"Seems Like Old Times"

As I am driving around the beautifully, authentically reproduced Los Angeles circa 1947 of L.A. Noire, my current favorite tune to come on the radio is Vaughn Monroe and Orchestra's "Seems Like Old Times." It's swingin', yet melancholy (and slightly ominous), and fits perfectly with the overall tone and story of the game:

Rogue Wave does "Everyday"

I really like this re-working, re-imagining of Buddy Holly's song "Everyday." Talk about a cover version. It's practically a different song, but yet not. A bit jarring at first to fans of the original, Rogue Wave's redesign is pretty flippin' cool. I bet even ol' Buddy Holly himself would approve. It's on the soundtrack to a 2005 videogame I've never heard of, and I consider myself something of a videogame nerdingerster.

L.A. Noire

There's been a lot made out of the realistic facial expressions of the characters in the latest from Rockstar Games, L.A. Noire. It uses "ground-breaking new MotionScan performance-scanning technology, which utilizes 32 high-definition cameras to capture actors’ faces in 3D, transferring every aspect of the performance into the game, enabling players for the first time to lip-read in-game characters and to read every facial expression down to the finest detail" (source). To me, it's actually the least appealing part of the game. I think the process makes the characters' heads seem disproportionally larger than their bodies, especially if they are wearing a hat, which, because the setting is the 1940s, everyone is.

"Hallo, Mister X"

An instrumental used in the videogame Fallout New Vegas. The composer is a German dude named Gerhard Trede. He appears to have been someone from the Swing Era(?) who later got into electronic music. Or I could be completely wrong about that. Either way, I really love "Hallo, Mister X." Here is a short bio of Trede:

"Ten Cents a Dance"

Taxi dancers waiting for a customer; gosh, they look so friendly and welcoming...
I am currently playing through Bioshock 2 and loving it almost as much as the first game. For one thing, the soundtrack is just as great as the original's (the licensed tracks). There is some seriously good (if not old) music on both games, and it usually is used quite effectively to establish (or reinforce) the creepy mood of the game. I would probably have never discovered The Ink Spots or heard Billie Holiday's "God Bless the Child" (God bless her soul for it) had it not been for Bioshock. I think my current favorite on the sequel is "Ten Cents a Dance," as popularized by Ruth Etting.

Ruth Etting in her prime
Rising to fame in the twenties and early thirties, Ruth Etting was renowned for her great beauty, her gorgeous voice and her tragic life. She starred on Broadway, made movies in Hollywood, married a mobster, had numerous hit-records, fell in love and was known as America's Sweetheart of Song.
(From her official site, maintained by a granddaughter of one of her cousins.)



Yikes - the blondes must have been overworked or something
More on taxi dancers.

Red Dead Redemption

Well, I know one thing I'll be doing in April. I love the Grand Theft Auto videogame series, and have ever since the franchise jumped onto the Playstation platform back in October 2001. I was hooked at that point on, so like most GTA junkies, I endured the unspeakable two years between my favorite of the series, Vice City (2002) and the epic, massive, overwhelming reworking of the series, San Andreas (2004), by getting my fix playing the inermim games from the GTA series' creator, Rockstar Games, including the ultra-violent and gory Manhunt (which was just too creepy and unpleasant to really enjoy) in 2003 and the Western-themed Red Dead Revolver in spring 2004. One could see back in 2004 how Rockstar was attempting to put a Sergio Leone Western-style template on its Grand Theft Auto game engine and by then legendary and revolutionary "sandbox" approach to game play with Red Dead Revolver. But it, like Manhunt, felt more to me as if Rockstar games was simply experimenting with things like new weapon targeting systems, game play mechanics and physics, as well as the A.I. of non-player characters in the game. Therefore, both games, in my humble onion, suffered as a result. While interesting in each, its own unique way, both games fell flat when compared with any Grand Theft Auto game. So I was amazed to learn Rockstar had tried again with the Western genre and will release Red Dead Redemption in the spring of 2010. It looks like it'll be fairly amazing:

I should have known better

So, I finally got The Beatles Rock Band. Having never played one of these Rock Band/Guitar Hero games before, I see that what I've heard about actual musicians having a hard time with them is true. So far, I'm either really bored or completely overwhelmed by it, depending on the difficulty level. It's a very weird experience to play songs I've played on actual guitars for twenty-something years on that sucker you see pictured above. With the little I've played of it, I currently am feeling like Randy Marsh. I hope it's getting better (it can't get no worse). I guess if I'd never actually played music in the real world, I might like games like this more. And I'm still hopeful I'll end up liking it, but as far as playing video games is concerned, I'd rather be shooting things and blowing stuff up.

Open letter to Harmonix

Dear Harmonix:

Well, well, well, the vaunted, Lennon-friendly 9/9/09 has come and passed. Despite being a Beatles fanatic since 1981 (learning to play the guitar at 14 in order to "be" a Beatle, buying all the albums and then later the CDs), I don't believe I'll be purchasing the remastered box sets just so I can hear "crisper cymbals" and "warmer bass lines." I guess I'm just not that much of an audiophile. And what's this I hear about no "I've got blisters on my fingers!!" on the mono version of The Beatles?? Sacrilege, I say. A pox on your house, whoever made that decision. May you rot in Hell, sir or madam. The thought of a generation of kids not experiencing "the White Album" for the first time without that on it? For shame....FOR SHAME!!!! Don't get me started on how the pitch is shifted up intentionally on the mono mix of "She's Leaving Home."

But I digress, Harmonix. As one who loves The Beatles and videogames, I've been anticipating for months your "Beatles Rock Band," which you released yesterday. Having never purchased any of your previous "Rock Band" games, I have no controller/guitar with which to play the game. SO, despite the tepid reviews, I spent about an hour yesterday in Naconowhere searching, earnestly, for one. And by "one," I mean one of these, damnit:

Now, maybe I'm just being picky, but the stores (Hastings and GameStop) which had them at all (our "super" Wal-Mart had not a one of them...wtf?), offered only this "model":



Understand, I love George Harrison and I admire Chet Atkins and all, but the guitar I dreamed about as a kid and drew during math classes, over and over and over again, was this one:


This one:

This one:

This one:

This one:

Yes, this one:
So, Harmonix, until I can walk into a store, locally, and purchase one of those, I'm not buying or playing your freaking game!

Sincerely yours,

Exquisitely Bored in Nacogdoches

P.S. I love you.

Mattel's Football

I'm really enjoying a Gawker offshoot, Gizmodo '79, and I hope they keep it up beyond this "week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born." They just did a post about Mattel's Football, one of the "popular standalone handheld games of the late '70s." I spent sooo much time playing this game. It's amazing how mesmerizing those tiny red dots of light could be on that little screen. Those games are probably responsible for many people my age being able to pick up on current, similar technology with relative ease and irritation. But what a "trip" it is to think about these again!

Greatest rock band, EVER

The Beatles--sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun
I must say, Yoko, Paul, Olivia, and Ringo made a brilliant move in lending the Beatles (their name, music and image) to the latest in the Rock Band series of videogames. It will no doubt gain them countless number of young fans they might otherwise not have attracted. I just hope some of those kids learn to actually play their music on real musical instruments! For older fans, such as myself, it will reinforce in their minds the idea that there will never, ever again be a group as wonderful as the Beatles.

And what group is more perfect for one of these games than the Fabs? I've never played any of the Rock Band or Guitar Hero games, but I assume the player has to master certain levels to get further into the game. So, the way in which the Beatles rose to higher and higher levels of success (Hamburg to the Cavern, to conquering the U.K., then Europe, America, etc.) must have made it really easy to design the game. Also, what other rock band in the history of popular music had the musical development of the Beatles?? This too will make for a really interesting game -- i.e., you can't play "Ticket to Ride" until you've mastered "Twist and Shout," etc. The Beatles: Rock Band comes out on 9/9/09...

One can watch actual gameplay here, or even better, the trailer. It is a thing of beauty, even if there wasn't a game to promote. Although they got the chronology of the music wrong in some places, it still has the same kind of coolness the mashups done for last year's Love had in some places. It's a neat, mini-history of the group, minus all the petty squabbling and growing-up-and-apart issues (let's leave all that for an awesome film someday):

Wouldn't it be neat to see a "reboot" or just a redo of the Beatles cartoon which aired from 1965-69 in this style? The correct answer is "yes."

The Beatles as video game

As a guy who learned to play guitar and piano at a young age, I'm sort of against kids playing games like Guitar Hero on the principle they could be learning to play a real instrument instead. I've never played any of them, despite having an Xbox 360. But that may be about to change. The maker's of the Rock Band games announced yesterday it was doing a game based around the music of The Beatles.

The game will aim to feature the entire Beatles catalog and will offer an "experiential journey" off the band...

"This game will take you on a journey from the Beatles first album Please Please Me until the last album at Abbey Road,” said Apple Corps CEO Jeff Jones. “It will span samples of the whole catalogue all the way through.” (source)

Here's an "imagining" someone did of the game using The Sims engine:


Still, despite the fact Sir Paul says "The project is a fun idea which broadens the appeal of The Beatles and their music. I like people having the opportunity to get to know the music from the inside out," I can't help thinking that many of the kids who'll play it would be better off "having the opportunity to get to know the music from the inside out" by learning to play it on an actual musical instrument. What if Guitar Hero (with Buddy Holly, Chet Atkins, Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley songs) had been around back when John, Paul, George, or Ringo were teenagers in Liverpool??

GTA IV stunt montage

And I thought I was good at Grand Theft Auto IV! This person is particularly good at successfully completing the various, miscellaneous stunts the topography of Liberty City presents:



You'll never look at that nearly iconic image of the "lollipop girl" in this post's opening pic after you realize she has six fingers on her right hand.....

Tourist Guide to Liberty City

This awesome video is being described as a "collaboration" between Rockstar Games and GameStop. It's titled "Give Me Liberty: Tourist Guide to Liberty City":



Twenty-six days and counting........

Grand Theft Auto IV box art video

I love the buildup, and pre-release excitement, revolving around these games! It's to the point that the actual release is a bit of a comedown. A new trailer called "Move up, ladies" premieres next Thursday (Devember 6) at the official site.

Jurassic Park on the Sega Genesis

The videogame Jurassic Park was released on October 10, 1992, on the 16-bit Sega Genesis game system:


From its Wikipedia entry:

On the Mega Drive/Genesis, Game Gear and Sega Master System a side scrolling platformer action game titled Jurassic Park was developed by BlueSky Software. This game can be played in two modes, either as Dr. Alan Grant or as a Velociraptor. Playing as each provides the user with an alternative story and level design.

The climax of the game mirrored the unused climax of the film, in which Grant must defeat a pair of Velociraptors by causing the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton in the Visitors Center to collapse on top of them. Grant himself is the final boss in the same location for the raptor storyline: your dinosaur character must cause the bone structure to collapse via certainly placed kicks to cause Grant to flee.

Manhunt 2

I'm a huge fan and consumer of almost everything Rockstar Games produces. Just as I should be completing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, this summer, Manhunt 2 will be released. It appears to be even more disturbed and disturbing than its predecessor (yippee!). Here's the latest trailer:



Here's a brief history of Rockstar Games:

Arcade '84

Keith at Malls of America has this video some guy made, in which he pays tribute to the video arcade of the mid-80s: "Arcade '84 is my attempt at recreating the atmosphere of the classic arcades. It's a 3-minute+ trip through an imaginary arcade circa 1984 entirely rendered in 3D computer graphics."



Game over, indeed.

Grand Theft Auto IV

Wow...just...wow....Looks like I'll be getting a PS3 after all. The graphics on this one are stunning. With the GTA games, the way the in-game cinemas look is usually the way the games look, as well (unlike most other games). And there may be a terrorism/terrorist-related story (much scarier and menacing than the Mafia).


Check out a nicer quality version of the trailer here.
The main character, with a vaguely Eastern-European accent. Perhaps a terrorist?

And rampant speculation as to the location can now end; the series returns to Liberty City.

Screencaps from GTA4.TV

IV

Tomorrow....

Vice City Stories

Vice City Stories for the PS2 will be out in North America on March 6, 2007 and on European retail shelves on March 9, 2007. My favorite of all the Grand Theft Auto games is Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, so I'm mildly psyched. In addition, Rockstar Games plans to release Manhunt 2 Summer 2007.

Aw, cool! This one has rednecks in it?
This is the trailer for the PSP version, so it's hard to tell if the Playstation conversion resulted in the same poor picture quality present in Liberty City Stories.