun. I bet that the player needs (drinking, toiletting, sleeping, etc.) would induce that kind of "high-level" play once players got skilled enough, but it seems to me you'd have to invest a lot of time to get to that point.

     

    It was fun to hide in the toilet and kill everyone who entered.


  11. I thought these new 2.35:1 games just did it to be able to do a bunch of sweet graphics and still maintain 30fps. From what I've seen of this game, I would not be surprised if they came up with it towards the end of development – some of the maneuvering and combat seems hampered by the reduced vertical visibility. Maybe looking through promotional stuff could answer this.

     

    Here's a screenshot from April last year:

    tumblr_mlppwmZ3Vg1soa4pro1_1280_epic.jpg

    ... and here's from the released game, apparently:

    the-evil-within-pc-1413471448-080.jpg

     

    So from a quick googling, it looks like the cinematic aspect ratio wasn't part of the look of the game until relatively recently. Now that's what I call damning evidence. I don't know, it looks pretty cool but is too scary for me!!!


  12. Yes, the "horror" section was awful, though thankfully short, and easy to play through once you figure out what you need to do.

     

    This may be the the most beautiful, immersive game I've played, definitely up there with Riven and the Half-Life games. In fact, a lot of the aesthetics of Wanishing reminded me of Half-Life 2, and I think it has to do with the crisp lighting, Eastern European ambiance and realistic-looking buildings and infrastructure (and there's a dam!) The music is amazing, too. I'll definitely be listening a lot to the score in the future.

     

    I think the game's biggest weakness is that you risk getting lost, not knowing where you're supposed to go next. This happened to me when I got access to an elevator that took me back to an earlier point. Turns out this was only there for backtracking purposes, but it got me confused and frustrated enough to look up a FAQ. The store ties up quite nicely, I think, though it feels like it will feel even better with time, as my memories of the character animation and voice acting fade.

     

    I'm figuratively blown away by how amazing the environments of this game looks. With the exception of the mines, (which was just a poor location overall,) everywhere you go is just fucking mindblowingly good-looking. Can't wait to see what The Astronauts come up with next.


  13. I've played the first puzzle (the same thing they showed in the video) and expect this to quickly become a weird supernatural thing that doesn't engage me a million percent, but hopefully remain as wisually impressive and immersive as the first twenty minutes. Also, I was glad to find out that it's actually a linear game that lets you explore every area without worrying about heading the wrong way or missing important stuff.