Kenogu Labz

IIRC that was captured using the demo system long before the replay system was introduced and, therefore, is not even capable of entering the contest.

Howdy everyone, and this week, assuming you weren’t bLiNded from last week’s awesomeness, we bring you three more OCR rides, all of them in the 200s range. Be warned though, they make the fast and the furious look pale in comparison. Looking forward to next week, difficult rides from difficult games. ==================== Mega Man X ‘Braincooler’ OC ReMix Remixers - Rozovian Songs - Chill Penguin Stage Traffic - 241 Description - This track may look unintimidating, but while there may be many blocks to gather, you'll have to weave and slide throughout the tight-knit patterns surrounding them. G'luck passing through unscathed! Link - http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01916/ ==================== Donkey Kong Country 2 ‘Monkeys Disarm Their Kremlings’ OC ReMix Remixers - Brandon Strader, Nekofrog Songs - Crocodile Cacophony, Gank-Plank Galleon, Stickerbrush Symphony Traffic - 255 Description - Buckle up, cause you’ll be screaming “yum yum potassium” for your life as the relentless rock n’ screamo from Brandon Strader and Nekofrog cause you to plummet down a blood red hill to your death. That blood might be yours by the end. NOTE: Contains explicit lyrics. And yum yum potassium. Link - http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02110/ ==================== Touhou: Phantasmagoria of Flower View ‘Naito Obu’ OC ReMix Remixers - Kidd Cabbage Songs - Flowering Night Traffic - 287 Description - This track is almost as frenetic a surf as the source game, not to mention the song itself. A face-first bullet hell! Link - http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01982/ ==================== For alternates this week, we have one more DKC2 mix designed specifically for rollercoaster rides. Donkey Kong Country 2 ‘RC Dance Mix’ Remixers - Thomas Songs - Disco Train Traffic - 323 Description - If you the first few didn't have enough speed to get you through the week, this one should fill your appetite to the brim. Short, fast and deadly: this track sets up road-blocks like few others can. Link - http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/170718 ====================

Maybe you should wait to think with Portals until Portals are actually useful.

Prepare to be torn.

I think the big issue, BGC, is that people who are griefers in a game are also more likely to abuse a user-active reputation system by simply causing everyone else to have high prices as much as possible. Even systems that rely only on observed response to a user playing games can be skewed by teams of griefers, once it's learned what factors are used in calculating a player's popularity. The worry isn't that the griefers will be punished, but rather that the situation will end up polar opposite to what Valve intended: the griefers game the system, get cheap games, and everyone else ends up paying more because they tried playing honestly.

Welcome to our first Event Week, bLiNd SNESthesia, featuring tracks only from OCReMix premium electronica artist bLiNd! WindStrike and I had to do a bit of haggling to get the song order set up: there's so many good tracks from bLiNd that we had to cut out some close runners for the final lineup! So, how 'bout it? Ready to run these tracks bLiNd? Wild Arms ‘A Ring and a Promise’ Remixers - Ashleigh James, bLiNd Songs - Lamenting and a Promise (Prologue 2) Traffic - 244 Description - We're kicking this event off with a collab work, Ashleigh James providing vocals to blow you away. The track may take awhile to build, but wait until the meaty backing starts up! ==================== Final Fantasy IV ‘Bridge to Eternity’ Songs - Within the Giant Traffic - 289 Description - This track certainly doesn't make things easy; a veritable flood of greys, with only a small Bridge to stand on. ==================== Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ‘Go Ninja, Go’ Songs - Title Traffic - 279 Description - This is one high-energy romp that'll be tricky to ace. Think it's not that hard? Try going for a Match 21! ==================== Chrono Trigger ‘Pipe Dream Mystics’ Songs - Yearning of the Wind Traffic - 230 Description - Don't let the low traffic number fool you: this track gives you only a narrow pipe to surf through, and you can't trust whether any block is worth grabbing. ==================== Gradius III ‘Space Ace’ Songs - Departure for Space Traffic - 252 Description - Closing up the event, we have this bubbly, synesthetic piece. This is the kind of track that reminds us all why we love Audiosurf: the track fuses with the music, and the visuals back it up every step of the way.

You have to be very careful in designing these systems. The major problem is that the same trouble-makers they're trying to deal with are the same ones that tend to throw wrenches in little things such as, say, popularity and rating systems. Go see any site with a public rating structure and it'll be quite obvious that it rarely works if the ratings are publicly available to vote on. If they have some tricks up their sleeve, I'm all for it. Maybe they can bring some machine learning mechanics to bear, which may help weight honest users over rabid trolls, but not sure how such a system would be implemented.

Doublecross requires a solid team effort, just because there's so many ways to slip in if you leave yourself unprotected. Still one of my favorite maps in the hands of two competent teams.

If I remember correctly (been awhile), it wouldn't let me log in to Windows Live with my account.

My computer can't handle GFWL, which is a bummer because my friend bought this for me for my b-day, and I can't play it. Looks fun, though.

Buut that ignores all the compelling characters that have made a positive impact in gaming. The thing that makes us so frustrated with games like Other M (speaking as someone who hasn't played it, so may be off) is that we've seen it done right before. We know what it looks like and that wasn't it. Abstracting all character and story away from games would lead to a total Dark Ages for the industry, returning to roots of only simple mechanics and casual games. And I'm fairly certain no-one wants that. I would agree, though, that it's all too frequent that those given the task of writing story end up falling flat on their face. It's sad, really. The best storytellers write books, because for centuries, that has been considered the primary medium for the weaving of tales. Television and cinema made an attempt at one point to focus on storytelling, but this is falling away fast, with modern fare giving us little more than simple entertainment. And games? They may very well follow the same path if the industry doesn't make a conscious decision with the understanding that games can - and should - be used primarily as the most powerful means of storytelling the world has yet seen. There are other unfortunate cultural limitations, etc, but I'll stop ranting now.

I never could get into Secret of Mana. Controls were kluuutzy, and the collision system didn't quite work. SD3 was marvelous, though, and more people need to play. And then Legend of Mana. That game had two fantastic storylines, one minorly what-in-the-world-is-happening one, a bunch of smaller yet still beautifully intertwined ones, and then the main one... which is all of ten minutes of the game's plot. But still a fantastic game. It'd help, I guess, if people pushed back the opening quests, since those are all there to introduce the characters and get you kick-started on the various systems in the game. But then you start seeing the Geo plot unfold... and it's all downhill from there. :3

Well, from what it appears, the ending is par for the course in terms of anime plotlines. They can be good right up to the end before driving into a ditch for the big finale. Ahh, well.

Week 04 brings another full set, complete with not one, but TWO oldies! You'll be seeing red with this week's selections, guaranteed. Coming up next week will be an “event” week, something we’ll hold every five weeks, with remixes all in accordance to a particular category. Zelda: Link's Awakening ‘Clash at the Mountains’ OC ReMix Traffic - 303 Description - Zircon holds nothing back, and this ride is no exception. Be prepared, this one nails you with tons of tight spots at high speeds! Good luck making it through unscathed. ==================== Bomberman ‘Chip Trip’ OC ReMix Traffic - 319 Description - This bubbly Bomberman mix fills your path with obstacles, then throws in clever clumps of colored blocks to collect. How cruel can you get? ==================== Breath of Fire 2 ‘YouMustDance’ OC ReMix Traffic - 281 Description - This middle-aged mix picks up the pace and lets the drum-track lead the way. You WILL dance to it. ==================== For the alternates this week, we’ve got Mario, Zelda and a DoD entry. You suck at Super Mario Bros 4! Remixers – mv Game – Super Mario World Songs – Title, Overworld, Level Themes Traffic - 289 Description – Chip Trip wasn’t enough for you? mv brings you a chiptune medley of SMW’s themes that race against the clock, as Mario tries to finish the levels in time. The end result? Depends on if you finish the ride yourself. ==================== Hot for Rock Shuffles Remixers – Prince of Darkness Game – Sonic Adventure, Twisted Metal, Uniracers Songs – (if you figure ‘em out, tell us) Traffic - 243 Description – Prince of Darkness makes yet another 1st place entry to Dwelling of Duels. It’s not particularly difficult, but it brings a good pace as Sonic gets murdered halfway through. Literally. Link - http://www.dwellingofduels.net/duel.php?dir=10-12-MAGfree_Month&month=M9&img=MAGfree (first place) ==================== Hero's Torn Heart Remixers – Setu-Firestorm Game - Legend of Zelda Songs - Title Traffic - 313 Description - Such a gentle, melancholy song, isn't it? Such a shame you can't relax to it as you tumble down this corkscrew of death.

(This week's writeup done by WindStrike! Sorry we're late in posting.) Normally, Kenogu writes all the descriptions, but this week, I took the liberty of letting my insanity loose and letting you all feel the pain of my puns. Fear not, we’ve got a great lineup this week consisting of some of our favorite classics, including two alternates. Next week, we’ll be continuing with the oldies. Secret of Mana ‘Fear of the Flava’ OC ReMix Traffic – 278 Description – ‘Fear of the traffic’ may catch you ‘into the thick of it’ if you want to make it through this crowded forest grown in McVaffe’s garden. Star Fox ‘Barrel Roll’ OC ReMix Traffic – 300 Description – Unfortunately, there isn’t an actual ‘barrel roll’ (twist) in the song, but it may cause you to involuntarily ‘barrel roll’ out of your chair, because you didn’t ‘use the boost to get through’. Dr. Mario 'Burning Up' OC ReMix Traffic - 193 Description - The beginning of this Dr. Mario mix might go down smoother than medicine, but don't count on it to last for long! Depthless Ocean Remixers – Tonindo, Jewbei Game – Donkey Kong Country Songs – Aquatic Ambience Traffic – 294 Description – There will never be enough Aquatic Ambience because it can’t happen. It’s simply too good. Tonindo and Jewbei combine their efforts to bring you an unparalleled, trance-tastic mix that will drown you endless traffic. Cave Story: Welcome to Hell R:TS Mix Remixers - Divine Wrath Songs - Last Battle Traffic - 244 Description - It may not seem tricky, but try blazing past it at the top of the board: we dare you.

Wow, thanks to Vinnie for helping out; otherwise, we wouldn't get to hear this fantastic piece! Very nicely arranged and performed, Squint. Everything just feels like it falls perfectly into place. Keep it up!

Ahhh, 'kay. Just a sanity check. Never can tell with you.

Wait, you just got back... how do you know? 0.o Can't wait to try out the new debuff patch. Maybe I'll have some spare time next blue moon.

Hahaha. Died on the last level. Grab multipliers when you can, those are the key to games that have them (Bejeweled Blitz etc.), especially when they're cumulative.

Nice. The game feels polished, and does a good job at getting progressively more difficult; level design could use a bit more work, and it's fairly short, but a fun spin just the same! Music was appropriate for the kind of game; not in-your-face so you don't get irritated with it quickly, but also not so laid-back it makes no difference. Nicely done to the both of you! (~4,999,999,997 to go, assuming you and the dev played it)

Hmm, more fun than it first seems. It's cleverly made, in that it often pays off to make patterns that are obviously constructive, then adding something small that'll slowly destabilize the pattern to create more intricate lines. http://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata?q=243s6c107m2v5o632h5m6t7o6d302i1s4z4l4k4j VST, anyone?

Nope. Don't put me on yet.

Once I get my computer back up to speed (nasty virus I couldn't get rid of), the YouTube page will hold runs of one of the songs for each week. This rate will depend on my schedule and skill level, since no-one wants to watch a video full of fail! This is also something other OCR members could pitch in on, if they wanted to. Usually it's caused by a drop or cut in volume; the pause just before a breakdown in many techno songs always makes for an awesome rush. Also getting a corkscrew at the climax of a song.