Arturia Analog Factory Review

So I recently decided to install Arturia Analog Factory (it came with my synthesizer). Simply put it's a software that combines old school Moog voices as well as some others. You can change the pitch and modulation and mess with the voices all you want. It is amazing. It comes with some awesome sequences and EFX that get me all giddy and want to record whatever comes to mind, but that's the thing. You CAN'T record off this software. It makes no sense to me. It is a computer based synthesizer shouldn't you be able to record off it? I thought a way to solve the problem would be to open Audacity (my usual recording program) and see if I can fix that. Nope. That didn't help no matter how I messed with the recording preferences. Another flaw that seemed to just start happening today is that Analog Factory seems to freeze every minute or two. Last night it was working just fine and today... during the day... it's freezing and dying. The software must be a vampire because I am getting a lot of sun in my room. Overall Analog Factory is... good. It has some amazing voices and my synthesizer (when hooked up to the PC via USB) can control the voices as well, which is obvious, but cool. What brings the software down a lot is that I can't record and it's vampyric so I have to run it at night so that it doesn't die.

I give Arturia Analog Factory a 4 out of 10.

Duke Nukem Never

So I just realized not only did I need to put up a new post, but that 3d Realms has still not released Duke Nukem Forever, or as I like to call it Duke Nukem Never. The trailer was released in December of 2007. Normally when a video game trailer is released that means the game isn't to far off from release. Well here we are in the year 2009 and still no sign of pre-orders. If the game is taking this long to make, this had better be the best game I have ever played in my life! Though to their credit late last year they started to post new screenshots and wallpapers, which mean we might get something soon. But 3d Realms said:

The release date of this game is "When it's done". Anything else, and we
mean anything else is someone's speculation. There is no date. We
don't know any date. If you have a friend who claims they have "inside
info", or there's some game news site, or some computer store at the mall who
claims they know - they do not. They are making it up. There is no
date. Period.
And yes, we know the game has taken a long time.
There's no possible joke you could make about the game's development time that
we haven't already heard. :)

Nazi Zombies

So I was at a party tonight and had the most fun playing a mini-game ever!
My friend simply said to me, "We're playing Nazi Zombies." I was rather perplexed but went along with it. When the games main menu popped up it said, "Call of Duty World at War" and I was even more perplexed, soon he got to the multiplayer screen and we began to play Nazi Zombies. I thought it would be like Left 4 Dead, but set in WWII, but I was so completely wrong! The object of the game is really to survive as long as you can while maintaining and rebuilding the barricades of the building you're trapped in. While this is all happening Nazi Zombies are rushing the building. Now at the party there were girls that were pacifists and easily scared so we were all screaming and shouting to get them freaked out, which made the game more fun. it also turned these pacifists into killing machines. After you kill a certain amount of zombies you can get some power ups like Max Ammo, Instant Kill, and x2 Points. Overall the game presents an awesome challenge that can become a great party game. If they made Nazi Zombies a stand alone online PC game, I would buy it in a heart beat.

I give Nazi Zombies a 10 out of 10.

That is Not the Best live Album! (And other business)

So I went on to UGO and saw they had a list of the best live albums and they had some pretty good on the list like Johnny Cash, Daft Punk, Bruce Springsteen, and The Clash. Those awesome bands were no where near the top though, the best live album according to UGO is Nirvana - "MTV Unplugged" I saw that and it was the biggest piece of crap ever! Honestly! They forgot about some bands who are back from the dead like Front 242 and KMFDM who made some awesome live CDs.

Now KMFDM brings me to the next topic, the new album "Blitz" is up for pre-order on Metropolis's website. The album doesn't come out until March though, so we have a ways to go. The album art is amazing which is why I'm gonna wait until they make T-Shirts to get the album. More info on the album here:
http://www.metropolis-mailorder.com/product.php?prodnum=MET+580

A Quickie

So I got my new synthesizer, which is a Novation Xiosynth. I love it to death. It is absolutely awesome, It has 200 sounds programmed into it with bonus CDs to program more stuff into it. It's got pitch and modulation levers as well as a speed knob and many various other FX knobs that I have yet to figure out what they do. So I ended up making two songs for my first album, which will not only be sold here in the United States, but also in Italy. You can hear my music at: http://myspace.com/cytotoxicity
The song "Daft Individuals [Rough Demo Mix]" is from the single that will follow shortly after and will be exclusive to American listeners. I plan on making three more songs over the weekend at maximum, two at minimum. I did get a guitarrist and I can't wait to work with him as well!

Nostradamus 20-shut the hell up!

So I have seen ads for this upcoming show on the history channel called "Nostradamus 2012" and it's supposed to be about how he predicted the world will end in 2012 and so did the Mayans. I wanna know what possessed these morons to even produce this show. Don't they realize that some of us value life and would like to not have to worry about dying? I mean seriously, how stupid can these twats be? It's like how Al Gore told us about global warming in a movie, except a thousand times worse. If they are that out of ideas then start re-running programs or think of something cool like the history of.... video games or.... movies or something that has nothing to do with the world ending. I guarantee the only reason they decided to actual air this crap is for ratings. If you're that desperate then you need to take a truck load of Prozac and chill out and realize that the History channel will not be going down the drain. They had cool programs like WW2 history, the Vietnam footage DVD that I never got the chance to actually buy, and that show that talked about the relations of Star Wars to Greek mythology and WW2. So my question is.... why can't we just enjoy life without you guys coming in to ruin it? You're like Buzz Killington! You may as well come along and say, "Guess what we just made cancer air born and contagious!" (Patton Oswalt).
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Tell me am I the only one whose brain functions anymore!?!?!?!?

Money, Agogo, Beat by Beat by Beat

So I figured since I haven't posted in awhile I may as well review the three KMFDM items I got for Christmas.
First let's start off with "Money." "Money" was originally released in February of 1992, the month I was born (like you care), and was later re-released in 2006. I got the re-release obviously because the original is most likely very hard to find. Anyways, the CD features the popular KMFDM tracks Vogue, Help Us Save Us Take Us Away, Sex on the Flag, and the title track Money. It also features remixes of Money, Vogue, as well as Godlike and Die Now-Live Later (aka I Will Pray and Under Satan). The album kicks off nicely with Money, which has an excellent synth intro to it. Things then kind of go downhill from there. Help Us Save Us Take Us Away is way too calm, and I'm not a big fan of Bargled. Once you reach I Will Pray the album gets kicked up a notch, then goes downhill again with Vogue 2000 and has a nice finish with Money (Deutschmark Mix), which is an instrumental version of Money with some extra percussion. Keeping it short and sweet, If you're a KMFDM fanatic like myself, it's definitely worth a listen; however, if you are looking to get more into KMFDM I would not recommend it.
Next we're onto "Agogo." This CD was originally released in 1998... and that's it. Never re-released like it's brother CD known as "Retro." "Agogo" is an entire album filled with KMFDM's never before released tracks. Well... after re-releasing all the albums and releasing the Extra series only four tracks have not been released. In my opinion, only two of those tracks (Mysterious Ways and Ooh La La) are the only ones worth a listen. Nothing much to say about this album altogether, it's early KMFDM works and only really for hardcore KMFDM fans.
Finally we end with KMFDM's tour compilation DVD known as "Beat by Beat by Beat," which features four tours and all of their music videos on just one DVD. All of the tours kick some serious ass. The first tour is the actual "Beat by Beat" tour, which promoted their album "Nihil" and the only downfall in that tour is that... well... it wasn't really much of a tour DVD as it was three live songs (one dubbed over with the album version) and live footage with music videos. Then their are the two Money tours, the Chicago one and the Palo Alto one. Both tours are phenominal and they are straight up live. The last tour is their tour in 1990, which also kicks ass. The Money tours are by far the best, the Beat by Beat tour is only good for Disobedience live and tour footage, 1990 is nothing special. I say this DVD is for anyone into KMFDM. Get it before it's gone!

Left 4 Dead review

So I finally have something new to review. Excited? You should be.
So my friend got Left 4 Dead for his PC and as I watched him play it I found it rather inviting. I am kind of into the "Painkiller" style of gameplay where the room will be kind of empty then suddenly a swarm of enemies coming rushing at you. Eventually I decided to play it. We were in the first campaign, third level, if my memory serves me correctly. I pull out the now duel wielded M1911s and unleash hell upon a horde of zombies rushing up the stairs. I felt like a total bad ass playing this game I'm not gonna lie. Every weapon feels about as powerful as it would be in real life, and the melee attacks compliment that in the same fashion. The game does a nice job of ensuring the claustrophobic environments by giving you a flashlight (that is on at all times mind you) that lights up such a small portion of the screen that you hardly know what type of room you're in. It can definitely be frustrating with the zombie variants that surprise you or rush at you. First there's your standard zombie which can run, jump, climb, and hardcore dance. Right now you might be confused as to why a zombie would hardcore dance or if I'm joking. No I'm not joking and I have no idea why a zombie would hardcore dance either; I threw a pipe bomb and as the light for it flashed and it counted down with beeps zombies started rushing towards the bomb and as they got to it they started hardcore dancing. Then the bomb blew up annihilating all of them. The next type of zombie is the hunter, this bitch flies at you and is just annoying. Even more annoying is the smoker, this guy lynches you with his mile long tongue, they appear freaking EVERYWHERE and come out of NOWHERE!!! The last three zombies are the witch, boomer, and tank. The witch is a bitch that kills you in one hit. The boomer is a fat guy that blows up when you shoot him. Tanks are massive William Birkin pimple rejects. The weapons are limited, there's the M1911, an uzi, a mini-14, an m16a2, a trench shotgun, and an auto-loading shotgun. The environments have some variety, one being a giant city, one being the suburbs, and so-on and so-forth. After the second campaign the game gets kind of tiresome. I haven't played multiplayer yet, but if I did and had a bunch of friends to play it with there would be strategy and it would be a lot more fun. But for now I must resort to single player. Overall, it's fun for short periods of time, but if you're looking for a game to occupy your weekends, this might not be the game to get.

I give Links Fur Dead (Left For Dead) an 8.5 out of 10.

Free Stuff and What-Not

So lately I've been having a lot of good luck. I'm getting free album art from Robert Kyrzkowski (Elsie Hooper), I got a free "Baader-Meinhof" sticker from a website, and now I'm getting a free CD from the band Parsley Flakes. I am very thankful for this right now. Why I had to tell you guys this, I don't know, but whatever.
I did find a game to play and it is called "7 Days a Skeptic" and is made by the charismatic stallion known as Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw (Zero Punctuation). I had played the first title in the series called "Five Days a Stranger" and it was a creepy adventure game. The sequel is "7 Days a Skeptic" which I find kind of weird, but I can work with it. The game takes place in the future aboard a spacecraft. Weird things happen and as the Psychologist it is your job to make sense of it all and fight off the evil. I must say it is very creepy for a 16-bit adventure game. I will continually plays this and once I beat it I'll either continue onto the final game or choose another one of Ben's games.
I am dedicating this month's posts and next month's posts to a friend of mine who has had the opposite luck of me. Now cue up "Bloody Tears" (Castlevania) to set the depressing mood. He broke his ankle, he was in a cast for awhile, then he got Das Boot, now he's in another cast (a brace I think). He recently got into an accident, thank GOD he is alright, the other person is alright, both cars are alright, a little damage to his car. Just this weekend his laptop blew up, so he is without a computer or the internet, his cell phone battery died, his car battery died.

ALL POSTS FROM NOW UNTIL FEBRUARY DEDICATED TO MY BEST FRIEND JOHN B.

Games, I need them!

I need to discover and play some good old games. I need recommendations. Anyone?
I want something with a deep story and long gameplay time. Preferably action. I've been bored after beating System Shock 2 numerous times, though it's an amazing game. Painkiller has bored me with its slow downs, and every other game I have isn't interesting me right now.
Help me.
Speaking of games, watch this:


Watch what!?
HA-HA I couldn't resist. Terrible Star Wars reference.