I think the Junji Ito story Vinny is talking about is The Enigma of Amigara Fault. Ito has a bunch of amazingly creepy and gross stuff, with Uzumaki (the spirals one) probably also being my favorite. Having read most of his work Amigara Fault was definitely one of the most unsettling ones for me though.
@steveurkel: It's been a bit of a lean year indeed but I can think of about 10 games that were totally worth my time, and a few that wound up being all time favorites. But that's how different tastes work I suppose.
What a bummer, but obviously wishing you all the best Abby. Your contribution to GB will be sorely missed. Looking forward to whatever you do next, your talent and sense of humor should carry you just fine. There's twitter to follow until then!
Posting this under a 3 month old video doesn't add much but I just needed to put something down to clear my head, so pardon the ramblings.
It's a been a few days since I finally got around to playing this game, and still think about it a lot. Can't recall too many games that stand out for doing this to me but when it does happen, I both love and hate it (ie Nier Automata, Life is Strange, Silent Hill 2) as I feel off for days.
Enjoyed this spoilercast, regardless of some opinions not aligning with mine. I just want to hear and see other people talk and write about it to put my thoughts in order.
I might replay the entire game right away, because the feeling of wonder and admiration for the all the little animations and visual splendor that constantly made me pause to just look at stuff took a serious backseat once the second half started because I was so desperately trying to get back to the theatre to see the conclusion, under the initial (and obviously mistaken) assumption that Abby's section wouldn't take all that long.
But that second half did exactly what it set out to do, it managed to make me change my mind about Abby completely even though the means by which they did it over the course of 3 in-game days might feel unearned and overly long to some people. I actually liked the Abby part of this game better than Ellie's, as I grew so resentful towards Ellie (which clearly seems to be the desired effect of the writing) and her choices in search for revenge that at a point I was even unsure I wanted to continue playing the game if that were to be the rest of the story. But the contrast between the two halves is what eventually saved this game for me.
I felt really ambiguous about the fight in the theatre, and think it was a really great choice to have you play Abby. It was pretty neat that Ellie uses all the crafting and upgrades you had access to and it added a very peculiar tension of not wanting to see either of them lose.
During the Santa Barbara section I rushed to get to the conclusion again, sadly. Then similar to what Vinny mentions, it made me redo the end button prompts in the most brutally uncomfortable final fight I ever played in a game several times because I just didn't want to finish Abby.
I understand the critique the gratuitous violence, long playtime and sometimes hokey plot points get, I just didn't care enough to let that stand out as a negative. The writing might be lacking at times but I apparently have a high cheese tolerance and actually really liked it. This was always more about the characters to me anyway. Gameplay felt very solid as well, as they mention the option to go loud and back into stealth so easily really helps the flow of combat and made it very fun to play.
Great visuals, some amazing set pieces. Loved the little animations and visual power that made it feel so realistic. Just seeing simple things like Ellie putting on the hood every time she walked into rain, or having a wobbly idle animation and change in expression when she stands up in the boat are such a minor yet key things that really improved the overall feel of this game for me. Things like this are obviously much more commonplace nowadays in high budget games but having started playing videogames in the late 80s I still get a childlike glee out of being able to go 'holy shit they made this actually interact properly will you look at that fucking magic?!' I made footsteps in mud and snow for way longer than I care to admit.
Been looking forward to this game for ages, and so far doesn't disappoint. Died a ton of times and only hit the jungle/volcano twice. Having so many familiar mechanics while still adding enough new things to keep it fresh is really scratching that itch for me again. Having an absolute blast so far, the only minor criticism I can think of is that I liked the music and there being variation of it per biome better in the first one.
This is 100% the problem with this community. Any intelligent criticism directed towards Abby for this will be drowned out by people calling you sexist and having an agenda. If a single staff member seems to get the brunt of the criticism it may just be because they deserve it, not because of their gender.
Probably because Abby notoriously has had so much unjust vitriol directed at her pretty much since she joined GB that it's pretty hard to take anyone's comments at face value without doubting if it is in fact honest criticism. I agree that lumping everyone on the misogyny bandwagon is too generalizing but just look at the average ratio of dislikes on Youtube for any video she's in compared to the rest and then try to argue there isn't something iffy going on, knowing that women in this industry get shit on frequently.
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