Good tunes from 2014

Well, since its almost New Years I figured I would hop on the bandwagon and pop out a "best of 2014" list, which in the process of writing made me realize how terrible my memory is -- I seriously almost had trouble remembering what stuff came out this year (a lot of good shit, actually). Feast your eyes (in no particular order):

Fallujah - The Flesh Prevails

Starting off with probably the most polarizing release this year, Fallujah's weird ass "deathgaze" didn't go over well with everyone - nor did the apparently spotty production of the album (which I was lucky enough to not encounter). I'm not quite as fond of it as I was when I reviewed it, but it remains a very bold, very interesting album that is definitely worth a listen.

Destrage - Are You Kidding Me? No

Topping the list of "quirkiest albums released this year", this little gem was the biggest sleeper hit of the year for me. Bizarre lyrics, great riffs, and an incredibly long album title -- aren't foreign bands the best?

 

Pallbearer - Foundations of Burden

Pallbearer is hot stuff right now, and for good reason -- they've managed to breathe new life into the ancient mummy that is doom (plus, look at that album art!). If you listen to nothing else on this list, this is the one album you need to check out.

Tempel - On the Steps of the Temple

Another true sleeper, these guys came out of nowhere with their debut album and absolutely crushed it. Good riffs? Check. Actual use of dynamics and quiet time? Check. Amazing artwork and atmosphere? Mega-check. These guys are up there with Pallbearer as the bands I'll be keeping an eye on in 2015.

Triptykon - Melana Chasmata

Finally, I feel like I have to mention this record. Tom Warrior's group knocked it out of the park with this one, delivering a dark, fuzzy (or slimy, looking at that artwork) bunch of songs that still don't sound quite like anything else, despite how long ole' Tommy boy has been at this.

Honorable Mentions

Opeth - Pale Communion

When I first reviewed this album, I wasn't a huge fan and mentioned how it just wasn't clicking with me -- well, revisiting it now I'm glad to say it totally has (and strongly enough to get me to buy a physical coy). I'm a huge fan of Opeth's shift into weird creepy prog, and I'm very interested to see how they'll follow up.

Haken - Restoration

While I'm not the biggest fan of the new version of "Blind", I loved most of this EP. "Crystallized" is one of the best progressive songs I've heard in a long time, and just like with Opeth I can't wait to see what these guys do after The Mountain and this disc. 

Rant: Haken (and bands in general) "sold out"

So I've been seeing this opinion here and there ever since Haken released Visions, but it seemed like The Mountain made people shut up and realize that the guys still have some tricks up their sleeves. Recently, though, I feel like its been making a comeback (catalyzed by the release of Restoration).

The opinion that Haken have purposefully altered their sound to resemble more conventional progressive bands like Dream Theater is borderline insulting -- and this applies to most bands nowadays. Especially in such a niche sub-genre within a very un-mainstream genre (progressive music in general), how much more money would they really make by altering their sound? Anyone playing any kind of metal music nowadays will never be rich no matter what they sound like, (barring the 5% of metal bands that are popular with girls) so it isn't like they're trying to turn a quick buck.

Yeah, Aquarius is a great album, we get it. But that was 4 years ago - time to move on. If you don't like what Haken or any other band is doing, thats fine, and if you want to voice your opinion, thats fine, just don't spout ignorant shit like this.

Far Cry 4 Review

Shameless in its familiarity, Far Cry 4 is a mostly fun and occasionally fascinating iteration on Far Cry 3's reward circuit formula, with all meta-narrative ambition stripped away to make room for the real star of the show: the gameplay.

As a fan of the Far Cry series, I found myself experiencing a strange kind of hype whiplash in the months leading up to this one's release. On the one hand, the new environment and the set-up for the story seemed genuinely interesting; on the other, the low level minutia of actual gameplay seemed incredibly similar to the previous game. The information and further gameplay we were shown painted (at least for me) an unprecedented likeness to Far Cry 3, which was a fairly big deal for this series.

Strange Deja Vu  

And after getting 20 or so hours into it, the feelings of familiarity definitely only increased. The mixture of old and new ideas is pretty largely skewed, and on paper the balance doesn't seem too flattering for the game -- but everyone and their dog has already mentioned how "samey" it feels, so I'll save you that trouble. In any case, it was kind of a foregone conclusion given the 1/2 as long development cycle.

It isn't just the gameplay, though -- many of the missions in the campaign are riffs on previous escapades (some more obvious than others), with some pretty standard "decision making" thrown in. From what I've seen, these decisions don't really affect the outcome much, which is both annoying and nice. Annoying, in that Ubisoft thinks I'll enjoy these little decision trees even though they have little bearing on the plot, and nice because in a game with an inexplicable lack of save slots, I just don't give enough of a shit to start over and see how it would play out had chosen Sabal over Amita. Which brings me to the characters.

Characters Welcome?

While I was afraid Pagan Min would turn out to be a half-assed Vass clone, he quickly became my favorite (just as Ubisoft intended, I'm sure). His appearances bookend the game and just like with Vaas, I found myself leaning in and turning up my TV to hear him -- Troy Baker deserves huge props for making a character with a tiny fraction of the screen time as the others the most interesting one.

There really ins't much to say about the headbutting leaders of the Golden Path, Amita and Sabal. Amita is the modernist, Sabal the traditionalist. Neither side is explored in a deep way, and outside of a single drug trip that causes you to hallucinate the "dark side" of the one you've backed, their motivations and goals are incredibly under-developed. Side characters like Yogi/Reggie and Hurk are apparently just here for comedic relief -- the only other one I was interested in listening to was Longinus, the African arms dealer. Other than that, Ubisoft played it pretty damn safe with this cast.

"Skyrim with guns"

The rest of the gameplay should be very familiar to anyone who's played a Ubisoft game -- climb a tower, reveal stuff, do stuff. This time there are even more collectibles to find, outposts to liberate, caves to explore, animals to hunt, and skills to purchase. The new side missions are a mixed bag fun-wise (convoys are great, hunting is bleh) and there is an increased emphasis on leaderboards and replayability. The core gameplay is as fun as before, but the amount of hedging on display here is a little unfortunate.

Far Cry 4 is a fun, mostly engaging game. It's just kind of a bummer to see a franchise that had consistently tried to take risks and challenge its audience become so much of a "paint by numbers" affair. While the "ankle-deep ocean" type experience works relatively well here, I find myself wondering how sustainable the Far Cry franchise can really be with only 2 years between games -- the franchise is at a crossroads, and I think the next game will define the future of the series. Here's hoping for something that isn't such a sure thing.      

Far Cry 4: Halfway-through-the-game impressions

I'm about 20 hours in, and hopefully more than halfway done with the campaign. At this point, the experiences have had enough time to marinate and allow me to form some relatively solid opinions on the game:

- The campaign is very reminiscent of Far Cry 2, in that it is very boring. None of the missions are particularly memorable, and the "decision moments" seem like a cop-out so Ubisoft didn't have to commit to a linear narrative (which is apparently a bad thing).

- The characters are also pretty bleh. Pagan Min and his buddies don't seem very interesting except for Paul, who was the first one you had to deal with. Noore could've been interesting with some development, but I don't know what happened there. Overall, the campaign feels rushed and repetitive, like the developers knew it wasn't really the focus of the game, which is a shame.

- The amount of side content is ridiculous and overwhelming. There's very little breathing room in this game -- no wonder they let you turn off the HUD. The amount of filler aka "collectibles" is also staggering and disheartening. I much prefer having a small number of collectibles that actually mean something (the memory vaults in Psychonauts, Jackal tapes in FC2) than this dreck. I don't need an incentive to explore the world in an open world game, guys. Have a little faith, jeez.

- The "karma" thing is weird. I like random encounters, but the idea that murdering soldiers is a good deed is questionable.

- I'm over halfway into the story and so far the game seems to have nothing to say about the blurry line between terrorist and freedom fighter, the nature of patriotism, returning to your birthplace as an outsider, or anything significant really. People gave Far Cry 3 shit about using tropes and cliches, but at least they tried. Here's hoping for a redeeming final act.

- The grappling is pretty sweet. The map design as a whole seems solid, although honestly it all kinda blends together. The buzzard is also pretty cool, but kind of gimmick-y, as are the elephants.

Once I finish it I'll wrap the whole game up with a real review, but I like this as an in-between. Still interested to see how it all shakes out.

Haken - Restoration

The latest from the standard bearers of modern progressive music is a testament to their improved songwriting abilities - tasteful, yet restrained  

The newest release from progressive rock's saviors, Restoration is an EP intended to slake our thirst for new Haken songs while they write their next album (which will be awesome). Wait, did I say new? Because they aren't really new - they're based off of songs from their original demo CD Enter The 5th Dimension from way back in 2008. I was kinda bummed when I heard that these songs wouldn't be  100% new, original compositions, but after hearing how it turned out I wanted to put out a little review of it. There are 3 songs here, all of which are based on songs off Enter... to varying degrees:

"Darkest Light" - A rock solid opener with a killer lead, "Darkest Light" and it's 2008 ancestor "Blind" have always been favorites of mine. The guys have done a good amount of fat-trimming on Restoration, but the missing parts from "Blind" are the bits I miss the most - the carnival music was cute and I'm always a fan of random samples, but I don't really miss the instrumental stretch.

"Earthlings" - Now this is more like it: a track that sucked originally is redone into something listenable. I'm not a huge fan of either this or "Black Seed", but this version is definitely more interesting. The harmony/Gentle Giant vocals help give this track some legs to stand on, but it's still kinda forgettable.

"Crystallised" - The "epic" piece of the EP clocking in at around 22 minutes, and easily the best song - in fact, this song is one of their best in general. It apes "Snow" pretty closely but probably contains the most actually "new" music to be found here - plus, apparently Mike Portnoy plays a gong at the end? I dunno. Anyway, it's amazing, and they  do the Gentle Giant harmony thing again here, and it's incredible - definitely one of their most emotional tracks.

As for the actual sound of it? It's pretty good. Enter... sounded like it was recorded on an Xbox Live headset (especially Ross' vocals, yuck), so just the increased production value alone makes these songs worth hearing. If you liked Enter... then you'll probably like Restoration, and if you didn't like Enter... then you'll like this even more, as the songwriting is much better on this release.

Far Cry 4: Blurred Lines

So Far Cry 4 is coming out in a couple weeks, and I'm... cautiously pessimistic? There's been a ton of gameplay released on YouTube, which could've been cool, but mostly just shows the same couple of missions and areas, which is weird. At this point, I think we all know what we're getting, which is a problem I have with this game - overexposure.

The game mechanics are another - and yes, I realize the developers had only 2 years instead of the usual 4 for this one, and that Far Cry 3 was such a huge smash that of course they would keep the mechanics in place. My problem is that, while they were pretty sweet, Far Cry 3's mechanics felt very unique to that game - and by re-using them (in a practically identical way, too) in a different title, they won't make as much sense.

A Sequel in Name Only

One of this series' main claims to fame (Pretty good, right?) is that each entry has been pretty significantly (mechanically, at least) different from its siblings. The original was a fast-paced shooter/tech demo with an emphasis on challenge. The sequel went in the opposite direction, with stiff, uncompromising gameplay and a bleak, (unintentionally) nearly-absent narrative that came together to form a very different experience . Then, Far Cry 3 came along and pulled another switcheroo, shoving all these characters into our faces and giving us a deep, if narrow sandbox to play in. 

What's significant about all this crap that you probably already knew, is that Far Cry 4 is clearly recycling a lot of stuff from Far Cry 3 - which is...fine, Far Cry 3 took the setting and camera mechanics of the first Far Cry and that worked pretty well - but I'm worried that some of the stuff they're re-using maybe won't work as well in this new game.

Smooth Moves

First, the "takedowns". These were a huge part of what made Far Cry 3's combat so fun, while also being a great metaphor for Jason's transformation into a monster. Remember these?

One thing should be clear to you: these are not nice ways to kill people. In fact, when you think about it, sneaking up behind someone and jamming a machete down their throat is a really, really crazy (like mentally ill crazy) way to murder someone, and the fact that these moves are so powerful and useful (compared to, you know, guns) speaks a lot to the game's message. Jason/you is kind of a psycho, hence the Michael Myers-esque combat.

And now, we're playing as a totally different guy who seems to be pretty normal, yet who continues the tradition of these over-the-top, horrific killing methods. Just doesn't make any sense.

And that's not even getting into the rest of the same-old stuff, like the bell towers, outposts and "bigger" outposts, and the grab-bag of assorted filler that Ubisoft is known and loved for. With all the negative reactions the game is getting, though, maybe Far Cry 5 will be something different again.

Spooky Review: Silent Hill 2

While it isn't exactly the triple-A franchise it was in the early 00's, the first three Silent Hill games are still considered the high water mark for whole horror genre. And after playing Silent Hill 2, I don't see that changing anytime soon.

Setup

The game is technically a sequel to the original Silent Hill game from '99, retaining the titular setting and trademark fog while telling an entirely new and unrelated story. You play as James Sunderland, a guy who returns to Silent Hill after getting a letter from his wife saying that she's "waiting for you... in our 'special place'" - problem is, she's been dead for three years. So now you're here to find her!

It doesn't really make sense, and you know that even as you play it, but it's such a powerful "what if?" that it really pulls you in - and the more you play, the more compelling it gets. It's also a nice treat after enduring so many modern horror games that feature your character waking up in a castle/creepy manor/hospital with amnesia. Ugh.

Graphics/Art Design

Like the other "main" SH games, the art direction here is absolutely top-notch, and frankly repulsive in areas (in a good way). The fog-swept town is as forlorn and desolate as ever, and the various locations are all put together beautifully without ever feeling over-done - the environments are definitely scary, but in a kind of subdued way - there are a lot of dilapidated buildings and decayed rooms and stuff, but you won't find any mutilated body parts or anything like that. The atmosphere is more of a quiet, slowly building tension than a "spooky prison" or something stupid like that. Think Penumbra, not Dead Space.

The monster designs are little more blatant. Silent Hill in general is known for having some pretty fucked-up looking monsters (Pyramid Head), and Silent Hill 2 is no different -this game has some of the most creative, bizarre, and just-plain-gross monster designs in the whole genre. Pyramid Head looks downright normal when you compare it the Mannequin, Abstract Daddy, and the Nurses.

Soundtrack/Sound Design

Even more important than the environment and enemies is the soundtrack, and whadda ya know - Silent Hill 2's is brilliant. It's difficult to get across how much work the soundtrack does here, but I'll try.

The standard walking-around tracks are all great - they accentuate the tension and general "this doesn't feel right" vibe of the whole game real well, but it's the smaller touches that really seal the deal. The static burst your radio emits when monsters are nearby consistently made me anxious despite the relatively low danger (a classic Pavlov's Dog situation). The air-raid siren after the first fight with Pyramid Head is deeply unsettling, as is the oppressively loud machine noises in the clock room in the apartment building. The guttural mutterings in the prison, and the weird dirges in the labyrinth -- all of these lesser elements combine to create an almost dream-like collage of sonic oppression that consistently kept me on the edge of my seat.

Gameplay & Story

Since Silent Hill is (very much so) a Japanese game, it controls a little differently than you might expect. It's a relic of the single-control-stick era, as Japanese gamers were resistant to the idea of dual analog sticks. As such, the game controls in a very unique and weird fashion, with fixed camera angles and a two-button combat system. Oh yeah, there's combat in this game - and a lot of it. It's awkward and clunky, but also pretty grisly and cathartic - there's perverse fun to be had by beating the various nasties to death with a pipe, especially when your nerves have been frayed bare by the rest of the game.

What you actually do in the game is a mix of puzzle-solving and combat, with a heavier emphasis on the former. The puzzles are kind of an odd bunch, with most of them being satisfyingly-tough riddles that make some amount of sense. Some of the other ones are a bit more esoteric and will probably take you a while. Honestly, this is the only area of this game that hasn't aged super well.

The story, on the other hand, is very impressive. The pacing is slow (maybe a little too slow - don't worry, it's worth it!) and methodical, and the dialogue is frequently nonsensical. The plot is set up so that its basically impossible to figure out everything that happens, and it's never really clear whats real and whats not. Multiple playthroughs are encouraged by the game and there are a whopping six different endings available - three of them only attainable on your second time through.

In terms of length, there were three distinct moments where I thought "Oh shit, this is definitely the end" and was completely wrong, so don't worry about that - there's plenty of meat to chew on here.

Bottom Line

This game is considered the greatest horror game ever made, and after playing it I'm inclined to agree. From the sound design to the characters to the story - everything about Silent Hill 2 oozes polish, superior craftsmanship, and slow-burning tension and fear. It's more interesting than Amnesia and Slender, and more varied and twisty than Dead Space and Resident Evil - honestly, it's perfect.

(Note: I played it as part of the Silent Hill HD Collection on Xbox 360, which I later discovered is a pretty awful port. If you can find a copy for PS2, get that instead. The PS3 version of the HD collection is also preferable to the 360 one apparently.)