lazygecko

Might have been said already, but you can convert what you've put in the pattern sequencer to the piano roll.

Final Fantasy is far from the system seller it was before. Japanese franchises in general have diminished in relevance the past few years. MGS4 so far hasn't sold as fast as it predecessors, and it's unlikely it will top them in total sales. This isn't 1998 anymore. The PS2 flourished because they had the jock demographic, but now they are in Microsoft's grasp and they won't be leaving any time soon. Sony needs to cater to new audiences. An FF exclusive would have been a fart in the wind long term. People seem to be vastly overestimating the whole ordeal.

This is why I think voice acting on everything should be abolished. This is why you are waiting all those extra months for localization.

Once again it becomes apparent just how embarrasing some gaming communities can be.

Dragon Age has been Bioware's pet project since 2004. It's an RPG developed exclusively for PC unlike their previous projects, so there won't be any compromises/"streamlining" in terms of mechanics, interface and other features. They describe it as the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate, though without the D&D ruleset. It has all the character/class customization and NPC intrigue from BG2, and in combat the camera seamlessly shifts to a top-down strategic perspective. Also when you create your character you also have to choose its history which determines where the character starts and how the world treats it. Sort of like Seiken Densetsu 3, but probably a lot more elaborate. The game will also have an entirely separate campaign tailored for multiplayer. Disregard the laughably underwhelming "Ring of the Lords" trailer and check the screenshots instead. You can tell there's a massive difference in style between the 2004 and 2008 shots, they probably reworked it from the ground up which would explain the media blackout since then.

It's from a licensing expo in New York.

For those who missed what's been going on, MGM bought the rights for Robocop and announced that they are creating a remake. It is currently set to be ready some time in 2010. Recently this promo poster surfaced: http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/8651/rc20102et2.jpg What's interesting is the targeted demographic, meaning we won't get any toned down kiddy shit like Robocop 3 or the TV series. What's also been revealed is that the possible director for the film is Darren Aronofsky, whoms track record includes Pi, Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain.

I learned a minimal amount of theory, and that was after I started submitting shit to OCR. Mostly I just go by trial & error and what feels right. What's important is getting the ideas from your head to something concrete.

I'm pretty sure the gaping hole between the series is more or less deliberate. Several games, and other types of fiction do this. In Command & Conquer for example, it is never explained where Kane comes from, why he doesn't age and never dies. Because of this, fans make up all sorts of far-fetched theories about him, and Joe Kucan himself said that's the entire point.

Best of luck to bLiNd.

And here I thought I was just running around stages blowing shit up cause it's fun. Guess I need some more dialog to interrupt me at every turn.

The Remix-O-Matic 5000. You import the original song, change the settings based on genre, press the Remix button and out it goes.

Powerup month it was.

Straight remixes generally have a hard time making it onto the site as there is some treshold set for reinterpretating the source material. It's to encourage creativity, though most of the stuff I've heard on OCR the past years feels way too detached for me to enjoy them.

First thing that comes to mind is Jeff Mills' The Bells Here is the original:

I once heard a Mozart tune with a constant, 1-bar 909 loop thrown over it for a sports montage on TV. That was just about the worst thing I ever heard. One of the earliest electronic music recordings was Switched on Bach by Walter/Wendy/Whatever Carlos. Each channel was tediously sequenced in mono on a Moog, before the more practical Minimoog was invented.

Wow, I can't believe so many people think FF pulled off so many things before anything else. Play more games, people!

Alright, Krusty's Fun House is a definate contender.

After browsing numerous forums and watching "best game music" threads pop up every month with the same shit listed over and over, I thought I'd make an effort to catalouge the worst aural offenders in games. Once I have enough material I'll pick the 10 worst ones and make a fancy YouTube presentation. So far my nominees are: A Boy and his Blob: This makes Banana Phone sound like Chopin. Cruis'n USA: Would have picked Daytona USA, but the constipated Elvis impersonator trumps it on every level. Mega Man 2 (Game Boy): I have no idea if the composer intentionally tried to pursue some avant garde disharmonic statement here. Doom (32x): I know it's not easy to get the most out of the YM chip, but this sounds just like they hastily ran the MIDI files through a converter and didn't even bother to manually touch them up afterwards. Which makes sense given that the entire game was one big rush job. There is lots to pick from some of the post-16bit Sega games, but I don't want them stealing too much thunder so I'd have to settle for just one or two. There's plenty of horrid Nu Metal shit from the Sonic games.

"Fine" or "classy" art is pretty much solely defined by just that, the upper class white societies. It doesn't neccessarily have anything to do with quality. Given enough time anything they pick up will become associated with them, like Jazz is nowadays.

There will always be "unofficial" custom versions that are likely better than what Microsoft has to offer anyhow.

Castlevania SotN for free. Got it from a classmate cause it was "that lame 2D shit".

I didn't say passive storytelling is inherently bad, it's all about the balancing. I love the FMV cutscenes in Command & Conquer, but when you start spending more time just staring at the screen rather than pressing buttons, something is wrong.

Things do happen in Metroid Prime, but there is no dialog or character development to speak of. The story is presented by deciphering your surroundings via the scanner.

I read that interview a while back and I think they blew some of his statements out of proportion. He didn't say he wasn't satisfied with the end result. Also the consoles never get better than the coders working with them, and Sony's hardware is a notoriously tough cookie to crack. It'll take several years before they figure out how to get the most out of the hardware, but when they do they'll probably be able to ecplise MGS4 on a technical level.