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breathe?

Still, it sounds better than this Penny Arcade comic.
Me? Karma whore?

Things along the lines outlined by penny-arcades Tycho...

You may not be able to skip them on the original disks, but you can rip that misfeature out if you get a DVD-Burner. There are also rumored to be players that do not implement the UOP restriction portion of the DVD format license, but since I picked up my DVD player (old RCA Div-X unit) 2nd hand for $15 and it works OK otherwise, and since I've got over twice as many DVD-* drives as computers, I'm sticking with "Fair Use" copying as my solution.

Having the FBI/Interpol/&c. legal warnings unskippable is fine in my book. But using user operation control to have the commercials unskippable isn't even vaguely acceptable. If I found more recent Disney releases watchable (enought that I encountered this regularly), then I'd probably be returning the originals as "Broken By Design" to cut out Disney's profit margin.

In the longer picture, I think that this is one more sign of the shortsighted exploitation attitiude that's been running the House of Mouse. Walt ran the shop with a long term outlook--his well preserved film library being the obvious example. He might well have enthusiastically praised having trailers on DVD's, with perhaps (as is not uncommon) every spare space on the disk used to add more in the "coming attractions" section to the DVD menu... but NOT a "watch this or else" section. I can almost hear Walt's ghost now: "There is a difference between subtle and stupid, and it is not subtle, stupid!"

It's very like the difference between targeted mass email that you can opt out of, and SPAM that you just can't avoid. It's generally bad for long term planning to annoy your customers, especially customers growing nostalgic for their own childhood just as they start getting sizeable disposable incomes, and start raising their own children... that is to say, the next generation of customers.

OK, I'll go find my happy pills now....

Those aren't girls.

Am I the only one who actually moused over the links?

ThinkGeek writes "ThinkGeek ThinkGeek ThinkgEEk ThinkGeek! ThinkGeek ThinkGeek THINK geek think GeEk thinkgEek.

(If you don't have the linky-checky-in-brackets thing on, the links are actually to cmdrtaco.net, fark.com, randomdialogue.net, penny-arcade.com, deansplanet.com, mccarthy.vg, cowboyneal.org, homestarrunner.com, and sarcasta.net)

April Fools Day is also curable with sufficient b33r.

(Drink until loss of consciousness, hope this doesn't happen.)

Penny Arcade have got a pretty funny April Fools issue.

Courtesy of Penny Arcade!

NES's cartridge connector slot broke down in 90% of the systems. Virtual Boy broke the eyes of 90% of the users. Must I remind you of the After burner mod that made GBA viewable? Or the lack of a headphone port in GBASP? The craptacular backwards compatability of the DS?

NES's cartridge connector slot broke down in 90% of the systems. Virtual Boy broke the eyes of 90% of the users. Must I remind you of the After burner mod that made GBA viewable? Or the lack of a headphone port in GBASP? The craptacular backwards compatability of the DS?

I'm a female gamer, and I prefer games with stories, games with plots and twists. I loath straight out racing games and "sports" games. I don't like fighter games either - too much boring button mashing. I like games that make me think, games that rely on figuring out solutions rather than memorizing "super combos" or memorizing a track.

One word: Lumines.

The guys at Penny Arcade drew a comic about it.

They just need to appoint Frank as their spokesman.

The Fruit-F*cker 2000, with enhanced feed reamer and pulp ejection.

Why does Sony seem to have a higher level of complaints than all the other LCD makers? Was it a rushed process resulting in dropped quality or do they have the same quality as others and the media is just picking up on their problems?
BTW, requisite PA comic on the topic
--
Want a free iPod?
Or try a free Nintendo DS, GC, PS2, Xbox. (you only need 4 referrals)
Wired article as proof

If you want to get a sense of what it is like to be a game tester, I would recommend reading this article from penny arcade.

It really is not a very good job. Think playing the same level of Mary Kate and Ashly Olsen's sweet Sixteen 14 hours a day. It's really not all its cracked up to be.

if it's not made by Rockstar, they just might let it go...

Just don't tell anyone about God of War, because that game is hilariously violent/sexual and ridiculously fun to plan.

A better commentary on the crisis is available here, here, and here.

A better commentary on the crisis is available here, here, and here.

A better commentary on the crisis is available here, here, and here.

John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory

One thing, which I think might go a long way in not pissing off female games is, change some of the character and NPC models. My fiancee and I are playing through Everquest: Champions of Norrath on the PS2 right now, and some of the female NPC's are absolutly ridiculous. For example, one of the NPC's you come across is a female vampire who is, of course, wearing a thong, a see through sarrong, and two metal nipple caps where a bra might be. And to top it off, the voice acting sounds like it was done by a porn star. She sends you off on a quest to find a "Bloodvine." From the way she talked about it, I think it was really just a code name for a vibrator. And when we brought it back and actually ate it, I was even more convinced that the "Bloodvine" was a code name for a really damn good vibrator. It sounded a lot like a porn actress faking an orgasm while she ate it. And this is about the level of the female voice acting throughout the game. Before this, we had Baldur's Gate: Dark Alligence 1 & 2. In one, if that barmaid had breathed wrong, she would have had to charge us for the peep show. And of course we had to beat down a dark elf in a string bikini. Who, once again, seemed to be voice acted by a porn star and even broke into an impromptu pole dance on her quaterstaff during the cutscean. Two was actually unmemorable enough that I don't recall any specific instances, but I do know that they were there.
Why is it that the fantasy genere insists on doing this to female characters. I realize that its not new, even D&D did this, but isn't it time we grew up? Yes, I like pictures of women in chain mail bikini's, but lets leave that sort of stuff to Boris Valejo and hentai.
Let's face it, if a woman had a choice between the metal thong and a more practical, and infinatly more comfortable set of armor which one do you think she would choose?

Here it is:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2002-12 -13

I was actually wondering that myself.

It's a little ironic, as I really want a PSP. Some of the guys at work were playing with a pair of Japanese units... trying to see how far away they could be from eachother while still staying connected (about 50 feet). The controls seem solid, the system looks super smooth, and the form factor is just right. If I hadn't had to fix my car this month, I may have picked one up already. I wasn't intending to flame anyone.

But it's clearly not a media player. Not that the portable media player market is doing terrifically well either, but the PSP is neither a portable DVD player or an iPod. Not by a long shot.

Maybe it was the Terry Pratchett comment. Maybe some people feel strongly enough about the-situation-that-will-not-be-named to mod down a comment. Or maybe people just don't know the history of convergent devices.

Honestly I'd rather it was the Pratchett comment: I'm more comfortable with people being fundamentalist about human life than I am with people being fundamentalist about a gaming system.

I used to think it was bad to be named after one of the Beatles. Maybe it's a good thing my parents aren't geeks.

Oh, and I can't believe no-one mentioned this (scroll down to 2nd news post). Not nearly as strange, I suppose.

What is it with the American-bashing? Are you really that insecure? Or is it some country-level form of penis envy?

Really, I think it might be nothing more than another example of John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory

Hell, keep it up. Someday bashing on the internet might actually make your opinion meaningful.

obligatory

obligatory

"Any of you guys got any shines?"

Tribes died when Sierra canned Tribes 2. This is news? :)

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2005-03 -14&res=l That's realy why...

It's a valid concern!

Yes, that's why I left her.

Seriously, though, it can't really be such an affront to your senses, can it? Are you honestly claiming to be so offended by the game's style that it causes you pain? Or do your friends actually beat you for playing games with colors in them?

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2002-11 -25&res=l

I swear, Penny Arcade isn't funny anymore; they are more lunatic laughter than funny; witty humor, jokes, you name it has all run dry. It's gone...gone to the like of tentacle monsters. Take for instance, the first comic for PSP humor is Gabe and Tyco going to the mall and Tyco plans to camp at a game shoppe for three days. The other homosexual buddy of his returns and throws his prison-cell phone in the trash nearby with a little remark: not funny, not even worth reading. Can I have my 15 seconds of life back from you idiots?

The second comic on the PSP camp is the loner is sitting there, all alone across from a Cinnabon bakery; asking for a Cinnabon baker to bring the food over so he doesn't lose his place in line to the PSP, whereas none are in line but him. My problem with this recent (second) comic in this PSP "funny" series of comics is the last sequenced image appears to be none other than a graphic soft-porn illustration of him losing his man-load of chunks all over his face. Take a look for yourselves, a comic implicitly giving thoughts of masturbation in a shopping mall. Penny Arcade is a bankrupt comic strip. There is nothing more to see from them. Move along. Luckily, I've only lost about 3 hours to those disgusting bastards; I don't read their shit-worthy webpage, but comics. It's all trash, and their products are overmarked Mexico imports that can be bought for a haypenny.

This Bungie whiteboard clearly shows they've got some work to do before Halo 2 is finished.

check out the hook up on penny arcade
http://www.penny-arcade.com/hookupmain.php3

Neither! Well, unless you want to plunk that much cash into a portable. Personally, I don't find myself waiting somewhere wishing I had a portable very often. I would imagine it coming in handy in mass transit though (if you don't have a laptop).

If I got a portable, I'd find a nice, cheap GBA... at least until some more games came out on the others. I know both portables have some good games, but IMO it makes more sense to wait until they have more good games, then they'll be cheaper when you go to get them. Honestly, most games right now for both portables are remakes of older games (with exceptions), nothing to camp out for IMO.

I'll just wait for Penny Arcade to make a comic comparing the two before I make any decisions.

Forget about PSP Casting, what about PSP Camping?

For the curious, some more info on Strawberry:

PA Link:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2003-04 -14&res=l

Copies:
http://onethumb.smugmug.com/photos/147054-O-1.jpg
http://dailyramblings.com/images/shortcake.jpg

Now that just screams out for a Penny Arcade link :)

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2004-09 -22&res=l

Penny-Arcade already covered this very topic. Damn, those guys are good.

I fully support George Lucas in his endeavors to make the Star Wars films fit his original vision.

Also, many Live users will use the camera to take pictures of their balls, then texture it on their content, and try to sell that. I can't wait.

Credit where it's due, please.

I was actually thinking that would have ended up being this one

Of course all decent readers will interpret that as content ingested by the mouth. If you accidentally imagine something other wise (*umm*..) , please see this to be cleansed.

Obligatory Penny Arcade link here.

Probably be better than the Mortal Kombat or Tomb Raider movies...

Please direct your attention here. Thank you and have a nice day.