juv3nal

I'll find out when I get home tonight (I think the next ep. comes out tonight?), but there better not be an extra charge because I was pretty sure I paid for the whole season. There shouldn't be any code input since I was never given a code to input when I got the first one. I'm guessing it won't prompt you to download though just because I haven't seen anything do that yet unless you count patching type updates. It's possible if you fire up the first episode it may prompt you, but I don't think going into PSN will do it. You probably need to navigate over to the 'new stuff' section and find it to download it.

I'm excited. It's their first original IP, innit? I hope the actiony bits aren't awful. I'm pretty confident that the npc interaction/rpg stuff will be decent enough.

Don't get me wrong, the moment-to-moment gameplay is fun and I've already ploughed 8 hours or so into it, but there aren't that many maps and some of the game modes don't really interest me. I like the zone-capture one and the symmetrical grab-the-gold and the shootout just fine, but I'm not a fan of the one side attacks/other side defends modes. Besides, uncharted 2 multi is pretty good in its own right. Not just because it has a progression system. Don't knock it 'till you've tried it.

picked it up for PSN. It's ok. I got my $15 worth out of it, but without some kind of progression/customization carrot, I can't see myself sticking with it over, say, Uncharted 2 multiplayer. There are some nice touches to it like that fact that you can shoot out the lights on the night-time fort map. And the classes are reasonably well balanced.

Yeah that's the thing. Even more so than straight up deathmatch, survival forces you to unlearn the grab cover/stop and pop mentality of single player because not only do you have to be aware of being flanked by guys coming in from all directions (like deathmatch), but also spawns can show up from places where it's not possible for a player controlled character to reach. Think you've got your back against a wall or a cliff face? Surprise, you just got ganked by a chokey ninja dude who dropped down/climbed up from some unreachable area. While those types of spawns happen in coop objective mode too, in that mode, they're entirely predictable and it's much more like single player where they're always funneling you in one direction so you don't often have to worry about what's behind you. IMO you really need to keep moving to do well in survival. Grabbing cover for any extended period of time leaves you too vulnerable to being flanked unless you have a team member dedicated to just covering your back. Which, while it might work, will never happen unless all three people are using voice chat. Personally, I don't have voice chat so that doesn't help me. There are exceptions, of course. In the village map, the rooftop overlooking the main plaza with the 2 rocket launcher spawns is not bad for hunkering down for at least the first 5-6 stages. They will try flush you with grenades though and ammo can get scarce because ideally you want to be killing dudes on the ground while staying up on the roof.

I know people who'd consider themselves gamers that just tune out if turn-based is involved. Not to cast generalizing aspersions, but I'd imagine that number diminishes for PC gamers compared to primarily console gamers.

I'll pick this up to see what Obsidian does with the storytelling (and I'm not too fussed with the graphics either way), but to be honest I never finished FO3. I got hit by some bugs (npcs, include a potential quest giver randomly dying on me) and just lost heart at the prospect of either redoing a fairly lengthy section or skipping some stuff.

Ron Gilbert himself has been somewhat cagey on the matter: Probably due to contractual reasons. But if you look at what [REDACTED] could be, PC is probably at the head of the list in terms of being most likely.

Man, anybody playing with the Siege DLC? I always feel out of my depth when I do coop with dudes with the DLC as they seem to be just that little bit better than the regular punters. I always have the fewest kills/die the most with them whereas I can often end up tops when I matchmake with non-DLC content people. These two dudes carried my butt all the way through to stage 10 of a survival game earlier today (though we didn't manage to beat it). I think the best I've ever managed with non-DLC folk is 6 or 7.

canabalt

repost from something I saw on GWJ forums, supposedly someone's twitter. It's over on shacknews as well, neither with a source (and google doesn't find it on twitter...not a big surprise if it was redacted) but hilarious even if not authentic:

If you buy into the premise of Fountain, then pretty much anything that anyone wants to (I would argue, sincerely, rather than just having a laugh) call art is art. And as recently as 2004, a lot of "art experts" seemed to be buying into the premise of Fountain. The real quibbling is just over what is "good" or "worthwhile" or otherwise significant art. edit: a lot of people would probably argue that it needs to have had some sort of human intervention to qualify. I'd posit that if you take the Dada-ist project to its logical conclusion simply pointing at a thing and saying "that's art" is sufficient human intervention in and of itself.

Mostly I don't worry about it because my compulsion doesn't really extend beyond the amount of free time I have available/want to devote to gaming, but as a general rule, I limit myself to having one bought-at-full-price AAA title on the go at a time (I either finish it, lend it to someone or sell it back before I go on to another), I fill in the rest of my gaming with: Borrowed games from friends. Demos to figure out that I really do/don't want something. free/cheap indie or XBLA/PSN stuff, flash games. price dropped (used/steam sale/old) stuff. I sell back stuff more often than I buy used. Yeah I know I'm getting ripped off, but $5 for something I paid $60 a month ago is still better than nothing if none of my friends want to play it and I know I'm never going to touch it again.

Finished this on PS3 after checking out the demo to see if the control scheme "worked" for me. I don't really remember how the Sam & Max on the XBLA controlled, but this felt better at any rate (because I never ended up buying that one). Maybe it was the same and I'm just delusional. Load times between areas could get a bit bleh on the PS3, but ultimately tolerable. Game itself was fantastic.

EDGE preview (some spoilers in there but no more than the Gameinformer scans had )

Yeah I've gotten a lot further since I originally posted that. Beat the regular dungeon with all original and 1st unlock row classes. But still only have 1 challenge dungeon victory to my name.

This story is just so weird...so much of it is utterly predictable and yet events occur as if in slow motion. The next logical step.

only a matter of time... the other shoe drops.

from what movie? that's right: the wizaaaarrrd.

On reflection, I probably would pay specific girls to play video games with them. (If I had a, y'know, time machine and all). But, still, only if she came over to my house, not this over the internet malarkey.

I have this pet theory about the "meaning" of Braid that is kind of this. Ok don't laugh. I admit, I'm a huge Blow/Braid fanboy. And a former English major in school. That's not so much an excuse as it is a disclaimer:

It's pretty simple. Some of the dlc is free to prevent sellbacks (or to mitigate the effect of sellbacks since if you buy the cerberus network for a used copy they make a few bucks) the rest is just to milk money like the vast majority of dlc for other titles out there. Personally 3 new costumes for 2 bucks is kind of horse armor territory so I'll be skipping, but I've no problem paying for a new character plus mission content.

Digital: A Love Story By: Christine Sarah Love Available: Free download (windows, mac, & linux) Synopsis: A mystery/romance set in the days of BBSes. More an interactive story told through a BBS/retro OS interface than much of a game, but if you have even one iota of nostalgia for the days of BBSes, this is utterly amazing. More: http://tigsource.com/articles/2010/03/14/digital http://www.auntiepixelante.com/?p=537 http://lewisdenby.wordpress.com/2010/03/05/digital-a-love-story-2/

Desktop Dungeons By: Rodain Joubert (Nandrew) Available: Free download (windows only) Synopsis: A one-screen/one-level puzzly roguelike More: http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/showthread.php?t=13014

You're not kidding. I'm an hour in and the most tactical choice I've made is "Oh I picked up an accessory? Guess I'd better equip it." The fact that the game looks and sounds great does something to mitigate this, but the story thus far is not that amazing and this is going to wear thin if I don't have some meaningful control (like, say, a chance of failure if I do nothing but mash x) over the fighting soon. It's like the Japanese version of David Cage's "interactive movie" (i.e. we'll have you press some buttons that don't really do anything meaningful just to keep you involved before progressing to the next scene) or something. I've no problem with the linearity of the plot/running down the railroad track, btw. That comes off a bit more negative than I intended. It does look and sound great and I'm only an hour in.