Thrik

That's cool. I intentionally hold out on watching footage of Nintendo's main franchises because I love experiencing the wonder for myself, so I didn't have much of an idea of what the game's overall theme is. My personal favourite Mario game of all time is Super Mario World closely followed by its sequel, so I've been really hoping that a game will return to that setting one day. I'm not even sure what it is that makes that game's feel so unique, because objectively it's not that different to the Bros games. I guess the enemies are all fairly different, aside from the Koopas. Maybe it's also good old-fashioned nostalgia. Anyway, I loved Super Mario Bros 3 too (certainly much more than its predecessors) so it's all good. I kind of feel like New Super Mario Bros was a spiritual sequel to that though, so I was hoping for another visit to my beloved Dinosaur Land.

There are a number of Zelda threads but they're all game-specific, so what the hell let's give this a thread. Some apparently good violinist has put together an album featuring many of my favourite Zelda themes, and it's pretty damn great: Melodies of Hyrule But when I realised my all-time favourite Zelda theme 'Song of Storms' was featured that's the moment where I was sold:

So, uh... Mark Laidlaw's 'Breen as a Combine Advisor' Twitter feed has had shitloads of shit posted to it during the past month or so. I can't even be bothered to read it now but it was pretty interesting during its initial run.

Holy shit, this guy: Mother fucker even busts out an ocarina.

Please explain this. (I haven't played it.)

Gabe just kept talking about some Ricochet 2 shit and how it's coming out before the end of the year. I don't think anybody really gives a toss about that game.

I guess it kind of goes with the general comments I've heard going back 13 years now about how EMI is a bit dialogue-heavy. Clearly, 90% of it is people eloquently voicing their opinion that Ozzie Mandrill is a tosser.

Ozzie Mandrill. What a bastard.

I'm glad I didn't bother with GTA: Online now. When they get this and lots more content out it'll be pretty hot doing all that new-gen style.

I think we just spent the last two pages establishing that we have no god damn idea. If you watch Double Fine's Grim Fandango retrospective (My site is in it!) it seems that even they aren't quite sure yet and are actively seeking feedback and indications of what the community wants to see. Presumably Schafer is poring all over this thread RIGHT NOW.

God guys, be quiet. I am GAGGING for this game.

NFC tags are really just pointers, usually to web addresses. I'd imagine that each sold figure has a unique tag that can only be used once, in that it's tied to some kind of account once used.

Some extra incidental dialogue during year four would be nice, not sure how feasible though. Also AFAIK the return to Rubacava was meant to be set during the day so that'd be awesome to see.

It wouldn't surprise me if they don't go too crazy with it, after all it'd be madness to mess with the game's iconic aesthetic. The key word is 'remaster', which to me implies that they'll be revisiting all of the original assets and making changes where necessary to get them looking great on a HD screen. Probably the hardest part that our old friend Thunderpeel can probably empathise with is the difficulty in making all of the backgrounds widescreen, because the framing just doesn't work in many cases. Aside from compatibility, the main issues with the game all involve the technical implementation of assets that are themselves actually very good (e.g. beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds heavily compressed; peerless art direction of models undermined by really rough connections between leg joints, etc; stunning soundtrack heavily compressed). If they manage to delicately resolve all of these things while leaving the original intact then it'll be perfect. As Rodi says, this should be more about archiving a classic in the utmost quality than anything: a Monkey Island: Special Edition is not what we need.

You're certainly going to see a lot of people coming today.

Man, that fish looks just like you in your older pics.

Setting you up with developer shit was the first thing that jumped to my mind. I don't see any harm in giving it to them, it's not like they're going to see anything dodgy. If you're a game developer than it's a bit like my employer (web software development) asking me for my Microsoft account. I suspect you're being a little paranoid. This IS your employer, so them looking you up on LinkedIn and/or wanting some details about your residence, etc doesn't seem remotely weird to me. Getting uncooperative over it could be a lot worse for you than whatever scenario you're imagining could result from them having this information.

HAHAHAHAHA

I wonder if that's why about 30 doughnuts appeared near my desk at work yesterday.

I've always found Dreamhost good as a pure registrar because they give you free WHOIS privacy and are lenient to the tune of about three months when it comes to billing — handy if you own multiple domains and an inconvenient renewal or three comes up. All registrars are heavily regulated and offer virtually the same features, so there's rarely much to it beyond how much you like dealing with them and the price. The WHOIS privacy is a notable exception that the most well-known vendors tend to (rip you off and) charge for.

Keep doing what you do.

Is that meant to be an eyeball or a bleeding breast in your new avatar, Twig?

Online is definitely a great thing for Mario Kart if it's done well. There's nothing like local play with actual people — seriously, nothing — but online is a hell of a lot closer than brainless AI opponents. Especially with voice chat, although I don't know if MK8 has that. I've played a lot of AI Mario Kart and it's still great, but for completely different reasons than the balls-out hilarity and fun of playing with actual people. The AI doesn't literally beg you to not use that stupidly overpowered weapon.

I remember Mario Kart Wii being one of the biggest disappointments of my entire gaming life. I don't know what I expecting as I knew the Wii was practically a GameCube horsepower-wise, but after years of playing the magnificent Double Dash I was so hyped for its successor. I guess the graphics moving on does matter when it comes to Nintendo games. There's a serious joy to seeing the same franchises looking better and better, which combined with the derivative yet somehow fresh gameplay makes for a wonderful experience.

I've had some pretty amazing ideas for stories in dreams, just the most insane fantastical shit that I had no idea I could come up with. I really wish that I had the bother to turn any of them into anything than hasty bullet points in my phone's note-taking app. Oh, and I've also dreamt about vortigaunts torturing some naked woman in a changing/locker room by repeatedly whipping her with towels (that curiously made the same noise as the gauss gun upon contact).