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A couple more days and we'll be back to banging (on the drum)! Oh meant to say you have seriously improved this game immeasurably with the music choices. It was an amazing move and it's seriously sad the original game does not sport such a soundtrack.
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# ? Dec 28, 2013 08:22 |
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# ? Apr 27, 2024 12:35 |
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Gotta love early 2000's game design: If you don't know something is going to happen you are hosed. If you know something is going to happen we made it difficult enough that you may be hosed. Enjoy the checkpoint four setpieces back!
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# ? Dec 28, 2013 08:44 |
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Yeah, I just went and watched your Shogo LP for the music alone. It's amazing how a rescoring can so drastically improve the whole experience, especially with these high-energy shooters. Also, I think I can partially explain why this game misses the mark as an FPS. The developers may have been competent, but their problem was more that they were outside of their genre comfort zone. See, Warthog fell under the umbrella of Digital Anvil, which was Chris Roberts' company after he left Origin. That means this game was made by the same people who made Starlancer and the later Wing Commander and Privateer games - space sims, the lot of them. You can definitely see it when comparing the polish levels between the flight and foot sections. Currently a decent percentage of the devs for Squadron 42 have Mace Griffin in their resumes, since the Roberts brothers have been getting the gang back together for their new project. Considering that it's another space sim/FPS hybrid I guess that makes sense, but thankfully this time they're putting the spaceflight first and the on-foot stuff second. Kiavahr fucked around with this message at 09:39 on Dec 28, 2013 |
# ? Dec 28, 2013 09:37 |
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JossiRossi posted:A couple more days and we'll be back to banging (on the drum)! Lazyfire posted:Gotta love early 2000's game design: If you don't know something is going to happen you are hosed. If you know something is going to happen we made it difficult enough that you may be hosed. Enjoy the checkpoint four setpieces back! Kiavahr posted:Also, I think I can partially explain why this game misses the mark as an FPS. The developers may have been competent, but their problem was more that they were outside of their genre comfort zone. See, Warthog fell under the umbrella of Digital Anvil, which was Chris Roberts' company after he left Origin. That means this game was made by the same people who made Starlancer and the later Wing Commander and Privateer games - space sims, the lot of them. You can definitely see it when comparing the polish levels between the flight and foot sections. Also here's a song I've been bumping a lot today. Can't use it in the LP because it has lyrics, and the lyrics are also kinda funny https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNVGfV2lXVY
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# ? Dec 29, 2013 19:58 |
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Having enemies war with each other is the best. I realize that must be a bitch to program, but it does a lot to endear a game to me. You feel like there's a living world and not just a bunch of dudes with a "kill player" as their only goal in life, it adds an extra layer of strategy, it immerses the player in the story, man I could just go on.
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# ? Dec 30, 2013 00:22 |
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Tin Tim you replacing the soundtrack on this game is literally my favorite thing. After each episode I find myself finding the songs on youtube and I just end up going on for hours for the new songs I'm discovering. A shame the game itself didn't sport these tracks. Props for supplementing them, they're awesome and your editing is so spectacular with them I forget sometimes that the game didn't include them itself.
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# ? Dec 30, 2013 06:18 |
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dancinginfernal posted:Tin Tim you replacing the soundtrack on this game is literally my favorite thing. I'll second this one. The replacement tracks really are a great addition to the LP and I'm glad Tim is taking the time to do this because it just sounds so much better than anything the game would have provided.
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# ? Dec 30, 2013 14:15 |
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Yeah, this is definitely the level that caused me to stop playing the game back when it first came out. I'm getting flashbacks because of all those snipers
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# ? Jan 1, 2014 07:19 |
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Chapter 3 - Sharp Shooter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKY1TSCk7FU After fighting his way through the outskirts of the colony, Mace now makes his way into the mines, to look for a route to the command center. Cantrell and his goons are holed up in there, and they have probably figured out that Mace is on the way. Can he stop them before they flee and nuke the whole colony? Wildlife Spearlegs - Three-legged beings are relatively rare in explored space, but the spearlegs have proved highly successful in their native biosphere. Moving very quickly on three legs, they are capable of outrunning most prey on the wide-open plains. Their staple diet is a small rodent-like creature that moves among the grasses and burrows in the soft ground, but even a lone spearleg will not scruple to prey on humans, which is one of the reasons Gado ranchers go armed. Also jerks. Tin Tim fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Jan 5, 2014 |
# ? Jan 5, 2014 22:12 |
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Sorry for the delay, but editing and uploading this one was a bitch. There just wasn't a good split point, so this one is longer than I usually like my videos to be.Polaron posted:Yeah, this is definitely the level that caused me to stop playing the game back when it first came out. I'm getting flashbacks because of all those snipers In other news, people who dig the music, can check out this thread in GBS. I had a slow start, but now people are posting good jams and movies. Tin Tim fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Jan 5, 2014 |
# ? Jan 5, 2014 22:14 |
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Watching this kind of makes me want a next/current gen sequel. Especially if it had a snazzy electronic soundtrack. There is some pretty cool stuff going on, like the seamless ship combat and as low key as it is I kind of like the set up for the game. I'm willing to bet that by the end of the game you are saving the universe but I really like the idea of an open world/ closed mission area bounty hunting game where you can fly around and kill space criminals and occasionally take on more involved missions where you rescue asteroid miners etc.
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# ? Jan 6, 2014 20:05 |
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If this was the worst level in the game, that bodes very well for the rest, since your commentary, playstyle and choice of soundtrack made that entirely bearable. (While the prologue and the first mission looked like a decent amount of fun.) I've gotta say I really love that Assault Rifle with gatling/minigun barrels. When I first saw it I was immediately reminded of the movie "Deep Rising". It's a fun horror/action movie where a bunch of modern-day pirates try to rob a huge luxury liner but discover that everyone on board has been killed by tentacle monsters. The filmmakers wanted the characters to be able to wildly spray gazillions of bullets over the course of the film without needing to reload every few seconds, so they gave them fictional "Chinese M1-L1 triple-pulse assault rifles", minigun assault rifles with thousand-round magazines. (Of course, such a thing is physically impossible, in reality the props used 100-round Calico SMG magazines.) And yes, they fire enough bullets that they occasionally need to reload fresh thousand-round magazines. To see it in action, click here and watch from 5:30 onwards Anyway, back to Mace Griffin's version... the feature where it spins faster and faster is a cool idea, and you commented in the first video on how "there is something very visceral and rewarding about firing the assault rifle with the maximum spin" and I wholeheartedly agree, I enjoyed the few occasions where you did that in the videos so far. (And there's actually some sort of heat/spin meter on the side, letting you know how close you are to super-speed. Dunno if it is actually useful, but it's a nice detail.) Of course, it's a shame that the super-fast-spin is ruined by the accuracy dropping to almost zero, so you have to be fighting at point-blank range for the higher spin speed to be useful. Instead you are limited to firing in short bursts to be accurate. Lots of videogames have assault rifles that are supposed to be fired in short bursts for accuracy, but it takes away some of the fun of a gatling weapon.
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# ? Jan 7, 2014 00:56 |
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The level would be a lot better if it had more Tactical Minecart Action and less insta-kill sniper campers.
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# ? Jan 9, 2014 08:18 |
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Yeah, the number of times the words "You have to be careful in this room" were spoken was kind of nuts when you think about it. One of those things about game design is you don't want to break up the flow of a level too much, and this level did an amazing job of ignoring that rule. I can see why it is considered one of the worst in the game.
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# ? Jan 9, 2014 17:36 |
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Hey folks, just wanna say that there won't be an update this week. I'm basically neck-deep in work, and just couldn't find the time to record commentary. I'll be kinda busy for a while longer, but I should manage to bang out an update sometime next week.Kuno posted:Watching this kind of makes me want a next/current gen sequel. Especially if it had a snazzy electronic soundtrack. your evil twin posted:If this was the worst level in the game, that bodes very well for the rest, since your commentary, playstyle and choice of soundtrack made that entirely bearable. (While the prologue and the first mission looked like a decent amount of fun.) Lazyfire posted:Yeah, the number of times the words "You have to be careful in this room" were spoken was kind of nuts when you think about it. One of those things about game design is you don't want to break up the flow of a level too much, and this level did an amazing job of ignoring that rule. I can see why it is considered one of the worst in the game. I also have major issues with the part where you have to chase Cantrell. Putting pressure on the player is actually a good idea, don't get me wrong there, but the timer is incredibly tight, and you have to perform a very specific set of actions to beat this part. It might have looked easy since I still had like 40 seconds left, but you really have to take into account that I practiced it a bunch of times. I mean, let's look at what allowed me to beat this. - Killing the goons right at the start. You fail if they reach the ship, and using your bullet weapons will take longer and possibly allows the timer to kick in. And when their elevator goes down to a certain point, you pretty much have to snipe them. Which is especially fun when you have to target tiny people that sprint along the path to the ship. - I knew how to handle the glass. This may seem simple, but at first you'll probably panick and need to figure out how to get out of the room. - I knew about the rocket launcher in the elevator corridor. Dick move, nothing else to say about it. - I cheesed the elevator. This is mainly a little trick, but it's kinda awful that the devs didn't really account for the time that the elevator ride requires. And as you could see, buttons can sometimes glitch out and need a moment before you can activate them. - I practiced flying through the tunnel at full speed. The first part is not too bad, but there are some turns that you can't really see coming. Crashing into the walls will cost you a lot of time. - I knew where Cantrell would be and could shoot him right away. You can see me reducing the speed when I leave the tunnel, knowing full well where I had to aim. If you fail at any of these things, you probably have to bang your head against this part a whole lot. And it's just bad design to not give the player a little room for error in a section like this. Like, putting another minute on the timer would have helped a whole lot. It would still be a stressful section, but you could gently caress up a little bit without ruining the whole thing. Or at least you'd have to try fewer times overall. And while I'm speaking about Cantrell, gently caress the game for handling him so poorly. He had a cool and smug British voice actor, and could have actually played a meaningful part in the story. You know, because he's an ex Ranger and all that? But nope! He gives us a cryptic hint and is immediately killed. your evil twin posted:I've gotta say I really love that Assault Rifle with gatling/minigun barrels. When I first saw it I was immediately reminded of the movie "Deep Rising". It's a fun horror/action movie where a bunch of modern-day pirates try to rob a huge luxury liner but discover that everyone on board has been killed by tentacle monsters. The filmmakers wanted the characters to be able to wildly spray gazillions of bullets over the course of the film without needing to reload every few seconds, so they gave them fictional "Chinese M1-L1 triple-pulse assault rifles", minigun assault rifles with thousand-round magazines. (Of course, such a thing is physically impossible, in reality the props used 100-round Calico SMG magazines.) And yes, they fire enough bullets that they occasionally need to reload fresh thousand-round magazines. your evil twin posted:Anyway, back to Mace Griffin's version... the feature where it spins faster and faster is a cool idea, and you commented in the first video on how "there is something very visceral and rewarding about firing the assault rifle with the maximum spin" and I wholeheartedly agree, I enjoyed the few occasions where you did that in the videos so far. (And there's actually some sort of heat/spin meter on the side, letting you know how close you are to super-speed. Dunno if it is actually useful, but it's a nice detail.) I actually don't know if the lights are connected to the fire rate, at least I never payed attention to them while shooting. But I really like the overall animations and textures for the weapons! You can't knock the devs on this part. I honestly appreciate it that you can see each rocket move through the magazine of the laucnher, and there's also a little window below it which let's you see the rocket in the chamber. I just dig little details like that. Each weapon also has a set of idle animations, and some weapons get more than others. For example, the pistol has a pretty wide range of idle animations, which also includes how Mace opens the drum to check how many rounds are in it, and the good old one handed cowboy-spin. And I also like how smooth the animation is when you change your weapons. The menu is kinda garbage to navigate with your mouse wheel, but the switching animation is pretty darn fluid. Tin Tim fucked around with this message at 23:14 on Jan 10, 2014 |
# ? Jan 10, 2014 23:09 |
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Chapter 4 - The Rustlers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRGX_ZHnMh4 His next job takes Mace to a ranch inside of an asteroid called New Idaho. An independant Gado rancher has gotten a tip about a band of rustlers that plan to steal his livestock. He wants Mace to provide additional protection, while his herd is being moved. Wildlife Gado - Since ancient times, the Jaldari have bred and eaten Gado on their homeworld in the Hasali system, and generations of domestication have made them the perfect cattle. Each of these beasts weighs seven tons, and nearly all of their body mass can be eaten or utilized in some other way, as their skeletal material is extraordinarily strong. Most of their energy and intellect goes toward eating enough grass to sustain their enormous metabolisms. They are now cultivated on dozens of planets and planetoids. Gado ranching requires fast reflexes and strong nerves - even on a good day, their sheer size and clumsiness makes them dangerous, and a panicked gado could easily lay waste a city block. Pretty much the future alternative to cows. Aside from looking like a cross between a turtle and a giraffe, their main feature is that they're kinda cute.
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# ? Jan 22, 2014 18:35 |
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Mace Griffin posted:"Do not kill any unarmed Civilians." Is it because I'm a horrible person or did anyone else have a thought of "So it's okay to kill ARMED Civilians"? Maybe that's why you didn't get busted Tin Tim. Anyone you killed was armed.
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# ? Jan 22, 2014 19:58 |
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Ben Kasack posted:Is it because I'm a horrible person or did anyone else have a thought of "So it's okay to kill ARMED Civilians"? I kinda thought the same thing. After all, there aren't really any unarmed civilians around, at least I haven't seen any.
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# ? Jan 22, 2014 21:07 |
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Ben Kasack posted:Is it because I'm a horrible person or did anyone else have a thought of "So it's okay to kill ARMED Civilians"? I think you're right actually. Just before the 10 minute mark, an unarmed civilians calls out "No, don't shoot!". It's probably like Tin Tim said, the developers must have known how much the civilians (armed or otherwise) looked like the enemies.
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# ? Jan 22, 2014 21:28 |
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As it turns out, you guys are almost right. I made some highly scientific tests, to see what's up with this level. See, while there are some civis that you're not allowed to kill, there really is no real pattern to it. Just being unarmed really isn't a general trigger. Look at this. This is an unarmed guy in the hangar, right after Mace has landed. And sure enough, killing him actually fails the mission. Really wouldn't have expected that, as you'll understand in a moment. And this is right after the cutscene where McQueen told us our mission. I'd say that guy qualifies as unarmed. The animation from the other guy was just a lucky coincidence I went on a little rampage, and killed all the guys around which included McQueen, but the game didn't care. McQueen's ghost yelled at me to watch my fire, but that's about it. I did the same thing when I was practicing the level, and that's why I thought that the warning was bullshit. There are several levels where you'll get warned about not killing civis, but I can only recall one level where it's actually a global rule. In the other levels, it's the same as here. And the only kind of pattern I could see in those levels, is that killing civis in sections where actual combat is happening, or will happen later, does not lead to failure. I guess the devs didn't want to annoy players too much, because failing a mission when a civi catches a stray bullet is lame. And really, if you snuff a civi in some dark corner of the level, who should know? In other news, I found out that Gado are actually immortal, but do a flinching animation when you shoot them a bunch.
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# ? Jan 22, 2014 22:35 |
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Tin Tim, you do the best LPs. (By the way, the fact that you did a shout-out to me in your last video is sheer coincidence... ) Loading the shotgun with multiple shells is a cool mechanic, though kinda awkward since it fires them in series rather than doing one massive blast. Reminds me of the riot shotgun in old Shadow Warrior. (Or the hilariously dumb shotgun revolver from Daikatana that would always fire all 6 shots!) The fact that you can choose to load just 2 or 3 shots rather than all 4 is pretty good. Yeah it makes sense that killing unarmed civilians or friendly guards with guns doesn't matter in the combat areas. But if you gun down some random person while you are strolling about the corridors at the beginning... haha yeah that's a short list of suspects. It's hilarious that killing civillians doesn't matter in the briefing room. Was there any actual combat in that area? You'd think they'd add that to the list of areas where friendly-killing is a big no-no. The other guy's idle animation in that animated gif is hilariously perfect. "Oooh, I've been shot in the head. Don't be such a drama queen!"
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# ? Jan 23, 2014 03:20 |
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For some reason I find myself hating this game for reasons I can't fully articulate at this time. It sucks because it's making it hard to pay attention to this LP even though your Shogo one is an absolute favorite of mine Mace Griffin is unworthy. I think it's largely a personal preference for late 90s shooters over whatever they were mutating into around this time. Please consider doing another Monolith masterpiece for the next one.
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# ? Jan 23, 2014 03:55 |
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Huh, weird, I find myself liking the game. Yes, it has flaws, but it's got some cool stuff too. I figure I'm a glass-half-full kinda guy - if there are things that I like (Gatling assault rifle! Space fighter combat! Technology zealots with emoticon faces!) then I can put up with a game's shortcomings. I figure this LP is probably the best way to experience the game, though. Tin Tim handles all the frustrating stuff so we don't have to, the less interesting parts are made bearable by the entertaining commentary, and he makes it twice as cool by adding a custom soundtrack.
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# ? Jan 24, 2014 00:00 |
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Tin Tim does Lps right!
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# ? Jan 24, 2014 03:20 |
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I'm finding myself liking this game as well. Sure I'm not playing it, but I can respect what they tried to accomplish with this game here. It's a really ambitious title and I think they did a pretty good job all things considered. Sure it's not an open sandbox space game like they originally wanted, but I doubt we're ever going to get that. Then again I'm not playing the game and I have no desire to ever play it, but I'm enjoying the hell out of watching TinTim play through it.
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# ? Jan 24, 2014 09:49 |
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your evil twin posted:Loading the shotgun with multiple shells is a cool mechanic, though kinda awkward since it fires them in series rather than doing one massive blast. Reminds me of the riot shotgun in old Shadow Warrior. (Or the hilariously dumb shotgun revolver from Daikatana that would always fire all 6 shots!) The fact that you can choose to load just 2 or 3 shots rather than all 4 is pretty good. And we'll see combat in the briefing room near the end of the level. When McQueen said that he was pinned down in operations, he was actually refering to that area, but it's not very obvious. Sarkozymandias posted:For some reason I find myself hating this game for reasons I can't fully articulate at this time. It sucks because it's making it hard to pay attention to this LP even though your Shogo one is an absolute favorite of mine Mace Griffin is unworthy. I think it's largely a personal preference for late 90s shooters over whatever they were mutating into around this time. Dunno, maybe you'll like the game more when the plot actually happens? The next chapter is pretty cool, and also kicks off the plot, albeit at its end. And I really don't know if I'll do another Monolith game. I mean, there isn't that much left tbh. It would really be a toss between No Lives Forever or Blood 2. I just never was too big on NOLF, and don't think that I can carry Blood 2 on my own. So yeah, probably not going to happen. With that said though, rest assured that I have other old and obscure FPS games in my collection. And when it comes to why I like this game, I pretty much side with what Evil Twin and fullTimeLurker said. The game has a bunch of things that I like, so I'm okay with looking past its flaws. However, taste is certainly a valid reason for not liking it, and when it just doesn't hit your mark, then that's just the way it is. Teledahn posted:Tin Tim does Lps right!
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# ? Jan 24, 2014 15:11 |
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Chapter 4 - The Rustlers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVOVQkHJybY After a large scale assault on his Gado ranch, Mcqueen and his staff find themselves pinned by the bandit troops. Mace is trying to find a way to their position, but the bandits took control over most of the security systems in the ranch, and so he has to get by a few obstacles. And to make matters even worse, other parts of the bandit group are currently moving the Gado herd into their own transport ship.
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# ? Jan 27, 2014 00:29 |
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Breaking gravity out in space is, I guess, the most reasonable bug? Pretty spectacular all the same.
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# ? Jan 27, 2014 01:32 |
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Heh, those Gado really are cute, and their moaning occasionally in the Rustlers' ship was a nice touch. Shame they're gonna get carved up. Such is life as a turtle-giraffe, in space.
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# ? Jan 27, 2014 03:48 |
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That was a pretty great glitch. The minigun assault rifle could be improved by it not being the baseline trying to fill all roles weapon. Take the grenade launcher off it and you could have it be way more accurate without it being super overpowered. Also in general it looks like there are only two slots left for weapons which seems a bit lame since pistol, shotgun, ar, sniper rifle, rocket launcher is a bit meat and potatoes.
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# ? Jan 28, 2014 00:55 |
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I think the thing that makes the game seem the most vertigo-inducing is that the HUD wobbles around along with your camera. I wonder what they were thinking.
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# ? Jan 29, 2014 01:07 |
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"Activate the mobile chainsaw and ride it to the far side of the slaughter pit." Best. Mission. Objective. EVER.
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# ? Jan 29, 2014 02:44 |
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I just wanted to say that I really like your choices for tracks. I don't know anything about synth music but I immediately recognized a Chemical Plant Zone remix and that's my favorite BGM from Sonic 2. This game has a lot of questionable design decisions, but I'm really impressed with the transitions between on-foot and vehicle sections.
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# ? Jan 29, 2014 04:00 |
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Dakammer posted:Breaking gravity out in space is, I guess, the most reasonable bug? Pretty spectacular all the same. your evil twin posted:Heh, those Gado really are cute, and their moaning occasionally in the Rustlers' ship was a nice touch. Kuno posted:Also in general it looks like there are only two slots left for weapons which seems a bit lame since pistol, shotgun, ar, sniper rifle, rocket launcher is a bit meat and potatoes. Glazius posted:I think the thing that makes the game seem the most vertigo-inducing is that the HUD wobbles around along with your camera. I wonder what they were thinking. I'm real glad that I'm usually not affected by motion sickness, but I'd guess that this game can be really awful for people who are. Jade Star posted:"Activate the mobile chainsaw and ride it to the far side of the slaughter pit." Also, how's your hand doing? Action Tortoise posted:I just wanted to say that I really like your choices for tracks. I don't know anything about synth music but I immediately recognized a Chemical Plant Zone remix and that's my favorite BGM from Sonic 2.
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# ? Jan 29, 2014 15:31 |
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Man, I'm starting to get the idea that the Mace Griffin devs never really thought out the level design. I still maintain that if you don't know exactly where to expect enemies with sniper rifles and such you would probably be dead 100 times over in a number of these sections. Any plans for a death reel at the end of all this?
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# ? Jan 29, 2014 16:08 |
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Lazyfire posted:Man, I'm starting to get the idea that the Mace Griffin devs never really thought out the level design. I still maintain that if you don't know exactly where to expect enemies with sniper rifles and such you would probably be dead 100 times over in a number of these sections. And on the topic of design, you're right but there is one redeeming factor. At least on normal, Mace is tanky enough that you can flee from most ambushes, regain your shield and then beat it. Of course, you can always catch a grenade with your face, but that's not too common. I'm not saying that it's good design in any way, but the enemy placement in other games can be a lot worse. Shogo would be a good example, I kept a death counter in that game for a reason.
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# ? Jan 29, 2014 16:19 |
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Hey Tin Tim, sorry if this has been asked before, but where are you from? Your accent sounds very unique, a bit unlike anything I've heard before.
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# ? Jan 31, 2014 06:30 |
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No problem, I'm from Germany. Also, there'll probably be an update on the weekend. Depends on if I have some quiet time to record my words.
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# ? Jan 31, 2014 19:25 |
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So this is my first Tin Tim LP and I've gotta say, I'm really enjoying it. I mean the game is kinda generic apart from those sweet space-to-on-foot transitions, but you're making it a pleasure to watch. The commentary is relevant and entertaining (the cool accent doesn't hurt either) and your music choices are spot on. They manage to give the game a pace and momentum which it probably wouldn't have otherwise. Speaking of pace, will we be getting some plot soon? Is... is it good?
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# ? Feb 1, 2014 15:58 |
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# ? Apr 27, 2024 12:35 |
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Diogenes Bub posted:So this is my first Tin Tim LP and I've gotta say, I'm really enjoying it. I mean the game is kinda generic apart from those sweet space-to-on-foot transitions, but you're making it a pleasure to watch. The commentary is relevant and entertaining (the cool accent doesn't hurt either) and your music choices are spot on. They manage to give the game a pace and momentum which it probably wouldn't have otherwise. Yeah, the plot will start with the next video. It's not immediately apparent, but trust me, it is there. I don't want to go ahead and spoil all of it, but the plot isn't that good. Though, it will at least have a twist that you really can't predict easily. So there is that. Sorry for the delay, but things happened. I'm currently editing the next episode, and will post it sometime tomorrow.
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# ? Feb 4, 2014 19:35 |