syntheticgerbil

Well, did you see all that extraneous text in The Longest Journey? Even if I found some of that game charming, I just can't replay it because of the nonstop talking and explaining. It was like the Hall of Records in The Neverhood times 10.

I liked the atmosphere of the trailer and the woman moved nicely, although I hated her stupid THIS GIRL IS TRENDY! type design that Tornquist seems prone to. The monster appearing was pretty neat, and his design was great, but it was ruined with that underwhelming fireball crap and the fake shaky cam. I'm intrigued as well, but I would be moreso intrigued if it weren't being made by Funcom and Tornquist. Maybe the guy's writing and designing ability has drastically improved since The Longest Journey series? (Doubt it though.)

Sure it wasn't this?

I always felt that the use of two Sonic and Knuckles cartridges in that picture was cheating.

Yeah I think there's a lot of boxed copies with missing pieces, thanks for the information guys. I'll wait until I see something on Ebay come up that seems near complete and in good condition.

Way to be a jerk.

I think I have about 70 unbeaten games going across a few systems, old to new. I try hard not to think about it. A lot of them I think can be beaten within a few days, seeing as some are just text adventures I never got around to or different versions of games I already know how to beat like Prince of Persia or Lost Vikings. It's games that I have sitting around that I know are going to take awhile that bother me more, like Mario Sunshine and a few Metal Gear Solid games (Substance and Subsistence).

My parents house (in the US) has two bathrooms, each with an outlet next to the countertop, which both can be turned on and off. But I don't think I've really seen them anywhere else around here, or I don't remember. It's definitely not common, which sort of sucks.

Hahah, they mention Buckazoids from Space Quest. I totally forgot about that.

I'm going to slit my wrists in the bathroom at work tomorrow. GOTCHA!

AND THE COW BOYS OF MOO MESA!!!

I still have an old DS that works fine. I guess I'll probably end up buying a DSi in approximately 3 years. Weirdly enough, the one thing that irks me the most about making a new version of the DSi without the GBA slot is that there is a certain unlockable in Warioware Touched that requires you to plug Warioware Twisted into the GBA slot. Laaaaaaaaaame. This also sort of happened when a few Ubisoft Gameboy Color games required the stupid infrared transmitter to unlock bonus levels. Also the Zelda Oracle series required the infrared to easily get rings, but also had exclusive content found only when played on a Gameboy Advance. So confusing.

So will this version have extra content or any differences compared to the XBLA version?

Yeah definitely drawing a blank on most of those bonus songs, but about 50% of songs on the normal list and about 5% of the bands I don't know of. I actually don't think I know anyone that owned or played Guitar Hero 2 in front of me, so eh. But all that is actual Harmonix era, which gets my respect as a company. A programmer that I worked with and sometimes hung out with moved to Boston to work at Harmonix last year.

This is really what has bothered me more about all of these Rock Band/Guitar Hero/Singstar games more than anything else about them (the rehashed graphics, the constant stream of rereleases and band tie-ins). I'm not into them myself, but if you are over your friend's house, or someone is playing on their lunch break at work, it gets really nauseating to hear the same bullshit major label songs over and over. Especially since working at tons of places before my current job where they have their satellite radio playing the same setlist of songs each day all weirdly set to the time of day, I get really sick to my stomach hearing these watered down rock songs that I subconsciously and consciously know so well at this point. I can sing them all like an asshole when drunk at parties though, so I guess that's a plus, but it's too weak to stop Clear Channel and their daddy 5 corporations (I think it's four now). But of course I realize if there was a rhythm game starring all the obscure bands and music you may have never heard of, no matter how pleasant and listenable its selections were, no one would buy it. Anyways, rant over. I'm looking forward to the Beatles game that has only Beatles songs, because although it means I'll get sick of hearing Hey Jude and She Loves You over and over, there will most definitely be a good balance of non-single tracks and less popular singles that will be more pleasant to hear because they aren't in heavy rotation on all the flashback and satellite stations. I imagine it will be a lot of fun, especially at parties with people like me who have no interest in turning into an expert, but would like to just play some songs because I'm drunk. And I want to play/sing Strawberry Fields Forever.

Not every Sierra game aged that bad, I'm thinking in particular the Leisure Suit Larry series, the first Gabriel Knight, and most Space Quests. I love Lucasarts more of course, but I guess I didn't understand that jab in reference to Freddy Pharkas, which I should note isn't purely an Al Lowe game since a majority of the boring and superfluous dialogue was a trademark of Josh Mandel, the codesigner. There are better games, but I don't think Freddy Pharkas is one of Sierra's more bottom of the barrel games, although they had plenty. Ironically enough I think the King's Quest games are more representative of bad aging and crappy design than anything else in the company. I don't remember who said it, but I agree about Outlaws being pretty outdated when it first appeared, as I played a demo when it first came out. It seemed even then like a cheap Duke Nukem 3D knock off. I was actually really excited for it. And Afterlife, also appearing around the same time. Oh well... And now the Maw and Zeno Clash are added to the list of games I will get around to finishing in 2012. Thanks dudesresfd!

Oh yeah, on the WoW account, if you are contacting a call center, if you just keep asking to speak to someone higher up when someone fails to resolve your problem, even if they are "busy or in a meeting" at that time, you can get your problem solved faster. You have to be vicious with almost any company's call center if you want to get something accomplished. And even then if the supervisor of the call center is unhelpful, you can start mentioning the Better Business Bureau and Rip Off Report.com as a last ditch effort. Usually you become so troublesome they give you your way. Well, except for this: http://imgs.xkcd.com/verizon_billing.mp3

Yeah that was kind of sad to me as well. I understand he's not the most creative or ambitious designer, but he deserves some credit. Maybe lately he's gotten a little bit over his head or too self indulgent, but he has a pretty constant streak of good to above average games. I don't think he can be a hack when there are games that a lot of people unanimously love that he has designed, like (as you said) the first Metal Gear Solid, as well as the NES one which many people loved, even though it may have been a shoddier version of the MSX one (I don't know, never have played the original-original.) Snatcher is the best Sega CD game, not that that's too difficult though, and the Boktai game is pretty novel. I can see how he's bloated, but I guess I always figure a hack is someone who puts out a nearly constant stream of mediocre, yet has enough success or support to keep going, but that's really just a definition I made up in my head. In light of his promotion as well, I think he's becoming a part of that cycle where old game designers move up and become managers and supervisors or disappear. Why the likes of like Jeff Tunnell, Brian Moriarty, and Frédérick Raynal can't come back and do another game hands on is beyond me.

I always thought the Mega Drive 3 was a knock off because I heard there were some games it couldn't play or it could not be hooked up with the 32x.

I'm probably late on this as I tend to do, but it really cheered me up. uRv8gnBMiWM

I took it as him just kidding. I don't seriously think you could make a game on hallucinogens, speaking from high school experience, but it's just sort of funny to think about.

I guess it helps them work overtime? More LSD developers please.

And checking wikipedia, Microsoft point exchange rates vary with every currency except US dollars, which nicely throws another wrench into the system. Although I think not having a constant exchange rate for other currencies probably deters buy unless exchange rates are in their favor, unless Microsoft can save an account of a certain currency for later when it is profitable to convert it to the dollar... and... I get a headache trying to figure out economics, nevermind.

I wish Hot Scoops just signed a brown stain.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/wherethewildthingsare/ Looks kind of good, some of the CG in the face is too smooth, but eh. I really wish they didn't use Arcade Fire in the trailer. God I hate that artwank band. I swear their record company paid off all the major publications for good reviews.