I really wanted to like Brütal Legend. but once again Doublefine has created a game that is a triumph of style over substance. The story concept is there: Jack Black as a concert roadie who saves heavy metal music from obsolescence through the power of rock. There are so many great ways that this tale could have been told. How about a parable about commercial, corporate entities are watering down great music? Or how with so many entertainment choices, kids just don’t care about being in bands any more? Nope. Instead we are taken to what amounts to your standard D & D fantasy world with a sheen of Eighties metal album cover art direction laid on top. If not for the fact that your magic wand is actually a guitar, the game-play doesn’t build on the music themes that are set up in the premise.
I would be able to look past the story direction and just play in a fantasy world where I could join Lemmy, Ozzy and Rob Halford in battle, but the game mechanics range from dull to infuriatingly not fun. In the case of the former we have standard button mashing hack and slash segments, and as for the latter there are the much bemoaned real-time strategy battles. Those RTS portions are terrible. The controls are awkward and there’s no minimap to help you command troops. You can’t tell enemies from friends so, when you join in the fighting, you are just randomly swinging at everything. Such a mess.
On top of all this, it’s an open world, mission-based game too! That usually mean lots of little side quests to fill out the map and encourage exploration. Over and over your side quests are an ambush battle, a gun turret battle, a mortar strike battle and a race. Of the game types, only the racing is fun (especially the segments where you are shooting enemies while driving). Otherwise it all felt like an excuse to look at pretty art and listen to crappy metal music that holds no nostalgic value to me. I hope Broken Age does well, because Doublefine needs to concentrate more on pure story driven games and less on standard console action game tropes with an artsy paint job.
This sequel is an improvement over the original Borderlands. The basic shoot everything and look for loot game-play remains, but the level designs and weapons are far more interesting. There is a much greater emphasis on verticality, cover and movement. The first game seems flat and empty compared to this.
Multiplayer co-op is still the way to go because the story, although a bit more focused, is still a bit of an after thought. At least you are given a villain to pursue even though you really don’t care why he is doing what he is doing.
The thesis here is that, despite the constant cries of “fascism” when talking about right-wing policies, the real heirs of fascism are those on the progressive left. Liberals will probably take offense to this, but those of us who have read The Road to Serfdom will respond with, “No duh.” The book is chocked full of comparisons between (mostly) early Twentieth Century progressives’ political aspirations and those of the Italian and German fascists of the same era. Their goals seem to overlap more times than not and, even when talking about militarism—a concept that we mostly associate with conservatives these days—he brings up example after example of progressives calling for violence to advance their goals.
Now, Goldberg makes it very clear that his point is not say that modern liberals are Nazis. His problem is that the word “fascist” gets thrown around too much without understanding what the fascists actually exemplified.
Liberals tend to get a pass when making fascist proclamations. Just this morning, the following was posted in my Facebook feed by one of my progressive friends:
Whereas they saw this as “refreshing,” I was a little sickened by its metaphorical call to violence on behalf of political ideology. I commented on the fascistic nature of the quote and the response was that context matters. Sorry to be cynical, but I think in this case the context that mattered was that a democrat said this and not a republican.
Like his more recent Tyranny of Cliches, Liberal Fascism serves as a guidebook to pinpointing hypocrisy and the totalitarian impulses of progressives and, to a somewhat lesser extent, so-called compassionate conservatives.
This is a great compilation of mostly 60’s era spy movie theme songs (and a few T.V. series themes too). Making a good case for still buying physical media, it features an informative, picture-filled and booklet. Not all of the tracks are the original versions—I suspect there were rights issues—but the replacement choices are good: The Challengers, The Ventures and Johnny & The Hurricanes. There also some great vocal numbers especially Vikki Carr’s “The Silencers” and Nancy Sinatra’s “The Last of the Secret Agents.”
This was a weird import CD when I got it and it turns out there are about two dozen versions of this release in various formats. I always assumed it was a greatest hits compilation since just about every song is great, but I guess this is their first record. Wonderfully minimalist rock that, in hindsight, was extremely influential on many of the indie rock bands I love. The music really skirts the line between novelty songs and serious art rock.
Another fine collection of Trashmen recordings. Not much to add here except that these were all previously unreleased and there’s only one bird themed song included.
Well, like everyone else who saw this movie, I think the first quarter is very good, mostly because Brian Cranston’s character is actually interesting. The rest of the film is by-the-numbers summer faire. The characters are merely signposts to get us from one plot point/set piece to the next. The monster battles are very well done so I guess characters and solid plotting don’t really matter. Just sit back and watch the cool battles and be nauseated by the 3-D crap.
The Trashmen were a standout band from the surf era known mostly for their hit, “Surfin’ Bird.” That single captures much of the appeal of the band. They are at their best when they are going crazy and having goofy fun. They will often fall back into covering rock standards like “It’s So Easy” and the result is never as good when they’re doing their own crazy thing. Fortunately, they maintain a high level of stupidity through most of this disc. Oh, and the liner notes are fantastic.
The record label/co-op thingy I help run has a major release available for pre-order today! Go secure your copy of The Austerity Program’s Beyond Calculation and get a t-shirt as part of the package.
This CD compiles four of the band’s early 7″ singles. This was when the Toy Dolls were at their punkiest. So, despite its short length, Singles 83/84 is good collection of tunes that fills a few gaps missing from the early LPs.
