mikemariano

Phaedrus' Street Crew
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Posts posted by mikemariano

  1. Posted

    5 hours ago, Urthman said:

    Here's a couple more that show the board a little more clearly and a couple of Banjo-Kazooie close enough that you can see the Model Magic clay we used.  I think I took these with a crappy webcam because I didn't own a digital camera yet.

     

    This is so good!  As a child I couldn't even manage to make an all-black Play-Doh Darth Vader correctly.

     

    Look at that banjo!

  2. Posted

    4 hours ago, Badfinger said:

    I was convinced a non-bothans line was in A New Hope during the planning phase after they retrieve the death star plans, but I will grant that it's only my memory and I might have been filling in the dialogue myself.

     

    It was Sinbad as a genie who died getting the plans.  RIP Sinbad.

  5. Posted

    I finished the 18-world challenge in Super Mario Maker 3DS.

     

    I recently played through Super Mario 3D Land again and got really stressed out.  Mario Maker stressed me out, too, especially a level with a moving vine on a block and spikes.  I don't remember Mario being this stressful!

     

    So now I'm making a slow-paced water level.  I am now a Mario baby.

  6. Posted

    9 hours ago, Beasteh said:

    The puzzles are a little too streamlined though

     

    If you like your puzzles a little shaggy, seek out Quantum Conundrum by one of the original Portal Developers.  The mechanics are a little different but they are more freewheeling than Portal 2.

  10. Posted

    10 hours ago, marginalgloss said:

    Does anyone else feel like the recent updates to the Streetpass stuff have...kind of broken Streetpass?

     

    This explains so much. *angry tomato*

     

    At least I get to race a slot car around by myself...

  13. Posted

    10 hours ago, jennegatron said:

     

    I did eventually go back and finish it, but the end of the game really soured the opinion I had of it, and even before that I was only lukewarm on the story. If you don't think the story is very interesting, bail and don't look back.

     

    I didn't find Read Only Memories very interesting, but I was impressed with the economy of usage.  The way the supporting cast was re-used didn't cheapen those characters. Of course, it also meant the main story had nowhere to go but in circles.

  15. Posted

    I'm not familiar with Divinity or Dragon Age (beyond a demo), but I believe any similarities are slight.

     

    Pillars of Eternity, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect all let you pause the action to deliver commands to your characters, but in Pillars that amounts to: "Click on a command while action is going on," or "Click on a command while action is paused."  You are never controlling a character directly to swing a sword, move, etc.

     

    Conversation in Pillars is also intentionally denser than the Bioware wheel-based conversations.  It's closest to New Vegas or Shadowrun-style.

  16. Posted

    40 minutes ago, Roderick said:

    The upshot is that none of his insane plans will work out (politically or economically) and he'll be blocked at every turn by both the Democrats and the GOP, who will want him ousted and made harmless and checked as soon as possible.

     

    This is likely true, but I think it also needs to be a defined strategy by opposition leaders, protesters, etc.

  18. Posted

    8 hours ago, mondryle said:

    I thought this was a fun read. Some messy thoughts now that I've cooled on this admirably bananas thing:

     

      Hide contents


    I thought the way it tied Briggs in worked just fine. I buy that all of this stuff led to his top-secret X-Files sort of work, so it doesn't feel entirely forced.

     

     

    This is a really good point.  It's a shame we won't get to see this actor in the new series.

  21. Posted

    Here are some spoilery thoughts.

     



    Things I liked:
    • The Lewis & Clark section worked surprisingly well.  It was the section heaviest on Twin Peaks mythology, but used it with a light touch and then let the real-life tragedy of Meriwether Lewis do the rest.
    • Hawk's narration of the Big Ed and Nadine romance was probably the section that best captured the voice of one of the characters.  Besides Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Horse has been the most visible former cast member used as a talking head in publicity, so hopefully they give his character a lot to do, too.
    • Dr. Jacoby's interpretation of Laura's death, blaming it on the family and social structure of Western Civilization, is also a really good use of character.  Apparently the letter that revokes his medical license is dated a few days before the end of the series, so by the time he brings Mrs. Palmer to the Double R he's no longer a doctor!
    • Oh, Dr. Jacoby's super-70s paperback cover is definitely worthy of inclusion in Henry's Firewatch lookout tower.
    • Toad is officially a Bookhouse Boy!

     

    Things I didn't like:

    • Most of the book!
    • Any scene that takes place outside of Twin Peaks is really strained.  Tying Area 51, Alastair Crowley, and other 20th Century occult arcana to Doug Milford is NOT the same as tying it to Twin Peaks.  A lot of what Frost includes is true-to-life, but it doesn't inform our understanding of the town, and Doug brings very little of it back with him.
    • The explanation of the Log Lady's mark is just so lazy.
    • The section written by Agent Cooper is out of character and WAY too judgmental.
    • Out of all the things to retcon, why Norma's mother?

     

    In a recent interview with Brad Dukes (the author of Reflections: An Oral History of Twin Peaks), Mark Frost reveals a few details about the writing of The Secret History of Twin Peaks:

    • Frost chose Doug Milford as his featured character because he felt readers would have few preconceptions of him from his brief appearance in the series.
    • Frost did not rewatch the series while writing the book.  He wanted his characters to have their own recollections of events since they were the ones narrating.  If they didn’t match what was on the screen, that was just a trick of imperfect memory.
    • David Lynch was not involved in The Secret History of Twin Peaks.