syntheticgerbil

Actually I shouldn't have written "major" puzzle issues. More like "a few." I just realized I was comparing Sam and Max Hit the Road to other LucasArts adventure games instead of comparing it to all adventure games. Considering most adventure games tend to be a pisspoor mess of logic and guessing, Sam and Max Hit the Road doesn't ever touch the dark territory of some of the adventure games I've played.

The United States has many revered voice actors that are used all the time in multiple forms of media because of range and skill. But they are all unionized and therefore Funimation uses none of them. Pricier. The skill difference is shown when you check the imdb page of people who have voice acted in 10-20 different animes but have never broken out in to voice work beyond that. However it's not like a good voice actor is above dubbing a foreign cartoon, but it's always going to be dependent on the company being able to pay for their quality. Michiko and Hatchin both were played by women who had starred in major motion pictures and had done voice work before hand. It's not to say celebrities make better voice actors, as that is not always true, but it's not fair to a well produced in show in another country to get the same old low paid unskilled voice actresses that the garbage voice actors in the pantyshot cartoons have. Video games from Japan tend to be dubbed with more professional voice actors than animation from Japan.

Yeah, that's partly why I said you were really good at the game, as you had two of the final totems ready to go before you even arrived. I personally feel like the game has major puzzle issues because of weird stuff like smearing hair on a rock, knowing when you need to place a hand on a retracting accordian thingy with a fish magnet, and just all of the totem puzzles at the end. It didn't feel as much a case of cartoon logic as more of the designers taking a bunch of random objects and making them interact in someway. Even if there are hints in the dialogue to what you must do, it seems a bit obscure that you would have to find random junk for the big foot elder to throw in a hot tub in the first place. There's also added steps of difficulty like the ice pick. For all intents and purposes you should be able to get a cork out of a bottle without the ice pick becoming a screw. You really shouldn't need Jesse James' hand to hold a magnet. There's no reason for a broken flashlight to come out of a Wak-a-Rat game. There's probably more, but I feel like most LucasArts games keep the game objectives and the reality of the game world you are interacting with pretty clear cut. Possibly Grim Fandango starts to fall in the "do random things hoping for progress" category, but if only because the sheer amount of puzzles and length of the game. Full Throttle is going to be such a different experience!

Why would you want an individual chair? Then you can't cuddle with your significant other while she messes with her laptop.

He's right, I played it recently, and there's a lot of distracting instances of frame rate dropping. I was glad that a lot of major cutscenes were prerendered, because I didn't want the story screwed up by it dropping to 15 fps. The weird thing is the frame rate didn't really mess up too much during the actual gameplay, just more during cutscenes. It happened enough to where it bugged me, but didn't make the game unplayable. I heard 360 is a lot smoother but that the textures load in the correct resolution very slow, so you get a lot of blotchy textures up close. The PC version is newer and I bet most can run it fast enough by now, so I'd recommend PC.

I was thinking the "to" was supposed to be a more conceptual thing where they find each other. Haha, well that explains that! Thanks! Yeah I guess in my nerd rage, I kind of just assumed that all good voice actors did not stay in Texas. That doesn't really mean it's true. I have heard good dubs before, but it always seems to be a factor of money, like Ghibli dubs or the relatively good ones Sony did for Paprika and Tekkon Kinkreet. Also what is up with Funimation turning all the voices up so high in the mix? It makes all of the shows I've seen from them seem like they originally had bad sound design. I just get this unnerving feeling that all of it can be chalked up to self serving need to get a weird celebrity status for subpar voice actors. Oh yeah, for those of you who have watched it, I've just spent two hours searching for what clues may help identify the intentional ambiguity of whether or not

I'd give Folklore a try even though it can get a little bit grindy (way less so if you are not the kind that need 100%). If you are going to attempt the Infamous games, I'd say start with 2 to get a taste of it, because I feel like the first game was kind of mediocre while 2 was great. Festival of Blood is even better. I'd recommend Ratchet and Clank only if you already like Ratchet and Clank. I think some of the HD collections tend to be PS3 exclusive if you missed on any of those games.

So is this thing with the fly by cameras of women playing Zelda songs along with cosplay a thing now? I really doubt they are getting Nintendo's permission to sell their fan product like this. Really hope they figure out the royalty arrangements with Nintendo before their sales take off. Anyway, here's my disgruntled contribution: And some more Zelda:

That is a very good question!

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After finally breaking down and paying way too much for the second Blu-ray set (it's how they get you, having the first set on sale for super cheap before release), I have finally finished Michiko and Hatchin. What an amazing show. I guess it's competing for the top spot of my favorite animated show. I have heard a few people say it just sort of ends abruptly because the series was cancelled, but I can't seem to find anything confirming cancellation. I mean there's no cliffhanger in which to speak of an everything for at least the previous six episodes led directly in to the final episode.I figured it was like a lot of good TV series where they know when to end it instead of just ruining the whole damn thing. Nothing worse than a TV series that can't end. Anyway, what a great show with some very honest but also fun characterization.The art direction is very soft and shows urban decay with beauty, much like Tekkon Kinkreet, but with less cold pastels and more warm colors. The two main characters are incredibly defined from their art direction, facial expressions, actions, right down to their clothes. The director, Sayo Yamamoto, put a lot of work in to having outfits frequently change for so many of the main characters, even though this tends to be incredibly taxing on animators (comic artists have no excuse). There were a couple of instances where the Michiko's outfit changed so frequently from one scene to the next that I was kind of confused on how she had time to change and why she would have felt changing was appropriate in that instance. Seemed more for comical effect either way. Also according to the interview with the director on one of the discs, much of Michiko's outfits were licensed by (or based on?) a Brazilian fashion designer. I can't recommend this series enough to pretty much everyone. With all this constant arguing on the internet nowadays about feminism and what way a woman is depicted in this or that or if it's wrong, it's a very interesting series to examine, even though it created about five years ago. You could sit around and slut shame Michiko and say she's just dressing how she dresses for boys or attention or to attract male viewers, but she's just really in to fashion and is in no way an actual slut. There's one possible romantic encounter she gets mixed up in and ends up feeling guilty and confused. Hatchin goes from cute anime stereotype to full on tomboy but is never played as a typical comical relief moe character in either incarnation. All of these choices were made by Sayo Yamamoto, which is not to single her out because she's female but to give food for thought on how a female animator (in Japan even!) would like characters to be handled. On the interview on disc, Yamamoto said she was not looking to make an anime for otaku. I guess the show fails the Bechdel test because it's about looking for Hatchin's father Hiroshi, however without spoiling too much, Hiroshi becomes the least important thing between the two leads. It's funny how much I was a little bit bummed that the series was so similar to Samurai Champloo in it's structure and driving plotline, but it is very much a different perspective on the same kind of journey. And a very important part about this is the animation. Having come off Ergo Proxy which tended to be a lot of well art directed stills and pans, Michiko and Hatchin has all of the great art direction of good animation like lighting, composition, color, texture etc., but has so many great dynamic action scenes animated with incredible force. They really conserved their animation budget well and did not skimp on the last three episodes one bit. Also the expressions were well done, probably partly because of the character design, because most anime has this ugly stock face with the gargantuan eyes that they just copy and paste among the whole cast. In animation like this where the faces are individual tailored to the character, you get a lot of good range where the animators are forced to think how one will look in each situation. But I guess that's just a quality separator really and explains why I avoid most things coming out of Japan the second I see a typical anime character design. Angry rant time: Funimation, fucking Funimation. Don't get me wrong, Funimation is great for finally giving an English release to this show and Sayo Yamamoto's Lupin series this year, but their whole dubbing culture really pisses me off. I have to watch all of the extras on DVDs/Blu-rays out of an OCD drive and the extras on here seem to be the most self indulgent I've ever seen. There are four episode commentaries with a bunch of voice actors saying next to nothing of importance about the show other than someone's a "bad ass" or promoting their own work on other anime. There's fan gushing and summaries of the story happening on screen. If they have no fucking insight to the show itself, why even record commentary at such length? Also interviews with the English voice actors (outside of the commentary) more than double the length of the extras with the actual directors and original voice actors. The original voice actresses interviewed have way more interesting words to say about the show in much less length and much less loud fangirl squeeing. What I've heard of the English dub is all wrong anyway. It's just the same old 10-20 people who live in Dallas and only dub anime because they are cheap and there's no way Funimation could afford voice actors with actual range. I guess that's fine since most of the anime released from Funimation is absolute garbage, but you can't dub a high quality show like Michiko and Hatchin with pisspoor voices. I would rather Funimation just never pay anyone to voice act in Texas ever again and put that money towards releasing more shows, but I guess forevermore people in the United States will be put off watching anything if they have to read. And I guess I relate this issue again to the amount of sadness I felt on going to Animefest 2012 in Dallas, which I think Funimation puts a lot of money in, considering a bunch of junk of theirs gets promoted there. They flew in some big names from Japan: Dai Sato, Sayo Yamamoto, and Koji Morimoto (which was my main reason for going) and had them give multiple panels on their shows. I went to about five panels and and usually it was about five people, including myself, my fiancee (who didn't want to be there anyway), and a few other fans who knew why shows work in the first place. There was a ton of people there, but I guess they would rather show off their costumes or sell badly drawn fan art for ridiculous prices and totally dodge copyright laws. I checked out the plaque for one panel that reached full capacity for seating and saw it was for, "how to break out in voice acting." I then realized all of these disgusting fans are only in it for self promotion. These fans are all self promoting off of other people's works and yet when the same people who have had their hands in so many of the creations that made their way into the cosplays and fan art booths there, the same fans can't even show up. I guess they could make a case that they didn't know, but the itenerary on the website and the handouts of the schedules detailed who worked on what and why they are important. So the Funimation DVD just reflected that. Jad Saxton who plays Hatchin in the English dub has an interview where she says. "I think because one of the directors is female..." While somewhat accurate, the series director and creator is that same female, she does not play the role of a staff director. Just seemed like she wasn't very informed at all on what she was working on. I don't know, maybe it's just because it's Texas. There's a high amount of ignorance that swarms around this huge state, so I wouldn't be surprised if a similar con played out completely different in California or New York. Anger over. I hope anyone who loves the series isn't annoyed with me calling it "Michiko and Hatchin" so much when traditionally it has been called "Michiko to Hatchin." I think the "to" is a literal translation from the Japanese written title, but the actual title cards within the show and on a lot of the promotional material all say "Michiko e Hatchin" which translates to Michiko and Hatchin from Portuguese. Seems that translation is more correct (and the title Funimation adopted) considering it takes place in some sort of Brazil like place and the dates are all written in Portuguese, even if it could be argued that it is more of a stylistic thing.

See if you can scrub the contacts with a tooth brush until they are the original brass/copper looking color again, this may be the answer to the problem. I've had this happen before to a few things and never has all been lost.

Hahaha, if only!

Geez, you're really good at figuring out this game. I remember that rasp giving me all sorts of trouble, first because I didn't understand how to catch Max in the parking lot to keep the thing and second I didn't understand corns on the feet and all until my dad figured that one out for me. You're nearing the end, so glad you've been enjoying it. I also don't remember at all what the elder bigfoot said in his speech, and I haven't played the game since I was maybe 11. I don't remember it being anything except boring. What was he talking about?

Hmm, I just realized I spent a shitload of time playing "HD" ports of games I missed out on last generation. At least a dozen ports, I'd say. It's certainly convenient for those who missed out the first time, but I found it weird companies were making such a big deal about such rereleases when some companies could only manage to mildly upres the textures and call it a day. As much as I appreciated many HD ports, I'd kind of like this type of rerelease stuff to disappear this time unless it's going to be a major overhaul like Twin Snakes is to Metal Gear Solid.

I'd guess a backlog of Humongous adventure games would be good. They were a created a little bit too late for me to be a part of their targeted age group growing up and I had already played some hefty adventure games, but I can imagine that they must be a lot of fun for kids.

Argh, the magnet hiding off the side of the screen that is not apparent it scrolls.

Wow, I didn't know that was possible to win. What were the odds?

Yeah I hope people calm down on ridiculous achievements and trophies this time, but it seems like that's already been happening. I can't stand near impossible things that fuel my OCD rage.

Why so many SNESs?

Yeah I just looked, I didn't realize the new Surfin' the Highway collection was out of print. I thought Telltale was still selling it in their store for $15-20, but I guess not. Amazon names them as the publisher, so I guess the direct source is cut off. And it looks like you're right Thorn, Telltale has eliminated all of their physical merchandise except for the DVD versions of series. I could have sworn everything was still there a year ago, but I can't find it now. They also sold the Sam and Max TV series from their site too. I actually haven't watched the TV series for over a decade. I remember not liking it as much and finding a lot of the jokes way too corny. The drawings in general didn't seemed off model a lot of the times, and not in a good way. They also jammed in a nerdy female inventor for the network that just didn't work. Sybil in the Telltale series is much more effective. In general the games have all been much truer to the comics. I'll have to get around to rewatching the series at some point, but not right now.

They are all third party. No first party Warios since 4. They were developed by Treasure, Suzak, and Good Feel. I mean not to speak of the quality of thosee releases, but it's just that Nintendo's development seems to have ignored Wario if it's not Warioware. Instead we get a fuckload of useless New Super Mario Bros. titles.

I still can't parallel park very well. I found out if usually if I back in to it, I do better, but I have to try so hard to not ding someone's car.

Another thread hijack for want of Wario Land 3DS! It's been a long time since an actual first party Wario title. Not since Wario Land 4 (Which I haven't gotten to yet). I guess the Wario games aren't as popular with fans and have taken a backseat to development, but I think it's my favorite series in the Marioverse. There's just something so satisfying about the weird "state of Wario" playing style and also being overly powerful and driven by greed. They just promote exploration and nonlinearity in levels for the sole purpose satisfaction of collecting more stuff. Wario games tend to be very addictive because they flow so well. I think maybe that's why I really loved Rabbids Go Home, it seems very similar in the need for exploration just to collect a bunch of stuff only for the satisfaction. Neither the Wario series or Rabbids Go Home really holds you to getting all the collectables like a Rare title or something. Also having finished Wario Land Virtual Boy this year on an actual Virtual Boy only makes me wish Nintendo would get on it and convert all the VB titles to be playable from the 3DS, it'd be perfect even if they only decided to port Wario Land. Updated color graphics would be even better. So less of this year of Luigi and maybe next year, year of Wario. Waluigi can eat a bowl of shit.

Yeah I think I'm spoiled by the Jared soundtracks as well. The music for the new series is great too.