On September 9th, 1988, this cheesecake popped out of the oven looking as all cheesecakes tend to. I was a blank slate, ready to be garnished and sweetened however my upbringing would see fit. Would I be graced with blueberries? Strawberries? Raspberries? A chocolate pattern, perhaps? No one knew at that time what would become of this little cheesecake, other than that he would follow the same basic path that all cheesecakes do. They're baked, and then they are eaten. It was up to me to decide what I would do along that path to being digested by the universe.

I grew up in a rather musical household. Neither of my parents were musicians, but they both had a large appreciation for music of all kinds. It was actually split between my parents. My mother had the widest taste ranging from jazz and classical to the tiniest sub-genre of rock your standard pigeonholing fruitcake would try to create. My dad on the other hand was mostly a southern rock and country kinda guy, which was something my mom didn't listen to often but appreciated nonetheless. As the years went by I was lucky enough to be exposed to music from all generations past, including what was at the time considered "modern".

Frank Zappa, Talking Heads, Billie Holiday, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, Pink Floyd, Travis Tritt, Elvis, The Rolling Stones, Stone Temple Pilots, BB King, Django Reinhardt, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Offspring, Johnny Lang, Johnny Cash, Jimi Hendrix, Brooks & Dunn, Beethoven, Everclear, Steely Dan, ZZ Top, The Allman Brothers, Chopin, The Tubes, Roxy Music, System of a Down, Etta James, Metallica, AC/DC, KMFDM, Susan Tedeschi, The Grateful Dead, and countless others were artists I was exposed to at a very young age and gained an appreciation for. Not just the bands themselves, but for their respective sounds, influences, and impact on the music world as a whole. But one band stuck out to me the most as a child growing up. A band that my family would soon identify as "My Band".

That band was The Beatles.



After I first heard their early material (Love Me Do, Please Please Me, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, etc) I confiscated my parents' tape collection of their work and held it in my room. I listened to it nonstop as I was taken aback by the power of the overly cheery love songs, spiced up with the occasional downer such as Yesterday and Eleanor Rigby. Then I discovered the weirder side of The Beatles, with Yellow Submarine being my jump off point into the darker, psychedelic side of the band.

I have fond memories of taking my Talkboy out with me to the park in the summer and swinging on the swings, with tracks like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds fueling unusual twists in my imagination. Somehow the vibes were always right, and after years of this the smell of grass and the view of the old park (which has since changed quite a bit) have become associated with good times, and The Beatles. My aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins all got to hear about my own case of beatlemania. My friends thought I was quite strange for having The Beatles as my favorite band, but I couldn't imagine someone not liking their music. It had become fairly ingrained in my very DNA, that the music of The Beatles would never leave me until the day I die.

September 9th, 1999. The Dreamcast is released in the United States. At the time, I was still fairly behind in the game world. I had a SNES with a massive library of games, and an N64 which was purchased a year before that. But how my mouth dropped in awe at the look of launch title Dreamcast games like Sonic Adventure. It looked so much better than my N64 or my friends' Playstations. And every game I saw made me want a Dreamcast more and more. But I couldn't convince my parents to allow me to get a third console, so something had to go.

I remained stubborn on this, until an issue of EGM came to my doorstep that contained details on a great new game called "Phantasy Star Online". From the moment I set my eyes upon the first screenshot of the game, to reading about the class system and the loot details I was hooked. After the game came out, I read each review I could find and drooled over the extremely positive marks it got. I decided it was time to get a Dreamcast. Unfortunately, my SNES and the entire library of games had to go in order to get it. But I was fine with this, and not but a year or two after getting my Dreamcast would I step into the emulation world so I think things turned out alright after all.



PSO was just the jumping point for my Dreamcast adventures. Jet Grind Radio, Skies of Arcadia, Grandia 2, Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, Ikaruga, Outtrigger, Illbleed, Shenmue... So many radical new worlds and ideas to explore. I played my Dreamcast more often than I did my N64, and the Dreamcast quickly became my favorite system of all time. My room was covered in demo discs from the Dreamcast Magazine and printouts of drop charts and maps and strategies from PSO-World. Unfortunately for me, the Dreamcast would die an early death at the hands of the Playstation 2 and Sega's own fanatical thinking and experimentation. Even with Seganet, the world just wasn't ready for the Dream Machine.

September 9th, 2009. The Beatles: Rock Band will be released, making a huge jump for the legacy of "My Band". It is an outstanding tribute to a band that has changed the face of music for an uncountable amount of people. I am happy to say that I am one of them. Along with the release of the Stereo/Mono remasters, and the rumor of The Beatles finally joining iTunes, The Beatles are inescapable right now. Recently, every day is just ever so slightly rose tinted for me by the fact that The Beatles are back in a big way. And the thought occurs to me: What luck I have to have so many things fall in to place like this.



I also turn 21 on that day. I will have made my final step into "adulthood", achieving the last hurdle of being able to legally drink. It is a landmark day for many a person, but for me it won't just be a day about the booze. To this day, I still listen to The Beatles. Their albums are on my laptop, my desktop, my iPod, my external hard drive. To this day, my Dreamcast sits proudly in my room. I boot it up every once in a while to play the classics the way they were 10 years ago. I own Xbox Live versions of Ikaruga and Rez, Gamecube versions of Skies of Arcadia, PSO and Ikaruga, and Jet Set Radio Future. And I play them to this day. I am still an active member over at PSO-World, ever since I first signed up there back in late summer 2003.

Music is still a huge part of my life. I listen to a wide variety of artists and genres, and always look out for a new and different sound. In my spare time I write album reviews for albums that are able to inspire me to write something about them. My love of music brought me to love the Rock Band series of games. I was exposed to it by a friend who took me with him to perform vocals during the Rock Band Tour that went around the country in 2007. I currently own Rock Band 2 for the Xbox 360 and an insane amount of DLC. And now "My Band" is being brought to a format that I love, to a system that owes a lot to the ground the Dreamcast broke. Some people may be a little tired of being stuck in a rut where a lot of things haven't changed since they were kids.

But me? I'm just fine here, thanks.

Game: Resident Evil 5
Platforms: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PS3.

Co-op seems to be all the rage these days. Ever since competitive multiplayer came around there has been a vocal group seeking after the ability to share an adventure with a friend in a co-operative manner. A handful of games have given the buddy-gaming world a spin. With consoles having online capabilities we've seen demand for more co-op experiences rise incredibly. Some games have had mixed results while others have missed the point.

Enter Resident Evil 5, a game that has been marching to the beat of the Co-op drum since Capcom first announced the feature years ago. Little did we know back then that this would not be the usual lukewarm trite co-op tack-on that other games were pulling out of their asses, but almost the entire selling point of the game. When the demo was released people got a taste of just how co-op would work, and the praise began to pour. Few worried that the whole game would become a drag with another person, or wouldn't be able to pull it off without the game becoming too obvious and ham-fisted in the way it dealt with two players.

Well the game is finally in our hands, so how well does the tightrope hold up with two people trying to cross it?

RE5 is really several different games in one, and it takes some time with the game to understand this (and master-of-unlocking it, but more on that later). Here's a breakdown of what you get in the full package:

Resident Evil 5, Single Player Edition: An intense 7 to 8 hour park ride that has 4 difficulties. Amateur, Normal, Veteran and Professional (unlockable). Features include Quick Time Events, A.I. partner, trading minigame (in real time with a stubborn trader!), and incredibly campy storyline that teeters on the edge of corny horror film and wacky Japanese tentacle porn.

Resident Evil 5, Cooperative Edition: An intense 7 to 8 hour park ride with the same 4 difficulties. Includes the exact same attractions and features but with another human being behind the wheel instead of a silly computer controlled partner.

Resident Evil 5, The Club Edition: Mercenaries mode is a race against the clock to kill as many infected as possible while getting time bonuses and combos to unlock more characters with different weapon layouts and new stages. Can be played by yourself or with another human player!

The Single Player experience will be a mixed one for most people. The A.I. partner jumps around from being mentally disabled to suicidal. A.I. Sheva is a decent healer, and is a good shot with whatever gun you give her. She does have some drawbacks, including her wanton use of ammunition and health supplies. She also makes mistakes here and there, getting stuck between a wall and a boss creature with a chainsaw or massive axe and getting killed. She's not exactly stupid, but far from the ideal partner. Some puzzles can trip her up, but a simple press of the B button can call her back to your side to try again. She has two modes of operation, one which has her stay closer to you and use ammo slightly less, while the other encourages her to seek out battles and blast everything in sight. You can also give her items to hold on to or use, or give her healing items to save both of your asses with. Some players will not mind her, other players will hate her.

You play through the game in chapters, with sub-chapters breaking things up as checkpoints to sell and buy items and upgrade your weapons. Each sub-chapter will score you on kills, deaths and how long it took you to finish it. You earn points based on the rank you receive which can be used to buy unlockables. Once you've beaten a sub-chapter you can replay it on any difficulty, allowing you to go through your favorite stage at any time.

Combat has been the source of much controversy, forcing you to stand still like a deer staring into headlights while you aim your weapon to take a shot. It feels a little outdated by today's standards but it takes a little adaptation to get used to.

The Cooperative experience is almost a completely different experience, with a second human player taking over Sheva. This allows players to form more complex strategies, use their ammo and weaponry wisely and share the thrill ride with a buddy. The person playing Sheva will play with Sheva on the right side of the screen, and this may be a little disorienting for players who are used to left-side characters like in Gears of War. The levels and puzzles are exactly the same as they are in the single player game, but the game plays perfectly fine that way as there isn't any tweaking needed to account for the second body. The game was built to be played this way, and should be played this way if possible. And with online and couch co-op ability, there's almost no excuse not to.

Mercenaries mode is exactly like Mercenaries from Resident Evil 4, where you play on simple stages with a timer counting down with the simple goal of killing as much as you can. You pick from a number of characters (most of them unlockable by doing well in the stages) who have different weapon layouts, and a handful of stages to kill in. After each run, you get a score, rank and some points. These levels contain a large amount of replayability, and can be played solo (without the AI Partner) or with a human partner.

Weapon upgrading is back, allowing you to buy increased firepower and ammunition count on your weaponry. I wish the game had a more in-depth customization system like MGS4 which let you buy custom hardware for your weapons and make the gun have a physical change to give it a different look and feel. But what is there is a solid system and will surely have players replaying levels over and over again to get money for upgrades.

Speaking of purchasing, there is a ton of content to unlock. The game allows you to purchase different things based on how many chapters you've beaten and on certain difficulties, number of BSAA emblems you've shot, etc. Once you unlock the ability to get that item you must spend the points you earn from beating the sub-chapters and in Mercs mode to purchase the content. There are highly-detailed "figures" of each character, alternative costumes, infinite ammo for fully upgraded weapons, graphics filters and more. For those who need everything unlocked in a game, this alone will keep you very busy.

The game looks fantastic, with some of the best looking character models in a current gen game, and some jaw dropping particle effects. The lighting is very well done and never overwhelms you with too much bloom. Each area you visit has its own feel and never do you feel like you're stuck in a generic hallway. There is some screen tearing issues and the enemies have some heavily overused animations but in the midst of a heavy battle it won't matter much to you as they pass by so quickly. Sound is also appropriate, weapons sound off with an appropriate kick and the voicework is never muddled by the music. Though some of the dialog delivery is corny, it's a series standard so I let it slide.

I will also note that Capcom has announced an online versus mode that will cost PSN members $4 and Xbox Live members 400 MS Points. The modes include a versus Mercenaries type mode which has people competing for a higher kill count/score, and a standard 1 on 1 or 2 on 2 deathmatch mode. Personally, I think this sounds like it would have the grace of a drunken elephant stumbling around a busy highway, with the gameplay of a third-person whack-a-mole game with shotguns. It doesn't sound worth the money to me, but the option will be available later, for a small price. So you can take this into consideration when you buy the game.

I've used the term replay a lot in this review, and that is what Resident Evil 5 has a lot of. From the ease of returning to whatever level you want, to 4 different difficulties and a massive collection of unlockables, there are a lot of reasons to play the game over and over again. And for a game with such a short story, this is a very good thing. It will all come down to how much you want to get the extra costumes and action figures, and if you have a friend to play the game with you or not. Resident Evil 5 is purely action and none of the scares from the original games in the series, but as far as action games go it's a hell of a ride.


~.~

Sorry for the long-winded review. I haven't done one for a game in a very long time. I do, however, do music reviews somewhat more often on my wordpress blog. I've considered cross-posting the album reviews to D-toid under the NVGR label, but I wasn't sure I wanted to without knowing if D-toid would care for them. They're usually much shorter than the above review, and I try to cover different genres though I know I won't be able to get them all or even a fraction of them as just one man. So let me know if you want to see my music reviews on the Cblogs, as well as the usual torch-and-pitchforks fest that happens with most reviews. Thanks for reading.

I was playing Gears of War 2 at a very early hour this morning and got disconnected from Live during my session. After a chapter I decided to try to log back in, and it told me a title update was available and I needed to download it. I shot my browser over to the official Gears of War 2 forums and found the following thread.

Rod Fergusson says, just before the massive fix list:

Hey all,

I'm happy to announce that Title Update 2 for Gears of War 2 is now available. It went live this morning at 2 AM PST (5 AM EST) and as you can see from the detailed release notes below, it's a significant update. It addresses a large number of multiplayer exploits and issues as well as makes some balancing tweaks, includes a couple of new features and even adds 7 new DLC-based achievements. Four of the new achievements require the Flashback Map Pack that came free with your new copy of the game, so don't forget to redeem your code inside the box!

Once again, I want to thank our community for their patience while we finished this title update and I want to thank everyone for their ongoing support of the game. Gears 2 sales topped over 4 million copies sold in just two months and when we released the Combustible Map Pack in December, it became the number one piece of premium downloadable content for that month.

We're continuing to work hard supporting the game and you, the community, and we look forward to seeing you online.

Among some of the bugfixes are some interesting ones, such as my favorite: "A Horde split-screen issue that could cause a team to get –2 billion in score, which when posted to the leaderboards looked like +2 billion." Be sure to check out the full list of fixes at the link provided above. But is it too little too late for Gears of War 2 to get back to business for you?

Edge Magazine has stirred up some controversy with their recent ruling on their award for "Most Innovative" this year. Bungie's Halo 3 took the award beating out Portal, Wii Fit, and Grand Theft Auto IV. A quote from the official edge page:

This year’s Edge Award For Interactive Innovation was a closely fought affair, Bungie proving victorious in a shortlist that also included Grand Theft Auto IV, Portal, Rock Band, Super Mario Galaxy and Wii Fit.

Ultimately it is the integration and coherence of Halo 3’s online content that makes the game stand apart. From its Theater mode to Forge, and the way a party playing through Live can seamlessly manoeuvre between them, here is an experience that demonstrates an unparalleled understanding of the potential for console online play. Outside of the game, Bungie.net has been engineered to become a remarkable resource for Halo 3 stats and communities, providing life for the game even when your Xbox 360 is switched off. Halo 3, just as Halo 2 did before it, presents a roadmap for the way online will be integrated in videogames in the coming years.




Source here.

But for some, like the readers of Edge magazine and another videogame blog site that starts with a K, they feel the award is unjust and that the award belongs to Portal.

Now let us think about this for a second. Halo 3 does have a fairly robust online mode, and Theater mode and Forge are cool editions for games. Theater Mode removes the old way of sharing videos with friends over a shitty quality youtube video, and Forge lets you mess around with levels in real time while people play. But the stat-tracking is nothing new, Counter Strike: Source servers (with the proper mod installed) have had detailed stat tracking for years. But Forge is limited to pre-built levels and unlike the PC community (I know, blah blah blah I'm not trying to start a PC vs Console war, here) cannot have truly custom content. Video sharing is nice too, and Theater mode streamlines the process, but Youtube has been around for quite some time and videos of games have been showing up there for a while too. So in the end, is it really award winningly innovative?

But what about the other games? Portal took puzzle solving and put it into a first person view. While you could argue it is original, the game is a spiritual sequel to a game made by basically the same people, Narbacular Drop. It was still a hell of a lot of fun, with a devilishly funny antagonist and the overplayed end theme song.

GTA IV was a huge upgrade to the formula established by GTA III, but that was about it. Online play in the large multi-island world is fun and with the sandbox online mode you and your friends can make up your own original game ideas, and that is the one thing it did innovate on. And who can hate on BEEG AMERICAN TEETEES?

Wii Fit... Well, at least it isn't a Richard Simmons licensed product.

All in all, It does feel kind of like a close shave when it comes to the Innovation factor for these games. But who, in your opinion, takes the award? More importantly, what do you define as gaming innovation?

For those of you who didn't register with the thatgamecalledrez.com during the "Free game giveaway" back when the site went live, here's some excerpts from the mailer recently sent out to Rez fans.

Hello from Tokyo!



First, I'd like thank you for taking the time to sign up at the Rez HD website, which we launched back in January. It took us a little while, but we are excited to bring you our first ever newsletter and hope that you will enjoy your time with us.



As many of you know, Rez holds an extra special meaning for me...so special that I knew I would go back to work on the "complete Rez" at some point in the future. It was a thought that never left my mind. Well, on January 30, that became a reality when Rez HD was released for the Xbox LIVE Arcade...have you already had a chance to play what I consider the "complete Rez"? (I hope so!)



Back in 2001, when working on the original Rez, I was confident but yet worried. "Why?" you may ask...the truth is that since both games and music have no borderlines, by combining those two into an interactive form, I had a certain level of expectation from gamers around the world. But at the same time, I feared that this concept may not be fully understood by both gamers and music lovers. The one thing I did know though was that games were ever-changing and I was determined to create a game that was an indication of a future game. I wanted to make a game that was unheard of - something completely different. The result was Rez, a project that was made like a road film through traveling around the world and meeting people along the way.



Fast forward 7 years and a new Rez is born! Now in hi-def, wide-screen format, you will see no jaggies and I guarantee you will get sucked right into the game. I'm just amazed and impressed at how much of a difference the resolution makes; it makes it that much more exciting to play! 　Plus, by digitally distributing this game (= being environmentally friendly), I feel as if we are in some ways conforming to its theme of "restoring the beauty of the world..."



In addition to the visuals, the sound component - what I consider the root of this game - has been enhanced significantly thanks to the surround sound technology. You should be able to feel, not just hear, the sounds as they are made...the role that it plays in this game is extremely important. For those of you who are set up with 5.1 surround, I hope you were able to feel the sounds, in detail, approaching in three-dimension - you should also be able to get the same experience through 5.1 surround headphones.

I've seen some people post their Rez HD impressions on the forums, but I look forward to hearing more about your own experience. Please feel free to leave your comments and share your experience with other Rez fans!



With Rez HD, I feel a huge sense of accomplishment. I am also very fortunate to have been able to recreate something that takes us beyond the experience of the original Rez and present Rez in the quality and form that is very close to what I had envisioned back then. I will take what I have learned from this experience and apply whatever I can to my other projects...in fact, I'm SO ready to move onto my next project! What am I waiting for!?



I look forward to the day when I can share that new experience with all of you...!



Until next time,

Tetsuya Mizuguchi

There was a lot more to the newsletter, but in order to keep up with DMCA policy and such, I will only quote that. I'm lead to believe if you follow this link you may be able to read the rest of the newsletter.

Rez Email?

It works for me but it might not work for you.

There was also mention of "Quiz the Miz", where you can post questions to the man himself on the official forums and he may answer them in the next news letter! Sign up at http://thatgamecalledrez.com/ today to receive further newsletters and also check out the official forums and post your questions to the genius behind the multimedia experience Rez!

Remember, Ikaruga is pronounced "Rape". Don't make the same mistake I did.

EDIT: Transcript for the youtube impaired.

There are games, there are gods, and then there are games that gods are made from. Treasure's Ikaruga just happens to fall into that third catagory.


Originally on the Arcade and Dreamcast back in 2001, Ikaruga has caused many gamers a great deal of frustration, while others study the game carefully, learning the complex patterns of the waves of enemies and frightening amount of bullets. You play as the ship "Ikaruga", and your goal is to stay alive, take out the bad guys, and rack up your score by linking combos. Sounds simple enough, right?


What makes Ikaruga stand apart from other shooting games of its kind, is the "Polarity" system. Some enemies are colored black/red, others are white/blue. Your ship has the ability to switch between both black and white, and you can absorb bullets of the same color as your ship. These bullets are then converted into a large enemy seeking bullets. The more you absorb, the more you can fire (though there is a limit). Just don't let an enemy bullet hit you that is not the same color as your ship, or you will die. And lives are a precious resource. However, if you shoot an enemy with an opposite color bullet than they are, they will die faster. There are 5 stages in all, which may not seem like much but they will keep you occupied. This game is still as hard as ever, and may leave some of you in tears as the game makes you its bitch. You will definitely be seeing a lot of deaths.


For those of you who owned the Dreamcast or Gamecube release will notice that this game is practically the same. Gameplay is the same, graphics are for the most part the same, though now in HD resolutions, sound is the same, etc. The only major difference is your menu options. Conquest mode and Practice mode from the gamecube game are gone, though the "Prototype" game mode can be unlocked. The game will let you choose any level you've been to previously even if you didn't beat it, so you can still practice that level you can't get past. The mode select screen from the gamecube version is gone, instead replaced with a simple menu that lets you get straight to the action. You can also change your screen settings, allowing you to set your zoom level, screen orientation, and your HUD position.


New to the Xbox 360 version is Online Co-Op, which is relatively lag free, Achievements, Replays, and leaderboards. Also, unlike the gamecube version which had text untranslated and removed from some parts, this game has all text intact, in all of its engrish glory.


For 800 MS Points ($10) you are getting the same game you've been playing which may turn off some players but there is no doubt this kind of release will bring the game to a slew of new players who were unable to find or afford a dreamcast or gamecube copy. Ikaruga is as great a game as ever, and feels right at home on the Xbox Live Arcade roster and is no doubt worth your money. Just remember, don't let the game get to you too much.