preview – 2010: the games. [part two]
January 27th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Welcome back to my coverage of the most highly anticipated [by Cody] games of 2010. We left off at Bioshock 2, so lets just jump right in to the next few games that look like they’ll ruin our careers, our grade point averages, and our relationships.
And we’re off.
#4. Halo Reach -With the ridiculous amount of success that Halo: ODST had in 2009, it shouldn’t be any surprise that another Halo game would be made. And especially since the Ballad of Master Chief is now complete, [sounds like a cross between Halo and Grand Theft Auto, doesn't it?] Bungie is taking a step in a different direction with Reach.
The year is 2552, the Covenant haven’t destroyed the Earth quite yet, and Master Chief hasn’t blown our minds with the sheer amount of destruction that he can create. Humans have recently colonized the planet of Reach, and turned it in to the most advanced and fortified military outpost to date. But if you’re already aware of the Halo storyline…Reach is doomed.
Reach is introducing brand new graphics, squad based combat [I use that term loosely: it will be a squad of Spartans, but you will only control one of them], and battles that could involve dozens of combatants.
Release Date: Q4 2010
#5. Starcraft II – It’s been over a decade since we saw the plight of the soft, fleshy Terran marines against the seemingly endless hordes of Zerglings. I remember spending hours online trying to beat kids who clearly did nothing else with their lives except for play Starcraft…needless to say, my final “win-loss” column looked really really bad [I mean I was only 12 when I played this game...my strategy wasn't quite fail proof yet].
The long anticipated sequel, however, is finally here. Starcraft II – Wings of Liberty is the first installment in a three-part release of Starcraft II. It will see the return of Jim Raynor, but not as a loyal soldier to the Terran cause, instead he will be leading a group of mercenaries against the Terran Dominion [which is now what used to be the United Earth Directorate...but if you remember, the Zerg ate them.]
Waiting…waiting…waiting…delayed.
Starcraft II was originally supposed to be released in 2009 during the Summer [thanks for lying GameSpot/Blizzard] but they somehow didn’t reach the lofty goal they set for themselves [I mean the game has only been in production since 2003]. So basically..if this game does in fact get released in 2010, I will have the highest expectations for it ever. You don’t wait 12 years for something to be disappointed that much by it.
But my hopes are still high that it will be awesome.
Release Date: TBA 2010
Well I planned on doing more games…but these are the only ones I could actually find things to talk about. There are some others though.
#6. Alan Wake
#7. Diablo III [I had stuff to talk about...but really just didn't want to]
#8. Splinter Cell: Conviction [I've never seen a commercial for a Splinter Cell game and gone: I have to buy that...til now.]
Okay, that is all I could come up with. If there is something you’re stoked about, let me know through a delightful comment or an email.
Cody.
My next post:
I…haven’t decided yet.
preview – 2010: the games. [part one]
January 21st, 2010 § Leave a Comment
My nerd side is coming out to play.
So, I work at GameStop now [officially] and I am surrounded with all the nerdy goodness that I have always wanted to be. I work with the coolest guys and I really couldn’t be happier about my job [something I never thought I'd say about a job]. Anyway, since I work there, I get to learn about all the cool new games that are coming out and what not [and I get a discount and cool free promo stuff].
So, since I can finally be open about how much of a geek I am, I can do a post like this.
It wasn’t really a secret that I’m a nerd, but I felt that I had to hide it from the world at large for fear of fulfilling stereotypes.
The games to look out for.
There are a lot of games coming out in 2010, a lot of them are very highly anticipated [which is good] while sadly a lot of them are going to suck a big bucket of…well you get the point. Here are my picks for games to look for in 2010 [in absolutely no order].
#1. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm – Okay I lied…this is one of the games that I want the most out of 2010. What we know so far is that Blizzard is only going to raise the level cap by five levels, raising the maximum level to 85, so now players at level 80 have five more levels to get to before they get bored and have to do instances and raids everyday for the rest of eternity.
What? New races!?!
Blizzard is also including two new races to play around with in the land of Azeroth: The Horde are getting Goblins, so if your dream is to be shorter than a dwarf but taller than a gnome [and green], your dream is about to come true. The Alliance are getting a race called the Worgen, now I don’t know much about the Worgen except that when they are enemies on quests, they fight in packs and won’t die. They are essentially wolfmen type creatures [the back story is really interesting, look it up] and they look awesome and imposing.
There will also be a number of brand new race/class combinations like the all powerful Tauren Paladin [holy cow!]. I might have to change factions again so I can be one.
Also, a slew of new dungeons and raids are going to be added at launch and with later patches.
Release Date – TBA 2010. I’m going to guess Q4 2010
#2. Dante’s Inferno – You are surrounded by Arab fighters. You are seemingly alone in a crumbling city. You are armed with a halberd. The only choice you have is to destroy your enemies and escape the city alive. Before you can escape, one of the sneakier swordsmen, runs his sword in to your back, ending your valiant quest to defend the Holy Land.
Immediately after, you are standing before Death preparing for a fight because you refuse to let a sword in the back end your life. Once you defeat Death himself, with his own weapon, you return to your home only to find that your villa has been ransacked and your fiancé, Beatrice, has been murdered and dragged to Hell by Lucifer.
You’re Dante, you aren’t going to just sit back and let the Devil take your lady [I mean, you just killed Death so why not go kill the Devil?]. This is literally the first fifteen minutes of Visceral Game’s new title Dante’s Inferno. If you’re not drooling, your heart isn’t beating faster, or you aren’t giddy with excitement, you may want to check your pulse because you may already be dead.
Release Date – February 9, 2010.
#3. Bioshock 2 – How do you top the incredible story, shady characters, and unbelievable level design that is Rapture? If you’re Irrational Games and 2k Games, you follow the exact same formula as the first time. Bioshock was one of the greatest games I have ever played and the story and philosophy behind Rapture was so enthralling, that I could play for hours and not even realize it. I actually started to feel sorry for the people unfortunate enough to be stuck in Rapture.
Bioshock 2 is set in the 1970s, rather than 1960 in the original. Gone are the days of Andrew Ryan, now Rapture lies in even more ruins due to the despotic leader Sofia Lamb. Lamb creates an army of Big Sisters, the supposed successors to the army of Big Daddies.
Players will take control of a “lone-wolf” Big Daddy in a fight to rescue the “little sisters” who are still being captured and harvested for ADAM. Only this time, players will have to fight Big Daddies, Big Sisters, and Splicers [I'm already really nervous about all this].
Yes, there will be multiplayer, America.
Do I have this game pre-ordered? Yes. Am I hopefully buying it the day it comes out? Yes. Will there be blood? Yes.
Release Date – February 9, 2010.
This concludes Part One.
Thanks for tuning in. Look for Part Two, tomorrow.
Cody.
My next post…
Will be Part Two of the 2010 Video Game Preview.
the emptiness.
January 20th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
So guys, guess what?
I love hardcore music.
This is a fact that practically everyone that knows me could tell you with complete and total confidence. My first dabble in hardcore music was Dance Gavin Dance a few years ago. I found that guttural noises and angry screams were just the thing to get me in the mood to go to my senior year of high school [sad but true]. Then I moved on to more and more hardcore music [The Devil Wears Prada, Polar Bear Club, Chiodos, Emmure, iwrestledabearonce, A Day To Remember, etc. etc. etc.] all the way down to Alesana. I listed all those bands for no reason except to make a segue in to my next point.
Segues are fun.
Once again, due to the grubbiness of my paws, I got a hold of Alesana’s brand new album The Emptiness and I have to say, this album is perfect [I know what you're thinking, I'm being a big softy with these albums...and you're wrong. So shut up.] I am completely pleased with how wonderful this album was.
I was a huge fan of their second album, On Frail Wings Of Vanity and Wax, due to the song “Apology” which is wonderful and amazing and everything that a song should be. I do, however, prefer the acoustic version to that song for some reason…it sounds really nice with a “grandpa’s guitar” as they are called on Metalocalypse.
The album title is an allusion to Icarus, the son of Daedalus. Daedalus, in an attempt to escape their imprisonment on Crete, fashioned wings made of feathers and wax. Icarus, because he was young and overtaken with curiosity, flew too close to the sun causing the wax holding his wings together to melt. He crashed in to the sea below. His frail wings could not support the weight of his vanity.
The album in question.
So The Emptiness is Alesana’s first album that is not a reference to anything historical or mythological, which could have been a very costly choice, but wasn’t. The story told by Dennis Lee [screaming vocals] and Shawn Milke [vocals, piano, guitar] is amazing. It is the story of the murder of Annabel and the man who loved her. But it is also about the murderer and the Devil and how everyone is involved in this unholiest of slayings.
It was really hard to find a song that I could pinpoint as my favorite/least favorite because they were all good. It is a lot like The Decemberist’s album The Hazards of Love in the fact that if you listen from start to finish, it is one big epic journey, but this journey only takes 50 minutes…which is the worst part.
My favorite part of the album, however, was the spoken word pieces to some of the songs. The opening track ["Curse of the Virgin Canvas"], starts with this really creepy message from the protagonist about the story he is about to tell. My favorite spoken word part, by far, is this right here –>
The depth of a man’s soul can not be measured in a manner of meters and fathoms, but rather it is in my opinion only quantified by his proximity to heaven and hell. – “The Lunatic’s Lament”
That is only part of it, but it made a lot of sense to me. I actually like that it had meaning. This album spoke to me, and I really liked that.
Final thoughts?
So far, 2010 has been wonderful for the music that I love. I’ve heard two incredible albums within a week of each other and that is just wonderful. I love this album and have probably listened to it, in it’s entirety, seven times. I’m going to give The Emptiness a 10 out of 10 for being a beautifully crafted story accompanied by beautifully crafted musicianship.
Thanks for tuning in.
Cody.
My next post…?
Will probably be an update on my life…or maybe ranting? Or maybe even a preview of some pretty awesome video games. Who knows? I do.
listen to what i listen to – january 18, 2010.
January 18th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Familiar territory.
Well I decided I might as well start doing the whole “Music Monday” thing that sweeps the internet every week. I’m going to tell you what I’m listening to, and why you should join me in listening to them too. So, I’m just going to jump right in to it now.
Here are my picks of the week:
Fall Out Boy – I’ve been listening to them off and on all week, they’ve felt more catchy than before and I’m totally okay with my decision to start listening to them again, especially since Folie á Deux was a perfect album in every use of the word. I saw Fall Out Boy live in 2007 when I worked a summer job at a concert venue in Virginia Beach. They played “Beat It” and I died a little. A love was born that night [between FOB and myself].
Bayside – I would listen to Bayside all-day-all-night if I could. They are one of my favorite bands as of late. Shudder was probably one of the best albums of 2008, and possibly one of the best albums of the decade. I used to listen to Bayside when I worked at the beach this summer, which is where I really learned about their music and how much it inspired me to get stuff done.
Explosions In The Sky – I saw one of my friends on Facebook talking about Explosions in the Sky and then I remembered “Hey! I love them!” so I got to work downloading all their albums and enjoying listening to their lovely music. Their music makes me feel really mellow and it always improves my mood during a really bad day [fact: I used to mow grass to their music].
Motion City Soundtrack -It is no secret that I love Motion City Soundtrack [just read the post about their new album]. I find their synthesizers and catchy lyrics fantastic and marvelous. I’ve been listening to Motion City Soundtrack since I got their new album a few days ago and it has essentially been on repeat. Go grab their albums [most notably Commit This To Memory and My Dinosaur Life].
Alesana – Alesana has one of the greatest acoustic versions to one of their songs ["Apology"] and I love the way they tell epic stories over the course of their albums [much like The Decemberists do]. Their new album [I'm reviewing it tomorrow] is their best yet. I actually have a playlist of just Motion City Soundtrack and Alesana going now [all of their albums] and it has been keeping my ears occupied. The stories they tell are always dark and epic, and I’m loving every second of their new work.
Polar Bear Club – I read about Polar Bear Club in two different magazines, Alternative Press and AMP and decided that since their name was perfect and possibly the coolest thing ever, I would listen to and love them. Well…I was only half right. While their name is incredibly awesome, I’m not quite sure that I like them as a band yet. They are labeled as a hardcore band…but they sound a lot like Anti-Flag to me [except without the pretentious anti-government sentiments]. Supposedly Polar Bear Club’s new album has a more hardcore feel to it…so we’ll see what tune I’m singing next time.
Well that is it for the week. Hope you enjoyed my picks. If you have any suggestions, let me know and I’ll give them a listen.
Cody.
My next post…
A review of the brand new Alesana album, The Emptiness.
preview – 2010: the music.
January 17th, 2010 § 2 Comments
2009 was a pretty great year for music.
2009 was a pretty good year for music in my pseudo-expert opinion. It saw a new album from the wonderful indie-rock gods The Decemberists [The Hazards of Love], it saw the rise of Lady Gaga, her album The Fame became incredibly incredibly popular and pretty much clung to the #1 spot forever. We also saw the blow-up of The Devil Wears Prada, and their sudden “coming of age” who received “Band of the Year” from Alternative Press magazine.
2009 was also a sad year for music due to the death of the King of Pop, the irreplaceable: Michael Jackson. [2009 also killed a bunch of other celebrities like Patrick Swayze, Billy Mays, and Brittany Murphy].
2010 looks to be a wonderful year for music.
So far, there has been the surprisingly good album Animal by that girl Ke$ha who is known for feeling like P Diddy after she wakes up from a long night of partying and also for using Jack Daniels for toothpaste.
There has also been that beautiful, wonderful, perfect piece of music from Moton City Soundtrack, My Dinosaur Life.
Next on my list of upcoming albums to look for is the new album by North Carolina hardcore sextet, Alesana and their new album The Emptiness [look for a review on Tuesday].
And I’m definitely making a promise to myself to go to more shows [confirmed - I'm going to Warped Tour 2010] because I didn’t go to hardly any of the shows I wanted to in 2009 [Mayday Parade, Brand New, Warped Tour, AP Tour Fall Ball...the list goes on.]
Bands who have albums coming out in 2010 that I’m stoked for…
- Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
- Blink 182
- Coheed and Cambria
- Alkaline Trio
- Gym Class Heroes [speculative]
- Hawthorne Heights
- Panic at the Disco
That is pretty much what I’m stoked for in 2010 [oh, and all the sick video games that are coming out...a post for a later date].
Thanks for reading.
Cody.
Next post…
Music Monday. Get stoked, I’m bringing it back.
my dinosaur life.
January 16th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Once more in to the fray.
So I recently got my grubby little paws on a copy of My Dinosaur Life, the new album by Motion City Soundtrack. Let me just say, this album is perfect. And not perfect in the sense that a sunset is perfect and beautiful and magical and awe inspiring , but in the sense that mere mortals could create something so magnificent and splendid that it literally brought me to tears.
So I’m going to review this masterpiece to the best of my ability and let you all in on my thoughts on this piece of beautiful music.
Justin Pierre is my hero.
Ever since I met Motion City Soundtrack a few years back, I’ve enjoyed their music and the way they can say incredibly poigniant, moving things during incredibly serious songs like in “Last Night” off of their third album Even If It Kills Me, however, my favorite album by them is by far, hands down, without a shadow of a doubt, Commit This To Memory [I think that is because of the song "Hold Me Down" though].
This kinda sounds the same as it always does…
No it doesn’t. Sure, My Dinosaur Life has the same lovable synthesizers and the same catchy guitar riffs that we loved in I Am The Movie and Commit This To Memory, and sure, it has wonderful vocals that span the spectrum of human capabilities just like the other albums, but what it has that those don’t is the endless replayability [now one word, because I say so] that the other two were lacking. I mean, yeah, I could listen to songs off of those albums for hours, but only if they were mixed with other songs from other albums from other bands. I’ve listened to nothing else but this album [and the radio] for over 24 hours now.
This is my favorite album of possibly all time [sorry Transatlanticism by Death Cab for Cutie] and such a great way to start of 2010 and a whole new decade at that.
Final thought?
I’m going to give this album a 10 out of 10 because I love every single song off of it. There isn’t a song on here that I skip passed because “it sucks” or “I hate it”, I listen to every piece of wonderful joy.
So ladies and gentlemen, buy this album the moment it hits digital shelves on January 19, 2010 for the low low price of $10.99 on iTunes. And, if you buy the album off of iTunes you get sweet bonus stuff like some alternative versions of songs, bonus songs, and a music video.
Thanks for tuning in, I’m glad to be back.
Cody.
My next post…
Either a review of the new Alesana album The Emptiness or a list of what I’m listening to now. Keep listening.
