Rise Against's New B Side Album "Long Forgotten Songs"

Yesterday, Punk rock band Rise Against released news about their latest musical endeavor “Forgotten Songs”. This is essentially a compilation of all the band’s “B-Side” tracks that may have only been released in certain countries, or were just scattered across various compilation albums such as “Rock Against Bush” or movie soundtracks. I think this is a really cool idea, because I feel that a lot of B sides songs are amazing and should have actually made it on the album they were a part of. Tracks by Rise Against such as “Generation Lost” or “Death Blossoms” stood out to me a lot when I first heard them. They sound really raw, but still powerful and holding lyrical and instrumental value.

I hope a lot of bands start doing this, because this is a really smart way to satiate the want of “new material” from the fans. Chances are that not every fan has heard every B-side track, and it could give the band some extra time to get material for the next record. As the band also stated, this is a good way to see how the band changed and progressed over the years, as well as viewing how far they can stretch themselves. Rise Against did a track called “Making Christmas” for the compilation “Nightmare Revisited” CD that was released by Walt Disney. What was really cool about this track was that the band tried to follow the original score as opposed to doing a typical punk rock version of the song. A track such as this shows how creative a band can get.

Overall, I’m looking forward to this record and all it has to offer. It may not necessarily be new material, but it will satiate my Rise Against cravings for a good month or two! The album releases September 10^th I believe, mark your calendars!

Here is the link to Rise Against talking about the B Side album!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBw4A3F_MyQ

Here is the link to Making Christmas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCET4j8W_fU

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Band of the Week #2 - Rise Against

History:
Chicago’s Punk Rock band Rise Against is this week’s band of the week! They released their debut album, The Unraveling, in 2001 and got signed to Fat Wreck Chords. I would say they got their first big break with their follow up release in 2003, Revolutions Per Minute. This album definitely put them in a good position to gain exposure in the underground punk rock scene they were part of. It is a good record and it shows what they were made of. RPM got the attention of DreamWorks Records, a major label who signed them in late 2003. After a record label takeover on Universal Music Group, Rise Against was signed to Geffen Records and released their first album on a major label in 2004, Siren Songs Of The Counter Culture. With an immensely heavy opening track like State of the Union and supporting tracks such as Life Less Frightening and Paper Wings, Siren Songs Of The Counter Culture quickly became a hit, although it wasn’t as heavy and chunky as RPM was for fans. They thought Rise Against was changing for the worst, but their follow up albums The Sufferer and the Witness, and Appeal To Reason, and Endgame  show that they are able to blend the punk rock feel that old Rise Against fans fell in love with, and blend in melody and harmonies that make Rise Against such a fantastic band.

My Thoughts:

The first song I heard by them was “The Strength to Go On”, but the first memory I have of Rise Against is listening to Paper Wings and hearing the bridge. The song overall was so fast but the lead guitar played a riff that fit perfectly over the punk track, while still maintaining originality. I checked out some more of their songs such as Life Less Frightening, Drones, Behind Closed Doors, and Audience of One. All the tracks were amazing and inspiring in their own way. I picked up their discography from a friend and never looked back. To me, Rise Against has always been a band that stands up for what they believe in and sound amazing doing it. 

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Xbox One Controller and Accessory prices released

Microsoft recently unveiled the prices of the Xbox One Controller along with their play and charge kit and headset. I have mixed feelings about it all.

 The price of the products increased from their Xbox 360 predecessors. Since I have not personally held the controller in my hand, nor used the headset or the plug and play charge kit, I can’t say if the increase and price justifies the purchase overall. They are definitely using new technology in these products to enhance the overall gaming experience. I do like the fact that the Xbox One headset plugs in fully into the controller, similar to how the Xbox 360 headset plugged in, before they did the revamp on them and made is so that it is one tiny little plug with the in-line audio controls. The original headset always felt more secure in the controller than its successor. The buttons on the headset plug are a nice improvement, because I can’t count the times I accidently rolled back the volume on the original Xbox 360 headset. I do question if the new design will interfere with the player when they hold the controller, but only time will tell I guess.

I do think that the products are slightly overpriced, and the fact that the Xbox One’s do not come with a provided headset really pisses me off. They Xbox 360’s came with one, it adds to the experience that Microsoft is trying to sell. Not providing the headset with the purchase of their product is a foolish move since it’s an external purchase. Less people will buy if it is not included, although I am sure a fair amount will buy it to talk with their friends. The fact still remains that the Xbox One, as of now, is $100 more than the PS4. The PS4 ships with a headset AND allows backwards compatibility with PS3 headsets, so previous purchases won’t be a waste.

Let it be known that I own an Xbox 360 and not a Playstation 3, but Microsoft has been making all the wrong moves with this release. They are going to have to work ten times harder than originally planned to relatively compete with the Playstation in terms of the product itself and what they are offering if they want to win over gamers.

Here is their official online store with the prices and a little bit of information:

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/list/Accessories/parentCategoryID.64484500/categoryID.64724300

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Casualties of Steam Sale

With the Steam Summer Sale a week behind us, I figured it was about time to let everyone know what I was able to pick up during the sale. Sadly enough, my HP laptop broke the next day (Hard Drive Issues as well as USB, heating, and keyboard issues) so once I get it back, I'll be sure to do reviews of the games I picked up. For now though, a list will have to do

• Bastion
• Ys I and II Chronicles
• Ys The Oath in Felghana 
• Ys Origin
• Universe Sandbox
• Just Cause 2
• Portal + Portal 2
• Fallout 3
• Deus Ex Human Revolution 
• Deus Ex Human Revolution: The Missing Link
• The Last Remnant 
• Cthulhu Saves the World & Breath of Death VII Double Pack
• Super Meat Boy
• The Binding of Issac
• Saints Row: The Third - Season Pass DLC
• Borderlands 2
• Borderlands 2 Season Pass
• Chantelise 
• Recettear: An Item Shops's Tale
• Time Gentlemen, Please!
• Half-Life Complete
• Sanctum 
• Demigod 
• Bioshock 1 + 2

Although it was my first Summer Sale for Steam, I have played the mainstream games like Portal and Deus Ex before. I'm really into JRPG games so I tried to pick up as many of those as I could when they were on sale. I'll be sure to keep you all posted when I get my laptop back.

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10000000

I picked up 10000000 when it was the Amazon free app of the day a few months back. With that being said, it is quite possibly my favorite game to play on my Samsung Galaxy S III. It is an old school RPG styled dungeon crawler where you increase your resources, get new weapons, and level up in order to score ten million points to obtain your freedom. The game opens up with the character jumping out of bed and presented with various doors that are accessible via ladders. Each of the doors, minus the large on at the bottom of the screen, all house different abilities your character can improve upon such as shields, weapons, traits etc. It should be noted that the graphics are not good, but that adds to the game’s charm. It is reminiscent to the old 80’s games that we all love so much.

The gameplay itself though is very Bejeweled which took me by surprise the first time I played it. You are provided with seven different types of tiles: Sword, Shield, Staff, Key, Wood, Stone and Item. Sword and Staff are the offensive tiles that you match up in order to attack the enemies The Shield tiles build up your defensive and the Item tiles help you get items that can help you. These items vary such as scrolls, which changes some of the tiles on the board to a specific tile such as sword or staff, or weapons such as axes and balls of yarn which can launched at the enemy to take out a chunk of their health. Keys help open chests or doors, and the wood and stone tiles are used for resources to re build doors in the main screen and to upgrade the doors for more options.

The enemies are shown at a small menu before you are thrown into the game, along with objectives you can finish in order to level up and obtain resources required to level up. The actually side scrolling effect is very well integrated within this game.  Your character essentially runs in through dungeons and encounters enemies to attack, and chest as well as doors to unlock to progress. The enemies can vary between combat enemies, which are enemies that like to get up close and personal when they attack, ranged enemies that launch bombs or projectiles from a distance to do their damage, and boss enemies, which is pretty self explanatory. They increase in difficulty gradually so the game doesn’t become too easy or difficult.

This game became very addicting to me. I don’t know if it was the simplicity of the game itself, a simple side scrolling game, or if it was because of the tile matching, a technique I hadn’t seen utilized as the main function of the game in a RPG game. The overall game is worth it, and I would give the game a 9/10. It surprisingly has a great replay value since you can clear your progress any time during the game in order to start over. 

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We Came As Romans- Tracing Back Roots Album Review

Melodic Metalcore band We Came As Romans released their third album on Tuesday, July 23, 2013 titled Tracing Back Roots. I recall hearing their sophomore record Understanding What We’ve Grown To Be and was floored by the lyrical content and how tight the band sounded. The clean vocals were so high and clean, and the unclean vocals were rough and gritty. They were seriously in sync and it quickly became one of my favorite releases of 2011. But enough about the past, let’s move on to this record. Despite WCAR releasing three of their singles prior to the album’s full release, I decided against listening to them in interest of getting the full album experience when the album dropped. A friend of mine bought it on Tuesday and I was lucky enough to rip the tracks to my laptop so I could write this review.

The Record:

The album opens up strongly with Tracing Back Roots, a song that predominantly consists of unclean vocals. It is very heavy, and it starts the album of pretty well. Up next is Fade Away, a track that features David Stephens singing clean vocals alongside the original clean vocalist and keyboard player Kyle Pavon. It is primarily a clean song, and it shows the fans what David can do with his voice when he isn’t screaming. The third track on this record, I Survive, features Aaron Gillespie from The Almost. He blended very well in this track, a track that has a very interesting intro. It has a very hard rock feel to it and it has a laid back feel to it, minus the chorus and bridge. Ghosts, a hard track with a very melodic bridge captures a more ambient side of WCAR for a brief moment before they bring back their heavy chorus filled with double bass and crash hits. Present, Future, and Past is a track that is reminiscent of something that would belong on their Dreams EP. It’s very heavy and in-your-face kind of track.

Smack dab in the middle of this record is Never Let Me Go, a hard rock track that is predominantly clean on vocals. It feels like it belongs on their sophomore album Understanding What’ We’ve Grown to Be, which is never a bad thing since it was an amazing album. Hope, the band’s first single off of this album, comes up next. It is a crowd pleaser and a motivational song that reminds you never give up. It’s a pretty solid song, but then again, it’s a single and it should be nothing but solid. Tell Me Now feels like a standard We Came As Romans song, and A Moment feels like it’s going to be the next anthem their fans shout out during their concerts. It has a very anthemic feel and I can tell it is going to be one for the crowd. I Am Free is a very open, positive track. David shows off his vocals on this track. This track really stands out, and is tied with Never Let Me Go for my favorite track on this album. The album closes up with Through the Darkest Dark and the Brightest Bright, a typical post-hardcore track stating that they will always move forward and never forget where they came from.

My Opinion:

I’ll start off with the positive. David’s vocals on this album made the album ten times better than I could have ever expected. I was not expecting him to sing so it took me by surprise, but his range and vocal ability quickly grew on me. The band still has the same tight rhythm as always, something I’ve always admired. They keep thing fresh in the rhythm section and the lead guitar (if there even is one), and the keys create beautiful melodies that make the songs sound full. The lyrics are also positive and refrain from the terrible lyrics I have seen from other bands. They try to inspire their fans and motivate them by sending them the message that they are not alone, something I admire in an age where lyrics are losing value.

With all of that in mind, I’ll progress to the not so positive. This album did not break any boundaries musically. I am not stating that We Came As Romans set out to break boundaries and blow everyone out of the way, but if they tried to do so, they failed. The tracks kind of blended in together with tracks such as Tell Me Now and A Moment blending into one track for me. I felt they should have added more keys into the album to fill out the higher range more because it feels really bottom heavy. I get that the songs are meant to be “in-your-face, shake-the-ground” tracks at times, but it helps to level it off at some points. As previously stated, the band didn’t break boundaries. It sounds very generic and although the lyrics are positive, they get kind of stale pretty fast. I felt their previous album was better sonic-ly and it had a larger variety in terms of tracks. In addition, I really didn’t like the quality of the unclean vocals Present, Future, and Past. It sounded like it was low quality and not mastered. I am also not a big fan of the vocal drops that were in the song. I feel that it’s a cheap, over done way to transition to the next part of a song. I would give this album a 6/10. There was definitely much to be desired when it came to this album.

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Band Of the Week #1 - The Story So Far

The Story So Far:

This week’s band of the week is pop-punk outfit the Story So Far. Hailing from Walnut Creek, California. They had been an independent band for a long time during which they released a plethora of EP, but quickly gained fame and exposure when their 2011 debut record Under Soil and Dirt released. Songs such as “Roam” and “High Regard” quickly became fan favorites. I personally found this band when a friend of mine posted a link to their single “Roam”. I was simply blown away by it. The singer, Parker Cannon, has a really unique sounding voice and their backup singer and guitar player, Kevin Geyer, also has a good voice and blends well with Parker’s. What struck me was how the bass was mixed into the song itself, it was very punchy, but at the same time, it could be heard and it stands out as its own part as opposed to following the root notes of the guitar. This was a really cool to hear because I don’t really hear bands putting emphasis on the bass as much as they do on the guitar or the drums. Another cool factor is the way the lyrics are written. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but the way the lyrics are written and the choice of words is very intricate, and it shows that they didn’t want to put as much thought as they possibly could in every factor of their music.

In their 2013 release, What You Don’t See was just as hard hitting as their debut album, with tracks standing out such as “Stifled” as well as “Face Value”. The overall production of this album is great and they have an amazing live stage presence from what I have seen on Youtube videos and have heard from friends who have seen them live. The rhythms are insane in this record and the drummer knows how to keep a tight groove. It can easily be seen that this band has put a lot of effort into their music and it shows when one hears the overall production of their records. Check out their single Roam and a personal favorite track of mine, Stifled, below!

Roam- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_iHep06jqk

Stifled- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r8gqoDykFQ

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Top 5 Android News Applications

Our world has quickly become a mobile world. Tweets can start a revolution, pictures can be uploaded instantaneously, and news can be broadcasted across the world in minutes. But how does one keep with all of the news that is occurring? In this article, I shall talk about five Android news apps that I use and I will talk about what I like about them, and dislike. (I use Samsung Galaxy S III so I will be using it as my reference.)

1.     Flipboard (Free)

Possibly the most popular of the five, Flipboard takes all of your news topics and puts it into one nice and clean format. You have to make an account with Flipboard, but once made, you can favorite and save stories for later. Like the name suggests, the user is able to "flip" through various topics by swiping their finger up. Once they select a topic, they can swipe through articles within that topic until they find one that they find interesting. The sources that are given for each topic are reputable sources such as ABC News, BBC and CNN for business, and Game Spot, Game Informer, and Polygon for gaming. . In addition, one can click on the topic at the top of the page in order to filter out sources they do not wish to read. The process of doing this is much cleaner and easier in comparison to the other apps in this article. One of the main things I like about Flipboard is the user interface. It is clutter free and there aren't twenty things thrown at you at once. The interface is actually quite simple and clean cut, something I feel other interfaces lack. It could be compared to the Windows 8 OS in terms of the panel system.

Another huge thing that Flipboard has is the ability to integrate you Twitter and Facebook accounts to it, causing them to become a panel of their own. It shows your news feed at a glance, but once you click on the panel, you have the option to post, view pictures and messages (from Facebook) and other features the social networks offer. The issue I find with this is that the application runs slow when utilizing the social network panels. It is very sluggish and not as clean as I would like it to be for the social networks. They only show three posts per 'screen', but to be honest, if a one wanted to view their Facebook feed, they should use Facebook.

I like the overall presentation of the UI and how clean it looks. I do not really use this application much, as you will later read, but I would give it a good 8/10. I dock two points for the social networks because I believe that if a company or business includes a feature into their application, it should work.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=flipboard.app&hl=en

2. Google Currents (Free)

The beloved side bark makes navigation
a cinch

When it comes to anything technology related, Google will most likely have an app for it. Google Currents is essentially a virtual magazine, where news topics are listed and provided in a seamless manner. Thanks to the ease of Currents, you can sync your Gmail account to it so that you can save articles for later. What I like about news applications such as Google Currents is the left hand menu bar. These bars make it easy for me personally to navigate the page and select what I want to read. Under each topic are all the sources the user has selected, with the option to customize it as well to remove or add any sources. A cool feature that is just for Google Current so far is the "Breaking News" section for each selected topic. As the name suggests, this source is able to provide most recent articles within a topic. This is useful for the people who just want to read a quick article or two, without a specific source in mind such as Gizmodo or CNN.

The User Interface for Google Currents is one of my favorites out of the five. It is extremely clean and fluid. There is no useless clutter or distractions, just a simple swipe down interface. Placing one's finger on the edge of the screen and then swiping can help switch between publishers, a feature I like since I don't have to repetitively go back to the menu every ten seconds. You can also sync stories to your account for offline reading. This is super useful for a lot of people who go on trains and work where there might not always be a good wifi or data connection. 

I would honestly rate Google Currents a 9.5/10. It is an incredibly fast application that works fluidly and dare I say- perfectly. Currents is so organized that I was able to figure everything about the application within two minutes.

                                                      

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.currents&hl=en

3. Pulse News (Free)

This is the application that I mainly use, but I will openly admit that other apps I have listed are better for their own reasons. The app in context here is Pulse news. I came across Pulse news while looking for a news application that compiled all the news I wanted. It was the first news application I downloaded and I continue to use it solely on the fact that it has desktop integration as well. What I mean by that is I can go on Pulse news on my laptop, sign into my account, and read the articles that I have saved or bookmarked for later. Although it defeats the point of using a phone for news, it is super useful to me, a person who uses their phone about 30% of the time, and laptop 70% of the time. Saving articles is a breeze, and they can be viewed later offline is needed. Like Google Currents, it has the left menu bar, a feature that I am very fond of and like for its organization

Adding content is easy as well. All you have to do is click the customize button, select the web source (Apple, Wall Street Journal, Home and Garden etc.) and then select which category you would like to place it in. Although the process is easy, it is one of my biggest issues with this application. I wish it was similar to Google Currents in which you have a wide variety of sources under the topic, as opposed to being given every possible source and you having to place them in their respectful topic or category. On more than one occasion, I have accidently put a tech source in the politics section and had to go delete it.

Practically infinite scroll...
for the win!

Despite all of that, Pulse has other attractive features such as the source layout within a given topic. It shows the source and then has a side scroll display for the articles, as opposed to the larger design of applications such as Flipboard and Currents. You can swipe left and right between articles and you can go very far back in the sources' history, a feature I like. Usually with news applications, an article becomes old news fast and it is a nuisance to find it again. With Pulse, I can just swipe right to find an article from two days ago to show my friend, or to re-read. Pulse also offers the "read on the web' button at the bottom of most of their articles. This allows the reader to go to the website that originally posted the article, within Pulse, in order to get a better view, and to also read the comments. For me, comments are somewhat important because it is interesting to hear what other people have to say on a topic, especially if they have more experience in the field.

Although Pulse News has a few downsides, it is my favorite news application to use for its compactness and little features. Google Currents may have a neater, cleaner presentation of their news articles, but Pulse News has never let me down, and it always keeps me up to date on gaming and tech news. I would give Pulse a 7.5/10, it could get a higher rating it if it was slightly faster, (comparing to Currents, although Pulse probably doesn't have as large of a monetary backing as Currents would), and if it organized itself better in the categorization process.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alphonso.pulse&hl=en

4. NPR News (Free)

NPR's basic UI and top down menu

Probably the most basic out of the five is NPR News. It essentially only has one screen, no excess swiping, no clutter no colorful design or layout, just a list of stories based off the topic selected at the top. A really neat feature this app offers is the ability to search terms. On most news websites, you are able to search for an articles based off of keywords or a given set of time. You may have read an article about Congress that you would like to re read again. This feature within NPR news makes it possible.

Similar to Pulse News, NPR allows the user to load more stories, and thus, going back in time to read past news stories. Due to the lack of major features, NPR doesn't have a lot I can discuss about. That is not necessarily a bad thing. It is very well organized, and the features it does have are very well refined. 

I would give this application a 6.5 out of 10, purely because I feel it has the potential to offer the reader more features. It could offer you to "like" stories so that you can easily find stories you were interested in. They could also offer more topics so that they could get a wider audience. It is a very solid application, but there is room for improvement.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.npr.android.news&hl=en

5. BBC New (Free)

I figured I would wrap up this article by discussing a news application that follows an actual news broadcasting company. This was the first new application I used when I wanted to read the news. I tried using CNN, but I did not like the interface too much. BBC, like NPR news, is as simple as it gets. Like a few other of the new applications that were made by news broadcasting stations such as ABC or CNN, BBC News offers the alert feature which sends you alerts with breaking news. It is useful if you are trying to keep up with a national case or anything that happens around the world such as a tsunami or an earthquake.

BBC New's UI is similar to
Pulse News, but with a twist

The news is divided into categories that can be edited seamlessly through pressing the edit button on the top right corner of the application. The User Interface is similar to Pulse News in the sense that the articles are set in a side-scrolling fashion with little rectangles that are the articles. BBC also has one insanely cool feature that sets them apart from everyone else, you can send an article to them. Yes that is right, you can write your own article and send it to BBC news. Whether they post the article or publicize is up to them, but this is a way for you to interact with a large media corporation such as BBC news. BBC news also provides the user with the feature to select how frequently BBC refreshes its news. I personally have it set to an hour (the lowest denomination of time they allow) so that I can read news offline if needed since the articles are updated.

BBC takes what features they have uses it to their maximum potential, and for that, I would rate BBC a 7/10. The application overall is very clear and concise and even easier to navigate then Google Currents believe it or not.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bbc.mobile.news.ww&hl=en

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Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams

The Purchase

I initially saw this game as Steam's daily deal of the day for $3.75. It looked like a good game and I have a soft spot for platformers, so I pulled the trigger and purchased it. I never played any of the other Giana Sisters games that released for the SNES or DS so I had an open mind when it came to this game. What drew me to this game initially were the beautiful 3D graphics. Twisted Dreams is literally unlike any game I have played, and I have played my fair share of games. When I started playing Twisted Dreams, I only wanted to play for half an hour because I wanted to play Rocksmith after. Instead, I was hooked on the game and ending up playing for an hour or two.

You can see Punk Giana's rocker outfit, as well as Cute Giana's adorable and gentle appearance 

Plot and Gameplay

(WARNING: SPOILER. GO TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO READ A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE  PLOT LINE.) It should also be mentioned that the game has no dialogue of any sort. It is all sound effects and visual animations. The game starts off with Giana's sister Maria pulled into a dream and Giana attempts to go after her. As you progress through the first level, you see Maria being eaten by a dragon. This essentially sets of the plot and you are given your goal, the save Maria. It is very reminiscent of the Mario Bros. series where you are Mario and you have to save Princess Peach. There is very little to the plot besides this, but no one ever said that a platformer game had to have a large plot line.

The gameplay and the mechanics the game offers are what really make it stand out. Due to the fact that Giana is in the "dream world", she is able to manipulate her physical form. She has two forms, "Punk' and "Cute". These two forms both have their own special abilities and ultimately affect the visuals and audio of the game. The two 'worlds' have stunning visuals that contrast very well with Giana's two forms, giving the game a much more vibrant and intriguing appearance. Each of Giana's forms also get their own version of the soundtrack. Cute Giana's soundtrack reflects her girly appearance and elegance with piano ballads and strings arrangements, whereas Punk Giana's soundtrack has a hard rock and metal feel to it. Both soundtracks are the same in composition, but the instruments used are different, causing the player to get a different vibe with each character.

Cute Giana using her twirling ability in the nightmare world

"Cute" Giana is the more feminine of the two forms. She resides the nightmare world, where everything is much more grim and frightening. The plants are dead or rotting and the water is a putrid green. Other levels have flowing lava and molten rock while the player uses cute Giana. The enemies are portrayed as upright lizard creatures with wings. They look quite ghoulish, but like all the enemies in the game, they move in a pre- determined path. As far as her special ability is concerned, she is able to twirl and glide in the air. Although it sounds like a slightly useless ability, it works very well for this platformer. With this ability, Giana is able to glide across long distances and during the time she glides, she falls down at a slower rate. When it comes to making large jumps or avoiding spikes in rapid succession, I prefer to use Cute Giana because she is easier to manage than her Punk form in these tough situations.

Punk Giana's fearsome dash ability in the vibrant dream world

Punk Giana exists in the normal dream world. This dream world strongly contradicts her punk rocker look. It is filled with bright flowers with vibrant colors and greenery. The flowers are in bright bloom, causing the level to appear pleasing to the player. The enemies Punk Giana enemies are brightly colored owls which are quite puffy. They add a very distinct visual aspect to the forest like levels and world that Punk Giana must go through. The size of these owls are a key factor to the game because it makes it easier for Giana to hit them using her ability which is a fiery dash. She is enveloped in flames and moves very fast in the direction of the player's choice. Again, this to me at first felt like a useless ability, although the visual depiction was very cool. I at first felt that I would never use Punk Giana and her ability because I preferred using the twirling ability of Cute Giana. As you progress through the game though, there are certain walls that are very close together that Punk Giana can bounce off of in succession to reach new heights, literally! Punk Giana is useful for me when I need to make large vertical advances such as jumping to a platform that is out of reach of a standard jump. Overall, both of the Giana Sisters are well balanced characters and are both useful in different scenarios.

Enough about the plot line and the characters, let us delve into something that can define a game for some, the controls. As opposed to most platformers for the PC, this game uses the arrow keys for control. They feel very natural and they work very well for this game. The A,S,D keys are also used to control the abilities and forms of Giana. A switches between the two characters, whereas S and D can be pressed to use Cute Giana and Punk Giana's abilities respectively. One thing that I was really impressed with was how fluidly the game is able to switch between Giana's two forms. There are no hiccups in the transition and the scenery and music change effortlessly without any lag or latency, something that deeply impressed me since I have seen games that have hiccups where there have to be character switches. The game is also compatible with an Xbox 360 Controller, but to me personally it did not feel as easy or natural as the keyboard, despite the fact I am an Xbox LIVE member, and have played games on the Xbox 360 for five years.

Game modes and Extras

Giana Sisters offers a variety of extra game modes for the player to enjoy once they finish the campaign. They are offered Score Attack, Time Trials, Hardcore and Uber Hardcore modes. Score Attack and Time Trials are modes we are all familiar with, and their names practically give away their purpose. In Hardcore mode, there are no checkpoints, so if you die, you go right back to the beginning of the level. Uber Hardcore takes it a whole step further. If you die, your are taken back to the first level… of the whole game. For example, if you were at the end of stage 3-7 and you died by a spike, you would go right back to 1-1. Although very heartbreaking, these games modes are meant for veteran players and those who enjoy a challenge.

Uber Hardcore Mode? Sign me up!

Final Thoughts

This game feels like a modernized version of Super Mario Bros. Many people I have talked to have said that they draw various comparisons between the two such as the plot line and the abilities, but I personally do not see it all. Yes, a girl is abducted in the game and it is your goal to save her, but that is only one similarity. What was the most refreshing to me about the game were the soundtrack and the visuals. The fact that they could change were amazing and the soundtrack was stunning and fit the game perfectly. I did have a few gripes with the abilities of the characters such as Punk Giana's Dash because it seemed to have directional issues. But all the issues were little and I learned to adapt with the game. Overall it was very fun and it brought be back to the great days where people didn't need to purchase $20 of DLC to have the full game experience. Whatever came with the game was what the customer got.

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Spotify: The Double Edged Sword

For the past year or so, popular music streaming application has been gaining a lot of fame that for the most part was positive news. Spotify, for those who don’t know, is a music streaming application that lets you stream full albums by millions of artists. Record labels are in contact with Spotify and they get the bands that are signed to the label the ability to get their music on Spotify. It also lets the user create playlists and if they have Spotify premium, a monthly or yearly subscription to the service, lets them take their playlists on the go via smartphones and tablets.

But Spotify also comes at a hefty cost, a cost I’d say 50% of the users are unaware of. Music is something that people work hard to hone and master. They work on their technique, run patterns practically every day, and strive to make their music stand out and unique. Spotify, and other music streaming applications make this possible, but how would a indie musician or a band just get off of their feet be able to pay for all of this? Spotify does generate money for the musician, but not as much as they would generate if people bought the musician’s merchandise such as t-shirt and albums. 10,000 times a song is streamed; a band or musician would make about $2.00... and if that is divided amongst a band of four, each member would get around fifty cents. Hell, if a tenth of those people who streamed the song bought the single or something from the band, at least it would put the band in a better state financially. Spotify is also known to do side deals with record labels, and thus scything out more money from the bands that are signed to the label for themselves, an act I am strongly against since I don’t believe record labels have the right to have side contracts with other music platforms in order to get more money for themselves and not the artist.

In recent music news, Thom Yorke, the lead singer from Radiohead, as well as their producer Nigel Godrich have recently taken down any and all of Thom’s side projects off of Spotify as a protest. These bands would include Atoms for Peace, Ultraista, and Thom’s solo project. In his Twitter outburst, Godrich stated their reason for leaving Spotify was that:

” The reason is that new artists get paid fuck all with this model.. It's an equation that just doesn't work”

Although Atoms for Piece is not a new artist, but rather a collaboration of various musicians consisting of Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Thom Yorke from Radiohead, Nigel Godrich, and Joey Waronker from R.E.M., they are standing for what they believe in, and not become another mindless cog in Spotify’s machine. Pink Floyd recently got their music on Spotify, and Godrich uses this to his advantage by stating the following:

“Pink Floyd's catalogue has already generated billions of dollars for someone (not necessarily the band) so now putting it on a streaming site makes total sense. But if people had been listening to Spotify instead of buying records in 1973, I doubt very much if "Dark Side..." would have been made. It would just be too expensive."

           

I agree with this whole heartedly because bands such as Pink Floyd and ACDC and Aerosmith and the Rolling Stones have already made the mark on history. They have generated millions of dollars in revenue, and putting their music on Spotify is smart because they are bound to have a huge cataloge of music that not everyone can own. But in the case of news bands or artists that are coming out with their first EP or their first full length album it just works against them. Yes they get their album on Spotify, yes this gives the new band the ability to have their music heard across the music streaming platform, but they won’t generate any income out of it, not a lot of it at least. They’ll make pennies, and pennies won’t pay the bills, or walk the dog, or even buy you dinner. Music streaming applications such as Spotify (and Pandora) need to come up with a better monetary scheme so that they can directly benefit the musicians that are putting their heart and soul into their work and spending money on recording time, and getting shows. They deserve it, more than anyone else 

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GTA V- The Best of Everything for the open world gamer

Yesterday was a big day for Rockstar since it released gameplay footage for what could quite possibly be their biggest and most ambitious open world game since Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto V.

            The gameplay trailer was more informative, and it explained new additions to the series, while letting the viewer soak in the new features the game has introduced such as diving underwater and hunting. The game takes place in Southern California, and Rockstar is bringing back many locations from their previous hit release, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. A minute into the video and they announce the first new feature to the game, which gaming communities have known for a while; you could now play as three different characters. This adds two whole new levels of gameplay to the much anticipated game, since there are now three interwoven stories to follow. What I find cool is that one of your characters could be the sniper on the roof, another the driver of the getaway car, and a third could be the one doing the crime, and with a click of a button, you could switch between all three! This will also make multiplayer with friends much more enjoyable if your friends can join your campaign or start a co-op campaign.

            The video does a sky view of the whole game and you really realize how big this game really is. It isn't just Liberty City anymore where you could pan left for about five to ten seconds and you could see the other city. This is a full blown location with huge cities, quiet suburban homes and a vast countryside with towering mountains. Another feature this game adds is the ability to buy and customize your car like never before. It takes the vehicles customization features that were Rockstar's competitor, Saints Row: The Third, to the next level with a huge menu of modifications one can do to their car. The jet makes its return from San Andreas, about time too if I do say so myself! Animals also now play a role in the new Grand Theft Auto since the player can now hunt, and be hunted, by the various animals in this game, a feature that is reminiscent of Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar's cowboy, mid west open world game. In addition to all of these changes, they make the ability to switch between guns much more fluid and simple than in previous games based off of the gameplay video. It seems much easier and not as much of a hassle, in comparison to GTA IV or their competitor Saints Row The Third.

            The overall presentation of this game is much more… lifelike then any of Rockstar's previous releases. Long gone are the days of being an immigrant arriving in a ship to the docks of Liberty City where your cousin helps you get on your feet. This game offers the player to play sports such as golf or tennis, spend money on luxurious and fast cars, invest money in the stock market, and pick what they wear. Although some of the features I have listed have appeared in previous games, Rockstar seems to have molded all of their best ideas into one visually stunning game, a game I cannot wait to purchase or see more of.

Here is the link to the GTA V Gameplay Video, for those who have not seen it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-xHcvug3WI

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What I expect from Avenged Sevenfold's new album

            In recent music news, California hard rock band Avenged Sevenfold has announced that they will release their sixth album, Hail to the King, on August 27th of this year. Upon release, it will have been three years since their previous release Nightmare which was the first album without their drummer Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan. The passing of their drummer and friend impacted the band dramatically, as it should for any band and it can be seen in the lyrical content of the album itself.

Arin Illejay behind the drumkit bearing the two deathbats

I personally consider this their first release after the Rev, and not Nightmare because I recall reading the Rev wrote out some of the drum parts for the album. Hail to the King will be the real test for the band to see what they can do with their new drummer Arin Illejay, from the metalcore band Confide. Avenged has had a few interviews regarding their first album and there have divulged a little bit of information concerning how the album will sound. Lead singer Matt Shadows has stated that the album is very riff oriented and very bare bones, mentioning that the band had to restrain themselves from adding more background vocals and accompanying melody lines in order to keep it much more raw and "badass".

The album art for the album Hail to the King

Their guitarist, Synyster Gates, has also mentioned that the songwriting on this record would be sonically better than previous records. He also mentions how impressive Arin is in terms of his groove and how the way he plays is exactly what the band was going for in their new album. I hope that is true because this is the true test for them in my book (but then again, who am I to judge?). After losing the Rev, I expected them to either disband or put out a low quality album. I was wrong and they put out an album that on par with the rest of their releases, but it was not the best. Hail to the King will show how much they were able to recover from the loss of the Rev, albeit it three years, and continue as musicians together. I am very much looking forward to Arin's contribution to the band because of his immense drumming talents and abilities. If there is one thing I have learned from band lineup changes, it is that the drummer is a huge part of the sound of the band. You could look at Paramore and compare the Riot! Album to their recent self titeld release. The band sounds completely different, not because of the mics, or the vocals, or even the guitars and bass, but because of the feel the drummer offered and lent to the songs.

The band has stated that they drew inspiration musically from Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath for this record. I feel that this album will have reflect that strongly. There will be less songs that resemble Beast and the Harlot and Almost Easy and more songs that will resemble Whole Lotta Love and Iron Man in terms of song structure. Avenged Sevenfold also released a thirty second song snippet (Found at the bottom), that fans are assuming is the title track to the album. As one can assume, the snippet is very riff oriented and the drums are loud and in your face. Shadows is also the only vocalist here, with no harmonies from the other band members (minus the Hey! Hey! in the background).

Bottom Line: This album is going to be a loud, in your face hard rock album. The band is going for an older approach with just one vocalist, and that is a huge change for them in comparison to the rest of their albums. It could almost be compared to Waking the Fallen in that respect. There will be less complex harmonies, and more of their focus will be centered around the riff and the overall presentation of the song. As far as the harmonized solos that Synyster and Zacky are known for, I feel that there will be less of them, but there might be less shredding solos and more melodic solos, such as the one in Gunslinger or maybe even Dear God. All I know is that this album will be one of the most anticipated albums for me next to the Winery Dogs.

Here is the link to the snippet. There other low quality ones surfing around the web, but this is the one from Avenged Sevenfold's Youtube Page.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRPiPb_UcdI

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Audio Technica ATH- M50 S Headphone Review

(Jump to the section that says "The Design" if you are not interested in the preface and competition sections)

Preface

Let me preface this review by stating that I use headphones for many purposes. I use them to listen to various musicians that range from Miles Davis to Rage Against the Machine and everything in between, so I required headphones that could make all of that music come to life. I also use these headphones while I play PC games and I really wanted to hear where things were coming from. For example, hearing a bullet whizz past me in Counter Strike: Global Offensive, or here the police sirens and zombies in Saints Row: The Third. With all of that in mind, I wanted an upgrade from my previous headset which were the Sony MDR- XD200. They were, and still are fantastic headphones but I had few gripes with the large size of the headphone cup and the short length of the cable. I also wanted headphones that were more portable since I am a college student and move between my house and my dorm frequently.

The Competition
I did a lot of research in the headphone department and looked at a lot of my options. My Sony's had an impedance output of 70 ohms and my father told me that headphone impedance should be closer to what my laptop outputs so that I can get an even sound. My laptop outputs about 35 ohms so I was aiming for something that was in between 30 ohms and 40 ohms. At the time, I was focused on headphones that were good for recording music through various mediums. I had a few in mind, those being the Sony MDR-V6, Audio Technica ATH M50-S and the Sennheiser HD-280 Pro headphones. A little out my price range, but I also considered Beyerdynamic for a short while, but was put off by them when people said that they malfunctioned after two or so years, despite their amazing sound quality. I eventually settled on ATH due to the price I got bought it for at the time, ($110), and the reviews and comments people had about them.

The Design

The Logo on the headband

What I initially bought the headphones, the first thing I did was inspect the design. I could look at all of the pictures in the world of it, but nothing beats handling the product in person. In the past, I have purchased headsets that had very weak headbands so I inspected the headband first. It is very well padded and durable. I fully believe that I could pull both ear cups to either side and the headband won't give in and snap. I checked out the ear cups next and they are possibly the most comfortable ear cups I have ever used. They fit so snugly around my ear, which I believe is a normal ear size, and it is padded even better than the headband is. They are extremely comfortable to wear and I have worn them for eight hours without taking them off.

           

The M50-S inside the Slappa HP-01 Case. A snug fit.

The cable is super long at ten feet, which is beneficial to me since I can walk around my room with my headphone while I fold laundry or listen to music from my bed. The cable can be easily tied up though, so it is not really a BIG hassle unless you really want a short headphone cable.  The headphones also come with a 1/4 adapter that can be screwed onto to the end of the 3.5 mm jack by just twisting it on. These are the first pair of headphones that I have owned that fold within themselves. It took me a few minutes to figure out how they fold, but once that was taken care of, they became very portable. I bought a Slappa HP-01 hardbody case for them so that I could safely transport them between my home and college and anywhere else I may travel. They fit very snugly, but you have to apply just a teeny tiny amount of pressure for it to all fit in. When you place the headphones inside the pouch, I recommend you tie up the cable since it will become a huge hindrance if you have to unpack them in an airplane for example and make a mess with the cable everywhere.

Sound

The headphones with ten foot cable tied up

Now for the important part, the sound test. I am currently watching a movie as I watch this review and let me say it sounds amazing. The lows and the bass stand out very well. They are punchy, but not so punchy that you feel overwhelmed with it all. The mids are very even and not out of balance and the highs are just right. When I first purchased these headphones, I listened to various songs to listen to how good the range was. I listened to "Take the Power Back" by Rage Against the Machine, which has very good display of mids, lows, and highs, and it sounded, dare I say-- Perfect. Everything sounded amazing and so full. I then listened to some acoustic music to test out the mids and highs and they sounded beautiful as well. I have listened to full orchestral recordings, jazz, rock n roll, metal and a plethora of other genres and they all sound amazing and full. There are no open pockets of space where you feel it should be louder or softer, it is perfectly balanced, at least in my opinion.

When playing video games, everything sounds surreal. Bear in mind that these headphones have no microphone, so if you are the type to play multiplayer games where you feel you should be able to talk to your teammates or trash talk the enemy, try buying an external mic or a desktop mic if you want to use this headset. In games like Counter Strike: Global Offensive, you can hear the bullets really well and kind of know where they are coming from in terms of directions. In stealth games like Velvet Assassin or Assassin's Creed, you can hear the noises from either direction. The overall build quality of these headphones is fantastic, and the sound quality is even better. If you ever get the chance, buy these headphones, it is a purchase you will never regret. 

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Green Man Gaming: How to interact with the customers

So for the past few days, Green Man Gaming has been running major sales on PC games for the gaming client Steam, a sale they are dubbing the 666 sale. Six games on sale, every six hours, for six days. Now I do not know how many people go to Green Man Gaming for sales as much as they might go to Humble Bundle,  Indie Gala, or the Steam store itself since they have good sales at times, but I do have an immense respect for GMG. As expected with any major online sales, the website received a lot of traffic from the sheer amount of people trying to access their website at one time, not to mention the transactions going on. What I really like about them is the fact that GMG listened to the people and what they had to say.

During the first sale for the "666" promotion, the website literally crashed due to the traffic it was receiving. They were able to bring the website back up multiple times between their first sale and now (they are on 9 of 24 as of), but it usually went down for an hour due to maintenance during each sale. What made me really like the company was that they always communicated with their community through their blog page. They maintained good relations with their customers in the tough times by communicating with them and informing them of their progress with expanding the servers and the deals. I don't see large companies doing this anymore. Larger companies usually post once or twice during an ordeal concerning their business and leave their consumers large out of the loop. Over at GMG, they discussed the issues with their audience and assured them that their sales would continue, and they even brought back some of the sales that could not be purchased due to the website's maintenance. GMG understood their shortcomings and were honest about, as opposed to other companies that may have  twisted their words around in order to make themselves look good. I may have only recently gotten into PC gaming and websites that offer games, but Green Man Gaming is at the top of my book for their superb efforts in providing the gaming public with the great sales and customer service they offer.

This blurb if from one of their blog posts, and it can give you a taste of what Green Man Gaming is really about during the whole 666 game promotion:

"Finally, I'd hope we're a lot more humble - we've had some problems and you've stuck with us.  We've been in business for just over 3 years and we're selling globally - and you are part of that. We might not get it right every time but, make no mistake, we are all about getting great games to you.

Keep talking to us - good, bad or indifferent, it will make us better"

James, George, Darren and the rest of the GMG Team

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Dragonvale

Mobile gaming is something I rarely discuss because I feel a lot games on the market are fads. They are in the moment games that barely last two weeks. Despite the addiction I might initially receive as I play games such Angry Birds, Temple Run, or Fruit Ninja, I often find myself deleting the games within a week or two and never looking back. I was on the search for a game that I could stick with, and I wouldn't mind paying five dollars if I could play it for even two months without getting bored.

With that in mind, in January, a friend of mine told me about this really fun game he had been playing since the school year started last September, called Dragonvale. Let it be known that I was, and still am interested on mythical creatures in mythology so I found it interesting that a game about Dragons had made it on to mobile devices, since my initial assumption was that it was a HD game where you hack and slash dragons. Upon viewing it in the Google Play Store, I saw that it was a cartoon-y child's game where you have a dragon park and your goal is to get a lot of visitors to view your park, while expanding it to hold more dragons to draw a bigger crowd. I questioned how long I would even play this free game. An hour, a day, surely not past a week. I was never a big fan of real time strategy games and I didn't think this would be an exception. I felt that I would get tired of the waiting and just delete the game out of lack of patience, but to this day six months later, I still play Dragonvale.

The game is similar to most other real time strategy games in the sense that you start with virtually nothing. No dragons, no habitats, just a single floating island and a teleportation portal that brings the visitors to your island. The "wizard" who is your little helper in the game as you start off shows you how to create a habitat and hatch dragons. They then start to explain the in game currency which is gold and their premium currency which is gems. Like most RTS games, you are given small amount of premium currency to use. The game eventually leaves you to your own devices within a couple of minutes, but they offer a list of goals you can accomplish so it gives you a sense of direction. Between the goals and the tutorial, you will achieve a good feel for the game and some of what it has to offer.

Dragonvale is based on a level system and you gain experience by hatching dragons of different types, building habitats, and buying decorations for your park. I know of many players who go to great extents to make their parks looks aesthetically appealing so that they get more visitors. Although it may feel a little bit slow at first in terms of obtaining gold and hatching and breeding dragons, everything will fall into place when you unlock the breeding cave. This leads to Dragonvales's most important concept, breeding.

Dragon breeding is probably one the most important concepts the game has to offer, and it adds an addictive factor to it, as well as a new depth to the game. The game has what I like to call eight basic types of dragons: Plant, Earth, Fire, Lightning, Cold, Air, Water, and Metal. These types can be bred with each other to make new types of dragons called hybrid dragons such as the Moss Dragon, Frostfire, Current, Dodo, and Chrome Dragon to name a few. There are more things to the game then just breeding dragons. The game also offers a Dragon Track where you can race your dragons up against the CPU, as well as a coliseum where you can let one of your dragons compete for 24 hours with the CPU.  These little things are enjoyable, and add to the game's addictiveness.

The main factor for me that makes me want to continue playing Dragonvale is that the company, Backflip Studios, stays constantly involved with the game. They are constantly adding new dragons and new features to the game that make it enjoyable to play. And they do not push their premium features like buying gems or food down your throat, unlike other gaming studios and companies have done for mobile games. Recently, Backflip Studios has added new features to their menus, Gemstone islands, and the addition of four new dragons. Dragonvale also provides the option to obtain gems without having to pay through their gemstone dragons, as well as the bouts in the Coliseum.  Dragonvale is a fantastic and addictive Real Time Strategy game regardless of what age you are and the fact that the creating company constantly add free features practically daily makes the entire experience much more enjoyable. 

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