@Hamst3r: Amusingly, your flight instinct almost caused you to fight Mother the pacifist way, as you dropped 2 flares, I think. If you had just dropped a couple more, you would've accidentally solved it the nonviolent way, and possibly bumped yourself up to the green pill ending. That was enough to bump me up despite me killing nearly everything in the apartment complex and basement, though on top of not shooting Mother, I also didn't kill a single enemy on the city streets because (compared to the basement) there are suddenly a million places to hide, plus it's easier to get flares since Hank gives you a zillion ammo to trade in, and there's a fair amount lying around.

Other bullshit the game doesn't make clear: that the blue pills are kind of bad for you. The blue man is only sinister some of the time, other times he is just confusing. Swallowing the blue pills pushes you further towards the blue pill ending, and Hank explicitly asks for them, and until you finish the game once/look at a guide, it's just not clear at all the blue pills are basically harmful to the soul and that they're not good for Hank.

I was already looking at a guide by the time I got to the streets, so I knew this before meeting Hank, so kudos to you for figuring out that the health tonics also work on Hank. But then, I'm sure your decision to give Hank both blue pills AND health tonics is something a lot of players do, since again, there isn't even a hint that one is preferable to the other. You get ammo from both, and Hank doesn't start getting better or worse until you've given him like 3 or 4 of one particular remedy.

Also, you never finding the cat after the first time is totally reasonable, because she relocates to a dead end that you have no conceivable reason to ever revisit. Especially in a game with a damn hunger meter, you don't have time to backtrack all over the place when you don't even know if the cat will reappear. I mean, Jesus, I guess this level of arbitrary obscurity was acceptable when Resident Evil 1 came out, but it's kind of a bummer that there is so much cool stuff in the game that 99% of players will absolutely miss on their first time playing the game. That being said, I do like the game overall, and I enjoyed the ambiguity of the ending. I especially liked the part where the girl is definitely a girl, and not, in fact, also symbolism for the atomic bomb.

@BisonHero: Haha yeah, the game could be made better in a lot of ways simply by having a gauge on screen called, "mental health". It would have saved me a lot of confusion and trouble, at least. I mean, you're already playing the mental health gauge, it's just invisible.

and yeah, the ham. That damn pot. Anyone looking to get into this game should definitely play it with a walkthrough or FAQ handy. I mean, why wouldn't I shoot everything when it gives me a gun and says, "I got no choice but to take 'em down". Come on!

@Hamst3r: Coincidentally enough, I bought this during the Halloween sale, deciding it seemed like a good choice for a suitably scary game to play near Halloween. Much to my approval, it didn't scare me shitless, but instead had a lot of similarities to Twin Peaks in terms of cryptic dream characters. Always a plus.

Haven't had the time to watch your videos all the way through, but I'm digging them so far.

Edit: Also, I think it's bullshit that A) the ham is the first obviously cookable thing you get, but B) the cooking pot is very missable, when the game doesn't explain there even IS a mental health stat to try to keep up, nor do they explain that if you keep it up, The Director will give you a bonus item that is otherwise missable. I'd be willing to bet that 95+% of players never get to cook that delicious ham on their first playthrough of the game (or honestly, without looking at a guide, because it's very hard to keep your mental health stat up otherwise).

Double edit: Now I'm having Quick Look syndrome, where I'm yelling at you to use green pills in your 3rd video when you're out of food and batteries. I guess I like that the game respects the player by not making everything a tutorial, but I think they could've hinted more strongly that the pills lead to dreams that lead to items. For the record, I started using a guide shortly before the giant guy chases you around the basement, because I just felt like I wasn't understanding certain things, like how come I still didn't have a pot or the espresso maker. Looking back, I fully think this is the sort of game that players should read an FAQ for, or at least the preamble that properly explains what the pills do and that how you play the game affects the ending you get.

@Sackmanjones said:

Sackmanjones thinks the chances of this getting locked are high

I've posted a lot of stuff like this and none of it has ever been locked, so I think it'll be alright.

Sackmanjones thinks the chances of this getting locked are high

So, I recently played Lone Survivor and finished it. Dope beats and big pixels abounded.

It was pretty good.

Here be those videos:

Bleed out, with me tonight.