Gaius Julius

In the UK over the past few years we've had a couple of instances of celebrities who have done a lot of work for charity actually using that work as an opportunity to sexually abuse and assault children/staff at, for example, hospitals. An extreme example, yes, but it demonstrates that people are complex creatures and it is possible both to do a lot of work for charity and be a total scumbag. I feel like this isn't particularly a revelation but maybe for some people it is...

Pathologic is fascinating and appealing in the same way as a horrific car accident - it's disturbing and repulsive, and yet for some reason you just can't look away. It's an absolute pain to play, particularly if all you've been playing recently are accessible modern shooters, as your character moves slowly, the animations are wacky, the inventory system is messy and the map/objective indicators (where used) are confusing. Yet, it has a strange charm to it which is difficult to describe. Quinns, formerly of RPS, did a great job of it a few years ago in a 3 part series which starts here (some of the best video game writing there has ever been, in my opinion). The game's writing does a lot for me - I don't know if it is the Russian-English translation or whether it's like that in the original language, but it reminds me of Kentucky Route Zero. Everyone speaks cryptically or metaphorically and it's never entirely clear what is happening, which just creates this great sense of mystery and tension as you explore this bizarre world. The visuals are poor, even for 2005, but it has a few nicely distinctive visual quirks like its map screen, the birdlike creatures who guide you through the story, and the bizarre and gruesome architecture of some of the buildings, particularly the abattoir. But, as described above, the key to the game's appeal is probably its gameplay. It plays out across a series of days (not sure how many, I have never made it to the end) and there are various main and side quests to be accomplished within each day. Fail to do these quests and it won't prompt you to restart - it will just continue, and you might reach a point where you literally cannot win the game, which is simultaneously brilliant and unbelievably frustrating. As the game continues, a mysterious infection spreads through the town and it descends into complete anarchy. This means that resources after about Day 3 are incredibly scarce and you are almost always teetering on the brink of death. It's an absolutely nightmarish experience...

Super idea!

Superb! Can I say - prehistoric hunting simulator?

Yep, it's really cool to chat with people and bounce ideas off them in real time. Lots of random chat too, and someone seems to be on at every time of the day...

I'm doing the same thing. I started with the ball rolling one which is super simple but helpful. Definitely worth just supplementing with some wider reading so you understand more about how C# works!

Excellent choice, still need to finish that game...

Hey, my learning is working, I actually sorta understand what you guys are talking about! Slightly peeved that IRC is blocked at work. Although that's probably a good thing for productivity...

Always trust the man in the fuchsia jacket.

Which Unity tutorial are you doing Clyde? I'm currently working through them. There's a fairly decent course on coursera.org (here: https://www.coursera.org/course/gameprogramming) which you may find useful for learning the basics of C#. It's geared towards using XNA but it also takes you through from the beginning how to code in C# (and there's no harm in learning how to use XNA!). It sounds like we're probably at similar levels, I'm just learning how to use C# myself

Nope, you're doing fine! Welcome!

Jesus, you can tell it's been a while since I've used internet forums, how the heck do you embed a youtube video?! So embarrassing, small children can do this. I feel like a proper old man...

I'm just a beginner myself, but I would imagine that once you have learned one language it will be much easier to learn another, because you will understand the structure of a programming language. It's like once you've learned French it's much easier to then learn Spanish and Italian.

"Gran, no pee...NO!" Yeah, I don't know either. Gran Tempo? Gran Vibrato?

I would really like to see the Majora's Mask mechanic used more. So many games are inherently repetitive and the Majora's Mask approach is a way of making that repetition both diagetic and interesting.

If only it were science based, then we could have Gran Neutrino...

Aren't we all getting confused here? Dishonored's isn't a morality system, it's a chaos system. The more chaos you create in the world, the more screwed up that world becomes. Which does make sense. And to get a low chaos playthrough, it's not like you can't kill anyone - it just requires you to, on the whole, take a more non-violent approach.

My profile: http://steamcommunity.com/id/gaiusjulius394 Feel to add me, I have a shit ton of games to potentially play (Y)

Great idea. Absolutely no real experience of making games (except coming up with complex house rules for various tabletop games as a kid (Y)) but totally keen on picking up a few things and contributing.

Surely it is espousing a particular ideological viewpoint that our actions can have unintended and unforeseen consequences? You may disagree with that viewpoint, and it probably is illogical, but I don't think that makes it dumb or make little sense. Although it is essentially the same binary view of morality used in most games of this type, which I guess is a bit dumb...

Greetings all! Big fan of games of all varieties, particularly PC gaming, and I also have a soft spot for all things Nintendo. See you around

Wonderful book. It's not as "science fictiony" as many of his other books, which makes it more appealing for a wider audience, but it also has a fascinating central conceit. Crucially, that conceit has obvious real world parallels, which makes it even more engaging.