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 Waking Mars is an interesting little game. It was released in early 2012 on iOS, and later that year it was ported to PC. It defies most forms of classification, though the nebulous "action adventure" genre would probably be applied. It's a game about discovery and science. You play as Dr. Liang Qi, a scientist sent from Earth to investigate the disappearance of their unmanned rover, 0CT0. Normally losing an unmanned rover wouldn't spur a recovery mission, but 0CT0's findings were very interesting. Shortly before losing contact, 0CT0 sent back images of alien life beneath the planet's surface! What kind of game is it, then? This game doesn't have any combat. It doesn't have limited lives. It's not even particularly difficult to play. AxeManiac called it "a combination of Metroid and Castlevania just without the combat," though I think a better description would be "a relaxing zen garden puzzle game." The idea is that you need to progress through this gigantic cave, and the only way to proceed between individual rooms is to ensure the life inside thrives. Some of the alien life forms can harm you, but there is no malicious intent. Indeed, nothing you meet in the cavern is sentient. For the most part everything you meet will ignore you completely. You're just a scientist, observing this completely unique ecosystem. It's a very atmospheric game, which is why I'm doing this with subtitles. Spoiler policy There's barely any story in the game, so just use spoiler tags if you feel the need to discuss the last-act twist where it becomes a first person shooter stealth game. The Videos            
DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 18:26 on Jul 23, 2015 |
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Jun 15, 2015 15:11
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This looks like an interesting game.
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Jun 15, 2015 17:01
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It does look interesting. The subtitles work great with the game. How long is the game, by the way?
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Jun 15, 2015 17:29
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Big Scary Owl posted:It does look interesting. The subtitles work great with the game. It's fairly short. I've got about three hours of recordings, counting this first video, and my save file says 70% done.
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Jun 15, 2015 17:36
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I'd not actually seen any footage of this game before, so I'm pleasantly surprised. And that title... Well, it sure seems accurate, as Mars appears to have had his pre-coffee grump! In any case, characterisation is interesting, writing seems p. cool... Definitely following this LP, seeing what comes next!
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Jun 16, 2015 22:41
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This seems like a really neat concept for a game. I'm surprised I've never heard of this.
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Jun 18, 2015 00:50
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For some reason, when I bought this off GOG, I thought it was some sort of space farming game where you try to grow plants on Mars. Not that I was entirely wrong, but I was surprised to see it was a cool puzzle-y adventure game with science and a goofy robot. I never finished it though, so I'll keep an eye on this one.
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Jun 18, 2015 07:55
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I'm really glad you all seem to be liking the videos. It's such a neat little game and it needs more love. In fact, it's currently 80% off until the end of the steam summer sale. So if you want to pick it up and experience it firsthand, now is the perfect time. It's only $2!
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Jun 18, 2015 15:13
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Is it me or is Episode 2 only available in low quality 360p?
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Jun 18, 2015 20:43
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Carbon dioxide posted:Is it me or is Episode 2 only available in low quality 360p? 720 here.
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Jun 18, 2015 20:52
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Well. No idea why, but opening it in another browser gave me access to 720p.
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Jun 18, 2015 21:20
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This game is really neat! I'm looking forward to more of it!Carbon dioxide posted:Is it me or is Episode 2 only available in low quality 360p? Carbon dioxide posted:Well. No idea why, but opening it in another browser gave me access to 720p. I had the same problem. What browser did you use the second time?
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Jun 20, 2015 16:16
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I got the bad quality version in Firefox, but in Chrome everything's fine. And FF still won't load/show the proper version of this specific vid.
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Jun 20, 2015 18:29
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Carbon dioxide posted:I got the bad quality version in Firefox, but in Chrome everything's fine. And FF still won't load/show the proper version of this specific vid. I opened the video up in firefox and, in addition to 720p, it had resolutions available that I can't even get in Chrome like 144p and 480p.  Just for the sake of science, try and see if 720 is available when viewed through a polsy wrapper in firefox.
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Jun 20, 2015 18:58
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ART always felt weird to me. I don't think this game needed a wacky robot character. I think a more dry humor like GERTY from Moon would have made more sense, ART is more grating. Also man I forgot about that tunnel of those snake plant things. That was aggravating at first.
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Jun 21, 2015 00:24
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aonethree posted:ART always felt weird to me. I don't think this game needed a wacky robot character. I think a more dry humor like GERTY from Moon would have made more sense, ART is more grating. ART was my favourite bit.
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Jun 21, 2015 02:12
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No Gravitas posted:ART was my favourite bit. Yeah, I really like ART so far. It's such an nice AI. (As long as it does not turn evil, I'm all aboard the ART train.)
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Jun 21, 2015 02:44
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DoubleNegative posted:I opened the video up in firefox and, in addition to 720p, it had resolutions available that I can't even get in Chrome like 144p and 480p. Only 360p in polsy. The characterization in this game weirds me out. For some reason the player character is "beep boop I have no emotions", and all the emotions he lacks have been added to the woman's who seems full of silliness.
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Jun 22, 2015 13:02
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Carbon dioxide posted:Only 360p in polsy. Some googling around on the "only 360p available in firefox" issue suggests messing with HTML5 player settings. http://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/2m0l9e/youtube_only_plays_videos_at_360p_on_firefox/ ART is also the reason I like Liang as much as I do. As humorless and  as Liang can be, ART is pretty funny even when he doesn't intend to be. He's the perfect foil to Liang's lack of emotion.
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Jun 22, 2015 16:37
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I found a plug-in for Firefox that forces YouTube to use Flash instead of HTML5. It solved the resolution problem for me: http://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-flash-player/ I figure I can always switch off a plug-in if I decide to go back to the HTML5 player.
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Jun 22, 2015 18:50
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Thanks. Looks like (my) firefox HTML5 player doesn't support webm or something.
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Jun 22, 2015 19:14
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DoubleNegative posted:
I agree about Liang. Seeing a boring science man character is kind of refreshing because that's exactly the kind of person that would be doing something like this. My issue with ART isn't his purpose as a foil (which works and is necessary to prevent Liang from being super boring), I just think he could have been written better, or maybe have a better voice.
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Jun 23, 2015 02:53
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I find it hard to explain my problems with the characters. None of the three characters are bad by themselves. It's just - each of them seems so exaggerated in some way. This makes any interactions between them feel quite awkward. They simply don't feel natural. If they were real, I think they'd have so much trouble cooperating that they'd utterly hate each other by now.
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Jun 23, 2015 21:47
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aonethree posted:I agree about Liang. Seeing a boring science man character is kind of refreshing because that's exactly the kind of person that would be doing something like this. My issue with ART isn't his purpose as a foil (which works and is necessary to prevent Liang from being super boring), I just think he could have been written better, or maybe have a better voice. I think you'll find that Liang's voice actor is actually pretty good. Lo Wang doing alien gardening is something I've wanted to see for a while now.
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Jun 24, 2015 03:58
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Aw, the phyta are adorable! I don't care how much they annoy you, I can't hate em. The prax playing with the seeds are pretty adorable too. This seems like a wonderful game so far, and I'm a bit bummed now because it was in the Steam Sale. My only complaint is that Liang is way too bland a character. Would it have hurt to give him even a mild sense of humor? e: By the way, is there any way you can post all the research stuff? I've been enjoying reading those, but you tend to skip a lot of them. Also, it seems either Amani or ART are being set up as a bad guy? Amani if we take that conversation at face value. ViggyNash fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Jun 24, 2015 |
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Jun 24, 2015 18:24
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I got this a year or so back on a lark, and it was probably one of the best 5€ I've ever spent on Steam. Super chill puzzle solving exterior, with a delicious science fiction center! Also, it's nice to have someone else wrangle those goddamn phyta for a change 
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Jun 24, 2015 19:33
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Fascinating game, I'll be following this.
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Jun 24, 2015 22:15
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ViggyNash posted:e: By the way, is there any way you can post all the research stuff? I've been enjoying reading those, but you tend to skip a lot of them. Sure! Next time I go to work on video stuff, I'll grab shots of the research screen. It's been something I've been meaning to do anyway and now that we're finishing up some categories, this is a perfect time to do so.
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Jun 25, 2015 18:29
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Kibayasu posted:I think you'll find that Liang's voice actor is actually pretty good. Lo Wang doing alien gardening is something I've wanted to see for a while now. Oh I wasn't saying he was bad! Just that the character isn't an exciting action hero but instead a down to earth (mars?) scientist guy. Also that's hilarious, Liang really lost it after being on mars for too long. I think it was around here where I stopped playing. The game is interesting but it also is a bit flat. It gets really repetitive having to go back and forth with the different zoa having to grab water, then hydrate, then plant something, then grab more water, plant something else, etc. It's a shame because I like the idea of discovering ancient water-y mars and all this life we had no reason to believe to exist.
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Jun 27, 2015 01:43
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This is looking to me like an ancient, organic terraforming project.
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Jun 27, 2015 11:22
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Dabir posted:This is looking to me like an ancient, organic terraforming project. Possible, but equally possible at this point is that by aiding friendly conditions for creatures that, according to what we're told of the fossil record, already existed (however accidentally), we may have pushed things back into equilibrium in this relatively small and protected area, allowing, on a small scale, to replicate how conditions first arose... Anaerobic lifeforms create conditions for other lifeforms with their byproducts, then slowly die out (releasing other materials). There's an interesting short story by Larry Niven, in the Draco Tavern series, that has fun with this rough concept as it applies to Earth, in which an alien explorer talks about the civilisation that preceded Humans on Earth, which was killed, slowly and painfully, by the rise of... Algae and Plankton. Simple organisms that nonetheless are believed to have had a massive effect on our atmosphere's current composition. 
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Jun 27, 2015 12:35
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Could be, but I'm mainly thinking about the harvesters, and more importantly, where they're sending the extra power. Looks like the idea is to set up a miniature self-sustaining ecosystem in each cell, then the harvester converts the byproducts of the rest of the ecosystem into energy, while simultaneously making Mars a nicer place to live. Plus with how Liang is insisting that things just happened to evolve this way, it seems to me like the big twist is going to be that he's wrong and it was all engineered.
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Jun 27, 2015 15:49
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ViggyNash posted:e: By the way, is there any way you can post all the research stuff? I've been enjoying reading those, but you tend to skip a lot of them. This here is a link to all of the completed research as of the next two videos. There's gonna be minor spoilers about things we haven't encountered yet. You'll also be able to see I've completed other research but have left it blacked out. That is stuff we will not be encountering for many, many videos. edit: I'll be adding to it as we come across and complete more research. I'll also add the new research entries with the videos themselves.
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Jun 27, 2015 22:25
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Double post. Whatever. New Research (These were already in the thing I posted on Saturday, but for completeness's sake they're here as well)          
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Jun 29, 2015 21:21
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JamieTheD posted:There's an interesting short story by Larry Niven, in the Draco Tavern series, that has fun with this rough concept as it applies to Earth, in which an alien explorer talks about the civilisation that preceded Humans on Earth, which was killed, slowly and painfully, by the rise of... Algae and Plankton. Simple organisms that nonetheless are believed to have had a massive effect on our atmosphere's current composition. The title of this story is "The Green Marauder" if anyone is interested. It's maybe my favorite of the Draco Tavern stories.
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Jun 29, 2015 21:40
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drat, that was a good ep. Curious about that signal, but still... It's nice to see something can make ol' Dr. Liang warm and fuzzy inside. <3
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Jun 29, 2015 23:08
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Super late update today. However, we're investigating the source of that mysterious signal.    
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Jul 3, 2015 02:43
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That was a neat discovery. I wonder what humans would leave behind if the Earth became like Mars.
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Jul 3, 2015 05:45
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I've played this game before, but when I did, I never even went to the room where the broken reservoir is, nor did I do that optional quest. It just goes to show how open this game is - how much optional stuff there is to do. It's an amazing game .
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Jul 4, 2015 12:52
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Please, please, please tell me we're going to the bottom of the quartz crystal next time! Everything about that reveal was utterly brilliant and I've got to know the rest.
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Jul 6, 2015 04:12
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