We have a date, you heard it here first. The team is working hard for closed beta to start on Friday, November 4th, so, a few weeks away. We plan on announcing that more broadly next week, and as you may have known if you've been following us, we wanted to start in September originally, that was kind of our original plan, but there were a few adjustments that we wanted to make before beta.
Specifically, some things we've been working on are character progression elements, those were things that weren't in alpha, but will be in beta, we'll maybe get into details on some of those later, and secondly, with the changes or improvements based on feedback from the alpha testing group...Disc jump strength was one, some challenge that people had in chasing down flag cappers which is a big part of the game, basically ability to quickly gain momentum from a standstill, and even overall speed of the game."
Bitmob.com - Rage: When game journalists stop being polite and start getting real.
The harsh reaction to the interview in the comments really shocked me, but it probably shouldn’t have. The games community is so used to reading rote interviews. These questions and answers usually only end up serving the developers, and they don’t offer gamers anything of substance. So when a media outlet asks, "Okay, id, you've spoken a great deal publicly about how unique and your game is. Are you prepared to speak intelligently at length about why that is, precisely?" and they’re met with such a negative response, can anyone really afford to be surprised by the PR fluff that appears on so many video-game websites?Just Adventure - Patience, the Forgotten Virtue or, No Help Wanted.
I know I'm going to sound like a spoilsport in saying this, but, uh, you know, the whole point of a game is to be challenging. If there's nothing to puzzle over, there's no puzzle. One could argue that getting stuck is the whole raison d'etre of an adventure. The "fun" is supposed to come from solving the difficulties you encounter, not in petitioning the publisher for a patch to skip over them. Without snags, an adventure game is just a mindless joyride, an amusement park in megabytes. That said, I think that's what more and more people want in an "adventure." They want a pretty grand tour of some fabulous land. For them, puzzles in an adventure game are like a series of toll gates on a road-trip vacation.
Well Grilled Links: | Thanks Ant and Mike Martinez and Acleacius. |
Play: |
Warpy 2. Monster Arena. |
Links: |
The 5 Most Overused Jokes On the Internet. I never use |
Stories: |
Woman wants male stripper for her 100th birthday party, gets one. Beards and hair shorn in Amish-on-Amish attacks. |
Science: | Double Impact: Did 2 Giant Collisions Turn Uranus on Its Side? Damn near killed 'em. |
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Preparing For Your Paradise Apocalypse. Special Order FAIL. Fighting Diabetes FAIL. |
Media: |
GLaDOS Meets Siri of the Day. Stephen Colbert's Tribute to Steve Jobs. Thanks nin. Spider Tap Dance. |
The Funnies: | The Gaming Circle Of Strife. |