Post of the Day: 5.30.2009

Nobuo Uematsu's first solo single in 15 years is now available on iTunes...and it sounds kind of funky (I previewed it).

Post of the Day: 2.19.2009

Guitar Hero: Metallica Misspells Band Name. Haha.

Update: They apparently fixed it. Darn.

Post of the Day: 2.13.2009

Is video game music less interesting than it used to be?

Changing My Tune

You'll have to excuse the posts devoted to American Idol, but we're at a crucial point in the season, and I have some issues with the way things have played out over the past couple weeks. But, before I start ranting, let me say this. The final six contestants (and I'll extend this to the final eight, since I'll be talking about the ones who left the last two weeks) are all excellent singers and performers. I would not mind it at all if anyone except David Archuleta won the whole shebang. Also, I realize that every week one person has to go, regardless of how good they are, especially in a competition this intense.

That being said, Jason should have gone instead of Michael last week, and Syesha should have gone instead of Kristy this week. Here's why...

Simply put, they've grown the least out of them all. Jason always seems like he's stoned and, while I actually did like him, his last few performances haven't been all that great. Syesha always goes for those power ballads. There's almost no variety, nothing different or interesting about either of them.

Kristy has grown tremendously over the last few weeks. I wasn't a fan of hers at the start, but she grew on me. Michael was incredibly more dynamic of a singer than any of the other guys, except maybe David C.

Here's my thoughts on the final six...

Brooke: I love her. I think she's my favorite of the remaining girls. I like the emotion she expresses in her music, I like how she seems to have a personal attachment to each song, I love the guitar and piano (especially the piano) and I like her song arrangements.

Carly: I actually used to prefer Carly over Brooke, but lately, in my opinion, she's only been so-so. She's good, don't get me wrong, but she's not as good as she was earlier in the competition. She has good variety, though.

David A: Honestly, he annoys me to no end. He shows no variety as his songs are always the same type of deal. Week after week it feels like I'm watching the same performance. He can sing well, no doubt, but variety and showmanship he does not have.

David C: I really like him. Finally, there's a rocker that has the very real chance to win this whole thing. I like how he takes risks, probably more than any other contestant. If there's one thing I want to see from him, its a bit more variety. He's going to start to fall into the one-trick pony category (along with David A.) if he's not careful.

Jason: I used to like him more than I do now. The last few weeks have been lackluster for him, although I do like it when he's just sitting there playing his guitar. More variety in the arrangements here would be nice, as well.

Syesha: Power ballads show off that she can definitely sing, but it shows very little variety. To me, they always look like they're forced. Although, she has remained pretty consistent across the board. However, that shows little to no growth, as well.

My picks for who is leaving next week? David or Syesha. Who will likely leave next week because America, in general, will screw up again? Jason or Brooke. Who will win it all? I would actually like Brooke to win, at this point. However, it will likely be David C. or Carly. If its David A. I will have to vomit.

Reality TV This Season

If I may step outside the realm of gaming for a moment, I'd like to talk about the only two reality TV shows I watch - American Idol and Dancing with the Stars.

Tonight, American Idol aired their "Idol Gives Back" program, which is something I thoroughly enjoyed last year. This year it was pretty good, as well. One thing that kept bothering me during the whole program is the fact that they rarely let the contestants go over to the Kodak Theater stage. Then, after the fact, I found out that the Kodak Theater segments were filmed Monday night and only the parts of the show that was held at the Idol studios was live.

So, anyway, my picks for the top two spots? David Cook and Carly. I actually like all of the remaining eight except for David Archuletta, who downright annoys the pee out of me. I really like Carly and David C. though.

As for Dancing with the Stars, my favorite professional got voted off this week - Julianne. Of course, she didn't have the best partner in the world. Adam Carolla may be funny, but he's also highly annoying. I feel sorry for her. As it stands right now, I think we'll see Jason/Edyta and Kristi/Mark in the final two, if they keep up their momentum. However, I wouldn't rule out Shannon and Derek, they might just be contenders for the top spot if they keep doing what they've been doing the last couple weeks.

Now back to your regularly scheduled gaming goodness.

Rock Band Music Store

Last night I loaded up Rock Band and downloaded the new patch. What surprised me is the patch didn't take long at all to download and install (unlike the last PS3 system update). I spent about half an hour or so browsing the new music store. This is a very good idea and a good call on the part of Harmonix.

It integrates very nicely into the PlayStation Store, without the horrible interface. I love being able to actually hear a sample of the song before I purchase, because I'm not always familiar with the music available and am just looking for a fun song to play. The instrument difficulty chart is a very nice touch, as well.

The one issue I have with it (and its a small one, but still worth mentioning) is that you can't add funds to your wallet through the music store interface, so you have to either log onto the PlayStation Store on your PC and add funds or back all the way out of Rock Band, log into your account management and add funds that route.

All in all a great addition to the game and it will make it much easier (and more fun) to get the great DLC that they've provided for this game.

Rock Band Getting Patch

Rock Band is receiving a lot of love this week in the form of a major patch (this is in addition to the three new DLC songs). The major feature of this patch is the in-game music store, which lets you browse, sample and obtain instrument difficulty levels on all the DLC. This is a much, much improved format for obtaining new tracks than the lackluster PlayStation Store.

Here's a list of the other major changes in the patch:

• In-Game Music Store - Browse, sort, display album art, sample and obtain instrument difficulty levels on all DLC, among other things, all in-game.
• Revised Fan Caps - The horribly low fan cap for the early difficulties is one of my major issues with the game as-is. This will be a welcome change.
• More Diverse Random Songs in World Tour Mode
• Improved Vocal Recognition
• Microphone Latency Improved (PS3 version)
• Band Logos Now Visible Online (360 version)
• Faster Loading DLC

Rock Band Gets Paramore!

Ever since I bought Rock Band, my wife and I have been thinking of groups and songs we'd like to see for the game. At the top of that list has been Paramore, since we've been listening to them a lot recently. Well, this week that wish finally comes true.

I just read this article on Kotaku, which talks about the new DLC for Rock Band this week and Paramore's "crushcrushcrush" track is on the list. It seems this week's three DLC songs are bands that are playing at the South By Southwest festival and a special XBox/Rock Band party.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to grab "crushcrushcrush" until Thursday evening, when the PlayStation Store is updated. XBox Live subscribers get the new DLC today.

I've Been Slacking!

Yes, I know I've been slacking when it comes to posts. I've been busy at work (where I post from most of the time) and I was pretty busy last weekend forming a new guild in WoW. I will use this post to offer a few notes on games I've been playing recently.

Jeanne d'Arc - I posted about this the other day, but I find this game a refreshing, modern take on the SRPG genre. In some ways, it corrects all the problems I had with Final Fantasy Tactics and improves upon them. But, this doesn't speak badly about Tactics at all (settle down fanboys), because that game is over 10 years old. Jeanne d'Arc is only a few months old. Big difference.

Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings - I'm amazed by the story and the FMV cut scenes, I wasn't expecting that from a DS game. However, I think this game is too big for its own good. Its difficult to manage all your troops on the horribly small screen. I'm constantly clicking something I don't want, selecting something I don't want or leaving troops behind because the screen is just too small. I also think the esper summoning contributes to this issue. If it was just you and your party - as in, the main characters - that you have to deal with, then it would be fine. This makes the game incredibly difficult to play, regardless of the story.

Rock Band - Yes, I finally purchased Rock Band yesterday. This game is the best thing since sliced bagels. I have to force myself to put it down. And, you know the best part? My wife is totally into it. The only issue I have with it so far is how difficult the drums are compared to the lead guitar, bass and vocal aspects of the game. I was all ready to be an uber drummer, but the learning curve is horribly high for the drums, unlike the other aspects of the game. The drums should have been toned down a bit on easy mode, if you ask me. But that's a small strike against an otherwise great (and addicting) game.

What Music Does a Gamer Listen To?

Well, it depends on the gamer. ;) When I'm playing WoW - which is probably the game I spend the most time engrossed in - I usually prefer more background music. You know, its the type you really don't want to have to pay attention to, and its usually there just to fill the void. Add that to the fact that I'm usually on Ventrilo trying to listen to people talk. So, for WoW playing I don't need loud or complicated music. Therefore I usually turn to Kawaii Radio (and, of course, its apparently down at the moment), which is a JPop/anime/game music Internet radio station. Its actually pretty darn good. I really enjoy it when I remember to turn it on.

Outside of gaming, I'm currently enjoying Taylor Swift (yeah, laugh it up) and Paramore. Since my wife stole my iPod, I have those CDs on my trusty PSP. There, they serve a dual purpose - I can listen to them straight up or I can play them on Beats. ;) Needless to say, Paramore is pretty awesome.

Addicted to Beats

So, last week the previously European only game Beats was added to the U.S. PlayStation Store. Its a downloadable PSP game. If you've played PS2 games like Frequency and Amplitude, you'll know what direction Beats is coming from. Basically, you have to press buttons to the beat of a song.

Beats, however, goes above and beyond previous games of this type - it lets you play to your own music. That's right, put your own songs on your PSP memory card and the game will analyze the songs and let you play along with them.

Its my new addiction...and apparently my wife's, as well. She's sitting over on the sofa playing it right now. She won't let me near it.

Dancing With the Stars Finale

I seem to have a love/hate relationship with reality shows. I'm very picky about the ones I watch. I tried Survivor for a few weeks a couple seasons ago and it got real old, real fast. My wife, however, has succeeded in getting me hooked on two shows - both completely different from Survivor - American Idol and Dancing With the Stars.

I didn't even see all episodes this season of Dancing With the Stars. I think I picked up on it about half way through this season of competition. As I do with both of the shows mentioned above, I pick up on my favorites rather quickly and usually stick with them as far as the show - and fan votes - will take them.

Now, what I dislike most about shows such as these are the results shows, and not only because there's the possibility that my favorite might not make it. My main reason to hate results shows is that the networks put way too much "fluff" into them that nine times out of ten they're incredibly boring to sit through. This especially came to the surface many times last season with American Idol, including the finale. Their two-hour finale had me in tears because it was so incredibly boring.

If you're going to expect the audience to sit through two hours of "weirdest tryouts" and cheesy group performances, please spice things up a bit. That's why I was incredibly pleased with the Dancing With the Stars finale (it aired live last night, but I didn't watch it until this afternoon). That was a very, very good finale that kept me interested the entire two hours. Old routines performed to new music from all the competitors who were voted off, two heart-pounding elimination rounds, a wide variety of flashbacks covering the entire competition, two performances by Celine Dion (one of them included a montage of events of the entire season) and, to top it all off, we were treated to two of the best routines by the two finalists near the end of the show.

It was great, I liked both of the finalists and wouldn't have minded if either of them won. My votes went to Helio and Julianne the majority of the time, but again, either of them would have satisfied me. Just so happens they also took home the whole she-bang, as well. So, I guess I want to say that I hope more reality shows (take a hint, American Idol) put together results shows, in general, like the finale/result show of Dancing With the Stars, because it was incredibly fun to watch.

Video Game Tribute Halftime Show

CMA Awards

I finally watched the CMA awards in their entirety last night (it originally aired on Wednesday evening). I was actually quite happy with the outcome of almost every single award last night, although I'm sure Danielle would disagree with the awards Carrie Underwood received. I'm rather happy that Taylor Swift won the horizon award, because I love her debut CD.

Other highlights of the show for me were performances by Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift and the LeAnn Rimes/Reba duet. Here's a complete list of winners for the interested.

Returning Blogroll

I'm trying to avoid writing about the Screenwriters Guild strike, because I will go off my rocker and fuss at the PTB for being excessively greedy. Instead, I'll talk about the "Blogs of Note" section I recently added to the sidebar.

There was a time when I would throw every blog I come across on a blogroll, and the list would be a mile long. These days, in keeping with my wish to maintain a simple blog, I'm going to only put blogs over there that are of particular note to me, which probably means I keep up with them on a fairly regular basis. That should limit the list down, since I don't read as many blogs regularly as I used to.

I came across Angela Aki's blog the other day while browsing info relating to song listings for her two studio albums. Although I can't read a word of Japanese, I still find it interesting that she updates it on a regular basis with photos and the like.

Joseph Mallozzi is one of the executive producers of Stargate Atlantis (and previously, Stargate SG-1). He updates his blog very regularly - almost every day. Reading it you discover little tidbits of insider info about upcoming Atlantis episodes - whether completed or in production. Also, its not every day you read a blog that has anything remotely close to this line in his November 5th entry: "As some of you may know, I used to love ice cream sandwiches until the day I OD’d on them at a Christian summer camp." 'Nuff said.

A while ago, a co-worker who happens to be an amateur photographer herself, showed me the DeviantArt page of Liliana Sanches, who is a digital artist and photographer. I thought her stuff was really good. Out of wishful thinking on my part to be able to be that skilled with photo-manipulation in Photoshop, I've been keeping up with her art ever since. Recently, she created a blog outside of DeviantArt, so I linked it, as well.

Sexy Videogameland is the (sometimes NSFW) blog of Leigh Alexander, a video game writer. I just find her blog rather informative and often funny, especially her video game conventions saga.

Lastly, I've read Wil Wheaton's blog off and on for a few years. To jog your memory, he is the actor who played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation way back in the day.

So, for now, those are all the blogs that sit in my "Blogs of Note" section. I'm sure I'll expand further in the future, and most likely write up something about new blogs in that section when the time comes.

"Rain"

I absolutely love the song "Rain" by Angela Aki. I just saw the a video of her playing it on a piano and singing and it made me like the song even more. I don't understand a word of Japanese, but you don't really need to understand the language to appreciate the song.

Some might also recognize her song "Kiss Me Goodbye" (live Japanese piano version and in-game English version) from the Final Fantasy XII soundtrack; also a very emotionally gripping song.

I really, really love the solo piano in these live performances, it almost makes me want to start playing again.

Martina McBride Filming TV Special in the Quad-Cities

My wife just sent me this article, and I thought it was pretty awesome. Martina McBride is going to be filming a TV special at her Quad-City concert next month. That's at the former Mark of the Quad-Cities (now the iWireless Center) in Moline, Illinois.

That's pretty high profile for us. Sure, we have concerts there all the time, but concerts that are filmed for TV specials? Not so much.

Season Finales

In the last week I've watched the season finales of Smallville, Heroes, Veronica Mars (in that case, the series finale) and American Idol. Here's my quick takes on all four.

Smallville - Overall Grade: B
A lot of questions answered and new ones brought up. I actually thought it was a well played - although predictable - finale to the season. Lana's story line this season bored me, as it was highly predictable. I'm more interested in Chloe, to be honest. The finale, of course, left several cliff hangers - including Lana's "death" and Chloe's special powers.

Heroes - Overall Grade: C
Alright, I've been hooked to my TV every Monday evening since this show premiered. Unfortunately, this finale was kind of a let down. You have all these people with all these super powers - I expected more of a battle in the finale. Instead we got some cheesy "all you need is love to save the world" dialog, a rather quick climax to the episode and an explosion in the atmosphere instead of in NYC. However, many questions were answered and the foundation for next season was laid, otherwise this episode wouldn't even get a C from me.

Veronica Mars - Overall Grade: A
I absolutely love this show. Its one of the smartest and coolest shows on television these days. This final episode just proved how wrong CW was for cancelling it. It dealt with some major issues that didn't just revolve around Veronica's "case of the week", and the outcome of them would affect more than just Veronica and her friends. We started getting into a real dark part of Neptune college life and it was very well executed. Too bad we won't see how it all ends up. There was even a Star Trek reference! Boo again to CW for cancelling it.

American Idol - Overall Grade: C+
Ok, been watching Idol all season. I have to say, I could care less who wins. Not because I didn't care, obviously I did since I've been watching all season. It was more because I like both Blake and Jordin. I'm glad Jordin won, but I would have been equally glad if Blake had won. And I love Kelly Clarkson and her new single. That was the single best performance of the night. However there was way too much filler. The last hour of the show seemed to drag on and on and on. An hour show would have sufficed, with Gwen, Kelly, Tony Bennett, the top 12 performing and the "golden idols" scattered throughout. That would have been perfect. Too much filler = not a higher grade.

Still to come: House, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis
Don't Care About: 24, Lost, much anything else

Idol Update

Its the week I've been waiting for for a long time - Sanjaya finally got voted off American Idol. It took way too long for that to happen. He butchered one too many songs.

Next up, Phil and Lakisha. If the top four are Blake, Chris, Melinda and Jordin, I'll be happy with any one of them winning. I still think Gina should be here, she was voted off way too prematurely and I can't help but think it was because of her musical style, but she did prove that she can go outside her comfort zone and still sing well. I just don't get why she was voted off so early (especially when duds like Sanjaya, Haley and Phil were still on).

It once again proves that America is tone deaf.

American Idol, Season 6

So, we've been watching American Idol this season again. A few things of note:

• Simon is almost always right, why on earth do people boo him so much? Are they tone deaf?
• Paula is always on something - caffeine, sugar, illegal narcotics - something.
• Having Martina McBride do country week = cool.
• Forcing us to sit through more than one Akon performance = uncool.
• The "Idol Gives Back" video with the African girls making fun of Simon's man boobs = priceless.
• If Sanjaya(sp?) wins, I will not watch it next season.

That is all.