No problem. You should really check out FF3, it was the first use of the Job System, and it wasn't the best Final Fantasy in that generation, but it was still amazing to see such early evolution of the genre. Feels like playing a 16-bit RPG on an 8 bit console. Good stuff.
A lot of people had similar reactions when Final Fantasy 7 was released. Though 7 had much more groundbreaking additions to bring to the RPG scene, there were a lot of mixed reviews because it changed the formula that the series had held for several generations of products.
FFX-2 can be seen in a similar light, though I don't think anyone can argue it's brining anything new to the scene at all, in fact it has a good amount of backwards momentum for some existing Final Fantasy mechanics; the class change system existing in X-2 is severly crippled when compared to FF 5 or FF Tactics. However this iteration just goes to show that Square does not fear change to their flagship product. Personaly I'm not going to touch this game with a 100-foot-pole, I think it's horrible as far as my tastes are concerned, but I have to give them respect for not falling into a repetitious churning of the "what works" formula(examples to this would be EASports and Disney entertainment), and continuing to experiment in the medium. You have to have a lot of balls to display such extreme experimentation with your multi-million selling franchise as square has in recent years.
I checked this out last night. It's a good experience. The interface was entirely keyboard driven and brought a *ton* of memories back from Bard's Tale. The overworld graphics are just right for this kind of game; smoothly scrolling, high res, but still delivers that grid based feeling of navigating a town or dungeon. The monster and character art ranges from Ok to fantastic, but I'm happy to say it walks more on the "fantastic" side most of the time. (Go Socar Miles!) My only complaints would be the stat rolling for character creation and audio. I would consistently roll high stats for my gnome characters, stats > 15 for nearly everything, while some of my other characters refused to gain stats higher than 15 or 16 (like my dwarf who was awarded the name "wimpy" for this little characteristic. On the other hand my Gnome could easily get a full load of stats at 15 or above on everything, and I rarely saw anything below 10 for the little guy. He put all my other characters in their places, so that was quite odd. The audio was the second thing I noticed, while the music in the game is *beautiful* and fits the game and the mood quite nicely, some of the sound effects seem like they were taken right from a google search. They had very poor sampling rate and there was a noticeable level of white noise in the background when certain birds would chirp or crow in the distance.
Other than that, I recommend this to anyone who misses their Amiga or C64 and wishes RPGS today could throwback to the simpler times. Very good stuff.
I have had this theory for a long time that I'm just waiting for doctors to confirm via research. I feel that video games allow a person with one of the aformentioned disabilities to focus tame their issue for a period of time. The interactive aspect of games requires all levels of a persons concentration and attention, from hearing to visual to motor skills. Through this people who have a hard time keeping their mind from wandering generally find it they can hold their attention on the screen with a controller in their hand.
However, it's also a well known fact that the overabundance of a particular element breeds dependancy, either from drug use or other such input. I think it could very well be the same from the video game perspective, and while games help people with ADD/ADHD/what-have-you, they can also demand so much from a person that they may not be able to function as efficiently in environments that don't require constant mental observation (like real life for example).
There seems to be a large misconception that all graffiti artists are vandalizing property without prior consent. Yes, there is a large amount of work that is created by general people who tag anything from subways to bilboards, but 90% of graffiti "artists" actually get city permission to do their work on certain buildings. Some are even commisioned for it. If you take a look at the guys website, you'll see he's not exactly showing off street signs and railroad cars with his signature scribbled in paint. It looks more like alley ways and school buildings that he was most likely asked to paint or got permission beforehand.
That is interesting. I remember when I was a kid playing games on my C64 I lost out on the ending of a D&D RPG because my dad just HAD to go to bed and the PC was kept in my parents room. Nowhere to save, midst of the final battle, has to shut it down.
"Is there such a thing as being able to save too often?"
Oh yes! Quicksaves are really convenient, but they take all the challenge out of some games.
- progress. save. progress. save. progress. die. reload. progress half as far. save. experiment. save. etc. etc.
There are two drawbacks to quicksaves, or saving too often in general. - No risk experimentation.
The player really isn't afraid to jump out that window or off that cliff. They can dive into a room full of armed thugs without any fear at all. The lack of risk and fear of losing your "life" takes both immersion and reward out of passing an obstacle or event.
This is sort of a side-effect of having too many saves, but: - Spoiled gamers? Not really, but in a way its really difficult to go back to games that don't offer such lenient save functions. I was just playing a game the other day who's title completely slips my mind, but it was a FPS with no quicksave function. It drove me nuts. Forced me to complete whole stages without using my magic F5 key (Oh the horror!). It really made me think of the impact it has on a player to be given such powerful tools and abuse them without knowing it. And when a game imposes stricter saving rules on the player (me), I get really peeved about it.
So in a lot of ways, saving too many times is more than just a placeholder so I can stop playing momentarily, or a punishment. It's a cheat.
Something that everyone is forgetting whenever this topic comes up is that human beings are violent creatures. Not everyone, some more than others, but human beings have an inherent violence within them. We start wars, we rape, we kill... It's an orgy of violence on this planet! (!!!) And that's just reality I'm talking about.
Look, seriously, if I ever have children, they're probably not going to be sleeping with hookers and running people over in showers of blood until they're quite a bit older. However, kids that are more prone to violence will get their violence from books, comics, television (No!), video games (Liar!), or the school playground. Don't you remember that loving voice of your mother when she'd scream "Stop that rough-housing! or "Don't throw that at her!"
We could eliminate every violent medium on this planet, and it would not eliminate violence, because the violence starts with *us*. We're the ones who put the violence in there in the first place, so we're where the solutions have to start.
Is this our new genre to be mass-copy catted? First it was the FPS, then the RTS, then the MMO games... I guess we're all in for a steady stream of crime-game clones in the next few generations....
Oh well, I hope they do a good job. The largest benefit of these games is thier open ended nature. I like the ability to ditch a mission, jump in the nearest car, and drive the the other side of the city just for the hell of it. You really don't need the crime and violence to make these games entertaining. Hopefully someone can use the most appealing parts of these titles and apply it to something completely different (kind of like I'm expecting the Simpsons Hit and Run is supposed to be).
Interestingly enough, ICO was driven by a really (insanely) advanced inverse kinematics setup. Some of the animation was animated by hand when it came to general leg movement and attacking, but the rest of it was all dynamically performed by the sweetest character rigging and weighting ever to grace a game itself. The designers should have been commended on this technical feat alone.
Either way, you're correct and the animation in ICO was done by hand for the most part. I wish I hadn't forgotten that one because it was an amazing game in the first place.
If the animator is any good, the sense of gravity and weight is much better in models animated by hand, rather than motion capture. Motion capture will always look more realistic, but so far there is a severe lack of animation skills in the industry. Mark of Kri and Jak and Daxter (both for PS2) are the only games I can think of off the top of my head that have well done character animation by hand.
In the end it comes down the type of game you're creating. You would never give a colorfully animated character a motion captured animation set, and giving realistic people exaggerated animations would give the game an entirely different tone.
"All shooters are an unique sensory experience. The only difference between the "ordinary" shooters and Rez is that Rez is actively CLAIMING to be something they all are."
This is true for that particular perspective, but that was exactly my point. Your preconceived notion that Rez is supposed to be a shooter on the same level as other shooters thrusts it into that category in your own subconscious, which dictates how you interpret the game.
Whether Rez is the worst game ever created is totally irrelevant. You're just bashing on one particular game and missing my point completely. The fact that there are developers out there making an honest attempt to create a new experience is what we should be supporting if we want this medium to evolve.
A unique game can come in many different forms. Graphics, gameplay, or just a new franchise. That about says it all. Gamers want different "different" things, and it also greatly depends on their perspective. I'm a person who loves a good game full of experimental gameplay, or a new graphical appearance, but often times I could go for the same old fantasy RPG who's only unique feature is a new universe with characters I've never seen before. However I don't always understand what the developers were trying to do with a title, and I think it may be the same for many other people.
Your first impression of a game is what nails you to your perspective. An example of this would be a control feature in the older Zelda: Ocarina that carried over to the later 3D Zelda games. At first glance you see a 3D platformer, but the first time you pick up the controller and learn there's no *jump* button, you're appalled. I hated it, I didn't understand, and until someone told me later that the developers wanted to create a more streamlined method of control that relied on less user input, I couldn't appreciate this unique take on 3D navigation.
The same applies to most other games that break the mold. Some may pick up Rez and decide it's the worst shooter in the world (compared to space harrier or it's very similar gameplay cousin Panzer Dragoon) and hate it. But when they realize that the creators were trying to merge a sensory experience using sound, visuals and physical sensation, they find it possible to gain more appreciation for it, and become more open minded towards this unique experience.
It's a state of mind that allows you to change your perspective, find an appreciation for what the game really *is*, instead of what you're expecting, and expectations are where most people lose their acceptance of experimentation in this medium.
This is one of the best games ever made. I wish it had gotten more coverage. The voice acting is THE worst. Far, far worse than Resident Evil. Far worse than Star Ocean 2. The game has no hillariously terrible translation to save it (ala Zero Wing), it was just downright horrible. Particularly the blond German/Russian/Jewish/Chinese and sometimes Polish accented Scientist, and the male Heros ex-fiance Ellen.
Seriously, go hunt this game down right now (~$20) for the entertainment of making your ears bleed, but I promise you'll find yourself sucked into a really killer title soon after.
Most people have seen it in action, including myself. I have written it off, and I know of no one who has tried it out and actually liked the system.
It's a stupid thing to jump on the bash-product-X bandwagon, no matter how poor it is. I appreciate your attempt to make people think with a more critical perspective instead of doing just that. We need more people who think for themselves instead of collecting and regurgitating others opinions. I don't think this applies to the case of the N-Gage, but either way it's good to be open minded.
I never said it was about fansubs, but it touches on pirate communities taking fansubbed work and selling it as legit material.
The term "underground" is loosely applied. Fansubbing is pretty underground as the majority of people on the net know nothing about it.
"The high prices may justify not buying the original in your mind..." I have quite a collection of domestic anime, and never once have I said I didn't support buying this form of media.
Obscurity breeds longevity on the net. Slashdot has a knack of bringing a lot of little-known aspects of this community to the attention of the mass majority. The purpose of my post was to express my concern over a topic of personal interest now widely known by several thousand readers. Though the article does not mention the fansubbing community at length, anyone who is not immediately familiar with the concept have now been introduced via the specific mention in the slashdot post.
I read the Article/FAQ. Next time read the post more carefully, but don't hit reply. Instead sit back, think (try it, it works), and then respond. I hope I've cleared up any questions you may have had. Thank you.
I built this thing 2 years ago. I don't have to rent the games, it plays over 5000 titles (thanks MAME, Zsnes, etc), it has four console gaming pads and an authentic arcade joystick. It cost me $300. -> http://www.mini-itx.com/
You'll get a better deal out of making your own and you won't be insulted by titles like "Bikini Kombat Sluts", (and if you like that sort of thing, stick to the XBox with DOA Beach Volleyball. It probably has loads more "gameplay" than this cheap knockoff).
Everytime something a little underground get coverage on slashdot, I cringe. I really hope this doesn't cause copyright holders to crack down on Fansub distributions, because I really dig my fansubs.
On top of that, I'm pretty certain that anyone willing to buy dubbed versions of the same anime when they're ported to the US market (100 years after Japanese release) will still buy the DVDs anyways. That is to say, I hope this doesn't become another mp3 crackdown because some greedy bastards decide that fansubs are "ruining their profit".
Nope, none of us do, but there are redeeming values to any recreational activity when done in moderation, so you don't really sound like a goddamn hippie.;)
That's interesting to bring up either way, since gaming is on the rise in both popularity and addictiveness, there will definitely be reprocussions to large amounts of over-interactivity. We're already seeing this in places like South-East Asian countries where Netcafes run rampant and people are keeling over dead from playing *too* long. I wonder how long it will be until we have a legitimage mental social disorder that's treated by modern medicine.;)
I've always wanted to coin the definition of "ludomentia".
Slashdot Mirror
No problem. You should really check out FF3, it was the first use of the Job System, and it wasn't the best Final Fantasy in that generation, but it was still amazing to see such early evolution of the genre. Feels like playing a 16-bit RPG on an 8 bit console. Good stuff.
A lot of people had similar reactions when Final Fantasy 7 was released. Though 7 had much more groundbreaking additions to bring to the RPG scene, there were a lot of mixed reviews because it changed the formula that the series had held for several generations of products.
FFX-2 can be seen in a similar light, though I don't think anyone can argue it's brining anything new to the scene at all, in fact it has a good amount of backwards momentum for some existing Final Fantasy mechanics; the class change system existing in X-2 is severly crippled when compared to FF 5 or FF Tactics.
However this iteration just goes to show that Square does not fear change to their flagship product. Personaly I'm not going to touch this game with a 100-foot-pole, I think it's horrible as far as my tastes are concerned, but I have to give them respect for not falling into a repetitious churning of the "what works" formula(examples to this would be EASports and Disney entertainment), and continuing to experiment in the medium.
You have to have a lot of balls to display such extreme experimentation with your multi-million selling franchise as square has in recent years.
I checked this out last night. It's a good experience. The interface was entirely keyboard driven and brought a *ton* of memories back from Bard's Tale. The overworld graphics are just right for this kind of game; smoothly scrolling, high res, but still delivers that grid based feeling of navigating a town or dungeon. The monster and character art ranges from Ok to fantastic, but I'm happy to say it walks more on the "fantastic" side most of the time. (Go Socar Miles!)
My only complaints would be the stat rolling for character creation and audio. I would consistently roll high stats for my gnome characters, stats > 15 for nearly everything, while some of my other characters refused to gain stats higher than 15 or 16 (like my dwarf who was awarded the name "wimpy" for this little characteristic. On the other hand my Gnome could easily get a full load of stats at 15 or above on everything, and I rarely saw anything below 10 for the little guy. He put all my other characters in their places, so that was quite odd.
The audio was the second thing I noticed, while the music in the game is *beautiful* and fits the game and the mood quite nicely, some of the sound effects seem like they were taken right from a google search. They had very poor sampling rate and there was a noticeable level of white noise in the background when certain birds would chirp or crow in the distance.
Other than that, I recommend this to anyone who misses their Amiga or C64 and wishes RPGS today could throwback to the simpler times. Very good stuff.
I have had this theory for a long time that I'm just waiting for doctors to confirm via research. I feel that video games allow a person with one of the aformentioned disabilities to focus tame their issue for a period of time. The interactive aspect of games requires all levels of a persons concentration and attention, from hearing to visual to motor skills. Through this people who have a hard time keeping their mind from wandering generally find it they can hold their attention on the screen with a controller in their hand.
However, it's also a well known fact that the overabundance of a particular element breeds dependancy, either from drug use or other such input. I think it could very well be the same from the video game perspective, and while games help people with ADD/ADHD/what-have-you, they can also demand so much from a person that they may not be able to function as efficiently in environments that don't require constant mental observation (like real life for example).
Just food for though.
There seems to be a large misconception that all graffiti artists are vandalizing property without prior consent.
Yes, there is a large amount of work that is created by general people who tag anything from subways to bilboards, but 90% of graffiti "artists" actually get city permission to do their work on certain buildings. Some are even commisioned for it.
If you take a look at the guys website, you'll see he's not exactly showing off street signs and railroad cars with his signature scribbled in paint. It looks more like alley ways and school buildings that he was most likely asked to paint or got permission beforehand.
Or NCSoft isn't doing so well in the states and he received large sums of money in exchange for "leasing" the name to EA.
This surprised me too, so I wonder what could have happened to make him turn partial use of the name over to them.
This also makes me wonder if this is just for the current UO and if EA is planning to put British in UOX as well.
Oh yes! Very bitter about that one... ;)
That is interesting. I remember when I was a kid playing games on my C64 I lost out on the ending of a D&D RPG because my dad just HAD to go to bed and the PC was kept in my parents room. Nowhere to save, midst of the final battle, has to shut it down.
That's a horrible memory...
"Is there such a thing as being able to save too often?"
Oh yes! Quicksaves are really convenient, but they take all the challenge out of some games.
- progress. save. progress. save. progress. die. reload. progress half as far. save. experiment. save. etc. etc.
There are two drawbacks to quicksaves, or saving too often in general.
- No risk experimentation.
The player really isn't afraid to jump out that window or off that cliff. They can dive into a room full of armed thugs without any fear at all. The lack of risk and fear of losing your "life" takes both immersion and reward out of passing an obstacle or event.
This is sort of a side-effect of having too many saves, but:
- Spoiled gamers? Not really, but in a way its really difficult to go back to games that don't offer such lenient save functions. I was just playing a game the other day who's title completely slips my mind, but it was a FPS with no quicksave function. It drove me nuts. Forced me to complete whole stages without using my magic F5 key (Oh the horror!). It really made me think of the impact it has on a player to be given such powerful tools and abuse them without knowing it. And when a game imposes stricter saving rules on the player (me), I get really peeved about it.
So in a lot of ways, saving too many times is more than just a placeholder so I can stop playing momentarily, or a punishment. It's a cheat.
Something that everyone is forgetting whenever this topic comes up is that human beings are violent creatures. Not everyone, some more than others, but human beings have an inherent violence within them. We start wars, we rape, we kill... It's an orgy of violence on this planet! (!!!) And that's just reality I'm talking about.
Look, seriously, if I ever have children, they're probably not going to be sleeping with hookers and running people over in showers of blood until they're quite a bit older. However, kids that are more prone to violence will get their violence from books, comics, television (No!), video games (Liar!), or the school playground. Don't you remember that loving voice of your mother when she'd scream "Stop that rough-housing! or "Don't throw that at her!"
We could eliminate every violent medium on this planet, and it would not eliminate violence, because the violence starts with *us*. We're the ones who put the violence in there in the first place, so we're where the solutions have to start.
Excelent point. They should restate that as "realistic movie car chases".
;)
Anyone who would dispute this only need look to the OJ simpson car chase footage. Not the most riveting vehiclular performance.
Is this our new genre to be mass-copy catted? First it was the FPS, then the RTS, then the MMO games... I guess we're all in for a steady stream of crime-game clones in the next few generations. ...
Oh well, I hope they do a good job. The largest benefit of these games is thier open ended nature. I like the ability to ditch a mission, jump in the nearest car, and drive the the other side of the city just for the hell of it. You really don't need the crime and violence to make these games entertaining. Hopefully someone can use the most appealing parts of these titles and apply it to something completely different (kind of like I'm expecting the Simpsons Hit and Run is supposed to be).
Interestingly enough, ICO was driven by a really (insanely) advanced inverse kinematics setup. Some of the animation was animated by hand when it came to general leg movement and attacking, but the rest of it was all dynamically performed by the sweetest character rigging and weighting ever to grace a game itself.
The designers should have been commended on this technical feat alone.
Either way, you're correct and the animation in ICO was done by hand for the most part. I wish I hadn't forgotten that one because it was an amazing game in the first place.
If the animator is any good, the sense of gravity and weight is much better in models animated by hand, rather than motion capture.
Motion capture will always look more realistic, but so far there is a severe lack of animation skills in the industry. Mark of Kri and Jak and Daxter (both for PS2) are the only games I can think of off the top of my head that have well done character animation by hand.
In the end it comes down the type of game you're creating. You would never give a colorfully animated character a motion captured animation set, and giving realistic people exaggerated animations would give the game an entirely different tone.
"All shooters are an unique sensory experience. The only difference between the "ordinary" shooters and Rez is that Rez is actively CLAIMING to be something they all are."
This is true for that particular perspective, but that was exactly my point. Your preconceived notion that Rez is supposed to be a shooter on the same level as other shooters thrusts it into that category in your own subconscious, which dictates how you interpret the game.
Whether Rez is the worst game ever created is totally irrelevant. You're just bashing on one particular game and missing my point completely.
The fact that there are developers out there making an honest attempt to create a new experience is what we should be supporting if we want this medium to evolve.
A unique game can come in many different forms. Graphics, gameplay, or just a new franchise. That about says it all. Gamers want different "different" things, and it also greatly depends on their perspective. I'm a person who loves a good game full of experimental gameplay, or a new graphical appearance, but often times I could go for the same old fantasy RPG who's only unique feature is a new universe with characters I've never seen before. However I don't always understand what the developers were trying to do with a title, and I think it may be the same for many other people.
Your first impression of a game is what nails you to your perspective. An example of this would be a control feature in the older Zelda: Ocarina that carried over to the later 3D Zelda games. At first glance you see a 3D platformer, but the first time you pick up the controller and learn there's no *jump* button, you're appalled. I hated it, I didn't understand, and until someone told me later that the developers wanted to create a more streamlined method of control that relied on less user input, I couldn't appreciate this unique take on 3D navigation.
The same applies to most other games that break the mold. Some may pick up Rez and decide it's the worst shooter in the world (compared to space harrier or it's very similar gameplay cousin Panzer Dragoon) and hate it. But when they realize that the creators were trying to merge a sensory experience using sound, visuals and physical sensation, they find it possible to gain more appreciation for it, and become more open minded towards this unique experience.
It's a state of mind that allows you to change your perspective, find an appreciation for what the game really *is*, instead of what you're expecting, and expectations are where most people lose their acceptance of experimentation in this medium.
Robotic Alchemic Drive ("RAD")
This is one of the best games ever made. I wish it had gotten more coverage. The voice acting is THE worst. Far, far worse than Resident Evil. Far worse than Star Ocean 2.
The game has no hillariously terrible translation to save it (ala Zero Wing), it was just downright horrible. Particularly the blond German/Russian/Jewish/Chinese and sometimes Polish accented Scientist, and the male Heros ex-fiance Ellen.
Seriously, go hunt this game down right now (~$20) for the entertainment of making your ears bleed, but I promise you'll find yourself sucked into a really killer title soon after.
Just you all wait for the Nokia N-Gage SP!
Just kidding...
Most people have seen it in action, including myself. I have written it off, and I know of no one who has tried it out and actually liked the system.
It's a stupid thing to jump on the bash-product-X bandwagon, no matter how poor it is. I appreciate your attempt to make people think with a more critical perspective instead of doing just that. We need more people who think for themselves instead of collecting and regurgitating others opinions.
I don't think this applies to the case of the N-Gage, but either way it's good to be open minded.
I never said it was about fansubs, but it touches on pirate communities taking fansubbed work and selling it as legit material.
The term "underground" is loosely applied. Fansubbing is pretty underground as the majority of people on the net know nothing about it.
"The high prices may justify not buying the original in your mind..."
I have quite a collection of domestic anime, and never once have I said I didn't support buying this form of media.
Obscurity breeds longevity on the net. Slashdot has a knack of bringing a lot of little-known aspects of this community to the attention of the mass majority. The purpose of my post was to express my concern over a topic of personal interest now widely known by several thousand readers. Though the article does not mention the fansubbing community at length, anyone who is not immediately familiar with the concept have now been introduced via the specific mention in the slashdot post.
I read the Article/FAQ. Next time read the post more carefully, but don't hit reply. Instead sit back, think (try it, it works), and then respond. I hope I've cleared up any questions you may have had. Thank you.
I built this thing 2 years ago. I don't have to rent the games, it plays over 5000 titles (thanks MAME, Zsnes, etc), it has four console gaming pads and an authentic arcade joystick. It cost me $300. -> http://www.mini-itx.com/
You'll get a better deal out of making your own and you won't be insulted by titles like "Bikini Kombat Sluts", (and if you like that sort of thing, stick to the XBox with DOA Beach Volleyball. It probably has loads more "gameplay" than this cheap knockoff).
Everytime something a little underground get coverage on slashdot, I cringe. I really hope this doesn't cause copyright holders to crack down on Fansub distributions, because I really dig my fansubs.
On top of that, I'm pretty certain that anyone willing to buy dubbed versions of the same anime when they're ported to the US market (100 years after Japanese release) will still buy the DVDs anyways. That is to say, I hope this doesn't become another mp3 crackdown because some greedy bastards decide that fansubs are "ruining their profit".
Zettai Zetsumei Toshi came out as "Disaster Report" in the US, so there would be no need to import it in the first place.
The game is absolutely fantastic, btw.
Nope, none of us do, but there are redeeming values to any recreational activity when done in moderation, so you don't really sound like a goddamn hippie. ;)
;)
That's interesting to bring up either way, since gaming is on the rise in both popularity and addictiveness, there will definitely be reprocussions to large amounts of over-interactivity. We're already seeing this in places like South-East Asian countries where Netcafes run rampant and people are keeling over dead from playing *too* long.
I wonder how long it will be until we have a legitimage mental social disorder that's treated by modern medicine.
I've always wanted to coin the definition of "ludomentia".
Oh that's definitely good advice, but he's in his final year for his Bachelors, he's not a high school student.
But I agree, dropping your education at any level is a bad idea.