Korax

Phaedrus' Street Crew
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Posts posted by Korax

  1. Posted

    Played a little Penumbra today. Awesome use of 3-D manipulation. HL2 only used movement detection on 2 axes. Penumbra gives you a full 3-D area in front of you that you can move objects around in. It also has a "touch" mode that represents your point of contact as a small sphere in the environment, allowing you to run your "hand" across surfaces and swat at things. In order to open doors, chests, and drawers (the door to a chest of drawers?) you have to actually perform the motion and pull them open.

    If you have the cash to spend, I wouldn't hesitate to get one. The supported games may be limited in number, but it makes the gameplay more (visceral? mind-blowing?) interesting.

  2. Posted

    I have a minor video-gaming coincidence. I was sitting at my computer, playing The Wonderful End of the World and listening to a recent episode of the 'Cast. I came across a cobra that I wasn't quite big enough to absorb, and I kept getting knocked back. I thought to myself, "If only I could switch to the boy character, I could kill that snake." Shortly after thinking this, you read an e-mail from a listener who was going through the podcast back-catalog and had commented on the "Kill that Snake" song. I couldn't help but smile.

  3. Posted

    Doom 3 got spooky on a number of occasions when I played it, partially due to the fact that I was playing in a dark room with headphones on. At one point I was walking down a hallway, and the lights went out. Glowing red sigils appeared on the walls and strobed down the corridor, accompanied by a whispery "screaming of the damned" sound. I had to quit the game, turn on all the lights, and watch TV for a while before I could keep playing.

  4. Posted

    Welp, my old, third-hand TV just decided to stop working correctly. Repairs look like they'll be in excess of $700-800, so I figured that it might just be time to get a new one. My main concern is video lag, as I use my TV almost exclusively for gaming. Other than that, I'm looking for something in the 40-50" range, with up to a $1000 price tag (though I'm a bit flexible with that). Suggestions?

  5. Posted

    It looks totally fucked ergonomically. It's way too high.

    It's not really a problem as long as you have a bit of support from an arm rest or something similar.

    The HL2 support is a bit buggy, but I can't blame Valve since it's a mod by Novint. There were a couple cases where doing things "out of order" crashed the game. Tried a quick Left 4 Dead scene, and was impressed all over again. Valve added in shakes and bumps when reloading. It's satisfying to feel the pistol magazine slide into place after emptying it into zombie heads.

  6. Posted

    How's about some Sifl & Olly?

    <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Boae1KnvYfI&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Boae1KnvYfI&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

  7. Posted · Edited by Lord Korax

    I'd read some good things about it a while ago, and was trying to justify buying one. The recent wizard discount gave me the perfect excuse. I just got it today, and I must say: holy balls.

    I played Half-Life 2 for about 45 minutes, and was thoroughly impressed. I originally thought that it would only be providing some weapon recoil and force-feedback when getting hit. Not only does it do that, but it gives objects "weight" when you pick them up, and jolts the control around when you bump into things like walls or land after a short fall. It made the beginning escape sequence that much more frantic. I was trying to sprint down hallways to safety, bumping into objects and walls and getting shot at, my control being thrown off while I tried to correct for it. And it's great being able to feel the impact of my crowbar on a Civil Patrolman's head.

    My one disappointment (so far) was the first time I used a turret. Part of the point of a turret is that the gun is supported by its mount; the user doesn't have to worry about recoil very much. As soon as I fired, however, my hand was thrown back by force, and it was difficult to aim at anything. Fortunately, you can hotkey a haptic feedback toggle, and turn it off at any time.

    Did anybody else take advantage of the offer? Any thoughts on the Falcon?

  13. Posted

    A little late to the party, no? Seriously, though, it's great that you're having fun with it, regardless of how long it's been out. All of the recent Diablo 3 teasing prompted me to start playing again, and it's just as good as I remembered.

  14. Posted

    Why can't this game just let me try the next level already.

    Yes. While I enjoyed the challenge, there were definitely points when I just wanted to try the next level and come back later. It was disappointing that I had to almost brute force my way through a few tracks in order to keep playing the game.

  16. Posted

    "Imagine the holocaust. Now picture the exact opposite of that." ign.com

    "Like the Holocaust, but good!" - ign.com

    "This game will force-feed you your own ass!" or "You will choke on your own ass!" - ign.com

  18. Posted

    Trials HD wasn't too bad with the ramp-up. It did, at least, give a nice separation by having the Hard and Expert categories. I gave up on Henry Hatsworth, though. All I wanted was a nice, friendly platformer, and instead I was force-fed my own ass. That and the "dapper gentlemen" Sim-speak was really fucking annoying.

    I don't really agree with Ouendan, though. I thought that it had a nice progression that trained me to be able to play the harder difficulties as I got to them.

  21. Posted

    Also in grade 7, the teacher called a suicide intervention person on me because I wrote "I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS ANYMORE" on my dumb english test. I just wanted to go home early, jesus.

    I had something almost exactly like that happen to me in 7th grade. I was called in to talk to the vice-principal because I was bored during a test and started drawing stick men that were killing each other with rocket launchers. And then again in 9th because the high school's admins apparently had the same concerns.

    Also: What's up? I'm (yet another) Chris, and I like to play video games.

  24. Posted

    I've been trying to figure this one out for a while. For some reason, I can't seem to figure out what the system was. It was made sometime in the mid-to-late-80's, black, and (if I remember correctly) had a numeric keypad on the console itself. I could be wrong, but I don't think it used cartridges; the games were selected using the keypad. I remember playing Donkey Kong and some sort of top-down tank game. I've looked through Wikipedia and several retro gaming sites, but nothing has spurred my memory. I guess that would make Donkey Kong the first game I remember playing.