DarkeSword

No, those things are exactly what makes Mass Effect good. A game is more than just the part where you press the buttons. It is everything put together; it is scenario writing, it is art direction, it is sound design, it is gameplay mechanics. The Mass Effect Trilogy is a game about war and morality. If you don't depict war in a game about war, you have lessened the impact of the message the game is trying to convey. If you don't "buy into" it, then you're just ignorant. Rama spelled it out very clearly. As adults, there are times when we want to play games that deal with themes that are relatable. It's not about an obsession. It's about having variety. Nintendo isn't really offering that experience on the WiiU with fresh, new games, and that's not good.

Nobody said you did. You keep making all these straw man arguments. You keep talking about blood/guts/cursing as if these are the only things that M-rated games have. Stop doing that. You are wrong. Um, what? Mass Effect resonates with so many people precisely because it's good science fiction; the kind of science fiction that acts as allegory to explore adult themes, like the ethics in science, racism/xenophobia, the moral dilemmas that come along with waging war, etc. It's not required for a game to be good. Nintendo games that don't deal with these things are also good. But games that deal with adult and mature themes can benefit from doing so.Nobody is saying that they want "nothing but dark, unhappy, dramatic games." Again, you keep making these straw man arguments. Stop doing that. I'm still trying to figure out whose arguments you're actually trying to refute. Nobody here is saying any of that.The point being made is that as a first-party Nintendo rarely offers games that deal with more adult themes in an adult way (and I'm not talking about blood and gore, before you start going off on that again). Acquiring Atlus will help them with that (see the aforementioned Persona 4), but the worry (a worry that I don't share, mind you) is that Nintendo may neuter what Atlus does by trying to scale-back the mature content in their games. Anyway stop making all these out-of-the-blue straw man arguments.

That is one six issue storyline from a very long, 80+ issue comic book series called Superman/Batman. There's no one story about Superman and Batman. The characters have existed together in the DC universe for over 70 years. There have been many ongoing books and mini-series about the two of them working together. In fact, the two characters are paired together so much that there's a special name for them when they work together: the World's Finest (and if you add Wonder Woman into the mix, they become known as the Trinity). Also for all you people that think Superman sucks: never speak to me, ever.

Or c) going to make the experience much better. Mass Effect 2 for example really benefits because there are many times where you play through conversations about ethical dilemmas. Games with a strong, integrated story element can become incredibly engaging pieces of entertainment because we, as gamers, get really dig into the ideas and themes presented to us. One of my favorite gaming moments is arguing with Mordin Solus about the ethics of the Genophage. This isn't a click-through conversation either; it's a role-playing opportunity where the player is allowed to pick and choose his or her arguments. More to the point, Atlus's Persona 4 also deals with a lot of mature themes; the deaths of loved ones, sexual and gender identity, issues relating to relationships and self-confidence/self-worth; the game is amazing and engaging for dealing with all these things. Nintendo could benefit from picking up Atlus; having Atlus's games on Wii U could really bring variety to the console's library.

I really am not a fan of all the name-calling and general bitchiness going on in this thread. Everyone needs to step back and take a minute. Let's try to keep the discussion civil.

Let's try to get a full 14 mixes this week, people. We came so close in the first round.

Agree with Jesse. Very repetitive groove and the whole soundscape feels like this really dull drone. Game SFX are also super cheesy and don't really add anything to the piece, but that's a personal gripe. NO

Honestly not even feeling the arrangement here. It really just sounds like someone trying to play the Super Mario Bros. theme from memory and only really remembering most of the rhythm. I don't feel like the original Mario melody really comes out at all here. In a weird way it really feels too liberal. Performance is also pretty sloppy; lots of flubby timing issues that took me out of the flow of the piece. Needs work. NO

When mentioning the site in written interviews and other things, remember that we have official ways of referring to the site: OverClocked ReMix - Full name of the site. Capital O, C, R, and M OC ReMix - Abbreviates OverClocked. There's a space between OC and ReMix. ocremix - All lowercase, no space. Generally used for official account usernames, URLs, and anywhere else where capital letters and spaces aren't available. OCR - Three letter acronym for the site. Common mistakes/what not to do: Overclocked Remix - Needs capital C and M. OverClocked ReMiX - Never capitalize the X. OCReMix - When capitalizing, always put a space between OC and ReMix OCRemix - Needs a space between OC and R, and the M should be capitalized. OCRM - The M is not part of the abbreviation OverClocked - Don't leave out ReMix. overclocked_remix or oc_remix - if you can't use spaces, don't use underscores and don't capitalize anything, just use "ocremix" O-Clocked - just...no.

Cash is Cash and Change's new artist name. I thought you all might be interested in knowing that this week's theme was composed by Yasuaki Fujita. Fujita-san composed under the alias Bunbun, and was the main composer for the classic Mega Man 3 soundtrack.

Remixes are up. Check 'em out and vote. Remember to READ THE VOTING GUIDELINES before you vote!

Oh no, it's not against any rules. I'm just saying that, as a musician, you should really strive to sequence everything yourself if you can. These competitions are excellent opportunities to train your ear. On a different topic: one thing I've been noticing from some of the more novice mixers in these competitions lately is when you guys use both sources but don't bother putting them in the same key. Some of the transitions I've been hearing have been pretty awkward. Make sure you guys are making the effort to combine both sources into a cohesive piece of music; this more often than not involves determining a common tonality. If you don't feel like you know how to do that, or even what that means, ask your teammates, ask in the workshop, or ask here. This core of this competition is learning how to arrange music, moreso than learning production techniques. There's a certain degree of music theory that you should be picking up and utilizing as you continue to arrange two pieces of music together every week. Good luck.

Not really tough love. You should be able to figure these songs out by ear; they're not really that complex. I didn't realize that people were actually using MIDIs for these competitions; I wish you guys wouldn't, actually. It's very important as an arranger to be able to listen to stuff and understand things like melody and chords just by listening. I certainly hope that nobody is copy and pasting MIDI data from preexisting MIDI files. You should only be using those for reference if you are.

Because I want you to grow as a musician and learn to do things by ear.

Round 2 source is up. Moliarty's Tower from Darkwing Duck. Mixes will go up later tonight.

I'm not a film-maker or a writer, I don't have a formula. But here are a couple of things that I think are important to have in a Superman story. First, Clark Kent is an investigative journalist, and I mean that this is an intrinsic part of his character, not just his job or his cover identity. It speaks to the idea that Superman fights for truth and justice. Clark seeks out the truth about corruption and evil in order to bring about justice. He exposes the wrong-doings of others by writing about them. Mark Waid used this to great effect in Superman: Birthright; rather than having Clark be a fisherman or a busboy at a bar, Clark traveled the world exposing the truth about corrupt politicians and bringing warlords in third-world countries to justice. Superman is not just about a strong guy holding up a collapsing oil-rig while the workers run to the helicopter; there is way more to Clark Kent than his powers. Next, Clark protects people. He doesn't haphazardly throw his opponents into buildings and oil tankers. He doesn't put people in danger by exposing them to unbelievable amounts of collateral damage. Superman is an amazing fighter, but he's not about the fight. He performs feats far beyond the capabilities of mortal men; feats that save lives, not put them in danger. Man of Steel's Superman showed very little concern for everything that was happening around him while fighting Faora and Zod, and I don't think that really jives at all with the character of Clark Kent. Superman is also an inspirational figure. He fills people with wonder, not fear. He interacts with people, and they're excited to see him. The first time people ever see Superman should not be after Metropolis is destroyed and a hundred thousand people have died. People should know and trust Superman; they need to be familiar with him to be able to understand that he's there to help and protect. Also, and this might be more of a gripe than anything else I've said, but don't color correct a Superman movie to be a desaturated grey blob. It's Superman, it should have a lot of color. Krypton especially is always portrayed in film as this bleak, grey mess, whereas in comic books Krypton is filled with colorful alien vistas. Anyway those are just a couple of points; ideally I think a great Superman movie would combine elements of Birthright for Clark's origin with Brainiac for the main hero/villain conflict. Also the movie wouldn't be an origin story; Superman would be around already for a couple of years and the origin would be referenced in a couple of flashbacks.

I don't like Donner's Superman movies either, and I think that it takes a lot more than just being "not-Donner" to tell a great Superman story.

That doesn't really even sound like Uptown Girl.

You really think it was a great movie? I found the whole thing to be tedious and utterly joyless, which are two things that should never be used to describe a Superman story. The whole thing also showed very little understanding of the character of Clark Kent.

Not at all! The narrative is what makes it fun. The Walt Disney Company used their commercial empire to fund Dr. Wily's project to rebuild his vast network of castles after his defeat two years ago. But in an effort to make Wily's Castles more family friendly, they've gone and done a lot of remodeling and have generally interfered with Dr. Wily's original vision, which is why all the castles look and sound like old Disney-Capcom game locations. Needless to say, Dr. Wily is not pleased...

I don't shop at Gamestop if I have the choice. They aggressively push used games over new games, with very little difference in price. They lowball you on trade-in credit. They open up merchandise to use the boxes as "display copies" and then sell those opened, beat-up display copies at full retail price. They allow employees to take opened, new copies of games home to play and then sell those used games at full retail price. Employees can be very aggressive about pushing pre-orders at the point of sale. Unlike other retailers, they rarely ever offer any kind of discount on new games. They're a business, true, and all of these things help their bottom line, but they also all add up to a pretty crappy experience for consumers.

As a DC comics fan, I should be incredibly excited about this, but I'm not. Man of Steel was a major disappointment. DCE is just not doing a good job with their movies at all, and I'm resigned to the fact that they seem to think that Man of Steel is a good movie to launch DC's cinematic universe.

First rule of the Steam Sale: Never buy anything that isn't a Daily Deal, Flash Sale, or Community Pick until the very last day of the sale.

Don't call me Sharky.

No joke, "butt" is literally the funniest word in the English language.