MR. Y'S PROFILE

NOTE: Some MGS2 & MGS3 spoilers, plus basic MGS4 story information available from gaming websites.

I could talk an ear off about how much I enjoy Metal Gear games. I'd almost buy the PS3 just to play the final game. *almost*

But really, I feel like MGS3 was something like the last hurrah for the series, at least on consoles, and in terms of storyline. The whole evil-Liquid-arm-sown-onto-Ocelot was the stupidest part of the MGS2 storyline, and in that story there were a lot of stupid parts. MGS3 brought things back to basics, made the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo a little more rational, and told a fantastic story without relying on fantasy elements to tell the best parts. The best part of MGS3's plot was the end-of-game revelations which occurred, and they didn't have anything to do with the Sorrow's magical powers or how the Fury turned into a flying flaming wrath after Snake killed him.

But things are getting too convoluted and too *magical* in MGS4, by appearances. The main villain of the game is Liquid Ocelot- the man formerly known as Ocelot who was taken over by Liquid's spirit which lived on in Liquid's arm after Liquid died, and after Ocelot had it attached to his own stump of an arm as a result of a cyborg-ninja attack. Wow. Beyond that point, Meryl somehow isn't dead and there's a zombie enemy that some people think is Big Boss AGAIN (even after his trilogy supposedly ended). Campbell is alive and giving directions to Snake- apparently the Patriots didn't bother killing him off when GW started to impersonate him to mislead Raiden, and besides that Campbell is in some position of authority to convince Snake to do 'one final mission' and kill Liquid. Oh... and Snake pulls a Hemingway, but Kojima spoiled it by saying that 'Snake doesn't die,' so that's all well and good.

And some of the gameplay sounds obnoxious too. Really, I don't need to behaving like Stevo and grabbing my enemies in the crotch to knock them out cold. Even for Snake, that's a low blow... but yeah, I'll still need to play this game once because it's Metal Gear and all.

The Animal Crossing stage looks awesome ;D!

I'm so excited about how the stages and assist trophies are bringing so many other things-Nintendo to the game, it's so cool to see so many characters and stages. This has got to be the best Smash yet, I think.

What the topic title says, but in two questions:

1. Personally, how important is it for you to play games with unique music tracks created just for the game? Does playing a game with original music make the game more enjoyable for you, or do you care the same amount if songs ripped from video games are used? Do you have a negative bias towards games using standard RTP music from either 2K, 2K3, or XP?

2. What is your impression of what the gamemaking community as a whole (RMN and other sites included) thinks about original music? Is it too overhyped, or are songwriters not given enough credit?

So I'll start. For me, I usually only notice if a game uses music that is overused in many other amateur games. This usually involves either RM2K RTP songs or songs from very popular RPGs that I've played, like Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Phantasy Star, etc. However, for me to notice that an amateur game has unique music, I usually have to be told so by somebody else to appreciate the fact (although sometimes I'll come to this conclusion in games like Grave Spirit, where everything else is custom and I recognize none of the music.)

For me, I'd say that original music is only as good as 'rare' video game songs that I haven't heard. I hate to admit this, because I wouldn't want to discourage anybody that does write original music for games. Then again, I think it's getting more and more difficult for me to encounter 'rare' video game music that doesn't stink, so I'm noticing original music more often and appreciating it more.

As for the gamemaking community, I think a lot of people care about games with original music or resources and want to encourage the people who make that original stuff, rather than just downloading ready material off the Internet. I also think a lot of people are like me- not having played many commercial RPGs besides the more successful ones, we don't appreciate original songs as much. Then again, I also think there are some people who don't care much at all about original anything! But at least when I write reviews for games for other people to read, I like to mention it if original graphics or music is in there. It's a way of giving credit to the creators and perhaps also encouraging people to either download their game or try creating their own unique material.

What about the rest of you?

I'm definitely looking forward to #2 especially, though I hope it'll be comments on almost EVERYTHING on the site... games, articles, tutorials, news posts, and even game reviews themselves :o. Now that'd be awesome.

I don't follow video games as much as most folks here, so I don't have as much to say about it. I will say that I was actually most impressed with Sony's E3 presentation. For the Wii, that new Wii Fit 'game' or whatever sounds like it might be a little fun, but honestly I'd rather just go jogging than plonk down a bunch of money for that. Wii lacks a big library of good and great adventure and role-playing games, but that doesn't bother me much because I don't play very many games anyways. So I'll probably buy a Wii sometime soon this summer based on what they have and what they will have coming this year :). PS3 is nice, MGS4 is way cool, but I live in a frat house so I'll just play somebody else's.

Oh, and I didn't find the Microsoft presentation very interesting. My very amateur speculation is that theirs was the worst of the three, but I don't care much about Halo so maybe I see it differently :P.