Marek

Probably the part in which suits from Lucas Licensing had lunch with suits from Namco and shook hands. Also the part where Namco executives sent a memo to the development team telling them to put Vader and Yoda in the fucking game. Just a hunch...

Yes. Kudos to Ben, Alex and Duncan for giving thumb its much needed manicure.

I've only casually played Soul Calibur II a bunch of times. Can someone explain why people are concerned about the integrity of the Soul Calibur 'universe'? Is there some kind of story that people care about a lot? I'm just curious how this works for fighting games. As for the trailer with Yoda and Vader, when I played it at work one of our programmers watched along over my shoulder and got multiple nerdgasms, but it's not doing anything for me. Can Star Wars please be erased from pop culture for a while? It's gotten way out of hand. (Sadly there's that easy to overlook LucasFilm division called Lucas Licensing...)

I wouldn't really want anything seeded into anyone's brain at LucasArts. They have the power to ruin amazing properties with horrible sequels. I'm perfectly happy with all the new stuff coming out of Double Fine, Telltale, Autumn Moon, etc.

I love that it's easy. Love it. It's great. I want to make love to its easiness. Most games feel like you're wrestling a bear, this one feels like... dancing.

I'm finally digging into this game and boy it's great. Everything about it is great. GREAT. But you have to give special mention to the music. Oh man. I only rarely notice music in this kind of way. I just did the first star in the Space Junk Galaxy and that music actually made me emotional. It makes that level so darn beautiful. It surprised me that Mario of all things could do that to me. Also the little touches in the sound design are great, such as things changing tone each time you hover over them, so that it's like you're playing a little song. Amazing.

I saw Das Leben Der Anderen today, which is about a guy working for the stasi (DDR secret police). There's a lot of grey in it. Grey buildings, grey clothes, grey souls. In other words: communism portrayed accurately. Within all that grey is a subtle but interesting story. The plot is thin but that's what makes it work quite well... everyone is quietly being spied on, and everyone is sort of quietly freaking out.

Wow, more new people. Hi!

Actually both of you are wrong. 3D Realms partly funded both Max Payne and Prey. Remedy developed Max Payne with 3D Realms taking the role of producer (marketing, some game design, getting a publisher, etc.). They also sold the Max Payne IP to 2K Interactive for $10 million in cash and a whole bunch of stock. I don't know how much of that went to 3D Realms but that's probably one thing that's kept them afloat. Prey was developed entirely by Human Head. I believe 3D Realms is still working with a variety of developers in a producer role, building IP. Kind of like a consultant / middleman. I don't know which developers, but I do know that's what they do. They're probably hoping to repeat the Remedy success.

It's not a puzzle game?

I saw episodes 1-5. Wow, there's almost more footage in there of WW2, the Cold War, Vietnam, the hippie movement, etc. etc. than video games. In some cases I think it's fair to frame developments in gaming within larger history / zeitgeist but in many cases this documentary is just trying too hard. Also the series makes it seem like everything in gaming in somehow tied to the military. You know World of Warcraft? Well, that uses the internet. And the internet came out of ARPANET. And the PENTAGON MADE ARPANET OMG. I also went :( when Neil Young busted out his good 'ol "someday games will make you cry" soundbite. It's pretty depressing because they got at least 70% right and really did get some excellent footage. If edited differently you could probably end up with an amazing documentary.

I just saw The Man From Earth. It's a bit like a sci-fi short story turned into an indie movie. It takes place entirely in one location. The story is 100000% ridiculous but it's really fun if you're able to 'go with the flow'. Recommended for fans of MST2K, or weird indie concept films like ermm... Cube I guess. Don't read any spoilers.

I wasn't planning on celebrating xmas much because my family is abroad. I didn't mind this at all, I was actually looking forward to a low-key Christmas this once... but then I got the flu (or a cold? I'm not sure) and that ruined everything. I don't have the energy to do anything but watch videos all day, and my head hurts every time I move. :violin: On the plus side, I discovered that when you drag text from anywhere onto the desktop in OS X, it creates a new text file with the text in it! That brand new fact kept me occupied for several minutes. The best part is that I'll now be able to start the new year with a slightly more efficient workflow, and isn't that ultimately what Christmas is all about? I'm actually fine though! Merry xmas everyone!

Welcome!

The Max Payne IP was sold to 2K, who aren't doing anything with it.

Okay, I just did a search and it turns out Tim Ball is listed amongst the 400 scientists. He's by far the most notorious 'climate change skeptic,' as he's actually funded by the oil industry (specifically ExxonMobile) and has fabricated many of his credentials. He's one the first guys you see in the documentary "The Great Global Warming Swindle". Even if the other 399 names are legitimate, the mere fact that Tim Ball - the biggest motherfucker out there - is considered a real scientist by this author casts the entire list in doubt. Ignore this shit.

Yeah I saw that document. It's extremely political. Drawn up by a senate committee that was until recently chaired by this guy. He's called the EPA the Gestapo and environmentalists Nazis. Real piece of work. More here. Marc Morano (the author of the article and former aide of Inhofe) is equally suspect. If you'll look on the committee site, you'll also find an embedded FOX News attack piece on Al Gore, so that should give another hint about what kind of source this is. On the one hand you have this political document containing a handpicked list of scientists and quotes that in some cases only suggest or imply skepticism of global warming, but may just be responses to the hype of global warming. Then there's the report from the IPCC, an actual neutral scientific body, which has support from an overwhelming number of scientists as well as the EPA, NASA, etc. etc. Who to believe? Some senate committee just formerly chaired by some nutjob who incidentally takes large contributions from oil companies (and whose communications director slash spin doctor wrote this document), or an organization designed to be non-political and objective?

Yeah. I was wondering if it might just be due to the poor sound compression in the 486 days or whenever Duke 3D was released.

The teaser is fine. It's Duke Nukem. It's supposed to be cheesy and campy and at that it succeeds. I must admit though that Duke Nukem really feels like an anachronism now. You can really tell that this series once started out as shareware in the 90ies.

Game dialog writers still have to figure out how to say more (much more) with less (much, much, MUCH less). I think it gets like 5% better per generation. Mass Effects' dialog is already much more tolerable than some of the drivel RPGs had 10 years ago, but it's still ridiculously bloated. I guess they'll get it down pat somewhere in 2080.

Hahahaha. Brilliant.

Hey, have you noticed how some recent TV shows have had amazing opening credits? I'm thinking of stuff like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjUzSUA-f1Q I wish DVDs had the option to Play All without the intros though. Hearing some intros over and over again drives me nuts.

It's a Christmas miracle!

You dropped the hitler bomb!! Can I close this thread now? I hate it. Even though I'm right and the other guy is completely wrong, I hate it with all my heart.

:scary::scary::scary: Scary face says hi.