Video game "book" club

[Goofonian]

So lets get started already! What's the first game going to be?

Should we start with the most obvious and go for psychonauts? Or has everyone here already played that?

Would be a good choice in my mind because its out for PS2, xbox and PC. Its backward compatible on the PS3 and 360 and is even available on gametap.

I would sugggest Beyond Good and Evil for very similar reasons.

 

[Russ Pitts]

I think System Shock, Beyond Good and Evil and Psychonauts all make good starting points. And three is enough for a vote, I think.

I vote Psychonauts because I've played it and I'm lazy. And considering I've played it (three times) and edited at least two articles about it, I think I might have a good shot at moderating a fruitful discussion about it.

Thoughts?

 

[thefreemarket]

I'll throw in a vote for Psychonauts.

 

[TomBeraha]

Psychonauts sounds good to me- I'll go find myself a copy of it. Shall we say - Try to finish by the end of the month ? Post a new thread (I'll leave that to russ or another escapist staff member) as an official in progress thread where we can talk about stuff as we go?

 

[Geoffrey42]

So, for me, having only played the game once, shall I play it again, or just go along for the ride on this one? BTW, for the record, the game is awesome. Even though I rarely play games, watch movies, or read books more than once, I might actually be able to play this one through again.

P.S. If anyone has trouble finding a copy, it's available on Steam. If you can find it in stores, you could probably save some money.

P.P.S. I'm pretty sure it was one of your previous articles, Russ, which got me interested in the first place.

 

[Goofonian]

Looks like psychonauts it is.

Tis a good thing too, cos its sitting in my pile of half finished games and I've been looking for a good excuse to put it in again.

As I mentioned above, its also available on gametap and if your not already a member they are giving first month subscription for 99c at the moment (no I don't work for them, I just think thats a really good deal!)

 

[Ajar]

Good timing! Psychonauts was added to the Xbox 360 backcompat list in the last update, and as it happens I'm borrowing a copy from a friend soon.

 

[blakbuzzrd [deprecated]]

What if participants all subscribed to a service like Gamefly? Then they could get the games for the month in question without having to lay out 60 bucks.

 

[Goofonian]

What if participants all subscribed to a service like Gamefly? Then they could get the games for the month in question without having to lay out 60 bucks.

Well for starters, not all of us are in the US.

But I think more importantly, the whole point of this is to not choose the new, full price games that everyone is already talking about anyway. Of course there is no reason there can't be exceptions to this, but as a general rule its looking like we'll be playing games that can easily be picked up for next to nothing second hand or in a clearance bin somewhere.

 

[TomBeraha]

I got myself a copy of Psychonauts today, and I've just played the first level. Wee!

 

[Trillinon]

I'm game, so to speak. I think it's a wonderful idea. Plus, I've always wanted to play Psyconauts.

I seriously recommend that someone, either the thread starter, or Russ Pitts since his name is gold and carries an air of authority, write up a formal declaration post. Something that says the game to be played, and perhaps some milestones/deadlines for people to stop at and discuss.

 

[Russ Pitts]

OK. I think it's safe enough to call this official. Consider this the unofficial announcement for now. I'll do something more permanent when I'm not on my way out the door to go see the Cape Fear Sepentarium.

The Escapist Game/Book Club has spoken. First game: Psychonauts. You can find it for $10-20 practically everywhere games nobody bought are sold, including Steam. Let's plan to have some "official" discussion no sooner than August 1.

Cheers,

 

[3PG_KevLaR]

This is a good idea especially on a larger scale like your magazine and its readers can provide. We did something similar to this trying to get fans and dev's of our HL2 mod playing together. We realized that developers and fans who were still with us were ones who had a history playing together in one game or another. We started a game night every other week where we all met up on TeamSpeak server and played a RTS/FPS game (the same genre of game were trying to make) and reviewed it afterwards. We talked about things we liked and disliked and things that we could implement in our game as well as reasons why it was popular or died out.

I look forward to your game club. I'll try to pick up Psyconauts on Steam and get involved with you guys.

 

[thefreemarket]

picked it up for about 8 at amazon.

 

[Logan Frederick]

Will this turn into a series of forum topics? Heck, comments from the threads discussing each game in the "Escapist Game Club" could be a homepage editorial.

Just throwing ideas out there.

 

[Goofonian]

Will this turn into a series of forum topics?

Thats how I envisioned it. Each month we get a new official thread title with something like "Escapist Game Club - Psychonauts (aug 07)"

That way its easy to keep up to date with what the current game is and participate in the conversation, while avoiding having a single thread that would end up so large it might intimidate potential new contributors to the discussion, like the fallout E3 thread.

 

[Ajar]

Okay, I've got a copy of Psychonauts sitting at home. I'll be starting it this week.

 

[Russ Pitts]

OK, we should be seeing an official notification on this tomorrow or the next day. I think we're going to try this as a monthly thing, starting August 1 with Psychonauts. If you've already got the game or are getting it, go ahead and start it up and we'll continue the discussion on the new thread once it's created. Good luck!

 

[aegis7]

I am in the boat of, I own it and haven't had the motivation to finish it. (I was using Psychonauts to introduce my fiance to video games, but it didn't take.)

Anyway, how does a book club work? I've never heard how they function.