deanb

Yeah my sister freaked out before we even got into Madam Tussades, never mind getting in with the wax models. She's always been a bit iffy on stuff like stuffed animals. Some folks especially don't react well. And that's what the gemonoids do. Found out what exactly it is that freaks people out. I think maybe being gamers has a bit to do with it, you're more used to this kind of stuff. Anywho: http://www.cbc.ca/ne...d-printers.html I believe after smartphones 3D printing will be the next major disruptive technology. Though food printing will probably be more of a fad within that.

So "The Social Science Research Council" has done a 3 year long review on piracy of all mediums in developing nations. Here's their summary: http://piracy.ssrc.org/about-the-report/ What makes this golden though is here is their pricing list to get the full research paper: http://piracy.ssrc.org/the-report/ (read the end)

I did mention I had a spare one from my Android right? It's 2GB which since DS carts are a max of 512MB I sussed it'd be enough to start.

Their intention is to see how well people react around robots/androids and I think it's worth doing now than letter. See what types of robots we react well around. (tbh I reckon they'd be a deep distrust of human like robots over things like Asimo or those elderly care bots with the weird arms)

If you were commenting on my list. I have my reasons. I've had many androids, I have some fundamental issues with the way the devices are modified by carriers. The only android I use regularly is the nook. I think he was complaining about the Poll

I think it's James May's Big Ideas. But he's done plenty: James May's Top Toys* James May's 20th Century* James May's: My Sister's Top Toys James MAy's Big Ideas* James May on the Moon James May at the Edge of Space* James May's Toy Stories* James May's Man Lab Ones with * are worth watching. Also they're all only like 5 episodes each, or in the case of the "top toys" ones just one off for Xmas. edit-ish: Yeah it's Big Ideas Episode 2 "Man-Machine"

That's an awesome idea. The problem been while a good idea, there's probably a slip of paper somewhere saying that it's now no longer his idea Just been able it incapacitate people is a good idea. I think the games main focus should be on having a quick flow and pace. If at any point the game purposefully (so not like "you're shit and can't make the jump" way) blocks you for more than 5 seconds then it's done something wrong. should just be able to run up, kick them in the knees or punch em on the nose, then go on your way. Too often would scrapping with one guy mean someone else sneaks up on you.

Is that coming? It looks interesting but it went very quiet on the radar.

GIMP and Paint.Net And InkScape for Vector (Adobe Illustrator)

Excel if it was any other game from any other developer I'd agree with you. But their MO is pretty much cliche at this point. Coming to the end of the second Mass Effect you know which is the good choice n which is bad. The fact you get told off right away makes it pretty obvious that it won't pan out so well. As for VA stuff, that can be done without the wheel system. Same amount of dialogue just don't tie it to a rigid system the wheel provides. It's a prison of game design. Anyway as DA:O to DA2 showed, the wheel doesn't necessarily increase VA requirements since DA2 is nearly cut in half, and that's with a talking PC.

Also signed up for a press pass, so fingers crossed. edit: fucked up the press pass stuff. Turns out you apple as press, they give the go ahead, then you get the tickets. So it's special separate tickets, not a pass to go alongside normal tickets. Kind of a fucked up system if you ask me. Especially since the Thursday "press" day sells out quick. edit2: I got one of these the other day too: Via Ethan.

Bioware just sucks at subtlety. And their convo system pretty much means they can't do the moral grey choices since it's always up for paragon, down for renegade. It's why I liked DA:O's system, it was just numbered options, 1-5(or whatever) with no weighting on any of the choices. Some could piss folks off, some get you gold, some continue the convo. You have to pay attention to what you're clicking on. Step one for Bioware is to just throw this shit: out the window. It's far to restricting a system for players and the writers.

I'm gonna throw my thoughts in then read n respond to others. My first game with a morality meter was probably Mass Effect. I think. There may of been something with a more hidden off moral meter that I can't remember at this moment in time. As for likes n dislikes, I'm pretty vocal on my dislike of the Mass Effect style "save the kitten" vs "burn down the orphanage" style. Even worse when it's Up for Good Down for Bad. It's so simple. It's just a "pick which stat you want to charge up" mechanic than actually getting you to think on your choices and potential consequences. Before ME2 launch my housemate managed to complete ME1 in about 8hrs or so, with a fair chunk of time saving in skipping through convos then pushing up when the wheel popped up. I liked DA:O's style, it was along the right tracks. It's style and timing suggests that Bioware had eyed up another game I'm fond of, which would be Witcher. Witcher had none of this up=good, down=bad choices. And very rarely any kind of obvious good or bad answers. Many shades of grey. And sometimes the choices with consequences weren't necessarily moral choices*. Just questioning a dwarf about the scoia'tael will piss him off and he won't trade with you. Actually wait no. One won't talk to you. If you kill a particular elf or piss it off, then a different dwarf won't trade with you. It's a game that makes you pay attention to what you're talking about, what convo options you're picking. (whereas Mass Effect/DA2 you push up or down and the result is the same) Infamous had a painfully black n white system. But what I did like about it was that it changed the game. Depending on the path you pick depends upon which powers you got and could change your play style quite a bit. (good was more defensive, evil was offensive). So in a story sense it was pretty bad, as a gameplay mechanic it was pretty enjoyable and gave you at least two playthroughs out of the game. Oh yeah Postal 2 was pretty fun with it's stuff. It was more making a point than anything I guess, but it was designed so you could go through the game like a regular guy, buy your milk, take books to the library, cash cheques etc. But you can do them the slow n dull way, or pull out a gun n shoot the place up. Or piss on it. upto you. The game doesn't force you too much one way or another. (It's not totally balanced, so does push you a bit to the shooting part) Not that I can remember off the top of my head. Loosing access to the dwarf blacksmith was pretty annoying, but it was my own fault and I did kinda like I was punished for been a lazy gamer at the time. I think FPS games could work with it. But they'd need a bit of a revamp first. GTA or similar would be an obvious one. LA Noire I could see fitting a morality meter or sorts, depending on how you go about your ways. right n proper, or corrupt, maybe a little over the line in getting evidence and confessions etc. I'd improve it by getting rid of it. Don't have some stat on the menu with a bar going up or down. I'd go with the Witcher shades of grey style. No more black n white choices. DA:O was going so well and then..DA2 happened. *I also think maybe the prefix of 'moral' should be taken off, and just be games with 'choices'. Maybe a suffix of 'and consequences'. That's all it should be. How many times in a day do you have to make "moral choices" compared to just regular choices like if you're gonna write that essay today, with the consequences of completing it peace of mind n good grade, or staying up all night n probably missing hand-in. Do you go to the shop and at the till have to decide everytime if you're going to buy the milk, or stick a gun in the guys face n rob the store? It's not very natural. And if you have these stark black n white options then it creates an inconsistency if you go with the good ones most of the game, then suddenly go for a streak of evil choices. I think that final paragraph would be my main point. Shades of grey, less "moral choices", more cause n effect. @Kenshi: Ah I'm not the only one in camp "hide the meter". Also I found Evil to be pretty sucky cos the good side had the ability to let attacks charge up your power through the shield. I've yet to get to the final boss fight, but it'll be a bitch without being able to stand n shield against his attacks to charge up. @Hot heart: See RDR felt like it was tacked on. It meant nothing, and it totally clashed with the story "I'm a reformed man" "I don't do that kind of thing no more" as you're dragging a hooker behind your horse on a rope. @Johhny: I have heard good things on Vampire The Masquerade. Supposedly has one of the better VG stories out there (though with dipping a bit at the end) I may look into it over summer. (GOG have one up btw http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/vampire_the_masquerade_redemption ) @Pirandello(sort of) NWN had a moral choice thing? I can't remember as such. But if so that's the first game I've played with a moral meter then. Didn't get too far or remember much of it though. @Thursday: Pretty spot on.

I booted up GTAIV for a bit yesterday. Can't remember this been on Liberty Rock, but it was a nice track to listen to.

I threw this up on Twitter last night, worth sharing here: http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/latest-geminoid-is-disturbingly-realistic And this is the previous model from a couple years ago

Well when one format is only used by one n a half countries I have a feeling that'd make things much simpler. Then it's a case of east-asia versus the west. Though as we've discussed in the past, they're both exactly the same system, it just happens to be that in regular writing we write backwards to each other.

If it's not already on when I wake up give it a day before that video is on Kotaku. (With some "made by kotaku reader blah blah" stuff in too) Good stuff, but I assume it's something changed user side for the skins, the map is server side?

http://singularityhub.com/2011/03/05/costs-of-dna-sequencing-falling-fast-look-at-these-graphs/ DNA sequencing is getting cheaper (like much cheaper, from $100million in '01 to $50,000 in '11) Problem is, as the article points out, is the cost of getting the genome n all that is cheap, but the research hasn't caught up to it yet. So it's pretty much a bunch of useless information (we know some obviously). But they hope because it's now so cheap to do that it should be easier to just get genomes to faf about with n look and compare n such. And then once it's done....better hope you're not a private healthcare system :/

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-03-03-console-design-is-pushing-away-customers-jaffe http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/02/jaffe-console-makers-should-limit-game-updates-to-four-per-year/ These are the two I had in the News Feed. The first is more related to this than the patching thing (which was only a small element of it) but Games Industry.biz also needs a log in so you might have glossed over it for that.

Well I can answer most of peters since he answered questions of a similar vein last week: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-03-03-jaffe-installs-and-updates-annoy-gamers

Slightly off-topci (maybe) http://www.hardocp.c...for_under_grand How to make a Triple Screen gaming PC for under $1000(£615) edit: How to make a Triple Screen PC: 1. buy a PC 2. replace GPU 3.?????? 4.Profit problem here is the ????? is important, i.e how to tie the Nvidia and ATi together. So sorry on that, false alarm.

I didn't notice anything bad about the shooting. Nothing that would make the game pretty bad.

Yeah I think the shooting in the game was nicely paced. It was the kid bears amount of combat. Just needs a slightly longer gap on taking the guns out. I liked the bits where you're chasing the guy down across the rooftops. There needs to be a bit more chasing, a pace car as such, than just plain getting from A to B.