Trip Hazard

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Posts posted by Trip Hazard


  1. Does nobody else think that Snow might actually have been trying to push Brooker's buttons by being deliberately combative and insensitive? I think that, whilst he plainly is fairly ignorant on the subject of games, he was playing the Devil's advocate and deliberately emphasising certain tired arguments which are always brought out when games are being discussed, namely that they make people violent psychopaths, that they serve no productive purpose, and that they are exclusively the employ of pathetic men.

     

    edit: but now I've thought a bit more, and if he is playing DA, he's not giving Charlie time and space to refute (which he certainly could do) any of his (and, by extension, others') concerns about games. The whole tone of the piece is mocking. TREAT GAMING AS A REAL ARTISTIC MEDIUM YOU SHITS!!! 


  2. It took me 23 hours to beat Olmec for the first time, so don't feel bad if you're struggling at first. Spelunky can be quite a difficult game, although luck does play a large part. One thing I will say is not to be too tempted to watch lots of Let's Plays. I did, for tips, but it has meant that the thrill of discovery has been dampened somewhat.


  3. Whenever you think you're done with an area, you're wrong. There's always something else tucked away. 

     

    There are definitely spells which do AoE damage, and probably pyromancies too. I'd like to be more helpful, but it's been a while since I've played. Very envious of you getting to play it all for the first time though :P


  4. I beat the game today, for the very first time, and it was on a daily!

     

     

    Really would appreciate some feedback on my vids, on the sound levels and my commentary and suchlike. If you watch it, I hope you enjoy it, cos I sure did :D

     

    Edit: quality should be 720p, but it has only just gone up so might still be...calibrating? Or something? Yeah, it's not supposed to be grainy


  5. Ahh... finally breached hell for the first time.  Feels good.

     

    Congrats! I've not gotten there myself yet, but I did beat Olmec for the very first time today, and in the daily to boot! Video uploading now :) My mood: transcendent joy

     

    I'm pimping it again, as I have no shame, no shame in my game

     


  6. Thanks for that clyde, I had been consciously avoiding FX2 because I didn't think it could stack up against the real tables, but that does sound right up my alley. I'll give it a whirl :)

     

    (also, I had no idea that they had licenced Marvel content! YES!)

     

    Edit: gave it a whirl, and whilst the ball physics do seem a little strange at first, there's a high degree of craftsmanship present which I wasn't expecting - and that's just the free level. I'll get the bundle asap.


  7. Haven't played Centaur yet. Something else that I realised when I was playing is that some of the tables seemed to have a narrative of sorts, and that if you can fulfil that, you'll unlock big point boosters and the like. I first noticed it with the free table, Arabian Nights (or something like that), where you can battle the genie. Monster Bash is another one, getting the band together.

     

    When I've encountered real pinball tables in the past I'm so wowed by the sheer joy or twatting the ball about and making lights go off that I'd never noticed any of that. Reading this thread, it seems I'm not the only one.


  8. I played loads of Pinball Arcade last week, after a friend showed it to me. There are some tables (generally the easier ones, it must be said) that I really really enjoyed, like Medieval Madness and Attack from Mars. One thing that stuck out for me is just how brilliant the sound design in PA is - I feel totally immersed in each table after only a few seconds of play.


  9. The only game I think I've finished this year, besides Arkham Asylum and Arkham City which I was completing for a second time, is Dishonored. It completely sucked me in and was all I would play for about 2 weeks. 

     

    I keep meaning to finish Deus Ex: HR, but I think it's really ugly and that puts me off massively. Good game, but.


  10. I remember feeling slightly uncomfortable reading Innsmouth. Loved the story, one of my favourites of his, but as you say, predicated on the idea of otherness as being somehow inherently twisted and wrong. As I've read more and more Lovecraft, my feelings towards him have transitioned from profound admiration of how effectively he can scare, to ambivalence because his stories so frequently fail to scare, to something of a sense that he is, for a pulp writer, hugely overrated and actually wildly inconsistent. Sometimes he gets it spot on, as with The Colour out of Space (my personal fave) and sometimes he transcends horror in the wrong direction and ends up being a parody of himself. 


  11. The stars my destination by Alfred Bester would be my favorite read of the year

     

    Ahh, that's a real cracker. I read it last year or the year before, perhaps, but it's one of my favourite SF novels. I noticed you mentioned Ursula Le Guin too - which did you read? I've only read Earthsea and The Left Hand of Darkness. The former was good, but not great, and the latter is one of the best books I've ever read bar none.

     

    Anyway, the best book I've read this year is I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson. Not sure why it has taken me so long to get around to it, but it was stunning.