Sméagol

Aw crap. I disagree, especially about how “we’re supposed to aimâ€. I think it is simply a matter of what you’re used to, and therefore, how you were introduced to gaming (and using a controller). I’m curious how many left-handed people had trouble with Super Mario Bros? There were no alternatives (perhaps holding the controller upside down). Pushing a button is a very small movement, not as complex as throwing a ball. Look at my situation: I am right handed, but can’t for the love of God aim with a right positioned analogue stick. I wonder why I seem to be the only one with this problem, but I guess the Halo generation didn’t grow up with an N64. That said, Goafer, you’re not from the Halo generation I believe? I chose to learn FPS controls on the controller using the left stick and movement on the right c-buttons. I could have chosen a different option, the FPS games on the N64 usually had plenty of options. This to me felt most natural, and I chose this because it most closely resembled the PC configuration (WASD + mouse, only swapped). I didn’t know how people could use the original Goldeneye configuration, but anyway, this is what I decided on, and stuck with, and they did the same for the other configuration. Does this mean I suck at movement with the left stick? No of course not! If you go out of the context of FPS games, it’s obvious. Every other game that wasn’t a shooter of some kind on the N64 used the stick for movement. Does it move I can simply move in any game with the right stick? I can’t recall any recent examples, but I believe not. It’s simply restricted to shooters (where I simply want 4 direction movement), any games that require more precise movement, feel less natural I expect. Anyway, to sum it up, I’m right handed, but learned to use the left stick to aim in shooters. As such, just like the actual left-handers, I always look for the “swap stick†option, and I’m alays quite disappointed if I don’t don’t find any. Generally it should be a simple thing to add, although in some cases there can be technical difficulties. I could be wrong, but I believe the classic controller pro for example, uses different sensitivities for each stick (which in itself is a stupid mistake, but anyway). Luckily, I’m a proud member of a minority of Nintendo & PC gamers, so I rarely have to deal with this problem. I haven’t had to deal with sticks in shooters for years, with the odd exception. When I play on an X-box at someone else’s place or something. The last concrete example I can really recall was Starfox Assault, which didn’t include the option for the on-foot missions. I rarely looked up or down in that game, if I needed to shoot something that was elevated, I generally walked up to it or jumped. It made these missions harder than they needed to be. Oh and a funny example was Banjo-Tooie. Being a Rare game, they only included the Goldeneye controls for the FPS bits. I loved the game overall, but these bits made me nauseous, and I was glad there weren’t too many of them. Another thing someone mentioned: inverted controls. I don't know if it was Starfox N64 that was the culprit, but yeah, I got accustomed to inverted controls too, but only when dealing with sticks. I never use inverted controls with mouse controls, but always with an analogue stick. Lastly I will say that I’d like to see a general increase of options for gamers. Be it remapping controls or adjusting the visuals. It is a often heard complaint of PC gamers, but yes, it’s really annoying when PC games get dumbed down because the console versions have priority. I often facepalm when the visual settings only let you change the resolution (Assassins Creed I blieve), and I am annoyed when I can’t assign my 4th mouse button.

Oh it’s just a remake? <phew>

Then you have 4 more endings to go . I found the script, and especially the narrator, amazing. All the endings are different, yet they all share a common theme.

But this is the great-advert competition thread right? So I’m in the right place!

This used to be a thread about a half-Life mod. Now it has been made into a stand-alone game, with more content. The original post can still be found below in the spoilers. This game is about a man named Stanley, and you have to help him on his epic quest to find his co-workers.

Nopes, obviously I don’t know the details, but the guy who actually made the maps, contacted Valve directly it seems. Anyway, I’m sure he’d thought it through . Oh and she said yes by the way . Edit: Also, I watched your example Eevil.. It’s similar (but more elaborate) to how I imagine proposing to someone. Oh wait, is it sad imagining proposing if I don’t even have a girlfriend? Haha.. I fantasise too much. Anyway, plenty of time to step up my game I guess .

Or is this only for artistic or funny commercials? :p Dutch (and apparently Belgian) version is slightly different and better, but I can’t find a good quality upload of that one.

Someone proposed to his girlfriend by having her play some custom maps of Portal 2: When Valve heard of this project, they even helped by recording some custom voice samples for GlaDOS! Article with some background on [Engadget]. (but still 5 minutes)

There’s a cartoon being made of Black Dynamite. For those unaware, it’s a blaxploitation parody which I’ve mentioned before here, watch the . Anyway, the pilot is watchable on the Adult Swim site. Normally these things are blocked, but since this is a pilot (or I dunno, but I’m not complaining), you can go ahead and watch it. [black Dynamite cartoon @ Adult Swim] Even more ridiculous than the film, I’m loving it. Full season planned for next year if I’m not mistaken .

Les triplettes de Belville is great. It’s (ultimately) so sweet. Dunno where you’d get the notion it’s a “kiddy†film . Finally saw a new film yesterday, Melancholia. Always had the idea I wouldn’t like a Lars von Trier film, eventhough I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen one. It’s because of those Dogme rules and that Nicole Kidman film probably. Anyway.. I liked it. In general. Atmosphere was great. Really shows that you can make an apocalypse film with limited resources. It focusses on the 2 sisters instead of widespread panic and destruction. That said, I wish the actual apocalypse was more believable, I’m no expert, but it sounded ridiculous. I know it’s just meant as an excuse to make a story about 2 sisters, but still. Few other annoying things, but overall I enjoyed it. Also, fans of Kirsten Dunst will surely appreciate this. And Udo Kier is in it. How could it go wrong?

I’ve been hyping myself up the last hour by reading the bioware forums.. I don’t know if it’s confirmed, but it’s mentioned why Cerberus is after Shepard. I won’t tell anything though :p. There’s is a particular thread for known features which has been particularly interesting. I just watched the trailer above, and I noticed a few new features that might not have noticed otherwise. For example, they said they improved the banter in the game, also in combat. Notice how Shepard rallies his squadmates to some cover, and you actually hear him say “behind those boxesâ€. Small things like these are amazing.

Hmm.. I intended to buy Deus Ex, as I can only afford to buy 1 game (or none actually, but these are 2 games I just have to have..). But this game will need my support much more, Deus Ex will do fine on its own probably, so I’ll buy it later (but as soon as possible). Just a few more days then!

Hilarious! I’m not signing up though :p.

This reminds me of Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain. Too bad you guys apparently didn’t see it or forgot about it.. In the film, she stole her dad’s garden gnome, and had a friend who travelled a lot bring it with her, while taking pictures of it across the world. And then send those pictures as postcards. Missed opportunity :p.

After doing another google search, but now adding “game” to the query, I found some more, but I declare this the best telephone game on the internet. There. Also, Jimbob, how do you decide on the first image and caption? I was thinking if it’d be fun if we did a continuous game, where we start where we left off with the last game, but I concluded there was a reason these games have a proper end.

After a quick google, a lot of hits are actual forums about telephones, but I found 3 examples. Here’s one [on the XKCD forums]. You’d think the people there would be smarter there, but it just looks dumb and isn’t funny. The other 2 I found were also sentence-only.

Had a quick google for other examples of this game on the internet.. We seem to do it differently than the usual. I prefer our method.

It already is to be honest, it won’t be sold in a lot of countries it seems. Yeah, future support is questionable indeed, but I’m really drawn to those unique type of phones. Design wise it’s ok, spec wise it’s good apparently (but not top of the line), but the interface is great. I wish Nokia would’ve given its OS alternative a bigger chance, but alas. Personally I don’t care about aps, all I need is a calling ability (really), and some internet that is better than on my 3-4 year old phone. And the sim-free availability is only a good thing in my opinion. If I’d be in the market for a phone right now, this would be a great contender, along with the Iphone 4. But it’ll have to wait for several months.

Yes.0123456789

Meego :p [Nokia N9] It actually seems to be quite good, and you’ll have a pretty unique phone. It’s just rolling out in Europe, I believe you can buy it in a month.

I never had my packages opened yet (at least, not by customs, fucking neighbours). The fact that I only shop with big shops who always put the actual value of the order on the package, and their reputation, probably prevents that. Or perhaps customs are more lazy here in The Netherlands :p.

Yeah, but at least you still know the exact price you pay (disregarding currency conversions) when you finalise your order, and you won’t get charged extra after. With the Tachikoma and catwoman I ordered, I can expect to pay around one third extra after it arrives.

For someone who went to so much trouble to get his first GBA (imported from Japan, but through a friend who bought it for me there and brought it with her), and imported a second GBA because I just had to have it (but the micro famicom is just that sexy), I own shockingly few games for it. The list contains: - Golden sun 1 (JP) (my first game for it) - Golden Sun 1 (EU) - Golden Sun 2 - Metroid Fusion (in fact the first Metroid game I owned) - Metroid Zero Mission - Banjo Kazooie: Grunty’s revenge - Zelda Minish cap - The Castlevania 2 in 1 - Drill Dozer (JP) (last game I bought) - Zelda oracle of ages (yes, GBC, but as the GBA was my first actual GB, this is what I played it on) And well, Tales of Phantasia (US I believe) but who cares about that. Apart from that, I own both the Nintendo MP3 player and the Play-Yan Micro. More for collection purposes, but the MP3 player actually got some use in that time. Oh, and I got the GameCube GBA player, also bought purely for collection purposes.. A store was selling some old stock of it for € 10,- so I just took one. So.. 9 games, and 3 dedicated devices to play them on (plus my DS lite) . When I don’t have any other priorities, I’ll see if I can catch up and get some other great GBA and GBC games (like Shantae for ƒ 400,- or something). At least the games I had for it (apart from Phantasia) are all fucking great. Edit: Oh and as for the hardware: I never missed a backlight on the original as I mostly played at home. It was great in the hand yes, but I didn’t found the micro to be uncomfortable either. I missed the SP, fortunately. I wanted the Famicom one, but didn’t have the money to import one. Then came the micro along, which was much more sexier! Since it’s so small, I actually still carry it around with me along with my DS. Edit: Arrgh! I forgot I have Rhythm Tengoku, but I can’t find it! Phew! :p

It’s complicated. Dunno, the specific, and what I know applies to The Netherlands, but: Officially, you always pay VAT. The difference between ordering something from within the EU (is most of Europe with the exception of a few countries like Switzerland), that if you order something, the VAT is already included in the price, so you pay it automatically (the shop handles payment like buying something in an actual shop in your own country), but if you order something from outside the EU, VAT is not included, and you have to pay that manually to customs. If that’s not annoying enough, you often have to pay custom charges for ordering something outside the EU (but never from within). These things can be.. Avoided, if you shop with more shadier shops (“shady” is a relative term, I just mean shops who don’t care much for taxes and VAT for foreign customers, but may be outstanding shops apart from that. Or not). Shop with a big shop like Amazon, and VAT and custom duty charges are guaranteed. Then something Dutch specific, I don’t know what the deals are in other countries, but we are allowed to import from outside the EU VAT and custom charge free for a very small amount (€ 25,- or something, enough to buy a blu-ray), and customs duty free (but not VAT free) for a higher amount (around € 150,-). http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageTravel_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000014&propertyType=document#P17_1572

Don’t they pay untill you’ve sold at least a specific amount? Like £ 100.-?