I'll admit, in my final fantasy career i have enjoyed using many monikers in this vein, calling my heroes such comedy names as SockCukka... it just makes the dialogue funnier for those of twisted mind. Especially the cheesy romantic scenes: 'How have I lived so long without a SockCukka in my life?!'
But just like the bloke Keith in the article, I would always leave the names of the summon monsters as they were, because they often had mythological meaning and great names, like Quetzacotl the Aztec feathered serpent-god.
In FF8 however, i didn't realise that you were actually naming the final boss halfway through when a seemingly irrelevant scene asks you to give a name to the monster on Rinoa's silver ring. It was a late night gaming sesh and i couldn't be bothered to think too long about the name i was giving it. Imagine my horror then, when in the final scene I was confronted with the ultimate boss, the scourge of the planet, a name before which everyone would quake... the demon 'Ringy'.
I find it particularly ironic the way the article writer feels the need to use a french word in an english passage, just after quoting the following from Djikstra:
"I have learned to be very suspicious of ideas I cannot express well in both Dutch and English," he noted, late in life. "As nice as it is to have the union at one's disposal, it is wise to confine oneself to the intersection."
Playing through the campaigns, you certainly find out a lot about history. Shame microsoft didn't pause to get their facts straight first though, as now there will be a whole generation of kids who think that Erik the Red found America from Greenland (when it was actually his son, Leif Erikson).
And this is one of the great strengths of mobile phone gaming... the fact that it's a device which you carry round all the time to serve another purpose. Don't get me wrong, I carry round my GBA most of the time as well, but my boss might look suspicious if i put it on the table in a meeting, whereas with a mobile phone you've got all your options covered for that quick tetris break;)
I loved the first couple of Tomb Raiders. But imagine my horror when after several hours of happily playing Tomb Raider 2, the game crashed out on the penultimate level!! once I'd got past a certain point, the next time I pressed 'jump' the game would freeze. I emailed Eidos about this, being considerably annoyed to have to give up with the endgame in sight, only to be told that it was most likely to be a problem with my memory card. (probably by a bloke wearing that ThinkGeek tshirt, don't blame us, it's a hardware problem!) It would have been nice if they had at least acknowledged the flakiness of their software.
I've always been a bit wary of the Eidos rush-it-out-for-christmas strategy after that... to be honest I am relieved to see they've had the sense to delay a buggy title here (although the jury's still out on whether I buy Angel of Darkness or not!)
lol... and prior to going to the toilet, he will shuffle around outside the door for 9 hours in a deadlock with another character also trying to get in. It's true, look I found the source code:
10 Step forward 20 oh sorry am I in your way? step back 30 goto 10
"Someone somewhere must be dreaming of a massively multiplayer redo of Tetris"
lol... personally i'm waiting with baited breath for the next development, TETRIS - The Movie!! starring: a load of bricks i found in the back yard, some of which were inexplicably T- and L-shaped;)
I agree. You can let your imagination go far more wild with hand-drawn art, without getting hung up on details of implementation in the filming. These things can so easily be ruined by a clumsy conversion.
Take 'From Hell'. A brilliant, atmospheric graphic novel was transformed into a glossy soulless pseudoLondon (actually a replica built in Prague) where the prostitutes all have perfect teeth and the actors have the dodgiest Cockney accents since Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. As for the highly implausible plug-and-play happy ending for the mass market, don't get me started...;)
You fellas need to get over sniggering at the artwork/cheesy marketing and actually try playing tomb raider, it's quite good you know!
Far more sexist than the game is the commonly voiced generalisation that women will automatically dislike games with breasts/nasty big guns/etc. Give the fairer sex credit for being able to assess games on the basis of playability rather than recoiling in horror when the first pixel of virtual breast appears on the screen. Male-oriented marketing or not, Tomb raider's got to be more fun than Super Girlie Barbie Virtua Date Party. (ok, i made it up, but you know the kind of dismal token female-oriented games i mean)
1. Workplaces have no toilets. If you don't go before you leave the house in the morning you'll just have to wet your pants!
2. If a car pulls up outside a house where you are sitting with your friends, you may encounter a strange twist in the fabric of space-time, where every action will take twice as long to perform as when the road outside is clear.
3. Drinking coffee can sometimes be so much fun that it causes the consumer to whoop loudly, even when standing totally alone in a kitchen filled with buzzing flies.
4. Many burglars are equipped with special tardis-bags which, despite being the size of a small purse, are easily able to accommodate a fridge-freezer or oven. The bag can then be easily slung over the shoulder as the burglar sprints away!
5. Some of the best weddings are impromptu ceremonies in toilets. It's true I tell you!
:)
(watch out for part 2, everything I learned from final fantasy: how to pick a fight with a woodland plant, and steal a tent from it!!)
Slashdot Mirror
But just like the bloke Keith in the article, I would always leave the names of the summon monsters as they were, because they often had mythological meaning and great names, like Quetzacotl the Aztec feathered serpent-god.
In FF8 however, i didn't realise that you were actually naming the final boss halfway through when a seemingly irrelevant scene asks you to give a name to the monster on Rinoa's silver ring. It was a late night gaming sesh and i couldn't be bothered to think too long about the name i was giving it. Imagine my horror then, when in the final scene I was confronted with the ultimate boss, the scourge of the planet, a name before which everyone would quake... the demon 'Ringy'.
:)
lol
Playing through the campaigns, you certainly find out a lot about history. Shame microsoft didn't pause to get their facts straight first though, as now there will be a whole generation of kids who think that Erik the Red found America from Greenland (when it was actually his son, Leif Erikson).
Gameboy was designed for mobile entertainment.
;)
Cell phones aren't.
And this is one of the great strengths of mobile phone gaming... the fact that it's a device which you carry round all the time to serve another purpose. Don't get me wrong, I carry round my GBA most of the time as well, but my boss might look suspicious if i put it on the table in a meeting, whereas with a mobile phone you've got all your options covered for that quick tetris break
aah, you have a woman's hands, my lord... :)
I loved the first couple of Tomb Raiders. But imagine my horror when after several hours of happily playing Tomb Raider 2, the game crashed out on the penultimate level!! once I'd got past a certain point, the next time I pressed 'jump' the game would freeze. I emailed Eidos about this, being considerably annoyed to have to give up with the endgame in sight, only to be told that it was most likely to be a problem with my memory card. (probably by a bloke wearing that ThinkGeek tshirt, don't blame us, it's a hardware problem!) It would have been nice if they had at least acknowledged the flakiness of their software.
I've always been a bit wary of the Eidos rush-it-out-for-christmas strategy after that... to be honest I am relieved to see they've had the sense to delay a buggy title here (although the jury's still out on whether I buy Angel of Darkness or not!)
ahem. was that syntactic sugar in your tea?
</couldn't resist>
... as the only thing that can rise out of the ashes of a phoenix is another phoenix!
AnotherPhoenix(tm) just doesn't have quite the same ring however...
"Someone somewhere must be dreaming of a massively multiplayer redo of Tetris"
lol... personally i'm waiting with baited breath for the next development, TETRIS - The Movie!! starring: a load of bricks i found in the back yard, some of which were inexplicably T- and L-shaped ;)
I agree. You can let your imagination go far more wild with hand-drawn art, without getting hung up on details of implementation in the filming. These things can so easily be ruined by a clumsy conversion.
;)
Take 'From Hell'. A brilliant, atmospheric graphic novel was transformed into a glossy soulless pseudoLondon (actually a replica built in Prague) where the prostitutes all have perfect teeth and the actors have the dodgiest Cockney accents since Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. As for the highly implausible plug-and-play happy ending for the mass market, don't get me started...
Well said!!
You fellas need to get over sniggering at the artwork/cheesy marketing and actually try playing tomb raider, it's quite good you know!
Far more sexist than the game is the commonly voiced generalisation that women will automatically dislike games with breasts/nasty big guns/etc. Give the fairer sex credit for being able to assess games on the basis of playability rather than recoiling in horror when the first pixel of virtual breast appears on the screen. Male-oriented marketing or not, Tomb raider's got to be more fun than Super Girlie Barbie Virtua Date Party. (ok, i made it up, but you know the kind of dismal token female-oriented games i mean)
1. Workplaces have no toilets. If you don't go before you leave the house in the morning you'll just have to wet your pants!
2. If a car pulls up outside a house where you are sitting with your friends, you may encounter a strange twist in the fabric of space-time, where every action will take twice as long to perform as when the road outside is clear.
3. Drinking coffee can sometimes be so much fun that it causes the consumer to whoop loudly, even when standing totally alone in a kitchen filled with buzzing flies.
4. Many burglars are equipped with special tardis-bags which, despite being the size of a small purse, are easily able to accommodate a fridge-freezer or oven. The bag can then be easily slung over the shoulder as the burglar sprints away!
5. Some of the best weddings are impromptu ceremonies in toilets. It's true I tell you!