thorn

And they're nice enough to count my order, which was exactly $49.90, as being over the threshold.I find it irritating that I can't pay for postage now for Sam & Max and just have it automatically sent when it's published, rather than having to do it in a seperate transaction in six months time. That said, I suspect they're hoping that I might go to the Telltale store and think to myself "Gee, if I'm already getting my credit card out to pay for postage, why don't I get this other stuff as well?" And I suspect it's no coincidence that the ToMI DVDs were released in the same week as S&M3 was officially announced. And I suspect that it's no coincidence that I'm enough of a sucker to have ended up upgrading to the Deluxe Edition.

Oh, I didn't even realise they'd been released to retail. Either they never made it to Australia, or I've just shown how rarely I actually go in to games stores these days.Sleepdance: Why would you prefer a retail disc rather than buying it online direct from Telltale?

I got my Season 2 disk ages ago. And just got the email telling me about the ToMI disk the other day.

Can't wait! "Asbestos is harmless!" is a registered trademark of Aperture Science dba Aperture Laboratories © 1996 All Rights Reserved

Just tried the demo. It just feels like Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space in 3d with really shitty camera controls. Like... really bad. Bad enough to make me give up pretty quickly because I could never get the camera in a good enough position to work out how close my ships were to the enemy. What aren't I getting?

I'm not quite sure what to make of it, but this version of the ending shows Chell has a health meter. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJruBtuUACo&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJruBtuUACo&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Really? My reaction was more along the lines of "What drugs is he on and where can I get some?"

The Half Life wiki has a complete set of all the images that came from the radio messages. http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Aperture_Science_Radio

Agreed.I don't know what to make of this. I assume that JB is not going to make a simple point-and-click adventure game - it's a fair bet that he's at least going to attempt to produce something revolutionary. We just don't yet have enough information about it.

Who is saying that people shouldn't make innovative games?! This article was about people fawning over innovation as if it's the be-all-and-end-all of gaming and about game designers who think that innovation is the only thing they need in a game and forgetting to bring in the fun.

Apparently it's not a new Worms game, but a port of the recent console releases with some extra stuff. Has anyone played the console versions?

I don't know if he's confused with what he's trying to say or if he's deliberately being confusing so that people misunderstand him and get worked up enough to write angry blog posts, thus increasing his profile whilst allowing him to feel superior at how they weren't smart enough to understand him.Despite the fact that I agree with (what I think is his) general point, the way the article begins does make me feel like he's more interested in causing arguments than converting people to his point of view.

My interpretation (given that he started the article with reference to the public response to the first one) was that he's not criticising the games so much as the way that people react to them. Thus, he's not saying that innovation itself is bad but that it doesn't necessarily make a game good. He's suggesting that games should be rated on how fun they are, rather than some pooncy, ill-defined measure of 'artiness'.I think everyone needs to get over the guy's smarmy attitude and the deliberately provocative headline and just read the last two paragraphs where he finally makes his point.

I signed up, clicked the link in the email, and it took me to a checkout that's trying to give me Bejeweled at full price. I can't work out how to get the PN. Anyone else having this happen?

That game was brilliant. Though I admit that at some point I got confused about the title so that when I watched Blade Runner I spent the whole time trying to work out how they'd made the game based on it.

I can't remember what the first game I played regularly was. I do remember my first instance of game voyeurism, watching my brother play Space Quest on an old 'IBM-XT compatible' with a mono-green monitor. I wasn't allowed to play myself due to being too young and my brother having a trantrum if anyone tried to seperate him from the computer. I do remember some time later sitting down to actually play the game and hating it. I suppose I hadn't realised that the fun part of Adventure games is the exploration aspect; having seen most of the game through already, I was just stuck with the crappy controls and mini-games.

... is a puzzle platformer that's apparently from the same team in Lucasarts who did the SoMI update. Available on Steam here. Has anyone played it? Does the gameplay match up to the prettiness of the visuals?

http://www.theindiebundle.com/ In the spirit of Valentine's day, a bunch of Indie developers are selling their games as a bundle for $20 And Yet It Moves Machinarium Eufloria Auditorium Aztaka Osmos I may buy it just for AYIM and Machinarium, and give the rest away. (I already have Eufloria and heartily recommend it to anyone)

I bought it when it was cheap but never got around to playing it due to other stuff being higher on the pile. I didn't even know they were planning on fixing it.

'The plot' for me was nothing to do with any of that. Other than a short moment of thrill when the whole 'Would you kindly?' thing was revealed, what I liked most was the audio diaries and the character arcs revealed through them. The fact that characters like Diane McClintock or Bill McDonagh still stand out in my mind is a testament to how well they were drawn out by the designers. (Yes, I had to look up their names, but their personalities and stories are strong in my memory)

Thanks for that review. Now I know for sure that this game is not for me. What I loved about the original Bioshock was the plot, the design and the fact that the gameplay was fairly relaxed and not too brutal an FPS. I'm really bad at shooter games, so I mostly fought using plasmids and the wrench, which got me past enough enemies to just have fun exploring. So, with more enemies, more hardcore FPSing and less thrilling plot... I'll pass thanks.

Mainly friend-sourced scuttlebutt and rumours. A quick google has just shown me that it's not definately happening, but that Fumito Ueda said he wants it to happen. Given the way he doles out information though, we probably won't know for sure until a week before it's released.

The best news I've heard about this game is that at the same time they're going to be rereleasing Ico and Shadow of the Colossus at the same time, neither of which I have managed to play yet. This game is one of the few reasons why I went out and bought a PS3. The only game I own for it is Brutal Legend. And, frankly, I've been using it as a media player far more than as a gaming machine.

Play with a controller. The keyboard controls are shocking.

Lorne Lanning (creator of the Oddworld series of games) has semi-announced his next project. It's an online social network site called The Antisocial Network. http://playit4ward.msn.com/?section=articles&topic=1195770&dataID=Lanning_Antisocial&source=T# My first thought on reading that was "What the hell was he smoking when he came up with that idea and where can I get some?" That said, he's working together with some big names, so there must be something real behind the wacky idea.