Intrepid Homoludens

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Everything posted by Intrepid Homoludens

  1. Heavy Rain

    3nEkbs7vVQk Again, not-so-recent clips. NSFW. Shaky spycam during a closed door demonstration (got it from a gamer at another forum), showing what Madison had to go through once she got herself all "gussied up" for Paco. You can barely make out the voice dialogue and the shakiness is terrible but it's still watchable. Poor girl had to feign her freak on before Paco...well, I had to stop watching the first clip halfway (eventually I chose to watch it all). Not because it was too risque, on the contrary this is definitely a very mature game, with very mature subject matter. You know, for us grown-ups who understand, yes? DOgzBWQnAjY Madison needs to find a way to get Paco's attention at the club. If you don't mind being spoiled, knock yerself out!
  2. Heavy Rain

    BJ_A2Tpz2UM Borrowing director Brian de Palma's innovative multiple angle shots, Cage challenges us to diffuse a holdup by gunpoint, which may or may not end in someone getting killed, not least of all Shelby himself. Oh, and this clip shows only one possible outcome for this event. Hands-on: Heavy Rain introduces Scott Shelby | Joystiq "A little girl....I got a little girl...Her name is Jessica." Developer walkthrough clip part 1: Scott Shelby | Gametrailers Developer walkthrough clip part 2: Scott Shelby | Gametrailers Developer walkthrough clip part 3: Scott Shelby | Gametrailers (video content NSFW due to language; also, don't watch if you hate spoilers) Many of us had probably seen the clip of this one already, so this is just Joystiq's firsthand account of actually playing the demo. The videos above show different decisions you can make, resulting in different outcomes that could ripple throughout the arc of the game's story and affect other details in its narrative.
  3. So.. Batman: Arkham Asylum

    This game is hands down a zenith of impressive design and concept and quality. It looks like an action game but feels so much like an adventure game with a tinge of RPG elements, and large dollop of dark, mature edge. This is the thinking person's action/adventure. The stealth and gadgetry section feels a bit like Splinter Cell, the fisticuffs like a top notch brawler (don't let the simple controls fool you, it's more complex when you get into it), and the exploration and treasure hunt bits feel like a grand old adventure game. There's a particularly wicked series of Riddler "puzzles" that involve gadgetry, brainwork, and properly shifted camera angles to "solve" that I found refreshing, partly because it seems impossible to do in 2D point-&-click. Good example of progressive thinking.
  4. BioShock - They weren't kidding...

    There are strategies. The game is as fun as you want it to be. Then learn to be strategic. Actually, I think your situation is that you're not used to being creative. The game offers you that and you don't know what to do. Have many of the other games you've played been more constricting in how they let you defeat enemies? I noticed you've been complaining or bringing up issues in this game (and some other games you've played) a little more than posting about how you discovered ways to overcome obstacles. Is that a matter of the kinds of games you've played before? That you're very used to? Or does a game like Bioshock, when it may not be clear in telling you that you can do a bunch of things freely and in combined ways, confuse you?
  5. BioShock - They weren't kidding...

    Actually I must disagree with you conditionally. System Shock 2 came out about a year after Half-Life and Thief: The Dark Project (System Shock 2 was released August 1999) and I imagine that Irrational Games/Looking Glass Studios had already been working on it a while when Half-Life came out. So in this light it seems that Ken Levine had ideas similar to Valve and even Warren Spector in terms of how a game can be experienced. Such visionary minds often think alike and you'll find parallels in other fields like art, architecture, and science. Bioshock is essentially System Shock 2's spiritual successor, and in some ways a distillation and continuation of the core concepts of SS2. Levine isn't so much trying to give us something we absolutely have never seen before, no. That's not what he was about. Instead, he seemed personally and genuinely interested in exploring the abstracts that he originally introduced in the first System Shock, then investigated further in System Shock 2. I have played Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Thief: The Dark Project, Deus Ex, and the demo of System Shock 2 (sadly I did not play the full game). You can definitely pick up conceptual elements from Deus Ex and Thief in Bioshock as well. So as far as your thinking of Bioshock as 'derivative' in general (if that's what you meant), I think that's very inaccurate. Ken Levine, alongside Warren Spector and Valve, can be seen as pioneers in this regard so those other games that you claim Bioshock derives from are themselves lesser derivatives of those very same games that Ken Levine, Warren Spector, and Valve created. However, you would be much more accurate to say that the ideas in Bioshock are a kind of further exploration of the original ideas in System Shock 2, but those ideas are similar to - not derived from - the ideas behind Half-Life, Thief, and Deus Ex.
  6. BioShock - They weren't kidding...

    How would it not work for you?
  7. BioShock - They weren't kidding...

    It freaks you out? Then they have been successful with the idea. Best way to use the bees is on one or more splicers, especially spider splicers that are hard to get because they're hanging on the ceiling. Throw the bees then immediately hide behind a wall or something (peeking out at intervals to watch the fun) so the splicers can't shoot at you. Worst way to use the bees is when a Big Daddy is nearby because in addition to the splicers the bees will also attack the Big Daddy, and you do NOT want him and the splicers after you all at once.
  8. BioShock - They weren't kidding...

    This is an absolutely sublime game. I'm quite near finishing it. I think I harvested only 2 girls (only out of curiosity) but the rest of them I saved. The level design and gameworld are supreme, the visual style impeccable, the art direction untouchable in its quality. I haven't lost this much sleep and been this intense playing a game since....Knights Of The Old Republic, and before that.....Deus Ex? Experiencing Bioshock is a double edged sword for me (or double edged plasmid in this case) because very few titles after this will satisfy me. The bar has been raised higher again (something that happens only every several years). Yep, this is gaming at its zenith, up there with the all time greats like Half-Life, Thief, Deus Ex, System Shock 2, and KOTOR. And like Deus Ex and KOTOR this game is very necessary for our times; it ignites dialogue about ethical choices and moral accountability, political and philosophical decisions, and the consequences of unchecked and unquestioned extreme beliefs and actions. And THAT is on top of it being one of the very finest games ever conceived.
  9. Gears of War multiplayer

    Play with me on Live? Anyone?
  10. Sony continues to simply rock, PS3 delayed again in Europe?

    Uh oh... Heightened Rumor: Metal Gear Solid 4 not a PS3 exclusive | Joystiq.com, 12/17/06 I was wondering as much myself. Maybe that's the same reason for which Ubisoft retracted keeping Assassin's Creed a PS3 exclusive. We'll have to wait til Konami makes an official announcement.
  11. Viva Pinata

    And because it's supposed to be a family game they can market it in two different ways - cute and cuddly for the litttle brats, and as a more sophisticated and complex strategy game for the brats' 'rents. Double the chances for $$$.
  12. Sony continues to simply rock, PS3 delayed again in Europe?

    This may not bode well for Sony's relationship with third party devs.
  13. Viva Pinata

    I bought it just this past week and played it for a few hours. It's VERY DECEPTIVELY a child's game, and I'm afraid Microsoft may have mis-marketed it, seeing as how seriously deep, complex, and engrossing it becomes not long after you start it. I've even been reading the raves of hardcore gamers (FPS, RPG, and strategy afficionados) about it and how it sucked up most (if not all) of their time otherwise spent playing Gears. It's that addictive. I could easily envision little Brandon and Ashley getting it for Christmas and after puttering around the garden for about an hour watching all the cute pinatas do their thing, they start getting confused about the micromanagement and ask Mom and Dad for help, only to end up looking helplessly on some time later as Mom and Dad refuse the give the controller back and laugh gleefully as they watch Whirlms do the 'romance dance'.
  14. Kotaku: Go to Hell.

    So, Marek and company, have you guys actually written to Kotaku to ask what this Florian fellow's credentials are to gamedom? Does he have a degree in journalism? A university degree period? Has he done extensive research into the conceptual history of games and explored the territory of games theory? Something tells me he feels that because he, himself, does not care for Will Wright and Spore, the rest of the world should not also. Furthermore, he has chosen to not expound on his stance, as most any competent journalist - games or other - should and usually does. Perhaps we should enlighten him on this, and on his lack of expertise on gamedom.
  15. Crytek and the insanity of realism

    Screw the hands, look at the FUGLY shirt!!!
  16. Alan Wake

    The second Max Payne looked fine, not at all constipated.
  17. Alan Wake

    Here you go:
  18. Alan Wake

    It's like that. Either you get it or you don't.
  19. Alan Wake

    I guess you don't have a particular sense of humour to get it.
  20. Alan Wake

    Thanks, Kolzsie. Will post the link over at AG and talk about it there. NYAH!!!
  21. Alan Wake

    I want to fuck Mr. Wake. He's hotter than a pigeon.
  22. Alan Wake

    It's so pretty.
  23. Further 360 hilarity ensues...

    Um, no. I'm still suffering from PTSD from the very first time I saw that pic of him.
  24. Happy birthday Trep and me

    Happy Birthday, fellow Virgos Fuzzy and hermes. We're all Virgins in spirit, right?
  25. Further 360 hilarity ensues...

    How stupid.