See you on the beach - the thread for Hideo Kojima's DEATH STRANDING

*rocks BB way too quickly*

Death Stranding (2019) @giantbomb @jeffgerstmann @taswell #DeathStranding pic.twitter.com/CIsjHTgE47

— Jacob! (@JacobGehnert) November 9, 2019

18 hours deep, still in chapter 3. happily building roads.

the design and aesthetic are top notch. i love that HD means you can really read all the dumbass slogans kojima slathers over every surface. even the corny music works, when it swells up and the camera pulls back crossing a giant open space. the upward-floating debris, the weird tendrils hanging from the hovering overpasses, the porter bots wearing little shoes and singing to themselves.

trudging slowly over wet sand with an enormous stack of high-performance underwear crates is fun. putting ladders in stupid places is fun. getting and sending thousands of likes is fun. rocking the baby is reasonably fun (and i spend most of my day entertaining an irl toddler). feel like most reviews don't mention that the game is actually fun and satisfying to play. when you do something stupid and drop every fucking thing you are carrying (a rare occurrence unless you are not paying any attention), mashing triangle to pick stuff up is hilarious. it's got a similar feel to snake picking stuff up in mgs, it's a really fast animation and when you mash it norman reedus goes fucking nuts throwing shit back on his cargo stack. feels good.

love the bananas story and setting.

the walking simulator is my favorite game genre and this sounds fucking awful to me

it's too bad everyone established "walking sim" as a flippant term for narrative adventure games because now that there's an actual walking sim we don't have a term for it that won't cause confusion

how does the online element of this game work? online players can affect the landscape based on things they leave out for each other... but does that mean that technically you might be able to bump into each other and if enough people play it there could be thousnads of Reedus's walking around? I take it that's not the case?

i've already floated 'stumbling simulator' tbf xp

“Drudgery sim”?

xp it's asynchronous, it'll load some amount of other players' constructions into your game, prioritizing people on your PS friends list, but you're not actually in the same instance of the game world as anyone else

'Slow Gaming'

other people can contribute to your constructions and vice versa so the resource accumulation/distribution is less onerous. i like upgrading ppl's stuff when i don't feel like hauling a zillion kg of metal back to whatever knot city.

i think the cutscenes' emphasis on connections and logistics are telling but what really gives it away is calling the bandits MULEs. i feel like kojima is in direct dialogue with M.U.L.E., advancing a vision of radical generosity over that game's free market ruthlessness.

so let's go with "post apocalyptic socialism sim"

aw shit, i think by mentioning MULE you just made me buy this goddammit

it rules forks just do it

damn u

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Box4XDvBSgE

I am kind of disappointed because it seemed like I was going to finally meet Mads' character and you.. kind of encounter him? not really. I'm sure it'll come later.

This is the first game where I've gotten something that seems like it could cause lethal damage after having some random incapacitating items and I feel really hesitant about the idea of shooting people. Those MULE guys seem like assholes, but do I really need to injure them that badly?

“Drudgery sim”?

― Fuck the NRA (ulysses)

that's sort of what i like about gaming, ultimately at a certain point they all boil down to tedious drudgery. commit this otherwise useless sequence of button presses to muscle memory. this vision of gaming has been around for at least as long as pac-man - i remember as a child reading books on how to get good at pac-man and it was all rote execution of patterns. we pay money for the chance to do routine things.

This thread is the manifestation of the game I was most looking forward to, please update with tales of dystopian banality

the irony of the fact that this will take until Wednesday to deliver is not lost on me

I think the banality aspect has been oversold, to an extent. There have been a number of games with interesting landscapes, but I can't remember many details of them past rote pathfinding. Might have to jump over some rocks, may encounter an impassable area. In this game, not only is the world very beautiful, but the obstacles seem meaningful. Do I set up a ladder to make it past, or do I go around and use my tools later?

When I connect a new area, will I discover that the other way up a hill that seemed insurmountable on the map already has a series of ropes and ladders placed by someone online, making my journey that much shorter? There's a joy of discovery to it

yeah, the game isn't boring at all. in its insistence on paying attention to your surroundings and to your movements it's not at all unlike metal gear solid, just without the trappings of Tactical Espionage Action. that absence is the engine of Gamer Backlash, plus i think there's a (faulty) collective assumption of rebuke in that absence.

So it's actually fun?

what if I told you in 2019, that a video game would not only get the idea of "likes" from strangers giving that kick of dopamine, but did so in a way that made it a constructive gameplay dynamic?

there are some abuses of it, like spamming of a bunch of signs that a player has to pass through near home locations, but overall it's a well-balanced mechanic

Still looking for clarity: if you play offline, that whole aspect of the game is nullified?

You get "likes" from doing certain tasks in the game, but the abundance of physical objects in the landscape won't appear

so there's no benefit to the likes if you're offline?

my understanding is that the online components don't require playstation plus

(if that is the issue)

I'm perversely avoiding any actual reviews or gameplay videos atm because every anecdotal comment somehow confuses me further re: what this game even is/is about. Which I find fascinating.

it's possible some of the structures are put up by the NPC porters (your job) in the game, as a few appear, but I don't know that anyone reviewing or even playing the game has done it completely offline

the "likes" are what levels up one of your five metrics

i've gotten likes from NPC porters for shit i've left lying around

OL, there's a backstory that at the core establishes this post-apocalyptic world, what the precursor event was, and some of the basics that differentiate this world from our own. The story starts to answer a lot of the unknowns, but a lot of it is "we discovered this technology, it did amazing things, and something horrible happened" with some additional elements related to the fact knowledge was lost in the chaos and your NPC peers are discovering the history as you are.

fwiw the thread (strand?) title here is a reference that becomes clear not far into the game

finally a game that can breach the high watermark set by bioshock for creepiest cosplay

oh man there's gonna be a thousand norman reeduses at comicon
fat reedus, skinny reedus, buff reedus, black reedus, ups delivery uniform reedus, amazon delivery uniform reedus, DHL delivery uniform reedus, asia reedus, sexy reedus, mecha reedus, dog reedus...

I'm wondering what point in the game unlocks the Chvrches song!

The non-score musical parts so far are ok, but I feel like Kojima has found a band that's halfway between Imagine Dragons and Coldplay

I guess I should say vibe-wise, since there's not just one band

This is actually pretty fun and addictive. I don’t think the gameplay footage really sells it. There is a kind of tactile satisfaction in hauling yourself over the landscape that doesn’t really translate well to someone not holding the controller.

Not without its problems. The MULE and BT enemy encounters seem really simplistic and half-baked. I’m down with de-emphasizing combat, but I wish those systems were a little more sophisticated.

There are certain elements that seem to be deliberately irritating. Trudging through BT morass, mashing buttons as monster arms tear cargo off your back while a baby is crying in your face via the controller speaker is a good example. But that stuff is relatively minor/brief.

I've only had one BT battle encounter so far! And it was right at the beginning, before I really got the dynamic. If you're cautious and well-stocked with grenades or some of the later weapons, you can knock those suckers back to the afterlife.

I kind of want to trigger a battle because apparently if you take out one of the larger enemies that appear, they drop a ton of crystals

gameplay in the looks a bit like a walking version of spintires, would that be accurate?

THE HEART-SHAPED BUBBLE

the president's henchman is 'die hardman' who wears a leather suit, cravat and METAL SKULL MASK 24/7 i can't

i ended up just running the fuck away from the annoying BTs at the incinerator, suddenly found myself at the edge of a cliff, and somebody named igor had left.... a rope for me! at the edge! i liked the shit out of it and rappelled away, thanks igor.

thomas i think spintires is more frustrating and lets you screw yourself over. here a modicum of attention will keep you upright.

love this game. just got the "speed skeleton" and i am booking it across this rock strewn ghost-scape. also i am getting the rhythm of infiltrating BT areas so it's less of a drag. stupid MULEs not so much. i'll figure them out.

I’ve gotten pretty good at shooting MULES in the face with my bolo gun. Drops em.

Game really starts opening up in chapter 3. Trucking my stolen MULE mobile down the highway, wind in my hair. Feels good.

just got the BRIDGES truck, really adds to the UPS vibe. loading that motherfucker up with claimed metals and ceramics all the way to south knot city.

Tracer, Igor was the guy in the truck with the corpse at the very beginning!

Ahhhh!

I've been trying to put a certain feeling into words and I think this is how one says this these days.. This game has big Tomb Raider 1 energy

I have yet to see a single pyramid-shaped breast

Kojima is still insanely bad at female characters, but I'm just shaking my head and sighing when that issue pops up

This game has big Tomb Raider 1 energy

this, to me, is the highest praise, so consider my interest in eventually playing this officially heightened

oh. that makes me much more interested.

womb raider (because babies (not sure where i'm going with this))

womb raider is a mission in this game, kind of

also my nickname in college

sorry

my phone tells me my copy is on the way, presumably on foot over the scenic tundra of brooklyn

https://www.polygon.com/videos/2019/11/11/20959269/unraveled-kojima-name-generator-death-stranding

Since it was announced I've continued to misread the game's name as "Death Standing," and given so much of the gameplay appears to be about finding your footing while traversing rough terrain, "Death Standing" kind of works!'

it's a strand game though

i love that the president's name is bridget strand. some morally bankrupt new media grad student should write something about kojima character names, aristotle's discussion of names in poetics, the relevant bit of the rise of the novel, and compare and contrast with the work of shigeru miyamoto (whose games feature character with much more "realistic" names inasmuch as they jibe with the contemporary social milieu of their settings).

like, are all porters named porter? and all bridges members named bridges? that doesn't seem to be the case based on the people sam interacts with.

I guess, with some exceptions, you can just run away from boss fights? I took down a creature summoned by a certain bad guy last night and later read a guide saying I could have just hopped my way out of there

I'd probably have a lot more of my blood if I had

In any case, I'm now in the middle of Episode 6

I'm in episode 5, episode 4 was the only real misstep so far, I really hated it--but it was very short.

hi i'm a guy with a metal skull mask named Die Hard Man, i'll be introducing you to your dying mother who is the president of the United States, please don't agitate her to the point of death aaaaaaaaaand okay you already have

I guess if you look at the figurines in your private room, you can replay the "detour" from episode 4.

I'm wondering if there will be any landscapes in the game that you can't revisit. I get the impression that everything's always open

Guys I realise this is really basic but it keeps raining on me and damaging my stuff. I have the ability to make post boxes, but they don't allow me to complete/entrust deliveries - is this something that gets unlocked later? For now I'm tromping around getting rained on and freaking out.

There also seems like way more lost cargo than I can reasonably get back to the Knot Cities but the completist in me sort of hates to leave them lying around.

You'll get a variety of options to help with package damage:
- Find an overhang or cave and take a nap
- Unlock the ability to make Timefall shelters you can sit under until it stops raining
- Weather station that adds a map layer with forecasts up to a half hour (I think) that let you plot routes around storms
- Drive a truck that's enclosed, keeping all your cargo dry
- Run around blasting cargo repair spray at your back

I haven't been delivering hardly any lost cargo because in heavily trafficked areas it's everywhere

I kind of gave up on caring about perfect, undamaged cargo deliveries after getting the DELIVERY ROBOT. I'm guessing I need to upgrade it, but the ability to have small tasks done by a couple robots is nice, even if they get B/C grades

I'm also weirded out by the fact the way the cargo bot walks seems like of sexy, like it struts and swings its robot hips?

trace you are gonna have to make peace with not picking everything up, just look for stuff that's going your way.

i always give myself a good spritz of container repair spray before making a delivery. S rank after devastating S rank over here.

the delivery bot's little shoes fucking ruin me every time

dispatching it on deliveries and shaking my head in shame as it cheerily bounds up the ramp

"the delivery bot's little shoes fucking ruin me every time"

lol same

thing is there's container damage and then there's item damage, right? do you get docked points for container damage?

i was confused by the repair spray stuff at first as it didn't seem to be fixing up my damaged items. was overlooking the fact that it's called CONTAINER repair spray.

i feel like it factors in but i button mash thru those delivery summary screens until i get to the little "numbers increasing" sound and let the dopamine hit.

re: post boxes

i think they only allow to do deliver or entrust "lost" cargo. the stuff you find in the field that's been dropped by others.

You'll get a variety of options to help with package damage:
- Find an overhang or cave and take a nap
- Unlock the ability to make Timefall shelters you can sit under until it stops raining
- Weather station that adds a map layer with forecasts up to a half hour (I think) that let you plot routes around storms
- Drive a truck that's enclosed, keeping all your cargo dry
- Run around blasting cargo repair spray at your back

As a non-player, this is the type of content I'm looking for here

The dynamic with gear upgrades is interesting in that some of the main storyline missions unlock new types of gear, but it's optional side missions that enhance it or provide different functionality

I felt dumb that I was given the ability to set up zipline stations and then immediately forgot! They're a pretty powerful way to get around once you have the resources to set them up.

the game doesn't care about container damage on delivery, only contents damage (i think that's what it's called). the higher the container damage the more damage the contents takes when you stumble etc. and that's what you need to worry about. mostly this just means bringing repair spray and using it if the container gets too damaged from timefall etc but it's not a big deal

can't believe someone posted the kojima name generator but nobody posted their kojima name, i have to rip off half of someone's name because i am a clone

(my current name is OLD COPPER DESIGNER btw in case you too are a clone and need to jack part of my name)

Have a suspicion a lot of these conveniently placed structures are game placed and not user placed.

you don't think other players would build theirs in convenient places?

There have been a few desperate oasis moments where it seemed too perfect, but I’m OK with the mystery.

having spent way too long yesterday finding the perfect spots to a place zip lines and set up a transportation network, I resent the implication it’s all the computer!

just one more road segment to complete and the Lake Knot City to South Knot City highway will be back online!

so many materials

Is this a niche game or something that anyone and everyone would enjoy?

You must be kidding

No. The prerelease narrative was all about qualifying whatever enjoyment it offered, mentioning its antifun tedium and insane Kojima storytelling.

there were at least an equal number of gushingly positive reviews that didn't get factored into that narrative

small spoiler: Heartman, when you meet him, just keeps talking

And that's what I'm trying to figure out! Which experience most closely aligns to my tastes?

i haven't played it yet but reading threads about it reminds me most of the breath of the wild release with how people are excitedly relaying anecdotes of things they found or things that happened to them and are just generally mindboggled at the game existing as it is

I’ve read a few things drawing parallels to breath of the wild! It makes me want to check it out if I delve back into Nintendo’s ecosystem

I'm no gamer at all but I've been following jacksepticeye's playthrough on youtube (I hate reaction videos but watching gamers game is different & he's a nice dude) and it's been addictive and fascinating (almost done, another 5 hours to go I think). Gorgeous Icelandic-type scenery and mysterious sci fi type stuff = me sold

P.S.A. if you're going to check out his channel: he shouts a lot :-)

lol at me finally cracking, buying and downloading this, finding some precious time to play while my daughter has an unusually long nap, and then spending the better part of two hours watching cutscenes and about 15 minutes actually playing

kojima-san you’ve done it again

right there with you; waiting for this to get fun/interesting is taking a while

it is pretty amazing to look at tbf

i thought it was fun/interesting from the beginning, i just haven't had any time to play

i love how it applies these quite familiar gaming tropes of ultra tactical military tech / terrain AR sensing / task loops / skill upgrade paths etc to like, hiking

i’m pretty fascinated by it so far, i just wish i’d been able to, y’know, play it a bit more during the time i had available

This ain’t gaming, this is genocide

so did Kojima come up with the plot after hearing a Chili’s commercial

Are there airport ribs in this game?

spent another couple hours with this tonight and i'm into the rhythm of it now. some nicely tense stealth action at the MULE camp where i was supposed to get the printer, straight out of MGS. i was so wigged and pumped afterwards that i didn't hang around to pick up whatever other loot there might have been besides some of the other stuff that was in the postbox. even just the stuff in the postbox though, i only took a couple of things. i like how the game quickly disabuses you of the long-standing videogame urge to 'pick up everything'. you can't pick up everything. well, maybe you could, but you certainly can't walk with it.

i have questions though. what's up with these distribution points, incredibly hi-tech outposts in a fallen world? who are the MULES? i can't help thinking i want to switch sides. i like their little ramshackle tents. i want to run onto a BRIDGES base, get scanned, somehow shield my weapon from being deactivated, fuck up die hardman. and deadman. i don't like either of them.

“Get the printer” sounds pretty mgs

it is very mgs. the tagging, for instance. it's like the 'no weapons' missions in mgs as the core of a new game.

you haven’t heard the description of who the MULEs are? they’re... a literal cargo cult.

SIGN ME UP

lmao

my experience with death stranding so far pic.twitter.com/4qZUWP3SlE

— PJ (@kickthepj) November 10, 2019

also lmao

Been having a blast with Death Stranding pic.twitter.com/gzxmbc8dmp

— Fast Food Chain (@Braith_Miller) November 10, 2019

:)

also confirms one aspect of the TR1 vibes - it's the only other videogame i can remember where people imitated the main character's walk for weeks

never forget QWOP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfHCUM_OBCc

casting Mads as a multi-faceted character was a great choice

he's just so cool

here's two hours of Bennet Foddy playing Death Stranding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uScuM6T3Dq8

spent a lot of time last night building out and connecting roads. then put up ziplines out in the mountains where they're desperately needed.

it was a fun change of pace, got kind of addicted to it. looking forward to jacking up some MULE camps for road materials later on.

Has anyone had to do a run to the incinerator? I've read that killing someone means you need to move the body in a hurry to avoid a voidout.

isn't that the first mission? with your momz?

Yeah. Apparently you can trigger an ad hoc mission if you kill someone, though. Watch out when raiding those MULEs, guys!

god i love stranding fools MULEs

I mostly run from them or avoid them! I'm to the point where resources are plentiful at the different supply centers/cities and I just load up a truck instead of raiding MULEs.

Some of the new toys I've received in the late game could make the encounters more interesting, though

and let me just say that Timefall Porter is much better than Monster

i built some ziplines up in the mountains last night too, very satisfying.

i love the bizarre vehicle handling over rocks, reminds me of mass effect 1 kinda

i've been messing around in chapter 5 for way too long, gotta move the story along tonight hopefully.

is that a second incinerator in the mountains between the mountain knot waystation and distro center? i wanted to go check it out but it looked like serious BT country and my playing time was severely limited.

Yeah, there's one up there. I was through there recently, although I ran out of road materials. If you're driving in, the most accessible route is from the southwest corner to the northeast.

iirc there's a building that's not a waypoint straight east, between that area and the nearest craftsman (forget which one) that is a hotbed of BT activity

I'm a little more cautious now because "hotbed of BT activity" gets a little sketchier in the later part of the game

if you like the northern lights, you'll enjoy this part of the game :)

i'm not crazy about the vehicle handling in this tbh. floaty and wonky. minor gripe though.

i've enjoyed this from the outset, but it is a game that seems to get progressively more fun. feels cool having the wilderness slowly tamed as you (and mysterious others) hack out routes.

god i love stranding fools MULEs

Turn back you poxy MULEs?

I'm struck by the balance between the beauty of the landscape, the solidarity of uniting people, and the absolutely fucking depressing backstory every major character has

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukqZ5VOoK5s

minor spoiler: in one of the later plot advancing scenes -- one of the few where failing gives you a "continue" screen -- there is totally some MGS-style stealth assassination action

I haven't finished it yet, but was pleasantly surprised when my last attempt made it 3/4ths of the way through using nothing but the handcuff-like strand thing

i am not enjoying this i think

I heard it really gets going after the first 45 hours.

Judging by the totally chill debates nerds are having online about it, it’s evident Kojima did a great job with this game about bringing people together

Downvoting that comment

truly mystified by the haters

just got a "like" from a BT when cutting its strand haha

Why do some people worship Kojima? I've never played Metal Gear and really don't know anything about them, but they seems more or less like a ninja guy sneaking around and shooting people. Was that radical at the time? Are they clever in some other way? Because this game does not seem like those games, and even if someone was really into those games, this game doesn't seem a logical progression.

Someone else should take this one since I never played much beyond the first Metal Gear Solid, but I've gathered that they're extremely idiosyncratic compared to most games that involve shooting people, lots of long cut-scenes involving weird characters and an identifiable voice for dialogue, fourth wall breaking elements, and generally a sense that he was trying to question and push against the boundaries of the game he was being paid to make.

i mean you have read this thread and presumably watched at least part of at least one of the videos that have been posted. surely you have gotten some inkling of an impression of an idea that there's something going on in this game beyond package delivery, and that the metal gear games have something going on besides ninja shooting.

and that the respective package delivery and ninja shooting are top notch as it is

"The series is credited for pioneering and popularizing stealth video games[2][3][4][5] and "cinematic video games".[4][6] Notable traits of the series include stealth mechanics, cinematic cutscenes, intricate storylines, offbeat and fourth wall humour, and exploration of cyberpunk, dystopian, political and philosophical themes,[7][8] with references to Hollywood films to add flavor."

So he pioneered stealth and ... cut scenes? Are they actually good games, too? Or just iconic?

for example, I watched that Dunkey Metal Gear video - do people play the games to advance the plot, or because they are good games?

they were good for their time, i'm sure better stealth gameplay has been made in their wake

MGS series is basically socio-political thrillers questioning the cold war, history of military intervention, with a good dose of illuminati-style machinations and the titular metal gear machines, which are giant mech-type robots built as superweapons

the gameplay mechanics differ throughout the series and you can definitely play the later ones as third-person view shooters, but you're going to do poorly on objectives. with the exception of the boss battles, I'm pretty sure you can still finish them without firing a shot. it's part stealth, part tactics

Death Stranding definitely has gameplay mechanics in the same line, with the main difference being the treks over terrains. Stealth is a big gameplay mechanic when navigating around the ghostlike BTs ("beached things")

I mean, as to whether they're "good games" I have no idea how you quantify that other than noting that they're insanely popular, sell a ton of copies, inspire a myriad of fans to do videos and cosplay, and have elevated Kojima to the position you're questioning

It's definitely not a semi-ironic "so bad it's good" thing going on, although some of the story points and predictable characterization is a little eye-roll inducing. They're definitely identifiable author/producer quirks

in gameplay update:

I encountered the first instance of "better to load from a save than struggle through" since the very beginning of the game. Sometimes when someone tells you "be careful with this package" you really should pay attention

not causing a massive voidout on the way to the delivery would have probably helped with that

I guess what I was getting at is, why do some seem to revere Kojima? Is he just a cult figure? And, further, why were so many people looking forward to Death Stranding? What were they expecting and did they get that? (And does the answer to that question explain why the response has been so varied?)

he made a popular game franchise. could only be considered a cult figure due to the relative unpopularity of console gaming compared to more universally enjoyed media - the gaming franchise metal gear is popular. guy who made a popular game franchise made a new game. that is why people looked forward to it. also there were ads.

response is varied because he stole the whole idea from this:
https://youtu.be/RG4xioX7eDI

^lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKdv-IeAv2g

can you answer your question for film directors? why do some people make a big deal about e.g. Tarantino or David Lynch? it's the same idea in a different medium

It's a fair point.

the mgs games are very good - the original mgs is one of the best games on the original playstation and that's a critical consensus pick - but kojima is also an auteur, though not necessarily in a good way - he is bemoaned for long, convoluted, batshit cutscenes.

I guess what I was getting at is, why do some seem to revere Kojima? Is he just a cult figure?

ciderpress otm, but even more explicitly: Guillermo Del Toro and Nicholas Windn Refn are characters *in this game* (well, Del Toro's character is voice acted by someone else, but it's physically him)

Hideo wears his influences and aspirations openly, but it's up to you to determine how effective that presentation is

I thought this was a great (positive) review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKdv-IeAv2g

Also tells me that even if I wanted to play this, there is no reason to unless you're online playing with others. That sort of seems like the point.

idk but the game but the dunkey review is a+

bout*

xpost whoops!

Josh, you don’t play *with others*. If your PS4 is on a network at all, it’ll pick up the objects, likes, etc

None of the people I’ve “interacted” with in the game are on my friends list. I am probably overly stressing it, but there is no real multiplayer experience, more that you’re playing adjacent to others.

Also, if your PS4 has no network access it is probably bad because every dumbass company either requires a decent system software patch level to play new games, or ships games that need a patch immediately

fwiw I had internet connectivity issues twice in the last week and, while the game retained some constructs copied from others, it was mostly vanilla and played just fine

I guess I'm confused, then. Obviously my machine is on *our* network, to download games and updates and whatnot. Other than that I have it pretty locked down. But for example, if I wanted to race other real people in Mario Kart, I have to be on the Nintendo network (which I forgot I currently am, thanks to that promo!). Or, more closely, if I wanted to leave messages for other people in Dark Souls, I have to be on the pay Playstation network, don't I? I played Dark Souls entirely "offline," so I couldn't leave or receive messages for others (and didn't have to deal with invasions and whatnot). So hypothetically speaking, you're saying even if I am not on the Playstation pay network, I'd be able to leave likes and equipment for other players in this game? How? Would I have to uncheck a few privacy boxes or something?

it doesn't use ps plus so yeah as long as your ps4 is connected to the internet it'll work

Huh. So do/can other games do that, allow you to interact, directly or indirectly, with other people on the network? Does Playstation have to allow the developer permission to do that? I guess Fortnite allows you to play with other people for free, right? Who makes that decision?

There's no console-wide "opt into network access during play" setting so it's controlled by accepting the terms & conditions of the game and your willingness to have the machine connected to wifi or plugging in the network cable. I believe in DS you can go in and turn off internet access as well.

I guess we're conflating "network" with "service" here. PS Plus is a service that takes advantage of Sony's developer package for network interactions, although I'm not sure if they provide any assistance to companies in hosting game servers. Nintendo's "network" is also a service. At the basic level, "on the network" means you've connected your Playstation to a computer network. If you're downloading updates, you've connected it to an internet-connected network.

I guess if someone was predisposed to do so, they could set up firewall rules to only allow access to update servers and not game servers, but that sounds like a pain in the ass.

as far as locking down a network, unless you're specifically running a firewall and blocking all outbound connections to the internet and then whitelisting things to poke a few holes, you're not very locked down tbh

generally games that have real time synchronous online multiplayer will require the PS plus subscription. the big exception is free to play games like fortnite.

asynchronous online features like leaderboards, the stuff in death stranding, the stuff in persona etc generally don't require the subscription

I can’t remember, can you view your trophies and those of others online without psplus? That’d be kind of a dead giveaway that “offline” is fake

yeah pretty sure you can do all that social friendlist stuff without it

By "locked down" I mean that I don't keep a friends list or allow messages or any of that shit; locked down to other *players*, not to PS, who can of course push updates or whatever else they want to do.

I'm pretty sure I can view my own trophies, but I've not seen any sign of any other players, directly or indirectly, for as long as I have had the system.

For a lot (all?) real time synchronous online multiplayer games, they have a dedicated server, right? That I would be accessing via PS plus? Like, if I wanted to shoot other people in a shooting game, whether Fortnite or Doom, there is a waiting room, where other people "wait" to play one another on what is I assume a server, that - exceptions like Fortnite aside - I can only get to through PS plus? What I'm trying to figure out is how a game like Death Stranding must work (again, I haven't played it). If I "leave" something for someone, where am I leaving it so that another person can see it? Via a server I'm connected to, I assume, right? So playing the game, accepting the terms of service, means that I am connected to others whether I want to be or not, and they can leave me stuff in "my" game just as I can leave them stuff in theirs? But you're saying, by asynchronous, that this is not happening in real time, like a Dark Souls invasion, this is happening ... when? If I left something in Death Stranding, when can another person see that thing I left? And how many people can see it? And how much stuff can you leave? There must be a limit, so that these unpopulated landscapes are not suddenly cluttered with ladders and detritus. So then I've got to assume that anything I "leave" eventually disappears or expires or something, right?

Idk how Death Stranding works, but Dark Souls uses servers run by the software company for all the asynchronous stuff (messages, player ghosts, bloodstains, etc). Obviously there's some sort of algorithm for what you actually see, it's a limited subset rather than everyone playing all over the world. And it gets cached, not limited to when they're actually online.

For real-time interactions (invasions/summoning help), it's a direct peer-to-peer connection (mediated through PS+ presumably).

when you build something it gets recorded in a database of everything people have built, on some sony server somewhere

when you load up your game, after loading all your own constructions, it arbitrarily chooses some number of other people's constructions from that database and adds them to your game. you're not directly connected to other players

Does that mean it's possible to leave something useful for someone in a useful place, but that possibly no one would ever see it? Or, conversely, you could leave something totally not helpful in and unhelpful place and that might be pushed out? Also you've got to assume that these virtual things left to be randomly/algorithmically doled out refresh/delete themselves on some set schedule, to clear the virtual clutter? And if they are doled out randomly, that implies you can leave an identical helpful item right next to another helpful item, and that someone else would see your helpful item but not the item you initially saw, right? So you could be strategically helpful in a quest to juke "like" stats (assuming that helps you)?

Playing Dark Souls without PS+, I didn't even have access to asynchronous stuff (messages, player ghosts, bloodstains, etc)., beyond what the game had built in (like a few messages), right? And definitely didn't have access to any player generated messages.

yes to all those, though no one knows the exact mechanisms of how the death stranding sharing stuff works and there's no real reward for 'gaming' it anyway

Correct, I guess they could have done it so that you could see player messages without PS+ (but not summon/invade), but it's always been all or nothing.

You don't leave things *for* people. You can set up signs, bridges, etc. in the game and you see them. It seems to selectively show those in other games, and if they're "liked" by people, they seem to show up in more games.

There is no direct player-to-player "hey, I left you a waystation" metric. It trickles small amounts of content that has been liked by others into your game, and objects evaporate over time. If I build a bridge in a spot that is in an obvious path that lacks a bridge, chances are the few people who have it appear in their games may like it. So then it appears in more games, etc

There is a sort of reward, in that likes you accumulate add to one of the in-game metrics. But that same metric is added to by characters in the game.

there's no reason to juke the stats, as it were, as the things that get the most support from others are going to be the ones that are most useful to you

it could be the topic for an entire Playstation user privacy thread, but I was curious if PS profiles are inherently public when it comes to trophies, etc.

I probably missed a privacy setting or didn't give a crap, but in any case I found third-party fan site psnprofiles.com, stuck my username in the search without registering for anything, and it was able to retrieve my trophy info

I'm not sure I even know my username.

Could you go through this game liking stuff that is not useful?

sure, but all the really cool objects that have shown up for me have hundreds or even thousands of likes now that the game's been out a while

oh yeah, the other metric for those who haven't read about it:

there's a list in-game of players you've "interacted" with and you can set up "strand contacts" with them, leading to the game prioritizing their objects appearing in your instance. it shows a number next to them that is either the number of likes they've received, or is somehow related to that metric

I have seen a few players with tens of thousands of likes on that list, but some people have reported others with millions

But as of yet you're saying there is no real reward to that ranking, just ego?

again, likes can help influence one of five metrics in the game, but you max it out in-game on your own easily enough after a while

Death Stranding 2 should be 50 hours of explaining and demonstrating to the newly on-line how the chiral network works.

Sounds like the guy should have made a movie or website or social network app or something. Since the game aspect seems sort of ancillary to his themes and/or goals.

the main task of the game is literally connecting disconnected people

it's like a goddamn imBEACHment hearing in here

yeah, I give up

so, those of us actually playing this, how you doing? what episode are you on?

This does seem like the type of thing that a phone app would be ideal for. Check in on likes and such for those structures you laid down earlier.

Last night I wrecked some MULE sites and grabbed a ton of road materials. Almost single handedly putting together a Route 66 across this piece.

I’m at... episode 8 or 9? With like 40 some hours of play time. I really enjoy this game and can’t seem to put it down.

i'm on episode 6, i plead toddler

if you're around 8, would highly recommend doing all the standard orders and world-building you can for a while

there's a moment I'm at where you can't for a while :/

i think i'm still on like..... 2? only get an hour or so every night or so

confused by criticism of these janked-out 22nd century vehicles that they're clumsy or handle strangely. i mean... of course they handle strangely, they're from a society that's been totally destroyed where the only roads were 3-d printed 20 minutes ago

lol, that’s canon now

Haha fair point actually. If I could ever imagine how a 3D printed vehicle would handle it would absolutely be just like this.

Kojima may have outdone himself when it comes to dumping 80% of the exposition during the endgame and credits this time!

i liked this:
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-11-15-together-alone-the-radical-promise-of-pathfinding-in-death-stranding

i'm still very early on but this is interesting to think about: "Death Stranding's drawback as a fable about the importance of reforging connections is that it never moves beyond that atmosphere of collective toil and deprivation."

i do sort of wish that there were a big narrative moment where your relationship with BRIDGES changes, that the carefully constructed material/building/recycling loops start to go haywire, that you override the weapons deactivations and discover just what the fuck is going on. it's a great game without that of course but it would have been pretty amazing.

afaict there’s only one truly bad person in the game! everything is very morally complex, or should I say... uncertain

finished. ruled

agreed

wish I’d done the pizza missions when they were available

i did the first one and received a very good email from the recipient later! i wonder what the subsequent ones were all about

check your messages, dude

or at least go to peter’s shelter

ya thats the email i mean. gonna drop by tonight.

last few hours of this game are like "oh you thought we were doing tarkovsky? psyche mf it's douglas sirk's evangelion"

Kojima hiding story twists behind other, more bizarre, story twists

There was one moment where I was actually stunned

I could’ve done with less exposition on top of exposition and then the exposition of that exposition. Kojima continues to be comically long winded. BUT... this was really great and I admire its fully dedicated swinging-for-the-fences-and-MEANING-IT heart. Felt entirely confident.

Also the game was just... really fun. Despite (or because of) its insistence on making you suffer through some of it, the core gameplay loop’s legitimately addictive and satisfying.

I’m gonna keep playing and collect some trophies I think. Still some zip line routes to complete.

Excited to see what else untethered Kojima will have coming in the future.

Can I just say how impressed I am that any of you folks can finish a game, any game, in just a few weeks?

I’ve only just started chapter three but i’m really enjoying this uniquely haunted stumbling simulator

it is super haunted

it’s all about shaky contact from the other side: of death, of the wire connecting you to the internet, of the “chiral network”. despite all this contact you are so, so alone.

I have a bunch of time off at the end of year, regularly procrastinate housework (and am suffering now) and have no kids and a lot of my social obligations exist but I can push them off a week or two

so, throwing fifty hours into a game in just over two weeks is probably not healthy but it was fun! I honestly only do this maybe once a year. don’t feel like you have to binge this sucker — it’s super fun in one to two hour increments and the plot is set up so that you can progress or do a number of tasks that fit in that amount of time

lol community
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-12-03-death-stranding-players-are-using-vehicles-for-griefing-and-kojima-productions-is-stepping-in

Just goes to show, if you make a game about connection and helping other people, someone is going to use that mechanic to be a dick. (see also: jump here, fake wall ahead, go left et al. in Dark Souls)

i just started chapter 3 and there's a holographic "watcher" from horizon zero dawn just hanging out on the outskirts of lake knot city?!?

is that the weird giraffe thing? there are a few giant holograms that weird me out but, hey, it’s a futuristic world with holograms

it's literally this: http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/horizonzerodawn/images/0/04/Watcher-Render.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/310?cb=20170228084356

huh would you look at that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAt2Oj8FPfo

Is that game any good? I guess it uses the same game engine.

nah it's like an ubisoft style big map boring tasks game imo, i played a few hours and never went back to it

maybe like those EA LOTR mordor games are a better comparison. overstuffed with not-that-fun stuffing

Horizon Zero Fun more like.

(I haven’t played it, but that’s how a friend described it)

i haven't played it but it looked like it had more "real" action gameplay than like the assassins creed contextual action stuff, is that the case

I’ve definitely worn out on that Ubi template so when I heard that was the set-up I avoided it from there.

combat is more like the mordor games so while not "fun" exactly it's not just press square to wrist blade lorenzo de medici

It's well made but extremely unoriginal and I'm positively allergic to the 'techno-native' aesthetic they've got going on. Viking dudes wearing bones in their beards talking into a teal HUD. Yeah I simply cannot wait to craft another set of shock arrows and then have a stilted over-the-shoulder conversation with somebody named Lek who will never appear again.

Death Stranding both incredibly close to the world of Horizon - fallen/destroyed world with some half-operational vestiges of extremely advanced technology dotting the landscape - and a million miles away from it aesthetically - HZD the aforementioned techno-primitive bullshit but incredibly lush and fruitful landscape; DS austere and pulled back, no animals, few plants, everything just blasted away apart from a suspiciously unblemished system of faceless distribution centres and everybody wearing a kind of modern, c20 plebian luggage handler gear.

Played this for like 3 hours straight last night - a marathon session by my standards - and really got into its rhythms. Absolutely love it. Starting to build some roads next to Lake Knot city even though I don't have anything to drive with.

Has anybody used Strand Contracts? I'm like a 'master handler' now (lmao at the absurdly over-engineered task completion and level-up views) so I can do them but I'm..... shy

By the way I'm a lot less afraid of MULES now. I just karate chop 'em if they see me. I assume this will get harder.

Oh and... once I 'dismantle' a ladder or whatever... is it just gone? I'm not clear on what happens to it

I've tagged a handful of people with high numbers in the list with strand contacts but I haven't dug in to see if there's a big difference

Dismantling gets rid of things, yes. It's basically an erase button.

MULEs get harder after a plot point where you traverse a certain area where they've "gone feral" or something similar. After that point, you run into many more with actual guns :(

They have really good eyesight. Much harder to sneak up on than soldiers in MGS imo

I haven't played at all this week, but an fyi for anyone who is toward the end game and is curious about how effective weapons are:

do NOT throw a real grenade (as opposed to a stun grenade) anywhere near a MULE vehicle. I mean, unless you enjoy taking an entire truck of corpses to an incinerator. additionally, there are no game achievements for killing or delivering to the incinerator. the game absolutely does not want you to kill anyone!

bola gun + curbstomping fools is my new crack.

god, i thought i was going to have to do all the paving myself! it feels really neat when you come back after an order and there's a whole new stretch of freeway opened up. spooky, but neat.

has anyone else found themselves walking around irl and having a sudden moment of physical identification with reedus? hoiking your backpack up on your shoulders, for instance. or the rain starting to fall and putting your hood up. it's the mark of a great work of art (and uh, hours upon hours of imbibing it) that it makes you feel like you're in that world even when you're not. great movies can do that. the feeling of the movie lingers for awhile after you leave the cinema. when i was playing a lot of gran turismo i looked at cars differently, i saw things in them i had never seen before.

this game gets at something i've been thinking about more every time i go back to visit my family in tennessee. most of us are completely divorced from the details of our landscape. for most of human history, a trip somewhere involved intimate knowledge of plateaus, rocks and rills, gaps and passes, etc. but in the USA at least the car and the interstate system has just obliterated that connection with the land. in this game you start by learning every rock and detail of your world. eventually - blessedly - you gain the ability to dispense with those details. it's bittersweet.

good post - you're absolutely right about how good this game is at linking your avatar with his environment, and how solid and real it can feel

on videogame spaces feeling like you're in that world, i sometimes calm my brain at bedtime by mentally navigating around the streets of liberty city from gta3, which i still know like the back of my hand despite the fact that i haven't played it in probably 15 years at this point, but it's absolutely a real place in my mind that i spent probably a hundred hours in back in 2001

haha wow. that's amazing. i used to be able to do that with tomb raider levels to an extent.

I do that with dark souls.

oh yeah, i can definitely do it with dark souls too

counterstrike maps for me

I also do this with Dark Souls regularly, and even though I've played DS3 more than any other game at this point, it's always the original DS world that I run through in my head.

truth be told, the reason i occasionally replay the game is to rememorize the maps

40 at Best Buy, time to splurge y/n?

Definitely a game I feel weird recommending to anyone but... yes imo

i actually feel like the gameplay, odd as it is, is super satisfying. and the fit and finish of everything is just bananas

again, it never clicked for me and i'd recommend avoiding.

I was looking at the rarity of some of the trophies. The one you get for sending out your first delivery bot, which is an unavoidable part of the game and happens not too many hours in, is marked as “rare”. So a lot of people playing and bailing.

The negative takes on this thing are a little weird to me. It’s different and at the outset is pointedly a struggle, but idk it was fun and good immediately imo and only got better.

I don’t see it as anymore challenging or difficult to get into than like Minecraft or whatever.

it is definitely the most haunted-ass game i’ve ever played. you know how you can yell into the void? i do it accidentally when spamming the “like” button, especially if i’m blowing past something on a trike. “hellooo!!” “is anybody there?!?!?” “i’m SAM!!” and one time i swear to god somebody answered back. i looked through my “emails” and apparently this is a thing. it wasn’t clear if the person who answers back is another real player (maybe)?

Yeah, you get a lot of answers to your hollering into the void. I think it happens, or is more likely to happen, when a player built structure is nearby.

yeah, sometimes the other couriers make noise (I think) but if you’re near a landmark that belongs to another character, the other Sam yells back at you

there are a bunch of near-endgame trophies that are not at all rare so I’m assuming people are getting gear possibilities and just not using them

there’s a couple trophies for trading with other porters but I think I screwed it up by only taking and not giving, whoops

i tried to give yesterday but couldn’t figure out how! i put something in my hand but then was like uhhh. maybe i have to put it on the ground?

this is $35 on amazon right now. i'm tempted even though i have no idea when i would play it

I took a look at my backlog again and that's my feeling too, so I'm probably going to wait till this hits $20.

for me it's not so much backlog as it is i can't play any violent/dark games until my kids go to sleep

There's very little violence

Though you do carry your dead mother on your back to an incinerator pretty early on

also bloody toenails if the preview footage was representative

just hold it in your hand for a while, they'll eventually take it. if they don't, put it down and step back, they should pick it up. (they won't if it's gear, it has to be, like, lost cargo) (in my experience) (I'm not sure)

i love that this game has an air of almost Super Mario Bros 3 level "friends telling each other how to get the warp whistle" energy, like, there are just things you can't write on the internet easily. you almost have to give any tip for this game autobiographically, which is gorgeous. i finished this game after putting a little over a hundred hours in (but apparently 30 of those were idle hours, because i am a big fan of putting the controller down and walking away for a long time i guess?), and laying down a goddamn zipline system to end all zipline systems. everything was on the network, i could get from any point to any other point in 8 minutes or less guarangoddamnteed.

I'm sad knowing that my perfected ziplines are going to be dead after having not logged in for a couple weeks. Time to put on that all-terrain exoskeleton and get back to work!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EMGmjm3WkAEauFz?format=jpg&name=900x900

now i need a BT saying "hey now"

wow I'm dying a lot in these trenches! just got the 'you can change the difficulty level in settings' tip - fuck off

eeughh BT baby :/

i have now officially made sam look as obnoxious as possible. purple baseball cap and bright green wayfarers.

damn Tracer, what difficulty are you at? seems bad. very chill game, just protect BB and throw blood at guys!!

ah i was using the lethal weapons the whole time! yeah bb didn’t like that part at all

Hint: lethal weapons do work on the monsters, but only if fired through blood. So if you have a blood cloud from a grenade or they’re splashed with it (I think) you can shoot through it.

This game has colonised my brain.

I've just made it into the mountains, to the Doctor and the Mountaineer. Someone had already set up zip lines EXACTLY where I needed them, and even stationed a cycle at the last zip stop?! I have to say I was thrilled. God zip lines are great. But am i really that lucky? Did everyone get that easy of a ride? I'm pretty sure they're online zip lines so weren't put there by the game??

The feeling of getting enough materials into an autopaver is ineffably delicious

WHERE ARE ALL THE GODDAMN CERAMICS

i would make long truck trips along the highways i'd already built appropriating ceramics at every stop. then when you reach the end of the road you can load up the next paver, drive back to the beginning and do it all over again.

game of the century

if any of those ziplines were set up by "precisiongrind" I would recommend throwing him a few dozen likes

I didn't realize until near the end that you can give structures more than one like at a time. the really useful things are worth it

mysteriously music by the band Low Roar made it onto my phone after playing

not that I'd go outdoors and stand on the edge of a bluff and cue up a song, or anything

i'm not that many hours in but completely against expectations am really enjoying it. so tactile!

i like the shit out of pretty much everything i use apart from signs.

same but i made an exception for the no-peeing sign at the springs

The zip lines in the mountains for me were sparse enough and rightly placed enough to bounce off of them with my own additions.

Haven’t picked this up since X-Mas, I wonder if the building deterioration is based on game time or real time?

This is still easily my favorite game of the year. Wanna get back in.

i want skis so bad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnJMElfDItc&feature=emb_title

can't see that YouTube, but you can kinda snowboard on those floating carriers

lol yes that's exactly what this guy did. he created a "ski resort" with rails and jumps for floating carriers. try this:

https://youtu.be/mnJMElfDItc

that ski slope is excellent!

God I would love a proper skiing minigame though. FUCK

I like that there really *aren't* minigames within the game? The closest we get is the encounters with the larger BTs and a very brief segment in one of the endgame boss battles.

Even the BT encounters aren't really any different than normal gameplay

fwiw my version of hell was when I was half-asleep and did some extended mountain hiking using the wrong damn exoskeleton. The all-terrain one is incredibly essential. The warming packs really help, too.

i guess by minigame i just mean that i dream one of these preppers will present me with a blueprint for some skis. and then i will just ski the fuck out of those mountains

i haven't gotten the warmers yet. something to look forward to! am using the gloves but i can't tell a difference.

man some of these autopavers need a LOT of stuff.

the gloves do help with traction. the boot upgrades are gradual enough you don't notice too much, but they also help. i've also got some CHIRAL BOOTS now

fuckin MULES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I64CF3SR0k

I wonder if anyone's tried eradicating the MULEs from their game by blowing them all up and making runs to the incinerator

I've read game forum posts where this exact speculation has occurred but afaict no one has actually tried it!

(You can make runs to the black crater lake as well if you need to, right?)

Yeah, incinerators and the lake are your two disposal methods

One of the craftsmen has a bunch of chiralium-corrupted cargo outside his location that you can take to the lake to dump and get an achievement and karma

What's your opinion on bot deliveries? I used to max him out but I started feeling humiliated by the C and B ratings so I had to bench him. Fuckin guy.

It's not a bad way to passively (and slowly) increase your ranking for out-of-the-way places. I have been working on getting 5 stars at every location and bots gave me a good head start.

Alternately useful to increase material storage in an area where you might need mats.

Ah because increased stars of connection increase those materials there? Hmm. Still. I feel like I'm letting these people down. I see stuff like 'Rare painting. Damage level - 92%' And I'm like damn.

Things I have never done:

- Created a sign requesting something, much less done that and then gone back to see if someone's actually followed through on the request

- Killed anyone

- used a 'Bridge Link' or created a 'contract' with another online player

the bridge links/contacts are subtle enough to seem ephemeral given the amount of material that bleeds in naturally, tbh

Well, any time a place receives a delivery there are some materials added to their cache I believe. I'm not sure if increased star rating = increased material gain, I'm just gunning for 5 stars for fun and for the items and equipment upgrades you can get out of that.

I understand the hesitancy to send important or delicate sounding materials via bots though haha. I wish you could encounter them stumbling around in the wild.

xxp

increasing your ratings ups the maximum amount of materials a site can hold, but I'm unsure whether it ups the regeneration rate

man i suck at this game. still in chapter 2, trying to get to port knot city for the first time. it seems like i need the bike to get there with all my cargo, but the bike can't get through the terrain. so i try to walk and end up falling down cliffs with my overloaded cargo.

keep on keeping on

ropes and ladders, friend. ropes and ladders

NA did you know you can see the elevation of the land on your map? you hold down the touchpad on your controller and tilt the controller.

#PS4share pic.twitter.com/USo3fdU9vl

— 芝生の頭 (@sibahunoatama) November 29, 2019

i like it

what begins in comedy ends in tragedy

I’m being a big dummy and running around my game where I finished the story in normal mode, now in hard mode

the big old BT fights are definitely meaner, and I’m more apt to run away. it’s like the first time I ran into two of those lion-looking jerks the first time, only now every fight is that stressful. and the timefall is much more punishing!

apparently there’s a backpack cover upgrade that I was unaware of that protects packages that don’t extend beyond the top of the bag! working on that

i was just being too cute about finding a route to avoid the BTs when the game at this stage is obviously trying to funnel me towards them. i made pretty good progress getting through them the other day (and finally figured out there some that don't appear like big floating humans but are instead wispier and harder to see) but then i turned off the console without saving by accident so now i get to do it all again. this game obviously rewards patience and i am not a patient person so i am likely going to continue to suck at it.

the BTs are annoying. later you get bombs and stuff that will “kill” them.

you can do a lot of evasion by crouching, walking slowly, and holding your breath at strategic times

yeah just slowing down and going around them pretty much always works.

mh have you ever cut their “umbilical” cord with the fancy new handcuffs?

don’t try and bust through on a trike tho cos it don’t work.

yeah that's the problem, i'm trying to get the cargo through on the trike so it's a slow process of clearing a path, moving the trike, clearing a path, etc. i've got the blood bombs. i can do it, i just need to find the time to sit down and do it in one sitting since you can't save amongst the BTs

you don’t need to clear *all* of them to get through on the trike ime. but yeah, slow going.

I've done the umbilical cut multiple times, but it's become exceedingly difficult now that I'm in HARD MODE and late game

the funniest shit is when you're on a vehicle and it's a beautiful flat area with no rocks, fuck the BTs, I'm gonna barrel through

and then your vehicle going full speed runs directly into one and INSTANT HARD STOP

finally got through to port knot city. turned out it was a lot easier to ditch the trike and just hike through. i was able to bypass most of the BTs just by climbing around them.

finally got through to port knot city. turned out it was a lot easier to ditch the trike and just hike through. i was able to bypass most of the BTs just by climbing around them.

this is getting easier and more fun. i stole a truck from the MULES and have a bolo gun and suddenly there are paved roads and i'm just tooling around between outposts making deliveries

also getting the cyborg skeleton thing has helped

cut some BT umbilicals yesterday and.... feels good man.

i'm now at the tar lake and apparently trucking around the outer edge of.... everything i've connected so far. which is weird, because i thought i was going across the united states??

not enough has been said about how great this game looks. the tactility of the snow. and how the game teases the mountains even at the very early stages of the game, and how you ease up into them, a few incursions here or there, but you know it's inevitable. some of the weather you end up encountering is just tremendous.

I was introduced recently to the concept of “rubbersheeting” which is the distortion of one map layer, like satellite imagery, to align with another, like a gps grid

It’d be an interesting practice to map the DS map on to ours because, even taking into account the in-game map it shows when you add someone to grid, the scale is insanely weird. Basically Kojima & co. had continental locations and cities and routes that reference small pieces that they put across the US

ha it is basically a little peninsula, maybe 5 square miles max? which gets represented in the game as the entire united states.

i beat higgs. what a fucked up boss fight. the final stage of bludgeoning each other senseless was definitely kind of....... homoerotic. oh and can i say beating higgs' giant extinction event beast wasn't really hard but it was SO SATISFYING.

don't ever want this game to end obv.

i fuckin lost it when it turned into EA's xbox-era classic fight night

yes!!

get prepared for EVEN MORE EXPOSITION from here on out!

that’s not what i want. I just want to build roads, man.

you get some more Mads, though, as a treat

any amount of mads - even homeopathic levels of mads - is a treat

I can’t remember if you’re to the point where you’re kind of locked into finishing the plot now. Pretty close, if not already. But worry not, you can still build roads and deliver nice underwear to people when the plot wraps!

xp there’s a reason the otherwise ridiculous game awards gave him best motion captured role

Have still never gotten a single trophy better than bronze. !!

Total play time - 69:34:11

lol wait a minute it’s still going

did anyone find out whether constructions degrade outside playing time? i haven’t picked this up for a while.

I don’t know but I’ve started a few zipline networks now and it’s ridiculously satisfying. Hope they don’t just die.

lol there’s some amazing behaviour going on. From a Reddit thread:


With the truck I keep hitting the order limit trying to be too efficient. I'm running my own sorting facilities piling up goods in private lockers to be shipped on together.

Things i have never done:

- a “premium” delivery
- used the sticky gun
- used any lethal weapon (at least not on purpose)
- fabricated a truck
- cancelled an order
- redeployed cargo
- manually saved a game
- changed the difficulty
- used an EX grenade to any effect at all. Seriously they don’t do anything as far as i can tell???

premium deliveries are easy, select them by default and you'll meet the requirements almost everytime

omg oh well.

oh and i never used the otter hat!! i should try it out on the waterfall :)

conan o'brien's v disappointed in me i imagine

you can equip both the otter and the cap at the same time, otter only kicks in when needed

pro tip: resting by sitting down saves the game without having to jump into the menus

switching the game to hard mode and then doing some premium deliveries (even easy ones) gives you achievements and, I believe, helps you rank up locations faster. the latter point may be wrong as I started really bulking up on cargo around the same time

premium deliveries also worth it because time means nothing for the majority of normal deliveries so doing them quickly gives you nothing

what's the deal with the pee mushrooms, is that a reference I don't get or just something funny?

Don’t they eventually grow into cryptobiotes? Or did i just make that up?

I got into a habit of peeing on other people’s mushrooms for some reason. /weirdo

keep on keepin' on!

i like rebuilding roads. it's so satisfying to zoom from place to place on the highway.

I severely underrated how fun the bikes are for too long. Sure, trucks are great for lots of cargo. Speeding your way across the landscape on the bike? Now we're talking

the bikes can go pretty much anywhere as well. even up the matterhorn or whatever it is.

the exposition got insane. there was just hours of it. i started skipping it. so now i have no idea what the story was supposed to have been. i liked it better when it was sort of unexplained tbh so i guess this is my way of preserving the mystery :) i still think there is phenomenal scope for the story to go forward. sam and mama leading a resistance against bridges and the UCA.

love to do the patient 75 degree vertical angle zig zag up a craggy slope for 90 seconds only to fuck up at the end and plummet to a cargo scattered embarrassment. i know that sounds sarcastic but i really did love it

see i did that once on foot and then put the game down permanently. i think it takes a type.

it gets easier with the all-terrain exoskeleton and powered gloves

there was one delivery where... damn did I screw it up. pretty sure frostbite was involved

i wonder if there should be an 'extra hard' difficulty setting. needing to stealth the fuck out of mule camps for instance. or having to do speed runs. or getting a C grade for any damage at all. (for all the difference that makes, lol. when i had to deliver to cryptobiotes to fragile i destroyed 99% of the cargo and still the story advanced and i didn't see any actual downside)

Did yall see this yet? https://kotaku.com/hiking-gets-even-harder-in-death-stranding-when-the-con-1841429693

oh my god. i love it.

fwiw there's another soundtrack on streaming now of more music from the game

I get the impression the prior two (original score and Timefall) were material Sony had the license for and the new one, which is 3/4 tracks by Low Roar, are Kojima's picks

I wanna get this game so much but it is very expensive atm

If you can wait some months the price will drop quite a bit. I'm personally going to wait till it reaches $20 before I consider buying it.

I was thinking about the plot on the way back from lunch and, although contrived in a very Kojima-esque way, it's kind of an amazing rumination on loss and the different ways people cope

otoh, it's a little overwrought because -- as I said before -- nearly everyone integral to the plot has a bleak backstory

big kojima profile in the NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/03/magazine/hideo-kojima-death-stranding-video-game.html

i have not played this game in a while

After the endgame the loneliness became a little too intense for me tbpfh

what did you think of the end/coda, Tracer? hopefully didn’t skip all the story!

i think i figured out that I’m my own BB? i didn’t understand wtf was going on tbrr

Kojima wept

i didn’t like that the game made me treat BB - i mean, ‘Lou’ - in a way that i totally didn’t want to just in order to advance the story and finish. but i liked the uncanny bit where reedus winds up in the past, in the hospital, interacting with past events. super weird. can’t even remember now what happened with deadman. die hardman’s the new president of jack shit, so that’s exciting for him.

deadman keeps on keep in’ on

if anyone is not here for SPOILERS set bookmark after my post now


it was kind of touching, and despite it being heavily telegraphed I was kind of surprised by the “current BB is not flashback BB” twist. that was my character! I was loved, and not by creepy extinction president! Mads is my dads.

tbh I want Mads to be my dad though

oh i just assumed that from the beginning!

I was too busy dumping my packages in a creek to ponder it

started this yesterday. bonkers. I've no idea what I'm doing. Just clinging on for dear life p much

keep on keepin' on 👍

My name’s Sam too!

this game's giving me some weird-ass dreams already.

No idea how to avoid areas swarming with timefall and BTs. Managed to escape by the skin of my teeth just by button bashing and hoping for the best, much to the detriment of my cargo.

If my cargo gets destroyed, or if a BT kills me, is it better to go back to a save point, or just continue? I'm not sure I really understand how reptriation really works.

i will admit restarting from a previous save a couple of times rather than lose my cargo and redo the mission.

many/most/all of the time you can't really avoid BT territory - you have to creep your way through it. but if you're patient you shouldn't have to actually fight them.

they seem to grab me no matter what but maybe i'm freaking out and being clumsy. feels like the rain damages a lot of my cargo whatever happens

the rain gets easier

keep in mind container damage doesn't count against you

it's trickier toward the beginning, but the main thing to remember is to be cautious and patient. make sure you're crouching, constantly re-scan, and if you have to creep by in relative close proximity, hold your breath

I played a little bit over the weekend to visit a few people I hadn't found originally. The Veteran Porter is in a cool spot, although running down that hill is ridiculous!

wait whaaa?? never knew about him

Does scanning tell you where BTs / timefall is? I thought it was just for terrain and landmarks?

nope, but other porters will often leave helpful signs warning of timefall or BTs that you can see on the map or while you're strolling by

I meant the odradek scanning so you can see the BTs hovering there as opposed to the map

Cool.

One thing that frustrates me (and maybe it's my telly to blame) is how small some of the info on screen is.
I've increased the font size, but even so, some writing is still quite tiny. As for icons, it's really hard to see what button I'm supposed to press for what.
And in compass mode, my cross-hairs get lost in the landscape and feel super sensitive, so I'm always scanning past what I'm trying to identify. Anyone else getting this?

i almost never used compass mode so idk

my screen is 26” and it was just baaaarely big enough - i had to sit pretty close

oh yes that’s true about scanning for BTs - if they’re close enough they will show up! i got into a little rhythm of creep, stop, scan, creep etc

Huh, okay I use Compass quite a lot. Maybe I'm doing things 'wrong'?

I'm amazed at how involved this game makes me feel.

Weird dreams I've been having since I started playing notwithstanding, when I finally managed to track a long route around BT territory last night, suffering BB autotoxema on the way and dashing desperately towards my target outpost, the sense of relief when the receivers patted me on the back and I finally got to plug my BB back into its 'womb' was immense.

I had a shower (actually I had two) and sat on my bed looking at various things in my room for like 5-10 minutes, a bit like I would after an IRL hard day at work.

I spent a significant amount of time going through my Odradek, reading interviews and tips. In fact the Odradek is such a huge huge part of the game. I just wish it had been designed better. It seems incredibly over-detailed and fiddly and text-based. The whole thing feels ugly and clunky, like a beta version of something that's still in development. In some ways I feel like this about the whole world of the game - it's incredibly detailed and rendered but it's also ramshackle and ugly and the main character looks like a mess and the technology looks scrobbled together like they're still working on it.

While I was showering, I got some communication from Deadman where he apologised for interrupting me on my 'break' and it occurred to me that I had been treating this respite as a sort of break, which is ridiculous. I'm playing a computer game ffs, why does it feel like I need to take virtual 'breaks' from it where I'm effectively staring into space?

And I guess that's one of the main themes in Death Stranding: man's relationship with labour. Why am I compelled to find this arduous trudge enjoyable? Why am I so relieved when I reach my destination? Then there's the whole thing with the MULEs and Homo Demens and their own obsession with cargo and portering. Reminds me of one of my favourite books, The Pale King, by David Foster Wallace, which is similarly a meditation on boredom and drudgery and how different people approach this.

okay Gawd... another parallel with actual real work is that there's SO MUCH to take on board,
it feels like my first week on the job and I'm being bombarded with different admin tasks I'm supposed to understand, being given complicated systems training I can barely keep up with etc..
I feel like I walked in on my first day expecting to do some heavy lifting, and I'm getting told I'm doing great etc but also that there's a bunch of stuff I have to know first

great posts dl! it's true this game is a lot about your relationship to work, and being tasked. all (most of) the holograms at the various depots are so relentlessly upbeat and fawning over what you do i feel like it's a bit of an ego-boost placebo for most of us who play this game who probably don't get nearly enough of this at our actual jobs.

I can only hope I'd be as kind to someone who brought new underwear to my post-apocalyptic underground bunker

Kojima in 2019: this game is set in a near future where people live in self isolation hiding from an invisible threat, as a delivery man you play a key role in keeping society alive
Everyone: haha ok kojima

— Hal is in the air tonite (@halphelt) March 19, 2020

So strange that I started playing this almost to the day coronavirus hit the UK. As such I am finding it all at once strangely close to home, somewhat close to the bone and strangely comforting.
Unlike the Witcher, I'm quite content to play just one mission at a time and it doesn't seem to frustrate me if I get stuck or lose all my parcels and have to start again.

You'd think that having to start a mission over after you've trudged miles and miles while trying to stop parcels falling off your back would have the opposite effect, and that after a couple of attempts at getting through BT territory one would get frustrated and quit. But somehow I don't seem to mind. I die, I quit the game and come back to it afresh the next day hoping to find a new and better route.

That said, I'm still only on Lvl2, hoping to reach Lake Knot City. Haven't got the hang of getting past BTs

...oops posted without finishing...

I have tried throwing grenades at them but somehow they still manage to grab me and throw me around like a rag doll. Those parts are especially stressful.

If you create a voidout, is that it? Is it there for the rest of the game? Do you mind? Do you just continue as is, or do you generally go back to an old save point?

you just have to be patient with BTs. crouch, hold your breath while moving, stop, catch your breath, repeat.

not sure about the voidouts tbh.

i think i heard that they eventually clear up? i luckily never had one.

I find some of the confrontation mechanics almost deliberately clunky. like, I'll be confronting a BT and trying to throw a grenade at it, but somehow and for a reason I can't work out, Sam decides to freeze.
I'm also completely unsure how to use that decoy cargo on MULEs. With them I'm trying to use the Bola gun but mostly I just punch them and they go down fairly easily

Every time I think I’m done making Death Stranding Real jokes, the universe throws me a bone pic.twitter.com/JvNoVYI0pN

— Social “Distancing” Snake (@hyenasandgin) April 5, 2020

fuck

https://ve.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_q85k2aanvS1rh1xia.mp4

that is quite a trip

I’ve seen that a few times and there are a couple tells but it’s still somehow anxiety fuel

lol, you guys need to see the real life version of this that takes place in the first half hour of the 2019 film Aquarela; it will break your mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDCmNx22AF8

My wife wants to know where I’m going with all those suitcases on my back. “Just to the store, babe”

xp looks good

That Tracer Hand vid is dope

Also marking down that Ulysses rec

I wrote a thing about Death Stranding https://thequietus.com/articles/28177-death-stranding-video-game-review

cool article, dl!

in other news: death stranding real (and this is not good)

Straight out of a video game: China’s ubiquitous food-delivery app https://t.co/O6kOT9RrJG caught the Chinese internet’s attention this week after testing a powered exoskeleton for its couriers. The exoskeleton endows the wearer with the strength to carry up to 50 kg with ease. pic.twitter.com/4elmxRhLDU

— Sixth Tone (@SixthTone) April 30, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDqTwSO1DDc

Finally completed this last night. As expected, the ending is an increidble piece of exposition wrapped up in genius. Still not quite sure I completely understand everything, but maybe it would be worse if I did. Still need to do the Chapter 15 bonus episode. Looking forward to tracking down the hidden porters and generally bossing the rest of the map with zip-lines and whatnot.

I've decided to put DS down for a while and go back to zip lining the map and completing the extra deliveries another day. that said, there's a DS shaped hole in my life now which I'm having trouble filling. Other, perfectly good, games seem facilities, Hollywood-ised and sophomoric by comparison.
I don't want to get all 'You have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick & Morty' here. It is a game in which you piss grenades after all, but is there anything else on PS4 which comes close to the level of depth; games for grown-up if you will, which prize pacing and patience over pell mell shoot/slash thrills?

I’m on the second WW2 shoot em up level, have tried and failed about ten times so far. Mads is one nimble fucker. Game slightly insulting when it tells me I can adjust the difficulty if I need to - but f that.

i found those really difficult. make sure you’re using the blood rounds rather than normal bullets. i was never able to use the grenades effectively - it was all about the guns.

they are definitely among the tougher and more stressful parts of the game. they come so unexpectedly and it's a completely different style of game play that it's intensely jarring, truly horrific in places. make sure to scan regularly and pick up ammo. each one took me several goes

haha yeah and otm about the patronising way it tells you to adjust your difficulty

Passed it, now back to carrying bombs over mountains. All good brah

you got to the (spoilers) heinous mountain bit?

I miss this game :(

Maybe not enough to start fresh again just yet, but it was an arduous journey that I think fondly back on. I made it.

The rest of my life is basically just killing time before the inauguration, is how I look at it

hah. yeah i finished the game, five starred the first map and zip wired the place, got to the second map and started that but wow this game is at once a slog, a memorable 'arduous journey', a strange meditation on the meaning of everything and also an arcane duty. it has come to symbolise my life under lockdown and I could happily sink a hundred more hours into it. it's sad and hilarious and I love it. I hope it encourages game designers to continue to experiment in similar ways and make challenging games; not challenging as in 'this is really hard' Dark Souls type stuff, but conceptually challenging. the fact a lot of gamers were put off due to the lack of obvious shoot em up action says a lot about the way of the world, and in some ways a more tactful, passive, cerebral approach to entertainment feels like a way out of that

it's sad and hilarious and I love it.

if video games are going to continue to be seen as a progressive art-form, like cinema, then hopefully we can see a snowball. looks like DS has paved the way. I feel rather spoilt that this is the second modern video game I've played all the way through in my life and that there's nothing else that comes close to it

gamers were put off put off due to the lack of obvious shoot em up action

I do like how they were labeled 'nightmares' in the game. in no way were they a glorification of war/violence which is something I dislike about a lot of games

otm

I defeated the giant and beat up gold mask face pretty good, which kicked off a massive cut scene which I left the room for...when I came back some time later, Mads was back, still looking for BB...then Amelie pushed me and I'm back in my private room...this game still isn't over???

Hahaha no.

that’s the mid-game boss. how short did you think this thing was? :)

WHAT

yeah, you need to add canada to the uca now

Funny

Back in the jungle with Mads—sigh

i hadn't played in a while and decided to play on my bday and was gifted with the Mads birthday winky easter egg scene and cake.

Anyone watch the Winding Refn short? Found it on a data chip somewhere. But I can’t figure out how to watch it. Though my cufflink thing?

Yes or in a private room, I think? You can get to it by looking at the map?

i mean the map in the room

that's a thought. I've only found one of those data chips so far

Ugh not going to continue. Fighting mads for a third time just gonna happen.

Just NOT

Back to gta? Ugh

turn the difficulty way down!

it doesn't really matter, and I think the third one was the one I found easiest? if it's the one I am thinking of, I took out everyone but him with stealth

yeah the third one is the easiest and the last time. you're quite close to completing

I think a lot of people are taking the senseless player punishment of this game and somehow reading that as pleasure or innovation. It is neither

what do you mean by player punishment?

I think a lot of people are taking the senseless player punishment of this game and somehow reading that as pleasure or innovation. It is neither

there’s actually very little punishment meted out! either to the character or to the player.

I know the “oh no, he falls a lot and it’s hard” thing gets a lot of coverage but even playing the main storyline quests without doing side tasks gets you sufficient gear to do the work relatively easily, and the internet content basically hands you bunker homes, road segments/ziplines, and gear.

It’s only as punishing as you want to make it

Sorry guys I was taking out some aggression on this game last night. I lowered the damn difficulty and dispatched Mads for the final time (?). Now trudging on across the map again with those hot air balloons full of black pus.

it really is crazy how much this game anticipates coronavirus.

it was really strange picking this up and starting to play it a week before lockdown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuiebiTBvDY

Started this last night, there was a point where I just wanted to save and quit but I had to get through 40 minutes of cut scenes before I could access the menu again.

👍

Went back to this after a year away. I was a bit rusty at first. There's so much lore and little control-aspects you get wrapped up in when you first start, it's hard to remember everything.
That said, one thing I remembered immediately was the landscape, the map. I know it's a cliché to say this but the Terrain really feels like a character in this game. You learn to use it, to negotiate it, to tame it, until you feel like you know each area like ab old friend.
I've spent the last couple of nights sinking time into getting more stars on my trousers and looking for memory chips (which are very hard to find).

What a great game this is. I’ll never revisit it but will recommend

Anyone still playing this? I'm close to platinuming the thing, along with listening to the DS audiobook (which is fairly entertaining in a way). Just need to do like a million more specific styles of delivery on hard mode without messing everything up. For a game that's fairly easy, that's not an easy challenge considering you often have to do a speed run with a lot of cargo to a place you haven't been in a while, so all the ziplines need fixing. Generally find I have to do the journey with plenty of chiral crystals and no luggage, then go back and do it again via the zips and with the luggage. It takes an awful lot of planning and foresight

I've just started it..

dl i genuinely admire the grind. i want you to keep reporting back.

Arguably the game really comes into its own once the story's out the way and it becomes more like a strategy city building game

So the rarest kinds of missions that you have to do in order to get the platinum are the time-based missions.

Nevertheless you have to do 20 of them in about a quarter of the alloted time limit on hard mode.

A strong zip line network is essential, but often it turns out that quite a few of the zip lines I set up earlier in the game have since been destroyed by timefall.

Now that wouldn't be a terrible issue until I get to a dead end: I can see the next zip line post, but it's dead. And inevitably, I'm bang in the middle of either a MULE camp or a BT area.

The only thing I can do is to sneak or fight my way to the dead zip line - which is usually in a really high-up place, hard to get to place - and fix it.

But then I get there, and I realise I don't have enough chiral crystals to fix the damn thing, and now I'm stuck up a horrible rocky cliff miles away from where I came from and even further away from where I'm going.

Chiral crystals are hard to come by. You can pick them off the ground and also drop off points will give you a few.

So obviously the best way to get loads of crystals is to get into fights with big BTs, which is very counterintuitive for me because I find the BT fights extremely stressful. I haven't really worked out a strategy for them other than run, jump, shoot, repeat. But it's a great way of farming enough crystals for me to rebuild these zip networks.

All that effort just to complete a single mission for which I'll probably never need that zip network again.

Still keeping on keeping on. These timed deliveries are ruthless. I zipped my way all the way from Geologist to EvoDevo, making a tiny error on my way. I made the delivery bang on 5 minutes and still didn't get the Legend of Legends

Plus I can spend a long time building the perfect zip network only to find that once it's completed there are no more valuable deliveries to make and I have to set up elsewhere

So I platinumed this the other week. It took a very very long time. For some reason I was expecting a bit more fanfare on reaching the platinum, but no, it's the same as if you get any trophy.

There is a DS shaped hole in my life now though. Part of me feels as though I could just play it forever, just exploring, making deliveries, making sure my ziplines are optimised to perfection, fighting BTs and Mules and gaining off the lucre.

Instead I downloaded Metal Gear Solid V. Now I've never really played these games before. I did watch a friend play one of them on PS2 a long way back now, but I remember nothing about it.

Have to say it's confounded me. I've no idea what's going on, even though I'm playing the prequel game. I feel like I've been dumped straight into it with no explanation of what is going on, what I'm really meant to be doing, nor how to do it. There's barely any introduction to the controls and it's all a bit frustrating. I've tried and tried to sneak past the enemy guards so I can rescue these kids in cages but they always see me and they always fun me down before I can run for cover. Not sure it's quite for me. I like the slow anti-violence of DS

Yeah Death Stranding has hardly any stealth bits and this is basically ALL stealth.

Use the binoculars to 'tag' enemies so you can keep track of them.

You can kill guards and then pick them up and dump them behind something to get them out of the way. Later on in the main game there's a really cool alternative to this.

MGS is actually mostly 'anti-violent' in the sense that firing your gun is almost always a consequence of failure to keep hidden and it feels very panicky and you know you've fucked up.

tw when I say killguards I mean sneak up behind them and grab them and then kill them. You can also choke them out to put them to sleep but they will eventually wake up, like the MULEs do.

That's cool. I couldn't work out how to do it (sneak up and strangle) though because the game tells you very little about the controls (I've been muddling my way through on the whole). When I go to the controls section it seems to take me to a website with trailers for the game(?!?)

Yeah it’s lame.

Once you’ve grabbed them you should see three options. One is to force a piece of information out, one is to kill and one is to choke. To choke them I think it’s literally the same button you use to grab them in the first place. But you’re already holding that down. So what you have to do is hammer it several times.

Uh oh.... there's a "Director's Cut"???

Ah PS5 only it seems -_-

what?? this is insane:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sHd62brMtc

I mean obviously I want to play this but the Fragile Circuit is far fetched even for this game

Didn’t know this was out! 10 dollar upgrade for the Director’s Cut if you own the original. I lucked out on a PS5 and have recently made a significant TV upgrade so I’m currently downloading.

Weirdly don’t feel super compelled to replay this even though I loved it the first time around? Enough additions and enhancements (this seems tailor made for PS5 controller bells n whistles) to make me want to give it a spin at least. May well end up dozens of hours in and obsessively creating zipline networks all over again.

I'm desperate to play the Director's Cut, and I only recently platinumed the original. It really really is worth going for those trophies if you haven't already and enjoyed the game

Recently hiking on the Cornish coast, and half the time clambering over rocks all I could think to myself was boy wish someone had left a ladder here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONfg5qeK_mI

STRAND TYPE GAMING

i knew this revive was for dunkey before i clicked

"The only thing he listens to is Radiohead"

I guess this is going here

2/2
"The LEGO Batman Movie" is a masterpiece that dares to step into this tacit understanding.

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) March 14, 2022

I’m back on my bullshit (playing DS: Director’s Cut on PC)

Not sure how I feel about some of the additions, but the entire field packed with the floating balloon-like visible BT creatures was cool. I’ve got so many chiral crystals now.

Trudging through mountain passes in the snow remains a test of endurance, but one I appreciate

I did find a good use for the cargo cannon, though. I screwed up and managed to get my truck stuck in a treacherous rocky area when it was full. Built a cannon near it and got all the cargo to a safe harbor

I did find a good use for the cargo cannon, though. I screwed up and managed to get my truck stuck in a treacherous rocky area when it was full. Built a cannon near it and got all the cargo to a safe harbor

I think if I went back in it would be to get all the zip lines working. Those things are dope

Yeah, my save game I was working on was pretty early so I transferred it to the DC

Unfortunately it was early enough that my chiral bandwidth was low and I can’t zipline it up

As someone who platinumed the original version of the game a while back, I'll say that the real game starts once the story is over. It becomes a deeply strategic experience setting up those zip lines just so that you can shave seconds off each run

Based

So I recently realised I could transfer my platinumed PS4 game onto the PS5 Director's Cut. So pleased!

Bit miffed to find a lot of my zipwire network now has holes in it - that's not supposed to happen is it? Ziplines don't deteriorate just cos you left the game alone for a few months? Nevertheless, it's now saying a lot of my lines are out of range, despite me having placed them super carefully so I could get from one end of the map to the other in mere seconds.

I'm yet to do any of the cool new stuff. I understand there's catapults, a race track and a shooting range now?

They do deteriorate, I believe, regardless of whether you've been playing or not :(

It’s a feature of Kojima’s “strand-type gaming”

A few years late, but I started this a month or so ago, not quite finished the story but got sidetracked up working on my zipline network (anything better than a 350 line between mountaintops?) and doing special deliveries (which i only recently realized was a thing). incredibly fun and also a lot of incredible irritation at some of the gameplay/mechanics.

one annoyance in particular, why do open/close tabs on your inventory only happen for some sections and not others (like, i can't close my utility bag? great, good to know i have blood bags every time i access my cargo and have to scan past them every time). also, i want to select all cargo in a closed tab, but no. seems minor, but when you are constantly shifting stuff around, it adds up.

but just how tied you are to the earth, it's so much more tactile than any other game i've played.

dog latin, i appreciated your review, especially as i share a deep reverence towards Stalker and DFW

oh, and when i started i could not stop hearing the line from I Think You Should Leave "There's too much fuckin shit on me. I can't do this, we did way too much!"

Thanks francisF.

I watched Dunkey's videos about this game and lmfao'd all the way through.

There is definitely a lot of annoying UI bullshit in this game. A LOT.

And I don't want to be that guy. There's no excuse these days for UI bullshit in modern games.

But, coming in the time that it did, I excused it because it felt like a parody of commercial computer systems. Show me an office worker who doesn't find their interface highly annoying.

Death Stranding is not really a FUN game. It's far from perfect.. But it is a successful work of art - a commentary on Weber's theories about the Protestant work ethic and the parallels between labour and boredom and godliness and beauty therein.

yes absolutely. and if the frustration was too much for me i wouldn’t play it. but i continue, and getting better at working around these kind of problems is satisfying in its own way, getting efficient. i’d love a video of my gameplay at the beginning when i could not make heads not tales of most of this game.

i’m pushing up against the bandwidth with my ziplines, which is annoying, not sure how much more i can acquire at this point - i’ve had to delete all other structures and simplify/curtail my lines more than i like.

you have a lot of agency in this game even if it’s illusory

Optimising my ziplines towards the very end of my playthrough was extremely satisfying. An inch out of place and it could mess up the whole network. But a well placed zipline can connect you to so many places on the map. And before you know it, you can careen from one biome to another in mere seconds.
Thank god you can remove ziplines directly from the map (IIRC) rather than having to travel to them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKIacsoRIEQ

couple things in there that the last big update added that I never got to, but… holy shit, lol

God-tier strand-type gameplay

I've played a zillion hours of this game (but not the directors cut) and I have no idea what's going on here

my sentiments exactly

90% of that is the jump ramps (you run in and it launches you) and a high level upgrade to the stabilizer that has little jets that are supposed to keep you upright but apparently act as an ad hoc jet pack if you abuse it just right

that and the cargo cannon, function of which is pretty clear

Maybe I'll go back one day, this probably is the pinnacle of Art Games, also it's deeply, deeply funny. If you don't get it, that's very much on you

Bit worried Kojima will leave the medium behind now people are giving him movie money

I suspect Death Stranding 2, or whatever it ends up being called, will have gameplay that’s more than subtly different

Yeah I bet

But this one is like Buddhism Simulator or something, can't imagine where he'll go

oh that’s the stabilizer! i was wondering how i finished this thing without realizing there were jet packs.

i would like to go back to this - i’ve done the lion’s share of special deliveries. i put so much work into my ziplines though, do they really degrade in real time? not a fan of that at all! Really one of the very best games ever.

afaik Kojima has two games in the making: Death Stranding 2 ("Ocean") and this : https://www.gameinformer.com/the-game-awards-2023/2023/12/07/hideo-kojima-is-making-a-new-game-called-od-with-jordan-peele

also it's deeply, deeply funny. If you don't get it, that's very much on you

OTM. Pretty much every element of this game is hilarious.

Is it worth me playing through this game again to access the Directors Cut stuff? I have my saved game from when I platinumed it a couple of years ago, but loading it up most of my zipwires are dilapidated and I'm kind of disoriented with the landscape. Curious about how the DC plays out, but not sure if it's worth my time just for the additional stuff

I would love to play this game without all the annoying black shadow creatures that I die to every time

Coming out for iPhone and Mac
Can’t wait to see how strand-type gameplay feels on touchscreen

what???

strand-type gaming is back in 2025!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cs-A1rNvEE

there are so many things in this video that make me think "what the hell is THAT"

hmm

nnnggghngnn want to play it nnnnow

hah, I missed that Kojima also announced ANOTHER game, in the "action-espionage" genre for Playstation

so he has three games in the works

The DS2 trailer is appropriately batshit.

I love how grim and and serious everyone is in these worlds. They're impervious to the absurdity of the universe they're situated in.
It's similar with the Souls games, except when Miyazaki injects humour or goofiness into his games, you can tell he's letting the player into the joke.
With Kojima, every line is delivered with deadpan sincerity, like every word is the most important thing anyone's ever said. It gives the eerie impression that Kokima himself doesn't realise how ridiculous his games are.

'On The Beach' is also a pretty funny title

Because that’s the one place you won’t be if you’re playing this game

https://i.imgur.com/VsxfRch.jpg

Mobile strand-type gameplay has arrived

It's similar with the Souls games, except when Miyazaki injects humour or goofiness into his games, you can tell he's letting the player into the joke.
With Kojima, every line is delivered with deadpan sincerity, like every word is the most important thing anyone's ever said. It gives the eerie impression that Kokima himself doesn't realise how ridiculous his games are.

― ...eh you get the gist of it (dog latin), Thursday, February 1, 2024 12:16 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

the joking virgin vs the chad genius

It worries me that he described his other new project as half movie / half game. I’m just not interested in exposition

its nice that this has a the joker, are their jokers in all universes, something to think about

That guitar battle looks real dumb

I mean, Death Stranding itself was a third movie, two thirds game. I'm really not sure the dial needs to be moved any further

every kojima game has something goofy involving a guy using a toilet

The mobile version adds another level of difficulty to the game. I made it to chapter 1 though

I saw a Death Stranding-style porter fail on an airplane

some guy had a suitcase that looked like the cases in the game and he had adorned it with replica yellow tape with the same printing on it. tried to take it on the plane and put it in the overhead bin when it was easily 1.5x the height of the bin

Death Stranding real

lmao

oh and the kicker was he was sitting RIGHT NEXT TO ME

I was going to comment on the suitcase/tape when he was sitting across from me in the airport but thought, nah, it’s early and I don’t want to chat. once he was sitting next to me that avoidance doubled even if I wanted to nod and say “hard out here for a porter. keep on keepin’ on”

omg

I always carry a die hardman mask

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdzIwQhYABQ

Welcoming the return of strand type gameplay but not paying any more than $20 for that shit

cyborg ninja is red now

I paid $10 for the first one! Whether I will ever actually play it ...

More excited for Dunkeys review than the actual game

stoked for the madness!

I love this shit and I’m all in.

I think about the airplane porter guy I mentioned before every so often

I never played the DLC stuff, it all seemed kind of extraneous though

What’s cool about this one is they already did all the work on the graphics engine, mechanic, world etc - so they can go to town on the wrinkles to it and the story

eh, mostly. I think the majority of their customizations were related to DS-specific things, but they're downstream from Guerilla Games' work on the Decima engine. They'll get all of the innovations that were in Horizon: Forbidden West, though. Very promising!

is this one about carrying boxes too hard to tell from the very long but sick trailer

I will definitely be playing the shit out of this game, although I wonder if it will affect me in any way as close to how it did in the first weeks of the pandemic

If this new one is as berserk as the trailer makes out, it'll be great. I really wonder how similar the gameplay will be to the first one

well there goes my summer

Yeah... why do the year's big games come out in bloody June?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukqZ5VOoK5s

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/test-death-stranding-2-reviews/

I did a lot of monitoring tests for the original Death Stranding. I’d find that four out of ten people would love the game, but six would say it was a terrible game. For me, I think that’s a good balance. But with the playtests for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, everyone seems to be positive. Sony is pleased, of course, but I do wish I was a bit more controversial.

its probably because people like the beach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONfg5qeK_mI

Opted for the Deluxe version, so will be On the Beach in 12 hours. At least for a little bit.

I've decided not to buy it on day of release. I've been waiting literally years for this, but I know if I buy it, then my summer will be wasted.

_I did a lot of monitoring tests for the original Death Stranding. I’d find that four out of ten people would love the game, but six would say it was a terrible game. For me, I think that’s a good balance. But with the playtests for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, everyone seems to be positive. Sony is pleased, of course, but I do wish I was a bit more controversial. _

It may be confirmation bias. I hated Death Stranding, the four hours that I played, and there’s no way in hell I’ll be picking this up.

The friction for DS1 was very much frontloaded. But there was always friction. It is a game about struggle and the reward was in overcoming it, which led to gradually reducing it with more tools. Seems like the corners have been sanded off a good bit for the sequel, more traditionally "fun", but at its core you're still a package delivery guy.

I loved the fuck out of the first one, personally. OBV not gonna be one for everybody.

I feel like the part that felt like, and maybe was, the first four hours of the original DS just kind of breezed by when I started another playthrough. Part of it was knowing all the mechanics, although I suspect more of it was being grounded in the task? It’s a hard sell at the beginning when the game seems both arduous and underpopulated

I just realized the Zing icon on my
phone is next to Getting Over It, the Bennett Foddy game I occasionally revisit that is more about the task than winning. Possibly the two most grindy things, GOI and ILX.

Essentially the first one taught me how to hold the controller in a new way by requiring me to have my index fingers pressing the top buttons for hours on end. No thanks!

strand type games arent for everyone

Index and middle fingers kinda naturally positioned at the top bumper/trigger buttons? Apologies if there's a physical disability I'm not taking into account, but otherwise pretty natural feeling.

Stupidly expensive, but the PS and Xbox PRO controllers (whatever they call them) that allow you to remap buttons and use two paddle inputs on the back of controllers are A+.

Bought one for Armored Core 6, which really did feel like you needed a button or two more to play optimally. Very happy with the purchase.

I really found the ACVI controls unnatural and awkward to use

So should I play the first before trying the sequel? Never played it and I'm looking for a new game like in this genre

I'm not sure I've got the appetite for another roguelike even if its a Myst roguelike (Blue Prince)

Got 2 hours in, work in the morning and all.

So far A+++ good shit. Gets you sucked in immediately. Doesn’t smack you with an hour of cutscenes or anything at the beginning. Found an optional VR mission terminal in the first base, basically mini tutorial levels that let you know how to play the game to come. Actual MGS stealth action here. Not as sophisticated amd involved as something like MGSV so far, but probably for the better considering all the other shit you have to worry about.

I’m sold, stoked to get back to it tomorrow.

There’s a “get caught up on the story so far” option in the main menu pretty much immediately. And there are optional codecs gracefully dripped into your menu as you progress if you need further filling in. Very slick attention to onboarding in this from what I’ve seen.

“get caught up on the story so far” option

lol i think i needed this in the first game, as it was happening

I never played the first one of this but remain intrigued. Not least cos my brother got very, very irate when I even mentioned this game.

I read something about the team having unusual access to the game engine code or something like that and in turn working magic with that code? I still haven't touched the first game, but I do like these sort of big swing auteur titles getting full, unfettered resources to just go wild.

It’s collaborative — it’s the same Decima engine as the Horizon games, but with DS1 they made enough changes that they nicknamed it “Dejima.” I think it’s a two-way agreement.
So it’s more collaborative than someone paying a license for the Unreal Engine or Unity, which are more out of the box.

Very much enjoying this. If you liked the first one, can’t imagine being disappointing it. And unless you outright hated the first one, possibility you might actually groove on this too. Much smoother and dynamic experience with more trad Kojima MGS combat stuff thrown in there.

do you still deliver stuff

you bet your ass you do

the intro act, which I'm still on, has been:
- walk a long ways across some rocky hills with your child back home
- catch up w/yr lady friend and get recruited for a job
- do a job, which leads to a job, and then a job (all plotting routes, carrying packages, and avoiding/fighting bandits)
- maybe do a little VR training after the first/second jobs (lots of easy power-up points, good refresher on the game basics, short)
- after that last job, a touching reunion with a character from the first game followed by BOSS FIGHT

in case you're wondering, you'r still techwear swagged out in this one
https://acrnm.com/J91-WSDB_NA

So I picked up PS+ to try the first game out, the director's cut on a PS5, and wow! the graphics are amazing, really beautiful and enjoyable game. However, the story is kinda weird and annoying - not really vibing with the "you must save AMERICA" and the whole dynastic "Presidency". Does the rest of the game focus on this jingoistic, post-apocalyptic nationalism? And are all the cut scenes like 20 minutes long? Because all I want to do is play the actual walking simulator, and watch my stats go up at the end of the missions (super satisfying).

Definitely making me happy I didn't just jump on buying the sequel.

Does the rest of the game focus on this jingoistic, post-apocalyptic nationalism
It's meant to come off like that for a reason, and nope

And are all the cut scenes like 20 minutes long
you can skip a lot of them but the ones with Mads are worth it, imo

okay, cool - the intro was starting to rub off on me the wrong way. I'm pretty picky with dedicating a lot of time to a game

uhh DS2 seems to have a Yarvin-esque US management structure given some exposition dump. watching out for all the backstabbings. Kojima is insanely skeptical of government privatization, huh

It’s definitely not blindly nationalistic, no. And in the second one the U.S. (so far) is an afterthought. You’re dealing with getting Mexico and Australia online.

Cut scenes are much more brief thus far in the 2nd one too. Even as a fan of the first (and most other Kojima games) he can certainly push it with that stuff.

If you’re giving the 1st one a spin, I’d definitely keep going with it if you’re at least having somewhat of a good time or it has your interest. It absolutely gets better as it goes along. 1st act can be somewhat of a trial for most. Feel like there’s kind of a point to that, but it really opens up at a certain point and becomes incredibly addictive.

xp to Octo obv

Just kicked this off last night. My first thought is that the gameplay looks absolutely fucking stunning.

This shit is so fucking good. What I don’t think gets mentioned enough is how dopamine zapping the UI and basic controls and operations are once you get used to them. Like I hijacked a bandit truck a while back and damn does the 1.5 second animation for jumping in and out of that thing always feel good. Haptics, controller speaker shit, sound effects in general. Just the right speed and timing for all of it. Those *cajunk* sounds. Masterful.

I get excited seeing a package along my path. Jump outta the truck, grab it with my left or right hand holding L2 or R2, run it back to the truck, let go of the button to toss it in the back. And *cajunk* back into the cockpit of my ride and continue on.

The joys of this game sound totally ludicrous written out for sure. But the details in this seem to be so deeply considered and it adds up to a lot.

Nicholson Baker would appreciate

It’s definitely not blindly nationalistic, no. And in the second one the U.S. (so far) is an afterthought

Yeah the beginning feels like it was trying to appeal to some kind of patriotism for an America that never existed. When they talked about the isolated city on the West Coast I kept thinking they are probably the good guys here lol. Gameplay is fun af, so willing to keep at it. Was looking for this style of game but I'm fairly picky with acting and writing when it's so prominent. I had issues with the gameplay of Horizon: Forbidden West but enjoyed the story and setting enough to see it through

50 hours in on DS2. Gets better and better. GOTY. Don’t sleep on this, motherfuckers.

No carpal tunnel on your index fingers yet huh

I don’t know what that means. Index fingers probably my least used major digits in this game?

If it keeps it up, this might be Kojima’s Elden Ring. It is really great.

Any recs for a good video game message board, discord, whatever? Anything?

Love a lot of your contributions, but ILG is mostly a dead bummer these days.

I do thank Calstars for reminding me of my weird cousin who would put the NES controller on the floor and play it like a keyboard.

Sorry, was grouchy.

But no, you’re not doing a ton of running this time around and working your balancing fingers. It’s a much less punishing game. You get the fun DS stuff almost immediately as opposed to 10 hours in. 80% of the time you’re gonna be in a vehicle.

Combat stuff is great. Fairly easy on default difficulty, but very satisfying. Love how much Metal Gear Solid 5 stuff he folded into this one.

Game’s just super fun, dudes. Can’t emphasize that enough. If you got a PS5, you should get this.

80%?

You must have something better to do. I hope you do.

Had some time off work last week and I broke my plan to play DS2 for only a couple hours per day. I did, at least, stick to a couple hours per session.

I'm going to keep connecting up shelters, but I have all but perhaps one connected, finished maybe 70% of the roads and 80% of the monorail, and finished the main story. Fifty-ish hours?

Some of the main strokes of the plot are pretty obvious, but of those, several of the twists are delivered with completely absurd (in a good way) cut scenes. Kojima's thrown the entire kitchen sink in on this one. Some of the more cinematic cutscenes are going to stick with me for a while.

I screwed up by not trying out each individual piece of equipment as I acquired them. You can absolutely just blast through the game on Normal difficulty by using whatever the most powerful thing you can craft is at the moment, but there are some really novel things you miss out on that way.

That’s kinda how MGS5 was. Just an absurd amount of toys that can be really fun to use if you take the time to learn them and not just stick with the most easily effective ones. Hope harder difficulties, or ones to come, encourage using a bit of everything. A “Director’s Cut” v1.5 version of this like they did for DS1 could really be something.

Some of the tentpole cinematic cutscenes are legitimately stunning. Like “best you’ll see in a video game” stunning.

So far on track to be my favorite thing Kojima’s done.

So many stupidly fun gadgets, like the sticky gun, where you can sniper rifle a package from a distance and it’ll launch the package towards you and you have have to snatch it out of the air with your free hand just in time or it’ll get all bonked up as it flies by you and lands on the ground.

All sorts of melee combat tools/weapons/techniques that I’ve played with in the VR combat testing zone that are surprisingly involved and cool. Just might never use them once you get silenced guns.

Life has been getting in the way of this.. finally set off for my first proper mission, and damn if those guys don't have good eyesight. I did all the intro VR training levels - this is where I'm a viking, honestly, could just play training levels forever - so I felt pretty good about myself but fuck me these guys have good eyesight. One sees me and then I'm swarmed. I mean I did end up cold-cocking them all, but by that time the rain had starting taking its effect and I only A-ranked the level. I assume I need to be a lot sneakier?

You need to keep holding down the buttons

Goddamn this game is good. I just did the first mission into the jungle. The way the lighting changes when the sun goes down (or comes up) is fucking excellent.

I was much better at sneaking around this time. Garrotted a couple of them boys. But fuck if they aren't on alert at the drop of a hat. Can't imagine what hard mode is like. I wound up having to thump the last couple.

I like their voices when they get all consternated - they sound like the AI in Mission Impossible, like some sort of squiggly alien squid tech.

I so want the delivery points to start breaking down, and the weapons ban enforcement breaks, and you have to go back into the package area recesses behind the access terminal to track somebody down, jumping up on a conveyor belt, shooting at somebody, grabbing a container as it slides by, throwing it at somebody else... Also I want Sam to realise that he's working for the bad guys, and join forces with the bandits. None of this will ever happen. Kojima likes his systems.

don't worry, in the storyline in most Kojima games you get to the "are we actually the baddies?!" twist

Holding your breath (R1) while crouching makes you a good bit stealthier.

Game does look goddamn good with the changing of day/night/weather. I took a trip around my monorail system last night before bed just to chill out mess with the photo mode (which is pretty involved!)

Love seeing a thunderstorm off in the distance at the right time of evening. Can get very Miami Vice ‘06 looking.

Baby care simulator lol

Someone PayPal me $600 so I can play this shit

lol cal I know you’re trolling and having your kicks, but I would like to emphasize for anyone reading this thread that balancing while walking and having to constantly soothe a crying baby are barely a thing in DS2. Know a few people who bounced off the 1st who are having a great time with this one.

Lovely game that his been a salve for a depression wave I’ve been dealing with. Nice to have people tell you “Hey, great job/what would we do without you/we can get through this together” all the time.

Also just fun shooting an electrified bolo stun gun at a bad guy and hear them go “BRWWWLLWLWLWWL” and presumably shit their pants as they fall to the ground.

Revolver Ocelot

Psycho Mantis

Threads been quiet for a minute
Did bros finish it or abandon it

I’m still playing it. On vacation, made a trip out the other day to pick up a PS Portal to keep playing it, but haven’t had much time.

About 3/4 through I think. Still rules, GOTY thus far.

I haven't had any time 😭

I got to the first boss fight and got all the way back home. I find myself accidentally switching shoulders during pew pew pew parts and I'm finding the (lack of?) cover mechanic kind of offputting; honestly idk how to shoot dudes effectively

Just rolled credits. This game is beautiful.

I have put my console away for the summer, so not playing this yet. I am so excited to though. But seeing as how the first game was so tied up with the lockdown era, I really think this will be better suited to long nights and cold days

see, if you live somewhere with an unbearably hot season, you get two parts of the year for gaming

hah, not to compare but the UK has been pretty unbearable these last few weeks. i get what you mean though

yeah, what you're getting we typically get, or worse, for about 2 - 3 summer weeks every year

I gotta say i'm SUPER not into whatever gender shit is rattling around in Kojima's head (luckily this only affects the cut scenes)

Care to spoiler text what you’re referring to specifically? Don’t recall anything eyebrow raising, but I did mainline the hell out of this for stretches so things might’ve gotten lost in the tunnel vision.

Oh just all the stuff at the beginning with 'Fragile' being the surrogate mom waiting at home with your baby for you to come home from being a badass