Marek

True. Cropped images are always deceptive. It still looks great on full resolution though: http://www.mobygames.com/game/shots/p,3/gameId,238/gameShotId,10601/

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/railroadtycoon2/screenindex.html Look at these for a soothing effect.

Settle down... http://forums.idlethumbs.net/showthread.php?p=7677

Woohoo!

Currently games sort of follow the film industry analogy, in that lots of big publishers take big risks on single hits. Some have argued for an analogy closer to broadcasting with episodic gaming like a series or even a miniseries. This hasn't really been done to any noticable degree in the games industry (and those who want to try chicken out later -- take Vivendi's Fahrenheit). It's discussed often though. How much would you pay for episodes? Do you think it's a good idea at all? How do you get into novel series or TV programs? Are you less likely to jump in the middle of things, e.g. do you watch/read a series only when you've been there since the pilot, or are there some things that could convince you to jump in later?

The scale also sucks. Those are some giant trees.

That's some funny shit.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/cslocomotion/screens_6103103.html?page=2 this screen is a perfect example

No, I'm just being observant Plus I may have stared at the original Transport Tycoon's graphics for hours upon hours. In the original graphics, the only thing that has the random noise pattern are the ground tiles. Though even those are nicely done. Now pay close attention to how everything else is drawn, particularly the roads, the trees, the ground, etc. Now open some of these images here: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/cslocomotion/screenindex.html Pay attention to the trees. Suddenly they don't look like they've gotten nicely done shading, they're just a jungle of little pixels. Take a look at the ground tiles. You can see the noise pattern repeating, whereas this effect isn't visible in the original. Take a look at the roads, there's just random noise going on (1 pixel grain) whereas in the original seems to have the little bits of crap hand painted into it. Or just compare two screenshots really. You can't tell me that Locomotion isn't more grainy and washed out on the whole than the original. I think it looks terrible.

BEHOLD:

Glad there's no mystery about who did this... I'm in favor of de-AGifying the smileys, but at least change this one to something better. It's disturbing.

WORSE THAN BEFORE: Discuss.

Release Date: September 7, 2004

I always imagined Marvin as one of those 60ies tin can robots with rubber tubes as arms. I'm glad whoever designed Marvin for the movie has a better imagination than I have. It looks really good. The trailer is also top notch. The use of Don't Panic had me laughing out loud. I'm definitely reassured for the moment.

I moved the thread to where it belongs

What is it anyway?

You're absolutely right, Bob. I think id Software never tried (or cared for?) becoming a game developer with a current-day approach. I think they're sort of trying it with Doom 3, by actually hiring a writer, making some concept art and really creating a world, but I'm still skeptical. Somehow I think they're not going to really pull off the "fully immersive game world experience with an actual level progression and a good story" school of design that 95% of the other developers switched to long ago. id just doesn't have much experience in that, and lacks a strong art/conceptual division within the company to really pull that off at a satifying level of quality. (I might be proved wrong, of course.) Doom 3's story might be good, but it takes a great sense of irony to make it a genuinely good experience. I mean... just look at those monsters ¬¬ As you can tell I'm really skeptical of Doom 3. I secretly hope that Half-Life 2 will actually be vastly more engaging thanks to its consistent art style and focus on characters, and Doom 3 to turn out to be a sort of "movie of week" equivalent of gaming except with the special effects of a major blockbuster. I don't mean to disrespect id ... I was scared shitless by Doom 1 just like anyone else. But I think other studios are being much smarter about where to push games next. I'm rambling. P.S. I want Thief 4 with Doom 3 shadows technology.

Let's not dwell on such minutiae.

Cartman's mom is a hermaphorite.

I got beaten at it. By a girl. I need therapy.

Erm erm ... reversed psychology?! Google hasn't heard of Michael D. Rosof. The mystery grows...

Signs pointed to Kingzjester changing my name, but he denies the charges. Investigations are still ongoing (but we all know it was Kingz).

I don't have anything to say about it, so I guess I'll just insert this picture: Also And maybe even These three pictures are related, but I'll let you figure out how.

There's this character in FF: Crystal Chronicles that has real-time fur. As in... it looks all fuzzy and puffy like Sulley from Monsters Inc. I really couldn't believe they could do that in real-time! Are there any other games that feature this truly nifty trick? (Will everyone laugh at me and point out tons of games that have that?)

How does it compare to say Double Fine Action Comics? Those are often hit-and-miss, but when they hit (every tenth comic for Scott, more frequently for Raz) they hit hard. What should I expect from Grickle and/or Hickee?