Intrepid Homoludens

jp, have you reached von Beck's Revenge in Emperor's Tomb yet?

*gasp* LOOOOVE that leopard skin bra!!!

Someone already had mentioned this game over at AG a while back. It's fun but difficult.

They are the ones least deserving, pathetic hypocrites. I'm poor myself (I don't even own a car), and if I can't afford a game then I just accept that and do without.

When and by whom? My dad, I suppose.

The Chance Undone "So, how is it that you know Eric?" "He introduced himself at the Zand Bar, while I was minding my own business." "Sounds more like he intruded." "Oh, I didn’t mean to insinuate such. It’s just that I often have drinks alone. I do some of my best thinking that way. Eric mistook my brown study for a blue funk, so he tried to cheer me up, which is what so many strangers do." "I never knew he was colour blind. But it sounds like he was merely being a Good Samaritan." "I never think of it that way. At least, not in a bar." "I’m sorry. But, you know, my being his best friend, I feel a certain duty to try and present him in a better light." "Well, it was a dimly lit bar." "Ahihi, that was a good one. But, if you don’t mind my being frank, how can you think so clearly in a bar, with a couple of drinks down, and more distractingly, with all these attractive people hanging around? Wouldn’t your mind function better at a cafe, or better yet, at home?" "No." "Unh...care to explain?" "Well, if you insist..." "I’m not being insistent. I’m merely being curious." "Well, if you insist on being curious. Somehow my mind is less inhibited, less constrained, when I have a drink. Soothing, you know? I needn’t worry about the cares of the day, at least for the time being. So, I can let my thoughts wander, and maybe figure some things out. I’ve solved a few little problems in my life over a couple of martinis." "Problems such as....?" "Oh, nosy, aren’t we? Or what was that word you used? ‘Curious’." "Hey, calm down! I was just trying to get to know you a little better. Don’t be so defensive." "Choose your adjectives carefully, my dear. I don’t consider explanation of something I feel strongly about to be defense. One is not the other." "Okay, okay. Whatever you say. Sorry I asked in the first place. Geez!" "I’m sorry. That was rude of me. But really, I am in a certain mode of...guardedness. Not about the reasons I come here, but about the immediate consequences of my being here." "Apology accepted. But what do you mean by ‘immediate consequences’? "Well, you mentioned it as part of your inquisition. That there are all these attractive types walking around while I sit alone thinking." "Oh, so you are distracted --" "Hey, may I finish?" "Sorry. Do go one, please." "As soon as you’re done snickering.... Are you done yet?" "Wait. I feel one more coming... There, done." "Jeezus. Anyway, that’s the main caveat I have to deal with every time I’m here, or the Zand Bar, or any other place. These strangers keep coming up and telling me I shouldn’t be so sad. ‘Smile honey, it can’t be that bad’, ‘Don’t worry, there’s a better one here in front of you’. And what was that one line? Oh, yes: ‘I’ll make you a deal. You give me a big smile and I buy you a body slam!’ " "Ha ha ha ha! I like that one. Why didn’t I come up with it? Unh...sorry." "So, that’s the score." "And you know the score. So why even bother to come here to do your thinking when you know people are gonna hit on you? Sounds like self-inflicted punishment to me." "Not really. It’s happened so many times that I just got used to it. In this type of establishment you learn to take the good with the cad." "Ah ha ha ha! That was really good! But seriously, I have to be honest with you. You are very attractive. You shouldn’t take it so personally when someone tries to talk to you. Or maybe you should, for your own good." "What?!!" "Aw, for Chrissakes! Don’t even start to get tense with me. You damn well know that no one’s gonna bother you if you were ugly, or even plain. Get that into your thick pretty head!" "That was a compliment, wasn't it?" "Oh... Yeah, I think. I didn't mean it to sound --" "I liked that. I've never heard of that one before. Thank you." continued...

So, you're into skin, huh? Oooh, Erkksie, I never knew you at all.

Yes, well, I read about you in them practical field guides. Something about a warning not to feed you mediocre second rate opinions.

Deus Ex Tis a sad, sad day (also here). And yet, I can only sense good things for Spector, Smith, and the team beyond the draconian, bitch confines of Eid-ass. They're far too good for that company, too innovative and visionary. Let's hope the best for them and that sometime in the near future they'll huddle together again and conspire to create yet another fantastic new game. Long live The Looking Glass Studios and Ion Storm Austin! On a rather ironic note, the demo for Thief: Deadly Shadows has just been released. Note that XP seems to be the only way to play this, but I'm d/l it anyway to see if it'll cough on my ME. If not, ah well, I'll soon upgrade to XP anyhow. Mirrors are available on Gamer's Hell.

As opposed to impure, I guess.

That would be disappointing. The game is pure ace.

Last night, in a sentimental rush, I decided to revisit the Half-Life world again and reinstalled and played Blue Shift from start to finish. *Sigh*, even the least well done title of the whole series still manages to envelope me in the Black Mesa state of mind. Barney sends his love along with a few snapshots: "For those of you who have only played Half-Life, this was my first sight of Gordon riding the tram to his destiny, staring at me as I was banging on that stupid door. Hello, Mr. Freeman!" "I hadn't yet tried Tesla's Tacos yet, the scientists love it. Hell, they love anything other than donuts and security guards. The pizza's okay, at least it's not Domino's." - Love, Barney "I don't know. Something tells me I should have called in sick today. All these ominous little nasty things happening around me, just before that big explosion and shaking. That scientist guy Rosenberg said something about some cascade resonance or something." "I don't have a damn clue what he did to deserve it, but those Marines sure gave Mr. Freeman a bad time. Man, does he look tenderized in this pic. Oh yeah, that weird-ass alien world I barely survived, I was helping Rosenberg and the other scientists by teleporting there and trying to get back, I snapped this pic of Mr. Gordon just before I got teleported to safety and hightailed my ass out of Black Mesa for good. Hey! Catch me later, I'll buy ya a beer!" - Love, Barney

A psychological suspense thriller I would make a FPS/RPG/Tactical Action/Adventure hybrid psychological suspense thriller. It'll be story and character driven, and many of its aspects will be based on real life unsolved crimes. You play as a young female FBI agent, Beck, out to solve a series of gruesome murders that all seem to point to a brilliant yet elusive individual. A good portion of the game will involve actually searching real online databases during gameplay for clues and information (so you'll need Internet connection while playing). Beck is a young woman who comes from a broken childhood background (physically abused, etc.) and at important crossroads in the game she will have to deal her buried past in order to gain a more solid footing in her investigations, including the inevitable confrontation with the serial killer himself (a bit like Silence Of The Lambs). Part of the online research is having to look up information on how many murderers come from troubled pasts, which in turn relates to your character and how she herself must come to terms with her own past. About 2/3 into the game the killer strikes again, and the next victim is kidnapped: Beck's boyfriend. It then becomes a cat-and-mouse race against time as she (you) must solve puzzles and quests laid out by the killer in order to track down her boyfriend to save him. It's no longer all in a day's work - this time it's personal. When you begin the game the clock starts and keeps going in real time. You'll be given a choice to outfit Beck with various skills from a selection menu (like agility, endurance, accuracy, intelligence, stealth, etc.). Depending on how well you do and how fast you do it, you'll be able to upgrade Beck's skills after each level. There is no stats to keep track of, the more you do something the better you get at it. Keep in mind, however, that much of the time there is no shooting involved, and many of the puzzles require you to traverse trap filled areas, explore dangerously crumbling environments, sneak through heavily guarded areas, pore over written and verbal data, and interact with NPCs strategically to gain information. Also note that the A.I. will be state-of-the-art. The game will keep track of your time and performance in proportion to your chosen skills and will adjust the difficulty accordingly, so that the faster you solve puzzles and quests, the nastier the subsequent puzzles will be. The game will configure, on the fly, custom made challenges for you, variations on a root, taking into account skills, timing, and performance. The puzzles and quests can have more than one solution or pathway, although each one will have its advantages and drawbacks. For example, a trip to a bad neighbourhood can gain you a meeting with a key witness, yet you might get into trouble with a local street gang. Choose to be stealthy by disguising yourself as a crackhead or homeless person, or use your streetsmart skills to gain their favour so to protect you from a rival street gang. Physics will play a key part in the game. There may be moments in a level in which a clumsy jump may cause one or two items to fall out of your inventory. Upgrading your agility (at the expense of another important skill) could prevent this. If you focus on strength you could be able to move heavy crates to climb up to reach a valuable clue or avoid confrontation with an enemy. The setting will be in the present day, in several Midwestern cities (Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee, etc.), where many of the murder victimes were found. The levels will take you to real life places like abandoned warehouses, slums, ethnic neighbourhoods, public buildings, backroads and forest preserves, skyscrapers, and nightclubs. (I would send out teams to actual locations in these cities to photograph them, eventually reproducing them in the game) Beck's base inventory will include: standard issue pistol, switchblade, voice activated digital recorder, digital camera with zoom lens, handcuffs, cell phone, PDA. All in all, this game will involve very little shooting, but will demand more brainpower, ingenuity, and resourcefulness (for example, that clumsy jump you made earlier in the warehouse cost you the screwdriver you found, and now that you need it to unscrew a panel that may or may not hide a clue, you're stuck. What else do you have? Hmm, your FBI badge? The bevelled edge of it does look skinny enough....). Features: 3D engine with photodigitized textures. Robust physics engine. Advanced A.I. for character interaction, self-adjusting gameplay, and custom challenges. Light based engine for hiding in shadows and using light for offensive/defensive maneuvers. RPG lite upgradeable skill system.

A dead poet. A house on the hill. Lost love. A ballpoint pen. Fruitcake. Have you been chosen? Who is to blame? "The Curves of Danger" Coming Fall 2004 from ForeverDream Studios. ForeverDream Studios Wants You If you are talented, creative, progressive, dedicated, and possess programming and related technical skills for designing computer games, we want you. We need volunteer animators and programmers to work with us on our upcoming classic noir adventure game, The Curves of Danger, to be released in Q3/4 2004. Work with us on this cool and stylish new game while beefing up your resume. Programmers must have some _javascript experience, and c++ is preferable. Animators, modelers and texturers need to use either MAX or XSI. All candidates must be willing to work hard to help us produce one of the finest classic adventures games ever created. For more information and to apply, please contact James Gallen at ForeverDream Studios: james.gallen@foreverdreamstudios.com. To see the quality of our work in progress, please visit The Curves of Danger capsule site: http://www.foreverdreamstudios.com/games.html.

Marek, your av is Pey'J! So you have played BG&E, I gather.

So you have a real accent?

Wait a minute! Daikatana was made by another team, another studio. Spector and his own team had nothing to do with it.

How good are you at voice acting?

Pretty. I may be a graphics slut, but for some reason those pics barely did anything much to me. I'd rather wait for Fahrenheit. Ah well.

I'm patient enough that I can wait a bit longer to get game demos and movies from elsewhere for free, so I don't really need to pay to subscribe to any site. So far it seems none of them offer truly quality content for my money. As Marek inferred, they should offer more original and particularly intelligent content and work more towards giving the site its own distinct personality. After all, a paid subscription site really is the digital equivalent of a printed magazine, and as such should offer content unlike its competitors (other magazines). But as it stands, I can't tell the difference b/t Gamespot, Gamespy, and IGN. They all offer the same damn thing, there's nothing idiosyncratic and exclusive in their contents that I can't get anywhere else at all, and none of them have a distinct personality. For example, no other magazine can give me the same quality of writing, tone, and ambience that The New Yorker can. See, if Idle Thumbs offered all the downloads, exclusive insightful interviews (beyond generic Q&As), intelligently written articles and editorials, all while retaining its deviant edginess, it would be like having The New Yorker in the gaming world. That would be worth my subscribing to.

Sunburned and puppy dog eyed?

Yep, that's what I do.

Okay, goddammit! We need to arouse this damn forum with excitement and wotknots! Call of Cthulhu Classification: Genre hybrid (RPG/FPS/Adventure) Official site Latest official trailer Fahrenheit Classification: Adventure Developer's site (embedded in-game footage shown) Latest official trailer (free registration required) Dreamfall (the sequel to The Longest Journey) Classification: Adventure Official site

Mormon. Moron.

Does that mean you're from Chicago?