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I love the Address Unknown music before the start of the stream. I remember playing this game on a Playstation Magazine demo disk I got when I was very young, back when they included demo disks with magazines. It also had Gex 2, Blasto, and Metal Gear Solid.

Look man I’m not about to watch an hour long review of this dumpster fire of a game. But TLDR this game failed because of horrible political stances along with the most horrendous game play and voice acting that I have seen in a long ass time. I mean it’s hilarious that you can’t interact with the Muslim praying AT ALL while there is a whole scene about scaring the Christian while praying. Overall terrible game which could potentially cost the developers their studio. (Deserved)

Great interview! I love that a game like this exists. Small and intimate with a high level of complex interaction. I really resonate with what Sean said about often being more interested in exploring a space in a game. I recently played a Call of Duty game and I wish I could just completely remove the HUD and chaos because the environments were dense with small details. But the goal of those games aren't to slow down and take in the details even though those details can be a complete story on their own. Kinda like a meta story within the game.

I had to scroll so far to find a video that wasn't birthed out of brain rot

Saying the character interaction reminds you of Balder's Gate 3 is pretty understandable but here's the thing: Balder's Gate 3 doesn't spell outloud the character gender identity as much as Dustborn. This is one character issue that Dustborn and the late Concord have, I don't need the game to tell me that Noam is none-binery, I can see that from the way their character act and look like, having it getting yelled out from the game is unnecessary really.

Oh wow, I thought the negativity surrounding this game was exaggerated but this comment section is crazy :O Sad to see the negativity overwhelm any discussion about the game, as it seems like a story with a lot to say.

Most of the comments I see of people saying this game isn't that bad also immediately say it's not their type of game. The bottom line is there just isn't a market for this game. The "modern audience" that many developers have been targeting is very small. On top of that don't buy and support the games anyway. At the end of the day people want and buy good games. You don't get to decide if your game is good or not, the free market does. All the political talk for or against things like this don't really matter in the end.

Great video. I didagree. I know im just asking for it by defending a non traditional contra game. I did enjoy it, i liked the twin stick controls. If you are a contra fan and have even a bit of an open mind, i recommend trying it.

i just got finished playing the remaster this month. idk if a patch has been put out since this video but the only bugs i saw were texture popping during the daytime missions and the connectivity issue. No progress halting bugs. Unless you count the connectivity issue, then id say so cause i cant unlock the thermos, sign and chest achievement with out modifying the game files. Other than that id love to see an updated video of it now with the alan wake 2 dlc otw.

This was post quake, post glide technology.. so yeah we're talking orders of magnitude and capability over a N64... Now you could run it on a potato, it had a lot of different modes to do software etc.. But at its maximum using directX, which is the whole point of my half-life exists.. as a proof of concept that you could do cool things with directx... But like bespoke video cards were a thing at that point, RAM hard drive were all a thing.. and the N64 really, it was a really niche device that was designed to do a couple of things really well, but suffered from the rapid advance where there wasn't really a right way to do things, but there was a better way to do it and they didn't always choose the right one. But on the outside, if my understanding is correct the upgraded model of the N64 had four megabytes of video RAM? Which is a lot of video RAM for the time, But that was all the ram that it had.. and not a lot of people had the updated version from what I understand. There's a channel called Pixel pipes, as well as LGR or lazy game reviews.. they often talk about the transition periods of computer hardware throughout the years and that explosion that happened from almost entirely a multimedia focused device, or a industry and professional device regarding anything doing with 3D.. Initially, I couldn't play putt-Putt because I didn't have a multimedia card or a video card.. But I could play Jedi Knight or quake because they were designed to run in software.. that would last not much longer lol.. But is a testament to the early programming skills with how many different ways they had to get the game to run. People talk about it nowadays like oh there's so many configurations and it's like dude they all do the same thing.. they pretty much do the exact same thing, the same way, and really what you're accounting for is different configurations of the same thing.. which they don't lol as anyone that has a slightly older generation video card, even if it's console equivalent to the primary development source nowadays of a console.. when it ports the PC. But you know they wouldn't know how to do it anyways because anybody that could do that goes and gets a real job that pays money and doesn't make them miserable like video game software engineers. Like I'm being nitpicky and I probably written a whole novel at this point Just in the first 7 minutes of what you've been saying lol.. But like.. Don't say things like guesstimation of of hardware equivalents, unless you know or have an understanding because people are going to take that and just run with it and spam it everywhere like regardless you're coming from a place of authority for the most part, even if that's fair or not.. But if you're going to do a deep dive and spend 4 hours talking about a video game, especially an older game I would I would highly recommend looking at the the culture in the tech at the time because that has a lot to do with everything especially back then.. it's just not a thing nowadays in any both consumer facing or Even on the technical end.. and it's sad that it isn't because it's I've watched the industry turn into product.. where there used to be some sort of collaboration between the gamer and the game.. and they play the part accordingly, I mean shit.. The fact that Ubisoft thinks that it was a viable strategy to sell cheat codes to their single player games.. That's how sad things have gotten in terms of how much input the actual consumer has on the medium and industry. Or is willing to give of course.. and it's not even in the zeitgeist or mindset anymore, they just want to take the thing that they're given and that's not how PC games were made, not for another few years anyways.

Isn't this a remedy focused or at least heavily admonished channel? And you rarely ever crash? Lol.. doing something right I guess or maybe wrong for everything else? Because lol.. every remedy game that I've ever played has had a massive amount of crashing and weirdness.. and it's been okay because you know they're doing something cool usually.. never played quantum break though and I don't intend to after seeing the contextual automatic crouching feature.. Way to way to ruin what should have actually been more gameplay, by calista protocoling that. I was upset not having it in control, but I didn't realize how it functioned before lol so I guess I lucked out because that would have been a deal breaker. But control oh boy.. does that game like to crash hard.. had to do the pin the task manager to always on top because it would usually require a power button smash if I didn't. But heavily scripted, resource tight games like Max Payne 2, like Half-Life 2.. they crash it's it's just a thing lol.. there's a channel called pine splash that in his OCD and speed running affinities has kind of deep dived into damn near every glitch that Half-Life 2 has ever had, as well as many other source engine titles... And he he does explain the actual or at least a loose explanation of of what's going on behind a lot of it in some cases.. found it very useful for doing source modding my own self. We do live in good times though, at least for that thing of compatibility and whatnot.. most of the games from the early 2000s late '90s etc just would not function in the later 2000s early 2010s.. often you wouldn't know why they were broken.. turns out a lot of the Rockstar games were broken because they never turned off the DRM that would cause it to consistently insane as punishment.. But also they had a lot of multi-core issues and game speed issues.. But we have all these wrappers now and large address awareness executable fixes and and all sorts of fun stuff.. But if you're playing the game and doing things like just bumping up the resolution without adjusting for the aspect ratio in the field of view and view model.. like come on.. The fact that we can even do these things in the first place is nice, it didn't used to be that special.. as access wasn't so hyper restricted but with the advent of injectors and really really really try hard communities, as well as credit where it's due.. a rare twist of Microsoft actually doing something right occasionally, enough of the way to be a feature not a detriment. Raw out of the box would still probably be the most stable way to go with the way Windows 10 and modern wrappers can fix things.. But you're still going to have to do a bunch of stuff like the FOV fixes for 16x9 if you want that, it's just the way it is.. if you're not doing that for these older games.. You're you're really doing yourself a disservice, as well as the game... Although in some cases the fault definitely can lie on the game as well lol depending on how it was constructed. One thing that stands out is how they approached interpolation, which is funny because they write code like carmack, they use like everything is based on quake technology here so you can see the parallels in id tech, and and for some reason they wouldn't actually start utilizing that functionality in a reasonable or logical way until 6.. Even the Wolfenstein games the first one.. needed a bunch of parameters and I think some executable hacks because all of the development console command and CVR functionality had been restricted for retail.. because you know.. somebody might cheat in a single player game trying to get it to work lol.. There was a lot of forward thinking things in gold source and source.. which is ironic because counter strike might as well be a hamster wheel of stagnation as far as actual game design goes.. But hey.. they were on that way before anybody else was it seemed. Not saying they're the only ones but they are definitely the best probably. That being said.. they're obsession with pipeline updates has consistently broken both games over the last two decades.. as well as other games not related that are currently using source like Titanfall and Garry's mod, the closer to the half-life build that you get, the more broken it gets.. and this was during a time when they just wouldn't even respond to their customers with questions, answering like one email a month, one question out of a list maybe.. If you go on the the source engine version of GitHub I guess.. you could find some really frustrated conversations about things that have been changed or broken or trying to find information about things.. and this was out of state when there was more information about source engine then any other time, as opposed to when games like vampire The masquerade bloodlines and dark Messiah were being developed where they just actually didn't have proper documentation at all.. But that it it's it seems that Valve has at least gotten better about that in their reawakening.

Half-Life set of model and a standard that people wanted to attach to.. But it wasn't the first, although it may have been the most polished in that vein of hyperlinearity.. and like civvie11 is often quoted, I feel like people got the wrong lessons from Half-Life. But it was something that did it so well comparatively. When I first watched my buddy play it over his shoulder when I was like 10 or so.. The thing that stuck out to me the most was just how cool everything was, not that it was anything new in terms of a linear progression of storytelling I mean keep in mind my first video game that I ever owned was Jedi Knight, an accident as my parents had tried to keep me from playing video games.. and honestly everything that Half-Life did, as far as structure went and it's linearity and story progression, so did Jedi Knight, although in all fairness you actually had some mild RPG-esque choices in the storytelling. There's an argument to be made that gaming would be in a better place if Half-Life had not existed simply for the fact of the compulsive need to replicate it without really understanding why it worked, or that it wasn't a rigid formula that couldn't be strayed from necessarily. But it also allowed for set pieces as it's primary driving force and I think that was always going to happen.. But.. who knows. There's an alternate future where they still make PC games, even if it's diminished.. ironically half Life Alex is probably the most recent actual PC game Go figure.. and God bless em for doing that... Cuz there's a spirit to that style of game design in the late '90s early '90s all the way through to the early 2000s of trying to do cool stuff and develop the medium forward in its immersion in its interactivity and what it can offer.. and that just doesn't exist anymore.. and I don't mean just in the AAA, the AA is well the single a, the Indy it really is dead. We've come full circle back to the full motion video lol.. presentation is all that matters and the core audience is so utterly dependent on the game playing for them, it is hilarious and a little encouraging to see some pushback from the the more egregious examples like kalisto or hellblade 2, but that'll be normalized soon. Honestly I think the consoles pushing into the PC space had far more to do with it than half-life did, set pieces under constraints is exactly what those things can do ideally, and you really didn't have to do much with it given the level design of Halo basically being a series of sections copy and pasted with all the enemies and everything exactly the same over and over again and that was acceptable... Kind of like a foretelling of open world design right? Which used to be considered advanced game design because of it's nonlinearity.. somehow we managed to have our cake and have somebody else drop it on the ground and smush it into a flat even smearing of sadness.

An hour review of trash?

Wow

This game is trash. Biggest waste of money on the planet 🤦🏻‍♂️ I’d rather play Superman on the N64 again before I replay this game 🤣

I would probably rather drive nine inch nails through my eyelids than play this game, but you answered some questions I had, and this may be the only "real" honest review here on YT.

Thank you for posting a coherent video on this game that's not just a kneejerk ranting ragebait

How do you get that scene with bearded Dylan and the salt flats? I beat Control twice, but don’t think I’ve ever seen that

S C O R N

- Baby Sweet changes people! - And how exactly? - I used to be white.

This is the best description of this story I have ever seen. Well done

REAL ALAN WAKE 2, NOT ALAN WOKE 2.

Yeesh I can feel your soy aura through the screen.

I'm convinced it was the FBC that got Ed Booker. I think we'll find out at the Lake house DLC

Kinda love that one of my favorite channels just happens to have a hyper relevant video to my own research

"I wish the free updated NG+ that actually took time to add new scenes, pages, tv, radio, dialogue, and ending had more to it. I was let down boo hoo blah blah" The complaints are weord to me... Idk how some people are disappointed with a free update NG+ that actually added to the game and didnt do what most do and just do the exact same except with your progression. New ending, new dialoge, new pages, new videos. Y'all complaining are going full 43tard. Maybe try and be appreciative that we even got AW2 and NG+ and it was a free update. You guys that are "dissapponted" sound pathetic. Can't please these crybabies

It took me WAY too long to finally find someone giving an honest critique of this game. I literally just watched 6 other youtube videos from channels very similar to "side scrollers"... All reacting to a couple of the trending clips of the game & then 'reviewing' it by screaming about the woke liberal they/them brainwashing agenda. I don't like the game personally, but I really appreciate you actually taking the time to play and review it.

Think I might give the demo a shot cause the trailer did not make me like this game a d hearing that first song did not help. That bejng said can we get a link to the full track from the end of the video.

Apparently, it's thoughtcrime to do anything more than surface level or contextless analysis of the game according to the comments. I agree with your assessment for the most part, but I was harder on Echoes as a representation of misinformation, since I feel like its supernatural maddening effects actually downplay how insidious misinformation actually is. I find Justice fascinating as far as antifa antagonists go. Many games of this genre just use generically evil cops or reactionaries as their villains, but Justice was formed out of an extreme but genuine intention to fight crime, making them come off as misguided humanized villains rather than ontologically evil ones. They also embraced inclusive branding towards non-Anomal minorities and are probably less bigoted than most of the grifters talking about the game, but they are also hypocrites because they won't apply that kind of mindset to Anomals. IMO, they map more closely to cop-loving neoliberals than to mainstream or fringe right-wingers.

Personally, I feel like this game was made with a very single minded veiw that leaves very little room with empathy for each side of the argument. The devs wanted to shame, which is honestly the worst way to communicate your views with someone. Why would people listen to what you say if you insult them? Its not like games haven't tackled politics successfully before. Look at metal gear and disco elysium! Both are heavily political but not once dose it feel outright hateful to one side. Each side, or political stance is explained and critizied equally, allowing the player to make their own informed choices. Take the dock workers from disco elysium for example. The game shows you the veiws of both the strickers, 'scabs' and even the boss of the docks. You may not agree with their stance, but you can empathise with why they think like that. Nothing is black or white, very much like real life. Its comforting in a weird way. Dustborn on the other hand is simply "This is the only way and if you disagree even a smidge you are AWFUL" Politics should never be "im right and anyone that disagrees is wrong." as when that communication breaks down, we can't understand each other. Poltics without empathy is dangerous.

Balding, short, middle aged white guy with a beard 😂😂😂😂 You are 100% the type of person I'd expect to enjoy this gayme 😂😂😂😂

just because you think you are "fair" toward this game does not mean everyone bashing this game is grifter and "kids". the dev literally advertise this game as a way to "fight the bigot gamer"

this game was made in 8 years using taxpayer's money just to rant about Donald Trump, from woke Norwegians who don't know what they're talking about. That sentence tells you more about the game than whatever your "constructive" review could ever attempt to do. You can't walk around the elephant in the room without looking like a disingenuous idiot.

man that hoop earing is so huge you can play basket ball on that 🤣🤣🤣

And ofc you delete the comment I made calling you out on your narcicism and self absorb actions. Typically lefty.

Half of the comments on this video sounds like bots. How much did you pay to boost your views? This is disgusting.

Pinning a comment that praise you is a very self entitled narcicistic cringe that is common among the leftist.

Finally, actually a good video that gives good tips lol thanks

You have my genuine thanks, thank you so much for genuine constructive review video, I purchased the game recently and I’d been struggling to find anything remotely constructive and helpful so I thank you for a honest respectful breakdown of the game, world and story

This guy stinks

You should try Barony I can't recommended it enough!

Interesting to see someone liking some of the character design. It is enlightening to have someone explain their thoughts that like this portion.

Your opinion that if people don't like something that looks bad and forced then they have been tricked into it is odd, people have pretty good BS detectors and don't have a bunch of money to drop on being lectured disguised as a video game. You and others are free to like it and pay for it, but it's clear that that's very few people.

thanks for the review. i played the game too and about the narrative... i think the characters age should have been shaved by 10 or even 15 years. the canon ages dont fit their personalities. most characters have severe arrested development. pax acts like an entitled teen who feels the world owes her something, theo is a passive leader, noam puts on heirs, sai should be medicated. eli has naieve views of the world, ziggy also feels the world owes her something, ophelia is the edgy the world doesnt understand me type... sol was cool. at 25 im more mature than most of the characters and that contrast is jarring and impacts my connection. if they were younger the angst and conflicts would make more sense, since they have less experience and less defined personalities. i think the world building and pacing should have been more intentional and explicit. they had good ideas but they make the player head cannon too much. when did the timeline converge? how happened afterwards? why is pacifica a san francisco silicon valley analog when the divergence should have chabged that anyway.... the plot does a lot of tell not show. and we miss key moments to connect with characters thar way too

brah!!!

Well, even thought I *absolutely despise* Sweet Baby Inc., I didn't even knew this teaser actually existed. I was pretty sure that Saga was a character created exclusively in the AW2 trailers, so I'm pretty much used to her being black. Plus, the actress was simply phenomenal, so she really deserves her credits. And yes, I now know that this white and blonde design was pretty much a "concept" of her.

I didn't know stuttering craig became cringe. Rip

There was no next episode

About all the bug fixes in the latest Steam build, several of those bugs (including the monster animation) were not in the original game but were introduced in later builds. The original physical version from 1998 is quite different from all the Steam releases that have come afterwards. The sound, for example, is still fucked up and has never been fixed, but the original build does not have those issues (could also be because PC’s in the 90’s had dedicated sound cards).

Finally someone made a nuanced review of this game!