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Psychonauts 2 |OT| The Spy Who Lobed Me

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Sealord of Braavos

Sealord of Braavos

Banned
Oct 12, 2020
8,860
This game.

Takes me back to the golden age of platformers. Except most of them weren't this good….or even close to LOOKING this good. The lighting on Series X is sublime. And the HDR. 😍 Double Fine, for me, has moved up the "Best Studio" list of Xbox's group of 23. Probably have them in the top third now, just based on Psychonauts 2…before I would have had them in the bottom third.
 
Sealord of Braavos

Sealord of Braavos

Banned
Oct 12, 2020
8,860
bonesawisready5 said:
I'm really enjoying it but I got to admit once the hub opened up even more, it gets a little confusing to navigate all the areas. Not a big problem and I'm sure I will get used to it
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I experienced a bit of this, but once I got better at interpreting the map, things became easier. But yeah, what I thought was going to be a quirky little platformer is actually a game of considerable scope.
 
vixolus

vixolus

Prophet of Truth
Member
Sep 22, 2020
57,323
Reflecting on the game I just realized..

The only original Psychonauts 6 7 you don't go into the mind of is Otto Mentalis. To be fair he was the only one that didn't seem to have any problems lol.
 
Cels

Cels

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,823
Tommyguns said:
It was confirmed by a dev on Twitter to be native HDR on Xbox series consoles. While playing the game, the "auto HDR" prompt is not there, also confirming it is native game HDR
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oh, if it was auto-HDR that explains why HDR isn't on PC...yet. auto-HDR is coming to PC soon, it's currently in preview.

but if they actually did native HDR on xbox and ignored PC, then idk what to say except microsoft continues to give PC the shaft. at least they're consistent. halo MCC has HDR on console but doesn't on PC.

PennyStonks said:
Well that's kinda lame it's not HDR on everything
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it's totally lame. microsoft says they care about PC but keeps doing things like this. that, plus the stutter on the PC game pass version because you can't change it to DX11. yet on steam you can. the competitor's storefront has a better version than they do, which is happening far too often. (see, the ascent steam vs win10/xbox)

to their credit they're going to deliver a patch next week so the problem should be fixed soon.

there's an obvious (and cynical) explanation for lack of HDR on PS4/5. after all there isn't even a native PS5 version.
 
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Geg

Geg

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,641
Holy shit this amazing meta-joke with Raz Archetype. I'm glad I didn't know about this beforehand because I was able to listen to his voice and be like wait a fucking second
 
Edge

Edge

A King's Landing
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
21,012
Celle, Germany
And I finished it. Credits roll after around 19 hours.

Yep, this is a 5/5 for me. From start to finish this is an unbelievably special game, filled to the brim with so much heart, ideas and creativity that you can literally feel that they pressed 6 years of passion into this one game. You feel it in every level, every cutscene and in every character, it's something on a level that you only get every few years. A real masterpiece.
 

Hasidan

Member
Nov 16, 2017
52
The game is really good - when you get to play. The amount of cutscenes so far is way to much. Just finished the casino-level. Hope that I get to play more from now on without being interupted every five minutes.
With that being said: the gameplay is fun and full of variation:-)
 
Clay

Clay

Member
Oct 29, 2017
8,293
Hasidan said:
The game is really good - when you get to play. The amount of cutscenes so far is way to much. Just finished the casino-level. Hope that I get to play more from now on without being interupted every five minutes.
With that being said: the gameplay is fun and full of variation:-)
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I was just about to post about this. I love the characters and dialogue in the game, and personally didn't have an issue with the pacing.

But I just went back to the first two levels to collect everything and I have to say, it is fun exploring without the constant interruptions.
 
Zor

Zor

Member
Oct 30, 2017
11,612
Can anyone help me with a spoilery question regarding collectibles?

Are some of them gated until post-game? I'm at the point where the game tells you to finish up your business before jumping into Ford and I imagine that's going into the endgame, but I still have most the scavenger hunt items to find so might try to get them if I can.
 
Clay

Clay

Member
Oct 29, 2017
8,293
Zor said:
Can anyone help me with a spoilery question regarding collectibles?

Are some of them gated until post-game? I'm at the point where the game tells you to finish up your business before jumping into Ford and I imagine that's going into the endgame, but I still have most the scavenger hunt items to find so might try to get them if I can.
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Without spoiling too much, you're pretty much right that you're headed into the endgame, but there's more left than you probably think including a new power that's required to get some collectibles in prior stages. I'm not sure it's necessary for the scavenger hunt items in particular.

You're also free to continue playing after the credits roll, so there's no need to worry about finishing that side quest before continuing unless you just want to.
 
Cels

Cels

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,823
Zor said:
Can anyone help me with a spoilery question regarding collectibles?

Are some of them gated until post-game? I'm at the point where the game tells you to finish up your business before jumping into Ford and I imagine that's going into the endgame, but I still have most the scavenger hunt items to find so might try to get them if I can.
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one of the scavenger hunt items requires the small door slot power which you don't get until lategame, so you can't finish it yet. a couple of the items are also in the lategame area past where you are.
 
Zor

Zor

Member
Oct 30, 2017
11,612
Clay said:
Without spoiling too much, you're pretty much right that you're headed into the endgame, but there's more left than you probably think including a new power that's required to get some collectibles in prior stages. I'm not sure it's necessary for the scavenger hunt items in particular.

You're also free to continue playing after the credits roll, so there's no need to worry about finishing that side quest before continuing unless you just want to.
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Cels said:
one of the scavenger hunt items requires the small door slot power which you don't get until lategame, so you can't finish it yet. a couple of the items are also in the lategame area past where you are.
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Nice one, thanks both!
 
Clay

Clay

Member
Oct 29, 2017
8,293
PunkSxE

PunkSxE

Banned
Apr 9, 2020
1,153
30 hours later, 100% completed. Definitely my GOTY

IMG-20210828-165101.jpg
 
Clay

Clay

Member
Oct 29, 2017
8,293
Is anyone else playing on a base PS4? I didn't have any performance issues while beating the game. There were a handheld of times the frame rate stuttered but it was always extremely brief.

But I'm going back to get collectibles and it's like the game broke. I don't think it's hyperbolic to say it feels barely playable. I'm on a level in the second half of the game right now
Psi King
and it feels like it's running at like 10 fps.
 
vixolus

vixolus

Prophet of Truth
Member
Sep 22, 2020
57,323
Clay said:
Is anyone else playing on a base PS4? I didn't have any performance issues while beating the game. There were a handheld of times the frame rate stuttered but it was always extremely brief.

But I'm going back to get collectibles and it's like the game broke. I don't think it's hyperbolic to say it feels barely playable. I'm on a level in the second half of the game right now
Psi King
and it feels like it's running at like 10 fps.
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have you tried restarting the game/console?
 
lamalande

lamalande

Member
Feb 9, 2019
93
Also finished to after ~18/20hours
(XBOX achievement page says 24H but I don't buy it (100% on Cloud btw)

d8xrmsv.jpg


And... yup!
It's a 5/5 for me too and very much probably will end up being my GOTY.

Totally blown by the density of the universe (that feels much more enjoyable than in the first one that IMO didn't aged so well), the likeability of the different characters (shoutout to this
gay
couple that defintely has the most moving mental worlds)

I've done a little thread (in french, sorry!) of what I have thought of the game. But yeah, besides maybe the lack of challenge (especially regarding the bosses), it's really close to being the perfect plateformer.

 
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dirtyjane

dirtyjane

Member
Oct 27, 2017
842
Hasidan said:
The game is really good - when you get to play. The amount of cutscenes so far is way to much. Just finished the casino-level. Hope that I get to play more from now on without being interupted every five minutes.
With that being said: the gameplay is fun and full of variation:-)
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I just wanted to ask this exact thing in this thread, the constant interruptions are really distracting from this beautiful world.
The cutscenes are great but i just want to play more than 5 Minutes without being thrown into another room with no turning back.
 
vixolus

vixolus

Prophet of Truth
Member
Sep 22, 2020
57,323
Clay said:
Not yet but I've had the game on for less than an hour right now and played for a few extremely sessions previously.




What is this pointing out? Curious what would different if they were bad. Is it just how fast it's loading in the assets from each side?
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No. Just how seamless the illusion of the portals are. There's no fast loading going on - they're all loaded in memory to begin with (presumably).

If you look closely at Raz, the lighting is split when he stands in the middle. It's an illusion that there's only one Raz being controlled. Likely, DF is using two separate Raz's being controlled and lit in two separate spaces with some clever shaders/camera work to make it work. One of the replies explains it at a high level. There's no hitching or pop-in as you "cross over" that can happen when implementing portals like this in games as you swap from one character to the other. The lighting is natural. The assets blend perfectly. They did a very good job with the portals and the warped room movement throughout the game.
 
FaultLineBlues

FaultLineBlues

Prophet of Truth - One Winged Slayer
Member
Jul 14, 2020
1,055
Not anywhere close to finishing yet, but thus game captures my heart in a way that games from my childhood did. It's been so long since I've played a 3D platformer that made me so nostalgic.
 
Phellps

Phellps

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,022
I just beat the game. The story overall can be a bit confusing, but the subplots for each character are incredible. The writing is great, the dialogue even more so. The presentation is incredible, the art style really shines and the game is just beautiful. Platforming can be a bit frustrating, but it's fun for the most part.

The combat, though. It's just not fun. Dodging isn't very effective, and Raz's combat abilities are very limited. It feels like an afterthought.

And I wish they would've made abilities more contextual or thought of a better control scheme for them. Pausing every 3 minutes to reassign abilities to the shoulder buttons because you're constantly needing to use different abilities - either in combat or navigation - gets annoying after some time. For instance, Levitation didn't even need to be assigned to a shoulder button, it could've been an extension of the Jump button - hold to levitate or something like that.

It's a bit nitpicky, but the game has some stuff that gets in the way of enjoyment. But overall, I had a good time, specially for the story.
 
vixolus

vixolus

Prophet of Truth
Member
Sep 22, 2020
57,323
Phellps said:
I just beat the game. The story overall can be a bit confusing, but the subplots for each character are incredible. The writing is great, the dialogue even more so. The presentation is incredible, the art style really shines and the game is just beautiful. Platforming can be a bit frustrating, but it's fun for the most part.

The combat, though. It's just not fun. Dodging isn't very effective, and Raz's combat abilities are very limited. It feels like an afterthought.

And I wish they would've made abilities more contextual or thought of a better control scheme for them. Pausing every 3 minutes to reassign abilities to the shoulder buttons because you're constantly needing to use different abilities - either in combat or navigation - gets annoying after some time. For instance, Levitation didn't even need to be assigned to a shoulder button, it could've been an extension of the Jump button - hold to levitate or something like that.

It's a bit nitpicky, but the game has some stuff that gets in the way of enjoyment. But overall, I had a good time, specially for the story.
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FYI there's an accessibility setting to make levitation your 3rd A press and another setting to press A again while floating to drop down onto the ball levitation. Definitely could've used a more graceful way of quick-swapping abilities rather than a menu, but ah well.
 
Phellps

Phellps

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,022
vixolus said:
FYI there's an accessibility setting to make levitation your 3rd A press and another setting to press A again while floating to drop down onto the ball levitation. Definitely could've used a more graceful way of quick-swapping abilities rather than a menu, but ah well.
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Winnie said:
You can make Levitation an extension of the Jump button in the configuration:
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I completely missed that. Oh well, too late now, but I'm glad it exists! Lol
 
Undrey

Undrey

Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,673
This is the happiest I've been playing a game in so long. Accidentally time traveled in real life while playing this game and ended up having to stop playing because I got a headache. I just got done with the cooking show level which was genius (a thing I'm sure I'll be saying throughout the game). The game's got some of the best boss fights I've seen in a while so far. I also spent a surprising amount of time exploring the hub area and doing the side quests there. I can't think of any other series (it's weird that Psychonauts is officially a series now) that's had entries released so far apart and yet have them be as amazing as they are.
 
Ultimadrago

Ultimadrago

"This guy are sick"
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,186
MarcelloF said:
Got the Platinum trophy! Absolutely loved the game. I was surprised at how many unique areas, mechanics, clairvoyance art and dialogue there was.

Something I was wondering when I saw these, did you or Double Fine come up with the cause of death and code name?
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Double Fine sent out surveys for Backers asking them for their favorite pasttime and I believe favorite kitchen tool/appliance?
It was quite a few months ago, but we weren't told they would be our cause of death and code name.
 
ze_

ze_

Member
Oct 28, 2017
6,167
I'm only a bit into the game but a smile has crept over my face several times already. The game also just looks incredible, like a playable Henry Selick movie as others have commented. They really did an incredible job executing on the art direction.

Favourite jokes so far:
"Coach, there were no teeth in Sasha's plans!" "That's what I told him! But he's all, nO wEaPoNs MoRrY."
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Raz: "Maybe he came up with the scheme on his own."
Sasha: "He has no motivation."
Loboto: "Oh, hello, DAD"
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DixieDean82

DixieDean82

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
11,837
You people getting all the achievements/trophies, how do you get to level 100?! Is it just getting all the figs?
 
Gowans

Gowans

Moderator
Oct 27, 2017
5,555
North East, UK
Love love love this game, I might stay up to finish it but I think I'm being thick and missing something on a very easy part.

I'm in a book with the words vespa on it I can't platform over to the next page?

Edit: yup I'm an idiot
 
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