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[Cruxador]

They made the game look much more pretty since then.

It's actually just the one guy.

They can be used as a gender-neutral way to indicate one person. 'That guy? Yeah, they're pretty cool' 'That person? They shot a man.'

It can but it's grammatically wrong. There's some initiative to change that for political reasons, but that's the kind of thing that takes at least a full generation to elapse before it can potentially take effect.

[Sappho]

They made the game look much more pretty since then.

It's actually just the one guy.

They can be used as a gender-neutral way to indicate one person. 'That guy? Yeah, they're pretty cool' 'That person? They shot a man.'

It can but it's grammatically wrong. There's some initiative to change that for political reasons, but that's the kind of thing that takes at least a full generation to elapse before it can potentially take effect.

Actually, this isn't true. "They" has been used as a gender-neutral third-person-singular pronoun for hundreds of years (since the 14th century). It's only relatively recently (since the end of the 19th century) that some grammaticists have started insisting that it's technically wrong and shouldn't be used, but that hasn't stopped it from being used, as it's so incredibly useful and something the English language obviously has a need for (otherwise it would have died out). Lately it's gotten even more popular as the English language is tending more towards gender-neutrality (flight attendant vs stewardess, "actor" for both male and female, server vs waiter/waitress, etc.). It's one of the things I like in English rather than other languages, where the default is always to use "he" when you don't know someone's gender. I hate that, being female and all.

[dorf]

I've been told that I always need to address myself as "us", "we", "our" when I presented/defended my thesis.

"We implemented this and that. Our contribution is blah blah."

I don't know why that was so. Maybe because I had a mentor at the time of writing? Even though he only checked the paper for grammatical errors...

[Cruxador]

Actually, this isn't true. "They" has been used as a gender-neutral third-person-singular pronoun for hundreds of years (since the 14th century).

You're thinking of a different usage, when referring to a singular non-specific person. I was talking about the usage that actually came up in this thread, referring to a single specific person. In retrospect I should have clarified the distinction, since you're far from the only person who's unaware of it. Note that if it was actually correct for English As She Is Spoken, Glloyd wouldn't have found anything odd in its use and wouldn't have commented. Making that use correct is as much a matter of prescriptivism as it is to deny the use for the non-specific case.

I've been told that I always need to address myself as "us", "we", "our" when I presented/defended my thesis.

I'm assuming that's a discipline-specific convention with some odd history behind it. The usual convention for most disciplines is to not address yourself at all.

[Sappho]

I'm aware of the distinction you mean, but I think you misunderstood the intent of the use of "they" in this context. I got the impression that it was used to emphasize that the author was being general in saying "they", meaning "whoever was responsible" and emphasizing the result of the improved appearance. We're all used to using "they" when referring to a development team, even if it's only a team of one person. It's pretty standard practice and I don't see anything wrong with it.

Also, we have at least one person on this forum who prefers to be referred to as "they", so I wouldn't brush off efforts to make that commonplace.

Anyway, I apologize to all for my part in this deviation from the topic at hand. I'm not supposed to have to think about grammar on the weekend when no one is paying me for it! Must think happy non-grammatical thoughts now. The game I've been looking forward to since I first read about Harvest Moon for the SNES in the Epic Center of Nintendo Power magazine (and pre-ordered it immediately) is finally coming out, and I'm all squishy inside with joy and nervous anticipation. Oh god, what if they mess it up? Please tell me they won't mess it up.

[Salmeuk]

So apparently the rail company outsourced the repairs after this most recent derailment; the responsibility fell to me. After a few days of heavy lifting and focused welding, I think I've set in place whatever steel was lost in the crash.

I'm damn excited this game comes out in five days, and managed to convince my friends it's going to be worth it. Chucklefish almost scared them off, actually. What a blemish Starbound ended up being, I'm still surpr- NO! I CAN'T LET THIS ENGINE FALL OFF THE TRACKS AFTER ALL MY HARD WORK GAHH

Yeah I hope the basic gameplay loops are satisfying after a few hundred repetitions.

[Gabeux]

I was going to buy it on release but I read multiplayer will come out post-release. So I'll wait for that before buying.
I have way too many singleplayer stuff on my list already, it would probably just sit there. 

[Ozyton]

Okay, I'm watching through the pre-release gameplay footage because the game is coming out in just a few days. I'm just going to note a few things as I see them. I haven't been following this game... at all... so I apologize if this is 'old news' for you guys. Also keeping in mind the last Harvest Moon game I played was Harvest Moon 64, and most of my recent Harvest Moon experience has come from Rune Factory.

• Instead of passing out when energy runs out you become 'exhausted' and move at a snail's pace. It seems you can still at least do things like watering crops without penalty.
• Upon waking up after exhausting yourself you only have half an energy bar. Perhaps now you actually have a reason to make 'breakfast' and cook in general in this game?
• In the video the character has 270 maximum energy, which is an odd number. Possibly able to increase it?
• I'm having trouble understanding what they're saying because they're kinda muffled, but it sounds like you get skills that level up. Farming, Mining, Foraging, Fishing, and Combat seem to be the ones I can see from the skill screen.
• Fishing minigame isn't simply waiting for the bobber to dip below the water and then clicking, you also have to reel it in afterwards. You also have a bar that fills as you're casting the line and you have to time it to get it full (though not sure what the benefit here is). You can also get treasure alongside the fish but the fish may get away as a result unless you're good at the minigame. Otherwise, fishing is about as exciting as it has always been, in reality or otherwise =p
• Different fish have different movement patterns in the minigame, so if you get good at it you can tell what fish you're catching before you've even caught it. 'trash' is automatically caught instead of having to 'fight' it.
• When you go to sleep after putting stuff in the shipping bin you get an overview of your income from the bin before you wake up.
• "There is a series of challenges you need to do within the first two years, and there are some challenges you can only do... once... like in Spring"(?)
• There are 28 people in town according to the first quest to greet everybody.
• It's possible that after a character has said everything they can't be talked to again to repeat dialogue? At least, that's what it seems like to me. Perhaps a good indicator that you've already talked to them that day.
• You can only give people a gift twice a week, instead of one a day like in similar games. This is tracked in the social tab so you don't accidentally overdo it.
• Using the hoe on crops will destroy them. I think only the sickle had this effect in other games...?
• "There's actually quite a lot of combat in this game and the combat's good as well. reminds me of Zelda, errr, the Zelda games on the SNES... it's amazing how he has the whole Harvest Moon thing going on but managed to get good combat in there as well."
• The shop screen is just a big list but you can only see 4 items at a time. Hopefully being able to sort by categories will be a thing.
• You can buy recipes for food at the bar.
• There is an upgrade that allows you to craft scarecrows, which will "prevent crows from snacking on your precious crops."
• You can grow fruit trees.
• According to the collections tab, I count 123 'farm & forage' items, 57 fish, 42 artifacts, 53 minerals, 72 cooking items, and 10 achievements in the game at the time of that recording.
• The mines are basically a procedurally generated dungeon where the combat takes place. Every 5 levels you go allows you to quick-travel there via elevator.
• There is a museum that's basically like the one in Animal Crossing.

... and that's most of what I noticed from the video. Looks pretty good so far.
When I get the game the first thing I'm going to try to do is clear all the random crap out of the farmland. Hopefully that doesn't end up being a mistake for some reason. I can't stand things not being in order and looking nice.
Kinda don't want to make a long post longer, but I found this list of features from the reddit

Customize your avatar with 36 hairstyles, many types of clothing
10 marriage candidates (5 male, 5 female)
up to two children
around 30 villagers to develop relationships with
2 pets (cat and dog)
9 farm animals (cows, chickens, ducks, rabbits, goats, pigs, sheep...)
horse
40 hours of story, playable without end
18 monster types
35 crop types
8 tree types
works with keyboard and/or controller
70 song soundtrack
6 types of collections (vegetables, fish, achievements, artifacts, minerals, dishes)
Customize your house and farm with with furniture and makers
5 different skills to level up (farming, foraging, mining, fishing, combat) with feats/perks that unlock as you level
40 fish, found in different locations, seasons, weather, etc. There's also crab pots
explore the mine with no depth limit to exploration
weather

[BigD145]

Clams might be a fish type. I saw beach mollusks.

[Ozyton]

Two days before release. Found this little interesting thing from one of the beta testers.

As an aside, I do wish the game borrowed a couple more things from Rune Factory 4. NPCs conversing with each other if they're in the same room, for example. I also found it neat that the actual soil you farm in had stats and levels, but given just how much land you have access to I don't know how well that would work without being incredibly tedious. They already simplified it to 2x2 plots in that game as opposed to the traditional 3x3 plots in pretty much all the others I've seen. It seems you can add fertilizer to crops right now, but I don't know if there's a way to check if you've already fertilized a crop the way you can tell you've watered them.

[Mephisto]

Ignore the bit where he says it came out today. Must have got a review key or something.

[Ozyton]

Yup, the embargo has been lifted so you can actually find people playing it on youtube now.

Unfortunately it comes out an hour after I go in for work Friday so I won't get too much time to play it.

[ventuswings]

Can't wait to check the impressions here, though I probably shouldn't wait too long to avoid spoilers and keep things fresh. Super hyped.

[rumpel]

Oh boy! Oh boy! I'm stoked. I didn't watch the development for ages and I just saw the thread, checked the website and it says it'll be released on 26th?! Oh man, seems I have to catch up with all the stuff that happened and watch some videos and stuff. I hope it's going to be awesome.

[Ozyton]

All videos I have seen so far have looked promising. They've also been of the beginning of the game, so there's no real impressions of what the later game is like. One video mentioned how in an earlier build some beta testers loved the game so much they kept playing and playing it even when they had crashes that forced them to repeat days 7 times in a row and weren't even frustrated.

Spoiler: Map of the initial farmland (click to show/hide)

Spoilering this in case anyone wants to find out for themselves, but it appears to me that the junk on your land isn't procedurally generated, and it's layed out like this.

Thinking back to Harvest Moon 64, that pales in comparison to the stuff you have to clear out here, and there's actually a reason to do it (the path to the south).

I wonder if we'll be able to fill in those ponds and make our own...