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Firewatch |OT| With Me
- Thread starter Lunar FC
- Start date
DeathSparks
Member
Yep I'm still enjoying it my second time around, even found the Henry Player Model
I went back and walked around and made a quick video:
https://youtu.be/kW1_eSb2sho
Its like there is no light behind the background and foreground so it just looks like one block. I don't really know how to explain it.. The pillars at walls are the same block of grey. I went on youtube to look at some walk throughs to check I am not crazy.
Maybe I am crazy??
shawnoftheshred
Member
Some noticeable slow down in a few parts, but the game isn't really one that suffers from it from a gameplay standpoint.
Messofanego
Banned
Still need to finish this. Love all the animation work by James Benson, get a kick out of first person acting.
CitizenCope
Member
Was just thinking recently I want to finally get around to buying and playing this game. Good timing if indeed the patch is decent.
You're not crazy, it's probably because some people were fooling around not getting in the truck. I guess they've tuned the lighting to put more emphasis on where to go / what to do next.
Shift Breaker
Member
Sweet. Once Free Roam comes out I'll redownload it and go through it and the audio tour all in one fell swoop.
shawnoftheshred
Member
Bought this game last night at around 6pm and finished it more or less one sitting (minus a dinner break and a break to play 3 games of NHL 17). Really, really enjoyed it. Excellent voice acting, really dug most of the story beats (one minor quibble) and most of all, thought the pacing and length of the game were perfect. Hoping these folks make something similar soon!
There's another tiny PS4 update coming in the next day to fix a bug with the map texture glitching out for some players. I believe it also adds the ability to hide the reticule ("minimal hud" in the settings menu). There will also be another PS4 update sometime in the near future to add in free roam mode.
DeathSparks
Member
Just beat Firewatch again, the second run was just as good as the first
Apparently there is a secret ending where the Helicopter leaves you
This tiny PS4 patch is up. The map should not be mysteriously low res on PS4 anymore, also we got the 5 extra trophies approved that were added to Steam and Xbox the other day. So bonus trophies yay. (No still no plat.)
I just beat the game. Great atmosphere, incredible voice acting, and I loved the music. With literally every step forward I liked the game more and more, at about 80% of the way through I was convinced this was one of my top games of this gen. Spoilers:
But then it just fell off a fucking cliff for me. At first I just thought this was an enjoyable jaunt. "life in the wild". Then the M. Night Shamalan-esque mysteries start.
-Some random dude is outside near your tower? Who could that be? D just brushes it off as normal.
-Girls tent destroyed and they think it's you.
-The girls disappear. Is there a murderer on the loose? Is it related to that guy? Are you being framed?
-Random abandoned cabin in the woods. D says nothing about it when you question her. Weird.
-Strange notes found all over the place.
-The locked fence in the cave.
-Why is my wifes photo face down every morning? Is it me or is someone in my cabin?
-The weird chainlinked fenced area that D has no idea what it is
-The stories about Ned/Brian disappearing
-You find out someone is listening on coms. Get a tape with your conversations.
-D sometimes seems like she doesn't believe you. Sometimes she is panicking.
By the time I get the axe and replacement walkie I'm in full blown panic mode. I've flip flopped through a ton of different scenarios in my head. Is a deranged murder in the woods killing people? Is there someone trying to frame me for the murder? Is D in on it? Maybe I'm the one with dementia and this is all in my head? Maybe something supernatural is happening? Heck, when D was acting all chipper on coms the next day I was convinced that she had been 'replaced' in some sort of stepford-wifes like fashion.
-I break into the chained off area and find high tech equipment (for the 80s). Transcripts of D and Me. Profiles of us (and 2 others). We are being followed, monitored, and evaluated? Wtf? At this point, I straight up think I'm in the Truman show or maybe this is like the movie Oblivion. Fire gets started and I'm a straight up wreck.
And then...you find out it was pretty much nothing. Literally the worst possible explanation for everything. It immediately deflated the experience for me, and somewhat invalidated my first 80% of the game. It sucks man. I didn't realize an ending could have such a negative experience to me, but here I am. They could've said it was aliens and it would have been better, or keep it grounded and just have it so D is framing you for the little boy's murder or something. It's mindblowing how little payoff there was. It almost feels deceitful to have built up such grand expectations when this was the actual ending.
-Some random dude is outside near your tower? Who could that be? D just brushes it off as normal.
-Girls tent destroyed and they think it's you.
-The girls disappear. Is there a murderer on the loose? Is it related to that guy? Are you being framed?
-Random abandoned cabin in the woods. D says nothing about it when you question her. Weird.
-Strange notes found all over the place.
-The locked fence in the cave.
-Why is my wifes photo face down every morning? Is it me or is someone in my cabin?
-The weird chainlinked fenced area that D has no idea what it is
-The stories about Ned/Brian disappearing
-You find out someone is listening on coms. Get a tape with your conversations.
-D sometimes seems like she doesn't believe you. Sometimes she is panicking.
By the time I get the axe and replacement walkie I'm in full blown panic mode. I've flip flopped through a ton of different scenarios in my head. Is a deranged murder in the woods killing people? Is there someone trying to frame me for the murder? Is D in on it? Maybe I'm the one with dementia and this is all in my head? Maybe something supernatural is happening? Heck, when D was acting all chipper on coms the next day I was convinced that she had been 'replaced' in some sort of stepford-wifes like fashion.
-I break into the chained off area and find high tech equipment (for the 80s). Transcripts of D and Me. Profiles of us (and 2 others). We are being followed, monitored, and evaluated? Wtf? At this point, I straight up think I'm in the Truman show or maybe this is like the movie Oblivion. Fire gets started and I'm a straight up wreck.
And then...you find out it was pretty much nothing. Literally the worst possible explanation for everything. It immediately deflated the experience for me, and somewhat invalidated my first 80% of the game. It sucks man. I didn't realize an ending could have such a negative experience to me, but here I am. They could've said it was aliens and it would have been better, or keep it grounded and just have it so D is framing you for the little boy's murder or something. It's mindblowing how little payoff there was. It almost feels deceitful to have built up such grand expectations when this was the actual ending.
Well I didn't like the ending either, but, in the context of the game it's perfect.
Like Henry you imagine all these insane, exciting, paranoid possibilities, only for the truth to be far more mundane, ordinary and sad.
Also Henry, like the boy's father who reacted by not dealing with his son's death, is doing the same with Julia his partner, he's not dealing with it.
I guess the lesson for Henry and the player, is that you have to deal with things and move on or change, or else you'll fall into darkness and despair.
Also Henry, like the boy's father who reacted by not dealing with his son's death, is doing the same with Julia his partner, he's not dealing with it.
I guess the lesson for Henry and the player, is that you have to deal with things and move on or change, or else you'll fall into darkness and despair.
A bit late but thanks for this.
I don't need many excuses to jump back into this game but having a full audio tour (and upcoming free-roam) is simply amazing. I can't remember a game that has given me such a feeling of relaxation as Firewatch did. It's great that the developers are adding these really cool features.
Don't know about the res, but it looks decent. Frame rate is pretty bad though. If you turned too quickly or moved too fast the game would hitch for a second or two and then begin again. If this was anything other than a 'walking simulator' it would be completely unplayable.
Nico_D
Member
For me the immersion was the thing. The game made me feel what Henry was feeling, which was those things you described, which is why I didn't have any problem with the ending. One of the best indies I've played.
If a game makes me FEEL, I think it has succeeded.
I guess I just don't buy that as the counter to why the ending is the way that it is. The journey starts just as you both described.
Mundane, not dealing with things, immersive in the environment. But then the roller coaster with no payoff.
DeathSparks
Member
HUGE News, Campo Santo is teaming up with Good Universe to bring Firewatch to the big screen
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/good-universe-campo-santo-team-932558
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/good-universe-campo-santo-team-932558
disappeared
Banned
Bought it tonight, finished it in one sitting.
My game of 2016, absolutely no contest.
I played with no music, were the credits silent for you guys or was there a song?
Dead silence at the end.
Good lord what a fantastic experience.
My game of 2016, absolutely no contest.
I played with no music, were the credits silent for you guys or was there a song?
Dead silence at the end.
Good lord what a fantastic experience.
User 479360
Banned
I bought it at launch, but didn't get playing it until the other day, when my Internet was down and most of my games wouldn't work. I'd been meaning to play it for quite some time, and it was at the top of my to-play when I have time list, so I'm glad I sat down and played it.
I completed it in one sitting, as well, but I took a couple of breaks on the dash and had to go upstairs once or twice.
Overall? I liked it. It's a really solid game. It got a bit repetitive, with all of the walking, and I didn't like getting lost (got good at using the map later on, didn't really look at it much at first or realize how helpful it'd be). The ending twist could have been much more, but it's a really impressive/beautiful game.
I couldn't update it, so I had some technical problems to deal with and fell through the map into oblivion. One time I froze in place and had to reload. But, of course, this was without a patch.
I completed it in one sitting, as well, but I took a couple of breaks on the dash and had to go upstairs once or twice.
Overall? I liked it. It's a really solid game. It got a bit repetitive, with all of the walking, and I didn't like getting lost (got good at using the map later on, didn't really look at it much at first or realize how helpful it'd be). The ending twist could have been much more, but it's a really impressive/beautiful game.
I couldn't update it, so I had some technical problems to deal with and fell through the map into oblivion. One time I froze in place and had to reload. But, of course, this was without a patch.
The performance issues towards the end of the game when things got intense story wise REALLY harmed my experience, to the point I was frustrated with it.
GOTY contendor but stuttering and freezing frame rates when you're really immersed just gets in the way. It's such a shame.
I compare the awful frame rate at times to watching a high quality movie stream and then it stops for a second or two to buffer.
I hope it's fixed for the Xbox One release.
GOTY contendor but stuttering and freezing frame rates when you're really immersed just gets in the way. It's such a shame.
I compare the awful frame rate at times to watching a high quality movie stream and then it stops for a second or two to buffer.
I hope it's fixed for the Xbox One release.
disappeared
Banned
I played it on xb1. There was the occasional stutter to load in areas but that was it. I had zero frame rate issues and I was locked to my TV for five straight hours. Playing the game I thought I remembered people having issues with the ps4 version and all I could think was, "well they're fixed in this version."
User 479360
Banned
Good to hear the X1 version is fixed.
The Lone Courier
Member
I love a game that has a commentary track. Can't wait to play again.
Thank you! It appeared in the game kind of by accident - the Audio Tour kiosks were an idea I had ages ago and did a crappy sketch of in my notebook, and then found I had time to model it between answering tech support tickets and fixing bugs in the month after the game launched. Then we kept building from there! I'm very proud of the Audio Tour as a shipped piece of work, even though it's basically just a little extra feature attached to the end of a mug bigger project.
Edit: Found the sketch, apparently it's from a year ago yesterday. It also reveals my amazing art skills.
Noticed when I started playing (PC version) that the mouse was flickering in and out of the center of the screen, which was incredibly annoying. Doesn't matter if Full Screen/Vsync are on or off, playing with controller or M/K, it's just there. Not sure if this started after the most recent patches.
figured out a workaround by (temporarily) changing the mouse pointer, which works well enough.
Noticed when I started playing (PC version) that the mouse was flickering in and out of the center of the screen, which was incredibly annoying. Doesn't matter if Full Screen/Vsync are on or off, playing with controller or M/K, it's just there. Not sure if this started after the most recent patches.
figured out a workaround by (temporarily) changing the mouse pointer, which works well enough.
This should be fixed if you switch to the public beta branch (I'm pretty sure), and will be pushed live to everyone in the next couple days.
Hey guys just dropping in to excitedly plug the Firewatch vinyl soundtrack album we released today. It was in manufacturing way longer than I expected it to be but it's done now and we're really proud of it.
(It comes with a download card containing codes to get MP3/FLAC/WAV/etc versions from both Bandcamp and Steam, too)
(It comes with a download card containing codes to get MP3/FLAC/WAV/etc versions from both Bandcamp and Steam, too)
Wowfunhappy
Member
So I kind of want to get thisI've hovered over the buy button on GOG more than oncebut I'm very concerned about one thing: apparently, the protagonist isn't mute.
I feel like having a character who never speaks of his/her own accord is crucial to the feeling of immersion that these first-person-narrative games attempt to provide. It's the reason why Valve used mute characters in the Half Life and Portal games.
I'm not sure what my question is... can anyone explain why having a non-mute character works in this game, assuming it does?
I feel like having a character who never speaks of his/her own accord is crucial to the feeling of immersion that these first-person-narrative games attempt to provide. It's the reason why Valve used mute characters in the Half Life and Portal games.
I'm not sure what my question is... can anyone explain why having a non-mute character works in this game, assuming it does?
The interaction between the main characters is central to this game, and the writing and voice acting and both good. There are a some choices you can make along the way which may or may not effect things (ala Telltale) but allow you to shape the experience and inhabit the character a bit. It worked for me because it was well done and the character was reasonably well drawn and believable. Outside of that there aren't really arguments unique to this game as to whether non-mute characters will work for you.
CheesecakeRecipe
Stormy Grey
The game's central mechanic focuses on the discussions you have with the other radio tower operator, Delilah. Not only does the game benefit from sharp writing, but actually hearing the banter spoken by the voice talent gives their conversations a natural, fluid feel. Goes a long way towards setting the game apart from some of its contemporaries in the First Person Narrative genre. The chemistry between H and D's performances would evaporate in an instant of the other character never audibly spoke.
Valve's use of mute characters works only because everyone else around the player speaks for them, which functions on a fundamental level, but won't work for every kind of story that devs want to tell. There's a pretty good reason why most devs have moved away from the mute protagonist, Valve included. Left 4 Dead 1/2 contained an obscene amount of dialog for each playable character, and showed that even they understood that being mute wasn't the only way to do things, you know?
You're role playing as the specific person who is the protagonist of Firewatch; he's not just a floating camera-orb-player-cipher the way a Valve protagonist is. Which isn't to say that approach is bad - it's really good in fact - but the feeling is different. When people talk about Firewatch, I've noticed they tend to use "My Henry"/"Henry"/"me" almost interchangeably, which I think is interesting and cool.
So I bit the bullet and bought the game on Xbox after already playing it on PC because I wanted my partner to experience the story of this game even if I have heard of some technical problems. However it's worse than I would have ever thought.
The game is extremely blurry, VERY jaggy, constantly stutters and hitches, and the shadows and view distance are ATROCIOUS, the grass pops in mere metres in front of the player! A huge appeal of this game to me was the beautiful world and art, considering I have a PC that's not much more powerful than an Xbox One I'm shocked at the Xbox version after playing the game at 1080p max settings.
This is honestly an embarrassing port by the developer, when much older Unity games like Dear Esther can be a full 1080p 60fps without a hitch, look so much better than this I don't know wha's going wrong. Something is definitely up with the way the world is being rendered. There's also a number of weird hitching in transitions in the story that weren't in the PC version when I played, at the end of each day or transition the game pauses for half a second before cutting to black, as if it's loading the loading screen!?! This is an issue I saw in another thread complaining about the Xbox One problems...
At the very least I would like to see the weird hitches and stutters fixed and some of the Temporal AntiAliasing that's been added to the Unity SDK recently to smooth out these jaggies. Isn't this game 1080p on PS4? How is it so low resolution on Xbox One? Doesn't even look near 900p, more like 720p. This is easily the worst looking Xbox game I've play so far, and I think the PC game is one of the absolute best looking games I've played so that's saying something.
Sorry for the rant but as a lover of this game, as someone who preordered the game on Steam and played the day it came out, and as someone that's willing to double dip so more people can experience this wonderful game I'm just appalled at the Xbox One release. It shouldn't have been released in this state. Very disappointing
EDIT: Also I can't help but notice that when the PS4 version was a mess it got extensive coverage from Digital Foundry and a lot of the issues were promptly fixed, but there's been no technical coverage of the Xbox version. Is anything only ever fixed if it's made widely known and covered or is the Xbox player base so small that we really don't matter?
The game is extremely blurry, VERY jaggy, constantly stutters and hitches, and the shadows and view distance are ATROCIOUS, the grass pops in mere metres in front of the player! A huge appeal of this game to me was the beautiful world and art, considering I have a PC that's not much more powerful than an Xbox One I'm shocked at the Xbox version after playing the game at 1080p max settings.
This is honestly an embarrassing port by the developer, when much older Unity games like Dear Esther can be a full 1080p 60fps without a hitch, look so much better than this I don't know wha's going wrong. Something is definitely up with the way the world is being rendered. There's also a number of weird hitching in transitions in the story that weren't in the PC version when I played, at the end of each day or transition the game pauses for half a second before cutting to black, as if it's loading the loading screen!?! This is an issue I saw in another thread complaining about the Xbox One problems...
At the very least I would like to see the weird hitches and stutters fixed and some of the Temporal AntiAliasing that's been added to the Unity SDK recently to smooth out these jaggies. Isn't this game 1080p on PS4? How is it so low resolution on Xbox One? Doesn't even look near 900p, more like 720p. This is easily the worst looking Xbox game I've play so far, and I think the PC game is one of the absolute best looking games I've played so that's saying something.
Sorry for the rant but as a lover of this game, as someone who preordered the game on Steam and played the day it came out, and as someone that's willing to double dip so more people can experience this wonderful game I'm just appalled at the Xbox One release. It shouldn't have been released in this state. Very disappointing
EDIT: Also I can't help but notice that when the PS4 version was a mess it got extensive coverage from Digital Foundry and a lot of the issues were promptly fixed, but there's been no technical coverage of the Xbox version. Is anything only ever fixed if it's made widely known and covered or is the Xbox player base so small that we really don't matter?
petethepanda
Member
(Edit: I'll just contact support. Really digging the game so far.)
Man Called Aerodynamics
Member
Just played through this for the first time. Didn't like it that much, honestly. Henry and Delilah never grabbed me as characters, and I did get a little caught up in the mystery aspect-- only for that to come to absolutely nothing.
Gone Home executed this same basic idea about a million times better.
Some very nice scenery, though there were some weird hitches and slowdowns in the Xbox One version.
This whole weird stalking/spying/psychological profiling operation was perpetrated by one guy... just because? They established that he was a weird hermit but like there was not even an attempt to explain why he would become obsessed with Henry and Delilah and visit this entire elaborate scheme to terrorize them... Tbh I would have been happier if the explanation had ended up being something cliche like aliens or a government conspiracy or just something.
Gone Home executed this same basic idea about a million times better.
Some very nice scenery, though there were some weird hitches and slowdowns in the Xbox One version.
-Stranger-
Junior Member
Just bought this for XB1.
Was wondering is there still any performance issues?
Was wondering is there still any performance issues?