Garple

This is the post that this thread needed, methinks. For more in this vein, one can read The Advanced Genius Theory by Jason Hartley and Pragmatism: A Reader edited by Louis Menand. On a vaguely related note, I've just realized that while I don't like Dave Eggers, I probably feel that way in order to be cool or something. Dave Eggers very directly inspired a close friend of mine to open a writing center for kids in my hometown in which I was very active and which meant a great deal to me, so I should definitely appreciate him at least a little bit.

Or maybe he's just decided not to let what a random people say keep him from doing what he wants to do. I kind of admire his commitment to keep making movie after movie in the face of some of the most intense criticism I've ever seen.

Amen, brother. Is there any game company that hasn't made a bad PR move at least once? Besides...I've been wanting to play Planescape: Torment for ages and have a lot of respect for the company that finally made that possible.

I know I've had these moments but none come to mind right now. I'm sure many of us have because, let's face it, the thumbs audience could easily be called a cult following and with that kind of minor obsession you're going to have thumbs on the brain and think of it at odd times.

Make sure to finish Red Dead Redemption. It's well worth the effort. And when you think you're done, there's one more thing to do.

The guys who made Bayonetta and many people who played Bayonetta. Let me say, though that you can enjoy the hell out of Bayonetta without giving too much of a shit about combos. If you enjoyed Final Fight in your younger days you'll experience the same raucous joy with Bayonetta. Sorry, guys, that I'm making posts about games that are not what the threads are about. Threads are just reminding me of other games.

I watched the Prince of Persia movie while I was on the treadmill today and even though it wasn't that good, it got me psyched for another Assassin's Creed game. Because let's face it, the AC series is sort of an open world POP (I know some will disagree, that's ok, I'm probably wrong, anyway ). When the credits came up I wanted to turn to the guy next to me and say "The guy that wrote the script is the same as the guy who designed the original Prince of Persia games...cool, huh?" Then I realized I was in a gym which is mostly full of normal people, so I kept my mouth shut.

I remember thinking at one point there should be a Hamlet game (don't know why). I guess I'll probably buy this when I'm done w/ Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions.

I don't know why that's so funny but I really enjoy it. "I won't give up juggling, God damn it! I won't!!!"

How the hell did this happen?

I'd like to see this. I find Civ very interesting but don't have the hardware or the ambition to play Civ 5 so I'd enjoy having a vicarious experience through your writeup.

I guess it comes down to what Chris was saying where they can't just make a game that takes place that long ago without wrapping it in cyberpunk nonsense. But, I wonder if that was also done to justify the fact that there's a HUD and you get instant retries when you die etc...It's hard to make a video game that takes place before electronic technology and not have the medium clash with the content. Mostly it's a matter of suspension of disbelief. I remember feeling very weird playing Red Dead Redemption multiplayer and being able to communicate with teammates who were not within my field of view over my headset, as though the characters had two-way radios or something. I think it has something to do with the fact that video games try so hard now to not feel like video games. No developer wants their game to have a HUD or anything that's not justified within the fiction and I guess maybe we're getting used to that as players.

I liked it well enough but was really irritated by the twist ending because I'm sick of that particular brand of twist which seems to occur in about 50 % of thrillers these days and plus the fact that the twist was delivered to us in the form of 10-15 min. of expository dialogue. It's never a good sign when the characters have to explain what happened in the film (show, don't tell etc...). It's almost like they might as well be looking right at the camera and adressing us as "dear viewer."

Finished Assassin's Creed II. I loved it, but what a bummer: that ending. It really went off the deep end in the same way the last Indiana Jones movie did.

Duke Ellington, perchance?

It's cool that these indie darling games Cave Story, Super Meat Boy, AYIM etc... are coming out on consoles lately, certainly it will draw at least a few people into the world of indie games who wouldn't have explored it otherwise.

I want to throw up.

Yeah, they tried to reboot Wolfenstein and that didn't work so well either.

I will miss your hilarious comments, Jake. Good Luck and congrats, Chris. I wasn't really interested in Bioshock 2, but now I might play it because it will remind me of you, Steve (in a platonic way). I feel like the first ending of the podcast prepared me for this ending, because I'm not nearly as broken up about it. I hope the trend continues and Jake and Steve both get awesome promotions or new jobs too at some point. Also: Chris lives near me now, What do?

There's actually a game on XBLA called Texas Cheat 'Em.

This thread just became about which Thumbs are in paramilitary groups that want to overthrow the government.

I want to explore emergent gameplay. What games facilitate this? Please share your stories and let's try and get a definitive list of the best games for emergent experiences. I think it's safe to say Far Cry 2 and STALKER: CoP will be high on the list.

Did anyone get it for 360, or is anyone going to?

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Those other two are good, but not as good as Repulsion. Also...how about the soundtrack in Repulsion? Great huh?