Roderick

Your efforts may be in vain, Marek. After playing it once I went through an 8-year break from Grim Fandango. When I played it again a few months back, I remembered most of it, except some obscure puzzles. I've learned from this that it's better to cherish these games and play them once every year, than to neglect them in the hope of forgetting about them. But you may experience this differently than me. Maybe you're really forgetful?

If this be true, than he really is the greatest and most horrible man ever to exist!

Well, I understand their gist. Okay, more than that, but it's little blurbs here and there that are lost in a void of accent. I think it's charming.

Does 'TV' mean 'go outside' for you, Marek? I don't watch TV either, but if the whole damn street isn't flowered in orange. You can't escape this thing, and that's the thing I despise about it. They push it in everyone's faces. Especially in the world of commerce it's misery all around. You know, I can *understand* if they use the championships as a hook to sell products that people otherwise wouldn't buy, right? Like huge plasma TV's. But there's also legions of products that you would buy regardless of it, and they're STILL covered in soccer muck. Take buns in the supermarket. Regular effing buns. I've seen them in special soccer-packages a few days ago and they were called 'doel-puntjes', which is arguably the most horrible pun ever in the history of our flawed but beautiful country!

Now I want Hitman too. I couldn't care less about all the soccer-themed stuff though. But it was good old fun as ever. Maybe even more difficult to understand than last time! They're going all out!

This will be the first time I use this: There's orange everywhere. Everything turns into a soccerthemed, soccerpunned, soccersaturated society. People blow soccerhorns randomly on the streets. This is in a way amusing, because the majority of folks here do nothing but curse on everything Dutch over the greater part of the year, but as soon as it's championship time, everyone's an effing nationalist. GRAAABFHHLLL!!

I actually liked the characters in San Andreas and how they were put down, even though it's difficult for me to put myself in the shoes of a downtrodden suburban ghetto African-American. Still, however, if you look at GTA3, the PC was a punk. In Vice City, I thought Tony was horribly arrogant and completely unlikeable. San Andreas does some things better, but I still don't really sympathize with them. O.G. Loc was funny though. El Muerte: why do you say these things and then not back them up with arguments at least? And in an earlier post I already pointed out that Almos had forgotten about the third archetype of the anti-hero, which basically makes up for at least half of the narrative-driven games' PC's.

This is quite easy: Twinsen is still the blank slate. even though he meets up with people, in the end he has no discernable character traits or any specific attitude other than "hero". He may not be a total blank slate; he serves the same purpose. Guybrush is a typical anti-hero: bumblingly clumsy, but then all of a sudden pretty smart as well. I haven't played MDK very much, but I'm willing to bet that the persona of Kurt isn't really of much consequence when you're playing the game, so it's an empty vessel as well. Duke Nukem is more interesting, because he seems to have been conceived as a sort of anti-hero whose character doesn't change and who is more like a prop to the game than a real person. In the end, he isn't a blank slate, but a filled one that nevertheless invites you to immerse yourself in him to be 'the duke' for a certain amount of time. If I had to categorize him I'd call him an anti-hero, with zilch character development.

A smart observation, Twilo. I agree that the morals of the PC can facilitate or hinder certain actions and behaviour of the player himself. But is the 'comfort' of interaction really the main thing that stands in the way of rich character development? I would state that it is rather the non-linearity of games that opposes it, because it thwarts the control the creators have over the characters. That, however, is another discussion. In regards to the comfort-issue, it would only suggest that it is more difficult to pull off a character that oscillates between extreme modes of behaviour, because you have indicated yourself that the morals of the PC can be assimilated with ease by the player. Only in the case then of the most hardened criminal becoming an utter goody-two-shoes does the comfort-issue arise, but its difficulty will more likely have to do with the entire gaming-universe being geared towards one mode of play (i.e., GTA can not be played as a softie). All this aside, does rich character development really depend on the PC going through such extremes? Or is such more likely to be called blatant character development? The richness will lie more in the subtlety and depth of the development. The details instead of the grand gesture.

I guess the exceptions serve to prove the rule, because I can name a great many (adventure) heroes who are not blank slates, but neither by far goody-two shoes. You are forgetting another common one here: the anti-hero, or loser, who goes through a journey of self-discovery and saves the day or redeems himself in the end. The varieties on all these themes are endless and between these three arche-types I'd say you have a pretty diverse mix that covers a lot of the protagonists I'd like to play with/as. The anti-hero is also the one that walks the line between good and bad. Review Malcolm, who is somewhat evil, but infinitely more misunderstood and misschievous than the former. His intentions may not be to save the world, but he's not -in his soul- out to destroy the world either. Should he claim so, it's a superficial threat and you know he'd never do it. True 'bad' heroes then would be the protagonists from GTA, who are criminals. These figures have a hard time convincing me to love them, since when you have a crime-simulator I think it's better to have a blank slate character. Nobody wants to see some dude be a crook, but everyone wants to be one himself in a game. So really EVIl protagonists don't do well in fiction, because they're not sympathetic. In the end, the one you want is the one who walks the line. The anti-hero then. Take Manny Calavera. He does a lot of mean stuff in Grim Fandango, even to his friends. He's not evil, and his motivations are clear from his character and the setting. But it wouldn't at all be fun if he went past the point where it's in the spirit of amusement or strictly necessary for his progress in the adventure. That's why you find so little true bad guys as the protagonist. Because they're just not likeable, period.

The one-screen-two-mice multiplayer was awesome. You know what this screams? DS conversion. The game is sufficiently low-speed to go realtime on a handheld and the instant wi-fi multiplayer, niiiiiiice. (But then I'm still awaiting the first true kick-ass realtime strategy game on the DS. Warcraft 2 remake; where are you?)

And it's just another Republican plot.

I like their movie-themed dress-ups. I must hear more of them first though.

I opened mijn collector's edition of Sin City (metal case) and there was a Snakes on a Plane flyer in it. It was like finding the Golden Ticket.

I didn't know Waluigi was so crazy about alcohol? I know he's a mad bomber, which is the reason I always play with him in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, where I just love it when he says 'Waluigi time!'. And then when he throws a bomb, I always shout "KABUUUMM!" before it explodes. Damn I love Waluigi. He's way better than Wario.

Are you kidding me? Ridley was huge in Prime! When you fight him on the terrace; that's a huge dragon man! Sweeping tail, big head... Ah well, I'll have Bowser Jr. at least

Link in Windwaker style? My hope for Ganongdorf in the style increases! I'm also really happy with Bowser Jr. I always think he's so darn cute. (I can't really see Ridley as a playable character though. Isn't he supposed to be a huge dragon? That would mean he's either too big for the game or will look unconvincing. Truth be told, I'm not that interested in characters that don't have a lot of expression.)

This is way better than 'kids say the darndest things'. Also, dressing up like Hitler should be the rule, not the exception.

Ah, now I get it.

Works fine for me!

I don't think it could keep all the subtlety of the story and still be only two hours. The brilliance of Watchmen lay in the depth of the background material, those stories inbetween the chapters that added layers of meaning in all the characters. Besides that, it's an absolutely fucking amazing story, Watchmen. A few weeks ago I read Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, expecting something with the same depth and was a bit disappointed. Watchmen really stands out as a brilliant piece of comic history. The build-up, and then that nuanced ending... Awesome.

I may pick up the game when it's out here, but that video of Morning Musume with MEAT on their HEADS remains crazy as ever!

JESUS Miffy, there goes the space-time continuum again! Thanks a lot!

My copy of New Mario Bros arrived from Canada as well and I'm enjoying it. Although it's really fun and I'm having a blast finding secret passages that instantly teleport me three worlds further, what scares me is how FAST you get used to it. For weeks (months) I was really looking forward to playing a Mario and stomping on baddies, but it took about half a minute before I was used to it again and I was; oh yeah, this is just Mario again. It's still great fun, but it's frightening how fast -through the sheer comfortzone of the game- you take it for granted.

I think what he was doing was, he was also trying to appeal to a relative layman crowd who didn't know what MMORPG's were about? He was purposefully avoiding any gaming term, explaining stuff like 'zones'...