ThunderPeel2001

So basically he gives $4 billion to charity and people still give him shit.

One game I forgot to mention in the classic adventure games thread was the wonderfully subversive Toonstruck. It was a fantastically twisted take on classic cartoons, and I remember it fondly. Well apparently the rights holder is keen to finish the second game that they got 50% through when the first one didn't sell so well and was cancelled... Pretty interesting stuff. For those who want to support it and see a remastered Toonstruck/Toonstruck 2 here's what you need: FB Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=140186316013394 and Petition: http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/toonstrucktwo/

There isn't a "Director's Cut" of 2, AFAIK. It's just a Special Edition where they added some nice Dave Gibbons close-ups when the characters were talking, etc.

I know. Scary.

Hmm!

Is there a mod that puts her in a slightly more sensible outfit? It just makes me think of Jodie Marsh.

I love this one...

Did we just cross some geek threshold? I feel weird.

For no good reason (other than I just stumbled across it and it made me laugh), here's an old clip of Andy Kaufman doing his wrestling stuff. Here he's responding to Jerry Lawler's challenge to wrestle (up until that point Andy had only wrestled women). Andy was having such fun playing the villain to all those people who these things seriously!

Indeed. The package I bought was damn near worthless. Sure it includes two DVD's worth of game on them, but it's the piece of paper with (what is essentially) a Steam key on it that was worth something. And like all Steam keys, this "Origin" key could only be used once. And then it's forever tied to a single account. Can't really ask for a refund from a charity shop Ah, well.

Hurrah! Me too!

Well, I already explained the difference here: You have to acknowledge that there is a common element found amongst all games, yes? A common element that is not found in other media?

Yeah, I did the same. Perfected every level, got most of the "achievements", and still didn't get any sort of ending. A bit disappointing really! I uninstalled it after that.

Fuck Origin

"Entitled" is exactly the right word.

That bastard! (Just kidding. Nice one, Mr Lucas!)

That's difference between good gameplay and bad gameplay, as I already described when I talked about Thirty Flights.

That's a rather silly point, guys. Games offer something that books, films, TV, music, don't. That something is common to ALL games, and needs a word to describe it.

That old guy is super cool.

I love how my points are being ignored. Is anyone able to point out where I'm wrong? Tycho? You keep repeating your main argument, but you've ignored my definition. Nach, "Gameplay" was commonly used by gaming magazines in the 80s, not the 90s. Next up: Defining "Playability"!

I think my posts explain the difference, Vimes.

You swine! Yes, when I'm not in my phone, I can see what you mean. When it's all scrunched down, it looks like part of iOS. My bad. In other news: As some of you may have noticed, I'm enjoying Mass Effect 2 at the moment, and since part 3 is not on Steam, I was wondering how I might get my hands on it cheaply. (Not doing fantastically financially at the moment.) Cue my local charity store: What the fuck! Mass Effect 3 on the shelf for £1.99 ($3). Thank you very much! That shop is oddly magical sometimes. It scares me.

I keep using the terms "enhancers" and "inhibitors", and I should say that I get them from Dan O'Shannon's book "What Are You Laughing At?" where he deconstructs the "comedy event". It seems his way of looking at comedy is applicable to a lot of things in life. He argues that the one constant in every joke is an incongruous image, but a joke can be affected by lots of external factors he terms "enhancers" and "inhibitors". Roughly speaking this can be the delivery, the situation, your mindset, your feelings about the comedian, your feelings about the subject matter, etc. etc. All of these things (and many more) come into play. So when Groucho Marx says, "Last night I shot an elephant in my pyjamas. How he got in my pyjamas I'll never know." All of the above come into to play as your brain constructs the incongruous image of an elephant wearing pyjamas. I feel the same way about "gameplay". It's a rush we get when we overcome a challenge, but it can be affected by all of these "enhancers" and "inhibitors". Anyways, that's my 2c on the matter.

Side note: I have read that article, I just don't agree with it. As I have said, I feel I know exactly what "gameplay" means to me. It's the rush you get from overcoming a challenge. Great games, the really great ones that stand the test of time, give you this feeling a lot. The cultish games, rely on the enhancers I mentioned. I completely agree with you that the "gameplay" of Thirty Flights and the VERY EARLY parts of Half-Life 1 and 2 are similar, if not the same. The experience is very different, because the enhancers created by atmosphere are very different, but the gameplay is the same (in these cases, pretty much non-existent). To put my argument yet another way: The gameplay is what's left when you take away the presentation, and any other factors that are non-essential.