DF Game Club: The Last Express (part 4)

(07:05:51 AM) Fireflower: it has begun
(07:06:45 AM) GameClubFan_361486 [b2ca3bdd@hide-BF4D4B18.mibbit.com] entered the room.
(07:07:13 AM) herberck [4d027dba@hide-50D287EE.mibbit.com] entered the room.
(07:07:25 AM) Fireflower: maybe not
(07:07:35 AM) herberck: hello did i miss it?
(07:07:46 AM) Cheeseness: No no, we should be about to start
(07:07:53 AM) herberck: awesome
(07:07:57 AM) herberck: which game?
(07:08:00 AM) herberck: last express still?
(07:08:02 AM) Cheeseness: The Last Express, yeah
(07:08:11 AM) Cheeseness: Next week we'll be starting on Loom, and after that, Monkey 2
(07:08:25 AM) herberck: oh lol monkey 2 so difficult
(07:08:27 AM) herberck: im playing that atm
(07:08:40 AM) herberck: what were they thinking when they designed the puzzles OMG
(07:08:44 AM) Fireflower: one of the best adventures ever :)
(07:08:56 AM) herberck: yea but so hard haha
(07:09:01 AM) Fireflower: yeah :)
(07:09:19 AM) herberck: i played MI 3 before that and that was def easier haha
(07:09:58 AM) GameClubFan_361486: MI3 is pretty rad, and I don't even care what Ron thinks about it
(07:10:08 AM) Fireflower: playing it in the wrong order? :)
(07:10:08 AM) GameClubFan_361486: has aged really well also
(07:10:16 AM) herberck: haha yea
(07:10:19 AM) GameClubFan_361486 is now known as Schmuppes
(07:10:28 AM) herberck: i dont even know why it just happened that way
(07:10:48 AM) Syd: Ron liked Monkey Island 3. For some reason, people are convinced that he didn't.
(07:10:56 AM) herberck: Yea he said so in his blog
(07:11:11 AM) herberck: but the first one really sounded like he hated everything after MI 2 haha
(07:11:36 AM) Cheeseness: He's never really said that
(07:11:53 AM) Cheeseness: Just stuff post MI2 didn't go in the direction he had in mind for Monkey Island
(07:12:20 AM) Schmuppinho: I always got the impression that he's all about "I don't consider anything after MI2 to be real Monkey Island, plus I had nothing to do with those games anyway and don't wanna be mixed up with it"
(07:12:41 AM) herberck: yea thats what the blog sounded like a little
(07:12:54 AM) Schmuppinho: also I think he's quite touchy about people who don't know any better thinking that he and Tim created the Monkey series
(07:13:21 AM) Schmuppinho: "Nah, that was just me and me alone"
(07:13:28 AM) Syd: Tim and Dave were writers (and partially responsible for the game being a comedy in the first place) but it was all Ron's creation.
(07:13:36 AM) Schmuppinho: anyways
(07:14:06 AM) herberck: i wonder who was responsible for putting all the items you need on different islands lol
(07:14:07 AM) herberck: i hate that
(07:14:13 AM) Syd: If anyone here hasn't looked at Ron's blog lately, it's definitely worth checking out his latest posts.
(07:14:39 AM) Schmuppinho: link pls?
(07:14:51 AM) Syd: http://grumpygamer.com/
(07:14:55 AM) Schmuppinho: thank you, sir
(07:15:02 AM) Cheeseness: Siress
(07:15:14 AM) ReverendGumby [4c67eb2f@hide-6C77D8AA.mibbit.com] entered the room.
(07:15:23 AM) Schmuppinho: aaaaah
(07:15:30 AM) Syd: I remember from the commentary in the special edition that they spread out all the items on purpose, even had charts set up to ensure that you had to travel all over the place to solve the puzzles.
(07:15:30 AM) ReverendGumby: Howdy y'all!
(07:15:35 AM) Schmuppinho: the third most recent post explains it
(07:15:37 AM) Fireflower: Howdy!
(07:16:17 AM) Cheeseness: Hey ReverendGumby
(07:16:47 AM) herberck: anybody played the book of unwritten tales?
(07:16:52 AM) ReverendGumby: What did I miss last week? Did someone utter their pardons as they passed in the hallway?
(07:16:52 AM) herberck: i wonder if i should get taht
(07:17:06 AM) herberck: the graphics look really nice but its from germany so its probably not very funny haha
(07:17:42 AM) Syd: I've heard it's still pretty funny, even after going through translation.
(07:17:46 AM) Syd: I haven't played it myself though
(07:18:38 AM) herberck: ah ok i might check it out
(07:18:43 AM) Schmuppes left the room (quit: Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client).
(07:19:03 AM) Schmuppes [b2ca3bdd@hide-6C77D8AA.mibbit.com] entered the room.
(07:19:04 AM) herberck: is the new episode coming out tomorrow?
(07:19:11 AM) ReverendGumby left the room (quit: Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client).
(07:19:17 AM) herberck: i think a developer said a new episode would come out this week
(07:19:31 AM) ReverendGumby [4c67eb2f@hide-6C77D8AA.mibbit.com] entered the room.
(07:20:24 AM) hng left the room (quit: Quit: Lost terminal).
(07:21:26 AM) Cheeseness: Not really sure what's happening at the moment guys. Our streamer isn't being very communicative at this second.
(07:21:40 AM) ReverendGumby: He's gone rogue! Someone shoot him!
(07:21:43 AM) ReverendGumby: (or her!)
(07:22:43 AM) Syd: At the very least, we've got some cool stuff lined up for the next few weeks, with a likely return of a previous guest as well. :)
(07:22:55 AM) Cheeseness: Ha, I've already told everybody that Ron's coming again :D
(07:23:05 AM) ReverendGumby: I didn't hear that. Awesome!
(07:23:31 AM) Syd: We're also working on some other guests, but Ron is the only one we have confirmed so far.
(07:23:38 AM) Schmuppinho: excellent. for the MI2 sessions?
(07:23:41 AM) Syd: Yep
(07:24:07 AM) herberck: can you get tim schafer and john carmack as well?
(07:25:03 AM) Syd: We have someone else in mind, but I won't name names since I don't want to get people's hopes up over a potential guest that may not be able to come.
(07:25:41 AM) Fireflower: Guybrush Threepwood will be here
(07:26:10 AM) herberck: youre lying
(07:26:15 AM) Fireflower: :)
(07:26:35 AM) Fireflower: yeah, don't think he can make it
(07:26:53 AM) Cheeseness: Dom nearly came to our MI1 sessions, you know
(07:27:19 AM) Fireflower: who's Domm?
(07:27:25 AM) Fireflower: *Dom
(07:27:26 AM) Cheeseness: The voice of Guybrush
(07:27:30 AM) Fireflower: ah
(07:27:32 AM) Syd: Guess it's safe enough to say that we're trying to get Dominic Armato (which would make that joke about Guybrush coming strangely close to the truth) but we aren't sure if he'll make it or not.
(07:28:15 AM) Fireflower: ok, didn't know that. it was a joke from my side
(07:28:21 AM) Cheeseness: ^_^
(07:30:05 AM) Syd: We may do a Skype interview with Dominic if we can get him, but we still aren't sure if he'll be able to make it or not. We may just end up with Ron joining us in the chat.
(07:30:11 AM) salty_horse [ori@hide-61966EF2.red.bezeqint.net] entered the room.
(07:30:25 AM) ReverendGumby: I'm excited about seeing Loom. Never played it.
(07:30:26 AM) Fireflower: Ron is good enough :)
(07:30:31 AM) Syd: Quite
(07:30:55 AM) Fireflower: Loom is a good game if I remember correctly
(07:31:03 AM) Syd: Confession time: Even though I'll be the one streaming Loom, I haven't played it before. I'm going to play through it sometime this week before the stream to familiarize myself with it.
(07:31:19 AM) Fireflower: haven't played it in 20 years or more probably
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(07:32:13 AM) Fireflower: think you need a manual for some of the puzzles?
(07:32:23 AM) ReverendGumby: A code wheel?
(07:32:35 AM) Fireflower: yeah, might have been that
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(07:33:09 AM) Syd: I'll see what I end up needing for it when I play through it this week.
(07:33:09 AM) Fireflower: DRM probably
(07:35:04 AM) Syd: I know I'll be set for Monkey Island 2. I've played through that multiple times.
(07:35:21 AM) Fireflower: cool
(07:36:47 AM) ReverendGumby: My wedding's in a few weeks, so I hope I can make either of those playthrus.
(07:37:25 AM) Syd: I believe settled on playing the special edition set to the original VGA graphics with voice acting for MI2 when I end up streaming it.
(07:38:15 AM) ReverendGumby: Syd, thumbs up.
(07:38:52 AM) Syd: I'd especially want to make sure that I'm playing it with voice acting enabled if we got Dominic
(07:40:26 AM) Syd: I can occasionally swap between old and new graphics if someone wants to see the difference, but I'll probably mostly stick to the original graphics.
(07:42:33 AM) Syd: We have some announcements coming up, so sit tight, everyone.
(07:43:50 AM) ReverendGumby: *edge of couch*
(07:44:26 AM) Fireflower: *biting my nails*
(07:45:27 AM) ReverendGumby: That's bad for you.
(07:45:45 AM) ReverendGumby: But so tasty.
(07:45:50 AM) Fireflower: hehe
(07:46:41 AM) herberck: i wish there was a mode where you have the old school graphics with the new interface
(07:47:17 AM) Syd: That might have been interesting to see. It'd be like a de-make of the verb coin from Curse
(07:48:41 AM) herberck: anybody know what kind of interface broken age  will use?
(07:48:53 AM) herberck: one klick ftw?
(07:49:18 AM) ReverendGumby: No idea.
(07:49:34 AM) Syd: We've only seen bits of it so far. Not sure what the situation is with verbs. Looks like the inventory is on the bottom of the screen.
(07:49:36 AM) ReverendGumby: I'm still watching the 2 Player videos.
(07:50:04 AM) Cheeseness: Alrighty guys, it looks like there won't be a stream this week, but we'll still try to spend some time talking about the game
(07:50:34 AM) Syd: Okay, about to stream the announcement
(07:50:36 AM) ReverendGumby: Awwws.
(07:50:58 AM) Cheeseness: It's been a particularly difficult title to stream, and its format wasn't really suited to the way we've been doing things (perhaps we would have been better off streaming highlights and talking about the game as a whole than streaming the whole thing)
(07:51:19 AM) fightclubdoll [46a02dd2@hide-6C77D8AA.mibbit.com] entered the room.
(07:51:30 AM) Cheeseness: Hey fightclubdoll
(07:51:36 AM) herberck: wow that sounded so professional
(07:51:48 AM) fightclubdoll: C'est moi!!!!
(07:51:52 AM) Cheeseness: Ha, if professional means hastily recorded and not scripted, sure
(07:51:54 AM) ReverendGumby: So it is.
(07:52:12 AM) fightclubdoll: =-D
(07:52:23 AM) Syd: So I'll be bumbling my way through Loom for us next week. Should be interesting, as it seems to be one of the lesser-played LucasArts adventures.
(07:52:37 AM) ReverendGumby: Cheeseness: No worries, it was cool to see.
(07:53:07 AM) Cheeseness: So, what're people's impressions of TLE based on what we've seen so far and what anybody may have played in their own time?
(07:53:20 AM) fightclubdoll: https://twitter.com/GregRicey/status/325702234824376320
(07:53:25 AM) fightclubdoll: =-D
(07:53:41 AM) Syd: It seems that it might be a bit difficult to tell what you did wrong and what lead to certain failure states in TLE
(07:53:43 AM) Cheeseness: I'm definitely awed by the scope of the game. It must have been an immensely huge undertaking
(07:53:52 AM) ReverendGumby: I'd be reluctant to play it without first studying up on my WWI history
(07:53:53 AM) Syd: It still looks like a well-crafted and very ambitious game though
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(07:54:19 AM) Cheeseness: Ha, fightclubdoll, I was wondering how long it'd take you to spot that :D
(07:54:29 AM) fightclubdoll: <3
(07:54:39 AM) Fireflower: I think it looked a bit repetetive, doing the same stuff over and over
(07:55:05 AM) fightclubdoll: I had to pick my jaw back up from the floor and collect my eyeballs from across the room.
fightclubdoll Fireflower
(07:55:25 AM) fightclubdoll: So, I was a little slow to officially respond.
(07:56:22 AM) Cheeseness: Fireflower: Whilst the game's setting doesn't really change, I think maybe our streamer wasn't quite as familiar with the game as we have been for previous titles, and so we spent a bit more time knocking on doors and going in circles than we had for previous titles
(07:56:44 AM) Fireflower: yeah, that could be the case
(07:57:46 AM) Syd: And that's why I always have a guide open when I stream an adventure game, even if I feel confident that I won't need it. Sometimes, a tiny detail of a puzzle escapes my mind, and I'd hate for the stream to slow to a crawl because I'm trying to remember what I was supposed to do
(07:58:03 AM) Cheeseness: I still find the cartoony rotoscoped foreground and raytraced backgrounds to be a little disharmonious, but it grew on me a lot over the past few weeks
(07:58:08 AM) Cheeseness: fightclubdoll: That's understandable then ^_^
(07:58:12 AM) ReverendGumby: I'll echo Syd's sentiments. It's a very impressive game. The fact that the other characters play out their roles in realtime only compounded that feeling.
(07:59:41 AM) Cheeseness: I feel like we only had a small glimpse into the game's intrigue
(08:00:14 AM) Syd: I think it would have been nice if some of the failure states in TLE did more to hint you in on what you did wrong that lead to getting stabbed/arrested/etc (though some of them were pretty clear on what you did wrong), but it still looks like a great game.
(08:00:18 AM) Cheeseness: I imagine that that's intentional - that the game tries to evoke a little panic and make the player feel like they should rush around to hear/see everything
(08:00:36 AM) Cheeseness: Yeah, it did seem like not much feedback was given
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(08:01:13 AM) GameClubFan_280073 [b2ca3bdd@hide-50D287EE.mibbit.com] entered the room.
(08:01:35 AM) ReverendGumby: I don't know why, but being able to read the passenger roster astounded me.
(08:01:54 AM) Cheeseness: It felt to me a little like cultural stereotypes were being heavily leaned upon, but again, I'm not sure that we really got to see more than a glimpse of the characterisation. Did anybody else find that?
(08:01:58 AM) ReverendGumby: Most games I've seen don't let you dive down to that level of detail.
(08:02:17 AM) Cheeseness: I imagine that detail would be fairly handy in navigating through the game and finding people
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(08:02:50 AM) fightclubdoll [46a02dd2@hide-50D287EE.mibbit.com] entered the room.
(08:03:19 AM) Cheeseness: Have you played The Last Express, fightclubdoll?
(08:03:45 AM) ReverendGumby: The stereotypes didn't seem overused to me.
(08:03:56 AM) fightclubdoll: I'm going to have some tea... back in a bit.
(08:04:32 AM) fightclubdoll: ..No I haven't, but I'm very curious to see it now.
(08:05:03 AM) Syd: I imagine there's some longplays of TLE on Youtube if you want to look for them
(08:05:22 AM) ReverendGumby: I wonder if there's a speedrun...
(08:05:29 AM) Syd: I bet there is
(08:05:49 AM) Cheeseness: Well, with it having simulated real time, I don't think you could get to the end before it ended
(08:06:03 AM) ReverendGumby: Yeah, I just realized that.
(08:06:14 AM) Cheeseness: That aspect I think is the most audacious part of the game
(08:06:43 AM) ReverendGumby: What other adventure titles play out like that?
(08:06:56 AM) Cheeseness: I have no idea. This is the only one that I know of
(08:07:24 AM) Syd: I imagine that the closest TLE gets to a speed run is from playing beginning to end perfectly without failing once, so you never have to rewind.
(08:08:03 AM) Fireflower: there was an adventure game many years ago where you were on a boat and solved murder puzzles that was in real time
(08:08:14 AM) Fireflower: dont remember the name
(08:09:52 AM) Cheeseness: According to the internets, there have been a few
(08:09:57 AM) Cheeseness: Apparently Gabriel Knight 3 is?
(08:10:08 AM) Fireflower: havent played that
(08:11:11 AM) Syd: I've only played part of the first Gabriel Knight (I need to try finishing that someday)
(08:11:31 AM) Fireflower: they're both good
(08:11:40 AM) Cheeseness: Was the author of the journal much of a character in TLE? I sort of missed what the story was there and what their connection to the player was
(08:13:08 AM) ReverendGumby: Wasn't that one of the two women who were always chatting in the lounge car?
(08:13:19 AM) Cheeseness: I'm uncertain. I had thought it was the person playing chess
(08:13:58 AM) ReverendGumby: You're referring to the journal that appears when you "die"?
(08:14:02 AM) Cheeseness: Yeah
(08:14:12 AM) Syd: Well, I gotta head out. I'll see you all around. :)
(08:14:29 AM) Cheeseness: Thanks for coming, Syd :)
(08:14:37 AM) ReverendGumby: L8r, Syd
(08:14:41 AM) Syd left the room (quit: Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client).
(08:15:01 AM) ReverendGumby: So, no streaming announcement?
(08:17:08 AM) Cheeseness: Hmm?
(08:17:49 AM) ReverendGumby: Quoting Syd: "Okay, about to stream the announcement"
(08:17:52 AM) Cheeseness: I tweeted something saying we wouldn't have a stream, and I posted in the forum thread too. Syd streamed my "intro" saying that there wouldn't be a stream
(08:18:00 AM) ReverendGumby: Ah.
(08:18:04 AM) Cheeseness: http://www.twitch.tv/dfgameclub/b/393524607
(08:18:09 AM) Cheeseness: If you missed it (it wasn't very long)
(08:18:22 AM) ReverendGumby: twitch Flash player fail.
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(08:18:31 AM) Cheeseness: Yeah :/
(08:18:39 AM) ReverendGumby [4c67eb2f@hide-BF4D4B18.mibbit.com] entered the room.
(08:19:23 AM) Cheeseness: You've played TLE through, right ReverendGumby?
(08:19:31 AM) ReverendGumby: Not I.
(08:19:42 AM) ReverendGumby: First time I saw it was here.
(08:19:58 AM) Cheeseness: Ah, it was someone else then
(08:20:10 AM) Cheeseness: I was hoping we could get a quick rundown on the rest of the story
(08:20:51 AM) ReverendGumby: Hmm, only $4.99 for iOS
(08:21:05 AM) Cheeseness: That's a re-release from last year
(08:21:12 AM) ReverendGumby: Oh.
(08:21:25 AM) ReverendGumby: Oct 27, indeed.
(08:21:28 AM) Cheeseness: (one of the reasons we had it on the schedule was because it was "current"
(08:23:11 AM) ReverendGumby: Does our hero ever get off the train?
(08:23:44 AM) ReverendGumby: Does he start on the train? I joined mid-play.
(08:23:57 AM) Cheeseness: Yeah, the game starts when he hops onboard
(08:24:03 AM) Cheeseness: (unless I missed something)
(08:24:48 AM) ReverendGumby: If I wasn't hooked on this Terraria thing, I'd probably give it a spin.
(08:26:52 AM) Fireflower: hooked on a feeling
(08:27:09 AM) ReverendGumby: hooked on mining
(08:27:51 AM) Fireflower: :)
(08:28:01 AM) ReverendGumby: Anyone know where I could pick up Machinarium? That one looked neat.
(08:28:25 AM) Cheeseness: ReverendGumby: From the Amanita site?
(08:28:53 AM) Cheeseness: According to the internets, the climax of the game involves the player being held at gunpoint and being forced to open the firebird/egg
(08:30:01 AM) ReverendGumby: You'd never get me to stick my finger in that thing.
(08:30:10 AM) Cheeseness: Rather than handing it over to Kronos, Cath blows the whistle (which was the second item that was in the egg's case, and was also missing), which brings the bird to life and it attacks Kronos and Tahina
(08:30:26 AM) Cheeseness: (which apparently reveals how Tyler died)
(08:30:58 AM) Fireflower: i'm with you on that one ReverendGumby :)
(08:31:16 AM) Cheeseness: Yeah, it did seem like an awfully silly thing to do >_<
(08:31:53 AM) ReverendGumby: afk
(08:32:12 AM) Cheeseness: Apparently there
(08:32:18 AM) Cheeseness: 's been talk of a TLE movie
(08:32:56 AM) Cheeseness: Jordan Mechner also made the Prince of Persia films (for anybody who didn't know), so if a TLE movie was made, he'd probably be involved with that as well
(08:36:07 AM) Fireflower: been talk recently of a movie?
(08:40:52 AM) Cheeseness: In 2011 apparently
(08:41:12 AM) Cheeseness: So far as film production timeframes go, I guess that's recent
(08:42:01 AM) Fireflower: yeah
(08:43:38 AM) Cheeseness: Paul Verhoeven would potentially be directing it
(08:44:07 AM) Cheeseness: (RoboCop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Starship Troopers, Hollowman)
(08:45:56 AM) Fireflower: not all bad movies :)
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(08:50:29 AM) Cheeseness: Most of his titles seem to have some level of acclaim/fan base
(08:51:16 AM) Fireflower: yeah
(08:52:00 AM) Fireflower: I liked the first 2 robocops and starship troopers. basic instict is also good
(08:54:16 AM) Cheeseness: I enjoyed Total Recall
(08:54:46 AM) Fireflower: yeah, it's ok
(08:55:44 AM) Fireflower: but starship troopers is much better :)
(08:55:52 AM) Cheeseness: I didn't really like it ^_^
(08:55:59 AM) Fireflower: ok :)
(08:58:39 AM) Cheeseness: In some respects I'm almost glad that we didn't finish TLE. It's given me some more encouragement to play through myself :D
(08:58:47 AM) Fireflower: :)
(09:02:04 AM) Cheeseness: Alrighty, well unless anybody's got anything else they want to add about The Last Express, we should probably call this done and I'll get a chat log up. Apologies again to everybody about the hiccoughs we've had whilst working through this game.
(09:02:10 AM) Cheeseness: Next week we'll be playing Loom http://www.doublefine.com/forums/viewthread/9099/
(09:03:38 AM) Fireflower: Looking forward to that
(09:03:44 AM) Cheeseness: Yeah, it should be good :)
(09:03:51 AM) Fireflower: yeah :)
(09:04:00 AM) Cheeseness: Not sure whether we'll have a special guest or not, but fingers crossed
(09:04:08 AM) Fireflower: hope we will