Intrepid Homoludens

Really?

Lame.

Gawddamn. WTF. [pours bucket of ice water over Marek]

Then wouldn't they be better named iMom?

I'm finally getting to play the Thief: DS demo (on my sister's computer, which is more powerful than mine). Not bad, but not that good, either. I doesn't have the 'oomph' the first Thief had. I dunno, it just doesn't feel.....'thiefian'? For one thing the stupid blue highlights are distracting, immediately yanking me out of the gameworld every time. Garrett's voiceman is teh GOD, and that grubby guard's voice is back, which is wonderfully comfortingly familiar, but the other voices are awful! They sound too much like commercial pitches. Every time I hear the servants talk I feel like I should go to Walmart and buy something. Ech! I do, however, love the mulitple paths, the level design seems just like old Thief. The 3rd person view doesn't bother me but I do prefer 1st person 90% of the time. But for some reason the framerates are not that good, and my sister's rig should more than surpass the system reqs (P4, 2.6GHz, 512MB RAM, Radeon 9600, etc.). Is anyone else having this problem in their demo/full versions? I'd like to get this game sometime soon, but which version? PC or Xbox? If I get the Xbox version I'll be forced to play in 3rd person, which I don't want; and there's also that huge stink over the screw up with savegames loading on normal difficulty by default, which cannot be fixed for the [non Xbox Live] consoles. If I get the PC version the patch takes care of that bit, but it seems people have been complaining of the perpetual dip in framerates. I'm in a quandary!

That or you suck at it. I often replay levels to see how fun they are each time when I play differently. I found that a combination of styles is more satisfying than trying to be 'pure'. I achieved a 'Silent Assassin' rank in the Hitman Contracts demo, and that particular level was extremely difficult because you had two targets to assassinate (syringing a civilian, borrowing his threads, poisoning the borscht, waiting for target #1 to eat and get sick and go to the WC, killing him there, borrowing his clothes, etc.), AND they are both moving around the map with their own agendas, AND I was required to find explosives and blow up a dirty bomb factory. I also played it by killing half the league and got a 'Mass Murderer' status. I just ordered Hitman 2!! Should get it this week sometime, can't wait.

Yeah, that's exactly the first thing popped in my head when Marek stated he's into hair. Whatever does it for you, Marek.

Right. 0% detection. And on the game's highest difficulty level. Of course, it's impossible to do that in Splinter Cell based on its level design and setup. It's very possible to do that in Hitman and Thief. In Hitman 2 and Contracts, you can still achieve 'Silent Assassin' ranking even if you drug a civilian/guard and 'borrow' their clothes, but you must not fire a single bullet.

I didn't know you could download Xbox games.

Moos is into pussies.

Ha! You missed my Wizard Of Oz reference, brickhead!

We are still working on Curves, but currently it's kind of disjointed. James went to Italy for a couple weeks and left me in charge, but my computer got screwed up (adware crap - go figure!) and I'll be upgrading to XP from ME in a couple weeks, so until then my OS is AWOL, and I can't get any of my files. The Curves demo will be a little late, I'm afraid. I'm using my sister's computer for the time being, which is okay, 'cause I got to play the Thief: Ugly Shadows demo (which doesn't support ME). I had studied in London for a summer back when I was in art college. I've also been to Paris, Florence, and Rome. I told my sister I could go with them to Europe perhaps next year. They keep a little Volvo in Germany and they use it for driving trips from country to country. But what I really want to do is go to Amsterdam for a couple weeks with my diary and a digital camera and sit at cafe all afternoon and write. If I'm lucky, Screwtape will meet me there and we can eat space cake and bitch about things. I'd really want to learn some programming skills to make little games. How hard is it? I have some excellent ideas for some little adventure games.

Kiss it goodbye, my sad friend.

Not much yet to report on my part. It's summer, I've moved for a better chance at taking care of myself, I'm not working atm, and I will finally start writing that novel I've had in my head for years, which I'm most excited about. My sister and bro-in-law want me to go to Europe with them for a month (they leave in 3 weeks) but I'm not in the mood to. I want to start that novel. Unfortunately, they have very few Xbox titles. They're mostly racing games. Project Gotham Racing is rather fun playing with my little nephew, but I never really got into arcade games. The Star Wars: Clone Wars game is okay, but I never got into Star Wars crap, either. That Tao Feng beat-em-up game is fooking boring, those kinds of game bore me to death. My bro-in-law wants to get Manhunter. I'll keeping pimping to him to get, otherwise I'll just get it for PC for myself. Half the time I currently spend scolding my sister and brolaw for being too moronic to educate themselves about spam, pop-up ads, and adware. Their relatively new computer is really screwed up, and I had to d/l some some stuff to block out stuff. If you ask me, it's ignorant people who spread all these viruses around, you really do need to educate yourself about taking precautions.

A perfectly good reason, my boy. I, on the other hand, have news updating and moderator responsibilities, so I have to be there. Still, my life has shifted again, and now that I'm living with my sister and her family, I have access to certain things I hadn't thought about before, like cable t.v., dvd movies, and Xbox. I never watch t.v., their library of dvd's consists primarily of gory horror, action, and kiddie movies (which I don't care for), and I'm just mildly getting into the Xbox titles LOTR: The Fellowship Of The Ring and Pirates Of The Caribbean. Suburban life. Whatever....

Oh, that's right. Your parents. Well, once you turn 18.... It is graphically violent, but so is Bugs Bunny. But then Bugs doesn't show blood and decapitation, even though Itchy & Scratchy do

A friend of mine loves that game. He also had the boner for Alice, which I adored. But then he loves anything wierd and wacky. Have you played Alice?

Marek, you forgot to mention the huge orgy involving several rhesus monkeys, a rather nicely endowed pro wrestler, and a repenting soccer mom. I wasn't around for that one, but I heard a certain passive/aggressive former staffer kept looking around for an old woman to fornicate and he ended up PMing random forum members about the lack of hot middle aged females who get off on DOS based adventures. Oh, and a certain jest kept shooting his potty mouth, and an eighteen wheeler suddenly showed up delivering six months' worth of cheese. Other than that, be happy your virgin eyes were spared, Moos. No cats were injured during the broohaha.

How is Oddworld: Munchkin's Odyssey, anyway? Is it fun to play? Is it just a shitload of platforming, or does the gameplay vary?

It's called 'ghosting'. It's basically the apex of taffer endeavors among the Thief fans and community. No killing, no bonking, not even triggering guards' suspicions. Very difficult, but you'll respect yourself that much more if you accomplish it. I don't care to 'ghost' too much, but I try as best I can to avoid detection all out. But sometimes I find situations where I just can't help myself, the guy is just 'begging' to be bonked. I'm currently replaying Splinter Cell without trying to kill anyone. Sucks, though, 'cause there are definitely portions in the game where you'r required to. I hate it.

She's a hooliganster.

Tom Kha Guy soup (pokes tabsie in the ribs) with chicken Chinese Hot & Sour soup Homemade chicken soup Hot & sour cabbage soup French onion soup ...actually, most any kind of soup. I love soup.

Nothing turned up on me, either. Am I so oblique?

http://www.googlism.com/index.htm?ism=Kingzjester&type=1

Crumpets, anyone?