Be Excellent To Each Other

I’ve mentioned it before and now I’m mentioning it again.

Three things are making me very excited for this:

1) I’ve played a bit. It was top stuff.
2) David Cage isn’t the only writer on this game (thank fucking Christ).
3) This new video gave me goosebumps.



Get on the hype train choo choo.

Urgh, that subtitle is fucking heavy handed though, Jesus. I bet that was David Cage’s doing...

The name is positively Kojima-esque in it's needless weirdness.

Is this a game or a film?

How does the game mechanic work? Are you literally just making choices every few seconds? How many branches are there? It seems like an excellent concept, but pretty limited in longevity.

how can he afford an android?

Seems like the sort of thing Social Services would love to be able to provide.

Demo available now!

Apparently it’s the same one I played at EGX, so play it, yeah?

Hello! I am playing this. I am loving it to bits.

I especially love menu lady and North (played by your girl Lyla Fucking Garrity).

God's tits, it looks fantastic.

I didn’t finish Heavy Rain and the hamfisted slavery parallels put me off.

Shame as I enjoyed Fahrenheit despite the bonkers ending. I just don’t think these games are for me anymore.

Feex for David Cage's talent as a writer.

I keep reading things like this. They're literally slaves*! I don't know why people are so surprised.

* assuming that a slave can be non-human.

I'm liking the story, but then he's only part of a writing team so maybe that helps.

I've not played any of the others, so I can't really judge Cage.

Also "what if humans made artificial life forms then enslaved them" is a trope that's older than Asimov. The very word "robot" comes from the Czech word "robota" meaning "forced labour." [1] This isn't new, edgy, controversial ground for scifi to explore.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#Etymology

I've played and completed Heavy Rain and Fahrenheit. I find Cage fascinating, he whiplashes between really interesting really clumsy so fast it makes my head spin. The sex scene in Fahrenheit is by a wide margin the cringiest thing I've ever seen in a game. And yet I completed it? So there's something in his work that compels me. But I'm not sure I can justify it.

I've also played Fahrenheit and ripped through it in a single sitting, but that was 13 years ago when narrative games and the QTE events that makeup most of the 'gameplay' were in their infancy so I'm not judging anything by that.

Parts of Heavy Rain were sort of enjoyable at the time--the gruesome trials were certainly compelling--but a lot of the writing and characterisation was clumsy as shit.

Then we get to Beyond: Two Souls which was just...urgh. Either he's getting worse or my tolerance of his bullshit has degraded (or possibly both) but I'm done with his shite.

I've ripped through this in a couple of days and it was absolutely brilliant. Love the feature where at the end of each chapter you can see what choices all the players in the world made and what choices your friends made.

I tried to play this earlier but after the choosing my language screen I was spent.

She's lovely, isn't she?

x3 egg plant emoji

I call it my oh-bergine

I want a Kara for my home. She wouldn’t be doing much cleaning, mind.

I'd prefer a Chloe

Also I'd quite like the cleaning done.

Yes. And yes.

And a North.

Say what you want about David Cage games (and let me say this first, FUCK ME his writing is hamfisted and heavy handed, even in this game where character traits are as nothing more than “me angry man. Me say fuck a lot. Me give exposition dumps about me single feeling that makes me me. And me angry so me be angry”) but there was something in that Kara/protect the child mission that had me fighting my joypad (and a fuckton if QTEs) to win. There was no way I was letting that ape win.

These games really do suffer from being too much of an interactive drama though and I’m really disappointed Detroit hasn’t shown any signs whatsoever of being any better in the gameplay department than Heavy Rain. It’s basically been the same game mechanically. I’m only about 4-5 scenes in though and although I’m already invested in the story I’m a wee bit annoyed that the gameplay is basically split into two segments: an investigation/piss about section where you chat and fumble with objects highlighted in a Batman, actually, sorry Heavy Rain, detective mode and then a an action sequence that’s done with QTEs. And that appears to be your lot. Will it change though? I doubt it.

Still, I’m investing in sex robots because come (fnaar fnaar) 2038 I’m being sodding rich. Also, Kara is best you dumb dumbs. Mind you, I haven’t met any others yet...

Chloe is the one from the main menu.

And North is Lyla Fucking Garrity.

Is that the actual Bishop as the millionaire wheelchair man? There’s something fun about him being human in a game about androids.

Heh, yeah

Saved by the bear.

This amoosed me a great deal for some reason. I kinda wish more than 3 people on my friends list would’ve played this though.

Yeah, I only had Grim... on my list and he had nobody when he played it.

Trend setting, me.

That’s a shame. I’m enjoying the stats screen a lot.

Yeah, it was probably my favourite bit

Eden Club: love it.

I slugged a sex robot in the face.

$29.99 sounds like a bargain too.

I’ve met all the gal pals now.

I still reckon Kara is my jam though. Mind you, it’s annoying that some characters pronounce it CAR-A and some KARRH-A.



It’s weird cause I don’t know her and thought it was Jordon from Scrubs.

So I finished it and somehow managed to get the Good Ending without much effort.

I saved everyone and got a trophy for doing so despite getting Jerry unceremoniously murdered at the end. Obviously the game doesn’t give two shits about Jerry. I couldn’t even remember who he was.

I noticed that there’s plenty of different routes too so I just wonder how differently playthroughs could play out. Turns out I’m the only one on my list of 3 friends who played it that managed to get this ending too. That was cool. Stats are fun.

That twist though?



Really missed the mark with me and that was the one story I was really into. Besides the fact that Luther kept hinting something was up and Kara refused to even listen to him (that was irritating), it’s never explained why the dad would have such a child. Unless I missed something obvious here. Anyone?

Cool game though.








Oh and Shag Chloe, Marry Kara and kill North. Natch.

I assumed

I assumed the same too but I just don’t think they did a very good job with that side of the story.

I never even went to the river!

At least you didn’t get endings 1 or 2 from this video. https://youtu.be/Y0WmadpFCL8 I’d have been blubbering like a baby. They’re even difficult to watch!

Wait, that's the same pronunciation.

Ok, erm, some say “car”-a and some say kah-ra.

I can’t remember what scene it was (one with Luther, I think) but two characters pronounce her name differently one immediately after the other. Anyway, I’m sure it’s a thing. Honest.

Car and kah still sound pretty much identical when I say them. What do they rhyme with in your ears?

Think, Jacob Rees Mog saying “car” +a vs my dad saying “kaaaah” +ra.

I've never heard either speak, but I imagine it's the bath/bath or grass/grass pronunciation difference.

So basically, regional accents.

I love Beex.

Only if you pronounced it "beeks"

I pronounce it bmx (silent m)