Amnesia

[ghostwheel]

I bought Amnesia on steam on Monday and finally forced myself to play it early this afternoon (play this in the dark with headphones, screw that!). Today is Friday. I to got some upper rooms in the castle. I was thinking, this ain't too bad. So I decided I should quite before it got too bad. Maybe I'll play it some more tomorrow, in the middle of the day.

[Michaël Samyn]

Enjoy! It ain't too bad, indeed. 

[Thomas]

Glad to hear you are pulling yourself through it!

[Michaël Samyn]

I can only play Amnesia in short bits. After an hour I can't go on anymore without getting nauseous. I'm not sure if this is because of the scary atmosphere or because of the first person camera (I'm sensitive to motion sickness). Probably a combination of both. The confusion between the two makes me feel good about the game though, since it's a horror game that is about sickening facts.

[ghostwheel]

Yeah, the camera is a bit nausea inducing. It rides the line for me, I can play it without real discomfort. The one that got me was The Void. The first thing I did after playing it for a few minutes was look online for a way to turn the headbob off. Thankfully, the devs supplied a mod to do exactly that. Apparently, I wasn't the only one on the verge of losing their lunch while playing it.

[Michaël Samyn]

There's also a mouse sensitivity setting in The Void that I found too late. I was actually disappointed by the amount of gameplay in The Void. And I stopped playing because of it. In Ice Pick Lodge's previous game, Pathalogic, the gameplay, even if very difficult, made sense in the story. In The Void it seemed gratuitous. Made it feel like a normal game, where the story is just skinning for the mechanics.

What makes Amnesia better in my opinion is the care that was put into crafting a good experience for the player, often at the expense of gameplay or conventions. The story in The Void intrigued me a lot more but it was made inaccessible by the gameplay.

[ghostwheel]

The Void doesn't quite click for me. I don't really understand the gameplay. The visuas are interesting so I might get back to it eventually.

My computer really chugged on Amnesia so I had to drop the settings down. Fortunately I just popped in a brand new nvidia gtx 460. I tried it out in Crysis and everything ran smoothly (I suck at that game but I got it in a Steam sale) so I'm sure Amnesia will now run pretty good as well.

[Jeroen D. Stout]

I watched much of The Void through let's play videos, the game itself was very interesting but the competitive element just completely unclear to me. I liked the idea of the sisters, the idea of dangerous, helpless (and also half-naked) women felt more like nymphs than it did feel American TV. The visual design was quite good in the dark twisted way.

It would be interesting to see the same setting with a completely different type of gameplay. In a way the Myst type of play always felt more fitting to me when environments are clearly designed for aesthetic purposes... more the sense of exploration than battleground. But probably better something completely different (building shelters for the sisters out of raw materials you have to find a way to collect - out of compassion, but also because you need them to survive).

My new computer arrives quite soon so I will report on what I make of Amnesia! I will make sure to play when it is dark and loud enough that the sounds muffle my ample screams.

[Thomas]

I also was really keen on trying out the Void, but when I just could not play it. It wasn't just the harsh difficulty (worst part was the colors you choose when traveling, being able to die on the map screen is just cruel), but also the gestures which I were unable to perform. So I just played an hour and have not picked it up since. Perhaps I should just check a Lets Play like Jeroen  did

Jeroen, hope you enjoy and that it has not been too hyped at this point

Speaking of which, I saw a us mentioned in some internet comic were it was described as overrated. At that point I really felt happy, because you know you made some kind of impact when people call your work overrated

[Jeroen D. Stout]

I also was really keen on trying out the Void, but when I just could not play it. It wasn't just the harsh difficulty (worst part was the colors you choose when traveling, being able to die on the map screen is just cruel), but also the gestures which I were unable to perform. So I just played an hour and have not picked it up since. Perhaps I should just check a Lets Play like Jeroen  did

Dying on the map screen was mild compared to 'by the way, you collected the wrong hearts/colours', try again. Because I never wanted to see the story again after the first go for any other sake than story. I loved that you could grow trees and harvest them, that was very lovely done. It is one of those ideas which feels on the good side of 'growing games'. But then I planted the wrong colours. I had the same problem in Eufloria. I really dislike it when I have to do things precisely right the first time around but am taught by dying. The whole point is that the Void is impossible to traverse and harsh, but surely that does not need carry over into the gameplay. We may as well write a book about a far-sighted person with a 4pt font.

Of course, that this annoys me means the game had a draw. It was very pretty from the Let's Plays.

Jeroen, hope you enjoy and that it has not been too hyped at this point

Speaking of which, I saw a us mentioned in some internet comic were it was described as overrated. At that point I really felt happy, because you know you made some kind of impact when people call your work overrated

Ha - I can imagine. Wonderful to hear how much praise you are getting. I am very happy you are putting your fame and fortune to making games the way you want them.

[Thomas]

Dying on the map screen was mild compared to 'by the way, you collected the wrong hearts/colours', try again.

Never got that far Heard that it is a game you need to replay many times, which I cannot do unless there is some random element and sessions are not very long.

[Michaël Samyn]

The whole point is that the Void is impossible to traverse and harsh, but surely that does not need carry over into the gameplay. We may as well write a book about a far-sighted person with a 4pt font.

That's a very good point. And a good comparison, too.

[Michaël Samyn]

Heard that it is a game you need to replay many times, which I cannot do unless there is some random element and sessions are not very long.

If redoing the same things is meaningless in the games's fiction, it should not occur in the game's play.

[ghostwheel]

Yeah, dying on the map screen makes very little sense to me. Imagine playing Super Mario 3 and dying on the map screen??? It's like a minigame except this minigame, if you fail it, you fail the entire game! I'm not sure what they were thinking with that.

[Michaël Samyn]

Imagine playing Super Mario 3

I'd rather not. 
If you don't mind, I still prefer imagining playing The Void. 

Seriously, comparing The Void with Mario is like comparing Beethoven with Brittney Spears. Sure, she's good at what she does. But she's not nearly as ambitious, artistically.