Lavapotamus

In regards to the Station Wagon man, I assumed that he had learned about the farm because he had been talking about Clementine for so long. I think he said something about his initial impressions of Lee and then how his final opinion differed after learning about what he had done (presumably from Clem). It's totally possible that I'm remembering that scene incorrectly, though. I can't be bothered to replay the final episode to find out.

I did like the character development and the story The Walking Dead told, but that's really it. I don't think the game is garbage, but I felt some pretty powerful buyer's remorse after I realized my decisions don't matter in the grand scheme of things. The way the game insists that your choices alter the story's progression was what I was most excited about when I started up the first episode. I loved the idea of having a book club-esque discussion with my friends after playing each chapter to see what each person had done. The first of these discussions made me realize that regardless of how you handle each situation, there is one definitive fate for each character and one definitive way that an episode plays out. You might choose to save or leave a character, but the script has already determined their fate. You really have no influence on the surviving cast for Season 2.

After I realized that, all that was left for me was to see how it all played out. Again, I did like the story and its characters, but considering I was tricked into believing my decisions actually directed the season's outcome, I would have rather experienced the story as a film or comic. The gameplay and technical hiccups do the experience no favors. For me, it's a great tale wrapped up in a facade of interactivity.

I love mine. It's very much a social console like the Wii, but I've been able to keep myself occupied for an absurd amount of time with single player Nintendoland, too. I like what I've played of Zombi U and I chose to wait to play Tekken Tag 2 on it, so I have that as well. I'd love to finish Mario, but I'm saving that for get-togethers where I have five people willing to play.

Some of the system's flaws are really bothersome, namely the slow loading between applications and the half-baked attempt at friend lists. Still, there's enough to it to keep me happy. I wish more was done with it, but that's exactly how I felt about the Wii, too. I've pretty much come to terms with the fact that Nintendo is doing their own thing, and as long as I can enjoy enough elements of their systems, I'm in. I buy two consoles per generation, though, so I couldn't see myself picking it as my only system for an entire generation. Do I regret the purchase, though? Not at all, thankfully.

@Hunter5024 said:

I did it in the third episode to see if something could be changed or not. When I found out it couldn't the game kind of lost a lot of its magic.

I found that out after talking with my roommate. He handled pretty much every choice differently than I did, but our episodes played out pretty much the same. TWD has a great story to tell, but the "your decisions matter!" mechanic is pretty much a lie. Every character's fate is pre-determined. If you go against what the writers had in mind when they wrote the script, they'll just lead you back onto their path further down the road.

I don't check NeoGAF, so thank you for posting this here. I've been wanting to pick up The Mark of the Ninja and Dust, so this is perfect. Might go for Hell Yeah and Street Fighter III, too, if the prices are right.

@Lavapotamus said:

@coribald said:

This is why guys cannot have female roommates. Well, straight guys anyway. Trust me. I've tried.

When this semester started, past-self would have come in here and said "Nuh uh, roommate x and y are both straight and they're fine around each other!"

Then I learned there's been a concealed crush for two years and now he gets angry when he's drunk/sexually frustrated and leaves hangouts in a huff because of it. It's...really high school.

He's an idiot for moving in with a girl he's had a crush on for two years. Should've brought it up to her (and you) and dealt with it before agreeing to move in.

One more semester and everyone's scattering across the country. I have to admit I thought there'd be a huge blowout by now, but things have been consistently passive aggressive but managable. I'll miss the group, but I think we could all use the kick in the ass the real world will give us. Adults don't act like this...I hope, anyway

@coribald said:

This is why guys cannot have female roommates. Well, straight guys anyway. Trust me. I've tried.

When this semester started, past-self would have come in here and said "Nuh uh, roommate x and y are both straight and they're fine around each other!"

Then I learned there's been a concealed crush for two years and now he gets angry when he's drunk/sexually frustrated and leaves hangouts in a huff because of it. It's...really high school.

Unless you can actually see yourself enjoying the Wii U's library, I'd wait a year and save your money for the next PS/Xbox upgrade. Unless they end up not being backwards compatible...but I feel like that's a safe assumption, at least with the 360.

I guess it'd be ideal in the long run if you bought a Wii U and waited a year to buy the next Xbox. That way you're covered on the Nintendo side for ~5 years and get access to next-gen games + the 360 backlog with one console rather than two. Obviously that depends on if you can wait, though. There's stuff to play on the Wii U now and in the spring, but by the sounds of it, it won't be enough to keep you occupied.

@LiquidPrince said:

@Xeirus said:

@LiquidPrince said:

@Falconer said:

@yoshimitz707 said:

@Falconer said:

@Snail said:

Saying that you should pirate the game just because it's broken at release is immature.

What? So I should sit on my hands until god knows when until they fix it? That's ludicrous.

Umm, yes? What entitles you to the digital version of the game?

I bought a game under implication that it would work. It does not. I am now going to acquire a version of the game that does work. Seems fair to me.

Or you could refund the non functioning copy and then pay for a legitimate copy.

Ok, you people are being ignorant. All the money goes to the same place, lets stop acting like returning a game and purchasing elsewhere makes any different.

This thread is embarrassing.

But if you're not at least going to try and do the right things before pirating the game, then that's sort of a dick move.

Edited/deleted because I don't wanna start stepping on the mod's toes concerning piracy. It was an opinion, btw, not admittance. Mucho gusto giving developers my money.

@bvilleneuve said:

@GreggD said:

What in the world does Hotline Miami's existence have to do with Saints Row?

They're both colorful, hyperkinetic experiences with unusual narratives and deep understandings of their gameplay models. Hotline Miami pulls it off better by virtue of being made by a smaller team, and Dennaton Games may not have been influenced by Saints Row The Third, but both games are clearly part of a shared lineage.

@Lavapotamus said:

Yeah, we differ in terms of wanting to have branching plot paths. I understand how complex the game would have to be to account for such choices in a significant matter, but I think that's a mechanic the premise tries to sell itself by. It might be the fault of those who recommended it to me more than Telltale, but I did begin the season thinking my choices really mattered. They'll still alter dialog trees and smaller scenarios, but it feels much less significant once that illusion of changing the bigger picture is shattered. That detracts from the game's biggest selling point and (for me) leaves it as a much less notable experience. If that the only issue the game had, that'd be less damaging than it actually is. As it stands, I only want to finish the season to see its conclusion. I don't enjoy the game mechanics, the technical bugs are discouraging, and I don't feel like I'm guiding the experience anymore. It's like choosing where to walk in a straight hallway rather than actually turning corners and continuing on a different path.

The "your choices matter" mechanic is a neat concept, but The Walking Dead's implementation of it has been matched or exceeded by Heavy Rain and Mass Effect 3. ME3 isn't perfect either, but in a comparison of flaws with TWD, I think it stands taller than its competition. I don't see a compelling reason to award the effort that achieved less.

Edit x2: I can't proofread

I think we differ at a more basic level than that. We differ in our understandings of what constitutes a gameplay system. For you, it seems like there's a solid division between a game's story and its gameplay mechanics. For me, there is no division at all. In fact, I've recently started toying with the idea that books are way more like video games than we usually give them credit for. The interactions happen primarily in your brain rather than on a screen, but the interactions are still always going on. Whether or not the plot changes is immaterial. What matters is that, when things go south at the dairy farm, unless you're approaching the game with the jaded preconception that "my choices don't really matter, whatever, I don't care," you feel like every bad thing that happens is your fault. That's the game's success, and it is both itself a gameplay system and a result of the other gameplay systems. Also shame on you for comparing ambitious messes like Heavy Rain and Mass Effect 3 favorably over a success like The Walking Dead.

Also I can't speak to the technical bugs. I never had any problems, but I did take precautions.

That's exactly how I felt when I played through Episode 2, but I felt that way because I felt like I was in way more control of the game's progression than I really was. Having that spelt out for me again and again by watching my roommate play was pretty damaging to my excitement toward the season. I guess you can argue that I shouldn't watch other people play, but it just would have come up in a discussion, too. And yup, you and I definitely see game structures differently.

I wonder how the last three episodes will go for me, because now I'm definitely going in thinking my choices are pretty irrelevant. The Walking Dead plays a lot safer than I thought it was going to and that disappoints me. Also, yes, how dare I compare TWD's core mechanic to two other games built partially around the same concept. Heavy Rain had plot holes, but talking to my friends about how their choices played out after I finished didn't leave me disappointed like TWD did. That game wasn't perfect, but it had the effort put into it to react to the situation much more dynamically than TWD. ME3's success with player choice is less notable, but when its choice mechanics fail to be compelling, at least there's something in the rest of the gameplay to enjoy.

As far as technical bugs, I'm playing on the 360, which apparently is the most buggy of all choices. Dropped lines of dialog, constant frame rate stutters, animation that can't keep up with dialog sometimes (because it's loading, I guess?). That + the facade of impactful player choice is what makes me surprised that it's being considered. I'm not saying it's worthless because the writing's fun for what it is, but best out of the year's offerings? No way.

Edit: I still can't proofread.

@bvilleneuve said:

@Lavapotamus said:

I genuinely don't understand The Walking Dead getting GOTY nominations. I thought it was great until I watched my roommate play through episodes 1 and 2 last night. He pretty much handled every single situation differently than I did, but it still played out the same. It made me realize how linear the whole thing is, even though it's crafted to make you feel like you have a choice on everything. Player input has minor changes to the game. Once that's taken into consideration with the sprawling technical issues, I see it as a great story in a really average game.

It's like I've been saying in other posts, you don't affect the plot but you do affect your own experience when you're making those choices. It's the genius of that game. Having choices that branch the entire plot into radically different stories that are both satisfying is barely possible and isn't really desirable, at least not for me. I go back to the PS:T example I used earlier. I don't know and don't care if the choices I made affected the plot of that game at all. What I do know is that making those philosophical choices was an incredible game experience.

Yeah, we differ in terms of wanting to have branching plot paths. I understand how complex the game would have to be to account for such choices in a significant matter, but I think that's a mechanic the premise tries to sell itself by. It might be the fault of those who recommended it to me more than Telltale, but I did begin the season thinking my choices really mattered. They'll still alter dialog trees and smaller scenarios, but it feels much less significant once that illusion of changing the bigger picture is shattered. That detracts from the game's biggest selling point and (for me) leaves it as a much less notable experience. If that the only issue the game had, that'd be less damaging than it actually is. As it stands, I only want to finish the season to see its conclusion. I don't enjoy the game mechanics, the technical bugs are discouraging, and I don't feel like I'm guiding the experience anymore. It's like choosing where to walk in a straight hallway rather than actually turning corners and continuing on a different path.

The "your choices matter" mechanic is a neat concept, but The Walking Dead's implementation of it has been matched or exceeded by Heavy Rain and Mass Effect 3. ME3 isn't perfect either, but in a comparison of flaws with TWD, I think it stands taller than its competition. I don't see a compelling reason to award the effort that achieved less.

Edit x2: I can't proofread