elvaq

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Posts posted by elvaq

  1. Posted

    I think Steam VR will be pretty open and support all devices (same with Unity/UE) but this will almost certainly beat consumer Oculus to market, with some extra functionality it doesn't currently have like the "presence" room device thing. Very interesting

  2. Posted

    Indiegala has a surprisingly solid weekly bundle. King Arthur's Gold, Master Reboot, X-Note, Depths of Peril, Secrets of Raetikon, and Solar Struggle with Steam keys for $2. Also Pixeljunks Eden & Shooter are each going for less than a buck on the store.

     

    Actually pretty excited to check out KAG and Raetikon, I've heard good things about both

  6. Posted

    As far as I remember, that is not a thing that happens in the anime?? I mean, there is no dialogue and you kind of stop paying attention a bit after the amazing opening half-hour so that totally COULD be a thing in that movie...

     

    Dang now I want to rewatch the Daft Punk anime. It's good.

  8. Posted

    Just finished David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks. I can see why it's so popular, well plotted and very exciting but literary enough that you don't feel totally guilty at the page-turn-y-ness. Highly recommended for anyone in need of a 'smart' thriller.

     

    Trying to read mostly short stories this year. Starting with George Saunders and Alice Munro. Anyone have must-share favs in the short story game?

     

    edit- Just dug into the back-discussion on Bone Clocks. I will say that the fantastical parts are pretty well-handled but I'm not generally a fan and if it wasn't extremely well done then I probably wouldn't have finished it. If you can put up with that stuff, it's fine and still a good book; if you like fantasy/sci fi, it's going to be great; if you can't stand that stuff, it probably won't work..

  9. Posted

    Just picked up first The Wicked & The Divine and Sex Criminals. Read SC before and loved it but WicDiv is new for me and it turns out I love it too.

     

    Comics are so dang good these days.

     

    Anyone read KSD's Pretty Deadly? I keep meaning to check out her work but haven't found a good, non-superhero way in yet

  14. Posted

    In addition to the Branagh, there's the 1948 one with Olivier and a 2009 BBC TV movie with David Tennant and Patrick Stewart.

     

    I have seen too many filmed Hamlets at this point but these were my favorite two.

     

    Also Lion King

     

     

    No love for the Mel Gibson Hamlet? (Not sure I ever watched it myself.)

     

    Re. The Guest and You're Next, these are both now on my watchlist, but only because of many hearty recommendations - they both look like derivative crap!

     

    You're Next is pretty dang good, I'd say. Really enjoyed it. Also heard that The Purge series is surprisingly good, can anyone corroborate?

     

    Watched the Carrie remake the other night after entirely too much wine and pizza. Watchable but also skippable. Meh

  16. Posted

    I'm always of the feeling that games don't really have to age, that if someone is willing what was appealing to the generation first played it should still appeal to later generations. Oftentimes control schemes just aren't that bad unless it's like old flight sims or something. Console games are easy and simple, old PC games usually required more work to get them to run than to actually pay.

     

    I suppose as Jake said, there is something to be said about a distinct art style though that will keep later eras interested because often time people making use of new technology to create better graphics meant they were going to make a mess and the game might be an eyesore until the next sequel. I think that's why it's easy to widely rerelease Another World for the 8th time.

     

    However, I've always felt like that mid 90s era of shitty simplistic 3D graphics ages terribly. I kind of see it as a dark spot of games no one who was not an original fan ever checks out unless they really have to. I'm mostly thinking about large chunky polys displayed at 320x240 from the N64, PSX, and Saturn. At least sometimes if you were lucky you would get a PC port and the game could run at a full 640x480, but geez.

     

    Yeah, I would say that early games age generally worse but the same is probably true of film. Of all the silent-era film, only a small handful remain on a must-see lists (from a larger, but still small subset of even-bearable silent films). It's the same for both: a lot of games from all eras age poorly, same with film. Some excellent and surprising games surpass the restrictions of their era and survive as true classics (SM64, stuff like Vib Ribbon).

     

    I think where games do compare poorly is the need to re-master and re-craft them for newer technologies. There are definitely transfers and re-masters in film, even re-makes, but I don't think it's as technologically necessary as it is with games. Like, you're better off watching Halloween on VHS than you are playing Ico on PS2 rather than PS3. Does that make sense?

  17. Posted

    Jamestown is worth playing for the music alone. And beautiful, chunky pixels.

     

    Also this looks really interesting but what if it's not a great SHMUP or a great adventure game? I really hope it will be but it seems like a lot of work

  18. Posted

    I played the first 10 hours or so of GTA5. Far enough to unlock everything of importance and yeah... it's just not very fun. The story is utter crap, the missions are boring, and all the side stuff is probably only fun in multiplayer.

     

    Makes me wondered why I enjoyed 3/ViceCity/SanAndreas so much. Maybe I had lower standards then? Maybe the industry has just moved on in terms of design and Rockstar didn't really keep up

  21. Posted

    Count me among the folks that used to be a little excited for this game. Now I'm mostly anticipating the launch to see how big of a financial debacle this turns out to be. Remember Take-Two paid over $10m for the rights to the franchise. Plus marketing, plus development, hoo boy..

  22. Posted

    Oh man, I've been doing testing on Gravity Ghost for a little bit and (spoiler) it is really good! Hoping to hear more discussion on it next week as I think a few of the Thumbs would really get into it. The story is also told in a pretty interesting way, piecemeal and out of order (but it totally works). Relaxing fun times :tup:

  23. Posted

    This game was always garbage (except the audio/visual of course). I loved games like this when I was too young to know any better but going back to them... yeesh. Game design has come such a long way