Garple

How about The Machinist?

You're fired.

Yes, sir.

I'd say Tim Rogers of ActionButton.net fits that bill nicely.

He's got a brilliant essay about Van Morrison that's floating around the internet somewhere. I think it's kind of absurd to call him the best writer of the twentieth century (I know, it's subjective, but calling something "the best" suggests that there's some semi-objective criteria). I feel like he belongs with the group that includes Hunter Thompson and Jack Kerouac, which is to say, those guys that are exciting to read when you're young, but ultimately seem to coast by on their hipness, and don't stand up well to close-reading.

For some reason, all I listen to now is For Your Pleasure by Roxy Music.

Well...for the most part...I use a laptop now, which has integrated graphics (I know, I know...but I got it dirt cheap from a friend and it was less than a year old...plus it's damn good for everything but games). Therefore, my actual PC is like 6 years old. It's got a pentium 4 and Intel Extreme graphics II...I can't remember everything else off the top of my head...but I imagine I'd probably have to replace the power source and motherboard and everything in order to accommodate a new vidcard and CPU. I don't know much about computers, so I'd be hesitant to try anything too intensive in terms of overhauling an old PC.

The credits from the first Phoenix Wright game on DS have a "where-are-they-now" documentary-style wrap-up (too many hyphens!!!) in which all the characters are shown in talking head clips where they say what they think about Phoenix Wright and other relevant things. I thought that was pretty cool. It turns out it's a fake ending...it goes "HOLD IT!" and there's one more chapter.

Yeah, but they don't buy both at the same time, and for a lot of people that makes a huge difference. I know that the gaming hobby moves very quickly in terms of hardware and software. A console is a much easier way for me to keep up with what's going on. I can buy it relatively cheaply after the 1st price drop (which is fine because the games library usually isn't very sizable or interesting until then) without too much trouble and, therefore, not be hopelessly behind on all the games that are coming out. And, sure, a PC can do a million other things and yes, I'm inevitably going to own a computer, but for anything I can think of beside gaming, a PC that I bought years ago is fine...so it's not like... "I'm buying a new pc every couple years, so I might as well buy a gaming rig." That said, my plan is to put together a good gaming PC the next time I get a new computer. Largely for what Chris said about it being an open platform and the fact that Steam has made getting awesome games cheap and easy. That just won't be for a couple years. It crushes me that my budget keeps me from playing things like "the Path" and "Little Big Planet", but I can't own all gaming platforms. That's the really painful thing about gaming: accepting that there are a decent number of games you'll really want to play, but won't be able to.

speaking of real life compared to GTA...when I was playing it a lot, every time I saw a police car in real life I was like "shit, I better be a little more careful with my driving so I don't crash into anyone." And sometimes I would be on the verge of passing someone on a small one-lane street as though I were in the gameworld.

Ok. Well what I mean is that they made specific singleplayer levels and specific multiplayer levels, instead of taking a one-size fits all approach. Also...I don't know if you played the multiplayer or not, but they actually made the left trigger a button that counts down (3, 2, 1) and then shows a little graphic of two splosion men sploding to help you synchronize your jumps.

Wow. Who knew Slovenia was such a think-tank I would be so dazzled if that somehow happened.

" Free vowels; get 'em while they're vowels!" Finally out on the Wii! I was worried because I checked at like 11:30 and it wasn't availible yet...but it's here. A great rainy day game...hilarious so far and fun. Kudos, Jake/Telltale (maybe we could petition them for a namechange along the lines of Jake Rodkin's Telltale Games...or Jake Rodkin Presents: Telltale Games).

Right On.

It's great that the devs of 'Splosion Man actually took the time to design levels specifically for co-op instead of what most games nowadays do (just let you play the regular levels with more players). I think the countdown button is absolutely brilliant (IGN.com)!

"If you like the demo of inFamous, you'll love Prototype!" (IGN.com)

That's cool, but I think the term is re-contextualized when applied to video games.

Could NOT get past the friggin' terrible accents.

I like your points, James. There's definitely a distinction to be made between games that try to create a vast environment for you to explore and those that make a vast but faceless environment for you to destroy.

Like Eye of the Kraken? That game was fucking ill. I'm crapping tears into my pants that I won't be able to play tLG. Go to heck Sony! Why couldn't you have just made a console that was a worthwhile investment? The Playstation 2 was fantastic...what went wrong? (Sorry for getting all internetty on you, guys)

Yeah, I guess you're right. I was trying to come up with an unlikely example in order to emphasize my point. I settled on the first game that occurred to me.

Aren't you attributing an awful lot of significance to yourself?

THE best song ever happens to be "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5...so...score two for Michael.

I'm not sure it's fair to call this an open world game. The setting is basically just there to provide skyscrapers...it's more of a "backdrop" than a "world"...or perhaps a "sandbox" if you prefer. It seems if you call this open world, you'd have to say the same about the latest "Prince of Persia" game. Also, I think since a huge percentage of the games released are non-linear and/or free-roaming in one way or another, the term "open world game" is losing its validity as a clear category. If we start to treat openness as the common mode of gameplay it has become and not something fresh that deserves back-o'-the-box bullet-point status then we can move on to things games have not yet explored. It's like: After the first couple Mario games...nobody was freaking out, going all "This game is sidescrollin' yo!" I don't know why this post seems so negative...it isn't meant to be... My point is just that the open-world thing is so ubiquitous now as to have become just a mode of basic interaction with a game rather than a particularly salient feature. And, so, having openness doesn't necessarily mean that a game the open world factor is important to the general gameplay. Such is the case with Prototype, I think. The main game consists of "follow these arrows and destroy what/who we tell you to"...so the open world element there just provides you with more square-footage when you need to make an escape. Besides...as far as mechanisms...isn't it cool when, if the environment is broad enough to allow it (as it is in most non-linear games) the player gets to learn the game just by farting around? I think that's better than "PRESS THE 'A' BUTTON TO SWIM...WHATEVER THAT MEANS..."