Hey Ash, What'cha Playin'?

May 14, 2010 9:57 AM

Find the Angry Video Game Nerd a bit obnoxious? Hey Ash, What'cha Playin', AKA HAWP, may be more your speed as far as video game comedy series go. See a pair of siblings (and sometimes their dad) take on games such as Trauma Center, Animal Crossing, text adventures, Persona 3, the best overlooked games, Professor Layton, Sleep is Death, and more.
posted by mccarty.tim (58 comments total)

On a semi-related note, Sleep is Death is on a "name your price" sale.
posted by mccarty.tim at 9:59 AM on May 14, 2010

Ha! I completely forgot that HAWP existed after Destructoid dropped off my daily reading. Excellent.

The Heavy Rain one actually made me lol. "I think I'll buy this suit."
posted by threetoed at 10:07 AM on May 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

"I didn't even beat Trauma Center."
"Nobody did it's a fucking Atlas Game"

So much YAY.
posted by edbles at 10:10 AM on May 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

Yeah this is pretty entertaining. They finally had the mom character appear for an episode.
posted by 2bucksplus at 10:10 AM on May 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Here's a link to their site sans GameTrailers grossness.
posted by edbles at 10:21 AM on May 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

In the Trauma Center one Ash says she ate all the cookies, leaving none for her brother, but you can CLEARLY SEE a package of oreos right by her head that is at least two thirds full. WHO IS THE NERD NOW?
posted by longsleeves at 10:27 AM on May 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Ah, thanks edbles. If a mod wants to link that in the post, go ahead.
posted by mccarty.tim at 10:27 AM on May 14, 2010

Longsleeves, any cookie nerd worth his or her weight in unbleached all purpose flour knows that homemade are best. Oreos are cookie-like products merely meant to hold one over in the interim between fresh cookies.
posted by mccarty.tim at 10:30 AM on May 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

No wait, most of their videos are hosted there anyway. I spoke too soon. Although it would probably work as the "and more."

Also fantastic link perfect for a slow friday.
posted by edbles at 10:31 AM on May 14, 2010

"Nobody did it's a fucking Atlas Game"

*cough* Atlus *cough*
posted by eyeballkid at 10:35 AM on May 14, 2010

goddammit the heavy rain one made me LOL really loud in my cubicle
posted by raw sugar at 10:37 AM on May 14, 2010

Ah, Atlus. Ironically, Demon's Souls is the ONLY game I've managed to beat in the past year. (Nothing else held my interest long enough, I guess.)
posted by naju at 10:45 AM on May 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Okay, this is pretty fucking great. And yeah, looks like there's no escaping the GT wrapping. But I can ignore a mountain dew commercial for thirty seconds if it means I get to see Atlus jokes.
posted by cortex at 10:46 AM on May 14, 2010

I particularly like this one for precisely summing up the process of telling people you're colourblind. The only thing missing is people holding up pencils (always pencils) asking what colour they are, waiting for you to call blue purple.
This sort of thing annoyed me as a kid when I was annoyed by things I had no reason to get annoyed at.
posted by eykal at 10:48 AM on May 14, 2010

I can't believe this never made it to Metafilter before.

"I'm gonna make this cupcake... disappear."
"Ooh, cupcake!"
posted by specialagentwebb at 10:49 AM on May 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

So do you have a color seeing eye dog, like to tell you what color things are?
posted by boo_radley at 10:51 AM on May 14, 2010

Listen all I know is any game company that makes me spend 40 hours beating Ogre Battle 64, but then tells me I didn't beat it right doesn't deserve to have it's name spelled right. And that's why I don't play RPG's anymore, well that and Okage.

So who's heard stuff about Batman Forever 64? I hear the soundtrack is amazing.
posted by edbles at 10:55 AM on May 14, 2010

I did actually beat the Trauma Center game for Wii, but it took me the better part of twenty-four hours and an entire bottle of bourbon.
posted by lholladay at 10:58 AM on May 14, 2010

I beat Persona 3. Where's my hugbucket?
posted by mccarty.tim at 11:00 AM on May 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

and also that l4d2 mode "bff boomer" looks pretty neat.
posted by boo_radley at 11:03 AM on May 14, 2010

Just love how the father is so unrepentantly rude.

[Dad checking out Bonetown, a XXX game]

Dad: My credit card's not working.
Anthony (urgently, eyes fixed): Well try mine then.
Ashly (walking up behind them, looking suspiciously at the screen): What are you guys DOIN--
Dad: Get the Fuck outta here.

Great delivery.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 11:04 AM on May 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

This is really great, thanks!
posted by Grimp0teuthis at 11:11 AM on May 14, 2010

Is it just me or does a Dew-mocracy sound like something Mike Judge wanted to have in Idiocracy, but decided people wouldn't believe in something that dumb?
posted by mccarty.tim at 11:14 AM on May 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Is Heavy Rain really like that? Just ... huh?

Also, for what it's worth, I have not seen any Mountain Dew ads. Or any ads, for that matter. I am running regular old AdBlock.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:23 AM on May 14, 2010

HAWP is great. The dad is probably the best character. I also really enjoy their free podcast or HAWPcast if you will.

BTW I beat the first Trauma Center on the Wii on the hardest setting (including the insane extra missions with both characters). That was probably the craziest thing I have ever done in a video game.
posted by mccarty.tim at 11:27 AM on May 14, 2010

I've never beaten Trauma Center. I stayed logged in on my friend's laptop. He's much more talented than me at video games.
posted by mccarty.tim at 11:30 AM on May 14, 2010

I beat Persona 3. Where's my hugbucket?

Like every single RPG I've ever played, I played up until about an hour or so before the final boss and then shelved it. I haven't touched it in like a year and a half I think. Is the ending worth the effort of digging out the game, loading up the save, deciding that playing the last hour of a game without remembering at all what happened to lead up to that point is pointless, and then restarting from scratch? Serious question.
posted by threetoed at 11:32 AM on May 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Eh, I'd say go for it if you'd enjoy it. The ending is just kind of... an ending, IIRC. The world isn't ending anymore (that's not much of a spoiler I guess), and if you bought the FES edition, you get to play through a new dungeon as Aegis.

The boss fight is kind of cool, though. And you get to fight Ryoji.

Exactly how far are you? Did you beat Strega yet?
posted by mccarty.tim at 11:41 AM on May 14, 2010

Like every single RPG I've ever played, I played up until about an hour or so before the final boss and then shelved it.

I thought I was the only one who did this.
posted by eyeballkid at 11:43 AM on May 14, 2010 [3 favorites]

I'm somewhere past the part where you decide whether to do the bad ending or keep going for the good ending, which is sometime in December I think? I'll probably just toss it in this weekend and see what happens. Now that I have Persona on the brain, I won't be able to play anything else until I beat this thing.
posted by threetoed at 11:54 AM on May 14, 2010

Like every single RPG I've ever played, I played up until about an hour or so before the final boss and then shelved it.

I thought I was the only one who did this.

I do it too but in pretty much ever game ever, not just RPGs. One notable exception: Ogre Battle 64. Which the game declared I beat wrong. Which made me chuck it across the room in frustragetion. Which is a stupid pormanteau, but I don't care because of the GRAR.
posted by bookwo3107 at 11:55 AM on May 14, 2010

Ogre Battle 64. Which the game declared I beat wrong. Which made me chuck it across the room in frustragetion.

See, I chose to hurl our shitty gray controller across the room in frustragation, which turned it into the handicap GoldenEye controller and we finally achieved some fucking balance in our annual Thanksgiving deathmatches against my sharpshooter cousin. At which point he would start picking proximity mines and then everything would just go to hell.
posted by edbles at 12:15 PM on May 14, 2010 [4 favorites]

these are neat.
posted by The Whelk at 12:17 PM on May 14, 2010

Old school ones are here. My favourite was always the Smash Bros one. Which I think is the last one I watched. Got a lot of catching up to do.

I'm sad that Anthony recently left Destructoid to go off and make the indie games he loves so well.
posted by yellowbinder at 12:26 PM on May 14, 2010

Just love how the father is so unrepentantly rude.

He cracks me up in the Animal Crossing video. SO creepy.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 12:37 PM on May 14, 2010

I’m just really enjoying the Ashly’s arbitrary/force of nature destructiveness in the Guitar Hero and Text Adventures video.
posted by edbles at 12:54 PM on May 14, 2010

One notable exception: Ogre Battle 64. Which the game declared I beat wrong. Which made me chuck it across the room in frustragetion. Which is a stupid pormanteau, but I don't care because of the GRAR.

Oh, THAT game.

The Ogre Battle games include something called the "chaos frame." Basically, it's a score that the game tracks in the background that determines, in large part, which ending you get. Having high reputation helps keep the chaos frame score high, but it also matters whether your characters outlevel your opponents, whether you "liberate" or "capture" towns (depending somewhat on your reputation) and some decisions you make during the game.

OB64 is not that hard a game overall, but getting a good chaos frame ending is considerably more difficult, and arguably requires reading FAQs besides.
posted by JHarris at 1:28 PM on May 14, 2010

What with the accent/speech impediment thing she does at the beginning of the videos? I don't get it.
posted by Gordafarin at 1:33 PM on May 14, 2010

GODDAMMIT GAMETRAILERS I'M OLD ENOUGH TO WATCH THE CLIPS ALREADY YOU CAN QUIT ASKING ME FOR MY AGE OVER AND OVER AGAIN

DEW-MOCRACY?!! explodes
posted by JHarris at 1:33 PM on May 14, 2010

It's a representative system of bro-vernment, dude.
posted by cortex at 1:50 PM on May 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

My favourite was always the Smash Bros one.

Oh man, me too. I remember chuckling just thinking about it days after seeing it.

specialagentwebb referenced The Dark Knight but I don't think it was linked yet. I remember it being particularly well done.

Oh yeah, and HAWP is hilarious.
posted by dagosto at 1:55 PM on May 14, 2010

OB64 is not that hard a game overall, but getting a good chaos frame ending is considerably more difficult, and arguably requires reading FAQs besides.

Apparently Okage does something like this, but it's connected to your relationship to one of the three grils you interact with. I had no idea that's why I lost/won the game 10 years ago. Until my roommate picked it up a month ago and started reading the faq to find all the secret prizes* and started talking about shifting her alignment more towards the Princess' to win the game right and I was all, "You mean what you pick in the dialog trees matters?! I just always picked the funniest/meanest thing." But it was the first ever game I played where I was aware meta was a thing and it used it and I got all super excited about it because I had just discovered post-modernism.

*_{You freaks who do this and encourage this behavior from game companies need to stop. Because I am too lazy, but I still want a cool sword.}
posted by edbles at 2:02 PM on May 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

I am a lot less annoyed about alternate-ending bullshit now that Youtube exists.
posted by cortex at 2:05 PM on May 14, 2010

Which made me chuck it across the room in frustragetion. Which is a stupid pormanteau

I'd call that a malamanteau.
posted by The otter lady at 2:09 PM on May 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

If you're going to complain about alternate endings, at least consider the system in Chrono Trigger. They're logical in how they occur (aside from the Easter Eggy developer room one), and they make one of the least replayable genres fun to replay. Granted, I would never have gotten all ~18 of them without a guide.

That said, it does suck if there's a good and bad ending, and it's not clear how to get the good ending.
posted by mccarty.tim at 2:15 PM on May 14, 2010

I am a lot less annoyed about alternate-ending bullshit now that Youtube exists.


See I read this at a glance as "I am a lot less annoyed about WORLD-ending bullshit now that Youtube exists." and I was like wow cortex is bitter today...
posted by The Whelk at 2:25 PM on May 14, 2010

What with the accent/speech impediment thing she does at the beginning of the videos? I don't get it.
posted by cavalier at 2:31 PM on May 14, 2010

i never heard of HAWP. really funny, thanks for posting.
posted by jcruelty at 2:31 PM on May 14, 2010

What with the accent/speech impediment thing she does at the beginning of the videos? I don't get it.

There's been some speculation that she's imitating her mom who has a rather pronounced accent.

The colorblind video inspired an unbelievable amount of good-natured GRAR from my cone-deficient boyfriend, but the one that had me rolling on the ground with laughter was their Little King Story video.
posted by Diagonalize at 3:52 PM on May 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

They're logical in how they occur (aside from the Easter Eggy developer room one), and they make one of the least replayable genres fun to replay. Granted, I would never have gotten all ~18 of them without a guide.

There are some more random ones too. The one that's just a Nu running around doing stuff? The girls-critique-the-male-characters slideshow? Most of the endings are just weird little things they put in, few of them really usefully conclude the story.
posted by JHarris at 6:17 PM on May 14, 2010

Oh yeah, JHarris. Now I remember. Rose tinted glasses, I guess.
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:44 PM on May 14, 2010

Ash reminds me of River from Firefly. Try it, it gives the videos a whole new poignancy when you realize she can kill you with her brain.
posted by The otter lady at 8:04 PM on May 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

This is glorious. Thank you.
posted by Scattercat at 11:49 PM on May 14, 2010

I'm glad the entrance to the building I work at is completely deserted during my shift. Otherwise, people would be very confused by my incessant cackling.
posted by cthuljew at 1:14 AM on May 15, 2010

i'm in love with HAWP. and i'm not even a gamer.
posted by lapolla at 2:13 AM on May 15, 2010

My favorite part of HAWP is the pregnant pause before Ash answers the titular question.
posted by danb at 5:28 PM on May 15, 2010

Just wanted to followup to say, what with the accent explained and the rest of the material watched, A+++++ excellent stuff! Woot! Keep em short and sweet, get in get out, bing bang boom, lols city!
posted by cavalier at 1:45 PM on May 16, 2010

New Episode today.
posted by Tenuki at 1:03 AM on May 22, 2010