Geoffrey Taucer

So when you say 1-3 for army, is there a standard setup you typically use? Here's my usualy hotkey setup with Terran: 1: all CCs 2: all rax 3: all facts 4: all ports 5: whole army (minus any drops, scouts, or other such small forces I have out on the map) 6: tanks 7: either vikings, ghosts, or ravens 8: scouts/drops/other small groups 9: ebays 0: armories Though if I switch to zerg, I'd rather retrain myself to keep armies on 1-4.

How do you hotkey your queens and hatcheries? All queens and all hatches, or individual hatches and queens, or what? That's the biggest thing I've been trying to figure out. With Terran, it's easy: hotkey the CCs, rax, facts, ports, ebays, and armories, and the rest is army.

Hey whaddya know I'm in gold league now. I've been exclusively playing Terran, but the more I think about it the more I want to switch to Zerg. Zerg mechanics seem so much harder, though.

I'm pretty sure I've run into you on the ladder.....

So what would be the japanese pronunciation of Kakariko?

Excellent! Been looking forward to this one for awhile, and it certainly doesn't doesn't disappoint.

For me: Ko-keer-ee Dee-koo Nigh-roo Skull-chula Fair-or Kuh-CAR-ick-oh HIGH-rule

First impressions of the 3DS version: I love it. Improved visuals and controls/interface, some great use of the 3DS's motion-sensing capabilities, a couple of minor changes that I think benefited the game, but everything that should have stayed the same stayed the same (at least so far).

The point is that the fetch quests should be optional. Getting the Biggoron sword in OoT was loads of fun, because it was optional. You don't have to do it, but if you do, you're rewarded with an awesome-ass item. Triforce shard hunting is 1) far less varied and 2) NOT OPTIONAL. You must do it to move ahead. It's a stupid, pointless chore which takes for fucking ever and is not the slightest bit entertaining. I will agree that TP really could have been fleshed out a lot more with side quests, more varied rewards, more interesting items, etc. But still, I'll take TP over WW any day.

Yeah, the 4% of Wind Waker where you're actually doing something is great. The other 96%, which you spend sailing and performing stupid-ass fetch quests, on the other hand, was rather dildonic. I recently went back to Wind Waker for a replay, got to the part where you're supposed to hunt for Triforce shards, said "fuck this," and haven't touched it since. OoT, on the other hand, I've probably played through at least once a year every year since it came out.

Bit of a tangent, but the ice cave in OoT always puzzled me, just because there's so much more there than necessary. You can get everything you need to complete the game and not even touch half the rooms. Was it just copied over from an incomplete beta dungeon?

And they were right. Look, I grew up on nintendo, and am very much a nintendo fanboy. But this new system just seems stupid and gimmicky to me. Out of curiosity, regarding the wii -- does nintendo have some rule that all games released on it must include a stupid gimmicky mini-game where you have to shake the controller? 'Cause every wii game I've played insisted on using a shake as some sort of control mechanic, no matter how awkward, ineffective, and shoe-horned it felt. I hope the same won't be the case with the Wii U. I'm gonna hold off on buying this one until I hear some reviews -- I'm not impressed so far.

Why is there a screen on the controller? Could there possibly be a more effective way of destroying immersion than requiring the player to look away from the screen as part of the process of controlling the game?

Any updates on that music video?

I think videogame music, in it's early days, had no choice but to be very strongly melodic due to the limitations of the hardware. When you only have four channels to work with, you can't create a deep moody orchestral athmosphere -- your only choice is to write a strong, catchy melody. I think these technical limitations forced a great deal of creativity on the part of the composers. This effect has lessened with more recent generations of consoles, but I think there is still somewhat of a lingering effect. And songs with strong melodies tend to make for great remixing. I also like the way videogame music separates genres from the cultures typically associated with them. For example, let's look at popular music. Being a pop star (especially a female one) isn't about writing good music, it's about being a sex symbol. Being a hip-hop star isn't about writing good music, it's about being a badass gangsta. Being a country star isn't about writing good music, it's about being a redneck. The same is true to varying extents with just about any genre -- electronic, metal, classical, you name it. The VGM scene really separates the genres from those cultures, though. You can be a nerdy white guy and write rap. You can be a 20-something japanese guy and write irish folk. You can blend genres and write in any style you choose and nobody will so much as raise an eyebrow. I think the VGM scene is great in that it allows artists to be judged solely on the merits of their music, more so than just about any other genre of which I'm aware. See above -- VGM's biggest strength is that it does not confine artists to a particular style. It's biggest strength is how eclectic it is. *shrug* it's hard to make a blanket statement here that holds true across the board. It's the music I grew up with, it's the music that got me into music, it's the music that I've always loved.

Wait, what?

You have my permission to use any of my mixes

Well, this certainly wasn't what I was expecting when I saw halc's name. I like it, though. Very nice.

Gonna bump this thread. If anybody wants to hit me up for a few matches, my handle is Taucer and my character code is 201.

God damnit Arek, you just had to show up the one year I couldn't make it, didn't you?

Now starting countown until they announce the inclusion of Optimus Prime as a playable character...

The likelihood of my attendance appears to be decreasing daily... I'll let you all know if anything changes, but I probably won't be able to make it this year.

Well, I mean, it doesn't work on every map. I'll do it on Jungle Basin, Lost Temple, and occasionally Shakuras Plateau, but that's it. And once the second command center goes up, I generally end up playing pretty hardcore defense for a bit (move the rax out in front of the natural, build a bunker, usually build at least one more rax before teching up).

I've been experimenting with a fast expansion build with Terran and it seems to be working pretty well for me. 1 Rax, then expand.

There was actually one part in StarCraft 2 that I thought did this really well (though the rest of the game doesn't do this so much): the final mission in zeratul's memory crystal, where the protoss get overrun. The desperate, futile struggle is conveyed perfectly through the mechanics of the game.