Life is Strange

Ooop, touched a nerve...

I like most of your posts generally; I just didn't like this one. It came off as narrow-minded. You entered the thread not to share your own opinion of the game but to ridicule people who might be interested in it.

If playing a game where the main character is a girl makes you feel like a creep, then it's probably best that you keep a distance from the game. It probably means you're a dirty old man.
 
Yes I am. LOL. Not really, happily married and monogamous 26 years. Sorry I went over the edge here, not like me. Please accept my apologies if I offended anyone trying to make a poor joke.

:sad:
 
First of all, you don't know me.

Second, the character does nothing for my own sexual identity. It just seems a little creepy for a 50 year old man to be "playing as", "taken on the persona of", whatever you want to call it...of that of a high school aged female.

This is like me saying you "doth protest too much" means it's actually you that's insecure about the whole matter. We can run in circles on this all day, so I'm done. I am here for fun and games and not debating much, especially a handbag fight where both sides come away looking like old ladies. If you need a "win" here, it's all yours...I'm manly enough to take it. LOL. :grin:

The fact you need to keep bringing up how "manly" you are is telling.

Does every game need to be this macho man main character in order for you to play?

What are your favorite games from this and last gen so far? Just curious.
 
  • Like
Reactions: oo Yungstar oo
The fact you need to keep bringing up how "manly" you are is telling.

Does every game need to be this macho man main character in order for you to play?

What are your favorite games from this and last gen so far? Just curious.

Good Lord, I've never brought up my manliness before, it's sorta the topic at hand so yes it is mentioned. Not going to go on trial answering the prosecution. I apologized, move on and find another place to bash your handbag.
 
Good Lord, I've never brought up my manliness before, it's sorta the topic at hand so yes it is mentioned. Not going to go on trial answering the prosecution. I apologized, move on and find another place to bash your handbag.

Well, just curious, I said. No need to take offense so easily.
 
Oh, ok. Sorry, I'm not much into debating and it looked like I was being setup. My favorite games are golf game, Fifa, racers, and maybe more to the point here one of my favorites last gen was Tomb Raider. The trailer here seems a bit emo, high schoolish, and something that gave me an emotion that would be weird for me to get into the game. I may even feel the same way had the character been a high school boy.

Ok, I'm done here. Game is not my style, no further comment needed on my part.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DriedMangoes
Yes I am. LOL. Not really, happily married and monogamous 26 years. Sorry I went over the edge here, not like me. Please accept my apologies if I offended anyone trying to make a poor joke.

:sad:

It's okay, I think you were joking around in the beginning, and it got a little out of hand somehow. I was probably a little quick with the comebacks, so I'll apologize, too. You're a good man, I like your contribution to the forum, I don't really want to run afoul of you. It wouldn't bother me to make enemies of certain people, but I'd prefer to stay on friendly terms with you.
 
The trailer here seems a bit emo, high schoolish, and something that gave me an emotion that would be weird for me to get into the game.

That's my concern, too. The trailer makes me wonder if the story/dialog will be too "emo" or too "adolescent angst" for me. Or, as I put it before, I'm concerned that it will feel like it's written for teenagers. It's hard to tell, though, just from the trailer. It's really just a musical montage. But that's not going to be the game itself. It was the previewers' comments in the trailer that made me pay attention. They seemed to find something promising in it, and they cited a bunch of games I like.
 
This thread is in the need for a good bro hug.
 
I caught sight of this game only today, and I will be looking forward to some reviews. Like some said it might be tad too "emo" or sentimental, but that is not wrong in itself. That kind of stories do get buried in the creator's uncontrolled emotions from time to time, but once done right it is actually very enjoyable. Not sure of Dontnod's ability to get the story right, but if they do, I'll be the first to play.
 
10919072.gif

"Highschools such a serious place... these problems matter!!"

That's all I could think of when I watched that trailer. It does look interesting though, my only gripe is that it's episodic, which I'm not very fond of.
 
Here are a couple of videos I found informative.

The first is a sample of gameplay. It reminded me of Heavy Rain, at least superficially (wandering around a rather ordinary setting, able to click on objects for story background).



This video helped me to understand more about the studio and design philosophy. I like their emphasis on story and characters, and their willingness to do things differently. Funny that a lot of studios suggested they change the character's gender. I'm not really into indie movies, but I guess this game has a similar tone ("nostalgia," they say).

 
Last edited:
It's so stupid that all of the other publishers would refuse to publish the game all because they did not want or like a female protagonist. Women aren't the boogie man. I really hate publishers in general just because they always want to meddle in game development when they should just stick to publishing and advertising the game as is.

But I can't wait for the PS4 release.
 
It's so stupid that all of the other publishers would refuse to publish the game all because they did not want or like a female protagonist. Women aren't the boogie man. I really hate publishers in general just because they always want to meddle in game development when they should just stick to publishing and advertising the game as is.

I feel the same in a way, but otoh, I can understand the publishers' concern, from a business perspective. The gaming audience is composed largely of conventional young boys/men who might be uncomfortable with a game where the main characters are girls. It's all a bit sad and narrow to me, because I think story telling is all about engaging yourself in a world other than your own. But I can see their point, from a marketing/monetary perspective -- male leads are inherently a safer bet. I'm assuming that sales of the game will suffer because it's about girls rather than boys. *shrug* Oh well. I just hope it's interesting.
 
Last edited:
Here's a demo of the first 17 minutes or so. I didn't watch it, because I know I'm going to buy the game and want to avoid spoilers, but it might be useful for anyone who's on the fence. It'll give you a sense of the early gameplay.

 
  • Like
Reactions: Plainview
I feel the same in a way, but otoh, I can understand the publishers' concern, from a business perspective. The gaming audience is composed largely of conventional young boys/men who might be uncomfortable with a game where the main characters are girls. It's all a bit sad and narrow to me, because I think story telling is all about engaging yourself in a world other than your own. But I can see their point, from a marketing/monetary perspective -- male leads are inherently a safer bet. I'm assuming that sales of the game will suffer because it's about girls rather than boys. *shrug* Oh well. I just hope it's interesting.

What I find weird is it's a story whose main character is an American Teenage girl, written by European, 30-40 year-old males, lol.

I've never had a problem playing as a female character, and I don't think most people do, really. Just look at the success of Tomb Raider. I think some worry goes into when the protagonist isn't an action star, really, and that applies to male and females. This style of story is going to have niche appeal regardless- look at Heavy Rain. If your are funding something, then you want to get it the largest chance of success. The problem comes when they handle the approach in such a ham-fisted fashion.
 
What I find weird is it's a story whose main character is an American Teenage girl, written by European, 30-40 year-old males, lol.

Yeah, I'm wondering how well they'll capture the dialog. Most of the development team is French. What I've heard of the dialog (just a snippet, really) seemed a bit too literate-sounding, for a 14 year old American girl. There's a part where she quotes some poet. I guess we'll see how it turns out, but I'm guessing the dialog might seem a bit artificial. Films featuring young girls (e.g., Juno) often strike me the same way. I imagine it's hard to write good dialog for a 14 year old girl, unless you are a 14 year old girl yourself, in which case I don't want to read it anyway.

p.s. I heard that some of the dialog in Remember Me was kind of stilted, so I suppose we should expect that here, too.
 
Last edited:
Here's a demo of the first 17 minutes or so. I didn't watch it, because I know I'm going to buy the game and want to avoid spoilers, but it might be useful for anyone who's on the fence. It'll give you a sense of the early gameplay.


Another good story game, with a lot of interaction and dialog, as well as choices. I am very excited about this game too, it was never even on my radar until now.

Graphic whores need not apply. It is last gen old school PS3 graphics, textures and animations. But the game itself looks to be great (and that is what matters).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Andy
Seems alright. Nice seeing some actual gameplay even if very little.
 
We need more games like this. Thrilled to see another realistic adventure game ala QD's games. Heavy rain is still one of those pivotal moments in gaming for me, not that I'm saying this is necessarily much akin to that, but I get that vibe for sure.
 
What I find weird is it's a story whose main character is an American Teenage girl, written by European, 30-40 year-old males, lol.

I've never had a problem playing as a female character, and I don't think most people do, really. Just look at the success of Tomb Raider. I think some worry goes into when the protagonist isn't an action star, really, and that applies to male and females. This style of story is going to have niche appeal regardless- look at Heavy Rain. If your are funding something, then you want to get it the largest chance of success. The problem comes when they handle the approach in such a ham-fisted fashion.
Well we can't just assume only males are on the team, especially given we already know they have the voice actors themselves they can consult. And well we did get Harry Potter, a 12-year-old boy, written by a 30-year-old woman. I think the problem is cultural. We expect women to be good with kids and teenagers over men if that makes sense. At least that is how I see it.
 
I could be wrong, but I think all the developers in that earlier video I posted were guys. As they explained it, they found a story they wanted to tell, and the character for that story was a young girl. There you have it. They seem to have a penchant for creating stories featuring women. They did that in Remember Me, too.

I like the rewind mechanic. It sounds like it'll enable you to try out multiple paths, at least within a short time horizon. That will be better than reloading the game.

Game arrives Friday. I'm looking forward to it. I need something to play.
 
Excerpts from a reddit discussion with the developers.

To a question about how they created the story: "At the very beginning we knew that we wanted to create an adventure game dealing with choice and consequences and using the rewind power. Starting from this we started to brainstorm different stories and character that would be the best suited for this. Very quickly we drafted this coming-of-age story of a teenage girl coming back to her hometown after a 5 years absence. This period of life, the end of high school, is the perfect one to deal with choices and fate, since it is the moment of our lives when we were still free to choose, and when we defined who we would become as adults. We also really wanted to deal with friendship as a main theme, as it is something not often seen in video games, especially with the awkwardness that can happen between teenagers, all the untold stuff, the contrast between teenage angst and genuine joy and recklessness... We are also dealing with darker themes, the innocence of teenagers against the adult world corruption, mystery and investigation, and what will you do when you discover that you have a new incredible power..."

To a question about episode length: "This is the type of game that really depends on the player. In the playtests we find that a standard first time playthrough of the Episode 1 takes approximately 2 hours but many players explore every single bit of environmental storytelling or want to know every outcome before they make their final choice, using the rewind mechanic. Some players have taken 4 hours to get through Episode 1 so the length is really dependent on how you choose to play."

On the visual style: "In Remember me we had a very realistic rendering, wich was great to show the bleakness of a futuristic world with all its grittiness. On the opposite for Life is Strange we wanted a very soft overall feeling, oozing with nostalgia. We wanted the player to feel like he is inside some sort of warm cocoon. That's why we decided to go for a stylized rendering, because it allows the viewer to put some of his own perception, some of his own memories, and to really participate actively to the game by simply looking at it. We made some variations and in the end we went for the style you are looking at in the screenshots, hand painted textures, soft colors and smooth shapes, with realistic materials and realistic lighting that brings a very different and unique look to our game."

To a question about not liking stories about teenage girls and high school drama: "I don't want to spoil anything, but we think that we have an interesting story with very dark and mature themes. This most definitely isn’t a high school drama – it just so happens that there is a high school in the game! People are clearly not expecting the journey we have created for sure. We’re looking forward to see how people react when they realise what we have created for you. All I can say is that people haven’t often played a game that deals with the issues and topics we’ve included. It’s a first for games in our opinion.

"To be honest we also really think that the gender of a main character is quite irrelevant when creating a good story, it really depends on how you write your characters in relation to the themes you are dealing with. Life is Strange is starring a teenage girl, you're right, but it is clearly not only a teenage girl story and we really think that both male players and female players will relate to this game and enjoy this adventure."

Time between episodes: 6 weeks is their target.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/2tu8zx/life_is_strange_reddit_ama_with_the_dontnod_team/
 
Last edited:
Bummer, looks like Ep. 1 won't be available until Tues. 2/3, at least for those of us on PS4 in the US. I was looking forward to playing it this weekend.

People who've played the first episode say it's good. Positives: atmosphere, environment, characters, story, and choices. Negatives: some "cringe-worthy" dialog and issues with lip synch. Naturally, the positive impressions are coming from people who are already interested in this type of game, which would be the minority. It's very narrative focused.
 
I have to agree with the dialogue being a bit too unconvincing, mostly in just that it feels straight out of the 80's. And supposedly the main protagonist is 18 but is as flat as a pancake. I feel terrible for her. Also, texture streaming really impacts performance of the game quite a bit.

The game is a bit short, but justifiably so. The ending had me REALLY hyped to continue the story. I'm hating that I'll have to wait for the second chapter for six weeks.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, apparently they had trouble getting the dialog right in Remember Me, too. Part of it might be the fact that they are French, trying to write dialog for a US teenager. Part of it might just be limitations in talent.

p.s. Just noticed it's available in the US. Nice. Thought I'd have to wait until Tuesday. Downloading now.
 
Last edited:
Played for a little under an hour. First impressions:

Negatives:
  • Plastic-looking models and hair, especially in that first sequence, in the rain. [edit: this didn't bother me after the opening sequence].
  • The dialog includes plenty of cliche "teen-speak" phrases that can sound artificial and break immersion. It's hard to write for another age, gender, and culture, I suppose.
  • Lip synching is off.
  • At one point, the background music felt a bit too overbearing, so I turned it down.
Positives:
  • I like Max as a character -- inward, kind of socially awkward, but with a good heart. We don't get many of those type of characters in videogames, but instead an endless parade of self-assured tough guys/gals and wisecrackers. This is a nice change of pace.
  • It's a very relaxing game. It's slow paced ... you wander around, talk to people, examine objects... I feel myself settling in, comfortable. Definitely not an action-packed game, but that's fine with me.
  • You spend a lot of time in Max's head, listening to her thoughts. I think it's a good way of getting inside a character, rather than just seeing them externally (what they say and do). Reminds me of the first-person perspective in short stories and novels.
  • The rewind mechanic is interesting. I'm just beginning to explore it. It's nice to be able to rewind conversations and try out different responses.
I'm enjoying the game so far. I'm curious to see where the story goes.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: jimmyD and pravus