Nintendo's new hand held console- The Nintendo 2DS

Earlier today, Nintendo dropped news about their latest hand held console, the Nintendo 2DS. This is Nintendo's cheaper 3DS alternative, and I personally say it's a great idea. The 2DS is chunkier than the 3DS and the 3DS XL The 2DS doesn't fold like its predecessors do so it gives it an old school retro feel to it. The red and white color scheme also gives a retro feel as well. The main part about the 2DS is that it doesn't have the switch that can turn on the 3D function of the console. This might be viewed as a setback for some, but I have asked many 3DS users and they say they barely use the 3D function after the first couple of weeks. The 2DS can also play 3DS games, and is backwards compatible with DS games. This is great for me as well as millions of others since that means I can still play the old DS games like Pokemon Platinum, Eragon, the downside is that they didn't bring back the GBA slot, so I guess I'll have to use my old DS for that function, or an SP.

The 2DS looks large in images, but in the Youtube video below, it looks pretty small-ish when the boy is holding it so I guess it's about the size of the 3DS, just without the folding screen. The target of this product though is for little kids who's parents don't want them to strain their eye sight with the 3D function of the 3DS and 3DS XL. I personally thought this was a great idea for Nintendo to release this because it's basically a budget 3DS. When E3 happened, and Nintendo released news about all of the fantastic 3DS games that were going to release, the 3DS's price increased slowly but surely. This is basically Nintendo's way of saying, "Here, we also want the people who may not have as much money for a 3DS to still enjoy our games." I think it's old school look, and cheaper price tag will garner it many purchases, and although it may not stack up to 3DS in every aspect, it is still a great way for people who are strapped for cash to still enjoy what Nintendo has to offer. Nintendo has also stated that the 2DS is going to release on October 12, 2013, the same day as Pokemon X and Y.

Here is the video for the Nintendo 2DS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sAExBTWIp3M

Read more →

Band of the Week #6- Rage Against The Machine

History:
The band was originally formed in 1991 when Tom Morello was in a club, and heard Zack De La Roche freestyle rapping on stage. Morello asked him after his set if he wanted to be in a band, and Zack agreed. They drafted Brad Wilk to play drums, a drummer who had auditioned for Tom Morello's previous band Lock Up, and Zack asked his childhood friend Tim Commerford to play bass. They recorded a rough demo of their album and put it in a 12 track cassette tape and passed it around to record labels. After playing a couple of shows, various labels took interest in the band, but they agreed to sign to Epic Records since the label would give the band creative freedom and wouldn't restrict them. They went to Sound City and recorded their debut self titled album that would eventually go Triple Platinum. It was because of this album that RATM could perform at Lollapalooza in 1993. The album had fantastic tracks such as "Killing in the Name of" "Take The Power Back", "Know Your Enemy", and "Freedom". They toured extensively with this album, and later in 1996, they would record their second album; Evil Empire

 

RATM in the early days!

Evil Empire featured great tracks like "Bulls on Parade", "Tire Me", and "Down Rodeo". The album got them to the number one spot at the Billboard 200 and garnered them more fame. They were able to tour more with better acts such as Limp Bizkit, Wu Tang Clan, and more. They would later go on to release two more records, "The Battle of Los Angeles" in 1999, and their cover album "Renegades" in 2000. Both of these albums had great tracks, but they did not meet with as much success as their predecessors did.

My Thoughts:
It should be noted that Rage Against the Machine is my favorite band of all time, and that their self titled debut is my favorite album of all time, plus it's the album that influences me the most as a musician. I feel it has really powerful tracks and loud ones at that. Loud in the sense that there is only one guitarist, one bassist, one drummer, one vocalist, and a tad bit of guitar overdubs. Otherwise, the album is very raw and hard hitting. Although I was never a huge fan of rap or rap lyrics in general, Zack De La Roche fits the band amazingly and raps on important social topics, as well as political ones. Their later works such as "Evil Empire", and "Battle of Los Angeles" are great records as well. What draws me to the band the most is the groove that the bassist incorporates into the tracks. It keeps the songs moving and he fits in great with Brad Wilk, the drummer of the band. Tom Morello's crazy guitar effects, and heavy riffs never cease to amaze me, and I simply cannot wait to hear more of his solo work or work with Street Sweeper Social Club. It should also be noted that although "Battle of Los Angeles" did not get as much attention as their self titled debut, the album still has one of my favorite Rage tracks of all time, "War Within a Breath". The band overall is a strong act, and although they might not be everyone's cup of tea, no one can deny that they are a powerful band and stood out in the 90's for their heavy, but groovy riffs, tight rhythm section, and its controversial vocals.

Take The Power Back- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-l01lOKj3k

Killing in the Name Of- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxk3c_SbWMg

War Within a Breath- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY5vTcLBnNk

Read more →

Ibanez GSR 200 Review

I picked up this bass guitar two years ago as my first bass. I attended a music school at the time and they needed a bass player for a couple of songs so I bought a bass and learned the songs. It should be noted that I only use the bass for practicing and recording. I don't play shows so it wouldn't know how it cuts through the live mix or anything of that nature. The bass is as heavy as my Charvette by Charvel so I would say around five to six pounds. It's not the heaviest bass I've played and since it weighs about the same as my Charvel, my shoulders don't hurt after and hour or two of playing. The bass has a cherry red finish which I like a lot and is quite striking. The neck is a maple with a rosewood fretboard and it's remarkably thinner than other bass necks. At the point in time when I bought bass I had been playing guitar for three years, mainly on my Charvel and my Epiphone SG 400. The transition was effortless in that respect. It felt like I was playing one of my guitars, just with thicker strings and a slightly longer neck width wise. I believe it's the curve of the neck that's smaller, making it easier to play that a chunkier neck that could be found on a Fender Jazz bass.

This bass is also my first instrument that required a 9 Volt battery. I tried to stay away from using instruments that required batteries at the time because I just felt they were another hassle or hindrance for me, but having an active bass provided to be useful when I needed to use its "bass booster" feature and onboard EQ. It has the master volume, bass booster, treble, and bass knobs for the EQ so it is easy to adjust your tone on the go. Since I was new to onboard EQ's, this blew my damn mind when I really started tinkering with it. The split coil and single pickup sounds alright. Seeing as how it's a budget bass, I wasn't expecting a lot in terms of the pickups. The way the pickups are placed, it lets you rest your thumb at the neck and bridge pickup. Since I believe they are ceramic pickups, the tone isn't great... but I hope at $200 you weren't expecting a Geddy Lee tone. I've plugged this into my Digitech RP255 guitar pedal and put it on a clean setting so I could record straight into my laptop for backing tracks. It sounds decently good, but nothing stellar.

The bass as a whole is a pretty good and it is fantastic like beginners so that they can test the waters and see if they really want to stick with it. The neck is smaller than most basses so it isn't a hassle, the pickups could be better, but are good for the price, the EQ is fun to mess around with to get a few different tones, the finish is stunning. I'd rate the bass a 7/10. If the pickups were a little bit better, I'd personally deem it a fantastic instrument. Regardless, I use this bass a lot and it has never caused me any issues in the two full years I have owned it. 

Read more →

The brand of your instrument does NOT matter

Price of your instrument

Recently today, I found a post on Reddit under r/Guitar (http://www.reddit.com/r/Guitar/comments/1l2d2z/im_sick_of_being_judged_for_the_name_on_my/), and thought I'd share my thoughts on it.

First and foremost, I understand that each musician likes different types of instrument brands, body shapes, wood type and more. For example, my friend Fil loves the look and feel of a Jackson Warrior guitar while I am not terribly fond of it. My drummer friend cannot stand the sight of my Neon Orange Charvette by Charvel, but I personally love it. The type of instrument a musician uses should not categorize them or diminish their value as a musician. Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave uses guitars he buys from pawnshops in his recordings. If I'm not mistaken, David Grohl from the Foo Fighters uses a cheap version of the Gibson ES-335 for the studio recordings of the Foo Fighters albums, while on tour he uses an actual Gibson DG-335, his signature model.

I understand that more expensive instruments TENDS to mean quality hardware and woods used, but that isn't everything. Companies like Squier and Sterling are increasing the quality of their products, thus making them extremely good instruments for their price range. The Sterling by Music Man S.U.B. Ray4  Bass Guitar sounded stunning when I played it a couple of weeks ago through a small Fender practice amp with the bass and treble knobs turned to neutral on the pedal. The Squire Vintage Modified Jazz Bass also sounded great to the tune of $299.99. I would certainly not be ashamed to walk the stage with those instruments at my disposal, and I don't think anyone else should either.

With all of that being said, it shouldn't matter what other people say about your instrument or the brand you use; it should be whether you like how like it. Do you like the tone you get out of it? Do you like the feel of the neck, the color of the body, the type of pickups in the guitar (or bass)? If so, then who the hell cares whether it's a Squier, Sterling, Fender, or Gibson? In my opinion, the ones who judge what instrument brand you use are the ones that are insecure about their own instrument and playing. Sure you could buy the Alex Lifeson Gibson model for $3000 dollars, and run it through a Marshall JCM 800 whilst using a Boss Distortion medal, a MXR Carbon Copy Delay and a MXR Phase 90 pedal, it doesn't mean you'll sound good. It just means you money to blow. It doesn't show that you have any real talent, other than picking out decent musical gear. You can spend ten thousand dollars on musical gear, but it doesn't mean you know how to play the instrument.

What should REALLY matter is if you can play the instrument to its fullest . Can you play your band's full setlist in one take without making any mistakes? Can you play a variation of it if your guitar string (or bass string) breaks on stage? Do you know what key to solo in if you are improvising? That's the stuff that truly matters, your musical prowess and technical ability. And most importantly, are you having fun playing your instrument. If so, then don't worry about what anyone else says, they don't know you, your instrument, or your musical tastes as well as you do. Play whatever brand of instrument you want to play, because at the end of the day, you make the final call on whether you like it or not, not anyone else. 

Read more →

Avenged Sevenfold- Hail To The King Album Review

A couple of months ago, Avenged Sevenfold released news that they were releasing a new album. It would be the first full album without the late drummer Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan. Many fans were distraught upon hearing the news about Jimmy's passing and they thought the band was going to break up. They eventually found Arin Illejay and the band was able to continue onwards. In various interviews, they said that this album was going to be completely different from all of their other records (What band DOESN'T say that?). They said they were trying to get a Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin feel for this album in various interviews. This was surprising considering they always seemed more influenced by heavier acts like Iron Maiden and Guns N Roses, but Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin WERE pretty heavy music acts, so I thought they were going to release a really good album. On Tuesday August 21st, the band decided to stream their full album on iTunes, and the following will be a track by track review of the album, followed by an overview.

1.      Shepherd of Fire- This is the opener to the album! It has a very good intro in my opinion and it Arin creates a nice buildup. It has a very old school metal feel to it I will admit that. I'm not a huge fan of the lyrics though. They seem really cheesy to me, but to each their own I suppose. The rhythm section in this song is superb and the song is overall not bad. The solo is very shreddy though, and has no real melody and is just mindless shredding to me. I felt the band could have opened up with a better track in my opinion. The track overall is a 5.5/10

2.      Hail To The King- The first single released for this album, as well as the album's self titled track. When I first heard this song, I really didn't like it. The drums completely sucked, and they were so basic, and the lyrics felt like they were bad Iron Maiden lyrics. After listening to the album as a whole a bit more, I've decided it fits the album, but it doesn't hide the fact that the drums aren't as technical as I first expected them to be. I wasn't a fan of the lead part that Synyster played under the rhythm, which was a very legato like riff. I felt it didn't fit the song during the verses, but it sounded good in the intro and in the buildups to the chorus. This is song is definitely going to be an Avenged Sevenfold staple. It has such a big chorus and it's pretty dynamic overall. I'd give it a 5/10.

3.      Doing Time- The first time I heard this song I thought I was listening to Revelation Theory. The intro for this song is a dead ringer for Rev Theory's single "Hell Yeah". I'll supply the link below with "Hell Yeah" as well as a timestamp as to where the similarities are. With that being said, this track is pretty solid. I really like, the drums fit the track really well and the song overall is really cool. The solo wasn't has mindless as other have been, and the little overdubs Syn does fit the song so well. 7.5/10. 

4.      This Means War- This is another stripped down track, similar to Hail to the King. Arin gets a LITTLE bit fancy on the rhythm, but otherwise this sounds like a very old school metal track from the 80's. Syn went crazy on the whammy bar, and Zacky and Johnny, the rhythm guitar player and bassist respectively, keep a great groove together. The track is a 6.5/10 for me. It was bolder and sounded better to me than Hail to the King.

5.      Requiem- This song, in my opinion, should have been the opener to the album. This is yet another heavy chunky track. Syn changes it up in the solo with a wah pedal, something I don't hear him using too much in his playing. The track opens up with chant in Latin, followed by a track that I feel could belong on City of Evil. It's really good in my opinion and it's starting to grow on me. I wish they filled out the high end with keys or some sort of orchestration because that would make it ten times better! 6.75/10

6.      Crimson Day- Unlike the other tracks, this one starts off with a single guitar with reverb on a clean tone as well as a bass. The track eases into a very soft rock feel, but it builds up as the tracks goes on. There are keys placed in this tracks so it fills out the high end of the song, making it feel much fuller and louder overall. I really liked the fact that the clean riff was played in the chorus as well because it sounds really good there and even the solo had a good melody going for it. This solo reminds me of the stuff that'd appear on the band's self titled album, and that's a good thing! The bass can actually be heard for once, as opposed to being overshadowed by the guitars, and Johnny takes advantage of this by play a smooth bass line that shows he just doesn't follow the root notes. 8.5/10

7.      Heretic- The drums get better on this track. Arin starts to discretely add 16th note triplets on the bass. I'm happy this track retained a little bit of the harmonies that I've come to expect from Avenged Sevenfold over the years. The bass is large and thumpy on this track, more so than on previous tracks, and the melody riff is a bit edgy, which is good for this song I think. About half way through the song, it goes into a "Seize the Day" kind of groove. It's pretty cool, but some would think that it was kind of sporadic and doesn't fit the song. The clean guitar that uses reverb sounds out of place on this track, but it quickly goes back into the main groove of this track with another Syn solo. Lyrically, this song was kind of odd to me, but then again, most of the lyrics of this album have thrown me off. I will say this though; the ending to this song is really cool for no clear reason to me. 7/10

8.      Coming Home- If I could only download one song off this album this would be the song. This the song I think everyone has been expecting from Avenged Sevenfold. It is so loud and is immensely reminiscent of something that belongs on City of Evil. The drums have finally kicked in and Arin can show what he can do on the kit. It's a hard rock track for sure, but Arin doesn't go all out as I expected him to. On an even brighter note, Syn's crazy solos finally have a place where they don't sound like they were randomly thrown in. The track is really consistent and is my favorite track off of the album. For all of you guitar nuts that love to hear Syn solo, Syn has a minute and fifteen seconds of a solo. Lyrically, this song is fantastic, and I was even able to catch a little bit of Johnny Christ's bass fills and interludes in the song which give it great depth. They stand out in the chorus and sound amazing. This track is a 9/10. If it had harmonies with Synyster or Zacky, or keys section that could buildup to Synyster's solo it'd be a perfect track in my opinion as far as this album is concerned.

9.      Planets- Matt sounds very gritty on this track, and they return to their heavy metal feel. Arin does have a double bass section within the song, right before the choruses that give it an old school Avenged Sevenfold to it. Out of all of the "old school metal tracks" on this album, this is probably my favorite. I like the drums, they sound better and much more natural. It sounded like Arin really felt the groove of this track and got into it. I can definitely see this track becoming popular with Avenged fans. There are interestingly placed horns in this track, which I am all for, make the track sound louder and in your face. But, I personally can't see myself listening to the track on repeat. It felt very repetitive at some points. 6.5/10

10.  Acid Rain- This is their ballad rock song, and it's how I seen Avenged close their albums (Fiction closed Nightmare and Dear God closed the self titled).It picks up and drops at certain point, but it is overall a decent track. I didn't quite follow the track too well, but I really like the keys and piano that were placed into the song. Syn also solos beautifully and soulfully in this track, thus making the song come together since an out of place solo can ruin a song. It was an overall great way to end the album.6.75/10

The Album Overall:
This album is completely different from anything Avenged Sevenfold has done. They've done hard rock records, metalcore records, but never an album that had an old school metal feel. For I'd say fifty percent of album, Avenged Sevenfold stuck to their word about the album and how it would have a heavy metal feel to it, as well an old school metal feel. It felt as so, mainly because of the drums and how it guided the songs. I tried to place a lot of emphasis on Arin in this review since he is the most recent member of the band, and he has to take the place of The Rev on the drums.

Like everyone, I expected more out of Arin on this album, but I fully understand why he played as he did on the album. The album wasn't meant to show off the drums and the fact they had a new drummer, but the fact that they were back and that they were able to recover from the passing of their former drummer to a certain extent. The drums, and the album as a whole got considerably better as each song passed. I wasn't a big fan of songs like "Shepherd of Fire" or "This Means War", but things really picked up in the second half of the album with "Planets" and "Coming Home". I sincerely wish Zacky and Syn retained their job as backing vocalists because they accented Matt's voice amazingly well, and there were some parts of the record where I thought their backing vocals would be perfect. I also feel some keyboard playing, or rather, the addition of keys would make the songs sound fuller and much more dynamic. Lastly, I do wish Syn didn't play as many 'mindless' shreddy solos that have no real purpose other than to say "Hey I can play fast and sweep!". He is a great guitarist, and has shown that he knows his way around the fretboard album after album, but I wish they had more substance and fit the song more, but that's just my 2 cents. Overall, this record to me is a 6.75/10. The tracks kind of started to blend together after a while. There are stand out tracks like "Doing Time", "Crimson Day", "Coming Home" and even "Acid Rain", but past that, they sounded kind of bland.

Read more →

Band of the Week #5- System of a Down

History:
System of a Down got together after singer Serj Tankian and guitar player/ backing vocalist Daron Malakian formed a band called Soil, which was later revamped to create System of a Down. Shavo Odadjian, the band's bass player, was originally the band's rhythm guitar player up until he switched. The band also went through a drummer or two until they found John Dolmayan. The name itself was originally "Victim of a Down", but Shavo thought that changing their Victim to System would be better for fans to find their music since they'd be closer to their musical idols such as Slayer.

The band released a few demo tapes that got popularity as the internet age went on. They played shows in popular clubs and bars, which eventually garnered them the attention of Rick Rubin and with him; they were able to record their debut self titled album, as well as getting signed to American Records. They had decent success, but their second album "Toxicity" gained insane amounts of success, getting them to #1 on the Billboards. Songs that stood out were Deer Dance and Toxicity, as well as Chop Suey, due to its release around 9/11. Despite all of this, they still received massive airplay on MTV and VH1. Their third album "Steal This Album!", was actually leaked on the internet prior to its release. Unfinished versions of the songs were leaked, and the band released a statement, saying that they weren't the final versions of the songs. They subsequently released the album once all the tracks were finished. Their fourth album and fifth albums were double albums that were released six months apart from each other. They were "Mesmerize" and "Hypnotize" respectively, and they released in the year 2004. Mesmerize yielded tracks like "BYOB" and "Cigaro", while Hypnotize yielded "Lonely Day" and "Vicinity  of Obscenity". Both of these albums were great in their own right, and they put themselves up there with the Beatles and Guns N Roses for releasing two albums within the same year. After extensive touring for each one of their albums, they announced a hiatus which they have yet to completely come off of.

My Thoughts:

System of a Down is a pretty controversial band. They're lyrics discuss political issues like America, the Armenian Genocide, and what politicians are doing, as well as sexual topics, drugs, and a lot of other controversial matters. With that being said, they are great musicians and I love their musicianship. Serj has a one of a kind voice, Daron does great guitar playing and has a distinctive voice for backing vocals, Shavo is monster bass player and I love his playing style, and John hits really damn hard while maintaining great grooves. I know of a lot of people that don't necessarily like SOAD for things that they've done and sang about, but to me it's not as controversial. I really like SOAD for what they sing about and how the music is made, it's really simple at times, and really in your face at other moments. Songs like "Deer Dance", "Lonely Day", and "Chop Suey" exemplify that, as well as some of their older material like "Sugar", and "Shimmy"

Fun Fact: Serj, Daron, and Shavo all went to school together at Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School, but since they were all different ages, they never all met until later on life.

Sugar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vBGOrI6yBk

Deer Dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkkOQjK71Ss

Read more →

Bastion

Background:
Bastion was my first casualty of the Steam Summer Sale. I picked it up for $3.75 I believe, purely for the same reason I picked up Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams a couple months back, it looked visually stunning and seemed like a great RPG. After various laptop issues and driver problems, I finally got around to playing this gem, and after finishing the game, I can honestly say it is one of the best isometric RPG Games I have played so far.

Features:

One of the coolest features about this game is that you have a narrator. He doesn't just narrate the storyline and the overall plot. He narrates what you do like evading enemies, smashing Windbags, and falling to your doom. The voice actor, Logan Cunningham does a fantastic job with the narration and very addicting voice that makes you want to listen to him more. He is also quite humorous and modern, making him a bright and lively narrator. I recall I was smashing a lot of boxes with the Cael Hammer (which is totally badass by the way) and he said "The Kid is raging". 

Another stunning feature to the game is that the level grows as you progress through it. What I mean by that is that as you walk, pieces of the level start to appear and form pathways for you to walk on. It reminded me of the LEGO® games like Indiana Jones and Star Wars when I first saw it. I find this idea pretty cool and it's unique as well. The developers over at Supergiant Games were able to make even the most basic concept of presenting a level and make it look stunning and intuitive. 

The game opens up with you, a voiceless character simply named "The Kid", waking up and attempting to get to the Bastion, what I presume to be a safe haven. You make it there and meet an old man who identifies himself as the narrator. He explains that some catastrophic event known as 'The Calamity' has occurred that has wiped everything out and it's your job to fix it. That is basically the premise of the game without giving too much away. The game itself is visually stunning. Everything was hand painted and it has a very Borderlands look to it because of that. Nothing looks out of place and it amazes me that the whole Bastion universe was built in two years. 

Bastion's menu is also customized to two groups of people. The first is the normal campaign mode; you have two lives, simply dubbed "Story Mode". The second mode is "No Sweat Mode" which is a much more relaxed mode. You are given an infinite amount of lives and the purpose of this is so that you can enjoy the campaign aspect of the game without worrying about surviving. This was a pleasant feature, but I feel that surviving through the levels themselves is part of the RPG itself, and casting it aside and giving the player infinite lives kind of takes away from that. Upon beating the game, you are given two more modes, New Game Plus, and Score Attack mode. New Game Plus unlocks all the buildings you earned from the previous run through of the game, and it gives you all the weapons and XP earned from the previous run through as well. I loved this feature because upon beating the game, I instantly had the urge to play it again. Score Attack mode unlocks everything and makes you go through the whole campaign while giving you a score as you progress.

Look at all of these options! GAH!

Gameplay:

The gameplay itself is fluid and I had no issues with terrible button placement or any lag for that matter. It is gamepad compatible so just plug in your Xbox 360 controller and you're set. The enemies each look different, memorable even, and the game increases the difficulty slowly so you aren't overwhelmed by tough enemies too soon. The Safe Haven known as "The Bastion" surprisingly has a lot to offer. For starters, you can build six buildings that can be upgraded over time (a very common RPG feature), and it also has flashbacks, referred to as "Who Knows Where", where you learn about the story of another character via narration. You fight off waves of enemies to hear the next part of the story, and once you defeat all 20 waves of enemies, you are provided with the background story to a new character. I felt the was this feature was presented was really cool and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

This game took me by surprise when it comes to its weaponry. You are at first given the Cael Hammer and then the Fang Repeater, an eight shot machine gun. As you progress through the campaign, you are provided with new weapons like a carbine, a bow and arrow, a mortar strike, and my personal favorite, dual pistols. They each work in different manners and useful to various degrees. For example, in a forest area, you're better off with the flamethrower or Cael hammer than a machete. You are allowed to carry two weapons at a time, but you can easily switch between the two by pressing "X" or "B".

Plot:

Now for the most important part of this review.... the storyline, a part I purposely left for last because it adds suspense! I will admit at first the storyline is a little bit confusing, but the developers and story writers over at SuperGiant make sure to tie up all of their plotlines, making sure no story is untold and there are no unfinished parts of the plot. The plot itself isn't the greatest plot in the world I will say that. It was a good storyline, and I personally really liked it a lot because it felt a little post apocalyptic without all the zombies and horror (Not a big fan horror fan). I do feel that they could have done more with the storyline, but I guess it was better to cut it off before they added more things to it that could have potentially ruined the story. I overall really like this game and I'd give it a 7/10. The features and the look of the game were amazing, but the storyline could have been a bit better and longer. 

Read more →

Espier Launcher

*I used a Samsung Galaxy S3 for this review*

One of the nicest things about iOS for most people is its UI. It is very clean and easy to navigate. Everything has a spot and a child could navigate it due to its simplicity. Upon coming to the Android OS(Ice Cream Sandwich or whatever version you use) I found myself missing the familiar iOS look. Although the Android OS is unique in its own way, I felt slightly more comfortable with iOS. I searched around on the Google Plat store because I was sure I was not the only one who felt the same say. Sure enough an hour later, I found Espier Launcher. After installing it, I never looked back. Plus, you don't need to have a rooted or modded phone for this application to run!

Upon install, it converts your phone into an iOS replica. The icons look the same and feel the same as well. You can set this as your default launcher so that your phone will always look like the iPhone. The launcher tries to stay true to iOS in certain respects, while in others it shows that it can be flexible. For one, you will see that all of your apps that you have downloaded are displayed. They are listed in ABC order and reach across numerous screens (I had eight screens of apps.) For those of you that don't want all of your applications on display, Espier launcher lets you 'hide' the application by long pressing the item and then clicking on, it which brings up a very helpful list of options. Minus hiding the application, you are also given to the ability to rename the application and change the icon of the application itself. This is great for renaming and changing applications to get the 'iPhone' look. The lock option is somewhat useful for those private applications you use, but I use it for my messaging when I'm with friends in case anyone is nosy.  I didn't expect so many options within the launcher for changing the design of the application icon, so I was pleasantly surprised to see I could change icons, hide them, rename them, and even import icons from my SD card for those icons that aren't provided in the theme.

If you swipe to the right of your home screen, you are provided with a new screen that lets you search your phone! Sound familiar? Yes, it is exactly like the iPhone's feature. If you swipe up, you are shown the task menu that is similar to the iPhone's when you long press the home button. I believe this part is purely for show because I've tested it and the applications do not really close. The folders look exactly like the iPhone's and act the same way as well. After holding 16 applications, you are provided with the scroll option for the next screen. Upon clicking the menu button on my phone, I am provided with a few options such as Themes, Wallpapers, Settings, and Preferences. The most intriguing of the four is preferences. This is the only screen that resembles the iPhone's setting's menu in terms of the UI, but it offers options like selecting how many rows and columns of apps you want as well as changing the font and other little things

Espier also offers other apps such as iPhone Notifications and Reminders. I believe I use their iPhone Notification system and I like it very much. It is reminiscent of the older OS notification layout I believe, (I'm not familiar with iOS and their corresponding numbers like 6.1.1 or 5.4.3). I overall like the launcher and what it does, but it is very sluggish at times. I'm pretty patient so I'm not terribly frustrated with it, but there is good one to five second delay at times, but I guess that's expected with a launcher when it wasn't ingrained in the original OS. 

Espier also has a naggy AppHub feature that can't be hidden, so I just isolate it in a corner. It's a silly add on, practically spamware, that alerts you with random application updates for games you have every downloaded. To remove it, you have to pay money or get coins or something along those baffling lines. I never bothered to do that because I don't want to spend money on something so silly, but some people do. It didn't break the deal for me, but I wouldn't mind removing it. All in all, despite it's shortcomings at some points, Espier Launcher is a pretty cool application, one that I recommend if you want the iPhone layout for your smartphone.

Here it is in the Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.espier.launcher

Read more →

Band Of The Week #4- Paramore

History:
Coming as the fourth band of the week is Franklin, Tennessee's Paramore. They were originally formed back in 2003 with Hailey Williams on vocals, Josh Farro on lead guitar, Zac Farro on drums, Jeremy Davis on bass, and  Jason Bynum on rhythm guitar. Prior to this, Hailey had been in a funk cover band called The Factory with Jeremy Davis and a friend of theirs. Within their first band rehearsal, they felt that they were all on to something and that being a band could work. Record labels tried to get Hailey to become a pop star, but she was adamant and wanted to see where things would go with Paramore. In the end, they were signed to rock label Fueled by Ramen, a label they still reside on. Jeremy left the band shortly for personal reasons during the writing process of their debut album "All We Know Is Falling", and the band continued on, replacing him with John Hembree. Soon after, Jeremy came back and was reinstated into the band, but their rhythm guitar player Jason left, and was appropriately replaced by Hunter Lamb. They released their first album in 2005, but it didn't get very far with airplay. Music videos were produced and shot, but they did reach 30th place on the Billboard's Heatseekers chart.

They did grow with fame as time went on, and they played Warped Tours, and sold out headlining tours prior to their second album, Riot!. Hunter had left the band, forcing Josh Farro to record both rhythm and lead parts for the album, but Josh and Zac's old bandmate Taylor York quickly stepped into to play rhythm guitar, thus making the band a five piece once more. The album released in mid June and received a lot of attention. The album was named riot due to it's literal definition which is "a sudden outburst of uncontrolled emotions". The album went Platinum and they were rated Best Band of 2007 by various critics.

Their third album release, Brand New Eyes, was different in comparison to their first two albums. It was released that Hailey had been dating Josh Farro, and they broke after, causing the lyrical content of this album to sound a bit more grittier and angrier than Riot!, as well as more emotional. The album was recorded in Nashville, which is their hometown, thus giving the band a cozier feel since they were in a surrounding they knew very well. The album was widely written in early 2009. The album went to be a Gold Record, Paramore's success continued. The band was starting to feel the pressure when recording this record due to the success of Riot! which went Platinum.

The Farro brothers left the band in 2010/2011 due to various reasons, many having to do with Hailey and how the band was an overproduced band created by a label. Many interviews were done with the remaining members of Paramore to sort of what was real and what wasn't when it came to the claims the Farro brothers made, specifically Josh Farro. The band went on a slight hiatus, although they did record the song "Monster" for the movie Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon. Then in 2013, Paramore announced and released their fourth album which was a self titled record.

My Thoughts:

Paramore has always been a fantastic band to me. I love the fact that there is a female singing because I don't really hear of too many females singing in a rock band. Her vocals are stellar and I am a big fan of all of their records, including their newest release. Although I was taken aback by it at first, the album has grown on me and I have come to appreciate how far Paramore has come since their debut release 8 years ago. The instrumentals may be a bit typical at times, but the band has a way to add little nuances that make me want to listen to them more. They're not the most technical band in the world, but to me, they are a fantastic rock band and I simply cannot wait for their next record.

Here are two of my favorite Paramore songs

Ignorance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxlzVQ-U4T4

Fences: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKZ66gl4Kr8

Read more →

Humble Bundle Origin Bundle! (With Steam keys)

Humble Bundle recently dropped their latest bundle, dubbed "The Humble Bundle Origin Bundle". They offer AAA games such as Dead Space, Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, Crysis 2: Maximum edition, Mirror's Edge, Dead Space 3, and Medal of Honor. If you choose to pay above average, you will receive Battlefield Bad Company 3 and Sims 3 as well as the start pack for it. At first I thought this was strictly a Origin sale, but then I noticed that certain games had the Steam symbol underneath it. Turns out that Dead Space, Burnout, Crysis 2, Mirror's Edge, and Medal of Honor all offer Steam keys. For five dollars, this is practically a steal! They're all fantastic games and I can't wait to play some of them like Burnout and Mirror's Edge.

All the money goes to charity and Humble Bundle (since they need money to run their servers). The money doesn't go to EA, for all of you who hate EA, since EA has stated that they, as well as Origin, are giving their share of the money to charity. Overall, this is a fantastic bundle and I urge anyone and everyone take buy this bundle. It contains great games and it all goes for a great cause! 

https://www.humblebundle.com/

Read more →

Microsoft goes back on their word again!

Microsoft recently revealed the news that the Kinect is no longer required to be plugged in for the Xbox One to work. This is their second overturn in policy in three months, the first being DRM and used games issue. Although Microsoft was keen to attach the Kinect as an always on piece of technology, customers understood that there would be privacy issues, and after all the frights and scares concerning Edward Snowden, I'm not surprised Microsoft stepped down and decided to make the Kinect an optional feature.  

In doing so though, Microsoft shows that they don't really predict the future well and what consumers want. I am inclined to say that almost anyone would have guessed that not having used games and forcing a video/audio sensor to always be on would not work well with customers. Customers want freedom and various choices, and Microsoft practically obliterated that with their initial choices in policy. Microsoft could have easily made better choices in policy and presentation before news of the Xbox One even released.

I remember six or seven years ago when the Xbox 360 was hyped by Microsoft, and when the time came for the consoles to release, it was a legitimate competition. My friends were torn between Sony and Microsoft, and they weighed in every possible factor they could. It seems this time around, Sony has made a better case and will probably will this console war in the beginning.  It was poor planning on Microsoft's part, and Sony just did what any company would do if their competitor faltered, they capitalized on it. Microsoft is going to have to do more than just reverse poor policies, they are going to have to create new ones that entice their customers to stick with them and make them feel like spending the extra hundred dollars more on the Xbox one was worth it.. 

Read more →

DigiTech RP 255 Multi Processor Pedal

I bought this stunning pedal three and a half years ago with no clear understanding of what the pedal could really do. At the time, I bought it because I wanted something that could generate a lot of effects and sounds without me having to spend a lot of money. I figured that if I found an amp model  or effect I really liked, I could buy the physical amp or effect pedal later on in life when had the necessary finances. I used it for making covers at home as well as a few original pieces here and there, but I was completely oblivious to the USB out embedded within the pedal.  Little did I know that this pedal with two switches and a foot pedal would blow me away and become an invaluable tool in me recording music.

This pedal contains 94 various stomp boxes and amplifier tones. The amplifiers are based off of famous models such as the Fender Twin Reverb and the immortal Marshall JCM 800/900, Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier and the Vox AC30, tones that are so well known in rock and metal, as well as blues, that they can be identified by musicians within as seconds. The stomp boxes, also referred to as effects pedals, range from the most basic distortion pedals and delay, to a wah wah pedal and DigiTech's signature Whammy pedal. I'm inclined to say I bought this pedal for that effect alone. The whammy pedal that made the same wacky and crazy sounds that my favorite guitarist Tom Morello, from Rage Against The Machine, made on songs like Killing in the Name of and Clear the Lane simply inspired me.

With that being said, the pedal has a lot to offer. The physical build of the pedal itself is fantastic for the price. When you press down on the pedal, you can activate the wah pedal at any time. There is no physical button or switch for you to hit, it is all based on pressure. After using my Dunlop Crybaby wah pedal for a year, I sorely miss the physical button, but as time went on, I started to appreciate the "virtual button". You can reset the pedal's calibration so that you can recalibrate the amount of pressure you need to press down for the wah pedal. This kind of made up for the missing switch and I was able to successfully calibrate the pedal to the same pressure I would place on a real pedal. The two foot switches are strong and their main purpose is to switch between each preset. The preset themselves can be modified and completely altered so that you can have your own unique tone, within the pedal's parameters. I find myself always amazed at the sheer amount of options this pedal presents you with. I am able to switch between a crystal clean channel and a rough and dirty channel within seconds with only a slightly minuscule delay. The pedal comes with 60 drum presets and an onboard metronome that can go as high as 240 BPM. The drum presets are great to jam over and are good to play along with since you can adjust the BPM of the loop.

The pedal comes with X-Edit, a piece of software that I find pretty intuitive. Via a USB cable that is not provided, but is commonly used for connecting a printer to a PC, you can edit the settings of each preset via your laptop. I find this more useful then turning the dials for each effect and for each preset. It is really easy to navigate and it is simple enough to backup presets and save them for later. You are also able to download custom made tones that are made by people online that are compatible with this pedal. That in itself opens up a whole new door of possibilities and options for the guitar player. People online are still making presets and creating insanely interesting tones. The pedal has an aux and headphone out port so you can connect your iPod or laptop via 3.5mm cable in order to play along to tracks or lessons. The headphone out allows me to play in silence so that I don't bother my family with my music. As stated before, you can plug the pedal directly into your laptop via USB. This is simply invaluable when it comes to recording since you can just record without the use of microphones and amplifiers. The pedal even comes with Cubase LE 4, which is a recording software. It is great for beginners and the full version is used by professionals and amateurs alike. DigiTech spared no expense with the software and the production of this pedal.

This is essentially how I record. (From top the bottom)(Black)  Power cable. (Cream/beige) USB adapter that goes into laptop. I found printers use the same cable. (Green) 2 way 3.5 m.m. cable that goes into the laptop's headphone port so I can play to tracks. (Silver) Headphones that plug right in. (Golden) 1/4 inch Instrument Cable that goes right into my guitar. 

This pedal is quite possibly one of my greatest musical purchases so far. I thoroughly enjoy everything this pedal has to offer. A week or so ago, I emailed DigiTech with a question concerning my pedal and they were able to get back to me in a timely fashion with various responses, one of which solved my issue. The pedal is made out die cast and I trust that it is built to last. I hope in the future I am able to buy the RP 500 or the RP 355 because they can only get better from here. This pedal is also great for the college student on the go who cannot bring their Marshall JCM 900 with their 4x12 cabinet with them to college. With a power adapter, instrument cable and a set of headphones, you can jam away at your heart's content. Overall a stellar product. 

Read more →

Mighty Text SMS

Around mid April this year I became frustrated with my Samsung Galaxy S III. I had a Samsung Reality, a simple slide phone with an external keyboard, prior to my smartphone. I was used to a physical keyboard and although I am typing part of this post with my Galaxy, I still missed typing on a physical keyboard. My friend also has an iPhone and told me about an app he found that lets him send texts through his laptop. I found the idea insanely cool so I tried to find an Android equivalent for my phone. This application was the result of that search and I couldn't be more pleased.

Upon downloading the application you are prompted to sync your phone number and email to the account. After that you are given a website link to go to for your desktop or laptop. Once there you are given a barcode that can be scanned by your smartphone and then viola, your phone is synced to the application. The application can be opened on your desktop computer or laptop via a Google Chrome Extension or a Firefox extension. The extension essentially redirects you to your personalized Mighty Text website, and its is chock full of great features. The classic view is similar to Facebook's message layout where you have each contacts name in the order you messaged them. When you click on a contact's name, you are shown the conversation and a chat box that also allows emoticons and MMS. Under classic view is power view, and this blew me away at first. It shows the six most recent conversations and it gives you the ability to message any of them within this view. This is super useful for mass texting and keeping with various conversations without having to alternate between contacts. 

Photos/Videos is a mildly recent feature that was introduced to Mighty Text and it syncs the 20 or 30 most recent videos and pictures you have taken via your smartphone. They load up and they give you the option to delete them, save them to your laptop, or share them on social networking websites. This is insanely useful to me since I seldom plug in my phone to my laptop unless I need to add APK files to it. Mighty Text also syncs up all of your Contact into it's custom URL and you can view the phone numbers and emails attached to that contact. This actually saved me once when Gmail didn't sync my contacts to my email and Mighty Text had my contacts since I usually have to click "re sync" for the contacts to disappear. The settings menu gives a few options for the user such as whether they want their photos and video to sync or if they want popup notifications when they receive a message. I leave both of those settings on because I usually keep my phone on vibrate so I don't necessarily hear the text tone all the time. 

Power View. The bottom left has the battery and shows how much power your phone has left. 

Mighty Text SMS overall is a great app and I love using it. It has made my life a thousand times easier and it lets me respond to my friends and family faster than ever. It is a super convenient application and I would recommend it to anyone. 

Read more →

HP Customer Service: Update

Here's the first HP Customer Service Complaint Post in case you missed it: http://poweredbyingenuity.blogspot.com/2013/08/hps-customer-service-well-get-it-back.html

I received my laptop back yesterday after a week and a half of not having it. I will admit they took a longer time the second time, but I didn't really have a problem with that since it would hopefully mean that they checked out the laptop more and made sure everything was working. Upon receiving the laptop I checked the bottom plate to see it fall off again. I inspected the plate yet again, and found that all the tabs on the plate were in line like they were supposed to be. They probably didn't put the plate in because they want the customer to do it so that if it breaks,  it is their fault and not HP's. Smart, but it didn't work on me.

After placing the plate in, I turned on the laptop to see that everything was as I left it. The OS was not tampered with and the very few settings I had set such as wallpaper and mouse speed remained intact. I quickly looked at the battery symbol and saw no error sign, so they did fix my issues after all. I could tell they replaced my battery because I put a pencil mark on top of the old battery so I would know if they fixed the original or simply discarded in interest of a new part. Everything seemed fine, and it was about time too since this was the second time in two weeks that I had to send my laptop into HP. I connected my Seagate 3TB external hard drive with USB 3.0 SuperSpeed support into my USB 3.0 ports to find it not spinning into life. I figured it was a simple driver issue and that it could be easily remedied by installing up to date drivers. But then I plugged in my flash drive into the 3.0 port, and switched the hard drive to my one remaining 2.0 port. My flash drive didn't even light up... There was no reaction, the port could have been dead for all I know.  I went into device manager and saw that the "Fresco Logic USB root hub" that interacts with the 3.0 USB ports was not installed and my laptop couldn't even detect one.

...So HP sends me a laptop with a missing driver? How convenient... If I were to send my laptop back to them a third time I would be completely irate with them and I would buy a new laptop. I waited until today to call them about the USB port issue since I had 90 days to call them. It took them a while, but they ended up deleting the folder that would normally handle that specific driver and then it ultimately worked. It's been a long journey with the laptop and dealing with HP's less than helpful customer service. Although they fixed all the issues in the end, I wish HP took more time to make sure that all the issues the customer addresses are actually fixed and that no new issues arise. I know it is tougher to predict the latter, but I am sure a company with research and development team such as HP's could solve that issue. With all of that being said.... My next laptop will not be an HP.

Read more →

GO SMS Pro

*I am using a Samsung Galaxy S III for this application review*

I downloaded this application months ago and I finally feel comfortable enough to write a review for this app since I am well acquainted with it. This app's main purpose is to replace the stock SMS app that Android offers you. I will admit that after a while, the stock application got really stale and tiring. I felt like I needed more and that I should be given more features than just messaging. This app goes above and beyond in that respect and it simply amazes me.

I'll start with the physical interface. The primary screen looks exactly like the stock Android Messaging application. They moved the attachment button to the bottom left as opposed to keeping it with the phone button on the top right and obviously changed the colors to make it more enticing for the user. The colors also help differentiate who sent what message since the stock application kind of blended it all together, using only a thin grey line as a divider. Otherwise, the main user interface is practically identical to the stock. What sets this application apart from the stock texting application is the features. 

When you swipe to the right, you are shown the what this app can really do. With this app, you can send scheduled text messages. You select the person or persons you will text along with the date and time the text should be sent as well as the content of the message. You are also given a notification when the text was sent, which I find useful since I tend to forget about scheduled messages at times. Another stellar feature is the ability to backup text messages. This is really useful if you’re switching phones, or want to delete the current messages, but still have a copy of them for whatever reason. They are backed up to the SD card within your phone and can be restored upon reinstallation of the application. You can also create a schedule for the backups, so you won’t have worry about important text messages or MMS’s not being up to date. SMS Blocker is another invaluable feature, giving you the power to block those pesky spam messages and old contacts you simply do not want to talk to. At the very top of the menu is the Theme button. This offers you, the important user, the option to change the physical display of the UI. Since I prefer the layout of an iPhone, with the freedom of a Android, I have the iPhone theme set up for my messages. The GO SMS community also offers Windows Phone styled messages as well as custom themes and colors.

GO SMS Pro also has chat heads and pop-ups, similar to Facebook Messanger and the iPhone lock screen respectively. The chat heads simply pop up in the top right hand corner of your screen with a little number that represents the messages sent by them. It’s useful if you like chat heads and prefer quick accessibility to texting them. I don’t find myself using it as much since I don’t really like the look of the chat heads themselves, but it can come in handy.

Swiping to the left brings up the contact list in a neat and clean manner. When you click on someone’s name, you bring up the chat conversation for them. It’s a clean design and very intuitive. I use it on occasion when I cannot remember someone’s number or if I don’t remember the name they have in my phone. Pressing the menu button brings up the third and final panel of settings. Some of the settings overlap such as Auto Reply and Theme, but there are other settings as well, some that are quite handy. The Search function is exactly what it sounds like, a searching tool. It lets you search by contact name or content. Typing in keywords for content brings up any text message that you has what you searched for. The screenshot function helps screenshot text message strings. It works by shaking the phone, but it seems a bit buggy. I lifted up my phone and that counted as a shake It could get quite annoying after a while, but you wouldn’t leave the setting on for that long. Once the photo is taken, it lets you use a white brush to white out any text you don’t want visible. This is a fantastic idea and works great! Then you are given the option to save the image or share on what I assume would be social networking websites. I would delve into the option that says settings, but I’d be here for hours. Essentially, you can change the font size, color, and style of practically anything in the app from time stamps to the contact’s name.

GO SMS Pro is a fantastic texting application alternative and I love using it. I have been using it for about four months now and enjoy using it everyday. They give me so much freedom in how I want everything to look, and they wrap everything up in a nice clean format. There is no hassle, hours will not be spent trying to find the settings menu (I hope!) and the features the application offers go above and beyond any of my initial expectations. I am thoroughly pleased with the application and recommend it to anyone.

GO SMS Pro: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jb.gosms

Read more →

Band of The Week #3 - Atreyu

Orange County’s Atreyu is this week’s band of the week. They formed in 1998 and released their EP Fractures in the Façade of Your Porcelain Beauty with the underground label Tribunal Records. In 2001, they were quickly signed to Victory Records where, in my opinion, they released some of their best work. Their debut album Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses released in 2002, followed by their 2004 release of The Curse. It is probably my favorite album by them and it has a lot of great tracks such as Demonology and Heartache, This Flesh A Tomb, and The Crimson. The album introduced their drummer Brandon Saller as the clean vocalist while their lead singer/ screamer Alex Varkatzas did the unclean vocals/ screams as he had done on their debut album. This album definitely garnered them a lot of attention with metalcore fans all around. Their third album A Deathgrip On Yesterday reached just as much popularity as their sophomore record. At this point in their career, they had their songs in video games and a couple of movie soundtracks, thus getting them more attention. Possibly their most well known release is their fourth studio album Lead Sails and Paper Anchors. It was also the first album under their two new record labels Roadrunner and Hollywood Records. This album relied more on the clean vocals than then the unclean vocals, but Alex’s parts were still quite memorable. Songs such as Becoming the Bull, Two Become One, and Falling Down became instant hits with the fans. Their song Falling Down was even included in Guitar Hero: On Tour “Modern Hits”. Their fifth album Congregation of the Damned, is their most recent album that released in 2009. They received lots of attention for this record, but their fans also considering this album to be a complete sellout in comparison to their older material

The first song I heard by Atreyu was Becoming the Bull. It was such a hard rock track and it always got me pumped to play video games when I was younger. I listened to other tracks of Lead Sails and Paper Anchors, but I didn’t really listen to their other stuff because at the time I didn’t like unclean vocals. As time went on, I got into unclean vocals and went back to listen to their older material such as The Curse and A Deathgrip on Yesterday. I was completely floored by how good these tracks were and the overall presentation of the album. To me, they were a band that was able to combine the grittiness of unclean vocals and the melody of cleans vocals in such an interesting fashion that it made me want to listen to more of their work. Dan Jacobs on guitar is no joke either with a tight rhythm section and blistering solos and licks in between. Some people didn’t like the idea of Brandon on clean vocals because they wanted Atreyu to remain “heavy”, but I felt it was a good change and it added a lot of new dynamics to the band. It gave them a wider audience and it showed how far they could push themselves as musicians

They are one of my favorite metalcore bands and they have immense talent, it was sad to see them go on hiatus, but I guess every band needs to take time off to recuperate from all the touring and music production. With that being said, there is news that they might record a new track for the fans as a way to thank them for all of their love and support and that the song would sound like something that would have been released on their second album The Curse.

Falling Down: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf256Pbo88A

Demonology And Heartache: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBIpreLNtpg

Read more →

Sonic Adventure Battle 2

Background:
It feels like it has been thousands of years since I purchased Sonic Adventure Battle 2. I remember going to my cousin's house back in 2004 and they were playing it on their Nintendo GameCube. The graphics blew me away and the storyline was intense. I went home that night and ordered the game online, a game that I devoted hundreds of hours to for the next nine years.

Upon browsing Amazon's deals during their summer sales for online games, I found the very same Sonic game I bought nine years ago on sale for $1.25! To sweeten the deal, the DRM was Steam! I quickly bought the game and the the DLC that came with it (which was the multiplayer content that was included in the original game) for .49¢.

One of my main reasons for buying it was that I didn’t want to apply wear and tear to the disc, which had a few scratches on it. Since this game was ported to the PC I will discuss any changes as well as the overall performance of the game.

Plot:

My laptop has been in the shop for a while due to various issues that you can read about in my HP post below, so I am currently using an HP ENVY m6 that has an Intel ® HD Graphics 4000 video card. The game looks stellar as I remember it. The Campaign mode to me was pretty unique. You could either play the Hero story line, or the Dark Storyline. Both storylines tell the same story, but each storyline has their own unique events that contribute to the overall plot. I personally recommend you play the Dark Storyline first because it contains the beginning plot line. The Hero storyline kind of just drops you into the midst of things, with no real understanding of what’s going on. Within the hero storyline, you play as Sonic the Hedgehog, Knuckles the Echidna, and Miles Tails Prower. To reflect this, the Dark story line lets you play as Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat, or Dr. Eggman.

The missions themselves are divided into three categories. Sonic and Shadow have the typical platformer styled missions where your initial goal is to get from Point A to Point B. Knuckles and Rouge emerald hunts in which they have to find three pieces of the Master Emerald that are scattered across a stage. Tails and Dr. Eggman have a similar mission layout in comparison to Sonic and Shadow, but they battle in mechanized

robot walkers. The missions as a whole are very fun and the game increase in difficulty in such a clean manner that it feels natural. The storyline leaves virtually no loose end untied and makes sure to inform the gamer of all that happened, something I appreciated after playing many games that neglected to finish up certain parts of the stories. The artwork itself is amazing and still remains as stunning when played on PC. There were a few lag issues here and there, but nothing major that completely turned me off to the game.Upon finishing a mission, the game gives the player a Sonic Emblem. There are a total of 180 emblems in all. This was particularly fun for me since I am a completionist and do my best to 100% finish a game if I can.

Features:
The added bonus to this is that you can obtain more Chao eggs for your Chao garden. This adds replay value for the game, but only if you’re interested in the Chaos and the Chao Garden. The Chao Garden is a great feature of the game where you raise Chao eggs and let them grow and compete in tournaments. This feature alone is why a lot of people bought the game once it was ported to the PC. You can buy new Chao eggs so that you have different colors and if you raise them correctly, they can replicate actual characters in the same such as Sonic, Tails, Shadow etc. It is an insanely cool feature that makes the game last so much longer.

The multiplayer feature of the game is pretty cool to, but I don’t find myself playing it as much. Players can have action races battles where you can play as Sonic, Shadow, Amy, or Metal Sonic and race the other two the finish line. They are action packed races and I will admit if I had friends that played this game more often, this would be all that I play. The levels are thrilling and they reflect the levels that are within the storyline. Treasure hunt missions are exactly what the campaign missions are like except you have two people hunting for three gems. The one who finds two of the three gems wins! You can play as Knuckles, Rouge, Tikal the Echidna, and Chaos 0. The two player games also offers shooting games where the player plays as either Tails, Eggman, ChaoWalker or Dark ChaoWalker. The players are places on platforms in a 2-D manner and they have to defeat each other. The remaining mini games are the Kart Race, where players can race each other (Can also be done in single player mode), Chao Karate and Chao Race where you can pit your Chaos against the CPU and the other player to see who wins.

It still blows my mind to this day that a game this well produced and made released in 2003. The game physically looks years ahead of its time and although the camera control is a little shaky in places, it is overall fantastic. The missions and story line remain the same and the Chao Garden looks amazing in HD. This game has a lot of replay value if you are interested in Chaos. The missions are fun and enticing and they detailed. This game in particular brought me back to my childhood and it was fun playing it again. The game has had some issues with it crashing upon clicking “Save Settings”, but I don’t have this issue. Fair warning though, SEGA doesn’t not offer refunds on these games so if you do buy the game, see if there is a way to figure out if your drivers are compatible with the game.  I fully recommend this game to any Sonic fan or anyone who is a fan of a cool 3-D platformer that happens to include everyone’s favorite blue hedgehog. 

Read more →

Spectraball

I picked this game up from a Groupees bundle. It was the first game I ever saw on Steam and it looked so cool! You play as this little ball and you have to get through the level and all of the obstacles it offers. There are ten levels in total I believe and each is focused on a certain scenery. For example, the first level is in a tropical area, whereas the second level is situated in a desert with pyramids. These sceneries are very well done and it was probably the first thing that got my attention about this game. What I really liked about this game is that every object and obstacle used fit the overall level. In the level “Sky Ruins” there are turbines, windmills and large ramps that provide lots of air time. It all felt in place and nothing stood out like a sore thumb in a negative manner. The levels themselves are quite difficult at certain parts. I recall getting stuck on the mission “Sky Ruins” for quite a while due to how spaced how certain platforms were.

Although the game has keyboard controls, they seemed kind of shaky to me, so I played using an Xbox 360 Controller instead. Those controls felt much better to me and they were much more fluid. You move with the Left D-Pad and change your angle and view with the Right D-Pad. Pressing the A button makes you jump and B activates your ability. The ability you have by default is the Power Brake which, when pressed, causes you to immediately stop moving wherever you are. This is useful if you overshot a jump and you’re right above the platform because you’ll just drop to the ground like a dead weight.  Other abilities include teleport beacon which lets you set a teleport beacon anywhere that you can teleport to once before it disappears, or double jump which is pretty much self explanatory. Upon beating a level in Spectraball, you unlock the skin for that level. It’s just a cute little way to add some replay value to the game and make the game just a little bit more appealing to some people.

The game also offers a few mini games for the user to play. The first one is simply called Arena. You are situated on a circle platform and are attacked from four corners of the level by other spectraballs. They try to knock you off the platform and you have to fend them off and survive as long as you can. The platform tilts and turns so you can easily slide off, or slide your opponents off, it is quite fun. The next one is called Laser jump. You are in a large room that is reminiscent of Portal 2 and a laser glides across the floor. Your goal is to dodge the laser for as long as you can, and it gets quite tense as the laser speeds up and is quickly whirring across the floor. The last mini game provided is Crate Chaos, which I found the most enjoyable and frustrating. You are dropped from a height and you have a single crate below you which you have to land on. The crate turns out to be a TNT bomb, and you are launched back up into the sky while a new crate respawns somewhere else. You essentially have to crate jump from crate to crate as long as you can and survive. These mini games provided a little bit of enjoyment for me, but there weren’t as addicting as I thought they would be.

Surprisingly enough, the game has a lot of replay value. I re downloaded this game to the review since I beat this game upon receiving it and I found playing it again fun and relaxing… almost. A great feature this game has in the in game custom map downloader. Fans can make custom maps and publish them for others to play, thus extending the life of the game and how long you play. Although a lot of AAA games such as Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Garry’s Mod and Portal 2 have custom maps and gametypes, it was really cool to see a lesser known game such as Spectraball have it. The game uses an in game map building mode that is a mix of Halo 3’s Forge and the map building feature that appears in the Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The pieces resemble Brawl, but it is in 3-D and works better. Even in the stage building mode, you still appear as the little Spectraball with an object above you that you can place down at anytime. Within a couple of minutes, I was able to build my own map and test it out. Spectraball offers a lot of cool features and is well worth the five dollars it is available for on Steam.

Read more →