Oh, yup! I was blinded by the time I finished doing them and knew I was going to leave an error somewhere.
Edit: that's how I have it written down in my notes too so either it was actually an impossible puzzle (I feel like it wouldn't generate one of those) or that 1 in the corner isn't supposed to be there because yeah, that makes it impossible.
Watching Day 9 try to get the symmetry puzzle by the town was the most painful thing ever. He figures out some of the more difficult puzzles (and the game in general, judging by how fast he got 10 lasers) surprisingly quickly, and then he just goes completely braindead on this relatively easy puzzle. He even lines it up correctly then spends 10 minutes doing inexplicably dumb things with it. It's baffling.
Watching Day 9 try to get the symmetry puzzle by the town was the most painful thing ever. He figures out some of the more difficult puzzles (and the game in general, judging by how fast he got 10 lasers) surprisingly quickly, and then he just goes completely braindead on this relatively easy puzzle. He even lines it up correctly then spends 10 minutes doing inexplicably dumb things with it. It's baffling.
And then the shadow puzzle afterward. Holy shit. He figured out the shadow forest pretty easily, and yet struggled with this one. Meanwhile I had to cheat to beat one of the forest puzzles and smoked this one with ease.
Watching Day 9 try to get the symmetry puzzle by the town was the most painful thing ever. He figures out some of the more difficult puzzles (and the game in general, judging by how fast he got 10 lasers) surprisingly quickly, and then he just goes completely braindead on this relatively easy puzzle. He even lines it up correctly then spends 10 minutes doing inexplicably dumb things with it. It's baffling.
And then the shadow puzzle afterward. Holy shit. He figured out the shadow forest pretty easily, and yet struggled with this one. Meanwhile I had to cheat to beat one of the forest puzzles and smoked this one with ease.
Watching Day 9 try to get the symmetry puzzle by the town was the most painful thing ever. He figures out some of the more difficult puzzles (and the game in general, judging by how fast he got 10 lasers) surprisingly quickly, and then he just goes completely braindead on this relatively easy puzzle. He even lines it up correctly then spends 10 minutes doing inexplicably dumb things with it. It's baffling.
And then the shadow puzzle afterward. Holy shit. He figured out the shadow forest pretty easily, and yet struggled with this one. Meanwhile I had to cheat to beat one of the forest puzzles and smoked this one with ease.
Actually had the same thing happen to me, here. Did the forest relatively easy and then bricked on the town shadow puzzle (mostly because I had just done the swamp and other areas and didn't have the shadow mechanics in mind at all).
Regarding the "authentic" quote, it was part of a larger conversation about how games are never about what they say they're about, because the story and themes aren't tied into the gameplay enough. I'm probably butchering this, but whatever.
LIke, Gears of War says it's about saving the world from an army of subterranian monsters; but it's really about shooting things from behind chest-high walls. Nothing about that mechanic is closely tied to the supposed theme of the game; you could (and the industry did) replace those enemies and the story with a zillion others while keeping the mechanics the same.
Meanwhile, the Witness is a game about drawing line puzzles where you draw line puzzles.
Personally I think this take is irrelevant at best and hot bullshit at worst, but whatever.
I think it's a interesting and valid critique but when you couch it in terms that make you come off like the biggest douchebag in the world you kind of destroy everyone's ability to actually discuss the topic instead of discussing what a douchebag you are
Just started playing this today, got a few of the areas clear. I really like the puzzles, haven't felt as good playing a game in a long time as I had when I figured out what the yellow squares meant.
My only complaint so far is that the audio clips are excruciating. I never thought that i'd be bored by
Richard Feynman
, but apparently all it takes is someone who isn't him interminably going through one of his speeches. It is beyond my capability to pay attention to them when they are playing. It's the worst. I honestly have no idea what the theme of the game is despite having found about six of them plus three of the
video clips
. Every five seconds as they are playing I completely forget what they have just said, it just goes straight through.
I have also heard Blow say he considers games like CoD and whatnot "fine" since they're just doing their thing. He just doesn't consider them interesting. That doesn't strike me as an unreasonable position.
Just started playing this today, got a few of the areas clear. I really like the puzzles, haven't felt as good playing a game in a long time as I had when I figured out what the yellow squares meant.
My only complaint so far is that the audio clips are excruciating. I never thought that i'd be bored by
Richard Feynman
, but apparently all it takes is someone who isn't him interminably going through one of his speeches. It is beyond my capability to pay attention to them when they are playing. It's the worst. I honestly have no idea what the theme of the game is despite having found about six of them plus three of the
video clips
. Every five seconds as they are playing I completely forget what they have just said, it just goes straight through.
At least I like the puzzles.
This was how I felt with those clips playing. It was so hard to try to actively listen and process them with most of them being read in a "look how dramatic I am" voice and cadence.
I find it disappointing how Feynmann and Burke sounded much more interesting than the professional voice actors.
But, in their defence, the actors were more interesting than Spira and Gangaji.
EDIT: to clarify, unlike some comments I've read, I do not consider her message crazy or bullshit. It's just presented in the most excruciatingly annoying way.
Watching Day 9 try to get the symmetry puzzle by the town was the most painful thing ever. He figures out some of the more difficult puzzles (and the game in general, judging by how fast he got 10 lasers) surprisingly quickly, and then he just goes completely braindead on this relatively easy puzzle. He even lines it up correctly then spends 10 minutes doing inexplicably dumb things with it. It's baffling.
Did he go back and do the tutorials for the outline symmetry puzzles? He missed them when doing the other ones.
Watching Day 9 try to get the symmetry puzzle by the town was the most painful thing ever. He figures out some of the more difficult puzzles (and the game in general, judging by how fast he got 10 lasers) surprisingly quickly, and then he just goes completely braindead on this relatively easy puzzle. He even lines it up correctly then spends 10 minutes doing inexplicably dumb things with it. It's baffling.
Did he go back and do the tutorials for the outline symmetry puzzles? He missed them when doing the other ones.
Oh, did he not do the originals? That would make a difference, I suppose. Still, the way he started applying the correct logic then inexplicably changed it halfway through was just... baffling.
I find it disappointing how Feynmann and Burke sounded much more interesting than the professional voice actors.
But, in their defence, the actors were more interesting than Spira and Gangaji.
EDIT: to clarify, unlike some comments I've read, I do not consider her message crazy or bullshit. It's just presented in the most excruciatingly annoying way.
Well Richard Feynman was one of the most interesting people who ever lived, so it's a tough ask for anyone to draw attention more than him. Even if they are reading his words.
I think i've done the main tasks in all the areas, I guess I could beat the game now if I wanted? I haven't checked yet.
Too busy finding all these other things, which are almost more interesting than the main puzzles.
Fuck this candle bullshit, by the way. It's like that entire thing was made just to piss me off.
0
Options
masterofmetroidHave you ever looked at a worldand seen it as a kind of challenge?Registered Userregular
Regarding the "authentic" quote, it was part of a larger conversation about how games are never about what they say they're about, because the story and themes aren't tied into the gameplay enough. I'm probably butchering this, but whatever.
LIke, Gears of War says it's about saving the world from an army of subterranian monsters; but it's really about shooting things from behind chest-high walls. Nothing about that mechanic is closely tied to the supposed theme of the game; you could (and the industry did) replace those enemies and the story with a zillion others while keeping the mechanics the same.
Meanwhile, the Witness is a game about drawing line puzzles where you draw line puzzles.
Personally I think this take is irrelevant at best and hot bullshit at worst, but whatever.
I think it's a interesting and valid critique but when you couch it in terms that make you come off like the biggest douchebag in the world you kind of destroy everyone's ability to actually discuss the topic instead of discussing what a douchebag you are
The problem for me is not the criticism itself so much as the idea that his is the first game to address it and become "Authentic"
Somebody could probably build an extensive list, but for a recent semi-popular release, Papers Please comes to mind
Did he actually say his game is the first or only to address it? Or is that just a misquote/misinterpretation? I'd like to see the original conversation.
forty on
0
Options
masterofmetroidHave you ever looked at a worldand seen it as a kind of challenge?Registered Userregular
Austin is pretty easy on him and walks him down from Authenticity to Honesty, (And in fairness, the idea that his is the first or only game to do this is not specifically called out) but he starts the whole thing with talking about how movies do the same thing which is almost more gag inducing to me
His argument in many ways is more about disdain for conventional narrative structure which is not very endearing, because i don't think he broke free of those structures at all, but convinced himself that he did
He calls out "artsy" type films as negative examples when that is kind of exactly what he made
And that isn't actually bad! It's just that no, you did exactly that thing you said you weren't going to do
God i feel like i'm completely failing to convey this idea but that's kind of what happens when you deal with a recursive argument about authenticity/honesty
Mayday, I'm a little curious how you (or anyone else in a similar situation) figured out where your last few missing panels were. In a game with over 500 to solve, I know if I were 3 short of having all of them I would probably just not bother.
Mayday, I'm a little curious how you (or anyone else in a similar situation) figured out where your last few missing panels were. In a game with over 500 to solve, I know if I were 3 short of having all of them I would probably just not bother.
I just looked up the lodations in a guide online after I beat the challenge. My fun with the game was solving puzzles, not wandering around until I stumble accross random panels.
Mayday, I'm a little curious how you (or anyone else in a similar situation) figured out where your last few missing panels were. In a game with over 500 to solve, I know if I were 3 short of having all of them I would probably just not bother.
@forty Hard to tell really. All the normal panels were just there, usually in plain sight. The only ones you need to actively search for are the triangle ones, and the game tells you where the unsolved ones are.
@Aistan Here's a huge tip if you want to save yourself some hassle (but you might want to try and think of it yourself?)
Mayday, I'm a little curious how you (or anyone else in a similar situation) figured out where your last few missing panels were. In a game with over 500 to solve, I know if I were 3 short of having all of them I would probably just not bother.
forty Hard to tell really. All the normal panels were just there, usually in plain sight. The only ones you need to actively search for are the triangle ones, and the game tells you where the unsolved ones are.
Aistan Here's a huge tip if you want to save yourself some hassle (but you might want to try and think of it yourself?)
enter the symbol again to play at high speed
I wouldn't have thought of it, no. I was resigned to just waiting, even took a shower but that only knocked off 20 minutes. Thanks.
E: That... doesn't work? All it did was start it over with no changes.
Aistan on
0
Options
WACriminalDying Is Easy, Young ManLiving Is HarderRegistered Userregular
Mayday, I'm a little curious how you (or anyone else in a similar situation) figured out where your last few missing panels were. In a game with over 500 to solve, I know if I were 3 short of having all of them I would probably just not bother.
forty Hard to tell really. All the normal panels were just there, usually in plain sight. The only ones you need to actively search for are the triangle ones, and the game tells you where the unsolved ones are.
Aistan Here's a huge tip if you want to save yourself some hassle (but you might want to try and think of it yourself?)
enter the symbol again to play at high speed
I wouldn't have thought of it, no. I was resigned to just waiting, even took a shower but that only knocked off 20 minutes. Thanks.
E: That... doesn't work? All it did was start it over with no changes.
I think he means
you can use the panels with the symbols pre-marked on them to "fast-forward" to a specific point in the video.
It's alright, I can listen to The Adventure Zone while I wait. It would be super out of character for Blow to put a shortcut into these stupid sections he loves.
+1
Options
jaziekBad at everythingAnd mad about it.Registered Userregular
I mean, I think the whole thing is worth listening to.
Unless you've heard it before, in which case yeah, just go do something else for a while.
523 +135 +6 woooo. I'm taking a break for some time, I'll be coming back to hunt for the remaining audio recordings... I've missed LOTS of them - three in the mountain, and those are the most interesting!
I mean, I think the whole thing is worth listening to.
Unless you've heard it before, in which case yeah, just go do something else for a while.
None of those are worth listening to or watching, nor are the audio logs.
Just shy of an hour. At least he's slowly pulling back from his 2 hour long nonsense in Braid.
E: I just listened to the spoilercast with Austin Walker about it and it was pretty neat hearing his perspective. Him being a person who appreciated the content of some of the audio logs and the videos on their own but disagreed with their placement within the game itself and/or the message that it seemed like they were being used to tell. Since after a point I just stopped listening to them altogether that was cool to hear.
Now i'm watching the Giant Bomb video of Blow talking with Jeff and Brad and it is incredibly interesting, almost entirely because so far they are only talking about the puzzles. The methodology behind them, how he thought up the ideas, what the intent was with their placement and such.
I kind of wish that the game hadn't had any of the audio logs in it or obscure ending stuff. Just make a cool puzzle game, dude, you don't need to have it have a greater meaning.
I mean, I think the whole thing is worth listening to.
Unless you've heard it before, in which case yeah, just go do something else for a while.
None of those are worth listening to or watching, nor are the audio logs.
Just shy of an hour. At least he's slowly pulling back from his 2 hour long nonsense in Braid.
I mean, it's not going to blow your mind or anything, but the psalm 46 talk is great on it's own, and in the context of the witness gives a lot of insight into Jonathan Blow's design decisions. I can think of worse ways to spend an hour.
I mean, I think the whole thing is worth listening to.
Unless you've heard it before, in which case yeah, just go do something else for a while.
None of those are worth listening to or watching, nor are the audio logs.
Just shy of an hour. At least he's slowly pulling back from his 2 hour long nonsense in Braid.
E: I just listened to the spoilercast with Austin Walker about it and it was pretty neat hearing his perspective. Him being a person who appreciated the content of some of the audio logs and the videos on their own but disagreed with their placement within the game itself and/or the message that it seemed like they were being used to tell. Since after a point I just stopped listening to them altogether that was cool to hear.
Now i'm watching the Giant Bomb video of Blow talking with Jeff and Brad and it is incredibly interesting, almost entirely because so far they are only talking about the puzzles. The methodology behind them, how he thought up the ideas, what the intent was with their placement and such.
I kind of wish that the game hadn't had any of the audio logs in it or obscure ending stuff. Just make a cool puzzle game, dude, you don't need to have it have a greater meaning.
I mean, he specifically says that for him, that stuff was a fundamental reason for him making this game. If you didn't enjoy that stuff, that's fine. But I think we already have plenty of games that don't try to have any greater meaning - I am 100% onboard with people trying to do something more, even if they don't succeed in everyone's eyes. I didn't love some of that stuff myself, but I would have liked this game drastically less if he hadn't gone for it.
I've been pretty disappointed by Austin's thoughts on the supposed grand message of the game, and listening to this spoilercast isn't helping
His starting point seems to be the same as mine, specifically the notion that the game is trying to present ways of reading some of life's mysteries. Where we immediately differ is I don't think Blow is trying to suggest an ultimate answer to everything (and I think it's oddly spurious of Austin to bring up issues such as starvation in that context)
What I took away from the audio logs and videos was simply them being impressions from multiple sources. Musings from various times and places around the world, presentations of what meaning can be in different contexts or what have you. The way it fit for me was that it showed a diverse way of approaching the world, much like you are allowed to do in the game
I could see my view being considered shallow, I suppose. Regardless, I think Austin's view is presumptuous and considering how many of the logs would be so obviously contradictory to one another if suggesting one true solution was the intent, I feel genuinely surprised at how strongly Austin hammers that point
Sometimes I feel like I am the only one not hearing all these pretentious or self-aggrandizing things Blow supposedly says, and so far every time I have been pointed to examples it has been misquotes or what to me just seems like flippant conclusions
I've been pretty disappointed by Austin's thoughts on the supposed grand message of the game, and listening to this spoilercast isn't helping
His starting point seems to be the same as mine, specifically the notion that the game is trying to present ways of reading some of life's mysteries. Where we immediately differ is I don't think Blow is trying to suggest an ultimate answer to everything (and I think it's oddly spurious of Austin to bring up issues such as starvation in that context)
What I took away from the audio logs and videos was simply them being impressions from multiple sources. Musings from various times and places around the world, presentations of what meaning can be in different contexts or what have you. The way it fit for me was that it showed a diverse way of approaching the world, much like you are allowed to do in the game
I could see my view being considered shallow, I suppose. Regardless, I think Austin's view is presumptuous and considering how many of the logs would be so obviously contradictory to one another if suggesting one true solution was the intent, I feel genuinely surprised at how strongly Austin hammers that point
Sometimes I feel like I am the only one not hearing all these pretentious or self-aggrandizing things Blow supposedly says, and so far every time I have been pointed to examples it has been misquotes or what to me just seems like flippant conclusions
Yeah I heard Austin's vague comments about his feelings before actually playing the game, and when I did and start getting a sense of what he was talking about, I just did not get that feeling at all. While there are some parallels between one of the characters and Blow himself, it seems like Austin is attributing a lot of that character's thoughts and opinions to Blow himself, and it just seemed kind of odd.
Speaking of which, where are you guys getting/seeing this spoilercast? Poking around the site I don't see anything...
Posts
Oh, yup! I was blinded by the time I finished doing them and knew I was going to leave an error somewhere.
Edit: that's how I have it written down in my notes too so either it was actually an impossible puzzle (I feel like it wouldn't generate one of those) or that 1 in the corner isn't supposed to be there because yeah, that makes it impossible.
Actually had the same thing happen to me, here. Did the forest relatively easy and then bricked on the town shadow puzzle (mostly because I had just done the swamp and other areas and didn't have the shadow mechanics in mind at all).
Yes. Those, and the ones
I don't mind not knowing what changed; I'm just taking the game world as it is.
I think it's a interesting and valid critique but when you couch it in terms that make you come off like the biggest douchebag in the world you kind of destroy everyone's ability to actually discuss the topic instead of discussing what a douchebag you are
http://www.audioentropy.com/
My only complaint so far is that the audio clips are excruciating. I never thought that i'd be bored by
At least I like the puzzles.
But, in their defence, the actors were more interesting than Spira and Gangaji.
EDIT: to clarify, unlike some comments I've read, I do not consider her message crazy or bullshit. It's just presented in the most excruciatingly annoying way.
Well Richard Feynman was one of the most interesting people who ever lived, so it's a tough ask for anyone to draw attention more than him. Even if they are reading his words.
I think i've done the main tasks in all the areas, I guess I could beat the game now if I wanted? I haven't checked yet.
Too busy finding all these other things, which are almost more interesting than the main puzzles.
Fuck this candle bullshit, by the way. It's like that entire thing was made just to piss me off.
Somebody could probably build an extensive list, but for a recent semi-popular release, Papers Please comes to mind
Austin is pretty easy on him and walks him down from Authenticity to Honesty, (And in fairness, the idea that his is the first or only game to do this is not specifically called out) but he starts the whole thing with talking about how movies do the same thing which is almost more gag inducing to me
His argument in many ways is more about disdain for conventional narrative structure which is not very endearing, because i don't think he broke free of those structures at all, but convinced himself that he did
He calls out "artsy" type films as negative examples when that is kind of exactly what he made
And that isn't actually bad! It's just that no, you did exactly that thing you said you weren't going to do
God i feel like i'm completely failing to convey this idea but that's kind of what happens when you deal with a recursive argument about authenticity/honesty
i'd rather he wasn't but yeah basically
http://www.audioentropy.com/
If we ignored every creator with an overinflated sense of self worth we would consume virtually no media.
Dude seems pretty cool imo
I just looked up the lodations in a guide online after I beat the challenge. My fun with the game was solving puzzles, not wandering around until I stumble accross random panels.
*shrug*
It was technically an ending, I guess? I mean the game did stop.
Final stats:
I guess i'll go back and see if I can get the rest of the things. Not expecting any huge revelations though.
E:
I just beat
Then I saw what I had to do with it.
FUUUUUUUUUUCK YOUUUUUUU Jonathan Blow.
@forty Hard to tell really. All the normal panels were just there, usually in plain sight. The only ones you need to actively search for are the triangle ones, and the game tells you where the unsolved ones are.
@Aistan Here's a huge tip if you want to save yourself some hassle (but you might want to try and think of it yourself?)
I wouldn't have thought of it, no. I was resigned to just waiting, even took a shower but that only knocked off 20 minutes. Thanks.
E: That... doesn't work? All it did was start it over with no changes.
I think he means
I think that's what he's talking about.
Unless you've heard it before, in which case yeah, just go do something else for a while.
None of those are worth listening to or watching, nor are the audio logs.
Just shy of an hour. At least he's slowly pulling back from his 2 hour long nonsense in Braid.
E: I just listened to the spoilercast with Austin Walker about it and it was pretty neat hearing his perspective. Him being a person who appreciated the content of some of the audio logs and the videos on their own but disagreed with their placement within the game itself and/or the message that it seemed like they were being used to tell. Since after a point I just stopped listening to them altogether that was cool to hear.
Now i'm watching the Giant Bomb video of Blow talking with Jeff and Brad and it is incredibly interesting, almost entirely because so far they are only talking about the puzzles. The methodology behind them, how he thought up the ideas, what the intent was with their placement and such.
I kind of wish that the game hadn't had any of the audio logs in it or obscure ending stuff. Just make a cool puzzle game, dude, you don't need to have it have a greater meaning.
I mean, it's not going to blow your mind or anything, but the psalm 46 talk is great on it's own, and in the context of the witness gives a lot of insight into Jonathan Blow's design decisions. I can think of worse ways to spend an hour.
I mean, he specifically says that for him, that stuff was a fundamental reason for him making this game. If you didn't enjoy that stuff, that's fine. But I think we already have plenty of games that don't try to have any greater meaning - I am 100% onboard with people trying to do something more, even if they don't succeed in everyone's eyes. I didn't love some of that stuff myself, but I would have liked this game drastically less if he hadn't gone for it.
His starting point seems to be the same as mine, specifically the notion that the game is trying to present ways of reading some of life's mysteries. Where we immediately differ is I don't think Blow is trying to suggest an ultimate answer to everything (and I think it's oddly spurious of Austin to bring up issues such as starvation in that context)
What I took away from the audio logs and videos was simply them being impressions from multiple sources. Musings from various times and places around the world, presentations of what meaning can be in different contexts or what have you. The way it fit for me was that it showed a diverse way of approaching the world, much like you are allowed to do in the game
I could see my view being considered shallow, I suppose. Regardless, I think Austin's view is presumptuous and considering how many of the logs would be so obviously contradictory to one another if suggesting one true solution was the intent, I feel genuinely surprised at how strongly Austin hammers that point
Sometimes I feel like I am the only one not hearing all these pretentious or self-aggrandizing things Blow supposedly says, and so far every time I have been pointed to examples it has been misquotes or what to me just seems like flippant conclusions
Yeah I heard Austin's vague comments about his feelings before actually playing the game, and when I did and start getting a sense of what he was talking about, I just did not get that feeling at all. While there are some parallels between one of the characters and Blow himself, it seems like Austin is attributing a lot of that character's thoughts and opinions to Blow himself, and it just seemed kind of odd.
Speaking of which, where are you guys getting/seeing this spoilercast? Poking around the site I don't see anything...