BadHat

Thanks, I'll give that a go. FRAPs was spitting out 30gb files for about 10 minutes content, not ideal.

Man, I gotta clear out some hard drive space so I can start capturing mine. What are you all using, something like FRAPs? Here's my profile if anyone wants some more scores on their board. http://steamcommunity.com/id/badhat/

That moment when you've been to jungle 100 times and you're still "finding out"

Bioshock Infinite taught me that revolutionary minorities are just as evil as their oppressors because any extremist position is automatically bad regardless of the circumstances. Spelunky taught me that if you hurt a damsel, it's only because you're ultimately trying to help them. They just need to be guided onto the right path, that's all. They'd be lost and afraid without you. They need you. It's only right that they be put in their place every now and again. That may have gotten creepy.

I only saw Ichi very recently and it's still every bit as whatever the hell it was in its day. Good?

13 Assassins tried way too hard to be badass and dark for me to really enjoy it. Seven Samurai is definitely a slog if you're not in for a long movie, but one of the benefits of that is that I actually knew which character was which. On the other hand, I watched Miike's remake of Harakiri recently and, while it's impossible to replace the performances in the original, holy shit the bamboo sword scene. Wow. I was clutching my stomach and wincing the whole time. If anything can be said for the movie, it'd be that it's impossible for it not to leave an impression.

Ledges are my worst enemy in the game (okay besides spikes). Any game where I accidentally pick up the climbing gloves inevitably ends in frustration.

I need this game in my life.

I skim read the last post and thought you had a clock that sets itself a few years back every daylight savings. I have an assignment due in at midnight but between the horrible toothache and the medication I'm on to mitigate the horrible toothache I'm having a really tough time focusing on anything. Seriously, fuck teeth.

Anyone else a big follower of (South) Korean cinema? Like probably everyone else I got into it primarily through the works of Park Chan-wook and Kim Jee-woon, but there's really no shortage of exceptional films from other directors. Three which come to mind from much less prolific directors: Castaway on the Moon - a really touching but also incredibly funny and unconventional romance. Save The Green Planet - kind of impossible to describe because of how eclectic it is, definitely one of the boldest movies I've seen. Bleak Night - a tale of personal tragedy and how it affects a group of high school friends, very subtle and moody. I guess it's kind of strange in a sense to single out one country's output like this, but I think a lot of Korean films have a certain tone to them which a lot of other directors, particularly American, don't seem to be able to recreate as naturally. I'm generalizing of course, but... well, for instance, there's this.

I played through recently and had an absolutely enchanting time conquering the entire latter half with someone who seemed to know as little about the game as me. Towards the end, I think the sense of shared naivety contributed a lot to our cooperation, I doubt it would've been the same if it was someone who already knew their way around it. By any chance, does the game selectively matchmake players who haven't finished before, or did I just luck out?

I gave up on Magicka after the person I played it with wouldn't stop blowing me up with a fire AOE because he found it endlessly hilarious. It was then that I realised mana bars exist for a reason.

I enjoyed Scrubs for a couple of seasons but it's so incredibly formulaic that there's no way it wasn't going to get worn out after a couple of seasons. There's only so many times I can stand to see a scene end with either a) someone makes a snappy remark/JD thinks something random and then it plays a bass sting b) someone makes an upbeat remark/JD thinks something wistful and then it plays happy guitar music c) someone has an emotional moment/JD wistfully sums up the moral of the episode and then it plays sad guitar music.

Scoopin' with P... too obvious.

Next time, on Spookin' With Scoops...

Yeah, believable probably wasn't the right word. I just wrote a bunch of stuff that didn't make any goddamn sense, but basically I think the appeal boils down to the way the game keeps you at arm's length, not to minimize player input but to put the onus on you to meet the game on its own terms, which I think extends to the lore and the fact that the world doesn't exist to tell you, specifically, its story. Compare this to something like Skyrim which, as a living breathing world is much more believable, but (at least this was my impression after playing for a while) gives you the distinct impression that you're being catered to as a player. For instance, scaling all the content to your level so you can complete it at your leisure. I get why they do stuff like that, but it diminishes the sensation that the world exists as its own entity with its own rules instead of existing to accommodate the player.

I'm going to pretend the above conversation didn't already end for a moment just so I can contribute this.

Heh, I found this album through a blog I follow and then noticed they were on Radiolab after the fact. Which also reminded me that I need to start listening to Radiolab again. Here's something else that's rhythmic and repetitive and good.

I feel like, for everything the game might miss for not explicitly telling you the lore, it's worth it because it adds another layer to the feeling of disconnect you have with the world as a player. This is something the gameplay communicates to you very effectively: this world isn't here to accommodate you, it doesn't care about your journey (well except the whole lordvessel thing), you simply reside there and adhere to its rules. The "hands off" nature of the game, where the player is, to a large extent, left to find their own way instead of being guided by the developer, is reinforced by the way the world doesn't feed you its lore. You're merely a visitor after the fact, any details you might glean about what happened before you arrived are purely of your own volition. This, really, is the essence of what makes Dark Souls effective to me. To not feel like a hero in a tailored world, to feel like a visitor in an indifferent and hostile world, a world which feels lived in and has its own story which doesn't merely exist as window dressing to my own - that makes it so much more believable to me.

I have no prior experience with CCGs/TCGs/any kind of CGs and just kind of blundered into this, but I'm already pretty hooked. It seems like they definitely wanted it to be simple and intuitive enough for the average player to learn, I've looked up a minimal amount of theory stuff so far and already feel like I have a decent handle on the basics. I appreciate that (at least early on) there's not a huge meta-game that I have to really obsess over to get anywhere (cough dota). Another part of that is being in early enough that the card pool isn't incomprehensibly huge, which is nice. At the moment I'm really just enjoying myself, win or lose, because the learning curve is at a really satisfying level for me where I feel like I'm constantly learning from my mistakes but never overwhelmed by them.

Wow harsh.

Snapped it up in the sale, had been eager to play since I first read that interview on Giant Bomb. I liked it a lot. Speaking of scary, was I the only one who Also, has anyone discussed the note in the basement safe? I didn't read back too far but am I safe in assuming that

That looks really gorgeous and I want it inside of me. +1 on the gameplay maybe not looking like anything special, but that's kind of a secondary concern to omg look how pretty it isssssssss

Yeah those are kind of ruined by the fact that you can easily stay at or near soul level 1 and still progress far enough to get some fairly ridiculous gear to harass new players with. I wonder if they'll do something to rectify or discourage that in DS2. On the other hand, I really like how flexible the gear system is.

It wasn't a car loan, it was fees from a lapsed registration on a car I thought I deregistered but hadn't, because of reasons. It was also registered to my old address, and obviously phoning me or using any other form of contact would have been far too sensible so they went right to a collection agency after I didn't respond to their snail mail in the year 2013. Oh well, I sorted it out, and the other thing should be okay they're just a bit trigger happy with the threats of legal action because I guess it gets people's attention. Jerks.