Thrik

http://www.razputin.net/?newsid=1117661360

I really don't like having to choose, since I really did enjoy pretty much every single one of them. The "real world" side to Psychonauts is still my favourite, since it's just so awesome to be immersed it -- the atmosphere of being in a summer camp feels so right. I don't have any childhood memories of a summer camp, but if I did then it'd probably go something like this. If I were really pushed to name one when considering general initial coolness factor, then it'd be Morry's mind -- I've always taken a big interest in war, and seeing a level reflecting that, but not in a realistic way, is really just very cool. Black Velvetopia and Milla's mind also rank pretty highly on the coolness factor level, because they were so generally awesome to look at and run through. With regards to the meat circus, I do have to agree that they really could have made that level much more memorable and enjoyable to be in. Whilst the gameplay isn't quite as hard as people say (with working out what exactly to do being the main problem -- when I played through the second time I didn't lose a single life in the meat circus), the general atmosphere of the level is pretty nasty when you first encounter it. After you've finished the game you look back at it in a less judging manner, since it does fit into the general storyline of the game pretty neatly, and it does convey what I assume was supposed to feel like a really nasty place (being the horrific memories of two children combined into one). It was, however, a pretty bad design decision to do it in quite such a gruesome manner. I'd have preferred a much more surreal and dream-like level with the same two themes (meat and circus), though they kind of went there already with the brain tumbler experiment. I dunno, it just seems an awfully gritty level after what is a fairly light hearted game. After the pretty depressing (in a good way) Asylum atmosphere, I don't think they really needed to continue the negativity into the last level. Oh well, even the most attractive roses let off gas, right? Or something.

Ooh, very cool.

Tee, Red Alert. My God is that going back a bit.

Isn't this game like four years old?

It should be whatever your use key is set to.

He's not as pretty as Satoru.

Most important game? Well, I'd have to go with Super Mario Bros. The damned thing introduced so many things to gaming which still live on today that it simply cannot fail to be at the top. The third Mario Bros game was also very important, bringing with it a lot of improvements to an already strong game which continued to be imitated in 2D platform games for a long time to come. Until the 3D explosion, most platform games ended up borrowing from these. However, more recent games can be traced back to the aforementioned Doom a lot more easily, and so I'd have to lean towards that one as being a huge part of the current gaming scene being what it is -- a plethora of first person shooters. Half-Life also deserves some credit, with the improvements to the genre which resulted in a far more interesting FPS experience undeniably an incredibly strong influence on those games which came after it.

Dude, the possibilities are totally endless. I will recreate Lungfishopolis!

Tee, Duncan. :~

She likes 'em rough.

http://www.vgmix.com/download?3959 My God. This song will primarily appeal to those who plays James Pond 2: Robocod, the Pac-Man game which remixed it, and Mario 64.

I doubt that they planned the PC version falling behind 1-3 weeks with most retailers though, nor did they plan for some retailers to still not have it. I assume it was just a stocking problem, but hopefully they'll be able to do it more smoothly here in Europe. I dunno what you're trying to say with the green though. Green wasn't that predominant in the levels. Sure, it was on the cover art and ads, but the latter were most probably just copying the former. I think the milkman conspiracy may by leaking into your perception of colour.

Psychonauts has had a sadly very rocky release, with the PC version being delayed for many people, and the European versions not even out yet. I wouldn't expect it to have groundbreaking initial sales, though it's likely to pick up a lot of interest as people take note of the positive reviews, and the general reputation that it's already managed to build up (very positive, for those who don't visit many non-Mojo/AG/Thumb forums). That said, seeing the May sales figures for it would be interesting, now we're nearing the end of the month.

Cool article. Some points were a little too geared towards the writer's personal taste, but as a whole it does bring up a lot of fair points. AI that isn't utterly retarded is definitely a big one, and something that really should be worked on with multiple processors and all that taking the centre stage in the upcoming generations of consoles and PCs. I mean, seriously. Even the most advanced AI in games these days is for the most part completely lame, and there's never a true sense of threat from anything that isn't prescripted. One problem that I see a lot is how many games offer "safety zones", which are essentially areas that you know the AI cannot make the enemy reach very easily, if at all. These such zones should be non-existent in future games which rely on enemy threat, so that you never feel safe. It destroys the immersion if you know that you can just climb halfway up a ladder to completely escape most enemys' physical attacks, for instance. Enemies should be able to deal with any action that you take to evade them, rather than simply losing hope if you hide behind which is out of their visible range or immediate walking range. Metal Gear Solid took some steps in the right direction with the way the enemies in it could take you on in a variety of ways, called for backup, dealt with you effectively, and generally spotted clues which hinted to your being there such as sound and footprints. The entire game was based around this though, while in today's games it should be part of the game, rather than the game itself. I mean, take any random FPS these days. Whilst some may say you can choose to evade enemies rather than take them on via stealth, how many of these games actually offer you a serious stealthing experience when you also have the option of blasting them down with a shotgun? More often than not, they just tack some half-assed immediate range sound and movement detection and then claim it to be a stealth element. I don't know how to really describe it. I mean, the AI isn't totally atrocious in most games these days, since you are genuinely challenged at times and such. It just feels so cheap in the way that they do so, and it definitely doesn't feel you're facing actual intelligence in any game whatsoever, it's more like "artificial competence".

My sources tell me that this video isn't exactly brand spanking new, but nontheless, for those that have not seen it: http://www.wwe.com/common/video/pop_wwevideo.jsp?spawn=&wmv=smackdown/200505/05badbadman300&title=John%20Cenas%20music%20video&show=smackdown&speed=300 The music does nothing for me, but oh man, the video. Man. In case you need further persuasion: includes a parodied performance of Mr T.

Yes, games often fail to end on quite as high a note as the game itself, particularly if the game is of a very high quality. I mean, it really is difficult to do a truly great game justice in the form of an ending. Psychonauts managed it better than most, but it's still undeniably not perfect. It's a very good ending in my opinion (as in, the whole sequence from "the point of no return"), but the whole lead-up to it prior was generally more enjoyable and just generally packed full of coolness.

I would like to point out that the double mispelling of invisibility above was completely accidental. God damn.

Tee, it's not that difficult. Which part exactly are you having difficulty with? I don't know if it's because the PC controls easier or what, but I found both the meat circus (once you work out the "trick" to each area) and the apparently impossible punching game in Coach's mind fairly simple. In fact, I don't think I've ever even failed at the punching game. Just remember to make plentiful use of your powers and bacon, if you're utterly stuck. I kept bollocking up the tightroping at first, until I remembered that I can just run along it with invisiblity (plus the double length invisiblity addon I earned previously) and totally avoid the whole fireballing thing. In fact, most of that level becomes extremely easy if you use the double length invisiblity and shield throughout -- including the bosses.

I've never really thought that Link is a particularly well developed character, which certainly isn't helped by the fact that the dialogue is always text based, and so he isn't given a chance to vocally establish any kind of footing. So, the latter.

I'm not sure. Bearing in mind that these consoles are a lot more powerful than your average PC right now, and the fact that they likely come loaded with all of the recent graphical innovations which PCs have had exclusively for a while now, it's not too unbelievable. I mean, all of the fancy motion blurring and such in the image above is perfectly doable with DX9. Most PCs can't handle it to the extent above, using it more subtley like for the gas in Half-Life 2's case, but a console with hardware dedicated to pumping out visuals like that should have no problem at all. And, we already know that these consoles are packing ridiculous specifications, so I doubt that handling the polygons would be an issue. This next generation of consoles is going to produce some incredibly pretty games, there's no doubt about that. The question that remains is how good the games which take advantage of it will be. I'm not expecting too much from the launch line-up, but there's no denying that later titles will be simply excellent. Hell, I'd love to see what Double Fine can do with all of this techology.

Okay, that backwards compatibility thing is just amazing.

The Meat Circus was a pretty unenjoyable level, but I didn't have quite as much trouble with it as most people seem to. I mean, I had to retry that flaming wire netting bit a number of times, but the main reason that I kept failing it was that I didn't spot the big piece of meat behind it which you had to jump onto. :~ However, it was more the atmosphere of the level that I disliked. I've never really enjoyed circus type things, which didn't help. The level just seemed to overwhelming, unrelaxed and downright darker than most of the others -- I guess this was the design intention, but it left me with some pretty bad memories of the level. Other than that relatively small issue the game was bloody awesome though. The ending totally left me utterly, utterly gasping for more, which is always a good sign. It'd be nice to revisit this world some day, although whether it should be DF's next project is arguable. Let technology and experience move on a bit, like. The whole Meat Circus was worth it to hear LeChuck the Butcher, though!