mikemariano

Wait, the new Streetpass games cost $5 each? Why???

I finished Luigi's Mansion this morning and collected all the Boos. I'm not even close to collecting all the gems, though, and I don't know if the reward is worth it. I will likely have to resort to a walkthrough to find the 3-4 gems I have left to find in each mansion. They are all cleverly hidden, but it requires doing wildly different things for each gem.

I will be in San Francisco on Sunday for a work conference. I am definitely around Monday and Tuesday all evening and later in the evening the rest of the week. Is there anything I should see? What is that movie theatre you all like? And is anyone around? I want to meet all of you!

Toblix is Toblix again! Looking at my Steam account page I see that I have spent $83.68 in total on Steam (not including Kickstarter rewards, Humble Bundles, and other things with Steam codes) since I joined in May of 2010. Of games I paid for, the only games I actually played at all were The Binding of Isaac (price: $1.98) and Frozen Synapse (price: $14.99). The remaining ~ $66 are for games I never even bothered to install. So, maybe it's unwise for me to go crazy during yet another Steam sale?

Ha, I realize I still don't have The Ship and paid no attention to how we were distributing it.

Half-Life 3 confirmed cancelled; the series is now complete:

I enjoyed frobbing objects in Thief.

Wow, the last time I drew anything was two years ago in the Hitman: Absolution thread:

My friend is currently playing Duke Nukem 3D, "just like I remember it," as he put it. I replied, "But you're using a mouse! And racking up Steam achievements!" It actually wasn't until repeatedly dying in Quake II that I switched to WASD and a mouse. My heart still belongs to Arrow Keys and Control!

That was so gross. It brought back so many Trespasser flashbacks, so I hope you get to do a velociraptor autopsy in a future level.

After denouncing Valve with the strongest possible language, Steam dropped some Binding of Isaac cards into my inventory. I am now fully in their clutches. The cards and badges are a kind of transparent way to say, "Hey, we've got all these different sections of Steam that you never click on! Pay attention to us!" It also tries to normalize the marketplace, telling you how easy it is to start buying and selling things there. Making a profit on your cards is only a way to seduce you!

I defeated Mom's Heart in The Binding of Isaac earlier this week. It was my third time beating the game. But it was a meaningless victory. That's because I've only ever beat the game while playing as Isaac and while picking up the quad shot. So in my mind, I've never really beat the game. I haven't developed any skills while playing. The game just gives me its version of an instant win button whenever it feels like. This has more to do with the game's randomization rather than its permadeath, but it seems to me to be part of the same logic: "Anyone who can't handle permadeath is a baby. And even if you do win, you're still a baby because we let you win."

Just hours after I post that lapse of faith, I now discover (in a bag from my parents' house) that I am literally a card-carrying member of the Tim Schafer Fan Club. I'm sorry I ever doubted you, Tim!

I'm bummed that this game is definitely cancelled and will never come out. I never even considered that to be a possibility before today.

Oh great; time to buy early access gift codes for all my friends to make sure I get the game I Kickstarted!

I know I did a moderate amount of backtracking, returning to San Francisco at least three times, without hitting any point of no return. By the time you get your full complement of characters, though, there might not be any going back. But by that time I was basically chained to the walkthrough in the back of the LucasArts Classic Adventures booklet.

The idea behind those early puzzles is that you can solve them in multiple ways—that squirrel doesn't need to die! Unfortunately, solutions don't come as freely later in the game. I actually wish these features of Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken—multiple plotlines and multiple solutions—didn't disappear from adventure games completely after The Secret of Monkey Island. The Cave brought back multiple characters and plots, but according to a recent Gameological article the character remained mostly separate both in puzzle and story. It's definitely a hard thing to get right, but it made the early game of Zak McKracken a lot of fun, and made Maniac Mansion worth playing over and over.

This is amazing. Thank you so much for sharing that.

You get a sweet achievement if you carry the gnome until the end of the game. But since a ghost gnome can only be held by a ghost that means...

I'm finally returning to Luigi's Mansion after finishing Super Mario 3D Land. This boss battle is shockingly bad. I'm seriously about to give up and post in the Quitter's Club thread and I'd hate to do that!

Sneaking out of bed to play Dota, and being on your second 90-minute game at 8:30am sounds a lot more dedicated than I am at anything. Congratulations, Brad? Does Dota play differently depending on what time of day you're playing? I guess there are dedicated players playing at all hours in all locations, but I wonder if there's an overall ebb and flow.

I just five-starred Super Mario 3D Land! Every level completed with Mario, every level completed with Luigi, and getting to the top of every flagpole. I thought this meant I had exhausted everything there is to do in this game, but apparently this unlocks Special Levels, so I have a little bit more Mario to go! And Berzee, I've played the first two episodes of Back to the Future, then I took a break, but I'm glad to hear you say the enjoyment level holds up. I figured the game would dial back on the movies' wacky suburban action setpieces, but they capture all of the spirit of the films.

I didn't find any results for "Vanaman the Hedgehog" so I thought I was doing it wrong. Then I found this:

That's good! Go with that! I am not putting a good/bad value on choice: Twine is. And Twine says choice is bad. A Twine game's links are only used to kick players out of the game (witness your This is not a Game link). They are never used to respond to player input. Player interest in one aspect of the game over another is only used to punish them. Improvisation, which builds on audience suggest and performer skill, says "yes, and..." Twine only says no. (If my repeated use of the word "only" sounds ridiculous, it's my actual experience.)

FreeIndieGam.es features Twine games regularly, but I personally can't recommend any of them as good. As games, the Twine games I've played are hostile to player choice and are genuinely uninterested in any kind of exploration. As stories, the ones I've read seem artlessly confessional, like clicking through somebody's Xanga. I've taken to speedrunning the Twine games I encounter. No reading, just clicking. Just like Diablo!