MALADROITHIM'S PROFILE

I am absolutely flabbergasted by the amount of hype and anticipation for this game. I guess I just don't get it. I'll probably pick the game up, as I am sure that it's really good and will be a blast to play when I have friends over, but I could really care less that it's been delayed so many times!

It's similarly cold in my area right now. What's awesome is that it's cold enough where the temperature numbers in Fahrenheit and Celsius are about the same.

What's awful is that it was 40 degrees F yesterday (above freezing), and rained all day and evening. When the temperature plunged about a full one hundred degrees overnight (!), a massive amount of ice formed -- my car doors were sealed shut this morning and the drive to work was extremely harrowing.

author=Canuck link=topic=576.msg7918#msg7918 date=1201092047
Or Broad Sword.

I'm going to stick with Brothel Stud.

author=kentona link=topic=605.msg8050#msg8050 date=1201293765
So, what do you do in it? Play Pinball or hack zombies or drive a zamboni or what?

Actually it would not be out of the question to receive, as a weapon, a zamboni that shoots pinball machines at zombies.

Anyway, the Devil May Cry series is a series of excellently-built character action games in the vein of Ninja Gaiden or Onimusha. You explore, solve simple puzzles, and kill hordes of well-designed enemies, usually in churches, with an extremely tight combat engine that feels more like a fighting game than a brawler. It's a little like survival horror with less survival and more electric guitars.

The series' thematic material is always extremely ridiculous; in the third game I recall getting an electric guitar that would shoot at the enmies bats that had electricity coursing through them. It could also transform into a giant scythe. I also recall the main character being particularly offended when a demon burst into his office during the beginning; he was not that concerned that he had just been stabbed in the heart six times, but he was extremely disappointed that his pizza had been trampled in the fray.

author=Karsuman link=topic=569.msg8028#msg8028 date=1201281491
The problem with the sound design award is that it really falls under the category of atmosphere. And since it's often a very subtle thing (despite being important), it'll be hard for anyone to really remember a game that specifically had good sound design by the time the Misaos come around.

I really, really disagree. Atmosphere is a function of visuals, setting, and sound design. If you were going to discount the importance of sound design, then you might also just remove the categories for Best Writing as well as Best Graphics because those too contribute to atmosphere. While sound design may not seem important to you, to certain authors and certain players, it is extremely important and an area that some people invest a lot of spectator attention or creator effort into. If you are going to split hairs in other categories (such as separating Best Male Protagonist and Best Female Protagonist), I would encourage you to split hairs in regards to the things that please (or terrify) our ears.

If you want to whittle down categories, I would recommend you look at the categories that do not encourage individual talent. Best Musical Score, for example, is separate from Best Original Score -- in effect, with the first award you are recognizing one's ability to cherry-pick and plagiarize and giving the award equal weight as compared to an award to the hard-working amateur composer. Does it *really* matter that the author stole his music from an anime that has better music than his competitors that did the same thing? You certainly aren't recognizing authors who draw better maps with stolen tiles, afterall. This comment extends to Best Graphics vs. Best Original Graphics.