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Penny Arcade Releases Episodic PC Game
CyDharttha writes "Greenhouse Interactive on Wednesday released a RPG titled 'On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One.' The title is available on Linux, Mac, and Windows platforms, as well as XBox Live Arcade. A quick look at the game shows it promises the same great humor frequently displayed at Penny Arcade, and with the help of Hothead Games, intriguing graphics, sound, dialog and game play. Demo and purchase is available online now."
I, for one, welcome our new steampunk, FruitFucker overlords
XenoPhage
Technological Musings
Despite their past ambivalence to the OS and its partisans.
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
I'm a fan, so I purchased it immediately. However, there's at least one terribly frustrating thing that I'm pretty shocked is there: a rather long, unskippable intro movie that plays every time you start the game. The graphics look great, and so far the writing and humor have been up to my high expectations, but this one thing makes it feel like Jerry and Mike never actually played the retail version before launch. I can't believe they wouldn't have had that fixed. I hope they release a patch to correct this.
Slightly too mouse-driven for my taste, but the demo was great fun. Lots of little asides to spread that PA humor around, good atmosphere, and (so far) pretty solid gameplay. I had probably better wait until after work to buy the full copy, though...
I played for about an hour last night. It's supposed to have a duration of about 6 hours (it's episodic, remember). The graphics, sound, writing, voices are all terrific; professional, polished, flawless. The humor falls in line with what you'd expect - hilarious and sometimes subtle. (On Desperation Street make sure you look at each house and the contents of their mailbox.)
Not a single graphics glitch or sound glitch was experienced. Game moves and loads quickly, looks good, has an extremely easy interface to learn.
I have fundamental issues with the authorization that's required for the license - see Bioware/Mass Effect - but at least it's only one time, and it doesn't appear to be tied to your hardware. (A post on the official forums said someone could use their license key on their laptop and their desktop, different operating systems, with no problem.)
The only problem that's annoyed me thus far is the pathfinding. It could use some work -- especially when an item falls into the path of the character.
Still, for $20.00 for 6 hours of laughing my ass off... well worth the cash.
My reality check bounced.
I played through the demo last night, and was reasonably well entertained. The artwork is very well stylized in a way that reminds you of the comic, and I think it works pretty well. The art style works really well with the type of mood that they're trying to create in the game, and the narration worked well too.
Combat in the game is a strange mix of turn-based and sort of real-time clicking, it was different from anything I've played before but I don't have that much experience with those sorts of games. The demo didn't have enough combat for me to become comfortable with the combat system, so I can't give a complete opinion, but it seems like it works well enough.
If you've read penny arcade over the years, the notion of a character that you created (and which most likely you identify as yourself for the purpose of the game) interacting with characters that you've been watching for years is pretty neat.
I'll probably buy the game after next week when I'm done with a crunch at work. It's certainly worth at least downloading the demo. I don't think it's the type of game that will appeal to everyone just because of the gameplay, but for what it is it appears to be carefully crafted and generally high quality. Certainly not a cheap cash-in of their PA brand or anything like that.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
If you're going for the Linux version, be sure to test out the demo. I had to run it through aoss to make it work.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Grabbed this last night on my Mac.
Gameplay Notes: I kind of wish there was a way to use keyboard/gamepad controls on the computer versions, as there are no real control options. I can deal with the mouse, but my only real complaint is that it feels laggy during gameplay. I tried going back to a wired mouse and ditching my bluetooth, but the lag was still there. I might try out the wacom tablet to see if playing on that reduces the lag or not.
Aside from the niggling control issues, everything about the game is spot on. Anything I say about it would just sound like I'm sucking their cock, so I'll just not bother. It's *definitely* a game for PA Fans, probably the ultimate in fan service (well, okay, maybe the massive party every summer is the ultimate in fan service, but this is certainly up there).
The score would be 10 - \epsilon / 10, only because of the control issues.
I'm a big fan of PA, and aside from the page hits, and occasional ad click, I really haven't had much of a chance to support them. I'm not big enough of a gamer to roll out wearing shirts with D20 or WoW references on them. I probably would have bought this game even if it were merely mediocre, but it's actually very entertaining. I just bought the full version, and won't be able to play it until I get home, but there were several laugh out loud moments in the demo, which is seems very promising to me.
I'm also very, very pleased with their decision to fully support Linux. There were a few hiccups to start off, but after changing some basic settings in the in-game menu the game ran smoothly. Their forums offer support for every OS and the HotHead staff, for the time being, seem to be on the ball with answering support questions. I give PA two thumbs up and three cheers for their efforts. I will definitely be purchasing the next installments, no questions asked.
If nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through.
I downloaded the game on XBLA and am thoroughly impressed. This is the quality level thaat XBLA needs more of!
Laborare Est Orare
I saw that this was released on their website - and to be honest, didn't know it was out for PC and Xbox360. I knew there was the Xbox version, but anyways... I downloaded the dmo and played it for a little bit.
:)
It seems like there are a lot of inventory items that I picked up that I just don't remember what they all do. My mind kind of gets messy like that in Final Fantasy games too, so I guess I shouldn't let that get me down. However, the game seems pretty solid. Running at 1680x1050 gets a little stuttery on a 8800gt 512mb / core2duo 6600, oddly enough, but it doesn't detract from the game (mostly when cutscenes do full screen motion, like the intro.)
I must say I will probably buy this game, if only because of the humor involved. Normally this isn't my kind of game, but if you appreciate the humor that Penny Arcade puts into their comics, you'll be laughing as you play this game. Especially when you throw an orange to the FFrs. If there's more than one, while the one "hits it" the other one says something like "let me hit that"
Karnal
Wagons really *are* "useful as fuck".
Here are the torrents for the Windows and Linux versions of the demo.
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
I haven't followed PA consistently, so I don't have much of an opinion on their content. An online comic I think that would translate well to a game is Girl Genius (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/index.php). Heck, I think that whole universe would translate well to a MMO, though the female characters wouldn't be able to see the ground or run without toppling over.
If this process is easily mass produced, I could see past and current comic books becoming games.
I love the concept of a block/counterattack system (a 'perfect' block takes no damage AND performs a counterattack) - it just seems like I've never counterattacked except by accident. When I *try* I usually miss, and mashing the spacebar randomly isn't working as well as it did in the beginning. ^.^; Does anyone have any tips/suggestions on how to block effectively?
I use Windows... like a two dollar wh.. why don't I just go ahead and not finish that sentence.
Ahh well, PC/Linux version here I come...
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
PC version reviews:
GameRankings.com:
http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/935227.asp?q=precipice
Metacritic:
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/pennyarcadeadventuresepisode1?q=precipice
Property is theft.
It turns out that you have to have a saved game for it to let you skip the opening video and go right to the game menu.
Well, I don't see anyone else here who actually bought the game yet, so I guess I'll comment on that! I've played through just about the full contents of the episode now, on the last boss (quite a difficult one, but I think I've got a handle on it, perhaps I'll beat it next time), and unlocked the highest weapons, killed all the robots, and am about through all the content. Took me about 6 hours, so the reviews were right on that note. The humor is about what you'd expect from PA (a very good thing, if you read the comics). There's an enormous amount of detail in the environments, particularly in the individual descriptions of every single little piece of refuse littering the town of New Arcadia. I recall hearing one of the duo lamenting about coming up with a unique description for each crab on the Boardwalk level, and indeed each one is unique, and quite clever. The combat system is nifty. Not certain I've ever come across anything quite like it. Simple, but very functional, and very fun. Character customization is lacking options, but considering how it integrates your choices into the animated cutscenes, it's still pretty impressive. The cutscenes are phenomenal, by the way. Lots of hidden little jokes in the dialog trees and descriptions. There isn't much voice acting (mostly just the narrator), but what there is is great, and I'm certainly not one to fault a game for making you use your imagination here and there. Overall, enjoyed it quite a lot thus far. There are two primary plots in this episode, one (involving mimes who have formed a cult following a dark god) which is resolved, and one (involving hobos and giant, evil, somewhat disturbing robots that PA fans will recognize as Fruit Fuckers) which carries over to the next episodes, I must assume. Can't wait for the next episode.
I'll wait for the crack.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
I can't wait until cartoony graphics become uncool, as they alone are enough to make me not want to buy/play a game. I can take 1980s, 1990s, and 2000 style of game graphics, but not this cartoon junk...
"Doesn't support ALSA unless you tweak the configuration first" still sucks, don't get me wrong, but it's at least an improvement over "Doesn't support ALSA at all". On Fedora 8, rhythmbox seems to use Alsa by default for me, and VLC tries "Pulse Audio" then falls back automatically to Alsa when it finds I don't have the former configured... but I had to set up Alsa by hand to make it default to software mixing, even though that's supposed to be the default behavior now when hardware mixing isn't available. If it doesn't work automatically for you either, you might Google "alsa dmix ubuntu" and see what you can find. Finding and copying a working asound.conf file is annoying but not very time consuming.