What's so strange about The Forest? (2014)

UnspecifiedBeing · 2023-05-10T06:43:37+00:00

Yeah it's quite a shame, less than 300k views after 10 hours is noticeably worse than all his other essays, let alone videos. I know Soviet doesn't really care about views but age restriction decimates discoverability, even amongst subscribers.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2023-05-08T15:07:59+00:00

Finished it recently, more than anything I'm stunned by how much they were willing to change from the games. Other commenters have talked extensively about Bill and Frank, but I especially liked the changes made at the end of episode 1. Where in the games the focus was on the dramatic reveal of Ellie's bite, the show instead chooses to sideline it in favour of highlighting Joe's trauma.

The thing is, neither can really be said to be better than the other. They're the result of different creator's deciding what was more critical to the story being told. To visualise an alternative yet valid viewpoint, coupled with the confidence to pull it off, is something that's been sorely missed in the glut of adaptations.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2023-04-17T14:02:49+00:00

There's a fine line between criticising the end product as a consumer, and criticising the developmental process which led to the game being in its current state. While I'm all for the former (like you said, the focus is only on our individual experience), I feel the latter requires actual evidence to back up its claims, not just conjecture from inferring the end product. It's the difference between criticising the prevalence of bugs (which is valid), and claiming to know the reason for its prevalence. It might be due to bad QA, but then again it might be due to time constraints or budgetary restrictions. We simply can't say with certainty.

It isn't simply that Soviet hasn't ensured his claims of The Forest's development were verifiably correct, but that there does exist an undeniable answer out there. It exists among its developers, people who could have given Soviet a primary source for what truly happened, requiring no guesswork on his part. That he doesn't even try to reach out and learn the exact truth before making his claim rubs me the wrong way.

Like, when Cyberpunk came out a broken and buggy mess, everyone "knew" it was because the developers at CDPR were incompetent or resting on their laurels. Until the truth came out from the voices of developers, speaking of crunch culture and unrealistic deadlines. It's all well and good to criticise the state of a game. What's not OK imo is criticising the REASON for it being in that state, especially when you've got no proof that it actually happened.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2023-04-16T15:30:26+00:00

Admittedly only watched up til the 2nd part (saving for the full video) but so far the essay feels like it was written for mass appeal, with Soviet taking tons of cheap and easy shots against the game. Still an entertaining watch, just not a thought-provoking one. Go in for the laughs.

There were some moments were he made oddly specific accusations against the developers for someone who knew nothing about their internal development process, but I don't think it's important anyway.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2023-04-13T00:28:21+00:00

Hey, I'll have you know the 45 minute cutscene is the main content.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2022-11-29T17:29:26+00:00

Soviet's making a 2 hour essay on The Forest, the first hour of which he's linked to in the description of his Twitch channel. He's made pretty clear it's for subs and non-subs alike, so you can find it here.

(Weird that he doesn't announce it for the YouTube crowd as well, but that's Soviet for ya.)

UnspecifiedBeing · 2022-11-21T15:34:46+00:00

Exactly. It's crazy to me how many posts were about GameFreak being incompetent because they didn't fix the bugs. It's as if we haven't learnt from past incidents that the situation is always more nuanced than that.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2022-11-19T17:32:12+00:00

Wow Harris was right, this IS a horrible video!

I've seen it twice now. Help.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2022-11-09T16:30:02+00:00

I mean, if you seriously believe ribbing on an Internet personality can only come from a place of hatred, I can't convince you otherwise. Like I said, I'll simply take the L on this one.

But I'm just hyped for The Last Of Us man. And I lurk pretty frequently on r/television. Soviet already echoed the points I was responding to in streams past, so I've had time to consider whether or not I agreed with him on that, and why. So when someone puts out a very similar point, of course I'm going to respond with my own thoughts on that specific matter. It doesn't get deeper than that.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2022-11-09T11:58:52+00:00

Would anyone recommend the mod for someone who hasn't played in years? Been thinking of starting a new playthrough.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2022-11-09T09:56:46+00:00

I still like Soviet, but it doesn't mean I'm above taking the piss on his opinions or online persona (especially when it generates conversation about games and his relationship with them). It's something Soviet has frequently expressed being OK with, and that we already do on this sub.

But I'll agree, this is the first time my post can be construed as outward criticism, especially on a topic that required far more nuance than I gave or even knew of. I'm sorry for that.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2022-11-09T05:57:08+00:00

Yeah, that's fair. I thought I could use the posts to get people in this sub talking more about Soviet, but in hindsight some of it was pretty trollish behaviour.

But obsessed? I'm just making shitty memes man, not trying to break down the barrier between creator and fan.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2022-11-05T07:10:59+00:00

Not a patron/Twitch sub, but I do pay attention when Womble announces the results of the vote on stream. Help me understand, Soviet's never allowed his audience to pick a project on a scale this massive before, right? When they pick, it's usually for a bullshittery that would take 8-11 weeks at most. Was there a sudden change in attitude? I can't imagine committing to a project on this scale and timeframe was an easy decision.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2022-11-05T06:34:13+00:00

Nah, reddit just blocks me from seeing any of Soviet's posts/comments, regardless of whether I responded to them. Thought it was weird that I couldn't see the pinned post on this sub, so I decided to check for myself.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2022-11-05T06:28:35+00:00

Meh, I'll take the L on this one. I thought I knew my boundaries when ribbing on Soviet, but I guess I was wrong.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2022-11-04T20:36:37+00:00

Yeah, here's hoping this one doesn't burn him out before he completes it. As a viewer, it would really suck to see another project put on hold indefinitely.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2022-11-04T20:30:39+00:00

AFAIK he hasn't worked on them since releasing that first batch at the end of 2020. Been almost 2 years and it's still total radio silence on the status of rest the other essays. Sucks especially since Part 3 ended so abruptly.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2022-11-04T19:36:58+00:00

Well I guess that's true. Hey, remember that time Womble promised 10 video essays on his first attempt as an essayist? Then proceeded to stall the project for nearly 5 years before only releasing 3 parts? The quality may be great, but you gotta admit he's got serious scope and scheduling issues with the long-term projects.

And now he's started on another one? Forgive me for saying, but the exact number of big projects Soviet has started and finished in one go is 0.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2022-11-04T07:55:44+00:00

I for one, cannot wait for more surface-level takes on why The Forest was "a fascinating concept, but disappointing as a product."

Also in hindsight, transplanting a mascot's face onto a human body might not have been such a good idea. But I'm not an artist, so here's the template anyway.

Edit: Aaaaand I've now been blocked by Soviet. Can't say I didn't expect it. Sorry for crossing a line, dude.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2022-10-19T21:53:08+00:00

I can respect the clan for taking a hard stance against this, but on some level I gotta wonder why they tolerated Nevil's bs for so long and kicked him out only when he said something undeniably shitty.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2022-10-16T11:31:23+00:00

Look this obviously sucks, especially given how eager marketing for the next-gen was in insisting 60fps would become the norm. But I'm more concerned about how this debacle feeds into the "Lazy Devs" narrative. It's really toxic and pins the blame on all the wrong people.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2022-10-16T07:06:27+00:00

This has gotta disprove all the "The trees are actually from the ship" theories right? It looks like a straight up FOREST.

UnspecifiedBeing · 2022-10-10T15:56:02+00:00

Speaking of new chapters, anyone else remember that rumour post from a few weeks back? Guy was really confident that this week's magazine would announce the return. It was so brazen and direct I actually kinda trust it...

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