syntheticgerbil

I don't know what to pick, but I think you should finish all your half finished games first, then I'll vote on what's left. But I see that you are!

I wish I could figure out the key to 5-6 hours of sleep like some of you. If I set an alarm I still struggle with waking up and snooze almost non-stop. My body likes laying in one place for 10 hours if left undisturbed almost every time. This is even if I've been getting enough sleep lately. It would be nice if it were something I could control. I think I had read your need for sleep decreases with age either way, so maybe I'm just not old enough yet? My dad gets about five to six hours of sleep every night, but he's over sixty now. He's also the lightest fucking sleeper and would yell at me or anyone else in the family constantly for making too much noise the decades I was living there. I don't think I ever sleep that light. Even in the most uncomfortable of positions, I tend to really conk out. Give me your sleep secrets!!!

I think a lot of families take their kids to the mall here as well to trick or treat at... department stores(?), but I have no idea how that goes. I remember hearing friends talk about it even in elementary school but I've never done it myself. Sounds super lame.

Oops, just saw this. Guessing it's over by now, not that I would have done anything but drag everyone down with silence by not being much of a Blizzard fan outside of Lost Vikings. Er... but anyway, maybe next time. I also can't seem to make my profile say I'm in Austin now as well, just in case it seems like I'm talking weird talk.

That sounds ridiculously awesome. Anyone who went the extra mile to give a jump scare or put up creepy paraphernalia made my Halloweens more memorable. I used to have fun traveling the neighborhood for hours with a group of friends as a kid in Houston, but it has even died at my parents house. Maybe everyone got the fear instilled in them and society's changed in the US, but I sort of want to hope most of the potential trick or treaters have at least just at relocated where I don't live. I always take the time to carve pumpkins just for the heck of it I suppose. Last year, same place in Austin, no kids, and I waited around all night, but I don't think there's many around the tiny area I'm in. A couple of years before at an apartment in Houston, only one group came by, which was no surprise for apartments I suppose, so we just dumped all our candy into their bags. That's a big hope for me as well. I think it may have been brought up in a Tim Schafer interview before, but the way the original Psychonauts game was constructed, it seems like it would work well for bite sized chunks of downloadable games.

Woohoo! Everybody wins! I just realized though the second player in Kirby 3 is sort of a weird black face tongue guy. The angry blue guy in Epic Yarn is probably more fun. Also I don't know if Kirby's Super Star is on Virtual Console as well because of the DS revamp, but there's a neat mode in there where you can play through Kirby's Dream Land 1 and create sidekicks with different powers for the second player to use along they way. That's really fun as well.

Good luck sir!

I think the false modesty is lame and all as well as the guy tends to come off as obnoxious the way he writes, but as long as he keeps making nice games, I'll be okay. But about this... Are there people that thought somehow Braid was a chore? I'm really confused about that. Braid was annoyingly "artistic" in a non-intrusive way I found, where the poorly-constructed/hard-to-grasp narrative and symbolism were just sort of tacked on, but didn't hinder the game's design or enjoyability at all. The story enhanced it for sure for simply existing, but I found that all of the vague prose accompanying the game could have been much stronger and more understandable, making the game more enjoyable, if that makes sense. I guess my understanding is the game was successful with both crowds because the people who don't read shit and skip cutscenes in all games (as well as just playing to the end and they're done) could enjoy Braid just the same way the guy who meticulously looks at and reads everything could. So I'm confused how the game wasn't fun? I suppose it would be terrible for those that hate platforming or solving puzzles. I get the feeling these elements are what Blow is putting up the air of modesty against, like he failed because the game used everyday game elements like that instead of making some abstract hard-to-crack metagame? That's kind of annoying to me, coming from someone who has played his shit prototypes on his website that all come with this diarrhea of the mouth TXT file.

If you can get it, Kirby's Dream Land 3 also has similar 2 player. I don't know what else. My girlfriend will play Castle Crashers with me and have fun, but she got completely bored being second banana in Deathspank in less than half an hour. We had a blast a few years ago finishing Four Swords together. Maybe you can get that and play it on the Wii? It does require you to buy or own two Gameboy Advances and GC-to-GBA cables though.

Thank you! Guess I'll be buying this later unless I really start clamoring for it Halloween night, just 'cause of monies right now. Might get bored handing out candy to all the nonexistent kids that come to the door.

Usually only disc games give a platinum for all trophies. Downloadable games give one gold trophy at the most or split the "points" up for the trophy among silver trophies. They all equal the same either way, not that I fully understand what a trophy is worth.

Is there anyone here that can tell me what titles the name "Tim Schafer" falls under in the credits?

This is basically what I hate as well, lazy difficulty changes. I'm not against difficulty setting changes, since I think it's proofing your game for a wider audience to enjoy, but I think you should add incentive for hard mode or easy mode in some way. It makes it more interesting and makes for better subsequent play throughs. But I'm annoyed, as an OCD gamer, when games dangle some carrot on a string to me for beating a hard difficulty that is frustratingly unfair. Either an extended ending or some kind of unlockable is usually the carrot. I just don't like getting furious or cursing over a game. My girlfriend really hates when I curse up a storm over a game. I don't want to make her sad. That said, I don't think I've recently encountered any crazy difficulty over the last year, especially in newer games. I did Castle Crashers Insane with some friends, but we knew what we were getting into, and besides one really obnoxious part, it wasn't that bad. I have been messing with the VR Missions in Metal Gear Solid Substance, but I'm about halfway done, and really nothing is terrible outside of any mission where I'm a sniper having to target things quickly and sharply. That shit sucks. Before that, the last hardest game to finish was getting all the gold medals and whatever else on Kirby's Dreamcourse, but this was the regular early 90s difficulty offered up. I don't believe an easy game becomes forgettable though. I have no problem with games that aren't difficult since I find the experience counts more. I don't miss it if I have been playing for four hours or something and realized I haven't died once. I think Beyond Good and Evil is a great example of this. I guess many others would disagree, but I guess I already have my fair share of frustrating or difficult games to play still, so it's nice to mix it up every once and a while. Really? I think that game is pretty difficult even with the curve. I certainly would never be able to finish the game without warping (even then, I probably couldn't) or playing one of the versions that allow you to save before each level. I finished Lost Levels on All Stars and on the GBC Deluxe one and that was just frustrating beyond belief. I almost feel like the original Super Mario Bros. sequel was impossible for anyone to realistically finish without saving.

I don't have anything to say about Sonic 4 because I'm never going to play it, but I disagree with your assessment of the first three games, as I think what you are pointing out is only common in the first Sonic, while 2 and 3 (and Knuckles) fix all of the problems by the end of the series. The drowning is just part of the territory of water levels while tricky jumps almost only factor in if you are taking the usual "high road" in Sonic games which leads you to better secrets, shorter levels, and whatever else. Sonic 2 should be pretty easy to play in one sitting for most people who are moderately good at games to get up to Metropolis Zone, while things don't get unfair or cruel until that Aero Zone level and the last boss. Chemical plant might be the only trip up until then, but it's the second level. I feel like Sonic 3 with the Knuckles add-on is pretty straight forward and all around forgiving compared to any Sonic game to that point. You can save each level, plus the added shields are ridiculously powerful. Also the levels are all pretty clearly designed. I don't play Sonic games anymore because I feel like Hirokazu Yasuhara was the reason they were ever any good, and besides that, the few Sonic Advance games I did play were pretty lame. If I'm not mistaken, Dimps is also the creator of this new Sonic 4 series?

Ahaha, I have no concept of a Secret of Monkey Island playthrough. According to the speed run, I can do like an hour and ten minutes, skipping everything and not talking more than I need to, but the first time I played was six months time to finish it, the last month being finished after my dad giving in to my begging and buying me a hintbook for this one puzzle.

This past week I scrambled to get new artwork on my website because an old supervisor or boss from the place I worked at before the place I worked at split into two companies recommended me as "one of the best character animators he knows" to some recruiter looking for one who makes bad licensed Disney games in Austin, which made me feel pretty good as I never particularly liked that guy and he never showed much approval towards me. It could also be that he works with my old art director now who took me out to lunch last week as he was in town for GDC. Anyway, it's good to feel like people I previously worked with still feel I was worth a damn, but I didn't get that job at all, which I didn't exactly want but I was still kind of annoyed. It's not like I've been looking though, since my portfolio needs a crazy amount of updating since the last time in 2007, so I feel like none of my best anything is really on display, so I completely understand. On the other hand, the guy this company did end up hiring had credits on animating on Land Before Time V and Space Jam among other big name things, so I don't know how I'm supposed to compete with that. Anyways, I feel really happy, needed, and annoyed all at the same time! Great!

Well, I do like that part of the equation here is people are shipping jobs to places in Austin, TX, making it easier for me to get a job (according to comments and the '"louse"), but it probably will still be like Kingz says either way, so eh from a selfish standpoint I suppose.

Yeah that's unfortunate because I really like her. Oh well. I guess I don't know what to say about that movie. I like David Fincher movies, but I really don't like to talk about it with people because it always turns into holier than thou film talk (at least in real life). Movie was entertaining, but after finding out the basic deal with the whole movie, that the guy couldn't keep a friend was pretty much not true in real life, it makes me wonder what the whole point was.

I'm confused, the improvements are stated as this: I also guess I didn't realize this at first, but Ubisoft seems pretty confident they are going to release this in that news bit. Let's hope so, the biggest annoyance I have with Beyond Good and Evil right now is I lost my old save game and I played through it again early last year only to find out the code you have to obtain through the darkroom website for the MDisc in the Akuda Bar was all screwed up. The darkroom website is still there fully but it does not work. It's a small thing, but it bugs me. Among other HD remake rumors, supposedly a Prince of Persia and Rayman Trilogy are in the works. I'm guessing the "Rayman Trilogy" is not going to include Rayman 1 if so, and even then, I'm starting to get annoyed with HD rereleases already. Way too many announced or rumored at this point.

'Cause I have the games I'm interested in already and I prefer boxed copies when available of anything when available. I think it's great they are being provided for those that missed them, some obscure some not. A lot of people were only console gamers for the 90s and it's nice that they can play many games that were critically acclaimed at the time for lack of having a PC during that era. This is not me, I'm not really a target for their business. I've had friends I've offered to let them borrow some old PC game or other, but no one really wants to fuck around with DOSBox or compatibility modes in general, especially those who didn't ever mess with DOS or Windows before the year 2000. You don't have to mess with that stuff through GOG. I think there was also a load of bullshit involving Rachael Ray and a scarf years ago.

Wow, I had watched that Giant Bomb video and I still felt like it was an iffy game or that it was bland. Maybe I'll find out it's good when I play it I suppose. The gameplay could be great it seems, but I'm still so put off by the art direction and characters. Also Thunderpeel, definitely the Hostmaster game is great. It's amazing what punched up writing can do for such a basic and short game.

The art strangely reminds me of a brighter version of Dave Cooper's characters and comics, what with the sausage-like people and all, but that guys stuff most definitely wasn't for kids (maybe kid works exists out there) and has almost always been ridiculously perverted and grotesque from what I've seen. I guess this is good!

Happy birthday to everyone since September 15th. I hope all was enjoyable! (I haven't been systematically clicking threads since about then. Sorry.)

That episode of Roseanne where Dan throws the living room table up in anger and leaves always reminds me of Idlethumbs. Games.

Haha, I can't believe you even played that to the finish. Cabela's is the Wal-Mart of hunting stores. I always imagined Cabela games were like new generation of the Deer Hunter budget titles for PCs in the late 90s that littered stores along with AOL CDs.