Hermie

That^, but with one addendum: Learn to use the the dodge button. If you just barely dodge an attack, you go into bullet Matrix Witch time, where you have plenty of time to bash the feathers off angels without worrying about the 9 other angels trying to stab you with crosses.

I had the same concerns as lobotomy when viewing the pictures and article, though I think I'm less thinking of female portrayal in general and more of Lara as an icon? While the Lara of old was for the most part, as pointed out earlier, a pair of boobs, she was also something that was very rare in the 90s; a strong female protagonist. Sure, she was plenty objectified, but also idolized by more than a few female gamers that were drawn to her as a girl who was actually allowed to kick ass, instead of a maiden in distress. [warning: anectodal evidence] One of the mods over at Lucasforums is a 30-something mother of two, who has almost exclusively Lara Croft avatars for 10 years now. Because just like how some people are drawn to John McClane or Gordon Freeman, or heck, me to Scott Pilgrim, she could identify with wanting to be someone like her. Just like everyone else, I'm basing a lot on just concept art and some marketing, and maybe it will all be rectified by the end of the game, but it was striking to me that this was the first image I've ever seen of Lara Croft that didn't exude confidence through look and stance, but rather helplessness. [edit]THEN AGAIN, I had a hard time thinking up examples of male protagonists that are cool to the point of idolizing/wanting-to-become-ness. So maybe Lara is a better protagonist than we realize, be it male or female?

Precisely where my mind went as well. Randall Munroe captures it pretty well. I only played the first Tales so far, but I was happy to see it pretty much stand on its own legs in terms of writing. I am still a sucker for a good pop culture reference, though. The differentiating element being, using an intertextual reference in order to make a joke, as opposed to "hey, remember when this other product said something funny?". I'm a huge sucker for the show Psych, who I think pull this off rather well (though I wouldn't be surprised if many disagree). A simple nod to your past I find acceptable too, but most games seem to fly it straight in your face, with the expectation of it being funny. I was going to cite Longest Journey, but the more I think about it, that one was pretty brazen too. =/ Additional thought: References get dated. Fast. And while this will not happen to mediocre adventure games contra Monkey Island, when your product gets old and people don't know about Double Rainbow or Star Wars Kid anymore, your carefully crafted attempt at being "with it" just looks like gibberish. A well told joke, however, is timeless.

Magazine scans are now out. The story has her stranded on an island, struggling to survive, as an inexperienced, 21 year old Lara. The setting does look interesting, but I'm still worried about the video game-grittiness mudding it up.

I expected the words "darker, grittier, more realistic" to be uttered within the magazine. Also, I'm tired of the "naming a reboot the same as your franchise/early game" convention. It's starting to come of as a lazy way to convey "reboot", and it gets confusing when you talk about them in retrospect. (Guilty parties: Prince of Persia, Mortal Kombat, XCOM, DMC, Twisted Metal, The Idle Thumbs Podcast.) My friend says Edge is really good, it has columns from mr. Click Nothing and others.

I don't like Lisa Foiles much, but she seems to somewhat know what she's talking about, making her a step above the Jessica Chobots of the world in my view. The Cattacklysm video was hilarious though. Even better, her website.

It's still weird to me that April and Ravn are Synnøve Svabø and Per Christian Ellefsen.

Longest Journey has one of my favourite game stories ever. Hearty recommend from me.

Lookin' sharp Rodi. My mom found my grandpa's tailored suit the other day, complete with suspenders, so I know what I'll be rocking on Christmas Eve. Also, Christmas face: Isn't it the tackiest thing you ever did see?

Jonathan Coulton is more known as The "Still Alive" Guy. So yeah, he's pretty great with lyrics. iob2_8eyMK8 PS: Logorama is great.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Shadow Warface.

Same, I thought I was the only one to know about it, but now it's building buzz everywhere.

Warface has changed / Warface never changes.

Yay Rare Exports. A close friend of the family is the main producer on the Norwegian side. :3 Haven't gotten to see it yet, though.

Oh man. Sold. Note every other developer: Be More Like Double Fine (Or At Least Their Art Designers).

Iiiinteresting. Can you go into more detail, or are you 'bargoed?

I tried it earlier, my region was "not supported" So much for the GFWL revival. (Then again, MS don't even give us the Indie Games on the 360.)

The 1UP preview has made me switch from "doubt" to "careful hope": GTA meets Noir meets Phoenix Wright?! ...Meets that rabbi game the thumbs talked about? Thoughts?

So there's a "Puffins" page on Facebook, so obviously I "liked" it. A couple of days later, my dad: Success?

I'm with the people that don't quite see the utter brilliance of it. Sure, the animations are pretty great, but other than that, it doesn't tell us much at all. Also, I'm not quite getting the "noir" feel from it. That takes more than some horn flares and men in hats. (At least show me some extremely sharp shadows.) Also very much agreed on hoping that it has actual detecting and figuring things out, and not just Shootan mans in 3rd person with revolvers and tommy guns, then play a cutscene of the protagonist finding a clue and placing a giant arrow on top of the screen pointing to where you need to go next.

Yeah, just finished it too. Despite the dreaded Linearity, I found it to be a great experience through-out. It does what almost no video game does ever: Hold back. It never ever plays that giant cut-scene about how "everything changed once the bomb dropped. Oh, someone dropped the bombs because war and blah blah blah humanity are bad people." You're just left to your own device to glean from the environment what might've happened. The narrative writing and the voice/mo-cap acting are also extremely solid. While the story itself is fairly standard hero's journey/Joseph Campell myth, it's well told and with actual believable characters. Even the ending "twist" was neither telegraphed from a mile away nor completely absurd. My favourite example: When, at one point, one character asks "Did I do the right thing?", NOBODY ANSWERS. Not the other character(s), not some magical narrator, they just let it hang. How come it takes a film screenwriter to be secure enough in their ethical ambiguity to just come out right away and give an answer?! Unfortunately, I didn't like the combat that much, though I did play on Hard, so maybe that is why. It seems to suffer from 2010 syndrome: The game is so proud of it's mo-cap animations, it has to play the attack animation finished before dodging, even though I see a robot right there, about to attack me. Ending: I borrowed the game from a friend, and now I regret not spending money on it. Support original, quality IP.

Thanks for the feedback guys! I still want more. (Also episode 2 is up.)

The button to view new posts works for me (the one currently being embodied by Toblix), but the button to go to the last post of a thread > just takes me to the first one.

Congrats Steve! Now, someone move Telltale to the East coast, and we're all set.

Man, if only there was another video with Jake and Sean in it. Oh, and what if it had Chris, AND Nick, AND STEVE too?! That would be amazing. I sure wish someone would upload a video like that on the internet.