elusivespoon

Who could that be? Perhaps your memory is hazy because said user is lazy and doesn't post very often.

I think what gaming really needs is a system like movielens. Basically it works by collecting ratings for various movies from its users, and then finds users that correlate together well. From this information it then predicts a rating for each movie a user hasn't rated based on these correlations. So for instance, if you and another user have always agreed on games in the past, and they like the latest game, it predicts that you will like it. Even if you always disagree with a user, it can use this information to assume you will disagree with them in the future. So basically it automates the process of considering the opinions of various reviewers taking into account what you thought of their past opinions, and on a much larger scale. I also like their suggested rating scale: 5=Must See 4=Will Enjoy 3=It's OK 2=Fairly Bad 1=Awful And I think the meaning behind the stars suggests that some shades of gray are needed. 5 stars is reserved for the best of all time. 4 for those that are good, but aren't the best of the best. 3 for those you're indifferent to, and so on. Without the choice between 4 or 5 stars you can't differentiate between the Grim Fandangos, and that fun racing game. (Though movielens can still work if you only use 1 through 3 stars, or even if you think 1 star is good and 5 is awful, as long as you're consistent).

For those of you who are still lost or want to learn solving strategies, here's the Wikipedia entry on Picross, which has a plethora of names. I just recently discovered them looking for an NP-complete problem to apply a genetic algorithm to for a class. The puzzles are a lot of fun with pen and paper, and I imagine would be great on the DS. p.s. The genetic algorithm solver was painfully slow and thus useless, but still got me a good grade.

Thank you. I stole it from the internet myself. Post Count: +2 This thread: A Success!

I'm a little torn over the difficultly of the puzzles. On the one hand, it would be more satisfying if some of the puzzles took more than 5 seconds to solve. On the other hand, I just played The Dig, making me appreciate the strait forward and logical puzzles of S&M Season 1. I'd definitely rather spend my time enjoying the game then pixel hunting, only to discover that you can pick up Jesse James severed hand (I swear they brought it back from the first game just to mock me). In the end, I have to admit Telltale has done well at making the puzzles logical enough that they are solvable, but not so straightforward as to be trivial, as well as not so convoluted as to be frustrating. If you find the puzzles easy, you should consider that it might be because you're just better at solving puzzles. I know one puzzle in Situation: Comedy that required remembering something first seen in Culture Shock probably would have had me pulling my hair out when I was just getting into adventure games, but it only took my about two seconds to realize what the solution was. For business it makes sense to keep the puzzles easy. For those foolish enough to buy each game individually, you really don't want them getting stuck early on in the series, as it will likely keep them from buying future episodes. The one major complaint I have about the game is Sam's voice acting. I'm fine with the voice, and I can accept it as Sam's, but the acting is awful. Every line has the same flat delivery. When the situation calls for concern, excitement, or any emotion, it isn't expressed. I can't understand why as David Nowlin is obviously capable of expressing emotion as he did when he played Fone Bone. I hope his performance improves in MMM.

I've actually been lurking around here for a while. I haven't really posted much though, which I blame on the forums going down for a while almost immediately after reading an article that really resonated with me, inspiring a response with no place to voice it. Though now that I've actually had some time to play games lately, I might actually post something (possibly even of worth). Almost forgot. hi

Pop Will Eat Itself That is all

I found the gameplay to be a little tedious. It's mostly just blowing up stuff to collect studs, which quickly gets painful, and mashing the attack button when in a battle. And then you have to play the level twice if you want to collect everything. Though to be fair I did play through the demo way too many times so I could find everything. The humor is a nice touch, but it's a lot of drudgery for a few visual jokes. Though making the dewbacks poop is pretty great. Only one blue stud? Maybe washing the speeder first did make a difference. Canister locations: For your troubles you get a code that you can't use till you buy the full version.