Garple

My favorite quote from this game "It is your patriotic imperative to oppose women's suffrage!" Anybody else have favorite quotes?

Ok then...let's clarify. I think emergent narrative, as defined earlier in the thread is more interesting because it goes beyond the limitations of the code, so let's shift the discussion to that. It's more along the lines of what I meant to ask about when I started the thread. Emergent gameplay doesn't seem that interesting, because it all boils down to the code on the disc, which I think means that it must be exceedingly rare, because the developers know the limitations of all their systems, so I can't imagine there's much that could happen that didn't occur to them during a year or two of rigorous testing.

A bit of emergent narrative...in Red Dead Redemption, along the side of the road sometimes dudes will call out to you saying "I'm lost or something of that nature." The first time it happened I rode over and the guy pulled me off my horse and tried (unsuccessfully, of course) to steal it. Now, when those guys call out to me, I just shoot them because I know what's coming. This makes sense as a player of a Video game, but it doesn't make sense as a person in a world. In a narrative sense, it's a little weird for me to shoot a man who's asking for help based on the possibility that he might actually be hostile. I like to think it's a part of John Marston being disillusioned after being burned and cheated so often in the past. Then again, you wonder why he doesn't just ride past without a response instead of killing the guy. Well, I think he's learned that every time someone asks for help, he's going to get fucked, and it pisses him off, so he just kills the guy. Unfortunately that still doesn't explain why he's going to go along with all the story missions. Another thing about me and John Marston, is I feel we've become sort of otherworldly in our philosophy. We collect money and it piles up but we're just going through the motions, accumulating wealth because it's a mechanic of existence in our reality, but we don't actually want the money or have any use for it. I've never bought anything in the game other than a couple properties...I can't imagine what I would actually buy, I've never found myself in need of anything. Ammo is plentiful and it's also self-reproducing: I kill a man with two bullets, I get all the ammo he was carrying: The Circle of Life. So anyway, the money thing, it's like John Marston doesn't really belong in the material world. He's just drifting through it for lack of any good alternative.

That's the one

The premise by it self was juicy enough to give me a huge thrill watching that film...probably the most twisted, perverse film made during its time...for some reason, also, I love movies where it feels like a lot of crazy stuff has happened, but then you stop and think about it and realize most of it is not happening on the screen, but in the dialogue and atmosphere, which is why I was so damn impressed by Terminator.

Whenever you need an avatar...type "Jimmy Stewart +Vertigo" or "Vivaldi" into google images. You put that in and magic comes out.

Ok, fair enough.

Excuse me...but didn't you say Once Upon a Time in the West was "pretty good"...'cause just FYI...it's fucking motherfucking very VERY good.

YES YES YES! Next: Sullivan's Travels and The Big Sleep...Also...if you haven't seen Dial M for Murder and/or Rope...get on it.

true to my word, I bought this game.

If that's even possible. Damn, I've got to buy this.

I don't know...I don't play PC games, 'cause I'm a man.

Shit, Jeff Goldblum was in Jurassic Park? (totally outing myself as a weird old man who's totally out of touch with pop culture...like Chris on the podcast: "I was reading about this film called, Bad Boys 2.")

You should be in the don't-fuck-with-Toblix-because-I-have-a-man-crush-on-him-and-I'm-sure-I'm-not-the-only-one thread Everything Toblix says is both brilliant and absolutely correct. Also: As per my drinking, I've limited myself to a couple times a month and only on nights where there's nothing important happening during or after. I drink a little more than I used to on the nights when I do drink because it's like a special occasion. (I'm drunk right now) (it was really hard typing that thing with all the hyphens in this post).

That would NEVER have been clear to me, if I hadn't heard someone say so. I feel like a dummy sometimes on Idle Thumbs or at least a layman...you guys know so much about science and tech and shit, and I don't understand that stuff at all. I don't know how I ever managed to shoehorn myself into this community, but I'm glad I did.

It's on sale on XBLA for (if I remember correctly) 400 pts.

That's only because most Catholics were dirty immigrants, not "natives" like them...

I like it in games where you can get away with anything as long as no one knows you did it. That's the way of the world, so it feels super contrived when games penalize you for something without your getting caught.

Yeah, the way the horses lay with their legs all twisted up is really gut-wrenching.

It's probably a bit complicated for the likes of me, but it seems like something I'll end up buying regardless, because even if I don't play it much, I'll be glad to support the developers. I just spent $130 on games today though, so I don't think I'll commit just this second.

I watched Coraline at home in 3D in its entirety on bluray, just to check it out, and I'll say that I first tried on a sunday afternoon and had intense eye-strain, but then I tried again at night and it was quite nice. I never saw it in theaters (it was the first bluray I bought when I got an HD tv because I figured a film involving Tim Burton would do well in showcasing what my hardware was capable of) so I can't comment on how well it stands up against theater 3D, but I found it to be a fun little gimmick (which was the best I ever hoped for from 3D anyway). I wouldn't say you MUST watch it in 3D at home, but it's pretty pleasant if you happen to be in the mood. Because it's a small-scale story the 3D doesn't feel hindered by the smaller screen the way I imagine something like Avatar might.

The book was a kind of a thing for me as a little kid, but I don't care that the movie is totally different, because it was like a 20 page picture book, obviously to translate that into a movie, it's got to be changed and adapted. In my very much non-expert opinion the characters were very good. The main characters were fairly nuanced and the humor was top notch (I've compared it to early Simpsons). What's your opinion on Fantastic Mr. Fox? Because I think it's the greatest animated film I've ever seen by a long shot.

Wow! Super Mario Land was a long time ago. Did you play it when it came out? Because if so, that's really saying something.

My favorite emergent experience (though I haven't had many) is in Fallout 3, when I was running around with the female treasure hunter who helps you go after the declaration of independence. I really liked her as a character and was sad when she died, but my kneejerk reaction was to coldly loot her body and take her awesome machine pistol. Then I felt like I'd become disconnected and clinical in regard to human life, since I treated this "friend" of mine like a supply shelf instead of a person whose death was to be mourned.

What did they do before that they're not doing now? I'm honestly just asking. Maybe I'm missing some information, but I saw Wall-E as progress for the most part. Synth, Have you seen Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and if so, what'd you think, that's one CG movie (non-pixar) that blew me away (ign.com).