Psych

Yeah you're right, the platforming seems to have been taken almost unaltered from the first game (except for the six axis control, which I think everyone will be glad to see gone). But the combat, my god the combat is exceptional. The first game's combat suffered from having all the same enemy's in all the same sort of environments, but in this one there are so many unique encounters, and set pieces. I used to roll my eyes when I heard Naughty Dog talk about what a big feat it was to make the train level since it's an actual moving train. But ya know what, having to adjust your aim because the train is taking a turn is just awesome.

If it were just difficult that would be fine, but when the bulk of the difficulty comes from levels lasting far too long and offering far too little feedback in how you're preforming. Not only is is not worth $5, I wouldn't play it for free.

What really gets to me about PSN is that so many games don't have demos. How am I supposed to know if I like a game if I can't get a demo? Trash Panic is terrible, sure there's a fun concept in there but it's presented in such a way that strangles all life out of it.

Yes, it's a problem with all 3D.

They also cause headaches and eye strain.

Well it was written by Stan Lee.

No level 1 is turning a staff into a snake. level 3 is plagues of insects and frogs.

I noticed something similar when I read though the first volume of Essential Silver Surfer. Except most of the dialog was the Surfer reciting how much better he is than everyone else on the planet. "Like all others of your bestial race, in your abysmal ignorance, you mistake compassion... for weakness!" "Some there are might think me mad... because I do not choose to walk among them! ...But, would the eagle shed his wings... that he might dwell with ants?" "Must I always protect you in spite of yourselves? are you so steeped in evil that it is all you see?" He constantly laments mankind's fear and hatred for him, yet it never occurs to him that it might be lines like this: "The female shall live-- as shall you-- and all mankind Yes! You will live long enough to rue this day-- to taste the vengeance of the Silver Surfer!"

Star Guard By: Sparky Available: It's free. Synopsis: A retro graphics platformer/shooter in which you play a Venusian soldier on a mission to kill a wizard. More: http://vacuumflowers.com/index.html

How could anyone miss the anti-corporate undertones of Robocop?

Where the story of Mirror's Edge fell apart for me was the big reveal that Agh the story for this game is such a train wreck.

Epic Mickey sounds like the ultimate way to slip someone a ruffie.

I think American comics have been artificially infantilized by the influence of the Comic Code which killed off almost every genre besides super heroes. video games seem unlikely to suffer a similar fate and should thus be able to continue to build more diverse experiences for a more diverse audience. It seems to me that if it's possible for there to be good stories in video games (and I'm not sure there is) then developers don't have any of the excuses comics had for wasting so much time not making them.

I noticed the sirens were back again in this last episode. I don't know if they ever really left, but I hadn't been aware of them for the last few episodes. And it occurred to me that the Idle Thumbs gang getting arrested in the middle of the podcast would be a pretty fitting end to the first year of Idle Thumbs. But a regular episode is good too.

Chris, video games have a long way to go before they can compete with the sheer idiocy produced by comics. Case in point: Rob Liefeld's Godyssey.

Instinctively I understand this whole aversion to remakes, but when I think about it, I can't come up with a good reason why quality movies shouldn't be reinterpreted by later productions of the same work. Can we really say that in all the time that's passed since 1987 that the context for Robocop hasn't changed? So why not have a new one that reflects the social and political landscape of today? If there's a problem here I don't think it's that movies that don't need to be remade (as if any movie needed that), but that producers tend to squander the opportunities they have to do so, by creating cheap cash ins with no artistic vision. Which is a problem in no way exclusive to remakes.

The impression I got from the multiplayer demo was that the shooting has been made a lot more interesting, however that could just be because humans are so much more interesting to play against than CPUs.

Rad seems more like the 80s than the 60s to me, maybe it's cyclical.

I don't know about that, for one thing, there's animation, some of the best super hero stories I've ever experiences have been cartoons. and its certainly possible to have super heroes that don't have rediculous outfits that would be embarrassing to describe in print, for instance the Shadow was a long running super hero radio franchise. There's nothing particular about comics that make them work better for superheroes. It's just that American comics have been wrapped up so completely in super heroes that we've come to associate conceits created to make the superhero genre fit into the comic medium with super heroes themselves.

The Black Dossier may have been intended to be a source book, but it didn't turn out as one. I'll grant you there is source materials inside (all of which is impenetrably dense), but the majority of the book is dedicated to a story about Quatermain and Murray running to and from god knows where, with the titular dossier. However regardless of whether or not it is a comic or a source book, the fact of the matter is that I am now far less interested in the world of the League of Extraordinary Gentleman, than I would have been had I never been subjected to the Black Dossier. For my money, Moore more to harm his franchise in his volume than the almost universally panned movie could ever hope to attempt.

The only difference between that and a Twix is the shape of the biscuit/cookie in the candy bar... ...and probably the quality of the chocolate,

This discussion reminds me of something Tolkien once said when he was asked why he had never written a story about some mountain range at the edge of Middle Earth's map. He said that he had deliberately neglected this area so that these mountains would retain a sense of mystery for the readers. When it comes to the details of a fictional universe it seems important that there are elements that remain unexplained, for the story to keep interesting.

While I like the name, I pray that never happens, Garnett was why I stopped listening to 1upYours.

I thought the first League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was great, the second was so-so, and the last was absolutely abysmal. Recently at the bookstore I saw that there's a fourth one, does anyone know if it's any good? While I have certainly enjoyed Hellboy, it's story feels like it's stalled out in the recent collections. I find that it's spin-off BPRD seems to have a lot more momentum, and actually seems to be going somewhere. I noticed that no one has recommended any webcomics yet, so I'm going to fix that. MS Paint Adventures (If you like adventure games this comic is tailor made for you.) North World Digger Dawn of Time 70-Seas (I make this comic so my recommendation is a bit biased.)