Lama Himself

Why this week? I didn't have time to touch Flower yet and now Nobi Nobi Boy is also a must play?! Damn you PSN!!

Well, the article say explicitly that this XBLA announcement is just speculation. But Microsoft and Sony are famously known to hunt poor independent developer at the IGF (They use word like XBLA and PSN to not afraid them). So the announcement of a deal for one the the platform wouldn't be a surprise. And the button is obviously not a x button so yeah, probably XBLA. And I am the only one to think that we start to be teased by independant titles nearly as long as big blockbuster titles now? (How long did we wait for Braid?)

There is probably some people who were looking for the GTA videos you were mentioning at the end of the podcast: Volume 1: Volume 2: Don't thank me. Really! .... Don't!

In the latest Edge (issue 199), there is an interesting article about metacritic. I was surprised to learn that Metacritic have an editor and just one. I always thought that the website was based on idiotic formula (average or more fancy) that would take content (in this case reviews) and generate an overall score thanks to the number objectivity (or in some case mass objectivity). Well the website seem to be like that except that the Metacritic editor select the magazine or website that will be taken into account but also decide to weight this publication depending on his opinion. Basicaly Edge will have more weight than a fanboy website. I'm fine with the selection and that a publication can have more or less weight, but I'm puzzled to think a single editor have to decide. Doesn't it ruined the whole system? Of course, the article talk also of the metacritic bonus that some publisher use as a carrot for some developers. Braben argues that the real success measurement is the sales number and royalties are already there to reward the developer for successful games. So why rely on other system like Metacritic? Well in fact a publisher already offered us this kind of bonus in the past. And I would have been quite happy to accept it if the project would have been greenlighted by marketing (damn marketing!!!). Let's face it, most of the developer don't get royalties. But I think the point they miss is mainly branding. A publisher give a Metacritic bonus to help the title but also their brand. Even if the game is a commercial failure, having good reviews is always good for a publisher. It can be strange to a lot of developers to ask them to make good games, but I see more and more developers that don't care about quality. Their goal is just to finish a production in time with the allowed budget, that's it. So in these cases a small quality bonus is welcome.

The sound effect doesn't really fit the video. It's funny they used the same sound effect than the game but beyond the reference itself, it doesn't work.

It sums up pretty well my feeling about it. As a consumer I'm still curious to check the score for hyped games, but the system is not reliable enough to be used in the industry. Well the developer have more influence on the quality of the game than the sales which is often driven mainly be the advertisement and retailer relation. I know some developer that involve themselves in the buzz of their game, but usually this is 100% handled by the publisher. And having a Bonus doesn't hurt anybody in theory.

I am mainly focus on the "finishing the game in less than 30 hours" right now. This one is not so difficult but it takes time ... At the same time I really enjoy restarting the game, it's like meeting with an old friend and talking about the past.

I just finish the first episode of ForumWarz http://www.forumwarz.com Everybody and their mother was playing it last year so I'm bit late at the party, but it's damn fun, stupid and addictive. And it's great for casual playing. I was just playing in the morning and during my lunch break. I just bought the episode 2. Let's see if it keeps the momentum ...

My girlfriend also noticed an impressive penis in the picture, but it's quite a gender specific detail...

I also listened the podcast this week. I love also when they said that most people prefer the "least wanted" song to the "Most wanted". Wired also have the most wanted if you want to compare: http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/05/survey-produced.html

Mine would be this one: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2944077680304015100&hl=en Nothing mindblowing, just a bad collision in Mario sunshine. But I found it myself so I am proud of it (just a little bit). It's clearly not a bug, but I also found an easter egg on AstroBoy on GBA: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6965715433752244084

If you want to finish by a nice challenge, do the Luigi's purpule coins in Toy Time Galaxy. It's I think the most difficult level in the game, but it's so great to finish it.

So great!!!! Exactly what I was looking for.

So I can read discworld books in any order? The first book is in my stack "to read" but I was not sure if I was able to jump from one book to an other in any order.

I don't know if this thread is cute or scary...

This is the same studio who did In memoriam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Memoriam_%28video_game%29 It was a really good game and really original. So I also wait to play Experience112. The director of the game, Eric Viennot, work also on a Wii game with Paul Cuisset (Flashback!!!!).

hairs are so overrated

This video totally restore my excitement about Super Paper Mario http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wApWFddgvoY

Same problem here. The next months/weeks is full of massive games but I cannot put my finger on one that really excite me. Sure, I want to play some of them but it's not a major excitement. Maybe this is the after bioshock effect on me.

http://www.10tacle.be/games.htm

See my post on Totems. Widescreen is just a rubbish company. They screw everything they touch. They have some nice artist and there is some talented people on the team, but the reste of the company is just a piece of junk. [edit]Are they stupid to the point that they cannot take screenshot without the coordinate system?

When Infogrames shut down Appeal the team split up in 2 main companies. - Fresh3D, a small developer with a good engine. Recently they did 2 games with Salomon: Wild Water Adrenaline and Mountain Bike Adrenaline. http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps2/wildwateradrenaline http://www.gamekult.com/tout/jeux/fiches/J000083274.html - Elsewhere entertainment now 10tacle Belgium (doing Totems) This is, I think, the real new Appeal. But laletly they work only on a Judo game: http://www.gamekult.com/tout/jeux/fiches/J000076434.html Not bad but not really good either. There is also widescreen game which were created by the project manager of outcast. But this company do bad games after bad games and sometimes just average game. So I'm a bit doubtfull about the Totems project. They promote it as a "Le Parkour" game which really annoyed me. I prefer to see the game running before getting excited.

My job is to bring happiness to people.

I am totally addicted to Okami right now. I started it few weeks ago. I started to enjoy it, but more I play more I realised how good it is. I think I am close to the end but now I don't want to continue the story, I don't want to finish the game. I just want to continue playing more more and more. So I check all the previous area and try to solve all the side quest and get all the beads. And I also need to play Resident Evil 4 and I pre-order Bioshock. Life is hard!

Simply great. I just love Michel Gondry movies. But I have even better: http://www.thecontrollerthemovie.com/ :tup: