vimes

Now, http://www.image-metrics.com/]THIS is awesome.

I'd say the clouds are the ghosts of dead bushes. What's nice with this theory is that I think it is coherent with the evil sun.

It doesn't really compare well to what the guys at Crytek achieved

Another one bites the dust and another Terry Gilliam movie is ruined...

Uh, OK, I thought you were wondering how Riven would look like if it was released today in realtime with the same assets that were used in the original pre-rendered version.. hence the 5 DVDs and so on. Sorry 'bout that.

You both mean rendered in real time, right ? Because Myst 1 through 4 were prerendered and Myst V (which was actually quite enjoyable) was in realtime. I'm all confused now.

I don't think you are, I understood the paper this way too.

It's interesting that you bring the topic of 'future proof' games up because I'm just done reading an old article about the animation system of Messiah in which the designer reveals they worked with high poly models which they 'simplify' at runtime depending on how fast the hardware is... I'd like that kind of technique to be applied to more games.

I've got my X360 and the TV. One thing though : what's the cheapest solution to connect the noisy beast to Live Arcade via WIFI ? The official adapter is rather expansive ... is there any alternative ?

Eh, this review was very funny.

OK, I got the Premium HDMI XMas Bundle with Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Forza Motorsport 2 on Amazon ... weird thing, it was cheaper than non-bundle, refurbished consoles and couldn't be matched by any eBay deal. Plus, with the current membership trial I got a next-day delivery for 4$. Sweet. Hopefully the TV will arrive tomorrow too. My very first Next-gen settings... the materialistic guy inside me is kinda moved.

Religion usually feels like this... to me, this only looks like another weird rule in the wall of dogmas. I've seen weirder.

Mmmm... then how come my soon-to-be-mine TV can do 720p, 1080i, can go 1366 x 768 native but cannot use 1080p mode ?

1080i is another way of showing 720p if I'm not mistaken.

PLus from HDTV Ready ( 720p,1080i) to Full HD (1080p), there's a hug gap in terms of price ... and most Xbox 360 games are 1080i or 720p (CoD4 is one example) Not a second-hand TV, a refurbished one (sent back to the constructor, tested for quality test then put in box again) and you get a 90 days guarantee that you can extend to a 1 year guarantee for 60$ more.

We got a refurbished VIZIO VX32L HDTV for 512,25$ on eBay... it's apparently a pretty decent choice; in fact the only one that would fit our budget. It should arrive tomorrow. EDIT : and it was a pain in the ass to find a tv with a tuner... isn't it weird ?

On a related note, my roomates and I got a hold of a 720p LCD TV and I'm considering buying an Xbox 360. Which model should I get Arcade, Core or Premium ? Any cheap online store for the US ? Should I get it new, refurbished or second hand? I'm quite lost ... except the size of the HD, I don't really get what's the difference between the offers.

Just watched this one, and it made me remember one thing that kept bugging me : I thoroughly enjoyed Super Mario Sunshine except for the incredibly difficult platforming parts ... what is wrong with me ? Or rather, what is it that everybody think is so bad in SMS ?

BOMB

From playing SC2, it seems to me that the universe is really NOT something special, but it takes itself very seriously so its integrity is pretty much the only thing that makes it slightly meaningful to the player.

I don't find the idea of enabling the user to play as Vader or Yoda ridiculous at all (after all, it worked well with Link in SC2), but trying to integrate them into the universe as the trailer did is.

I'd like to see Dan's movie.By the way, why are book's adaptations so shy to really adapt the original material except when it means turning into something completely mundane ? Edit :

Well, I saw the movie being mainly about the story of Black & White and I didn't get the why so much emphasis was put on other characters/elements. At first, I thought they would all highlight a certain aspect of Black personnality or Black & White relationship, but they didn't so I was a disappointed. But if you're right -and now, I kinda think you must be - I see now more clearly the angle of the movie. However, it doesn't seem successful to me either... I mean, if it was only the mafia, Black & White and the cops it would have been great... but why throw in Hebi (Snake ?) ? Treasure Town collapsing under the pressure of the shadow of a changing outside world, would have been much better, right ? Anyway, thanks for the point of view, I never really thought by myself that Treasure Town's fate was the main topic of the movie.

I really enjoyed this article and I'd like to open the subject a little more. Duncan makes a really good point when he writes that the shortcomings around the death of NPCs are due to the fact that the designers and writers don't want the player to screw their story up. In Oblivion, as stated in the article, the player is warned that the story is screwed up... maybe the next step would be to provide closure to the gamer when he destroy elements of the story that can't be reinjected in an artificial station. For exemple, if you kill someone who is supposed to open a door, you can replace him by a tool or another NPC but if you kill Alyx, it's going to be difficult to find a replacement for her practical function [she open doors and helps around] and symbolical function[the player is doing everything for her sake]. It doesn't have to be a satisfactory ending for the player, in fact, it shouldn't be satisfactory but the player should be provided a coherent ending to the game. If you're stuck because Alyx is dead, you should see HL² world going to shit....Then death or 'screw ups' could become an important part of the narrative toolset, enabling the creator to show the player what would have happened without him ala It's a Wonderful Life. D'you think it's a good idea ?

Meh, I had already been taught this lesson once, but sometimes it just feels more efficient to state the conclusion rather than detailing the process leading to it. But that's just wrong I assume ? Maybe qualifying it as a comedy was a bit far fetched, but the mafia/cop subplot is one of the most developed aspect of the movie. More than that, it really follows the tradition of the yakuza movie; thus to me, the movie tries hard to be a yakuza movie. Same with the slice of life aspect and the shonen/sci-fi part : sure, the movie applies this genre's convention locally (2 or 3 scenes) but it is done with such dedication that I'm convinced Michael Arias wanted his movie to be a meta-anime that would feature all of these subgenres. Unfortunately, the result is not what was intended ... but the intent is still here.