My show goes on at 3:00 PM, and I'm going to be busting out a lot of new material!
This week's jam:
Flobots feat. Rise Against? Well, color me intrigued. A rallying cry for pacifism in the Flobot's own unique way, complimented by Tim McIlrath's belting out the chorus. Flobots hover really close to a straight hip-hop/rap group, because both "singers" just spit rhymes. They're both talented, and are backed by a band that can provide some dynamics beats. They even have a violinist!
Most of my time these days is spent applying for jobs, and I've been feeling kind of depressed and unmotivated because there's nothing for me to do throughout the day except be "on call" for when I'm needed. I'm just stuck in between pushing forward in this time I have available and trying to double down on a new job, but the latter is going slowly and the former is cut with "Do You Have Any Plans Today?"
I've also been working on prepping my set for OUTCon and playing a shitton of Overwatch while the Beta is still public. I had lots of fun with it, and will most likely pick it up, but I don't think I'll write an album with it like I did for TF2.
The reason why I was able to write Status Quo Radio the way I did was because each of the 9 classes in TF2 are so distinct, doing one thing very well, lending to 9 separate playstyles. Overwatch has 20 heroes (I had trouble writing 12 songs, so imagine that hassle) and operate on more of a gradient. For example, here are a couple classes that can be snipers, such as the two heroes Hanzo and Widowmaker, but they operate in different ways, the former having an ultimate that can obliterate multiple enemies, and the latter in possession of an assault rifle and a grappling hook allowing for faster paced combat.
At first glance, it seems likes characters are missing something key, rather than filling a particular niche but in it's own way it caters to a particular type of player rather than a specific type of role on the battlefield. There are heroes I'm better at (like Soldier 76 and Roadhog), and some I'm terrible at (most of the support characters) but nobody seems "useless" more like "nobody's broken them yet".
Anyway, working on new shit, will resume streaming, but I will post up a full breakdown of OUTCon next week. Laters!
"It's a 72-oz Steak Challenge of a game"- Rhythm Bastard
It has been the hottest game to Let's Play on the YouTubes, and it's
quite the thing. It's like a Five Nights at Freddy's or P.T. where it
sets up this atmosphere where nothing can be predicted or taken for
granted, then disappears into the ether. It's not meant to be played,
it's meant to be experienced.
Granted if it cost money, there would be no value in playing it.
Unlike P.T. and FNAF, there's no challenge to keep you going, it's just a
walk through this bizarre adventure. It does take me back to the days
of "NO MY UNCLE WORKS FOR NINTENDO AND IT'S REAL"
-In this podcast, we ponder how Transformers work.
Yeah, so apparently, Transformers do need some kind of fuel. From the, ugh, Transformers Wiki:
Unlike humans who need air and water as well as food, generally the
Transformer's only major need to assure their continued functioning is
fuel (though again, even this can vary depending on the fiction).
-As promised, a cover of "Panama by Reggie Watts. While it threw a
lot of people off, it's very creative. Reggie Watts puts a looper to
good use, and it's interesting to see how another genre of music is
played as he builds the track line by line.
-Hackers, Hackers, Hackers. Looking back, it's quaint, really. It
takes place in this weird world where grownups are both absolutely
clueless about computers while simultaneously being mega geniuses.
Hacking is both a long and complicated process where system have to be
broken down and rearranged carefully over a long period of time, and a
bullshit video game that can be cracked with typing really fast.
Passwords can be obtained through the very real and regularly used
method of "social engioneering" which is nerdspeak for "lying" and at
the same time guessing "GOD" because Matthew Lillard said so.
-For those of you further behind, the "Nonary Game"
refers to an experiment from the Zero Escape game series where 9 people
are captured and and forced to play a game where they all try to escape
a harrowing situation.
While I've only played 999, the first game in the Zero Escape series,
the game is still worth a play, as it's filled with clever escape the
room puzzles, novel character development and enough junk science to
shake a stick at. In a way, it's very similar to the game version of "I
Have No Mouth And I Must Scream".
-MORPHOGENIC FIELDS!!!
-Resident Evil Outbreak
did exist, and I remember renting the game, but not progressing very
far, since the load times killed the thing. I'd like to see that take on
the game again. Left 4 Dead is a comparable game, but L4D is more
focused on combat, the early Resident Evil Series were focused on Puzzle
solving. Something like that (and my 999 game) is WAY too hard to
coordinate online, and AI opponents for something that would be way to
complicated.
-I was going to go line by line and show all the escape rooms by where each of us live, but there's a goddamn directory of these things.
-Potluck Simulator 2015 is yet another candidate for the Echo Chamber Game Jam. IMJUSTSAYING.
-There's an article here about the success of the room escape game as
a business. While it does address the concerns of a business, (repeat
customers, each game can only be played once) but doesn't address how
those problems are solved. The puzzles themselves are a great adrenaline
rush, and the 999 series add the intrigue and characters to get
attached to. But the Room Escape Businesses has all the former, but none
of the latter, so there's little reason to go back.
-Jeff, Game Show Addict would be curious to check out the YouTube Channel Buzzr:
Jeff isn't big on "YOUTUBERZ!!", but it's worth a watch and is the
closest thing us non-cable havers will have to some classic game shows.
-Also, the JackBox Party Pack is on Steam.
-Press Your Luck Scandal:
-Apperently the "Sonic Shitting In Tails' Mouth" thing is closer to science than we'd expect.
The "hedgehogs rub shit all over themselves" fact was mentioned no less than 100 time in the TBFP Sonic Adventure LP.
-RHYTHM BASTARD GON' GIVE IT TO YA!
-Game Dev Tycoon and Paolo has the right idea. Though I believe it needs an "Asset Flipping" option, and a Jim Sterling Expy.
I think I'm going to kick him a couple bucks for the Patreon, since his LPs keep me going at a long day of work.
-If there was a word to describe "Her Story", I'd say "Deliberate".
It's the same word I'd use to describe Silent Hill 2 as well. There is
no extra "stuff" for the sake of there being extra stuff, everything in
the game is place exactly how the "author" intended it to be. There are
queries you type down in Her Story where there's 6 videos, but you can
only see the first 5. That 6th video is the one you need to see, and
it's written in such a way that eventually you'll loop back there.
The logistics are mind boggling: Every word of dialogue had to be
planned out in advance, with the right words being said in the right
video, with every bit of dialogue matched to an exact point in the
story, and every response broken up in a way that serves both the
gameplay, but still feels natural. Damn.
I heard Gone Home is also in the same vein, a short, but well-crafted
experience, but Her Story has a biiiit more replay value in finding
all the videos.
-So, the reason why I said "Amen!" after Jeff started talking about the musical break, was a reference to the "Amen break", one of the most famous breaks in music.
-That day was also Nicolas Cage's birthday, so that explains Jeff's Heat Seeking Panther line. REMINDER: Only 2 movies have made me nauseous: "A Clockwork Orange" and "The Weather Man". The only thing I remember from that movie is Michael Caine talking about his daughter's cameltoe.
-This is what it's like living with my parents.... kinda...
-One of my favorite things about speed running is seeing is how they can take a game and just mess around with it to get what they want. Ars Technica has the details.
There's going to be a lot of awesome guests there, like:
-Larry Hama, THE ORIGINAL CREATOR OF G.I. JOE!
-Steve Cardenas, THE ORIGINAL RED RANGER FROM MIGHT MORPHIN' POWER RANGERS!
-Larry Mainland, from THE WALKING DEAD
-RHYTHM BASTAR- oh wait that's me...
END OF THE LINE IS OUT!!!
Really solid animation. I've always wanted to make an SFM Music Video for "Boston Boom Bringer" or "Gang Of Nine", since people are doing absolutely incredible things with it.
I'm getting this spare PC I found up and running, and so far, it runs TF2 with no hiccups. It's a desktop, and is more powerful than my laptop, so I'll be using that more for production and gaming, and my laptop will be relegated to tour-mate, since the Wi-Fi on it has been busted for a while.
Regarding the album, THE COVER IS FINISHED, I REPEAT, THE COVER IS FINISHED.
Yeah, plenty of good stuff all around. Granted, there's been plenty of not so good news this week, with killer cops getting off the hook left and right, but at least it gives me the opportunity to post up this nugget from the Dead Kennedys:
Anytime someone says "Not all cops...""But a black guy shot a white guy this one time...""ALL lives matter!", etc., remind them that this still goes on, and by making it about them, they're enabling this crap to continue.
-So, here's "Expiration Date", the TF2 short me and Mystakin geeked out about:
It's impressive how they've still been plucking away at this game for the past 7(!!!) years.
Also, "Sexual Congress" is:
A. The name of my Presidents of the United States of America cover band.
B. A sex move where one person begs the other for sex, nothing happens and instead they shit the bed.
C. Weird Al's poorly received "Sexual Healing" parody meant to spur voters in the midterm elections.
D. Classy way of sayin' boner-time
E. All of the above
-Dear Esther is the game that Jeff is complaining about, and here it is in ALL ITS RIVETING GLORY:
Things that would make Jeff love Dear Esther:
-Soundtrack by Bad Religion
-Puzzles that require thinking so out of the box that you're in another box
-Puzzles that require you to use Google to translate ALT into Braille into Morse Code
-A way to get on the damn boat
-"It's Always Sunny" clip for reference:
Fuck tha haters.
And I was right, it was the epiosde where "The Gang Wrestles For The Troops"
-Majesco: STILL EXISTS!
Current projects: COOKING MAMA 5 and porting Gone Home to consoles.
A very, very sad state of affairs indeed: The Mama series, movie games, ports, $5 bargain PC games on the Nintendo DS...
-HERE'S THAT MEGA64 SKETCH YOU GUYS!!!
-Weezer: Ehhh.....? I guess...? I kinda liked "Memories" of Hurley, but it doesn't seem like they've been trying anything too different. And I guess I can say that for their previous albums where I liked one song or two, but then again I haven't really listened to any of their recent albums in their entirety. It's like with Green Day and their "Uno! Dos! Tre!" triple album: if they waited on some of that, they might be able to make one excellent album.
-GWAR: Really, Oderus Urungus MADE that band. A great front man is ridiculously hard to replace. They can get a good metal singer, but to have one that was so into the character like Dave Brockie was would be like replacing MC Bat Commander. Like Queen, the singing ability can still be there, but the face of the band, however scarred and hideous it may be, is the soul of the band.
-YouTube Let's Play Discussion- I'm gonna skip over this a little bit, since Mystakin did bring up a lot of solid arguments, and mine felt kind of half-assed in comparison. Really mine just comes from a place of "Well, the people with the most money are going to fuck with all of this."
-Wolf from American Gladiators beating up Christian Finnegan:
-Me and Henry/Quinton Flynn from Umicon Daytona. Super nice guy, and the panel was actually pretty great. Him and a couple other voice actors in attendance were bullshitting for an hour or so, and mix in some Aquacadets with beer, and you got yourself one hell of a good time.
-Wolf from American Gladiators being relevant enough to star in Disaster Movie:
Though I do feel that Owen's suggestion for a Ghostwriter reboot would be relevant in the modern age, since you can have the ghost writer that lives in the cloud and knows everything, what with you kids and your Siris and sex robots.
All right, I still need to do my recap video, but here are ten of the quickest quick hits:
1. Playing guerilla shows is FUCKING AWESOME!!! Sometimes you gotta bring the show to the people, so you can bring them to the shows. Anyone who stuck around, or even filmed one of my songs, thank you!
2. Catching Geekapella, and inadvertently becoming a part of it. Let's just say, I've never seen anybody weave together Fall Out Boy and three different Batman themes.
3. Getting my copy of The Orange Box signed by John Patrick Lowrie (the Sniper from Team Fortress 2) and Ellen McLain (The Announcer from TF2, The Overwatch, Glados and the Turrets from Portal)
4. Watching them perform a rendition of "Still Alive".
5. Taking pictures of cosplayers, and for some reason crafting a neat little narrative to tie it all into for the recap video.
6. Streetpassing enough people to beat Find Mii in a single weekend. (I think I'm at ~120)
7. Hanging out with the crew at Orlando Nerd Fest and Sci-Fried. There was a panel before my show about the history of Nerd music, and they managed to entertain.
8. John Patrick Lowrie informing us that the plural of "Penis" is "Penes".
9. Buying Flash and Green Arrow prints from a mister Dean Drawserson. (LAST NAME NOT GIVEN).
10. The unfortunate timing of the show being right next to a little girl beauty pageant. Yeah.
"Gang Of Nine", a new song!
The Team Fortress 2 Theme mixed
with Akira The Don's Remix of "Clones". After how popular "Boston Boom
Bringer" was, I decided to do another rap song!
So, you COULD get it for free OR, I'd recommend about $5-6. Or give it for $100. I ain't care.
I figured if I want people to have my music, I should make it as easy as possible.
OK, so I went to bed about 12 hours ago, and "Boston Boom Bringer" has 74 views on YouTube and 169 notes on Tumblr. Not bad for my first venture into nerdcore!
Just as a reminder/annotation:
100 views on YouTube, video of me performing "Boston Boom Bringer" at the Jamspace at PAX East
10,000 views on YouTube, video of me performing "Boston Boom Bringer" at the Jamspace at PAX East... dressed as Scout
This song I finished like, just now, and wanted to have something done by Album Writing Month
This came about when I wanted to make a song featuring one of the Scout's Boombox taunt beats, and The Standell's "Dirty Water".
I am the Boston Boom Bringer, here to bring the boom
When you see rollin' up like a harbringer of doom
Cause when I'm strapping on my kicks and go zoom
Like an Ubercharged Heavy I'm clearin' out the whole room.
Force of nature comin' atcha like a class 5
Fist to your face is gonna hit you like a line drive
You know you can't survive
When you roll up in my diamond
Cause I got the rhymin and timin' that gets me so high and
when my bat hits your head you're gonna be dyin'
No survivin'
You know I'm number one, I'll take on anyone,
Cause every beat I drop is a home freakin' run.
I am the Boston Boom Bringer, here to bring the boom
When you see rollin' up like a harbringer of doom
Cause when I'm strapping on my kicks and go zoom
Like an Ubercharged Heavy I'm clearin' out the whole room.
Even when I'm beaten, I still soldier on
By the time you see me, I'm already gone
Blazin a trail making wicked pyrotechnics
Maybe steal your girl, take her back for a night sex
Drop a bomb and blow her damn mind,
Then kick her to the curb, just before morning time
Back on the battlefield dropping beats so heavy
Rocking the ground and breakin all the levys
Ain't no machine better than this boombox
Rockin' down the block and knockin' all the socks off
Then you'll need a surgeon to reattach your legs
So go back to your home and stick with the dregs
Don't need no gun to score all the headshots
Or blow minds with my rhymes right in the apricot
Invisible, subliminal snaking up from behind,
Reappear in your ears like I was there the whole time
I am the Boston Boom Bringer, here to bring the boom
When you see rollin' up like a harbringer of doom
Cause when I'm strapping on my kicks and go zoom
Like an Ubercharged Heavy I'm clearin' out the whole room.
(x2)
So, one thing I've been working on once I've settled in is my part of a gift exchange for TF2Chan, where artists and writers trade prompts. The one I received was "Sniper/Engineer. Surprise me. I'm a sucker for sad, tragic stuff, but fluff is fine too!"
Thankfully this was easy to write a song to. Below is the song entitled "Ride On" and the companion piece I had to write, which felt good after not writing anything not set to music for like, 2 years. (I figured since it is available on TF2Chan (warning: site is NSFW, as it is a *Chan) and the song is on my Soundcloud that I could repost it):
RIDE ON
“Well, where are you off to, Stretch?”
Those were the last words the Sniper wanted to hear.
“Shit,” he muttered under his breath.
He turned around to see the team’s Engineer, wiping the rust and
blood off of his favorite wrench, trademark welder’s goggles still on.
The Sniper put his backpack down, “Oh, I didn’t mean to wake you…” he
stammered as he tried to look casual.
“Shoot, no trouble at all! Just getting’ everything all ready for
tomorrow.” Engineer took off his goggles and wiped them down. His gaze
traveled to the sack. “What’s that for?”
“Nothing, just dropping it off to the van”
“Quite a lot you got there. Need any help?”
Sniper let out a short grunt. He knew where this was going, and
there was little sense in trying to hide it. After all, it was the
Engineer’s nature to ask questions. Not that he was nosy or anything,
just that his natural curiosity didn’t know where to stop..
“I was hoping the Admin would tell ya this, but-“ He stopped short
as he caught the sight of Engineer’s goggles. As affable as he was, on
some days, when the sun is beating down on the battlefield, and the BLU
team had been pushing hard on the point, one could catch a glimpse of
the Engineer’s eyes behind the goggles and see the fear as he tried to
keep his machines running. That very moment, the Sniper was able to see
those same eyes in the dim lantern’s light of the outskirts of the RED
base.
Still, he soldiered through.
“-but my contract’s been… altered…”
The words echoed off the wooden walls of the Granary base, and hit the ears of the befallen Texan.
Engineer took his goggles off and dropped his wrench, trying to make
it look like a simple fumble, as he picked it up off the floor. “Wha-
What do you mean?”
“I’ve been hired by BLU.” Before the Engineer could spit out another
“What?” the Sniper continued, “Listen, it’s really good money, and they
said I’d be stationed at 5Gorge, miles away from here, so I wouldn’t
have to shoot ya.” He tried to laugh, but it came out forced and
robotic.
“Oh… You tell anyone else?”
Sniper looked at the floor, and kicked and kicked a stray rock
underneath a cabinet. “No, I was hoping to leave before anybody noticed.
You know, goodbyes and all that…”
“Yeah, I can see. So you’re really leavin’?”
“That’s about the size of it.”
Engineer wiped the sweat from his brow, and looked down at his
wrench. After a long deep breath, he closed his eyes hard, like a child
would at the scary part of the movie. “Was it an easy decision?”
Sniper remained silent, trying to avoid eye contact, occasionally looking out to the van, waiting patiently in the moonlight.
“I just figured after a couple years, you’d at least had the nerve
t’ let us know about things like this.” Engineer swallowed hard, but
coughed to cover up the sound. “I know Demo and Scout are gonna take it
hard-“
“So I guess it’s not about what I want, is it?” said the Sniper as
he picked up his sack and started toward the van. He knew that he had a
family in the RED team, but he was after all, a mercenary, and had to go
where the money was. It took all he could to give one last nostalgic
look back at his home for the past two years, but he kept forward, not
wanting to show any weakness.
“Listen, I’m sorry,” the Engineer yelled, as he ran as fast as his
little legs could toward the van. The keys were already in the ignition
when he caught up to the camper van. “Hell, it’s just we’re going to
miss you- I mean, miss having you out there in the thick o’ things, you
know?” He fumbled around his overalls, and pulled out a small mining
light that he sometimes wore on his hard hat.
“It’s not much, but I figured it could be of some use to you?”
Sniper looked down, and a tiny smile crept across his long, narrow face. “Thanks, Truckie”
“Don’t mention it, partner.” He sniffed and extended a gloved hand. “Good luck out there.”
Sniper stepped out of the van. “Same to you, mate,” he said in kind.
The two men embraced, holding on for one last time. The rest of the
world could wait, as the entire universe stood still for this one final
moment.
Engineer watched as the van drove off into the desert night, and kept looking out toward the horizon for another good hour.
When he walked back to his room, he went through the old routine:
got the guitar from under the bed, sat on the edge, looked out the
window, and started playing.
-----
The prompt I gave was "Demoman and Scout (at least) drunkenly singing. Preferably to celtic punk." and this is the picture I received:
It's a nice little picture and a thanks to whomever made it.
-Playing Team Fortress 2's new Mann vs. Machine mode! At first it seemed like too much to take in (upgrades? Waves? What is this witchcraft?!?), but it's a lot of fun, especially if you have a tenacious group of bot battlers.
-Speaking of which, Team Fortress is 16 years old! It started as a mod for Quake, then after the designers were hired by Valve, it was ported over to the GoldSrc engine where it became a mod for Half Life in 1999. The sequel Team Fortress 2 was in development for a while until its release in October 2007. So, no, you're not (that) old.
-Also, today just so happens to be the day that "Status Quo Radio", the first, last and only single by my first band, The Bastards, hit #1 on the Rock And/Or Roll Type Music chart in 1968!
Of course, later that day, the rest of my band died in a freak groupie accident right on the stage of Rock Everyone Demands!, the most popular of all 1960's music countdown shows, save for Best List Undisputed!, it's most heated rival.
That's another story for another time. All I'm saying is, I got some wicked cool scars out of it.
FREE DOWNLOAD:
-All my podcast bros seem to have Rock Band Blitz before me. NO I'M NOT JELLY AT ALL!!
-To show how NOT JELLY I am, here's an Adam WarRock vid:
