Zeik

@burusu: Believe whatever you want. I stopped caring about this conversation a week ago.

That's a VR game I could get behind.

I might be with you if you didn't go down the trite "It looks like a Flash game" route. If Flash games looked anything like this in the 2000's we'd all be playing a lot more Flash games right now.

This is probably the first time I've been legitimately excited to get my hands on this game since it was revealed. It always looked neat, but I never fell into the hype over the vague generalities and unsubstantiated speculation of what it might be.

I'm not generally into survival type games or Minecraft, but this is sounding like it could be the exception.

@ralphmoustaccio: That would be a pretty huge design oversight if that was a common issue. There's no way they haven't tested that out that part of the game on a variety of different locations. I have to imagine the basic resources you need to get off the planet are always going to be available, it just might take more work for some than others to gather it all.

This QL just reminds me how glad I am that Austin joined this site. He has brought in some much needed alternate perspectives, but still in a relateable way. That's not an easy thing to do.

@mcblemmen: Vinny has never said he is forcing himself to play. There are games you can enjoy that don't consume every moment of your life, especially when your life is super busy and you barely have the time to play anything.

And I have no idea who says "I really should play a bad game more". The normal response to a bad game is "I don't want to play this anymore. I'm going to stop."

Ape Escape is awesome. The only reason it's not talked about more is because it's been so long since they've done anything with the series.

I remember when they first announced the Move I was so amped for the possibility of an Ape Escape game with that, but it never happened.

Also Ape Escape 3 had Mesal Gear Solid, which is literally MGS with a monkey dressed like Snake. It's like the best thing ever, and I'm nowhere near as much of an MGS fan as Dan.

In fact, I think I'll just leave this here:

@bladededge: But that's my point, I don't think Max would choose Chloe in that moment. I am the type of person who likes to roleplay from the perspective of the character I am playing, rather than myself, and that's what I think Max would do, even if I don't know if I would/could myself.

Over the course of the game she is constantly forced to question her actions and whether her meddling with time is the right thing to do. When she ends up in that alternate timeline by saving William it's the first time she seriously questions the consequences of her actions and starts to doubt herself, and the events that follow only serve to reinforce that doubt. By the time you reach that ending I feel like she finally has the perspective and maturity to be able to make that choice, even if it's an incredibly painful choice. She understands what has to be done and her responsibility in making that choice.

I understand why people would want to pick the other ending, there was certainly a large part of me that wanted to as well, but I want to make it clear that I feel like sacrificing Chloe was the right choice from both a narrative and character standpoint, not just my own personal feelings of what is "right" and "wrong". It's clear that you viewed Max as a character differently than I, and that's fine, but I definitely disagree that saving Chloe is the "obvious" choice for Max. The ending statistics are probably pretty accurate of Max's state of mind.

@bladededge: I agree with the general sentiment. The idea of "one vs the many" is a shitty concept that isn't a simple cut and dry equation. Just because you're saving more people doesn't automatically make it the "right" choice.

But I definitely don't think saving Chloe and sacrificing Arcadia Bay is the right choice for this story either. Not only is she letting a whole town of people die, including other close friends she's made, like Kate and Warren, but she's also doing it opposed to Chloe's own wishes. For me, it's that latter part that makes the choice obvious. Just imagine if you were in that situation, and someone chose to sacrifice hundreds or thousands of innocent people to keep you alive, including your own family, despite your wishes to the contrary. You might be grateful you have someone that cares so deeply about you, but that relationship will never ever be the same, and both of you will likely be haunted by that decision for the rest of your lives. Chloe might feel obligated to stay with Max, but I don't think they would be happy, ultimately.

Max fights the whole game to keep Chloe alive because she truly believes she can fix everything if she tries hard enough, but over and over she is proven wrong with the consequences, and in the end she realizes that is not possible, even with her powers. It's more than simply accepting "fate", it's about finally accepting reality and realizing there's not always a happy ending. You can choose to continue to stubbornly defy reality and sacrifice arcadia to save chloe, but I feel like that implies that she didn't truly grow or learn anything over the course of that adventure.

Like I said before, I don't know if I could actually make that choice if I was in that situation, but after all the shit she went through, I feel like Max would. She's much more than just a lovesick teenager by the end of that game.

@j23: Personally I like Stand Alone Complex and 2nd Gig way more than the original movie. The movie was alright, but I didn't become a "fan" until I saw the anime series. They spend a lot more time actually developing the characters and delving into different subject matter. I would definitely check it out, even if the movie didn't do much for you.