Psychonauts

[geldonyetich2]

I admit, my necroing this thread had a similar goal.  Get out your pen, ye who fear platformers so much as to pass up this gold.

[RUiN 427]

i found myself playing this again for a couple hours before work today. I kept picking out a couple things that are in the most recent platformer games. some elements in mario galaxy and ratchet and clank future. When i played this around it's release i was suer stoked on it. I loved tha rt style. But there are a couple bummers on this 360 version. No wide screen, and the jaggies realli stick out in high def. But this will always be one of my favs.

[Rasix]

After about an hour or so in.. uhh... I'm not quite sure I get the love.  I'll likely finish it, but the platformy bits are already a bit clunky.

[schild]

I wasn't a big fan either. I also thought the writing was trying too hard. And the character design angered me.

[geldonyetich2]

You really need a gamepad to appreciate the platforming, the mouse and keyboard interface is competently enough done but "competently" isn't good enough for a platformer.

It's mostly the character of the game that fishes you in.  If you're not enjoying it by the time you've delved through the second mind, I guess you just hate the style.

[Prospero]

Two bits of advice:

1) Play with the world. For me at least half the fun is poking at the world. I highly recommend showing the red button to Elka(the prissy one.) They put an amazing amount of cool little interactions in the world. Using your powers on people is also amusing. Talk to everyone.

2) The basic braining is boring part. The game kicks it up a notch once you can start shooting and stuff. The basic gameplay is very standard 3D platform-y stuff, but the levels end up being very interesting after you finish basic braining.

Bonus advice: Don't go too crazy collecting early on while at the camp. A number of psy cards are a helluva a lot easier to get later. Spending too much time try to collect them early on makes the camp part boring.

I'm a huge fan of the game, so I admit to being completely biased. The game mechanics aren't always inspired, but most of the level design is genius. I''m a sucker for a rich, interesting environment, and Psychonauts delivers that in spades. The writer was the same guy who did Portal, so make sure to suck as much dialog as you can out of the characters.

[geldonyetich2]

The writer was the same guy who did Portal

That aught to get some peoples' interest. ;)

[Rasix]

You really need a gamepad to appreciate the platforming, the mouse and keyboard interface is competently enough done but "competently" isn't good enough for a platformer.

I got in on XBL.  The controls are decent. 

[Phildo]

Loved this game when it first came out.  Mostly for the level design and the writing.

[luckton]

Rise from your grave, you beautiful piece of gaming, and receive your creator's blessings.

- Now supports SteamPlay, which means the two of you on Mac can play this now, along with cloud-based save files.
- The original XBox achievements have been imported to Steam.
- The "Meat Circus" got an overhaul.

Additionally, there's now an app for that.

Guess I now have plenty of excuses to to replay this again :D

[Prospero]

There are not words for how happy this makes me. It was about time for another play through anyway.

[luckton]

The XBox controller is apparently now fully supported as well...you used to have to use a mod to get it to work on PC.

[Prospero]

How civilized! I remember trying it and throwing my hands up in disgust.

[cironian]

“We are really excited,” said Double Fine president Tim Schafer in a press release, “to finally be answering fans’ requests for a more difficult Meat Circus.”

 

[luckton]

My reaction exactly 

[Vaiti]

Interesting little reference in the latest Alice game.

[Sir T]

A MORE difficult meat circus? That end section had me gnawing my fingernails down to the elbow in frustration. 

[Prospero]

Apparently DoubleFine needs to use green text.

[stray]

I like all of his games, but this one literally made me well. Maybe it was a bad day, but I blame the milkman level.

I had the same problem in that PS3 game Infamous..too much upside down crawling and perspective switching, I think.