mikemariano

Phaedrus' Street Crew
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Posts posted by mikemariano

  2. Posted

    I would like to invite all of you to the world premiere of my play: The Cloak of Horus!

     

    post-8337-0-61763800-1442462328_thumb.jpg

     

    It's funny!  It's existential!  It's next week!

     

    The play runs next Thursday 9pm, Saturday 1pm, and Sunday 6pm at the Hudson Guild Theatre in midtown New York.  There's a Facebook page and ticket page with more information.  This is the first time I've produced one of my full-length plays and I feel really lucky to have as smart a cast as I do.

     

    ...Even though there are surprisingly few New York City-area Thumbs.  It might only be me and Blambo.

     

    Hey Blambo, come see my play!

  3. Posted

    This morning I made it halfway through the Retronauts 30th Anniversary episode of Super Mario Bros., in which biased journalist Chris Kohler admits he never played every level of Super Mario Bros.  So Danielle's article about the bad Mario Maker levels of Kohler and other journalists is a good idea—fake gamers are everywhere!

     

    It's such a joy to hear Danielle and Jake talk about Mario.  It's also a joy to hear Chris use "full release" (32:33) in a sentence and then hear Nick snicker in the background.

  4. Posted

    I tossed off my self-imposed restriction and switched to Vella, but even now the game doesn't seem to encourage that.  Shay and Vella are not working together to solve puzzles.  Clicking on their portrait feels like an "I give up" button.

     

    And I guess I should spoiler this even though it's vague:

     

    Vella has actual motivation, new characters (sort of), and new areas!  Why even have Shay be playable?

  5. Posted

    I'll have to review this full thread later but I'm surprised just how miserable some of the Act II puzzles are.  After solely playing as Vella, then Shay for Act I, I am playing as Shay in Act II and not switching to Vella until Shay is done.

     

    The knot puzzle wasn't hard, but it was harsh and made me feel dumb even when I made a right choice.

     

    The wire puzzle is impossible based on the rules I have imposed on myself.  I almost want to quit the game instead of muddle the storytelling.

     

    Overall, the structure for Act II is really disappointing:

     

    It's just Act I with the other character and absolutely no new areas or characters.  It seems unnecessarily confining.  It also doesn't resonate; Shay doesn't seem guilty enough about his (seeming) murder spree, and other than that he's a blank slate character in this land.

  13. Posted

    I liked that my character got hungry and I ate food.

     

    I would set out each day making sure I had enough food to survive in the wasteland.  When I stayed out too long and got tired and ran out of food I would go back to Goodsprings.

     

    In that way Hardcore mode made me roleplay.  HP and caps never came into my way of thinking.

  20. Posted

    My completionist tendencies are conflicting with what my character would do in the moment. Help!

     

    Me, too!  I am doing what my character would do in the moment.

     

    After replaying Dragonfall in its Director's Cut form, I realize I had even fewer missions than during my first playthrough, so I am sure there is definitely a danger of missing out on missions in Hong Kong, too.

  22. Posted

    Now that I've finished Pillars of Eternity I picked Broken Age back up.  I think I played it wrong!

     

    I have been playing as Vella—I'm vaguely aware that there are two characters and suspect that the portrait on the inventory screen is intended to switch to the other character, a boy in space.  But I never touched it.

     

    In my playthrough, Vella just awoke a middle-aged man who has been in suspended animation since his spaceship crashed—and I can only imagine that this is the other playable character, and I've ruined my playthrough by not switching to him to see his story.

     

    So is that a problem?  Can you ruin the narrative for Broken Age for yourself?

  23. Posted

    I will most likely never play this game or any Fallout games, but the title of this thread cracks me up every time I see it. Thanks Mike.

     

    You're welcome!  As a Mac user who doesn't have a console or place to plug one in anymore I will likely never play this game, either.

     

    I'm unsure if I like location-emphasized Fallout, though.  "It's Boston, but it's terrible!" "It's Washington, but it's ruined!"  At least Las Vegas got to be somewhat-normal Vegas, and it was only when you scratched the surface did you see the cannibals and warlords hidden underneath.

  25. Posted

    I'm a liar.  I gave Pillars of Eternity one more chance and beat it tonight.

     

    I enjoyed the story; I only like high fantasy when it connects its lore and worldbuilding to its characters, and Obsidian did an OK job of that.

     

    Ninety-Three, that is an accurate description of combat in this game, though this time I got to say: "Hmmm, it's the final fight; let me finally use all of the priest's different spells!"