vimes

I found, the more recent Solaris to be quite great on its own. It was the first time Clooney actually disappeared behind its character and the soundtrack remains an awesome piece of worl. I saw Moon on the plane, and even though it was good, I was surprised that it was so literal in its discourse and direct in its construction. What surprised me even more is that even though it was good, it didn't turn to be special. I don't mind it, but I don't think it makes sens to compare it Solaris and 2001, like some people did.

And still talking about Far Cry 2 ...

It's very far from San Francisco, but if you get the chance, go visit Chicago; it's one of the cities I really wish I could live and work in.

So, I've played Torchlight for an hour on normal : it involved a lot of right clicking and struggling to gather the huge amount of items falling on the floor ... not bad but not awesome; Hack'n Slash might not be a genre I'm inclined to after all. However, if it requires a bit more brain/tactics on higher difficulty, I might change my mind : is there a way to change the difficulty setting without having to create a new character ?

I'm reviving this thread just to recommend this very beautiful game on top of everyone that already did : it's a rarity because if is graphically flawless and I bet it simply won't ever age.

That's pretty weird : I haven 't read the book but I remember the movie being one of the best 'smart' entertainer I've ever watched. I read Foucault's Pendulum multiple times, and I'm in love with the core idea and how most of the plot is laid out, but I find it a very tedious book to read because of the style (maybe because of the french translation ? in which language does eco write ?) and its unnecessarily length; somewhat a bit too convoluted for its own good (and I know it's the central theme, but it sometimes go a bit overboard). Also, the AIGame Dev Paris Conference took place in 2009 and will take place in 2010 at the CNAM , which is the setting for the opening chapter. For anyone in Europe, you should attend so that you can go and visit the place freely!

It's due in less than a week, and weirdly enough I don't seem to know that much about the actual game :I remember the hype about the dog and a but less about the one button system but that's pretty much it ... no review in sight either. Weird for such a high profile game, heh ?

I always feel weird wishing happy birthday to internet people I don't really know, but if I remember right, you made me discover Girls with Slingshots a few years ago, and the least I can do to repay the favor is wishing you a splendid birthday!

Don't focus on the mascara and the weird hair - Tim Minchin is a pretty hilarious songwriter and singer . mcdtVD8X1-A and this one, which takes about 2 minutes to properly start WLLYO8Hd_sE

Wait, when was that ? Jesus, sometimes I think I'm skipping too many threads to notice this kind of stuff...

Sorry, my mistake, I didn't mean second hand, I meant second edition (like platinium games for the PS3 ?) .

As far as new year's gaming resolutions goes, here's what I've planned. Give up earlier on a game, if I find it not-so-special Play some multiplayer games over the intertube, with my fellow thumbeteers if possible Stop being afraid of trying an MMO, subscribe to EVE Online for a few months Play a game in coop Play all games in the indie compendium thread (50%) Be aware of what's going on the indie scene Play a Diablo like (10% complete :I bought Torchlight on the 1st of January^^) Only talk about games I liked or whose failure I find interesting Try reading more than half of Grand Text Auto website news/article to completion Play a Tactical game Not be a completionist Buy games from these sources, at this price, in this order of preference: dev website (fullprice), steam (full price, half price if released more than 3 months ago or dirt cheap if it's been released more than 6 months ago), steam like, box (second hand) Play at least once and for at least 90 minutes all the games I've got in my steam list Give my DS some love Buy a proper gaming computer It might just be doable so if you've got any suggestions for the genres I'll try up, please do send them my way. ALSO - because not doing it will eat me from the inside all- year long HAPPY NEW YEAR AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Heh ? I can't remember those ... Anyway, Super Mario Galaxy is one of the most gorgeous game ever in my opinion.

Jesus, it feels like 2005 all over aain! Thanks Marek!

For all the poo bombs I've been throwing toward Telltale around here and the interweb in general, I must say that, so far, The Last Resort is my game of the year. Like Uncharted it is the perfect alignment of awesome art and craft : it is smart, accessible, grandly innovative within its genre (the variety of the puzzles type are astounding), it's got one hell of an atmosphere, its length is perfect, its coda is fantastic, its writing is awesome, its flow and structure are bloody well mastered ... really the crown jewel of Telltale and my best experience of the year.

So I'm done with Trine on Normal difficulty and I'm not as ecstatic as some people here. It was a decent 6 hours mind you, but I feel like there was no progression throughout those : in the end, all levels except the first and final one could have been stringed randomly and it wouldn't affect the experience a single bit. It's a shame that the game never uses its core mechanism in more sophisticated way than in the second level and it surely never required of me to be smarter with ordering the three characters abilities or be more dexterous at swapping between them. Meanwhile, the XP systems threw at me more and more powerful tools which made me feel like I was cheating my way through : 5 levels to the end, I could summon 4 boxes, invoke wooden floating platform and create a bunch of ledges... hence making most puzzle a breeze by stacking stuff then using the thief to swing over the pits. So no sense of achievement most of the time. Since the game takes places in a matter of days, I'd have been happier no rpg progression but more intricate situation. The 3 characters also seemed quite unbalanced for most of my playthrough : until I found the big hammer, I incredibly underused the soldier because my leveled-up thief was as efficient as him in close combat and could evade most enemy more easily. On the plus side, the art and music were magnificient and didn't bring my laptop to its knees for which I am very thankful. So, it wasn't so bad and it had, at least, the virtue of reminding me of all the craft that's going in the level design of Portal or Braid, games that have similarly easy-to-catch/smart gameplay but use them in more constructed and imaginative ways.

Or maybe it was a bear armed with a hayfork, which bore an eagle on its shoulder. And was a Methodist minister.

It came out wrong : I don't mean to condemn temporary art but games I wish to make, I also wish they don't provide the same experience as I've had personally with contemporary art. It goes like this : I can say that I like or don't like recent contemporary art on a purely aesthetically level, but most of the time this is were my involvement and my curiosity end as there is no way for me to tell you what the piece is about and what - beside the expression of beauty - the artist wanted to achieve. By their lack of direction and self containment, these pieces of art don't include me, they exclude me ... and while I'm fine with artists doing this, I'm not fine with them displaying what they do to the public and not providing access point to their reasoning. I'm fortunate enough that my teacher of parents gave me the keys to most art forms and movements, but when I don't have those keys yet I should be confronted to something that talks to me a little and invite to further research instead of something that stares back at me and refuses to discuss until I'm in the known. My point is : I wouldn't do that. If I wanted my audience to express itself intellectually through my game, I'll make clear what spaces I'm giving them and what is the subject.

I heard from unreliable sources that the fate of Marek's legendary long neck hanged onto Bayonetta's european sells. And I'm Singapore for the release date! SEEEEEGGMwahahaha

I might have said if before but I think the first 10 minutes of UP are among the best 5 things the studio ever did (which includes the last shot of Monster Inc., Stinky Pete desillusioned monologue in Toy Story 2, Jerry's Game and other awesomeness). The rest of the movie has it's fun moments but it's Dreamworks done better and it simply has NO connection with the opening sequence. Maybe this wasn't the purpose of the creators but the beginning and some part of the Muntz plot beg for a Munchausen like narrative (is any of this real or not ?) and I was a bit frustrated that it never happened. But again, I might be asking for a different movie so that's not a valid criticism.

First thing, I don't think that using new (or rarely used) techniques to convey something in a game means rejecting all the other tools that already exists : being linear at some point is fine, so is using a cutscene or restricting the player's freedom ...as long as those are the best tools to achieve what you want. And I'm all for implying vs. telling but I don't think contemporary art is something to look up to regarding this topic because 1) the meaning is mainly encompassed in the process of creation rather than on the delivered object itself 2) it does not try to make itself accessible. That might be fine if you don't mind delivering meaning to an audience that might be already sold to your message, but I think that designing also mean making sure to bring most players into the mindset that will enable them to perceive what you imply ... and that might only be achieved by taking some of the players by the hand for quite a while. That's why even though "Setting up an environment as the only act of design" is an expression that fires up my brain in a good way, I know that behind the simplicity of the formulation a lot of complexity is hidden. Edit : Also, I agree with Hocking, but I'm still waiting for designers and writers that are able to express themselves with systems. cf this post about structuralism.

I had downloaded Arkham Asylum demo to see if it was running on my PC and it did; but inside Steam and with mandatory Game for Windows on top, whatever the level of detail is (I've tested all the way from max to minimum detail in 860*640) when there are more than 5 guys on screen or if there's a bit of details or breadth in the scenery; the game slow down to a crawl. It's frustrating even more when I know that Crysis just runs fight in medium quality :/ ShowFPS was an awesome site, but for unknown reason it died :/

This might not have anything to do with Bayonetta quality, but Famitsu has awarded 4 perfect score this year among the 13 it has awarded since its creation. And FF13 is not even out yet .

I think that even though a critic is pretty much entitled to do anything he wants, one of the core fundamental would be that he'd judge a game on what it pretends to be vs what he is. You cannot criticize Serious Sam for not being a deep reflected experience because it never pretends to be. But in any case, I think of you more as an analyst than a critic, for what it's worth ... so I'm not looking to you for THE way or what to think, but to share a positive opinion and present me with an analysis of something successful. It's not a duty or a responsibility of yours, just something which I find very though provoking when it happens; so I'm asking for more. For instance, I don't agree with you at all on Far Cry 2, but what you said about it opened a bunch of venues of reflection for me. Also, if I understand the predicament you're in, the best cure would be to simply start designing instead of throwing a message in a bottle to the industry. I'm not saying "stop jabbering, do something useful", I'm saying that obviously, you know where you want to end up, you've got a vast knowledge of the tools at your disposal gameplay wise, you're versed in other media as well and if, as you say, you're already spending your day deconstructing and analyzing game designs .... then you're 90% of a designer. Plus, since you've got a clear purpose, you're more likely to end up with something functional than a bunch of professional designers out there. (no offense) I might get completely beside the point but the disillusionment of the article vs. the clear vision you seem to have ... if I had an idea of something I want to achieve and it wasn't already out there and I felt it was important then I could not stand not trying something (even theoretically) and communicate on it if I felt it could be useful.

Chris, why the hell did you have to write the first 8 paragraphs of this article? The last ones were good and needed expanding , but really : "Games can be more" & "The Why is important"? Revolutionnary It's bullshit for you to say that games can be more when games are more and when the fight for diversity has been over for quite a while. Maybe not in the mainstream market (and that I would argue), but who cares? Explaining what's wrong in the Video game industry has been done to death, won't you rather talk about the people and the games that managed to create pieces that you're enthusiastic about instead of game design philosophies that disappoints you? "The Why is important says Hecker", Chris Hecker who's been working on the technical side for years, who's saying something designers have known for years but might only rarely get to answer when billions are involved ? Why do you go on about books, music, theater when you don't even name or discuss the games that you said made you're enjoyment go beyond fun ? People make games for certain reasons. Some of these reasons we might find ballsy, engaging, inspirational and some we don't understand or find uncompelling; yes I also find the why very important and worthy of being developed but some designer and gamers don't. And that's ok - whatever works for them - so get on with; please stop spending your writing and analysis talent on things you wish weren't and start championing the people, practical processes and games you feel might lead to the games you wish for. There's not a single positive game reference in your article, what's up with that ? I'm looking to you to make me discover jewels or alternative vision of the medium, not to confirm that everything is shit. Brooker's already doing that. Also, if you don't understand what I mean, please think as a companion piece.