Xeneth

Wait, Toblix loved it?! Damn, I wasn't paying attention during the sale... next time, Steam... next time... In the meantime, I should probably load up STALKER at some point. The number of games that have never been installed in my Steam list is OBSCENE.

I didn't have access to a PC during my formative years, so I was a "console kid" through and through. Interestingly, I was afraid of arcade games as a kid. I loved watching my dad see how far he could take a quarter in R-Type or 1943 at the local bowling alley, but every time he offered me a quarter I refused. We were a very, very poor family, (hence the lack of PC) and as I recall, it was my opinion that wasting a whole quarter just so I could try and make it 1/25th as far in a game as he could seemed like an unacceptable waste. Looking back, I had weird completionist "forest through the trees" tendencies even back then, ha ha! I didn't know this part of the story at the time, but when my best friend at the time got a console for his birthday, the exposure to gaming without the fear of wasting quarters opened me up in ways that even my parents could see. I would come home and immediately start creating my own Super Mario Brothers levels on big pieces of butcher paper my Dad had salvaged to save money on drawing paper. My parents (Father and Grandmother) saw what was going to happen- My fairly well-to-do Mom (divorced) would probably get me a console that year, and in their eyes, whoever was responsible for this gift would indirectly be responsible for shaping who I would eventually become. It was THAT obvious that I was going to attempt to create video games when i grew up. So, they sold and risked all sorts of shit, literally broke the piggy bank that I never knew about in order to get me an NES. Not tying the concept of losing the game to losing a quarter allowed me to forget our money troubles and love gaming, but I had no idea how much more they risked simply to possess a parent's pride at having obtained the thing that changed their child's life. We didn't even have a color television at the time, so the games that relatives sent me occasionally would have color-dependent gameplay components- I strongly remember fiddling with the knobs in some vain attempt to make the red and blue pills in Dr. Mario look different so I wouldn't have to guess any more! To this day I am quite irate that most games that have red/green health bars or whatever lack colorblind modes, despite my personal ability to see all colors. The NES was my first gaming love, so naturally I had a very Nintendo-centric view of the industry. I wasn't impressed by what little exposure to the Sega brand I had at friends' houses, and like any good little early console war child I vehemently defended "my choice" to justify it. Later, I would earn enough money to help my family survive and build a gaming PC by dropping out of high school to work at a fast food restaurant. I was late to the PC party, but it soon ate up as much of my gaming time as the PS2 I was able to afford. These days, I tend to divide my time up fairly evenly in the grand scheme of things, but it's odd; I tend to become very console or PC-centric in bursts of a week or a month at a time. No idea why, but if I have a few solid experiences with my 360 I'll get in the habit of turning that on instead for a bit, before something I've been waiting to play on the PC comes out and things will lean in the other direction for a while.

Finished! ...Wow. Beautiful and terrifying game. Deserves it's place up there with other inspired puzzle platformers on XBLA, and underscores an interesting thought I never had before; The 360 certainly is the system you want if you're into artful puzzle/platformers, isn't it?! This was the kind of game I feel like you could put in front of an alien, like a literal being from another world, and as long as they saw in our spectrum of light, heard in our spectrum of sound, and had manipulators, they could "get it" and enjoy it. I just love how unfettered the experience was by cultural and language boundaries. I also felt like it relied even less on some "gamer preconceptions" than other similar offerings. The platforming and physics felt intuitive and fresh in a way that suggested to me one's knowledge of Mario really isn't a factor in this experience. I won't gush about the animation, but... Wow. Setting some standards for the way weight and gravity should affect the way a 2D character animates. I should fess up that I suspected the first video footage I saw of Limbo way back when was a proof of concept mock-up; the animation and physics looked too smooth to be in-engine. I love how wrong I was! Kind of surprised the gore "got to" some of you. Is everyone aware that you can turn it off in the options? Personally, the gore added a layer of impact to the many deaths that I quite enjoyed, in a similar way to how I enjoy having the shit creeped out of me by horror games. I too enjoyed the feel of some of the earlier areas a touch more than the later ones, but my complaints weren't quite as big as some of those above. I recognize the need for shifting themes and mechanics to lend a touch of freshness to the exploration. Interestingly, as much as this was a thought provoking and fascinating experience for me, I don't feel the compulsion or the need to have a "heated interpretation" of the story. It's suggestive and evocative, but not in the same ways that Braid are. I'll be interested to see if enough Thumbs disagree with me on this point that some debate and speculation actually do bubble up in this thread. Jonathan Blow as much as said in interviews that Braid had a creator interpretation, but that he wasn't willing to share it. I agree with this decision mechanically, he'd be robbing a lot of intelligent people of their keen discussions and insights. Art should definitely be given the space to mean different things to different people. However, I fail to see why he even talked about it THAT much. Based on some reactions I've seen, it made some people feel like there was a hidden "right" interpretation that they were searching for... But on second thought, maybe that's brilliant and partially responsible for some of the (rather fun) debate! Not trying to sidetrack another Braid discussion into this thread at all, but my point is- I haven't heard from the developers of Limbo on the subject of interpretation, and until I do, I'm willing to wager that they don't have one. That is to say, they probably have quite a few. Limbo appears to be a product of more than one visionary designer/programmer and one artist, after all. I just get the impression that Limbo is a "soft sell" in the story department in that there are moods and feelings it's trying to convey, but not so heavy on the meanings or lessons. I could easily be wrong, that's just the impression I get. There's something aggressive about Braid's presentation that gets me fired up to discuss these things with others (which I also thoroughly enjoy, for the record) that I'm just not feeling here.

So far the atmosphere, animations, physics, and overall control/feel are spot on! Loving it, but it's also a game of trial and error. There's a lot of hazards you really have no way of foreseeing, so occasionally this leads to a feeling of "cheap deaths", but it's almost entirely mitigated by the frequent checkpoints and smart, subtle sound and UI decisions that make deaths feel little like "resets" as possible.

Something tells me I'm not actually useful enough at GTA-style shenanigans and/or don't have the friends list to make this work for me...

It'll be interesting to see if L.A Noire answers any of our systemic concerns on this front. I'm aware that it's not the same PART of Rockstar doing it, but given what they've revealed about painstakingly recreating a Los Angeles that doesn't really exist any more from pre-quake reference photography, I think it's a safe bet that it's going to be an "open world" game. If I'm right, they're going to run into a LOT of the same design questions, like "How and when do we gate the player in an open world?", "Where do tasks we want the player to perform no matter what end and optional tasks begin?", or "How do we portray the main character when not under player control?" My hope is that some of the answers to these questions come out a little different this time and we end up with something a little more detective-y and a little less shooter-y. A little less concerned with telling a linear story that's unbraided in parts and pinned to little letter icons on a map. I dig the GTA formula at times, but it hasn't felt relevant from a design standpoint since the PS2 era...

I agree with you 100% and have ground my teeth at those moments that nullify player agency, but this doesn't actually have anything to do with the Assassin's Creed STORY. Here's the bit I bold in the vain fantasy that some developer's eye would drift over a forum page and something would click- A game's cutscenes are not in any way, shape, or form it's "story". Cutscenes are a vehicle you can use to drive a story somewhere, but even if you removed every single one of them from AC2, it'd still tell an (arguably less clear) story about a kid born into a family of assassins and caught up in a bullshit conspiracy that connects to the present day. What you described is at the design junction of agency and systems, not systems and story, but that doesn't make it any less valid. The "fighting a bunch of dudes" system was indeed improved a bit in the sequel, but what they seem to be missing is that if they made it entirely optional, there's a pretty large group of gamers that would seriously get off on the idea of never having to use that system because they're so patient and careful as to never get caught up in it.

It really doesn't sound like having anything to do with Sony's handheld platform is easy... I'm not quite in the market for any new Sony stuffs, but this thread makes me shake my head and frown at them.

I'm a big Anamanaguchi fan, (The live set they were a part of here in SF earlier this year was great) so naturally this game just keeps sounding sweeter and sweeter... hope they port it to XBLA soon after release, as I still lack a darn PS3. There's something about the concept of an otherwise pretty normal rock band with an NES on "vocals" that tugs inexorably on my gamer center of mass I suppose.

Oooooo... I'll keep an eye out for that!

Oh! I almost forgot! Pat yourselves on the back, Thumbs- WE DID IT!!! ...Thanks to all the other Thumbs out there who entered that into Google every few days alongside me. Truly an auspicious discovery when it beat me to it this time!

Tight and fun little cast, for some reason I am compelled to listen to it again now, possibly while sculpting a weird thing out of clay. Really looking forward to witnessing whatever record comes out of that PAX panel! A live performance of Space Asshole is a great idea, but I hope you're prepared for the inevitable "ENCORE!" roar that will follow sir. That's funny Thompson, my reaction to the Cryostasis thread comment was "Hey, I helped asplode that thread! It was yet another awesome little Thumbs moment, eclipsed only by my being the one to start that Thumbvasion of a random QWOP youtube video, in turn eclipsed only the the "Adventure Games" cross-stitch incident. What a funny little meme community we have, yay! And speaking of creative Thumbs, "SNOW-glebum" (like that?!), audio lord, how do you do it?! And thanks fer filling in for Hermie, that's some fine Gary's Moddin' thar Korax!

I'll just have to wait until I build a new gaming computer someday I guess... Got this in a Steam sale a while ago, but it won't actually run on my ancient Windows XP DirectX 9.0c rig. Hilariously, when I was combing through forums trying to get help for the "run game, loading splash, then nothing happens ever" problem, it's all directed at trying to convince the game to run in a DX10 environment. Apparently I'm the only XP user on the internet with that particular issue!

Ha ha, glad to be a part of making the thread asplode so hard it got mentioned on the cast! I think what Raff and Miffy mean is that Cryostasis isn't a big budget game with set pieces designed to impact the player as much as possible... Walking up to Cryostasis and saying, "Impress me, game!" seems like it could end in a missed opportunity. I'm not very far, but I think I'm "getting" and enjoying the vibe. Thus far, my analysis resonates with what Raff said about the moment-to-moment mechanics and gameplay not being anything revolutionary. The mere act of operating it isn't going to blow your mind open (ign.com)... But like any sort of thoughtful, creepy game, you've going to get more out of it than you put in, if you what you're putting in is immersion as opposed to expectations. Here's what I'm bringing to the table, for example: Late nights, lights really low, (or out entirely) Headphones on Fullscreen Monitor filling the majority of my field of vision The window behind me cracked and cool air blowing into the room from outside. (It's San Francisco, your local mileage may vary on that, don't catch a cold!) Gooseflesh would be your indicator that your environs, (and attitude) are aligned to experience at least a part of why I think it's neat. It's entirely possible that having your initial info be "Weird game by no-name Russian developer" and then being surprised is a part of the impact-ful experience. "OMG thumbsplosion get it get it" could very well be the wrong expectation going in. We may be slightly at fault here for talking it up, but in our defense, you know how gamers get- We're easily excited and want to share.

God I hope not, because I have both of those same problems... I may have missed the birth of PC gaming, but I hit the scene right about when Mechwarrior 3 came out, so players were making comparisons and I picked up the acronym. I am terrible at Homeworld, but the first game's campaign was one of those bizarre hallmark game things that make me tear up when I think about the effect it had on me.

See? THAT'S why a "console kid" should post random things in a forum dominated by PC Gamers! "Find whatever file the options menu would have edited if it worked for you" isn't something that would have occurred to me right off the bat. Kind of them to encode that file in a way that we could parse without some crazy interpreter/unpacker, but I'm sure that's PC development tradition and editing it by hand just isn't something I've done very often. Thanks!

The developer's site really got hacked? That's really shitty and disheartening. I guess that's just the wild internet frontier or whatever for ya. Decided to load this up, boy you guys were right- It's a bit of an optimization nightmare/graphics hog. Unfortunately it crashes to desktop whenever I click on "Options" in the main menu, so I guess I'll just have to live with a little bit of chugginess when certain events trigger. I'm probably lucky my rig is handling it well enough that it's playable from the sound of things. Only about 30 minutes in, but so far it's really, really good. God, I love scary games.

SO glad I never got sucked into WoW. I am immune to Actiblizzon! Mua ha ha! ...Don't anybody actually inform me of what Paragon is doing with City of Heroes/Villains: Going Rogue though, I might have a lapse in judgment... Everyone seems to have at least that ONE game they shouldn't play, all it will take to remind them of why they stopped is dropping $15 or a couple of hours into it again or whatever, but as long as distance is making the thumbs grow fonder we can feel that slight tug...

I only ever managed to play either of the first two Oddworld games on the PS1 in demo form, but I recall the shoulder button "dialogue" system being a lot of fun. Much luck to them, a resurgence sounds like it could be a really neat thing. It's really weird and amusing now that marketing has to have a person to "man the twitter feed" and actually pay attention to it, making all kinds of inane @replies to people in the community poking at it...

"Let's play" style stuff got a little bit of lip service on the first page, but I don't think we were calling them that or linking any specifics yet. That Quake championship really was fun to watch- If you're interested in seeing the three matches that led up to the one they're covering up there... U6NuMyXw1Hs [The first match begins around 24:00]

...Shuffling this up a couple places in the backlog of death now...

Let it be known up front that I'm completely out of the loop when it comes to "the inside scoop" on Sony products, as I lack a PS3 and my ancient PSPhat sees almost no action these days... So, from a pure value perspective the things you're outlining seem desirable enough, but there's one last hurdle I'd make the PSP Go jump over before I allowed it into my wallet, and that's form factor. I have huge hands, and I seriously doubt that the smaller form factor, smaller screen, and teensy-looking little shoulder buttons would work for me, but maybe you're proportioned a bit more normally. That being said, I've never actually tried holding it my hands and hitting all the buttons, maybe it's not as un-ergonomic as it looks. See if any retailer would be willing to let you physically grasp a floor model at some point, and then mentally extend your experience how ever many hours into the future you tend to play in a sitting.

Aaand finished! Thoroughly enjoyed, hoping more is on the way. As I recall Jake got some sort of UI-based credit? If so, wanted to post that the couple of people who have seen my play this have both remarked that the transitions and UI are particularly fitting and impressive. I didn't check any thread spoilers until now, and in hindsight I gotta agree that there are mechanical/rules questions standing in the way of a straightforward solve on some puzzles. I don't mind some trail and error by itself, and I don't mind scoring penalties much by themselves, but that's a bit of a deadly combination. Sometimes found myself wondering if the hints would clarify any of the mechanics, and not using them because I didn't want to be docked. In the end though, I got through most of the tricky ones fairly unscathed by forcing myself to overthink and put myself in the position of the puzzle's designer(s). When it came to the ending, I was in agreement with some of the spoilered-out statements in the thread above, but then I went and watched some more of the Grickle shorts... I think it's quite an for an adventure game in general, but it's . Kind of breaks even at this point in my mind.

More research reveals that it is indeed Gabriel Knight 3, my bad! And it really was maple syrup originally. Just as well, "honey" rolls off the tongue better anyway. The evolution and etymology of memes is fascinating, isn't it? Any idea what Thumbs episode they busted it out in? Might be a tough find, I seem to recall it being just a single utterance followed by someone saying that would make a sweet needlecraft thing saying, like "Home Sweet Home"... so I did it. I'd like to confirm who's idea that originally was. Oh, and on the subject of old ridiculous adventure games, I posted a link to a fairly amusing video review guy that has covered some of the FMV-era ones in the Episode 47 Thread. Ton of terrible games played with commentary! The Spoony Experiemnet

Ran into a very in depth and fairly amusing video review series on Ripper. The Spoony Experiement: Ripper (The videos are organized in reverse order due to blog-ness) There's enough material there to feel like you've practically played through the thing, if anyone got extra curious at any point.