Noyb

Phaedrus' Street Crew
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Posts posted by Noyb

  3. Posted

    NPR is even getting in on the game. Listen here, around the 3:30 mark.

    The question is

    incorrect, but the titles are mostly hilarious, especially for a mainstream radio show.

    Don Quixote Kong

    A Hundred Years of Solitaire

    The Pac-Man and the Sea

    War and Peace (but mostly war)

    Super Karamazov Brothers

    A Tale of Sim-Cities

    Grand Theft Odyssey

    Pride and Extreme Prejudice

    Love in the Time of Tetris

  4. Posted

    EA Presents: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Knights of the Old Republic

    EA Presents: Maus: My Father Bleeds Fury

    EA Presents: The Colour of Magikarp

    EA Presents: 20,000 Lugers Under the Sea

    EA Presents: Phillip K. Dick's Martian TimeSplitters

    EA Presents: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Badass

    EA Presents: Titus Andronicuster's Revenge

    EA Presents: Tony Hawk's Pro Kite-Running

    EA Presents: Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Vs. Marvel Vs. Capcom

  6. Posted

    :tmeh::tmeh:

    What Noyb said above made me appreciate the control scheme a little more, but I am still ambivalent about it. I would be cool with do-nothing-in-the-vicinity-of-something-to-make-the-girl-do-her-thing mechanic, if only the walking and running and looking around did not feel so broken. If only there was a more conventional mouse look, I would be fine.

    Been mulling over the movement controls since I went back to finish the game last week.

    The walk speed is so laboriously slow that you're tempted to run. However, running has quite a few side effects. The camera rises and tilts down, giving a feeling like you're being chased and making it harder to see where you're going. The screen slowly dims, which also makes it harder to see. The flowers which can be used to mark places you haven't been (if you compulsively collect them) fade away. Your character occasionally veers in a slightly different direction. The overall effect is to get an impatient player even more lost in the woods. The game wants you to walk, punishes you for running, but always gives you the choice (at least outside of the wolves' lairs). Interesting effect, though it did get annoying on subsequent playthroughs when the novelty wore off and I just wanted to experience the story.

    Pretty sure the sense of claustrophobia and weakness would be hurt if you had free mouselook, too.

  7. Posted

    "If you're looking at this review in a few years when the game is cheap, add a point or two to the score." -- IGN.com

    "If you're looking at this review in a few years when its next-gen realistic graphics look like shit, subtract a point or two from the score." -- IGN.com

    "The online stat-tracking provided the perfect alibi in court. Thanks, Sony!" -- IGN.com

    "I was able to spell 'orgasm' and 'poop.' 'Pussy,' though, was not accepted." -- IGN.com

    "If the balls get in the mouth, it's game over -- kind of like a game of Twister." -- IGN.com

  8. Posted

    Even the independent gaming sites aren't free from this:

    Example 1:

    http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2010/01/review_vvvvvv_terry_cavanagh.html

    This review is clearly full of inaccuracies that the author subconsciously knows as lies.

    [...]

    Deep down, you know that you don't like this game. Find the courage to stop mincing words and admit it.

    from a commenter who wrote several essays in the comments section of a review trying to comprehend why people have different opinions.

    Example 2:

    http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4213/pondering_indie_spirit_derek_yu_.php#comment37470

    Miyamoto never had to work for press like this.

    from an indie developer bemoaning his obscurity by having a public meltdown in the comments thread of an unrelated interview.

  10. Posted

    Played through the series last week. The first game was a solid adventure game (apart from some alternately whiny and monotone voice acting from the main character who is thankfully recast for the other two), but I loved Unbound and Convergence. The plot in Convergence follows directly from Unbound, so you might want to play that one first. The puzzles were usually logical and never frustrating, mostly centered around detective work, with minimal inventory fussing.

    Some of the podcast's observations about The Shivah also apply. The Blackwell series carries the same emphasis on conversations and detective work over inventory puzzles, as well as a neat dialogue system where you choose your motivation or mood instead of selecting a specific line of dialogue. Apart from a few eyebrow-raise-worthy rabbinical action scenes, I recommend checking it out, too, if you have the chance.

    There are demos for the Blackwell games if you're still not sure. Oh, and if you order by the end of the month, you can use the coupon code "HOLIDAY" to take off 50% of individual games. Brings Unbound to $7.50 alone and the series to $17.50 for all three games. (You'll have to add in each game separately since it doesn't apply to the bundle.)

  13. Posted

    Been playing Donkey Kong for the original Game Boy. It turns the original arcade game into a 100 level puzzle platformer, which holds up damn well to today's standards.

    I absolutely love Mario's control and animations in this game. They actually made fall damage interesting by giving it multiple levels of damage. Fall a short distance, and Mario is unaffected. A slightly larger distance, and Mario rolls horizontally a bit to recover. Even further, and Mario is stunned for a brief instant, his legs twitching in pain. Too far, and Mario dies outright. Even though Mario is much harder to kill than in the original Donkey Kong, these animations retain that feeling of fragility. The various jumping schemes still felt fresh. In addition to the standard jump, Mario can backflip (jump while changing directions while running to jump higher) or do handplants (jump while ducking to flip onto your hands, which also lets you block projectiles with your feet. Jump again, and the handspring will take you higher). What's awesome is that many of the intricate moves and behaviors are demonstrated nonverbally between sets of four levels, in a brief Pac Man-esque cutscene.

    There's a great overarching puzzle design where each level has a "simple" solution that just involves you bringing a key to the exit, and a "challenging" solution where you can solve extra puzzles to collect three items for a chance at extra lives. The puzzles themselves range from simple Mario action levels, to using pickups in the level to place platforms and ladders to navigate around, to using enemy behaviors. One great puzzle involved opening and closing solid doors in order to funnel around harmless critters that walk around platforms (like those early enemies in Metroid 1) to use them as moving platforms in order to reach a high exit.

    The only annoying part about the game is that death takes you back to the level select screen, and replaying the level involves watching Donkey Kong leave through the exit, and Mario enter through the entrance. It's great design to communicate where these elements are on the first play, but tedious to sit through after each death.

  14. Posted

    :buyme:Captain Forever

    By: Farbs

    Available: Free flash demo, $20 "subscription" to buy the sequel and future updates.

    Synopsis: A sector-wide explosion has left your ship puny and crippled. Strategically destroy surviving ships to steal their girders, guns, and thrusters. Put their surviving modules on your ship in real time to make your ship larger and more powerful. Watch your module placement, for unbalanced ships fly hilariously in circles. By the guy who did the brilliant retro mashup game ROM CHECK FAIL.

  15. Posted

    Whoa. Neat art style. Vaguely reminiscent of that Q-Block flash art app that was floating around a little while ago.

    Except maybe Fez two years ago? (admittedly not released yet and in some kind of limbo)

    Fez isn't in limbo. Polytron is updating their site semi-regularly, and it seems on track for a 2010 XBLA release.

    (Hell, even Limbo isn't in limbo if the IGF entry list is to be believed. )

  19. Posted

    Ugh, I hate multiplayer DLC that isn't free.

    This isn't anywhere near as heinous as Capcom charging for the RE5 multiplayer or Bungie requiring its players to spend $30 on maps or $60 on ODST to continue playing ranked slayer matches. Unranked matches remained free and rankings were pretty broken anyway, but come on...

    ...

    I'll probably buy it anyway just to support Double Fine. :gershman:

  20. Posted

    "Graphic adventures rely heavily on their graphics." -- IGN.com

    "This is me just being a bastard, but I have to at least try to be objective." -- IGN.com

    "The graphics in this game look like poo. [...] And the music. It reminds me of a strip club that I use to go to - but it's closed down now. It just sounds bad." -- IGN.com

    "[it's] fine, except when giant spider-bitches constantly block your path. Arrgggg!" -- IGN.com

    Huh. Apparently there was a time when IGN had even lower standards. Reread some of their PS1 reviews. There are probably a lot more gems to find.

  21. Posted

    There's plenty of questions about whether MS can tell all these different people are using the same code. I've heard pesky rumours about MS being able to detect such a thing, but more research is probably needed, as the amount of FUD that surrounds MS is ridiculous.

    Nachimir was in the middle of the process at one pont... How did you get on Mr. Nach?

    Oy. http://majornelson.com/archive/2009/10/16/unauthorized-xbox-360-storage-devices.aspx

    They'd really sell a lot more DLC if they just made the hard drives affordable. :shifty:

  25. Posted

    What's next?

    • FPS Hub - Nothing but articles about Call of Duty.
    • MMO Hub - All World of Warcraft. All the time.
    • Sports Hub - The latest news on skateboarding and Tony Hawk.