Moosferatu

Xeodrifter is out now. I've only played a little bit, but so for so good. I wish Nintendo would make a new 2d Metroid for the 3ds.

http://banzchan.deviantart.com/art/Knuckles-from-Sonic-Boom-432614507

I just watched it last week myself. It was on the whole enjoyable, but there was a lot of wasted potential. It's sad because the show's setup has so much great conflict and intrigue built into it. There's the communists, IRA, police, big time racketeers, gypsies, and the Peaky Blinders all with different interests and all brought together over the guns. Sparks should have been flying from the start, but instead most of the threads just whimper out. Sam Neil and Annabelle Wallis's characters were also woefully underdeveloped and one-dimensional. They're both supposed to be deeply conflicted characters, but none of that ever comes out believably on screen.

Yeah, the game is fine. It's not a shocking re-imagination of the Civ formula or anything, but it's still fun. The gameplay is about as different as it is between any of the other Civ games. I understand why someone would want something different, but I don't see a precedent to expect something different. Also, everyone in this thread keeps on harping on the fact that you have to explore to fill in your map. Get over it. It's a game not a simulation. Was that your main criticism when StarCraft 2 came out too? Once again StarCraft fails because I'm forced to draw my own damn map.

New and utterly unbelievable demo trailer (395megs). The game looks absolutely astounding. Actually, I have a hard time believing that the full game will be as incredible as the trailer makes it out to be, but it's almost certain to be great regardless.

I just got this, and am three badges in. It's the first Pokemon game I've played in a long, long time. The mechanics are great and incredibly addictive, but egads are the "story" and world terrible. I'm more or less wandering from town to town on rails for no coherent reason. Each town has hilariously bad artificial gating that keeps you from moving on till you've gotten the next badge. The citizens of these towns all think I'm the most incredible person ever to walk the earth, and fall over themselves to give me whatever item they have on hand. It's a wonder that Pokemart isn't my official sponsor. Everyone is pleasant, happy, and trouble free. Well, everyone but those orange Team Whatever guys. Best I gather so far they're trying to make a world where only they are happy... which, doesn't make any sense because they seem to be living in some sort of utopia world where everyone is happy all the time. Is it that they're not happy and want to be, or that they are happy but don't want everyone else to be? To be honest, it seems to me like this sick, stepford-esque Poke-world could use a dash of adversity to spice up the bland monotony of it all. Here's to Team Whatever and their dastardly schemes! It's a real shame the actual game sucks so much when the core mechanics are so good (the animation is also top-notch).

Does anyone know if units will be customizable like they were in SMAC? I loved how that system worked.

In my periodic poll to see what British comedians I enjoy are up to, I noticed that Matt Berry has been in two shows I haven't seen, Toast of London and House of Fools. Has anyone watched them? Are either of them worth tracking down?

If anyone is coming into town and looking for some fun non-game related activities, there's going to be a couple of killer contra dances on Thursday (28th) and Friday (29th). An outstanding group from Maine will be playing. http://www.perpetuale-motion.com/schedule.html

Just finished playing through Psychonauts for the first time in years. Damn, that game is even better than I remember it being.

Anyone play it yet?

I recently accepted a new job in Seattle, and will be moving in a couple of weeks. I decided to drive out, and, since I'm coming from Michigan, have a substantial amount of car time I need to fill (~38 hours, according to Google). I was wondering if anyone had any good recommendations for audio books or audio productions? Besides The Lord of the Rings, I've never really listened to audio books. I've heard a fair number of radio plays (or whatever they call them) from BBC over the years, but I have a hard time recalling the names of most of them.

I played it, and enjoyed it. I like this tv-game hybrid TellTale has made.

That last episode was pretty dumb.

Anyone ever play The Feeble Files. Granted, that game had some terrible puzzles, but it also had incredibly good ones. At one point you're trapped in a prison colony, and stuck in a routine that you have to figure out how to break out of. Now that was an epic escape. The difficultly and repetitiveness of the routine only helped to enhance the mood and feeling of being in the prison. hmmm... I should replay that sometime.

The puzzles were definitely too easy. Easy to a point where you actually had to be careful not to accidentally solve them and thereby deprive yourself the opportunity to see/hear everything. I remember in the documentary they were talking about it being difficult to escape Shay's routine, and not wanting to frustrate people. In this version they went the complete opposite direction. I'm guessing I'm not the only one who accidentally broke out of the routine before even having a chance to run all of the missions through once. Shay's portion also worked a lot better than Vella's. I'm not entirely sure why, but I think it was because it was a more cohesive world. It would have been nice if Vella's world was denser and less linear. Harder puzzles would have also helped. Not only would you have been forced to slow down and absorb the world, but there would have been strong emotional bonds formed with those aha moments. As it stands, the game feels flat. Yes, the graphics are beautiful, the story is wonderful, and the voice acting is top notch, but there's something missing.

No, nothing from part 2 is spoiled.

When did they say that? I thought the second part was coming out around May or something.

Somehow I doubt that they're paying them a lot. Seeing Elijah Wood in that VGX segment made me like him a lot more than I used to. He gave the impression of being a pretty alright guy, and this is way different than slapping Patrick Stewart or whoever in your game to phone it in. All of these guys are clearly excited about the game and want to be involved, Elijah Wood especially. His narration of the new trailer was excellent, and it seems like a great fit.

I really dislike those "games" within the game. Do you get anything of value for doing that chicken thing or the rupee thing or the derby or that chance game or... ? Or, are they just for rupees?

This game is super fun so far. It's refreshing that they decided to mix-up the traditional formula a bit.

I played it last night, and also enjoyed it. I still haven't played The Walking Dead. Is this more or less what the gameplay was like for that game, and what should be expected for the rest of The Wolf Among Us? I was disappointed that there wasn't any traditional adventure game stuff. It was fun, but it was more or less like watching a tv show that every once and a while requires you to make a choice or do a QTE. Additionally, I really wish the game let you adjust the length of time you have to make a dialog choice. I'm a little dyslexic, and it takes me noticeably longer to read than it does your average person. It's fine if they want to put pressure on your choices, but it doesn't seem fair to assume that everyone is going to be able to take in the options in the same amount of time.

Anyone play it?

It would be fun if the games were episodic, and more similar to the short stories. The Witcher reminds me a lot of Hellboy, which is also prime material for an episodic game. It would be awesome if Telltale did it for their next graphic novel adaptation.

I read The Last Wish a few weeks ago. It was a fun, popcorn read. I'm excited about the Dark Horse comic that was recently announced. The similarities to Hellboy are obvious. I think it'll be great. http://www.darkhorse.com/Blog/1494/nycc-2013-witcher-comes-dark-horse