House House, most famous for the adorably rude Untitled Goose Game, released their latest offering this summer, Big Walk. With serendipitous timing in the age of so-called “friendslop”, or as many would call it, “hanging out with your friends in video games”, Big Walk is a cooperative adventure in which 2 or more players roam around a stretch of land based on Wilsons Promontory in Victoria, Australia. Along the way they solve puzzles, with hilarious and rewarding results. It’s a delightful good time where success feels GREAT, failure is very temporary (and can in fact be the most memorable part!), and you get to hang out with cool people in the meantime.
Over the last month I’ve been poking at The Avocado’s gaming community to gauge interest and availability in playing Big Walk as a group. Thank you for those that participated in helping me determine a best time. With the understanding that no one time works for everyone, due to life and work and that great foe, Time Zones, I am shooting for a regular cadence of Saturday afternoons, 12PM Pacific/3PM Eastern, starting Saturday, October 3rd. The idea is we play for 1-2 hours, whatever feels right in a given session, with whomever can make it that day. And, in a perfect world, we beat the game. But that’s not necessary. Even a few sessions is good fun. Here’s the breakdown and some helpful information.
Which platforms is Big Walk on?
PlayStation 5, Switch 2, PC, Mac
How Much Is It?
About $20, unless you claimed it on PS Plus in August, in which case you already paid for it with your subscription fee.
Do we all need to be on the same platform?
Nope! It supports cross platform play.
Do I need PS Plus or Nintendo Switch Online to play multiplayer there?
Yes. Computer platforms do not require a paid online membership.
Do I need to be on voice chat?
Technically, no! House House put work into making text chat within the game an option. Also, you don’t need to buy a dedicated headset for it. I used an old set of Beats with an in-line mic and experienced no issues, so anything you’ve got lying around should work just fine. And the Switch 2 is apparently very good at blocking ambient noise from voice chat if you’ve got no headset at all.
What if I can make it sometimes, but not every time?
That’s fine. Only the host is needed to maintain progress.
What if I can’t EVER make it, but want to run/be in an Avocado game?
Go for it, and feel free to use this post with your own thread!
I have more questions!
Great! House House has an entire FAQ here.
Okay, one last question. How will we set up the game?
I will make a thread in the post for each day’s session ahead of time. Please confirm if you are planning to show up, because the game asks the host for 2, 3, or 4+ players, and it scales puzzles up accordingly at the start of the session. If we have 2-3 people and I say 4+, some puzzles may be impossible to clear. If I say 2 and 5 people show up, people may end up feeling unnecessary and/or left out. You can change your availability all the way up until about 15 minutes before start time, so I know what I’m setting up going into it.