pekoe212

Wow, after playing a lot of Contradiction I thought of GK2 as well! I think it's because GK2 was the only FMV I ever played that felt like it was done really well, where the FMV and the gameplay were not fighting each other, and the emphasis was rightly on the story and the characters. Unlike Contradiction, GK2 was trying to set a wholly serious tone, but just like Contradiction, I think its acting is what made that setting believable...some of it was over the top, but I think in a video game, where the storytelling/acting is happening in short bursts with gaps in between that are completely up to the player, you have to punch up the emotion and drama a bit to hold attention and pull the player back into the emotional space you want. What really sold that in both games were the actors who were obviously all in and really cared about what they were doing. That makes all the difference in whether the viewer/player feels immersed and engaged with the world or not, no matter what the gameplay is doing.

GK2 had me getting teary-eyed over historical figures and feeling a creeping dread while reading old records at the town hall, and that was all because of the presentation: the acting and music. It took me on an emotional trip no other game has. I feel like Contradiction has found the same stride for its particular story and gameplay, pulling you right in so the FMV becomes the excellent storytelling medium it's supposed to be rather than a hindrance, which is a huge, huge credit, I think to the developer and cast (also I loved the music, perfect for the atmosphere). It shows what can happen when talented people really care and make the absolute most of the resources they have.

@drzing Haha I just noticed your avatar. Look closely at mine, it's GK fan art...great minds think alike!

Just finished playing it and it left me wanting more more more more! Love how many different threads there were to the story, and definitely want to see where all the ones left hanging go. Enjoyed replaying some of the conversations as certain parts always made me giggle. You can really tell the actors are all in, in the funny moments and the serious ones, and that makes all the difference. Somehow my favorite moment is Jenks triumphantly unlocking the car. What's really cool though is that you manage to shift into tense, spooky moments without it feeling jarring...the scene in the house at the end of the lane legitimately creeped me out. Got stuck on a few contradictions toward the end, but considering the volume of information and detail you are gathering it was usually easy for me to figure out which topic I should be focusing on. So much fun and I hope you can make a sequel!

Just finished watching the E3 2015: Day 01 Staff Impressions video and the damn song they play at the end (40:50) got stuck in my head and I could not sleep. So I found it. I'm sure you all have been craving a solid 4 1/2 minutes of catchy teen pop. It is catching. Really. You've been warned.

http://www.audionetwork.com/browse/m/track/friends-forever_36179?keyword=friends

As someone who has never spent any time in Poland or most of Europe, I still noticed and appreciated early on in the Witcher games what I could only vaguely call "slavic" or "eastern european" feel of the games, from things such as the the red and blue flowers painted on the walls that reminded me of folk art I had seen. The Witcher games have always had such a lived-in and cohesive atmosphere to me, and I felt like maybe that was because it was based on books written by Polish author and games made by Polish team. The world always felt far more specific than "western fantasy" to me, it felt like maybe "medieval polish fantasy" or something, very steeped in the culture and history from which it came, and I love that. It makes the world feel real and distinct.

Arrrrgh, I just finished listening to a Bombin' the AM! You and Alex are great together, I love listening to you guys talk about video game news, quite prefer it to the rambling bombcast actually. Gonna miss Spookin'. Gonna miss everything. :( I've really enjoyed what you've brought to Giant Bomb and all the different features you've experimented with. Loved listening to you lay out your arguments. Loved how passionate you are about things. I know you're not disappearing, but this is still hard to take at the end of the year. TOO MUCH CHANGE. I feel like GB was maybe too constrained a space to contain all you wanted to do. Very best of luck to you, I'm excited to see where you go next. Please keep streaming scary games.

@joshwent: Thanks for this advice, as someone who played through and loved the first Witcher, I found the combat in 2 quite daunting right away, and didn't have the time/energy/desire to work on figuring it out at the time. So I put it down and still haven't come back to it, but would like to remedy that before 3 comes out.

Wow, these titles are just getting more and more exciting and original. >_>

Ironically, I started playing AC3 thru Steam a few days ago. The Ubisoft servers weren't working for a while yesterday, and the game was hanging on the "logging into Ubisoft server" screen. Had to Ctrl-alt-delete out, shut down the game, figure out how to put Uplay in offline mode. I hate that damn thing even more now.

I find it really odd that they were heavily advertising and selling their upcoming games on Steam this month, and then suddenly made this complete 180. Even though they've reversed course now (and how could they have expected a different reception to what they were doing?) what a poorly-timed last-minute decision, that seems tailor-made to lose them tons of sales from people that preordered or planned to purchase on Steam and then would've had that option taken away retroactively. If they wanted to do this, why the hell did they wait until now? They should have planned this in advance and never put the games on Steam in the first place. Absolutely bizarre.

Wow, what a great summing up of FFX. Agree with everything you wrote. I think it's interesting that X used a lot of the common story themes of JRPGs (and some Final Fantasy games), such as teenagers shouldering the burden of saving the world, fighting against a theocracy/higher power for humankind's right to live freely, the love story, etc. etc. and actually made it all emotionally resonate the way it was meant to. It still amazes me and I wish more games could pull that off.

Clubs are where image-conscious people go to pose and try to look cool, and pay far too much to get drunk and have shallow interactions with people they want to have sex with. It's like middle school except everyone is wielding money, drugs, alcohol and self-absorption to a nauseating degree. House parties....better, wonderful vortexes for chaos, but honestly I prefer hanging out with a smaller group of cool people I know or want to get to know, so we can actually....get to know each other. Talk to each other. Hang out.