Noyb

Ending spoilers:

It goes into open beta today, which is awesome except...

Ye Gods, that trailer is awful. I am 75% certain that the plot will more closely follow the myth of Orpheus than anything resembling the actual book. Press X to not faint. :tup:

Same for me. It's polished and makes its point, and the developer seems cool, but I wouldn't call it especially innovative. I guess most of it depends on how much one enjoys the end song, which I found moderately charming. Compare this with 4'33" of Uniqueness by the developer of Crayon Physics. As a game, it's barely interactive, but the concept (which I won't spoil) is fairly interesting. Also, even though TIGSource's Bootleg Demake contest was briefly mentioned in a tangent to a tangent, my ego feels hurt that you didn't mention my entry.

To see how badass Dante is, all you need to do is look at the text itself. For reference, Dante is the first person narrator, the poet Virgil (writer of the Aeneid) is his guide.

All in all it's just a...nother brick in the wall.

Picked it up way back on Amazon's Black Friday sale, but only played through a few single player campaigns while I wrangled some driver issues that caused the game to recoverably freeze every so often. Haven't tried multiplayer yet, but it looks really fun. Funniest AI moment: Herding my teammates into the boathouse you defend in the climax of the second campaign, and watching helplessly as the college girl methodically broke down and climbed in through a heavily barricaded window next to the open door. http://steamcommunity.com/id/realnoyb

PS2 rhythm game Mad Maestro was entirely based on turning how hard you press the button into how loud you conduct an orchestra.

http://weblogs.variety.com/the_cut_scene/2009/02/activision-brutal-legend-is-ours-ea-activision-is-a-jealous-exhusband.html Looks like ignoring and mistreating Double Fine gave Activision the feeling like they were still in negotiations with them over Brutal Legend. Quote of the Moment:

A 1998 episode of This American Life had an interview with the creators about it: http://thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=88

GH:WT is in the Casual category while Rock Band 2 isn't? From what I've seen it isn't very casual gamer friendly. Guitar Hero World Tour: If any one person fails, everyone fails. Rock Band 2: Can save any person twice without penalty. Also has no fail mode.

Did you install ScriptBlock for Firefox recently and forget to whitelist the site?

The weirdest karma value came in the main story quest Tranquility Lane.

http://www.xnplay.co.uk/2009/01/28/rumble-massage/

"Squids are technically not animals." - IGN.com "It's PSP-licking good!" - IGN.com "Would we publish an exclusive review if it didn't blow us away?" - IGN.com "It blew us away to an equal or greater degree than every other game that blew us away within the last few generations." - IGN.com "It will blow you away [provided that the many bugs in this early preview code that I don't feel like reporting are somehow fixed before it goes gold]" - IGN.com

Spelunky. Finally beat it after 185 tries.

Point: Counterpoint: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v175/xstabex/Appreciate.jpg

Eurogamer didn't like the expansion. 2.5 hours on a leisurely playthrough. Focused on action more than story. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/fallout-3-operation-anchorage-review I'm not picking it up. From what I've read, it doesn't seem to tell a good story for the price, which is pretty much the only thing that would get me to buy new content since my level 20 character is so rich and god-like that any additional items would just break the late-game economy and difficulty curve even further.

I think there's an important distinction between the failures of science and science in general. The scientist wanted to use genetic modification to reduce the ants' size, but failed. I don't see this as criticizing science as a whole, just a bog-standard Frankenstein message of scientific responsibility. It's pretty easy to sink into an exaggerated Luddite view when writing about the aftermath of the dangers of science (as in a terrible, terrible scene in The Sarah Connor Chronicles where Oppenheimer turns into a Terminator), but I don't see Fallout going quite that far. I do agree that a few of the characters you mentioned are lazy stereotypes, although I disagree to an extent with the father figure. He didn't abandon the player for pure scientific research, rather to use science in order to better humanity with Project Purity. Science in the form of atomic weaponry is the reason for the post apocalyptic wasteland, but it is also its best hope for salvation. Would you say a fantasy game with a similar plot is anti-New Age beliefs if the father abandoned you to search for a magic crystal? Science and Medicine are two important skills the player can pursue, and both the presence of the Daddy's Boy perk and the father's importance to the main questline imply that scientific research is a valid way to roleplay in addition to dumb brute strength. To be fair, though, Bethesda seems to reuse the mad scientist cliche far too often in the game, which probably speaks more to laziness than any arching theme.

The vita chambers are still there on the pc, but I resorted to compulsive quicksaving anyway to specifically avoid using them because they felt too cheap. Ironically, I avoided an in-game difficulty modifier by using a meta one, breaking the game's flow to do so. Player psychology is a funny thing. Actual question: Anything new from the City of Metronome team? You guys did an E3 preview on them ages back, and I vaguely remember hearing about some funding troubles, but not much since.

I thought it might have been a reference to physicist Richard Feynman, who worked on the Manhattan Project. He was obliquely referenced in the early level called Three Easy Pieces, but other than that I can't remember any especially compelling evidence.

On the topic of silent protagonists, I thought the short IF game Gun Mute did a good job of making the player character's muteness into a character trait as opposed to the blank slate approach. And thanks for the Spelunky recommendation. It's such a difficult game, but the deaths are hilarious enough to keep you going. Keep with it, though, since later worlds have different traps and enemies and reaching them enough times gives you a shortcut to later levels.

Have you ever wanted Randy Neuman to make a generic muzak soundtrack to your life? Have you previously let lack of musical talent or friends with musical talent hold you back from the songwriting that will undoubtedly rescue you from a poor, monotonous lifestyle? You're in luck! Microsoft Songsmith takes in a vocal track and automatically generates a backing track. Key quote: Microsoft, huh? So it's pretty easy to use? Ad: Demo: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/songsmith/ Snark aside, it's a neat idea coupled with a hilariously bad ad and iffy implementation (be kind. I'm no Chris Remo.)

That issue was their "Best Of" issue. And for some reason they created an entire new page to house each article, while still linking the comments to the old article.

I finally got a chance to try out the demo at a store kiosk. It's ace. Looking forward to when the PS3 library and price hits a critical mass for me. :tup: