More blue than the other blog

Guitar Hero, what happened to thee?

Guitar Hero started on the good old PS2, made by Harmonix, and was pretty much a follow up to Amplitude and Frequency, rhythm games that most overlooked. So to raise the appeal and the immersion, the team added the gee-tar, called it guitar hero, and made you hit notes that scrolled down a long board that is constantly moving torward the bottom of the screen in a slanted angle.

Now, that’s fine and dandy, but what if you remove the guitar? I mean, guitar hero is fun and all, but once you remove the GUITAR element what is left? You’re pretty much hitting notes to a rythm, or in most cases on expert in Guitar Hero 3, a random note pattern. Now I know some people have fun without the guitar, but it makes absolutely no sense to me. That’s why guitar hero mobile and DS confuse the hell out of me. Why would I want to play a gimped guitar hero without the main factor. What am I now, “the hero”? Whatever it is, I don’t like it.

The hell is "Mistress Mabel"?

So, yeah. I recently realized I like the Fratellis still, so I decided to listen to “Costello Music” a couple times through. During this, I also came to the realization that the album was released in 2006.

This made me go out and look for a new Fratellis single and boy did I find one. Except it was covered in totally-not-goodness. Wait. That is the new single. Mistress Mabel. Ah. That makes sense.

No. It doesn’t. I really can’t understand what they were thinking. If you haven’t heard it yet, just go on YouTube and search for it. That is, if you’re willing to waste the 4 minutes it takes to listen to it.

So basically, this song feels WAY too safe. Gone are the punchy lyrics and the “make you wanna dance” riffs, replaced with subtle, generic mediocrity. It’s as if a bunch of suits sat down in a room and said “How can we tear this apart and take everything that made this band appealing and throw it away?”. What made “Costello Music” great was the fact that it was so fun, and the seriousness was pretty much non-existent. You  know every time you listened to “Flathead” you  just felt like getting up and dancing about your room. This song pretty much neglects that “fun” aspect and instead we are given a very streamlined, less cultured piece of music.

Now you could argue I’m just opposed to change and don’t see that they’re evolving as artists, but the originality they had is gone. It’s difficult to put my distaste into words, but I think you get the idea.

Back from a different place in Florida!

Boredom

After waking up 3 hours ago (It’s 6:30 now…), all I’ve been doing is listening to the new Tokyo Police Club album, and I must say, I’m very impressed. The riffs beg to be hummed to, and the lead singer’s vocals has a certain distinction that has always made the band stand out among the rest.

That’s not to say it’s without problems. Though catchy, some of the songs begin to just kind of weave together because of similarities. Most of the song’s climax moments can begin to sound the same with a couple of listens.

The songs are also a bit too short for todays standards. With the entire album clocking in at around 30 minutes, there’s a lot to be desired.

Tokyo Police Club is just Tokyo Police Club. They havn’t taken a step back with this album, nor a step forward, more like a steady hop-in-place. Hopefully they work on that in the future.

Ah, a new addiction

Wow, I’m absolutely hooked on Team Fortress 2. It took a little while, but now I’m finally seeing that fine game for what it is.

I’ve picked up the Scout class, the frail, loud mouthed, shotgun wielding, baddest mother fucker you ever did see. He’s so fast, and he works wonders on Spys, Pyros, and DEFINITELY engineers. They’re pretty much screwed.

I really like how the game balances the classes though. I may boast an amazing score with my Scout, but that’s simply a result of practice. No class really sucks per se, and nothing feels out of place or over-powered.

I wish I would have found this great love for the game sooner, though, because the amount of players is real slim. But oh well. Off to bed. More TF2 tomorrow.

Oh right, I’m also recieving my replacement Rock Band guitar tomorrow. More on that later.

Crap