Did the GB crew "like" Deadly Premonition?

I know this question is going to annoy or anger some, but did the GiantBomb crew "like" Deadly Premonition? I know it has been the subject of gags and in general talked about over the years since they played it on the endurance run; but even since then, when someone brings up that game, someone is likely to snare of roll eyes at it. As someone who didn't see much of the endurance run, I was just curious. With the Director's Cut releasing on PS3, I was curious enough to want to play through it and it got me thinking of that their opinion was for those who watched it.

Deadly Premonition is like marmite. Subject yourself to enough of it, and you might begin to like it. Might...

I'm pretty sure Ryan and Jeff recorded a video while driving where they expressed that in the end they have enjoyed it and that it's positively insane, but I might be wrong on that count.

I would guess they do not.

The short answer: Probably not.

As a game, it's clearly not exactly a fun one to play. It's also clear that it's a game that has charm, maybe even enough charm to be able to see past the faults or have the faults add to its charm. But seeing as how they more or less forced themselves to play the game (as opposed to Persona 4 where it seemed Vinny and Jeff were more than happy to see it through to the end), I can't say they regard it fondly.

As I assume it is for most people, their relationship with Deadly Premonition is very complicated.

I think they found an appreciation for it's zaniness and liked what it was trying to do.

Ryan seemed genuinely excited by some of the late game plot revelations. Made the BR ER a bit more enjoyable at those parts to be honest.

Ryan's insane glee at most of the shit that was happening on screen made that ER for me.

Obviously, it would differ somewhat for each of them, but I think they all enjoyed it with maybe the exception of Brad. Vinny has the greatest capacity to look on the bright side and forgive a game its faults and Jeff and Ryan basically got the experience without having to play it. I hope their relationship with it is similar to mine. The terrible graphics and gameplay are obviously off-putting and I didn't necessarily know what to make of just how bizarre it all is at first. But then it started to grow on me. Maybe they wouldn't go as far I would and I find it somewhat difficult to eloquently put in to words how I feel about Deadly Premonition, but even the graphics and gameplay eventually ended up becoming part of the charm. They certainly play in to an appreciation I have of the game by highlighting the low budget they must have been working with. Such a weird and unique game could only be feasible with such a budget and then that makes me reflect on the bizarre, ambitious scope of the game, being open world with an active passing of time and all the craziness that goes along with that... Naturally, the charm of bad gameplay only works when fondly reminiscing about the game. It kind of breaks down in frustrating sections, like the wall zombie etc, where you have to adapt your strategies to exploit the poor design.

Deadly Premonition is a game that could only ever really be divisive, so I wouldn't be too surprised if one or more of the staff didn't like it. But I HOPE that they at least like it, and I think that they probably do. As long as at least Vinny liked it, I think I'd be ok with that.

Only Brad was not able to appreciate what Deadly Premonition had to offer. "Wheh wheh wheh this game plays like shit wheh wheh wheh"

They probably enjoyed how unenjoyable it was.

@winternet said:

And I'd bet you Jeff would have been the same way had he been manning the controls. The man doesn't even like RE4 for god's sakes!

@minipato: Oh, sure. I was just saying that Brad was the one that did not appreciate DP.

Oh man, you just reminded me how wonderful it was to have Brad be the one playing the game while Ryan desperately tried to make him not fuck up.

It seemed like they enjoyed it, perhaps not Brad? Patrick loves the game and Vinny has spoken very positively about it. I think they all understand what makes Deadly Premonition special and like it for those things, but have also kept things in perspective, rather than being those insane people who appear to think Deadly Premonition is amazing in every single regard.

Yeah, you can tell by one of the 2010 GOTY Bombcasts that Brad refused to like anything about the game.

I can't blame people for hating it. It is pretty much a 'broken' game, which you either view as part of the games allure, or not.

They liked the story, the game itself is a chore. Brad seemed to like it least, maybe because he actually had to play it.

The 360 version looked like something that came out of a PS2 but it had a ton of fascinating story, charm & heart for it so as someone who did like it & watched all of the ER for it, it's highly recommended & not that expensive. GLHB!

basically I'd say that this is the most accurate answer possible to the OP question.

Listening to Brad complain during the endurance run was mildly grating on occasion but I absolutely understood where he was coming from. The frustration was compounded as we watched him struggle to master game mechanics (running through doors & smoking to pass the time) while also waltzing past story enhancing content (side missions) and items (better weapons). He was right though, the game has a bunch of major flaws that should not be overlooked. If you are the kind of gamer that loses patience when they encounter a broken mechanic or unreasonable difficulty spikes then you might react the same way Brad did. As you probably have read however, there is a lot of payoff and lasting charm to discover if you do persevere.

While they seemed to justifiably think a lot of the gameplay was rubbish, yeah, I think overall they did enjoy that game.

I need to finishing watching the Deadly premonition endurance run.

The staff would probably agree with me that the game is to be seen, but not played.

Well, I mean, it probably means nothing and I could be wrong but just compare the last episode of the DP and Persona 4 endurance runs. Notice how P4 still had their attention? With DP, everyone (save Ryan) was clearly done with the game; they all sounded bored to me.

So probably not? What the fuck do I know.

After reading this thread, I'm glad I only watched the Vinny/Jeff endurance run.

I sipped past all of the combat parts and just enjoyed the cut scenes, boss fights, and "driving monologues". I bet a lot of people did too, and this made the game much more enjoyable.

Why are you putting like in quotes? Are you asking if they ironically liked it? If so, the answer is probably yes.

There's a great article about Swery on Polygon that quotes Jeff on it:

Some of those Twitter fans likely discovered the game through the other source of Swery's appreciation. Though he has a limited grasp on the English language, he knows those two words well: "Endurance Run."

Video-focused gaming site Giant Bomb posts gameplay videos daily, but its Endurance Run feature is saved for games that the staff plays from beginning to end. The team has only done three of them since the site launched in 2008; Deadly Premonition was the second.

Giant Bomb Editor-in-chief Jeff Gerstmann says he and the team "weren't necessarily looking to kick off a second Endurance Run," but were drawn to Deadly Premonitionanyway. "We started hearing more and more about how strange it supposedly was, that it had a weird pace and a story that stood out in an endearingly quirky way."

Despite the game's problems, Gerstmann ended up falling forDeadly Premonition. He cautions that he didn't actually have to play the game personally — he just watched his co-host struggle with it — but the strong praise remains:

"The story makes the characters matter enough to make you feel awful when some of them meet a grisly demise in the back third of the game. And the dialogue is awkward in a totally unique way. It's not quite Twin Peaks, and it's too 'off' to feel like it's a victim of poor localization. It carves its own path and stays true to that path from start to finish."

Swery was ecstatic about the Endurance Run. "So many people watched those and then bought Deadly Premonition afterward," he says. "I think people who watched the playthrough videos found themselves wanting to visit the town of Greenvale and the people that live there." By Swery's reckoning, that town is the key element that sets Deadly Premonition apart from other games.

http://www.polygon.com/features/2013/2/12/3977154/the-sinners-sandwich-deadly-premonitions-creator-on-making-a-good-bad

Everyone except Brad wanted York to win Best New Character for their Game of the Year 2010 deliberations, so I think most of them really enjoyed the story. Brad was still being pissy about the gameplay though because he's Brad at games, and argued against everything else having to do with the game as a result. So yeah, Jeff, Vinny and Ryan all enjoyed it, and since joining the site Patrick has said good things about Deadly Premonition as well.

Well the entire "game" part of it is AWFUL. Everything else is charming and interesting. I would not like to play it, I'm happy i got to see the story through the ER. But DAMN did the gameplay look absolutely awful.