Death Stranding: Tarkovsky's Stalker of video games, also The Postman with K.Costner

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Death Stranding: Tarkovsky's Stalker of video games, also The Postman with K.Costner

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Midjack: Dec 24, 2007

Dlowmx posted:

It didn�t ?

It was raining pretty hard through the whole movie, so it�s easy to lose track of where they are exactly.

# ? Jan 25, 2020 17:31

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# ? Apr 24, 2024 04:42

WaltherFeng: May 15, 2013; 50 thousand people used to live here. Now, it's the Mushroom Kingdom.

Dlowmx posted:

It didn’t ?

Then I agree, people shouldn't expect anything less than over the top from Kojima.

I'm glad Death Stranding had such a great homage to that particular scene.

# ? Jan 25, 2020 18:03

skooma512: Feb 8, 2012; You couldn't grok my race car, but you dug the roadside blur.

DS could have used an editor, particularly for Chapter 14 on, but the core is pretty good and I enjoyed it. I was down from day one on DS precisely because it's so different and weird. Like, you spend the entire game with a jar fetus on your chest and visit the sad 1000 suicide a day man in between delivering comic books across a wasteland and peeing on ghosts.

# ? Jan 25, 2020 19:13

night slime: May 14, 2014

I took a long time with the game and just messed around for a while, so there was a really long delay between scenes and they never really bothered me. It admittedly got slightly more jarring and hokey when i rewatched the scenes later. Still, I would easily take something like this versus FF15, where my head felt like it was going to roll off if I had to hear one more stupid dialogue.

I didn't mind the Amelie scenes at the end at all. You get to run around and Sam complains about there being a bug..it's funny to me, like all the strange poo poo at the end of MGS2. After long stretches of fairly straightforward gameplay, the end involves you shooting a giant Gurlugon guy from MGS, getting intentionally captured by the creatures you continually avoid throughout the game, fight a guy with Playstations, sit and run around on a beach for a while, and then the last delivery. I mean it sounds silly when I type it out but I don't know, like, most open world games or maybe games in general seem to offer a very conventional experience and seem a little to happy to not bother tinkering with the conventions they establish at all.

While I was playing DS, I kept thinking of Legion, which Noah Hawley said is meant to be more of an experience than it is a conventional story. It seems like both throw their visual elements in first and then cobble together a plot out of it later.

# ? Jan 25, 2020 23:39

Dlowmx: Feb 5, 2007; Eh

night slime posted:

I took a long time with the game and just messed around for a while, so there was a really long delay between scenes and they never really bothered me. It admittedly got slightly more jarring and hokey when i rewatched the scenes later. Still, I would easily take something like this versus FF15, where my head felt like it was going to roll off if I had to hear one more stupid dialogue.

I didn't mind the Amelie scenes at the end at all. You get to run around and Sam complains about there being a bug..it's funny to me, like all the strange poo poo at the end of MGS2. After long stretches of fairly straightforward gameplay, the end involves you shooting a giant Gurlugon guy from MGS, getting intentionally captured by the creatures you continually avoid throughout the game, fight a guy with Playstations, sit and run around on a beach for a while, and then the last delivery. I mean it sounds silly when I type it out but I don't know, like, most open world games or maybe games in general seem to offer a very conventional experience and seem a little to happy to not bother tinkering with the conventions they establish at all.

While I was playing DS, I kept thinking of Legion, which Noah Hawley said is meant to be more of an experience than it is a conventional story. It seems like both throw their visual elements in first and then cobble together a plot out of it later.

Hrm, Makes me want to check out Legion.

And yes, I feel like the game was meant more as a mood. Honestly, I don't know how I wouldve felt about the game if it wasn't for the Low Roar soundtrack.

# ? Jan 26, 2020 00:56

Two Worlds: Feb 3, 2009; An IMPOSTORE!

The game rules, I think about it every day.

# ? Jan 26, 2020 01:10

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

I think the game's story is very contrived and relies on a lot of people making the least logical choices in order to set things up the way they play out once you gain control of Sam. But with that said, conceptually it's truly unique and really fascinating. Though it is occasionally told poorly, I feel like it's overall a really solid way to present a game that supposedly takes place in our real world and makes it feel completely alien.

# ? Jan 26, 2020 01:30

Cowman: Feb 14, 2006; Beware the Cow

I got frostbite :stare:

BB's Theme always makes me tear up, it's such a drat good song.

# ? Jan 26, 2020 19:36

ShootaBoy: Jan 6, 2010; Anime is Bad.
_{Except for Pokemon, Valkyria Chronicles and 100% OJ.}

I dunno if I'm gonna see a lot of this game

I really like the chill, hiking parts, but my god the BTs are just unfun in every way. I was just trying to do the run to Port Knot City with the special anti BT weapon stuff, and its just impossible to get there without running into BTs. I hit three patches of the fuckers and I didn't even get halfway. I just rode past the first two on the bike, but they caught me in the mountain passes and I was swamped in goop, pulled off my bike and unable to run. I ended up just closing the game.

Might try again later, idk, but I really wish the BTs were just gone entirely. Its really annoying to deal with them in general, on top of the fact that you have to watch three mini cutscenes literally every time you come across the drat things. Yes, I know that mission will give me some fancy weapon, but I don't want to deal with them or even any kind of combat at all. I want to do hiking and climbing. That's the fun part, not lugging around a half dozen different grenades so the stupid invisible fuckers will piss off.

# ? Jan 27, 2020 00:24

Midjack: Dec 24, 2007

ShootaBoy posted:

I dunno if I'm gonna see a lot of this game I really like the chill, hiking parts, but my god the BTs are just unfun in every way. I was just trying to do the run to Port Knot City with the special anti BT weapon stuff, and its just impossible to get there without running into BTs. I hit three patches of the fuckers and I didn't even get halfway. I just rode past the first two on the bike, but they caught me in the mountain passes and I was swamped in goop, pulled off my bike and unable to run. I ended up just closing the game.

Might try again later, idk, but I really wish the BTs were just gone entirely. Its really annoying to deal with them in general, on top of the fact that you have to watch three mini cutscenes literally every time you come across the drat things. Yes, I know that mission will give me some fancy weapon, but I don't want to deal with them or even any kind of combat at all. I want to do hiking and climbing. That's the fun part, not lugging around a half dozen different grenades so the stupid invisible fuckers will piss off.

BT's are throughout the game, and while you do get better tools to avoid them when you can or fight them if you must, there is a number of forced encounters and a later chapter where you will be disadvantaged when dealing with them. The more you fight them as a player the better you will get at it, and you can always just set the difficulty to the lowest setting since BT and MULE fights are literally the only places it makes a difference.

# ? Jan 27, 2020 00:33

mastershakeman: Oct 28, 2008; by vyelkin

ShootaBoy posted:

I dunno if I'm gonna see a lot of this game I really like the chill, hiking parts, but my god the BTs are just unfun in every way. I was just trying to do the run to Port Knot City with the special anti BT weapon stuff, and its just impossible to get there without running into BTs. I hit three patches of the fuckers and I didn't even get halfway. I just rode past the first two on the bike, but they caught me in the mountain passes and I was swamped in goop, pulled off my bike and unable to run. I ended up just closing the game.

Might try again later, idk, but I really wish the BTs were just gone entirely. Its really annoying to deal with them in general, on top of the fact that you have to watch three mini cutscenes literally every time you come across the drat things. Yes, I know that mission will give me some fancy weapon, but I don't want to deal with them or even any kind of combat at all. I want to do hiking and climbing. That's the fun part, not lugging around a half dozen different grenades so the stupid invisible fuckers will piss off.

Play on easy, let yourself get caught right away, and murder the catcher with hematic grenades + blood bags assuming you have those.

# ? Jan 27, 2020 00:52

minya: Sep 7, 2004; SUN RA WAS HERE IN HIS ELEMENT
he invited me back for a ride

I�m just now starting Chapter 8. Spent a long time sans BB building zip lines in the mountains. I�m looking forward to doing some deliveries with them without worrying too much about storyline stuff. Is now a good time to do that?

I guess I�m wondering if I�m approaching any kind of �point of no return� type situation or something like that.

# ? Jan 27, 2020 02:12

Dlowmx: Feb 5, 2007; Eh

minya posted:

I�m just now starting Chapter 8. Spent a long time sans BB building zip lines in the mountains. I�m looking forward to doing some deliveries with them without worrying too much about storyline stuff. Is now a good time to do that?

I guess I�m wondering if I�m approaching any kind of �point of no return� type situation or something like that.

Once you get a heart man quest to expand farther East past the evo devo is the point of no return

# ? Jan 27, 2020 02:18

minya: Sep 7, 2004; SUN RA WAS HERE IN HIS ELEMENT
he invited me back for a ride

Dlowmx posted:

Once you get a heart man quest to expand farther East past the evo devo is the point of no return

Thanks. Do you mean west, though?

# ? Jan 27, 2020 02:21

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

Yes, it's the quest that will take you across the tar belt everyone's been going on about. Don't try to cross it until you're ready because you won't be back for a while.

# ? Jan 27, 2020 02:29

Dlowmx: Feb 5, 2007; Eh

minya posted:

Thanks. Do you mean west, though?

Yeah sorry

# ? Jan 27, 2020 02:42

minya: Sep 7, 2004; SUN RA WAS HERE IN HIS ELEMENT
he invited me back for a ride

Cool thanks both of you. It sounds like you can keep doing deliveries to max connection once the storyline is finished, right? I kind of wonder if I should beeline towards the end and play postgame or take my time and do deliveries now.

# ? Jan 27, 2020 02:49

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

Yup, there is a way to continue playing after you beat the game. I recommend you wait to do the endgame stuff until you have a free afternoon, it's not the kind of thing you'll want to (or sometimes be able to) put down and come back to later.

# ? Jan 27, 2020 02:51

night slime: May 14, 2014

ShootaBoy posted:

I dunno if I'm gonna see a lot of this game I really like the chill, hiking parts, but my god the BTs are just unfun in every way. I was just trying to do the run to Port Knot City with the special anti BT weapon stuff, and its just impossible to get there without running into BTs. I hit three patches of the fuckers and I didn't even get halfway. I just rode past the first two on the bike, but they caught me in the mountain passes and I was swamped in goop, pulled off my bike and unable to run. I ended up just closing the game.

Might try again later, idk, but I really wish the BTs were just gone entirely. Its really annoying to deal with them in general, on top of the fact that you have to watch three mini cutscenes literally every time you come across the drat things. Yes, I know that mission will give me some fancy weapon, but I don't want to deal with them or even any kind of combat at all. I want to do hiking and climbing. That's the fun part, not lugging around a half dozen different grenades so the stupid invisible fuckers will piss off.

The beginning was really frustrating for me as well, a lot of turning the game off and not wanting to continue. For missions, you can try carrying around a PCC level 1 and throw stuff in the storage locker you can make when you encounter them. Don't remember what mission you're on but I assume it's the first area? Honestly, the first area is harder than the rest of the game, which is odd. I even thought that after I revisited later.

Some stuff you can try is just getting dragged to the boss, and just continuing on out of the area. It can be difficult with the mud but there's no real consequences for it. Timefall rain will not actually hurt a package, but damage the container it is in, so you just have to avoid falling and wrecking it completely. Pee grenades will also make a BT run away if you don't want to do the boss thing.

# ? Jan 27, 2020 04:41

WaltherFeng: May 15, 2013; 50 thousand people used to live here. Now, it's the Mushroom Kingdom.

One thing to remember is if you get grabbed by a BT, you can still sneak away from the area as long as they don't drag you under. BTs arent aware of each other so even if one sees you, you can still avoid the rest if you escape the tar puddle

WaltherFeng fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Jan 27, 2020

# ? Jan 27, 2020 16:25

night slime: May 14, 2014

This also won't help if you're in that one mountainous area near the wind farm, but in general if you go slowly on a motorcycle and swerve a lot it's like impossible to catch you. Doesn't work with a truck. When you get hit with that tar ball and the bike stops you can just hit turbo in a different direction to get away.

# ? Jan 27, 2020 21:53

Ursine Catastrophe: Nov 9, 2009; It's a lovely morning in the void and you are a horrible lady-in-waiting.

don't ask how i know; Dinosaur Gum

I don�t know if it�s RNG but a lot of the time when BTs started trying to GTA my truck, Sam would just punt them in the face and slam the door shut

If you get out you�re instafucked but it wasn�t guaranteed by any means, I got a lot of mileage out of that trick in that canyon between Port Knot and the distro center on the east coast

# ? Jan 27, 2020 22:09

Midjack: Dec 24, 2007

I�m plodding through the postgame and unlocking a bunch of interviews. Lucy�s Report #12 just popped and, uh, holy poo poo.

# ? Jan 28, 2020 06:17

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

Midjack posted:

I�m plodding through the postgame and unlocking a bunch of interviews. Lucy�s Report #12 just popped and, uh, holy poo poo.

Those reports are really sad and give a lot of characterization to the relevant parties. I really wish they were doled out during the game, especially on the leadup to Chapter 6-8. Would have been much more impactful.

# ? Jan 28, 2020 06:53

Midjack: Dec 24, 2007

CJacobs posted:

Those reports are really sad and give a lot of characterization to the relevant parties. I really wish they were doled out during the game, especially on the leadup to Chapter 6-8. Would have been much more impactful.

Yeah, that�s something a decent number of players will never see because they stopped when the credits rolled and it�s a huge character background point.

# ? Jan 28, 2020 06:56

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

Agreed. It's super cool that there are post-game logs to give you a reason to keep going if you want more world building, but man that particular series should have been given out like 25 gameplay hours earlier.

# ? Jan 28, 2020 06:58

WaltherFeng: May 15, 2013; 50 thousand people used to live here. Now, it's the Mushroom Kingdom.

I'm the guy who didn't bother to read the postgame interviews because I was too busy starting another playthrough

Lucy killed herself because she learned the truth about Death Stranding and caused a voidout in the process?

Shiiittt

# ? Jan 28, 2020 07:53

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

WaltherFeng posted:

I'm the guy who didn't bother to read the postgame interviews because I was too busy starting another playthrough

Lucy killed herself because she learned the truth about Death Stranding and caused a voidout in the process?

Shiiittt

Pretty much, but the implications about how that happened are even worse: One of the few things we're told about Sam during the main game is that he was ostracized from society after being blamed for a voidout that destroyed a city, but they don't tell you if he actually was responsible or if he was just blamed because he was the lone survivor (being a repatriate and all). The logs imply that Sam actually is responsible for the voidout in a roundabout way, because Lucy became a BT and killed him.

# ? Jan 28, 2020 08:00

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

Today I learned that semi-automatic weapons interact really weirdly with the framerate. Usually this isn't an issue, but if you force the game to chug by filling the screen with VFX you can let off an entire shotgun magazine in less than a second by mashing the trigger. Observe:

https://i.imgur.com/pGeXPJt.mp4

Die lion die! :black101:

edit: This trick works on the handgun, the shotgun, the grenade launcher and the quad-rocket launcher. Sam switches weapons faster than he reloads so if you bring like 4 HG Custom shotguns and run directly into a Catcher's face you can nuke it before it can even react.

CJacobs fucked around with this message at 13:46 on Jan 28, 2020

# ? Jan 28, 2020 13:40

Jenny Agutter: Mar 18, 2009

WaltherFeng posted:

I'm the guy who didn't bother to read the postgame interviews because I was too busy starting another playthrough

Lucy killed herself because she learned the truth about Death Stranding and caused a voidout in the process?

Shiiittt

my interpretation was she killed herself because she basically contracted DOOMS when she became pregnant with Sam's baby (umbilical connection and all that) and couldn't handle the apocalyptic nightmares. Sam was fairly directly responsible for that. dude can't even find respite in death, no wonder he's so prickly at the start of the game

# ? Jan 28, 2020 17:05

Spite: Jul 27, 2001; Small chance of that...

I took it as She was getting all the nightmares and other horrible stuff associated with DOOMS. But without the superpowers and/or immortality. She couldn't take it and killed herself.

# ? Jan 28, 2020 17:22

threelemmings: Dec 4, 2007; A jellyfish!

It's a whole lot worse than any of you think if you read the previous one and think about the context:

report 11 posted:

She smiled and squeezed.

I was there, on the Beach. Everything I had seen in my nightmares, I saw in that instant. Somewhere inside me, Lou was laughing.

And then it all fell into place.

Sam's birth, his family, the Death Stranding. For the first time I saw how all the pieces fit into a terrible truth I didn't want to believe but couldn't deny. I Saw my part in it, too, and little Lou's.

Those funny little words on the picture. "Be stranded with love."

And I was.

Bridget/Amelie sends her visions of a possible future and what sam does in it. She decides she has to die to make that future happen. Amelie directly caused her to kill herself, manipulating events so Sam ends up where we are at game start.

threelemmings fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Jan 28, 2020

# ? Jan 28, 2020 19:20

WaltherFeng: May 15, 2013; 50 thousand people used to live here. Now, it's the Mushroom Kingdom.

https://twitter.com/KojiPro2015/status/1223209118103564288

# ? Jan 31, 2020 17:56

RatHat: Dec 31, 2007; A tiny behatted rat👒🐀!

Here's the english version

https://twitter.com/KojiPro2015_EN/status/1223265152138530826?s=20

# ? Jan 31, 2020 19:10

night slime: May 14, 2014

They should enable turning it off only after seeing it 100 times, to make new players know what porters used to go through.

Was thinking about people hate the chiral artist's daughter thing and I was trying to figure out the point. I guess it�s a literal display of Sam bringing people together. Her old self or whatever is in that ghostly body bag and Sam unzips her from it and she starts a new life. Also realized Sam only carries 3 people in the game on his back like that, all women. Mama, the daughter, and his mom the holy ghost. Nice one kojima. I guess if you kill a mule or terrorist they are disciples.

Random MGS-related observations: Vamp also had an origin story of being stuck under the rubble. Also kind of of a stretch but in MGS3 right before Boss is told to take out Snake's eyes Eva shakes her head with her eyes closing literally the same way Sam shakes his when you look at him in the private room. Maybe not intentional but it was kinda uncanny to see.

# ? Jan 31, 2020 20:40

Talorat: Sep 18, 2007; Hahaha! Aw come on, I can't tell you everything right away! That would make for a boring story, don't you think?

RatHat posted:

Here's the english version

https://twitter.com/KojiPro2015_EN/status/1223265152138530826?s=20

Oh jesus NOW they add that.

# ? Jan 31, 2020 20:40

Zazz Razzamatazz: Apr 19, 2016; by sebmojo

Is it weird that I want to start an offline playthrough?

# ? Jan 31, 2020 23:44

CaptainSkinny: Apr 22, 2011; You get it?
No.

Zazz Razzamatazz posted:

Is it weird that I want to start an offline playthrough?

No, I'm curious how that will play out too. If you decide to, please report back how it's different for you.

# ? Jan 31, 2020 23:56

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

RatHat posted:

Here's the english version

https://twitter.com/KojiPro2015_EN/status/1223265152138530826?s=20

Super cool. Really happy to see they're listening to the community's feedback.

And boy is it awesome! Such a small change but it makes wandering around BT zones much more streamlined. Wish they'd put this in before I recorded like 70 hours of footage.

# ? Feb 1, 2020 07:17

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# ? Apr 24, 2024 04:42

WaltherFeng: May 15, 2013; 50 thousand people used to live here. Now, it's the Mushroom Kingdom.

I said to my friend it's funny how immediately after Kojima leaves Konami, KojiPro starts taking community feedback seriously and implementing the exact features people want

It certainly hasn't anything to do with the fact that Konami locked him in the basement and denied him any contact with his dev team..

# ? Feb 1, 2020 07:53

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Death Stranding: Tarkovsky's Stalker of video games, also The Postman with K.Costner

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