appalachian_fox

I finished it the other day, and thought it was pretty well-balanced for a casual gamer. Didn't need much in the way of healing stuff, but that's not necessarily a bad thing...Just because it's there, doesn't mean it should be seen as necessary. I used a lot of my offensive stuff, but just for fun, because as attack power went up (BOWSER!) they really didn't do much. The minigames when you used items, for the most part, were quite enjoyable: A quick reprieve from the standard gameplay. The 3D was a fantastic addition to the game, and the Pixls added entertaining skills (though some were much less useful than others). It also made some parts of the game trivially easy, but that's not necessarily bad -- you always have the choice to do it the "hard-core" way.

However, there certainly were parts of the game I didn't like. In any platform-jumping areas, it was hard to see what you were jumping in to, and the screen really didn't catch up to you until you had pretty much jumped in to whatever you were trying to avoid. Also, there were some really tedious sections. Not only that, but with the ever-present need to "flip" to 3D, Mario was a very unbalanced character. Switching isn't that big a deal, but it does interrupt the flow, so using anyone other than Mario can get tiring in some chapters (8-3 springs to mind -- I stuck with Mario the whole time).

And the story and writing started off miserable. It's like they thought we wanted to watch the game to see how witty they were. Unfortunately, they're not THAT witty and there's no way to skip dialog. However, once the first chapter is done that's largely a non-issue and the cut scenes are a lot less tedious. Except for this Light Prognosticus claptrap. We didn't like what the prophecies said, so we just wrote our own? Really? Do prophecies really work that way? If so, I'm going to write that some guy will walk up and give me a million dollars, no strings attached. I'll call it the Fox Prognosticus.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed it. It was fun, not too challenging and the writing was enjoyable in small doses. I would recommend it to a casual gamer, but warn you that you're going to wade through a lot of dialog, and it will get old. The gameplay is totally worth it, though.

--edit--

I didn't beat that pit of 100 trials, either. Much like in Zelda, I feel those are more in the realm of a more serious gamer. It's not that I had no interest, but I usually don't like to dedicate that much time to one optional thing which I can't walk away from without losing my progress. I did go up to about level 40, handing off between some friends, for kicks. It's fun, but that's too much effort to collect cards in my opinion.

Rofl...CS needs more Zork

Will the Ts get Great Underground Empire skin in the next update?

It all depends. If you keep on top of things? A few minutes straightening up. I'd have a hard time finding a video card in, say, my bedroom.

However, I've been sorting through a bunch of stuff, and have an "office" that was full enough of stuff that I couldn't see a good bit of the floor. That's going to take me many hours to go through (I just started earlier this week) because I have to go through everything and identify what it is (empty box), why I kept it (Why DID I keep an empty box...), figure out if it's a keep (nope), trade (unlikely) or toss/recycle/donate (recycle), and then find a place for it (now the garage is the temporary junk pile while I wait for the computer recyclers so I only have to make one trip).

And there's a lot of stuff I have managed to come across over the past few months, for some reason, and little of it useful. Which gets back to the top, I try to stay on top of things because I will pick up just about anything and try to fix it or find it a home, and when I get busy then things start to fall by the wayside.

So, it all depends, but I've been there. My advice is don't get into collecting things because they might be useful for some thing at some point in time. Either fix it/make use of it right away or find it a good home. That makes cleanup go faster.

Now if I could only find a use for that box...

Does that mean your cats are captioned, or that you have a whole mess of cats and no captions by which to tell them apart?

 

There is a big online fad where people find funny cat pictures and add captions to them.

Yes, Ted, that was the joke.

Haha, < lolcat align="right >

Nice to see a really good use for automatic registration.

Does that mean your cats are captioned, or that you have a whole mess of cats and no captions by which to tell them apart?

What a great comic. Along that line:

http://xkcd.com/c275.html

And one of my favorites (Real recent, as well):

http://xkcd.com/c273.html

I honestly like the MAC platform.

you're ok by me.

 

fox, i'm still o.O, but you're coming around.

 

'mo, well, sorry.

Golly, I had to get all my news from Slashdot. Slashdot! For shame...

Honestly, I like the Mac platform, I just have some issues with it. One, games. Two, I've always been a low-end computer guy, and Apple doesn't really compete there (that's their choice -- Not because they can't, because they don't want to). Three, I have programmed on both platforms, and I have found Windows easier to develop for...Yes, everyone laugh. But seriously, they should have more freely-available, powerful programming toolkits/compilers/development environments. Windows does it. You can kludge some together in Linux if you're motivated enough. Apple is getting there, but they're still behind.

Macs are just not for me. Of course, that being said, I really really want a Macbook Pro -- OS X for eye candy, BootCamp FTW. Of course, point two, I'm too cheap for that...

ZD, that picture's great!

i got bored during the boot camp demo. who wants to waste resources booting into plateau vista?

 

 

notice anything?

http://store.apple.com

 

brb, pee break. more coffee?

Uhh...College students can buy a Mac and get a free iPod nano?

Why not share with us? Tell us what's up-and-coming, be our front line for Mac info! I know I'd love to hear what's in store, and it's either get it from you guys or see the news brutalized on Slashdot.

Have a good summer!

Dude, I looked up a sample of some "hi-def" video playing on one of those things last night and played it on my old 27" CRT...The video quality looks like crap. It's no better than my current TV!

This earned a groan, not a laugh.

 

Shame on you.

Shame on YOU!

Dude, I looked up a sample of some "hi-def" video playing on one of those things last night and played it on my old 27" CRT...The video quality looks like crap. It's no better than my current TV!

You know, that's a really good question, at least the way I understand it being asked.

I use integrated sound. Mostly I work off a laptop these days anyway, but even on desktops I'd rather save the $10 or whatever a sound card costs and honestly my eyes and ears aren't that discerning. I could see the rationale if I were building a beefy machine for a specific purpose (gaming, for example) and wanted the bragging rights of the extra few frames, but that's just not the market I sit in.

Of course, the other side of that is most gamers would cringe at my setup and that's probably part of the reason I am so bad.

Fair enough. I'm not sure I'm convinced there needs to be a creator to being to set a Universal truth, but I also think it would be a hard sell to convince me it is a solid rationale. As far as relative morality vs. democratic morality (where I was going with morality is similar to ethics) I pretty much agree with everything you've said.

Okay, now I'm curious on your take on it. If you don't mind sharing, of course.

Well, I'm not really sure myself, it's just something that came to mind. I'd be willing to bet that this issue has been addressed at some point, or at least there are some good responses. This debate has been going on by people more educated in the nuances of these issues than us formally for at least the past 1600 years, and likely it goes back much further.

My knee-jerk reaction to my own thoughts is to say, "Why does a set moral code need a God?" Rather, the existence of a "Universal Good Idea List" doesn't require a Creator being to exist. Like I said, I haven't really seen anything about this yet, but it's honestly from lack of looking into it and lack of discussion with people who might be more knowledgeable about the common thoughts about this.

There's also the concept of the framework of "Right" and "Wrong" (absolutes) vs. right and wrong (gray areas) vs. everything is value-neutral. If every action is value-neutral, the entire concept of good vs. bad pretty much gets thrown out the window and you evade that sticky wicket. Of course, then, there's no need to judge yourself internally, either, and when reduced to the absurd anarchy rules. Of course, that isn't the necessary endpoint -- We look to society to allow for the improvement of the whole despite our individual failings. Again, to call back to business ethics, or some aspects of accounting, generally agreeable guidelines of right and wrong are established and in gray areas, intent is a factor. It also is reminiscent of background checks for security clearances: There's a bunch of Yes and No rules that seem hard and fast, but then there's a whole list (as long, sometimes longer) of "mitigating circumstances" that provides a chance to counteract a discrepancy (but there's no guarantee...).

Anyway, that's why I asked...I figured someone in this community would be either (1) more familiar with current/historical apologetics on this topic or (2) has done far more thinking about it than I have.

Sweet, if it makes everything else obsolete, that means I can buy obsolete technology at obsolete prices!

No but also Aug it's not just that people have done evil things in the name of religion. I believe that it's better to look in then to look out to another being. While I respect people who practice any religion with the exception of when it harms other people, I personally think that you should not need someone else to judge your own actions, instead having you judge your own actions and living a healthy, spiritual life.

Out of curiosity, do you believe in a universal standard by which actions should be judged? Granted, you don't think there's a person out there judging everyone, but you don't need an agent to still have a standard. I'm really curious, because it raises a lot of questions about the concept of personal judgement in the larger context of society if everyone is allowed to pick their own standards. I guess I'm asking if you think there is a spiritual analog to "ethics", where people agree that there are certain "good" and "bad" things (whether or not they live by them).

For this question, I assume that actions are context-oriented, and that there is not necessarily such a thing as a "right" or "wrong" action, but rather that the general "feel" of an action is dictated by the circumstances surrounding the action. Rather, I'm not asking for the Ten Commandments of generic spirituality, though if actions are absolute that would raise another series of questions.

Actually...

http://www.gamrs.co/forums/in...&hl=surface

They have a Popular Mechanics (or something similar) video linked there. Different video, same great taste.

Tristan,

if you want a great book, which touches on the porblem of evil try "The inescapable love of God" by Thomas Talbott.

Hes a christian philosopher who goes into a bit of that but he leaves the traditional thought and CLEARLY endorses the view that God does indeed love all men and WILL SAVE all men.

 

It's a PROVOCATIVE book and he's really the first in our time to have the guts to stand up in the theological world and shout out good news that Jesus died for the whole world. I'm sold on his view, it took a lot of debating and arguing but I finally cried uncle and since have found that the view of UR (universal reconciliation) is an incredible story that leaves me hungry for more.

 

Anyhow, he does go into the problem of evil as he was challeneged by his own atheism in his life and found it a dead end and embraced a view of God that is incredible (from my perspective).

This sounds like a great book, but I want to also suggest "The Problem of Pain" by C.S. Lewis. It's a bit meaty, but it's really good.

I'm really bad at playing games

QFT!

Quantum Field Theory?

I'll have to remember to stock up on 'shrooms, then, because I think I should be getting SPM today or tomorrow.

Wait, you meant in-game...

Too much stuff to look at/click through. Where does laziness fit in?

I think the monitor's been around longer...You may need to put the young lady out to pasture. That beast of a monitor of yours is probably heavier, too. Plus, you could always wait for her to leave on an errand and change the locks while she's gone. I really think you need to consider your options.