Nachimir

Yeah. I finished it, but had no qualms about going to walkthroughs to find boss exploits. I even reloaded an earlier save to get the electrically resistant legs for that one boss with the breakers. The later fight around all of the human statues almost made me quit. I couldn't get the exploits to work on him, so ended up trying it over and over, shooting at long range and spending a lot of time running away.

Commerce is horrible, and so often works against good design. I think it was P.T. Barnum who said something like "You don't go fishing with your favourite food on the end of the line, you use a worm", basically meaning: Research your audience and give them what they want. That Reichenstein comment reminds me of clothing design. Many people put loads of effort into making, printing and selling beautiful designs on, for instance, t-shirts, but are massively outsold by so much automated shit, thrown so hard that some of it sticks (Really interesting article at that link). Likewise, people craft amazingly designed ebooks, but apparently* something thrown together from wikipedia pages, poorly typeset and mashed up with some terrible ripped off images can give a much better return just shat out and sold on commission (there seem to be bots on Amazon that do this). People have terrible taste, and often don't make well reasoned decisions when buying. I understand why it doesn't exist for plain reasons of budget, but I really wish there could be a skeuomorphism checkbox in OS settings. Skeuomorphs by default with a switch for the rest of us would keep everyone happy. I didn't realise Apple maps was so terrible. I use Google maps a lot; now the phones aren't catastrophically underspecced it's making me glad I switched to Android. * When researching it, one piece of advice I found was "Doesn't matter if digital products are terrible. They have a high margin, and most people can't be bothered to claim a refund, so you can suck up your refund rate, pay commission to sellers, and still rake in money". I don't think it's quite that simple, in fact that kind of ebook selling seems to be a scammy minefield filled with dead get-rich-quick wankers who tried to con each other, but: :( . I never tried it, because running a business like that would make me want to kill myself. If I do finish the reference book I once started writing, it'll be one of the good ones that doesn't sell amazingly, but I'll sleep at night. Low end ebooks are like the backdrop to a Coen brothers film or something.

Very nice!

My word! I must have spent at least a week of my life playing that when I was a kid, and forgot it until now. In my memory, it is excellent. I hope it's not another of those designs which was good at the time, but now feels hopelessly dated and aggravatingly shit. Pity they didn't make their funding goal, but that seems like a pretty high one for something so niche.

It wasn't anything to do with difficulty for me. I'd gone from amazing set pieces, tactical movement, being hunted by giant creatures, puzzling my way past things, etc. to… fantasy space rocks and shooting a giant spider in it's solitary testicle. It just seemed a bit crap in the context of everything before it, and made me not care about getting to the end.

Probably doesn't mean much outside of the UK, but ten four-hundred and fifty-eight of John Peel's shows have just been posted to soundcloud: http://soundcloud.co.../john-peel-show I didn't really listen to the radio at the time; hearing these makes me wish I had. He was a magnificent man.

One day, sitting in your garden will be exactly like 0:33 in this:

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Not linking where this came from, because for the most part it's badly written, top-ten list link-bait, but I liked this:

Sounds sweet Hermie, glad you made a decision you're happy with

This just in: Apple invites press to Apple press event where press will report on Apple.

These latest eight episodes of Breaking Bad have been excellent. A thing noticed by a friend: There was a lot of purple in the latest episode, which was a nice callback to this: http://24.media.tumb...z4cuyo1_500.jpg Breaking Bad continually strikes me in how beautifully filmed and put together it is.

It is. It's one of my favourite books.

Thanks Nappi, in that case I probably won't bother unless it's on sale for a few pounds or something. Very much this! I just took a spin through my games list on Steam for this thread. There were games I've been meaning to buy but didn't realise I already had, and games I've bought but can't remember buying and have no idea what they are. It would probably take several years of abstaining from new games to play all of the games I've never downloaded.

Half Life 1: I quit because Xen really annoyed me. Not because it was difficult, but because it just seemed a bit crap. Like a 90s dream sequence combined with a shit art party. Far Cry: I'd used up all of my ammo on killing one creature, then thought "maybe you're meant to sneak by them". No, next up, corridor with four creatures in it. Tried playing through those bits for a few hours, still don't know how the fuck anyone was supposed to get past them without cheats. Far Cry 2: I was playing it on PS3, which is apparently a shit port compared to playing on PC or even 360. It was very beautiful, but crossing the map to mission locations was rendered a dreary trudge by constantly respawning enemies. It crossed the line with a specific mission where I found snipers that could shoot from beyond the draw distance. Still tempted to pick up the PC version, because it was very beautiful and I hear it's quite a good game. Krater: Turned from beautiful whimsy to formulaic grind within the first third of the game.

That is one incredible video.

Shaun Tan is excellent, I also recommend Tales From Outer Suburbia.

Thanks Just duct taped it to the front of a bottle rocket at EMF camp: That fall was about two hundred feet, very pleased with how it's holding up

I've stayed there once, about seven years ago. It's passable but, like all hostels, very basic. The "continental breakfast" is a toaster, some loaves of bread, and a pot of jam all placed on a windowsill. You'll need to bring or buy a padlock if you plan to leave anything there too, because you might end up in a room full of bunk beds and strange, quiet, hairy men. Edit: Reading the top two reviews, sounds like it's gone downhill :/

Yes, that's what I meant by cargo cult: they've borrowed the aesthetics and are trying to communicate vulnerability, but it's largely posturing.

I've tried to watch them several times, but my attention keeps slipping away. I'm sure there are dozens of similarly presented documentaries, but it feels like a cargo cult for Indie Game: The Movie.

This has a good ending. The fast travel mode and swimming at 4:15 are pretty good too:

Happy birthday Shammack

Sorry to hear that Kingz I guess there's some disconnect between you and management on this? The freelancers and small web developers I know seem to find their lives and business immeasurably better after firing their shittest clients, and becoming very assertive with the worse ones. I once worked on an Olympics related project, with a client who did a lot of similar things. When challenged on asking the web agency to completely violate branding guidelines of the notoriously litigious LOCOG, they said "Oh don't worry, we've been getting away with it on the print stuff for a year". Also, in a heated discussion of it, pointing at the logo and stating "But that's not a logo". It only improved after me and the agency drew a line for them. Regardless of budget and time, we told them they had to stop behaving the way they were, and while they still sucked as a client, it at least meant the scope didn't change every few days.

Lawmaker who thinks gays a threat to children crashes boat into children