Roderick

Yeah, but they're not even trying. At least Mass Effect, which is arguably about the exact same thing, had trailers showing intricate dialogue options and a great emphasis on the story.

Not really sure, but I thought that was the general idea. Dragon Age had been in development for quite some time and it has about four sequels already planned. It's their return to the golden age of Baldur's Gate. Makes sense that they'd want to make something big out of it. Also, Dragon Age will be on all next-gen consoles and PC. Mass Effect started as an Xbox exclusive.

Yes, and no. Yes, you can't fully explore the depth of a massive RPG in a single trailer. But no, you can give an inkling, a hint, that you're making a narrative game that has interesting storylines and meaningful characters. The Dragon Age marketing push fails to bring that across. I'm sure the game will be great. But I'm just confused why they did such a great job with Mass Effect, and such a poor one with their self-tauted flagship title.

That'll teach you for not taking the Euro!!

I didn't see an official release either: I saw the Japanese version which a theatre in Arnhem screened as part of an anime night.

O yeah, there's no judgement about the actual game here. Just the trailers that fail in unimaginable ways

Ususally, a company will have an animatic of the gameplay, a rudimentary prototype with proxy graphics or even just stills and visualisations. There are always ways in which it can be done. In any case, it's not an impossibility of making games, but rather perhaps an impossibility of the current industry. After all, it takes an incredible amount of time and resources to produce a pilot as well. Shouldn't be that much harder to make a prototype for a game for the same amount of money or way, way less.

Don't really know what to add to this. There's definitely a lot of crap in anime, but also really good stuff. That's... well, kind of the situation everywhere, in any entertainment industry. And also, sure, you can dislike a certain basic stylistic device or trope, without having to condemn an entire genre or industry. I generally think punk music is pretty unharmonious crap with lots of shouting, and every song seems more generic and samey than the last. But there's examples that I like. So. I guess I agree with everyone. Also, there have been some amazing anime movies in the last couple of years. You've got Paprika, Tekkon Kinkreet, Millennium Actress and of course the Ghibli's. Did anyone see Ponyo yet? It's great, funny, light-hearted excellence.

I recently saw Hudson Hawk again. What a goofy movie, but entertaining in its own way!

I think the problem with Molyneux is that his idea may be levelheaded and reasonable, but the practical application has that unique whiff of Molyneux Crazy. Indeed, it doesn't do to limit the creativity of a team. It can be, and should be, funnelled into something sellable by perhaps a producer, and that's where that good old conflict of interests comes in, whereby there's a constant tug-of-war between creativity and marketability, and that's a great thing. Good stuff can come from that. I don't think you should tell people to limit themselves from the get-go. But it's also not stupid to want to consider if something's going to sell. From my own opinion, I didn't think what Molyneux said was particularly aggravating, or wrong. And Thunderpeel is right on the money: businesses in entertainment are like all businesses about money. Even Double Fine, even Tim Schafer, at the end of the day tries to make something that sells. It's always a fine balance between doing something for art and doing it for the cash. Ideally, both! And if you look at the games they've made, it becomes obvious. Crazy as they were, the Schafer adventures were very popular and made a lot of money, in their day. Psychonauts may have been a poor seller, but when it was conceived 3D platformers were going strong and were a sure hit (pity development took so long). And with Brütal Legend: the time seems ripe for the game, with Guitar Hero and heavy metal being quite hip. These things don't happen by accident. They come together in a fusion of creativity and market sense.

The Anno series has always been really appealing. Nice to hear the newest one doesn't disappoint.

Hold it, sir! My 'Quelle Horreur' graphic novel was in English, so you should be able to read it. In fact, all of you should be able to! Go and buy it online here: http://www.archonia.com/article/50674! It's only €6,95 for a 100 page graphic novel by yours truly

Maybe, if Milo is leading a revolutionary coup in its newest iteration?

My infantile behaviour is solely to blame, I should think. Thanks!

Joyous occasion!

Let's all just remember that Dr. Langdell innocent of allegations made

Hooray! Next time in Canada I'm asking for you by name. Don't care which store I'm in.

'Quick, get me a dose of steroids and another pallet of pure caffeine!'

(26, actually. I've fallen onto the wrong side of 20!) Thanks! =) The first gift of the day was a throroughly hilariously terrible Missing in Action DVD box. Particularly movie 3's quote is appealing: "I don't step on people's toes. I break their necks!". Can't wait to see these Godfather-quality films!

Ohh man, I so hope this makes it to stores. I think the whole 'Wii' thing was just the elaborate setup for this thing, a joke of epic proportions, where Nintendo gets the whole world to sit on an inflatable donkey balloon whoopie cushion. Now that's a pay-off.

Wait a minute, are people dissing cute freckles in this thread? That's outrageous.

That might actually be a nice experiment. I first played through the game on the PC and now I'm playing it on the 360. Let's see if there's any change! There are definitely some spikes in the difficulty (the rotating cylindrical room in the first level, the blueprint tank, other bosses), but these might have more to do with the controls and the chaos that is prone to occur on-screen. I don't know what it is, but it's even pretty tough killing a single bear on the camp, let alone tackle the intricate levels in the game. I think it has much to do with the controls, but I can't really put my finger on it. But I'm loving the experience, make no mistake. The characters are just so great and alive. Ford Cruller and his wacky antics!

Not really because of Brütal Legend or anything, but I'm replaying Psychonauts at the moment, for the first time since it came out. It's in many respects still brilliant, funny, whimsical, charming and captivating. But I now also notice how terrifying it is. In the sense that, there's a part of me that dreads the difficulty spikes. I also get the feeling, perhaps wrongly, that this is the obvious product of a team that never really made a platform game before. A more battle-worn team might have been able to iron out the fuzzy controls and the spikes, made the ride smoother. At the same time, the random thought pops up in my head that maybe it's just the genre of 3D platformer that's goddamn impossible to get right unless you're Mario on spherical planets. There's also such a weird structure in this game. The first part, on the campsite, tricks you into thinking it's going to be a 'hub' like game, with a freeroaming overworld leading into many levels. But the game abandons that roughly halfway for a linear approach, as soon as you leave for the seabed. For the rest of the game, the campsite becomes redundant. At the same time, the game has aged pretty well so far. Graphically it's still rich and beautiful, and only now do I fully appreciate how nice it is that the levels are chock full of things to collect (which I first thought erred on the side of overkill). To feebly tie this into Brütal Legend, should we worry for another round of 'beginner's mistakes' now that Double Fine is tackling another unknown genre? At the same time, there's almost no doubt that the game will proffer something extremely charming and delicious again.

You scare me, which is no small feat in a topic with Yufster!!

Great, now I have the old Idle Thumbs podcast theme in my head. The awesome one, which I recently accidentally heard on the radio.