syntheticgerbil

When I used to ride my bicycle to middle school, there one time I had woken up at 6 AM, got ready and ate breakfast for about only to glance at my watch nearly halfway there and realized it was nearly 4 AM. Apparently I had messed up my alarm clock and set the time forward a couple of hours. Then I totally made out with iCarly.

Hopefully someone here can answer this: I was wanting to get the Last Express with most of the original contents, although I don't need the outer box. I am kind of confused with what came with a new game. A lot of Ebay auctions are selling the game "new" in a 3 CD case without a front insert, but with a back insert. Is this how the original case is? I ask this because my dad owns the game with the 3 CD case and without the front insert. I'm guessing the manual came separate. So is this all that it came with new or are there front inserts and such I should look out for on the CD case? I guess I'm asking because instead of buying a boxed copy, I may be able to complete a used set of the game if I drive to my parents house and steal my dad's copy of the game when he isn't looking.

No blackouts here, but seriously I hate when weather talk happens EVERY year when there is always the obligatory week or two where it does truly get cold and we have to panic or fixate on it. Ugh. Even worse is the guys you'll see in line at the drug store saying, "Global warming my ass, heh heh heh." Hilarious, just fucking hilarious. Like I haven't heard that every year for the last decade.

Are almost all of those really spam bots? Damn it all. I HOPE YOU'RE HAVING A GREAT TIME OTHERWISE MAGUS!

I don't have a problem with the boss ding, but definitely anything that ends after a moment that benefits from a fadeout for emotional silence or whatever is really unnecessary. Problem is, if you have a game with chapters or parts that give a trophy for completing each one, many will end on that sort of note or fadeout with the unfailing ding. Also, although a trophy ding is appropriate upon finishing a game, many games seem to just start popping up trophies upon finishing whatever gameplay sequence before the final cutscene. Why doesn't everyone just uniformly wait until finishing the credits? I guess that's all the developers fault? Not sure how much control they have over when certain trophies pop up. Sometimes they come in a weird delay while other times the trophy is instant.

I feel the same way and try to get all of the trophies I can get in the games I own and want to finish to the fullest. I play games pretty thoroughly already, except I don't often play hard mode or do speed runs, so in a few games, I get all of the trophies for just playing how I would normally, so that's nice. The rest is just OCD telling me I might as well get them all if I'm going to have over 70%. I despise them when they are idiotic or near impossible. Uncharted 2 has all these DLC ones online that are just way too hard. I don't think I'll ever be able to do it, which bothers me way more than it should. I don't normally like missable trophies, but it is nice to see them sometimes used to point out easter eggs or little secrets, a la Deathspank. I also like to look at other people's achievements/trophies as well, Thunderpeel, only one or two people on my friends list are as thorough as I tend to be, but you can easily see what someone's interests are based on how much time they are putting into certain games over others. I guess that really serves no purpose to know outside of the fun of voyeurism. Haha, "relief." I understand fully.

Guess I won't have to import the Prince of Persia Trilogy from the UK then.

Started the Sly Collection today (received another free Amazon gift card from the survey company, the easiest way to make me buy a game), and I'm really annoyed. I just wish people developing HD or Special Edition versions of games could get things 100% right. I find it so frustrating that there always seems to be something that is missed. It seems the commentary you get from completing the time trials is completely missing from Sly 1. It was nice to hear and I was sort of wanting to hear them again, but I knew something was up after completing the trials on multiple levels and not getting any notification (from what I remember, not all levels had commentary in the original PS2 version). Also looking for a solution to this issue, I found others complaining that Sly 2 is missing three of the unlockable movies as well. Why are they removing the extras? That sucks. Apparently Sucker Punch didn't port the games themselves, so maybe the new company did not want commentary of other developers? Maybe these things are still on the disc and just broken? The turtle tells you to play the commentary, but you can't. On the rest of the nitpicks, some of the 2D or drawn graphics are scaled up and pixelated, while others are not. This just seems lazy. Like, even if Sucker Punch could not provide the original files for the art, almost everything Sly related is somewhat simplistic vector art. Could not one person at Sanzaru Games spend time remaking the vector tracing the old graphics then just to make sure all graphics are uniform? These are HD collections, so why not make sure to represent that 100%? There's a somewhat similar problem with the cutscenes, they are presented in a letterbox within fullscreen, very tiny compared to the rest of the game. I don't know why at the very least they couldn't enlarge the cutscenes to fit a 16:9 frame if they couldn't rerender all the original screens. All of the movies look like either Flash or After Effects, made with still vector art, so potentially you would output a higher res movie I would think? I was sort of hoping to see those neat little 2D cutscenes remastered. That was disappointing. Otherwise, besides those things that really bug me, it's a great looking collection. The polygons don't appear to be improved or smoothed, but the textures are much higher resolution and the game runs at a smoother frame rate. The intro screen allowing you to select from the three games is also really awesome.

Yeah, I think so. On second thought, I don't know why I said any of this, it was stupid of me to suggest it is not the director's responsibility to ensure dialogue doesn't come off as forced or hammy. Sure, Jeunet didn't know English well at all to even coach dialogue and I'm sure FOX appointed someone, but it's still Jeunet's fault for being there as a work for hire director in the first place. I'm guessing he knew he made some mistakes since he has since to work for hire to such an extent and has learned English, but he doesn't talk much about what he did for Alien 4 outside of the DVD commentary where it's really just piecemeal talk of the scenes so I don't know.

I think you explained it very concisely Patters. To think about games that are meaty but suitable for portable play, it actually seems very much like a delicate balance. It seems you guys are also complaining about the Metal Gear games for the PSP (which I haven't gotten to yet), and it seems funny to me that they sort of went backwards on what was established for the first handheld game way back for Gameboy Color, especially when I think a lot of them share the same director (not Hideo Kojima, who would probably have no idea how to make a portable game ever). I think you're mixing up brainless as the final opposite for things that require a longer term of memorization and having to exert focus for long periods of time. Having shorter bursts of gameplay that you don't feel lost when you come back to after a while away doesn't equate the game to Asteroids or Pong. Thanks for mentioning these two, I was sort of curious if Nintendo had improved the ability in which you could put down a Zelda game and pick it back up again with the latest DS ones. Minish Cap, the last Zelda handheld I finished, seemed to section off areas in the game much better than Link's Awakening or the two Oracle games, but still had many elements that required a lot of memorization of the overworld map and possible missed sections that I found frustrating simply since it was the first time for me playing a handheld Zelda in short bursts on breaks at work. The earlier ones I had just done at home when I was still in grade school. I think Minish Cap is a mighty fine game as it is, but I sort of felt like I was tarnishing it playing it in the method I was.

I'm not saying Alien 4 isn't a problematic film overall, but Whedon blaming Jeunet is lame for something he is still responsible. You say it's not the dialogue, but I have major problems with things like this exchange, which is in the script exactly: I don't know who talks like this, especially pirates or space marines. It just reeks of the "I'm-oh-so-clever" dialogue from the likes of Diablo Cody and Kevin Smith, who I also despise. Also, why is a marine using "whom" anyway? The whole script stinks like that to me. I think the dialogue in Aliens is just as poor, if not worse, but I guess it makes sense for some to want to follow James Cameron's B-movie style (which also sucks), which is what I said of Whedon's possible angle earlier. I don't really see how it's necessarily Jeunet's responsibility to coach the actor's through delivering such rough dialogue in the first place. It could be, but it's not always, and many directors do let the actors figure it out. Ron Perlman should be perfect for the part he was given as demonstrated in other movies he's played big tough joker types, but so many of his lines still made me cringe. I think a scriptwriter who has a trail to show exactly what he did and then turns around and blames everyone on the crew except himself for "doing everything wrong," is incredibly petty. This leads to insane tirades by fanboys like this that just assume a ton and need something lash out at: http://www.whedon.info/Joss-Whedon-Alien-4-Resurrection.html I'm not saying Jeunet did an amazing job or that Alien 4 is not obnoxious for existing, but I do get the idea that he did the best with what he could work with and there's a lot to note about FOX interfering with shaping the Alien franchise this way or that since the second movie. I've enjoyed everything Jeunet has directed immensely outside of Alien 4, but Joss Whedon has come off hit or miss, mostly miss, to me.

It's just the idea of a handheld system, as something that should have games that can be picked up and played during a car ride or on a lunch break, it's kind of odd to play it at home in long bursts when you might as well be playing a console. I can only think of illustrating it this way as a most recent example I encountered: Metal Gear 2 for MSX is meant to be played at home. It's nonlinear in terms of exploration, meaning you can go anywhere to an extent from the beginning, but still linear in that nearly the whole game has tasks that must be done in order. The game allows a save at certain restore points, at least on the Subsistence version, but probably needs to be played more at a constant rate to fully grasp everything you need to complete, making it nice for at home play. Metal Gear Solid for Game Boy Color is almost the same game system except with some minor control improvements. It is completed in a different manner though, split up into 13 stages that don't allow going back or forward once a stage is complete. While limiting, this makes the game ideal for handheld play because you are allowed a "reset" of your brain with each stage, no longer having to worry about traversing back to things you may have missed or having to remember a bunch of areas. So if you don't get back to the game in maybe a week or two weeks time, it won't be completely stressful. Of course, I think Zelda games are the most glaring series that doesn't follow the handheld rules (I haven't played the last two on DS though, just all of the ones before), sort of needing you to keep track of large amount of areas that can make on the go playing very stressful if you don't maintain a constant rate of playing. On the other hand, Locoroco shows exactly how to do this sort of handheld game on the PSP. Both the DS and PSP have sleep functions though, I don't think either becomes a saving grace since it should be temporary. Quicksave helps for something more permanent and substantial.

First, I find it strange I agree with Chris Remo on anything ever. Second, I actively hate Joss Whedon as well, but letting that opinion out in real life or the interbutt usually leads me to arguments that I really don't want to waste my time on. Seriously, the best I think the guy has probably ever done is write a few episodes of Roseanne, and that is really not very notable. Whedon just seems like either a grade A hack or an awesome purveyor of B-movie shlock, neither of which I'm interested in. I'm surprised you maybe haven't heard there are others who really despise Whedon, Orvidos? What really sealed the deal is that I had read the script for Alien 4 out of OCD on the box set, and it was just absolute garbage with every other line being a cliche or catchphrase. I know there's an interview where he blames Jean Pierre Jeunet for doing everything wrong and directing the actors badly, which is plausible since the director did not know much English at the time, but the hammy dialogue is directly in the script itself. I don't know if any amount of directing could fix that garbage and I would say aside from Alien Resurrection, Jean Pierre Jeunet has never shown himself to be a bad director or even reaching mediocrity. Then again, it seems there are some Whedon fanboys who do hate Jeunet for the same reason that really got me actively hating Whedon. Go figure. Them books.

Well, I've actually had problems with the sleep mode as sometimes you might find the PSP has died too quickly as you didn't get back to the game in time, making your progress lost. This doesn't happen often and I'm pretty aware of it now, but it's not exactly akin to a quicksave or short bursts.

Oh wow! Not always into the characters' faces panel to panel, but that thing is gorgeous! I'm in awe on how realized the backgrounds are. Maybe it's time I look for webcomics to read...

That price quote makes me pretty uncomfortable Kolzig. I'm guessing what is going to happen here for me will be like the first PSP. I'm not keen on paying a bunch of money for handheld devices. The cost has really gotten ridiculous where a handheld is rivaling the price for a current console. I only just bought a PSP last year while snapping up games I knew I wanted to play about 3 years before that during sales. The main reason I finally bought a PSP is I was had a 20% off of anything coupon at a local video game store and bought a PSP-2000 used (which should have better screens anyway), making it somewhere around the balpark of $75 from what I remember. Expensive hardware sucks and I believe it keeps a certain amount of the general population from ever experiencing good games... well, except in the case of the 3DO. So I imagine this release will be some ludicrous pricepoint and in order to play Uncharted, I may have to wait 3 years for a deal of something. But yeah, it should be a nice experience. I have no complaints about the original PSP myself. I think it's a nice visual treat in terms of handhelds as well as what it can handle.

Oh man, I've been following Ashley Wood for years now, but I'm getting kind of pissed off with him. He's not releasing substantial comics anymore and generally doesn't seem like he's trying, continuously still drawing the same robots and girls, taking the easy way out. I have all of his older art books that were for sale to the public and there's so much more diversity shown in those than what he does now. I have also read Popbot up to date. It certainly starts off great in the first five issues, maybe because of Sam Kieth's initial story help, then it sort of devolves into this thing of vignettes that has yet to have followed up on any of the established story, mystery, and universes presented in the beginning. As the panels half almost completely disappeared in the last two issues, at this point I get the feeling Ashley Wood is just painting the pictures first and half-assedly linking them together with text and word balloons. Not to mention that everything he starts is forgotten about after two extremely late issues or less, Popbot looks like it will never be continued, and even earlier licensed work on the new Tank Girl reboot (which was looking amazing) was ceased and given to another artist for I guess becoming too much work for him. I suppose it's better to make a living selling $500 toys and continuously releasing limited artbooks with half of the SAME art as the last book (which I hate so fucking much) and not telling everyone ahead of time. He's just become so shady to me. Ranting aside, the comic/book Ashley Wood illustrated that his wife wrote, Lore, is pretty damn good. It's a good chunk of story that's in one collected book. It remains unfinished as well, but what is there is a great read, I think. His Metal Gear Solid comics are probably the best comic book video game adaptations out there in terms of quality as well.

Oh man, even when that was in print originally, I remember calling every comic shop available in the Houston yellow pages looking for someone who carried the book (or even knew what Sam and Max was). I found one, begged my mom to drive me on the other side of town (this was 1996), and spent a whole $25 I had saved up from doing chores. I just want to say, Jake Rodkin is so amazing for putting so much effort into arranging the reprint for Surfin' the Highway. It was incredibly long overdue for a reprint and now it is even more complete with all the missing stuff that only fans would even know about. Thanks again Jake!

Just because of Ubisoft's track record in the last 7 years or so, I'd say it's going to be a shit port that fails to understand the original game or capitalize on a new port by adding anything at all (let alone worthwhile) to it. Nothing since has still beaten the Dreamcast or PS2 versions of Rayman 2, nor has added anything. The DS version was a bad port of the 64 game. Even when playing the original Rayman, it's still to this day not going to get any better than the Playstation or Saturn, yet it's had a ton of rereleases over the years of varying levels of lower quality. Just checking the information out, it's saying it's using the Dreamcast version as it's basis this time, but I really doubt the graphics are going to be improved as they say. Maybe higher res textures, but given the new PoP HD collection, I doubt new polygons are being added. The other noted part of the press release is "gameplay improvements for accessibility" which probably means they are just going to make it easier. They claimed the same thing for the DSi version of the original Rayman, when all they really did was add more lives and energy as well as give a map. Really not sure if Rayman 2 is in need of much of more in the way of accessibility (outside of the rocking riding part at the end), but maybe that's just me. EDIT: Comparing the released screenshots of the new port to the old Dreamcast version, it does appear that polygons are the same but that the texture resolution will now be much higher. That's a nice start, I think.

I thought the story behind this was everyone saw the 3DS on display with demos of games like MGS3 and Ocarina of Time running on them with no intention of making the full games for the system, but the response was so positive they went ahead? I mean that sounds like a dumb story anyway even if it is true, but maybe it makes up for it? Either way, I agree, the lack of original or super interesting launch games or launch games at all is pretty strange and disturbing. Maybe Nintendo is guessing they will just keep selling based on the past success of the DS, but I don't want them to get cocky again.

That sucks to hear, I never made it to Sly 3, but I will soon when I replay them all for the HD collection (Received an Amazon gift card for doing surveys, bought it). Everything I heard about Sly 3 made it seem like it would be even more interesting and more exciting, but it seems that it overdid it. Is that disguise system at all worth noting? I think you should just figure it this way: Sly 1 and 2 were pretty good, with 2 being very enjoyable, so what's the harm in throwing in the third game to make a value pack of games more complete? I mean if you didn't like the first two, that's fine, but generally I only hear good things about those at the very least.

So European law is being blamed for the new region lock? I'm confused, because if that's so, doesn't that mean Sony has to start region locking all Playstation 3 games to comply as well?

Haha, sorry, I haven't played a Pokemon since Red and Blue came out, which I sold to get a Dreamcast a year later. Catching all of a large amount of something doesn't fit well with my game OCD tendencies.

The Lord himself. Non-jokes: To me, the Metacritic score seems generally inflated by how big the marketing budget for a certain game is. I'm sure some will argue a more fair and balanced world for game reviews, but enough talk of game sites losing advertising dollars for big budget games over bad reviews a few years back is enough for me to always be suspicious (even if it hasn't been reported much lately). My sister's boyfriend buys all of his games blind based on Metacritic review scores. I don't think he even reads the reviews. He also has smokes pot all day, has dubious hygiene, has no job, and regularly fails to get anything above a C average in college if not failing. That's my perception of the types who use and live by metacritic. But I'm sure those types are the easiest for the big money suits to pander to as well. But here's my votes for the games you should play. I picked ones I thought would be particularly bad or uninteresting: 100-90:Assassin's Creed II 90-80:Blur 80-70:Mini Ninjas 70-60:Section 8 60-50:X-Blades 50-40:Legendary

Christ, Metal Gear for Game Boy Color done after picking at the damn thing for over half a year now. I don't think I've spent that long on a Game Boy Color game ever, except for possibly doing a bunch of replay junk years ago with the Zelda Oracle series. There's all of these extra and alternate missions that you can complete, but aren't necessarily set up in a user friendly way (can't skip cutscenes) or have little in the way of fairness. But there is a Donkey Kong level where Snake is dodging barrels going up a mountainside while the arcade music plays that sort of makes up for the more frustrating portions. There's also this ridiculous Ideaspy Script you receive after unlocking the game that is worth a read just for the pure zaniness. It's a pain in the ass to see all the episodes yourself as you have to play through the game without quitting or turning off the Game Boy after beating it. Luckily someone transcribed it online and relieved any frustration. The actual game itself was pretty enjoyable, but I forgot almost the full story and what happens since I had finished that part a few months ago. It's a very strange non canon game that tells the events after the original Metal Gear in very different ways. The plot seemed to be a mixture of elements from Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear 2.