Horticulture Tycoon

What are you implying? I assume you simply mean you don't have a hi-def television, because Braid looked pretty damn gorgeous on my 360.

Maybe we should actually wait to hear details about what they're doing with the property, rather than simply jumping to conclusions? I mean not that the writer of The Legend of Chun Li deserves the benefit of the doubt, but films can go through a dozen different iterations before they reach the screen. He's the first writer assigned to the film, but almost certainly not the last. And until a director is attached, really this is a total vacuum of information.

Wait a minute now, if knowledge of things such as how the company is run, who the people involved were, or what events happened behind the scenes, if those things affect your review, well then almost by definition your job as a journalist is conflicting with your job as a critic. Your job is to review the game, and those things are not in the game. Of course you can't pretend that the game exists in a vacuum, but to say that knowledge of those things is essential to review a game, I couldn't disagree more strongly with that. The reviewer's knowledge of those things should be set aside, ideally. Isolation might not be realistic, but intellectual compartmentalization should be a skill every game reviewer posesses.

I like how your router is perched on its shoulder like some kind of electronic Salacious Crumb. Also I'd really love to play "Return of Gamestop", except the total minkfuck of being able to play as my own ex-roomate is far too terrifying. How can I be my own ex-roommate? I'm always in the same room with myself! This game defies all known laws of logic and reason! EDIT: Obviously I meant to say "mindfuck", but I sort of like the new word I accidentally coined. Downy-furred rodents, beware.

Well that's not really an apt comparison, since A. a painting is not a work of fiction, and B. by the time Citizen Kane was made, film was already well established as an art form, albeit a rapidly evolving one. But prior to D.W. Griffith coming along (who basically invented the entire visual vocabulary of film from scratch), the film industry was indeed struggling to find "the Hamlet of films", though maybe not necessarily in those words. In fact, there was literally a film movement in French film during the first two decades of the twentieth century called "films d'art", where they would adapt great novels and stage plays nearly line-for-line. Of course, the term "films d'art" contained the obvious implication that all other films were, in fact, not art. I think it very much parallels what the games industry is going through now. And when you consider that Citizen Kane didn't come along until 25 years later - a film that didn't even remotely resemble the "films d'art" movement - I'd say we have a long wait for an achievement that impressive in the Video game industry, and when it arrives it won't be anything like the quote-unquote art games we have now.

Sunset Riders was pretty fun for its time.

I have to admit, I used to be part of the "learn a real instrument" crowd, but that's before I actually played any of these games. I think to a lot of people who play guitar (including, until recently, myself), the very idea of Guitar Hero is an anathema: from a musician's persceptive, Guitar Hero seems to reduce the infinite possibilities of a musical instrument down to a fast-paced game of Simon Says. Of course, upon playing rhythm games, I think it generally becomes clear to most people that these games do illustrate musical concepts that dig far deeper than it initially seems, as Chris has already touched on. It forces you to focus on your one instrument in ways that most people aren't occustomed to doing when listening to music, which gives a player a sense of how all these individual instruments interact with one another in order to coalesce into a singular piece of music. Simply by deconstructing a song into its component parts, the game allows you to take a look at the music from the inside out. I think when people criticize rhythm games, for the most part they're criticizing what they represent, as opposed to what they actually are. I know that's what it was like for me. Now you couldn't seperate me from my Rock Band drum kit with an industrial crowbar.

Tim is totally flipping you the bird in that picture. Even moreso on the one on the front page.

I get the feeling Lawrence Kasdan was the one who saved all these tapes and not Lucas/Spielberg, so probably not a whole lot more of this stuff left to be leaked. It's a fascinating read, just because they start with a few character traits and a handful of ideas for scenes, and within a few days they've plotted the whole damn movie beat for beat, plus half of Temple of Doom mixed in for good measure. My favorite parts are the bizarre racial stereotyping by Lucas: ...and the way Spielberg sometimes seems like he's six years old:

Agreed, especially about the ending. Also I thought it had one of the greatest title sequences I've ever seen.

I actually think the more the games industry becomes like the movie industry, the easier it'll be for independent studios to find investors. The independent film movement in the 80's and 90's coincided with the corporatization of Hollywood, some would argue it was a direct result of it. If the big studios are making big big profits from big games, the small studios shouldn't have too much trouble finding enough venture capital to make their own big games too. Assuming this credit mess clears up at some point.

Regarding the Tabula Rasa apocalypse, I was in the original Asheron's Call beta and they did something similar when it ended, albeit in a much more organized, drawn-out kind of way. It really took us all by surprise at the time, nothing like that had ever been done prior to that point (to my knowledge), and it was easily one of the more memorable gaming experience I'd ever had, mostly because it was so unexpected. I remember a few days before they shut down the beta, the town I used as a base of operations was destroyed by a fucking meteor. That really sucked. Also, the story about Galaxies Darth Vader dropping down to give a pat on the back to the stormtrooper roleplayers left a smile on my face that lasted the entire day. Oh LucasArts, I can't stay mad at you...

I was this close to buying the Xbox Originals version of Dreamfall with some leftover Microsoft Points last month, but bought Sid Meier's Pirates(!) instead. I'm pretty sure I made the right choice. It's too bad, because I love The Longest Journey with all my being. I'm sure one day I'll have some more leftover points and in a moment of weakness I'll pick up Dreamfall. And I'll subsequently hate myself for it. I already hate myself for it, and I haven't even bought it yet. But really, it's only a matter of time.

Now that question is much easier to answer. I'm looking at you, Indigo Prophecy.

Jesus, guys... How will I ever sleep again?

Speaking as someone who is always desperately searching for things to help pass the time at work, longer is better. But I can see how you could run out of steam doing a longer show, so throw us the occasional supplemental Podblast and I'm happy. Also, there is a certain amount of irony in Chris lamenting the blue arrow that always points the way in Far Cry Instincts, while in the same episode complaining about the total lack of navigational signage in hotel he just stayed in.

I've had a chance to pay for it. When it comes to actually downloading and playing, not so much. I think their server is a bit overwhelmed right now. Or maybe it's a problem on my end, who knows.

Yeah, that's a perfect example. I remember the sinking "Oh shit what did I just do?" feeling I had when I activated the override, and then the game totally undercuts it.

I think the karma system would have worked a lot better if you didn't know when you've gained or lost karma. I give the game a lot of credit for providing scenarios like Tenpenny Tower that really have no good outcomes, regardless of what the player does or how good your intentions are. But having that "You've Gained Karma!" message there robs the thing of its ambiguity. It's like having the game designers in the room telling you "There there, don't worry, that's supposed to happen." I don't want to feel placated in a game like Fallout, I want to feel uneasy about the things I've done. I've already gone into a whole spiel in the BioShock thread about how I hate the good-evil (and in this case neutral) system in games and I'm not going to repeat myself here, if only for the sake of not hijacking another thread. But I actually didn't mind it so much in Fallout 3, precisely because it offers choices that are so much more nuanced than "do a good thing or do a bad thing". I just wish they'd made the karma system a little more opaque.

A LEGO logo? Primo!

I think 4chan is adorable, myself. The way they act as though their public forum is SUPER SECRET BUSINESS... It's so precious. Like an infant, vomiting. On the subject at hand: People are stupid, on the internet and otherwise. I mean it's an interview, not a review. Regardless of how you feel about the game, you have a certain responsibility to be cordial to your interviewee. I mean what do people want you to ask? "People think your game sucks. So tell me, why does your game suck so much?"

I sent out a few friend requests but I forgot to post my tag here, so you were probably wondering who the hell I was:

Maybe it's different on PC, but BioShock seems like the last game that would require compulsive quicksaving, seeing as there's a respawn spot every ten feet, and everything you killed stays dead even after you respawn.

I was aware of the irony when I posted it.

He's pretentious and he has a persecution complex! I'll bet he's a blast at parties.