miffy495

Goddamn man, that's brutal. On the plus side, like you say, you're 20. You've got a lot of time to pull shit together. If you were most of the way through a degree, you can go back and wrap it up in a year or two. I'm not sure how things worked at (I believe?) Waterloo, but where I'm at you can leave your program for a couple of years and come back without it hurting your progress. Here's hoping you can pull that off. Along with everybody else, I think that the fact that you see what could happen to you otherwise is hopeful and a good motivator for keeping that shit from happening. If you're not too dependent financially, ignoring mum and dad and just finishing your courses and moving on may be the way to go. I don't know your situation of course, but if you think obeying them would significantly harm your future, it may be best to disobey them and hope that they'll come around when things work out better for you. Whatever you choose to do man, good luck.

Been re-listening to old casts while holed up in the projection booth at work. This time around, I noticed Nick's request for a game that was made in black and white as a stylistic choice, and I remembered a UT2003 mod I played a while back that I thought was really interesting. Just dug it up. It's called Hollow Moon. All of it was done in greyscale and it had no sound effects, as there's no atmosphere to carry the sound. On of the more interesting hours I spent with a game that year. A sample:

I played a lot of Forza 2, and Forza 1 came free with my xbox when I bought it. Actually, it was the first time I played online with any of the Thumbs (had a series of races one afternoon with Wrestlevania). Really great games, and I'm not a person who plays many racing games. Far from an enthusiast, at any rate. I still found Forza to have just the right level of accessibility and depth for a player of my capabilities. I think Forza 2 is pretty cheap right now. If you find yourself with a copy, I'd be happy to have a few races with you. If you hold out for 3, I'll probably be getting that as well, so let's call this an official challenge. May even have to make it a weekly race.

I actually agree that it looks kind of generic. It looks like it took all the collecting and sprawling map stuff from Metroid or Castlevania but completely forgot to grab the atmosphere on the way out the door. Definitely a demo before buy situation for me.

Yeah, that SMB sequence was sweet. Unofrtunately, internet meme-dom ruined Portal's ending for me. I played through the first 8 or 9 stages, then my computer died and I had to wait a month before I got a new one and could go back to it. By that time I'd heard so much about it there was very little impact for me.

No love for the godawful spectacle that is the ? I laughed my ass off all the way through that thing. Not good, by any means, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it and remember it vividly.

Really? I see them fine.

Just gonna say, yesterday I went out to buy parts so that my computer would output a sound that isn't static. While at the shop, I remembered I need to replace my mouse sooner or later, as it's starting to get kinda crap. Swear to god, I spent about 10 minutes considering whether or not I should buy a cyborg.

- IGN.com (lol rite?)

I was hardcore PC/Nintendo for the longest time. I had my N64, GCN, ect for games that I felt benefited from analog controls, and my PC for things which benefited from the mouse accuracy. Then I got a PS2, 360, and finally PS3 and I started feeling more and more that consoles were the way to go. Unless I'm playing an RTS now, I prefer to do my gaming on a console. That's not to say my PC doesn't get a work out, but there's been this distinction drawn in my mind. I think it has a good amount to do with life making me do more work on a computer. When I sit down at my computer chair, my brain prepares itself to do one of two things. Either I'll idly browse a bunch of websites, or I'll be writing a long-ass paper for school. Most of the time the latter. Basically, when I'm at a PC, my brain enters work mode. Despite having Steam and a tonne of good games to play on it (god I love Steam) it's pretty damn far from my mind when I get in front of my computer. Conversely, consoles are for nothing but play. Back in high school when my workload was far less, I played PC games far more. I didn't have the "computers are for work" mindset back then, I guess.

Man, I've been meaning to replay the old episodes for forever. I need to do that over the next few weeks. Haven't touched them since they were brand new.

I beat Mario and Luigi, but only after a whole bunch of tries and accompanied swearing.

I'm sorry, it was Rodi. My bad.

OK, so I just finished Act 1 after working on getting my sound back up and running, and I have to say it's not as bad as I thought. It's not fantastic, but the voice acting almost makes me forgive some of the design choices. It's great to have Armato playing Guybrush, and Boen's LeChuck is fantastic. That was the one sore point about ToMI for me, so having LeChuck's voice being what I remember it is great. On the other hand, some voices (the Men of Low Moral Fibre, for example) are just godawful. Elaine's, while not terrible, just seems a bit wrong too. I know it's the same woman who played her very well in CoMI and ToMI, but for whatever reason she seems out of place in this one. And I never really pictured Rob Paulsen as Bob, but whatever. He does an Ok job. I can't believe how hit-and-miss every aspect of this game is. The voices I already explained, but the graphics are the same way. There are some great details, like seeing Manny Calavera's head in the skull/smoke in front of LeChuck's ship, but then there's the fact that when Guybrush is addressing the camera it looks like an idle animation from Donkey Kong Country. Anyway, I'm definitely going to see it all the way through, if only to experience it, but the quality really is all over the place.

Damn, I was totally going to join in today until my computer's sound went all KSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! on me. Instead I had to go out this afternoon and get some parts. Sigh. I was so psyched to finally be able to play again too...

I'm pretty sure everyone who learned that lost a part of their childhood. You can't unsee it now. Damn you for pointing that out to me, Toblix!

True, but assuming it would play better on a PC is equally bullshit. That's what I was going for.

Yeah, I noticed that came out this week. I liked the single quite a bit, but it wasn't the first thing I wanted to buy at work. Jack White is almost always win though.

A genre that started and flourished on consoles is wasted on consoles? I can understand your kind of statement with an RTS or maybe even an FPS, but a Metroid-vania game? Has any Metroid or Castlevania even appeared on PC before?

Well, I got all the way to Mancomb before my sound card crapped out on me. My computer now puts out exactly 0 audio, so I need to get that taken care of before I try anything at all that needs sound, including this game. All I can say so far is that I kind of like the voice acting, but my GOD the animation is bad. When Guybrush is walking down the stairs to town after talking to the old man, it looks like somebody just used their mouse to drag a still image overlay of him across a painted background. Why in the name of all that is holy can't we play the game with old graphics and new sound? I pretty much only bought this so I could hear the voice actor's work, and I don't think there's any way I'll be happy playing this game in the new mode after seeing only 5 or so minutes of it.

I started gaming back in the day with the Hugo's House of Horror series, and then got a SNES and played pretty much only platformers until I was 9, (about 1997) when a friend let me borrow his brother's copy of MI1&2. I thought they were pretty much unique until I was in my early teens, when I went back and played every LA adventure I could get my hands on. As a result, all of my adventure experiences happened right after the turn of the century and still felt really fresh and brilliant to me. Up to that point, I'd moved on to playing a crapton of shooters with high-end graphics, and still thought that Adventure games had aged far better than anything else. It's pretty much the only truly timeless kind of game as far as I can tell. Pointing and clicking does not age, and as the gameplay was so simple, they could do far more with the graphics than anything else at the time. I've played everything Telltale has done up to now, and I'm still a long way from getting sick of the genre. It's a 3-ish hour a month habit that I fit in between more adrenaline-focused games. I find it a remarkably rewarding experience every time.

Damn, as said in another thread, this game is in my muscle memory now. I just bought it, and was looking forward to a playthrough over the next couple of weeks. Whenever I have time, I guess I'll post my thoughts too. Don't know if I'll be able to top Thunderpeel though.

Actually I remember a lot of games starting to do this around 2001 (Max Payne was the first I noticed it in) as it was something that was cropping up a lot in XP. Honestly, I don't get all the knee-jerk Vista hate. It's not really that bad. Once I turned off the UAC settings, I've had a perfectly fine experience with no problems at all since getting it two years ago.

Yeah. Medical shots should be kept private by the doctor. Though now that we can see it, I may as well speak up about my concerns. Jake, man, that lens flare on your puppeteer's pants can't be good for you. You may want to get that looked at.

Yeah there is. I count that one as an obvious joke though. Actually, two years ago Midnight Fight Club at the theater I now work at was the first date I had with my girlfriend. Midnight Film Fest is always an awesome time.