Posted by ASandoval on September 30, 2008 under Music | 
I’ve been known to be wrong on occasion. Generally, I’m pretty good at fessing up to it. So when I first heard that Tarja was kicked out of Nightwish on STAGE by her own band, I thought it was the most epic thing ever, and officially declared Nightwish dead. I mean, I didn’t really like Once at all, and what I saw as the main focal point of the band left right after. At that point, it was like the gimmick had died. That was fine, my tastes were starting to ween off of them anyway.
So of course Dark Passion Play, featuring the new vocal stylings of Annette Olzen, had to go and be bad ass. Oh well, cynicism is outdated anyway.
So Annette’s a damn good singer. She doesn’t have that operatic quality that Tarja did, which makes her vocal stylings closer to Within Temptation or Lacuna Coil, but that’s fine. What makes Nightwish stand apart from the other two is the music styling, which is almost balladic… you know, with guitar thrashing and epic choirs and such.
I said earlier my tastes had been maturing away from Nightwish, and that’s still true. There old stuff has waned on me (Although I still like it) and Once was downright disappointing and generic. Dark Passion Play actually feels like an evolution. Everything I loved about their old style presented in a fresh, new and interesting way.
Really, when you’ve got as many albums under your belt as Nightwish does, this is how you want to be. Even Linkin Park (If you’ll excuse me for even mentioning such a poisonous name for all you mainstream cynics with your heads up your ass for a second) has learned this, and they only have three albums out.
Dream Theater, your ante has been upped. You better try harder next time, or you might be overshadowed.
Posted by ASandoval on September 15, 2008 under Games |
Just got done doing ‘research’, if you will, for a new project by playing Star Fox. It’s been a while since I took the old bucket of untextured polygons out for a whirl, yet it still felt natural.
I won’t say there weren’t some pleasant surprises, however. I start out the game on course 3, which is generally something I never do. Oh sure, I toyed around with it here and there, but I’ve never been ‘hardcore’ enough to really make it close to Venom. My initial impression’s haven’t changed in the past umpteen years since I first tried that course. “If we’re catching Venom by surprise, why are they so much harder?” But latter impressions were vastly different. For one thing, the game’s a cheating bastard. Seriously, it employs such classic NES design techniques as throwing obstacles in your way without any warning aside from having memorized the stage or putting vital objectives such as checkpoints in out of the way areas you won’t see until it’s too late.
That’s not to say these are bad things necessarily. It was a first generation SNES title and we were just getting out of the cheap tricks in order to increase longevity stage. It still plays remarkably well, too. What I think really held me though, is how culturally relevant this game still is from a games as narrative standpoint.
Don’t take that the wrong way. I’m not saying a game about talking anthro’s in spaceships counts as some epic space opera. What I’m talking about is how it gets that story across. In a similar way to Comix Zone (Another favorite I’ll gush about at another time), the game uses many of it’s elements, most notably the intercom, to get it’s narrative across without interrupting gameplay. More over, the game also uses visual cues. When you take course 3, for example, you start in the early morning. Now, as a kid I interpreted this as evening – After all, the only indication on the time is a slightly different color sky – or so I thought. It occurred to me now, so many years later sitting in a college student center, that the pieces of the traditional first boss of that level being carried meant that they were still building it. Sure, it’s a simple nod, but it helps convey the game’s narrative in a way that’s unobtrusive to even the most snide cynic.
It’s fascinating since we live in this age where designers seem so fast to escape the chains of cutscenes… when in fact, we did it over 10 years ago. Considering how remarkably playable the game is, I might have to go back to it for a much more indepth and traditional analysis… When I don’t have to write about stuff I don’t particularly care about I mean.
Posted by ASandoval on September 7, 2008 under Games |
Discovered this on Thursday night. The best part is this baby is on free play.
It also happens to be a part of the room where the gamers seem to congregate. I didn’t make much progress in getting to know anyone yet. I’m sure it’s in the cards though, seeing as I’ll probably be playing on this machine at least once a night.
Posted by ASandoval on September 3, 2008 under Misc. |
The blues being that it’s pretty much over.
My first day of ‘actual’ college (as opposed to the fake colleges I attended before) went off without much of a hitch yesterday. The lack of books was a small problem, but that should be rectified tomorrow now that I have the necessary funds that were given to me from our gracious government – God bless America.
I am wondering how the change of pace to a more fast paced environment is going to effect me. I don’t necessarily mean will it make me a better writer, because I can already tell it will (Maybe people will even read this site! … or maybe I’m getting a head of myself there) but just the new sheer overload of work that goes along with it. I’ve only been to 2 of my 4 classes so far and have a grand total of about 8 or so papers I will be doing for the year, one which is due by the end of this month.
Actually I’m not so much worried about writing papers. After all, I write here all the time and I’m fairly certain I put as much content into simple blog posts as I’m expected to in these papers. Let’s take the report I’m expected to have finished by the end of this month; It’s a 1200 word paper where I have to take a news story, feature article, political ad or something of a similar nature and spot any inconsistencies or contradictions in the article in claim and point them out using documented evidence.
This in and of itself is not a problem. 1200 words is about what I speak in a minute, let alone type, and what’s more is, I get to play Phoenix Wright for a bit. That doesn’t sound like busy work, that sounds like fun. Making people out to be liars? I’m freakin’ there.
But the fine print, as usual, comes to bite us in the ass. I need at least 6 independent sources, one of which being someone I interview who is knowledgeable about the subject, all of which need to be cited. 6 sources? For a 1200 word paper? At that point you might as well get 6 people to write the article for you! Never mind the fact that if I do find a subject to write on, I doubt it’s anything where I’ll have direct access to an expert on the subject.
Of course, this is probably just a little culture shock making me more nervous about it than I should be. The college is a new and interesting experience, and in one day it already feels radically different than my entire time at either of my former community colleges. The trick is to not be overwhelmed, but that’s pretty damn tough when you’re already expected to go beyond your normal means on the first day, ever.
Special thanks goes to whoever made that Phoenix Wright motivational picture. Congratulations on mixing Photoshop with an internet generator, as it helps this place to look a little less bland.
