~I trust you implicitly doctor nothing bad has happened to me under your care

[zarla]

UMO recording! It goes

Liam "The Lemming" Hesse - Super Acid Block Attack - Tearing Up Space Time
Electric Concerto - Super Metroid - My Minute
TheWingless - Super Metroid - Edenal

The person before me ran late, so this one's a bit shorter than usual. :O

Anyway, last night or so I played an HL2 mod called Dear Esther, "award-winning, critically

Comments

[bbot_org]

BUT DID YOU SEE THE RPS WRITEUP

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/05/15/touched-by-the-hand-of-mod-dear-esther/

Dear Esther rejects pretty much every notion of what videogames should do, and instead presents a profound look at what they /could/ be doing. They could be telling stories that, while unforgiving and upsetting, exist within a format that no novel or film could ever reproduce. Stories that take clever audiovisual amalgamation for granted and go the extra mile, allowing the player to explore a tangible world that they would never otherwise be able to visit. In a sense, Dear Esther is pretty much non-interactive: nothing you do changes the course of the fiction, and there’s no element of challenge to speak of. But in another, far more accurate sense, the interaction is totally key. It’s your journey - whoever “you” are - and the intimacy heightens every emotion censor in your poor, overloaded brain. After watching me finish Dear Esther, my girlfriend asked me what it was I’d been playing. I turned to answer her, only to find I couldn’t speak. No words arrived. None mattered.

[bbot_org]

ALSO: No zings on me when talking about Korsakovia? I am disappoint.

ALSO: Zarla making fun of someone else for being morbid and depressive? LOL FOREVER

Another amusing quote from the RPS writeup:

Dear Esther turned me into something of a fanatical child. I was so taken by it that I drafted a thousand-word interpretation of the story and emailed it to the creator. Every time it crosses my mind, I scour the internet for people’s responses to this glorious masterpiece, reading through forum threads and blog posts and whatever else I can feasibly locate. Sometimes, I’ve been delighted that others share my views. Other times, I’ve been horrified by people’s remarks. One player, on a forum I can’t remember, gave tips for speeding the game up. “Bunny-hop around the island,” he said. “It totally destroys the atmosphere, but it’s more fun.”

If you’re looking for fun, I’ve no idea why you’re playing Dear Esther in the first place. This is fearless, classical tragedy. It ends with the sound of a heart monitor flatlining, for goodness’ sake.

[seiberwing]

If you’re looking for fun, I’ve no idea why you’re playing Dear Esther in the first place.

I...I think someone doesn't quite understand thee concept of 'game'.

[funkicarus]

it's bbot, he got all butthurt when i kept leaping down elevator shafts in vs l4d2.

[bbot_org]

lol y u mad tho?

cuz it sounds like you're getting pretty mad about how mad I was (I was very mad)

also it sounds like you're attributing something I didn't say, to me, which is zaaaaaaaany

[bbot_org]

Don't know why I'm defending something I quoted to make fun of, about a game I haven't even played, but let's rock: Was the ending of Earthbound fun? Was Aeris' death fun? If you demand that a game be about having fun, then you're going to redefine quite a lot of games as being, I guess, visual novels that make it really difficult to get to the next scene.

[seiberwing]

I think we may have different ideas of fun. For me fun is 'enjoyable'. The big reveal regarding James' wife in Silent Hill 2 was a deep emotional moment but if it was a long slog of boring zombiekilling to get there it ruins the point. It's like a movie that's staticky and the audio clicks in and out. Even if that movie's Casablanca, you're not going to have a good time.

(And I have no idea what happens at the end of Earthbound.)

[insanepurin]

If you’re looking for fun, I’ve no idea why you’re playing Dear Esther in the first place. This is fearless, classical tragedy. It ends with the sound of a heart monitor flatlining, for goodness’ sake.

It's not a game, it's art. There's no way video games can be art, man, and the only way it'll receive critical recognition is by not acting like a video game! STOP HAVING FUN GUYS. FUN ISN'T ART. /sarcasm

[zarla]

I WAS ACTUALLY TEMPTED TO MENTION YOU CRYING LIKE A GIRL OVER KORSAKOVIA BUT APPARENTLY I REFRAINED

missed opportunity

also lol to that whole review. i also bunnyhopped around the island ME AND THAT PERSON ARE KINDRED SPIRITS

[veloxyll]

Play Dear Esther - stop speaking to your girlfriend

Is this REALLY what we want our games to be doing? Making gamers talk to girls EVEN LESS?

Also, isn't the whole point of story based games that you, in fact, CAN interact with the story? Or at least make your own story? (even if said story is full of hillarious friendly fire)

[zarla]

Supposedly the dialogue bits trigger randomly SO THE STORY IS DIFFERENT EVERY TIME!!! or something

[veloxyll]

Actually different, or just in a different order? Cause getting the notes in different order doesn't exactly change the story...

[zarla]

Different order I guess, not that the story makes much sense either way or it makes a difference. The whole thing is super disjointed on purpose.

[veloxyll]

Your extracts make me think he was on a boat with his wife and they got lost and he ate her and then is all emo about it. Disjointed story and levels does not sound very good though :( Oh well, at least it was short.

[vwl]

I WOULD PLAY THAT GAME

[zarla]

haha SURPRISE CANNIBALISM
NO ONE WOULD SEE THAT COMING