Where are my Satellite Guy's gamers at?

[Zookster]

Good. Just finished Episode 3. Still a little lost in that there doesn't seem to be an overarching goal like Season 1, but we'll see if they pull something off in these next 2 episodes.

I was a little disturbed though when I saw this in Episode 3. Seems a little out of place in a game as serious as this..slightly NSFW and very small spoiler..

I didn't catch that. In fact, it took me a few seconds to realize what I was supposed to be seeing in that photo that might be disturbing. Weren't they in a building that used to be a comic book store in that scene. Is that a well-known character in comic books? If so, seems like relatively harmless easter egg humor for an M-rated game.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Here's my thoughts on Destiny based on the Beta..

I suppose it would be easy to just call this "Halo Meets Borderlands" but honestly that isn't far off of an assessment. Sure, it doesn't try to paint itself as that, but in essence that is what this is. Well, there is some competitive multiplayer in it, but it pulls that bullsh*t move of not opening up all the multiplayer modes at the start and forcing you to play "Domination" mode first before you can get into Deathmatch. Game developers, stop pulling this sh*t. You don't see this in other forms of entertainment. Imagine if you had Netflix and before you were allowed to watch Breaking Bad you had to watch 1 season of Malcolm In The Middle. That's what this feels like, and it sucks, especially when your teammates are about as competent as Ray Finkle in the Super Bowl and you lose hardcore and don't get enough experience points to get out of that type of match and have to keep doing so with minimal gains. Anyways I digress..

As far as the core experience goes, yes it's basically Borderlands. You have a hub, you go on various short 5-20 minute missions where you kill people, pick up something, then kill a boss of some kind, return to your ship, wash, rinse, repeat. This gets extra repetitive when they send you back to areas you've already beaten, but simply send you a little further through the level. They even ripped off having a robot partner, although to be fair, Ghost is a lot less annoying that Claptrap is. I am annoyed that they got Peter Dinklage to voice your robot companion and felt the need to give him a "robotic" voice. Maybe I've just gotten too used to Peter's beautiful, regular voice as Tyrion Lannister, but I find it odd that in this world, they've perfected space travel, but they can't get their machine AIs to speak without any sort of distortion.

It's not really fair to get too down on Destiny since this is just a Beta, but if this is indicative of the final experience then I don't see this being a top priority purchase for me. I'm sure this game will probably do well because it's from Bungie and Borderlands style gameplay seems to be the "cool thing" nowadays, but it looks like it's going to fall into that pit of "Only fun if you have a lot of friends to play with." Unfortunately I don't know a lot of people with a PS4, nor do I have a lot of gaming friends in general. Still, if you DO have a lot of friends and are into that 30 FPS, tried and true formula that Bungie has perfected for over a decade, then this will likely be a winner for you. For me, I think the next Bungie related purchase is going to be when I eventually get an Xbox One and get the Halo Collection.

 

[Zookster]

...


So let's talk about story. The story in this is quite well executed. It starts off as a simple murder mystery and grows into something much bigger. It's impossible to talk about this game and not draw comparisons to The Walking Dead as both are interactive narratives based on other material, and I have to say that this is similar but not a clone just with different characters. Yes, at the end of the day your decisions will not change the main story path, but they definitely make a difference in terms of overall experience. I played the game twice but had both playthroughs running in parallel, and I highly suggest everyone do this. It doesn't add too much time as the game is so short to begin with (it's less than 8 hours) and it gives a better understanding of the overall story. If you are dead set against doing so, I suggest at LEAST doing the last episode twice. You will be given a MAJOR choice and I suggest doing each option because the experience is drastically different, even if the end result is basically the same.

I just finished TWAU and really enjoyed how things got wrapped up. If I didn't have three other Telltale games purchased and yet to start, I'd be interested in replaying all five episodes of TWAU just to look more closely at how things got set up (playing the episodes over the course of several months, I forgot some of the details). But if I were to only replay the final episode, is the major decision you refer to ...

Spoiler

when Bigby finally corners Crooked Man and chooses either to take him in for the "trial" or to (presumably) finish him off ... in which case, do you just end up at the "trial" anyway?

Some have complained that the last episode sets up a cliffhanger and doesn't provide a satisfying ending. IMO this is rather unfounded, but don't be deluded into believing that this doesn't set up a second season because it certainly does, but to be fair it doesn't set it up as much as say, TWD does. The story of the first season is wrapped up regardless of the decisions you make, and there isn't a real "obligation" to get into Season 2 like TWD has. Without trying to spoil, the plot continuation is done in similar fashion to what was done in The Usual Suspects.

Are you referring to the dialogue montage ...

Spoiler

in Bigby's head just before he's given the choice to go after Narissa or let her go? If so, can you tell me what we supposedly learned from the dialogue. I know Narissa lied about Crooked Man being the one she heard ordering the murders, but is it worse than that?

I couldn't tell who was talking and what it added up to, and to be honest, I wasn't paying very close attention as it was getting late and I thought the game was over.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I just finished TWAU and really enjoyed how things got wrapped up. If I didn't have three other Telltale games purchased and yet to start, I'd be interested in replaying all five episodes of TWAU just to look more closely at how things got set up (playing the episodes over the course of several months, I forgot some of the details). But if I were to only replay the final episode, is the major decision you refer to ...

Spoiler

when Bigby finally corners Crooked Man and chooses either to take him in for the "trial" or to (presumably) finish him off ... in which case, do you just end up at the "trial" anyway?

Are you referring to the dialogue montage ...

Spoiler

in Bigby's head just before he's given the choice to go after Narissa or let her go? If so, can you tell me what we supposedly learned from the dialogue. I know Narissa lied about Crooked Man being the one she heard ordering the murders, but is it worse than that?

I couldn't tell who was talking and what it added up to, and to be honest, I wasn't paying very close attention as it was getting late and I thought the game was over.

Major Decision:

Spoiler

You do end up at the "trial" but basically you're left to explain and justify your actions. As far as content/dialogue goes it's completely different, as opposed to if you brought him to trial and ended up killing him when he crosses you.

Dialogue montage:

Spoiler

It proves that Narissa had a much bigger role in everything that happened than she put on. For one, she and the girls tried to take down The Crooked Man, and she killed Faith in order to get Bigby's attention (according to her) and she was involved in nearly every big incident including Lily's death. Also, her faulty testimony is what ends up putting The Crooked Man over when it comes to the trial (Honestly even I had a hard time believing all she said during that scene.) But the bigger reveal (or at least is implied) is that she is the real Girl With The Ribbon and not Vivian, because why else did she refuse to take off her ribbon? Of course I'm not sure why Vivian would lie at that point, but perhaps that will be revealed at a later date.

 

[Zookster]

Major Decision:

Spoiler

You do end up at the "trial" but basically you're left to explain and justify your actions. As far as content/dialogue goes it's completely different, as opposed to if you brought him to trial and ended up killing him when he crosses you.

Dialogue montage:

Spoiler

It proves that Narissa had a much bigger role in everything that happened than she put on. For one, she and the girls tried to take down The Crooked Man, and she killed Faith in order to get Bigby's attention (according to her) and she was involved in nearly every big incident including Lily's death. Also, her faulty testimony is what ends up putting The Crooked Man over when it comes to the trial (Honestly even I had a hard time believing all she said during that scene.) But the bigger reveal (or at least is implied) is that she is the real Girl With The Ribbon and not Vivian, because why else did she refuse to take off her ribbon? Of course I'm not sure why Vivian would lie at that point, but perhaps that will be revealed at a later date.

Thanks. I thought that might be the case with the alternate decision. Hopefully I can rewind to that point and avoid

Spoiler

the lengthy action sequence just prior. Like most Telltale games on the PS3, the controls are a major pain during any kind of action.

.

Thanks so much regarding the montage, a lot of that I got from

Spoiler

the discussion between Bigby and Narissa. But I totally didn't catch that Narissa could be the original girl w/ ribbon. That definitely opens the door to new plot developments in a season 2. Perhaps Vivian was protecting Narissa from/for someone/something bigger and badder?

 

[yourbeliefs]

I doubt you'll be able to rewind and skip that part beforehand, but really it is worth it to see the alternate ending scene.

 

[Zookster]

I doubt you'll be able to rewind and skip that part beforehand, but really it is worth it to see the alternate ending scene.

It turned out I was able to go right to the scene where

Spoiler

Bigby corners the Crooked Man. So, yeah, it was pretty cool to see Bigby and Snow put on trial. I played through to the end to hear the dialogue memories Bigby was having as Narissa walked away. I still didn't pick up anything from that. But after doing some research, I came across a few theories 1) Faith was already dead and that it was Narissa glamoured as Faith who spoke with Bigby in episode 1; 2) Faith was glamoured as Narissa to save her own ass, and it was Narissa's head glamoured to look like Faith that Bigby found; and lastly 3) Bloody Mary was glamoured as Narissa in that closing scene.

My vote is number 2. If you go back and listen to Bigby's final memories, it's all related to Faith, the donkeyskin, and the fact that they never got the autopsy info from Dr. Swineheart on Faith, leading to the possibility that the head was actually Narissa's, still glamoured because the tube wasn't discovered and opened as it was for Snow/Lily. And the reason "Narissa" still has the ribbon at the end is because it's a permanent part of the glamour Faith is using to look like her. Also bear in mind that Faith said "You're not as bad as people think you are" in episode 1, which are Narissa's last words to him.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Well I guess we won't know until Season 2...

In other news, I tried out Mario Kart 8. There really isn't much to say about this game. It's basically Mario Kart perfected, with the exception of the insanely DUMB decision to put battle mode on regular maps as opposed to Battle Mode Exclusive maps. If you have a Wii U (by some miracle) and you want a fun racing game then this is as definitive as it gets.

 

[Scherrman]

Well I guess we won't know until Season 2...

In other news, I tried out Mario Kart 8. There really isn't much to say about this game. It's basically Mario Kart perfected, with the exception of the insanely DUMB decision to put battle mode on regular maps as opposed to Battle Mode Exclusive maps. If you have a Wii U (by some miracle) and you want a fun racing game then this is as definitive as it gets.

I always loved the Mario Kart games. My son has been playing my Mario Kart game on the Wii a lot lately. He's only 5 so it's taking him a bit to get good at it.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I finished Episode 4 of TWD S2...

It's looking more and more like Season's 2 biggest flaw will be that it just isn't as good as Season 1. To be fair, Season 1 was a MARVEL and ranks in my all time gaming Hall of Fame, so a drop off isn't completely unexpected. I think the biggest issue, as I've mentioned before, is that there isn't a real overarching plot. The plot just seems to be to survive, and this isn't changed in Episode 4. If anything, given how Episode 4 ends, survival is the ONLY acceptable sort of resolution one can expect. I'm beginning to think that Season 2 was meant as a "bridge" between the beginning and eventual (hopeful) end coming with the next season. It's also becoming very clear that Season 1 doesn't really mean much. The choices you made in that mean very little in Season 2. All it really does from what I can tell is modify certain conversation pieces and choices. It doesn't really affect anything in the plot.

Having said all this, Season 2 is far from bad. It's very good actually. However, it would be wise for everyone to keep expectations in check, and to expect the same emotional pull that Season 1 had will likely lead to disappointment. I don't anticipate bawling my eyes out at the end like I did with Season 1, but you can bet I'm waiting with great anticipation for Episode 5.

I feel this picture best sums up the mood of Season 2..

 

[yourbeliefs]

Man... I'm definitely falling into that issue that us PC Gamers have nowadays of looking through their Non-Steam game libraries and saying, "Oh crap, I FORGOT that I owned that!" Going through my Amazon library was a little depressing, as I had to go through the ENTIRE thing to find the game I was originally looking for. FYI, looks like I'm in an RPG mood so I'm going to try and jump head first into Dragon Age: Origins. I got the Ultimate edition back in 2012, as well as the sequel for $9.99. Of course, if Super Mario 3D World or Wolfenstein come in that'll probably take some attention away from that.

 

[Zookster]

Knowing that Melissa Hutchison is a 38-year-old woman has given me a new appreciation of her voicework as Clementine. Being somewhat naive about voicework for animated entertainment mediums, I always assumed she was an adolescent until I heard her as Beauty in TWAU. As much as I liked Lee in TWD1, I think I like playing as Clementine more...seeing her growth and development under the circumstances, having to make such tough choices for her age. I haven't played the new episode yet, but I've pretty much decided to do a second "sassy-brat" playthrough of TWD2, though I'm not normally inclined to play these Telltale games more than once due to the lack of major differences depending on choices made.

 

[yourbeliefs]

So I've fired up Kentucky Route Zero (finally), and I'm not sure what to say..

The basic plot (if you can call it that) of KRZ seems to be that you play an antique delivery man who needs to make one final delivery and can't seem to find the address. I'm not kidding. That's what it looks like we're going with here. You play as a FedEx man from the 1980s. Allegedly this road known as Kentucky Route Zero is part of the way to get to said address, but I'm not even totally sure what role it's supposed to play.

This game's main drive seems to be to figure out what the hell is going on, because the game doesn't have much else going for it. The graphics are nice and simple, but perspective can be hard to figure out. Quite a bit of the dialog/explanations go on so long that I found myself too frequently just holding down the mouse button to make everything scroll faster. Also, said dialog is all written, which adds to the tedium. But so far the biggest issue I had was with the transitions between Act I and II. Without wishing to spoil, basically Act II starts in a place that you'd figure you'd get to significantly later in the game, and also gives you NO indication as to how you got there, as if you missed something or took a poop break at the wrong time and forgot to hit the pause button.

I suppose the best thing I can say about this game is that despite these rather glaring issues I am rather interested in what happens in the story. Unfortunately I have found myself quitting out of the game out of boredom a few times. Given the fact that I have the Season Pass and there's more episodes makes me not want to throw in the towel quite yet, but I still have yet to see what has led people to declare this such a good indie game..

FYI it appears the photo linking feature on Satguys is down because it's not letting me properly link to a photo off of Imgur. THat's why you may see some junk stuff at the bottom.

 

[Zookster]

I finished Episode 4 of TWD S2...

It's looking more and more like Season's 2 biggest flaw will be that it just isn't as good as Season 1. To be fair, Season 1 was a MARVEL and ranks in my all time gaming Hall of Fame, so a drop off isn't completely unexpected. I think the biggest issue, as I've mentioned before, is that there isn't a real overarching plot. The plot just seems to be to survive, and this isn't changed in Episode 4. If anything, given how Episode 4 ends, survival is the ONLY acceptable sort of resolution one can expect. I'm beginning to think that Season 2 was meant as a "bridge" between the beginning and eventual (hopeful) end coming with the next season. It's also becoming very clear that Season 1 doesn't really mean much. The choices you made in that mean very little in Season 2. All it really does from what I can tell is modify certain conversation pieces and choices. It doesn't really affect anything in the plot.

Having said all this, Season 2 is far from bad. It's very good actually. However, it would be wise for everyone to keep expectations in check, and to expect the same emotional pull that Season 1 had will likely lead to disappointment. I don't anticipate bawling my eyes out at the end like I did with Season 1, but you can bet I'm waiting with great anticipation for Episode 5.

I feel this picture best sums up the mood of Season 2..

View attachment 99699

I just finished episode 4, which now ranks as my least favorite of any TWD episode (season 1 or 2). Most of it felt like aimless filler. Still enjoyable, and I was pleased that it actually took me closer to 105 minutes to complete, rather than some of the other 75-minute episodes. However, regarding decisions,

Spoiler

I should have known saving Sarah in the trailer park means she would only survive until the next major zombie attack

.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I thought it wasn't bad. The reviews seem to be VERY polarizing for some reason. People either love it or absolutely despise it. I don't think I have a least favorite episode of either season simply because I view them as a whole, as opposed to just parts, not that there's anything wrong with that. Of course now I feel bad that I finished 4 ASAP because now begins the insufferable wait for the conclusion of the season.

I do hope that they don't stretch this story out for the sake of doing so, or pull some sort of BS move and eliminate Clementine and try to have the story carry on with some other character. I don't care about anyone else but her (relatively speaking) and I want to see how her story ends.

 

[Zookster]

I thought it wasn't bad. The reviews seem to be VERY polarizing for some reason. People either love it or absolutely despise it. I don't think I have a least favorite episode of either season simply because I view them as a whole, as opposed to just parts, not that there's anything wrong with that. Of course now I feel bad that I finished 4 ASAP because now begins the insufferable wait for the conclusion of the season.

I do hope that they don't stretch this story out for the sake of doing so, or pull some sort of BS move and eliminate Clementine and try to have the story carry on with some other character. I don't care about anyone else but her (relatively speaking) and I want to see how her story ends.

Clemente has always been the heart and soul of the TWD series. I don't see any scenario in which Telltale kills her off, unless she evolves (under the stresses of the environment) into an unlikeable, take-no-prisoners, homicidal maniac, and a more likeable character emerges in her place, which won't happen anytime this season.

Speaking of the wait until the next episode, I had a little trouble getting my bearings at the start of episode 4, sorting who some of the new people were, where they came from, and what happened to some of the people that were with Clementine at the start of episode 3. The "previously on ..." didn't cover it all for me. After episode 5 releases, I'll definitely go back and play straight through again.

 

[king3pj]

Well, I'm back from my vacation away from civilization. When I got back I found my mailbox overflowing with junk mail, bills, and my copy of Wolfenstein from Gamefly. I think I'll take a break from Saints Row 4 and check that out tonight.

 

[yourbeliefs]

So here's some early impressions of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West...

I should point out the turd in the punch bowl right away. Why is this game attaching itself to Journey To The West? For those that don't know, Journey to the West is an EXTREMELY popular old Chinese folk tale. This game claims to be a re-imagining of the story, but that's a VERY large stretch. If you care about the specifics, Google that name or you could always watch Stephen Chow's new movie series based on the story. If you want a similar example, it would be like if someone made a game called "Goodfellas" with characters named Henry, Tommy and Jimmy but they set it 2000 years in the future on a Star Trek ship. There's so little to tie it back to the original story that it makes you wonder why they even bothered. The only relation this game shares with the original story is the main character named Tripitaka and her companion is named Monkey. Other than that there is no similarity. Don't associate with a famous story if you're going to show it no justice or love.

Other than that, the game seems okay. 3rd person game mainly made up of platforming with the occasional beat-em-up section. I've definitely seen worse implementations of this formula, but Enslaved seems to pull it off okay. Also the main characters of Monkey and Trip have a decent chemistry together that seems somewhat organic, although the beginning seemed about as realistic as The Scorpion King. I definitely see myself pushing forward to see how this plays out, but I can definitely see how this didn't end up on many people's GOTY lists.

 

[king3pj]

I'm really liking Wolfenstein so far. It's much more than the generic military shooter I assumed it would be from all the preview coverage I saw. The game was not even on my radar until all the positive reviews started coming out. I had never played a Wolfenstein game before so I didn't have any real expectations.

I'm probably 4 or 5 hours in so my impressions are still early. The shooter gameplay is good and the story so far is much better than I expected it to be. I'll write up a more in depth mini-review once I finish the game. The plan is to get it back to Gamefly in time to be in the first wave of Destiny shipments.

 

[yourbeliefs]

That's been in my queue for a while unfortunately. I have Metal Gear Solid 5 coming in next, but given how short that is it shouldn't take too long to get done with it. I mainly added it because I just wanted SOMETHING to arrive in a timely fashion.