syntheticgerbil

Yep, that's why I feel confident it'll all look great in the end.

Just going by the concept art and not really reading about the game iteslf, I'd say it looks very plain at the moment, but not every set piece is like this. I'm sure this is all work in progress and it will be pulled off in the end. I do like the thumbnails for the backgrounds.

Actually I would recommend cheating on that game as soon as possible, just because the atmosphere tends to tread a fine line between desolation and boredom. So if you aren't bored, the game is really good. I admit I checked walkthroughs a few times just because I was really engaged and wanted to know what was next or alternatively just view another one of the beautiful backgrounds.

Toblix, if you have any geeky friends, it's possible you still may be able to recover your drive's data. I can't say for sure as I've never been through this (yet!), but I would keep the thing around just in case. I hear there are services in the United States on this technology radio show I listen to locally that charge hundreds of bucks to recover data, but I don't know if they are available to you outside of the US? Maybe there's some services you can afford in your country? Sorry though, that sucks. If anything, you have helped as all to remember to back up again. I guess I'll have to make some copies of my data pretty soon here.

Just finished the Megadrive port of Prince of Persia on a Genesis. I had finished the Genesis one before, but for some reason Europeans got music and four extra levels with their little black cartridge. So I had to load up that Game Genie. I have played so many Prince of Persia ports at this point, I'm just getting confused. The Megadrive one must be the second best next to the super crazy SNES deluxe port. Also I lied earlier, I have still been playing Twin Snakes to completion, since the game really flares up my OCD. I've even taken all of the developer photos with a guide. But today I fucked up replaying Normal difficulty to get the last 3 dog tags I had missed the first go around and completely missed Psycho Mantis' again and then SAVED. Reload the game in the same room, and Psycho Mantis is gone now! Arrrgggghh! I don't even know why I'm so inclined to get these since you don't actually get anything. I guess I get a hard one when status reports say 100%.

The funny thing is, I feel that way about Sonic no matter which way you talk about it.

Xeneth, that's absolutely awesome! I have never heard of that before. I love that obscure self referential stuff! I can't believe they took the time to do that with just the Gamecube menu, which I always found sort of eerie.

I would seek out anything by Taiyo Matsumoto if you can.

There was a lot of comments about this on Cartoon Brew recently and man does it sound terrible. It'll probably end up much like the live action Underdog or Rocky and Bullwinkle. I'm not sure why there is a market for this shit.

:tup: Ahahaha, I wish someone would vectorize it like the Fight Club plane diagrams now!

Oh I hope not, because that always comes in to disrupt everything. I wouldn't mind using the same console for 15 years at this point.

Yeah, like I said earlier, I got that too. He seemed to get confused with what he was trying to say. His examples didn't really help the point that he seemed pretty much upset with people's reactions.

You see, just like Orson Welles was the first person ever to use a camera to tell a story, David Cage is the first person ever to use a video game to tell a story. It all makes sense now.

I think you are talking about Laura Bow. I used to have the second game and had a big crush on her. The death scenes were too scary though.

Why is this in Idle Banter? Flood the episode forums with that shit!

Yikes, I forgot about this thread. Yes, that's me alright, but I never really made it over to the Monkey Island Scumm Bar forums. I apologize if I was ever ridiculously rude to you over at the Sam and Max boards, since I apparently grew up on there and it wasn't very pretty. I remember only using the Mojo boards to ask obscure questions about Loom or other adventure versions, but did not really start checking it regularly until the last couple years or so. But I figured they were always more for general LucasArts adventure game questions and by extension what some of the original adventure designers there went on to do, not really Monkey Island specific.

Hahaha, I love when he can't stop laughing during his bit.

Hah, well, actually I found the gunfights the most tedious part about the first one, not the platforming. Not hard or anything, just way too long.The second one's gunfights all have much more variety of location and don't last too long where you are just waiting for enemies to come out of a spawn spot until the music stops being dramatic. I suppose if I really think about it, the second game's platforming elements seem to suffer from less fall off or bad jumps, whereas in the first one I knew what to do most of the time and then I would not press a button long enough or what just slightly off on my direction and would fall to my death. Uncharted 2's checkpoints during platformer seem much more liberal as well. It also helps that they make a lot of the bricks you have to climb up or grab onto red a lot. Couldn't find where I was supposed to go a lot before.

The way I see it, the article seems to have more of a problem with people who proclaim genius or support a game they think is great by playing the "innovation" card rather than looking at how often innovation itself is deployed in games. I think the writer got those mixed up and didn't take the time to separate a fanboy's idea of innovation compared to actual new mechanics being made. As many others have said already, when a new mechanic is introduced, it often won't be that great or make a very cohesive game. The innovative game usually leads to something better making use of the same mechanics introduced later. Two major games coming to mind are Karateka leading to Prince of Persia and Alone in the Dark leading to Little Big Adventure. I would say the former of each of those are both very troublesome games in terms of design and execution, but the games springing from lessons learned are great. So while I can see where some people want to give games a certain a free pass because of their innovation, I think it ignores the actual quality of the game at hand. Some games aren't that innovative at all, but get perceived that way for being repackaged to an audience who has never encountered it. I actually think unless major technology is being overhauled or made more efficient, I don't think innovation as concept of successful game design created with new methods can be measured until years later when we can witness what kind of impact the original innovative game has had. I mean let's say I make an awful game with a lot of new elements (bear with me, because I would have no clue which ones) that don't mesh together and ultimately don't create a game anyone in their right mind would want to play. Should I get a free pass for trying new things? Chances are, no one is going to take my newly introduced gameplay elements and repurpose them for their game anytime soon. So I think just because a game is doing something new, doesn't necessarily make it innovative. I believe a large factor of counting something as innovative comes with time and reflection. Also I don't understand why the writer brings story into his article in terms of discussing innovation. It seems to miss the point since stories can exist without games, and just about all of the stories that have appeared in games are simply nothing new. I can't think of any game that's innovative because of it's story. Those unfamiliar with the adventure genre are probably the loudest ones about Heavy Rain offering a "mature" story that gamers have been desiring for years, but in reality a lot of ground its treading in terms of tone, story, setting, and atmosphere have all been done before in adventures. Even the mature elements. Granted, I don't know of many adventure games with long extended shower scenes where the plot doesn't move and you have to use the controls to dry off, but psychological detective stories with killers and supernatural elements still seem to be in at least three or so adventures a year (Truthfully I haven't played any of these since Gabriel Knight or Tex Murphy, some of my favorites, since I'm disenchanted with the design and hackneyed writing of new adventures, so I don't know exactly which games to cite.) Even Grim Fandango, which has maybe my all time favorite story in video games, is not something I would call innovative. I think it's original in it's combination of many different story elements and influence, but not innovative to the point where some new story structure or genre was introduced. It was simply a game made well by a design team that had learned a lot but weren't trying anything new, but were trying to be as polished as possible. Nothing wrong with that at all, because I think those lead to the best games. That's what I think Uncharted 2 did, as elmuerte said. So I think the writer of the article is just kind of confused what he's upset about. He seems more upset with the snobby and arrogant attitude of game players and their tactics of being defensive and lashing out at people who don't like their favorite game rather than looking into what makes innovation and why people are wrong for thinking game x is innovative and game y is not. The discussion of what makes innovation in games is a long one and one I don't think that can be summed up in such a short article and should not take popularity into account but time and trends instead.

Haha, I also should mention my dad convinced me to read the first Narnia book so I could tell him the answer to one of the trivia questions needed to cross the water in the first Hugo games.

I'm not sure if this is what you were asking about, but I'll blabber anyway. When I was 14, I made a 3 page comic I penciled and inked all by myself for a contest to get my name in the credits for Simon 3D. It even featured a Feeble Files reference. They wrote me back this really nice letter I wish I still had telling me how good I draw for my age.and how great the facial expression were that I created and that I should apply to Headfirst when I grow up. It was sweet and maybe it had something to do with my career path now, but Headfirst is no more either way. I ended up winning along with some other people who did other various things (it was a contest to show you were a Simon "nutter"). So eventually the game ended up being delayed and was released 3 years after that, universally hated and ugly as all hell. It was mildly disappointing I suppose, but I was a dirty teenager and was spending most of my time doing things I shouldn't so I had no time for games. I did take the time to play Simon 3D and enjoyed it even though all of the reasons I shouldn't are obvious. Anyways, because of that game I have a credit on Mobygames. I feel famous: http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,86175/ Maybe I can add to it one day...

Finished Uncharted 2 last weekend after getting all the shit in the first game and if I were to estimate in numbers how much more I liked it, I would say it was three to four times better. What a great game! It felt like all the annoyances and tedium from the first one were taken out nearly completely. It feels like a lot of options were given on how to handle gun battles now that weren't there before even though the core mechanics seem essentially the same. Maybe it's the new guns and battlefield layouts as well as how the enemies react now? In the first one, it was pretty much just hide, shoot, and hope a bunch of enemies don't rush all at once to your hiding spot on the hardest modes. I'll see if that carries over when I beat Uncharted 2 on crushing. I also can't believe how many environments and objects were created for just one game. In more boring news, I finished Earthworm Jim for cell phones last week as well. It was shit and it was missing nearly half of all of the levels from the original version. Maybe Gameloft deserves something for the porting effort? I have no idea. I didn't enjoy it though. I am waiting for the HD version though that will hopefully come to the PSN store. It's 6 months past its supposed release date now.

I finished and played through all three of those games without a walkthrough (no internet!) along with my dad and his coworkers' help long ago and I remember hating almost every moment of it. I think I said this before and made you sad. I remember the second game being especially painful in figuring out what to do. Especially the part where you go into a phone booth and are ported into some underground lab with a killer robot. And that maze! Yikes! I do remember liking the Halloween atmosphere of the first game though. That dog scared the hell out of me.

Hahaha, are all of those zeros on the wall supposed to be people's scrawled phone numbers?