Noyb

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Posts posted by Noyb

  2. Posted

    Metro 2033 (PC): A lot of the game follows from the book however at a certain point the game diverges completely from the book, a lot of themes and events were changed, which may have made the game play better but I’m not entirely happy with them.

    :tup:

    I haven't read the book, so this might not even be relevant, but just because it might not be clear after finishing the game (and actually this is one of the reasons why I really like the game):

    There's a morality system that the game never explicitly tells you about. If the sum total of these silently judged choices is above a certain threshold, you're allowed (but not required) to make a different choice (which also isn't completely telegraphed as a choice either) at the end which determines which of two endings you see

    .

  3. Posted · Edited by Noyb

    "I can get over the ones that are just dumb, like

    a

    trio

    of

    anthropomorphic

    ice cream

    dishes

    , but many of these Pokemon are downright hideous. I love Oshawott, the water starter. I think he's adorable. But then he turns into

    Samurott

    , who looks like

    what

    hatches

    from

    a

    Poké

    egg

    after

    someone

    leaves

    a

    narwhal

    and

    a

    drunk bear

    at

    the

    Day

    Care

    Center

    .

    Garbodor

    conveys the image of

    a

    child's

    art

    project

    made

    only

    with

    melted ice cream sandwiches

    and

    his

    father's

    cigarette butts." -- IGN.com

    (Image in case it changes Sunday: http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/2116/ign2.png)

    So apparently Nintendo allowed IGN to publish a review of the new Pokémon game before the release date, so long as they didn't publish any details about most of the new creatures, plot details, locations, etc. In his own admirable-yet-stupid way, the IGN reviewer wrote his review without consideration of these restrictions, then uploaded it with all the embargo details self-censored, leading to the utterly ridiculous quote above.

    Edit: updated the spoiler tags with the actual words.

  4. Posted

    Where's the twist? Where's the character? This trailer makes it feel really generic. ;(

    I really hope the reason that the characters are all exposed to a hilarious degree when riding the mechs is that it's necessary to humanize them for the storyline.

    It's hard for me to see this as anything more than an attempt to capitalize on the Xbox hardcore crowd, but that market seems way too crowded for this to make much of a dent? :erm:

    Army guys? Where'd they get the idea to use army guys? Are they taking drugs?

    :tup:

  12. Posted

    Activision still owns Sierra and hence the King's Quest license, right?

    Haven't bought an Activision game since Modern Warfare 2 (which was in a moment of weakness). The company has only gotten worse since then. Activision is presumably getting money from this license, so this is one Telltale game I will not be buying.

  16. Posted · Edited by Noyb

    Oh man, Lieberman cited Craig A. Anderson? Dude once argued that video games increased a person's "aggression" on the same order of magnitude as gang membership.

    The paper specifically cited by Lieberman measured aggression "using noise blasts, electric shocks, or hot sauce given to an ostensible partner (in the last case, the partner is known to hate spicy food.)" Doesn't quite seem applicable to the conclusions they give to the tabloid media that violent games lead to real-world violence...

    Edit: I'm not sure if Walker's really doing the right thing by relying so heavily on the it-doesn't-mention-video games-so-it's-not-relevant tactic. Paradoxically, a lot of these anti-Video game violence pundits rest their claim in part on the notion that games can have an impact on people just like other mediums. I guess he's just speaking to what he knows, but it's a far stronger argument to show how a paper linking film deceptions of violence to real world violence is bogus than to gloss over it entirely. Hell, some of these are old enough that the rebuttals are probably already out there.

  17. Posted

    I haven't installed any new apps in a while because I am not a trusting person by nature and the permissions tend to scare the living hell out of me. It really feels like we're moving toward an age where developers and companies not only screw us out of privacy, but do so while telling us exactly what they're doing. :violin:

    Simon Tatham's Puzzles:

    read sensitive log data

    Allows an application to read from the system's various log files. This allows it to discover general information about what you are doing with the device, potentially including personal or private information.

    Alchemy:

    read phone state and identity

    Allows the application to access the phone features of the device. An application with this permission can determine the phone number and serial number of this phone, whether a call is active, the number that call is connected to and the like.

    Edit: Apparently log data is used for debugging, but the app doesn't have internet access, so what's the point? Vestigial permission? The Alchemy permissions seem more disturbing, since it has access to your number (and anyone's number who calls you while the app is active), and the internet access to transfer it anywhere.

  18. Posted

    There's another layer of context in play.

    Edge Magazine asked David Jaffe about the new PSP. He responded:

    New hardware is like new pussy. It's exciting at first but after you've experienced enough fresh vagina over the years - while there's still always a bit of excitement when something new comes along - you learn that sooner than later, the new and exciting becomes the standard and dependable and so it's best to just stay focused and [grateful] on what you've got at the moment and if you need to make a change, it'll just happen organically. :innocent:

    Jim Sterling blogged about it on Destructoid, and publicly defended this statement (about 3/4 down the page):

    I don't think what David Jaffe said was sexist. Crass, sure, but if Dtoid is going to start attacking crass comments, I'll have to get out the hypocrite alarm.

    It's not like he said "Women are shit and only good for fucking." He said he likes pussy. I'm willing to bet the majority of the commenters in this thread do as well. Call me naive, but I don't see anything particularly harmful in stating that.

    If anything, he basically said the constant desire for more sex with different women is unsatisfying and worthless. I think that's quite a positive message, wrapped up in a harmlessly vulgar way.

    Daphny took offense to the attitudes of both men that this was both an appropriate thing to say as a game designer and an appropriate thing to support as a games journalist, briefly inspiring her to create the aforementioned two-tweet-mini-slash-fic which inspired the crudely drawn pr0n. She then aggressively drew attention to herself by @ing both men with a link to the lewd drawing.

    She felt that the "pussy" comment and Sterling's defense were misogynistic attacks on her gender, one of many committed by the games industry and press. Sterling felt that the drawing was a personal attack.

    I'm not trying to say that this context necessarily provided adequate justification for Daphny's response. I'm just saying that this story didn't start with Daphny's writing.

    You can't go to a comedy show with an offensive comedian and laugh at most of his and then get offended and ask for him to get fired when one of his jokes hits home...

    Where have they ever said or implied that they approved of his earlier offensive remarks?

    It get's worse.... they've created a joke twitter account of JOM STROLING making misogynistic comments... does that sound like something reasonable people do?

    Idle Thumbs did this with IGN! :D

    (Not limited to misogyny or one author, but still!)

    The worst part? ANNA ANTHROPY WON'T LISTEN! Unless you tell "her" Jim deserves to die like the pig he is, she'll treat you as badly as Jim, no matter how calmly and logical you try to be...

    Why is "her" in quotes? You can disagree with her views, but are you questioning her chosen gender identity as a rhetorical strategy? Not cool. :shifty:

  19. Posted

    It's been so long since I've played it that I totally forgot you can't save after every level on NSMB. :getmecoat

    Mario 64 felt like the average star time shouldn't be more than a half an hour, although this is coming from someone who has played the original before.

  20. Posted

    I can't think of any DS that could be played in "short" bursts...

    Just on my shelf...

    Manageable puzzles + quicksave: Picross, Picross 3D

    Manageable puzzles + save between puzzles: Professor Layton series

    Manageable levels + save between levels: Rhythm Heaven, Mario 64, New Super Mario Bros., Elite Beat Agents

    Quicksave anywhere, tangible subgoals in larger context: Phoenix Wright

    Manageable battles + quicksave in battle: Final Fantasy Tactics A2

  24. Posted

    I enjoyed reading Garfield Minus Garfield for a while, and I think it's absolutely amazing that Jim Davis not only let the authors continue, but actually put out a legit book of them. However, the novelty lessened a lot over time, the edited comics got stale after telling the same jokes ad nauseum, and now it appears that they just keep getting made in order to sell books. There's a special irony in that.

  25. Posted

    Sounds like Bethesda are making good improvements, but that preview totally read like a glowing, hype-filled press piece.

    I am surprised that the "Buy Now from GameStop" link isn't larger. Conflict of interest much?

    I was going to say something snarky about how the article randomly ended, but I see now that their site doesn't even allow me to see that a second page even exists until I allow javascript on their site...