The Many Problems With The Remaster Of Life Is Strange Before The Storm

Good (early) morning everyone,

It's no secret that I am a big fan of the Life is Strange series, hell everyone saw that last fall when I played all four games to completion and made it clear that I was super excited for the remastered version of Life is Strange and Life is Strange: Before the Storm, even when it was announced that they would be delayed from September 2021 until February 2022, as the Covid-19 Pandemic played havoc with many video game releases.

Not Photoshop-ed, Chloe and Joyce actually looked like this in Episode 3!

So this gave Deck Nine, the Developer of the original version of Life is Strange: Before the Storm extra time to iron out the kinks in it's remaster, as well as that of the original Life is Strange game developed by DONTNOD. Needless to say the extra time still resulted in a buggy mess. I already talked about the issues with Life is Strange: Remastered on Monday and Tuesday of this week because of the 'Save Game' issue, but with Before The Storm... one would assume that since it was already created in-house, surely Deck Nine would not drop the ball with it... right?

Well... after doing a marathon play through of all three episodes of Before the Storm: Remastered last night, I can say they didn't drop about 75% of the ball. Like many other players, I've experienced numerous graphical glitches last night, most notoriously when it comes to skin tone shading, but also with assets rendering and objects that should have disappeared remaining floating in the air (the Gnome Bard for example). I'm not a video game designer, but surely some testing had to had to be done... but this makes me wonder how broken was the Life is Strange: Remastered Collection back in September when the original delay was announced.

Even the ending montage which was basically just a video was not safe from the glitches

This probably bugs me more than it should to be honest, but I do recall that it was announced that the Nintendo Switch version of of the Life is Strange Remastered Collection would be delayed, which just makes me wonder as to why the Steam, X-Box and PlayStation versions weren't? If it was because the Remastered Collect was a bonus for those who pre-order Life is Strange: True Colors and they announced that it would come out in February 2022, then we could've waited longer for it... but instead we got an inferior version of the games that made us fans of the series.

Still we did finish the game, and unlocked all of the achievements making it the 25th X-Box game I've finished to be 100% Completed. I really do wish the experience was a lot more positive to compare it to the play through of the original version I did back in September. Will I play it again? Well, if it gets some major patches we could revisit it in 2023, but that''s a big if at this point.

We had two big raids during the stream last night, the first was from Kalenal who was playing Final Fantasy XIV over on twitch.tv/kalenal, and the other was from m0zz_stix who was also playing Life is Strange: Before the Storm: Remastered over on twitch.tv/m0zz_stix! Always awesome to get raids, so huge thanks!

For the raid, we dropped in on TaterSalad21 who was playing Lost Ark over on twitch.tv/TaterSalad21! 

Life is Strange: Before the Storm Remastered Achievements

• Recreational Vandalism: Complete the optional graffiti #1 in Episode 1: Awake
• I See U Saw: Complete the optional graffiti #2 in Episode 1: Awake
• The Last Unicorn: Complete the optional graffiti #3 in Episode 1: Awake
• Home Unimprovement: Complete the optional graffiti #4 in Episode 1: Awake
• Rock Idol: Complete the optional graffiti #5 in Episode 1: Awake
• Dramatis Personae:  Complete the optional graffiti #6 in Episode 1: Awake
• Mulligan Stew: Complete the optional graffiti #7 in Episode 1: Awake
• Pioneer Spirit: Complete the optional graffiti #8 in Episode 1: Awake
• Face Your Anger: Complete the optional graffiti #9 in Episode 1: Awake
• Awake, Dear Heart: Complete Episode 1: Awake
• Lucid Writing: Complete the optional graffiti #10 in Episode 1: Awake
• Stagehandwriting: Complete the optional graffiti #1 in Episode 2: Brave New World
• Radical Piratical: Complete the optional graffiti #2 in Episode 2: Brave New World
• Feels on Wheels: Complete the optional graffiti #3 in Episode 2: Brave New World
• Canon Wall: Complete the optional graffiti #4 in Episode 2: Brave New World
• Wishlist: Complete the optional graffiti #5 in Episode 2: Brave New World
• Tread Harshly: Complete the optional graffiti #7 in Episode 2: Brave New World
• Friendly Forest Friends: Complete the optional graffiti #6 in Episode 2: Brave New World
• Permanent Record: Complete the optional graffiti #8 in Episode 2: Brave New World
• Vanity Fare: Complete the optional graffiti #9 in Episode 2: Brave New World
• Creature Feature: Complete the optional graffiti #10 in Episode 2: Brave New World
• O, Wonder!: Complete Episode 2: Brave New World
• American Graffiti: Complete the optional graffiti #1 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
• Extra Credit: Complete the optional graffiti #2 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
• Peer Review: Complete the optional graffiti #3 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
• Monthly Masterpiece: Complete the optional graffiti #4 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
• Spit Take: Complete the optional graffiti #5 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
• Hello Nurse: Complete the optional graffiti #7 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
• Venting Machine: Complete the optional graffiti #6 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
• A Penned Appendage: Complete the optional graffiti #8 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
• Drunk Drawer: Complete the optional graffiti #9 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
• Before the Storm: Complete Episode 1, Episode 2 and Episode 3 of Life is Strange: Before the Storm
• All the Devils are Here: Complete Episode 3: Hell Is Empty

Twitch Clip Links

1. Chloe is Easily Convinced
2. Deck Nine Did A Great Job With This
3. William Meets The Truck 
4. Joyce's Sun Burnt Tone-age?
5. Deck Nine: Great Work On The Remastered Version Of Before The Storm
   

Normally I would have extra to say, but Blogger had a glitch where it didn't save the original version of my rant regarding all the glitches with Life is Strange: Before the Storm Remastered that I had to redo it all! Still I did get in a little post-stream Final Fantasy XIV to do quick Alliance Raid before choosing to write this entire thing over again... and since I was so wired up I just decided to do my daily set of Fitness Boxing 2.

So with that said, today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured 34 minute workout with Difficult Challenge Combo #2, Difficult Challenge Combo #3 and Difficult Challenge Combo #1 for an estimated calorie burn of 660 kcal.

Let me touch on Lost Ark, briefly, with what I saw on TaterSalad21's stream, the game certainly looks great, but from what I understood, the controls are more mouse heavy with no use of the WASD keys for movement... which means I will not check out Lost Ark. Sorry, but I need to know that I'll be able to have as much control over my in-game movements as possible... plus many have seen my slow reaction time to AOEs in Final Fantasy XIV. 

It's the start of a new week, but let's look back at the games featured over the previous seven days. Last week we played: Overwatch, Life is Strange: Remastered, Paladins, Frrza Horizon 4, Gears 5, Final Fantasy XIV, Kingdom Hearts III and Life is Strange - Before the Storm: Remastered!

For tonight's stream we will be going after the Porcelan skin for Wrecking Ball with our weekly Overwatch streams!

See ya later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!