toblix

I just saw Kick-Ass, and instead of trying to write something myself I'll just link to this post by James.

Okay, I just have to ask: Is anyone but me still playing this thing? I keep the pitboss running, and people are racking up scores. I just want to confirm that this is due to people playing, and not just a bunch of automated workers slowly covering the earth in roads and irrigation.

There's also the thing where you Mafia free without having to purchase anything.

Thanks, I just preordered on Steam.

Just finished it. This really is a polished, sweet-looking, sweet-sounding, sweet-controlling game. I guess it takes about two-three hours, which is a nice length for it. The mood and style of the game sort of changed towards the end, as it becomes more of a straightforward platform puzzle game with very explicit and "gamey" mechanics and parts, which is a slight shame, as I much preferred the calmer exploration stuff at the beginning. I guess they felt they had to take out what they could from their great physics engine. Also it's weird that the game is so gory. There are times when all his intestines are torn out and shit. Bonus comment: Looking forward to the heated interpretation of the story! It'll be just like Braid!

I've played it, and I'm probably about 2/3rds through it, though this is just a guess. It's been good so far.

This thread is mighty long and useless for historical purposes. Here's an idea: How about discussions about specific films or directors or whatever get their own thread and this is for more general discussion of the subject? Or even better (or worse) how about a separate film/TV forum?

This is going to awesome, to be sure, but I'm very surprised that this isn't the third "Holy Trinity" thing everyone was expecting. I mentioned going up on the museum via the scaffolding and trying to enter a door, but realising this was the entry for the third guy, fully expecting the next episode to be about him. I wonder how much overlap there'll be between this episode and the other two. Also, I wonder what kind of multiplayer modes they'll include and if they fix the largest problem with GTA IV and its expansions -- that the new contents (weapons, tracks, vehicles, modes) aren't added to the old ones, but you have to restart the whole game to access each expansion's stuff. It's stupid, and I don't expect them to fix it, but one may hope.

Yeah, considering the whole thing built up around a single truth, like Lost or whatever, seems like a stretch. I really like when things are "off" in a setting, though (a big reason the world of the Gunslinger books appealed so much to me.) I'm not sure why I don't get all angry about it ruining everything, like much of the jokes in Fallout 2 did, but I really think it adds to the setting. Even though it's obvious they're not taking anything completely seriously in MI2, the ending still grips me and makes me feel all mysterious or whatever. toblix out

I read a thread somewhere where someone said that the whole theme park thing was hinted at all throughout the game, and I started to recall where this was. So far I've got: The fake waterfall with maintenance tunnels Everything after falling down into the finale tunnels. Which references/hints have I missed? Is there a list somewhere?

More like Shadow Awesome (it seems). When hearing this game I always thought it was the same game as Alpha Protocol, but I just figured out it's this nice XBLA platformer (thinking about it, didn't they talk about this in the podcast?). They're using words like Metroid something, which means nothing to me, but it seemed really fun. I also read that there are plenty of checkpoints, which is important to me. Look at this! edit: It's running on the U3 engine, and it looks really nice and polished. I'm deffo getting this. edit 2: HOLY SHIT this looks really cool and awesome! Everyone, look at the video now!

In a cabin, so not able to listen right now (have to be naked), but looking forward to hearing it on Monday! Looking forward to the AC2 discussion in particular.

Ooh, this reminds me of that thread where I said I would actually finish those games. Now I'm actually going to.

You had me at "Toblix." I've heard about this game, and it sounds pretty neat, but ever since playing a Castlevania game on the DS I have ignored any mention of it because it was so unforgiving. I really liked how Shadow Complex saved your progress all the time, keeping my stress level comfortably low. Would this castlevania game be a high-tension stressfest or awesome fun, or is this unknown?

Or maybe the title is just a red herring and it's just a film about a poorly maintained elevator.

Speaking of which, I just saw the trailer for the next M Night. Shyamalan film. The premise: Five people stuck in an elevator. Also, one of them is The Devil! Oh, also:

I don't hate him, I really enjoyed the Blackwell games.

If there was an hour's worth of commentary in there, I'd like to know where. I played through it, and the commentary parts were few and far between. I would actually prefer to just watch the playthrough they were watching, rather than having to play through everything again, rushing through the puzzles to hear the next comment, but I guess that defeats much of the point of the game. It'd be nice as an alternative, though. Also, while the art has improved in resolution and colour depth, it's still very sloppy. There are old pixels jutting out all over the place, which is disappointing. I also find my own internal reading of the dialogue to be more hilarious than the voiced ones, even if they all well done.

ALMOST A YEAR HAS PASSED SINCE THE PREVIOUS POST Anyone know of any concrete mentions of a sequel to this? I suddenly got the craving for its simple and addictive gameplay, and googled around but didn't find anything. A sequel is inevitable, right? Right?

Just watched Exam. It really reminds me of how much I love closed room puzzles in games, though.

Finished it today too as well. The UI was by far the best part of this -- the wooshing of letters and clicking of rotating digit indicators were extremely satisfying. I hope the focus for the sequel (if there is one -- I noticed this was a single game purchase rather than a full season) will be to make the "puzzle" engine more powerful and versatile. That is, the puzzles themselves would benefit tremendously from being snazzier, both while being solved and showing the solution. I wouldn't mind fewer of them if they had more custom stuff, animations, etc. I guess it's not going to happen, seeing as the sheer number of puzzles is the meat of it, and they have to be consistent, and they're fine as is. As has been mentioned, some of the puzzle rules weren't made clear enough, and if the puzzle got more screen space we wouldn't have to toggle back and forth between the puzzle and a list of complex rules we need to know.

The way to fix this is to let the soldiers have helmets, so that you need two or more headshots to kill them.

I will pay money for a video/audio recording of this. Anyone know if this will exist?

Could this be another Metro 2033, a game I didn't even consider because of my preconceptions of Russian games, but which turns out to be super awesome?

The reason I finish most video games.