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Life Is Strange |OT| Rewinder Me

kamineko

Does his best thinking in the flying car
I answered also, and stayed in the closet when her stepfather entered the room. But then I tried to shoot the guy who she owned money to, so I'm not always very logical with the decisions...

Kate died the first two times I tried the roof part. I think the game allowed two wrong answers before she would jump, and I wasn't careful the first time, and second time messed up even earlier by trying a different tactic with the answers. I think I made most of the right decisions so Kate would be happy, but it looked like she wanted me to tell her to go to the police immediately. I didn't.

Heh, I had her step out and take the blame. Never backed off of that either. Kind of regretted it toward the end of EP2. I did save Kate first time. She didn't like my "wait for more evidence" suggestion, but I think that's the only thing I did that she didn't like. For some reason I've just wanted to help Kate this whole time, even in EP1 so it was always a priority
 

Brew124

Member
Why on earth wouldn't you answer the phone call? Even if Kate didn't need help I still would've done it as a fuck you to Chloe.

Yeah my fiancé said the same thing, lol. I did both choices and rewound to do what I thought would be the most interesting for the story, lol.
 

chadskin

Member
The website I got this from did not link a source, so take this with a huge grain of salt.

Episode 3: Chaos Theory – May 5th, 2015 worldwide on Steam, Xbox Live, and PlayStation Network in North America; Then May 6th, 2015 on PlayStation Network in Europe/Australia.
• Episode 4: Dark Room – June 16th, 2015 worldwide on Steam, Xbox Live, and PlayStation Network in North America; Then June 17th, 2015 on PlayStation Network in Europe/Australia.
• Episode 5: Polarized – July 28th, 2015 worldwide on Steam, Xbox Live, and PlayStation Network in North America; Then July 29th, 2015 on PlayStation Network in Europe/Australia.

http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2015/03/26/life-is-strange-episode-3-4-5-release-date.htm

The site says "estimated release schedule", so it's not accurate. I doubt even Dontnod knows precise dates at this point, what with certifications and all.

But they did tweet the third episode is, not surprisingly, coming sometime in May: https://twitter.com/LifeIsStrange/status/588987202564132864
 
Just finished the second episode in one sitting.

Yep, this is shaping up to be one hell of a fantastic series.

I like how despite all the weird stuff going on, it still feels brilliantly grounded. Fantastic writing.

That final choice was intense too.
 
The ending of the second episode got to me in a way games rarely do. I was on the edge of my seat, stressed as hell
and I was so panicked when the bible quotes came up, and I did not know the answer. Frantically, I pushed for a random one, preparing for the worst...only to see I had saved her. I felt so relieved.
 
So I just finished episode 1 on my PS3. I liked it a lot, but I was NOT happy with the graphics. I realize this is a low budget, but the character models just looked BAD. Add in lots of screen tearing and such poor shadows that I wish they just didn't have them in first place... yeah.

How is the PC version of this game? In terms of system requirements, how does it run? My PC isn't great (Radeon HD 7770, Core 2 Quad 2.83 Ghz), but it's serviceable. I could switch to that for later episodes.
 
So I just finished episode 1 on my PS3. I liked it a lot, but I was NOT happy with the graphics. I realize this is a low budget, but the character models just looked BAD. Add in lots of screen tearing and such poor shadows that I wish they just didn't have them in first place... yeah.

How is the PC version of this game? In terms of system requirements, how does it run? My PC isn't great (Radeon HD 7770, Core 2 Quad 2.83 Ghz), but it's serviceable. I could switch to that for later episodes.

I played both episodes on PC and thought the game was gorgeous, but I'm running on a GTX 770.

Don't take my word as gospel, but your PC still sounds like it should handle the game pretty well. Here's a benchmark from someone with a similar setup.
 
I've bought the whole season on PS3, and I think it's my best gaming purchase to date: it has a beatiful setting and art style, and a compelling plot which hooked me from the start. The OST really enhance the experience, and since I'm italian I only know how an american high school or college is supposed to look by movies, so I find Blackwell pretty believable. Occasional cringeworthy dialogue is also not an issue to me since... well my English isn't good enough for me to notice :).

I also find very convenient the episodic release form, since I have time to fully explore the episodes and the alternate choices without binge-gaming, which is something usually lessen the enjoyment for me. There's not to say the game is perfect though, I'd really like some improvements, in detail:

1. Graphics are good enough, but performance is not. There's plenty of screen tearing (my most hated graphic issue), and panning with the camera often results in noticeable frame drops. At least on PS3.

2. Well of course lip-sync is below the average modern game, and there's a bit too much of oversimplified animations (like when
Max plays her guitar
), but since the game is on budget I'm cutting Dontnod some slack here and pretend to believe it's an artistic choice.

3. I think collectibles shouldn't be tied to the single episode they're featured in, but also to the choices, maybe the less important ones, that you made in the previous episodes as well. Some collectible should be achievable only through a set of choices spanning multiple episodes. For example
we know we can choose whether to water your plant or not throughout the first two episodes, and whether to save or let die the blue bird in Chloe's house. I think it would be cool if one of the collectibles from a later episode featured something like getting a photo of the bird on the plant, or something like that. So only the ones who "saved" both could get it
. I think it would greatly improve replayability at a little expense on the developer part, especially if "big" decisions (like of course
managing to save Kate or not
) all turn out to result in basically the same plot Telltale-like... but we'll know about it in a few weeks won't we? I would also like if the photoalbum didn't feature an outline of all the collectibles you can get in the episode, since I think it make everything a bit too easy, but since none can force me to look at it, there's no point in complaining about it :).

Now for the big choices and theories:
EP. 1:
told the principal about Nathan, made fun of Victoria, stepped in to help Kate and took the blame for the joint (I couldn't hide cause I didn't think of rewinding to hide in the closet)
EP. 2:
told Kate to go to the police, took her call, tried to shoot Frank, saved Kate and blamed that Nathan prick
It's still too early for me to make predictions on were the plot is heading, but I'm not sure I'm liking
the final destination-esque vibe I get from Chloe already risking to die twice (in the most stupid way humanly conceivable, I may add) after I stopped Nathan from killing her.

Anyway I can't wait to play the rest of the season and I'm already looking forward for season 2, hopefully.
 
The ending of the second episode got to me in a way games rarely do. I was on the edge of my seat, stressed as hell
and I was so panicked when the bible quotes came up, and I did not know the answer. Frantically, I pushed for a random one, preparing for the worst...only to see I had saved her. I felt so relieved.

Something that might have been interesting, but maybe too difficult (or just awkward):

It would've been interesting if the game actually forced you to remember the actual bible quote instead of (or in addition to) identifying which one was the right one. The game just assumes you know which quote is which, even if you pick wrong!
 

kubus

Member
I feel so bad that I only played Episode 2 yesterday, despite being a super big fan of Life is Strange (and making this thread...)

Life has been so hectic (and strange :p) since I moved to Japan on the exact day episode 2 came out, that I only found time to play the new episode yesterday. But oh my goooood it was soooo good, despite my poor Surface Pro hardly being able to run it.

I was able to save Kate! Yes!! I thought telling her to not go to the police might bite me in the ass, but I still managed to change her mind by picking the other right options. I never got the bible quotes, thankfully, because I think I would've screwed up that part. Instead I told her that I erased the nasty remarks and the video link, and that her dad cares a lot about her - as do I.

The thing that surprised me most is that it's about 60/40 between people who saved her and couldn't save her. Props to Dontnod for being able to "create" that balance.

Fuck Chloe btw. She always gets so mad about the stupidest things and how can she not notice that her idiotic behavior is hurting Max? Not just physically with the nosebleeds, but also her reputation and safety. Ugh.

Anyway enough ranting for today. Will replay some chapters later to get the missing photo ops. Despite searching every nook and cranny I still missed a few photos, it seems. Also I completely missed that opportunity to save Alyssa. I didn't even notice she was hit by something. I also didn't get the invite to the Vortex Club, completely missed that as well. But I'm gonna stick with my choices!

Btw reading through this thread and seeing the choice results screen, I was surprised that only 7% chose
to blame Jefferson. I knew this guy was fishy from the rumors about him and Rachel, the conversation that led to Kate's suicide attempt and the EXTREMELY suspicious phone call right afterwards. I really wanted to get Nathan's ass suspended but I don't have any proof and with the threats and all, I thought that would be a bad choice right now. Like Max says, he'll get his bad karma soon enough. David is an asshole, but I truly believe he means well and I don't want to get Joyce into trouble, so I spared him. The only option left was Jefferson and at least with him I 100% knew that he said something to Kate that upset her, so to me that was the best option. Proud to be one of the 7%! :p

Oh and #TeamWarren here. The guy is awkward and in love. The Alyssa thing is suspicious but I truly believe he really loves Max and I support them. He is so cute, I think he's my favorite character in the game :p. I guess that makes me weird, but eh.

May can't come soon enough!
 
I really can't see
Jefferson
as being suspicious.
To me he just feels like one of those teachers who feels that he's above his students and who just can't connect with them.
Bad teacher? Yes. suspicious? Not really imo.
 
I really can't see
Jefferson
as being suspicious.
To me he just feels like one of those teachers who feels that he's above his students and who just can't connect with them.
Bad teacher? Yes. suspicious? Not really imo.

Yep. The rumours about
Rachel
were only rumours as far as we know. Maybe that's foreshadowing about future episodes, but at his point 7% makes perfect sense to me.
 

kubus

Member
I really can't see
Jefferson
as being suspicious.
To me he just feels like one of those teachers who feels that he's above his students and who just can't connect with them.
Bad teacher? Yes. suspicious? Not really imo.
That's what I thought as well, until
he got that really weird phone call right before class in Ep 2. I don't know, something is really off about him. I'm almost positive he had something to do with Rachel's disappearance. Rachel mentioned in that note to Chloe that she met an older guy who was going to change her life or something, and that if she told Chloe who he was, she would be disgusted. Maybe Rachel was going to be Jefferson's new muse but something happened. I dunno :p.

To be honest I felt kinda bad about having him fired but from the three choices I felt this one was safest.
 

Kinsei

Banned
That's what I thought as well, until
he got that really weird phone call right before class in Ep 2. I don't know, something is really off about him. I'm almost positive he had something to do with Rachel's disappearance. Rachel mentioned in that note to Chloe that she met an older guy who was going to change her life or something, and that if she told Chloe who he was, she would be disgusted. Maybe Rachel was going to be Jefferson's new muse but something happened. I dunno :p.

To be honest I felt kinda bad about having him fired but from the three choices I felt this one was safest.

I still stand by that
phone call being his wife/girlfriend. It sounded like a relationship ending to me.
 

ScottbSE

Neo Member
great reading all your theories and discussion about Episode 2. Such a great thread, always nice to check in and see what discussions are going on :)
 

colormage1

Neo Member
I'm really enjoying this game.

I never felt so
powerless when I didn't save Kate. I answered everything right until I got to the family members question and the Bible verse. I just didn't want her to get upset at me for snooping around her room.

While I absolutely love this game and feel the choices do matter, I do have some problems:

First - I hope that eventually you are punished for rewinding often. Some of my choices
(like not shooting the gun)
I did and didn't care or want to see the other option. And I hope down the line I don't get as many bloody noses or something like that. Can you imagine
that you were actually to rewind time on the roof if you didn't rewind for choices in the episode? That would have been epic and really changed how people make decisions.

Second -
On the roof, since you couldn't rewind, I wish your choices were timed. Like they have in the Walking Dead. I understand why they aren't in the rest of the game because you can just rewind them, but that would have been awesome to have.

Third - I find that there is some inconsistencies when it comes to what characters know or what they don't know. In the diner with Chloe's mom, she was nice to me, then instantly mean to me, then nice again. It's like she forgot, remembered, then forgot. (I forgot what happened.) And I know it's gonna happen in games like this, but it's almost happening a little too much for me.

But overall, I'm really freaking loving this game. I love the journey it's putting me on, and the
Kate thing
has destroyed me like nothing else in recent gaming memory. It was fantastic.
 

Chaos17

Member
Second -
On the roof, since you couldn't rewind, I wish your choices were timed. Like they have in the Walking Dead. I understand why they aren't in the rest of the game because you can just rewind them, but that would have been awesome to have.

It didn't need be timed since a lot of people in this thread
couldn't save Kate
.
So I think it's fine to not add more stress to the player.
 
Worst wait I've had to endure in a long ass time. They need to hurry up with the 3rd episode!

Hey, just be glad Dontnod seem to be releasing episodes on a fairly consistent schedule, instead of going 4-5 months without a word like a certain other developer of story-based adventure games.
 

colormage1

Neo Member
It didn't need be timed since a lot of people in this thread
couldn't save Kate
.
So I think it's fine to not add more stress to the player.

I think a lot of people
couldn't save her more from information rather than time.
That's what happened to me. I did everything correctly but neglected to gather two very important facts - guessed - and was wrong.
 

carlsojo

Member
Hey, just be glad Dontnod seem to be releasing episodes on a fairly consistent schedule, instead of going 4-5 months without a word like a certain other developer of story-based adventure games.

It's tough, especially since Episode 2 was so good and I can't wait to see the followup.
 
Something that might have been interesting, but maybe too difficult (or just awkward):

It would've been interesting if the game actually forced you to remember the actual bible quote instead of (or in addition to) identifying which one was the right one. The game just assumes you know which quote is which, even if you pick wrong!

That would have heightened the stress factor a LOT. I would've like that I think :p
 

Rembrandt

Banned
I hope episode three really does comes out on the 5th. This anticipation is killing me. It's The Walking Dead season 1 all over again.
 

chadskin

Member
The Dontnod team was inspired by specific shows like Twin Peaks and Veronica Mars, they say, but also by the approach of a network like HBO. “We are in the golden age of TV,” says Michel Koch, one of the co-directors of Life Is Strange. “We have fewer shows where each episode is different and more where it takes five to 12 episodes to tell one whole story. We saw that it could be really interesting to use this method of story-telling in a game.”

The episodic format also afforded Dontnod the freedom to tell a story at their preferred pace: slow.

Indeed, one of the most delightful things about Life Is Strange is its indulgence in repose – in the moments of reflection and meditation most games skip over entirely. “Here the player can sit by a fountain and just listen to music and look around,” Koch says. “We knew that the episodic format would let us give something more to the player who wants to take their time.”

Dontnod, alas, don’t have the same luxury: one of the problems with the episodic format is that it puts tremendous strain on the developers to release the next instalment of their game quickly. Raoul Barbet, the other co-director of Life Is Strange, concedes that the format brings a lot of difficulties. “It’s like making five different games. We have five voice recording sessions, five motion capture sessions, five submissions to the publisher. Everything is done five times.”

What makes the effort worthwhile is the affection shown toward the game by its fans.

“After episode one was released,” Barbet remembers, “we saw people beginning to really love this game. They’ve given us the strength to continue.” And as the fans await the next episode, sharing their hope of what’s to come online, Koch says the team is paying attention: “We spend a lot of time reading forums and listening to players. We saw that some characters were loved more than we expected, so we decided in a later episode to give that character a larger role. It’s really cool to be able to react to what your community likes about your game as you’re making it.”

“Players,” Guilbert concludes, “are looking for something new. They’re tired of playing the same kind of games all the time. What we want to bring them is something different, something slower, more poetic, more nostalgic – something which isn’t so present on the market.”

The gamble is paying off. At a gaming expo recently, Guilbert ran into some of the publishers who passed on Life Is Strange – the publishers who couldn’t abide a game about a girl. “They congratulated us on our success and said they hope it changes the industry.” Perhaps it already has.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/apr/26/life-is-strange-episodic-video-game-dontnod

Good piece by the Guardian. Cool to see they're listening to the feedback and make some changes based off of them. :)
 

Ricker

Member
Completly stomped on the part where you need to find 5 bottles and the stupid ''I knew there was a bonfire somewhere around here'' part...oh and having to redo the whole intro and find the 4 first bottles over kinda sucks,they could of autosaved after each...
 
Completly stomped on the part where you need to find 5 bottles and the stupid ''I knew there was a bonfire somewhere around here'' part...oh and having to redo the whole intro and find the 4 first bottles over kinda sucks,they could of autosaved after each...

Yeah, the last bottle was ridiculous.
It's by the train tracks behind the shack. You'll see a pile of junk around there, and there's a narrow passage that lets you inside. The entrance is facing the rails.
 

Ricker

Member
Ah,ok cool thanks...I went around there a few times but you sometime get the out of bounds cut scene around those area's so I never went often.
 

Ricker

Member
Wow,episode 2 was short but pretty great...I told myself I wouldnt change stuff but I did for the last part,no way I was leaving it that way,after seeing in the % screen of how many did one or the other,that it could be done lol(trying to not spoil anything)...got lucky also,thank the bible lol...so save 2 is my save for Episode 3 now ;)
 

NewDust

Member
Wow,episode 2 was short but pretty great...I told myself I wouldnt change stuff but I did for the last part,no way I was leaving it that way,after seeing in the % screen of how many did one or the other,that it could be done lol(trying to not spoil anything)...got lucky also,thank the bible lol...so save 2 is my save for Episode 3 now ;)

It's funny I had the exact opposite situation. My playthrough had your second outcome and I thought they had copped out. As in that your firts outcome was never meant to happen (This was fueled by me apparently always choosing options that would not favor this person). I was shocked when I saw that there was another way things could have gone. Ofcourse I didn't change anything and are still going dtrong on my "what happens, happens" save.
 

Ricker

Member
It's funny I had the exact opposite situation. My playthrough had your second outcome and I thought they had copped out. As in that your firts outcome was never meant to happen (This was fueled by me apparently always choosing options that would not favor this person). I was shocked when I saw that there was another way things could have gone. Ofcourse I didn't change anything and are still going dtrong on my "what happens, happens" save.

Yeah,thats fine but I tried everything from the start to help that person,unlike you so I thought the first option I got sucked lol...but I have the two outcome now and what I might do for save one is try another option,at the big choice you make after in the principal office,instead of taking what most people take,and what I did,choose one of the other 2...my first playthrough of episode 3 will be with save 2 though.
 
Don't want to get anyone's hopes up, but we might have a time frame as to when episode 3 will release:

Guilbert will also share his experiences and insights in terms of content, production, distribution and customer feedback integration at DONTNOD, and how the studio has succeeded despite several preconceptions: That there’s no place for mid-range games, that the good characters are always male, that going episodic means losing money, and that episodic production is a nightmare.

As a bonus, Guilbert will also reveal details about the highly anticipated Episode 3: Chaos Theory of Life Is Strange, which will very likely be released during the conference.

...

Excited yet? DONTNOD CEO and industry game-changer Oskar Guilbert – another great reason to join us for Nordic Game 2015, 20-22 May in Malmö, Sweden.

NG15 keynote by Life is Strange CEO unveiled
 

Pooya

Member
I feel they had some momentum going with the reception of first episode and then the second one but at this rate all of it will be squandered, people won't keep paying attention for this long with all the games coming out, they really messed up. It better comes out like next week, seriously.
 
I feel they had some momentum going with the reception of first episode and then the second one but at this rate all of it will be squandered, people won't keep paying attention for this long with all the games coming out, they really messed up. It better comes out like next week, seriously.

I don't know. If it does come out the third week of the month, then we're looking at a release every two months. That's similar pacing to some of Telltale's games. I think they do need to announce a solid date now, to get the hype rolling again.
 

Reedirect

Member
I feel they had some momentum going with the reception of first episode and then the second one but at this rate all of it will be squandered, people won't keep paying attention for this long with all the games coming out, they really messed up. It better comes out like next week, seriously.

I don't really know about momentum, since releasing a new episode every two months is pretty standard in episodic gaming. The only problem I see is that they were too confident about the whole thing when Episode 1 dropped and they made that "6-8 weeks" comment. I think they've trapped themselves a little bit with that one.

And now a keynote about how "episodic production is a nightmare". It's hard to imagine that they knew exactly what they were doing when they went episodic.
 

AHA-Lambda

Member
I feel they had some momentum going with the reception of first episode and then the second one but at this rate all of it will be squandered, people won't keep paying attention for this long with all the games coming out, they really messed up. It better comes out like next week, seriously.

I don't see how this is different from any other episodic release frankly, hell it's been handled better than some like Wolf Among Us or on the extreme end Kentucky Route Zero.
 
It feels like the wait is longer for these episodes than it is with Telltale, but I'm not sure if that's actually true because I haven't done any math. Telltale also produces more games, so the wait time is offset through those.

I'm looking forward to continuing this really interesting and immersive series, though Episode 2 was (a bit) underwhelming. I'm in it until the end.
 
People ITT need to relax a bit about the wait haha

I understand completely but Dontnod's been consistent with their schedule so far and the waits been way shorter than with TellTale's series. There was about four months between some episodes of Wolf Among Us with no word at all from TellTale.
 
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