Thrik

I just so happen to have it up for listening here: That was put up back when the conversation's appearance within the game was mere legend, known to exist but heard by very few due to the specific and unusual actions needed to prevent triggering the bug.

The sign one is actually a favourite of mine. It's face-slappingly obvious once you get it.

Yes.

The first official patch released way back allegedly fixed a certain elevator-related bug of that nature, however I think that it resurfaced as computers reached the 'ridiculously powerful compared to 1998' tier. Just in case nobody mentioned it already, this is a good time to point out that ResidualVM runs Grim Fandango pretty much flawlessly right now, apart from perhaps a very occasional animation glitch or something. But more importantly, ResidualVM actually includes a lot of bug fixes for issues with the original game; there were surprisingly many, including one that infamously caused a long and important part of the game's dialogue to never occur. I recall reading that the CPU speed issue was improved further in ResidualVM too. And unlike with the original, you can enable anti-aliasing and such with no ill effects — something that makes the game look tremendously better, especially on a TV. If you find bugs, you can report them on the ResidualVM GitHub tracker and they'll be fixed at some point. I heartily recommend that those playing it do this, so that we can all continue to enjoy the game forever.

I don't even need to say where this is going. Facebook Creates Software That Matches Faces Almost as Well as You Do

Ah, christ. The last thing we need is robot developers competing with each other to make ever more formidable creations.

Sounds good. DKC (and Rare in general) has always been a bit collectable-happy, I definitely recall DKC2 having way more things hidden in each level than DKC1. With that said, the game built some great mechanics around those things (hidden levels unlocked with tokens, gameshow questions, saved games) and it all worked pretty well. Does DKC:TR succumb to collecting for collecting's sake or is there actually an incentive? I was watching this video and the vibe really has convinced me I want this game: It exudes classic DKC for me. Maybe it's the music, maybe it's the dark visuals, maybe it's the enemies that all have those evil eyes. Whatever the case, I want it. Just please tell me that there's no 'shake to roll' shit this time. As a side-note, Donkey Kong's noises sound like they're from some martial arts movie dub.

I wouldn't imagine so, I'm a team lead so their main priority really is finding someone else in enough time to get them familiar enough to take over what I do with little interruption to what's already a very tight development roadmap. There's no in-house candidate and the place is situated in a relatively small town, so that could be easier said than done. I genuinely hope they do though because my actual team are good guys. The whole 'I'm leaving' conversation was fairly friendly and there's little to be gained for anyone from making things uncomfortable. The bit I forgot to mention is that my current place requires three hours of commuting per day, whereas my new employer is one minute of commuting per day (not even exaggerating, they're a 30 second walk away from my apartment block). The difference that that's going to make to my lifestyle is staggering, and is worth more to me than any other incentive imaginable. I'm so tired of commuting.

Kind of flying by the seat of my pants right now. After breaking up with my ex a couple of months ago, I realised I fancied a new apartment and job. So I've got myself something nice and cosy even more central in Nottingham than I am already, and as I feel like my interest in my current project is coming to end decided to shoot my CV/resume across to a company's recruiter who'd been poking me for a while. To cut a long story short, I got the job. Yay! First time I've ever dealt with trying to get into a truly big company, though. I'd never had a phone interview before, which thankfully went really well despite my iPhone hilariously deciding that its screen wasn't going to turn off while on the call, resulting in my face repeatedly putting the interviewer on hold. 'FOR FUCKS SAKE', I thought. Then the face-to-face interview ended with one of the two interviewers saying 'We'll be in touch tomorrow, it'll be good news'. Man, it was going great — all that happened within days of sending my CV across. But then... the background checks. Over a week of waiting while they vetted me, which was properly tense because they'd offered me the job by this point but I didn't want to hand in my notice until the checks were done. I'm on a three-month notice (take away a few weeks with holidays), so any time waiting is undesirable. The checks finally came through OK on Friday, so I set up a meeting with my manager today and gave in my notice. Phew. Now I'd better hope the new employer doesn't turn around and say 'That's a bit long for us to wait for you, never mind'. They shouldn't though because I was upfront about my notice, I just hope they didn't expect me to put my notice in immediately rather than after the vetting. Because that'd be crazy, right?

Is what you're studying something that you actually have an interest in? Because I personally find it very easy to motivate myself if it's an area I love, but virtually impossible if it isn't. I wouldn't even dream of trying to do a degree in something I didn't have a 100% passion for because I know I'd fail. Your assertion that you hate studying definitely indicates you're studying the wrong thing. If this is an issue of interest, then perhaps it's time to take a step back to figure out where you're ultimately trying to go with your life. What's the end game once you've got this degree, and how upset are you going to be that you can't do whatever it is this degree would qualify you to do? Forget what your mum, tutor, or whoever would think, and think for (and about) yourself — what do you want to do? Are you doing this degree just because others think you should?

Anyone tried the new Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze? I'm practically willing to buy this just to experience the soundtrack along with the visuals, which happens to be composed by David Wise — co-composer of DKC1's music, and sole composer of DKC2's. To this day, some of DKC2's tunes regularly pop into my head. I quite enjoyed Donkey Kong Country Returns, but after a while the fact that its music was just endless remixes of DKC1's soundtrack started to grate on me. It just seemed a bit cheap and robbed the game of its own identity. However, I had a very cursory flick through the new game's soundtrack and it's some largely excellent stuff. I'm delighted to hear that Wise has employed his full range of 'ridiculously upbeat to hauntingly melancholic'. Despite what I said before, Wise's nods to a few of the old themes are nonetheless wonderful: Reviews of the actual game seem very positive, so I think this will make a great incentive for me to finally get a Wii U. Along with the imminent Mario Kart, 3D World, Wind Waker HD, and Mario Bros I'd say that the collection of traditional Nintendo franchise games has finally reached the point of 'completely enticing'.

I am eating a custard doughnut.

Haha. I'm sure that as Zeus continues to immerse himself in the wonder that is Grim Fandango, he'll quickly grow to appreciate all these things. The game does a very good job of, for example, drilling into you the origin of the demons by repeatedly mentioning that they were summoned from the Land of the Dead itself! The game has one of the richest worlds I've experienced in games, it's great fun being sucked into the craziness then reading about some of the references and origins afterwards. I guess it comes from playing it too many times, but I virtually feel like Grim Fandango's world is some actual place somewhere that I know a lot about. And if he doesn't appreciate it then we shall promptly end him.

Haha. I wish. My toilet faces are far more ferocious.

Well, it's not an A...

On the flip side, it also provides an easy way for those who for whatever reason aren't earning a good wage from doing art — in other words, most artists — to do some side/hobby work while also getting paid for it. After all, the artist determines the service. If you're going to spend a few hours doing some art anyway, might as well get $15–$30 for it.

I guess it depends on how much work you put in relative to money earnt. The model itself certainly works, with some pretty successful-looking dudes on there. If nothing else, it builds up a portfolio. Might be worth checking out what gig extras the most successful people do. I'd imagine that getting those right in terms of price/value makes a huge difference — ideally you want people thinking 'Well, I'd be a fool NOT to spend that extra $5!'.

...WELL?????

Christ, Majesco still exists?

I enjoy the coat on that cat.

Wasn't the reveal footage in 2012? If I remember correctly, the complaints about the game's visuals began in 2013 when a proper demo build didn't come close to the original footage — and the 2014 build seems no better. Of course, it is possible they're still using an old build right now. In fact, certain things (i.e. identical footage) would imply as such. Still, if the creative director is saying that the 2013 build is their target then that doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. All that said, Deus Ex: HR didn't set many people's world alight when its in-game looks were unveiled. Yet it was a highlight of not just the last generation but gaming history itself — mostly because of its wonderful atmosphere, story, world, and gameplay. So we'll see. I think too much is being made of the graphics, but then the footage isn't really evoking anything like the promise off the aforementioned Deus Ex game's trailers in any other way either. Even the open world seems dry after GTA5 and its unparalleled environmental lighting.

Leaving behind the topic of the game's content, I decided to listen to the score in isolation today. Man, this really is one of the better game soundtracks I've heard; of course, the fact that it greatly resembles the work of some of my favourite artists like Herbaliser and Shpongle helps. Minor Turbulence in particular worked incredibly well in-game, with the music building to a huge climax and then immediately being offset by soft piano music when you hit the parachute button. Great use of dynamic track shifting, although sadly many of the tracks don't get enough time to breathe so you only hear a little bit of them. I guess the standalone score fixes that — and it's all on Spotify. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHy5QHIPy1s

Oh, I appreciate the value of good ergonomics. Not that I've ever had the capital to buy a truly great chair, but if I did I would. I should have exaggerated the number further to £10,000 or more — the point I was making is that just because you use something a lot doesn't mean that you should venture far beyond the boundary of diminishing returns without a really good reason. The HDMI cable was a more obvious (and sadly real) example. But this is in a world where spending has to be balanced with sanity (and rent), which isn't necessarily a big concern for some lucky people. At work I actually just get one of the solid visitor chairs because I find them more comfortable and conducive to good upright posture than the mediocre wheel chairs that pervade most businesses I've seen.

Yeah, this is why I wanted to emphasise the importance of trying keyboards out before buying them. It's very easy to look at these fancy marketing pages of elite keyboards (Which actually are just plain old black keyboards but they look so amazing in the photos, right?) and buy into it providing an exquisite typing experience that'll transform the way you work. After all, who can put a price on something you use every day? Well, I can. I sit on my chair every day but I'm not going to go out and buy a £5000 amaze-o-paedic. I use my monitor every day but I think I'll skip the £1000 HDMI cable. The 'you use it a lot so spend extraordinary amounts on it' notion is foolish. What really matters is the gains it'll bring to you, and in my experience this doesn't necessarily correlate with price when it comes to keyboards. If you're someone who simply prefers a softer, shallower typing feel then a mechanical keyboard isn't really what you want. But the sad thing is that a lot of people discard the idea of comfort and don't even try the thing out before throwing £100+ at it. I've done it myself and been deeply disappointed. And it doesn't make you a better or worse typist using certain keyboard mechanisms, because I've been consistently hitting 120 WPM for the past 10 years on keyboards ranging from £5 to £150. The key mechanism makes no difference to typing performance once you get used to it. The real divisor is how comfortable the typing feels to you, and for me that doesn't come from using loud, mechanical keyboards. I honestly see some of these ultra-expensive keyboards as a complete scam, appealing to people's emotions in a very successful way to get them to buy keyboards that should really be valued at a fraction of the actual cost. It's definitely a primary consideration if you're a PC gamer. I found Team Fortress 2 borderline unplayable on one keyboard because it wouldn't let me move around diagonally while crouching at the same time. Any 'gamer' keyboard caters for this, fortunately.