#The number of features they have are never consistent that's what's fun about em

[hunterontheedge]

Starblazer doodles to make up for the lack of thinking I do about them

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 23/03/2024 (V of BTS and... Mark Knopfler?)

It’s a short week, largely to prepare for what chaos should be coming the next, but right at the top, Benson Boone clenches his first ever #1 with “Beautiful Things”. I know pretty much no-one who cares about pop music on a deeper level likes this song, but hey, if I’m the only person happy about this other than Booner Boy himself, I’ll take it. Welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

Rundown

Given our few new songs, we also only have a handful of notable dropouts to start with, so we’ll bid adieu to the small but decent selection of “Could You be Loved” by Bob Marley & The Wailers, “Angel Numbers / Ten Toes” by Chris Brown, “My Love Mine All Mine” by Mitski and finally, “Disconnect” by Becky Hill and Chase & Status.

As for what’s back, we see returns for “Asking” by Sonny Fodera and MK featuring Clementine Douglas at #73 and, sigh, “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi at #68, and then a spattering of gains. Our most notable boosts are for “if u think i’m pretty” by Artemas at #59, “Wasted Youth” by goddard. and Cat Burns at #58, “We Ain’t Here for Long” by Nathan Dawe at #55, “Happier” by The Blessed Madonna featuring Clementine Douglas at #54, “Thank You (Not So Bad)” by a bestiary of enemies to good taste at #50, “Green & Gold” by Rudimental and Skepsis featuring Charlotte Plank and Riko Dan at #43, “Birds in the Sky” by NewEra at #34, “Never Lose Me” by Flo Milli surging high and fast up to #23 thanks to her releasing an album that includes a pretty great remix of the song featuring Cardi B and SZA, and then “Austin” by Dasha at #15, “Lovers in a Past Life” by Calvin Harris and Rag’n’Bone Man at #14 and finally, making his way into the top 10 for the first time, “Scared to Start” by Michael Marcagi at #10.

Our top five this week consists of “End of Beginning” by Djo at #5, “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims at #4, “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” by Beyoncé at #3, “we can’t be friends (wait for your love)” by Ariana Grande at a new peak of #2 off of the debut, that could grab a week at the top soon, and of course, Benny Boone at #1. Now for our four new songs, which feel like names picked out of a hat and placed onto the chart.

New Entries

#60 - “Been Like This” - Meghan Trainor and T-Pain

Produced by Gian Stone and Grant Boutin

This is a joke, right? Or a soundtrack to a reality television competition, or daytime talk show? T-Pain has grown into his role as wholesome cuddly media figure surprisingly well and a collaboration with Meghan Trainor, whilst demonic, seems to be the best way to seal that position, with this being the lead single for her next album… Timeless. Well, that’s one thing to call your music. Mean jokes aside, hey, T-Pain is here so at least there’ll be some genuine, not as obnoxious charisma? Well, first of all, it’s electro swing, so my first instinct is to step away from my laptop, keel over and die, especially when Meghan starts to singing about how she keeps it juicy and then eventually that she’s “still that bitch”, as if she was ever that bitch to begin with. There’s something so cynical about Trainor’s vocals that I didn’t notice just the true extent of until T-Pain came in with an infectious call-and-response and weirdly-mixed but fun-extruding harmonies that almost would convince me on the entire song if he didn’t have to play to Meghan’s lack of personality, especially when placed against each other in the bridge. T-Pain can sell this as some goofy cartoon clown, but it probably wouldn’t charted without Ms. Trainor, who brings pretty much nothing to the song other than taking it a tad too seriously, despite the fact that there’s no reason, lyrically, for this to even be a duet. Also, Meghan, I’m not sure you can even sing the line about GRAMMYs in T-Pain’s verse on the account of you only have one.

#52 - “Never be Lonely” - Jax Jones and Zoe Wees

Produced by Jax Jones, Mark Ralph, Neave Applebaum and Tom Demac

I actually really like Jax Jones’ producer tag, it’s cute and rhythmic, has a little stutter to it. It’s nice. I have to say more than that, don’t I? I have to acknowledge Zoe Wees’ voice being misued and manipulated to just sounding characterless, I have to acknowledge how this heavily interpolates the drop from “Rhythm is a Dancer” by Snap!, one of the best Eurodance songs ever despite some… regrettable lines. It spent six weeks at #1 in 1992, blocking off Jimmy Nails, Freddie Mercury, Luther Vandross, Janet Jackson and of course, “Ebenezer Goode” by the Shamen from the top spot, before reappearing in remixed form in 2003 and 2008, reaching the top 40 again both times. “Never be Lonely” doesn’t work as an update of the song because of completely different lyrical content that I actually hate, asking someone to tell her how it feels that she’ll always be there for them, it’s really patronising and weird. It doesn’t work as a reimagining or reinterpretation because it goes for the same tone, and doesn’t adopt or adapt any of the original lyrical conceits. The one thing it does have is a Cascada remix. Yes, that Cascada. I have no idea why, but it exists.

#18 - “Going Home” (Theme from Local Hero) - Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes

Produced by Guy Fletcher

Oh, so I guess this episode really will get as serious as cancer. This one might take a while to explain. So in 1983, Bill Forsyth wrote and directed Local Hero, a highly-acclaimed comedy drama that is actually former US Vice President Al Gore’s favourite film. Its soundtrack features a five-minute instrumental piece known as the “Theme of the Local Hero”. I’ve never seen the film so I don’t know how exactly it appears or makes sense within its narrative but I do know it has far transcended its origin. “Going Home” was the first single in Mark Knopfler’s solo career and has become a staple in both his and his band’s live performances, as well as becoming another theme, now for Knopfler’s home football team, Newcastle United. It’s probably the most lukewarm take of all time to say that “Going Home” is a beautiful piece, it honestly gives me goosebumps from its transcendent new-age introduction and excellently distant sax from Michael Brecker, that eventually transform into a very 80s-sounding but still profoundly triumphant jam that emulates the feeling of a journey in the UK pretty well. Maybe that’s what the film’s about, I don’t know. It peaked at #56 in 1983, whilst Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” was #1 - good week for rock epics, I guess.

If you know Knopfler from anything, it’s likely his band Dire Straits, one of the few important British rock bands that hit #1 in the States and never back over here on the islands - their #1 is of course “Money for Nothing”. The legacy of Dire Straits is not something tangible for me or that I’ve ever really understood, their sound was varied and evolved through what was ultimately a very short career. They’re not a legendary act but are still big names and incredibly well-connected, especially Knopfler, who has played and produced extensively for many artists and soundtracks. In January, Knopfler sold over 100 of his guitar and amp equipment at auction and in March, he’s compiled a charity ensemble to cover “Going Home” in support of cancer awareness.

Its status as a charity single is the only possible explanation for why this nearly 10 minute instrumental piece even touched the charts let alone the top 20, but it is stuffed with big names, from rock icons like Brian May, RIngo Starr and Joan Jett and newer cats like Sam Fender and Orianthi to genuine oddballs like Keiji Haino and head-scratching inclusions like, uh, Brad Paisley, who I will only ever remember for “Accidental Racist”. There are over 60 musicians on this record and damn near all of them contributed through their guitar playing, other than Ringo on drums, The Who’s Roger Daltrey on my favourite, the harmonica (that you can barely hear at times - Daltrey’s harmonica should be put to better use), and a few others. You can tell that Fletcher and Knopfler did their best job to try and collate recordings that were clearly from different times, places, equipment set-ups and audio qualities, but this is still basically a meandering pile of guitar overdubs that lasts longer than some full EPs and doesn’t really let you register any single guitarist as them playing. The collectiveness of it may just be the point, to show a united front against cancer or what have you, and there’s definitely a lot to appreciate if you’re an in-depth fan of guitar playing or a guitarist yourself, of which I’m not. I will admit, this is genuinely impressively easy to sit through for how lengthy it is, largely because of the dexterity on display, the fact that the melody of the original “Going Home”, even when developed on in the many ways it is within this piece, is still so infectious, and also because it comes out of not just cynical philanthropy but a genuine passion for the guitar as an instrument. The cover art is a Sgt. Peppers parody of the musicians standing in front of a famous guitar shop in London, and the wide array of musicians from a lot of different genres, eras and even techniques shows how wide and universal this feels an appreciation of the guitar… but I’ll say what my dad always said about Dire Straits (because, really, dads are the only people with viable Dire Straits opinions): “it all becomes much of a muchness.” My favourite of theirs is “Walk of Life” by the way, it’s so goofy. Love it.

#14 - “FRI(END)S” - V

Produced by Connor McDonough and Riley McDonough

V is the latest of the BTS boys to release a solo English single, seemingly leading towards a solo career like Jung Kook, with credits stacked full of Anglophone pop songwriters and production from the McDonough brothers that results in a very serviceable pop song that I’m not sure would get much attention outside of the fact that it’s a BTS member, hence why sales jacked this one’s chart position up so high. It’s not a bad little song at all, in fact I like the distorted guitar lick and the amount of emotion V shows in his vocals despite all the effects, he has a real unique texture against the slodgier indie drums and the infectious bed of harmonies in the pre-chorus. The one way I could see this getting big organically would be that fun albeit gimmicky chorus that makes this an anti-climactic friend zone anthem, though the gimmick wears off after the second time and doesn’t really develop into anything new in the second chorus other than some pretty gross, reverb-drenched spectacle. I usually wouldn’t give this manufactured bedroom pop much more of the time of day but there’s not much in the way of obnoxious performance or toxic lyrics here, it’s just that it really could be any other vaguely bitter male singer’s song. The first most obvious comparison is Joji due to their vocal textures, but Charlie Puth or Lauv could have easily made this work too, though probably not as well as V does here, especially not Puth. God, that would be horrible. Thank God for BTS that this song was never offered to Puth (not that he’d accept a song he didn’t spend 20 hours writing and producing himself, of course). Ugh, enough Puth talk, let’s end the episode.

Conclusion

God, this was not a great week, huh? Even if I’m not fussed about the new version, the composition of “Going Home” makes Mark Knopfler and friends get a lock for Honourable Mention, and it really does end up as the song with the most - if not the only - human passion in this selection. Worst of the Week goes to Meghan Trainor, surprise, surprise, for “Been Like This” with T-Pain, and that’s all. Future, Shakira, O-Rod, Tyla, Hozier, Headie One, Artemas, Cardi B, Lil Nas X, Bryson Tiller, they could all hypothetically show up next week and it would be a big one, so prepare for that and who knows what else? It’s 2024, anything can chart. As for now, thank you for reading, rest in peace to Cola Boyy but we go on and I’ll see you next week!

[meruz]

once again i am answering asks in a big compilation post. included is... gotham, patrick stump, tips about drawing backgrounds, tips about drawing in general, links to my faq, and infinity train

like.... the tv series? No... I’ve drawn dc comics fanart before, though. But it’s been years since I’ve been really into it. I like jumped ship like 10 years ago when the New 52 happened LOL.

AFJHDSLKGH I’m sorry I (probably) won’t do it again??

Actually full disclosure I have a truly cringe amount of p stump drawings/photo studies in my sketchbook right now LOL. He’s just fun to draw... hats, glasses, guitar, a good shape... but I don’t think I’ll rly post those until I can hide them in another big sketchbook pdf.. probably Jan 2022. Stay tuned........ (ominous) 

(ominous preview)

These are all sort of related to backgrounds/painting so I grouped them together even though they’re pretty much entirely separate questions.... ANYWAYS

a) How is it working as a BG artist? Is it hard? What show are you drawing for?

I think you’re the first person to ever ask me about my job! Being a background artist is great. It’s definitely labor intensive but I think that could describe pretty much any art job (If something were rote or easy to automate, you wouldn’t hire an artist to do it) and I hesitate to say whether its harder or easier than any other role in the animation pipeline. Plus, so much of what truly makes a job difficult varies from one production to the next, schedule, working environment, co-workers etc. But I will say that I think while BGs are generally a lot of work on the upfront, I think they’re subject to less scrutiny/revisions than something like character/props/effects design and you don’t have to pitch them to a room like boards. So I guess it’s good if you don’t like to talk to people? LOL

A lot of my previous projects + the show I’ve worked on the longest aren’t public yet so I can’t talk about em (but I assure you if/when the news does break I won’t shut up about it). But I’m currently working on Archer Season 12 LOL. I’m like 90% sure I’m allowed to say that.

b) ~~~THANK YOU!! ~~~

c) What exactly do you like to draw most [in a background]?

@kaitomiury​ Lots of stuff! I really like to draw clutter! Because it’s a great opportunity for environmental storytelling and also you can be kind of messy with it because the sheer mass will supersede any details LOL. 

I like to draw clouds... I like to draw grass but not trees lol,,, I like to draw anything that sells perspective really easily like tiled floors and ceilings, shelves, lamp posts on a street etc.

d) Do you have any tips on how to paint (observational)?

god there’s so much to say. painting is really a whole ass discipline like someone can paint their whole life and still discover new things about it. I guess if you’re really just starting out my best advice is that habit is more important than product. especially with traditional plein air painting, I find that the procedure of going outside and setting up your paints is almost harder than the actual painting. There’s a lot of artists who say “I want to do plein air sometime!!” and then never actually get around to doing it. A lot of people just end up working from google streetview or photos on their computer.

But going outside to paint is a really good challenge because it forces you to make and commit to lighting and composition decisions really quickly. And to work through your mistakes instead of against them via undo button.

My last tip is to check out James Gurney’s youtube channel because hes probably the best and most consistent resource on observational painting out there rn. There’s lots other artists doing the same thing (off the top of my head I know a lot of the Warrior Painters group has people regularly posting plein air stuff and lightbox expo had a Jesse Schmidt lecture abt it last year) but Gurney’s probably the most prolific poster and one of the best at explaining the more technical stuff - his books are great too.

e) Do you have tips for drawing cleanly on heavypaint?

@marigoldfool​ UMM LOL I LIKE ONLY USE THE FILL TOOL so maybe use the fill tool? Fill and rectangle are good for edge control as opposed to the rest of the heavy paint tools which can get sort of muddles. And also I use a stylus so maybe if you’re using your finger, find a stylus that works with your device instead. That’s all I’ve got, frankly I don’t think my drawings are particularly clean lol.

f) Tips on improving backgrounds/scenes making them more dynamic practicing etc?

Ive given some tips about backgrounds/scenes before so I’m not gonna re-tread those but here’s another thing that might be helpful...

I think a good way to approach backgrounds is to think of the specific story or even mood you want to convey with the background first. Thinking “I just need to put something behind this character” is going to lead you to drawing like... a green screen tourist photo backdrop. But if you think “I need this bg to make the characters feel small” or “I need this bg to make the world feel colorful” then it gives you requirements and cues to work off of.

If I know a character needs to feel overwhelmed and small, then I know I need to create environment elements that will cage them in and corner them. If a character needs to feel triumphant/on top of the world then I know I need to let the environment open up around them. etc. If I know my focal point/ where I want to draw attention, I can build the background around that.

Also, backgrounds like figure compositions will have focal points of their own and you can draw attention to it/ the relationship the characters have with the bg element via scale or directionality or color, any number of cues. I think of it almost as a second/third character in a scene.

Not every composition is gonna have something so obvious like this but it helps me to think about these because then the characters feel connected and integrated with the environment.

Some more general art questions

a) Do you have any process/tips to start drawing character/bodies/heads?

I tried to kind of draw something to answer this but honestly this is difficult for me to answer because I don’t think I’m that great at drawing characters LOL. Ok, I think I have two tips.

1) flip your canvas often. A lot about what makes human bodies look correct and believable is symmetry and balance. Even if someone has asymmetrical features, the body will often pull and push in a way to counterbalance it. we often have inherent biases to one side or another like dominant hands dominant eyes etc. you know how right-handed artists will often favor drawing characters facing 45 degrees facing (the artist’s) left? that’s part of it. so viewing your drawing flipped even just to evaluate it helps compensate for that bias and makes you more aware of balance.

2) draw the whole figure often. I feel like a lot of beginner artists (myself included for a long time) defer to just drawing headshots or busts because it’s easier, you dont have to think about posing limbs etc. But drawing a full body allows you to better gauge proportion, perspective, body language, everything that makes a character look believable and grounded.

Like if you (me) have that issue where you draw the head too big and then have to resize it to fit the proportions of the rest of the body, it’s probably because you (I) drew the head first and are treating the body as an afterthought/attachment. Sketching out the whole figure first or even just quick drawing guides for it will help you think of it more holistically. I learned this figure drawing in charcoal at art school LOL.

oh. third mini tip - try to draw people from life often! its the best study. if you can get into a figure drawing/nude drawing class EVEN BETTER and if you have a local college/art space/museum that hosts those for free TREASURE IT AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT, that’s a huge boon that a lot of artists (me again) wish they had. though if youre not so lucky and youre sitting in a park trying to creeper draw people and they keep moving.. don’t let that stop you! that’s good practice because it’s forcing you to work fast to get the important stuff down LOL. its a challenge!

b) I’ve been pretty out of energy and have had no inspiration to draw but I have the desire to. Any advice?

Dude, take a walk or something.... Or a nap? Low energy is going to effect everything else so you gotta hit that problem at its source.

If you’re looking for inspiration though, I’d recommend stuff like watching a movie, reading a book, playing video games etc. Fill up your idea bank with content and then give yourself time/space to gestate it into new concepts. Sometimes looking at other art works but sometimes it can work against you because it’s too close. 

Also something that helps me is remembering that art doesn’t always have to be groundbreaking... like it’s okay to make something shitty and stupid that you don’t post online and only show to your friend. That’s all part of the process imo. If you want to hit a home run you gotta warm up first, right? Sports.

I should probably compile everytime i give tips on stuff like this but that’s getting dangerously close to being a social media artist who makes stupid boiled down art tutorials for clout which is the last thing i want to be... the thing I want to stress is that art is a whole visual language and there are widely agreed upon rules and customs but they exist in large part to be broken. Like there's an infinite number of ways to reach an infinite number of solutions and that’s actually what makes it really cool and personal for both the artist and the viewer. So when you make work you like or you find someone else’s work you like, take a step back and ask yourself what about it speaks for you, what about it works for you, what makes it effective, how to recreate that effect and how to break that effect completely, etc. And have a good time with it or else what’s the point.

for the first 2, I direct you to my FAQ

For the last one, I don’t actually believe I’ve ever addressed artwork as insp for stories/rp but I’ll say here and now yeah go ahead! As long as you’re not making profit or taking credit for my work then I’m normally ok with it. Especially anything thats private and purely recreational, that’s generally 100% green light go. I only ask that if you post it anywhere public that you please credit me.

(and I reserve the right to ask you to take it down if I see it and don’t approve of it’s use but I think that case is pretty rare.)

a) @lemuelzero101 Thank you!!! I haven’t played Life is Strange but actually  that series’ vis dev artist Edouard Caplain is one of my bigger art inspirations lately so that’s a really high compliment lol. And yeah I hope we get 5-8 too...!

b) Thank you for sticking around! I’ve been thinking about Digimon and Infinity Train in tandem lately, actually. They’re a little similar? Enter a dangerous alternate world and have wacky adventures with monsters/inanimate objects that have weird powers... there’s like weird engineers and mechanisms behind the scenes... also frontier literally starts with them getting on a train. Anyways if anyone else followed me for digimon... maybe you’d like Infinity Train? LOL

c) @king-wens-king I’M GLAD MY ART JUST HAS PINOY VIBES LOL I hope you are having a good day too :^)

a, b, c, d) yessss my Watch Infinity Train agenda is working....

e) aw thank you!! i think you should watch infinity train :)

[autumnslance]

What was it like going from World of Warcraft to FFXIV? As someone who has never played an online RPG before FFXIV I am often :0 ?! when I hear that some people found getting into FFXIV hard because of the mandatory main quest when they just want to go to endgame content as soon as possible. Is going endgame ASAP a regular thing in most online RPGs?

Have a header image of a FFXIV version of my original WoW Main, Discipline Priest Lirriel F’sharri.

Me, a concise answer? Hahaha! Sorry. This got long, so behind a cut it goes and hopefully I answer to Nonny’s satisfaction, taking the questions and breaking them down:

Is going endgame ASAP a regular thing in most online RPGs?

In a lot of games it can be, yes. WoW doesn’t really have a linear overall storyline; each zone has its own story, and each expansion has its own story arc. Nowadays, with how long it’s been running and how big it’s gotten, WoW has revamped their questing so that you decide if you want to go through 1-50 in a specific expac (Burning Crusade, Cataclysm, Wrath of the Lich King, etc), and then catch up to the newest expac for the newest levels, since they also recently did a “level squish” as well as a stats squish, as they had gotten well over 100+ levels in the last couple expansions. Numbers are a problem for long running games (which is why experienced MMO players nodded and some even sighed in relief when the stat squish for Endwalker was announced).

I don’t think FFXIV will be able to do anything similar since their overarching story is so linear; it’s more like playing a single player traditional JRPG with some MMO features attached. I can see them perhaps scaling experience point gain with quests the way they have with the side quests in Shadowbringers, or with Beast Tribe dailies; that would work going forward I think. Unless we get the option to start with the new storyarc starting in 6.1; that could be interesting!

The only other time I had a linear story to go through similarly to FFXIV was early days of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which I played briefly at launch. Even then, each planet had its own storyline, the overall storyline was the individual class questlines. There was, I think, an overarching plot, but it didn’t really come into play until level cap? I don’t even remember and never got to cap because the grind in that game at launch was awful.

And that’s a thing about many MMOs; the leveling experience is learning about the world, introducing characters and setting, but it’s mostly filler until you get to the endgame where the raiding is--and in WoW, the story is only completed via seeing it in raids (thank goodness for Looking for Raid) and was the main focus mechanically as well. WoW didn’t really have an overarching story in Classic, it was a lot of disparate elements setting up and holdovers from the original RTS games and led to random raid content. Burning Crusade gave us an overarching plot with going to Outland to face Illidan--which honestly wasn’t all that well done storywise. BC is remembered fondly for the quality of life changes and allowing smaller groups to raid, rather than requiring wrangling 40 people. And the raids were challenging and fun--or frustrating, but mileage varies there. But the impetus for “the Dark Portal opened and Illidan’s in Outland being bad” was...pretty much it? Later expacs like Wrath had much better story setup and throughlines as they went, and my one friend described Shadowlands as having something like an MSQ. There are, however, a lot of retcons and putting necessary plot information in supplemental material, which was always frustrating. I’ve likened it before to “imagine going from defeating Tsukuyomi at the end of 4.3 and all the separations and set up there...and then the next patch picking up with getting warped to the First because everything that happened in 4.4 and 4.5 occurs in a novel.” That’s too often been WoW’s method of connecting expansion stories while players languish for a year or more in the last raid content.

I wish I was kidding. FFXIV having a set, quick release schedule, that they keep to so consistently with such good quality--and cosmetic and RP stuff added too!--is astounding to me. I worry for the devs’ health at times--then I hear things like Yoshida turning down requests for crunchy overtime to keep said devs from burning out, hence why the next Ultimate is pushed to 6.1. I appreciate that greatly. Getting anything not pertaining to endgame raid and PvP content in WoW was often impossible, coming with complaints from the raiding community that frivolous additions for sheer fun cost them whole tiers, and seriously 18 months between patches was not unheard of.

What was it like going from World of Warcraft to FFXIV?

I started FFXIV at the beginning of Heavensward...but I was still playing WoW. FFXIV was my side game, as I was still invested in roleplay and raiding with my WoW friends. So I mostly enjoyed playing through the story at a leisurely pace, but I didn’t finish ARR for like 2 years. When Stormblood came out I was hitting burnout in WoW despite mostly enjoying Legion, and the quality of life changes for StB really invigorated my interest and ability to play. The longer GCD for FFXIV was actually one of the biggest challenges for me, especially since I had primarily tanked and healed in WoW. I am not an aggressive or competitive player, nor very manually coordinated, so DPS has always been a challenge for me. I find DPS easier in FFXIV thanks to the longer GCD--I’m still not great, but I don’t feel overwhelmed by trying to hit my rotation buttons instantly. It’s taken me a while to get used to tanking, and I still don’t do it in 8man content, except once or twice with my friends. Mostly cuz I’m just enjoying my DPS jobs, really, so haven’t invested in learning.

...And some of my old fear of random roulettes as a lone tank/healer; WoW’s LFG was a toxic pit for various reasons FFXIV has mostly avoided and even my worst day in FFXIV’s roulette is better than a good day in WoW’s, which gave me anxiety and I stopped doing without friends. FFXIV has no Public Test Realm that people expect you to get on pre-patch to not only spoil story moments, but also learn all the fight mechanics ahead of time and if you don’t know them Hour 1 Day 1 of a new patch release you’re deserving of abuse.

I won’t say never, but I just haven’t found myself interested in going back to WoW or feeling invested in that story, though I do sometimes miss my RP characters (and may write more stories for them sometime). I do keep track of certain beloved NPCs and events--a friend streamed a beautiful moment in Ardenweald for me because I did play through what happened to that character in Legion, sobbing the whole time. I’m tracking what’s happening to Anduin Wrynn closely; we’ve literally watched that character grow up in real time over the years from boy prince to king of Stormwind and I’m still a bit heartbroken about his father. But I play for story and characters, and Blizzard’s way of telling those stories and handling those characters lost me, and with how the Acti-Blizz execs and higher level devs act lately (Hazzikostas keeps striking me as out of touch), they don’t give me much incentive to go back. I may not even pick up Diablo 4 at this rate.

So FFXIV’s story hits the right narrative and character focus for me, especially when I buckled in and replayed...and then replayed again...and now have NG+...Anyway, I like how they build the lore and characters and while it’s far from perfect and they have their own flaws, coming from WoW, it’s a lovely change of pace. Not to mention just how Yoshida and his team interact and communicate with the player base, and see the players’ trust as paramount post-1.x.

...I hear that some people found getting into FFXIV hard because of the mandatory main quest when they just want to go to endgame content as soon as possible.

Some people play only to raid; they like mechanics, and challenges, and feeling powerful at max level with the best gear. They don’t care about the overall story--in some cases because they don’t realize it’s so in depth and linear and sensible after/compared to the constant retcons and revamps in games like WoW!--and are just here to play with friends. Cool for them, if that’s what makes them happy! If that’s how they relax and have fun, power to ‘em so long as they aren’t being nasty to others less advanced/able/willing to put in the time and effort for gameplay. But for me, story and characters are far more important, and I raided quite a lot in WoW at various levels of difficulty and raid size. I am old and tired and want to relax and have fun with friends and write stories that get away with me when my characters get a mind of their own. So I rarely do more than Normals, avoiding Savage and Extreme cuz that grind doesn’t interest me. I’ll do stuff I can do on my own to get my progress fix for my brain (like leveling jobs).

The trouble we’re running into now is FFXIV’s linear story is well over 100 hours long. Even with the ARR revamp cutting a lot of chafe, there’s a LOT to get through to reach HW, and then a lot to get to StB, and then to ShB. And there will be a bunch to get through to EW. That’s JUST MSQ, not counting all the side content a new player may also want to catch up on, like the Alliance and Normal raids, PvP, Relics, Hildibrand, side quest stories like Mail Moogle, Beast Tribes, Crafting...the list goes on and on!

Content in a successful MMO must be varied for multiple styles and preferences for the long term health of the game. Roleplayers and story-focused folks tend to be the ones who stick between patches, farming content at a slower pace to get rewards they want for RP or to see story info, as opposed to raid-focused folks who push new content at release for the challenge and glory. Some of those folks also RP or like story though, so go back to farm between blowing up new content. There’s room for all kinds, and there has to be, and while I am sometimes annoyed by people who skip story (or outright dislike it!) while demanding to know how X works or why a character did A thing, they play their way and pay their sub to keep things running same as me and my obsessive need to know the lore and see it for myself. I can certainly understand those players who story skip that much content to get to where their friends are, if that’s the primary reason they play is to raid with pals, and with New Game+ it’s easier than ever for someone to go back and catch up the story later anyway.

[realm-sweet-realm]

Like a Heart Needs a Beat, chapter 1.

Hello, everyone. This is part one of two of an Abby x Lacie story. The first chapter is pretty much just going to be pure fluff, and next chapter the ink-related angst will kick in.

This story, and the next two two-part shipping stories I write, will be “canon” to my version of events.

---

It wouldn’t have been the first time that Bertrum had dragged Lacie to one of the parties he hosted, but that didn’t mean that she had to like it. She got it, she really did- Bertrum thought she deserved to experience the finer things in life (some of which, to be fair, Lacie did enjoy), and didn’t get that no amount of exposure would make her enjoy this. Still, as she was now, forced into a suit once owned by Bertrum’s son and listening to Bertrum trade compliments that were really insults (or whatever they were. They had a strange way of communicating with each other that Lacie didn’t think she wanted to understand) with his client while dozens of men were flirting with each others’ trophy wives in the background, she felt out of place and a little irritated at Bertrum for insisting she come. It was as Joey and Bertrum were getting especially petty that Lacie just had to look away, and across the room, Lacie saw a woman who looked twice as miserable as she was and only slightly more in-her-element.

Lacie approached her. It was a pretty girl, despite looking like she was completely done with this party. She was wearing a grey suit, clearly tailored for her, and had short, curly hair, dark eyes, clear, dark skin. Her body was pretty nice, too. Yeah, Lacie was going to do this.

“Hey,” Lacie said, “You look like you could use some air. Want me to show you a place where we can get away from the party for a while?”

The woman slowly turned her head to look at her. “Sure. Why not?” she replied without changing expression. Lacie would have to hope that would change and that the woman wasn’t just a natural sourpuss.

Lacie smiled. “Come with me.”

Bertrum was a nice man. He allowed Lacie to step out of parties when she needed to, and even gave her one heck of a place to go when she did: Bertrum’s bird room.

Bertrum loved birds. Bertrum raised birds. It was his favourite hobby. The bird room contained two cages of small, pet-store birds, a larger cage for his doves, and a number of nests for his other birds- three chickens, two ducks, a goose, a swan, and (out of place as they looked amongst the farm fowl) two peafowl. It was easy to keep so many pets when you could pay people to look after them. The bird room opened up to an outdoor enclosure, but this time of day they were all in their nests.

“Pretty cool, right?” Lacie said. “Wanna feed em’? I’m the host’s plus-one. Don’t worry, he won’t mind.”

The woman seemed pretty impressed. “Sure,” she replied.

Lacie showed her to the plastic barrel of dried corn in the corner. The birds crowded them, eager, which made them laugh.

After they’d spent a while feeding the birds, the woman had cheered up significantly, and so Lacie tried to make conversation.

“So. My name’s Lacie. And you know why I’m here. What’s your name, and why are you here? And why don't you want to be here? Because it's obvious you don't.”

The woman rolled her eyes. “Abby Lambert. Nice to meet you, Lacie. I’m here because Joey Drew begged me to be his plus one so he wouldn’t have to come alone. And... instead of telling people that I was his friend or his coworker, or lying and telling people I was his girlfriend, he made up this lie that I’d won a contest to get to go with him. That I was his biggest fan. I’ll be honest- that pissed me off. He didn’t think it was right for his image, I guess."

“Oof, that sucks. You know, I’m just one of Bertrum’s engineers, and I don’t know an eighth of the high society stuff he does, but he would still never do that.”

“Thanks. And thanks for taking me out for some air.”

“No problem.”

It was a few more minutes of feeding birds before Lacie decided to throw her shot. “If Joey wants to be a jerk he can stay here on his own. Wanna get out of here?”

Abby looked Lacie up and down, and suddenly Lacie wished she were wearing something a little more revealing than this ill-fitting suit- especially since Abby’s was accentuating every curve of her body. But Abby clearly liked what she saw.

“Yeah. Yeah, that would be nice.”

The two took a cab to Abby’s apartment, where they spent the night.

---

After the one-night stand, Abby had left Lacie her number. If one night was good, why not make it several? And then, Lacie had surprised her by asking her out. To an art museum.

“You like art, right? It’s not just a job? I mean, I wouldn’t want you taking me to a construction site.”

God, she was a dork. A muscular, handsome dork. Abby had to roll her eyes at herself for being so caught up on a woman, but she eventually broke down and asked Joey a few pointed questions during their lunch break a few days before the date. “So, Mr. Romantic- can you give me some tips about how to sweep a woman off her feet? I’m meeting someone tonight.”

Joey had smiled teasingly at her. “Oh, my. The ever-serious Abby Lambert is lovestruck!”

“You’re gross. It was good sex. That’s all.”

“Right. That’s why you came to me for advice. Well, I’d say just be natural. Be friendly, make jokes, find common interests, all that common-sense stuff. And then at the end of the night invite her over for some wine and radio, read her signs, and that’s when you start getting physical.” Joey suddenly went from smiling and talking with his hands to being much more serious. “Oh, and... I’m sorry about the other night. You know how it is... I respect you, the art department respects you, but I can’t trust random people to do so, and I can’t avoid interacting with people who won’t.”

He didn’t even have to say that it was because she was a black woman. It was the same reason why Joey had promoted someone else ahead of her as head of the art department- he hadn’t trusted that the others would accept her authority. But, after she’d handled the art department while her ex-superior was on vacation and there hadn’t been any problems, Joey had snatched the promotion right out of his hands and put it in Abby’s. Not fair to the ex-head of the art department, but Joey rarely was. Even if he wasn’t perfect, though, he was still one of the few in this day and age who would hand a high position to her under any circumstance, and one of the few she could discuss her relationships with.

“Maybe we should just not talk about that. See you soon, Joey.” Why think about that when Abby had more cheerful things to think about?

---

When Lacie showed up to the art museum, she was wearing a leather jacket, scuffed jeans, and heavy boots. She’d definitely stand out in a dainty place like this.

“So, do you know anything about art?” Abby asked as they went to the first section, which featured a number of surrealist paintings.

“Not a thing!” Lacie admitted, not at all ashamed. “Are you the type who likes to teach, or the type who just wants me to shut up and enjoy it on the level I’m at?”

“I... guess I wouldn’t mind explaining some things.”

“Okay. So, this one,” Lacie gestured at a painting of half-melted clocks hanging off of tree branches and the like. “It must represent something real deep, right?”

“Well, there’s more to art than symbolism, and surrealist stuff doesn’t have to have a deeper meaning. But... maybe it means that time just melts away when you’re having fun.”

It was midnight before Abby was back in her apartment. The museum had closed before they’d felt like any time had passed, and so they’d gone for a walk together in the city and stopped at whatever shops caught their eyes. It had been fun.

Abby’s apartment was the apartment of a chronically single woman in her thirties who had made it. It was clean and organized, but not too clean and organized. It had a large window overlooking the city in the living room, and near it, an eisel had been set up, with a half-done painting on it of a sunset over a city skyline. There was a rack of oft-used wine glasses in the kitchen, lesser-used exercise equipment in the laundry room. Abby’s bedroom contained her collection of houseplants, two floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and a closet full of suits her mom had tailored for her at a reduced cost.

Joey had always said that he never wanted to get married because he didn’t want to share space with anyone else. Abby had rolled her eyes and punched his arm for that. Joey was always coming up with reasons why he didn’t want a relationship, and none of them were true. Abby, on the other hand, had just assumed and accepted that it just wouldn’t happen. The chances were against it unless she made it a priority in her life, and she was focused on career and art. Could it really happen with this hooligan? It was hard to imagine letting her into this apartment- this apartment of a woman who had made it- on a permanent basis. But, maybe. Only time would tell.

---

Things went from there. They continued to date for over a year. Abby taught Lacie how to draw, and Lacie taught Abby how to fight. They started spending more nights than not over at each other’s places. Joey still didn’t know about it, because Abby knew how jealous Joey got when it came to relationships. Shawn on the other hand definitely knew, and teased the hell out of Lacie for it and later came to Lacie for help with his own relationship once he got into one.

Christmas that year, Shawn had scrapped together enough funds to visit Ireland. This was a problem, because Shawn and Lacie usually spent their Christmases together. As per usual, Lacie didn’t have the means to visit her home state of Alpaccia, so it looked like it would be a lonely Christmas for her.

“You want to come visit my family?” Abby offered as Lacie had been complaining about it.

“Yeah. I’d love that,” Lacie admitted. She hadn’t had a Christmas with a real family in... well, a long time, at any rate.

Abby’s family consisted of her mother and her two-years older brother, who had brought a wife and two kids. The father had died in the war while Abby was a child. They had a traditional Christmas together- old Christmas records, decorating a tree, staying up late to play cards and chat once Abby’s niece and nephew were in bed until they could barely keep their eyes open, and then watching the kids open their presents in the morning.

It kind of hurt Lacie to see such a beautiful family, but it was nice, too. It hurt because she remembered having to go off to her friends’ houses when her parents were too high to remember to feed her. She remembered having to make her own doctor’s appointments at the age of nine, and running off to live with her big sister at fourteen. But it was still nice to be there, just because it was.

As they were packing up in the guest bedroom, Lacie started crying, and Abby took notice. She’d never seen her cry before.

“What’s wrong?

“Nothing,” she said, and thankfully Abby had left her alone about it.

It was a week later, after Lacie had had some time to think, that she made her offer. “Abby, I want to start a family with you. I know we can’t get married in the traditional sense, but we can get a place together, find some man to give us a kid, and stay together for the rest of our lives. I could even buy you a ring if you want. Do you wanna do this?”

Abby was awestruck. “Lacie... oh my God, yes. Let’s do it.”

[airadam]

Episode 142 : ...If You Hear Me

"We all need...some fresh air."

- Tobe

This month has been pretty exhausting, but I did have some good ideas for this episode, and once I hit stride with the recording I decided to try and keep the pace up and get it released on a weekend day! The selection has turned out to be heavy on artists who are no longer with us, but left us some great music to remember them by. Get yourself comfortable and press "play"...

Twitter : @airadam13

Twitch : @airadam13

Playlist/Notes

Evidence ft. Raekwon and Ras Kass : The Red Carpet

How is this track ten years old already? Time has flown since the 2011 release of "Cats & Dogs", the second solo Evidence album after four LPs as part of Dilated Peoples. While Evidence is an excellent producer in his own right, the reins here are taken by his future partner in The Step Brothers, The Alchemist. He further shows his confidence by bringing in California's Ras Kass and Raekwon from the Wu to guest, both legendary MCs, and holds his own next to both. A great collection of talent to kick off the show!

[DJ Premier] Gang Starr : What's Real? (Instrumental)

I just had to go back to "One Of The Best Yet" for another Preemo beat! Definitely get the instrumental release if you can, especially as you get the previously-unreleased "Glowing Mic" as a bonus cut.

The Notorious B.I.G ft. DMC : My Downfall

As I say on the voiceover, it feels weird playing a good chunk of Biggie's catalogue given how he ultimately died. This track from "Life After Death" is a perfect example, and feels like a mix of the creative writing he was famed for and maybe a realisation of exactly how much negativity swirled around him even after he had made the transition from the streets to the music industry. The legendary DMC of RUN DMC guests, only on the hook - but he does it well.

Agallah : Slaughter

Just a few bars, just a taste, as I needed something to bridge a track with no instrumental outro and the other with no open bars on the intro! Big respect to Agallah though, who has been putting in work since the mid-90s and will probably have yet another new project out by the time I finish typing this sentence. Find this beat on "Propain Campain Presents Agalllah - The Instrumental Vol. 1".

Sean Price and Small Professor (ft. Rock and DJ Revolution) : Refrigerator P

Heavy business! Ruck (Sean Price) and Rock, formerly the duo Heltah Skeltah, reunite on this killer from the "86 Witness" LP. Small Professor makes the beat dramatic, and DJ Revolution seasons the mix with his trademark super-sharp cuts.

Fred The Godson : Presidents

The Bronx-born-and-bred MC Fred The Godson sadly passed away last April at just 35 - one of the relatively early US casualties of COVID-19. During his lifetime, his catalogue consisted of some highly-rated mixtapes, but only after his death do we finally hear his debut album, "Ascension".  This track of course is built (by Hesami) around the same sample as Jay-Z's "Dead Presidents" as Fred expounds on the drug game.

Broke 'n' English : Tryin' (Calibre Mix)

"Tryin'" was one of the standouts on the 2007 debut LP "Subject 2 Status" from this respected Manchester crew. Both Strategy and DRS have a long-standing history in the drum & bass scene, and so it made sense that the remix of this track would be handled by someone like Calibre. Sharp, crisp drum action and a smooth bassline drive this one along, with DRS' vocals being woven in as a refrain. You can hear in this one track how DRS then went on to make several excellent D&B albums - his vocal versatility allows him to shine on any production.

Marco Polo : Cindy

The "MP On The MP" (see what he did there?) beat tape is inspired by a Youtube series he was doing, and features a host of new and unreleased beats. Marco Polo is one keeping this style of production alive, which I'm thankful for.  I still think of him as a "new" producer, but he's a veteran with over fifteen years in the industry!

Le$ : Out To Cali

Le$ is a great MC to go to if you want lyrics about just living life and having fun - almost like a Curren$y, but without the extreme high-end references. Right here, he's going to Cali, buying some weed, riding around, and enjoying the view - sometimes it doesn't need to be more lofty than that. Mr.Rogers goes to a familiar sample as a basis for the beat, and if you want more, the whole "Summer Madness" will give you these vibes - and exercise your speakers in the process.

O.C. : What I Need (Keelay Remix)

The "Smoke & Mirrors" LP is a bit of a forgotten one for many, but I really enjoyed it, and when acapellas became available, it was expertly remixed by the Sole Vibe crew out of San Francisco. The classic soul sample (which you may recognise from tracks like "Deeper" by Bo$$) is the foundation, with a heavy kick and skipping hi-hats providing the rhythm. O.C. never lost a step from his first LP, and he's never afraid to put his feelings out there on wax.

Sadat X : Stages & Lights

This is one of those tracks I was stunned to realised I hadn't already played on the podcast, so here it is at last! This Showbiz-produced cut from the 1996 "Wild Cowboys" LP, Sadat's solo debut, was also a B-side on the "Hang 'Em High" single - but definitely stole the show. If you ever find the original sample, you'll be amazed at how Show plucked that one small piece for this beat!

Phife Dawg : Thought U Wuz Nice

Killer B-side action from Phife Dawg, on the flip of the Superrappin "Bend Ova" 12", with J Dilla on the bouncy production. Still can't quite believe that both of these icons are no longer with us.

Saib : Beyond Clouds

The Chillhop label seems to put out endless amounts of beats from producers specialising in sounds inspired by greats like J Dilla and Nujabes, but with their own spin. This one comes from the "Chillhop Essentials Fall 2020" compilation, one of any number that are perfect for soundtracking study, work, or just a lazy day!

213 : Run On Up

That beat by Tha Chill and the delivery of "Shut the f********ck up and ruuuu-uuu-uuuun" by the late great Nate Dogg is enough to make this an absolute classic in my ears, but the full picture is even better. Way before "Doggystyle", "The Chronic", or even "Deep Cover", 213 was the group formed in Long Beach by Nate Dogg, Warren G, and Snoop, before any of them had got their big breaks. Years later, after all of them had become stars in their own rights, it was heart-warming to see them reform for the "The Hard Way" LP, from which this is taken.

Sporty Thievz : Angel

The Sporty Thievz deserve to be remembered for more than "No Pigeons", as much as we enjoyed the whole thing at the time. The "Street Cinema" album may not have quite lived up to the name, but there were some solid cuts on there, and this was one. Produced by King Kirk of the group alongside Ski, this track has all the foreboding, and while the singing on the hook may not be Marvin Gaye level, it absolutely works here.

Jean Grae : My Crew

One of the great underrated MCs - not because her skills are in question, but simply because not enough people know her! She's in fine early 2000s form on this cut from the "Bootleg of the Bootleg EP", produced by China Black. Straight boom-bap, and she cuts through with clarity and dexterity. Jean Grae raps, sings, produces, acts...one of the true talent of the culture.

Bronx Slang : Just Say No

New single from Jerry Beeks and Ollie Miggs, who have really been on a hot streak the last couple of years. It's nice to hear some protest music in an era that really calls for it, and if this is a marker of how good the upcoming second album is going to be, then you need to reserve a space in your crates right now! Jadell on production brings an appropriate heaviness to the track, no lightness on the beat!

[Ron Browz] Big L : The Heist (Instrumental)

All these years and I'd never looked to see who produced this beat from Big L's posthumously-released LP "The Big Picture" - come to find out it's one of Ron Browz' first credits. He's much better known for "Ether" by Nas, which came in 2001. The vocal version of this track is what the name suggests, a robbery tale, and you can hear the sound effects that punctuate the narrative still here in the instrumental.

Tobe Nwigwe : Fresh Air

Tobe Nwigwe and his collective (including his wife Fat and his producer Nell) have been quietly on the rise for a while, but in very recent times their profile has elevated noticeably. "The Pandemic Project" is a short six-track album from last year, and another quality addition to the catalogue. This man is an amazing MC, and Nell's often-unconventional beats are the perfect canvas. Don't sleep! 

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

Check out this episode!

[amanharwara]

Eminem - Music To Be Murdered By (Album Review)

“Music To Be Murdered By” is the latest release from the legendary rapper, Eminem. This is his eleventh studio album. Eminem released the album on 17th January without any prior announcement, similar to his previous album Kamikaze.

As you might know, Eminem is one of the biggest-selling artists of the previous decades. Very few artists manage to touch his sales numbers. Even the two of his worst albums managed to put up numbers that for most rappers would be their highest. Needless to say, he is one of the biggest artists in the world with a huge global audience. A lot of his audience is very passionate, which is one of the reasons all of his albums seem to do so well.

The project is a double-album, including two labeled introductions and one labeled outro. For those of you who don’t know what a double-album is, it is composed of two different albums. This one, in particular, is split into two portions containing 10 songs each. The album features 12 artists across eight songs, including artists like Ed Sheeran, the late Juice WRLD, Royce, Black Thought and Q-Tip. The album title and cover have been inspired by one of the most influential and prominent directors and filmmakers of all time, Alfred Hitchcock and his album, “Music To Be Murdered By”. Multiple songs on the album reference him.

His previous two releases have been inadequate trash. Revival and Kamikaze are two of Eminem’s worst albums ever released. Although, don’t take my word for it. You might want to give them each a listen yourself to understand why I say that. My gripes with Revival were the bad production, absolutely cringe lyrics and some of the worst flows. Kamikaze continued that trend of bad lyricism mixed with bad flows, and also attacked new-age rap like a grumpy old man. Two consistently terrible records from someone whose music I enjoyed and adored for a long time is the reason I went into this album with very low expectations. And let me tell you, the album barely manages to exceed even those low expectations.

The album starts with the intro, titled “Premonition.” Em continues the attack on “mumble rap” that he started on Kamikaze. He also talks about his career on the track, from his years of being one of the undisputed rap legends to being bombarded by criticism for his previous few records. The track features a generic trap beat, instances of which can be found on quite a few other songs on the album. However, the one on this track is at least a bit bearable. The track contains its fair share of corny lyrics. At a point, he is boasting about being “as fly as your zipper.” I think the track sets us up perfectly for what the whole album is going to be.

Next up is the “Unaccommodating,” featuring Young M.A. The track contains one of the better trap beats on the record. Also, M.A.’s feature is one of the saving graces on the album. This is because she can flow well on the beat, unlike the certain another rapper on the track. Although, I’ve got to give credit where it’s due. Em is pretty good at this “fast rapping” game that white kids from the suburbs love. If rap was all about talking fast, then Em would be the GOAT, of course. But that’s not the case. One thing I found funny about this track is the line where Em says that his pupils have gotten cornier. Yeah Em, that’s because they’re learning from one of the corniest teachers ever, you. He comes up with some of the wackest lines, I swear. “Where’s Osama been? I been laden lately” This is a line from the chorus of the track. The track contains even more corny lines, peep:

“Cause I met your bitch on the internet now I’m getting head like a Pillow Pet”

“That’s why they call me Kamikaze, it’s plain suicide, yeah”

Em’s old friend and frequent collaborator, Royce da 5'9", joins him on the track “You Gon’ Learn” along with White Gold. White Gold comes in with the chorus, which sounds rather boring to me. Royce comes in with an amazing flow that fits well on the beat. Although, he did make me cringe hard at the colonoscopy line. Overall, his verse is very enjoyable to listen to. Em comes in with his verse containing some very corny lyrics. He has mastered the art of corniness at this point. At least, his flow is a bit better on the track. I couldn’t even be bothered to put up some of the corny lyrics here. I’d recommend you give the track a listen and find out yourself.

Ed Sheeran collaborates once more with Em on the track “Those Kinda Nights.” This is one of the most trash tracks I’ve heard on the album, with some horrendous lyrics. Also, the flow on this one is annoying and irritating. The chorus by Ed is bland and nothing special. I can’t put into words how much I dislike this track.

“In Too Deep” describes details of a toxic relationship that Em and his partner were involved in. I do like the slow and kinda punchy beat on this one. However, I can’t say the same about Em’s rapping. I mean, it’s not as terrible as the rapping on some other tracks, but it’s not any good either. On the chorus, he goes back to his Recovery style of singing which doesn’t sound too good. This is an average track, better than some of the worst tracks but nothing too good.

“Godzilla” starts with Em’s annoying staccato flow which then evolves into an amalgamation of the annoying staccato and the annoying fast rap. The beat on this is good, though, pretty fun to listen to. But that is the only good thing about the track. I was hoping when Juice WRLD (R.I.P) comes in, that it would be at least a bit more enjoyable to listen to. However, even that expectation of mine was deceived. I didn’t enjoy the track other than the beat.

The track “Darkness” interpolates “The Sound of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel. I’ve gotta be honest with you, the track has grown on me at least a little bit since I first heard it. While the beat is a little bit generic, I do like it. It is slow and kinda melodic, sets the tone for the lyrical content. Speaking of which, the song is written from the perspective of the murderer responsible for the largest mass shooting in US history. It also brings to notice the gun control problem in the US. This is one of the tracks that I think is good and you should give this one a listen.

“Leaving Heaven” sees Em reflecting on his success and what turned him into the person that he is today. He raps about extreme resilience after having been put under very terrible circumstances by life. The beat sounds reminiscent of something that would be on MMLP2. When the Skylar Grey-sung chorus hit for the first time, it did interest me a tiny bit. But that interest waned off by the second time the chorus hit. Also, Em seems to fall back into his annoying staccato rhythm on the verses on the track. Another below-average song, which while not terrible, leaves a lot of room for improvement.

Next might be the only song on the album that I’ve enjoyed thoroughly. And that song is “Yah Yah,” with its amazing use of sampling. It samples Busta Rhymes’ “Woo Hah!! Got You All In Check,” which is a song that I enjoy a lot myself. Denaun went crazy with the beat on this one. The features list on this track is pretty amazing as well, featuring Royce, Q-Tip who you might know from “A Tribe Called Quest” and his solo work, and Black Thought who you might know because of his amazing rap prowess and his work with his group “The Roots.” While I would’ve loved a verse by Q-Tip, he is only featured on the chorus along with Royce. Royce’s verse is pretty good, followed by another good verse from Black Thought. It’s good that Em’s verse is at the end, which makes it easier to skip.

On the twelveth track of the album, “Stepdad” Em attacks his deadbeat dad for leaving him and his mother when he was still a toddler. I hate the chorus on this one. Em’s flow on this sounds similar to some of his older works like Relapse and The Eminem Show. While the flow can start sounding a little annoying at times, it isn’t as bad as the chorus. And the lyrics are pretty good and not much corny when compared to other songs on the album.

The latter half of the album falls flat on its face and is even annoying at points. Marsh is one hell of an annoying song. I can’t even sum up my hatred for it. I’m sorry but I don’t have anything to say about this garbage. Never Love Again sounds like something out of Revival. Little Engine has an interesting and fun beat to it, but the chorus is annoying and Em’s lyrics aren’t any good. Lock It Up’s Anderson Paak feature is alright, nowhere near what my expectations thought it would be. Farewell is another piece of garbage with extremely cringe lyrics and annoying delivery. No Regrets contains a feature from Don Toliver which I couldn’t really care about. It sounds like a very generic trap song. The final song I Will is a reunion of most of the members of Slaughterhouse. This is a bearable track with an alright chorus from Em and an alright beat.

Overall, the album is another disappointment in the Eminem catalog. However, it’s not as much of a colossal letdown that his previous two albums were. It is a huge improvement when compared to Revival and Kamikaze. One of the good things about the album is that Eminem finally collaborated some new artists from the “mumble rap” scene instead of acting like a grumpy old man waving his cane at the kids. While some of the songs sound like generic trap songs, there a few good songs here and there. Some songs are absolute garbage and some are tolerable. It’s a below-average album from someone who I still think is capable of bringing better music than this.

Rating: 4 / 10

[fluidsf]

Fluid Label Focus on Quantum Natives 5

J. Ka Ching: Another Vanishing City

Cover by J. and awe IX

Catalogue number: QNR026

Reviewed format: review copy of 320kbps/48kHz MP3 album as kindly provided by Quantum Natives

Welcome to the new review in the Fluid Label Focus series on the Quantum Natives label in which today I’m reviewing their most recent release, the album Another Vanishing City by J. Ka Ching. As always the album’s download includes all album tracks as MP3s, this time in 48kHz for better sound quality, as well as the cover artwork and also lyrics and credits text files. Indeed, you guessed it, this is one of the few song-based releases I’m reviewing on this album and Another Vanishing City does have quite a poppy sound to it, albeit with a quirky personality through energetic bursts of synths and Chinese influences in the instrumentation, but all about that in the next paragraph as I’ll first talk a bit about the album cover artwork. The album artwork is by J. Ka Ching (Jevon Voon) and awe IX and features a nifty collage like image of a Chinese style mountain landscape consisting of two different images of this landscape in monochrome layered over each other, with the background image seemingly showing an “older” image of the mountain than the more refined centre image. J. Ka Ching’s artist name and the album title feature on the cover in true Quantum Natives fashion, in heavily stylised graffiti like type that also has this wild post-internet alien feel to it but could also look a bit like a “remixed” version of Chinese characters. A very nice recognisable cover and overall it quite matches the Chinese aspects of this album’s sound as well. So indeed, let’s have a look at this 25 minute album’s 9 tracks now.

As I mentioned Another Vanishing City is pretty much a song driven album, though the tracks on the album are mostly quite short with the songs being mixed with shorter instrumental pieces making the album feel like a short soundtrack in a way. The lyrics of the songs themselves are quite abstract though noticeably emotional and a bit dramatic but in a good honest manner. As my listening manner is often leaning more on the sound and vibe of the music itself however, I’ll focus on the vocal performances and music itself which is definitely good. J. Ka Ching’s vocals are, while being noticeably auto-tuned, quite good with the emotions within the lyrics coming through clearly even with all the vocal effect processing. But what I noticed in particular, besides the vocals is that J. Ka Ching has quite a wild way of creating his music, mixing recognisable Deconstructed Club, PC Music synths and Asian influences together but in a way that jumps around in unpredictable enjoyable ways. You’re never quite sure what’s going to happen next and besides the songs the melodies on Another Vanishing City are quite aleatoric and abstract at times. The chaotic edge of J. Ka Ching’s music does make the music a notch disjointed at times, with the instruments and sound effects being on the edge of falling out of the tracks’ structures but this is definitely saved by J. Ka Ching’s excellent feel for refined production in his music, always letting the layers of sound and instruments interlock with each other in a pleasant way that’s not overly noisy. Looking at the separate tracks on Another Vanishing City, starting with See No Faces, which features a calm first half and an energetic explosive second half. The first half of this track features J. Ka Ching’s vocals over a mixture of Asian mallet instruments, liquid sound effects, choir samples, modulated synth chords and punchy sub bass. The melancholic sad music of the first half follows a nice polyrhythm in its melodies which leads directly into the more active second half. The second half has quite an explosive Deconstructed Club sound to it, with plenty of thunderous stuttering compressed drums and explosion sounds, squeaky PC music synth leads as well as a mixture of Asian mallet instruments and synth sounds. This then follows into second track plurrRealityz, Tio’tia:ke. Definitely one of the stronger tracks on this album plurrRealityz, Tio’tia:ke features a melodic and rhythmic abstract made up of a variety of sources, Asian instruments, vocal sample chops, quirky synth stabs, EDM bass kick samples and manipulated percussion and sound effects, in its organic wildly evolving shape it wonderfully describes what could be a calm mountain landscape in Japan, sunlight overflowing the trees and a lake nearby. Afterwards Yearning 4 The Ideal follows which has a more straight song form with more upbeat vocals and plenty of PC Music elements in the synth, beat but again there’s also plenty of sweet Asian instruments in the mix and the wild vocal manipulations add a great layer of quirkiness to the piece. Details like the ever shifting click Trap hi hat patterns and chopped up guitar give the music that bit extra that elevates it above other PC music related music. The melodies are simple but the execution of sound play, composition and of course J. Ka Ching’s energetic vocals make this a great fun track to jam to but its layering also rewards deeper listening into the soundscape of the piece. Afterwards we have two short pieces, the first of which is 客家 Guest Families, which is practically an a capella piece (not counting the segue interlude), there are some sweet harmonies in this one which are overdubbed by J. Ka Ching himself and the melodies are very catchy and well written. A great little song. Afterwards we have the instrumental track All Ghost’s Fear the Rooster’s Crow, which has a sweet early morning ambience to it, emitted through the warm tones of a mixture of Eastern instruments, honky tonk piano and funky drum hit samples, which do give the piece a playful abstract edge. The honky tonk piano recording in the background seems to be delayed a bit, its microtonal shifts in tone sounding a bit like distant car klaxons, a great subtle touch the music which enhances that early morning vibe. The Smell of Boiling Rice starts with a really lush melodic soundscape continuing that early morning ambience featuring a great guzheng performance by Xing Ru Zhong backed by vocal drones, explosive drum hits and squelchy synth effects which morphs into a rather bizarre circus like jumpy waltz rhythm melody which much poppies and full of PC music sounds particularly in the synths. The drum patterns are really wild and quirky, very nice, but it’s good that this bit is not longer as it contrast quite a lot with the lush ambience of the first half. Nexopias of Our Forgotten Ancestors follows with once again plenty of craziness in the composition and sound work but it’s one of the tracks where the organised chaos of elements works the best. The noisy groove mixing heavily percussive drum patterns, squeaky PWM synth, vocal chops is both catchy and energetic and has a clear focus in its progression and melodies. The guitar solo by Inland Island (which is a band, but there’s no specific credit for who plays the guitar in the credits text file) also adds a surprising Rock element to the piece which works well moving to the last part of the track in which the music strips itself back to the jumpy percussion and a bit crushed marimba melody. Then on Skid Swan Song we have a Vocaloid like voice singing the song over abstract metallic Asian style staccato synth melodies which leads to final track I’m Trying to Remember the Hue of the Sunlight. This is again a song with J. Ka Ching’s vocals, very PC Music like in this case with the poppy instrumental backing and squeaky energetic fat synth leads, the quirky layering of sound effects and guzheng performance definitely do give it that extra element of originality that I like about J. Ka Ching’s stronger tracks on Another Vanishing City. Indeed when he’s connecting his wildly maximalist approach to electronic music with a smoothly flowing composition and some restraint that keeps the music from going overboard with ideas that distract and disrupt the continuity of his music J. Ka Ching delivers a great mixture of atmospheric soundscapes, PC Music influenced songs that feature some great inspired compositional and sonic ideas that give the music a great conceptual coherency, especially on this album.

To conclude this review I would say that with Another Vanishing City, J. Ka Ching is on the way of shaping a personal style through his music that combines the best influences of pop inspired experimental music styles and Asian themed soundscapes with his excellent attitude to going all out with his quirky imagination in the rich production of the music. While I do feel that J. Ka Ching can work a bit on keeping the flow of his music consistent in its structure, Another Vanishing City is definitely a great enjoyable album as it is. I am definitely looking forward to seeing J. Ka Ching’s music grow even more on future releases but for now I recommend you to check out this album for some varied good creative vibes radiated through J. Ka Ching’s colourful music.

You can get the Quantum Natives free download version of this album via this Mediafire link here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/65u338hskidedi6/J.Ka_Ching-_Another_Vanishing_City__%2528QNR026%2529.zip/file

[officialdjuk]

What if T.O.M Reviews Castlevania II: Simon's Quest?

T.O.M: This game sucks.

T.O.M: Castlevania 1 and 3 are great classic Nintendo games, but for Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest, the game designers obviously were not thinking straight. At first, it seems like a pretty decent game, a little different from the first in the series but, that's okay. Zelda 2 was different from the first, Mario 2 was different, but they were all good.

T.O.M: The first thing that's strikingly different is the fact that you have to go through towns, talk to people and buy stuff. I never really minded that, it makes it a little more like an adventure story and it's kinda like Zelda, so that's okay. But the first problem comes in when it changes from day to night.

- gameplay of Castlevania II starts -

T.O.M: Why does this need to happen so often? Like, every five minutes? Why does it take so long? Nobody feels like sitting through this every time. How would you like it if you were playin' a game and then every five minutes I came over, and paused it, then counted ten tedious seconds, and then let you continue play the game?

T.O.M: Now, I mean, why did they think that that would be a good idea and interrupt the gameplay, did they think it would be more realistic? I mean, in real life I don't have to stop in my tracks when the sun sets and a fuckin' box doesn't pop up in the air. I mean, this is one of the most annoying features in any game ever. What's the point? Yeah, the, I mean, the monsters are stronger at night and the stores are closed, but why's that necessary and why does the game have to stop? It's fuckin' retarded.

T.O.M: And why do you have to die when you fall in the water? That's the stupidest thing I've ever seen. This guy can go all over fightin' hordes of evil monsters, but he can't even fuckin' swim?

T.O.M: Sometimes I don't feel like goin' down the stairs just to get down to ground level, I mean, there's no reason I should have to do that when I can just take a shortcut and jump down. But, oops! I shouldn't do that, there might be water down there.

T.O.M: Another thing that's really annoying about this game is the fact that you have to buy weapons and items. I mean, still, that's not uncommon, you know like I said: that's the same thing you have to do in many great games, like Zelda, but, lemme explain.

T.O.M: Here you have to collect hearts, which count as money. I mean, that's kinda odd, because usually hearts count as life or energy, y' know, so that's kinda strange. But, y' know that's not the point. The point is that the items you need to buy are too fuckin' expensive, and the hearts don't add up enough. It takes too long to get enough of them to buy something, and it gets boring wandering around killing the same monsters over and over again just so you can buy a Flame Whip or somethin'.

T.O.M: Speaking of Flame Whip, that's pretty weird itself, isn't it? I mean, they were really being creative with that one, the flame whip.

T.O.M: Anyway, about the hearts: It takes too long to buy stuff, and, to add onto the problem, when you die, you lose all your hearts and you have to start all over again. I mean, doing this doesn't add to any of the games' difficulty or challenge, it just makes us have to do more of the same monotonous stuff over again, and it's not fun, it's boring.

T.O.M: Oh, look, I finally got enough hearts to go and buy a plant that I need to cross the swamp, now let me get to the store.

T.O.M: Oh shit, it's fuckin' night time, now the stores are all closed and I have to wait for it to turn day again. Oh well, I might as well kill some zombies in the meantime and stock up on some more hearts.

T.O.M: OH SHIT! Now I gotta start all over again.

T.O.M: One of the worst things in the game are the Pitfalls, which are areas where there's, like, stones or blocks that look like you could walk on them, but instead you just fall through. It's impossible to tell where these spots are the first time walkin' through, so you just have to keep throwin' Holy Water all over to see where they are. It's retarded. Why should I have to do that? Again, it doesn't add up to any of the fun, y' know, challenge of the game. It's just unfair and it's annoying.

T.O.M: In the dungeons, there's no bosses at the end, which is a big disappointment. Every Nintendo gamester knows that at the end of a level or a dungeon labyrinth, whatever, there's always supposed to be a big guy who ya fight. But here, they just got lazy and only put a few bosses in the game and left some of the dungeons just empty like this one. So, most of the dungeons you go through (the mansions, to be exact), there's nothing at the end except for a crystal orb that you can't touch.

T.O.M: In the rest of the Castlevania games, the tradition goes like this: You fight a boss, you defeat him, then an orb comes down and you touch it, there you go, on to the next level. But in Castlevania 2, how would you ever figure out that you're supposed to throw an Oak Stake at that orb? I mean, when you first get the Oak Stake you assume it's a weapon, and you throw it, only to find that it does absolutely nothing, and that you waste it by throwing it, so you have to get it all over again.

T.O.M: There are parts in the game that are definitely not self-explanatory and are too hard to figure out. Take this dead end for example: Would you guess that you're supposed to pass through this wall? How? You have to kneel down by it for like ten seconds. Now, still, that's not enough to make it so cryptic and hidden that we can't figure it out, oh please, give us more for our buck and make it harder so we can wander around the whole game and exhaust every possibility before we find out. Okay. Guess what? You need to have a Red Crystal selected, and be kneeling down, and wait a little while before this magic tornado comes and takes you to the next part of the game.

T.O.M: Most of the townspeople have things to say which aren't important at all, so why do you have to read 'em? Here, in the dungeons, there's books that you may find which actually give you clues about things in the game that you may need to know about. But, when I find these books, half the time it's by accident, so I may hit the button and cancel it out which means I don't even get to read it and I don't have a second chance.

T.O.M: Why can't I do that when it changes from day to night? That would actually be helpful. So, what the game designers figured is this: it isn't absolutely necessary for me to read about how to find Dracula's castle or what I'm supposed to do with an Oak Stake, but what I do need to read, again and again constantly, is: "The morning sun has vanquished the horrible night". How about "vanquished this horrible GAME"?

T.O.M: The only sure way to get through this awful game is to enter a code, but even that is way more tedious than it should be. While most of the Castlevania games have symbols you enter for a code, this one just has a whole bunch of numbers. I mean, like, one of those little parts would be enough for a password. But why four? Like why so many?

T.O.M: In general, I hate games that have passwords like this, because sometimes they have uppercase and lowercase letters. Like the l's, you know, look like I's, the 0's look like O's, the 8's look like 5's so, why does there have to be so many digits? Y'know, like why can't it just be numbers or somethin'? Like, y' know, just numbers and not letters? I mean, it takes me, like, five minutes to enter this code when it should only take, like, five seconds. It's friggin' stupid.

T.O.M: Okay, so, say we enter the code, and we go to Dracula's castle. You'll be pretty disappointed how anticlimactic this game is. It isn't even worth putting in a code, let alone playing the whole game all the way through, which, if you did, I feel bad for you.

T.O.M: I mean, first of all: there's no enemies in Dracula's castle, you just walk all the way through and the only obstacles are just, like, goin' up and down steps, which won't hurt you and they aren't challenging, either. It's just tedious. I mean, what the hell's the point of going through the castle if there's no way to fight? Did the game designers just, like, run out of time or somethin'?

T.O.M: So then, you get up to Dracula, and guess what? He doesn't look anything like Dracula, he looks like a grim reaper and he throws sickles. I mean, did the people who made this game even know what Dracula is? He's a fuckin' vampire.

T.O.M: Alright, on top of everything, Dracula's way too easy. Check this out. This is a trick I discovered myself and so could you, without the help of any strategy guide. When Dracula first appears, he stands there for a while, and he gives you plenty of time to land lots of free hits. Not only does he stand there for a long time, but everything that hits him will stun him and give you even more time.

T.O.M: Naturally, you'll probably be using the flames, because it's one of the most effective weapons in the game. But, using it against Dracula, it makes it simply impossible for him to even do anything. He has no chance. The second you start throwin' that shit at him, you've already won. I mean, why is it that easy? Did they even test this shitty game out before they released it?

T.O.M: What a piece of shit. I mean, I feel horrible that I had to play this game in order to make this video, but I did it to demonstrate its dreadfulness and I forced myself to play it just so that you don't have to. So, you should thank me for telling you to stay away from this horrible steaming pile of goat shit. I mean, I know it's useless complaining about a game that was made back in the late '80s, or early '90s or whatever, but it just blows my mind how fuckin' horrible it is. I mean, it's consistently annoying.

T.O.M: Why? Why is it so bad? If all these problems were changed then we'd have a great trilogy of classic Castlevania games, but, history is history, and we might as well try to count Castlevania 3 as, you know, the second in the series, and leave this awful piece of horse shit alone, as it stands today as one of the biggest fuck-ups of all time.

T.O.M: We rate Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, well. all i say is this: This game sucks. Thanks for listening

Only Toonami, on [adult swim]

[thearkhound]

Kazuhiko Uehara interview with MSX Magazine (2005)

This is the second Konami-themed interview featured in a 2005 commemorative issue of MSX Magazine, following the previous translated Hideo Kojima posted here. This time the person being interviewed is Kazuhiko Uehara, who joined Konami as a sound designer in 1986 (the same year Hideo Kojima himself joined), where he worked on games such as Space Manbow and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. He was involved with the creation of the SCC sound chip that Konami employed in many of their later MSX games, starting with 1987′s Gradius 2 (aka Nemesis 2), although it was originally designed for their racing game F1 Spirit.

At the time interview was published Uehara-san was an executive producer at Pawapuro Production, a subsidiary of Konami that were involved in the development of various sports games for the Japanese market, most notably the Power Pro Baseball series, which the studio took its name from.

The interview was conducted at Osaka two days after the Kojima interview at Roppongi Hills and it started with the MSX Magazine editorial staff showing of Gekitotsu Pennant Race, a baseball game by Konami for the MSX running on the MSX Game Reader.

SCC: A Sound Chip Born From The Rivalry With The Famicom

Uehara: Amazing! The SCC sounds like it should. I made this “strike” sound effect. Wow, it brings me back! Gekitotsu was made with the SCC from get-go. This was the beginning of the Power Pro series.

MSX Magazine: The reason we created the MSX Game Reader was because we wanted to play your company’s games (on a current computer). There were many models of the MSX back in the day and the tone of the PSG sounds differed between them. Why was that?

There were a few reasons. Some MSX models have balance differences between the PSG and SCC, so the bass output might had varied between them. Personally I really liked how the Yamaha models sounded. Speaking of which, I have some old documents here that could help me remember things. Wait a moment. (Mr. Uehara takes out a bulky file). Because I worked on the previous program, I gathered documentation of how to control the work, algorithm and such. However, this is all the documentation that remains that hasn’t been thrown out yet.

When you joined Konami, did you became involved with hardware? When I heard about it from interviews and such, I thought the SCC chip was built on a hardware level.

Not at all. I was involved with software, or rather I should say I was a “sound creator”. When I’ve joined Konami there was the MSX Team, the Famicom Team and the Arcade Team. The Arcade Team was the most abundant and flourishing when it came to sound sources. That was followed by the Famicom Team, which had one more sound port (than the MSX). But I was assigned to the MSX division (laughs). Its stock PSG sound source could only produce three types of sounds, so I couldn’t helped it but feel envious.

Mr. Kojima told us the same thing. (laughs)

I really regretted it. I was wondering whether it was possible to increase the number of sound ports on an MSX. At the time there was this application called “Idea Notes”, in which employees of Konami would submit ideas directly to the President. There I suggested exploring the possibility of using an additional sound source that could be employed through the MSX’s cartridge slot. I’m not sure if this suggestion was what caught their attention, but we were given the go ahead to develop the SCC chip and that’s how it came to be.

Was your frustration with competing against the Famicom’s sound source your initial reason for making the SCC chip?

That’s exactly the reason. The MSX is supposed to be from the same generation as the Famicom, yet...

It seems that everyone else felt that way too about the MSX. When you joined the MSX department, you had a feeling that you were missing out. So there was much joy when the SCC appeared. With such sound chip, the MSX could finally compete against the Famicom.

Nemesis 2 was the first game to employ the SCC, but we originally developed it for F-1 Spirit. Due to scheduling changes, Nemesis 2 ended up being released first.

Creating A Waveform By Trial & Error, Sometimes Using A Bug

There’s an “editor” referenced in this document. Did you happen to create a tone editor?

Yes. We made a so-called tone editor, which would later be known as a “synthesizer”.

There was once a time when music was composed with raw hexadecimal data.

That’s how it was when I’ve joined Konami. It took way too much time and effort, so we developed various tools to increase our efficiency.

That was the wave form of the SCC.

I think it might been with Space Manbow or Metal Gear 2, but there was an instance in which the waveform was being overwritten by the software.

You mean the “Waveform Change Program”.

That’s right. That was it.

When Scitron released one of their game music albums the other day [TL’s note: Likely referencing to The Legend of Game Music Premium Box set, which contains a CD consisting exclusively of MSX shoot-’em-up music],  I heard a story that Ms. Miki Higashino, who was involved with the music of the original Gradius, tried to remake the first stage music from Space Manbow on an SCC for another shoot-’em-up, but she had problem trying to make it sound different from the original.

That’s because it was a very difficult system to work with. The truth is that there was a bug in the sound loading program. Under certain conditions it would fly into the program data instead of the waveform data. Because of this adding any additional programming would’ve altered the sound. It was a huge bug, but I choose not to fix since it ended up producing interesting sound that wouldn’t had been possible otherwise.

Because of such accidents that an amazing soundtrack like Space Manbow was possible. It’s such an awesome heavy sound.

It’s a coincidence that such a bug exists. The waveform produces sounds like that, no matter where they’re reading the data from.

We heard that during the recording of Space Manbow they would bring in 8 MSX computers into the studio, synchronize them by connecting a custom-build interface into each of their ports, and then collect all the sounds with a mixer.

That was precisely the development board for the SCC, which was around the size of two MSX units. We worked it so that each port would sound off one by one, but it felt so good. Different EQ and effects were applied to each port.

It seems quite difficult to produce the tone of the SCC.

Nowadays you can use a so-called “Pro Tools” to view the waveform, but such things wasn’t possible back then. Strictly speaking, if it had a round shape, it would make a round sound and if it was a sharp shape it would be a sharp sound, so there was already a process of trial and error. As I’ve explained before about the Waveform Editor, the method would involve drawing a waveform and then distributing the spots over it, so that also caused some trial and error. At the first it was just a theory, and then we tried to apply it.

Konami’s mainly used the SCC chip instead of other sound sources such as OPLL or FM.

The MSX Team wasn’t used to FM sound sources, since there was naturally a lot of restrictions involved. If you look at Konami as a whole (and not just the MSX department), we did have the know-how of using FM sounds, since we employed it in many arcade games, but in terms of familiarity the SCC was still preferable.

The Sound & Soul of the SCC Still Lives

The MSX used PSG and FM as sound sources in addition to the SCC, but the SCC was unique to the MSX, so its tone was pretty fascinating. Even nowadays it’s being used on a genre in the music scene known as “Chiptune”.

Is that so? That’s the first time I’ve ever heard of that. The hardware was cheap, so it could be a bit noisy. But since the sound wasn’t clear, a loud noise could be interpreted as a harmonic overtone. I think that could be part of its charms.

As a sound source based on waveform memory, the SCC had a clearly different tone compared to other sound sources such as PSG or the PC Engine. Was that a conscious decision?

There was no reverb or delay on the hardware. Because of that, the SCC relied on data tremendously. There’s only 8 sound ports used, including the 3 ports used by the stock PSG sound source, but basically it sounds dull having only one tone come out from one port at a time. With a keytone there, it ends up using two ports as an echo port, but if you have the sub-port do some amount of interruptions and lower the volume, you’ll end up producing some incredible sounds.

There are people still making music on the MSX that are familiar with such techniques. Techniques that were made by Konami.

Even now, I always tell the sound team that “our work is influential and our jobs are very important, so you must absolutely never cut corners no matter what.” It is a sound that enters your ears without knowing it, which is why I think it’s some people are influenced by it.

The spirit of the SCC seems to be refusing to die.

Sometimes, even within Konami, someone will ask me about a certain sound effect. For example, the alert sound in Metal Gear when Snake gets discovered, that was composed specifically for that game. Then there’s the item acquisition sound in Parodius, which sounds similar to a ding dong sound in a TV quiz show. Those kind of simple sounds are archived somewhere.

Sometimes when they play such a sound effect on TV, I would go “ah”.

You recognized that sound! That’s nice! Actually, those sounds are from on a library CD. It seems to be played in various places since it’s free to use.

Speaking of sound effects, I love the sound effects of King’s Valley 2. They’re very fun to listen to, especially the sound effect of the flying knife.

I still don’t know how that particular sound effect came to be. I was once asked how I did that, but it was actually the result of a hardware bug. I have no way of reproducing that sound. It actually happened that way.

You probably come up with many sounds ideas while on a ride.

There was a point where I was trying to make all sorts of sound effects I could think of. To give an extreme example, there was one time I tried to make the sound effect for the first step, second step, and third step different for each step. The closest I ever got to do something like that was for SD Snatcher.

Certainly, the “boh” sound effect when you reach the harbor in that game is an example of that. Or the background noise when you enter the game center.

But in the end I came to the conclusion that a good sound effect can be used multiple times. You can use the same sound effect in various places and nobody would noticed it. In the end, I would be fixated on a particular sound that I put all my heart into. So I became more focused on trying to make good sound effects instead.

Memories of Working With The MSX Team

Is there a particular game that you have fondest memories working on, Mr Uehara?

Well, it was before the SCC was made, but the first game I worked on when I’ve joined Konami was The Maze of Galious. But the first music I’ve ever composed was the ending theme to Vampire Killer [an MSX2 version of the original Castlevania that was made in parallel with the Famicom Disk System version]. I did something unusual when composing this track and that was using a “1 Port Echo”. There was no one else doing that back in those days and since it was being used for a whole music track, it ended up consuming a large amount of data. But when it comes to actually playing the games, my favorite is Nemesis 2.

There many people who proclaim that Nemesis 2 is the best shoot-’em-up they ever played in their lives. Recently Konami released Gradius V for the PlayStation 2, which continues the story of the MSX Gradius series. After 20 years of losing hope, we can finally destroy the final boss [Dr. Venom].

Back then I would often be asked if “you could only bring one game with you to a deserted island, which one it would be?” Without hesitation I would often reply Nemesis 2. Besides that, I also loved Gekitosu Pennant Race. It was the precursor to our current Power Pro series. In terms of sound, I was satisfied with how SD Snatcher and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake turned out. I hope that you agree.

According to Mr. Kojima earlier, because the MSX team weren’t selling as much as the Famicom team, they were given much greater leeway and because of that there was less compromise with the quality.

That’s right. That’s something we tried to uphold. I think the MSX team were the most conscious of what the Konami brand meant.

That’s because they were assigned to do MSX games.

At first I wondered “Why MSX?”, but in retrospect it was an absolutely necessary first step.

We didn’t love the MSX at first either, but we eventually learned to appreciate the platform. It wasn’t something we wanted at first, but we were assigned to.

After the MSX department was disbanded, Kojima moved on to work on the PC [TL’s note: Uehara is likely referring to the NEC platforms rather than the PC as we know it in the traditional sense, since Kojima worked on Snatcher for the PC Engine in 1992 and Policenauts for the PC-9821 in 1994 after his MSX days were over], while I shifted my focus to the Super Famicom. I still wanted to work together with Kojima, but at the same time everyone wanted to work on the Super Famicom. My boss at the time nominated me to be in charge of the sound effects for the Super Famicom department since I’ve proven myself with the MSX. I was pretty flattered that they thought highly of my work, but then Kojima accused me of betrayal. (laughs)

It seems like it was a wonderful period for both of you.

We created the Konami Sound with that kind of feeling, which is why it’s amazing that even Power Pro series still has that Konami sound. Nowadays I barely do any sound work since I’ve been promoted to producer, but the younger staff members have almost no tangible memories of what’s been taught to them.

Perhaps it’s the DNA.

Maybe that’s it. It sounds like the Konami Sound no matter who is listening it. It’s something that’s been passed on.

One last question. What does SCC stands for? I heard it could mean “Sound Creative Chip” or “Sound Customize Chip”, but a official meaning was never given to MSX Magazine back in the day.

Wasn’t it written here somewhere? Let me check for a moment! (starts opening a document). I’m sure it was written somewhere. I’ll have to ask some of the other people involved and ask them about it. That will be my homework.

Oh. We’ll ask you again if we do another interview (laughs). Thanks for your time.

[aion-rsa]

15 Hardest Sega Genesis Games of All-Time

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There are a lot of reasons to love the Sega Genesis, but in my mind, the console’s best feature was its library of arcade-like titles. At a time when the idea of playing arcade games at home involved winning the lottery, the Genesis gifted gamers with title after title that captured the spirit of those unforgettable experiences.

As Genesis fans know, though, that library of arcade-like games meant that the average Genesis title was often as brutally difficult as the arcade games of that era that set standards for hard video games that some fans argue (much like the games themselves) haven’t been beat. I won’t reignite a console war here, but if you were a ’90s gamer looking for the biggest challenges, you usually found them on the Genesis.

But which Genesis game was the toughest of them all? Well, there’s a good chance retro gamers everywhere know exactly what our number one pick is, but it’s joined by a host of titles that most of us probably wouldn’t stand a chance of beating to this day.

15. The Adventures of Batman and Robin

Not to be confused with the excellent SNES game of the same name, Adventures of Batman and Robin for Sega Genesis was actually a fast-paced side-scroller similar to the Metal Slug series. It’s about as awesome as that description makes it sound, and I highly recommend you play it if you’ve never done so. 

Just know that this game’s difficulty level is as surprising as the quality of the game itself. What you’re basically dealing with here is a side-scrolling shooter that incorporates the hardest elements of a particularly tough side-scroller beat-em-up. Remarkably, the game proves to be even more difficult than that description may lead you to believe thanks to some surprisingly long levels that often require you to memorize complex patterns. Oh, and the bosses are absurdly tough across the board. 

I would love to see a sequel to this idea, but maybe that game could turn down the difficulty just a couple of notches. 

14. Robocop vs. The Terminator 

While this game is arguably best remembered for its gore (enemies explode in a way that would make Paul Verhoeven’s squibs guy proud), I feel like its true legacy should be its simply ridiculous difficulty level. 

Much like the Super Star Wars series, the problem with this one is that enemies can absorb a hilarious amount of damage before dying. I have no idea how even basic thugs can eat so many bullets, but the fact that they die in comically violent ways is often the only thing keeping you from throwing your controller out of the window in frustration at the sight of another goon with the health pool of a miniboss. 

If this game wasn’t such a fun love letter to two great action franchises, I highly doubt anyone would find the patience to finish it. 

13. Phantasy Star 2

I struggled with whether or not to include this one. It’s not challenging in that “arcade” way that so many Sega Genesis games are, so there’s a chance you could play it for a while without realizing what you’ve gotten yourself into. 

You’re in for a rude awakening the first time you enter a dungeon, though. Phantasy Star 2’s dungeons have to rank high among the most confusing labyrinths ever constructed in an RPG. Most dungeons are either shaped like Final Fantasy X’s skill tree or something MC Escher might sketch on opium. It’s not like you really have time to figure them out organically either as enemies are tough enough to wipe you out while you’re just trying to understand where to go next. It makes grinding for levels a near necessity simply so you’re able to survive long enough to find a dungeon’s exit through trial and error.

While modern walkthroughs make this game much more manageable, trying to beat this one the “original” way with or without the cryptic hints in some of the game’s instruction books will wear you down and drive you mad. 

12. Streets Of Rage 3

We’re going to talk about this a few times during this countdown (just you wait), but one of the most interesting things about the Sega Genesis era is how often Sega decided to make a Genesis game more difficult for its U.S. release. The reasons varied, but many major U.S. Genesis titles were significantly more difficult than their international counterparts. 

Few games suffered (or benefited, based on your perspective) from that difficulty bump as noticeably as Streets of Rage 3. I can only imagine how confused Sega Genesis fans were when they discovered that the third Streets of Rage game was noticeably harder than the games that came before it. The developers basically utilized every difficulty bump trick in the book for this one, and it makes the game nearly unenjoyable at times. 

You can’t even beat this game if you play it on “Easy” as it just ends on Stage 5! It’s a hilarious reminder of how unforgiving old-school game developers could be.

11. Fatal Labyrinth

The pure dungeon crawler genre fell in and out of popularity during the 8 and 16-bit console days, but if you do find a console dungeon crawler from that era, you can pretty much guarantee that it’s going to be ridiculously difficult. 

Few games embody that philosophy as well as Fatal Labyrinth. Essentially an early roguelike, Fatal Labyrinth confused many players with its complex mechanics that often left your hero feeling woefully unprepared for the challenges ahead and left the player feeling uncertain as to why they just couldn’t seem to kill even basic enemies. 

The thing about this game, though, is that enemies swarm you so consistently and aggressively that you really don’t have time to figure out what’s happening before you’re quickly overwhelmed. For that matter, I’m pretty sure you could have designed this game’s mechanics and still struggled to master the unique dances required to even survive even early encounters. 

10. Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi

While I don’t believe I’m going to settle the debate over which Shinobi game is hardest here today, I’d like to suggest that we all agree that Shadow Dancer at its hardest difficulty levels is easily one of the most punishing action games of its era. 

Technically an adaptation of an unrelated arcade game called Shadow Dancer, this title advances the spirit of Shinobi’s punishing difficulty thanks to some customizable difficulty levels that allow you to make this game nearly impossible. Think Shinobi is hard? Well, imagine trying to beat Shinobi without shurikens while facing a small army of enemies as challenging as some bosses in other games. 

I’ll go with Revenge of Shinobi if we’re talking about the best Shinobi game, but this one deserves a nod as the hardest.

9. Ecco the Dolphin

I grew up a Nintendo kid, but I love Sega, and I’ll always respect the way that they made the early days of gaming a much more interesting place. That being said, I will always hold a grudge against them for making Ecco the Dolphin one of the most promoted Genesis games and how that promotion encouraged young Nintendo fans everywhere to test the Genesis waters by playing this absolute nightmare.

Ecco the Dolphin highlights most of the elements that make underwater levels so annoying in the first place. You’ve constantly got to manage your character’s breath while navigating maze-like levels that Phantasy Star 2 thinks are unintuitive. In case you weren’t certain this game’s developers hate you, some levels even throw in a time limit so suffocating that I’m pretty sure you can hear the designers laughing on this title’s excellent soundtrack.

Simply put, Ecco should be on any shortlist of the most frustrating games ever made even if you don’t define it as “hard” based on what that word means to you. 

8. Gaiares

I suspect that the developers of Gaiares looked at every other nearly impossible shooter title of this era and thought “What can we do to really make fans hate us?” Enter the “TOZ System.”

TOZ basically replaces traditional powerups in these games with a mechanic that requires you to “siphon” abilities from enemies. That means that the abilities you rely on to kill many of those enemies in the first place have to be gathered from the enemies you’re trying to kill. Mind you, acquiring these powerups leaves you somewhat vulnerable, so you’re constantly required to keep track of your current and desired power while trying to stay alive through waves of projectiles.

Even without that system, the speed and design of Gaiares would make it one of the most difficult entries into a genre synonymous with experiences that demand superhuman reflexes.

7. Kid Chameleon

Any game can throw a tidal wave of enemies at you and call themselves difficult. It takes a special kind of game to break you on a spiritual level while offering an otherwise standard (and quite good) platforming experience. That’s what Kid Chameleon brings to the table. 

Kid Chameleon‘s 100+ levels would be objectively impressive if it weren’t for the fact that there is no password or save system in the original title. That means you’ve somehow got to beat this absolutely massive game in one long sitting. While there are ways to skip large segments of the game (you only need to beat about half its levels), the fact that there’s almost no in-game indication of the best path forward (aside from confusing instruction book guides) means that most gamers just assumed that something had gone horribly wrong and they just bought a game they couldn’t actually beat. 

Read more

Games

15 Hardest NES Games of All-Time

By Matthew Byrd

Games

15 Hardest SNES Games of All-Time

By Matthew Byrd

What’s really impressive is that even modern walkthroughs do little to diminish the spectacle of this game’s confusing structure and the mechanical challenges of its most demanding levels. 

6.  MUSHA: Metallic Uniframe Super Hybrid Armor

Along with having one of the best names in Sega Genesis history, MUSHA is widely considered to be one of the rarest Genesis titles ever made. Unless you’re a glutton for pain on the level of a human in the Hellraiser universe, though, I can safely advise you to save your money and resist the urge to seek out an original copy of this one. 

MUSHA is relentless in a way that even the most challenging top-down shooters of the ‘80s and ‘90s have to pay respect to. There aren’t a lot of gimmicks that separate this from other examples of the genre, but you don’t really need gimmicks when you’ve got a game that is fundamentally difficult in ways that only the best entries into this genre can be.

Call this the resident “SHMUP” entry if you must, but I think that there’s something about this game that just feels crueler than even some of its most infamous companions.

5. Comix Zone

Can a game be too difficult? The answer to that question is obviously debatable, but in the case of Comix Zone, I feel like we may have one of the rare examples of a title that’s difficulty undermines so many of the things that should make this game legendary.

As much as I love Comix Zone for its unique visual style that sees you jump between comic book panels, I can’t think back on this game without eventually remembering how its difficultly makes it unenjoyable most of the time The idea here is that you’re a regular guy in a comic book world who has to defend themselves however they can. That’s a neat concept in theory, but your paper-thin defenses mean that you can die in an instant despite the fact that you actually do have a health bar. To make matters worse, you actually lose health whenever you attack an enemy. I don’t know who the developers hate more: their protagonist or the people playing this game.

I know some defend this one for its comical difficulty, but I feel like Comix Zone could have been so much more if its relatively short length wasn’t hidden by mechanics designed to quite literally punish you for playing it. 

4. Target Earth

Target Earth looks like a standard shooter, but this one earns its high spot on this list by virtue of some truly befuddling (some would say “bad”) controls that make this game harder than it arguably needed to be. 

Imagine playing a Contra game where you move much slower, can only jump in certain areas, and tend to have to rely on a weak machine gun that needs to be reloaded from time to time. Before you’re done dreaming up that fresh hell, be sure to roughly double the number of enemies and death traps you’d expect to see in each level. Oh, and there’s a difficulty spike around the second or third level that essentially demands you to have already mastered the game by that point. That’s roughly what Target Earth brings to the table. 

While I understand that this game is trying to replicate some of the awkwardness of controlling a giant mech rather than a more agile individual, I also understand that many players will need to rely on the built-in invincibility code just to see the end of this otherwise great game. 

3. The Immortal

I really tried to resist talking about The Immortal again after including it on a list of the hardest NES games, but how can you talk about the most difficult Genesis titles without giving this one a nod?

The Immortal is much better on Genesis than it is on NES, but this title’s troll gameplay remains roughly the same. The Immortal is still a game where even the most seemingly innocent step can mean your immediate death. This game recreates the fun of walking through a minefield, and while I appreciate that going through a mythical dungeon would probably not be a walk in the park, there comes a point when you’ve got to ask yourself “Why am I playing this?”

I don’t know if we’ll ever see a game quite like The Immortal again. It practically exists to boil your blood whenever you play or think about it. 

2. Chakan: The Forever Man

Any young Genesis fan needs to know the name Ed Annunziata. As a famous producer reportedly obsessed with ensuring kids didn’t beat games too quickly, he’s partially responsible for some of the hardest Sega games ever made.

Chakan is rightfully considered to be his masterpiece in that pursuit. Years later, I can’t quite tell if this game is a brilliant piece of game design or a complete failure. It’s this strange blend of Mega Man-esque action and a more methodical adventure/puzzle title that’s stiff controls and limited defensive options often leave you woefully unprepared to best even the most basic enemies. The game clearly doesn’t want to send you on a power trip, but I’m not sure the developers intended for you to feel quite as helpless as you so often are.

The ways in which Chakan is so difficult make it the likely breaking point for many gamers who otherwise crave such experiences. It’s difficult in ways that have never been replicated, which I both love and hate about it. 

1. Contra: Hard Corps

The Contra series is obviously synonymous with difficulty, which I actually feel is a bit of an unfair reputation. Yes, these games are tough, but much like Dark Souls, boiling the series down to that element means you often overlook the ways that difficulty level enhances so many of the other things that this franchise does well.

Then there’s Contra: Hard Corps. That game can jump right into the fire of the rage it inspires in me whenever I think about it. 

Hard Corps is a departure from every Contra game that came before (and most that have been released since). It let you carry multiple weapons, it featured four playable characters not previously seen in the series, its story allowed you to choose between branching paths, and it’s actually closer to a bullet hell shooter than a traditional Contra game.

As you’ve probably guessed, it’s that last element that earns Hard Corps a place on this list. I don’t care if the word “hard” is literally in the title: nothing can prepare you for how fast Hard Corps really is. The game’s speed is mind-blowing and requires you to stick to safe zones smaller than anything you’ve likely seen outside of rarely released arcade games built specifically to challenge veteran bullet hell players.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

If you’re one of the many who couldn’t beat Contra on NES without cheating, let me tell you that you haven’t seen anything until you’ve played Hard Corps. Even the “Contra isn’t hard” crowd pays homage to this game.

The post 15 Hardest Sega Genesis Games of All-Time appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[madehq]

Top Ten RFP Cliches

We have a love/hate relationship with Requests for Proposals (RFPs). They’re the worst way to try and evaluate things like quality, feel, delight and passion, and a terrible way to start a new creative relationship. But at least they give us something to kick against, and lay down some rules of the game. The RFP-less proposal is the ultimate blank sheet, and encourages the worst kind of writer’s block. We’re talking ‘milling around the devops desk, asking the server guys how their day is going’ levels of block.

Having seen so many RFPs, it’s become obvious to us that people hate writing them almost as much as we hate responding to them. We can tell, because we see bits of ‘that’ll do’ cut and paste spreading through the RFPs, mutating slightly each time like a virus. Certain paragraphs are stone-cold classics that we can quote verbatim. So in 2018, we thought we’d have a bit of fun pointing out RFP cliches, and then you can have a bit of fun trying to avoid them. Here we go.

10. Future Proof 

It’s entirely reasonable that you would want your digital agency to predict every new technology and obsolescence due over the next five years, as it took at least that long to raise the funding for the new web project. That’s why every good RFP demands future-proofing as standard. Not a problem; here’s how Made guarantees that outcome for just $10,000.

We invest $9K into Bitcoin. The other $1K is spent on lawyering to entrust the Bitcoin to future generations of people who worked at Made Media. There are strict instructions that the money is only to be released when time travel via wormholes has been made commercially viable, and the bitcoin has amassed enough value to pay for it. Then, our great-great-great grandchildren are instructed to travel back to 2018, to tell us all about the future of websites up to 2023 as documented by the Wayback Machine in their era. This is every bit as foolproof as it sounds.

In all honesty we haven’t actually been visited by our future progeny yet, but then so far no client has ponied up the $10K, and that’s just what we time-travelling pros like to call a paradox… which kind of proves it works.

9. “Fully”

Make sure that when you ask for some kind of vague software feature, you prepend the word ‘fully’ to make it seem more specific and comprehensive. For example, only an amateur would ask for ‘flexible page layouts’, you’ll be wanting ‘fully flexible page layouts’. Nailed it.

8. Love like you’ve never been hurt

You know all the bad things your last digital agency did to you? They’re all smiles and promises when you’re getting to know them, and all irritating CMS habits once they get their feet under the table. Well you’re not going to fall for those dubious charms again. This time, your RFP is going to be a list of all the little annoying, and ultimately trivial, things your current website gets wrong, with MUST NOT written next to them. Even better; make sure your requirements consist entirely of weird features that remedy the issues with your current website, even though the new website is going to consist of an entirely new set of annoyances you haven’t even thought of yet…

7. IT Compatibility requirements

So this is not your area, but you asked the IT guys, and they said it was imperative that the new website was ‘fully compatible’ with Cold Fusion 4, as it got thrown in as part of a sweet deal with the office printer. Even though a lot of the potential vendors seem unduly concerned by this you’ve convinced them it really makes no difference to their chances, although honestly the IT guys are unduly influential in your organisation, so you will be asking them to make the final selection. It’s just easier that way. They can block Netflix.

6. All current functionality

If we’re being honest you can’t even remember all the things your current website does ; it just grew over time, like mould. Listing all the things the website does would mean actually investigating what it does and why it does it, and honestly, who has time for that? Best to just assume that if a feature exists, it must be for a good reason, and write ‘all current functionality’ as a requirement in the RFP. That way you’re covered.

5. Or alternative solution

Once you’ve laid out 348 specific requirements, all ‘musts’, be sure to add in a paragraph at the end, stating that you will consider ‘alternative solutions’ so long as there is ‘no loss in functionality’. You wouldn’t want to curtail the creativity of your vendors’ responses.

4. Slidey panels

You really respect that these agencies are top of their UX game and will only propose a design solution when they’ve fully explored the problem, and carried out extensive user research, but goddammit you saw that site with slidey panels and you want slidey panels. Are slidey panels too much to ask? Didn’t think so. Let’s get ‘em on the list.

3. Exit through the Gift Shop.

You don’t want to focus on users at the expense of ‘because it’s there’ fortitude, so be sure to throw in some kind of technical delivery wild-card. An online Gift Shop is ideal, otherwise some kind of EPOS integration will do the trick. In other words, something that’s not really core to your mission, but exists on-site, so it stands to reason should be fully featured online, even though it will knock the entire digital project bid out by about 50%. After all, why would people go to Amazon to buy Elvis Salt and Pepper shakers, when they could buy them from your identically-featured online gift store? if it’s worth doing something, it’s worth doing it right.

2. ‘Validate the design in the QA process’

We’re not entirely certain what this one means, but we see it all the time, we think it originated in Florida. We just tick ‘comply’ and hope it doesn’t come up in the pitch.

1. And the winner is…

‘We believe that the best results will be achieved not through asking agencies to respond to a detailed scope but rather by outlining what a new website sets out to achieve and asking the agencies for their creative approach. With this in mind, this brief has been designed to give the pitching agencies the broadest possible picture of what the site needs to deliver, without being overly prescriptive.’

Only kidding, this one’s not an RFP cliche, in fact we’ve only ever seen it once. But it is a direct quote. Step forward you lovely lot at Wales Millennium Centre. You’re our number one. Maybe this could be 2018’s RFP cliche. Here’s hoping.

[recentanimenews]

REVIEW: Digimon: Cyber Sleuth Is A Fantastic Way To Become A Digi-Destined

  I love Digimon. I love it. It's the anime series that I've stuck with the most consistently, predating my ride-or-die One Piece by about eight years. And I think, at it's best, it tells great stories about loss, growing up, and monsters that are covered in cannons. That's why it pains me to find that, sometimes, the world of Digimon video games is a mixed bag, ranging from addictive (Digimon World Dawn) to fun and mindless (Digimon Rumble Arena) to clunky and inept (Digimon World 4.) So when I find a Digimon game that satisfies me, one that truly lives up to the franchise's potential, I tend to latch onto it. And y'all, I have latched onto Digimon: Cyber Sleuth. 

  The recent re-release for the Nintendo Switch doesn't overhaul the Digimon game formula. You're still a plucky protagonist leading around an army of laser dragons against an unending army of other laser dragons, and you still have to navigate through the "Digivolution trees" in which achieving different stat objectives will allow you to transform your beast into different forms. This isn't a diss on the franchise's staples, by the way. It's inevitable that the team of magical computer demons would be more entertaining than the goggles-wearing dude that tells them what to do. And "Digivolution" is such a fun element to play with, as it often requires a certain level of obsession to obtain the Ultimate and Mega Level destroyers of worlds that you want. 

    I'm just saying that if you're the kind of person who wants a Digimon game that flips the series on its head, you won't find it here. Instead, you'll discover that Cyber Sleuth (and its sister game Hacker's Memory, which is also available in this set) is the most accessible Digimon game to date. In it, you play an "assistant" detective, charged with solving cyber crimes and delving into hacking cases. In a world where EDEN, a cyberspace network, is, like everyone's favorite thing, these crimes are constant and so your boss, the coffee-loving Kyoko Kuremi tasks you to run around in the real world and the digital one and save 'em both. 

  Along the way, you'll dive into multiple plotlines, like dealing with your pal Nokia and the Digimon that she's befriended, trying to figure out how to help the comatose victims of the EDEN Syndrome, and many others. Overall while dealing with hackers, cracking codes, and jumping between worlds can get a tad monotonous due to the level design (as former United State Senator Ted Stevens once said "The internet is a series of tubes that are filled to the brim with Koromon,") it does a lot to differentiate the experience from Pokémon, in which you usually just kinda leave your house and go explorin'. And that's just Cyber Sleuth, as Hacker's Memory tells a different story, but is set in many of the same locations.

But, to be perfectly honest, the reason you're probably playing this is to assemble a team of Digimon based on your favorites from the anime. I know that it's that way with me (Who cares about type effectiveness? I gotta get those Dark Masters like Machinedramon, Puppetmon and MetalSeadramon all in one place,) and luckily, Digimon: Cyber Sleuth doesn't make it hard to compile a team of fan favorites, Digimon deep cuts, or just a random selection of critters.

  In fact, I'd say that it's easier here than in any other game, thanks to both the ease of the game (the difficulty ramps up later, but you'll find many of the early chapters to probably be a breeze), and by the game making it super easy to go back and forth from your Digimon Lab (where you convert and evolve the Digimon) to the world you have to run around in. For example, one of my favorite Digimon is Etemon, who you may remember as the Elvis-sounding monkey villain from Digimon Adventure. I know. I know. He's great. Well, I wanted one here, and within about a day of playing, I got one. Same goes for the MetalGreymon I adored and Myotismon. But don't worry. I'll start grabbing monsters from later seasons of the anime, too. Just lemme run through the classics really quick. 

    Battling with them is pretty simple, as it basically comes down to a paper-rock-scissors type scenario where Vaccine beats Virus, Virus beats Data, and Data beats Vaccine. And your team usually comes with a mix of offensive skills and support skills. So if you've got a Data and a Vaccine Digimon and you're facing a Virus type, Data isn't gonna be much help. So you use the support skills of the Data 'mon to super charge your Vaccine creature as it blasts the Virus type to smithereens. It never becomes anything too radically intricate, but seeing each Digimon perform their attacks (in the best looking Digimon game to display those attacks yet) is a treat. I had a Numemon on my team for a bit (in my quest to get Etemon,) and it was a joy to use the Poop Toss attack each and every time.

  For Digimon fans, it's a must-have, but what about new fans or people that think "Digi-destined" is some kind of dating app? Well, I'd say that if you're curious about what Digimon are like with you behind the wheel (the metaphorical one, not the one found in Digimon Racing for the Game Boy Advance which I swear is a real game), I think this is the best way yet. And with two different games in the same package, you get dozens and dozens of hours of Digimon content for a pretty solid price.

      Overall, Digimon Cyber Sleuth and Hacker's Memory are the smoothest Digimon games around, shaving off some of the series' more obtuse elements and creating a fairly involved system that even the uninitiated can enjoy. And for older fans like me, those who have "latched" onto the series, it provides a rewarding way to collect all of the Digimon that we've loved in the anime for years. These games are the champions, y'all. 

  Review Round-Up:

  + Huge number of Digimon to raise and evolve (over 300 in Hacker's Memory)

+ Battle system is easy to master and the battle animations look great

+ Difficulty curve is good for beginners and veterans alike 

+ Soundtrack, while not too varied, is solid

+/- Characters are a mixed bag between fun and forgettable

- Level design is fairly uninspired

  Digimon: Cyber Sleuth and Hacker's Memory are available from Bandai Namco Entertainment. 

  Are you a Digimon fan? Are you planning to get Cyber Sleuth? Which Digimon do you want to raise? Let us know in the comments!

-----------------------------

Daniel Dockery is a writer and editor for Crunchyroll. You should follow him on Twitter!

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[privateplates4u]

Past Best Driver’s Car Winners

It’s been a decade since we first handed out this award. Truth be told, for two years we called it “Best Handling Car” but then decided to switch it to Best Driver’s Car, or BDC, back in 2009. Why the switch? Well, some cars handle great but aren’t so fun to drive. Think of it this way: A purpose-built track car will set a blistering lap time, but it’s probably miserable for a Sunday afternoon drive on your favorite road. Probably. Anyhow, by switching the focus from the relatively narrow handling criteria to the much broader “what makes a great driver’s car?” matrix, we could see the entire performance forest, not just a single tree. Ten years later—though for various reasons, we skipped 2010—BDC is bigger and better than ever. That said, it’s always helpful to go back and see what came before. Meditate on our history, learn from our mistakes, reflect on what made this award important enough to give out again and again and again. And let’s be honest, when is reading about sports cars ever not fun? I believe the answer to that is “never.” With all that in mind, here’s the list of previous BHC and BDC winners. Enjoy! –Jonny Lieberman 2016 Best Driver’s Car: McLaren 570S This is the essence of a driver’s car in our estimation. The McLaren may not be the most technologically advanced car present, nor is it the quickest. It doesn’t need to be. We want to drive it far more than we want to drive any of the other cars. The 570S wants to take that favorite road faster, to set a quicker lap time, as much as you do, and you’ll become addicted to the rush every time you go a little faster around a corner you’d thought you’d mastered. “The second you start moving, something magical happens,” Cammisa said. “You become part of the car.” 2015 Best Driver’s Car: Mercedes-AMG GT The 2016 Mercedes-AMG GT S in about 800 words? Let’s start with these: exclusive, luxurious, sensuous, quick, nimble, versatile, and in the right hands a track-ready supercar capable of lap times that don’t seem possible considering its versatility and second-place road test performance results. So what makes GT S, a car seemingly too stylish to be taken seriously, such a singularly special supercar or definitive driver’s car? In boxing terms, the never-flinching Animal from Affalterbach fights above its class—and wins—consistently and decisively. 2014 Best Driver’s Car: Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 If you’d asked us five years ago whether the then-all-new Chevrolet Camaro would be invited to Best Driver’s Car, we would have scoffed. Had you suggested that a Camaro would win Best Driver’s Car, we’d have all had a good belly laugh at the very notion. Who’s laughing now? The transformation of the fifth-generation Camaro from “musclecar that handles pretty well” to Best Driver’s Car winner is astounding. Few other cars we can think of have made such an advance in a single generation. Says Lieberman, “Perhaps the Corvair, but even by 1965 it wasn’t anywhere near this good.” 2013 Best Driver’s Car: Porsche 911 Carrera 4S It was inevitable. Sooner or later, there was going to be a repeat Best Driver’s Car winner, and with three former champions all competing head to head, the odds were good this would be the year. Of course, you shouldn’t be surprised. Technically, the 911 was already a repeat winner, with the 911 GT3 having won our inaugural Best Handling Car competition, the precursor to Best Driver’s Car. (This Carrera’s 1:39.19 lap time was nearly half-a-second quicker around Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca than that 2007 GT3’s.) Then there’s the fact that the 911 Carrera S won unanimously last year. This year, the 911 Carrera 4S faced stiffer competition, and both the SLS and R8 stole a few first place votes, but not a single judge ranked the 911 lower than second. While the Star fought with the Rings, the Crest walked away with the girl. The 911 won by being supremely confident at all times. Even with all the nannies off, you could wait until beyond the last second to torpedo the brakes, ride the smooth oversteer at turn-in, keep the nose dead on the apex through the middle, and go to wide-open throttle on the way out. In every single corner, every single time. Hail to the King. 2012 Best Driver’s Car: Porsche 911 Carrera 4 Yup, the Porsche. Ferry’s ageless squashed Beetle takes top honors in this year’s BDC. Don’t even bother to stop the presses. Porsche wins another comparison. This time, it’s the 991 version of the Carrera S, currently the hottest version of the sixth-generation, rear-engined, “four”-seat luxury sport coupe. It’s larger than ever, with the rear engine scooched a bit more toward the middle, and features the electrically assisted power steering system that has kept most of the Porsche-loving world up for months with the cold sweats. Why? Because of the possibility that an ounce of that precious 911 steering feel has been lost. That Porsche won it all. A much more interesting outcome to this story would have been if one of the hand-built exotics had won. After all, every 12-year-old boy in the world knows a priori that the Aventador must be the winner. Just like how every F1 junkie is positive that the McLaren is the best one here. Or, good-story-wise, what if the little BRZ pulled off an upset? Talk about David cleaning Goliath’s clock! Even the AMG would have been a more interesting verdict. But no, the car with the second-least power here, the car that’s not even a special performance derivative (like the upcoming Turbo, GT3, GTS, 50th Anniversary Edition 911, etc.) is the 2012 Motor Trend Best Driver’s Car. 2011 Best Driver’s Car: Ferrari 458 Italia After ruining each and every windshield filming our epic, 11-car drag race, the whole crew was standing in the parking lot of an Italian restaurant waiting for our 24-person table. It had been a long, grueling, yet utterly fantastic week, and to celebrate we were drinking beer and whiskey out of plastic cups. Markus and MacKenzie were regaling us young ‘uns with tales of lousy Ferraris of yore, in particular the 348, which Lucca had earlier explained was developed by famed Ferrari test driver Dario Benuzzi with one arm in a sling. Both Frank and Angus told how the old-school Fezza had tried to kill them. The conversation moved to the F355, the F360, and the F430, and how each generation represented a huge improvement over what came before. “But you know, this car is more like the NSX,” said Angus, leaning against our bright yellow 458 Italia. “It changes everything. The rest of ’em are now playing catch-up.” 2009 Best Driver’s Car: Porsche Cayman S PDK In technical editor Kim Reynolds’ first-drive story of the Porsche Cayman S PDK, which marked Motor Trend’s initial experience with Stuttgart’s mid-engine seven-speed-dual-clutch sports car, he made a very bold declaration. “It’s now, in my humble opinion, very simply the best sports car in the world.” Since most of you don’t know Kim, allow us to inform you that he is quite possibly the most humble man on the planet. So when the humblest editor states a humble, albeit audacious opinion, his fellow MT staffers perk up and heed the call. Still, the best sports car in the world? Rightfully so, Reynolds had his skeptics. Well, after flogging the Cayman S around track and twisties, we have only one thing to say to Sir Kim:You were absolutely right. “No other car here — not one — delivers the Porsche‘s Braillelike road-reading,” says St. Antoine. “You can feel every tire doing its work.” Markus wholeheartedly agrees: “Probably more than any other car here, including the R8, this one feels like an extension of your neural synapses.” And Pobst? Why, the first three words to come from his mouth were, “Racecar. Racecar. Wow.” Translation? “The thing about the Cayman is-gosh, I hope they don’t hate me for saying this — I think it’s just about better than any 911. The Cayman is one of the best-handling cars I’ve ever driven.” 2008 Best Handling Car: Audi R8 In another world compared with the other cars here,” said Pobst of the Audi R8. “So sweet,” said road-tester Scott Mortara. “Lots of steering feel, great grip, but a compliant ride, too,” noted editor MacKenzie. Each driver was describing the same qualities: On track or road, the R8 is Baryshnikov-fluid yet controlled, graceful yet dynamic. The figure-eight tracing is smooth and tight, with high limits but gentle transitions. Step-steer reaction time is fourth, lane-change third, ride quality fourth. The numbers only hint at the overall handling excellence, though. At any speed, you feel the delicate transparency of the steering, the supple yet confident chassis control, the crisp turn-in. Offered a weekend off to exploit the twirls and twists of Southern California’s beckoning hills, the Audi R8 — a car we’ve experienced from the Corkscrew to the salt flats of Utah’s Black Rock Desert-is the car we’d most want to pilot, the machine with magic in its mid-engine, quattro-fed chassis. Why, in just a turn or two, the R8 even makes second-thoughts disappear. 2007 Best Handling Car: Porsche 911 GT3 Which is the best-handling car in the land? We’ve instrumented and tested 10 great cars, microanalyzing the vehicle dynamics of each. We’ve spent hours at the wheel assessing the nuanced feedback each car transmits to its driver. The logbook notes, interview tapes, and 420 megabytes’ worth of objective test data agree: The clear winner is the Michelin-Porsche 911 GT3. We’re augmenting the nomenclature here to acknowledge the immense contribution the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires make to the tail-heavy Porsche icon’s handling. They’re the closest thing to a full-on racing tire that is DOT-legal for street use. They’re fair game because GT3s come from the factory with these tires, and we doubt that fitting conventional summer rubber would lower the GT3’s performance to a second-place finish here. Conversely, a set of Cup tires probably wouldn’t have enabled any of the competitors to outperform the GT3. But we’re nagged by the fact that the astonishing fair-weather grip generated by these new Michelins will degrade markedly when the short-lived gooey tread compound wears down, when temperatures fall, or when anyone so much as wet-sneezes on the pavement. If actual rain is falling, park this car or limp it home as though negotiating a blizzard in Buffalo.The post Past Best Driver’s Car Winners appeared first on Motor Trend.

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[action52]

This game sucks. Castlevania 1 and 3 are great classic Nintendo games, but for Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest, the game designers obviously were not thinking straight. At first it seems like a pretty decent game, a little different from the first in the series but, that's okay. Zelda 2 was different from the first, Mario 2 was different, but they were all good. The first thing that's strikingly different is the fact that you have to go through towns, talk to people and buy stuff. I never really minded that, it makes it a little more like an adventure story and it's kinda like Zelda, so that's okay. But the first problem comes in when it changes from day to night. (A message box appears in-game: WHAT A HORRIBLE NIGHT TO HAVE A CURSE.) Why does this need to happen so often? Like, every five minutes? Why does it take so long? Nobody feels like sitting through this every time. How would you like it if you were playin' a game and then every five minutes I came over, and paused it, then counted ten tedious seconds, and then let you continue play the game? Now, I mean, why did they think that that would be a good idea and interrupt the game play, did they think it would be more realistic? I mean, in real life I don't have to stop in my tracks when the sun sets and a fuckin' box doesn't pop up in the air. I mean, this is one of the most annoying features in any game ever. What's the point? Yeah, the, I mean, the monsters are stronger at night and the stores are closed, but why's that necessary and why does the game have to stop? It's fuckin' retarded. And why do you have to die when you fall in the water? That's the stupidest thing I've ever seen. This guy can go all over fightin' hordes of evil monsters, but he can't even fuckin' swim? Sometimes I don't feel like goin' down the stairs just to get down to ground level, I mean, there's no reason I should have to do that when I can just take a shortcut and jump down. But, oops! I shouldn't do that, there might be water down there. Another thing that's really annoying about this game is the fact that you have to buy weapons and items. I mean, still, that's not uncommon, you know like I said: that's the same thing you have to do in many great games, like Zelda, but, lemme explain. Here you have to collect hearts, which count as money. I mean, that's kinda odd, because usually hearts count as life or energy, y'know, so that's kinda strange. But, y'know that's not the point. The point is that the items you need to buy are too fuckin' expensive, and the hearts don't add up enough. It takes too long to get enough of them to buy something, and it gets boring wandering around killing the same monsters over and over again just so you can buy a Flame Whip or somethin'. Speaking of Flame Whip, that's pretty weird itself, isn't it? I mean, they were really being creative with that one, the flame whip. Anyway, about the hearts: It takes too long to buy stuff, and, to add onto the problem, when you die, you lose all your hearts and you have to start all over again. I mean, doing this doesn't add to any of the games' difficulty or challenge, it just makes us have to do more of the same monotonous stuff over again, and it's not fun, it's boring. Oh, look, I finally got enough hearts to go and buy a plant that I need to cross the swamp, now let me get to the store. (It changes to night in-game.) Oh shit, it's fuckin' night time, now the stores are all closed and I have to wait for it to turn day again. Oh well, I might as well kill some zombies in the meantime and stock up on some more hearts. (The character in-game falls in the water and dies.) OH SHIT! Now I gotta start all over again. One of the worst things in the game are the Pitfalls, which are areas where there's, like, stones or blocks that look like you could walk on them, but instead you just fall through. It's impossible to tell where these spots are the first time walkin' through, so you just have to keep throwin' Holy Water all over to see where they are. It's retarded. Why should I have to do that? Again, it doesn't add up to any of the fun, y'know, challenge of the game. It's just unfair and it's annoying. In the dungeons, there's no bosses at the end, which is a big disappointment. Every Nintendo gamester knows that at the end of a level or a dungeon labyrinth, whatever, there's always supposed to be a big guy who ya fight. But here, they just got lazy and only put a few bosses in the game and left some of the dungeons just empty like this one. So, most of the dungeons you go through (the mansions, to be exact), there's nothing at the end except for a crystal orb that you can't touch. In the rest of the Castlevania games the tradition goes like this: You fight a boss, you defeat 'im, then an orb comes down and you touch it, there you go, on to the next level. But in Castlevania 2, how would you ever figure out that you're supposed to throw an Oak Stake at that orb? I mean, when you first get the Oak Stake you assume it's a weapon, and you throw it, only to find that it does absolutely nothing, and that you waste it by throwing it, so you have to get it all over again. There are parts in the game that are definitely not self-explanatory, and are too hard to figure out. Take this dead end for example: Would you guess that you're supposed to pass through this wall? How? You have to kneel down by it for like ten seconds. Now, still, that's not enough to make it so cryptic and hidden that we can't figure it out, oh please, give us more for our buck and make it harder so we can wander around the whole game and exhaust every possibility before we find out. Okay. Guess what? You need to have a Red Crystal selected, and be kneeling down, and wait a little while before this magic tornado comes and takes you to the next part of the game. Most of the townspeople have things to say which aren't important at all, so why do you have to read 'em? Here, in the dungeons, there's books that you may find which actually give you clues about things in the game that you may need to know about. But, when I find these books, half the time it's by accident, so I may hit the button and cancel it out which means I don't even get to read it and I don't have a second chance. Why can't I do that when it changes from day to night? That would actually be helpful. So, what the game designers figured is this: it isn't absolutely necessary for me to read about how to find Dracula's castle or what I'm supposed to do with an Oak Stake, but what I do need to read, again and again constantly, is: "The morning sun has vanquished the horrible night". How about "vanquished this horrible GAME"? The only sure way to get through this awful game is to enter a code, but even that is way more tedious than it should be. While most of the Castlevania games have symbols you enter for a code, this one just has a whole bunch of numbers. I mean, like, one of those little parts would be enough for a password. But why four? Like why so many? In general, I hate games that have passwords like this, because sometimes they have uppercase and lowercase letters. Like the l's, you know, look like I's, the 0's look like O's, the 8's look like 5's so, why does there have to be so many digits? Y'know, like why can't it just be numbers or somethin'? Like, y'know, just numbers and not letters? I mean, it takes me, like, five minutes to enter this code when it should only take, like, five seconds. It's friggin' stupid. Okay, so, say we enter the code, and we go to Dracula's castle. You'll be pretty disappointed how anticlimactic this game is. It isn't even worth putting in a code, let alone playing the whole game all the way through, which, if you did, I feel bad for you. I mean, first of all: there's no enemies in Dracula's castle, you just walk all the way through and the only obstacles are just, like, goin' up and down steps, which won't hurt you and they aren't challenging, either. It's just tedious. I mean, what the hell's the point of going through the castle if there's no way to fight? Did the game designers just, like, run out of time or somethin'? So then, you get up to Dracula, and guess what? He doesn't look anything like Dracula, he looks like a grim reaper and he throws sickles. I mean, did the people who made this game even know what Dracula is? He's a fuckin' vampire. Alright, on top of everything, Dracula's way too easy. Check this out. This is a trick I discovered myself and so could you, without the help of any strategy guide. When Dracula first appears, he stands there for a while, and he gives you plenty of time to land lots of free hits. Not only does he stand there for a long time, but everything that hits him will stun him and give you even more time. Naturally, you'll prob'ly be using the flames, because it's one of the most effective weapons in the game. But, using it against Dracula, it makes it simply impossible for him to even do anything. He has no chance. The second you start throwin' that shit at him, you've already won. I mean, why is it that easy? Did they even test this shitty game out before they released it? What a piece of shit. I mean, I feel horrible that I had to play this game in order to make this video, but I did it to demonstrate its dreadfulness and I forced myself to play it just so that you don't have to. So, you should thank me for telling you to stay away from this horrible steaming pile of goat shit. I mean, I know it's useless complaining about a game that was made back in the late 80's, or early 90's or whatever, but it just blows my mind how fuckin' horrible it is. I mean, it's consistently annoying. Why? Why is it so bad? If all these problems were changed then we'd have a great trilogy of classic Castlevania games, but, history is history, and we might as well try to count Castlevania 3 as, you know, the second in the series, and leave this awful piece of horse shit alone, as it stands today as one of the biggest fuck-ups of all time. Thank you for listening, good night. (Fade to black, and then a quick clip of the game is shown.) The ending sucks too.

[axellings]

Four Continents 2017 (Men)

This year’s Four Continents--particularly the men’s event--easily proved to be one of the most highly-anticipated competitions of the year for many reasons. For one, it served as the test event for the Olympics next season, allowing the top skaters to get a taste of what to expect heading into Pyeongchang. For another, it featured one heck of a lineup: minus Javier Fernandez, pretty much every top skater in the men’s field--including Yuzuru Hanyu, who hasn’t competed in this event since 2013, and all three members of the #sQuad--would go head to head in what promised to be one of the most intense competitions ever. With such a talented field full of unbelievable technical content and unpredictability, this year’s men’s event will definitely go down as one of the most memorable of the season.

The Podium

After a spectacular victory at US nationals, doubtless the frontrunner for the 4CC podium was #slaythan Nathan Chen (USA). It’s certainly a credit to both Nathan’s newfound consistency and the depth of the top end of the men’s field that it was the mistakes of his competitors that helped Nathan to secure an edge and the win. Nathan started out strong by winning the SP, landing both his quads (a 4Lz3T and a 4F, just another day in the life) in short order..but then in typical Nathan style, skidded on the landing of his 3A. In the FS, he fumbled the landings for about half his jumps but fully rotated everything (thank god), though one of his 2Ts was invalidated). Ultimately it was his lead in the short combined with mistakes from the other men that helped him snatch the gold, and while it wasn’t a perfect victory, it was an impressive one nonetheless. Nathan is the epitome of the sheer force of nature that results from combining technical skill with artistry. His PCS are nowhere near other top men in the field, but once those start to pick up, he’ll be unstoppable--assuming, that is, that he can maintain his consistency.

Despite his endless list of achievements, 4CC is the one gold medal that has eluded Yuzuru Hanyu (JPN) in his decorated senior career. No doubt he was looking complete his collection in his first 4CC appearance in 4 years, but unfortunately he had to settle for the silver after his eternal nemesis, the #4splat, took him down in both programs. In the short, he landed his 4Lo and 3A but doubled the 4S, which has been giving him issues since he first began including it in his programs. In the FS, Yuzu landed one of the best 4Los we’ve seen from him so far, followed by a clean 4S. Disaster struck, however, when he doubled his second 4S, prompting him to pull out an emergency 4T (in combination, because why not), bringing his total number of quad attempts in the free to 5. If that wasn’t enough, he also changed his final 3Lz into a 3A. These managed to help him narrow the TES gap, and his massive PCS cushion allowed him to finish first in the FS, but the doubled 4S in the short had dealt too big of a blow to make up for. Despite being unable to win the elusive gold, Yuzuru mentioned that this was one of the most fun silver medals he’s ever received. Knowing him, he’s probably beating himself up over his mistakes, but we’re glad he had fun at this competition and hope he can head into Worlds with a clear mind.

After missing out on the 4CC podium for the past two years thanks to bungled free programs, Shoma Uno (JPN) (also affectionately known by names like Shoma “+REP” Uno and Shoma “+COMBO” Uno) finally caught a break when mistakes from other competitors allowed him to run away with the bronze medal. That isn’t to say, however, that he didn’t suffer from his own share of mistakes. An unsteady landing on his quad flip in the short marred what would have otherwise been a clean program, though it was just barely enough to secure him a spot in the Over-100 Club alongside Yuzuru Hanyu, Javier Fernandez, and Nathan Chen. He then went on to land an incredible +2.43 GOE quad loop in the free despite it only being his first time attempting one in competition, following it up with a beautiful quad flip. But, in typical Shoma fashion, he then went on to fall on both of his triple axels, both of which had been planned in combination (COMBOS? WHO NEEDS ‘EM). It was only through luck on Shoma’s part that he managed to keep hold of the bronze--had Patrick or Boyang been clean, he would have found himself off the podium for the third year in a row. We just hope that between this competition and the Asian Winter Games (where he also fell twice), Shoma has gotten his bad performances out of him and that he can finally put two clean programs together at Worlds later this month.

The Others

The struggle for consistency continued for Patrick Chan (CAN), who found himself far off the podium after numerous mistakes in both programs. A fall on his quad toe in the short left him in 5th with 88 points (a low score for the top roster in this day and age), and two falls in the free (including on his attempt on the ever-elusive 4S) did his score no favors. It wasn’t the complete meltdown he had at the GPF, but he still only managed to finish a full 20 points behind third place; even his PCS, which has always been a notch above the rest of the field, didn’t give him the buoyancy he once used to enjoy. With only one quad and a fairly inconsistent season behind him, Patrick will likely find himself one of the underdogs in the race for the Worlds podium this season. His chances at a medal are certainly not slim, but he’ll have to be at his best to pose a threat to the rest of the top crop.

Just like his fellow crazy chill-less sQuad member Shoma, the Original (friendly neighborhood) Quadman Boyang Jin (CHN) decided to throw a quad loop into his free program for the first time in official competition, bringing his total number of quads up to 7. Unfortunately, he saw less success than Shoma (in the quad department anyway), as he both fell on and underrotated his attempt. In fact, nearly all of Boyang’s quads gave him trouble: he fell on his second 4T in the free, and even his signature quad lutz wasn’t entirely there for him in this competition. Combined with his as-yet lacking PCS, he was only able to manage a 5th place finish, just a few fractions of a point behind Patrick. However, while technical inconsistency has been an issue for Boyang all season, we continue to be thrilled with his development of his on-ice personality. While we imagine it’ll be a challenge for him to defend his bronze medal at Worlds, we’re very much looking forward to seeing what he’ll be able to put on the table there.

Earning himself a new personal best for total combined score was Misha Ge (UZB), whose 7th-place finish is his highest ever at 4CC. Misha had a couple of clean programs (bar a wobbly 3A in the free), but suffered from rather anaemic GOEs. Misha’s never been much of a technical skater, and in fact it’s pretty impressive that he finished 7th despite his most difficult jump being a 3A (and without the insane PCS cushions that Jason Brown gets). However, Misha has always been a performer, and his artistry certainly shone through, especially in his lovely Liebestraume short. It’s been a pretty decent season for Misha, but it’s clear that he will really need to work on getting a consistent quad or two in his arsenal before he can be considered a threat for any podium. Either way, he’s made impressive leaps in consistency while ever polishing his performance skills, and we hope he carries this momentum forward to shine at Worlds as well.

Credit for all images [x]