ThunderPeel2001

Congrats! How?

Yes. Yes, it is

That's great to know! So if I make it to the next chapter, I'm good? Excellent! I booted it up last night and actually ended up really enjoying it. Sure, I had to backtrack a few times, but I got into the atmosphere more and paid more attention than I had previously. I also cranked up the "Donald Sutherland hints" to max, and kept checking what he recommended when I got stuck. Definitely helpful in understanding how the game wants you to play. Has anyone else got a copy? It'd be fun to compare notes with another first-timer.

I can so see that happening. I experienced something similar once, and it almost ruined a book for my ex. Oops!

Christopher Lloyd sounds great! I was a bit worried before, but that video has allayed my fears. New fears in the hopper: They've mimicked Fox's facial nuances (like in the final shot of the trailer) so closely that it'll bug me when I play it/watch the films again. The dialogue/plot won't be as good as the films'. (Admittedly, this is a tall order, seeing as the TTG guys don't have years to hone the script.) Secret dreams: MJF sees the game and decides he wants to do the voice afterall (and is able to). In all: Awesome trailer. This looks like the game I've wanted to play since 1985!

Looking good! I have to admit I'd get some pleasure going to work dressed like that (Especially, and perhaps importantly, if I didn't have to.)

Yes, you should totally give up because if you're not a master when you're a teenager, you'll never be one after years of practice. Whhhaaaattt? Don't be silly. You've got so much time ahead of you to become easily as good as that guy... it just takes time and practice. I wish someone had explained that to me when I was younger. Alan Moore, comic god, has often said he wasn't the best writer in his class at school. The only difference between him and his classmates was that he kept writing, and they stopped. Most people stop. If you don't, you're ahead of the game in any discipline.

Ha. I was a little dismissive at first, but then I paid more attention to the lyrics and realised it was actually quite a cynical little song, and the cheeriness was an ironic counterpoint. That made the animation seem better, too, for some reason. Also, it makes me think of this: http://vimeo.com/12026956

This sounds like an interesting game to pull out again. I do remember the frustration, but I also kind of like the idea of it being so "hard edged". Still, the idea of saying the wrong thing in the beginning of the game and then being unable to finish it several hours later does not appeal. Still, it's sitting in my oversized wallet of "interesting games/classics that I really should play", right next to Last Express and Uplink, so maybe I'll give it a go. That's because you can add inflection to "OK". It can mean "disappointing" right the way through "average" to "not bad". You can't make "mediocre" sound positive

Very good. Yes, it starts off as an interesting discussion about "taking the third side", with interesting anecdotes, and sounds very promising. I really thought it was going to be very useful information, especially given the description..... but then it turned into, "Let's all go for a walk!". Sadly I'd posted the video before that happened (probably too eager) and then had to come back and add the disclaimer. Sorry, folks.

This review does a good job of summing up my experience with KGB/Conspiracy. It's an interesting game, to be sure: The Good KGB, or Conspiracy, as it was named on the CD-ROM version I had back in the days, is a political thriller with murder, conspiracies(duh!) and lots of shabby affairs as main ingredients. I might as well say it right away, the story/plot is great. The story, and the very original(but difficult) "puzzles" are what makes you keep on playing despite the flaws the game has. The player has an immense freedom in what he can do, although you have to do the right things in the right order, or youäll die or fail(usually die). But the fact that you do not get many clues and can investigate for your own, trusting your own investigating abilities, makes it feel as the game is very open, when in fact it is not. It actually feels as if you are a spy caught in a very confusing web of lies, conspiracies, murder, snuff-videos and corruption, desperately trying to both survive and to find the truth about what is going on. I really like the way the plot takes turns and twists and forces the player to be attentive and not only solve the "puzzles" but also listen to what the character have to say in order to figure out who to trust and who is trying to fool you. In other words, the game is more involving "story-wise" than "puzzle-wise", and to me that is a good thing. I write "puzzles" in brackets because there are no traditional puzzles in this game. As Rukov, a fresh KGB-agent trying to discover corruption inside the KGB, the "puzzles" are really something more than just solve boring "put the egg in the hat and use it on the banana"-puzzles. In this game you spy, use surveillance equipment, you decode messages, follow suspects, interrogate people, and above all, you manipulate and use all of your diplomatic skills to get out of the many precarious situations you find yourself in. It's a very intelligent game, and it demands a lot from the player. The characters are also good, and the story is definitely not suitable for children. This is a real dirty story that takes place in the Soviet Union and it's full of corruption and death. Another both good and bad aspect of the game is how time moves. The clock is always ticking on, and you should do certain things before certain times and so on. This is sometimes a good way to make the game feel more realistic. But it is not only good... The Bad First of all, the graphics aren't very good at all. It's not appalling to look at, but it's not very good looking either. On the CD-ROM version you can get hints from Rukov's dead father, played by Donald Sutherland. I like Donald very much, which is why I really hated seeing him in this boring, very "brown" role, with a silly accent and a beard, repeating the same hints over and over again. The biggest problem, however, is the difficulty of the game. It's more than challenging, it is frustratingly difficult. Sometimes you have no idea what you should do, and Donald "hints" that you are doing just fine, and then five minutes later, without knowing what you have done wrong, Donald tells you that you have failed and that you should start over. Yes, people, this is the worst part of the game. If you do not do things in the right order, and if you are not in the right places at the right times, you fail. Often you don't even realise that you have failed, so check carefully before you save because it is very frustrating to save a game just to find out that you have blown it and have to start all over from the beginning of the chapter. There is a function that allows you to backtrack a little while, but this doesn't work well at all, and all too often it does not backtrack long enough to allow the player to correct the mistake, in which case you have to start over. Extremely annoying. As long as we're talking about failing, there are way too many ways to die. Sometimes you do not even realise that you have written your own death sentence. If you say one thing wrong to a CIA agent that you meet, he will snipe you when you leave the building, while you may think that you have done well and saved(you do a lot of investigating in the hotel you meet the agent in), you go outside and you just die, and there is nothing you can do about it but start over. I didn't even know who killed me or why the first times it happened to me. This is just downright idiotic and without these disturbing elements the gameplay would rise considerably. It is frustrating enough that you often find yourself in situations where you have no idea what the hell you are supposed to do. A game should not leave the player clueless to what the goals are, if the player are clueless it should be to how to reach these goals. It is very common that you wander around aimlessly, hoping to stumble upon the right path(but mostly you'll hear Donald telling you to start over..AAAARGH). This arbitrariness of the game is very frustrating and it feels very unfair to constantly fail or be killed despite the fact that you have been doing so well and found a lot of clues, just because you should have done something else first (which the game did not hint about at all). The Bottom Line Although the game is very difficult due to it's lack of clues on what you should do and why, the games advantages are stronger than the flaws. It feels realistic, open and the story is very good and full of intrigues, twists and turns, and the end is both surprising and quite good. If you can endure the frustrating difficulty (use the hints a lot) it's in the end a very rewarding game. Try it out with and open mind.

What's your latest great idea that you're not going to do?

Metal Gear Diplomat! Also known as "Conspiracy" on CD-Rom (and featuring newly shot video of Donald Sutherland)... I actually thought it was ok. Pretty damn dark and adult, and I never got very far, but it looked promising.

Ignore... this wasn't good at all. http://www.ted.com/talks/william_ury.html Kind of loses it after 10 mins...

Are there no new deals at Steam today? Also: http://www.telltalegames.com/30daysoftelltale

You should watch the targeted video first (or as much as you can stand). It's a really good comeback for it, and not what I was expecting. Catchy, too. Anyway, now this has been found lhjANIyY0Sw

It must be true!

Genius!

He's totally doing his 90 degree pose! *bah!*

Some of these are great, like Neo and Lara Croft... Some of them are terrible (like Bart Simpson).

Hurrah! Number #428 on the List of Thing I Hate is people who say (without irony), "the kids of today... *tsk*". They said the same thing about your generation, about my generation, about your parents' generation... It's all horseshit. There's good and bad people in every generation. There are trends, though. I do think my generation was a lot more apathetic than the current one, so I really respect this current one for attempting to do more. And there was definitely some truth in the stories about the Oxbridge crowd (supposedly our "best and brightest", if you believe that kind of nonsense) not being lured by a chance at improving the world (as they once were), and instead being drawn towards the lucrative (and miserable) world of banking. But since the banks are all fucked and not hiring people, I guess they're having to go somewhere else now I'm sure that article was right in what it said, but there's obviously no way you can sum up an entire generation.

Looks extremely different No idea what to make of it... http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/113/1136362p1.html

Yeah, wtf Google?

She did a great job of reminding me what it felt like to be a teenager again, so I wouldn't be too afraid. Ha! Very good

Bugs for the pile: C: When you lose/win a game and you want to quit, you have to go to the Main Menu... No problem, except for some reason it loads the whole street scene (which takes a while) instead of the quick 2D version. C: Once the camera has zoomed in your last opponent, if you resize your resolution/flip from windowed to fullscreen, the camera reverts back to its original position, and the character talks to where the camera was, instead of where you are. Minor stuff!