4PP 171: The Marathon Show

Beast...

A three hour trek through Podcast land... Oh, this will be a fun morning...

I'd like to take a quick moment to defend what Brad called a "tirade."

First of all, the post wasn't me saying that I didn't like the game. I enjoyed playing Half-Life 2, for the great first person shooter that it is. I just don't understand why it's so highly praised by so many people. What about Half-Life makes it so universally beloved?

From previous discussions about it, I figure it boils down to the way the physics engine is utilized, and the story. The point of my post wasn't to bash the game, or to say that it's bad; I just don't get why seemingly everyone thinks that the story unfolding around Gordon Freeman is any better than that of Resistance, which I hear no praise for.

My comments on the characters, specifically Alyx Vance, may have been a little over-stated. I'd like to clear up what I was saying when I said that KOSMOS had more of a personality than Alyx. KOSMOS is an identifiable character. Sure, it's an overacted, overtly "I'm an anime character" personality, but I can still identify that there's a character there. I can tell you things about her. If someone were to ask me who Alyx Vance is, all I could really tell them is that she's got some relation to Eli (another character I can't really describe), she's part of a rebellion against the (ill-explained) Combine, and she shoots zombies while waiting for elevators.

Perhaps a more apt example would have been a character from Mass Effect. I can tell you that Wrex is, through and through, a warrior that doesn't take anyone's crap. I can tell you, as much as I dislike her, that Jack is a cold, ruthless killing machine without anything resembling humanity left. Scratching the surface, but I think you get my point. There are identifiable character traits.

The only identifiable character trait I can come up with for Alyx is that, any time she opens her mouth, it's either for some throw-away line of dialogue, or to exclaim that whatever the most recent Combine horror she and Freeman stumbled upon is supremely terrible.

I thought I'd try to clear that up here, since it was brought up and the forum thread's been buried since then.

On another note, at one point, Nick asks if a marathon is ever the ideal way to play a game. I agree that, going into a game with the knowledge that you have to finish it in one sitting is bad, but inadvertently running through a game in all one sitting could be a good thing, I think. I'm not sure if that counts as a marathon, though.

For instance, when I played the first Mass Effect for the first time, I ended up playing twenty hours of it in two days, and I do not regret it. I loved every minute of that game. But it wasn't because I pushed myself to do it, and I had no preconception of playing through it in two days; I just kept getting caught up in the story and kept wanting more.

Anyway, that's about all I have to say. Sorry for that large block of text. Great show.

Holy balls on a hotdog batman three hours this'll be a long morning....

I was up early for this one, anyway I am glad that you all had fun with marathon week. Well done for you all completing your games, especially Nick. I am glad you like the game even though you had problems with it, I can understand that 2D games seem to get away with more rubbish than a 3D game can. Anyway another great show guys.

Ok finished the show and all I gotta say is finally my viewer question got answered it hadn't been answered for like 3-4 straight podcasts

Nice long podcast. The zelda discussion was interesting, but may have gone on a bit longer than necessary.