Game:

Counter-Strike: Source (2004)

Duration: 16:42

98 views

3

The second, generally under-allocated slot of the day will temporarily go towards two titles I'm personally a big fan of that are on sale for the time being.

On the other Hand, Runbow has been a big point of interest of mine since it was first announced, but I haven't really had much luck getting a group together to play it, because it's a bit of a commitment by a whole bunch of people for what might not immediately be all that apparent WHY they should share my enthusiasm. Honestly, it's a much more intensive experience on a much different scale, and it might not necessarily mean the same thing to all people, so a bit of introspection might be in order.

Or not, as it happens with some people I know, who went ahead and got it because enough other people they knew decided to grab it at the current ongoing sale price of about $5... and those people were kinda pushy and wanted to know when we'd be playing, so that's what this is.

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Runbow is a game I'd previously taken a look at using the demo effort called "Nindies @ Home," and it was certainly one of the titles included that resonated most with me, except for the fact that I don't think I'd ever get anywhere even remotely close to a full complement of 9 players locally OR online together... and playing by yourself certainly doesn't do it many favors when it comes to making it look good...

So we'll try one better, because while it was a huge hassle trying to wrangle together this many players, MOST of a posse of some vague cloud of under-committals in the neighborhood of six to eight players lazily congregated... somewhere close to being in the same-ish sort of space and time online... so that's what this kinda... is? (Generally around four or five stuck it out at a time and more confused and disorganized stragglers wandered by before the whole movement eventually petered out entirely...)

THAT said... I don't know if I could totally handle more than that... because just four-player online interactions in a game like this where latency will be quite easily felt and certain concessions must be made just to play at all from a netcode perspective is one thing... ... ...but then have you TRIED to get that many people in a concerted effort to "join this room, quick, before it auto-starts" and "no, no, we're over HERE, you're in the wrong place!" and even some "now we want to switch modes, so everybody start all over again trying to do this some more!" are all in full effect.

Frankly, I don't know how 13am Games put up with the technical challenges alone, much less the expectation of somehow getting PEOPLE to play nice together with their game. Sounds like a pretty thankless job to me.

There are pretty noticeable swaths of video that indicate a long wait while I yell--IN ALL CAPS TEXT FORM--against the utter futility of getting all the people seen here to cooperate and play a game, despite having gone to the trouble of locking them in one big room... er... shared chat space... and still manage to take forever and get all riled up about it.

Er... I mean, GOOD... use that to fuel the fight! I"m sure it'll be entirely constructively applied here and there and everywhere... and... eugh... all over the walls... blegh.

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Oh yeah, and this is also that one weird game with all the other weird indie game characters cameoing for the right to race, punch, and generally ram into each other for sport. Is it weird if THAT part seems like the afterthought?

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Gameplay consists in general of a certain number of rounds in rapid succession, upon reaching the end of the set, you end up seeing how everyone scored and then you can declare a winner.

Player order is... pretty much a non-factor for Runbow's concerns, so... I'll at least try to keep them SLIGHTLY organized for the benefit of the viewer, even though this is a fairly futile task in and of itself. STAND STILL, YOU FIDGETY BUGGERS!

...it occurs to me yet again super late in the description-writing process that I've left remarkably little room for actual descriptive effort, so let's just pretend like this is our first meeting and you do the watching thing and I'll do the knowing nodding thing and we pretend like this was all on purpose to get you to pay attention more, okay?

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Run, Set #01:
Shantae (YuuGiJoou)
Drifter (Maidens)
A.R.I.D. (B-Squared) youtube.com/strategist9
Green Hue (Unagi) youtube.com/whitekhakis
Juan (Spooky) youtube.com/spookyryu

You'll notice ONE GUY didn't say "READY" like everyone else at the end of last round, and while I agree that it's a little confusing and there's no on-screen prompt, there's a timer and every other player slot said "READY"... well, it might be expecting something from you. He then proceeded to get fussy, and we learned that a once-private room set public will just auto-start, so you really want everyone in the room and staying there if you want things to run smoothly.

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