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Jake

Idle Thumbs 112: The Cast Of Us

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A couple of weeks ago I made a thing that's not exactly the theme song for the 70's TV sitcom The Cast of Us, but it's not too far off.

 

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I don't think that is true. I think "less is more" can actually apply here and be important. I don't think the emotional impact of a journey story comes literally from the amount of time spent experiencing that story, rather it's the amount of experiences you amass along the journey which make it feel resonant. I think you want PARTS of the story to make you experience literally every footstep taken to get from one place to another, but that's not what you want ALL THE TIME... unless the game is actually a narrativeless simulation (like Day Z). But The Last Of Us is an interactive narrative experience, undeniably, and stories don't work the way you're describing. At least not exclusively.

"Boards management game" - solid

 

Yeah I was kind of disagreeing with myself even as I wrote the 'more is more' sentiment because I agree in general it's a bad thing and waters down the narrative. It just doesn't seem to do that here. Part of the reason for that is felt in the scene changes. Some of the later game scene changes are... astounding. Like, as in "I just played an entire game already and now here's more game but it's tonally miles away from what I just played." Something not unlike the scene changes in Red Dead Redemption - though a common critique of that game is that certain areas go on for far too long, so maybe that's a bad example. Or a good example of why I'm wrong. Argh.

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A couple of weeks ago I made a thing that's not exactly the theme song for the 70's TV sitcom The Cast of Us, but it's not too far off.

Ha. Pretty good.

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more that they way they DID choose to abstract it (and the repetitiveness of that solution) to me doesn't capture what it seems like they were trying to capture. And I think if there were simply less of all this stuff, it would be less apparent to me.

There is actually a singular and beautiful reason for the repetition. But your feelings about this game currently are of course valid. I felt the same way at this stage of the game.

Radiator Blog- "Press F to Intervene"- a brief history of the Use Key Genre

http://www.blog.radiator.debacle.us/2013/06/press-f-to-intervene-brief-history-of.html

Is a critique as to how Bioshock Infinite's rote interaction undercut it's emotional resonance.

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I guess the boards management would bother me more if it wasn't accompanied by the nearly constant conversation between Joel and Ellie. I don't mind repetition as long as I get the sense that the characters would actually do this and comment on it rather than you will have to grind these mobs for x hours to beat this next boss, which has resulted in me quitting many a RPG

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I didn't say the very presence of those things dilute it, just that the sheer volume of it does. The hundredth time I go through a combat encounter, I'm not actually learning anything new or revelatory (even marginally so) about the relationship between these people.

I'm having trouble explaining exactly how I feel about this, so I'll give it a shot but I'm sorry if I'm unclear. I do agree that the game doesn't explicitly tell you anything new about the relationship between the characters through its many combat encounters. But as I played my way through the combat encounters, with Joel helping Ellie and Ellie helping Joel, I felt differently about the characters. The experience of working together made me feel that the characters were bonding and learning about one another. I had an emotional connection with the characters that I wouldn't have had if I hadn't spent so much time with them. So in that sense the length of the game may not have really helped the narrative, but I doubt I would be as drawn into the game if I hadn't spent so much time with it. Of course, the reason I was willing to spend that time with them was largely because I enjoy the gameplay; if I didn't enjoy the combat encounters I'd probably feel a lot more like you feel.

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I do enjoy them in a general sense, but the volume of them is what makes me enjoy them less.

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Tess the Hedgehog

 

I appreciate that hedgehog me has Hatsune Miku sleeves.

 

a2D5V60.jpg

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I do enjoy them in a general sense, but the volume of them is what makes me enjoy them less.

Fair enough. Personally, I don't really see a difference between them and Zuma levels, for example. They are both mechanically pleasing to me: I would play them with or without a story attached. The fact that there are ton of Zuma levels and a ton of Last of Us encounters doesn't make me like either game less.

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Fair enough. Personally, I don't really see a difference between them and Zuma levels, for example. They are both mechanically pleasing to me: I would play them with or without a story attached. The fact that there are ton of Zuma levels and a ton of Last of Us encounters doesn't make me like either game less.

I might theoretically play a bunch of Last of Us combats in a game that wasn't so dedicated to presenting a coherent narrative, but that theoretical game isn't the one in question. I don't think you can separate them out that way. Just like in any other creative work, all parts of the thing should more or less support each other. The inclusion of something in one game doesn't make it equally valid in another. If you do find the way those things all work together in this game to be appropriate and well-pitched, that's of course totally fine!

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A couple of weeks ago I made a thing that's not exactly the theme song for the 70's TV sitcom The Cast of Us, but it's not too far off.

 

Bravo!

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I kind of agree and disagree with the notion Last of Us diluted it's impact by stretching out game mechanics when a more dense experience could have been had. For those who have finished the game,

I feel that the length and density of each seasonal arc was intentional. Summer was this long plodding season of unending infected where each encounter was much like the last. So much is presented in a very visceral fashion and of such an intensity that there's very little contrast or time for contemplation. You start the season just awe struck, but it becomes this slow grind through the sordid muggy details that follow.


Fall is quieter. The quiet moments are punctuated by bursts of spectacular brutality. You're given time to soak in the environments, to get a real feel for what was lost and how things have changed and are presented with how different life has been for Ellie vs Joel. Gone is the plodding never ending encounters and are replaced by these really dense fast bursts of action and stealth that end as suddenly as they begin.

Winter slowly builds in intensity beginning with the quietest scene in the entire game. We start with this silent snow covered forest with bright colours punctuating the unblemished snow, then we're led into an abandoned town and resort with increasingly washed out palettes, eventually ending in a near white out blizzard. The intensity and pace of the encounters increases as the palette and contrast become non-existant, both visually and in terms of gameplay. The season doesn't drag on like summer, or come in bursts like fall, but builds at a steady pace with an even length ending just as the brutal pace of encounters peaks.

Spring is a breath of fresh air and the very quick and short length of season punctuates that feeling. What few encounters there exist are quick and more of finesse than brutality. And there's a god damn herd of giraffes.

Then there's the Firefly Lab. I'm not talking about the Firefly Lab.

 

When I was still playing through the Boston and Pittsburg, I felt the game was dragging on too much and the mechanics were too repetitious, but my opinion of the length and spread of the mechanics changed quite a great deal by the end. I don't think you can really make an educated judgement on the matter until you've finished the game in this case.

 

That being said, there were definitely quite a few moments in the game that really felt like it was suddenly very much a video game, but I don't feel like it's necessarily a function of the length or repetitiousness of the verbs the game is built around, just how artfully they're employed.

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Doug the Hedgehog is about 3 seconds away from making an 80s breakdancing video.

 

those are some handsome shoes.

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My nickname of choice at work has three hedgehogs associated with it, and one of them is female. Interesting. Never heard of a female "Rusty".

 

Also I hate all of you for igniting my morbid curiosity. Yuck.

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I'm pleased (horrified?) to find out that Ben the Hedgehog has a wiki page: http://sonicfanon.wikia.com/wiki/Ben_the_Hedgehog

 

It's got a nice deprecating tone to it: "Ben is an 8 year old hedgehog that came from a different world. He is good at sword fighting, but doesn't excel at it. He doesn't really have many abilities to speak of. He can also determine the hardness of his quills, but that doesn't come in handy often. He's very happy usually, but whenever the situation gets frustrating, he can get really angry. He isn't in very many most of the time, so he's usually cheerful."

 

Sounds like someone just learned what a Mary Sue is.

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God Sean asking if Kevin Bacon read the Zodiac on audible reminds me of when I was a little kid and would ask my parents "What If?" for some of the most ridiculous things. It drove them insane... This doesn't really have to do much with anything, but my brain immediately jumped there when Sean said that.

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Chris jokingly calling the sequel to TLOU "The Last of Us 2: Even More of Us" reminded me of this self-referential title:

 

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While obviously there's a billion titles that are spoken from the protagonist's point of view, "We're Back" always struck me as particularly odd.

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For purely selfish reasons i'd love if all the thumbs crew finished the Last of Us and talked about it next week. I think anyone who manages to get to the beginning of Winter (which is probably like 60% done?) would see the game through to its end

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