Monthly Archives: May 2015
Inside My Radio Review
I'm a firm believer that all skills, even the ones we often think of as innate--artistic talent, athletic ability, imaginative writing--can be taught. It's just a matter of putting the time and effort into learning to excel (or at least be competent) at something. Rhythm is the exception to that rule. You either have it or you don't. And I do not. The only reason I could play drums in Rock Band was because of the falling note chart in the game. That I was able to enjoy the rhythmic platforming of Inside My Radio despite my total lack of an inner metronome is a testament to its hypnotic power.
Seaven Studio's Inside My Radio is a hybrid of Thomas Was Alone's geometric platforming and the beat-dependent movement of 2012's criminally underselling Sound Shapes. On a surface covered with blocks set against old-school backdrops, you explore levels through rhythmic jumping, dashing, and smashing. Beyond basic left/right movement, you can only perform more complex actions in time with the rhythm of the level's music. Featuring rock, electronic, and even reggae tunes, Inside My Radio forces you to become one with the soundtrack's tempos in order to avoid the varied obstacles in the environments themselves.
If you're wanting a game that is perfect for a chill evening where you want to relax with music and a video game, Inside My Radio is worth the spin.
Much like Sound Shapes, Inside My Radio successfully cultivates a sense of synesthesia in players--the ability to experience music with your senses beyond hearing. It's partially achieved through the core mechanical loop of the game: overcoming environmental obstacles through rhythm. If you can't find the tempo of that level's track, you aren't going to get very far. But once you discover the song's groove, you begin to feel a sense of oneness between the music and your platforming. Well, you do if you have any rhythm. I don't, but even I began to get the groove of Inside My Radio once I took a couple deep breaths and focused on the sound.
But it's more than mechanical design that creates the multisensory musical experience. The environments react to the music. The dub level has trees that grow and unfurl in time to the beats. The most devious platforming segments require an understanding of the beat to conquer. The puzzles work around the polyrhythms of the most complex tracks. Every element of Inside My Radio feeds back into the music. Music becomes the mechanics. It becomes the art. And when you learn that this guitar riff means the fatal electric platform is going to disappear before it even happens, the game has accomplished its goal of creating an immersive sonic experience.
Inside My Radio has an actual plot as well, though it's fairly nonsensical and mostly serves as an excuse to have the characters you control explore these varied worlds--including what appears to be the literal inside of a radio, a dance club, and the abstraction of a Rasta/electronic fusion. The game also relies on an unnecessary preponderance of pop culture humor/meme references that fall a little flat in its storytelling. The jokes rarely seem to serve a purpose beyond "Aren't we clever for knowing this bit of cultural ephemera?"
And despite the great soundtrack and the trance-inducing interplay between music, game art, and mechanics, the platforming and art are merely good. Your dash mechanic is key to traversing many of the game's obstacles, but it feels loose and imprecise, which is rarely a major issue but becomes frustrating when it does rear its head. The art can become a phantasmagoric, psychedelic delight, but the game also embraces staid, bland cyberpunk electroscapes that feel rote by the end of the game. Boss fights against a cyber-spider crop up at the end of the game, and they are more aggravating than hypnotic. Inside My Radio also suffers from the inclusion of an occasional puzzle where you might not even realize you're trying to solve a puzzle at first, and it interrupts the musical momentum of the game.
Inside My Radio never quite reaches the synergetic highs of its most obvious peer, Sound Shapes, but it's still an entrancing experience. Although the main campaign is very short (it takes less than two hours to complete), the Time Attack mode adds legs to the game for those who wish to truly master the game's levels. If you're wanting a game that is perfect for a chill evening where you want to relax with music and a video game, Inside My Radio is worth a spin.
Inside My Radio Review
I'm a firm believer that all skills, even the ones we often think of as innate--artistic talent, athletic ability, imaginative writing--can be taught. It's just a matter of putting the time and effort into learning to excel (or at least be competent) at something. Rhythm is the exception to that rule. You either have it or you don't. And I do not. The only reason I could play drums in Rock Band was because of the falling note chart in the game. That I was able to enjoy the rhythmic platforming of Inside My Radio despite my total lack of an inner metronome is a testament to its hypnotic power.
Seaven Studio's Inside My Radio is a hybrid of Thomas Was Alone's geometric platforming and the beat-dependent movement of 2012's criminally underselling Sound Shapes. On a surface covered with blocks set against old-school backdrops, you explore levels through rhythmic jumping, dashing, and smashing. Beyond basic left/right movement, you can only perform more complex actions in time with the rhythm of the level's music. Featuring rock, electronic, and even reggae tunes, Inside My Radio forces you to become one with the soundtrack's tempos in order to avoid the varied obstacles in the environments themselves.
If you're wanting a game that is perfect for a chill evening where you want to relax with music and a video game, Inside My Radio is worth the spin.
Much like Sound Shapes, Inside My Radio successfully cultivates a sense of synesthesia in players--the ability to experience music with your senses beyond hearing. It's partially achieved through the core mechanical loop of the game: overcoming environmental obstacles through rhythm. If you can't find the tempo of that level's track, you aren't going to get very far. But once you discover the song's groove, you begin to feel a sense of oneness between the music and your platforming. Well, you do if you have any rhythm. I don't, but even I began to get the groove of Inside My Radio once I took a couple deep breaths and focused on the sound.
But it's more than mechanical design that creates the multisensory musical experience. The environments react to the music. The dub level has trees that grow and unfurl in time to the beats. The most devious platforming segments require an understanding of the beat to conquer. The puzzles work around the polyrhythms of the most complex tracks. Every element of Inside My Radio feeds back into the music. Music becomes the mechanics. It becomes the art. And when you learn that this guitar riff means the fatal electric platform is going to disappear before it even happens, the game has accomplished its goal of creating an immersive sonic experience.
Inside My Radio has an actual plot as well, though it's fairly nonsensical and mostly serves as an excuse to have the characters you control explore these varied worlds--including what appears to be the literal inside of a radio, a dance club, and the abstraction of a Rasta/electronic fusion. The game also relies on an unnecessary preponderance of pop culture humor/meme references that fall a little flat in its storytelling. The jokes rarely seem to serve a purpose beyond "Aren't we clever for knowing this bit of cultural ephemera?"
And despite the great soundtrack and the trance-inducing interplay between music, game art, and mechanics, the platforming and art are merely good. Your dash mechanic is key to traversing many of the game's obstacles, but it feels loose and imprecise, which is rarely a major issue but becomes frustrating when it does rear its head. The art can become a phantasmagoric, psychedelic delight, but the game also embraces staid, bland cyberpunk electroscapes that feel rote by the end of the game. Boss fights against a cyber-spider crop up at the end of the game, and they are more aggravating than hypnotic. Inside My Radio also suffers from the inclusion of an occasional puzzle where you might not even realize you're trying to solve a puzzle at first, and it interrupts the musical momentum of the game.
Inside My Radio never quite reaches the synergetic highs of its most obvious peer, Sound Shapes, but it's still an entrancing experience. Although the main campaign is very short (it takes less than two hours to complete), the Time Attack mode adds legs to the game for those who wish to truly master the game's levels. If you're wanting a game that is perfect for a chill evening where you want to relax with music and a video game, Inside My Radio is worth a spin.
9 Things to Watch This Week
If you're looking for new shows to check out this week, FOX's Wayward Pines -- from M. Night Shyamalan, starring Matt Dillon and Carla Gugino -- premieres on Thursday. But other than that you're gonna get a whole slew of season finales. From Agents of SHIELD to Arrow to Blacklist to Elementary, a ton of shows are wrapping up their seasons.
Plus, Mad Men is coming to an end. As in, end end. The final episode. Its series finale will run on Sunday so its understandable if you decide to take liquid lunches all this week in the show's honor.
See FOX’s Minority Report and Lucifer Trailers
Straight from their debut today at FOX's Upfront event, check out trailers to several of FOX's new series, including Minority Report (the TV continuation of the Steven Spielberg film) and Lucifer, based on the DC/Vertigo comic book character.
There's also new comedies The Grinder (with Rob Lowe and John Stamos) and dramas Rosewood and The Frankenstein Code. Plus, the latest animated series from Seth MacFarlane, Bordertown.
It should be noted that these aren't all of the trailers FOX debuted at Upfronts today. The most notable one not posted yet is for Ryan Murphy's Scream Queens.
5 Comics You Can’t Miss This Week
We all want the best of the best, so let us point out the hottest comics and collectibles released each week. We spotlight our favorite comics that we know are money-well-spent, new books that look cool, and any toys we can't wait to play with.
Check out our picks, then take to the comments to let us know what looks good to you!
By writer Cullen Bunn & artist Tyler Crook | Dark Horse Comics
Person of Interest Renewed – But Will it Be the Final Season?
UPDATE: Deadline is now reporting that while Person of Interest was renewed, it was the only one of CBS's drama series renewals today to only get a partial pickup, not the full 22 episodes normally ordered. According to Deadline, POI's renewal was likely for 13 episodes.
This quickly raises questions about whether this will be Person of Interest's final season, as a reduced episode count often indicates - just like CBS did for The Mentalist this past season. The Mentalist, like Person of Interest, was produced by Warner Bros. and Deadline notes POI is the only one of CBS' renewals today to not be owned by the network, which often can be a hindrance as a show ages (for shows that aren't outright blockbusters) as there is less incentive for the network to keep them on the air when they aren't profitable for them in their secondary life.
New Details on Assassin’s Creed Syndicate’s Lead Characters
This year's Assassin's Creed entry will feature two main playable characters, one of whom is a woman, according to reports.
Assassin's Creed Syndicate, as anonymous sources who spoke to Kotaku are calling it, will reportedly take place in Victorian London. Last year's Assassin's Creed leak supports this detail.
Syndicate tells the story of Evie and Jacob, a sister and brother duo involved with the criminal underbelly of the 19th century city. The story missions will heavily favor Jacob in terms of playtime, though, with the brother taking the lead for about 75 percent of the story, according to the report.
Daily Deals: Xbox One With Two Controllers, $15 Store Credit With Pre-Orders, Mad Max for $6
Xbox One With Halo And Two Controllers
Target currently has the best Xbox One offering, putting an extra controller on top of the Halo: MCC bundle at no additional charge.
$15 Dell Gift Cards With Witcher 3, Batman, Elder Scrolls Online and Splatoon Pre-Orders
This is What a $9 Computer Looks Like
C.H.I.P. is a proposed $9 computer that officially beats Raspberry Pi as one of the cheapest computers in the world. It's already reached over $800,000 on Kickstarter, which is well beyond its initial goal of $50,000.
Running on mainline Linux, battery-powered, and completely open source, C.H.I.P. features a 1GHz processor, 512 MB of DDR3 RAM, 4 GB of storage, and support for both wi-fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
New Photo of Deadpool in Action
Ryan Reynolds has taken to social media again to post a photo from the Vancouver set of Deadpool.
This new shot (seen below) shows the Merc With a Mouth in action with the caption: "Stuck the landing. With my mouth."
Reynolds posted a Deadpool photo just yesterday in honor of Mother's Day.
Deadpool also stars Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller and Ed Skrein.