So, last month was Frenchy-French month, and this month, we're going Greek. No, that doesn't mean this blog goes in your butt. It means
that this Wagnerian opera-level epic band Firewind hails from the land of Socrates.
Kostas Karamitroudis, figuring rightly that noone could pronounce that name, changed it to Gus G.
From there, Gus G., influenced by the uber-shredder Joe Stump while at Berklee, used Firewind a vehicle to showcase his jaw-dropping guitar work,
becoming a more serious project and evolving into 6 awesome power metal albums. All the band members are strong here, but Gus really stands out
to a profound degree. So much so, that he has filled in for the mighty Michael Amott of Arch Enemy and Carcass legend in concerts, and is now filling
the very large boots of viking guitar god Zakk Wylde. Solid full-speed power metal with a dash of virtuosity thrown in for good measure.
Dark Forces Finds Your Lack of Faith Disturbing Posted March 29, 2011
After the game Doom came out, the clone wars began. No no, not the Star Wars Clone Wars. The First-Person-Shooter
clone wars. Most were total crap. To not have mind-blowing graphics is completely acceptable. But, to have less gameplay value than a busted rock is just plain pathetic.
If this is the best that some of these people can do, I am not impressed. Honestly, you'd be better off dumping a box of Cheerios on the ground and playing
with them. Far more entertaining than these. However... There were definitely some that not only were as good as Doom
(John Romero is screaming blasphemy right now), but even exceeded the core run-and-gun "electrocuted cat running over velcro"
lightning-fast gameplay of Doom. Dark Forces was most definitely among them.
Dark Forces started out as an idea to grab some of the pie opened up by the venerable id Software. Originally
it was intended to even license the Doom engine, but that idea very quickly ended and the team went on to make their own that
added a lot of features not seen in Doom. Rooms above rooms. The ability to look up and down. Atmospheric effects like fog.
Polygonal models. A flashlight in 1995! But all this wouldn't mean a thing if it weren't for one aspect.
Star Wars universe. There is simply no feeling better than forcefully planting a Stormtrooper firmly on his plasticy ass right after he says
"Hey! You're not authorized to be in this area!" blaster-style. Seriously, it never gets old. If it did, you're doing it wrong. Then there's the later epic boss fight between
you and Boba Fett before you take his damned jet pack for your very own!
Psyche! But you do fight Boba Fett in what's one of the best, albeit short, boss battles ever.
And to call the forced fistfight with a Kell Dragon memorable is like calling a nuclear bomb an effective means of clearing out an area.
And the whole time, you're using weapons to mow down en-masse all the baddies from the movies that you know and remember; that is of course, if you're cool,
unlike this guy.
Then there's the little touches that just add to everything. The raging scream as you fall to your death. Robot mice that comes out of the wall that you can shoot for their batteries. That's right!
Mouse. You've got my batteries. Give 'em up bitch! Ovehearing smatterings of Stormstooper conversations before you rush in and lay waste to them all! Awesome Star Wars soundtrack bristling with intense rushed-forward energy.
Fantastic story unfolding of Darth Vader's plan to build an army of Dark Troopers; AI Robotic troopers that will hand your ass to you on a silver platter, complete with that little cruddy piece of garnish.
Badass real-man silent-type main character with cajones. The kind of guy who probably has a Stormtrooper tied up in his closet to punch when he's having a bad day.
Then, to make matters even better, it continues with the equally fantastic Jedi Knight which starts out with a Han Solo-esqe
deal gone wrong, some guy dead on the bar table and another running away for his life. We all know Han fired first, so it's
equally satisfying later when you run into Gweedo and get to mow him down with extreme prejudice. Then the bartender mentioning to get out because you always cause trouble
and the endless list of Easter Eggs like Sam from Sam and Max making a cameo are frickin' great.
The list of good things I'd have to say about this game would fill a phone book, so instead of me blathering on like an idiot, I'm going to just
tell you. It's all... simply perfect. Go download this ASAP and give it a play. Go on! Carpe ludus! Stop drooling and Seize it!!
Daisuki Ishiwatari : Metal To Drive the Speed of Light To Posted February 27, 2011
This guitarist, game designer, and artist
of the famed Guilty Gear and BlazBlue series makes wailing metal that makes you want to drive down windy roads at mach speed
while breathing fire and shooting lightning bolts out of your eyes. It has that sort of breaking out and pushing harder
than you ever have before feel, while somehow managing to not blow an o-ring. In fighting game terms, if the last combo hit 3 times,
this time you need to hit 6, and drain your opponent's life to negative in a mouth-dropping blur; just to catch that look of crushed hope in
their eye, right before they toss the controller at the ground.
Put another way, this music sounds like guitars exploding and shooting out more guitars, while throwing guitars at the wall.
A 50-Megaton nuclear explosion of guitars! Literal proof that you can never have too much guitar!
The Elder Scrolls : MMORPG's Without All the Annoying People Posted February 27, 2011
The Elder Scrolls series stands out as one of the all-time best RPG's ever to grace the PC with it's prescence.
Deep, engaging, emersive gameplay. This series has all the good stuff of any MMORPG, minus all the stupid and annoying people.
Not to mention, some douche isn't going to come along and player-kill your character (but the AI will be all too happy
to do it for you).
You start out being able to pick your race and class, old-school D&D-style, or, alternately, you can take a quiz that
helps assign a class based on your values. Either way, you start in a dungeon (as usual), and have to fight your way out,
going up levels the whole time, and getting some crappy rusty swords, that are nonetheless badass. At least, until you later,
40+ hours into the game, acquire some +18334 Sword of Genetically-Modified Biotechnological Warfare Cyborg Termite-Slaying,
which then turns the game into your own personal bloodbath. Rawr! Power!!!
These aren't very good games at all to attempt to beat. Grinding through them as fast as possible takes all the fun out of them,
like some wicked killjoy evil clown that just popped your balloon.
What they are good for is a steady diversion to come back to time and time again. You can seriously milk these games
forever. Why pay for a costly life-vampire WoW account when you can get these games for free and just play them to your heart's content,
kill a few hours, and call it a day?
The series peaked with the stunningly epic Morrowind, which was modded and expanded to all getout, due in large part to giving away the world editor with the game.
Messing with a game has never been made simpler. Well... In Epic RPG proportions anyways. As large as the gameworld in Morrowind is, it's less than 1% of the
size of the world in Daggerfall. Don't let that fool you though. The game is huge and humbles people to their knees who throw around the term epic with reckless abandon.
If your neighbor thinks his pimped Honda replete with 2x4 wing is epic, this will smack him in the mouth with unbridled new levels of epicness. Did I mention it's epic?,
It is stillsold for ~$10. It is indeed that good.
Oblivion saw the series start to wind down the bath drain in a blood-frothy death spiral. All the non-linear goodness washed away by uber-shiny
graphics which contributed absolutely nothing to the gameplay. Seriously, even the boards are shiny in that game. Go outside sometime,
and attempt to find yourself a shiny board. Enough said. I rest my case. Of course, there is the Morroblivion Mod, which turns Oblivion into Morrowind
using the Oblivion engine, if you own both games. Skyrim comes out this November 11th. Let's just say
I'm dubious whether it's going to be more of the same dumbed-down formula that Oblivion delivered in coffin-covering spades. Let's hope not!
All that said, I have one extra copy of Morrowind GOTY Edition kicking around to give away to whoever first asks me.
Supplies are limited (there's one). Act now! You snooze, you lose. Don't blame me if you find yourself crying into your pillow at night over missing out on this.
The French gave America wine, cheese, The Statue of Liberty, and helped us fight for and gain our independence
from Britain during the Revolutionary War. But... Metal?!?
Who would've thought the French could be metal?
Let alone kickass metal? Well, there's a first time for everything I suppose.
And these guys deliver asskicking in spades. Amazing dark and melodic progressive metal. High quality stuff
all the way.
It's a good way to kick off a new year with some awesome metal that surely the Elder Gods (in France) have
created. You're probably supposed to drink wine while you listen to this, but, shh! I didn't tell you that...
Let's face it. Old-school 8 and 16-bit console games were the best. NES, SNES, Sega Master System, Genesis, Turbo Grafx 16 (most underrated system ever),
Neo Geo, Gameboy. It was the era where gameplay trumped graphics,
which always forced the game designers to be interesting, fun, whimsical, and inventive. None of this "All flash, no cash" or "Style over substance" bullshit here.
This mentality led to
a golden age of console games where fun was the highest priority. And most gamers with some broad realworld experince
would agree that these games, to this day, are among the best. Sure, there's been a resurgence of rerelease of these
games and their like through Virtual Console (Wii), XBLA (Xbox 360), PSN (PS3), and iPhone/Android. And, of course, there's
the purist ideal option of getting your hands on the actual console and cartridge, rubbing the contacts with alcohol,
and playing on the real-deal, complete with nostaligic frustrating "watch helplessly as you fall to your death for the 15th time in a row into a bottomless pit/Run into enemy shot/Oops! Touched the spikes!"
(yeah, I am talking about Super Ghouls and Ghosts) slow-down problems.
But, for many people, having the ability to get all your gaming in via PC is arguably even more ideal. This is one of those
gray areas morally, because, obviously if the company is still making money off it, pirating it is cutting into someone
else's profits, which they rely on to keep their business going. But, assuming you own the cart and just want the convenience
of having all your games in a single place, or, if you're a pirate, and just don't care about all that messy crazy morality stuff, then emulators
are king. So, to avoid any potential legal nonsense (aka "The 8th Circle of Legal Hell"), I'm only listing the best of the best sites for the emulators themselves.
You're on your own for getting the actual roms. I'm not going to baby you and list rom sites here. But, trust me when I say that's not even remotely difficult. You're
more likely to go outside, pick up a rock, throw it at the ground, and miss, than to not find roms for all the old-school systems.
It is stupid-easy.
Also, to celebrate Nintendo's contributions to gaming history, here's a documentary on them.
