I loved the first four Tony Hawk games. They were arcade-y but they were fun, entertaining, and rewarded a certain kind of mastery. It is also one of the things that started my love of punk rock as a music genre. After that the series took a bit of a turn for the worse when they turned the juvenile humor up to 11, introducing weird and useless storylines, and tried to innovate but couldn't. Tony Hawk's Wasteland was particularly disappointing because the game promised "a continuous cityscape to skate through" and really it was just a series of levels tied together by corridors. At least the Skate series would keep that promise.
I was kind of excited when they announced THPS5. Back to the roots, putting fun above else and jettisoning all the unnecessary bullshit. I played THPS:HD before which was okay but had a couple of technical issues and the controls felt a bit spongy. Maybe they improved on that? No, they fucked it up even worse.
It's short, emotionally manipulative, and mixes narrative and mechanics in a clever manner. I'd give it my choice for best cooking simulator this year.
At a surface level, he seems 100% right, but there are plenty of artforms that can be very challenging to understand, and if you can grasp them, they're not at all enjoyable.
At a surface level, he seems 100% right, but there are plenty of artforms that can be very challenging to understand, and if you can grasp them, they're not at all enjoyable.
This literally describes my favorite kind of music.
"Mmm. Yes. Pretentious. Unpleasant, Inaccessible. Reminiscent of nails on a chalkboard. I loathe it more than it loathes me.
You can absolutely be bad at comprehending a movie or album. I guess they don't bar you from getting from start to finish but if you're not really understanding it then you might as well not finish it. Perhaps music less so.
You know how my baseline interest level in most games is "moderate disdain" at best? You know how as time goes on I review and never revisit many tabletop games after a single play, or even just a rules readthrough?
You could read at an elementary school level (I assume a shocking percentage of "the average adult" does this) and not be able to understand what's going on in a novel.
His point is very simple and totally true. If you put on a movie or album, press play, it WILL reach the end. A game? Nope! It has nothing to do with understanding, appreciating or enjoying, but literally getting to the end.
Unfortunately some websites I want to read on my phone have become like video games in this regard.
So, uh, this Star Citizen drama. Is it just me, or does it seem like Escapist is in the wrong here? Their reporting seems way sketchier here than the NYT Amazon piece (which is the obvious comparison).
The Escapist has fallen to ridiculously low standards in the past year or two. They've hired some outright bigots, and responded to the Gamergate drama with way too much leeway towards GG. I've stopped visiting them outright.
It's a pretty awful site. I worked with them behind the scenes for a long time to stand up a tabletop section. When I quit MTV & Wired, I decided to approach all of the major video game sites and urge them to expand into tabletop, and Escapist was most receptive.
Almost immediately after launch, the site has massive staff restructuring, the EIC I was working with is out the door, I only wind up writing 1 feature there, and the poor editor they've got stuck running tabletop is relegated to covering D&D and Warhammer.
Yeah. Ever since they went through big changes and brought on a lot of "new talent," the management has seemed very questionable. Every other former Escapist employee has had nothing good to say about them.
I used to watch Feed Dump and The Big Picture on there, as well as occasionally Escape to the Movies. I probably would have watched other LoadingReadyRun content there as well if I wasn't already familiar with it and would have watched Extra Credits there if they hadn't already moved to PATV when I found them. The Escapist has gutted its video content for a long time and I simply don't understand why. I also haven't watched Zero Punctuation in a while but that is the only part of the website I would go to now. Thankfully all the creators they kicked out have moved on and continued putting out some good stuff.
Welp. If you don't like the XBox 360 controller, or the Steam controller, or Playstation controllers, they are finally making an adapter so you can use an XBOne controller with a Windows 10 PC.
Double checked my inventory and I don't have them. After 2 minutes of being unable to contact support, I've given up, for now. Upside is that the controller is supposed to arrive Friday.
I had no idea there was such a deal, so I checked, and yeah, I have the games/codes in my inventory. I was holding off on Rocket League, so that's awesome.
On the other hand, I got a FedEx # with an estimated arrival of today, but looking at it now, it is still just "label created" and the Steam account page says expected shipping is Oct 16th.
I checked my library and Rocket League magically appeared. Odd but it works, suppose. Also, this is some weird shipping. My controller has shown shipped but it's not moved from the shipping facility and the arrival date keeps pushing back every day.
Comments
I was kind of excited when they announced THPS5. Back to the roots, putting fun above else and jettisoning all the unnecessary bullshit. I played THPS:HD before which was okay but had a couple of technical issues and the controls felt a bit spongy. Maybe they improved on that? No, they fucked it up even worse.
Super Mario's shit is fucked up.
I'd give it my choice for best cooking simulator this year.
"Mmm. Yes. Pretentious. Unpleasant, Inaccessible. Reminiscent of nails on a chalkboard. I loathe it more than it loathes me.
I must have it."
Yeah...
Unfortunately some websites I want to read on my phone have become like video games in this regard.
Almost immediately after launch, the site has massive staff restructuring, the EIC I was working with is out the door, I only wind up writing 1 feature there, and the poor editor they've got stuck running tabletop is relegated to covering D&D and Warhammer.
http://www.winbeta.org/news/play-xbox-wireless-controller-windows-10-starting-oct-20
I'm also annoyed. Not pre-order incentives when I pre-ordered it way back when. Now? Rocket League and Portal 2 codes. I want my damned codes.
Also you did get it a month before full release.
On the other hand, I got a FedEx # with an estimated arrival of today, but looking at it now, it is still just "label created" and the Steam account page says expected shipping is Oct 16th.
Well, that was quick.