Laiv162560asse

@zeik said:

Fantasy words have intended pronunciations where there are governing rules, even if the governing rules are fantasy. For instance, that's how Peter Jackson's crew figured out they had to say Sow-ron and Saa-ruman instead of Saw-ron and Sarruman. With ICO, gamers just face a box with a made up word. If you can show me a quote of Fumito Ueda saying "I think ICO should be pronounced 'ikko''' then I'd be interested to see it, along with his rationalisation, considering the word doesn't appear in the game nor have any other relevance, other than a wonky word play in another language. It's not like it comes from a language used in the game, with conventions established by the game.

'Changing the title of the game' is what they did do, firstly because ICO is not spelt with Japanese characters and secondly because the accepted Romanisation of イコ would be 'iko', not Ico. Beyond gaming, this boils down to fundamental problems of romanisation and Anglicisation of languages that don't share our alphabet (and those problems exist), but what's silly is expecting gamers to seek out interviews and background info in order to know how to pronounce a made-up word that's been created by a non-native speaker of English, based on language conventions from a language other than English.

@zeik said:

Nice going, you hit the double jackpot on assuming that a non-American is American and using the buzzword of 'entitlement' in a topic where it has zero relevance. With a degree in language, I've simply put more thought into linguistics than you have, that's all.

The debate on how best to pronounce fantasy words with no governing rules is a playground game of one-upmanship. The reason 'Ico' has to be pronounced phonetically is because it is not English, nor is it Japanese, nor any other language on earth, barring coincidence. Therefore it's perfectly reasonable to pronounce it 'eye-co', following the English model of 'icon'.

If for some reason you are aspiring to pronounce it as close as possible to the katakana, despite the fact that as a Western gamer you have not been presented with the katakana and probably don't understand them, here are some tips. 'Ee-co' is just as inaccurate as 'eye-co'. Accurately, it is 'ih-koh', as if you're saying the 'i' of ichor and the 'co' of cop. That is, as long as you're using the British pronunciation of 'cop'. I can't think of a word to relate to the pronunciation of 'イコ’ which contains a '-co' sound that Americans pronounce naturally as part of their dialects. Make sure you don't say 'ikkoe', either. Do you understand how dumb this whole thing is yet?

@rainbowkisses said:

Same. I know it's supposed to be pronounced 'iko', since it's a kind of clumsy word play on the Japanese 'ikou', meaning 'let's go', referencing the kid leading Yorda around the castle. However if they wanted it to be pronounced that way for the Western release IMO they should have phoneticised it better.

It's similar to the Aeris vs Aerith thing. The Japanese may have intended the name to be Romanicised as 'Aerith', but they certainly didn't pronounce it that way because there is no 'th' sound in Japanese. They say 'Aerisu', with not much emphasis on the 'u'. In the Western release it was spelt 'Aeris' so why pronounce it as 'Aerith'? Purism towards an original form that doesn't exist...

Or the way people bicker about the 'correct' pronunciation of Karateka... Screw it, don't get me started. I'm done.

I like Kollias a lot, but I think his fills are lacking a bit. He's done what, 4 albums with Nile now and I still find Derek Roddy and Tony Laureano's work much more memorable on their two respective album contributions. Technically he's a far better drummer than Laureano, and in terms of speed he probably beats out Roddy, but aside from certain moments in Ithyphallic I don't think Kollias has achieved as much as his predecessors terms of creative composition. Also I don't like the drum production he goes for, with the toms drowning in the mix.

The 'best' in the extreme metal scene, in terms of balance of creativity and technicality, is Inferno of Behemoth. It's an awkward choice for me because Behemoth's studio stuff is hit and miss - mostly miss, to the extent I haven't even bothered to listen to the last couple of albums - but Inferno's drumming is unquestionably on another level. His accompaniment is the only way Behemoth's music makes sense, but when it makes sense it makes a lot of sense. Headbanging to a live Inferno blast for the first time was a transcendental experience. I wish he one-footed his blasts, but with that out of the way, everything about his drumming is perfection. Excellent inventive blasts, incredible fills, incredible speed, incredible sound. He's also the best drummer I've seen live, and I've seen Kollias a few times, Bostaph, Laureano, Horgh, Doc (amazing - RIP), Vitek (also RIP), Proscriptor, James Read, (I love those last two) and a few others of note. This isn't even his best work:

Song starts around 1:45.

Note, Inferno is my vote for all around 'best' in metal, but my personal favourite in terms of personality and creativity is James Read of Axis of Advance, Revenge and Blood Revolt. If Nicholas Barker ever joined a decent band and stuck with them, he might get my vote instead, but alas. As for Jordison and whoever - no... Competent drummer in a powderpuff Kerrang band who has never done anything which stands out purely on merit, as opposed to mainstream hype.

I noticed that iRacing has 50% off for the 3 month membership at the moment. Would it be worth it for someone who races exclusively with a pad and has no intention of buying a wheel? Is it the kind of game in which pad players can reach a solid level of competence, in the way that, say, pad players sometimes pop up at fighting game tournaments even though the conventional wisdom always says to use a stick? Or would you say that it's not really possible to succeed without a wheel?

I did skim a couple of your earlier blogs where it seemed pad play was causing you a lot of problems. I don't play many racers, but when I do I usually turn all assists off and race in manual transmission at the hardest difficulty, then don't rest until I've mastered the game. I like to think I'd be able to handle a game like this but perhaps it would be beyond me. For instance, Codemasters F1 games were near impossible to control with a pad if you turned off traction control.

Good blogs btw. I like your presentation style, good balance between comprehensiveness and simplicity of explanation.

@biggiedubs said:

I just use a web store that stocks a lot of import stuff. Drinkstore.ie is local-ish to me (based 40 miles away in Dublin so I pay about €6-10 delivery) and typically they stock a decent amount of great American beers. Sadly they seem to be all out of Dogfish Head stuff, even though I've bought a hell of a lot of DFH from them in the past. Also sadly, although they have some small bulk buy discounts, 'bargain' doesn't seem to be in their vocab.

I share your opinion on Wychwood stuff. Also I just remembered that Thornbridge Raven Black IPA is amazing.

Damn this thread for putting unhealthy urges in my head.

@oldguy said:

It's refreshing to open a booze thread on a gaming website and see people actually talking about great beer.

It's getting to the time of year when I hit up the nearest online store for a load of web-ordered import stuff for the summer. I'm in Ireland, but Dogfish Head usually tops the list of stuff I order when the weather improves. You(?) yanks make great pale super-hoppy ale, which is exactly the kind of thing I want to be drinking in the sunshine. When I was over there I also liked Rogue Dead Guy Ale, Flying Dog Brewery stuff, Fuller's Founders' Red's Rye and some stuff by New Holland Brewery (especially the now discontinued Existential Ale), plus a bunch I've forgotten.

The pickings are slim in Ireland but there's a great pale-ish ale called Galway Hooker which is getting some better distribution lately. The Porterhouse brewery here do some great beers. However I usually look to Britain for my beer treats. On my birthday at New Year I had a bottle of Thornbridge Bracia which was just... obscenely good. Then there's a Dutch brewery I often look to called De Molen - they do stouts so thick it's like drinking melted alcoholic chocolate. The first batch I got from them was wax sealed and hand numbered, which is the kind of shit I love, but nowadays I don't have anywhere I can order them from. In any case it's not the best shit for summer... That Dogfish Head is where it's at, man.

My favourite was probably Gunblade NY. Something about the Sega Model 2 tech always impressed me back in those days and I loved the first two Virtua Cops as well. But with Gunblade NY: Enormous gun + unlimited ammo + constant shuddering recoil = blew my mind. One of my fondest gaming memories is hosing down endless guys with that massive shaking gun, with my friends staring at me like I was a total badass.

@aiurflux said:

I've been looking for an authoritative opinion on this game from someone who obviously knows what was so good about the first Grid, so thanks for what sounds like an even-handed appraisal. I share your opinion on Codemasters' direction and all their recent games so more than likely I'd feel the same way about Grid 2, were I to cave in and buy it despite the evidence of my own eyes.