80's Bad Guy

I was going to create this thread, but didn't want to influence Jake. I'm a strong sender.

In that screengrab it looks like James walked in and sharted. Also, my favorite interaction of the episode was Leo and Cooper. (Cooper: Leo, is that short for Leonard? Leo, snarky: "That's a question?") Just the way Leo responds I find hilarious.

If half the games on greenlight (or in general for that matter) lived up to developer intention I'd have tons of amazing shit to play. And yet I do not! This is not a slight on No Man's Sky, just noting the fact I can't get hyped for anything in the preview cycle anymore. Wasn't it Dyack who said games shouldn't have previews at all, just come out? People thought he was nuts because hype is essential to building momentum, but for me that would be ideal. Especially for ambitious titles that may be severely compromised or limited come release day. Or I'm just pre-coffee grumpy. Also, I'm imagining a game like No Man's Sky in 100 years when our great-grandchildren are playing a procedurally generated MMO FPS RPG Tower Defense Survival Game across galaxies in a persistent universe...and I fucking hate them for it. We're just taking baby steps and paving the way for the really good games we'll never get to play. I hate life sometimes.

chunky god-rays made my head spin. just chunks of god rays all over the place. god chunks of ray.

Of course I loved The Last of Us and GTAV. As populist as those choices will be you can't not appreciate what they did unless you're some kind of jerk. But the ugly duckling in the room is Beyond: Two Souls. I hate that I have to be defensive about it, and I hate to instantly feel like I'm announcing that I'm in the Tea Party or I like to wear adult diapers or something, but I loved Beyond. What really drew me in was the relationship between Jodie and Aiden, and the feeling of helplessness Jodie has as a little girl. It's terrifying to be tethered to a spectral monster, and as they grow together it becomes something really special. Bonus points for the Homeless chapter, who knew that panhandling would be one of the best gaming moments I would have in 2013? I also loved Outlast and Metro: Last Light, but the other memories I have of the year were from games that didn't do a lot well but had some great moments; fighting Deathstroke in Batman: Arkham Origins, wading through a river of blood in Tomb Raider, an overdose of warped nostalgia and neon in Blood Dragon. On the negative side I was pretty disappointed in Bioshock Infinite and Gone Home, but those complaints are probably better served elsewhere. Oh and my game of [insert previous year] for 2013 is Catherine. Finished it last night and there's really nothing else like it. Intelligent Cube meets insane loli dating sim meets the Divine Comedy.

I feel like a monster turning some of my squaddies into an MEC. Yes we will win the war, but at what cost to our humanity?!?

Congrats on introducing the next generation into our cabal! I have a 4-year-old daughter I play games with all the time. As I was abandoned by my parents for hours at a time with an Atari, I don't have reservations about how long she plays generally, but I do try to limit her iPad time. Though I have to tell you the educational games have come a long way and are great for tricking them into learning. She's 4 and can do basic math already just from a 'Super Why' game she loves to play. I almost feel guilty until I realize that tricking people into doing something good for them by making it seem fun is basically how society works. I also know it stimulates her imagination and critical thinking, so whatever. As far as content, I do limit violence in games and generally stick to Nintendo titles for now but I'm looking forward to the day I can play more serious stuff with her, in the same way I'm excited to start her film education. Kurosawa at 6, Kubrick at 7, etc... I'm kidding, but planning out when I can share certain games and films with her is really exciting. That's the brainwashing I get to do. Like when I get to explain why only an idiot would think Deckard is a replicant. The one thing I'm constantly surprised at is her taste in games. It's funny how kids generally don't care about graphics, and her favorite game is Super Mario 64. I tried all the Marios on all the platforms (No Wii U at the moment though) and that's her favorite. The 2D ones get hard fast and the later ones are too difficult for her to control. She still has trouble navigating a 3D space (camera) and Mario 64 is the sweet spot as far as controls, presentation and narrative. Princess wanted to bake us a cake, got captured and we need Stars to get her out of the cage. Done. She couldn't relate to Mario trying to clean up the world in Sunshine because "cleaning is boring". We're also deep in Machinarium. Adventure games will be a big staple for us moving forward as we aren't time restricted and it lets her think about what we should do next. Of course she hasn't been limited by years of Adventure game training so her suggestions are often ludicrous, but that's half the fun. Anyway, you have a lot of time so I wouldn't worry about it too much now, just be happy you have a boy! I spent the last week playing The Little Mermaid II (PS1) and I never want to play another licensed game on the PS1 again, my god.

Just getting started in this and man, love being back in XCOM. Surprised they focused on the narrative as much as they are, and really appreciate the fact they're trying to give some of the bland NPC's around the base some personality. Can't wait to dig in this weekend. Playing on Classic this time and I don't want to muck it up halfway through, should my priorities still be satellites and building a nexus ASAP, or has that changed with these new elements? Early strategies the same?

They're tough, but fair. It doesn't help a game already criticized for lack of choice to be so subversive about its gameplay options, but it does highlight how much of the story actually is tailored around your decisions; what you choose to do, how you treat people, what items you interact with, etc... Yes there's a lot of eye rolling and sections that were clearly written by a Frenchman, but in the end if you put Beyond in a sieve and strained out the garbage you'd be left with a nice pulpy lump of interactive story that outweighs the crap that was filtered out. I enjoyed that lumpy pulp quite a bit, but certainly you can be a jerk and just laugh at the crap lying beside it if you want. But then, what is game?

I am convinced none of you are capable of critical thought or empathy and are therefore monsters.

I bought it, played it, loved it. The one mistake I made was looking through the coming chapters in the chapter select screen and now it feels like I know where the story is going. I really wish there were more options for investigating. It feels evolved from The Walking Dead, but at the same time I need these games to hurry up and get more complex and offer significant branching paths and additional player agency. They need to get to the point they're at least as complex as a kids choose-your-own adventure novel, and we're not there yet. But these baby steps are a good...step, in the right...baby direction?

I finished this a couple days ago and loved it. I think there's more agency than people give it credit for as my playthrough went very differently from other people I've spoken with. I also really enjoyed the central story way more than Heavy Rain and some sections of the game, like Homeless, rival anything else I've played this year. Great experience. I can see how the non-linear structure and lack of obvious player choice can turn people off or lead to frustration, but Beyond does offer a great deal of character roleplaying in scenes that does effect they way they play out in interesting ways. Its frustrating to have to wade through so much negativity about it, while people consistently praise things like Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us which actually offer less player choice in their outcome. People will cite the writing (usually they really only mean dialogue), though I'm beginning to feel increasingly that it's only because Quantic Dream and Cage himself come with a certain amount of baggage. But I love those games a ton too. I implore everyone to at least try the game. You might hate it, sure...but I think there is a large amount of people who like interactive stories for whom this will really grab. I was pretty invested in it by the end and wish I had more people to talk with this about. C'mon, how can you turn down the opportunity for an engaging QTE of playing with dolls?

Tried and failed a few times at it last night. Luckily it's pretty forgiving. But it did give me nightmares about old PC flight sims. Stay on target.

Yeah, it makes sense that they would lump in the PC release with the PS4/XBONE super versions next summer or fall. That way they can scale those 3 versions up properly as GOTY edition or something. .

I love JRPG's, but the cultural argument is irrelevant when discussing extraneous mechanics. Flare 1 does not need to be fed with warmspring leaves to power up because of Orochimaru's senpuku. It does because the game needed more padding.

So I went down to the court last night, I usually play at night under the lights, listening to music after a nice joint while I work on my jump shot. But last night I decided to get a head start on Wolf Hall by downloading it from Audible...which led to this exchange when a friend stopped by: Him: "Yo! What are you rocking tonight Jimmy?" Me: "Just a SICK audiobook of historical fiction about the rise of Thomas Cromwell." Him: "Ummm...word?" WORD SON When it happened I was just struck by the absurdity of life.

Oh. Finally read this and listened to the cast. Good book, interesting but unsatisfying. I thought for sure he was going to abduct her at some point, or at least murder someone...become unhinged completely. There are certainly enough hints that he is much worse than we really know. He calls himself a monster, pretending to be human. He said he has "blacked out" on 5 significant occasions. There are other signs. Maybe we're even supposed to infer some violent end just after the events of the novel. After all, he said more than once that the one thing keeping him from going to her house was that he had the sessions to look forward to.

Building a gaming PC and will wait out the launches this time around. Will probably pick up a console at some point, and if I have to chose between one designed by Mark Cerny or one developed by the marketing team at Microsoft, I'll just go with Sony. But still, this story isn't complete without really knowing what Durango is...TO BE CONTINUED...

Man, I haven't been here in years. Since then I've started a family, moved it from Taiwan to Austin, have had 3 different jobs and am finally getting settled enough to relax. Hungover from my birthday celebration. Congrats on the continued life, thumbs! It's like trying to juggle water while falling down a hill.

That seems the same for all Suda 51 joints though, and I've enjoyed most of them. I just got a kinect yesterday for the shit of it so will give the demo a try.

You know Rez, I always wondered where your avatar came from (here and GAF) and then I went to a party over the weekend and some girl made me watch the Old Greg sketch on YouTube. It was the most bizarre thing I had ever seen. I have to admit I did laugh alot, though I was completely trashed. I just recognized those guys in the pic and the whole strange night came flooding back. hah.

The guys haven't logged into their consoles for almost 3 months and I'm finally considering deleting the podcast from my iTunes list so I don't have to see it every time I download something else and feel that sorrowful sense of loss. I think it's time I moved on. Hold me.

It screams as a desperate attempt for legitimacy over anything else, but that's ok in my book because at least they picked the right game to do it with. After playing Demons Souls for the first time yesterday and then spending all night with it (oh yeah baby), I appreciate the things it does almost more than any other game last year. It can be brutal, but its very fair. And more epic than it has a right to. I would say its not as hard as most people are crying about, just exposes most current-gen games for the cakewalks they are. Really, just from those few hours it jumped to #2 on my GOTY list not just because it's amazing, but because it challenges me as a gamer and yet doesn't punish me in any cheap way. Let's face it, both AC2 and Uncharted 2 were stupid easy.

No sir, hooray for all of us.