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Monday 31 January 2011

Jukebox 4/2

I'm trying a new thing, run with me on this. These are the entries to the Jukebox column I write for my University newspaper, I will now endeavour to post them here before they're published on Fridays, as a sneak peak I guess? Lucky you.


Timbaland feat. Missy Elliot -Take Ur Clothes Off
It's been a while since we've heard anything from Missy but this is a pretty impressive comeback as a part of Timbaland Thursdays (think Kanye's G.O.O.D Friday only a little less, seasonal). There's nothing ground-breaking about this but it's certainly engaging; the shamelessly egocentric lyrics and waka-waka beats spell it out - their not fixing hip-hop because it's not broken.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhwE6mvLXDw&feature=related

Janelle MonĂ¡e - Wondaland
One of those tracks that simply refuses to unleash its vice-like grip on my brain. Less R&B and Soul than the rest of the ArchAndroid, Wondaland is a dazzling pop fairy tale about one girl's attempt to return to sonic nirvana, to retrieve her underwear. The voicework is sublime, drifting between libidinous crooning and fleeting synthetic whispers and the production is truly magical - tingling harps, jangling cow bells and sweeping synths. Immediately likeable and persistently rewarding. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlo4oYaF4YE


Patrick Wolf - The City
What happened Paddy? What happened to the Cold Cave goth-pop? This sounds more like Dexy's Midnight Runners possessed The Drums in order to declare their time-travelling devotion to their soul mates. And the video? Frolicking on Blackpool beach in pastel shirts? Where's your usual Edward Cullen in body armour wardrobe? Whatever the reason, this is one artist reinvention I can get behind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hBJIbSScBM

Neon Trees - Animal
This is here for one reason, to get my friend to shut up about this song because if self-importance was a crime, these guys would be the poster boys for the legalisation of water-boarding. Animal is all guileless indie-guitar fiddling and hubris-ridden wailing and outstays its welcome half way through the second verse. Forgettable doesn't even cover it.

Saturday 29 January 2011

Upcoming Games: February 2011

These are the games destined (if all goes well) to hit shelves next month that are really exacerbating my hypertension, in both senses of the word.

Child Of Eden
Xbox Kinect/Playstation Move

The first product to really use Kinect tech in a genuinely exciting way, CoE is an on-rails shooter slash music/rhythm game with eye-popping visuals from the makers of Rez and Lumines. If that doesn't sound particularly exciting (it shouldn't really), just take a peek at some of the screenshots below, or better yet, Youtube its demo at E3 to get a feel for how intuitive and imersive the control scheme is looking.
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/tgs-10-child-of/704571
That's not some wanker's artsy background, but gameplay, in action.
Killzone 3
Playstation 3

Things aren't going well for the ISA, their last forces on the planet Helghan are cut off, with no supplies or hope of reprieve and the Space Nazi armies are closing in. The finale of the Killzone trilogy will see you once again step into the shoes of mohawk-sporting badass Sevchenko to finish off the Helghan menace once and (hopefully) for all. K3 promises new environments that aren't ruined urban arenas, with forays into diseased-looking wastelands and polluted forests providing a splash of much-needed colour to the series' limited palette. The brutal, context-sensitive melee kills look viscerally satisfying and with Playstation's Move compatibility, even more so. Throw in a few tweaks to K2's multiplayer suite and you have the makings of the best in the trilogy.
Killzone 3 Screenshot
Also, there are jetpacks. 
Marvel vs Capcom: Fate of Two Worlds
Xbox 360/Playstation 3

Anyone who has had access to early MvC: FTW builds will tell you it's a button-masher's wet dream. The developers have even worked in a system to simplify the already accessible control scheme, the question remains whether users of the aptly-named Simple Mode will be able to hold their own against series vets and well, there's no easy way to say this, but, Koreans. The character roster is extensive, but as IGN put it, it's coming together more like Marvel featuring Capcom. The latter's entrants are fairly esoteric, with far too many from the developer's Darkstalker series. But appearances from Trish (of Devil May Cry 'fame'), Amaterasu & Jill Valentine are nice to see.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds Picture
Not for the epileptic though.
Stacking
Xbox 360/Playstation 3


Stacking will see players take up the mission of finding a small boys' estranged family in a charming diorama/steam punk-inspired world. Only the boy and all the inhabitants of the world are Russian nesting dolls. The visuals are gorgeous and the gameplay excitingly puzzle-based. As the smallest doll in the family, Charlie can leap inside strangers (the developers haven't confirmed whether this constitutes rape so I'm forced to assume it does) and take control of them. Every doll has a different inherent ability, which you can use to navigate obstacles and complete puzzles. The example they gave is Charlie leaping inside a buxom female, who can use her womanly-doll charms to lead a libidinous guard away from a door. Sorry, I'm just making this game sound like it's entirely based on rape. Well at least the judges will have an ample supply of dolls to show where the offender 'touched them'.

Stacking Screenshot
Always end on a good joke.

Bulletstorm: Understanding the Hype

Violence in videogames is an hallowed insitution, even the most ardent puritanical nay-sayers can't touch it. The entire industry is built on it, from Mario's genocidal feud with the Goombas to Call of Duty Black Op's (sigh) 'envelope-pushing' Gulag scenes. The makers of Bulletstorm (with help from the creators of Unreal Tournament & Gears of War) are well aware of this and aiming to capitalise on it. To IGN, Edge and other reputable critics this is somehow a step forward, but to me, it's several strides back.

The basic premise is that you play as a recently-made-freelance mercenary exiled on an abandoned utopia-gone-a-bit-wrong planet that's conveniently swarming with mutants. Sound familiar? Or even remotely interesting? Because in terms of plot that's it. That's fair enough I guess, it's unfair to immediately dismiss a game for having no storyline but this isn't exactly the first team to whip together a thinly-veiled excuse to paint their gamespace with grey matter, what's disappointing is that other studios have managed to build games with compelling narrative and still deliver some satisfying shooter gameplay: Mass Effect being the obvious example, or Enslaved.

Pictured: Storytelling.
So you're not going to buy this game for the means of creative escapism. Why would you then? Well all People Can Fly are putting their energy into is their 'kill with skill' ethic. Think of Criterion's nitrous mechanic: do some cool shit and you shall be rewarded. Well instead of temporary speed boosts Bulletstorm's currency is points. Not experience, not game currency - there's a fledging character advancement system but what you're really doing with those points is hoarding them, purely for the sake of hubris. What's interesting is the potential for creativity in your carnage. The key to this is you're energy leash, (pretty much just a dominatrix version of Half Life's Gravity Gun) which you can use to lasso objects and enemies and toss them around at will. Enemy hiding behind cover? Toss an explosive barrel over to him and blow it up in his face. Bored of headshots? Impale that guy on a spiny cactus then.

Gaming journalists are working themselves up into a semi-erotic fervour over all the variety Bulletstorm is offering but I just can't shake the feeling I've heard all of this before. Oh yes, that's it, didn't The Club have exactly the same idea? Of eviscerating your opponents in imaginative ways for cash? Now that I think about it, didn't Madworld do the exact same thing? Just from a Beat-'Em-Up angle? Hell, even 50 Cent's second game followed the same premise. I can be fairly certain that the only reason Bulletstorm is rallying this kind of hype is because it's a first-person-shooter. So if you weren't convinced of the stranglehold the genre has on the videogame industry, there you go.

Friday 14 January 2011

The Venerable Grandmother Of All Benders

The adventures of the 295 Dawlish residents continue below.

Me: How you feeling mate?

Laura: I'll be honest, I've felt better. Where are we?

Me: Kemble community centre.

Laura: I'm going to assume that's a long way from home. Why is there a someone dressed like a greasy wig looking at me?

M: We're at a Star Wars convention. That guy behind you in the Tonton costume's been staring for some time now. You're probably the only human female he's seen in underwear who wasn't dressed as Harem-Princess Leia. Though you do seem to have a Danish stuck to each ear. I'm guessing that's the only reason you haven't attracted more attention.

L: I've never seen Star Wars. And what the fuck is a Tonton?


You know if you google tonton this is the only image?  Of course you don't, because you are a worthwhile human being

M: Just assume everyone in this building is clinically insane.

L: Gottcha. How long have I been here?

M: In Kemble? No idea. I'm equally perplexed as to how you even got here.

L: Me too.

M: But I do know you you've been missing for three days. I was tempted to have you declared legally dead so I could have your bed.

L: Think you have to have been missing a little longer than three days to do that.

M: Hey I've got a lot of swing down at City Hall. What's the last thing you remember?

L: Um, going to a restaurant in Chinatown? Then nothing. You got any ideas? I have a nasty feeling I did something awful.

M: A fully justified feeling as it happens. I have no clue how you managed to get in such a state...

L: Bad MDMA trip.

M: Vitamin C.

L: What?

M: The shit you took. It looked an awful lot like Vitamin C supplements.

L: Oh. Well at least I shouldn't get a cold for the next few days.

M: Anyway, I've got a solid idea of what you actually did.

L: You weren't there, how would you know?

M: It was all over the news.

L: Ah, this isn't going to be good is it?

M: You remember the name of the restaurant you went to? I don't want to accuse you of something just to find out it was another 'screaming coked-up pixie'.

L: That was unnecessary. I think it was called the Blue Lotus.

M: That's from Tintin.

L: Red Dragon?

M: That's Rush Hour 2.

L: Magic Blue Dragon?

M: Oldboy.

L: Fuck you, ah merde it probably was me anyway. Just what did I do then?

M: I'm not sure exactly what you're being charged with, but definitely aggravated assault on the 82-year old mother of the restaurant's owner.

L: Probably because she called me a 'screaming coked-up pixie'.

M: She seems to think otherwise.

Not to be fucked with.
L: Wasn't anyone around to help me? Who did I go with? Ah shit, it was Neil wasn't it?

M: Don't know, he's pretty unhygienic isn't he?

L: Not sure this is the time...

M: Like, really, just filthy, all the time.

L: Yeah I really don't want to hear this right now...

M: All I'm saying is if he walks bare-foot on grass the earth around him dies screaming.

L: That's the worst thing you've ever said.

M: I didn't tell you about the security guard yet.

L: Please don't.

M: I've actually got the transcript of his interview on the news with me. I wrote it down because it was the funniest thing I have ever heard and I laughed until I burst a few blood vessels. So, you know, it's nothing personal. You evidently tried to get into a club and the bouncer described you as having, and I quote: 'all the grace of a rapist, the motor skills of a drunk driver, the common sense of a heroin addict and probably the behaviours of all three.

L: Wow. Pretty articulate for a bouncer.

M: I know right?

Comic geniuses.
M: He certainly put your grasp of the English language to shame.

L: Don't let my impeccable grammar and syntax fool you, I'm still French remember?

M: You certainly do smell of garlic.

What followed was several minutes of expletives in at least three languages that I could make out. I didn't really feel it was worth transcribing all of them. C3PO looked like he was about to have a coronary.

L: ...and zee other 'amburger will also be made of your muzzer's lung.

M: Let's just go home.

Thursday 13 January 2011

Happy Start of Term! Why I'm Sleeping Naked In Our Kitchen

This tale was written almost exclusively with the aid of artistic license, which I am fully qualified to do since I bested creativity's mortal incarnation in unarmed combat while adlibbing a short story about an 8-foot tall albino honey badger who worked as a receptionist at my local dentist's. I met with more success in one of these ventures than the other. It will hopefully serve as an adequate apology for all the social boundaries, copywrite agreements and basic human rights I'm fairly certain I violated and also help me reconstruct the evening in question. Just to give me an idea of how many lawsuits I can expect in the post. 

Me: Soooo... you'll probably want an explanation for all this, won't you?

Laura: You could say that, I admit, I am full of questions right now. What in God's name are those for example?

I follow her swaying finger towards two jars of mayonaisse both filled with clear liquid and crudely labelled: 'Policeman's Tears'. 

Me: Is that it? You're looking so upset because of some civil servant's bodily fluids? 

Laura: Why don't you look somewhere other than the door behind me? I should add, escape is impossible.

I did so. With some effort, I craned my neck to get a good grasp of my surroundings. First, it was pretty clear I was in our kitchen, and that I was naked, lying on what looked like a bed of coffee beans I must have spread over the floor. Damn, I thought, guess an Espresso's out of the question then. There was a strangely-familiar looking bicycle in the corner, both wheels hopelessly warped and from the looks of the washing machine, I imagine I'd attempted to make pasta in it. 
I hazarded a second glance down my front, taking care to keep my legs crossed, I was in no position to expose myself to my own genitalia this early in the morning with no hope of coffee. Also, its fucking cold in my kitchen. On second glance, it would seem that I'd daubed 'Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here' on my sumo-grade stomach, and somehow managed to misspell 'Ye'. 

M: OK, I admit, this looks bad, but at least give me a chance to explain myself. 

L: I'm all ears.

M: My memory's a little hazy - meth hazy, know what I mean? 

L: ...

M: It went something like this: The afternoon started innocently enough, I was on my back from my weekly cockfight, feeling a little down (my boy Potential Chow Mein lost to the fucking Colonel again).

L: I'm assuming that's the chicken you bought because you lost your alarm clock in the shower.

M: I was trying to save time in the mornings.

L: When was the last time you were even conscious in the am?

M: Hey its a problem all students just have to deal with, that's what all those protests were about, remember?

L: Those were against an increase in fees not lectures that began earlier than 3pm.

M: I thought everyone else's signs were a little off-topic. You going to keep interrupting?

L: Please, continue.

M: So I was trotting home when, for reasons that are still unclear to me, I managed to enter myself into a martini drinking competition with three oil barons. I confess to having a roaring good time with the chaps even though the martini was more likely some high proof brand of washing up liquid and the barons almost certainly homeless but hey, its an unforgiving business these days. Don't remember exactly who won, I think we ran out of olives and just called it a tie. So then I rode home ready to settle in for my usual 4pm post-cockfight nap...

L: Rode home?

M: Sure.

L: On a bike?

M: Pretty certain it wasn't an elephant, those things are a nightmare to park.

L: I'm equally certain you don't own a bike. Where'd you get it?

M: Not...really....sure.

L: That's alright I think I can clear that up, Neil called me this morning you know.

M: Ah, this isn't going anywhere good is it?

L: You remember Neil?

M: He the one that looks like a vaguely intellectual vagrant?

L: Remember talking to him yesterday? I'm not surprised honestly, talking would be a pretty inaccurate description of what you did. Screaming something about the letter Y not being an acceptable vowel and stealing his bike would be more like it. 

M: Ah. Well that clear's that up, anything else? 

L: Is there anything left to clear up you mean? Literally? As in the house? Because the answer to that would just be everything. 

M: No the other one, fixing with words not, you know, hoovers. 

L: I think a dump truck would be more use at this point, or maybe explosives but yes that one, how did you get into my room (which was locked by the way) to steal paint and do that for example?

She pointed to the wall behind her, which I had failed to notice was taken up by crudely drawn letters in various colours. Once they stopped swimming before my eyes I made out: 'TO DO BEFORE I DIE HORRIBLY IN AN OIL WRESTLING FIGHT WITH 30 PORNSTARS AS PER MY ONE REQUEST OF GOD: PAY BACK HUNGRY HANK AND (crossed out) WIN A KNIFE FIGHT WITH JUSTIN BEIBER'.

M: He favours the Khat Man'bhak style, you know.

So there you have it, I sure I don't need to explain the moral of the story here folks, never, under any circumstances, purchase a cockerel with one eye and a game leg assuming such defects would heighten its killer instincts to superavian levels. IT IS FOLLY. Also, don't drink and write damning personal anecdotes that are applicable in court, instead of essays.

Sunday 2 January 2011

Some Alternative Music Awards

Sexiest Female
Winner: Marina Diamandis

Just... just look at her.
Runner-Up: Sunday Girl

Most Terrifying Male
'Winner': Twin Shadow

It's like some drunk scientist decided to genetically engineer clones of Pablo Escobar and Ben Esser, but could only afford one test tube.
'Runner-Up': Twista

Best Album Artwork
Winner: Black Noise by Pantha Du Prince

A perfect visual summary of Pantha's brush-stroke-landscaped house.
Runner-Up: The Resistance by Muse

Best Track Title
Winner: Animal Arithmetic by Jonsi
Bringing to mind Noah's mental workout keeping track of all his passengers
Runner-Up: Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks by The National

Biggest Disappointment
'Winner': Wu-Massacre by Method Man, Ghostface Killah & Raekwon
It's not exactly a bad album, but after the genius of Only Built For Cuban Linx.. Pt. 2, expectations were perhaps unfairly high. All the same, this could have been so much better.
'Runner-Up': The Boxer by Kele

Biggest Surprise
Winner: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West
Artistic use of auto-tune? Snappy, College-Dropout-good lyrics? I'm sure I wasn't alone in thinking Kanye just wasn't capable of this kind of thing anymore.
Runner-Up: Treats by Sleigh Bells

Most Mysterious Disappearance
'Winner': Wolf Gang
After releasing a handful of stonking pop singles, no-one seems to have seen hide nor hair of this promising pianist, even after touring with Florence & The Machine and Metric.
'Runner-Up': Little Jinder