Jake

Idle Thumbs 183: The Anonymouses

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From what I've heard of Rebirth it starts out quite a bit easier but as you play it more and more stuff gets added, and every time you hit a new milestone it gets harder.  Pretty soon Mom is like the boss of level of 1.

One of the common complaints I heard about the original game was that, because of Wrath of the Lamb+other content updates, the game was much harder that it was on launch. New players who bought the game+expansion were having a really hard time, since expansion content was active immediately and couldn't be turned off. So in Rebirth some of the more difficult room/enemy layouts don't appear right away.

 

Chris was asking on the cast what the benefit of it being a new game was. As far as I know, the things that are different and wouldn't have been possible in flash are: 1) 60 fps (flash caps at 30), 2) reduced lag in crowded rooms (the flash version would lag even on fast machines), and 3) supposedly, as much new content as WotL (Edmund claimed the flash file wouldn't compile if they made it any larger than it already was). Another change that is really interesting to me is that items that effect your projectiles (like dr. fetus or brimstone) now stack in interesting ways rather than mostly overriding each other.

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I really really loved this episode.  My bf was really into Binding of Isaac, so I'm interested to see if h sinks another 200 hours into Rebirth.

 

My personal highlights of this episode were def Sean's Wyoming stories. They were just so perfect.

 

I cannot contain my excitement for Hatoful Boyfriend coverage next week.

I don't know how many people watched/are aware of the Metadating show (and the following Mostly Walking show) but that is where I was introduced to Hatoful Boyfriend, and by extension re-introduced to the visual novel/dating sim genre.

Here's that episode of Metadating:

 

This was episode one of Metadating, and none of them knew VN/dating sims well enough to identify all the tropes that are made fun of in Hatoful Boyfriend, but is still very enjoyable. If you're really interested in exploring the various pigeon paths, you might want to wait on the metadating ep because I think they spoil the storyline with the school's pigeon doctor.

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There was some misinformation regarding Evolve

 

1.  The human players don't immediately see the monster at the beginning of the match.  The monster has around a 15-20 second head start to run away from the hunters.  Odds are the players won't see the monster for several minutes.

 

Weird. I definitely loaded into a match where the monster was sitting right there. Maybe he was delayed loading into the game? In any case, I wish it took longer than a couple minutes for the chase to ensue.

 

Re: #2, yeah, I couldn't quite remember whether it was first or third. I think I was picturing the Left 4 Dead monster perspectives.

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JA! What do you mean my name is made up!!!! Damian Martini, I spent my whole life saying "Yeah, like the drink" "haha, yeah the one James Bond drinks" still love my last name though XD. Loved the comment about BigDaddy putting eye paint in Kick Ass, so true. We should all get over the fact that SuperHeroes are actually quite narcissistic.

 

I know my email was extremely long, sorry for that, however I would still like to get an answer for the EOY goals you set yourselves. The show is so awesome. Long live Waluigi!!!!

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hris was asking on the cast what the benefit of it being a new game was. As far as I know, the things that are different and wouldn't have been possible in flash are: 1) 60 fps (flash caps at 30), 2) reduced lag in crowded rooms (the flash version would lag even on fast machines), and 3) supposedly, as much new content as WotL (Edmund claimed the flash file wouldn't compile if they made it any larger than it already was). Another change that is really interesting to me is that items that effect your projectiles (like dr. fetus or brimstone) now stack in interesting ways rather than mostly overriding each other.

That's what I heard as well, the project was completely unmanageable in flash so to continue adding to it would require remaking it in something else.

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Before finishing this episode, I thought the title referred to another imaginary animal pun game where you play as mice with secret identities.

 

This should also be made. Have there been enough goofy pun titles and game ideas on the Thumbs 'cast that a What Would Molydeux? style jam could be organised? Bit tough on the person who wrote in to ask if they could make Super Briefly, I guess.

 

I find it hard to believe that the before half of the Batman comparison video is really the quality it has been broadcast at up 'til now. Unless they deliberately picked a dreadful version of it, I guess my mind always up-rezzed it... Still, it's totally true about old movies getting the short shrift on SD - I bet that majorly contributes to the amount of people who can't stand to watch black and white movies or old movies or whatever. (I met someone at a wedding recently, who declared they refused to watch any movie made before 1980. She had a massive Alien (xenomorph) Queen tattoo on her arm, so I guess it's a good thing that sequel bothers to sum up what happened in the first, 1979 movie.) The example that always sticks in my mind is A Matter Of Life And Death. Years ago, I went to see it at the cinema, and then it happened to be playing on telly the next day. The difference was staggering, all the vibrant colours were sapped into a flat, pastel drone. I realised that I associated 50s movies with that drab cinematography and subsequently thought of them as dull themselves, but actually I was just seeing nerfed versions of them.

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I think part of the old movie bias is also in people's assumption that we've gotten better at films, and so the old ones just aren't worthwhile. When realistically it's mostly filmic techniques that have improved, so movies have more tools to communicate to viewers but what they're communicating has not gone through a massive quality change.

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Yeah, plus I guess these people (I can't think of a clever name for them - is there an existing term? Kind of the opposite of Luddite, I guess) see the stylistic differences (acting, pacing etc) as inferior rather than different.

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According to this Reddit thread there are people out there who think anything made before 2000 is too old to watch. Kinda veering off-topic here, but: anyone here bringing up kids, please follow John Landis' example and make sure they get used to watching old stuff like Laurel And Hardy or Gone With The Wind or whatever before they start going to sleepovers and finding out that none of their friends watch anything that wasn't put up on Netflix that day.

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2000!? I've seen some of the first movies ever made by Melies and the Lumiere brothers, there's still entertainment to be had there.

I know that opinions aren't wrong... but that opinion is flat out wrong.

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Can someone please post a link to Danielle's itch.io? That also should probably be added to the list of games discussed.

 

Thanks.

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Weird. I definitely loaded into a match where the monster was sitting right there. Maybe he was delayed loading into the game? In any case, I wish it took longer than a couple minutes for the chase to ensue.

 

Re: #2, yeah, I couldn't quite remember whether it was first or third. I think I was picturing the Left 4 Dead monster perspectives.

 

Maybe your monster guy stopped to have a snack rather than run away in the beginning.  Although I'm pretty sure the game will prompt you to run at the start because of how weak you are.  I haven't played it yet, only seen footage of it.

 

And with regard to the perspectives, its probable that you were thinking of the L4D games.  In Valve fashion, they use the perspective as an indicator of player control.  When you're in first person, you have control and are inhabiting the character.  When you're in third person, you've lost control because the character has lost control (the exception to this is the Jockey, which I remember they were nervous about doing at the time).  Perhaps that's what you were thinking of.

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If you are going to play Hatoful Boyfriend, I have to say that the best part of this novel only is available when you've unlocked every other ending... It is more than worth it.  :eyebrow:

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I haven't listened to the whole episode, but i thought you were going to bring up titan fall instead of destiny when talking about online mp only games.

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If you are going to play Hatoful Boyfriend, I have to say that the best part of this novel only is available when you've unlocked every other ending... It is more than worth it.  :eyebrow:

 

Chris'll love that! :tup:

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Before finishing this episode, I thought the title referred to another imaginary animal pun game where you play as mice with secret identities.

 

Same. At least, I was hoping.

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This should also be made. Have there been enough goofy pun titles and game ideas on the Thumbs 'cast that a What Would Molydeux? style jam could be organised? Bit tough on the person who wrote in to ask if they could make Super Briefly, I guess.

I find it hard to believe that the before half of the Batman comparison video is really the quality it has been broadcast at up 'til now. Unless they deliberately picked a dreadful version of it, I guess my mind always up-rezzed it... Still, it's totally true about old movies getting the short shrift on SD - I bet that majorly contributes to the amount of people who can't stand to watch black and white movies or old movies or whatever. (I met someone at a wedding recently, who declared they refused to watch any movie made before 1980. She had a massive Alien (xenomorph) Queen tattoo on her arm, so I guess it's a good thing that sequel bothers to sum up what happened in the first, 1979 movie.) The example that always sticks in my mind is A Matter Of Life And Death. Years ago, I went to see it at the cinema, and then it happened to be playing on telly the next day. The difference was staggering, all the vibrant colours were sapped into a flat, pastel drone. I realised that I associated 50s movies with that drab cinematography and subsequently thought of them as dull themselves, but actually I was just seeing nerfed versions of them.

I don't think the fuzziness is ENTIRELY the fault of SD video itself as a standard -- it's guaranteed to partly be the fault of very old film to video telecine transfer technology. A lot of film used to be transferred to tape basically by projecting it into a small screen that a video camera was pointed at (unideal!), and then copied from tape to tape after that (which is a very lossy process).

Now film is transferred to video by being scanned in, the way you would scan a photo developed to a slide to run in National Geographic (aka an incredibly high quality-retaining process designed to preserve as much detail as possible).

For instance before Twin Peaks was on Blu Ray it was re scanned and cleaned up on DVD and it already looked a million times better than it had in years but was still SD. The quality then went over the top with the HD release a few years later. So I think it's a few aspects at work.

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Isn't Titanfall an example that didn't do that well, similar to how the Thumbs currently feel about Evolve?

Maybe? I have no idea how well titan fall sold.

Also you can kinda turn on original art in the new boi. There's an option in the menu's which blurs the pixels together to make it look more like the original.

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Also you can kinda turn on original art in the new boi. There's an option in the menu's which blurs the pixels together to make it look more like the original.

 

Yeah but it's basically some AA filter on top of the pixelated style, not the original art. I think it makes it look worse personally.

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For me at least, the appeal of BoI not being in flash and running at a steady frame rate is a big draw. I really liked the concepts in the original and played like 40 hours of it but I stopped because the lagging just felt bad (something Edmund said was an issue himself). I recently heard they lost Danny's music though which seems terrible.

 

I really enjoyed the glass clink after mentioning Chris' "Video Games" shirt.

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Some great work has been done restoring Star Trek in a similar manner (a show which I will take any excuse to talk about). Trek is so effects-heavy that some extra jiggery-pokery had to be done. In The Next Generation, all the original effects shots were composited onto tape, so the restoration effort involved taking all the separate film elements and compositing them anew, along with replacing effects altogether when they didn't have usable sources. They did a great job of maintaining the original intent, and it just looks like a ridiculously high quality version of the show.

 

On interesting side note: when filming Star Trek, they knew they were targeting SD television screens, with all the relevant limitations. So they would cut corners on things that wouldn't be visible at TV resolution. For instance, star fields outside the windows were often literally black curtains with dots painted on them.

 

But in the HD transfers, you get enough detail, to see some of these artifacts. I guess that might bother some people, although I think it's more cool than distracting. I don't think anything is lost because the whole thing is self-evidently artificially theatrical to begin with so seeing the set dressing is like complaining about unrealistic backgrounds in a stage play. The point is to give you IDEA of where they are, not to be a perfect representation.

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