Your task: Read the first four chapters of Great Rumbler's book and tell him your thoughts on it.
Difficulty: Assume that you are the head of the submissions department of a large publishing firm that receives hundreds of stories every month and has to sift through a mountain of fan-fiction in order to find one really good [and interesting] story.
Questions: Is the story too "wordy"? Does the main character "talk" too much? Does the story have the right tone? Does it feel like something is missing? Does it feel like something doesn't belong? Do I feel sympathy towards the plight of the main character? Does the use of words feel right? How does the voice of the author aid/hinder the underlying story? Does the story have too much detail? Is there too little action? Are there any incosistencies or contradictions present? Does everything make some logical sense? How would I change the story if I were the author? What works? What doesn't work? How can the story be made better?
Remember: Great Rumbler likes lots of details on how he can make his story better, so please write as much as you can about it.
Well I'm almost finished with Twilight Princess, and thought a discussion about the art style of the Zelda games was warranted. Most of the games have been incredibly artistic even when they weren't testing the technical limits of graphical capabilities at the time. Anyway, here's how I would rank the games:
1. Wind Waker
2. A Link to the Past
3. Link's Awakening
4. Twilight Princess
5. Majora's Mask
6. Minish Cap
7. Ocarina of Time
8. Oracle Games
9. Adventures of Link
10. Legend of Zelda
I think the art in Wind Waker blows them all away, and I only wish the difficulty had been up to par with TP. I kind of group LttP and LA together as the art style for both games is very similar, but those two games are what I think of when I think of 2D Zelda. The twilight realm in TP is very cool, and the characters all have distinct personalities without even talking to them. This is similar to Majora's Mask. Minish Cap had a cool style, but I prefer the style from LttP and LA. OoT was obviously a great advance for the Zelda series, but while the game was incredible I don't think it compares artistically to some of the other Zelda games. Of course, it is still leagues beyond most other games out there, but Zelda games have a higher standard when it comes to artistry.
in my collection. ... I thought it was interesting, at least... (and it's really totals, not ratios. Close enough.)
Hardware Japanese Games American/European Games
Game Boy 19 11 36.7% US/Eu releases
GB Color 9 6 40% US/Eu releases
GB Advance 22 1 4.3% US/Eu releases
SNES 37 15 [two games are a Japanese ports of European computer games listed here as US/Europe]
Genesis 34 16 [Sonic 2 was a joint US/Japan team; I listed it as Japan] 32% US/Eu releases
Sega CD 0 4 100% US/Eu releases
Nintendo 64 23 35 60.3% US/Eu releases
Gamecube 25 18 41.9% US/Eu releases
Playstation 24 16 40% US/Eu releases
PC 6 243 97.6 US/Eu releases
... US/European breakdown would be more interesting for the PC list, for sure.
Those two I have notes for are trickier. Like, how do you categorize Super Swing Golf, a Japanese console port of a Korean PC game? I think it makes the most sense to list something by original developer, not the one who ported it, so Super Swing Golf (PangYa/Albatross18) would be Korean, despite Tecmo making the Wii port... but the porting one should be noted somehow too... bah. 0.7 for the original maker and 0.3 for the porting company? :D Not to mention how some games have developers in multiple regions working on them (like art/CG teams in other countries working on the game while the main developers are elsewhere -- it has happened.), and I probably have some of those and didn't note it, but I'm not even going to get into that...
Quote:Last month Microsoft issued a statement saying that it expected to sell one million Gears of War units by year's end, but it seems they have underestimated the title's popularity. In its 6 weeks since launch Epic's gritty action game has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide (1 million in the US alone), becoming the fastest- selling next-generation game of 2006.
Quote:In addition to being the must-have video game of the holiday season, "Gears of War" continues to rage on the Xbox Live battlefield as well, with more than 1 million unique gamers engaging in 10 million online gameplay sessions and unlocking an impressive 7 million achievements. On top of being the No. 1 title on Xbox Live, "Gears of War" has driven new members to the network; paid registrations per day have skyrocketed more than 50 percent since the game's launch.
New IPs can sell.
In unrelated news, Viva Pinata sold a paltry 40,000 units in its first week. Yikes.
I never even realized this, because I did not combine all known data in all possible configurations! This odd little song is in a LOT of games! I'd heard it before in a few of them but never put 2 and 2 together to realize I'd heard it before! Let the search continue!
Fortunately, it won't kill us, but it may disrupt some electrical systems, like satellites or maybe Ontario could get another solar blackout (I use "black" figuratively because a lot of crazy electrical activity happened that day). Sounds like fun! Too bad I'm too close to the equator to see the auroras that'll emerge from this...
