[Zaxx]

Yeah, this is a "bit" rough:

And yep, I didn't juice myself up on Polygon skill, the aiming really is that bad.

[Sledgehammer]

Zaxx, on 14 October 2019 - 10:52 AM, said:

I don't know if I like JSJ in this role honestly: he's not bad at all, in fact he's pretty good but it's just not the voice you're used to.

Yeah, it's not bad, but also quite off at the same time. Still a shame Rick Hunter couldn't voice Postal Dude in this one.

[Zaxx]

It's curious that Rick Hunter wasn't available since he returned to voice the Dude in Paradise Lost.

[Jimmy]

JSJ phoning it in as usual.

[HulkNukem]

I wonder why they didn't just make it a new character if they are having a third voice actor, especially since Rick returned to do DLC for Postal 2 and Postal Redux. Did he break up with yet another girlfriend?

This was a pleasant surprise announcement. I love Postal 2 so them making a new game in very similar vein is good news to me. Let's hope they don't get screwed over and outsource it again mid-development.

[Zaxx]

Quote

Let's hope they don't get screwed over and outsource it again mid-development.

Based on the "janky alpha" I'm a bit worried because honestly it's not a good first impression at all. The soul of Postal is there and you get the feeling that this will be a good game one day but the quality is just not there yet. There are just too many buildings you can't enter (the city is very boring, if you see a building that seems interesting you can bet your ass you can't enter that one) and there is just too much downtime to really get into the gameplay really. A lot of the assets seem to be placeholders, there are a lot of features missing and the game loves to crash (and you can't save the game yet in any way whatsoever so if you crash you have to start from the beginning).

To make things worse the game has the worst introductory section you can imagine because it's just so fucking boring. Remember how in Postal 2 you just started up the game, skipped the intro, kicked open a door, got yourself a gun and a crackpipe and then just went nuts? You can't do that here and even if you want to start doing your missions first you have to pick them up by literally just walking around town and asking people for work. That part just has to go.

[Marphy Black]

Zaxx, on 14 October 2019 - 02:46 PM, said:

To make things worse the game has the worst introductory section you can imagine because it's just so fucking boring. Remember how in Postal 2 you just started up the game, skipped the intro, kicked open a door, got yourself a gun and a crackpipe and then just went nuts? You can't do that here and even if you want to start doing your missions first you have to pick them up by literally just walking around town and asking people for work. That part just has to go.

You don't have to do anything during the intro other than pick up the two items that are on the path leading into the town and then press F to combine them. After that, you're smack dab in the middle of the town and free to do whatever you want.

[Lunick]

The voice is just.... wrong

[Zaxx]

Marphy Black, on 14 October 2019 - 03:46 PM, said:

You don't have to do anything during the intro other than pick up the two items that are on the path leading into the town and then press F to combine them. After that, you're smack dab in the middle of the town and free to do whatever you want.

Yeah, you're right and I know but I really feel that something is just missing from there. The thing is that it feels weird to start the game with a "sign my petition" quest if the rest of the content is locked behind completing it because it makes the beginning a bit tedious. You get your little sign together and you walk to the city, that's fine but then you have to ask around 5 or 6 people for work and that's a bit tricky if you decide to go postal right at the beginning. People freak out, start running around and you have to walk (or scooter) for quite a while before you can find NPCs who'll react to your sign and that can make that introductory mission longer than it should be.

Having just more stuff to explore can improve that of course but I think Postal 2 did it better because there you just instantly get your missions and with that you get a rough idea of how to plan out your exploration right from the beginning. With Postal 4 what happened to me was I started playing, got my sign together, went postal, started searching for more guns and messed around in the town. Then I decided to start doing missions so I asked for work until they told me where to go and I had to go back to the other end of the town because I had my little sandbox adventure at the "wrong place". In P2 that wasn't a thing because you knew where to start your missions from the second you started playing and as a result it was the player who controlled the pace of the game.

And I know this seems nitpicky but let me tell you what I really enjoyed in Postal 2: it was a sandbox game with the lack of any real downtime. You know those boring moments in today's GTA when you decide to get to the next mission so you hop into a car and just drive for a minute or two? Or the parts in Assassin's Creed when you're just running to the next objective marker without anything happening? That didn't exist in Postal 2, the map was dense, there were resources everywhere and just stuff to explore. That's why I love more compact sandboxes like what Arkham City and Arkham Knight have too, because no matter where you are on the map every single activity is very close to you and even if it's not traversal is really fast and snappy (Batman doesn't have to run on rooftops or enter a car and drive, he just glides in the sky, genius shit).

[Marphy Black]

Zaxx, on 14 October 2019 - 04:54 PM, said:

The thing is that it feels weird to start the game with a "sign my petition" quest if the rest of the content is locked behind completing it because it makes the beginning a bit tedious.

Nothing is locked behind the sign beggar part errand. You can walk (or, if you're in a hurry, drive) straight to the job agency and skip the errand in its entirety.

Quote

That didn't exist in Postal 2, the map was dense, there were resources everywhere and just stuff to explore.

I want the very same dense and populated quality for P4. Feedback like this is invaluable as I can use it to show to the rest of the team that there's a shared feeling from the community in how we should be shaping the game, which is exactly what can and is happening right now through Early Access.

[HulkNukem]

Played it, it feels so so SO early in development that I won't even comment on the quality of anything in it with the exception of JSJ's performance.

Again, its real weird to have a third voice actor for the same character when there was seemingly nothing wrong with the original actor. Other than that, his performance is good in some spots and bad in others. It's definitely not the Postal Dude even though there's similar lines. It isn't bad nor good.

[Zaxx]

Marphy Black, on 14 October 2019 - 05:05 PM, said:

You can walk (or, if you're in a hurry, drive) straight to the job agency and skip the errand in its entirety.

That's great, that solves it entirely then for a second playthrough and for the first time people will just enjoy the funny dialogue anyway.

And yeah, you guys did a great job on Paradise Lost so I can imagine that lots of stuff is not there because it's just not done yet. The thing about P2 is that I know that it's funny to say that it's janky as hell, the worst game ever etc. but really there is a very well designed game under all the technical mess. That's why people didn't forget about it I think and that's what makes it infinitely replayable so I just hope that its concepts make a return in P4 too.

For example I always loved how P2 just presented you with situations where you just wanted to do something nasty. Maybe there's a protest going on, a marching band or something more subtle like NPCs having a barbecue party in the neighborhood and you just have to blow shit it up when you see that. It was a great idea to have the Dude do very mundane things that just ended up in craziness (going to church, buying milk etc.) so personally that's what I'd love to see more of. I guess that stuff is all coming though, it's just a matter of time.

[Morpheus Kitami]

Looks pretty good so far. For being in alpha and all. Considering that its Postal I doubt its going to look too different when its finished. JSJ doesn't really come off as the Postal Dude though, more like some upper class New Englander or a mildly upset minister. I can potentially see the new voice screw the game over to a certain degree.

[Zaxx]

Come on, he's good:

Really the only bad thing one can say about it is that it's different and honestly being different is better than some Rick Hunter impression.

[Sledgehammer]

Rick Hunter is just too perfect as a VA for the Dude. I hope they listen to the people and get him back at some point, judging by the state of the build it's very unfinished and thus I think there is a small possibility. They could even leave both voices.

[KaijuTurtle]

I like JSJ here- not the same of course, but nothing wrong with it. Extremely hyped when I saw the trailer, a little bummed that it’s currently very early access but I’ll definitely be picking this up on the next pay. I’ve still only managed to put a few hours into Ion Fury so chances are by the time I get to it things will be more beta than alpha.

[Doom64hunter]

Yeah I don't like the voice either.
Jon St. John can still do great VA work as evident from his Heskel recordings, but his voice really doesn't fit the cynical personality of the Postal Dude.

[Morpheus Kitami]

I stand by my opinion after hearing all that. Albeit with a finish on what it really sounds like to me. It sounds like a Stan Lee impersonator who sometimes sounds like the Postal dude and sometimes sounds like Duke Nukem. I sincerely hope that if they keep with him they at least have him do new takes. I can see myself trying to avoid the game if it stays as is, its just too distracting for me.

[Radar]

I thought the meme was "No Ragrets"

[HulkNukem]

Plan ahea

[Outtagum]

Spitfire, on 15 October 2019 - 01:34 PM, said:

I thought the meme was "No Ragrets"

[Zaxx]

Morpheus Kitami, on 15 October 2019 - 01:31 PM, said:

I stand by my opinion after hearing all that. Albeit with a finish on what it really sounds like to me. It sounds like a Stan Lee impersonator who sometimes sounds like the Postal dude and sometimes sounds like Duke Nukem. I sincerely hope that if they keep with him they at least have him do new takes. I can see myself trying to avoid the game if it stays as is, its just too distracting for me.

The other way to get around the "authenticity problem" (and yep, I admit that exists since we have to get used to the same character speaking differently) would be changing the character more to suit Jon's voice better I guess. I know, I know but hear me out.

I LOVE that the Dude is homeless now and the game seems to reflect on that a bit. He looks older, he's wearing a bathrobe instead of a jacket, his pants are gone etc. and there seem to be a lot of subtle references to The Big Lebowski. RWS could maybe take that a bit further because Jon's voice is perfect for that, let's play as the "hobo with a shotgun" this time, why not?

[Jimmy]

It honestly sounds more like the regression the Duke character has had over the years. Some of these lines could be inserted into Duke Nukem Forever and no one would notice.

[High Treason]

Pretty much my first thoughts upon hearing it alongside the gameplay, a geriatric Duke Nukem who is extremely bitter at the world. Dunno, just what the voice makes me think of.

That aside, I'd like to see this game turn out decent.

[Morpheus Kitami]

Zaxx, on 15 October 2019 - 03:48 PM, said:

The other way to get around the "authenticity problem" (and yep, I admit that exists since we have to get used to the same character speaking differently) would be changing the character more to suit Jon's voice better I guess. I know, I know but hear me out.

I LOVE that the Dude is homeless now and the game seems to reflect on that a bit. He looks older, he's wearing a bathrobe instead of a jacket, his pants are gone etc. and there seem to be a lot of subtle references to The Big Lebowski. RWS could maybe take that a bit further because Jon's voice is perfect for that, let's play as the "hobo with a shotgun" this time, why not?

That could work. Maybe a reference to all those health pipes ruining the Dude's vocal cords. I still say there should be some rerecording of lines so the Dude sounds less like he's about to say "Excelsior, true believers", but I think I can live with Jon not going full Dude vocally.

[Sledgehammer]

Spitfire, on 15 October 2019 - 01:34 PM, said:

I thought the meme was "No Ragrets"

Well, there is this thread. Considering the current state of the game, it's a perfect name for now.

[Radar]

Oh ok. I ragret posting that now.

[Truck Stop Santa Claus]

honestly, I feel like John could use a few more takes for some of the lines

[Zaxx]

Fucking DOOT


Also: having a cat on your gun seriously messes with visibility while aiming:

[Sledgehammer]

Not sure what they tried to imply by the name, in Japan, Doom was known as ドゥーム (pronounces as Duumu or Doomu, though saying Duum/Doom is fine too), but ドーン sounds like "Don" with long O (kinda like Dawn). If they wanted to put DOOT, it should be more like ドゥート (pronounces as Duuto/Dooto/Doot).