Virtual Date Rachel Part 2

[TheBrain]

As mentioned in Chaotic's blog the game was released today, but it isn't mentioned on the VDG homepage. It's here: http://www.vdategames.com/vdr2.html

As for the game itself, I played through all endings and I've found that 3 of the endings aren't attainable without fixes. But given that this has been the case for almost all of Chaotic's games this is hardly a surprise... The rest of the game suffers from the same shortcomings as his previous games. One that bothered me in particular was needing an item from the shop without any mention or even a hint of it in the scene where it's used (and consequently an ending).
All together it's an ok game, but nothing special.

[cpt_hook]

Correct. The mystery item doesn't bother me as much as broken links, though. At least that particular ending is still actually attainable. 2 of the broken endings can be fixed by editing a single line each. The 3rd requires 3 lines fixed. Lots of enjoyable material, however. I would love to see the blond from Lucy's date come back some time.

[cpt_hook]

Also, while Rachel may be kind of ... "easy", at least she's nice enough not to mention your apparent downgrade in accomodations between date 1 and date 2

Speaking of which, one wonders how Lucy affords her pretty fancy pad now that we know her occupation?

[Dcyberjf323]

Correct. The mystery item doesn't bother me as much as broken links, though. At least that particular ending is still actually attainable. 2 of the broken endings can be fixed by editing a single line each. The 3rd requires 3 lines fixed. Lots of enjoyable material, however. I would love to see the blond from Lucy's date come back some time.

can we know what the bugs are & how to repair them?? please !!

[ExLibris]

As for the game itself, I played through all endings and I've found that 3 of the endings aren't attainable without fixes. But given that this has been the case for almost all of Chaotic's games this is hardly a surprise... The rest of the game suffers from the same shortcomings as his previous games. One that bothered me in particular was needing an item from the shop without any mention or even a hint of it in the scene where it's used (and consequently an ending).
All together it's an ok game, but nothing special.

Ugh. Given how straightforward (if tedious) it is to proof the links in an HTML game, it's really disappointing that Chaotic never seems to bother doing it.

Edit: The major issues I've noticed so far are:
park18 - links back to itself, should link to park19 I think
dare24 - the coords for the three options are all identical
dance50 - the link to dance19 should go to dance51
dance104, dance114, dance 124 - all link to dance199 (which doesn't exist)
bowlcheck1 - links look as though they are the wrong way round

[lucky loser]

Thanks for the new game! I just entered in the next number into the URL bar (like dare24 with the restricted choices that exlibris mentions, I type in dare25 and continue). I'm using the downloaded version by the way.

I really enjoyed the actual game, and only needed a little peeking to get the secret ending! The variety of endings is impressive!


One question: are all of the items in the store actually used? I've found uses for soccer ball, beach ball, and present.

[ExLibris]

No, the basketball isn't used for anything.

I have to say I found the game to be rather repetitive. Three of the endings involve a variation of the tennis game from Kelly (with a beach ball, bowling ball or soccer ball), ending with Rachel pouncing on her naked victim. There also seems to be a lot of repetition in the pictures (especially the poses), and the text. The Sarah ending is particularly bad for that. The same phrase (with the same spelling mistakes) is repeated three times.

It's still fun, but I was left with the impression that it's not just Rachel who's tired.

[cpt_hook]

I didn't bother with the park18 and dance fail screens, as they're not really necessary to get through. The bowlchecks look like they should work (or at least they did last night) but don't, but an easy fix was to change line linking to bowlcheck1 and make it go straight to bowlcheck2. The dance50 problem is pretty straightforward - fixing that is a lot easier than trying to get the "big win" required to get that far. For dare24, just copy the coordinates for each option from a non-broken dare page.

Another thing I've found, which doesn't actually prevent the ending, is that Lucy and Rachel's coordinates are reversed in one screen after you get past the bowlcheck.

[v]

I think it a little buggy(but what can you expect from work of single one person), but still the same great game from Chaotic.

The problem is after Sarah game many of us are looking foward to new possible ways of dating and the good old routine:
"Tonight we have a date in the city and a lot of fun." is getting a little bit cliche.

[ExLibris]

I think it a little buggy(but what can you expect from work of single one person), but still the same great game from Chaotic.

I have to disagree with you there. Firstly, half of the endings being inaccessible is not 'a little buggy'. Secondly, It only took me 3-4 hours to map the game and find all of the broken links, so it's not beyond the realms of human endeavour. Spellchecking is even easier, although it wouldn't necessarily catch all the times that 'loose' is used instead of 'lose'. Besides, it's not as if Chaotic couldn't get someone else to test the game for him.

I wonder if the pressure of having to regularly produce games isn't starting to wear Chaotic down. After all, he's produced around twenty games in just over two years. That's an impressive level of output, but his creativity has to start suffering sometime.

[ttant]

One of the best i ever played. Really nice work on this game

[betterbig2]

thank you for the game! Even if the game needs some fixes, it is a free game, and takes a lot of work. Maybe not the best game in the world, but still good.

[firefistace01]

how do we fix the game files?

[tlaero]

The thing I'm most impressed with are the backgrounds. Making a game like this involves a lot of tedious work, but creating the backgrounds is, hands down, the worst part. Chaotic does a great job with those.

The thing I'm least impressed with are the sex scenes. I don't find them at all erotic.

In between, I like the character graphics. Chaotic does a good job with his renders. The bugs are ... well, he would really benefit from a collaboration and getting another set of eyes on the product.

As for the story, I don't think he did a sufficient job of making it feel like a second date. When the only real goal in the game is sex, and the first game ended in sex, the driving factor is pretty watered down. Chaotic has done some pretty imaginative stories in his offsite games. The one on the space ship with the monster chasing you was interesting, and the "your car broke down outside this old mansion" one was pretty good too. But the free ones all feel about the same to me.

That said, I can tell you first hand that these games are an enormous amount of work. I mean, they're just an insane amount of work. And he's doing both the writing and the graphics. I'm beyond fortunate to have a fantastic graphics guy (Phreaky) to work with and share the load. So I can't really fault Chaotic for the game's flaws. That said, I think he'd do very well to play some of the recent games that have come out and see what other people are doing these days. That might help him get out of what appears to be a rut.

Tlaero

[ExLibris]

The thing I'm most impressed with are the backgrounds. Making a game like this involves a lot of tedious work, but creating the backgrounds is, hands down, the worst part. Chaotic does a great job with those.

Uh, the majority of the backgrounds were 'borrowed' from GTA4.