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I recently finished The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. As far as walking simulators go it's pretty good, considering it actually has puzzles in it! It's one of those games where the journey is more potent than the destination. The ending was quite a disappointment. A lot of "what the heck" moments which were cool and end up outshining the actual story. It's like the writer(s) had a neat idea for a game mechanic and synopsis, but then had a bunch of zany ideas, didn't know what to do with them, and just spattered them about for theatric effect and has next to no bearing on really anything. It seems overly self-indulgent and avante garde. I'm just a dummy when it comes to this stuff most of the time, though, so I didn't "get it" like a lot of other people probably did. I don't like overly simple stuff, but there's a point where games start to go overboard with the layers of plot point hints without explaining anything that's going on in that indie obnoxious way. Maybe I'm getting too old for that artsy stuff lol I don't know. It starts out saying that it's a "narrative experience that doesn't hold your hand" which I really appreciated it. I loved figuring out the mechanics all on my own....I just wish it would have held my hand a little more in the narrative department.

Feels like the kind of game kids would flip out over being so "deep" without saying much of anything. I think it's overrated in a way, but then again the experience was great. It was just the payoff that wasn't anything special and seemed pretty pointless, undermining the whole thing. Like Lost. It got me thinking about gaming as an art and how art in general should be as much a vehicle for personal outlet as it is rather than a relatable experience everyone can appreciate. I'm not saying people don't appreciate this, but it reminds me of Simon from X Factor or American Idol or whatever show he's on now where he criticizes some performers' performances for being too self-indulgent and personal. There's something to be said for catering to the audience and including them in your experience. Dear Esther was awful for this. I mostly enjoyed it because it was very pretty graphically and had a nice atmosphere. The story was all manner of pretentious stupid to me, though. I tend to despise games where you can "take any meaning you want from it" and how there's "no right answer or single explanation". It just feels incredibly pretentious to me. And lazy. But mainly it's just extremely unsatisfying. I know I'm in a game community that tends to value story over gameplay for some reason, but I think story has had its day in the sun for too long and gets much more credit than it deserves. It's never what I truly liked about Sierra and LucasArts games. If I want just a good story I'll read a book or watch a movie.

Then again, maybe I'm over-analyzing it and am just bitter because I don't understand the point of stories like this lol. LIke I said, the gameplay was better than most and what "walking simulators" should aspire to as far as interaction is concerned. Really looking forward to Witchfire, though, from the same people!

GK2...

The installer automatically sets the number of cycles to 10000, but I found the films hiccup. Now I play with cycles at 6000, see if that helps...

It doesn't for the longer films...

It's a lot of walking around, isn't it? Marienplatz seems interminable and having to go back to the farm to splice the tape and later go back to the farm to read the address with backwards printing, because he's such an idiot he can't read backward writing OR find any other reflective surface like shop windows, public bathroom or the glass on his wrist watch...

Try setting core to dynamic and cycles to max.

Didn't work.

When I play back the videos using the game's video viewer, there's no problem. I'll try to make a savegame before the next vid so I can see if it happens upon second time playing.

Made the savegame and replayed some sections (like Von Glower, ça va sans dire) - it doesn't hiccup necessarily at the same place, but it does hiccup.
Also noticed the music doesn't start at times. Hmmm...

I'm trying to finish Batman Arkham Knight.

BAK initially received a lot of bad reviews for technical problems on the PC, but that was fixed a long time ago. In fact, everyone got the DLC (all of it) for free as an apology, although I imagine this would've pissed off the people who bought the DLC. Fortunately me, I only had the base game and everything was fixed and added before I started playing.

I, too, played after that whole debacle. It was enjoyable. I loved the Batmobile. Especially cruising around in the Tim Burton one. Wish it had a tank mode but I can understand why it didn't.

My favourite is still the first one, though. I prefer the Metroidvania approach to the more open-world sandbox-y approach.

FInished GK2 again... still don't like it much...

Why don't you like it, BBP? *curious* I still haven't managed to finish it. I just don't like the FMV aspect of it.

YAFIYGI:

-Gabriel's acting
-Grace's acting
-Mrs Smith's acting
-Herrenchiemsee Lady's acting, Sepp Huber's acting

-Absence of puzzles
-Walking around puzzles - "ask übergrau about the family tree/cash and go back" or "go all the way back to the farm to splice the tape, and later go all the way back to the farm because there's the only accessible reflective surface. Grace's sections too. There's no way around visiting Neuschwanstein twice in Ch 4.
-Absence of things to look at
-Neuschwanstein and Herrenchiemsee - having to "click" so that Grace reads the text before she 'has an idea' - I can read the texts well enough without Takahashi's voice-over. In Neuschwanstein the objects that need to be looked at are unclear - I spent a long time being stuck because there just appeared to be a picture behind the crucfix that you really have to see before Ludwig will send you the fax. Neuschwanstein is what makes you want to sling the game in the bin.
-Linearity is eventually what breaks Neuschwanstein but it is annoying at more spots - you have to ask Übergrau about where the samples can be checked but you cannot do that upon your first visit. Try it!
Worst offender to me because it's: A: Illogical and B: creating an unnecessary timed puzzle is the dressing room (there's no need to get dressed before you 'treat' the make-up mirror.)

-Ugly soundscapes. It begins with the incessant clicking of the cuckoo clock and gets increasingly toe-curling at: the cuckoo clock store, the Thalkirchen zoo, the police office (special note for playing the music during one FMV), the woods, Seeshaupt, wolves in Grace's dream, Altötting mass and Altötting wind

-Character of Grace, perhaps in combination with Takahashi's acting. Grace is for the first half of her sections completely dislikeable, notably in her conduct towards Gerde.
-Plot hole - the opera is a huge one. I've outlined about that elsewhere on this forum.

You know that early Simpsons episode where Homer and Marge go on a couple's retreat and Marge goes on and on about Homer's flaws?

Now playing? GK3!

Unfortunately the game appeared to have gotten corrupt, I got an error message on starting up, so I reinstalled it and now I still get the error message...

BBP wrote: ↑Sat Nov 24, 2018 3:45 am Now playing? GK3!

Unfortunately the game appeared to have gotten corrupt, I got an error message on starting up, so I reinstalled it and now I still get the error message...

What error?

Resource Manager Error
The following resource paths are invalid:
.

Try a clean reinstall.