Hump Day Music: Flossophy Impressions

When I updated Silver Bit six times a week back in 2012, Hump Day Music was one of Silver Bit's staples much like Bit by Bit.  Every Wednesday, I would share a piece of video game music or music loosely related to video games to help readers get through the middle of the week.  As things got busier, Hump Day Music sadly became a thing of the past.  I could never update Silver Bit enough to keep Hump Day Music as a recurring article.  After picking up Brentalfloss' newest CD Flossophy a few weeks back and listening it on repeat ever since, I am glad to bring back Hump Day Music for a special review of this CD.

For the uneducated, Brentalfloss is a musician who became popular amongst gamers for his "With Lyrics" videos which add lyrics to video game music from games like Mario, Mega Man and Castlevania.  Flossophy is Brentfloss' third studio album following What If This CD... Had Lyrics? and Bits of Me.  Flossophy contains twenty tracks including album versions of songs previously released on Youtube, iTunes and Bandcamp like The Team Fortress 2 Song and Cave Story with Lyrics and brand new, never before released songs such as Earthbound with Lyrics and Metroid: Fight for Love.  The album has a great variety of tracks that range from comedic songs to serious songs and fast blood-pumping songs to slow soothing songs.  The album's variety makes each track feel special and fill a different void.  There are no songs that sound the same or produce the same feeling within the listener.  First and foremost, Flossophy is made for those who love video games and video game music.  With that audience in mind, there are a lot of great jokes and parodies found throughout the album.  From giving light to the downfalls of modern console releases to making fun of how awkward the messages transferred through StreetPass are to portraying the Link from A Link to the Past as a self-centered obnoxious hero, there are plenty of jokes and parodies to keep any gamer smiling throughout.  Aside from the variety, jokes and parodies, one's enjoyment of Flossophy will come from the songs themselves.  The selection on this album are some of Brentalfloss' best.  While every track on Flossophy is at least worth a listen, there are seventeen this writer believes are well worth listening to more than once.  Among those seventeen, the tracks that stand out above the rest are Super Mario Land with Lyrics, Ken's Theme with Lyrics, Cave Story with Lyrics, Zidane to Vivi, Ballad of the Mages and Metroid: Fight for Love.  Like with most albums, there are a few tracks that add little to one's enjoyment of Flossophy.  In particular, those tracks are Game Launch Rock!, The Game Over Tinies and The Bioshock Song.  Each track tries to be drastically unique, but the attempts do not resonate like the other tracks on the album.

Although it may be for a niche audience, Flossophy is a great album and serves as a excellent homage to the video games that inspired it.  No matter if you pick the album up digitally for ten dollars or physically for thirteen plus shipping and handling, Flossophy is well worth the asking price.  If you are interested, you can pick the album up digitally on iTunes, Bandcamp, Amazon and Google Play and physically from Level Up Studios website. Hump Day Music would not be complete if I did not leave a song for everybody to enjoy.  In particular, one of the songs featured on Flossophy--Ballad of the Mages.

Year in Review 2013: Disappointments

2013 marked the end of one generation and the beginning of another.  The release of both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One held center stage in the video game industry.  This focus on the next generation saw fewer games release throughout the year compared to years past.  It was very easy to keep on top of the major releases in 2013 and this year saw yours truly buy many games upon release, much more than I have ever bought in years prior.  With buying many games upon release, not every game will live up to a person's expectations.  There were quite a few games that I played this year that fell short of my expectations and left me disappointed.  Being disappointed in a game is not the same as hating a game.  All of the games I will list are fine games, they just left me feeling a little empty after beating them for one reason or another.

BioShock Infinite
The original BioShock was a revolutionary shooter that engrossed gamers in its environment unlike any game before it and few after it.  The impression left by the first BioShock set the bar high for Irrational's next entry in the BioShock series.  In trying to reach a broader audience, Irrational took BioShock Infinite away from the revolution it could have been and made it more of an evolution.  The setting of Columbia and the excellently programmed AI companion Elizabeth are Infinite's clear strengths, but the game is held back by a considerable amount of key flaws such as the last three hours of the game being a relentless slog of dispatching waves upon waves of enemies, the unnecessary additions of the Boys of Silence and Sirens, the shoe-horned stealth sections and the pretentiously convoluted ending.  The most aggravating flaw is how Irrational forgot the tenets of exploration and freedom that makes Infinite stand out from the all the other first-person shooters in the most crucial hours of the game.  Those last hours can make or break one's enjoyment with a game.  In BioShock Infinite's case, it severely derailed my enjoyment of the game.

The Last of Us
First things first, The Last of Us and I have never been on the same page.  While people were crying to the heavens that it was the best game showed at the Video Game Awards, E3 or whatever other video game show, it never impressed me.  I surely wanted to see what all the fuss was about, but it looked too derivative of Naughty Dog's Uncharted series.  When I saw all the excellent reviews The Last of Us got upon its release, I was caught up in the hype and wanted to see if Naughty Dog proved me wrong.  Well they did not.  Do not get me wrong, The Last of Us is a good game.  It is not the greatest game of this past generation that everybody has been labeling it.  The game has some good ideas and an incredibly emotional story, but those two strengths alone do not allow a game with considerable technical and pacing problems to get a pass.  As much as Naughty Dog tried to engross me in the post-apocalyptic world of The Last of Us, I was taken out from my AI companions running head-first into the strongest enemies in the game, known as clickers, with no reaction from said enemies or hunting for the extremely small triangle button prompt to tell me which objects I can interact with.  While there were some great moments like the entire opening two hours and the Winter section of the game, I never felt much emotional attachment to the characters  or my actions in the game.  The Last of Us is more on par with Naughty Dog's efforts on the first Uncharted.  There is some good stuff in The Last of Us, but there needs to be more refinement before The Last of Us can truly grasp its full potential.

Project X Zone
One of the largest crossovers in video game history, Project X Zone was high on this writer's radar especially considering many never thought the game would release outside of Japan.  Mixing the biggest franchises from Capcom, Namco and Sega into one strategy game was mind-boggling.  Project X Zone's combat was incredibly unique.  While you moved units on a grid-like battlefield like any other strategy game, the combat was more in line with a fighting game where you choose different combos and juggle enemies to cause the most damage.  The combat along with the craziness of the plot gave me hours of enjoyment.  Sadly those hours of enjoyment did not last for the entirety of the game.  Around the 25 to 30 hour mark, the mechanics and story grow rather tiresome and repetitive.  The developers at Banpresto and Monolith Soft could have easily cut down the game by at least 5 hours or more because there are plenty of chapters that feel like padding.  Much like BioShock Infinite, Project X Zone's last few hours became a boring slog through an ever increasing amount of difficult enemies.  Thanks Project X Zone for disappointing me and killing the left trigger on my 3DS.

Sonic Lost World
Ever since the release of Sonic Colors, Sonic the Hedgehog has been on a roll.  The Blue Blur has been slowly but surely gaining back the gamers lost from the onslaught of horrible Sonic games released during the mid to late 2000s.  With the announcement of Sonic becoming a Nintendo exclusive, Sonic Lost World looked to be in a prime position to continue Sonic's upward trend.  All Sonic needed was the solid mechanics introduced in Colors and refined in Generations to be brought into this new Mario Galaxy and Sonic Xtreme inspired world of Sonic Lost Worlds, but Sonic Team decided against it.  What we got was a mixed bag.  Some levels exude creativity and bring the functionality to match it.  Other levels are exactly the opposite as they are poorly designed and can induce high amounts of frustration and possibly rage.  Sonic Lost World is not the total disaster the media paints the game to be.  Honestly, Sonic Lost World is an all-around decent game, but fails at improving the standing of Sega's mascot and it is hard to forgive the game for that major failure.  Lost World was Sonic Team's opportunity to show that the aging Blue Blur can still hang with the platforming giants of the modern era.  Sadly, Sonic Team missed their mark and Sonic fans are left with a decent Sonic game instead of a great Sonic game.

The Seventh Generation: Xbox 360

The second console to look back on is the first one out of the gate this past generation, the Xbox 360.  Microsoft stepped into the video game industry with the original Xbox, but the Xbox 360 was when Microsoft made their foothold in the market.  Launching a full year ahead of the PS3 and the Wii really helped the Xbox 360 establish itself as the must-have console for the early years of this past generation.  While the PS3 had problems with making the system easily accessible for programmers and the Wii was too concerned with the casual gaming audience, the Xbox 360 had the premier online service in Xbox Live, a prospering selection of downloadable games through Xbox Live Arcade and a good number of first and third party exclusives.  The more successful the Xbox 360 became, the more Microsoft tampered with this winning formula.  The later years of the Xbox 360 saw so many shifts in focus that have gone onto hurt this console and company's standing in various ways.

The Xbox 360 made some significant improvements over its predecessor.  Apart from enhanced processing power and improved online services, Microsoft completely reworked the controller for the 360.  While the original Xbox controller was cumbersome and uncomfortable to use, the 360 controller fit perfectly to the contours of a person's hands.  The 360 controller was so well received by gamers that it is considered among the best video game controllers of all-time.  Through Xbox Live Arcade, the 360 brought forth a new avenue to access games.  No longer did one have to go to their local video game store to pick up the latest game, there were hundreds of games, demos, downloadable expansions and extra content available to download from the system's marketplace menu.  All one needed to access all this content was an internet connection.  Xbox Live Arcade also gave independent game developers a chance to easily release games on consoles.  While these indy developers needed the support of Microsoft or a third-party publisher to get their games on this service, Xbox Live Arcade did offer an affordable way to create console games.  Some of the best games for the 360 such as Braid, Limbo, Shadow Complex and Trials were released through Xbox Live Arcade.  Speaking of games, the Xbox 360 saw the release of some generation defining games like Gears of War, Mass Effect, BioShock, Fight Night Round 3 and The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion before landing on other platforms.

The Xbox 360 was overwhelmingly successful with the core gamer audience despite the hardware problems.  There are always problems with technology, but the 360's problems like the infamous Red Ring of Death and the far too common ring scratches were widespread problems.  Although some people like this writer have never experienced such hardware failures, not everyone was that lucky.  Many people went through a good number of Xbox 360s in the last generation.  During this generation, Microsoft constantly improved the Xbox 360 hardware to avoid these hardware problems in later Xbox 360 hardware.  While the hardware improved over time, the 360's standing did not.  From 2009 onwards, Microsoft shifted the 360's focus from  the defined core gamer audience to a much broader all-encompassing audience.  Microsoft moved away from developing first-party software and pushing support for indy developers to creating new peripherals and fostering greater relations with third-party publishers.  The lack of first-party support and worthwhile exclusives pushed gamers away because there was nothing to differentiate the Xbox 360 from the PS3.  The onslaught of casual games brought on by the Kinect, Microsoft's answer to the Wii's motion controls, did not help matters either.  It did bring in the casual audience, but it also alienated a good portion of the 360's primary audience.  Microsoft's SmartGlass and multimedia initiatives made it even more evident that this company had no clue about what to do with the 360's success.

The Xbox 360 has definitely had its ups and downs.  The 360 started out as the dominant console of this generation in the eyes of gamers, but completely fell flat on its face in the past few years due to Microsoft's lack of focus.  The Kinect and SmartGlass were sadly glorified prototypes that did more to hurt the 360 than extend its life.  Although these mistakes, the 360 offers a great selection of games from the Triple A blockbusters to the independent darlings.  In the end, the Xbox 360 is hands down Microsoft's best console to date.

BioShock Infinite Review

Irrational Games’ sequel to the revolutionary BioShock, BioShock Infinite, has been one of the most highly anticipated games in years.  With such a great amount of anticipation, there was a lot of pressure on Infinite to be as good as or better than the original BioShock.  Living up to that pressure seems like an unenviable task, but BioShock Infinite does not falter under the pressure for the most part.  As much as BioShock Infinite succeeds at creating an excellent world, very satisfying combat and a compelling AI companion, there are a good number of areas that hold this game back from being one of the premier first-person experiences of this generation.

“Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt.”  A simple sentence that is muttered at the very beginning of BioShock Infinite reverberates throughout the entire story.  A story which follows Booker DeWitt, a former Pinkerton agent, as he is sent on a mission to free a young girl by the name of Elizabeth in order to wipe away a debt as it seems.  Booker’s mission will not be without hardship as this hired gun gets caught up in a conflict between warring factions and chased by a mechanized creature known as the Songbird.  While Infinite’s story is what motivates gamers throughout the game, it is the setting of Columbia that will keep gamers engrossed in the world of BioShock Infinite.  It is evident that Irrational Games put a lot of time and care into creating Columbia.  From the silent movies to the 1920 covers of hit 80s pop songs hidden throughout the game, Columbia is rich with American culture.  So much culture in fact that the setting becomes a character of its own.  Columbia represents American culture taken to the utmost extremes.  The traits that Columbia takes on, while very twisted and demented, compel the gamer to move forward and discover the history behind this dystopia.

The world of Columbia is just one of BioShock Infinite’s strengths.  Another one of these strengths is the combat.  The combat revolves entirely around experimentation.  The player is given a ton of options to deal with the seemingly overwhelming enemy forces from guns to vigors (Infinite’s version of plasmids) to flying around the environment on Columbia’s skylines.  While guns and vigors are familiar to BioShock and FPS vets, the skylines are a brand new mechanic in the BioShock series.  By using the Sky Hook, the player is able to traverse each environment at breakneck speeds.  The Sky Hook and skylines open up new ways to approach combat as it offers a quick escape when firefights get too out of hand or the ability to reach areas and items that the player cannot easily access. A few hours into Infinite, the player meets up with Elizabeth.  While Elizabeth plays a central role in the story of BioShock Infinite, she also serves as your constant AI companion.  Unlike many AI companions in other games, Elizabeth does not need to be tirelessly babysat by the player.  Elizabeth is able take care of herself and the player.  Elizabeth will toss weapons, ammo, health and other useful items in the thick of battle and she is able to open tears in the fabric of time which offer more options in combat such as cover, turrets and extra weapons to gain an advantage.  From her character to her uses during combat, Elizabeth is easily the crown jewel of BioShock Infinite’s gameplay.

While there is a lot to praise BioShock Infinite for, there is a good amount of flaws that hold it back from achieving the moniker of greatest first-person shooter of this generation.  The biggest flaw with Infinite is the last three or so hours of the game.  Instead of focusing on the experimentation and freedom that the combat was built on, the last three hours of BioShock Infinite devolve into nothing more than any other generic first-person shooter.  The inherent strategy found in the combat gets lost for just shooting everything and anything that moves.  The late of additions of two new enemy types, the Boys of Silence and Sirens, feel absolutely unnecessary considering both only show up on three separate occasions and become more annoyance than a pleasure to fight.  Along with the Boys of Silence, Irrational tries to shoehorn stealth into BioShock Infinite in order to offer some new gameplay, but this attempt ultimately fails due to a control scheme that is designed for a fast-paced FPS, not a slow-paced stealth game.  Other flaws that hold BioShock Infinite back from being the masterpiece it could have been are the lack of penalty for death, the lack of an actual final boss (seriously getting sick and tired of developers trying to pass waves of enemies as final boss encounters), the confusingly convoluted ending and the excruciatingly horrible underuse of the Songbird.

All-in-all, BioShock Infinite is a great game.  The excellently crafted world of Columbia, largely experimental combat and incredibly useful AI companion Elizabeth are the highlights of this game.  Sadly in trying to appeal to a larger audience during the most crucial hours of the game, BioShock Infinite forgets the freedom and experimentation that separates it from the plethora of first-person shooters that permeate the industry nowadays.  This devolution in those last few hours along with some other considerable flaws really holds BioShiock Infinite back from standing out in the overcrowded FPS genre.  No matter the flaws, BioShock Infinite is a game worth experiencing at some point.  Just do not go in expecting a revolution.

Games for the Summer

When new game releases start to slow during the spring and summer months, many gamers get very impatient.  Instead of a steady stream of new games to play, they are left with a little trickle.  One option for gamers to turn to during this drought is the realm of downloadable games, which release more frequently during the summer.  Another option is for gamers to resort to their backlog.  For those gamers who rarely trade their games like yours truly, we have accumulated a massive library of unfinished games to work on.  During the spring and summer, most older gamers (ages 19 and above) have much more time on their hands to dedicate to gaming.  This list below are the games that I personally want to dedicate a significant amount of my gaming time to with the ultimate goal of beating these games.

BioShock
After playing the great yet somewhat disappointing BioShock Infinite, I have had an urge to go back and experience the very first BioShock.  Having missed out of the revolution that the original BioShock was, I impulsively picked up Infinite just so I would not miss out on experiencing the revolution again if BioShock Infinite actually lived up to the hype.  While I did enjoy my time with BioShock Infinite, I was left wanting to experience that revolutionary first-person shooter that could possibly give Half-Life 2 some competition for my favourite FPS game.  Considering I own BioShock, it is finally time for me to really experience this game more than an hour.  Time to fight splicers, get scared crapless by the Big Daddies and learn about the underwater dystopia known as Rapture.

Darksiders II
I have put a good amount of time into Darksiders II, one of my favourite games of 2012 and currently my most-played game for the Wii U.  Even though I have invested 20 hours into this game, I have not finished the game.  That is what usually happens when a game gives me a massive open world and numerous side quests to complete.  I am in no rush to complete Darksiders II because I am loving it.  Although to move onto newer games, you have to beat your older games.  Eventually, my time with Darksiders II will have to end and I want to make it this summer.

Half-Life 2:  Episode 2
I love Half-Life.  Valve has easily created the greatest first-person shooters on the face of this planet in the Half-Life games.  While I have still yet to beat the very first one on PC (I hit a random bug that completely halted my progress and I have not picked it up since), I tore through Half-Life 2 and Episode 1 on the 360 edition of the Orange Box a couple years back.  I was about to get into Episode 2 and then I stopped.  I cannot remember why, but I have not played it since.  When thinking about games to work on these next four months, Episode 2 just sprung up right away as I game I have to finish.  Not only in preparation for whenever Valve decides to grace us with the next instalment of Half-Life, but just for my own gamer pride.

Pokemon White Version 2
Before Fire Emblem Awakening sucked up all my game time on the 3DS, Pokemon White 2 was taking up most of my game time.  Currently 28 hours into the game, there is still quite a bit to do in my second trip through the Unova region.  More Pokemon to capture, trainers to defeat and evil forces to stop.  Especially with the worldwide release of Pokemon X and Y this coming October, I want to finish Pokemon White 2 so I will be able to dedicate most my game time this Fall to the next Pokemon game.

Rayman Origins
While Ubisoft ripped my heart out of my chest, and repeatedly stomped on it with their delay of Rayman Legends just a couple months back, there were a couple good things that came from this heartbreak.  One was having some more money to spend on games during the game rush that was March.  Another is now having time to finally beat Rayman Origins before playing Rayman Legends.  I have been working my way through Origins for a while now, so I know I am closing in on the end of the game.  This summer is just the right time to make one final push to beat this game in preparation for the September release of Legends.

Bit by Bit: Q1 2013

Freedom at last!  Finally my first year of university is over.  Now with a little more free time on my hands, I can dedicate much more time to blogging.  As the season transitions from winter to spring to eventually summer, the release of games slow significantly.  While game releases slow, game news starts to pick up with big announcements leading up to some huge conventions like E3, Comic Con and PAX Prime.  The slowing of game releases for the spring and summer help with working on the immense backlog that has been building since last Fall.  Along with a few new games I am looking forward to in the next four and a half months, there are quite a few I want to work on this summer break.  I will get to those games in my blog tomorrow.  Before we look to the future, it is time to look back at the best of the first quarter of 2013.

Game of the Quarter
Even with the busyness that is university, I did make some time to pick up and play a good amount of new releases.  The games I picked up this quarter were Tomb Raider, Lego City:  Undercover, Luigi's Mansion:  Dark Moon and BioShock Infinite.  All these games are great and deserve your time and money, but none of them could compete with the 3DS's masterful strategy epic that released this past February.  Yes, Fire Emblem Awakening is the best game of the first quarter of 2013 and quite possibly could go to be this writer's Game of the Year.  Intelligent Systems has produced many great games over the years be it strategy, role-playing or even puzzle games, but Fire Emblem Awakening stands as their crowning achievement in this medium.  The countless hours of content, great story and vastly improved support system are the stars of Awakening bar none.  Combining these elements with the excellent tactile battle system and challenging yet fair difficulty that this series is known for easily makes Fire Emblem Awakening the best game in Nintendo's venerable strategy series, on the 3DS and of this year.  Personally, I have put just over 100 hours into Fire Emblem:  Awakening and I still have a handful of sidequests and DLC levels to play and plenty SpotPass teams to fight with tons of more content being uploaded daily.  Fire Emblem Awakening is a game that no 3DS owner should pass.  It is the 3DS's killer app.

Video of the Quarter
One moment in the past three months captured the hearts and minds of gamers around the world and put Capcom in a much better light after the hellaciously bad 2012 they had.  That moment was the reveal of DuckTales Remastered at PAX East.  Nobody saw this reveal coming, but when it happened jaws dropped.  Gamers have been clamouring for another DuckTales game for years now and finally got their wish when Capcom showed this trailer.