The Stanley Parable, PC

[schild]

http://www.stanleyparable.com/

play the demo fuckers

play it

omg

[jakonovski]

Watched a let's play of the demo. Seemed like I wasn't the target audience for the jokes.

[schild]

WHO WATCHES A LETS PLAY OF A DEMO FUCK SERIOUSLY

[koro]

Steam Train had a version of the demo specifically tailored to them.

[schild]

I don't know who that is.

[koro]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOnxXJyOJ0s&list=TLrHsf8QoN_XUq_m619ptmW-smNGmta09h

A Game Grumps spinoff.

[schild]

I don't know who that is either.

I'm not fucking with you.

[schild]

I just scanned through that, thats the regular demo. It really needs to be played, not watched.

[Trouble]

Baffling.

[koro]

Some of the narrator's dialogue has specific Steam Train comments in it, and refers to both Ross and Danny by name.

Either way, I've played the demo myself, and it felt like a whole lot of trying too hard.

[schild]

I didn't get that at all. Trying too hard is tied to the developer/designer, and this guy doesn't strike me like Blow, or that asshat that made Fez.

[Bzalthek]

I'm sold based on this video alone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ-IcS7mRSk

[Nonentity]

Seriously, what is wrong with you people? Listen to schild, don't watch any goddamn videos and just go play the damn thing. It's phenomenal. Then go play the standalone mod.

[Bzalthek]

I'm in the damn demo!  Let's just say: 8

I'm in physical pain

[Falconeer]

It says "OBAMA" in the Discovery Emotional booth  

EDIT: Not wanting to spoiler anything to anyone, so I will put my very first impression under the tag...

[Malakili]

Amazing.

Edit: Is playing the sourcemod good enough, or is it worth waiting for the few days the paid version?

[Nonentity]

Amazing.

Edit: Is playing the sourcemod good enough, or is it worth waiting for the few days the paid version?

As far as I know, the paid version isn't the same as the original mod, but I could be wrong. Based on the things that happen in the original, I don't think it's possible for them to do a 1 for 1 translation into a standalone thing.

[Velorath]

The demo is clever and extremely well put together, but the demo felt like it dragged on a bit too long. The humor made me chuckle a couple of times but nothing on the level of something like Portal.

[schild]

No, it's not as funny as Portal. But then, what is that funny [in games]?

I'm not comparing it to Portal (either in theme or atmosphere). This is more like an actual interactive novel.

The stuff in the isolation chamber was absolute brilliance. And if we're feeling like it's necessary to compare it to Portal, I'd say it was as good as anything in Portal. Also, it was a demo. A Demo. Fuck, who puts that much work into shit like this?

Edit: Yes, I'm aware I just compared it to Portal. Seems like lots of people will. I think that's a mistake. I would compare it to Antechamber before Portal - and this is vastly superior to Antechamber.

[Velorath]

I'm just saying that in the absence of gameplay, if you're going to rely heavily on the writing to keep peoples' interest then it almost needs to be as funny as Portal. Of course that's if humor is what you're going for. I have no idea if the full game is going to use the same writing style or if it's going to go for something completely different.

This demo is absolutely worth playing, but even in just a 20-30 minute demo it had trouble sustaining my interest at times and made me question if I'd really want to play the full version. Just based on the craftsmanship alone, I'd like to support this game. I mean, I don't want to focus completely on the negative here. Like I said there's some pretty clever stuff in the way the demo is presented and how you move through it. The whole thing is very close to being brilliant and I hope the final product can make that leap.

[tazelbain]

Hmm kinda liked it. Kinda disappointed that it wasn't a promo for portal 3.

[tazelbain]

Hmm kinda liked it. Kinda disappointed that it wasn't a promo for portal 3.

[Trouble]

The demo feels kind of like portal with no gameplay, but with a better narrator. I assume that's probably accurate for the actual game too.

[Trouble]

Also, while playing Game Dev Tycoon, I often wondered what a game where you jack the "gameplay" slider all the way to zero would look like. Now I know.

[schild]

I just don't see the "Portal" bits you all are seeing. Is anything that ever comes out in the future without a proper gun and with a narrator that speaks clearly going to be compared to Portal? Are we really as simple as as a lobotomized Roger Ebert?

[ezrast]

It's missing cohesion in a way that bothers me. The narrator oscillates between omnipotent and bewildered, ingratiating and snooty; and the inconsistency makes it feel like each room was just a random thing the developers thought would be clever. That's hard to make work on a scale much larger than 30 minutes unless the devs really are just chock-full of isolation chamber-level inspiration. I agree that it's only superficially like Portal, but as long as we're making comparisons, Portal and Antichamber both established the player's relationship to the game at minute 1 and stuck to that theme, and that provides a lot of appeal.

In general I like what they're doing but the demo really did give me absolutely no idea what to expect from the real game.

[Phildo]

What else would you compare it to?

[Bzalthek]

I think the overarching goal is to fuck with the end user.

[Velorath]

I just don't see the "Portal" bits you all are seeing. Is anything that ever comes out in the future without a proper gun and with a narrator that speaks clearly going to be compared to Portal? Are we really as simple as as a lobotomized Roger Ebert?

You don't see any similarity between two non-combat first-person games running on the same engine where you play a silent protagonist being directed by a humorously written narrator though a complex containing odd tech and which is completely devoid of other people? Granted Portal has better writing and actual gameplay, so maybe that's what's throwing you off.

[ezrast]

I'd compare it first to, like, Photopia or something.

[schild]

What else would you compare it to?

Nothing, really.

I think the overarching goal is to fuck with the end user.

This is quite possible.

[Falconeer]

I just don't see the "Portal" bits you all are seeing. Is anything that ever comes out in the future without a proper gun and with a narrator that speaks clearly going to be compared to Portal? Are we really as simple as as a lobotomized Roger Ebert?

You don't see any similarity between two non-combat first-person games running on the same engine where you play a silent protagonist being directed by a humorously written narrator though a complex containing odd tech and which is completely devoid of other people? Granted Portal has better writing and actual gameplay, so maybe that's what's throwing you off.

This. Add to that the fact that you have no idea why you are in the mysterious complex and that the demo clearly hints that you might want to escape but won't be able to. I have no idea if the actual game is a completely different thing, for all I know there might be an actual game in the full version, or enemies, or no puzzles at all, no jumping, no narrator, no mystery, no captivity, no reference to the fact that you or someone else have been doing the same thing over and over, no creepy sarcasm, no storage rooms with decommitted elements of the facililty, no emotional machineries, no elevator to escape to the surface, and maybe this demo is just a nod, a tribute to Portal, but playing this demo and NOT comparing it to Portal is "trying too hard".

[Yegolev]

Less than five seconds to "GAH!" .... I like it!

[Pennilenko]

 

[Rasix]

You bring berets up a lot.  You're really not as clever or funny as you think you are.

I mean, hell, the title of the game should be sufficient.  This isn't a discussion of Military Bro-Fist 2013: The Shootening.