Max Payne had a very great storyline, and a very emotional one. in the beginning of the game, when he comes home, only to find his wife and daughter killed by junkies, and hearing him crying "no no god no," well, I'd never seen ANYTHING in a game that hit me quite the same way. it made me cry, and it made me want to avenge his loss.
the other game that really got me emotionally was the Original Seiken Densetsu game (released in US as "final fantasy adventure," and recently remade as "sword of mana"). Final Fantasy Adventure is FILLED with death, loss, and sacrifice. within the first five minutes, the main character's best friend dies... when you rescue the girl, she's with a dead companion... one character gets his back broken and can no longer walk, etc. terribly sad game with lots of loss and sacrifice. and I loved it because of that.
oddly enough, I don't cry at most sad movies, except for some anime. I just can't connect with the characters on screen. their sadness and loss means little to nothing to me, probably because I don't feel like I'm experiencing or having a hand in what I'm doing.
I agree, I was going to say that. I mean, I'm a girl myself, but I enjoy it, but I can't help but feel a little silly when kasumi "kicks high."
I've always loved the series though, the fighting system is enjoyable (I enjoy the ability to counter by grabbing my opponent's kick, and flippin' them over) and the graphics are always cutting edge...
I went and bought the beach volleyball game, and.. well, I bought it as a joke, but I ended up really enjoying it, mostly for the relationship and "collectible crap" aspect. and the volleyball game isn't half-bad, either, though its not really that much more complex than the volleyball game back on the atari 2600
I can't reccomend the n45 enough. I've had mine for over a year now, and its still the best PC gamepad i've ever used, and I have a pile of various failed gamepads in the corner of my room. (sidewinder dual strike, gravis somethingorother, 3d-pad-pro, some thrustmaster thing with force feedback that doesn't work because only the win98 drivers support the motors.... etc..)
also, I'm thinking of getting a second one so I can set it up for multiplayer MAME. my friends and I love the ninja turtle and Simpsons arcade games, but one of us always has to use the keyboard, which sucks for that type of game.
I put the mouse under my left hand.. bind shoot to left click (well, right click, really... I do have my mouse commands flipped, being a lefty and all.) and alt fire/use/whatever the second most used function is to my left button. the middle mouse button is reload.. unless the game utilizes alt-fire AND action keys, in which case, action is the middle button.
my right hand goes on the d-pad. 5 moves forward, 2 backward, and 1 and 3 are for strafing. 0 is jump, . is duck (or walk), enter is set to 'walk' (really run command.. always use auto-run) 4 and 6are either previous and next weapon, or toggle between inventory, and the big plus button uses items. - is map, menu, whatever. * is zoom. / drops whatever I'm holding. and most used chat binds (or chat menus) go on 7,8,9.
and thats my config for lefties! I think it works incredibly well.
I did. and I liked it. my parents started me off on such classics as "Journey to the Center of the earth" (which was in color, but it was also older than I am) and went from there to "its a wonderful life." when I was a teenager, I sought out the likes of "Citizen Caine", "12 angry men," and "Casablanca" on my own. and you know what? they don't make them like they used to. I weep for my generation and generations to come, with this society of explosions, eye candy, and instant gratification.
I do play video games. and many of the older games are indeed better. my first game system that I owned was the NES. though I did "inherit" my father's atari 2600 after I started beating him at Combat consistently at age 4, causing him to give up gaming out of frustration. I've taken quite an interest in retro gaming since I was about 17, and I went and re-bought several of my old-school favorites.. and what I can't find for purchase, I play 'em emulated.
Now that I'm 22, I still play games, and yes, there are some goodies out there, but most of the older games are the best. I'd take the original legend of zelda over windwaker any day of the week, and tetris is still an addictive time-waster (someone make a version of tetris where the lines explode off the screen already! thats how you win the attention of today's kids!)
don't knock it: lance mungia, who directed and co-wrote Six String Samurai (awesome flick, try and find a copy if you haven't seen it already) started with music videos.
when it comes to multiplayer, I've discovered recently I'd rather hang out on the couch with a few friends in front of a console, then secluded in my room fragging people I don't know and will never meet. whether we pass wavebirds back and forth playing soul calibur 2, hangin out for 10 minute smash bros. matches, or invite a bunch of friends (and a few extra xboxes and tv's) over for a massive 16 player halo game, I'd much rather play with people I know. he mentions something about "reaching out and punching someone," and frankly, thats not it. its the fact that you're all there. its very social... you take a break, gather round the pizza box and congratulate each other on good frags or whatever...
when we play halo, we do a few matches of ctf.. and we set it up so that everyone on one tv is up against everyone on the other... and that way, we can lean forward, point at each other's screens, say "hey, sneak up this way, I'm going to go in over here, and..." its just a lot more social, playing together in the same room.
nobody is forcing you to buy anything: I didn't see nintendo reach into your pocket and steal your wallet, replacing it with a pacman bonus disc. you can just as readily go without. or ask your mommy and daddy for it at christmas time.
OH NO, I WANT TO WATCH DVD'S, BUT I HAVE TO BUY A DVD PLAYER! PERISH THE THOUGHT, I SHOULD BE ABLE TO PLUG THIS INTO MY VCR!!!!
why is that so impressive? I was trying to sound like the quake3 announcer just tonight with one of my friends, going "DENIED!" and "HASTE!" (I forget why, exactly...)
you didn't go to school in the game... in fact, sometimes when you'd call your mom, she'd tell you about how "the teacher came around again for you missing school, but don't worry, I gave her an excuse."
you do, however, get money from your dad: when you beat monsters, you get experience, and the next time you call your dad, you get equivilent money from him, depending on the monsters you fought.
there are a few pop culture references in the game, but mostly, the game is very childish humor ("you'll be so scared, you'll pee your pants! haha!", oh yeah, and sentient vommit monsters). the only pop culture reference I can recall probably wasn't even in the japanese version of the game: a guy asks you to "fill in the blank: a popular beatles song, ---terday. and you can answer yes or no...) for the most part, the humor doesn't rely on knowledge of anything. the humor just works, because its so wierd and stupid, its funny.
probably because he's from UK. I don't know for sure if zelda is out there or not yet, but from what I've heard, the european market often gets things last.
it'll probably be like how sega set up "seganet" for phantasy star online on the dreamcast: if you didn't already have an isp, you could sign up and use seganet, right there from within the game! otherwise, the game allowed you to put in your own ISP account information and work from there.
I think this could be beneficial for both parties, so long as they follow sega's lead and allow the use of other isp's, not just their own.
that said, I don't go online with my consoles. I enjoy sitting with my buddies, players 2, 3, and 4, right there on the couch with me. makes one of my favorite activities a social activity. (and no, playing online with random llama #87 is NOT being social, I don't care if all you do is sit and chat! human contact is important, even if its just "pass me the mountain dew while the game is paused.")
this sort of reminds me of another pop-art phenomenon, sheppard fairy's "andre the giant" posters. Giant Posse. the project is to make people think by creating an "advertisement selling no product" or placing something where there shouldn't be anything, and seeing what meaning people put on it.
thats sort of what this reminds me of: art in a place where art usually isn't, creating all kinds of questions as to what it is and how it got there.
something that has not yet been adeqautely described to me is the fact that radio gives away free music all the time, broadcast over the air, all you need is a radio to pick it up. ok, so the radio gives out free music, yes, but mp3, I have it ON DEMAND! well, I last I checked, my radio works on demand, too: I turn it on, I get music. "ooh, ooh, but you may argue that the radio doesn't play the songs I want to hear when I want to hear them!" well, lots of radio stations have call in shows that play what the listeners request... and besides, I would always just put on the radio station that plays the music that I enjoy most. "ooh, but radio isn't as good quality as cd's!" no, maybe not, but neither is mp3.
so, all that said, I still fail to see how, ultimately, mp3 is IMMORAL. I understand that it is illegal, and I understand why it is illegal, but lots of activities that ARE legal are immoral, as well. by pirating music, one may be breaking the law, but are they really doing anything wrong?
one more thing, and then I'm done: the record companies DO pay radio companies to play certain music, even though that is both illegal AND immoral. now, I have a proposal to the RIAA: I'd certainly be willing to listen to whatever your record companies want me to listen to, if they gave me free copies and payed me to play it like they do the radio companies. so, please, start sending me free music, record companies, and I'll play them, so long as you include fat checks with the discs.:-p
while I wouldn't exactly word it that specific way, that is exactly what I mean. options can be good, but why release 5 different versions of the game? that just seems utterly silly to me.
and yes, I DID read the article, I'm not taking offense at the fact that you can't buy it in a box.. I'm taking offense that there are 87 different ways to purchase it. with so many different versions of the game, some of them supporting multiplayer, some of them not, some with extra goodies, some with discs, some with downloaded... that could cause some serious confusion in all but the hardcore.
me? I'll probably buy it in a box with multiplayer features: I like having my games on a disc. I hate the idea of 'special editions'... and I'll probably only play it offline a couple times through.. but I like the option to go online.
I simply don't see why they have to package one game so many different ways.. then again, they repackaged halflife 1 about 37 different ways too. (platinum, game of the year, platinum pack 2, with counterstrike, with team fortress, with everything.... need I go on?)
what ever happened to putting it on a dsc, putting the disc in the box, and giving the customers a simple package with a working, non-crippled product in it? this is utterly rediculous, in my opinion.
this is going to confuse the hell out of parents and grandparents buying the game for the upcoming holiday season.
also: is anyone else utterly sick of collectors editions of movies and games? at least they're putting this out at the same time, but still, I don't want to have to choose between a crappy bare bones version and a fancy version with hordes of extras and such.. if anything, make the game you get in all the boxes the same, and put a soundtrack cd, a t-shirt, a map, a pewter ordinator figurine, whatever in the collectors version.. not extra game content.
as for the mod community: I seriously think that with the various rediculous distribution methods, this will kill the mod community for HL2 before it even has a chance of being born.
whenever my friends are over, we get the BIGGEST laughs out of "arena" on G4... its really a terribly funny show... it has two teams competing at 3 different games.... usually mechwarrior, unreal tournament, and some random console game.... but it cracks us up, because they get the biggest bunch of lamers to play on there! i've seen people walking into walls in these games.... its just sad.. and the player's personalities? its a sliding scale, they can be boring and decent players, or flamboyant llamas.
if this is the kind of gamer that qualifies to be broadcast on tv, then its truly a sad state of affairs.
for the record, though: if it were presented in the right way, i would DEFINITELY tune in to watch professional gamers on tv.
I for one, welcome our robotic kindergartner overlords... or at least I will, in 30 years.
oh yeah, almost forgot! "in soviet russia, robot proposes 30-year japan program."
I leave anything out?
either way, now that thats all out of the way, nobody ever has to say it again.
how long till this technology is adapted to something like pokemon? I doubt people will pay to collect a bunch of physical robots, but suppose the "plot" of the game is that there are digital entities inside the robot bugs, and you have to defeat the enemy bug to download its "programming" into your roster? (you know, I'd buy that.)
>>In other news, people looking at gay porn tend to have gay sex, and people looking at straight porn tend to have straight sex. Scientists are shocked.
and people everyone who plays grand theft auto jacks cars, and everyone who plays doom shoots up their highschool chums.
that said, Kiddie porn should NEVER BE PRODUCED, and those who recruit children to creat it should be punished severely. however, in cases of posession, different measures should be taken into account: did the user knowingly acquire it? how much of it has the user acquired? what kind of person is the user (psychological profiles, personal history, etc.)
I've been playing warioware with the game boy player.. its a great game, and the fun only increases with more players. we take turns, see who can last the longest in the main game.... and it has some excelent multiplayer, too. the multiplayer games are meant for two players holding onto the left and right side of a game boy... in practice, this isn't so hot... however, the GB player makes all GCN controller ports work the same... so the way we do it: the person with the wavebird uses the left trigger, the person with the corded uses the right.... it can sort of be on the honor system that we don't touch the OTHER player's trigger.. but we hold the controllers one-handed, so its not a huge deal.
Dong Dong is our definite favorite. we've litterally spent hours trying to push the yellow things onto each other, cracking up laughing the whole time.
Slashdot Mirror
Max Payne had a very great storyline, and a very emotional one. in the beginning of the game, when he comes home, only to find his wife and daughter killed by junkies, and hearing him crying "no no god no," well, I'd never seen ANYTHING in a game that hit me quite the same way. it made me cry, and it made me want to avenge his loss. the other game that really got me emotionally was the Original Seiken Densetsu game (released in US as "final fantasy adventure," and recently remade as "sword of mana"). Final Fantasy Adventure is FILLED with death, loss, and sacrifice. within the first five minutes, the main character's best friend dies... when you rescue the girl, she's with a dead companion... one character gets his back broken and can no longer walk, etc. terribly sad game with lots of loss and sacrifice. and I loved it because of that. oddly enough, I don't cry at most sad movies, except for some anime. I just can't connect with the characters on screen. their sadness and loss means little to nothing to me, probably because I don't feel like I'm experiencing or having a hand in what I'm doing.
I agree, I was going to say that. I mean, I'm a girl myself, but I enjoy it, but I can't help but feel a little silly when kasumi "kicks high." I've always loved the series though, the fighting system is enjoyable (I enjoy the ability to counter by grabbing my opponent's kick, and flippin' them over) and the graphics are always cutting edge... I went and bought the beach volleyball game, and.. well, I bought it as a joke, but I ended up really enjoying it, mostly for the relationship and "collectible crap" aspect. and the volleyball game isn't half-bad, either, though its not really that much more complex than the volleyball game back on the atari 2600
I can't reccomend the n45 enough. I've had mine for over a year now, and its still the best PC gamepad i've ever used, and I have a pile of various failed gamepads in the corner of my room. (sidewinder dual strike, gravis somethingorother, 3d-pad-pro, some thrustmaster thing with force feedback that doesn't work because only the win98 drivers support the motors.... etc..) also, I'm thinking of getting a second one so I can set it up for multiplayer MAME. my friends and I love the ninja turtle and Simpsons arcade games, but one of us always has to use the keyboard, which sucks for that type of game.
let me know how it works for ya!
gah, tired, not making sense. I meant my right hand goes on the num-pad, NOT the d-pad.
I put the mouse under my left hand.. bind shoot to left click (well, right click, really... I do have my mouse commands flipped, being a lefty and all.) and alt fire/use/whatever the second most used function is to my left button. the middle mouse button is reload.. unless the game utilizes alt-fire AND action keys, in which case, action is the middle button.
my right hand goes on the d-pad. 5 moves forward, 2 backward, and 1 and 3 are for strafing. 0 is jump, . is duck (or walk), enter is set to 'walk' (really run command.. always use auto-run) 4 and 6are either previous and next weapon, or toggle between inventory, and the big plus button uses items.
- is map, menu, whatever. * is zoom. / drops whatever I'm holding. and most used chat binds (or chat menus) go on 7,8,9.
and thats my config for lefties! I think it works incredibly well.
I did. and I liked it. my parents started me off on such classics as "Journey to the Center of the earth" (which was in color, but it was also older than I am) and went from there to "its a wonderful life." when I was a teenager, I sought out the likes of "Citizen Caine", "12 angry men," and "Casablanca" on my own. and you know what? they don't make them like they used to. I weep for my generation and generations to come, with this society of explosions, eye candy, and instant gratification. I do play video games. and many of the older games are indeed better. my first game system that I owned was the NES. though I did "inherit" my father's atari 2600 after I started beating him at Combat consistently at age 4, causing him to give up gaming out of frustration. I've taken quite an interest in retro gaming since I was about 17, and I went and re-bought several of my old-school favorites.. and what I can't find for purchase, I play 'em emulated. Now that I'm 22, I still play games, and yes, there are some goodies out there, but most of the older games are the best. I'd take the original legend of zelda over windwaker any day of the week, and tetris is still an addictive time-waster (someone make a version of tetris where the lines explode off the screen already! thats how you win the attention of today's kids!)
don't knock it: lance mungia, who directed and co-wrote Six String Samurai (awesome flick, try and find a copy if you haven't seen it already) started with music videos.
when it comes to multiplayer, I've discovered recently I'd rather hang out on the couch with a few friends in front of a console, then secluded in my room fragging people I don't know and will never meet. whether we pass wavebirds back and forth playing soul calibur 2, hangin out for 10 minute smash bros. matches, or invite a bunch of friends (and a few extra xboxes and tv's) over for a massive 16 player halo game, I'd much rather play with people I know. he mentions something about "reaching out and punching someone," and frankly, thats not it. its the fact that you're all there. its very social... you take a break, gather round the pizza box and congratulate each other on good frags or whatever...
when we play halo, we do a few matches of ctf.. and we set it up so that everyone on one tv is up against everyone on the other... and that way, we can lean forward, point at each other's screens, say "hey, sneak up this way, I'm going to go in over here, and..." its just a lot more social, playing together in the same room.
nobody is forcing you to buy anything: I didn't see nintendo reach into your pocket and steal your wallet, replacing it with a pacman bonus disc. you can just as readily go without. or ask your mommy and daddy for it at christmas time.
OH NO, I WANT TO WATCH DVD'S, BUT I HAVE TO BUY A DVD PLAYER! PERISH THE THOUGHT, I SHOULD BE ABLE TO PLUG THIS INTO MY VCR!!!!
why is that so impressive? I was trying to sound like the quake3 announcer just tonight with one of my friends, going "DENIED!" and "HASTE!" (I forget why, exactly...)
I always thought he said "your mama's from L.A.!!!"
you didn't go to school in the game... in fact, sometimes when you'd call your mom, she'd tell you about how "the teacher came around again for you missing school, but don't worry, I gave her an excuse."
you do, however, get money from your dad: when you beat monsters, you get experience, and the next time you call your dad, you get equivilent money from him, depending on the monsters you fought.
there are a few pop culture references in the game, but mostly, the game is very childish humor ("you'll be so scared, you'll pee your pants! haha!", oh yeah, and sentient vommit monsters). the only pop culture reference I can recall probably wasn't even in the japanese version of the game: a guy asks you to "fill in the blank: a popular beatles song, ---terday. and you can answer yes or no...) for the most part, the humor doesn't rely on knowledge of anything. the humor just works, because its so wierd and stupid, its funny.
probably because he's from UK. I don't know for sure if zelda is out there or not yet, but from what I've heard, the european market often gets things last.
it'll probably be like how sega set up "seganet" for phantasy star online on the dreamcast: if you didn't already have an isp, you could sign up and use seganet, right there from within the game! otherwise, the game allowed you to put in your own ISP account information and work from there. I think this could be beneficial for both parties, so long as they follow sega's lead and allow the use of other isp's, not just their own. that said, I don't go online with my consoles. I enjoy sitting with my buddies, players 2, 3, and 4, right there on the couch with me. makes one of my favorite activities a social activity. (and no, playing online with random llama #87 is NOT being social, I don't care if all you do is sit and chat! human contact is important, even if its just "pass me the mountain dew while the game is paused.")
this sort of reminds me of another pop-art phenomenon, sheppard fairy's "andre the giant" posters. Giant Posse. the project is to make people think by creating an "advertisement selling no product" or placing something where there shouldn't be anything, and seeing what meaning people put on it. thats sort of what this reminds me of: art in a place where art usually isn't, creating all kinds of questions as to what it is and how it got there.
something that has not yet been adeqautely described to me is the fact that radio gives away free music all the time, broadcast over the air, all you need is a radio to pick it up. ok, so the radio gives out free music, yes, but mp3, I have it ON DEMAND! well, I last I checked, my radio works on demand, too: I turn it on, I get music. "ooh, ooh, but you may argue that the radio doesn't play the songs I want to hear when I want to hear them!" well, lots of radio stations have call in shows that play what the listeners request... and besides, I would always just put on the radio station that plays the music that I enjoy most. "ooh, but radio isn't as good quality as cd's!" no, maybe not, but neither is mp3.
:-p
so, all that said, I still fail to see how, ultimately, mp3 is IMMORAL. I understand that it is illegal, and I understand why it is illegal, but lots of activities that ARE legal are immoral, as well. by pirating music, one may be breaking the law, but are they really doing anything wrong?
one more thing, and then I'm done: the record companies DO pay radio companies to play certain music, even though that is both illegal AND immoral. now, I have a proposal to the RIAA: I'd certainly be willing to listen to whatever your record companies want me to listen to, if they gave me free copies and payed me to play it like they do the radio companies. so, please, start sending me free music, record companies, and I'll play them, so long as you include fat checks with the discs.
while I wouldn't exactly word it that specific way, that is exactly what I mean. options can be good, but why release 5 different versions of the game? that just seems utterly silly to me. and yes, I DID read the article, I'm not taking offense at the fact that you can't buy it in a box.. I'm taking offense that there are 87 different ways to purchase it. with so many different versions of the game, some of them supporting multiplayer, some of them not, some with extra goodies, some with discs, some with downloaded... that could cause some serious confusion in all but the hardcore. me? I'll probably buy it in a box with multiplayer features: I like having my games on a disc. I hate the idea of 'special editions'... and I'll probably only play it offline a couple times through.. but I like the option to go online. I simply don't see why they have to package one game so many different ways.. then again, they repackaged halflife 1 about 37 different ways too. (platinum, game of the year, platinum pack 2, with counterstrike, with team fortress, with everything.... need I go on?)
what ever happened to putting it on a dsc, putting the disc in the box, and giving the customers a simple package with a working, non-crippled product in it? this is utterly rediculous, in my opinion.
this is going to confuse the hell out of parents and grandparents buying the game for the upcoming holiday season.
also: is anyone else utterly sick of collectors editions of movies and games? at least they're putting this out at the same time, but still, I don't want to have to choose between a crappy bare bones version and a fancy version with hordes of extras and such.. if anything, make the game you get in all the boxes the same, and put a soundtrack cd, a t-shirt, a map, a pewter ordinator figurine, whatever in the collectors version.. not extra game content.
as for the mod community: I seriously think that with the various rediculous distribution methods, this will kill the mod community for HL2 before it even has a chance of being born.
whenever my friends are over, we get the BIGGEST laughs out of "arena" on G4... its really a terribly funny show... it has two teams competing at 3 different games.... usually mechwarrior, unreal tournament, and some random console game.... but it cracks us up, because they get the biggest bunch of lamers to play on there! i've seen people walking into walls in these games.... its just sad.. and the player's personalities? its a sliding scale, they can be boring and decent players, or flamboyant llamas. if this is the kind of gamer that qualifies to be broadcast on tv, then its truly a sad state of affairs. for the record, though: if it were presented in the right way, i would DEFINITELY tune in to watch professional gamers on tv.
I for one, welcome our robotic kindergartner overlords... or at least I will, in 30 years. oh yeah, almost forgot! "in soviet russia, robot proposes 30-year japan program." I leave anything out? either way, now that thats all out of the way, nobody ever has to say it again.
funny, its only the 12th, and windowsupdate already seems to be DoS'd. probably because all the media telling people to update, of course.
how long till this technology is adapted to something like pokemon? I doubt people will pay to collect a bunch of physical robots, but suppose the "plot" of the game is that there are digital entities inside the robot bugs, and you have to defeat the enemy bug to download its "programming" into your roster? (you know, I'd buy that.)
>>In other news, people looking at gay porn tend to have gay sex, and people looking at straight porn tend to have straight sex. Scientists are shocked. and people everyone who plays grand theft auto jacks cars, and everyone who plays doom shoots up their highschool chums. that said, Kiddie porn should NEVER BE PRODUCED, and those who recruit children to creat it should be punished severely. however, in cases of posession, different measures should be taken into account: did the user knowingly acquire it? how much of it has the user acquired? what kind of person is the user (psychological profiles, personal history, etc.)
I've been playing warioware with the game boy player.. its a great game, and the fun only increases with more players. we take turns, see who can last the longest in the main game.... and it has some excelent multiplayer, too. the multiplayer games are meant for two players holding onto the left and right side of a game boy... in practice, this isn't so hot... however, the GB player makes all GCN controller ports work the same... so the way we do it: the person with the wavebird uses the left trigger, the person with the corded uses the right.... it can sort of be on the honor system that we don't touch the OTHER player's trigger.. but we hold the controllers one-handed, so its not a huge deal. Dong Dong is our definite favorite. we've litterally spent hours trying to push the yellow things onto each other, cracking up laughing the whole time.