Another great soundtrack re-release from Cinevox. The pieces start mellow and gradually build in tension without quite reaching the beautiful noise-experimentalism of Morricone’s giallo recordings. This score is very similar to Indagine Su Un Cittadino Al Di Soppra Di Ogni Sopsetto in both style and in the use of multiple variations on a very limited assortment of musical themes. La Donna Domenica, thankfully, is not quite as repetitive as Indagnine.
Another good release with slightly better production quality than their previous Estrus recordings.
It’s been quite a while since I have been able to make myself play another BioWare Game. I really liked the Baldur’s Gate games, but Neverwinter Nights left such an awful taste in my mouth that I have been avoiding their titles ever since. I only decided to give Jade Empire a try after playing Fallout 3 which had revived some of my faith in RPG style games.
Thankfully, Jade Empire steers clear of the swords and sorcery setting and simplifies a lot of the horrible, number-based statistics that Neverwinter used to describe every object in the game. Also, I had heard the combat had a more of a action-fighting game feel than a traditional RPG style combat system (point at an enemy and sit and watch your character battle). Overall, I think Jade Empire was a pretty good game, especially for the $5 price it goes for on Steam.
The combat system is not quite as fun as I hoped it would be. In a difficult fight it really just comes down to spazmatically mashing the attack button like a fool. The story and characters make up for most of the game play deficiencies. The voice acting is good but suffers from stilted playback by the game’s dialog engine. I found myself skipping the audio and reading the subtitles more often than not. Spoiler alert: Also, add this game to the ever-growing list of games that use a friend’s betrayal as the main plot twist!
Although the plot seems to bounce around from time to time, this is about as hardboiled as hardboiled detective films get. It’s filled with tough guy attitude that you can’t really pull off in films these days without some crappy slow-motion explosion/CGI camera spin/sunglasses removal/camera sneer shot.
This is my new favorite song of the moment! Download it here. Get the whole album here at Twilightzone’s Blog, where, at the moment, there is a great series of rare 45’s being posted under the moniker Trashcan Records. Fantastic stuff!
Update: Drop.io is dead, as is my link to the song. Sorry. Here’s a YouTube version:
Another early MorA? release with a new version of “Destination Venus” and several other good songs.
Man or Astroman? at their surf-iest. This is pretty much the blueprint for all of their pre Touch and Go records—when they didn’t mind being a surf revival band so much.
The first of many singles compilations from MorA? These early singles were some of the best racks the band ever created including, my personal favorite, the Mission Into Chaos EP.
A good well-paced sci-fi action movie. Didn’t quite live up to the the hype and is mostly noteworthy because of the South African setting and gritty documentary style. In hindsight, it’s just a rehash of movies like Enemy Mine or even Dances With Wolves.
