toblix

Wow, BigJKO is my closest Thumb! Who's your closest Thumb?

Do it!

Look what came in the mail the other day: Cool! What is it? Thanks for asking! It's "Lucky Wander Boy", which apparently is a book that is good and about video games. I'll sneak it into the next slot on my list (tough luck Karl Ove). There's also a thermally insulating drink container sleeve with a picture of a bird on it. On the bird the letters K and U can be seen, an initialism representing the Kniversity of Uansas. In the letter, which can be seen behind the book, and to which I'll get back later, there is some text briefly describing the history and origin of the bird, which, as it turns out, is not a real bird, but a fictional figure, functioning, as far as I can tell, as some sort of talisman intended to bring luck to KU, and the various sports teams with which it is associated. The origin is an interesting one, related to a group of warriors combating slavery enthusiasts during the American Civil War. You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_Jayhawks#Origins_of_.22Jayhawk.22. I can put a beer can in it. To the far left in the picture above you can see a glazed ceramic tile beautifully decorated with the image of a couple of enamored newly wed skeletons! It reminds one of such great video games as "Grim Fandango" and "The Curse of Monkey Island". There was also a letter. Thanks to Bjorn for these wonderful gifts! They brought me both joy, cheer and the motivation to up my game for the 2015 sequel to Idle Santa.

Finished it, having completed all sigils and all stars, with almost no use of FAQ (I checked maybe five times, and even then just for hints.) What a pleasure to play a puzzle game that feels so perfectly tuned and designed. I was expecting the later puzzles (red sigils and star world puzzles) to be frustratingly convoluted and impossible to figure out, but they managed to never once take things too far. I could always keep track of all the parts of the puzzle in my head, so the challenge was just to figure out what to do, and in what order. I especially appreciated the puzzles where I had a sudden realization and worked out a solution, and then behind the last gate was another gate, and I had to sort of twist and turn the solution right there so I could pull another jammer free. The meta-game and worlds around the puzzles were also beautiful and interesting to explore, and the computer interaction stuff were nice distractions along the way. Definitely one of my favorites of 2014, along with Wolfenstein and probably some more games. Was GTA V this year? Special fuck yous to the one star solution in world A4.

Yo, it's me, I'm back again, to describe how this game has blown my brain. All of the puzzles I've played so far, have been perfectly crafted (except that one star.) Expertly tuned to my restless mind, each puzzle takes just the right amount of time – alt-tabbing Talos/Firefox is now a habit of mine. The way the stars tie the worlds together is such a sweet treat, at first glance ridiculous, impossible to beat; but then you walk around, study each puzzle once more, and you see all these details you didn't before; how this one cool fan trick shoots a crate over there, which you can stack with this other thing and get just clear of some fence or whatever with the color beam you need to open the gate that lets you proceed. I'm not all the way through, probably at about seven eights, so my final verdict will have to wait, but this game may well turn out my game of the year, to sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air.

The stars, man. I'm still flabbergasted by that A4 star, because all the other stars – and I've done a good number by now – have had great, satisfying solutions, and that one is a dumb outlier. I wonder if I have to go back and see if I was missing an obvious clue all along. It seems more and more likely as I go through the later levels. There was another star solution that involved a crazy new mechanic that I think is unique to that one level, but at least there they cleverly tease you into discovering that mechanic using a mirror. But this game. So good. If The Witness is this satisfying, 2015 will be the year of fucking amazing first person puzzle games.

I have to say, I haven't so far encountered any other puzzles with as lame solutions as the A4 star. They tend to be really, really good, and a satisfying way to finish up each world, as most of them tie several of the world's puzzles together in interesting ways.

This thread is sick.

Well, fuck this game. Actually it's brilliant, and I love it, but seriously, the solution to the secret star in world A4 can fuck right off. At least, that's what it seem like to me. All the other stars I've found have had brain-racking solutions, but they all made sense, were consistent with the rules the game had taught me so far, and were deeply satisfying to work out. Then there's world A4, which, as far as I'm able to figure out, has a crazy, unheard of, out-of-place, ridiculous and infuriating element as part of the solution. After struggling for over an hour, searching everywhere and trying all sorts of insane set-ups, I get so frustrated I – for the first time with this game – resort to a hint guide, and it tells me someone put a So now I don't know if a star has a great solution that I'm just not getting, or if I'm wasting my time because the real trick is to wait until midnight and unplug my keyboard for five seconds or some similar nonsense.

This looks like it could be quite fun for Thumbs multiplayer. edit: I imagined the trailer would be seamlessly embedded into my post. Once again, I have failed.

I hope it's a big huge ring of gifts.

Yeah, though postage alone being over 25 USD, that would make for a terrible, empty box.

Sent mine today. Now it's all in God's hand(s).

Packed mine, sending next week!

Good games ARGs Multiplayer Edutainment RPGs Grrrrreat games! Adwenture Transport (cars, planes, etc.) Parlour games ("The Minister's Cat", "Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai", etc.)

The guy who made the Gateway games has released The Dream Machine, a browswer-based claymation point and click adventure. I can't remember what the Gateway games were like, but I think I remember wanting to to play his next game when I was done. Anyway, it's about £15 and I'm starting... now.

Oh, that's weird? I always assumed the DC of any movie is the best version, closest to the original vision or whatever? DID I MAKE A MISTAKE?

Damn it, I'm sure I double checked!

I watched Alien today, for the first time – I realized as I watched it – in over ten years. It was the director's cut, which I don't exactly know what entails. The cutting between fake rubber Bilbo head and prosthetic head was like totally jarring. There was much more ass-crack and crotch in the final parts than I remembered. I may not have paid enough attention, but I didn't exactly catch what happened in the parts before Ripley escaped in the pod. Why did she go down into the "kill me" room? Why did she try to disable the auto destruct? The danging milk-mouth head fight scene was ten thousand times more awesome than I remember. There was much less beard than I thought I remembered. Such clean-shaven.

This thread reminds me of this thread. Hope you get your games going, because it's pretty cool.

Haha what a shitty idea. lol j/k it's cool I'm in.

Thanks, singlespace, that explains my reaction to the animation. Have they said anything about whether the 12 announced characters is all there'll be, or could they possibly be going for a DOTA thing?

The trailer was very impressive, and I haven't seen any actual gameplay videos, but I have a question about the character animation in the trailer. Is there a school where people go an learn how to animate CG kids? Every little expression and movement of that little rascal felt pulled from somewhere, but I can't place it. Is there a repository of "excited kid shoots finger pistols" animations somewhere, or a popular how-to series of instructional videos? It's driving me insane; I feel like I've seen this exact stuff somewhere else before, like some sort of CGI character animation deja vu.

No. Yes!

It seems like a lot hinges on there being enough players actually trying to maintain the conceit of being a sneaky person on a ship, and not being a cool gamer jumping on chairs and railings. I felt like there were very obviously two "classes" of characters – the AI people who would awkwardly walk in place and hang out, and other people who very determinedly were on their way to their quarry. At no point did I feel like I ought to be a smooth James Bond and pretend to enjoy the view or whatever, which – if everyone did it – would probably make things more fun. I bet that the player needs (drinking, toiletting, sleeping, etc.) would induce that kind of "high-level" play once players got skilled enough, but it seems to me you'd have to invest a lot of time to get to that point. It was fun to hide in the toilet and kill everyone who entered.