ThunderPeel2001

It's also very good.

Yeah, I enjoyed the ending, too. Glad I wasn't alone! I wish there'd been some credits on a black screen so I could have soaked up the atmosphere a bit more (rather than suddenly jumping to the main menu), but otherwise very nicely done. The game's weakest elements were definitely its scripting, though, despite the good bits.

I personally found the first two levels quite annoying, but probably the second worse than the first. Still, it made for a bad demo........ If they'd done the Lungfishoplis level, would it have sold more copies? Probably.

I feel like I need to join you... I'll never say anything hateful to anyone on this board! *group hug*?

Playing this game with the subtitles turned on how revealed how many lines are completely lost due to weird bugs. I spent ages listening to Quentin's and Pheobe's conversation in the main lodge while they practice (enjoyable, too) but there were lines that were cut short that were printed in full in the subtitles. It's well worth turning them, IMO.

It was 400 and the game just crashed on me :tdown:

It's simply because they love Psychonauts (and disagree with you). Yep, you summed it up. This is definitely what I'm feeling. It's missing the warm, fuzzy feeling that really, the game needed. I also didn't find the character's lines all that funny. I'm sorry, but they're just not. Compare. These are pretty much both the first conversations you hear in Monkey Island and Psychonauts: You approach a crusty, impressive looking pirate. He notices you and says... "Ahoy there stranger. New in town?" You reply, "My name's Guybrush Threepwood. I'm new in town." "Guybrush Threepwood?" (his face cracks) "Ha ha ha!! That's the stupidest name I've ever heard!" "Well, what's YOUR name?" (his face falls) "My name is Mancomb Seepgood." you wander across two kids having an argument: Phoebe: Ugh. That has got to be the worst band name I have ever heard, in the history of ever, of all time, ever. Quentin: And by "worst" did you possibly mean "the best"? Because that's what I was thinking. P: No I meant the worst. As in I can't believe we're friends it's so bad. Q: Look deeply into your heart, Pheobe, and I think you'll find that even you believe that "The Levitators" is pretty much the dopest name a band could ever have. P: The Levitators? Are we some sort of covers band that only plays graduation ceremonies for motivational seminars? Q: I've been practising and I think I could levitate us both during our gigs. For real now. P: No way, last year you dropped me and I broke my drums. Q: Hey, at least those got fixed. I'll never get back those records you melted with that unplanned pyrotechnics display of yours. P: Look, you know when I have a good solo going, sometimes things get hot. I can't help it. And it seemed like part of the show if we named the band the right thing... Q: Oh, not this again... P: Ahem. Ladies and gentlemen! Q: Please... P: Would you please welcome... Q: No... P: THE FIRESTARTERS Q: Aw, man... R: (crowd noise) Q: If we're going to call it that we might as well call it "Burning Itch". R: What? (makes angry noises) (weird sparks - burning the insects close-by?) Q: Hey, how's everybody tonight? You feelin' Itchy? I said, YOU FEELIN' ITCHY? P: Watch it Quentin. Q: Or what, you'll burn me? You know you can't burn me. You got a block. That's why we're friends. P: Aw, you're right. Q: That's why we're in a band together. P: Yeah... Q: And why we should call our band The Levitators. P: Did you say Heavy Taters? Cuz that's what I heard. Q: Levitators! P: Firestarters! Saying all this, I'm playing it again and really enjoying it... with the subtitles on (which is allowing me to appreciate the dialogue better as some of the jokes are lost - like "ass-tral projection" etc.)

Really? So they're baddies who get to the top? They can only be killed when they're moving....?

Ok, I installed Psychonauts last night because of this thread! I gave it a quick go before I went to bed and............. (maybe it's time to burn me as a heretic) ........aside from the groovy opening video, and the cool set up, I have to say I've just been reminded that it's not an immediately gripping game. It's actually not that much fun to explore the camp... Sure, there's plenty to interact with, and there's some funny lines from the characters, but it doesn't necessarily feel like the nice warm and friendly place it wants to. I know it gets better, I know it's a brilliant game, but I've just been reminded of the beginning feeling. The characters are a little strange, too. Their dialogue isn't really as amusing as it thinks it, either. The two kids arguing about what to name their band is actually more character driven than humorous, which given the fact that their characters are never really explored or expanded upon, seems odd. The same goes for most of the other kids, too. And the kid who's "practising" spying on the girls, well, it's just a bit odd considering how young everyone comes across. And that's when you go around "punching" people just to hear their reaction.... Hmmmm. Please don't kill me.

I guess after what happened with System Shock and then again with System Shock 2, the journalists were going ape to try and knock people out of their complacency. It works against people like me, though, that were always going to buy Bioshock because of the earlier two games. Still, I'm very glad it appears to have been a financial success. Also, I actually like the open endedness of the skill system. I don't want to get on a level filled with security only to find that I've equipped myself as a fighter too much and really struggle because of a poor GUESS. Much more enjoyable if you ask me the way they designed it this time around, but definitely less RPGish.

It doesn't spoil all that much, thankfully. Also, do you know about the XBox360 cache thing? Apparently there's not a problem with the last patch, it's just old cache data conflicting with the new patch... Just empty the cache by holding L+R bumpers while booting or something.

Damn, it's a shame about those cutscenes not being widescreen. I've just bought a new widescreen monitor Stretching them sounds awful! I don't know about the audiovisual sync, I guess you could be right, but with games like Sam & Max doing their cut scenes so well, it makes you wonder if it really would have been a problem. Also, considering this game is on FIVE discs, why were the videos compressed so much? I seem to remember them being soft and with some visual artifacts to boot. I'm a bit bummed out hearing about the widescreen issue though

I was just thinking of installing it again yesterday. It's funny how even discussing the worst bits of the game still manage to make me feel nostalgic for it. One thing that I don't get, why on earth didn't they just use the ingame engine for the cutscenes? It would have made the install about fifth the size and they didn't use any higher quality models or any special effects that the engine couldn't do in the videos. It would have also made them look better as there wouldn't have been any compression artifacts.

This is a brilliant post that I just skipped (for some reason), first time around. Wow, thanks for pointing all that stuff out, I feel like it's my duty to try and like SG now! I had no idea that the "visual clusterfuck" was part of the intellectual design for the game. That's actually really interesting. I don't understand the Powerzone/Bulling stuff that you mention, as I found the tutorial to be needlessly confusing. Could you explain it? Here's my basic understanding: The "powerzone" is the thing that falls further away (into the distance) when you kill the baddies? And you can "bull" them off the top of the grid if you've got powerzone by bashing into them sideways? And this is how you get higher points for a level? I'll try the tutorial again when I get home.

Heretic! Burn him! BURN HIM!!!

Would that be because traipsing around a forest collecting 300 arrowheads is actually NOT fun?

Nice review which sums up its flaws in my opinion (rather than just comparing it to SS2): http://www.richardcobbett.co.uk/codex/journal/filingcabinet/bioshock/ No spoilers, either.

Care to boot it up again and time yourself?

Also, a WEI of 2.0?!!!??? Gimme a break! Are you seriously telling me that Bioshock requires the same system resources as Mine Sweeper and fucking Purble Palace? I think they need to update that, pronto

I'm also unsure. I was surprised that Consolevania started to rave about it. It was nice to hear that the chaos of the game actually leads into something you can play. From the tutorial alone I my eyes were hurting, plus I had no idea what it was talking about. I still don't fully understand how to play it! I preferred Tempest 2000, I think. Still... I WANT to like Space Giraffe, so I'll probably keep plugging away at it so I can start making out the sense from the chaos.

Have to disagree. While I know what you mean that the dialogue wasn't at immediately interesting as say, Pulp Fiction, but it wasn't shit. It also wasn't shit because it "failed" at being a 70's exploitation movie. That was just the starting point of the movie, it changes after that. It's deceptively simple, too.

Finished it!!! You can't spoil anything for me anymore!! Yay!!! No need to avoid threads with BioShock in the title any more. I can surf where I like! HUGE SPOILER BELOW!!!

Who's the Spaff I just added to my friends list...?

I'm sure it was $150 (or whatever monetary unit the game used), which was quite a long and boring process to collect!

I've just added the first part of my article about the Q&A session I went to with Tarantino, as well. http://thunderpeel2001.blogspot.com/2007/09/tarantino-death-proof-q-part-1.html There's nothing really to read if you haven't already seen the film, though!