Bumping because the Dark Arisen expansion is out.  I've purchased the expansion on PS3 for the sole purpose of not only replaying the entirety of the game for a third time, but to have 100% completion on both Xbox 360 and PS3.  If you want to rent my pawn, add Meicyn on PSN, or if you don't like me but want to use my pawn, search for my pawn also named Meicyn.  He wrecks shit pretty effectively.

For those that are not aware, Dark Arisen is basically Dragon's Dogma - Game of the Year Edition, featuring the original game, all the DLC that was released for the core game, plus a brand new dungeon that adds about 20 hours of gameplay to an already large game.

Action-RPG combat system of the generation, easily.  Nothing is more satisfying than successfully landing Mighty Bend into a cyclops' eye - that's when you know you're a pro.

My PS3 is dead.  Not happy.

Your understanding of ADX is pretty much correct.  Before I shut down my website (fuck Sega), I had transcoded all the music from Lunar 2: Eternal Blue for the Sega Saturn from ADX to MP3 format since there isn't a complete soundtrack for the game.  The ADX files are set up to loop forever until whatever conditions are met, and in the case of the Lunar 2 main battle theme, there is a slight error in the timing where the music doesn't loop just right.  This happens for three songs in the game, and I actually opened up the files in an audio editor and manually corrected the issue when I made the MP3s.

In the case of Skies of Arcadia, the Dreamcast version makes use of Cybersound, which is third party wavetable synthesis software used in several Sega games that functions more or less like Yamaha XGSynth, where you feed the software song data and audio is produced on the fly.  Cybersound is used in a lot of Sega Saturn games such as NiGHTS: Into Dreams which also has adapting music, and Panzer Dragoon Saga which does not have adapting music.

The company that created Cybersound went out of business in the late 90s, and I'm guessing Sega ported Cybersound to the Dreamcast themselves.  When it came time to port Skies of Arcadia to the GameCube, they apparently didn't port Cybersound over.  They likely used whatever default wavetable software was available on the GameCube, fed it the same sound data that they used on Dreamcast and called it a day.  It'd explain the mistimed sound effects and shitty sound quality for the music.

I got PS+ when it debuted, had it for a year, stopped using it briefly, then resubscribed for a year again.  There's definitely a lot of value to the service, and I expect that it's going to make Microsoft alter their approach for next-gen when people are shopping for a new console.  The service is growing in popularity, is getting a lot of positive talk, and it's going to pull more people over to Sony unless Microsoft does something to make Xbox Live worthwhile when they announce their new platform.  Halo is no longer enough to get people to subscribe, and it's blatantly obvious which online subscription gets them more for their money.

PS+ helped me avoid paying for a full retail copy of Infamous, which I didn't like.  So there was money saved.  Also am playing a fair bit of Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition, again thanks to PS+.  The list goes on.

This is a cropped portion of an official screenshot:



I realize that it's still in development, but you don't ship out unflattering screenshots of your product.  Who the hell made the decision to take these screenshots and then send them out for public consumption?  Screenshots are supposed to get people excited about a game.  I'm pretty sure this is going to do the opposite.

Ul'dah looks ridiculously awesome.  I can't wait for phase 3.

I have made a GIF.  It will come in handy in the very near future, I am sure.

Bog standard?  I guess.  I can play something like Dragon's Dogma and get the same level of responsiveness I'd expect from Bayonetta, Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden Black, or any other top tier action game.  It doesn't even have to play at a frantic pace, as Dark Souls also has excellent controls.  Nier is clunky, sloppy, and sluggish from start to finish.

It's much like how you can distinguish between a good platformer and a bad platformer.  The bottom-most button on the right-side of a controller may make you jump in all platformers, but I'd argue that Little Big Planet's controls are mediocre at best versus say, Rayman: Origins or Super Mario Galaxy.  Or if we want to talk about racing games, Sonic R on the Sega Saturn having abysmally awful controls versus Mario Kart on the SNES.

I stand firmly by my statement that Nier's controls are terrible.  But then, I'm also pretty cutthroat when it comes to my gaming opinions.

Like I said on page one, I couldn't get past Nier's shit controls.  It's not like I'm just hating on it for the sake of it.  At the end of the day it's a videogame, and if I can't enjoy playing it, it really doesn't matter how great the writing is.  I won't be able to enjoy the experience even if I forced myself to play through it.  It's not like I wasn't interested to see what happens, because I was.  The soundtrack is also phenomenal and it's a frequent listen for me on my computer and even at work.  But originality and ambition do not equate to good games for me.  It's the same reason why some people will champion Alpha Protocol while I think it's an utter pile of shit since no matter how ambitious the game attempted to be, the gameplay and controls were garbage.  I'll take a functional, run-of-the-mill, average-looking house over an ambitious, original, impressive-looking house that doesn't have working plumbing any day of the week.

I'll watch Drakengard 3 like I do every other game, but I am suspicious of it by default.

I'll be upset if you don't make a galka this go-around.

I'm probably the only guy on this forum that couldn't get past Nier's utter shit controls and went back to listening to the game's soundtrack instead.