Erkki

Heh. Just discovered (by accidentally pressing the wrong button) that you can zoom in the map in the menu, set targets that show up on the radar, and display the legend. No need for the paper map now, it was getting annoying that the in-game map was so small...

I speak Russian somewhat. A lot of it is swearwords, and a lot of it is words I don't know. And the rest of it is like this: "Photoshop!" "Your passport is a photoshop!" "That's not photoshop, that's fucked up." "That's not photoshop, that's belgium" "Too bad about the Porsche, if it's a Porsche" etc.

For some reason I wandered into the JA+ forums yesterday and posted this in this thread about the horrifying rumors of Microids "adding action to their adventure games". I don't know if the particular things I said are/were relevant at all, but I definitely agree with you, Marek, that the gamers shouldn't expect adventure game developers to always keep working within these very strict rules. And stop viewing them as "people who create point & click adventure games for me to play", but as creative people who create fun games. If that is the precondition of being an adventure game developer, how can anything good come from it? And the developers should stop listening to these people (if they do listen to them) and start being creative within/on the borders/outside of the genre instead of following a set formula.

Damn, I still forgot that word. It was ante-dilbertsomething. Antediluvian... yes.

Antediluvian. I just wanted to use that word, lest I forget it.

There's so much I want to say about this game, I could talk for hours. It's pretty much everything I expected it to be and more, I only have a few control-related gripes and I'm sure it'll be better in the PC version: - the damn camera angle. The from behind views are from a too low camera point. Driving up and down slopes is sometimes difficult because you can't see the road in front of you very well. - the analog controls are actually worse than the keyboard. I was expecting to have more control thanx to the analog sticks, but this isn't the case -- the movement is too jerky and pretty much works like on/off mode buttons. This could totally be my controller's fault though, as it's not a Sony original. - the blurry visuals (especially the automap) Otherwise, I think this is a fucking amazing achievement in game developement, considering the scope. They must have had a few hundred people working on this, and still it all clicks together very well. And I'm not even half-way there yet. And I'm kind of surprised there haven't been -- or I haven't noticed -- any articles or behind the scenes stuff about this side of the thing. I hope they're coming.

Now I'm getting to know San Fierro, which looks totally awesome. And what else was awesome was when I rode into the city for the first time and thought it would be cool if the designers had made the next mission an introductory tour of San Fierro -- and they had.

Yeah, just did that mission. And I actually managed to win something from those machines a bit before that.

Hehe... awesome. Myself, I change CJ's look all the time. Or clothes at least. I'd like to get rid of the muscles, but I guess that just takes time. For some reason I find bicycling really fun. It's just so well done, I think. The speed is just right, even though it's not the least bit realistic as you pass cars even on hiways. I finally got out of Los Santos and drove around on the countryside a lot on the bike. My hand starts feeling strange after smashing the X button for a while, though. Oh, and I also just had one of those great gaming moments. I was trying to ride a Sanchez up to a highway, but accidentally used an exit instead of an entry (i.e. wrong way on a one-way section) and this really big truck came speeding down and *smash* I rode straight into it. It sent me flying in the air for quite a long distance. For a nanosecond before hitting the truck, I was really scared. It was so sudden and felt so real. I think for than fraction of a second I felt something close to what I would have felt if this had been in real life. I'd never seen that big a truck before in the game, or a random car drive that fast, so I'm sure that added to the surprise. I also tried the billiards game. I expected a bit more precision to be honest, but given the context, it's more than good enough. I don't really like any of those arcade games in the bars and 24-7 stores, though. Oh, and the gambling place right under a big intersection in the middle of Los Santos -- are you supposed to do something during the race or just wait to see which horse finishes first? I only tried it twice, but on both occasions the horse I picked came last.

Let's kiss and make up.

You better start returning my love-letters you asshat!

Not really, but it is ugly. I have this Mandrake 10 installed and haven't really used it. Now my mother asked for more games so I showed her how to boot to linux (loads of casual games installed by default). I was too lazy to restart when I sat down here, so I'm now browsing the web with the Linux version of FireFox and it's fucking UGLY. Nearly every font looks like it's in bold. Everything looks blurry, there is a whole lot of unnecessary spacing in menus etc. Even the mouse cursors are ugly. Text size in web pages is wrong. ETC. Not to mention that many applications have a completely different look & feel. When are they going to make a linux distribution that is as good looking and easy to learn as Windows or MacOS?

For some reason I don't drink milk at home. I usually drink tea (with milk) or juice. But I started drinking milk at lunch when at work.

Exactly! At times I practically push my face against the screen to find out what an icon is. What kind of TV do you have? I thought it was my TV's fault -- it's kind of old and relatively small and some time ago it had some color patches in the corner where the map is. Maybe I have to start wearing glasses while playing. I've never needed them to look at something that close before.

A translation: oh lord of darkness former star of light and CEO of this world be thanked for letting the storm pass me by and directing the editor's hand so that it didn't tremble when it was necessary to tick the right checkbox oh lord of darkness former star of light and CEO of this world be thanked for the warm night that is a rare gift in the middle of january thus you saved my life when I got wasted on wednesday and lay down on my face and fell asleep in front of my door indeed it was very cozy to lie there oh lord of darkness former star of light and CEO of this world you really are kind there is none other as kind as you the drama olovernes got the funding and culca* pays for my office expenses now -- the PC's leasing the printer ink phone bill and broadband oh lord of darkness former star of light and CEO of this world can there be greater happiness of course not and there's no need for it ------------ *culca (kulka) -- culture capital (a local government organization that deals with the culture budget) [Erkki]

Yeah, that one was difficult too, but quite fun. I succeeded on the 5th try or so, on the last minute. You are talking about the one where Big Smoke does the shooting, right? That was right before the one where I'm stuck, I think. But you are further than that overall though, aren't you? So at some point other missions should become available for me to progress?

I've tried this more than 10 times now. No luck. The manual aiming is nearly impossible for me, whenever I try to move the analog stick just a little, I end up with too long jerky movement. Similarly the shooting range in ammunation is hard. This is now the only mission available for me. Well, it gives me time to do other things then while I practice my manual aim -- like make some money, take over territories from other gangs.

Wait, I just remembered I had this cool idea some days ago about a game where you play a kid (around 10 or so) in a small town. There are also lots of other kids and there are "gangs". Not really gangs, but something like the "War of Roses" in Lindgren's Kalle Blomqvist (Blomquist?). And youd do all kinds of stuff that kids do. Basically, it would be a family version of Grand Theft Auto, but there would be a more prominent story and some adventure-style puzzles and dialogues.

Exactly! What? There's no tree.

Hmm, yeah those look quite different.

http://users.pandora.be/ptuui/

Certainly it's an image thing when you start, for most people (assuming they start at the teen age or so) It was for me as well. But it would be stupid to say everybody keeps smoking to maintain some kind of an image. It's just plain addiction / habit beyond the teen years, usually. Quite a few people I know who were smokers quit smoking in their early twenties or so. I don't really know anyone who is over twenty and proud that they smoke and concider it a good addition to their image or something.

Yes, that's my key strategy of keeping publishers from trying to buy me out. I will have fabricated irreversible proof that the game can't be done without the woman having small breasts.

Not that easy. You see at first he wants to profit from this discovery, not give it away. Plus he has no time for it at first. But as he visits many different locations in the world and sees how people are suffering everywhere, he will change and want to get it out to the public even if he doesn't gain anything.

Didn't Vice City have any of those effects? I thought it did. Maybe it was your graphics drivers? Not that I've actually played the PS2 version, but San Andreas doesn't look that different from Vice City regarding to visual effects. Then again, it might be just that I don't pay much attention to that.