#double-fine

[aretmaw]

Super excited for Psychonauts 2! Congrats to Raz on getting the world's coolest job! ^v^

[aabaker1]

Costume Quest Season One Part Two

A few days have passed since the rest of Costume Quest season one dropped, but I’ll stick to the Spoiler routine just in case. 

Brief non-spoiler thoughts. Wow, this was good. They didn’t do a couple of things I thought they would, they did do a couple of things I thought they would, but in ways I didn’t expect that were ten times better. And I got at least one thing spot on. 

Anyway, the rest below the cut off.

Oh, wow did that get epic. I admit it started off a bit week and there were some odd things I didn’t quite get behind. Since when does the president of a candy factory run a town? Okay yeah, Auburn Hollow is literally a factory town, but I’m pretty sure they would elect a mayor and city council at some point. Also, since when is a company president chosen in a public election? I get that they needed to put the nougat supply in Bob’s hands, but yeesh. Anyway from here on episode by episode.

Breaker/Breaker:

Yeah, the plots for this one and Factory Tour were spoiled by IMDB. Still, nice to see how they played out. I like to see Everette getting super serious about his dad. This does lead to the lead to the standard-issue with shapeshifters becoming, vehicles, though. Um, you do realize you’re riding inside someone's body, right? 

 Also, since when do people get seasonal allergies for a day or two at most? Okay, Nougat is a mineral that can be processed into candy. Okay, fine. But, now it’s also a crystal that can reflect sunlight and make a rainbow? Look, can we just pick a method of making science cry and stick to it, please?

Factory Tour:

Yeah, IMDB spoiled Oona as the dragon, but it was still nice to see her in action. It was also nice seeing Wren get a taste of humble pie. Hmm, you know Ren, maybe the hundred plus-year-old monster hunter who can become a dragon doesn’t need your help? Just a thought.

Stuck in the Middle with Toots:

Sigh, yeah I know Wren had to learn not to put too much faith in idols. But, I was really pulling for Rudy to be a decent person, here. It’s not to see Wren give someone the benefit of the doubt, even though it came back to bite her in the end. 

Scout’s Honour:

What...was this? We see Reynold’s role as secret-keeper wear on him and Norm cover for him, okay, that’s fine. But, Reynold retreats to the history wing of the factory again? I thought we covered this, already. Plus Scout just comes out of nowhere. And we’re stuck with a cliche plot about someone making a friend, only to have the friend betray them the first time an opportunity comes along. Scout’s design was nice though, gave me an old school Real Monsters! vibe with the foot hands. 

 But, am I the only one thinking Reynold dumping her on an island was massively out of character for him? Okay, yeah desperation moment, but still. Though the woman’s reaction to Reynold and Scout in the bathroom was priceless. Also, good call going with healthy snacks, Reynold. Especially since everyone’s been binging on nougat for the whole show.

Schmooz Cruise:

Okay, I’ll just say it. I thought this was going to be Lucy’s mom going on a singles cruise and Lucy getting jealous. Turns out it was Everette getting jealous of Benji. It’s a nice Iron that Everette, who is the tallest of the four, is also the most prone to act childish. And it’s nice to see him start to grow out of it. Also, I was wondering when that girl was gonna show up, I mean she’s in the opening credits. Hey, Lucy gets in on the crossplay with Wren. And she makes a fine pirate, though it looks like the Gorton’s Fisherman has let himself go a bit. :) And is it me, or is Reynold having far to much fun with that merman costume.

Perfect Vision:

I had no idea what to expect with this one going on. Nice to see the kids getting creative with the costumes to campaign for Oona. But, then we go into another cliche plot, this time someone having a vision and becoming paranoid about it. Someone should have told Lucy you can’t force fate.

A couple quick points. We got a tease of Lucy’s mom being a monster. And it’s nice to see that Lucy would be cool with it. Though we get some foreshadowing with Ren’s attitude. And did Lucy not catch Wren threatening her mom, or is Lucy just used to Wren? How the heck does an ice cream give itself brain freeze? And Wren plays up the stereotype that geese are evil. Also nice to see those two monsters again. They seem to be a bit of a couple, which is an unexpected bit of character growth.

Dragon’s and Dry-cleaners:

Once again, Wren’s recklessness comes to bite her. And we finally get Oona’s personality as a jaded loner who doesn’t think she needs anybody. I really thought Wren was going to learn a lesson here, but no. That was saved for later on. Still, cool fight scene. 

In the mouth of Badness:

Buckle up, kids, here we go. The rest of the episodes are a straight shot to the finale. They almost pull a 24 here. It’s such a shame that it had to start on a sunch a mediocre note. I mean seriously, an eating contest? It was basically an excuse to resolve Scout’s plot, but at least it’s nice to see that Bob can be too arrogant for his own good. But, the main fight, inside of Bob’s mouth? I mean just why? That was some major cringe material, especially for people who are allergic to bee stings.

Deal With It:

And this gets real, quick Nice touch calling back to the Fun Room. I knew Ren using the doggy door would bite her eventually. It’s nice to see Norm step up and get active, though he’s not really good at it, or making deals to help people. 

And the secret is blown, in the worst, way possible. I honestly wonder what Reynold was thinking in that moment. Not hard to know what Wren was thinking. But, it’s nice to see that Everette and Lucy were willing to be reasonable. And really nice to see Norm get some action. Speaking of action...

Sibling Showdown:

I felt fairly cathartic when I read the title of this one. I knew Wren’s bossy, aggressive, attitude would push Reynold too far at some point. And it’s nice to see Reynold actually hold his own, here. He may not be all that good with the physical stuff, he’s been living with Wren his whole life, he knows what buttons to push. Sadly, I thought the two would hug it out here. I should have known Wren could never let something go so easy.

What about Norm?:

But, it did lead to this nice episode. Wren starts off in practically a berserker rage. I love that that had to dump her in the fun room just to get her to listen. So now we get Norm’s backstory. It’s nice seeing the original four kids, again. But, really, Oona’s the only one we get to see out of costume? I know budget limits and all, but would it have killed you to at least give us a glimpse of the other three? Man, Norm had a harsh life. And if people didn’t hate Bob before, they do now. Also only Oona gets pissed at Norm, the other three see angry Oona and just nope out of the whole thing. Honestly, both Wren and Oona give me a bit of a Lucy vibe. I just wonder if that was intentional. And Lucy finally realizes how dumb she was being. It’s nice to see them make up and also nice to see Wren’s tantrum come back to bite her. “Uh, where’s Reynold?” “Oh, crap.”

O Grubbin, Where Art Though:

Not that Reynold needed any help. I admit I thought Lucy would use her Edit form to start a grubbin uprising, but no, leave it to Reynold to think his way out of a problem. The two monsters Lucy made friends with are back and Oona finally starts to thaw a bit. Nice to see Rudy get a big damned heroes moment, even if it did get him grubbinized. And it’s especially nice to see Reynold throw Bob’s arrogance back in his face. But, this is only the wind-up to the final act...

All Hallow’s Eve:

Hoo boy, did they pull out all the stops? Wren learned that you shouldn’t put your faith in idols, but she also learns that sometimes people can surprise you. And the kids left their best battle costumes home. Hey, at least this way it gives them time to spend a few moments with their parents and Oona and Norm a chance to settle things. I pretty much knew Oona was going to be the friend Norm lost. But it’s still touching to realize that Oona never forgot Norm, even if she never forgave him.

Okay, brief quality time moments. Wren and Reynold carving a pumpkin together. Wren could never quite spit out an I’m sorry, but in the end she didn’t need to. Reynold gets her. Also nice to see the mom warning about no fighting and the twins looking very sheepish. If she only knew.

Nice to see that Everette has gotten over Benji’s girlfriend. And it also shows that Benji hasn’t grown up too much, while Everette has grown up just enough. I Wonder if that Masked Rider costume is going lead into anything?

And now my favorite moment of the whole episode, maybe the whole series. Lucy and her mom sit down and hash things out. And Lucy reveals all. The mom just thinks she’s playing pretend of course, right up until Lucy turns into Edit. Yeah, there’s no real arguing with that. Also, Lucy just turned into a monster and told her mom she and her friends are going to battle monsters for the fate of the entire world and the mom’s immediate response is, you know it’s getting chilly out, maybe take a jacket? It’s not as bad as it seems. The mom just had a traffic jam in her head at that moment and that happened to be the first thing that worked itself loose. I just wish we could have seen the talk they had later.

And factory Brawl! In this corner, four kids, an old woman with magic costumes and a friendly monster with a lot of determination. And in this corner, a factory load of monsters with an unlimited supply of power-ups. Even though it was obvious this wouldn’t go anywhere, it was still cool as hell.

Also, stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself! That gag will never get old. It looks like Oona was doing a little prep work. And Norm finally gets to follow in father’s footsteps with the portal juice.  Also, wren taking a page from Reynold’s book and using her head, nice touch.

 And Rudy pulls a double, shutting off his own movie premier and rallying the kids to the amusement park. Of course, Wren points out they don’t have a bunch of magic costumes for them. But, then Lucy remembers Mr. Elephant. Now, I thought they would go giant robot, here. But, they did one much better. Turning the park rides into king-kong sized versions of the original costumes, much cooler. Is it me, or did Bob kinda go down like a chump a little bit? He got in a little defense, but not a whole lot of offense. Still, it was the culmination of the kids working together and Bob’s arrogance getting the better of him. Anyone else think the portals weren’t open for very long? How are they supposed to organize an invasion when they have access to their reinforcements for an hour tops?

And a new day dawns. Nice to see everybody getting on with life. Oona and Norm in the factory, the kids commenting on the cool monster fight. And Rudy and the other two Grubbins are still around. Can that blonde kid ever catch a break?

Wow, this was epic But, there’s something I’ve got to wonder. Lucy told her mom the truth and proved it. A theater full of kids and at least one teenager participated in a giant monster fight. And pretty much half the town saw four park rides get up and beat down a giant monster. So, is the lid off at this point? I mean it’s going to take some CIA level covering up to put this genie back in the bottle. Also, are Wren, Reynold, Everette, and Benji going to have conversations of their own with their parents? 

Well, that’s all for now. Looking forward to Heroes on Holiday next month. Now I know it’s a Christmas special, which are usually standalone stories because networks usually play them at holiday time instead of the regular rotation.

But, this is Amazon Prime and that rule doesn’t apply anymore. It could be a standalone story, or it could follow up on All Hallow’s Eve. And this a possibility it could do more. 

Now, I know that this is a totally different continuity from the games, but still my mind goes to three words. Grubbins on Ice. An expansion of the first game that is set at Christmas time and sees the kids dragged to Repugia. I don’t know if Costume Quest has earned a second season, or not. But, it makes you think. It’s awfully convenient they picked a Christmas special. Anyway, if there is a season two I just hope we don’t have to sit around and wait seven months for the second half. That did not work, at all!

[aabaker1]

It’s that time again, random thoughts about something.

I recently played and finished Knights and Bikes, a new game by Double Fine and Foam Sword. And while I watched the credits roll, I couldn’t help, but ask myself a question. Was it real? By that, I mean did the events in the game really happen, or were they all in a little girl’s head? So, yeah I’m gonna ramble about a video game I finished just two days ago. And since this involves the end of the game I’m gonna say spoilers, now. Click on the read more link if you’re curious what the hell I’m babbling about.

Well, this really me trying to ponder something about the ending that I just do not understand. Namely, what the hell happened to Nessa? She’s there for the whole adventure, right up till they find the treasure. Then she says she has to go and Demelza wakes up on the rock alone, with honkers and gets rescued by her dad and a chopper pilot. Um, what just happened, here? I have a few ideas and I’m going to list them here, from least absurd to most.

1: It was all just a dream.

The whole thing was in Demelza’s head. She wound up on the rock, somehow and this whole adventure played out insider her head. The whole thing was Demelza’s way of dealing with recent events, her mother’s death, her father kinda falling apart and losing the golf course/ caravan park, Demelza wanting to help, but not knowing how an accident that destroyed Demelza’s caravan and all her stuff. There are, however, two issues with this.

1: What about Nessa? If this was true, Nessa would essentially be a figment of Demelza’s imagination. But, while the ending doesn’t outright say it, it heavily implies that Nessa is the chopper pilot’s daughter. So if Nessa’s real, how is this all in Demelza’s head? Did Demelza randomly see Nessa somewhere? Is the pilot’s daughter not Nessa, but someone who sounds a hell of a lot like her? Those would be some fairly healthy coincidences.

2. How the hell did Demelza get on that rock, if the whole thing was in her head? What, was she trying to help earn by offering rides in a homemade hot air balloon and a test flight went really wrong?  

I’m sorry, but I just don’t buy this. If it was in Demelza’s head, how do you explain Nessa? Well, now that I’ve said I’m going to try to explain Nessa.

2: was all just a dream...kinda.

This is very similar to the last idea, with one massive twist. Nessa is a dream walker. Okay, try this. In this world, there are people who inherit a special gift. They are born with an incredibly advanced form of lucid dreaming. Not only can they control their own dreams, but they can also walk out of their dreams and into other people’s dreams.

Yeah, I know this is a bit out there. But, we’re talking a game that involves an ancient curse that can bring inanimate objects to life and curse people, and the severed head of an immortal knight was hanging in a cage only a few feet below the main character’s house. So compared to that a girl who can walk into other people’s dreams isn’t exactly off the map.

So, how does this go, exactly? Well Nessa is the chopper pilot’s daughter, she’s asleep somewhere, maybe a barracks, maybe military housing. Demelza somehow gets herself out on that rock and gets knocked cold. Nessa sense’s this and realizes that Demelza’s in massive trouble.

Seeing a lot of herself in Demelza and feeling sorry for her, Nessa digs into Demelza’s recent memories and uses them to concoct the adventure to keep Demelza’s mind active so she doesn’t slip into a coma and maybe die. Technically the events of the game were in Demelza’s head, but they were all crafted by Nessa to keep her alive. So yeah, Demelza’s gonna meet the pilot’s daughter, who is going to explain that yes they know each other, even though they haven’t physically met yet.

This one is a bit more out there, but it does explain how Nessa was involved if it was all in Demelza’s head. But, I think I can do better. Can I find a way to explain things if the events of the game really happened? Okay, buckle up people, it’s time to go cuckoo for coco-puffs.

3: Nessa and her dad are immortal. 

Much like the night, Nessa and her dad somehow found their way to the treasure and looked inside, gaining immortality. Now, this was fun at first, after a while it started to get really annoying. Especially having to reinvent themselves every few decades to keep people from getting suspicious.   

One day Nessa sensed someone getting close to finding the treasure. Maybe she gained a connection to it, or maybe she found some special magic object in the treasure, itself. I mean the knight said there were more than gold and jewels n there.

Not wanting someone else to get stuck in her shoes, Nessa decides to go to Penfurzie and work with the person to find the treasure, but her main goal is to stop this person from making the same mistake she did and avoiding the immortality.  I am, of course, talking about...Demelza’s mom. Nessa managed to make friends with her and accompanied her on her exploration. She managed to convince Demela’s mom that the treasure just wasn’t worth it. But during the adventure, Nessa learns about the woman’s daughter, who sounds uncomfortably like her mother.

So Nessa decides to stay nearby, on the mainland. Sure enough, Demelza’s beginning to show signs that she could find the treasure. So Nessa decides to meet and make friends with Demelza, to make sure she’s there on Demelza’s adventure and can talk Demelza out of looking into the chest. But, this theory too has a couple of problems with it. Other than Nessa being a freaking highlander, I mean.

1: So, if they really were there, where did Nessa go? Did she have some kinda magic that could teleport her out of the castle? And if she did, why didn’t she take Demelza with her? 

2: How did Demelza wind up unconscious back on the rock? Did Nessa knock her out and dump her there to make sure she didn’t change her mind?

3: How the hell did no one else notice the giant freaking sword in the sky? Did people just assume that there was some kind of fancy light show going on, in the rainy season, after all the tourists had left?

So, now that I’ve got that out of my system, here’s a few other things about the game that bug me.

Nessa contradicted herself. When they’re approaching the scrapyard, she says, this place is a lot like home. And when Demelza questions her, Nessa says that she might tell her someday. Then later on, after Demelza loses her caravan, Nessa says that she doesn’t have a home, either?  I think there’s an explanation for this. If the pilot really is Nessa’ dad, Nessa is an army brat, getting dragged around all over the place, from post to post. That could easily make Nessa feel like she has no real home. As for the first line, maybe they were posted at a place near a scrapyard at some point?

On the way to get Nessa bike, the two run into an old lady who’s acting weird. Presumably, she’s possessed by the curse. Except, that we never see her again. She’s not part of any of the boss fights, nor do Nessa and Demelza ever remove the curse from her. Maybe she wasn’t cursed at all. Maybe she’s just an old lady, who’s gone a bit dotty. She’s fine when she takes her medicine, but if she forgets, she can do things like standing around, babbling and diving into bushes. The matter-of-fact way Demelza reacts to it leads me to believe she’s seen this before. Maybe the islanders just got used to the old lady’s oddness?

How the hell did ancient knights have access to levers and gears? Especially ones that can drastically alter the landscape? 

For that matter, if no one had been up there for ages, how did all those electronic devices and engines get up there? And how did they get into the knight’s castle, for that matter?

Okay, how did no one notice an ancient manhole cover just sitting on a hill? I mean Demelza spotted for god’s sake. And that was after someone parked a caravan on top of it.

Why did Demelza’s dad stock pizza in the party room after the tourist season? Or were Demelza and Nessa munching on pizza that had been sitting around for at least a week?

Anyway, I’m gonna stop now..later.

[aabaker1]

I’m kinda nervous about the Costume Quest Cartoon.

You may know that Amazon Prime has placed the first half of the first season of Costume Quest up on their site and there’s no word on when the second half will be put up.

I can see the logic behind the move, in makes sense in a certain way. When you watch a show on t.v. you watch one episode each week and you spend the rest of the week looking forward to the next episode and talking to people about the one you saw. When you put a whole season of a show on a website all at once, you don’t get that. So you put up the first half to give people something to talk about while they wait for the second half. That way you get people talking.

But, here’s the thing. Put the show up that way might actually hurt Costume Quest in the end. Splitting the season to give people time to talk, that can work with show based on a well-established property or a brand new thing. But, Costume Quest is a cartoon based on two video games, that, honestly, don’t have that big of a fan base. In a situation like that you want to get as many new viewers as possible, because while the fans of the games help, the new viewers are going to be the bulk of the show’s audience.

But, these people find out about Costume Quest, maybe they see the trailer, maybe they stumble on it, maybe a friend tells them. They decide to go check it out and it looks interesting, maybe they even start to get into it. But, then they get the surprise that they’re only going to see half the story and they have to come back in a couple of months to see the rest. How many of those curious fans are going to come back after that? 

I don’t know how Amazon Prime measures it’s viewership, but if even a decent number of people who watched the first half of season 1, don’t come back for the second half because they had to sit around and wait for god knows how long, those lower ratings could hurt the show in the long run and maybe even make Amazon think the audience is too small and maybe there shouldn’t be a season 2?

I don’t know that that’s going to happen, but it worries me. I’d hate to see a fun little show like Costume Quest get cancelled after one season, not because of anything wrong with the show, but because the way Amazon decided to present it turned people off from watching.

[croxot]

Thoughts on Broken Age

I always heard how mesmerizing and storied the history of Double-Fine is. How all their titles are excellent, but are always dark horses that don’t get the attention they deserve.

How is this company still in business? There are dev teams with wildly-successful games that get shut down and people lose their jobs for little to no reason. I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no justice in game development. Big, great companies collapse, and semi-Indie sweethearts with mediocre games stay in business because of nostalgia.

And I’m guilty of supporting it now.

Broken Age is alright. But damn, if all the budget didn’t go to voice talent...

Our heroes Vella and Shay are robots. There is no other way to account for their lack of emotion. I thought Elijah Wood was supposed to be an actor, but I guess they just put him on heavy sedatives before each recording session. Either that or Mr. Schafer put “MILDLY SLEEPY” as a mood indicator at the head of every script he handed out. At first I didn’t even realize Jack Black was in this game. In the second act it clicked and I thought “oh... that’s Jack Black. What a waste.” And all the money that must have been wasted. Because it certainly wasn’t spent on QA testing for the puzzles, especially in Act 2. I’ve never played a proper point-’n’-click adventure game before, but I had heard of all the ridiculous puzzle logic. This is a modern game though, it shouldn’t have this problem. WELP I GUESS IT DOES ANYWAYS. HANG ON, LET ME SWITCH CHARACTERS 50 TIMES CAUSE I GUESS I MISSED SOMETHING OBSCURE IN THE BACKGROUND THAT HAS THE PUZZLE REFERENCE KEY (read: NOT THE SOLUTION) IN THE BACKGROUND OF THAT THING, SO I CAN THEN SWITCH CHARACTERS AND USE THE REFERENCE TO DECIPHER A CODE WITH ANOTHER REFERENCE KEY WHICH IF YOU SCREW UP YOU NEED TO RE-INPUT MULTIPLE TIMES BARRED BY MINI-CUTSCENES FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-

It’s frustrating.

This game got a 9 on IGN. I shouldn’t be surprised because Mr. Schafer is hailed as some sort of demigod that makes “real” games with heart and soul and also he apparntly defeated the gamergate and saved the internet with one fell swoop of his wit.

I’d call Broken Age a polished turd. But it’s not really a turd, more like a joke from a specific comedian that you found pretty funny at first but after a while you just want to strangle the comedian, and then you’re just tired of them but you still occasionally chuckle when thinking about the good times?

So, yeah. Broken Age is Dane Cook.

[sinweichen]

Replaying Costume Quest because it's ALMOST HALLOWE'EN in the Tumblr world, and I'm remembering just how awesome it is, but a few things to note.

You can choose your protag, and your twin sibling is the person you need to rescue.  You can either be the Girl protag, or the Boy protag, but the game is essentially unchanged except for some minor dialogue choice.

All of the "box" art for the game has the Girl protag in front.

All the costumes can be worn by any gender, if I recall correctly.  This includes Knight, Unicorn, and Statue of Liberty.

The first time I got into battle, I had NO IDEA what the costumes did.  This was a jaw dropping, and very cool moment for me.

It's really no wonder that Tim Schafer supports Feminist Frequency.

[buckysrevenge]

Images I found on Playstation Europe's flickr page

[wegotthiscovered-blog]