Cash

All music is complete?!

Submitted with 15 minutes left on the clock! Make that four!

I did raise my eyebrows at some of the praise of Daft Punk in those videos, so I get what you're saying. I don't see that as too much hype though. I can't really say anything else until I hear the album. A bit early to say that, isn't it? sup

I haven't heard the album yet, I'm waiting until it's released. I enjoyed Get Lucky, so I expect I'll like the whole album. Since multiple people have said it, I have to say I dislike the term "overhyped". Someone please explain something to me. What is considered to be an acceptable amount of hype? What qualifies as too much hype? How do you measure hype? It always seems to be the people who were disappointed in some way that complain about too much hype.

I say keep going, let's have a Season 2. Now seems to be a busy time for people. Give it some more time.

Yeah, put in the extension. I'm close to finished, another 2 days will be plenty of time.

Another thought. I also think some of the animosity towards the newer games comes from the fact that they deviate from the Final Fantasy "norm". FF 1 through 9 stick to the same formula, proven to be successful. So when the franchise tried to mix things up, and take a few risks, a lot of fans were turned off. I'd like to think I enjoy the older games because they're made better, but I wouldn't be surprised if I'm a little bias towards the standard formula. In case anyone is wondering, FF13 is the only one I actually hate, I did have fun with 10 and 12. I didn't play 11 because MMO's don't interest me.

I thought it was a pain in the ass. It's better than the ability system in FF13 though, at least in 10 you had a choice of where to go. It was such an awful experience for me. Maybe I just sucked at it. But hey, that's great you had fun with it. Whatever floats your boat. I noticed it immediately. You just described the problem that arises without an explorable map. Without a map to explore, you ARE only restricted to towns, dungeons, and points of interest. You can't see the entire world, you have to go where the game takes you. And with the case of FF10, once you get the airship, you could select where to fly. But again, you could only choose from towns, dungeons, or points of interest. A world map like in previous FF's provides a way to explore and see the entire world. I get that you can only enter specific areas, but it certainly gives you greater freedom of exploration. Something that I feel to be important. That was my problem with 10 and later, you couldn't actually see the whole map, only specific areas important to the plot. It makes me feel closed off and restricted, I didn't like it. I missed the ability to go off looking for an obscure town, or hut, or cave, or whatever. I think it makes for better secrets. All my opinion, of course. No doubt you think differently. I do agree that giant characters running around looks silly, but it wasn't a problem for me. By the way, I still think FF 10 is a good game.

The endless, lifeless hallways that would not deviate destroyed the game for me. I actually came to enjoy the battles after they became challenging, about 10 hours in for me. That was because it was a break from the dreaded hallways. The sick thing is that I played the game for 25 hours before stopping. I couldn't stop playing, maybe I kept hoping the game would get good. Never did. @ XPRTNovice, thanks for going more in depth! I would say that my first answer was best: the flaws in the older games were not as severe, and could be overlooked. I agree that the stories in the older games had a few issues, but at least you can follow the stories. Something that can't be said for FF13. I really think the reason why the most recent games get bashed more heavily is because the flaws are just so much worse. Some examples: FF10 - The sphere grid was a clunky, tedious mess. Blitzball was a nightmare. As you mentioned, the lack of an explorable world map was also a pretty big deal. FF12 - The battle system felt very odd to me. It let you run around freely, yet you still had to wait for your turn. You were forced to run around like an idiot until you turn was ready. It also bothered me that you couldn't directly control all your party members. The lack of a world map was again an issue. It effectively felt like everywhere you went was another dungeon. Plus I also found that I was often getting lost, maybe that was just me. FF13 - The flaws in this one should be obvious. My thought is that the flaws I mentioned above are much harder to ignore. The way I see it, the older Final Fantasy's didn't have any potentially game breaking flaws.

What are those flaws? It's difficult to respond to this without knowing the flaws you reference. I will say for now that the newer games have bigger flaws, which are much harder to overlook. The entirety of FF13 is the prime example of flaws that can't be overlooked (at least not easily).

I completely disagree with you. I find the opposite to be true. Name one way in which 10, 12, and 13 better games than their predecessors. You're going to have to be more specific.

Filled out the sign up form, looking forward to this.

I'm up for it! Anyone else?

If this comes to fruition, I'm in. Awesome idea!

I was obsessive with making multiple saves of Final Fantasy games, especially on PS1 and PS2. I went nuts with FF7 and FF10. The issue I ran into was that my brother and I would accidentally save over each other's files. This wasn't a problem with Xbox, thanks to having different profiles.

Here's a relevant article from NPR about bringing more women into programming. This ties in closely with game development, I would think. The woman featured in the article suggests that "making women in the field more visible to each other will help young women see that there is a path for them" in the industry. Programming in this case, but I think the same idea can be applied to game development. I thought the article provides good insight into the current discussion. I think this is one of the better solutions I've heard. Any thoughts?

Yeah, sure, why not. I'll sign up again, as a novice.

I'll enter this round, I missed the first round.

What can the average gamer do to address the issue of diversity in games? What can we do, as gamers, to make games more diverse? This is a question I've always struggled to answer. I certainly agree we need more women in game development. I have a Bachelor's degree in game design, and there were very few women in my program. I also remember that two female students went into other areas. Is there anything that those who play the games can do to encourage more women to become game developers? I suppose the most gamers can do is treat women with respect, and not harass them online. Well, I think there should less harassment in general, men say all sorts of shit to each other as well. Though it's arguably worse for women. Other than that, I don't have any answers.

Cool, 1st place! I'm glad everyone liked it, and thanks for the votes! A shout out goes to pu_freak for helping me get to the top! Everyone else did a great job as well!

Damn, missed the deadline. I'll have to pay more attention next time!

We're voting for one person, right? I'm not entirely clear on that.

Way cool remix! Here's my thoughts: I'm digging that bass, it sounds like something Mazedude would use. The high end resonance can be harsh at times. It's really noticeable in the first 45 seconds of the song. Also the section between 1:05 and 1:08. As timaeus said, the instruments have a bit too much reverb. Things overall seem muddy. I think mostly in the mid to high frequencies, the low end sounds fine to me. I like the break down starting at 1:18, very nice. Incorporating Grunty Industries was a cool idea. By the way, there's currently an ongoing Banjo-Kazooie project. I think you should consider joining! Click my signature if you're interested (it'll link you to the recruitment thread).