Like Nex before me, I am dedicated to using Games of the Week as an excuse to force my obscure cultural interests on each and every one of you. This week I pay tribute to Jeff Lynne, the legendary producer/singer/songwriter who is most famous for his work as frontman of The Electric Light Orchestera.
ELO was a Birmingham-based rock group that incorporated orchestral instruments into nearly all its tunes. Most famous for the song Mr. Blue Sky, the band's Beatles-influenced sound and the beautiful vocal talents of Lynne made this group one of Britain's finest musical talents, even if it's never been considered cool to like them. In fact, ELO was once described as a band that was uncool even when it was one of the coolest bands in the world.
The above video is the first ELO song I ever heard, Tightrope, as performed by a new Lynne-led ELO in 2001. I fell in love with the tune and became an ELO obsessive ever since. This has absolutely nothing to do with videogames whatsoever, but like I said, this is my way of inflicting my twisted interests on you and you're going to have to accept that.
I heard a rumor that games were played, also. Hit the jump for the proof!
Hamza: Played about 6 hours of Burnout Paradise trying to win some nice swags for you awesome peoples out there. Also played Army of Two's multiplayer which was a little underwhelming. More on that later.
Colette: This week so far has contained Professor Layton (amazing), Penumbra: Black Plague (surprisingly good), Patapon ( PON PON PATA PON!), and Lost Odyssey (I don't even have words for how amazing the dream function is.) As happy as I am to have all these great games, somehow I wish they would come out with more time inbetween so I could actually finish them!
Anthony: I take back every bad thing I ever said about Audiosurf.
Orcist: Oh, you know. Slow week for me. At least, it would be if I weren't obsessed with Lost Odyssey. It may not revolutionize the genre, but it's a damned fine addition to it. Other than that, snippets of Puzzle Quest and God of War II have been keeping me pretty busy.
Jim Sterling: Anybody who has heard me ranting about it will know I'm with Orcist on the Lost Odyssey love. I'm on disc three and confident enough to start reviewing it, so you'll hopefully see the full Dtoid report later this week. For now, I just want to thank everyone who created this game. It's made me laugh, made me cry, and made me remember why I fell in love with JRPGs almost ten years ago.
Nick: Namco Battle Museum for the PlayStation Portable! That's what the editor-in-chief of a gaming blog plays -- Ms. god damned Pac-Man.
Topher: Super Stardust HD and Every Day Together on PS3, Castle Shikigami II on Dreamcast, and Crack of Dawn Day Job Challenge.
Dale: I've been putting the smackdown on the unfairly lucky CPU characters of Culdcept Saga (Xbox 360) for a Destructoid review. The real world players? They stand no chance against me.
Grim: This week it's been mostly Civilization IV, Vigilante 8: Second Offense, and skate.
Jonathan Holmes: The Patapon demo has blown my mind this week. It's the most unconventional game I've played in years, probably since Shadow of the Colossus. It's available now, free at local Gamestops as well as on PSN, so if you own a PSP you have no excuse not to play it.
I've also been getting ready for the March 1st Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament by practicing my skills on Super Smash Bros. Melee. According to LarkOhiya, most of those Melee skills wont carry over to Brawl, and even if they did, I've never been a good competitive Smash Bros. player. After watching this video of the L.A. tournament's final match, I don't think I have much of a chance.
Any Smash Bros. expert out there want to be the Mickey to my Rocky and whisper "I love you, kid" in my ear?
Gameboi: This week has been filled with a little bit of Jak and Daxter, Unreal Tournament III, and a lot of Devil May Cry 4 (yes, I'm still playing it). I also finally picked up a copy of Rogue Galaxy for the PS2, and look forward to taking that baby for a ride.
Dyson: Dyson decided to treat himself this week and by several games. The one that's getting the most attention right now is Professor Layton and the Curios Village, but I'm about to pop in Lost Odyssey for the first time (soooo excited!). No More Heroes is around to finish off the three prong purchase, and in my down time I'm still working on Kid Icarus.
Niero: Professor Layton owns me. That is all.
Chad: Wow. While everyone is playing brand new games (Lost Odyssey, Professor Layton, No More Heroes), I am just getting into Mass Effect. Is it still 2007? Vote Kucinich.
Which begs the question: What have YOU been playing this week?
Contest:
9:27 PM on 02.17.2008
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War of the worlds FTW!
I threw down in a bit of Children of Mana as well.
Also, I'm playing HL2: Episode 2 and a little Guitar Hero 3
OH AND AUDIOSURF.
Oh my bad :P
Anyways I'm playing Assassins creed and Pheonix Wright.
Additionally the song Twilight from that same album was used as the BGM in the classic DAICON 3 & 4 animation specials from Gainax as well as the opening theme for the live action Japanese drama Densha Otoko (specifically to pay homage to the original DAICON production).
ELO ... are English.
are you like me in another body....???? Ive been getting pissed at gowpc for crappy port stuff playin tf2 and trying to understand why people love hl2 as well
If you get to plug ELO, I get to plug Joy Division.
I'm interested in it, how good is it?
Really guys, is the TF2 port for the 360 that bad?
Also, how can you not fall in love with the HL universe? I love it, I hate Valve for not giving me more on that Universe and for taking too long in development of a game. But, then again I think the guys have high quality standards.
Gears of war PC.
Resistance Fall of Man.
I wish I had more time, i'm almost done the both of them.
wheeeeeeeeee :D
Also, you bringing up Jeff Lynne lets me bring up The Traveling Wilburys. So good. I like ELO too.
PATA
PATA
PON
I got started on my medium-difficulty solo drum career in Rock Band (character: “Ron NSFWorkmeng”), played the requisite few rounds of Warhawk and CoD 4, and also downloaded Audiosurf. I haven’t spent much time with it, but I love what I’ve seen so far.
Btw, you being brittish and all, did you see the comedy pair Reeves & Mortimers parody of Lynne? Best ever!