Wow, it looks like you're making pretty good progress on that list! Congrats on setting a fun goal like that for yourself and sticking to it!

Dredd is a really good action movie, and you should see it in theatres before it's gone.

That is all.

Ha ha ha! Absolutely. I still haven't finished it.

I don't trust myself to try a never-ending MMORPG. There are too many great games with a definite ending that I still need to play first.

For anyone who doesn't get it, watch the opening to Tales of the Abyss:

I decided that it's a bit silly how I have close to 300 games for the NES, SNES and Genesis that I basically never play, especially since I know that I love me some retro gaming. The main issue was that I didn't want to fiddle around with having three separate retro systems hooked up to my television, which already is surrounded by newer systems.

The solution brought itself to my attention several months back: it's the Hyperkin RetroN 3. The problem was that I had a hard time "pulling the trigger" on a purchase, because technically I already have the hardware to play my games. It's in boxes here in my apartment.

Finally, I decided that if this would help me get more use out of my games, it was worth doing. So I made the purchase, along with some knockoff NES and SNES controllers (which are remarkably good and cheap). Apparently, with patents expired, people can make great hardware to play all these old games.

The system arrived today, and I have already reviewed a game as a result. I look forward to (hopefully) playing through and reviewing plenty more retro titles from my collection in the months ahead, if there's interest. I do have a lot of great games--or potentially great games that I've not yet played, despite owning them--that aren't yet reviewed on the site. I'd like to see HonestGamers get back to posting a nice selection of reviews for those older titles, not just the new stuff... though I plan to keep up with that, too, with help from freelancers and staff.

So anyway, that's an update from me. I hadn't posted in this blog for awhile, and I figured this was as good a reason to post as any!

Remind me what this is from?

I started reviewing it tonight. If I had off tomorrow, I would just push myself to finish, but I've got to run an orientation for students that goes from 8am-4pm, so I'm headed to bed. I want to have this done by Sunday night.

The short version is that I'm giving it an 8/10, with potential for that to be a 9/10 before I'm done. It really is a fantastic game and an incredibly addictive multiplayer experience. My only problem comes from the overabundance of cutscenes (a disturbing trend in modern gaming) which too often breaks the flow of the amazing action.

There's a new landing page for the site, which I know is always a surprise but I hope that you'll all find the new layout useful. It should more effectively highlight a variety of new content for people who visit the site for the first time, while the content that more regular users tend to enjoy most is right near the top of the page (or requires less scrolling to reach).

I've posted in more detail on the forums. You can view that topic right here.

In other news, I've taken additional steps to disable iframes on the forum, both in messages and in signatures, as they can serve as a security exploit. I know some people like to use things that include iframes, but there's no telling who might control the content on the other end, so it was an appropriate change. Have a great weekend, everyone!

It's months later, I know, but I'm finally setting the first words to paper in a review of this unique running game. I don't want to spill my opinion too soon, but it's one of the more conflicted opinions I've had about a "game." And yes, those quotes are intentional.

Hey, congrats! The kid sounds really cute. :)

It's a shame you put this in your blog. I don't think people read these anymore, so that's probably why you didn't get any responses. I'm glad I checked, though! I was wondering when this day would come.

Good luck with raising the little guy. If we happen to see any activity from you in the next few weeks / months, then great. But if not, that's fine, too. You have a whole new chapter in your life now, and I hope you enjoy it.

I actually composed a top fifty list for albums, but I only posted it on Facebook. There are a few adjustments I'd probably make (having since seen them live, Kasabian and Bombay would both be higher), but here it is:

50. The Go! Team – Rolling Blackouts
49. Kasabian – Velociraptor!
48. Mother Mother – Eureka
47. Austra – Feel It Break
46. Bon Iver – s/t
45. TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light
44. I Break Horses – Hearts
43. The Rural Alberta Advantage – Departing
42. Cold Cave – Cherish the Light Years
41. Boris – Attention Please
40. Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes
39. Little Scream – The Golden Record
38. Yelle – Safari Disco Club
37. Cults – s/t
36. Moonface – Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped
35. Jessica 6 – See the Light
34. Patrick Wolf – Lupercalia
33. Arctic Monkeys – Suck It and See
32. This Will Destroy You – Tunnel Blanket
31. Hooray for Earth – True Loves
30. The World/Inferno Friendship Society – The Anarchy and the Ecstasy
29. Asobi Seksu – Fluorescence
28. Yuck – s/t
27. Friendly Fires – Pala
26. Florence + the Machine – Ceremonials
25. Zola Jesus – Conatus
24. Is Tropical – Native to
23. Radiohead – The King of Limbs
22. Bombay Bicycle Club – A Different Kind of Fix
21. The Decemberists – The King Is Dead
20. Explosions in the Sky – Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
19. MUTEMATH – Odd Soul
18. Battles – Gloss Drop
17. Holy Ghost! – s/t
16. Handsome Furs – Sound Kapital
15. Iron & Wine – Kiss Each Other Clean
14. The Black Keys – El Camino
13. VHS or Beta – Diamonds and Death
12. The Rapture – In the Grace of Your Love
11. Starfucker – Reptilians
10. Junior Boys – It’s All True
9. Justice – Audio, Video, Disco
8. Wilco – The Whole Love
7. The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar
6. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy
5. Feist – Metals
4. The Dodos – No Colors
3. The Antlers – Burst Apart
2. Cut Copy – Zonoscope
1. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming

Last night I was programming some super-elementary pathfinding into the game prototype I'm working on and I noticed enemies were getting stuck on corners when following the player. They don't yet have the brains to try moving a few more pixels forward so that they can round the corner and continue the pursuit.

Here's a demo video (152kb). The pink/red rectangle is the player. The bottom-left blue rectangle is the enemy ploddingly following him. (And the things that look like a trail of turds are player footsteps… In case I have a level set in dust or snow)

Googling for information on path-finding, I came across this nice webpage called The Pac-Man Dossier which explains the workings of Pac-Man in extreme but user-friendly detail. It didn't solve my problem but it's more interesting than my problem and you may enjoy having a look at it.

It's worth every penny, but don't forget, you'll also have to pay for your own airfare and lodging! I'd maybe let you sleep on the floor in my front room, since you would have to come all that distance, but you seemed just a little too excited about the walk on the beach.

Congrats on your win. That's gotta be gratifying!

I think you mean KB. MB would be a LOT of text.

This morning I attended the 2011 XYZZY Awards Ceremony on IFMud. The XYZZYs are best quickly described as the Oscars of Interactive Fiction, voted for by any interested players over two rounds.

My game Six was a finalist in a lot of categories:

Best Game
Best Setting
Best NPCs
Best Supplemental Materials
Best Implementation

In the end I won Best Implementation. And I think that was a good win, as I do believe in the strength of the game's implementation. The game that really mopped up, and ultimately won Best Game, was Cryptozookeeper.

I discovered that the links to posts from the Friends page were not always working as should (specifically, when people would try to click to read the original post that prompted any replies that now appear in the feed), so I fixed those links. It's just a minor tweak, all for the best because previously the page was not working as intended and now it is.

Yeah. It's one of those that got quite a lot of mixed reviews but remained popular enough for Hideo Koshima to continue the franchise. Unlike Legend of Dragoon.

In any case, I gave the game an 8 after playing it for the first time ten years or so after it first came out, and I still thought it was pretty good. Not so confident about the other games in the series, but since I haven't played all of them yet (only played MGS2 so far), either.