Before I start, I’d like to point out that I played the game on PC

Run, vault over a fence, run onto a solar panel, jump from it on to a small building, slide down a tightrope, run, wallrun, turn and jump on to the rail to your left, run over a pipe hanging at 10th floor level between two buildings, jump down, roll, wallrun again and take a leap of faith from a piece plywood on to a pipe on the other side of the road,climb up….. What I just described was the first 30 seconds of the first chapter in Mirror’s Edge. And trust me, it doesn’t slow down. In fact, quite the opposite

.If you’ve been living in the center of the Earth for the last few months (the ad campaign for ME was so big, I think it would reach the comfy space under your rock of choice) let me give you the basic premise. The main character of the game is a runner by the name of Faith. Runners are like messengers, delivering information on foot, though not on the streets, but mostly rooftops. You see, their workplace is the City, a police state where the government can and does read and listen to every e-mail and every phone call of every citizen. Obviously there are people who don’t want the Blues spying on them, so they hire Runners, masters of the art of parkour. If you don’t know, parkour follows the general directive of running through an environment as fast and as fluid a possible, while avoiding any obstacles that may be placed in their path. And Faith has mastered that since it’s her basic mean of survival.

Normally you don’t discuss the graphics near beginning of a review, but ME is a special case. The game’s color pallet generally consists of black, white and primary colors (and variations thereof) slapped on to pieces of the environment like you’d use the fill tool in Photoshop. Thanks to that the game is very bright, which is a nice change from the usual gritty and dirty vibe you get from most modern shooter. All the colors besides red, are just there to differentiate the environment so it doesn’t get boring or just flow into one big white blob. Red though. Red is vital to the gameplay. Basically, the world is deprived of colors because one other ability, characteristic for Runners called Runner Vision. While all other objects are white or some other solid color, all the useful spots are marked red. Plywood boards that can extend your jump, small objects launching into a two-step jump sequence that almost always gets you on the object behind them without stopping,, monkey bars you can swing from, etc. etc. That and the button that points Faith in the general direction of where she’s supposed to go will be your two best friends during the game. But remember – even though the red objects show a path, it isn’t always the only one. The game, in a tutorial level, teaches you basic abilities that you have to put to intelligent use in the course of the levels. Go on YouTube and look for time trial video after you’ve played the game. You’ll be amazed.

The graphics themselves, while stylized are great. All the eye candy you can wish for: motion blur, lens flare, being blinded for a while when looking straight into the sun – it’s all there, and not slowing down for nothin’.

One important thing I haven’t mentioned is that the game is in the first person perspective. Meaning you can literally look down and see your feet, and in the beginning you’ll actually have to do that to be able to jump as late as you can from a ledge, because otherwise you might not be able to pull off the jump. Also you can compare some earlier demos and footage from the final game to see that the developers have a added a dot in the middle of the screen. Apparently some testers have developed motion sickness, and this little dot is the “fix” for that. The animation of Faith’s hands and legs, as well as her opponent’s moves is great and there’s nothing to complain about here either.

Now, that I’ve covered the parkour part of the game, there’s another important mechanic that needs to be discussed – fighting. Although there is an achievement for not firing a gun once during the game (well you have to, once, but that doesn’t count against it), I haven’t managed to do that on my first play through the game. In ME you can either fight hand to hand or with guns. The guns work fine, but it’s obvious that Faith isn’t really “compatible” with them. She moves slower, can’t jump as far, etc. when she’s packing heat. Besides the ammo runs out in seconds. Fighting hand to hand, although limited, is fine. You have set of moves depending on how you approach them enemy (running, jumping, sliding,, from a wallrun). The problem lies in a technique that could be very helpful but is too hard to pull off – disarming.. It works like a QTE – you approach the enemy and for a while, when he’s about to hit you, the gun flashes red at which point you press a button and are rewarded with a cool animation of the disarming. Problem is the time in which the gun is flashing red is so small that even when you use ME’s version of bullet time, it’s hard to get it just right. Maybe it gets easier with practice, but I tried it lots of times, and sadly failed quite often. And you’re not invincible while you’re disarming your opponent so you also have figure when and where to do it so you won’t get killed.  It wouldn’t be a big problem, but there are points in the game where you are forced to fight. Most of the time you can avoid the enemies and just run away. But, God knows why, in some spots the developer decided that you have to fight. Let me give you an example. You jump down to a rooftop. You see 3 SWAT guys dropping down from a chopper, all armed with automatic weapons. For some reason, two of them always stick together while the one remaining goes after you. Let’s you disarmed that one, but you had to use the bullet time because the SWAT are pretty quick. And now you’re, pardon my french, fucked. I’ve managed not shoot any of them finally but it took a few tries. Of course you can go the easy route and just shoot’em up, but what’s the fun in that? Would your inner achievement whore allow that disgraceful shortcut?

The audio is also up to par. There’s really no music in the game most of the time, just the sound of the wind and the cops chasing Faith. When there is music it’s mostly electronica, and it fits. I’m not a big fan of electronic music so I can’t tell if it’s a profound example of the genre, but I enjoyed it, especially in the context. Besides, the seeming lack of music is (at least for me) an incentive to play some of you own music. You know best what pumps you up, and trust me – that’s what you want in Mirror’s Edge. Actually there’s another sound that’s with you troughout the whole game that I haven’t mentioned – Mercury. He’s your boss and mentor and brings obvious thoughts of the operator in The Matrix. Him and the other voice actors were casted by someone who knows their trade. Besides the in-game chatter, there are cut-scenes which are voice-acted well, though when it comes to the visuals (of said cutscenes), opinions vary.

That’s because the cutscenes aren’t done in engine. Or rendered separately. They’re little pieces of animation, that actually bring flash movies you’d see on Newgrounds to mind. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing though it depends on your point of view. I myself enjoyed them, though I have to point out that they kinda take you out the game world (the dichotomy between the realistic world of the game and Flash-like cutscenes is striking) but it is possible to get used to them.

In my opinion DICE did a great job on the game. It’s just the right length, to be satisfied after it’s finished, but make you want more if a couple of days later. Then you got the Races, Time Trials and harder difficulty levels to play.

Mirror’s Edge is not, by any means, perfect. But it’s no less than great. If you’re willing to let go of the maybe bad cut-scenes, the disarming mechanic and a couple of other minor flaws, you’ll love Faith and the parkour. You’ll get into the flow and enjoy it. I did. No reason not to give it a try yourself…

If you’ve probably heard this already, but still it’s cool to see them perform a part of it.

I’m coming back with this installment of my last.fm series. Seriously late (because I’m lazy, and generally writer blocked most of the time, and seriously aware that this blog won’t really have a big or even small following because of those two things) but it’s here. Enjoy

1.Blind Guardian – Fly

Fly is a song from controversial-amongst-fans CD “A Twist In The Myth”. It went with what I percive as a trend of writing and recording music with playing live in mind. It’s much less complex (in terms of production, guitarwork is still stellar) with less overdubs and fixing in post. There are also some nicely used synths, which are prominent in the beggining of  Fly. It starts out fast and energetic and keeps it that way. Obviously very fitting for a live show.

2.Styles Of Beyond – Superstars

I’m normally a person prone listen to or enjoy hip-hop/rap, but Styles Of Beyond won me over after their perfomace on Fort Minor’s “The Rising Tied”. Great lyrycism, great beats, great delivery. Can’t give you much of a critique here, since I don’t many points of comparison. Also – a remixed version on the song appeared on the soundtrack for Need For Speed Most Wanted, and I reccomend that one.

3.In Flames – Drenched In Fear

In Flames’ “A Sense Of Purpouse” is also influenced by the “we write to play it live” trend, or “pussyfication and dumbing down of metal” as some might say. I have seen In Flames in concert, and I have to say – the new songs work in a live enviroment brilliantly. Drenched In Fear is a song bound to be played mid-set. It stomps in with a heavy lead, then slowing down in the verses, giving the audience a breather (or not, if you’re like me and know all the lyrics and sing along), before launching into a melodic chorus that’s rememrable so the crowd can sing along. Generally it’s a songs lifts the foot from the gas a bit, while still remaining energetic so the adrenaline flow doesn’t die down.

4.Byzantine – All Hail The End Times

Byzantine is a band I got turned on to by a few editors of Metal Sucks mentioning it on their top ten list for 2008. After the little taste I got on the bands myspace I couldn’t not get the whole album. It’s a nice balance between metal and hard rock (which I guess would be called hardcore, by I don’t feel the title fits the music that well) even reminding of Sabbath and classic Metallica at times. Regretfully I didn’t really listen to “Oblivion Beckons” enough, to know the songs really well, but they generally follow the same general formula (why fix it if it ain’t broke?) of screaming and singing switching off inbetween of fantasic riffage and soloing. Do yourself a favor and check them out.

5.In Flames – Moonshield

Remember what I said last time about real death metal and face melting – it’s basically the same. Moonshield strongly accents the melodic and it’s Swedish roots by the use of acoustic guitars in the intro and outro of the songs. But the rest of the song? It will melt your fucking face off, and the put it back on again just to rip it off your skull once again. Understood? Now go listen to it. NOW!

I want to get in a habit of updating the blog at least once every week with something. This was the first idea that came to mind so sit right back and I’ll tell you about 5 great songs of this week:

In Flames – Take This Life

Not much to say here. Great, energetic, fast paced song that does not slow down. I loved it anew after when IF played it at the end of the show in Dresden, after Anders announcing it said “It’s Take This Life, and it’s our love song to you [the fans]“.

Children Of Bodom – Are You Dead Yet

The title track of their 2005 album. It’s straight up COB. There’s a strong rhythm to kick it off, there’s strong bass, there are riffs up the wazoo, and there’s Alexi spewing out lyrics. The only thing this song lack is more input from Warmann. And don’t forget the solo.

Mastodon – Blood And Thunder

Awesome song from a very interesting album. As far as I can Leviathan is a concept album based Moby Dick (if you think that that’s a porn movie with the bald musician that you should be ashamed). And that basically equals awesome. The songs starts with a nice, rocky/groovy rhythm and keeps is up while the vocalist does his magic. Said magic is preformed with a low, growling, raspy yet still understandable vocals combined with the Moby Dick lyrics. If you’ve heard the song before on the soundtrack for Need For Speed : Most Wanted and liked it, then definitely get the whole album.

AC/DC – Rock And Roll Train

What is there to say? It’s AC/DC. It’s people that could be your grandfather still rocking the f’ out. The song is all classic AC/DC all the time. There’s Angus with a stop/start riff. There’s Brian Johnson rocking his classic taxi driver cap and vocals that haven’t changed one bit and lyrics there are there more to fit the music than to carry some higher meaning. All you can want from AC/DC.

In Flames – Jotun

If you’re into death metal (and by that I mean swedish melodic death metal, not uber br00tal hardcorz Slipknot or some other shit that you kids think makes you a badass) and you haven’t heard this song, then get f’ out and listen to it. Now! I’ll wait….. Done? Is you face still on? No? Good.

As some of you know, not so long ago Christian Alvestam left Scar Symmetry. After I read the news I nearly beat myself to unconsciousness for not listening to Scar Symmetry before Holographic Universe. But the world goes on, I’ve stopped beating myself stupid and started to enjoy the band more ( I’m avoiding the abbreviation for obvious reasons). But then the news came. And I can say that “splitting Alvestam into two” was a great idea. The guys do a great job, they simulate Alvestam’s sound quite well, while still preserving their own. I can’t for some new material, recorded with the new vocalists. I hope they explore the gap between clear and growl more.

Check out the audition video after the jump.

[via Metal Sucks]

Those who visited the site earlier will notice the redesign. Those who didn’t – well they won’t. But you can share your thoughts on it anyway. On to the point.

Cover of Protest The Hero - Fortress

You don’t usually write a year’s top tens in August so I’m not going to, but I have to admit I was tempted to. This year I set, as a goal for myself, to listen to as much new music as I can. Of course being a metalhead I’m not going to check everything that Rolling Stone recommends so as for a guide for most of my musical travels I turned to MetalSucks , though I of course used advices from other places.

When reading the before mentioned MetalSucks I stumbled on a review of Protest The Hero’s new album – Fortress. So I went to the band’s myspace, and saw the video for Sequoia Throne. And drowned in all the awesome…

Yeah I am, maybe, getting too excited about this band, but I just can’t help it. It obviously does not beat In Flames in my book, but IF has been my favourite band for forever, so it’s not like that’s going to happen anytime soon. But, my love for the Swedes aside, Protest The Hero is really a unique band. I can’t really put in a category with band like Dream Theater. It is prog-metal, but only the vocalist shreds that box into pieces not to mention the other band members.

I’m no music reviewer but I will try to bring you as much of a review as I can manage:

What struck me the most about PTH was the vocalist. There are many bands out there who are brilliant technically, able to perfectly pull crazy licks with the background of the drummer doing 200 bpm blast beats. That’s all great but I really like some good clean vocals in metal. When a singer just goes all trough the song just doing deep growls (f.ex. Cannibal Corpse), I bang my head to the music but the pure cookie monster vocal just doesn’t sit well with me. Of course I listen to bands that base their vocals on growls and screams (In Flames! They did only that with maybe some cleans in between in the earlier days) but I can’t really listen to bands that just stick to the most basic extreme metal vocal formula. And here – PTH shines. Rody Walker brilliantly shows off that he can do basically everything in terms of metal vocals. He has a really good clean voice which he uses extensively on Fortress, but intermixes it with some growls and screams which add a lot of character to the vocals. It’s clearly stated in the interviews with him, that vocals are the last part of the recording process. All the music and all the lyrics are already written when Walker enters the studio. And he uses it to his advantage. Using the music and his own vocal skills he pulls off some really cool growls and screams, but also some hooky cleans that will have singing along after a few listens.

Then comes the bass. Brought to you by Arif Mirabdolbaghi, who also writes the lyrics for the band. At that’s what I wanted to talk about first, because it’s quite unusual for the bassist to be writing the lyrics. And you don’t really think about it because the lyrics are actually very good. Of course it’s up to the truly die-hard fans to decipher what Mirabdolbaghi had in mind, and since the songs are supposed to form a story it’s even harder to interpret what he wrote. That aside, any avid metal listener can spot the references to our contemporary reality cleverly hidden under the guise of a fantasy storytelling (let’s not mix PTH with power metal bands, though).

But what about the bass? It’s quite unusual too. In opposite to most metal bands these days, the bass line is actually very “visible” on this album. That’s thanks to Mirabdolbaghi being a really good bass player. He shows his skills in the band’s music videos and live performances, where you can see such unusual techniques as simultaneous tapping by the guitarist and the bassist.

If we’re on bass let’s quickly touch on drums too. I admit that I just can’t ,with a clean mind. judge any body’s drumming (unless it is obviously horrible) so all I can say is that in my opinion the drummer does his job. He just fills in the gaps that the bassists leaves very well, and with doing that he still adds a personal element to every song.

I don’t want this review to become a list, but the next logical step is to talk about the guitars. And as a beginning guitar player myself I have to say that I was in awe when I heard this album. It feels like those guys are soloing all through the songs and just step up to another level of complexity for the actual solos. Let me explain this with the example of Sequoia Throne – The song begins with a two-finger tapping lick, which turns out to be the main riff. And it keeps it up all trough the song. Repeat that all through the album. Really what more can want?

I am maybe a little bit too optimistic about this CD. I can’t help it. I’ve been listening to it for over two weeks now and it still is as exciting when I listened to it for the first time.

I don’t like scores, so I’m not going to give one, but you can be assured that Fortress gets my highest praise, and I recommend for you go out and get it.

Well, that’s about it. If more words come out of my brain it’ll spill out of my ears, and that I will not do to entertain you. Hope you enjoyed this post, dear reader.

Hail the rubber chicken!

PS. Apparently you can also get an instrumental version of Fortress on iTunes.

Breakdown in 3.14

Pi was written and recorded only a few days before the completion of the Master copy, at around 10 am, with a couple of serious hangovers. Justin and I had talked about having a classical guitar intro into some sort of heavier riffage, but we weren’t quite sure what that was exactly going to be.

We remembered back to a few weeks prior, when we were throwing around an idea of using the mathematical constant Pi, and incorporating it into some sort of complex breakdown pattern where the kick drum corresponded to each number as the figure progressed. Kinda creating the ultimate mind boggler of a riff. The complexity of the intro is often overheard, because it’s hard to discern what is actually going on within the track, UNTIL NOW!!!

Here’s a breakdown of the….um, breakdown, in the intro to our album, “Pi: The Mercury God Of Infinity”

The actual tempo is 120 beats per minute (bpm). You can hear this by listening for the closed hi-hat that is panned left: it is playing constant eighth-notes.

The snare is on beat three in 4/4 time at 120 bpm.

A crash cymbal accents beat one of the first measure in 4/4. It is repeated every four measures.

Now this is where it gets tricky: the china cymbal.

It’s hard to feel the breakdown in Pi at 120 bpm, and this is mostly due to the china cymbal, which is playing a 4 over 3 (4/3) dotted-eighth note ostinato that begins on the “E” of one.

Confused?

Check it out: A quarter note is equal to one beat in 4/4 time, but so are two eighth notes, or 4 sixteenth notes. It’s all about subdividing note values.

When you count a measure of 4/4 in quarter notes, it’s: 1, 2, 3, 4.

When counting in eighth notes, it’s: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +. (a plus sign refers to the spoken count “and” ex. “One and two and three and four and”)

When counting in sixteenths, it’s: 1 E + A 2 E + A 3 E + A 4 E + A. (Spoken: “One e and a two e and a three e and a four e and a)

So when I say the china starts on the “E” of one, I’m referring to the spoken counting value assigned to the second 16th note in a quarter note duration.

A dotted eighth note is a duration of three 16th notes, an ostinato is a persistently repeated pattern. Basically, the china plays on the bold-capitalized letters:

one E and a TWO e and A three e AND a four E and a ONE e and A etc.

Starting to get it? Cool.

At last, the reason Pi is what it is: the Double-bass pattern.

The formula of Pi for the kick drum was pretty far fetched at first, but seemed to work well once the track was finished. The numbers and rests in the formula translate to 16th notes on the kick drum, and 16th note rests. There is no kick drum beats where there are snare drums. Sooo, here it is:

With the decimal point BEFORE the number, and starting with the first number, move that many decimal points to the right and insert that many 16th note rests. Use one 16th note rest to divide the numbers you passed (when applicable). Continue on throughout the rest of the figure. No repeats.

So basically for the first step, you’d place the point (pt) before the first number, three: (pt)3.14159265

Next you jump the decimal three points to the right: 3.14(pt)159265

That’s where you insert three 16th rests, and insert one 16th note rest between the other numbers you passed: 3(16th rest)1(16th rest)4(dotted-eighth)159265

Now, your decimal lies in between the 4 and the 1. So, following the formula, you move one point to the right of the 1 and insert one 16th note rest. There are no numbers to separate with single 16th rests, so you move onto the next number, which is 5, and follow the same instructions.

That’s all there is to it! The formula extends out to 71 decimal points

Yeah….

For my opening statement I’d like to ask:

What the fuck?!

Even better, I think this will illustrate my point even better. So if the title of this post and the CAD comic aren’t enough explanation, you’re probably asking yourself, dear reader, “what the heck is this guy going on about?”. Well let me enlighten you.

During this year’s E3 keynote Nintendo presented something they call the Wii Motion Plus, which supposedly enhances the Wiimote’s orientation in 3D space, which is, of course, beneficial for developers of new Wii games, and basically means you can throw a virtual dog a virtual frisbee, and the throwing motion of you’re Mii will be a little more accurate. “What’s wrong with that ?”, you may ask. I’d that at least two things if not more.

1. Obviously, even though the frisbee throuwing is a real miningame in WiiSports Resort, I was sarcastic before. But let’s think realistically, developers are going to want use the new functionality in their games (for example, Ubisoft has confirmed that they will use the ‘Plus in Red Steel 2). And that’s great, isn’t it? No, it isn’t because I and probably a lot of other people don’t think the ‘Plus will be really widely adopted. By the customers, I mean. You’ll get one attachment with Resort, but what if you don’t want to play another WiiSports, or have 4 controllers? Spending 80 dollars (20$ US for one Wii Motion Plus attachment) for some dongle that you don’t even does what it says on the box isn’t really a happy prospect. And this doubt leads me to my next point.

2. Remember when Sony decided to finally come out with the Dual Shock 3? First of all, they got berated for even daring to change the controller during the console’s lifespan. The DS3 is known to be better than the SIXAXIS (it’s sturdier, heavier, and most importantly it vibrates) but since not every gamer would get the new controller, the vibrations couldn’t be used as a vital part of gameplay as it was on PS2, because gamers without the device couldn’t get the same experience and presumably the game would be harder for them. And now (look at the CAD comic again) Nintendo jumps out with something that could be even more important to gameplay, since the lack of it could possibly render games unplayable. And, prove me wrong, but I haven’t seen as many critical comments as at the time of the Dual Shock 3 annoucement.

Of course now I could go on using big market terms like “splitting the customer base” but I think you get the idea.

So, I just wanted to vent my frustration with this situation, if you have any feedback on the topic at hand or on my writing (I’d love some critique) please feel free to leave comments.

The story from The Digital Home

Right of the bat I have to say I can’t disagree with the story itself. Nintendo hit a jackpot with the DS which trumps the sales numbers even of the Wii, and is the handheld of choice for the masses. And with many great games, and series thereof (including, of course, all of the well known Nintendo franchises) there is a reason for it’s popularity. That said, I have to take issuse with two things that Mr. Reisinger said in his article (quotes in bold text):

(..)Nintendo contends that complete or demo DS games will be made available for download on the Wii and can then be transferred to the DS wirelessly. And while this sounds somewhat like Sony’s ill-conceived idea of PSP integration with the PS3, Nintendo’s idea is not only a far more important step forward(..)
Huh? I agree that it’s great that Nintendo decided to bring out that service, it’s a great value add for people who own both systems. But I can’t really agree with the statement that integrating the PSP with the PS3 is in any way ill-concived. Getting over the fact that Mr. Reisinger does not argument that statement in any way, shape or form, comparing both systems on a theoretical level, I can say that both have it’s ups and downs. With Sony’s products you can download demos and classic games, stream music and movies, or even play on the PS3 with the PSP (vide: Lair). Of course this lacks the ability to buy full, new releases but you don’t know what Sony has up it’s sleeve. The Nintendo systems have, when connected, the ability to interact with some Wii games with the DS, and download demos, and now full games, to the handheld. One can argue that either one is superior, but I don’t want to breach on the fanboy’s wars territory. Besides how can it really be a step forward on Nintendo’s part, when already admitted that Sony was the first to utilize that funcionality in that way (because who can forget the impossible scenari when 3 of your friends have GBAs and want to play Crystal Chronicles with you)

(..)Is the PSP still hanging around? Sure. But for how long can we expect that junker to try and make a mark in the mobile market?(..)
Actually, it already did. And then again with the PSP2000. And will again when Crysis Core comes out in English. Of course, it is obvious that it won’t repeat the succes of the DS, but it has made a mark, and has some great games. And is a great portable video player. And you can browse the web on it, without having to pay for the browser as opposed to the DS. That, and the PS3 connectivity definetly don’t make up a “junker”.

Just to be clear – I don’t have anything against Mr. Resinger, and I think you should definetly go read the whole story, but I just disagree with some of his points, and since everyone is empowered to blog whatever they want – I decided to write a rebuttal, which, most likley, no one will read anyway. Oh well, here’s a picture of a kitty to cool down the anger.

Don’t worry, that bruise will come off quickly. Train your reflex for the next time. And yeah. I wanted to drop by, and drop a line (ubergeek joke: “I know, RAID-1″). Since Christmas is coming up (I celebrate Christmas, if you celebrate anything else, go ahead, just don’t kill any rubber chickens in the procces) I’m going to have some time to write up a few posts in advance (if I manage to not play Guitar Hero III all day) which I will release on a, I hope, regular basis. Expect some gaming and around gaming, heavy music, podcast, tech and maybe some book talk. I think I have something to say about Gertsmanngate for a good start. Maybe a nice summary of the past or of the future. I got a few ideas written down, but please don’t expect the podcasts post times 15. That was a perfect storm. And painful to read trough for some I presume.
Anyhoo,
Hail the rubber chicken!
fantasyh