Lately I’ve been on a kick of looking at old DOS game show games. There were a lot of official game show games of the 80s, from the greats like Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune to lesser-known classics like Now You See It, Fun House and Remote Control. But what I was really interested in were the game show games made by hobby programmers.
I remember seeing this in a Micro Star shareware compilation disc. I wonder if I still have it…
I was looking for Wheel of Fortune clones, but I could only find two. VGAWHEEL (or EGAWHEEL, I’ve seen both names online) is a no-frills version of Wheel that has probably the prettiest wheel made for DOS. Oh, and it has a cute little theme that plays on the PC speaker. Alas, there isn’t much to say about VGAWHEEL, other than Russell Mueller made a pretty good Wheel clone for DOS.
However, the other one I found is most intriguing. This was made by someone with a rather… silly sense of humor.
Man, this guy even had a BBS line! I wonder if there were aliens on it.
Tommy’s Toys was a garage developer who made games “designed by aliens from outer space.” They made a lot of games throughout the ’80s and ’90s. We’re talking about hundreds of them released over ten years. Tommy’s Toys pretty much disappeared by the time Windows became super popular, and the designer stopped making games to write books. At least that’s what Mobygames tells me, anyway.
You know it’s a DOS classic when you see that smiley face in there.
The reason I mention this developer is because they ended up making their own spin on Wheel of Fortune. Made during the peak of “I’m a Wheel Watcher” mania, Tommy’s Toys brings from “outer space” clone called Tommy’s Wheel of Misfortune. So let’s dive into this alien-made Wheel of Fortune clone, shall we?
Off the bat, there are a few changes from the classic game show. You can have anywhere from 2-6 players, more than the three from the actual show. The manual states you can play against the computer but I’m not sure how. After that, it’s standard Wheel of Fortune, except with a few twists.
Now that I think about it, this reminds me more of another game show…
You can see that the Wheel is not a fixed pattern. It has the common Bankrupt, Lose a Turn and Free Spin spaces that you’d associate with Wheel of Fortune, but they’re shuffled around the board at random each round, making the wheel more devious at times.In a sense, it feels like a hybrid between Wheel of Fortune and the other notable luck-driven game show, Press Your Luck. Thankfully there’s no sign of the whammies anywhere.
Let’s ignore the stickers here and look at the big prize: NEW MUSIC!
It’s that time again. On February 12, 2015, Valve introduced a second batch of music kits for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. I had written about the first nine late last year, and it’s become one of my more popular posts recently. If you wanna see my reviews for the first nine music kits, click here.
Since there’s new ones, I thought it’d be nice to come back and write about these brand new ones and see if they’re worth your money.
Naturally, I’m going to review these, complete with videos so you can listen along. Like before, these music kits will randomly appear in the game as an offer for $4.99 for a standard one, or $6.99 for a StatTrak one that counts your MVPs in competitive matches. If you’re cheap like me, you can buy these on the Steam Marketplace at a cheaper value if there’s a specific kit you’re interested in.
I’m also gonna throw one in that came out in December, after I had written the original CS:GO music kits post. Consider these music kits part of a “Series 2,” if you will.
(The Midnight Riders music kit video is courtesy of YouTube user wtiw. All the other music kit videos are made by me.)
Wow, the first official Valve crossover in CS:GO. Granted, some of the maps in Arms Race and Demolition are based off stuff from Left 4 Dead 2, but this is the first item that actually references another game entirely.
Midnight Riders is a fictional band that appears in the Left 4 Dead 2 universe. Their music is mostly southern rock, with such awesome songs like “Midnight Ride” and “One Bad Man.” In late 2009, they released a new track, “All I Want for Christmas is to Kick Your Ass,” which is used as the base of this music kit.
Most of the kit is taking the 3 minute track and splicing it together to fit CS:GO‘s music. Some of these, like Round Start 1, Lost Round and Death Cam make good stingers, but the rest is kinda slapped together, especially since a lot of the tracks like Won Round have a hard stop that’s a bit jarring. More proof that this feels slapped together is that the Bomb 10 Second Timer and Round 10 Second Timer are exactly the same. There’s not even any changes in instruments, they are literally the same track. Feels real lazy.
Compared to the other music kits, this seems slapped together as a Christmas promotion, and it could’ve been better. This one is currently unavailable for purchase in game, but you can still buy it on the Steam Marketplace if you’re curious. Though I can’t blame you if you’re not interested.
I wouldn’t mind seeing another Midnight Riders music kit, just put a bit more effort into it next time, Would you Valve?
VERDICT: Want some holiday cheer? This’ll work. Even works outside of the holiday season. Lightly recommended, get it on the Steam marketplace on discount.
Damjan Mravunac, The Talos Principle
DESCRIPTION: “Composer Damjan Mravunac blends energetic cinematic grooves with epic choirs in this music pack featuring music from Croteam’s critically acclaimed title “The Talos Principle”.”
Looks like most of these music kits are going into crossover territory lately. Ain’t nothing wrong with that, personally.
Damjan Mravunac (that’s a hard name to spell and pronounce, btw) is a noted composer who’s been in the game music world for years. Most notably he’s worked on the music for most of Croteam’s games, going back to Serious Sam: The First Encounter in 2001, and returned for Croteam’s then-newest game, the critically acclaimed The Talos Principle. This is the second time an existing soundtrack has been modified to work in CS:GO, so let’s see what they did.
The main menu opts to use “False God” from the official soundtrack, though a little faster than the soundtrack variation, which makes the main menu sound very dramatic. In fact, all the tunes featured here seem faster than the ones according to the official soundtrack, which actually fits more than the original versions did. “Virgo Serena” and “The End of the Process” art used for the Round Loss and MVP Anthem respectively, which is probably the more triumphant one I’ve heard out of all the music kits to date.
Alas, I couldn’t pinpoint where the other tracks are used according to the official soundtrack, so I assume they’re based on in-game tracks that are not part of the official soundtrack. (Though if I’m wrong, please let me know in the comments.) Despite my inexperience with research, the rest of the music is a perfectly dramatic bombast, making even planting bombs in game sound like the most suspenseful thing in the world.
Mravunac made a very suspenseful and dramatic score in The Talos Principle, and it fits wonderfully here in CS:GO. Even though I haven’t played The Talos Principle, I still enjoyed the music kit because of its dramatic nature. One I’d recommend even if you haven’t played the game.
VERDICT: Highly recommended, even if you haven’t played The Talos Principle like I have.
Daniel Sadowski, Total Domination
DESCRIPTION: Composer Daniel Sadowski raises the bar with aggressive electronic beats, creative sound fx and an exhilerating, [sic] driving, futuristic vibe. “Warning: Will cause a rise in adrenaline!”
Oh hey, Daniel Sadowski‘s back. Our first returning composer, Sadowski did the Crimson Assault pack last year, which took a while for me to warm up to. His second work, “Total Domination,” however, hit me from the get-go, and it sounds amazing.
Much like Crimson Assault, Total Domination opts for lots of synth, though no dramatic Call of Duty-esque strings this time. At times, Total Domination sounds like it’d fit in a late ’90s-early 2000s era action game, like Unreal Tournament. It even has random speech samples that remind me of MOD tracker music, and anything that reminds me of that era is great in my book.
Even though the main menu and bomb timer are action packed, certain tracks like the Round Start and Round Action cues tone down the action, giving it a bit of suspense and reminding me of similar music from other games, like Overgrowth’s Receiver. It must be the instruments used, but it has a similar sound.
Total Domination is a great music kit just for the main theme, the rest is just a bonus. A very solid music kit.
VERDICT: Highly recommended, especially if you’re into that late ’90s electronic sound.
Various Artists, Hotline Miami
DESCRIPTION: A multitude of electronic artists deliver brutal beats in this exhilarating Music Pack from the iconic Hotline Miami.
Oh boy, a third crossover?! Man, we’re getting all buddy-buddy in this CS:GO world. The Hotline Miami music kit takes select tracks from the critically acclaimed soundtrack of the same name. Since all the tracks are taken from the original game and modified for CS:GO, I’ll review it by comparing what tracks they chose.
MOON’s “Crystals” is the Main Menu theme, which doesn’t fit that well here. Sun Araw’s “Horse Steppin” or “Deep Cover” would’ve been much better choices, especially since the former is the original game’s main menu. MOON’s “Hydrogen” and Scattle’s “Knock Knock” are the game’s action and round start cues, though I would’ve thrown in El Huervo’s “Turf” or Scattle’s “Inner Animal” for a potential third set. Oddly, both the round start cues have a weird reverse effect before the track begins, and a strange slow down fade on the action tracks that you probably won’t hear in game. Not sure why Devolver Digital thought it’d be cool to mix them this way, but it’s not a deal breaker.
Where I think they made the biggest blunder was the bomb timer cue. They used Perturbator’s “Vengeance.” But the portion they chose to use was the introduction of the track and then cut to a different part of the track for the 10 second timers, but they just fade out, sounding real sloppy in game with no tension whatsoever. I would’ve chosen Scattle’s “To the Top” as the bomb timer music instead, or would have edited “Vengeance” a little better to make it better fit CS:GO‘s mold.
Despite that issue, they made great choices for the round win (Purturbator’s “Miami Disco”), round loss (Eirik Suhrke’s “A New Morning”) and MVP anthem (Jasper Byrne’s “Hotline”). If CSGO supported multiple win or loss cues, some of the other cuts from Hotline Miami’s soundtrack would’ve been great additions.
This isn’t a bad music kit, it just has some strange soundtrack choices. Hotline Miami had an amazing soundtrack, and for them to outright omit some of the best tracks is disappointing. Though if you loved the hell out of the game’s soundtrack, being able to hear it while playing CS:GO is a treat.
VERDICT: Recommended, but honestly could’ve been a better selection of cuts used. Get it on discount on the Steam marketplace.
Mateo Messina, For No Mankind
DESCRIPTION: Own your enemies. Pure intensity by Grammy winning composer, Mateo Messina.
So we’ve seen crossover works, and a returning game composer do a music kit. How about a film composer next?
Mateo Messina is a noted film and TV composer, composing music for many films such as Juno and Thank You for Smoking. I believe this is his first video game score, and it’s interesting in his approach with For No Mankind.
For No Mankind goes heavy on the cello with mixed synths and heavy percussion. This is very apparent on a lot of the tracks. This reminds me a lot of John Powell’s work on the Bourne series of movies, especially Start Action 2, which would probably fit right at home in a scene from a Bourne movie.
Some other tracks, like Start Round 2, the Round 10 Second Timer emphasize piano, sometimes to compliment the rest of the track, or in the case of the Bomb 10 Second Timer, emphasize it strongly. However, I think the Round and Bomb 10 second timers should be switched so that they flow a bit better, since the Bomb 10 second timer doesn’t have cello in the background and it’s a bit jarring. Though that could be intentional, who knows?
I really like this one because of its dramatic spy thriller tone. This is a good one if you want something brings the dramatic tension much akin to a modern spy thriller. Here’s hoping Messina tries to branch further out into video games, I could see him making a wonderful game score if this music kit is any indication.
VERDICT: Recommended, especially if you’re wanting something that feels like you’re in a spy/drama flick.
Matt Lange, IsoRhythm
DESCRIPTION: Indulge your aural senses in a collection of cinematic, glitchy atmospheres and hard-hitting throbbing rhythms by electronic producer and innovator Matt Lange.
Our last one is Matt Lange, a noted DJ/producer who’s done lots of electronic music work. While he’s done remixing for games like Halo 4, I believe this is his first exclusive video game score. According to Vibe, he’s their #1 electronic artist to watch out for in 2014, so he’s probably gonna be a big name in the electronic scene. But for now, let’s see how he did with his CS:GO music kit, IsoRhythm.
The Main Menu reminds of some modern electronic music, with syncopated beats mixed in with dramatic strings. Eventually it slows down, leading to a piano interlude before the main melody drops back in with heavy electronic guitar riffs. Other cues, like the Start Round cue, go for fast techno beats that would fit perfectly while dancing in the club.
Other cues, like the Round Win and Loss cues, are very subdued, which remind me a bit of Sasha’s LNOE and Noisia’s Sharpened. Though the big standout track is the bomb timer. It’s a really tense, dramatic cue that slowly builds up as it goes through. The Bomb 10 Second Timer is especially interesting, it’s not really a tune as it’s a bunch of heavy pulse-pounding beats that sounds very much like a ticking timebomb as the bomb is about to go off. I bet this sounds great in game.
The electronic musicians that are featured in CS:GO thus far have been good to great, and Matt Lange’s IsoRhythm is no exception. While I’m not a super fan of this kind of music, I can see this being real popular with some of the CS:GO community considering their fondness for electronic music, if tournament streams are any indication.
VERDICT: Recommended. Fits the electronic mold better than some of the other contributions.
That’s it for now. I’ll say it again: I like this idea because each and every individual composer featured here has their own unique “take” on the game, and it makes each of them stand out that much more. Unlike the original nine kits, I’d say these are all pretty good in their own unique way, and there’s really no bad one here in the bunch.
PERSONAL RECOMMENDATIONS: The Talos Principle, Total Domination, For No Mankind.
I hope Valve keeps going with this, just to see who else will contribute music to the CS:GO world. Still waiting for that Simon Viklund music kit…
Check out the other CS:GO Music Kits collections:
– “Series 1” is the initial set of nine music kits, released on October 10, 2014. Featuring a varied group of musicians from game composers Austin Wintory, Daniel Sadowski and Sean Murray, to EDM artists like Feed Me and Sasha, to hard metal from Jocke Skog.
– “Series 3“, released on September 24, 2015, added 14 new kits, featuring return musicians Jocke Skog and Daniel Sadowski alongside Red Bull Records bands like AWOLNATION, Beartooth and New Beat Fund; and from other TV and film composers such as Michael Bross, Ian Hultquist and Lennie Moore.
– “Series 4“, released on November 28, 2016, introduced the “Radicals Music Box,” featuring works from Red Bull and Fervor Records bands like Blitz Kids, Twin Atlantic, Hundredth and Neck Deep, as well as another pack by Jocke Skog.
– “Series 5“, released on April 16, 2020, introduced the “Masterminds Music Box,” featuring many return composers like Austin Wintory, Dren McDonald, and Daniel Sadowski; alongside newcomers Sam Marshall, Tim Huling and Tree Adams & Ben Bromfield. This also covers the loose music kits released in the interim between the Radicals and Masterminds Music Boxes, such as music from Scarlxrd, and Halo and Half-Life: Alyx themed music kits.
If you were around in the ’90s, you might be familiar with Tetris mania. The original game hit a myriad of systems, most notably the Game Boy, and became a massive worldwide success. Naturally when something like Tetris is popular, people try to reinvent the wheel and make variants of Tetris, with varying levels of success.
Some of these, like Tetris 2 or Tetris Blast just added a more puzzle element to the base Tetris game. Others were games like Tetris Attack, which was merely a rebranding of what we now know as Puzzle League. Then there’s the game that we’re talking about today:
Even the cover is similar to the original NES Tetris cover.
Proudly mentioned on the box as “Tetris made Letter Perfect!”, Wordtris is a Tetris-likegame released for several different systems. Though today we’ll be specifically looking at the SNES version of the game. Spectrum Holobyte took the block-building concept of Tetris and put a unique spin on it, which is hardly unknown territory to them. Wordtris was one of several Tetris spinoffs Spectrum Holobyte released, including Welltris and Faces: …Tris III. I wasn’t kidding when I said there were many Tetris spinoffs in the ’90s.
The year is 2011. We’re nearing the home stretch of the 360 and PS3 console generation. We’re seeing really cool games that push the power of their hardware, while also being fun as hell to play.
One day, while browsing on Twitter like I usually do, someone I followed retweeted this gem by one Clifford Bleszinski:
(Note: This is a loose recreation of the tweet from various sources. In the years that followed, he since deleted the original tweet.)
Naturally, being the curious guy I am, I checked out the website and found out there was a free game there. I download the 700MB installer, not knowing what to expect.
Making something sound so generic is quite impressive.
Duty Calls: The Calm Before the Storm is a parody game that makes fun of the long-standing Call of Duty franchise. This is very apparent by the logo that makes fun of the old Call of Duty logo, to even that important disclaimer that Activision had nothing to do with it. Because the last thing they needed were lawsuits.
Parodying games in other games is a fickle thing. Sometimes you can be right on point and make it funny, otherwise you end up just making half-baked references that fall flat and seem incredibly dated, like Duke Nukem Forever rejecting Master Chief’s power armor, saying it’s “for pussies.”
With a parody like this, it can only go up from there, so let’s give it a try.
Must be a very boring day for the army…
Our adventure begins with an introductory cutscene learning about some secret base, complete with a Call of Duty-style talking about how war has changed, and yet war never changes. It oddly reminded me of that song from Idle Thumbs about the wizard.
After that, our intrepid shooterguy drops in with an M4 assault rifle and a secret base to find by some random commander dude. So let’s jump into the fray and fight the big bad.
I could do a play-by-play, much like I did with my last article on CTU Marine Sharpshooter, but this game is short. I beat it in 10 minutes. Not only that, this game relies on such silly gags like the one below, thus if I showed you every gag you wouldn’t wanna play it, so here’s a sampling instead.
Imagine this scene said by bored voice actors proclaiming you can’t stop this enemy. Then the game goes into slow motion so you can stop this enemy. It does that sort of stuff.
Duty Calls throws a lot of jabs at Call of Duty, usually referencing its fairly linear nature, its over-emphasis on slow motion action scenes, even making fun of the silly rank progression of COD‘s multiplayer. The only thing it doesn’t make fun of is being penalized for going out of bounds. Oh well, can’t have everything, I guess.
I think Devolver Digital is slowly becoming one of my favorite publishers. Earlier this year, they teamed up with The Expendables 3 and released a demo for Broforce called The Expendabros that was pretty damn fun. (You can read about that game here.) They gave the dormant Serious Sam and Shadow Warrior franchises new life with new games in the series, and published the awesome yet frustrating Hotline Miami. So yeah, they’re a pretty cool publisher.
Now they’re spreading some holiday cheer with yet another free game, this time featuring their mascot/CFO/Twitter darling Fork Parker. This one is quite a doozy…
Try saying this title five times fast.
Fork Parker’s Holiday Profit Hike is a Christmas-themed promotional game featuring Parker and developed by Dodge Roll Games, developers on Enter the Gungeon. Unlike Expendabros, Holiday Profit Hike is not a reskinned version of Gungeon, despite that concept sounding really cool. Instead, it’s a unique game of its own.
Fork Parker is like if Ted Turner merged with Cave Johnson. He’s lovable despite being an old guy.
You play as Fork Parker, who must make a load of profits for Q4. His solution? Climb a tall “mountain” filled with perilous spikes, snowball-throwing yeti, and tacky Christmas sweaters while trying to grab cash along the way. If you get to the end and finish in the black, you’ve saved Devolver Digital. A fairly simple holiday-related story, and for a game like this it doesn’t need anything more complicated than that.
Holiday Profit Hike boasts a pixel art aesthetic, which I’m usually not a fan of, but I’ve been slowly warming up to it in recent years. That art style works in its favor, as Dodge Roll Games somehow made a dodgy old dude like Parker into a cute-looking character because of it. It also has a few music tracks, and one main track that loops endlessly. The tunes are a bit short and repetitive, but it fits the rest of the game’s atmosphere.
The start of a painful, yet rewarding journey.
So what makes this game different from other platformers? Well, Parker comes equipped with a cool feature in which he can throw pitons at certain walls and floors and make a rope zipline he can ride with his cane. This is the core mechanic of the game, and is pretty unique for a platformer. He can even use his cane as a pogo stick to temporarily stun some enemies. Parker’s apparently taking a few tips from fellow old man with a cane Scrooge McDuck.
This game follows the formula that games like Super Meat Boy and VVVVVV follow in which one hit is certain death. There’s a lot of spikes strewn around, and lots of slippery blocks will be the cause of many deaths. Thank god the game has checkpoints after every major puzzle, but even with those, it’s not an easy challenge. Nothing sucks more than getting past a difficult part, only to die in a spike pit, negating all progress.
This one part almost drove me insane. I’m surprised I beat it, honestly.
I don’t get frustrated at games very often, but Holiday Profit Hike broke me. I died so many times that my swearing became shrieks and cries of “NO!” when I botched a difficult section. The part above is what wrecked me the most, causing me to swear and shout more than anything else in the game at that point. Eventually I got so frustrated from failing so much on this one section that I received concern from other people in my house. When people start worrying about me over a game like this, I knew I had to take a break.
This is why I’m not a businessman. Or a platformer expert.
However, I am not a quitter. I will push myself, yelling and screaming until I finally get past those damn difficult sections. After many failed tries, I persevered and got to the top of the mountain in an hour and a half. Alas, I got the worst ending, but it’s better than giving up and missing out.
The game isn’t very long, and doesn’t have much in replay value. The only other options are get better and beat the game with a positive score to get the best ending, or to speed run through it, which is an impressive feat if you can do it. I don’t think I’m up for replaying this, but I did enjoy playing through it in spite of it breaking me more than any game has in years.
If you wanna play this, it’s available on Steam. It’s very frustrating, but still fun despite the hard difficulty. Props to Devolver for giving out a free holiday game, and to Dodge Roll Games for perfectly capturing the spirit of a balls-hard platformer. I wouldn’t mind seeing a sequel of this. Just make it a bit easier next time, alright?
For a long while, I was fascinated by casino video games. Maybe since I was too young to actually play at a casino, I figured casino video games would simulate the casino experience without losing loads of money in the process. It’s a shame that nowadays casinos are inundated with digital slots and video poker machines, with maybe a blackjack and craps table here and there. It’s just not the same.
During my teenage years, I was playing one of these casino games, back when I had just gotten the fancy new Game Boy Advance. Though, it was a Game Boy Color game…
Probably the best quality picture I could find. If my box wasn’t crushed to hell, I’d just scan mine in.
Hoyle Casino is a game sponsored by the Hoyle game company, which primarily is a playing card company, though these days they’ve also branched out to publishing digital games based on TV shows like Ice Road Truckers. This game is also unique because it was one of the few games Sierra published for the GBC, with the others being sister title Hoyle Card Games and a version of 3D Ultra Pinball: Thrillride. Hoyle Casino came to other systems, but today I’m looking at the portable release.
Pulsar Interactive worked on this, and they were mostly known for Game Boy games like Barbie Fashion Pack, as well as assisting in Quest for Glory V and Blood & Magic, as well as IBM’s Manage This!, which is not a video game but they were more than proud to feature it on their website.
I figured I played this a bunch because of the aforementioned fascination with casino games. Plus since it was on a portable and this was before everybody had smartphones, it was a great time waster when you had nothing to do, which was fairly common in my high school years.
Now, my gold standard for casino games is Nintendo’s Vegas Stakes – both the original SNES version and it’s Game Boy counterpart – so let’s see if Hoyle Casino is good enough to dethrone the king of casino video games.
Hoyle Casino is a proud sponsor of VICE. I’m more of a MisterCard person, personally.
We’re introduced to this screen where you create your character, complete with portrait. It’s merely cosmetic, but I decide to go for the classy gentleman portrait for this one.
This game boasts “hundreds of game variations.” I’m not seeing hundreds, here.
Hoyle Casino has seven base games in it: Blackjack, Slot Machines, Craps, Roulette, Pai-Gow Poker, Video Poker and just “Poker.” Considering Hoyle is best known for playing cards, I’m not surprised how much poker games are in that.
As I select the Poker option, suddenly I am given a deluge of various choices.
More poker than you need. Not like these variants matter considering everybody just plays Texas Hold’em these days…
Holy crap, that’s a lot of poker games. They got most of the common ones, including Seven Card Stud that I remember playing in Vegas Stakes, as well as the now-iconic Texas Hold ‘Em, the one type of Poker everyone knows because it was on TV for a long while.
So for the past month and a half, I’ve been fixated on something a bit unusual:
When you need some jams while getting the ace on Dust II.
Valve introduced “music kits” to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive back in October 2014. These special items replace the game’s default music with unique tracks by nine different musicians. You can get one of these offered randomly in-game for $4.99, or buy one on the Steam marketplace if you’re looking for a specific one. Alternatively while in-game, you can borrow anyone’s music kit if they have one equipped, so you can give it a try in action.
I love video game music. I also tend to get nerdy about the parts of video game music most people don’t notice. Naturally when this was announced, I was excited for something that was probably done to distract us from how broken the CZ75-Auto is in CS:GO (at the time). But I was curious on what each one sounded like, and if they were any good.
The first nine music kits introduced. A nice mix of game composers, DJs and hard rockers.
For the sake of this, I’m gonna give a review of each kit. Granted, I’m not an expert at reviewing music, but I’ll try to review it to the best of my abilities, and links that feature each kit so you can listen to them for yourself. Without further ado, let’s get started.
I’m not gonna review the stock default that’s been in the game since 2012, but I will say this: It’s fine. It works. It’s credited to just “Valve,” but some of it seems to be split between Valve composer mainstay Mike Morasky and DOTA2/MystV composer Tim Larkin. It’s what I kinda hate about Valve’s philosophy of only crediting the company rather than specific employees: It makes it harder to credit who made who.
(Videos courtesy of YouTube user TheLeafyfille.)
Austin Wintory, Desert Fire
DESCRIPTION: Grammy nominated game composer Austin Wintory asks, why bother hunting your enemies when you can lure them in with a deadly, admittedly insane, tango?
Austin Wintory’s done music for most of thatgamecompany’s work, such as fl0w, and Journey, which I heard was a great game. (I still need to get around to playing that one.) Out of all the game composers featured here, barring Sean Murray, I’d say he’s probably the most famous game composer out of everyone here.
Wintory’s Desert Fire opts for an acoustic guitar with an orchestral accompaniment, fitting right at home on maps like Inferno, Mirage or Dust II. One of my favorites is the second action cue (startaction02) that plays immediately as a round starts, with a brassy horn section finely tuned to the action. The MVP Anthem is another favorite, with quick percussion and a flute solo, which fits perfectly for when you fragged the entire enemy team, or successfully defused a bomb.
It may be a bit cliche on the acoustic guitars and the woodwinds, but it works insanely well. We’re already off to a great start.
VERDICT: Highly recommended.
Daniel Sadowski, Crimson Assault
DESCRIPTION: Video Game Composer Daniel Sadowski delivers Edgy Action mixed with CRAZY FAT beats in this pulsating, exhilarating Music Pack.
I’ve never heard of Daniel Sadowski, but he’s done music here and there for some movies and games, most notable the 2009 A Boy and His Blob reboot, and doing music for something like Counter-Strike is enough to get you noticed more, so good on him.
Crimson Assault goes heavy on the techno, a 3-note motif appearing throughout all the tracks in his score, becoming the only notable thing about it. The score itself is very much pulse-pounding action, and the bomb timer music being one of the highlights, fitting perfectly with the suspense of bomb defusal mode.
This music kit took a good while to grow on me. At first, I felt it was bad techno and was probably the worst of the pack, but after a few listens and hearing it in action in-game, it fits in CS:GO. If you’re looking for something that will get your blood pumping, Crimson Assault’s not a bad choice.
VERDICT: Lightly recommended, get it on the Steam Marketplace on discount.
Dren, Death’s Head Demolition
DESCRIPTION: From game music composer Dren, this cinematic, superhero-metal inspired music pack puts the ‘ill’ into KILL!
For this first group of music kits, Valve really went all over the place with who they chose. Dren isn’t a composer I’m familiar with, but he’s done music for other games, mostly mobile games like Transformers: Age of Extinction. As I said, getting featured in a game like this gets you noticed, especially with his music kit.
Filled with heavy percussion and a chugging bass line, Death’s Head Demolition ends up being a good mix of dramatic orchestral score with subtle hints of rock, which does crop up on some other games like Call of Duty. It makes it feel very innocuous, which isn’t bad, it compliments the game without being too obnoxious. This was another one that I thought wasn’t great as first, but after a few listens and hearing it in-game, it fits perfectly fine in the game.
If CS:GO didn’t have a soundtrack in it already, Death’s Head Demolition would probably be the closest to an “official” soundtrack. It strikes a good balance of orchestra and rock, fitting right at home in a game like this. Death’s Head Demolition’s a good music kit, even if it’s not incredibly outstanding.
Hey, it’s that time again. That time where a certain beverage advertises a certain video game. Just in time for it’s release…
Shamelessly stolen from a Mountain Dew Wiki. Because of course that exists.
Yep, Mountain Dew Game Fuel makes its return. I’ve written about these in years past (here are my reviews of the 2012 and 2013 flavors), and I had totally forgotten that they were doing it again until very recently. Reviewing Game Fuel has become a tradition on this site, and I would be remiss if I forgot to cover this year’s model.
This year, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is our big sponsor, after Microsoft got dibs last year, forcing Activision to settle with Monster Energy cans with Call of Duty: Ghostbusters instead. You can read about that, and my virgin experience with Monster Energy here.
Something old, something new. It seems to be Mountain Dew’s MO these days.
So we have two flavors this time round: Citrus Cherry and Lemonade. I’ll make it quick on the Citrus Cherry, since it’s the same flavor as previous years: It tastes like Mountain Dew mixed in with a cherry tinge and gives an unexpected citrus aftertaste. I used to drink Squirt religiously, but I can barely tolerate drinking a glass of Citrus Cherry because of the excess citrus kick.
So this past weekend, I went to the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. It’s my fourth time to the con, and I remember when it was wedged into a small conference area in the DoubleTree Hilton near Lloyd Center to it’s current home at the Oregon Convention Center.
Last year I had recorded video footage from the event, but didn’t use any of it and didn’t write anything about it. This year, I promised myself I’d actually blog about it this time. Especially since the people that run the Expo actually linked to my entry from 2012, where I had gotten a bunch of stuff, talked to “Gamesmaster” Howard Phillips, and had David Crane sign a copy of Pitfall I found at the same expo. I have to thank the expo for even giving my podunk blog a few extra views every now and then. 🙂
This is more of a “what I saw” post. I didn’t spend much at the con itself, but I did find a bunch of really, really interesting gaming stuff. Join me as we look at some of the things these vendors had to offer.
See if you can spot all the references and crossovers at this booth.
One of the things I saw early on was a booth by Level Up Studios, one of those “gaming/nerd culture” sort of places that covers the gamut of common stuff. There were shirts based on current trends, including several based on Guardians of the Galaxy. I guess people really liked Rocket Raccoon and Groot.
Well, at least he’s going back to his roots…
But one thing really caught my eye: This shirt. It’s Sonic eating onion rings. Somebody must of have played a lot of that Sonic 2 XL Romhack that was popular around the web a few years ago. It also reminded me of one of those old Sonic communities I was a part of when I was a teenager.
Unfortunately I’m not big on wearing t-shirts that have designs on them. Even the many shirts I’ve gotten over the many years I went to PAX go mostly unused. So, sadly, I didn’t buy a shirt with fat Sonic on it.
I am not a fan of Kiss. I only know a few of their songs, mostly because they appeared in Rock Band. I’m aware of Gene Simmons’ mastery of marketing the band, complete with corny ’70s live-action specials, their shift to hair metal in the 80s, and of course, the infamous Kiss Kasket.
They have a couple good songs, at least. “Love Gun,” “I Was Made for Lovin’ You,” even “Strutter” is pretty solid. Kiss is a band I can appreciate and respect, but I don’t really care for them.
The late ’90s was the time for a Kiss comeback: The original line-up got back together and released an album in 1998 called Psycho Circus. With that title, and probably with a pinch of Gene Simmons’ marketing mastery, it eventually lead to a comic book series written by Spawn creator Todd MacFarlane, and of course, a video game. Prepare for the Nightmare Child.
This is one of four different covers. I guess they hoped people would buy all four in a way to recuperate the development cost?
Kiss Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child is a video game adaption of the Psycho Circus comic book series by Image Comics and Todd MacFarlane Productions. The comic involved the band members becoming supernatural beings and saving the universe as part of the silly team moniker Four-Who-Are-One. The video game borrows elements from the comic, but has a wholly different story.
This was released on PC and Dreamcast in 2000, not long after games like Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament were getting big. Though this being released on the Dreamcast and not the then-forthcoming PlayStation 2 is rather baffling, but maybe it’s for the best.
Instead of playing as members of Kiss, you play as members of a Kiss tribute band who get teleported to a special world ran by this gypsy named Madame Raven. She tells you about this big bad called “The Nightmare Child,” one that will destroy the world, and your band are the chosen ones to stop them.
I hope you love mystical dialog that barely makes any sense!
Separated by the Hall of Mirrors, each band member goes through each world as they grab each of the six pieces that form the respective Elder to stop the mythical Nightmare Child. Admittedly, the story is rather nonsensical even in-game, I had to resort to the manual to understand this bizarre-ass story.
I can say with authority that this story is so god damn ridiculous that it’s not worth looking further into. Then again, with this being co-opted by a band known for wearing silly outfits and the guy who created freakin’ Spawn, I’m not expecting System Shock 2 levels of storytelling here.
Here’s a silly little easter egg: The statue is holding the logo of developer Third Law Interactive.
This game was developed by Third Law Interactive, founded by one of the original members of the Daikatana development team during its first year or so when it was under the Quake engine, so already we’re off to a shaky start. They didn’t do a whole lot of notable stuff outside of this game, my brief internet search found out they worked on an Aliens vs. Predator 2 expansion and added stuff to the Game of the Year edition of No One Lives Forever.
You may have noticed that’s all Monolith/Lithtech stuff. Unsurprisingly, this game runs on Lithtech 1.5, which is an absolute pain in the ass to get working on modern devices without needing an elder god and maybe dgVoodoo2. Worst off, that this is one of those games that has the pesky disc check, and no patch or update is out to turn it off. A shame, really.
But let’s get to the meat of Kiss Psycho Circus. In the game, you choose one of the four supernatural characters and go through a set of levels, getting weapons, jumping on platforms, activating switches and killing enemies in your wake. Through the levels, you’re looking for the items make your character part of the Elder, like boots, shoulder pads, and finally the iconic Kiss masks.
This guy’s ready to pull the trigger on his gun. His Love Gun, that is.
