The Mask of Norro

Regardless, this is kind-of the *Mafia* Discussion thread. It's cool if we go off into jokes and fun and whatnot, but we do not need to discuss the intricacies of your lives outside of EWB, or psycho-analyze someone through text (unless it's within the confines of a mafia game anyway), or anything else that has been going on. I guess what I'm trying to say is to quit playin' with the scissors and shit, and cut the crap, I shouldn't have to rhyme these words in the rhythm for you to know it's a rap.

Traded this in yesterday while Gamestop was doing their bonus trade deal so I could get close to what we were offering for it the day it came out. Traded this and Transformers: War For Cybertron-- both excellent games I'd recommend but, no-one's playing on Transformers' multiplayer so after you max out the campaign you're kind-of stuck, and UFC is fun for awhile but with all the crap they're doing with it and with a lack of people in my area willing to play it, I just didn't feel it worth it. The EWB camp woulda been great but our schedules make for rare matches

So with their talk of turning it into an every other year kind-of thing, will they be skipping '11 and just doing '12, I'd imagine?

Be more than happy to judge again mate (Y)

Her voice actress gives her a lot of strength, actually, at least in her monologues. I've yet to hear her whine about a damn thing, she still comes off as this strong character with a vulnerable side due to her past. Thus far the only thing submissive I've noted about her is her actions towards Adam, the commander, and she tells the player in the very beginning that he's her father figure because he was the only parental figure she'd had in her life growing up.

Basically, as soon as she realizes that he's heading a mission with the Galactic Federation, she allows him to regulate when she can use her weapons, just as he does with his own men. She does this to prevent a conflict of authority in the mission since she'd be working together with them, and to show him that she was able to listen to his commands, something she did seemingly begrudgingly when she was younger. It's pretty clear the character does this to prove to the guy that she's changed and grown since they'd last met, really.

Honestly, these days a lot of reviews really work towards pushing forward pros and cons a lot harder than they should. As far as the game goes for me so far, the cons they talk about seem waaaaay too over-dramatized because they're afraid of saying so much good about it that they'll lose credibility if people disagree with them. The game isn't anywhere near perfect, but to use the word "disappointing" is so far off base, at least for me, that I kind-of can't help but roll my eyes at it. I've been hyped for this game for ages and I've yet to be disappointed by the delivery.

I'll give a full review on the game for you whenever I beat it Zero, but so far I'm roughly an hour into the game and loving every second. Voice acting is great, graphics are beautiful (even for a Wii game, but just beautiful in-general)-- especially the cinematics-- and I myself have actually enjoyed the gameplay so far. I get why most reviewers have chosen to scorn the game a little because of them taking away your abilities in the beginning (and, to them, how it's excused), but truth be told the way it's described makes sense and I have no complaints about it yet. Her commander is a bit stubborn, he has a point to prove and so does she by showing she can listen to him no matter how unreasonable it may be for her to do so. G4 made a particularly poor review on the game (both in score and in reasoning for the score) by stating that it makes her seem like a powerless little girl that she listens to her former commander and father figure when he gives her orders, but then, honestly, considering this is the kind-of info they have Adam Sessler and Morgan Manjaw read off, I see no real legitimacy to it

Again though, I'm only roughly an hour in. This is a 10+ hour game, probably a bit longer if you spend enough time trying to find all the extras-- which I intend upon doing-- there's a long way to go before I hit the spots I noted most reviewers complaining about (i.e. that business with the Varia Suit), but again, it's swept under the rug by the fact that no matter how asinine the command/lack thereof, Samus is showing the commander she can follow his orders just fine and still do just as well as she would on her own. She has a point to prove, even if it means going in without using some of her weapons on purpose.

So yes, personally, I like it thus far. I'll keep you guys updated on my status with the game and put together a proper review at some point after I beat it. Right now though, this is the first game that has gotten me to play my Wii more than my PS3-- and that's saying something, because generally I play my PS3 every day, and having bought the game and playing it some last night, this morning I woke up to keep playing it with no real intention to switch over to the PS3 at any point today to stop. That doesn't usually happen for me. If I wasn't five minutes away from being out the door I'd probably still be playing it right now

32nd place? Fuck yes. My favorite number is 32 so holy shit that's awesome.

There's no way they can follow it faithfully, yeah. Anyone who expects that is setting themselves up for disappointment. What they can do is follow it as closely as they're able and still make a damn good series with what they have available. Also, on the topic of characters, I'm with GoGo on this one. Michonne is a fantastic character who's been developed nicely over the series, but she's really no different from the others that have been developed in terms of believability. Andrea is awesome though. Her development has been some of the best by far.

Though I do wonder...

If theydon't include the Governor, how the hell are they going to handle Lori and Judith dying? That was easily one of the most emotional moments in the whole series, especially with how Rick and Carl were forced to just keep running despite watching it happen. It was difficult enough to read, I can't help but wonder how the hell they'd get around the censors on making it onto TV.

Didn't know that you were colorblind mate, definitely hard to work with that in design but not impossible in the slightest. While I don't know to what degree you're colorblind, I'd actually like to make mention for you that one of my best instructors, who actually was the lead editor and designer of my college's magazine, and who is probably one of the best designers I've seen, was colorblind too. I believe his was that he couldn't see shades of red and certain other colors so he had to adapt and know what the shades might look like to others and go from there. Either way, he didn't let him hold it back and excelled despite it, and I'm sure with practice you'll be able to too

Like I said, the idea behind it was great. Its composition is what needed work most of all. The bold colors can be worked on after the fact-- they'll have to be really, they're really loud colors clashing together there-- but right now what the graphic needs most of all is a re-structuring of the layout.

Apologies if I come off too harsh in this... for my perspective, I'll be going in at a purely professional standpoint to give some variety to the scores. So please don't take it personally guys, but I'm going to critique these pretty hard

nufan

The Good: Your color choices were solid and reflected the style of the NBA wonderfully. Surprisingly, this was one of the rare instances where I thought that a harsher, bolder gradient such as the one you used was a good choice for the piece as a whole. Unfortunately, though, the color scheme is about as good as it gets here.

The Bad: I hate to say it, but I've a lot to cover here. First of all, the cuts are terribly misproportionate. While I do like the way you've interacted the cuts together, the size differences are almost cartoonish, and don't reflect the actual size of the players beside each other. When using cuts, it's important to ensure that you don't have one cut that stands out from the rest in terms of size or lighting-- in this graphic, you have both. George is set in a different light from Turner and White, while White has turned into a freakish giant compared to the other two, even by basketball standards. It doesn't end here, though... the faded effects of the cuts behind the cuts, while a good idea on paper, did not come off well in execution due to the manner in which you've laid these faded cuts out. They don't really represent the motion I feel you were trying to convey there somuch as they just look thrown on as a cheap effect.

Yet even with all of that, had you *only* had those cuts with the way you set it up and not had any type, this piece would have benefited from it. The worst part about this piece is its typography. The font choice clashes with the style of the graphic, the placement of the type on the graphic isn't structured in any particular way, nor is it unstructured in a manner that benefits the design. The color of the "where amazing happens" tagline isn't a good choice on the background color you've chosen-- would have made a much bolder statement had it been in all white-- and furthermore, I feel that the tagline would have leant to having better grammatical substance to it, i.e. using capitlization in it. As it stands, the fact that the "where" in the tagline isn't capitalized doesn't look like it's done on purpose, it honestly looks like a mistake. Finally, the faded font by the players and in the upper right-hand corner just fall back too far, and in the case of the player names, actually clash with the faded shots of the players themselves. Finally, the NBA logo really just looks slapped on in the bottom right corner, with no real rhyme or reason as to why except as an attempt at branding that honestly doesn't give enough power in its emphasis of the brand.

Overall: A weak piece that could have really excelled further from where it was upon presentation had it either A) not had any typography on it at all or B) had better cuts selected, better typography, and better page structure-- essentially, an entirely reworked piece. Final score is 4/10.

Rocky Feller

The Good: I appreciate the idea behind this piece. The representation of the fans in the logo is honestly an excellent idea and with some work, it's an idea that could get you places with this graphic. To be honest, the idea behind this piece is what appeals to me more than anything; however...

The Bad: The execution is honestly awful. I'm sorry if that offended you, too, I definitely want you to know that this is all constructive criticism and I'm not in any way trying to bring you down. I see great potential in this idea, but it's just far too poorly executed. The background gradient in this instance is woefully used, colors that I don't see truly representing the NBA in that you've used the wrong shades and allowed the gradient to create a third color in the transition between the blue and red-- purple-- which clashes with the NBA's color theme to begin with. The logo for the NBA is far too large given the size of the graphic, you've literally given the graphic zero breathing room at the top, stretching the logo out within pixels of the edge. The player on the NBA logo is far too bold with his white silhoutte and black drop shadow, primarily because of the obnoxious colors used for the background and the brighter, bold colors behind him from the crowd. Bold colors tend to clash with other bold colors, you need softer tones and shades to lasso control over the bolder shades and make them less harsh on the eyes.

The font choice is terrible and feels far too crunched and crowded. The logos are squeezed in at the bottom and just look thrown in for no real reason. A better idea would have been to keep the logos in a straight line across and let them be small if need be, so long as aesthetically they're appeasing. The white glow, and the yellowish glow, and the black drop shadow on the logos and fonts absolutely need to go, though. You've made them far too harsh and rather than giving the pieces of the graphic that bit of emphasis to make them pop, you've made them far too obnoxious and bold for a graphic that's already filled with obnoxious and bold styles. There is nothing in this graphic that complements the style you were going for in the slightest-- everything is fighting for the viewer's attention instead of giving the eyes natural transition points to work with.

Overall: Excellent idea on paper-- I love the NBA logo made up of fans and I like the idea of running the logos for the teams along under it, almost like in the style of the Mac docks and whatnot. This, however, is visually unappealing in far too many ways to really say that the execution was even a slight success. Final score is 2/10.

The Modern Way

The Good: This is fantastic. The colors used entirely reflect the style of NBA, especially in your use of lighting with them. The whole piece feels as though it's been placed under the spotlight, the silhoutte of the basketball in the background adding that little bit of texture I feel the graphic would be lacking without. I like the idea of the red shine off the ball interacting with the graphic as well, giving it that glitzy appearance whilst sticking to NBA style and color. A very strong piece which lends much of that strength to the impact the background gives at first glance.

The Bad: Typography, typography, typography. You made a good attempt, but it falls flat in comparison to the strength of your background. "COMING SOON" has a watermarked appearance, which-- while at times can lend a clean, artistic touch to a piece-- unfortunately looks poorly executed instead of done with a purpose. The font choice itself is poor because the font is too tall for the small size you've set it at in comparison to the header, and it's simply too narrow to constitute being used as a subtitle font. The center balance of the graphic is thrown off by it, actually, as well as the NBA logo itself. Piling them on there with your title getting sandwiched in just creates a structural imbalance. "NBA: The New Season" just feels unnecessary, you really could have subbed out "NBA:" with the logo, actually, and had the logo interact with your title to create a stronger piece. In fact, honestly, had you done that it would have caused less structural imbalance in the graphic and would have allowed your subtitle to be a bit bigger than it is, as it wouldn't be competing with two different pieces on the graphic in that area.

Overall: You were so close to getting this thing down well enough to be wallpaper worthy, but it still needs work. Take out "NBA:" and replace it with the logo, so that you can have that all on one line without needing to throw the logo over the text like you have. Change the font of "COMING SOON" to something a bit more spaced out, and not as tall so that it creates a bit more of a subtitle-like appearance that fits with your piece. Final score is 7.5/10.

Lord Nibbler

The Good: The simplicity of the piece is what gets to me the most. The colors, the lighting, the style... it's raw street basketball at its best and it gives such a great impression upon the grittier side of the NBA. Of the four graphics submitted, funnily this is the only one not to use the NBA's official logo, and I think it benefits from it. The bold typography of the date really gives visual stability to the piece as a whole, too, and gives a real sense of what's to come and its importance to the viewer.

The Bad: Yet even with that bit of strong typography, there's also a bit of weak typography-- and typography is a beast that can make or break a graphic's impact. The text for "WWW.NBA.COM" isn't aligned to anything, which in the case of this graphic would have benefited the visual appearance of the type. Right-align it to the 2010 and it'd look a bit better, but the next thing you need to do is bring that type up a bit. It feels far too cramped at the bottom there, and to be honest you'd almost be better off just taking out the website and placing it in one of the upper corners instead. The date alone looks strong, bold, and creates a great statement that the website in that particular spot just seems to be putting off for me. Now, one thing about the picture, too... it looks a liiiiittle bit squished. The basketball, you see, looks more like an oval in shape rather than a ball, as if the vertical size of the image had been shrunk down to fit the borders of the graphic. If that was the case, then I can't stress this enough: ALWAYS scale images proportionately! Your graphics will benefit from it! Hold down shift for a proportionate scale, and don't try to free-hand it-- unless you've got the steadiest hand in the world with mathematical precision, you will not be able to get a good proportionate scale on it with your hand alone.

Overall: The idea, the execution, everything here is good; however, it still needs work. Either moving the NBA.com text up some, or completely removing it from that corner and placing it in another aesthetically pleasing spot on the graphic will help you tremendously. Also, the background definitely needs more modification in that it does feel a bit vertically scrunched, and if you didn't alter the dimensions of the background any that would have caused it to happen, perhaps you should find a way to alter it so that the ball looks more like a ball and less like an oval. Final score is 7/10.

For me, Modern Way takes it, but it's definitely close. Had Nibbler's graphic not felt so vertically scrunched, to be honest, he would have taken it for me-- the typography issue on his was a bit easier to overlook than on Modern Way's; however, on a whole, Modern's graphic presented something better visually and professionally to me than Nibbler's because of the size issue on the background. Sometimes the little things make all the difference in the world.

I'll get my scores in in a couple of hours. Sorry about that delay though Drew, unfortunately I ran into a bit of a snag, what with having to give back the laptop I'd been borrowing in lieu of having no computer and all. Just trying to get as much done as I can on what little I have to work with here.

I'll look into getting my scores for this up tonight. Got some quality entries for this, I have to say.

Eternal Darkness (This game was SO FUCKING AWESOME but got buried under shit like Metroid Prime)

This. A thousand times this. Though to be fair Cursed Mountain on the Wii is sort-of like a spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness in some ways, apparently. Obviously didn't follow the same story but acording to some people the mechanics were similar. Not entirely certain how though... I know you can go crazy in it, that's about it.

Would be pimp if it was remade/sequel'd on a hi-def console though like the PS3 or 360. Love the Wii, but Eternal Darkness feels like it'd benefit from being in hi-def in such a huge way.

And I'm smarter than to go the conventional route with roles in a game where one can so easily predict who would be mafia and who wouldn't. Trust me, this should be good fun... don't try and typecast the roles into alignments because I can and shall be throwing curveballs in (Y)

And, ladies and gentlemen, BBT Mafia is a go!

Change my Mario Kart Mafia to Big Bang Theory Mafia. Players to be decided soon enough, gonna put together some more roles and see where I'm comfortable with it.

... you obviously missed the point I made about the poll requiring that the winning game have at least the same number of votes for it as the planned number of players for the game. I wasn't implying we throw it in there in the midst of this slump in activity, I'm saying it's a good idea that if tweaked could work well for activity. You get a consensus going on a single game slot and what game people most want there and that's going to promote activity for that game, so long as the number of votes the game got are at or above the number of players it's shooting for.

It could mean that the winning game turns out to be a 5-player game or something just as much as it could turn out that a 30-player game manages to pull the votes needed to win before the rest do. Will it promote smaller games to win the polls easier? Sure, but it'll also make sure that if there's a bigger game out there that can sustain itself fine, we'll know it when activity in the polls pick up enough to vote it in.

You can try and make this out to be as ridiculous a suggestion as you want it to be, Sean, but the fact is it'd actually be a useful device if utilized well enough, even with the ongoing slump in activity we're having.

EDIT: Hu-uh, thought I'd included my bit on game numbers v. number of votes for game in one of my past posts. Apparently, I didn't. In any event, it's there in the first paragraph now at least. I think it's a good idea should voting be brought back: have the games display desired player counts and whichever game meets/surpasses its player count either first or the most gets the go ahead. It's a better gauge for how well the game will run, because theoretically a 30-player game could win a poll off of 20 votes and never get its desired numbers.

Again, it's rewarding good gamerunners and allowing no one else to establish themselves as a good gamerunner. Come on, Norro, this is like GW Bush arguing for tax cuts for the rich. Of course it makes sense for you; you're fucking rich.

I can see the upside too, but it's just another thing that will keep new players and gamerunners from feeling included. And the more isolated we become and the more elitist, the less people we'll have in our games, and ultimately, the less fun we'll have.

Except it was never my motivation to even be in any of these polls, so I never was including myself as a beneficiary of having them (which would cause me bias because, hey, votes would go my way). These days I'm busy enough that I myself don't mind the wait, but still feel like the poll is a good idea for others. I also think it's bullshit to claim that it's rewarding good gamerunners *without* allowing others to establish themselves because, yet again, I'm suggesting a poll be made for an additional game slot, so that it doesn't replace any of the actively open ones right now. This would mean no-one gets knocked off their place on the list, there'd just be one extra for people to vote on.

You're using a slippery slope argument to try and discredit the idea of the poll but honestly I highly doubt one bloody opening that can be voted on would do hardly any damage to the morale of new players and gamerunners, considering it wouldn't be eliminating any of the prior existing openings for new gamerunners and players to fill.

In any event, RW shooting down the idea puts the debate to rest, but I wanted to get this out because I actually like the idea and disagree with sentiments like this.

Hardly. I think in the history of the polls I won once, actually, though to be fair that may have been the only one I was in

Nonetheless, it's more that I see merit in the idea. Again, it's rewarding good gamerunners because they're more likely to skip the line thanks to peoples' votes, which they've earned by proving themselves good game runners. The voting option does not take away less-established game runners' ability to establish themselves because in this hypothetical a new slot would be opened specifically for voted-on games. It also encourages new and inventive ideas, because again-- there have been and still will be times where a popular theme will beat a popular gamerunner in the polls just because the idea is solid enough to merit it.

I honestly just don't understand the fuss over the idea of it though really. I get that the whole "cutting in line" thing is annoying and all, but if enough people vote for a game to go next, and it's not going to boot out someone who had been waiting in line for that particular spot, then I don't see the problem.

HotD episode 8

....so, they crash, and can't get anywhere, that's fine. How about, they, you know, all jump the wire? NOT THAT HARD! Stupid people.

And with that preview? I'm scared they're gonna kill Saeko

My initial reaction to the anime's logic in this matter is that there were so many advancing so quickly that they needed to make a stand then and there or risk being overrun if they turn and make a break over the fence.

It was strange seeing the army at the end there bend the fence open with their feet when their humvee didn't even bend the fucking things, but nonetheless I get what the anime's trying to do here having read the manga. They're squeezing together two different chapters into one episode, and that's fine since they kind-of have to to fit their episode cap and all. I just don't like the fence thing that much because in the manga they just crawled through it, that was always an option for them. The writers tried to come up with a way to separate the group for the Saeko/Takashi chapter arc, they just didn't do the best job they could have.

Point taken, but not everyone would think to do that. Excitement 99% of the time (these statistics were totally taken from reputable sources) is garnered at the time of initial discussion over the subject matter. If hype isn't there to push sign-ups then generally it falls on the gamerunner and the theme for the game to gain them.

Now, I wanted to add something else to my thoughts on the voting poll thing: there should be a cap limit on where on the list voted-for games can be. If you're within striking distance of being up next anyway, you don't get in on the vote. The vote should be used for people who're looking at waiting those long months anyway. If you're within, say, a month's shot of having your game up and going then why jump the gun on it? You should wait your turn in that instance.

Honestly, weighing the pros and cons on the issue of having an open vote for a game, I just see more pros to at the very least giving it a shot to see how it goes again. I personally see it being beneficial to open a new slot for that sort-of thing, but then that's just my opinion, and I've always liked the idea.

... I don't get the problem with a voted poll, myself, and here's why:

Without it, every game goes ahead at the same snail's pace given the way games run these days. It takes forever regardless of who the game runners are. With it, good game runners get benefited for being good game runners by getting their games moved to the front for a voted poll they'll probably win, while not disrupting the games waiting in line, either. Furthermore, good ideas get benefited for being good ideas, and sometimes even the best game runners get beaten out by the hype behind a game. I disagree to the concept that a voted poll should take the place of any of the game slots currently open, however.

I always liked the voted-for poll option for one of the games. It gives players the chance to choose the game they want to go next and it ensures that the hype surrounding some games doesn't just die off because of how long people have to wait. For example, if I came up with the most brilliant mafia game in the world and everyone in the Mafia Cube was so excited to get to play it, and I had like thirty people hyped for this thing, but it wasn't going to happen for another five months because of how long the list is and how long the games will be... that hype won't last. Chances are, I'd be lucky to get even close to that number of people by the time my turn comes, because people were already excited about it and got over it. The voting option bypasses that.

Again, I don't think it should boot out a slot for anyone rightly waiting their turn in line. I'd agree with bringing it back, but only if it'd be opening an extra game slot to do so. Whether or not we have the players around here any more to cover that sort-of game, well... it couldn't hurt to try it and see how it goes, at least.

Protip: Don't use GIFs for transparent backgrounds. I noticed you used the pulse line from the original logo in your Uplink logo, but if you'll compare the two, yours has some bad image corrosion on the sides. This is because transparency with GIFs creates jagged edges-- something I see you tried to reduce by giving the logo a small black stroke to protect its edges-- but PNGs give really smooth transparencies without any corrosion. They aren't compatible with all browsers, but the ones they are compatible on benefit from the style of them and honestly it's worth it.

I've been on a bit of a logo kick recently, TEOL, I may give this a shot if I can come up with any ideas. I really like the typography and simplicity of the original logos, definitely think the style should be in a similar vein (Y)

I also support this because I hate flavour text - and I don't believe night write-ups should help clear a player.

This. It's funny because it's always been true. Are people seriously still doing that?

I do, but then I never really allow the town that much info out of it. Flavor text can make a good game great though-- see: Sousa's Phoenix Wright: Turnabout Mafia, C-MIL's Saved By The Bell Mafia, etc. As long as it works into the context of the game and doesn't give away so much that the gamerunner is handing one side the game, flavor text is great.

I may have seen Piranha on TV once, I seem to remember an older flick with them in it, I've just not seen it start to finish.

Guess I'll be watching it at some point then

So it's basically JAWS with lots of tiny fish, but with the added campyness of Anaconda?

... it looks so fucking stupid but I can't help but want to watch it.

Well rather what he's saying is that the color abruptly shifts in a diagonal line from brights to shadows, and that the area it occurs is directly above your watermark. Watermarks are great, we don't discourage them, it's just that in this case he was using it as more of a landmark on the graphic to point something out