Have you ever wondered what happens to human mind on acid? Put on headphones, put Aghora on, play it, close your eyes, and imagine the music. Acidic visions certain! Welcome to the world of Aghora.
Aghora is a band that consists of people who had played different genres of metal music. In addition, the vocalist is after music school, so yes, her voice is crystal clear. Each of their song is a mixture of guitars, percussion, keyboard, and strange sounds, melodic and hypnotizing vocals which progressive metal is known for. The subject of my review is their debut album Aghora released in 2000.
Immortal Bliss opens the Aghora album with music similar to the Arabic kind and then goes to heavy riffs from guitars. Sometimes Rivero’s vocal part is unintelligible. Soon a guitar solo rises from the chaos still accompanied by the same riffs and percussion following with solo from a keyboard. Song ends with existential questions.
Satya starts with keyboard and throws us into Danishta Rivero loud voice. Heavy music + her vocals! I ask for more because I am not satisfied. Moreover, from time to time you can hear chorus which adds to the psychedelic character not only of the song but of the whole album. I liked the experimentation, crazy solo, great drumming here!
Transfiguration has once again Arabic instruments at the beginning. Then bass guitar enters accompanied by vocalist singing higher and higher beyond our plane of existence. This song like others in the album has slow and fast parts. I have enjoyed bass guitar, the speed at which it delivered sounds to my ears.
Frames is for me flagship of this album. It certainly deserves the title of “masterpiece”. The drums at the beginning for a long time functioned as my alarm clock melody. It really wakes people up, even the dead ones. I like the echoes during her “perplexed” line of the lyrics. Also the heavy parts make this song magical, giving away great powers of acid without the acid involved! In your face drug dealers! About halfway through the song we can hear soothing vocals very different from the first part of it. Furthermore, guitars and weird sounds add to this calm atmosphere. It’s like having two songs in one but it would be sad to separate them.
Mind’s Reality once more we have a song combing clear vocals with heavy riffs. I really don’t know what draws me near this music piece. It’s just good, with all the solos, drums, guitars and singing.
Kali Yuga has the best opening sequence in the whole album. It is a mixture of keyboard, guitars, and drums that should be taught in music schools. In one part of the song I’m pretty sure that you can hear band’s members uttering the same lyrics. More psychedelic feelings are flowing out of the endless entropy.
Jivatma starts with another Arabic rhythms and some spoken fragment from (). This song is mysterious; it hypnotizes us with the constant and same sounds. Those unintelligible words, ominous chorus in the background makes this music piece another good psychedelic song. Of course the drums and guitars are present but almost non-audible apart from the solo. Jivatma is the longest reordered song on this album (running time: 11:17) with its second half devoted to crazy guitar solos and ending with “All is bliss”.
Existence sounds like it is sad, longing for something. Hypnotizing vocals are once more present with the addition of fast and hard drumming combined with guitars. And please if someone out there knows, what makes these sounds (beyond the keyboard of course) from 4:08 to 4:20, please write it down in the comments. I want to know! This part of the song is great. And then comes the ending with constant drumming being the main part of that section.
Anngraha is the last song from the Aghora album by Aghora. It opens with a zither. I am guessing. I really can’t different instruments and know only the basic ones. The “la, la, la” parts are great but only thanks to the whole gamma of instruments playing alongside. And I hear not only percussion but maybe bongos? This song ends the album in a good way. Just like it started it ends leaving my baffled by the way they combined everything to make audible.
Listen and fly away
Aghora certainly is a band which makes me wonder what kind of drugs they had to take to obtain such exotic and powerful combos of psychedelic music. I honestly didn’t listen to other album but it doesn’t mean I prefer only the first one. I hope their music is as great as it was on the debut long play. Even though their music is great, sometimes it tends to be repetitive, high-pitched vocals in particular songs seem not to be fitted. I hope their potential for making alternative music hasn’t vanished in the subsequent long play.
Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai (We Still Don't Know the Name of the Flower We Saw That Day) or for short AnoHana (That flower over there) is anime which saved this year’s spring season of anime not only on noitaminA but on all Japan’s TVs anime blocks. It gave me the hope that there are people who can still make great new and original animations. It was produced by A-1 Pictures and directed by Tatsuyuki Nagai.
The gang (lower right corner photo): Tsuruko, Yukiatsu, Menma, Jintan, Anaru, Poppo.
No comment...
The plot introduces Yadomi “Jintan” Jinta and his childhood friends (Honma “Menma” Meiko, Anjō “Anaru” Naruko, Matsuyuki “Yukiatsu” Atsumu, Tsurumi “Tsuruko” Chiriko, and Hisakawa “Poppo” Tetsudō) now attending different high schools who try to fulfil Menma’s wish. Of course as always there are some complications. First, Menma is a ghost and only Jintan is able to see her. Second, she really doesn’t remember what her wish was. Third, who would believe you that you see ghost of a deceased friend? Fourth and last, Jintan became a hikikomori (a person who has withdrawn from society) due to Menma dying during one of their plays, Anaru (boy I love her nickname) joined the same high school as Jintan, Yukiatsu and Tsuruko are attending an elite high school and Poppo is nowhere to be found. Their group known as “Super Peace Busters” fell apart just like it can be observed in real-life how people sever their contacts after graduating from school. Although the plot is not very complex it is not shallow and stupid. Characters are full-blooded, different from one another and are devoid of unnaturalness. I enjoyed watching interactions between them. Each of the friends carry heavy burden of which we eventually learn. I won’t spoil you the show but there are some great scenes in it which I re-watched many times and I’m planning to watch the whole show once more in a marathon.
Spy vision ON!
Voice actors have done their jobs magnificently. In long time I haven’t heard so much emotion in speech. Each of them played role allowing the portrayal of characters to be full-blooded. Many of them are very young but some already made great appearance in other animations like Jintan’s VA Irino Miyu who played Haku in Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, or Haraku Tomatsu (Anaru) as Ringo in Air Gear: Kuro no Hane to Nemuri no Mori. I think powerful drama shows like AnoHana allow voice actors to improve their skills or if they already have the experience to display those to the audition delight. Animation is of top quality and by that I mean it is comparable to that of movies. Some scenes have even better animation e.g. launching the rocket. But there are examples of using cheap still frames. There are two music pieces. Aoi Shiori (Blue Bookmark) by Galileo Galilei for the opening sequence and Secret Base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~(10 years after Ver.) (The Thing you Gave Me) for the ending sequence. In addition, the ending was performed by the three voice actress playing the role of Menma, Anaru and Tsuruko and it is a cover of Zone song. The opening song is nice and cheerful. The ending fits perfectly for each episode ending and can’t imagine any other music piece but this.
This show as I mentioned before saved the spring season of new anime. AnoHana is only eleven episodes long. But for being a short anime it achieved success that some other shows aren’t able to. AnoHana is a great drama and tearjerker; it almost made me cry which is very hard to do. It sometimes contains more sadness than the whole Wolf’s Rain series (but it is not concentrated in the last few episodes). Of course there are some comedic scenes to balance out the drama ones. AnoHana demonstrates the idea of friendship and love in a way that’s somehow original not pompous and not too dramatic and sad. Even watching the finale I wasn’t sure how it will end. Will it be a happy ending or not? One word: bittersweet. This word describes not only the ending but the whole show as such. I can gladly recommend AnoHana for watching.
Once more I review my family’s delicacy, namely my grandmother’s white borscht. Among my family members it gained almost legendary status.
Even though the recipe is widely available and my grandma uses it, her borscht tastes differently. Sometimes it is so thick I can set a spoon upright and it won’t fall. Alright I’m exaggerating but it would be cool, wouldn’t it? But it’s a fact that is much thicker than the average soup. I would like to state here that I don’t eat meat (No I don’t belong to people who think we should not eat carrion or harm the poor animals for food – I just don’t like it). So yes, my borscht is deprived of sausage. Of course it is still made on one. Without the sausage in stock it would taste awfully. When the borscht is poured into the soup plate it is good to wait a minute or two for the skin. I personally add three slices of bread; two hard-boiled eggs cut into pieces, pepper, salt, butter, horseradish and mix them. One plate of it is enough to fill me for a whole day, and the day after. Moreover I drink tea with the white borscht to make it easier for me to ingest it.
After
What’s more I think the army should take the recipe from my grandmother and use it as new full ration. It is so good. One plate - two days without eating. Think of the possibilities! I must hurry and write down how my grandma makes the white borscht and sell it to the best restaurants! It is really that good.
Scrapland released in 2004 was designed by the father of the crazy American McGee’s Alice American McGee. His games are almost always weird, interesting, sometimes shocking and gamers usually divide into fans and anti fans of his work. American McGee’s name does not always mean that the game will be worthwhile. But I think Scrapland is a game you should play at least once.
Let's have some fun, shall we?
Scrapland is an action/adventure game set in the futuristic land of Scrapland, a planet built from scrap. We are D-Tritus a robot who himself assembled from parts and then put together a spaceship in which he has journeyed to the planet Scrapland. It’s worth mentioning that Scrapland consists only of robots that thanks to the Great Database are immortal. D-Tritus is quickly examined if he is not a viscous; copy of him is stored in an indestructible matrix later put in the Great Database. A functionary assigns him to the least good job in the whole Scrapland – a reporter. Soon the archbishop of Chimera (city in which you live) is killed by a viscous and everybody is in uproar because his matrix has been stolen and he cannot be revived. Before we know it D-Tritus is ensnared in a web of intrigue and lies. His only allies are Rusty a retired mercenary and now mechanic, and Deep Throat a mysterious character who looks like he knows more than anyone. I liked the story presented in Scrapland mainly because I was quite surprised with the real identity of Deep Throat, why Crazy Gambler is crazy. Wide range of characters, and newer and bigger spaceships were the contributing factors responsible for an engrossing and interesting plot.
Doom, doom, doom, doom
Scrapland divides into two different gameplays. In the first we as the D-Tritus fly in a spaceship designed in Rusty’s scrap yard. Assembling new vehicle is easy and intuitive. We can choose from different hulls and engines, additionally there are seven weapons of which six you can buy. There’s a considerable diversity of ships you use during the game but at the end there is only one and its name is Doom. There are four big areas in which you can fly, fight others, race them, wreak havoc, runaway from the police or simply take a stroll and observe what’s going on. Furthermore there are special areas in which crazy bets take place. Fly model isn’t bad although steering doesn’t work so well compared to the AIs. Their flying skills are so great that it makes me wonder how they are capable of doing it. Our arsenal as mentioned above consists of seven weapons. Laser is the basic which every ship has. During missions you unlock other six – Vulcan, Devastator, Tesla, ATPC, SWARM, and Inferno. Those sets of twos share the same ammunition – bullets, energy and rockets. These ammo packs hover in space just waiting for you or AIs to take. Moreover destroying other ships gives you money or ammunition. Your arsenal can also deploy disrupters, smoke screens and energetic bombs to help you escape. What’s more each of your weapon has two upgrades (which you must first win in a crazy bet) making them even more diversified. Furthermore, this gameplay is great for multiplayer action. Of course Scrapland has multiplayer. You can battle your friends in several modes: DeathMatch, Team DeathMatch, Capture the Flag, Team Capture the Flag, lalala, and Team lalala. This game allows you play over the Internet and LAN (sic!). A feature almost non-existent in modern games.
The second gameplay would have been a typical TPP action game if it wasn’t for the possibility of changing into other robots. D-Tritus gained this ability after an old camera named Sebastian downloaded the needed software into him. Each type of robot has a different power. Functionaries can bend time, bankers steal money, cops can extort money, bishops fire energetic beams and so on. Some of the missions take place on foot and then you visit one of the areas: Bank, Press Building, Police Station, Town Hall, Temple, and Gambling Joint. These sections are repeatable to some extent, e.g. almost each of them has your office and I really don’t know why they put it there. In addition, in some levels (especially in Bank) you can easily get lost because radar only shows the part in which you are and there is no map of the location available. I like the way robots are designed. The developers were inspired by some stereotypes functioning in real-life. Bankers look like phantom leechers, bishops are fat and wear golden trinkets, operatives take the form of a sphere constantly searching for law offenders.
Let’s hear now what makes this game sometimes boring. For starters, many of the quest you are given are repeatable, e.g. drive here, destroy this, collect that, return, talk on communicator etc. Moreover, quests given to you by Crazy Gambler are banal. Only the crazy bets are challenging. What’s more on foot missions are tiring, some are too hard compared to other. Most of the time I used messenger robot to transport myself through the levels due to him being fast and flying. I rarely used D-Tritus’ body. And other characters usually don’t have anything against you speaking to them in other’s robot suit; some of them even recognize you (those mischievous bankers!). Soundtrack consists of similar electronic music pieces, “FinalFight”, “HumanGD”, and “Outdoor9” are the only worth mentioning.
Hello there
After these six years Scrapland still looks good and playable, especially if you want to play with your friends and destroy their ships! From time to time I return to it, to rediscover how great it is to fly in a futuristic city. It reminds me of The Fifth Element, G-Police, and Crime Cities. If you are bored and have free time play it. It’s worth it!
Just to make it clear. I didn’t play Fable II due to Molyneux dissing PC gamers worldwide. So when comparing Fable III to a prequel I will use Fable: The Lost Chapters.
Fable III is the third second game set in the fictional world of Albion. Peter “genius” Molyneux invites us to become once more the Hero of Albion™. The Guild is no more and the technology advanced from medieval times to industrial revolution. Together with magic, steam exists (reminds me of Arcanum but in childish version), we’ve got powder and in consequence pistols and rifles replaced good old bows and crossbows. Thankfully cold steel is still present. We start as the younger brother/sister of king of Albion. And at the very start I want to thank whoever done the intro to this game. It’s marvellous, funny at times and sad at the very end (Though I’m starting to think that Molyneux has a chicken fixation). The intro was so good that I thought the whole game will be the same. I was wrong.
Let’s start with the good sides (though there won’t be many). Development of our character’s skills is shown in the road to rule. There we, after having accumulated a number of guild seals can open chests containing upgrades for our melee, ranged and magic weapons, new spells, expressions, dyes (no I’m not joking), and the ability to buy houses, business etc. Every time I gathered a sufficient number of points I would instantly teleport to the road to rule to buy new melee or ranged weapon upgrade because they usually change the looks of a weapon. So the right side of the road is for fighting. The left side is only useful when you want to unlock estate manager. Expressions and dyes? Hell no. Fable III is certainly an RPG. You can kill and fuck almost anyone. A quality for which, RPGs have been known. Moreover, you can buy houses, live in them, rent them, sell, repair, and change the rent. It is almost the same for various businesses (ranging from tattoos parlours to pawnbrokers, you can even buy a fort!) with the difference that you cannot live in them but you are allowed to change prices. Basically you can buy most of the kingdom while leading a rebellious life of a renegade chased by your own brother. And no one will ever take your estates from you! Talk about convenience. Another quality of RPGs is the great number of interaction you can possibly have with other characters. In the first Fable expressions were used but did not wear of so quickly. In Fable III some expression are absurd and stupid. Farting in front of someone’s face, burping and obscene gestures. This game could have worked without them very well. Another thing I would like to praise is the combat. If some of you watched a teaser in which the hero shots left and right without turning around it is true. You can do it all in this game. Changing from melee, to ranged and magic attacks is very quick and intuitive. Thanks to that fights look more epic and dynamic compared to the first game. To top that you have six spells (fireball, shock, ice storm, vortex, force push and blades) which you can throw at one enemy or use their area of effect version. Furthermore, after one special upgrade you can combine their power (I personally used vortex + blades), creating even more fabulous spells. Using swords, hammers, pistols and rifles is also great. Although, finishers aren’t as showy as spells they’re interesting to see. Hammers for example work great on hobbes. Those creatures work well as baseball balls for your bat (hammer). There are many finishers but I think it is better to watch them on youtube:
We are moving on to the weapons section. Each and every one of them you can upgrade three times by doing tasks similar to achievements system. With every change the weapons changes its look and becomes more powerful. I at the end of the game used the mentioned spell combination, “Scythe’s Warhammer” and two pistols for different enemies, “The Bonesmasher” for skeletons and “Chickenbane” for everything else. Voice actors were well-chosen and I enjoyed listening to them and guessing who is who. The music is almost unnoticeable but it plays well in the background. What’s more, I enjoyed the side quests. But not the ones given to you by people who want to be with you on better terms, but the ones listed in your list. Fighting against ghosts, unravelling the truth behind the Sunset Villa, giving birth to a dark cult. Side quests won’t allow you to be bored. I think that those were the good sides of Fable III. Also the locations are beautiful. Sometimes it is good to stop fighting and go sightseeing.Now we will move on to the bad sides of Fable III.
Firstly, Microsoft, Lionhead and Molyneux lied to us about planning to publish the game on the PC as soon as the console version has been published. One year later... I was so happy because I could finally play the awaited game (minimal system requirements met my laptop’s hardware so hurrah). I don’t remember when I played a game so badly optimalized. Textures disappearing, “Alt + Tab” crashes from time to time, game looking worse than many games with the same system requirements (e.g. The Witcher 2), low rate of fps. I played it on 800x600 resolution! Another feature getting on my nerves quite frequently was the interactive and 3D map. But calling it a map would be offensive to mapmakers. It shows landmarks with paths between them though you better buy an official guide where maps are actually precise compared to those badly made imitations. Weapon upgrading system is stupid. Some of the tasks require digging out 30 items. What if you have already done it before acquiring and carrying a weapon with you? Sorry, you must find and dig another thirty. While I don’t care about it before you find a weapon, achievements should be counted if weapons are in your sanctuary. In addition, developers of Fable III decide to make the hero invincible. You cannot die, never. But certainly there must some kind of punishment? Gaining another guild seal is zeroed. A gruesome punishment I’d say. Another ridiculous thing is the almost non-visible interface. You see it when choosing a weapon, gathering guild seals, using potions. But your health is not visible! They’ve probably abandoned the idea to make the game more realistic. Guess what Peter, our vision when dying doesn’t turn red. I preferred the old system of health indicator by numbers or life’s gauge. I’m pretty disappointed with the length of the game. It is too short. When you become the king, your times of reign fly by very fast. And here we have two more stupid solutions served to us by the developers. The morality choices don’t really have any significant after-effects. Even if you don’t keep promise and become the big bad you will still get endgame powerup – angelic or devilish wings when holding attack button. When you become the king of Albion, you have exactly one year before the game ends and during this time you have to rule. It all goes to four to five decisions in every couple of days. I don’t like them because there is simply too few of them for me to be fully satisfied with ruling. In addition, people don’t respect you in a way a king should be respected. They still give you stupid tasks of bringing something for them. I mentioned earlier in the review that you can kill almost anyone. And what is the punishment? Pay a fine good sir and we will release you. I also want to write about expressions in this part. Farting, threatening, insulting etc., don’t have any visible repercussions apart from the ones that people don’t like you. When playing a pen-and-paper RPG doing any of the aforementioned gestures to anyone would normally end with a fight or worse with you being thrown into prison.Another great future of Fable III is your dog. If it wasn’t for the digging and warning me of enemies I could have managed without him. What the beta testers (were there any?) missed are the problems of pathfinding by the dog. He gets lost easily, sometimes isn’t able to overcome little obstacles. Man that’s irritating! What’s more this game doesn’t allow you to open one of the demon doors! I thought it was a single campaign. Once again I was wrong. You must invite somebody to your game and go with him there, perform cuddling and voila! the passage is open. I mentioned it earlier in the Portal 2 review that I hate co-op games. I’m afraid that Fable IV will be all about co-op. You and your friend will have to buy a copy of the game, or else no game for you, you stupid buyer. Let’s talk about the complex plot of Fable III. Got you there! I’m joking of course! You can say many things about the plot but you cannot say it is complex, original, interesting, and long. Two brothers, one is evil, the other is good. Older is the king, younger starts a rebellion, gathers allies. With their help wins the revolution, becomes the king and after a year fights the real enemy. And let me tell you. The final battle is disappointing. Short, not emotional and boring. It looks like the developers didn’t have an idea how to end the story. It is advisable for them to watch how some old games’ outros are long, explanatory and satisfying. The last thing that shows how much PC gamers aren’t respected by Molyneux and etc. is the one year difference in publishing between X360 and PC version but no difference between bugs! They haven’t done anything to make this game better. Arrghhh!!! I’m done.
Lionhead Studios advertising themselves in-game.
Peter Molyneux and Lionhead Studios have made a harmful game. It’s very frustrating and stressful. I advise anyone out there to not buy this game as it is simply not worth your money. I hope that Molyneux will stop his whining about how he had only two years to make it. I always considered him a great game maker but I’m talking about Populous, Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper, Black and White, and Fable: The Lost Chapters. Fable III should be put into garbage can.
The sole reason why I bought The Orange Box was Portal. A type of game I like. A game where enemies don’t chase after me trying to eat my brain. A game where I can calmly think over what should I do next. Portal is a game which takes the advantage of your mind. It was a great game; short but still entertaining (especially GLaDOS monologues). And then, around March, 2010 Portal was patched giving to the users hints of the coming sequel which is the subject of my review.
Portal 2 starts couple of years or centuries after the events of the first Portal (I guess there won’t be any cross-overs between Portal and Half-Life). Once again we assume role of the test subject Chell who must pass another set of deadly puzzles only having a portal gun (Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device). Gameplay is similar to the one from the first game. We are able to make two interconnected portals and by passing them finish levels. The main culprit did not change and apparently survived. GLaDOS prepared even more deadly test areas than before.
We meet Chell in a life-support room and already we are thrown into action trying to get out of it. Chell encounters one of the funniest characters of this year – Wheatley, a core with English accent. With his constant complaints and remarks you don’t feel alone compared to the first instalment in which only GLaDOS talked to you. The whole complex of Aperture Science changed past these years. Roots and plants are now the main inhabitants of the underground facility. From time to time you can even hear birds’ chirp. So the place is not the same. Once it was sterile now it is old and defunct. The way GLaDOS prepares test chambers to function normally is also great to watch. Furthermore, we visit the first test areas located in an abandoned mine and learn more about the history of Aperture Science. I won’t spoil how the game ends but I saw opinions that the ending is “disappointing” etc. I don’t think so. I laughed when watching it. What is strong about this game is the plot, or rather the twists of it, the background story and the brilliant dialogues/monologues (e.g. the scene in which Wheatley tries to hack the password using brute-force method).
Developers of course added some features to the sequel and gave up on others. We have bombs instead of rocket launchers. Turrets are still present. They have abandoned energetic balls in favour of high-temperature lasers. But we don’t use normal crates to deflect them. New ones were added which reflect those lasers into designed holes. Another feature added was “astral” footpaths. They act as catwalks or barriers. But I think that they are nothing compared to gels. I had so much fun with them, and they come in three colours! Blue one allows you to bounce of it pinball style! Red/Orange speeds up your movement. These two combined create possibilities for very looooong jumps. The last is white/grey gel, which makes any surface good for putting portals on it. I remember flooding one place in a certain level just for the fun of teleporting myself through great distances.
Even though the game is great and I was overjoyed with any news about it before the premiere, there are few things that weren’t well used. Gels being the most innovative feature of the game were introduced too late and I get the feeling their potential was not used to its fullest. I was hoping for an epic battle using them (yes I know how ridiculous it sounds). I don’t if it is just me but I think some levels are too easy. Maybe it is due to me being accustomed to the use of portals. But what was the biggest and most irritating thing were the loading screens! There are too many of them. Few steps here, few steps there, loading screen – repeat! It is a serious flaw and I hope that valve with deal with it by patching the game.
Overall Portal 2 is a game worth playing, a good exercise for our brains and hands. We can play it once more to pay more attention to the surroundings or dialogues, to see some details overlooked during the first play through. Although the game is linear I don’t think that should be changed. My review is devoid of the multiplayer in which you play one of two robots Atlas or P-body with your friend over the steam and together solve puzzles. I hate co-op games. I really do. Why? (Because I’m hard-boiled guy) In this case they are ripping me off. There was a time, long ago, where you could play using one game on a split screen. Those times are over. The one and only game I enjoyed in co-op was Diablo II because it’s fun to slash your enemies with friends. It’s no fun to see if I or my friend fails in one part of a puzzle. The game’s music is a mix of electronic music just like it was in the first one. Nothing great or worth buying (you can download it legally for free from here: http://www.thinkwithportals.com/music.php) but it goes well in the background. “Still Alive” from the ending of first Portal was a hit; “Want You Gone” from the sequel is good but not so great.
So I'm back. I've defended my thesis and graduated. I've become Bachelor of Arts! ^^
Btw Google AdSense blocked my account justifying with some stupid talk. I don't care.
I will be releasing new reviews in a matter of days and today I will put Portal 2 review, so stay tunned!
