That’s great news. The game already runs great on Steam Deck, but sometimes the EA app is really difficult to get logged in to.
I highly recommend this to anyone with a dock and a significant other. My wife and I played a lot of it together, and I overheard her telling her friends that it was like we were playing a pixar movie together.
Yep, a truly great game, deserves every award it got
Me and my wife… Got really bored. The gameplay loop is supppperr trivial, and even though they add in stuff every now and again, eh…
I dunno, it’s okay - but I just don’t get the hype. I wanted to pitch in because if someone is considering buying it I’d really recommend checking a Let’s Play of it before trying it.
It felt like a game specifically designed for a gamer to introduce gaming to their never-gamed-before partner. If you’re both experienced gamers like we are, I wonder whether you’d give up on it too.
Me and my wife are both big gamers. We both enjoyed it a lot. I get what you’re talking about in the gameplay loop, but we play games for stories. The story was engaging and kept us interested. I did enjoy the gameplay though.
My partner is pretty much a non gamer, for her it was perfect.
Agreed, we thoroughly enjoyed it - hopefully, they make another game soon!
As a side note, EA has basically locked me out of my entire library and I gave up trying to fix it. Terrible launcher.
One of my games, you have to open twice (once to crash, twice to launch correctly).
Sometimes more than twice. I just keep launching until I can eventually play my game. 60% of the time it works every time.
It was doing this with unravel two. Then some day out of nowhere it started working and we could finally play it. I’m not buying anything with that launcher again.
Fuck EA btw
Fuck those greedy customer-hostile profit-extracting bastardsMy wife found out about The Elephant Scene and refused to ever play it as long as she lives
Yeah… that was a fun surprise for us.
Was it fun though? Or was it awful?
Man I really like the scene for it’s dark humor but it’s so hard to watch, lol.
Game overall is fantastic though! Definitely good with a significant other.
Yeah, that part was a distinct bum note in an otherwise enjoyable game. Why the developers thought it was good idea, I’ll never know.
Thanks for the explanation, although I don’t find it a particularly acceptable one. The sequence wasn’t funny enough to justify the dramatic shift in tone in an otherwise family-friendly game, IMO. Also, making the protagonists unlikable in a game where you’re supposed to find them sympathetic is a very weird design decision.
They’re terrible parents for the majority of the game, this is just the culmination of all their selfishness and self deceit.
I’ve never played the game or even heard of this scene until reading that article and the sense he gives is so unsatisfying to me.
I think if you view it as a metaphor for divorce, it could make sense. Something the parents feel they have to do for their own health and well being that is nonetheless catastrophic for many children. Their children’s life as they know it, their sense of security, is carefully and methodically being ripped apart.
I could see that, but he didn’t really go there, it was just that the parents are so egoistic they just do whatever they believe is right.
I mean, sure, but it could be a powerful scene if framed properly, but it really sounds messed up.
Yeah, you’ve pretty much hit the nail on the head. After hearing the dev’s justification I can see what they were going for, but it’s really poorly handled in-game IMO.
They way it plays out in the story feels neither darkly comic nor a poignant commentary on parents going though a divorce; instead it just comes across as unnecessarily cruel, and the player has no choice but to go along with it.
To take the devils advocate position: is conflict not necessary for drama, and effective conflict is one that affects its audience?
The issue isn’t the use of conflict as a dramatic device per se; it is essentially forcing the player(s) to perform a seemingly unnecessary and unpleasant action against their will.
The fact that both main characters in the game appear to immediately decide that violently murdering their child’s favorite toy is the only course of action and that no alternative is offered is really jarring. Giving the player some agency in choosing an alternative way to to go about it would have solved the problem completely.
Giving the player some agency would get all players avoiding this scene completely. Nobody would do it. And yet there’s plenty of other games that force you to do things you don’t agree with, for the sake of the story being told. Not sure why people get mad at this one. Once you play it you realize it’s their lowest point, and they start changing and rebuilding after that.
I’m curious about comparing this to say - the white phosphorus scene in Spec Ops: The Line, or the airport scene (“no Russian”) in COD, rescuing Ellie instead of giving humanity the cure in The Last of Us…
All things that are arguably a lot worse than pulling a leg off a stuffed Elephant and all require on-rails player action in a game.
The difference is my six-year-old daughter isn’t going to be playing Spec Ops: The Line or Call of Duty.
My daughter and I were really mad about this. She wanted us to quit the game. I don’t think it’s really funny or useful to the story either. Still a really fun game.
Yeah, I absolutely get the anger. My wife in particular hates cruelty to animals, fictional, plush, or otherwise, so it’s a line she refuses to cross. That’s a totally fair outlook
Interesting, I wonder how they wiggled out from the ea app requirement and if any other EA games have a chance.
this is what I was honestly most excited about.
Is it The End Of Days?
Is EA actually getting … less shitty??
It’s weirdly cyclical. I remember around when the original Dead Space came out (early iirc) they were acting pretty decently for EA.
Honestly they still act shitty. Its just that their competition is ahead of them right now in this particual aspect to the point where you might think they behave fairly decently.
EA is continuing to do what they’ve always done - attempt to suck up as much money as possible. It just so happens that for once they think being less shitty is the best way to do it. Don’t hold your breath about this being a trend.
Wow, literally just got my wife a steam deck to play this game with me and created her an EA account last week. Joining each other was annoying using the EA friend’s list and the steam deck trackpad. Hope this update streamlines the process.
Update: Invites using the Steam friend list was simple and worked well.
Great game, had a blast playing it with a buddy. I did not pay for it and there was no launcher either :)
Is there ANY way to play this game single?
No. It’s two player cooperative gameplay.
One of you will be doing one thing, and the other person something to help them, and it’s always varying what you do.
It’s not like Brothers a Tale of Two Sons, or Kuri Kuri Mix.
Damit. Ok, nevermind. Not buying it. :(
Good news! If you find somebody else that has it, you can download and play it with them for free.
Yeah, I saw the free one. I’ll check with some friends to see if anyone has it or the free one.
It’s worth it. Story is kind of cringe, but the co-op adds some unique gameplay.
Yeah, that’s why I actually wanted it. It looks like a game I’d enjoy.
Can you play it on a single computer or does it have to be two machines? If it’s a single, do you need two controllers or how does that work?
I think it’s intended to be played at the same computer. Two controllers, split screen. To be played in the same couch, with your partner. We loved it.
Does it have to be the same couch ? My couch is too small to fit two people
Your partner could sit on your leg/knee. Couch mandatory. Add-ons optional.
It supports both online co-op as well as split screen with multiple controllers; at least it does on PC.
Yeah I played online with my bff, both on Xbox
Two controllers. Split screen.
Great, now do the rest of them
Anybody know if this game is noob friendly?
Very much so
It absolutely is. Had a great time with my girlfriend, who normally doesn’t play at all.
And I’m still not gonna buy an EA game. They burned themselves ages ago.
