Israfel

My sister and I will both be there. I like how so many of the events have a cool sort of retro theme to them - should be fun.

I really need to pick this up. I remember beating Final Fantasy II ( =P ) as a kid and being so hyped up for a sequel, and I just *knew* one was coming out. This whole 'FFs are all separate storylines' thing wasn't exactly common knowledge then. So finally, my 9 year-old self can find out what happened to Kain.

So has anyone been following this game? One of the developers posts on a forum that I read, and I mean seriously, everytime I see more about this game I'm just floored. The basic idea is that you're trying to collect this little star thingies and in order to do this you can summon just about anything (there are a few limits like no brand names, proper nouns or abstract concepts). And I mean for real, almost anything. Some of the impressions coming out of E3 are flat-out ridiculous. Here's one from that same forum (NeoGAF, btw) that really captures the insane potential of this thing. So yeah. Honestly, games don't really amaze me. I've played so many games over such a long period of time that no amount of eye candy impresses me all that much. But man oh man does Scribblenauts amaze me.

[Leon]Saddler, you're small time.[/Leon] ...sorry, I just got done replaying that.

I don't follow the community as much as I used to, but back in the day my theory on this was that the remixing community isn't listener-centric. Generally speaking, I figured that most listeners would prefer songs to be done more like a professional "arranged" CDs--like the stuff on the FF7 Reunion album. But from the remixer's perspective, that's not very interesting. I'm sure there are lots of non-remixers who like the stuff we do just fine, but I always assumed that we'd get a bigger audience if we our "mixes" were basically just sample upgrades of the original. Or maybe not--it's just something I used to wonder about. Like, in music colleges the composition faculty write pieces that are mostly intended to be heard by other composition profs. I wonder if, at least to some degree, mixing is the same way: music by remixers, for remixers.

The older systems I own are NES, Game Boy Color, Saturn, PS1, N64, GBA, Dreamcast and PS2--they are all hooked up. I used to own an Atari, Game Boy, Genesis, SNES and Xbox but I'm going to have to rebuy them now.

I er...uh, don't know what you're talking about. Incidently, apropos of nothing, has anyone seen prot around lately?

^_~ I'm just kidding around. After all, if I was Gray then that would mean that at one time I would have had three votes on the panel, and that's not very sporting. Gray was awesome. I miss him, too.

Yeah, even better than the collab I did with the Dead Lovers' Consort.

...now that's just crazy. *cough*

I generally haven't been a renter since the SNES. But I'll probably start up a Gamefly account soon. It's a great way to try out games I'm a bit unsure about.

Looks like it's going to have the over-the-shoulder view and aiming reticule of RE4Wii. Sign me up.

The conference was certainly underwhelming. I'm excited about Wii Sports Resort, Animal Crossing and the MotionPlus, but I'm very much concerned about Wii Music. Honestly though, my main problem is just that so little was shown. Although, I guess it was a deliberate decision on Nintendo's part--there's plenty that we know about that they could have shown, they just chose not to for some reason. I get the impression that Nintendo was using the conference to target the mainstream press, which is fine, but it did make for a less interesting show.

I was definitely nonplussed by the demonstration today, but I'll give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt pending more information.

Clockwork Orange is a favorite movie of mine, and I just sort of identity (or maybe that's not quite the right word...) a bit with Alex.

Really, they use a j-pop song? I'll have to track that down. I haven't heard it but it seems like it would clash with the game's aesthetic. Reminds me of those credit songs by Rika Muranaka. With the possible exception of "The Best Is Yet To Come" from Metal Gear Solid (and I'm a tad iffy on that one, too) they always sounded out of place to me.

I'm 25 and the Wii is the only current-gen console I own. I do a lot of retrogaming so I'm not necessarily using the Wii every day (right now, I'm mainly playing Resident Evil 3, so the PS1 gets switched on the most), but overall it probably gets more play than any other system. The Wii has been a bit like the Dreamcast for me in that I often find myself picking up games in genres I don't normally play just because I find the system such a joy to use.

As I understand it (and this may be wrong), the credits were taken out because they contained the logo for Clover Studios which Capcom no longer has the rights to use---apparently Ready At Dawn couldn't, or just didn't want to, remove the logo and so the whole credits got the boot. I've never heard of the prologue being cut, but I've never played the PS2 version to compare. However, the Wii version opens with a telling of the battle between Nagi and Orochi that definitely looks very prologue-ish to me.

I recently started playing Okami on the Wii, too, and I'm really loving it. I think the controls work for the most part (it may have to do a little with how receptive one is to using wiimote controls in general--personally I'm a fan) although they are a tad off. The brush controls can be a bit touchy, but I'm getting used to it. I'm more disappointed with the nunchuk gestures. I'm starting to get the hang of the them, but I'm having to exaggerate my motions to get consistent results. But aside from that, Okami is easily the prettiest game I've ever played--in particular, the cutscenes that play when you revive an area are très cool. Plus it's got great music and some wonderful Zelda-inspired gameplay. So yeah, it's awesome. (also picked up Dementium for the DS on the same day...not quite so awesome )

If it is StarTropics (and that's what it sounds like), it's worth noting that it is currently available on the Wii's virtual console.

Cool. Has anyone here played vib-ribbon for the PS1? That game uses the same basic idea.

I still have it. I don't have a webpage (and I can't be arsed to put one up) so I'll just upload it to rapidshare--hopefully that'll work okay for you. http://rapidshare.com/files/92512178/Israfel_-_Deep_Velvet_Scherzo.mp3 That'd just be silly.

I won't comment on the other guys, but speaking just for myself: listening to and reviewing mixes is pretty darn time consuming, and if you don't really enjoy doing it, you're going to get burned out. That's all; I just got tired of it. No behind-the-scenes drama or anything--I was never that heavily involved in the off-stage goings on anyway. Aside from Gray, I didn't have much contact with the other judges.

Before he fell off the net, the late, great former judge Graylightning seemed to be making progress in that direction. If I remember correctly (and I may not be ), he had started working at a music studio about the time I lost track of him. Can anyone confirm that? It's been awhile.

It is kinda weird--how on earth can you be a high schooler or a freshman in college and feel old? That's just bizarre.