Duncan

It's Marek.

I really don't think Courtney Love actually killed him, it's just easy to blame it on her considering she's a total batshit lunatic anyway. Also: I have that problem saying no to people too. Although I wasn't aware it could progress beyond, like, a social peculiarity to an actual, real problem. There's medication? Seriously?

:tup: Awesome. Oh man, I never did this thread. I'll do it later once I think of something interesting.

Awesome. You will enjoy it.

There's only one 'o' in lose, also.

Well, my computer hits the recommended requirements almost exactly, so that's good I guess.

Yeah, I just downloaded the trial version and xtreamer is pretty cool indeed. I'm still playing around with it but so far it definitely looks to be better than iTunes.

I have an iPod mini which I got for free so I'm not terribly concerned about any lacking features. I'm looking at the Red Chair Anapod thing right now, which actually looks pretty nice. Is there anything actually wrong with iTunes apart from the fact that it can't do that much?

Eighteen people, apparently. http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/advent-rising/506867p2.html

I just read it was twelve people. I do think you're right, though. Even though from what I've read I'm not particularly excited by it, I can't shake the feeling that the other shoe's about to drop.

Awesome! Wow! Actually I've never heard of it. I should go look it up.

That's a good point about the stealth and linearity, I'd actually forgotten about the stealth aspects to be honest. In that respect, yeah, Jak II doesn't prioritise cunning so much as shooting your way through. I was also fairly ambivalent about the first one, the second, I think, is bound to provoke a much stronger reaction, regardless of whether it's positive or not. I actually really liked the hub city for some reason - I'm still not that sure why - but the novelty wears off once you realise there's nothing to do except crash and explode. I don't agree about Jak's angst/bloodlust being justified, though. I mean they justified it fine in that game, but when you look at it and Jak I, it doesn't hold up. It's clear they wanted a 'darker' Jak after finishing the first game, but their way of justifying it was right after Jak I he suddenly gets captured and tortured for two years in, like, the first sixty seconds. And then you're on to shooting things. It's such a hurried and abrupt bridge between the personality-less Jak I and snarling Jak II; there wasn't any effort put into that at all. I hated the voice acting too, since you brought that up. Jak was played by a guy called Mike Erwin, which I bring up because I've seen him in other things and absolutely can't stand him.

Mature and adult, duh.

I was just kidding about them not being good. Sort of. I've only played the first two, and I don't love them, but I think they're okay. Jak II got on my nerves a lot for much the same reasons that Prince of Persia: Warrior Within did: forced edginess, emphasis on violence. Though I didn't like Jak & Daxter nearly as much as Sands of Time, the drastic change in the atmosphere of Jak II was jarring and at times, embarrassing. Though I actually think they pulled the 'dark' stuff off better than Warrior Within, as Naughty Dog had the good sense to (occasionally) make fun of it. But the plot and characters in Jak II I found incredibly annoying. It was quite astonishing that Daxter went from the most annoying character in the first game to the least annoying in the second. Actually, gameplay wise, I think BG&E and Jak II have a lot in common - there's the big gameworld hub for you to freely drive around in, an emphasis on story and characters, vehicles, minigames and a ton of useless shit to collect. While the stuff I just listed is hardly exclusive to those two games, I think they do play very similar.

Huh. I missed that completely. It'd be kind of strange if that was the one thing Nameless Industry Guy used to develop his apparent dislike of Jade.

I agree.

Also: Yes, the last thing anyone wants to see in a video game are questionably dressed, promiscuous women. That idea isn't going anywhere.

How on earth is Jade a slut? I think the game can be pretty easily defined as a platformer, in the same sense that the Jak and Ratchet & Clank games are platformers. Although I guess those aren't really what come to mind when you think platformer. I don't know. BG&E is similar to the Jak series in a lot of ways (except BG&E is good) and those games did pretty well. Argh. Who knows.

I actually don't know why BG&E didn't appeal to more people, because - I guess aside from the pig thing, which I'd never heard before - the game isn't terribly obscure or arthouse or a personal statement. I mean what was there in BG&E that someone would say 'no, that's not for me'? I honestly can't figure it out.

So, okay. Like, a month ago, I preordered Warrior Within - which I would have done under no other circumstances - because there was allegedly some special offer where you get Sands of Time free with preordering. So I go in today - Warrior Within comes out tomorrow here - for some reason I forget and I ask them when I'm getting this 'free game' and then I find out that I was supposed to get it way back when I preordered it. Not only that, but the offer has since expired and they don't have any copies of Sands of Time in stock. So now I'm locked in to Warrior Within, having already paid some of it. Man, what the hell was the point of that? Oh, preorders are bad probably. (Oh, first post: yay.)

I love this answer. This may well be the game that turns me around on my hate for zombies.

...whatever that means. Congratulations!

Yeah I agree with Marek too. I think one of the problems is that mediocre adventure games aren't any worse than mediocre adventure games of old, but without the Sierra/LucasArts or simply any better games to distract from those the adventure game community is forced to pay more attention and are taking what they can get. I really think that if Syberia had been released ten years ago it would be about as well remembered and appreciated as Amerzone is today.

Yeah, I can definitely appreciate that. I mean one of LucasArts' first games was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, so obviously everyone has trouble getting started. I'm not really sure that everyone does expect the same level of early/mid-90's quality, though. Points were made earlier in the thread that games are praised just for being adventure games at all. And some people say that as long as they don't change anything fundamental they're excellent. I really would like to see adventure gamers (uh, the demographic, not necessarily the website) judge a game more on its merits and forget about everything else. Although I suppose there's nothing you can do about that, so I'm just ranting. I think you guys are definitely moving in the right direction, to make myself clear, and you fielding criticism is also great. And living in New Zealand I haven't actually played Moment of Silence (actually, do you know if a release there is happening?) so I can't really personally speak to its quality, but... yeah, I think you guys are definitely moving in the right direction.