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 WHAT IS IT? The Witness is the gorgeous new first-person puzzle adventure game by Jonathan Blow and is team, the same guys behind the fantastic puzzle platformer, Braid. Don't let the two of them being in the same genre fool you, though; these are two completely different games. The Witness can be seen as a spiritual successor to the classic adventure game, Myst. Much like Myst, this game does NOT hold your hand. You're basically dropped into the game without even being told how to play, and everything that happens is up to you to figure out. WHAT'S THE GAME'S STORY LIKE? We don't know! Part of the beauty of The Witness is the fact that you need to uncover EVERYTHING, including any of the story. You start in a tunnel and you walk forward until you get outside; that's all you really know going into it, so that's all we know, as well. There are audio logs to collect and scenery to discover that will uncover the story behind the mysterious island, so join us and we'll all figure it out together! HOW IS THIS LP BEING HANDLED? Since both Amy and I (Peter) are going into The Witness blind, we don't really know how long it's going to take us to finish. I've read that the main story can be finished in a few hours, while doing a completionist run with go for over 70 hours. We're not necessarily going for a completionist run, but we're also probably going to attempt any puzzles that we come across, so it'll probably be somewhere in between the two estimates. Another thing we'll be doing is speeding up any puzzles that take us a really long time to finish. When we do this, we'll put a time stamp on the screen showing how long it took us in real time to figure out the solution. Also, for those interested, we'll be playing the PC version of The Witness on a Windows 10 desktop and using a DualShock 4 to navigate the in-game world. SPOILER POLICY Since this is seemingly a story-driven game (and it's pretty darn new), we ask that you please don't post spoilers in the comments. Getting excited about something that you know is coming is fine, just don't tell us what it is that's up ahead. YOU'RE SO BRILLIANT, AND PETER IS SO PRESUMABLY HANDSOME! WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU LPed ON SOMETHING AWFUL? Oh, stop, you're making me blush! Calling (Wii) Skate 3 (PS3) Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water (Wii U) EPISODES Part 1: Accidental Competence Part 2: Nicely done, I guess Part 3: British Guy, 1950 Part 4: I love you and puzzles and the internet Part 5: This is bullshit, I'm leaving Part 6: Pooping in a bag Part 7: High-Five Me Now! Part 8: That was it! Yaaaay! Part 9: Booping his nipple Part 10: Bugaboo Part 11: I like pizza Part 12: Answer your goddamn phone, birds. Part 13: Circuitous as hell Part 14: Open it! Open that puzzle! Part 15: Friggin' outlines of shapes Part 16: There's a RED STAIRCASE! Part 17: No, no, no, no... Part 18: Fly, pixies! Part 19: I was doin' a puzzle Part 20: Less podcasty next time Part 21: That's crazy talk Part 22: My shadow! Whaa! Part 23: I hate trees Part 24: Oh, no, this is the candle video! Part 25: I wonder if we have to use GOT IT. Part 26: That's the point of gray cloud! Part 27: You son of a bitch Part 28: Drunk with puzzles Part 29: He's an IDIOT! Part 30: FF x128 Part 31: That man is named after jeans Part 32: Jonathan Blow's laughing face Part 33: WAY more involved than we expected Part 34 (FINALE): EVERYONE SHUT UP BONUS: Hidden Environmental Puzzles by FPzero pedrovay2003 fucked around with this message at 05:32 on Jun 11, 2016 |
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Feb 9, 2016 03:20
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I quite enjoyed the Fatal Frame LP you guys finished, I look forward to following this one! Never played Myst or any Myst like games myself, but I always heard cool things about them in general.
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Feb 9, 2016 03:46
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Eyyyyyy good stuff in the previous LPs, looking forward to this. Oh I see, the black-and-white squares are like circuits; gotta close circuits between white and black but leave it open between black squares. SaffronKit posted:I quite enjoyed the Fatal Frame LP you guys finished, I look forward to following this one! Never played Myst or any Myst like games myself, but I always heard cool things about them in general. Yeah, Myst and its sequels were pretty neat, but they were very much games where it's difficult to do without a walkthrough or a help line that charges you by the minute if you're not in the right headspace for its puzzles.
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Feb 9, 2016 04:08
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Awesome, new Pete and Amy LP! I think this'll be a good fit for you guys, lot of room for banter, seems like. Say cheese banana!
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Feb 9, 2016 04:28
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My only knowledge of this game is a brief glance at one of the dev's slides that basically said "games that make you feel like a genius are a disease". So I look forward to watching y'all figure this one out.
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Feb 9, 2016 05:04
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Wow, I can't believe you got the puzzle on the shelter there at the end as fast as you did. Took me and three friends a lot longer to figure it out. Also, you can totally interact with the puzzle that was on the ground by the first audiolog. You just didn't see the starting circle for some reason.
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Feb 9, 2016 05:18
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FPzero posted:Wow, I can't believe you got the puzzle on the shelter there at the end as fast as you did. Took me and three friends a lot longer to figure it out. Also, you can totally interact with the puzzle that was on the ground by the first audiolog. You just didn't see the starting circle for some reason. Yeah, I realized while we were editing the video that I didn't even think to click inside of that circle. I guess the arrow just threw me off; we'll be doing that puzzle first thing in part 2!
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Feb 9, 2016 06:19
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Godspeed to the both of you; I will spoil only that this is a great and wonderful puzzle game that will return the respect you give it threefold.
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Feb 9, 2016 11:14
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The amount of optimism you have in this is good... I think you will complete it. and we will have fun watching.
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Feb 9, 2016 12:09
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Watching others play this game is fascinating to me, especially when they're having the worst trouble understanding or solving things I found trivial and vice versa. You two are also fun to listen to, so I'm in.
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Feb 9, 2016 12:17
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I'd compare the game less to Myst and more to things like Antichamber. There's no story, just some clever puzzles in an interesting setting, the audio files are "if I put in quotes by smart people, we can pretend I'm smart" so don't worry about trying to figure out some narrative, just enjoy the ride. Still an interesting game.
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Feb 9, 2016 13:00
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Quite the nice game, I'll have to pick it up sometimes. If there's something I'd fault the interface, is that you can't draw partial solutions and go from there. For example, in that last shelter puzzle, you know you have to draw a wall when black and white squares are adjacent, so I'd like the option to draw the constraints I know are there and figure out how to fill out the rest. It's not a major fault, mind, and it would probably interfere with the aesthetics. Finally, anyone knows the context of that Eddington quote? It sound completely idiotic out of context.
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Feb 9, 2016 14:46
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orenronen posted:Watching others play this game is fascinating to me, especially when they're having the worst trouble understanding or solving things I found trivial and vice versa. You two are also fun to listen to, so I'm in. This is one of the best things about this game. Seemingly everyone has a different version of what mechanic they hated and what mechanic was so easy you guys how are you all failing to grasp it why am I surrounded by morons? There are some broad consensuses... consensi? ...about what things are objectively bullshit but we'll get there after the LP casually destroys them while wondering what all the fuss was about.
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Feb 9, 2016 15:02
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Omobono posted:Finally, anyone knows the context of that Eddington quote? It sound completely idiotic out of context. Think of it like what Neil DeGrasse Tyson does, using allegory and humour to convey to the general public what's going on in the world of science. In this case not only moving the perspective to a different frame of reference (as if we consciously needed to manage things which on our macro scale are automatic), but also touching on the idea that "impossible" is similar-yet-still-distinct from "sufficiently improbable."
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Feb 9, 2016 17:47
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I think the first part of Eddington's quote is definitely a frame of reference observation because he seems to be describing how impossible the task of taking a single step sounds when looked at it from a point in the universe far away from Earth. I've forgotten the second half of the quote or its content was less straightforward. I don't think I mind the quotes overall because when you understand what they are saying they make for some interesting thought but they certainly don't seem to fit naturally into the game. Maybe something comes up in the very final area that blows my goddamn mind and makes everything come together in one crash of realization.
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Feb 9, 2016 17:58
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Omobono posted:Finally, anyone knows the context of that Eddington quote? It sound completely idiotic out of context. It's Jon Blow trying to look smart.
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Feb 9, 2016 17:58
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Wow nice to see you do another LP so quickly. And of a game I completed!Omobono posted:If there's something I'd fault the interface, is that you can't draw partial solutions and go from there. For example, in that last shelter puzzle, you know you have to draw a wall when black and white squares are adjacent, so I'd like the option to draw the constraints I know are there and figure out how to fill out the rest. It's not a major fault, mind, and it would probably interfere with the aesthetics. I actually found that really annoying. At some point I started to solve most hard puzzles by drawing stuff on screenshots. It kinda took me out of the imersion. There is also another issuse which made me look at this game way less positively than I might have. But it will probably take a while to get there, so I'll stay silent for now.
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Feb 9, 2016 22:33
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I'm pretty terrible at puzzle games but have some decent spatial reasoning, this game reminds me of Flow (a mobile game where you connect like-colored dots with lines that can't cross each other), which I was actually pretty decent at. Having just watched the first video, I actually kind of want to play this!
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Feb 10, 2016 02:39
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I think that, to the extent that the Eddington quote means anything, it's to get you to consider what you did to get through the door, and despite how complex it might seem, there's another perspective where it was so mundane as to be beneath notice. That said, wow at that big intimidating door puzzle that became totally understandable in ten minutes' time. It seems we're in for some quality puzzling.
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Feb 10, 2016 04:58
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Glazius posted:I think that, to the extent that the Eddington quote means anything, it's to get you to consider what you did to get through the door, and despite how complex it might seem, there's another perspective where it was so mundane as to be beneath notice. A lot of the puzzles where they combine parts have that sort of feeling.
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Feb 10, 2016 05:04
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Honestly, the main thing keeping me from buying this game is the apparent lack of any map feature - I'm pretty sure I'd just end up wandering around lost, confused and annoyed.
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Feb 10, 2016 05:09
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While a map would be nice, the game does a pretty good job of making every part of the island very distinct, either through use of color or setpieces. You quickly learn where the main areas of the world are. What's more challenging is figuring out how to traverse them in some cases.
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Feb 10, 2016 05:52
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I'm not sure what sort of feedback you're getting that we aren't seeing, but it looked like you might have been able to play that fallen puzzle plate if you'd clicked on the starting circle instead of pretty much everywhere else.
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Feb 10, 2016 05:53
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drat, this looks good enough that I might not follow this thread. Not nearly enough time to play it right now, and I really don't want to be spoiled.Bruceski posted:I'd compare the game less to Myst and more to things like Antichamber. There's no story, just some clever puzzles in an interesting setting, the audio files are "if I put in quotes by smart people, we can pretend I'm smart" so don't worry about trying to figure out some narrative, just enjoy the ride. Disappointed to hear this: I never got very far in Myst, but I did dearly love it, and should really give it another shot.
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Feb 10, 2016 06:02
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Oh, and when you have a row of puzzles, once you solve one you can hit left/right to shift to the next instead of backing out.
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Feb 10, 2016 06:06
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FPzero posted:I think the first part of Eddington's quote is definitely a frame of reference observation because he seems to be describing how impossible the task of taking a single step sounds when looked at it from a point in the universe far away from Earth. I've forgotten the second half of the quote or its content was less straightforward. The second half of the quote basically boils down to "if you try to be sure of everything before you attempt anything, you'll never get anywhere." Thus the overanalyzation of walking through a door- when explained that way, missing the floor or being propelled into the roof seem almost like valid concerns, but if you want to actually cross any thresholds (symbolism!) you need to ignore that kind of thinking.
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Feb 10, 2016 15:37
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Okay, it's time for part 2! I'm really starting to love this game.Bruceski posted:Oh, and when you have a row of puzzles, once you solve one you can hit left/right to shift to the next instead of backing out. This really, really came in handy. Thanks for pointing that out!
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Feb 13, 2016 00:49
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Let's just watch the whole video before commenting more. --There is no triangle-tutorial area, the layabout puzzles are it. --Chained ones like the trees shut down and make you re-do the last one to make sure you learned how to do it and haven't found things by luck, since they're teaching areas. --Crackly sound is a glitch, when you get into areas it has trouble rendering. I played the game on a toaster so I was hearing that stuff all the time. --You figured out "it has to be mirrored" a lot faster than I did, kudos. Bruceski fucked around with this message at 01:27 on Feb 13, 2016 |
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Feb 13, 2016 01:00
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Please go back to those tree puzzles, there's an incredibly obvious solution. I've never played this game before and I noticed it instantly.
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Feb 13, 2016 01:30
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Ohhh, I see how the tree puzzle works. Perk of being a viewer and not the player.
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Feb 13, 2016 01:32
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pedrovay2003 posted:Okay, it's time for part 2! I'm really starting to love this game. I am extremely wary about saying anything about this game, but I think just this one thing will be beneficial: there's no point in the game where the solution is simply brute forcing all different permutations of the path until you accidentally hit the right one. There's always logic behind it, and if you can't figure it out it's best to leave it behind and come to it later with a fresher mind.
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Feb 13, 2016 02:05
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I'm also very wary of saying things. Another helpful point: Don't forget you don't have to be in front of a puzzle to activate it. As long as you can see the circle to start a puzzle and its endpoints, you can work with it, even from very far away. For instance, at the end with the reflected puzzles by the laser, if you'd moved the camera away enough to see the puzzles on both sides you could have worked their solutions without having to stop and check them again and again. I'm really enjoying watching your discoveries and trying to puzzle out what symbols means. There are actually a few more reflection puzzles on this mesa that aren't required to activate the laser that you might not notice right away.
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Feb 13, 2016 02:27
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Don't forget to do the other puzzles on that little rock. Some advice for the game in general: take notice of EVERYTHING around a puzzle, such as the TREE puzzle.
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Feb 13, 2016 04:00
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I think you aren't supposed to cross the line the triangle is pointing to. The other two points are aimed at corners instead, so there's only the one.
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Feb 13, 2016 04:07
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ANameAmongMany posted:Don't forget to do the other puzzles on that little rock. Some advice for the game in general: take notice of EVERYTHING around a puzzle, such as the TREE puzzle. There are already several posts to that effect so the deed is done, but when I said I was wary of saying anything this is what I meant. I think this is one aspect of the game best discovered organically on you own instead of people pointing you helpfully in the right direction this early.
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Feb 13, 2016 04:23
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This is currently making me feel smart. I'm pretty sure that I need to actually get the game so that it can start making me feel like a gibbering idiot, because I just know that'll happen in the very next area. Very interesting game!
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Feb 13, 2016 05:02
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Omobono posted:Finally, anyone knows the context of that Eddington quote? It sound completely idiotic out of context. If you mean the one on top of the big gridded door out of the initial tutorial area, this quote does actually mean something! I've beaten the game and, seeing this quote again after having beaten the game, it makes total sense for it to be placed there. I would say more, but, obviously, spoilers. Jothan posted:The second half of the quote basically boils down to "if you try to be sure of everything before you attempt anything, you'll never get anywhere." Thus the overanalyzation of walking through a door- when explained that way, missing the floor or being propelled into the roof seem almost like valid concerns, but if you want to actually cross any thresholds (symbolism!) you need to ignore that kind of thinking. There is more significance than this, but this is certainly part of it! Hugmonster VIII fucked around with this message at 05:57 on Feb 13, 2016 |
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Feb 13, 2016 05:52
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If you try to brute force a solution, it's usually the wrong approach. Those terminals go out again so that it takes more time and is discouraged. But it was impressive that you randomly picked the right one out of 15 possible choices on your first try. You're kinda lucky, I guess. pedrovay2003 posted:Okay, it's time for part 2! I'm really starting to love this game. One little thing I noticed before: Your updates sometimes blend in with the discussion. Maybe you could find a way to make them stand out a bit more..
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Feb 13, 2016 10:59
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If you ever solve something and you don't know why the answer you got was the right one, stop. Don't do any more puzzles in that sequence until you think you understand why. If you can't think of anything, it's better to do some other puzzles and mull it over. The difficulty in this game ramps up quickly, and the way the game teaches you how to solve puzzles is by forcing you to do them until you can formulate a hypothesis about what the underlying rules are. Sometimes your first hypothesis will be wrong. That's okay. Future puzzles will disabuse you of wrong hypotheses. But don't charge ahead without having at least a working idea of what the rules are for each and every puzzle you solve. Oh, and about the audio logs... they get longer. Way longer. At least one of them is just ten minutes of uninterrupted talking. I don't know if you want to do something about that or not, for the sake of LP expediency, but yeah, the quality of the content doesn't really go up either. Hyper Crab Tank fucked around with this message at 11:55 on Feb 13, 2016 |
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Feb 13, 2016 11:49
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orenronen posted:There are already several posts to that effect so the deed is done, but when I said I was wary of saying anything this is what I meant. I think this is one aspect of the game best discovered organically on you own instead of people pointing you helpfully in the right direction this early. Is this something you don't want us saying? I mean one poster made it much more obvious, but the rest of us just pointed out that there was a solution and it wasn't random guessing. Is even that something you don't want us to post about? Genuine question here, it's hard to tell where the line for spoilers is in this. I haven't played the Witness, and I probably never will because I don't like difficult puzzle games, but while posting solutions for something you're stuck on is an obvious no-no, are observations out of line?
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Feb 13, 2016 15:27
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