yyninja

So... I actually reinstalled the game and finished it after reading the spoilers in the last chapter.

The last chapter is really clever. Having to jump between 2D and 3D puzzles was a real "Now you are thinking with Portals" moment. It's a beautiful climax that is perfect in length and would have been ruined if there were more puzzles like that.

I still think the lack of any narrative breaks between puzzles really hurts the game's pacing. There's a walking simulator moment at the end and from what I gathered it's about a computer programmer who is so immersed in designing a game that they are living in it. The story beats just come too late for me to really be invested.

Also curious if there is any difference from picking the Man or Woman character in the beginning? I picked the Woman and noticed a few moments where there were inaccessible doors or switches meant to activate another area.

@nodima said:

Hah, you got me there. I always viewed the NY Times more as a traditional newspaper than a digital media outlet, but you're right they are making moves to undergo a complete transformation.

I guess my sentiment is that the money could have been better invested in helping tell the news rather than shell out millions for a trendy game.

According to what I read, the deal to buy Bungie has nothing to do with Microsoft's decision to buy Activision.

With that mindset, I think buying Bungie makes sense because Sony needs the FPS expertise. Sure there are the Killzone games from Guerilla and the Resistance games from Insomniac but I don't think either of those franchises are groundbreaking shooters.

Sony's strategy seems to be to focus on buying talent rather than IP. They bought Bluepoint because of their excellent remasters and Nixxes for their PC porting expertise.

Interesting. Well the developer who made Wordle was inspired by Spelling Bee from the Times so there is some overlap.

The idea that they spent 7 figures for it is a bit unbelievable though. It's not like a crossword puzzle or Sudoku where you can print it on the newspaper or a book. I have no idea how they are going to recoup that investment, they are probably paying for the trademark so anyone who tries to integrate Wordle into something will have to pay licensing and royalties.

Ditto.

@bigsocrates There is a visibility problem. I don't check the site often enough and only glance at threads on the main page. I didn't see this voting thread until now, but would have picked 1. Lodoss and 2 Superliminal anyways.

Darn, now I have some FOMO for not finishing the game and seeing the twist. I'm going to reinstall the game just to check it out, I think I'm about 2 hrs from completion anyway.

@therealturk To be fair, you can change the cursor speed in the settings menu while in Gorogoa there was no such setting.

DNF, stopped after reaching the University level, I'm guessing from the progress bar that this is about a third of the way into the game.

The puzzle platforming is clever, but I completely lost interest in the game. It desperately needs something to break up the monotony of the puzzles like a narrative cutscene or an action sequence. You could say Gorogoa is similar but because it was so different I was motivated to keep playing while The Pedestrian feels like familiar ground wrapped in a nice presentation.

The more recent Final Fantasy trailers have always had great graphics and nonsensical trailers. Stranger of Paradise isn't exactly bucking the trend. The choice of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" is definitely something new though.

I don't know if that translates into a good game. I liked the dumb "GOT TO KILL CHAOS" trailer more.

Nope, what's the reason to?

Microsoft has nothing to do with the sexual harassment allegations in Activision. They are buying them because their stock price is at discount.

Microsoft can actually fix a lot of the things in Activision. Word on the street is that Kotick will actually step down in 2023 if the Feds approve the buyout. Activision has a boatload of talented studios all working to churn out annual releases of Call of Duty, wouldn't it be great if those studios worked on other games or new IP?

Yes it fucking sucks that Kotick gets a golden parachute and gets to wash his hands clean. Life isn't fair and a lot of corrupt famous rich people get away with doing terrible things. Cancelling a subscription as a form of protest doesn't change anything, it's a poor financial decision unless you can afford buying all the games you want to play w/o the subscription. If you really want to enact change, you'd need to do talk to your local representatives.

Wow I just saw this news on NYTimes as well.

My hot takes are:

Activision got a huge break from Microsoft. While Microsoft is technically buying Activision at a discount (buying shares at $95 when their peak was $103 right before all the sexual harassment allegations), they are literally shielding some really toxic people and workplace culture under their wing. From what it looks like, Bobby K is keeping his job.

IMO Microsoft should immediately start purging the bad apples similar to what they did with Nokia. Keep the IP, tech and the good devs but get rid of the rest.

Microsoft now has a ridiculous hold on the shooter genre. They now own Halo, Doom and Call of Duty.

Gamepass continues to gain in value but now I think it's going to be even harder to curate games and smaller indie titles might not get the spotlight that they have in the past.