Spoiler Warning 6th Anniversary: Contradiction – Spot The Liar!

By Shamus Posted Thursday Jan 28, 2016

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 75 comments

Six stupid, ridiculous, nitpicking, barely-coherent years of game analysis and puns. Six years of baffling software bugs, dialog trees, and jokes about Reginald Cuftbert. Six years of turning games I love into Games I Never Want To Play Again by way of over-exposure. Six years of Josh acing difficult fights through skill or exploits only to die two minutes later to a mook that’s not even intended to be a serious danger to the player. Six years of Josh’s Rube Goldberg pile of barely-working technology that made the whole thing possible.


Link (YouTube)

Today is the sixth anniversary of the day we posted the very first episode of Spoiler Warning. That was so long ago that we didn’t even post it to YouTube, because YouTube wasn’t yet the universal choice for such thingsWe used Viddler. It didn’t work out for them..

It’s customary to play a single episode of something unusual or off-beat for these anniversary specials. This year we’re playing… is this an FMV game? It is. It’s an FMV detective game made in 2015. Even worse, everyone around me basically falls in love with it right away, so it’s my job to play bad cop for this one.

The show has a Patreon now, by the way. That goes to Josh, who edits every episode, and also maintains the technology chain that makes the whole thing go.

I am celebrating today’s anniversary by observing a completely different anniversary. As of last Sunday, the missus and I have been married for 19 years. So we’re going away for a couple of days without the kids. The last time we did that was PAX 2013. I’ve been moving through time for 44 years. You’d think I’d be used to it by now. But it’s always moving a little faster than what seems reasonable to me. Anyway. I’ll be gone for a couple of days. Please don’t burn down the blog while I’m gone.

Thanks for watching. And if you play Contradiction, let me know how it turns out. I really want to know who killed that hat.

 

Footnotes:

[1] We used Viddler. It didn’t work out for them.



From The Archives:
 

75 thoughts on “Spoiler Warning 6th Anniversary: Contradiction – Spot The Liar!

  1. somebodys_kid says:

    Congrats, Shamus, on the anniversary!
    Congrats, Spoiler Warning Crew, on the birthday!
    The Internet is a vastly better place with this site a part of it.

  2. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Ive been on this show a half of my life!

    Fixed.

    1. Dragomok says:

      I haven’t been to the comment section for about a year or so, but I’m glad to see the “Rutskarn is 12” jokes are still going strong.

      1. MichaelGC says:

        He looks a little older without his glasses. (I’m assuming that’s him in the embed.)

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          No,thats actually Rutskarns father,John Carmack.

          1. el_b says:

            im pretty sure its pronounced carmichael

      2. Atarlost says:

        Well, surely if he was twelve six years ago he must be eighteen by now.

  3. Atlas says:

    Atlas is run by a father/son team Paul and Ryan Rand? Oh come on!

    *shrugs*

    I dont see a problem with that.

  4. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Always nice to randomly find a key on the floor!

    Best quote ever.

  5. Bubble181 says:

    Congrats to all involved in the various anniversaries!

  6. Joe Informatico says:

    Happy Anniversary! And Many More!

  7. Josh says:

    Allow me to head off the inevitable ribbing:

    CAMPSTER: Hey Josh, is that thing in the corner going to show up in the recording?

    JOSH: No, shut up.

    BUT THEN IT DID.

    1. James Porter says:

      If it means anything, I didnt see it until like 55 min in

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        I wouldnt have seen it at all if he didnt comment on it.

  8. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Oooooh,so thats what a black mirror is actually!Now that show makes so much more sense!

    – Ok. So you just… just stare like this..
    And er…
    Then you see…
    – See what?
    – The prime minister fucking a pig for some reason…

  9. Wide And Nerdy â„¢ says:

    Trying to imagine a scenario where you need to determine if its murder or suicide in 3 hours.

    He’s a speedrunner. Cops take turns solving this case and marking their times.

    1. You’ve got three hours before your number 1 suspect gets on a plane to a country without extradition and you don’t have enough evidence to hold ’em unless it’s murder?

      1. ? says:

        English villagers are notorious for that.

      2. Decius says:

        You have a suspect fleeing the country but not enough reason to believe it’s murder?

        1. Wide And Nerdy â„¢ says:

          If they can’t determine that its murder in the first place, they may have trouble holding them.

          Remember they apparently just have to determine IF its murder, not prove who the murderer is.

          1. ? says:

            I will give them that out of all causes of death drowning seems like a hard one to rule out suicide or accident. Even usual “signs of a struggle” can be signs of a struggle to not be drowning, classic tale of man vs nature. “Blunt force trauma” could easily be “slipped, hit some inanimate object and fallen unconscious into body of water”. Unless there are some obvious rope burns, concrete slippers or something like that.

    2. Zerotime says:

      The really hip bars open at 8pm.

    3. I guess you could imagine that the police want to determine if a homicide occurred, before they open an actual investigation. They could send the useless rookie out to chat with the locals and see if anything turns up, but don’t want to waste more than a few hours on what some higher-up thinks is a clear case of suicide. Still, three hours is a very short time.

  10. Daemian Lucifer says:

    @48:35
    Actually that guy looks like fat David Mitchell.

  11. Congrats on 6 years and thank you for six years of a generally funny, always interesting show!
    Should I wish for 6 years more, or is that a bit too much like wishing you live in interesting times?

  12. Daemian Lucifer says:

    He knows what that obscure symbol on the mask means but he doesnt know about devils horns????????????

    1. NoneCallMeTim says:

      One might say that is a contradiction?

      1. Gm says:

        And I think Josh forgot to ask about the pub to the drunk guy.

    2. Felblood says:

      Yeah, they totally should have called him out when he admitted to being an occult scholar right after claiming the gesture is some kind of satanic symbol, but he wouldn’t know about that sort of thing.

  13. NoneCallMeTim says:

    Congrats, and thank you for running for so long. I have enjoyed the stuff you have put on, and amazingly played many of the games I wouldn’t have otherwise done.

    I looked on the steam page, and they do indeed go into occult devil worshipper territory with the game, so that is a thing. They kickstarted it, and got £4010 to make the game.

    Also: I am from the UK, and there are indeed little villages which look just like that one.

    1. Galad says:

      “occult devil worshipper territory”

      You mean exploring it narratively, or promoting it?

  14. Hitch says:

    Jesse Cox and Dodger did a complete Lets Play of this on his channel a few months ago. 16 episodes with a total run time of about 8 hours. You can find it here.

    1. Jakale says:

      That’s where I know it from. I think I saw the intro a little before then, but mostly watched them. It’s a fun game to watch since most of it is FMV interviews with the hammy detective and the story is interesting enough to keep your attention. You don’t get the same sort of battle weary feeling that not being the person playing the action segments gives you.

    2. Syal says:

      I guess I’ll link TheVoiceofDog’s playthrough too, since I like those guys.

  15. MichaelGC says:

    Isn’t that Avon from Blake’s 7?

    1. Gruhunchously says:

      It is! Omigod…

      1. Gruhunchously says:

        So why is this guy such a campy douchebag? Because he always has been! And it’s glorious.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWHLU8fwi80

  16. Sunshine says:

    Maybe it shouldn’t, but I was really surprised to realise the game was set in Britain.

    “Do people just leave boxes of their stuff outside in England?”

    It’s a recycling bin. Which leads to the questions “Why was there a screwdriver in there?” and “Why are you going though the rubbish like a videogame protagonist?

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Because he is a video game protagonist.

      1. Sunshine says:

        Good heavens, it all makes sense now.

  17. Aaron says:

    i just want the inspector to turn into David Suchet as himself (he played hercule poirot for the tv series)

  18. This game needs renegade interrupts.

    @18:00; The key didn’t actually fit — it’s a Master lock, is all.

  19. Lachlan the Mad says:

    This game is giving me Phoenix Wright flashbacks.

    (And right as I type that, Campster points it out)

  20. krellen says:

    Campster is 100% wrong. This game works because Jenks is horribly overacting and is the only one doing so. That’s why it’s amazing.

    1. krellen says:

      BTW, fun fact: the way they’re all doing the “devil’s horns” is also the ASL sign for “I love you”.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        No its the sign of three freedoms.Didnt you listen to the explanation by blond Matt Smith?

    2. James says:

      The best part is Jenks gets out acted later into the game, and its fantastic

  21. The Rocketeer says:

    It brings me tremendous shame to be the one making this correction, but…

    Jenkem is not, as Rutskarn asserts, a “prison wine.” That’s usually called pruno. Jenkem is an inhalant made by sealing up and fermenting human shit.

    Retrofit Rutskarn’s joke about our detective’s mental state and personal habits if you want.

    1. baseless_research says:

      so it’s like jet only from human waste instead of bramin waste? Cool. Does it also slow time?

  22. Heather B says:

    I was so happy to see this game turn up on SW. I played it about four months ago and loved watching Jenks chew through scenery like a wood chipper. Sad that no one pulled out a ‘Lord Malak was most displeased’ when they got to the Ryan interview.

    So for those who want to know the end:

    Rebecca, the pub owner, overheard the argument between Kate and Emma, but misunderstood and thought Kate was the one sleeping with her husband Ryan. Later she saw Kate drunk down by the lake, put her id in the water so she’d fall in trying to grab it, then held her down when she wasn’t drowning fast enough. But along the way Jenks finds all kinds of other suspicious shenaniganery with Atlas, setting up for a possible sequel.

    1. James says:

      Doesn’t it

      end with some satanic cult hook for some maby supernatural sequel

      1. Syal says:

        You’re both wrong. It ends with two guys high-fiving in a field.

  23. Henson says:

    Wait…are those two actors in the Atlas house…brothers? They’re brothers, right? Maybe?

  24. The Specktre says:

    Happy anniversary! On both counts!

    Haha, wow, Jenks made that hour flyyyy!

  25. Duoae says:

    Congratulations to everyone! Enjoy the break Shamus!

    Looking forward to watching this over the weekend. :)

  26. SL128 says:

    Meeting the guy in the woods, was anyone else hoping for some serious high-Jenks?

  27. Zak McKracken says:

    So, 6 years? That’s completely weird. Youtube feels to me like it’s always been there, and Spoiler Warning feels like that thing you guys started last year or so.

    I mean, YT was very much around when you started but I remember being happy you used something else because it helped to make sure that YT was not without competition. Well, until Viddler shot themselves in the foot. And then in the leg. And then … it was not pretty.

    1. James says:

      I miss viddler, sure youtube had and has a better player, viddler’s ads were broken 9/10, but the comments in video feature was fantastic. i miss the white blips

      1. krellen says:

        I miss the white blips when there was a commenter pool of less than twenty. I definitely do not miss them once the audience grew.

        1. MichaelGC says:

          I’m pretty sure this means you’re a blipster.

  28. Eric says:

    Finally, confirmation that Josh is a rabid Giant Bomb fan.

  29. Arvind says:

    I love Spoiler Warning. Thanks for the amazing entertainment you’ve provided over the years!

  30. Somniorum says:

    … surely I wasn’t the only one who, when the blond fellow popped up, gasped and went “oh my god it’s RUTSKARN!” ???

    1. MichaelGC says:

      No, definitely not – I mean, the similarities are somewhat superficial at second sight, but certainly seemed striking for starters.

  31. Attercap says:

    Does Fallout 4 have to be the next season? I kind of want to see where the SW crew goes with this.

  32. Cinebeast says:

    Six years! I first found you guys, I think, four years ago. So, like, wow. I don’t know if that means anything, but still, wow. I hope you all keep going strong.

    And THIS GAME. I’ve never heard of it until today and now I absolutely need to go watch a thousand other people play it. Detective Jenks is my spirit animal.

  33. Re: Chris’s comment, “It’s a sundown town” at 4:35.

    Chris, I get you were trying to reference a phrase, but I think you inadvertently pulled something out of the air without recalling its meaning. A “sundown town” is a place that’s largely segregated, where non-white people are warned to not be caught in after sundown.

  34. Sleeping Dragon says:

    Hey, I have lots of fond memories of the FMV games. Black Dahlia was great (though good heavens the number of discs that thing came on) and if Wing Commander IV counts I actually bought it off a friend who lent me the game because I liked it so much. Admittedly it’s been very, very long since I played either of those…

  35. Jokerman says:

    I am sure at one point Shamus was trying to do Calculon at one point there “ACTING!”

    1. Shamus says:

      I’ve watched a couple dozen Futurama episodes, but I haven’t run into Calculon yet. I was actually doing MST3K, but it’s possible MST3K was referencing Calculon.

      1. I always think of it as the verbal version of the captions during Monty Python’s Spanish Inquisition sketch where “ACTING!” appears during some particularly hammy line delivery.

      2. Neil D says:

        I missed the reference in the Spoiler Warning, but just based on “ACTING!” I’m going to go with Jon Lovitz as “Master Thespian” on SNL.

  36. Cuthalion says:

    This was great. I was actually intrigued and amused at both Evil Michael Cera and the SW crew.

    And happy belated anniversaries to everyone involved!

  37. Catamaran says:

    Please do more of this game, I need to see how it ends.

    Also, Happy Anniversary!

  38. Well i found this post after long time though it worth watching. thank you
    Check spoilers in this site they are good good morning jokes

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