Psycho666Soldier

I'm not quite sure what the musical taste is hear, but I was curious what everyone's opinion is of sampling in music. Specifically, I'm thinking full samples from other pre-recorded songs. The kind you hear in old school hip-hop and various forms of electronica. But this could be a broader discussion about live instruments vs. digital/sampled instruments as well. Personally, I love the sound of a well-used sample. As a hip-hop head, I think it's fascinating how some people can take some obscure sample and transform it into a hip-hop beat, even if it's literally taking the beat and throwing some kick drums on it. Even making music, I find it fun to mix sounds I create through a keyboard with actual samples of random songs. I'm also a huge fan of using vocal samples, or ones that seem to punctuate a line or story. That said, I do believe in trying to mix or chop the sample enough to where you are making something new with it. With hip-hop, it's a little different for me, but I think any good musician will try to push the bar more than always using the aforementioned kick drum solution. I guess to me it's really just about whether it sounds good, but I know some people feel adamantly about keeping it all original. Thoughts? Do you like or hate samples? Do you care?

Don't you give me that sass, mister! As for the actual argument, my personal preference will always involve not compromising the intended creation of the game, and I think a game like Dark Souls is a bit harder to create a proper easy mode that doesn't transform the game. But in general I'm in support of people being able to play games how they want and allow for different difficulty levels. As long as the whole game isn't watered down in an attempt to make it accessible to everyone(i.e. sticking with one difficulty but making it easier, shoehorning tutorials, auto-targeting, etc.).

Again, my question is what is the joy in it if there's no challenge? And when I say challenge, I'm not talking about God Mode difficulty. I'm talking the most minimum of challenge. If it's the story, why not watch or read something? I'm not saying people can't enjoy games however they want, I just want to know what they get out of it. I still feel like this is kind of answering a different question, as my example was strictly pertaining to the drawing comparison, not for or against having different difficulty levels. But it's a semantic argument that I've already conceded to, so I'll just leave it at that.

I honestly don't even remember the stamina being much of an issue. Though that could be a good argument for not having it in the game at all. And I definitely agree on the camo. That said, I don't think the menus ruin the "it's because you fucked up" feel.

That's why asked at the end of my post if they do experience that challenge.

That's not really an argument for or against difficulty levels. I just thought the drawing comparison was a bad one, and then I was clarifying my statement to DeJapon. I concede that the way he explained it, the comparison makes sense.

One thing I loved about the extra freedom was if I completely fucked up my stealth run, I felt like there was a good chance of fighting my way out in a completely different style. Mind you, I would usually fight my way out until I got to a good hiding spot, but it was nice that the game could change gears at the flip of coin. Also, this comic accurately explains what this can be like some times:

Fair enough on the tracing part. I'm not really the type to look at people trophies and such, though, because I don't care for other people's sake whether they're playing the game on hard mode or not. But the first paragraph kinda misses the point I was getting at, I think. For people who want to play hard modes, the stress doesn't take away from the game. So for the different skill levels, it's the same experience, just with a different degree of intrinsic challenge.

But the story does go somewhere...it ties right into the rest of the series. More importantly, the gameplay freedom is what makes this game so fun. You can go in all guns blazing for some Rambo action, but the stealth was part of what made this game so fun to me. It's not just, "get dropped in this location and linearly follow this path with the same expected enemies at the same expected turns." You have to sneak within an open world environment, where things are moving. You have to find the bases and scout them out before you decide how to infiltrate. You have to watch out for patrol troops and guard stations that might spot you free-wheeling in the desert. I don't disagree it's very different from most Metal Gear games, but I feel this was Kojima's way of making a new game that combines the best of previous iterations with a whole new way to play the game, instead of creating something that was a carbon copy of what came before. I'm surprised you got into the MGS series at all if you're not big into stealth. How did you manage to get so much love for MGS2?

That's true, but I still think it's a bad comparison. If you're playing a game on easy mode, you're "drawing well" in your relative skill level. You ultimately get the same experience as someone playing on a higher difficulty. Whereas someone drawing with no skill vs. someone who's a natural will get vastly diffferent results. If you like making crude drawings because you get a kick out of it, then go for it. I'm very much guilty of that. But I'm also someone who actually tried to draw for real and got increasingly frustrated at how awful I was at it. That said, I guess tracing would be drawing done easy, but that only works to draw things that don't come from your own head.

This has to be one of the strangest MGS opinions I've ever read. PW as your #1 and 3 as your last? I'm not bashing, I'm just really surprised. I voted 3 as best. I have the most memories of it, I've probably played that game up and down more than the first two, and the stealth felt ultra-rewarding for me. Loved the cutscenes, and felt it was a strong balance of story/gameplay while pushing the bar a bit too far. Plus, some of those boss battles are a blast. Portable Ops got the worst for me. Never played it, but never had a single desire to. Story is non-canon, Kojima had little to nothing to do with it, and anything it did nice, PW and MGS V did far better. Without favoritism tied in, I think there's a strong argument for MGS V being the absolute best of the bunch.

I think this is a bad example because there's not really an easy way to draw. I have a hard time with this argument because I play games for the overall experience. A big part of that is the gameplay. I feel a sense of accomplishment from achieving something difficult, and if I play something that's too easy, it completely sucks the fun out for me. So part of me wonders what enjoyment do you get out of playing a game that poses absolutely no challenge to you? If it's the story, what enjoyment do you get from walking through if it's not a game specifically designed as an interactive novel type? I don't really care if they don't dumb down the core mechanics of the standard game to make it easy. But some games easy modes make it so there is virtually no difficulty, which, to me, seems like destroys the argument of "relative difficulty" for people who aren't at that skill level. Do people who play on those easy modes still enjoy the game despite there being no semblance of challenge, or do they actually experience some challenge relative to what they're used to?

Nah.

I don't disagree for the most part. I'm the same way when it comes to remakes and such. Sequels I'm cool with in the right context. This sort of thing usually isn't my bag, but I think a re-imagining in a live action environment has a lot of potential to be excellent. I don't expect it to meet those standards, but I cast I can get behind is a good start.

To be fair, Japan has been making live action versions of anime since at least the 80's. At least this Cowboy Bebop one isn't completely whitewashing the source material.

I live for sketchy sites. Yeah, the only legitimate place you can watch is by paying 9 bucks a month.

Feel like I should copypasta Mera'din's thoughts from The Center.

My man! Never knew you were a former wrestling fan. Have you considered New Japan?

I'll try to come up with something some time this week. I've been to so many and it's been years since consistent concert-going days. I'm jealous of your MSI resume, though.

Six is cool until the twist. Then it becomes absolute dog shit. Shame, because I thought the Season Six premiere was so fucking good and a nice return to form.

I hope RZA is also doing the soundtrack. That would make this must-see. Even if it doesn't fit.

I support Mafia being played here. Naturally, people are gonna get pissy and might call someone out for stupid plays, but I think as long as things like personal attacks and extreme insults don't get involved, it shouldn't have to be policed too hard. Over on Rajah, we can get pretty heated mid game, but we're cool about it everywhere else.

I've always been a huge Child's Play fan, so I'm at least curious. But I haven't seen anything since Bride of Chucky, but I'm not too sure about this yet. It'll be weird hearing a different voice for Chucky. I'll definitely check it out, though.

Look at you stirring up conversation. I think what probably happened is writers and artists probably started going for more of a Chicago vibe in the later years, hence why everyone always FELT like it Chicago when it's truly NYC. I'm just talking out of my ass, though. I think it's fair to say it's ultimately NYC, regardless of what it feels like.

I unfortunately don't have time to read the last big wall posts, as curious as I am, but I'd just like to chime in with what I've read and skimmed through: FFXV's story was a palatable disaster due to the extended development time and constant changes. As has been said, great ideas that just were never fleshed out. But the gameplay was probably the best you could make in the modern era without resorting to traditional JRPG turn-based style. Some tweaks here and there, but I felt they really struck that balance of "ARPG that still makes you feel like you're playing a JRPG." And as an overall package, it was easily the most satisfying Final Fantasy since X(or XII depending on your opinion). It definitely brought back that sense of exploration and discovery over a fascinating world. If only the open world had a couple more fleshed out towns, and wasn't completely disassociated from the linear main story section. Just imagine if we could have explored those areas where the train stops at.