toblix

I know exactly how you feel and it fucking sucks. I hate that in this modern internet home page world companies still insist on dividing shit up country by country, and then only the most profitable markets (i.e. biggest, richest countries) get the premium treatment and the rest are treated like liquid shit.I think MS points are region locked somehow. Are you sure you can use points bought in other countries? If so, I'll help you, no problem.

That sucks. Ah, we'll see if it isn't too much of a problem.

I had totally forgotten that. I threw myself at the car, as I usually do to stop them, and it rolled to a halt almost so close to the center divider it would be impossible to open the driver side door. But not close enough, so my dude inched his way through this gap, slowly towards the door, and I could see you coming up the hill. And just as I had gotten in and taken control of the vehicle you reach the passenger door and steal the fucking thing. And there were no other cars anywhere. It was awesome.

Well, I've been playing some Trials HD and Shadow Complex, so... you know.

Having just played about fifteen minutes of it, I can surely say I'll be enjoying this for quite a while. It seems the story will be ultra-lame ( ), and I'm not sure yet if enemies respawn in your tracks (which will kill the completionist aspect of the game for me), and I'm sure there'll be some frustrating sequence later on that turns me off the whole thing, but for now it seems almost perfect. Polished, frequent checkpoints, very nice controls. Can't wait to play some more later.

It's out, I repeat: you can now buy it.

Thanks!

I don't know, it's well suited for book covers, like this: ORSON SCOTT CARD

Yeah, those parts weren't as good, but as I remember it, there were some interesting parts pretty much all the way through.

I'm already annoyed with myself for buying this when it comes out, as it'll inevitably end up failing to deliver on all these grand promises. I think it's interesting that he says "I think there's something fundamentally wrong with RPGs like Fable. It's a mechanic that's been there since the eighties. I'm going to take that foundation stone and throw it away." while still marketing future Fable 2 DLC and announcing Fable 2 in episodic format.

Yeah, everyone knows he disappointed a lot of people with Indigo Fahrenheit, but I still think the game was awesome. I still remember how the whole diner sequence felt like I was playing a game from the fucking future. I CAN DO ANYTHING and the game reacts accordingly! If he's able to make another that awesome third of a game, I'll be happy paying for it. If the remaining two thirds is just an awesome looking quick time event of sending your kids off to school and picking them up from the playground, I won't mind.

Yeah, I sort of expect the bad guy's plot to be turning all American men into Homosexual FAGGOTS by mixing chemicals in the water or something, but after watching the demo I don't mind if his crazy seeps into the story somewhere. It wasn't exactly the story (stumbling upon a hidden terrorist complex on the day that they are planning to LAUNCH AN ATTACK ON THE UNITED STATES!!!) that grabbed me in the first place. I guess I wouldn't buy an adventure game or RPG written by him. It's sort of like buying a racing game by Hitler. Sure, he's crazy, but how much can he screw up racing?

I've played TMI for a while now, and holy Maloney, this is awesome. This game is really good. Telltale has always impressed with the quality of their games on all fronts, but this is something else. The level of polish is incredible. I don't know how the budgets of the various S&M games and this all compare, but I wouldn't've bat an eye if LucasArts had released this as a full-priced AAA title (excluding the length, of course ((which I know nothing about yet)). The camera angles, the graphics and animations, the voice work (both acting and flow ((no awkward pauses, etc)). If anyone liked the first three Monkey Islands and have not yet gotten this, don't wait any longer, it really is a feast! This is how 3D adventure games should be made! edit: Oh, and some itsy-bitsy critique while I remember it: I would like the game, and not the launcher, to start when I double-click the icon. Similarly, I would like the launcher not to be there when I exit the game (because I'm done playing) When pausing the game, the sound should also stop There's a slightly annoying delay when putting inventory items in the combination boxes that makes the next click not register until the animation is done. When starting to walk, Guybrush always rotates quickly to face the camera before turning the way I'm pointing. Oh, and a bonus observation. If you pause the game during conversation, you can see everything freeze except the lips of whoever's talking. This leads me to belive the lip animations are separate from the rest of the animations and linked directly to the dialogue sound. Am I right, Jake?

I'm quite sure your save game will be the "canon", however you ended the game.

Oh, I wasn't aware. So there's no "reward" for going all-out on any side, other than that you actually lose the ability to chose the other side's lines? I think I was under the impression that you'd open up more interesting dialogue choices as you maxed out a rating, but honestly I don't remember. Because I've always found dialogue to be by far the most intersting aspects of RPGs, it's always a challenge for me to play games where dialogue options are dynamic, because I'm both doing the regular role playing bit (levelling up, getting better gear, doing quests) and always trying to get all the available lines. For example, when playing the Fallout games, which I've always considered the best games, dialogue-wise, I always start with 8 or 9 in intelligence and make sure to max out INT, CHAR and PER just so I won't miss any dialogue. I haven't really played any RPG where this conflicted with my lust for achievements, but if I ever do, I am confident I'll go for the dialogue options.

Any chance of hearing about of these? I will, thanks. I find that hard to believe. Well, I guess I'm not good at finding the really awesome levels. I don't remember exactly where I look, but there's an option that shows a planet with a bunch of different levels, I guess that's the most popular levels or something. Is there a list of the most hearted levels or something?Oh, and any ETA on the water-containing kit?

Weel, look at this! Water!

It should be more like: Developers: Can we m-- Management: Here's a million dollars.

And a good question. It's one thing talking about "the player" in terms of what they should do to give the average gamer so and so experience, etc., but when I'm aware of it, I'm no longer the average gamer. It's like in Valve's single player games, where they spend so much time getting the player to look at where shit is going on via subtle cues and stuff. I understand why they do that because everyone I've watched playing the Half-Lives just run through the levels, don't look where they're supposed to, etc (which annoys the living shit out of me), so obviously they have to be controlled in some way, but this doesn't apply to me (I think) because I move at a snail's pace through the levels, inching from trigger to trigger, always looking everywhere to make sure I see all the awesome stuff, catch a glimpse of the G-Man, etc. Anyway, can I really complain and say that the achievements make me play the game differently? Not really. Are such achievements (i.e. achievements that "make" you play an RPG in a different way than you'd really like just to get it) stupid? I think that's an interesting question. Also, I'm so weak I'd do just about anything for the blup-blip sound of a fresh achievement.

I do, I can't help it. If an RPG has an achievement for maxing out the good/evil scale, I will.

That's awesome.

Aaand that's it, I'm done with Escape from Monkey Island. It froze on me for the last time. Not in the classic game freeze way, but in the way where it's obvious that the game's incredibly fragile scripting engine is stuck in some loop where it's waiting for an animation to finish, but for some reason the animated character is stuck on some edge or corner and they didn't add a timeout. Anyway, I feel that I got a good enough taste of the game to conclude that it's inferior to the three prequels in every way. I'd really like to sit in on the various meetings where they made the decision on going 3D, doing keyboard controls, the inventory, etc. I knew I thought so at the time, but it's even more incredible to me today how LucasArts, known (to me) for their quality products, would release something as unpolished as this. It's like a beta product! From the first 3D sequel I played I've known they'll age much worse than their 2D predecessors. This is a classic example of that. On the other hand, I guess the industry would have to make all these mistakes some way or other before figuring out how not to do things in post-2D games. Anyway, as I said before, the three first games are as excellent today as they've ever been. I played through them all in ScummVM and had no problems. Now for TMI! (finally)

Sometimes, no other typeface will do.

I was about to say that as long as there's a visible meter in place for that kind of stuff, players are going to be gaming it. Then, you pointed out that only hardcore nerds would actually do that, which I immediately agreed to. But then I thought, really? Isn't the paragon/renegade bar just as visible as any other character stat? If the player is expected to look at and care about these, why wouldn't he/she care just as much about the morality/alignment of the character? With all the stat reporting games are doing these days (at least I know Valve is doing it), and with conventional game testing, I bet the developers know how many players consciously select the stat maximizing lines rather than whatever feels right at the time.