Fantastic Contraption is great, I know the developers so I've been able to play it a couple times. I was talking to Chet Faliszek who has taken over the job at Valve of overseeing Vive development and organizing game jams, so he has played a lot of Vive demos and is kinda burnt out on them now and he is looking for something meatier. Fantastic Contraption is that meatier experience which is why they were the first team to get a second Vive dev kit.
That's some really interesting insider knowledge - thanks for that.
Alex's part was fine. Short, hitting it's mark, and getting out of the way.
Austin's went on WAY too long. The joke wore itself out well before the bit ended.
Hopefully, the rest of the crew's YouTube parodies land a bit better than today's. I always love the GOTY videos. I dont want this to be an off year.
Also, judging by these comments I've completely missed out on this "grocery haul" corner of Youtube. I've never come across this in all my time on there but clearly it's a big thing.
I've played just the 2nd case of SH:CD having missed the 1st case playthrough that my friends made. They had learnt a load from their first case and it amazing fun because they'd bought a whole load of stationery specifically to aid in notetaking and theory notation. We had basically a whiteboard stuck up on the wall with one person creating a timeline; another, a list of the characters we met with all their details; another detailing all the objects of interest; one person marking points of interest on the map with small post-its; somone else had the specific job of looking through the directory and the newspapers; oh and one person reading out the text from the leads with accents/voices wherever possible. It was awesome! It only added to the experience by getting into it that much. (Plus I added a 19th century music soundtrack although the added victorian street sounds soundtrack I put on loop was sadly vetoed for being distracting). We actually got the correct answer for the 2nd main case after maybe following just 11 leads. I felt like we were being very efficient though I wouldn't have come up with all the right ideas myself - we definitely needed to bounce ideas around. We did completely miss meeting one of the side characters but that was fine. I agree that you should just play until you're satisfied. I really liked that freedom that was implicit in how to go about playing Her Story.
I think I know which clue you spotted in the first newspapar for that 2nd case, that was relevant. That was a particular highpoint of fun revelation.
I really liked this game. I wasn't sure what to expect (on purpose, due to the nature of the release and all that), but it certainly wasn't this. I was half guessing this was more likely to be Frog Fractions 2 than what it actually was.
The entire game was fascinating to me. From the game design aspects (like I enjoyed just sitting in the Counter Strike level and looking at those floating blocks) to pulling back the curtain on those early levels and analyzing the more later levels. Not sure if anybody else had this feeling, but I kind of had this sense of peace going through the beginning of the game. You're just listening to a nice, calm narration, you're going on a tour, and just thinking about games. And then you find out what the game is really about and you have the rug pulled under you.
I went from being relaxed and having a good time looking at a bunch of blocks and rectangles to pressing through Coda's isolation to realizing what the game was actually about. The Beginner's Guide always felt like a deeply personal game, but the change of focus like that was unlike anything I've felt in a game before.
All that aside, I really enjoyed the first half's reflection on the creative process like that. I know the game is really about the change of focus and the state where the game ends, but as somebody who has struggled with creative stuff for a few years now, it was really nice hearing somebody talk about it like that.
Yeah, I had a similar experience or can at least relate to that. I really liked this sense of a historic set of levels being curated and then having someone take me through that. It felt like a really valuable type of experience.
I don't know how to feel. This resonated something in me that will need some time to understand. A game has never made me feel like this before. What an amazing game. Hmm.
Yeah, this isn't far off where I am with it. Just finished the game an hour ago.
Man what an interesting review, very happy this was here for me to read after my playthrough.
Wreden explains that over the next hour and a half or so, he’s going to lead you through a bunch of Source Engine maps, unfinished prototypes, and experimental games developed by his friend Coda--who is probably (maybe?) fictional.
In a weirdly petty way, this makes or breaks the game for me. If this is all just an apology to a talented, creative, and maybe troubled level designer: boooo. But if this is entirely his own imagination and narrative -- a million out of ten. GOAT out of GOTY.
SPOILERS
Interesting, I think I may be the opposite way round. I played 9/10 of the game completely trusting that this was a game about someone that Wreden new and it was incredible for it - to investigate the work of this individual while also uncovering his relationship with Wreden. I working out at the moment if Coda isn't real and their loose ends which I haven't worked out how to tie up with both interpretations. If Coda isn't real - a great deal of my enjoyment and fascination with what I was going through might vanish. At the very least I'd need to play it again to see if it makes sense in this new light and if it feels worthwhile and meaningful given it.
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