Now don’t get me wrong, I love Mario Kart Wii. However, I feel like it has quite a few things going both for and against it. First of all, is this Ridge Racer? What’s with the overuse of drifting? Mario Kart has had the drifting aspect for quite some time, but no other game in the series has treated drifting like a thirsty infant adores his mother’s chest for nutrients. While I know how to take advantage of the drifting, it seems like even quite early on you have to master the art of drifting at nearly every turn just to stay ahead of the curve.

What happened to those days when Mario Kart was more about the racing and not hitting the walls and an occasional turtle shell? There are far too many destructive items in Mario Kart Wii for casual gamers to really feel the same way we did when we first started playing Mario Kart in the old days. Yes, there was a problem in the DS version about getting hit with the blue turtle shells when you were in first, constantly. They’ve actually fixed that, and you don’t get hit by those as often anymore. However, there is the recently introduced POW item which when used three times makes everyone spin out and lose their items. I suppose there’s more of a challenge, but in the end the new items just start to get annoying for everyone involved.

A few other things I should mention before wrapping it up, is that there are now motorcyles and tricks. The motorcycles are actually pretty fun to mess around with. They obviously handle differently, but it’s a fresh experience in the stale world of simply using karts, I suppose. The tricks are pretty handy as well. Whenever you get a decent amount of air you can do a trick, and it’s just like getting a mini-boost.

In summary, this is a good title in the Mario Kart series. It does some annoying things, but it also brings some fresh ideas to the table. Personally, I feel like Mario Kart Wii just doesn’t have the same pizazz that Mario Kart DS gave me, but that’s ok. I still have plenty of fun with Mario Kart Wii.

I usually don’t do these kinds of posts, and this kinda goes against the purpose of this particular blog I have set up. However, it sort of has to do with media, so I’ll allow it.

Just this once.

So I was watching The Office the other day on NBC (WSMV, nashville) and apparently there was bad weather. Usually, on the other stations they’ll put a ticker on your screen. And maybe come interrupt your program for a little while. But what happened this time was inexcusable. There was at least a good solid 8 minutes left of The Office left to watch, and the guy comes in and interrupts the show. I was kinda agitated at first, but then I was like, “Maybe he’ll go away soon.” Did he? No. He kept repeating himself, over and over again. He kept saying, “Now just one more thing before we get you back to your programming…” and he just kept talking about the same things he just said. I’m not trying to be ‘that guy’. I know we need to be warned when there’s bad weather. But you turn to CBS and there’s nothing but a little ticker.

Then when the regular show came back on, Scrubs had already started. The intro jingle began and went through all the stuff and it cut to commercial…And by commercial I mean the weather guy talking yet again. It got to the point where I just gave up. I’ve been informed that it basically lasted the whole show, and didn’t end until Scrubs was almost over. So I wrote an email to the station, and apparently so did one of my coworkers. I’m glad I’m not the only one that feels like our TV experience was shattered by some weatherman’s ego and desire to play with his new toys. We’ve been waiting since last November for new episodes of some of these shows, and they just have to pull a fast one on us.

I hope for you guys, wherever you are, that your TV stations don’t do stuff like this.

Good day.

Tell me, where do you hail from?

I am from Montreal, it’s a city in Quebec, Canada.

What are your influences for your music?

I’ve always been listening to a mix of acid jazz, hardcore, idm, ebm and new wave. I suppose it’s reflected in the aliceffekt music.

If you were a woman, would you do things differently? Do you want to be a woman? Why or why not?

Wow, that’s one of the coolest interview question ever. There’s some aspects of a woman life I would like to try out, and there’s also this manipulator side of mine which believes woman as more power over man. I wouldn’t do things differently. I don’t have many woman in my network of friends who does or even is interested in music, sadly.

Do you have shows? If so, what kind of atmosphere do they have? Whose fault? Yours or the audience?

I haven’t had that many shows, I have been djing under a different name for a couple of years. I have shows this year in a couple of places, I will totally try to give it a fresh style from visuals and interactive setups that reacts to music. I would like the atmosphere to be creepy and dark, yet welcoming.

For those of us unfamiliar with your music, what does it sound like?

It would probably be egocentric to say it has it own genre, so I will say it’s cacophony country disco core ?

Give us some links to hear your music, read about your music, or buy your music.

You can visit my messy music website at www.m0oo.com and my sketchblog at www.isopharmacy.com . I also have some music videos to http://www.last.fm/music/Aliceffekt .

Who would you love to collaborate with?

I would like to collaborate with Eiji of D E N T A K U in some chiptune core music project at one point : ) . I like his minimal electro gameboy sounds a lot. Hopefully one day he’ll make remix kits.

If you were a duck, which ocean would you sit in?

Pacific, because it’s the only one I know >_> .. I would probably chill on the shores of Japan from time to time .

Besides music, what other forms of entertainment do you enjoy?

I like circuit bending and interactive arts, I like traveling too ( if it counts as a souce of entertainment ) . I don’t like video games that much..

How many fingers am I holding up?

11.

Where do you get ideas for your awesome fashion getup?

fashion getup.. mhmm.. Put Blame! and Hamtaro in a blender. wait, what was the question again ?

If you weren’t making sounds in your spare time, what else would you imagine yourself doing?

I would be drawing all the time, the time I m not making sounds I m playing with broken gameboys or drawing already haha.

For Final Question: How do you feel about subliminal messages in music?

I think it’s awesome, listen to my music you ll see how much you want to drink Coca-Cola

Also: Please send me a picture of some sort

Comics are an amazing form of storytelling, however if you’re anything like me and didn’t have the resources to get into comics when you were growing up then the sheer volume of what’s available is pretty daunting. It’s a hard community to get into, and there’s really no way to find a set starting point for a lot of series. However, there are a few graphic novels out there that are worth checking out whether you’re into comics or not. There’s a lot I could recommend, including Bone and Blankets or even Maus, but there’s a particular series that’s really piqued my interest recently.

The Walking Dead is an amazing and intriguing tale into the ever-cliche world of the Zombie apocalypse. However, The Walking Dead has something going for it that makes it something special. Author Robert Kirkman and artist Charlie Adlard (fomerly Tony Moore) weave a tale of a group of survivors trying to survive as the travel from one point to the next in an attempt to find a new home; a place where they can start over and rebuild their shattered lives.

The thing that sets this graphic novel apart is Kirkman’s attitude towards the topic. Not only does he focus on the intense change that happens to people when put through such extreme situations, but he feels that any other media surrounding Zombies isn’t enough. It’s just a slice of the entire situation. Kirkman himself says;

“The idea being The Walking Dead is to stay with the character, in this case, Rick Grimes for as long as is humanly possible. I want The Walking Dead to be a chronicle of years of Rick’s life. We will NEVER wonder what happens to Rick next, we we’ll see it. The Walking Dead will be the zombie movie that never ends.”

That aspect alone draws me to this comic. The idea that it will continue on, that it can show the many trials and challenges survivors face that the movies often forget, or don’t have time to show. Hell, maybe the comic will continue on once the zombies are all gone, maybe it’ll show how everyone makes life right again. However, right now there are zombies and there are a lot of them.

The Walking Dead is a dramatic and wonderfully told tale of a living hell and a group of people falling apart within it. Kirkman really does show you how people devolve (or perhaps evolve) and lose who they once were under such horrific circumstance. It’s a beautiful read (ironically) and definitely worth picking up, even if you’re not a big fan of comics.

So I ascertained a copy of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story today, and I decided to see what all the fuss was about “BD-Live”. Prima facie, one thought to himself about how useful mixing the internet with your movie could be. Well, in all actuality I think it’s kinda neat. It’s not mind-blowing, but it makes for a nice package. Along with the Picture in Picture provided with Profile 1.1, I feel that the Blu-ray Association has done quite a bit to prove that Blu-ray is more than just a DVD with “high quality.” The whole package is definitely worthy of being called a next-generation experience.

The move in question was set up just like any other blu-ray film, except it had a separate tab that said “BD-live” on it. When I clicked on it, it took a little while to load up the screen, but there’s a sleek menu-based system. On the left there is a box with your “What’s New”, “FAQ” and “Return to Disc Menu” option, and then on the right half there’s section for Blu-ray previews with the likes of Resident Evil, Men in Black, and Gattaca. There are also three Theatrical previews such as Prom Night, 88 Minutes, and You Don’t Mess With The Zohan. There are both HD and SD versions of each trailer, except for the “What’s New” features since those are actually downloadable featurettes relating to the movie at hand. Once you click on a trailer, the SD / HD options disappear and theres is a progress bar. While one is downloading, you may also attempt to download another. If you choose to return to the Disc Menu, it will pause your download until your return to the BD-live screen. Granted, these are full HD trailers, so they will be relatively big. However, that is why all Blu-ray Profile 2.0 compliant players require at least 1.0GB of space on them. According to the reports I’ve read, the trailers and Blu-ray previews will change every so often, but I am uncertain as to whether or no the “what’s new” movie-related downloads change out every so often, or if those stay consistent. If you exit from the screen and come back, everything stays the same…

It’s a pretty interesting feature, and I can see it adding replay value to certain Blu-ray discs. It can help you keep up with what’s up and coming from that particular film company, and help you find films similar in nature. Basically, things you used to use the internet to look up, isn’t quite necessary anymore. Plus, your Blu-ray Profile 2.0 player is hopefully hooked up to a nicer and brighter display than your computer monitor.

There really isn’t much to gripe out. I suppose my only qualm is that it does not allow for background downloading or early previewing. I would be much more convenient to be able to use the time it takes to watch the film to download these trailers. Sometimes these trailers can be several megabytes in size, and when you’re not on the fastest internet connection ever like I am, sometimes it can be a bore sitting here staring at your TV waiting for these to finish. While it’s not the biggest deal in the world, it would be much less stressful to have that background downloading feature.

There was a piece run on globeandmail.com on the 28th that really caught my attention. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ve been dying to write a feature for VGEvo about Zero Narrative in games. That is; how a game should be to make it timeless or truly progressive. I’ve got pretty strong feelings on the subject and maybe someday with my dreams of working in the industry I can make something that reflects those feelings.

None the less, the article that was run was essentially about how games are inevitably doomed to irrelevance. Not gaming as a whole, but each individual game itself. I strongly disagree with this. While it may be true for a lot of games, (like Final Fantasy VII) the idea of the perfect game for me wouldn’t fit into that statement. And for me, the perfect game has been made a few times. However for a lot of games produced today, I feel they will eventually fade into obscurity as they are replaced and replicated by sequels and newer games. Final Fantasy VII is a good example of this; it’s been bested in graphics, gameplay and storyline (in my opinion) and it seems the only thing fueling it now is nostalgia. As for the other side of the argument; Shadow of the Colossus. This is a game that is art for me. It’s a game that has done everything that I feel a game should do to set itself apart from other media.

In order to be considered timeless, a work of art must necessarily affect its audience in a similar way and to a similar degree, regardless of when it happens to be viewed. Super Mario Bros. fails this test because those who play it for the first time today have experienced more modern games that significantly expand upon and outdo Nintendo’s archetypal platformer. Everything Super Mario Bros. does well—its run-and-jump action, its hidden levels, its rewarding coin collection system—has since been improved upon by countless other games. We rightfully acknowledge and respect that it served as inspiration for later games, but we also understand that many of these games have inarguably surpassed their original muse.

Super Mario Bros. makes for an easy case—the advancements in video game design and technology that have taken place in the decades since the game first appeared are strikingly obvious. Let’s look at a less apparent example: The Halo games.

The original Halo was rightly considered one of the greatest shooters ever made when it was first released. However it simply doesn’t compare with the series’ latest incarnation, Halo 3, which has undeniably improved upon the franchise’s formula by offering a deeper multiplayer experience, a greater variety of game possibilities (by virtue of its new and more refined enemies, weapons, and vehicles), and a more cinematic presentation.

Source.

Shadow of the Colossus is a timeless piece of art. It does so many things right and so many things I feel more games these days should. The main thing it does; it creates an experience unique to the gaming medium. Shadow of the Colossus in any other medium would be worthless. A boring movie and a mediocre novel to say the least. However, as a gaming experience it’s something like no other. I have never felt the same way playing a video game as I have playing Shadow of the Colossus. One of the biggest factors working towards that is the fact that there is no story. There is no written background, there is no real narrative in the game. It leaves it entirely for the audience to decide. That is art. I remember when the game was released the amount of speculation that went around the internet about what the story was. Some said that Wander and Mono are siblings; others say they’re lovers. Some made their own narrative. The big thing is though, that it creates an experience that can’t be replicated into another medium. Very few games do this. Most games would make great movies (Heavenly Sword), or wonderful novels (Metal Gear Solid) but a game like this could only be a game.

It’s the same way that House of Leaves could only ever be a book. It’s a literary masterpiece in my opinion, and probably my favorite book of all time. Timelessness is very relative, but I feel that both of these things have achieved it. I really don’t think that games are doomed to irrelevance. At least, not the good ones.

It’s a really down-to-earth sort of podcast about yeah…video games. I know this is mostly a music site here, and we’ve been writing a lot about video games lately, but I thought I’d take some time out to tell you about this lovely podcast. It’s called Interactive Distractions and it’s basically three dudes talking in an unbiased way about all the game systems, and all that. They’re associated with VGevo, which is a website I have linked to on the left pane here on the blog. It’s one of the more casual gaming places to go, and this particular podcast emanates the same vibe I get from going to the forums, so it’s a pretty neat correlation .

I usually give them reader email and try hard to spark good discussion, and it usually works when I can remember to turn something in. They’ll usually have a question of the week, which makes for good rapport with the listeners. It feels more like a community radio show instead of something where you feel like you’re always on the other end. So if you’re tired of a lot of those ….more or less…”corporate” feeling shows, I suggest you check out Interactive Distractions. You can find all their latest episodes here. And if you’re listening and you hear any voicemails/emails read from Tears of Ash, that’s my name over there.

For quite some time I’ve been a P-Model fan and a Susumu Hirasawa fan. His music is fairly hard to describe. It was late seventies early eighties “techno-pop” according to the glorious truthhole we call “wikipedia.” Though it wasn’t nearly as polished as some of the other cliche “techno-pop” artists from that timeline. He would use quite a few various amiga programs not only to create music but most likely to create some of his ridiculous early videos. There’s a certain cheese factor that is quite robotic and somewhat adorable. It’s robotic, but an intelligent robot with a spirit and good dance moves. I reccomend Susumu Hirasawa to people who like Goatbed and Soft Ballet. P-model, and most of his solo stuff is pretty straightforward. Though there are some side-projects such as Shun and Mandrake that delve into the strange realm of progressive amiga techno-pop rock types of styles. It’s futuristic sounding, but in a weird retro sort of way. If you’ve Satoshi Kon works such as Paprika, Paranoia Agent, Millenium Actress, or Perfect Blue then you’re already familiar with his work. You can find quite a bit of his creations for free through legal channels on the internet.

One of the reasons I like Susumu Hirasawa is because he brings something new to the table. Even though it’s a lot of conventions that we’ve had for a while. He does it in a very unique way, and is always thinking of doing new creative things even though he still stays within his own realm of style. You can pinpoint his music at least as “electronic” but it’s not just cut and dry like a lot of electronic music sets out to be these days. If you’re game, check out “P-model or Die” by P-model. Check out the soundtrack to Paprika and check out the album “Vistoron” by kaku P-model.