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  2. The Big Adventure Playthrough

    The Preposterous Awesomeness of Everything - very funny! An early game by Joe Richardson who does those Terry Gilliam animation style adventure games, with a similar photomontage style. I really enjoyed the Orwellian allegory and the presentation was really striking and full of fun details. It's basically a Garden Of Eden type set-up where people quickly start wearing clothes and voting between two near-identical candidates for a PM (Project Manager) to build them a rocket to escape their planet. I will say, it is a bit of a shame that it's all a little clunky UI-wise and while the puzzles aren't really meant to be challenging (which works fine here) a couple of them are a bit shitty. You do have a hint character for most of the time, though, so I never got bogged down. It's also a shame that big blocks of text in pop-up windows are used for most of the satire and that there's no speech, as delivering more of the satire via dialogue would have helped, I think. But overall I laughed a lot, and it reminded me a lot of my Twine/Cwine game 'The Often-Ending Story' (which I originally wrote for the Idle Thumbs newspaper!) in that it's a satire where you have no idea where it's going to go next or when you're going to get a funny death (and then plonked back to a reasonable restart point). Sidenote: apparently this features a cameo by PewDiePie (I suppose comprising wholly of a mangled up photo as one character's face and maybe a couple of grunts). This was released in 2016, which I feel like was probably at a point when PDP's awfulness was broadly known and Richardson should have known better, but maybe I'm wrong on that. Plus apparently once he saw the game PDP stopped returning Richardson's emails, so that's pretty funny.
  3. Yesterday
  4. No I have never run across him. To my surprise it turns out there are quite a few people studying the relationship between history and gaming - Bret Devereaux has started to turn up increasingly at 3MA to fill that role but I would like to hear some other voices too...
  5. Building a Free Library of Images for Everyone

    So I went out the other day and shot some brand new images that I made into seamless textures...they live on these pages on my site: TXR - BRICK - Seamless https://soundimage.org/txr-brick-seamless/ TXR - ORGANIC https://soundimage.org/txr-organic/ TXR - ROCK/STONE - Seamless https://soundimage.org/txr-rockstone-seamless/ As always, they're 100% free to use with attribution, like my thousands of other images and music tracks. Speaking of which, please don't forget to check out my Ogg music packs. These packs enable you to bulk-download all of my music at once from various genres...hundreds of tracks. I even have a "mega pack" that contains all of my game music...over 1100 tracks. Besides being a huge time-saver, the Ogg versions of my tracks loop really well in game engines...(Mp3 files sometimes need editing due to the Mp3 encoding process.) Plus, Ogg encoding sounds richer and fuller....almost as good as my original WAV recordings. Anyhow, here are links to the packs: https://soundimage.org/ogg-music-packs-2/ https://soundimage.org/ogg-game-music-mega-pack/ Enjoy, stay safe and keep being creative! :-)
  6. The Big Adventure Playthrough

    Ha ha, if I recall correctly I liked Doug and decided to save him but was scuppered by the UI and accidentally saved the other person instead, so poor old Doug got munched. Speaking of TWD, I played S3 and also really enjoyed it but with the nagging feeling that it was just more of the same and the hope that they mixed it up a bit for S4.
  7. Last week
  8. Curious are you familiar with Austin Walker? He always had issues with the human history as a straight arrow to larger and greater things that games like Civilization seemed to propagate. I like to think of human society that way but of course reality is there are dips and valleys.
  9. So trying to decide on a turn based 4x game to get. About to be able to get an actual up to date computer and have money to support strategy gaming again. Time to play will be limited so want to get the best one. My favorite strategy game of all time is still Sid Meir's Alpha Centauri - for both the strategic depth but honestly more so for the fact it has characters and story. I still remember the names and characters of each of the leaders (Morgan, Zackarhov, Lang, Miriam). Passed AC, Civ 6 is a favorite as is Endless Legend. On endless legend though the fact the story for each faction really ended the same didn't do it for me. Looked at Stellaris for a long time but the lack of what I consider real win conditions - say like building a ship that goes to another galaxy - puts me off. Old World I have this problem with as well. Rouge Like mechanics and randomness in my strategy games I don't think I would like so against the storm is out (though could be convinced otherwise). Looked very closely at Zephon especially after some of Rock Paper Shotguns coverage but man are the graphics old school. Thought about Age of Wonders but it seems to be several short stories rather than one long one...really want a good sci-fi one ... would love alpha centauri with updated mechanics and graphics ... sigh. Thoughts?
  10. I will be honest the earning points to get part of the advertising revenue worries me and I would like more info about how the game plays before I can decide on interest. That said I love politics and philosophy so likely would at least look at it.
  11. Marvel movies

    Rewatched Captain America: The Winter Soldier, preparing for the new Captain America and man.. that is a *very* tight film compared to MCU films later on. From the very first running scene with Steve and Sam, the first 50 minutes or so fly by so quickly, with the big boat setpiece, Fury's escape and the elevator fight. It's just really tight action film-making and Cap feels so chunky and powerful in this one. Absolute love it. Sort of slowly falls apart by the end, when it's a gigantic three helicarrier setpiece, but the first half is so good it carries you over the later half. Redford and Sam Jackson are great. After that I started Captain America: Civil War, which just immediately feels like such a downgrade. Lots of fun elements, but you can feel the bloat. Too many threads, too nebulous a threat from Zemo. The opening setpiece is no Lemurian Star. Has to do a lot of introductions and setting up before it can get anywhere. The big fight between them all at the airport is a lot of fun, but it's just there to be fun. I do like the central conflict between Tony and Steve and their final fight over Bucky is where the real stuff is, but the way there is just too sweaty. So.. I'm still excited to see the fourth one. I really like the trailers they've been putting out for it. Maybe Ford can bring some good Redford energy to this one. Speaking of trailers! The Fantastic Four: First Steps trailer looks awesome!
  12. The Big Adventure Playthrough

    Even our very own Doug Tabacco?! #SaveDoug
  13. Recommend me a cool book!

    Thanks clyde! It sounds really nice, I'll make sure to check it out. Sci-fi and fantasy was my main jam when I did read (a lot of it was just Pratchett books, honestly) so Murderbot sounds right up my alley. Thanks!
  14. Emotions

    I'm thinking of fascinated as kinda being anchored by a string to an object of interest, returninh to it again and again as a reference. Right now, I'm fascinated by the idea of seeing convenience as an inherently good thing. I'm thinking about how much thought and effort and emotion I put into things being convenient for me. I fear that things will one day not be convenient. One place I notice this easily is when I'm generating ai images over and over again for an hour or more. It is like the generation is spoiling me with convenience. I get intoxicated. This could also apply to something like spending a night out on the town purchasing services and goods. The convenience is intoxicating and gives me a false sense of the world and my engagement in it. I'm fascinated by this at the moment.
  15. Emotions

    fascinated
  16. Emotions

    In this thread, folks can name an emotion and when they have felt it. Then other folks can share when they felt that emotion as well. I will demonstrate with the next two posts:
  17. Is it time to move back here?

    Nice. I'm relieved to see your contribution. I was thinking about some of the reasons I prefer these forums over platforms such as Reddit and Facebook. I think that part of it is that nested replies creates a sense that there is a bunch of cross-talk rather than just having one conversation. Of course sometimes people do that anyway by only replying to one other person back and forth, but I don't think that is as systemic.
  18. Is it time to move back here?

    oops, almost forgot about this. Good thing I remembered near the end of the first week
  19. Recommend me a cool book!

    What do you like to read? I got back into reading a lot last year and novellas and audio books were what made that transition easier. I am currently reading a lot of Sci-fi and fantasy lately so I've been into the Murderbot series and novellas by Nghi Vo.
  20. Hipsters

    I filled out a survey saying that my favorite fruit is "avocado". I'm also now making my own personal supply of seltzer water at home. Kinda silly, but it reminded me of the title of this thread.
  21. Free Music / SFX Resource - Over 2500 Tracks

    Happy February Everyone! This week's new free Mp3 music tracks are: On my Action 4 page: "PIXEL CITY CRUISING" https://soundimage.org/action-4/ On my Chiptunes 5 page: "LIFE’S GOOD IN PIXELTOWN " https://soundimage.org/chiptunes-5/ And on my Fantasy 13 page: "CANDY FACTORY" https://soundimage.org/fantasy-13/ As always, they're 100% free to use with attribution, just like my thousands of other tracks. FREE SOUND EFFECTS AND AMBIENT SOUNDS If you haven't discovered them already, I have several pages of free sound effects and ambient sounds. You'll find the links to those pages directly under the links to my Free Mp3 Music pages on the right side of the screen on my website...(you'll probably need to scroll down.) I sincerely hope that some of my hard work is helpful in your projects! :-) Attribution Info: https://soundimage.org/attribution-info/ Ogg Music Packs: https://soundimage.org/ogg-game-music-mega-pack/ https://soundimage.org/ogg-music-packs-2/
  22. Zoom

    Part of the reason that I game so little these days is because covid taught me that discussion groups on Zoom meet my needs of convenient socialization more than multiplayer team death-matches. I facilitate discussion groups over Zoom as part of my job, but I also regularly participate in discussion groups with my spiritual community. I'll always prioritize in-person meetings, but as we all know, the convenience of group video calls is often the best option. My personal opinion is that hybrid meetings are awful and I would prefer to just have two separate meetings than deal with a zoom-room and a physical room of people trying to be friendly and considerate of one another. I have not seen a hybrid set up be pleasurable. I'm interested in hearing how y'all are using this tool, alternative platforms included. For me, I facilitate discussion groups for evidence-based health interventions on Zoom. I also attend and sometimes faciliate a Buddhist book-study/meditation class. Previously I was involved in political organizing over zoom on local, state, and national levels. The state-level meetings seemed to make the most sense to me, but all of them were effective in their own ways. I have yet to just hang out with a group of people without any particular focus; honestly that doesn't really appeal to me. Having a shared explicit project or set of prompts is important for me and I think that may apply to in-person socialization as well; I don't just go out with folks for example. It has to be a book discussion or something. So how are y'all using it? What works well? What do you see a positive potential for?
  23. I've been making a stir-fry with frozen spinach as the base (even though I add it last). I sautee carrots, onion, celery, a pepper of some variety and tofu and add about 2 tbsp of tumeric, a tbsp of coriander and cumin seeds. Then I microwave a bag of frozen spinach and just dump it in the mix and salt it. It hasn't gotten old. Sometimes for left-overs I add sweetened soy milk and peanuts.
  24. Earlier
  25. Building a Free Library of Images for Everyone

    Hey Everyone, I've created more free seamless textures to share with you on these pages: TXR - GROUND - Seamless https://soundimage.org/txr-ground-seamless/ TXR - ABSTRACT - Seamless https://soundimage.org/txr-abstract/ I do love creating those strange abstract images! CUSTOM WORK Anyone need some custom textures created? Or music? Feel free to contact me! In the meantime, enjoy my free assets! :-)
  26. Effects of Dystopian Fiction

    I find it suspect that numerous popular distopian fiction ideas end up becoming realities. Perhaps what is happening is that my way of seeing what is occurring is through the lense of the futures that I have been primed with. It makes me wonder if the world would be noticeably more consensual if imagery and ideas of utopias were more popular than the nihilistic hellscapes that seem to be seen as more real.
  27. The Big Adventure Playthrough

    Life Is Strange Thoughts after playing chapter 1: Really enjoyed it. Such a breath of fresh air after Borderlands to have something where I'm in control most of the time, there's actually some sort of mechanic there, and I actually give a shit about what's happening. I'm already totally invested in the characters and the mystery. It's a little clunky in places, painfully sincere and hipsterish, but that fits perfectly with these 18 year old art students. The writing is fairly subtle, and where it isn't then it still feels like it's the 18 year olds being cringey or the tone being slightly heightened and Twin Peaksy. And seeing a montage that felt more like Magnolia than Smokin' Aces was, again, very gratifying. Only a couple of small negatives for me. Firstly, it could do with more detailed and expressive character models - they give the whole thing a bit of a painterly look which helps cover stuff up but the faces are all pretty low-res and static, and no hair physics, which is all a real shame when it's such an emotion-centric story and you spend so much of it looking at people's faces. I'd love to see a very subtle remaster of this that just fixes these issues. (I found out soon after that there actually was a remaster done a few years ago, and it looks terrible. Glad I didn't get forced by corporate fuckery to play that version.) Secondly, the time-rewind puzzles can be a little fiddly. A lot of the time they're really satisfying and fun, but a couple of times I was irritated, especially when there was an element that didn't get tutorialised till later but was kind of necessary to understand at that point, or the boundaries weren't communicated completely clearly. I'm not convinced right now that it branches any more than a Telltale game (although there were some decisions that I totally bypassed because I didn't bother to look in a certain spot, which is quite cool - apparently I failed to save a bird's life, no idea where that was!), but perhaps stuff will snowball later. I'm hoping the town setting with its reusable settings and cast will help there - easier to spend budget on branching that way. Really, the best review I can give is that I want to play the second episode right away. Thoughts after finishing: On the whole I really enjoyed this. It does enough to hide the fact that it's basically just a fancy visual novel, the time puzzles are often fun and cool, the story is perfect Twin Peaks/Donnie Darko pastiche, the branching has at least some heft to it (a few big options and lots of little ones, plus puzzles with multiple solutions), and I cared about the characters. I found myself laughing along with them when they poked fun at each other, rather than laughing with the writers. There were a few flaws aside from the stuff I mentioned previously. Though most characters looked fairly different, three of the teen girls had very similar, almost bland faces. The clothing and hair has to do a lot of heavy lifting in differentiating them (plus, to be fair, the writing and acting). There is the occasional lack of polish - how soon you get a hint, or how far back you have to keep rewinding, or dialogue playing just as you're about to do something and getting cut off - though nothing major. And the ending was a little bit of a let down - the murder mystery gets solved around the end of 4/start of 5 and then it pretty much moves on to dealing with the time travel stuff and gets trippy, which is a good choice, but the trippy bit indulgently goes on too long (a real shame, the sequence would have been super-effective if every moment was cut in half), it has an annoying stealth section which, even though you can save-scum through it using your powers, is exactly what I don't want to be doing at the climax of this game, and it eventually gives in and does that 'vignettes on floating platforms in an empty space' thing from every game dream sequence ever. And then the story ends too ambiguously and, though this may be due to branching stuff, abruptly for my tastes. They don't explain or resolve the time power stuff and they never address the possible romance between Max and Chloe which seemed to me like the third pillar of the story! By the end of it, I was starting to wonder if I'd imagined that element, especially as apparently a large majority of players got Max to kiss some boy near the end of it. It wasn't awful or anything, it just didn't measure up to the highs of the rest of the game. And, hey, maybe the sequels will solve this stuff. Much like with TWD, I'd gladly play more, and if I get through this backlog and they show up on sale I'll likely grab them. Overall: clunky in places, but wonderful.
  28. The Big Adventure Playthrough

    Metal Dead - this was great! For the first half I had it pegged as light fun, a mild recommendation, but it keeps escalating (literally, with a neat 'keep getting access to higher floors in the skyscraper' structure) and including so many fun and exciting moments that by the end I was loving it and gutted that the more ambitious sequel seems to have puttered out ten years ago. Very funny, lots of cool low-fi action, a funny/helpful response for everything. It's actually very Ben There, Dan That: scratchy black outline art; black-on-red stylised opening titles; zombies; two bantering Spaced-ish best mates. Also, it's made in AGS and went for the same control scheme/UI set-up. Not that I think they ripped us off or anything, it's just got the same vibe and presumably shared influences. A few little annoyances: it doesn't have a fullscreen option, and they made the odd choice to put black bars at the top and bottom of the 4:3 screen, so it's postage-stamped on my telly; it has enforced achievement pop-ups, which I find a little irritating on principal but at least it's all within the game's artstyle rather than a Steam overlay; early on it has you pick up your friend's decapitated zombie head, which becomes a permanent UI fixture for you to talk to and get advice from at any point, which is a nice Dan-style-sidekick idea, except the game explicitly labels him "Hint System" which suddenly makes it feel very clunky and unwelcome. It's weird going back to this retro level of adventure game as well - no VO or even hotspot labels. But that stuff's fine as long as the writing and design is good, which it is - I chuckled a lot, and paused on a few puzzles without getting utterly stuck. The presentation's nice as well, with DooM '93 pastiche heavy metal and a fun Shaun Of The Dead style opening where you're in a car barrelling down the empty motorway as your friend mows down the occasional zombie just to watch them splatter over your windscreen. Recommend picking it up if you ever have the itch for a few hours of BTDT style fun.
  29. The Big Adventure Playthrough

    Broken Age - I backed the Kickstarter, so this is my second playthrough. The writing is really strong, of course, but I'd forgotten how gentle this game is, especially at the start, and that includes the puzzles. It's not as exciting a replay as other Schafer adventures. I didn't mind the first half being easy when I first played, as I was enjoying the world(s) so much, but it's a little more noticeable on replay when you know exactly what's happening. I guess part of it is that the story revolves around two kids breaking out of a gentle, cloying routine, so the opening sections mirror that. You're not kicking down doors and smashing people's faces into bars or whatever. I still really enjoyed part 2 again, though, the build up of puzzles is really nice, it has a perfect oscillation of gaining new goals and finding their solutions. Plus, having all the different characters getting mashed up in different combinations and locations is really cool, bolstered with a load of story reveals. The ending does feel a little abrupt - might have been nice for the villains to play more of an active role, and perhaps for Shay and Vella to get to do some more awesome stuff too (they were getting the massive ships to fire death rays and grabbers and stuff but again it felt a little indirect) - but a lot of the wrap-up is built-in already and any loose ends are tied up with the credits illustrations, so overall I think it's a cute, tidy way to finish it. Also would have liked a 'look at' function just to get more Tim Schafer writing in there, but never mind. Overall, looks and sounds absolutely gorgeous, loads of interesting characters and locations, and fun satisfying puzzles. It's not up there with DOTT, FT and GF, and it's hard to rate it separate from my experience as a backer with all the prior knowledge and everything, but it's definitely one of the better adventure games I've played.
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