Marek

Isn't that functionality included with most MySpace clones? (It is on a Dutch one that I use.) But I'll sign up out of curiosity. I heard someone mention it during a discussion about web communities last week so it must be hip!

Yes. Kill Bill 2 is better.

That's nice for people who'd want a black Xbox 360, but it's a color that totally does not fit the form. I saw a picture of a prototype (?) black Xbox 360 once and it was hideous.

Disonaurs with party hats > Dinosaurs.

People might complain about the length a little too much considering what the series is going for. Both episodes have enough content to make them self contained and satisfying little stories. It's not like there's things missing, people generally just wish there was more. And there will be, next month. I really don't care if an episode takes me 2 hours or 2,5 hours to complete. What counts is whether I had enough fun playing it. Telltale could have padded things out a little more, or included more difficult puzzles, but I don't care for that. Right now I can easily complete an episode and not let my gaming diet become oversaturated with Sam & Max (which would make me skip episodes or delay playing them). A one month break between episodes of this size is just perfect. If there's going to be a Season 2 I think it'd be smart for Telltale to include a Mega Monkey esque difficulty setting to appease the hardcore fans, but I would still play it on easy because I'm really not interested in being stuck in an adventure game anymore.

Erm, yes, you are correct. I don't know why I said that. I guess what I meant was that the majority of Xbox 360 users with HD expectations have 720p.The rumors about the Wii upgrade mentioned something about an improved wrist strap and improved infrared signal and little things like that, but no new features. Then again, they're just rumors, like this old one.

Holy shit. We should start some kind of Rent A Friend Wii service. Get rich by whoring out your Wii!* *See what I did there?

I didn't want to post anything in the original thread because that would be like leaving footprints in fresh cement. Or putting stickers on a new MacBook. Or... something. I just wanna say that's an awesome thread. I hope more people add to it.

In lieu of a real look-back article on Thumb, let's post our personal Games of the Year (and your runners-up). It's not about which game is objectively the best, since no one can claim to have played them all anyway. It's about which game gave you the best experience this year, and maybe to remind eachb other of some of the great titles that came out in 2006. One special rule: you have to post a cool screenshot of your #1 pick. Because I like threads with pictures. My Personal Game of the Year: Half-Life 2: Episode 1 I blasted through it in a single weekend, which was awesome. I like long and epic games, but you can only play so many of them. Half-Life 2: Episode 1 proves that an expansion isn't about how many new assets you put in it, but how you can use existing ingredients in different and fun ways. Episode 1 is just as good as the original game, and in some ways, due to the way that it's more rounded and contained, it's actually even better. It's interesting that Valve, which puts gameplay above all else in their development process, and not really focuses on jamming in plot elements or character development, has actually created a universe with characters that I've grown incredibly attached to. One good line of Alyx doing a zombine impression can completely destroy pages of bullshit video game dialog about destinies, wisdom, willpower or good versus evil. Runners-Up: World of Warcraft Not a 2006 game, but this was the year I jumped in. Played it for 2 months, then quit around level 25. I can't say I got quite as addicted to it as most people have, but I really enjoyed the experience. I had it on my laptop, often grinding and watching TV at the same time. I played part of it together with a friend, taking turns on controlling the character. One time we kept playing through the night. It was just us and the occasional other night owl adventuring around Ironforge. As night falls the snow gets that cool blueish hue with highly contrasting shadows from trees and hills, and I really remember the constant sound of footsteps in the snow. The next morning we woke up and played some more, and it felt like we'd actually been on a hike or something. Kingdom of Loathing A crappy web game. I still spent way too much time adventuring, mixing drinks and writing haiku's. At work, of course, under the guise of "research". Brain Training Playing it actually became part of my lifestyle for a while. I used to wake up, play some Brain Training to get my brains into second gear (usually Reading Aloud... it works really well) and then go to work. I'm not a morning person, so it's rare for me to add anything to my morning ritual. Then I'd play another few rounds during lunch break. Also, chicks really dig it, and you can bust their balls for being old. Guitar Hero I've not owned Guitar Hero, but between a dozen developer events and a collegue taking it to work for research (actual research this time) I got to play it a lot. Guitar Hero actually isn't ideal as a party game, because eventually you get bored of watching, but it still really brings people together. Great game. Invasion of the DS New Super Mario Bros, Trauma Center, Phoenix Wright, Ouendan, Animal Crossing, Nintendogs, Age of Empires, Electroplankton, Good Lord. Too early to say Zelda: Twilight Princess, Gears of War, Viva Pinata Games I wish I'd played more... Metroid Prime: Hunters - Played it for half an hour, then never returned to it. Resident Evil: Deadly Silence - Not having played the original RE I thought this would be a great opportunity. Played it for 10 minutes, still haven't touched it. Sam & Max - This was mostly due to issues with my PC, but I'm only halfway through Episode 1 (and I have the review copy of Episode 2 waiting). There is basically no excuse for me not to finish these games. Dreamfall - Only played the first few hours. Sorry, Ragnar. I'll get to it. Games I wish I'd played at all... Hitman: Blood Money, Oblivion, Okami, Bully, and a hundred others.

If you're on press lists for multiple sites or magazines you usually stay on them. Also judging by some of the mailings I get, some PR agencies are deliberately targeting smaller grassrooty sites and blogs. There's probably a 50% chance I actually review something that comes in. I get weird shit all the time. What am I supposed to do with not one but two copies of Ship Simulator 2006?

Sorry. I'm always surprised when people don't make that difference.

Everyone's forum username can be found on their profiles.

Well, it would be very uneconomical for developers. If the majority of the userbase can only have 720p, why spend the effort to upgrade to 1080p? You'd lose a large chunk of available processing power and memory, because more pixels would have to be rendered and higher-res textures would have to be loaded.I think Microsoft is only adding 1080p support so that it can say that it's theoretically supported, and so that it can output 1080p movies from the separate HD-DVD drive. Aussie Ben: I haven't yet purchased any Live Arcade games so that would not be an issue for me. Althooough I am getting review copies of some games next week, so it would become an issue then. Crap.

Isn't the 1080p upscaled from 720p anyway (in games)?

Can you do slanty text?????

Trademarked, not copyrighted. And probably not.

That's almost Comic Sans MS. Almost! :( Times New Roman? Really? The whole Wii system (and branding) uses sans-serif fonts, and for some weird reason only these screens use a serif one. Also the letter spacing is wonky, probably a case of each letter being a separate bitmap. More forgivable but still ... that's the freeware font I used on one of my Geocities sites in 1997. Who put that text there? Is it chalk? It doesn't look like chalk. It looks like a font put on top of a wood texture. Anyway. Yeah. There's probably a better way to spend my lunch break than making this post.

So is this Expo for All? Or Entertainment for All? Probably... Electronic for All.

It's a joke.

Clearly not the same. Exploding onto a tabletop = a great headline.(I'm sure if you sift through Idle News long enough you'll find one of these though.)

I took a day off for Wii (which ended up becoming a day off for 360). But that's not so exciting. In fact I don't think I have any exciting war stories on this topic. I guess I did get in "trouble" once for wanting to play a game though. Way back in high school I got bored during physics class and started writing "I want Monkey Island 3" over and over again in my notes. My teacher, thinking I was furiously taking notes, came up to me smiling but was then super dissapointed by my psychotic writing, so he sent me to the principal's office. The principal began by threatening to show it to my parents, so I started laughing. Then the principal started laughing too, because he was a cool guy. Then I explained what Monkey Island 3 was and afterwards I could spend the rest of that hour in the common area, which was exactly the sort of punishment I was hoping for. Okay, now that I'm writing about this... A month later Monkey Island 3 came out and I completely stopped doing any homework because I was too busy updating my fan site. I got really bad scores for English tests that only involved learning vocabulary (and no reading comprehension) because I just couldn't be bothered. I showed a classmate a printout of something from my site and he didn't believe I'd actually made an internet website in English because everyone thought I was utterly shit at the language. I also remember my teacher being completely amazed by the fact that I knew words like "feather duster" and "scurvy" but didn't know many of the more pedestrian words required by the class (thank you, Ron Gilbert). One time we were dealing with the American civil war in history class and the teacher was describing this guy and asked if anyone knew who he was so I was like "ooh! yes! Abe Lincoln!". I knew this because in Civilization there's a guy named Abe Lincoln, and he had a similar description in the Civopedia. The teacher then went like "Abe? Aaaayyyyybbbb? Are you trying to be funny, Marek? His correct name is, of course, Abraham Lincoln." I've gone way off topic.

Yes and fuck yes. But I don't want to elaborate for fear of jinxing everything.

Ah yes it's great that you mention BioShock. I noticed it before and agree completely.

Little effort is also usually spent on the typography and the general design of title sequences and the start menu, which is a shame cause they can really draw you in. A couple of exceptions I can think of, just off the top of my head, are the modern GTAs, Sam & Max (hi Jake), Battlefield Vietnam, ermm......

Yes. Small flipbooks glued to a magazine page.