Duncan

Sure, but if SiN was getting it via torrent, he probably isn't a collector...?

Oh, I wouldn't either. Is the box really that important, though? I think you'll find it's a pretty good game even without it.

Apparently they do let you, if you get it FedEx-ed. I have no idea why they have to do that, though.

Oh man, I love The Last Express. I have it in that multi-cd fold-out thing, which is worth getting. Well, as much as a multi-cd fold-out thing can be, anyway. It really is worth buying.

I don't really want any of the games either, but... Mrs. White Revolver Billiard Room

Definitely. I think video games have ended up as one of the few media industries which has this outside perception - regardless of how true it is - of being clique-y and unfriendly toward women. (I'd put comic books down as one of those industries, too.) I agree with you regarding the lack of user-friendly marketing, but I don't think that's the primary reason more women aren't getting involved in computers or games; that they get discouraged by the technicalites. To fall back on the Sims 2 again, clearly women are playing that, and that has just as many hardware/software requirements as the next game, though they may not be the most demanding. There's even a separate DVD version out, and the in-game menus have options for textures and resolutions and all that jazz. I think the alienation you were talking about is more prominent with computers, rather than games. A lot of people I know just buy new computers when they need a new computer with no regard to specifications because they don't know about that stuff and as long as the computer works, they don't really want to. That comes back to one of the favourite pro-console arguments; that you can just get a game, you don't even need to install it and it will work absolutely fine. While I should state that I have absolutely no knowledge of any particular statistics regarding this, it seems like that would be a lot more appealing to the female techno-phobe stereotype. I don't know about that. Admittedly, I'm never conducted an exhaustive investigation in this area, but I've never encountered anyone who's so blatantly misogynistic as to express that, however subtly. I mean, I can imagine some men wanting to keep gaming a 'guy's club', but, well, come on, they're just nuts. But if the perception created by those guys is keeping women away, then that really sucks.

I've been trying to think of other semi-mainstream 'girl games' and I'm coming up kind of short. Apart from the Sims, the only other things I can think of are whatever first-person-point-and-click stuff the Adventure Company puts out. Which, as I understand, the 'older women' demographic just go nuts over. Both those types of games are - well, not derided exactly, but... okay, kind of derided by the gamers who aren't playing them. And those gamers are usually predominantly guys. Guys who think that Halo 2 and Half-Life 2 aren't just cooler than the Sims, they're also the better games. (I'm not trying to slam anyone here, I'm probably one of those guys.) And since the industry and gaming press in particular is male-dominated, I think there's this perception that unless women are playing the 'cooler' games they're either 'casual gamers' or resistant to innovation or newer technology.

That reminds me of Carolyn Seymour (Estelle in GK3), who I don't think has ever changed her voice in anything. This is especially noticeable in KoTOR, where she plays like a million different incidental characters, including Bastila's mother, and you can always tell it's her.

(Insert Generic Sexual Innuendo About 'Frustration', Followed By ) Man, I bet that devastated you.

I think the guy's name was Morgan Hunter, which I have remembered for now-forgotten and probably bizarre anyway reasons. Also, Kay Kuter was in Gabriel Knight 2, I'm fairly sure. I remember being pretty bummed out when he died.

Good point.

What was it that we were supposed to challenge anyway?

Man, I gotta tell you, life is great here in the year 2005. I mean positively fucking spectacular! Man! Wow! I wish you guys could see what life is like here in the year 2005. Too bad I guess. P.S.: Even in the year 2005 these smilies will still not have been changed back.

When that happens to me I usually end up going for hairspray or something...

After the first twenty minutes, it really takes off.

Man, that's exactly what I got! Except not Beyond Good and Evil, because I already have that. And actually not Half-Life 2, the first one, which I've never played. So really just Myst IV and Half-Life. Still though: coincidence or what?

Are you even allowed to write a memoir at 18?

Fuck this.

Whoa. (What the hell is that?)

Holy shit is that creepy.

On the other hand, I think it's hilarious.

Looks like you enjoyed the game a lot more than I did, which is good, I guess. My problem with the story was that it wasn't just trying to be dark and edgy, it was trying to be smart and clever, and I think it ended up failing at all those things. Out of curiosity, which plot twists didn't you see coming? I found the entire plot pretty telegraphed, to be honest. The only thing which had me slightly confused was when and I figured out what that was about myself in the time it took me to run around the entire fucking castle three hundred times before the next cutscene. My problem with the 'you bitch!' line wasn't in its content; it was that it was there just to be cool. I mean, you're in this boss battle, halfway through it cuts to a cutscene which consists only of a Prince reaction shot and him yelling "You bitch!". Then you're back to fighting. There was absolutely no point to it other than showing off. On a positive note, though, I thought the pre-rendered cutscenes were very well done. (And this confused me: did you think the Prince's voice sounded different in-game? In the cutscenes he was a lot less snarly.) And I was definitely glad Godsmack weren't that involved.

I was pretty sure the PAL version had some extras. If you played the game a second time you could understand what Yorda was saying or something along those lines? ...Maybe I just made that up.

For the record, I just checked Moosferatu's profile and he is apparently one month older than I am. (Fuck!)

I thought the PAL version of ICO came with a whole lot of extra crap that the NTSC version didn't have...