Forum > Gaming Discussion > Psychonauts & Double Fine
Psychonauts & Double Fine
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Wed, 15 Jun 2011 21:31:05
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After having been re-exposed to the work of Tim Schaefer, and for the first time seeing what Double Fine can do I decided to pick up Psychonauts and play it seriously for the first time.

Just as I enjoyed Brutal Legend while not being an RTS player, I am thoroughly impressed with Pyschonauts even though I loath 3D platformers.

Some commonalities:

- Excellent writing and characters. Double Fine could easily go into the CGI movie business and do well.  The storytelling and characters have that same high level of charm and humor as those found in the best Pixar movies.

- Endless fucking game mechanics.  I'm about 2 hours in, and just as with Brutal Legend they keep piling on the mechanics and controls to learn and remember.

- Deep attention to detail.  I don't know if it's Schaefer himself, or someone else at Double Fine, but I get the sense that there is ONE person who acts as an overall hawkeye/ continuity person on their projects.

More generally this game, even early on, takes the bloom off of the Super Mario Galaxy games just a bit for me.  Having not really gotten into 3D platformers at all, I can see that at least one (and therefore) probably others where doing things in the same galaxy as SMG before it came along.  The early level where you enter Agent Nein's mind and have to navigate around a rectangular prism in space, with a sublime camera felt very familiar, as did the overall feel of using Milla's levitation ball for the first time.

So, I'm digging it.  I hate getting onto a bandwagon, I really do, but the two DOuble Fine games I've played this year, while not the most enjoyable for me, are certainly the most impressive so far.

What are your experiences with Psychonauts? Anyone here beaten it?  I do have some questions.

Edited: Thu, 16 Jun 2011 06:54:54

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Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:48:23
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I played Pyschonauts 3 or 4 hours, and then got really, really bored with it. It was quite enjoyable for those first few hours, though.

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Thu, 16 Jun 2011 01:13:34
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So you were quite enjoyably bored?

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Thu, 16 Jun 2011 01:14:34
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Wait till you get to the mailman world.

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Thu, 16 Jun 2011 01:18:37
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aspro said:

So you were quite enjoyably bored?

Okay, I played the game for about four hours. The first two hours that I played were quite enjoyable; the last two hours I played became boring, so I stopped.

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Thu, 16 Jun 2011 01:31:12
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Dvader said:

Wait till you get to the mailman world.



I've heard.  So you play more of these 3D platformers than I.  What of the notion that I brought up, about now having played a bit of this, SMG is a tiny ibt less impressive.

Is that because Psychnauts is that much better than most? Or just my experience was inflated with SMG because I was woefully unexposed to the genre?

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Thu, 16 Jun 2011 01:33:05
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Ravenprose said:

Okay, I played the game for about four hours. The first two hours that I played were quite enjoyable; the last two hours I played became boring, so I stopped.

The game has a great start, boring middle and then it starts to get really awesome for the final third.

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Thu, 16 Jun 2011 01:34:57
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aspro said:




I've heard.  So you play more of these 3D platformers than I.  What of the notion that I brought up, about now having played a bit of this, SMG is a tiny ibt less impressive.

Is that because Psychnauts is that much better than most? Or just my experience was inflated with SMG because I was woefully unexposed to the genre?

I dont know cause Psychonauts did not effect my view of SMG at all. I think psychonauts is a bit overrated actually. They are different, Psycho is more Mario 64 platformer and SMG is the new more pure platformer style which I prefer much more.

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Thu, 16 Jun 2011 01:39:41
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That's right Mario 64 had some of those trippy levels where you walk around on polygons.

I RECANT. HEAR THAT IGA?

I have to think my love of SMG is a bit over-rated due to me not playing other platformers though.

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Thu, 16 Jun 2011 01:44:56
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aspro said:

That's right Mario 64 had some of those trippy levels where you walk around on polygons.

I RECANT. HEAR THAT IGA?

I have to think my love of SMG is a bit over-rated due to me not playing other platformers though.

Its not overrated, its exactly where it should be.

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Thu, 16 Jun 2011 04:13:49
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It's not so much that SMG did a great deal of new things, it's that it did them ten times better than anyone else.

Oh, and look forward to the meat circus. Many hated it, but I thought it was an excellent finale. It took all the platforming elements thus far and condensed them into one epic, challenging level.

Edited: Thu, 16 Jun 2011 04:14:43

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Thu, 16 Jun 2011 04:18:22
+1
I've been meaning to download this game on XBLM, I really should get around to doing so sometime soon.

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Thu, 16 Jun 2011 07:05:51
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I have the XBox version.  Is it supported on my 360?  Aspro is that how you are playing it?

And ... no one can love Mario Galaxy too much or rate it too high.

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Listen to Wu-Tang and watch Kung-Fu

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Thu, 16 Jun 2011 07:12:34
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Yup. I am playing the XB disc on a 360. Looks/ works great.

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Thu, 16 Jun 2011 10:13:41

I will get this game eventually, after I get my Black disc replaced

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Thu, 16 Jun 2011 10:14:06
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It this topic Aspro discovers that innovation is not made in a vacuum.

Galaxy is good because it stands on the shoulder of giants.

Spherical worlds were done before in Yoshi's Island and Rachet and Clank games. Reverse gravity was done before, like in Mega Man 5 Gravity Man's stage and the Adventures of Rad Gravity.

Heck even Sonic Adventures 2 had a space level complete with a spherical world, but like all things with Sonic it was super lame.

Tokyo EAD also took lots of ideas from Donkey Kong Jungle Beat and put them in Galaxy, also the Sunshine void levels are clearly a inspiration for Galaxy.

Some things in Galaxy have been done before, but I never seen gravity and spherical worlds done together like that. Where you go from one spherical world to another with gravity attracting you from one to the other sphere or cube or bean or whatever. First you are upside up then you are upside down, then it turn to 2D. And the camera never looses track of you. That is what Galaxy did.

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Thu, 16 Jun 2011 21:26:39

It was this way with Infamous and Crackdown too.  I thought (and still do) Infamous was this amazingthing, then I played Crackdown and was like, "Oh okay, so Sucker Punch didn't invent this style of gaming).  And of course Crackdown owes a lot to GTA3, Spiderman and Hulk: Fists of Destruction.

For those of you who still have not played DKJB and love SMG, please do. It's a treat.

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Fri, 17 Jun 2011 02:12:42

Screw the fact that you were on spherical worlds and played with gravity, that didn't matter. Galaxy is amazing simply cause it felt like a true platformer in 3D, not a collectathon which Pychonauts is. Gone were giant levels with things to explore, that isn't what platformers were about. Galaxy fixed that.

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Fri, 17 Jun 2011 02:23:51

Yeah, I think a lot of you misunderstood what I was saying... but that doesn't matter.

=-=-=

Vader, or anyone who has finished it, do I need to collect cobwebs and cards to finish the game?  Or can I just get the skills as the game delivers them by following the story.

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Sat, 18 Jun 2011 03:17:51
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aspro said:

Yeah, I think a lot of you misunderstood what I was saying... but that doesn't matter.

=-=-=

Vader, or anyone who has finished it, do I need to collect cobwebs and cards to finish the game?  Or can I just get the skills as the game delivers them by following the story.

I dont remember but i think that stuff was optional.

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