Roderick

Phaedrus' Street Crew
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Posts posted by Roderick

  3. Posted

    Listening to the 1994 retrospective by 3MA in their latest podcast, it struck me what a radically different gaming landscape we have now. RTSses were THE SHIT in the mid-90s. Unfathomable that they'd ever unceremoniously leave the scene. At the time, I thought TBS was so old-fashioned, but I've come around completely on this.

  6. Posted

    I think it boils down to having more experience in games as a medium/art form. You understand the cues and signals better. You read situations and bosses better. You're able to put yourself in the head of the developer and understand what challenge they were trying to put you through. You see the big picture, connect the dots better.

     

    And I like that that's the case. It's not about physical skills, twitch-based skills, how many times you can click on a button per second. Instead, it's about experience and understanding.

  9. Posted

    I heard a [VAGUE] rumor that Nintendo is doing a Direct in April and it may have news on the trilogy. Hopefully!

     

    How did you like 2? I played it back when it came out, borrowing from a friend, and loved the atmosphere, but couldn't even progress beyond the (maybe?) second boss. it was too darn tootin' hard. For completeness' sake, I didn't down the end boss of Prime 1 either. Didn't really care though, the journey up to that point was all the reward I needed.

     

    I want to say that Metroid Prime games are HARD AS NAILS, but then I've been surprised before upon replaying old games that turned out a lot easier than I remembered. Ocarina of Time for instance, and Majora's Mask. Those were in my head as pretty tough, but they weren't really. Maybe Prime'll be a walk in the park too, playing it now.

  10. Posted

    I was waiting for some sweet Transport Tycoon discussion, and then THIS?! A big load of We Didn't Play It!

     

    Really good to hear the Outpost bits. I played, I believe, the demo at some point in the nineties, predictably got nowhere fast but blamed it on my youthful and undeveloped gaming skills. At the time I couldn't quite wrap my head around the game being at fault. Silly me.

  11. Posted

    Iron Man 3 grew on me, after first being slightly baffled by it. They'd been talking up the Mandarin since the first movie, so I was just so primed for him to be the big bad that the twist threw me off in a major way.

     

    But really, as Unimural says, it's so much more rewarding and has more heart than the forgettable second part. The PTSD-angle comes in very nicely and the intermediate section with the kid is just superb.

  13. Posted

    It's frustrating that having a certificate of any kind is necessary, but that's the world we live in. It's GOOD advice to keep reminding especially younger people that having a degree opens doors, even if you might not know which ones.

     

    Over the years I've changed course a couple of times, and though I don't need my master's degree at all, I'm still glad I got it. It's a convenient way to signal to any bureaucratic entity that yes, I've got the chops to do whatever.

  14. Posted

    For some reason I have been overcome by the desire to play Metroid Prime. I read something from a while back (a few months) about the MP Trilogy being already converted to HD and waiting in the wings for Nintendo to release it. The postponing of Metroid Prime 4 may have pushed this back, since they're aiming to drum up excitement for the new release. But I'd really like to have it now, now that I've got this craving for some first person Samus adventures.

     

    Of course, I could boot up the original for the Gamecube, but I've since uncoupled and stored the Wii I used for playing old Cube games. And I want it in HD, damn it! I know I'm unreasonable, but if they have it lying around... just release it. The worst that can happen is that new people play these games and already get excited for 4, and Nintendo will make some money. Surely that's not a bad thing.

  15. Posted

    I wonder if Civ is ever going to figure out how to change that eternal grind of the latter half of any game. This always kills me: the opening stages of Civ is GREAT (the rush of colonization), then there's a period of consolidation of power, and then just hours of pursuing your strategy until you finally win. At least the climate change mechanics (not to mention rock bands!) sound like they give you some interesting things to do in that part of the game.

  16. Posted

    How Much For Prime Minister?

     

    So, some of you will know I've written a trilogy of Dutch YA-novels and some other stories, but since they're not English, it has been impossible for most to read them. NO MORE! Or at least, I finally have an English language story out. It's published by Lebowski, a renowned literary publisher in the Netherlands, in their 'grounded sf' magazine 2.3.74 and you can read it here for free:

     

    https://www.magazine2374.com/project/how-much-for-prime-minister

     

    It's a neat little cyberpunk story about a black market identity trader who falls into the hands of a most dangerous client.

  18. Posted

    I avoided this topic for a few weeks because I had to catch up. So here's my review on the latest two eps: they were both good! Tilly's big space adventure in the spore world was pretty good and Section 31 seems like goofy fun. It's place where Georgiou seems to fit rather well, though for better or worse she has become a little comic book through it.

     

    The Saru episode, fresh off Saru's refound sense of non-fear, was straight up golden age science fiction and I loved it. I kept guessing (wrongly) what the Ba'ul would be and it got pretty crazy, in a good way.

     

    All in all, Discovery Season 2 is looking pretty positive so far!

  20. Posted

    Looking forward to it, probably beginning of December or at the earliest, start of November. The starter Pokémon all look fine, with only the grass monkey being a little weird (but still funny). I hope that in terms of gameplay, of which little is announced as of yet, it'll be a little more daring than the traditional linear story forcing you down winding paths. Something slightly more open world would be appreciated. Of course, the real treat [for me] would've been a radical shift like the one Breath of the Wild took, but maybe that's too much to ask. And it may alienate hardcore fans who mainly want the same game again and again.


    But we'll see! There's plenty room left to surprise us!

  21. Posted

    11 hours ago, Akalabeth said:

    EDIT - Why was M-O-B-A  replaced with Lords Management? Who uses that title aside from the podcast on this site? What an uneccessary mouthful of words. 

     

    Well, surely the primary thing you do in this type of game is the Management of Lords, and can there be any more worthy a task than that?

  22. Posted

    Anyone try the new Yoshi Yarn Thing demo? I sure did, and it was fun! I know I shouldn't sound so surprised. I got the game demoed to me last year at a Nintendo event, but seeing it in action and playing it are quite different. There's an ineffable quality of fun to it, even in the first level. It's not at all challenging, but it has the same attraction factor as Captain Toad Treasure Tracker, where you're having a good time just solving the relatively easy riddles and puzzles. I might be picking this up, though probably not right away at full price. Though this could sway depending on the reviews.

     

    Also, POKÉMON DIRECT TODAY, with most likely the gen 8 reveal. Let's see if it'll be a 'same old thing on the Let's Go Pikach/Eevee technical backbone' or something more ambitious this time around.

  23. Posted

    Visited The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part: Part Deux twice now, like I'm on some kind of goddamn Two-Face scheme.

     

    It's fun! I'd say it's just about as accomplished and fun as the first movie, which is quite an achievement. You'd expect the freshness to have worn off, and though it has, here and there, it becomes obvious they can still get tons of mileage from both the world and the (still hilarious) notion of animated Lego minifigs. It's playful and cute and has another 'real world connection'. This time around it's less surprising, but I found myself humming and bopping along and being generally impressed and mightily entertained.

     

    I hear it's not doing so well in theatres, maybe due to the shine being off Lego films after Batman and Ninjago releasing in the meantime, the latter only a year ago. Shame, because this is a fun movie. Easily more entertaining than the average mawkish kids' 3D movie with facially over-gesticulating characters (I'm looking at you, Wonderpark trailer).