toblix

Great, thanks!

Happy botday!

I don't think anyone thought you were trying to cash out your donation, just making a constructive suggestion. And I thought they already had a setup that allowed it. If they'd have to go to great lengths to do it, it's a different matter entirey.

Well, no multiplayer, really.

Definitely. I don't listen to the podcast on earbuds, so it's not that important to me, but if the following is correct ... It makes it easier to discern overlapping voices It doesn't detract from the audio quality (It's a subtle shift) It's not a complex thing to mix (Adjusting the balance on two tracks) It doesn't double the file size (I'm pretty sure most MP3 encoders supports joint stereo) ... I think they could at least give it a shot and see how it turns out. In fact, the progresscasts would be perfect for that kind of experimentation!

I got this on 360. No cross-platform on this game, then? Should definitely be possible, what with the no actual multiplayer.

Which one was the fife and snare drums one?

It would be interesting to know how the development how this has progressed compared to AC2, Brotherhood and Revelations. AC2 was okay, Brotherhood was a pretty perfectly polished take on the same (and some additional) mechanics, and Revelations was too much of the same (too soon). So, will AC3 be more of the same, or did they branch off further back and start working on new, interesting content? In other words, is this game three years in the making or just one? I watched a GDC talk by one of the Assassin's Creed guys, and the whole process seemed pretty sad. The whole thing sounded almost factory-like, with no room for creativity or iterative design, just churning out assets and focus-testing to verify what they had decided on from the outset.

A sick burn to be sure.

I just ordered this, and expect to grind some sweet snow in a couple of days. If anyone else is on this, let me know and I'll add you on BroNet.

Oh, I forgot to say it's an EA game.

This changes everything.

Brutal Legend was EA?

I wish I could play Amnesia – seems like a game one should have played.

Sure, sure, it's always annoying when entitled gamers start complaining before they know what they're talking about. Sorry for being a negative Nelly. Still, I think it should be possible to make predictions and discuss expectations before all the facts are out. After all it's what we'll be doing even after they've announced it; we'll still only have a marketing/developer spin on what they're aiming for, not knowing what the final product is going to be like. I wonder if they'll go right out and say something about the target audience. I'm expecting them to say they're aiming directly at everyone, from the Wii family in their weirdly large living room to the sweaty PC sim enthusiast, and reality lean more towards the former. I'll even cynically bet they've decided to make another Sim City to ride the FarmVille wave (if that's still a thing). Imagine, however, if they're doing the Civ V thing – a proper, dear I say it, hardcore PC game with a slick high-resolution mouse-focused interface, high quality graphics, more of that awesome funky soundtrack (the first thing I bought on iTunes) and those neat curved road things that Cities XL had. So when is GDC?

While Maxis can probably make an awesome new Sim City, I think EA has the power and desire to ruin everything with their unrelenting desire for revenue, covering the interface in clumsy social friend community notifications and pop-ups telling you that ~\BroheiM/~ just scored a thousand SimPoints™! All your friends have bought the new Fire Station DLC, why haven't you? What are you, poor? Need more SimPoints™? Buy them here just like fucking FarmVille.

Now my expectations are reduced by a billion percent.

So, anyway this will not be an game?

The Thirty Flights of Loving trailer was wonderfully done. Did you do the C:\> stuff your own self?

I still want to hear what it would sound like. I'll make it first priority to find an audio sample.

OMG DONT DESTORY THE PODCAST! If someone has a good example of the effect, it'd be cool to hear. Obviously, if it's a lot of work or whatever, they shouldn't bother. If it's simply a matter of adjusting a couple of settings and exporting a new MP3 (I know almost nothing about podcast production) it would maybe be cool to hear what it sounded like. Henroid, you can probably take it easy – I doubt Chris will ruin the podcast just because some people ask him to.

Obviuosly we're talking about subtle positioning here, not shifting everyone to their own earbud. I think it would sound pretty swell.

Oh, I got more of an impression they were rushing out the art big time. I don't remember if I played the MI2:SE. Even if they did add extra animation and better graphics, it's still an engine created with the weird requirement that it has to map 1:1 to an old-timey point and click adventure. I agree that it felt more polished and smooth than, say, an AGS game, with it's laughable configuration dialogues and desktop destroying full-screen modes. I think no one has mentioned Broken Sword 2, which had a great engine, with lots of beautiful animation, parallax scrolling and some (for its time) advanced graphical effects like transparency and anti-aliasing. Anyway, getting the graphics right is probably a trivial job compared to wiring everything up to a scripting API that compares to SCUMM.

I initially thought so too, until I realised they had limited the new graphics engine severely so as to not conflict with the old one. So, all the hotspots were the same, the timing and framerate of everything; basically just a graphics switch. Not that impressive.