► The Mailbox - May 4th, 2012

[@cynicalbrit]

Yup. It's really quite wonderful and it's not hard to manufacture controversy to get extra views. KZbin takes controversy into account in it's search ranking system, controversial videos tend to get extra views. The phrase "haters made me famous" is applicable here and they continue to do so, it's kinda beautiful to watch really.

[@cynicalbrit]

Feel free to look at the stats, they are right there. They have already done the inactive sub purge, I think I lost about 13k subs, that was about a month ago.

[@cpudude30k]

🎂 It feels like I was home just yesterday after a rough day of high school when this video was waiting for me when I got home on my birthday. Miss ya.

[@75338]

H.S. sucked. Hope it's less rough now for you.

[@cpudude30k]

@@75338 thanks, just working and living life

[@JGProspecting]

i dont play 99% of the games you talk about but i still sit and listen to all of you'r vids and enjoy them :D

[@cynicalbrit]

That's correct. Sub count really isn't all that important at all. It's more of a bragging right, a number to show to sponsors or whatever. Daily views are far more important, also new subs. If you're consistently getting new subscribers rather than bleeding them, then you're doing it right.

[@ThundahThor]

A Mailbox JUST for my birthday! Thank you, John :3 Also, May the fourth be with you.

[@cynicalbrit]

HoMM3 isn't a widescreen game, making it hard to film and take an age to encode since you have to upscale every frame.

[@tixan]

Probably the only channel where I love youtube ads at... 99% game ads :D

[@Bluerosefma]

Grim-dark. It is now an official term in my vocabulary now. Thanks TB!

[@GuinnessKMF]

I'm so happy you cut down on the intro video, really appreciate that.

[@YangShengji]

He's brilliant at putting into words what was always in the back of your mind. He's got a talent for common sense and great journalism!

[@ProjectLupus]

These are actually my favourite videos.

[@TheSaast666]

It is nice to see that mailbox is again on schedule. Keep it up.

[@Ascendancy-]

i have personally bought alot of new games i would have never heard of if it werent for TBs videos. i want to give a big personal THANK YOU for helping the PC gaming community TB

[@Asadullah76904]

Thank you for the time stamps TB, much appreciated.

[@xvx44]

Thank you for giving us links to each question TB!

[@Szeicheng]

I've never played a GoW game but after hearing this I'm sold.

[@Jawn1010]

I enjoy these, a lot.

[@Heliyum]

Hearing you mention Yahtzee just warms my tea.

[@XFoolXProofX]

Damn.....I was hoping for every weekend. Thanks

[@fuzia1199]

Damn, dude... I was confused as to if it was me closing full screen, or the video! Mindblown!

[@ryonalionthunder]

He references him from time to time, always amuses me when he does ^^

[@MichaelsPodcast]

The perfect ad to get me into the mailbox...*puts on sunglasses* the expendables 2....

[@PromorteD]

That's awesome, gz for reaching so many people. I live in hope that some of them may become informed gamers and able to make their own decisions. Not much hope!

[@Amainville93]

Amusingly enough, I found an article called something like "10 Things You Never Knew About Mass Effect" and one of the things on that was that ME1 and ME2 were originally going to have multiplayer. At least, it was an idea that the single-player campaign could have multiple players play through it (presumably with the other 2 being your squadmates), but they never got it to work in a way they liked. They finally got ME3 to fit it in in a way they liked.

[@ironphan24]

I know! It's my favorite too! It's crazy how it isn't super popular!!!

[@Jonesy135790]

May the 4th be with you TB!!!

[@Joehovah]

I feel like an ass now, for the longest time i was thinking "You are so competant at so many genres, why are puzzles and platforms so hard?" My respect and admiration have reached new levels haha.

[@TheKingofBling]

In regards to the second question, I think that it's a great thing. In a lot of RPG's, you can just quick save before an event, then quick load until you get the outcome you want. I don't have a problem with this, but what I said before was the case with Bastion. ---SPOILERS--- When the Ura attacked the Bastion, I had my Squirt and Pecker die, and I hadn't wanted them to die. I could've restarted the game and gone back in, but I came to accept "my story" as some games put it. That was awesome.

[@June28July]

Will he see us next time?

[@Hardstylez4Eva]

Of course, he's happier - He's now with his wife, able to spend time with his step son and is doing well for himself.. why wouldn't h be happy, and i hope it continues for the guy.. about time he smiled after the years of hardship he's had.

[@firei11]

The prime example of a game that gives you all the info before you take a decision AND lets you make the wrong decision to confront you with it further down the line : Planescape Torment. That game is so incredibly successful in that regard; you never have a feeling of "I wish I had the option to do x" or feel cheated into choosing between 2 terrible ideas. The possibilities in the game are so wide and varied it's difficult to find a single case where your decision-making is put on rails.

[@Myega]

Hahaha, the ending of the video. "I'll see you next time, I'll see you next time, I'll see you next time". Hahaha, it made me laugh!

[@Gavincie]

Im sure many people have said this already but, in Mass effect 3 Galactic readiness does not change the endings what so ever, you can go onto the final mission with the bare minimum readiness required (which can be done in the singleplayer by itself) and still get the same results as 100%.

[@xkr3e]

i love how he always repeats the email in the beginning.

[@GlinkBetweenWorlds]

Wow hes REALLY gonna see us next time.

[@cynicalbrit]

Slow on the uptake aren't you. Haven't made a WoW video in over a year.

[@flamezombie1]

I feel so loved.

[@phulmetal]

dunno when the timecodes started appearing but it's much appreciated :]

[@JJGaming2010]

Me3 Mutiplayer was a good addition, hands down. Ive been a ME nerd since the beginning, and I was scared when first hearing about it, but i got to say it works. The connection to single player doesnt even matter, because the co-op alone is a good stand-alone product. Endless weapon choices, custimization, and varying difficulty matched with ME3's great gameplay makes it worth playing it whether ur just in for the story or not.

[@bridgey2012]

TB will never die. He is the frickin' archmage of the entire universe remember.

[@Indird]

speaking of iron squid at the end there, i'm so glad tb uploaded boxer vs mkp, i hadnt even looked at iron squid b4 i saw that, and now i have hours and hours and hours of really top level games to watch all week end :D

[@dRevan64]

As for that second question, I'd cite Bastion as an example of a game that did it really well. You couldn't reload a save to try and *spoiler* save some of the pets that might've died *spoiler* but the process made it feel really fluid. VERY immersive game IMO.

[@luckyeddie44]

Oh ho, Powerstone! The amount of time my brother and I sunk into that game. Kraken was a royal bastard.

[@ArcaneCH]

ME3 MP was a great example of how to make a solid MP in a normally SP game. You could do everything you needed to in SP without it, but it made things a lot simpler if you chose to use the MP.

[@CrossHarry]

[@Fiery891]

How the Mass effect 3 Galactic Readiness worked was this: you gained an ally, they were worth x Military Points. But you only got 50% of those points by default. Galactic Readiness improved that number up to 100%. You could get the optimal ending without playing the multiplayer if you did every side quest and as much as possible. with 100% readiness you could rush they story and still get optimal ending.

[@madmax1509]

Making a decision without all the facts is like real life, and it is more emotional

[@Luhaja]

I definately agree with this. The stories in the campaigns are also very well written.

[@AlexCoyXIV]

TB sounds so much happier now and that makes me happy, everyone wins. :D

[@SirWizzow]

Just as I was about to go to bed, check KZbin and this is up...

[@amolinya]

Regarding ME3, the giant bomb quicklook explains it all. The more effective military strength and forces for a final push you have the better your ending becomes. Galactic readiness is locked at 50% if you play most of the game. The multiplayer just adds to it making it easier to bring those numbers up. So no, you can ignore the mp if you don't wanna play it.

[@laughalot44657]

Thank you for the information.

[@sharks2find18]

I did play the ME3 multiplayer and single player. The way the multiplayer factors in is that you start out at 50% galactic readiness. The war assets you gather, at that readiness, are effectively halved. I believe, if you do everything right, in order to get the 'best' ending, you have to have 5k assets, which is doable, but you have to do everything. Another way to do it is to grind the hell out of MP (each successful match on bronze is about 3% full readiness). I liked the MP, though I don't

[@EarthLordCJ]

It's always fun when TB becomes excited/giddy.

[@noahtopping]

It makes me happy just knowing that TB watches Zero Punctuation

[@Heranara]

May the 4th be with you TB!! :D

[@jayzz911]

goddamn you TB. You made me remember power stone. and then made me remember shenmue because it was in the same days that i played powerstone on my dreamcast. damn you!

[@lightninglance123]

May the 4th be with all of you guys :)

[@kalennighteyes]

You can get the very best ending without playing Multiplayer. You just have to hunt down and do every single side quest and get every war asset you can get your hands on.

[@mootboot]

Oh my god, TB talking about my favorite childhood video game, powerstone! :D

[@Amainville93]

Actually, to get the "secret" ending with the Destroy ending, multiplayer (for now) is actually required.

[@clark_cant]

Greets TB,regarding the second question - I believe the best way to go with that is to have some kind of announcement, a screen that appears right before you start a new game that tells you something like ''for a more immersive and enjoyable experience we suggest that you stick with the choices you make even though in the moment you might feel like going back and change them...'' Oh and a suggestion: go finish The walking dead if you didn't! :)

[@Faethon888]

A nice mailbox, TB! Thank you! I do hope that people will not focus their attention on the slight echo in the background.I'm rather surprised to hear about Powerstone again =]

[@CrossHarry]

It was just so different, fights took absolutely ages unlike games like starcraft where a massive army is killed in about 5seconds then you will lose because you dont have any units left, unlike in lotr where u actually stood a chance.

[@IronwolfSOF]

Yes Power stone! Once you said that brought back memories!

[@Silmaneero]

I think the most I've ever been tempted to reload old saves is when playing V:tM Bloodlines as a Malkavian. It's so very easy to pick a choice that was not at all what you thought it was thanks to their crazy way of talking.

[@WomboBraker]

tb your my hero! when someone asks me " who was your childhood hero ( this time teenage hero ) " i will say, total biscuit!

[@nomercy8989]

"Ill see you next time, Ill see you next time, Ill see you next time" LOLOLOLOL

[@Kaiserhawk]

If I can recall, True Crime Streets of LA had a system where you could fail a mission and progress down an alternate story path because of your failures.

[@XFoolXProofX]

Good Ol Battletoads. And do you by chance have a inside tip on when the next GW2 beta will be? Cant wait for the release of that game.

[@flowershrub]

thanks for the mailbox TB :D

[@Teradel]

I played the entire ME3 single player game without touching the multiplayer and still got the "best ending" option, I personally chose the red ending, but they were all there. Multiplayer just makes obtaining the best ending easier in the end.

[@IkeofCrimea]

Another good single player that was done well with multiplayer, in my opinion, was Assassin's Creed. It was a damn good way to let players interact with each other in a multiplayer fashion. It was enough of the same without being too similar and was just a blast to play, even when you were bad at it, like me

[@spikegilfer1997]

good old Yahtzee glad to see TB knows of this funny individual

[@afaigni92]

May the 4th be with you.

[@DistantWatcher]

I haven't played a Might and Magic game since either the first or second one...but watching these last couple days is making me want to pick up 6 and give it a go.

[@SykoLiu]

When you mentioned being able to fail something and yet continue on and deal with the repercussions, I immediately thought of Dead Rising (and Dead Rising 2).

[@Twinscimitarz]

The ME3 multiplayer is fun to play for an hour or so at a time. As for how it effects the single player: I played through my first time without playing multiplayer at all, and since I went all completionist, I unlocked all three endings. Since I don't wanna do every little side-quest six+ times, the multiplayer is more of a crutch to let me focus on the story, rather than the sometimes-tedious side quests.

[@haakonwale]

"I'll see you next time, I'll see you next time, I'll see you next time."

[@TheBalfrog]

Powerstone on Dreamcast was AMAZING

[@BrotherDeath100]

Do you know the Indoctrination Theory? It's a 20-minute KZbin video which explains how the ending could end up actually working really well. Definitely worth a look.

[@hiccupingdonkey]

Small tip for the future, if going to read a comment about the various outcomes of a video game, accept the possibility you may find out about the various outcomes of said video game.

[@icesentry]

i like to go back to old save simply to see what would happen if i chose something else than my first choice but I also go back to older save when the written option on the screen and the actual thing that happen are completely different

[@EarthLordCJ]

I think the problem that I have with games that *don't* give you the option of going for the 'good' choice is that you only really know about it if: a) It's advertised to show that b) It says somewhere in something that comes with the game itself (ie. the manual) The thing is that there seems to be almost no information on that subject provided with these types of games; that is, until you get to that critical moment in the game where you actually find out that you can't turn back.

[@politrzysta]

Agreed, multiplayer is a solid addition to the game and thank devs they didn't mess the game up with it.

[@hiccupingdonkey]

Ah yes I understand you now, you were just making a point on how the endings were essentially the same, in that case I completely agree with you.

[@Snufkin224]

thanks for timecodes

[@mophead99]

Yet he is a KZbin Commentator and is very good at examining stuff... Not going to lie. I think he's better at noticing things than a lot of people :')

[@SpeedSL0W]

TB sounds happy for once, glad the US is doing you right!

[@dhxmg]

The audio soundet much better now, but you sound a bit muffled... Anyway, I'm sure you'll be working to improve the quality to the max! Keep up the good work man!

[@mooN4Pie2]

May the 4th be with you TB :)

[@GalacticLobster]

He will see us next time! He will see us next time! He will see us next time!

[@Wilzork]

Why would someone dislike a video at the very second it comes out?

[@cursed_ascension]

oh, a new mailbox! right on time :)

[@TacticalBacon00]

"i'll see you next time" "i'll see you next time" "i'll see you next time" ...and i'll see all three of you next time

[@frostriuss]

Thank you for reminding me of PowerStone!!!!

[@JCHeavy]

shepard lives in the "destroy the reapers" ending.

[@frogsareorange]

You know what game prevented you from re-trying different choices? Fable 2. It basically meant that you couldn't reload once you reached a gamebreaking bug: you had to restart each time (and boy was that game buggy). Taking control of saves away from the player doesn't improve the experience.

[@MrTwilightlion]

The problem with the ME3 Multiplayer system was, that everything you did in the SP translated into "points". These points were multiplied by the galactic readiness from the MP. If one did't touch the MP at all, everything only counted for 50%... meaning 100 points translated into only 50. A certain amount of points is needed to unlock the "best ending" and it is only possible to gain enough by following a strict path through ME 1-3 - which would have been okay if that path was logical.