-The best way to describe the issue of Harmonix Employees posting reviews of their own game is "faux pax". It's embarassing, but in the long run, ultimately harmless. The "IT'S ABOUT ETHICS IN GAME JOURNALISM" crowd showed up a bit, but like we mentioned before, the issue died down within the day.
-YOU KIDS LIKE WEEEEEEEED? *smashes bong on floor* *glass shatters*
STONER COLD STEEEVE AUSTIN and vince is the DEA read my fanfiction here
-CORRECTION: Morning show DJs are more chill than these over the top doofiness of the Guitar Hero Live DJs. Elvis Duran making Dad jokes would be less groan worthy than this shit.
-Guitar Hero TV in general has everything I'd LOVE to see in Rock Band: Random songs playing in the background, and the ability to "rent" the entire DLC library. Main question is though: are the microtransactions working out for GHTV? Secondary question: How often and how many songs are they going to add to the DLC rotation. I remember in an interview the way their protocol is set up is that they can add a song once it gets popular on YouTube the same day.
-Girls and Boys Music Video:
Ah, 2000-era mall punk.
-Murder Burger
-Take ground beef, add Reese's Pieces, roll into a donut shape, and deep fry it. Add four patties, with a layer on bacon, egg and cheese on each. Shove a double down in between the second and third patty. Cover in marinara sauce.
So, for those chumps who don't know about Taskmaster, LEMME SSSSSSSPELL IT OUT FOR YOU!
Taskmaster is a villain within the Marvel Universe, typically hired as a mercenary. Blessed with the power of "photographic reflexes", he can imitate the movements of anyone he sees. He can throw his shield like Captian America, have the sick Kung Fu skills of Iron Fist, and can shoot arrow like Hawkeye. He then uses these skills to teach people how to be better henchmen so his pretty skull face doesn't get hurt.
In addition to that, he's also been known to use his skills for personal reasons (learning how to cook, play guitar, etc.) for macking on the fly honeys. So, he could have used his gift to be in a great rock n' roll band, or win dance competitions, but instead he's like "FUCK THAT NOISE, I'MA PUT ON TIGHTS AND BEAT UP SUPERHEROES"
-The missing songs from Pachabel Rant are: "Graduation" by Vitamin C "One Tin Soldier" by Coven "Hook" by Blues Traveler "Push" by Matchbox 20 "Good" by Better Than Ezra "With Or Without You" by U2 |"Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia "Sk8R Boi" by Avril Lavigne "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister
Remember when songs used to be one hit wonders?
Remember when songs used to be weird as fuuuuuuck?
Lady Gaga comes close I guess, but her songs are relatively normal in subject matter.
Game Day was today (short, went 1-2 with Atarka Red) and finishing up work on my Battle for Zendikar Song. Shot some footage for a long over due con recap and
HOLY SHIT DEL RIO'S AT HELL IN A CELL?
AND BEAT JOHN CENA?
Right, right, back on topic.
Now, a lot of my time is spent juggling different projects, delicately balancing between writing, streaming and practicing, and sometimes I have a lot of stuff backed up because I'm working on getting one thing started, because otherwise, I'll have nothing for the week. I have a whiteboard (it came with me in the move!) that's filled with different song ideas, a notebook slowly being filled with lyrics for future songs, and a To-Do list that never seems to dwindle.
It's paralyzing. Like, I have 7 tabs open, each with a different thing, and I can't commit to one. "Oh shit, I have to send an e-mail to this person, and I actually could be doing this but...and so on. For example, right now I'm editing a e-mail to send in one window, finishing up this, putting together my desk, trying to write guitar parts for one song AND putting up Status Quo Radio on Youtube.
I get stuck in these patterns where I don't have the time to finish one thing, so I half start others.
HOLY SHIT BROCK LESNAR BEAT TAKER? AND NOW THE WYATT FAM-
See what I mean? So here's the plan for this week:
1. New Con Recap Video
2. New SONG video
3. Status Quo Radio on YouTube
4. Podcast Recap for Echo Chamber
5. Reposting "Slayers of Decadence"
-So we talked about Millenial Stuff later, and I'm going to bring this up at the beginning of the article: Don't let old men yelling at clouds get you down. What will make the old generation even more angry is if we persevere.
Here's the thing that scares boomers the most: When our generation comes to power, we'll have to undo the mess they made, and it will almost be like they never existed.
So share, clean up the environment and question the status quo.
Every time you take a selfie of you twerking on fleek for your bae, this happens:
-Going back to the top of the podcast. A Flavor House Atlantic would have the following items on the menu: Blood Red Steakmer Welcome Homefries Ten Wings (Of Gods Blood And Burial) The Wishing Well of Beer (Unlimited Beer for only $15!) Junesong Provolone Grilled Cheese Sandwich In The Flame of Burger Neverender Nachos Elf Tower New Mexican Tacos
However from the descriptions, it seems that Last Year seems to be taking more of its cues from Evolve with different characters as different classes, where as the 13th, will be more on just surviving.
-The Angry Video Game Nerd has certainly mellowed out since the early days, with James Rolfe moving away from the character. However, the reason why the original AVGN managed to survive as opposed to all the Johnny-Come-Latelys and the PISSED OFF GAMESMASHERS of the world is that his love of making movies shines through. Like look at this:
So all the rip-off AVGNs and Zero Punctuations is that, really, without the anger and the funny curse words, they don't have anything to say. Words come of their mouth, but there's no passion behind any of it, it's just bitching.
-Game Grumps Mickeymousecapades aka DANNY SEXBANG LOSES IT:
And that led us to Douchebag Youtube, which is white guys sitting in front of stuff bitching about feminism and black people or whatever.
-That is the polar opposite of Black Vine, seen here:
-Nobody knows what Fuckboy is. I'm not going to parse what it means because all I remember is the meme with the skeleton saying Engarde Fuckboy. I can't find it so I can only assume Fuckboys are people without skeletons.
-Mark Mothersbaugh's Soundtrack Listing. Some notable examples: Rugrats Theme Rocket Power Theme Pee-Wee's Playhouse Theme Super Mario World Cartoon Theme Beakman's World Theme Dumb and Dumber Crash Bandicoot Series Regular Show Jax and Daxter Series
-Last but not least, I'm really sorry Jeff, this is the meatball sub incident:
A couple years ago I was part of a DnD group with some friends and it was fun, but then once I played a game of Eclipse Phase with Ryan, I had to get good at improv and role playing, and it's a weird space to get into, especially when there's so much riding on the face that dice rolls need to come out a certain way, but then again, that's where Rag-Nerd-Rok showed me some next level GMing. A good GM will let you fail. A good GM has a plan for if and when you fail. A good GM will not let you fail.
It's midnight Sunday when I wrote this so I have content for the rest of the week, but you get my drift.
The FATE system has a lot of back and forth to it, and makes for a cinematic style of play, where you have to occupy this odd headspace between what your character would do and what you would do as a third party watching it on a movie screen like so many horror movie buffs yelling "Don't go in there!".
So, question, when Part 2 comes up, should it be its own thing, or should I lump it in with the podcast recaps?
-OK, so as I mentioned last week, I do these things by working of general headlines and then writing about them. However, think of of this as my "For Those Of You Further Behind" look at Rock Band 4, since I picked it up THE DAY after we recorded that Episode.
-For some reason, I had this in my Bookmarks Folder to put on this week:
You know what's Rising Above? HER WEIGHT! ACK!
-Right, so I've been a little back on forth on RB4, and while it's still Rock Band, I still have this dialogue going on in the back of my head. The setlist isn't as big, bbut they're an indepentent studio now and can't pull in anything else. Customization options are barren, but the models look REALLY GOOD, and the venues, while missing the crazy effects I loved playing around with in the RBN days, make the venues feel more real.
The main complaint I hear is that "It was rushed to beat Guitar Hero to the market." I can see that, but it's like "When would they release it?" Another couple months might not have been enough to add anything significant, and waiting another year would be too long. To release it OTHER than the holiday season would be ridiculous. DLC exports have been spotty, and are slowly coming together, but I can still download all my old songs for FREE, and have even discover new ones.
All that said, Rock Band 4 is still worth playing because the Rock Band experience has ALWAYS been worth playing.
-Confession, I left my notes at work, so I'll try to remember exact topics we talked about:
-The Voting System: I've always been for this, and limiting my options to what songs I can pick keeps me from picking the same song, and has my exploring the setlist. I've only played by myself so far, so it's been more of a multiple choice test than a band feature.
-Freestyle Solos: As of right now, not a fan. It's a great idea, but it's off JUST enough that I shut them off, since I need to double check my calibration. Also, I'm playing by myself right now, so I'm more in the RAGH MUST PLAY GAME then the FUCK YEAH PARTY TIME mode.
-Tour Mode: Love it! Other than the really-not-there character creation options, it's an entertaining enough mode to play through.
For each tour you go out on, there's a decision you make beforehand. For example, "Do you buy a van with what little you have or do you let your uncle manage you?" which all boils down to stuff like "$$$ vs. Fans" or "Pick your own setlist vs. have it chosen for you". That's standard, but what I like is each little story that happens in between each decision. For example, before one of my shows in the loading screen text, Uncle Tony said that he's an awesome business man with dealings in the condiment business. Next show, he mentioned something about striking a deal. For my last show on the tour, my band was wearing "GRANDMA STAPLETON'S HORSERADISH SAUCE" tees. Nice little touch.
-Setlist surprises: "Your Love" by The Outfield. Always a one hit wonder, but it's a great 80's pop-rock song.
This has also been covered by The Aquabats, meaning it's an Objectively Good Song
There aren't a lot of Epic Marquee Songs this time around, but there's some good stuff.
-This was also saved on my Favorites this week for some reason:
Oh wait, that's the site's source code. Nevermind.
Nothing too original, it's been a go to "Hip, Exciting Indie Song To Be Played During Sports" for quite a while now, but it's solid workout music.
OK, so what have I been up to this past week?
STREAMS!
Last Sunday, played some Magic Duels online, and on Saturday, I worked through my Battle for Zendikar song and played some NBA 2K16.
The songwriting stream, while not very populated, didn't end up too badly. It's an hour I can dedicate to working stuff out, and I think it helped. In between watching the Battle For Zendikar Pro Tour I've been finishing up this new song.
All of Status Quo Radio I recorded on my crappy lil' lappy, and it's going to take some getting used to working on my new desktop. Namely, getting all my files and plug ins lined up. Reaper's been good to me with RBN, and it looks to be good with me on this. Hopefully I can get everything lined up right.
SHOWS?
Right now it's a lot of unconfirmed stuff, and Holiday Matsuri being the only show I will 100% be at. Chibi-Pa and UltraCon are usual suspects, but I don't want to confirm anything until I get full confirmation from them.
RHYTHM BASTARD ON iTUNES?
Hopefully! I submitted the paperwork and am waiting to hear back on that.
YOU LIVIN DA DREAM?
Hahahahaha no.
The title is a reference to the NBA 2K16 Career Mode, directed by Spike Lee. Or, at least the first 3 chapters are by Spike Lee. It's kinda neat to see this little story play out with you and your longtime friend dealing with your rise as an NBA Superstar.
It's a neat little thing, but there's a lot of telling as opposed to showing. It seemed like Spike wanted to make a basketball movie, then had to work out a video game's frame work, so what would be a good estalbishing scene, or something that might be held out a couple beats longer is dumped because we're here to play basketball. There's a lot of good set up for some interesting Walking Dead style decisions, but it never happens, and the main dramatic thrust of the story is lost on the fact that you have to play games in between these dramatic story moments.
So while I was doing well in the High School and College portions of the game, I started to fail during Rookie Year. Regardless, the game went on saying FREQ (your characters "name" so they avoid using your real name) YOU'RE A STAR PLAYER! while I was getting 2 points a game off 5 minutes of play time.
Then it just kinda ends. I could see enjoying this as a basketball movie, but as a video game story it feels kinda wasted. Rest of the game is still good, mind you and I'm digging the MyCareer mode.
Also the cheerleaders look... very different from advertised...
Everything I wanted to post I posted about yesterday, so I'm trying to get the word out now.
But yeah, it's a HUGE relief that all of this is done. Getting Rob on board really gave me that push I needed to finally finish it. It was never a thing of "if" but "when".
SO THE KICKSTARTER..?
It would have helped make the release bigger, but all that stuff will now be done piecemeal. I still plan on ordering CDs for sale, but I won't be able to make most of the bigger stuff I had planned, and doing a proper run of my CD Dino Hunter MD: The Sound Track. I do know most of the people who did put in a pledge personally, so those will be honored to the best of my ability.
The digital release was always set for October 9th, the release date for the Orange Box and Team Fortress 2.
WHAT'S NEXT?
I have a general idea of what direction I want to go with my next album, but for now, I have a couple con shows planned, and do have a backlog of material I'd like to write. My old notebook has been lost to the ages, but I have a fresh new one ready for my sullying.
For example, I wrote a bit for my Battle For Zendikar song, and I have an acoustic song I've played at a couple shows that I'm making a video of when my room is less cluttered with shit.
Also, I got an Xbox One, so I'm looking into streaming a bit more. This is going up later in the evening because I was playing the new Magic Duels online. Other music peeps like Benjamin Briggs, Kit from Random Encounter, DJ Roborob and Professor Shyguy stream, so I figured it could be good to be out there more. I've been trying to get back in the streaming biz, but my capture card refuses to play nice.
However, I do plan on doing "songwriting streams" where I'll work through a song, and play a bit for you all.
There will be more Bastard, don't you worry!
IS THIS STILL GOING TO BE CALLED "STATUS QUO SUNDAY"?
Yeah. I mean, Green Day calls their fan club the "Idiot Club", right?
Now, if I can remember correctly, Force Of Nature was the first song I worked on, and Bastard's Reunion was the last. All the interlude sections were recorded this week.
Here's a list of people I'd like to thank: DJRoboRob for doing the mixing/mastering/production
It was fate that we met up at Omni Expo 2014, where he and Starby caught a set I did in the hallway, because the panel room I was supposed to play in gave me no walkthrough. He remembers it as "the nerdiest punk rock moment" he's ever seen. A few months later, he's mixing the tracks he heard that very night.
Mervyn McKoy for doing this sweet ass cover. #SoFloConBro, and maker of some damn fine comics, such as Giant Robot Warrior Maintenance Crew and The C-Listers. I hope he goes far and does more mainstream work, not that I don't pick up everything he smears his art on. Seriously, we went back and forth and came up with something GREAT. I loved it so much it helped drive the finishing part of the story and makes for a sweeeeet MTG playmat design. Paolo Viteri for helping out with the drums A solid podcast partner, a solid drummer, and a more solid friend. He helped figure out drum parts when my idiot guitar hands couldn't. David K. Ginn and Jesse Schoepfer for doing some background vocals! The DHMD KREW!!! A lot of this stuff is going WAAAAAAAAY back for me, since their gang vocals were recorded YEARS ago. Still, they were some of the first people to believe in my music, so they get a credit :D
-Now, how I do these things is I listen to the podcast and write one
broad heading for every subject I think I can write about. Then I put
all the headings into the CMS for the site and go from there. All I have
for my notes on the first part of the podcast is "Dinosaur/Donald
Trump", which could only mean a prompt to list my favorite possible
Donald Trump/Dinosaur interactions:
Dinosaurs eating Donald Trump's face off
Bernie Sanders winning the election, then riding off on a veloiciraptor, who then goes back and eats Donald Trump
Herbivoric dinosaur thinking Donald Trump's hair is vegetation, then eats his head in the process
Brontosaurus's stomping on Donald Trump's crotch
Donald Trump being horn fucked by a triceratops.
A pterodactyl picking up Donald Trump by his belt and then dropping
him into a volcano and his pants come off in the process as his tiny
baby dick flops around before he falls in and his dick gets burned first
-Now, "Shitlord" has gotten a lot of flack for being a
"TUMBLR/SJW!!!" insult, since it's an insult not specific to any race or
gender. However, I feel such limitations on languge lead to more
direct, honest insults. For example, instead of old standbys like "Fag",
"Retard" and "(insert racial slur here)", you're calling them "shit",
which isn't comparing them to other people, but instead something that
can't exist without us. Adding "serf" implies being owned by somebody
else. So, calling them a shitserf means "You're subhuman and someone
else's problem"
-"Anime took a shit on the E-string of a guitar"- Jeff Webster, on Babymetal's "Gimme Chocolate" "Hungry Like The Wolf" from BABYDADROCK
-It's interesting how the Karaoke Revolution/Lips games never
achieved the same success Guitar Hero/Rock Band did, because there were a
lot of Karaoke Revolution games. However, none achieved the same level
of success, when most people use GH/RB as a glorified karaoke machine. I
think RB just got the DLC stuff all figured out, and focused on a
broader scope of music, so they took first on that. Karaoke Revolution
committed the Mortal Sin of having to switch out discs and even when it
went online, there was not enough DLC.
So hopefully Rock Band can keep up the DLC front, since that's what kept them separate from the rest of the pack.
-Joe McCarthy was a man who was behind the main thrust of Communist
Paranoia in the U.S. It was stupid bullshit in the Cold War, since we
were itching to invade another country since WWII. America's got mad
warboners.
So, you'd think Joe McCarthy would be regarded as a fucking loon, as his day's Jack Thompson, right?
IM A SMERTMEN!
-I have many thoughts on Until Dawn, but if I may draw some
comparisons between it, The Walking Dead (Telltale) and Heavy
Rain/Sadness Trilogy.
In The Walking Dead, you reach the same endpoint of the respective
stories, however all the decisions are meant to make you feel shitty THE
SECOND AFTER you make a decision. The choices didn't matter in the
grand scheme of things, but broken up episode to episode, you had the
experience of thinking about what would happen next, where the story was
going, what other people did, etc.
Beyond Two Souls seemed to have to have one binary choice at the end. Fuck that noise.
Indigo
Propechy had "multiple endings" but if we're thinking in video game
terms, all you had to do was not fuck up the QTEs and make the OBVIOUS
CHOICES to get the best ending. It was supposed to be episodic, but
budget fucked them over. It promised a "malleable story" but, not
really.
Heavy Rain, on the other hand, delivered on this promise a little bit
more, where main characters can die, rendering parts of the game
inaccessible. Like Indigo Prophecy, the endpoint was obvious, but the
game kept going if you screwed up. Also, there were "sub-endings" once
certain conditions were met depending on how long you used certain
items, what you did, etc. Kinda like Silent Hills 2 and 3.
Until Dawn was similiar in all of those aspects, however it does this
odd thing of keeping its cards close to its vest and throwing them out
on the table. Yes, like Heavy Rain characters could die, but the game
gives you hints on what to do next and how to keep everyone alive. So,
like the Walking Dead, characters remember what happened, but unlike the
Walking Dead, I wasn't caught up in the world and the story too much. I
ENJOYED IT, loved playing the game, but I was still playing it like a
game I tried to win.
Album is coming THIS FRIDAY, so here's a little bit more BG stuff:
FIVE RANDOM FACTS ABOUT THE WORLD OF STATUS QUO RADIO:
1. Lead Bastard's real name is Leonard Banks. His name was the only coincidence that the initials lined up.
2. May Cinder is a sophmore at Teufort Technical University, and is studying robotics, with the intention of learning how to build and develop androids.
3. Beat Bastard's dad, Frank Pritchard Jr., is an accountant with R.E.D.
4. Lead Bastard and Bass Bastard played baseball for their school during the spring.
5. In their high school marching band, Rhythm Bastard played the
trumpet, Lead Bastard played the flute, Bass Bastard played the
trombone, and Beat Bastard played the tenor drums.
CORPORATE WARFARE:
It would seem to be the logical conclusion of corporate capitalism that everything would be under the purview of one large company, with the government acting as a protector, the reality is that two titans stood among the rubble, having grown large through an orchestrated series of mergers and acquisitions, to avoid direct conflict with the other as much as possbile. While the larger corporations go by many names to avoid looking like they have a monopoly, to those aware of the situation, they are known by R.E.D. and B.L.U.
At first it started out going into separate industries, one going into to train transport, the other going into delivery, mining different minerals, etc. Still with nothing left to gain than the other, the CEOs began to grow weary of the Cold War that had grown between them. Financial and business advisors both advised them that direct conflict would be unprofitable, and a merger between the two was out of the question, as the CEOs were very prideful of the empires they had acquired, and felt a merger would be a concession.
The cold war grew hot, when each company would hire their own private group of mercenaries to sieze key control points, such as mining areas, towns, etc. by force, but their efforts provided little net results for either side. Over time, the mercenaries became the defacto law enforcement of whatever region they happened to be in.
Cooperation was out of the question, and competition had been rendered useless, so the for the two CEOs to settle their rivalry was through complete and total segregation.
At first, with the regions divided due to whomever was providing services such as electric and cable, it was a simple task. Then it became to who's territory lived better. Once spending money on infrastructure was no longer seen as profitable, the homeless were executed in the middle of the night, the poor sent off into an exile, to live at farms in the middle of nowhere. Then the comparison only focused on the rich ("Well, we can't let the lazy bums decided our fate, now can we?"). Eventually the middle class began to move out of the cities and the wealthy led more and more decadent lives. Some are able to make do, but those who don't make 7 figures a year, they experience the stress firsthand, as those with money are in no rush to part with it.
The general attidue the average citizen has or rather, is supposed to have, is complete disgust and hatred for the rival company. Any sense that one may be "better" than the other, or the notion of going for whatever is convenient at the time is laughed at. Cooperation is severly punished.
Putting Status Quo Radio into Bandcamp/iTunes/THE WHOLE SHEBANG! Pre-orders will be up... soon.
Status Quo Radio comes out OCT 9TH!
So, this weekend...
FRIDAY: Mizucon!
There were equipment screw ups aplenty AND I missed Eyeshine/Johnny Young Bosh. Still got to meet up with some cool people, INCLUDING, someone who went to my Mizucon Show in 2013. He said I got better!
They gave out free Magic practice decks (nice!), a robust table top room (NICE!) and a dealers room that closed when I got there (not so nice). Really, the con itself seemed solid, but I was only able to go Friday night, so while I had fun, I didn't leave with the best impression. Shout out to the Gamers With Gains YouTube channel, who will be doing a way better job of covering it than I will.
SATURDAY: Marc with a C/MC Lars/Peter Pepper/Random Encounter
Missed Marc but talked to him at the merch booth and was a super nice dude, MC Lars was great as always and a friend of his proposed during the set, Random Encounter put on a great show featuring older members, rivaling The Aquabats in former members.
Peter Pepper is like a more metal Foxy Shazam which was a more metal Queen. There was a mosh pit every song, which in the shallow venue of the BackBooth was a welcome respite from nerds standing shoulder to shoulder.
Yeah, it was worth 2.5 hours in a car both ways
SUNDAY: Battle For Zendikar GPT Atlanta
Went 1-2 drop and then went to the gym and watched some Competitive Smash Bros.
Battle for Zendikar is still a foreign language to me.
Today wasn't terribly exciting, but I'm glad I don't have too much to do the coming weekend.
