Fans of Kajiura should probably look more to her anime discography which easily eclipses what she has done for games. Her Xenosaga Ep. 2 and 3 scores are good (I prefer Ep. 2) but her best work is probably found in.hack, Noir, Mai Hime and Mai Otome, etc.
Video game music has come a long way, and I have about... oh, a LOT of it on my comp00tar at this point. I can't pick 12 favorite soundtracks, let alone 12 tracks. What I *can* do is recommend composers.
1) Yasunori Mitsuda. Some dislike him, but he has a certain style that can really draw the listener in. Xenosaga's orchestral pieces are very ambitious for a game. Notable scores: Chrono Cross, Xenosaga Episode 1
2) Yoko Shimomura. She has a problem using some really low-quality samples in some tracks, which is very apparent in KH2, but is generally quite good. Legend of Mana's end credits are fantastic. Notable scores: Legend of Mana, Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2, Mario RPG
3) Jeremy Soule. Every self-respecting gamer has to recognize this name at this point. A British composer who specializes in background orchestral music. Notable scores: Morrowind, Oblivion, Guild Wars
4) Koji Kondo. Composed the original Mario and Zelda themes. Very respected in the industry, but has yet to fully adjust to more current standards of using high-quality samples.
5) Hitoshi Sakimoto. Composer of FFXII's amazing score. While quite different from Nobuo Uematsu's FF scores, focusing less on melody and more on "theme," his music is reminiscent of John Williams with its complexity and orchestral balance.
6) Nobuo Uematsu. The great master himself, composer of many Final Fantasy scores. One of the most respected men in the business. Notable scores: FFVII, FFVIII
7) David Wise. Few have heard of him but this guy is one of the greatest. He wrote the music for Rare's games during its time with Nintendo. Playing the Tawfret track from the JFG soundtrack while going through a forest or swamp in an RPG makes the experience about ten times more immersive. This guy is a genius. Notable scores: DKC, DKC2, Jet Force Gemini
There are other great composers out there, but I encourage everyone to give these a listen for sure.
You shouldn't call me out on things you're unfamiliar with. That's not true for a lot of games, Halo in particular. It's called "sensitivity" and it's something you can adjust in your player options. I play with it set around 5 or so but more experienced players set it higher so they can look and aim faster.
Oblivion is IMO the best game of this generation so far. It *might* be dethroned by Ninja Gaiden 2 or something, but for now there's nothing out there that compares. People that hate on it are really not worth anyone's time; they don't have the imagination to enjoy something like a fully open fantasy world.
While we're at it, the OP's passing criticism of console FPSs is silly, unfounded, and betrays a lack of understanding of game mechanics and pacing. You can't just slap PC F.E.A.R.'s controls onto the console version, and you can't do the reverse either. One gives you better accuracy, the other arguably more comfortable mobility, etc. As for mouse+keyboard vs controller, that's more than anything a personal preference. PC shooter lovers simply forget that their character's face isn't 1 pixel by 1 pixel. I don't need a high-precision pointer to hit it. You can use a 360 controller on PC Halo and do *just fine,* and depending on what you're used to, maybe even better than with a keyboard+mouse. IGN gave it a go, and found it out for themselves. I wasn't surprised.
Oh no, not me, I am a bark-eating hermit who only interacts with society over the 1nt4rn3t. I think the first bit of your response is stolen from a forum spambot.
If you're "worried about the games your kids play," then you either a) haven't taught them to listen to you when it comes to not playing certain games b) haven't bothered to look at what games your kids play to begin with c) don't trust your kids to not be adversely affected by the games they *do* play d) haven't a freaking clue about games, period, and don't understand that they don't affect your kids in any harmful way unless there's some other serious issues that need looking into in the first place.
True, true, but it's such a hassle and I don't have a large enough monitor to make it worthwhile (22"). On the other hand I have a big HDTV making each half of a split screen 2x the size of my monitor. PCs are indeed more configurable, no doubt, but the kinds of games I enjoy most really are more at home on console (Marios, Zeldas, action games like Ninja Gaiden, etc.)... besides Elder Scrolls and Baldur's Gate and I guess Fallout. PC RPGs are fantastic.
Yeah the whole console vs PC argument is lost on me because I enjoy playing split-screen multiplayer games a lot (usually with my bro), and a controller across from a TV just feels better to me than sitting at a computer. Now, I'm a big PC gamer as well and the Elder Scrolls games on PC are some of my favorite, but if I had to choose to give up PC or console, I'd give up PC.
So basically, split-screen co-op for Halo and Gears is enough for me to not give a hoot about the PC versions.
Some 360 games will not be ported to 360, though, such as Ninja Gaiden 2. Also, you usually have to wait a LONG time for the other franchises. I mean, Halo 2 came out for PC just a little bit before Halo 3 hit shelves for the 360. You end up being a couple of years behind! By the way that also is something one can say to counter the "PCs have superior hardware" argument (among many other things).
Well if you like Halo then you also like Gears of War. Guaranteed. Ninja Gaiden 2's not looking too bad, either, but it's probably a year away from release. Another good argument for the 360 is a better controller for the cross-platform titles, I suppose. Oh and now there's Mass Effect.
So, the 360 has its share of good exclusives. I'm actually waiting until some good ones come out for PS3. Ratchet and Clank is cool but I need something more memorable like FFXIII before I really consider getting one.
And yes also kinda looking around for a Wii, will get one when I see it:-/
They're killing enough whales off the coast of Japan already for "research" (into tastiness I think). You should concentrate on the whales off the coast of, say, Chile.
No we're not really interested but yeah it's cool that you don't want to live here there's enough nubs around as it is and enough good folks working hard to make their way over.
What a joke. The people switching from XP to non-Windows OSs is such a small number there's no way it could affect spam numbers even a little bit.
Not to mention that spam email usually isn't meant to spread viruses.
Although you might indeed be joking, in which case hehehehe yeah. I also like the "decreases exponentially" bit you added in.
Altogether this is a lot like Dennis Rodman's "chemistry is that class you take in high school or college, where you learn that two plus two is 10 or something." There's so much wrong in it I can't figure out whether it's the highest level of idiocy or genius.
Well there's a 4-panel manga called Lucky Star (also an anime now) that has a very similar bit in it (a joke to do with romaji-to-kanji transformation by word processors on JP comps -- specifically homonyms where the best-guess transformation is "learned" by the software from frequency of use). The first two panels in this case would have been 2 successive attempts at a Google search with the results being all porn/Youtube videos. Then my dialogue would have been in panels 3 and 4.
Bob: "Hey Phil you mind telling why Google gives me porn and Youtube videos as the top 10 results for *anything* I type on your computer?" Phil: "Heh heh, it is quite bothersome using other peoples' computers , is it not?"
Oh give me a break A.Coward, do you seriously think a rubbish storyline to *explain* a lifebar is better than a decent story and a typical "video game lifebar"? That's a terrible tradeoff. Also mashing up Indiana Jones with anything makes it worse, let alone a turd like The Matrix. Not sure how you actually relate that to Assassin's Creed.
I agree that dividing a game into levels for the sake of loading, etc. is not necessary at all. You're quite right in saying that levels in a game should exist for pacing, narrative, reward, etc. There's certain genres (shmups like Gradius, platformers like DKC) where "levels" make perfect sense because the game is set up for you to "play through levels" and you can go back and replay them, speed-run them, etc.
Memento-like games... I can't think of any at the moment, although "chunking-up" gameplay strictly for the sake of narrative can be seen in Eternal Darkness for example.
Sorry about not reading the article, btw. I was just in a mood to be unreasonably rude at the time, hehe.
Sheesh what a douchebag. Games do not have to reflect the structure of the real world to be enjoyable. That's why there's board games, puzzles, sports, etc. If a design is fun then it's fun. It works. End of story. Games might have levels in order to provide the player with a series of challenges that aren't intertwined. If there isn't a reason for seamless transition from one "chunk" of gameplay to another then why expect one? A boatload of games have "levels" and they make perfect sense even if the game mirrors real life. Do you want to go on James Bond missions one after another or do you want to also play through his day-to-day dilly-dallying in Britain when he's off duty in the meantime? For sure the latter is more 'realistic' and may be more 'seamless' but there's no sense in saying it will for sure be more fun.
Basically this guy decided to criticize a gameplay setup without giving any thought to why it's there in the first place. Some games don't need it, sure -- take Oblivion for instance. But to say that games "shouldn't have levels" is to say every game should be like this other game (or games) and to hell with all other designs regardless of how they affect the actual play.
That bit where he claims cutscenes are anathema to gameplay is also rich. They work wonderfully in some games and not in others. To say that in every game ever released from here on out the interaction should be constant with no exposition or story progression told through non-interactive segments is assinine and privileges any pressing of buttons over simply enjoying visual media, which is nonsense. In other words, sometimes it's a better idea to tell something through film than it is through "gameplay." It simply takes a good game designer to know when that time is.
Seriously, all of this cutscene and "levels" criticism is ridiculous. Is Metroid Prime hands-down the best fucking game ever made or something? Is it the design we all want for every game? Hell no! We want it for *some* games.
It would be just as retarded, BUT NO MORE SO, to say that EVERY game should have cutscenes or should have its gameplay divided into "levels."
That's the sort of review the game has been getting a lot of places. I'm fairly certain it's accurate, as well.
Now, if all the criticism was about "omg game too hard" and "ugh camera too fast for me eyes" then I would have bought it in a heartbeat because Ninja Gaiden ruled. But clearly this is no Ninja Gaiden.
Anyway thanks for the post; solid criticism is rare these days and it helps me decide whether to consider buying a game or not.
If it came with 7 strippers and a dwarf I'd buy seven. It would not fail. It would be awesome. If it were named Monkey Nipple and came with 7 strippers and a dwarf it would make Ballmer the ruler of the planet, Darkseid-style.
I knew Gore won the popular vote and Bush won in the EC, but I couldn't remember if follow-ups, recounts, etc. arrived at anything new because at some point I just stopped caring. I just remember there being plenty of follow-ups because of the fiasco in Florida.
Anyway sorry to have sounded so condescending; I had forgotten that I worded what I wrote the way I did and at first thought you were just replying to my post in general ^^
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Fans of Kajiura should probably look more to her anime discography which easily eclipses what she has done for games. Her Xenosaga Ep. 2 and 3 scores are good (I prefer Ep. 2) but her best work is probably found in .hack, Noir, Mai Hime and Mai Otome, etc.
Video game music has come a long way, and I have about... oh, a LOT of it on my comp00tar at this point. I can't pick 12 favorite soundtracks, let alone 12 tracks. What I *can* do is recommend composers.
1) Yasunori Mitsuda. Some dislike him, but he has a certain style that can really draw the listener in. Xenosaga's orchestral pieces are very ambitious for a game. Notable scores: Chrono Cross, Xenosaga Episode 1
2) Yoko Shimomura. She has a problem using some really low-quality samples in some tracks, which is very apparent in KH2, but is generally quite good. Legend of Mana's end credits are fantastic. Notable scores: Legend of Mana, Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2, Mario RPG
3) Jeremy Soule. Every self-respecting gamer has to recognize this name at this point. A British composer who specializes in background orchestral music. Notable scores: Morrowind, Oblivion, Guild Wars
4) Koji Kondo. Composed the original Mario and Zelda themes. Very respected in the industry, but has yet to fully adjust to more current standards of using high-quality samples.
5) Hitoshi Sakimoto. Composer of FFXII's amazing score. While quite different from Nobuo Uematsu's FF scores, focusing less on melody and more on "theme," his music is reminiscent of John Williams with its complexity and orchestral balance.
6) Nobuo Uematsu. The great master himself, composer of many Final Fantasy scores. One of the most respected men in the business. Notable scores: FFVII, FFVIII
7) David Wise. Few have heard of him but this guy is one of the greatest. He wrote the music for Rare's games during its time with Nintendo. Playing the Tawfret track from the JFG soundtrack while going through a forest or swamp in an RPG makes the experience about ten times more immersive. This guy is a genius. Notable scores: DKC, DKC2, Jet Force Gemini
There are other great composers out there, but I encourage everyone to give these a listen for sure.
You shouldn't call me out on things you're unfamiliar with. That's not true for a lot of games, Halo in particular. It's called "sensitivity" and it's something you can adjust in your player options. I play with it set around 5 or so but more experienced players set it higher so they can look and aim faster.
Oblivion is IMO the best game of this generation so far. It *might* be dethroned by Ninja Gaiden 2 or something, but for now there's nothing out there that compares. People that hate on it are really not worth anyone's time; they don't have the imagination to enjoy something like a fully open fantasy world.
While we're at it, the OP's passing criticism of console FPSs is silly, unfounded, and betrays a lack of understanding of game mechanics and pacing. You can't just slap PC F.E.A.R.'s controls onto the console version, and you can't do the reverse either. One gives you better accuracy, the other arguably more comfortable mobility, etc. As for mouse+keyboard vs controller, that's more than anything a personal preference. PC shooter lovers simply forget that their character's face isn't 1 pixel by 1 pixel. I don't need a high-precision pointer to hit it. You can use a 360 controller on PC Halo and do *just fine,* and depending on what you're used to, maybe even better than with a keyboard+mouse. IGN gave it a go, and found it out for themselves. I wasn't surprised.
Oh no, not me, I am a bark-eating hermit who only interacts with society over the 1nt4rn3t. I think the first bit of your response is stolen from a forum spambot.
If you're "worried about the games your kids play," then you either
a) haven't taught them to listen to you when it comes to not playing certain games
b) haven't bothered to look at what games your kids play to begin with
c) don't trust your kids to not be adversely affected by the games they *do* play
d) haven't a freaking clue about games, period, and don't understand that they don't affect your kids in any harmful way unless there's some other serious issues that need looking into in the first place.
True, true, but it's such a hassle and I don't have a large enough monitor to make it worthwhile (22"). On the other hand I have a big HDTV making each half of a split screen 2x the size of my monitor. PCs are indeed more configurable, no doubt, but the kinds of games I enjoy most really are more at home on console (Marios, Zeldas, action games like Ninja Gaiden, etc.)... besides Elder Scrolls and Baldur's Gate and I guess Fallout. PC RPGs are fantastic.
Yeah the whole console vs PC argument is lost on me because I enjoy playing split-screen multiplayer games a lot (usually with my bro), and a controller across from a TV just feels better to me than sitting at a computer. Now, I'm a big PC gamer as well and the Elder Scrolls games on PC are some of my favorite, but if I had to choose to give up PC or console, I'd give up PC.
So basically, split-screen co-op for Halo and Gears is enough for me to not give a hoot about the PC versions.
Some 360 games will not be ported to 360, though, such as Ninja Gaiden 2. Also, you usually have to wait a LONG time for the other franchises. I mean, Halo 2 came out for PC just a little bit before Halo 3 hit shelves for the 360. You end up being a couple of years behind! By the way that also is something one can say to counter the "PCs have superior hardware" argument (among many other things).
Well if you like Halo then you also like Gears of War. Guaranteed. Ninja Gaiden 2's not looking too bad, either, but it's probably a year away from release. Another good argument for the 360 is a better controller for the cross-platform titles, I suppose. Oh and now there's Mass Effect.
:-/
So, the 360 has its share of good exclusives. I'm actually waiting until some good ones come out for PS3. Ratchet and Clank is cool but I need something more memorable like FFXIII before I really consider getting one.
And yes also kinda looking around for a Wii, will get one when I see it
They're killing enough whales off the coast of Japan already for "research" (into tastiness I think). You should concentrate on the whales off the coast of, say, Chile.
No we're not really interested but yeah it's cool that you don't want to live here there's enough nubs around as it is and enough good folks working hard to make their way over.
What you say makes actual sense. But it's in no way related to people's unwillingness to adopt Vista. That was just a troll on the OP's part.
What a joke. The people switching from XP to non-Windows OSs is such a small number there's no way it could affect spam numbers even a little bit.
Not to mention that spam email usually isn't meant to spread viruses.
Although you might indeed be joking, in which case hehehehe yeah. I also like the "decreases exponentially" bit you added in.
Altogether this is a lot like Dennis Rodman's "chemistry is that class you take in high school or college, where you learn that two plus two is 10 or something." There's so much wrong in it I can't figure out whether it's the highest level of idiocy or genius.
Well there's a 4-panel manga called Lucky Star (also an anime now) that has a very similar bit in it (a joke to do with romaji-to-kanji transformation by word processors on JP comps -- specifically homonyms where the best-guess transformation is "learned" by the software from frequency of use). The first two panels in this case would have been 2 successive attempts at a Google search with the results being all porn/Youtube videos. Then my dialogue would have been in panels 3 and 4.
Bob: "Hey Phil you mind telling why Google gives me porn and Youtube videos as the top 10 results for *anything* I type on your computer?"
Phil: "Heh heh, it is quite bothersome using other peoples' computers , is it not?"
$200? Let's be optimistic here!! Also just in time for Final Fantasy XIII would be ideal.
Oh give me a break A.Coward, do you seriously think a rubbish storyline to *explain* a lifebar is better than a decent story and a typical "video game lifebar"? That's a terrible tradeoff. Also mashing up Indiana Jones with anything makes it worse, let alone a turd like The Matrix. Not sure how you actually relate that to Assassin's Creed.
It's not backlit so it won't be easier to read in dark conditions. It functions for all intents and purposes like paper.
I agree that dividing a game into levels for the sake of loading, etc. is not necessary at all. You're quite right in saying that levels in a game should exist for pacing, narrative, reward, etc. There's certain genres (shmups like Gradius, platformers like DKC) where "levels" make perfect sense because the game is set up for you to "play through levels" and you can go back and replay them, speed-run them, etc.
Memento-like games... I can't think of any at the moment, although "chunking-up" gameplay strictly for the sake of narrative can be seen in Eternal Darkness for example.
Sorry about not reading the article, btw. I was just in a mood to be unreasonably rude at the time, hehe.
Sheesh what a douchebag. Games do not have to reflect the structure of the real world to be enjoyable. That's why there's board games, puzzles, sports, etc. If a design is fun then it's fun. It works. End of story. Games might have levels in order to provide the player with a series of challenges that aren't intertwined. If there isn't a reason for seamless transition from one "chunk" of gameplay to another then why expect one? A boatload of games have "levels" and they make perfect sense even if the game mirrors real life. Do you want to go on James Bond missions one after another or do you want to also play through his day-to-day dilly-dallying in Britain when he's off duty in the meantime? For sure the latter is more 'realistic' and may be more 'seamless' but there's no sense in saying it will for sure be more fun.
Basically this guy decided to criticize a gameplay setup without giving any thought to why it's there in the first place. Some games don't need it, sure -- take Oblivion for instance. But to say that games "shouldn't have levels" is to say every game should be like this other game (or games) and to hell with all other designs regardless of how they affect the actual play.
That bit where he claims cutscenes are anathema to gameplay is also rich. They work wonderfully in some games and not in others. To say that in every game ever released from here on out the interaction should be constant with no exposition or story progression told through non-interactive segments is assinine and privileges any pressing of buttons over simply enjoying visual media, which is nonsense. In other words, sometimes it's a better idea to tell something through film than it is through "gameplay." It simply takes a good game designer to know when that time is.
Seriously, all of this cutscene and "levels" criticism is ridiculous. Is Metroid Prime hands-down the best fucking game ever made or something? Is it the design we all want for every game? Hell no! We want it for *some* games.
It would be just as retarded, BUT NO MORE SO, to say that EVERY game should have cutscenes or should have its gameplay divided into "levels."
Man I do that NOW, why wait 10 years?
That's the sort of review the game has been getting a lot of places. I'm fairly certain it's accurate, as well.
Now, if all the criticism was about "omg game too hard" and "ugh camera too fast for me eyes" then I would have bought it in a heartbeat because Ninja Gaiden ruled. But clearly this is no Ninja Gaiden.
Anyway thanks for the post; solid criticism is rare these days and it helps me decide whether to consider buying a game or not.
Everyone knows the Bush administration started in 1988!
If it came with 7 strippers and a dwarf I'd buy seven. It would not fail. It would be awesome. If it were named Monkey Nipple and came with 7 strippers and a dwarf it would make Ballmer the ruler of the planet, Darkseid-style.
I knew Gore won the popular vote and Bush won in the EC, but I couldn't remember if follow-ups, recounts, etc. arrived at anything new because at some point I just stopped caring. I just remember there being plenty of follow-ups because of the fiasco in Florida.
Anyway sorry to have sounded so condescending; I had forgotten that I worded what I wrote the way I did and at first thought you were just replying to my post in general ^^