Comments on: On the Rain-Slick Precipace of Darkness

On the Rain-Slick Precipace of Darkness

Caduceus — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:40:02 -0800

based on the internet's most prominent gaming comic, Penny Arcade is released today. After nearly a decade of being a juggernaut of criticism and foul language to the game industry, the duo behind Penny Arcade put their money where their newsposts are; will their game be any good? I don't know yet, as I'm stuck at school all day. On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, developed by independent game studio Hothead Games, is a 1920s style pulp adventure with steampunk and Lovecraftian elements, mixed with the gameplay elements of a traditional turn-based Japanese console RPG and Penny Arcade's typical brand of humor. The Penny Arcade team divided their work on the game very much like their work on the comic; Gabe (Mike Krahulik) did the art design, and Tycho (Jerry Holkins) wrote the story and script (and each and every description of everything, as I understand it). While I imagine if you're a fan of Penny Arcade you already know about this and whether you want to buy it or not, I thought I'd throw it up anyway. It's available by download for PC, Mac, and Linux, for $20. Also available on X-box Live Arcade.

By: absalom

absalom — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:42:31 -0800

Heh, fantastic. I'm excited about this.

By: Your Time Machine Sucks

Your Time Machine Sucks — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:47:03 -0800

Can't wait to give the demo a spin.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:54:55 -0800

four page promo comic [1][2][3][4]

By: jedicus

jedicus — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:56:57 -0800

I played through the demo earlier today. I like the writing and pervasive humor. The combat is not exactly turn-based. It's more like the Final Fantasy 'active time battle' system.¹ The graphics do a good job of giving everything a Penny Arcade comic feel. The mixture of 3D for the main graphics along with 2D for icons and other UI elements works well. So far my only complaint is that the voice acting for the narrator is...not quite the characterization I would have chosen, but voice acting is always tricky. ¹ Interestingly, the ATB system is patented. I wonder if this runs afoul of the patent and if Square/Enix actually pursues infringers...

By: unsupervised

unsupervised — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:00:25 -0800

Wired Game/Life's Review, Joystiq interview with Jerry Holkins about the game. And, of course, my favorite Penny Arcade strip.

By: CKmtl

CKmtl — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:03:47 -0800

I really hope Tycho's ultimate attack involves smoking orbs of nothing and tears of bubbling pitch.

By: Caduceus

Caduceus — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:07:23 -0800

You guys are awesome; thanks for the additional links. I don't really have the wherewithal to track those down here at school.

By: danb

danb — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:09:19 -0800

I'm pretty excited for this one too.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:11:29 -0800

I'm a buy it.

By: yellowbinder

yellowbinder — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:17:46 -0800

Downloading now, I've been very interested ever since Ron Gilbert (Maniac Mansion / Monkey Island mastermind) got involved. The reviews I've read aren't as positive as I'd like, but I'm still down for adventure and hilarity.

By: SassHat

SassHat — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:28:31 -0800

When is MetaFilter, The Game dropping? Play as Jessamyn, Cortex or PB as you try to rescue Mathowie from the evil SelfLinker gang!

By: quin

quin — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:48:29 -0800

A friend turned me onto PA their first year, and I've been a dedicated reader ever since. I've watched their skills as artists, and their popularity grow and I'm absolutely thrilled that they are finally putting their efforts into making a game of their own. Like so many of my favorite reviewers, I respect their opinions because they so clearly love the subject matter, and hopefully their game will reflect this. I just hope that I can play as Div. Or FF2k. That would rule.

By: MiltonRandKalman

MiltonRandKalman — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:57:12 -0800

{sniff} Its nice to know not only will these guys carry the torch for adventure games, they are willing to fan the flames with something fun to play.

By: lekvar

lekvar — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:59:56 -0800

I'm surprised that they made a Mac version considering how generally dismissive they are of the platform. Surprised and very happy. I can't wait to try this.

By: MikeKD

MikeKD — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:08:19 -0800

Hell, I'm surprised about the Linux version.

By: Avenger

Avenger — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:33:03 -0800

By: majick

majick — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:33:14 -0800

I sprung for it this morning, battled my way through the download, hammered the authentication server five or six times, and got to play it for a short while. I like the game and absolutely loathe the combat system. There's way too much "click on this small button with a fist on it, then go way across the screen and click on something else." So of course I fumble it about a quarter of the time which results in a robot peeing on a party member. Oh and to execute certain attacks, you get to play minigames involving mashing the space bar at certain times, like the old golf sims used to make you do. Gah! So far it's an interesting if somewhat non-interactive game and definitely a showcase for their writing, engine, and artwork all of which have been impressive. But the combat sucks donkey balls and will probably result in me getting bored and wandering away some time soon.

By: Memo

Memo — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:43:43 -0800

jedicus: "The combat is not exactly turn-based. It's more like the Final Fantasy 'active time battle' system.¹" I was going to comment that it seemed very similar to Chronotrigger's combat style. I hadn't realized that most square games share it.

By: Caduceus

Caduceus — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:11:44 -0800

I'm surprised that they made a Mac version considering how generally dismissive they are of the platform. Surprised and very happy. They haven't been dismissive of the Mac for years now. I think Gabe does his art on a Mac (I know he has one), and I know Tycho has one too.

By: Strange Interlude

Strange Interlude — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:05:52 -0800

I also seem to recall that either Gabe or Tycho posted something on the blog about using a Mac laptop as their main World of Warcraft machine a year or so ago, so they're hardly dismissive of the Mac as a creative tool and gaming machine. The main problem with Mac gaming is that there just aren't a lot of publishers supporting Apple hardware, so it's nice that the Penny Arcade guys are going same day-and-date with the Mac and Win versions.

By: Rhaomi

Rhaomi — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:12:25 -0800

Caduceus: "They haven't been dismissive of the Mac for years now. I think Gabe does his art on a Mac (I know he has one), and I know Tycho has one too." They have tasted the forbidden fruit...

By: TypographicalError

TypographicalError — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:09:40 -0800

I adore Penny Arcade. This, on the other hand, seems a little lacking. The combat system is confusing and requires more "mouse-jockeying" than mental skill. It would be impossible to play on a console system, for example. Still, I'll probably get it eventually. I just beat the game on XBLA. I cannot imagine playing this game on the PC. It just wouldn't make any sense.

By: markr

markr — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:11:02 -0800

I'm a big PA fan, and I like adventure games, but I pretty much loath FF-style RPG combat (and, in fact, FF-style RPGs in general) which seems to be what they're doing here. I'm going to play the demo for sure and I'll almost certainly get the game, but I'm worried the combat will turn me off it.

By: abulafa

abulafa — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:25:09 -0800

For someone who really, really dislikes the Final Fantasy series... this is fun so far. If I could find the person behind their comic sans-style font and have them killed, however... "So, you guys are assholes, huh?"

By: fallingbadgers

fallingbadgers — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:50:55 -0800

If you are witty but poor then Ars are running a cartoon caption competition to win a copy of the game on the memory stick of champions.

By: opsin

opsin — Thu, 22 May 2008 03:55:23 -0800

Indeed, Avenger, from the sound of it it is a lot easier to play on a console... Not having to use a mouse to select people/foes in combat could only work better. I enjoy the combat as you can navigate through the options really fast and time blocks quite easily on XBLA. It would be easierto select things to interact with/look at, but it's not like you are ever rushed into doing anything, so positioning your character right with the controller isn't a problem.

By: Pastabagel

Pastabagel — Thu, 22 May 2008 07:19:05 -0800

I really hope Tycho's ultimate attack involves smoking orbs of nothing and tears of bubbling pitch. posted by CKmtl at 6:03 PM on May 21 That is without question my favorite PA strip of all time, and I've been trying to track it down forever. Thank you, CKmtl!

By: Cassilda

Cassilda — Thu, 22 May 2008 07:28:35 -0800

Bought, but not played yet. I'm having the recurrent Linux sound driver issue that's mentioned all over the forums, and none of the fixes work (or even apply to my system, as I'm not using PulseAudio). I am still cautiously optimistic; if this entertains me for more than two hours (once I actually get it working), I'll consider it twenty bucks well spent.

By: longdaysjourney

longdaysjourney — Thu, 22 May 2008 08:05:21 -0800

That is without question my favorite PA strip of all time, and I've been trying to track it down forever. Thank you, CKmtl! Penny Arcade Search Engine My own favorite is this one. Or is it this one? Or this one? There are so many. Such a great strip.

By: CKmtl

CKmtl — Thu, 22 May 2008 08:52:20 -0800

Pastabagel: It's also available in Hoodie form, should you want to freak out people standing behind you.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Thu, 22 May 2008 09:23:34 -0800

they may not be using comic sans. there's another one, I forget what it's called, freely available on the mac that they may be using. Markerfelt, that's it. I'm not sure which they're using. Anyway, I've played it, and the one thing that's bothering me most so far is that you have to manually select a character to attack with once his attack is ready. It's kind of silly to have to do that, when the final fantasies that they partly modeled the system on have been capably switching you automatically since the system was first designed. true, this way you can have guys use items out of turn, but I'm sure there's a proper compromise for the two extremes, here. otherwise, it's been really fun and funnier than I expected on occasion.

By: Caduceus

Caduceus — Thu, 22 May 2008 10:13:11 -0800

I'm playing on PC, and I'm not really having a problem with the combat system. Sure, it's not ideal, but I think they did a pretty good job of setting it up for, you know, playing on a PC. Anyone having problems with it should consider adjusting their mouse sensitivity to avoid over shooting or whatever problems they're having with targeting. It's definitely been twenty bucks well spent for me. I haven't laughed so hard at something on my computer screen for quite a while.

By: Gary

Gary — Thu, 22 May 2008 10:21:07 -0800

Bought, but not played yet. I'm having the recurrent Linux sound driver issue that's mentioned all over the forums, and none of the fixes work ... I was debating getting the Linux version (to support that kind of thing) or the XBox version. I still might try the demo on Linux, but I've already suffered through the era of dos boot disks and config.sys files in the late 80s. These days I just want to have the game work.

By: sparkletone

sparkletone — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:45:34 -0800

I have found Penny Packer helpful for finding old strips quickly. I've never had any reason to tag anything myself, but just looking at the first tag that comes to mind gets me what I want 99.9% of the time.

By: sparkletone

sparkletone — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:46:18 -0800

Oh. And. I've played the demo (mac version). The combat didn't bother me, but isn't really a big draw for me. It's just all right. However, Tycho's writing and the art direction is more than enough to get me to shell out $20.

By: Cassilda

Cassilda — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:24:52 -0800

I was debating getting the Linux version (to support that kind of thing) or the XBox version. I still might try the demo on Linux... For what its worth, I say try the Linux demo out first, and see if you can get it to work. My distro of choice (Gentoo, and yes, I realize this makes me the ricer of the Linux world) isn't heavily represented on the Greenhouse forums, and I know that my setup is wonky; I do have a number of things left to try to see if I can get the game running. All the Ubuntu kids, with their nice haircuts and their shiny shoes, generally seem to be able to play the game with a minimum of fuss. Of course, I totally would have bought the game on XBLA if I actually had an XBox, so there's that.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:30:53 -0800

I would imagine that it's very difficult for any game dev to make a game work on the majority of gentoo systems since gentoo kids tend to customize their box to the point where entire functional aspects of the system may in fact be missing, disabled and/or intentionally broken.

By: A dead Quaker

A dead Quaker — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:59:02 -0800

My favorite. (It involves Div.)

By: markr

markr — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:28:53 -0800

For what it's worth, it's not the mouse clicks or other parts of the combat UI that bother me, it's that entire RPG, queue up attacks style of fighting. I prefer just plan ol' arcade style stuff, or have no fighting and make it a pure adventure game. I'm sure I'll survive though.

By: Gary

Gary — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:47:23 -0800

All the Ubuntu kids, with their nice haircuts and their shiny shoes, generally seem to be able to play the game with a minimum of fuss. I'll give it a try, then. I had to completely re-install Ubuntu 8.04 to get wifi working on my laptop. So there shouldn't be too many config surprises to get in the way. The worst case is having to buy a second copy. But it's Penny Arcade and some local Vancouver developers, so that's not so bad. They can use the extra money to make hats.

By: Cassilda

Cassilda — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:13:38 -0800

I did end up getting the game running on my Gentoo machine; as it happens, the game wants to go through OSS for its sound, and won't have truck with any of this newfangled ALSA nonsense. I think it's a weird choice, as to my understanding, OSS is deprecated in the 2.6 kernels in favor of ALSA, but then again, I didn't have to develop the game. It was just a matter of compiling a couple OSS kernel modules; no big deal.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Mon, 26 May 2008 14:46:36 -0800

So I was playing this thinking it was ok but not really as penny-arcade-twisted as I would have liked, but then I got to the part where you have the option to <spoiler>drink the hobo juice OMG!</spoiler>

By: danb

danb — Tue, 27 May 2008 21:33:50 -0800

If anyone is interested, I wrote about Precipice on my video game blog thing.