T w e n t y S i d e d
We’re actually getting to some of the more fun stuff now, and the next few episodes should contain 33% less bile! Also, I’d like to remind viewers that you shouldn’t try to extrapolate the severity of a complaint by how long we spend talking about it. Sometimes we’ll barely mention something major. Sometimes we’ll blow seven minutes talking about something really trivial. We don’t plan these conversations out ahead of time. We just go where they take us.
I think we’re starting to feel a little Fallout 3 fatigue. Not dire by any means, but it’s clear this series isn’t going to remain entertaining through the rest of the plot and all four remaining DLC packs. I know I don’t want to spend the next three months dumping on this game [even more].
We’ve been kicking around ideas of what to do next. It’s got to be a PC title, and it has to be something we’ve all played. I think we’ve taken Dragon Age off the table, simply due to the length and combat density. Dragon Age would probably take over 30 hours to beat, even without sidequests. That’s almost eight months of episodes, and most of them would be nothing but fighting Darkspawn. That’s fun when you’re playing, but less so when you’re watching, and much less so when you’re trying to fill the time with commentary. I think we’d basically devolve into a generalized gaming podcast with an unrelated video feed in the background.
Mass Effect 2 is obviously on our list, but I’m against doing it next. I’d like to do one more game between Fallout 3 and Mass Effect 2.
I also thought it might be interesting to do something old and beloved. We had to dismiss Deus Ex because not all of us have played it, but I’d like to do a game like that at some point. I love that game, but I’m sure I’d nitpick it just as much as poor Fallout 3 here. It’s just in my nature.
There are actually a lot of requirements for picking a good game for this series:
1) Needs to be PC, due to our setup.
2) Needs to run reasonably well. So crappy unstable ports likes GTA IV and Saint’s Row 2 are right out.
3) Needs to have a good story / conversation density. Anything that regularly gives you a half hour of unbroken combat is right out. (Special exceptions could be made for games with lots of varied exploration or puzzles.)
4) Needs to be fully voiced or come in a LARGE PRINT EDITION, because small text and video compression go together like swimming and cinderblocks.
5) Needs to be lit well enough to survive video compression without turning to mush. Which means dark corridor shooters like Quake 4 and Doom 3 are out. I’d have a ton to say about those games tech-wise, but it would probably be better to save that for some sort of standalone video.
6) Needs to be something we’ve all played.
Ideas we’ve kicked around:
* Half-Life 2
* Oblivion
* Jade Empire
* Deus Ex
* KOTOR
* Dragon Age
* Mass Effect 2
* Alpha Protocol
* BioShock (And you think I’m hard on Fallout? System Shock is my sacred cow. BioShock is to me what Fallout 3 is to Krellen. People say we’ve been petty and unfair to FO3? I promise I would be relentlessly petty, unfair, and unreasonable with this game.)
* Assassin’s Creed
Go ahead and nominate games if you like. It will have no bearing whatsoever on our decision, but it’s a fun way to fill the time.
EDIT: Added a couple of games that we’d discussed.
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Jade Empire!!
And may I suggest that as an additional requirement, the game should have some degree of freedom in either the story or the gameplay (which would disqualify Half Life 2) so that you have the potential to play the game differently than most people. I do enjoy many of the randomly cruel and absurd acts that are performed for our entertainment.
Edit: Other suggestions include Assassin’s Creed or perhaps Bioshock, though the latter may be too linear.
“Playing games differently than others”? Are you perhaps referring to things like Josh putting a grenade in Three Dogs pocket? (I laughed so hard at that, I had to pause the video for a few minutes to teach myself how to breathe properly again)
Yes! Exactly!
Also robbing the Brotherhood of Steel blind!
Also playing chicken in the Mako with Colossusses…Colossuses…Colossi… more than one Colossus!
Alpha Protocol
It’s good enough to keep all of us entertained until the end, AND offers more than enough stuff to talk about, be it parts of the storyline, some design-flaws, or simply the setting and moral choices.
Plus, you get to be a dickhead of you want to, which is always a plus…
It isn’t all that long, too.
I’d like to see Alpha Protocol too. Heard fairly poor reviews, but it still sounds intesting.
Oh, and an old one for your thoughts – Beyond Good and Evil (one I’ve heard good things about, got the game, but still haven’t um actually installed it…).
Another vote for Alpha Protocol, it really seems perfect for the three of you to play through and it would be great to see it disected in a non-review format (I feel many reviews sold it short on a lot of it’s great aspects.)
Chock another vote up for Alpha Protocol. I admit this is motivated entirely by self-interest, as everything I’ve heard about it suggests it’s rather polarizing; you either love it or hate it. I’d like to see it first hand and hear what the Spoiler Warning crew think about it.
Others I would also be interested in would be Bioshock, because it’s about time someone knocked this false god off it pedestal, or Jade Empire simply for the obscurity factor.
Yes. That’s right.
If you like good games, you’ll hate it.
+1 for AP.
Just played it, loved it. Saw the flaws, will make for interesting talky.
Another +1 for AP. Seems like it should be a good fit.
(I loved the game, but I can see why people who came at it with the wrong attitude might not like it.)
I say you go Oblivion, and you mod the helluvit to make it As Fun As Possible ™.
Otherwise, yhea, why not go Jade Empire? Short but to the point.
Another vote for Jade Empire
Deus Ex would be a good one. Its a great game but it also has huge potential for mocking.
Seconding Deus Ex, just because it seems like such a sacred cow to “other people” without too many vocally actually claiming it as their favorite. We can alternate the ones that cause butthurt that way…
I dread to imagine what the comments would look like. The story in DX is such a convoluted web to analyse, my head starts spinning by the time 2nd conspiracy pops up.
Make that another vote for Deus Ex. I know the game isn’t without flaws, but I loved it enough that your thoughts on it would probably be entertaining.
Plus, more exposure of a classic is never a bad thing.
I know you mention that not all of you have played Deus Ex, and it is a bit dark in some places. Despite that, I will vote also for Deus Ex. It’s a game I have played almost annually since it was released. There’s a minor patch somewhere (I have it on my computer) for running it on XP, which would hopefully keep compatibility if you’re on Vista/7 too.
I’d go so far as to say that Deus Ex should be the next game *because* not all of you have played it. As long as the person actually holding the controls knows what he’s doing, there’s bound to be some entertainment to be had in hearing the reactions of someone being exposed to it for the first time.
NOT Oblivion, please. If you play it modded, it is more or less a useless review, then, as mods can range from anything to anything. Also, it is too large for such a video – it is bigger than Fallout 3!
Of the rest of the proposed ones, KOTOR seems interesting, but may be too old. Half-Life 2 – that would be perfect, actually, I’d love to hear what you guys have to say on it, and it’d give a nice 10/15 or so episodes, so you could go through to the end. I hate it when you leave a game hanging, even if it is the only sane option. Jade Empire- perhaps.
Then again, I reckon we (audience) can trust you not to pick Oblivion – which is so very much similar to Fallout 3.
Out of interest, how many more episodes are you doing for F3? I’d be willing to be bet that a lot of viewers are getting tired of this game too…
Well, nothing is set, but it’s looking like we’ll do the Pitt, then the Main Plot, then Broken Steel. Fin.
That’s still a good six weeks, I’ll wager.
C’mon, do Mothership Zeta. You know you want to. I promise you’ll like it, I promise.
Muskrat.
Yeah, please try to fit in Mothership Zeta.
Nah, not tired of it. The impression I took away from Mass Effect (I’d never played it) was that it was too short to bother with unless it was really cheap. This, at least, is an interesting length.
There is a joke in there somewhere.
Maybe several. :)
Uhh… I just replayed Mass Effect 1, and it took me at least 20-ish hours. I’m not sure if that’s “short”…
I don’t know if it’s a generation thing, but 20 hours, while not quite “short”, does not sound very long. And for an RPG with actual dialogues and choices (plus voice acting! takes longer than reading…), it *is* on the short side.
A playthrough of 40 hours is not unheard of in Mass Effect. If you do everything, go everywhere, collecting all the stuff you can possibly collect, you can definitely get to around 40-45 hours. I know I have a playthrough at about the 42 hour mark….my first one. My subsequent plays have been in the vicinity of 25 hours.
Some games I like to be really long…some are just fine being short. Ghostbusters, for example, was about 6 or 8 hours. It was perfect for the story they told…though I was definitely pissed I paid 60 bucks for it and got a quarter of the game.
I’m doing Batman Arkham Asylum right now. It’s not as short as I was led to believe. I’m sure I’ll have 15-25 hours by the time I’m done…but I’m going through and doing all the Riddler clues and such. I bet I could beat this game in 6-8 hours if I just put my head down and rushed through.
I believe each of my many play-throughs were around 44-45 hours a piece.
Crap, now I feel like I rushed through. Of course, I’ve played it twice before, so I know where stuff is/what to do etc.
I love Mass Effect. Almost as much as Shamus loves System Shock. I took my time every time, exploring everything, doing every side mission. Every time.
I also probably wasted a few hours tooling around in the Mako and stopping to look at some of the amazing vistas many of the planets provide, of course.
Mass Effect 2 was almost as big an upset for me as Fallout 3 was.
It took 20 episodes of Spoiler Warning to get through, or about 10 hours. Maybe the other 10 is inventory management…
I’ve gotten 100+ hours out of Persona 4 so far, and still haven’t finished it. Less than 20% has been shopping and card shuffling.
They cut out at least a good couple hours of inventory management…and they didn’t do any of the many sidequests. There’s way more sidequest than main quest in that game.
They also didn’t do very much of the character dialog, which is something you will burn HOURS on in a full playthrough. That LP was basically just a quick tour of the main quest and the primary cut scenes. I might have enjoyed a more thorough playthrough but I think it would have gotten horribly dull after a while.
Another vote for Jade Empire, here. That looked like an interesting game, and I started it a couple of times, but I couldn’t get into the combat enough to make it more than a couple of hours in, so I’d be interested to see the rest of the story.
Dwarf Fortress! Original Eye of the Beholder!
Ooh.. Thief. The original one.
Good crap dude!
Imagine Dwarf fortress with video compression. It is the stuff of nightmares.
I second this because I have never had a chance to play this game. I hear amazing things about it.
How about Torchlight for it riveting and complex storyline… :D
Or Thief 2. Either one would be great, if the lighting could be adjusted properly!
Mass Effect 2 and Oblivion are out for the moment, they’re too similar to Mass Effect and Fallout 3. I vote Alpha Protocol or Bioshock.
Jade Empire! It’s reasonably quick, pretty, and you can do terrible things to people should you choose.
I'm curious, why does it have to be a game all the commentators have played before? Generally it isn't that entertaining to watch a LP of a blind run, so saying the person playing the game needs to know it, I can understand. However I've seen several LP's where there where people commenting in it that didn't know left from right in the game and it was still entertaining to watch (and in my experiences these are generally the more informative kind of LP).
A question about Mass Effect 2. Will you also do the DLC? I'm not talking about the crappy new texture pack for your teammates, but stuff like Overlord and Kasumi; they actually have somewhat decent gameplay while still providing ample opportunities for bitching and mockery.
Deus Ex could be fun as there are plenty of chances for mockery and fun in it. Stealth games are hard to LP as there’s generally a lot of waiting and periods of nothign happening involved, but you can play Deus Ex ‘running ‘n gunning’ style and as an added bonus that means you can also do Invisible War. While I actually like that game (I’m sure at least one fanboy died a little when he read that line), I'll be the first to admit that it's story, setting and the motivation of the characters make no frigging sense; it's probably a worse sequel in that regard then Fallout 3.
That said, I don't care what game it is, as long as you guys keep providing me with free entertainment.
I second the “is has been played by all commentators a requirement”? When you guys were playing OA I liked it when you got impressions from Rutskarn (I think) who hasn’t played this one earlier. In fact I think a commentator who’s not familiar with the game could work well as the “advocatus diaboli” since some of the nonsense only becomes obvious when you analyse the game more in depth. Or the exact opposite, you could do stuff like you did with that “evil” outcast and point out that some suppose plot twists are perfectly transparent on the first playthrough. On the other hand I don’t know how the “new” guy, whichever of you would that be, would feel about it, particularly since he’d have the game ruined for him.
ME2, Oblivion, and DE would seem to be ruled out immediately. I know I would enjoy hearing you eviscerate Bioshock. I also think I would laugh myself silly at Josh and his STOP SHOOTING ME in HL2.
I would say Bioshock, KOTOR, or HL2.
Seeing as though I’m watching these videos specifically for the bile-spewing, I say Bioshock could be enjoyable.
I don’t know if it’s doable (because of the “Needs to be lit well enough” clause), but i’d love to see Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines as the next Spoiler Warning game.
If that’s not possible, count this as a vote for Bioshock.
VtM: Bloodlines would be interesting, but I don´t know if it has enough potential for this kind of LP. It has sloppy combat, bugs, and turns stupid around the end, but there are not much stupid dialogue or story mistakes to take on.
I second Bioshock as a choice, though it´s sort of dark, even if only to go latter to Bioshock 2 (which has a lot more stupidity).
I’m not sure Shamus has played through it yet anyway.
If he hasn’t, he needs to. This game is the patron god of RPGs with good dialog, until toward the end anyway. It would be pretty cool to see Shamus and Co. play through with a diplomatic/speech based character, or a Malkavian. You can fix most of the combat problems with mods too.
Yeah, FO3 starts to wear out its welcome.
I say go with Oblivion, bashing Bethesda and seeing you guys suffer never gets old. I also want to learn about the mudcrabs, I think its a delicacy or something.
Maybe play Just Cause or something. Just throwing it out there. Ooh ooh do STALKER! Clear Sky!
Or if you want Xtreme deconstruction do Xenus 2 or Precursors, if they arent too obscure for you.
Just Cause is an interesting idea, but I think it might be too heavy on the faffing about aspect. You spend a lot of time in that game doing jack all.
Deus Ex!
I vote for KOTOR!
It’s got the right rhythm for one of your playthroughs.
Don’t discount console games, though…your setup could absolutely accomodate one. You’d just have to have a video capture card in the PC of whomever is playing. You can usually do the video capture directly through the card, so you’d eliminate FRAPS from the mix right off the back, and you could livestream a capture window just as easily as a game.
It’s maybe a 50-100 dollar investment, though I’m at a loss to recommend a good capture card for gaming these days. I use an ancient one…all the newer ones I’ve seen all have a very annoying buffer lag, but I’m certain that you could A) use a splitter and capture the video on PC and actually view it realtime on another screen or B) find a card that doesn’t have that lag issue
I would love to see you guys go up against a console game. Something like Ghostbusters or Crackdown where you could cover the whole game in pretty much just a few episodes.
I’ve got to vote for Half Life 2. I love that game too much not to see it torn apart in a humorous fashion. I practically come here just to see games I love scrutinized.
Oblivion’s out because a) half the stuff you say here also apply to Oblivion and b) more inventory management! yay!
Deus Ex would be fun as well. So many interesting ways to do things, and so many options to make fun of it, especially in terms of the voice acting.
Two that weren’t mentioned are Dark Messiah and Vampire: Bloodlines. DM has a lot of really cool gameplay concepts, but a lot of really poorly executed ideas, mainly relating to story. Vampire Bloodlines is the kind of thing that’s fascinating to watch even if you aren’t playing it. Though it could be fairly glitchy without one of the (competing) unofficial patches.
Rutskarn’s actually already starting a solo LP of Dark Messiah over at his blog.
I’m not really sure if this is within the realm of possibilities, but I suggest Dreamfall:The Longest Journey even despite the ending that made me want to kill someone. If not, I’ll just content myself with whatever you feel is good.
Also, thanks for doing these, brightens up my day no end :D
I know I’m a bit late, but you inspired me to do a replay of Fallout 3 (going evil. Never done that before).
I noticed that when you talk to Stanley in Vault101 he actually talks about how hard it is to get the pipboys off people’s arms (especially the old ones), soooo I guess that explains the anchorage thingie.
As for the whole water plot-hole… I always imagined that purifying water was easy, but James wanted to purify the whole basin so that they could start farming and bring the land to life again and such…
Oh and, I really enjoyed these :D I definately think that Oblivion or Deus Ex would be much better choices ’cause they’re the same kind of “open world” RPGs :)
Oh, on the topic of The Pitt: This is my second favourite DLC of the bunch. It confuses black and grey morality for “choice where you don’t really like either party” and there’s the fetch quest thing, but it’s really well designed.
I have but one request: Get ingots, trade for guns, Kill Every slaver you see. In my latest playthrough I actually did that and murdered every slaver in the Pitt wherever I found them, even though I wasn’t supposed to be able to. It’s hillarious to have a dialogue with Ashur and tell him you want to join up after exterminating his entire ‘staff’.
It required a lot of quicksaving and ammo rationing though so I imagine it’d be difficult to pull off in this kind of setting.
Though it made me wonder what kind of operation the guy was running where he gave out power armor and assault rifles to slaves. He was practically asking for it.
I hate how the writers decided the player should be introduced into the city (which will be aparent in the next episode). The rest is, I agree, quite good. The ingot thing was too mmorpg-ish to me, however, and the way the slavers promote slaves to henchmen is just stupid.
Vote for JADE here
Alpha Protocol all the way.
Dare one suggest that these videos need not be quite so completest as you’ve been. Long stretches of running across the wasteland, fighting bloatflies and raiders (with digressions about other games you’re not playing) could easily be edited out once we’ve seen that sort of thing. Just a title card like “We went to Rivet City, picked up a quest, and now we’ve made our way to the action.”
That would seriously cut down on the number of episodes required and open up more games as possibilities. I doubt many viewers would complain. (Oh, who am I kidding? But some people will complain about anything.)
I posted this comment between reading the post and watching the video.
Yeah, that sort of thing.
At least promise you’ll badmouth the other DLCs then.
Nothing does more to unbalance the game than going to Mothership Zeta right out of Vault 101.
Almost unlimited uber-energy weapons early in the game – yaaaaay.
So, “whiskey withdrawal”? Wouldn’t that just be alkohol withdrawal? Did you get specifically addicted to just whiskey?
In Fallout 3 addictions are like that.
In Fallout, you get addicted to the taste, not the ingredients, I guess?
Although, as far as I can tell, you can stave off “whiskey withdrawal” with beer, so I guess it works just as well. Though I’m pretty sure you can’t become addicted to alcohol after drinking two bottles of whiskey…
Or three beers…
Not everyone can, but it’s certainly possible. Some people are just alcoholics in their blood, so to speak.
Portal!
That was my reaction too. Portal might not be long enough to fill the time you wanted before Mass Effect 2, but it is otherwise perfect.
Failing that, Jade Empire, as I think I might want to play it sometime and seeing a playthrough would tell me for sure.
Jade Empire is so perfect for this.
The high contrast colors will generally still look good post compression, and most of the game is cheerily well lit.
Plus, the combat is a joy just to watch, and you can get away with being really stupid with your skill points, for a laugh.
I would have to advise against the White Demon style though. It’s a powerful school, but it doesn’t look as cool as, say, Raging Tiger style (The two basic schools that I really used on my play-through).
I’m sure that in my time with that game I saw less than a third of the content, even though I beat it, and then started a character on the opposite alignment.
I’m not sure there’s really a terrible skill distribution in Jade Empire, unless you put everything into upping chi damage and then never use it.
Now, refusing to use spirit thief would make things challenging.
You can dump all your skill points into Toad Demon Style and Drunken Boxing, without ever using them, and the Final boss will still be beatable. They just don’t make that big of a difference, unless you put them into a weapon style, or an ally with a buff or recovery ability.
Bumping your base stats is a little more important, since if you dump everything into Mind, you wont get any HP (only Body and Soul raise HP). However, most things that raise Mind significantly will also provide a minor bump to one of the other two, and you’ll have huge piles of Ki and Focus. So long as you don’t avoid silver like it’s contact poison, you should do fine.
Making style specialization largely irrelevant was a great move for this game, since it doesn’t punish the player for using all the different fighting styles you collect over the course of the game. You don’t get Jade Golem until near the end, so you can’t invest much in it, but it’s still one of the best things for crushing slow moving targets.
That’s what would keep the combat sections from getting stale, as there could be lively debates over what style to use at various times, and discussion on the pros and cons of each.
Put me down as another vote for Jade Empire. I think from a visual and story perspective it lends itself really well to this format, and I’ve been wanting to see it again, ever since I lost my old copy.
Pretty much anything made by Bioware would be pretty good pickings, it seems. I wouldn’t mind a Neverwinter Nights playthrough – although that might have problems with lack of voice. There’s also the Sands of Time trilogy, if that doesn’t count as a crappy port (it may, but I haven’t had any trouble with them yet). Besides those, Max Payne might be good, but I’ve had trouble getting some of the sound working.
Also, what about The Witcher?
Nah, the Witcher wouldn’t be all that fun to watch due to compression – it is basically same tech as NWN 2..
Definitely Bioshock. I want to hear you rip into that motherfucker.
Same here for two reasons:
I’ve never played Bioshock and SS2 is my sacred cow of the series.
My votes go to Half Life 2 and KOTOR – both are amazing games and would be very enjoyable to see you and your cohorts go through.
As a suggestion, I think it’d be hilarious to see you guys go through the first Halo game. The commentary and criticism would be non-stop, not to mention the traffic you’d get from the Halo fan boys. It’s a win-win!
When I read “something old and beloved” I could only think about Psychonauts.
Otherwise, I would love to see Assassin’s Creed. I know it has already been beaten to death, but the plot holes are so insulting that it just deserves any beating it can get.
There was no “cure” thing in ME1, but there was in 2 (Mordin’s acquisition quest).
I am voting for KotOR!
BioShock. No question. That game cannot be crucified enough, and it has rampant, idiotic fanboys I can destroy in the comments. Endless entertainment!.
I like how you think!
Bioshock it is, then. Start rolling!
Really, I don’t think BioShock is a horrible game. It has some very good ideas, great atmosphere, etc. It’s just kind of a mess from a gameplay perspective, though, and the poor PC port, cash-in sequel and fans who are convinced it’s some sort of masterpiece because it makes allusions to philosophy that have left a bad taste in my mouth. There are far worse games out there. The reason I’d like to see it torn to shreds is because of how much undeserved praise it gets, simply because it’s just a bit smarter than most shooters. The delusion needs to be shattered.
The thing is, BioShock isn’t smarter than most shooters; it just has naueseating pretentions that it is. It is the epitome of pseudo-intellectualism.
You’re right though, the delusion does need to be shattered. I’d be able to do a good job of it. But would I be entertaining enough for a LP…?
Wait, Bioschock is a Shooter? Because to me it felt like it had the worst shooting mechanisms in a FPS to date. I mainly just used the wrench and the gene tonics, at least when not fighting the big daddies or some boss, and even then i would only use the shotgun or grenade launcher. The Machine-gun was horrible to shoot as it would become a total spray of bullets after the first two shoots, and the crowbar was not good enough as i didn’t saw enough moments to actually put it to good use…
First Person Camera + Point´n´click stuff with your mouse to deal damage: That´s the essence of shooters, even if your character shoots burst of fire and lighting instead of bullets or hits people with a wrench.
Also, being a bad shooter doesn´t make it not a shooter.
I love being infamous.
I’d vote for Deus Ex if pressed to pick just one, mainly because I want to see what all the fuss is about (I haven’t played it.)
Jade Empire and Bioshock would also qualify by this criteria (and Bioshock would have the bonus of really annoyed Shamus, which is bound to be great.)
My vote goes for Oblivion – though I’d like to see Shivering Isles included, and I don’t know how long are you willing to play the game, especially right after this one. If you’d consider a longer run more feasible later in the series, go for something else first.
I find it amusing that you’re deliberately looking for a fully voiced game after the complaints, or at least one with large, console-like text. Of course, Morrowind would have the other problem of Rutskarn developing a split personality.
As for this episode: The Mysterious Stranger is quite badass. Even more so if you get your hands on his gun (console). You see, it’s absolute overkill to fire that gun even once. According to The Vault, every hit is critical, and that means about 50% more damage than the MIRV. Yet he empties the cylinder, every time.
My fear is that Oblivion is just so huge, repetitive and boring a game to play through the main story of, it’d get really old really fast for the viewers. Fallout 3 at least has a story and universe you can tear apart for its holes and inconsistencies… Oblivion is just a mindless series of fetch quests and big monsters to kill, with some generic fantasy tripe filling the gaps.
It could get old, but that depends on the quests chosen. They could infinitely put off the main quest for laughs (Next episode, we’ll fetch Martin! Promise!) and do side quests, maybe Shivering Isles. I can definitely see how this kind of a character (random thievery & evilness) would have fun with Glarthir, the Dark Brotherhood and some of the crazier Daedric quests.
I’m very tempted to change my vote (as if it would matter…ha!) from Jade Empire to Bioshock, just to witness it’s complete evisceration by Shamus. But ultimately I think Jade Empire would work better…has a bit more freedom and choices.
I’d suggets putting off Oblivion for the same reason you put off ME2. Jade Empire or Alpha Protocol would be nice, but what’s the problem with one of the Prince of Persia games?
Prince of Persia is cool, but doesn’t have much in the way of story or universe to dissect. One of those “I’d rather play it than watch it being played” games.
I would prefer seeing some fantasy setting for a chance, we have already seen you play through two sci-fi shooters. Since Oblivion sounds like too similar of a GAME to Fallout, I vote for Jade Empire.
Jade Empire, please! We need color and kung-fu after two series of grey sci-fi gunfighting.
I don’t really watch these because I read your blog at work, and can’t commit a half hour to watch :). But if you did Deus Ex, I’d definitely find the time. Love that game!
Overlord! You with me!? No? Damn. Bioshock then.
Overlord doesn´t take itself seriously (until certain part), so I don´t think it´s suitable to a this kind of LP. After all, it´s not fun to make fun of someone who´s making fun of itself!
I agree, Overlord is great but it’s the kind of game that’s fun to play and not so fun to watch.
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines or The Witcher if you want to do something more modern. If you want to go more “old skool” then Anachronox or Deus Ex.
Another thought would be to do a “jump the shark” episode where you would do like Marvel/DC did with there crossovers, throw in some Let’s Play with Cahmel(from Chocolate Hammer).
Quick thought Freedom Force
I’d like to see them do the witcher. Particularly if they tried to stay celibate, as when I played I know I ended up accidentally sleeping with someone.
Oh man, I didn’t even think of it. The Witcher would be perfect. I’m pretty sure I must have been lobotomized for awhile because I remember the first time I played it I really enjoyed it, the second time? Not so much. The concept is sort of cool if overdone and the storyline is alright, but it’s just so… so… smarmy.
Plus you play a guy who alternatively comes off either as a huge pervert or a huge douche. Sometimes both at once.
Also I’m pretty sure a majority of the quests were variations on getting doors open…
Your not even considering any of the old jedi games? …
The Witcher definitely gets my second/runner-up vote. It’s a fantastic RPG and deserves all the success it gets, even with its flaws.
Thief seconded.
Assassins Creed because its pretty, fun… and totally ludicrous as soon as you start looking at the plot, characters, NPC reactions… or essentially any aspect of the game. Its so mockable that it might be hard not to just repeat the obvious, would be the only difficulty.
Sands of Time?
I think I find your constant whining of things I don’t care about on these annoying… I’d rather see you rip on a game for things that are universally annoying.
I think the problem is that you had no problem with the main quest of ME, while did with the sidequests. So your rants didn’t repeat themselves. Complaining about the main quest, dad, dialogue…. It’s all getting repetitive, and I personally didn’t have a problem with any of these issues.
Starting with the voice acting in Fable 1. Combat that’s enjoyable to watch, keeps the RPG format, and every other episode you can whine about Peter Molyneux.
I don’t think I’d watch a Bioshock spoiler warning, purely for the fact that it is the single best game I’ve ever played and even going back to it for a second time has me apprehensive to go around every corner. It’d just be 12 episodes of you complaining about the lack of customisation, ruining the fantastic atmosphere the game creates.
Fallout/Fallout2/Jagged Alliance 2
Yes, they are old, but they are pure gold and I’d love to hear the comments on them :D
There’s a problem. THOSE GAMES ARE LONG
Unless they did a crazy rabbit playthrough skipping a LOT of content and levelling.
2nd problem:
The text is super small so that the other two wouldn’t be able to read along with the player.
@Greg:
true, but the fast-travel-system is lot quicker, so it would be boiled down to quests and fights (if they choose to take a fighter).
Thinking about it I have to agree that JA2 is too long…
@Punk:
remember those games run at 800×600, so while it might look horrible, the others screenresolutions can be changed to display it “clearly”
Those are better games, of course, but they don´t have voice acting. Before you accuse me of being the son of some mamal (which I am, now that I think of it), let me explain why voice acting is important in a video LP. It is so that the dialogue lines flow naturally. Most voice acted games make the dialogue continue after they stop speaking. Fallout Originals don´t have this advantage, as noted. They would be better for a pure “screenshot” LP. This lack would make Josh/whomever plays “guess” when the audience has finished reading the dialogue. In turn, this will make the experience a bit… sloppy. Voice acting takes away this problem by “taking over”.
I don’t think it’s particularly important to have voice-acting for a video LP. After all, they talk over the dialog as it is now anyway.
I would like to see Jade Empire, because I haven’t played it, but I hear it’s like KOTOR, or KOTOR, just because I love it.
Alpha Protocol and Bioshock would be nothing but whining, although a commentary on the blatantly unsubtle commentary on Objectivism would be interesting.
I’ll throw out another vote for Jade Empire, because it is awesome and beautiful and sadly underappreciated and has some really stupid moments as well.
Though, to be honest, I’m kind of curious what you guys could do with a game like, say, Civilization IV.
I’d love to see Alpha Protocol, it seems a lot of reviewers don’t like it but. Heck even Yahtzee didn’t really bash the game that much.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1801-Alpha-Protocol
Alpha Protocol has a certain cheese factor, and you can play a total ass pissing off everyone (with consequences as Yahtzee noticed as well).
KOTOR and Deus Ex are two great games but are getting old and Deus Ex look really bad unless you get the new community rendered and update all textures and so on. A game like Alpha Protocol on the other hand is more recent technologically speaking, it’s a very mixed review title, it’s both good and bad.
In a way there is a slight NOLF and NOLF2 feel to Alpha Protocol (aka cheesy agent factor), not sure if that is intentional all the time or not.
Alpha Protocol is unfortunately one of those games where a few more months of polish and a little larger budget maybe could have made the game a classic.
Oh and guys, Alpha Protocol takes place in the present day rather than the far future (Mass Effect) or apocalyptic future (Fallout).
So it’ll also be a nice “theme” change and hopefully scenery change as well.
“Oh and guys, Alpha Protocol takes place in the present day rather than the far future (Mass Effect) or apocalyptic future (Fallout).
So it'll also be a nice “theme” change and hopefully scenery change as well.”
It’s also been out for less than a month. Let’s go with a game that’s had a little time to breath.
I’m torn between Bioshock and Jade Empire.
Why does it need to be fully voiced? Not hearing the dialogue in ME didn’t really matter.
In which case Fable is eminently mockable.
I for one would like to see a KOTOR run, followed by KOTOR 2.
…or Contra.
Or Tetris!
Space Invaders! That way, we can have Josh say “Stop shooting me!” every level!
Or System Shock! Shamus loves it so the nit picking would triple at least!
But that won’t happen so I vote for a KOTOR LP. My computer couldn’t run it (too buggy), so I want to actually be able to see the whole game.
Possibly SS2 instead of SS.
It is not the sacred cow that is SS, but yet it has nearly the same playstyle except as noted:
SS has a superior hacking and lockpicking system.
SS2 has a superior “crafting” system.
Both are spooky and atmospheric, but SS2 has “better” graphics and (I think) has larger text.
But I’m still voting for Bioshock.
Plus System Shock 2 has good multiplayer, that you could string over a Hamachi network, and they could all play at once.
Plus, in Multiplayer, you get infinite lives (the players re-spawn at the zone point, so your death doesn’t drag the team down.) No need to backload multiple times of the tricky part with the exploding robots, and the game practically makes fun of itself, what with regeneration pods becoming something you avoid (they cost money, why use them if you can respawn for free).
There’s some added weirdness in multiplayer, that deserves some scorn of it’s own, too. The ghosts behave very weirdly in a lot of places, because they aren’t always synchronized. It’s hard to get worked up about the vision you’re having when the other guy had it 10 seconds ago.
Trouble is, there’s no legally licensed codec for it’s cutscenes that runs on a modern OS, and the fan-made ones are really buggy. I used to have one that displayed them all upside down (which might actually be an improvement.).
+1 for Contra.
that game was the BEST.
Halflife 2, KOTOR or Alpha Protocol get my vote
Actually, Vampire: The Masquerade would be awesome. It has one of the best level designs ever (Those who have played the game know what I’m talking about)
And if you choose to be a Mand…valk… the crazy one you get all kindsa weird experiences :D
I love the game, but I wonder if it is very suitable for a series like this. For starters, the person actually playing the game would be too busy concentrating to be able to speak up very often.
Do Pacman!
Sabotour may be a good candidate: A good game with grteat concepts but also with oh so many flaws.
“Stop eating me!”
I’m going to vote for Assassin’s Creed.
From what I see, you want a storyline which is fun to mock, a game that can elicit fun technical commentaries, and a possibility for extreme bugs.
Assassin’s Creed seems like the best for it. Although it is quite repetitive, there is always something that you guys can comment on, and like some of the better LPs, it’s an example where the game is improved by the commentary.
The other games seem to be too competent for it in some cases and just too similar to what you’ve been doing so far in others.
I’d be really interested to see a playthrough of Jade Empire — your personal series on it was a great read, and made me intrigued to see it played, even if I couldn’t play it myself. You would, of course, be playing the entire time paying close attention to the actions of the traitorous master, and it would be a big commitment; you simply couldn’t end before the betrayal and final conflict at the end.
Something a wee bit different.
I have question. What mods for the pipboy does josh use?
I mean the things like multiple weapons and so.
Sorry if this was previously asked and answered.
Kotor, Nolf 2 or jedi academy could be fun games for a playthrough.
But Shamus if you want to spew a lot of bile on Bioshock just take Bioshock 2. It is more bileworthy.
Do you mean how he binds weapons to different numbers? That’s not a mod, you just have to hold down a numerical key and select the weapon you want bound to it.
jade empire! +1
My vote’s for BioShock or HL 2. I greatly enjoyed BioShock and didn’t play System Shock, so I’d love to see what your complaints are.
Same with FO3. I’ve never played 1/2, but I enjoyed 3 greatly.
PC version of the original Fable would be my pick for you guys if you’ve all played it. Too bad the second one never came out on the PC because I’m pretty sure Shamus’ brain would burrow right outta his head to escape having to go through the main storyline again.
If not, then I’ll add my voice for Jade Empire more than anything because it’d be a nice change from all of this brooooown.
Also you can’t get an eyepatch. More than anything I wanted an eyepatch and there is just no way to get one; other people in the wasteland have them, but you can’t!
Yeah, as I said below the first Fable is my choice.
I’d recommend The Lost Chapters if possible. Not sure if that came out on PC though.
It did.
Oh, well then yeah, Fable the Lost Chapters is my vote.
Granted the idea of hearing Shamus go at Bioshock does sound entertaining.
I’d love to see a Let’s Play of Alpha Protocol. I was pretty excited about the game and its story, but from every review I’ve read, the gameplay itself is pretty awful. I think it’d be sort of a community service, in a way.
From the list; Kotor, Half-Life 2 and Deus Ex would definetly all be interesting, having actually played them..
From others mentioned, one of the Thief series might work as well. Deadly Shadows maybe best, since it’s the worst of the series (imho), but probably easiest to play and it still has some interesting story elements. There’s so much you can gripe about the game mechanics alone, when just compared to T1 & T2 for example.
From the list you posted, I’d want to see “Bioshock” if only because I’m desperate to hear Shamus bitch about it (as I did while I played through it).
If we’re going older, the infinity engine games (BG, IWD, PS:T) all have mods that make the text larger.
However, my choice would be the sublime “Ultima VII: The Black Gate”.
It has a lot of scope for messing around, you can take pretty much anything and it’s not that difficult or that long. You could even do Serpent Isle as well (and the expansions of course).
U7 is one of my favourite games ever, despite it’s flaws. It had a lot of great things about it and people may not have seen it before.
I wouldn’t recommend Jade Empire…
Although the game is REALLY entertaining, I don’t think it’d be all that fun for Spoiler Warning, mainly cause it has a pretty airtight story, with only a few minor things to nitpick. Plus it’d be really hard not to spoil the plot twist at the middle. (And I’m a fanboy of that game and couldn’t stand to have the bad things pointed out)
As an alternative I’d propose the original Fable. The story is bad in an amusing way, it also suffers from Oblivion’s “life-like” artificial world, and is incredibly amusing to break the game, mainly by abusing health potions and the shield spell.
And, as a bonus, you get to make fun of Peter Molyneux’s absurd overhyping of the game.
Or Bioshock! Yea, do that!
Best method of game breaking: kill everyone, buy every house in the game, profit IMMENSELY. I had so much fun with that game.
Bioshock! It has the especial advantage compared to the other titles on the list of being short.
I would love to see you guys do KOTOR 1 or 2.
Of those listed, definitely Bioshock. It’d be interesting to see people taking that game apart, and it’s short enough to not get fatigued over.
Other games I’d suggest, hm. Well, KotOR II is an obvious one.
My money’s on Half-Life 2, or Deus Ex. Thief: Deadly Shadows would probably be better, come to think of it.
Actually, if you want to cover a TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE SEQUEL, you should do Deus Ex: Invisible War.
I think nothing of asking you to subject yourselves to that.
Krellen is our prophet.
He speaks for the believers.
We stand behind him.
Tropes and infamy are all good. I’m not sure how I feel about a cult.
I hear being a cult leader has some nice benefits.
Thus far, I believe most, if not all, of my confirmed followers are male. Unfortunately, I don’t swing that way.
Neither do I; but I could sacrifice a pig, or light candles or something.
If you make bacon, we might have a deal.
Would you settle for a pig with candles? Didn’t think so. Obviously, the enlightened ascended thrice-removed krellen wouldn’t either.
But it would be like getting a gigantically delicious bacon flavored birthday cake. Who could say, no, to that?
If you dislike Bioshock so much because of System Shock, why not just do System Shock? I understand its old, but so what? It’d still be fun to watch you play.
I would TOTALLY do SS2. (System Shock 1 is a 1994 game and has lots of super-tiny text.) Sadly, it’s a monster to get running. Every computer seems to need a different set of hacks and workarounds. Every week our recording sessions are plagued by difficulties with Livestream, Vent, lag, and Fraps. I’d be very hesitant to add a wobbly game to the mix.
But I’d love to do the game. Rather than trashing BioShock, it would be even better to just show people the original so they can see how much depth and freedom was stripped out.
I’ll file this one away as a dream project.
I was going to suggest reviewing an old game. Looks like someone beat me to it. I’d like to hear you heap praise on something like Planescape: Torment as you play. More so you can compare and contrast elements that worked well years ago that got abandoned for [u]no good reason[/u]. I’d like to have a webcast like thrust into faces of developers so they bring back old gameplay into modern games.
I guess I understand the limitations of getting it to work. But if you did get it working, it definitely wouldn’t compete for resources with the streaming or recording software. Definitely worth dreaming about. Indirectly, I guess I would like you to play a game you enjoy, rather than simply trashing one.
Also, Bioshock has gotten enough beatings from this site. I would rather not a repeat of Fallout 3 (repeating the same complaints as I’ve read here). You may be right about Bioshock, but I know that already. So if you pick a game to rip apart, I vote you pick something you haven’t beat up on Twenty Sided.
The fantastic thing about System Shock 2 is that it’s SO old that it can easily be played on a virtual machine with no slowdown. Just set up a virtual Win98 box inside Virtual PC (which is free) and go to town. This is much easier than trying to make it work on a modern operating system.
The Win98 guest OS and game will probably not chew up any more resources than a modern game, so you shouldn’t have any difficulty running your other stuff on top of it. Only trouble is that if you use any kind of keybinds to talk instead of an open mic you’ll have to run the voice chat software inside the guest OS rather than the host, which means it needs to be able to be installed on Windows 98 or whatever OS System Shock supports.
To me this isn’t that much more complicated than what you’re already doing, and if it’s really a dream project it might be worth the extra effort.
Shamus, you might be interested in checking out strangebedfellows.de they have a sweet little app called System Shock Portable. It’s, I believe, a heavily customized DosBox executable, that’ll get System Shock (the original) running on any* system. It even lets you use modern style mouselook.
*Literally ANY system, I got it running, albeit very badly, on my Linux enlightened PSP.
“…and most of them would be nothing but fighting Darkspawn. That's fun when you're playing…”
Citation needed.
I concede the point. Well played.
You do get to fight bandits sometimes. You know, exactly like Darkspawn but less black.
And a recursive reference to itself would work as a citation?
Man, I was starting to wonder if it was just me. I don’t think the combat/little cutscene/combat ratio is off from KOTOR in Dragon Age, it just feels like it takes twenty times longer.
I say Jade Empire, Bioshock or KOTOR personally although I’ll watch anything you guys make.
Deus Ex, Bioshock, and Alpha Protocol would all be good.
I’d really like to see your take on a stealth game, like Deus Ex (if you choose to play it that way, instead of run-and-gun) or Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (which might be old, but is still the best in the series).
If you did KOTOR, I’d love you more than I do now.
If possible I’d suggest the first Fable.
I’d love to see that.
I vote for Bioshock,or KOTOR – Bioshock so you could bitch and bitch, KOTOR because there is a LOT of cheezy dialogue and little things that make it worth picking through while still giving us an entertaining watch. Jade Empire wouldn’t work, because its story is actually too good – it’s near airtight and even the side missions have so much logic and sense to them it’d be hard to nitpick. Also, in regards to the SS2 discussion – I can’t even get the fucking thing running on any computer made after 1999. I can’t imagine getting it to work while under fraps, livestream, etc.
You gotta go with a virtual operating system running on top of whatever you’ve already got. Just load up a Win98 VM in Virtual PC or something and you should be able to get it running. Games can be a little tricky in VMs, but that one is old enough that you can make it work without needing complex drivers. The Rage 3D card or whatever VPC emulates is good enough for most of those old games.
and if Virtual PC isn’t good enough, there are other VM apps that have better hardware emulation, but I suspect a free one would work pretty well.
What version of SS2 are you lot running, that legally murky cut down one from Home of the Underdogs? I’ve been running SS2 on WinXPSp3 for years, and more recently Linux, without any problems, other than the need for a slightly esoteric video codec.
If your having problems try the ThroughtheLookingGlass.com forum, they have loads of guides.
I install it from my disk (man, I wish I’d kept the box!) but that won’t even start up. Then I add the patch. (Which adds co-op.) That makes the game work until you choose a branch of service. Then I add the tweaks and such from the TTLG forums and the game runs, but is still slightly crash-prone.
That’s weird that you’re having problems. The way you have it set up sounds pretty similar to mine, except I ripped and mounted the iso. (Which I do with most of my games.)
If you have a Linux computer/partition — I seem to remember you wrote a post on that some time ago. — SS2 runs rock solid under Wine. Which I guess makes sense since it mimics Win-98 pretty well.
Deus Ex would be really cool. If you go the route of classic games, I’d love to see one of the following.
* Beyond Good And Evil
* Thief (as already mentioned)
* Anachronox
* Grim Fandango
* Outcast
* Psychonauts
While I love Beyond Good and Evil, the PC port is pretty buggy. I have had multiple problems getting it to run will, both in XP and 7. Definitely a better experience on the consoles.
Psychonauts! Bright, perfect pacing, and hilarious on its own. Good one.
Jade Empire. It’s probably the shortest of the games you mention – while still being packed with awesome, excitement and flavor.
Planescape: Torment!
(Sorry, sorry… i’ll go back to my corner now…)
I’d actually like to see that, even though it would take ages for them to finish. The text probably wouldn’t record very well either, so they would have to read it all out loud. It would be like a choose your adventure audio book, with animation!
Morrowind? :D
I’d like to see a runthrough of morrowind, just to get an idea of where places are in the game. I keep getting lost in it… It’s so unintuitive.
EDIT: Lost and then my level 1 ass gets slaughtered by wolves
Wolves at level 1? Are you sure you don’t mean Oblivion?
Morrowind is easier to get lost in though.
My experience with it was pissing off random people in town, murdering some random woman and being scolded that I had prevented some quest from being available, and then running from cliff racers. A lot.
Cliff Racers are THE most annoying creature in The Elder Scrolls universe.
You know you might want to do an LP on SW:TOR next year. Or not, who knows. But if you did KOTOR you might burn out on the subject before even getting to make that call, so just bear that in mind when selecting.
A small strike for us foreigners and for those that watch this from office… subtitles or transcriptions would be really quite helpful.
As it is, even if I’m just playing fallout 3 right now and would have appreciated this series, I had to let it go…
Hmm, I’d like to hear Shamus riff on Oblivion possibly.
I haven’t seen Alpha Protocol, and it’d be nice to be current and whatnot.
Deus Ex or KOTOR could also be interested for the freedom as well.
I’d say Oblivion or Alpha Protocol. Oblivion has a lot to show off, so it’d be a bit of a commitment. Perhaps go with AP first then.
A small strike for us foreigners and for those that watch this from office… subtitles or transcriptions would be really quite helpful.
As it is, even if I’m just playing fallout 3 right now and would have appreciated this series, I had to let it go…
I know that this would add a lot of work for you, but one can always hope… :p
(ohps, sorry for double post…)
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey might be a good pick if you lot want to do something with lots of dialogue and little combat. It’s an interesting game though! Personally I liked it, but I know opinions on it seem to be… well… diverse.
Edit: Also Shamus, is there any reason why for this post the comments are split between pages but for previous posts they’re not?
My uneducated guess: The site allows a limited number of threads per page, but does not limit the amount of replies. In this post there are less replies and more single comments than normal because of the voting, so one page fills quickly.
Yes.
Are opinions that diverse? Of people who actually played it, I only remember praise. But maybe that is just selective memory, since I absolutely loved Longest Journey.
Well the writing is tight and the concepts interesting, but among my group of friends the only thing that seemed to get talked about was the clunky combat and stealth portions — which were mercifully short. Honestly, I enjoyed it loads, but I seem to know a lot of people who didn’t.
Oh, and Shamus, you mentioned you couldn’t think of diseases in Mass Effect. I can’t think of any in Mass Effect 1 right now (unless you count the Thorian…), but in Mass Effect 2, the questline where you get Mordin is pretty much “dispense magic anti-disease powder through ventilation system” if memory serves me correctly.
OOOOO! Better idea: Rock Band!
Each of you can get a USB to Ethernet adapter and whoever has the recording rig can plug them all into a USB hub and then into the console.
I swear to god that would ACTUALLY work, as long as your IP addresses don’t change frequently.
If nothing else it would make for one really hilarious episode.
I would love to see you guys do Oblivion, because it’s my all-time favorite game and I want more excuses to complain about Bethesda not being cut enough slack, but it’s so similar to Fallout 3 that I seriously don’t expect you guys’ll review that for a long time. How about Deus Ex?
My vote is either Fable or Bioshock. They’re reasonably short, have flaws worthy of discussion, and combat and inventory management are relatively fast.
I’d be interested in Jade Empire. Or maybe KoTOR, although that’d be really low on the “STOP SHOOTING ME” factor. I’d be against using another Bethesda game so quickly. Assassin’s Creed could be kind of cool, too. Maybe Neverwinter Nights 2, even. It’d be great to hear Shamus attack that one.
From the list you put up, I’d vote for KOTOR or Jade Empire, but what about the other star wars titles?
Jedi Academy or Jedi Outcast perhaps?
FAR CRY 2, cause apparently I just will not shut the hell up about this game. I will admit, I am genuinely curious on your opinion of it.
It is a risk obviously, whether you’ll have much to say about it. I think there’s a lot of discussion to be had on the game in certain aspects, but it’s also just as easy to view it as very light on content to comment on.
Jade Empire! The game needs more love.
Three words: Pool. Of. Radiance.
i vote for duke nukem forever.
failing that half life 2 or even the original half life would be fun. actually is randy coming back or is rutskarn staying and who will be doing the next playthrough?
I would suggest Baldur’s Gate 2 even though it is a little old these days (it still looks pretty good since all the backgrounds are pre-rendered).
or perhaps Planescape Torment? both games are very concentrated around character interactions and have plenty of puzzles then if you ditch the side quests they aren’t that long.
They are partially voiced and have a mod for large text http://www.shsforums.net/topic/38626-bigger-fonts-for-bgiitob-and-other-ie-games/
MINSC SHALL LEAD WITH BLADE AND BOOT!
HL2. IT MUST BE DONE.
Mostly because having generally snarky people talk about something they like amuses me.
Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines if you can get your hands on it. Though if it’s from the list Deus Ex
Purely due to interest in your opinions, I’d put forward Batman: Arkhum Asylum. Okay, it’s probably too dark and combat heavy, but it is (Relatively) short, and it would be interesting to hear what you had to say.
From your list I’d vote Alpha Protocol, after having seen a friend playing it, it’s easily set up for the “Chaotic Stupid” Playstyle you guys have going.
Ooh, I would suggest Alpha Protocol, but it seems too soon. I loved the game and I’m interested in what you guys thought about it. I’d like a HL2 commentary. If you’re going to do HL2 you should definitely do the episodes AND Portal.
Jade Empire or KotOR!
Do you guys pretend point lookout doesn’t exist? I thought it was the best thing Bethesda had ever done the first time I played through it but no-one ever seems to mention it. Maybe my perception was affected by having just played through Anchorage and the Pitt with a character who was an energy weps demi-god only to be forced to use small guns, I decimated everyone walking into the Pitt and then those guys with little sticks and their scripted event knocked me out and took my plasma and Gauss rifles
I’d say it’s because Point Lookout’s probably too long to do for this LP
Thief: Deadly Shadows would be a good one…
Yes, you’d have to turn the brightness up, which would remove a bit of the suspense, but I saw a very good Let’s Play of T:DS on youtube, and it would be perfect with your witty remarks. Not to mention, it’s a great game.
Otherwise, I like the idea of Oblivion or Assassin’s Creed (the sequel is a lot better when it comes to story, so I could see AC being boring if you’re planning to do the first one and its repetitive missions).
If you want to cause a controversial hot topic or series of hot topics, choose “Baldur’s Gate 2” to rip into next. Heralded as one of the greatest CRPGs of all time, but full of things to pick on. There isn’t a lot of voice acting, but there is plenty of story and the fonts can be modded to suit your video compression. I recommend the TuTu, item/ammo stacking, and gui/font/widescreen mods at the very least.
Otherwise, KOTOR would be an excellent choice, because there is plenty to criticize about that beloved game (one of my favorites), as well.
Cheers, and good luck with your decision!
To me, Fable seems like a good one. It’s bright, the plot is laughable, and it’s reasonably fully voiced. And you don’t have to spend 50% of your playtime managing inventory.
And while we’re on Molyneux, how about one of the Black & White series? I seems like there is interesting technology there to talk about, and Josh would have ample opportunities to be sadistic.
KOTOR! I love Bioware but I still haven’t played through Jade Empire *gasp!* so I wouldn’t be able to follow your amusing commentary. On the other hand, doing that next would encourage me to get ahold of the game and play it through.
Other games I’d be fine with would be Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2. (Maybe then we can get some of what you like about the game, if any of it comes out in the commentary without you having to write up a 4,000 word post?) Most of the others seem a bit to hack ‘n’ slashy to make good fodder to my mind.
Funny, lots of talk about whats next – and not as much on the episode.
Me, thanks to this series, I am working through the game again. I had dabbled with some of the DLC, but never gone through it all the way – which I am now.
I like the Pittsburgh skyline as rendered. Also wondering how close that tent near the start of the DLC is to a fast-travel location. Looking forward to watching you slog through this.
Oh, on the sniper rifle – you can get another decent one from one of your stops on the “get the code to get the MIRV” trail – Victory. Its claim to fame is that if you get a crit, you get an automatic knockdown of your opponent. It is, of course, behind a Very Hard lock….
STOP DOING THAT! I only had whiskey twice!! That made me LOL.
The real problem with the various sniper rifles is they really only work great in the hands of a character with more than a 20 in the relevant skill.
Sadly there are no sniper weapons that rely on Melee…
Oh oh I know. Starcraft! There’s tons of voices in there. Not too long either. Plus lots of opportunities to yell “Stop shooting me!” (And of course lots of opportunities to have rabid fans threaten to kill you and eat your entire extended families.)
(Yes I realize that it doesn’t really qualify due to #3 on your list…but honestly I would be shocked if anyone actually even reads this post and more shocked if people anywhere actually listened to my terrible advice.)
It’s amazing, the kind of free time one gets from doing lab work all day.
Also, Starcraft would have every episode be five minutes of dialog, followed by half an hour of mindless repetetive violence and complaining.
So, pretty much like Fallout 3 then. (Heeyoo!)
JADE EMPIRE. Sweet baby Darwin(just imagine it. He can have a beard and look crotchety and everything)(P.S. I have no idea what Darwin actually looks like), JADE EMPIRE.
Darwin’s famous beard.
Though he didn’t have it when he was younger.
I vote for KOTOR because it would allow Shamus to talk about tabletop gaming; something he hasn’t been able to do for a very long time, at least on this site.
Have you considered doing something multiplayer so you don’t have to deal with Livestream’s BS? Neverwinter Nights would fit. Most of the main quest is voice acted, if I recall correctly.
Other than that the Fable suggestion many put up sounds like it could be hilarious.
Jade Empire would be delightful, AC might be interesting only because I haven’t played it yet, and BioShock because I suck at it hardcore but would enjoy watching it played.
No new suggestions, sorry.
EDIT: Wait, I take it back. Could you do Planescape Torment?
I would love to see Half-Life 2 done. I’ve actually stopped watching the F3 Spoiler Warnings, because as much as I enjoy the witty banter, the oppressive brown makes them visually unpleasant. HL2, on the other hand, makes for an excellent, immersive viewing experience while still having all sorts of amusing limitations to pick on (hellooo, recycled character models and voices, and lemming-like squad members!)
THE ORIGINAL FALLOUTS
out of the ones you chose i vote assassins creed if only because ac2 has made me very angry indeed
EDIT: scratch that AC is too repetitive an boring.
i change my vote to HL2
Whatever you guys decide to do next,I hope it wont be deus ex or half life 2.I enjoy hearing you bitch about a bad game way more than hearing you praise a good game.Kotor would be nice because,while it is a good game,it has lots of goofiness in it.Alpha protocol not so much because its bad mostly in the gameplay department,while the story is pretty solid.
Nowadays, the only games I tend to play have some sort of action in them. Looking back, though, I remember there were actually a couple of puzzle-intensive games I loved, especially:
– The 7th Guest
– The Neverhood
I don’t know if you have all played either of these, and I know I myself was unable to run my 7th Guest disc a while ago (it’s for 3.0 I believe :D), and the only dialogue in both games is one-way, and you probably would want something more action-y and more open-ended, but… I love these two games. So, thought, couldn’t hurt to mention them. So, uh, there you go.
I really hope you’ll do Jade Empire. I mean, the game is gorgeous, it actually lets you be evil or good, and the plot is good enough for fun yet stupid enough for mocking.
Hellgate: London.
You know you want to!
I’d prefer to see a Deus Ex myself. I don’t think games like KOTOR are as viable for a decent LP because of their length; so put me down as voting for Bioshock as a secondary if possible. ;)
Speaking from experance Dragon Age is great materal to talk over with a friend. Mostly mocking, but in a good hearted kind of way.
Maybe Deus Ex: 2 IW?
GTA IV is a crappy and unstable port? I mean I know it’s a port but I recenty got it myself, becuase it was on Steam for like 7,50. But I never once had a problem with it being unstable. The only annoyance I had with it being a port was the helicopter ride in the end, with the chopper with the guns. Controlling a chopper with the mouse worked poorly and with the numpad it was fine but then you still had the firebutton on the mouse. But I doubt that made you say it’s a crappy unstable port. Maybe it’s been patched since? Cause I really had no issues at all.
And because you hadn’t any issues automatically means that everybody else will have their installations running tip-top, right?
If Shamus says that for him it is a crappy port (which I could back, regardless of patches), then leave it at that.
Well, since you recommended older games, what about Max Payne 1 or 2? They’re a decent length, although not super-long. Although the in-game transition scenes have text, it’s also completely voiced. The game does tend to be a bit dark (lighting-wise) though.
I would love to see a single episode of Let’s Play for Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing, widely considered to be the worst game of all time. The two most major problems, the AI just sits on the start line, and there is no collision detection with scenery.
Also, no maximum speed on reverse. Just endless acceleration.
How about Neverwinter Nights (1 or 2, the OCs in both are pretty dismal)? You could even all play it together!
For what it’s worth, I think I’d hate an LP of HL2, just because it’d feel… wrong to me.
Also, Portal seems to me like it would be a good choice, though maybe not a whole lot of stuff to actually say about it. As well designed as the environments are, the actual scenery and content is kind of spare.
Plenty of room for dicking around, but ehhhh-
Star Control 2!
I support Assassin’s Creed. Because nothing says “stealthy assassination” like three guys arguing over which pah to take.
Or any of the Thief games.
Beyond Good and Evil is pretty hilarious. Your sidekick is a pig.
Old games? How about some quick ones for a dramatic but short change of pace…
Archon?
Spy Hunter?
Lode Runner?
Ultima Underworld?
I’d also like to see what a Lets Play of Fables 1 and 2 would be like… I’m sure you’d have fun with that, shamus.
I wouldn’t mind seeing any of those… but I think Bioshock is my favourite for nomination, followed by Alpha Protocol.
try something like halo(1 or 2) or modern warefare, or some other short fps. take the piss relentlessly and be done in less than 10 episodes. it would be a good fun little aside and then you could attack mass effect 2, or something else.
Yeeees,do the halo!We will get laughs from both the awful game being trashed,and bunch of fanboys calling you fags and n00bs.
You’re just as bad as a fanboy. You’re a Halo HATEboy. You bitch and whine about a game which isn’t that bad. Fanboys may defend a game despite it’s flaws, but people like you bash it without regarding it’s good qualities.
No, I don’t like Halo that much. I hardly play it. But it isn’t worthy of being called an “awful game”.
Its called taste,and is different for every individual.Halo bored me,and that is the opposite of fun,which makes it awful for me.Not as as awful as qin warriors,sure,but that doesnt make it good either.
Another thought. If the “Needs to be PC” requirement can count emulators Final Fantasy X-2 is damn near incomparably mockable and runs quite well in PCSX2.
Another vote for Half-Life 2. It’s a great piece of game design, but not flawless. It’s also nicely varied in gameplay and environments, which should keep things interesting from episode to episode.
Goddamn, now I think about it, I’d like to do an LP of HL2…
…you guys have room for one more?
Well I haven’t ever posted here but I’m a fan of Stolen Pixels and I’ve been watching this series. I would like to see Oblivion reviewed because it’s fun and has a lot of content/lore and storyline to pick at.
Bioshock, Assassin's Creed or Alpha protocol ;)
You know if the game is like Oblivion or Dragon Age then you might not have to worry about the “its too long” thing, if you just do one major quest.
That way you could do those types of game but avoid getting bored.
To be honest I would have recommended forgoing all the DLC content, on such a long game it just adds alot of time. Or if you are, choose the “better” DLC content for more interesting commentary.
Just my suggestions! Due to the length of the game it makes the series take a very, very, very long time if you plan to do it all like that.
I would like to see a LP of Batman: Arkham Asylum. I have no idea if it works with compression though.
Why not KOTOR 2? There are plenty of really good things to talk about in the beginning, but also lots of terrible TERRIBLE things to talk about near the endgame.
I vote KotOR. I think it would be really interesting to see your take on it.
In case you guys are still debating this, I’d like to recommend Neverwinter Nights 2, especially Mask of the Betrayer, because the end to the original campaign is awfully disheartening. The engine isn’t great, so you may have to reload sometimes, but I’m pretty sure the dialogue is readable, and there is a lot of dialogue.
Play through NWN2 with a dwarven fighter 9/sorc 1/RDD 10 with maxed strength. Name him “Cheese McTwink” or similar.
I’ll vote for any of Jade Empire, HL2, Assassin’s Creed, and KOTOR, though whatever you guys do will undoubtedly be made of win. =D
Multiplayer neverwinter nights? hell yeah. but um. not really to the spirit of this show. I still vote for BG2/ KOTOR( possibly KOTOR 2?)
Thief 3? F.E.A.R.? Batman: Arkham Asylum? L4D?
I’d watch a Let’s play of KOTOR or KOTOR2.
I’m going to lodge a vote for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. It’s voiced, modern, and visual enough that it will produce an interesting video.
It’s full of interesting dialogue, competent battles, and contains one of the best levels ever made. Additionally, well… Troika never did quite manage to figure out ‘polish’ so there will be plenty of little things to nitpick despite enjoying the game immensely.
You gotta do Fable 2
I’d really like to see a Bioshock one of these, not least because I (as a not-exactly-shooter person, who hasn’t played SS 2) thought it was a very good game and there are some clear advantages from its supposed simplification. And also, hate-filled rants are entertaining.
Shamus, I feel like I must bring this up if you don’t already know since it was briefly mentioned in the video. But there is in fact a game where there is cannon travel. Secret of Mana for the SNES. It is hilarious and awesome. To make it even better, the cannon travel service is run by a cave man.
getting in
“traveling”
What I really really REALLY hate about Fallout 3 is there is no way to slowly torture that stupid, self-centred, narcissist with the attention span of a gnat to death, the way he deserves, or even rip him a new one and tell him shove his half-baked quest where the sun don’t shine.
Classic Spoiler Warning.