so, many people have been having issues with NISA's latest PC outing with Disgaea PC. stuttering, issues with the graphical settings, and generally buggy stuff have been bothering players this week. and in my case, the framerate's so slow at essentially 5fps on my low-spec rig that i pretty much can't play the game.
well, at the very least, NISA's been listening to these issues and even asked players to post their computer specs so they can work on a fix. the fix is reported to come out tomorrow on the 2nd. nice to see NISA values their community and community feedback when it comes to their stuff.
'course, if Disgaea PC still doesn't run well on my computer, at least i got the PSP version of Disgaea 1 to fall back on. still don't really regret buying it if it means the possibility of more NIS games on PC/Steam. >w>
in the meantime, enjoy some 90's inspired demonic doofery with the dudes at Mega64. i'll just be here trying to get some more stuff done for this place.
and wondering where the hell they managed to get that prinny costume.
working on typing up another game rec. provided things go smoothly, it should be up this month. in the meantime, it's been a while since i had a vlog, hasn't it?
while i'm not too big on most chiptune bands or musicians, there are a couple of higedriver's tracks i do like. their soundcloud can be found here. they mostly do remixes of other songs, though they have a few original tunes as well, one of which is UKIGUMO above.
there's another video featuring the song, but this is my favorite out of the two. a cute little yarn about a fox and a girl he loves. the video was created by artist kitsuneiro, who has a wonderful selection of spritework and drawn artwork and sketches on their twitter and pixiv. go check either out if you want; they do some really nice works. O:
thought i might plug this since i gotta step up my game on keeping this place updated. also hey guys i was part of a rad thing.
P-Stream (the P stands for "Power"!) is a Twitch stream ran by Sam, one of my pals who also does some nifty voicework and a p fun comic. the stream's been going on usually every sunday, though it's on its season finale now, with this episode done on the 12th of this month. me, Sam, and another pal named Pat played and streamed some Castle Crashers that day. we also played some Pokemon Black, but that unfortunately isn't shown because Sam's recording software really didn't want to cooperate with Desmume.
despite the little technical difficulties, we had a huge blast! next part of the finale should be streamed next Sunday on the 19th; Sam'll likely be playing Pokemon G/S/C in honor of Satoru Iwata's excellent help on the game. bless his soul, whereever he is now. also might be hopping in myself that day!
twitch stream can be found here, and you can also follow Sam on twitter for updates on when they'll go live! seriously, they're a cool dude.
(warning! flashy effects! don't watch if you're epileptic or easily disorientated by such effects)
another scene demo for everyone. this time it's an Amiga one: Desert Dream by group Kefrens. not as technologically impressive as Second Reality, but still has some pretty cool graphics, music, coding, and pixelart. it was released in April of 1993, and placed first in the demo competition for The Gathering demoparty in that year.
if you got an Amiga (or Amiga emulator) you wanna try it out on, you can download the demo here.
(warning! lots of flashy effects! don't watch if you're epileptic or easily disorientated by such effects)
scene demos (or simply 'demos') are one of the more interesting forms of computer art i've come across. for those not in the whole know about the whole demoscene subculture, demos are small audio-visual programs mostly developed as a show of artistic, programming, and musical prowess. while the demoscene was more popular in the 80's and 90's thanks to computer systems such as the Commodore 64 and MS-DOS, it's still active today with groups making demos for a wider array of systems, including some game consoles like the Game Boy Advance and such.
demoscene's kind of a lengthy topic i'm not too savvy with, so i'll just leave it at that. :'D anyhow, this here is Second Reality, a MS-DOS demo done by Finnish demogroup Future Crew in 1993, and was placed first in the demo competition for the Assembly demoparty in that year. for it's time, it's a pretty dang impressive piece of work as far as programming goes.
well, as far as the whole game design thing goes, George Weidman of Super Bunnyhop worded it a lot better than i could've. while i'm not going to deny that older gaming generations had trends of their own (how many friggin 3d platformers did we get in the late90s-mid00s again?), certain trends seem to be more commonplace in AAA games from the more recent years. hell, even a good fraction of indie games aren't safe from this; just count how zombie/crafting/survival/metroidvania/sandbox games you see on steam's indie section.
a lot of people yell for new IPs all the time, but how do we know said new IP won't just use trends already seen before? new IPs are great, but if you can innovate on new features or streamline existing ones, that's even better. quite a bit of Nintendo series tend to try out new things and improve on existing gameplay stuff: while the Mario and Pokemon series are good example of this, Kirby and Zelda have this as well.
hell, recent Nintendo consoles feature some pretty creative new IPs that put a spin on existing trends and try out new styles of gameplay. the Pikmin games are wonderful, Captain Toad looks pretty fun, and the upcoming Splatoon is a interesting take on the shooter genre with its gameplay and graphical style. a good lot of japanese-developed titles are pretty unique in their gameplay as well, and there's even some pretty creative indie games if you look hard enough. there's also a few western-developed gems that put an interesting spin on usual gameplay conventions: just look at Guild Wars 2.
there's a bit more to fun and memorable game design (and aesthetic, by
extension) than just hopping on a trend bandwagon, but not a whole lot
of developers are willing to risk innovation over sales. why is there an
overabundance of a particular genre/gimmick/graphic style in games?
because that's what the vocal audience demands. and they sell. it's a
sad truth, but it's a truth.
though even in recent times, there are creative gems that are worth a look at. you just have to look hard enough for them. c:
so uh, i may or may not have been on a Crash Bandicoot fix lately. which is weird, since i've been into it for quite some years now, and yet it's early 2015 where the obsession reaches a friggin' peak. funny how that works.
might be doing these vlog sorta things just to space out between the more wordier stuff while i work on them. mostly they'll be about stuff i find pretty fun or interesting. i'll probably end up having a similar thinger with favorite musics of mine as well. also maybe artwork showcases, though i'm not 100% sure on that yet.
anyhow, here's a pretty sweet Crash-themed float done for Arkiweek at the UST College of Architecture in 2011! it's a wonderful fan tribute to the classic platformer franchise, and there's a lot of pretty rad costumes, too. also, dancing. the dancing is especially important.
even if i've got my doubts on there being another Crash Bandicoot game anytime soon, it's still nice to know that the series is still adored by the fans and that the community themselves are pretty dang dedicated to it.
trying to break the constant lull, i guess. have a cute Disgaea video.
original video is from niconico. another dude on youtube had the video up a few years back, but they closed their account. so of course i'm going to be the dingus who rehosts it.
