syntheticgerbil

If anything, I would say in general, video games usually have abysmal creativity in the sound and music field. Even games that want to be serious and have some kind of big Hollywood score usually come out incredibly unmemorable. I imagine it's all more troubling for small studios in need of someone good. Sure video game sounds and music tends to be technically proficient on the AAA titles, but I wish there was just something memorable or original to cling on to as some of the old NES/SNES tunes or the stuff Peter McConnell and Michael Land did at LucasArts. I haven't heard as interesting a soundtrack as Beyond Good and Evil since that game. That's disappointing. I would say Snooglebum, it wouldn't hurt to ask around if you live locally around any video game company. They might need your expertise and not even know it.

Wait, then I completely agree with you on all counts JamesM.

You're totally dating a teenage Canadian star.

I disagree, I'm all for long term monogamy, but I have no good points to counteract your points.

To tell the truth, I didn't find the scenes done that gracefully in Uncharted 2, their only real merit being videos I could actually skip as opposed to the in-game stuff that was forced on me. All of those were recorded from the in game engine anyway, the only reason for them being prerendered was to easily change the lighting scene to scene. Also it helps that Uncharted 2 runs at 30 fps, just like it's cutscenes.

I don't know, fuck Valve. That's very one sided thinking to place full responsibility in the company for not serving consumers properly. As said before, there are other reasons people pirate, multitudes of reasons, many circumstantial. Then you have to factor in how people get to what websites and what country they live in, their standard of living, their wealth, the individual value they place in creative works that serve no necessary function in their lives, and even down to their humble opinion on what makes a game or any other type of media worth the cash. A company may be able to offer whatever deal completely fits the lifestyle for some and they still will pirate. I do see merit in companies not properly getting their shit out there to the consumers in a convenient manner, but that sure as hell isn't the only answer. It's just not that easy.

So looking more into this, there were be essentially 4 separate versions of this game to play. The 360/PS3/PC version is be one type of game, the Wii version is supposed to be a puzzler platformer closer to Klonoa according to the one review I can find (it also includes the SNES version of the original Prince of Persia, which is top notch stuff!), the PSP version is supposed to be a 2.5D platformer, and the DS game is supposed to be more similar to the cutesy DS version of PoP 2008. Eventually I will have to play all these versions myself and see the merits and differences, but what the hell Ubisoft? This is nuts. I don't think they've gone all out like this since offering 3 separate versions of Rayman Raving Rabbids.

So can the Prince take a big piss off the edge of a cliff, freeze time, and then use his urine stream to climb down to a lower level? Can pee be warm when time is stopped?

Pre-rendered video used to be cool, a treat even, but I think somewhere around 2001-2002 it started wearing out it's welcome as realtime stuff started looking better and better. I agree with Kingz and Thrik, it tends to just look tacky now. Not only is the resolution change jurring but also, add that a lot of new games play at 60 fps and then a prerendered video sequence stuck between scenes at 30 fps just comes off weird these days.

This sounds like an interesting story. What put you in that situation?

Haha, yeah I know. I just don't know how to picture what solid water is supposed to be, besides ice, but I'm sure that's not what is implied here. I mean, assuming he can meld the water to stick his hands in it when he stops time then I guess the prince can climb waterfalls, but it seems odd to think about. If the water is unmovable when time is stopped, how can you climb on it? This is assuming there are no breaks in the falling water, essentially becoming a smooth wall. It's just odd to think about, but suspension of disbelief and whatnot.

I'M ABOUT TO BUST A BACKLOG

The in game hint system in the Tex Murphy games was very much like UHS, having the player spend points each time they wanted a bigger clue to what they needed to accomplish. This seemed to be the only reason the last three games had points, besides being able to skip certain puzzles withim them. But while I like Tex Murphy games, I'm not a fan of points in adventure games (for the most part) or in game hint systems. As someone who grew up playing adventure games before the internet, it was ridiculously hard to find someone else with the same PC game my age who could give me tips or clues. Kids who played games on PCs seemed to be rare where I grew up. I eventually ended up being the kid on the playground who had all the answers to Day of the Tentacle or Sam and Max, which seemed to be the only two games anyone had by LucasArts (considering they had a PC in the first place). This is Texas though, so that probably had a lot to do with it. So what usually happened was I had to end up begging my Dad to buy hint books to various games. Hint books were not cheap. They were almost a scam. I think it was forty bucks to get the hint books to both Loom and Monkey Island directly from LucasArts, plus shipping I'm sure. I do remember walkthroughs or hint books eventually started becoming an awesome bonus to buying the adventure game, usually the CD upgrade version, and of course, hint books for adventures became a moot point shortly after. So what I'm getting at is, the internet is a blessing for those that like adventure games in my opinion. It's no fun being stuck for months or a year or so. I've been through that before. It just sort of destroys the game, whether the puzzle you've figured out was logical or not. I do understand the epic great feeling of having solved a game all by yourself, but it really didn't seem to come often to me, having LucasArts games being the only real fair adventures between '89-'94 "golden years." Sierra games were brutal, almost everything else was just as brutal as Sierra even still. It felt good figuring Day of the Tentacle all by myself over the course of months (the only major trouble being OCD enough to close every door in the game and finding those damned keys) but it did not feel good to sit around for a year and try to figure out what the fuck King's Quest 5 wanted me to do for instance. That game just depended on you getting to each junction in the game and realizing you fucked yourself over by not doing something way earlier and that it was time to start over. It wasn't tremendously hard to figure out, just tedious as all hell. So, anyways, I agree with your original comment about incidental dialogue, Forbin. To me, that's the best way to design an adventure. Just simple feedback. Games where you can badger a NPC for clues or your character says something when you are halfway to the solution to the puzzle but are missing an object or something are the best way. Telltale seems to have been really good at this. I imagine it's from a lot of carryover from Grossman at Humongous games where the amount of dialogue for a kids game is copious in each sequel, giving the player sufficient hints on what to do. Not that Freddi Fish is hard or anything.

The prince still looks awful, but I guess that's to be expected. I think this looks good, although I'm not sure how unmoving water is supposed to be easy to climb on or useful to swing on. Even supposing he was turning it into ice for a few seconds, that would probably be impossible. But these is video games, so whatever. The game looks nice, I enjoy the environments. The only thing that really sticks out is the hordes of enemies just standing around while you fight one. It's like the army is really lazy and doesn't feel like fighting at the moment.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x91e3a_ren-and-stimpy-space-madness_fun

I can't really help with sound guys, but it always seems like the people who do sound or music aren't hired by the studio but contracted out. Sounds sort of unstable. The place I work at has used contract workers for sound and music before, but usually someone here just goes through a library of purchased sound effects and music and puts them to crappy games (the president mostly does this actually). For a while my old art director was good at creating sounds and music by himself with a keyboard, but he left.

You are missing the point. People should get compensated for their extra work and overtime, no matter what profession. If you are dissatisfied with you job or the fat cats you are making fatter, games are not the only better alternative, and besides I'm sure many working at the big game mills feel exactly the same as you (considering they aren't a fan of the company they work for).

Actually I was calling Ubisoft assholes. I just posted it because it was obviously a case where Ubisoft was inflating their piracy figure. I love how the second post equates stealing to killing someone. I had to stop reading after that.

I think as long as they aren't locked, they are up for grabs. Certainly many threads have been dug up here years after even sometimes. Sometimes a game gets discussed before release and months later we'll start talking about it again. Also, I signed up to the backloggery, and I got about 5 entries in before I realized I would waste way too much time trying to categorize it all.

SO IT WAS A TRAP

This is along the same lines of what you two are saying, but there's also a big problem where some countries might commonly have citizens with bank accounts that don't work with Paypal or people who don't normally apply for credit cards, and even if they did, it's possible it might not be an internationally loved Visa or Mastercard.

Wow, Tanukitsune, I was waiting for your list in this thread, but it looks like you've been knocking 'em out pretty damn well. I can't believe it. I have to 100% every game because of a powerful drive I can't extinguish, but you gave some great pointers for finishing stuff. Definitely using guides for action games with tedious crap like finding a certain amount of object A or doing x for the nth time can drastically cut down your play time. Some people are against those kind of tactics, but I have other games to play.

There's these assholes as well: http://www.destructoid.com/ubisoft-blames-ds-piracy-for-50-sales-drop-141574.phtml

That would be nice, but I doubt it considering Paypal's greed. I always try to pay people or companies I trust in other methods than Paypal when possible. This thread... I don't see 25% as very bad at all in juxtaposition with the 75% and up figures everyone else spewed out the last few years, but that's just me. Most pirates probably have no idea where these download links come from at all if posted on a forum in a buffet type setting. They probably also have no idea they could just as well pay a penny since I bet those providing the links for the free downloads aren't letting that fact slip. I'm more weirded out that people are pirating little known games. Isn't there some AAA title or cell phone game these types would want instead? It seems like Samorost 2 is a game that makes you feel bad for not giving the developers money for instance. Also I should note that I carry around at least one USB stick at all times and it definitely tends to be more of a hassle. I usually don't like sticking things on my USB stick because either I tend to forget I put it on there in the first place or I have no space left on it and then I have to go through the chore of looking through the files on the USB stick I don't need anymore and can discard. Often if there's something I want to download that I find at work, I'll just e-mail myself the link and download it home instead just to make things more simple since I compulsively check my e-mail anyway.

Full disclosure: I have to use an online guide everytime I am required to wear a tie to an important event since I can never remember how to tie the damn thing properly.