Frenetic Pony

I don't watch much Anime, or tv shows at all. In fact I can name every TV show I've really liked in the past decade off the top of my head because there are so few. But the two Animes were Fooly Cooly and Cowboy Bebop (favorite tv show ever). Any recommendations as such, or as I suspect, am I SOL? And yes I know about Samurai Champloo. Promising and then went batshite in the second season.

No, it did a terrible marketing job of actually selling what it was, but most games do. Dragon Age? Let's play death metal over everything, fuck yeah badassery! Far Cry 3? Drugs, everything is drugs and ooh look boobies yay! Video game marketing in general is fucking awful. The Forza Horizon commercials, what there was of them, was nothing but flashy lights and dubstep. The game just ends up being a driving game, which isn't what they were selling. Much of the triple A video game marketing world really needs to get its shit together and stop being dishonest about what the games they're selling really are about. You don't see dubstep and super fast, flashy cuts over the latest Romcom, or tits flashing in your face every two seconds for "Lost". So why the fuck do we have that for video games?

But of course they WANTED to make multiplayer work, but couldn't. I'm convinced that if any studio wants to make a new (for them) type of game that's supposed to be Triple A, they'd better be absolutely sure to hire people that have done this thing or the closest thing to it before. Just looking at that sentence makes it seem terribly, blindingly, agonizingly obvious that this is the thing to do. Yet there are so many game studios out there that haven't done so, and have closed as a result.

Episode 2 was still good, but didn't have the interesting choices of 1, and made you feel like you had less freedom. I suppose it's because you aren't railroaded as much, but the end stats seem to support the whole "less interesting choices" as the vast majority of people lined up with me on every decision. Starting Episode 3, and the splaschscreen reminds me only of:

Finally got this, the entire "season" in the Amazon sale. It's a wonderful adventure game when it's not being an adventure game! I loved the beginning, (so far, Episode 1) the kind of blurry action sequences and exploration and decision making. But then, of course, it goes into "adventure game mode!" Where I basically hunt for what the heck it is I can interact with and try rubbing a piece of shit against a piece of crap to make some sort of golden unicorn appear. Normally I really just can not stand this about adventure games. But I'm pretty sure I'm willing to stand it here to get back to the parts I enjoy. I guess I'm trying to say "excellent job, even from someone that normally despises most adventure games!"

So it looks like Hack 'n Slash, Spacebase, The White Berch, and Autonomous are the winners. Though Black Lake and Kaiju Piledriver could pull out maybe the last place still with 2 days left. Hope to see what's coming out of this either way! Good job to Doublefine.

Novelty still sells stuff, maybe the WiiU will do alright. But from incidental evidence and just plain business sense I expect both Microsoft and Sony to push out their own novelty and originality with their next consoles. Come rather early next year we should see "The Empire, and former Empire Strike Back" in terms of consoles. They both know how much money is at stake, and that competition has, if anything, increased significantly over 7 years ago. Then again, this paragraph from Penny Arcade indicates, you know, that maybe my competition quip is dead on, and perhaps the Wii-U hasn't don't enough "Erika called the Target downtown because she had heard what we did; that they had huge piles of Deluxe Wii U systems. Like, a ridiculous number. She asked if he thought they’d have any by the time she got there, but they had forty-seven, putting them squarely in crenellation territory. I don’t understand entirely how our maximum throughput consumption culture allows concentrations like this to occur, but its occurring here to point where the Wii U is so concentrated they have begun to fall out of solution. I considered availing myself of the device, but “Screen Time” is so rigorously controlled at my house that trying new things with that precious resource is often contraindicated. They put their time into proven “veins” of amusement. If playing the Wii U meant that they would have less time in Minecraft: Pocket Edition, fuck it. If the Wii U could import their crazy dungeon-spire-bunker-restaurant with the downstairs pool, then, you know… maybe." Hmmm... I know that MS and Sony have both "done" more than the Wii U has to avail themselves of "newness". Or at least I expect what incidentiaries I know of these consoles to strike as more "new" to people than the Wii U might. So... For example, I fully expect the 1080p gameplay trailer for Star Wars 1313, with a 3d version available of course, to be among "The shit you have to check out on youtube cuase oh man!" But I also expect Kinect 2.0, Microsoft robot vision is watching you have sex, to also be a thing "you totally have to, like, see to believe!" for another type of person. The type of person that might then consider waiting and buying this thing rather than a Wii U, or even the type of person who wouldn't have bought a Wii U ever.

Solid but not a record certainly. Project Eternity hit it's million dollar goal (> than the GODUS goal) in less than 24 hours. Can't imagine what the current record holder, Star Citizen, managed. It's honestly a bit unpredictable. Some hit very fast and hard the first couple of days, and then drop off until another surge at the end. Some just keep going alright throughout. I certainly hope this makes it, if only because "I believe in Peter Molyneux"

Think modernized Populous. From Molyneux and 22 Cans? I'm in: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/22cans/project-godus

Well shit, maybe it is good! I'm picking all the wrong horses lately. Also, totally unrelated, I've not been a good judge of teh video games. Stupid horse breeding pool, I swear that palamino looked sexy enough!

Rockstar has said they're "open" to the possibility of a PC version. I personally thank my annoying tweets to @Rockstargames for this. http://kotaku.com/5962019/you-might-get-grand-theft-auto-v-on-pc-and-wii-u But if given the choice I'd definitely buy it on the PC first and foremost. The ridiculous mods, and huge amount of them, for GTA4 alone would convince me of this wisdom. Not too mention the ability to do a "let's play". GTA 4 was, before the "let's plays", basically the progenitor of such videos with all it's ridiculous youtube stunt vids and such. (Insofar as I can tell, credit to Giantbomb for "let's play" as well)

Hell yes. I go camping every year for a week and never bring a PC, gaming system, or etc. Always one of the best weeks of the year, I should try going more often.

The White Berch, because at this point I basically purchase anything like Braid, Limbo, or Fez. Also Space Base, because fuck it why not? But it should definitely be optional to blow random citizens of your space station out the airlock at will. Just think of all those good times you got annoyed with the tiny, insignificant moneymaking slaves you had vising your park in Rollercoaster Tycoon. Or the ungrateful little pricks in Sim City, complain too much about traffic will you? Eat no roads thanks to several hundred tornadoes in a row fuckers!

He is a good idea horribly, horribly implemented. Ugh, just the, delivery of almost every single bit of the story was cringe worthy. They can do the world building again, that was alright. But for the actual implementation they desperately need a new, professional, experienced writer full time. Not just "Oh hey Corvo, here's some cool powers, use them however, k bye lol!" I wanted it to be... eerie. Atmospheric, wondering where I am. I wanted to be drawn into the story. I wasn't at all.

Spiritual sequel ala Bioshock Infinite. I have absolutely zero interest in seeing those characters or that world again. That being said, a game in the same mechanical vein, written by someone else and with the shortcomings addressed would be most welcome. No more enforced or explicit morality choices, much better AI, and no more vastly overpowering... powers would be great. I literally jumped past 99% of the last mission. I don't even know WTF happened story wise because I'm pretty sure I just abused Blink to jump past all the explanations, challenge, and everything else. For example, that last loaded area took less than a minute. I was on the roof and rescued emily in about zero time at all. I know "breaking the game" is fun. I agree, I loved Halo 1 and stuff for being able to take a vehicle into the indoor corridors and such. But when I can just skip past the game entirely that's a little too much breaking.

Well... fuck: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/11/18/wot-i-think-hitman-absolution/ Pre-ordered this shit too. Because hey, it was pretty cheap for a new game on Greenman Gaming! Lesson learned, even if it's quite a bit off as a pre-order, just don't do it! Man, all the times I've been burned by this shit. You'd think I would've learned after the utter failure that was Fable 3. But noooooo, no I have to be an optimist, I've got to get EXCITED. Stop beating down my optimism, damn you real life!

Watched that, looks very fun! I might have considered buying it were it available on a platform I already own, but since it's not *shrugs*

Ok, this game IS stupidly fun. First life was as a bit of an idiot, boy, born into some average Kentucky middle class people. Did alright with school and graduated in pre-law despite being fairly dumb (31 intelligence, I needed to study hard every year). By this time, due to working since the age of 15 and never spending much, I was god damned millionaire. Or rather, had million dollars between me and my wife. That's right, idiot millionaire, thank you USA! Lost most of it in the stock market in the end, but hell who cares? First wife at 20 by the way, highschool sweetheart, graduated with a chemistry degree. She became an alcoholic. Broke up with her after she got violent, moved to New York, got a new wife, died at age of 31 in a car crash. Shit. All that and I end up making the seven o'clock news. No more huge amount of money, no degree, no kids, not really a great job. A lifetime of slipping slowly into unhappiness, of working the best job I could find, applying over and over, always asking for a raise, studying hard every year, including as a leisure activity. Guess that's genetics for you. Even in the US you can't beat that. Still, worlds better than my second life. India, Spina Bifida. Dead at age 0. The third, had almost as little going for him. A gay man in China with what I can only assume was ADD and an extra chromosome, he only completed 5 years of schooling (and had an intelligence of 1). Unable to get a job he started his own firewood business, and later auto repair. He started smoking, drinking, and doing drugs in his teen years, though only the smoking stuck. Throughout much of his life he stole when opportunities arose, though he also once saved a friends life at great risk to his own. Much of his life he lived in abject poverty, trying his luck at the stock market and other investments when even a little cash was available. None of it came to much. No children, no one to spend his life with, never enough money to emigrate, no chance of a better job thanks to a felony conviction, no luck with investing. Even his friends ruined what little cash he had for investing. Finally, at the age of 70, he turned his life around in a way. After going through over a dozen breakups with various men he dedicated his life to giving to charity, something he'd never done previously, even while homeless and starving. He also quit being physically active and social, and spent all of his time volunteering and as a political activist. Arrested six times he finally was sentenced to prison, where he died of an infection and cancer at the age of 82.

Oh no, I'm great with all of that! I've just found that someone's overall impressions, point blank, are much more telling than anyone trying to "puzzle out" why a game isn't fun. And it doesn't sound like he was having fun. It sounds like it's a lot of "go here, do this (fantastically simple and easy) task, you did it yay! here's small reward to get on with doing a thousand, trillion other pointless tasks with no challenge or interest or ultimate goal." I certainly hope I'm wrong of course. I hope the AI is good, and shooting stuff is fun, and the game isn't to the rafters with "easy pointless task no. 5,238". But I'm certainly not pre-ordering it.

Because of this: http://www.rockpaper...-single-player/ It LOOKS like Far Cry 2. But apparently it isn't : ( Apparently it really IS Skyrim with guns (my interpretation, open world game without any real consequences, difficulty, evolution, systemization, or etc.). I'm sure some of you will like that. But I thought Skyrim was boring as .

Maybe they cancelled it? I remember Molyneux talking about this crazy assed chisel someone could buy for $17,000 to nigh guarantee them being the one to see inside the cube, but I don't know if it has or even will make it to the actual game. Oh, and what's inside the Cube... IS YOU! BRAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Yep, 100% F2P (if you want). Though you can apparently purchase items with real moneysssss from the store, or just coins you get. My little sister's played this quite a bit. Molyneux is great, and I'm glad he's out from under Microsoft's braindead heel. Even if I don't want to play his ultimate game (whatever it is) a drop I'm still glad it and Molyneux are there to show up all the factory churned and unoriginal games out there.

This, of all the games I played that came out this year it came the closest to being one of those one in a million brilliant games you'll remember for the rest of your life. When your first start it up, with the weird puzzles and odd story, the great music and sheer sense of exploration had me hooked and grinning like a madman. It was just wonderful. Unfortunately it kind of slows down after that, with ever more obscure puzzles, getting repetitive, and etc. Oh, and I actually beat the "fully leveled Witcher in a 10x10 ft room", wimps. Even though it forces you not to win, which just sucks. I HATE that in RPGs. I won damn it, act like it!

Not much variety in quests sure. And the story really needed much better presentation. Also the obvious MMO mechanics really held it back in places. But if you liked combat it was the best any type of this game has ever had. Easily outclasses The Elderscrolls, Fable, even Zelda in that category. It's legitimately fun in it's own regard! But it's also too long for what it has, and you get to the point where you just stun lock every enemy to death and the combat gets ruined. Which is why I'm replaying it on the PC, there's a mod that should help with that last bit. And I'm excited to see what Impossible Studios, or whatever they're new name is, come up with at EPIC. I'd easily buy another open world action RPG from them.

Didn't really like Hotline Miami, mostly I think because huge motivation for me in enjoying game mechanics is learning how to use them. Once I was good enough at Starcraft 2 I quit. Once I'd gotten Dishonored down it became progressively less interesting. Hotline Miami, you can learn all there is to know in a few levels so far as I've played. Which brings me, I suppose, to games who's mechanics I didn't mind for hours and hours. Kindgoms of Amalur and Borderlands 2 were both there, but each with enough problems that I couldn't confer my own BS game of the year title on them. Same with FTL. Not that I actually had a problem with almost anything that was there, except that FTL just didn't have that much there. XCOM is a lot of fun for a tactical combat game, but that's not generally a super enjoyable genre for me and continues not to be. The problem with XCOM is I feel like I could just sit long enough for each mission and complete it perfectly. The solution set wherein I can find the perfect way to complete without a single death feels like just too small of a set, too easy (sorry for the computer language/love of GO here.) Except of course when it isn't, and some enemy gets lucky and gets missed 4 times in a row and then gets an ultra high crit off one of my soldiers, killing them and there's literally nothing I could have done to prevent it, which bothers me when trying to play like a perfectionist. I'm hoping Hitman Absolution will do it for me then. A lot of games I've enjoyed quite a bit this year, but nothing that's clicked like finally playing Uncharted 2 did, or Portal or one of those games. Not that I should really expect such a game every year.