Firewatch |OT| With Me

Why isn't this on the German/EU PSN Store to pre-order yet
patricejdkro.png
 
Hot Coldman said:
Oh please please PLEASE tell me that background changes with the time.
Click to expand...

Looks like it does.

Jake said:
We should pronto. Hopefully we put something up today. It is very similar to the art Olly did for the top of the Firewatch site (including multi-plane parallaxing like that), but it has a bunch of time of day variants that it interpolates between at different system clock intervals, so it looks different depending on when you have your dash open. Has ambient sound & a really low key music track by Chris Remo.
Click to expand...
 
toythatkills said:
To be fair, some games definitely do this better than others and both reviews so far suggest that Firewatch is on the worse end of the scale.

It's not like the player has to change the entire game, just feel like they've made a difference.

EDIT: Holy shit that theme.
Click to expand...

I only know what I have surmised from previews, but I got the impression that you are free to explore different trees of conversations but ultimately the events that happen to the main character are more or less fixed. Maybe I'm just making assumptions based on The Walking Dead S1 and comments made by the writers about how they think about "choice" and what it means.

I know players want to "make a difference" but I think this leads to an undervaluing of "having a different experience" which seems to be more what TWD and perhaps Firewatch are about.
 
Jake said:
Yes that's me I play on 21:9 at home. I'm also the UI artist on the game and made sure the UI actually works properly from 21:9 all the way down to 5:4 (the slightly taller than 4:3 displays like your friends old sick 1280x1024 CRT that you were envious of in 1998).
Click to expand...
Congrats on what looks to be a fantastic game. I can't wait to get my hands on it!
 
Jake said:
I'm the only one here so far, but I'm confirmed crunching my insides into diamonds waiting for reviews to hit.



We considered a studio name in the style of Secret Level or Hangar 13, "Hidden Level 3," but kept getting ourselves excited by mistake whenever we shortened it down, and abandoned that name in favor of two words that are nonsense in English but mean "cemetery" in Spanish and Italian. Much easier on the nerves.
Click to expand...

Me and my friends used to have a podcast going called Secret Level! Good choice.
 
hey_it's_that_dog said:
I know players want to "make a difference" but I think this leads to an undervaluing of "having a different experience" which seems to be more what TWD and perhaps Firewatch are about.
Click to expand...

I think this is a pretty good distinction, and it's true we are more interested in the following. Rather than flipping plot point switches, we want you to feel like you're creating your own personal fabric of the relationship between the characters. The thing is, if we do our job really well, a lot of people won't notice this, because it will actually just feel natural—but as long as that experience is a positive one, that's fine.
 
Jake said:
Yes that's me I play on 21:9 at home. I'm also the UI artist on the game and made sure the UI actually works properly from 21:9 all the way down to 5:4 (the slightly taller than 4:3 displays like your friends old sick 1280x1024 CRT that you were envious of in 1998).
Click to expand...

nice. Whats your setup at home? I have an i5 and a GTX970 with a 3440x1440 34" monitor, wondering roughly how it'd perform on that. I'd probably be willing to drop the framerate target to 30fps if necessary for this kind of game.
 
Lots of reviews liking this game. Might have to give it a try. Plus I have a soft spot for Yellowstone.
The background theme for the ps4 is balls to the wall beautiful.
 
Random Twin Peaks reference is throwing me off here, hope nobody goes in expecting anything resembling that cause that may be disappointing. No fun allowed!
 
My impressions if anyone is interested. No story details besides what's already known
http://indiegameenthusiast.blogspot.com/2016/02/pc-review-139-firewatch.html
There's something almost magical about the woods. Leave home, turn off the highway, stop in the lot of some larger park or in a roadside clearing for a trail, venture onto a path, and the civilization that was so close suddenly seems so distant. It's just you and the woodlands, and there's a sense of mystery and awe around every bend, over every hill, atop each peak and outlook. Even if you've walked the same trail before, it can feel new and just as compelling. I've played a lot of open world games, traversed a lot of digital forests, and none have captured that atmosphere as well as Firewatch. The engaging intimate story almost feels like a wonderful extra, wrapped up in the game's gorgeous setting and feeling of discovery and exploration.
Click to expand...
 
It's got bold ideas, but I didn't really like it to be honest:

Firewatch has the embers of a great narrative-driven game, but it fails to ever ignite into a furnace. Unforgivable performance issues detract from the otherwise outstanding art direction, but it's the abrupt story and unconvincing characters that really douse the hype here. Campo Santo's inaugural outing starts incredibly strongly, but your alarm bells will be ringing long before it burns out without ever really sparking into life.
Click to expand...

http://www.pushsquare.com/reviews/ps4/firewatch
 
Unsure if posted but: http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/8/10922560/firewatch-review-ps4-pc

People usually go camping to relax and get away from the stress of city life, but I’ve always found it to be terrifying. It’s not the bears or the fires that scare me — it’s the silence. When you’re used to the steady murmur of traffic and people and all of the other noises that come from urban life, a quiet evening in the woods feels alien. Every sound — whether it’s the crackle of the fire or an animal off in the distance — becomes thundering. I’ve read enough detective novels to know what happens in the woods at night. The quiet isn’t something I’ve ever gotten used to.

Similarly, I originally imagined that playing Firewatch — a new adventure game about being a fire lookout in a national park in Wyoming — would be relaxing. I thought the peaceful surroundings, rendered with a dreamlike quality by artist Olly Moss, would be a soothing change of pace from the brown and grey found in most blockbuster games. And it starts out that way, with solitary treks through the woods that feel almost meditative. You’re able to enjoy nice talks with your supervisor over the radio, and everything feels serene. But eventually things take a turn for the sinister.

It’s then that you realize that being out in the wilderness makes you vulnerable, and that the seemingly tranquil setting is actually perfect for terror.
Click to expand...

That's probably the most exciting blurb I've heard about it yet! Definitely getting it.

In its finale, Firewatch showcases the two very different sides of nature. On the one hand, the game’s rendition of a national park in Wyoming is breathtaking; I found myself stopping to take screenshots with the fervor of a stolid father testing out his new camera. But the setting, in all of its vast loneliness, elevates a spooky story to downright scary and stressful; it’s not a horror game, more of an interactive thriller.

Firewatch is a game about the quiet of the wilderness, silence, and the sounds that follow it.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

  • Featured
South of Midnight |OT| Don't stop me-weavin'
|OT|  2 3 4 5 6
279
11K
Magic Carpet replied
Firewatch was released 9 years ago today
2
79
3K
ValiantInstance replied
  • Featured
Assassin's Creed Shadows 💮|OT|💮 Play Stealthy for Me |づ ╸ . •́ )ﾒ
|OT|  43 44 45 46 47
2K
77K
SJRB replied
  • Featured
Schedule I |Early Access OT| I did it for me. I enjoyed it.
|OT| NSFW 
18
1K
Spukc replied
  • Featured
Atomfall |OT|
|OT|  2 3 4 5
234
11K
adamsapple replied
Top Bottom