youmeyou

I'm more interested to see how Elizabeth is portrayed inside the game. Currently it reads as a super traditional princess rescuing story and I sincerely hope there's more to it than that. If it doesn't rise above the patriarchal vibes the trailers give, I can see that being off-putting. But I don't see how this cover is going to alienate women. It is not doing a lot to appeal to them either, I will agree with that.

THANK YOU.

If we do decide to have a thumbs squad I can start a new character on whatever server you guys chose. I'm currently on connery playing for Vanu.

Thanks for this. You're right, it's very refreshing material. Love that he occasionally reviews things that aren't games. Threw me for a second.

I'm nearly done playing Hitman: Blood Money. (I'm at the casino stage) I'm basically playing it so I can have something to balance my impression of Absolution against when I begin that. And Blood Money does have some truly brilliant aspects to it. When you pull off a mission smoothly it feels awesome; it feels exactly like you're a stone-cold contract killer. But the problem is: that almost never happens. You have to replay the same content multiple times before successfully pulling off a hit (unless you just want to treat the game as a crappy third person shooter and just kill everyone). The pace is what makes this game difficult to digest for me. It's essentially an ultra-violent adventure game, with all the obscure puzzles that come with the territory. It's also such a caricaturish world, and real immersion is impossible in most cases (except the mardi gras mission which uses the game's innovative crowd tech really stupendously). All women in this game have boobs that would make lara croft jealous. They are ridiculous. There's very little environmental dialogue and it's all horribly recorded. I have some idea of what to expect from Absolution and I kinda have a feeling I'm going to like it more. I think there's such a thing as too much freedom, especially once you've become accustomed to a very strong guiding hand + reward structure which most modern cames tend to come stock with. I admire what they were doing with Blood Money but unfortunately I'm not having much fun in the interaction.

He should do that, but he won't. The more he addresses random internet commenters, the more people hear about Bioshock Infinite, the more copies it sells. I mean, these are people making uninformed comments based on 3 minute gameplay videos of a game that is months away from being released! And he's treating it like a real conversation (even though he's in possession of way more knowledge obviously). It's a perfect internet bubble marketing storm, really.

Now I feel dumb for closing the stream in anger after all the terrible Samuel L. Two-Arm Jackson shenanigans. Congrats guys, totally deserved.

I find it hard to look at what we've seen of Bioshock infinite and fault it for not being ambitious. The real test will be whether or not it lives up to the ambition of its creators (which I imagine is why they keep pushing the release date back). I appreciate Levine being frank about his thinking behind the box art and it's pretty much what I expected. If the game is good, we (the enthusiast demographic) will be happy. And they will have made more money from casual consumers to continue to make good games. I really don't see what's wrong with this equation. If the game is negatively effected by needing to appeal to a broad base, then we should criticize it for that. But that clearly remains to be seen.

Like the way the girl body languages: "I wanna bone you" when S.J. says he's the president? I feel your pain, Orv.

The more I watch this, the more I find that difficult to believe.

Wow. This Sammy J. opening really really... awkward. He's acting like an uncle who's trying a bit too hard to be cool.

I hear they're good for clicking giant buttons with your mouse pointer you wish was a greasy human finger.

Lots of plastic surgery going on right now.

As we see more games doing 'performance capture' as was done in Enslaved and the upcoming Quantic Dream game, I bet we'll get a few more examples of decent verisimilitude in video game acting. Essentially, it's a mix of motion capture and voice capture with the actors usually in the same physical space, occasionally interacting. Personally, I think it's what makes Enslaved's performances stand out above much of the rest.

"Wave of the future" was the running joke for months and months after I saw that film. I'm glad me and my friends weren't the only ones to find that crazed mirror monologue ridiculously funny. (unless you guys didn't find it funny and just like saying it, which is possible since you consider the aviator to be a good film, while I didn't particularly care for it).

I think it's definitely a risk thing, as thunderpeel points out. The marketing department isn't going to pioritize accurately depicting the content of the game with an original and avant garde piece of artwork. Their solitary goal is to turn eyes in your average Best-Buy or Walmart. And if doing that requires rehashing trends that, while tired, have proven to be successful that's what they're going to do. It would be nice for us, as artists and creative people, if they had put some more effort into making an original and interesting poster, but that would involve a risk of selling less copies in physical stores. That's the calculus, regardless of how I personally want things to be. (which is, i dunno, as creative an approach to the box art as the art direction in the game itself maybe?)

That's amazing. Are you still playing with no UI and if so, how are you liking it? Is it possible to play the entire game this way?

heh... I was being serious.

I've heard - maybe here - that the best way to gain recognition in the industry is simply (hah!) to make a game.

You get a ton of points for playing non-lethally. Also, like Dishonored, you don't really need points if you're going to be playing it stealthy/non-lethal.

Is there a worst marketing team of the year award? Because I think these guys don't have much competition at their insane nadir of awfulness.

EXACTLY

The more I play this game the more fun I have. The scale is just insane, and rolling with a big squad is just the best. Especially when you're all on ATVs

Harsh, H. Yawl! I don't think Tycho is any more opinionated or argumentative than anyone else on this forum. We like to argue about video games, because we care (maybe too much?)! As to the subject at hand, I do agree that what makes Minecraft great is its ability to generate stories. I also think it's legitimate to play games purely for the sport of it (chess, quake, starcraft etc). They're two very different ways to pass the time so I don't think you can make a value comparison between them. I think Halo could have just had better writing. Like most long-running narratives it got bogged down by its backstory and got more grandiose and self-important with age. I doubt stripping the story out completely would have made for a very compelling single player experience. I found the MGS virtual missions to be quite a fun exploration of the mechanics but they'll never be as memorable as Snake struggling with the player whether or not to shoot a rocket at his old friend.

The art in the middle is a poster from in-game. But it obviously doesn't work out of context.