video games

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There’s been resounding agreement across the board that Gears of War 2 is the must-play video game of 2008. The sequel to Epic Games’ 2006 smash hit original is impressing people all over the place with its groundbreaking combo of technical achievement, poignant storytelling, and the hope and heroism and humor that’s come to be expected from the Gears of War franchise.

And just as the game is being hailed as a mighty accomplishment, so too is the amazing orchestral score by Steve Jablonsky getting raves for being a profound work of art in and of itself! I’ve talked to several people who’ve bought Gears of War 2: The Soundtrack since it came out last week and without fail, each of ’em have told me that they have felt seriously moved by Jablonsky’s music. And if you’re a longtime reader of this blog then y’all know how I went a ...

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Today marks the release of Gears of War 2: The Soundtrack, featuring the score that Steve Jablonsky composed for Epic’s already mega-selling game. Last week I won the single-player campaign and a few days later an advance copy of the CD arrived in the mail. I’ve been listening to it non-stop ever since! It’s also now a proud addition to my iPod, and I had it blaring out of my car’s stereo on the way to and back from rehearsal for Oliver Twist last night.

Okay, so for a proper review…

Many of y’all know how this very blog ended up the focal point for the drive and petition to see a release of Jablonsky’s score for the movie Transformers and I was honored to be able to write up the first review anywhere of that soundtrack. So pretty much everyone knows that I’m a huge fan of ...

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WOW!!!

Gotta give it up for the crew at Epic Games.

This is certainly a remarkable time for the art of video games. And that is exactly what Gears of War 2 is: art of the highest caliber.

Everything about it is just darned perfect. And there’s one scene in particular in the game… you’ll know what I’m talking about if you’ve played it already… that is absolutely heartbreaking. For that bit of music alone, Steve Jablonsky deserves beaucoups of awards.

I thought it was at least twice as good as the original Gears of War, and that one got tons of play already at the Knight Casa.

Okay so anyone who’s played it and waited through the credits: is he still alive?!? And what is he talking about?

And did anyone else think that the lab facility segment of the game asked a lot of questions that ...

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That’s the question posed by Matthew Federico on his blog. It’s his contention that the rising price of video games (lately hovering around sixty bucks each for games on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) coupled with the current state of the economy means that only those with plenty of ready cash on hand can fully enjoy the latest slate of games like Gears of War 2 and Fallout 3.

On the flip side of the coin, a few months ago Theodore Beale (writing as Vox Day) on WorldNetDaily offered some suggestions for “living lean” and seriously advised that video games were a sound use of one’s entertainment dollar, as opposed to spending it on something like movie tickets.

So are video games for the most part now in the province of those who can most afford them? It may be worth noting that even at the height of ...

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In line at the local GameStop, waiting to get Gears of War 2.

I figure that if I’ve done midnight premieres of the Star Wars prequels and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, “midnight madness” sales of new Star Wars toys and midnight launches of the last three Harry Potter books, I might as well add doing something nutty for a video game to the list.

Okay, me go play now…...

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Music composer extraordinaire Steve Jablonsky (who among many credits also does the music for Desperate Housewives and did the score for last year’s hit movie Transformers, which longtime readers will remember this very blog going more than a little crazy about) gets interviewed by Music 4 Games about his work on Gears of War 2, due out next week.

Here’s some of what Jablonsky has to say about working with Epic, Cliff Bleszinski and music director Mike Larson (who also gets interviewed) on the second chapter of Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad’s war against the Locust Horde…

For Gears 2, the guys at Epic wanted every aspect of the game to be bigger, darker, and crunchier than the original game. And I guess they had heard some of these qualities in my film scores. I love writing for orchestra and choir, but I also love experimenting with electronics

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I have a confession to make…

Ever since first playing it this past March, I have become absolutely addicted to the video game BioShock.

Actually, “addicted” isn’t the right word at all. “Enchanted”, “enthralled”, “captivated”, or something to that effect would be much more apropos. The game finally arrived on PlayStation 3 this past week and owners of that system are finally getting to discover what Xbox 360 folks (like me) have known for some time now: that BioShock might be the most beautiful and thought-provoking video game yet produced. Let’s face it: a game that examines with cold brutality what human nature is capable of doing in the absence of God and higher morality is certainly going to be cut from a different cloth than the rest.

So I’ve played BioShock all the way through three times now, always getting to the “good” ending ‘cuz I just can’t ...

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Here’s a screenshot I just made of the Amazon product page for the new video game Spore, which came out yesterday for Windows and Mac computers…

How does a video game simultaneously occupy #1 on Amazon’s sales rank, and get hundreds of one-star reviews?

In three words: “Digital Rights Management”. People who purchase Spore can only install it on three computers. And apparently the DRM that is installed is continuously running in the system’s background even when the game isn’t being played, sucking up resources that could be used for other processes. I don’t think that BioShock‘s DRM last year was that bad (incidentally, 2K eventually removed the DRM from BioShock altogether).

And now Electronic Arts is being targeted with a massive protest by Spore players who have unleashed a wave of negative reviews for the game, in spite of the very favorable press the game has received ...

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I’m just now hearing about Fuel for the first time. Created by British game studio Codemasters and due for release in 2009, Fuel is an open-world racing game featuring five thousand square miles of navigable terrain: if you can see it in the game, you can drive right up to it. Fuel takes place in a near future where the environment has run amok and global supplies of oil are running out: sorta like Mad Max meets Grand Theft Auto.

Here’s the image that made me take notice and decide that I might have to add Fuel to my library…

In addition to tornadoes, players will also have to deal with snowstorms, driving rain and a realistic day/night cycle.

Click here for more Fuel screenshots....

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I’ve talked about Rock Band a lot on this blog (‘cuz Lisa and I play it together all the time) and we’re eager for Rock Band 2 next month, but I’m also a big fan of the Guitar Hero games. Lisa got me Guitar Hero III for my birthday a few months ago. Now if only I can get past Slash…

Well, the next few months are going to be pure crazy on the rhythm gaming front, with Rock Band 2 and then Guitar Hero World Tour fighting for the coveted space under the Christmas tree. Today Activision released gobs of new info about Guitar Hero World Tour, including how Ozzy Osbourne will be a playable avatar in the game.

Activision should program an “Easter egg” that lets you bite the head off a live chicken on stage while playing Ozzy. It would triple sales of Guitar Hero World ...

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