Claw Marks #2 – McCloud November 30, 2008
Posted by Mach in Claw Marks.2 comments
Welcome to another Claw Marks segment. I bring you the second one continuing the Star Fox chain that Renard has made with his music. This one was actually the first in his Star Fox series, I Prefer the Sky actually being the most recent one. The other two will actually appear in the next update.
Now, McCloud is obviously based off of the character Fox McCloud. Under the alias of Jaql, he made another awesome drum’n'bass track. According to him, there’s a reference to Corneria’s theme as well.
Click image to download.
Enjoy the track, people. It’s another one of my personal favorites. Expect another Claw Marks some time this week.
Mach #32 – Honestly, If I don’t already update enough… November 30, 2008
Posted by Mach in Mach's Rants.6 comments
So~ Sousuke wasn’t the only person who got a new TV this week. I pretty much slept through Black Friday morning. And what do I awaken myself to? Two shiny new LCD televisions for me and my brother. I had the choice between a Sanyo or a Vizio. Both were 26″ TVs with pretty much the same specs, if not, exactly. Naturally, I took the Vizio since it was the nicer one.
My brother wasn’t all too pleased. T_T
If you’re wondering why our parents didn’t just buy us the same TV:
1. It’s Wal-Mart.
2. It’s Black Friday. What are the odds that you’ll get double of anything?
Anyway, hooked up my 360, and games are absolutely gorgeous on it. Picshurs~ (Click for bigger photos)
Picture of my dashboard. Nothing special.
Another picture. Buy Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. It's wonderful and beautiful.
Ironically, despite the fact I own this lovely HD television, I’m still keeping my old one. Why? Music games. There’s a horrendous amount of lag when you play on HDTVs. I’ll pretty much use this TV for just about everything else, but beatmania and DDR? Older TV.
Short entry again, but it’s a relevant gaming update for me. I’ll probably have something more to say during the weekday.
I’ll get a Claw Marks update in when I wake up. Might be 10 AM, might be 1 PM. I dunno, I’m a tired person and I need my sleep. It just depends whether or not my dad is gonna bother me about changing the oil in my car. I better get all the rest I could get… I have an 8-12 page research paper to do as well.
Kill me~
Later.
Sousuke #7 – HDTV GET! JOB GET! [Updated with pictures!] November 29, 2008
Posted by Sousuke in Sousuke's Rants.10 comments
That’s right! I FINALLY picked up the HDTV I’ve been waiting over a year to buy. Finally got a decent pay cheque, and could afford one. Even with the Christmas shopping season upon us! I ended up buying a 32″ Samsung LCD panel. I didn’t get the 1080p one though, because it cost about $250 more. So I ended up getting the 720p one, which is ABSOLUTELY FINE WITH ME. It still looks beautiful. AND. Tales of Vesperia looks absolutely stunning. To say the least. 
Now I’ll have way more motivation to play it. Anyway, I put it in my room, pretty much right next to my bed. Photos will follow! I’m planning on doing some bedroom cleaning tomorrow, so I’ll wait until after that to take pictures.
On the job front, I also got a job! Granted, I didn’t get on the campaign I wanted [which is HP tech support] but… I don’t start until January 12th, but still–that’ll give me a chance to find something else if I so choose… And I’ll try my damndest to do so. Why? Cause I’m working tech support for Time Warner. New York. So Len– Mach– I’m not sure if you use Time Warner for whatever, but if you ever end up calling tech support, you might end up talking to me. XD Wouldn’t that be fun! Starting pay is $12.50/hr. Nice! The good news about this too, is that I get Christmas off, so I can join the rest of my family down in the Muskokas.
Banjo-Kazooie comes out next week now, I think. They pushed it back, for whatever reason. I mean, come on! The game was ‘released’ as a pre-order bonus a few weeks ago [though I'm pissed that I didn't GET said bonus, even though I pre-ordered], so why can’t they just… LET IT OUT? Ah well. I’ll be picking that one up next Wednesday when it comes out.
Hmmm, music segment coming up soon? Well, I’ve got to come up with a name for it, but after that, expect some stuff from me, too!
[Update!] As promised, here’s a couple pictures~ Click for the full image. They’re big! Sorry for the darkness of the images; the flash basically ruined the pictures so I decided to go without.
Yuri + Sunglasses + True Knight. Hawt.
Group picture!
Miror B. #2 – Nature of the Experiment (RAC Mix) November 28, 2008
Posted by Dan in Miror B..2 comments
Well, the first Miror B. was a massive failure (2 downloads and 0 comments? Yeesh. Guess no one cares about pirate hip-hop.), but I won’t give up quite yet. Rather than hit you with another album, today’s upload is just a song. If you recall from my 100 Things (or just talking to me in general), you’ll know that I’m a huge RAC fan. RAC, as you may or may not know, stands for Remix Artist Collective. In my opinion, there’s not a single song that they haven’t remixed that wasn’t far better than the original when all was said and done. That’s a sign of some really awesome remixing talent.
Most of RAC’s stuff is just unsorted uploads to the RAC website, but the track I’m giving you today is pulled from a compilation album of sorts: Stereogum Presents… RAC Vol. 1. Naturally, it’s just a handful of songs mixed by RAC.
Anyway, this song was originally performed by Tokyo Police Club, an indie rock band out of Canada. They’re pretty good if that’s your thing, so if this remix catches your ear, check them out.
Click to go to the download page.
If you like it, be sure to check out…
Official RAC website
Official Tokyo Police Club website
Oh, and be sure you check out Mach’s first Claw Marks, I Prefer the Sky. It’s a really catchy drum ‘n’ bass tune. I had to’ve listened to it five times in a row when I got it last night.
Enjoy!
Claw Marks #1 – I Prefer The Sky November 27, 2008
Posted by Mach in Claw Marks.3 comments
On a starting note, I’d like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. May your bellies be full and your heart full of happiness and sunshine.
Now here’s my music segment. Like Dan has Miror B. I have Claw Marks. It’s a playful pun on what happens to CDs when you don’t take care of them. Horrible, I know, but it’s my category name. Stop arguing with me. Shut up.
Anyway, a personal favorite track of mine from Renard, under the alias of D-Code-D, he produced an awesome drum’n'bass track about one of the best characters from Star Fox, Falco Lombardi. This track is also featured in Renard’s freeware 4-panel game, Mungyodance 3. Check it out.
(Click Image to Download)
This track is featured on Renard’s Sensorium album. There will be a couple of other tracks I’ll be uploading from there as well since I love that album so god damn much. You can find more of his works as well as some other artists who belong to his record label at VULPvibe.
I’ll be posting several more singles along the way, so check em’ out when you get the chance.
Later~
Rebel #6 – KE KE KE! November 26, 2008
Posted by Rebel in Rebel's Rants.6 comments
HELLO WORLD. I haven’t been here for a while, and you guys know it. There hasn’t been much going on with my life. Well, actually, there’s been a lot. I don’t think you want to read about it, but I can’t think of anything else to write right now that I can finish in 38 minutes. Anyways, I’m going to talk a bit about what’s going on with me for the last 3/4 weeks.
Anyways, the last post I wrote was back when I was at my old house. Review of Mother 1, if I recall correctly. I moved at about the beginning of the month. Ever since then, I’ve been pretty much busy with school, work, gaming, and such. I finished Tales of the Abyss, and I finished Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. Great games, I highly recommend them (more on them on future reviews, when I get out of school for the Christmas holidays). I haven’t really been gaming that much compared to during summer, actually, but hey, nothing’s wrong with that, RIGHT? My brother came back recently. He got me a few games; Animal Crossing: City Folk, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, Gears of War 2, and Fable II. I haven’t really started Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World yet (mainly because I haven’t played Tales of Symphonia yet), nor have I indulged myself into Fable II yet, since I’ve recently been trying to adjust to the bad taste Fable left in my mouth. Seems like a promising game so far, though. Ran out of monthly bandwidth today, now I need to pay $2.50 per 1 gb. I have no clue how I bursted through 25 gigs in a month. I don’t even download music. Err.. but really, like I said, my life is dull and boring; tiem4gaems and impressions.
Impressions
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
Because of the most recent edition to the Megaten series, Persona 3, people believe that the Megaten world is filled with emos and suicidals who like to shoot themselves. This, in essence, isn’t true (not saying Persona 3 is a bad game, Len, you still need to play it, Sousuke, it’s about time, DAAAAAN, GIVE IT A CHAAAAAAANNCE). Shin Megami Tensei is a mysterious game with a mysterious plotline. No, I’m not overusing the word “mysterious”; after all, that’s all I’ve seen from the game so far. The game opens up with a girl in what seems to be a hospital. She asks you for your name, and you give it. Like most respectable SMT games, the main character has no default name (of course, respectable SMT games also provide default names), and you are forced to give the main character of the game a name and a nickname. After this, you are thrown into the world of Nocturne. The main character starts off at a subway station, recieving a phone call to go to the park. You go to the park. Apparently, there’s just been a turf war there, so there’s a journalist there. The journalist recognizes that there’s nothing there, and that the park is blocked off. You recieve a phone call from that particular person, and you have to go to a hospital; devoid of people. Well, there are about… 5 people in the building. Anyways, a person tries to kill you because you “know too much”, and a woman saves you. …and then the world blows up. …and then you get turned into a demon “with the heart of a human” by this weird old lady, and a weird little kid, which for some reason changes to an adu– GAHH, JUST PLAY THE DAMN GAME! The story is too weird and too confusing to divulge anyways. Anyways, the game is solid and cheap. Meaning it’s a fun, deep, amazing, but cheap game, like every Megaten game. You have the potential to get your ass kicked in the first turn of a battle if you get ambushed, because of the “one more!” system. When an enemy attacks your weakness, YOU ARE KNOCKED DOWN. The sound is atmospheric, and the lack of voice acting makes the game creepier. The art style is beautiful, and the game is amazing. I can’t really think of anything else to say about this game. It’s such a unique game in terms of plot that it’d be hard not to recommend this game. I’ve only played the game for about 2 hours, so I don’t have a ton of impressions on this game, except that I know that this is the kind of game that I like to play. The game’s really hard to pick up. I picked it up a few years back, but you’d be hard pressed finding a copy of this game today.
Animal Crossing: City Folk
Alright, so we’ve established that I’m pretty much braindead from that SMT: Nocturne impressions section of this post. Animal Crossing: City Folk is… uh.. Animal Crossing: Wild World with a city and 4 houses. That means it’s a good, solid game that improves on its core experience. That also means that it’s the same game as before. But better. In my opinion, if Animal Crossing: City Folk didn’t look like the old games, it wouldn’t be Animal Crossing. If it didn’t play like the old games, it wouldn’t have been Animal Crossing. If it didn’t SOUND like Animal Crossing, it wouldn’t be Animal Crossing. Finally, if it didn’t have Tom Nook, and the Able Sisters, and Brewster, and Blathers… and the Mayor Turtle guy… it wouldn’t be Animal Crossing. In my opinion, Animal Crossing: Wild World nearly perfected the formula, and City Folk improved on the perfection. Anyways, enough of that. ENOUGH OF THAT. I don’t really have much more to say about this game. I don’t know enough about the additions. Well, I guess I could talk about the city. The city is basically your average place to spend your cash. You can buy expensive clothing, get expensive haircuts, expensively change the colour of your shoes, expensively learn emotions from Shrunk, expensively buy things from Redd. Er… uh… That kind of stuff. Of course, you can always get your clothes from the superior Able Sisters. Uh. This sounds really disjointed and biased, so I’m going to stop now. Actually, I’ll end off by saying that Animal Crossing: City Folk is a great game, and if you like Animal Crossing on the GC, you’ll like this one even more. Online play takes the cake, even though it was in the DS version. Except it’s unstable. BluFin can tell you.
Anyways, this is a really pointless post, so I’ll post something less pointless in the form of a video. Hmm, maybe it’s just as pointless, but whatever. Enjoy!
(did anyone else notice that youtube now displays views in widescreen?)
Miror B. #1 – Authentic Pirate Hip-Hop November 26, 2008
Posted by Dan in Miror B..add a comment
Avast ye maties! Time for a new segment here on DRE. This’ll be my personal music upload section. Others may make their own soon (I know Mach plans to) with their own names, but Miror B. is all me. What will I be uploading? Albums or songs. Either one. Be sure to leave comments if you like anything, and I may be able to hook you up with more.
The name Miror B. is a combination of two things.
1: A play on words of “mirror”. You often click mirror links when downloading things, so… Yeah.
2: It’s a reference to a boss in Pokémon Colosseum, Miror B., who had an insanely catchy battle theme called Miror B.’s Retro Groove. I’ll probably upload that sometime soon for those of you who’ve never heard it.
Anyway, the first delicious (Hi, Len.) upload Miror B. offers to you is a unique one, to say the least.
Captain Dan & the Scurvy Crew
Authentic Pirate Hip-Hop [2006]
I know, I know. “What the hell is this?!”, you ask? Simple. It’s authentic pirate hip-hop.
To quote Wikipedia…
Captain Dan & the Scurvy Crew combines elements from hip hop music genres such as gangsta rap, nerdcore hip hop, and crunk with Baroque and Classical instrumentation, usually achieved through the use of synthesizers and other methods associated with computer music.
Lyrically, the group discusses a number of pirate-related subjects but with a rap-styled twist. Life on the high seas, threats against rival pirate crews, and recreational drug use are common themes addressed by lead vocalist and lyricist “Captain” Dan Dolan and a cast of supporting vocalists.
If you want a small taste before you download the full file, here’s a music video for perhaps my favorite track on the album, Blackbeard’s Treasure.
[Here's the download.]
Enjoy!
Mach #31 – Here comes a new challenger~!! November 25, 2008
Posted by Mach in Mach's Rants.4 comments
Since when did we have have that 100 things about the ranters thing? Anyway, got mine done last night when I should’ve been doing my homework. Regardless, read it. Enlighten yourself about me.
As insane as it sounds, I usually judge how my days are gonna go by the iced coffee I drink in the morning. It was good this morning. not enough hazelnut, but just enough to balance everything out. Plus, they used the liquid sugar instead of the normal stuff. If anyone drinks iced coffee as much as I do, you’d notice a HUGE difference between the two.
So, regarding this title, I’ve decided to challenge myself and attempt to get my backloggery unfinished count down to at least 100. I have about 110 games unfinished right now, so beating ten games shouldn’t be too bad. Well, I might as well record my progress as I go along and start of with the first game I plan to beat.
Game Number 1 in the Below 100 Challenge: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Where am I: The last time I checked, I was about a quarter through the final case in the game.
Why did I stop: I got bored, plus I had just bought Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings for the DS. Ironically, I sold the game off being bored of that one as well. This version just wasn’t as engaging as the previous three… 
What do I have to do: Obviously, finish the last case. It will hit completed status by then.
I’ll reveal the remaining nine as I go along.
So, as of lately, I’ve been playing both Fable II and Left 4 Dead.
Fable II has been pretty interesting so far. I heard about the in-game glitches, and I’ve started to notice them as well. Regardless, still fun to play when I have the time for it.
Left 4 Dead has been boatloads of fun so far. I bought it because it was the least I owe some of my friends because I don’t have any games to play co-op with them. It’s always fun defeating a horde of zombies and stuff and accidentally shooting your friends for no apparent reason. When we all decided to give up at one point, we were all the in safe house. Molotoved the place and then shot each other to death. Good times, good times. And at least I’m not one of those dickwad people who set off car alarms or alert tehe witch, just because it’s full of lulz. I hate trying to deal with them. >_<
Anyway, I’m in the middle of my Feature Writing class right now. I suppose I should actually pay attention or something.
Here, have some video. Worst possible thing to happen in an In The Groove 2 tournament. According to what I’ve heard, this happened in the ITG US Open with some of the best players in the country.
Later.
Dan #10 – tenwholebux November 24, 2008
Posted by Dan in Dan's Rants.7 comments
It’s 8 AM right now. I’ve been up since 5 PM yesterday. I’m so nocturnal as of late…
Anyway, I just sold Psychonauts (PS2) to Sobou for $10… minus shipping. Hope you enjoy it, buddy! Didn’t really care for it myself. I’ll be sure to set like three alarms so I’ll actually wake up before the post office closes, that way I can get your game mailed today.
Some of you might have noticed that, off to the right, there’s now a “100 Things” subsection for About the Ranters. I just found this myself, and I spent an hour and 50 minutes coming up with crap to put on that list. Please read it… Or at least skim through it. There’s some stuff in there that I imagine would be kinda interesting, actually.
In gaming news, I’ve started my Master run of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. My rules are 3 hearts, no unrequired upgrades (such as the upgraded quivers/bomb bags, Magic Armor, bottles, etc.), no Potions/Soup/Fairies, and no deaths. If I do die, I’m not going to restart the entire run or anything… I’m just gonna add how many times I died into the note when I’m done. Anyway, right now I’m before the entrance to the Tower of the Gods. I got all three pearls in a single sitting…
Outside that, I’m still playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl nearly every day (as always) and I just recently re-borrowed Super Mario Galaxy from my cousin. Seeing it on the Backloggery stream made me want to play it again, though I’m still currently undecided if I want to just replay it from the beginning or if I want to go for all 120 stars with Mario (currently I’ve got about 65, I think).
That’s about it for this post. I’m not sure I’ll have anything more to say before this weekend, so I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all Happy Thanksgiving. Stay safe during your travels, pig out and watch some football. I friggin’ love Thanksgiving.
Since this post was on the short side, I’ll leave you with a video again.
Oh sweet, sweet nostalgia…
Mach #30 – Whoo~ November 23, 2008
Posted by Mach in Mach's Rants.3 comments
Yay, developments today! Firstly with the themes.
As many of you noticed (or I hoped you noticed), Dan, Rebel, and I have matching themes in terms of Star Fox. Originally we were all gonna run green, but then Dan decided that we should go different ways on color. So, that happened. Anyway, I found the pictures on Pixiv and then we got our avatars from various spots from the same author. Yay, matching themes. We kick ass~
So, I finally bought a game. Feels good since I haven’t actually purchased games in a while, but why, right? I thought I was saving up for that trip to TGA? Yeah, I was, until I found out from one of the friends I was going with that the owner of the place is going to Japan for a couple of weeks. So no go on the date. I’m upset. I was really looking forward to it, but what could I do about it? Oh well, then I look forward to the January trip.
So I bought Left 4 Dead. It was the least I owed some of my friends IRL since I didn’t actually buy games to play co-op with them. I was just gonna get Animal Crossing, but whatever. I’ll be patient about it. 
Anyway, played it for a good two hours and I loved every minute of it. Constant action, fast ass zombies? Oh my god. It’s sunshine and happiness in a gun and a pipe bomb. :3
I guess I really don’t have that much left to rant about… Except… God dammit, update once in a while.
REB, LEN, AND SOUSUKE.
UPDATE. I’M SURE YOUR LIVES ARE JUST AS INTERESTING AS MINE.
Arcade tomorrow for me. Whoo~
Later, but I leave you with this video. It’s a 4-track Star Wars acapella song done by one dude in tribute to John Williams.
