the graphics are a clear improvement over super mario galaxy. the walking animation was top notch.

5 stars.

looks beyond nice - gonna have to check it out when I get the chance

All I know is that I'm hoping that this one turns out to be a good one. That's all.

Wow. Uhhh... the game looks um.. interesting? I guess?

Not really my thing.

Playing Amnesia with a joypad is like playing volley walking on your hands. It is possible but idiotic.

I agree with this to a less vitriolic extent. It seems like playing it with a controller would take away from the experience a little bit.

Currently (sadly) nothing.

Well.. maybe not entirely. every now and then I whip out League of Evil on my iPhone. If I ever figure out the "game-life balance" I might actually finish the original Portal.

Yeah. I know.

It weirds me out to read about corporate acquisitions as a method of buying people.

Modern slavery. Somebody inform the president.

Not sure if you meant that seriously, but I'll take it as such. What of the workforce and the idea of money if they aren't modern slavery. But I digress.

Anyway, this is certainly going to be.. interesting to follow in the next few years.

It'd be hard to balance personal projects (making games, open source projects), professional life (this is obvious), social life (seeing friends, family, all that), other hobbies (sports, books, movies, concerts, etc.), and personal life (girlfriend, perhaps kids for some, etc.) with more, but as it is I find it doable to dedicate a sunday afternoon/evening here and there for gaming.

Unfortunately, it's just a fact of life you have to come to terms with: you'll likely never have time to play all the games you want to play, read all the books you want to read, see all hte movies you want to see, etc.

Of course, no sleep is also a valid strategy.

A sad truth indeed. I might have to try the sunday afternoon gaming thing.

You know, thinking about it it starts to feel like a lot of games are kind of designed with the idea that you're really only playing that one game. Either that, or there's this implicit assumption that the only thing you enjoy doing with your life is playing games. That's the only rationalization I can think of for games just generally being so long.

I mean.. I'm a fan of the Sonic series and back in the day those games were more of a what? 2 hour deal? I can't even say that I remember. But they were short, satisfying experiences with lots of actual replay value. The idea is that you would come back to it.

These days, people complain about AAA games being "only" 6-7 hours.

Since most of the people I know tend to only afford like.. 2-3 hours a week (if any) for games, that ends up being a pretty long time. Playing through an actual RPG these days? out of the question. And as much as I'd like to at least try it, I know I've got no time for an MMORPG.

Personally, I'd like to sit down and go through a complete gaming experience (with some good replay value, so I can revisit it and have a different experience) in a couple of hours a week. Or maybe have a game that can be digested satisfyingly in smaller chunks.

As much as my friends try to encourage me towards it, no sleep is just unhealthy.

What also sucks is sending emails AND NO ONE RESPONDS TO THEM EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE ONLINE THAT DAY. 

I feel your pain, man.

Or worse, I play games I might not otherwise have any interest in because I feel obligated to have some knowledge of them as a developer.

Is that really such a bad thing? I imagine that it'd be advantageous to get a feel for a game that you might necessarily be inclined to play under normal circumstances. Or is it that you feel like you're forced to finish them after you've decided that they aren't really worth it?

C'mon guys. We're devs... presumably because we like playing games.

Thus, we should probably all make a little bit more effort at it - and we should probably stop guilting ourselves about it whenever we do get around to giving a game an hour or two.

and I should actually start playing more games with my gamer friends- it's kind of a shame that that thought has rarely occurred to me.

Hey -

I'm just wondering how everybody out there balances creating games and general commitments (friends, work, school, w/e) with actually playing games. My attempts thus far have been quite unsuccessful.

Wow - this game looks beyond freaking amazing. I can't get over the sense of scale. Geez.

Considering going back through Cave Story, actually.

wow - that hacking stuff was actually really interesting. For some reason classic sonic in modern sonic's level just feels cooler. even watching cS spin on that rail was somehow more appealing than watching mS grind it. and the gameplay looked.. a little more momentum based.. and a little more awesome. weird.

If you haven't been recommended them yet, check out Space Invaders Infinity Gene (the game that made me believe in the iPhone as a serious gaming platform) and a game called Spirit

Tryin' to finish up Muramasa: The Demon Blade. on a semi related note, wondering if I'll be playing some ESV (Elder Scrolls 5 Skyrim Gameplay) at any point in my lifetime.

Even more expensive!

True. and frightening.

id be interested in the hardware specs. its great that the wii u can apparently run current ps360 games but will it also be able to run ps4/xbox whatever multiplat games in the future? if not, this is a really half assed and inconsequential attempt by nintendo to shut up whining "hardcore gamers" who bought a wii and as soon as next gen rolls around, theyre gonna retreat to their comfy casual/fanboy ghetto again.

mm- very interesting question. I think it begs another one- when are we gonna see the ps4 xbox 360-2? and next question- are they going to build in move/kinect support with those consoles? because I feel like they pretty much have to at this point, if they're really going to represent support for them. I mean, think about the kinect / move market that they're trying to hit, here. they're trying to win over those casuals/families/moms/whateva- if they're going to keep that up as a serious market strategy, then they'll have to keep showing support for move and kinect /and/ keep them interesting in the next generation

pls pls pls gimme a rundown of what is so fucking new of wii u. becasue i dont get it. so far it looks like it will have some pseudo hardcore titles. and that was fucking all. i dont even know what thw  screen in the controller does.

let's gain a little perspective here-

say you like nintendo. you know.. you like mario and shit. zelda. they're good games. you like good games. you like deep games. you like challenging games. you bought a wii... and you got kind of screwed by nintendo. seemed like they didn't really -care- about you. see.. you were missing out. you missed the good games unless you had a 360 or a ps3. unless nintendo showed you something, you were just gonna leave.

well. nintendo just showed you something.

furthermore- nintendo just showed your mom something. she wants her kids to be happy. she wants her kids to spend more time in the 'family' room. well, now her kids can play their games in there without disturbing anybody else. and her kids can still play games with her. and her older kids can still play good games. her older kids might even go 'yeah, you should get a wii u. it'd probably be best for the whole house.'

maybe /you/ don't care about wii u, and maybe a good chunk of the market doesn't.

but a /whole/ lot of the market is paying attention now. if nintendo follows through on this, they've got a winning strategy.

What are microsoft and sony trying to do? appeal to everybody. addons, man. things you have to go out and buy. plus, they're in danger of doing what nintendo kind of did. introducing a whole bunch of shit you didn't even really want, and telling you that you've got to play games with it. they're trying to appeal to everybody, and sony (at least) seems kind of screwed. the 360 looks like it's setting up to be your home 'everything' center, and the ps3.. is getting hacked.

so microsoft's presser.. showed a whole lot of kinect. core gamers don't like that. sony's presser.. I don't even remember. I remember a cheap 3dtv. woohoo. I don't want a 3dtv. nintendo's presser? damn.

Wii U

I think the above says it all.

What are you guys thinking?