These PublicBeta guys got me to write a piece on game development, and are looking for more contributors. If you're interested, check out their site.
And, in the "Be Careful What You Wish For, You Might Get It," category, I'm not 100% sure of the time but I think I'm going to be on KTLA tomorrow morning at 7:50 promoting Spider-Man 2. Tomo & Greg are both out of town, so Mark Nau fingered me for the interview. I have no idea how much of a spaz I'm going to come off as.
beta smells like crunchy overtime
Posted by: malkia | July 16, 2004 at 01:34 AM
Welp, my daughter and I have hit the shelf level on Spider-Man 2. We simply cannot do anything with the Mysterio brain - by the time I find a way to swing onto the center platform, all the orbs come back. Sucks, 'cause we didn't even get to SEE Doctor Octopus - and since we can't do anything else in the game until we beat this mission, the game is pretty much over for us. Glad I rented this one...I think you may have emulated GTA III a little TOO closely - that game also has excellent free-form gameplay and thoroughly sucky story missions.
Posted by: Badman | July 18, 2004 at 11:50 AM
Try swinging the opposite way on the mothership (counter-clockwise)... there's a slight spin on it that makes it very difficult to swing clockwise around it.
Also, when you destroy the last target and the brain opens up, swing away from the center a little bit, then turn around and try swinging back in.
VERY IMPORTANT: make sure you are swing boosting (hitting the attack button just before the bottom of your swing), *charging* your jump and releasing it as you reach the end of your swing, and that you've upgraded to the highest swing speed available.
Not directly related, but when you're trying to destroy the orbs, notice that, if you get within ~40m of one, it will suck you in when you hit the attack button. Therefore, hammering on the attack button makes orb destruction much easier.
Posted by: helper elf | July 18, 2004 at 01:34 PM
Thank you for the tips. I may give it another shot later after I've cooled down...after seeing all the orbs come back about five times in a row as I had JUST found my way up onto the platform with the brain, I gave up in extreme frustration.
Posted by: Badman | July 18, 2004 at 03:50 PM
Yeah the brain is a complete bear until you figure it out. Fortunetly with spider reflexes you can kill it in one pass easily. And you get to pay back Mysterio for it in spades later :)
Posted by: Patrick Sullivan | July 18, 2004 at 07:36 PM
Okay, I managed to kill the brain. Got a good tip from GameFAQs - after you kill the last orb, swing out between two of the struts and do a slingshot jump and that should put you right on top of the brain. Thank goodness that worked.
Posted by: Badman | July 19, 2004 at 07:51 AM
Yes, by the time that mission got focus tested, we were on our last set of three testers, and I'm not sure what happened: either we had bad luck (all 3 focus testers swung in the "correct" direction) or some subtle change (the spin, or the suck-in) happened after the focus testing, but all the focus testers managed to beat it in about half a dozen tries. We should have done another round of testing once we had a release candidate: there's always time to fix an SLE. On the bright side, other missions used to be SLE's, and those were fixed before we shipped.
Posted by: Jamie Fristrom | July 19, 2004 at 10:58 AM
Without being too spoilery what were some of the others that were shelf level before the fixes? Other then some of the Doc Ock fights (honestly the last fight (both the actual fight and the part right before it) were pretty far towards being SL (though the first part was partly me not seeing the up high point heh).
Posted by: Patrick Sullivan | July 19, 2004 at 11:52 AM
Forgive my earlier rancor; I posted in the heat of the moment, which I knew I shouldn't have done. Overall, this really is a great game - it's _innately_ fun in a very THPS way, and I've been chatting it up to everyone here at work. Of course, we've also had some problems with new chapters not triggering, and once my daughter actually saved in that state and ruined her save game (fortunately, I had one that wasn't far behind hers). And my daughter it completely enamored with Black Cat; she thinks she's the coolest. Whoever you guys got to do her voice did a fantastic job.
Posted by: Badman | July 20, 2004 at 07:45 AM
Well, thanks to the earlier chapter not starting messup, I have to do the Mysterio brain again, and now no matter what I do I cannot get into the center before the orbs come back. I guess I just got lucky the first time.
Posted by: Badman | July 20, 2004 at 06:04 PM
I actually found this one of the easiest parts of the game- I got straight there and back without falling first time I tried. I really don't know why it is so notorious for being difficult, the only answer I can come up with is that perhaps you really need to have your swinging down pat?
I dunno, because whilst I find that sort of stuff easy, I'm really bad at speed swinging! All the challenges and missions have such short timers!
I guess different bits for different people.
Posted by: Sanityisoverrated | July 21, 2004 at 01:00 AM
Sanityisoverrated, with swinging, you should try releasing your webline near the bottom of your swing. Even with level 5, you can still easily go 240 mph in a couple of swings.
Hello, I'm new here. Basically I have been hyping for this game for over a year, and even made a dumb little website for the game so people would be able to see the pics. I post both on GameFAQs and SSH!, so you may have seen my nick before.
Wow, with Tomo out of the way, you would finally get some camera time. :p Anyhow, you guys are all GREAT in creating this game, and I can't seem to stress that enough. Rome wasn't built in a day, so keep up the good work.
I have a question though, has this ever happened to you guys? http://home.comcast.net/~somedude1988/spiderman_glitch_005.mov
It's an awesome 'glitch?', but I can't seem to be able to reproduce it in any way. I have been trying for that for over 30 hrs, but nothing works.
I've posted a couple of comments on your older topics, feel free to have a read when you have time. ^_^
Posted by: Spenze | July 21, 2004 at 01:43 PM
Not to be horribly offtopic, well, the current topic, anyway. I'm over in San Diego at the Comic Convention. If any of you guys happen to visit, c'mon by the table I'll be spending most of my time at and let me meet a few folk.
When not goofing around and bothering other people I know, I'm mostly hanging with friends at the table of teh Cartoon Militia at table F2 in row 800. Just see if any of the weirdos manning the table actually have a badge that says 'Jeffool' on it.
Posted by: Jeffool | July 22, 2004 at 01:29 AM
That chapter starting bug is the kind of thing that kept me up at night before we shipped: I posted before how *Beyond Good & Evil* had a bug that prevented progression, and I would have quit playing altogether if a friend hadn't sent me a memory card with a savegame after the point where I got stuck. It's the worst kind of SLE, and I'm ashamed that it got in there. Our testers found it, and we thought we fixed it, and the testers weren't able to reproduce it anymore, but it looks like more bad luck. We've been trying to reproduce it and fix it for the Japanese version...we've spent days on it so far with no luck.
Posted by: Jamie Fristrom | July 24, 2004 at 09:01 AM