Reminds me of the Pam An stunt that played out at the end of Borat, which was obviously pre-arranged. This'll probably make it into the Bruno film as well for the big finale...
I'm doubtful that work on S3 has started. I don't doubt that by the time the new patch rolls around, there will be one or two little extra additions to go along with the Scirocco. Quite a bit of time's gone by since the last update, so you should kind of expect that other areas of the game have been worked on since then.
My prediction:
Scirocco
Westhill update
Part 2 of the interiors update
Some other thing
Heh, well I knew Portal was by the same people, but I never thought that they were looking for a job at Valve - from what I understood, Valve approached them to redo N Drop in the Source engine. But it doesn't really matter. It's no big deal that Portal's a continuation of an earlier game. I was just highlighting that Portal did indeed come from someplace else (perhaps the creators themselves were inspired by the early Prey?).
Portal isn't really original when you consider it's pretty much a more polished version of the more inaccessible Narbacular Drop. And long before that, the early developmental phase of the game Prey featured a portal mechanic which for all intents and purposes was identical to those later games, although you could say that doesn't count because nobody ever got to play the early game. (If you could see those old videos though- sorry, couldn't find a link, it was very impressive for the time).
(Since Portal's always bought up as an example of rare originality in modern gaming, it probably needs to be said that in actuality it's another example of an earlier gameplay concept being overlaid with modern production values).
I think the real reason people were so surprised by Portal is that it was an actual puzzle game, being marketed alongside the likes of HL2. Of course HL2 had its puzzle elements, which I thought were well done- but to me one of the main differences between 'old' and 'new' games is that you normally don't have to do much thinking about what you need to do and where you need to go in newer games. But I think that's partly to do with the fact that modern GUI's are easier to deal with, and there's less emphasis on forcing players to do the 'right' thing within the game- because there are multiple ways to attack the same problem, and multiple routes as well. In this way modern games are easier, but many times more complex than older games.
As for what is actually better, older vs newer games- there's probably no real answer. People who are really into in film history, or really interested in literature, usually don't say that newer = better, or older = better. There are classics in every period. I usually think of games in the same way. I definitely think that any claims of the golden age of gaming being already behind us is pretty close minded.
I would go the other way. I think part of the attraction of the Scirocco is that it seems to be a bit of an evolution for LFS, and I'm not just talking about graphics, but things like the suspension system (possibly) and restricted setups etc... ie. the details.
I would really start to turn away from LFS if content became less detailed or more mediocre merely for the sake of getting stuff out there. The FBM inspired changes to the gearbox simulation- another nice little evolution. It's not really about graphics- the reason things are being delayed on the content front is because the content is actually forcing the introduction of new elements.
If the way I'm supposed to 'pay' for shows is sticking by the telly on the ad breaks and digesting random TV commercials, then I happen to think that I've already seen a lifetimes worth of commercials already, and a few more aren't going to have any effect on me. It's a massive jumble of nonsense in there, there's no way I'm going to sort any of it out. I'm a lost cause. Pity me and my ad addled brain and let me watch the damn thing in peace for 'free'
There has to be a better way to pay creative people for the work that they do. Who really wants the mug of the band they saw? That's just so materially gross.
I've just been up to see my mum, who's been in and out of hospital over the last few months because of smoking related emphysema. Having to go to hospital for your oxygen doesn't sound like a particularly intelligent lifestyle choice to me...
There was a game with a title similar to 'adventure quest' made about 4 years or so ago which was a spoof on the old CGA Sierra adventures. Anyone remember what it was actually called? It really nailed the style of the times (with internal PC speaker beep-boop sounds) and was very humorous, poking fun at the genre in a light-hearted, nostalgic way.
Sorry to bring this up here, but everytime I hear 'Adventure Quest' I automatically think of this game.
I remember when we got our first VHS recorder, and started hiring tapes from the local video store. I asked someone there how much it would be to buy a tape instead of just renting it- they said about $70. I can't be sure that that was the roughly correct price or what, but from memory videos did seem very expensive to buy- the only option was to rent.
On another train of thought- I really like the idea of a virtual online video store, which is just like your normal video place, but online. You can walk up and down the aisles, click on videos and get all the information you want including reviews and star ratings. There could even be people being paid to work there to offer personal advice on movies...
I guess that kind of thing would require an internet revolution, but we're not far off one now in Australia, and we're actually catching up with a lot of the rest of the world. Somewhere like Japan or Korea, this would be a fantastic way to hire your movies.
"The beauty of it is that we can put in anything that will burn up," Dr Wisoff said. "It will essentially allow us to use the spent fuel left behind by traditional nuclear fission. It really could help us clean up the world."
I've been having a go the last couple of days and am really impressed- everything is so well integrated and I guess the horrible queues have been sorted out- it's really easy to get online quickly for a game or two.
Tis a great game. I had some free time the other night and decided to get back into it- I was at the part where you have the option of working for the slavers. I decided to explore the offer, mostly because taking revenge on the sniper (Arkansas?) at Minefield sounded like an acceptable proposition - as he made my life hell at the beginning of the game.
For anyone still looking for options on how to take the guys sniper rifle (ah who am I kidding you've probably all finished the game), do the slaver mission. It's quite a funny sequence, but your karma will go down (refreshing for someone who habitually plays in the style of 'what would Jesus do?'). I couldn't bring myself to turn in any of the others, because I thought of some of them as friends...
Having a good break from this game (a bit like LFS) really makes you appreciate how much depth there is in there. The game just keeps on getting bigger- I believe Bethesda really has the best take so far on open world freedom and structured branching narratives. This game just works.
It's good to think about how much time you spend at your job, and whether you're really getting anything out of it apart from the money. Realistically, it's a hell of a lot of time- so i'd easily be choosing the more interesting/challenging job. There are other, more satisfying ways to make your life 'richer' other than money. :hippy:
Maybe I still have youthful values about this that won't wear down, but I've spent most of my adult life avoiding the possibility of 'no.1'. I'm in my early 30s, back at school and beginning things from scratch, with no job- and couldn't be happier.
OT, but I'd recommend cutting down on the number of applications you've got running in your system tray. I counted 21, and while some of those must be related to your troublesome spyware, that's still way too much imo. I've got two icons there right now- a volume control and the 'currently connected' icon.
A part of good computer house keeping means having open only the software which you are only definitely using at the time- the rest can be considered bloat. A lot of programs will install with the default option of launching in the system tray on startup, but every program launched that way increases startup time, and contributes to general system slowdown. Right clicking on some of those icons will give options of turning off 'launch on startup'.