Alright, I just got through this episode and I'd figured we'd get a discussion thread going.

I'll start this by saying that I'm a big fan of the books and I'm a big fan of the TV series.

When I first heard that Telltale got access to this licence I was quite happy. I'm also very happy that this game doesn't fall into the trap of just retelling what goes on in the TV series. The A Song of Ice And Fire world is so huge, you could tell all sorts of amazing side stories.

So far, I feel like Telltale really NAILS the tone of the series. It's off to a good start. At first I was expecting things to go in a very predictable way but it did not... at all.

I can't wait to see more.

The ending was pretty much telling you : Bitch, this is Game of Thrones, important people are going to die..

Oh and Peter Dinklage didn't phone it in this time.

I didn't see any boobs or penises and no one had sex with a relative. They've obviously never seen the show...

Being GoT, I've got no illusions of a single one of these original characters making it to the end, so I'm causing as much mayhem and being as much of a dick to Cercei and the Boltons as I possibly can.

I'm assuming what happens to Ethan occurs regardless of your choices. I chose to offer himself as a hostage to save his sister.

I treated Ramsey Snow like the piece of shit he is, and I got a knife through the throat...didn't see that coming.
I wonder..does that always happen? Also was wondering, while playing as the squire, if I DIDN'T kill the Bolton, would I still get sent to the Wall?

10/10 bretty gud

Just to round out the choices, I was perfectly civil to Snow but chose to pull the sister away from him. Same result.

That was a hell of an episode 1, though. I loved everything about it, and the ending was icing on the cake.

wait wait wait it's OUT ALREADY?

EDIT: Question, is there a big difference between the ps4 and xbox one versions?

Just finished it up and yeah I do think the ending is set in stone no matter what you do but I'm going to say it probably affects things in the next episode.

I gotta say that this was a VERY strong start to the series. It certainly understands the nature of the show and pretty much got everything right in my book. i kind of appreciated the commitment to making this mainly about politics and discussions rather than shoe horning in puzzles like they did sometimes in Walking Dead Season 1. The manipulation and cruelty of Westeros are hallmarks of the series and they focus on that to a huge degree. Along with the spot on writing, great voice acting, and some surprisingly well animated faces, I cannot wait for episode 2 to hit.

@frostyryan: can't say I know of any differences but the pa4 version for me ran great. Pretty constant framerate and I don't think I had any real stand out visual glitches or anything.

I make no sense. As soon as I typed that, I just went ahead and downloaded the PS4 version regardless. I was anxious. But that's good to know!

A solid start for Telltale. I felt like I was actually a part of the crazy politics the world of Westeros has. Bring on episode 2!

P.S: Fuck Ramsay Bolton.

P.P.S: It was really weird seeing the classic show opening credits run at 60 fps.

I kinda don't like looking at some of the characters as cartoons, it just looks weird. Also the blurring or oil painting effect on some objects/backgrounds looks really odd.

The story was pretty great but HOLY FUCK WHO LET THOSE SOLDIERS IN? I FUCKING CLOSED THE GATE ON THEM, HOW DID THEY GET IN? WHO LET THEM IN, WHAT THE FUCK?

I knew as soon as you control multiple characters that they found out a way to kill off a character you control.

Its a fun ride, regardless of it having many graphical glitches, aliasing being weird and it generally looking dated in 2014. I can honestly say GoT interest me a little bit more than it did before I played this. That Ramsay Snow character is GREAT.

Say someone has never seen the show or read the books. Will they get anything out of it or is this game is not really meant for them?

@donchipotle: You might get some enjoyment out of it but I don't think so. Having a good grasp of the political and historical backgrounds for what's going on seems pretty damn important to me. You won't have any idea what "being sent to the Wall" means, who are the Lannisters, the Freys, The Starks, etc. Honestly, I would at least watch the series up to season 4 first or read the first three books. This takes place at the end of season 3 of the show/around the latter half of the third book.

@meaninoflife42: He's not a Bolton yet! Also, if you have any good idea of who that motherfucker is, you knew sometime like that was going to happen. Dude is a psycho by Westeros standards.

I will say, compared to TWD and TWAU this seems much more tailored to fans of the show/books.

That said, I didn't think there was anything too hard to pick up on. But I'm a huge fan of the show, so I already know about the larger world.

@donchipotle: I only watched maybe 4 episodes of the first season (forgot a whole lot of it) and I enjoyed the game perfectly fine. That being said it wont hurt to watch a little bit of the show or read a wiki or something.

I watched the first episode once and all I know about the series is that there's a blonde girl who marries this savage looking dude and I think another blonde girl was having sex with her brother and then a kid got pushed out a window.

I am clearly prepared for this game .

I didn't care for this. The character models seemed goofy to me. I didn't care for the tv style jumping back and forth between characters at all. It really annoyed me in fact. And the story is pretty lame in my opinion. Also found it out of place to have actual show characters in the game. You really have no choice at all in this game. I felt like all three choices on many of the decisions were the exact the same thing just worded slightly different, and what ever I picked didn't match the tone I was choosing in the slightest. Its destined to be shit and everyone is going to die no matter what you do, so I don't really see the point in offering me false choice. I'm not sure I will buy anymore of the episodes. This is nowhere near as good as the walking dead game.

I loved it. I think Ethan's fate was pretty much sealed no matter what. Now onto Margeary's boobies and the Purple Wedding.

I just played this last night and I came away from it really satisfied and wanting more. And man, was that scene with Cersei tense! I actually felt like I was the one being grilled by the queen regent and anything I could possibly say was going to be twisted or interpreted as a slight towards her or showing weakness.

While I am enjoying this game so far, I am getting a little tired of the illusion of choice in Telltale games. It's not too bad if you only play the games once, but I've played the first season of The Walking Dead twice and it's almost silly how everything turns out the same regardless of your choices. I know it would be too much work to come up with a ton of branching story lines, but giving me a false sense of choice is wearing thin. The end of this episode really stood out to me as another example of this. I did almost everything Ramsey wanted and he still killed me. I know he's crazy and everything, but it really seemed silly for him to kill you for no reason.

It's also unclear why I had no guards and where the hell all of Ramsey's men came from, but that's more of a story problem than a game problem and they could explain it away I'm sure.

Really great first impression. And, man, in the end they really out-Game-of-Thrones'ed themselves. At least I could treat Ramsay and his obese boy-toy as the pieces of trash they are... for a while.

I was pretty impressed with how it wrapped up but I thought it was a little clunky on its way there, the writing just isn't as good as the show and two hours seemed like it made the writers have to stretch everything out a little whereas the show is so condensed and whittled down to its essence. I also found the water color affect unsettling; it never "broke" for me as Patrick alluded to on the podcast, because he said the filter would disappear, but there were moments where the background just looked like utter mud (the conversation on the balcony, for example). I also wasn't nearly as impressed with the horses as he was, seemed like typical Telltale stuff to me.

I did find Cersei perfectly represented, though, and as I said before the way the episode ended legitimately caught me off guard despite being purely Game of Thrones. I loved that and now I'm all in on the rest of it; excited there's five more episodes to go, too.

I really enjoyed it, but it lacked the sparkle other Teltale games have had, and that became apparent once I moved onto the first episode of Tales Of Borderlands which is, as far as I'm concerned, the best episode to come out of telltale since TWD S1. Game Of Thrones felt a bit plodding, the voice acting seemed a bit weak and it looks downright ugly but it's has a few choice scenes, usually involving a 'war of words' which makes it worth while. The ending was really strong as well and it sets up what should be an eventful and fascinating second episode. On it's own though, thought it was a bit lacking especially when compared to Borderlands.

After playing Tales from the Borderlands, I hated coming to Game of Thrones and seeing the old style of QTE buttons. They're so goddamned hard to see.

Yep. I for the most part enjoyed the episode, but what the hell was that "Run to your father"/"Draw sword" choice all about? Why even offer me a choice if it's a decision between fighting off soldiers or fighting off soldiers? At least The Walking Dead had situations like the Lee/Kenny argument on the train, where the player's decision actually has an impact on the way the scene plays out. At this point i'm just waiting for the "Eat cheese"/"Eat apple" moral decision where the player decides to eat an apple no matter what you pick.

"Sometimes no matter what you choose, things have to go down this way" works when there's sometimes or even often only one way a situation can go; it doesn't work when there are almost NO situations where your actions affect anything.

I really enjoyed this. I felt that the conversations with Cersei and Ramsay (especially the Cersei one) were the most tense dialogue trees I've ever had to navigate. Still not much of a 'game' but I think Telltale have continued to nail the "Choose Your Own Adventure" nature of these games. Hopefully the rest of the Season stays strong

Well the outcome may be the same becouse the soldiers are assholes and they will accuse you no matter what but when you are making your defense later on it matters to your character if you want to roleplay with honor or with lies. Many choices are like this and if you couldnt care less about the character you play then sure those choices are of no consequense.

Lets say you order a meal irl and you can either be polite or you could be an asshole, it will be the same outcome becouse you will be served your meal no matter what but is there really no difference in the choices you have?

Loved it.

The style of storytelling and the aesthetic is very much like that of the show, which will please many fans, such as myself. I pretty much enjoyed all the characters and the fact that each situation needed different approaches. Plus, while Ethan's fate may have been pretty much sealed, it's still interesting to see how your actions influence the two other characters you control. Feels like you impact the universe more profoundly, I guess.

It's funny that the ending actually surprised me, though. I mean, we all know what a pathetic monster Ramsey is, and the fact that he didn't kill me sooner struck me as odd. I tried to act nice but firm, even kneeled to that motherfucker, and for a second I really though things were going smoothly, however, I should have known that nothing would fucking please that piece of shit. Nice job to the writers for really keeping the situation so damn tense.

I was just a little disappointed that Gareth didn't get that much screen time, since he was my favorite of the bunch.