Steve

Staying with someone that has an anger problem is never a good idea. You should leave this guy alone with his video games.

Funny, that, since Maxis/EA released The Sims 2 Body Shop character-making utility some months ahead of the release of The Sims 2... I wonder where Lionhead is drawing inspiration from, eh?

details plz

or doom or quake or quake 2 engine, for that matter

My feeling is that the difference between the Strog and the Hell Demons in Doom vs. Quake is no greater than the difference between the Aliens and the Other Aliens in X-Com vs. Laser Squad Nemesis. Ever since the first Doom, id has been refining the same game in generational iterations.

... if that company is id Software.

Was Psychonauts not AAA? Was it AA or something? What are the distinctions?

I can't understand why these guys would want to keep making the same game over and over for 15 years.

Actually, I don't think so.

freedom more like liberty

LOLZ, their lookin at boobs!!!!!!1111

Just like with any directx installation, it won't install any files you already have updated. Also be sure to restart your computer after installation like it tells you to, if you don't your video performance will be horrible until you do.

I think I played about halfway through the game. I thought the world was shallow and lacked real depth or background-- we've got a world full of half-human half-animal hybrids. A young woman named Jade, seemingly one of the only full-humans to exist on this world, is improbably a photojournalist as well as martial artist. She and a pigman (her "uncle" if I remember?) for some reason run an orphanage for young half-humans who have--for some reason--been orphaned. Aliens have invaded the planet. There is a generic "resistance," all aspects of which are fairly indeterminate. The entire set-up feels completely arbitrary to me, and if I play one game where you have to "JOIN THE REBELLION!!!" I'm going to scream. Then there's the gameplay, which is an exact carbon copy of Ocarina of Time's, down to the "here's what you still need to gather" screen, but with more widget-collecting and a more linear structure. I got to the part where a braindamaged knight in full plate armor (?) working for the Queen (or something?) joined up with me, and I just quit. Then I returned it to EB. I only bring this up because BG&E apparently motivated Peter Jackson to push for Ancel & Co. to handle the King Kong game, and it seems to be a sacred cow around here like Ico, Psychonauts, Out of this World, old Lucasarts adventures, and a number of other "game critics' games." But I hated it. I'm not (only) trying to be contrarian. I'd honestly like to know why you guys love it so much. What am I missing?

The gamesdomain mirror is supposedly really good as well. Played more of the demo. Man, that's the best singeplayer combat I've ever had in an FPS.

I just finished playing through the demo (the 1up.com mirror was really fast for me.) The opening dialogue/exposition stuff was realllly bad and -inducing, but everything within the actual play, including the narrative bits in-level, was excellent. I'll need to play this demo more. The writing has me worried, but I'm definitely still interested in the game. Oh, and my Athlon 2800+/1 gig ram/Radeon 9700XP ran wonderfully with all the effects turned to maximum... once I turned pixel-doubling on, which effectively halves the resolution Luckily, I prioritize effects fidelity over resolution, but the game is definitely graphically demanding. Tentatively,

Rockstar Vancouver, I believe.

It takes a very big person to admit they were wrong. Not that I think you were or weren't. I haven't seen the movie. After Sleepy Hollow and Big Fish, Tim Burton can't trick me into seeing another one of his shitty, shitty movies.

English is a complex and beautiful language, composed entirely of special cases and exceptions to the rules.

I have a feeling this will be less violent/less sensational than Rockstar's other games. I am not seeing Manhunt or GTA happening in a prep school here. Something about a game based on school mischief really appeals to me. I guess there haven't been many games that have mined that territory before. Maybe it's nostalgia for my misspent youth sneaking cigarettes behind the rectory at St. Eustace.

It is now officially "singleplayer" on the Thumb.

I've been really excited about this game ever since I first heard of it.

Achewood = #1

Wow, really jumping to conclusions there, eh? Maybe I wasn't clear enough in my initial post, but I never said I disliked the game because of the anthropomorphic characters or the fantasy world. It was the implementation of them that I found to be lacking. Though I'm no fan of furries, my actual complaint about the setting wasn't the simple presence of animal-people, but the fact that they and the world around them seemed unconsidered and really thin in their arbitrary nature. If a game used anthropomorphic animals as its protagonists but placed them in a world that really had substance and history to it, in a story where the characters were well developed and related to one another in a meaningful way, I'd be all for it. Hell, I played Animal Crossing for a year; clearly I don't have a problem with being the only human in a world populated by talking animals. What I've gotten from this thread is that people enjoyed the game because they liked the characters, fanciful setting, and art direction, all of which was wrapped around an enjoyable, well-worn gameplay model. I on the other hand didn't buy the characters or setting, and just found the gameplay to be derivative. IT'S ALL SO CLEAR TO ME, NOW. Thanks, guys

Damn, Ben, love FPS more!