LIMBO Game Review

My Purchase:

I originally found this game on the Xbox 360 marketplace. It is my earliest recollection of an 'indie' game, and from the outside it looks pretty basic. I recall playing the demo and finishing it thinking ,"Wow, this game actually has something going for it.". I didn't buy it on the marketplace sadly due to financial reasons and lack of space on my 20 GB hard drive. I recently bought the Humble Indie Bundle 9, and happened to come across this game. I downloaded the small 66 MB game and began my journey in the Limbo, and what a journey it was!

Gameplay:
Limbo in itself is a very simplistic game from the outside. Limbo is a 2D platformer game that literally requires the player to only use two buttons and a joystick. At first, I thought the game would be dry and monotonous due to the lack of color and the minimalistic approach when it came to the controls, but it surprisingly helped me concentrate on the puzzles at hand and really made me think about using my surroundings to progress further in the game. The lack of color also interested me because the game plays around with changing the shade of gray and black to give it a certain depth that piqued my interest. The game starts off with very simple challenges and slowly builds up the difficulty there after. After progressing past the point of the demo, I found myself sitting there for ten or so minutes analyzing the puzzle and subsequently solving it, a practice I haven't done in quite a while when it comes to platformer games. Traditionally, platformer games show you your goal and the path you will essentially follow, given a small margin for error here or there in terms of how high or low you jump. In Limbo, you see where you have to go, but you also see various obstacles and switches that have to be activated and understood in order to get where you want to go. In this respect, it was very Portal- esque and I caught myself comparing it to Portal about 4/5ths of the way through the game.

As the levels increase in difficulty, the game developers start to throw more monkey wrenches at you such as gravity switches, trip wires that activate automated machine guns, spinning gears that move rapidly and will hack you into bits without the proper caution, and electrical barriers. All of these obstacles are meant to hinder your progress, but with the right amount of logic, you are able to surpass all and get your nameless character to the end of the Limbo, which if I am not mistaken, derives from Limbus in Latin which means edge. The level selector menu is very accurate and incremental. Every puzzle is a level, and you can easily jump back to a previous level without any issues, something I enjoyed deeply due to the fact that I may want to come back and play this game again in the future, and I would dislike if I had to start all the way from the beginning if I wanted to get to my favorite level in the game which could be half way into the plot.

Speaking of plot, the game lacks a long plot, but again, it works for a game like Limbo. There is nothing but a bleak intro that presents the following statement, "Unsure of his sister's fate, a boy enters Limbo". Not the cheeriest of intros right? Regardless, it gives you just enough basis to understand what you're supposed to be doing and why, something the platformer game Rush Bros. lacked. (See my review for Rush Bros at the bottom of this review.)

Lastly, it should be noted that despite the fact the game is in black and white, and despite the fact that it is a 2D game, there is gore and blood. You can hacked up into pieces via sharp blades. You lose your head from electrocution, and you can have your arms and legs snapped off by large magnetic blocks of doom. With all of that in mind, it's 2D, and it isn't very graphic or nauseating... it isn't Outlast.

Controls:

 Seeing as how I originally played this on the Xbox 360 using an Xbox 360 controller, I figured I should continue that and use the controller for the PC version. With that in mind, the mechanics of the game are simple. You walk/run to move left and right and you jump to avoid obstacles. You can also hang onto the edges of platforms, and turn switches on and off. Other than that, you have no other options in terms of controls, but to be fair, that is all you really need to play this game. I actually found myself pressing extra buttons because I am so used to play games with full gamepad support, and not just two buttons and a joystick. The controls on their own feel fine and they work perfectly well when it comes to the game.

Overall this game is a 8.5/10! I really enjoyed this game. I beat it in 6 hours and felt that although it could have been a little bit longer, cutting it off early while the game is still good is better than adding excess and dampening the game. I liked the minimalistic approach to the game and seriously enjoyed the puzzles in the game. I didn't think I'd actually have to think about some of these puzzles, but I was quickly proven wrong an hour and a half into the game. I recommend this game to anyone that likes platformers and wants a challenge. This game could be easily be beaten in a day, but I guarantee that it'll be a great day!

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Band of the Week #10 - Mayday Parade

History:

I honestly do not remember how I got into Mayday Parade. I believe a friend of mine must have turned me onto them two years ago, and I haven't looked back since! Mayday Parade is a band from Tallahassee, Florida and they currently have three albums out, and are releasing a fourth this coming Tuesday. They released an EP titled Tales Told by Dead Friends on  Fearless Records. It garnered them a little attention, but it set up the band to release their debut album, A Lesson In Romantics. This is the only album to feature the second singer Jason Lancaster, who would leave the band soon after the album's release for personal reasons. This album has a lot of fantastic tracks and defines Mayday Parade. The band has two singers, which adds a great dynamic to their sound. Songs like "Jamie All Over" and "Black Cat"  are crowd favorites, as well as tracks such as "I'd Hate To Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About"
and "Take This To Heart". The band toured the album at the 2007 and 2008 Warped Tour and then they went off to record their next album which would be titled Anywhere But Here. It was the first album to not feature Jason Lancaster, but the rest of the band picked up the slack as back up vocalists for this record. Songs that stood out in this alum to me were "Kids In Love", "Save Your Heart", and "I Swear This Time I Mean It". The album was a little bit on the softer side, but the lyrics packed the same amount of punch as their previous record.

The band kept on rolling with their momentum and recorded their third album which would be a self titled record. It released on October 4, 2011 and had a few stand out tracks. The band's sound changed quite a bit in comparison to their older material, but the core Mayday Parade sound still remained the same, which is a good thing. The single ”Oh Well, Oh Well", was an amazing dynamic single, and the track "A Shot Across The Bow" was another stellar track off of the album. They toured this album as they toured all others and are currently all prepped up for the release of their new album Monster In The Closet

My Thoughts:

Mayday Parade was always a solid band to me. They are a very lyrically infused band, discussing relationships and love a majority of the time, but then again, don't most musicians do this? What sets them apart to, in my opinion at least, is the harmonizing that is heard in the vocals as well as the drummer. He is able to add a variety of dynamics that make songs sound fuller and much more dynamic. In the first album, A Lesson in Romantics, the guitar was very high and the guitarist Alex Garcia even took a couple of solos here and there. After this record, he would take less and less solos, and let the vocals and bass stand out more. Mayday Parade are a stellar band and they have cemented their spot as band that never stops working and always pushes themselves to be better musicians and a fantastic show.

Black Cat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-wCyQXvri8

Shot Across The Bow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isT800RXnoI

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Rush Bros. Game Review

History of Purchase

My roommate picked up this game on the last day of the Steam Summer Sale. He purchased the two pack and gifted me the spare copy cause I've gifted him various games over the months. We were both super excited to play this game because we are huge fans of difficult platformer games like Super Meat Boy, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams etc. We finally got around to playing it, and I invested a good couple of hours in the game. These are my thoughts.

Gameplay
This is essentially a two player game. You can play the game single player if you chose, but you will be provided with the same levels. The levels themselves are colorful, and the obstacles can be difficult t navigate through at times. Throughout the level, there are a couple of power ups such as double jump and speed up. When playing two player, there is an extra power up that flips your opponent's screen horizontally which can disorient them for a short amount of time. I found the power ups to be quite basic, although I will admit I liked the speed up power up because of how fast your character could physically run. The controls were similar to every other platformer I have played using my Xbox 360 Controller, except for the "X" button. In Rush Bros, there are certain switches in game that require the player to press the X button rapidly to activate them. I felt the button placement was awkward, but you can re map the controller in game to your own preferences.

What initially interested me about the game was that the obstacles and items within the game moved in rhythm with the background music. Watching blades move in sync with the in game music is fun to watch, on the rare occasion the blades and obstacles sync with the game's music. It added a sense of change and variety because they were songs that I was not familiar with, therefore the movement of the obstacles were unpredictable.

Will all of that in mind, something about this game feels unpolished, almost to the point where it feels incomplete. Despite the very eccentric colors and oddly shaped weapons in the forefront, the backgrounds of the levels looked out of place, as if they were added last minute. During various playthroughs of the game, I found myself not even touching the spikes or other hazardous obstacles, yet dying and having to restart the full level. Another thing that I noticed, that personally saddened me was how there was no plot. I'm not saying EVERY game has to have a plot, but it would make the overall game so much better. Split screen was a bit disappointing for my roommate and I, but we were unsure as to what made it disappointing. I felt the game kind of threw us into the midst of things without any other information other than "Select a level." The game doesn't even mention any tips or tricks for the game. Within Rush Bros. you are able to slide and do a super jump, but unless you are clicking random buttons in game, you'd never know they existed. It'd help the overall game if the developers gave the option for a tutorial.

The game mentioned nothing about wall jumping, despite it being a feature in the game

The Music:

The music selection process was also a bit iffy. The default soundtrack is very EDM like, and although some tracks stand out, the music gets very dry and repetitive fast. At one point, I just muted the game due to how boring the soundtrack became. The game lets you play the music of your choice by letting you manually select what folder the game can access to play media. Whilst playing the various levels, the music will play. I was playing 60FPS just fine, but the second the song changed, the FPS dropped to 5 for a good five to ten seconds, thus effectively stuttering whatever action I was doing to the point of ruining my flow of movement. Also, if the song ends while you are still playing the level, it will not cycle to the next song. I played around with the settings a bit, but you have to manually change the song in game, thus causing the massive FPS drop I referenced before. Lastly, when you switch to the next level, the next song plays, as opposed to continuing from where the previous song left off. It was these little things that irked me as I played the game.

I would overall rate this game a 4.5/10. There was much to be desired with this game, and this game is not for everyone. It felt very unpolished, and there was so much more the developers could have done with the game to make it better. I felt if they waited on the release of this game, and fine tuned the mechanics of it, it would be a stellar game, but as of now, this game does not stack to any popular platformers out, nor music infused games such as Audiosurf

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Band of the Week #9- Disturbed

Band of the Week- Disturbed

For this band of the week, I'm going to try something different. I don't want to just read off facts about the band which can be found anywhere; that's boring. So I'm going to try and change it up a bit. I'll mainly focus on what makes them a unique band as well as what album was their "breakthrough album" and got them to become 'famous' and my usual thoughts on the band

History

This Chicago rock/ metal band came on to the scene in 2000 with their debut album The Sickness. It garnered a ton of success for a debut album, probably due to vocalist David Draiman's whacky noises as well as the sheer heaviness of the record. The second record, Believe was released in 2002 and it received much more popularity than their first album. It debuted at Number One for the Billboard 200. They toured with this album for an even longer period of time, playing Ozzfest and their own tour Music as a Weapon II (A tour title that is still used by them to this day for their various tours). They broke out into the mainstream with their third album, which I would consider their breakthrough album. It was the first album to feature "The Guy" on their album covers. It is also the first album to extensively include guitar solos, something they hardly included in previous records. They only toured this album for short amount of time because the band wanted to start working on their fourth, and possibly their most well known album, Indestructible. The album was released in 2008, and would be yet another Number One album by Disturbed. The track Inside The Fire would be the first single on the album and it would greatly reflect the overall tone and sound of the album. They received a Grammy for this song in 2009, and they even released two more singles after Inside the Fire; Indestructible and The Night respectively. This album went Platinum in various countries and is widely considered to be Disturbed's best album to date. The band's fifth and most recent album Asylum provided listeners with a much more darker tone and sound than any of their previous records. The lyric writing matured greatly in comparison to previous records as well. David was singing about much more current and pressing issues in this album. The band went on hiatus after they toured Asylum, and they have yet to come off of it.

My Thoughts
Disturbed always interested me as a band. Their sound is something that is quite distinct, yet unique. I could listen to almost any Disturbed song and identify it within seconds, not because I've listened to them a lot, but because the sound itself just SOUNDS like Disturbed. The drums, bass, and guitar all sound unique on their own, but together they create an iconic sound that is tough to miss. I got into Disturbed around 2009, but I was completely blown away by their older records such as Believe or  The Sickness because of the lack of guitar solos, Up until that point, I had been listening to bands that always put guitar solos into their songs, and this band didn't. It confused me at first, but then it started to grow on me and I started to appreciate the lack of solos, because it makes their songs flow better. Nothing sounds out of place and there is no single moment where the song dies down or lacks feeling. As I started to listen to Ten Thousand Fists and Indestructible I started to hear guitarist Dan Donegan show his musical prowess with solos in songs such as The Night and Deceiver. They were intricate, but they fit the song perfectly, thus making everything sound whole and continuous, something I greatly like. Mike Wengren's drumming on the records is amazing and tasteful. What I liked about him and his playing was that he never overdid something. His fills always had the right amount of flare, without going overboard and hitting every piece of the kit at once. They fit the song in such a way that it could only accentuate the song in a positive manner. His double bass work is solid and he is overall a great drummer. Bassist John Moyer is a solid bassist, and even plays in the metal super group Adrenaline Mob, with progressive rock drummer Mike Portnoy. Disturbed overall have been a great band, and I cannot wait for them to go off of hiatus. They stand out so well in the music scene and they never compromised their playing for anything or anyone. Each Disturbed record SOUNDS like a Disturbed record and fits their growing catalog!

Inside The Fire- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxujAPhxlo0

This Moment- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3n5t6A9FUk

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Rise Against- Long Forgotten Songs Album Review

Last Tuesday, September 10, Rise Against released their "B Side Compilation" album Long Forgotten Songs. The band essentially compiled a list of 26 songs that have appeared on the albums Rise Against has released. Certain songs were once region restricted, while others such as Death Blossoms, only appeared in the popular rhythm game Guitar Hero: World Tour. In a nutshell, this album perfectly describes what Rise Against is about. The songs are set it no specific order from what I can tell, and there are quite a few covers in here as well such as Bruce Springsteen's The Ghost of Tom Joad, and Journey's Any Way You Want. The album as a whole is a great way to see how the band has progressed over the past decade since their debut in 2001.

The album opens up with Historia Calamitatum, a track that closely resembles Rise Against's core sound from their most recent albums such as Appeal To Reason and Endgame. The tracks Death Blossoms and Elective Amnesia follow and they are pretty strong tracks. Death Blossoms was featured in Guitar Hero : World Tour and was never really released on any soundtrack. Whilst watching the premiere video for Long Forgotten Songs, Tim mentioned that he really liked Grammatizator, which is the next track on the record. It is a really hard hitting track and hardly ever lets up. Blind is the fifth track on this album and it is one of my favorite tracks. It embodies everything that I really like about Rise Against. Everchaning Acoustic is the next track, and I believe it is the only full acoustic track on the album. If I recall correctly, this was in a Warped Tour compilation album, and it fits the album well.

For me, the next two tracks kind of blended into each other, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Generation Lost, and Dirt And Roses blended into to each other for some reason. The Ballad of Hollis Brown, a Bob Dylan Cover, blew me away. It was immensely powerful and well put together. One of the first tracks released in relation to this album was Sight Unseen, and it is by far one my favorite tracks off of this record. It stand for some reason to me, but then again, I guess that's the point of a single. The following track Lanterns didn't really stick with me well the first couple of times I listened to it, but it eventually grew on me. The next track, Making Christmas, sounded like a basic punk rock track at first listen, but I later found out that the band tried to follow the original score for the song for the movie soundtrack Nightmare: Revisited. The next set of tracks, Join the Ranks, Built to Last, and Voice of Dissent all sort of went over my head. Although they are all very different tracks, nothing about they really stood out to me as a listener. The next Bob Dylan cover, Little Boxes, was an interesting track to me. I wasn't a big fan of the track, but I do like what the band did with it. The following track is quite possibly Rise Against's most popular B-Side Give It All. It was originally featured in the compilation album Rock Against Bush Vol. 1. It was then re-released on their third album Siren Songs of the Counter Culture four months later.

Rise Against's next track Minor Threat is a cover by the band of the same name. It's a live version of the cover, but that does not take away from the album at all, as there is a lot of energy in the song. Obstructed View follows the Minor Threat cover and it was originally released on Siren Songs of the Counter Culture. The track really pushes the album along and it has an insane riff to it. The picking pattern and style is fantastic and it sounds very menacing and in your face. But Tonight We Dance is a track that really stands out to me lyrically. In the interview regarding the release of this album, Tim mentions that he wrote the lyrics when he was at a show and the singer discussed that there is a time for revolution and change, but there is also time to kick back and have a good time. It's a very mid tempo track. It isn't too punky, but it isn't an acoustic ballad either. It's a great balance, and a great track overall. Nervous Breakdown is the twenty first track on this compilation album and it sounds extremely punk rock. I know that may sound like a silly thing to say, how can something sound like a genre of music, but the tone and sound of the track just screams old school punk rock. It has a raw sound to it, and the drums push the track forward in an even pace. Gethsemane is up next, and it caught my attention from the beginning with the guitar riff that sort of follows the vocal melody. The track has a nice feel to it, and the drop ins are stellar. The final four tracks on the album are all covers! Boy's No Good by Lifetime, Any Way You Want It by Journey, Silver by Nirvana, and lastly The Ghost Of Tom Joad featuring Tom Morello, Wayne Kramer, and Brian Fallon. These covers are all amazing in their own right, but my absolute favorite track on the album would have to be The Ghost Of Tom Joad. It is one of my favorite Springsteen songs of all time, and when bands like Rise Against and Rage Against The Machine cover it, it just makes the track fifteen times better! Plus, Tom Morello's guitar solo on it just blows me out of the water every time!

This album had so much to offer. It really shows how flexible of a band Rise Against really is. Some of you may have seen then the band of the week a couple of weeks back when Rise Against was featured. In it, I mentioned that they were mainly a punk rock band, but as time progressed, they developed more melody in their music, and created an equal balance between the clean and unclean vocals. The fact that the band added a lot of covers interested me because it showed that they didn't just want to release songs that never made albums, but also covers of songs that they liked and grew up listening to, or songs that just outright inspired them. Their cover of Journey's Any Way You Want It was amazing in my opinion, as was their cover of Bob Dylan's The Ballad of Hollis Brown. The overall album was amazing and I'd give it a solid 9/10. The album shows how amazing of a band Rise Against really is, and how far they have come in the past 12 years as a band. I full recommend this album to anyone who wants to listen to some good rock/punk rock.

                                                                                         

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Band of the Week #8- Avenged Sevenfold

History:

The band formed in 1999 in Huntington Beach California by Matt Shadows, Zacky Vengeance, The Rev, and Matt Wendt, who would be later replaced by Justin Sane. Lead guitarist Synyster Gates would join the band at the end of 1999, making the metalcore band a five piece. They recorded their debut album Sounding the Seventh Trumpet in 2001 and toured with it up until Justin Sane attempted suicide via cough syrup. He was placed in a mental ward and was replaced by Johnny Christ. They would go on to release their next record Waking the Fallen in 2003, an album that sounded much more mature and refined than their debut record. Songs such as Chapter Four and Unholy Confessions greatly stood out in this record. The band would soon be signed to Warner Bros. Records.

In 2005, they released City of Evil. This album differed greatly from their other previous two records on a lot of levels. For one, the songs were much longer than before, plus there is no screaming on this record. Instead, Matt decided to obtain a grittier voice, while still maintaining the core 'sound' of the band. The album was a mainstream success and it really put the band on the map. They toured the album for two years, and then use that very same momentum to release their self titled album in 2007. It garnered great reviews and the fans enjoyed the record as well, but the enjoyment would slowly turn into sadness on December 28th, 2009 when Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan died of a drug overdose. The band faltered for a bit thereafter, but released their fifth album dedicated to the Rev, entitled Nightmare. The record was a very emotional one for both the fans and the band since they were all one big family. Mike Portnoy, Ex- Dream Theater drummer played drums on this record, and even toured with them for the subsequent tour. The band did work with Activision and their Call of Duty Series for the next three years. In 2013, they released their most recent effort, Hail To The King, a old school metal album featuring their new drummer Arin Illejay from the metalcore band Confide.

My Thoughts:

I got into Avenged Sevenfold around my sophomore year of high school, which would be around four yers ago. I got hooked onto the band because of their hard hitting tracks like Bat Country, Unholy Confessions, Crossroads, MIA, Brompton Cocktail, and Chapter Four, all stunning tracks in their own right. The band has always kept a fresh sound, thus keeping them moving and advancing musically. Zacky Vengeance and Synyster Gates are a fantastic guitar duo, and Shadows' vocals are fantastic, very unique and distinct. Johnny Christ is a good bassist, and connected well with The Rev, an insanely talented and energetic drummer in his own right. I can't wait for the band's next album!

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Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Review

Background:

I have always been a big Sonic the Hedgehog fan, and when I found out there was a Sonic Racing game, I wanted it. I waited for a while for the price to drop, and finally picked it up on Amazon from their "Late Summer Deals" sales for six dollars. I've been playing the game for about 15 or so hours, so I think I have a decently good feel for the game, and I thought I'd share my thoughts about it.

Gameplay:

First off, you'll notice that this game doesn't include JUST characters from the Sonic series. Heavy from Team Fortress, Ralph from Wreck it Ralph, characters from Sega's old game Jet Set Radio, and Aiai from Super Monkey Ball all appear as characters that can be played. There are a total of 28 racers, so you'll hopefully never feel that you are racing the same nine racers over and over again. The controls feel very comfortable, but the game doesn't have an option to view the controls. Each character has their own kart that has their own stats. I prefer this in comparison to being able to pick various vehicles because then the characters have no real value; they're just for show. The karts stats are divided into a couple of categories; Speed, Acceleration, Handling, Drift, and All Star. All Star is basically a unique ability that each character has. It adds a little bit of flavor to the game, but they are pretty unpredictable in the sense that you can get them at any point in a race.

Different Mods allow for different increases in stats, and decreases as well!

Plot:

The game has a pretty basic career mode, but it gives the player the ability to see the various types of races the game has to offer such as the basic race, the traffic attack, versus, boost race, and battles. The first mode is world tour mode, and in here, you complete the various types of races in order to obtain stars; a form of progression for the game. The stars main purpose is to unlock characters, and progress through the world tour. To unlock them, you race selecting one off three difficulties. Each difficulty will be increasingly harder, but more stars will be offered if a harder difficulty is selected. The variety of races make the game last longer, and they make you really think about what type of vehicle you should use for each type of competition. You would want to use a kart with really good handling for drift races, but good handling won't serve you too much in the sprint races, where you need all out speed and boost. The overall World Tour would take a while to complete, but it does keep you busy for a while.

Features:

Minus the World Tour, there is the grand prix mode, where four levels are mixed together, and your main goal is to get first place. There are various cups within the Grand Prix, and more can be unlocked as you unlock more levels and stages within the World Tour. Like most racing games, there is a Time Trials mode where you race a Staff Ghost. A Staff Ghost is essentially the CPU, and your goal is to beat him or her using only one boost, and whatever shortcuts you can fine. I find these time trials to be entertaining, but they can get frustrating at times. The final mode within Career would be the single player race in which you can race on levels you have already unlocked, against characters you have already unlocked. It's fun for one on one racing

Like most kart games, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed has boxes that racers can drive through to obtain various items that they can use to protect themselves and attack the enemy. There are about ten different items that you can choose from. The Blowfish can be used to set as a mine behind you, and it can also be launched in front of you. Ice shards can be used to freeze and halt the enemy momentarily, and the glove can be used to physically catch an enemy's attack and shoot it back at them. Firework is a type of angled projectile that can be launched at enemies, but they can also be launched at walls to ricochet and hit enemies. There is also a boost power up, but that is pretty self explanatory. Another type of pickup is the Chrome/Drone, which is an RC car that homes in on an enemy. The Swarm is a pretty cool power up in my opinion. It send a swarm of gigantic bees to the front of the pack and they clutter up the roads, causing the racers to crash into them. They can be avoided, but they are harder to avoid then one might think. Probably the most important pickup is the All-Star. This pickup lets the racer activate their special ability. This ability makes them invincible, but what they can physically do in All Star mode varies between each character. For example, Football Manager can launch large soccer ball projectiles at the enemy, while Shogun can launch a large streak of missiles in front of him. The game has very interesting pickups, and they make the game ten times more competitive and fun!

There are a total of 28 racers in this game, giving you various options to pick with their unique stats and abilities. What really sets this game apart from other kart racing games are the mods you can unlock, and the fact that you're character can travel on land, air, and water. Each character can be leveled up, and with each level they unlock a mod. The mod can be a balance mode, acceleration mod, speed mod etc., and it changes the stats of your character. It usually changes two stats at the least, possibly three, and it really adds a new level of depth to the game. The races themselves span across various levels from various video games. There are levels and characters from Jet Set Radio, NiGHTS, Total War: Shogun, and more. Even characters from Team Fortress make an appearance in this medley of All Star Racers. The races change each lap, giving you new obstacles to worry about such as a ramp being destroyed, forcing you to race part of the level within the water. The air and water action within the game is surprisingly pretty solid. I really enjoyed flying in the air and then seamlessly gliding back into kart form. Each kart transforms depending on what terrain they are on. For example, the Shogun will have a Oriental themed kart, and a dragon boat for water travel, and a bi-plane like vehicle for air travel.

It should also be noted that this game supports Co-Op. You can plug in another Xbox 360 controller into your PC if you are not already using one, and race with your friends locally on your laptop! You can connect your laptop to a TV or monitor via HDMI and then race like that as well for a better experience. This feature alone makes the game worth it because you can game with friends and family without everyone having to own the game or wait turns to play single player. It was a fantastic addition to the game and it makes playing the game all the more enjoyable. The overall mechanics and features of the game are fantastic and fit perfectly into the kart racing genre. I'd give this game a solid 9/10.

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Not everything needs to be about the guitar

For the past couple of weeks or so, I have been making some music with my roommate Rob. He generally listens to EDM music and dubstep, but occasionally listens to rock and funk rock. Through making music with him, a person who's musical tastes are completely different than mine for the most part, I learned that not everything needs to have guitars in them. It sounds like such a dumb thing to say when you really think about. "Of course not EVERYTHING needs to have guitar." But when I hear music today and music from various time periods, I hear the guitar, whether it be the electric six string, or the bass guitar with four strings. He has musical knowledge in the respect that he has played piano for quite a while, but knows very little music theory, just like me. What he CAN do though, is hear a melody in his head, and keep it there long enough to write it out in the Digital Audio Workstation known as FL Studio via synths, claves' and other instruments.

Rob showed me a piece of music he had been working on for I'd say a week or two. He would always add new parts to it, ask my opinion on them, and re levels parts of the songs as he saw fit. Eventually, he came to a standstill, and had no more musical thoughts concerning this song. I looked at the most recent melody he had made, and I added on to it by transposing the piano melody onto my guitar, finding the key, and then writing a continuation to the piece. Adding on to that song showed me that everything isn't centered around the guitar, and that the guitar can still be used for writing, although it may not make an appearance in the song or piece itself.

What amazes me more is that when I played back the song, I was stunned that I had actually written that part, and that it got added into the song. It is as if a piece of myself is actually in that song and it represents just how far I have come as a musician. Writing a small part of that song showed me more about music and melody that I thought possible.  

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Band of the Week #7- Bullet For My Valentine

History:
Bullet for my Valentine formed in 2005 after changing their name from Jeff Killed John, a name the used from 1998 to 2005. They signed to Sony BMG records after declining an offer from Roadrunner Records. They released a self titled EP in the UK in 2004, and then their EP Hand Of Blood in the United States in 2005. Later in 2005, BFMV released their debut album The Poison within the UK. The U.S. saw the release of this album in 2006 on Valentine's Day. The debut album had tracks such as 4 Words (To Choke Upon), Hand of Blood, Tears Don't Fall, and Suffocating Under Words of Sorrow. Bullet toured the album extensively, gaining fans, and playing larger shows like Vans Warped Tour, Download Festival and other large tours. They're second album Scream Aim Fire, released early in January of 2008, and it was characterized as a much more aggressive album. Tracks such as Last to Know, Waking the Demon, and Take it Out On Me exemplify this concept. They toured for a while on this album, playing with bigger bands like Atreyu and Avenged Sevenfold on the Taste of Chaos tour. Their third album Fever was released in April of 2010 and the band stated that the sound would be similar to debut album, as opposed to SAF.  The album stands out in comparison to both their other records. It has a more hard rock feel, and there is considerably less amount of screaming and more guitar harmonies. Their follow up album Temper, Temper sounded a lot similar to Fever, but also has a specific uniqueness to it.

My Thoughts:
This hard rock/ metal band has been one the very few bands that have been able to change their sound on every album, minus Temper Temper, and still sound good. The sound change from their debut and SAF, and then SAF to Fever was so drastic, but they make their songs sound so good and intense. The lyrical content varies, but it mainly talks about relationships, a pretty common topic within music. The band does have a ballad or two, but most of their songs are hard rock songs that pump you up. The first song I heard by them was Hand of Blood, and the second was Waking the Demon. Both tracks have amazing guitar riffs that hook the listener, and the drum and vocal work are superb. They are a fantastic band, and they never seem to disappoint!

Waking the Demon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2I0ulTZWXA

Hand of Blood: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0SrxSMHDmE

Dignity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Var0o6AUvF8

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Street Fighter Documentary: I Am Street Fighter

I am a huge fan of documentaries that discuss bands or video games, and through the power of Reddit, I stumbled across the gem. This documentary about Street Fighter takes a look at one of the most pinnacle fighting games of all time, and views it from various angles. It talks about how the game was practically the grandfather of all fighting games, and how people would flock to arcades to play this game and compete against others in the local arcade scene. Since I was born in 1994, I never got to experience the arcade scene and all of its beauty and community. It shows how people would use their lunch money to play these stellar arcade games as opposed to buying food for themselves, how kids would wait in line to battle the current champion, and how everyone was just blown away by the game. People who are interviewed explain how Street Fighter changed fighting games forever, with basic concepts such as a two way health bar, 90 second matches, and a linear storyline; things that sound so simple and basic, yet so revolutionary. Whilst watching this documentary, I was consistently thinking of the Dragonball Z Series and how the games that would spawn out of it, Budokai and Tenkaichi, use all of the concepts that spawned from Street Fighter

Credits go to alvinlee on DeviantArt

The documentary then shows the community as a whole, and how far people would travel to play the best Street Fighter. Justin Wong would travel from NY to NJ to play and view tournaments, and then travel to California, across the whole country, to play an arcade game. Needless to say, the game changed his, and thousands of others' lives. People wanted to play the next Street Fighter, learn new combinations and interact with people in person. Unlike modern day, where we can sit in the comfort of our homes and La-z Boy recliner chairs, they preferred meeting in person and interacting with one another. They would become family practically, the arcade store becoming their second home. The documentary as a whole was fantastic, and is well worth the one hour twelve minute watch. It opened my eyes to the gaming scene prior to consoles and flat screen T.Vs, and quad core computers and 32inch monitor displays. It was well put together, and it was truly a beautiful sight to see all of these people coming together under one roof to see and enjoy something, similar to how fans would see a band or artist. I fully recommend this documentary, it's opens your eyes to a different kind of community, and the game that changed it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2gZBITO5GwI

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