Tale

When he said "including your previous games," I was surprised nobody yelled "so you're killing Leliana?"

I was a teenager when I watched Alien 3. So I liked it. I enjoyed the idea that everyone who got near the Aliens ended up dying. Even Alien was mostly consistent with that. Everyone but Ripley died. Aliens came along and it reveals that it screwed up her life pretty badly too. Alien 3 had better precedent than Mass Effect 3 did. It's not like the entire Normandy crew died to take down Sovereign except Shepard. And then the SR2 crew dies except Shepard, Jacob, and Jack. I could buy the futility of that scenario much easier.

I think Levine's and Avellone's work simply for different things. Levine's idea is very good for replacing exposition. It can convey motivations and characterization. It can convey the history of a location. Avellone's is about the ongoing. And environments aren't typically as responsive in that regard. But I also think Avellone's idea might be too limited and only applicable to open world games. Could Alpha Protocol work on just emergent behavior? It's hard for me to take from what Gaider says. I keep thinking of Dragon Age 2 and specifically Act III. Or Leliana's return even if the player killed her. Was that them just failing to be good liars? Or was that them being too interested in what they're willing to let the player do that they forgot what the player would want, calling out his premise as faulty. Just how well can one lie? I'm inclined to think he does not give his audience enough credit.

You're playing Gabriel Knight? I'm playing Gabriel Knight! Finished Beneath a Steel Sky and Sanitarium over the weekend.

Thematically it makes sense that taking decision making code from individualistic AI like Sovereign or Harbinger The Reapers aren't individuals, either. They are the same as the Geth were, a collective. Hinted in ME1 (a nation), stated in ME2 (the Geth touched Sovereign's mind and found millions of voices), and reinforced in ME3 (EDI's talk about what makes her different from Geth and Reapers).

I'm not especially enjoying it so far. The gameplay's very uninteresting. Reading all the praise, I have to wonder if I got the wrong game. Go to the Well of Essence. Okay... where is that. Oh, it's northeast of the temple of fae. Where's the temple of fae? No seriously. Whatever, maybe it's that big thing in the middle surrounded by the baddies. Oh great, the well is surrounded by baddies too. Sneak sneak, talk to the guy I need to. Oh look, I'm being shot while talking to the guy. And now I'm dead. Edit: Oh whew, talked to the guy. Now to go outside Temple Fae for something. Where outside Temple Fae? Heck if I know! Surrounded by all the guys who will kill me. That's fun. How do I get there? Maybe I'll swim! Op, sorry, you can't climb up out of water, so just enjoy dying to the fish.

I was unaware that they made coffin nails out of AWESOME now. That game hit just the right spot. I was needing something good after Mass Effect 3's bitterness. The Two Thrones didn't quite manage. Now maybe to check out an adventure game or try Outcast. Outcast. Definitely, definitely Outcast. As you wish, so it is done.

You're thinking of Metro. Which, and I don't recall the precise details, was more of a tablet thing. It was a part of Windows specifically intended for tablets. Edit: Looking into it, it seems it wasn't only for tablets. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_8#Metro_UI I heard the same rumor you did, so I don't know what's going on apparently.

Geth are nice, but unless they surprise us with Collectors or some other enemy to fight, I can't see myself touching it. How is it people aren't bored of fighting the exact same enemies ad nauseum already?

I was unaware that they made coffin nails out of AWESOME now. That game hit just the right spot. I was needing something good after Mass Effect 3's bitterness. The Two Thrones didn't quite manage. Now maybe to check out an adventure game or try Outcast.

Beamdog exclusive.

Started up Forgotten Sands. I'm officially going to hate Assassin's Creed from here on out. Because that game is why they're not making more Prince of Persia.

Tried playing Warrior Within again. Could not stand it. Finally moved on to The Two Thrones. Much better, but it does have those quirks of PS2 action adventure games that make me want to toss a controller through a window. Including absolutely stupid boss fights. Edit: And now I'm getting sad that 2008 is never getting that sequel.

Finished 999. It has a great story. An incredible story. It's just very badly told. It likes to repeat itself. It will have you start new games to see new sequences, so you're rushing through stuff you already did. And then every time a major reveal occurs, it will review all the relevant information. Which is awful. But it's got some math, twists, and metaphysics that all fit together in the plot very neatly. I'm looking forward to the next one.

9 hours 9 persons 9 doors A little visual novel/adventure game for the DS. It actually has a major case of trial and error, but makes it interesting. There's several endings. You play through, get one of those endings, then use that knowledge to go back and try for a different ending. It's not terrific, you're mostly just fast-forwarding through stuff you already went through and rushing through puzzles you already know. But you start putting pieces together, figuring out how to avoid the last bad ending, figuring out who people are and how they're connected. That makes it interesting.

NOLF 2 is amazing. Not a fan. Bought it a few years ago and was presented with terrible stealth elements and infinite spawning enemies.

Hopefully this doesn't mean that they do not use the Onyx engine. I think that's exactly what it means.

Well, the problem I see is if Obsidian comes out and people avoid simply because they already contributed to two others. Double Fine was the "THIS IS GREAT, I MUST GET IN ON THIS." Wasteland 2 was the "that sounds like a good idea." Obsidian would end up being "wait wait, I'm already contributing to two and I probably should stop jumping every bandwagon that comes along." I could simply be underestimating the internet's interest in Kickstarter campaigns. I'm kind of assuming the Wasteland and Double Fine adventure groups are overlapping.

I fear the large Kickstarter project becoming oversaturated. We had to get the collective internet's attention for Double Fine's. Then again for this one. Will the internet be still interested in it by the time Obsidian tries? Or will the ADD kick in? This seems a reasonably cautious move.

I was just about to post that. I'm actually rather happy about that change (though not the layoffs). I hope they keep the RPG elements.

I'm getting kind of excited for this game too. But it doesn't come out until May. That's feels like a harsh wait right about now. I keep hoping for something to come out in the next week or two.

They're launching new games today. http://www.gog.com/news/bigger_fresher_newer_see_whats_new_on_gogcom Whispered World, Trine, pre-order for Legend of Grimrock. Coming up they'll have Spacechem, Machinarium, and Darwinia, too.

70s? The 90s era of action movies was pretty bad, too. Just look at Steven Segal and Van Damme's careers. We managed to get Die Hard and Lethal Weapon, but there was a whole lot of crud trying to ride that wave. Enough so that "Die Hard on an X" became an actual pitch.

It's just a 4chan fan idea.

If you don't end up with a new scar during the first date, then how can you be sure you ever left home?