Playdate: Life is Strange (01/08/2016)

After watching this ep again I think this is my game of the year. I hated this episode especially the end mostly because the party felt so off. The ep should have ended with Rachael and everything after that felt fucked. But watching it again it's not so bad so I dunno

F-you Navarro heeled boots are awesome. They're like the most comfortable shoes I own.

Bleh, the crossroads poem. Shove her in the pool Max.

Chloe; when the walls fell.

This flowchart is excellent. Really puts into context that narrative choices are game mechanics and leave space for lots of things to happen and lots of outcomes (which can matter to the future narrative options). eg Frank has an enrage bar (you get two strikes) but it's not a boss fail condition because there are plenty of paths out of the rage chain still left open, as long as you're ok with harming Frank to get what you want.

Love the performances (which really have to sell it considering the game budget/tech is pre-HL2 in terms of facial expression/lip-sync) and how natural it feels that the game actually knows what happened in your playthrough (and that the big binary choices aren't the only time you're making meaningful decisions). As the GBEast guys' surprise at the end shows, it's not like you even necessarily realise there was more than one path out of that dialogue system. "Of course," you think, "what I saw was the only way that could end without it being a fail state". Only... see flowchart.

I really like how LiS gives you the power to explore the dialogue systems as much as you want, rather than being stuck with the consequences of your semi-blind fumbling to pick each line.

This guy predicted the revelations in this episode back in February when only episode 1 was released:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/319630/discussions/0/612823460261420720/

These girls also predicted Episode 4 back in April when it wasn't released

It kills me everytime you guys friendzone Warren, they're soul mates I tell you. SOULMATES.

In this case Jeff was wrong. This is glorious.

Glad to see the bEast team is still enjoying it and shrugging off his cynicism over reading a wiki plot summary. Keep it up guys!

@xdot: Bae over Bay

Their reaction to the darkroom and ending events are sadly rather lackluster. Perhaps my own fault for building it up, but the response to both of those were my most look forward to moment in this series and they barely seemed to register them as a "moment" at all here :(

It certainly doesn't help that they decided the cabinet of all things was the least innocuous of things to start with, aka the one thing full of things you can't see directly...

As somebody who played both pro David and Warren though, the differences in their thought process is interesting. Curious how they'll handle the first portion of next episode as a result.

Did Vinny just say "hey Mr Moron (Morooka)" instead of "hey principle wells" lol.

Yes, the End of the World Party! I've been looking forward to this...

The twist at the end of Episode Four is my favourite because I personally didn't see it coming. The Beast team had their suspicions, but it was really revelatory to me, as I thought all the signposting was about Nathan's father. Episode Five is a disappointing finale, but it doesn't spoil the rest of the game.

Resubbed to watch you guys play through the rest!

Chloe's discovery... still tough to watch. The last episode is pretty long, as Austin suspected. And man, did I laugh like crazy at the noodle dudes. Didn't even notice em before. Need DLC.

edit:

@alistercat that chart is outta control!

@tcsajax nope, no hyperbole here. did this game punch a puppy or something?

Great game that got a lot of respect in the community here and from the guest Top-10ers. I'm glad they got back to this quickly after the break and that they will at least start Ep. 5 next week. The fact they all wanted to come back and finish this game out to see what happens is a HUGE complement to this game.

I will be interest to see what they think of the distinct set pieces of the final episodes: early middle and end of this game. The game switches A LOT of gears and is not conducive to 'three dudes' playing it with one controller.

I didn't get that at all. I think the story is interesting and (mostly) well-told.

@besetment: Thank you.

@tothenines: I think it's more the unrelenting public defacement in that dorm hallway than the term itself. The bathrooms had kinder graffiti!

I'm loving both this game and watching ya'll play it. My subscriber money going to good use.

Not long now until Warren captures that NEVER Openweight Championship

Can't wait to see the final episode next week!

I just love this game with all of it's faults as I think it just adds to the charm of it all. My personal game of the year of the last year.

Awwww yeah, partay!

I feel that this game kills Chloe so many times that her death means nothing because you know shes going to come out just fine in the next episode

I honestly saw it all coming after doing the sleuthing part. I mean, what goes into an abandoned barn owned by rich crazy people? I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised there wasn't more nudity.

Alex's reaction to Hayden was awesome. Mirrored my own feelings to a T.

@datareborn: It just one of the option that I known the immediate outcome of, And like usually, they really wanted to get the gun away from Nathan. But I don't know what happens later on. But I wonder if they still would have gone with their original decision had they known what the other option was like.

I am so incredibly glad they had as much fun with those pool noodle bros as i did. Animation of the year.

I dunno. Kinda feels like they wanna create that expectation to then be able to say 'But really fuck you this time.'.

It's happening!!!

You guys picked Bright Eyes over Sparklehorse!? For shame.

This game is so good! I love watching GBeast stumble gracefully through it. Big props to @alex for coming in next week to help get to the end mid-vacation.

I still think this game deserved to be mentioned (if nothing else) during 2015's Best Music category. Consistently through the episodes the music styles and blend, like them or not, helps set the mood and scene.

Man, I played this game myself a couple months ago, but fuck if it doesn't still hit home... This is by far my favourite playthrough you guys have done in a while.

Yep, that scene where they confirm Rachel's fate still hits like a truck. It's great how they pull it off knowing full well that just about everyone involved as well as the player really expected that. Great music too!

Alex actually deciding to go to work just for that one day so they can finish this should be proof enough as to how much they're loving all this.

If there's really one suggestion I wish they'd take about how they're playing, it's that they check Max's journal more often, especially the diary entries. It's a very easy way for them to get a recap of all the events. It highlights more of Max's thought process and reveals a little more of her character. Lastly, it's got a bunch of cool art in it that the art team totally gave a lot of effort into creating.

Oh, and it gets interesting next episode.

Oh my LAWD! I have been waiting SO impatiently for the thumbnail image moment. When I saw that, I knew that they were gonna just eat it up.

I finished this game last week, after playing the eps over a couple of months or so.

It's been so good watching the GBeast guys play through it, it's interesting to see them choose different options from me and seeing the resulting consequences, also

Holy crap! THIS GAME, MANNN!

I don't know, their reaction at 1:44:10 seemed pretty good.

This is a really awesome game.

Also, is that supposed to be Jonathan Davis above the investigation board?

Boy, the dialog is terrible in this game. I think the broader narrative is pretty good, but MAN.

I love these playdates, and to hear and see your reactions to it all and talk about it, so sad it's going to end next time with LIS but I'm hoping for something just as exciting, and interessting for next playdate, because I really enjoy listing to all of you guys @vinny@alex@austin_walker

So those two pool noodle guys have to be the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of the Life is Strange story, right?

wow

"Whatever became of the moment when one first knew about death? There must have been one, a moment, in childhood, when it first occurred to you that you don't go on forever. It must have been shattering, stamped into one's memory. And yet I can't remember it. It never occurred to me at all. We must be born with an intuition of mortality. Before we know the word for it, before we know that there are words,out we come, bloodied and squalling...with the knowledge that for all the points of the compass, there's only one direction and time is its only measure.”

- Guy Being Hit With Pool Noodle

watching my daughter play through this game (who was born six years before Giantbomb was created by Jeff and Ryan) this year was awesome. Watching the GBest crew was a close second. thanks, guys!

How so? all the acting is fantastic, the murder mystery stuff is well realized, the time power stuff adds a nice weird spin to everything and all the characters act and behave exactly as their real world counterparts likely would and the game is constantly hitting you with surprises and unexpected things.

Are you just mad because it portrays teenagers too realistically? because as someone with very very vivid memory of my teen years it is terrifying how accurate so much stuff in lis is. That's the thing with being a teen, everything is melodramatic or angsty or just plain bullshit because that's what being that age is like. It would be just plain weird if teenage characters acted like mature adults most of the time in a piece of fiction cause that'd be stupidly inaccurate.

I went into the Frank thing with Chloe having a gun and Pompidou being alright and boy can that turn out badly for Frank and Pompidou.

This game is great and I think it would have gotten more props if they'd been able to play the final episodes before GoTY discussions.

Very curious to see how they'll feel about the ending though.

Alex and Austin reading the chat is fucking bullshit. Stop doing it duders.

Eh, I think the dialog is perfect. Teenagers are fucking terrible assholes who are walking memes and YouTube personality wannabes. Trust me, I have two nieces and a nephew around this age lol.

It's only terrible in a sense that's it's realistic in my opinion. It is what it had to be.