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Ah, Dead Space 3... The game I played briefly, then uninstalled, and then reinstalled. So, good things (of which there are some)! First up, Danik's voice actor, Simon Templeman, is pretty cool, and does a really good job of "I'm an arrogant religious nut, and also cacklingly evil. Eyes forward, viewers, you don't want to miss my condescension at your ridiculously tiny worldview!" This is unsurprising, as he also played Kain (Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen and Defiance), Dr. Victor Von Doom (Fantastic four 90s tv series), and Sir Mordred (Prince Valiant and... Biker Mice From Mars?!?) The machine pistol is also surprisingly good. Also, there is some extra dialog by this point in co-op, but it's mostly more of the same action movie snark-offs we've been seeing so far. I don't know if CJacobs is going to show off anything from those first parts again for co-op, so I'll spoiler tag the nit we picked while testing stuff. Carver, your buddy cop partner (No, really, that's probably going to be a theme, how stereotypically buddy-cop Isaac and Carver are), gets shot several times in the chest, and I'm pretty sure once in the face. Dudes go over, claim only Isaac is still alive... And when the cutscene ends, whup, there's Carver, somehow perfectly fine (and already standing knee deep in junk) despite having been declared dead... Er... Around a minute ago.
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Dec 6, 2014 23:19
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Obliterati posted:Did they forget she lost an eye? Actually, no! One of the first text logs you find details how Isaac bought Ellie a replacement eye, and the surgery for it. Equally pissed about the redesign, I especially didn't get on with that top, because you'll notice it's not only tight enough to hug the breasts, it actually supports them. Nyuh huh. Right. Okay, it's sexy. Can we please have the character back though?
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Dec 12, 2014 13:15
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Kurieg posted:I've heard about the ending, and while they do give a.. definitive answer, it's definitely not the one anyone would expect, ever, with any amount of prior knowledge about this series. I've also heard about the ending (Surprise, I haven't been bothered to finish it either!), and... It makes about as much sense as the "Big Reveal" for the UFO Trilogy I was Let's Playing some time back. Remind me about this post when we do get to the ending, because... Holy fuckballs, sometimes games get crazy.
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Dec 22, 2014 21:47
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Elric posted:What were they? Like I said, I'll deal with it when we get to the right moment, but suffice to say, it was gloriously hosed up... And, thinking about it, there's even more parallels between the UFO Trilogy (Aftermath, Aftershock, Afterlight) and Dead Space 3. But for everything a proper time. (EDIT: Translation - Can't actually talk about it yet because SPOILERS) Also, despite xmas putting a few dints in my general LP type plans, I will be trying my best to make something for the thread, if only out of atonement for my shameful framerate in the first vid (Which has been mostly fixed, by virtue of incredibly stupid things I shouldn't need to gently caress with. CJacobs will know what I mean when I'm gonna be sending him, hopefully before the co-op vid turns up... THE UNTOLD STORY. Gonna spoil stupid poo poo right now though. So, for reasons (I've not been able to discover), Dead Space 3 can't communicate with your system, like any game with a system test, and so doesn't set the number of cores it's working with. So, improving the FPS step 1 was... Literally finding the config files and telling it how many cores I have. Because normally, that poo poo isn't set at all in the game, and from what I can tell, it'll put a high load on the first core, then the next core when that's full, so on, instead of spreading the load evenly. Thanks, appreciate that...  . That got me a whopping 10 frames.The other thing, which is also for "reasons I'm hoping somebody who programs can make sense of", no matter what you do, vsync is always enabled in windowed mode, even if you specify turning it off in graphics settings. So turning poo poo to full screen, then turning vsync off (Thankfully, that's actually a menu option, no config fuckery required), that got me... Between 25 and 30 loving frames a second. This hasn't corrected all issues with the bloody game, but, for real, I'm not feeling too charitable towards Dead Space 3 around now, and I'm pretty sure (for equally valid reasons) CJacobs isn't either. JamieTheD fucked around with this message at 18:16 on Dec 23, 2014 |
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Dec 23, 2014 18:13
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CJacobs posted:Hey it's time for that special thing I promised you: More DLC videos! That was good DLC, except I have to rate it 5/10, because there is no Arial "Baby" Tetsuo. (EDIT: Seriously, that seemed fun, but I didn't have a lot of faith in Sony since they dropped Studio Liverpool.)
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Feb 1, 2015 22:32
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Mister Chief posted:Every time you cut to JamieTheD's footage it should just be a zoetrope of a horse running. Honestly, I'm a little confused it still comes out looking like that. Why is that? Well, once I've uploaded the source for this vid, you'll see why. That should be about three hours' time, and I'll edit the post to reflect that. EDIT 2: CJacobs uploaded his version of my source, and it looks like it's Vegas that's doing most of the horrifying things to it, via the wonders of Smart Resampling. The audio desync is my fault, as is the fact I forgot we were meant to be recording at 30 FPS (I *recorded* at 60, which led to Smart Resample playing silly buggers) JamieTheD fucked around with this message at 15:07 on Feb 3, 2015 |
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Feb 3, 2015 14:10
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Nekomimi-Maiden posted:I'm personally imagining that dancing corpse like the frog from the Merry Melodies skit. Freaking out when one person is watching and suddenly dead still for the other. Did someone say Michigan J Frog in a physics bug context? YESSSSSSS.
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Feb 3, 2015 17:55
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Yeah, definitely in the same camp of "It was alright, but definitely not on the level of the '82 film. As to the game? Agreeing with Blind Sally, pre-thinged NPCs (Who you often can't kill until specific points because they're Plot Necessary), bad level design (There's one point where you fall into an ambush, and easy escape is accessible by jumping to a nearby ladder. Or would be, if you could jump. Suspension of disbelief: Shattered.), bad bosses, and the most unforgivable sin of all: The Soldiers were far, far more dangerous than the Things (To the point where I keep getting stuck on one corridor in something like two missions before the end... Because it's an escort quest, and there's five or so soldiers with automatic rifles and grenades in the corridor) Also, drat, dumb things happening in Dead Space are dumb. I've almost gotten numb to them now. The annoying part is that I've only almost gotten numb to them...
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Feb 12, 2015 08:53
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Ah, good, I'm not too late to butt in. So, that thing people said shouldn't happen? They lied, it already has. We've been co-commentating all along...  ALTMAN BE MADE WHOLE!!!!
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Apr 3, 2015 17:25
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WFGuy posted:A moon made of biological matter? Sure, that'll work out great. If you can even make it, because something on the scale of the moon should have a mass along the lines of 10^20 - 10^22kg, and there are NOT enough bodies on a planet to make up that sort of object, or even anything close. If we ignore that (and I tend to be pretty forgiving about discovering future technology, but less so about failing to understand how mass works since we already understand that pretty well), what's the point? Why create such a mass that it would just be stuck there sitting over Tau Volantis for eternity? It's far less useful than a bunch of infectors and something to pilot a spaceship around. Just remember that movie moons and EBEs don't follow any sort of sane rules. I mean, Unicron, Galactus, Phantoon... That's all I'm gonna say on that, but I will say Dead Space 3 isn't the first time I got to the major plot point and said "Y'know what? gently caress this...." So, way way back near the beginning of the thread, I mentioned the UFO trilogy. The first game was actually alright, it had a sensible alien invasion, with sensible casualties, and the alien invasion was at least plausible, even though their goals sounded a bit crazy (Turn the Earth into a massive psychic computer via terraforming). But still within the realms of SF possibilities, so it was all good... ...Then Aftermath came along, and its major plot point explained what was really going on in the first game. Buckle up, this is going to be interesting in all the wrong ways... Okay, so the aliens invading in the first game? Were mind controlled by a big space mama, one of an alien species that lives in the dark between the stars. The entire reason for the invasion was that the earth computer wasn't a computer... It was a mating call. So then males, who've also mind controlled a species and made them warlike, then come to Earth to fight over who gets to bone space-mama (Who canonically got what she wanted). The entire reason for the near extinction of humanity, the alien invasion... The whole shebang... Was because two space beasties wanted to get it on. There are not enough facepalms or headdesks to encompass my mood when I discovered this the first time round. The third game, Afterlight, somewhat sensibly ignored this for the most part... 
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Apr 17, 2015 21:56
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Fish Noise posted:Ahem! "Quantum mechanics provides a mathematical description of much of the dual Engineer-like and Soldier-like behavior and interactions of Isaac and Carver." Daaaamn... That, in and of itself, is probably an abstract in the Dead Space Universe. quote:Willow has Val Kilmer jumping up and down in a cage screaming "PECK! PECK!" Watch it, CJacobs. Also the immortal line "Ooh, I'm really scared. No! Don't! There's a- a PECK here with an acorn pointed at me!" Willow is a loving classic. CJacobs posted:No, they like literally were standing in the elevator for 5 minutes. Carver just imagined the whole side mission. That's why Isaac doesn't say anything the whole time! Yeah, the whole thing was a Marker Delusion that only Carver went through, hence my... outburst (gently caress YOU, DEAD SPACE 3) . From a story perspective, this is actually an unexpectedly awesome moment, and shows, rather than tells, how subtly the Markers can influence people. From a gameplay perspective, it's jarring as hell, and the disconnect of actually having items from non-existent events isn't exactly the best design. SgtSteel91 posted:Slightly spoilery stuff That's a really tough call, and I'll discuss that more when we get there.
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Apr 23, 2015 05:29
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Yeah, that was... Pretty handholdy. And while the final buddy speech is fine, it would be a whole lot better if it hadn't been for Carver not being a thing for 90% of the SP experience. As the recent co-op showed, if you don't do the co-op missions, odds are this dramatic reveal will be completely out of the blue. Well anyhoo, nice to see what this episode presented, the architecture is still a plus point here, although that mineshaft bit... Really, Isaac, that was incredibly dumb, and on some level you had to already know that... :/
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Apr 25, 2015 01:45
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Neruz posted:I actually kind of like the idea behind the Brethren Moons reveal, it's hilariously poorly executed but the concept is really cool. What are the Necromorphs? Well they're the larval form of the Brethren Moons; the Moons created the Markers and fired them out throughout the galaxy. Wherever the Markers landed they would attract the local lifeforms and then accelerate their intellectual development until they were sufficiently advanced to form a Brethren Moon, then the Marker initiates the Necromorph plague and a short while later a new Brethren Moon is born. The Markers are how they breed. Well, this is as good a time as any to mention a universe where that is handled competently: Neal Asher's Polity. Do not read the spoilers if you're already partway through the Polity novels. The Polity series, by Neal Asher, is posthuman sci-fi. Many of the main characters are gene-modded, borged up, or even artificial intelligences, and life is mostly easy within the Polity. This isn't to say there aren't major threats, and the biggest bad of the series so far is the last spiteful middle finger of a long dead race: the Jain. See, we weren't the first race to get smart... Oh no. There were three other races, but as far as the universe is aware, they are all dead. But the Jain left little presents behind, traps that rely on intelligent species to trigger them. Jain Nodes. Jain Nodes are insidious bastards, because they give you exactly what you want, technology wise, but anyone stupid enough to try and get at those secrets (IE - showing enough intelligence and technology to want another paradigm shift) is going to be co-opted, and the Jain Node goes viral. Packed into these little puppies is not only a shitload of tech secrets from a long dead and highly advanced race, there's also virii that can turn AI into breeders of more Jain Nodes, grey goo style self replication with some really nasty complexity (Turns intelligent beings into things still intelligent enough and mobile enough to spread the cancer further, but not intelligent enough to think beyond "I am going to infect as much as I can"), and, worst of all, once something or someone's been infected by a Jain Node... It can pull said Jain weaponry and defenses out of its god-drat rear end. In the Polity series, there have been only something like three or four Jain infection events that have affected humanity. In each case, the only solution was to a) Get as many people out before it could get to the teleportation system the AIs have, and b) Singularity bomb the infected area to a fare-thee-well. The novels in question that deal with Jain Tech are the Agent Cormac novels, from the second onward (the first doesn't really have Jain Tech as a threat per se), and The Technician, which is set 20 years after The Line of Polity (the second novel)
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May 6, 2015 01:23
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This is the thing that gets me with Dead Space 3. Some of the characters could have been salvaged with just a little work. Not all of them (Really, there's no saving Ellie, sadly), but some. The closest to that is Carver. If it hadn't been for that one loving moment, he could have been a decentish character. Danik could have been given more nuance, Isaac could have been less of a passive aggressive shitlord, Norton, as mentioned, could realise how irrational he was being (Take a bullet for Carver or something). But a lot of this game is sudden TWISTS and FACE HEEL TURNS, and, overall, has all the nuance of a cock-shaped sausage. It can be as pretty as you please (And lord, it can be very pretty at times!), but it will still be something that reminds you of that one "Last Chicken in the Shop Look" joke from Red Dwarf. Agreeing that Serrano was interesting, and I wish we'd heard more from both him and General Mahad (Who, as it turns out, was doing the Right Thing.) So much wasted potential... But I will admit that there are moments where the game shines. They're just pretty dang rare, and... Hoo boy, the DLC... Oh, there will be words.  EDIT: Added a link to the Red Dwarf scene in question. More people should enjoy Red Dwarf. 
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May 14, 2015 15:17
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Shei-kun posted:Also HOLY poo poo that transition for Carver is great and I love how JamieTheD never got to see any of it and spent the whole time going "Carver goddamn it stop running through the necromorphs Antistar01 posted:There's actually some pretty cool ideas for co-op gameplay in there, leading to some tense moments. Coming out of the hallucination just in time to save Isaac from being ripped to shreds was like right out of an action movie. I don't quite remember if I said it in the video, but of the co-op missions, this is easily my favourite so far, despite its potential flaws. Which, tbh, are no better or worse than the flaw of "Player 2 wasn't looking where he was going". It's pretty well written, it has nice touches (Like the differing audio logs), that one moment with the sploders... Well, CJacobs wasn't the only one who needed a change of pants, but for a different reason, I suspect... (Let's just say I'm real glad that even two Sploders going off in close proximity wasn't enough to kill me anymore.) I'm still curious what the hell was up with that static. Wasn't my headset, it was just in one corner of the room, and CJacobs couldn't hear it. I suspect I'll never know whether it was a bug, intended loving with you, or what... Little mysteries. But yeah, it was easily the best co-op mission in the main game, a fact I'm not entirely approving of. Grumpy auld sod that I am, I really wish they'd pulled this sort of poo poo sooner.
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May 15, 2015 11:38
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Okay, so, we've just finished with the DLC, and it has been a hell of a ride... But even after we stopped recording, magical and wondrous things continued to happen... I can, without fear of spoilers, say this is perfectly fitting. All is well with the world as I type using my scythe hands. All four of them.
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May 16, 2015 00:43
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So yeah, even only 1/3 done with the DLC, and... AAAAAAARGH! I'm going to say a couple of things now, and I shall regret none of them. 1) Some content had to be cut. Some content needed to be cut. There's something like 20 minutes in total where connection woes meant we had to go all the loving way back to some checkpoints. And I had words about Isaac's judgement calls. But those things, in the end, didn't add anything. But I maintain Isaac retains terrible judgement, from the beginning to the end. 2) I regret nothing I may have spoiled early in the DLC vids. It was totally obvious all the way through this DLC that- We are hungry We are coming We are hungry We are coming ... ...GOD-DAMMIT, CJACOBS, WHAT BLACKEST THREAD MAGIC IS THIS?
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May 22, 2015 02:12
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Covok posted:To keep the franchise alive. Not as far as I recall, as I was in one of my "Planning to go back to reviewing phases" (I'm back for real this time) when Dead Space 3 came out, and I didn't hear many complaints about it at all. Sadly, this appeared pretty much planned. And, as much as I hate to say it, it fits with what seems to be the writing philosophy of this game. I'm in the middle of writing an article about it (and Thi4f) right now, and... Well, I'm trying not to use the word "stupid" in the article, like I did with my posts on the Thi4f plot, aaaand... It's becoming a real struggle, only two characters in of the four I want to mention for DS3... Especially since the second one is Norton, followed by Carver and Danik...  EDIT: vvv Unlike Isaac, I can only poop so much. JamieTheD fucked around with this message at 05:19 on May 22, 2015 |
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May 22, 2015 04:06
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I told you that I regret nothing. And yes, it was obvious from the moment they said "Hey, let's go to Earth" that the Necromorphs in one form or another, were already there because... I summed it up in one god-drat sentence: Action movie cliches. The thing really suffers from cliches that hell, even Action Movies are mostly trying to get past. Non-sequitur FACE-HEEL TURNS and NOT-TWISTS and ROMANCE SUBPLOT and... This is why I'm having such a hard time writing about this ongoing trend without using the word "Stupid"... Because just like Thi4f, the plot is driven by stupidity. So, as much as it pains me to wish a studio wouldn't be able to do a thing... I genuinely hope there isn't a Dead Space 4. Because, after Hardline released, and it had many of the same writing problems, I lost my faith in Visceral to make good decisions. I'd already lost my faith in EA to make good decisions a while back.
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May 23, 2015 14:51
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