Well, this was a nice change of pace. Read the first letter. It's a better bit of opening commentary than I could make up. | A special prize for me! Oooo! | Dear Mr. Milligan, In recognition of your consistent and blatant abuse of your readers in your daily letters column, Double Agent, located at http://www.thegia.com/letters.html, you have been selected as the Bastard of the Week. BotW award winners are chosen on the basis of many factors, including use of inappropriate language, lack of respect shown for others, and general cruelty. We feel that your column meets all these criteria, and for that reason, invite you to paste our award on your page at your leisure. You are a true bastard among men, and anyone who writes to you must have a death wish or be stupid. Keep 'em flyin', Cameron |
Cameron's letter included a dead link to a Geocities address, and no attachment. So no prize picture for me. Awwwww. Still, this is the first award anyone's ever tried to award to me, so I feel a bit of pride welling up in me. Bastard of the Week indeed. I'm not sure I'll be telling my mom about this particular prize, but it's nice to win something. I certainly earned it. | Startlingly mundane | Hey Allan, I just heard about this kickass new game called Startling Odyssey 2. It's from Japan, it's an RPG, and it sounds H O T, believe you me. I mean, you play as Robin and his companions, and you fight the summoned dragon Babylon! You restore peace to the land and everything! It sounds like a hardcore classic of RPG goodness! So, is GIA gonna cover this game? I know it's in Japan only, but we can hope, right? - Xer0 |
Gosh, you're right, it does sound like a winner. I mean, as AV likes to say, it's about time RPG developers jettisoned the tired old "rape and pillage the land" plotline. I mean, wow, restoring peace to the land? Fighting evil? I'm up for it, aren't you? Ahem. Sorry, pal, but GIA will not be covering Startling Odyssey 2. Even leaving aside the coma-inducing inventiveness of the plot, the odds of it seeing US release are about the same as those of AK leaving GIA to start Wet Gold, the unofficial Bea Arthur porn site. Namely, it'stheoretically possible, but realistically, it ain't gonna happen. GIA would rather focus on games that stand a decent chance of seeing US release. | Nude Raider crusades and pulls | Like the subject says, here are some random question in themiddle of my head. 1. Did anyone else know that Eidos is taking action againstall the Nude Raider sights? I read that sights containing explicitimages of Lara Croft are being taken down. |
I'm note sure about that. I know that Nuderaider.com has been taken down, and that Eidos isn't exactly beaming with pride about the whole business, but if Eidos is taking action against all NR sites, they're doing a pretty slapdash job of it. Half my Infoseek hits for Nude Raider were still up, and showed no sign of slowing down or going underground, including major ones at Game-Revolution.com. I suspect that Eidos is smacking down the big ones, like the Nude Raider webring at nuderaider.com, but they seem bright enough to realize that getting rid of all of them would be impossible. 2. Just how many letters do you recieve a day? I'll get back to you as soon as some more questions come to mefrom randomness. Dragoon X |
The number of letters I receive each day vary dramatically. It typically ranges from about 20 to 40 daily, with spurts and low periods coming and going every so often. I generally get more if I say something really rude, and less if I'm respectful and polite. | Revisionism | Heya D.A., I actually have a real question for once, one that I do not know the answerto, and one that pertains to video games as a whole. This is very unusual,since I normally write long and windy letters that have nothing to-- Ahem. As I was saying, my question is this: I purchased the lovely 4-CD edition of the Final Fantasy VIII soundtrackthe day you placed it on your web site. When I received it, I noticed themusic from the playable demo introduction was not in the soundtrack. Therewas another piece of a similar nature entitled "The Landing" (Disc 1, Track8), but it is itself very different from the landing music for the demo. One of three things seem to have occurred. Either 1) the music was changedbetween the demo and the actual game, 2) the introduction track was leftout, or 3) the music on the version of the [collectors] soundtrack Ireceived is different in someway from the actual game music. Being as youare wise in the ways of the Final Fantasy VIII music (having most likelyplayed the game and heard the soundtrack) do you have any idea whatoccurred? Warm Regards to you, my goat-kissing friend, Shawn Cooper ~Considerably Insufferable~ |
Between the demo and the final release, Square can and has made revisions to the game in various respects, and the music is no exception. The soundtrack version of The Landing is, for all intents and purposes, the equivalent of the demo intro music. They just revised and remixed it for the final version, in this case, pretty extensively. | Funny business | I was thinking the other day, as I am wont to do, when the stars align...and I realized that there was a definative lack of Humor RPG's on the market. Don't get me wrong. I understand that many RPG's do have very humorous moments. But I don't really remember any that existed for humorous moments. (Author's note: Discount FFT here, as that translation, though it did make me blast milk out my nose, did not make the game humor oriented.) Considering where the majority of the RPG's come from (Japan), and the fact that there are definate remnants of anime in an overwhelming majority of said rpg's, and that there are some hilarious animes out there, it just didn't make sense. Is there some kind of secret society trying to prevent the release of these games on USA shores, or is it just a lack of such games? I wouldn't mind a game set up like that, for a change of pace. Seeing as how a lot of the current games drop major emotional issues on the main character, try to establish some grand theme, like love, life, accepting responsibility, etc...I would like to see an RPG that exists to make me laugh. Just my thoughts... Osiris |
Well, Earthbound wasn't exactly gritty and serious. And hey, the original title of Robotrek was Slapstick. Granted, the translation was so poor, it ended up being outright surreal, but it was supposed to be funny. And hell, most Working Designs games have at least a chuckle or two in them. Personally, I think trying to program a humor RPG would be sheer hell. First off, senses of humor are very individual, and amusing a broad audience is just this side of impossible. Second, finding a structure or plot for the game would be difficult. Do you make up a silly plot? A serious plot with jokes peppered throughout it? Do you make up a plot at all? How the hell does the boss monster, or random encounters, play into the comedy? And lastly, one of the most important parts of comedy is timing, and a video game with no time limit, like an RPG, has no control over timing. The player does. I figure the closest thing we'll see to a comedy RPG are the lighter WD games, like Albert Odyssey and Cosmic Fantasy 2, games with serious plots, and a lot of goofy aside comments and conversations worked in. | Doing the job right | Well you folks need to realize something about the ESRB. They're not inthe market to keep these games out of kids' hands. They're rating gamesto give the parents a guideline. If parents don't read the rating, andbuy Turok 2, or Riana Rouge, TS for them. The rating is there, there'seven an 800 number to call to find out more! If parents aren't willingto pay attention to it, then, to coin a phrase, "they asked for whatthey got." As a retailer I have one thing to say. I am 20 years old, and while Ido want children in the future, I do not right now. I am not ready. And because of this, you can be damn sure I'm not ready to raise yourchildren either. If you can't take the extra few minutes to read up onwhat your child wants to play, then screw you! It's time for parents to take responsibility. It's not the ESRB's faultthat parents don't want to take notice of their children's interests. Am I being harsh? Probably, yes. Am I being unfair? No! The ESRBdoes it's job, and for those parents out there who actually payattention, you get much applause from me. -Brad Williams |
"You can be damn sure I'm not ready to raise your children either." Well said, Brad. I freely confess that I've always regarded the ESRB as a restriction, a sort of gateway that would prevent inappropriate materials from getting into the wrong hands. But you've got a better perspective on this, no question. The ESRB ratings serving as a guide to parents, and you're right, tough shit for them if they don't keep informed. I have another good letter about improving the ESRB which I'll post up tomorrow. | For the love of Mana | dear agent, i'll tell you what is so great about mana. first of all, it is one of thosegames i hold very dear to me because it is such a classic and the fact thatwe didn't get secret of mana 2. it is like the square's "lost masterpiece."and here's why. as you said, the gameplay was great. fun, addicting and very appropriate.the music is definitely good and fits the theme of the game well. the storyisn't as complex or as grand as final fantasy or xenogears, but do we alwaysneed such huge moving stories. secret of mana and secret of mana 2 (sd3)had good stories with some very unique and intriguing characters. one partyou failed to mention is the graphics and the world where it all takesplace. by looking at secret of mana's scenery (blatantly evident in legendof mana), true creativity and artistry goes into the world of mana. thelush forests, majestic mountains, awe-inspiring waterfalls and the largemana tree. it all fits together in a beautiful package making nocompromises. furthermore, the boss fights in sd3 were some of the best i'veever seen. fighting on top of flammie riding through the sky, thethree-headed dark mana best, the yeti mana best of moon and all the finalbosses were highly impressive. and last but not least, multiplayer. nowthat's the way to kick booty; have some buddies join up and duke it out. i still love final fantasy and can't wait until ff8 comes out, but i trulylove the fantasy world in secret of mana. it is exactly what a game shouldbe: fun! it isn't littered with fmv or 1.5 minute-long summon spells. sothat's why secret of mana is great. and square, if you're reading this(hey, how's it going?), a spring/summer 2000 release for legend of manawould please more of your fans than you could imagine. lemonLime |
I can feel the love, can't you?
Closing comments The Sultan of Strange asked a whole load of questions about the PS2, and I just can't answer them. We've got tech specs, but no info on what it looks like, backwards compatibility, or any such thing. Sorry. Two people wrote in to say "Drew rules!" Evil Peer said he was more cynical, wittier, and funnier than yours truly. Well, then I guess I'll have to turn things up a notch, not won't I? Jose Jimenez asked if I'd heard about a PSX peripheral called Jam!!, which apparently allows you to connect your PSX to your computer. Not simply for saving games, a la DexDrive, but actually playing the PSX on the comp. Well, I found a homepage for it right here. Does that help? In the corrections facility, we discover that Starcraft has had two ESRB ratings. It was released before it received a proper rating, so Blizzard decided to give it a M rating, just to be on the safe side. Very soon after release, they were assigned a Teen rating, which it has kept ever since. Thanks to Fradener for that info. And lastly, we have a special Deep Thought (but aren't they all?) about Sony approval policy. And it ain't pretty, and also explains a bit of NES lore that I never understood at the time. - Allan Milligan | | | |
