Ombrenuit

I can play Oblivion and Stalker on medium settings yet I could only play the demo for this game on the lowest possible, and it looked like complete crap. Also I have to say another turn off was the immersion factor: the fact there just about was none. A ) Staged killing just when you arrive. Come on, now you KNOW you're in a game. B ) The fact that your enemy just "gives up" and suddenly it's safe to just walk around the area now? They just left? They aren't waiting for you around the corner? C ) "Grab a wrench of something!" Availability of weapons and ammo is ridiculous. Considering the mayhem that is supposed to be this place, any resident with any brains would horde firearms. The wrench was too conveniently placed, and you get a tommy gun and enough ammo to storm a fortress two minutes later! Like splicers would want lethal weapons just hanging around for them to be shot with...

Well I think I'll pass on this one; I have so many games at this point with no time to play them and no patience to finish them--hell I've never even finished the first Thief nor the third! I just can't afford to upgrade my computer anymore, and I doubt it would be worth my time to spend hundreds on Bioshock.

The original Spyro brings me back. I was only a kid when I played it. The cinematics on this video look a bit dated? Not to say that everything should be "gorgeous" these days; personally I'm not one to really care, but it looked like a trailer from 1999.

Let me offer one piece of advice. First of all I tried unsuccessfully to learn programming for years in late junior high and early high school. I read countless books, tried to apply myself, etc. But the problem wasn't the "language" per se, it was the math. I failed to realize that mathematical logic was the basis of all programming and if you were bad at math, you are doomed to never be cut out for programming. It wasn't so much I was terrible at math, though I hated math--I simply didn't have that knowledge at that point in high school. I read through at least three learn C books (after BASIC) and it was like learning 5,000 vocabulary words with no grammatical knowledge. You'll learn the language sure, but I certainly didn't learn how to use it. As with anything I'd say start small and work your way up. Master one small concept before tackling the next. Also learning anything complicated through simply a book is a bitch and if you aren't that kind of learner, as I wasn't, don't set your expectations too high. I'm more a kinesthetic and auditory learner. I like to work through things and hear them in a lecture, but technical reading is arduous and painful. Get used to math, and wear a hat. You'll be tempted to pull your hair out more than on one occasion.

Today I picked up a book from the library (thank god I didn't purchase it). I've been looking for ways to both improve my song-writing and my lyricism. Now maybe I should shed some light on my musical influences including Robert Smith of the Cure, the Cocteau Twins, the Chameleons, Cranes, Siouxsie and the Banshees, etc. etc. Not exactly the happiest stuff, but I like things that are "real", statements from the heart, music as an expression of art. Now this book is called "The Art of Writing Great Lyrics" by Pamela Phillips Oland and on the fourth page she goes through a checklist for whether or not you have lyrics. Some excerpts: What the hell is wrong with people? I thought the point of music was to be introspective and intimate. Hell I thought the purpose of art was to look inside ourselves and figure out what we're doing here and how we really feel. I thought it was supposed to be psychological and emotional, a dialog with the soul. I didn't know society was supposed to pretend that they were happy all the time and to never be introspective and share personal feelings with anyone. I guess we'll entirely disregard the punk, post-punk, goth, grunge, and shoe-gaze movements. They effectively didn't happen. So much for the "Art of Writing Great Lyrics" and more like "The Craft of the Con: A Guide to Manipulating the Consumer's Emotions." Hell it's almost like last night reading the carton Wendy's fries come in: "We think you're special" printed across the front. To think that actually influences sales is sad, that people can be fed such bullshit.

Holy shit. I really didn't think you guys had a shot. Congratulations! But I can't believe you couldn't meet them, that sounds ridiculous.

Komag you've got to add that to the baby picture album haha. Congrats my friend.

Yeah considering that Cameras back in the 19th century had an agonizingly long exposure time and were enormous, I feel like anything less than something magical would require too great a suspension of belief. However, perhaps something that infuses technology with magic might be suitable; also it could be a prototype being created by a Mage perhaps? Or something of more divine origin. Like some kind of relic, an eyeball of some sort where images it sees are magically transferred to parchment.

Actually I'll be honest. It sounds like shit. I don't know why you would bother wasting your time with it. It's like giving a retarded kid finger paints and instructing him to recreate the Mona Lisa step by step.

Personally I use BitSpirit, which is good if you live in the States. My ISP limits the number of clients you can leech from, and essentially BitSpirit is one of the few clients that allows you to get around that in my experience. The only other thing that I would suggest is to open the ports you use your torrents with, it can make the difference between 10 kb/s and 500. To do that you have to access your modem by inputing your ip address into your address bar. But the actual process is different for every modem and generally it can be a real pain.

Sounds like an audio version of the Ring...

The Matrix concept has been around ever since the Cyberpunk genre was invented...

I agree. The two videos suffice by far.

Eh, I like the focus to be on the actual heists, not the downtime in between. Sure, it was loads of fun your first few hours in T:DS breaking and entering into any house in sight, but cleaning out the entire town got a little redundant and boring in comparison to the actual missions. Plus a bit unrealistic. It would be like a burglar hitting up an entire street--and considering there is no way to make the player feel the long-term consequences of that or an aversion (to choose his targets wisely) it just broke the immersion some for me, or rather, made me acutely aware that I was playing a game. I don't mind cleaning house on a Cathedral etc. but an entire City stretches the limits for me. City missions are cool, because they make you feel how enormous the actual City is, but With all the little districts etc. it makes the City feel downright small in Thief 3. I actually had loads of fun being a Thief in Oblivion for a while, as I wasn't so great with the lockpicking and there were places too risky for me to attempt at times. But of course Oblivion wasn't Thief, and was rather limited when it came to this type of gameplay. Not to mention that there wasn't anything to buy from merchants in that game, and the fact that backstab can't get you anywhere in the end. You just can't beat that game as a thief and I felt cheated (at least where I was).

I honestly love the way Bafford's mission does it, and I can't say how it is done, but it seemed simple enough.

Absolutely love the ambiance at the beginning of "What's it all about"

"Our intent from the beginning was to provide gamers an online experience not just comparable to, but even better than what they got from Diablo II. It has always been Flagship's goal to offer a robust multi-player experience that can satisfy players for months and even years." What kind of game did you think this was? Diablo II is simply giddy mindless gaming gold. Not something new. Not something different. Just something that does what it does VERY well.

I started to play with the idea of possibly mapping my local art museum for a mission when I started to run into problems I didn't anticipate. Simple things like: what are the average heights of a room? How high should one make a room? Where should one place a door? In a corner? In the middle? This led me to a fascinating website that explains architectural design patterns starting from the distribution of towns to light and decor. What makes a building psychologically pleasing? Here are the answers: http://www.ahartman.com/apl/

Holy shit. I loved Diablo II, it was the first game I ever got addicted to. This gameplay video is blowing me away. I am GETTING this game.

Thief turned me into the word-class professional jewel thief I am today. I'm right now lounging in the Bahamas after my biggest score yet. Thanks Garrett. Thanks Looking Glass.

Considering your entire argument is pure fantasizing on your part about games that you have barely seen much less played, I think you're making a jump in assumptions. This is what hype is all about, and as I've said before, prepare to be disappointed. There is nothing to make these games that revolutionizing to warrant that "PC Gaming is coming back in 2010." You're like a little kid being fed puzzle pieces, it's the best kind of advertising--suggest grandeur and every individual will uniquely imagine their paradise. You just fill in the blanks yourself, they don't. I'm with Nyarlathotep on this one. I'm glad you felt the need to share your excitement, but I don't think any of us care. No one wants to hear sugar-crazed hype.

I'm just happy I don't play WoW...

Well, they say that creativity is what one does with limitations, not without them.

Sounds to me with the whole quantum physics/consciousness thing that they are just trying to stuff function into form like Jello molds. I guess it makes sense. If you have one model that fits for one branch, I guess try it on another? I guess we just get a bit too excited when one of the holes fits, but that doesn't necessarily mean all of them do...

Eh. First you need people to actually read your stuff before you even think about publishing it on the internet.