Yeah, I just saw that. I have 2 but not the last expansion... Hmmm.

Yeah, that is a great deal. I go back and forth on if 2000 or the SNES version is the better game.

Wandering Unicorn: Total War... :D I wonder if you could make a Video Game name generator that created names that could work. I remember an Android name generator a while back that was so good it was funny because Android phone names are so long.

"Ghetto Hippo School" NOW I KNOW WHAT IM DOING WHEN I GO INDIE!

Thats a cool way to play it, I should remember that when I am watching a movie.

HD Reboot +1

Yeah, it's ok. Nice to have it on a non Windows platform. Like Travis said the controls are odd but they don't have the 1.2 update. Hopefully someday.

Awesome, thanks for sharing that. I think a sequel would be great. And your right, it requires a ton of strategy, much more than many of the shooters ive played.

Interesting Errant Signal video and he brings up some interesting points. To save everyone a Google:

http://www.errantsignal.com/blog/?p=424

From the video:

"Hotline Miami suggests that narrative is meaningless and narrative is irrelevant."

Uhm, or it is providing a off key narrative and metaphor that isn't accessible for the style of the game. This guy kind of lost me when he said that and im not sure folks involved with the game agree here.

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/article/sv-interview-devolver-digital-s-nigel-lowrie-talks-hotline-miami?page=0,0

"So the aesthetic came first and the story came second, is that common?

I don’t know if it’s common, the story usually comes first and then the artist will have some interpretation on that and they’ll come to an agreement on it with design. What happened here is the type of game you’re playing — a fast-paced, trial-and-error, almost Super-Meat-Boy-type of action — was really what the aesthetic was built on. Story was kind of secondary. The original story was focused on the drug trade and cocaine cowboys. The name was changed because as the game evolved the team came up with a new story based on the idea of these answering machines; these hotlines people were calling and leaving these messages and the violence that came out of that."

So yeah, it wasn't a first class consideration but I don't the game was trying to say it is meaningless or irrelevant, I think it might be something else.

I think the game is about violence for sure. Yay for that too, it was a fun aspect of the game. Shocking to be sure, but very fun.

I am not trying to limit what people want to do or the places they want to go with art. The guy that made that video is capable and does make videos and I am not going to stop that, well clearly. I just don't agree with his interpretations up to the last 25% of the video. Because, well, it just didn't make sense with how I played the game and how it sort of seemed to me.

Thing is, he didn't say "you know this is what the game said to me" he said thats what the game was saying.

I agree with the notion that the work has an effect and that can take a life of its own outside the author or original intent. You know, thats maybe not what Death of the Author means but thats the best way I can describe it because if it truely means we must divorce ourselves from the author or original intent then that concept can jump off a cliff. At least for me, because I like behind the scenes shit and understanding what people wanted to do to see how I looked at it and contrast. I think many people outside my personality style do the same thing too.

That said, I don't mind people taking a work and reading a ton of meaning in it intended or otherwise based on what they bring to it. I think thats a different thing that people saying "THIS IS WHAT THE GAME IS" when the author clearly didn't mean that. Because we do bring things to the table when we experience art and thats fine. I think with some work and its popularity it can have an effect where it takes on a whole life of its own. Star Wars is such an example as its so ingrained in all of us it takes on a life that George Lucas may have never intended and his intent may not be relevant anymore.

That said, really in this instance I just don't agree with this guy and his opinion on what the game is trying to do. Which, I think is fine.

Yeah totally. I took away things from Super Mario Brothers I am sure were not intended, but it was sort of how I looked at the game from my childhood perspective of mad wonderment. I am not sure I can look at games that way again and am not sure I want to save it things were fresh in ways they are not.

On that note, which isn't related to our original discussion at all... It kind of seems more art is being created now and of such high quality that our collective tastes have risen such that we chide awesome work in ways we wouldn't have otherwise. I kind of think something like Raiders of the Lost Ark would be slammed in ways it isn't now because we had lower expectations then. If you adjust the movie for a modern spin, then again perhaps a modern take would be a less interesting movie.

For whatever that is all worth.

True. But it may be more than possible for rocks to exist. And cats

But it might just be me. Rather, my mind :D

That RPS write up is great. I really like how they are thinking about the follow up and look forward to checking it out.

"The fans" stuff looks cool. And even if the author was right and this is more like Hotline Miami 1.5, bring it on.

I feel like I've been hard on Microsoft lately and think that maybe I should be less biased, but then I see things like this.

The Zunes were truly awesome devices. I wish they'd stuck around.