jeremywc

I've already got an account on another instance, but I'd love to have more cool people to follow. I updated my signature with my account.

I beat the game yesterday afternoon. They pushed out the invincibility patch just after I opened up access to the South portion of the map and I didn't feel like they were huge changes. I think the patch helped smooth out the difficulty curve at the beginning before you can afford upgrades, but it certainly didn't make the game a cakewalk. The last boss fight still felt very challenging to me. Overall, I enjoyed the game. I might go back and try to find all the modules and monoliths, but just running through the game as is felt satisfying.

I've got a Nexus 6P and have been pretty happy with it feature and performance wise, but I don't know that I'll buy another phone this big again. If I had a do over, I'd probably get the Nexus 5X. I don't have the biggest hands, so the phone size is a little unwieldy for me. My recommendation for people jumping from iPhones is to get the latest Galaxy S or Nexus. LG, Motorola, and HTC can be hit or miss any given year, but you can depend on Samsung and Google to always put out a good product.

Far Cry 2 is on sale at GOG.com this weekend for $3. Also, some other Ubisoft games, but mostly Far Cry 2.

I've been thinking the same thing, especially when you consider proto-cyberpunk stuff like Blade Runner. There's a feeling of oppression and powerlessness that permeates so much of that movie (" It's too bad she won't live! But then again, who does?"). The moody depression of it all... I love it. I still have a lot of fun with competency porn like Snow Crash. It's energetic. But my favorite cyberpunk is heavily blended with noir themes.

I think Lighthouse is probably the most egregious example I can think of. I agree that Myst itself didn't do a great job of presenting the world and the justification for weird setting. I stopped and started it a few times and couldn't completely figure out what was going on. Once I read some of the companion books they put out, the game made a lot more sense to me. I think the team had imagined up a lot more to their world than what made it into the game. Maybe they had resource limits at the time that made it harder for them to present that up front? Ideally, a player shouldn't need to read a companion novel to get the full effect, but I think the market was a lot more forgiving of those kind of omissions in those days. Probably a lot of factors that led into it, but it clearly didn't hamstring their initial success.

Agreed on the original version of Myst being problematic. I don't think I've ever gotten to run on anything other than Windows 95/98. That said, have you looked at the latest remastered version? It's actually pretty good.

The talk of Doom and Myst brought up one of my earliest experiences with PC games. When I was in Jr. High, our school purchased a brand new PC with a modem and dial-up service and put it in the library. We had a period where you could sign up to go into the library and take turns using the PC and getting on the Internet. This usually led to about 5-10 boys huddled around the PC a few times a week. Poking around the web using Netscape and WebCrawler quickly lost it's luster, so mostly we just ended up taking turns playing shareware demos, especially Doom. I don't think any of us had a lot of exposure to PC gaming up to that point. I remember an argument one day where someone said they had gotten a new "3D" game like Doom but it was called Myst. He said the graphics and music were way better than Doom's. Everyone was skeptical. Then he was asked what kind of guns Myst had. The answer (none) led to a lot of blank stares. By the time he finished explaining the concept to us, everyone had written off Myst as the worst idea for a game. The next time we met up someone had loaded the shareware demo of Dark Forces and we moved on.

I don't think "pixel art" means what they think it means. As apart of my EverQuest recovery plan, my wife has barred me from giving John Smedley any more money. It's worked really well so far - 11 years sober.

Consortium was a let down for me as well. The roots of the story were started in the late 90's as "Amen: The Awakening" at Cavedog. They had loads of lore written and posted on Cavedog's site before it was cancelled. GT let Greg MacMartin keep the rights to the story and it's clear he spent a long time tweaking it. It started to re-emerge a few years ago as an AR game on iDGi's website. I like some of the concepts they are shooting for, but the execution hasn't been up to par so far. I really hate to say that because I remember being super excited for Amen when I was younger. I backed the second round (and the first) out of weird nostalgic obligation. I'd like to see them get the opportunity to finish the story and flesh out the mechanics, but I'd only recommend it to others who *really* geek out on immersive sims.

I'm an atheist, but I have a son that has a rare genetic disorder. A lot of parents in our family support group are, unsurprisingly, very religious. Raising a child with a severe disease or illness is incredibly stressful and taxing. I don't begrudge anyone doing whatever they need to cope with the day to day stress of it. Cliche religious sayings might seem trite, but they make a difference to a lot of people. In some ways, I envy those people. Some days, I wish a few cliche sentences were enough to comfort me when I'm at my low points.

So far, they've done a really good job staying away from the prequel trilogy. If they start connecting dots back to that crap, they're risking sending the entire fan base into PTSD.

That will be hard for me to accept too, but I have to admit that was my initial thought. I'm giving them a partial pass with all the call backs in this first movie, but I really need to see them move past Episode 4-6 if I'm going to enjoy these new movies.

I've gotta go with The Deuce from Brutal Legend.

I'd love to see the Linux port of this get finalized, FWIW. Don't you guys want in on that sweet Steambox action?