I had the same initial reaction to FF8 - I _just didn't like it_. It was too different from my beloved FF7. I still played the game all the way through, and grudgingly admitted that it had a very nice ending.
And now, years later, I found myself wanting to revisit Balamb Garden...wanting to fight alongside Selphie and Zell and Quistis again. So I started a new game and played for a while, and this time I paid more attention to the combat system than I did on my first playthrough. I was able to judge the game on its own merits, and the game was a lot easier to play. And guess what? I really enjoyed myself.
Reminds me of when I was working at Origin Systems doing phone tech support and hints. I would get a ton of calls (mostly from Brazil) from people wanting hints on Ultima VIII (which is every diehard Ultima fan's LEAST favorite Ultima). I'd answer all their questions, then ask them, "How are you liking the game?" And they would uniformly reply, "It's great! One of the best games I've ever played!" And then I'd ask them, "Have you ever played any other Ultimas?" And they would uniformly reply, "No, this is my first."
Age of Mythology was a great game that I thoroughly enjoyed, and it looks like this expansion is going to make it richer, more energetic, easier to play and prettier. Can't wait; just hope my box can keep up.
Uh...actually, in the "making of" short on the Spirited Away DVD, you can see that the voice acting is pretty much the very last thing they do - all the lip movements were animated beforehand. Japanese animators aren't as concerned with matching the lip movements to the actual dialog as American animators are.
He'll Americanize the crap out of it and cast some no-talent pretty girl in the lead (hell, he'll probably stick with Jessica Alba). I cannot imagine him finding a real actress with both the physicality to play Alita AND the childlike innocence that made her so easy to identify with. And then the whole movie will become a warning about how we should take better care of our environment or something.
If rich American directors and actors find Japanese anime movies they like, I'd rather they fund the creation of a new movie or a remake IN JAPAN than try to "bring it to the American audience", destroying everything that made the anime great in the process.
Um...excuse me while I completely disagree. While the movies you're getting have been reduced down to about 320x240 and therefore aren't going to look as sharp as the in-game graphics, the main reason to watch this movie is for the excellent plot, the interesting situations and plain ol' funny dialog. I think you did yourself a grave disservice by downloading the last movie first.
I watched the first nine or so movies and then stopped and ran out and bought the game, so I could both see all these cutscenes in their full 1280x960 glory and also so I could get the WHOLE story (the movie naturally has tons of stuff cut out). I certainly did not regret the purchase. The movie is worth the download.
Cheating is why I play games over a LAN with friends rather than over the internet with people I don't know. Cheating is why I don't play MMORPGs (well, cheating and the incredibly amounts of time they require to get anything done). The anonymity makes it impossible to punish people for wrecking the game or getting ahead unfairly, and this problem simply isn't solvable without removing the anonymity of the internet, and few people want that.
Reminds me of a time I decided to try a MUD. Even though it was free, I was asked to provide my real name, and address and phone number and was explicitly told in the Terms of Service that they would have no qualms about calling my local police department on me. Once I read that, I changed my mind about trying the game, even though I knew that they were doing this in order to cut through the anonymity of the internet and bring real consequences to people to who used the system to abuse others. That knowledge wasn't enough to make me want to lose my anonymity in order to play the game.
Oddly enough, consoles with their unique serial numbers would be better suited to bringing about real consequences for online assholery. You can change your character, you can change your IP, but you cannot change your PS2's serial number. You get your console banned, your only option would be to buy another one. In this case, you're not anonymous, but you're also not identified by an actual name or address either. I think that's a good tradeoff, and will become an even better one in the future as console online gaming takes off.
Re:Am I the only geek who HATES Nethack?
on
Nethack 3.4.1 Released
·
· Score: 1, Informative
Yay! I'm not alone! Not alone!
Just about any of the big RPGs since the resurgence are far more fun in my opinion than Nethack. Fallout and Fallout 2, Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2, Planescape: Torment, Ultima VII (use Exult to play it) - any of these would be a more entertaining use of my time than playing Nethack.
Re:Am I the only geek who HATES Nethack?
on
Nethack 3.4.1 Released
·
· Score: 1, Flamebait
I once starved to death as I crammed apple after apple down my throat. Why? I don't know. And after I deleted the game, I didn't care either.
I remember my most promising game...I actually made it to level 3, where I was almost instantly confronted by a goblin with a wand of magic missile. Zap! Half my hitpoints are gone. I try to run. I get one step away. Zap! The other half are gone. Good-bye character. Good-bye game.
It's just completely arbitrary. There's really no design to it at all. Winning the game is simply a process of playing it compulsively over and over until you finally get lucky and don't die right away and can start building levels. And even then, one wrong move and you're dead. Sorry, I got tired of that game mechanic back in the mid-80's.
And that's the real problem with the game. Nobody on the DevTeam has played a game since Zork, or they'd understand that frustration isn't considered fun any more.
Am I the only geek who HATES Nethack?
on
Nethack 3.4.1 Released
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
I'm serious. I'm a huge computer game buff, but Nethack has always left me cold. The interface is awful, the game is deliberately user-hostile, and you die constantly in ways you can't possibly prevent (boulder trap on level 1, for instance). Most "puzzles" have completely non-logical solutions. (Starving? Pray to your diety! Makes perfect sense!) It feels far too much like playing a paper-and-pencil RPG against an adversarial GM. They thought of everything? Everything but the fun.
Heh. Now is not a great time to be a Tolkien fan, apparently. We're getting movies, but Peter Jackson is butchering them, reducing characters to composites and changing things to make it more dramatic and play better on the screen! What a plonker!
I am a Tolkien fan. I've read the books and I love them. I think Two Towers was a marvellous film. No, it didn't follow the story exactly. Hell, in the last half of the movie, it diverged entirely. Doesn't bother me one bit. It's not "Lord of the Rings" as much as it's Peter Jackson's take on LOTR. And if he'd made the slavishly faithful movies you want then you'd have had a blast, but the average viewer would have considered them dull and unwatchable and thought, "Man, only geeks can like this stuff."
Peter Jackson has adapted Tolkien, both for the big screen, and also for the mass media. The scope, breadth and depth of Tolkien's work is still there. When Return of the King comes out, millions of people everywhere will cheer Sauron's defeat in the same way we all cheered the Death Star blowing up twenty years ago. If you don't consider that to be a good thing for Tolkien's legacy, then you don't really love Tolkien as much as you think you do.
... and for someone as utterly friggin' brilliant as Tom Lord to be utterly penniless is just wrong.
Really? I thought the whole point of Free Software was to make sure no one ever made any money. After all, if he were really brilliant, he'd have found something to do during the day (like bus tables) that would let him continue to program at night.
Deus Ex wasn't a AAA title? While the developers had to add some functionality (for ladders, for instance), they did not have to strip out and rewrite much of the engine at all.
Third party engines are the way computer gaming is going. Every time you write an engine, you're re-inventing the wheel. Why do that?
Slugthrowers are never, ever going away. They are simply too cheap and effective at what they do. Honestly, if you're going to kill somebody with a laser pistol, you're going to have to have one powerful enough to drill a hole right through them - and then you have to hit a vital orgain. With a slugthrower, even a hit to the foot can put someone into shock, removing them from the fight.
Repeat the mantra, student: The Future Will Not Be Like Star Trek.
They came damn close this time to actually using the internet well and giving their customers what they want. But the 24-hour license kills it, and proves once again that the movie studios just don't want us to own anything any more.
Downloadable movies for $3.99 that the user then OWNS would be a great way to allow people to "try things out" or beef up my movie library for cheap...it would give people more value for their money. And I have NO doubt that it would have no affect on DVD sales - if someone is willing to pay for the movie but not the extras, they aren't going to buy a DVD version anyway!
I have downloaded movies off P2P services before, but ONLY movies that I saw in the theater and I only keep them until the DVD comes out and then I throw them away. I'd LOVE to be able to do this without breaking the law, and I'd be willing to pay $4 a movie to do it - as LONG as I can keep the movie if I choose. Is giving the users that choice so anathema to the movie studios?
Exactly. This is why I prefer the BSD license - it is truly a gift, unlike the GPL, which just pretends to be.
I once read a story about "Freedom: I Won't", the idea that everyone has the basic right to say "I won't" when requested to do something by another, and that answer must be accepted.
The BSD license says "I won't. I've chosen to freely give this away. I won't make money off it, but if you want to add your own code to it and try to make money off the combination, you're free too. It's a gift, and like any gift, can be resold."
The GPL says "I won't - and you won't either. If you use this code, you become beholden to us, and you must release your code in order to further our political ends."
The GPL violates my Freedom: I Won't: it tries to dictate to me. Well...I Won't use the GPL then.
If you use software, but sell products or services, Free Software is your best friend. It reduces your costs while not undercutting what you're really selling.
If you sell software, Free Software is your worst enemy. It takes away the only thing you have to sell.
"What did Amadou Diallo do when the cops approached him? Did he run? Yes! Did he answer questions? No! Why? Because he was an illegal citizen. Did he commit a crime? Yes! Did he deserve what he got? NO! Was it a mistake? YES! Do the individuals involved deserve to be punished? YES! Do ALL officers deserve to be punished? NO!"
Get your fucking facts straight.
Amadou entered this country legally, but his visa was just past its expiration date. Ever drive with a just-expired license? Then you've committed a crime as heinous as the one Amadou was executed for.
Amadou was standing in the vestibule of his building when four white men in plain clothes jumped out of two cars and started running toward him (one officer testified that he was running as fast as he could). They picked him out because he was black. Amadou panicked and turned away from them, putting his hand into his pocket to pull out his keys so he could get inside the building. The four men then shot him. Nothing - NOTHING Amadou did justified their behavior.
The four pigs were suspended from active duty. They did NOT go to jail, as they richly deserved to.
Build your own computer? You're a terrorist. Run an "unsecured" operating system? You're a terrorist. Share files? Terrorist. Complain about corporate abuse? Terrorist. Demand your Fair Use rights? Terrorist. Fail to consume your fair share? Terrorist.
In 100 years, when they are picking over the ashes of our civilization wondering what went wrong, this will be the turning point day they decide on...the day when you could get LIFE in PRISON for using a computer.
Slashdot Mirror
I had the same initial reaction to FF8 - I _just didn't like it_. It was too different from my beloved FF7. I still played the game all the way through, and grudgingly admitted that it had a very nice ending.
And now, years later, I found myself wanting to revisit Balamb Garden...wanting to fight alongside Selphie and Zell and Quistis again. So I started a new game and played for a while, and this time I paid more attention to the combat system than I did on my first playthrough. I was able to judge the game on its own merits, and the game was a lot easier to play. And guess what? I really enjoyed myself.
Reminds me of when I was working at Origin Systems doing phone tech support and hints. I would get a ton of calls (mostly from Brazil) from people wanting hints on Ultima VIII (which is every diehard Ultima fan's LEAST favorite Ultima). I'd answer all their questions, then ask them, "How are you liking the game?" And they would uniformly reply, "It's great! One of the best games I've ever played!" And then I'd ask them, "Have you ever played any other Ultimas?" And they would uniformly reply, "No, this is my first."
Or it could be the the-system-fails-again department.
Ah, excellent! Rational discussion, I love it. I should have said that Wright popularized the software toy.
Another example of a pre-SimCity software toys is The Little Computer People Discovery Kit (Activision, 1985).
Hmmm...some of mine, in no particular order:
* Wil Wright invents the "software toy" or "sandbox" type of game with SimCity
* The VGA card cements the PC as the gaming computer of the future and closes the door on the Atari ST, the Apple IIGS and the Amiga
* Square realizes they are getting a raw deal, breaks off relations with Nintendo and embraces the PlayStation
Age of Mythology was a great game that I thoroughly enjoyed, and it looks like this expansion is going to make it richer, more energetic, easier to play and prettier. Can't wait; just hope my box can keep up.
Dark Tailor of the Sith doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it?
Hey, even Luke Skywalker started as a farmer.
Uh...Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi! Tonari no Totoro! Mononoke Hime! Yeah, that's the ticket!
Uh...actually, in the "making of" short on the Spirited Away DVD, you can see that the voice acting is pretty much the very last thing they do - all the lip movements were animated beforehand. Japanese animators aren't as concerned with matching the lip movements to the actual dialog as American animators are.
He'll Americanize the crap out of it and cast some no-talent pretty girl in the lead (hell, he'll probably stick with Jessica Alba). I cannot imagine him finding a real actress with both the physicality to play Alita AND the childlike innocence that made her so easy to identify with. And then the whole movie will become a warning about how we should take better care of our environment or something.
If rich American directors and actors find Japanese anime movies they like, I'd rather they fund the creation of a new movie or a remake IN JAPAN than try to "bring it to the American audience", destroying everything that made the anime great in the process.
Um...excuse me while I completely disagree. While the movies you're getting have been reduced down to about 320x240 and therefore aren't going to look as sharp as the in-game graphics, the main reason to watch this movie is for the excellent plot, the interesting situations and plain ol' funny dialog. I think you did yourself a grave disservice by downloading the last movie first.
I watched the first nine or so movies and then stopped and ran out and bought the game, so I could both see all these cutscenes in their full 1280x960 glory and also so I could get the WHOLE story (the movie naturally has tons of stuff cut out). I certainly did not regret the purchase. The movie is worth the download.
Cheating is why I play games over a LAN with friends rather than over the internet with people I don't know. Cheating is why I don't play MMORPGs (well, cheating and the incredibly amounts of time they require to get anything done). The anonymity makes it impossible to punish people for wrecking the game or getting ahead unfairly, and this problem simply isn't solvable without removing the anonymity of the internet, and few people want that.
Reminds me of a time I decided to try a MUD. Even though it was free, I was asked to provide my real name, and address and phone number and was explicitly told in the Terms of Service that they would have no qualms about calling my local police department on me. Once I read that, I changed my mind about trying the game, even though I knew that they were doing this in order to cut through the anonymity of the internet and bring real consequences to people to who used the system to abuse others. That knowledge wasn't enough to make me want to lose my anonymity in order to play the game.
Oddly enough, consoles with their unique serial numbers would be better suited to bringing about real consequences for online assholery. You can change your character, you can change your IP, but you cannot change your PS2's serial number. You get your console banned, your only option would be to buy another one. In this case, you're not anonymous, but you're also not identified by an actual name or address either. I think that's a good tradeoff, and will become an even better one in the future as console online gaming takes off.
Yay! I'm not alone! Not alone!
Just about any of the big RPGs since the resurgence are far more fun in my opinion than Nethack. Fallout and Fallout 2, Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2, Planescape: Torment, Ultima VII (use Exult to play it) - any of these would be a more entertaining use of my time than playing Nethack.
I once starved to death as I crammed apple after apple down my throat. Why? I don't know. And after I deleted the game, I didn't care either.
I remember my most promising game...I actually made it to level 3, where I was almost instantly confronted by a goblin with a wand of magic missile. Zap! Half my hitpoints are gone. I try to run. I get one step away. Zap! The other half are gone. Good-bye character. Good-bye game.
It's just completely arbitrary. There's really no design to it at all. Winning the game is simply a process of playing it compulsively over and over until you finally get lucky and don't die right away and can start building levels. And even then, one wrong move and you're dead. Sorry, I got tired of that game mechanic back in the mid-80's.
And that's the real problem with the game. Nobody on the DevTeam has played a game since Zork, or they'd understand that frustration isn't considered fun any more.
I'm serious. I'm a huge computer game buff, but Nethack has always left me cold. The interface is awful, the game is deliberately user-hostile, and you die constantly in ways you can't possibly prevent (boulder trap on level 1, for instance). Most "puzzles" have completely non-logical solutions. (Starving? Pray to your diety! Makes perfect sense!) It feels far too much like playing a paper-and-pencil RPG against an adversarial GM. They thought of everything? Everything but the fun.
Actually, since they'd just all go to heaven (since they're children of Allah) and we'd all go to hell, I wouldn't put it past them.
Heh. Now is not a great time to be a Tolkien fan, apparently. We're getting movies, but Peter Jackson is butchering them, reducing characters to composites and changing things to make it more dramatic and play better on the screen! What a plonker!
I am a Tolkien fan. I've read the books and I love them. I think Two Towers was a marvellous film. No, it didn't follow the story exactly. Hell, in the last half of the movie, it diverged entirely. Doesn't bother me one bit. It's not "Lord of the Rings" as much as it's Peter Jackson's take on LOTR. And if he'd made the slavishly faithful movies you want then you'd have had a blast, but the average viewer would have considered them dull and unwatchable and thought, "Man, only geeks can like this stuff."
Peter Jackson has adapted Tolkien, both for the big screen, and also for the mass media. The scope, breadth and depth of Tolkien's work is still there. When Return of the King comes out, millions of people everywhere will cheer Sauron's defeat in the same way we all cheered the Death Star blowing up twenty years ago. If you don't consider that to be a good thing for Tolkien's legacy, then you don't really love Tolkien as much as you think you do.
... and for someone as utterly friggin' brilliant as Tom Lord to be utterly penniless is just wrong.
Really? I thought the whole point of Free Software was to make sure no one ever made any money. After all, if he were really brilliant, he'd have found something to do during the day (like bus tables) that would let him continue to program at night.
Deus Ex wasn't a AAA title? While the developers had to add some functionality (for ladders, for instance), they did not have to strip out and rewrite much of the engine at all.
Third party engines are the way computer gaming is going. Every time you write an engine, you're re-inventing the wheel. Why do that?
Slugthrowers are never, ever going away. They are simply too cheap and effective at what they do. Honestly, if you're going to kill somebody with a laser pistol, you're going to have to have one powerful enough to drill a hole right through them - and then you have to hit a vital orgain. With a slugthrower, even a hit to the foot can put someone into shock, removing them from the fight.
Repeat the mantra, student: The Future Will Not Be Like Star Trek.
They came damn close this time to actually using the internet well and giving their customers what they want. But the 24-hour license kills it, and proves once again that the movie studios just don't want us to own anything any more.
Downloadable movies for $3.99 that the user then OWNS would be a great way to allow people to "try things out" or beef up my movie library for cheap...it would give people more value for their money. And I have NO doubt that it would have no affect on DVD sales - if someone is willing to pay for the movie but not the extras, they aren't going to buy a DVD version anyway!
I have downloaded movies off P2P services before, but ONLY movies that I saw in the theater and I only keep them until the DVD comes out and then I throw them away. I'd LOVE to be able to do this without breaking the law, and I'd be willing to pay $4 a movie to do it - as LONG as I can keep the movie if I choose. Is giving the users that choice so anathema to the movie studios?
Exactly. This is why I prefer the BSD license - it is truly a gift, unlike the GPL, which just pretends to be.
I once read a story about "Freedom: I Won't", the idea that everyone has the basic right to say "I won't" when requested to do something by another, and that answer must be accepted.
The BSD license says "I won't. I've chosen to freely give this away. I won't make money off it, but if you want to add your own code to it and try to make money off the combination, you're free too. It's a gift, and like any gift, can be resold."
The GPL says "I won't - and you won't either. If you use this code, you become beholden to us, and you must release your code in order to further our political ends."
The GPL violates my Freedom: I Won't: it tries to dictate to me. Well...I Won't use the GPL then.
Not only that, but in this case, "Linux" was the correct term, since the guy was referring just to the kernel. Didn't stop Stallman, though.
It's very simple.
If you use software, but sell products or services, Free Software is your best friend. It reduces your costs while not undercutting what you're really selling.
If you sell software, Free Software is your worst enemy. It takes away the only thing you have to sell.
Game developers make money by selling software.
"What did Amadou Diallo do when the cops approached him? Did he run? Yes! Did he answer questions? No! Why? Because he was an illegal citizen. Did he commit a crime? Yes! Did he deserve what he got? NO! Was it a mistake? YES! Do the individuals involved deserve to be punished? YES! Do ALL officers deserve to be punished? NO!"
Get your fucking facts straight.
Amadou entered this country legally, but his visa was just past its expiration date. Ever drive with a just-expired license? Then you've committed a crime as heinous as the one Amadou was executed for.
Amadou was standing in the vestibule of his building when four white men in plain clothes jumped out of two cars and started running toward him (one officer testified that he was running as fast as he could). They picked him out because he was black. Amadou panicked and turned away from them, putting his hand into his pocket to pull out his keys so he could get inside the building. The four men then shot him. Nothing - NOTHING Amadou did justified their behavior.
The four pigs were suspended from active duty. They did NOT go to jail, as they richly deserved to.
Build your own computer? You're a terrorist.
Run an "unsecured" operating system? You're a terrorist.
Share files? Terrorist.
Complain about corporate abuse? Terrorist.
Demand your Fair Use rights? Terrorist.
Fail to consume your fair share? Terrorist.
In 100 years, when they are picking over the ashes of our civilization wondering what went wrong, this will be the turning point day they decide on...the day when you could get LIFE in PRISON for using a computer.