Well, I think it's perfectly fine to whine about things you find annoying.

The biggest issue here I think, is not that people are pretending to be nerdy for the sake of fitting into current trends, but instead, that actual nerdiness means being involved in some sort of pop culture fuckfest. Being a nerd basically means being Napoleon Dynamite. It's people with very childish interests, or rather, people who exclusively have these sorts of childish interests, who then tote around as if they were smart, or special, for having them.

I like Star Wars (or whatever) as much as the next guy, but it's not all there is to the world -- and there are so many people who completely surround themselves (almost exclusively) with this sort of talk. So much so, that if anyone were to bring up any sort of interesting idea or discussion, it would be completely waved away in favor of mindless chatter: "No Final Fantasy 6 is the best Final Fantasy because I like the music the best and the story is cool and". And the reason this frustrates me so much is because I constantly find myself surrounded by this sort of mindless interaction in my real life.

I'm ashamed to ever call myself a nerd, and if anybody ever chooses to call me one, I am legitimately offended. Nerd culture is just full of people who are socially unaware and completely uncultured -- with usually nothing interesting to say.

No though, I didn't write the original text, I just thought it was interesting and that I agreed with much of what was written.

Japan has a wonderful history of insane noisy psychedelic rock going back to Les Rallizes Denudes in the 1960s. My favorite band in this tradition (although there are many great ones) has got to be Boredoms. Fucking awesome stuff.

That's interesting. If you didn't tell me I wouldn't have guessed they were Japanese. You could have easily fooled me into believing it was a British band trying to imitate their more popular contemporaries like Sabbath or Cream or something in that realm. Cool find.

If you guys get the opportunity, try lebanese food.



It's just... "Yummy!"

What's the point of making a topic and deleting your posts right afterwards?

This is a general topic for Photography. I want to use this to talk about camera's, editing and to display works members have done.

To start, what kind of camera's/equipment do you shoot with?
How often do you shoot and what do you typically shoot when you do?
Share a photo!


I shall begin.

I shoot with a Sony DSLR the a65.
I have a standard 18-55mm f3.5-5.5 and a 50mm f1.8 prime lens for dat mad bokeh.
I shoot mostly cars as im into that scene and vacations when I get the chance, but I also take alot of pictures of the missus and of random objects.
Id like to get into some more street photography but im abit apprehensive of doing it here in the states. Once I move back to Japan at the end of the year im planing on doing mostly street photography I think.


Here is a recent shot I did a few days ago with a friend driving up to a car event.


https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/913781_453476494731846_2112088383_o.jpg


I do have a facebook page as you can see from the watermark there. Please visit it and like the page if you want to get spammed weekly with more of my work.
https://www.facebook.com/sdcarphotos
For now its just a fun thing. And it'll probably stay that way, but it would also be cool to tie this in with work one day. Would be interesting if possible.
Anyways, I hope others do decide to post in this thread for atleast just sharing photo's and the like.

The ending of Sonatine:



Scene from Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl:

Today Polygon had an op-ed on this as well, and it was borderline sarcastic and admonishing.

I posted the following in response, for what it's worth:


With all due respect, and total deference to everyone’s right to an opinion… to say I disagree with this op-ed, powerfully, would be a massive understatement.

Some facts omitted from all of these recent articles surrounding Shenmue 3 funding.

1) "I could do with some more money!" was said with a smile and a chuckle. Not as an ungrateful demand along the lines of, "We refuse to divulge details but we need more funds pronto!" Yu and co have been nothing but grateful and respectful towards their backers to date.

2) Shenmue is not a profitable franchise. It is an enormous financial risk. No one wanted to touch it. Sony, Shibuya, and other unstated sources are indeed contributing some unspecified amount… but it has been stated that it isn’t anything approaching even half the full budget required for a proper followup to what was one of the most innovative and ambitious examples of game design in history. If it were, Sony would have simply announced it as a PS4 exclusive that they were publishing themselves. There would be no crowdfunding.

3) Crowdfunding is voluntary. People do understand this, yes? No one is holding a gun to anyone’s head here. Kickstarter is charity for creative endeavors. It’s not investment. It’s not purchase. It’s not preorder. It’s charity. Voluntary charity for creative endeavors.

4) It is ridiculously common for crowdfunded projects, through Kickstarter and other platforms, to also raise funds from other sources. Not just PayPal, but also other funding partners. It is equally common for said projects to never specify what the nature, source, or quantity of said funding is. No one is under any obligation to divulge such details and, indeed, there may be agreements prohibiting the parties in question from doing so.

5) Perhaps most importantly… they weren’t even going to do PayPal originally! The backers on Kickstarter hounded them about it, out of sheer desire to see many who complained that they couldn’t use Kickstarter for whatever reason, get the opportunity to back the project as well. They provided PayPal at our request. I can say this as someone present for the entirety of the campaign. This PayPal funding only lasts for a few months. It ends in December. It is not perpetual. (Frankly, I wish it was. Perhaps then we’d get a truly worthy followup, instead of what is likely to be a pared down sequel that cuts corners in order to continue this decade plus old narrative… but it’s still more than I ever hoped to see in a million years, so I’ll gladly take it.)

With the above facts in mind, some questions:

Is anyone upset that Red Ash got a publisher, thus prompting the crowdsourced funds to only be for stretch goals?

Is anyone upset that Deep Silver is publishing Bloodstained?

Is anyone upset that Star Citizen has raised NINETY MILLION dollars through crowdfunding, long after its initial campaign ended?

Why is Shenmue 3 being singled out for this treatment by the gaming press at every turn? Is it simply because of its high profile reveal at E3 by Sony?

Shenmue fans waited for 15 years for something we never, ever thought would happen. Something that never, ever does happen in this industry: a game that was an outright commercial disaster, from a failed platform that ended a major company’s participation in the hardware market, with an arguably niche audience, being revived and against all odds, breaking crowdfunding records.

Our funding of it is voluntary, witting, and passionate. We are, with some exceptions of course as everyone is different, for the most part, all quite happy about it. So what, may I ask, is the problem exactly?

I fully concede that, as a devoted Shenmue fan, I am biased. But there are some serious double, triple, and quadruple standards being applied to Shenmue 3 and its funding. We waited 15 years. Criticism and opposition are everyone’s prerogative. But please consider the above when putting out such messaging on the project. Please.

Thank-you.

Here are links to the images in the highest resolution I could find them (from the shenmue.link/topics page):

http://shenmue.link/topics/%E3%83%90%E3%83%88%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B7%E3%83%BC%E3%83%B3%E2%91%A0.png

http://shenmue.link/topics/%E3%83%90%E3%83%88%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B7%E3%83%BC%E3%83%B3%E2%91%A1.png

http://shenmue.link/topics/%E4%BC%9A%E8%A9%B1%E3%82%B7%E3%83%BC%E3%83%B3.png

http://shenmue.link/topics/%E8%8C%85%E8%91%BA%E3%81%AE%E5%AE%B6.png

Personally, I think Zoltor is undoubtedly a troll. How can someone come up with so much unfounded conjecture & speculation with the sole purpose of bashing the game creators. He comes out with these so called opinions & presents them as fact, and frankly it's getting a bit tiring as his sole m.o seems to be trashing Yu. Not only is it disrespectful, but it's getting wearisome. You don't know what's going on behind the scenes, so please stop posting as if you know exactly how things are panning out (after 3 months!). And lastly, you must be quite a knowledgeable & accomplished individual to be so certain that you know better & Yu has 'lost it'.

Mr. Marshall... if you're out there reading this could you please try to do the voice acting for Shenmue 3 for free? We really need the money to go toward development.

Please try to do it for free.

No one will do it for free, that's just silly. Work is work and he should get paid for whatever he feels is appropriate between himself and Suzuki. I'm sure he won't be a primadonna and demand high wages, he wants the game as much as the fans do.

Obviously my list will be different from yours.

Which games are your favorites?

1. Ocarina of Time - Still my favourite Zelda.
2. Mischief Makers - My favourite Treasure game ever.
3. Star Fox 64 - Probably the best arcade experience Nintendo have ever put out.
3. Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon - One of my favourite Konami games ever.
4. Sin & Punishment - One of Treasure's best games.
5. Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon 2 - Really solid 2.5D platformer.
6. Super Mario 64 - My first ever 3D game. Blew me away back as a kid.
7. Castlevania - Underrated gem.
8. Goldeneye - My first FPS game. Had so much fun in multiplayer.
9. Hybrid Heaven (What I've played of it up till this point)
10. Operation Winback - Kind of unremarkable now but back then was a very different kind of game from what we were used to

Still need to play Ogre Battle 64, that will probably get on the list. I'd also like to try out Shadowgate one day. Also, Shadows of the Empire was a fun game back in the day, don't know about nowadays. Same goes for Turok.

I have to add ABZU to my list.


Oh, and this. I'm sure OL is gonna be with me there, it looks gorgeous:

Holy fuck. Trailer for 6.

The fun thing about that trailer is that it will seem mundane and devoid of content to most people, but those who've played the previous games will be picking their jaws off the floor at the gratuitous display of subtle advancements.

Not gonna read that whole opening post on it, but honestly, what would it even matter if something called the "Dreamcast 2" ever came out?
People love the original Dreamcast for its lineup of games (which I'll never understand personally, since there are only a small handful I really like, but the point is still there). It isn't about the name. A "Dreamcast 2" could easily come out and totally fail to produce anything worthwhile.

I got a hold of this extremely unique controller. Yes it looks awkward and it is in some ways but it's also totally awesome. It's an analog controller that works with the Mega Drive. It was released in 1989 and was ridiculously ahead of it's time. Really the first analog pad, everything else before it were just sticks. Playing things like Space Harrier, After Burner II, Galaxy Force II, Super Monaco GP II and even Musha Aleste on the Mega Drive with analog controls is just mind blowing.

http://i.imgur.com/ta5Pz9V.jpg

And yes...
It beats the duke. Easily!

http://i.imgur.com/kWjz9e4.jpg

To me, I just don't understand the point of even remaking it if you're not going to give it a full generational overhaul. Sure, you can mention REmake as an example of a great remake, and yeah, it totally is. But it's only one generation removed from the original (not even a decade apart), not to mention it was made before any major upgrades had ever been made in its series (RE4 hadn't even been made yet). It's only natural that REmake would retain fixed camera angles and tank controls; the series hadn't done anything else yet. If REmake had been made after the release of RE4, you can bet it would have been fully-3D and control just like RE4.
Meanwhile the FFVII remake is three generations removed from its original. Twenty years .
In the interim time the series has run the gamut of JRPG styles, from the same ATB system it always had (FFVIII, FFIX), to simple turn-based (FFX), to MMO-style combat (FFXI, FFXII, FFXIV), to real-time (Crisis Core, Type-0, FFXV).
Let's face it, if they just put together the kind of thing you're proposing -- especially in this day and age, of the crying, whiny gaming community -- they'd be accused of putting forth the laziest effort possible. They have to do something to put it more on the level with their more recent efforts. The goal is to make it every bit as cutting edge and impacting as the original was all those years ago. Otherwise, how is the new audience going to understand what was so great about the original? We were there, so we get it, but they'd need something genuinely current-gen.
Square is aiming a little too high, absolutely. But at least they're aiming to give us a new experience. I have no problem with that.

For that matter, I don't see what's wrong with just playing the original game anyway, if that's what you want. Yeah, the graphics are dated; that happens with age. And sure, the translation is a bit rough, but it's not hard to understand, nor are we really missing out on much of anything by only having the original.
The game is a classic, and there's a reason we love it; because it was already great. We don't even need a remake, really. We already have the original.
So yeah, in my eyes, I just don't see the point if they aren't going to give it a major overhaul.