Erkki

I don't really see a problem with having a term that says "will likely stand the test of time". Sure, we cannot speak with certainty about whether a work of film or video game will be ageless or not, but we can have a pretty good guess. I can't imagine Doom, Deus Ex or even Far Cry 2 suddenly losing their status any time soon. I actually like a lot of old movies, even ones that are twice as old as Taxi Driver. But fuck that movie. Actually, after having digested it a bit longer, I realized that maybe it's not as bad as my immediate reaction was, and in some ways it did leave an impression, and I liked some of the shots a lot, but still in my eyes there are way better movies that explore similar themes. There are hundreds of small indie movies I would watch instead of this. Maybe if I had seen it as an adult at the time when it was made ...

Well, at this point I am also expecting more of a Proteus than a Minecraft -- something you'll play for an evening or two rather than something that will capture the imagination of millions for years (although I'm sure nobody really expecteed this to be a next Minecraft anyway). And I think the general dialing down of expectations is justified by the trailers that just keep showing the same things. Ok, this one showed combat, but that gives me more like a vibe of "oh, so they DID have to resort to combat to provide gameplay" e.g. they didn't really come up with any original gameplay to match the audiovisual and procedural appeal of the form. Still, I think I will enjoy this for a few evenings, maybe even a week. And if it will be something more than that, well that's awesome!

So Minecraft has basically spawned a new genre or ten. I'm interested in the best survival games with crafting and improving technology. I think it's fair to call them Robinsonades, if these elements are present. Anyway, I've been ignoring the genre after loving Minecraft for a while. I played Terraria as well, but I think that has a strong platforming element, which kind of distracts from being a Robinsonade. I have heard a lot about Don't Starve, and have bought The Long Dark, and played a tiny bit, but didn't get that much into it yet. Mostly interested in first-person, single-player ones. Any recommendations?

I read that in a ja2ke voice

I want to have a guacamole burger. I've been making a lot of guac recently, and one local burger joint had a guac burger on the menu for one day but I missed it

Heh, I just uninstalled Steam from a Mac (I guess I hadn't logged in for a couple of years there) and I haven't gotten no e-mail or the complete pack. So no free Half-Life 3 for me

Curious, for some reason I thought that a lot of Finnish people speak English. Very accented, but still recognizable as English. I have probably drawn false conclusions because I've met disproportionately English-speaking finns? Anyway, if the manual is translated, it should allow playing in that language comfortably, I think? Well, I'll find out in a week. Of course there is the problem that fan translations may not be great or keep up with versions they introduce in the game.

Hmm... then a Bluetooth dongle would also be forwarded? Which means I could use the Dual Shock 3 via Bluetooth as easily as I do now?

Wow, you seem well prepared Xeneth! I am hosting a small party for my Spanish group (including the teacher) next week. We will likely get a bit drunk. I wonder if the spanish translation (which I downloaded but didn't print yet as it could be there will be a new revision before the day) is good enough that we could try this. Also I wish there was an iPad version of the game because setting up an extra monitor in the living room is not ideal. Or maybe I should bring my work laptop home.

Hmm... that sounds like something I might want to do as well. I really liked Sicario. Today I watched a movie that I guess could be considered the opposite of Sicario -- Lawrence of Arabia. Man that was truly an epic. I lack historic knowledge to appreciate all of it, but overall it seemed like a really great story about a man who had real agency to change the world.

Also, today I saw Sicario, which was really thrilling to watch, although I'm not sure if I understood what the message was, if there even was any. And before that I watched Tomboy yesterday, Céline Sciamma's (who made Girlhood) earlier movie. I didn't like it QUITE as much as Girlhood, but it is also really good and I would recommend watching that as well to anyone who liked Girlhood. I especially loved the little sister character. Now I'm going to have to watch Water Lilies as well.

Just watched The Stunt Man (1980) on a recommendation by Adam Saltsman in the Designer Notes 12 interview with Davey Wreden about The Stanley Parable. I guess some parallels can actually be drawn between that movie and TSP, and one scene seemed particularly video game-y to me; anyway I really liked the movie, about a fugitive who becomes a stuntman. Steve Railsback gives a good performance, looking like a confused but confident country man who looks exactly like Jason Connery's Robin of Sherwood. And Peter O'Toole is excellent.

Wow, new Designer Notes has Adam Saltsman interviewing Davey Wreden. This predates the game, being from the end of 2014, but perhaps gives some hints towards The Beginner's Guide.

Wish I had pre-ordered sooner. Can't wait to get the link and move the PC out of the living room. Does the link work for just doing Desktop stuff or only for the Steam app? [edit] Also, I'll probably need a 1080p monitor for the computer to get that same rez on the link, right?

This makes no sense to me. First of all, it's software and copying is almost free (although each copy that is in use may increase support cost). Secondly, it's a game and I think the size of each game's target audience is largely unknown (or well, I guess it can be estimated somewhat). So it does not make any sense to even consider the cost of making to be part of fairness of price here. What, was it unfair and cheating that Minecraft sold as much as it did and Mojang should have lowered the price as soon as they realized how much it was selling? They have every right to price the game however they want -- but of course the public has certain expectations for the prices, and I guess sadly (or no?) it is the case that the expected size of the game in play time is what seems to determine the fairness (non-cheating) of the price in most cases?

I can confirm that Girlhood is really good.

I'm somewhat interested.

Damn, still sometimes crashes for me while loading game with the new patch. Also the animations look weird to me again, just like when I started playing Wild Hunt for the first time. Why is Geralt's haird moving as with some great wind indoors?

We played this a little bit at my birthday party yesterday. It seemed fun but I got distracted with other conversations while some guys were playing and they didn't continue for very long so I'm not sure how fun they found it. For me it was pretty cool trying to be the bomb disarmer (first attempt failed though).

I also liked the first part the most. I think Skellige was in some ways the weakest part. All that slow boating if you force yourself to not fast-travel much, like I did... Velen was perfect for actually travelling around and doing detective stuff.

Ok, yes, maybe I'm wrong, I know nothing about retail, I might actually agree that maybe 30% isn't that much, for providing this whole platform and accessibility.

Interesting to see how Valve's image has changed to more negative over the last few years. I still view them as kind of the cool guys who are keeping PC gaming alive, but I don't pay that much attention to them other than using the Steam client for almost all my gaming and looking forward to receiving the Steam link and Steam controller in mail soon. Indeed I agree that the 30%+ cuts that Valve takes are worrysome and can't be part of a long term healthy economy. But the Steam platform really can't seem to make a competitor, because the competitors probably aren't willing to come together and merge their platforms (into a new legal entity?) to defeat Steam. They seem more likely to keep their own smaller services, which have no chance of becoming as big as Steam. Maybe Steam will one day be seen as a Monopoly and then appropriate institutions can look into the unhealthy market situation around it?

I feel like I should play it again now, but here's one other thing...

This looks like The Martian simulator at first and then you see two Astroneers!