Knytt Stories was released:
http://nifflas.ni2.se/index.php?main=02Knytt_Stories 

Argh

Only played thr practice level so far (supposed to be working) but this looks very addictive. 

hmm, and the game has a level editor... might be fun to map for. 

But very irritating as well. I've started with Within a Deep Forest - that spider puzzle in the tower was annoying. 

Watch out for the old bint.

http://nigoro.jp/game/rosecamellia/rosecamellia.php#howto 

nice, that game makes much more sense in english than the japanese version I had been playing. 

that's a nice game

i hate that you don't have full health after each enemy though 

looks great. Played through it twice already.

I find the notion of working on a game like this far more appealing than some triple-A nazi shooting fest. 

what an amazing looking game! e6300 + ati x1950pro and only 1gb of ram, with everything on except 'force global lighting' and hq post processing (which i hate anyway) and the game runs extremly well.

but yeah, graphics in here are really great, with a cool theme. water effects are just as good as i heard. no actual swiming yet, which is surprising, but i ain't complaining.

it's pretty easy so far... maybe i should have chosen hard. i guess it's because it was made to be playable on the x360... mouse makes it too easy as headshots are very generous. the gooey blood effect is... well, it's good feedback, but it looks kind funny. i guess that's to fit in with the theme. or maybe blood really does look like a bucket of paint spraying all over when you get shot? :P
no really amazing combat like what was described though... fighting the big daddies *is* a challenge, but they are despatched with some footwork and good timing of attacks (won't spoil this stuff).

i'm surprised there hasn't been more said so far here. :) 

there is some kind of bug with the captions though... the timing never aligns with the actual speech, and you also get captions for normal monster talking which is dumb... i don't care that the monster said "i'm gonna kill you", really. :P anyway, just turn them off. makes hearing important dialog difficult at times (vocals could have been louder, but i have both vocals and SFX volume maxed. i should mess with the settings maybe), but you can always go back in the log to read it again.

i really dislike the interface though... it's totally a console style thing. very very simplified, with button layout not totally optimal for a mouse (again, obviously the console controller in mind there). also, no inventory! maybe they mentioned that before, but i purposely didn't read too much about bioshock. you can't stockpile on food and drink to restore health and eve. it's also annoying because often there's ammo sitting alongside cigarettes/booze which have negative effects, so sometimes you'll chug a beer when you really wanted to pick up the bullets. >_<

otoh, the sound in this game is a big step up from most other games out there. there is a lot of intricacy just on player movement sounds, which, i find, add a ton to immersiveness. at the start, i was standing still and turning on the spot a lot just to hear the crisp footstep sounds... ^_^; 

i guess that's to fit in with the theme. or maybe blood really does look like a bucket of paint spraying all over when you get shot?

I once saw a chicken accidentally rip its own head off trying to get through a barbed wire fence. The blood spurted for a moment like the arc of a supersoaker as the chickens body flopped backwards.

Also, I was shot is the ass once but it only soaked my underwear with a dark blood stain. 

Necros, you can change difficulty at any time, it's a bit more challenging on hard, but still fairly easy in my opinion.

Yeah anyways, it's a great game, I haven't quite finished it yet, but that's mostly cause I've really been taking my time with it. What I enjoy most is the exploration, they really got it right, there are lots of side areas to explore, and little secrets.
The combat is ok, it's nicer later on when you actually use all your weapons and plasmids to help you.
Interface kind of sucks yeah, really annoying that you can't see how much of a specific ammo you have without having to reload, and it's silly that you can't see your inventory.
Yeah this game suffers from one of the many Doom3 syndroms: you never swim, which feels strange for a game taking place in a city built underwater...
Otherwise, story is good, atmosphere is great, definetely don't regret having bought it directly off steam. 

I haven't played bioshock but isn't rapture a bit deep down for you to just go swimming?

(where's the rotfish icon?) 

Well, I didn't mean actual swimming out in the open sea, but many areas are partially flooded, and your walking in water and stuff, but you can see they went out of their way to block out any areas with deeper water, I even noticed a few areas where I should be able to just jump in deep water, but there was an evil invisible clip in my way.
I'm not sure swimming would have brought anything to the gameplay, but it would have added a bit to the immersion probably. 

There is a bonus pack with more missions on the site.
http://nifflas.ni2.se/index.php?main=02Knytt_Stories&sub=04Get_More_Levels
A strange Dream is very nice but also quite short. I recommend the original Knytt and of course Within a Deep Forest if you like these games. 

Yeah the original Knytt feels better than any of these new ones I think, even though I still like them. Within a Deep Forest is still my favorite though.
I'm curious how making levels for Knytt Stories is, how much liberty you have with additional art content, will have to check it out. 

Playing in between Q3 sessions, so fairly slow going, but enjoying the simplicity and even the cuteness. 

Not as good as Stories, I'd say. Lots of wandering around being lost and very little gameplay. The occasional 'dodge a spider' puzzle was a tiny breath of fresh air - I'd have loved it if it had been full of that stuff.

downloading Forest. 

looks cool. Damn sight more interesting than the terminally dull Knytt. Also, Aquaria should be out this year I think. It's a super nice looking indie game. 

 

Games would look so much less shitty if people would/could use it without too much slowdown. Especially all those modern shader stuff often looks so pixelated.
I just noticed it when watching on MoH:Airborne screenshots:
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2007/246/reviews/931484_20070904_screen014.jpg
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2007/246/reviews/931484_20070904_screen018.jpg
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2007/246/reviews/931484_20070904_screen024.jpg 

in modern digital tv - the Osaka Athletics World Championships had horrible aliasing in the white track lines against the red tartan. 

i don't know why, but in a lot of newer games, you can't use AA if you use the fancier hdr lighting or bloomy effects. frankly, i rather use AA. :P 

but i think anisotropic filtering is awesome and much more important.

Also, AA becomes less important as you go to higher resolutions (I know this isn't always an option.) 

you can use AA and aniso together. both of them working at the same time make a big difference in quality.