Last year I did a blog where I listed my top 5 favorite title screen themes
What are your 5 favorite title screen themes?
They were:
5. Mass Effect
4. Two Worlds
3. Deadly Premonition
2. Halo
1. Morrowind
Glad to hear all the good news about this game, it sounds like the worthy reboot that the franchise needed.
You mentioned you liked the 3rd person action and shooting a lot. Did you have a favorite weapon?
Another thing that looks really fun in the game is the rope arrows, and how you can shoot applicable surfaces and connect ropes so that you can climb up them or use the rope to get across a gap. The first two Thief games had a similar mechanic where you could shoot a rope arrow at a surface, a rope would pop out, and you could climb up it. I like seeing stuff that like, a rope arrow in Tomb Raider is a cool idea and probably a fun way to traverse areas.
Definitely, it's interesting to see how far things have come. It's not perfect today, like Julian said, there's a long ways to go but things have come a really long way. I didn't have the same context you guys did so I had less of a feel for how bad and crazy things could get at times back then.
I consider myself lucky now. The only game industry and journalism I've ever known is a tiny bit of Nintendo Power, a bit of 1UP, and a bunch of Pixlbit. I'm accustomed to seeing people who are passionate about games and like to write, and are intelligent fair folks with common decency and common sense.
Is that ad for real? It's actually trying to sell the game, and it's not an expose or critique or anything? If it's a real ad then I'm baffled. It's a really immature way to show "lesbians" or to tout the fact the designers think their game has "lesbians". I don't see lesbians when I look at that, I only see a bunch of guys who drew two fantasy girls in their underwear and they're laying on each other. The tag-line about 13 climaxes is pretty dumb, but the thing in the entire ad that is the weirdest is the supposed quote from IGN on the side. Is this ad real, is that a real quote from a real person that worked at IGN back in the day? Who wrote that? That passed as journalism or advertisement somewhere somehow? The comment sounds as illiterate, crude, and juvenile as something you'd hear casually on Live or something from some teenager not an industry professional or educated writer. And it ended up on an ad?
EDIT: You'll have to keep in mind that I never got into game mags, online communities, or anything until 1UP in 2011 and then Pixlbit shortly after that. The only game mags I ever read as a kid was Nintendo Power back when the Gamecube came out and I got a subscription somehow and I read those for several months. But that's it. So basically I never got to see a lot of these crazy ads. Or at least I don't remember them. I only remember reading about Luigis Mansion, seeing screenshots from lots of games, and whatever other stuff happened in Nintendo Power mags. I'm pretty naive to some of the crazy stuff that was happening.
I followed the links and watched the ads for Zoop and Killer Instinct and all I can say is wow. I can't believe that's gaming history and that's the way some ads represented games and gamers. It gives me some context and makes me think that assholes like Jack Thompson or any other game-ban or censorship groups had good reasons to be scared of games or misinformed on games. Look at how games were marketed lol. The gamer in the Zoop commerical is in a straight jacket and drooling because they took his game away, and all the kids in the Killer Instinct commercial are implied to be cursing and it's all about xtremeness and uncensored violence. Compare those ads to the Portal 2 spot done by Valve, it's day and night. The difference between the ads is like the difference between the dark ages and the rennassiance or the stone age and the space travel age in terms of how gamers are represented and how the games come across.
There's some bad commercials these days, but I'm really glad you brought up the fact of how bad they used to be in the 90s and such. Angelo's comment above helps put things into perspective as well. I really liked the Mass Effect advertisement Julian mentioned, that one always gave me goosebumps actually. I was already sold on Mass Effect before those adverts and before launch because I was a huge KotoR fan and wanted a new universe from Bioware. But when that commercial came out it made me even more excited. Short trailers and adverts can be really great at times.
The commercial I have the very fondest memories of and represented the game best was the Portal 2 pre-order advertisement. It starts out cute and heartwarming like a Pixar short with Atlas and Pbody playing with portals, doing hijinx, and laughing with each other. Then Glados shows up, tears down the walls around them, the music picks up, and she sends them off on a high flying adventure as the ad ends and she tells them they're going to have fun with science. At a time when scientific literacy and technical education is awful in America and we are desperately trying to get kids in love with science, adventure, and mystery, Portal 2 admirably hit those "science is fun!" notes and sends the right message to gamers and parents. I could show that ad to anybody and be proud, I could show Portal 2 to anybody and be proud. The advertisement was the perfect tone, great music, visuals, and used the 30 seconds as perfect as you can for that type of game. Probably my favorite game of all time, a knockout production and knockout package on every front from the sleek clean advertisements to both stunning campaigns and all the memories I made. Watching that 30 second ad brings back all those great memories.
I never played Thief but based on what I've always picked up on from you, Thief and Deus Ex are pretty different beasts. I really loved Deus Ex HR so I know they are on the right track for the gameplay and the ideas they can build on from that game for the Deus Ex series. But I'll have to differ to your judgement and critiques when it comes to Thief since I know nothing about what the old games felt like and what made them great.
Thief will or should be 1st person right? Sounds a lot like Dishonored. I haven't seen any gameplay or anything from the new Thief but I'm really hoping it's more Dishonored and less Assassins Creed. I don't want it to turn into the swashbuckling Pirates of The Caribbean nonsense that AC turned into. I heard you say before that the old games made you feel very vulnerable, I hope they can make the new game like that. I'm only slightly worried because seeing the Victorian dress, cathedrals, swords, and armor makes me think too much of Assassins Creed and I really want Thief to be something that feels, looks, and sounds unique and isn't cribbing a bunch of things from AC.
If this game has even a pinch of Dishonored in it where I can have lots of systems to play with and ways to traverse areas and complete missions, and a tiny pinch of Dark Souls making me feel vulnerable and challenged I think it would be pretty great.
Lol I heard that Crayfish would make meals out of the fish. If I did that it certainly would make his day a little more lively and action packed!
One thing I've wondered about the Iditarod is if the dogs are susceptible to snow blindness like we are. I'm sure the mushers have goggles, clothes covering them, maybe some sunscreen or whatever else they choose to protect them from all the sunlight reflecting up off the snow. But what of the dogs? Do animals like dogs, wolves, wildcats, deer, and other animals out in the environment have to deal with snow blindness or worry about it?
Sucks to hear you've been sick. *digital hugs* I'll give you an internet hug, it has all the meaning behind a real hug, except no spreading of the bacteria making you sick lol. Ah shit who cares, bring it in for the real thing *real-er hug*
What's your aquarium like? My crayfish has a 10 gallon tank to himself that he will always have for himself. I'd like to get a much bigger tank and get some fish at some point in the future.
I got into the Iditarod back in elementary school because of our teacher and the projects she would do. We followed the race's latest news, keep track of the statistics, we learned a little about the mushers and what they eat, about the dogs, and the environment. It was an awesome class project.
The unseasonably warm weather sounds dangerous and messy. Mostly for the health of the dogs. Does it affect the trails in any ways? Do they ever go across frozen lakes or rivers?
You could metal it up while playing mermaids. You could call yourselves Iron Mermaid! Lol
