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 As usual, no unmarked spoilers please! If you absolutely have to talk about stuff from later in the game, please use spoiler tags. In particular, I will probate anyone who talks about the final boss without spoiler tags!  What is this game? Why have I never heard of it? Deadly Creatures is a unique character action game released in 2009 exclusively for the Nintendo Wii. You may remember it from that one time the Game Grumps tried it out, loved it, but then gave up after five episodes. Typical. Instead of controlling a cocky demon slayer or vengeful demigod, players guide a tarantula and a scorpion through the Sonoran Desert, fighting off other arachnids and insects, and fleeing a particularly irksome rattlesnake. At the same time, two humans (played by Billy Bob Thornton and the late Dennis Hopper in one of his final roles) are searching for lost gold. Will our two parties cross paths, and who is the true deadliest creature in the desert? This game was developed by Rainbow Studios, who are mostly known for the MX vs. ATV racing franchise. This means that, after Hydrophobia, this is now the second game in a row that pdPreciousRoy and I have played that's an ambitious adventure title made by a studio primarily known for sports titles. One of the things I really like about this game is how differently the scorpion and tarantula control. The tarantula moves quickly, strikes fast, and has considerably less health, while the scorpion can tank hits, block, and has a few specific mobility options that let him play more like a heavyweight boxer standing his ground. It makes for great gameplay variety, as the player swaps between the two fighters after every chapter. Plus, the animations and sound design are incredibly violent. Somehow, this game got away with just a T rating in North America. Is this going to be a 100% playthrough? Not a chance. The main collectibles are grubs, and there are 450 of the bastards. I will, however, be collecting all the Leaf Crickets, which increase our characters' health. What's the update schedule like? As often as I can. I've learned my lesson from the Hydrophobia LP, i.e. I don't have the time and patience to commit to regular lore updates, so by focusing on videos instead of image-heavy posts, I should (emphasis on should) be able to get a better schedule going.  Playlist          
theenglishman fucked around with this message at 03:25 on Dec 23, 2019 |
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Nov 15, 2019 20:50
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Nov 15, 2019 20:51
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Our first video covers Chapters 1 and 2, where we get to see our protagonists in action. Good Lord, this game is amazing.
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Nov 15, 2019 20:52
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I am not entirely certain why the boxing scorpion and the body-slamming tarantula hate each other so much, but I am excited to see where their rivalry goes.
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Nov 15, 2019 22:26
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Oh cool! As with Hydrophobia I've wanted to see someone tackle this one, sadly a previous attempt had to stop due to RL stuff IIRC.
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Nov 15, 2019 22:49
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After that intro I'm going to be disappointed if the final boss isn't a human.
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Nov 15, 2019 23:05
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entering a fugue state and remembering the part of the Final Boss Fight(s) in Donkey Kong 64 where one of your characters shrinks down and fights the boss's foot inside of his shoe
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Nov 15, 2019 23:30
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I remember Fiendly trying his hand at this before running out of steam, so it'll be good to see another attempt at a full LP for such a weird piece.
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Nov 16, 2019 01:17
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Hopefully he pops in to provide educational bits for this LP though I'll post all the  from the previous LP on his behalf:Fiendly posted:Resources: Chimera-gui fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Nov 16, 2019 |
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Nov 16, 2019 01:43
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And while I can't confirm our scorpion to be an Arizona bark scorpion, it is worth noting that the size and shape of a scorpion's pedipalps is a good indicator of how likely they are to sting: Scorpions with large, robust pedipalps can often subdue their prey with little or no use of their venom whereas smaller species with weaker, more slender pedipalps are more dependent on stinging their prey upon seizing it with their chelate pincers. And speaking of scorpion anatomy, it's also worth noting that the scorpion's anus is between the fifth metasomal segment and the telson which must make for awkward bathroom moments within the Horde and later the Rebellion: 
Chimera-gui fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Nov 16, 2019 |
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Nov 16, 2019 01:57
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Chimera-gui posted:BUG STUFF That is extremely helpful, as most of our LP commentary will be focused on the story, gameplay, level design and behind-the-scenes details. I really appreciate the info dump! 
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Nov 16, 2019 02:33
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I actually had a friend who owned this game but he did a really bad job of pitching it to me. He really liked it though. If I have one terrible thing to say it's that I really dislike the cover art. It looks so hopelessly generic.
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Nov 16, 2019 03:07
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SSNeoman posted:If I have one terrible thing to say it's that I really dislike the cover art. It looks so hopelessly generic. Perhaps one of these images would have been better suited? This is the bonus gallery of alternate box designs they considered, unlocked by getting 100% of the collectibles like a sucker. If the OP ever wants to post the in-game bonus material in the thread, I've got it all recorded and uploaded already, I can provide links if needed (I wouldn't presume to post them unless asked as most of them contain spoilers, but the one linked above is spoiler-free) theenglishman posted:That is extremely helpful, as most of our LP commentary will be focused on the story, gameplay, level design and behind-the-scenes details. I really appreciate the info dump! Smart, my terrible abandoned LP was mostly me talking about real bugs, making just an irredeemable mess out of something that deserved far better. I can't look at this game ever again, but good luck with the LP, definitely seems like you've got a better handle on it.
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Nov 16, 2019 03:55
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SSNeoman posted:If I have one terrible thing to say it's that I really dislike the cover art. It looks so hopelessly generic. The official soundtrack album has a zoomed-out variant on the cover art image that looks much better in my opinion. 
theenglishman fucked around with this message at 05:32 on Nov 16, 2019 |
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Nov 16, 2019 05:28
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To tide you over until the next few episodes, here's a behind-the-scenes interview with Billy Bob Thornton, where he talks about how impressed he is with the game, and some anecdotes about growing up surrounded by wild snakes in rural Arkansas, including one funny story involving his old garage band and a rosy boa. (Don't worry, this video doesn't have any spoilers. There are some lines we haven't heard that are taken out of context, but nothing that will ruin major plot points.) NOTE: The original video does not contain subtitles. I have subtitled the video myself, which you can access, if needed, by clicking the Closed Captioning icon on the YouTube player.
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Nov 17, 2019 19:25
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Something to note is that female spiders are typically larger than the males. While the most famous examples of this are the Orb Weavers and the Widows, it's also true for Tarantulas as well: Female left, male right; See here for more details: Sex Determination Basically even though the game refers to it as male, the tarantula we play as is actually female.
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Nov 17, 2019 23:10
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I'm around and will see if I can write up some info posts when I have the chance! Thanks for copying my posts from the previous thread over, I'll try to find replacements for the broken links later.
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Nov 18, 2019 01:13
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On to chapter 3, where we talk about iPhones, gold, and web shooting mechanics.
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Nov 20, 2019 19:15
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With all the bug knowledge provided by Fiendly, Mr. Vile and Chimera-gui, I figured I would give a knowledge dump of my own related to some of the history (and myth and bullshit) behind this game. Struggs mentions that the gold he's looking for was stolen by Lumes from the Confederates. For those who may not know, there are many, many legends about lost or hidden gold hidden somewhere in the Americas, from the Seven Cities of Gold in New Spain to the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine in Arizona. This legend does at least have some basis in history, though, albeit on shaky ground. During the American Civil War, the Confederate States of America lasted long enough that they were able to establish a treasury, banks, and appoint a handful of dedicated depositaries for each bank. It is believed by some that, as it became clear the Confederacy was going to lose the war, the banks stashed away caches of gold as a reserve and hid them in the desert, in the event the South rose again. The only documented evidence I could find of anything close to this happening was after the Union capture of New Orleans in 1862: The Military Operations of General Beauregard in the War Between the States, 1861 to 1865: Including a Brief Personal Sketch and a Narrative of His Services in the War with Mexico, 1846-8, Volume 2, Part 1 by Alfred Roman posted:
Still, it's highly implausible that this would be the gold Struggs is looking for (geographically speaking, New Orleans is on the opposite side of Mexico from the Arizona portion of the Sonoran Desert).
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Nov 20, 2019 19:37
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I'm honestly quite partial to   or even  The first one looks the best imo. It just needs a bit more yellow since the game isn't as black and white.
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Nov 21, 2019 00:07
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The mites in this are weird because the game is normally reasonably accurate with its bugs, but the flying mite clouds are just completely off. The "mites" in this are more like some kind of parastic insect, while real mites are arachnids like our spider and scorpion friends. While they are a gigantic and massively varied group, one thing they have in common with every other arachnid is that they have no wings and cannot fly. They do tend to be absolutely tiny - there's one species that lives exclusively in the trachea of honeybees - so I guess it's not impossible for them to be carried on the wind? Actually, let's go into the accuracy of the things we've seen so far. Obviously there's a lot of sacrifices in accuracy for the sake of fun because the general tarantula lifestyle of lurking in a hole for a week and then pouncing on a passing cricket does not make for a compelling gameplay. First of all, our spider has a grudge against the scorpion and is trying to hunt it down. That's just plain not how spiders or predators in general work. Tarantulas are dumb as a brick and just don't have the capacity to form grudges, and even more intelligent predators tend to avoid doing anything that could get them injured like trying to hunt down and fight another similar predator. In general, both tarantulas and scorpions are content to make a little burrow and then never venture more than a metre or so away from home for their entire lives. The exception there is mature males, who go wandering off in search of a mate, so if you see a tarantula out walking in the wild, chances are it's a mature male who just wants to find a female in the short time left to him. Male tarantulas live for maybe a year past adulthood, while females have been known to live upwards of 20 years. Going by the size of our spider compared to things like the shoe and the phone, chances are our friend is probably a juvenile anyway, so it's virtually impossible to sex it right now. Now for how they move and fight. Tarantulas generally hunt by just pouncing on something and using their size and strength to keep it pinned while the fangs and venom do their job. "Fights" aren't really a thing in their world, if they're trying to bite something it's either because they are hunting a meal or as a defence against a threat, so the whole leg slapping combo thing doesn't really work. The closest thing to anything real there is that a tarantula really, really doesn't want to use its precious venom as a defence - venom is a costly resource in metabolic terms, and using it in a way that doesn't get a meal to pay that cost is a losing proposition, so tarantulas generally go through a set of reactions when faced with a potential threat: 1. Try to escape. Running and hiding is always the best option. 2. Flick itchy hairs at it. Not all tarantulas can do this, but as New World species our playable tarantula and the enemy ones all can. 3. Threat posture! Rear up on the back legs and display those fangs, while raising the front pairs of legs and pedipalps to look bigger. Some species will also hiss via stridulation. If you see a spider doing this then it is seriously ticked off and you should probably stop doing whatever you're doing to it. 4. Slap those raised front legs down on anything that approaches! Spider legs are basically tiny hydraulic rams and are a lot stronger than you would expect, so they can slap pretty hard and this is the closest real spiders get to the Deadly Creatures fighting style. It's strictly a downward slap with those raised front legs, though, with none of the twisting that our spider does. 5. BITE. Even then, some spiders will deliver a dry bite with no venom injection and hope that being stuck with a pair of inch long fangs is enough to deter whatever's bothering them.  Cyriopagopus lividus in threat posture. I'll be spoilering or linking to images in case of any arachnophobes in the thread who don't want to blindsided by them. Bear in mind that spiders are tricky things and will skip steps if they feel like it. Species like the cobalt blue above are notoriously aggressive and will happily go straight to threat posture at the slightest provocation. Jumping...as far as I know, no tarantula can propel itself upwards from the ground like our friend can, but some arboreal (tree-living) species are adept at flinging themselves from foothold to foothold. It's pretty cool to see! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJmfcC0n9N8 As for terrestrial (ground-living) types like our playable spider almost certainly is, they tend to be lumpen things that can't take a fall of more than a couple of inches without rupturing themselves and dying. Our friend is probably a Brachypelma of some description like the flame kneed tarantulas (Brachypelma auratum) we keep coming across. Brachypelmas are generally about the slowest and most lumpen of tarantulas even by terrestrial standards, although like all tarantulas they can move faster than the eye can see when it comes to pouncing on prey over a short distance.  Brachypelma auratum. They're very pretty! And since this has been a very spider-heavy post (I know a lot more about them than I do scorpions) a close-up of how scorpion chelicerae work to replace the broken link in one of my old infoposts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ounmopl6JtU
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Nov 21, 2019 06:27
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It should also be noted that another reason bites are more likely to be dry is that in addition to being metabolically costly, spider venom isn't even guaranteed to kill something as large as a human in the first place even in the case of reportedly "deadly" spiders like Widows, Brown Recluses and Sydney Funnelwebs. Oh getting bitten is not gonna be a fun experience; at best the bite can be incredibly painful and at worst you may be in for positively excruciating pain, nausea, vomiting, fever, dizziness, chills, aching, breathing difficulty and skyrocketing blood pressure. And while you should almost certainly seek medical attention if you're bitten by them the likelihood of death is considered so low in a healthy adult that antivenin, which itself carries a small risk of anaphylaxis, is typically reserved for only the most worrying cases and treatment will more often focus only on pain relief which you're gonna want and could probably use a little ER visit to monitor your vitals and make sure things don't get any worse. Assuming you get bitten out in the woods one day and can't get yourself to a hospital however, your odds of survival are still pretty high. It's only infants, the elderly and the sick who are considered at risk and even so only a handful of people have in fact ever gone on record dying from the venom of this genus. In fact of the three, Sydney Funnelweb is shown to be the most dangerous do to the male having a highly aggressive response to fear unlike almost any other spider but even then the actual number of confirmed human deaths by Atrax robustus is believed to have been thirteen before the development of antivenom while the post-antivenom kill count is zero. Chimera-gui fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Dec 17, 2019 |
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Nov 21, 2019 07:52
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What's the largest spider variety that could be kept as a pet? I'm not planning on keeping one myself (aren't they a grey area wrt the animal trade?), but I really think the bigger spiders are  as heck and I'd like to learn about really big ones.
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Nov 21, 2019 12:17
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CommissarMega posted:What's the largest spider variety that could be kept as a pet? I'm not planning on keeping one myself (aren't they a grey area wrt the animal trade?), but I really think the bigger spiders are Taking them from the wild is very much a grey area at best and one I don't support, but most of the ones you'll see for sale are bred in captivity. The biggest spiders are the three Theraphosa species, with T. blondi (goliath birdeater) famously being the largest recorded spider, and Heteropoda maxima (giant huntsman spider). Giant huntsman spiders have a slightly wider legspan, but they're all gangly legs while birdeater spiders are massive heavy things. Either way, they all reach a legspan of around 12 inches at full size, and by far the easiest one to find in the pet trade is T. blondi. Personally I'm a fan of the gorgeously coloured T. stirmi (burgandy goliath birdeater) and I've honestly never heard of the third species (T. apophysis) being available for sale anywhere. Same goes for the giant huntsman, non-tarantula spiders are much rarer to find as pets.  T. blondi  T. stirmi  H. maxima The famous clock spider is a huntsman of some description. Huntsman spiders are neat in that they're extremely flat and have their legs jointed sideways, allowing them to slide into tiny cracks and underneath cover. They're sometimes called giant crab spiders for this reason, but I think that treads on the territory of Thomisidae, the real crab spiders.
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Nov 21, 2019 16:46
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Just to clarify something I said earlier:my dumb rear end posted:I will probate anyone who talks about the final boss without spoiler tags! Speculating about what the final boss could be is totally okay (and if you manage to guess it correctly, I'll leave it be without comment), but spoiling the final boss without using tags will get you probated.
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Nov 21, 2019 21:41
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I want to say it's George Struggs as a co-op Shadow of the Colossus-style boss where you have to switch between the two protagonists and work together to beat him.
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Nov 21, 2019 23:49
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Commander Keene posted:I want to say it's George Struggs as a co-op Shadow of the Colossus-style boss where you have to switch between the two protagonists and work together to beat him. You somehow came up with an idea that's even better than the actual final boss. Congrats.
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Nov 22, 2019 04:28
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I was going to guess that the final boss is a scorpion spider, but turns out that 1. they're not very dangerous and 2. they live in Africa.
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Nov 22, 2019 15:35
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Wow, this game is absurd. I have never seen or even heard of this before. Based on how this has escalated so far I can only assume the final boss is God. I love that flip phone scene. I don't know if it's related to the main story at all but it feels so ominous how there's just this busted up phone in the middle of the desert that somehow is still operating. To join in the bug chat, my favourite spider is the Black Widow! They're cool as hell, they don't crawl around the place, they just sit in their webs all day and night and eat bugs for you. Big ol' sweeties, just don't accidentally put your arm through their home. Beartaco fucked around with this message at 13:12 on Nov 24, 2019 |
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Nov 24, 2019 12:23
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This is one of my favourite episodes that Roy and I have done so far, on any of our LPs. For context, here is our old Let's Play of GUN we were talking about at the halfway mark of the video. (Also I am terribly sorry for mispronouncing Worf’s name. Please don’t kill me, Trekkies.) theenglishman fucked around with this message at 05:40 on Nov 25, 2019 |
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Nov 25, 2019 04:22
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Beartaco posted:Wow, this game is absurd. I have never seen or even heard of this before. Based on how this has escalated so far I can only assume the final boss is God. Spiders are well known supporters of Castle Doctrine.
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Nov 25, 2019 04:40
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Goddamn, those finishers. The Scorpion is awesome!
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Nov 25, 2019 04:41
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Tarantula hawk wasps are large, beautiful insects and are the number one reminder that nature is horrifying. There's a Charles Darwin quote about their fellow parastic wasps the ichneumonidae that no kind of loving god could have created such a thing. Despite how they're shown in the game, the tarantula hawks (Pompilidae) are solitary insects, and like most parasites they're extremely picky about their prey. Actually, "prey" isn't exactly the right word there, because the adults only eat nectar and are major pollinators of some plant species. In any case, adult female tarantula hawks will first dig a nice deep burrow for her nursery, and will then go out looking for a tarantula. Usually that means a mature male tarantula since they're the ones that go wandering around looking for a mate. Poor bastards can't catch a break. Oddly enough, the wasps tend to tackle the spider on the ground rather than from the air, and it usually doesn't end well for the unfortunate spider, which gets stuck with a vicious looking stinger. The venom is a nasty cocktail that permanently paralyzes the spider while leaving it alive, and the wasp then drags the poor thing back to her nursery chamber burrow. Then she lays a single egg on the spider's body, blocks up the entrance and flies off to repeat the process. Once the larva hatches, it will eat the tarantula alive, saving the vital organs like heart and brain until last so their meal stays alive and fresh for as long as possible. Once they're done, they pupate and metamorphise into adults before flying off to spawn the next generation of flesh-eating horrors.  Towards humans and just about everything that isn't a tarantula they're actually pretty docile. Unlike yellowjackets and other eusocial wasps they don't have a hive to protect and they're big enough and obviously able to defend themselves to the point that they don't have many predators, so they've never evolved a need to be aggressive towards most things. They'll still sting if provoked, and the sting is apparently excruciatingly, blindingly painful for about five minutes and then ends with no real ill effects. Nature is beautiful, nature is wonderful, but one thing nature never, ever is is nice. Mr. Vile fucked around with this message at 07:56 on Nov 25, 2019 |
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Nov 25, 2019 06:18
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 These beauties were actually one of several critters Bogleech covered who make spiders' lives complete Hell:     See his article for more info: here Chimera-gui fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Nov 25, 2019 |
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Nov 25, 2019 06:51
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I'm enjoying how the Scorpion voice is slowly morphing from Yogi Bear as voiced by Rodney Dangerfield into Bernie Sanders: Insect Exterminator.
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Nov 26, 2019 04:01
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I finally recorded all the footage for this LP. Next step: editing out all my aimless wandering searching for those last missing leaf crickets.
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Nov 26, 2019 18:58
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Worth noting is that Cazadores in Fallout: New Vegas are mutated tarantula hawk wasps
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Nov 27, 2019 21:34
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Quick update on upcoming videos: I don't know exactly when the next few videos will be released. Roy and I have recorded commentary up to Chapter 6, and I have all the gameplay footage recorded (editing some of it as we speak), and I hope to get the rest of the LP uploaded ASAP. As for the video format, we will continue to do one chapter per video, except for Chapters 9 and 10, which will be in one video. There is also another behind-the-scenes interview, this time with Dennis Hopper, which will be posted after the final gameplay video as it contains spoilers for the final boss. Thank you all for your patience, and I promise you we will finish the game! I am also considering whether or not to do the rest of the videos as YouTube premieres. Would you be interested in watching the LP episodes live and chatting with fellow goons? Please let me know in the thread either way.
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Nov 29, 2019 16:40
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theenglishman posted:I am also considering whether or not to do the rest of the videos as YouTube premieres. Would you be interested in watching the LP episodes live and chatting with fellow goons? Please let me know in the thread either way. I won't watch it live, so if you do decide to do that, please post in the thread once the video is actually available to watch any time (as well as announcing it in advance).
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Nov 30, 2019 13:45
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Yeah, I have a weird schedule and may not be able to watch live.
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Nov 30, 2019 21:22
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