It was very very recently (as in not even 5 minutes ago) brought to my attention that SF4, Bionic Commando Rearmed, and hell, even the original Bionic Commando have their OSTs up for legit purchase through a site called 'Sumthing Digital'. Apparently Capcom is going with these guys for digital distributions of about everything.
On one hand, I'm very happy to see a company actually going forwards in making OSTs a lot more reasonable to acquire. I know a lot of gamers would be much more willing to buy an OST for 10$ than the usual import cost of 50 or so.
So why the sad face? It's a digital purchase, and thus only the MP3s. Probably one of the most fun (and one of my most favorite) parts of my OST collection has been the legit discs, the cover art, owning it physically. It's sort of a principle of mine to not buy digital game OSTs. (Which is strange, considering my great love for digital titles on 360 and Virtual Console)
The difference between the two however, is that with digital music purchases, it's honestly little to no different than me having MP3s anyway. (As opposed to say LIVE Arcade, where I wouldn't have had it otherwise)
All things considered, I may break down and buy anyway. I found myself thinking how awesome BC Rearmed's OST was today, and wishing I could buy it. I just hadn't wanted it digitally. That said, these prices are rather damn good, and it's still the same feeling at least of having supported the companies + whatnot. (ie legally owning the music)
To anyone reading, what are your thoughts? Is owning music digitally truly any different than owning games digitally? Is it really that much of a difference between CD vs MP3s, against discs vs digital games?
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
A Strange Phenomenon
As said in my previous entry, I've been playing a bit of Soul Calibur 4 lately. This was fun and all, but has reminded me of a very real thing I see any time I play something halfway competitive online. For the unaware, most LIVE enabled games offer ranked and player matches. The difference between the two being that wins / losses are recorded on ranked, while not for player matches.
The phenomenon, is the abundance of douchebaggery one finds in Ranked match as opposed to Player match. Now, i realize this isn't a terribly strange phenomenon if someone takes a second to think about the situation. With ranked play, there's a score of some sort associated to your name. There's also (often) achievements on the line tied to ranked play as opposed to player matches. As a result, these records seem to push people to be far more asses than they normally would.
It seems like ranked play is where you see the worst. The most trash talking, the most ragequitting, the most picking of hard counters (which while a legitimate strategy i suppose, still shows you lack the skill and confidence to beat someone with your 'main', resorting to someone statistically better ) While these factors are not unheard of in player matches, they happen far, far less in my experience. Player matches seems to be where you find people playing for the sake of enjoying the game, not getting off from acting like a child.
I don't expect this blog to change a damn thing, and don't expect folks to change on their own. Just something I noticed today however, and felt like ranting just a little about. If you guys need me, you'll typically find me in player matches, where people are actually fun to be around.
-Ed Kun Out-
The phenomenon, is the abundance of douchebaggery one finds in Ranked match as opposed to Player match. Now, i realize this isn't a terribly strange phenomenon if someone takes a second to think about the situation. With ranked play, there's a score of some sort associated to your name. There's also (often) achievements on the line tied to ranked play as opposed to player matches. As a result, these records seem to push people to be far more asses than they normally would.
It seems like ranked play is where you see the worst. The most trash talking, the most ragequitting, the most picking of hard counters (which while a legitimate strategy i suppose, still shows you lack the skill and confidence to beat someone with your 'main', resorting to someone statistically better ) While these factors are not unheard of in player matches, they happen far, far less in my experience. Player matches seems to be where you find people playing for the sake of enjoying the game, not getting off from acting like a child.
I don't expect this blog to change a damn thing, and don't expect folks to change on their own. Just something I noticed today however, and felt like ranting just a little about. If you guys need me, you'll typically find me in player matches, where people are actually fun to be around.
-Ed Kun Out-
Moar Updates
Nothing exciting going on, just figured a new update might be in order.
Life goes. More temp work at the school district finished, leaving me without any sustained income. (At least, till my next job) In the meantime, the job market still sucks for programmers. Imagine that.
Game wise, haven't been accomplishing much. Been doing auction housing on WoW, and playing random XBLA titles in the meantime. Oratorio Tangram came out not too long ago, which made me probably 90 or so shades of happy. It's a truly wonderful port, being all the love of Oratorio Tangram with sexier graphics and netplay. (Very stable and lagless netplay, i might add. At least in my experience) The option for 'cast controls vs twin stick was a nice touch, with twin sticks being very arcade accurate in terms of execution. Regardless, I've been having a lot of fun with it. Playing (better) Japanese players online has been quite the timesink.
I also recently picked up Tetris Splash on LIVE arcade. Kind of an impulse buy, but not so much a bad one. For 10$, you get Tetris plain and simple, with the extra option of online play akin to Tetrinet. For me, it's partially that I've never been very good at all at Tetris. Whereas just about every other friend of mine is good, I never have. (Which I attribute to never playing at all growing up) Aside from this, I still have fun playing some Tetris, and figured it would be a fun buy. That said, it too has been a massive timesink.
Last, I went ahead and gave Soul Calibur 4 another shot today. Having taken some time away from it, I found myself really enjoying the game again. As far as Soul Caliburs go, it's not that badly done / built. (I personally disagree with Butters that it's any more button mashable than it's predecessors) It's very pretty, has a good soundtrack (better than SC3 methinks) and has a lot of fun character choices. The biggest change however was trying out my stick playing Soul Cal 4. In doing so, it reaffirmed for me that fighters of all types are designed for play using arcade sticks. It feels like once given time to adjust to stick playing, you could land controls a lot more precisely than on controller. (At least, on 360 controller) Twas also a good feel, but then again I'm a little biased pro-stick. That said, in the next few days I'll probably keep giving online play some more tries.
Last, speaking of sticks: Been playing Rival Schools lately with Adam. It's been a very fun experience, with both of us getting to go re-visit a classic (and great!) fighter, while learning it the "intended/meant" way. I feel like he's still very much adjusting to using a stick, but even so he's been catching up quickly. (Meaning for very good matches in the meantime) It makes me happy to help get him back into fighting games, but also that we can (as said above) revisit a very well done game, and give it some attention even in lieu of more modern fighters. Personally, i'll be more excited to try out some Project Justice once I can get dreamcast controller adapters. (Or if it ever comes out on XBLA. =) )
So that's really it. A little gaming here and there, with some job hunting. We'll hope I can get something in the not too distant future. Until then, going to try to enjoy myself somewhat.
List of To-dos:
* Mod Aoko (my stick) and Hinata (Adam's stick) for modular adapters.
* * Make a PS3 adapter for Aoko, in preparation for Kumori tournies.
* Buy new stick + buttons for Aoko.
* Get better at Tetris
* More Soul Cal 4
* Maybe some more SF4 before Blazblue comes out. (And i thus never touch SF4 again. ;P )
-Ed Kun Out-
Life goes. More temp work at the school district finished, leaving me without any sustained income. (At least, till my next job) In the meantime, the job market still sucks for programmers. Imagine that.
Game wise, haven't been accomplishing much. Been doing auction housing on WoW, and playing random XBLA titles in the meantime. Oratorio Tangram came out not too long ago, which made me probably 90 or so shades of happy. It's a truly wonderful port, being all the love of Oratorio Tangram with sexier graphics and netplay. (Very stable and lagless netplay, i might add. At least in my experience) The option for 'cast controls vs twin stick was a nice touch, with twin sticks being very arcade accurate in terms of execution. Regardless, I've been having a lot of fun with it. Playing (better) Japanese players online has been quite the timesink.
I also recently picked up Tetris Splash on LIVE arcade. Kind of an impulse buy, but not so much a bad one. For 10$, you get Tetris plain and simple, with the extra option of online play akin to Tetrinet. For me, it's partially that I've never been very good at all at Tetris. Whereas just about every other friend of mine is good, I never have. (Which I attribute to never playing at all growing up) Aside from this, I still have fun playing some Tetris, and figured it would be a fun buy. That said, it too has been a massive timesink.
Last, I went ahead and gave Soul Calibur 4 another shot today. Having taken some time away from it, I found myself really enjoying the game again. As far as Soul Caliburs go, it's not that badly done / built. (I personally disagree with Butters that it's any more button mashable than it's predecessors) It's very pretty, has a good soundtrack (better than SC3 methinks) and has a lot of fun character choices. The biggest change however was trying out my stick playing Soul Cal 4. In doing so, it reaffirmed for me that fighters of all types are designed for play using arcade sticks. It feels like once given time to adjust to stick playing, you could land controls a lot more precisely than on controller. (At least, on 360 controller) Twas also a good feel, but then again I'm a little biased pro-stick. That said, in the next few days I'll probably keep giving online play some more tries.
Last, speaking of sticks: Been playing Rival Schools lately with Adam. It's been a very fun experience, with both of us getting to go re-visit a classic (and great!) fighter, while learning it the "intended/meant" way. I feel like he's still very much adjusting to using a stick, but even so he's been catching up quickly. (Meaning for very good matches in the meantime) It makes me happy to help get him back into fighting games, but also that we can (as said above) revisit a very well done game, and give it some attention even in lieu of more modern fighters. Personally, i'll be more excited to try out some Project Justice once I can get dreamcast controller adapters. (Or if it ever comes out on XBLA. =) )
So that's really it. A little gaming here and there, with some job hunting. We'll hope I can get something in the not too distant future. Until then, going to try to enjoy myself somewhat.
List of To-dos:
* Mod Aoko (my stick) and Hinata (Adam's stick) for modular adapters.
* * Make a PS3 adapter for Aoko, in preparation for Kumori tournies.
* Buy new stick + buttons for Aoko.
* Get better at Tetris
* More Soul Cal 4
* Maybe some more SF4 before Blazblue comes out. (And i thus never touch SF4 again. ;P )
-Ed Kun Out-
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