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TOM FRANCIS
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Hello! I'm Tom, I designed and wrote a game called Gunpoint. I've also written things for PC Gamer, I sometimes write short stories and stuff, and I like figuring out how to be happy. In my spare time I enjoy looking to the right and laughing at nothing.

Dishonored Header

Dishonored

I like Dishonored quite a lot. Here’s my review.

After mentally rejecting three even crazier ideas, I hoist the Overseer’s body over my shoulder and jump out of the window.

If you’re playing it now, you might want to know what counts as a kill, what the threshold for ‘low chaos’ is, and whether dogs seeing you mean you’re not a ghost. Here’s a guide.

The game itself doesn’t fully explain how it works. I misunderstood it, and accidentally committed myself to a darker path than I wanted.

If you’ve finished it, we did a special spoilercast where we discuss the merits and faults of the plot, amongst much else.

You fascinate me, Corvo. You’ve eaten fifty cans of tuna today Corvo. Why did you do that? How did you do that? How do you eat all the tuna on a shelf almost instantly?

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I also wrote an account of the first time I tackled the Lady Boyle mission.

He’s wearing a whale the size of a dog on his head. Her mask is a fly, with plate-sized compound eyes. They both stare at me for a moment, then the fly woman says:
‘I don’t know how you can wear that mask.’

More

Chris: I should really pick up a copy of this!

Tom, how much more of an appreciation do you have for games like this now that you are making one your self?

Samorai: I've just finished playing this for a second time (second time was the psychotic stabby playthrough) and it's probably my game of the year - tied with Spec Ops: The Line.

I really enjoyed the review and podcast, it's interesting to see how other people tackled the game (and a relief to find I wasn't the only one who often put sleeping people onto beds). Being the pedantic nerd that I am, I wanted to say you can non-lethally takedown Daud (the whole put him into his bed afterwards so he doesn't wake up aching is optional) by sneaking behind him. I don't think knock-out darts work on him - I tried doing the Bend Time thing to subdue him and his guard but he says something like "Nice try, Corvo" and then attacks you whilst the other dude is frozen.

Did anyone spot that the more you quicksave/load that previously knocked out guards seemed to reset and start patrolling again? Or was that just my imagination or a glitch?

Nonomu198: My experience was constantly fighting the cheating AI, e.g. waiting infinitely for a guard to move only for him to not move but not because he noticed me but rather because the game did, forgetting to crouch before teleporting behind guards triggering them to notice me, without me even moving, mind you, they just know I'm there because I'm not crouching, and hours upon hours of exploration and save/reload because I thought treasures and good endings are worth it. They aint.

Maybe they should just start the game with a big warning, "DO NOT GIVE A FUCK!". Maybe that would have made it less of a horrible experience for me.

Nonomu198: Oh, and Samorai, I don't know about that, but since I liked hoarding unconscious bodies in the same room (played the whole game without a single kill, other than one "kill" in which I threw a dead body I found into a wall of light hoping this would help fight the plague. The game thought otherwise.) I noticed that if I save/reload all but one body were gone.

Samorai: I noticed a few odd AI glitches - mostly when an enemy would suddenly stare at you hiding in shadows above them, but completely un-alert. They'd do a few circles whilst eyeballing you before wandering off. Which was odd. Along with a audio glitch in the first level where all the guards were constantly saying "eh" or "hm" to indicate they'd spotted something, even when I wasn't anywhere close.

Please post any Gunpoint bug reports in the Gunpoint Bugs forum - I can solve them quicker if they're all in the same place, and you can see if it's already been reported.

URLs get turned into links automatically. You can use <i>HTML</i> but not [b]forum[/b] code. If your comment doesn't show up, e-mail me - the spam filter's just detained it for questioning.