Favorite Things of the Week!

     Since I’ve responded to most of my entertainment in a negative fashion this week, I’ve decided to spend a little time dabbling in the lighter side of affairs. What did I waste my time on this week that made me smile or giggle with glee? Against your will, you’re about to find out.

Let’s approach this topically, shall we?

1. Music


     You know what I love? The Metal. You know what I love even more? Metal that makes you light-hearted and giddy. Not possible, you say? Never heard of such a thing, you say? Well, that would be because you have never listened to video game metal. That’s right. Here are my picks for this week. playlist.com should assist you if you desire to listen to these tracks, just enter the name of the track into the playlist search bar, and you can sample the crunchiness.

Mario/Zelda Medley by Super Mario Bros./Legend of Zelda

      Unfortunately, I couldn’t find where this track originated from. Oh well, I’m not worrying about it, so you don’t have to. Just enjoy the thick, heavy guitar with the mario sound effects. If that doesn’t make you chuckle/rock out, then there’s no way we can ever be friends. I wasn’t as impressed with the LoZ guitar melody, but trust me, if you peruse rock renditions online, by comparison this track still has top-tier guitar work.

Storm Eagle X Mix by wiltedroses


     If you haven’t played Megaman X for SNES, shame on you. Assuming you’re not home, go home, repent in sackcloth and ashes, fast for three days and three nights. After that, don’t return to your house until you are clutching a SNES and a copy of Megaman X in your clammy grasp. This is solid platforming action. Megaman has never been better/harder. Likewise, the music is fresh, a thicker, fuller approach to the squealy speed of Rockman’s NES incarnations. Yes, it’s still fast, but now with more soul. Wiltedrose’s mix exemplifies this fact, giving new life to 16-bit sound. I like how wiltedroses sticks to the source material except where it is warranted. A little guitar solo interpretation never hurt anyone. Okay, it hurt a little, but I made sure my face didn’t melt on the carpet.

I Thought the Seventies Were For Spacey Rock?


     The bands Styx and Journey had a child. Once that child hit his angry adolescent years, he listened to Nu-Metal. His name is Fair To Midland. This band steals my heart every time with it’s unique and varied sound. I can’t tell whether I’m listening to Johanne Sebastian Bach, Muse, or Incubus. Seriously. It’s that good. What? You don’t think that sounds good?

Go listen to these three tracks, and see if you can’t appreciate some of their pleasing keyboard lines, riskily high vocals, and full but clean guitar riffs. Also, note the variance in the track intros and track progression.

Kyra Cries Cologne
Tall Tales Taste Like Sour Grapes
Walls of Jericho


    My work is done here.

2. Video Games


     Battlefield: Bad Company 2



     Rewarding unlocks. Sharp graphics. Chaotic but tight gameplay. A destruction system that is both convincing and dangerous, in terms of gameplay. What are these descriptions referring to? No, not Hello Kitty Roller Rescue for Gamecube. I’ll give you a hint: it might be in the paragraph title. BFBC2 is the most fun I’ve had in an online multiplayer FPS since… well, Halo 3, but that’s because I’m a Halo nerd. Best moment of my BFBC2 career: booby-trapping our team’s bomb with C4 and hiding nearby, then detonating it when the enemy team comes rushing into the building. A suicide by building destruction, a double kill and a defensive kill later, I had a smile on my face that could only convey thing: I just killed myself and walked away with several hundred points and an exploded building. I- am a man.
     *sips coffee*

3. Movies


     No movies were my favorite this week. You fail, Hollywood. Iron Man 2 does look promising, though… here’s looking to the future.
   Look! The future! … Always sneaking up on me…

Halo Reach Multiplayer: Wow! AwesomeCrap I'm Dead.

You want shiny video, yes? Click here.

So how about that Halo Reach Beta trailer up on Xbox Live? It looks shiny, it looks fast and fluid in terms of animation, and the lighting is more on par with ODST, as one could surmise. But what I took away from the trailer is that Bungie is focusing heavily on making this game cool. There were a lot of wow moments. Not like, "Oh, wow, that was a good sticky onto that guy's bum" kind of good, but more related to some key mechanics.

#1. Assassinations.

At first, I was impressed. I mean, it looks cool, right? punching an opponent in the gut to incapacitate him looks a little more visceral than the standard melee attack which, to be honest, doesn't always even connect. Here's an attack that's a surefire way to PWN your enemy when you've got the drop on him.

Here's the problem (cue Toccata and Fugue in D Minor).

>_>

Why the Sangheili would I want to take 5 seconds to dispatch an enemy with an animation that renders me defenseless? Once you put use it in the heat of a frenzied struggle, I doubt it would retain it's wow factor. There might be a "FRGNSNXNFAGN" factor, maybe, as you throw your 45$ limited edition red 360 controller across the room, but not wow. Picture this- You run into a room that's filled with a mass of opposing team (shut up grammar police). They're facing the opposite door. If there's one within reach, you'll want to assassinate his face. So you hit B and proceed to thrash him from behind with a series of punches in his soft, tender, vital parts. This makes you very self-satisfied, until his teammate's team damage indicator goes off like a roman candle. So while you're happily pummeling him into submission, they leisurely stroll over and say "Oy, What's all this then?" To which you reply "FRGNSNXNFAGN" and then you die rather inglouriously and are most likely teabagged or stuck after you have already perished. So, moral of the story is, let's hope and pray that the assassination is optional (which would then make it superfluous and no one would end up using it, because melee assassinations would be faster and more efficient) or, better yet, include SOME sort of mechanic within that attack that allows you to keep your head while performing it. Maybe speed up the animation a bit? I don't know. I don't claim to know, I just know what's crap about the idea.

#2. Rolling

"Liek, ohmahgawd! They should, like, totally have a roll move where you can get of the way of bullets and stuff." Somewhere in Bungie, a developer fell prey to either the drunk chick at the company party or his wife. Why? It's not because the roll isn't an improvement to a lackluster movement set, because it is, and you'll probably see me rolling Link-style though all the maps to save my skin and annoy the crap out of all the other players. No, it's because no one has even included sprint in a Halo title yet. You're stacking your Legos wrong, Bungie. You're baking your biscuits wrong (I've got more metaphors, really, I do). First sprint, then roll. Unless they plan to ignore all physics, a roll will disable your ability to shoot briefly, as well as your equilibrium. Again, it looks cool! I know it does, and you're going to feel satisfied when you dodge a shot and kill your opponent who is flailing madly in front of his LCD trying to waste you. The bad news is, that'll likely happen 1 out of 10 times. The other nine, you'll be punching whoever is nearby and hoping they're Bungie's voodoo doll. If you include a sprint, that would almost eliminate the need for a roll, and it wouldn't be as disorienting.

#3. Jetpacks

I can't think of any reason to gripe about the jetpack idea- maybe I'm just not original enough. Really, that's cool- Adding a vertical aspect your standard running-around-shooting-guys-on-teh-grounds-or-in-teh-vehiculars will be entertaining, to say the least. It'll take some re-learning, but I'm sure I won't find once I'm up on high felling my enemies. I haven't seen a ton of the mechanics, though- hopefully the disadvantage to being in a jetpack is well balanced.

#3. TANK TURRET

W00t! I gotta say, props to Bungie for making the tank a tad more vulnerable. Now I can actually feel like I'm accomplishing something when I start emptying my BR on the tank because that's all I have. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch the vid. The turret machine gun operator is now totally visible. That means you'll at least be able to take out one source of endless irritation for your team without extra trouble. Less invincibilty for the tank=less vehicle whorage. I'm all for that.

#4-

Well, that's about it. To be honest, the issues I could spot are easily fixable, and not game killing to begin with. What was good was very, VERY good. Now, I have some Constant Comment Orange Tea to vanquish, and then, after that, I'll proceed to vanquish my paycheck with my out-of-control spending. I love my life.