toblix

I started this game today, and had to restart it three times before it let me play. The first time it just crashed when I selected New Game. The second time the intro was a bit choppy, so immediately after I adjusted the graphics settings. When returning to the game, all I could see was endless ocean. I think I understand why so many games tell you to restart after changing graphics settings – apparently changing them whilst the engine is running is an amazing technological feat. Oh, also I quite liked the first ten minutes of the game – typical of modern video games.

I don't know! Is he?

Sounds sweet. I'm interested to know what brand or provider of laptops go to the xtreme lengths of providing a custom Norwegian person to talk to for Norwegians. Except for Microsoft, every time I've had to call customer service I've spoken to a Swede or a Dane. Hilariously, there was this awkward exchange between me and the Epson Dane wherein he spoke to me in English, and I, in my weird Norwegian dialect, tried to explain I wasn't English for too long, but he just kept repeating «Speak English, please!» in that cute Danish English* until I gave up. ANYWAY sounds like you made the right choice, and even if everything goes to shit, which I'm not saying it will, you'll still be left with the better life story. *

Hey, let's leave the real name thing to internet stalkers and the FBI, ok? edit: Sweet, crisis averted! I try to live on the internet like I do at work and elsewhere. At work I prefer to be called Iceman.

http://en.wikipedia...._and_eat_it_too http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/magazine/20FOB-onlanguage-t.html

It would be pretty embarrassing for me if someone puts that original sequence up on Youtube and it turns out it was hammy, schlocky schlock all along, but based on my memory of the game, and the sequel as well, there was never anything funny about the enemy or what they did. The games had a lot of humour, to be sure, but it was always friendly characters that did the joking around and being funny. The enemy wasn't portrayed as dumb, clumsy or incompetent, like, say NOLF or Max Payne,

I think it's «Around All the Corners»

Great episode.

Pac-Man never really interested me much, as it was already technologically outdated by the point I became actively interested in video games. Later, though, I've become fascinated by how much depth it actually has. For example, the ghosts all have different names and actual personalities/behaviour patterns. Also, the amount of detailed strategic information that exists to allow record-breaking playthroughs is amazing.

twmac, thanks for making me give it another go. After that particular sequence, I quickly finished the game, and won't have to remember it as one of those games I probably should've finished. Though I never really loved the game for its game play, I really appreciate for once playing a horribly violent game that acknowledges what it is. There are some games I'm really looking forward to that are bound to be violent as well, like The Last of Us. I hope they'll put some meaningful context around the brutality as well. I can already tell this next thing won't make much sense, but I'll try: One thought I've had is that, unlike other mediums, games have to be developed with a strong, costly focus on any game play mechanics it'll include or depict. For example, this game, and its development focus and resources, have all been dedicated to making a first-person shooter; its levels, graphics, animations, sound, weapons, controls and more are all really focused on making an actual shooter game, ostensibly in order to be able to comment on other shooter games. Traditionally, because games tend to be interactive, you wouldn't be able to make the same statement without this big investment in all of this, which might be part of the point, I don't know. As predicted, this turned out to become a rambling thing, but it just fascinates me, looking at the credits, all the work that went into this comment. Also, was everyone who worked on the game on the same page? Did the people who made the animation of me shooting a guy in the knee and then in the head do it as a comment on interactive violence, or just as a sweet takedown? What about the animators who make the same animations for Call of Duty?

Not surprisingly, after starting up the game I breezed through that section like a two-dollar pistol on a Saturday night. I really like that Steam lets me rage-uninstall and reinstall with such ease!

It would change everything.

I'm sorry. I've reinstalled the game, and will try to complete it.

Okay, so we just finished this game, and spent about 25 hours in total on it. Unsurprisingly, it gets progressively worse as you get towards the terrible end. In the first area, the island, there's that great feeling of having a huge, unexplored place that you gradually explore and get to know. You unlock new ways of traversing it, and there's a convenient fast travel that lets you move from hub to hub easily, whilst still requiring you go actually drive or walk to reach mission goals. The island is a good location, as it's recognisable, but with the twist that it's full of zombies (a pool full of of blood and zombies, bungalows with infected tourists, etc.) There's a beach, and a hotel, and a lighthouse and a gas station and everything. The second main location is also great at first, since it takes a lot of the game play you're used to and changes fundamental parts so that you have to adjust to the new environment, find new tactics, and there's some new enemy types which are fun, though not very novel. However, it really starts to drag out, and the lack of fast travel locations here forces you to run up and down the same paths a lot of times, and the repetitiveness starts being very apparent, especially as you've already spent quite a few hours playing at this point. Then the third and fourth locations are even less interesting, since there's not really anything new, just lots of more quests – all of which, by the way, are super-simple and seldom exciting at all. Now you're sort of hoping things will speed up and you want to be done with it, but instead of becoming more interesting they just make you run back and forth a lot more, with even less fast travel locations. And of course the last location is the worst, and you're tired of everything and have to do a bunch more boring shit just to get to the end, which of course is dumb. As a single player game I don't know how anyone would even get halfway through this. As a co-op thing, though, it's good fun all the way.

After the disappointment that was Deadlight, I watched the Giant Bomb quicklook of Dust, currently available on XBLA, and decided it seemed fun. It has a lot of weird furry characters that make me think of some weird erotic stuff on Deviantart that someone told me about, and everyone has tails and big wet eyes, but! it's also a really fun Metroidvania (I think I know what that means now) 2D fight-em-up platformer with quests and leveling up and gear that you upgrade. It's really polished, looks really good and has a fine balance between beating up a bunch of dogs and searching for hidden chests. If you can stand furry characters, it's a great game. If you have a furry fetish, you have to buy it!

I was really looking forward to this until I heard the voice acting, and now I'm not that excited. From what I've seen it seems like they've made some nice levels, and done a good job on the visuals. The voices, though, just make it seem they didn't «get» Half-Life at all, at least not in anything resembling my own experiences.

Nice.

I haven't played it at all, but my impression is that it isn't hard in that it required amazing skills or reflexes – more that it requires dedication, determination and being able to fail and lose progress a lot, all the while surrounded by dreary, dank, depressing environments and characters.

Yeah, this is terrible. I could see that they were going somewhat off the beaten path, and there was some great stuff in there, but after three hours, I just couldn't be bothered playing through their bad shooter to see what they were going for. I got to a sequence where we were holed up in a yacht, and a bunch of enemies, including the classic heavy bullet sponge ones. I failed a million times, and when the dialogue came up saying I kept dying in the same place I got so pissed off I rage quitted and uninstalled the game. That difficulty dialogue should say "hey, we're not very good at making these games, and we find balancing difficulty and fun a challenge. Sorry about the heavily armoured guys that are never fun!"

Base.

Is Eurogamer, the expo, related to Eurogamer, the website?

Holy shit, there appears to be some sort of protective plastic film on the lampshades!

What does colour-blind mode entail in games, usually? Just switching to different colours, or more elaborate stuff like replacing colours with symbols?