Ah, that would explain it, I was a little twerp when Happy Days was in its hey-day.

On a different note, where the heck do the expressions, "Jump the shark" and "edgy cool" come from? Must be an east coast thing or something.

Well, I can only speak for Jump the Shark...As the story goes:

After Happy Days had been around for awhile (some would say "too long" after the following episode aired), the was an episode where The Fonz (the supposed epitome of cool) decided to take up water skiing (which, while cool, was not exactly Fonz-typical). During his water skiing, he managed to jump over a shark. It was deemed so unbelievable, silly, and unlike the show that the phrase "Jump the Shark" was coined, for any show that has lived past it's prime, and needed to be retired (yesterday).

There's actually a site dedicated to it ( http://www.jumptheshark.com/ ). I would say The Simpsons jumped the shark years ago (I'm told they even did a parody of it in one of the credit openers). The X-Files sure as hell jumped the shark, at about season 6 (and got dragged through the mud for another 3 seasons, just to add to the injury).

edit: From the site:

It's a moment. A defining moment when you know your favorite television program has reached it's peak. The instant that you know, from now on, it's all downhill. Some call it the climax. We call it jumping the shark.

http://www.ash-official.com/
This comment was edited on Dec 7, 13:35.

So besides the hokey camera controls, is it a decent game? I've played a lot of the side scroller predecessors and loved them, so I figured I'd give SoT a go. On a different note, where the heck do the expressions, "Jump the shark" and "edgy cool" come from? Must be an east coast thing or something. I've not heard either of those used on tv or rl. Maybe I'm just too much of a shutin or something.

I have only played the demo; my early (and final - MWA HAHAH) perception are based off of that.

As for the fighting, I got in that first room and had that long, tedious fight sequence which just really turned me off. What was I fighting? Why was I fighting? How long will the stupid thing go? Oi, that was cheap how I got hit repeatedly just getting up. My gosh, how many times do I have to seemingly beat the crap out these guys? Blah blah blah...I did not find it at all interesting.

This is all based off of the PC version - no 640x480 for meh! Again, I am not saying the control is terrible outright, but I do think it is very sensitive/frustrating for what a twitch-death game this is coupled with my own peeve over the camera limiting my playing in any way.

Basically, I had a few instances where the camera would move to not show my character, would not always realize a world object had come in and blocked its view, or simply did not respond quick enough or responded incorrectly, essentially dooming me to death on that current run. Because of my own tastes, I thought that the game would be fun, but infuriating, and I decided to skip it.

Thinking the new 1080 game fails to live up to the original :(,
Ray

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Why must you all mock me?!?!

Woah, woah, Halsy - don't jump the shark there!?!

Hesitant - not wanting to jump the shark - but claiming I invented "edgy cool" :o,
Ray

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I pity any person that thinks this is surprising, new, or does not happen at a number of other retailers, too.



Personally, not hiring people that like retro colors,
Ray

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Dantastic = Fruity

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22

So what you're saying is that "jump the shark" has jumped the shark?


"Physical reality is consistent with universal laws. Where the laws do not operate, there is no reality."
- Mr. Spock

I hate that STUPID "jump the shark" expression. I hate it. Lots. I saw the "creator" of it on TV a few months back....some jackass acutally took credit for thinking of it, and was somehow now an EXPERT on what was cool and what was past its prime. I hate the way its all *edgy cool* to use too...well...its used as if it is edgy and cool. It's just dumb.

The end.

Love Mike

if this will interest anyone but:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/05/60minutes/main587099.shtml

Details how 'ugly' people working for A&F were given shorter working hours.

No big surprise to me. For a while their Human Resources manual provided tips for managers looking to hire new employees. The explicitly stated that no 'undesirable' people be hired. The manual directed the store manager to go to the nearest college or university, find out which frat or sorority was the 'coolest' and hire the most popular members of those groups.

I worked with a guy that managed an A&F for a while. He had district managers come in for visits and tell him to fire employees based on appearance within 24 hours or lose his job himself.

I've been waiting years for this to hit the fan. I can't believe it took this long!

-TPFKAS2S
http://www.braglio.org

Retro colors for the unwashed heathens!

in the PC version you have to have a steady hand on the mouse to control the camera or you will end up jumping off a cliff

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Love,
Mayor Dan

Did someone say KOTOR?

ExcessDan

1. Wow, what a step up from the mess of that last game.

I love it. To me it's the best adventure game I've played since the original Tomb Raider. And it takes quite a bit for an adventure game to impress me.

2. Ok, fight an enemy. Fight aother enemy. Fight another enemy. Fight that enemy. Look, all the enemies are back up - start again. Where are the puzzles, dam'mit?

Eh? We playing the same game? I thought exactly the opposite. Solve a puzzle, solve another puzzle, fight several enemies, solve three more puzzles.

3. Urgh - crazy camera makes it really, really hard to play such a twitchy, death-laden game. I know that I can rewind, but I do not want to do that over and over due to poor camera control/angles.

Are you playing the PC or console version? I picked it up for Xbox, and I find no problems with the camera that don't come with the 3D territory (sometimes enemies might out of the FOV if the camera is in follow mode).

I think it's an outstanding game, and anyone who's a fan of adventure games owes it to themselves to give it a try.

camera schmamera, it took about 15 minutes to get used to the camera

i haven't got that far in the game yet but it's seeming to me that the puzzles are jump puzzles... it's tricky trying to climb your way up or down something.. there's so many ways to jump from a ledge

and you're supposed to get rid of the enemies by stabbing them with the dagger haha

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Love,
Mayor Dan

Did someone say KOTOR?

ExcessDan

Grr.. all this talk of snow and here I was at work today in 50f weather.. (and I'm in Milwaukee!)

They say there's a chance of snow tomorrow, but I have my doubts. Anyone wanna ship some snow this way? We could certainly use it. Years ago I remember light flurries in late September/early October, or the year we had over 30" of snow in June...

While I've got my winter jacket out, it hasn't really been zipped up or done anything but weigh me down..

-EvilDark

I once seriously considered buying a cheap Mac just so I could play Escape Velocity

Man, when they released that for the PC (EV:NOVA), I HAD TO register it that night, have played our every possible scenario. But also you could play EV classic and over-ride as add-on’s for EV:NOVA! Played out all in those as well! And of course checked out many of the user created add-ons!
Man I played it so much that my wrist started cramping, but I just played on through the pain! But I also did not have my keyboard set up correctly so it did not put stress on it, I got talking about it with one of the guys from Ambrosia Software (they created it) via e-mail, and he gave me some ergo tips and sites to check out, and then it was pain free playing it from then on! Did I mention I love this game?

X2 should be here soon, but again I will wait till after finals to start playing it!
I got My last final on the 15th, then down to the Winter CPL, then finally do I get to start into X2 and Kotor!! This is gonna be a great month for gaming for me

I pull out a copy of Frontier at least once a year, and play the hell out of that sucker for a few weeks. The first computer game I ever played happened to be Elite, so I have a natural loving for those games! I was disappointed in X-Beyond The Frontier, but they seem to have fixed the problems it had (1 linear story, small universe). So I am greatly anticipating this sucker! Here is hoping!



_____
Enahs

I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally.
- W. C. Fields

Yeah, it shipped out...was it this past Monday or Tuesday? A lot of places do not view it as a "big" release, though, so they either do not carry it outright or are getting late deliveries (such as today.)

I just ended up ordering it from EBG with a next-day shipping promition it was having.

Having it here, but having yet to install it,
Ray

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but I did not want to deal with the camera (this is a peeve of mine.)

Ray - did you play the PC version or is the camera bad on console too ? (I kinda hoped that the camera would have been like MP2 or more controllable like Hitman2)

_________________
"all your base are belong to us or some such shite like that"

Has X2 shipped in the States now ? Not due out in Blighty til next Feb



_________________
"all your base are belong to us or some such shite like that"

I am sorta excited about the prospect of X2. I once seriously considered buying a cheap Mac just so I could play Escape Velocity. I hadn't been paying attention much to it before about a week ago but it looks really cool. But here's my question : where's the reviews?

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22