Bombin' the A.M. With Scoops and the Wolf: 06/06/2014

To the vitriol here: Transistor deserves praise simply for its multitude of brave and entirely original design choices. The aesthetic, the score, the pacing, the mechanics, virtually every aspect of it is absolutely unique. Independent journalists aren't "apologizing" for it so much as they don't want to misrepresent how significant the game (and Supergiant in general) are despite hiccups in the balance of the various elements. Is the storytelling a barrier to entry for many players? Sure, but personally I found the experience that much more rewarding for it. That game refused to sacrifice the aesthetic for anything. Not for the sake of flow, the story, or for the player. It really is an interactive painting.

So, as for Transistor. I feel the expectations of the game as a whole, and the world building in particular betrayed it a little bit. I feel that more than the narrative on " the process " which it appears to be slowly revealing, the real purpose of transistor is to delve on an imperfect memory and the impressive mix of post-modernism and melancholy.

The coding concepts in all the story, and the idea of the process purging the noise, trimming the bugs, the recursion are all more evocative than descriptive.

However, I found there are some very distinct problems in the somewhat anticlimactic conflict resolutions, like the death of the two scientists just before you reach them, before you can find out what they were doing or even what they meant to each other. But I guess that is also adding to they mystery.

So as you @patrickklepek I feel the main story is narratively not as good. But I'd argue that it doesn't want to be. It's evocative more than narrative, and in that particular sense, in my experience, it succeeded.

That said, I sadly found that when venturing into NG+ the problems in the combat system became apparent, there are some almost unbeatable combos ( I cleared ng++ without dying a single time, and without using "turn" even once) mainly because turn becomes more of a problem than a benefit later, when you can´t really survive waiting for the recharge... it could have been used as a game system, but it feels more accidental, which is a real shame.

Still, I thought it was an excellent game, better than bastion in my books.

Good solo show mr.

Yep while I overall feel that it's a good game nearly the whole time I was playing Transistor I was thinking eh I'd much rather be playing Bastion or a Bastion 2. I think for me it's mostly because I'm a bigger fan of the faster paced more action oriented combat from Bastion and I didn't really care for Transistor's strategy based combat.

If you think 2014 doesn't have enough games then play one of my favorite games of all time The Wonderful 101 on Wii U. Not enough people know how great that game is!

Patrick is going to love Demon's Souls. I enjoyed Dark Souls 2 the most but I think it's because it was the easiest. I loved the changes Dark Souls brought from Demon's Souls but it seems like Demon's Souls stands out even more now than before Dark Souls 2 came out because of its differences.

Play The Wonderful 101!

I feel the same way you do about Transistor.. I liked it but was left with the same feeling of disapointment. The art, the music, the way battles played out were all great, but something about the story didn't resonate and wanted it to so badly. Game was great but I had higher expectations :( I also think because the story didn't resonate as well, I found it hard to forgive for being so short.

I have nothing left to watch... so this...

I'm calling it right now that the other big guest is Jack Tretton, he is there this year doing on stage analysis with Geoff Keighley so odds are he had some free time to come along to the night show.

So re: the Morpheus stuff Patrick "Two Scoops" Klepek was talking about at the end, it got me wondering, (especially after the Fallon stuff) if maybe that wasn't the 'surprise' for the people that go to watch the Sony conference in those movie theaters. Everybody always says you don't really get how amazing this VR stuff is until you try it yourself and what better test audience than a bunch of gamers that, for lack of a better word are so 'hardcore' they're going to go watch a press conference in a movie theater. Just a thought.

Thanks for the show, Patrick.

I just got done listening and I thoroughly enjoyed the podcast. If Alex cant make it you should have Vinny on now. That would be awesome :)