A while back, I sent in my Wii copy of Guitar Hero 3 to be replaced with a disc that could output audio at more than a mono level. It took a really really long time for it to come back, but it has, and about a week before it did, I received something completely different from RedOctane and Activision.
As much as I love Thrice and The Alchemy Index, they – and everything else for that matter – will be completely ignored after tomorrow. You see, in a scant few hours, the new Story of the Year album will drop, and my attention will be focused directly upon it and its impending greatness for an unspecified amount of time. If you hadn’t heard, Story of the Year is my second favourite band ever, and I have been very eagerly anticipating the release of The Black Swan since the day that I heard SotY were working on a new album.
I may have had my doubts for a little while there, but I think my declaration that 2008 will be a great year is still standing pretty strong.
Huge news, all. I was out shopping today, and look what I found!
Like Fire and Water, Air and Earth are both very distinct albums, even though they’re both only six songs apiece. Air is kinda floaty sounding, with a lot of chimes and windy effects. It picks up and slows down like a gentle breeze, and does a pretty good job of getting the concept of air through in the form of song. Earth is really a whole essay into itself. It’s totally different from everything, and has a very simplistic feel. Most (if not all) of the guitars are acousitc, it was recorded in an empty living room, and it gives off a very folksy vibe all around. It certainly sounds a lot more experimental than any of the other volumes, and I think that as far as anyone’s concerned, it does have an earthy, or at least natural, sound to it.
At the end of the day, Thrice’s The Alchemy Index is a magnificent concept album. Divided into four, each part stands on its own as a wholly original piece of work, and together they display just how diverse and talented Thrice is. I love it, and urge you to go pick up both parts as soon as you possibly can. This is the height of musical creativity and skill here, so it’s not something to be missed.
Wow. It’s funny how fast life can turn itself around. For all the shit I’ve been putting up with over the last while, this week has been exceptionally awesome. I guess the most important thing is that I took a trip to the optometrist yesterday, and it seems that I don’t have eye cancer. But that wasn’t really an issue anyway. Also, I won’t be needing glasses for a while still, which was infinitely more likely.
Less importantly to my health, but more important to my happiness, work has been great this week! I’ve actually had time to get some things done, which has been getting increasingly more difficult over the last few weeks. I almost forgot what that sense of accomplishment after a long eight hours was like, since I’ve basically just been running inconsequential errands all day for what seems like forever lately. But this week has been better, and it’s only going to improve, because after plenty of stalling and excuses, I’ve finally been promoted. It’s not much, and not exactly what I was aiming for, but at least now I’m officially in charge of the outdoor world at my store. I suppose that sometimes there’s something to be said for laying all your cards on the table, especially when your employers know that they desperately need you. Or, you know, maybe I just deserve it. I sure think I do. I’ve certainly fought through enough crap to have earned a little retribution and that shiny badge.
And AND I’ve learned today that Namco-Bandai is not only making a Tales of Symphonia sequel for Wii (really old news), but there’s also a new Tales game coming to the 360! If you didn’t know, I am as fanatical about the Tales series as the garden-variety gamer is about anything with Final and/or (but usually and) Fantasy in the title. It’s my RPG series of choice, and the fact that they’re using the Tales of the Abyss battle system helps a lot, because it’s unquestionably the best one yet. Well, except maybe for those FOFs. They’re cool and useful, but really just too hard to make good use of. Anyway, I’m pretty happy right now. Life is good.
Again, I’ve been really slacking on my Band of the Month duties. Maybe that means it’s time to give up the ghost? I dunno. I know nobody reads these, but I feel I must continue down this road I’m on, if only for the sake of not being a quitter. Only time will tell what I choose to do with the feature, but today, we discuss (or, I discuss) Paramore.
Paramore is another one of those chick-fronted bands that my friends would poke me about and ask why exactly they’re on my iPod, much like Damone before them. Only, Paramore, while perfectly rock-tastic, is not quite as loud as Damone. Otherwise, the bands are pretty similar. The only difference is that Paramore has currently gotten more exposure through video games, being featured in NHL ’09 and having DLC for Rock Band. I’d actually heard “Misery Business” a couple times because my brothers play the former game to no end, but never really though twice about it. But then “Crushcrushcrush” showed up as a downloadable track on the XBL Marketplace, and after playing the song, I immediately went searching for more. (On a side note, apparently they have a song on the soundtrack to the console versions of The Sims 2 as well. I guess someone at EA really likes them.)
So that’s basically how it happened. “Crushcrushcrush” remains my favourite song from the band, but I’m sort of considering “For a Pessimist, I’m Pretty Optimistic” as a replacement for that title. The rest of Riot! is good too, but I’m mostly in it for the harder, faster songs. I’ve always been a sucker for slow songs, but Paramore’s don’t really do anything for me. Well, not enough to make them really notable anyway. Though “Fences” really stands out form the rest of the album, as it’s got a sound all to itself. I want to describe it, but really haven’t the word/s to do so with. Unfortunately, at this point I still haven’t been able to wrangle a copy of their debut album, but I’m thinking I should probably download it first, just in case. I’m always a little wary of downloading previous work from bands I’m only mostly into. Take Rise Against, for example. The Sufferer and the Witness is one of my favourite albums of all time, but their earlier stuff doesn’t agree with me quite as well.
Due to life’s many demoralizing little complications, I’ve found it very hard to get excited about anything for some time now (Hell, I wasn’t really even that pumped for Brawl by the time it actually came out), and it only gets worse with time. But that’s why this blog post is so important! I’m actually really thrilled today! Why? Because I got a new CD in the mail yesterday, that’s why! Exclamation marks!
So then, how could a single CD make me go from borderline miserable to jumping with joy? Well, for one I’ve been waiting for it for well over a month now, and it’s not often that I’m anticipating a CD release. It’s even rarer that I pre-order a CD, and I got my copy secured almost as soon as I heard Play-Asia had it available for pre-order. But I guess I’ve still forgotten to mention the important part: what exactly this mystifyingly monumental disc is all about.
This, my friends and colleagues, is a best-of CD of my second-most favouritest game music composer ever, Yoko Shimomura, entitled Drammatica – The Very Best of Yoko Shimomura (the first being Motoi Sakuraba, but that’s another story entirely). And it’s not just a regular “slap sixteen tracks on a disc and call it a day” best-of either. Nope, these are all new arrangements of some of Ms. Shimomura’s finest works, and holy God damn, it does not disappoint in any way. Hell, it could even just be a hackjob with the original pieces and I’d still love it to death.
The album takes a handful of tracks from five games from very distinct generations: Live A Live, Front Mission, Legend of Mana, Heroes of Mana, and Kingdom Hearts. Anybody who’s familiar with her work will immediately jump at the thought of new arrangements of tunes from Legend of Mana and Kingdom Hearts, which had such extraordinary soundtracks to begin with. The SNES titles aren’t represented as strongly as the rest, but the tracks seen from them are there for obvious reasons, and it’s no secret that the music in Heroes of Mana is by and large the best part of the game. And for anyone who’s into that kind of thing, there’s also a bonus track in there from the yet-to-be-released Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Normally I don’t care much for FF soundtracks, but since Ms. Shimomura’s going to be the head on this one, I think that I’ll most definitely have to invest in the soundtrack when it’s released. Hell, knowing me, I’ll likely end up buying a PS3 just for the sake of listening to that single game’s soundtrack.
The one thing about the album is that while it says it’s a “best of”, the fact of the matter is that all the material is picked from her work on Square-Enix games. What you may not have realized is that she has worked on a lot of other game soundtracks. Most notably, she’s a member of Alph Lyla, Capcom’s house band. I really wouldn’t have had anything against hearing one or two Street Fighter-related themes on there somewhere. Hey, even some love for the music from the Mario & Luigi games would have been nice. It’s not nearly as epic as anything from Kingdom Hearts, but I would have appreciated the extra bit of diversity all the same. Not that I’m complaining! I love music and all, but it’s not often that a disc comes around that gets me as excited as this one.
If you’re at all interested, but have no idea what to expect, you can check out a preview right here. I personally would recommend “Destati” and “Legend of Mana ~Title Theme~”, but really anything is a winning choice. You can even play with a slider there to hear the difference between the original and arranged versions. Such good stuff. Should that pique your interest, the album sells for about $30 over at Play-Asia plus shipping charges, which may seem expensive for a single-disc album, but that’s a steal compared to the $50 plus shipping that Amazon’s charging. Dear God, they really gouge you on the prices of those imports.
In any case, as far as I’m concerned, it was totally worth whatever the final price came out to, because I absolutely love it. Would have been nice to get a pre-order bonus like I did with the Silent Hill Zero soundtrack (which was just a shitty coin purse, but free shit is free shit), but again, I’m not complaining. It’s an epic CD, and I think anyone who’s a fan of video game music, or even classical/orchestral music will find something to enjoy here. Sure, maybe she isn’t as big a name as Mr. Fancy-Pants Nobuo Uematsu, but Yoko Shimomura is totally on the top tier of game music composers, and I absolutely cannot wait to hear whatever she’s got cooking up for the next Kingdom Hearts games, among others.
As I briefly touched on in yesterday’s post, lately I’ve been going back to some older games in anticipation of upcoming/recently released sequels/prequels. I even started playing Final Fantasy VII again a while ago because I was beginning to buy into the Crisis Core hype (I’m still on the fence about it). But if there’s one series I really have a hankering to see a new installment in, it’s gotta be Timesplitters.
I have no idea why, but as I was playing Rock Band with The Tall One last weekend, it suddenly hit me that it seemed like it was about time for a new Timesplitters game. It’s without a doubt my favourite FPS series, and one of my preferred multiplayer games. Hell, I still pop in Future Perfect now and then just to fiddle around with the map creator [I just realized why timesplitters is on my mind] and run a couple rounds with some bots. I’ve never built the same level of camraderie with my AI teammates in TS as I did with the ones in Unreal Tournament (customization helped a lot)(and yes, I know it’s sad to make friends with AIs), but it’s still fun. But seriously, am I wrong? Do you not feel like we need a new Timesplitters game to spend all our weekends for the next couple months on?
Well, I was doing a little digging earlier, and I found out that there is a new one on the way! Huzzah!
In any case, as long as the game retains its big brothers’ trademark hilarity and monkeys, I think I’ll be satisfied. I complain about companies pushing out the same sports games year after year with nothing but roster updates, but I think that would be just fine for Timesplitters, so to speak. Put a new storyline in there, make up a few new maps and characters (perhaps a character customization mode?), and you’re good. This is one series that I would really prefer just to stay where it is and not be fucked up by trying to be innovative. Of course, if there are any major changes and they work out for the best, I’ll be tickled pink, but I’m pretty much expecting a standard FPS with a few pinches of zazz and a light comedy glaze. You know, exactly like the last two.
Wow, so March was pretty slow then. Actually, over the last couple weeks I’ve been getting a lot accomplished. And by “Getting a lot accomplished” I mean “watching DVDs and playing video games”. I spent almost three hours last night playing Super Paper Mario, grinding enemies for coins and items so that I could conjure up enough good healing items to get me through the Flopside Pit of 100 Trials, which is basically the last thing I feel the need to complete in that game (nuts to finishing the various collections). I gave it a go this morning, and got somewhere into the 70’s where I was disgracefully murdered by a Dark Dayzee. For some reason, I’ve also started playing through the Wind Waker again, and I have to say that I’d really like to see a true sequel.
I should mention that I bought three new games today. All cheap, too! First off, they finally put a Mr. Driller game on Xbox Live Arcade, so I totally jumped on that. I’m completely terrible at Mr. Driller, but I cannot resist the bright colours and the promise of online play. After much deliberation, I also picked up Shiren the Wanderer. I have a lot to say about it, but you might as well go ask Parish, because he just won’t shut up about it. I will say that I really love it, because roguelikes are totally awesome, but I do much prefer Izuna (which I have yet to finish).
Lastly, because I apparently never noticed it before, I sawBomberman Land and decided to pick it up on the account of it was only $30 and it would be a good idea to have a Bomberman game for Wii. Then I realized that I have the VC version of Bomberman ’93. Oops. On the upside, despite the fact that the “adventure” mode is just a glorified mini-game collection, I feel that it’s one of the best mini-game collections in the overcrowded genre. It might have something to do with the RPG-esque way the game works, because having a reason to play mini-games other than for the sake of playing mini-games is a nice change of pace. Having a light plot, character interaction/customization, and a sense of progress make it much more bearable than most other efforts. As far as gameplay goes, I’d even place it above Rayman Raving Rabbids. It doesn’t have nearly as much personality, but it’s far more acceptable as a single-player game. The only real complaint is that the graphics are unabashedly crappy. Seriously. It doesn’t look a whole lot better than the top-tier N64 titles. I don’t mind if you didn’t put your whole heart into the graphics department, but the visuals here are almost inexcusably poor.
Obviously, I bought it for multiplayer though, and while the game does try to push the mini-games on you even then, Hudson was smart enough to keep our dearly beloved battle mode intact. It’s the exact same formula we all know and love, so it’s a perfect choice if you’ve got people to play with. They even had the foresight to allow use of the Classic controller and Gamecube pads, which is excellent because I only own one Wiimote. Overall, I recommend it because not only is classic Bomberman some of the best multiplayer gaming you’re ever going to see, but the single-player adventure is entertaining enough to spend a few hours with. Of course, I’d also recommend Shiren and Mr. Driller Online, but those are far more nichey than Bomberman ever was.
Next time on Torrential Equilibrium: waxing about why we need a new entry to another beloved multiplayer franchise, and then a short run down of what movies and TV DVDs have been sapping up the rest of my free time lately.
Okay okay, I know nobody reads these, so it doesn’t matter that I’m posting it more than halfway through the month, but here’s March’s Band of the Month post anyway. This month I’d like to pay my respects to the Scorpions.
Obviously, everyone’s pretty familiar with at least the band’s signature song. I mean, who hasn’t ever heard “Rock you Like A Hurricane”? Exactly. Everyone on Earth, whether they like it or not, knows at least that song. And yeah, that’s great and all, but really, I just wanted to point out just how much I’m enjoying their new album, Humanity: Hour 1. It’s metal-tastic. It’s not really perfect, but it’s damn well close.
I could go on and on about exactly why I like the album, which lyrics I find the most poignant, what solos I like the best, but since nobody cares anyway, I’ll just call that it. If you want to know more, you know how to use the internet.
Do I have to say it? Okay fine.
Brawl is awesome.
So there you have it. I should mention that I’m quite surprised at how much I’ve been using the Stage Builder feature. I never thought too much of it before release, but I’ve made at least seven stages of my own, and I play them pretty often too. It really shouldn’t come as as much of a surprise as it does though, because after all, I spent hours and hours designing stages for Timesplitters 2 and Future Perfect. And my favourite part of The Sims has always been building houses for the little sims to live in. So yeah, I guess it kind of stands to reason that I might enjoy a tool made for builiding stages in my favourite fighting series. The only real downside to it is that you can only assign a single song to play on each stage, and I can’t break my insufferable need for symmetry. The first one I made, I just threw down bits and pieces here and there, and it’s easily the best I’ve made, but all that came afterwards have been perfectly symmetrical. I’ve tried to make another more random one, but it physically hurts me to do so.
The Stage Builder will slowly eat away your time and system memory.
