Shadow Wolf

Thank you for feex it, I rove you rong time. So I looked at the screenshots... I'd like to see them turn the color palette down, for sure. No matter what happens, I think it's gonna be a bit of a mindfuck for people that are used to the 7 minute Mickey cartoons spreading joy and happiness. Will it be Resident Mickey: Attack of the Thrice Damned Demon Bunnies of the Apocalypse? I doubt it. That said, it'll at least get a rental when it comes out.

I'll listen to the mix shortly, but I gotta say... I think Hinson has a new handle. Big Giant Jimmy. That's a nickname worth writing home about.

I think one of the things that MAKES Jack Black funny is that he's kind of a poser. He's a dork, he knows it, and he plays off it. I just rented Year One and it was friggin' FUNNY. Of course Michael Cera helped a lot, but still. I find him hilarious most of the time, and I can't WAIT for this game.

Hooray! Hopefully this opens up more opportunities for mix development without causing medleyitis. But mostly I was posting to ask Luke what the SHIT is with that sig?

Evidently September is unfinished album release month. But I'll definitely download this when I'm on a decent connection. Mr. Vafeas, you have always rocked my socks.

Out of morbid curiousity, is there a reason you can't just... y'know, recruit more peeps and finish the whole thing like you wanted? I'm sure any number of people here wouldn't mind spackling up the holes. Or people who could tag this stuff and work up a proper website to host it. Just curious, seriously.

Not that anyone's required to agree with me, but I think Secret of Mana is the SHIT. And Final Fantasy VII is in fact an awesome and extraordinary game. Still. However. I think RPG's tend to fall prey to this thinking the most, for a very simplle reason. They are by nature grindfests. You have to spend hours training and grinding levels and obtaining armor and weapons to advance. What keeps you interested in doing that? Story. That's always, in my mind, the trade off with RPG's. You grind because you're interested in hearing the rest of the story, and RPG's commonly offer the best stories to be had in video games. That's all well and good the first 3 or 4 times through the game. But even for a game as consumattely astounding and Final Fantasy VII, there comes a point where you know the story so well that it's no longer worth the outlay of time playing through the entire thing to access the story. That's where I think our warm fuzzy nostalgia starts to wear off a bit. I will NEVER forget the first time I played through FF7. It was far and away the deepest gaming experience I'd ever had. But I didn't feel I'd completely absorbed the incredible story. The second time I played it, I had several AHA! moments and made all the connections, and enjoyed it even more. But now, if I was to pick up FF7 again, it would be SOLELY for the nostalgia of the good old days. I can speedrun the entire game in a little less than 20 hours. So I think our amazing games start to "suck" simply because we've drawn all the story out of them, and there's no longer any reward to playing them EXCEPT nostalgia. There's my 2 pesos.

^Not to mention a ballin' hot get well soon album when you were sick. How many places do you get an ALBUM cut for you when you're sick?

^Drinking too much, perhaps? Definitely sweet though. I used to play these over at a friend's house and loved them, but I never did own them. I guess now's my chance.

Hey folks. I've had a closet desire for years: to be able to play the Madden games. I love football, and I understand pretty well the ins and outs of how the game is played, I've been watching football religiously for about 16 years. But knowing how football is played doesn't necessarily translate to knowing how to play football. Neither does it equate to being able to play Madden well. It's a very complex game. So with that in mind, I think I'm not alone among gamers when I say that I'd love to be able to play Madden, first because it seems very fun, and also because I'm sure playing it and understanding what I'm doing will give me a deeper understanding of the strategy of football as a game. So what do I want? Well, I can find a walkthrough for Madden anywhere. I'd like someone to point myself and others towards resources that explain stuff like: why I might want to use a nickel defense, or a 4 deep formation, what the advantages of all those things are in a specific situation. I myself just bought Madden 09 for PS3 to try and break into the series, because it's available very cheap now that 10 just came out. As far as Madden 09 goes, can I download current 2009 season roster updates for it? Can someone explain some of the controls a bit better than the game itself does? Like punting? Because dang, when I see that complex setup for punting, it gives me 4 words of voodoo to do with the controller, I have a playclock running, and I need to punt right the f*** NOW. But I mess it up cuz I don't know the controls themselves. So I guess what I'm asking for is for our more sports savvy users and seasoned Madden players to drop myself and others some tips for getting controls, formations, and the other ins and outs of football and Madden under my belt. I know maybe it sounds like I'm working too hard to be able to play a game, but I feel like it could be tons of fun if I can get some basic things straight. Thanks for any help you all provide!

No, you have to do it. But the look of the wave seems to match up with the general idea. If you go right to left and look at the expansion and contraction of the wave, each expansion would match the accent in the words. *shrug.*

I'm waffling between what the shit and a joygasm right now. Just wow.

Aaaaand further proof that I can find innuendo in anything. But no, really. Congratulations guys. All the best!

I do have to chime in and say I thought Suteki Da Ne was an absolutely beautiful song. My favorite was still the instrumental version from the Rikki single, but the version she did for the game itself was powerful and gorgeous.

OK, say what you will about how much you hate IGN's coverage, but there's a problem across the board with their site right now, and there has been for several weeks. Every time I try to access a console specific part of the site like wii.ign.com or ps3.ign.com, I get a 500 error and a redirect to "sorry.ign.com." Since this site's where I've gotten my daily gaming news for a decade, I'm just a bit frustrated. Can anyone shed some light on what in the world is wrong? I'm not the only person having this problem, there were several inconclusive Yahoo answers threads, etc. about it when I Googled it.

I'm not sure if you knew this already, but there's actually a video on the GH World Tour disc advertising the POD. So Activision and Line 6 already have some manner of working relationship, it would seem. Your predictions may not be very far fetched at all. I'm far more interested to see how some of the concepts in these games affect the way things are done with REAL instruments, rather than the advancements in the games themselves. For example, If there WERE eventually a guitar released with the internal capability of emulating all these analog line effects, and I'm sure you're right and there will be, I would definitely predict a big new split among musicians. You'd have the digital artists who use the "self-contained" effects to create all their music, and the "analog-electric purists" who insist that using actual stomp boxes, line effects, modulators, etc. gives a more realistic sound. But I agree that the idea of being able to apply all your effects directly within the guitar rather than the line itself would be very intriguing and significantly cheaper in the long run. It would make a LOT of otherwise very expensive effects available for the simple cost of the guitar, perhaps even with an iTunes type store where you can plug your guitar into your computer and download new effects for it. Great idea, even if it would put a lot of roadies out of a job. Furthermore, if you could take a high quality instrument like a Fender or Martin guitar and have completely digital output, what's to stop you from applying a simple Soundfont effect and turning it into any instrument you want? Music and chords are all the same, no matter what instrument you play. But HOW the instrument is played is hugely different of course. Up to now, the keyboard has been the only way to "play" any number of instruments using a soundfont. But what about a more focused musician who, for example, plays the guitar incredibly well and knows that neck like the back of his hand, but wants to express himself with sounds that aren't guitar related in any way? How wonderful would it be for that guy to be able to apply a piano soundfont to his guitar and fingerpick a song to reverse what the keyboardists have been doing for years? Or even better, think about the differences in how the instruments are played and imagine the possibilities. There is arguably a much greater ability for playing extremely fast music on a guitar, or for strumming very quickly, etc. depending on who is playing. The dynamics of how it's played are (duh) vastly different from a piano. But imagine playing the guitar and OUTPUTTING the sound of a piano instead. The possibilities would be mind numbing. There's definitely a lot of exciting ideas to throw around.

Thank you. Haha I knew I was gonna take heat for this. What he said wasn't expressly idiotic. I was just making a bit of a jump, because if you take it only very slightly out of context, he was eagerly describing a logical end result for their current product that leaves you with the actual analog instruments we've used for most of recorded history. Tycho and Gabe nailed it in their comic posted above, making fun of the Amazon Kindle. That said, I do see a LOT of potential for being able to plug an actual Fender guitar into a TV and learning the fingering for real songs based on the kind of "Guitar Hero Method," where it scrolls across the bars of music at the top of the screen and highlights fret fingering at the bottom. It would be even more useful if the neck of the entire guitar was pressure sensitive and told you where YOU were going wrong if and when you did. There's certainly applications. The article just struck me as hilarious.

Oh yeah, I agree with you. It's just hilarious to listen to techies talk about their "interface advancements", etc. When they're really just reversing the tech and bringing us closer and closer to what we had in the first place. See the "Book" comic above. Sad but true.

Haha, and here I was sad that Tycho wasn't around to lampoon that article this week. I forgot about that one.

In this shining example of foot in mouth disease, Josh Randall of Harmonix posits a future wherein rhythm games can be played directly from the instrument, totally without the use of a console! Imagine a bright future where you and your friends can make music without the need for a major gaming platform. Take it a step farther! Imagine if WIRELESS instruments were available, and you and your friends could even write, play, and record your own songs! In other news, archaeologists in Vienna have uncovered startling new evidence that Ludwig Von Beethoven himself may have in fact used a WIRELESS PIANO to compose his music. But how could he have obtained such technology? Time travel? Visitors from the future? Wormholes? The Illuminati? Or did he conjure it from DARK MATTER? I thought the honest to God musicians here would get a kick out of this. Coming next week, new technology that allows you to hold a conversation with another person, face to face, without the need for an IM client!

ahahahahahahahahahaha.

I only remember Jackson in the early 90's and very little of that. My strongest memory of him is a music video he did for Free Willy for Christ's sake. But I listened to that video over and over and over and over. I suppose that says something about what a talent he was. His music was truly captivating, and I don't care who you are, you have to admit that man could DANCE. Definitely a bit weird for me to have an icon from some of my earliest memories pass like this. Remember the artist, not the press coverage. Rest in peace Michael.

The thread is a big tldr, but I really liked the movie. It was unashamed. You sat down, and the movie walked up and introduced itself. It says "Hi, I'm Trans-fucking-formers 2. So lemme lay it out for ya. I don't have a plot. We're gonna blow shit up for 2.5 hours, and when we aren't blowin' shit up, you'll be seeing Megan Fox a LOT. Like it, love it, or shove it." And I was like, alright, cool. I liked it. I thought Soundwave was genius. I thought the voices for Megatron and Starcream were great. I chuckled at the Autobot twins, even though I never downright laughed at them. I was very slightly irritated that the Fallen looked suspiciously like a robotic Davey Jones, and I coulda done without the little dude that Megan Fox keeps in her box. (I made a double entendre.) I really coulda done without the old ass Decepticon convert that was also a Blackbird. I sincerely wished Sam's parents would die. But the ONLY thing that made me damn near scream is that for SOME reason, they chose to NOT COLOR THE DECEPTICONS AT ALL AND I DON'T KNOW WHO THE FUCK ANY OF THEM ARE. But you know what? It was fun to watch. I didn't go for plot, or to watch them observe fanboy canon to the letter. It was just fun. I definitely thought the pacing was pretty crazy for the first movie, but they fixed my main complaint and ZOOMED THE FUCK OUT when the two story robots with 190 million moving parts were having fights. Overall I say 7 dollars well spent.

Dude, I like you, so I'm gonna try to be nice about this. Implying that you need a "rush of energy" to successfully perform an activity that only requires moving two to four fingers is hilarious. Tack onto that the fact that Halo's a pretty popular game to pull out at a kegger, and some of the highest gamerscores on the planet belong to college binge drinkers... I'd say that there's not precisely a NEED for gamers to have an energy drink to "increase performance", because evidently it's pretty easy to rack up the kills when you're inebriated. Just sayin.' All we're really doing is sitting on our asses staring at a screen, regardless of the game.

Hmm. I dunno, it'll probably balance itself out eventually. The thing is, if you look at Japanese culture, or at least how Japanese culture tends to look to us over here, being a successful man is all about being a BUSINESS man. You look at any movie that had to do with Japan in the 80's... Sato from Karate Kid II was an example. Now I'm fully aware that was an American movie with a very American impression of the Japanese, but what I'm saying is that those stereotypes didn't invent themselves. The image of the Japanese male in the late 20th century was always a driven, powerful businessman. Now I'm sure there's a great share of lazy guys who don't wanna do anything with their lives in Japan, just as there are in the US. But I think it's kinda interesting to see the men trending away from the idea that they have to be at the top of a corporation to be successful. In an ironic way it's kind of going back to their pre 20th century roots when the Japanese culture was primarily agrarian. I suppose you could call this their hippie movement. Interesting. EDIT: That said, I don't know about the not having sex. *shrug*