Bjorn

No need to be sorry, the language and dialect stuff is interesting, and I'm not very well versed in it at all. That map is nuts. I'd be really curious to see some people from that region describe how they react to the game, or any game that's featured in an "exotic" location that tries to have regional languages or dialects. There have been shows set, or at least scenes, in Kansas that have amused the hell out of me for how wrong they get something. And we're in the same freaking country as the creators. The tv show Jericho actually had me legitimately laughing at it a few times because of how it screwed up. For me it's just amusing how ignorant Hollywood types are of a place that's easy and cheap for them to visit. I'm sure the reaction would range from amused to incensed, but still, I'd like to hear it in their words.

So for weird E3 announcements, the Bayonetta complete package for the WiiU lets you dress up the sexy hair witch as Link and Samus. And she'll get new reskinned attacks, like summoning Bowser's foot to stomp enemies. This is up there with the Dead Rising 3 expansion for strange crossovers, but infinitely more weird because it's a half naked hair witch cosplaying as Nintendo characters. I'd have thought this was some crazy joke or parody if you just randomly told me about it. It's gloriously bizarre, and I'm amazed Nintendo signed off on it.

Goddamit, I just squirted a little coffee out of my nose and now I'm crying because my sinuses are on fire. Why do I drink things when watching a gif or video? I know better.

Double Post! Just saw this on Reddit, apparently there is a Famitsu article on it in Japan:

This will be the colorized Citizen Kane of Video Games.

I'm betting they don't go widescreen. As much as I prefer widescreen content, it just seems like the amount of work to make that happen (unless a bunch of original wider field of view assets are available) wouldn't be worth it.

So I woke up this morning singing Jeepers Creepers. For no reason I can discern. And now it's bugging the crap out of me what I might have been dreaming or thinking right before waking up that would cause that.

Thanks, this is hilarious. I'm mean, practically pissing myself funny. Thanks, really. Do you remember your color swatches? From a few pages back? The ones you used as your "proof"? And I had missed that they character's name was confirmed as Ajay Ghale, that's my bad, and it is a good sign. But watching the trailer live, my reaction was, oh, hey, looks like a white guy. The same reaction a bunch of people in the IT chat had. And apparently the same reaction other people had not on Idle Thumbs. You want people to be quiet, and wait patiently for Ubi to show that they aren't going to fuck this up while talking all the positive talk you want. Too fucking bad. The world doesn't work that way. Stop. Stop right there. Stop making this personal, and don't dare insult, or try to mischaracterize why or what I am doing. All I've ever wanted to do here was discuss what's going on with this game, and you've drug it down to a personal level. And hell, what I started off doing was simply defending other people's rights to criticize a game's marketing. Which is still a fine and acceptable thing for people to do. And I'm done with you. I'm blocking all future posts by you, I think it will be for the best. A majority of our bickering has come from a combination of you mischaracterizing what I'm saying, or both of us reacting to the shitty tone of the other (which I share total responsibility for). It will be for the best if I don't interact with you from now on. I aim to please and entertain in all things.

Yeah, you showed that you're willing to pull quotes out of context to prove a point that didn't exist while mischaracterizing what I said and a bunch of us agreed that the design is problematic no matter what his race is. What was your point?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9al_k8e93I Around the 4:45 mark. What does the guy on the right look like to you?

I kind of detest wearing shoes, so I'm shoeless whenever possible. Always in my house, and often in others' houses. Peeing in the shower is gross. And I say that as someone who isn't generally grossed out by much. It's just weird, and I can't do it.

So yeah, graphically stunning and looks fun. I wonder where the whole leaked story about a non-white protagonist came from then. If that was just internet bullshit, or if they actually changed their mind at some point in development.

You can kind of contrast that too with MS's montage at the end, where it was like, "Hey, look, indies! We love 'em, and have some!" But without the sense that they were really invested in it, just a checkbox feature they feel they need. Whereas Sony has come off as really wanting long term business relationships with devs across the board of all shapes and sizes. I don't know what the reality is for each company, but that's the impression I'm getting. I can't imagine a world where MS goes out and gets the license for a 15 year old adventure game owned by Disney, and then pimps it as one of the key points in their E3 presentation. You might get fired for suggesting that. Also, this whole deal is mind-blowingly awesome.

I played games instead of watching the Sony press thing last night. But looking at the summaries this morning, sounds like they had the most interesting thing, with the best surprises (Grim Fandango?!). I really thought I was more or less done with caring about consoles, but Sony is doing a fair job of convincing me a PS4 will be worth it at some point. Last gen we ended up with both a 360 and a PS3 because of exclusives. In a year or two, I could see us having a PS4 and a Wii U, skipping the Xbox completely. MarioKart 8 has just about convinced me that buying a Nintendo platform for the first time in 20 years might be worth it.

Between the leaked stuff and that cg trailer, I'm on board. I don't really need a Souls game per se, just something with the same design philosophy behind it. The weapon he's carrying is called a saw cleaver. Which is kind of a terrifying thing. It also has a resemblance to the halberd thing that the big mummy things carry in DS2 in the Lost Bastille.

Well this came out of no where, they are making another one of those isometric Lara Croft puzzle adventure games! This so far is the best thing to come out of E3 for me, I really dug the first one in co-op with my wife. Also, apparently the second Bioware game wasn't a second Mass Effect game, but something new. The IRC chat misunderstood and thought 2 ME games were coming.

And only the first bell is obvious. Second bell either takes wandering into the Blight because you have the key, or stumbling your way through the Gutter, after getting into the alley, which was super easy to miss if you spaced off one door that had a dragon between you and it.

The citizenship thing sounds like Starship Troopers. I know ideas like earning citizenship through things like service pre-date that by many centuries, but I can't see any modern sci-fi application of the idea without assuming that Heinlein influenced it somehow.

I haven't got deep into the lore videos yet, but have read some of the more compelling theories on various parts, and I have to say that my opinion on the story building is changing. I still think DS1 is better, as there's a lot you can pick up on even if you aren't playing super close attention. But DS2 is considerably deeper than I originally gave it credit. The most recent theory that I buy into is related to The Last Giant:

This thread is making me want to play Prime. I haven't played a Metroid game since...either Super Metroid or whatever Metroid was on the original Gameboy, whichever is the most recent one.

ME3 is on sale for PC on Origin for $6 right now, so my wife and I both bought it this week. Our 360 Gold accounts have been expired for months, and we were hankering for some ME3 MP. Just as cheap to buy it on PC and start over as it was to re-activate Gold for each of us. Got in a few matches last night, god we were super rusty, plus starting with no advanced characters or gear. I never moved to PC from 360 mostly because the thought of starting over was horrifying after the amount of time I put in to unlock so much stuff on console. But now it's been most of a year since we played regularly, and starting over is kinda fun! I get to unlock stuff again (I was down to just Ultra-rares before) and am forced to use gear I might not otherwise. My Origin is BjornDaDwarf and my wife's is Zanasta-1. Late in the evening if just one of us is on, it's probably me. I'll bounce back and forth between our accounts if I'm playing by myself to unlock stuff for both of us.

There is a ME3 multiplayer thread! We can move this discussion over there.

I'm somewhat surprised at the antipathy, or apathy at least, in regards to heroes. As an adult, I've generally recognized anyone who fights for the rights and equality of others, particularly those who are marginalized by society, as a hero. Those that I've learned enough about I might consider a personal hero. I don't think of it as idolizing or putting someone on a pedestal, more just, "That guy/gal is a fucking hero, and I should try to be more like them." An example would be a friend of mine's father. He's a retired Episcopal priest in a very conservative Midwestern city. He and his wife could have moved anywhere in the world in retirement, they have friends and family all over the place and have lived a lot of different places. But they've stayed, and he continues to fight for gay rights, minority rights, women's rights, etc. And he does so in a place that is decidedly antagonistic towards all those beliefs. He's one of the persistent reminders for me that being a devout Christian is not synonymous with being a bigoted, ignorant shithead (which is sometimes hard to remember in my neck of the woods).

ME3 MP had a rabid following, it was kinda nuts how popular it ended up being. And I just bought bought ME3 on PC to play it some more, because thinking about it made me want to play it. My wife and I played dozens (probably over 100) of hours in co-op on it, but our Gold accounts are both expired, and it was only $1 more to buy ME3 on PC as it was to reactivate our Gold accounts for a month. I say it was successful because they patched, supported, balanced and expanded on it for about a year after release, which was a lot longer than anyone (including the dev team) expected. I think it was originally viewed as just a feature-add checkbox that turned out really good. One of the reasons I loved it is that I could play with a crazy combination of powers and guns quickly and easily, whereas in SP you were much more limited. To be clear, I loved the SP story and campaigns of all three games. And I know Bioware will continue making great SP stuff. I just also want to see what else they can do in the co-op MP space, as it was really far outside of their wheelhouse, but they did a great job with it.

After the joy that was ME3 Multiplayer, my hope has been that the next ME game would be a co-op squad game. I don't really want or need another mega-epic Space Opera in that universe, at least not yet. I'd rather see something smaller and more focused. MP ended up being considerably more successful than they expected (I think), and it was basically salvaged portions of a standalone squad game that they gave up on. MP showed me just how good and varied their combat design was, which was something the SP game almost went out of its way to hide from you. And it clearly had a ton of room for growth and improvement left. By the time the last expansion came out, it was already feeling like it's own game completely separate from ME3, with the addition of entirely new classes, powers and the couple of "giant" units that couldn't even take cover.