Re:escapist magazine and HTML skills
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Gamer Nation
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· Score: 2, Informative
Like or dislike the design all you want (I'm not particulary fond of it), but as a former web designer, a width of 800 is a perfectly acceptable maximum (I design for 750, but that's just me).
You've definitely got me there. "Communicating" with AI opponents is terrible. It helps to think of them as children though. Give them what they want this turn, and they'll give you what you want next turn.
The goal in Civilization isn't blurry. It's really quite simple. "Rule the world." The only catch is, you have to choose how to do it. Do you want to win militarily, or would you rather win the space race? Do you want to take over opponent's cities, or would you rather win them over with your awe-inspiring culture?
If you're really looking for a "there's one way to win" game in Civilization, go to civfanatics and try the game of the month or try to scenarios available in the game (at least in the Gold Edition) and online.
This trick works best in the Red Light District. Get any car, except for a police car, FBI car, Ambulance, Fire Truck or Taxi, and pull alongside the sidewalk next to a girl wearing a brown outfit. She will walk over to the car and begin bending over, like she's talking to you. A few seconds later she will get in the car. Drive to a secluded area (or your hideout) and stop the car. Be quick about it, because your money will drain for the amount of time she's in the car.
Once the car is stopped, it will begin rocking. It'll rock slow, then it'll get faster. Your health is replenishing, but your money is depleting. Using the hooker, you can get your health up to a maximum of 125. When you reach the maximum health, she'll get out of the car.
Now, if your feeling particularly cold-blooded, you can get out of the car, chase after the hooker, beat her, and take your money back. Gotta love this game.
This is an excerpt from a walthrough. The walkthrough, in its entirety, can be found here. If it doesn't work, I'm not the only one who played the game and thought that's what my cash level increase meant.
Hmm...maybe it doesn't work exactly as I remember, but every time I work a prostitute in GTA III, I make sure that I get some money back off the deal. My balance always seems to even out, if not be higher afterwards.
I don't remember if I did it in Vice City, and I don't have San Andreas yet.
I never said it didn't belong in the game, but I do think it warrants the M or rating. I applaud Rockstar for including it. I thought it was funny, but I won't let my theoretical children play it (until I'm sure they can handle it).
My point was this: why does committing a crime warrant an M, but acting completely within the law warrant an AO?
Maybe not SNES, but I don't think we should just move on. With all the backwards compatibility, does Alien Hominid 2 really need to be on the XBox 360? Will ports and remakes really take up all the room on a BluRay?
I know I'd buy a lot more compilations and ports if they were released on the last generation's media. After all, I'll be able to play PSX, PS2, and PS3 games on my PS3, right? Why not port Final Fantasy III or Front Mission to the PSX? You've got a huge pre-installed base, and you can still make money from those who haven't bought the latest and greatest yet.
And what about the little guys? Can they all afford a run on the Revolution? Probably not, but I bet it'd be a lot easier to press some GameCube discs. Old doesn't have to mean dead.
Alyx from HL2 - normal looking. Female leaders in Civ III - normal looking. Female dancers in DDR - no worse than the guys. Elsa and the other females in Front Mission 4 - normal looking. Samus Aran - covered in a giant metal suit.
It would seem the girls bitching in the article need to quit playing only racing games and figthers.
I'm not saying you need to rush out and play them right now. The OP said there _were_ no good games for the SNES. At the time, these games were amazing. And I _still_ go back to Super Metroid. It's easily the best in the entire series.
Am I forgetting some graphic art in the manual or something? Infested Marines are no larger than regular marines. And as anybody who has ever played StarCraft can attest, the Marines (infested or otherwise) are very small.
Being slightly grossed out at the concept, I could understand, but genuine fear caused by a tiny sprite? Give me a break.
Any Front Mission game. There is a great end weapon of every class (machine gun, shotgun, knuckles, baton, missile, bazooka, etc.), and at least in 3 and 4 (the 2 release in the US), there is no sword class.
Why no mention of Shenmue? Yeah, the story was pretty scripted, but there were no statistics, and the story's pacing was completely player-controlled.
You got better at moves by practicing them, and yes, you could see a status for how good you were at a move, but it was just a bar chart, and you'd know when you mastered it (as I think anybody into martial arts would).
So Ryo's combat skill comes from two things: time spent practicing (to get better at martial arts) and the player's skill and executing moves. It was a pretty refreshing way to handle combat in a console RPG. Also, there were no level-ups. Ryo was the same kid at the end of the story as the beginning.
The pacing of the story was completely left up to the player. Yeah, if you waiting way too long, you lost the game, but it was completely possible to take it slowly and fall into the world or rush through everything. Your Ryo could be calm and collected or rash and hysterical (except for the cut-scenes, but whatever). My game took over 6 months (game time), but I've seen walkthroughs say it's possible in under 20 days.
Granted, the game wasn't for everybody, but I felt a lot more like I was role-playing Ryo than I feel like I'm role-playing Link (Zelda) or Tidus (FF).
Silly me. I was trying to think of a way to actually solve the problem instead of letting politicians and various other talking heads strut around and spew nonsense at the US public.
At least if a law is in place, a good place to start is "Is the law functioning as intended?"
Although it's not a replacement for good parenting, wouldn't the easiest law to implement be on the retailer?
If we make the ratings enforcable instead of just letters on the box, and retailers had to pay a fine if somebody bought too young and the retailers had to warn everybody about the content of games rated either 'M' or 'AO', I think we'd see a lot less of these cases.
We'd have just as many kids playing these games, but then we'd all be covered by the law. We all took responsibility for our action because we listened to the clerk's spiel about the game content and chose to pay for it anyhow. If we then choose to give the game to our children, it's not the video game company's fault. After all, there's a rating on the box, and the clerk told us there would be hookers.
You can't force common sense, but you can force people to be legally informed (like Miranda).
If anime is so in, why is it that for the most part, anime is shown in totally undesirable timeslots (late night, Fridays or Saturdays)?
Is Sci-Fi also not "in" then? Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Battlestar Galactica are all doing well, but they are shown on Friday night.
Why are people who watch a lot of anime considered geeks or otakus?
Because people make fun of other people. Humans suck and make one another feed bad. It's what we do.
Try talking to a random person about Spirited Away. Chances are, they won't know what you're talking about and that movie won a freakin' Oscar for gods sake.
Ask all those same people what they think of Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Big-O, Princess Mononoke, or countless others, and I'm sure they'll have at least heard of one. I'm sure there are movies that have won Osacrs you've never heard of either.
Only a select few animes are in, but anime as a whole is not.
That's like saying "Only a select few movies are in, but movies as a whole are not." Anime is a medium, not a genre.
Those kids who watch Dragonball, Pokemon or YuGiOh, generally only watch those animes and not a single other one. An example of this are my two cousins, one who watches YuGiOh, the other Pokemon. Neither of them even knows what anime is, nor watch any other anime shows at all.
See above. People enjoy shows for their content more often than the medium on which they are produced.
Conventions don't mean shit either. GCC has conventions, Linux has conventions, neither are in.
Conventions mean there is a following. If nobody liked it, the conventions would fail.
It may not be as huge as in Japan, but anime certainly is "in" in America.
We have sanitized versions, but look at an elementary school. I guarentee you'll find a bunch of young kids talking about Dragonball, Pokemon, and/or YuGiOh (all Japanese-made anime). Kids will have anime backpacks, shirts, binders, and video games.
Anime is shown on Cartoon Network and G4 (at least one of which, many people with cable get). For those of us with satellite, there's also an entire Anime network. There are several large conventions devoted to anime here (I used to staff ACen when I lived in Chicago), and if the DVDs weren't selling, companies wouldn't be spending money to subtitle and/or dub anime series for North American release. We're even copying anime styles in our own cartoon series. Teen Titans, though made domestically, borrows quite heavily from the anime style.
It may not be your cup of tea, but anime is definitely "in" in the US.
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Like or dislike the design all you want (I'm not particulary fond of it), but as a former web designer, a width of 800 is a perfectly acceptable maximum (I design for 750, but that's just me).
You've definitely got me there. "Communicating" with AI opponents is terrible. It helps to think of them as children though. Give them what they want this turn, and they'll give you what you want next turn.
The goal in Civilization isn't blurry. It's really quite simple. "Rule the world." The only catch is, you have to choose how to do it. Do you want to win militarily, or would you rather win the space race? Do you want to take over opponent's cities, or would you rather win them over with your awe-inspiring culture?
If you're really looking for a "there's one way to win" game in Civilization, go to civfanatics and try the game of the month or try to scenarios available in the game (at least in the Gold Edition) and online.
This is an excerpt from a walthrough. The walkthrough, in its entirety, can be found here. If it doesn't work, I'm not the only one who played the game and thought that's what my cash level increase meant.
Hmm...maybe it doesn't work exactly as I remember, but every time I work a prostitute in GTA III, I make sure that I get some money back off the deal. My balance always seems to even out, if not be higher afterwards.
I don't remember if I did it in Vice City, and I don't have San Andreas yet.
I never said it didn't belong in the game, but I do think it warrants the M or rating. I applaud Rockstar for including it. I thought it was funny, but I won't let my theoretical children play it (until I'm sure they can handle it).
My point was this: why does committing a crime warrant an M, but acting completely within the law warrant an AO?
Maybe not SNES, but I don't think we should just move on. With all the backwards compatibility, does Alien Hominid 2 really need to be on the XBox 360? Will ports and remakes really take up all the room on a BluRay?
I know I'd buy a lot more compilations and ports if they were released on the last generation's media. After all, I'll be able to play PSX, PS2, and PS3 games on my PS3, right? Why not port Final Fantasy III or Front Mission to the PSX? You've got a huge pre-installed base, and you can still make money from those who haven't bought the latest and greatest yet.
And what about the little guys? Can they all afford a run on the Revolution? Probably not, but I bet it'd be a lot easier to press some GameCube discs. Old doesn't have to mean dead.
GTA III: Screw a hooker, kill her, take your money back. Rating: M.
GTA:SA: Have consentual sex with your girlfriend. Rating: AO.
What message are we sending here?
I guess it depends on what you play.
Alyx from HL2 - normal looking.
Female leaders in Civ III - normal looking.
Female dancers in DDR - no worse than the guys.
Elsa and the other females in Front Mission 4 - normal looking.
Samus Aran - covered in a giant metal suit.
It would seem the girls bitching in the article need to quit playing only racing games and figthers.
I'm not saying you need to rush out and play them right now. The OP said there _were_ no good games for the SNES. At the time, these games were amazing. And I _still_ go back to Super Metroid. It's easily the best in the entire series.
And also Super Metroid and Super Castlevania IV. How did I forget those 2?
Might I direct your attention to Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario RPG, NBA Jam, Street Fighter II, and numerous others?
"mofication"?
Are you sure you don't mean "modification"?
Am I forgetting some graphic art in the manual or something? Infested Marines are no larger than regular marines. And as anybody who has ever played StarCraft can attest, the Marines (infested or otherwise) are very small.
Being slightly grossed out at the concept, I could understand, but genuine fear caused by a tiny sprite? Give me a break.
At least regarding games, how is Wal*Mart a monopoly? In my city, I can think of plenty of other places to buy brand new games:
Fry's Electronics
Target
Best Buy
GameStop
EB Games
GameCrazy
And that's just in the shopping center near my home.
Any Front Mission game. There is a great end weapon of every class (machine gun, shotgun, knuckles, baton, missile, bazooka, etc.), and at least in 3 and 4 (the 2 release in the US), there is no sword class.
Hmm...sounds like most console RPGs should be reclassified as interactive fiction. The story is all laid out, you just have to go get it.
Not that there's anything wrong with that. I love Final Fantasy and Strategic battle games (Front Mission, Tactics Ogre, etc.), but they're not RPG.
In Front Mission, I can decide to change my rifler into a missileer, but I can't decide who he loves. I can do that in an RPG.
Why no mention of Shenmue? Yeah, the story was pretty scripted, but there were no statistics, and the story's pacing was completely player-controlled.
You got better at moves by practicing them, and yes, you could see a status for how good you were at a move, but it was just a bar chart, and you'd know when you mastered it (as I think anybody into martial arts would).
So Ryo's combat skill comes from two things: time spent practicing (to get better at martial arts) and the player's skill and executing moves. It was a pretty refreshing way to handle combat in a console RPG. Also, there were no level-ups. Ryo was the same kid at the end of the story as the beginning.
The pacing of the story was completely left up to the player. Yeah, if you waiting way too long, you lost the game, but it was completely possible to take it slowly and fall into the world or rush through everything. Your Ryo could be calm and collected or rash and hysterical (except for the cut-scenes, but whatever). My game took over 6 months (game time), but I've seen walkthroughs say it's possible in under 20 days.
Granted, the game wasn't for everybody, but I felt a lot more like I was role-playing Ryo than I feel like I'm role-playing Link (Zelda) or Tidus (FF).
I'm all for PC ports, but how would you control KD on the PC? I can't imagine playing this without the DualShock 2's analog stick configuration.
Silly me. I was trying to think of a way to actually solve the problem instead of letting politicians and various other talking heads strut around and spew nonsense at the US public.
At least if a law is in place, a good place to start is "Is the law functioning as intended?"
Although it's not a replacement for good parenting, wouldn't the easiest law to implement be on the retailer?
If we make the ratings enforcable instead of just letters on the box, and retailers had to pay a fine if somebody bought too young and the retailers had to warn everybody about the content of games rated either 'M' or 'AO', I think we'd see a lot less of these cases.
We'd have just as many kids playing these games, but then we'd all be covered by the law. We all took responsibility for our action because we listened to the clerk's spiel about the game content and chose to pay for it anyhow. If we then choose to give the game to our children, it's not the video game company's fault. After all, there's a rating on the box, and the clerk told us there would be hookers.
You can't force common sense, but you can force people to be legally informed (like Miranda).
I wouldn't call the Pokemon games anime. I'd say they're RPGs (pretty good and deep ones cosidering the target audience, too).
The Pokemon television series and movies, however, are definitely anime.
If Nintendo really wanted to separate the GameBoy line from the DS, then why is the DS capable of playing GBA games?
If anime is so in, why is it that for the most part, anime is shown in totally undesirable timeslots (late night, Fridays or Saturdays)?
Is Sci-Fi also not "in" then? Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Battlestar Galactica are all doing well, but they are shown on Friday night.
Why are people who watch a lot of anime considered geeks or otakus?
Because people make fun of other people. Humans suck and make one another feed bad. It's what we do.
Try talking to a random person about Spirited Away. Chances are, they won't know what you're talking about and that movie won a freakin' Oscar for gods sake.
Ask all those same people what they think of Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Big-O, Princess Mononoke, or countless others, and I'm sure they'll have at least heard of one. I'm sure there are movies that have won Osacrs you've never heard of either.
Only a select few animes are in, but anime as a whole is not.
That's like saying "Only a select few movies are in, but movies as a whole are not." Anime is a medium, not a genre.
Those kids who watch Dragonball, Pokemon or YuGiOh, generally only watch those animes and not a single other one. An example of this are my two cousins, one who watches YuGiOh, the other Pokemon. Neither of them even knows what anime is, nor watch any other anime shows at all.
See above. People enjoy shows for their content more often than the medium on which they are produced.
Conventions don't mean shit either. GCC has conventions, Linux has conventions, neither are in.
Conventions mean there is a following. If nobody liked it, the conventions would fail.
It may not be as huge as in Japan, but anime certainly is "in" in America.
We have sanitized versions, but look at an elementary school. I guarentee you'll find a bunch of young kids talking about Dragonball, Pokemon, and/or YuGiOh (all Japanese-made anime). Kids will have anime backpacks, shirts, binders, and video games.
Anime is shown on Cartoon Network and G4 (at least one of which, many people with cable get). For those of us with satellite, there's also an entire Anime network. There are several large conventions devoted to anime here (I used to staff ACen when I lived in Chicago), and if the DVDs weren't selling, companies wouldn't be spending money to subtitle and/or dub anime series for North American release. We're even copying anime styles in our own cartoon series. Teen Titans, though made domestically, borrows quite heavily from the anime style.
It may not be your cup of tea, but anime is definitely "in" in the US.