It sure has been a banner week for drinking games here at Kotaku! Well… actually I've only posted one other drinking game, but still, two in one week feels somehow indulgent.
You may have heard of musician/inventor/super-genius Ali Spagnola over on our sister site Gizmodo, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't hear about her again. She's put together something she calls The Power Hour Album, which uses a USB shot-glass and an album of her music to get you drunk in the simplest, most directly enjoyable way possible.
You have heard of a "power hour" in drinking, yeah? Each minute of one hour, everyone does one shot of beer. It's a way to pace out your intake while slowly getting yourself super drunk. Spagnola's amazing idea was to record an album containing 60 one-minute songs to accompany you on your hour-long road to inebriation.
The album is being sold in part to offset legal costs that Spagnola has incurred in a battle with another guy who claims that he owns the rights to the term "power hour." And, while I can't speak to the strength of his legal argument, that seems like the work of some villain. Who would do such a thing? Let this amazing thing exist!
She explains the setup in the video above—the shot glass itself comes with a built-in USB minidrive that contains her The Power Hour Album. It's one-stop shopping folks—you get music and the shot glass; all you have to supply is the beer! Well, and the motivation to actually drink that much.
Welcome back to "Menu Music," our regular Kotaku Melodic feature where we look at (and listen to) the best and worst menu music the video game world has to offer.
Menu music is a very important thing—it's the first thing we hear when we boot up the game, and it sets the tone for the game experience to come. It gets us in the mood, if you will. I can think of many examples of fantastic menu music (many of which I'll highlight here in the weeks to come!), but one of my favorites has got to be the menu music from 2010's Pac-Man Championship Edition DX.
God, I loved this game. It was easily one of my favorite games of 2010, and I still play it regularly. It's a crazy mixture of pinpoint reflex gameplay, psychedelic colors, and rave music that tied in with the games ever-accellerating pace to create wildly enjoyable musical crescendos.
The way this game moves, the endless forward push, the friction of the bullet-time turns, the frankly orgasmic satisfaction of slamming through a huge line of purple ghosts…. there are few games like it. Yikes, I need a cigarette!
This menu music just kills me. It's so funky that I would just leave it on for a while every time I played, bobbing my head and flipping through the menus.
The game itself has some fantastic music too, as evidenced by the clip to your left.
Here, you can watch a guy bust out a damned-impressive score attack run on the first level, which also features some of my favorite music.
I actually wrote a thing way back when about how this game is like jazz, drawing a parallel to Bill Evans' liner notes from Miles Davis' seminal album Kind of Blue. In the liner notes, Evans talks about the Japanese visual art suibokuga, in which artists are required to draw single lines on thin parchment, maintaining a constant momentum in order to keep their brushes from punching through.
And yes, Pac-Man CEDX does feel like Evans' description of suibokuga, and in that way, it feels like jazz.
But it also feels like, well, doing it. So, think of its awesome menu music as foreplay. If this tune doesn't get you in the mood for some hard cornering and serious ghost-munching, I don't know what will.
Last week, I finally watched Moneyball. Man, that is one good movie! I genuinely wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did. Everything about it surprised me, from Brad Pitt's careworn, layered performance to Activision CEO Bobby Kotick's capable performance as Oakland Athletics' owner Stephen Schott.
But one of my favorite parts of the entire movie was when Billy Bean (Pitt)'s daughter sings him a song she's written, accompanying herself on the guitar in a music shop. It's a lovely moment, her little voice floating over this pop melody and chord progression and giving it life. Pitt's reaction is priceless—it's a moment of humanity.
I had the song stuck in my head all day yesterday, and mentioned it on twitter. The friendly Adam Austin-Andrew pointed me towards the real version of the song, which is performed by a singer named Lenka, of whom I'd never heard.
So, I thought I would share it with you all here. Want to play it? It's easy. It revolves around four basic chords on the guitar: C major, G major, A minor and F major. Then it sits on G for a couple bars at the end of each chorus.
Doug Tenapel's bizarre, cult, claymation adventure game The Neverhood—and its platforming sequel Skullmonkeys—is unique on many levels. Greenlit by Stephen Spielberg and developed by Dreamworks Interactive, both games are totally unlike anything made before or since.
Today on Kotaku Mixtape we look at some of the music from those games. Written and performed by Terry S. Taylor, its tone ranges from drunken southern mumbles to loud primal shouting.
Also worth noting: Johnathan Coulton has said that one song in particular, Lil' Bonus Room, was actually a direct inspiration for the Portal song Still Alive.
THE PLAYLIST:
1. Klaymen's Theme
2. Operator Plays A Little Ping Pong
3. Southern Front Porch Whistler
4. The Lil' Bonus Room
5. Skullmonkeys (The Theme)
6. Elevated Structure of Terror
7. Beep Bop Bo Shards
The two CD soundtrack, Imaginarium: Songs from the Neverhood, is still in print to this day. If you like what you hear, order it here.
The game/music website Nubuwo is holding a kickstarter to raise money to help them launch a couple of different projects centered around video game music.
They're short of their goal with only a few hours to go, but if you pledge, you can score a huge collection of great video game music, featuring work by great composers like Masashi Hamauzu, Laura Shigihara, Danny Baranowsky, and Chris Schlarb.
Head on over there and check it out, and if you find the cause worthy, kick in a few bucks.
Aliens sure are awesome, aren't they? They are the ultimate killing machine! They're super sweet-looking! They star in two of the best sci-fi films ever made!
The surprisingly cool Nintendo DS (not 3DS) game Aliens Infestation sure did like those titular xenomorphs, merging alien-killing with Metroid-like action to create a surprisingly fun game.
But I'd wager that the best part of Aliens: Infestation is the closing credits. Written and performed by the band Guyz Nite, it stands apart from even the best video game credits anthems.
It's mostly the lyrics, which are a resplendent celebration of everything about the Aliens movies.
Alien - they say it's structural perfection's matched only by its hostility.
Even artificial persons are impressed.
It preys on men.
Don't need no special suit don't need no nukes
And don't need no artillery to rip right through your chest.
Aliens gestate inside a living human host and have some concentrated acid for blood
They mostly come at night. Mostly.
Their fate depends on whether there's an airlock, whether they're in space, or whether there's a chick who's just to fast to be cut. But the pros have come to fight. But the pros see
They have to get off LV-426
And nuke it from orbit, like Corporal Hicks, cause we know
Whoever said that there's no real monsters
Never battled with an alien
Throwing down for the company, it's something we've never seen before
Bringing war to xenomorphs this time
The lyrics were written by Guyz Nite bassist Dan Kramer. If the name Guyz Nite sounds familiar to you, it's because they were also responsible for that legendary Die Hard song that made the rounds a little while back:
Dear god, this doesn't need any commentary from me… it speaks for itself. No one dies harder than John McClane!
Ahem. Back to the Aliens song. I emailed with Kramer, who explained how the song came to be. As it turns out, it was a second version of a song that Guyz Nite originally recorded for the Aliens vs. Predator film. (You can see that full video to the side here. It's awesome as well, though Kramer shared that he feels much more partial to Aliens than to their dreadlocked hunters the Predators.)
Here's Kramer on how the song came to be:
I'm a huge Aliens fan, and though I love the first Predator, I don't think it's deserving of a song. After our success with Die Hard, we realized the best viral videos/advertisements are songs where the band clearly loves the product they're selling. So I wrote the Aliens part by itself. Then coincidentally, FOX reached out to us to do some "exploratory" work for their AvP campaign, and we figured this would work. (I also have three "Christmas Aliens" tracks that they requested, since the AvP release was on Christmas day 2007. They are completely ridiculous - mashups of familiar holiday songs with silly Aliens lyrics. I'd be happy to send, if you're interested.) I wrote the Predator parts for the singer of Guyz Nite, and he sang them. Then FOX decided the campaign was too similar to what we did for Die Hard, so they scrapped it. I was contacted a few months later by WayForward Technologies, the software company that was writing Aliens: Infestation. They asked that I change the lyrics to be entirely about Aliens, which, of course, I was happy to do. And there you have it!
Nice. And because they are hilarious, here are the full lyrics for the AvP version of the song:
Alien - they say it's structural perfection's matched only by its hostility.
Even artificial persons are impressed.
It preys on men.
Don't need no special suit don't need no nukes
And don't need no artillery to rip right through your chest.
Aliens gestate inside a living human host and have some concentrated acid for blood
They mostly come at night. Mostly.
Their fate depends on whether there's an airlock, whether they're in space, or whether there's a chick who's just to fast to be cut. But their foes have come to fight. Only…
It's here in our home where the demons collide
The fate of our race is not ours to decide. We know…
Every battle has a predator
And every battle has an alien.
Throwing down on the battlefield this awesome beast won't be prey again.
Aliens play to win this time.
Predator, galactic combat master trained to use sophisticated weaponry.
Their defensive adaptations are astounding.
A warrior, once hunted Dutch, Jesse the Body and the late Apollo Creed.
He gave ‘em all a solid pounding.
Predators, they play to kill and kill to win when they begin the epic game of death.
A mighty force to be confronted.
Spread the word, armed with gun a predator can take on tons of aliens in a single breath.
But at times the hunter can become the hunted.
But here in our home where the demons collide
The fate of our race is not ours to decide. We know…
Every battle has a predator
And every battle has an alien.
Throwing down on the battlefield, huntin' down ancient competitors
Predator will win again this time.
Alien's got a razor-sharp tail and a tiny little head that pops right
out of his mouth – it's just for chomping...
Predator has got all kinds of crazy gear and triple targeting
and that self-destructing bomb thing.
Predator skins his prey and hangs em up from trees
Predator's gonna hunt ‘em all down and watch ‘em bleed!
Alien vs. Predator
Ha! The late Apollo Creed, indeed.
Sadly, Guyz Nite is no more, but members of the band have spun off into a new band called The Stink, who have a new EP available.
Until now, I'd never heard a closing credits song so good that it made me want to go buy a game. Rock on, fellas.
Greetings, and welcome to Kotaku Melodic, your thursday-night spot for all things musical and video gamey. Please tip your wait staff, no flash photography or recording during the show.
Gaming site CVG got a copy of the love scene between a male Commander Shepard and a male lover. They posted it to YouTube where... it's being spammed with dislikes. 1,320 dislikes to 292 likes at this count.
We haven't played enough of the game to see the scene ourselves, but it looks legit. Still, what's so bad about it? YouTube users, you're trashing it for the acting, right?
News and notes from around the world of sports video gaming:
• The Diamond Dynasty mode for MLB 12 The Show is extremely deep—last week, I hit the broad points, but still there are some details and features that you may not yet know about. Matt Vasgersian, the game's play-by-play announcer, tries to answer all of your questions in this guided tour of The Show's new fantasy-team mode.
• Madden Cover Contest Update: They're announcing the AFC East candidates today. The Buffalo Bills will field QB Ryan Fitzpatrick and WR (and free agent) Stevie Johnson—both of whom I picked in this column. The New England Patriots' candidates are WR Wes Welker and TE Rob Gronkowski. The New York Jets will be represented by QB Mark Sanchez and CB Darrelle Revis. The Dolphins candidates are NCAA Football 07 cover star Reggie Bush and WR Brandon Marshall.
In addition to Fitzpatrick and Johnson and Sanchez and Revis, I split with my picks of Gronk and the law firm of Benjarvus Green-Ellis, then Bush and Jake Long. Stick Jockey is 16-24 in its selections; we need more than 44 to win a bet with an unnamed third party.
• Want to help EA Sports get its basketball franchise back on track? The publisher is forming an advisory council for NBA Live 13, announced last week. "In 100 words or less, tell us why you should be selected as part of the inaugural Advisory Council. We are looking for passionate, dedicated fans to provide insight and feedback," says EA Sports. Winners will be selected by the development team at EA Sports Tiburon. Participants should enter here.
Though not yet officially ratified by Major League Baseball, a 10-team playoff format said to take effect this season will be supported in the season-long modes of Major League Baseball 2K12 when the game hits shelves on Tuesday, 2K Sports confirmed to Kotaku.
A 10-team playoff, in which two wild-card qualifiers from each league play each other in a single-elimination game before the leagues' division series, will be an option when players start a new Franchise mode in MLB 2K12. Though Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal first reported that MLB will adopt the 10-team format for this season—it will take effect in 2013 at the latest—the change has not been officially announced. So, whatever postseason bracket the leagues adopt for 2012, 2K Sports' game will support it in the code on the disc, without need for a post-release patch.
When contacted by Kotaku, Sony, the makers of MLB The Show, couldn't confirm that the feature would be part of MLB 12 The Show either at release or through a post-release patch. "This something the team has been considering but were waiting for league confirmation," a spokesman told Kotaku. "They're looking into it now, but unfortunately nothing we can update at this time."
If the change happens, it will be just the third time Major League Baseball has expanded its postseason since the World Series began in 1903. Advocates of the format change say it would expand the pool of teams playing meaningful baseball into September, and the one-game elimination round among wild card teams would restore incentive for teams to win their division. Critics dislike the addition of playoff-eligible teams to a postseason with the strictest eligibility requirements in North American professional sport.
The game/music website Nubuwo is holding a kickstarter to raise money to help them launch a couple of different projects centered around video game music.
