feelthedarkness

are there really buses riding around? the whole time? i've only made it to the second map, but i never noticed that.

I think this is only fair to do with books published this year! haha. So my answer has to be The Flamethrowers, as I haven't read Bleeding Edge yet.

Totally. Great stuff, great stuff all around. I think a lot of this is pushing around TC's point about Ludic value, as well as SCLPS about an intrinsic critique of games criticism. We don't seem to have a reached a point where we have a critical handle on the ludic value of games as it relates to narrative. I've played and loved a lot of games this year, but I'll say a specific memory I have is a mad dash to the attic at the end of this thinking "oh please don't be what i think this might be." As Argobot and others said, if I read the narrator's dash it wouldn't be the same. Here is a quote from Ebert's review of Felini's 8 1/2 that I like, and I think relates to this. The critic Alan Stone, writing in the Boston Review, deplores Fellini's "stylistic tendency to emphasize images over ideas." I celebrate it. A filmmaker who prefers ideas to images will never advance above the second rank because he is fighting the nature of his art. The printed word is ideal for ideas; film is made for images, and images are best when they are free to evoke many associations and are not linked to narrowly defined purposes.

Haha, whoops! I was agreeing with you on ludic terms, however poorly worded. I meant a mistake in the same sense as judging Eraserhead or 8 1/2 based solely on their screenplays.

oh busted! I forgot about the Sigma (and Sigma 2) versions!

I think this is entering "no true Scotsman" territory! The weird nihilism of modern networked life is that everything is observable and commodifiable. Lady Gaga with a G.I.S.M. jacket. etc.. (punk tie in!) If I can circle this back, a game where a young woman discovers her sister discovering her queer sexuality is fairly unique (as much as anything can be) in light of the larger history of gaming. It is certainly part of an emerging zeitgeist, but don't you think that emergence is due to it be unserved for so long? I dug Patrick R and TheCineaste's posts, and think it's a mistake to hold game narrative to literary standards, even though there is a part of me that agrees with some of Bogost's article. Though the more I think on the ending and the game in general, I see it as tragic. What seems pat is mostly false hope. Given that so much of game is about what happened in the unobserved space/time I don't see things going well for anybody involved. It's nice the father is trying his hand at writing again, but he's kind of a hack per the letter from the publisher, and his high school daughter has run off stealing the equipment from the job he's practically losing already. None of which our main character notices between sweet nothing postcards.

Haha, I had a lot of the same stuff happen, minus the voices. I NEVER saw my buddies in the wild, except for a mission here or there. I think my favorite missions were the caravan ones. I seriously loved plotting a route, planting some C4 and waiting for those dummies to roll over it. As a result I figured out a weapon loadout and stuck with it. I wish games in general gave me LESS choice and forced me to use different weapons and party members.

Oh, good looking out! basically the same price too.

whoa! serious haul! Damage Report: Wolf Among Us Metro Last Light Season Pass Civ 5: Godz n Kingz Guacamelee Gold Edition Stanley Parable Godus Spelunky

I've really meant to catch up some on some Borges. I was planning on picking up Labyrinths, partially because I read William Gibson's forward to it in his collection of non-fiction and essays.

I haven't played it, but I really liked Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox 360, and NG2 was a 360 exclusive. The first one was pretty hard.

A suggestion by the Idlethumbs.net/wizard Slash Wizard.

English has failed us. What does sappy or cliche even mean? Romance that isn't a sexual transaction? I guess everyone learned interpersonal relationship management from Dragon Age.

I also would love if Valve went ALL IN on their consoles. I almost don't think position would be that hard. There is that element of "PC Gaming" that is considered finicky and expensive, but you could show Crysis running full blast, and say "This? $5. Bioshock Infinite? On sale for $10. Every Grand Theft Auto game until now? $15." Whatever money you front load on the machine is made up a year or two bargain games.

Official MST3K Turkey Day Marathon is back!

Somewhere the people cry out for the Year of Toad.

Steve exists outside of the normal Thumb Chronology, having gone and stayed gone, allowing him to retain his enthusiasm or as the resource is called in our bleak future Gameotons. The rest of the crew's have been slowly devoured by Jake, the man who played no games for 3 years, only to reach a critical mass and awaken one day in a Mario-induced frenzy.

I like the idea of guards who's knockout state isn't the same as death, but if you're using it to model some kind of behavior, it's hard to imagine a situation where a guard might wake up from a knockout and just return to his patrol or post. I bet you could make a neat game where your knockout put a 10 minute counter on until the whole level went into high alert/hunt mode, forcing the guards to move around.

I think Vitra handles European manufacturing for Herman Miller, who are the original fabricators of Eames' designs. I've read that the Vitra version can be more expensive. HM has been making them for like 50 years so used is always an option.

Sounds like Far Cry 2. jk jk 1 luv.

if you're almost out of games YAKUZA 4 is like 5 different and very long, and usually fun games in 1. Part dating sim, fishing sim, dojo management, and really deep Virtua Fighter brawler, with the voice talent of every Japanese gangster film.

I agree with Jon about Alpha Protocol. I didn't have any mechanical issues with it, save the one fight in the club, where my nonlethal build was poorly suited. Really great game. My favorite stuff is often pretty flawed, because it gets specifics right. Mask of the Betrayer - Neverwinter Nights 2's first expansion. My favorite D&D game is Planescape, and MotB is a really worthy spiritual sequel. Mostly existential stuff. One thing I think it does particularly well is that it has some pretty granular conversation options, where you can lie to somebody but it will provide sub-options, like lie to protect their feelings, or lie as a misdirect.

EYE Divine Cybermancy (first, could there be a better name for a video game?) - Psychological and mental trauma management.

I really need to play the NOLFs. I don't know how i missed them. Another great show; I appreciate the passion for gaming history.

edit! WRONG THREAD.