Advent 2010: Side Player and MORE!!!

Thanks to Soundcloud, you can hear all the songs without having to go to NewGrounds or MySpace!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

So, in celebration of Axe Cop's first birthday...


AXE COP: THE SONG!

Advent 2010: Todd In The Shadows

This guy encapsulates everything I love and hate about Top 40 radio, and should defintely be checked out.



His most recent stuff is available on That Guy With The Glasses WARNING: There are A LOT more misses than hits on that site.

Advent 2010: Rhythm Bastard Christmas Mixtape 2010

DOWNLOAD DIRECT

YES! Here's some Christmas tunes for all the hipsters and headbangers.

I was going to do a cover of Green Day's "Macy's Day Parade" myself, but I was pressed for time. Plus, I wanted to get Akira The Don's song through RBN, so I had to fix up those errors.

"Macy's Day Parade"- Green Day
"Good Mourning/Black Friday"- Megadeth (C WUT I DID THAR?)
"Holiday Road"- The Aquabats!
"Christmas Card From A Hooker..."- Tom Waits
"Don't Shoot Me Santa"- The Killers
"Oi To The World!"- No Doubt
"Mistress For Christmas"- AC/DC
"Punk Rock Christmas"- The Sex Pistols
"Yule Shoot Your Eye Out"- Fall Out Boy
"I Won't Be Home For Christmas"- Blink 182
"Fuckin' Up My Christmas"- MC Chris
"Things I Want"- Sum 41 feat. Jack Black
"All I Want For Christmas (Is To Kick Your Ass)"- Midnight Riders
"Let Me Sleep"- Pearl Jam
"Space Christmas"- Shounen Knife
"I'm Dreaming Of A Green Christmas"- MC Lars feat. Jaret Reddick
"Imagine" by John Lennon

Advent 2010: Last Year's Christmas Mixtape

http://rbexperiment.blogspot.com/2009/12/rhythm-bastard-2009-christmas-mixtape.html

This year's will be here tomorrow!

Advent 2010: My 2010 Game Of The Year

So, time for that thing you've all been waiting for, MY 2010 GAME OF THE YEAR!!!

Now, who will it be?

Your initial guess would probably be Rock Band 3: with all the new ways to play, and an improved sorting feature, I'd be all over it. Well, I only got to play it for an hour (Christmas Present, you see), but I liked what I saw. Besides, I got an hour out of it, and I'm sure I'd feel better about it once I got more game time in.

Now, next guess would probably be Green Day: Rock Band, since I've given them more BJs than Billie Joe's initials. But the fan in me did have a couple nitpicks, mainly that you can't have a Green Day live show and NOT have "Hey-o!" and "King For A Day". Good game, though, and cost efficient if you want a shit ton of Green Day in your library.

I also put in some time with Final Fantasy XIII, and while I can't say it's the game I hated the most this year, it's the game that hated me the most. Combat system was really good, but the rest of the game realized I'm not a virgin and shoved so much bullshit at me I got bored of it.

Fallout: New Vegas would have been up there, by the simple virtue of me getting to roleplay Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but well...

That and I didn't play it.

The Scott Pilgrim game was an ace bit of retro, and get the silver medal, but none compare to

MY 2010...

GAME....

OF...

THE...

YEAR....

....

Deadly Premonition

What is Deadly Premoniton? You're Francis York Morgan (But call him York, that's everyone always does.), an FBI Special Agent who's been sent to a small Northwestern town, Greenvale, to investigate the murder of a pretty, white, blond girl, while the town is being terrorized by The Raincoat Killer.

Which is different than Twin Peaks, where Dale Cooper, and FBI Special Agent gets sent to a Northwestern small town to investigate the murder of a pretty, white, blond girl, while the town is being terrorized by the world's luckiest stagehand.

Regardless, never have I seen so much thought and effort put into a game. All throughout I went "Oh!" "Ew" and "Wait, what?!?"

Now, to be perfectly honest, there is A LOT of shit you have to put up with in this game. The most obvious thing, is the dated graphics. While the animations and models are really primitive, but there's windshield wipers, turn signals, and realistic physics on the car, and the town of Greenvale is huge. Given the limited budget, the developers at least had their priorities in order. While it can't look real, it can feel real.

While it may be what turns most people off, it certainly isn't what draws my ire. The game opens up with a little bit of Resident Evil 4 style combat, if RE4 was clunky. It's cool at first, since you spend the first hour of the game shooting juggalos. The weapons suck, but it's the beginning of the game, and I'm willing to forgive a slow start. However, these sections are repeated far too often, especially in the latter half of the game, and pale in comparison to the real meat and potatoes of the game:

The town of Greenvale is a place filled with interesting people, York especially. The fun of this game comes from talking to all the people around town, and getting to know them. You can actually follow these people around, and they have set schedules, making it feel more like a real place. You even have to do real things, like shave and change your suit. There's little cool things you can discover throughout the town that draw you in ever more, like fishing and the darts bar.

Most importantly, it's one of the few games I've seen where the adults actually act like adults. Adults with a lot of hangups, but adults nonetheless. They have anxieties, and wants, and feel like real people, or at least the closest in a while. York's quirkyness doesn't become his main trait. While he does strut around and fire off rounds without breaking a sweat, well, there's a reason for that. Regardless, he's authoritative without being overly macho. He and the lead female don't hate each other one minute, then jump each other's bones the next scene/when it becomes convenient. All this makes it the more interesting, because I want to know more.

It's a shame, because being York in Greenvale is a lot more interesting than Silent Hill with Juggalos. If you didn't get it yet, all I can say is that the first time I met up with the Raincoat Killer after the opening scene, I was legit scared. Only problem is WHY CAN'T I SHOOT HIM?

There are more thoughts I want to share, but really, all I can say is that Deadly Premonition is a game that needs to be experienced.

At $20, you can't go wrong.

ALL RIGHT, I BE GETTING SPOILERY UP IN HERE!!!
BEAT THE GAME? READ MORE THOUGHTS!!!
REST OF YOU, SCROLL DOWN!!!

I was talking about the Lumbermill part, BTW. The Raincoat Killer starts hacking away at the door of a room you're in, and you have to hide somewhere in the room. It's a pretty chilling effect having both yours and RK's view shown in split screen. Then, once you successfully hide, you get out of the room, and he pops up again, prompting a quick time event.

SHIT! I think, as I start wiggling the analog stick. So, once I get some good distance on him, I think I'm safe, and it'll be an endurance contest. Then York runs in front of the box, even though there was a clear spot ON THE OTHER FUCKING SIDE OF THE HALLWAY.

Out of nowhere, the prompt for box pushing comes up, and hit A, while the RK's window showing my slow ass about to get chopped. The rest of the time he's booking, but I guess he understands the whole box thing is bullshit too. I just barely get the box out of the way in time, and keep running down the hall, steam valves going off behind me. I'm getting a little tired, and just as he catches up, I burst through the door to safety.

THAT was one of the most exciting moments in gaming for me.

OK, so I first go into the Sherrif's Office, and have to look for the keys to some files. So while I'm looking through the office, I come upon a dumbbell in the kitchen room, with the word "Arnold" on it.

"Cool," I thought. "He must be another officer, who's into working out."

So then I run into George, the Sheriff. He tells me that he's looking for Arnold to finish his routine, and that his partner Sylvester was looking for him. "All right," I figure. "So they're both officers. K"

I go looking for the keys some more, and wind up in George's office. I talk to him, and the option comes to give him an object. I gave him the dumbbell, figuring he'd tell me where Arnold was. Turns out, that's what he was looking for. He named his dumbbells Arnold and Sylvester. I went "Oh!". And then he gave me a trading card with them on it.

BUT this little moment made sense in the grander scheme of things as I played through the story. When George mentions his past, he mentions "the strong overpower the weak" and I had another "Oh!" moment. Thus, it came as no surprise when he explained his motivations for going through with the whole Raincoat Killer thing in the first case.

While at times Twin Peaks felt like it was making up stuff as it went along, Deadly Premonition feels like it has more thought behind it. There's lots of stuff that points to the fact George did it, and if you watch a lot of mysteries and stuff, it becomes pretty obvious. "I just happened to be here!"

Speaking of George, when you check Thomas's back for the inverted peace sign, there's a tattoo, Love G. At first I thought it was George himself, meaning that Thomas was gay. Even that was better than most games, where, sure he's feminine, cooking and running like he does, but it was pretty sedate. Maybe he's just a girly-man and "LoveG" was a red herring.

Then he threatens to kill Emily in a red dress, claiming George for his own, and his sister Carol confirms that they were substitutes in the freaky sex dungeon underneath the Galaxy of Terror.

The whole York/Zach dynamic I wasn't as in to, as I just thought the Red/White room stuff was where it copied Twin Peaks. Planet Redwood has that bit of mythology explained, though. I thought Zach was supposed to be a metaphor for the player, but actually playing as him got kinda weird. Still, he's above and beyond the rest when it comes to protagonists.

Take the ending, abridged:
George: A GOD AM I!
York: No, George, you're a first degree murderer.
George: FUCK YOU, I'M A DRAGON!
York: I'm still going to have to bring you in. (shoots axe into his chest. Win.)

OK SPOILER STUFF OVER NOW

Again, despite its flaws, I'd recommend giving it at least a look.

P.S. It does have Green Day! Sorta.

Advent 2010: Reaching My Threshold

THRESHOLD

Yes, from the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Awesome movie with tons of kick ass music, you should see it.

What I found most interesting was that Beck did all the songs for the fictional band Sex Bom-Omb. Which is weird, because Bweck doesn't normally rock this fucking hard. It's sad really.

The song is really simple to play, but as you'll see this Saturday, hard to Voxtar.

G--5--5-5------8---------
D--5--5-5------8----8---
A--3--3-3------6----8---
E-------------------6---

The there's a little fill that's basically Eb5, D5, C5.

Chorus is C5x8, Bbx4 then F#x4

Yeah!

Advent 2010: I Had Enough Of Your Shit America

Seriously.

You can't claim that the Wikileaks leaks are unimportant, and utterly worthless, then go scramble to arrest Julian Assange.

You can't both have your fear of brown people validated, and your junk not touched.

Fear makes people retarded sometimes.

Advent 2010: The Bender

Preping for the gig, and Wikileaks shit be pissing me off right now.

Man the fuck up, government.


Oh, Schaffer the Darklord! Why you so awesome?

Advent 2010: Map Of Metal

Best Site Ever

Advent 2010: RBN Reviewing Part 1

So far it's a quick and painless process. I'm still new to the reviewing community, and hopefully can get more in depth once I get a guitar that can fast forward through everything. But so far, here's what I reviewed (will add group later):
"24-7" by The Pursuits (Bass)- When in doubt, reduce.

"Falling Apart" by BSM (Guitar)- This song seems like a fun party tune! Unfortunately, I need to PT another song by this author, because apparently I already did one for this song when I was trying to upload "Steven Wells" the first time around. This was back when the Creators site was still buggy from the RB2 -> RB3 transition.

"Feast Or Famine" by Within The Ruins (Vocals)- This one was easy, being all talkies. I made a second pass through just to make sure they were time right.

"Lift" by Poets Of The Fall (Guitar)- I love the song, and despite it's length (I have the GH5 guitar, so I can't fast forward) it's a beauty to listen to and is mixed well. To listen to.
In Rock Band, the main guitar part definitely needs to be louder if you're trading off between two guitar parts. For an exmaple of how this is handled well, check out "Reptilia" by The Strokes.

Advent 2010: Day 2

Oh shi- Missed a day.

I think I'll leave this here...


I also joined the Playtest group for RBN, so expect some updates from that.

Advent 2010: December 1st

Whew, as if NaNoWriMo wasn't hard enough, here's what I've got on my plate for December:
-Show on the 18th
-"Steven Wells" in its last throes on RBN
-"This Gigantic Robot Kills" beginning
-Rock Band 3 and Rock Band AC/DC Impressions
-One or two new songs
-New Christmas Mixtape for 2010, which I've already gathered songs for