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so i stayed up until 6am in the morning to play The Passing with MAH BROS ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kuragecircus, nekocrouton, and snapcakes.
then i slept until 3:30 in the afternoon!!! i have not done this...EVER! (one plus to unemployment, i suppose.)anyways, it was totally worth it.
and now, the requisite "The Passing" reaction. Spoilers abound. Also i have only played through it once, in a party full of delighted fannish squealing, so there's a lot i haven't experienced yet. oh dear -
-the atmosphere is fantastic. the zombiefied wedding party at the beginning is creep-tastic and bride!Witch is the most sad/horrifying thing i've seen in this game :0 the zombie reskins and unique building & prop items for the map all have a lot more flavor & color (and i'm not just talking about all the neon, either) than anything in previous levels and it's worlds better than the 'generic industrial setting' that was Crash Course.
-the actual design/layout, though...kinda sucks :/ i mean there seem to be lots of little areas where zombies and SI and well, anything bot-related can easily get hung up on and stuck and the wrap-around nature of the levels means there's probably lots of inexplicable invisible wall stuff that will make getting around a pain in the ass even after i've gotten more familiar with the layout.
-i kinda think this is going to be a terrible map for versus, at least for the infected side - tight quarters tend to favor Survivors unless there's a tank (and i'm pretty sure both times we encountered the Tank, it also got stuck, at least briefly, in the small doorways/windows) and man, that crescendo...where are you going to spawn? i didn't see anything in the water that could block survivor sight, so i guess...the bridge going across? but survivors could easily block that as a spawning point by, um, walking along the side (so the top is always 'in sight') or block it as a launching pad for attacks by walking directly underneath it. and water slowdown is essentially non-existent in VS so that isn't going to act as much of a deterrent.
at least the unlimited pill/adrenaline (and apparently they can be filled with molotovs too) lockers are removed in VS mode from what i've heard.
anyways i could turn out to be wrong (and hope i am) - especially if invisible walls/glitches prove not to be an issue. but given the speed in which the level was put together i would not be surprised if there were lots of gameplay issues. :(
---
because i've only played through the campaign once, i can't really talk much about the interaction between the old survivors and new. our group did get quite a bit of that much-discussed Ellis/Zoey interaction, though.
...and valve, I AM DISAPPOINT.
now, for the record, when i first heard about the "Ellis gets a crush on Zoey!" news, i...didn't really care that much. i mean, i didn't think it would be that interesting but i could see it being cute and in-character from the right angle - like, i could totally see Ellis trying to flirt clumsily with a pretty girl near his own age, especially if said girl was someone he had to, you know, GET ALONG WITH TO SURVIVE.
but the way it's portrayed in-game? Ellis is a total fanboy from the moment he sees her. the way he acts is genuinely unbelievable - he sees Zoey for like, not even 5 minutes and he's instantly "OMG SHE IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING EVER IN THE ENTIRE WORLD I DON'T EVEN CARE SHE JUST DELIVERED SHITTY NEWS IN THE MOST CALLOUS WAY POSSIBLE. SHE'S CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTE!!!" it's like he's a high school freshman trying to ask the head cheerleader on a date, and it's not at all something i would have expected given the way both characters have been portrayed thus far.
not to mention the sort of unpleasant undertones that appear when you compare the way Ellis reacts to first meeting Rochelle to his first meeting with Zoey. from the way Ellis reacts to Zoey, one would think that ALL mildly attractive women would fluster him, but when he first meets Rochelle, he's, you know...a normal human being about it. i mean, is Zoey THAT MUCH PRETTIER (considering he never gets to know much about Zoey aside from how she looks, that's really the only thing that he can be 'attracted' to) than Rochelle that Ellis goes completely head-over-heels 'in love' with her, while showing absolutely no overt interest in Ro even though, at this point, Rochelle's probably saved his life....multiple times?
i don't even ship Ellis/Rochelle. :|
non rant things:
-i am super glad my darling Louis is still alive, but WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR LEG? :'(
-Francis/Rochelle?!? so unexpected, and so well-done that it almost makes up for the clumsy Ellis/Zoey thing.
-so apparently Nick finds Louis to be total awesomesauce from what others are posting. I BET IT'S BECAUSE LOUIS KEEPS HIS WHITE DRESS SHIRT PERFECTLY CLEAN, AND YOU WANT TO ASK HIM HIS SECRET, DON'T YOU NICK. ♥ ♥ ♥
i imagine MAH CREW will be on teh xbawks by the time this is posted, but how do y'all want to try this Realism Versus thing? try to get into one of those GF boards games, or try to gather the non-board people on the flist so we can be on the same team...? or something else?
i'll probably be on around 9-10 pm tonight if you're curious.
kuragecircus, nekocrouton, and snapcakes. then i slept until 3:30 in the afternoon!!! i have not done this...EVER! (one plus to unemployment, i suppose.)anyways, it was totally worth it.
and now, the requisite "The Passing" reaction. Spoilers abound. Also i have only played through it once, in a party full of delighted fannish squealing, so there's a lot i haven't experienced yet. oh dear -
-the atmosphere is fantastic. the zombiefied wedding party at the beginning is creep-tastic and bride!Witch is the most sad/horrifying thing i've seen in this game :0 the zombie reskins and unique building & prop items for the map all have a lot more flavor & color (and i'm not just talking about all the neon, either) than anything in previous levels and it's worlds better than the 'generic industrial setting' that was Crash Course.
-the actual design/layout, though...kinda sucks :/ i mean there seem to be lots of little areas where zombies and SI and well, anything bot-related can easily get hung up on and stuck and the wrap-around nature of the levels means there's probably lots of inexplicable invisible wall stuff that will make getting around a pain in the ass even after i've gotten more familiar with the layout.
-i kinda think this is going to be a terrible map for versus, at least for the infected side - tight quarters tend to favor Survivors unless there's a tank (and i'm pretty sure both times we encountered the Tank, it also got stuck, at least briefly, in the small doorways/windows) and man, that crescendo...where are you going to spawn? i didn't see anything in the water that could block survivor sight, so i guess...the bridge going across? but survivors could easily block that as a spawning point by, um, walking along the side (so the top is always 'in sight') or block it as a launching pad for attacks by walking directly underneath it. and water slowdown is essentially non-existent in VS so that isn't going to act as much of a deterrent.
at least the unlimited pill/adrenaline (and apparently they can be filled with molotovs too) lockers are removed in VS mode from what i've heard.
anyways i could turn out to be wrong (and hope i am) - especially if invisible walls/glitches prove not to be an issue. but given the speed in which the level was put together i would not be surprised if there were lots of gameplay issues. :(
---
because i've only played through the campaign once, i can't really talk much about the interaction between the old survivors and new. our group did get quite a bit of that much-discussed Ellis/Zoey interaction, though.
...and valve, I AM DISAPPOINT.
now, for the record, when i first heard about the "Ellis gets a crush on Zoey!" news, i...didn't really care that much. i mean, i didn't think it would be that interesting but i could see it being cute and in-character from the right angle - like, i could totally see Ellis trying to flirt clumsily with a pretty girl near his own age, especially if said girl was someone he had to, you know, GET ALONG WITH TO SURVIVE.
but the way it's portrayed in-game? Ellis is a total fanboy from the moment he sees her. the way he acts is genuinely unbelievable - he sees Zoey for like, not even 5 minutes and he's instantly "OMG SHE IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING EVER IN THE ENTIRE WORLD I DON'T EVEN CARE SHE JUST DELIVERED SHITTY NEWS IN THE MOST CALLOUS WAY POSSIBLE. SHE'S CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTE!!!" it's like he's a high school freshman trying to ask the head cheerleader on a date, and it's not at all something i would have expected given the way both characters have been portrayed thus far.
not to mention the sort of unpleasant undertones that appear when you compare the way Ellis reacts to first meeting Rochelle to his first meeting with Zoey. from the way Ellis reacts to Zoey, one would think that ALL mildly attractive women would fluster him, but when he first meets Rochelle, he's, you know...a normal human being about it. i mean, is Zoey THAT MUCH PRETTIER (considering he never gets to know much about Zoey aside from how she looks, that's really the only thing that he can be 'attracted' to) than Rochelle that Ellis goes completely head-over-heels 'in love' with her, while showing absolutely no overt interest in Ro even though, at this point, Rochelle's probably saved his life....multiple times?
i don't even ship Ellis/Rochelle. :|
non rant things:
-i am super glad my darling Louis is still alive, but WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR LEG? :'(
-Francis/Rochelle?!? so unexpected, and so well-done that it almost makes up for the clumsy Ellis/Zoey thing.
-so apparently Nick finds Louis to be total awesomesauce from what others are posting. I BET IT'S BECAUSE LOUIS KEEPS HIS WHITE DRESS SHIRT PERFECTLY CLEAN, AND YOU WANT TO ASK HIM HIS SECRET, DON'T YOU NICK. ♥ ♥ ♥
i imagine MAH CREW will be on teh xbawks by the time this is posted, but how do y'all want to try this Realism Versus thing? try to get into one of those GF boards games, or try to gather the non-board people on the flist so we can be on the same team...? or something else?
i'll probably be on around 9-10 pm tonight if you're curious.
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no subject
Date: 2010-04-23 03:26 am (UTC)From:Crouton had to go to bed :( Idfk what Cake is doing, but the Crew totally needs to play Realism Versus together.
Francis/Rochelle actually makes me reallyreallyreallyreallyreally happy. :3
no subject
Date: 2010-04-23 03:34 am (UTC)From:OMG Bride!witch got me on the first try. FAIL.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-23 08:26 pm (UTC)From:if Francis is the survivor you talk to first, Ellis/Zoey dialog never seems to come up. o.o
no subject
Date: 2010-04-23 08:52 pm (UTC)From:I don't see the problem here :P More canon fodder for that Nick/Ellis Zoey/Francis angst fest XD
no subject
Date: 2010-04-23 03:41 am (UTC)From:I played through a few Versus matches with the Laid-Back crew, and actually the SI have quite an advantage in the tight quarters, especially with the Spitter. In the games I played, my team only got to a saferoom once. It was ridiculous, no one could really get through a whole map. We tried Realism Versus as well and holy shit that stuff is ridiculous. D: SO HARD.
I have to go to work tomorrow, so I really shouldn't play any more tonight. :/ But tomorrow night I'm totally up for whatever. :3
no subject
Date: 2010-04-23 04:48 am (UTC)From:I've had a spliiiiiitting headache all night, myself, so when you're back it'll be a full regroup. 8D;
no subject
Date: 2010-04-24 07:02 am (UTC)From:LOL, Francis/Ellis doesn't gross me out as much as Francis/Nick does either. ;D Maybe it's due to the lack of body hair Ellis has, I don't know. :3 Francis/Nick is like... too much testosterone. D:
no subject
Date: 2010-04-23 04:57 am (UTC)From:The whole thing with Nick and Ellis bickering about getting her attention was so awkward and lazy. I've heard that dialogue set twice now and both times I couldn't help feeling all, Ok, so since when are they like this? Rochelle's actual character design isn't stunning, but her model is just as pretty, and the model is what I'd assume the writers would have in mind. So why this sudden forced excitement over a chick they're not going to see again except during a kamikaze run to their stock car? Did the novelty of Rochelle just wear off before they made it out of the mall? WTF?
There's plenty of flirting throughout, but the Ellis/Zoey & Nick/Nick's Ego thing is so emphatic and flamboyant compared to the rest that it gives off really icky vibes that, while probably unintentional, are just fucking unsettling.