Drowsy Emperor

I'm surprised that they would budget that much for a Deus Ex game, but it is definitely at the bleeding edge of current technology. Also not sure what you are talking about with reused assets. edit: Pretty sure it's a different engine. A lot of the animations and models look the same or only slightly modified to me, but then this is just based on YouTube videos. The reason I mentioned it, is that if they did reuse assets, that implies that the original game was even more expensive to make. That's why I assume Mass Effect 2 looked so much better than the first game, as a significant amount of work was already done, allowing Bioware to improve what's already there instead of doing it over again.

Recently I beat Shovel Knight. Its a bit on the easy side but it has a lot of charm and the sort of brilliance and inventiveness platform games used to have back in the day. Not all of its in game items are useful, and not all levels express the same degree of creativity but its still apparent that the game was a labor of love. These days I barely bother to beat most games, so if I stick with it to the end, it must have been very good indeed. The New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the 3DS I'm playing now is a good point of comparison. Its pleasing to look at, polished to play, most of the levels are well designed - endearing at points, but its definitely more of a "product" and a case of "been there, done that" - even though I haven't played a Mario game in almost twenty years. Speaking of easy difficulty - I'm nearing the end of the game and I have 113 lives... Come on Nintendo, have a little faith in kids today, I'm sure they aren't that incompetent. The prime suspect for the easy difficulty is the liberal handouts of powerups in every course. The fire and the racoon suit make it easy to breeze through levels, avoiding what would otherwise be rather demanding platforming. But being able to clear all enemies on the screen or completely control air movement utterly defeats the purpose of levels where either enemies or jumps predominate as obstacles. Coins are also doled out in obscene amounts so when these two factors are taken together most courses are easily completed with a surplus life gain.

Wow, development cost of 70 million for what is not even the latest "tech pushing" triple AAA title. And it even looks like it reuses a lot of assets from the previous game on top of that.

The backlog: Final Fantasy VI Final Fantasy IX Guilty Gear Xrd Sign Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number Kentucky Route Zero Life is Strange Technobabylon Zelda A Link Between Worlds Zelda Ocarina of Time Currently playing: Zelda ALTTP New Super Mario Bros 3DS Pullblox (Pushmo)

I've been out of gaming for a while. I realized it just wasn't as much fun as it used to be, or rather that the types of games I locked myself into playing were once enjoyable but have become a habit over time. And I don't have a capable gaming PC anymore, just a decent laptop and a new 2DS. I don't regret the change.

Well, you are entitled to that opinion, but there is a fair amount of people disagreeing with you. It was pretty well reviewed, way better than all of their iOS shovelware, that is for certain. Have you tried it since the big patch redid the graphics? I found it more aesthetically pleasing although some people complained about the camera angle. It wasn't a triple A title, but for an indie project I think it pulled off a pretty decent game. Again, these are just opinions. It was a playable product that met a fair amount of expectations. I have not tried it again since release.

There is a lot going on in this post. First off, of course it is using nostalgia, that is going to be pretty standard for any niche product like this. The mainstream market isn't supporting these types of games, so they crowdfund. The best way to stand out in a crowdfunding situation is to offer something completely new or something nostalgic. As for it being a cash grab, that implies they aren't actually delivering a product. So no, it is an investment in a company that has already successfully delivered one project using such a business model, meaning it is a pretty safe investment. Now whether you think they've delivered good games or not is pretty subjective. They have a pretty tiny library, so what exactly are we judging? I didn't like the Bard's Tale remake, so I didn't bother backing them, because no track record. But I enjoyed Wasteland 2 quite a bit, playing through it twice. I believe a fair amount of people did as well. As for being a flop, there are no numbers to support that. Maybe it wasn't a grand slam, but it seemed successful enough to keep the studio moving forward. What we're judging is that they're a studio without any acclaimed games piggybacking on big names. "We're going to make Torment again!" they said, to which I reply "You've been making iOS shovelware for 14 years and a few mostly unsuccessful action games" - how are you qualified to do anything Torment related? I played Wasteland 2 for a few hours and thought the user experience side of the game was terrible. The graphics, the interface, the gameplay all felt like a Russian dev studio project from 2005. It looked like they badly mismanaged the funds they got.

Hah, I remember having that book as a kid. Fun times.

Zelda: A Link to the Past Never bothered with it up until now, or the Zelda series in general. I have to say, this is one of the more ingeniously designed games I've played. A true open world, perfectly scaled, rife with content and possibilities. For a game from 1991, it plays better than almost anything today - no needless time wasting, length padding mechanics (grind, crafting etc) no hand-holding (but a suggestion here and there, when necessary) everything that's in the game has a reason to be there. Tangible rewards for exploring and backtracking through the game world that never feels like a chore - in fact, its more stimulating to explore than most big RPG's I've played in the last ten years.

Witcher 2's problem is that it has no heart. The Geralt from Witcher 1 was an ugly mutt that snuck in a granny's pantry while ****faced to steal pickles and lard. Geralt from Witcher 2 is a fantasy equivalent of Daniel Craig, single highhandedly slaughtering armies while swollen from his own self importance and the profanity laden "maturity" of everything going on in a story that is about as needlessly convoluted as the average anime. From a relative nobody on the streets of Vizima he goes straight to bro-terms with every important individual in the in game universe. It was quite the Michael Bay treatment.

You guys do realize that this is possibly the most brazen cash grab on nostalgia yet? InXile, a studio that has not made a single good game in its existence appropriating the name Torment to make something else entirely. Its gonna be a worse flop than Wasteland 2. I am legitimately stumped that people give Brian Fargo money.

*sigh* That brings back memories. Of when adventure games weren't written by the writing equivalent of the average deviant-art user.

Have you seen the Zelda Breath of the Wild WiiU gameplay videos? It really looks like the console is struggling to play the game at 30fps and the rendering distance is surprisingly small for a game that should have been built for it.

Yes it was even though its a miniscule update overall

I think handhelds would be dead if it weren't for Nintendo using its first party games to push them. Sony's line is all but dead. Personally my smartphone seems like a space shuttle compared to the 2DS I have, even if it was three times the price. But the 2DS has a huge games library and the smartphone has 90% shovelware junk that's impossible to sift through. IMO handhelds are definitely on their way out for casual gamers. Maybe Nintendo realizes that and that's why they're trying to play both fields. However, what's interesting is that the NX will have a 6 inch screen on its handheld unit and that's huge if you factor in the size of the pads as well! It may be portable but it sure as hell won't be pocketable. We'll see how it works out for them.

This is supposed to be a bridge between the two. Even though they're still going to "support" the 3DS and the WiiU its likely that all Nintendo first party teams will focus on the NX if it is indeed both a handheld and a console. What I'm trying to say, either way, its all you're going to get from Nintendo for a while. I have a feeling the separate handheld and console business is becoming unsustainable for Nintendo, so I think they'll try to offer both in one package but default to a more handheld type experience if that fails. Nintendo has an immense amount of money and can afford expensive mistakes but its consoles were treated as a string of commercial "failures" ever since the SNES, with the sole exception of the Wii. So, maybe they've had enough of trying to compete with a specific device in that arena.

They do love their absurd protection schemes don't they.

Bottle Gnomes As for the game, at that level of graphical quality it looks more like a proof of concept than anything else. To maintain that quality all around it would either have to be a very short game or a very expensive large scale project.

Hello people. With the upcoming reveal of the console I thought we could summarize the rumors and what is already known. So far it is all but confirmed that its either some sort of handheld/traditional console hybrid or a handheld with a docking port for HDMI play. Apparently it will feature a handheld screen with detachable controllers, presumably for multiplayer gameplay on one device, backwards compatibility with things like motion controls or simply to allow for the use of specialist controllers. It will likely launch with the new Zelda game which has some interesting implications for the WiiU (which is also getting the same game). Launching the first proper Zelda installment (since Skyward Sword on the Wii) on the NX implies that Nintendo wants to give the new device a push at the expense of the WiiU. Even though the WiiU is getting its own version, this signals that key first party support is going to go to the NX and that just confirms what we already know - that the WiiU is dead. There are two speculations about the way the new console works: 1. That the dock will just be a dock and little else - that would make it essentially just a handheld 2. That the dock will feature additional processing/gpu power (how this would work is anyone's guess)- that would make the NX a hybrid device, where you would play the latest AAA games on the TV and handheld ones on the move The first theory is much more likely. But it also means something interesting - if this handheld is the device Nintendo will be depending on the for the next few years that means that for the first time they're definitely out of the mainstream console gaming scene. For power reasons, a pure handheld is not going to be able to run the majority of the popular games which means it will depend on Nintendo's first party support and the kind of third party support that the 3DS had - a separate market for a separate product in a nutshell. The second theory would theoretically be something great as it would allow Nintendo to stay somewhat competitive with the PS and XB and, more importantly, it would unify Nintendo's handheld and console studios around a single device, which would insure more first party games than ever before. Thoughts?

I mean, really? The only thing that's lacking on the list is inhumane treatment of animals and spitting on the sidewalk.

Being acquitted by a court instituted with the sole purpose of cementing the notion that you're guilty pretty much ensures that the whole process was a joke from the start. The way the indictment was structured also suggests a fantastic degree of fishing (let's see what we can make stick!) by the prosecution:

You're all toxic, but as internet toxicity goes (see reddit, twitch), this is positively endearing.

That's true, but most political courts have the inquisitorial logic that you're presumed guilty until you somehow prove your innocence. The idea of course, is to make that impossible for the defendant. I actually watched dozens of hours of the Milosevic trial up until his death in the Hague and the panel of judges was extremely biased and obstructive towards him from the start. They resented and perhaps feared the fact that as someone who completed law studies and had the benefit of first hand knowledge of the events at hand (that they did not have and could never catch up on) he could handle his own defense better than they could do the "prosecuting and judging" part, so they tried to force a lawyer on him at every juncture. They also showed extreme favoritism towards the prosecution even at embarrassing moments such as when prosecution witnesses revealed they had been blackmailed, bribed or otherwise pressured to give a particular testimony, or even worse didn't even know what they were testifying to and just signed testimonies written by the prosecution itself. It was occasionally hilarious to see witnesses flat out denying they said something from their written testimony only to eventually being cornered by Milosevic in cross examination to admitting they just "signed what they were told to sign". In normal circumstances the case would have been thrown out entirely after such a scandal, but for the purposes of manufacturing guilt, the show had to go on.

Actually that is looking at it the wrong way round. The "International criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia" was instituted in order to make the interventions and the bombing appear legal and proper post facto. Since the bombing was instigated unilaterally without the approval of the UN security council and lacks a legal precedent it would technically fall under the UN definition of aggression. Since a legal argument cannot be construed to support the intervention the ICTY was instituted to support and cement the idea that humanitarian concerns gave a "just cause" to the whole operation. In order to achieve that goal it would have to, in essence, make a reality out of what was, for the most part, propaganda. But as the years passed and evidence to back up the many outrageous claims couldn't be found it is now slowly collapsing in itself while trying to find a "graceful" way out.

Although it makes little difference down the line, the possibility of another Clinton in office makes my hair stand on end. And the things she says much of the time make Bill seem meek by comparison. People slam Trump for being "combative", but if you look at it closely, Hillary's discourse is much much worse.