New Something Corporate CD Announced!!!

Recently on jacksmannequin.com Andrew McMahon ( Lead Singer to band's Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin) announced in his blog that he was working with his past band Something Corporate to release a greatest hits CD. According to both bestbuy.com and amazon.com Andrew speaks no lie. The new CD will be called Played in Space: The Best of Something Corporate and will include plenty of previously unrealeased classics that could only be found on expensive import cd's. The new release will include 19 songs and accross two disks, the list of songs includes: Space, I Woke Up In a Car, She Paints Me Blue, Hurricane, Me and the Moon, Fall, Ruthless, I Want To Save You, Cavanaugh Park, If You C Jordan, Down, Punk Rock Princess, Walking By, and The Astronaut on disk 1 and Konstantine [Previously Unreleased], Watch the Sky [Previously Unreleased], Forget December [New Exclusive Mix] Woke Up In a Car [Adam Young Mix], and Wait on disc 2. Look foward to the new CD and my review on April 27th!!!!

Cold Beam Announces Beat Hazard for PC

According to Cold Beam Games' website they will be adding a new addition to their line-up of games. On March 18th they announced that they will be making a PC version of Beat Hazard available on Steam sometime in April. The new PC version will have updated features including a new super boss, a survival mode that lets you play whole albums, a new in game rock album, 25 Steam achievements, and access to Steam's leaderboards. Look forward to my review as soon as the game is released in April.

Beat Hazard Review

The New Space Shooter on the Block
Imagine flying around space shooting everything you see.... then imagine flying around space shooting everything you see to your own music. Sounds familiar right? In fact Geometry Wars for XboxLiveArcade did it almost 3 years ago. So what makes Beat Hazard on XBL Indie Games worth my 400 marketplace points you ask.... Well let me tell you that it would be well worth your money to give it a try. Firstly it sounds exactly the same as Geometry Wars, but in fact it is a completely different beast. Remember earlier when I said you play to your own music? Well that's the twist..... it not only lets you play your music, it also reacts to every beat, lyric, and chord. Everything from the background , the enemies, your guns, and even how many bosses you fight depends how fast, long, and loud your songs are. The possibilities are endless as long as you have more music to put on your hardrive!
Presentation
As you start the game there are a number of things that will catch your eye about this game. First is that the game instantly loads any music you've downloaded to your hardrive which requires no work on your part. Second thing your notice is that there is a music visualizer in the background going to a randomly selected song of your own. Lastly you'll notice all the different options in the menu you have a full screen visualizer, a how to play button, single player game, co-op game,  your stats and ranks, challenges, and the options menu. The first four items should be self explanatory, but the next two really add to the overall presentation and replay of the game.  The your stats and ranks menu includes various items which tell you your total time played, total points earned over all songs, total number of tracks cleared, total number of albums cleared, and then 27 different pilot ranks that you unlock as you hit certain points milestone totals. Then there's the challenge menu which offers 12 different challenges not much different then Xbox 360 achievements that add even more replay and difficulty into the mix.
Gameplay
Now on to the gameplay... Okay it wouldn't really be all that difficult to just say if you liked Geometry Wars then you should just buy the game because the game controls exactly the same. Which isn't such a bad thing. You have both your thumbsticks: Left for controlling your ship and right for aiming/shooting your gun. You also have bombs which you can blow off with your  right trigger. It's very simple to the learn but very difficult to master. Even though it's a very basic setup it is the only way i would prefer for the game to control and it's makes for some very addictive and fun action.

Graphics
The last part of the game is the graphics. Simply put they are AMAZING!! Colors upon colors mix and mesh to make the prettiest top down space shooter ever! With every sound your music makes it sends waves of color changes throughout the screen. The enemies and asteroids fly onto screen hypnotized by the beats and your guns pulse to the music. When your song is fast your gun is fast and vibrant, when the  song gets slow your gun dies down to a single shooter. Each song has it's own unique vibe, enemy flight patterns, and color pallets so each song is different to play.

I'm only going to say this once more... GO OUT AND BUY BEAT HAZARD!!! It is an AMAZING game at an amazing value. How many other games out there are going to limit what you get for gameplay by the number of songs in your music library.... not even rock band can play your already existing music. If you are a fan of Geometry Wars or even just music then go out and buy this game. You'll get tons of replay on Beat Hazard and on your own music. Download the game here!!

9.7 out of  10

Fun. = AMAZING ( Was so worth the wait!!!)

This is the idea behind it all. I'm going to type what I feel, not that it's all that important. Although I do believe I can better myself by blogging from day to day and hell, maybe i'll thank myself somewhere down the line for keeping up. Anyway here is my first official topic.... FUN.!! You're probably saying what the hell are you talking about, well wonder no longer. Fun. is one of my new favorite bands. I first saw them in concert last year on November 6th at the Sokol Underground in Omaha. It was only their second concert ever and they were playing with my favorite band Jack's Mannequin ( if you didn't know they are amazing). They were different until I heard some familiar songs that I couldn't quite place...... As soon I got home I looked them up and couldn't find anything on the band. Stumped I looked up some of the familiar lyrics I noted in my phone only to find that they were by a band called The Format and that the singer was the same. It started a great love between me and The Format but sadly there were songs that Fun. had played that The Format had not. I was saddened to think that the band was just reunited for a 'just for fun concert' and that was the reason they called themselves Fun.. Alas here I blogging and listening to Fun. They finally have a cd known as Aim And Ignite and it is AMAZING!!! If you've ever heard one of those cds that just so fun and upbeat then you know it's hard to put down. It's just such a happy cd full of thoughtful lyrics, amazing instrumentals and a one of the kind singer. I would recommend it to anybody download any one song from this cd and I guarantee you'll be hooked you'll have to have the whole thing. My favorites songs are Be Calm, All the Pretty Girls, As Least I'm Not as Sad, Light a Roman Candle With Me, Walking the Dog and The Gambler. Pick it up and you won't put it down, you'll put it in your ipod and play it on repeat for weeks on end.