[Subtitles by danielsangeo] [buzzer rings] Oh damn! It's time for school.
[buzzer rings] That's the warning bell.
[buzzer rings] My school had a pretty strict tardy policy. They gave you detention
after three, I think, then it was in-school suspension, and I think you could be held back a
grade if you were late enough days. I have a buddy who flunked out
of high school because of that and got his GED instead. And I'm not talking three
hours late, but two minutes. So, uh. Welcome to the Game Dungeon. Today we're looking at the
"Life is Strange" demo. This is a graphic adventure
game about high school. Actually, the demo no longer
exists; now it's Episode 1 for free. We've graduated from a demo to full-on
shareware. That's cool, I guess. "Screen size"? What's this? Oh, I can shrink the screen? Wow, I don't think I've
used that since "Doom". Doom can be demanding for a 386.
Guess they're bringing it back, huh? I think we should leave
that one in the past. Well, I'm not encouraged
by this opening music, but I'm playing this game because
I know it's supposed to be contemporary science-fiction and have
a strong narrative focus, so I'm there. Let's start. My decisions matter? Not a
problem! I stand by them. I killed that guy in "Walking
Dead" and I would do it again; he was endangering the group. My only regret is the game
didn't let me do it sooner. Well, we're off to a good start. "It was a dark and stormy night..." ["I'm trapped in this storm?
But how did I get here?"] Okay, I'm wrong. That's not
a storm. That's a tornado. ["There's a lighthouse. I'll be
safe if I can make it there."] Ah, I don't know about that. I mean,
lighthouses are strong, but look at this! You should get some place underground,
find a drainage ditch or even a sewer-- get a stick and lift up a manhole-- or hey, maybe just run? Okay, I'm not a meteorologist
so I had to look this up. I believe that is a class
F-5 tornado coming at us. The only thing stronger is theoretical. All right, I have to test this.
Does the banner collide with us? No, it doesn't. I don't
blame the developer for that; it's a lot of work predicting every
little thing the player's going to do. And I was right, and not even a little bit. That lighthouse is not safe at all. Bye. And, oop! It was just a vision. So, this is "Alan Wake"-ish
here. Let's consult the chart. Yep. Well, nothing wrong with
copying parts of something good as long as you don't copy
the whole damned thing. So we're in class, all right? This is a very hipster-looking teacher here. ["We've all seen that iconic
shot of Kerouac on the balcony-- ["and if you haven't, shame-shame-- ["capturing the romantic urban
solitude of 20th century poet. ["Now, contrast Frank's stark Americana with
Salvador Dalí's surrealist photographs."] This really doesn't strike me
as a high school-level class. My school didn't have a photography class, but even if they did, this sounds more
like a 200-level college class at least. I mean that's what, eight students? If it was high school, they would be teaching "What is 'exposure',
'focal length'?", stuff like that. If anyone has had a photography
class at a private high school, let us know if this is on target or not. ["I have to admit, I'm
not a big fan of her work. ["I prefer...Robert Frank--"] NOBODY CARES WHAT YOU
THINK! YOU'RE THE STUDENT! ["...and there was honesty about
the economic conditions of the era, ["but a beauty in the struggle. ["You don't have beauty without a beat."] Yeah, so we have a
VERY hipster teacher here. Nothing this guy is saying is going
to help you in life. Let's move on. We get more of his lecture then
he asks a question to the class. ["Who can tell me the
name of the actual process ["that led to the birth
of the self-portrait?"] Of course nobody answers.
I'm not raising my hand. So this part is VERY true to life. The teacher asking a question and nobody in
class knows what the hell he's talking about, so you just sort of fidget around and look
at things, trying to avoid eye-contact. I give the game full marks for this part.
This is EXACTLY what school is like. But I have to immediately take those marks
away because we just hit a big roadblock. I have exhausted everything I can do. I can look at my photo. Okay... ["Look at this crap."] Look at my pencil bag. Alright... My diary? Oh yeah! As a grown man, I'm
DYING to read a diary of a teenaged girl. I think we'll pass. I'm just going to
assume it talks about her feelings. So I have done everything I can
possibly do except one option: All I can do now is take a selfie. How about "no"? This is a
game about decisions, right? How about I just put my head down on the
desk and wait for the clock to run down? ["I should take a quick picture now."] No, you shouldn't. That's a terrible idea. Okay, when I was in school,
selfies weren't even a thing, but I'm pretty sure popping one off in class would've gotten you an easy detention
and your camera confiscated. If I'm going to get detention,
how about I earn it? Like set fire to something, or
Christ, throw a paper airplane? Plus, are you such a narcissist that
you can't get through your class without a taking a picture of yourself while the teacher is directly
facing you expecting an answer? Well, in Life is Strange, the
answer to that question is "Yes." Yeah, use the fucking flash too,
just in case nobody was watching. Well the teacher is somehow cool with this
because it speaks to his inner-hipster. ["Selfie. A dumb word for a
wonderful photographic tradition."] Well news flash. The teacher's wrong. Selfies aren't cool unless you're
falling out of a plane or something. It's all about context. Okay, I'm going to show you what may
be the most famous selfie in the world. You ready for this? Here we go. Oh. Well that's kind of plain, isn't it? Yeah, it is, but this is galleries
because he cut off his ear. And he isn't even making
a big deal about that; he's just like, "Yeah. I see you." The art world recognizes that as "metal"
so this is what you're up against. THIS is no good. I don't
want to play this person. ["Shh-shh-shh. Your generation was not the
first to use images for selfie-expression."] HmmmmmmmMMMMMMMM! ["Sorry. I couldn't resist."] So the teacher asks ME the question
now. Gee, I didn't walk into that one. I don't know the answer. This class sucks. ["You either know this or not, Max!"] Okay, settle down, Yoda! Any
idiot knows that's not true. Like, I remember the Whiskey Rebellion
but I don't know what year that was. Why's he getting pissed at me?
Nobody in class knows the answer. ["Louis Daguerre was a French painter
who created daguerreotypes--"] Oh. Okay...? ["--a process that gave portraits a
sharp reflective style like a mirror. ["Now you're totally stuck in
the Retro Zone. Sad face."] Nobody cares, skank. Part of me wants to get upset at
the girl for trying to humiliate me, but most of me realizes her put down was
choking on so much of its own hipster bullshit that she's really just ridiculing herself. Can you imagine saying what she
just said in front of the class and YOU'RE not the one looking stupid. [slow voice]
"Now you're totally stuck in the Retro Zone. [slow voice]
["Sad face."] So let us ask ourselves.
What would Napoleon do? That's what I thought. [bell rings]
OKAY, FINALLY! AAGH! ["I'm still waiting for your entry too, ["and yes, Max, I see you
pretending not to see me."] Yeah, sure. What are you going to
do, chase me out into the hallway? ["I see you, Max Caulfield. ["Don't even think about leaving here
until we talk about your entry."] Okay, stop. Pause. Once again, this is supposed
to be a game about decisions. Why can't I just ignore the
teacher and leave anyway? That will piss him off
AND make me feel better. I HAVE to go talk to him
about this stupid project. So now that's TWO forced
decisions I do not want, and I haven't even left the classroom. Alright, well if we can't be a
rebel then let's double down. This is a game about teen angst;
well let's have some teen angst! "I DON'T CARE! NONE OF THIS MATTERS! "EVEN IF I GET AN 'A' IN THIS CLASS, "I MAY AS WELL WIN THE LOTTERY BEFORE
I CAN MAKE IT AS A PHOTOGRAPHER! "SO WHAT'S THE POINT?!" ["Do I have to? I just don't
think it's that big a deal." That's because it's not. ["Max, you're a better
photographer than a liar."] "I'M NOT LYING!" ["I know it's a drag to hear
some old dude lecture you, ["but life won't wait
for you to play catch-up. ["You're young, the world is
yours, blah-blah-blah. Right?"] "What are you talking about? You're in your
30s, you're a professional photographer "and you're apparently still having to
work as a teacher to make ends meet! "I'm only taking this class
because it's easier than band!" I have to ask. Does this game
give me the option to flunk out? That's what this game
makes me feel like doing. High school sucks. If I have to go back and
do it all over again, I want to test the limits
on my second playthrough. Anyway, now that we have some freedom, we can go around and look at everything
in typical adventure game fashion. I feel like the game is
discouraging me from this, though, because a lot of these lines sound forced. ["That was amazing when Mr. Jefferson
took a class picture the first week." ["Damn! They have carbon fiber tripods here! ["The ballhead even has a pan-lock?
God, I'm such a photo nerd." ["So cool that we can
check these out anytime. ["'The Decisive Moment' by Henri
Cartier-Bresson? That's rare. ["Annie Leibovitz, mad respect."] Uh... ["The amazing Eugene Smith. ["Good to see Avedon among the masters. ["Dalí. Of course."] Okay, I get it. She likes photography, but I think we're trying
a little too hard here, to the point where
this doesn't feel natural. ["Man. He even has the best
plasma HDTV for a class monitor. ["Can't wait to watch some more
documentaries on this bad boy."] Oh, yeah! You know teens
and their documentaries. You just can't keep them apart. Well, I looked through
everything in the school just to be sure I'm not judging prematurely, but no, it's all massively skippable. This is not "Sam & Max". ["My mind is a swirling miasma of
scintillating thoughts and turgid ideas." ["Me, too!"] The only part I thought was worthy of
mention is how the forest is mysterious, and more and more students are missing. ["These missing persons posters
are popping up everywhere."] We can only hope
that's important foreboding. Out in the hallway, Max puts her music on. [Music: "To All of You" by Syd Matters] Wow! Just kill me now, huh?
[Music: "To All of You" by Syd Matters] No, no. There we go. Well, my issues with the music are clearly
growing, so why don't we have a stand-in with some music I was listening
to when I was Max's age? [Music: "Siwash Rock" by Saki Kaskas] Yeah, that's more like it.
[Music: "Siwash Rock" by Saki Kaskas] This brings me to an important issue: Max is in high school and she is not cool, and she is not going to meet anyone
cool listening to music like that, so she needs our help. But see, here's where the
generation gap comes into play. I could give some suggestions of
stuff to get her on the right track, but they're all going to be dated. Off the top of my head, for some artsy girl, I might start with
something a little lighter like Garbage, Curve... hell, Chumbawumba. If she wanted to turn up the intensity some, she could move to Nine Inch Nails, Prodigy, or hey, as seen in "Deus
Ex 2", Kidneythieves. Snake River Conspiracy is another good one. Now I was listening to
Metallica, some Marilyn Manson, this album of Offspring since they
got weaker after that, Rob Zombie... But maybe she wants to
go more of a raver route: John Digweed, Ian van Dahl, Paul van Dyk... But see, I'm at a loss what MODERN
music I should tell teens to check out. I'm not one of these people who thinks
ONLY music in my generation is good. Not at all. I just haven't had time to keep up, so
I have a homework assignment for you: This is only for younger people watching or
those who are really on top of modern music. What music should a modern
high schooler be listening to? What music says "I am not
like these fucking posers here "and have some personality and good taste"? See, Max is at least a generation below me, which we haven't even
decided on a name for yet. Wikipedia says they could be called
"Post Millennial", "Centennial", "iGen"...ugh... "Plurals"...what? or "Generation Z". I think that last one is the best.
It makes them sound like zombies. Now the media loves to judge each generation and say they're the end of the world. The Baby Boomers were a bunch of hippies, Generation X was a bunch of
slackers who couldn't get jobs, the Millennials want
everything handed to them... But I'm not sure they've decided on how
to berate the latest generation yet. So I think blaming
everything on young people is mostly a smokescreen for
masking larger problems. That doesn't mean you shouldn't
be judged, just not unfairly. So tell us, Generation Z, how should
the rest of humanity judge you? Show us what music you're listening to
and that'll tell me what I need to know. This doesn't have to be popular
music; just what you think is good. Don't send me what you
think I'm going to like. I mean, you can do that too,
but that's not the assignment. Send me what modern music or bands
really give YOU some sense of meaning. You can put it in the comments or email me, and I'll eventually get around to
grading you in a follow-up episode and let everyone know if
humanity is doomed or not. So, back to the game. All these high school scenes make
me want to turn this into "ObsCure" so I can fight plant monsters, even
though I know that's not going to happen. So, next we head to the bathroom. Illuminati! Now this is the girls' bathroom.
See? I didn't get the wrong door. So that makes a guy
walking in here suspicious. ["It's cool, Nathan... ["Don't stress. Y-y-you're okay,
bro. Just...count to three. ["Don't be scared. You OWN this school. ["If I wanted, I could blow it
up! Heh heh... You're the boss."] Yeah, hey! That would get this story
moving RIGHT along, wouldn't it?! Do it, boss! ["I hope you checked the perimeter,
as my step-ass would say. ["Now, let's talk bidness."
"I got nothing for you." ["Wrong! You got hella cash."] Okay, stop, stop. Did I hear that right? Let's see it again. ["Now, let's talk bidness."
"I got nothing for you." ["Wrong! You got hella cash."] "Bidness" and "hella cash" in your
obviously well-brought-up accent. Have you ever heard a foreigner that can't speak English too
well starts swearing awkwardly? "You are son of...shit...ass." Well, this is like that, only worse. Her accent and delivery don't
line up with what she's saying, and what she's saying
doesn't quite line up either. This is approaching the most forced dialog
I've heard in a game, but let's keep going. ["I can tell everybody
Nathan Prescott is a punk-ass ["who begs like a little
girl and talks to himself--" ["You don't know who the fuck--"] OH! HERE WE GO! "I WASN'T TALKING TO MYSELF! I WAS
TALKING TO MY GUN! HER NAME'S SALLY!" ["Don't tell me what to do! I'm so
SICK of PEOPLE TRYING TO CONTROL ME!" ["You are going to get in hella
more trouble for this than drugs."] AH! Are you kidding me?! He has
a gun pointed up against her and she's still talking like this! This feels like somebody
writing dialog for a gang member who has never visited
a ghetto in their life. That's it. This is "hella forced". ["Nobody would...ever even miss
your punk-ass, would they?"] No. They wouldn't.
["Get that away from me, psycho!"] [gunshot]
OH! Now this game's getting interesting! No more of this fake teen drama!
We've got the real thing now! You got hella shot! What? ["Whoa!"] Oh. So time rewound for no reason. That means we're in a loop. We're
trapped in this class forever. So in other words, we're in hell. But hey, this means now we can play it right and NOT take a selfie--learn
from our mistakes. ["When I took my selfie,
Jefferson asked me a question. ["If he does again, I'll
know this is for real."] No! Dammit! What the hell is wrong with you? Okay! Selfie-time! Again! And we've seen this part. Beedeebopbop-- [slow]
["Sad face."] ["What if I rewind again and
give him the right answer?"] Okay. We can rewind time. That's handy. Though we get this chemical burn-looking
effect if we rewind time quickly. That can't be healthy. Max's eyes look a little strained. So now we know the answer. And look at the other girl
here giving us dirty looks. I am SO coming back to
that. That is important. But for now, we have to repeat
every damned thing we just did. And even though this time-rewinding
is clear science-fiction, having a class that feels like
the exact same thing every day really isn't that farfetched.
Same goes for jobs. But you've already seen
this, so I'm skipping ahead. Beebadeepbeepbadeepbadopbeepbeepbeebadop-- ["I hope I have enough time
to get to the bathroom."] Of course you have time. You
weren't even running the first time. Max is a time-traveling rookie. So everything's the same except now Max wants to use her
time-rewinding powers to save the girl. Now that would be the right thing to
do, but let's hold on here a minute. So far, this story is not winning me over. The tornado was good, but Max is boring, she takes selfies, her music sucks, her teacher makes me want to
smash my head against a wall, no one here looks like anyone
I would want to talk to, and this girl's dialog is painful. It's not like I want to see her die,
but from a narrative perspective, if Nate here takes the shot, that
really gets our story moving. Because not only will it be fun to
see him panic and watch his downfall, but this is going to have shockwaves. Nate's one of the preppy rich kids in the
school who are bastards, best as I can tell, and most of them belong to the Vortex Club,
which is a sort of fraternity or something. Now I believe we do have a
two-tiered justice system, and Nate's dad will try to pull strings
for him, but there are limits, too. There's going to be a police investigation. Having a girl shot at school is
a PR nightmare for the principal. Plus, she was shot in the girls' bathroom.
That makes him look like the invader. Nate's going to prison. I
don't see any way around that. This whole event is going to take the wind
out of the sails of every bully at school, because none of them are going to be as
hard as Nate here. It makes them look soft. The Vortex Club is probably going to
get shut down from the investigation, so that will crack things even further. If you want to get one back
at those prick rich kids, letting him take that shot is
the best thing that could happen. Weren't we just discussing this? She was acting hella stupid anyway.
Her death will not be in vain. It'll change the climate of
the town for at least a decade. If you want some butterfly-effect action
here, it doesn't get any more ripe than this. So, uh... no, I'm not in a rush to save her. Don't let me bother you, Nate.
I'll just hide in the back. ["If I can reverse time
again, I can help her."] No, it's cool, Max! We
don't want to play God here! You're not a bad person. You just
froze up. That could happen to anybody. ["Max, don't fuck around! Rewind!"] Max. Come on, Max. So, you guessed it. That is strike three
for choices I have no control over. I HAVE to save this girl.
There's no other option. Is this a game about decisions or not? I feel like I'm getting
blocked at every turn here. The game is determined to not
let Max do anything interesting. The only decisions I get to make are whether I want to talk about
John Lennon or not. I don't. ["John Lennon once said that life
is what happens while you're--"] And around here is where
the demo originally ended. And believe me, I'm tempted to do the same. There are so many other
games out there to play, but I feel like maybe this
is a little premature, so I'm going to take things into overtime. I guess I can spare a little bit of time
to a game that's letting me time travel. So I save the day. Great. I try to leave but get
harassed by a security guard, THEN the principal. See, this would be going down so differently if they'd have heard a
gunshot and had a body. So my choice is whether
to rat on him or hide it. May as well rat; I have no
loyalty to these people anyway. This is one of the big differences
between high school and prison right here. And it's all in vain because
he doesn't believe me. ["Mr. Prescott happens to be from
the town's most distinguished family, ["AND one of Blackwell's
most honored students, ["so it's hard for me to see him brandishing
a weapon in the girls' bathroom."] Welcome back to high school. All this game is doing
is reinforcing the idea that I made the wrong choice in
saving her, which it forced me to do. ["We'll continue this
discussion...later, in my office."] Fuuuuuuck. Let's get out of here. So we go onto the school grounds
and the game opens up even more. There are way more things to look
at...all of them not worth it. Except this guy. I don't know who this is, but something about him just
says "politician" to me. If I talk to the people,
it doesn't go so well. ["Hi, Brooke." ["Let me guess. You want to fly my drone." ["I'd love to. I love
planes and balloons and..." ["This is neither. Do you
know what a drone really is?" ["A weapon, right?" ["Uh, you read too many conspiracy sites. ["This might be too complicated for you. ["Funny. Warren said you were
smart. Please. Step back."] Hey guys. I think I found a bug. There's no "Bitch, please" option
on my decision wheel. It's missing. I thought I was having a friendly chat, but she's talking like she wants me
to smack that tablet out of her hand. This is a kind of a trend for this game. Everyone is either a complete
antagonist, or just a drag to talk to. Everyone. A lot of these conversations
are REALLY awkward, too. They don't sound like
anything I remember people even REMOTELY saying when
I was in high school. ["His New York urban stuff is great but
I'm glad he came back to his Oregon roots. ["Screw the East Coast elite. ["It must piss off those
pretentious galleries ["that Mark Jefferson is teaching
photography to us Blackwell hicks." ["Mind if I check out your cool portfolio?" ["Let's see if you're worthy of it, Max. ["You'll have to answer a simple question. ["Who photographed the
famous Falling Soldier?" ["Robert Capa, of course. I love his work,
despite the controversy about that photo." ["My my. This quiet child knows things." ["That's why I'm here." ["You're a kindred spirit, Max. Would
you care for a perusal of my portfolio?" ["Just wait for justice, you sheeple."] But the créme de la créme is Hayden here. Okay, now before we talk to him,
let's get a good look at him. Black teenager, well-groomed,
looks athletic, kind of preppy, probably bound for some Ivy League school. Now I would tell you to close your eyes,
but I hate when people say to do that-- that's how you get sucker punched-- so instead, I want you to just look at him
and imagine what his voice might sound like: the harmonics, what his accent
might be, just take your best guess. All right. Now let's talk to him. ["Hey, Hayden." ["There she is! The retro-selfie master." ["That's me, alright. You look
relaxed as usual, Hayden." ["It's a skill one cultivates at Blackwell, ["especially when one
represents the Vortex Club. ["Not to boast."] Okay, so how did you do?
I was pretty far off. So far off that I was actually questioning if this was an American
black teenager at all. Well, it's not. Here, let's
have a look at the voice actor. Ta-da! That's Don McManus. He would've
been about 57 when this game was released. You know, diversity is a big hot
topic on the Internet nowadays, and I don't have much of a stance on that, but THIS is exactly the kind
of diversity I DO care about. Maybe since the character
is a black teenager, they should've got a black
teenager to voice him? Or maybe fudge it a little
bit and get one in his 20s. Or maybe just any voice actor
who SOUNDS like a black teenager. You know, I like Harrison
Ford and Liam Neeson, but I don't like seeing
them pretend to be Russians. ["I want this boat out of dry dock.
Sea trials begin in two weeks." ["The boat isn't ready, Captain.
The problem is Moscow."] Maybe they could've just
gotten actual Russians? I mean, if an actor is really damned
good at playing another race or whatever, sure, have at it, but I have to wonder what
the hell was going on here that Don was cast to play Hayden. This isn't the actor's fault.
I've seen him before. He's okay. This is completely on the director. Y'know, I hate to be that
guy, but if I had a daughter, I don't think I would be
comfortable with her talking to a middle-aged white man
pretending to be a black teenager. This one's going on the list. And yes, he's also has awkward dialog I'm having trouble envisioning any high
schooler saying in a normal conversation. ["Rachel was actually a
member of the Vortex Club?" ["No. Rachel was like her own club.
She was actually too cool for us. ["And I'll deny I ever said that."] I'm really starting to question if the writer for this has
actually gone to high school. I went to a public high school. Is this kind of conversation
normal for a private one? Is the difference THAT extreme? ["Art IS science. And music
is math. Et cetera, et cetera. ["I put Stephen Hawking
against Picasso any day."] There's other worlds out there. This game is kind of messing with my head since I don't care about any of these
people. Let the tornado have them. But man, this environment is great. This makes me want to leave campus and just
find collectibles around town or something. Ubisoft knows how to make
those kinds of games, right? I mean, that's a really basic
form of gameplay, but wow-- This game really captures that feeling of
wanting to leave school and never come back. So I guess it gets points for that. And I'm barely out the door and
I'm already getting a reminder that I should've let Nate pull the trigger. When he's not
shooting girls in the bathroom, he's making everyone's lives hell. And
his dad is a real linchpin of the town. ["What's wrong?" ["Nathan Prescott, little rich bitch kid. ["He thinks he can own people
like his parents own Blackwell, ["like he owns the Vortex Club. Somebody
needs to take that prick down."] So yeah. That was a really great
decision sparing him from prison, Max. ["Do you really want Nathan
Prescott to 'represent'?" ["Oh please. Nathan is like everybody's
voodoo doll. 'Kill the rich kid!' ["He's all right, and a fun guy
to hang with. Fuck the haters." ["He seems genuinely unstable to me." ["Nate has his extreme moments,
but--tsk--don't we all?"] Wow. This part reminds me so
much of political discussions-- two people talking about the same thing,
but really contrasting points of view. Although, here, I'll say Max does the only
cool thing I've seen her do this entire game. She goads one of the
skateboarders into doing a trick, he screws up pretty royally, so she rushes in and gets a
photo of him on the ground. I take back some of what I said. She
does have talent. That's beautiful. Hey, now you have a photo for the
contest! Your homework's done! I mean, this is humanity right here. Moving on, we head to the dormitories and
that girl from earlier is out for blood. ["Oh look, it's Max Caulfield,
the selfie ho of Blackwell."] Yeah, well I deserve that one. ["What a lame gimmick. ["Even Mark--Mr. Jefferson--falls
for your waif hipster bullshit."] You're all waif hipsters. ["'The Daguerreian Process, sir!'
You could barely even say that. ["I guess you got your meds filled."] [girl laughs] See? Again, my "Bitch, please" option
is missing. This game's bugged. ["I guess you have to find another
way into the dorm. We ain't moving. ["Now, why don't you go fuck yourselfie?"] Okay, so hold on. Let's examine this. She's pissed because I stole her glory by answering the teacher's
question earlier, right? I mean, look. Here she
is moments before that, she doesn't even seem to care that I exist. Oh yeah. I really cut you off, especially since the teacher was asking
the class six times for an answer. ["Anybody?"] What's that? ["This does not bode well."] Hey, Victoria. You know the answer right? ["Just jump right in with an answer."] Hey, Victoria. Maybe you should
answer the question and show off now. ["This was in the chapters you read."] I think now's your chance, Victoria. ["You DID read the chapters...right?"] You don't look smooth if you answer
the tough question three minutes later. I was irrelevant. ["Your silence is deafening."] So she's pissed I answered a
question I was forced to answer because the teacher called on
me because SHE didn't speak up. Yeah that's some great writing there, game. A+ for logic. Now normally, I might not care
about that or overlook it, except the game rubbed it in my face, BY MAKING ME GO BACK IN TIME
AND DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN! WHAT THE FUCK?! ["What the fuck?!"] ["Oh yes, Victoria. I'll get
your bony ass out of my way."] Bony girls calling each other
bony. I'm out of my element here. So they're blocking me, and of course,
the game doesn't give me the option to just ignore them and walk THROUGH them,
because that's what I would actually do. So instead, I have to do this
convoluted time traveling scheme of spraying them with the sprinklers. ["What the hell?!"] Except that's still not enough, so I have to go to even
further time traveling lengths to drop a bucket of paint to splash her. This is bad for all kinds of reasons. First: Even though I did this, I'm framing
the maintenance man as the villain. Victoria is rich and has influence. Her parents are going to get this guy fired. And honestly, he may be the only
likeable character in the game so far. ["Even sunlight can cast shadows. ["Rachel did both at once, you know? ["She was like a battery..."] Making good people take the fall
for your misdeeds is not cool. That's what other bad people are
for. I'm just being a bad person now. None of this would be happening
if Nate took the shot! Second: You have a decision here. You can either gloat and rub it in,
or be sympathetic to her plight. These are both terrible options. First, the "gloat" option, you
can't play around with that. It's an old saying that revenge is a dish
best served with an appetizer of whup ass. But it's another saying that someone
seeking revenge should dig two graves. That is the truth. You can't do this halfway
passive-aggressive bullshit with this girl. This is a mean-spirited girl. If you're going to seek revenge, you
need to be prepared to go all the way-- get expelled, get arrested,
whatever it takes. You need to be 100% committed
to making this girl's life hell. Anything less will
come back at you ten-fold. Max is totally not
prepared to walk that path. It's only going to end in tragedy for her. But being sympathetic is a bad move, too. Oh sure. Movies love to teach you that being understanding and
compassionate towards bullies will teach them to soften up
and be more human in the end. That hasn't been my experience. Oh sure, some people can be changed, but that's going to come from traumatic
life events that force them to change, or really focused authorities
devoted to reshaping them. It's not going to come from the victims. Some people are psychopaths and
literally have no conscience. ["Some people are just bad.
They're just born bad."] If this was real life, showing compassion
to her after she just tore into you, is going to signal that you are
PERFECT for victimizing in the future. I've just about had it with this game. And I have. This is where I originally stopped. From here, it descends into relationships
with other girls in the dorm and I just don't care. I don't care about any of these people. Any of this. Now you might be wondering how I got that
shot that comes later if I stopped here. Well, one of the nice
things about time travel is you don't always have
to explain your paradoxes. So why am I even covering this game if I can't even get through
more than hour or so of it? Well, some games get a stronger
reaction out of me than others, and damn, this one sure did. I feel like this game tricked me. See, I like science-fiction,
I like mysterious stuff, I like interesting stories. And for all I know, this
game still has all that. But it's all buried under a
complete WALL of banal teen drama! ["These are supposed to be
the best years of my life. ["This is what it's like to be
alone and feel lonely at once."] I am suffocating! I mean, who is the target audience? Some of my favorite movies are high
school time-traveling adventures. Y'know, there's been a rash of sci-fi movies for young adults in the past few
years, and I've mostly enjoyed them. I mean, they all have
their teen drama moments, but they usually don't last for
more than three minutes at a time, then the rest is an enjoyable
science-fiction adventure. But it is SO thick in this, and the
characters don't feel real, and UGH! ["That's why I'm talking to you
now." "What's my last name?"] Life is Strange feels more on par
with THESE sci-fi teen drama movies. These were bad. The science-fiction
was there, had some promise, but it was completely
buried under a soap opera to the point where these are unwatchable
if you're ONLY a science-fiction fan. I sure I'm going to get some flak for
this one, but from what I've seen, Life is Strange feels like the most
uninspired use of time travel I've ever seen. Now just to give myself an out here, I can believe this gets better later,
but that's just a bridge too far for me. I'm still interested in what's
so mysterious about the forest, but not THIS interested. And for all I know, the "Twilight" sequels
get a lot better after the first movie. I will never know. I heard that this game is
inspired by "Twin Peaks", and it obviously takes some
inspiration from "Donnie Darko", but both of those had really
interesting characters, a surreal tone to everything,
an odd sense of humor, and you absolutely knew all that within the
first twenty minutes. Not Life is Strange. I don't think I could even call this drama, because while I haven't seen a lot of
them, I've seen well-done teen dramas. This is a soap opera, first and foremost, with science-fiction and
mystery elements a FAR second. Now if this is your favorite game and
you think I'm being an unfair hack, well, the good news is, you are not alone. This game has sold
over three million copies, won awards, and has received a prequel-- I'm assuming because it has a tragic
ending so they can't go forward, because it has "tragic
ending" written all over it. So that's the final award: Minority report. I knew this one was going
to show up sometime. Some games I just go against
the consensus of everyone else, and best I can tell,
everyone loves this game. So I'm the lone voice of dissent here. What can I say? I feel like
I'm in a different timeline. HAWWWWWWWWWWW! Anyway, it's my hope game developers
don't look at the success of this and take away the wrong lessons. I'm willing to bet the majority
of gamers who bought this weren't really looking for a soap opera. They just wanted a good story and just had a higher tolerance
for everything else than I did. On the positives, beside the damned
filters on the edge of the screen, I thought the visuals were great. It makes me wish there was
an open-world driving game that takes place in this same world. And as far as graphic adventure games go, the gameplay formula itself is one
of the more polished ones I've seen. So if you have a good
story and a good writer, copy the gameplay, copy the visual style,
and just don't touch the rest of this. So in conclusion, you don't
need time travel to be cool. You just need to listen to
good music and not give a fuck. And that's it for the episode! Stay tuned for a Halloween one for
a murder-mystery with GOOD music, a touch of the supernatural,
but sadly, no time travel. Well... sort of... [music] That's a lot of birds. Yep.
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I definitely expected Ross to dislike the beginning of the game. Almost thought he was going to skip ahead and show some clips from episode 2.
Damn he did not held back in this. I didn't even expect him to make this episode.Huge fan of Accursed Farms and Life is Strange. I still respect Ross and he did have some points. Plus I'm still a fan of the series.
I guess Life is Strange appeals to a different type of audience than Ross.
It's like he said, if you have a higher tolerance to some of the things in the game it won't bother you like it does him. It's not a perfect game by any means and it does grab you with its ending more than anything.
And him turning off music and then playing some metal made me chuckle because that's what I used to listen to (and still somewhat do) in my early days of high school.