Defenestrated

Well I'm basing this on the gameplay videos coming out of PAX and extensive descriptions on places like Kotaku . All I'm really concerned about is the tone of the game, maybe the gameplay will be brilliant and the tech will be amazing, who knows. I just don't know if Duke is a character people really care about anymore, besides as a sort of freak show to leer at and giggle. I guess fans of first-person urination sequences have something to get excited about now though.

And they definitely updated Wolfenstein to be a lot more in-line with most modern shooters (maybe because the original doesn't have much personality to begin with besides shooting crazy nazis.) DNF looks and sounds a LOT like the original games, I have no idea if this will work for or against it. Without a huge dose of irony, Duke just seems pretty gross now. Then again, maybe I'm overestimating consumers' desire for subtlety in games.

I'm so sure about this being a huge launch in terms of sales. Like others have said, this seems like it definitely could be the Snakes on a Plane of video games. The internet loves it, it gets tons of traffic on blogs because of the drama around its development and ridiculous nature, but when it comes time to drop $60 on it a lot of those people might suddenly find better uses for their money. There is a lot of nostalgia around this for a certain subset of older core gamers, but most younger kids playing video games will have no idea who this guy is. It might just be able to trade on corny schtick, but to me Duke is just kind of embarassing now.

Okay, the use of narration in this game is definitely different and seems super interesting. Not sure how they'll be able to keep it up without it becoming really sparse or repetitive and annoying, but what they've shown is cool. I particularly like how things are just referred to as "slime things" or "big ol' gas thing" or "somethin shiny" rather than Sygian Mist Horror or Crystals of Archea or some other crazy bullshit. Refreshing.

Dang, the Countdown to Tears is over. I will miss you guys talking at me through the internets. Chris, you better kick so much ass over there at Irrational.

being well within "cup of coffee" range, I just had to give this a shot. Only had a chance to try it for a few minutes, but seems like a shame the only populated servers seemed to be your standard deathmatch. I want some crazy team games.

Oh right, games, okay in an attempt to actually get this back on track maybe before the yelling starts again... Thinking about it, this may be the only comic book/movie game tie in that actually brings something new and interesting to the table that isn't in the property it's based off of. I mean, the gameplay is an "homage" some say bordering rip-off of River City Ransom, but by the same token it's pretty solid. In addition to that, the art and music direction are both different and yet completely appropriate for the IP. In a world where most tie-in games range from middling to hollow husks of a game, I'd say this is pretty incredible. At the very least, it doesn't lack a distinct personality.

The culture warring going on in this thread seems to have gotten super intense. I don't understand how this property seems to be the most polarizing pop culture thing on the internet in a while. The strangest thing is nerds bashing it for being a hipster thing, and hipsters bashing it for being a nerd thing. You'd think there'd be a bit more mutual understanding between people, but I guess that's a pretty foreign concept on the interwebs. In the end, I guess nobody wins except Eat, Pray, Love. I hope you're happy with your Fat Princess style downloadable game tie-in.

When I'm in the mood for some pensive background music, the Nick Cave & Warren Ellis soundtrack to the movie "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" never ever disappoints me. I haven't even seen the movie, but I adore the soundtrack. Nothing overly elaborate, but it is sleek and desolate and beautiful. vz0FSG9h-GI Ellis' strings just have this wounded sound to them that I adore.

The game definitely starts out slow, but liberal use of the double tap dash at the start helps, and as you upgrade the characters speed they can almost become TOO fast, so that isn't really an issue later on. I think the overall "curve" of character speed should probably have been a bit less (start faster, end maybe not quite as fast) but it's definitely acceptable for me. Regarding the movie, I actually enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. Michael Cera isn't terrible, the supporting cast is great, and I loved the action sequences. The actual narrative isn't very interesting beyond providing a framework for these characters to do crazy things, but I had great fun with it.

It's probably just there for the imagery of it. You start the trailer, think "oh okay, another underwater bioshock" and then then a big roboty dude pulls the rug out from under you and throws you out into the sky. I doubt there will be any actual big guys in diving suits in the game. The fact that this is still a Bioshock game puts a damper on the "omg new setting!" feeling they're going for, but it still works.

Bioshock: Infinite Undiscovery It's actually a JRPG about American Exceptionalism.

For a while I was in the same camp of "average shooter with great atmosphere" but thinking back on it, I'm having a hard time thinking of any other console shooter that does as many things in as interesting a way as Bioshock did. I'm honestly trying, and I can't think of any others. Maybe Alan Wake, which I seemed to like more than most, and that was more for some interesting encounters (like the stage defense) and a clever combat mechanic. Also, dismissing a game in any way for "just having great atmosphere" seems a bit silly to me, when this is something that SO many other games completely fail at. Sitting in that dark bathysphere at the start of the first game is something that really stuck with me. Maybe I'm just into that type of stuff more than most.

Oh definitely yes on the symbolism point, right on through to throwing you out the window and getting that grand vista of an airborne city. It's an announcement that this ain't no underwater city.

I'm actually fine with them using the bioshock name, I mean it is a big budget extravaganza and they do need to move copies. It makes sense to trade on a brand that has had great critical and commercial success in the past. What I really don't like is the "Infinite" part. It just sounds like a cheesy mmo to me. I'd prefer something like Bioshock: Fuck Yeah, Zeppelins.

Regarding cooperative play and sense of place, I thought one of the great ideas the warhammer mmo did for this in the brief time I played it were the group quests, where if you entered a certain area of a zone some objectives for an ongoing, repeating world quest would pop and everyone in the area could participate, be it killing a bunch of things, a big monster, collecting resources, whatever. I think they were all multi part affairs, and once it was all over it would repeat after a couple minutes. Top performers would get more xp, loot, whatever. Sure, it felt kind of gamey game with the timers and all, but I think if a company like blizzard took the idea and ran with it, with their resources and whatnot, they could do some pretty awesome things in the same vein. Really put you into a spontaneous cooperative experience, make you feel like you're a cog in some big warcraft base, all that stuff.

I will join the rest of the forums in saying congratulatory fucks to remo.

Some of the fights have been kind of interesting for diablo type fights, mostly involving spawning waves of guys/chickens from various sources. The one I kept dying on however was just a demon that seemed to chain cast fireballs at me really fast, and when I got close had a big knockback attack. Since I've been going for melee damage, this seemed to leave me pretty screwed until I got Sparkles in the party later for ranged damage and healing while I ran around blocking fireballs.

I played through a few hours of the game (mostly with the roommate as sparkles the wizard) and... the combat seems a lot more difficult than I was expecting. Deaths can happen pretty instantly in some places, particularly if I'm going solo I'm having to stop and eat more and more. Am I doing it wrong? I've been trying to block more and sometimes it helps, sometimes it just seems to waste time. It is funny, but man there was definitely a boss I died to at least 10 times in a row.

You get a pretty rad 'cast shoutout, and this episode seems particularly rife with remix fodder. Maid (made?) of Bone-Ladder might be my favorite thing.

pseudo-necroposting maybe, but Scott Pilgrim dude has posted a track from the upcoming soundtrack to the upcoming game based on the movie based on his comic book. http://radiomaru.com/2010/07/13/brand-new-anamanaguchi-track/ I am digging it.

So there is an X-Com pack on sale today and I was wondering if I should give it a shot. I've never touched an x-com game in my life, and I'm a little curious what it's all about, but I don't think I could handle a big clunky game that only runs at 640x480 at this point. Think they would hold up? p.s. also, how's the difficulty curve for these games? I really don't feel like going into another older game blind and bashing my head against the wall for a while.

I have fallen victim to steam impulse purchases (the desire, not the competing download platform) again! So far, it's been the Introversion pack, Max Payne Bundle, and Serious Sam bundle. I'd never played an Introversion game before, but heard a bit about Darwinia and figured why not? I blazed through the game over the weekend, and it was great fun, definitely a different take on the RTS. I also set DEFCON into rolling demo mode for a while, and watching the world come to an end in 5 minutes to a gentle ambient soundtrack is an interesting thing. I'm somewhat daunted by playing the actual game though, and have yet to try it. I played through Max Payne back in the day, and loved it then, so I had to pick it up on the cheap. I'm not really sure the first game holds to today's standards though, in terms of level design (I spent a long time wandering around not sure where to go next) and the pretty brutal difficulty even on the lowest of settings. I'm not sure I'll see it through. The second game however, I think holds up pretty brilliantly. Bullet time recharges over time so you can use it more liberally, the flow of the levels makes a bit more sense, and it doesn't even look half bad for its age. It's still pretty old school in terms of PC shooter design, but in just the right amount for me now. Serious Sam... I figured why not? Shooty mans.

I'm pretty sure they have performed at PAX multiple times, and are in some promo bumpers for things.

Seriously, how awesome and weird is Paul Robertson's pixel work, right? Edit: also, I dunno if people noticed, but is doing the original soundtrack for the game, and I think it's an excellent choice. They've been doing the chiptune thing for a while, but with your standard rock 3 piece layered over that, which pretty much makes them perfect for this game.