toblix

I'm guessing all these bugs will be replaced by actual stuff like accelerator tiles.

It's not a pyramid scheme, it's a hierarchical marketing strategy, or "hierarcheting"!

As an apropos, Deux Ex 3 will apparently go with dynamic difficulty:

I watched the first five seconds, and then James writes "Hi James" and I'm like WHAT THE FUCK!!! Anyway, will continue watching. Why do the chat windows switch the other person's name around? Is this a known issue?

Give this a minute, it gets real good: 7eRBQt51VlA

Watched The Tenant last night, and it was great. I was quite embarrassed to realize who played the main part first when I looked it up after. I was sure I'd seen him somewhere before... Also watched Knight & Day, which started off not horribly, but turned into boring modern action romp shit all too soon.

That was sweet, but it a nerdy way I was sort of annoyed at how (stereoscopic) 3D was contrasted to everything other than "perfect CGI" 3D , and lumped together as "8 bit" when clearly most of the sweet stuff was in the style of 90s 32bit "we just got a CGI machine!" CGI platformers like Abe's Oddysee. Anyway, it was sweet. edit: Quote FAIL

Back to the Future defines the upper limit of quality. So, anyone see Machete and like it? I really like how it's pronounced in Mexicanese. Also, if you put dark yellow text on your film it totally looks like it came from the 70s!

Here's an awesome story of when I restarted at level 17. The first missions are really easy now since I now know that I can make four nail bats each time I visit the security room. So I do the first missions, easy peasy, rescue a bunch of people SIDEBAR Even though the friendly fire thing is horribly shit in this game, escorting people is ten times easier than in the first game. No matter who I escort in this game, as long as they're able to run, follow me safely all the way back to the safe house, no rescuing required. Sure, they get tangled up in some groups of zombie men along the way, but they always manage to break free and join me. and kill a bunch of psychos and a tiger (!!!) and now I've even got the rolling special move! I've got the Chuck the Role Model mission now, though (the toilet hippie) and that's a tough one. The timing's gotta be just right, and there's the annoying thing where you can't really save anywhere close, so you have to reload and make your way all the way back to the boss each time you lose. Okay, this wasn't so awesome, but I felt I should balance out my first review of the game. It has its share of (really) annoyances, but there's also some sort of charm that keeps me coming back... but for how long? Also, 2K Czech can kiss my ass for not having patched out the GPS from Mafia 2 yet. edit: O.M.G. I just found out the toilet hippie wasn't hard at all. As always, I was being too clever for my own good.

Really, I thought most games were thoroughly focus tested these days, on old crones and black kids and smiling people in wheelchairs.

In a way I guess it's weird, maybe, that the player gets to adjust all sorts of stuff, and that it may seem like they didn't bother – or couldn't – balance their own game. However, if you're making a game that has multiple aspects: a story, platforming, combat, whatever, if you don't have a difficulty setting huge parts of the audience will find those parts either too easy or too hard. There's no way to tune stuff like twitch-based gaming or how many times you want to try a thing over and over because it's so god damn fucking annoying shit in a way that's right for everyone. So, either you accept that, or you let the user adjust whatever variables you find relevant. I don't find this super-ridiculous. Oh, that reminds me of the awesome Silent Hill thing where you adjust combat and puzzles separately. That was great. As for a standard for difficulty, that would require a bunch of metrics and analyis which, even if possible, would cost so much nobody would ever even attempt it. But it's an interesting thought, the games you play using some central API, reporting and querying about your skill. I agree that when starting a game for the first time, selecting a difficulty is a crapshoot. I guess adaptive systems is the way to go, but even then it's hard to know what you should adapt to. People who like a challenge will probably find the system too kind, and people like me will still ragequit.

I am a certified medical doctor, and can confirm that your prescribed dosage is a prescription... ... for death!

Watched The Sixth Sense again tonight, and had forgotten how good it is. That kid really nailed it.

Watching that (sweet video) it really struck me how much more awesome the landscape could be if the vertical space was increased. Although the current system is nice, you can't really have majestic landscapes like tall mountains, deep valleys and, of course, awesome fjords.

Sounds good, I'll donate as well, if it's convenient, easy and safe!™

Just got my ass handed to me by a boss (actually two bosses) so I restarted at level 17. On the one hand it feels sort of frustrating having to do the early stuff over, but the open, free-form feel of the game alleviates that to a high degree. I don't know how many times I'm prepared to do this though – so far all my new skills have been useless; kicking zombies when they're down, etc. It seems to me being able to dodge quickly is key to beating any of the bosses, and I hope to God that is a skill I can get. Also, Steve Gaynor posted some really good improvement suggestions on twitter, which I'll paraphrase here: Being able to restore durability on the workbenches Being able to store items in the maintenance rooms Prompting for a confirmation when changing zone and one of the useless civilians you're escorting is just outside the transition zone because she's being attacked by a fern that toppled onto her. Indicating boss fights on the map Checkpoints when transitioning These seem to me to be great suggestions for lessening the frustration of the game. I suspect they're going for suspense, and it seems to me that in game design, suspense and frustration go hand in hand. After all, it's not scary if you've nothing to lose, and what's more precious than game progress?

Sweet, but who are "we"? Idle Thumbs? Tell Tale? It would certainly awesome if ysbreker didn't have to spend his whole allowance each week just to let us play.

So, I just watched A-Team. Well, I watched the first two thirds, and then I couldn't be bothered. I guess it goes without saying, since the target audience is obviously young bras, but I'm getting too old for this shit. I can't even remember the last action movie I enjoyed. It's just so predictable and unfunny and dumb and boring. Oh, a cameo by one of the guys from the TV show, how incredibly cool. Who thought the flying tank think was cool? Ten year old boys? No wait, Splice was pretty cool. And the Polanski stuff I was watching. That reminds me, I have to see The Tenant. I hope Jurassic Park comes out on bluray soon. I have to show my younger sister what a real popcorn movie is like. What the hell, how hard is it to transfer this dinosaur movie, people?!

Just spent an hour and a half with PiratePoo, and this is really fun! The multiplayer is a lot more polished than I expected. Also, watching PiratePoo in cut-scenes being all melodramatic and serious whilst wearing a coconut bra is among my top five moments this week.

After finishing House of Leaves, which I reviewed in my previous post, I gorged myself with The Walking Dead, which was fantastic. Then I consumed Jack Ketchum's The Lost in a couple of night, which is fast for me. It's so sweet when you're done with a book, and have to choose the next one to start reading. There are so many!

Yeah, it's such bullshit. It's obviously a mockup with some low-rent DOF applied, intended to be fixed before airing. Every season they didn't fix it I entered a blinding rage. I could make a better version of that fucking piece of shit in 3dsmax in half an hour. Anyway, movies and television.

But what should they use to determine whether your eyes are glowing Evil Red or Holy White?

Pirate!

"This fucking way ->"

Yes, I also didn't watch Lost because they used typefaces inconsistently. Actually, I do watch Glee, but it's one of those shows that have some good moments, but I wouldn't miss if were suddenly canceled, just like House. It's fun, but not exciting. Nothing really interesting goes on.