Video Games!

[Eric the .5b]

Just to branch this off...

[Eric the .5b]

RE: the playable Taliban thing...

It's a funny thing: whenever games like Battlefield or Call of Duty have involved MidEastern factions (who half the people on the server are naturally playing as), they've been tagged with silly names. Battlefield 2 made up a well-equipped Middle Eastern Coalition, while Call of Duty 4 had the followers of a coup-leader simply dubbed "OpFor" in multi-player games.

(Mind, CoD4 is odd in another way. Each round of multi-player is either Marines vs. OpFor or SAS vs. Spetznaz, with the former in MidEastern-looking environs and the latter in a lot of rather neat urban-decayed Russian environments, including one rather fantastic map set in Pripyat. Most of this makes sense - except for the Chinatown map, which appears to be in SF...and is an SAS vs. Spetznaz map as well!)

[Kolohe]

I wonder if the release will beat the awarding of the Medal of Honor to anyone still alive.

[Eric the .5b]

Not every Medal of Honor is awarded posthumously.

Just most of them.

[Kolohe]

Every one of them since Vietnam has. If and when this goes through, it will be the first one to break the streak.

[mediageek]

I finally got around to playing the copy of "Little Big Planet" that came with my PS3.

Holy cow, that game is fun. It's embarrassingly cutesy, but just thoroughly, grin-inducingly fun. Especially the bit where you can dress your character up and customize him/her. Currently I'm running around in a Mozart wig and red boxer shorts. It kind of rules.

[Stevo Darkly]

I finally got around to playing the copy of "Little Big Planet" that came with my PS3.

Holy cow, that game is fun. It's embarrassingly cutesy, but just thoroughly, grin-inducingly fun. Especially the bit where you can dress your character up and customize him/her. Currently I'm running around in a Mozart wig and red boxer shorts. It kind of rules.

And what is your character wearing?

[Hugh Akston]

I finally got around to playing the copy of "Little Big Planet" that came with my PS3.

Holy cow, that game is fun. It's embarrassingly cutesy, but just thoroughly, grin-inducingly fun. Especially the bit where you can dress your character up and customize him/her. Currently I'm running around in a Mozart wig and red boxer shorts. It kind of rules.

What is this game actually about. It has won many accolades, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what the objectives are and what the gameplay is like.

[mediageek]

And what is your character wearing?

You just made my entire day. Seriously.

What is this game actually about. It has won many accolades, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what the objectives are and what the gameplay is like.

It's a fairly standardish side-scrolling platformer. If you've played Super Mario Brothers, the format will be pretty recognizable. The basic concept is that there's a world where things are all cutesy and whatnot, and you're what's called a "sack person" (made of cloth, you see), and each continent is overseen by a...I forget what they're called...overseer, I guess. You run through the levels bopping enemies on the head and completing little missions that are more or less given to you by the overseer characters.

One thing I've found really interesting is the execution of the in-game enemies and NPCs. They're all designed to appear as if they're obviously running on clockwork, or are being operated off-screen by pulleys, gears, and other mechanisms. It's tremendously surreal.

You also collect stickers, fabric, and objects. You can put stickers on about anything, including enemies. It doesn't do anything, but the result can be kind of hilarious. Some stickers will unlock extra objects and stickers when applied to certain surfaces.

As you collect the objects, they get saved for you, and you can use them to decorate your Pod (a kind of birdcage-like home) or build your own levels. I haven't played much with the ability to make a level, but the tools to do so seem very intuitive, and appear to let you do a lot of different things.

I know the above description is stupidly nonsensical, kind of like trying to describe a dream to someone, but the game actually kind of has that feeling to it. Overall, the game's concept isn't too disparate from what you would see with more traditional side-scrollers, but there are enough things within it to really make the game play compelling. There's also a lot of open-ended creativity in it, though not quite as much as I would have hoped for. For instance, you can't use the objects you've collected to solve a particular puzzle.


One of the more amusing things about the game is that it lets you change your character's mood while you're playing. It doesn't affect game play, but it's kind of stupidly fun to put the angry face on your character when you're about to mount an attempt on an obstacle that's killed you several times already.

[Eric the .5b]

It apparently has an absurd good physics engine:

[youtube]ZiRgYBHoAoU[/youtube]

[Hugh Akston]

Huh. How does it compare to Katamari games? They are also hard to describe in a way that makes the game sound the least bit appealing, but they are ferociously addictive.

[Dangerman]

Katamari is awesome. It's also a game that anyone's girlfriend can pick up and play, which broadens it's utility.

[dhex]

http://www.deadstate.doublebearproductions.com/

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/08 ... -revealed/

color me jazzed!

(then again, i'm still waiting for age of decadence to be released)

[Shem]

Looks boss. I still say VtM: Bloodlines is the best game that wasn't allowed to become fully realized ever made, so if this is half as good as that it ought to be great.

[dhex]

true on dat. it is indeed a flawed masterpiece. hopefully mitsoda and co will follow through.

[JasonL]

Looks boss. I still say VtM: Bloodlines is the best game that wasn't allowed to become fully realized ever made, so if this is half as good as that it ought to be great.

It was soo close to being awesome. Sigh.

[lunchstealer]

In other news, Duke Nukem Forever will be out soon. We promise.

[Timothy]

In other news, Duke Nukem Forever will be out soon. We promise.

Best status message from a friend of mine at PAX: "I did not wait in line for four hours to play Duke Nukem Forever."

In better game news: Worms Reloaded = rad as hell. Although DirectX is still kind of a bitch so it took me four hours to find out how to get it to update so the sound would work (the web updater won't work on my pc, but the Redist will...took like four hours to find that on the internet, no help from MS Forums).

[JD]

So we're getting a Wii... Anybody got any particularly good recommendations? I may need a gritty, realistic FPS to counter the inherent cuteness of the Wii.

[Timothy]

So we're getting a Wii... Anybody got any particularly good recommendations? I may need a gritty, realistic FPS to counter the inherent cuteness of the Wii.

Not going to find that on the Wii. But the Metroid Prime series are good. Metroid: Other M looks like it's going to be cool too.

[JD]

Well, there's Call of Duty, Far Cry, and Goldeneye at least, apparently. Still a fairly scant selection.

[JasonL]

I'm finding Mass Effect 2 oddly addictive. I don't know that I've ever done a re play of a bioware thingy before. I'm all about the clay pigeon aspect of Singularity + Concussive Shot + Set Dude on Fire. Also Push front guy into Singularity is kinda fun. And slinging around frozen dudes until they shatter.

[JD]

Had the Wii for slightly under a week now. Shoulders and triceps definitely sore. Wii Sports Resort "swordplay" is stupidly fun, and good for working up a sweat.

[peejaybee]

Well, there's Call of Duty, Far Cry, and Goldeneye at least, apparently. Still a fairly scant selection.

You can also reach back into the Gamecube catalog, but you may need a Gamecube controller for that.

Still, the "cute" games can be quite fun. The Lego games are very entertaining, Mario Kart is great, and Super Mario Galaxy is a goddamn beautiful game in all senses of the word.

Dirt 2 and Need For Speed: Carbon are tolerable racing games, but nowhere near as good as games that can be found on my 1st-gen XBOX.

[dhex]

minecraft is eating my soul.

minecraft.net