Vivi22

The real world. I'm trading in an undergrad business program with honours in accounting for a job at an accounting firm as a CA student. Goodbye paying money to study my ass off, hello working full time and studying my ass off.

Thanks Zircon. I may go with the silver edition afterall. Either that or see if I'm willing to dig a little deeper into the old bank account to grab the gold bundle and then get Stormdrum for free. I'll think about it for a bit once I get through my exams in the next couple of days. No need to decide this minute I suppose.

I'm wondering if EWQLSO Silver edition is worth getting, or if I'd be better off with the Gold edition. I've wanted to get the Gold edition for a while, but it's a little out of my price range. I'm considering getting Stormdrum though, so I figured the Silver edition might not be a bad idea since it'd be free. Is there any major benefit to getting the gold edition instead? I find it hard to believe I could go wrong if it's free, but if Gold is substantially better... Arghh, I'm starting to ramble.

Actually, that's exactly what I've been arguing the whole time. Many games that are considered creative masterpieces these days merely build off of a given formula in a way that hasn't been done. You claimed that you wanted the creativity of the 8 and 16-bit days back which I took to mean that you wanted the days of developers constantly creating new genres and gameplay elements back, not wanting more people to think outside the box with established gameplay ideas. Forgive me if I misinterpreted what you were saying initially. If anything though, Portal is a bad example of building off of a given formula since it is one of the few examples lately of a game that introduces a single gameplay element that completely alters the way people approach the genre from a game design and playing standpoint. I never said we've eliminated all creative possibilities with games, I said we've determined a lot of what works. All the creativity going into games nowadays is basically building off of the established genres and ideas. Fine tuning, refining, and occasionally adding something truly new to the mix. That's not to say that isn't a legitimate form of innovation. I still rank games like Okami, Ico, SotC, and the Metal Gear series among the most creative an innovative of all time. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that Kojima is a flat out genius when it comes to game design. As I said before, I assumed that by creativity you meant that you wanted developers creating a new genre every time they make a game. Comparatively speaking, the game industry has increased by tens of millions of users, but that point aside, home brew games still have a place out there, and if anything have some better opportunities than ever to get their games out there. If you want to support small dev teams in trying new things, then get on Steam and Xbox Live Arcade and buy the Audiosurfs, Defcons, and Darwinias when they come out. Most games on these services have demos, and are shown to literally millions of users simply when they log on and see that they've been released. Homebrew may be a smaller chunk of the market then ever, but the opportunity for small dev teams to reach more people then ever is not only out there, but is being encouraged by Microsoft, Valve, and probably some other companies.

You may be able to throw a football in real life, but will you ever win the Super Bowl? The fact that sports games are the same thing every time with a new player roster is about the only thing I agree with in regards to his rant, and I don't like 99.9% of sports games for the specific reason that I'd usually rather play the actual sport, but they are legitimate games none the less. It's no different then being able to say something like Gran Turismo is a game. I may be able to go out and drive a real car, but will I ever get to drive an F1 on the Nurburgring in real life? Probably not (and even if I could, it wouldn't be on the full 24km track.)

And how many times during the 8-bit and 16-bit days did we plod through colourful 2D platformer #397, or trippy shoot 'em up #153? Honestly, for all the creativity that was going on back then, there were just as many quick rehashes as there are now, and we were lucky if most of those did it as well as the best in their genres, let alone made incremental improvements. Back then, rehashes were quick and easy to make, now games are expensive to make and rehashes are almost guaranteed to sell (just look at Nintendo). Both situations lend themselves to a lot of lackluster copy cat games. Honestly, I could just as easily argue that half the reason you don't see as many creative and unique ideas these days is that a lot of them just don't work, and most things that do work have been done already. I just don't think there's much room left for the creation of any truly unique genres and gameplay ideas without a change in hardware comparable to the move fro 2D to 3D. There was easily as much creativity going on in the PSX days as the 8-bit and 16-bit days as developers tried to figure out what worked under the new status quo. Even games these days that are hailed as unique creative masterpieces are usually a proven concept with solid game design and a unique presentation. Okami? 3D action platformer, except this time you use a paint brush to solve some puzzles and perform a few attacks. The style of the game and it's solid gameplay are what really set it apart. Ico? 3D platformer with puzzles, except the puzzles are logical for once and you have to guide this girl out with you. Again, it's solid gameplay and presentation are what set it apart. Yeah the odd game or two might pop up with a truly original concept that works, but those are few and far between and certainly not for a lack of developers trying.

I don't think any of us are really missing the point. He wants quirky, off-the-wall games to be the norm, but doesn't acknowledge the games that are a little off-the-wall these days, or the merits of the ones that don't feature cartoonish characters and mayors beating down a gang of thugs. What he (and a lot of people for that matter) fail to realize is that many of the ridiculous stories of the 8-bit days are best left in the 80's. I'm all for titles that pull some fun stuff like Maniac Mansion, Castlevania, and Mario Brothers, but some of those stories are best left forgotten. In fact, the only reason those premises worked was because they didn't try to give us any more than the bare minimum in terms of story (and didn't have to since the gameplay was amazing). Who are we, what are we doing and why. There's still a place for those, and even a place for oddball games with good stories, and if you ask me, when you look back on the best titles of the last few years there's a good mix of those, and more realistic modern titles. They may be a small part of the market overall, but they're rarely a small part of the list of best titles of the year as titles like SotC, Ico, Okami, and many more continue to prove. If you ask me, this guy's rant failed because he ignored the oddball games that are out and amazing, and the more modern games that are also amazing, and the fact that we get more a better mix than most people ever really bother to notice. Oddball games may not be the norm, but why would we want that any more than we want all games to be serious and realistic?

I didn't care for the video to be honest. Lame attempt to emulate the Zero Punctuation reviews, and he mostly left me bored. What bothers me most is that he can't pull his own head out of his ass long enough to recognize that just because the days of Cheetahmen, and Bombermen ruling the game industry has largely passed, doesn't mean that there is a lack of creativity in game design. I find it funny that he lumps Snake in with every other game attempting some realism, or with a scruffy-faced white hero. Granted, it has that last part. It also has more off the wall, what the hell was that, stuff going on than most of the games this guy talks about. Add onto that the fact that the series has consistently been (in my opinion) the most game series ever made, and you've got all the creativity and innovation this guy wants, but because it doesn't feature a gorilla with a robot arm as the main hero he's not interested. The topic of his rant goes both ways; just as there may not be as many off the wall, colourful and fanciful concepts as their used to be, he also ignores the stuff that is genuinely creative, original and/or well designed, despite seeming like another realistic action game at first glance. It basically seemed to me that he's hung up on the visual side of game design. Maybe instead of focusing on that aspect, he should focus instead on games where the gameplay is actually well designed. I'd love to see more off the wall games, but only if they play well thank you. I don't care how insane the story and characters are if the game is a complete pile of ass as soon as you pick up the controller.

Hehe, I think we've all been there before. Sometimes taking a break and working on other stuff then coming back to it later are the best thing you can do. That said, I actually like this even more. Maybe I'm crazy, but I don't think the last 30 seconds went horribly wrong at all. I actually really like what you have going on there. Maybe there's something you could do to build off of the idea or improve it a bit so it's more to your liking, but I enjoyed it. And finally, since it's one of the highest form of flattery I can probably give, I had this song stuck in my head last night and today after I woke up (about 15 minutes ago). That doesn't happen to me often, but I genuinely enjoy this song.

Hey, this is how we all improve right? I have no problem putting in some time to give people feedback. Try not to think of it as us trying to break your balls (well, maybe SnappleMan is ), so much as us being extra critical to push you to improve. It's always a little easier for people who weren't heavily involved in making it to sit back and find fault with something. Some of it may even be nitpicking and personal taste, but again, getting good feedback is how you improve. I know it can be tough when you like a song you've made to hear criticism of it, but we're all just trying to help each other improve.

I just gave it a few more listens while reading Monobrow's comment. I think I have to agree that I'm looking for a little more, not necessarily chaos, but still some more variation in intensity. Like I've said all along, I like the song and it has a great groove, but I realized this time around that there isn't a lot of variation in the intensity of the song. It seems content to move along at the same pace the whole time, and doesn't really seem to build to anything in particular. I suppose I could best describe myself as looking for something of a climax that never really quite comes. I'm not saying you have to increase the tempo or necessarily thicken the arrangement too much, but I do like Monobrow's suggestion of adding in some more instruments or moving the melody to some other synth or instrument for a bit. Another thing I sort of noticed is that the instrument that stands out as having the most presence is generally the drums throughout. I actually like that early on since I feel like it should be building up to something, but as it keeps going I kind of want something to really come to the forefront and stand out above everything else and really grab me. Right now it's the drums that stand out to me the most, and though I like what you're doing with them (and the drummer in me can't believe I'm saying this), I don't think they should be what I'm focusing on as a listener the whole way through. Keep at it though, you're making some great improvements and I still want to see where you take it.

I hear you on Logic giving you trouble. I've had Sonar 7 for a few months now and haven't had the time to learn it properly. It's a pretty big change from Reason, but oh well. Exams are done soon so I'll have all the time in the world. On to the song; I do like this version a lot more. After my first couple of listens I'd say much of what bothered me about the drums before is fixed. The only thing I might take some issue with is that I think you're still overusing the snare rolls a bit at the sections that start at 2:20 and 3:25, but it might just be that I haven't given myself enough time between listening to this and the previous version. It still sounds good the first time it comes up, it's just that it comes back again with little variation a couple of times later and still started to wear on me a bit. But overall, you made some big improvements. I'll give my ears a bit of a break before giving it another listen and post some more comments if I have any.

I have the same problem with school and COD4. I have a few songs sitting half done because both have been eating up my time, but once this semester's exams are over (in a week and a half) I'll finally be done for good and can spend my last summer vacation ever writing. Fuck I can't wait. A little more on topic; it may take a few attempts to get past some writers block, but if what you have so far is any indication, I'm sure whatever you come up with will be great.

I'll echo both of these statements. I would like to see you take more liberties with the source material. What's here is good, but it strikes me as more of a cover than a new interpretation. I think you've set up a good foundation, now you just need to build off of it a little more. I'll also agree with Gario that it can be a little too repetitious for a song of this length. Passages that repeat should have some new twist added to them to keep them fresh. And I'll also point out that the drums are too repetitive as well. Don't get me wrong, it's a cool groove you have going on, but you do need to change it up some more. I'd say ditch the buzz strokes, maybe in favour of some more intricate and varied hi-hat stuff later, or try switching out the half time feel of the groove to add a sense of urgency. Those are just some pretty basic ideas I had to hopefully give you some inspiration on where to go with the percussion. I like the piece so keep at it. I think if you can add a little more variety in there it'll improve it a lot. I can't wait to see what you come up with for later revisions.

I like it, though I agree that it sort of sounds like their should be something more from it, though that may just be because I'm listening to it out of context. The trouble with town themes is that they aren't something that should stand out tremendously. Presumably they're something the player will listen to repeatedly throughout the game, so they should be catchy enough to be interesting, but in the background enough that the player won't tire of them. I think this does accomplish that purpose quite well, though perhaps you could try adding a little more variation on the theme. It seems to repeat fairly soon into it, so taking the theme to another instrument or synth and altering it at least a bit might be a great way to not only add some length but some variety. A little variety even in a background track can help keep the player from getting sick of it.

It moves along quite well without percussion if you ask me. I'm curious about the context behind it as well. Did you have a specific purpose in mind, or did you just want to challenge yourself with something new?

I really like it. Everything sounds good in the mix to me, and I love the direction you were going. The only thing I don't care for is tha snare but it's not a major thing. It just sounds a little too sharp to me, but not by much. If it's attack was brought down a tiny bit I think it might fit better, but even still I think it's a great tune. I don't really have anything to say about where you should take it, but I look forward to hearing it when you figure something out.

Yes you should. If you liked the demo at all then it is definitely worth buying. One of the best shooters I've ever played.

Except the fun isn't in grinding your rank up (not that that's even that hard to do, just play some headquarters). In fact, most of the stuff I use I either didn't unlock or didn't take long to unlock. I'm level 41 now and used the MP5 up until I unlocked the P90. Hell, I even use the red dot scope as my only add-on, and the only perks I use are claymores (which I can do without), stopping power, and the improved aiming. And I've been using those for most of the game. Some of the others I use occasionally for fun, but those are my bread and butter. Honestly, I've rarely seen so much variety in a game without drastically changing the maps and objectives. Free-for-all and ground war are always pretty frantic. Headquarters is a constant battle to try and cap and hold the headquarters, and stuff like hardcore search and destroy and cage match are some of the most tense, edge of your seat, multiplayer gaming I've ever experienced. The basic game never changes, but how you approach it, even level by level, is rarely the same. There are few games with an online experience that's fun enough to warrant me spending even 5 hours with it, but I'm over 20 hours into this one. It just doesn't get old for me.

$10 is a small donation to make to keep such an awesome site going. I may be buying an item or two from Amazon soon as well, so if I do I'll go through your store as well. I think I'll even get off my ass and purchase a shirt too. Edit: Finally broke down and bought Zircon's Antigravity album through the store. I've been meaning to grab it anyway, so why not help out OCR as well.

Nitpicking a bit, but the 360 uses regular DVD's. Well, aside from the ones you mentioned, there was also MGS, Silent Hill, Resident Evil 1-3, FF8, FF9, Parasite Eve, Syphon Filter 1&2, Chrono Cross, FF Tactics, Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Dino Crisis, and Medal of Honor. And I got those without even bothering to name any games I don't own. I would like to point out as well that you missed Perfect Dark on your N64 list. It was better than Goldeneye if you ask me.

Congrats to Jillian, and some high fives to Andrew and Danny for also doing very well. You guys should be proud. You all make great music, and it's great to see it pay off.

Don't remember that era very well do you? The PSX took a little longer to start taking off and the N64 started strong, but 3rd parties started to drift away from the N64 before too long, and the consumers went too. 3rd parties liked CD's more as did consumers, and who could blame them since they held more and some N64 games were twice as expensive as PSX games early on. The N64 started Nintendo's support loss, and this only continued with the Cube, especially when the PS2 managed to outsell just about every system ever made (though while we're on that topic, the PSX sold a ridiculous amount as well). People generally regard the PSX as having the better game lineup overall, though the N64 had it's moments, and was better for multiplayer.

Hopefully this keeps up. Good luck to Jill and everyone else.

Not sure I could handle that in one sitting. I've finished my voting and for what it's worth, I personally feel that Zircon and Pixie have two of the best songs on there, but it's not looking good for either of them to win it so far. Oh well, it says there's over 7 hours left so who knows; maybe things could change by then.