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Giant Bomb #14 | I'll Never Forget This!

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Archaix

Drunky McMurder
Yeah... The is the only part of that article that surprised me. We deal with PC Compat testing all the time, this is the first time I hear of a publisher not doing it because they are afraid that the story might get spoiled... This is so stupid.


Edit: I see that Patrick fixed the "Fall 2015" part of the article too... Good.

It was that, and the claim that they did their testing at 720P. Really? That's the image they have of the PC audience in their mind? People less concerned about resolution than console players?


And I thought I was a bit insane about spoilers....

It's astonishing, especially because the two major spoilers in Arkham Knight are
THE FUCKING JOKER IS FUCKING BACK AFUCKINGGAIN
and the big reveal that they apparently telegraph from miles away.
 
Speaking of spoilers:Anyone feel like spoiling Arkham Knight for me? Not interested enough to play the game, just want to know who the Knight is.

Jason Todd or Gordon?(long shot, but a couple things I saw made me think it was possible)
 

Fantastapotamus

Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
Yes, Bloodborne. I enjoyed it a lot more than Demon's Souls.

Blood Borne is still just "another one" of those games. Like, I think the game is amazing but it still feels like "just" another Souls game. Which is why I'm kinda not looking forward to Dark Souls 3. Putting out a Souls-like every year destroys the vibe for me.

Speaking of spoilers:Anyone feel like spoiling Arkham Knight for me? Not interested enough to play the game, just want to know who the Knight is.

Jason Todd or Gordon?(long shot, but a couple things I saw made me think it was possible)

The former. And the game is not that subtle about it.
Here is a big spoiler: THE STORY IN ARKHAM KNIGHT IS NOT THAT GREAT. This is actually the weakest story of all the games, simply because 75% of the missions didn't take place in any interesting environments but instead you were just doing what you do all the time in the open world. I miss the carefully constructed rooms and set-pieces of Arkham Asylum....
 
Speaking of spoilers:Anyone feel like spoiling Arkham Knight for me? Not interested enough to play the game, just want to know who the Knight is.

Jason Todd or Gordon?(long shot, but a couple things I saw made me think it was possible)

Shit if it had been the latter that would have been a fucking amazing story.
 
Blood Borne is still just "another one" of those games. Like, I think the game is amazing but it still feels like "just" another Souls game. Which is why I'm kinda not looking forward to Dark Souls 3. Putting out a Souls-like every year destroys the vibe for me.

The former. And the game is not that subtle about it.
Here is a big spoiler: THE STORY IN ARKHAM KNIGHT IS NOT THAT GREAT.

Thanks.
Kind of a bummer tbh, thought that was the only way it could go immediately on first reveal of the game.

Shit if it had been the latter that would have been a fucking amazing story.

Well the stuff in the quick look and a couple other things made me think it was possible.
Plus with the new spin on the batman comics we kind of have a precedent of Gordon being more involved, so why not just a different angle on it? Thought it would have made sense and been interesting.
 
Speaking of spoilers:Anyone feel like spoiling Arkham Knight for me? Not interested enough to play the game, just want to know who the Knight is.

Jason Todd or Gordon?(long shot, but a couple things I saw made me think it was possible)
In the podcast thread, I took a guess and got it right on my first try. From what I could gather, it's pretty obvious that it's
a former Robin, likely Todd. And the story is basically just Rocksteady's version of the Red Hood storyline.

I mean, I don't know how anyone wouldn't guess that almost immediately but I suppose there are folks who are more oblivious than I am.
 
In the podcast thread, I took a guess and got it right on my first try. From what I could gather, it's pretty obvious that it's
a former Robin, likely Todd. And the story is basically just Rocksteady's version of the Red Hood storyline.

I mean, I don't know how anyone wouldn't guess that almost immediately but I suppose there are folks who are more oblivious than I am.

Considering there's a whole section bashing your face in to the identity of the person about midway through the game, and then waiting to near the final act to do the BIG REVEAL, you would have to be pretty oblivious.
 

Fantastapotamus

Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
lol really? I know nothing about the game and that's who I thought it was

good thing they went to such extremes to keep that a secret

I don't know this person since I don't read comics because I'm super cool, but at some point the game is VERY aggressively telling you who that person is, making it incredibly obvious that there is more to him/her. Like, very, very, very obvious. Like painfully "oh my god, please let the main character come to very obvious conclusion already" obvious.
 

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
I'm going to guess that there are a good number of people playing the arkham games where they've only consumed batman media from the games and the films.
 

Scizzy

Member
While the identity of the Knight WAS obvious, there were really only three options given the plot of the games:
Jason Todd, the Joker, and Talia
. The first choice was obvious and the middle choice would have been awful. Third one would have been cool though.

Re: Patrick's article - I'd be shocked if Dave Lang or any other prominent Iron Galaxy were a source for him. Given their position in the industry, they NEED to maintain good relations with major publishers and be good, or at least quiet, soldiers.
 

Fantastapotamus

Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
I kinda dislike Austin in the Sunset quick look. He just sounds like an apologist for the game.

It feels like a lot of people are willing to overlook a lot of obvious flaws with this game simply because it's "different". With that said, I didn't feel like Austin sounded that apologetic in the QL.

While the identity of the Knight WAS obvious, there were really only three options given the plot of the games:
Jason Todd, the Joker, and Talia
. The first choice was obvious and the middle choice would have been awful. Third one would have been cool though.

I had to look up who
Talia
is because she is mentioned multiple times in the game and I completely forgot everything about that character despite playing Arkham City. Wasn't there a section where you flew around some dream desert? Am I imagining this?
 
I kinda dislike Austin in the Sunset quick look. He just sounds like an apologist for the game.

I get the feeling is his critiquing with kid gloves more than apologist. Instead of finding the stupid (like the Harry Potter Quicklook) and celebrating it, they talk about it like you praise/comment a child's drawing which somehow feels worse.

The Quicklook was simply boring.
 
I get the feeling is his critiquing with kid gloves more than apologist. Instead of finding the stupid (like the Harry Potter Quicklook) and celebrating it, they talk about it like you praise/comment a child's drawing which somehow feels worse.

The Quicklook was simply boring.

Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. He threw softballs at it.
 
Yeah, Austin was super soft on Sunset and how insufferably that protagonist is written, also totally not seeing how broken it is - i.e. around 10:30 when Austin is wondering how information is relayed to the protagionist they comment on later - it shows up either way but you're supposed to get it digging through the environment, but if you don't the game proceeds with the assumption you did.

Also you can "complete" it by standing in the elevator and forcing the story to proceed and skip wandering around a poorly rendered environment using default Unity shaders with the occasional fade out to white.
 

Fantastapotamus

Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
Yeah, Austin was super soft on Sunset and how insufferably that protagonist is written, also totally not seeing how broken it is - i.e. around 10:30 when Austin is wondering how information is relayed to the protagionist they comment on later - it shows up either way but you're supposed to get it digging through the environment, but if you don't the game proceeds with the assumption you did.

Also you can "complete" it by standing in the elevator and forcing the story to proceed and skip wandering around a poorly rendered environment using default Unity shaders with the occasional fade out to white.

Go play your Calls of Duty and let us adults enjoy this mature entertainment for adults
I'm kidding in case that wasn't obvious
 
I kinda dislike Austin in the Sunset quick look. He just sounds like an apologist for the game.

I just dislike the ending about checking his article about Public funding as this QL didn't make a good case as even Alex sounded a little mad when it ended with another set of mundane tasks.

I don't mind the softballs otherwise as they had interesting opinions about this kind of games even if their tone sounded like this game not even in the same level of Going Home.
 
Man, I loved Gone Home and typically really like this type of game, but this Sunset game looks very uninteresting.

Edit: I don't think Austin is being apologetic of the game, but this more seems like a 30 min podcast for Austin to talk. Not saying it's a bad thing, but the game seems to come in to play very little so far half way in.
 

wenis

Registered for GAF on September 11, 2001.
Yeah... The is the only part of that article that surprised me. We deal with PC Compat testing all the time, this is the first time I hear of a publisher not doing it because they are afraid that the story might get spoiled... This is so stupid.


Edit: I see that Patrick fixed the "Fall 2015" part of the article too... Good.

it's stupid, but imagine how many sales fall through because a story gets spoiled and doesn't meet what fans would "deem worthy of their cash".

it's a very real part of game development. That's why QA departments in house do such huge business with contractors.
 

repeater

Member
"Some dude in a suit needs to be told to sit the fuck down." :D

Jeff on point as always. I wish him and Brad did a Weekly Destiny-cast (though at this stage Bungie & Activision produce about a gaffe a week, so this is already kinda the Bombcast).
 

Megasoum

Banned
it's stupid, but imagine how many sales fall through because a story gets spoiled and doesn't meet what fans would "deem worthy of their cash".

it's a very real part of game development. That's why QA departments in house do such huge business with contractors.

Oh no of course you don't want your game spoiled. But that's no reason to refuse to work with an outside contractor for stuff like PC Compat. I've dealt with PC Compat contractors for years and never got any story leaks on my games. That's why you have NDAs and rock solid contracts with those guys.
 

BigBoss

Member
Can anyone give me a timestamp for the Arkham Knight discussion during the bombcast, I just started the game and I don't want to hear any minor/major spoilers.
 
Oh no of course you don't want your game spoiled. But that's no reason to refuse to work with outside contractor for stuff like PC Compat. I've dealth with PC Compat contractors for years and never got any story leaks on my games. That's why you have NDAs and rock solid contracts with those guys.

yeah, I mean, god, video games aren't national security or anything, if you can trust national security secrets with contractors surely there are ways to find QA businesses that can keep their mouths shut
 

justjim89

Member
Dave Lang may be in need of medical attention.

tumblr_nqrw9bYlst1qcytw0o1_1280.png
 
I feel like the the reveal of the Arkham Knight and its execution is a lot less obvious if you aren't familiar with Batman lore which I assume many of the players of the series aren't given it's become such a big franchise. The "in your face" section in the middle of the game is necessary for people who don't have the context of the Batman universe. Otherwise once you found out who the Knight is you'd just be like "Who the fuck is that?""
 

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
Fattony going strong on Lang. I read it bottom to top because you just never know with Twitter images, assumed I was going to read a joke about his number not working.
 
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