... Hey man I loved tetris.

Memo to the IOC re the 2008 Games:

Finally ditch the synchronised swimmers, and bring in Olympic air hockey.

What's not to like?

I must agree. Fantastic game that, beats table-soccer everyday.

someone applied to be a games programmer where I work this morning, and on their covering letter on their email, they used the phrase:

"Given an opportunity I would be able to demonstrate my skills better and
would be best bet for the job; bringing ideas and enthusiasm to the job,
emanating the fragrance of my knowledge."

I'd love to work with that person.

I'm an omnigamer, and I second the recommendation of the Baldur's Gate/Ixewind Dale series - wonderful, all of them. I was just reminded that Planescape: Torment is out there and unplayed... hmmm. We've got Morrowind and played it some, and it's open-ended and cool, but for some reason just not as gripping. Looking forward to Neverwinter Nights...

quote:

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Originally posted by hurtstotouchfire:
The irony is sorta pretty.

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We all had a childhood.



I think the guy that illustrated Mister Dog had a pipe fetish.

Arcades: The arcade down from my college (they must realise they have the best spot in the world - next to a uni that trains game coders and modellers!) the chicks nowadays play that friggin DDR. There's a guy in a few of my classes who I've actually seen beggin for change to play DDR. Evil Game. He played it so much, his ankles are screwed and his GP told him never to play again.

Torment is my favourite of all games set in the D&D Universe. Gameplay just isnt as _anal_ as the others. You can swing between character classes and factions throughout the game, rather than being stuck with one choice forever. The Fallout series didn't use the A-D&D rules, but the gameplay is so rich in fifties-nuclear paranoia kitsch, adult themes and gecko-skinning, it's fun and funny. One of the few games where it's possible to shag one of the game designers to death...

Morrowind had a good heart, but this goes to show, IMHO, what happens when people obsessed with anal retentive dicerollin' games try and make a first person game. Ah morrowind - the game where you randomly jump forward instead of back: normally right into a bad dude. The game where you can get _permanently_ stuck on a six-inch high stump. Where you have such a nice, wide game area to explore, but start off moving slower than a centrelink application...

Bravus, Planescape: Torment and Fallout 2 get my patented Lithos's Opinionated Endorsement. Both were written by Chris Avellone, who ranks with Ragnar Tornquist as a game writer.

Incidentally, The Longest Journey, written by Tornquist, is one of the best ever RPG games out there. It's serious, artistic, surreal and beautiful. A great game for female gamers. Adventure Gaming is hangin' on by a silken thread...HTTF, check it out.

MoM, with your predilection for firearms, I highly recommend Rainbow Six. Hard as nails, that one. And nice weaponry.

Kuchen, just imagine if someone had the audacity to put a pipe in a modern childrens book...

And that bunny is rad, but lookin' soooo stoned.

Bilge Rat, what company do you work for?

Maybe we should start a WGB UT clan...The Panther Moderns or sumtin'.

And everyon - PLAY DEUS EX!

Lithos, I work for the company that made these games. But shush, because I'm meant to be working!

Yep, when I said omingamer, I meant all styles and types, as long as thy're good - and I actually have a high tolerance for games that are not particularly good...

Here's a brief list of things I've played and enjoyed:

Age of Empires
American McGee's Alice
Baldur's Gate 1, 2
Bioforge
Black and White
Clive Barker's Undying
Daikatana
Dark Reign
Dark Seed
Dark Sun
Deus Ex 1, 2
Discworld 1, 2, Noir
Eye of the Beholder 1, 2, 3
Half-life, Opposing Force, Blue Shift
Hexen 2
Icewind Dale 1, 2
MDK 1, 2
Morrowind
Myst/Riven
Nerf Arenablast
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
Quake 1, 3
Starship Titanic
System Shock 1, 2
Thief 1, 2, 3
Thievery conversion of UT
Unreal 1, 2
Unreal Tournament
Zanzarah

(OK, I'm anal enough that I went and made that list in Excel so I could easily alphabetise it. If I were a little more anal I'd look up the release dates and sort it that way...)

Rarely you see somebody rank Clive Barker's Undying. A very good, but allmost unknown game. Unfortunatly i'm cursed to not be able to finish it.

An UT clan is something i would most likely join. Though i remember the original UT allways giving me motion sickness after a while (something i did not have with UT2K3).

Wanderer, I was actually talking to a mate of mine who said he had the same problem, but it went away when he enable "Player Bob" in the options.I always unenable it, messes with me aimin.

Bilge Rat. Conflict series. Hmmm. Erm, played the demo for Desert Storm. Not baaad.
What do ya do there? Maybe I'll tell some guys tomorrow:

Lithos: Hey, I was talking to a guy who works for SCi.

Guy1: Who cares? I know a guy at Auran. Worked on Trainz.

Guy2: Dude, Trainz fu#kin sucked. I've spoken to Warren Spector.

Guy1: No you haven't. STFU.

Guy2: CS sucked arse. SCi have nothing on Lucasarts...Obi-Wan r0x0rs. Padme is so hot...I love lightsabers...

Lithos: ARRRRGH!!!! MUST CHOKE YOU WITH YOUR OWN URETHA!!!

No, on second thoughts, maybe not. No offence to SCi, dude. If there's ever an opening for anything, call me. I'm trying to specialise my degree in 3D sound - HRTF as well as Dolby Surround. But when I talk to my lecturers they just raise an eyebrow..."Yeah we've done sound remember? When we mixed those two WAVs last semester? That's it."
Lithos: "Do you think it your urethra is strong enough to crush your windpipe?"

As for the clan thingumy. UT original would be great. Max compatability, been around for ages, will run on virtually any comp.

Bravus, we've got to get you to museum. You're a prime, rare example of someone who's enjoyed Daikatana. Romero and Killcreek are some of the funniest dev people out there. Other than that, respectable, man. And the anality of your list makes you prime RTS material.

lithos,

firstly, I don't work for SCi, I work for the developers who are now owned by SCi, who made the Conflict series.

Secondly, I'm not a guy.

Thirdly, we're looking for programmers

and I do admin stuff there, but I get on well with the programmers because I'm basically a sci-fi/fantasy geek.

Sorry. Hard to tell with your avatar. No offence. I'll end up working with Pyramix Studios, or something. Sorry to go all ubergeek on your arse .
And since I'm doing a multimedia degree, I don't do C++ *shudder*. Brain...melting...must...look...away from...code...

quote:

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Originally posted by Bravus:
Bioforge

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Yeah! That was one of the first PC games I played.. on the old 486 dx100.

That and Sam & Max, Full Throttle... good times.

quote:

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Originally posted by Bravus:
American McGee's Alice

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I saw the trailer for Undying on Alice... and it looked scary as hell. Never played it though.

Hmm, two games I'd never heard of before.

Sam & Max, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango were very fun. FirstPersonShooters make me nauseated.

Fuck Sam & Max computer games, let's get blotto and play Fizzball!

quote:

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Originally posted by martin:
(alice screenshot)
(undying screenshot)

Hmm, two games I'd never heard of before.

Sam & Max, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango were very fun. FirstPersonShooters make me nauseated.

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I definatly recommend at least trying out Undying. Clive Barker wrote the story and helped with the character and level design. The result is the most scary game i have ever played. Great sound (also among the best i have ever heard in a game) and music too. It's a FPS though so you might not enjoy it that much.

Unfortunatly i have never played Grim Fandango; but i remember wanting to check it out when it was released.

It's sad, really, because adventure gaming is a dying breed. Myst is cranked out on almost legacy alone, and Dreamfall (the TLJ sequel) is looking more action than adventure...

As games get more readily accepted as an art, it is ironic that the storytelling aspect - what helped get them there - is fading away. Nowadays, it's mostly this formula: "Hooj Graphics Engine + Vietnam or WW2 theme or movie license + X-Box release = game."

Maybe Bilge Rat can speak to her superiors...?

I've taken to bemoaning that I'll have to get a job as sound tech in the games industry, because they don't need writers anymore...

You know, I really can't recommend playing Deus Ex though. After you've played Deus Ex, every other game out there is just so limited. Perhaps 'tis better to never know freedom then to only know it for three weeks?

Of course, if you can live with the consequences then I highly recommend it. Haven't gotten to play Deus Ex 2... no Mac version yet (ever?).

quote:

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Originally posted by heavyboots:
You know, I really can't recommend playing Deus Ex though. After you've played Deus Ex, every other game out there is just so _limited_. Perhaps 'tis better to never know freedom then to only know it for three weeks?

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Good call. Lest you turn all bitter and cynical like me .

It does show the potential that the medium of games have.

The trend today seems to be that, instead of taking time to write a deep, thought-out story, they'll either get a film license or just base it on some former conflict somewhere. Or anime *shudder*. Wrap it all up in a shiny engine and hope no one notices.

Sometimes it feels that I'm just playing a benchmarking program instead of a game.

I heard DX 2 suffered from heavy consolification - because it was co-developed for the X-box, they lowered a lot of texture res and poly counts, and dumbed down the story to suit the mentality of the typical X-box gamer.

I'm not sure how the Mac would handle bloom and other lighting effects.