Oh and Seth any purchases at the Best Buy Game Sale? Actually, it might not have been Best Buy but I saw a huge game sale with titles from 1.99 each. Yes mostly old sports games, but the list was huge.

Posted by Kyle @ 03:43 PM PST [No Comment]

Comp USA on Nordahl is closing in a month. Not that I'm sentimental about it, I just think it is interesting.

Although Ryan works there, so I hope he can find a new job easy enough.

Posted by Kyle @ 03:40 PM PST [2 comments]

Posted by superseth @ 09:21 AM PST [2 comments]

Gamespy has a review up for Virtua Fighter 5, and I am excited. I doubted that something would make me want a PS3 right now, but the thought of waiting 6-8months for this game on 360 makes me crazy. The other thing that worries me is this might finally drive me to getting fighting sticks for the 360, because the d-pads are so frickin bad on those controllers. They have seriously created something worse than the Gamecube D-pad.

Also, it baffles me how Sega can put out such consistently good games in the Virtua Fighter series, and yet let so many other franchises go to total crap. You would think that when the board looked at the new 360 version of Sonic The Hedgehog and Virtua Fighter 5 side by side they would recognize that one was utter crap and the other a bestseller.

Posted by superseth @ 08:53 AM PST [1 Comment]

Kyle, you need to check out this. There is a song called Fat Children, and it makes me laugh and think of Junior Mints. It is the solo cd by the singer of Pulp.

Posted by superseth @ 04:27 PM PST [1 Comment]

Damn it, I came home and took a nap for 2 hours, now I am never going to fall asleep tonight.

Posted by superseth @ 07:16 PM PST

booyah, a real intelligent professor in my department has agreed to advise me on a thesis project. I am sure it wasn't from what I was talking to him about or my inability to produce enough books that I have read; It pays to have friends that he really likes.

Posted by Kyle @ 03:20 PM PST

Apparently I get to apply for graduation in about 9 days, meaning I graduate in june. Rapexor.

What sucks is that to do a senior thesis, which is a huge awesome writing project I have to have a non-lecturer faculty member oversee my project. Number of non-lecturer faculty that have taught a class of mine? 1, this quarter, and he is the department head who is a journalist/sociologist which although he's quite qualified to teach things and really educated doesn't specialize in what I would rather do.

Time to go harass faculty I've never met and try to persuade them to taking me on for a 1 on 1 project next quarter. Weee.

Either way yes yes I do graduate. As david posted a while ago who knows what will be done from here; "anyway the wind blows" me hardies.

Posted by Kyle @ 04:56 PM PST

oh Seth my friend out here picked up ultraviolet, this really bad rip off of the aeon flux movie that has sent me into hysterics by the 17th minute. She activates something in her belt that jiggles and it allows her to like defy gravity and make people decide that shooting at her is now futile...than some Noelish man mutters strange comments about how she'lll never escape.

Posted by Kyle @ 11:21 PM PST

That flavor was delicious, delicious NARNIA.

In other news, I have an English Lit midterm tomorrow, which I have been unable to make myself study for, which does not point to a bright and cheerful future.

Posted by superseth @ 10:38 PM PST

This weeks Escapist has an article on Anarchonox, including some interview info from Tom Hall. If you haven't read 100 chronicles of Ion Storm before, it is pretty interesting to read, and reminded me of how much I love that game.

Posted by superseth @ 08:21 AM PST

Dave (of San Luis Obispo), a man who just learned of Teetles on friday night, has created his own teetle fan image for the world to enjoy.

Posted by superseth @ 02:49 PM PST

I haven't mentioned the Great Games Experiment put together by some of the guys behind the Torque Game Engine, but you should all check it out. I have been too busy to really explore around on there, but it sounds cool. Also check out this Writing and Design blog, the author has setup a group for game writing on GGE. I should spend less time dancing around online.

Posted by superseth @ 02:57 PM PST

as i sit in the dark recesses of my basement living domestical, i've been doing a significant amount of introspection, and am wondering where others currently stand on this topic. like a few of those who frequent this site, i am an English major and am questioning the validity and applicability of my degree. so my purpose here is to see what people are doing. i'm applying to graduate school to get a Masters in Teaching/Education so i can be a secondary language arts teacher, but i often doubt that i've chosen the correct path. i've also considered applying to law school, since the majority of my education has been devoted to developing and defending argument. however, i'm at a turning point in the journey of life and what to see where the rest of my good friends and contemporaries are at. respond or whatever. peace.

Posted by David @ 01:23 AM PST

A Million Penguins is a first attempt and making an online group written novel. I don't know how it will turn out, but it is at least interesting.

In an semi-related rant, what needs to happen is a web interface that allows the sharing of written works among many people, where drafts can be checked in and comments made directly in the document, so that peers can review and comment on your work, and each version posted would be saved like version controlled code, so you can look back on the development process of any work after it is complete. This would foster new online writing communities and make feedback much easier to get and keep track of when revising.

Also, submit name ideas for a lit-mag, because I want to do a one-off over spring break or so. Currently I am addicted to the horrible name, Curves of the Wasteland, because I thought it up for a story I will never write and I like it too much.

Hmm, one more also, this time in response to Kyle's comment about removing the gun in DCotE, yes I don't know why developers don't do this more often. The AI in that game is very weak, but for the first story arch of the game it does not matter one bit because they have guns, numbers and are creepy as hell, and you can do nothing but run. For ~15 years people have been trained to deal with enemies from the first person with a gun, the effect of not even having a knife makes you feel so inferior that the game is much scarier than Doom3 ever could have been. The other important element in the horror is that you really do fear the towns-folk, you know they are evil, and you know the main character is going to befall some horrible fate, and you can't stop it. It creates a terror that last for more than a second. Once you see an Imp you get over the fear and start to fight it, the routine returns. This is a momentary scare, based on shock. An intellectual horror, something you can say it just in the game or is going to happen, but you are scared of anyway, is much more powerful.

As a last final note, if ever I made a horror game, there would not only be no hud in the game, but no easily accessed menu, because in FEAR it would get to me so much, walking in the dark listening to that girl sneak around, I'd just hit escape and leave it in the menu for a few minutes while I got a snack and recovered calm. I wouldn't want to allow for that, it is cheating. Ok, wow, I do need to sleep soon because I have a BIO test tomorrow that I am not prepared for yet.

Posted by superseth @ 03:10 AM PST

I finished Dark Corners of the Earth today, and I must say it was a fine game. There are certainly flaws, but they mean nothing when compared to the good parts. Lovecraft's writings are not all that scary to simply read, the language is...verbose and the horrors often are "beyond imagination" and so the narrator can't even describe what is being seen. It is only when you really think about what is happening, when you look at how horrible the world would be if these secrets were actually true, that they start to have impact. If anything this game translated that aspect of the work, but also made things more immediate. You are not experiencing the story through a 3rd party, but are there first hand with a town of mutants chasing you in the dark, and you don't have a gun. The first 1/2 of this game should be examined as an example of how storytelling can be enhanced by the immediacy and interactive nature of video gaming. Of course, there are things that it could do better, the events are totally linear, you can't quick-save, etc. It is sad that 2 of my favorite games post-2000, Call of CthulhuCotE and Vampire:Bloodlines, were made by small teams that showed brilliance, but were closed down upon release of their first important game.

Posted by superseth @ 03:15 AM PST

Websites -->

greentheory.org
theanonymousbrit
rome.ro
insidemacgames.com
planetquake.com
planetdaikatana.com
xlr8yourmac.com
apple.com

Music -->

audioslave.com
nerfherder.net
van-halen.com
unofficial soundgarden
sneakerpimps.com
smashing pumpkins fan collaboritive
theeels.com
theoffspring.com
alanismorissette.com
metallica.com