manny_c44

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Posts posted by manny_c44

  2. Posted

    In waterloo world: At the smallest scale, you can look inside one of the buildings and see the parlor where Napoleon and Fred are playing. And if you're in the parlor, the window overlooks some huge trees on the game board.

    Yeah that was totally awesome.

    All the changes seem to be for the better, overall. Although the old thought bubble was nice to look at.

    I still haven't beat the game...that last level is killing me ;(.

    I was kind of sad that there were so few brains too, I thought it would be a mind boggling bevy of brain tissue, it all went by too quickly.

    I have a question, after you win, is there any chance to just go back and collect or do you have to load up a game from before the 'point of no return'?

  7. Posted

    Yeah it seems the question with Molyneux isn't whether he'll innovate, but if his games will be any fun. The movies looked very impressive (and from that demo movie it looks like your options are wide open), but Black and White 2 looks like it will be as erratic and awkward as the first one. It seems they cleaned up the movement/interaction interface, atleast the madness might be smooth this time around.

  11. Posted

    Thanks for the post Chris

    Bill Watterson didn't stop doing Calvin & Hobbes because of the crappy conditions, he stopped because he got burned out on daily deadlines. You can't blame the syndicates for that (he was doing a daily strip! what did he expect?).

    While you are probably right, Watterson did a whole load of complaining about the shrinking page space that comics evolved into. He was complaining about how the space totally crippled the artwork (and when he did large panels they were usually awesome).

    And when you think about it, web comics should be all over their freedom, if for nothing else then to create in the old way of large, elaborate comics where you could tell a story. Instead we have PA and co. with there 3-panel nu-cartoon style, who are just ripping off the already poorly done cartoons in modern newspapers. I mean, they should do whatever they think is best for the material, but putting faux newspaper limitations on your work is dumb.

  12. Posted

    Yeah it's pretty shite.

    I don't know what that spat with 'Non-Sequitur' was all about, does anyone know how that started? I just remember going to PA one day and the whole news post was a vitriolic rant about how much better they were then NS...which they aren't.

  13. Posted

    I still don't know what to make of the soundtrack to The Third Man, whether I think it's awesome or just weird.

    I was under the impression that it was all just the same polka song looping endlessly, and loudly. I showed it to my mom and she really liked it (soundtrack and otherwise).

    2001 Space Oddysey has good use of silence and music, heavy on public domain classics though.

    I liked like the 'Snatch' soundtrack alot too, I thought it was used deftly in the movie and especially in the boxing, fat-guy-chase, and burning trailer parts. If nothing else the movie was well edited with music in mind.

  14. Posted

    I finally got it today, at ebgames the only place near me that has it (nearby gamestop isn't even scheduled to get it at all, bestbuy and circuitcity are just a waste of time). So I finally get it it in my hands and then have to stand in a line of three people who are all trading in massive amounts of games :hmph:.

    And then this -gravely obese- guy comes up to me and starts chatting me up about psychonauts (can anyone ever go to one of these stores and not have a run in with people like this?). Two things that were really bizarre about this case: he looked at least twenty and had his geriatric mother in tow for some unkown reason, and he was gasping for breath the whole time. Afraid he might die right there of cardiovascular and/or respitory explosion I responded to his platitudes with offhand comments like "Uh, Grim Fandango", "yeah, adventure games", "I'm not sure how involved he was with Sam and Max" and so forth.

    But I got to the cashier before it had a chance to embark into strange territory, and I have now logged 2 1/2 hours into the most excellent game psychonauts. It really is excellent, really funny so far. Especially that bacon bit.

  18. Posted

    Although I have to no interest in it, I think Nintendogs could actually be the 'next big thing'. It combines the virtual pet concept with awesome graphics and puppies--children love it all! How could it fail? If this thing doesn't spiral into a phenomena atleast in Japan I will be shocked,

  19. Posted

    Bulgakov's Master and Margarita, just read it the first time. Not life shaking but it was well translated and overall pretty great.:tup:

    One Day in the Life... everybody's read this book, but I never got around to it until recently. Obviously pretty good.:tup:

    Babel's Red Cavalry: Pretty meh. I was really mesmerized by the cover art for some reason though. :tmeh:

    There's this one short story by Sholokov (or is it Shalamov, or Shamalov, who knows) called Lend-Lease I kind of liked more than any of the works above. :tup:

    Hunter S. Thompsons':

    Kingdom of Fear: Just a collection of rants and some interesting stories but not compelling reading. :tdown:

    Fear and Loathing: Just a collection of rants and interesting stories, very compelling reading. :tup:

    The Rum Diary: Probably should've have stayed long lost. :tmeh:

    Hell's Angels: Only read the first twenty pages at a book store, looked promising.

  22. Posted

    If nothing else VB prooved that Nintendo does whatever the hell it thinks is right, and even with game production costs hovering near 2 million dollars a pop (Nintendo has $7 billion in the bank, no joke) we're probably going to see crazier things every generation.

    The games were always good though, no matter the gimmick, that's what makes them not totally 'onsanie'.

  23. Posted

    After the $20 budget gaming bliss of Katamari Damacy I was after a purchase that would be even more bizarre and hopefully pay similar dividends. And then I remembered Nintendo's other two screened innovation, incessantly mocked even ten years after it was shamefully pulled from shelves. So I looked up Virtual Boy on ebay and discovered it was indeed within that budget price and that it was indeed still off-it's-tits crazy, so I did what anybody would do and bought it, it's bundled game Mario Tennis, and Virtual Boy Wario Land, knowing I could just sell them off at a similar price if it was a total bust.

    It's wierd, you know, but the system really had nothing but good intentions and actually was innovative (more than the DS anyway). The kind of depth you get from playing Tennis with VB is pretty awesome, I have to admit. The VB game is just like the real life one, at first you'll whiff the hits and swear that you should've gotten it, but you'll be directing it around the court with ease after some practice. Another big plus of the game was not struggling with picking a character, a modern Tennis game would leave you scratching your head and saying "Who the fuck is Tommy Haas?", but in the mario universe you know that Donkey Kong is the badass and that, conversley, Toad would give it up in the big house for a pack of cigarettes.

    Wario uses depth as more of a gimmick, but has a really fantastic opening sequence coupled with good old wario gameplay. The vintage gameboy music in all of these games really takes you back, and I wondered how they could engineer something like VB so compactly back in 94 or whenever.

    Nothing here is really classic (best Tennis game ever, but that could hardly sell a system), but if you ever wanted know just what those Nintendo executives were pedaling for $200 back in the day I wouldn't not recommend buying it temporarily (how's that for a cautious recommendation?).

    Oh, and the red and black graphics didn't strain my eyes or make me naseous, it just made everything really blue after I stopped playing. Terribly uncomfortable though.

  24. Posted

    War games usually make the mistake of aping off of war movies, rather than war itself. And, at least in the beginning, Brothers in Arms avoids the annoying man-against the Nazi gameplay that has barely been updated since we were gunning down the blue-eyed malcontents in Wolfenstein 3d.

    The game removes the 'put reticule on baddy' formula that clings to other WW2 outings like death, and instead bases the game on flanking and cover fire. You can assign your squad (or tank--the most fun bit in the game) to pin down the enemy while you either try to pick them off or catch them unawares from the side.

    I think reviewers haven't made the transition that games have over the past few years. They still review games based on their 'gameplay' or mechanics. But, in general, basic mechanics in most games are no longer fun, and these games rely instead on atmospheric tension to deliver their thrills. BiA is just that kind of game, and at the start of the campaign it's pretty thrilling. Your scrappy troop faces off with the Germans in small towns, running from cover spots and trying to gun down the howitzer operator so you can run your tank into town and pick off the remnants in grand style.

    But as the missions get harder, you realize your scrappy troop is largely comprised of brain-dead sausages who are largely useless. At the end of most missions you'll be crawling half-dead on the ground with your tommy gun trying to shoot the tops of German helmets while your brigade busily marches infront of an enemy machine gun installation like fucking carnival ducks, or futily fires pot shots at sand bags. When the game asks you to be Superman it totally falls apart, the charade of gritty urban warfare is shattered, and without any real narrative or character connection, there's nothing left to keep you interested in the trial and error tedium of each level's endgame. And if you've ever been pissed off at checkpoint saves, this game makes no improvments to that formula.

    If you had any kind of appreciations for stinkers like 'Call of Duty' or 'Medal of Honor' or any 'X of X' derivative, this game will blow your mind. Probably the best WW2 FPS ever. Still not that great.