Just got an email from Amazon for a free Male Avatar Shirt, Female Avatar Shirt and Brightfalls Theme Pack. I had no idea this was part of the pre-order deal.

Me too, and me either. I was surprised but I'll take it.

Got it too. Neat.

Yep, so far those little, horrible Twilight Zone episodes have been my favorite part of the game.

This game makes me want to buy a nice jacket or blazer with elbow patches on it.

I'm in Episode 4 and all I can think about is how bad that thing has to smell.

I bet it smells like a mix of pine and crazy.

I really like the change of scenery you get as you progress through the game. I ran across a small clearing in Episode 3 last night that had 4 boulders surrounded by rocky forest instead of 3.

I love the game so far. Just started Episode 3 last night. I play at night with the sound way up, and there were many "jump scare" moments throughout Episode 2 that really got me. The way they condition you to seek out light is really effective, especially when they play with that element by shattering light bulbs or having a generator fail just as you approach what you think is a safe haven.

I can't wait for tonight. I live in the West Coast and work in East Coast hours, so I have to go to bed at 10 pm during the week. And I usually only play in my bedroom.

But in the weekends I can play late at night, and in the home theater room, projector, 100'' screen, surround sound. I already took a nap to be ready. I'm so excited!

Damn...I was trying to cut back on my game purchases but all the good things I've been hearing about this are pushing me toward picking it up.

Finally threw this in. Seems cool so far, pretty creepy. But man, the screen tearing is bad. Really noticeable.

Edit: Alan's kind of a dick, isn't he?

I didn't see an instance of screen tearing until Chapter Four, where it was all over the place.

And yes, that exact phrase is something I jotted down for my review. I'm having a little bit of trouble getting fully into the story because he is not entirely compelling.

The nightmare at the beginning had a ton of screen tearing. It's lessened since then, but it still pops up from time to time.

I agree.



That's a really minor quibble though. All in all, I stand by my previous statement that this is the game to beat for GOTY as far as I'm concerned. The gameplay was extremely tight. It had a fantastic mix of jump scares and establishing incredibly creepy atmospheres. I'm having a tough time thinking of another game that even comes close to matching the writing/pacing/plot. I still think it blows Heavy Rain out of the water in terms of a narrative experience. I rarely play through games a second time anymore, but once I get caught up on some other releases, I'll be making an attempt on nightmare difficulty to get all the manuscript pages. Just a great game.

In game advertisements? No thanks, I'll pass on this one unless it becomes extremely cheap/free.

Really? When you're driving past billboards in a game, does it really matter if they have real or fake companies on them?

Yes it does because if I'm being shown ads I shouldn't be paying full price. If it was a free or extremely cheap game no problem.
If it really doesn't matter, then why are they there in the first place? Clearly it matters to someone.

It cheapens the experience.

I guess I might agree with you if it was unnatural or really impacted the experience. I don't have a problem with it at all when it's something that looks completely at place within the game world. I didn't even notice that some of the billboards had real companies on them until I was in the last third of the game. Anyway, the only difference I can see between an in-game billboard having a fake or real company on it is that if it's a real company, the publisher gets to make a little profit. I'm perfectly fine with that, especially when the final product is as outstanding as this game is.

How does it cheapen the experience to have real ads? The game has a realistic look and feel, doesn't having real life ads just make sense in the context? If anything it cheapens the experience when developer go out of their way to make a fake product with some sort of lame pun or knock at a real life product.

You do get an achievement for watching a Verizon commercial on TV.

Ask yourselves this question: if the ads don't make any difference, why is someone paying to put them there?

I sincerely doubt anyone is so naive here on this forum to think it isn't so the developer can make some extra money.

Personally, if the ads are not intrusive, fit within the context of the game, and don't "pop" so as to break my state of suspended disbelief and immersion... then go ahead and throw them in. If my character is walking past a telephone pole and there is a bumpmapped piece of paper with either: text too blurry to read, text for a fake local pizzeria, text for Dominoes. Then i say take Dominoes money.

1. The chances of me even noticing the ad are slim.
2. If i do notice them i would 100% rather have a realistic period appropriate ad rather than some cutesy pun of a made up company or the blurry unreadable text option.

Weird. I saw a video of that and thought it was a joke. I got the achievement for watching every tv program and never saw a verizon commercial.

Brand recognition? To associate themselves with the game? Are you insinuating something more nefarious?

It's advertising. I'm not saying it's nefarious, but it's valuable. Personally, I go out of my way to be exposed to as little advertising as possible, that's my preference and right. Generally if you are going to be advertised at, then the content is free or greatly reduced price because of this. If you pay a premium, then the expectation is that you won't have to endure advertising. This is a pretty familiar concept, yet some companies like Microsoft are trying to have their cake and eat it too; charge a premium yet also include ads. They are already doing it to an increasingly obnoxious extent on Live. Same thing with ads in front of movies or DVDs; fortunately this is less obnoxious than that, but it could easily get more intrusive over time.