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Best songs ever is too hard, I do have favourite bands and albums but what I'm really into at any one time varies a lot and any 'best ever' list would be a bit silly. So here's ten I dig at the moment:

Beatles - Helter Skelter
Dirtbombs - Your Love (Belongs Under A Rock)
Brothers Johnson - Strawberry Letter 23
Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road
Super Furry Animals - Liberty Belle
Led Zeppelin - Heartbreaker
Ben Folds Five - Jane
Spencer Davis Group - Keep On Running
Franz Ferdinand - Love And Destroy
Doors - Touch Me

Anyone here make mix tapes for their car or train trip or whatever? One of my pastimes, a lot of artistry to making a truly good mix I think.

The Doom comic SteveMcCrea linked to is funny stuff. Should have become a series or something. You can't really get bored of endless monster carnage, can you?

For more mindless comic antics, you might want to check out Scott McCloud's 'Destroy!' - 32 unashamedly over-the-top pages of pure, pointless destruction: http://www.scottmccloud.com/store/books/destroy.html

When you're talking about trilogies, I think you have to take into account how consistent in quality they are, through all three films.

With two awesome films, a third mediocre film brings the whole thing right down. So that's 'The Godfather' out of the running. The first two are masterly, near-perfect works of cinema, but for me, the only saving grace of the third is that Pacino can still act. It wasn't a good enough idea for a third film, and the saga should have ended with the close of Part II.

Whilst I have a soft spot for 'Temple Of Doom', it is slightly lacking. Awesome action scenes, but the movie is basically a vehicle for them, which the other two managed to avoid feeling like to some extent. So I'd have to say Indy's out of the running, however much that pains me.

So that leaves 'Star Wars', 'The Lord Of The Rings' and 'Back To The Future' as my top 3. I'd have to say 'Back To The Future', partly because I have so many fond memories of discovering those films when I was younger, but also I still appreciate them as very well-plotted and original films, with great tight scripts, the perfect cast, and lots of magical movie moments and quotes.

Not sure if comic books are allowed, but I just read 'Watchmen', which is a really good story by Alan Moore, with art by Dave Gibbons (who I think was behind the 'Beneath A Steel Sky' comic). It's set in a kind of alternate history of the late 20th century, where Nixon is still President in the 80s, the Russians are still an enemy and nuclear threat. We're find out that there have been teams of masked vigilante 'superhero'-types (but mostly without superpowers, just the occasional flash gadget) in the past, but these have now been outlawed. When one of these, 'The Comedian', is hurled from the top of a block of flats, another masked hero, 'Rorscach', starts investigating, and gets some other ex-vigilantes involved. Everything kind of builds from there into something very big.

It's a great story and really well-plotted. Personally, my taste in comic books has always been more light-hearted (my favourites are the Tintin stories by Hergé), and I steer clear of superhero or gritty 'graphic novel' stuff. However, I really enjoyed this one and hope to get more Alan Moore-penned comic books.

As for REAL books, I study literature, and after a whole year of 2 or more books per week, I'm sort of taking a break now that the courses are finished and its just exams to go. But I am getting through Stephen Hawking's 'A Brief History Of Time'. Just started it, but it's good so far.

This Summer, I might read some more crime thriller type stuff (Elmore Leonard) and get round to a few things like Crime And Punishment hopefully.

I'll cite some examples from Monkey Island 2 below, as it's one of the most perfect adventure games, I feel.

A great story is important. When there's a compelling twist or sudden leap in the story or change in objective (e.g. end of Part II in MI2), it just makes the game much more of a joy to play.

Freedom of order in which to solve puzzles, and in which to explore parts of the world. Too much of this will be a bad thing as there won't always be a clear sense of direction, but look at Part II of MI2, or when several new locations appear on Sam & Max's map. You have a choice of where to go and what to do.

Characters need to be quite consistent - to a degree...If you're doing a humorous game, watch out for setting up a gag in a character's dialogue that doesn't really fit that character. It's only going to make the player less sure of what this character's like and how they should interact with them, if they're constantly slipping out of what they expect. BUT don't get too bogged down in heavy characterisation, as for many games rounded, realistic characters simply are not what it's about. There's a difference between a Monkey Island approach to character and a Gabriel Knight one. The important thing is to make sure that no characters are JUST there to serve to puzzles, try and make each one entertaining or interesting or more relevant to the plot in some way.

Original puzzles, that further the plot significantly. As has been said, puzzles placed in the game simply to slow the player down are pointless - especially for us AGSers. We don't have an obligation to make games of any particular playing time, so padding our games out with needless fetch puzzles is really pointless.

If you can get music made, that always helps. I don't really like playing games that are silent or just occasional sound effects - I think a full musical score enhances the feel of a game so much and is part of the whole experience. I can't imagine playing many of the LucasArts games on mute - to go back to MI2, imagine talking to Captain Dread without his theme playing in the background, or diving for the monkey figurehead  without that funky music going on.

I agree with most of what's been said so far, except for "not having a plot that is so epic such as saving the world or similar, and nothing to do with time travel". Whilst that may seem unoriginal, its just because it's often done unoriginally. I think that Day Of The Tentacle, which featuring saving the world AND time travel, is a fantastic game and just goes to show that these epic quests can be done well. One thing that helps is that DoTT doesn't ever feel that epic. Like the Back To The Future films, it keeps everything neatly contained and isn't tempted to take the action elsewhere. It's clever in remaining entertaining whilst using the same rooms all the time.

The history story sounds slightly more interesting with the mystery and intrigue aspect. But the SF concept could work, it's just whether you could make a devastated environment interesting and not too samey for the length of a game.

Both have a strong objective (solve murders, or find cure) and potentially intriguing settings that, as far as I remember, haven't been done too much before in AGS. My inkling is for the monastery idea because I really love mystery stories in adventure games.

As anyone who's visited my 'website' frequently knows, I've started 2 or 3 different (quite ambitious) games. However, every time I have failed to plan properly and just jumped in and only later become disillusioned with the project. The first game I went for a very generic private detective idea, and I'd planned nothing, which is a pretty bad idea for a mystery game. About five backgrounds and four character sprite sets in I gave up because I had no ideas beyond the start of the mystery and I just felt like I'd get bored. And if I'm going to get bored making (even thinking up) a game, who's going to be interested in playing it?

A few more abortive attempts in, my next game will be planned from start to finish before anything happens in AGS. From my experience, I think forward planning is the key. At least construct a framework for each 'act' before you start drawing/scripting stuff - you can end up wasting a lot of time on stuff that will never see the light of day, without planning.

I think doing stuff 'on the fly' can kind of work for a few things, like you can write a story or even a novel (if you're lucky) as you go, but for something as labour-intensive as a game, you can't really afford to just jump straight in!

This has really stirred up a lot of hatred for LucasArts, to the extent this website has turned up: http://wwhs.fangames.co.uk/art.html. They have 'hate mail', 'hate art', even hate music - my favourite image is here.

LGM, nobody can be sure either way whether it was going to be a lukewarm fan reaction or not. But a lot were agreed the new Sam And Max looked wonderful in the trailer. I'd have loved the chance to play it. I love the characters and the Sam And Max 'world', and from the trailer I was quite confident we were in for a treat. I could tell the humour was intact from all the dialogue and little details there. The art in the newer screenshots looked terrific.

This might have hidden serious problems with the actual game, but LucasArts, in the little they've said, haven't said there's anything wrong with the game. They blame the market, they simply don't think it will sell. When they were honest enough to tell us that Full Throttle 2 just wasn't very good and would have disappointed everyone, why would they make excuses for Sam And Max 2? I think SAM2 would have rocked, even though it's more painful to think that.

And quality aside, one of the big things with this is that the fanbase was excited that it was coming out so soon this year (it was actually scheduled for SPRING before it was cancelled, so it would have been very soon allegedly). LucasArts have just dismissed our anticipations, and seemingly abandoned adventures, with a frankly insulting few sentences that don't explain much.

I've reached the end of my patience with LucasArts. I used to be so excited about them, they just seemed like a hive of original ideas and great writing - they could be relied upon to give you a good game. That's a world away from what we've seen today, LucasArts has turned its back on a legion of fans, a genre they made their name with. For someone like me, the significance is massive. It just feels like this is the real end of LucasArts as I've known it. It was bad the past few years, but there was always some hope.

LucasArts have in the past really lived up to the 'Arts' name they took, producing plenty of games in-house that seemed like genuinely great works of art, original and exciting in the same way as a great film or book is. They did something special for computer gaming as a whole.

Now they may as well just be Lucasfilm Games again, because all hope them returning to their roots has collapsed. They are now almost purely part of the money-making machinery, a sad shadow of the respected gaming company they once were.

I'm almost certain they're not going to re-start production on Sam And Max, and I doubt there will be any more adventure games. It's up to someone else to be the pioneers now, because LucasArts can't do it like they used to. They've lost it.

Just off the top of my head...

The Peculiar Mrs Peanuss
The Peanuss Story
Behind The Peanusses
Just Say No
Private Accountancy Perils
The Wacky World Of The Peanusses
The Truth About Peanusses
Promiscuous Peanuss
How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Peanuss
Adventures In Accountancy
Confessions Of A Chartered Accountant

I quite like Nixxon's one though. that would fit well by the sounds of it.
Looking forward to the game!

It ran too slow on my computer, bizarrely, as the graphics aren't cutting-edge 3D or anything. I think it works through Java though, so maybe that explains it.

Anyway, I quickly got frustrated because of that, and also the fact that you have to pay them to open up all the cool options (e.g. good swords, fancy pirate clothes).

We don't be wanting no George Lucas-style revisionism of the original classic here.

I love the way SoMI looks in its 256 colours, I wouldn't change it for the world. I replay the first two MIs all the time and I never wish the graphics were better. Working within the limitations of the time, those two games looked beautiful (as well as being packed with great gameplay of course).

I don't know whether seeming 'real' is really what they aim to do - however much you play Sam And Max you're not going to believe all that stuff could really happen. Animals just don't run detective agencies in New York for a start.

But there are some games where a lot of effort has to go into realism I think - like the dialogue has to seem natural (not a stream of gags). Actually the first Gabriel Knight I seem to remember being quite like that - even though it dealt with the supernatural, it was done in a pretty down-to-earth way, e.g. the conversations were believable, which really worked for that game particularly. It really felt quite real. Graphics and music surely help too.

But I think all adventure games have in common a need to just immerse the player in the world, make it *interesting* to explore beyond the bare bones of the puzzles, whether it seems real or not. The puzzles are in a way the mechanics of the game, how the story is told, and you need more than that. It needs to be filled out with interesting characters, backstories, places. The interactive experience isn't enough to truly grab a player - you need details and fleshed-out characters, like a film.

I think you sold me on the graphics straight away, the game looks wonderful. I love the way the original Monkey Island games looked, probably just because they were what I first played, so when a game looks like this, it's always a fun nostalgia trip.

But what's more, the story sounds promising and I can tell from your post you have a cool sense of humour. I'm really looking forward to playing this one.

It's a real worry to me, because I just don't know exactly what I want to do. I had a panic a few months ago because I've found myself studying English Literature (always my favourite subject at school) at university at 18, and wondering, what am I going to do after this? Should I even be doing this, maybe 3 years would be better spent doing something else? I kind of automatically moved onto university, without much thought, because I didn't know where else to go.

I've sort of decided I want to to tell a story, or help tell a story, in some way, which is a pretty vague ambition. I drew a lot of comic books when I was young, and I enjoy writing too, but where that logically leads me I don't know, because I watch loads of films and want to help make those too. I'm interested in getting into animation in some way too. Basically I want to be creative in some way and not just a jobsworth. To put it another way, I want to enjoy what I do loads.

Ultimately English will either help with that or present decent fallback options, so I suppose I'm sort of doing the right thing. I really feel like I want and need to decide exactly where to go soon though.

Indy fans might be interested to know that the Indy IV script is now complete (written by Frank Darabont). This means, if all the schedules fit together, shooting will begin at the end of Summer 2004.

http://www.theraider.net/newsarchives/indy4/2004_january.php#0101300401

I've got mixed feelings. When I was 10 I'd have been so excited, but (and I know people go on and on about this) Harrison Ford is old now, will he look right playing Indy again? There's definitely no-one else who could do it, but can even Harrison do it now? The ending of 'Last Crusade' was so perfect for one of my favourite series, will it now be spoiled with an inferior script?

Fingers crossed anyway. I think one important thing is to keep the spirit of old-fashioned filmmaking of the original films, doing all of the work with proper stunts and sets. Lucas' influence could easily turn it towards a mass of CGI insanity, which'd be a shame, because some stuff in the originals is so much cooler for having been built and real. The snakes, for example, they'd probably just be CGI creations nowadays. Spielberg says something about doing stuntwork for real, and not on the computer, on the DVD, that I really agree with.

I like being generous and getting people presents when I know they're going to love them...I don't really feel forced into buying things and it's just once a year. I'm no Christmas-hater. No point being tight about presents, as you get stuff back. It's like a trade as RobertEric says.

Well 'Homer' (or the collective of storytellers he represents) didn't divide his work into chapters at all, as he didn't write it down, his work was part of the oral tradition. The division of the epics into the 24 books was done at a much later date, but of course that predated Tolkien too.

But I think the real point that you missed, was that the division of the 4 *books* in the last 2 volumes of LOTR draws the reader along wanting to know about the other narrative strand. In the first half of The Two Towers, we find out about the fellowship minus Sam and Frodo, and then in the second half it's Sam and Frodo. There's very long periods where we learn nothing about what happens to certain major characters. He doesn't just split narrative strands by chapter. We actually go weeks back in time after Book 3 to see what's happened to Sam/Frodo meanwhile.

This separation creates a lot of suspense I think, and is really unusual, at least for the time it was written. I doubt it was a first, but it was pretty inventive/risky. A class on good writing would probably advise against it - you'd think it's bad practice to forget about two major characters for such a long stretch of story. But Tolkien's instinct paid off there I think, it works a treat.

I'm not sure when the last time you read LOTR was Goldmund, but it is more deep than a fairy tale, at the very very least. A fairy tale is usually a simple, short children's fable, like Hansel & Gretel. LOTR is a massively detailed world with a huge cast of characters and an epic storyline.

Well an important thing is, it's usually best not to edit and write at the same time. If you're worrying about style a lot whilst you're writing, you might end up reordering sentences and changing words a lot as you go, which can really get in the way. Leave perfecting the sentences til you've got a draft in place.

If you're writing a novel, you could edit each chapter as you go, or just get the whole thing down then take that on to edit once you've finished. But try not to let your editing side get in the way of the creative side. I think a lot more gets done and better that way, but as with everything in writing, you may find different. People have their own ways and things aren't usually better or worse in any general sense.