BardicKnowledge

You got it early?

This strikes me as two complaints -- the second one being what I'd like to address: Having a conversation with an NPC should not prevent you from controlling your character and looking around. I rarely spend conversations with people staring into their eyes unblinking and unmoving -- it's unnerving. Chrono Trigger got this right a long time ago, though this should not be limited to jRPGs. FPS games and western RPGs should adhere to this also. This is why voice acting is nice honestly -- I should be able to listen to Martin speak to me in Oblivion while I am exploring the rest of the room, as opposed to clicking through Caius Cosades' text menu of dialogue in Morrowind (where because everything is text without voice, locking your character into place makes a bit more sense as you must click menus to read more text). Edit: Every PC/Mac game should have graphics profiles that I can save. If I spend 35 minutes tweaking settings both ingame and in the .ini, I should be able to load sets of those changes instantly, based on whether I want maximum graphics or maximum performance. Don't assign standardized "best graphics" and "best performance" settings arbitrarily; let me define what those are relative to my individual machine please.

I'd recommend Epic Yarn if you have a non-gamer to play it with (thinking a girlfriend etc here). Otherwise, DKC Returns is a superior platformer by any measure I can think of (except cuteness factor).

As an aside, if you find any desire to pick up an action-RPG, I highly recommend Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale -- it pokes fun at a great deal of jRPG conventions and doesn't take itself too seriously. It's not too deep and doesn't have the length most of the other suggestions do, but if you're in the mood for some lighthearted fun, have at it.

Chrono Trigger is definitely worth checking out -- there's no absolutely required grinding if you don't care to max the characters you don't use. If it's helpful, Addie made it through CT and can still remember all of the characters. I think that FF9 is the best of the series, and while the plot doesn't come together as neatly as FFX at the end, it has a similarly emotional storyline, and characters you can connect with (mostly Vivi, though a few of the others are excellent also).

The only game where the pacing really feels off for me is Dreamland 3, where you need ridiculous combinations of powers / animals to unlock the bonus fragment in the levels, and figuring out which powers you need is often not intuitive at all. Requiring the light bulb power to illuminate a dark room is fine -- requiring the broom and owl powerup because it pleases a blob somewhere is not.

Andy, your production continues to be among the best of the artists I listen to, including the famous musicians I lecture on in my rock class at UMN. Your placement of different instruments within the soundscape is nearly unmatched, both here and elsewhere. Critiquing or making suggestions to improve your production remains beyond me -- nice work. As for the arrangement itself, slowing down the source tempo was the way to go -- drastic tempo changes of any kind often make the piece your own, and we definitely get that sense here. I'd almost like to see one of the crystal-like synth patches replaced by koto to give us a more authentic Asian sound, but it could just be my general preference for acoustic instruments surfacing. In any case, the idea that this was only half an afternoon for you is crazy. Keep up the good work!

Brandon, I'm actually going to order that for somebody -- thanks for the link! :p

Awesome video. Incidentally, I love Bionic Commando -- I don't even regret buying the retail 360 game (which has a badass CTF mode if more of you owned it...) -- I'd buy BCR2 even if every magazine and website gave it 2/10.

Move complaining about each other to a new thread please -- let's get hyped for the game as it drops in less than two weeks! I'm looking forward to playing a team of fast, sexy ladies: Chun, Trish, Phoenix -- probably replacing one of them with Jill once she's available. Chun's assist + Trish super DHC for mass lockdown, hoping to rushdown with Phoenix. What are other people going to do?

Happy birthday, Amy -- I hope you have something exciting planned for yourself! Definitely the best dressed pair at MAGFest this year.

Modus, you've done well for making it funnier every new iteration, haha.

I really enjoy it when pieces are put into other genres -- doing it well takes a lot more work than most people realize, and you succeed here. I share the judges opinion that the mix could still stand to be a little differentiated from the source material, perhaps via a solo section above the melody, but the piece works well as it currently stands. Much like Shariq, I love the BB soundtrack and am also glad to see it get some coverage. I wish that there were more people who played it regularly in the community as the game has a really interesting, unique style....but I digress. Nice work on the mix! Yes, this -- the timing for my own personal mood definitely clicked.

This is amazing. I'm also surprised people haven't made gifs out of the trio dancing, or OA's dance break -- someone should probably get on that.

While it does start sounding like a direct cover, I say that you may as well sound like the best whenever that's an option. Extremely idiomatic stuff in that first 1:30, even though it's extremely similar to the source. The acoustic section has a slick countermelody that's really exciting to hear. I wonder if including it earlier would have helped the opening metal section differentiate itself from the source material? The breakout from the acoustic section is nice and slow, getting us accustomed to hearing the awesome electric stuff again. Nice solo stuff going on at 3:50. Good separation of lead from backup material here also -- the extra effort you put into mastering has obviously paid off. Since the edgy style of the first 1:30 doesn't come back at the end, it makes me wonder what its place was to begin with. Perhaps on your next submission you choose one style or the other? Good first submission -- I'd like to hear what you do with a full-out acoustic track down the road.

The iPhone / iTouch does it just fine, and the NGP doesn't have to rely on touch controls for nearly as much.

I played the demo and enjoyed it a great deal -- the only thing that held me back from buying it is that I've spent my monthly gaming budget on Marvel 3. Next month I'm revisiting both this and Magicka Gameplay wise, it feels more like Megaman X8 than anything, which is a good thing imo. No completely blind spikes etc in the demo either, which was the major problem with X8.

I agree with all of Necro's post but only quote this so save some space for everyone. Heavies with Medics become very difficult to engage -- often the key to killing a Heavy is to take out the Medic first, who does not heal as fast. Spies and Snipers can go straight for the Heavy, but a Soldier is often better served firing his rockets at the Medic first, and only engaging the Heavy when he doesn't have backup.

Just saw the thread, thanks for bumping it. Gokaiger sounds awesome -- would one of you (DarkeSword or Arrow) please remind me in IRC to download the episodes in a few weeks?

Fly safe, and have a great trip you two!

While I agree that amnesia is cliche, I'd like to put forth Amnesia: The Dark Descent as a great example of how to do it correctly. The game's story very interesting, and helps set the intensely creepy mood.

Looks like a spiritual sequel to Kirby 64 from the trailer -- which I can get behind for sure. I'd rather see a game more akin to KSS though

And who said that OCR hates chiptunes? This is a great example of how to integrate them into a piece. This is an incredible source tune, and an awesome remix. The use of many different timbres is excellent. Maybe it's just the chiptunes getting to me, but I hear a clear FF reference at 3:02. Halc continues to do inspired work that manages to be both progressive and nostalgic at the same time. Dunno how that works, but I definitely want more of it sooner rather than later.

happy birthday! I hope it's a good one!

Notice that Sentinel's flight mode appears severely gimped in 3, and he doesn't seem to have the same loops as before. Sentinel without those crazy resets is only a gimmick at best, and not the top-tier char he was in MvC2. Don't jump to conclusions until the pros get a hold of the final build. I'd bet anything that the devs are aware of the old tricks -- MSS will not be the ideal team in MvC3, I can almost guarantee it. As an aside, I think I remember seeing somewhere that there was a dev goal of eliminating (or at least drastically reducing) infinite combos, yes? Doesn't hitstun scale down as combo gets higher?