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PoizenJam
Dec 2, 2006

Damn!!!
It's PoizenJam!!!
The character models had a distinctly 'anime' feel to me. I don't know how to put my finger on it, because there's definitely a realism bend to it in the promo shots. Maybe it's because she was playing on low graphical settings?

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icantfindaname
Jul 1, 2008


The characters feel fake not because those stereotypes aren't real things but because nobody is 100% stereotype, which these characters are

Poizen Jam posted:

The character models had a distinctly 'anime' feel to me. I don't know how to put my finger on it, because there's definitely a realism bend to it in the promo shots. Maybe it's because she was playing on low graphical settings?

I think it's just because the models have a vaguely CGI feel to them. Unless you think Team Fortress 2 looks like anime no it doesn't really look like anime specifically, it does like slightly cartoonish though. Maybe you're using 'anime' to refer to anything cartoon-looking, I don't know

icantfindaname fucked around with this message at 19:13 on Feb 5, 2015

Rosalind
Apr 30, 2013

When we hit our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change.

I think they're supposed to have a sketched vibe to them, as if they were in a high school girl's journal since that's the vibe of all the UI elements too.

Ruby Prism
Aug 7, 2011

With this, I'll be able to make the ultimate pie!
It's a painterly style for sure. Google up portfolios of concept artists and it should look very similar. It's pretty impressive really, and it manages to work as both gorgeous art direction and a clever way to minimize time spent on texturing.

I can look past stereotypes when we've just been introduced to these characters. I'd also like to point out that if you care to explore, read up journal entries, look around people's rooms and whatnot, most of the peripheral characters get some much needed depth added to them.

Overall, I gotta say I loved the game. It was a very immersive experience for me, and even though I'm probably older than Max's photographer crush, the teen drama didn't really bother me much. They did a really good job making you feel like you're in Max's shoes through the use of her body language, introspective musings and journal entries.

The lip sync is indeed atrocious; especially during the intro lecture. I'm not sure how they can improve it without seriously delaying future episodes though.

PoizenJam
Dec 2, 2006

Damn!!!
It's PoizenJam!!!

icantfindaname posted:


I think it's just because the models have a vaguely CGI feel to them. Unless you think Team Fortress 2 looks like anime no it doesn't really look like anime specifically, it does like slightly cartoonish though. Maybe you're using 'anime' to refer to anything cartoon-looking, I don't know

Perhaps I should have said 'anime influenced'- I think it's the face countours and the eyes. I'm not talking about DragonBall Z style giant-eyed spikey hair anime, think the character designs in more dark, serious, or hip series. It's also reminiscent of Final Fantasy to me. I don't think TF2 looks anime at all.

Again looking at the promo pics on max settings it feels more stylized realism so I'll chalk it up to the flatter colouring, funky coloured hair, and shading of low graphical settings. It's definitely a lot more appealing when maxed out even if the characters look like flat high school stereotypes.

Altogether it didn't look like a bad game, and my girlfriend praised the game for being a bit more interactive than the TellTale games she enjoys.

The cursing was hideously awful though. The actors variously felt like they didn't commit/forced it or were overzealous. A lot of times teenagers seem awkward when cursing anyway but this felt extreme.

And I believe that's the first time in history I've complained about cursing in videogames.

Beartaco
Apr 10, 2007

by sebmojo

Poizen Jam posted:

So my girlfriend got this last night and played through it. The concept intrigued me, the anime style didn't, but the sheer amount of cursing was what struck me. I found it hilarious, because it felt like the actors were either forcing the emotion through cursing or hesitant to curse in the first place.

I watched her play a few sections, and my one gripe was the pregnancy test thing. You can pick it up, gain the info, reverse time, still have the info and suffer no consequences. There didn't seem to be any reason to stick with the timeline where someone got pissed at you.

Most of the characters appeared really unlikable, but kind of funny in how lovely they are.

Yeah it's about being a huge sociopathic piece of poo poo with time travel. Max to me isn't a likeable character, she's an awkward nerd turned horrible rear end in a top hat and it's the best thing.

"I think John Lennon once said..." had me laughing too hard.

PoizenJam
Dec 2, 2006

Damn!!!
It's PoizenJam!!!

Beartaco posted:

"I think John Lennon once said..." had me laughing too hard.

Personally I got a huge kick out of the fact Chloe throws Max under the bus over pot after Max saved her life.

Rush_shirt
Apr 24, 2007

precision posted:

You can let her get smacked in the face if you're a terrible coward. :(

It's me. I'm the terrible coward. :(

poptart_fairy posted:

The time travel thing is neat, but it strikes me as a very meta way of seeing everything more than anything that's going to heavily impact the plot.

I enjoy how things begin to feel inconsequential once you can just redo what you did and see every possible outcome before continuing. It's a rather unusual feeling in an adventure game based on choices.

PoizenJam
Dec 2, 2006

Damn!!!
It's PoizenJam!!!
Isn't the conceit that some of your choices have long term implications further down the road than you can rewind? Like you can see the immediate aftermath and revert it, sure, but doesn't it say something to the effect of 'this choice will have long term consequences'?

Crappy Jack
Nov 21, 2005

We got some serious shit to discuss.

Right, at first I was all "Oh, you can just undo any action, there's no point to anything", but then I realized that while I could decide what decision to ultimately commit to with, say, the principal, the consequence of my action wouldn't come until potentially much later in the story, meaning that I'd still have to stick with my choice in the long term. Maybe there's choices down the line where, say, helping a character out makes them more happy in the short term, but ends up going poorly for them down the line. To use the KotoR 2 example, if I give somebody a dollar and the immediate result is "They get happy with me", but then an hour later they get viciously beaten for that dollar which I can no longer undo, did I make the right choice?

Entropic
Feb 21, 2007

patriarchy sucks
Basically, it's a game where your character is aware of the fact that you're reloading from a save file.

Rush_shirt
Apr 24, 2007

I guess you don't know just how your actions will play out, but you at least get a sense, based on Max's reactions. One example I can think of would be if you're nice to Victoria, Max bemoans that Victoria "played her" and that maybe she shouldn't have been so soft.

Dr. Killjoy
Oct 9, 2012

:thunk::mason::brainworms::tinfoil::thunkher:
I chose to be nice to Victoria but regretted it once the story advanced 5 minutes later...

Rush_shirt
Apr 24, 2007

Victoria's just insecure (like most people her age), and just a bit entitled. I'm sure she'll do plenty of other outrageous stuff to us, but eventually she'll have the possibility of becoming an ally, based on our decisions.

Constant Hamprince
Oct 24, 2010

by exmarx
College Slice
I can't bring myself to fully hate Victoria, I mean she's a terrible person and all but her fashion sense is amazing. She's like if Kanye was the villain in Mean Girls.

Karnegal
Dec 24, 2005

Is it... safe?

Poizen Jam posted:

Personally I got a huge kick out of the fact Chloe throws Max under the bus over pot after Max saved her life.

How does this happen? Do you just refuse to hide?

Sakurazuka
Jan 24, 2004

NANI?

You either don't hide or gently caress up the hiding spot in the closet by not moving the stand next to it first and forgetting you can rewind time until a bit later, like I did.

Burno
Aug 6, 2012

This was pretty cool and I am glad I got it.

I too didn't hide because I was stupid and totally blanked on the fact I could just rewind time. I took the fall but drat I wanted to throw her under the bus in response. I am probably going to get kicked out of Blackwell.

Luckily it all ends on Friday

Oxygen Deficiency
May 19, 2008



Finished Episode 1 last night. What a great little game this was. :)

I was expecting to hate the characters after I played the first hour or so but I ended up liking Max a lot, her opinions on random objects are pretty great.

I'm happy with the choices I made so far, but I guess i'll have to see how badly I messed up in later episodes.

There was one really jarring part of the game for me: when you go to Chloes house and do a little snooping, it becomes fairly obvious that Madsen is her step-dad but Max makes no mention of this at all until hours later. Stuff like "huh i bet Chloes step-dad is a real hard-rear end" and she's looking at a photo of Madsen as she thinks this.

ymgve
Jan 2, 2004


:dukedog:
Offensive Clock

Oxygen Deficiency posted:

Finished Episode 1 last night. What a great little game this was. :)

I was expecting to hate the characters after I played the first hour or so but I ended up liking Max a lot, her opinions on random objects are pretty great.

I'm happy with the choices I made so far, but I guess i'll have to see how badly I messed up in later episodes.

There was one really jarring part of the game for me: when you go to Chloes house and do a little snooping, it becomes fairly obvious that Madsen is her step-dad but Max makes no mention of this at all until hours later. Stuff like "huh i bet Chloes step-dad is a real hard-rear end" and she's looking at a photo of Madsen as she thinks this.

Uhm... There was a whole conversation in the car about her dad dying, wasn't there?

Otherkinsey Scale
Jul 17, 2012

Just a little bit of sunshine!

Rincewind posted:

Also, the game takes place in 2013 and Wikipedia says that it didn't become legal in Oregon until 2014.

It's still not actually legal yet--it was voted on last November, but the law doesn't come into effect until this July.


Dr. Killjoy posted:

I chose to be nice to Victoria but regretted it once the story advanced 5 minutes later...

I was mostly just disappointed that the game didn't let you take the photo, rewind and then comfort her while still having the photo in your possession. I know it's sort of a "have your cake and eat it too" situation in terms of narrative consequences, but it still breaks that rule that she keeps any object she gets before she rewinds. (Same thing in the scene with Katie and Madsen.)

Paladinus
Jan 11, 2014

heyHEYYYY!!!
Another thing is time travel allows you to teleport somehow. How do people around you perceive it? You can revert time right in front of them and no one seems to notice that you basically appear out of nowhere.

Oxygen Deficiency
May 19, 2008



ymgve posted:

Uhm... There was a whole conversation in the car about her dad dying, wasn't there?

I'm talking about how the game never says "hey that rear end in a top hat security guard at Blackwell is Chloes step-dad" until the last 5 minutes of the episode. Meanwhile Max is looking at a photo of the security guard in Chloes house and is like "who the hell is this guy?"

Macaluso
Sep 23, 2005

I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG, BROTHER!

Oxygen Deficiency posted:

I'm talking about how the game never says "hey that rear end in a top hat security guard at Blackwell is Chloes step-dad" until the last 5 minutes of the episode. Meanwhile Max is looking at a photo of the security guard in Chloes house and is like "who the hell is this guy?"

:confused: when I played, she absolutely commented on the security guard being Chloe's stepdad, she even said something like "of course" or "I knew it!" or whatever. What picture are you looking at where she says "who is this guy"?

RightClickSaveAs
Mar 1, 2001

Tiny animals under glass... Smaller than sand...


Macaluso posted:

:confused: when I played, she absolutely commented on the security guard being Chloe's stepdad, she even said something like "of course" or "I knew it!" or whatever. What picture are you looking at where she says "who is this guy"?
It took her a long time to figure it out. She sees a picture of him as a soldier, and comments on that, then I think she sees his name on an ID card or something lying around, but she doesn't explicitly figure it out until she gets to the garage. That's how it went for me. Maybe it's the way the game is paced, and they expected people to go straight to the garage before snooping around the rest of the house?

Oxygen Deficiency
May 19, 2008



RightClickSaveAs posted:

It took her a long time to figure it out. She sees a picture of him as a soldier, and comments on that, then I think she sees his name on an ID card or something lying around, but she doesn't explicitly figure it out until she gets to the garage. That's how it went for me. Maybe it's the way the game is paced, and they expected people to go straight to the garage before snooping around the rest of the house?

Oh okay i must have forgotten it clicked for her in the garage. I'd have been really surprised if she didn't get it from the file full of Kate's photos. Still looking forward to seeing the outcome of that story thread.

Macaluso
Sep 23, 2005

I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG, BROTHER!

RightClickSaveAs posted:

It took her a long time to figure it out. She sees a picture of him as a soldier, and comments on that, then I think she sees his name on an ID card or something lying around, but she doesn't explicitly figure it out until she gets to the garage. That's how it went for me. Maybe it's the way the game is paced, and they expected people to go straight to the garage before snooping around the rest of the house?

I don't know about the soldier picture, but she absolutely knows when she looks at the ID, and says as much.

RightClickSaveAs
Mar 1, 2001

Tiny animals under glass... Smaller than sand...


edit: oh weird, I probably have the details mixed up.

It is weird that she didn't recognize his name, out of all the little clues lying around. That's what confirmed it for me, because it says his name right there in her journal!

Kraps
Sep 9, 2011

This avatar was paid for by the Silent Majority.
Square Enix trying to get some of that sweet Telltale money.

I liked it, one of my favorite aspects is when Max verbalizes the players "drat maybe I should have done Y instead of X" second-guessing, and then in the next scene says "I'm glad I did X". I messed up hiding in the closet the first time and was really taken aback when Chloe threw me under the bus, so I redid it. Sorry but I was already on Dickheads shitlist for rescuing Kate. I also thought it was weird that I couldn't chose whether to tell Chloe about her stepdad's creepy surveillance but ok.

Can't wait to see where this goes, story-heavy games plus time travel are some of my things.

ymgve
Jan 2, 2004


:dukedog:
Offensive Clock
Apparently a fully playable version of episode 2 and parts of episode 3 and 4 has leaked - makes me wonder if the "episodic release" nature of the game is a marketing gimmick.

FrumpleOrz
Feb 12, 2014

Perhaps you have not been to the *Playground*.
The *Playground* is for Taalo and for Orz, but *Campers* can go.
It more fun than several.
You can go there for too much fun.

Kraps posted:

Square Enix trying to get some of that sweet Telltale money.

I liked it, one of my favorite aspects is when Max verbalizes the players "drat maybe I should have done Y instead of X" second-guessing, and then in the next scene says "I'm glad I did X". I messed up hiding in the closet the first time and was really taken aback when Chloe threw me under the bus, so I redid it. Sorry but I was already on Dickheads shitlist for rescuing Kate. I also thought it was weird that I couldn't chose whether to tell Chloe about her stepdad's creepy surveillance but ok.

Can't wait to see where this goes, story-heavy games plus time travel are some of my things.

Wait, what? I was able to tell her about her stepdad's creepy surveillance . She even says something like "I knew it!"

Kraps
Sep 9, 2011

This avatar was paid for by the Silent Majority.

FrumpleOrz posted:

Wait, what? I was able to tell her about her stepdad's creepy surveillance . She even says something like "I knew it!"

You were able to choose though? My game suddenly minimized at that part by the lighthouse.

Rosalind
Apr 30, 2013

When we hit our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change.

Kraps posted:

My game suddenly minimized at that part by the lighthouse.

Actually you just time traveled back to before you launched the game.

Macaluso
Sep 23, 2005

I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG, BROTHER!
No you don't get to choose to tell her or not, it just does it assuming you checked out the tv and files. I imagine if you beelined for the tools and peaced you don't mention it at all (since you wouldn't know).

It is a little strange you don't get the option to not tell her though, especially if you don't hide and Chloe throws you under the bus

Kraps
Sep 9, 2011

This avatar was paid for by the Silent Majority.

Macaluso posted:

It is a little strange you don't get the option to not tell her though, especially if you don't hide and Chloe throws you under the bus

That's what I'm saying, according to the game mechanics you don't unsee things when you rewind, so why would the act of opening the cabinet decide whether you tell her or not?

poptart_fairy
Apr 8, 2009

by R. Guyovich

Poizen Jam posted:

Isn't the conceit that some of your choices have long term implications further down the road than you can rewind? Like you can see the immediate aftermath and revert it, sure, but doesn't it say something to the effect of 'this choice will have long term consequences'?

This is pretty much what every single game has promised, ever, though.

Hakkesshu
Nov 4, 2009


The weirdest part about the surveillance thing is that he seemingly doesn't have a camera in Chloe's room as far as I can recall, so maybe he does kind of respect her?

Kraps
Sep 9, 2011

This avatar was paid for by the Silent Majority.

Hakkesshu posted:

The weirdest part about the surveillance thing is that he seemingly doesn't have a camera in Chloe's room as far as I can recall, so maybe he does kind of respect her?

From a few things like the answering machine you can tell he's trying not to be a shithead on purpose, but his PTSD and and being spooked about whatever is going on makes him act like a massive dick.

Otherkinsey Scale
Jul 17, 2012

Just a little bit of sunshine!

ymgve posted:

Apparently a fully playable version of episode 2 and parts of episode 3 and 4 has leaked - makes me wonder if the "episodic release" nature of the game is a marketing gimmick.

Episode 2 is scheduled to be released next month, if it wasn't fully playable at this point I'd be worried.

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FrumpleOrz
Feb 12, 2014

Perhaps you have not been to the *Playground*.
The *Playground* is for Taalo and for Orz, but *Campers* can go.
It more fun than several.
You can go there for too much fun.

Macaluso posted:

No you don't get to choose to tell her or not, it just does it assuming you checked out the tv and files. I imagine if you beelined for the tools and peaced you don't mention it at all (since you wouldn't know).

It is a little strange you don't get the option to not tell her though, especially if you don't hide and Chloe throws you under the bus

poo poo, are you sure? I could've sworn an option popped up and I chose something right before Chloe said "I KNEW IT." Was that not between telling her or not telling her?

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