Roderick

Whoa, happy birthday Toblix!

I'm hijacking this excellent thread again to announce that I've started playing I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. You know, just as a quick refresher, something airy and breezy and fun. So I started out as Ellen, and she's terrified of the color yellow, keeps having panic attacks and fleeing rooms I send her in, and I suspect she's fond of the booze. This game is already bizarre and different, a little glitchy, but really interesting.

Naw man, you can get an ok computer for 10 euros nowadays.

Here are the ways in which Dark Souls could've been definitely improved: 1. Have a sort of guiding NPC that tells you the lore, like a sprite as in Ocarina of Time 2. Cutscenes before every new level pointing out interesting things and hinting at the treasures and secrets (that builds suspense) 3. More generic enemies to pad out the length between bosses. This to avoid boss-fatigue 4. Crates --- In seriousness, BadHat, you writing that made me realize something. What you described was my exact feeling while playing Skyrim. That was indeed a world that felt lived in and not tailormade to suit me. I didn't get that from Dark Souls at all. The world is hostile to me, yeah, but it didn't feel like a believable environment at all. In fact, the opposite. Every encounter with a person, while not necessarily revolving around you, has this weird sense of purpose to it. Even though everything is tinged with madness and obscurity, the world doesn't feel real because there's no mundanity in it. No ordinary people that have nothing to do with the 'plot' and just going about their business. Though the world itself is very convincing, it's no more believable than any fantasy realm, and I don't think it's shooting for that. I'm not saying it isn't smartly done - in fact, this is the most remarkable instance of world building I've seen in years - but there's something different going on here, I think. Dark Souls is making me gibber like an idiot. I guess I'll just go wear a sunlight maggot on my head now. Might as well...

That'd be Prince Charles, right? Our (Dutch) royalty is indistinguishable from Germans... because they are.

Lovin' Apollo's new look in DD, by the way. I already have a good cosplay of him, let's see if I can update it with a blue uniform and bandages.

The first season of Scrubs was goddamn transcendent. Afterwards, not so much.

Oh, I can totally spot the German in a crowd of Dutch people.

Yes, the first Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth was released in the West, the second wasn't due to disappointing sales (and heavy piracy). It's a fun game, but nowhere near as brilliant as the original series. Get it if you have an immense craving for all things AA, otherwise, stick to the main games. Apollo Justice is a good game. It has aged well and in retrospect I like it more and more. Fun cases.

Surely you meant "wizards slowly release into water". Great, now I have an image in my head of a group of wizards maliciously peeing into a river to harrass the village downstream.

Yeeeeeeeees I've been playing this for a few days. It's really fun to be back, the animations are beautiful (I play with 3D off, since the (admittedly nice) effect of depth in the background is less important than super crisp details on the characters), and yet again great music. But I really dislike the animated cutscenes. Everything about them is loathsome. The great characters of the series there transform into stereotypical anime oafs; stumbling over things, gasping aloud... blarg. And the voices don't fit either, they've got these horrible all-Americaine voices - and no option for the Japanese dub. I'd have greatly preferred the game without them.

Is that for real or an insidious fan remix? It's great!

I watched that, plus the fantastic background lore series "Prepare to Cry" (look it up on Youtube, super good). Now I'm just sad. What a haunting world. I knew of course that it was all depressing, but to read all the specifics about the NPCs and what they are all vainly grasping for... wow. And I'm really of two minds on this. On the one hand it's so nice how little the game straight out tells you, leaving it to you to infer a lot about the story and the characters. But at times it's so obscure that I'd never have caught the deeper meaning of anything. I was ten times more emotional about the game while watching the Youtube series telling me what it was about... I can't help but feel there's a missed opportunity somewhere, as much as I liked how there was basically no straight exposition.

I think I'm done with Dark Souls for a while, having finished it. I already played this game the 'wrong' way, looking up almost every boss after the first time, and occassionally looking for bonfires and tricks and stuff. The reason for that is that it already took me 80 damn hours to finish it this way. If I had died a hundred times more at every turn, or stood mystified at some obscure riddle, it would've taken me dozens more. I just don't have that time for a game, or rather, I don't want to spend that much time being stuck. I'm glad it's over now, so I can start up other experiences. Don't be sad for me though; I loved the experience and the most fond I was of exploring new environments, which I did do all on my own. Having finished and seen almost everything in the game, I can now announce what my favorite portions of the game were: 1. The painted world of Ariamis. What an amazing level. Compact, deadly, and filled with interesting, tough encounters. I had to sweat to get through it, but the experience was all the greater for it. The snowy landscape, twisting level design, bizarre enemies... 2. Blight town. I was rightfully fretting this, since the level has quite the amount of hype surrounding it. But I found it at the same time doable and nerve-racking. I had some scary encounters in there, with creatures sneaking up on me from behind. I'm talking especially about the first half, by the way, when you're up in these scary, Resident Evil 4-type rafters. It felt like that game, achieved the same glory. 3. The Duke's Archives. Gotta be specific here: I didn't like the first and last parts, where you're running around annoying hallways with rotating chairs. But the middle part! With the big circular room and the staircase and the snakes...! Such an atmospheric, well done, impressive area. Loved exploring it, mouth agape at all times. As far as bosses go:

I did it!

Uurrrrrh, this evening I defeated

Candy Box 2 has me. I swore this wouldn't happen but it happened.

What would you say is true for Disney-owned Star Wars?

By all means, pierce through the veil of Hollywood BS about friendly break-ups and keeping scripts. Even at this high level, writer are switched in and out like pieces of meat, everyone is expendable and development chugs along by the whim of the latest directorial tantrum. Hollywood is a scary place.

Hey guys, I've got a 25% coupon for Twilit Kriegsman.

Fuck off, Batman.

Anything referring to yourself should be 'this one', everything to others 'that one'.

Tangentially related, this week is Asexual Awareness Week! Hooray! http://new-ace-on-the-block.tumblr.com/post/64588105082/tiny-dinosaur-wanted-to-help-out-with-awareness-so

SURELY this is the exception to the rule, a decision made to keep spoilers off the internet.

Aliens Infestation was a neat little action platformer. Not perfect, but very charming! I reviewed it for [N]Gamer... back when the mag was still around.