Zero Punctuation: Broken Age

[erbkaiser]

The video played for me...

"Donkey Island and Day Of The Testicle"

Oh hi, you must be the other person using the HTML5 version of videos here. I thought I was alone

 

[UPISTRVIMYD]

Working perfectly for me(current Firefox and Flash version), no ads to speak of. Browser IS set to force HTML5 though...

 

[FFP2]

Oh hi, you must be the other person using the HTML5 version of videos here. I thought I was alone

Nope. Normal video player.

 

[altacan]

Same here only shows a 45 sec ad for all the videos on this site, some people seem to have seen it so maybe its a regional thing?

 

[Schadrach]

Well I was just making a very bad pun, it does still sound broken in the sense that Yahtzee describes the girl's story as a mess and it doesn't seem to have any connection to the guy's story. I don't know I haven't played it.

I can't seem to watch the video (I only see ads, for some reason -- teh video for Broken Age is, well, Broken), but if he said that, then he didn't finish it, which as short as it is, is a bit of a shock.

The guy's story and the girl's story are very, very much connected, but that connection is non-obvious until literally the very end (and since the whole thing is a cliffhanger for part 2...).

Don't play the girl's story first, if you really want to see the connection coming. Play the guy's first, or for optimal foreshadowing, play it in this order:

Spoiler: This might be slightly spoilery

1. Play the guy's story until you are about to use the control panel for the second rescue mission.
2. Switch to the girl until after the Maiden's Festival.
3. Switch to the guy until you are ready to do the third rescue mission.
4. Switch to the girl until she's finished preparations for the Maiden's Festival in the beach town.
5. Switch to the guy and finish his story.
6. Switch to the girl and finish her story.

That order should make it as obvious as possible what's going on.

I did the guy's story first all the way through, then the girl's, and I had caught on before I made it to the beach town.

How the two stories are connected, and the whole "new Mog every 14 years or so" have...unfortunate implications.

 

[Collin Stewart]

Try to "protect" from addblock...
honestly i'll just watch vids somewhere else if in the end I have to watch adds here. Its not like there is anything aside from ZP and the JQ that makes this site worthwhile.

EDIT: seems to be working now go watch vid erryone!

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

The irony is that the ZP episode isn't even up on their youtube site yet. :s

 

[vasiD]

And fixed. Good job guys. Try not to do that again.

Edit: This post doesn't have the tone I was going for. I want to stress that I appreciate the quick turn around time. Genuinely good job fixing it that fast. Now I can watch before class.

 

[C.S.Strowbridge]

And fixed. Good job guys. Try not to do that again.

Still broken here. I'll check back in ten minutes or so.

 

[Starke]

EDIT: seems to be working now go watch vid erryone!

No, the ads are working. Not the video.

 

[SnapsSE]

I refreshed the page about 15 times and the video eventually showed. Might have been luck.

 

[CopperBoom]

I am quite enjoying the experience of Broken Age but am also quite hungry after watching this.

 

[major_chaos]

Anyone else find it funny that a site that has (admittedly legitimate) complaints about companies screwing over legitimate users with horrible DRM is now screwing over legitimate users with what is more or less really shitty DRM?

 

[BX3]

Goes to escapist
Sees new episode of ZP is up
Watches episode
goes to the comment section to see people's thoughts on him trashing Kickstarter.
Comments are instead filled with complaints of site errors.

Escapist what are you doing? This was an interesting episode and your screw ups ruined what could've been an insightful discussion (or at least delayed it)

 

[Dragonbums]

I'm going to go with the semi-popular opinion in that this was meant to be a game for really young kids. Something to get them into the videogames and the adventure genre in general. (granted they will be sorely disappointed that games like this are a rare gem to find past 2005)

 

[Furbyz]

So it sounds to me like this game is kinda broken. ...I'll go now.

Funny, but it does bring up something interesting about the game. It's surprisingly not broke. For awhile it was going to be an "Early Access" game, but they decided agianst it since the first part is pretty much done. Say what you will about the gameplay and stuff, but I didn't hit any bugs or see much (besides a couple eyes) that should be fixed. It's nice to play a game before it was even released that actually works.

Well I was just making a very bad pun, it does still sound broken in the sense that Yahtzee describes the girl's story as a mess and it doesn't seem to have any connection to the guy's story. I don't know I haven't played it.

It's really not. Vella's story so far is really more about establishing places, characters, and the culture. The reason Yahtzee calls it a mess is because it has no real direction. If Shay's story is tight and cohesive, Vella's could best be described as...meandering. There's only the goal of killing Mog Chothra and the obstacle of that being nearly impossible, especially with every person she meets being hell bent on feeding it their children every 14 years. The two stories are actually intertwined to a surprising degree. It's a very promising start. Also the game is freaking gorgeous.

OT: Why is everyone asserting that this game is guaranteed to be successful? Double Fine has sunk millions of their own money into it, and the very nature of kickstarter means that many (about 90,000 as I recall) of the people who would have bought the game already have. They're dipping into their profits again just to finish the game right, hence the splitting in the first place. Broken Age could very well be a financial failure.

 

[Lazule]

For me Kickstarter is the proof that some people are just dumb consumers that would buy anything.