"The bride and groom seal the deal as the crowd goes wild."
December 9, 2011 8:41 AM Subscribe
Bastion (previously) is an indie action/RPG game that has been called one of the best games of 2011. One of the things that makes it distinctive is the pervasive narrative, delivered by Logan Cunningham (bottom of page). When one fan of the game was recently planning his nuptials, he reached out to the game's developer ... and that resulted in a one-of-a-kind ceremony.
And today it's available in the Chrome app store, playable in-browser.
posted by JauntyFedora at 9:01 AM on December 9, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by JauntyFedora at 9:01 AM on December 9, 2011 [1 favorite]
That, and the Portal level proposal with the GLaDOS voice both warm the cockles of my geeky heart.
posted by papercake at 9:15 AM on December 9, 2011
posted by papercake at 9:15 AM on December 9, 2011
I'm beginning to develop a cynicism about this kind of event. It looks too much like public relations to me: "You want to use your wedding to help advertise our game? Ok! Usually we have to pay for this kind of product placement...." The Borderlands eulogy was obviously not cynical, but everything that came since (there was also a Borderlands proposal, I think) has felt a little bit mercenary.
posted by anotherpanacea at 9:35 AM on December 9, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by anotherpanacea at 9:35 AM on December 9, 2011 [1 favorite]
The Borderlands proposal was before the eulogy; both caused intense cognitive dissonance because a) they clearly made Gearbox the best people in the world and b) Gearbox had still released Duke Nukem Forever.
posted by running order squabble fest at 9:42 AM on December 9, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by running order squabble fest at 9:42 AM on December 9, 2011 [2 favorites]
I dunno - WoW had a couple different things in honor of players...
The kid w/cancer who had a Tauren character roaming around... Ahab Wheathoof
And there was that one gravesite that you flew over that was a memorial to a developer of the game(?)...
Some of it is PR, but some of it is just devs loving the fans (I guess you could call it "fan service" though not the same as the anime term).
posted by symbioid at 9:46 AM on December 9, 2011 [1 favorite]
The kid w/cancer who had a Tauren character roaming around... Ahab Wheathoof
And there was that one gravesite that you flew over that was a memorial to a developer of the game(?)...
Some of it is PR, but some of it is just devs loving the fans (I guess you could call it "fan service" though not the same as the anime term).
posted by symbioid at 9:46 AM on December 9, 2011 [1 favorite]
Silly observation, but I don't think I've seen a game development team that racially diverse before, they look like the sort of people you see on a fake company stock photo.
posted by bobo123 at 9:54 AM on December 9, 2011
posted by bobo123 at 9:54 AM on December 9, 2011
And there's free DLC coming! (Or nearly free on XBLA due to Microsoft policy.)
posted by kmz at 9:57 AM on December 9, 2011
posted by kmz at 9:57 AM on December 9, 2011
Also, if you've played the game and you haven't bought the soundtrack, you're a monster. Even people who haven't played should buy it, because it's just that good, but there are some potential sorta spoilers.
posted by kmz at 10:00 AM on December 9, 2011
posted by kmz at 10:00 AM on December 9, 2011
I think I'm the only person in the world who didn't like Bastion. I thought it was pretty. I liked the narration, but the game play was pretty dull and repetitive. I quit after about 2 hours.
posted by empath at 10:14 AM on December 9, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by empath at 10:14 AM on December 9, 2011 [2 favorites]
I liked the game greatly, myself. I think the addition of new weapons every other level keeps the repetition down, though the novelty did die down by the time I finished New Game+ mode.
Also, just in case any Bastion fans missed the Dorkly video previously, here it is again: Bastion's Narrator invades other games
posted by cyberscythe at 11:21 AM on December 9, 2011
Also, just in case any Bastion fans missed the Dorkly video previously, here it is again: Bastion's Narrator invades other games
posted by cyberscythe at 11:21 AM on December 9, 2011
I think I'm the only person in the world who didn't like Bastion.
I enjoyed it, but there wasn't enough meat on those bones to make me play it again. And had the game been a little longer, I wouldn't have finished it. The narration / level building trick only goes so far. Once you've stripped it away, it's just a button mashy, use the same weapon that kills everything dead, God of War did it a little better and much earlier kind of game.
Limbo however, that game was a thing of beauty.
posted by eyeballkid at 11:56 AM on December 9, 2011
I enjoyed it, but there wasn't enough meat on those bones to make me play it again. And had the game been a little longer, I wouldn't have finished it. The narration / level building trick only goes so far. Once you've stripped it away, it's just a button mashy, use the same weapon that kills everything dead, God of War did it a little better and much earlier kind of game.
Limbo however, that game was a thing of beauty.
posted by eyeballkid at 11:56 AM on December 9, 2011
Ditto empath and eyeballkid. I played for about ten minutes, got damned tired of the narration, and shut it down. Given the near-universal plaudits the game gets, though, I consider my failure to enjoy or appreciate it a shortcoming of mine, not one of the game.
posted by Doofus Magoo at 2:11 PM on December 9, 2011
posted by Doofus Magoo at 2:11 PM on December 9, 2011
Ditto empath and eyeballkid. I played for about ten minutes, got damned tired of the narration, and shut it down. Given the near-universal plaudits the game gets, though, I consider my failure to enjoy or appreciate it a shortcoming of mine, not one of the game.
I appreciated it as an experimental art game. I'm glad I paid for it, just to support the developers. But i did not enjoy playing it.
posted by empath at 2:18 PM on December 9, 2011
I appreciated it as an experimental art game. I'm glad I paid for it, just to support the developers. But i did not enjoy playing it.
posted by empath at 2:18 PM on December 9, 2011
Limbo however, that game was a thing of beauty.
See I really wanted to like Limbo, but I found that it ran out of steam pretty quickly. Great article about why it doesn't succeed as much as it could here.
And I agree that Bastion is repetitive, but I really liked the narration and I think the fact that it successfully tried doing things a little different is why it's had such acclaim. Plus the internet gaming community is a sucker for a good indie game :) Honestly even though I haven't finished it because yes it does become very samey fairly quickly, I still like the fact that I've played it and I do feel it offered a gaming experience (tm). And I did enjoy playing it, so there's that.
posted by litleozy at 3:24 AM on December 10, 2011
See I really wanted to like Limbo, but I found that it ran out of steam pretty quickly. Great article about why it doesn't succeed as much as it could here.
And I agree that Bastion is repetitive, but I really liked the narration and I think the fact that it successfully tried doing things a little different is why it's had such acclaim. Plus the internet gaming community is a sucker for a good indie game :) Honestly even though I haven't finished it because yes it does become very samey fairly quickly, I still like the fact that I've played it and I do feel it offered a gaming experience (tm). And I did enjoy playing it, so there's that.
posted by litleozy at 3:24 AM on December 10, 2011
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posted by TomMelee at 8:55 AM on December 9, 2011