Roderick

Haha, shagadelic. It seems every popstar/band has to start out making vapid love songs before they get a chance to do something interesting? Hm, that's not entirely correct. But well. Little interest there, in any case. Bring on the Major Tom already

I'm all for 70s Bowie, but each of the eras has its own flavour. The 80s had Scary Monsters, Let's Dance and other greats (though admittedly also some less good stuff), the 90s had a totally new groove: from the danciness of Little Wonder to the melancholy of the entire Heathen CD. My conclusion: bring it on! The full discography

They're doing it wrong!

(posted also on adventuregamers.com, because you're all second-rate citizen!) Little bit of history: a few years back (I'd guesstimate in 2006) I did an internship with the infamous German adventure company Bad Brain. I had a smashing time there, and despite the bad rep online they were nice people. Afterwards I began to write and plan out an adventure that they would then publish -but of course, that never came through. The company went bust and my project got put into the fridge indefinitely. Or forever, probably. But in the year that I wrote the script, I did make a fullblown demo, featuring one small segment typical for the rest of the game. I got a few excellent sound guys and a great background illustrator together, and animated and programmed the thing myself. Also, voiced it. So though it's already a few years old, I'd still love to hear your comments on it, just to see the reaction to this rare little thingy (it was never published anywhere). The reason I put it up now is because I'm undertaking another big trip, this time to Hollywood, to do an internship over there. The demo is part of a portfolio site (so yes, you'll have to click through a little showreel at the beginning and then find the project in the sidebar). Without further ado, I give you... EBONY MARSHALL - ZOMBIE PIRATE (Also, if you've got connections in Hollywood or LA, or want a meet-up in the neighbourhood once I'm there... just shout! )

Hahahaha, I love it! No no no, it was more like this: Wolfgang and me would come in at some late time in the morning and I'd go work on a couple of projects: an adventure of my own making and the script for a mobile phone version of the 'Orgastic 4' game (which I always thought was a bit of a risqué concept). Wolfgang would always be busy with a thousand things all at once, switching frequently from one to the other: multiple projects, getting financing, side-businesses like being a consultant teaching people how to dress up and behave like proper businessmen, the works. And of course the PR-side. Even then I wouldn't have minded to take over the PR side and create a bit more sensible community management for Bad Brain, but I lacked the courage to propose it. You're very right that most of the time, it was just him and me in the office, sometimes backed up by a friendly German named Harry. It was a crazy place, but there was a lot of fun and energy flying around the office, even if it might not have been the most viable way to get a business up and going. Wolfgang Kierdorf is definitely insane, most of the time in the best way possible, but with Bad Brain he might have bitten off more than even he could chew. He was never though.

Holy shit, is that a real concept? Bad Brain's Intern? Like, The Mystery Intern -finally uncovered? Hahaha, that would be amazing! It's pretty much like you've assumed. Kierdorf was an incredibly enthusiastic adventure-lover, but made very weird, rather awkward decisions about how to communicate online. To be honest, in the strong adventure-industry of Germany there was a definite chance that everything could work out, but funding fell through -which can happen for a billion reasons- and it all collapsed. Personally though, I had a terrific time and learned a lot. Thanks for your compliments on Ebony Marshall! The engine I used (Visionaire) made everything a little flakier on the gameplay-side than I would've liked, but overall I was happy with the results. I doubt it'll ever get made for real, not in the last place because I could write a far better game now than I could then, so I'd have to start from scratch. But hey, should I ever find someone willing to fund it, I'll start writing at it again

Aren't they looking into releasing the game on other portable systems later on? Hopefully, that means Nintendo DS. Hopefully they'll also see wisdom in a WiiWare or XBLA release. If they have the artwork at a sufficiently high resolution, that shouldn't be an insurmountable problem.

Michael Jackson died from a heart attack last night. That's... not surprising, but nonetheless quite sad! Smooth Criminal remains one of the best songs ever.

Okay, two unconnected things here. First, I watched the trailer to the upcoming Force Unleashed DLC, which features a boringly masked Sith warrior. The question is: why couldn't they find a better Emperor voice over? He sounds so awful, so over the top. I mean, I know he's supposed to sound saucy, but Ian McDiarmid did a swell job. This nameless VO doesn't. I cringe! Second! I'm finally finishing up Kane & Lynch, which I was really enthusiastic about before it came out, and then I bought it and discovered it was meh, but still liked it because of the characters. But now that I'm delving into the game for real, it's REALLY SHIT. The aiming and gunning is super fuzzy and uncontrollable and mission objectives are vague. This is really a half-baked game. How could they fuck this up so badly? The concept is great, but halfway through they go bonkers. Does the game really need a war-torn Havana setpiece where you're suddenly a guerrilla commando? Please keep to stylishly robbing bank and busting prisons, thank you much. I maintain that there's great promise in the concept, it just needs proper execution. Wasn't there a sequel coming? I don't expect people to comment on this, so you're all excused!

Don't get me wrong, only Bowie would be able to play RB: Bowie properly, but I still want it so I can rape the hell out of those songs on the mic.

Also, ghillie suits look so fucking ridiculous outside of a swamp.

Quickly Dan, wash Terminator Salvation away with a good Christian Bale by watching The Prestige or something

I've read the article Hot Scoops Gaynor posted on Shack, and feel the need to give a completely outdated, unnecessary comment on it. I can't really argue with him over the control issues: maybe the PC game DOES offer an intelligent, planning-out version of the game, or maybe I just wasn't playing it correctly, but the 360 version is nothing like the game he describes. The truth is in the middle here though: the levels that do offer tight gunplay with lots of hiding and crouching involved are the most fun of the game. Unfortunately, they only account for about half of it. The rest is haphazard, trial-and-error tedium. The second part of Steve's article lauds the character design, with Kane's backstory being 'fascinatingly multi-layered'. And I have much sympathy for this point of view, but I think Steve is reading way too much into the game here. Like me, he probably wants these characters to be all they can be, because he feels their promise. But if you play through the game, none of that potential shines through. To be true, both Kane and Lynch have a few moments where something begins to surface, where you start to see a glimmer of what could have been gaming's most fascinating characters yet. But the game never allows them to develop, burying them in sloppily directed cutscenes, weak story exposition and horrendous side characters. I would really like Kane & Lynch to be as good as Steve describes. But for the life of me I can't find it in there. The game just doesn't deliver on its unique, ambitious promise.

I played the 360 version. Damn, I really wanted to like this game. From the moment I heard of it I liked the characters and the setting, and the demo was pretty good too. But the way they visibly rushed every aspect of the game is depressing. I just finished it and it was terrible. The only way you can get through a level is dying enough times to know exactly which enemies to shoot first, which is especially infuriating in the later (and last) levels, where there's an added bonus of vulnerable squads (and a special guest) who keep dying and dying and getting you game over'd. The sloppy, emotionally deadweight ending confirms that there was a lot of ambition, but a serious lack of time. As it is now, the characters, the only real reason to play this game, are sorely underdeveloped, suffer from bad writing and never surpass their 'cursing bad guys' stigma. I'm really disappointed with this game, because it tangibly could have been so much more. I hope the sequel gets the love it deserves.

Wasn't the Dragon Age special edition a HOECS? Speaking of Dragon Age, the trailers make it seem a bit generic and quite violent. Thoughts?

Haha, good pun, Tanu! =D Since I have nothing to add to this topic, here's a Wizard.

Ooph! One for the home system, then.

Yeah I have to agree there that EMI looks a lot better in my memory than it does in Real Actuality. Egads. Conversely, Grim never lost its visual charm.

You're right, I hadn't heard anything about this. Fucking disgrace, the proceedings in the courtroom! Shooting the father, what the hell?

The Eurogamer review is spot on: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/tales-of-monkey-island-chapter-1-launch-of-the-screaming-narwhal-review

Phew! Finished it in one session last night. Piratey goodness! Lemme do a Kingz here: The TUP The TMEH The TDOWN Overall, it was great to be back in the world of Monkey Island! I look forward to this game being enriched as more episodes are released, because only then can you really appreciate the full picture. Can't wait! When is it, next month?

It's kind of obvious it's a hoax though. Not sure but it sounds too good to be true.

Wait, we don't give a crap about age, right? We give a crap about posts being either funny or good, doesn't matter who wrote them For instance, we all know Toblix is a twelve year old serial rapist from Scandinavia. Yet he makes us smile. The second way out-importants the first.

That 57 million Dollars would've come in really handy to pay off the half a billion Dollar debt Jackson had!

Bullshit. If you actually meant to say that the rabid fans are misinterpreting Gilbert when he's just teasing a little, you shouldn't have said: This is an unmistakable claim that Ron himself is the mastermind behind this behaviour. Don't try to laugh it away when someone calls your BS, be a man and stand behind your words, sir. (If it seems I'm hammering on this: I am )