DeathSpank

[syntheticgerbil]

Ahhhh, I guess I finished Thongs of Virtue on a marathon, even though I shouldn't have been. It's super addicting. Everything that sucked about the first Deathspank was either made in smaller doses or gotten rid of altogether.

I'm really happy the enemies this time around are not overwhelmingly just a ton of forest animals. There's a few but it's really hardly notable. The only really shocking kill is

after you sleep with the prostitute in every position possible, you then learn you have to kill her and take her heart to further your quest! A little bit overbearing! Even then, it sort of lends it's way to the "bad ending," where Deathspank stops at nothing for justice, no matter what carnage.

There was I think three item combinations the whole second game, but really it felt tons more adventurey than the first. I guess this is where I was hooked. The little subquests all tied together much more nicely with the story and furthering your trek, as well as they all seemed to gel and overlap eachother in a much more graceful manner. The variety of things you do in the second Deathspank is much more endearing as well. I guess there was still lot's of "go fetch," so it wasn't heavy adventuring, but I found some of the nods great, especially the MI2 library reference.

Less juvenile junk in the writing and dialogue this time, but a satisfying amount, as well as parts where even Deathspank can stop turning every line into a joke. I'm really just left wanting more. This was that fun!

I thought the end was

going to have a super lame twist which it did not, and I'm grateful for that.

I don't think that's a spoiler, but I'm putting it as one.

The runestones are all there this time, the weapons, chests, and armor all seem to be completely laid out in a much more progressive manner. Also I noticed they got rid of a lot of the frustrating potion sizes for everything except the main ones. Very good idea, since you fill your inventory fast gathering crap you don't exactly need.

Also I'm curious to play it again midway somewhat because the part where you go to kill the nun,

you can obtain a monk disguise and wander through the dungeon without being attacked. I was doing this and started getting these bandito clothes (a precursor to the western part after that), and couldn't help myself but to start wearing a black hat and boots with my monk outfit, ruining my disguise.

So I just killed everyone.

But then it dawned on me afterwards that the end of the dungeon might have been solved with dialogue as you can also avoid fighting the five gods before the nun as well. I'm wondering if this means you could avoid killing the nun in a typical boss fight fashion.

I think there were a few other parts of the game you could solve without fighting, but I'm not sure.

Couldn't figure out how to answer the leprechaun guarding the bridge's riddles, so I was just a bastard and picked a fight with him. Anyone know if there's a "nonviolent" way to solve it?

I could have definitely done well with multiple save slots.

I have it for ps3. I'm not very far in though.

I read on the hothead forums that there's a gamebreaking bug further on and with Civ5 to occupy my time, I think I'm going to wait for a patch before continuing.

I had this bug as well. It wasn't game breaking for me, so I don't think you should fear to go on. I'm amazed a lot of people seem to be ready to start over from the beginning, as the bug is at the very end, because of what this Hothead employee said on the forum. I left my reply of a possible solution that worked for me.

I'm pretty sure you also can't solve it by checking the Lost and Found.

On PS3Trophies.org, someone said they basically got around the bug by resurrecting at the outhouse after letting the reindeer horde kill him. I was able to make Roodolph appear by almost doing the same thing, except I had killed the guys below the reindeer pen first, so no one was around to kill me. Went through the dungeon again, then they were back (but not the reindeer), and I allowed the respawned guys to kill me, making Roodolph appear in plain sight when resurrected.

I'm guessing you really just have to resurrect at that outhouse to fix the bug, so it's possible you can just kill yourself with something or maybe teleport back and forth?

There's a library in the first town which has a book in it called "The Secret of Monkey Island by Ron Gilbert" which is amusing, but I couldn't find any way to read the book once I had checked it out/put it in my inventory. Guess Deathspank is too concerned with vanquishing evil to be bothered reading.

Haha, I found it funny it basically works exactly like the Monkey Island 2 library.

So basically this is two halves of the same game, according to Ron. I'm really quite interested in getting to see the "whole arc" that he talks about really kicking in in Part 2. It's also interesting to note that the game's original message being reflected in the game's production with "biting irony". What could that mean?

Now that you bring that up, I'm not sure what he means by that at all besides it maybe taking a shot at the industry, especially since the game has two endings.

Regardless of how Mr. Chris Remo insists I'm looking for something that isn't there, I'm still convinced Gilbert left Hothead for a (yet undisclosed) reason.

I agree, it seems like he's a little irked in that interview.

EDIT: It appears that the resurrection fix I used to get around the Roodolph missing bug does not work for everyone, according to the Hothead forums. However, if you know about this bug before you play, you can prevent your game from being ruined pretty easily.

I followed up and relayed some information between the user on the PS3Trophies.org thread who was doing a bunch of tests and the distraught people in the Hothead forums, and the Hothead guys sort of released an official statement on a fix before they can patch for now: http://www.hotheadgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=346&p=1419#p1419

Basically it seems like if you don't quit the game if Roodolph doesn't appear you should be okay and get him to appear by killing yourself in the area somehow, even if you killed all the other reindeer first. So everyone should be fine if they know this ahead of time. Making a back-up of your save file once reaching the North Pole should safeguard you as well.

Edited November 24, 2010 by syntheticgerbil

[Hermie]

Hey, I heard there were guys here that was waiting for Deathspank to hit the PC?

Pre-order up, releasing Oct. 26. I might go for the Shank & 'Spank double pack.

[elmuerte]

Woohoo

[thorn]

Goddamned, finally.

Though it's more or less the same time as Costume Quest. What a time to be hit by two RPG-ishes.

EDIT: Is this both Deathspanks? Or just the first game?

[syntheticgerbil]

Pretty sure it's just the first game.

Also I had read on the Hothead forums a while back that this was coming to Steam, since some guy hacked it or something and found an upcoming release date. I don't know how this works, but everyone was super ANGREH at him.

Anyway, the good news is the guy was right.

[Kolzig]

YES!

[Kolzig]

Holy shit, today is the day.

[brkl]

Uh, what day?

[thorn]

Holy shit, today is the day.

So it is.

*hits INSTALL button*

*goes back to marking assignments that were meant to be returned yesterday*

[Kolzig]

Uh, what day?

The glorious Deathspank for PC day.

[Sleepdance]

Does anyone else get a “save failed“ error after changing the resolution?

[elmuerte]

This game is absolutely awesome. Just finished the first ... erm... segment?

[Erkki]

Is it Windows only?

[ThunderPeel2001]

Is it Windows only?

I hope that was a joke. Lol.

[miffy495]

I think he's asking if there's a Mac version. That, I'm not sure of.

[elmuerte]

Jobs allows people to play games on macs?

[Kolzig]

Installed the game yesterday, hopefully during the weekend I get some time to play it for the first time. This one goes to the top of the "to play" list

[toblix]

Jobs allows people to play games on macs?

It's a known issue – they're working on it.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Jobs allows people to play games on macs?

Usually only in the evenings, otherwise you get fired.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I think he's asking if there's a Mac version. That, I'm not sure of.

Actually I thought he was asking if there was a Linux version... After all the trouble and hoo-ha about getting a PC release I just thought it was ironic that the first question was "but what abut Linux?"

[Erkki]

Actually I thought he was asking if there was a Linux version... After all the trouble and hoo-ha about getting a PC release I just thought it was ironic that the first question was "but what abut Linux?"

Well, if there's a Mac version, there might as well be a linux one. But I was asking about Mac (because I don't really have a PC right now, except for a laptop I got from my new employer).

[Hermie]

Nope, Steam only has the Windows icon on it.

[elmuerte]

This game is quite excellent.

Got to a village filled with huge troll like creatures... "pips" or something. It's past the loud monks. Those creatures needed quite a different attack strategy.

Difficulty is just about right. The writing is just awesome.

[Kolzig]

I played around a bit yesterday evening before going to sleep and those were some of the best minutes I've had in long time while playing a game.

I will have to find more time around the weekend to really start playing the game.

The writing is excellent.

[MrHoatzin]

Won't play on my computer :( Says my graphic card is not fancy enough for it.

:\

It played Far Cry 2 and Fallout 3 relatively ok.