Spoiler Warning: Questions

By Shamus Posted Monday Apr 2, 2012

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 208 comments

I sat down with the rest of the cast Sunday night and we made it official: Barring any unforeseen difficulties, our next game will be Alan Wake. The game has a lot of interesting hooks for discussion: In-game advertising, the changing nature of survival horror as a genre, Stephen King, a troubled development history, and so on. It’s also short by the standards of the show, which will let us move on to Mass Effect 3 before we lose our passion for it.

We’re moving to five cast members: Chris, Mumbles, Rutskarn, Josh and myself. I have no idea how we’ll keep it on the rails. We’ll see how it goes.

Reader Atma asks via email:

[…]Well, i for one would like to know how the new format has impacted your audience, if the pipeline has improved, if the custom endings hit their goal (keeping people watching up to the end). I’d also like know out of curiosity how you are financing yourself on this show (if you are at all); i mean it’s a lot of work and although i imagine it’s nice having fun among a group of smart and talented people, it’s still a lot of work.

The pipeline is the same as it ever was, except that Josh keeps raising his standards as he gets better at Adobe Premiere, which kind of negates the time he saves.

We’re not making any money from the show. Individual episodes only score a few thousand views. Less than half the people who read the site actually watch the show. It’s probably not worth turning on advertising for that. Ultimately, it would probably boil down to a dollar an episode. Split between the cast members this would be joke money, not worth the time and expense of distributing it. Even if we gave it all to Josh, it’s still pretty much a tiny payout in the face of how much time he dumps into it. I get the impression that advertising really isn’t worth it until you’re into the tens of thousands.

The coming weekend is PAX, and the next weekend is recovering-from-PAX, so the next season won’t begin until the week of April 22.

 


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208 thoughts on “Spoiler Warning: Questions

  1. Blake says:

    Oooo Alan Wake. Another game that always interested me but I never got around to trying.

    I look forward to it.
    And thank you all again for adding entertainment to the internet.

    1. Sleeping Dragon says:

      Same, is it actually worth playing it before the season? I like me a good mystery but this game somehow never got into my field of vision enough to get it and play it. I imagine it’s now or never seeing as it’s going to be on the show and I wonder if it’s worth the investment…

      1. Dmatix says:

        I was wondering the same thing. It seems a bit of a shame to spoil a mystery game like Alan wake for myself. Also, I’m looking forward to the five member season.

        1. Duhad says:

          Form the perspective of a S.K/General Horror game fan, I relay enjoyed the game. While there where some slip up hear and there the game over all was allot of fun both to play and to work threw the story. Plus its interesting use of a flashlight as a light sources, weapon and cross hairs for shooting was pretty inspired for a game like this. I give it a big recommendation, thou I have the strangest feeling that I may feel diffidently after watching this season (considering I am only now finishing ME3 while I was burning a 100% first play threw when that season came on.)

          1. Nonesuch says:

            I wrote a bit about Alan Wake for the console back when it came out. The controls on the console were really clunky from what I can remember.

            Also, it does fall prey to a few general horror tropes. But yeah, not a bad game. A few of the faces could use a bit of work.

            1. Jarenth says:

              It’s amusing, it’s fairly well-written, and it gives you a relatively large degree of freedom. The combat is a little repetitive, though, especially in the later chapters.

              1. Klay F. says:

                When I played it for the PC I was actually pleasantly surprised that the controls were a lot smoother than I was expecting (the PC version being a port), its pretty obvious they gave the PC version a lot of love. Also, the environments, both in the day and nighttime are absolutely gorgeous. I remember lamenting that the game wasn’t open world, because I desperately wanted to climb every mountain I laid eyes on.

                I agree with you about the combat though. It seemed their idea of difficulty progression was to just throw bigger, more retarded things at you. When they throw the bulldozer at you I remember thinking, “Okay people, this is starting to get stupid.”

                1. scowdich says:

                  And that was even before the combine harvester got involved, or the darkness started throwing train cars and fishing boats at you. It gets pretty ridiculous, but stays pretty fun.

    2. Eric says:

      Alan Wake is awesome. While its gameplay does get a little stale by the end, it’s one of the few games which I can say really has a story worth experiencing, both because it has some interesting character and twists, and because it’s presented so well. It discusses a lot of compelling ideas about authorship, and it has some really, really mind-screwy stuff all throughout that constantly make you question the nature of the game’s reality.

  2. Dovius says:

    Ooooh, Alan Wake. One of those games that you play, then it just sort of drops off your radar. Was pretty interesting though, so looking forward to your takes on it.

    1. Jokerman says:

      Thats more or less my thoughts on it, i played it – enjoyed it…then never touched it for 6months before selling it.

  3. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Sooo,thats pressure for me to play the game in the next 3 weeks.I dont know,Ive been delaying that one for a few months now.I guess its worth giving a shot.We shall see.

    1. Jokerman says:

      I did that with AC2 only i was about 2-3 episodes ahead of the Spoiler warning team the whole time. Kind of weird seeing josh play what i just went through in a totally different way, I didnt slash away with my hidden blade the whole game for example…:D

      I already owned it when they started, just hadnt got around to playing it. This show shuffled it along for me – not sure if i should thank them for that or not…

    2. MatthewH says:

      I’ve been looking at Alan Wake. Maybe I’ll do what I did for DE:HR. Watch the first couple of episodes, and if I like what I see, go get the game.

      And the most important question: does it have hats?

      (Am I getting into the proper spoiler warning mood?)

  4. Jeremy says:

    Cool, I’m very interested in seeing what you make of it. I finishing Alan Wake when my Xbox started to RROD itself, which was interesting – because I wasn’t entirely sure it was an actual fault and not part of the game…

  5. Packie says:

    Alan Wake?! oh interesting.

    If only Silent Hill 4 was available on steam. That game is ten times more interesting to discuss in regards to survival horror in general.

    P.S I still wanted to see josh rage at Alpha Protocol. :P

    1. X2Eliah says:

      P.S I still wanted to see josh rage at Alpha Protocol

      So very much agreed :|

      1. Eruanno says:

        Oh wow. Yes. But maybe not all of it, just a highlights reel of “worst design choices” or “stupidest bugs”.

        1. littlefinger says:

          two things:
          1. I never encountered noticable bugs in my 2 playthroughs of Alpha Protocol. Questionable design decisions, sure, but bugs? Not really.

          2. Alpha Protocol’s not going to happen due to the time limit for conversations, which makes me wonder: is it possible to hex-edit that timer to 60 seconds or so? That’d make it work for Spoiler warning, I think…

          1. Gamer says:

            Yeah, I didn’t experience too many bugs in my 9 or so playthroughs (it was the middle of a gaming drought).

            However, it did have a plethora of “questionable design choices.” I’d have considered it my best game of all time if the gameplay was just better (and they got rid of those ridiculous boss battles).

            1. X2Eliah says:

              Yes, but this is Josh we are talking of. He managed to find quite notable glitches even in DX:HR, not to mention ALL OTHER GAMES EVER.

              1. swenson says:

                Josh found glitches in Half-Life 2, for crying out loud. I think he can find bugs in anything!

              2. MintSkittle says:

                I’m sure Shamus had problems with Alpha Protocol, I just can’t find the post where he lists them. All I could find was this one where he takes issue with people who had problems with him having problems:

                http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=8502

          2. Eruanno says:

            Really?! I stumbled through the world at three occasions, and was shot at by enemies stuck in walls at one point.
            Not to mention the damn thing just froze several times while loading.

            Hell, I think I hit more bugs with this game than I did in New Vegas :O

            1. littlefinger says:

              Never fell into the world, I think I once had 1 enemy stuck in a wall – but a grenade soon fixed that – and I’ve never had anything freeze on me…

              Sorry man, but I had no bug issues at all.

  6. That’ll be the only spoiler warning game I haven’t played. I might have to ahead of time.

    1. Gamer says:

      Same. I’m looking forward to this season. I’ve heard great things about it but never had the 360 to play it.

  7. Eleion says:

    Oh! I thought you guys were going to do Skyrim next. Good for me because I haven’t played Skyrim yet. (I haven’t played Alan Wake either, but I also never intend to.)

    I fear the crew will be tired of the monotonous gameplay by the end of the first week, but hey! no hacking minigames for Josh to waste hours of time on.

    1. Zombie says:

      Dont worry, the best part won’t be cut. I mean how could we live without some sort of hacking, pipe dream, or lockpicking minigame? He’ll just waste hours of time finding all the collectables.

      1. scowdich says:

        There is a minigame, though, albeit a very minor one, whenever you have to force something open or start a generator.

  8. X2Eliah says:

    That’s a cool choice for a game, I’d say. Not something I’ve played, personally, but from what I’ve seen, it ought to be interesting to see. Was it the cinematographic, QT-event riddled semi-artistic game that came out 2-3 years ago, and spawned the “Press X to Jason” meme?

    Also: 22nd April? Holy hell. That’s like 3 weeks!

    1. Eruanno says:

      …Heavy Rain?

      1. X2Eliah says:

        Maybe. I just recall that there were two moody cinema-icky games, Alan Wake and Heavy Rain.. And I honestly don’t remember what the differences between them were, and which one was which.

        1. Eruanno says:

          Heavy Rain is the “movie with quicktime events” where Press X to Jason originates from, yes. Alan Wake actually has no quicktime events, but it is presented in “episodes” like a TV series. Yes, there are even recaps in the beginning of every “episode” with a “…previously on Alan Wake”-clip.

          But it plays like a normal action game where you shoot axe murderers in a dark forest with guns (and sometimes flare guns).
          Maybe that’s not a normal action game… Umm…

          1. ccesarano says:

            Gonna be honest, that “Previously on Alan Wake…” was a genius idea. I was playing this game every night after I got it and playing through one “episode” a session, and that’s part of the reason the combat got tired for me. The story kept me hooked in, but at some point the combat got monotonous.

            In the time between my beating of the game and the release of the first DLC, I had enough time apart that I thought to myself “This is great! How could I ever get tired of this game?”

            Then the combat started to wear thin again.

            So Alan Wake works best if you play one chapter a week, I’d say, like a TV show. That way you minimize how tiresome the combat gets, and that “Previously on Alan Wake…” keeps you up to speed.

            1. X2Eliah says:

              That sounds a lot like how “Asura’s Wrath” handles things.

              Actually. Bloody hell. “Asura’s Wrath” would be a pretty brilliant game to see SpoilerWarninged.

              1. SougoXIII says:

                Is this really that good? I played the demo and did not have a… favourable impression of it.

                1. X2Eliah says:

                  Good for SW. Not saying it’s a good game to play.

  9. While we’re on the subject, there any reason you’ve only created one playlist out of the some half dozen seasons you’ve made so far?

    1. Peter H. Coffin says:

      Too many people using the playlist as a sleep aid. (;

      1. scowdich says:

        I’ll confess to doing this. Listening to Mumbles saying “cannibalism…cannibalism…” is surprisingly soothing.

  10. Reach says:

    I would like to make a suggestion. You might try rotating in three cast members at a time, depending on who has strong opinions about a certain part. I think three people is perfect. Four people leads to a lot of talking over each other and getting off track. The idea of five people scares me.

    1. X2Eliah says:

      This might be an idea. That may work. Perhpas something for the next next season, if this one with 5-at-once doesn’t work out well?

      One thing though, with just three seriousface people, it might be a bit too, well, serious. Imagine having just Josh (who can’t talk all too much due to having to play and monitor the streaming setup), Chris (who still prefers to say the smart insightful things) and Randy (Oh yeah, beat that. I’m so hipster I referenced the man from the very first SW season all those decades ago).. I think that random acts of cannibalism, puns and gigglesquee (respectively, Mumbles, Rutskarn and Shamus) are required, imo.

    2. Sleeping Dragon says:

      Actually seeing as this season was four people it was OK for me and I seem to remember the NV season was decent too, even with Mumbles being more vocal than Chris. And while I dread the 5 person cast too maybe it’ll smooth itself out after an episode or two (I fully expect the beginning to be a horrible, horrible mess :) ) and anyway I’d have a hard time deciding which 4 out of 5 people I’d like to hear the most.

      1. Gamer says:

        I’m feeling the same way. I like all 5 cast members, but I’m not sure how I feel about all 5 commenting at the same time.

        Then again, this drastically increases the chance of people playing the drinking game to pass out in front of their computers.

  11. Dude says:

    I finished Alan Wake on Sunday. I must say, a short, linear game where ninety percent of the things happen in near darkness feels like a weird choice for a show, especially one where FLV compression will make an already hard to see game harder.

    But, I liked the game. It gets away with almost everything in its plot because of har-har-dream-logic. It’ll be good to see you guys tear it apart.

    I have a question though, and it’s one I’ve been asking season after season: is Josh going to do anything about the overall sound quality of your commentaries? More specifically, his own level, which guarantees distortion on my otherwise splendid speakers. He has become the new Mumbles Dinosaur.

    1. Zombie says:

      Think of it this way, if they hate it so much, they might end it early and then we get to see them gush over ME3, up until the last like 1%

      1. Dude says:

        On the contrary, I think they’ll like it. If they go into it knowing Remedy’s past work (Max Payne games) and Remedy’s–in my opinion–uncanny ability to translate genre fiction (hard boiled, King horror etc) quirks almost perfectly into video games.

        I especially think they should try the two “Special Feature” episodes later; they’re better than the main game.

      2. lasslisa says:

        There are plenty of things not to gush about in ME3 even before the ending. It’s a fun game and I enjoyed it tremendously, but found quite a few details to gnash my teeth about. I would totally watch that series just to see if they gnash their teeth over the same things. =D

  12. Eruanno says:

    Oh, that should give me just enough time to finish Alan Wake. In other news, finding the Collectors Edition online and discounted to 20 bucks is great value :3

  13. Leo says:

    The Witcher 2 Extended edition ships on April 17.

    While I’m sure the ME3 season will be a hilarious trollfest of making fun at certain organisations gaining control of certain space stations, I think reviewing Witcher would be more meaningful.

    1. Eruanno says:

      Except the Witcher 2 is very unforgiving. We’d have to watch an entire episode of Josh dying, realizing he hasn’t saved for half an hour, neglecting to save again, dying again, repeat.

    2. Raygereio says:

      The above and it one of those games that thinks it being quite by hiding necesary information in dialogue (and then notmaking a note of it), or outright hiding it and reckoning the player is psychic and read the developer’s minds.

      Given that Josh has to divide his attention between talking, listening to a bunch of yahoo’s in his ear talking about how ridiculous the constant use of the word ploughing is and playing the game, that’s just a recipe for constant: “Wait. What am I dont? … Okay, someone check the wiki for what I’m supposed to be doing here?”.

      1. X2Eliah says:

        Yeah, this. As much as a great game it is to play, it has too many cons for SW-type streaming. Especially when most of the cast haven’t played it – due to time and/or prejudice against main character.
        In the end, as much as *I* love the game personally, I must admit that it wouldn’t be as optimistic a series as Deux Ex HR was.

        1. Josh says:

          I got pretty good at The Witcher 2’s combat actually. The real limiting factor here, though, is that I’d want to do The Witcher first, and both Witcher games are rather long. Given we want to get to our Mass Effect 3 and inevitable Skyrim playthroughs rather soon here while both games are still relevant, there really isn’t time to pick up an epic like The Witcher and do it justice.

          1. littlefinger says:

            Is Skyrim really worth it though? The storylines it present aren’t exactly compelling…

            1. X2Eliah says:

              And there’s the sheer issue of length. Skyrim on spoiler warning – that “season” could last for two years or so.

              1. Gamer says:

                Assuming they do all the guild quests.

                And I would expect many fast-forward montages in the inevitable Skyrim season since dungeons can sometimes takes awhile to finish.

                1. X2Eliah says:

                  But what’s the point of doing a season where you’ll either skip and/or fastforward most of the content?

                  1. Milos says:

                    See: Fallout seasons.

                    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

                      Yup,this.If they just focus on playing the main story,and talking about the rest,it can be about average length,and still very enjoyable.And since all of them have played it,there will be no dead money/asscreed 2 things.

                  2. Lalaland says:

                    Eh I think the Bioshock season could have done with some fast forwarding post the big reveal, it was mostly rote combat and everything that could have been said had been said

            2. NihilCredo says:

              I’m dividing my gaming time between The Witcher 1 and Skyrim at the moment, and, well…

              …let’s just say that every time I set my PC to gaming mode I think e.g. “ahh, time to find out what that creepy old woman I just helped was really planning, I can’t wait!” and then after an hour or so of fiddling with food items and talking to assorted untrustworthy ugly creeps I somehow always find myself quitting and firing up Skyrim to do yet another copy-pasted dungeon fetch quest that somehow ends up being far more fun.

              (Although to be fair, the ~200 mods I have installed and the accompanying mini-game of taking cool screenshots are definitely a factor.)

              1. X2Eliah says:

                I’d say it is because the design of Skyrim is made to be more gratifying, as in “giving more amounts of teh fun currency”. It is less serious and aspires to a different mindset of play, whilst offering more variations of achieving something, even if the Witcher 2 is more of a story/lore-driven, cohesive long-burner.

                I do wonder if Chris has some thoughts on this, actually (assuming he has played the two), this line of discussion seems to be far more up his alley than mine.

          2. Jokerman says:

            Maybe its possible after? The 2nd game will be coming to console soon so it will have a larger audience than ever after skyrim and ME2 are done.

          3. Rasha says:

            Wait finishing Skyrim while it’s still relevant? Holy balls!

  14. James says:

    Alan Wake’s a good choice. There's certainly a lot to talk about- good and bad. I do like the developers behind it, because they try and are overly optimistic. Like a puppy rolling over in mud expecting a reward for its trick, it's annoying but you can't stay mad at those eyes.

    I'm actually just awful with any game with horror elements , even jump scares set me off. I'm fine with movies, but it's something about the way I immerse myself in games that makes horror bits quite unsettling.

    I think horror is a good test to see if you're a good developer, because to make something truly scary you have to have a very good design philosophy- so I do find it a shame that these games are almost unplayable for me lol (Last horror game I tried to play was The Thing for the ps2- it's not fun when one of your teammates turns into a monster and tires to eat your face, hehe).

  15. NihilCredo says:

    Hi Shamus, I’d be curious to hear if you discussed Vampire: Bloodlines at all as a candidate (and, if you did, what the general consensus about it was). Thank you!

    1. Chris says:

      It didn’t come up – Shamus hasn’t played it before! Also we were intentionally trying to find a game that would push ME3 out a bit so more people have time to finish it, but not so far out that Shamus’ rage would have waned any. Alan Wake’s only about 10 or so hours, so it fit the bill – Bloodlines is much longer. Still, it’s a fantastic game!

      1. KremlinLaptop says:

        SHAMUS WHY HAVEN’T YOU PLAYED THIS GAME!?

        …YOU MUST.

        Edit: Aww. I was hoping to be one of those cool people who buys Shamus a game, but I guess he already owns it. Drat! Still though, I recommend playing Bloodlines. Though the ending made me grit my teeth a bit.

        Not so much how the story was resolved, I liked that, but I think considering the slow build up of the rest of the game the pacing of the end was poor.

      2. littlefinger says:

        Shamus hasn't played it before!

        The fuck?

        No seriously, What the Fuck?

        Shamus, I just saw it on your steam page. Go play the game, please. (do install the min fan patch, cause … well.)

        edit: and apparently I’ve lost ‘quote’ skills. God damned

        1. GiantRaven says:

          Don’t install the fan patch. Everybody should experience an unpatched Bloodlines as their first playthough, just so they can share in my pain.

        2. Daemian Lucifer says:

          “Shamus hasn't played it before!

          The fuck?”

          He hasnt played baldurs gate,so this shouldnt be that surprising.He just isnt the rpg player people think him to be*wink*.

          1. Shamus says:

            It’s actually true. Back in the 90’s I was really more into shooters. Doom, Quake, ROTT, Wolfie, Duke 3D, etc. I was more into mapping and modding stuff in those days, and those games were technology sandboxes for me. It wasn’t until the 2000’s that I really got into RPG’s in a big way.

      3. Sumanai says:

        “…but not so far out that Shamus' rage would have waned any.”

        Promising.

      4. Tony Kebell says:

        Chris has got the shiny, he’s official now.
        All he has to do is set up a gravatar.

        1. Chris says:

          I cannot for the life of me figure out how to change my avatar.

          1. Shamus says:

            http://gravatar.com/

            Just make sure you register using the same email you’re using here in the comments, and it will all be automatic. This should apply to 99% of the wordpress blogs out there.

            1. rrgg says:

              Ohhhh, so this is where not posting with my real email address comes back to bite me.

              So close to getting a little picture by my posts like all the cool kids are doing only to have it yanked from my grasp. Very depressing. . .

              1. Jakale says:

                Could make a dummy account that you can use for all the places you don’t really want knowing your main email.

            2. Chris says:

              Hey, look at that, it worked! Thanks!

              1. Ellery says:

                Thanks! I didn’t know it was possible to set up a gravatar ;-D

                Edit… although it doesn’t display here … hmmm

    2. Raygereio says:

      The sad truth is that Bloodlines would have been a poor choice anyway.
      Bloodlines still has fully gamebreaking and plenty of “lesser” bugs that can (and given Josh’ bug-magnet-properties) will rear their ugly heads.
      Seeing as how Spoiler Warning won’t use mods, the bug-fixes are out of the question.

      1. NihilCredo says:

        The unofficial patch has a “lite” version that sticks to bug-fixing and doesn’t restore cut content or otherwise mod the game.

        Nevertheless, with Alan Wake, ME3 and probably then Skyrim in the pipeline, there’s probably time until 2013 to argue for VtM:B :)

        1. Sumanai says:

          I’m sure that’s still out of the question. The point of “no mods” is partially that any bug they run into can’t be the fault of a third party (modder) so they can blame the makers.

          1. littlefinger says:

            8-(

          2. krellen says:

            I still don’t think the vanilla build of Bloodlines is particularly buggy. If Josh is a bug magnet, I must be a bug repellent.

            Except for Fallout 3. I got all the bugs then.

            1. JPH says:

              I had to install the unofficial patch just to get the game to run.

              And yeah, if you don’t think Bloodlines is all that buggy either you’re VERY lucky or that game really doesn’t like me. It’s probably the buggiest, most unpolished game I’ve ever played.

            2. ehlijen says:

              As far as I could tell, Vanilla Bloodlines was finishable apart from one level change (boat in the cave, did you not have that?) that would inevitably crash the game and could only be bypassed by using console cheats. Other than that it might crash at any given moment, but also might never, and some sidequests might break.

              1. Bubble181 says:

                I had some sidequests crap out on me, but never had any bug problems through the main story…
                I liked it, though it was, in some ways, a mess. Ofc ourse, VtM is a less in quite a few ways anyway.

            3. Daemian Lucifer says:

              The balance must be preserved.There is only a limited number of bugs in the world,and so some must get them all in order for others to have enjoyable gaming experiences.

  16. Anorak says:

    Alan Wake pissed me off.

    I heard about it in PCG UK, all the way back in 2005? Ish? ( I just looked that date up in wikipedia. Weird. I could’ve sworn I heard about it before then.)

    Anyway, when it was announced it was meant to be PC exclusive, showing off DX10. It was going to be the first game that truly used DX10, and it looked amazing. It also seemed to have a lot more of an open world sandbox style to it.

    Then it went dark.

    I thought for the longest time it was dead, but then it popped back into being and it was all shiny and…..exclusive to the 360.

    What?

    The reason was obvious – Microsoft had picked up the debt from the devs, and wanted to push their baby forward even more. I can accept that, from a business standpoint.

    The trouble was, the excuses they gave made no bloody sense.

    “We think you’ll only get the full experience by playing it from your sofa” or some such, as if they were protecting us perverted PC players from experiencing an inferior game.

    This argument made no sense. A survival horror game, that you are telling us should be played in the living room, 10 feet away from the screen?

    I eventually did play the game, by virtue of camping out on my mate’s sofa for six hours until I finished it.

    The game I found could be very atmospheric, had some interesting writing, some cool ideas, and had the potential to be scary.

    Except as I was playing, people were constantly wandering in and out, the dog lept onto my testicles, tried to eat the controller.
    My friend’s sister sat down and started asking questions about what was going on.

    Someone else opened the curtains, then shut the curtains, then turned the light on, then wandered past offering me tea (which I accepted gratefully).

    Later still, more people, friends, family, neighbours, taxmen and little green aliens turned up.

    The point is, how the hell are you supposed to have a survival horror game on a console, in your living room, on a sofa?

    Sure, you could use the console in your room, but then you’re not “experiencing” the game correctly, according to the spokespeople at Remedy.

    I’m not blaming Remedy for this. They were rescued by Microsoft. They finally got to see the game made, but had to give up what many people feel would have been the definitive version of the game.

    I blame Microsoft for the relentless way they push the 360 at the expense of PC gaming.

    I’ll bet that the PC version of Alan Wake has GFWL on it too.

    /rant.

    TL;dr: DAMN YOU MICROSOFT. *shakes fist*

    1. Josh says:

      I can certainly understand the frustation. Still, I found it rather enjoyable and immersive on a console. The trick for me was to play it in the middle of the night when nobody was around, with a glass of wine on the coffee table.

      Of course I don’t live with anyone else or have any pets, so it might be easier for me to find peace and solitude.

      1. Anorak says:

        Middle of the night was when I ended up finishing it, more or less. I’m aware that I was supposed to take breaks between “Episodes”, but I had only one shot at playing the game.

        Also, the control scheme was actually pretty good, and I certainly think it works better than KB+M. Third person games usually do, for me.

    2. Eruanno says:

      Actually it has full Steamworks support on PC. Steam cloud save, steam achievements, retail game registers on Steam…

      1. X2Eliah says:

        Heh. “support” or “mandatory tie”?

        1. Adam says:

          Either way, better than GFWL. At least steam has some perks to go with the mandatory tether.

          1. Peter H. Coffin says:

            Steam may be a straitjacket, but it’s a straitjacket that’s lined with rabbit fur, comes in a handsome color that goes with most things you already wear, and has real silver buckles with skulls on them instead of plain brass, and comes with an ipod dock in the collar. GFWL comes only in orange, is lined with 3/8″ felt that’s half raw hemp, half human hair, all the buckles are made of Plutonium-239, and there’s the guts of two different musical Christmas cards mounted on the shoulders that play tinny carols at random intervals guaranteed only to be never in sync.

        2. Eruanno says:

          It all depends on your viewpoint, of course. I’m in favor of games linking to Steam. At least Steam has never eaten my saved games or anything stupid like that (*COUGH GFWL COUGH*)

          1. Bubble181 says:

            It’s eaten mine though. It does happen, it’s just rare :-P

          2. Zukhramm says:

            Not really. It is mandatory, independently of viewpoint.

            1. JPH says:

              It’s not a problem for you if you happen to like Steam.

              Hint: There are people who like Steam.

  17. Adam P says:

    Return of Mumbles? Yay!

    What I’m getting from this is that I still have time to play and finish Mass Effect 3 before you guys get to it. Also yay!

    1. Gamer says:

      Yes. You should definitely finish it. The way everything plays out is something you have to go through yourself in order to get the full experience.

      1. X2Eliah says:

        This. +1. Signed. Seconded. Approved. Yes. Agreed.

        And now seriously… Yes, you really should finish it yourself. Second-hand knowledge is not even remotely the same, especially if we are talking of this game and this series.

        1. Sumanai says:

          I don’t know. I was plenty pissed off when I only heard about certain things.

          1. Michael says:

            Yeah, like the entirety of Mass Effect 2? It pretty much spoiled any appetite I had for the where Mass Effect was going.

            Though, I have to hand it to you guys, you’re more tolerant than I am. Dunno how you can endorse Mass Effect 3 with a straight face after Mass Effect 2’s betrayal.

            1. Gamer says:

              I would never tell somebody to buy it. However, since it sounds like he already has, I’d recommend playing it before the season starts so that the complete set of anger, regret, sorrow, and even a few curse words has washed over him by the time the season starts.

              Just me, hearing the ending is bad is one thing. playing through 30 (incredibly fun) hours in order to see it for yourself is a completely different experience.

              1. Sumanai says:

                I had to push back watching the Spoiler Warning run for Mass Effect 2 because I hadn’t played it and the beginning got my panties in such a twist that it took months to un-twist them and watch the season. So I suspect it’s best to play through ME3 before seeing the Spoiler Warning season.

                @Michael – I’m actually a bit surprised I got as angry about ME3 as I did, since I had gone pretty apathetic after ME2. I guess 30 hours of fun would’ve made it worse, so I’m glad I didn’t play it.

          2. Daemian Lucifer says:

            Agreed.I only watched lets plays and read the wiki,and it still pissed me off more than 2(which is astonishing).So no thanks.Also origin.

            1. Klay F. says:

              Exactly, as long as the game requires Origin to play, I don’t care if it goes down to 99 cents, I’ll never buy it.

              1. Michael says:

                This is where I envy my console-owning friends. I’ve got three friends who’ve played the first two Mass Effects and plan on getting 3, only they played on the Xbox360. They don’t have to wrestle with Origin.

                At this point my options are:

                1.)Download origin; purchase Mass Effect 3; play Mass Effect 3

                2.)Buy an Xbox360; purchase an HD capable monitor/TV; purchase Mass Effect 1; play Mass Effect 1; purchase Mass Effect 2; play Mass Effect 2; purchase Mass Effect 3; play Mass Effect 3

                It bothers me that option two is more attractive than Origin.

                1. Daemian Lucifer says:

                  You can also just go to youtube,and enjoy the highlights of the game,without the frustration at the awesome button and the dumb ending.

  18. Another game I own but haven’t played, at least mid-semester break is coming up to play it ahead of you guys…. but DotA 2 as well. I was hoping you would have a go at all the main questlines of Skyrim just to see all the bugs and glitches Josh can make appear C:

  19. littlefinger says:

    Question: does anyone on Spoiler Warning contribute to the Wasteland Kickstarter? What tier?

    1. krellen says:

      I dunno, none of them are really that well-off, are they? I know Shamus is technically unemployed.

  20. Thomas says:

    I refuse to believe it’s a coincidence I lose my laptop today and regain it on the 22nd :D I loved the idea of Alan Wake so it’ll be pretty cool to see what happened to it. Then I’ll have to skip a season for Mass Effect 3 :(

  21. CheddarTheKnight says:

    When you eventually do Mass Effect 3, I beg you to import Regina Shepard. Miranda died, and all they do with her in 3 is give her a ‘tragic’ death.

    1. Gamer says:

      What? She survived in my playthrough. Did you do her loyalty mission in 2?

      1. bit says:

        She also only survives if you give her the information on the citadel. She survived in my playthrough, though I still got the Tali scene. So win/win, I suppose.

        1. KremlinLaptop says:

          In my playthrough, since Miranda was alive from my ME2 save, I was extra careful to make sure I could game the pivotal scene in such a way as for her to die.

          …Er, which sounds a bit psychotic, doesn’t it? I just didn’t like Miranda!

          Plus the Tali scene made me chuckle. Emergency induction port? Oh, you silly Quarian!

          Definitely win-win.

          1. Hitch says:

            On my second play through, I purposely edited an ME2 save to make sure Miranda was dead. I haven’t got to the point where I find out if I get a variation of the “emergency induction port” scene without her. (Don’t tell me, I want to discover on my own.) I’ve just been distracted lately by police chases because of Shamus.

    2. Raygereio says:

      No, they should import a living Miranda so that they can point out jost one more ridiculous thing in ME3.

      There can never be enough pointing out of ridiculous things when we get to ME3!

      1. X2Eliah says:

        Random ridiculous thing #495-3a: when you talk to Miranda’s hologram in ME3, there is a scene where the camera is so expressly focussed on her bum that I bet it is done intentionally, as payback/inside joke at the critiques of this from ME2.

        1. Raygereio says:

          It’s a callback, that’s for sure. Though given that this same company gave Miranda a camel toe (and reused the same model for EDI-bot), I seriously doubt it was done with self-ridicule in mind.

          1. Sumanai says:

            Yeah, agree. I’m going to need some hard evidence of Bioware being capable of self-ridicule.

            Edit: Not just one person, even if that person is in the writing team. There’s always at least one person capable of making fun of themselves. It’s another thing for those jokes to get a pass.

          2. MatthewH says:

            Suddenly I’m glad the resolution on my TV isn’t very good.

            1. KremlinLaptop says:

              Yet Google Image Search still exists.

              …What? I thought to myself, “They wouldn’t have!” and then GIS and I’m thinking, “Well they did…”

              1. Raygereio says:

                àŒt’s hilarious isn’t it? What on earth would have gone through the mind of the model-artist as he was working on it.

                “Let’s see. Pronounced enough to be visible, but it shouldn’t be to obvious: we want to keep this classy.”

  22. Sleeping Dragon says:

    Out of curiosity. Did all 5 of you play the game/intend to play it before the show? Or will there be someone discovering the game as you go? I still think it worked pretty well for ME2 even if not so much for AC2.

    PS: Also, Shamus, thank you for making this post on the second and not letting us speculate about it being a possible April 1st thing.

  23. RTBones says:

    This should be interesting to watch. This is one of those games I’ve been interested in, but just never found the time to sit down and get through (which is multiple games for me these days). Also, given your cast is now a Party of Five, the commentary should be lively, which is always a treat.

    Will you be doing any DLC on this run, or will you stick to the vanilla game?

  24. Arvind says:

    Since the Spoiler Warning crew is now 5 members, which power ranger would each member be and why?

    In my mind Shamus is Red ranger (it’s his site), Josh is blue (the muscle of the group), Rutskarn is pink (because he’s rutskarn), Mumbles is black (because batman wears black) and Chris is yellow (the sensible person of the group).

    1. Chris says:

      I thought Blue was the nerdy one of the group? I’m so confused.

      1. X2Eliah says:

        Hm. you know.. in a lot of SW episodes, you all call Josh being the nerdiest, but frankly, from what can be heard *just in the episodes*, whatever nerd cred Josh may have is completely engulfed by Shamus, Mumbles, and obviously Rutskarn..

        From the audience side, I’d say that Josh sounds about as nerdy as you (i.e. not all that much in relative terms).

      2. Arvind says:

        Damn, you’re right. So if you are blue, then Josh is…green? I dunno what color Josh is anymore, he defies classification.

        1. MatthewH says:

          No no, Chris is Green. He shows up late, is awesome, saves the show… and then has to leave and be brought back as the white ranger.

          OK, this metaphor needs more work.

        2. KremlinLaptop says:

          JOSH VIEL: RAINBOW RANGER.

          REVENGE OF THE RAINBOW.

          1. Chris says:

            Josh is the Megazord, and the rest of us are his captives as he beats, punches, and shoots the bad guys.

            1. Gamer says:

              I wasn’t aware that Megazord wore a fashionably dapper summer bonnet.

              1. Jarenth says:

                I would watch all the Power Rangers five times in a row if that was a thing.

      3. Peter H. Coffin says:

        The configurations changed depending on the series/edition/whatever. Hence, referring to the roles by the labels in http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FiveManBand is preferred.

        Which I think gets us to

        Shamus: Hero (obvious)
        Mumbles: Lancer
        Ruts: Smart Guy (fits to a father-raping T)
        Josh: Big Guy (mostly because the playing equates to physicality in my head)
        Chris: The Chick

        1. Mumbles says:

          I approve.

        2. Gamer says:

          I’m glad that we all agree that even with the addition of Chris and his rockin’ beard, Mumbles is still the manliest member of the cast.

    2. KremlinLaptop says:

      Chris has usurped Shamus from his role as the straight-man of the group. They both do the insight and analysis thing really well.

      In road-trip movie terms it breaks down as Shamus and Chris being the parents, Josh is the crazy uncle driving the car and swerving through traffic (high probability of power slides), and the brats in the backseat are Rustkarn and Mumbles.

      1. Sydney says:

        I like this very much.

    3. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Bah,rangers are so last millennium.Its all about the teenage alien ninja turtles these days.

  25. SolkaTruesilver says:

    In the event you figure out that 5 commentators is too much, you always have the option of cutting Josh’s audio feed. That way, he will be able to troll you without ever giving you any explanation…

    1. IFS says:

      But sometimes he trolls them with his explanations

  26. Alex says:

    I skipped the Deus Ex season, just because I don’t ever want to be reminded of that stinking crater.

    But Alan Wake, on the other hand? And the return(revenge?) of Mumbles?

    Alright, count me in.

    1. cerapa says:

      A stinking what the…

      It was the most positive season of Spoiler Warning, and everyone thought that the game(with the exception of the boss battles and ending) was great.

    2. KremlinLaptop says:

      Did… did you play the same Deus Ex: Human Revolution as the rest of us? Because we all liked it.

      What gives, man! Why aren’t you like the rest of us?

    3. Raygereio says:

      Please tell me you have a more decent reason for hating DX: Human Beefcake then “Rarglb bossfights!”.

      1. X2Eliah says:

        Because it betrayed the artistic integrity owned by the players of the first and only Deus Ex game?

        *heavy sarcasm*

      2. Zukhramm says:

        That’s a good enough reason.

    4. Hitch says:

      Seriously, Dude. You are NOT allowed to have independent opinions. Join the hive-mind OR ELSE.

      [Obligatory ;-)]

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Yes,join us,become one of us,one of us gooble gobble gooble gobble!

    5. SougoXIII says:

      Grrrr… *Resisting urge to correct opinion*

    6. GiantRaven says:

      How could anyone possibly hate what is essentially Robot Arm are Awesome: The Game?!

      I mean…it has bloody robot arms!

      1. JPH says:

        Damn it, that’s what it should have been called! Then we wouldn’t have even had to compare it to the first one.

  27. cerapa says:

    I am looking forward to season 13 with 8 commentators. Where every second of the videos has at least 2 different conversations and a pun battle going at the same time.

    But before that happens, Im sure 5 cast members will work out fine.

    1. Dave B says:

      Eight commentators? Forget that! I want to see season 27 when they stream the game live to the entire audience and give everyone an audio feed!

      EDIT: By the way, it occurred to me that there may be a way to greatly reduce the “talking over each other” problem. In some games that feature voice chat (example: TF2) there is some kind of visual indicator that appears when another player has their push-to-talk key, um, pushed. So, people of the internet: does such a thing exist for dedicated chat clients like Ventrilo? Basically something in the client’s UI that lights up when someone is talking.

      1. cerapa says:

        If we are going with the later seasons, I will change my vote to season 39, where Spoiler Warning has transformed into a ludicrously popular MMO.

        Or oh wait, shit, I forgot season OBEY, which happens after the illuminati take over the world and we are not allowed to keep track of time, and so season numbers are forbidden. Spoiler Warning is the only form of entertainment, and takes the place of music, videogames, movies and human communication. It has gone from games, to a ressurected cybernetic Josh destroying rebels by stuffing their pants with grenades. Josh has been merged with the AI CUFTBERT to keep him on their evil side. The rest of the cast has been executed for the crime of making puns and/or critizising the illuminati, but there are rumors that they are alive, and amassing forces in the sewers.

        Some people hope that one day Cyber Josh will rebel against his controllers, join with the rest of the original cast, and bring down the illuminati, but every pants explosion makes them less hopeful.

        1. bit says:

          Best fanfic ever.

      2. Chris says:

        We use Ventrillo and whoever has their mic button pressed has the little sound icon next to their name light up.

        This is useless to Josh, since he’s running a fullscreen game, but everyone else who is watching the stream can see whether others are talking.

        1. Hitch says:

          You seem to be the first cast member to actually pay attention to that. In previous seasons they just talked over each other anyway. Now, you start to say something, then pause and say, “Yes, Shamus, what were you going to say?” and he tells you to go ahead so Rutskarn can interrupt you. The failed effort to have a polite, orderly commentary is part of the charm of the show.

        2. Dave B says:

          Ok, cool! I’ve never used Ventrillo, and I kinda just assumed that everyone would just talk and then stop if they heard someone else talking already. In hindsight, the answer to my question should have been obvious to me, but oh well.

          1. Ringwraith says:

            Pretty much any dedicated VOIP client has that functionality, of course when you can’t see it no difference is made.

        3. Well! Talking over each other is annoying but after a moment or two folks shut up and usually (knock on wood) the person with the most interesting thing to say get to say it.

          What is really annoying though is the cutoff at the end when people are speaking, it’s like a letter or two gets chopped off.
          Isn’t there a setting in the chat software that allows some hangtime before autoclosing the stream/mic for the person that talked?

          The only other thing that can be an issue is relative volume of all involved. If someone is too loud it messes up the whole recording. If a person is too quiet it’s like they aren’t really present at all.

          1. X2Eliah says:

            It’s extremely easy to fix, actually. They just need to adopt the canadian way of saying “…, eh.” all the time. So either the “eh” gets cut off or not, it all will make sense and sound reasonable, eh.

        4. Josh says:

          Actually I have two monitors. It’s how I monitor the stream status without an indicator on the screen, and also how I notice that people have dropped from ventrilo mid-recording (that means you, Rutskarn).

      3. Clint Olson says:

        The Mumble chat client (which is, incidentally, open source) has this feature. It comes standard with a Direct3D overlay of everyone’s names, and each person’s name lights up when they’re talking.

        1. X2Eliah says:

          Iirc, they tried using mumble, and it didn’t really work for them due to one reason or another.

          1. Ringwraith says:

            Presumably one of the problems I could see with it is that the overlay gets recorded by Fraps, which would be incredibly distracting.

            1. Sumanai says:

              I would presume the problem with it is that individual volume levels can’t be adjusted. Don’t know if Ventrilo can, but I’ve cursed about that particular aspect in Mumble enough.

              1. Ringwraith says:

                Yeah, I think I remember that being the other reason.

          2. Scott (Duneyrr) says:

            I believe it was the way it recorded. I know Shamus and Mumbles have Mumble, since I’ve talked to them on the TwentyMine Mumble server before.

    2. littlefinger says:

      In two seasons they’ll have to split the group into two groups, each doing their own commentary while Josh flips a coin which channel to join. It’s gonna be awesome

    3. Jarenth says:

      Have this obligatory Rutslink for a taste of your future.

      1. littlefinger says:

        Well that’s certainly a … thing

        1. JPH says:

          An amazing thing, you mean.

  28. ccesarano says:

    I actually really enjoyed Alan Wake when it came out. The combat is pretty good, but the real issue for me is it occurred in too long a series of stretches. I’d have fun for maybe half an hour, and then I’d start groaning and wishing I could get back to town or some other area to do non-combat things.

    The story was definitely the highlight, though I’m afraid I will never see it the same after you guys tear it a new one.

    This will be the first Spoiler Warning I try to follow, I think.

    1. ToastyVirus says:

      I really really really liked the non-combat sections of the game for some reason, I spend all the action scenes wanting to be doing them again.

  29. Dev Null says:

    Less than half the people who read the site actually watch the show.

    I feel a bit – inexplicably – guilty about this. I like Spoiler Warning. Its fun, and your collective insights are interesting. Yet I rarely watch it. On the odd chance you wonder _why_ it has a significantly lower viewer count than your other content, I’ll throw in my 2c:

    1) I often haven’t played the games yet. That’s hardly _your_ fault – I still haven’t gotten around to playing Mass Effect _2_ yet for goodness’ sake, so I don’t expect you to wait for me. But I still hate spoilers before I play a game, and, well, you put it right in the title and everything… The fact that you’re doing a SW does sometimes prod me into finally playing a game, and I do sometimes go back and watch them months after you’ve posted them, but watching them at that remove means I miss out on the conversations in the comments because no one is listening any more…

    2) They’re kind of long. Not so long that they’re too long to watch one in a week, but if I’m playing catch-up months later then I’m looking at 20-some hours for the whole series all at once. That’s a pretty huge time commitment.

    Let me reiterate, just to be perfectly clear: these are not complaints I have about the show – they are completely self-inflicted. I am not saying you should change anything. I just wanted to let you know why I, for one, rarely watch them, in case you wondered. Maybe others will chime in with their reasons.

    1. Matt K says:

      3) I’m at a work and while reading web sites won’t put me over the bandwith limit, videos easily get me flagged. And there are too many SW episodes a week to just catch up with on the weekend (that time is for working my way through my backlog of games).

    2. Hitch says:

      I’m just wondering if some small efforts (not so much as to serious impact on already busy schedules) to promote the show on YouTube independent of this website might increase viewership. Although, making inroads into the already overcrowded Let’s Play market would probably be difficult. I do think that SW brings more to the table than most.

  30. Deadyawn says:

    Hmm. A linear but relatively short game with a survival horror elements. *thinks back to bioshock, asscreed 2 and amnesia*
    umm…I don’t know guys. This doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. I’ll still watch it but I get the feeling this is going to end in tears.

    1. Raygereio says:

      Erm, what?
      -Bioshock season only turned sour at the very end when there was just nothing to comment on.
      -Amnesia was a one-shot video and I don’t recall it ending in tears.
      -AC2 does not have survival horror elements. Not even a hint of them. And the season itself was plagued with issues like people not being interested in the game or not knowing anything about it.

      1. Hitch says:

        Bioshock was going great up until SW: episode 10 – Fore. Or as most people refer to it, the “Would you kindly?” moment. Then the developers decided the game wasn’t long enough and tacked on pointless nonsense that broke the cast’s commentary and they couldn’t say anything nice about a game that at least some of them wanted to praise.

        1. Sumanai says:

          Due to your post I ended up having a Fridge Logic moment regarding that scene in the game and Vita-Chambers. Now I can’t stop feeling bothered by it.

      2. littlefinger says:

        I donno about you but ‘Its-a me, Mario’ had me running for the hills. Gods

  31. silentlambda says:

    Now here’s a reason to finally get around to Alan Wake! It seems like the kind of game that can scratch my Silent Hill itch in a way the newer Silent Hills can’t. Now to cross my fingers for a Steam Sale.

  32. Lalaland says:

    I’m going to enjoy this season, I have never played a game where I liked the player character less, he just seemed so damn whiny and unappreciative that I giggled every time he died. You could feel there was at one time going to be a lot more going on with this game but the mighty budget machete had it’s way with the game and produced a ho-hum title that only managed tension via the awesome audio design.

    Grand ambition with above average execution leads to meh game for me, here’s hoping there’s someone else on the SW crew who found Wake as intolerable as I did.

    1. Michael says:

      “Grand ambition with above average execution leads to meh game for me…”

      Above average execution of grand ambitions produces an ‘okay’ game? You have extremely high standards, sir.

      1. Lalaland says:

        Damn too much hyperbole in my posts!

        I mangled my meaning, I liked the idea I read about in those early previews when it was a demo for Intel’s then new ‘dual core’ technology. Then it was to be more open plan and sounded a bit like Silent Hill 2 but with less linearity. What was delivered was a serviceable shooter with some really nice sound design.

        It never delivered on the creepy Silent Hill atmosphere I’d been hoping for yet for a linear game each non-forest area felt less like a ‘new level’ with deep interesting locales instead they had the shallow feel of areas designed for a more open world.

        I guess what I’m trying to say is they were interesting but they felt more like the towns in Red Dead Redemption to me than those in Silent Hill. It felt as if the tasks I did there were substantial enough for an open world game but too insubstantial for a linear game when I knew I was off to trudge through yet more forest in a few scant minutes.

        1. Michael says:

          Oh! Gotcha.

        2. Klay F. says:

          I have an issue with what you’re saying. You expected “The Silent Hill Feeling”. I never understood why people ever expected the game to be like Silent Hill. The first two words in the game are “Stephen King”, that should give all the clues anyone should need. The game is trying to ape a Stephen King novel in videogame form. King himself is very good at producing tension, but a horror writer he is not. As such the game is a thriller story, not horror, and I don’t understand how anyone could mistake it for such.

          1. Shamus says:

            Heh. You make it sound like these concepts are well-understood. Heck, most game DESIGNERS don’t seem to understand what they’re trying to accomplish with their scary-type game. Technically Amnesia and the Resident Evil Zombie Comedy Hour both fall into the same “genre”, which is like having Mass Effect and Space Quest in the same genre.

            I think the whole survival horror genre is a mess. It’s like the term “RPG” – it means a dozen things to a dozen people, and everyone comes in with different expectations.

            1. Sumanai says:

              So you’re saying that my impression that survival horror is a game where you’re supposed to survive on a deserted island while ghosts come bug you in the night is not universal? I don’t believe you.

            2. JPH says:

              I got really pissed when I bought the Indie Fright Pack on a Steam Christmas sale and found that half of the games were just generic action games with zombies.

              1. Sumanai says:

                I think I’ve bought two Indie X Packs and neither had an accurate title. Neither was the Fright pack either.

  33. hardband says:

    I like how the title is questions, yet their is only one question xD

  34. LunaticFringe says:

    I enjoyed Alan Wake mainly for a purely meta reason: constantly mocking his inter monologue while playing.

  35. MikeH says:

    As to Monetizing Spoiler Warning, have you considered a bidding system, where in the fans basically compete via donations and you pick the games you play out of the pool of suggestions? SF Debris works on a similar system from what I understand.

  36. Astor says:

    So we’ll never get Bloodlines or Alpha Protocol…

  37. Ellery says:

    Looking forward to Alan Wake… I would love to see you guys give Jade Empire the full treatment. We know Shamus enjoyed the writing in the game. Just a thought cause I have been playing through it again recently and loving it still!

    1. Bubble181 says:

      JE is actually one of the few RPGs of the era I missed out on. I know the story; is it still playable (UI-wise and such)?
      Some older games manages to still be fun, others have UIs that are jsut too dated for me to still enjoy…And age doesn’t really have much to do with it.

      1. Dragomok says:

        Yes, it is perfectly playable.
        It goes on my Win 7 without much fuss, is compatible even with quite old gaming pads and has a launcher that lets you change both screen resolution and refresh rate. (FYI if you’re left-handed: sadly, it doesn’t detect Windows’ mouse button swap.)
        UI (outside the menus) is minimal and the in-game menu itself is pretty convenient, albeit it really shows that it was designed for pad. You don’t have to use it much, though.

  38. scowdich says:

    I’m honestly most looking forward to what the team have to say about the product placement in the game.
    I, in particular, loved the instance near the beginning where Wake’s Lincoln MkX (with built-in Microsoft Sync system!) is prominently displayed, and then not two scenes later, it’s crashed into a guardrail and falls off a cliff. That sort of thing gave me the definite sense that the developers weren’t very happy about the in-game advertising.

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