Am 09.06.2011 17:33, schrieb Invisible:
> On 09/06/2011 03:52 PM, Warp wrote:
>
>> Don't worry, cake and grief counseling will be available at the
>> conclusion
>> of this test.
>
> The cake is a lie! :-P
>
> (Also, I could never decide whether it was "grief" or "brief"...)

Grief. Pretty sure.

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And lo On Thu, 09 Jun 2011 19:31:30 +0100, Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> did  
spake thusly:

> Orchid XP v8 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> FWIW: It's not as lame as Zero Punctuation would have you believe.
>
>   His whole shtick is finding flaws in everything he reviews.

Except when the image flashes up of him humping "Silent Hill 2".

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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>> His whole shtick is finding flaws in everything he reviews.
>
> Except when the image flashes up of him humping "Silent Hill 2".

In his review for Psychonauts, he praised the game for its sheer 
excellence. (He also pointed out a vast array of problems with it, mind 
you.) Apparently everybody hated it when he said nice things about a 
game. Consequently, he's [almost] never done it again. For him to praise 
a game, it has to be really, *really* good!

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On 6/29/2011 2:11, Phil Cook v2 wrote:
> Except when the image flashes up of him humping "Silent Hill 2".

And Portal, don't forget. :-) I think there's like five games he actually 
liked enough to mention them outside the review of that one game. Silent 
hill 2, thief, portal, saints row 2, and ... psychonauts? Did he mention 
that elsewhere?  And one he said he wanted to keep playing even after he 
finished the review.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "Coding without comments is like
    driving without turn signals."

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Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> On 6/29/2011 2:11, Phil Cook v2 wrote:
> > Except when the image flashes up of him humping "Silent Hill 2".

> And Portal, don't forget. :-) I think there's like five games he actually 
> liked enough to mention them outside the review of that one game. Silent 
> hill 2, thief, portal, saints row 2, and ... psychonauts? Did he mention 
> that elsewhere?  And one he said he wanted to keep playing even after he 
> finished the review.

  A few years ago I bought Psychonauts because it was available on Steam,
and because I had heard such good things about it.

  I didn't get it. What's so good about it?

  It's not even all that old. Released in 2005. If it had been released eg.
in 1998 then it could have been quite a radical innovation, but as a 2005
game it felt quite meh. (As a game in general, completely disregarding
when it was published, it was also quite meh. I didn't quite understand
what's so great about it.)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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On 29/06/2011 08:51 PM, Warp wrote:

>    A few years ago I bought Psychonauts because it was available on Steam,
> and because I had heard such good things about it.
>
>    I didn't get it. What's so good about it?

 From a technical perspective... nothing special here. In fact, pretty 
poor. From a playability perspective... the camera handles very poorly, 
the difficulty curve is wonky as hell, and there are various other glitches.

 From the perspective of imagination, creativity, story-telling and just 
plain fun... wow.

In most games, the story is entirely optional. You can follow it if you 
wish. Or you can go make a cup of tea while the dialog happens. All you 
have to do is walk forward and shoot anything that moves. OK, you might 
have to pay attention just enough to realise who's the good guys and 
who's the bad guys, or that the blue sparkly thing is the thing you're 
supposed to pick up to unlock the door to the next room. But that's 
about it. The story only really exists as an excuse to explain why you 
have to stand in this room for 3 minutes while waves of enemies bombard you.

Psychonauts is the only game I've ever seen that takes "telling a story" 
seriously. Until I played this, I hadn't even realised what a joke most 
other games are in this direction. The characters actually have 
personallities beyond "I'm the good guy" and "I'm the evil guy". The 
voice acting wasn't an after-thought. There's wit and humour.

And you can set squirrels on fire with your mind.

It's not the greatest game that has ever existed. There's several ways 
it could be made better. But it's the best story experience I've ever 
seen. Still, I guess if story isn't your thing...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Orchid XP v8 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> Psychonauts is the only game I've ever seen that takes "telling a story" 
> seriously.

  That's the thing: I don't understand what's so "good" about it storywise
either. It feels simplistic.

  There are tons of other games which have great storytelling out there.
Even skipping (J)RPGs, we have games like Red Dead Redemption and Mafia II
as good examples. (Granted, they are pretty new games, but as I said,
Psychonauts being published in 2005 makes it a relatively recent game.
If it had been published in the 90's it might have been better in that
context.)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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On 30/06/2011 09:51 AM, Warp wrote:
> Orchid XP v8<voi### [at] devnull>  wrote:
>> Psychonauts is the only game I've ever seen that takes "telling a story"
>> seriously.
>
>    That's the thing: I don't understand what's so "good" about it storywise
> either. It feels simplistic.

Well, you don't *have* to like it of course. But I know I certainly did. 
In spite of the obvious flaws the game has.

>    There are tons of other games which have great storytelling out there.

Well, I haven't seen any. Then again, I don't play that many games...

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