SiN

I'm not sure how crossover works, but couldn't you try just getting a NoCD crack? Mo

Alright, time for a bit more shameless pimping. Geomex is all updated with online hiscores, achievements and I tightened up those graphics!!111!! It's also a super-cheap $1.99. It's fun, actually innovative, and it totally gets the whole "this is a mobile device" thing that way too many iPhone games fail to grasp. Give it a try! http://www.caffeinemonstersoftware.com/geomex/ Cheers, Mo

Couldn't. Couldn't care less. As in, you care so little that you couldn't care less than you already do. If you "could care less", that means you actually care about it to some extent. How does everyone on the internets get this one wrong?! [/rant] Mo

Yep, North American wall sockets don't have the switches. Threw me off when I moved here. There are switches in the bathrooms though. Mo

Well, my DS lite is now my Dad's DS lite, so I'll be picking one up. Won't be picking it up at launch though. Finals + DSi = FAIL ... literally. I'll get one (if they're not out of stock) late April. I'm excited about the idea of DSiWare, although I'd be more excited if us indies were allowed to develop for it. But really, I'm just picking up a DSi for all the awesome new DS games I haven't played yet ... GTA: Chinatown Wars just came in the mail, and I've got Bangai-O and Henry Hatsworth ordered on Amazon. The bigger question: black or blue? I'm going for the latter ... I'm not quite sure why, but I kinda like the sea blue colour. Maybe it's because I'm sick of all my black and white hardware. Mo

@miffy: I'll definitely take you up on that offer. What program is your sister in? It is a nice school ... although, after nearly 5 years of it, I've had quite enough. Mo

lol, hard hitting questions as usual, toblix. Yeah, Mo is my name. I'd use my alias, but really, every single link on my sig will lead you to a site which tells you my real name and where I live, so I figure using an alias is a bit pointless now. Mo

Don't worry, it's not just you. I've heard the same thoughts from other corners of the net. I think with PQ1, the devs struck the right balance between simple puzzle gameplay and RPG-lite. Because all sequels must be "bigger, better & more badass" I'm guessing they "improved" both sides by making them more complicated resulting in ... yeah. Not good. Or at least that's what I think. I haven't even played the game yet!! Mo

Actually, Penny Arcade Adventures kinda did that. Their banner ads had quotes from some PA hater on their forums ... let's see if I can dig up some quotes ... Aha! It was actually a Wired commenter, and wired then wrote an article about it. Reading it back, it's quite hilarious. http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/05/penny-arcade-ba.html Berend Jan, I expect you to buy Penny Arcade Adventures now. Mo

Lol, it's not "generic gangsta crap" either ... it's not like rappers go around shooting up fictitious arab countries on a daily basis. It's just good ol' over the top violence. Which is fun, you know? Lighten up a bit, not every piece of media needs to be incredibly deep stuff. Sometimes I just wanna sit back and have a laugh. "wherez ma skull?" LOL. Mo

Okay, okay. Let's try this with logical reasoning. 50 cent has hijacked a helicopter. He holds a pistol to the pilots head while operating a chaingun AT THE SAME TIME. He flips out and kills lots of baddies. Typical day for Fiddy, right? Then he wants to get off the helicopter. Does he politely ask, "Sir, would you please land this helicopter at a time convenient to you?". NO! HE SHOOTS THE FUCKER IN THE HEAD, and JUMPS OFF as the helicopter CRASHES AND BURNS. ZZZZOMMG! LOLOLOLOL!!! That. Is. BAD-ASS. QED.

I dunno what you guys are whining about ... it looks like fun! No, I'm not a fiddy fan. Yeah, I mocked and lol'd at the trailers too. Yeah, I've totally watched the first trailer a MILLION times and showed it to all my friends (multiple times). But it's so ridiculous, so over-the-top, and so BAD-ASS that I was actually pretty excited to get my hands on the game. And just as I'd predicted, the game didn't turn out bad. 7/10 on Eurogamer is respectable. HOWEVER, there's no split-screen co-op, and that unfortunately killed it for me. Which is a shame, because I think it'd be fun to play with a friend, breezing through the game and lol-ing at the dialogue. Mo

See also: Abel.

In short: it's very good. It's the SF2 you know and love in glorious HD. The art is gorgeous, but the fact that it's the same # frames of animation takes away from it. It looks sharp, but the animation isn't silky smooth. Single player is arse, just because the AI is way too hard. Fighting certain characters (M. Bison, THawk) becomes an exercise in luck and frustration, rather than a fun brawl. Online is where it's at then. I've been playing since December. It's very good. Very little lag. Surprisingly, the online scene isn't flooded with people taking the "cheap" characters (Blanka, M. Bison, T Hawk IMO) but there are quite a few of them out there. Most players are reasonably "well behaved". Problem is that it doesn't have the same persistence that SFIV has. Your win/loss ratio is saved, but it's hidden somewhere in the leaderboards. Apart from that it's great. And surprisingly, it plays differently enough compared to SFIV to make it worth owning both. I doubt I'll be playing much SSF2 now that I've got SFIV, but if you were worried about getting the same game twice, that isn't the case. Still though, a month or two ago I would have said, "yeah, get it!", but with SFIV I don't think it's worth it. Speaking of SFIV, it's awesome! I played from 10pm to 2am, and then forced myself to stop! On the surface, it seems exactly like SF2, but it doesn't take too long to figure out it's very, very different. Even the movement feels different. The fighters have more weight to them, so jump-kicks, etc need to be timed a bit differently. The moves themselves are the same deal. I was able to jump right in with Ken, but there are subtle changes everywhere. Also, the moves are definitely easier to pull off, which is nice. Mechanically, it's a very interesting game. VERY interesting. With the moves easier to pull off, there's more room for tactics, and Capcom have added mechanics to encourage this. Focus attacks, the revenge bar, and Ex Special Moves (souped up versions of your normal special moves) are what I've got figured out. There's still stuff I haven't learned yet. This on top of the normal move cancelling and other stuff in SF2. The only problem is that the Xbox controller is a pain to play with! Like, it's worse here than it was with SSF2THDR. My biggest problem is that moves rely on holding down two face buttons at once, which is surprisingly difficult to do on a pad! I end up putting the controller on my lap and using two fingers when I want to do a Focus Attack, and then switching back to the normal holding method after that. I *really* need a TE stick! And yeah, like nowak said, the difficulty spike at the end is annoying! I was able to get through Arcade with Ken on Medium, and that was a lot of work. I tried with Ryu, but beating Sagat is just impossible! I came pretty close though... But yeah, SFIV is awesome. Accessible in the sense that the moves are pretty easy to pull off, but deep enough to last a long while. Mo

Went to EBgames today ... apparently when the wiki and every other freaking website says the game is coming out on the 17th, that actually means the 18th in EBgames stupid world!!! Still, I guess I can wait another day. Mo

I was really excited about getting it, then I remembered I left my copy of GTA4 at home, a far distance from university. Mo

Yeah, having trouble with the TE sticks here in Canada too. Apparently, our supply went to the States, so they won't be selling them here until March! Amazon.ca doesn't even have it listed. SiN

*sigh* a normal xbox 360 controller. It's actually not quite as bad as you'd think. Thing is, I love Street Fighter, but I was never obsessed with it back in the day. This means that I'm not super dependent on playing it with a proper joystick/dpad. I play with the analog stick and can actually pull off all the moves with a very high consistency rate. I take Ken ... I can do hadokens & hurricane kicks no problem, shoruken is a bit iffy though. It's definitely worth giving the analog stick some time before giving up on it. The dpad, on the other hand, is worthless. I do play on getting a Tournament Edition stick though.

All I've been playing for the last 2 months is Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix *whew* on Xbox Live. Too much fun! SiN

Quick heads up guys. I made a free demo version of Geomex, called Geomex lite: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=295904628&mt=8 It features a pretty awesome Time Attack mode. Also, I cut the price on Geomex. It's now $4.99. http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=290383926&mt=8 Enjoy! SiN

Geomex is released! AppStore link Official page I'd love to hear opinions if anyone ends up buying it. SiN

I hadn't actually thought of this, but you're so absolutely right! I wish I had more than the slightest interest in sports, because if I did, I'd be writing this game now and would laugh my way to the bank soon thereafter. No beta testing required I'm afraid. Apart from it being a bit complicated to set up (it's not a matter of just sending you an exe) my buddies who are suppose to be studying for their exams are more than happy to obsessively play Geomex instead. SiN

I <3 my 30gig 5th gen ipod, but I gave it away and bought me an ipod touch to do development work on. I'm *so* glad I got one, what a fantastic piece of kit! I've been working on a game for it called Geomex. I've described it as Bejewelled + Tetris + combo system + a lot of awesome. I've been blogging my progress on Twitter of all things, as an experiment of sorts. Follow along here if you're interested: http://twitter.com/caffeinemonster SiN

... but I can't remember the name. My description could be *way* off, and maybe I'm going crazy and this game doesn't exist, but I *swear* I remember there was a thread on here about it! It was a flash game. Some of you got totally obsessed over the high scores. I think it was about ... errr .... swinging something around a planet and launching it into the depths of space. It could have been a cow, or animal of sorts. It was some sort of physics game anyway, and it definitely involved planets and timing. Errr, yeah, that's about all I remember. Help!! SiN

It's been a year-and-a-bit in the making, but Smiley's Shooty Adventure is complete, and subsequently, my indie dev company Caffeine Monster Software has officially launched. I'm all sorts of happy right now! Smiley is an arena shooter that knows what old-skool is all about. Yes, there have been plenty of arena shooters, but Smiley does retro right with pixel art, bleeps and blops for sound sfx, and tonnes of trippy pixel effects! The enemies are fun and interesting, the levels and game modes plentiful. Best of all, you can play 2 player co-op for all of 'em. Not enough PC games do this I feel. Download the demo for Windows or Mac from here. It comes with 15 (out of the 80) missions from the campaign mode, playable in co-op too. Survival, Speedrun and Versus modes are locked out. The full game is just $10. Try the demo ... I'd love to hear your thoughts! SiN