The Gamer's Quarter

[Shapermc]

Also, I think that the game starts out pretty slow. You may just want to start at a higher difficulty.

Also, yeah, I finally played Doom 3 about 6 months back and it's no fun at all. WTF?
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[Wilkes]

I've been going back and playing all the Armored Core games for the PS2.

Not 2, because I played that to death when I bought the system.

But it's absolutely a trip to start playing Another Age with the same mech I saved five years ago. And then altering it again.

I actually got so frustrated playing it, I broke the only PS2 controller I have. So I am on a hiatus now.

A trip, though.
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[daphaknee]

i just got lunar knights and it seems my curse has struck again

so for the first weapon upgrade i need two sovents and four irons right? but when i buy the iron, instead of going into my inventory it goes into what i NEED so now i need TWELVE IRONS and two solvents

this game hates me
im going to start over maybe i did something to jack it up

other than that its pretty fun?

[dessgeega]

initiated my new computer by playing through the three episodes of jill of the jungle, between assembling my portfolio and planning my move back to new york.

i think i've mentioned this before, but there's a trend i've noticed among the episodes both of jill and super zzt (jill's immediate predecessor). the first, shareware episode is a competant but basic exploration of the possibility space of the game engine. the second episode (jill goes underground) is much more conceptual, and sacrifices overall coherence for a deeper exploration of the capabilities and limitations of the game. and the final episode (jill saves the prince) features the most ambitious and complex level design. the first episode has modest and loosely-themed stages like "jill bounds through the boulders"; episode three's stages aspire to represent actual places like "the aqueduct", "the prison", and "the boat".

viewed in order, jill's episodes tell a record of a game designer gradually coming into a deeper understanding of his own work.

now that i have time, i'll probably soon return to a project i'd been meaning to work on for a while: a screenshot documentary of the jill trilogy, similiar to the one i did for super zzt.
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[Six]

What really bugs me about Shadowgrounds: Survivor is the lack of, well... economy of design, I guess. I mean, why is there a full object physics model if its uses are never really explored? And what's the point of having all this 3D lighting -- doesn't that only serve to needlessly obfuscate, since the game uses a zoomed-out overhead third-person perspective?

Hell, why is there a weapon slot for grenades? There's already a unique key for them. It wouldn't be such a big issue, except that it brings the number of weapons for each character up to four, which means you might have to fumble around with the previous/next buttons to find what you need. (By contrast, if it were just three weapons, you'd be able to switch to any of them with a single keypress.)

I'm also having trouble wrapping my head around the camera. It feels really slippery to have full mouse-aim as well as mouse-based camera control.


But hey, it was five bucks. And despite all that, I'd actually really like to hit up the co-op.

[helicopterp]

[daphaknee]

SERIOUSLY WHY IS IT EVERY TIME I BUY IRONS IT SAYS I NEED MORE INSTEAD I GET MORE I WANT TO PLAY THIS GAME BUT ITS BEING RETARDED

i started over and read gamefaqs and i dont see anything about a huge retarded glitch that bascially makes me unable to ever upgrade my weapon WHAT IS HAPPENING

[helicopterp]

daphny daphny daphny.


shh.


it's not a good game.
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

[daphaknee]

SHUT UP I REALLY LIKE IT DIE DIE DIE

no really tell me whats going on this is really weird and ic ant find it anywhere on the itnernet isnt there anyone on this damn site whose played this game and liked it

[dhex]

[Shapermc]

So, between visiting family, seeing Speed Racer, and getting into a feud, I'd been attempting to play the free mmo Requiem: Bloodmare.

I mean, look, it has a pretty awesome name, and it looked like my style of game (at least from the art direction).




Anyways, the game is... well, I don't know: terrible I guess. There's a reason it's free.
Honestly I spent most of my time with the game so far attempting to get it to work and downloading new patches all the damn time, but the in game stuff isn't too hot either. I mean when I was creating a character and selecting a race the text said:

"This race was created by the ancient race Txxxx, a race of evil creatures."

Who the hell signed that off? I know it's a Korean mmo and all, but seriously. I thought to myself "hey if this was free I might keep it on my PC and jump in very rarely" but I'm not so sure about that.

EDIT: The title is more outrageous than I though as I've just realized it's Bloodymare rather than just Bloodmare... amazing.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[dhex]

a feud? that sounds fun!
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[Shapermc]

Ok, so in anticipation of my trip to St. Louis I decided to pick up a new DS game: The World Ends With You (a much better title than the japanese: It's a Wonderful Life).

Anyways, I'm into the third day and wondering if this game ever backs off and lets you play. There's so many damn tutorials that the game is on the verge of being put away just because it isn't engaging me hardly at all. I'm assuming that the tutorial sections are almost done because I can't see how much more there really is to learn, but who knows.

[dhex]

[insert family feud joke here]

aw well that sucks, then. can you settle it pistols at dawn style? (cause that's very stylish)

in other news i am actually enjoying assassin's creed.
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[Swimmy]

I haven't been playing a game. I have been working on a project about a game. It's almost done, I'll take some pictures once it's actually on my wall. Get psyched, it's awesome.
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"Ayn Rand fans are the old school version of Xenogears fanboys."
-seryogin

[JasonMoses]

[Swimmy]

Picture time.

So you know how I'm all into making papercraft things? Well I stumbled upon this blog and this entry. Since my walls are pretty bare and I needed some decoration, I decided to have at it. Here it is, after about 24 hours total of work:





I don't want to clog up this thread with pictures. 8 more + details here: http://s48.photobucket.com/albums/f242/swimmytherevolutionfish/SMB%20Papercraft/.

If any of the sprite locations look off (like, for instance, Mario at start), I promise it's because of the angle.
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"Ayn Rand fans are the old school version of Xenogears fanboys."
-seryogin

[Shapermc]

That's pretty awesome, and yes, your walls are very bare.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[ryan]

I just checked out the full set of pictures and that shit is rad. I do hope you don't go insane from having the opening bits repeated in your mind every time you walk in the room. Do-do-doaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh

-

I'm still playing Mount & Blade, as well as a new game of Europa Barbarorum. I got in some older titles that I need to spend some time with as well. I think Clockwork Knight is up at first.
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Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart.

[daphaknee]

oh snap i want to do that for some whole level map things
like the FAXANADU ONE

guys since no one is telling me about lunar knights im assuming that my cart is just retarded so im playing the metal slug anthology now

[Lasa]

I'm playing Baraduke and wondering why it isn't as ubiquitous as things like Pole Position or Rally-X on the Namco Museums, you know because it's actually good.
I shouldn't have to be using a Sharp X68000 emulator or MAME to be playing it.

[parkbench]

Baldur's Gate Trilogy MegaMod with my brother.

Some great Enemy Territory again, finally.

Beat Portal the other day.

Started Secret of Evermore recently.

Been trying out some indy/art games like Fatherhood.

And misc (Lost Vikings II over LAN!).
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ich bin aber eine mensch maschine

[dessgeega]

baraduke is the bee's knees. namco canon fact that i've mentioned before: the protagonist is the mother of susumu hori, the star of mr. driller. dig dug is the father.
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[kirkjerk]

[Harveyjames]

Yeah, I wondered this. Or maybe there is some obscure arcade game where you see them doing it. And then the gradual breakdown of their marriage.

[ryan]

Trying out Conan. I'm level 11 or 12 already. I don't think I'll continue after the first 30 days, since it would have to improve a thousand fold to get me to pay $15 a month, but it isn't bad in a better-than-Gothic 3 sort of way.
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Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart.

[Cycle]

[daphaknee]

i got wii fit! this game is harsh

[kirkjerk]

[daphaknee]

i like it, cossix is more critical though

you have to use the wiimote too much, it would be nice if there was a workout mode where you selected a bunch of workouts or it had workouts set up for you i think thats what all the critics are complaining about

but it makes me sore, and calls everyone fat (thats why i said it was harsh)

also the seeing my center of balance and trying to hold it in the right position while doing workouts is enough to keep me interested for now, we'll see how long it is before i get sick of it

oh god also seeing all the miis on the aerobics and minigames, like i was headbutting soccerballs and hitler was my coach
also i've jogged with cycle
and step danced with parappa

[Redeye]

[Harveyjames]

[ApM]

WAR TWAT
I keep closing it and trying to do something else, and then opening it back up and playing a few rounds. The slowdown mechanic is fucking perfect.
My high score thus far is 941 points in 1:10.

[D-A-I-S]

Who was it here who didn't like Full Throttle? Cycle?

Maybe it's because I only experienced it through a Let's Play, but it seems kind of barebones and awkward.

[Cycle]

[daphaknee]

redeye please dont say things like that you'll give dess ideas

okay so chris quit wii fit becuase hte interface sucks but me and lauren are going to stick with it and see if we can REACH OUR GOALS within a month, they shouldnt be hard if i play every day but idont know how long this gimmick will remain interesting enough to motivate me to play it

maybe they'll release a new game that has better UI

and god BMI is kind of a retarded way to measure people

[SuperWes]

[Cycle]

Grim Fandango was pretty medicore too, in regards to game design! Good story, though.
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[Harveyjames]

I got to play Mario Kart Wii today! I think my favorite stages are the SNES and GBA remakes, since they're the best-looking- the rest are so visually cluttered they beggar belief. Half of them look like they are from the fucking Care Bears movie. The other half look like a unicorn threw up on a birthday cake.

I played Zack and Wiki, too! It's pretty good! It really isn't concerned about alienating people who don't normally play these kind of games, though. Pretty much the first thing you do is use a hovering monkey that turns into a bell to turn a centipede into a woodsaw, by ringing it. After that, you're told you didn't earn enough 'HikariQ points'. What?

I'd still take that over Gabriel Knight III which sees the player putting sellotape on a catflap, chasing a cat through it, and then taking the cat hairs that got stuck to the tape and gluing them to your top lip with syrup to make a makeshift moustache, in order to fool a security guard into thinking you are Dr. Rosenblum. Who by the way does not have a moustache.

[dessgeega]

zak & wiki is a great little adventure game. the problem is they had no idea what to do with the remote and you can tell in all of the horribly clumsy move / shake / rotate / just waggle the remote around until something happens parts.

i've mentioned this in another thread, but i've taken the announcement of the new marathon infinity multiplayer map pack for the xbox as confirmation that the main game of infinity won't be getting an xbox port, and have juryrigged my own with the help of xpadder. if i took one thing away with me from the guildhall, it was a usb xbox controller. i have it mapped the same way as xbox durandal and it is so very preferable to the keyboard / mouse combo that it is a revelation.

i approach the marathon games like one approaches a good novel. i sit down with it for a few hours knowing i'll play through a level probably two or three times, exploring and trying to use resources more efficiently. there is just so much brilliant shit going on in marathon infinity. it's definitely the most interesting game in the series, but it requires familiarity with marathon durandal to really appreciate. am i comparing marathon infinity to super mario bros. 2? maybe!

i just reached envy. ARE YOU ENVIOUS?

also playing night striker. the mame emulation isn't perfect but the game's got this VERVE that just shines through, in bright neon colors on a fading sunset. there's such a diverse palette of nighttimes in this game that i think contemporaries were overlooking in favor of BLUE SKIES then and GRITTY CITY now.
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[daphaknee]

i like the level setup for zack and wiki, like how it sticks a puzzle in front of you and makes you solve it instead of wandering around some world aimlessly

also big numbers

[Harveyjames]

Right now I think the best puzzle I've come across so far is the Crystal Key, since it doesn't rely on any kind of game-y logic like animals that magically turn into wooden blocks to hold down switches that open a door somewhere else or anything like that. It's very elegant design!

[kirkjerk]

It's kind of interesting for me that 90% of my gaming over the past year has been with my gaming buddy.

We just got done with GTA IV.

We decided to check out Live Arcade. There seems to be less there than I would have guessed, and I think it's extremely annoying when they have a game listed that is video only. Almost as annoying as not being able to sort by date.

But anyway.

N+ is kind of perfect in its way, isn't it?
I kind of realized it when I noticed it had the seeking missiles I had been thinking of putting into a Glorious Trainwrecks game.
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=/ \(<D)_/
==/\/ >_ kirkjerk.com

[dessgeega]

DESPAIR
RAGE
ENVY
AYE
MAK
SICUR

(this is my way of indicating i am up to the final level in marathon infinity. discounting the vidmaster's challenge.)
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[dessgeega]

i am destiny.
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[dessgeega]

so let's talk a little about marathon.

what i think marathon's (and by this i mean durandal and infinity, which are the games where the series really comes into its own) maps are up to, and the reason so many players get lost in them, is that they try to make sense as places within the game world - to the abstract level that they can - not just as stages within the game. the actual "stage" might just be a fairly simple path between a few points, but there's a whole, vastly larger environment built around that path.

for example, take the dam stage of infinity (the location is actually split across a few stages). the path from the start of the stage to the end is mostly internal: the hallways and understructures of what durandal tells you is an enormous dam. you don't have to interact with the part that looks like a dam except for a little bit of swimming. but nevertheless, they built a whole dam up there: you can run along the top of it, poke into a little room that lets you pass between either side of the wall (one side having a high water level, the other a low, naturally).

there's nothing to accomplish on top of the dam: there's some ammo lying around, but nothing really to justify deviating from the path. what the dam's purpose is is to make the stage believable as a piece of architecture. that's why stages are always environments: what they aspire to capture is a sense of place. often the stages have larger, irregular, naturalistic shapes as well as the kind of large symmetrical clusters of areas that suggest actual function. both of these things easily confuse and intimidate new players.

comparisons of marathon and doom aren't usually useful because the games trying to do completely different things; nevertheless i'm going to compare doom and marathon to make my point. a doom level is a string of setpieces leading from point A to point B. in doom, there is always a monster in front of you and a dead monster behind you. marathon features plenty of setpieces and pitched battles, but the focus, almost always, is on the larger experience of moving through the space.

this is why, i think, the original marathon is less certain about what it wants to be: there's a tangible sense of setpiece-setpiece-setpiece that's at odds with its attempts to craft more complex and layered architecture. one of the smartest decisions bungie made was to take marathon: durandal out of the asteroid and into settings that allowed huge exterior areas and cavernous interior complexes.
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[daphaknee]

[dessgeega]

whatever cycle
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[daphaknee]

you're just mad because im right and you made a HUGE ERROR in your big long post

[Harveyjames]

Me and Cossix think that having to stop at terminals to read huge chunks of gay-ass text is probably the worst storytelling device ever in a video game, HOW DO YOU RESPOND

:>