miffy495

Max Payne is one of my favorite games ever. They'd better not fuck this up. That is all.

Miffy is also years from being able to afford a bike. Sorry, man. All this school stuff is taking priority.

Yeah, sorry I missed out. Was time to choose classes for the coming year, so I was knee-deep in my Uni's online registration crap until about the same time the games usually end. I'll be about next week for sure.

Ahahahahaha! Well played. As Thunderpeel correctly extrapolated though, I wasn't claiming bad parenting on that one so much as "Stupid fucking decision." For all I know the guy was a fantastic father and just made a bad call. Still, it was a bad call. And not even specifically for the violence. If it were something like Halo 3, which is just as violent, I'd be more comfortable with it. Part of my description of the game to the father though involved the admission that after certain parts of CoD4 I had to take some time to walk away and cope with what had happened. Dying from that nuke is one of the most powerful things a game has ever inflicted on me, and I made sure that the guy knew what his daughter would be in for. I got that game for my 20th birthday, and I still had trouble with some moments. I have a nephew the same age as that kid, and I'll be damned if I show him anything like that before I know he's good and fucking ready. His parents don't play anything at all, so now that he's developing an interest in gaming they rely on me to tell them what's appropriate. CoD4? Not anytime soon.

Hey, truth be told I'd probably rather play it on a console. Games like this feel better for me with a controller. Still, hard to ignore that Steam is selling it for US$30 and HMV/EBGames are selling the 360 and PS3 versions for CAN$70. That's kind of a big discrepancy.

I believe my previously mentioned exposure to Vice City may qualify. The latest GTAs are about on par in terms of mature content. We're talking heyday of the PS2, and about as out there as the system got, with the possible exception of the other two GTAs and Manhunt. Was only a console generation ago. Hell, I still play PS2 games. I consider them very much relevant and modern gaming. As I said though, I also agree that there should be a cutoff point, and that in hindsight I wouldn't have allowed myself to buy that game. Unfortunately for the ratings systems, this is not because of the game's rating but because I keep myself informed on game content. While I wouldn't have been comfortable giving myself Vice City, giving my 13-year-old self a Metal Gear game probably wouldn't have caused me any grief. *double-checks* Yup. Same rating. Your CoD4 thing does hit a nerve. Just Friday a father and two children (the older of which can't have been more than 8 or 9) were asking me which Call of Duty was better. The father asked me this, and I assumed the game was for him, so I told him that 4 was the better game (true) but that I would make sure that the kids didn't watch me playing it were I in his position. I then described some of the more harrowing moments in the game to illustrate its child-unfriendliness. He immediately thanked me, bought the game, and gave it to his young daughter, who told me she mostly liked playing online anyway so the scary story bits wouldn't be so bad. God. Fucking. Dammit.

Hell, long as you keep the quality up we're good. At least you have a sense of shame about the whole thing. That, as well as your not being a robot, mean that I'm far more likely to take it as pride rather than spam when you plug your games. Just got my first week's schedule for the theater. Everything is coming together nicely. Even going to be able to make GTA on the 30th!

Yeah, but 200% the price, so it all evens out.

I may (!!!) end up working on Sunday evenings from July on, so joining up on L4T on a regular basis could happen soon. I certainly hope so, as the two weeks I was involved were fantastic and I want more. Sounds like it just keeps getting better.

Ah! I thought it was more like "...and I may be just buying a tent and retiring to the wild back-country of Spain to live in harmony with nature, free from the technological shackles of modern society blah blah blah wank wank wank." I should've known better. You do love your shackles.

I don't know if it's so much a fidelity thing. While you were 13 playing GTA, I was in a similar boat with Vice City. I picked that one up when I was 14, no adult even in sight. The clerk said "You're not 18, are you?" and then shrugged and rang up the sale. Vice City, I think we can all agree, is much worse than GTA1. I believe I was playing Doom at age 7. I always feel slightly hypocritical when my work makes me ask for ID on M rated games. On the other hand, I do support the system and wouldn't have sold Vice City to me were I in that cashier's shoes back in 2002. I'm that cashier that will most likely be considered boring by most parents because when they're buying a game for their child I'll give them the heads up on what I would consider the most potentially inappropriate stuff. Does feel great when that 1 in every bunch of parents actually seems to care and consider what I'm saying though. Every little bit, right?

That's a good call. I went through an unemployment spell last year that was greatly helped by the fact that a week before losing my job I joined a soccer team. Even that one game a week did wonders to lift my spirits.

Damn, that's rad. Well done sir, I hope it pans out for you.

What's with the not being back? If that's true, it's been rad, sir. GTA wouldn't be the same without you.

Crap, I fucked that up. I meant the bitgenerations one which has absolutely no visuals and you play with headphones. Soundvoyager. Joke = fail.

That's harsh, HT. Mine went a week before Rock Band 2. I don't know how US is, but their Canadian support is ridiculously fast. Was back playing again within 2 weeks of the crap-out. Hoping your situation is resolved as quickly. For the record, I had my original 360 from August 2006 to October 2008 before it went boom.

I was in pretty much the same boat. Around 2000, I was in middle school and learned that that game my friend had lent me in the mid-90's (MI) had sequels, and actually an entire genre of similar games existed! So little 12 year old me played every adventure game I could get my hands on. This meant that while dealing with Monkey Kombat I was simultaneously confused as all hell by Gabriel Knight 2 and stuck about halfway through The Dig. Just seemed like another weird puzzle at the time. I dug out my copy of EMI when Tales was announced as well, and am currently replaying all MIs in order for the first time in 3 years. Exciting!

Audiosurf?

It's not the tenth one. All the EA games are 10s this year, from the 21st anniversary Madden game, to the whateverth any other sports game. I guess this doesn't preclude it from being the tenth Tiger game, and I'm too lazy to actually look it up, but they're all 10s because they're the 2010 edition.

I did so, and was told that I could buy the next two episodes on sale at the $5 rate (which expired yesterday, I believe), buy the last one at regular price, and still be eligible for the DVD later having spent less than US$20. Pretty reasonable advice, I thought, so I did just that. Finished The Last Resort about 3 minutes ago. Not quite as spectacular as Fright of the Bumblebees unfortunately, but still very good. There was only one puzzle I didn't have a clue how to do, but it was essentially the last one before the finale section. Aside from that one, it was a pretty constant stream of being puzzled for a minute, getting a eureka moment, and feeling pleased with myself. The only thing that holds it back from being as good as Fright is that I felt much more constricted in my movements. Even areas which were fully explorable in the previous episode were cut off, and really the whole game took place in about 4 rooms. Hell, one of those rooms was barely used even then. There was even less time spent downtown than in the previous game, and then it was back to the house. For a series of films that's always had very mixed settings, spending two games essentially exploring their house is a little disappointing. Here's hoping the setting gets a little more varied for the next game. I'm guessing I'll find this out soon enough, as I've already got it downloaded. Probably going to be a Sunday night playthrough. Looking forward to it!

I'm not actually sure what that bombcast thing referred to is. Always sometimes never? Anyone have a link?

Well, we play on 360, so it wouldn't really be relevant...

I didn't hate it at the time, but it doesn't really stand out as a positive either. It was just something in the game, and it wasn't really memorable to me for good or bad reasons.

Yeah, I remember that. I heard they were considering it for the next Zelda, but if it comes up early, whatever. It's not like they're forcing me to use it. I'm not really sure about Other M personally. Cautious optimism seems like a good frame of mind for it. I was secretly hoping for more Prime or maybe a new DS one, but this also looks rad.