Daily Archives: September 25, 2012

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Introducing… Rayne

Excellent, some new talent from the my UK shores – Rayne – a three piece rock band from Sunderland – enter onto the bigger music scene after spending 16 years together as a band from their school days. There’s a great sense in their music that you’re always going to get the big anthem and the hooks deliver. Here’s the video for “The Ground Floor” – someone’s been watching Saw!

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Introducing… Generator Ohm

Sounding like a funkier version of Nirvana’s Bleach album – Generator Ohm are a grungy rock trio that seem to want to rock out regardless of the tune and beat – it’s all about the feeling. Here’s a low-fi live video of the tracks “Lemming Shuffle” and “Marginal Hop”. An album review is coming soon:

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Game Review: Project Diva Extend Dreamy Theatre (PS3)

Possibly one of the biggest travesties in gaming this generation is the strange way that Project Diva has been given its PS3 releases. You always have to have the original PSP game and then effectively buy the game again for the Dreamy Theatre version. Sadly, with Extend, none of this changes. If you’re here though I feel like I’m preaching to the converted and you’ll know you’re going to plump for the game anyway. So what are we getting?

All the original 36 tracks from Extend are here for you to play “Simon Says” with through all the four difficulty levels but as before, you can only play what you’ve already unlocked on the original game. The same can be said with the modules (costumes) but I like the fact that now each get up can be saved per song quite nicely and easily. Load times are also much quicker this time round too. The graphical enhancements really push to the fore this time round too as the music videos for each song are so much more complex and better put together. You do not get previous games songs this time round, and DLC does not have a separate section so I’ve yet to play about with it but I assume you can import songs in as per usual.

Elsewhere though there’s a few other changes. This includes a “live” mode which features 11 songs that are performed move for move as they are from the “Final 39 ‘s Giving Day” concert. You can interact with all the camera’s as the set list steams through. A nice extra although its got somewhat of a limited lifespan. The trophies are just about difficulty clearing this time – no strange play for 3939 minute ones!

As a rule of thumb, with a bigger screen and no slowdown, I find the Dreamy Theatre versions always far superior and easier to get through than the original game – it’s just a shame you’ve got to buy the game twice to get it.

Positives

~HD Miku!

~Still some of the most catchiest songs ever made

~One of best rhythm action series I’ve ever played and it’s still not getting old

Negatives

~Expensive

~Still no PS3 Edit mode

Conclusion

Still one of the best rhythm action games out there, but you’ll only need to get the PSP version to know that. This is really a big HD yummy package to ardent fans. Between this and the new Project Diva f that’s out for Vita – I’d go for the latter. This is fan service and at premium price (and I’ve happily gobbled it up)

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Penka Kouneva Releases Instrumental Album

I always am fascinated when composers release material that’s their own and not part of a game or a film. Penka Kouneva, best known to us for her work on Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands & Gears of War 3, is releasing her own album entitled “A Warriors Odyssey” which will feature 18 tracks seemingly telling their own tale.

Having heard a smattering of preview samples I can tell you the album is absolutely epic. It feels like a constant battle theme with massive orchestral soundscapes, electronic bleeps and blips and some wonderful electric guitar solos. This is very much in the same vein as her previous video game works and anyone who picked up those soundtracks would do well by picking up this when it comes out 2nd October.

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Kara McGraw’s New Charity Album Released Today

Kara McGraw makes some wonderful piano/vocal based music and I absolutely admire her new album “The Hound & The Hare”. Like an old vinyl songs are divided between the two animal sides and each song is aligned to a charity. The proceeds of each song on certain weeks will go towards the charity associated with each song. You can also just buy the whole thing – very worth while as Kara’s an excellent musician – in a very similar vein to Vienna Teng. Check out the album and grab the two free tracks at least from her website.