I recently watched Anthony's rant about grinding and while I considered his argument a little too excessively antagonistic, there was a lot I agree with. I don't really agree with the concept of grinding as a whole considering that the peak of grinding is when you can waste enemies(of a particular area) that were previously hard quite easily over time, then having to do it all over again in a new location. I don't recall having to grind hours on end in any game really. And in a lot of games I've played, the real strategy comes when you fight bosses. This was especially true for me when I figured out how to play Xenogears correctly. Of course, strategy guides generally bypass all the reasons to play rpgs, but at the same time, offer the only hints to get certain items... Well, I digress.
Anyway, my hypothesis is that it has something to do with culture, especially regarding academics. School takes up a huge portion of our lives, and I find that when I was younger and more academically competitive, I found games like final fantasy to be quite entertaining, and would keep on truckin' through hundreds of battles just to beat the game. Now, however, grinding generally puts me off and really keeps me from beating many games. And Asian education systems, are notoriously difficult! This past summer when I visited India I looked at my little cousin's homework and she was doing like pre-calculus level math. SHE'S IN EIGHTH GRADE. Think of those boss encounters as equivalent to exams.
Sure you may think this is all bollocks, and I can't blame you, it sounds like a weak connection. Yet, if you have ever gone anywhere with tourists about (I noticed this a lot in India), you will notice that Germans, Americans, and Japanese are sometimes around, taking pictures. I forgot where I read it, but apparently it's because of their commitment to their jobs, school, etc. that they feel they must do so much work(by means of photographing everything), even on vacation. Now I am not saying it's the standard but it seems plausible.
opening Capcom up to suggestions for their next crossover game.
Immediately I knew what I wanted to see and why I've wanted to see it.
A lot of people have made other suggestions. Here's why I don't believe those will work and you will agree:
1.Square Enix.
Most of their well known games are role playing games and I never really believed in there being much of a rivalry between the two companies.
2. Shonen Jump.
Well I think people are just suggesting this because of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. But I honestly think that in order for there to be a perfect crossover, the mediums should be the same. (having all videogame characters is ideal)
3. Sega.
This is a pretty good idea. Sega has been a strong company with many strong franchises backing it. HOWEVER, this sort of crossover would be best executed with another company that it often fought with throughout the 90s...
MY SUGGESTION:
Capcom vs. Konami!!
Think about it. Both companies have many excellent and memorable franchises and characters(Casltevania, Metal Gear, Silent Hill, Goemon games, Contra, suikoden...). Also, their battle as dominant third party companies has raged for decades ever since the NES and neither has given an inch. The two are really awesome companies and I'd love to see a crossover between the two, as I've longed for it for quite a long time.
Yes I know everyone's done their bit of bad voice acting segments but mine are special. They highlight those
instances where it seems appropriate. Where the terrible voices just make the game so much better. It's not the
diarrhea icing on the turd cake, but rather the gnarliest cherry atop the funkiest sundae(funkdae?).
This first one is rather short and [I believe] only in this one part. We see the brazen heroes Lance and Bill Rizer
enter an ungodly lair home to the most vile of all creatures... That's pretty much it. It's quite short but who plays
contra for the script?? It just reminds me of Commando and how utterly awful the lines were. Take a look!
So the neotokyo mod for half life 2 is about to be released and since yesterday the irc channel has been getting an insanely large increase in users logging on. I've been following this mod for 5 years and the typical amount of users on the channel has been somewhere around 40. It's over 1,000 now. Earlier today admins muted the channel to prevent spamming. For those of you who don't know about Neotokyo, check out some of my blogs about it, or read about it at moddb.com or neotokyohq.com(insanely high volume right now, website keeps crashing)
Server files were released yesterday and the client files will be released very soon, as devs tell us. The IRC channel is the first place to go to when this game goes live.
Team RADI-8 seems to have accomplished their goals perfectly in terms of aesthetics. Many mods and games cannot fully flesh out their concepts and really surpass their hand drawn artwork with in-game models and environments.
From the official website: Some helpful information about the release...
- Neotokyo will be available for download at various sites and torrent.
- Download links will be released in our irc #neotokyo on gamesurge network during our release party. Then posted here and elsewhere.
- This first public release will contain 10 maps total ...all capture the ghost gametype.
- We recommend max 24 player slots. (9v9 to 12v12 are best as far as gameplay and flow). 32 players is fun but a bit spammy.
- Total size of the installer is about 900megs and unzipped is 2gigs.
- In order to run NEOTOKYO, you need to have any game that gives you the source sdk base installed.
The IRC channel has a pretty lively community attached to it. I've been visiting it for 5 years under the moniker "Jin Dogan".
Trailer:
I posted some pictures but there's way more on the sites I listed.
Well after having some media releases, a segment about the story, and an interview with the game's composer(who made an EXCELLENT soundtrack), the crowd over at moddb has been getting very excited for the game's release. Today, after announcing the winner of the soundtrack's giveaway, the team announced the game's release date on twitter and facebook. You will also notice that on their moddb page, the release date has been set there as well. I have been waiting 5 years to see that change from TBD to an actual date. And unlike most mods that post up release dates, I know I can hold them true to that one. In the meantime, join the #neotokyo channel on irc.gamesurge.net for access to links the second they go live!
Remember this is a total conversion mod for half life 2. So if you have half life 2, this game is FREE FOR DOWNLOAD.
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