Chris

Idle Thumbs 179: Shadow of Something

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In addition to custom sounds, you could load a bitmap to use as a custom level in the earlier Worms games. I have great memories of crowding around a computer with friends and blowing each other up between Doom/Quake/Duke3D matches.

Goty.cx awards should include a category for Sickest Spookified Space Station.

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When Danielle says something about the dadification of games, Jake is just barely audible saying "Oh, I know" or something. So good.

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No love for dadification?

 

 

I like that the dad in video games, instead of drawing from the countless other father figures throughout entertainment history, are basically all Liam Neeson 's character from Taken.

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A few things:

-I have such a weird relationship with LOTRs: having been in the Black Metal, Industrial and Neo-folk scene for so long, whenever I hear LOTRs, I correlate it to American and European--Central and Eastern too--white supremacists and fascists singing about their pagan/heathen roots and fighting against modern Western values; it's weird, those books have been spoiled for me. LOTR is a huge hit within those scenes, especially within the Black/Folk Metal and Neo-folk scene.

 

Varg Vikerness--Burzum--wrote a lot about LOTR and his relationship to it and how he identified with the Orks--his stage name was Grishnackh--and how it all relates to paganism and nazism. During his 21 years in prison and afterwards, he's dropped LOTR and Nazi beliefs.

 

- I completely agree with everyone about the length of Alien. Any game or anything dealing with atmosphere, tension, and fear should not let it linger for too long or keep showing the monster. This is why I read more Horror than watch or play, because most authors I read know this and they've mastered this. I'm not talking about Stephen King and the like--though they can be good-but authors like Poe, Blackwood, Langan, Baird, Vandermeer, Ballingrud, and others. A lot of these authors work in the short story or novella framework: that framework allows them the freedom to build a setting, plots, characters, atmosphere, tone and fear without letting it go for too long. I think, that the short story and novella are perfect vehicles for hitting all the points of a successful Horror story without dragging it.

 

Let me give you of am example of a game that did this well: Among the Sleep. Arts is great at building characters, tone and atmosphere and allowing their monster to be in the background. Hell, I was more than an hour into the game before I even saw the monster and it was only for a few seconds; it scared the shit out of me and made monster more terrifying. Now that they've finally introduced the monster, they're smart not to keep showing it, and when it does show up, your vision becomes blurry and it's hard to actually see it; its distorted and always at the edge of your vision.


This is something I think about a lot because I'm a big reader of and writing about horror and weird fiction. 

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(It is, in fact, on Art of the Title, and even more amazing, one of the animators is goddamn Andrew Stanton, from WALL·E)

 

I recently re-watched Honey, I Shrunk the Kids while one of my observing nights was weathered out a few months ago. As I watched the film I realized that I had it entirely memorized from my childhood.

 

Have a ball, baby.  

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Edit: also the new smash bros. games are officially titled "Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS" and "Super Smash Bros. for Wii U."

 

I was just coming here to post this, because those names are so much crazier than if both games had actually just re-used the N64 title and been named "Super Smash Bros.".

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I don't agree with the idea that a horror game will lose its power just because of its length. I'm sure playing System Shock 2 took me over 20 hours to complete the first time I played it, and I don't feel like that game ever stopped feeling tense and scary.

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How in the world did no one make a "Shadow of Colossus" joke?  :tdown:

 

I'm also waiting on the hot Namco collaboration "Shadow of Tales of ________" game.

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Holy cow.

 

I had no idea there were so many Worms games.

 

Holy Hand Grenade! I thought I was an ace with the ninja rope, but that display of skill was insane.

 

Also I think Worms 2 was the superior game for local multiplayer, but Worms Armageddon introduced a lot of cool weapons and a better single player campaign.

 

Also also, the custom soundbank feature was probably the best thing. I had a spaceballs set that amused me for hours on end.

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I don't agree with the idea that a horror game will lose its power just because of its length. I'm sure playing System Shock 2 took me over 20 hours to complete the first time I played it, and I don't feel like that game ever stopped feeling tense and scary. 

 

 

I personally will probably just lose steam interacting with systems designed just to wreck me. 

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Edit: also the new smash bros. games are officially titled "Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS" and "Super Smash Bros. for Wii U."

This.  It was an amusing bit.  But it turns out the reality of those game's actual names is even more ridiculous than the joke.

 

That full name appears on the box and cartridge and everything.

 

smashbros3dsboxart.jpg

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I found the orc racism discussion quite interesting. can anyone point me in the direction of good articles on this topic? a quick google search didn't really help me...

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This. It was an amusing bit. But it turns out the reality of those game's actual names is even more ridiculous than the joke.

That full name appears on the box and cartridge and everything.

smashbros3dsboxart.jpg

Up until the last minute it wasn't that, I believe, but I know now that they published the platform name on the box of all of them.

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Oh god, I played so much of the Worms 1 demo. I don't think I even knew how to get a full version. Though once I learned the Uzi/(hold F1+spacebar) that made you fire dozens of rockets that's all I did.

I remember being so disappointed when the newer version of Worms 1 came out and the hadoken and shoryuken were replaced with non-copyright infringing versions.

Loved the Smash Bros and cacademon nonsense :P

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(It is, in fact, on Art of the Title, and even more amazing, one of the animators is goddamn Andrew Stanton, from WALL·E)

I recently re-watched Honey, I Shrunk the Kids while one of my observing nights was weathered out a few months ago. As I watched the film I realized that I had it entirely memorized from my childhood.

Have a ball, baby.

Powerhouse by Raymond Scott...

It's everywhere...

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I was actually most of the way through making a Giant Bomb soundbank for Worms Reloaded before my group of friends stopped playing and I sort of gave up on it. I was so looking forward to killing someone and hearing Jeff say "you can see their panties."

 

Also, clearly the best Worms game is actually Liero.

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I thought Liero was real-time.. I remember being put off by it not being turn-based like Worms. :(

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I played a shit load of Worms 1 demo with my brother. And only after hours we found out there were other weapons besides the rocket launcher. Worms 2 I played a lot with a bunch of friends when we were in Belarus back in 1999. So much fun messing with a game with so simple mechanics.

 

Btw, there is an open source worms-like: http://www.openlierox.net/

Yeah I played the shit out of that demo with my friends until we got the Worms 2 demo. I feel like I almost killed all enthusiasm by the time I could actually pruchase Worms 2. Pretty much lost interest after buying and starting Armageddon.

 

That Smash Brothers decision is bizarre. It's as if the game case and media it's on doesn't instantly give away what the hell it's for.

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Up until the last minute it wasn't that, I believe, but I know now that they published the platform name on the box of all of them.

 

, had the platform names:

 

tqjuSKO.png

 

Before that, they had only announced that they were doing two games, one for the 3DS and one for the WiiU. 

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I would imagine that the reason they have the platform names in the actual titles is so they can be distinguished when they're in lists or databases where you won't see the cover and the platform may not be immediately apparent.

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