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BlazeHedgehog

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BlazeHedgehog

1286

Forum Posts

16034

Wiki Points

164

Followers

Reviews: 30

User Lists: 3

@blazehedgehog said:

@truthtellah said:

Holy sh*t, that was fantastic. Really. Well done.

I kind of feel like I got more out of your quirky list than even the Giant Bomb GOTY videos this year. I mean, you weren't super flashy, but you had a quality and consistency that made explaining it all just work. Nicely done.

My one question regarding your list would be why you listed FEZ as your runner-up for biggest disappointment. Did you beat both playthroughs? I know some people walked away from it early on because it still seemed like a basic platformer, but there was so much more to that game and what it was conveying. I suppose I just can't imagine how someone could experience the evolution of the game and not consider it, if not great, at least mid-range.

Anyway, thanks for sharing! :)

I got the first ending, knowing there was more to the game, but not really enjoying it. I walked away from it with the intent on going back some day, and around that time a friend of mine bought the game and got both endings, reigniting my interest. We talked it over and his description soured me enough that I just watched the second ending on Youtube and decided it wasn't worth it.

Had a couple people ask me in-depth about this on my Tumblr, you may be interested in reading this and this.

I think not doing that second playthrough really colors that final impression. Reading what you wrote, you actually seem to be explaining some of the reasons it's an interesting experience, but you're coming from a perspective of expecting something it isn't. Its whole point is ultimately to not be that.

[Obviously, some FEZ spoilers ahead for anyone looking to avoid them]

In the second playthrough, you gain two abilities that completely break what you thought the game was, on purpose. You gain the ability to fly, which makes the platforming even more insignificant, reemphasizing how trivial it is in the larger matter of understanding the game. And you gain the ability to look in first person, changing it from a purely 2D experience to a 3D one, opening up a view of things you were never able to see before. These open up doors to the language of the game. And it all adds up to a world telling a story about the progression of videogames from 1 plain(Atari era) to 2 plains(NES and SNES) to 3 plains(N64 and PS1) and the potential evolution from there. In that context, it looks at the value of our time and the lengths to which gamers will go to figure things out because they're there. To beat games and climb the mountain because they can.

A lot of gamers wracked our brains to figure out the crazy clues and cryptography of the game until almost every secret was found. Not because there's some big reward, but because figuring things out, talking about theories and trying to find answers, is more important than any big reveal. I cherish my time really sitting down and working out the alphabet, the math, the mind-boggling puzzles, and helping others do the same. In a time where direct narrative and big conflict is king, FEZ is simply a love letter to the basic mechanics of videogames and the very act of thinking about and making videogames.

I can understand your issue with engagement, but to me, the engagement feels clear. Like if you meet someone for the first time that everyone has raved about, but when you spend some time with them, you don't see what's so special. I'm saying there's more to that person than it seems, and while we may not see them the same way, I do believe there's someone well worth knowing there. FEZ is imperfect in many ways, but it's also special in even more.

I imagine it would be hard to go back now, but at the very least, I hope further discussions of the game will help convey a better picture of what it was. :)

See, I don't know. I feel like Fez should have communicated all of that faster and more clearly. Your "artistic statement" should not be buried under layers of boring gameplay and poor control that go on for hours. Fez could have been fun outside of the statements it makes and still done everything you say it does.

That's one of the things that has really rubbed me the wrong way with indie games - the message often overrides whether or not the game itself is actually fun.

Defcon is fun. But Defcon also makes a pretty bleak statement. Fez needed to be a better game in order to more clearly deliver its messages. It's a shame about Fez 2.

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BlazeHedgehog

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Holy sh*t, that was fantastic. Really. Well done.

I kind of feel like I got more out of your quirky list than even the Giant Bomb GOTY videos this year. I mean, you weren't super flashy, but you had a quality and consistency that made explaining it all just work. Nicely done.

My one question regarding your list would be why you listed FEZ as your runner-up for biggest disappointment. Did you beat both playthroughs? I know some people walked away from it early on because it still seemed like a basic platformer, but there was so much more to that game and what it was conveying. I suppose I just can't imagine how someone could experience the evolution of the game and not consider it, if not great, at least mid-range.

Anyway, thanks for sharing! :)

I got the first ending, knowing there was more to the game, but not really enjoying it. I walked away from it with the intent on going back some day, and around that time a friend of mine bought the game and got both endings, reigniting my interest. We talked it over and his description soured me enough that I just watched the second ending on Youtube and decided it wasn't worth it.

Had a couple people ask me in-depth about this on my Tumblr, you may be interested in reading this and this.

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BlazeHedgehog

1286

Forum Posts

16034

Wiki Points

164

Followers

Reviews: 30

User Lists: 3

@humanity said:

@blazehedgehog: Great job, looks on par with any of the top gaming sites these days.

The one thing the video was missing in my opinion is if once in a while you stopped talking, and we heard a lighter sparking, then some bubbling and a large inhale followed by exhale and coughing. You know, keeping with the blazedhedgehog theme!

Ironically I am probably one of the only members of my family that does not smoke. And, even though I am a Colorado resident, do not intend to smoke, either.

I would say I appreciate having a clear head, but the truth of the matter is I'm already pretty absent minded even when I'm sober. I'd probably wander out in to busy traffic if I ever became inebriated.

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BlazeHedgehog

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#4  Edited By BlazeHedgehog

@assinass said:

This should be on the front page. The production values on this are off the chain, excellent video @blazehedgehog! Also, you bought Zeno Clash 2 and gave some love to the original game, so you're cool in my books :D There is a weird cube trinket in Zeno Clash 2 that a person gets slapped over :P

No Caption Provided

You really need to get around to it, the story totally changes the way you look at this small universe. And the world building is totally mindboggling. People who say Zeno Clash 2 isn't as good are crazy. Like Corwid of the Free crazy. Much deeper combat system, one of the coolest worlds in a game ever, weirder environments, cooler character designs, and probably the most surreal thing you'll ever experience.

Where did you get the clapping sound files like from Giant Bomb's dubious awards segments? And the music samples? Some free royalty sound library?

The music is actually listed in the credits where I got it from - a dude by the name of Kevin MacLeod has a pretty sizable collection of music he's composed and he grants anyone free license to use it as long as they credit him and link back to his site.

http://www.incompetech.com/

The clapping came from my own personal library. Which is to say "I don't know where it's from, I've been downloading sound effects off the internet for use in various projects for like 15 years".

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BlazeHedgehog

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You did really well, but you have a lot of fall off on almost every single sentence.

This is something I'm aware of but I have no idea how to stop doing. I don't even realize that I'm doing it and I've tried and failed to wrap my head around the concept of stopping. It just happens as part of the way I speak. I'd probably need some kind of voice coach or something, but those aren't cheap or easy to get.

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BlazeHedgehog

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#6  Edited By BlazeHedgehog
Loading Video...

With all due respect to Jason Rohrer, I can kind of see why sales for this game languish when it's not being discounted. I'm not sure if this is an officially endorsed trailer or not, but it seems to do a good enough job extolling what's unique about the game.

And... while it's an interesting twist, it's also really ugly to look at and doesn't seem especially fun to play. Watching some other gameplay videos, it also seems to have extremely flat sound design on top of everything else.

While I don't entirely disagree with everything he says about Steam's sales having a long-term negative impact, I think it's worth stating that Inside A Star-Filled Sky just might not be a very good game. It's great that he thinks it has worth, and from what he has said it's found some fans, but pretending like its price is the thing holding it back from having larger appeal is ignoring the fact that, at a glance, it looks like a bad freeware roguelike crossed with a super-tepid version of Geometry Wars. He did not make an appealing game.

It's great that he wants to encourage players to find the "hidden depth", but even just watching that trailer, I don't think I care. If just your trailer can't sell me on your game, then the way its priced becomes irrelevant. These are all cold things to say, but sometimes that's the way its gotta be.

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BlazeHedgehog

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"No sales. Ever." seems like a bit of an extreme response.

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BlazeHedgehog

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@hermes said:

@blazehedgehog said:

@substance_d said:

@patrickklepek said:

@budwyzer said:

Nintendo should just go the way of Sega and just make games for other platforms.

Look how well that worked out for Sega!

True, but...Sega kept beating the Sonic 3D game dead horse long after people didn't want it anymore.

Except for the part where Sonic is still one of their highest-selling franchises. A couple years ago when Sega posted a huge loss, they specifically named three best selling "core franchises" that they were going to redouble their focus on: Total War, Football Manager, and Sonic.

A lot of people have this image in their head that Sonic is still scraping the bottom of the barrel but that really bad Sonic game is 8 years old as of this year. Sonic's not completely out of his rut, but Sega's made a pretty good effort at digging him out with games like Sonic Generations.

You make it sound like there weren't any other really bad Sonic game after that. Also, you are forgetting that they mentioned 4 game franchises: Aliens was the other core franchise they wanted to focus on, and look how well that went.

You're right about Black Knight, but it's also a spinoff. From what I've heard, there's more than one "Sonic Team" at Sega, and Black Knight was the B-team. So it's easy to forget that it exists.

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BlazeHedgehog

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#9  Edited By BlazeHedgehog
@hawker said:

Making a console that's a generation behind in technology, making it harder for third parties to develop for them, yet costing as much as an ACTUAL next-gen system: Check

This isn't Modern Nintendo at all; the N64 and Gamecube were massively more expensive to develop for. I remember hearing that a PS2 devkit was something like $2500, but a Gamecube devkit was $15000.

That being said I can't imagine it's that expensive, what with how Nintendo's warming up to indie developers. Those types of people don't have a lot of money to spread around. I can't imagine Renegade Kid is more willing to spend money on Wii U devkits than, say, Capcom.

Making hardware a generation behind isn't really a bad thing, though. Sony and Microsoft set literally millions of dollars on fire launching the 360 and PS3 and even though they started turning a profit on those systems three or four years ago, I don't think they've recouped everything they spent just getting them out the door in the first place. And now they're starting the process all over again with the Xbone and PS4.

Nintendo, on the other hand, is sitting on a billion dollars in the bank because they're deliberately not as bombastic with their hardware. It's easy for the consumer to say how much better Sony and Microsoft are, because all you see is pretty graphics. But that stuff comes at a significant cost. The Wii U flagging is but an unfortunate misstep Nintendo, but if the Xbox One or Playstation 4 were in this position it would practically be an apocalypse scenario for Sony or Microsoft.

Nintendo is a very strategic company. Even when they take risks, it's not as though the entire company is on the line. It may look lame or silly to you, but that's only because Sony and Microsoft are so willing to dance on the razor's edge. Nintendo's always been about playing it safe and taking their time to let the fruits of their labor fully ripen.

That was the entire problem with the Wii U; they had one year to prove to the world that it was worth owning, but they were just too slow. That uphill battle is now probably too steep to surmount.

Nintendo, however, will persevere. Even if the Wii U is out, the company itself is nowhere even close to the same desperate position Sega was in when the Dreamcast was cut off.

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BlazeHedgehog

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Forum Posts

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#10  Edited By BlazeHedgehog

@patrickklepek said:

@budwyzer said:

Nintendo should just go the way of Sega and just make games for other platforms.

Look how well that worked out for Sega!

True, but...Sega kept beating the Sonic 3D game dead horse long after people didn't want it anymore.

Except for the part where Sonic is still one of their highest-selling franchises. A couple years ago when Sega posted a huge loss, they specifically named three best selling "core franchises" that they were going to redouble their focus on: Total War, Football Manager, and Sonic.

A lot of people have this image in their head that Sonic is still scraping the bottom of the barrel but that really bad Sonic game is 8 years old as of this year. Sonic's not completely out of his rut, but Sega's made a pretty good effort at digging him out with games like Sonic Generations.