Cbirdsong

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    289

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Cbirdsong

  1. Posted

    It now asks me to allow Safari push notifications on the Mac, which seems handy, but the notification settings are all about emails. Will that be coming online at some point?

     

    It also automatically opted me into instant email updates for every post on every followed thread, even though I had disabled that on the old version. 😬

  4. Posted

    Oh mannnn I love Fallen London, can't wait to listen to this episode. When I saw he was going to be writing for the new Mass Effect... I don't think I can be more optimistic about that game, now.

     

    Did something indicate it was Mass Effect? I would have assumed it's the next Dragon Age, since I imagine you'd want a writer to be involved in the early stages of a game. I suppose he could guest-write an add-on for Mass Effect Andromeda, but it seems like the real meat of Bioware writing is the characters in your party.

     

    Definitely a great interview, at any rate. With how well this went, I'd love more guests on Idle Weekend!

  5. Posted

    I generally agree that the graphics ruin the mood a bit in spots, but more importantly, all the little doodads on the ground everywhere made it a lot harder to read an encounter on the fly, based on my experience with the remaster. In certain spots would have a hard time spotting smaller enemies through grass and get ambushed, but flipping over to original graphics let me more accurately assess danger. It's a bit like turning everything down in Quake 3, I guess.

     

    I don't think the original was anywhere near as dark as he was describing on the podcast.  I think it's just a case of the "original" graphics actually being somewhat inaccurate.  It's actually a weirdly common issue with HD up-ports (or just... ports) where one version will inexplicably be way darker than the other.  I figure that the various platforms must have their own ways of handling brightness which will produce wildly different results if the developers don't bother to account for it.

     

     

    The extra weird thing about Halo 1 in the Xbox One collection is that it's a port of a port - the Anniversary version with graphics switching was originally on 360.

  6. Posted

    Yeah, I went with a more inelegant solution because I was nervous about the potential time pressure element to this challenge.

     

    I waited in the balcony area by the room with the laptop and when she arrived a just shot her through the window. Normally I wouldn't try such a risky approach where I can get caught out and gunned down by guards, but there was a pipe over the balcony railing that you could take to the ground floor so I figured (correctly) that I could make a quick and safe getaway before I got swarmed by guards.

    I basically did this,

    but with a thrown letter opener as she walked out on the balcony. I also used the auction attendant outfit on the second floor instead of jumping through hoops to become Helmut or the Sheikh because I was terrified she'd leave quickly. That really made my overall plan far sloppier than my usual elusive target thorough-ness. It did make me feel like a badass to walk on in, get it done, and leave without incident, even if it was a hilariously conspicuous hit.

    Also: The target will be around for another few days, so if you're reading this thinking you missed out it's not too late!

  7. Posted

    Look, not everyone needs to know the ins and outs of tech specifications (it's boring), but please know what they are doing if you identify yourself as being someone who cares about these things, instead of rattling off some silly the DRM is in the connection! malarky.

     

    Yeah, there's also not really any technical logic to the idea that the iPhone losing a headphone jack is because Apple wants to control the output methods on the iPhone for sinister DRM reasons. Bluetooth is an open standard that you could easily record from using cheap stuff available on Amazon right now, and ultimately all audio will be decoded to analog sound for human ears that someone could tap into and pirate.

     

    Realistically, the music is the digital media market least encumbered by DRM, as all the major sellers don't use it and haven't for years, but purchased music is still on the wane in favor of streaming services where you don't own anything anyway.  :unsure:

  8. Posted

    I don't think Chris is as behind the times with Lumines as he thinks - there's definitely been some new version/update in the last week or so, and it was significant enough for it to be at PAX, according to this article. There is also a hint at a return for Meteos too, apparently they share the same creator? I've never played Meteos, but Lumines was a lot of fun on PSP. I think I played the demo for quite a long time without realising that you could rotate the blocks, and when I did it completely blew my mind (and also felt like a complete goon).

     

     

    Yeah, he shouldn't feel too crazy. There was an old crappy version of Lumines for iOS in 2009 (TouchArcade review is 2/5), which was not well liked and was delisted at some point. I can't find anywhere talking about it being removed, which is probably why the Wiki entry doesn't list this new decent one as a separate release. A recent Touch Arcade article say the rights were acquired by someone else a year or so ago, which is why there are new games now.

  11. Posted

    After I bought and liked the first episode, I made the conscious decision to buy each episode as it came to speak with my money and prove that I could stay interested each month, as well as give the developers a little extra change since I wasn't getting the package discount. So that makes me extra sad that I made the move I thought would help, and then got punished for it.

     

    If it makes you feel any better, I was pretty underwhelmed by the bonus missions.

  12. Posted

    I had my most frustrating failure yet with this elusive target. Ugh...

     

    Did you...

     

    ...use a screwdriver to mess with the power strip in the puddle, but forget to turn it off first?

     

    Because I did, and I felt like a complete idiot.

  14. Posted

    I did this elusive target similarly to Steve Gaynor, but in a less insane fashion.

     

    Instead of sniping him from street level I did it from the balcony of the apartment belonging to that lazy kitchen assistant.

     

    I attempted to do this, but

    people kept spotting either a security guard trespassing on the guy's balcony, or a kitchen assistant holding a sniper rifle, so I did it from the ruined tower near the crashed van.

  17. Posted

    As I recall, the side quests it cuts off are ones listed as Secondary Quests, which mostly involve the your friends like Dandelion, etc? You can make a manual save and as soon as you cross the threshold you'll get a bunch of "quest failed" messages for whatever has become impossible to complete.

  19. Posted

    I am going to have to finally put in some hours in Marrakesh this weekend. I feel like I need a good 2-3 hours to really get a feel for each new level, so I've only briefly walked around Marrakesh, and have been doing older escalations when I had a few minutes to play.

  22. Posted

    I downloaded Killer Instinct and Forza since they're free, and it was a perfectly fine store/download experience. Universal Windows Platform games are actually really pleasant to use - alt-tabbing happens almost instantly, without the annoying flicker typical of Windows games. My current major complaint is that I can't find a way to add them to Steam as a non-Steam game, which means no usage on the Steam Link.

     

    From what I understand, the possible problem with UWP is that non-Windows Store UWP apps/games could hypothetically have a scary "this app might be malware" screen, because they aren't signed by Microsoft. This dialogue/check is currently disabled, but you can understand how devs would be reticent about them with the possibility of that changing in a future Windows update.

  23. Posted

    As soon as I saw that Zelda in-game tablet I immediately assumed the same thing as the Thumbs, that this was classic Nintendo highlighting a specific hardware thing and that this meant NX had to be have a similar controller. But apparently, Aonuma said Zelda won't have any GamePad functionality at all, aside from off-TV gameplay. The E3 demo had a map on the gamepad but they said this won't be in the final version.

     

    If the NX is a portable that can also be used on a TV (almost the Wii U in reverse?), then they wouldn't want to design anything around the idea that you will be using two screens.

  24. Posted

    I have had performance issues when playing over my Steam Link, but it's fine on my actual computer.
     
    Elusive target mission report:

    Snuck into the gazebo area as Helmut Kruger, but couldn't really find a moment alone with the dude. I attempted to grab a knife, thinking a thrown knife would be less conspicuous than a gunshot, but someone spotted me and freaked out, so I restarted with a sniper rifle hidden in the stairway. I snuck it up to the second floor balcony overlooking the helicopter, but had no good angles on the gazebo - a tree was perfectly placed to block almost all of the party. I eventually managed to get up to the third floor as a Cicada guard and found an almost-empty spot to take the shot from. The nearby guard didn't think aiming with a sniper rifle wasn't suspicious until I took the shot, and before he could do much I was on the way down a gutter. I took a few shots from guards on the ground, but managed to hop in a second story window and walk out the front door without any more trouble.

     

    My score was hot garbage, but I did it.

     

    Is there a way to get up on the actual roof in Paris? I haven't fully explored the attic.