BigJKO

The reviews are out already, ready to make up your mind, Rodi. http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/3DS/Luigi%27s+Mansion+2%3A+Dark+Moon/review.asp?c=49496 - 9/10

I think it might not be much worse than holding a controller. You can rest your elbows on the desk while using this, I think.

Luigi's Mansion 2 has gotten some great reviews. I loved the first one but wasn't sure if I needed a second one, but the reviews got me excited for it again.

Holy crap! That looks pretty neat. Pretty much just Settlers, but I loved that game so this is right up my alley. Also, this is the work of one man! Amazing.

"Please stop e-mailing me for a quote" - Tim Schafer

That's exactly what it is. Exciting, eh?

I pre-ordered a Leap thingy last year when they announced it. It sounded exciting and I am still excited about it and cannot wait to get it in May. However, when Double Fine announced Dropchord I got super excited! So to sum up: Excited!

Yeah, I hadn't thought of that. I don't even buy games at $60.. ever, I think. God, Gone Home really is a unique thing. I hope a lot of people will play it.

Just to answer this directly, you are absolutely right that big budgets don't make games great. Having no budget doesn't make a game great, either. That wasn't my point at all. A big budget does make a different game though, and I'm just interested in what that game is. It'd be interesting to see what a big budget title that does something similar to, or expands on, what something like Gone Home does, plays/looks/feels like. You're right that a "walk around and look at stuff" cerebral version of this probably wouldn't sell enough to merit the budget (although it's worth noting that no one has ever tried marketing something like that to a broad audience, outside of the typical gaming market). I think once more money is involved it becomes a very different (possibly less interesting) version of that kind of game. More like a roller-coaster ride sprinkled with the more cerebral stuff. Something like the beginning of Half-Life 2. This is potentially an awful idea.. I was just wondering aloud, hoping, that maybe some day there'll be as much build-up, marketing, tv ads, excitement around a new big, release that isn't about shooting/reflex gaming. I know a lot of people who'd love that, that don't play games at all. Those people would probably love something like Dear Esther, Thirty Flight etc. but will never find out they exist. Those are people who also saw the Bioshock ad or now see Bioshock Infinite ads and go "Oh, nice.. that looks fu- hmm.. I'm awful at shooty stuff like that. It stresses me out." This was just my reaction to people in this thread asking if there was enough of the explore/interact stuff in Infinite. Disclaimer: I almost only play the occasional indie game anymore and stopped playing Bioshock and haven't finished it because of the shooty stuff..

Oh man, my point was definitely not supposed to be "why aren't indie games better looking", there's a lot more you can do with money than just do better graphics. Anyway, it was just a thought..

Oh, right. Portal! (or Portal 2, if we're talking big budget..) That and Mirror's Edge are the only examples I can think of of a big budget non-shooty first person game. Hopefully after Gone Home is the mega-success it most surely will be, Gaynor will get piles of money to make a BIG version of a similar thing. There's a couple of indie games out there that do this, but it would be nice to see someone really put some money and marketing behind such a thing. See how well a broader market would react to such a thing. I think there's potentially a lot of casual gamers who would love an immersive first person game experience, where you don't necessarily have to have fast reactionary skills and whatnot.

This is why I hope one day as much money and effort will be put into a first person game without any shootings in it. Could be fun!

I will get this whenever I can get my shit together and finish Bioshock..

From the same guy who tried solving his home town's traffic problems using SimCity: Diagnosing Liberty City's crime problem using SimCity

But it's essentially an MMO.

I thought AirPlay had both Regular AirPlay mirroring and, if the app supports it, second screen ability. So the iPhone screen can show something different and essentially becomes a (shitty, non-tactile) controller.

Yeah. But right on the x-axis is still almost always a positive value in programming, due to using Cartesian coordinates. Dug up this possible explanation: Sounds plausible that that's a big part of why it was the default direction, but that's only part of the reason because it was still always technically possible to do it the other way even if it maybe wasn't preferable.

WHAT?! After all that poop I gave you? I can't sell hobos..

Oh, sweet! That video is so great. Look forward to more of these little blog posts about fixing stuff. I can not wait to play the Mac version.. Although that might be less of a priority for Maxis now.. Also, to clarify I don't care about the always-online. I'm ALWAYS online. And I will probably enjoy the shit out of the game. Just that little video makes me the happiest. As long as the region stuff becomes more reliable and I can join other Thumbateers in a region I'll be glad.

This sounds like the best explanation for this.

God, I wanna play with you guys so bad... Hope there's a spot in there still when the Mac version comes out.

FINE. You're right!

Well, I wasn't thinking of just people who like to mod. I think there's definitely a size-able amount of people who would like to be able to play this game offline. But you're right, an official offline mode would need maintaining and support. For that reason alone I can understand not giving people the patch. They could do it with a note saying "Whatever, dude. Here it is. We won't support it further. Goodbye!" But hey, why do that when the players are going to crack it to that effect eventually anyway. But requiring you to be always online is still weird, because it's not World of Warcraft. It's designed around asynchronous multiplayer, seemingly. Which is almost different from World of Warcraft, which is built around real-time multiplayer. None of the player interactions in SimCity need players to be online at the same time. Designing it around always-online just seems counter-intuitive to a player's needs. Which makes the piracy protection part of it sound more like the cause of this design, not just a side-effect. EDIT: SimCity right now is comparable to a WordFeud that wouldn't let you view the board when offline.

I've played a couple of minutes of it. So far, it's fun and ridiculous. Recommended, if only to absorb the art style. It is gorgeous! Played The Room, Year Walk and The Silent Age this weekend. They are all great. Silent Age is a bit rough on the edges overall, but it is free! The Room is delightful, presentation is great. Year Walk is atmospheric weirdness, that both works for me and doesn't. By the end I was sold, but throughout I almost gave up because it's so weird and random at points. Also, both The Room and Year Walk had puzzles that required you to which I never ever think to do on my own.. It's a neat thing, but kind of comes out of the blue every time a game does it.

This is just ridiculous. Why don't they just give in, make an offline-patch, for players not interested in inter-region multiplayer stuff and let them fuck with the game at their own risk? As long as this stuff can't disrupt people actually using the multiplayer stuff, what's the problem??