Disqus - Latest Comments for kartooner

Re: Vox invite

kartooner — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 16:28:42 -0000

I'll take one, if you still have it. :)

Re: Pre-SXSW 2007 Hype-mobile @ Dan Rubin’s SuperfluousBanter

kartooner — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 20:00:21 -0000

Booyah! Yeah, so not a very constructive comment or one that adds anything to the conversation but it's all I got.

Just a few more days.

Ohhh, and I'll have me some buttons!

Re: Tales of the Expected

kartooner — Sat, 31 May 2008 11:31:39 -0000

"Here’s a show on network television, one of the most popular series in production, that’s now based on the premise of a bunch of plane crash survivors trying to get onto a deserted island."

My thoughts exactly. Before Lost aired 4 years ago I was anticipating it just for the classic survivor story and would've never expected it to turn into what it has now, a think piece on time travel and much more.

I do wonder how much of it was outlined, or if as you say, the writers are just making it up as they go along. The latter writing technique can either help or hurt you in the long run and the writers are managing to keep it afloat.

Honestly I was hoping for more insight into Christian's involvement in all this. Granted he is/was the narrator: "Previously on Lost...", but it seemed like his role was limited to being Jack's father and now he's right-hand man to Jacob? How bizarre.

Locke, to me, is the most interesting character but this season he's been a bit "Lost" in his role. I guess this shows how great of an actor Terry O'Quinn really is but still, he just hasn't been as watchable this season as say Ben Linus.

Michael is dead. Good riddance! Harold P. plays that role too well and while he redeemed himself at the end of the finale I'm still glad he's somewhat out the picture. I read a great article on TV Guide (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tvguide/365208_tv...) how he's unimpressed by his character's storyline and wished they would've had a Michael/Walt reunion. Oh well.

Despite all of the nitpicks -- I can't wait to see where they are going with all this come Season 5!

Oh! By the way, I've been reading your site for a few months now. I happened upon it from Telltale's site (I'm a big fan of Sam & Max) and really enjoy your posts. Hope to see more Lost recaps/opinions from you next season, but in the meantime I'll continue to lurk.

Re: Maybe I Didn’t Want to Believe As Much as I’d Originally Thought

kartooner — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 10:01:17 -0000

My thoughts, pretty much exactly.

I think the only redeeming factor for this was - as you mentioned - the high production values. Plot holes & flaws set aside, I thought the camera work was pretty decent.

The overall "reveal" could've been done better. They spent 90% of the movie investigating the situation with the missing women, 5% with the kid and his operation, 4% with Mulder's life-threatening jog through the snow and the remaining 1% of the movie was the head-replacement scenes and Skinner putting the smack down on the doctors.

Okay so I was pretty giddy about Skinner's 5-minute cameo.

Re: Back off, man. I’m a scientist.

kartooner — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:14:20 -0000

You know, Chuck, with these long, well thought out entries you might just have to compile them into a book. I've clipped this on Delicious to read later, but I did read a bit of it.

As for "point & click" games, I've always enjoyed the overall story behind them but the puzzle aspect is something I have a hard time grasping. Games like Day of the Tentacle and Monkey Island, fantastic production values (for their time) with great stories to tell but having to combine object A with object Z, then jam those into C? Not my idea of fun. I guess I just don't have the brains to come up with clever solutions, or clueless ones at that.

Case in point: I love Sam & Max and what you guys at Telltale have done is awesome (art direction, storyline, dialogue). When it comes down to doing a scavenger hunt, that just doesn't interest me I guess. However, that said, the puzzles that make sense (not compiling a hot dog with a calculator) in the context of the game, I do like those. Maybe Sam & Max is a bad example since it's just so off the wall.

I thought the puzzle to become Homestar to participate in the race was pretty cool.

Off that topic, sorry, you bring up some great points in game design. As for this: "Every Good Killing Spree Needs Time to Reflect", I thought Half-Life 2 did a good job with this. There were down times in the game to allow the player to explore things and think about what just happened and what will happen moments from that point.

Pacing is key and I'd imagine it's a difficult thing to do. What would've Doom been like if every 10 minutes, you'd be dumped in an empty room (with an altar of solitude or something) to reflect on your killing spree? Don't think it works in run and gun shooters, but a thinking shooter like Half-Life needs that.

Again, great post. It really made me ponder a lot of facets of game design.

Re: Back off, man. I’m a scientist.

kartooner — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:31:10 -0000

there’s nothing that makes adventure games particularly smarter, they’re just a different type of game.

Yeah, I suppose you're right.

Maybe what I meant is the logic of no logic (back to the scavenger hunt, combine Y + B + C) whatsoever is where I do most of my head scratching. At that point I'll seek out a walk through and enjoy the game that way. However, avoiding the puzzles is a key part of an adventure game and I believe that can kill the experience somewhat.

Have you guys ever tossed out a puzzle idea for it being too absurd?

Re: Le Monde de Goo

kartooner — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 23:44:49 -0000

This game is a rarity.

It manages to combine, quite successfully, great gameplay with everything you described above; intrigue, ingenuity and innovation (triple i's). Playing through it (I'm almost finished) I was reminded of a time in the early 90s, playing games like King's Quest, Lemmings, Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango and countless others. It was exciting because you wanted to see how things would progress, no matter the difficulty.

Also, the World of Goo is pretty funny. Everything from the sound effects to the hints/foreshadowing left by the "Sign Painter".

I'm a sucker for physics-based games, so this sucked me in from the start and I've tossed money at 2dboy for the pre-order and the Wii version because multiplayer goo-fests are awesome.

Re: Spectre Collie » Blog Archive » Fat Man and Little Boy and Jughead

kartooner — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:19:03 -0000

Awesome recap -- as far as speculation is concerned, this opened up many streams of thought.

First of all, I think the "girl with gun" (named, I think, Ellie in the episode is a young Eloise Hawking), also the name of Faraday's rat and his Mom. I figure Faraday knows much, much more about the Island and its mythos than anyone else in his "crew" of misfits, as it were.

If this closed the loop in as far as Richard finding Locke, well, does that mean that Locke doesn't remember the encounter with Alpert as a kid? I guess not. Wouldn't make much sense if that were true.

Also, this explains why Ben hates or rather fears Locke, if he knows that Locke is destined to be the leader of the Others. Any theories as to how he dies?

By far the stuff going on back home (three years in the future, or present) is b-o-r-i-n-g compared to the storyline unfolding on the island.

Still, I wonder... who really is Jacob? Man, I can't stop thinking about stuff now.

Re: My appearance on The Vloggies

kartooner — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 15:02:45 -0000

Now that's pretty cool man. Sorry we never got the chance to hang out again. As you know, SXSW can be a bit hectic, not to mention overwhelming.

Can I still get a Viddler shirt? :)