DEAD SPACE

Honest review  by: QUIK

My friend Robert has been telling me to try this game for a long time. I picked it up for the PC and according to him the graphics were much better then the Xbox 360 version. I only played the demo version on the 360 and I wasn’t impressed at first. Warning: Do not play the demo of this game, if you like horror shooters you must own this game in your collection, the demo is a disappointing experience compared to the game itself.

Let me compare this game to another horror shooter I’ve played called Doom III. Dead Space does everything right where Doom failed. The atmosphere of the Ishimura (the ship you are on through most of the game, think Event Horizon for comparison) is absolutely brilliant and scary (in a good way) compared to the world of Doom. The enemies are unrepetetive, the pace at which they are introduced in the game is perfect leaving you never bored with the same type of enemy or how they attack you. After the initial scary mood of Doom passed I would literally walk into a new area, empty the clip, clear the room and move on to the next area. Dead Space doesn’t do that. You always have to be on your toes because even when walking through an already cleared area there’s a chance a monster will jump out of a vent and attack you. The enemies will even appear in some places and “play dead” suddenly jumping up at you when you walk past them too closely. Honestly when it comes to enemies in this game and how scary they really are this game gets perfect 10/10. I couldn’t ask for more.

The story is absolutely brilliant. You begin not knowing anything about the world (unless you saw the animated movie or read either books or comic books based on the Dead Space universe) but by the time the first chapter ends you will want to know everything about it. I get excited and happy every time I found a text, audio or video log. Learning about this world was almost as equally fun as playing in it which recently I only experienced with Mass Effect. I won’t spoil any of it here because I want you to experience it the way I did, through in-game logs (and eventually Dead Space wiki hehe).

You play Dead Space in a “over the shoulder” third person perspective (think Gears of War). At first I wasn’t very happy about that. I figured if this is a horror game it would be much scarier to experience it “through the eyes” of the main character. I disagree with myself now. I think the tpp was a very good idea now. “Why such a change of heart Quik” you might ask. Well, let me tell you dear and loyal fan of yourgamesux. There is no visible UI in this game. No health bar on the bottom, no ammo info in the corner of the screen. Everything you need to know about your character, weapons, inventory is part of the game and your character. When the protagonist Isaac Clark checks his inventory he sees a holographic projection of his items and obviously you see them as well. You know Isaac’s health by a “health bar” right on his back (the game explains why it’s there but I won’t spoil it for you, just pay attention to the posters on Ishimura, it will make you chuckle) and when you aim with a weapon the ammount of ammo left will show right there on the gun. Through keeping all of the player’s UI right in the game the creators of Dead Space made sure you are never taken out of the fantasy you are immersed in and it made the game that much more scarier. Yet another area where Dead Space wins and Doom III failed.

I highly recommend picking up this game. At the time when this review came out you could pick it up on Steam for $14,99 and that’s 15 bux well spent my friends. Now I can’t wait to finish the last chapter (I never even bothered finishing the last boss in Doom III) and play Dead Space 2.

One last thing I want to say to all of you Halo fans:

Left 4 Dead 2

Honest review by: QUIK
                     
I have become a zombie otaku(fanboy) recently. I read The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks and it rekindled my love for all things zombie. I love the canon of slow zombies that are not very mobile but are still very dangerous and have began a level 4 epidemic. A simple scratch or bite can infect you and have you increase the numbers of the walking dead army.
Left 4 Dead 2 spits on that canon and stomps on it with it’s corpse-rotten foot as if it was a finished cigarette.
Zombies are fast, very fast. They can bite you all day long and as long you got a first-aid pack along with your companions and some pills, you will feel right as day. You are immune. In this version of the zombie apocalypse the only survivors are immune. You run around from safe house to safe house picking up unlimited ammount of ammo and guns and a limited amount of medicine. Does this sound right to you? Think about every day you commute to work or school. Do you see more pharmacies or gunshops? You can pick up your basic non-subscription medicine (including bandages) at every gas station these days. Living currently in EU where we do not have a second ammendment to the constitution I doubt I would even know where to look for a gun in case of a zombie apocalypse (I guess the only thing that comes to mind is undead cops). I am being picky, sure, but for some reason the more realism I get in a zombie game the more I love it. That’s why I would absolutely love an MMO based on the canon described by Max Brooks. I do digress though. Fast zombies are trendy these days. I guess it started with 28 days later (although I am sure someone will correct me on this) and continued until now, with the last example I can think of being I am Legend with Will Smith. I know those creatures wouldn’t be called zombies by some by a lot of people call them that. I honestly hope that shows like Walking Dead (and the amazing comic by Robert Kirkman) will make film makers and game designers realize that slow but strong in numbers zombies can be more terrifying then a sprinting undead (and somehow seem more realistic).
”Quik, did this game have any redeeming qualities that made it a fun playing experience?” I hear you asking. The answer is yes, quite a few in fact. I like the level designs. They are fun, often dark (I loved walking around through dark underground areas in this game with nothing but a flashlight) and give you a realistic feeling of being out in the open or inside buildings. If you accept the fact that these zombies can move quicker then most alive people their classes are a lot of fun. Me and Fated yelled out the names of the special classes of zombies every time because if not taken out quickly, usually they could have done a lot of damage to the team. I absolutely loved the writings on the walls inside the safe houses. Remember how I said I love realism to my zombie games? Stuff like that is great, obviously communication would be very limited in that scenario and survivors would try to give loved ones who potentially survived a chance to find them.
Speaking of safehouses I would love to give an award to the most useless weapon in this game to the shotgun. Absolutely useless. Inside buildings pistols and mellee weapons seem to be a lot more effective and a lot quicker to use, out in the open the accuracy and range of it makes it even a more useless weapon.
I guess the best part about this game is how much fun you can have with friends or even strangers through online play. Many different modes also provide many hours of additional entertainment.
Do I recommend picking up this game? Sure I do. I will say wait for a nice promotion on either Steam store or wherever else you purchase your games and buy it, if you like zombies, first person shooters and multiplayer fun you will not be disappointed. If you can talk a friend or two into picking it up as well, you can be sure that you will have a blast with them.
Whoa… lower the brightness on your monitor … I think I hear a witch.

Honest review by: FATED

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. The experience you get playing this game depends entirely on the camaraderie and availability of friends. Having one or two good friends to play this game with you will mean hilarity, excitement and lots of good times. Playing this game alone is nothing special.

The game plays very well, the danger builds as your health drops and you run out of health packs. It is full of really great moments where your teamwork or lack of it makes for frantic and sometimes scary gameplay.

Sometimes the game is frustrating, where one of your teammates doesn’t take their time, running ahead and getting into trouble while everyone else is carefully exploring a building. This game is not for lone heroes. In particular, the game leaves you defenseless against most of the special undead. A smoker constricting you, no, that sword in your hand is useless. A charger bashing you against a wall, sorry, that chainsaw isn’t going to help. A jockey on your head, in your panic you simply cannot raise your shotgun up and take care of the problem.

I understand why these concessions were made, for the sake of making teamwork a core of the game, but it gets old having to cry for help while watching your character helplessly dying under the claws of a hooded hunter.

The melee weapons are of dubious use. They’re great for taking out regular zombies but your three friends will have shot them already, and you mostly got in their way as you rushed toward the pack. I stepped in front of a shotgun burst far more often using my sword than I actually managed something useful wielding that relatively cool weapon.

Getting a jockey off my friends head simply took longer as I ran up to take swings with a crow bar, when I could have solved the problem from far away using a gun. Bottom line, the melee weapons are a cool gimmick.

The stages are great, but their ending aren’t always so. In particular, if I ever have to run and collect any more gasoline cans, I’m going to cry. Go to your mall, take a good look around. Tell me how many 5 gallon cans of gas you find. In addition, NASCAR fans, what is the capacity of a race car fuel cell? If you answered 60 gallons, apparently you win the L4D2 mall game. You cannot leave the mall until you get ALL the gas into the car, even though you could drive 100 miles away on the first one. Bad game design.

There’s another stage, where a generator won’t run until you get its tank to full. It needs to lower a bridge or something. I’m pretty sure 1 gallon would be enough there too.

The challenge would have been much better to frantically search for one can of gasoline, and make it as rare in that mall as it would be in a real one.

Bottom Line, this is a very fun multiplayer game, to be enjoyed for the thrills playing along with friends. There are some flaws, some silly plot twists that make as much sense as a B-movie, but overall it’s really fun. So should you get this game? If you have friends willing to try it, absolutely; otherwise, forget it.

Happy 2011!

Salutations and best wishes in the year 2011.

I appoligize for the lack of posts in the last quarter of 2010. It was mostly my fault, I wasn’t feeling all too well and with holidays and me trying to catch up on some games I had no time or energy to write.
On the upside, I finished a few games and played quite a few more and I plan on writing reviews for them at least once a week this year beginning with this week. Hopefully, this will be a year filled with content for yourgamesux.

Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto 4 review by: Quik

I will start off by saying I really like GTA games. I have played all of them beginning with GTA2 (just a side note that both GTA classic games are available for download for free and legally from Rockstar on their website CLICK HERE to download them) then GTA3, Vice City, San Andreas, Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories (both “stories” on PSP), Chinatown Wars and now finally GTA IV. I think this game is true to the franchise and is all you would expect from a next chapter in the GTA franchise. Killing, driving, stealing, amazing soundtrack (I could listen just to the radio stations in this game all day long) and obviously since it is a next-gen GTA game the graphics are breathtaking.

Liberty City is modeled after New York City everyone knows that by now but how close is it to the source material? I’ve lived in N.J. with my parents most of my life and it’s where I grew up so me and my parents know N.Y. pretty well. When I first got my Xbox 360 and GTA4 (THANK YOU to Fated and Monmouth Media Group, LLC for sponsoring my AMAZING gaming setup, one love!) I showed it to my parents who are not gamers and asked them to recognize where the game takes place. Of course the N.Y. landmarks although slightly altered are immediately recognized and put a smile on a face of anyone who’s ever been to N.Y.C.

Liberty City is alive all around you. The pedestrians have conversations on the streets and subway stations (in different languages to add even more realizm), you can hail a cab, grab a hot dog from a street vendor, ride the subway, you have to pay the bridge tolls, I mean this game is as close to being a gangster in N.Y.C. as you can get without getting a life sentence in prison. If you haven’t played it yet and you like “sandbox” games this is one title you definitely have to pick up. At the time I am writing this review STEAM is offering Grand Theft Auto Complete Pack (including GTA, GTA2, GTA3, GTA IV, GTA: Episodes from Liberty City, GTA: San Andreas and GTA: Vice City) for 48,99€. I am not sure if such a pack is available on any other platform outside Steam but you can always check.

O.K., enough of my fanboy drooling over this (great) game, now let me put on my evil horns and tell you what I didn’t like. I hate fast driving missions in this game. I HATE them. I hate chases. One such mission made me want to quit playing this game already. Everyone in this game is a Tokyo drift champion. Seriously. Everyone makes perfect turns, and I noticed the chases are very scripted (first mission when you use the police computer for Brucie). Even the environment is scripted in that mission. Now don’t get me wrong, I actually like driving around Liberty City, I like taking my friends and girlfriend out, listening to different radio stations and obeying traffic rules. The way the car reacts and handles is worlds above what we were introduced to in San Andreas but at the same time you can’t have the same scripted car chases as you did in San Andreas Rockstar! This is a very personal opinion however and for some of you those missions may prove to be quite fun and challenging.

I am really looking forward to comparing Grand Theft Auto IV to Saints Row soon and I am sure in my review I will judge Saints Row based on how it compares to GTA IV. Later on.

GTA 4 Review by: Fated

For my take on GTA4, I want to do something a little different than usual. Quik has given you a good overall idea of the nature, feel and quality of the game with which I completely agree. What I would like to do is talk about the special moments that embedded themselves in my memory.

The beginning of the game is, well, amazing. The credits rolling as the cargo ship pulls up to the NY Harbor and the smooth transition into the start of the game made me truly feel like an immigrant coming to a strange land. I can also tell you that immigrant brothers who exaggerate the wealth of America and their success are far more common than you might think, and that also put a smile on my face.

You know, I haven’t played the GTA games to completion in the past, enjoying Vice City mainly for its great soundtrack and trying San Andreas until about halfway through before the appeal of being a West Coast gangsta wore thin. Maybe the theme of this game spoke more closely to my soul, or maybe the overall quality has improved enough, but I had no trouble finishing this game all the way through.

The first time I stole a car I got arrested. Heh, great I thought, I actually have to pay attention while carjacking. When I finally managed to steal a car without ending my fledgling criminal career, the radio was turned onto a station playing Russian Rap. I shed a tear, how thoughtful, how in-character for Niko. That radio station stayed on a lot during my days in Liberty City, because it’s what I imagined my character would listen to. I wore track suits because all the Russian gangsters I see in movies with bad subtitles wear track suits. Everything was thought of, and the completeness of it left a lasting memory.

I remember a mission where an unruly passenger fought with you as you were kidnapping her, tugging at the steering wheel. The car would veer wildly off course and you literally wrestled with the controller as if you were really fighting over that steering wheel. I don’t know anyone who didn’t hate that woman, and even the most gentlemanly of us wished we could just knock her out for the remainder of the ride.

Blood or water, that eternal question of loyalty is well represented in a memorable choice you have to make early on, made all the more difficult by how much time you can invest into your relationships. I’m glad GTA presented you the choice, as it spoke to who you are as a person. Who knew, a game delving a little into my own psyche and holding up a mirror.

I not-so-fondly recall the last mission of the game, not because of its inclusion of every mission element possible, but for one horrendously difficult jump. Oh man, that leap, taken half-blind, unsure of what exactly you had to do to make it successful, was the epitome of frustration. But it is an epic jump and upon its eventual and successful completion, it made seeing the ending credits rolling by ever more sweet.

You know what I disliked? Looking for all the damned pigeons. Yes, as secret hunts go they’re very appropriate for New York, but I honestly and passionately hate what amounts to a fetch quest with 100 locations. The city is beautiful guys; I don’t need  100 pigeons to be encouraged into exploring it. Bottom line, this is a great game, engrossing, detailed, and with as close to a soul as a video game can get.  Another classic standing among lesser imitations (cough...Saints Row...cough)

Fallout 3

Fallout 3 review by: Quik
War. War never changes...
I have just finished the main game last night and I am about to experience the DLC starting with the Brotherhood of Steel and I will be playing Fallout New Vegas as soon as I get it. What a thrill, what an experience this journey was. This game is everything I have imagined and more. The world is huge and with so many interesting locations it provides weeks of entertainment. I was just walking about, looking for stuff to sell when I have discovered an old snacks factory. As I explored it I have eventually learned (through hacking, exploring and reading everything I could possibly find) that the factory was secretly taken over by Chinese agents before the first nukes were launched. The place was infested with ghouls in Chinese uniforms and as the patriotic songs on the Enclave Radio signal gave me courage I have cleaned that place from those commie bastards. This is just one example of those many, many locations you can explore that do not have a single thing to do with the main quest line (or often even side-quest), but they are so detailed and fun you wouldn't skip a single one. Detail is what makes this game really, it's what drives you to explore this world, learn all you can about it. It's what gives you a sense of danger and understanding of what it is like to survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

The graphic details in this game are beyond words. The first time I have exited Vault 101 I just stood at the look-out point and stared at the horizon, taking in the sites and sounds (or lack of them) I imagined for a minute what this world will be like, the adventure(s) I was about to embark on. I know Fallout, I've played the old games (only finished Fallout 2 I'm embarassed to say) I had an idea of what to expect but the actual experience of exploring Fallout world in first person perspective blew my mind.

The only negative thing I can really say about the game is it's infestation with bugs (and I don't mean the radroaches). I played Game of the Year edition for the PC and I had to constantly press F5 to quicksave otherwise most often inside buildings the game would just freeze and if I forgot to quicksave I would have to go all the way back to the autosave when I entered the before mentioned building. It might not sound that bad to someone who hasn't played the game but once you realize how huge some of those locations are you would understand my frustration. The A.I. of the NPCs in combat is also disappointing sometimes,  especially the Raiders running against the walls or the scientists in Enclave's Raven building who run away even though they have laser pistols (maybe my holy karma aura was that terrifying to their evil souls? =p).

In conclusion, this is possibly one of the greatest games I have ever played. It's hard to explain how epic this game is, how detailed, it's not just a game, it's an experience. To all the people who are saying that this game "ruined Fallout universe", "it's not really Fallout" just because it is first person game, you are stupid. World changes, technology changes. I assure you if they could make Fallout and Fallout 2  like this back in a day they would have. Now stop complaining and learn that technology always changes but war... war never changes.

 

Fallout 3 Review by: Fated

The biggest question a Fallout fan might have about the latest game: “Is this essentially an Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Mod?” Thankfully, no, not even close. The game feels like the Fallout games of old, the atmosphere of a post-nuclear struggle for survival among the ashes of civilization is there and then some. The characters that inhabit the world have unique personalities: paranoia, survivalist junkies, cowboys, cannibals, delusional emo-heads, slaves, drunks, addicts, victims of radiation and religious zealots. The game treats its subject maturely and doesn’t go out of its way to insult your intelligence. In addition, the atmosphere itself is just amazing. The wasteland oozes desperation, oppression, the very struggle to simply stay alive is felt in the land itself. It takes a special game where you can become a drug addict, cannibal, murderer and slaver. The game has balls of irradiated steel considering that something like Call of Duty is being banned because you can play as a soldier or an insurgent.

The question of whether you will like this game or not rests on the following points: Do you mind if a game has a slow pace and combat is dangerous? Do you like having long conversations and reading? Do you explore places even though you don’t have a quest to do so? If you answered yes to these, this is a great game for you. As Quik pointed out, the heart of the game lies in just walking off toward the sunset, finding an interesting place and discovering its story on your own. If you just rely on the main quest, you haven’t seen even half of this game.

Considering how realistic and mature the game tries to be in most aspects, you quickly notice an issue with two important apocalyptic considerations: food and radiation. You never feel very concerned about starving to death, or dying of thirst. I mean, look at the landscape, provisions should be the most valued commodity in the wasteland. Hell, the whole story revolves ultimately about drinkable water. Yet you never really feel that pressure of survival unless a mutant is chasing you down with a chaingun. In addition, while radiation is a threat, it is gotten rid of far too easily. Also, am I the only one to think that the Fallout universe missed a big book of fun in NOT having weird mutations change your character? I mean, growing a third arm or something, while difficult to code, would be all kinds of hilarious.

Ultimately, Fallout 3 is a classic. It belongs to a short list of games one simply must experience in their lifetimes. It will be one of those games that you reminisce about when you talk about the good old days when everything was better in the world. It will be one of those games you wish someone made more of, and that is the best compliment I could give it.

Star Trek Online

Note from Quik:
There will be no STO review from me. I just got Fated’s review in the e-mail and after reading it I cannot express enough how right he is. I feel exactly the same way about Star Trek Online and Fated’s review opened my eyes to some aspects I pretended I did not see but somehow felt in the back of my head the same way as Fated. There would no point in my writing exactly the same review, especially since Fated’s is greatly written and pretty much says it all. So all you Trekkies who want to try STO because “it’s all I’ve dreamed about for years and years”, you must read this review!

Star Trek Online review by: Fated

Star Trek Online has a generally well deserved reputation as one of the worst MMO’s ever. To give you an idea, a recent review of Final Fantasy 14 I’ve read had not one single good thing to mention about the game, but did give the following “positive”: Not as bad as Star Trek Online. Is this deserved? Taking my passion for Star Trek aside, definitely.

STO is one of the least polished games I have experienced. It does not seem simple, but every complication seems to be there for the sake of complication, instead of enabling some deeper gameplay. You have a choice of ground weapons and personal shields and kits, each of which have ever so slightly different effects, such as sometimes pushing an enemy back slightly, or slightly lowering their damage, or slightly doing something else not truly meaningful. There are all kinds of shields for your ship, some of which regenerate slightly faster, others that are a little more solid, and others still that last a longer time under fire, and all of those are affected by some generally hard to decipher skills. Tell me, is my shield getting stronger from my Starship Engineering Training, my Starship Warp Core Training or my Starship Command Skill, or all three? Who knows without spending hours reading obscure blogs and wikis on the internet? What exactly is a +12 to a skill, what does it do? Should I go with a +10 instead? You may never know. It is unnecessary confusion and obfuscation to make a system seem less simplistic than it really is. (Quik’s note: OK, so you do you understand why I “lost it” at one point when trying to organize my inventory . Can’t all RPGs have a character developement system as fun and detailed but also intuitive and easy to understand as Fallout 3?)

The only thing in the game that has seen a lot of serious work is the art, which I believe was borrowed from a prior developer. The Star Trek look is there in the ships, the uniforms and the settings. It is easy enough on the eyes. However, you only need to fly by a few Capt. Jack Daniels flying their USS ScotchWhiskey to lose your immersion. It doesn’t help that all the personal shields, tactical kits and combat armors with armor-plated glossy uniforms make half the players look like they jumped in from Unreal Tournament or Global Agenda. I’m sorry, was Cryptic working on Voltron Online before they got the Star Trek license? Probably.

The biggest gripe most fans have with the game is that it doesn’t “feel” very Star Trek. The shows and movies are about violence as a last resort, no battle is gone into without at least some attempt at communication and remediation. The Federation does not give orders to “destroy” pirate outposts, but to conduct diplomacy and mediate an agreeable solution. The game is not like that AT ALL. It has more in common with what you would expect from Warhammer 40,000, where humanity is at war with everyone forever. There were points at which I and Quik would be faced with enemies, and we wanted to hail them. There is no such option; you cannot hail your enemies. You don’t even get the “we’re kind of trying” pretense of “Captain, they’re not answering our hails”, there is just combat.

Ground combat, heck, ground missions are ludicrously bad. Bring your scanner and your gun. You either scan ten rats or shoot them. Except the rats look like metal boxes or Klingons, respectively. In addition, every other ground mission will have enemies materialize into the ground and shoot you with apparently trans-dimensional weapons while you are unable to do anything about it. Transporter technology has obviously lost some of its finesse, because boxes and objects are constantly shown inside rocks and trees.

One of the earliest missions has a Klingon Captain telling you that a particular ambassador is a traitor, and asks you to hand him over. Why can’t I? I believe him, why can’t I end the mission there and then. Because this game sucks, that’s why. Why don’t your enemies ever surrender, or run away, or ask for a cease fire, or hail you? Bottom line, you get war, constant war, with no peace possible, no mercy, no prisoners and nothing of the spirit a Star Trek fan would care for.

Your missions are repetitive, and very few are nonviolent. The nonviolent “diplomatic” missions are tolerable, although boring. The biggest crime is that there are no choices, pretty much in anything. I HAVE to talk to all the miners, I “Resolve” their grievances by correctly repeating their problems back to them. WOW, if only the world was really like that!! I HAVE to destroy that Klingon away party, to the last man. I HAVE to blast that Orion Pirate and his inhabited Starbase from existence. I HAVE to scan the first artifact before I can scan the three identical ones down the road. It’s ridiculous in its simplicity and disregard for canon as well as your intelligence.

But do not despair, the game is not hard. If you “die”, you or your starship respawn a few seconds later a few feet from your last location. The game has a nice resuscitation system for away teams, but why bother when you can just respawn anyway. Why, in the future, does “food” still heal us from laser blasts? Seriously, wouldn’t some “Medical Nanobot Injection” been too hard to use instead of Romulan Ale? It doesn’t feel serious. When my starship is destroyed, why aren’t I rescued by someone or eject? Why aren’t I towed back to the nearest starbase and repaired/given a new ship?

In space combat, your crew can be injured or killed. Your injured crew recover fairly quickly, but so do your dead, in the middle of battle!! Why do I not have to go back to a star base to get new crewmembers? Why is it never held against me that hundreds of people die under my command each day, and my promotions just keep rolling in? Wouldn’t it make canonical sense that taking heavy casualties would be held against a captain and affect his rate of experience gain, aka promotions through the ranks? Nothing matters in this game, not even the “pretend” lives of your “pretend” crew in this pretense of what Star Trek should be.

The ship to ship combat in this game is passable, and along with non-violent diplomatic missions, it is the only part of this game even remotely enjoyable. Your ship is slow, turns slow, and takes a lot of hits to be destroyed, and that is how it should be. Your crew’s special training is implemented in special abilities like “Emergency Power to Shields”. However, there are gaping holes in what you can do. You cannot launch shuttles, target enemy subsystems, use a tractor beam, or beam boarding parties to the enemy ship without the requisite special abilities. That is like not being able to turn right in a car without a passenger trained in Driving 3. Oh wait, maybe they were modeling NASCAR J.

So why do I play this train wreck of a game? Why do I find enjoyment in it? The answer is simple: my friend Quik. Ultimately, we play social games for the people, the friends and the camaraderie. It doesn’t necessarily matter if the game is good or not, as long as you have good company to play it with. We are both Trek geeks, we can role play our characters, we do not fly the USS Ikillyourship. We do not give our captains Justin Bieber hair and combat armor from Star Wars. We play the game our way, the Trek way, even with all the limitations against our doing so, and only then is it any fun.

Fatboy Slim: Why Try Harder? (Greatest Hits)

Review by: Fated

Okay, Quik excitedly told me of a great “techno” album so good he could easily listen to the whole thing over and over and love every song. Intriguing. I got the album, Fatboy Slim’s Greatest Hits. I can’t say I share his enthusiasm.

The album opens well, with the first track being catchy and recognizable from commercials and tv, however, my biggest gripe with the entire album becomes entirely clear after about a minute.

Perhaps some of you remember those funny little songs like “This Is the song that never ends….” And “99 bottles of beer”. They’re cute but the level of their repetitiveness and sameness gets you sick of them faster than the speed of light. You know which songs I mean, church has a ton of them, those songs that have 3 or 4 lines and are repeated for as long as the crowd is “into” it, perhaps hours. This first track has TWO, count em, two lines with one word different between them. This might work, if it was a minute and a half song, and the accompanying beat was really that good. Sadly, it’s not, not even close. It’s a mash up of beach boys surfing funk and those two lines. The artist felt he needed to keep the song going by employing that really lame song device of speeding up and slowing down the track to fool (“yeah right”) my mind into thinking that NOW, NOW I’m going to get to the creative original and new part that’s going to make me like this song. Final rating: Epic for the first 10 seconds, COMPLETE FAIL for the rest of the 4!!! Minutes I was unfortunately subjected to.

Praise You is the second track. It suffers from exactly the same problem. Overly simple, overly repeated, lame stutter effects to change up something that is 10% of a REAL song stretched out into 3 and a half minutes. It even sounds like church music, which makes me wonder if this whole album isn’t some kind of sick revenge for Fatboy Slim having to listen to some damn near endless and mostly mindless praising of Jesus as a child.

Basically, I’ll sum up this album: Listen to about the first 15 to 30 seconds of each song and sample the beat before its very soul and spirit are crushed out of you through a merciless lack of progress, change, or a timely end to the track.

In terms of style, the whole thing is very 70s funk, kind of like a Tarantino throwback except musically.

The thing is, I don’t know how anybody can listen to the whole album straight through because you’ll be bored to tears way before you hit the middle. Each interesting beat from each new track will be immediately followed by “This is the whole song right here, how many minutes am I going to listen to this one?”

The greatest songs are complicated, multilayered and not afraid to change up their beats, style, pace and lyrics. Think perhaps Queens “Bohemian Rhapsody” or Black Sabbath’s “Ironman”. The songs just change several times and get MORE interesting as you listen to them.

This is the complete opposite. Your first few seconds are as interesting as these songs will ever get. I, well, I kinda hate this album. Sorry Quik.

 

Review by: Quik

 

Sir, how can you hate this album? Hate? Why do I have a feeling you approached this cd with a negative attitude to begin with and hence you did not allow yourself to be swept away by the phat beats and positive rhytm (hehe).

^_^

I discovered this album at work, I was sitting in front of my Mac slaving away in Photoshop and my boss put the cd on. I didn’t have any podcasts or audiobooks to listen to that day so I just sat there and listened to the music in the background. I heard a couple of tracks by FBS before but I had a very neutral attitude about it. A couple of tracks in I caught myself dancing in my seat while working with a nice positive smile on my face. I was intrigued. I got the album and copied the cd to my iPod. I immediately liked it. Funky, very positive beats, sampling of different music styles, (Bird of Prey makes me think of The Doors, Don’t let the man get you down put an image of 60s hippies in my mind) and an overall positive attitude of the tracks made me listen to this album for a long time everywhere, commuting, working, relaxing you name it.
I think this music is incredibly visual. If this was a soundtrack to some fun funky movie I bet you it would be the most popular soundtrack of the decade.

How many times can you spot the neighborhood spy???

The music videos very much prove my point, honestly Fated I made a mistake, I should have made you watch a couple of music videos first and then tell you “Oh by the way, this is the cd with all those songs in one place.” and I think you would have a much greater appreciation for the album. Well just in case you are willing to trust me on this I have “sneaked” a couple of videos into my review, hope you watch them, give them a try and perhaps try the album again hmmm? ^_^

I absolutely fell in love with this track after watching the video =)

Last but not least, if all those videos before did not put a smile on your face and made you move your butt to the funky rhytms this is my last attempt (my Weapon of Choice if you will) but it is the strongest one. “Why is that Quik?” you ask. Well sir, three reasons:
1) Christopher Walken is dancing in it. (Yes, except for a couple of stunt moves that is really him dancing) and on a coolness scale of 1 to 10 (1 being Mr. Rogers and 10 being Chuck Norris) Mr. Walken is 12.
2) There is a line in the song “If you walk without rhytm then you won’t attract the worm”. I love stuff like this, it reminds me that the mighty army of geeks and nerds is that much closer to taking over the world.
3) Christopher Walken is in this… DANCING!!!

If you walk without rhytm, you won’t attract the worm!