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The Witness |OT|

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
Um, they can totally be spoilers. The moment of discovery where you go "oh, you can do THAT? This changes everything!" is the entire point of the game.

spoilers, put it inside double spoilers to make sure people don't accidentally click

Even if you consider this stuff spoilers, you're talking about how puzzles are solved rather than the outcomes. All I was curious about was examples of the "so much to do in this game" based on puzzle solving that wasn't directly opening a path or solving the next puzzle.
 

Kerned

Banned
The Witness is the quintessential example of a zeitgeist game. I can't wait to tear into this tomorrow along with everyone else, then bound to the message boards after completing chunks of progress to share wins and adversity. Much like Fez, this game is going to get a huge boost from people wanting to be involved in "cracking the safe" for the first time.

The thirst for this game, and challenging puzzlers in general, is real. It's heartening to see so many converts in the last 2 days for this game...people who either weren't aware of The Witness or weren't sold on buying it who are now Day 1.

Absolutely. I just finished The Talos Principle yesterday, and was thinking I'd wait a couple of months before diving into this (too much puzzle too quick), but I don't think I can wait even one day. I don't want to miss out on the shared discovery.
 
Um, they can totally be spoilers. The moment of discovery where you go "oh, you can do THAT? This changes everything!" is the entire point of the game.

Look, the guy watched the QL, and he's being purposely obtuse if he can't gather all of that from what he saw. I'll post waht another review said again:

"It trusts that you are a perceptive human being, capable of patience and critical thinking, and it rewards you for using both."

Many people aren't this.
 

nynt9

Member
Even if you consider this stuff spoilers, you're talking about how puzzles are solved rather than the outcomes. All I was curious about was examples of the "so much to do in this game" based on puzzle solving that wasn't directly opening a path or solving the next puzzle.

Realizing that you can do these things puts a different spin on previous things you've seen in the game. I don't know what more you're expecting. Do you need enemies to shoot or something? It's a static world that doesn't change but as you learn more your perception of it makes it different. It's like a metroidvania but instead of getting new abilities you're getting new knowledge.
 

Trojan

Member
Absolutely. I just finished The Talos Principle yesterday, and was thinking I'd wait a couple of months before diving into this (too much puzzle too quick), but I don't think I can wait even one day. I don't want to miss out on the shared discovery.

Welcome to the club! I was going to start Talos a couple weeks ago but held off realizing this game was coming up fast.
 

Neoweee

Member
So, I can't pre-load it on Steam?

Can I at least tell my computer to start downloading it the moment it is available, like, when I'm at work?
 
Feels kind of weird playing this when I haven't even touched The Talos Principle yet, but weirdly I've gone from "eh don't care that much" to "maybe I'll just buy it now so I don't get spoiled on stuff."
 
Realizing that you can do these things puts a different spin on previous things you've seen in the game. I don't know what more you're expecting. Do you need enemies to shoot or something? It's a static world that doesn't change but as you learn more your perception of it makes it different. It's like a metroidvania but instead of getting new abilities you're getting new knowledge.

In that way it seems a lot like Fez, though how closely it adheres to that formula will remain to be seen once we've all experienced it.
 
I would also like to know this. Do we have a second confirmation it's going up at 12am PST? Blow said this but seemed uncertain and I haven't heard anything else. Has anyone tweeted at Sony on this?

9pst and 12pst are the times to check

Blow doesn't know either he's just guessing
 
I would also like to know this. Do we have a second confirmation it's going up at 12am PST? Blow said this but seemed uncertain and I haven't heard anything else. Has anyone tweeted at Sony on this?

Blow has continued to say he's pretty sure it'll be 12:01 AM PST for PSN, but he's stopped short of saying anything definitive.
 

Bodom78

Member
Weird, I've had no real interest in this game but after watching some of the GB quick look I think I might pick it up, its much cooler then what I had pictured the game to be.
 
I think I like this game more than Braid. It's probably roughly on par in puzzle difficulty, but there's far far more puzzles here. Much higher volume, without sacrificing quality or resorting to filler. It's ambitious.

I don't want to get into thematic Witness stuff pre-release.

I totally understand now wanting to discuss specifics, I wouldn't want to be aware of that ahead of time anyway.

I was looking more at whether you feel it succeeds or not. Whether the island is enough to draw you in to the puzzles for more than just solving them, sort of like how braid had the books and the use of its mechanics to tell a story that kept me going even when I was frustrated by a puzzle. But, on second thought, I guess there's no way to answer that with a simple yes or no, so I'll just wait for myself to find out then.

Thanks for your insight on the game! I bet you're dying for more people to catch up to you so you can discuss the game more, so hopefully you stick around post release to offer more specific reactions in a few days or so.
 
I'm curious if the island feels "big". I'm assuming a lot of exploration stems from interiors and hidden passages and going underground and such
 

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
Feels kind of weird playing this when I haven't even touched The Talos Principle yet, but weirdly I've gone from "eh don't care that much" to "maybe I'll just buy it now so I don't get spoiled on stuff."

As I'm nearing the end of TTP, which I think is a very cool game and very well written to boot, I think I can safely say (even based on extremely little information) that The Witness is a pretty different kind of puzzle game. I wouldn't worry about the order in which you play them.
 

RPGam3r

Member
This is exactly the type of game I don't want to zeitgeist with. I want to challenge myself, not share in the group think that ended up solving it together. This includes putting together any fiction Blow is trying to convey.

To me Fez was absolutely ruined by the zeitgeist. Made me miss the days when the Internet wasn't a thing and when I got stuck I had to suck it up and figure it out.
 

kaskade

Member
Girlfriend is going to be away tomorrow night and I feel like I might be coming down with something. Perfect night to binge on this.
 

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
This is exactly the type of game I don't want to zeitgeist with. I want to challenge myself, not share in the group think that ended up solving it together. This includes putting together any fiction Blow is trying to convey.

To me Fez was absolutely ruined by the zeitgeist. Made me miss the days when the Internet wasn't a thing and when I got stuck I had to suck it up and figure it out.

Why didn't you, like, just not read stuff about Fez on the internet?
 
Will be a nice change of pace getting a game that involves no guns or violence. Usually don't buy games like these but I'm definitely picking up this one.
 

ThisOne

Member
This is exactly the type of game I don't want to zeitgeist with. I want to challenge myself, not share in the group think that ended up solving it together. This includes putting together any fiction Blow is trying to convey.

To me Fez was absolutely ruined by the zeitgeist. Made me miss the days when the Internet wasn't a thing and when I got stuck I had to suck it up and figure it out.

zeitgeist
 

GhaleonEB

Member
Oh, awesome. Thanks for the info!

May have to stay up late tonight. I'm so excited for this.

I kinda doubt this is actually the case. Blow sounded a little misinformed with some of his release times.

Or maybe I'm wrong! Man I hope I'm wrong.

Where'd you see this? I can't find this info anywhere.

I've been busy at work, so it's possible something changed. This post from the reviews thread linked to this tweet from Jonathan Blow (via The Witness account) from six hours ago:

The Witness will be released soon!
If all goes well, at 12:01am PST on the PlayStation Network (US + Europe),
9am PST on Steam + Humble.​

That same account has not posted a correction or follow up; the replies seem to reiterate these times.
 

RPGam3r

Member
Why didn't you, like, just not read stuff about Fez on the internet?

Frequenting anywhere gaming related becomes dangerous. I didn't want to spoil it, I was just saying I liked the game and what not and boom big spoiler.

Considering my game time is limited games last a while and so I don't get to dump dozens of virtually uninterrupted hours in to new releases, nor would I want to.

This place tends be safe but once this unlocks I won't even bother talkin about it, not here, not with a game about puzzles. Spoiling a puzzle ranks higher than most other spoilers for me, higher than story as you can at least see execution of a story still even if you know the outcome.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
This still makes genuinely no sense to me

From his replies to that tweet, he scheduled the PSN one first, then went to Steam and found he couldn't match the time.

On the Steam timing:

It is not that dumb, it means if there is a problem someone at Valve will actually be at work to deal with it.

Well... there is a button on the Steam release page and literally the only option it gives me is release from 9am-5pm.

Steam doesn't work that way unfortunately. If I had realized, I would have scheduled PSN for the same time. But I scheduled PSN for midnight and *then* realized I was not able to schedule Steam for midnight.​

He's picking the earliest possible release on each platform.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
From his replies to that tweet, he scheduled the PSN one first, then went to Steam and found he couldn't match the time.

On the Steam timing:

It is not that dumb, it means if there is a problem someone at Valve will actually be at work to deal with it.

Well... there is a button on the Steam release page and literally the only option it gives me is release from 9am-5pm.

Steam doesn't work that way unfortunately. If I had realized, I would have scheduled PSN for the same time. But I scheduled PSN for midnight and *then* realized I was not able to schedule Steam for midnight.​

Hrmmmmm

Okay
 
I wonder if my mom will like this game. She's always playing Candy Crush and this other puzzle game in perpetuity. I asked her if she would "do some puzzles with me tomorrow" and she was intrigued and said yes so we'll see how this goes lol.
 
No midnight release for EU PS4 by the looks of it then? Watched a little bit of it and was ready to make the impulse buy but there's no search results coming back at all :/
 
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