H. Guderian

I still play shooters regularly and at a level that'll get you calling me a hacker at times. As for a learning curve, FPS have zero learning curve when compared to my favorite genre, hardcore strategy. Stop assuming you even know what you're talking about~ It's cute, but its not correct. Also worth noting, why would Bleck have to prove anything when several others have proven the point, time and time again, that you have no idea what you're talking about? Calling me a casual gamer is like calling you a diverse gamer, but you've only been playing TFC for a decade straight. I guess if you lived underground your whole life you wouldn't know that the surface existed, huh? If you fail to even comprehend that you should just turn around and cry about how no one understands you and that only you, the one hardcore gamer on the planet, will play TFC until all the servers turn to dust, and that you'll be a better gamer for never taking time to consider that you may be terribly wrong. (This is kinda fun, I have a lot to vent in a safe enviornment and this is just the ticket!)

Is it harder to win a battle with more men, munition, and tools, or when you are lacking and each man is highly specialised? It should be obvious the less you have the more thought you need to use to make that weapon effective. Nade spam and everyone has shotguns flying around is some sort of enigma to figure out? Just because you're used to it and overthink the gameplay doesn't mean its actually super-deep. the game should be called Fortress Classic. And flying medics was the epitome of good gameplay that only a fraction of the playerbase can use? I'm also gonna preempt you because you said it earlier. I should not have to play a game 3 months straight learning every strategy to get my money's worth. Should I tell you to watch a movie or listen to a song for a month if you didn't enjoy/like it as much as I did? That's insanity. Simply flying around with nades, still, isn't some sorta grace from your gaming god. And whats your definition of movement evolution? Grasping onto straws from an ancient engine and calling every peice a work of excellent gameplay mechanic? Take yourself off your little crazy air balloon and rejoin us on the ground. There's less oxygen depravation down here!

I think the point was made that OCR has guidelines that mixes should be built from the ground up and comfortably invest their own style and to move away from the original work to a safe distance. This EE group, however, was not building an engine, graphics, voice acting, licensing the music involved (or hey, coming here to obtain safer remixes). They were taking, and as you've repeatedly said, were hacking the base project and showing others how to mod and void their warranties. Someone interested in playing this mod may void their warranty, break their machine, and call Nintendo to complain (normal people actually make such calls, often). Now where does OCR even come close to voiding people's warranties or teaching the average joe how to hack and modify existing IPs? Apples and oranges here. Where the apple is a remix built from the ground up with artist interpretation, and the other are hackers modding parts of an existing IP and causing loads of havoc along the way.

I haven't called you a fool, but I'm tempted because you aren't reading a single reply given to you. I'm sure you've played both, right? Thoroughly? Just like how you're reading through our replies thoroughly? You keep raising the issue that TFC/TF1 takes more skill and tactics, and keep claiming we aren't addressing this. We have. People working with fewer tools have to think harder how best to deploy the tools of their own and those of the team. You have use your limited resources as an individual to become a stronger team as a whole. And TF2 does not betray the class-based gameplay of the previous TFC game(s?). It enhanced it but making teamplay more important. Whats a better team game? Where everyone has a unique and valuable skill to bring to the table, or one where everyone is essentially the same (grenades, everyone has a shotgun or two) with one guy going fast and one going slow, with very...weak class differences. TF2 wins, teamgameplaywise. Edit: Yes, TFC was much easier to solo in than TF2. I don't know why you think otherwise when mentioning 'quick caps on 2fort.' Most caps in most cases are the work of 1 individual and the luck of someone else on his team distracting or in the way to catch a rocket accidentally. In TFC you happened to have a team. In TF2 you are actually on a team.

Giving a player a greater tool kit for combat doesn't not translate directly into greater strategy, infact by making everyone independent, individual tactics rise but teamplay is less important. Limiting a toolset prevents people from charging around like Rambo and coordinating efforts, timing their movements, and supporting the team. Giving a single player enough tools to function apart from the team in a "Team" based game does not add to the level of team-based tactics. "Technically" Strategy by definition is too large scale for an FPS game, and the proper term you're fondling for is "Tactics." But surely, if you're running around solo with a full compliment of tools and occssionalyl find yourself supporting the team you might think thats wonderful teamplay. TF2 also was jsut an ugly game any time in its history. It was fun though~ Other note: a game full of high-skill elitists just is unappealing to play. If there's no story or appreciable art people are either competing or trying to have fun. I was a good player of TFC back in the day as well, but since I don't compete I play for fun. But TF2 provides the Fun cake and lets me eat it too, with all the bells and whistles! On FF games: What about FFV's combat? I hated FFVIII's combat system, it was really a GF spam and linking some resource-farmed magic to vital stats...but FF games are more like interactive movies. Though running around saying games with inferior combat/gameplay engines are inferior and not worth playing deprives you of so very much that is good. And how is TF2 destroying the 'Series'? Haven't there been only 1-2 games in the series? Shouldn't the aim to be to innovate and give us as players as much as possible? The core mechanics have been improved, I'd say. Why don't you mod the TF2 game and make it more hardcore instead of backpedaling into a self-satisfying circle of elites playing the same game until it grinds against time into dust?

Being an owner and lover of guinea pigs, that angle got me really good. I was laughing hysterically more because I find those little buggers adorable. Having them destroy cities was just fun for me. The rest of the episode, like the season, wasn't too compelling.

Well the new Casshern has this...feeling to it. I don't know anything of the franchise. I'd recommend it to people just to experience its different-ness.

aye, got around to Casshern yesterday. Its certainly picking up a unique award from me. I wanna see more of whats going on there.

I enjoyed Toradora so far. As to how it pans out later I dunno.

Yeah, the list includes everything. Like, all audiences. I maybe only 'attempt' 5-8 shows and stick with like...whatever's good. but its nice to see whats coming out like this, sometimes things can air, you may like it, but never even know it existed. This helps...somewhat. I only seem to find these for Fall and winter seasons. I guess I'm too busy in Spring//Summer to look.

Aye, I've watched so much anime recently, and I'm behind again. I never even finished the first season of Nodame yet. I basically spent the summer catching up on really old anime. Its just amazing how much stuff comes out.

The first new episode of 00 season 2 was indeed bliss, though there's a lot of great new stuff out this season. I found this picture over the vast internet detailing the shows out this fall: http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fall2008seasonpreviewfidr5.jpg But yes, Gundam 00 has got to have some of the better fights in Gundam history...next to Gundam Zeta! I love Zeta with a passion.

I'm inclined to support that in an entirely non-joking manner.

CN always hates anime. The leadership that brought about Toonami was quickly canned, anime was kicked out of primetime/evening slots and forced to late-night only. Leadership swaps... But I was with Toonami from the get-go. It was a very fun rise. As someone point out, anime has inferior ratings to domestic shows with vastly cheaper costs. Adult Swim used to just be anime that Toonami couldn't show, then all the new anime went to AS. Now AS is virtually anime free and takes up sooo much time. This was the house anime built, and someone changed tenants.

Aye, this thread is going to boil down into two camps. Those who've seen many genres of anime and their related music across the decades with many examples of good music, and those who only saw a few popular shows and conclude that all anime is crappy pop. I likewise know someone who thinks all anime looks exactly like one each other. There's no reason to hate on pop anways. Quality of songs should precede bias against genre.

I tend to trust Monolith Soft's games. While sometimes not being the best thing on the block, I tend to enjoy them. This is definately a departure from their normal work, so I'll hold my hype until we get a NA release date.

That was accurate, yet paralyzing... I think I damaged a lung from laughter of pain

Hmm, the one program I was introduced to was like, killed recently. Try "Open RPG", its got your dice, a map to draw on and use digital minatures on, and a bunch of useful and helpful features. It is a download, and I do keep my eye out for others. Though no, doing it online doesn't defeat the purpose. For one thing, you have a lot more freedom to assume any role/character due to the internet's ability of anon. Plus you have a wider access to talented RP-ers willing to paly a whole variety of game systems besides just the big ones.

I'm here hoping the internal dev team they had run by Ueda will announce what his next project will be. Previously Team ICO made, well, ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. So since it is a Sony internal team and not a 3rd party, maybe thats what they're working up? I think its a far more hopeful suggestion than just remakes or sequels.

Been bouncing between a few older titles. June is kinda my 'replay old games' month moreso than any other. However I just got Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Mugen no Frontier on the DS. Thats been fun for my little inner fanboy. Everything else I'm playing are spurts of other games for minutes at a time which I don't think really counts.

Its not a stupid reason. Paying for a game you like at least once helps out the creators, though I don't think the creators will see a cent made from this DS port, since they long left Square. So in this case its not that accurate. But in other cases, supporting a creator helps them create more things, and if I like their work enough to buy it, I hope they make more. I think a lot of people feel the same. Note: I own the SNES version, and have no intention of buying the DS version.

I am 0% closer. I really need to step up with something great. Like, really great. Or at least finish a day or two before the deadline this time!

Mm, I have a few ideas kicking around, but I keep getting a heavy 'Someone else is thinkig of the same thing' vibe. Luckily, there's still plenty of time.

I leave my computer on for marathon amounts of time, and that does seem to be the case. I've had some cases with some people where reinstalling the drivers daily for aweek didn't help. Try removing the driver entirely before reinstalling it. Installing it over an old copy may preserve the glitch.

As to the control issues with more buttons, there's a lot of old crusty famous authors who will mention using simpler language should be a priority in terms of good literature. I won't know the exact quotes, but I'm going to suggest the same thing applies in a video game. The input method is pretty important for an art peice. Saying game controlers are currently the best way to experience video game art also seems premature. Literature chiseled into rock or stone may have been the best method at one point, but given time the medium corrects itself and will make itself availible to more people. About infusing cutscenes with gameplay, a cutscene is a movie. It is a scene cut from the gameplay and delivered as a movie. We're talking about whether video games are art. Sometimes cutscenes are used as a reward mechanic and a time for a player to rest/save. Sometimes they're overblown and pointless and add a movie in the middle of your game. I'm gonna poke at the JRPG genre as a broad sweep, sometimes hailed for its good story/character development, yet many then sharply hate the genre for 40hr+ playtimes, grind, dungeon crawling, cookie cutter characters, whatever their laundry list of hate is. I know we're too forgiving, because if you buy a book and between each chapter you then have to pop in a DVD to watch the cut scenes, it would seem awkward. Obviously, thats a bigger stretch. Video games, the great interative medium where you are along the ride for the experience. Just saying the medium's input method is fine because it sells well doesn't really work, because plenty of non-art things sell well. Sales and art do not equal one another. To say the input method has no relation to the artistic merit of a title seems weird, because the whole thing that makes a video game a video game and an interactive experience (experiences from the minute to the grand/epic scale) is the input the player gives. I don't see how the question of how the game is played can be avoided. Its the core of the arguement. The input method for music (when it is created) are the instruments, also being voices, or objects, won't be argued. To consume musical art, I'm sure some attention to the way a person experiences the music is important. Visual arts only need to be seen. Video game art needs active participation via the contorller. I'm not saying a one button method of controlling a game is favorable at all, but some of the art design has to be in the input. The designer may just pick lucky buttons that enhance his core game, or may make controls so poor no one can enjoy is game. Using an in-game engine for cut scenes may preserve the look, but its then safe to say that the medium is still developing. I'm not even saying zero cut scenes, but if half your game is a cut scene collection, where's the game? You know that a line there can be crossed with cutscenes that then make it more movie than game. I mean historically we'll be able to point back to the medium through its growing pains and point and laugh as early artists tried to create something, but no medium was born and made into a churn-factory of good art without having flaws, and we still ppint flaws at the old genre. Its a pretty fluid thing. If this gen of systems works as we think it does, we'll see far more attempts given the broadesing scope of the consoles. The results we'll get will be very fun to experience.