FredEffinChopin

Isn't that a perfectly legitimate reason not to like something, because it doesn't appeal to one's taste? Also the comparison to a metal show doesn't really work, people going to a concert know what they're in for, they're seeing a band they like most of the time. You go to a movie to find out whether or not you like it. It's perfectly ok to bitch about a movie you don't like in the theater. It's even more appropriate to do it in a thread with this title. Nobody is crossing any lines. I hate Big Bang Theory with rare passion. Not only am I totally turned off by the "nerds doing nerdy things!" aspect of it, but I don't think it's funny as a show. The success of that show is seriously one of the biggest mysteries to me. I don't think anyone insulted is taking it as a serious commentary. I think that in an age where anything remotely popular is a target for exploitation, people can get a bit sensitive about the way their culture is represented in entertainment. There is no reason for you take take it as a personal affront, or to tell anyone of a different mindset that they don't know how to watch movies. Whenever I see a discussion like this they all have one thing in common. People who love SP are always trying to convince people who dislike it that they're wrong about their opinion. Art simply doesn't work that way. I've had many years of experience with myself, I don't see myself being argued into thinking that something I don't like is something I do or should like. That works both ways too, I wouldn't try to convince anyone that they should dislike SP because it rubs me the wrong way.

Mean to comment on this too, forgot. That's what made the change of the site so sad to me. They used to completely have their finger on the pulse of the gaming community, or at least the portion of it that was interested in their content and style. I think moment for me when I realized that at least someone over there was seriously out of touch is when one of them (for the life of me I can't remember, and it's not worth it to look up just to criticize one by name) wrote a long article around the time Blizzard was talking about users using their real names in the help forums for WoW, about ALL the potential benefits of discarding anonymity on the internet(less trolls, is what the entire thing came down to). "I'm a writer on the internet and everyone knows my name, there really is nothing to be scared of", and other nonsense like that that completely neglected the dozens of legitimate concerns over the issue in favor of "dude, there would be less trolls!!!" I don't normally get that worked up over people's writing, but I wanted to puke blood all over my monitor when I read that. That's when I realized that someone over there doesn't live amongst the common people anymore, and completely forgot what it's like to be one of them. It was so sickeningly obtuse that almost halfway through I was still considering the possibility that it might be a joke. I'd estimate a good 70-80% of comments I read on the issue were against the change, or thought it was a bad decision on some level even if they didn't especially care. The topic was really hot and there were several articles surrounding it, and there were so many great posts that explained clearly and reasonably all the various reasons why it was not only a bad decision, but one that could set a precedent that could cause more grief for people down the line. There is no way they could've gone unnoticed. The fact that with all that feedback, someone over there thought it was a good idea to take the "yeah, but there'd be less annoying text I'd have to look at" side was something that I just found revolting. It was beyond playing devil's advocate, he just really didn't understand what it's like to be anything but a writer on a popular gaming blog. He even threw the old "only troublemakers care about being anonymous on the internet" sentiment in there. I'm getting annoyed just remembering it.

Yeah, that's the style I'm referencing. It isn't in red & blue, but roughly half of that review is taken up by lists called "what we liked" and "what we didn't like". It does still contain "why you should care", so maybe they haven't dropped the style completely, just met both of them halfway. Or it could just be this particular review getting that treatment. It seems awfully similar to the old "loved, hated" sections that users (including myself) were upset to see go.

Oh, hard times, no doubt about it. But with little to no direct competition, I think Harmonix is in the best position possible to get back on their feet. It won't happen overnight and it won't be easy, but if anyone can make it, it's them. Their product is now the only viable option for music game fans (at least for the foreseeable future). It's the only one that will be getting continued support and I think that if they keep making the games, by the time the next iteration of the series comes out, more people will have had time to invest in either the keyboard or the pro instruments, so they'll be more willing to invest in more software. Plus, some people just aren't very informed when it come to the gaming industry. They stayed with Guitar Hero all these years out of brand loyalty or because they didn't know any better. At some point, they'll inevitably have to check out Rock Band if they're still interested in the genre. Agreed, on all of that. I just hope they can hold out long enough for a gradual shift to work in their favor. Since they got dropped by MTV I've noticed weekly DLC hasn't been as hefty as usual. It could just be coincidence, but probably not, and I hope that they don't get cut off soon. I wish rockbandscores.com was still functional, and worked for RB3, I used to use it as a sort of popularity meter for DLC. It's probably not so bad though, as you said, they're the only game in town. I just hope that the people who are still into the music-game genre (both sides of it) are enough to keep things afloat. I also hope awareness of pro-mode increases, I think there are likely a lot of people who would love it that are completely unaware of its existence. Those instruments are expensive though...

I had it in my mind that I wouldn't really spend time on here talking about Kotaku, but I can't help this. It looks like they are reverting to their old review style, or something strongly resembling it. Perhaps they realized that they can't force people to read their articles the way they want their articles to be read? Maybe they realized they said "fuck you, deal with it" one too many times and everyone is jumping ship? Either way, too little too late. It's really sad, I've never seen a site decline so badly, so quickly.

Wow, this thread put several smiles on my face. It's good to see the users represent such a diverse range of quality music. Otis Redding, Portishead, Talib Kweli, Sublime.... So many great songs in here. Anyway, in keeping with the thread title, I've been listening to this album today while plugging away for my Mass Effect 2 platinum.

I've never listened to this album, but I'll never forget the day I was walking around a Barnes & Noble in Manhattan and noticed this CD on the racks. Also I have to agree with the Lateralus cover, as well as just about any Maiden album artwork.

Wow, I remember I took a whole lot of heat for my opinions on Scott Pilgrim on Kotaku when it came out. I didn't and don't call it a bad movie, since I haven't and won't see it. It's more like: Every trailer I saw made it nauseatingly apparent that it was just full of references and terminology that was supposed to make gamers feel at home, or catered to. I tend not to like products that pretend that they know me, because they usually don't. It must be what street-racing fanatics felt when The Fast and the Furious came out. To me SPVTW was only slightly less insulting than Seth Green's "Gamer Girl" video, which he will be shot for one day if there is any justice in the world. Less insulting, because from what I understand it's actually a well done film that's quite enjoyable to people who aren't repelled by it in one way or another. Again, I can't call it bad, and it's likely I might be able to call it a good movie if forced to watch it, but there is no way I could enjoy it with those constant irritating distractions. If SPVTW were a woman who wanted to get to know me I'd have to offer the timelessly annoying "It's not you, it's me" as an excuse to keep my distance. It'd be accurate though. And no, I'm not going to watch it and give it a chance. I don't need to touch my tongue to a turd to know I won't like the taste, I've seen these things before and know that they aren't for my consumption. Anyway, the last crap film I saw was City Dragon. I found this thing in a $2 DVD bin at a 99c store a couple of years ago, and it's probably the best $2 I've ever spent. If anyone has ever seen The Room and enjoyed it, this is along those lines. A hopelessly bad film that makes you wonder if the whole thing was done in jest.... But it isn't, and that makes it even more beautiful. I don't watch it often or anything, but a friend was over recently who I thought might enjoy it, so I threw it on to show her the intro and we wound up sitting through the whole thing.

This is one from when I was a kid. It was hard to find, and the end has been edited, it was originally for TV Guide. The important parts are all there though.

Holy cow, good show. The person on my friends list who has by far the most trophies (Lvl20, 3,335 trophies) has mentioned to me that it was by far the most time consuming of all the platinums he's earned. Much respect to anyone who walked that road.

While I'm not anxious to participate in any motion gaming right now with its current offerings, I think the Move is a step in the right direction. It's building on the controller, rather than trying to replace it, and it opens up the possibility for ways to control games that may actually wind up being more efficient than anything before it. It kind of takes the good stuff from both traditional controllers and KB&Mouse setups and turns it into something new. If I had any faith that developers would use it to its potential I might be ready to purchase one, but I don't see that happening, not in this console generation. It seems like too big of a risk, and of the motion controllers currently available Kinect has the biggest buzz (and Wii the biggest user-base), and is most likely to get devs flocking to it. Maybe I'm thinking negatively.... Who knows though, if the library becomes impressive enough I might end up getting one around the holiday season or next year. Sorcery looks promising, and all the good things I'm hearing about using it with Killzone give me some faith that it might be a nice alternative to a DS3 for even traditional games that don't require Move. Sometimes anyway.

I feel the same way about it, only I'm not certain this really spells victory for Harmonix as much as it indicates hard times. Activision already did its damage to the genre, and RB3 sales and Harmonix's sale to Viacom would seem to support that. I'm hoping that RB3 sells a bit better over time because of this development, and in turn the DLC so that Harmonix can stay afloat and continue to innovate for their fans. They certainly do seem to have their hearts in it, I'd like to see them succeed, for their sake as well as mine

I agree completely, and for the same reasons. I'd just add the reason that it's a good old-fashioned JRPG, which seems to have become pretty rare in recent years. I had a great time with it, and might even give it another spin some time. I liked Mystic Quest back when I was a kid, it's hard to say how it would hold up if I tried it now. I loved XIII, and I was totally prepared to be let down going in due to all the news that was leaking about it leading up to release. It's possibly my favorite FF combat system of all-time, I had so much fun fighting even minor enemies at times, and the tougher mission fights were a blast. My contribution is: White Knight Chronicles. I couldn't even say why to be honest. It was bland going for the most part during 1P, but somehow it wound up growing on me by the time it was over, and I had a good time with it online when I started doing that. It was sort of like a mini MMO that you could just pick up and play a quick mission or two in. I hope they haven't scrapped the sequel, and if they haven't I hope it makes it to the US.

It's kind of galling to see them openly acknowledge the fact that they're systematically running these franchises into the ground and just ditching them when it's convenient. While there is no denying that they're definitely onto something as far as making tons of money for themselves goes, I can't help but feel like Activision has become a sort of industry poison. Not even the mighty COD series is invulnerable to the effects of forcing out yearly installments of games that have quarterly overpriced DLC. I'd definitely agree with the prediction that this year's COD won't sell as well, though it will still be a hit. I'm guessing 2012 will show an even sharper decline in interest, and it'll bite the dust soon afterward. It's sad, because a lot of these franchises might last longer and/or enjoy a more graceful retirement if they were allowed to evolve a little more naturally. Instead we have truly innovate games like Rock Band 3 struggling to make a buck since Activision already beat the genre to the point where most of its fanbase couldn't care less anymore.

I strongly suspect that's it. More specifically, I think a lot of people who are long-time readers and commenters are beginning to feel like second class citizens while moves are being made to make the site appeal to a broader audience (as well as fit in with the Gawker scheme that people don't necessarily care about), sacrificing the things about the site that made it so unique that people made it their haunt. That's absolutely what appeals to me about it. While I enjoyed (and still do) a lot of the content and writing on Kotaku, as well as the site's style, the thing that kept me coming back as frequently as I did was the community itself. Like any site that has such a loyal following, a lot of the people were bound to become disenchanted with it when it went through changes that growing sites usually undergo to match the growing demands of its reader base. It would be a shame for those people to wind up struggling to strike up a decent conversation on someplace like IGN, so I think it's really cool that this place exists. Anyway, thanks for the "Hi"s, and welcome to you other new people!

It was possible to kill him (IS HE REALLY DEAD???) but the hoops you had to jump through to do so were fucking ridiculous. You only got X amount of time to fight him before he runs away, and he would regain health when you're not fighting him, so you really wouldn't make a scratch in him until you found some of the best weapons in the game. And I think you had to find Ms. Voorhee's head to get an important item, only the head was hidden behind the kind of secret passage that you'd only know was there if you read it in a guide. It was impossible. Good lord does that picture bring back monotonous memories. Yeah, there is no way I would've figured any of that out as a kid. Now I'm actually tempted to fire this thing up on an emulator in the near-future and beat it. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment.

Super Stardust HD Last Guy Echochrome Soldner-X 2 Pixeljunk Shooter High Velocity Bowling A lot of the others named here are great too, but they've been said. Demos are available for most of these, not sure about HVB and SX2.

Katamari Damacy/We <3 Katamari MGS2 FFX Beyond Good & Evil Shadows of the Colossus In the cases of MGS and FF I don't necessarily think that those were better than their successors of that console generation, but being the first of it made them that much more impressive at the time, leaving a more lasting impression on me. I remember approving of most of the changes and additions to MGS3 at the time, but I draw blanks when I try to recall scenes from the game, or any real pieces of the plot. I do remember that badass sniping boss, The End(?). I decided to lump the Katmari games together just because. I can't pick between the two.

Has to be either: TMNT (NES) - Not the arcade beat-em-up, the top-view/side-scrolling/crappy-swimming one. OR Friday the 13th (NES) Problem for me as a kid though, was even though I knew when I game was getting on my nerves I couldn't bring myself to put it down until I either beat it or got hold of another game to play. I'm pretty sure both of those defeated me eventually. I had a really nice run in TMNT once, I felt like I had to be near the end, but never made it. I think F13th just kept starting over when you killed Jason....

The one the comes to mind first is having once held 40th on the Super Stardust HD leaderboards. It really was a pretty crazy score, but I think I've been bumped up to around 100th by now. Also since I started playing Rock Band last June (yes, I know I came in stupid late) I've made myself proud many times over. I guess if I had to actually name a couple I'd say: Snagging the platinum trophy in one month flat (I know it's a trophy, but I got it really fast....), and managing to join the pretty exclusive (I think around 200 on PS3) club of people who earned gold stars on Everlong expert drums. I've got a bunch of 1st places in RB3, but there are far less users so far so I guess it's not really fair to brag about. And I'm sorry, one more actual trophy: Mirror's Edge platinum. One of the most frustrating things I've ever done in my gaming career.

Faery: Legends of Avalon Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Mass Effect2 Off to a running start.

I'm a former Kotaku commenter (name is the PSN ID in the sig) who stopped posting when the Gawker security debacle went down. While there are plenty of places on the internet to talk about video game stuff, I have to admit that I kind of miss the quality of Kotaku discussions, arguments and all. Either that or I was just used to it. Either way, I figured it might translate to a message board well, so here I am. Hi!