Posts by syver

Quote from Sentura

fun fact: i've read that scandinavians in more northern parts used to have their reindeer eat amanita muscaria, so they then could drink the piss of that reindeer. the idea was that the reindeer would filter out all the toxins because they're more resistant to it.

it's a bit weird that they (vikings) would bother to use muscaria when it's mostly a deliriant and produces a much less lucid state than the even more available psilocybe semilanceata (which they also used). perhaps the analgesia made it easier for them to berserk. and perhaps the believable hallucinations made them think they really were at the gate of asgard participating in the most epic battle ever. there's really no limits to the suggestibility of delirium... (or psychedelics for that matter)

i'm hoping we will see some of it in the series. the introduction scene where he hallucinates valkyries was pretty cool.

didn't mythbusters debunk this? fairly sure one episode they have too much of the mushroom and were deemed unfit for fight due to stomach ache and shit. as far as these legends are willing to go, i'm more inclined to believe that their rage was natural

did they prepare it? (drying and/or boiling) that would remove the toxins and make it easier to digest without getting stomach ache. anyway, the mentioned semilanceata is much easier on the stomach and shouldn't have given them too much problems. they could have used the piss-method i mentioned.

i don't think they necessarily did it for rage, but to give a more spiritiual/religious experience during battle. as you probably know, fighting and dying on the battlefield was the most glorious and spiritual aspect of their life. it could also help them to deal with the fact that they might die. still, i agree that the effects (maybe excluding enhanced/sensitive senses) could easily have made it a lot more difficult for them.

asl pampers?

Quote from FMPONE

Vikings were not fucking around at all. A lot of times they would take psychedelic mushrooms before combat

fun fact: i've read that scandinavians in more northern parts used to have their reindeer eat amanita muscaria, so they then could drink the piss of that reindeer. the idea was that the reindeer would filter out all the toxins because they're more resistant to it.

it's a bit weird that they (vikings) would bother to use muscaria when it's mostly a deliriant and produces a much less lucid state than the even more available psilocybe semilanceata (which they also used). perhaps the analgesia made it easier for them to berserk. and perhaps the believable hallucinations made them think they really were at the gate of asgard participating in the most epic battle ever. there's really no limits to the suggestibility of delirium... (or psychedelics for that matter)

i'm hoping we will see some of it in the series. the introduction scene where he hallucinates valkyries was pretty cool.

Vikings

pretty good. it's a bit difficult to care for some of these characters when they slaughter the shit out of english monks, but i guess they wouldn't be real vikings without that part

things aren't looking so good for them...

I'm interested to see if EA will start banning origin users for using this mod.

Quote from Steppenwolf

You are basicly repeating her claims without further reflecting on them. There are no proven sexist repercussions in the Peaches character. That's what Anita claims and doesn't provide any evidence for, not even anecdotes. So why should Nintendo care? They should care because the trope is overused not because of the delusions of Anita Sarkeesian who sees methodical sexism and misogony pretty much everywhere (just watch her older vids). Ther's a video where she complains that she feels left out of the geek sphere because of the obnoxious porn ads on an illegal bittorrent website. In another video she argues that an ad for Bayonetta in a Tokyo subway encourages sexual assault. I'm sorry but i can't take such shenanigans serious.

What exactly is it you want me to provide evidence for? That Peach is a damsel in distress stereotype? or whether this stereotype is harmful/sexist?

I haven't really followed her Kickstarter or anything before that video, so I got to see it without having any pre-existing opinions on her. I honestly don't see what's so bad about her video, at least not to the extent that warrants some of the very fiery posts here. Did anyone here actually pledge to her kickstarter? The series aren't even finished and it's too early to start judging her for how she has/has not used the money. I've browsed these forums for 3 years now, and I've never seen this degree of passion about any topic before. Why do you care so much?

You can't just attribute Nintendo's overuse of damsel in distress-trope to ignorance or lack of creativity. They're grown adults and they know perfectly well what they're doing. No, they're not "made with malicious intend". That's not what she's saying at all. She's criticizing that they don't give a shit. Nintendo uses Peach/Zelda as damsel in distress-plot devices for gameplay-purposes and they don't care about the sexist repercussions of it. Her video is an attempt to make developers more aware of these things.

The issue with the Fox/Krystal example isn't that they changed the sex of the protagonist, but that they did such a complete reversal of her role from a respectable character into a sexualized trophy.

I'm always getting whine about bacterias (or something) from my citizens. What can I do about it? i've looked at the two views under sewage, but there's only pollution in the industrial areas. http://i.imgur.com/yl4wzwX.jpg

edit: seems to be fixed

Is origin fucked as well? I can't open any chat either...

i've added you (name is mirriontroops).

does anyone know why I keep getting the tutorial every time i start the game? i have completed it once. i have to enter it then exit to main menu before i can get the real menu

Quote from Beck

But I agree that the online servers for older games being shut down is a real shame. Now, most of the games which have currently shut down their servers are still playable in a single player environment. What happens when they shut down the Sim City V servers in a couple of years? The whole game becomes unplayable. That is really sad.

This. Games like these won't take part in being cultural heritage. perhaps it's for the best, perhaps we can just forget they ever existed.

doesn't it (auto) save frequently? how do you lose all progress?

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/simcity

It's a shame reviewers couldn't wait until launch, instead of taking the pre-release review copy. at least the user score seems to reflect annoyances with the server issues

I don't know why this hasn't been mentioned, but; level and item scaling. especially item scaling (leveled items) bothered me in skyrim. it robbed me off any desire to explore the world because the loot was so easy to predict based on my level.

it's ok to some degree to keep the player from breaking the balance of the game, but they've been far too strict with this in every TES since morrowind IMO. What I enjoyed about Morrowind was stocking up with potions, spells etc. and just pick a random place on the map I would go explore. If it was far beyond my level I would just use every trick and spell I could think of to fight through it. I would usually get rewarded with something that made it all worth it. If I do the same in Skyrim I'm usually rewarded with a shitty garnet, some iron boots and nonsensical-enchanted shit-throwing staff.

I wasn't making an appeal to popularity argument... My opinion was first and foremost that it can work. I'm not saying this is in any way optimal design, I'm saying that Halo is, in comparison to the standard of FPS, one of the better ones.

The combat in Halo was mixed with enough variation with vehicle-driven levels, stimulating pace (pure sniping/stealth parts to the diametrically opposite) and game elements (not to mention you could do this co-op). I didn't experience any combat fatigue at all with this game. If it was like

for 7 hours I would definitely experience combat fatigue.

Quote

Compare it to something like doom where you have a more environment littered with secrets and variable paths through the level. That's what I like.

that's exactly what you have. you do have variable paths in terms of how to solve the level by combat ("sandbox-based" combat). see my point about replayability

Quote

in e.g. halo, you don't have that option, because ultimately the weapons all behave the same, minus some very slight damage changes and encounter weapons being a bit more powerful. the game depth is flat, the new weaponry you achieve differs very little throughout the game, and that as a stand alone core mechanic just won't work.

(e.g.) Brute shot, gravity hammer, needler, carbine+sniper, spike/plasma grenades and 5 different vehicles. These do not behave the same and are differentiated between a lot more than "slight damage changes". When you play on a higher difficulty level you do appreciate the different applications of each weapon.

I think it's weird how you're so easily accepting DMCs arsenal as a puzzle element, but you're unable to see the same for Halo's broad combat-options and level design... I mean, DMC is all about fighting a bunch of guys to get to the next checkpoint.

Quote from AlexM

Well first off I played through the first 2 extensively and played maybe 15 mins of 3 and no 4. Played singleplayer, coop and multiplayer.

I'll just make a quick list of the things that annoyed me the most:

1) The library level in Halo1. This has to be one of the worst levels I've ever played. I thought the game was broken or something the first time I played it.

2) I didn't like the feel of most of the weapons.

3) Level design in general was boring for me. It was basically fight a bunch of guys to get to the next checkpoint.

4) Gamepads

5) Multiplayer competitive was merely ok. I much preferred countless hl mods or quake dm.

6) Characters were boring. It was like some kind of generic all-story. I don't really like a story that much in my FPSes unless it's a game like system shock which arguably might not be considered an FPS.

7) The streets level in Halo2 also stood out to me as boring (though not nearly as bad as the library).

Regenerating health.

9) Floaty jump physics.

Those would be off the top of my head. The level design would be the thing that annoyed me the most. Usually if the level design is not great I just forget about it. In this case with levels like the library they were so bad I actually remember them.

Anyways bear in mind I'm one of those old man grumpus FPS players who still loves Doom today. I play Brutal Doom a ton. I also love the quake dm's, So take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Display More

I agree with 1, 6 and 7. I don't see any inherent issues with having "floaty jump physics".

The statement "It was basically fight a bunch of guys to get to the next checkpoint." doesn't make much sense. This is what the vast majority of FPSs are about, and most of them work quite well despite it. You could easily take the same statement with any other genre. The difference is, when you compare Halo to most other shooter-campaigns, is that you're given a lot more freedom in the level design. If you play the same checkpoint over and over it wouldn't get boring because of; intelligent enemies, diverse game elements (banshees, tanks, ghosts, variety of weapons) and most importantly the open-ended approach to it. When you replay levels you're unlikely to get very similar playthroughs (unlike other FPSs), or you're at least not restricted by having to play them the same way. Halo allows for a lot more creativity than most shooters. This was even more fun with co-op and vehicles. I agree, though, that some levels like Library and Cortana were absolute shit.

I also thought the weapon design was fairly characteristic/interesting and had a good feel to them. The multiplayer maps were quite good (at least in Halo 3) and the ease of using the matchmaking/playing multiplayer is still far better than most MP-games. The difficulty of finding a decent game, with 2-3 of your friends, can be fucking ridiculous sometimes with some games out there (looking at you, L4D).

Halo is far from being one of my favorite games. I rarely enjoy/play FPSs except for a few: HL2, TF2 and L4D2 (which i now realize is only valve games, lol). Still, I think when you compare Halo to the FPS-standard it's a lot better than barely decent.

Quote from Thrik

Just a myth AFAIK. It shouldn't make a great deal of difference whether you're focusing on a 15-inch or 50-inch screen if they're the same distance away from your eyes. Spending too much time staring at anything so close can (and is in my case ) cause you to become short-sighted, though.

This is also a myth I believe. do you have any data to back that up?

I think that also goes under the same myth that wearing glasses will make your eyes adapt to them (permanently), as if making your eyesight more dependent on them.

Does someone have a list with all the trailers that were shown? The quality of the (recorded) streams I've found are shit.

honestly don't care that much as long as i'm not seeing SNES/n64 prices. I remember paying $120-130 for new N64-games before, and sometimes $100-120 for SNES games when they were new. nowadays you read some shitty comment on Kotaku where someone is whining at games priced at $60 because it "only" has 7 hours gameplay. i don't want to go back to selling sexual favors...

I agree. I would be totally fine with this;

[Blocked Image: http://insomnity.files.wordpress.com/2006/11/wow.jpg]