[boojiboy7]

[Adilegian]

I am about to start playing this, as soon as XBL begins updating.

I confirmed the update and it's hung on the 0% of the update progress bar, telling me not to turn off or restart the system while the update's being applied, but I'm not even sure that the update's still being applied at this point.
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[Adilegian]

I'm avoiding this thread until I complete the game to avoid spoilers, so apologies for asking something I could otherwise look for on my own, but....

Has anyone posting here about Twin Peaks been a slightly obsessive nerdfan of the televisions series (hi dracko)? Because I'm going to want to break this down into references and parallels as I'm going through it, and I'd love to bounce impressions off someone as crazy about Twin Peaks as I am.
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[real_jamicus]

Well, I like Twin Peaks. I love it. I didn't watch past Leland's death on it, because I knew it was at that point the show dipped off into crap, and the few things I know about what happened after that point mean I might never watch after that. It wasn't cos I was bored or was getting there that I stopped, I was loving it right up until I stopped so much I didn't want to see it make a mess of itself. Alot of shows do that and it really ruins them for me. So I think I'm a pretty big Twin Peaks fan, pretty friggin big. I watched it through a bunch of times by now.

I haven't yet played Deadly Premonition but I've been following it for like a year really closely. It's getting a PAL release in a few weeks though and I'll be getting it within like a day or two of that and playing it loads. There are loads of obvious similarities between the two things, but I think Deadly Premonition stands out by itself. All the jokes I've seen are original, the main characters themselves aren't really that similar. It just seems like the basic plot and setting are very similar, and I guess you could say the overall atmosphere is, too. That atmosphere thing is maybe just something to do with small American towns, though. Where bad things happen to people who are pretty cool and weird, and it all actually matters to everyone.

[Sketch]

Is it my imagination, or are there very few images for this online?

[parker]

[Mr. Mechanical]

I'm up to the abandoned lumber mill in episode 1. I think I have a pretty good handle on the games structure now, though I'm kind of hoping it subverts my expectations at some point. I won't be disappointed if it doesn't though, as it's still a great mystery game.

I haven't gone off exploring the town yet. I'm hoping the game lets me off the hook at some point so I can go do some car races or revisit some of the characters I've already met.
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[ninjafetus]

It opens up right after the lumber mill, actually.

[Mr. Mechanical]

Awesome.
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[Sketch]

[Intentionally Wrong]

Yeah, you'll be doing yourself a disservice if you let George and Emily hustle you along through the first few chapters without giving yourself permission to explore. At the very least, you should go to the Sheriff's Dept to eat lunch every chapter; it's a unique event each time. You should also investigate the NPCs who live in the same area as the Sheriff's Dept, the businesses closest to the Milk Barn, and places where you can pick up trading cards or other collectible items.
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JSNLV is frequently and intentionally wrong.

[Mr. Mechanical]

I had a chance to go exploring right at the beginning but I went to the police station instead and got started off on the whole investigation. I'll go side questing pronto as soon as I'm out of this lumbermill.
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[parker]

You should wait until the town meeting, which comes after the lumbermill. I don't think you can interact with the towns people until you've talked to all of them there.
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[Mr. Mechanical]

[Mr. Mechanical]

And I'm at the start of chapter 2. I've played about six and half hours so far and I feel kind of bad that I neglect this so often but each time I come back to it I enjoy myself so much that I make plans to dedicate more time to it.

Anyway after I get breakfast with Polly at the hotel and have my coffee I'm going to just completely ignore the investigation for a while. Me and Greenvale have some business to take care of, and that means picking up side quests, finding cards and bones, and fishing. Man I am going to do some fishing!

I like how this game manages to do what Heavy Rain could only ever dream of and for probably a fraction of the budget. Like, yeah the graphics and animation are kind of janky but that's only because they spent all their time on the stuff that really matters. The characters, the townsfolk, the daily routines and the dialogue. Creating something truly unique feeling. My mind boggles at how much effort must have went into scripting out all these unique characters with their routines and dialogues.

I can't wait to see what game SWERY works on next but I almost don't want him to have a huge budget, because I don't know how much the delightful oddness in this game is intentional and how much of it is just a result of working within heavy constraints. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of brilliant things going on here but I don't know how much is genuine and how much I'm projecting.

After I knock out these side quests and find the collectible stuff I'm going to throw myself head first into this case and solve a fucking murder mystery with my psychic powers. My coffee warned me about it.
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[Sketch]

I just watched the last episode of Twin Peaks tonight. I've just wasted nearly 30 hours of my life watching this shit.

Christ on a bike - place me in the "I hate the series" category, that was the worst. ending. ever.

Deadly Premonition at least had some damned closure. If I knew what I know now, I would never have started watching.

[CubaLibre]

People who demand closure are simple people.
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Let's Play, starring me.

[analogos]

http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?p=800160#800160

[klj5j6li]

[parker]

[smartblue]

There is plot analysis, and there is being civil. Calling someone simple in that sort of tone Cuba had can be easily taken as insulting.

As for endings, we are all entitled to our expectations in fiction, and not everything has to be an analog to real life. I don't think anyone here expects perfect closure in our lives. That doesn't mean a story with decent closure is for simpletons as much as it could just be an escape from reality, much like how many people don't like games that strive to emulate reality for a variety of possible reasons.

From that quote, I think David Mitch recognizes an element of story telling that is often abused, but I think he dismisses the rationale and bigger picture available to any writer.

[CubaLibre]

[klj5j6li]

Sorry classmaster I'm not used to running into threads and shitting on people.

Do you have any tips??

[smartblue]

[CubaLibre]

Actually you do it all the time? You're doing it right now.
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Let's Play, starring me.

[CubaLibre]

[smartblue]

I don't see him insulting anyone's intelligence? Sorry if you like Twin Peaks and he doesn't!

[diplo]

For a couple of months I've been unsure about watching the rest of Twin Peaks.

Adi, post something!

[CubaLibre]

I've never seen more than half an episode of Twin Peaks. This thread is a 10 page love letter to a game which is a paean/companion piece to Twin Peaks. Much of the chatter in the thread has been about how great Twin Peaks is, and specifically, how the second season is kind of shit but then the last episode is amazing and makes everything worth it. Enter Sketch, stumbling in and saying: Waste of 30 hours! Why? No closure. Sucks, the end. Well, he may have very legitimate reasons for not liking Twin Peaks or its ending, but he sure didn't write any of them in here, and he came off as a simpleton. So I said so.

Here's what I didn't say: figures that a freelance game journalist would ignore real substance and complain about deviation from some shallow formula! I bet Sketch would be a real douche if you were next to him in line at Starbuck's. Or whatever.
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Let's Play, starring me.

[ninjafetus]

You've never seen Twin Peaks and you say he came off as a simpleton? I mean, if you had knowledge of the specific situation, maybe yeah, you'd have some validity for your statement. But since you don't, you're basically saying that there doesn't exist a single situation where a non-simpleton could desire closure. That's a pretty large statement. I mean, you're a law guy, right? I assume you've taken logic. Care to justify that quantifier, or are we just going to assume 'lol internet' on this one? And you probably shouldn't try to be the bigger man regarding 'bringing up people's personal career to assume character traits' when the next thing you do is say a freelance games journalist is probably a dick at Starbucks. Just saying.

[Mr Mustache]

The second season of Twin Peaks is actually quite good up until episode sixteen. Subsequent episodes are still entertaining if you're invested in the characters.
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The people are like wool to me

[parker]

How is watching 30 episodes of a cancelled 90's tv show and then deciding the entire time and show was a waste because the finale didn't provide a nice pat storybook ending and closure not moronic?

I mean I don't think it takes a law degree to figure that out.
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[Sketch]

How is it moronic though?

The final episode is a serious departure from pretty much the entire series - sure it had its surreal moments in the red room before, but they were always surrounded by the rest of the story. The final episode, after the first 15 minutes, is basically some guys running around a bunch of red curtains, screaming at the camera, with the film footage looking as if it was shot on a camcorder.

Lynch and the crew surely knew there would be no third series, and the entire episode appeared to be Lynch's way of flipping the bird to those in charge. We never found out what happened to Leo, or the Donnah arc, or several other aspects. And as for the final scene with the toothpaste, what the hell was that? Some cryptic way of twisting the arms of those in charge into giving him a 3rd series? How anyone can say the last episode was the best is astounding. My DVDs went up to episode 29, and all episodes up to 27 were excellent. The whole mounty thing, with the drugs? Brilliant. The introduction of a love interest after that, and Wyndham's calculating, great as well. I loved the depth of the characters and the twisting story. The finale? Absolutely out of tune with everything the rest of the series did and acutely aware of this fact.

It's telling that Lynch abandoned the series then came back for the end. He was determined to ruin it, I can only assume to piss everyone off. Initially it starts with several key characters being killed, and I actually thought: "This is pretty damned cool". Because what better finale than elaborate deaths for several you cared about? But then it focused entirely on a few actors running around a bunch of red curtains - that is all that happened, to describe it plainly. It was something I'd expect from a first year film student.

Why the hell can I not expect closure from something I invested 30 hours in? Man, fuck your pseudo-intellectual hipster bullshit and David Milch quotes. I like what I like and balls to the rest of the godamned world who condemn me for it - I don't mind lack of closure in a 90 minute film because the investment is short, but I invest 30 hours in a series for a proper ending. Something which Deadly Premonition actually had and Twin Peaks did not.

To summarise, fuck you too Cuba and fuck you Parker.

[parker]

[CubaLibre]

I don't think you guys get it.

[8128]

[klj5j6li]

[smartblue]

[CubaLibre]

It's not backwards or paranoid. I made the (fake, stupid) comment about Sketch to illustrate exactly the kind of stupidity Dinghy aimed at me, in order to refute Dinghy's claim that I was posting the same way as him. I think it's all pretty linear.
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Let's Play, starring me.

[smartblue]

Except you didn't. You made a (fake, stupid) comment about Sketch first, and then Dinghy called you out on it, albeit ad hominem, and you've then blown things out of proportion instead of taking this to PM. Way to go.

Further more, Sketch identified his beef with the series, which could have been achieved if you just asked, as someone who hasn't seen the series, Hey Sketch, What Was Your Problem With The Show? instead of Hey Sketch, You're A Simpleton Dick Who Drinks At Starbucks.

[CubaLibre]

You're conflating my initial comment, which was not fake, with my later one about Sketch being a game journalist, which was. The point was that where I was extrapolating from Sketch's post - which was insufficiently simple in the face of a whole lot of detailed, contrary opinion - Dinghy made some crack about the bar exam and my life. To illustrate that my initial comment wasn't like Dinghy's, I made one that was - an analogical statement about Sketch not liking Twin Peaks because of an irrelevant personal fact, his part-time occupation.

Anyway, Dinghy seems to have realized exactly what I was saying and thus retracted his comment by pointing out not that I am a smug prick because of some personal fact but because of my posting. Meanwhile, Sketch elaborated on his opinion which is what he should have done in the first place. So, both problems solved.
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Let's Play, starring me.