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[Go319]

ok so n00b question here, sorry:

So ive bought and downloaded DS:TOF. Now in my download list i have the following options:

-DeathSpank: Thongs Of Virtue - Tankko The Warrior (802KB)
-DeathSpank: Thongs Of Virtue - The Snowy Mountain Dungeon (14MB)
-DeathSpank: Thongs Of Virtue (1295MB)
-DeathSpank: Thongs Of Virtue (6KB)

WTF is up with this? I downloaded the 1295 file and its installed as a "trial version"?

Do i need to d/load and install all of the above?

Why would my PS3 show the installed/paid version as "trial"? :/

 

[BeeDog]

ok so n00b question here, sorry:

So ive bought and downloaded DS:TOF. Now in my download list i have the following options:

-DeathSpank: Thongs Of Virtue - Tankko The Warrior (802KB)
-DeathSpank: Thongs Of Virtue - The Snowy Mountain Dungeon (14MB)
-DeathSpank: Thongs Of Virtue (1295MB)
-DeathSpank: Thongs Of Virtue (6KB)

WTF is up with this? I downloaded the 1295 file and its installed as a "trial version"?

Do i need to d/load and install all of the above?

Why would my PS3 show the installed/paid version as "trial"? :/

The big file is the game itself, and the 6KB file is the unlock key that converts the installed trial version into the full version. Just download and install all the files in the list and you're good to go.

 

[Go319]

Cheers thanks BeeDog, i was assuming my download was messed up

 

[swoon]

I've played a couple of hours of ToV so far and it seems pretty good. A lot of missions seem to be the same as the first one - is the married couple in this game the same as the couple from the first one?

Also more greem queens to kill? bleh.

on the plus side the guns and grenades are fun to use, the writing, outside of the awful thong jokes, seems funnier and the environments are more elaborate.

 

[Sqorgar]

I've played a couple of hours of ToV so far and it seems pretty good. A lot of missions seem to be the same as the first one - is the married couple in this game the same as the couple from the first one?

Ima and Strunken Applehole. Yup. I love their voice actors.

 

[U2NUMB]

Not sure why but I just bought the first game without ever playing it. Very positive responses here and on the xbox forums. I figured it can be a fun game to play while I work at home.

If it is solid I will buy the second one... any tips I should know before diving in?

 

[Sqorgar]

If it is solid I will buy the second one... any tips I should know before diving in?

There's a lot of content that isn't immediately obvious. Many characters have extra dialogue that you can only see if you talk to them more than once. Some of the quest items, like notes and stuff like that, can be read in the key items screen. When talking to NPCs, the first option is usually "give me the quest and shut up", while the other options lead to longer conversations (I tried to make those options obvious and less funny). For the main dialogue hubs, it usually helps to do the dialogue options from the bottom up, since the top option continues the quest while the other stuff is story fluff. You can sometimes catch the fluff if you missed it by talking to the character again, but not always.

In the first game, there are a few areas where you will encounter enemies you need to avoid. At the Pip Village, you can run past it and continue questing, or you can learn to use the block button to prevent the instant death hits. The unicorns will only attack you if you go off the trail, so until you are much higher level, don't go off the trail. In the second Demon Cave, there's a boss (the Nanny Demon) which a lot of people have trouble with, usually getting stuck in the back of the cave and having to fight their way out having used up all their healing potions. Make sure you don't exhaust everything. If you are running low on supplies, leave and come back better stocked.

Also, this got me at first. When you are next to a quest item or NPC, hitting the x button will activate it. However, hitting the triangle button will attempt to use a key item with it. In many cases, this doesn't matter. Most NPCs will accept either the item directly or through a dialogue choice. But at least two or three times you'll need to manually apply the key items. The game won't do it for you.

Finally, you can pick up the grinder and sell off unwanted inventory items quickly, rather than dragging each one individually.

 

[U2NUMB]

There's a lot of content that isn't immediately obvious. Many characters have extra dialogue that you can only see if you talk to them more than once. Some of the quest items, like notes and stuff like that, can be read in the key items screen. When talking to NPCs, the first option is usually "give me the quest and shut up", while the other options lead to longer conversations (I tried to make those options obvious and less funny). For the main dialogue hubs, it usually helps to do the dialogue options from the bottom up, since the top option continues the quest while the other stuff is story fluff. You can sometimes catch the fluff if you missed it by talking to the character again, but not always.

In the first game, there are a few areas where you will encounter enemies you need to avoid. At the Pip Village, you can run past it and continue questing, or you can learn to use the block button to prevent the instant death hits. The unicorns will only attack you if you go off the trail, so until you are much higher level, don't go off the trail. In the second Demon Cave, there's a boss (the Nanny Demon) which a lot of people have trouble with, usually getting stuck in the back of the cave and having to fight their way out having used up all their healing potions. Make sure you don't exhaust everything. If you are running low on supplies, leave and come back better stocked.

Also, this got me at first. When you are next to a quest item or NPC, hitting the x button will activate it. However, hitting the triangle button will attempt to use a key item with it. In many cases, this doesn't matter. Most NPCs will accept either the item directly or through a dialogue choice. But at least two or three times you'll need to manually apply the key items. The game won't do it for you.

Finally, you can pick up the grinder and sell off unwanted inventory items quickly, rather than dragging each one individually.

Great tips... thanks for the info. A couple hours in and so far I am enjoyed it.

 

[Papercuts]

Got around 2 hours in TOV now, enjoying it a lot. I'm finding it to be a lot harder than the first game, which is good. I haven't had potions in awhile, and I'm actually low on food most of the time(and the enemies with guns make it nearly impossible to eat in combat). Those annoying as hell flamethrower enemies were my main issue, but they get easier if you use grenades.

 

[Kevtones]

Amazon $20 credit I got for pre-ordering Other M finally worked... Time for ToV!

 

[eznark]

I've played a couple of hours of ToV so far and it seems pretty good. A lot of missions seem to be the same as the first one - is the married couple in this game the same as the couple from the first one?

Reused assets? How prevalent is this?

 

[BeeDog]

Reused assets? How prevalent is this?

A LOT. Main menu is pretty much the same, I don't think I've heard any new music yet (at all), and the environments are very similar to the first one aside from being more rundown with WW2 assets.

This doesn't feel like a sequel at all, more like a second half of the same game. Of course, if you liked the OG, you'll like this one too.

 

[eznark]

Hmm. I loved the first one but.....this just seems lazy and cash-grabby.

 

[YianGaruga]

This doesn't feel like a sequel at all, more like a second half of the same game. Of course, if you liked the OG, you'll like this one too.

Well it IS the second half of the same game. Didn't somebody say that the game was split in two during the development because it became "too big"?

 

[BeeDog]

Well it IS the second half of the same game. Didn't somebody say that the game was split in two during the development because it became "too big"?

Well, if it's true it's evident, but I thought they marketed this game as a proper sequel. Either way, I find this to be worth the money, since the first one provided a decent amount of gaming hours, and this one's supposed to be even longer.

 

[eznark]

Well, if it's true it's evident, but I thought they marketed this game as a proper sequel. Either way, I find this to be worth the money, since the first one provided a decent amount of gaming hours, and this one's supposed to be even longer.

In terms of hours no doubt. However the first one dragged badly in the middle for me. If this one adds little new I can't imagine I'll enjoy it as much as I did the first. I definitely want to play it but I guess I'll wait.

 

[BaronLundi]

A LOT. Main menu is pretty much the same, I don't think I've heard any new music yet (at all), and the environments are very similar to the first one aside from being more rundown with WW2 assets.

This doesn't feel like a sequel at all, more like a second half of the same game. Of course, if you liked the OG, you'll like this one too.

Bummer. It was very repetitive already.

 

[swoon]

A LOT. Main menu is pretty much the same, I don't think I've heard any new music yet (at all), and the environments are very similar to the first one aside from being more rundown with WW2 assets.

This doesn't feel like a sequel at all, more like a second half of the same game. Of course, if you liked the OG, you'll like this one too.

yea i guess i don't really see this a bad thing - especially considering the genre. all the enemies are new and look cool. the missions are a little more varied and the game seems harder over all because of the new enemies.

its obviously the second part of the game, but i know i wouldn't have paid 30$ to play both of these things together.

i can't comment on the music as it supports custom soundtracks on ps3

 

[Papercuts]

I dunno, I've found ToV to be less similar to the first than I initially expected. The grenades/guns add a lot, bazookas and better guns are a lot more useful than the different types of arrows to me. The enemy types are all different, the purple weapons seem to be more varied, and the spinning one got nerfed pretty hard. Still useful, but runs out really fast.

There's some reoccurring quests from the first game, but especially with the Spelunker quests, they all feel more fleshed out. Instead of just going into a cave to kill 4-5 wimpy enemies you now fight 8-12 harder ones, or more than one room + a miniboss for spelunker. It feels thought out a lot more. It also actually tells you to pick up the grinder and when you equip better armor it has a popup to let you grind down whatever you swapped, which helps. I would've liked the inventory screen itself to be remade, but it is atleast slightly improved.

 

[daycru]

Can you turn the music off but still hear the voice actors? Really liked DeathSpank but don't think I can deal with the same god awful music again.

 

[derFeef]

So I tried the trial for ToV and actually really enjoyed it. I am now deciding of buying this or the first one first, which I have not tried. I also saw that it´s a possibility Deathspank is becoming cheaper next week. ARGH. Does ToV has the "drop in" coop as well?

 

[Sqorgar]

Does ToV has the "drop in" coop as well?

Yup. Even has a second character to play as. Steve.

 

[Papercuts]

Fought the first major boss last night, the entire scenario around it/the fight itself was way more involved than anything in the first game. Hope it keeps up!

 

[Shurs]

So I tried the trial for ToV and actually really enjoyed it. I am now deciding of buying this or the first one first, which I have not tried. I also saw that it´s a possibility Deathspank is becoming cheaper next week. ARGH. Does ToV has the "drop in" coop as well?

Where?

 

[Hypertrooper]

Where?

Xbox Live user from US and UK have the chance to vote the Deal Of The Week. And one option is DeathSpank.

 

[Shurs]

Xbox Live user from US and UK have the chance to vote the Deal Of The Week. And one option is DeathSpank.

Isn't that for, like, October 18th, or something? He said next week.

 

[derFeef]

Isn't that for, like, October 18th, or something? He said next week.

My fault, I assumed it´s next week, although Major Nelson says "October"

http://majornelson.com/archive/2010/09/21/cast-your-vote-for-deal-of-the-week.aspx

 

[apooltoswim]

Yes, TOV seems to be harder, especially at first. Still, I just finished the first game last weekend, and chances are it's just me being used to playing that at level 19 or 20, vs. starting out again at level one. I've enjoyed the quests in this one more than in the first game, too. These games are both great--I love the characters, the writing, the voiceover work, and the tongue-in-cheek nature of the whole shebang. More fun than I've had in a game in a long time.

 

[hitoshi]

I've just finished TOV.

Well, i would definitely not say that it wasn't a great purchase: i got 9 hours of pure hack'n slashing - but for me the first one was much much better. The mechanics are still great (and the bugs, etc are still annoying, f.exp: the inventory, the triggers) and Deathspank is awesome, but after an hour or so it became tedious and totally not fun. I admit i did EVERY quest available so it definitely added to it's repetetitiveness, but nearly all the quests were forgottable fetch-quests by not really great characters. The first one had character, this... i dont know. Deathspank 1 had it's low points but it really compensated it with great humour. In the end there was nothing but silly things here. I don't say that it's was not fun because that would be a lie, but it was just an afterthought.

What saddens me the most is how little attention it gets, according to the leaderboard it opened shamefully and i fear that there is never going to be a sequel. But even after the bad things it really deserves to be continued.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

Well, i would definitely not say that it wasn't a great purchase

this took me a while to parse

 

[Sqorgar]

Well, i would definitely not say that it wasn't a great purchase: i got 9 hours of pure hack'n slashing - but for me the first one was much much better. The mechanics are still great (and the bugs, etc are still annoying, f.exp: the inventory, the triggers) and Deathspank is awesome, but after an hour or so it became tedious and totally not fun. I admit i did EVERY quest available so it definitely added to it's repetetitiveness, but nearly all the quests were forgottable fetch-quests by not really great characters. The first one had character, this... i dont know. Deathspank 1 had it's low points but it really compensated it with great humour. In the end there was nothing but silly things here. I don't say that it's was not fun because that would be a lie, but it was just an afterthought.

That's interesting because I've had the exact opposite experience. The first DeathSpank had way more fetch quests and there was less variety to the areas you visit. There's only like three or four actual puzzles in the first game, and only one real boss. By comparison, the sequel has several big setpiece battles and a couple headscratchers. Plus, it has Mr. Frangtangle. Frankly, I've been enjoying it as a game a lot more than the first.

I am somewhat disappointed how much writing I got to do in this half. I wrote many of the major characters, but there seems to be a lot more subquests in this one, with the major quest dialogues being spread further apart than the first. I see a lot of subquest characters that I wish they would've let me take a crack at. But it's just not cost effective to pay an outsider to write something when you've got a bunch of salaried employees that could do it.

What saddens me the most is how little attention it gets, according to the leaderboard it opened shamefully and i fear that there is never going to be a sequel. But even after the bad things it really deserves to be continued.

I think the way it was handled was very poor. Splitting into two without telling anyone. Releasing the second half so quickly after the first without taking the time to address the complaints from the first like the inventory. There was no hype. They didn't really communicate what was to be expected from the second game so that nobody knows whether it is a sequel, an expansion pack, an episode, or DLC (it's none of these). And they released it like a week after Halo Reach.

I honestly don't know if there is going to be another game. I haven't heard anything and Ron left Hothead at the completion of the games (he's currently working on a casual iPad game). I know that I'd love to be a part of another one. And I think DeathSpank will have a small, but loyal following that will keep asking for more. I hope so, at least. I'm still hoping they make a Steve spin-off.

 

[burgerdog]

Yeah, I looked at the leaderboard and the sales are very sad compared to the first game. Not to mention that a ton of the entries in the leaderboard seem to be by pirates.

Was Deathspank released all by itself that week? ToV comes one week after Halo Reach and launched with THREE other XBLA games. The very definition of sent to die. Not to mention that a lot of people are simply confused about what the game is, or don't like the way the releases were handled.

Hothead should have told gamers that it was going to be two games from the very beginning. Announcing the second half and openly admitting that they cut the game in half to make more money was suicide. At the very least they should have releases ToV much later and improved the heck out of it.

 

[hitoshi]

The first DeathSpank had way more fetch quests and there was less variety to the areas you visit. There's only like three or four actual puzzles in the first game, and only one real boss. By comparison, the sequel has several big setpiece battles and a couple headscratchers. Plus, it has Mr. Frangtangle. Frankly, I've been enjoying it as a game a lot more than the first.

When it comes to variety I agree. Although there were several parts which should have gotten more planning in the layout department, the variation of themes (jungle, desert) were absolutely awesome, despite the fact that for me, the levels itself are forgettable.

I am somewhat disappointed how much writing I got to do in this half. I wrote many of the major characters, but there seems to be a lot more subquests in this one, with the major quest dialogues being spread further apart than the first. I see a lot of subquest characters that I wish they would've let me take a crack at. But it's just not cost effective to pay an outsider to write something when you've got a bunch of salaried employees that could do it.

I would like to give my thanks to you for being involved in the game (i'f you are saying this) and I agree with you: there were too many minor characters with little or no personality. And even the main bosses were not really developed: putting them intro the intro and giving them 6-8 lines before the fight for me does not qualify as something well done.

And for those who like me did every sidequest before finally taking care of them - it was like a chore, waiting for the end of it. But well, that's my problem, i should have finished the story first.

I think the way it was handled was very poor. Splitting into two without telling anyone. Releasing the second half so quickly after the first without taking the time to address the complaints from the first like the inventory. There was no hype. They didn't really communicate what was to be expected from the second game so that nobody knows whether it is a sequel, an expansion pack, an episode, or DLC (it's none of these). And they released it like a week after Halo Reach.

Yeah, exactly, but it wasn't a first for a game like this: Psychonauts, Brütal Legend for example got the same treatment, except the DLC / sequel part (obviously)

Its a shame what they did to these fine IP: i don't think that it will get a sequel and even when it does, it has to start nearly from scratch when it comes to attention, seeing that how many people even know about this game...

 

[KZObsessed]

Apparently there's a game breaking glitch right near the end of the game, where a certain enemy doesn't spawn, which would stop you completing the game. This happened to me [PS3], but I let some enemies near by kill me so I respawned at the nearby outhouse and then the enemy spawned. Some people havn't been so lucky tho, if it happens to you, don't quit and restart the game, just kill yourself and that should fix it.

The enemy in question is *SPOILER*

Spoiler

rudolph

Game's really great overall, it's pretty much the same as the first game but I've been pretty addicted to it. Almost done absolutely everything in around 10 hours. Framerate and tearing are atrocious tho.

 

[Sqorgar]

Hothead should have told gamers that it was going to be two games from the very beginning. Announcing the second half and openly admitting that they cut the game in half to make more money was suicide. At the very least they should have releases ToV much later and improved the heck out of it.

To be fair, I don't know why they split it into two pieces. I was told that it was because the game was too large for a downloadable game. I think I remember seeing that XBLA had a size limit of 2 gigs or something. But I don't know whether that was the main reason it happened or whether EA was involved in that decision at all. All I know is that it happened sometime after PAX (where they showed a bunch of stuff that ended up being in the second game).

I just can't imagine that money was a primary motivator, since history has shown quite definitively that episodic gaming ultimately makes less money. Each episode sells considerably less than the previous one. Having seen that effect on the PA Adventures games (the second episode sold like ten copies), I can't imagine that HotHead would be looking at DeathSpank and thinking, wow, we could be billionaires!

And even the main bosses were not really developed: putting them intro the intro and giving them 6-8 lines before the fight for me does not qualify as something well done.

There's more than that to the boss dialogues, but you have to start from the bottom up on their dialogue trees. If you start from the top option, I think you'll end up fighting them sooner in most cases. The boss dialogues are shorter than something like Ms. Tome or the Ima/Strunken breakup. I think they felt that the player reaching a boss would want to jump in a beat some ass rather than sit through a long dialogue. The entire production they kept telling me to make the dialogues shorter because they didn't think players would sit through them (I, of course, made them longer and longer).

In general, my goal with the bosses wasn't to make them silly (funny, but not silly), but to provide a counterbalance to all the silliness in the game. I wanted them to be a bit crazy, a bit scary, and to show that the effect these thongs were having on people was dangerous. Yeah, you get to kill Santa Claus, but I hope that by that point, you feel like that it your only option. There's a decision at the end DeathSpank has to make and I'm hoping that by that point in the game, the decision has an appropriate amount of gravity to it rather than just seeming like you pick whichever answer is the silliest.

 

[hitoshi]

There's more than that to the boss dialogues, but you have to start from the bottom up on their dialogue trees. If you start from the top option, I think you'll end up fighting them sooner in most cases. The boss dialogues are shorter than something like Ms. Tome or the Ima/Strunken breakup. I think they felt that the player reaching a boss would want to jump in a beat some ass rather than sit through a long dialogue. The entire production they kept telling me to make the dialogues shorter because they didn't think players would sit through them (I, of course, made them longer and longer).

In general, my goal with the bosses wasn't to make them silly (funny, but not silly), but to provide a counterbalance to all the silliness in the game. I wanted them to be a bit crazy, a bit scary, and to show that the effect these thongs were having on people was dangerous. Yeah, you get to kill Santa Claus, but I hope that by that point, you feel like that it your only option. There's a decision at the end DeathSpank has to make and I'm hoping that by that point in the game, the decision has an appropriate amount of gravity to it rather than just seeming like you pick whichever answer is the silliest.

I grew up on LucasFilms / LucasArts adventure games, i would NEVER, ever skip those awesome dialogues and choose always the first option available, thank you What i was trying to say: the bosses are only referenced in the intro. You could talk about them with Sandy and such, but you know next to nothing about them until you have to kill them. No im not interested in their private life or how was their childhood - just a little more context.

When you faced Von Prong in the first one you really felt like that you finally catched the little bastard - when you are facing Santa Claus, you just finishing a mission. That's how it felt to me.

 

[Sqorgar]

I grew up on LucasFilms / LucasArts adventure games, i would NEVER, ever skip those awesome dialogues and choose always the first option available, thank you What i was trying to say: the bosses are only referenced in the intro. You could talk about them with Sandy and such, but you know next to nothing about them until you have to kill them. No im not interested in their private life or how was their childhood - just a little more context.

When you faced Von Prong in the first one you really felt like that you finally catched the little bastard - when you are facing Santa Claus, you just finishing a mission. That's how it felt to me.

Well, that's partly my fault. I was essentially writing blind. I'd be given a dialogue outline and two or three paragraphs of context as to why the player was talking to this character and what they'd need to get out of it. I didn't know what the characters or even the game looked like until I was done, and I wasn't given the dialogues in any sort of order. So, I'd get a dialogue talking about one of the bosses with very little context given to it long before I was given the bosses themselves. I think I was supposed to pump up the bosses a bit (army general is supposed to explain why Santa is at war and that something fishy was going on at the sanctuary), but I just wasn't as aware of how everything fit together as much as I should've been. Asking too many questions through email would delay my progress for days, so I just sort of followed the outline as best I could and threw in a bunch of one liners.

As for Von Prong, his whole section was supposed to be the first episode of... However many thongs there ended up being. Each episode would follow a different thong-bearer in a different genre. At some point before I signed on, they gave up the episodic approach and combined the later episodes in one big experience. As such, Von Prong's section was well under way and had far more design work done on it than the rest. That's why it was so easy to cut the game in half at that point. His section was largely self contained outside of two or three quests that carried over to the rest.

Truth be told, I would've liked to see the episodic version of DeathSpank. It would've been cool to see each zone being more fleshed out.

 

[nli10]

If this had been an 800 point expansion I'd probaly have it by now.

As it stands I'll wait for a sale and if I happen to have spare time & points I'll get it.



Combat in the first game was quite underwhelming though which was disappointing, but it was good fun and quite tight as a package (my 3rd 200 point game ever!).



Hydrophobia on the horizon, Reach and a few other cheap pre-winter sale bargains means that for me at least the thongs can wait.

 

[daycru]

Man, some of these characters never shut the fuck up.

 

[MrDaravon]

Just 100%'d it. Overall liked it, but I have no idea where the "50% longer" and "more puzzle/adventure stuff" comes from though; I got 100% in near exactly 8 hours flat, and only had to look online on where to find the last Outhouse (which is tricky). Also didn't seem like there was any more puzzle/item combining really; maybe a bit, but we're talking like 5 or 6 instances instead of the 3 or 4 from the original.

Still really good though; if you liked the first, it's literally more of the same but overall a tad improved. Really my only major knock against it is the fucking bullshit explosives all over the goddamn game. In the first game I died exactly twice; in this one I died like 20 times, and all but one or two of them were either me accidentally shooting something explosive (which one-shots you 99% of the time), or me intentionally shooting something explosive that I appeared to be WAY outside of the radius on, but was apparently somehow not. Incredibly fucking annoying, but aside from that it's on par or slightly improved from the first, so if you liked the first I'd recommend it. If you didn't like the first game though this certainly won't change your mind.

I will say that I actually had a few laugh out loud moments in this one though, which happened only once in the first game.

 

[Sqorgar]

Just 100%'d it. Overall liked it, but I have no idea where the "50% longer" and "more puzzle/adventure stuff" comes from though; I got 100% in near exactly 8 hours flat, and only had to look online on where to find the last Outhouse (which is tricky). Also didn't seem like there was any more puzzle/item combining really; maybe a bit, but we're talking like 5 or 6 instances instead of the 3 or 4 from the original.

The 50% large is mainly talking about landmass, I think.

There are definitely more puzzles in the second game. I have the puzzle dependency chart right here:

As you can see, it appears in two big clumps - that's the two DS games. The first clump is largely linear. That one long line initially is the newbie area for the first DeathSpank - up until the artifact is located. Most of those bubbles are stuff like "talk to Ms. Heybenstance", "collect chicken lips", and quick and dirty stuff. Then it branches off into finding the different orphans. Finally, those parallel lines converge at defeating Lord Von Prong. Should be that bubble pretty much in the center.

That much larger clump at the bottom is Thongs of Virtue (this chart was made before the games were split, but as you can see, there's a pretty clean split right after Von Prong). There's a lot more interdependency between the puzzle and there's more of them. Granted, some of those puzzles are "kill so-and-so", so they might not seem like puzzles in the traditional sense of headscratching. Also, ToV has several puzzles which you might encounter in the wrong order, so you might find that you need a lemon LONG after you've had one sitting in your inventory forever. It feels like a freebie rather than actually solving a problem.

But yeah, I'd say ToV has more puzzles than the first game.

 

[Brazil]

I'm still going through the first game, but I've been watching my brother playing ToV and I'm really liking what I'm seeing.

It seems to be more varied, with more interesting characters, enemies and weapons. I think I've heard a few new tracks too.

Can't wait to try it.

 

[hitoshi]

Well, that's partly my fault. I was essentially writing blind. I'd be given a dialogue outline and two or three paragraphs of context as to why the player was talking to this character and what they'd need to get out of it. I didn't know what the characters or even the game looked like until I was done, and I wasn't given the dialogues in any sort of order. So, I'd get a dialogue talking about one of the bosses with very little context given to it long before I was given the bosses themselves. I think I was supposed to pump up the bosses a bit (army general is supposed to explain why Santa is at war and that something fishy was going on at the sanctuary), but I just wasn't as aware of how everything fit together as much as I should've been. Asking too many questions through email would delay my progress for days, so I just sort of followed the outline as best I could and threw in a bunch of one liners.

As for Von Prong, his whole section was supposed to be the first episode of... However many thongs there ended up being. Each episode would follow a different thong-bearer in a different genre. At some point before I signed on, they gave up the episodic approach and combined the later episodes in one big experience. As such, Von Prong's section was well under way and had far more design work done on it than the rest. That's why it was so easy to cut the game in half at that point. His section was largely self contained outside of two or three quests that carried over to the rest.

Truth be told, I would've liked to see the episodic version of DeathSpank. It would've been cool to see each zone being more fleshed out.

I can fully understand your problem, i myself wrote too many previews with little or next to nothing information based on lousy fact sheets

You defended your point fairly well: please don't misunderstand me, i liked the writing, i just wish that there were more humour in the game overall and more flashed out characters, minors and majors as well.

What bothered me and i forgot to tell: the music. The first one really had an amazing soundtrack, but it's a shame that in TOV i could only listen to 4 or 5 songs a max - and they were looped to hell. I was happy when some of them tried to hit some Neverhood notes, but some of them were annoying as hell.

But: a great purchase for 1200 even with all of it's flaws: i hope the two Deathspank games will be bundled in the future as they were intented. Maybe a drastic price cut will help, it happened before, especially on XBLA.

 

[Dolemitesooner]

I am about half way through the first game after about 3-5 hours of play. I am doing every single quest and I am really enjoying this game. I would probably be a bit further, but I forgot you could port across the map using outhouses. I was running everywhere I went. LOL

The game is well written, and I have never become bored with the humor. Eubrich (think that his name) had some of the best lines in the game.

After I finish this I am 100% purchasing Thongs of Virtue.

Thanks Ron and Hothead

 

[Corrupt]

Apparently there's a game breaking glitch right near the end of the game, where a certain enemy doesn't spawn, which would stop you completing the game. This happened to me [PS3], but I let some enemies near by kill me so I respawned at the nearby outhouse and then the enemy spawned. Some people havn't been so lucky tho, if it happens to you, don't quit and restart the game, just kill yourself and that should fix it.

The enemy in question is *SPOILER*

Spoiler

rudolph

Game's really great overall, it's pretty much the same as the first game but I've been pretty addicted to it. Almost done absolutely everything in around 10 hours. Framerate and tearing are atrocious tho.

I've just been caught by this. I only learned of the glitch after I realised I couldn't progress, so I can't even try this method. What a fuck up, now I have to start a new game or wait for a patch that may never come.

 

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

Now that the sequel is out, I'm thinking about picking both games up. Having both will provide a lot of hours which sounds pretty cool.

I tried the demo for the first one and I didn't really get a Diablo vibe to it. I think it's probably because of the controller vs using a mouse/keyboard.

 

[krae_man]

So I've played the game up to the leprechaun king and his riddles and I'm not liking this game as much as the first.

I'm glad the pips don't rape you. I was scarred shitless when I came across one a couple levels higher then me but realised they aren't as powerfull.

I'm really disliking all the guns, I'm tired of getting shot when I'm trying to eat, It's so annoying. It wouldn't be so bad if getting shot didn't stop you from eating but it does. There's also just soooooooooooooooooo many quests. I swear I have at least 20 open items right now. They game didn't need a crap load more fetch quests to artificially make the game longer then the first one.

Still I will finish it and for the most part I'm having fun.

 

[anddo0]

Finally purchased both games (and the Tov DLC) yesterday. After being turned off by the initial Deathspank demo. I gave the Tov demo a try and absolutely loved it. The writing and jokes are still a little off putting... but there's no denying these games are fun and highly addictive. I'm glad I gave it another try.

 

[krae_man]

Okay I have a question,

I'm at Derek Oil, and I've done all his quests(collect the bones, Kill the oil Monsters etc) and now my quest is Repair the Oil Derricks with the repair parts, but I don't have the repair parts. Derek was supposed to give them to me from the stuff I killed wasn't he?

 

[sarcoa]

What the hell? Thongs of Virtue endgame spoilers, sort of

So I was given the

Spoiler

miniture thongolith

and told to talk to the

Spoiler

thongolith researcher

, but somehow that item is no longer in my inventory. And yes, I've done all of his missions. What happened? Did this happen to anyone else?

edit: lost and found is empty.