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 History begins to get wholly rewritten under the narration of Silas and we’re fast drifting into the preposterous, a trend we’re not leaving any time soon. This part, and the last one, had sub-titles referring to old Terence Hill movies, “My name is Bounty Hunter”, and “Bounty Hunter is still my name”. Also, I think I was a tad too close to the mic which seems to amplify bass sounds a bit too much. Perhaps it's not noticeable, but it won’t happen again and I’m currently re-recording the next part. Concept art    Nuggets of Truth  Charles Earl Bowles, better known as Black Bart, was undoubtedly among the Wild West's most unusual stagecoach robbers. British by birth, Black Bart was a polite man, known for his manners and refined taste. It is difficult to believe that such a gentleman-bandit really operated in California and Oregon in the 1870s and '80s. Legend has it that on at least two occasions he left handwritten poems at the scene of the crime. This one is from 1877. I've labored long and hard for bread, For honor, and for riches, But on my corns too long you've tread, You fine-haired sons of bitches. [Addition: the second verse was left at a stagecoach robbery in 1878: Here I lay me down to sleep To wait the coming morrow, Perhaps success, perhaps defeat, And everlasting sorrow. Let come what will, I'll try it on, My condition can't be worse; And if there's money in that box 'Tis munny in my purse. ] Black Bart never lacked personal charm. After getting out of jail, he was asked by a journalist about returning to his criminal ways. He answered with a smile, "No, gentlemen, I'm through with crime." Then another reporter wanted to know if he would write any more poems. Black Bart laughed and replied, "Now, didn't you hear me say that I am through with crime?" He never fired a gun during any of his robberies and all of them were done with him getting to the crime scene on foot due to his deeply held fear of horses.  While the founding fathers of the United States were writing the Declaration of Independence in 1776, over in France the first successful steamboat was completed. In the United States, the First steam-powered boat was built by John Fitch in 1787. By the first half of the 19th century, American rivers were teaming with steam ships. It was a blessing for the economy. River transport was much faster and cheaper than any kind of land transportation. Numerous ports and shipyards appeared. The ships themselves needed maintenance and dock workers and all that meant new jobs. Of course, early steamboats were far from perfect. Many sunk for any number of reasons. Boiler explosions and fires were common causes of accidents. Between 1811 and 1899, 567 steamboats were lost in the United States. Despite that, people were eager to use this new means of transportation. There were even the enormous "palace steamers" built to ferry passengers and cargo across the North American Great Lakes in the mid-19th century. The Titanic was the largest steamship in the world when it sank and remains history's most famous and decidedly unlucky steam powered ship. In the second half of the 20th century, steamers were almost completely replaced by diesel-powered ships.  Built by Richard Gatling in 1861 and first deployed in combat during the Civil War, the multi-barreled Gatling gun was one of the precursors of the modern machine gun. But unlike modern machine guns, it was not fired automatically, but rather operated by a gunner who had to crank it. During each turn of a hand crank, each barrel fired a single shot, after which it ejected the spent cartridge, loaded a new round, and in the process, cooled down. This allowed for a higher rate of fire without the barrel overheating. The Gatling Gun offered an unheard of high rate of fire and was relatively easy to reload. In the right hands, they were a devastating weapon. Gatling guns were finally replaced by the self-powered Maxim machine guns that used recoil energy to eject spent cartridges and insert fresh ones. In its prime, however, the Gatling Gun was a fearsome weapon. [Addition: On the Maxim gun, in the words of Hilaire Belloc’s “Captain William Blood”, in the 1898 The Modern Traveller, a satire on colonialism: 'Whatever happens, we have got The Maxim Gun, and they have not.' ]
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Dec 2, 2015 18:11
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Ah, Black Bart, the most badass bandit to ever haunt the West. Such a shame they didn't include him in this game, but the whole "never fired a gun during a robbery" thing would probably be an issue.
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Dec 2, 2015 18:23
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That bit with Steve nodding off cracked me up. I don't think I've ever seen a game that combines gameplay and story like this.
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Dec 2, 2015 18:41
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The really weird bit about the camera pan over the steamboat is that you end up somewhere other than where you started. Silas walks up from the right of it, the camera does its pan, and then all of a sudden he's coming up on the left. I really liked pretty much every single time the other patrons mess up or ignore Silas' story, and him trying to talk about this epic escape from an exploding vessel while they argue about steamboats is really funny.
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Dec 2, 2015 20:28
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Blastinus posted:That bit with Steve nodding off cracked me up. I don't think I've ever seen a game that combines gameplay and story like this. Yeah that was the one bit I always remember when I think about this game. Been looking forward to it coming up in the LP 
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Dec 2, 2015 21:29
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My favourite moment is still yet to come. I think it's either next video or the one after, but iirc it's also where my favourite gun finally shows up.
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Dec 2, 2015 22:12
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Oblivion4568238 posted:I really liked pretty much every single time the other patrons mess up or ignore Silas' story, and him trying to talk about this epic escape from an exploding vessel while they argue about steamboats is really funny.
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Dec 2, 2015 22:49
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ShootaBoy posted:My favourite moment is still yet to come. I think it's either next video or the one after, but iirc it's also where my favourite gun finally shows up. I hope it's not the sawn-off rifle cause I haven't been able to play well with that yet  I'll see whether I can put some use into that rifle later. Next part I'm putting more emphasis on shotguns, and I've also got an episode in mind where I want to go hog-wild with some akimbos.
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Dec 2, 2015 23:06
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Fleve posted:I hope it's not the sawn-off rifle cause I haven't been able to play well with that yet It is indeed the sawn-off rifle  It and the ranger are my go to combo basically every time I play this, something about them just screams wild west to me.
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Dec 3, 2015 00:02
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Fish Noise posted:Watching this game makes me want to see a co-op shooter where the players can just Baron Munchausen each other. There's a pen and paper game that's essentially that. I've always wanted to play it because it seems like hella fun and a good excuse to get drunk. A video game approach to something like that would be amazing too.
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Dec 3, 2015 02:13
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I'm starting to get the impression that Silas has more on his agenda than just telling tall tales.
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Dec 3, 2015 03:42
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You know, it's been bothering me for eight videos, but he loads the rifle wrong and  On the other hand, I loved every single thing that happened with the steamboat sequence.
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Dec 3, 2015 06:52
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Psion posted:You know, it's been bothering me for eight videos, but he loads the rifle wrong and How do you load bullets into that kind of rifle? At the rear?
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Dec 3, 2015 08:30
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Samovar posted:How do you load bullets into that kind of rifle? At the rear? Nah; that indent on the right side of the reciever (which you get shown every time you reload) is the loading gate for the rifle's tube magazine. you're supposed to push the bullet in along the contour of the indent, which makes it pop open, and accept however many rounds you wish to deposit, up to the tube's capacity. (Also, using pointed bullets instead of flat-nose or round-nose ones in a tube magazine is a bad idea; I'll let you guess why) Incidentally, most lever-action rifles of the time used the same cartridges as the owner's pistol, simply to avoid having to fumble for different-sized bullets on one's belt when reloading various firearms; in the game, Silas is generally considered 'moderately' armed, with a pair of handguns and a long gun, with the dynamite being the exception to the typical loadout for your average wild west ne'er-do-well.
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Dec 3, 2015 08:49
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I'm a bit sad there's no Calamity Jane. They shoehorned in nearly every other famous gunslinger.
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Dec 3, 2015 08:49
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Psion posted:You know, it's been bothering me for eight videos, but he loads the rifle wrong and There's a skill (we don't have yet) that says it allows to reload 50% faster by 'inserting the cartridges from the bottom of your rifle'. Perhaps they mean bullets stored around the stock in some kind of sling, because you're already reloading it by pressing bullets through a solid layer of wood/metal at the bottom. What that skill actually ends up doing in terms of animation is that he tilts his rifle to the other side (not to the left, loading with his right hand, but to the right, loading with his left hand), and still inserts the bullets through some magic portal at the bottom. But now we don't even see the loading port anymore
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Dec 3, 2015 11:45
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Fleve posted:There's a skill (we don't have yet) that says it allows to reload 50% faster by 'inserting the cartridges from the bottom of your rifle'. Perhaps they mean bullets stored around the stock in some kind of sling, because you're already reloading it by pressing bullets through a solid layer of wood/metal at the bottom. Silas: "I was out of rounds and only had a split second to reload!" Ben: "How did you reload that fast?" Silas: "Well... you know, from the bottom..." Jack: "Bullshit, it's impossible to reload from the bottom." Silas: "Look, it doesn't matter how I managed to reload, the important thing is that I shot those bastards. Now where was I?" Reloading explained.
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Dec 3, 2015 13:30
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RealSovietBear posted:Silas: "I was out of rounds and only had a split second to reload!"
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Dec 3, 2015 14:25
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RealSovietBear posted:Reloading explained. Yeah, that's more or less how I've been explaining it to myself, complaint aside. It works pretty well.
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Dec 3, 2015 17:44
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Yeah, it's sort of like Mystery Science Theater 3000. Any time something doesn't make sense, repeat to yourself "It's just a story." I mean, the body count we've been supposedly amassing alone makes John Wesley Hardin look tame.
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Dec 3, 2015 18:21
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 We’re finally getting some of Silas’ backstory. Also, the shotguns are fun. Concept art   Nuggets of Truth  George Sutherland Curry, better known as Flat-Nose Curry, was a mentor for another famous outlaw, Harvey Logan. Logan, who adopted the last name of his more experienced friend, came to be known as Kid Сurгу, The wildest of the Wild Bunch. Both men robbed banks together and later joined the famous Wild Bunch led by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Flat-nose participated in the famous Union Pacific Overland Flyer train robbery near Wilcox, Wyoming in 1899. Flat-Nose and Kid Curry delayed the posse formed in the wake of the robbery and killed the marshal in charge. Not a year later, Flat-Nose was in the business of cattle theft in Utah when his luck ran out. Bullets found him when Sheriff Jesse Tyler tracked him down. Upon hearing the news, Kid Curry decided to avenge his "brother from a different mother." He made his way to Utah and killed Sheriff Taylor and his deputy in a bloody shootout.  On the morning of June 2, 1899, the driver of the westbound Union Pacific Overland Flyer No. 1 sent the following message from Medicine Bow, Wyominq: "First Section No. 1 held up a mile west of Wilcox. Express car blown Open, mail car damaged. Safe blown open, contents gone..." the Union Pacific Railroad office in Omaha, Nebraska, responded with an offer of a $1000.00 reward for each train robber, dead or alive. Later, Pacific Express, a company that owned the safe, made a matching offer. The U.S. government added to the pot, raising the total reward for each criminal to $3000.00, which, counting all six perpetrators meant a combined reward of $18,000.00. Today that's the equivalent of $380,000.00. Seven hours after the robbery a specially equipped train full of people, horses, provisions and equipment arrived at the scene. The posse sent by Union Pacific Railroad was not the only one. It was joined by detectives from the Burlington Railroad, the Pinkerton agency, and an assortment of local posses looking for a rich payday. When the governor of Wyoming sent a company of the state militia, that boosted the total number of people looking for those outlaws to over a hundred. The robbery in question was the handiwork of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang (which damaged the bridge in the process of blowing up the safe) and, as usual, had an excellent escape plan in place. Harvey Logan a.k.a. Kid Curry and his mentor George "Flat-Nose" Curry were definitely among the robbers and they shot one of the pursuers, Sheriff Hazen. It's impossible to say if the "brains of the operation" and the gang's leader, Butch Cassidy, took part in the robbery, but Harry A. Longabaugh (the Sundance Kid), Ben Kilpatrick (the Tall Texan) and Will Carver most likely did. Over the Following dozen years all the outlaws involved in the Wilcox Train Robbery met an untimely end, revolver in hand.  Hole-in-the-Wall was the name of a secluded hideout in the Big Horn Mountains in northern Wyoming. It was used towards the end of the 19th century by various outlaw gangs looking to disappear. The location was ideal. It was a perfectly defensible place, nearly impossible to take by force and equally difficult to sneak up on without alerting its inhabitants. The hideout was also well equipped and provisioned. Permanent huts provided shelter during harsh winters. During the Hole's golden years, there were even stables, a corral with animals and a storehouse full of food, which everyone did their best to replenish. The best-known inhabitants of the Hole-in-the-Wall were without a doubt, members of the appropriately named Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. Led by Butch Cassidy, they were also known as The Wild Bunch. But all sorts of criminal gangs and outlaws on the lam called the Hole in the Wall home.
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Dec 3, 2015 18:23
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Psion posted:You know, it's been bothering me for eight videos, but he loads the rifle wrong and He's also loading a cap and ball revolver with cartridges. Also hah, I forgot they were able to tie in Juarez with this.
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Dec 3, 2015 19:06
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I'm with you on the short rifle. Might as well use a ranger and keep your long gun spot for a boomstick. Sawed-offs generally don't get good until you max out the Trapper tree, then they just become an engine of mass destruction. I love how we get a fake introductory screen for the posse. Silas is really trying his best to keep his audience awake. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 19:13 on Dec 3, 2015 |
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Dec 3, 2015 19:08
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Yeah, instead of being the call of the treasure of a guy named Juarez, the title now refers to Juarez, the town!
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Dec 3, 2015 19:08
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I think the Spanish coin is implied to be from the Juarez treasure, and so Silas may have won the curse along with it as well. But yeah other than that and the town name I don't think anything else links to the other CoJ games
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Dec 3, 2015 19:20
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There are a couple character and level connections but it's fairly limited, yeah.
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Dec 3, 2015 20:04
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anilEhilated posted:I'm with you on the short rifle. Might as well use a ranger and keep your long gun spot for a boomstick. Sawed-offs generally don't get good until you max out the Trapper tree, then they just become an engine of mass destruction. I reloaded an earlier episode to try the sawed-off rifle and, although it's better than I expected because the accuracy isn't as bad as I thought, I still prefer the other weapons. Rifle & Ranger feels like the most reliable, but that gets a bit boring after a while. If there's a chance for close-range combat, Ranger & Boomstick, or sawed-off shotties & rifle are probably my two favorite combinations.
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Dec 3, 2015 20:24
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If you have been paying attention, Silas has repeatedly shown some sympathy/empathy with the outlaws he's been tracking down who were family - the chapter before this one in particular.
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Dec 3, 2015 20:25
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My favorite weapon combo is quickshooters/rifle - it doesn't seem that way but these things pack a serious punch because they clear waves of enemies faster than anything else as long as you get headshots. The flip side is that hitting anywhere else just tickles the enemies but you usually get time enough to aim thanks to the wonders of concentration (and By The Numbers, the most broken goddamn thing in the game). But as long as you aim high, it's like carrying a gatling gun in your pocket.
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Dec 3, 2015 20:53
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anilEhilated posted:But as long as you aim high, it's like carrying a gatling gun in your pocket. Silas does seem to run into an awful lot of those for some reason
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Dec 3, 2015 21:23
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Psion posted:Silas does seem to run into an awful lot of those for some reason
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Dec 3, 2015 21:48
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The graveyard in the swamp has the names of developers on the back of the tombstones. And yeah, By the Numbers makes gatling sections into combo shooting galleries. You can get like 3+ level-ups no problem if you use Concentration and the barrels right.
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Dec 3, 2015 22:13
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I think the combo mechanic, more than anything, is what really makes the gunplay in this game fun to watch. Normally, turret sections in shooters are really dull and kind of a waste of time, but combos and, by extension, the perks you get from levels make them very rewarding.
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Dec 3, 2015 22:32
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 The sawn-off rifle! Fighting through those train cars is probably the most "western" I've ever felt in a game that's not New Vegas. There's just something about fighting a gunbattle through the cars of a train I guess. Fun fact: You can shoot through the dividers in the passenger cars, they're thin enough that even the quickshooters can punch through them.I do have to say it's weird seeing a different playstyle to mine, you tend to fight from much further back than I do, which might be why you can't play well with the sawn-off. I treat it like the biggest and baddest pistol around moreso than a rifle.
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Dec 4, 2015 00:17
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Blastinus posted:I think the combo mechanic, more than anything, is what really makes the gunplay in this game fun to watch. Normally, turret sections in shooters are really dull and kind of a waste of time, but combos and, by extension, the perks you get from levels make them very rewarding. Yeah its like Bulletstorm-lite. And lord knows we need more Bulletstorms.
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Dec 4, 2015 02:09
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ShootaBoy posted:I do have to say it's weird seeing a different playstyle to mine, you tend to fight from much further back than I do, which might be why you can't play well with the sawn-off. I treat it like the biggest and baddest pistol around moreso than a rifle. Oh that explains a lot. Every time I picked it up, I thought first and foremost "rifle". But with the high firing rate it makes much more sense as a close to medium-range weapon. Next part we only get the sawed-off rifle all the way at the end, and there's only long-range combat left afterwards, so I'll stick to my usual suspects, but if I find one later I'll give it a try as a large-caliber pistol. Rigged Death Trap posted:Yeah its like Bulletstorm-lite. Yep, it's the combination of allowing the player to do awesome stuff (like running up to people and shotgunning them in the face) and actually rewarding that kind of behavior through XP bonuses. It really makes you want to become good at a game to explore the full range of bad-assery and get more levels earlier.
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Dec 4, 2015 11:20
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 I’m not sure how blowing poo poo up is going to make robbing things easier, but let’s just shoot everyone before we can find out. As a side note, these kind of wooden train trestles really existed and are pretty impressive. Except they usually weren’t filled with walkways and dudes to murder. Concept Art  Nuggets of Truth  Harvey Logan, a.k.a. Kid Curry, was known as the wildest of the Wild Bunch. He earned that honor because of his cold and merciless behavior. He never hesitated before shooting anyone and would go out of his way to always have his revenge. William Pinkerton, who took charge of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency after the death of his father, wrote this about him. "He has not one single redeeming Feature. He is the only criminal I know of who does not have one single good point." Before joining the Wild Bunch, he used to ride with the gang of "Black Jack" Ketchum. Ketchum was an infamous criminal hanged in 1901 for attempted train robbery. The rope used in the hanging was too stiff and his head was literally torn from his body. Luckily For those who hung him, Kid Curry left the gang before Black Jack's death. Kid Curry's life most likely ended sometime in 1904 after he was tracked down near Parachute, Colorado, where he had a hand in robbing the Denver & Rio Grande train. Pursued by a posse, the wounded Kid Curry shot himself in the head to avoid being taken alive. Later it was said that someone else committed suicide while Kid left for South America with Cassidy and Sundance. In any case, he was never seen again and likely not missed.  Robert LeRoy Parker adopted the name Cassidy in honor of his mentor, Mike Cassidy. The nickname "Butch" was earned when he worked as a butcher in Rock Springs, Wyoming. History remembers him not as rancher or a butcher, but rather as the leader of one of the Wild West's most notorious gangs. It was known as the Wild Bunch by some. Others called them The Hole in the Wall Gang. Butch was considered calm and sensible – for a man of his profession – and because of that, the Wild Bunch boasted the longest streak of successful bank and train robberies in history. Today Butch Cassidy is always remembered together with his friend and partner, the Sundance Kid. Both were forced to leave the country to take refuge in Bolivia. That is also where they died in 1908. Surrounded in their own house by a band of Bolivian soldiers and officers, one of the two, it's impossible to know who, killed his wounded friend and then committed suicide. It was never proved beyond any doubt that the two dead Americans were indeed Cassidy and Sundance. One version of the story has Cassidy returning to the United States under a false name to die as late as 1936. One thing is certain though. Both men are now most definitely dead, even as their legend lives on.  The first railroads appeared in the late 1830's in the Eastern U.S. From there the railway industry grew exponentially, exploding with growth between 1850 and 1890. They were much more challenging endeavors than their European counterparts: the lines were longer and the trains were larger. While the Civil War slowed down the expansion, it also proved the strategic value of rail transport. It was a real game changer too. Horse, boat, and wagon were no longer the only available options for moving people and cargo from one place to another - the train created a true revolution. Naturally, the beginnings were quite humble and the various rail lines were not connected, which meant that passengers had to change trains several times to reach their destination. However, soon after the war, the first transcontinental railroad was built, known at the time as the Union Pacific Railroad or, more commonly, the Overland Route. The expansion of railroads also caused an increase in a new kind of criminal activity, train robberies. Trains were often used to transport large sums of money and that was an irresistible draw for the outlaws. The fact that trains could be stopped and robbed in any godforsaken place far from civilization made them a ripe target. Among the famous train robbers of the time, Jesse James and the Wild Bunch led by Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid deserve honorable mentions.  What good would a Colt Peacemaker be without that Chinese invention from the 9th century? Black powder provided people with entertainment and the ability to kill for centuries. Without it, Wild Bill could have only used his Colts as clubs. Near the end of the 19th century, however, black powder was replaced with more efficient smokeless powder, and in Germany, the ever-popular TNT was invented. At the same time, one Swedish chemist was working on an even more explosive invention, which was supposed to make the miners' work of blowing up rocks easier and safer. Alfred Nobel patented his discovery in 1867. Based on nitroglycerin, but much more stable, the new explosive provided a surprisingly user-friendly way of blasting rocks. Sawdust or wood pulp soaked with nitro was formed into sticks covered with paper and then fitted into holes drilled into rocks before detonation. It was soon being used for military purposes, which should surprise no one. After all, even though people love inventions that can build and improve things, they love watching stuff blow up even more.
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Dec 4, 2015 17:44
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Fleve posted:I’m not sure how blowing poo poo up is going to make robbing things easier, but let’s just shoot everyone before we can find out. Blow up bridge, derail train, steal everything. It seems fitting with the character of Kid Curry as shown in the game, at least?
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Dec 4, 2015 18:05
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Psion posted:Blow up bridge, derail train, steal everything. Ah yeah that's true I guess. It's just that the next guy we meet has a much more... elegant way with trains. I always thought dynamite was a bit crass to rob a train, but for the robbery in the previous video, the Wilcox Train Robbery, they apparently really did gently caress up that train very badly.  
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Dec 4, 2015 18:29
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Fleve posted:
Actually, wooden train trestles did commonly (and where they are still extant/in use have walkways. These walkways, typically between or (more often) to one side of the rails, were there to provide a place for maintenance workers to walk and/or for people to evacuate a train that derailed on the trestle. Additionally, platforms were built roughly every 45 ft (varied by railroad) to one side of long bridges that held a barrel or two of water or sand to allow railroad workers to put out small fires before they could become large enough to damage the structure.
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Dec 4, 2015 22:29
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