Wrestlevania

LOL -thanks.

Can't wait to suit up as an Engineer again (alternatively, a Soldier). It's been almost a decade since I played Team Fortress Classic last, when I used to play in the UK's national championships via BT Wireplay - we were almost top of division two, kicking arse! Great video btw, Thrik, thanks for sharing.

WaChe is indeed most agreeable. +1 Edit: Resized to fit the Steam Community image slot (plus essential branding)...

I very much doubt it, sadly, due to necessary and implicit imbalances (slower and less twitchy play on consoles, because of the control differences) between PC FPS gaming and console FPS gaming. But, if Valve were to enable this, they'd not be doing it through Games for Windows.

Good point, which I neglected to mention -- but you can only aim your shots whilst the power zone is extended. Also, you can bounce your shots off either edge of the grid, for extra tricksy play (i.e. when you're trying to let as many enemies up the grid as possible).

Bit too cropped though, in my opinion. My effort's not anything special though: I'd have added either one to the group page in Steam already, but can't find where to do that. Perhaps only the group creator has access to this?

OK, OK, that was a bad picture to illustrate "before" - here's another: Now can you appreciate how semi-naked my head feels? I'll thank you to keep your filthy Photoshopery out of my joyous parenting memories! *wail*

Please, merciful gods of the Thumb, is there not some way we can remove anything within a spoiler tag from turning up in email notifications?!! I've just inadvertently ruined the ending of the game now, by reading toblix's comment in the latest thread email I received... :frusty: :frusty: :tdown: :\

Before (quite some time ago in fact): And that's Mini Me I'm holding btw--though he looks decidedly ugly there. Here's a better shot, illustrating what a handsome young devil he really is: Look at his little face! Looking at that now, I'm reminded just how much of life work steals from you... :\

Um, after.

Yes. This is referred to as 'extending the power zone' in Space Giraffe, and the further down the grid (aka playing field, stage, level--whatever) you extend the grid, the longer you have to let enemies build up on the "rim" (near-edge of the grid) and then "bull" them off. Bulling not only gives you points, it also increases your bonus multiplier depending on how many enemies you bull in one go. It's possible to bull your score multiplier from 1 up to 9 in a single charge, if you let enough enemies up the grid and onto the rim. (You also get an achievement for this.) Word of warning: letting the power zone shrink down to nothing greatly reduces you fire power, but - critically - also prevents you from bulling enemies. So it's important that whilst you let a decent number of enemies build up on the rim, you keep shooting on-coming enemies regularly enough to keep the power zone extended. Otherwise you'll die if you try bulling when your power zone is empty. However, you do get a split second to fire your smart bomb weapon when this happens. So keep your thumb hovering over the 'A' button when going for a bull run. Aside from all that, did I mention how fucking brilliant the music is? No..? It's fucking brilliant!

He's not wrong. :\ I've been playing it a fair bit, on and off, and it's definitely a "stoner" game. SiN* is 100% correct: you really need to zone-out with a game like Space Giraffe in order to get the most from it. At its height, for all intents and purposes, it's highly meditative. I can't play for longer than about 30-45 minutes though, as I seem to fall out of the necessary mental groove about then--especially if I've gone from my typically sublime early high score run to just dying a lot, whilst trying to increase my starting bonus on the earlier levels. The visuals are chaotic, but when you reach total absorption in the game you can basically predict where visual occlusions are going to disrupt the grid and compensate accordingly. Most importantly, however: I'm in the top 1,500 globally. * I originally cited SpiderMonkey, so apologies.

Screw the beta - give me my Orange Box, damnit! But otherwise: yes, very excited. Team Fortress 2 is going to make Halo 3 multiplayer look as retarded as the vast majority of people playing it. FACT.

No, that was shit of me. It was such a large email I didn't want to reply to it half-arsed -- just didn't get around to replying at all (which is even worse).

Original post. "Sexy time!"

Great news and congrats on the new babies. We should definitely shoot some stuff in the face together sometime.

Interesting development: Microsoft have quietly shelved rollout of their similar-but-piss-weak alternative Games for Windows service indefinitely...

I've managed to drum up a newer gfx-card - a 256MB GeForce 7600 - for my work machine, which happened to come with a free copy of Call of Juarez (pronounced "wah-rezz" btw, not "hoo-arr-eth" as I originally thought). I've only read a couple of reviews for this game (one on Eurogamer, the other possibly on GameSpot or similar), both of which contrasted somewhat. So I'm asking for a Thumbs consensus. I've played the tutorial and made my way towards the first proper section of the game, but it's rather clunky and awkward so far. I'd like to know if fellow Thumbs think it's worth persisting or not. Ta muchly.

Yeah, which is why I wanted to play it. Plus it looks good and the much-lauded atmosphere is surprisingly immersive. It's just not my sort of game--even though it's a first person shooter, I just can't get to grips with the sneaking mechanic here. Which led to large amounts of frustration on my part. And I just wanted something simple and 'fun' to play during the odd lunch time at work. Guess it's back to Guild Wars and Tabula Rasa for that.

Making a rather large assumption, this sounds very similar to what I've been ponderating - on and off - for most of this year. Maybe it's an impending developmental jump? Interesting... I should probably get writing--before some famous developer trumps me!

Brilliant! Looks like a delightful cross between Gabler's original Tower of Goo Experimental Gameplay Project submission(s) and Loco Roco. Very much looking forward to seeing more.

Ack, after suffering under the oppressive mantle of Juarez's chronicly broken sneaking mechanic for a good couple of hours, I've uninstalled the fUx0r. Huge potential, but good riddance. Secretly, I've actually done this because I didn't get the virtual blow-job promised me by an in-game slut. :tdown:

Cobblers, sir! Just rein it in a bit, and make sure you've played a good few hours' worth before passing criticism. I think that's your only real failing here - that and not bleating on about the points you do in fact like, like the rest of us (sometimes).

Flirt with the idea a bit more, then neglect to do anything with it (more than likely). You should expand our discussion on characters, which you went into with impressive detail in our last email exchange - to which I may have neglected to reply (many apologies).

Good point - and I meant to say earlier that there's rumble in the pad already, so no need for that crotch block that "came" with the original in Japan.