General gaming |
- The Red Book Diaries
- Radical Becomes the Latest in a Series of Disheartening Studio Closures
- Music Games That Aren't
- Games, Dammit! - Podcast
- Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Review: Addiction Amidst Repetition
| Posted: 28 Jun 2012 06:10 PM PDT
Feature 1UP COVER STORY  1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JUNE 25 | VIDEO GAME MUSIC FESTIVAL The Red Book DiariesCover Story: Recorded audio was once a big deal for games, but its early use in CD games was short-lived. The story within.T he introduction of the Compact Disc as a data medium via the CD-ROM standard was expected to be a revolution, and it was. Personal computers had a whole new dimension of usefulness thanks to the advantages of CD capability. Games would be bigger, they'd say -- both in scope and memory size. They could have video and voice; they could educate as well as entertain. The quality and fidelity of console games could match that of PC games, and we would all live in a multimedia utopia. Or something. In the late '80s and early '90s, NEC and Sega had produced the first CD-ROM drives for the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 and Mega Drive/Genesis, respectively. Both companies tried to push CDs as the format of the future, with a host of advantages over traditional cartridges, which cost more to manufacture and were limited in almost every aspect, from memory size to audio and graphics capability. |
| Radical Becomes the Latest in a Series of Disheartening Studio Closures Posted: 28 Jun 2012 04:16 PM PDT Shortly after reports began to spread earlier today, the news was confirmed: Radical Entertainment is, for all intents and purposes, being closed down. More specifically, Activision plans a "significant reduction in staff" at the Vancouver-based developer which will result in a small number of employees staying on to support other Activision projects, at least for the time being. The bottom line is Radical is no longer in the business of developing videogames, and that's downright depressing. Radical was founded in 1991, although much of what it is known for has been released in the past decade: Hulk, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, The Simpsons: Hit & Run (a personal favorite of mine), Scarface: The World is Yours, and Prototype. As a result of the Activision and Vivendi Games merger, the developer came under the oversight of Activision. This led to significant layoffs in 2008 and the cancellation of two projects; one, a Crash Bandicoot title, a series which the developer had taken control over while owned by Sierra Games, and the other, known as Treadstone, a title based on Robert Ludlum's Bourne franchise. |
| Posted: 28 Jun 2012 02:24 PM PDT
Feature 1UP COVER STORY  1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JUNE 25 | VIDEO GAME MUSIC FESTIVAL Music Games That Aren'tCover Story: You don't always need color-coded tracks to feel the beat.M usic games had their heyday, and the plastic instruments that once fueled blockbusters now tend to gather dust until everyone at a party is bored enough to touch them. But rhythm isn't just for the Rock Band/Guitar Hero set; several games belonging to other genres have used these same musical elements successfully. Developers can tap into the power of music for a mini-game change of pace, an alternate control method, or even a full-on genre hybrid. These games may not task you with emulating this century's greatest rock star, but a sense of rhythm will definitely help you through. |
| Posted: 28 Jun 2012 12:32 PM PDT |
| Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Review: Addiction Amidst Repetition Posted: 28 Jun 2012 12:15 PM PDT 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF June 25 | GAME MUSIC FESTIVAL M y Super NES hadn't yet lost its new-console smell when I first played Final Fantasy IV -- masquerading under a slightly different name, of course -- about 20 years ago. The console impressed me, but not because of its visuals; arcade graphics were already outpacing those of Nintendo's admittedly impressive home hardware. No, what really got me was its sound output. The change from cold FM synthesis and simple sawtooth waveforms to digitized samples lent even the earliest SNES games a sort of muted warmth that distinguished the platform from its competition. From the echoing syncopation of riding Yoshi through a cavern in Super Mario World to the cribbed-from-John-Williams bombast of ActRaiser, the Super NES sounded like nothing before it. But no game seized my ears and forced me to sit upright in rapt attention like that first 16-bit Final Fantasy did. I'd played its NES predecessor, and I'd certainly enjoyed it. Yet FFIV made it sound like a kindergarten kazoo band in comparison. Nobuo Uematsu's "Into the Darkness," a baroque faux-orchestrated composition whose strings swirled like the fog billowing through the cavern in which the tune made its debut, made me stop for the second time in my life to ignore my controller and simply soak up video game music. And I found myself doing it again and again as I played through to the end, and again when its sequel (Final Fantasy VI) made its way to the U.S. When I discovered that Squaresoft was selling a three-CD compilation of FFVI music, I didn't hesitate for a second... even if $40 plus shipping was an insane amount of money to spend on a three-CD set back in 1994. |
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