kane_magus: (Default)

As of the above video there, that is the first time I have ever heard of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. (EDIT) Which has since been renamed to Dragon Age: The Veilguard, a much blander title, for whatever reasons. (/EDIT) And, now that I've heard of it, I will do my level best to go back to not thinking about it at all ever. Yeah... we're definitely well into the "Ship of double Theseus" version of BioWare now.

Yeah, after doing software testing for nine years, I definitely know about EFIGS.

The era of cassette tapes used in computing was, fortunately, before my time.

"Man, Tim Sweeney is the dumbest motherfucker in the world. Oh my god." Eehhhhhhhhhh... I agree that Tim Sweeney is indeed one dumb motherfucker, but I don't know if he's even the dumbest motherfucker in the modern video game industry, and certainly not in the world as a whole. (I mean, Donald Trump is still alive, after all.)
kane_magus: (Default)
"The developer maintains that it still has games in the pipeline, though."

Yeah... no, I never truly believed that Telltale Games had really "come back," despite all the claims that it had indeed "come back," after the first time it went away.

Honestly, though, and speaking more generally, with all this recent news of layoffs and closures (seriously, if I had a dime for every article I've seen recently in my Google News app with the almost verbatim phrase "is the latest studio to face layoffs this year" in the headline, I'd probably have almost a dollar by now), well... I don't want to get too awfully optimistic here, and this may just be a big string of random coincidences, but... this could, maybe, be the early days of the big modern video game industry crash I've been predicting and for which I've been sorely hoping, for at least the past 5-10 years or so now. Remains to be seen, I guess. *fingers crossed* ¬_¬

Or... this could just be all part of the seemingly annual series of ridiculous ups and downs of the modern video game industry, and nothing else of any worth or value will come of any of it, beyond that, same as usual. *shrug*
kane_magus: (Default)
Not that I've been personally keeping track of most instances of it, mind you.

So, similar to Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures a decade ago (the first of many), apparently Telltale has lost the license to Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People now as well. It is currently still available for purchase, as of this post, but it soon won't be.

That said, on the one hand, the Wallace and Gromit games are being sold by Telltale again now, so apparently they regained the license for that at some point, and maybe the same will happen for the Strong Bad games, too.

On the other hand, Telltale's license for their Game of Thrones series was also lost, and it is not for sale any longer. Same for Back to the Future. Same for Guardians of the Galaxy. Same for Jurassic Park. Same for that Minecraft: Story Mode game. Same for Poker Night at the Inventory. And probably same for others that I'm not aware of at the moment and don't feel like bothering to look up on Google. Apparently, when Telltale went kaput half a decade ago and then was resurrected a year or two after that, the new Telltale either couldn't or didn't want to re-up most of the old licenses, so... outside of any physical copies that may be floating around, all those games are essentially gone now if you didn't already buy them.

For all the ones specifically mentioned in this post, I own[1] all of them, except for the Guardians of the Galaxy series, which I never really had any interest in buying and now can't buy even if I wanted to.[2] Or, at least, I have the ability to download them through Steam (as I don't have any of them currently downloaded). For the time being, anyway. But then, who is to say even that will last forever? I certainly doubt it will. *shrug* Unlike the others, however, I don't own the Back to the Future game or the Jurassic Park game on Steam, and I'm not even sure where I'd go (aside from pirate venues, of course) to re-download the games that I'd bought directly from Telltale, so... I guess it's a good thing I still have all the installers for those already downloaded. ¬_¬

In any case, whatever happens in this particular case, good or bad, I'd just like to say once more that I find it completely asinine that the ability to buy a video game or series of video games can just vanish into thin air due to horseshit like this. Just yet another example of the glorious digital future in action, I guess. *weary sigh*

[1] - Well, insofar as one can "own" anything in this day and age.

[2] - Oh, I'm sure I could probably still play that Guardians of the Galaxy game if I really wanted to, but I can't legitimately buy it now. My interest in resorting to illicit means to play it is hovering at or below zero, though, so... meh.
kane_magus: (Default)
I happened to see something about this, and my initial thought was along the lines of "holy shit, someone's finally making the kind of Star Trek game that I want to play..."

...and then I saw that shit-sucking goddammned Epic Games Store logo, and a little piece of me just died, right then and there.

I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again: to hell forever with the fucking Epic Shit Store.

(EDIT) Also, I was already in a terrible mood for unrelated reasons before that point, and this most definitely did not help matters. (EDIT 2) Which would probably at least partially explain why I didn't catch the fact that the subject line said "Stat Trek" up until I fixed it just now. >_> (/EDIT 2) (/EDIT)

(EDIT 3) Okay, now that I'm in a slightly better mood than I was when I originally wrote this...

Once this finally claws its way out of the festering pit of exclusivity which is the Epic Gunk Store in a year or so, I'll definitely be getting this, and probably sooner than later, especially if it's at the typical Telltale-like price point and doesn't try to pretend to be a full $60+ thing. (/EDIT 3)
kane_magus: (Default)
Meh.

I'll believe it when I see it, and even if I see it, I'll still take it with a grain of salt.

Also, the smell of shit is rife in the air with regards to how this is being handled, in my opinion, though that could just be my typically anti-modern-video-game-industry cynicism and jadedness talking. (Though not, I guess, nearly as shitty as how the original version of the company was run into the ground?)
kane_magus: (Default)

They don't actually get to talking about Telltale itself until around the 7:15 mark or so, but the stuff before that, about Capcom Vancouver, which apparently also shut down in the past week or two, was pretty interesting as well.

On the whole, I agree with most of what they said.

As far as Let's Plays go and how they supposedly hurt Telltale, well... I suppose I could see how there's potentially a case to be made for that (if you also discount the other explanations and mitigating factors that Matt, Pat, and Woolie bring up themselves in the above video in response to that assertion). But speaking just for myself, if any Telltale game that the Best Friends played was a game that I had even an inkling of interest in playing myself, I would (and, for the most part, still do) refuse to watch the LP of that game until after I've played through it myself. Period. Straight up. It's what I did with SBFP's The Walking Dead LPs (the third of which I have not watched, because I haven't yet bought or played Season 3 myself), it's what I did with their The Wolf Among Us LP, it's what I did with their Game of Thrones LP, and it's why I still have not yet watched any of their Tales from the Borderlands LP or the two Batman LPs they did (even though I have very little interest now in playing the Telltale Batman game I do own nor do I have much interest in buying the one I don't own, so I may either never watch those LPs or eventually just say screw it and watch them anyway). And I haven't even bothered to watch their Minecraft Story Mode LP, even though I have "finished" that game myself, long ago, mainly because what I've seen of it, they kind of just dicked around and didn't take it even remotely seriously, even for them, and that doesn't much interest me. So, in my particular case, Let's Plays of Telltale's games had zero impact on my interest in buying the games, except perhaps in a positive "Oh shit, SBFP is doing a LP of <insert game here>? Well, I'd better go ahead and buy this and play through it, so that I can watch the SBFP LP without being spoiled," sort of way, in most cases. I will fully admit, though, that this was more due to the fact that I didn't (and don't) want to be spoiled on the games before I'd played them myself, rather than out of respect for Telltale's sales figures or bottom line or whatever. *eye roll*

I've been really consistent with Telltale games for this, but outside of that, though, I'm somewhat haphazard as to whether or not I follow this policy. I have refused to watch their Life is Strange LPs yet (I own the first series, but haven't finished it, but don't yet own the second series). But I went ahead and watched their LP of Until Dawn (though if/when I ever get a PS4, it's on my "To Buy" list). And I've watched their LPs of every game in the Sadness series (the whole "Sadness" thing is a SBFP in-joke). Of those, I've played only Omikron, FahrenheitIndigo Prophecy, and Heavy Rain myself, with it still being up in the air entirely as to whether or not I'll ever bother with the other games myself. (I'll almost assuredly get Detroit: Become Human, whenever I get around to getting a PS4 at some point in the far flung, nebulous future. Not so sure about Beyond Two Souls, though. Maybe, probably, someday.)
kane_magus: (Default)

Pat very clearly knows next to nothing about Telltale Games and what they did, as far as the games they made, so that's entirely Ian's ballgame, as far as that is concerned. Pat's general comments as an outsider giving his two cents on the business side of it are still pretty damn spot-on, though. And I agree with Ian's bit at the end that there needs to be a union for video game industry employees.

Also, as per the top comment by the channel: "Update since recording: a class-action lawsuit is being filed by former employees against Telltale."

"Telltale hit with class-action lawsuit for breaking labor laws"
kane_magus: (Default)
While I'm ranting about video games at the moment and all...

I bought Batman - The Telltale Series a couple days ago, because it was on a 75% off sale for $6.25.

Apparently, right around that same time, they released a huge patch that seems to have just completely broken the game. Just look at the Steam forums for the game right now.

I played the game for 46 minutes, according to Steam, and then just gave up and uninstalled it. I may go back to it later, some day, if they fix this shit, but for now, I am very disappointed in Telltale.

(EDIT)

And this isn't the first Telltale game that I've quit before finishing it lately, either. A while back, I broke down and got Minecraft Story Mode, because it and the Adventure Pass bullshit were available together for dirt cheap. I played through the first five episodes (i.e. the main storyline) fine, but when I started the "extra" episodes, I ran into a problem where the info boxes were showing up as completely empty. I went so far as to send a tech support ticket to Telltale about it, and the response I got (almost a full two months later) was banal, form letter, useless bullshit like... well... hell, I'll just copy/paste the email reply I got from them here:

Uselessness behind cut )

So, yeah, I used to be a huge fan of Telltale. Not so much, anymore.

(/EDIT)
kane_magus: (kanethumb1)
"Up to 75% off tales worth telling: The Wolf Among Us, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, and more!"

Yeah, just wanted to plug this.

I have all but a couple of these on Steam already, but here they are on sale on GOG.com, if you prefer that.
kane_magus: (kanethumb1)


Huh. So they are going to bring Clementine back in Season Three. Kind of wasn't expecting that. She's apparently not the only playable character, though? Anyway, given that she's clearly older in that trailer than she was at the end of Season Two, I'm guessing years have passed and whatever choices you made at the end of Season Two aren't going to play too awfully big of a role (and that the other people who could have been involved in that ending likely won't show up at all, given that one or the other of them were definitely killed depending on choices you made). And she's missing a finger, for some reason. Hmm.

Heh, it'd be just like Telltale to kill her off in the first ten minutes or so of the first episode, just like they did with Omid in Season Two (and probably also Christa, since you never see her again after she and Clementine get split up in episode one, though it'd also be just like Telltale to bring Christa back, out of the blue, during Season Three, like they did with Kenny, who presumably had died at the end of Season One). ¬_¬

Yeah, I'll definitely be playing this eventually, but same as every other episodic game, it won't be until after the whole season is released.

This is the first and so far only bit of news to come out of E3 that I've paid any attention to at all.
kane_magus: (kanethumb1)
I was talking shit about Telltale in one of my previous posts, but even so, I still have to say that this Humble Bundle is a pretty damn good one. I'd buy it, if I didn't already have every single game shown there. Of course, there are "more games coming soon," so who knows, I may buy it anyway if they add something I don't already have that looks interesting (hell, maybe even Minecraft Story Mode). Which, if I did, means that I'd probably be giving [livejournal.com profile] owsf2000 all the spares, as usual. :p
kane_magus: (kanethumb1)
Oh, and speaking of Minecraft Story Mode, there's also this Adventure Pass shit that I didn't know about until now.

So, I guess when I said that I'll be waiting for Minecraft Story Mode to hit a 75%-or-greater discount on Steam, before I actually consider getting it, what I really meant to say was that I'll be waiting for that game and this shit to be bundled together into one thing, and then for that to hit a 75%-or-greater discount on Steam, before I actually even remotely consider it.

I hate the modern video game industry so very much.
kane_magus: (kanethumb1)
"Telltale Games, Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment Announce Game Series based on Batman™ for 2016"

I'm so there.

Once the series is complete and fully released, of course, same as always.
kane_magus: (kanethumb1)
I recently played through Telltale's Game of Thrones series, now that the entire thing is available. I enjoyed 99.9% of it. But that doesn't mean I didn't have some issues, even so.

(Warning: mild-to-moderate spoilers for episodes 3 and 4 of the Game of Thrones Telltale series are below.)

Embedded tweets behind cut )

And that last tweet contains a link back to this LJ, which brings everything full circle.

I ranted a bit more in the comments of one of the SBFP LP videos as well, for what it's worth (but it's even more spoilery than the above tweets are, so be warned).

Mostly irrelevant bullshit behind cut )
kane_magus: (kanethumb1)
[livejournal.com profile] owsf2000's post and my comment.

I'm done. I'm just so fucking done with the modern video game industry. I'm out. Gone.
kane_magus: (kanethumb1)


I'd forgotten all about that whole thing. (I totally heard the voice of Lee Everett/Bluebeard in that trailer, though, which is not a bad thing.)

Yeah... I'm typically a supporter of Telltale Games, generally speaking, but this? This... well, as I said in the other post, I'm still not going to just completely dismiss it out of hand, but... yeah... I really think you might be starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel here, Telltale.

Don't get me wrong, despite all the bullshit surrounding it these days, I think that Minecraft is still a pretty cool game. Granted, I haven't touched it at all in a couple of years or more now, but still, I liked it back when I did play it. But to take an open world crafting/exploration game that has no real story whatsoever and turn it into an episodic adventure game along the lines of The Walking Dead or The Wolf Among Us or what have you... yeah... I think that's going to be a pretty tall order. But if anyone can do it, it would be Telltale Games, I guess. Then again, the fact that Minecraft doesn't have a story (outside of, maybe, the Herobrine bullshit made up by players, which isn't officially in the game at all) means that Telltale can essentially go crazy and do whatever they want, so there's that to consider, I suppose.
kane_magus: (kanethumb1)


(For reference to the above, see also this.)

Relevant Wikipedia and TVTropes links.

Given my own currently utterly non-existent writing pace, I'll just say that, as far as I am concerned, George R. R. Martin can take as long as he damn well pleases to finish the rest of the series (and if the worst does come to pass, as some fear, then tough shit, I guess).

Now I can maybe start on the TV show[1] and, eventually, the Telltale Games series (though unlike the books and show, the game needs to be actually complete and released before I'll be starting on that).

I'm not going to talk about the actual book series itself, though, because if I started into that, I'd be here typing into this LJ edit box for at least the next twelve hours or so, most likely. Suffice it to say that if you haven't read it yet, you should. It's good stuff.

[1] - Even though the creators of the show apparently have taken quite a few liberties with Mr. Martin's own plotlines, from what I hear... well, I'll just consider the show as Alternate Continuity, given that this is exactly what it is, and just go with it.
kane_magus: (The_Sims_Medieval)
Telltale Games are apparently making a game based on Minecraft. Huh...

Not quite sure what to make of that. I mean, I love pretty much every Telltale Game I've played so far[1] (e.g. Sam & Max, SBCG4AP, Tales of Monkey Island, Back to the Future, The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, the Wallace & Gromit game that's no longer available to be bought because of asinine copyright license reasons, etc.) and I loved Minecraft (back before I gave up on it entirely), but this? This... I'm not too sure about. I'm not going to just dismiss it out of hand, obviously, because Telltale has an excellent track record so far, but I am going to take a cautious "wait-and-see" approach all the same. In other words, as I said above: Huh...

[1] - With the possible exception of Jurassic Park, but hell, even that wasn't as bad as people said it was. Which is kind of funny, because the Jurassic Park game used pretty much the same sort of QTE stuff that TWD and TWAU and other later Telltale games did, and those games are widely regarded as being great, so dunno why JP was hated so much, but I digress.
kane_magus: (The_Sims_Medieval)
(EDIT 3)

Putting this at the top rather than at the end.

Okay, aside from the problems mentioned below, I feel I should talk a bit about the game itself. It was, quite simply, one of best games I've played in recent memory. I didn't cry at the end, or even shed a tear, but I'd be lying if I said my eyes didn't get heavy and watery. That was some pretty powerful shit. It was up there with the ending of Half-Life 2: Episode 2.

(/EDIT 3)

Rantage about bugs behind cut )

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