The Bard

Last year was the first year since the meets started that I didn't come. Going to make it count double this time.

Xenobiology, if you will.

No, not at all. You're definitely a more specific kind of annoying person. A strong contender for the heavyweight annoyance crown.

Deets or gtfo.

True. I can't believe they're still teaching Barthes. But take a look at the Valve developer commentaries, and you can see that they're very consciously trying to develop a "syntagm," of play in the same way that Barthes talked about trying to find the rules of narrative grammar. Games are so complicated that I feel as if you kind of need to have some sort of reductionist framework set out, that describes how to make narrative work in games because without it we're going to keep getting Call of Duty single player campaigns out the fucking wazoo.

@dwarf gourami Lots of great ideas, I can't even keep them all in my head at once so I'm just going to respond to some at random. Also it's weird how I think in almost the exact same terminology.

@Jonnas I never played Tag Tournament so I shouldn't comment on that, but as for Tekken 6, the extent to which the change in the movesets would annoy you really depends on your play style and who you play with. My two main characters, Paul and Heihachi had some of their best launches changed, arbitrarily so that instead of having an upward force, they had a downward force. Also, it seemed slower, and the moves were more telegraphed, to the point that you could tell what was coming several seconds before the move impacted. On the whole it was a step down. I never read anything about it though, so I don't really know what other people's problems with it might have been. Also yes, Tekken 3 was absolutely mind blowing graphically when it came out.

I find it funny the amount of people that don't realise how completely irrelevant it is that Samus is somehow nominally a "woman" even though in actuality she's a paper thin cipher performing completely male gender roles and has nothing about her that marks her out as a woman through the entirety of her games, except the x-ray visions of her in her underwear every time you hit zero health. So, yeah, a woman, but only the most exploitative way you can think of.

I wonder if any of the fighting game community were actually consulted during the making of Tekken 6. All of the character's characteristic movesets were fucked beyond belief and the camera was too low and close, as if it was trying to pull some sort of grim Kubrick look. Tekken 5 was the series at its peak, but I really don't want to play the same game again with better tit physics, I'd rather they re-evaluate the sort of juggling heavy win scenarios that it traditionally incentivised, while keeping the majority of the movesets the same.

@dwarf gourami Can I see that pioneering gaming article?

So...just watch Mary Poppins again?

I can't even fathom listening to a podcast that was just straight gaming talk for any length of time because I know it would devolve from a discussion about the actual experience of playing the games into really tedious drivel about sales and console war bullshit that most gamers tend to find irresistible. And also when you're doing a two to three hour podcast every week, it's going to be near impossible to keep it about games unless producing and outlining the topics and getting people to interview was the sole remit of your job. I used to quite like Giant Bomb until Ryan Davisgate. Can't imagine listening to any of the immensely boring fucks on the IGN podcasts.

Really? It looked like something you wouldn't regret dismissing immediately. I've been a little wary of non Disney animated films ever since I got burned on Despicable Me which was just such a pile of trash. Might watch it tonight then. Also, anyone know if Saving Mr. Banks is any good?

I use doubletwist which is really good for podcasts in the way you're talking about but it's a paid app.

I'll get on Destiny asap. The price was with import tax included as well. Yeah I figured, but I've got a dissertation to write anyway so I probably won't be playing anything but Towerfall on it for a while

Sony were selling brand new US stock on Ebay. First thing I'm going to get on is The Last of Us. Any multiplayer ish you guys tend to get on regularly?

I bought that shit. I fucking bought that shit.

I'm staring at a PS4 for £270 brand new. Should I just buy the fuck out of it?

I saved Fergus because his lines are rad. I think my decision probably reveals more about my personality than I'm comfortable with.

Nerp. There are some story and character differences depending on which character you choose to save, there's no Buddha option of maintaining a dignified silence in the face of zugzwang scenario. I guess you didn't take to Fergus as much as I did, I thought he was pretty great..

I've got a set of Metal Gear Risk which I really really love because who doesn't love risk, and who doesn't love the ability of Metal Gear to confuse and complicate the most simple concepts? A friend has invited me to come over and play Catan in a week or so. A little intimidated, since I've never really played board games seriously. I really want to get into them though because the time I've spend with MGR and Cards Against Humanity has been great for a social gaming experience.

I listen to Rebel FM and Idle Thumbs as far as current videogaming podcasts go. Used to listen to a festering bungload of Podcasts four or five years ago. The one that got me into listening to them as a medium was GFW Radio, which is still pretty much the holy grail of podcasting. I'm asserting authority on that ish right now, no podcast is ever going to come close to the insight those guys had into games on a conceptual level and their bonkers ability to make ad hoc discussions completely cogent and absolutely hilarious to listen to.

Which playthrough are you doing? I've only gone through it once - did the Fergus playthrough, but there's some really cool thematic shit that ties the old school gameplay with the idea that Fergus and B.J are old soldiers who feel out of place in the world and warfare that's so technologically augmented. Thought it was great that the game's conscious enough to mount that sort of meta commentary.

Just saw this @jayseven, you might want to be a little wary of intentional fallacy, as a general rule of thumb since what historical or biographical details about the author might suggest about the text are always secondary to what the text itself and its references might indicate. In the case of Paradise Lost people such as Blake and Philip Pullman pretty much come out and say the most satisfying interpretation the text sustains is that Satan is actually the hero - and that's pretty much commensurate with the place he occupies in the structure of the story when you compare it to the classical epics that Milton is modelling Paradise Lost after. An epic requires an epic hero, and the only character that fits that template is Satan. Whether Milton was actually "of the devil's party without knowing it" is a matter for biography - all I know is that the parts depicting Satan and hell are way more fun to read.

I think I've played Half Life 2 at least once every year since 2009. Felt that psychotic itch as soon as I woke up this morning so I'm going to load that shit up. Stoked as fuck.