Topics

1

General Gaming / Surprise Psychonauts update! Steam achievements + Mac version

« on: September 29, 2011, 10:38:22 PM »

This came out of nowhere.  Psychonauts got an update on Steam today.  Updates include achievements and a Mac version.  Also, they made the infamously difficult final level easier (I'm a little disappointed, actually, since I'd wanted to replay it since reading Tim Schafer's explanation of how you were supposed to use the various powers in the level).  No word on bug fixes, such as the horribly buggy rope climbing that put an end to my own replay last year and the desynchronization in the intro movie, but I'm hoping.

This plus Double Fine's full ownership of Psychonauts since June makes me wonder if Schafer may have more planned.

Edit:  The achievements aren't terribly interesting.  You probably can't expect much when shoehorning them into an old game, though.  The full list (minor spoilers):

I'm Sure She's Over It
Uncover Milla's Secret

I Think They Were Impressed
Introduce all Camp Kids to Mr. Pokeylope

Self Aware
See yourself through the eyes of many others

Look at those Pansies!
Find Edgar's Secret Garden

No Solid Food for Six Hours
Re-brain the Children

They Call Me the Hunter
Redeem all 16 Scavenger Hunt Items

I'm Gonna Live Forever
Find all Golden Helmets

Victory Tour
Revisit all brains after completion

Mmm… Bacon!
Use the bacon. A lot.

Stump Speech
Give the Coach's speech on the stump

Camp Gossip
Read many bulletin board messages

A Slice of History
Discover the secret history of Whispering Rock

Maybe It's the Hair
Spy on Bobby's love life

Made Man
Witness Maloof's transformation

I LOVE PUNCHING!
Complete the Punchy Target mini-game

Wolpaw Says Thanks
Hear Vernon's Ghost Story

They Should Totally Sell Those
Earn all Merit Badges

Figgy Piggy
Gather all Figments

You're All So Kind
Complete Gloria’s Theater

Thanks for All the Snails
Complete Waterloo World

I Always Loved You More
Complete Black Velvetopia

Time to Deliver the Milk
Complete The Milkman Conspiracy

For Insurance Reasons
Complete Lungfishopolis

A Victory for Good Taste
Complete Sasha’s Shooting Gallery

Rolling Rock Star
Complete Milla’s Dance Party

Height of Insanity
Complete The Asylum

I Thought That Was Unbeatable!
Complete Meat Circus

Math is Hard
Achieve Rank 101

Happy Bags
Sort all Emotional Baggage

No More Secrets
Crack all Vaults

Super PSI Cadet
Achieve Rank 80

Advanced PSI Cadet
Achieve Rank 60

Junior PSI Cadet
Achieve Rank 20

Regular PSI Cadet
Achieve Rank 40

Your Last Chance to Chicken Out
Complete Basic Braining

2

General Gaming / Dwarf Fortress, anyone?

« on: April 28, 2009, 01:04:59 PM »

I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in doing an NWR bloodline game in Dwarf Fortress.

If you don't already know (and why would you?), Dwarf Fortress is a free game with ASCII graphics (though there are basic tile sets available), a complicated user interface, and lots of dwarven death and destruction.  It generates a fantasy world, you pick a place to settle, and you try to make a safe and happy home for your dwarves.  Along the way, you'll face starvation, dangerous creatures, kobold thieves, demanding nobles, goblin sieges, and the occasional dragon attack (or worse).

A bloodline game (a.k.a. succession game) is one in which different people play the game for one in-game year each.  Hilarity usually ensues from the differing play styles and lack of communication, such as one player laying plans to trap dangerous wildlife, being so successful that the next player doesn't notice the dangerous wildlife problem and doesn't maintain the traps, leading to murderous elephants rampaging through the halls unchecked.  Or perhaps one player devises a deathtrap in the entrance hall to deal with invaders, and the next player wonders "what does this switch do?" and unleashes a tidal wave of magma on his own dwarves.

The most well known bloodline game is Boatmurdered from the Something Awful forums.  The game has advanced quite a bit since then.  Elephants are no longer dangerous unless provoked, for example.  Oh, and the game went 3D.  Yep, 3D ASCII art.  Now there are different elevations to deal with, much more realistic world generation, and no guarantee of finding certain things like magma and adamantine.

There are some more bloodline games chronicled on the wiki here, if you're curious.  I found Girdertrampled pretty funny.

If any of this sounds like a good time to you, I suggest you at least read this tutorial, if not play along.  The wiki is also an invaluable resource.  And remember the DF mantra: Losing is Fun!

Say so here if you'd like to play in an NWR DF bloodline game.  All you have to do is keep a log of your exploits (role-playing optional, but funnier), and promise not to intentionally screw anything up for the rest of us (accidentally screwing up is expected).

3

NWR Feedback / What happened to the birthdays?

« on: March 12, 2009, 05:39:25 PM »

The calendar isn't showing any birthdays outside of October, November, and December.  I've checked 2008, 2009, and 2010.  I changed my birthday from May to November, and it showed up there.  This is a weird little bug.

4

Reader Reviews / RealTriggers for DualShock 3

« on: January 30, 2009, 01:25:18 PM »

Sony has a tendency to add new features to their DualShock controller without giving comfort a whole lot of thought.  The most familiar example to most people is the non-primary position of the left analog stick, but the DualShock 3 (and Sixaxis) have analog triggers that give the stick a run for its money.  They have convex button style faces, but they move like triggers, i.e. they pivot.  This leads to what should have been an obvious problem during the design phase.  While I won't go so far as to say that my fingers easily slip off the triggers when I pull them, I will say that the things feel terribly wrong.

I stumbled across the RealTriggers while ordering a game on Amazon.  I saw that they were well reviewed, if only by a few people in total, and dirt cheap, so I casually tacked them onto my order much as I imagine Sony tacked the analog triggers to the controller in the first place.  The package included two of the trigger covers and "instructions" printed in the font used to put the little letter 'D's on pennies.  It's just one sentence, and it's vague enough that you'll have to puzzle out how to attach the things from the picture anyway.  Thankfully, it's easy enough.

The trigger covers cleverly snap into place over the original buttons with no adhesive required, and they hold on more than well enough to stay in place during gameplay.  They can stand up to a very hard squeeze without slipping, in fact, but they can be removed simply by pulling them off with your fingers.  Not that you'd ever want to remove them, unless you have a charging stand that covers the triggers for some reason.  No, they do their job perfectly.  The shape makes a nice resting place for your fingers, and they keep your fingers in place when you pull on them.  They don't interfere with the trigger movement in the slightest, either, which was my biggest concern.  They even blend in well enough to look like they were always part of the controller.

Overall, I recommend them wholeheartedly.  I'd give them five silly pictures out of five, if I had any silly pictures.

5

General Chat / Rockbox - replacement firmware for digital audio players

« on: January 23, 2009, 03:35:14 PM »

Has anybody around here tried Rockbox?  What do you think of it?  How does it affect battery life?  Is the sound quality really better?

I love my Rio Karma, but it won't last forever.  Just today, I was confronted by evidence of its eventual demise:  one of the volume buttons isn't working very well.  Sadly, the company that made it is defunct, and I can't find a suitable replacement.  Nobody makes anything with all the features I need, least of all Apple, especially when it comes to ogg vorbis support.

However, I found Rockbox with a little googling, and it claims to offer everything I'm looking for and then some.  I'd just need to buy a supported device, most likely an iPod, so I'm curious whether anyone has tried it or is willing to give it a try.

6

NWR Feedback / The swearing censor and "terrible poasters"

« on: January 08, 2009, 04:56:12 PM »

I like leaving things uncensored.  I don't like to use dirty language myself, but I want to know what people are actually saying.  However, I also enjoy the funny word filters such as "I am a terrible poaster" for the K word or the classic "sparkling innovation" for the G word.  If I elect to leave everything uncensored, I miss out on a lot of pure comedy gold.

Can the censor and the terrible poaster filters be separated?  I thought they were simply done with the emoticon code on the old forum.

7

NWR Forums Discord / The Hitler Game (played with Wikipedia)

« on: September 26, 2008, 07:07:36 PM »

I got this from a coworker, who found it on some other forum somewhere.

How to play:
Go to Wikipedia and click on the random article link.  The goal is to find your way to the Adolf Hitler page by clicking on links in the article.

Normal Mode:  Click on any links.  Limit of five clicks.

Hard Mode:  Clicking on dates and/or place names is not allowed.  Limit of four clicks.

General notes:  The back button counts as a click.  This isn't simply about finding the quickest route, but figuring it out as you go.

Example route:
Restrepia_falkenbergii
Orchid
Singapore_Botanic_Gardens
Japanese_Occupation_of_Singapore
World_War_II
Adolf_Hitler


Have fun pretending to work. 

Edit: Blame any spelling errors on the guy I copied this from.

8

NWR Forums Discord / So it turns out Wandering doesn't have that many good posts

« on: September 02, 2008, 05:40:55 PM »

Whatever, as long as it gets him to 5000 sooner. 

9

NWR Forums Discord / Amazon is dumb

« on: April 18, 2008, 02:52:57 PM »

I just got an email from Amazon.com that starts like this:

Dear Amazon.com Customer,

As an Amazon.com customer in Oregon, you might like to know that you can now subscribe to Texas Monthly magazine for just $15.00--that's 75% off the cover price.

There are at least two things wrong with this.  First, I live in Texas, and they should know this by now after shipping so many packages to my address in Texas.  Second, if I did live in Oregon, why would I even want a magazine about Texas?

I'm really worried why they think I'm in Oregon.  Do my tastes in games and movies track well with Oregonians?  I always figured I was safe after reading Svevan's elitist blathering insightful treatises.

10

Nintendo Gaming / S_B: For the record, random char select set new records for cruelty today.

« on: March 28, 2008, 09:02:18 PM »

It has never, ever, been so infuriatingly insistent on giving me my least favorite characters one after another before.  I should have seen the signs after getting saddled with DK and then Yoshi right off, but I stuck with it for some reason.  Sorry I couldn't give you anything resembling a challenge.   

11

Nintendo Gaming / I just pulled off a Poser KO in a lag-filled online match.

« on: March 13, 2008, 10:56:35 PM »

Take that, anonymous Marth player.  It's just a shame I lost.

12

NWR Feedback / The top stories Flash bar on the front page isn't working

« on: February 21, 2008, 01:58:58 AM »

I see the message "Please download the latest version of Adobe Flash for a better viewing experience."  I have the latest version of Flash (9.0.115.0).

13

NWR Feedback / Official new forums feature request/complaint thread

« on: February 14, 2008, 02:13:20 AM »

Is it possible to get an actual spoiler tag, or at least make black the default "glow" color?

As vudu pointed out and I have just tested, choosing to login "forever" doesn't work.

14

Nintendo Gaming / GameCube Controller Availability

« on: September 12, 2007, 08:39:55 AM »

When I found out that the Wii Classic Controller would be unusable with GameCube games, I took a quick look around to get a feel for GameCube controller availability, knowing that mine would all wear out eventually.  It appeared that either Nintendo had ceased production, or retailers were uninterested in restocking supplies.  Even online retailers were running out.

Has that changed?  I was just checking the status of an order at Amazon, and saw that they had new black and platinum controllers in stock, and I'm positive they were completely out not that long ago (not counting the ones available from other sellers).  How common are they in the wild nowadays?  What about Wavebirds?

[all]

15

Nintendo Gaming / Sonic RPG by Bioware - interview

« on: July 17, 2007, 10:48:06 AM »

This is one of the least likely games ever conceived, no doubt.  There's an interview with the Bioware folks at Wired.  It may not be worthy of a new thread, but since the only other Sonic RPG thread is in TalkBack, I figured someone may as well create a proper discussion thread for it here.  This interview is perhaps most interesting because it sounds like they interviewed a talking press release.

The basic gist of it is that they were already big Sonic and DS fans, so they "jumped at the chance" to work on this game.  The game is a "fast-paced, story-driven experience with tons of exploration,  customization and progression," and "You’ll see all the popular characters and story elements that Sonic fans love." (emphasis added).

It sounds to me like it hasn't moved off the paper yet.

16

NWR Forums Discord / I grow weary of Sir_Stabbalot...

« on: June 11, 2007, 08:07:57 AM »

Seriously, what has happened to Sir_Stabbalot today? Every time I see him in a thread or such he's pretending to be some kind of Roman guy and complaining about furries. What the hell? Sir_Stabbalot is a spammer. He spams the board with blank topics, not contributing constructively and screaming. Sir_Stabbalot uses poor punctuation and spelling, leaving out apostrophes at a "moments notics." If Sir_Stabbalot got into combat with a mod, chances are Sir_Stabbalot would be banned easily. He should have one specific thread to post in, not spam up an entire forum.

I'm no expert in Sir_Stabbalot history, but it just makes no sense. Is it just me, or has Warhammer 40K seemed to have totally ruined the common sense of Sir_Stabbalot?

[Khushrenada Threatens Reporter Over Unfavorable Story]

17

NWR Forums Discord / BREAKING NEWS! Khushrenada Threatens Reporter Over Unfavorable Story

« on: May 11, 2007, 08:41:30 AM »

Khushrenada Threatens Reporter Over Unfavorable Story

Your intrepid reporter has uncovered new details about the depraved campaign being run by staff hopeful Khushrenada.  Earlier today, Khushrenada was exposed for sexual deviancy in a landmark exposé reprinted below:

Quote
Khushrenada Caught Soliciting Sexual Favors from Fellow Forum-Goers

In a recent talkback thread, forum mod candidate Khushrenada made lewd references to another forum member, possibly a minor. It began with Khushrenada trying to ingratiate himself with his target with compliments and personal information. The exchange culminated with the invitation, "They just can't stop loving me. Since you seem to be pretty handy with your fingers, maybe you'd like to join my party." Nintendo World Wiiport will have more on this sordid tale as it becomes available. Stay tuned.

Since that story went live, additional examples of Khushrenada's unfitness for duty have arisen.  He confessed to having several deeply disturbing hobbies, including, in his own words, "sleeping in manure and wearing clown make-up and open flatulance<sic> in public."  Later in the same thread, he also confessed to intentionally and openly defying the forum moderators.  Such flagrant abuse of the system is, in a word, troubling.

As if that weren't bad enough, Khushrenada's official response to these reports has been to privately threaten members of the news media.  I reprint here an actual PM sent by Khushrenada in response to the original article:

Quote
Good job, Partybear. You are the first real opponent I have seen yet. That's not saying much considering the weak field you have to compete with but still, an achievement like that should be recognized. Now retract the statement before I make you look like all my other opponents.

As you can see, Khushrenada sees enemies everywhere, even going so far as to assume that members of the press are actually running against him.  While the message begins complimentarily, not unlike the technique he uses when patrolling the boards for minors to join his "parties," he can't help but disparage his political opponents in the same breath.  The real story here, though, is that Khushrenada responds to unfavorable reporting with threats, implying that he will use humiliation tactics just like he employed against an early opponent, Sir_Stabbalot.

But is Khushrenada really capable of carrying through such threats?  Remember that after Sir_Stabbalot withdrew from the race, he was immediately hired by Khushrenada as part of his campaign staff.  Sir_Stabbalot has openly admitted to being possibly swayed by promises of cushy cabinet positions.  Did Khushrenada really defeat Sir_Stabbalot in the political game, or did he merely bribe the xenophobic author?

Regardless, PartyBear News Network remains unfazed.  Stay tuned for further developments.  

18

NWR Forums Discord / An artist's representation of the Pokemon D/P friend code thread

« on: April 30, 2007, 10:04:08 AM »

Seriously, someone help these people.

19

NWR Feedback / Newsbot feature request

« on: March 14, 2007, 08:24:25 AM »

It would be handy to have a link back to the original article in the Newsbot's posts to make it easier to get to the related links for those times when I see a new article in the forums first.  I'm sure it would benefit those readers who rarely visit the front page, or maybe get them to venture out onto the site proper, as well.

[Reader Review: Nintendo World Report]

20

NWR Forums Discord / Reader Review: Nintendo World Report

« on: November 16, 2006, 11:18:55 AM »

Reader Review:  Nintendo World Report

It was a long time coming.  Was it worth the wait?  Read on to find out.

Planet GameCube had a problem.  It had survived long enough that its name was about to become obsolete.  Rather than come up with some Wiik pun for a new name, the staff wisely sought out a name that could stand the test of time, at least as long as Nintendo did.  The new name, Nintendo World Report, sounds serious, or as serious as a website about -- let's face it -- toys can sound.  If the name has a weakness, it's that it's a little dry.  It's not very abbreviation friendly, either, thanks to English's worst named letter, W, mucking things up.  Overall, the new name meets the site's needs and style of reporting news adequately.

A new name only takes us so far, though.  The site needed a new look, too, if for no other reason than that the old name was still plastered all over it.  GameCube purple (okay, indigo) wasn't exactly in vogue anymore, either.  What do we get instead?  Blue on white.  You know, like the Wii, only worse because you have to read it.  All right, so the color scheme isn't very inspired and will have to be replaced again in five years (give or take), but it's not all bad.  There are some very nice improvements to the site layout.  For one thing, every single headline is clearly marked both by section and by platform.  This is a much appreciated change, indeed.  The platform names are even color coded.  How cute.

Below the headlines, older headlines are condensed into an "Additional Content" section.  This is a very good idea.  It will no doubt keep the front page from getting cluttered during major events while still keeping all the news easily accessible.  It should also be helpful to readers who don't visit very often.  Visually, it ties in well even though a completely different format on the same page could have ended up looking out of place.  The section and platform names are even shrunk down along with the headlines.

The game and review lists especially benefit from the updated look.  The colored platform names make a world of difference.  The various options introduced by the new backend fit the new design much better than they did the old one, presumably because this layout was designed with them in mind from the beginning, yet another sign that the redesign was overdue.

The reviews look much more professional now.  Actually noting the platform on the review page is, once again, a welcome addition.  I didn't notice it at first because it doesn't seem to show up on GC reviews for some reason.  I'm sure this is only one of many bugs that will be worked out.  There's a nifty new image viewer, too.  It seems a little unnecessary, honestly, and it makes it impossible to link directly to a particular image.  That may have been intentional to prevent bandwidth leeching, but it will certainly make citing particular screenshots in forum posts more difficult.  The viewer also lacks navigation buttons, making its purpose even less apparent.

At first I thought the top of the page looked a little too empty, then I realized that the banner flashblock was disabling was actually part of the site layout.  How very clever.  Except not.  Turning the banner on, I see that it's replicating the old method of putting image links to major stories at the top of the page.  I liked this on the old site, but putting it in Flash doesn't make much sense.  I lose the ability to quickly open the links in new tabs or windows while I read the rest of the headlines, and I can only assume it's harder to update the flash banner than it was to swap a new image into the old page.  In return, I get a fuzzy effect when I mouse over the link.  What on Earth for?  I'll admit that there are some very useful benefits to using flash, like the ability to have more than just three top stories in the banner, or the ability to cycle through those story links quickly, or even some attractive animation.  But no, we get fuzzy mouse over.

All in all, the new site is a good thing.  Out with the old, in with the new, etc.  Even if I criticize, I know that underneath the bland, redundant appearance and questionable design decisions still beats the heart of an old friend and staunch ally.

Summary
Pros:
Information is easier to find than ever.
Doesn't have any problems with Firefox 2.0.

Cons:
Questionable use of Flash.
Do we really need another white and blue Nintendo web site?


Score
Appearance: 6
While not ugly, the color scheme is predictable.  The site is very easily readable for the most part, but blue text on a white background is not the best choice for either grabbing attention or being easy to read.

Usability: 8
Getting the information I need has never been easier.  The image viewer is somewhat lacking, though.

Sound: 10
I don't hear a thing, just the way I like my web sites.

Final (not an average): 7.5
What really matters is the quality of the staff and the way they report news and review games.  Nintendo World Report should continue to be my favorite Nintendo web site for many years to come, even if I don't like the way it looks.

21

NWR Feedback / Error in Review pages

« on: September 06, 2006, 10:50:19 AM »

The following appears directly after the date written line and replaces the entire review.  I just noticed it today when I tried to read the Bomberman Land Touched! review, but when I opened another review to compare I got the same error.  I checked a couple of old reviews, too, and I'm getting this in them all.  It's not affecting previews or news.  I'm certain I read the Dotstream review with no problems yesterday.

Quote
Error Occurred While Processing Request
Could not find the included template /ad/inlinead.cfm.
Note: If you wish to use an absolute template path (e.g. TEMPLATE="/mypath/index.cfm") with CFINCLUDE then you must create a mapping for the path using the ColdFusion Administrator. Using relative paths (e.g. TEMPLATE="index.cfm" or TEMPLATE="../index.cfm") does not require the creation of any special mappings. It is therefore recommended that you use relative paths with CFINCLUDE whenever possible.

Please try the following:

   * Enable Robust Exception Information to provide greater detail about the source of errors. In the Administrator, click Debugging & Logging > Debugging Settings, and select the Robust Exception Information option.
   * Check the ColdFusion documentation to verify that you are using the correct syntax.
   * Search the Knowledge Base to find a solution to your problem.

Browser      Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915 Firefox/1.0.7
Remote Address      69.39.34.98
Referrer      http://www.planetgamecube.com/main.cfm
Date/Time      06-Sep-06 02:42 PM

 

22

General Chat / The SciFi channel hates good shows.

« on: August 24, 2006, 09:45:33 AM »

There will be no 11th season of Stargate: SG-1 on SciFi.  I'm sure they need the space in the schedule for more wrestling.

Why do I even pay for cable?

23

General Chat / The Wizard on DVD!

« on: August 23, 2006, 10:20:16 AM »

It was released yesterday.  I just ordered it.  I knew it was coming, but forgot about it until I saw it mentioned on Slashdot today, so I thought a reminder might be in order here.

24

NWR Forums Discord / Harrison confirms Twilight Princess Wii worst game ever.

« on: August 17, 2006, 06:03:29 AM »

At Camp Hyrule, it was just revealed that the Wii version of Twilight Princess will rape your mom, shoot your dog, and pee in your breakfast cereal.  It has also been found to cause cancer in laboratory rats.  Worst of all, it turns some gamers into namby-pamby whiners.

It's a fact.  Look it up.

[Neodymium]

25

NWR Forums Discord / Official DS Sales Thread Thread

« on: August 14, 2006, 08:08:47 AM »

Mario is the king of all Trolldom.  Congratulations, sir.


For reference:

Quote
Originally posted by: Neodymium

Quote
Originally posted by: Mario
DS is only having it's moment in the USA because people are trading in their old DS's. If anything these new US statistics show a sales DECLINE for the DS as only about a million people still care enough about DS to keep up with the new unit.

Has anyone else noticed the steady increase in PSP sales in Japan? It's at over 50k per week now. HOW? A month or so ago it was selling less than 20k, what's changed? Nothing in the PSP world. It's Nintendo who are KILLING THEMSELVES by purposely undershipping DS's to build fake "sold out" hype, people are fed up with the Nintendo BS and just buying PSPs now. The paradigm shift is upon us and nothing can change that. Everyone knows the DS has the best games, but people are STILL buying PSPs. It's the general attitude of Nintendo that's scaring off consumers. Here's a tip Nintendo, people aren't going to keep buying your products for the name alone, there's no way in hell this fake strategy is going to get Wii attention, if anything it's turning more and more people away, if you look at the other system that is steadily increasing in sales, Xbox 360. The decline in Xbox 1 sales reinforces the point that people are now hopping on the Xbox 360 bandwagon, and the only people Nintendo can blame for that is themselves. Not only has this affected Nintendo but it's dragging down the entire game industry over there when people can't even get what they want, which effects the worldwide entertainment industry as a whole which pretty much makes Nintendo the central cause of all the violence and corruption  in the world. Sad times for Nintendo fans.

You have got to be kidding me. This isn't even like GCN and Xbox where it was a narrow margin. The PSP increase is solely the result of thjat #1 game, and maybe LocoRoco and a small amount of worthwhile games. As soon as they fade into memory the PSP will too. You're acting as if DS was done, yet it still outsells PSP by a 3 to 1 margin. That's way more of a lead than Genesis had on SNES even in the dark days of the '91 holiday season.

People are still buying PSPs because it's for the lowbrow softcore gamer, and while that is the major demogrphic in the US it is not in Japan or even Europe, and I assure you Nintendo will continue its total domination in the handheld market with a far more stellar lineup than PSP has to offer.