To Review games... Or to discuss the games design aspects?

So I have been thinking. Should I be reviewing games, or going deeper and talking in depth about the actual gameplay design in the games. Since I am going to school in hopes of being able to become a game designer. I know my teachers would definitely say the later :). I like reviewing games, but with time as crunched as it is i would like some input. What do you guys think? (all 5 of you that read lol)

More LP song reviews! :)

Hello everyone! sorry its been so long since the last post. My laptop has officially broken and finals were 2 weeks ago, so I have been busy with all of that. But I will still post with my wife's lappy :).

So on to the title :). So as you saw I got insanely hyped for linkin park releasing the first single "The Catalyst" off their upcoming album "A Thousand Suns". But since then they have released 2 more songs on their myspace page. The 2 new songs are "Wrenches and Kings" and "Waiting for the End". I am just gonna get it out of the way, These songs have completely gotten me in a frantic craze counting down the hours i can go to best buy and buy the album. Both songs are able to keep linkin park's "old" sound in grasp but somehow feel so new and amazing that its like hearing linkin park for the first time. The band has really evolved into pure musicians. They are no longer holding anything back. Just from the 3 songs we have been given you can tell that they are willing to try and put anything into the music they create.

So lets start with "Wrenches and Kings". The song starts with a very emotional speech about men rising up against machines in what seems like "the final days". Then the song kicks off into what is the best match of guitar and beats that the band (or anyone else in my opinion) has ever done. You can tell there are loud blazing guitar but it perfectly matches the heavy hard hitting beat, listening to this song was the first time i felt like i could head band to a song that sounded like it was pure beat. Then Mike comes in rapping about the theme that the person at the begging is ranting about. The biggest thing that I noticed is that mike put a huge accent into his rapping, it feels very jamaican. Then Chester comes in with the chorus, again putting what seems like a jamaican accent into his loud screechy vocals. What he sings is the bone of the song "Steel unload, Final Blow, We the animals take control, hear us now clear and true, Wrenches and Kings we come for you". Every time I hear the chorus I get chills all down my body, this song to me is linkin park taking on political views, like "Rage Against The Machine" did, but in their own way. Its not taking on anything happening yet, but could very well happen if mankind doesn't keep control of their ambition. The whole new album is a concept album. Meaning that the whole album follows a story or a theme. It seems that the theme for the new album will very cyberpunk and dystopian. Think Fallout meets the matrix.

The score I give "Wrenches and Kings" is...

9.5/10

Now for the song they released today on their myspace page, "Waiting for the End".

The song starts out with a feeling that it might turn into a more hard song. Mike starts the song with a very good blend of singing with a rapping rhyme. Once again using auido tone, but I don't want to sound like a broken record, but somehow they use it to sound amazing. Its serene and beautiful, also having a jamaican feel to it. I guess the dystopian world they are trying to show us is in jamaica :). anyway, Then Chester comes in and completely blows away everything he has done in past records, in terms of just emotional beauty, that i have heard so far. I guess there is another song on the record that the bands bassist Phoenix says is the most beautiful thing he has ever heard. So I am really exited to see what is in store. I don't know how to explain what he does, he has never sounded so clear and just natural. There is such a calming feeling to his voice. He has done really amazing in past albums with "shadow of the day" and others. But he really has reached a new height with the new album. And in the middle of the song they even have a vocal solo that sounds like they put Chester's voice on a guitar. Obviously not, but it is a cool effect :). This song i feel shows what new ways linkin park is evolving. Just amazing.

10/10

once again Linkin Park's new album will be out on sept. 14th, just one small week. And duh i will review the whole album. :D

Linkin Park's "The Catalyst" review!

Like I said on my side tab for the new linkin park album that I am super psyched for, I would probably go nuts when i heard the new single from the album "The Catalyst". Well i've heard it a few times now and here's what I think about it...

Its very different from anything they have done in their past albums. Which isn't a bad thing. Its always a good thing when a band start's experimenting around with new sounds and new styles. It reminds me of the remix album they did for "Hybrid Theory" which was called "ReAnimation". I love that cd, it was fused with all the awesome energy that the original songs had and smashed more hard hitting electronica beats.

While "The Catalyst" isn't linkin parks hardest song, actually its more between the lines of shadow of the day and what i've done. It is pretty much all beat based. There is a little bit of electric guitar and drums going on. But they are probably the quietest they have ever been in a linkin park song. Vocally tho it has both mike and chester singing at the top of there lungs, while the chorus does have a rapping feel to it mike definatly brings it out more, but still he is singing, hitting some pretty awesome notes too.

Also Linkin Park decided to go the way a lot of artists are going with the whole autotune/auto tone thing. Which I will be perfectly honest kind of made me a little uneasy the first time I heard it, because I am sick and tired of it. Seriously EVERY rap song has to use that somehow now and its getting very boring very quick for me at least, but apparently not for everyone else lol. But the second and third times I heard the song I definatly started to grow to like how Linkin Park used it. Its more electronic than what everyone else is doing, which fits LP very well.

But lets hope they don't get too excessive with it. But I do like it, Somehow it add's something new everytime you listen to it. Like I said, when a band like linkin park start's to experiment around it is always a good thing, I can't wait to see what the harder songs are gonna sound like, and the more mellow songs.

So with having all that said, Idk how I should review music, I am sure I could go into deep detail about every aspect and give a score for each part, like I do with games. But I'm not well versed with the technical side of music, I recognize it and appriciate it. I just don't know what its called or anything. So let's give this a try

Final Score: 8.5

p.s. I know most of you that know me are saying "WHAT john giving a LP song that low of a score!?" (LP is my fav. band of all time) But its just one of those songs that I'm not instantly amazed and hooked like a drug to at first. That's how "shadow of the day" was for me, I actually didn't like it the first few times I listened to it. But now its one of my fav. LP songs ever. I bet that's how "The Catalyst" will be.

ummm.... yeah

So i started this blog when i had way to much free time on my hands. Then all of the sudden i got super busy. It seemed like i didn't even have enough time to think about updating this. Well we have internet at our appartment. So that helps a lot. So i am gonna try and start this up again. I am still very busy, but i should be able to write them while i am donating plasma or on breaks at work. So stay tuned!