Marek

I think you guys need to relax and stop picking apart these screenshots. I'm scared by how Moos was able to name nine possible levels of the game. I consume all the information too, but I've stopped trying to give it some sort of structure in my head long ago. Psychonauts has way too much cool shit to keep track of effectively. Besides, a lot things we thought we knew might have been changed long ago. Legend has it that the E3 2001 level doesn't even exist anymore.

Yep. The way its looking I bet there's some kind of catch. Like ... needing TWO PS2s to run it.

The last time he was on Discovery for like 2.3 seconds, someone made that whole documentary available as a torrent. Hopefully someone was kind enough to record this appearance as well.

More new stuff at GameSpot.

While I have no live experience in those areas, nor do I intend to get any, a minor segment of my friends does consume some of the less romantic variants of drugs listed above (mushrooms, XTC, cocaine). One friend can't stop talking about how when he took a mushroom, the local telecommunications tower over here looked like Bowser, and another nearby industrial building looked a lot like Kirby. To be honest, after looking closely for a while (in a sober state), I could see it too.

When I smoke a joint, I start giggling like a girl, and then I fail my school test / assignment at work / important appointment the next morning. No, wait ... that's an episode of Friends. And Seinfeld. And Suddenly Sudan. And That 70'ies Show. And...

You smoke men?

Hold your screen upside down, then turn up the contrast. Yeah, I know, it freaked me out too

These days they're even selling cannabis lollies in Amsterdam. The tourists love them. The natives think they're way too expensive.

Majesco has started drip-feeding new Psychonauts information to the eager public, today releasing one of them fancy fact sheets (those magical documents that reappear accross the internet with minor permutations as "exclusive previews"). Bulleted lists are generally frustrating, though not so with Psychonauts. Rise up in rank as you collect figments of other people’s imaginations, sort their emotional baggage, clear out their mental cobwebs, and crack open their memory vaults Complete special training missions to learn the power of Levitation and the ability to focus Raz’ mental energy into a powerful PSI-Blast Rank up to earn more psychic powers such as Telekinesis (toss enemies or objects with your mind), Invisibility (convince your foes they can’t see you), Pyrokinesis (set the world on fire), Clairvoyance (see through the eyes of another), and Confusion (cloud the minds of your enemies, play tricks on your friends) Put your thoughts to use—Raz can grab the thought bubble over his head and pull it down around himself as a shield, hang from it like a hot air balloon, or jump on top of it and ride it around like a skateboard. Non-linear gameplay with incredible depth offers players multiple paths and sub-challenges (digging up PSItanium arrowheads, finding lost brains, telekinetic canoeing, and winning the psychic scavenger hunt) so there is always a goal to accomplish Challenging puzzles span a range of difficulty, with alternate solutions that self-tailor themselves to the player’s own strengths and abilities They might be aggrandizing the non-linear gameplay and adaptive puzzles, cause I didn't get the impression that this was the kind of game that has that as primary features -- though I'd love to be proven wrong. I look forward to the telekinetic canoeing.

Erm, no.

Yeah no kidding, this game is set to be huge. I'm normally left cold by claims of sheer quantity, but in the case of GTA I'm really excited. I'm easily impressed by enormous virtual landscapes with nice sunsets (such as those in Morrowind) but what makes it special in GTA is the ability to cross that landscape in a range of fun ways, and not having to walk for hours. I imagine airborne vehicles will be a lot more interesting in San Andreas, if at least you're allowed to fly between the three major cities at high speeds, and provided that this mountain has a secret entrance at the top that can only be reached by helicopter:

The explosion sticker made me laugh quite a bit. Good interview though. There was some actual information contained in it, which doesn't happen all that often in Tim Schafer interviews. Erik Robson sounds like an important guy. Why have we never heard of him before?

Isn't it also "an emerging shape" ? * *) Note that I'm Dutch and up until recently thought pepperoni was the same as "peppers".

You're awfully confused for someone who not long ago mentioned nine out of ten possible mind levels.

Ron is working on Halo 2, doing texture art mostly. (You didn't hear it from me though.)

I think it's more related to Microsoft's Ed Fries making a huge effort to sign up a bunch of big-name / original titles as part of Xbox's initial publishing efforts, then Ed Fries leaving, and then whoever is in charge now seeing how other wacky platformers didn't manage to sell on Xbox and cutting back on the current games portfolio. (Psychonauts wasn't the only game to get its support dropped.) Your theory is nice but I'm not sure if it's true.

If you think about it, Majesco really isn't a bad choice for a publisher. It's not a very prestiguous publisher but it may be what's needed. Although seeing a risky game like Psychonauts getting published by UbiSoft (or better yet EA) would sure be a turn-on, a game like Psychonauts could also have easily gotten lost in the shuffle there. Majesco strikes me as an up and coming publisher that will really put an effort behind marketing the game. Psychonauts isn't that out of place amongst Advent Rising anyway, which is sort of stylish and character-based.

Lock your doors, people. Super Mario Ball has arrived.

It's such an irony that Pokemon, the most recently created Nintendo franchise, has like five million and a half thousand and three (count em!) different characters, and the only characters that keep popping up in most of the Nintendo games are Mario, et al. Either they should really add one or two new interesting characters to the Mario family (that aren't like Princess Weach or Evil Toad) or they should really try some completely new franchises. And if people don't buy the first installement of their hypothetical experimental franchise (actually Nintendo may have tried a few on the GBA I believe), they shouldn't just say "hmmmm these sales graphs show that no one is buying the game because it doesn't have Mario in it"... NO, they should stick with the plan, churn out more games with the new characters, and build familiarity around them.

To whoever is uploading these right now... WINNER:

Two days ago I was talking with someone randomly at a birthday party and he said "hey dude did you know there's an international talk like a pirate day?" Again, this is a true story.

And more YARRRR.

"Might wanna look for a big sign saying 'Bounty Stoooore'?" Stranger, the new project of Oddworld Inhabitants, has finally been properly revealed at a recent EA press event. Eurogamer has the complete video of Lorne Lanning's presentation. The game sort of fits nicely with other imaginative action-adventures like BGE and maybe Psychonauts (sort of). The game shows what Armed & Dangerous could have been if it had been allowed to be fully realized. Stranger has a lot of that same brand of humor going on. Although the gameplay mechanics don't seem to go too far off the beaten path, the weapons and character designs are extremely creative. The projectile weapons are in fact little animals. You have skunks (stink bombs), really annoying chipmunks that distract the enemies and get them all frustrated, and so on. The animals are upgradable, which means the skunk gets a gas mask (larger radius) and the chipmunks get two loudspeakers on their head to spread their annoyance just a little bit further. Somewhere at the beginning of the presentation is also a cool bit showing some intelligent AI stuff where a bunch of NPCs in a town seem to respond pretty naturally to what the player does. Hmmm. Hopefully they didn't just fake that for the demo cause NPCs that are a bit more responsive is exactly what these games need. The locations shown in the demo seem a little unimaginative compared to what else is in there, and the gameplay doesn't seem penis-nailingly original, but on the whole it's really neat. Check it out. Also: Gamespot | GameSpy | Team Xbox

It's now confirmed that Locomotion is the final title of the spiritual successor to Transport Tycoon. The game will be published by Atari (who of course also published Rollercoaster Tycoon). They issued a press release today to formally announce the game. Incidentally, GameSpy has a new preview. It's safe to say the gameplay of Locomotion will be about as addictive as a crazy cocktail of, err... various addictive things. However, there's one thing that stands out as a major con: the graphics. I'm not a graphic whore. Resolution or dimensions or whatever... I don't care. However, I do like good art direction, and Locomotion in fact manages to be uglier than the original Transport Tycoon. It's quite a feat to produce something less visually appealing than a game that's 10 years older. Transport Tycoon (1994) Nice, crispy graphics. Things are looking happy and detailed. The coastal lines feature a few pixels of beach. It's easy to see everything that's going on. Locomotion (2004) - cropped image It's a bit weird and confusing, but it looks nice I guess ... until you zoom in to the actual size... Oh no! The artist clearly went crazy with the random noise filter. Tiles aren't matching up and the sea just ends uncomfortably without any beach of any sort. There's way too much confusing detail that makes it hard to see what the fuck is going on. The railway track doesn't match the bridge and makes things look a thousand times more complex. Basically, the whole charm and clarity of the original is gone. I think it's the random noise that frustrates me the most. It's everywhere, and it's making the game look crap at regular resolution. I dare to say that these graphics would be seriously detrimental to my enjoyment of the gameplay. I really hope they fix things up a little before it gets released later this year, but its release is apparently very close now. I'm almost inclined to wait for the inevitable sexed up sequel done by an Atari team.