thl

Phaedrus' Street Crew
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    172

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by thl

  2. Posted

    Does it have many spoilers? I'm still trying to avoid perusing any more Brütal Legend previews/videos, but I'm tempted.

    if you consider knowing things about the game spoilers, then yes. There's nothing specifically plot-related (it's all a description of settings and characters along with their particular inspirations be they artists or social groups), there is some information about factions within the game that i didn't know about before watching. Mostly it's just more opportunity to see footage though.

  5. Posted

    I remember Toe Jam & Earl and Decap Attack for the genesis both having pretty cool endings (they were similar in that "the ending" was a whole new map that was full of awesome stuff that you could walk around and whatnot)

    recently... do games even have endings anymore?

  7. Posted

    God damn. The game looks and plays great — can’t wait for the final product more than ever now. :(

    It's a short demo, only really serving as a tutorial. Still, it took me 30–45 minutes to get through and it covers up to and includes the fight with the massive vagina thing. It doesn't really give the story time to get properly started though, only really covering Eddie's elongated "WTF?" reaction.

    Impressed, though. Only the hack-and-slash and the driving gameplay is shown, but both feel solid as fuck. Double Fine generally seems very good at pulling off foreign genres — Psychonauts handled really well as a platformer despite being new territory for like all the developers — which bodes well for the more advanced group/RTS stuff that isn't included in the demo.

    It's actually a lot generally prettier and polished than I expected too, which is weird as I've been looking at media for months. The close-ups of Eddie and such are brilliant on a HD TV, and the environment art like the crazy storm shit going on while you're in your car looks amazing. Even the main menu of all things is slick as a twat.

    Couldn't agree more. I love the main menu, felt solid in both the riding and fighting gameplay (could still use a jump button though) and was the short demo very much succeeded in psyching me up to OMG levels.

    And the Kabbage Boy guitarist was doing the Raz dance. so awesome.

    One of the biggest surprises for me was Jack Black's voice acting being pretty quiet and not at all his jack-when-he's-worked-up voice. All of his little one-off thoughts were awesome and funny. I can only hope that the game remains this slick as it grows in scope. More than once I stopped what I was doing just to marvel at how awesome the art design in the terrain was.

    gah a whole month!!!

  9. Posted

    This also gives me another chance to recommend George Pelecanos's books. For anyone that liked The Wire, Pelecanos was one of the writers on that show but he's primarily a novelist. All his stuff is set in DC but the tone, style, and pacing of the show are all very similar to his books. They are GREAT crime novels.

    My favorites of his are Drama City, Shoedog, The Night Gardener, and his DC quartet (The Big Blowdown, (especially) King Suckerman, The Sweet Forever, and Shame the Devil). well worth reading if you are hungry for more Wire in book form.

  10. Posted

    It's ok, I forgive you. :mock:

    But seriously it's nice to be able to talk to someone who has read it! I was kind of surprised how little was taken from the book, but you're right, it's more what Simon learned writing the book than many specific moments or events.

    I should really watch Season 4, and I will do soon, but it's odd to say that after reading Homicide and the beginning of The Corner, the show feels suddenly... a little too real. I'll probably readjust, but the humour of say, a teenage psychopath ordering a nailgun from an unsuspecting store clerk seems somewhat less "funny" (although I know it was never "laugh out loud" funny or anything... perhaps I'm using the wrong word :-/ )

    I'll get there!

    Yeah a lot of people seem to think season 4 is the best... I'm partial to season 3 myself (go, cutty!) but season 4 is definitely also top form. Season 5 is a bit rushed... but still great.

    If you're looking to revisit Homicide moments, you might want to rent the first few seasons of the show Homicide. A lot (for real this time) of plot events are lifted for the show... even a season arc on a new detective working the murder of a little girl found in a backyard. I haven't seen the whole series (it went on for something like 9 seasons) but the first few seasons are pretty good. Nowhere near the quality of The Wire (it's much more of a "tv show" where stories end at the end of episodes, there are cliffhangers, etc.) but it's also very David Simon.

    Very much looking forward to Treme, although I haven't actually seen or heard much about it...

  12. Posted

    I have to say something about the idea that a lot of stuff from the book made its way into The Wire. I read the same thing in a review of the book before I read it, and I was baffled when I eventually finished it: Apart from the "snot-boogie" story and the two cops having a hilarious conversation about being "broken in" by the other one ("thanks for being so gentle...") there wasn't anything from the book in The Wire. (Note: I still haven't watched Series 4 and 5... so maybe there's more?)

    yeah i believe there are a few things that come in with season 5 although one of which is just a minor reference to a cop included in the book. I believe the first scene in the fifth season is lifted straight from the book (another anecdote similar to the first scene in the first season) so there a few cases of incidents... and of course several of the people profiled in the book have small parts in the series (Jay Landsman (in character and actor), Gary D'Addario, along with DeAndre McCullough from The Corner)... but you're right: plotwise, much more was taken directly for Homicide: Life on the Streets. The book's influence on The Wire is more procedural and tonal.

    It's been a while since I've read the book so I apologize if i'm inaccurate in any way.

  13. Posted

    The Wire to me is more like a 60-hour film than a tv series. I've watched the whole series a few times and none of the seasons get old at all (for me). the Band of Brothers miniseries is the only other "tv show" i see in this light, although I believe that had a much higher budget and a much lighter running time.

    Anyway, I watched The Corner and it's good but VERY intense and VERY depressing. It's basically the Bubs level of the Wire explored in depth. For those watching after seeing The Wire, it'll be cool to spot familiar actors in opposite roles (Simon has said about casting The Wire that anyone who played a junkie in The Corner had to play a cop and vice versa). I couldn't bring myself to read the book and will probably not watch the series again just because it's so draining.

    Generation Kill is also very good but doesn't have the depth or humor to make it a classic for me personally. From what I hear it's a very authentic look at the early days of the second Iraq war and Alexander Skarsgard (who's now famous as Eric the vampire in True Blood) is very good in it, but again by the end of the miniseries the tone is pretty draining. There's not many light moments to lift the heaviness of the drama (although the actor who played Ziggy tries his best).

    Also for Simon fans, I heartily recommend reading Homicide. Several incidents and characters from The Wire are picked straight from the pages (with most of the other ones showing up in Homicide the TV show (another good show but since it was on a network had no hope of being as subtle and rich as The Wire)) and even though it's about a decade old now, still super enlightening as far as the realistic process of being a cop is concerned.

  14. Posted

    man that intro movie (linked on several sites, none of which are accessible through my work's firewall) is really great. Makes me about as excited as ever to get my hands on the thing.

    Is that kabbage Boy guitarist doing the Raz dance up on that stage cliff? It sounds like it but I can't see to be sure.

  15. Posted

    Damn Day Tripper achievement. I am dead on my feet today at work because of it.

    Very fun! the little game tweaks (like changing difficulty from the start menu, the three second countdown after you unpause, the achievement tracking, etc.) are all very welcome additions. I've only played on drums so far but all most of the songs I considered fun to play. The dreamscapes were distractingly beautiful to the point where i messed up a few times because I got myself hipmotized. Of course my back, right forearm and right calf muscle all hurt like hell but... worth it!

  16. Posted

    I remember an Apple 2e game where you have to remember the pattern of lilipads for a frog to jump on then you give it the entire sequence (from memory) and watch it hop in the directions you give it, hopefully not hopping into the water if your memory was right.

    I also remember galaga in the pizza place we'd go to.

    even before that, i remember playing games on the Intellivision my dad got us. Basketball where the dudes were way too skinny, some racing game where I learned what "accelerator" meant, Frogger, Burgertime, and Dungeons and Dragons where the awesome dragon looked a lot like a cobra.

    The first game I remember having any real control over buying or playing was Where in Europe is Carmen Sandiego on my dad's Wang 386. Awesome times.

  17. Posted

    My primary issue with the idea of a western RPG is that I imagine developers would feel forced in some weird indefinable way to include Magic. I'd be into a open world western RPG where things that may have actually applied to people of the old west are pertinent to the game. Like if the character was (as most-all western games begin) some sort of eastwood-esque character, except without all the skills maybe. Perhaps just a gun and the need for income. Then things like the ability to drink water and go for a while without dying, or building up stamina under the hot sun, or (obviously) gun-slinging abilities and animal husbandry (ie horse-riding) would be the "skill trees." What I fear is that someone comes along and says, "hey lets put oblivion/fable/diablo in the American West." What I also fear is that my idea of a good western RPG might feel too much like Fallout in the American West. Replace enclave with some rich prospector and keep the raiders "raiders" and replace the radiation sickness with dehydration and heat-stroke. Keep dogmeat. Add horses as "vehicles."

    Maybe I'm just being too cynical here, but I feel like it'd be hard to make a Western-Themed RPG that could feel like what we "think" the Wild West was like without someone crying foul over another game that's so similar but just painted in a different backdrop. At the same time if this Red Dead Redemption becomes GTA in the old west with the first Red Dead's game mechanics, I'll buy it. But only if they keep the film grain and perfect sound they had before. Plus the "wild-west" accents. I'm that kind of cheesy.

    I think you speak to a larger trend in a lot of games that they don't feel secure enough with an intimate story. The whole SpaceCop thing where it'd be refreshing to play a dude who doesn't control the fate of the universe, isn't the chosen one saviour of generations king of the world. My guess is that there's a fear that if you play someone relatively insignificant, people wont want to play it. I don't know about other people but at this point, making something small is more new and exciting than making something epic and i'd love it.

    I agree. no magic. no aliens (prey). no Wild Wild West mechanical spiders. Just some cowboys on the open range, man.

    but yeah... i think ideally, land would play a large part in my fantasy Western RPG. You'd have the ability to buy a store and stock it with inventory or something or acquire assets around town. My super-fantasy would be the ability for towns to spring up if you discover gold in a mountain... some sort of mining or panhandling mechanic if you wanted to. but also all the things you mention about the sun and water management... I know those don't immediately sound like "fun" things to have in a game but i'm fairly sure with enough polish it could be an effective mechanic that doesn't become too annoying.

    But just off the top of my head, you could have like a sheriff path where you uphold the law in different towns and your reputation grows or an outlaw path where you eventually get bigger and have a posse and can tax towns and put up with vigilantes or a fortune-hunter path killing buffalo for trade and on the trail of hidden mexican treasure or even an indian path at war with the white man in defense of your homeland. Whether these are different characters to play or different missions to sign up for, it still seems like there's a metric ton of genre terrain to cover. The game just needs to be big and beautiful and open and detailed enough to pull it off.

    Personally, I wished Fallout 3 coulda been Old West several times while playing. I think it would've been just as much fun.

  18. Posted

    Was it you that sent in reader mail saying a Wild West MMOFPS would be the best game ever? :)

    Red Dead Redemption could be amazing. The first was great, but lacked a certain something.

    Have you played Gun?

    No it was some other western fan in the reader mail... I'm not a very big fan of MMOs because of what the thumbs have mentioned in some cast or another (everyone wants to be the outlaw, no one wants to be the barkeep), but yeah I have hope for Red Dead Redemption (although I never had a console for the first one).

    I did play GUN and it I thought it started off with great promise and I still liked enough about it to play all the way through but it ended up being more of a Western GTA (which is ok) than a Western Oblivion (which is more what I'd like). The open range feeling was good except the map was way too small and the missions were... I dunno... had some charm but a little too simplistic or off in some way. I'd definitely play a GUN 2 made this generation with hopes that they expanded on some of the elements which i thought were too small or simplistic... hopefully that'll be Red Dead Redemption.

    Also, as a fan of Italian Western films, the second Call of Juarez gets maybe a bit too much credit for their homage. There's really not much taken from those films other than what people who have only seen one or two think represent the genre.

  19. Posted

    No, it's very much a level based game, but there are plenty large, open spaces to explore. As I said, it's pretty much entirely in first person, meaning the dialogue and stuff is usually experienced passively to a degree. It's less focussed on shooting, and though the stealth bits are quite wank it's worth persevering. The style changes a lot throughout, with some bits straight shooting, some horseback chases, some sneaking, some platforming, some rabbit hunting. Unbalanced, all over the place and full of dodgy moments, but surprisingly ambitious and different overall.

    It's funny how a lot of the gamers I know who would love a really amazing Western game all agree on what the core principles and themes should be and that all of the western games I've played end up missing the mark.

    Aside from the old Sierra Gold Rush, does anyone know of a western RPG (in that it's set in the old west, not made by westerners)? Maybe I played too much Oregon Trail as a kid but it sounds like a real fun idea to me.

  20. Posted

    QWOP

    is this possible?

    gdf, would you say the first Call of Juarez closer to the open world style of Oblivion? I played through the sequel and was pretty disappointed. The only two areas that i liked were the two maps that let you go on little side-missions and explore the country side. Otherwise it was so linear and smoothed over I felt like it could've been in space or WWII or whatever and been the exact same game. I would really love a western where things actually felt dirty and open and clunky and not rely on massive cinematic sequences filled with crappy banal plot.

    The last game I finished was X-Men Origins: Wolverine (surprisingly good), Shadow Complex (very good), and the remake of Secret of Monkey Island. Although I still preferred the "old school" version of Monkey Island, I still kinda hope they bring LeChuck's revenge out on xbla because it's a good environment to play through it again with my gf. Sitting around the computer feels MUCH dorkier than sitting on the couch.

  22. Posted

    I was hoping you meant the secret heat room by the hard part, wasn't expecting the horror of the exploding escape.

    I tried to do Insurgent (watching the walkthroughs on iPhone while playing when I got stuck) but I screwed up near the end: the exploding escape seemed so hard that I went back and got a health pack. Then looked that I still had 3% (of 4% allowed) and went to get another one, expecting it to go to 4% now. Didn't look at the stats, stepped into a save room. Bam! I had 5% of items. So no Insurgent. Thankfully it should be doable in an hour or so once you know how to do it so I'll try again tomorrow.

    BTW. the extra health didn't seem to help that much with the exploding escape. It seems more down to luck than how much health you have. I had made it to the elevator once with 200 health but screwed up the jumps.

    What's more annoying is that if you have 200 health you pretty much have to watch that cut-scene every time, if you skip it, you take more damage from the explosion (so much that I couldn't even get out of that big room). I know those stupid lines by heart now.

    yeah that part was frustratingly annoying. I don't know why the first two screens seems to have a time limit before taking health off but the elevator shaft has a time limit before killing you instantly. And watching the cutscene over and over really drives home how bad the "story" is... but at least it taught me that holding X makes you go up ladders faster.

    After that though, the end battle seems like a breeze.

  23. Posted

    I used the internet wisdom to run through Insurgent on Casual at level 30. There's really only one hard part (and it's not the ending). I'm not sure it's "sequence breaking" though to use a secret door that chair put in for the express purpose of skipping portions of the game.

    Still fun though.

    i'm currently running through on insane looking for 100%. I noticed however that my powerup indicators (the question marks and dots) have disappeared on my map. Is this because I'm playing on insane or because i've completed it a few times already or because i'm an idiot and have them turned off somehow or because it's a bug? Anyone else having this issue?

    Oh, the status update: single is also pretty simple to do (although I'm not sure how easy it is to do without already knowing about it... from the internet).

  24. Posted

    Yes, this was my second campaign. You indeed lose powerups but keep level. I played on hard the second time and maybe will play on insane again after I give the proving grounds a shot.

    sweet! level 50 sounds tolerable now!

  25. Posted

    I finished this last night as well. have to say, it was quite fun. I'm not really sure the controversy surrounding Orson Scott Card is all that relevant considering the "story" is really nothing more than "bad guys! in a base! kill them!" Not quite up there in the higher echelons of literature along with Homer and Shakespeare...

    Going through the Proving Grounds now... Has anyone tried starting a new campaign after they beat it? The achievements make it sound like I lose all my powerups but do I keep my experience level? Replaying on Hard or Insane sounds much better if I do