The Gamer's Quarter

daphaknee · Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 8:05 pm Post subject:

I never considered it a puzzle game, its just a game that focuses on puzzles

big difference (to me)

dhex · Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 9:36 pm Post subject:

i feel comfortable calling it a puzzle game.
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Well, this is a good question. See, a Puzzle Game is generally something like Tetris (i.e. something that you play over and over again to solve puzzles as the arise). This is a game that is basically a giant puzzle. So, technically it is a Puzzle Game, but it's probably better labled as one really big Puzzle. Nothing like Tetris or the sort.
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fish · . Joined: 13 Jun 2007 Posts: 113 Location: montreal

in finished portal.
i now think its the best thing to happen to the medium in years.

no less.
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SuperWes · Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 10:31 am Post subject:

dessgeega · Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 10:32 am Post subject:

they'd be better than they are now, at least.
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

Agreed.
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fish · . Joined: 13 Jun 2007 Posts: 113 Location: montreal

its the ideal game.

also, i nominate that voice, whatever her name is, as character of the year.

the game is brilliant.
and by that i mean smart.
and by that i mean funny.
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SuperWes · Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 12:18 pm Post subject:

I agree completely, but had Portal been a $60 game, $30 game, or possibly even a $20 standalone game we wouldn't even be having this discussion. Barely any of us would have bought it and no matter how much those of us that did buy it went on about it everyone else would have seen the "two hours" quantifier and waited for it to go down in price.

See Rez as an example. It's not quite the same thing, but how many of us paid $50 for that when it first came out? (I did, but I wouldn't have if I didn't see "discontinued" in the GameStop system a week after its release)

I admit to talking in theoreticals, but if games suddenly got really good and really short (and not in a way where there's incentive to play them again later for score), what would you be willing to pay for them? And do you think that paying this amount would be enough for the game developers/publishers/GameStop to make a profit?

-Wes
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fish · . Joined: 13 Jun 2007 Posts: 113 Location: montreal

portal would have a been a wonderful downloadable game.
but i think its in a perfect position, being part of the orange box.
i think it adds tremendous value to an already impressive package, despite how short it is. it just rounds it up so nicely.

on the other hand, i payed a hundred dollars for my copy of Rez.
but i still consider that one hour the finnest ive ever spent in front of a TV set.

but you know, if it WAS a standalone game, and priced acordingly, they would have probably made it a lot longer, possibly diluding it in the process. making it a lesser game.
the fact that it only lasted 2 hours means that i actually finished it. which is something special to me nowadays as even the most polished and spectacular games out there almost always manage to bore me before the end.

always leave them wanting more.
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ApM · Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 1:10 pm Post subject:

Short games cost less to make, Wes. Honestly if they just sold Portal in a box for $30 I would own it already. If they made Portal 20 hours long or whatever and sold it standalone for $60 I wouldn't.

The trend that I see in game pricing is that companies are starting to occasionally release games for cheaper (Katamari Damacy, Cooking Mama), then when they sell really well, they release a sequel at a higher price. Which is irritating.

dhex · Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 2:14 pm Post subject:

on the other hand it means more chances for games like katamari, etc.
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fish · . Joined: 13 Jun 2007 Posts: 113 Location: montreal

katamari was the previous best thing to happen to gaming in years.

i see a pattern.
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you cant spell selfish without fish

dhex · Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 2:55 pm Post subject:

it was a fun game. so is portal. best thing ever? no. it was cute.

i don't have the indie mindset towards games so consider me the linda rondstadt fan of the crew here.
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Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

Regardless of whether it's "indie" or not I think it's a good sign for the future of episodic content*.

* - The Orange Box I think proving that bundling of episodic content will probably be a pretty important part of the process.

fish · . Joined: 13 Jun 2007 Posts: 113 Location: montreal

i didnt say it was the best game ever.
i said it was the best thing to happen to games in a while.

big diff.
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you cant spell selfish without fish

dhex · Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 6:18 pm Post subject:

yeah either way it's a bit too belle and sebastian to go tossing about such words when half life 2 exists. but again, not a puzzle guy, uncouth lout, etc etc etc etc etc and so on.

clouds in my coffee...clouds in my coffee*

*i obviously meant carly simon before. i have no idea who linda rondstad is, apparently.
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SuperWes · Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 6:19 pm Post subject:

Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

I honestly don't see how the bundle is somehow opposed to the episodic gaming model.

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

I would like to see the numbers for how well the new Orange Box content sells outside of the bundle. It seems very much like a MS Office situation to me in that very few people will actually buy the material separately because of the basic savings - inflated so for previous owners of older goods - buying it in a package.
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Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

I'm guessing that it's gonna be that way, yeah, although I would be interested to see what the Orange Box vs. individual sales would be on the PC only, since the episodic content isn't available individually on 360/PS3.

dhex · Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 10:29 pm Post subject:

man looking at ep2 screenshots (now that i finished the game) i realized the sky isn't supposed to be yellow!

i will update my drivers and try again on thursday probably.
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The Great Unwashed · Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 10:41 pm Post subject:

Still, that doesn't look bad as yellow. Very eerie and atmospheric for sure.
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ApM · Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 10:46 pm Post subject:

dhex · Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 11:02 pm Post subject:

the answer was that color correction doesn't actually do anything but suck.

apm: no that's called serving up tasty slices of greatness in a package that is pleasing to the eye and ear.
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The Great Unwashed · Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 11:12 pm Post subject:

The time between episodes is fairly irrelevant as long as they are all part of a continuing saga, I'd think. It's more about consistency of experience rather than promptness of delivery, especially if that promptness interferes with that consistency.
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

They're releasing full-length stories a couple of years apart. That sounds episodic to me. I mean, I guess they could release a chapter every two months, but the quality wouldn't be as good. Gaming isn't TV, guys.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

fish · . Joined: 13 Jun 2007 Posts: 113 Location: montreal

i think its a wonderful coincidence that HL2 is one of the very very few doing episodes like they do because HL2 has one of the very very few stories i actually give a fuck about.

wait, no, scratch that, its not the story, its the characters.
i was geniunely happy to see Eli last night. it had been a while.
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you cant spell selfish without fish

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Ethoscapade · . Joined: 30 Oct 2005 Posts: 276

I have a hard time believing more than $20 for HL2 proper or more than $20 for Ep2, but hey, the point stands.

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

It seems like an easy way to pad the deal. Sure, they can charge $30 for TF2 by itself, but is anyone buying it like that?

And when is episodic content no longer episodic? If it's simply by a character continuing on, then there have been oodles of successful episodic titles; if it's based on a time frame, as Valve seems to have suggested in the past, then I think they are sneaking up on Expansion Territory. Sam & Max would seem to be the standard model, with new portions of a story coming out at regular intervals, but the Disciples series did something similar years ago and simply labeled the new releases as expansion packs.
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

Yeah, that's what I'm saying, if all that is the case then these are like focused expansion packs, which has been done for years now. I look at Sam & Max as the standard, and Valve isn't anywhere near that. Their work seems to be a weird mesh of the two.
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Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

Well, Valve takes a really long time to do their games, so it would make sense to view content as "episodic" when it's taken relative to the release schedule of a "full" game.

Given the vague definitions of "episodic", "full release", "upgrade" and "expansion pack", there's going to be a certain amount of semantic overlap.

The important thing is that something very different from the HL1 -> HL2 progression is going on.

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

More weighted companion cube desktops

One involves cake.
_________________
“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

Portal is totally gay.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

Huh. That's interesting. I'm ok with the symbology of the gun shooting orifices, but it's this idea of non-violence being feminine and violence being masculine that bugs me. These people have obviously never head of Queen Boudicea, or Margaret Thatcher.

Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

Or sex or childbirth.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

fish · . Joined: 13 Jun 2007 Posts: 113 Location: montreal

vagina gun.
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you cant spell selfish without fish

dhex · Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 10:24 am Post subject:

i dunno about you guys but when i go in a vagina i generally don't come out the other end because i'm pretty sure that's a) impossible and b) murder
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helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

and c) a total turn-off
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dhex · Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 7:18 pm Post subject:

i figured that was implied.
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

guys you are gross don't be gross
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Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

When I go in a vagina my dick comes out a hole in the wall and knocks over a robot.

dhex · Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 10:30 pm Post subject: