Adventure Gamers - Forums

UPtimist - 17 July 2014 01:05 PM

I thought “Mats Söderlund” was such an unusual name in this context that I had too google it. Turns out…
Can it really be a reference to that?

Perhaps, or it could be the poet Mats Söderlund or the game developer Mats Söderlund or…

Found another one - Botting Boten Anna

Karlok - 17 July 2014 12:21 PM

I have that poster on my wall in the upstairs hallway.

 
Great! I haven’t put any posters yet, but I think this would be the first one. Or this.

WitchOfDoubt - 16 July 2014 09:37 PM

I think David IS a scientist & studying the power of the human brain using the innocent ‘virtual exercising’ plan to find out more to ultimately find a way of linking himself to Laura so okay maybe he is a believer in that sense.

But the game itself isn’t about science nor does it contain any scientific elements at all - Not that it needs them to be a good game, I’m just saying that this is really “just” a ghost story, a cleaver one with some very clear archetypes and good characterization, but still nothing more and nothing less than a ghost story.

I’d put my stance on this story somewhere between these two positions. There’s a slight sprinkling of real science in there, though not in the obvious places. The quantum mechanics stuff is, of course, absolutely bonkers… but Jane Jensen also seems to have read about neurobiology and grabbed some neat tidbits.

Well, I might have exaggerated things just a little bit in order to make my point, and Jane Jensen always does some thorough research, so it doesn’t surprise me that she would have read up a bit on Neurobiology.

Anyway lets move on to talking about chapter 5, which has always been one of my favourite chapters in this game.

First of all it is here that the plot begins to thickens and we get the 2nd clue to one of the major plot elements, when Styles [spoiler]undergoes hypnosis and begins to remember what actually happened that day. I guess if Styles hadn’t been so arrogant/just been humiliated by a student/been more patient and open minded, then things would have turned out very different - or perhaps not?[/spoiler]

This is also the chapter where Styles get fleshed out a bit more, up until now he has been a bit 2-dimensional but now we get to see other sides of him like his insecurity and the doubts that he also has. I especially enjoyed this scene, where he his to interact with a child, but despite obviously not having much experience in this, manages to do it without being arrogant or loosing his temper and even opens up in a way he would never do to an another adult, you could argue that he has no choice, but he still handles it with tact.

But most of all I enjoy this chapter because we get to spend a beautiful day in the park, I mean just look at these screenshots:

Otherwise there really isn’t much to do in this chapter puzzlewise.

wilco - 17 July 2014 05:45 PM

Story is interesting and the ending cutscene an enigma. I do hope it ends in the cool twist.
The hypothesis of no paranormal stuff happening is getting really improbable but I still hope it’s just one Big Game that Sam will uncover. Maybe it will be a mixture of Big Game with a bit of spirits involved

Well I have played it before so I know how it ends, but without revealing anything at all, let me just say that I completely agree.

wilco - 17 July 2014 05:45 PM

I think that case of spirits showing up that are definitely 2 spirits at work, Laura and the other student or something that probably needs some help. There will probably be a dark secret involving Oxford staff, maybe the principle, and it resulted in Laura death. Can’t wait to see what Sam uncovers about the other students now.

Yeah there are are definitely two different things going on here, perhaps even two opposing forces in the form of Laura’s spirit and an undefined evil battling against each other?

wilco - 17 July 2014 05:45 PM

It does feel like a lot to be resolved in only 3 chapters if they stay the same size. I hope it’s not too rushed.

Don’t worry especially the last chapter is both much longer and much more difficult… can’t remember the rest though.

chrissie - 17 July 2014 06:19 PM

Unfortunately in the real world it doesn’t give you healthy exercise by just imagining/dreaming about it!

Actually there might be something to it, the brain interacts with the rest of the body in strange and mysterious ways It is for example well documented that regular exercise also improves your memory and mental abilities, but I also remember reading about the opposite, that simply imagining things can also have a physical influence on the rest of the body! It is probably and unfortunately an exaggeration that you can replace exercise with simply imagining it (otherwise I would be in better shape), but it is also not so far fetched.

Iznogood - 17 July 2014 05:52 PM

But most of all I enjoy this chapter because we get to spend a beautiful day in the park, I mean just look at these screenshots

Yeah, astonishing. And not only the graphics - anyone who has played Indigo Prophecy could draw a parallel here. Also, it’s “ironic” that the park feels most “live” and vivid of all locations so far with strangers passing by, but the game manages to catch that melancholy and loneliness of the main character.

Also, I knew there was something poetic about it. I did a little experiment - took all of the David’s (and cutscene) comments, remarks… in the park, and tried to combine its parts - amazingly, the song practically wrote itself!

Here on a summer day

Here on a summer day
always crowded and hot like hell,
there’s a gardenia in bloom
now Laura’s gone, and the river too.

Here on a summer day
Santa Lucia, you used to play.
And listen to the river flow
Where should I go?

Here on a summer day
we’re being utter slugs today
there was vanilla inside
the river has dried up with time

Here on a summer day
and how would that change your day?
Just a carving in the tree
Doesn’t remind me of anything.

Here on a summer day
place one in her hair,
a beautiful princess I once knew,
now Laura’s gone, and the river too.

I never doubted David as a scientist - off his rocker yes indeed and chapter 5 does not help that opinion of him.  I liked the fact that chapter 5 is short - the park stuff made 5 a better chapter than 3 but that is not saying much.

Sefir - 18 July 2014 05:58 AM

The bottom line is that I believe Dr. Styles is a real scientist.

No one has actually claimed the opposite… Yes I know… I did uses those words, but in the context of a specific scene and with a different meaning, perhaps an example of poor wording on my side…  though he is a fictional character so he is by definition neither a real human being nor a real scientist

As for whether or not his experiment is scientific, well… I think I have already said enough about that and will rather move on to other things.

Sefir - 18 July 2014 05:58 AM

I also remember some Star Trek episodes were different low tech civilizations perceived the crew practically as gods.

I am not quite sure where you are going with this? But if you brought Star Trek into the discussion as an example of Science in Fiction that might one day become true, then it is a poor example imo. Star Trek is famous for having a ... eh ... rather fictional approach to the science parts.

For example they needed The Enterprice to be able to travel at speeds faster then light even though it is against the laws of relativity, so they simply claimed it possible and called it a warp drive, but they never explained how a warp drive actually works or how it is possible to travel at speeds faster then light, in fact when Gene Roddenberry was once asked how the warp drive works, his response was “It works very well - thank you”.

Similar story with the teleporters. They discovered that making entry scenes with a shuttle landing every time they visited a new planet, would be much too expensive and eat up their special effects budget, so they simply had the idea of having the crew magically appear on the planets and called it a Teleporter, but once again never bothered to come up with an explanation for them. And when they in later shows like Next Generation, made the huge mistake of actually trying to explain the teleporters, then the explanations both ended up being somewhat incoherent and inconsistent. The way the teleporters works in Next Gen. both practically and the basic principles, actually change from episode to episode depending on how they fit into the story as a plot-device.

Sefir - 18 July 2014 05:58 AM

WitchofDoubt said it well when the Frankenstein example was mentioned. Yes, it is pure fiction to raise a dead being with electricity. Or not? Similar practices are used nowadays (see: cardiac jumpstart). Who knows what will be discovered after 50 years?

There was at the time being conducted a lot of experiments with electricity, one of those and I believe the one that inspired Mary Shelley, consisted of sending electricity through a dead frog, or even detached frog legs, which would then cause the muscles in the frog to move. So already at that time they knew that the nervous system was somehow connected to electricity, and had in fact already made the first scientific breakthroughs towards cardiac jumpstarters.

So instead of being an example of how something purely fiction turned out to have something to it, then it is actually an example of how fiction can be inspired by or based on science.

Sefir - 18 July 2014 05:58 AM

Who knows what will be discovered after 50 years?

True, in fact Newton probably said it best: “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.”

But the thing is that fiction always gets it wrong!

In the few cases where real scientific breakthroughs has first been proposed in fiction, then it is because the author either based it on well know physical principles, and/or actually made some actual scientific research him/herself, like the geostationary orbit or the Clarke orbit as it is also called, because it was first proposed by Arthur C. Clarke.

So where am I going with this and what does it have to do with Gray Matter?
Eh… not sure and probably not much, just some thoughts triggered by Sefir’s and other post in this thread.

P.s. Was the above why you didn’t take part in this particular discussion before now?