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Latest Video: Episode 05 - Great Waves (07/21) If you would like to support me and generally keep me on schedule and makin' quality LPs, feel free to join my Patreon- in exchange, you'll get episodes a week early!  Ain't that the million dollar question. When Death Stranding premiered at E3 2016, nobody was really sure what it would be. The trailer was vague, featuring Norman Reedus, a funky fetus, beached whales, and the soothing sounds of Low Roar. Up until its release, things would only get marginally clearer- but at least this time Moby Dick Studio wasn't involved. After the messy split from Konami and the discontinuation of Silent Hills, Kojima Productions was now an indpendent studio, left to do whatever the hell they wanted. And oh boy, did they. On the surface, Death Stranding is about being a package deliveryman in the post-apocalypse, in a world physically torn to shreds by rain that speeds up time for anything it touches. The jagged landscape that remains- which coincidentally looks a lot like Iceland -is desolate, inhospitable, and disconnected. Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus) has the needle and thread that'll sew it back together, one stitch at a time. But it's only kind of about that. The philosophy of Death Stranding is that mankind can and will weather any storm, but it can't be done alone. It's about connecting and reconnecting in a world where it's becoming harder and harder to stick together. It's about persevering when hope seems lost, reaching across dividing lines to grab the hand of your fellow man which may even be extended already. It's about you, and me, and all of us. It's the game's tagline: Tomorrow Is In Your Hands.  Simply put, Death Stranding is one of the most unique and interesting video games to release in a very, very long time. Kojima Productions set out to make something nobody had seen before on such a scale, and I think they pulled it off in spades. Here they've created a game that is gorgeous, immersive, expansive, fascinating, at times emotional, and not at all afraid to ask the player to take things slow. It's a journey. And I'd be glad to have you along for it!  Death Stranding is a game about solitude, but it doesn't really want you to feel alone. There are large stretches of gameplay with little to no interruption, and to that end we'll have a lot of time to talk about... whatever we want! Certain videos will see me flying solo due to a lack of breathing room for commentary, but otherwise I'll be joined by ChaosArgate and liquidypoo for the duration of our trek across America. There will also be optional supplemental videos here and there to break up these stretches of unimpeded gameplay. I suggest you watch them because they'll contain lots of fun development info and tidbits I won't get to mention in the videos proper, as well as handy world building breakdowns!  As always, please don't talk about anything that hasn't been shown in the let's play. Death Stranding is a very long and very slow-paced game, but don't worry, we'll get to everything you're chomping at the bit to talk about in due time.          
CJacobs fucked around with this message at 14:05 on Jul 22, 2020 |
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Apr 25, 2020 20:21
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CJacobs fucked around with this message at 02:20 on Oct 24, 2023 |
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Apr 25, 2020 20:21
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 A bang which gave rise to Kojima Productions. Then, came the next explosion.  Death Stranding hits you with a lot of concepts at once. Eventually they'll all be explained to us but a lot of people feel like it's doled out a little too slowly, so here's a primer on what all these proper nouns actually mean... without spoiling too much.
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Apr 25, 2020 20:21
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Aw yeah, ground floor of the LP! I can't wait for more people to explode with ghost radiation.
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Apr 25, 2020 21:46
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Hell yeah. I love this game... I think. I guess? There's a hell of a lot that I love in this game. Yeah, that's what I'll go with. For all the fuss about dialogue and interminable cutscenes there is still a hell of a lot of video game in this video game and this video game uses all of the video game in it to do stuff, and that it does that and how well it does that are the primary reason I still have such a high opinion of this game despite, uh, some things. Honestly, I think a lot of people have a lot of very good reasons to come out of this game disliking it, but also I think that most of those people will love the experience of coming to those conclusions on their own, playing through. Is it still dislike if that's the case? Who cares, video games. Kojima!
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Apr 25, 2020 21:49
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Might as well see how it changed since release, if at all.
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Apr 25, 2020 22:10
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I'm very curious about this, glad to see an LP of it.
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Apr 25, 2020 22:57
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Hot dang this is gonna be good.
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Apr 25, 2020 23:10
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This is one the most finely crafted games I've played that I gave up on and sold halfway through without any regrets, really looking forward to enjoying it from afar without worrying about the stuff I didn't like dealing with 
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Apr 25, 2020 23:49
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This game seems to inspire lots of, whatever, in people. Curious to see why.
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Apr 26, 2020 00:34
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I kinda jumped into this game at the end of last year, figuring that I’d probably just have a decent time seeing what sort of thing Kojima and co were interested in doing now that they weren’t stuck making metal gear forever. Death Stranding ended up being one of my favorite games of last year. Its truly unique and was a load of fun for me. I’m definitely going to be watching this LP.
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Apr 26, 2020 00:51
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...what? What is this game? This seems like a game that could benefit from a well-edited LP? I guess???????? This is concentrated Kojima, that's all I've got. Good luck on the LP!
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Apr 26, 2020 00:57
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I'm not going to be watching this yet as I want to play it myself first - once it eventually comes out on PC - but good luck with it and I'll probably come back to this later.
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Apr 26, 2020 01:15
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Hey, C-Jakes... I wanna say you are one of my most favorite LPers ever, and your videos have given me untold hours of entertainment. Sincerely, thank you for that. I will not be watching this one, because I have been of the opinion that Kojima is an overrated hack since Metal Gear Solid 2, and Death Stranding looks about as fun to me as a root canal. [insert Unpopular Opinion Puffin here] That being said, the scope of this one is nuts. I want you to know I really do appreciate that you're taking it on all the same, and I hope all the rest of your viewers enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed your other LPs. I'm looking forward to whatever your next one is, and I hope you have fun with this. 
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Apr 26, 2020 01:15
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I've been excitedly waiting for this sense you announced it! I bought this game when it came out but never actually played it and already this LP is tempting me to give it a shot.
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Apr 26, 2020 01:52
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Oh, hey, all that early footage they used for the early trailers was from like the first... 45 minutes? Wow, this is going to be a ride.
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Apr 26, 2020 04:51
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Ashsaber posted:Oh, hey, all that early footage they used for the early trailers was from like the first... 45 minutes? Wow, this is going to be a ride. Hahaha this is exactly how I felt. I was like "boy I can't wait to see how all those mid-game scenes from the pre-release materials come about... oh... oh I've seen them all already. Oh god."
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Apr 26, 2020 05:11
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Somebody keep a tally of how many times we see Norman Reedus's butt. I got this at launch and still haven't beaten it because I keep getting distracted by shiny things. Still pick it up from time to time and just wander around doing things. It really is goddamn gorgeous.
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Apr 26, 2020 05:26
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KeiraWalker posted:I will not be watching this one, because I have been of the opinion that Kojima is an overrated hack since Metal Gear Solid 2, and Death Stranding looks about as fun to me as a root canal. [insert Unpopular Opinion Puffin here] That's the worst opinion it's possible to have!
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Apr 26, 2020 11:56
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Crane Fist posted:That's the worst opinion it's possible to have!
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Apr 26, 2020 13:00
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It's just an opinion! Goonspeed CJacobs. I look forward to you showing me Reedus butt!
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Apr 26, 2020 15:16
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I don't understand the love for Kojima or big name celebrities. I only care if the game is good enough to play.
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Apr 26, 2020 17:52
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I think it's worth giving Death Stranding a chance, because the worst that can happen is you come to the conclusion that it's not for you and turn it off.  I very much disagree with the position many people take on Kojima, that he fancies himself a mysterious complex auteur and so on. He seems like a pretty normal (edit: well, "normal") guy who loves creating stuff to me. There's one particular spot in the LP where I plan on talking about this in the videos themselves but for now just know that I feel the popular image of Kojima as a dude up his own rear end is very exaggerated. And if you do feel that way, this game might change your mind because it has a tendency to do that for such folks. CJacobs fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Apr 26, 2020 |
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Apr 26, 2020 17:54
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I like Kojima because he does not do half-measures. There's a lot to be said for a good subtle touch but the imagination and scenes he brings to the table are insane in what I've found to generally be pretty entertaining and awesome ways.
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Apr 26, 2020 18:42
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CJacobs posted:I think it's worth giving Death Stranding a chance, because the worst that can happen is you come to the conclusion that it's not for you and turn it off. The popular cliche criticism of Kojima is that he "needs an editor". This is... sort of actually true, but frequently for a meaning of "editor" that's not what the people saying this thing have in mind. The editor Kojima needs isn't a ruthless volume cutter, but a localisation editor. Kojima is - I am told, by people who play his games in the original Japanese in which they were written and whose opinions on these things I take seriously - actually a really good writer, with a resonant, poetic style. Unfortunately, he also likes to personally oversee the localisation of his work, and insists on very literal translations that come off as variously overwrought or stilted in English, and which a lot of people who don't come in expecting it frequently find offputting. The evidence of this is all over Metal Gear; see the saga of Jeremy Blaustein and compare and contrast the codecs and cutscenes in MGSs 2, 3 and 4 with the same things in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, which was localised by 8-4 and not by KojiPro. In the opening moments of Death Stranding, we've had "Once, there was an explosion, a bang which __________, and then came the next bang". I found this immediately jarring. I suspect the original Japanese was beautifully poetic to fluent Japanese speakers, though. Fortunately, this is largely an in-the-moment issue with dialogue, and the broader strokes of Kojima plots are usually able to come together in retrospect and work on all the levels they're intended to work on. Death Stranding in particular (talking only about it as a story here) is a work that I kinda hated after a while playing through, but kinda loved in retrospect after it all came together. The other thing Kojima really really needs is a good UI/UX guy, because, uh. Well, we'll get to that later.
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Apr 26, 2020 18:47
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Looking forward to this LP. I do have one question though for you CJacobs are you worried about copyright strikes for the music at all? I remember trying to watch LP's and walkthroughs of this game when it was first released and pretty much all my go to channels had to mute massive amounts of game play to avoid copyright strikes.
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Apr 26, 2020 20:29
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Nah, nothing will get me a strike, don't worry. I streamed the whole game blind on the week it came out, and when I decided to do the LP I exported the archives to YT just to check. Several copyright claims, but none that mute or block the video. The folks who muted sections of the game likely did so themselves to avoid a claim so they could keep the video monetized, but I don't really care about that. All I care about is keeping it viewable for everyone and as far as I can tell we won't run into that problem thankfully (there might be ads on videos with licensed songs in them though).
CJacobs fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Apr 26, 2020 |
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Apr 26, 2020 21:03
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The C stands for cardio.
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Apr 26, 2020 21:49
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Sylphosaurus posted:I´m pretty much in the same camp as KeiraWalker since I have nowhere the same love for Kojima as most goons have on this forum. Imagine declaring that an overrated hack made MGS3, which is like objectively one of the best examples of what a game can be
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Apr 26, 2020 22:26
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Crane Fist posted:Imagine declaring that an overrated hack made MGS3, which is like objectively one of the best examples of what a game can be EDIT: Not trying to be an rear end in a top hat to C.Jacobs and I´ll try to reserve judgement until I´ve watched a few videos. Sylphosaurus fucked around with this message at 13:02 on Apr 27, 2020 |
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Apr 26, 2020 22:42
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CJacobs posted:Nah, nothing will get me a strike, don't worry. I streamed the whole game blind on the week it came out, and when I decided to do the LP I exported the archives to YT just to check. Several copyright claims, but none that mute or block the video. The folks who muted sections of the game likely did so themselves to avoid a claim so they could keep the video monetized, but I don't really care about that. All I care about is keeping it viewable for everyone and as far as I can tell we won't run into that problem thankfully (there might be ads on videos with licensed songs in them though).
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Apr 26, 2020 23:09
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Holy cow, that's a hell of an intro! Looking forward to seeing the rest of what this has in store!
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Apr 27, 2020 01:28
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Scalding Coffee posted:Youtube will always be an arbitrary rear end in a top hat on the smallest stuff and changes policy by the day. What backup can you use? I do have a Vimeo account just in case but I really don't think it'll be an issue. Ludvig Forssell was asked about the copyright claim policy for the game a while back and he said they were working it out with the copyright holders such that videos featuring licensed audio would not get blocked or muted. Did an agreement get settled on? I dunno! Only one way to find out. The music and musical sequences are necessary inclusions- the game loses SO MUCH of its impact without them -so don't worry, getting rid of them ain't gonna happen either way. edit: For reference, this video and the next both feature licensed songs (the next video has TWO of 'em!) and neither one even has a copyright claim at the moment. 
CJacobs fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Apr 27, 2020 |
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Apr 27, 2020 01:46
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Hard to imagine a more thematic game given the situation; looking forward to seeing more of this. It doesn't seem like they got terribly far away from Knot city before everything went to hell. Hopefully that massive explosion didn't wipe the place out. 
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Apr 27, 2020 02:23
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I loved this game when it came out and im looking forwards to seeing your lp of it Cjacobs. Looking forward to it.
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Apr 27, 2020 02:52
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Welp, this game definitely looked like a thing! And I do like your let's plays, sooooooooo...I'm in!
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Apr 27, 2020 06:50
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Did I miss when they mentioned what BT stands or do we not know yet? Not going to risk googling it in case it's a massive spoiler or somesuchKibayasu posted:The C stands for cardio. The C stands for Can't Believe He's Doing This To Himself, Dude Slow Down
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Apr 27, 2020 09:00
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I look forward to seeing this.
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Apr 27, 2020 10:10
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Crane Fist posted:Did I miss when they mentioned what BT stands or do we not know yet? Not going to risk googling it in case it's a massive spoiler or somesuch You didn't, they did not explain what BT stands for yet. CJacobs did cover this in the supplemental video though (without spoiling anything). BB stands for Bridge Baby which they did say, which might imply that BT stands for Bridge T____. Dunno what the T stands for in that case though.
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Apr 27, 2020 10:17
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BT stands for Bridges Toucher, and we know what happens when they touch a Bridges member.
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Apr 27, 2020 11:15
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