thl

Phaedrus' Street Crew
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Everything posted by thl

  1. I'm coming out of long-term lurk mode to posit that Jake's Half-Life 3 podcast is needed now more than ever! The fact that Valve's writers have left the building would free the interview subjects to not worry about any real world constraints thus giving us their unadulterated visions, and the series itself would give Valve (yet another) reminder that people want this game enough to devote a whole podcast series to just thinking about what it could be. Maybe the visibility raised by the podcast would get those guys back in a room together!? We can hope, right!?
  2. Rock Band 3

    I can recommend the Doors pack. every song has a strong keyboard part that's fun to play.Unfortunately a lot (some even on the game disc) have really minimal keyboard parts where you basically end up sitting there for most of the song then getting 50% because you miss the first note when something actually starts happening.
  3. Rock Band 3

    so glad this thread is back. I love this game and still play it from time to time (pro drums all the way. there's even a setting to toggle a second foot pedal between double bass and hi-hat!) and feel like the general collapse of the music game genre really undercut what a huge great game this was.
  4. Koyaanisqatsi is really remarkable for its photography and its Philip Glass score. The rest of director Godfrey Reggio's work doesn't quite add up in my opinion, and Koyaanisqatsi director of photography Ron Fricke's solo work (Baraka, Samsara) is also kind of light although still impressive from a purely photographic point of view. I think Koyaanisqatsi's the best of both of their work, probably due to a lucky confluence of three talents working together. I wrote a paragraph using the word "Koyaanisqatsi" three times! That said, if you're not averse to abstract poetic documentaries, Powaqqatsi and Baraka are also well worth watching. Naqoyqatsi uses a lot of CGI and therefore takes away a lot of the power of the first two. There are 70mm Baraka prints in circulation though so if you live in a town with a repertory theater equipped with 70mm projectors you have a good chance of being able to see it in a spectacular format. Haven't seen Samsara yet. All the "qatsi" words are native american and describe what the film is about but I don't remember what any of them mean. Something like "life out of balance, life in technology, and life in conflict.
  5. The Idle Thumbs Acheivements Leaderboard

    can i please be added? my gamertag is medialifeX
  6. I feel guilty listening to the podcast before reading the book but someone mentioned Sean being upset about the film trailer? The movie is really great and he shouldn't be upset (unless it was like... they visulaized things that he wanted his imagination to create on its own or that kind of thing). From what I understand it's not a direct translation in terms of structure (in the Q&A I saw the Wachowskis described it as "more of a tapestry than an onion") but it certainly worked for me and they succeeded in pulling off an incredibly ambitious epic cinematic experience. I'm just writing this in hopes that fans of the book will look forward to the movie instead of dreading it. I really liked it a lot. EDIT: I broke down and listened to the cast just to make sure I wasn't being a complete idiot. Sean & Chris, some of your fears are justified in that you do see Tom Hanks' face pop up all over the place and the birthmarks are all fairly close to comet-like images, but I have a couple points in spoiler tags which may make you feel a tiny bit better. Of course anyone that loves a book may not like the movie just because it's not the book (Ask me about L.A. Confidential sometime), but my feeling is that they did an incredible adaptation and made a movie version that is really good. I urge everyone to watch Tom Tykwer's adaptation of Perfume starring Ben Whishaw. To me, that shares a much closer similarity to Cloud Atlas (film)'s tone than any of Wachowski's work (although there are several signature shots that bear their style). Also, Ben Whishaw is fantastic.
  7. A Song Of Ice And Fire

    I would move on to Dance with Dragons before looking up Feast for Crows spoilers since they are so closely intertwined.
  8. Dishonored - or - GIFs By Breckon

    Are there any fellow Austinites here? A lot of Arkane folk were at the Arboretum gamestop last night for the midnight launch. I got to meet and chat with one Nick Breckon. It was probably the most fun I've had in a Gamestop.
  9. A Song Of Ice And Fire

    Also worth noting for those that may not know: There's an official map book coming out at the end of the month that promises a complete map of the known world, the free cities, beyond the wall, and i guessonly a few other things because amazon thinks it's only 16 pages long. http://www.amazon.com/The-Lands-Fire-Game-Thrones/dp/0345538544/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349801733&sr=8-1&keywords=lands+ice+fire superb series. the show is also good.
  10. New website!

    impressed! The Founder's Wall is up too!
  11. A Song Of Ice And Fire

    I was completely taken by the books when I read them earlier this year. Great series. Book 3 was my favorite.
  12. whoa. has there been official announcement for Double Fine Happy Action Theater 2!? This is the first I've heard mention of it. Also, September is really close! oopsAwesome!
  13. No it's not midnight. I believe it's a unique time based on something wacky like the first time you play the game or maybe it's a random time with your first play acting as the seed? Either way it definitely wasn't midnight for me. It ended up being Sunday at like 1pm but again I think it's different for everybody. It's definitely consistent to whatever time it's set to though so if you notice that you just missed it or something like that you can wait almost a week and try again. Also, I think the time window that the cube appears ends up being pretty generous - like 2 or 3 hours - since I don't think the hands move in analog (there are like 96 or 108 positions around the clock (I obviously went through the same headache that you did!)) so you don't have to be absolutely perfect with your timing... Although since there's no real precise way to figure out what the time is until you see it, you may want to check earlier than your math indicates just to be sure (this is what happened to me. I thought it would be 2pm but I checked at 1 and the cube was there so I took it). I would definitely suggest giving it another go if that's your last cube. The "full" ending is really worth experiencing, especially since you've put so much time into it!
  14. I tried to look this up as well and had the same experience as Chris. In my findings, the last clock hand is on a 7-day schedule, not a 2-day one. It makes much more sense in the context of the other hands that way (once a minute, once an hour, once a day, and once a week) and using this hunch i managed to get the fourth hand right on schedule.
  15. The Walking Dead

    Got to play through this yesterday. Great job, guys. Just superb. Everything fit together so well. I definitely liked it more than the show, perhaps like it more than the books. I love how the "___ will remember that" mechanic extends even to things that you may not have entire control over like I was immediately overcome with guilt like I had somehow failed even though, thinking back, I'm not sure I couldn't have done anything differently. That feeling seems perfectly suited to the universe! Amazing job!
  16. Anathem

    I haven't read Reamde yet but I was so taken with Anathem that I pushed it on several people who hadn't read any Stephenson and got universal praise from them. Other than that, I prefer Diamond Age to Snow Crash although I haven't read either in a long time. I'd place the Baroque Cycle books at the bottom just because it's such a trudge to get through. By the end, it's very rewarding but the journey can be problematic. I also got a kick out of The Big U, in a first-novel kind of way.
  17. Gunstringer

    I had very similar thoughts. I like the company, like the humor and character of the game, but the precise requirements with the boss battles (not to mention the achievements) ruined it for me. That and the constant firing of my right hand made my elbow sore. I wish it wasn't a kinect game.
  18. Bastion

    so... does the game get better than the demo, or is the demo indicative of the whole? All the reviews are so glowing but for some reason the trailers and demo haven't really sent me to gaming heaven.
  19. What is the Mystery of Scoggins?

    I will second (third? fourth?) the frustration with the number puzzles as well as a few others where it seems like you need one try just to discern the behavior of the puzzle itself, and for some reason it still bugs me that if I solve a puzzle perfectly I get like 48 stamps and awesome gold stars but if I use one hint I just get 1. I suppose achivements have conditioned me too much to want to be perfect at everything. I liked the story very much, thought the voice acting was once again superb, and loved the Thumbs-ish fascination in the last half. The first Puzzle Agent was a pretty big surprise fun time for me 7 months ago so I'm glad that the sequel didn't disappoint in any major way. Just a few nitpicks really. Awesome job!
  20. V The Elder Scrolls

    I definitely found myself caring less about armor in Fallout 3/NV due to the singlet design. I fondly remember being able to truly piecemeal in Morrowind (even wearing a dress over the armor for one more enchantment) and somehow it interested me more because it was a little game in itself to find complete sets of armor. BUT, I also see their point and I'm sure there'll be more than enough to interest me in the game other than greaves and pauldrons.
  21. Which GTA to play?

    I mentioned it briefly above, but I really loved Bully. Since the protagonist is a kid (who's not the Bully by the way, you don't spend the whole game picking on kids), a lot of the side activities make much more sense to me, like collecting rubber bands to make a kick-ass giant rubber band ball or playing the video games. The classes also give the narrative a break whenever you feel like taking them, and most of them are pretty fun. The story is pretty similar to all GTA games, but it's funnier when translated to a school setting, with different factions being the computer nerds, jocks, greasers instead of Haitians and Cubans or Triads and mob goons. You can't kill anyone (but you can beat them up or stuff them in trash cans) and there's a curfew at night, so the general mayhem gameplay constantly tempered by the fact that you're a kid really amused me.
  22. Which GTA to play?

    Hey Sno, do you remember that weird 15-minute video they released for GTA2 with the protagonist stirring up shit? what a weird promo method. I loved the music though. Actually I very much enjoyed GTA2 for tweaking the respect systems. Nothing like mowing down 50 rednecks in order to get the next zaibatsu mission. I also being really overjoyed at hearing that elvises were returning in SA. Unfortunately there was no secret bonus for getting 5 or 6 of them in a row.
  23. Which GTA to play?

    I don't mean to make it sound like i disliked VC. Parts of the map are great, and all GTA games have areas of the map that are empty and have nothing interesting going on, but I just remember VC having a larger amount of that emptiness, especially when compared to GTA3's map. Half the one island was beach, and almost half the other is either barren industrial buildings or airporrt. It did have the apartment from Scarface though, which is cool (I so badly wanted Sasquatch to be in SA) and yeah, punching cars is the best! For some reason, I got a strangely unique thrill out of making Tommy Vercetti go up to every car that dared honk at me and kick the shit out of their door or break their windshield and watch them run. hahahahahahaha*evil
  24. Which GTA to play?

    My clear favorite is SA. I think that has the best story and characters (including GTA4 gasp). GTA3 was great and probably has the funnest most honed map but the technical limitations show (like no melee weapons, not being able to punch cars, etc.). VC has the best atmosphere but I found that to also have the most empty/rushed map. SA is so big that any empty parts are more than equalled out by the three massive cities, it's the top form of that engine, and again, I think it's the most mature storytelling of any GTA game (although they're all derivitave of movies so whatever). I also enjoyed the music the most (go K-JAH West!!!) although that's one of the strongest things about all GTA games. The accomplishment of SA made me feel like they took a step back with GTA4. For more old school, I definitely enjoyed GTA2 more than the first. The first is pretty random and very difficult where the second at least has save spots and a mission structure and systems in play rather than a constant barrage of pages and random cars and explosiony deaths. The end of GTA2 is balls-out hard though, can't imagine beating it without cheats. Also, two more cents getting thrown in, I really loved Bully. I thought it was great to have all the side activities like video games and stuff actually make sense to the character (since he was a kid and not a psychopath murderer). They're all pretty ugly by today's standards (and I guess when they were released too) but the world maps are top-notch in their ability to distill real places into mini sense-maps. Practically every street in Los Santos is a direct reference to somewhere in Los Angeles, yet it also works as a game map. It's great.
  25. What is the Mystery of Scoggins?

    It'd be awesome if you got steam codes whenever you bought from the TTG site. I want to give Telltale as much of my money as I can, but you know... steam.