dr_rus
Member
It runs on Unreal Engine 3.
So anything with a CPU should run it reasonably well I'd say.
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The Vanishing of Ethan Carter |OT| A first person murder mystery (PC)
- Thread starter peakish
- Start date
It runs on Unreal Engine 3.
So anything with a CPU should run it reasonably well I'd say.
the_firewithin
Member
cant wait!
this wont have a preload will it?
this wont have a preload will it?
CheesecakeRecipe
Stormy Grey
Probably not. The devs have yet to have a "gold" build with two days left to launch, working on bugs and polish until the last possible minute. Likewise, Steam keys for purchasers might not be ready until launch hour. We'll have to see.
Messofanego
Banned
Nyteshade517
Member
I am tempted to pre-order...I won't be able to play for a couple weeks but this has my attention now
The Illiterati
Member
With some games(very few) I just have to buy them because the style of game they represent is either so new or in a direction I would like more designers to explore. This is one of them. I wouldn't say the gameplay or subject looks revolutionary, but I'm hoping the level of subtlety and sophistication is a notch above.
Shrike Alvaron
Member
Even just the thread title hits all the right buttons. Reading more and seeing that it's open world? Instant preorder.
Hell, I'm going even farther. This will be one of the very few games I go into completely blind. I'm not looking up any previews or streams or anything. This is reminding me of Myst and Ether One, and these types of atmosphere-drive adventure games are always best when you know absolutely nothing about them. I recommend others who are interested in this type of game do so too and pity those who watched TB's stream (though from the sound of it, it looked good?)
Hell, I'm going even farther. This will be one of the very few games I go into completely blind. I'm not looking up any previews or streams or anything. This is reminding me of Myst and Ether One, and these types of atmosphere-drive adventure games are always best when you know absolutely nothing about them. I recommend others who are interested in this type of game do so too and pity those who watched TB's stream (though from the sound of it, it looked good?)
I was interested already, but the soundtrack sample (http://ethancartergame.com/#ECpreorder) probably pushed me over the edge. I went ahead and preordered.
Some other cool links for anyone unfamiliar with the game or its technology:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/03/26/vanishing-of-ethan-carter-scanning-tech/
http://www.theastronauts.com/2014/03/visual-revolution-vanishing-ethan-carter/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwe6UFGvCS4 (trailer)
Some other cool links for anyone unfamiliar with the game or its technology:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/03/26/vanishing-of-ethan-carter-scanning-tech/
http://www.theastronauts.com/2014/03/visual-revolution-vanishing-ethan-carter/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwe6UFGvCS4 (trailer)
While I am highly interested in it, I do want to see if it can live up to the hype and its own presentation.. that it ends up a good game. But I also want to stay spoiler-free. Hopefully folks here can give me some good first impressions that will make me bite the bullet before the weekend.
Any idea how long the game is supposed to be?
Any idea how long the game is supposed to be?
cheezcake
Member
I don't think that info is out. But considering its a story-driven indie for $20 I would guess not very.
Messofanego
Banned
Played Ether One recently, really liked it and want to get back to it.
TheTurboFD
Member
I just wanted to ask, is this game like Dear esther where we just listen to the story or are there actual puzzles and things to do besides walking a set path?
There's more to the game than that. The video in the OP offers some insight into what to expect from the gameplay.
To me it's very annoying if there are animations for everything like picking up items in FPS games, because to me the act of moving the courser and clicking on something equals touching it and picking it up and it helps me feel like I'm the one interacting with the game world and not watching some puppet human I'm controlling if that even makes sense.
For instance I really hated how I had to wait for animations to everything in Outlast as opposed to just being quick and to the point in Amnesia. To me it's the opposite where having the animations ruins my immersion in the game. It makes me less connected to the world as a player. If I wanted my protagonist to feel very real I'd rather play it as a TPS
Messofanego
Banned
I've always wondered if people liked or hated in Crysis where you pick up every single ammo drop through an animation. But I guess you got enough ammo and it'd be something you'd only do after a fight is done.
On full body awareness: the games where it makes most sense story-wise not to show parts of the body is stuff like Dear Esther or Mind and any surreal/dreamlike/ghostly game. Full body awareness in a First Person Platformer is kind of essential to me, Lemma, Mirror's Edge, etc.
CheesecakeRecipe
Stormy Grey
I've always wondered if people liked or hated in Crysis where you pick up every single ammo drop through an animation. But I guess you got enough ammo and it'd be something you'd only do after a fight is done.
On full body awareness: the games where it makes most sense story-wise not to show parts of the body is stuff like Dear Esther or Mind and any surreal/dreamlike/ghostly game. Full body awareness in a First Person Platformer is kind of essential to me, Lemma, Mirror's Edge, etc.
I always felt like Crysis had a great middle-man approach to it. The animations were super quick but were still there to give you that sense of physicality. I don't like the way some of them snap into his hands, but for the most part it still works.
I do however love the slower approach some games had. Breakdown for the Xbox featured pretty elaborate animations for everything from pickups, punches, reloads to full on wrestling maneuvers and eating a cheeseburger. It's just incredibly hard to get right in something faster than Dear Esther or Mind. Mirror's Edge is a great case though, wouldn't have been the same without seeing Faith's body reacting to the game world.
ashecitism
Member
Yeah to me it can result in less responsiveness depending on the game. The instantaneous feeling gets lost, because now there's an extra layer in form of a canned animation. Or if it's fast enough it can look awkward like that Crysis gif.
Take Half-Life for example. Lots of people criticize it for being floaty camera, but it's deeply rooted in Quake and if you implement proper body awareness those Quake things gets lost. Watch these vids. They look good, but not sure how well all of them would translate to the actual gameplay, like the vent crawling.
Or imagine if CS got a body and animation overhaul. That would shake up the whole scene massively and probably not in a good way.
Or as I said earlier, pretty sure there are also budget concerns. Or how much your animators have to work extra for it. And potential memory constraints. In HL2 you can interact with many things. Pick up cups, cans, crates, bricks, you can throw them, you can shove tables, you can mess around with the swing etc. Lots of interactivity. Now imagine if Valve implemented proper body awareness with animations, they would have to make different animations for all those things if they don't want to half-ass it. Would have to be a lot of extra work for which is not even that essential for gameplay. I imagine this might be one the reasons many modern games lack environmental activity. You can press "E" to pick up a weapon and you get an animation, but you can't even pick up a can in-game. Even in TLoU from what I saw you can only interact with things which have a button prompt above them.
Not that I wouldn't mind some body awareness. Liked it in Mirror's Edge, Riddick etc. And if in the next HL you could at least see your body and feet then I would be fine with it, but lack of proper hand animations won't bother me and never did.
Messofanego
Banned
Fucking Breakdown, such a weird thing. Still have my OG Xbox, so might have to hunt that game down sometime. Maybe because those lead developers were behind fighting games like Tekken and Soul Calibur, wanted to make a first person fighting game? Like, first person backflips and cartwheels.
Oculus Rift that shit and puke your brains out.
Visualante2
Member
Really unsure what the goals of this game are so I'm going to wait on reviews. But the price and overall idea is so refreshing it is hard not to be interested.
Messofanego
Banned
Funny you mention Half Life, James Benson is an animator who did short films where he gave the games full body awareness (not actually playable, just an animation), and now he's been picked up by Campo Santo to do Firewatch. I bet animators love this stuff, which is why you see it with Killzone 2 trailer or other concept demos.
But yeah, all those environment interactions would be reduced if there were animations for everything. Although Firewatch has quite a lot of animations...
Messofanego
Banned
Preload a few hours before release
SolidSnakeUS
Member
Awesome. That's a hell of a decompress though.
I'm expecting that sort of thing is it -- there's no combat, so finding activation points to move the story forwards, point and click style, is presumably the idea.
As long as the scenery looks nice and the soundtrack is good I'll probably be fine with that.
On the other hand, I'm also looking forward to The Witness for some Myst-style puzzles, though they may be way too complicated for me to solve.
ashecitism
Member
exmachina64
Banned
Pre-ordered. It better be good.
Fallout-with-swords
Banned
Is there a PS4 release date? This game looks up my ally!
Other than an old gif that someone posted here long time ago (about the train and the flora), and the most recent Steam video, I literarily have not checked anything else in this game.
But, the price is right, love mystery/detective games and the video had that -something-, that just made me purchase it. Don't even care if ended up dissappointing me. Just have to support these kind of efforts.
But, the price is right, love mystery/detective games and the video had that -something-, that just made me purchase it. Don't even care if ended up dissappointing me. Just have to support these kind of efforts.
exmachina64
Banned
Nope, just a "soon" expectation.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
I know that, I picked HL for a reason and I did link that video in the post
don't take it personally, Messofanego will take any opportunity to post gifs of games he recommends, no matter how tangibly related they are to topic at hand
Big Takeover
Member
macfoshizzle
Member
wow so this is an open world game? how big is the world btw? i'm such a sucker for open world games.. i think by now, all games like this, FPS, 3rd person, should be open world.
Andrew Korenchkin
Member
I'm anxious for this. Adrian has some pretty intriguing views on making games. I also can't wait to check this out due to the fact that it's written by Tom Bissell.
wanderingprostheyltite
Member
Interested but hearing about TB's troubles solving puzzles gives me hesitation. I do like a good mystery game wrapped around a Dear Esther type feel, I just hope the learning curve for puzzles isn't too steep throughout.
Shrike Alvaron
Member
I'm not watching his video because of wanting to go in blind, but from what I hear the troubles were more due to TB apparently not being all that observant and perhaps being distracted since he WAS in a stream. If you take your time to look around and pay attention to the environment, I feel it should be fine.
I wouldn't worry too much about that. Nothing against TB, but he's admitted before he doesn't particularly enjoy adventure games nor is he very good at them.
ninja'd
jacksepticeye
Member
Out so soon? Had no idea
wanderingprostheyltite
Member
OK that makes it seem not so bad, if it's more environmental awareness and less Riven level puzzles I think I'll be fine, otherwise I'll be needing a guide!
Alternatively, you can purchase it from GOG.com (amazing site) or directly from the developers via Paypal or Amazon payment.
DJSebolski
Member
Just pre-ordered. Can't wait.
Messofanego
Banned
TB has often said and showed how bad he is at puzzle or adventure games compared to regular players, so I wouldn't worry too much other than being attentive.
Wait, Tom Bissell is writing this?! That makes me more hyped.
I am indeed like that. Should have a tag of gif whore.