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The Vanishing of Ethan Carter |OT| A first person murder mystery (PC)
- Thread starter peakish
- Start date
wanderingprostheyltite
Member
Buh I want these graphics in a Skyrim type game so badly, and I loved Ethan Carter. Actually I'd rather have them in a Stalker like game or Day Z, speaking of what's in the water over there that makes Polish and Ukraine devs so damn good with graphics tech? We've got 4A Games that make the Metro series, the folks that worked at GSC Game World (Stalker series), these guys at The Astronauts, Bohemia Interactive (Arma) and the studio making the f2p Stalker-alike game Survarium (which has ex Stalker people). These dudes need to form a super studio over there and keep using the photogrammetry tech, still in awe of how good Ethan Carter looks.
Sorry, just the first couple of minutes of the game
the_firewithin
Member
finished this. wonderful experience. but.........
fuck Ethan's family
It's a shame that this type of games inherently has little replay value after the initial playthrough. It took me about 5 hours to finish it, I liked it and think it was well worth the $20.
Lack of replay appeal and the slow pacing are fine with me however I feel it will hurt their overall sales. The mass market, conditioned to non stop action and turret sections by most AAA titles is unlikely to respond well to this game which is a damn shame if you ask me because it deserves the profit to reciprocate the effort put into it. A beautiful game, possibly the best looking game I ever played, sophisticated and a great atmosphere too. Too bad this gourmet restaurant is surrounded by all the fast food chains around it.
Lack of replay appeal and the slow pacing are fine with me however I feel it will hurt their overall sales. The mass market, conditioned to non stop action and turret sections by most AAA titles is unlikely to respond well to this game which is a damn shame if you ask me because it deserves the profit to reciprocate the effort put into it. A beautiful game, possibly the best looking game I ever played, sophisticated and a great atmosphere too. Too bad this gourmet restaurant is surrounded by all the fast food chains around it.
Got this, but it crashes if I choose anything but the lowest AA setting, either outside or inside the game really weird, as I have a decent video card. Anyone encountered the same issue? My card is a Radeon HD 6970 with 2GB RAM. Nothing impressive, but it's really no excuse for a crash...
really weird, as I have a decent video card. Anyone encountered the same issue? My card is a Radeon HD 6970 with 2GB RAM. Nothing impressive, but it's really no excuse for a crash...Answers about that scene:
The car has to be moved to a certain spot and it should register. Look at the tracks carefully.
There is a rock around, though I don't remember where. Just keep exploring that area near the tracks.
There is a rock around, though I don't remember where. Just keep exploring that area near the tracks.
Well, I'm pretty sure I put the car into the right spot and there's a spooky sound each time I exit it. As for the rock, okay then, I'll try to find it. Thanks! I was wondering if it was somewhere else. I actually already saw the astronaut in the forest and went as far as the "village", solved the puzzle in the house and moved on to the cemetery. Anything else I missed?
Don't worry too much, since at the end of the game you can go back and catch up on any scenes you didn't finish.
And for the item:
I feel like the rock was kind of small so it might be hard to spot. And it's blood-stained...did you examine the corpse and the area nearby?
Yeah. Judging by the cemetery scene, there should be a hint near the stump and the rock itself might be indeed near the body. I'll find it tomorrow, gotta call it a day now.
mercenar1e
Member
this game looks better than the majority of titles using CryEngine.. its absolutely amazing.
Sorry, just the first couple of minutes of the game
and you won' play it any further, am I right?
exmachina64
Banned
Wages and cost of living being approximately one-third that of the U.S.
FeiRR
Banned
You may be right about wages but I'd argue about the cost of living. Anyway, how is it related to talent?
Brerlappin
Member
Finished it last night and overall really enjoyed it. The twist ending wasnt really a twist as i had kinda guessed that
In a way i dont think it was intended to be a twist, more something you come to a dawning realization of as you play.
Overall it was a gorgeous, relaxing, interesting little game that i thoroughly enjoyed. Glad i bought it instead of Destiny, put it that way
Paul was another one of Ethans stories. Like you have this realistic world that suddenly sprouts fantasy elements like the elder-god or the astronaut, and they turn out to be just Ethans stories come to life, well whats more fantastical than a supernatural ghost detective?
Overall it was a gorgeous, relaxing, interesting little game that i thoroughly enjoyed. Glad i bought it instead of Destiny, put it that way
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Overall, sadly, I am not a fan of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. I wish I was, as a lot of the components that make up the whole are very attractive to me; it's gorgeous to look at, rich with atmosphere, and the heart of the mystery being told is compelling and interesting.
It's how these pieces come together that I struggle to agree with. The similarities to Gone Home in vision and structure are where I'd draw similarities: where Gone Home was immensely dense in content to investigate and a wealth of visual storytelling, Ethan Carter is a far more empty and lonely. And while this may have been deliberate, I feel too often it doesn't compliment the story being told, and instead results in a lot of wasted space. It borderlines on a neat story and vision confined to what kinda feels like a tech demo where Gone Home felt more like a complete, refined work of interactive narrative.
Maybe this goal of large open spaces and a lot of wandering is highly deliberate and my distaste totally subjective, where such empty space is highly valued by others. But there it is. I love what Ethan Carter wants to do and its highs are very high, but I feel there's a lot of wasted space and unnecessary openness that doesn't fully compliment or enhance the vision, and in many cases hinders it.
It's how these pieces come together that I struggle to agree with. The similarities to Gone Home in vision and structure are where I'd draw similarities: where Gone Home was immensely dense in content to investigate and a wealth of visual storytelling, Ethan Carter is a far more empty and lonely. And while this may have been deliberate, I feel too often it doesn't compliment the story being told, and instead results in a lot of wasted space. It borderlines on a neat story and vision confined to what kinda feels like a tech demo where Gone Home felt more like a complete, refined work of interactive narrative.
Maybe this goal of large open spaces and a lot of wandering is highly deliberate and my distaste totally subjective, where such empty space is highly valued by others. But there it is. I love what Ethan Carter wants to do and its highs are very high, but I feel there's a lot of wasted space and unnecessary openness that doesn't fully compliment or enhance the vision, and in many cases hinders it.
I was misled by it.
I realized pretty early on that the sleeper story was written and brought to life by Ethan as well. But I somehow assumed that he actually has some kind of power and that's why Prospero gets caught in all his stories, not that Prospero himself is not real. So I had it pinned more like a Matrix kind-of-story.
exmachina64
Banned
With budgets being the primary constraint, I was merely saying that budgets go further.
For example, an Eastern European company doing a U.S. Kickstarter and raising $400k.
Sodding_Gamer
Member
Finished it last night. Absolutely loved it. The world felt so alive. I spent about 8 hours on it I think. I spent a lot of that time just walking around and taking it all in, and taking screenshots lol.
I can't believe how good it looks. More games need to utilise that photo tech they used. I forget the name.
It feels like a game I will remember for quite some time. And I love the length of it to be honest. It's short but oh so sweet. There is no replay value but if this got Oculus support when the consumer version is eventually released it would be a perfect game to escape to and just wonder about when you've had a bad day!
I can't believe how good it looks. More games need to utilise that photo tech they used. I forget the name.
It feels like a game I will remember for quite some time. And I love the length of it to be honest. It's short but oh so sweet. There is no replay value but if this got Oculus support when the consumer version is eventually released it would be a perfect game to escape to and just wonder about when you've had a bad day!
FeiRR
Banned
Higher budget doesn't translate directly into better graphics, which I believe was the original question asked. It seems that the mapping technique Astronauts chose for their game works well for this genre. An 8-people studio could achieve such results in just 2 years which is very promising. Hopefully more games use it.
I also think that you don't have much insight into the cost of employment and living in a place like Warsaw, where their studio is located. It's not that low as you could've imagined. My friend's in the US on business right now and every day I read on his FB "xxx is so cheap here, I can't believe it".
Fantastapotamus
Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
Haven't played in a while and now I'm stuck (maybe) in the mines.
Do I have to go where the monsterman appears and shakes you a bit? Or is this something I need to do later? I'm not sure if I'm supposed to do something there or come back later, cause everytime monsterman shakes me the game starts with me facing away from the entrance.
I already met "Ethan" at the end of the game but I need to complete the "Stories" before truly finishing it and I'm not sure if this is one of them
I already met "Ethan" at the end of the game but I need to complete the "Stories" before truly finishing it and I'm not sure if this is one of them
exmachina64
Banned
Shit, you're right. Some stuff is cheaper, but this is basically a toss-up.
To my original point with regard to wanderingpros' comment:
My point was that if you were a developer in a lower cost area (not that this applies in Warsaw, apparently, which causes the whole thing to fall apart), the lower costs basically buy you more time to work on things like graphics (other things like talent and budget being equal).
This was an attempt at a counterpoint to wanderingpros making a remark, however seriously, about Eastern European developers' perceived graphical advantage.
CyclopsRock
Member
I always think it's a bit of a mistake in games like this for the Devs to tell you there's no combat. I'm totally down if there isn't any, but if you're investigating a bunch of spooky areas where there's at least one known killer on the loose, I think it'd be a more engrossing experience if you, like the character you're controlling, doesn't know if they're going to need to defend themselves.
CyanideFuse
Member
I am downloading the game now. Really looking forward to it and I have gone out my way to not read too much about the game as I want to be as uninformed as possible; the graphics do look amazing from the screen shots in this thread.
Damn broadband is so slow though.
Damn broadband is so slow though.
Bought this the other night, I love it so far.
Holy crap, its just gorgeous. I mean this is another level of texture work and atmosphere. We're this close to photorealism for large parts of it. The lighting, the textures, the environments, its all astonishingly convincing. I'm taking ages just pottering around looking at everything, admiring all the views, back tracking to see things from different angles; I'm in graphics whore heaven and I can't get enough.
The actual game, I'm enjoying very much. I like the pace of it and the peace and the slow build of atmosphere. I like the 'no hand holding' approach which means I'm uncovering the world and the story entirely myself at my own pace. At the very start
.
Although I've been stuck in places I've always been able to find the solution just by taking the time to look hard. Just finished
.
I like the way the elements you investigate ping off text 'thoughts' allowing you to locate items (or not if you want to scour every gloriously textured area).
My only mild criticism so far is putting the chronology in order for some of the events. It can feel a little trial and error where the tableau isn't quite expressive enough to tell you whats going on. Still works though and is an elegant way to tell the story I think.
And for anyone wondering how it runs, I'm running it on my laptop which consists of:
GTX660m
i7 3630qm
8Gb RAM
Its running at 1920x1080 with almost everything switched to high/enabled, ie the maximum settings allowable. All I've turned off is Ambient Occlusion (which I always turn off in every game ever as I genuinely can't see a difference and it really destroys frame rate) and I've dropped AA to FXAA. It runs not too badly on the default (2xSMAA is it?) but again, for the frame rate hit I'm happy with FXAA.
I'm getting around 30fps. I've not checked that, but it feels smooth enough to my eyes. I could drop some of the settings perhaps, but its a slow paced game so uber framerate isn't really needed for me.
I am getting the stuttering every so often, but its not catastrophic. I'll try the settings tweak posted a few pages back though, see if that eliminates it.
Well worth picking up. I loved Painkiller and Bulletstorm, this a total change of pace and direction but still brilliant.
Holy crap, its just gorgeous. I mean this is another level of texture work and atmosphere. We're this close to photorealism for large parts of it. The lighting, the textures, the environments, its all astonishingly convincing. I'm taking ages just pottering around looking at everything, admiring all the views, back tracking to see things from different angles; I'm in graphics whore heaven and I can't get enough.
The actual game, I'm enjoying very much. I like the pace of it and the peace and the slow build of atmosphere. I like the 'no hand holding' approach which means I'm uncovering the world and the story entirely myself at my own pace. At the very start
in the opening glade full of traps, I assuming if you didn't walk everywhere like I did, you might not find the last one which means you wouldn't complete the 'memory' so you wouldn't go to the area full of bones and read one of Ethan's short stories, so presumably you would just miss that entire snippet
Although I've been stuck in places I've always been able to find the solution just by taking the time to look hard. Just finished
the chronology with the dead Uncle and the crows etc, so off to find a way into the mines now
I like the way the elements you investigate ping off text 'thoughts' allowing you to locate items (or not if you want to scour every gloriously textured area).
My only mild criticism so far is putting the chronology in order for some of the events. It can feel a little trial and error where the tableau isn't quite expressive enough to tell you whats going on. Still works though and is an elegant way to tell the story I think.
And for anyone wondering how it runs, I'm running it on my laptop which consists of:
GTX660m
i7 3630qm
8Gb RAM
Its running at 1920x1080 with almost everything switched to high/enabled, ie the maximum settings allowable. All I've turned off is Ambient Occlusion (which I always turn off in every game ever as I genuinely can't see a difference and it really destroys frame rate) and I've dropped AA to FXAA. It runs not too badly on the default (2xSMAA is it?) but again, for the frame rate hit I'm happy with FXAA.
I'm getting around 30fps. I've not checked that, but it feels smooth enough to my eyes. I could drop some of the settings perhaps, but its a slow paced game so uber framerate isn't really needed for me.
I am getting the stuttering every so often, but its not catastrophic. I'll try the settings tweak posted a few pages back though, see if that eliminates it.
Well worth picking up. I loved Painkiller and Bulletstorm, this a total change of pace and direction but still brilliant.
So after the game randomly started crashing every 10 minutes after I completed
I could finish it. Bit sad since due to the terrible checkpoint system I was basically sprinting through the whole place to reach the next one. All in all I really liked it except for some minor annoyances (said checkpoint system, that fucking unnecessary
, the stuttering caused by the engine).
Will check out some story threads on the steam discussion board now, not quite sure about the ending.
the mines
jumpscare thing in the mines
Will check out some story threads on the steam discussion board now, not quite sure about the ending.
When you hear the noise and see the light, run away in the opposite direction, it's that simple. It barely chases you. Also it spawns is the same set locations that you'll notice after a while, so it's easy to avoid.
I've just watched some of the footage on Gamersyde and I'll throw it out there right now, this is one of the prettiest games I've seen. I'm pretty certain that just wandering around and admiring the views will double my play time.
Time to stop reading about this game and time to start downloading I think.
Time to stop reading about this game and time to start downloading I think.
I did find the open space a bit tedious when I was doing heavy backtracking to catch some things I missed -- I took 5 hours instead of the typical 3 hours.
However, I do think the open, lonely, vague atmosphere is intentional, and something I liked. If it were a tight experience instead I do not think I would have enjoyed it as much as the huge, middle-of-nowhere scale when you look across the lake and see somewhere you can get to. It's a place where Ethan is stuck growing up as a kid, and I think one of the other characters also made a comment about "At least [SOME NAME] got out of here."
So, I suspect that is both intentional and subjective -- some will enjoy it, as I did, and some will not, as in your case.
Finished the game! Really enjoyed it in the end. I didn't care very much for the empty spaces at first, but came to appreciate it. The high point of the game was the
, really brilliant.
In regards to the ending:
astronaut bit
In regards to the ending:
Does the newspaper clipping found in the "forest of traps" area describe what happens at the end of the game? Or is it about some earlier incident?
I very much enjoyed the game and as much as I love indie underdogs showing AAA up, it's not enough to propel me into fanboy stratosphere to even attempt to invalidate the points you made. The empty and lonely feel for me was part of the charm, I didn't feel disconnected when I was exploring those areas, but I know I fall outside of the bell curve of impressions most will have playing it.
It seems that it wouldn't have taken much to "bridge the gap" but I fear the reality is that it would have exponentially increased the cost and time of development sincw it's obvious Astronauts weren't willing to budge on compromising quality if they were to introduce more interactive elements into the game. The complaint of wasted space and unnecessary openness are probably compliments to the Astronauts dev team.
N
Noray
Unconfirmed Member
I largely agree, though I think I liked it a bit more than you did. I got pretty frustrated early on because I missed the "show me this item!" mechanic, because the game doesn't make it clear at all, and spent a good hour just wandering around wondering what it was I was missing. Also the ending is really not good, though I enjoyed the story and atmosphere leading up to that a lot, but the ending really stinks.
I feel like the devs maybe had more ambitious plans for the open world than they were able to realize. As it stands, it was gorgeous to look at, but made backtracking a huge pain in the ass.
Did you try that fix with baseEngine.ini ?
Don't know if this has been posted yet, but everyone who has finished the game needs to read this. HUGE END GAME SPOILERS http://steamcommunity.com/app/258520/discussions/0/616189106505896862/#c616189106659571220
ss_lemonade
Member
Is there no save key in this game? I just bought the game recently, played for a couple of minutes, enjoyed the sights, made it to some graveyard then quit for the day. Firing it up again, I find myself back in the beginning T_T
It autosaves, but it's a bit vague as to when it does it. I think it usually happens when you finish a case or something. There's no manual save.
A different bit. The article explains that the grandma, Gayle, died in that fire. I think it's also meant to show that's why Ed the grandpa started drinking, since the article says it might have been his fault that fire started.
Also, that place just has way too many fires going on.
Also, that place just has way too many fires going on.
That got rid of the constant microstutter, but I'm talking about the stutter that happens when new areas are loaded. Happens every 10-15 seconds if just running around
Enjoyable so far. As expected I spent far too long wandering off the beaten track admiring the sights, but there is a game in there somewhere. Not sure I like the audio dialogue too much, it feels somewhat at odds in a game that prides itself on no hand-holding.
Performance looks great on paper (60-80 fps outdoors at max settings with 4XMSAA) but was so stuttery I did a quick frametime benchmark which showed some frequent variances from <10 to >30 ms. Let's hope they smooth things out in an update.
Performance looks great on paper (60-80 fps outdoors at max settings with 4XMSAA) but was so stuttery I did a quick frametime benchmark which showed some frequent variances from <10 to >30 ms. Let's hope they smooth things out in an update.
wanderingprostheyltite
Member
Well I don't claim to know the economic situation in the area aside from knowing the Ukrainian ones tend to have it the roughest, in particular 4A Games. If some of Last Light's development stories are true, a lot of those guys were working in poor conditions, sometimes with the power going out, while the studio head rolled up in a sports car to work every day while most of the devs weren't making that much at all. I think somebody maybe cliffyb called them out on what a show of strength the team had to complete a game of that quality with the constraints they were working under. Seems like it was a miracle they managed to pull together a game like that together if the situation was as bad as was reported.
Did you try the baseEngine.ini fix? I didn't have any stutter that I noticed aside from loading, but that change might help non-loading stutter. I think the loading stutter is Unreal itself, but I thought it took more than 10-15 seconds to cross a region before reaching another to load.
