I was listening to PCGamer’s podcast this morning, and they mentioned a new relase of a game called AudioSurf. They loved it. So I did some research. Apparently *alot* of people love it. Here’s just two.

The Escapist Review (Recommend: Buy It)

Gamer 2.0 (9/10, Editor’s Choice)

Watching some of the videos on YouTube (see the main site’s video/review section), I can see why.

My sample video gives a good show of the interaction between the main rhythm and the bass, with the changing road, but doesn’t really show the complexity of a faster song, nor any of the grey blocks.

Escapist’s review has a great summary, so I’m not going to try and rewrite it:

    Audiosurf is an Independent Games Festival 2008 finalist, and with good reason. Part racing game, part match-three game and part rhythm game, Audiosurf synthesizes these three genres into a wholly satisfying experience. The basic premise of the game is simplicity itself – you steer a ship down a three-lane highway, scooping up colored blocks into a grid and trying to get matches of three or more blocks. What makes Audiosurf such an enjoyable experience is how the highway, blocks and background is generated.

    Like many other racing games, Audiosurf can import music from your collection – including CD audio, MP3s, M4As, WMAs and OGGs. Unlike those other games, Audiosurf actually analyzes each track you upload and generates a course specific to that song, using the primary instruments to place colored blocks and tempo to alter the elevation of the highway. The result is a compelling and intuitive experience, and like most things musical, you just have to be there to truly appreciate it. As your song slows, you find yourself slowing, moving uphill, weaving between lanes and casually scooping up the blocks. As the tempo increases, you start heading downhill and pick up speed until the blocks are flashing past you so quickly it’s practically dizzying. Red and yellow blocks are worth more points, and you’ll find more of them in the up-tempo portions of your soundtrack. The blue and purple blocks are worth fewer points, but they are easier to come by. Gray blocks get in your way as you zoom around.

Here’s the thing. The game is only $9.95 on Steam! That’s a bargain for a game that has the replay value that it appears to have.

Sure, it’s not Rock Band since this first version doesn’t have any sort of multiplayer aspect, but given the amount of my friends who are music-rhythm game enthusiasts, I think this will be right up our alley.

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Once More, With Feeling has to be one of my favorite Buffy episodes of all time. When it first aired, it was well received by fans, even if it didn’t win an Emmy (helped in part by a ballot printing error).

We own the CD soundtrack and both Jean and I sing along. It’s a great album for staying awake when you are driving by yourself too. Last week, when we went to Kingdom Crusades, I listened to the album twice; once on the way down, and once on the way back up. I’m also 99% sure that we own the script as well, and that it was a Christmas gift for Jean one year.

Now, one of things we’ve never done is go to a Buffy Sing-A-Long. This is done in the tradition of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, with actors, props, a preshow, the whole kit and kaboodle.

It looks like we’ll never be able to either. Apparently:

Lawyers for Twentieth Century Fox Television, a division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., told a licensing company that had given the green light for the sing-along events that it had gone beyond limits of the show’s licensing agreements.

It’s best summed up by the opening line of the article which reads: Lawyers have driven a stake into the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" sing-along.

I’m sure that while the lawyers got to be the mouthpiece of the decision, many entertainment execs were also involved in the process. They weren’t making enough money to replace the white rhinoceros leather seat covers in their car more than once a year, so they decided if they couldn’t make money from the sing alongs, that the fans shouldn’t be able to do it either.

Fuck them. How many times can fans of shows be crapped on. This is a show which has been off the air for 4 years, but still manages to have a lively fan base. Many shows come and go on TV, but it’s only the truly great ones that survive the years. If you don’t think that Buffy was a great show, then you’re just looking at the surface appearances that turned many of the critics sour. Yet, even with its poor (comparative) ratings, it managed to have quite on impact on our culture and media. I don’t know if realizing that it made Time Magazine’s Best TV Shows of All-TIME would change your opinion… but it just might.

Current Mood:  disappointed

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