RF Generation Message Board

As herald of PC gaming among the playthrough hosts I felt it was my duty to represent. At least this once ;)

All July - Minecraft:

How to join in on the Minecraft portion of the playthrough:

• Create a Mohjang account and buy the game ($26.95) if you don't already own it https://minecraft.net/store/minecraft
• Download the game. Step 3 of buying will explain this part, but if you already own it and need to download again it can be found here: https://minecraft.net/download
• Launch the game. Place the .exe that you downloaded anywhere you'd like and double-click it, that will launch the game and install everything in the background. Sign in with your Mohjang account, and hit the big "Play" button once the launcher finishes loading.
• If you're like me and want your settings perfected before you even try the game, click "Options" and go through those as you see fit.
• If you'd just like to jump right in and start playing, settings be damned (or you've finished with settings and are ready to play), hit "Multiplayer", then "Add server", name it anything you'd like and type in the address box "24.108.19.69:25565". Ignore the "Server Resource Packs" button and hit "Done", then double click the entry for the server connection you just created.
• You should be in the game now and playing on the RFGeneration Community Playthrough server! If you're new to the game and would like some help getting started, the Minecraft Wiki page has many great tutorials for new and experienced players alike! http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Tutorials#Newcomers
• The only major server rule I'll implement is no destroying things that other people have built, and be courteous about what you're doing. Don't build your house in the middle of someone else's farm for example, and don't go out of your way killing other players intentionally. There is an option to ban players from the server and if someone is consistently being a jerk I won't hesitate to use it, but we're all generally nice here so I don't expect any issues ;)

So we're going to start the month off with Minecraft, but unlike most multi-game months where this would be only week 1, this game will run all month while the others will be more of a one week each experience. The reason for this is that Minecraft is endless, time consuming, and addictive. Once you learn the basics, which doesn't take long, there's an infinite amount of things you can do in it. Anything from building a small cottage, to recreating the entirety of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, to building a working computer processor. All with blocks and some in-game wiring. Or if you're not so creative you can just try to survive each night against the hordes of monsters that spawn in the dark.

Now, there is technically an "end" to minecraft, but once you beat that it just respawns you back at your bed or default spawn location. So with that in mind this game will be played a little differently as a community. I'm going to host a dedicated server throughout the month where we can all jump in and out as we please and explore a minecraft world with each other, maybe build some projects together as a group, or we could even start a little RFGeneration village. Alone or together, you can play as you like. The idea is that then we can share screenshots of what we've been doing here on the thread and show off a little :).

Week 2 - Gone Home:

Oh right there are other games to play along with Minecraft :laugh:. Gone Home is a story based exploration game where you've come home from a trip to find your family home empty. As you walk through the house you discover bits of the story of your sister's life told with her voice through diary entries, and you start to piece together what happened. The story is unconventional but moving and the game as a whole is very atmospheric.

Week 3 - The Stanley Parable:

One day Stanley arrived at work and realized that something was different. All his coworkers were gone. Explore the office with Stanley and RFGeneration this month to find out what happened...if the laws of physics in this game would stop breaking and actually let you. Mind bending and hilarious, with a narrator straight out of something from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, this game is sure to make you laugh.

Week 4 - Dear Esther:

"I’ve begun my voyage in a paper boat without a bottom; I will fly to the moon in it. I have been folded along a crease in time, a weakness in the sheet of life."

Dear Esther is an eerie journey around an abandoned island where you listen to a story narrated by someone who is possibly not in their right mind. Is the voice your own? Or is it this Jacobson he keeps mentioning. What happened on the stretch of highway? Where is this island anyway. This game will leave you with as many questions as answers, and each of us will experience it slightly differently. The story is semi-randomized which means that each time you play it the dialogue will be different or added on to, mixed in with what you've already heard before.

Achievements:
TBA

Participants:
Disposed Hero
Fleach
h1ghw1nd
noiseredux
singlebanana
SirPsycho
techwizard[/list][/list]

I am not a creative person, so I played it just for the achievements and not really to build anything specifically, but I do have Minecraft on the X360 and would be happy to help someone build something or whore achievements for it. (I already have a track built for the "I'm on a rail" cheevo if anyone wants to avoid having to farm the gold and iron, smelting it and laying all that track.)

You can sign me up for this one.  I'll probably sit out on Minecraft (it never really caught my interest.  seems like the kind of addictive time-sink I don't want in my life), but I'll play the other three games.

Also, a heads up for anybody interested in participating in this playthrough:  the Steam Summer Sale is currently going on, so you can probably get these games dirt cheap whenever they show up as a daily or flash sale.

Minecraft server hosted on PC?

that's the plan :) i already host a server for a few friends now and then but i plan on trying to leave my PC up and running for the month so people can drop in and out whenever they please, maybe we could get some group building projects going on. it would be more direct community playing than just discussing the game here.

that's the reason why i'm highly suggesting playing minecraft on PC, not just because it has no limits like the console versions, but that if you did it on PC you can jump in more easily with the rest of us. console is still an option though and the essentials are the same so it'll still add to discussion here, but i'm really hoping for the community playing together not just talking about it.

Hmm...that sounds pretty interesting.  I might make an effort to stop in the Minecraft server and see what all the fuss is about.

Boshamp should i add you to the participants list or were you just offering to help out others who might join?

I'll join for sure!

Heads up, everyone! Gone Home is $2.99 (85% off) for the next 5 hours.

Awesome, now the only game I need is The Stanley Parable and I'll be set.  I know it was a daily/flash sale the other day, here's hoping it goes on sale again!

Even if you buy it at the normal price, The Stanley Parable is worth it. It's got tons of existential commentary  Douglas Adams style humour.

More just offering to help with the X360 achievements. Anyone who wants help with those can either PM me on here or on the 360 at Boshamp33. I wouldn't add me to the formal participants list for this one. I will be focused on the Retro.

I'll buy it on the last day of the sale regardless, but it'll probably show up again as a flash/daily sale before then.  No sense paying more than I have to!  :)

Will Minecraft be running any mods? Because I'm running the Feed the Beast Launcher with Hatpack and some other stuff.

i'm generally not a big fan of mods, but i've been using a mapping mod that's really useful. for starters i'll just leave it completely vanilla, at least to give the new players a chance to understand the basics, then we could probably bring in some mods if everyone is willing to try them later.

oh one thing i should mention is that other than minecraft which is essentially endless the other three games this month are extremely short. so if you're thinking you might not have time to play these along with chrono trigger, you don't have to worry that much.

Dear Esther and The Stanley Parable can be beaten in under one hour if you choose to only play them once (you get a lot more out of them by playing multiple times though).

Gone Home is about 1.5 - 3 hours depending on how much you like to explore and mess around.

triple posting wooo! trailer time though, i noticed that Gone Home has a terrible promo trailer because it makes the game out to be something it's totally not. decided to post the best trailers for all games.

Minecraft:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmB9b5njVbA

Gone Home:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5KJzLsyfBI

The Stanley Parable:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1S796fXtl4

Dear Esther:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7VJ4lP-05A

I'm in on Gone Home for sure. Already took advantage of the half off sale and grabbed it. A podcast I listen to hyped it up after I watched the trailers last night.

Dear Esther I'll most likely be in on too. Graphics alone make me wanna see more.

awesome!

because they're so short and that story is really the main focus, if anyone isn't interested in actually buying Gone Home or Dear Esther i'd highly recommend watching a let's play on youtube (without commentary). most of the discussion those weeks is likely to be on the story anyway, so i feel like watching it on youtube in this case isn't a bad alternative.

What podcast was it?

Techwizard is right. My first experience with Dear Esther was a playthrough on YouTube. Even without actually playing the game I was sucked in by the eerie vibe and story. If anyone doesn't want to buy the game, they should at least watch it online.

Worth mentioning.... The team behind Dear Esther is making a new game called Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. It will have a similar focus on exploration, but will be more open to player actions.

The podcast is called "Here's A Podcast" from www.nintendoeverything.com

It was from months ago, I'm really far behind on it. They were just playing GTA V :P

Uh Jamie, I think you might have convinced me into playing these titles for the month (sans Minecraft). Just when I thought I was out, they keep pulling me back in!

You should still be able to grab Gone Home and The Stanley Parable from Steam for pretty cheap if you haven't done so already.  I believe the Steam summer sale ends today.

the minecraft server is now up and running, with step by step instructions in the first post of this topic on how to get the game and connect to the server! if you have any problems let me know :)

Edit: One thing to note is that the server is run from west coast Canada, so if you're connecting halfway around the world from there then you're going to experience lag. This is online multiplayer after all.

I think I'll pass on Minecraft because I'm leading Chrono Trigger, but I'll play the other three games and really want to hear people's opinions on them.

Gone home gets a retail release as a SNES themed box set

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2014/07/02/retail-special-edition-of-gone-home-now-available-in-snes-themed-box.aspx?utm_content=buffer65476&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

awesome! i really need that.

so not much interest in minecraft, i had hopes but not expectations. tomorrow before work i'll probably jump in and start building, maybe some RFGen themed project screenshots will interest people a little more. really excited to play the other 3 games though, and am happy there seems to be interest in those :)

Joining the Minecraft server. If nobody's gone in there yet I'll start building a castle step by step.

You do that.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay6GjmiJTPM

The server is empty. I'm all alone!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT6OeBeWT8g

The spawn in this world is insanely good though, almost too good...

Hopefully anybody that joins the server will feel safe knowing that they have Iron Man to watch their back.

[img width=700 height=370]http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g436/gpro83/2014-07-03_155318_zps3761022a.png[/img]

i know right? that was the first world that i tried and it was perfect...lots of good biomes nearby, tons of animals and mobs, nice flat plains to build on. definitely wasn't planned, just a lucky spawn ;). by the way if you notice any issues with settings let me know and i'll customize them. i was going to play this morning but i forgot i had to work earlier today than usual so i wasn't able to.

Well, I got the server through most of the early game survival issues.

Here was Iron Man's first shelter. I made plenty of beds so eventually everybody can have their own.

[img width=700 height=370]http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g436/gpro83/2014-07-03_164503_zps97f4197c.png[/img]

This is the first and so far only expansion to the main shelter, I made it much longer so there's much more storage room and plenty of ovens.

[img width=700 height=370]http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g436/gpro83/2014-07-03_171245_zps109dd4a4.png[/img]

Outside the shelter.

[img width=700 height=370]http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g436/gpro83/2014-07-03_172125_zps5eb9302a.png[/img]

I threw up a wall between the storage, ovens, and the beds.

[img width=700 height=370]http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g436/gpro83/2014-07-03_173704_zps24e7511e.png[/img]

Here is the other half now with many more chests.

[img width=700 height=370]http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g436/gpro83/2014-07-03_173714_zpsef86efac.png[/img]

I got the farming started around a small bay.

[img width=700 height=370]http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g436/gpro83/2014-07-03_172548_zpsf274dc94.png[/img]

The swamp has plenty of clay, so I threw up this brick building to store anything needed for the farm, and the nearby pier.

[img width=700 height=370]http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g436/gpro83/2014-07-03_174104_zpsc90ab682.png[/img]

We now have sheep and chickens all penned up. No carrots yet to get the pigs in there and breeding.

[img width=700 height=370]http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g436/gpro83/2014-07-03_191108_zps20f91dec.png[/img]

wow sir psycho, great start! one thing i like to do with a room full of chests, furnaces, or tables is to put them in the ground just one block below your feet with the tops exposed. they all still function and then there's nothing restricting your movement around the rooms. i'll probably try to join you tonight after work, or tomorrow for sure!

edit: sirpsycho are you alright with sharing resources? i borrowed some wood and stone to get a head start on my own tools but wouldn't mind snagging some other things until i get more settled :) i can share what i find too.

start of my rfgen member monuments ;) this was the easiest one to start with

Everything in chests is free game.

2001 Nana monolith. Worth it

I'm all alone in here again.

Cue up Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

server log says you were in before i was out of bed ;) i was planning on playing throughout today but was called in to work until 6 PST, so i'll probably be in sometime after i get home.

Damn skeleton killed me right as I was staring down some diamond. I lost all the gold I was going to use for a special project. Diamond is still safe in rocks.

EDIT: The gold survived! I did lose over a stack of iron though.

skeletons are seriously the most annoying enemies now, i feel like they buffed them with one of the patches because they never use to bother me this much.

by the way do you have any issue with the player idle auto-kick? i noticed it looks like you've been kicked by it a bunch but i can change it if it's too short (or remove it entirely).

I haven't been kicked once for idling. Maybe its counting every time I go into the escape menu?

oh ok, no i don't think it would be that, maybe you just happen to be leaving around the same time as the time limit for an idle kick

Server's lagging pretty hard.

i was having some network issues around that time, restarted my modem and router and it seems better now...though it could easily have been related to me listening to the collectorcast on youtube at the same time  :ninja:

exploring a trench full of mobs with ironman aka SirPsycho

We're into week 2 now, has anyone had a chance to try Gone Home yet? I'll probably be playing through it tonight after work :)

edit: played through the game last night. I really love how much detail they put into it. literally everything you look at has exactly what you'd expect to find on the same items in the real world, down to copyrights (that you can read clearly) and nutritional info on food. It really makes it feel like it could be a lived in house and not just a set piece.

Games like these where you get a lot of the story through the environment are great, i love not having to rely on dialogue or cutscenes for everything. Little things like the fact that Sam's dad, Terry, is a writer, and then you find various college applications (and acceptance letters) for creative writing courses for Sam. You really get to learn about what sort of people these characters are through the things they possess and live with.

this was my second time playing it, and although i think i found one extra journal entry that i didn't the first time, as long as you're thorough on your first playthrough i don't feel like this one has a lot of replay value. Unlike Dear Esther and The Stanley Parable, nothing actually "changes" with each new playthrough, it's all on you to find new things and eventually there's nothing new to find. It doesn't make it a bad game but it does make it a bit less interesting the second time.

Great comments, it certainly sounds like an interesting game.  I probably won't get to it for the next couple of days, but I should be able to finally play it this weekend at the latest.

...just a thought, but you guys are on PC this month. No excuse for not having screenshots. ;)

I did not play it, since I do not have a game computer, but since I had a good idea about the nature of  the game, I watched a playthrough. I feel like I got pretty much the same basic experience as anyone else playing, though I certainly progressed quicker than I would have if I played alone. The game requires some exploring, but is pretty much linear in that you have to do certain things to access other areas in the house. As you move from area to area, the story progresses into a sort of finale, if you want to call it that.

The game brings about an overwhelming sense of voyeurism in that you are basically moving through an unfamiliar house (my understanding is that your family moved here while you were away) and you are rifling through your family members' personal belongings to understand what has been going on since you were away. The environment (the thunderstorm outside) is interesting, but I don't think it really adds to the story other than creating an uncomfortable and eerie feeling. After watching what I assume was an earlier trailer, it seems that the developers might have been going with something "different" or more sinister and decided at some point to back off. Just a thought, and I'd like to hear as to whether this is true or not.

I will save my more revealing thoughts on the game after Week 2 is over.

these are from my first playthrough of Gone Home where i had a little too much fun throwing stuff around the house:

[img width=700 height=393]http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/684843638831075920/05CC61F80EB3692E5ED92C0061CA2109E058A634/[/img]

[img width=700 height=393]http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/684843638828269868/697562A72B5D1C63DA95406386717C476A8C895B/[/img]

[img width=700 height=490]http://contraryperspective.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/uncle-sam.jpg[/img]

to play Minecraft with me right now.

Are those SNES carts in the tub?

Yes indeed. In fact, it even ties into the retail special edition of Gone Home that was just released!
http://www.joystiq.com/2013/08/24/the-artists-behind-the-snes-cart-art-in-gone-home/
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2014/07/02/retail-special-edition-of-gone-home-now-available-in-snes-themed-box.aspx

I figured it was tied in, I saw this pic and it reminded me of the story I shared on this thread about the SNES-esque retail release.

the game is set in 1995, they did a good job of filling the house with mid-90s items

I agree. This made the game a bit more nostalgic for me as well. That was the year I graduated high school, so maybe just a little younger than the protagonist and same age as the sister timeline wise.

I finished Gone Home over the weekend.  It's an interesting game.  I was put off by it at first because not much really happens.  I found it really boring.  But about half way through, I started getting more interested in the story and really cared about the characters.  The game tells a nice story, and it stuck with me for a while after playing it.  It actually made me feel kinda depressed, but I think if a game can stir any real emotion in the player (other than extreme frustration, of course), then it's doing something right.

i felt the same way during certain moments of it, though at the beginning i wasn't bored but creeped out. i thought it was supposed to be a scary game and kept expecting jump scares, but there was nothing except my imagination.

I saw we had someone new jump into the Minecraft server, what's everyone been up to in there recently? sorry i haven't been in on it much, i've been pretty busy recently. let's see some screenshots!

is everyone ready for the minding-bending week of The Stanley Parable?

Edit: oops, my bad. i shut off the minecraft server last night because it was slowing other things down and no one tends to use it that late at night, but forgot to turn it back on before going to bed. sorry to those who might have tried playing this morning, it's back up now!

Yeah, it definitely has a creepy atmosphere.  I made the mistake of looking at some user reviews on Steam before I played the game, and some asswipes decided to spoil the story just because they didn't like it, so I pretty much knew what to expect.

I do have Dear Esther which I've yet to play.

I feel like Minecraft is too expensive, because I don't think I'd be so into it after the month is over.

@disposed that really sucks, that's exactly why i try to avoid reviews before i play a game...i read reviews to see what people thought after i've already formed my own opinion, not as a deciding factor in whether or not i'll play something.

@noiseredux awesome! Dear Esther is my favourite of the bunch this month. just make sure to hold off on discussing it until next week :). Minecraft is a little pricy for what it is, but then at the same time if you have the motivation and creativity you can get way more than your money's worth out of it. i must have sunk hundreds of hours into it and i've never built anything really amazing. i think for me it's just a great game to relax to, especially on easier difficulties. you can just get lost exploring and mess around, no stressing over any goals if you don't want to. if you need storyline and structure to a game or even just goal oriented gameplay, which is totally understandable, then this probably isn't for you.

when are we allowed to start talking about Dear Esther?

normally for week 4 which starts on tuesday, but The Stanley Parable has been a dud for discussion so i'd say we could go ahead and discuss any of the four titles now.

edit: shutting down the minecraft server for a few hours to do the podcast episode 4 recording with less risk of skype lag.

started it up, but on vacation this week. Seems like a thinking game. Thinking and drinking don't mix...

I tried to play The Stanley Parable over the weekend, but I still need to download it to my gaming PC.  The bad news is that my WiFi adapter seems to be failing on me, making the download pretty much impossible until I get a replacement.

I'm pretty sure I already have Dear Esther downloaded, so I should be able to play that one no problem.

that sucks disposed but at least you have one of them. you could always put in your thoughts later once you do get a chance to download the stanley parable, even if july is over by then.

so what does everyone think of Dear Esther? this is one of my favourites for being a thinking game like disposed mentioned, the story is very open to interpretation.

also i've been in minecraft on and off, mostly with the girlfriend mining. unless i get inspired to build something specific, most of the time i really like to just explore caves and gather resources.

I'm still unsure as to what to make of this game, and maybe that's the point. The thing I would ultimately question is, "Is this a game?" Seems like there's not a lot of gamesmanship, but more of a walkabout with inlays of narrative. I understand that you can use your flashlight and unlock messages, but there is nothing that I would call "gameplay." "Dear Esther" seems to be more along the lines of a virtual book.

With that said, I couldn't tear myself away from watching it. The narrative is super fragmented and I found myself wanting to continue in order to make some sense of it. Even with it over, I'm still not sure I've put a complete story together yet. I'm not one for tidy endings and I appreciate the experience and what it produced (still produces) in me mentally. A thinking man's/woman's game that will have you trying to unravel it for days.

I believe that the narrator is in purgatory and the events of the game depict his path towards atonement and reconciliation. My take is that the narrative was involved in the car crash that took Esther's life and now the narrative is looking for closure and forgiveness.

I love the fragmented nature of the game. Nothing really makes sense, but all the clues and memories can be put together to string up a rough understanding of the game.

This is one of my favourite games. Going to have play it again for the playthrough.

i agree with what Fleach said, and singlebanana i'd recommend watching it again from a different video because the dialogue you get each time you play will be different. not 100% different, there's still a good chunk of overlap, but it's definitely somewhat randomized.

I finally found time to play Dear Esther over the weekend.  I know you guys seem to love it, but I couldn't get into this one.  I found Gone Home to be much more interesting and entertaining.  I think I was put off by the fact that there is literally no gameplay to this one whatsoever, just walking.  And to make matters worse, I wasn't really following the story, and I didn't really care about it anyway.

The good news is that by some miracle my WiFi adapter on my gaming PC decided to spring back to life, and I was able to download The Stanley Parable.  I'm hoping to play through it some time within the next couple of days.

there's the problem ;) this "game" is much more like a virtual short story and if you aren't paying attention to the story you're not going to get anything out of it. the story is pretty interesting if you pay attention to it and piece together what's going on.

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/07/29/why-do-so-many-people-hate-indie-games

This article is pretty relevant to this month's playthrough. I'm curious to see how other RF Genners respond to the author's claims.

No, I had a good idea of the story while watching the playthrough, since it was complete. I understand the basic story and what went on. My process for understanding this game has to do with the multiple names and events you come across and trying to put them together for a more philosophical understanding of the game. For instance, Paul, Esther, and Damascus are all biblical references with some heavy significance that you can't ignore.

I completely agree with Disposed and mentioned something similar in my earlier "is this a game" comment. I don't feel like you do anything in this "game" and there is little to no interaction with items or the environment. You basically just walk around to reveal more story. I'd probably contend that this is not a game, but an interactive narrative. Gone Home, though similar in some respects, forces you to manipulate certain areas to move forward in the narrative (unlock a combination lock, find a key, etc.).

Sounds like we're going to have fun discussion these PC titles pretty soon.

I agree. ;)

Congratulations and thanks to everyone who played this month! I had a lot of fun with these and look forward to discussing them in the podcast.

[img width=700 height=933]https://i.groupme.com/3264x2448.jpeg.2dadd030fb0d013176fd22000b2e0315.large[/img]

Yep. This will be fun. :)

Is the narrator mad, or is it you?

Both. And neither. They left parallel vapour trails in the sky.

I know I missed the 'deadline', but I'm still gonna try and start up The Stanley Parable over the weekend and give my thoughts on it.

You can "beat" The Stanley Parable in around 15 minutes. But...

Spoiler (hover to show)

The game's cyclical element means you can never really finish The Stanley Parable.

love yr notes Fleach.

I honestly couldn't seem to get into Dear Esther. To my own surprise. It seems right up my alley. But... I don't know. It might be a better cold weather game for me or something. I think I was playing it at the wrong time - since I was on vacation that week and in party mode. I wasn't really feeling introspective or anything. :\

Your mindset and surroundings help with the experience of Dear Esther. Don't expect much gamey-ness to it and instead image watching a play or listening to a monologue.

As for my notes. There are lots of loose thread in the dialogue and some don't connect to anything. We'll get into that in the podcast. The main thing is to not over analyze because you'll just give yourself a headache.

When and if you play the game, take your time and soak it all in. I hope you enjoy it.

http://dearesther.wikia.com/wiki/Dear_Esther_Script

if anyone is interested, this site has the entire script of Dear Esther. it really shows just how much more there is that you can only get by replaying the game or looking it up online.