mikemariano

That's me! I bought a DSi XL for the big stylus to use with the New York Times Crossword Puzzle. I can't wait to spend another $200 to do crossword puzzles in 3D...

Hey, is this game out? I've read three Kim Swift interviews in the last week but none of them mention a release date.

It's the Wii version of A Boy And His Blog. I picked it up cheap simply because I heard it had a hug button. I'm going to put my Oblivion thoughts in the Oblivion thread to satisfy those that hate this thread, but yeah, I think Metroid is next. I feel like I'm almost at the end, though I have a lot of Chozo artifacts to hunt down. This is the same point at which I stopped playing Wind Waker!

Oblivion was decent, though it became quite a mess after heading into Paradise to go after Terence Stamp's character. I started the Mage's Guild questline my first day playing. I alternated that with Knights of the Nine, the main quest, all of the non-"evil" Daedric quests, and some of the Arena matches before (in order) completing Knights of the Nine, winning the Battle of Kvatch, and becoming arch-mage. I started the Thieves' Guild questline as well, but I didn't like that the first (relatively innocent) mission gave me an infamy point. This clogged up my Knights of the Nine quest, so I made my long penance to many wayshrines and decided against becoming a thief. Later I accidentally fireballed a soldier during the Siege of Bruma, giving me one infamy point and an intro to the Dark Brotherhood questline. I don't want that, either! I am committed to good, which is why I got so upset that I compromised myself and used Summon Undead spells to beat Terence Stamp. I beat the game at level 20. That is more or less as high as I can go, since I've maxed out Destruction and Sneak. I haven't leveled up in over a month, either in game time or in real time!

I kept picturing you going "I gotta have more dynamic range! Sean, whisper something from the other side of the room! Then scream into the mic!"

I just beat Oblivion after six months of playing it non-stop! Now I can play the Shivering Isles or play a different game entirely. Sam and Max Season Two? A Boy and his Blob? Metroid Prime? (I keep putting this away and not finishing it.) Or the many bundle-bought games that won't run on my MacBook? Eh. I'll figure it out.

I beat Oblivion yesterday! I had to distract Terence Stamp and his children somehow so I learned how to Summon Zombies, Skeletons, etc. All these undead creatures that, as the arch-mage, I vowed never to do! But plain old destruction magic wasn't getting the job done. Now on to the Shivering Isles!

I am still obsessed with takeoffs on VVVVVV. One I played recently is Spin Spin. It uses the movement (and spikes) of VVVVVV, but instead of flipping, it uses rotation. The developer compares it to And Yet It Moves, but the rotation in Spin Spin is done strictly at 90 degree angles. I had fun, and the first episode is short enough to burn through quickly. Check it out!

FYI: I have played nothing but Oblivion since January. I completed Knights of the Nine and I am now Arch-Mage Dexter of the Mages' Guild. Now I'm mostly through the "do what Sean Bean tells you to do" quest. I'm not sure if I'll move onto Shivering Isles after I do the main quest. Am I supposed to do that after the main quest? I have enjoyed the quests in Oblivion and they are a lot better than their reputation suggests. Even the shamelessly "fetch-y" main quests are meant to give a good overview of the cities of the game, the Daedras, and other big parts of the mythology. Unfortunately, non-quest exploration of caves, forts, and Ayleid ruins just for the sake of exploring them isn't much fun at all. Closing Oblivion gates is even worse. But I think I may have just closed my final Oblivion gate. Let's hope the endgame for the main quest is fun!

These guys send a lot of Kickstarter e-mails, huh?

I have to admit that the biggest reason I never played Max Payne 1 was because of how smirky he looked.

I'm an American Apparel extra-small for undershirts, but I decided I'm going to wear the Idle Thumbs shirt over another shirt or get fatter so I picked small.

Can I be very concerned about both those things?

The plot of Limbo is you move to the right. It's the same plot as Double Dragon! Except Double Dragon had that superfluous cutscene where your girlfriend gets punched in the gut.

Hecker: AKA: What Would Molydon't

Yeah but it's OK because after he kills them, Agent 47 takes their clothes and dresses up like a fetish nun.

Way back when, Monkey Island solidified the idea of telling one solid story in an adventure game. Maniac Mansion let you choose your team at the start, making the story and puzzles different for each setup. Zak McCracken let you use different items to solve the same puzzles, meaning that later puzzles would have different solutions if you already used a particular item. With Monkey Island, that settled down. As Jake points out, there's still a game system there, but it isn't used to provide wildly different story paths or puzzles. That's why I'm encouraged by The Cave. Team selection is back! This is a part of adventure gaming history we haven't seen in a while and I'm excited to see how it goes.

I really enjoyed that Anathem had so many shifts in its setups and it still pulled them off successfully. I had no idea what was going on at the end but still enjoyed reading it. Meanwhile, Reamde only had one big shift and it bored me terrifically. Spoiler?

Every time I say to myself: "Mike, you used to be a cool PC gamer circa 2000. Now you're a lowly console player who only plays ports of PC games anyway so why don't you build another gaming rig?" I read something like this and it scares me away.

Oh Harvey... ...from a Dishonored promo pic courtesy of one Nick Breckon. The rest of the team looks stylish, too.

The cut scenes! Oh, those indulgent, indulgent Rockstar cutscenes. Max's client practically says "BIG BRAZILIAN BOOTIES!" at one point.

I think the controls have the right idea—it's similar to the endless toggling of System Shock 2 and for a game like this it seemed like a good approach. Then again, I frequently died trying to run from a killer robot while switching to movement mode from investigation mode and vice versa. So, you're probably right.

"It's as if H. R. Giger and George R. R. Martin took peyote together. And had a baby. And that baby had a fever dream." -- IGN.com* "Fanboys will wet their pants, contrarian analysts will wring their hands, message boards will explode in either fury or collective orgasm." -- IGN.com* *actually Wired

I wonder if they'll integrate the cut scenes into the 3D gameplay any further. I was always impressed with the detail that went into Tex's office and other locations. Did anyone play the first two (non-FMV) Tex Murphy games? I have no idea what they looked like or how they played.