@jabbawocky: You're right about the adventure game aspects of the episodes after Ep1, I hadn't really noticed that in earnest. I just hope the hasty action-oriented style that reared it's head in this series doesn't become too prevalent in Telltale's future projects. The QTEs were fun at first, but I definitely got sick of them by the end.
Okay, so I have no information about how Telltale operates, but I got a weird feeling after the massive delay between episode 1 and episode 2. If I remember correctly, that was over 4 months of downtime (early October to mid February?). The main reasons I feel as though there was a massive rewrite of the story during those months are as follows:
4 months is a lot of time to make just one episode (obviously)
Ep2 felt rushed despite the delay. Whereas Ep1 was a smooth experience for me, Ep2 crashed, froze up for several seconds at a time, had a few graphical glitches, and the plot didn't seem as tight as the first.
The preview screen (when selecting episodes) for Ep3 was a picture of a cop tailing Bigby into his apartment building. It was pretty high-fidelity art like the rest of the preview screens. However, this changed soon after Ep2 was released, showing a rather low res, low-fi shot of Bigby reaching after a car driving away. And that cop in the initial preview screen never showed up in the series again after the interrogation in Ep2.
Some (most?) of the achievement names made little sense in context after Ep2 came out, hinting that perhaps the story was changed but achievements weren't changed with it.
Kind of minor, but in Ep1 as Snow is leading Bigby down to look at the severed head, the two of them run into a random dude in the hallway and a lingering shot ensues where Snow just says "Uh... hello." This shot served no purpose within the episode or after, but was a huge factor in the "That Random Guy in the Hallway is the Murderer" theory that emerged almost immediately after the episode was released.
Not super sure, but I don't think any of the evidence collected around the head (i.e. the blood on the fence, ripped cloth, etc.) were used/referenced at all later in the series.
This one is subjective, but still stands out in my mind: The first episode is by far the best written episode, like they had a plan that they were laying very carefully. It felt like a legitimate detective story, while I got a sort of "B-Movie detective" feeling from pretty much every subsequent episode.
I'm probably over-thinking this, but these things just clicked in my head around Ep3, and I just couldn't shake the feeling that the original story was changed for some reason during the 4 month delay. It might just be carelessness on TTG's part. I might have missed some details that would explain most (maybe all?) of the points I just brought to the table. What do you guys think? And if what we got was a rewrite, what do you think caused said rewrite?
Oh god you're all right they do own GOG. And @kidavenger your point about cost of living also makes a certain amount of sense. Thank you guys this makes so much more sense now.
So, I'm no business analyst, but I do follow this industry quite a bit. I've noticed all sorts of large corporations getting money out of customers in every way they can. But then I see CD Projekt speaking of zero DRM, having their previous games go on extremely deep discount, and up to 20% off a Witcher 3 preorder. I know these games sell well, but with CD Projekt being more or less independent and not necessarily creating the best-selling games in the world, how can they afford to completely get rid of PC DRM, delay this game multiple times, have significant discounts right off the bat, and also develop Cyberpunk at the same time? Do they have a separate source of revenue that I'm unaware of? Are they just really banking hard on a massive success with the Witcher 3?
Wow. Good luck out there Vinny, can't wait to see what crazy shenanigans you and Navarro get up to. Also, I'm glad you were up front about other motives for making this moves, it makes it far easier for me to sympathize and understand.
My opinion: this was one of the weakest episodes in the entire series. I have many reasons for thinking this.
Very short. It took me barely an hour to finish.
Interactions with Carver seemed too predictable. Of course he was going to kill Reggie, of course he was going to play nice with Clem, of course he was going to beat the shit out of Kenny. People talk as though he's a terrific villain. He's serviceable at best due to the fact that you can see everything he's about to do from a mile away.
Clementine is 11, 12 at most. Why the hell would you give her every important thing to do? I can understand that everyone knows she's capable, but god dammit there's a new badass survivor girl in the group who I would choose over Clem for virtually every job (except the ones contrived to suit Clem because of her size).
Too many characters that I don't care about. In Season 1, the group was smaller, most of the episodes were longer, and there were more opportunities to just talk to everyone. That way I was horrified when Carly got shot in the face, I freaked out when I had to shoot Duck. Now that Season 2 has arrived at the "time to start killing off characters" point in the plot, I don't care that Alvin is dead, I don't care that Carlos is dead, I don't care that Sarita is bitten. None of those characters matter to me.
Season 1 started with a goal: reach the coast, find a boat, and keep Clem safe while doing it. Season 2 just seems so aimless. So many different threads are going on that I don't get all that attached to any particular one, and the net effect is that I'm not as invested. I hope this changes, though we are more than half way in, so that might not be possible.
This series started very well, but I'm suspecting something changed during development that caused some pretty major writing revisions to take place. My sketchy evidence is as follows:
Big delay between ep1 and ep2
Lots of small bugs in ep2 (far more than ep1 in my case)
Achievement names for ep3 make little sense in context
The title card for ep3 was changed completely before release (it used to include a previous character who was nowhere to be seen in the episode)
Matter of opinion, but I thought the writing in ep1 was better than in the next two episodes
I think TWAU's plot is becoming something different than what TTG originally planned, and perhaps they had to settle for less to keep delays to a minimum.
I really loved the trailer for The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition. The CG is amazing, there are tons of little details that add to the atmosphere, and the actions of the characters are consistent with the lore.
I am both late to the party AND beating a dead horse, but I really did not like Dragon Age 2 when I tried it recently. There were enough reviews saying it was "different but good" or "refreshing", but there was absolutely nothing in that game that interested me beyond the fact that some choices from DAO would carry over. I suppose I should have seen the disappointment all over the internet as a warning, but I somehow remained hopeful.
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