Fool's Chaos on Soundcloud

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Bethesda's Dishonored - new Walkthrough videos

Bethesda released two new walk-through videos for Arkane's Dishonored. If you missed the original gameplay video you can watch it here 
VG247 has a write up on it here

This game looks amazing and each video they release increases my anticipation for it's release date.  I'm a big fan of stealth games, Dishonored has that but allows you to play aggressively if that is what you wish. This is going to be one of those games you will want to replay to make different choices, I love that :)

The first video - takes the slow and stealthy approach.



The second video - takes the aggressive approach

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

(Music) - New video posted - Dancing In Starlight

This is my track Dancing in Starlight, available as a free download on my Soundcloud and Reverbnation pages. Inspired by the dancing clubs in the Mass Effect series and Babylon 5. It's a melancholy sad dancing track inspired by trying to have fun while the world and galaxy burns around you.


Monday, June 25, 2012

(Music) - Meat Beat Manifesto - An influence

I am a huge fan of Meat Beat Manifesto - Jack Dangers and have been since the 90's. I consider Jack's music a huge influence on the music I make. While my tracks don't really sound like his, his awesome beats and unique style was what I was listening to when I was just starting out making mod or 669 tracker files in the early 90's. I didn't know that Jack had an official  Youtube Channel until today thanks to Synthtopia, who posted the video, please check out their post here. Please check out MBM's lastest vid below.




This is probably the most known track by Meat Beat Manifesto which appeared on the Matrix Soundtrack. The bass in this track is just killer and as a bassist I loved this.



Jack is also quite skilled at creating an audio atmosphere. This track sounds like something you would have heard in the game Bioshock.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

(Games) The Amazing Spider-Man - FEATURES BRUCE CAMPBELL - Whoo hoo!! :)

I am a huge fan of Bruce Campbell. :) I have the Evil Dead movies in multiple versions and collectable releases, and I love his style of humor. I am now really looking forward to the new Spiderman title, you can never have too much Bruce Campbell. The game also features creator Stan Lee as you have never seen him before, I love that. Stan seems like such a cool guy, I want to be like him when i grow up :)


Tuesday, June 19, 2012

(Music) - New tracks :)

I recently just posted two new tracks :)

The first track is a collaboration I have completed with Gail Something-Else. She has an amazing voice and the song turned out spectacular. Gail's lyrics are so emotional, you feel like she is venting just to you. You can hear her other tracks at her soundcloud page


The second track was written, recorded and sang by Emma Zen, and I provided the bass guitar. I have always loved her beautiful voice and music and it was an honor to jam with her track.You can check out her other tracks at her soundcloud profile

Friday, June 8, 2012

(Games) - Epic's Unreal Engine 4

Epic is banging the next gen drum and I'm loving them for it.
I am a true technology nerd/geek and graphics enthusiast, I am one of those gamers that would buy a new top end graphics card (or three) every year if I could afford it, but alas I usually do so every 2 to three generations. (I wrote a previous article on that here)

Epic's Unreal Engine 4 reveal doesn't disappoint. Joystiq has a bunch of videos in one place, I recommend going here for all the details.

You can also check out the main reveal videos from gametrailers below.




Wednesday, June 6, 2012

(Gaming) - Gender Criticism for Gamers

Gamasutra featured a great article from Kaitlin Tremblay that covers an aspect of games that gets on my nerves at times. The over the top sexual objectification of characters in games.

I'm not just talking the barely clothed comic book style representations of females, but the buff beefcake machismo in male characters too. I recommend reading the article, it's funny and well written.

Kaitlin also has a blog  (ThatMonster) where she writes about games and nerd culture, I recommend checking that out as well.




(Gaming) Best of E3 - Glimpses of Next Gen

There are three glimpses of next gen gaming at E3 this year, with a fourth coming Thursday with Epic's reveal of what the Unreal Engine 4 can do. Any graphic or technology geek will appreciate these two games.

1). Ubisoft's Watch Dog's - Many gamers love the idea of an open world video game where it feels like a real life modern city. The Grand Theft Auto, Mafia, and Saint's Row series of games have increasingly improved on this, but Ubisoft's new title Watch Dogs just blows everything else out of the water. This is run on a high end PC, and I would love to know the specs, as I don't know if my machine could run it. The open world visibility, effects, textures, amount of characters on the screen, and animation is on a completely new level. This is a game that would make gamers buy a new Next gen console, this game would be a killer app. The only question is if MS and Sony will make a good enough console to run it, or will we be forced to upgrade or buy new PC's to play this amazing game.



2). Star Wars 1313 - I had heard rumblings regarding a new "mature" Star wars title but I was blown away when I watch the demo shown on Gametrailers. This is truly next gen, I only hope the next consoles can actually play something with this much detail.


3). Square Enix's next gen engine demo - We are getting to the point where they will be able to release the movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within as a real time game or movie demo. This engine is very impressive.




(GAMES) Glorious E3 - One gamer's opinion

I'm one of those hardcore gamers or "core" gamers, so much so that I look forward to E3 like it's a true holiday.
When the month of May comes around and all the pre-E3 speculation starts, I get excited and become a major annoyance to my friends. (Does this sound like you or someone you know?)

As E3 gets closer, I start sending emails and messages about checking this or that out. When E3 week finally happens I have to hold myself in check from spamming my friends with my opinions and updates. I love gaming, and like any "core" gamer, I tend to be very opinionated and passionate about it. It seems I am one among many, as there are forums and message boards filled with love and disgust at what happens at E3 every year. I am usually spouting my opinions right there with everyone else, but now I have my own blog, so I can go into much greater detail and not have to mail bomb my friends.

The conferences - Microsoft

I never know what to expect with Microsoft's E3 conferences.
I want the same thing every year; new surprise AAA titles and online/offline features to build excitement for the Xbox 360 until the next E3. I think that is what most "hardcore" gamers want, nothing too extravagant presentation wise, just awesome games, new hardware, and new features and services.

At E3 2012, MS decided it was a good idea to have Usher perform a track at their conference, WHY?
I remember when the 360 announced in 2005, MS threw a party shown on TV and invited celebs and The Killers to perform. I remember at the time thinking that was ridiculous but it made more sense than taking time away from your gaming announcements.

MS could learn some lessons from Sony's E3 presentation, as Sony mostly kept their presentation about games. MS focused much of their presentation on non-gaming items like the very interesting smartglass, and the kinect's voice recognition for searching movies, TV, and music on XBL. From the comments I have read online, many gamers are disappointed with that focus.

The conference opened up with Halo 4, and it was very impressive. 343 Industries had a big job and a ton of pressure to create a new Halo that was as good or better than what Bungie has done with it's prior trilogy. From the intro and gameplay they showed it seems they have delivered.
I loved the FMV mixed with the CGI that flowed right into game play, the transition was smooth and the graphics were beautiful. Halo 4 looks to improve on Reach graphically and that alone is impressive.

During the conference, MS gave us Splinter Cell: Blacklist, a new Forza, Fable: The Journey, a new Gears of War, COD: Black Ops 2, the new Tomb Raider, and a few others. There was simply nothing new here as all the games listed were expected or yet another sequel. Outside of Halo 4, the best gaming highlight was when Matt Stone and Trey Parker appeared on stage talking about South Park: The Stick Of Truth. As a South Park fan I am hoping this title turns out to be as awesome as it should be, go Obsidian!!

Much of the conference was spent talking about new entertainment apps for XBL, Smartglass, Nike+Kinect, Usher and Dance Central 3, Kinect and voice activation. While the voice activation demo was impressive as well as what Smartglass will be able to do, it took away from the games, and it felt like MS was padding their conference to fill time. This could be exactly the case as the rumormill suggests the next Xbox will arrive next year, and maybe they are saving for the 2013 E3.

Rare didn't make an appearance this year, which indicates they are working on games for the next gen. Crytek's Ryse didn't make an appearance though it was teased last year, so it looks to be canceled or will be a next gen game. Overall I felt the MS conference was disappointing but looking back on 2004's E3 (which was the E3 before the 360 was shown in 2005), I guess it's not any worse.

The Conferences - Sony

Sony's E3 presentation was mostly what the hardcore gamer wanted, except no Kevin Butler. I imagine they will bring Kevin back for Sony's next console, at least I hope so!

Sony started off with a NEW IP (MS take note!) called Beyond: Two Souls, and the game looked amazing. The facial technology is the best I have seen in a console game this generation. It looks like it's going to be a fantastic game.  Sony ended with The last of US which looked amazing and had a very intense game play experience. Both games were more exciting to me than anything MS showed outside of Halo 4.

In between we had a chance to see an EPIC Assassins Creed 3 naval warefare battle (Seriously impressive!), God of War: Ascension, Playstation All-Star Battle Royale, Far Cry III Co-op Multiplayer, entertainment apps, and the incredibly boring Wonderbook presentation. What I noticed we didn't see much of was new Vita software, they mentioned a few titles but I thought that they would really push that at E3. The large amount of time they filled with Wonderbook would have been much better filled with new Vita games and information. Overall, I think Sony had the best E3 conference as they had little fluff and eye rolling moments (except for Wonderbook) and kept it about the games. The rumor is that they are also releasing a new console in 2013, but unlike MS, they weren't holding back.

The conferences - Nintendo

I had hoped at the start of the conference that Nintendo would show me, someone who doesn't own a Wii, the reasons why I HAVE to buy a Wii-u. Unfortunately, I never got that excited while watching their presentation.

Nintendo focused much of their presentation about what the console can do and it's controller. The controller itself was re-designed, it looks nice and even comes in a Black model rather than just White The conference started with videos about a new Pikimin, and it looked cute and interesting, but not a killer app. They talked about Nintendo Land which seems to be the Wii-u's family killer app, but it's another collection of mini games, and didn't really do much for me. They talked about Miiverse which is their online dashboard, and it looked interesting, but nothing really wowed me. They showed a New Super Mario game, but I was very disappointed it's not a sequel to Super Mario 64. If they would have showed a graphically gorgeous 3D super Mario game, that would have been an amazing Killer app, instead we get a game that looked more like a Wii game than a Wii-u game.

When the conference started the audience was so excited, and when it was over they seemed very underwhelmed. The normal cheers that you would expect at a new console reveal wasn't there, and I don't think that is a good thing for Nintendo. Now they have to get us excited somehow before launch, and that will be tough. No one I knew that was on the fence about a Wii-u has changed their mind, nothing shown made them want a Wii-u. This was the most anti-climatic new console launch I can remember.

In conclusion

This E3 was not really that exciting overall, no major "megatons" were revealed, and the Wii-u's major reveal was not what most of us had hoped for. The standouts so far are games that show what the next gen will be able to do, or what a high end PC can do now. These games are Ubisoft's Watch Dogs and Lucasarts's Star Wars 1313. These two games show the future of gaming and induced the "OMG" effect I was hoping to have at this E3. I highly recommend checking them out!
Now, how can I get tickets to E3 next year?




Friday, June 1, 2012

Bethesda's Dishonored - new gameplay trailer

I have been following this game, eagerly awaiting some real gameplay video, and Bethesda and Arkane haven't disappointed. I am now very excited for this title.