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  The Dark Pictures Anthology games are quite similar to Supermassive's super-massive hit, Until Dawn. A bit smaller in scope compared to that game, the Dark Pictures games still follow the formula of narrative-driven horror, where you make choices that has an impact on how the stories play out. These impacts can very in significance; altering one character's relationship with another, how characters behave over the course of the game, what information you do or don't gather, or even if characters live or die. I'm once again going into a game blind, but I do know the premise has to do with a group of people finding themselves in a small town with connections to the witch trials of Colonial America, and they are seemingly being terrorized by ghosts of the past. They've got to figure out what's going on and try to survive their ordeal, and I've got to try and figure out what's going on and try to make choices that help them to survive. I originally planned to do this playthrough a year ago, but if you keep up with what I do, you know I like to do my little Part 0 intros that offer up some background on development of the game, or talk about some of the stuff the game is based on. As a result, I ended up doing far too much research (and yet, still not enough) into the history of witch trials to put together a video essay on it for all of you. Maybe it's stuff you were already aware of, or maybe you knew as little about this as I did before I started looking up the info. Regardless, I hope you enjoy it. OTHER LINKS YOU MIGHT WANT TO CHECK OUT Until Dawn Playlist Man of Medan Playlist My channel! Please consider subscribing PayPal donation link, if you'd like to show some support Patreon link, if you'd like to show some more long-term support                The Curator's Cut    
Jamesman fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Dec 20, 2022 |
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Oct 12, 2022 18:45
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Spoiler Policy: At the very least, please tag your spoilers. But since this is a story-heavy game with some mystery to it, it'd be super cool of you to just not post about anything that hasn't yet happened in a video I've posted.
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Oct 12, 2022 18:54
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Quick question for you, how much of this game have you gotten recorded? For anyone who doesn't know, Little Hope and Man of Medan both got some significant updates a few weeks ago. They changed quite a few things to make them more in line with some of the QOL additions that are in House of Ashes but they also caused some pretty significant breaks in both games. Man of Medan got it worse, but Little Hope isn't without its issues as a result of this. I don't think it should effect anything too badly here but you never know. Speaking of that update, Man of Medan actually got a new chunk of gameplay added in with a scene that wasn't in the game originally. It features a gameplay mechanic that wasn't in the game originally but first pops up here in Little Hope. One other thing, of course you recognized the characters from the prologue and the main game but how many of those character models were also in Man of Medan? Quite a few. Dennis/Daniel was also Charlie from the beginning of Man of Medan, for example. Tanya's boyfriend from the beginning was Junior, Vince was Olson and the passerby that saw Anthony run back into the burning house was Danny. I know it's just Supermassive reusing character models to save money but it also gives the games a sort of reparatory theater feel and something fun to look for between games, among other little Easter eggs.
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Oct 13, 2022 00:25
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Boardroom Jimmy posted:Quick question for you, how much of this game have you gotten recorded? For anyone who doesn't know, Little Hope and Man of Medan both got some significant updates a few weeks ago. They changed quite a few things to make them more in line with some of the QOL additions that are in House of Ashes but they also caused some pretty significant breaks in both games. Man of Medan got it worse, but Little Hope isn't without its issues as a result of this. I don't think it should effect anything too badly here but you never know. I have finished my main playthrough. I was about halfway through the game when the patch dropped. You'll see exactly how much that hosed everything up.
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Oct 13, 2022 02:40
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Oct 13, 2022 21:41
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Mirror mirror in the fog, adding brightness was such a good idea. I'm glad your having a spooky time.
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Oct 14, 2022 05:25
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grandalt posted:Mirror mirror in the fog, adding brightness was such a good idea. I'm glad your having a spooky time. In the past, I've had to up the brightness in these games, but it was mostly for the sake of the viewer. This time though, things are just incredibly dark and I never looked back after maxing that poo poo out.
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Oct 15, 2022 01:21
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 So I would like to hear from you guys about a few things; 1. How did I do on my little history essay? 2. Whether you've experienced this game before or not, what are your impressions about the game up to this point? Remember, no spoilers, please. 3. My approach this time around is different from Man of Medan or Until Dawn, where I caught up on things as I went along. Which approach do you prefer?
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Oct 17, 2022 22:22
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The history essay was pretty interesting. Wouldn't mind seeing another one if you think it'd be relevant. I think I might prefer this approach to the Until Dawn/Man of Medan one if only because by doing that, you ended up somewhat spoiling yourself on the story. Not saying it won't happen with this one but I think there's less of a chance with this setup. So about the pictures. The totems in Until Dawn had 5 categories while The Dark Pictures only has 2. The best way to think about them is the white framed ones combine the red, yellow and white totems. So danger, guidance or fortune, it could be any of those. The black framed ones, obviously, are just the black and brown totems combined. And of course the special gold framed one which just acts as a teaser for the next game. You saw the one in Man of Medan and actually had it come true in this. If you remember, it showed Tanya slipping off the balcony and accidentally hanging herself while Anthony watched in horror. Also, I've never heard that dialogue with Taylor looking at the effigy on the rock along the roadside. I always thought it was just something to notice and build a little atmosphere. And I couldn't help but notice that your recap footage was recorded after the latest patch.
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Oct 17, 2022 22:33
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1. I liked the essay as it is a good way to keep in your mind and the viewers some of things that this story draws on. 2. It definitely had me wondering what was going on and lurking in the dark. 3. Hmm, well I'm not sure. Its been too long to remember how it compares with the man of medan method. Also, running girl in the back at 34.:02, same one that the bus driver saw.
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Oct 17, 2022 22:46
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Boardroom Jimmy posted:And I couldn't help but notice that your recap footage was recorded after the latest patch. Yes, I got about halfway through the main playthrough before the patch. It will become VERY obvious when that change takes place. So a lot of the recap footage will be taken from the current version of the game, which I believe is 1.09. But I do have all my footage still, so there might be some moments pre-patch in there as well, as needed. Boardroom Jimmy posted:I think I might prefer this approach to the Until Dawn/Man of Medan one if only because by doing that, you ended up somewhat spoiling yourself on the story. I wouldn't necessarily say it spoiled the games for me, but I definitely changed the experience by making sure I was all caught up on everything there was to have seen, which gave me a more unique perspective as I progressed through the games. Especially Until Dawn. I was basically giving myself a much larger opportunity to be observant of the things going on through revisiting things. And I liked that approach, because I felt that it resulted in an experience I could share that was different from many other playthroughs out there, by being able to break everything down how I did. But I did want to try having a more "authentic" experience with seeing how things would play out for me by allowing myself to miss out on information, while still hopefully implementing the wrap-up stuff for the viewer in a similar way to those other playthroughs. I actually kinda think Until Dawn is my favorite LP I've done.
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Oct 18, 2022 00:46
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Oct 21, 2022 19:19
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So that magazine you find early on in this that mentions ice climbing and that TV show. The host of that TV show is actually going to be one of the main characters in the next Dark Pictures game, The Devil In Me. There's all these neat little easter eggs regarding both past and future games for people who've played them all so far.
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Oct 21, 2022 20:40
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Oh jeez, I stumbled upon this later than I wish I had; I've only seen the intro video, but thought I'd contribute a little: I'm actually descended from a victim of the trials in the area. She wasn't killed in Salem, but in Amesbury. Her name was Susanna Martin, and she has a song about her, evidently mostly taken verbatim from texts at the time. I'll definitely be playing catch up with this, just thought some people might find it vaguely interesting.
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Oct 22, 2022 21:50
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It's cool that you're able to trace your history like that. I hope it's not too personal to ask, but does your family see any lasting impacts from that, or is it just kind of a neat little anecdote nowadays?
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Oct 23, 2022 00:58
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If I were to jump in on these games, since it seems that I have most of them due to PS+, which one should I start with or are there titles which I can safely skip?
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Oct 23, 2022 12:10
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Sylphosaurus posted:If I were to jump in on these games, since it seems that I have most of them due to PS+, which one should I start with or are there titles which I can safely skip? Each game is it's own story, and there doesn't appear to be any major gameplay tweaks between them that makes previous games feel dated in comparison, so you could play them in any order or skip ones that you think won't appeal to you. If we're including Until Dawn, absolutely go with that first. If we're going with just the Anthology games, I have only played Man of Medan and Little Hope so far, so I can't say where House of Ashes ranks in there. Also haven't played The Quarry yet. But I would say Man of Medan, so long as the current patch for it hasn't messed up the game the way it did for Little Hope. For me, a lot of the appeal these games have is to see how others experience the games. What choices they make, what secrets they find, what they think about the stories, etc. It really expands upon my own experience and opinions on the games to be able to spend more time with them and see the different paths the stories can take. So after playing one of them, I'd definitely recommend checking out more playthroughs on YouTube or Twitch.
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Oct 23, 2022 18:17
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Jamesman posted:It's cool that you're able to trace your history like that. I hope it's not too personal to ask, but does your family see any lasting impacts from that, or is it just kind of a neat little anecdote nowadays? It's more a neat anecdote than anything. As a side note, one of the pieces of "evidence" against her was that she was found at the end of a muddy street with a clean skirt. So she must have flown, because no woman would lift her skirt to walk down a muddy road, or something like that.
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Oct 23, 2022 20:39
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Jamesman posted:For me, a lot of the appeal these games have is to see how others experience the games. What choices they make, what secrets they find, what they think about the stories, etc. It really expands upon my own experience and opinions on the games to be able to spend more time with them and see the different paths the stories can take. So after playing one of them, I'd definitely recommend checking out more playthroughs on YouTube or Twitch. That is such a true statement. I went back and watched your Until Dawn LP a few months ago and then decided to go looking for other blind LPs of it. It's fascinating watching people take in the same information and how they process it. It's a really fun rabbit hole to go down if you're interested in that sort of thing. Doubly so if they've also played any or all of the Dark Pictures games too.
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Oct 24, 2022 04:37
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You just need to be careful of how people handle their commentary, if they've played multiple games in the series. When watching other people's playthroughs of these games, I noticed a few of them would pretty much spoil the other games through their commentary when they'd make comparisons. I honestly can't remember if I did the same thing in my Man of Medan playthrough, but it's something I'm trying to be very conscious of in this game and be vague when referring to the previous games.
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Oct 24, 2022 06:02
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 In case it's not clear, I'm having a really hard time taking this game seriously and finding it scary. What's your experience with it? Am I being unfair to the game?
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Oct 24, 2022 20:06
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The general consensus is that Little Hope is the weakest of the 3 Dark Pictures games so far. Most of the scares are pretty predictable but there might be one or two moments that get you. It's really trying to get that Silent Hill style atmosphere and build a sense of looming dread but how successful they were at that is debatable.
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Oct 24, 2022 21:56
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Oct 28, 2022 19:09
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 Something actually happens? Can it truly be?
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Oct 30, 2022 21:56
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Looks like you had a bit of an issue figuring out it was keep pressing button and not just the one button in time. Now, the hunt begins.
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Oct 31, 2022 00:10
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So a lot of those things added with the update bring the 1st 2 games more in line with what they did in House of Ashes. The difficulty settings and aiming system specifically are what you'll find in House of Ashes. The keep calm moments in that game only have you switch buttons on hard and it's the same here now. This is all meant to have the games play somewhat consistently between them. Now we just need Supermassive to fix what broke with these patches. They are aware and working on fixes so there's that. Hopefully they fix everything before The Devil In Me releases.
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Nov 1, 2022 01:41
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Boardroom Jimmy posted:So a lot of those things added with the update bring the 1st 2 games more in line with what they did in House of Ashes. The difficulty settings and aiming system specifically are what you'll find in House of Ashes. The keep calm moments in that game only have you switch buttons on hard and it's the same here now. This is all meant to have the games play somewhat consistently between them. Now we just need Supermassive to fix what broke with these patches. They are aware and working on fixes so there's that. Hopefully they fix everything before The Devil In Me releases. Thanks for that info. I really don't know what the "default" difficulty was for the game before this update, but I guess it was somewhere between medium and hard. And I figured that targeting thing was a deliberate change, but pretty awkward to deal with since it's harder to tell where to aim. You kinda just move the stick around until it changes and hope that happens within the time limit. If that's what things are like in House of Ashes, I hope it works better there by actually being implemented from the start.
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Nov 2, 2022 07:23
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 Spooky season may be over, but the spooks never stop here at James Plays Games! Or... they never start, because this game has failed to scare me at any point. According to the wiki for this game, this video is the start of Act 2. Breaking down all the chapters in each act, Act 1 is as long as Acts 2 and 3 combined, which would explain why things felt so drat slow and underwhelming to me. I'm sure my play style dragged things out even more, but it really does feel like terrible planning to have the first half of your game be set up like this. It certainly felt like Until Dawn and Man of Medan did a much better job of setting things up more quickly, or at least were paced much better.
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Nov 3, 2022 20:30
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I think this part is thought as spookier as the monsters are now chasing us instead of just lurking around.
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Nov 4, 2022 03:36
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My PS4 suddenly decided it's no longer going to turn on and I can't afford to replace it. Edit: Getting it looked at for possible repairs now and will hear back after a few days. As it stands, I do have a few more videos all taken care of, but there are future ones that required some more footage included. Things will hopefully be OK, but if you wanna help me out at all, well, you know where the links are. Edit Edit: Some things may be happening. I've received an extremely kind offer from someone for their PS4 Pro, and I've received a generous donation from someone which would cover that cost. If anything else comes up, I will let you know. Jamesman fucked around with this message at 00:24 on Nov 5, 2022 |
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Nov 4, 2022 21:43
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 An excuse for me to share some more stuff I learned when researching witch trials. Also a little wrap-up that starts to put the pieces together for what's going on in this game.
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Nov 10, 2022 20:38
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So you actually did miss a secret in the museum. When you were looking at the land seizure writ, you could look down to find the plaque that was underneath it to get some more info on it.
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Nov 10, 2022 21:09
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I'll try to re-check for this when I'm able to.
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Nov 11, 2022 01:37
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A strange building, that museum. Makes you wonder if the times are accurate of when people are are.
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Nov 11, 2022 17:50
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Nov 21, 2022 20:16
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Nov 27, 2022 20:05
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Nov 29, 2022 21:21
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 So, that's the main game over and done with. As you've already been able to tell, I was very underwhelmed by Little Hope, but I would really like to hear your thoughts on it as we now head into the Curator's Cut. I've consumed other playthroughs of the game, and I've seen a range of opinions on it. So while I know I'm not alone in disliking it, I also know that there are many people who did end up enjoying the game. So do you see where I'm coming from, or do you disagree with how negative I am on the game? I also feel like the Curator's Cut is going to be a bit underwhelming, in terms of content, so I'll be going through that with the intention of everyone getting additional Locked Traits, getting a different ending, and collecting that final Secret.
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Nov 30, 2022 19:26
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So this is why it's kinda hard to talk about Little Hope without giving away the whole story. You pretty much figured it out around when the Curator more or less tells you with his card trick. But even the hints he gives (that you didn't take) make it pretty obvious. But there are some subtle hints about the twist pretty early on. One of the earliest ones happens at the bar. If you remember, John and Daniel play darts and John distinctly hits three separate areas of the dart board. But when you exit the bar, Vince goes to the dart board and takes all 3 from the bullseye. And there was a pretty big hint based on absence. Did you notice that that Curator never appears when any of the group could potentially die? That's a pretty big clue as well although you have to know what you're looking for to notice he isn't there. Anyway, don't let this game spoil you on playing House of Ashes or The Devil in Me as both are really good. And although the aiming system works the same as these post update, they were always meant to have that and it's a bit easier to tell where to aim. That and there's no major issues since the update for MoM and LH brought them in line with the newer ones.
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Nov 30, 2022 22:21
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I was intending on doing some videos on the Curator's Cut, but the game is crashing for me when I try to play through it. Just like what happened with my main playthrough, in the same area. Although I was able to rectify the problem then by starting a fresh save on the current patch, this is a fresh save on the current patch, so I don't really have any other options I could try, short of starting the game up on another platform. I don't believe you would be missing much, though. The Curator's Cut is a playthrough of the game, but from the perspectives of the characters you didn't control in the Theatrical Cut. So in a chapter you played as Andrew, you might now play as Angela. Things like that. But you might have noticed that, for the most part, the characters spend most of the game together, and even when they do separate, the game has you playing through each group's experience. In other words, there isn't really anything new to see, aside from choosing responses with different characters, and none of those will really alter the way things play out like they did in Man of Medan. We don't even have any other secrets to collect. So I'll instead try putting together a final wrap-up video that will hopefully show off a couple more things I wanted to, and we'll call this a finished playthrough. Just give me a few more days, provided my PS4 holds out a little longer.
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Dec 8, 2022 02:54
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