Diogo Ribeiro

There's always an increased chance that new technology provides for more complex games. But how many have actually become more complex in things other than graphics or animations? When you look at systems like Geomod or Havok physics, they are exceptional tools; yet, how many games actually use them beyond their primary function? This is especially true of Havok, which allows for unique model collapse, which translates into my gaming experience as never watching an enemy die in the exact same manner. That's all cute but it's periphal, just as the proposed functionalities of Oblivion's engine.

....Any comments I make would just not compare to the hilarity of those two bits.

I guess at some point the embelishment of the circle lulls out of the notion we're going in circles... Beauty has that tendency.

Hateful Chris.

The face of gaming is that of a tired old prostitute. It doesn't really get changed, they just wash it, put some makeup, and try to sell her to the media again. We've been going in circles, really.

Student/Aspiring Writer/Social Sponge/Love's Exile

Invisible War would never live up to Deus Ex, even if it did. The problem with the game was that it was disappointing, both as a game and as a sequel. Then again, that's pretty much in the past. I expect Spector learned something of it, but I'm not optimistic.

An actually new Contra game, not hacked remakes like the GBA version.

True. Super R-Type 3 was also fun.

My online handle translates to: Demented Whore. My real name translates into: Twisted Whispers.

Innocent-looking rubber ducks are more than they seem

Well yes, that's a good set of comments and suggestions. I appreciate it. Communication with members of my family on these matters is pretty frail, but I suppose I can draw these feelings in conversation with other people I know. There's at least one person I know I can count on to talk of these things with me (though in honesty I didn't want to burden her with this). Nonetheless thanks for the comments, meta.

Gauntlet-styled games and variants. Also, graphical updates of some roguelikes. And mecha games.

Just looking cross-eyed at a Jew can get you labeled as a nazi. Wearing the jacket was just to make sure you'd be called a nazi for a more tangible reason.

If I ever managed to have a good voice and learn how to play a guitar, I'd so much wear that jacket while playing on stage.

When he gets over his vent crawling fetish, maybe I'll be interested in his work.

Inon Zur rocks.

Duke Nukem is going to make you his b1tch.

Of the criteria. It appears to be more about guessing than anything else. I can't recall any indicators in the image that suggested some clues as to the right answer.

I don't think I've ever overcome fear of death. It's interesting to read those steps metadigital posted. I think I've gone trough all stages, but am in a sort of limbo where they all meet. However, I wasn't able to have "quiet discussions of death with closest friends and relatives" because... To put it simply, death and lunacy run in the family blood. And its a surprise to me how most of the time it's still treated as a taboo of sorts. I've heard of suicide attempts, and suicides executed by certain family members. I've personally witnessed a suicide attempt by a very close relative. Family members that are close to dying go off the deep end, and have weird behaviour ranging from seeing and conversing to people who are not there, to claiming they will not return or will not last long - and they're right. Yet, none of this is discussed in between us. If its hinted that someone in the family had mental problems, its received with inital shock, then a form of apathy, or just the expectancy that the subject is changed. After having witnessed several of my family members pass away recently, ranging from one year to a couple of months ago, I'm surprised that I can't cry at any of this. I'm undecided if this is coldness and a certain detachment from family and feelings, or just a more radical way of dealing with things, by burying it somewhere inside. But then again I'm not sure I should worry because most of us in the family react the same way (with the likely exception of my mother). She never recovers well from these things, and is still in a state of depression nearly one year after her father - my grandfather - died. When that happened I just sat there looking at everyone cry. Even my father, who is akin to a heavy piece of rock who advocates money and materialism over feelings. It seems death is still a taboo, though not just in my family. Even in discussions with close friends, death was never much of a topic (with the exception of the occasional "life after death" convos), and death in the family was even less discussed.

I became suspicious when I came upon the Godzilla test. But the taste one is very personal and not what I'd think to constitute a test, because I may like the taste of a food combination that no one else likes. The first taste test I "failed" because I was honest, and the second one I "got right" because I assumed what would be tasty for others. That's when I quit.

I would say that's the kind of morality we see pretty much everywhere, and more pronouncedly in the USA, but I don't want to turn this into a political slingfest. Suffice to say, the trend is universal. In any case, videogame controversies are for the most part, pathetic. Virtual depiction of sex and violence has been present in the human arts for years. It influences people no more than real violence perpetrated by real people does. Its up to people to be educated, or educate themselves, on the differences of real and virtual, not elect scapegoats which would remove responsability from the self.

I cut trough the chase and went straight for the potato sack look.

Is this attributed to instinct rather than rational thought, or to genetical similarity instead?

Quite. Maybe it is a question of perception, ie, we seem to be the only animal that is aware of their own mortality, which by nature would compel us to consider life in different terms. Maybe fully knowing what destruction is and entails is what makes us resort to it because we *want*, rather than *need*.