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Domain: u-ga.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to u-ga.com.

Comments · 8

  1. Explicit games are also on the increase... by R5900 · · Score: 5, Funny · on Videogames Attract More Women Than Boys?
    A even non-explicit ones, such as Tetsuya Mizuguchi's wonderful musical-shooter Rez, give unexpected vibrations to some women..

    BTW, this game is really good. Not your average rts/fps clone, but for those who like different games, worth a try .

  2. Re:ha by CheeseMonkey · · Score: 1 · on Fun is Fine - Toward a Philosophy of Game Design
    I think you have to ask this question of many other established forms of "art". What makes something "art"? I mean, most people consider litrature and (to a lesser degree) film as art, so why not games? You won't go to a gallery any time soon to look at any of this stuff- but that's a function of mechanics more than anything else. So, how do you define "art"?

    From dictionary.com:
    1. The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.
    2. The study of these activities.
    3. The product of these activities; human works of beauty considered as a group.
    From that definition, I would say video games qualify as easily as film, and possibly more so than literature =) At least some video games. At the very least, before doing any more critical analysis of whether or not games should be considered art, I urge you to play the game Rez. This game is a work of absolute genius, and is hands down the closest I've ever seen to what could be considered an interactive work of art.
  3. Re:Sega's Rez for the PS2 by AnriL · · Score: 1 · on New Insights into Synesthesia

    I agree. I'd also add that Rez iz IMHO the most original game I've seen since Tetris.

    Anyway, to contribute slightly to the topic, the credits of Rez say: Dedicated to the incredible creative soul of Kandinsky.

    Vasily Kandinsky was an early 20-th century painter and musician, one of the first abstract painters, and also a synesthete - his paintings are as close to music as paintings can get, and it is very easy to imagine music while examining his artwork. He once said that color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.

  4. Been there, done that... by AlexMax2742 · · Score: 1 · on New Insights into Synesthesia
    I've already been to synesthesia. And it kicks arse.

    Seriously, Rez (for PS2 or import DC) is a GREAT example of synesthesia, but I'm not going to even try and explain it here, you're going to have to see/play it for yourself...if you can find a copy anywhere.

  5. Re:Game Design, then and now by badasscat · · Score: 1 · on Atari 2600 Game Development

    2. game content has changed dramatically. q bert was weird. space invaders was weird. pac man was weird. (yes, sports games did exist, but they weren't mainstream then). games today are less weird. it's either a first person shootemup, sports, or a linear fiction w/some combat.

    Plenty of "weird games" still out there. You could be playing games like this, this, or this. Or even this.

    I'm as big a fan of old-school gaming as anyone and still have my Atari 2600 hooked up. But there are just as many offbeat games now as there always were - and not every game back in the old days was all that innovative either (like now, most of them ripped off formulaic concepts). It's just that we don't remember the crappy games, despite the fact that they made up the bulk of the Atari 2600's 1000+ game library. There was a reason for the crash of 1984, after all - a deluge of junk on the market.

    A lot of people complain about the lack of innovation today, ignoring games like those I linked above. I'll bet most of you didn't even know that those games exist, all the while lamenting about how the present game publishing system doesn't allow the "little guy" to make any headway at breaking established formulas. I would argue that the big guys are better at breaking their own formulas than any inexperienced, underfunded "little guy" ever could be - it's just that when they do, the games don't sell. Can you blame EA for putting out Madden 200X every year when a game like Rez sells fewer than 10,000 copies and Vib Ribbon isn't even released here for lack of interest?

  6. "gdb -Rez" anyone? by ZeiramMR · · Score: 1 · on Does Your Debugger Sing to You?

    This really reminds me of the video game Rez by Sega. In Rez, every sound effect folds into the background music (silence at first, but it builds as a stage progresses). Plus, in the game you play a hacker's avatar infiltrating computer networks and destroying viruses.

  7. Re:Interesting games by Tofuhead · · Score: 2 · on Artwork from Ancient Atari History
    18) Color/pattern generator based on player input. Could be located in discos and keyed to audio input from P.A.

    Sounds kind of like Rez from United Game Artists (Sega). It's available for Japanese Sega Dreamcast and PS2. It incorporates some simple Space Harrier/Panzer Dragoon-style shooting elements too.

    Links:

    United Game Artists
    Rez Homepage (If you have a Windows machine lying around, make sure to watch Mizuguchi-san's live demo of the game...it explains how this game can be considered a shooter, a light generator, and a music generator at the same time.)

    < tofuhead >

  8. Re:Interesting games by Tofuhead · · Score: 2 · on Artwork from Ancient Atari History
    18) Color/pattern generator based on player input. Could be located in discos and keyed to audio input from P.A.

    Sounds kind of like Rez from United Game Artists (Sega). It's available for Japanese Sega Dreamcast and PS2. It incorporates some simple Space Harrier/Panzer Dragoon-style shooting elements too.

    Links:

    United Game Artists
    Rez Homepage (If you have a Windows machine lying around, make sure to watch Mizuguchi-san's live demo of the game...it explains how this game can be considered a shooter, a light generator, and a music generator at the same time.)

    < tofuhead >