SomTervo

Incredible

That's a really nice detail. I didn't know about that, though I did notice her drawings. Emily seems like a decent character who isn't given enough space to expand in the game's narrative. It feels like we're getting an unfortunately narrow view of a character who could be great. I imagine Bioshock Infinite is going to do a similar thing with Elizabeth, and probably better because Irrational have such a narrative focus. That parallel has stuck with me from the instant I saw Emily: she looks friggin' identical to Elizabeth from BI.

Guy's a genius

Yeah I didn't even remember them because they were so relatively superficial. Nothing has been done to improve Halo's actual core gameplay since 1

It's not worth it. I'm not a Halo fan, but I thought Halo 4 looked better than most of the others, due to the fact it was introducing some actual new mechanics (which hasn't truly been done since the first one). Am I wrong? Good

... And only that song Arkane could probably have done some research or something. Found some other whaley tunes for guards to whistle. The Tetris theme, for example, is a folk tune about fish trawling. Or they could have whistled the Mariner's Revenge by the Decemberists. That would have been sweet. I'm just about finished I think- and suddenly I see why people were potentially disappointed with the length. While it's still technically a long game, there are only like 5 proper missions, so only 5 proper plot points (I'm not at the end mind so it might extend.) It's more that it feels like it falls short of where it could have gone, rather than it's an actual short game.

Throwing bodies in water or dropping them any further than a few feet counts as a kill. Not sure about the % KO/kill thing. It's a good idea for a game where you're not rewarded for no-kills etc., if the gameplay wasn't stat-defined and didn't reward non-lethal playthroughs; but in a game like this, which does, it would be a mechanic that would just undermine the player in a way they have no control over. Randomized mechanics have to be picked and chosen carefully. Dishonored has a couple of randomized things- some guard positions/ patrols get mixed up and targets' colours or clothing are selected from a random pool so it's not the same every time you play a mission. But stuff like damage or kill parameters are risky to randomize unless it's turn-based or a pure RPG. I see the parallels with Bioshock, obviously, but tbh I'm preferring how Dishonored has handled things. It's got real economy of systems, which for me has made it more fun in terms of actual gameplay. Initially I was disappointed with the Powers screen. Only 5 active powers? Really? But when I actually started mixing them up I found I could do more things than I expected, and because there are fewer powers through a better control interface, I'm using them more and playing with them more, in the gameplay moment. Aaaaand that is why nobody is going to give any regard to your opinion. Where we gave arguments and explanations for why we think you're wrong, or asked for you to elaborate on what you said- you provided no meaningful response or justification for you words. Saying 'that is why I stay away from these topics', does not tell us why you stay away from these topics. You have made a general disagreement with what the others and myself said- you haven't communicated why you disagree. What, specifically do you mean by 'cod/halo generation'? If you answered that question fully the discussion would actually begin, open up, and we can argue. Deciding to avoid topics does not help resolve the topic. You are failing at communication. You'll just carry around that frustration and unresolved baggage until the end of time. As Hottie said, engage with us and tell us why you feel this way! Discussion is the best thing and the point in these forums. If you want to avoid issues, why even come to a forum like this in the first place?

Well said Duke. Also, economising and purifying game mechanics, giving them more clarity and parsimony, isn't 'CoDifying' them (though that does make a nice pun with the word codify). You really have to define what you meant by 'being made for that generation'. Which is an arbitrary point anyway; surely you're part of that generation too if you're playing games right now? Dishonored is a game at has little to no parallel with halo/ cod- unless you haven't played those games properly and you're making up the parallel.

Wasn't just yourself Cyber. What you said was fair (though essentially stealth is never any more complicated than 'avoid being seen and run away if you are', so I'd argue that 'simple' is an adjective which could never be used to negatively describe stealth mechanics). Its lots of others who have been saying the stealth isn't great. I just don't see it. It does what it does excellently. Aaaand that spoiler tag is an actual justified spoiler tag.

I don't really get all the hate on the stealth. I goddamn love it. An important aspect of the mechanic to bear in mind is that it's fast stealth- something which the devs wanted to try out. Not the ponderous slow creeping of Thief, but quick movement and evasion stealth, you can sprint around in daylight but still be stealthy. Which utterly works for me. I had a moment once where a dude on a catwalk was turning around, about to see me sitting on a vent, and I made a split second call to stop time, drop from the vent I was on, and blink mid air straight under the guy so he wouldn't see me. I came out of bent time juuuust as the guy turned fully to face where i had been, and he got one awareness bar from seeing me in his peripheral vision, stared at where I had been, and was confused. If I hadn't paused time I would have been capped. It was awesome. And the crawling mechanic is fantastic. For years games have been trying to get crawling in fps/ stealth games right- MGS had the awful locked to crawl mode, Splinter Cell had the context sensitive vent entry, Thief/ DEx avoided it altogether and just had large vents or openings- but in Dishonored, the fact that when crouched you automatically slide down into any crawl-height space and don't need to press any extra buttons and don't lose speed or visibility... It's just ingenious. And has saved my neck many times. The AI doesn't seem too bad at all. Maybe a tiny bit inconsistent in terms of how far they can see etc., but I'd never call it poor. The game flat out tells you that darkness just gives you a stealth bonus at distance. The AI functions perfectly for what it needs to do, I think it's believable as guards. More so than in many games at least. The MGS games aren't a fair comparison because they are designed under the Japanese 'rules-first' mantra, so the guards are actually really incapable and unrealistic- but the rules they're designed to follow are well thought out and detailed. A game like Dishonored is more about dynamic and flexible situations, the guards are given behaviours and just thrown into situations. The first time I got spotted in the game happened because, although I memorised a guards patrol, he saw a nearby rat and ran over to crush it just as I crept out. I wasn't even irritated at being spotted. It was an emergent moment. It's a game based around creating emergence- MGS is about operating within strict rules. The rat thing would never be designed into e MGS guard's rule set. P.s. also I'm not dead. Sorry for not being round much. Lack of time in my final year. Shit is NIGHTMARE. P.p.s. I also cannot possibly imagine how people are playing it and thinking its short. You'd have to be playing it wrong if you're disappointed with the game's length. I spent about three hours on the first mission alone, getting used to the mechanics, experimenting with the powers (found some amazing stuff), doing the side quests, exploring every nook and cranny... There's so much to do, and so many different ways to do it. I'm at about 7 hours and I'm only just beginning the third mission. And already considering playing through with one life or different powers or as an action game.

MGS4 is really something. The most solid, flexible gameplay, and one of the most solid engines I've ever seen. Just a huge, giant shame that the actually gameplay amounts to <6 or 7 hours. If he had added one or two measly little levels or areas, that tiny fraction would have made the game a true masterpiece in my eyes. I can't even play it now due to space issues on my PS3.

This game is going to have to be a three-disc deal on the 360. There's no way you can pull off that kinda shit on one DVD. But if it is, how exactly does one do an open world game, with one world, over three discs... You guys seen the extended version? There are an extra few minutes at the end, of pure gameplay that are... Gob smacking. http://uk.ign.com/videos/2012/09/01/metal-gear-solid-ground-zeroes-extended-14-minute-demo

Can I get the donator update thing? That would be awesome.

Hah, yeah, part of the reason I tried it is I need a way to force myself out of being lazy. Sucks about the knees, Rev. I found it is a bit uncomfortable for a while, but after a bit you get used to it, the aches/ messed up feet go away pretty good. On PC the only way is to buy a standing desk, or improvise one. It can definitely done (and apparently is great, too) but sure is a bit more awkward. There is Kirk's image of his standing-PC set-up.

The other night we had some games of Dominion. Really great fun, possibly the only designer card game I've ever really liked. We also played some of this: It was ridiculous. But pretty fun. Basically Risk with slightly more convuluted rules and it's East/West/South versus one player who is America. As far as we know, America have never won.

So, on the basis of this rather good article (I really like Kirk Hamilton despite the shitpot that most of Kotaku is now), I took my TV upstairs, plugged the 360 on a top bar-shelf of a desk, and popped the TV next to it. And I tried gaming standing up. It's really something. The fact that your body is actually doing stuff and not just sitting in atrophy changes things, I found my mind not wearing away and slipping into dullness, I found the longer I stayed standing the easier it was to focus, and the easier it was to get excited. Battlefield 3 was my first test, and the game is so visceral, the movement so shaky and intense, I actually got a bit dizzy standing up. Every time I sprinted forward or round a corner I felt myself leaning into the movement, or slightly falling backwards because I was shifting my center of gravity as I would in the game. It was super cool. Not sure if I'm gonna go back to sitting down. It's really easy to move around while playing, to do other stuff simultaneously. It's easier to get away from the screen. You feel like you're actually doing something, so you make the most of whatever your playing. A lot of the time, when gaming, I just do so to kill some time, and I'm actually pretty bored. If you have to stand, you don't do that. You make sure, while standing, that you're actually getting shit done and gaming while standing feels like that. It's a very satisfying experience, the playing of any game seems a lot more fun when standing. And it's a little bit of exercise. I'm a convert.

Does this mean that, if released as a standalone game, DayZ will be a complete package, i.e. engine and assets altogether in the one download? I could really use that if it ever came to me getting it.

Seriously cool story. Really want this but NO GOOD COMPUTER AHOY

Got the first ish of Saga in the post. I don't like how the dialogue is more standard-fare-comic-over-the-top-ness, but I guess nowadays he has to be more readable for a bigger audience. While reading it I was thinking, 'this is disappointing', but then when I finished it, I realised how good the universe is and how well he introduces us to it. It just all happens incredibly fast, it's like a whole universe's introduction and history in, like, 20 pages, with character and plot development in there, too. This makes me happy when I actually think about it, because it clearly means there is a lot to introduce and develop and change as the series progresses. It'll prolly be another 50-70 issue run like Ex Machina or Y: The Last Man.

Go metonymy. Most of the time, it depends how you use the word: 'the grammar of a language' tends to include spelling, etc., but 'bad grammar' actually just refers to syntax. So in this case, it could just mean syntax! But it's all subjective anyway. I'm currently reading: For class. By fucking god, it's really, really good. Everyone should read it. Amazed how nobody has ever heard of it.

WHOA curveball. Not even sure if you still need the money but HEY WHAMMY there's a little donation. I've got some work coming up, money should be okay, spend a lot of time here (obviously), couldn't see any other way of donating, so there it is: Squirtle

By 'inciting incident', I took it to mean 'an incident which incites offense in the viewer' or something, which I felt is the only reason anybody would turn off in the first ten minutes of the film. I'm fine with coarse stuff, but I just felt it was done badly in that film. Narratively, it's all very good. If 'inciting incident' actually means something else though, which it sounds like it does from what you say, let me know. Misunderstandings ahoy 'Inciting incident' 'inciting incident'

Yeah, the slow start definitely fit with the 'it's just a holiday' thing. Clever. I hated the dialogue though. If by 'inciting incident' you're referring to 'Colin's character being awfully, hamfistedly over-written and unfittingly uncouth' then, yeah, that probably meant a lot of people turning off! If that stuff had been delivered with a little more strategy and timing, I would have liked it. As it was, it made me really dislike the film initially.

That's cool. I haven't done the Everfall thing yet, only been once and encountered the stuff you have to run away from. I like to really take my time with RPG; usually focus on sidequests and superfluous stuff, so when I come to the main quest I just beast it.