video games

Top 10 Songs from ‘MoS: Level 5’

/ SindrElf / 2 Comments

top ten mos miracle of sound level 5 songs

Back in February, I shared my favorite song from each ‘Miracle of Sound’ album.

This proved to be very difficult, as there are so many great songs there!

So I have decided to make a Top 10 or Top 5 list for each album, depending on how big the album is to begin with.

 

10. Man and machine

A hard-hitting metal track that will get you pumped to parkour your way into your giant robot war-machine, ready to deal out the pain in the multiplayer first-person shooter ‘Titanfall’.

 

9. Shadow Of The Ash

This is the hard vocal version of a melodic metal song based on ‘Shadow Of Mordor’, a game based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ books.

 

8. Dream of Goodbye

Based on the ‘Burial At Sea’ downloadable content for ‘Bioshock Infinite’. The DLC takes place in the same city as in the two first Bioshock games, in Andrew Ryan’s failed underwater utopia, Rapture.

This song gives some insight into the sort of attitudes that ended up ruining Ryan’s vision, including Ryan’s own skewed worldview.

 

7. Messing With The Best

Bayonetta is a witch who fights angels by utilizing her hair-based magic.

The line “Built up a hairway to heaven, now I’m breaking iiiiin!” is the most perfect writing for a ‘Bayonetta 2’ song that I can imagine.

 

6. A Dog’s Life

Based on Telltale Games’ ‘Wolf Among Us’, a game set in 1986 and based on the ‘Fables’ comic book series, this song brings to mind noir detective stories.

Bigby Wolf, or “the big bad wolf”, has been working as a private detective in a ghetto for fairy tale characters since coming to America.

The song is a synth-led tribute to the skin-clad detective.

 

5. Fires Far

While a lot of fans of the first Dark Souls game did not like the sequel, I may actually like it better than the first one.

This symphonic rock song reminds me of the sombre journey I went on when I played the game last summer.

 

4. Every Time You Look Around

This is one of the ‘Miracle of Sound’ songs that are probably based on Gavin Dunne’s own life rather than on popular culture.

To quote the artist: “A song about finding your own truth in life and trying to make sense of it all :)”

 

3. When Winter Comes

Gavin has made many great ‘Game of Thrones’ songs, and this one is among his best.

I’m getting really exited for the last season, not only to see the conclusion to the story, but also to hear the ‘Miracle of Sound’ song that will be based on it.

 

2. Amnesia

This is another song base on real life, written for a friend of his.

I am unsure if this friend actually had amnesia or if it is a metaphor, but it is inspiring nonetheless.

 

1. Wake The White Wolf

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If you liked this music, you can buy the album here!

 

Gaming Backlog Countdown: 45!

/ SindrElf / 2 Comments

super-mario-world-street-fighter-donkey-kong-country

In the last entry of my gaming backlog countdown I went from 54 games to 50, and checked off four games I played by myself on my PlayStation 4.

This time I am going to check off five games I played with my girlfriend on the SNES Mini I got her for Christmas.

 

Donkey Kong Country

donkey_kong_country

I had never played this before, but it was one of my girlfriend’s favorite games from when she was little.

We had a lot of fun playing it, but I did get kind of frustrated at times, as the difficulty and sparsity of checkpoints seemed like a holdover from the arcade days, when difficulty were ramped up to get people to part with more of their quarters.

Still, glad to have finally experienced it.

 

Super Mario World

super mario world

We had both played this game when we were kids, but this would be the first time to finish it for both of us.

Riding around on Yoshi while finding secrets and avoiding Bullet Bills, this really brought back some good memories.

I doubt this will be the last time I play Mario World, but it was nice to finally beat the Bowser in it.

 

Super Mario Kart

super-mario-kart

Neither of us have ever been that interested in racing-games, so we did not spend too long on this game before crossing it off the list.

But it was fun playing together, so I am interested in trying out the fairly new ‘Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’ for my Nintendo Switch, as I think all the bells and whistles that have been introduced in the newer Mario Kart games may be enough to make the gameplay more interesting to me.

We’ll see.

 

F-Zero

f-zero

Another racing-game, but this one is more focused on speed and maneuvering, while a big part of Mario Kart were the item pickups you could use against the other racers.

This only had 1-player functionalities, so we had a bit less fun with it.

But the game has a great soundtrack, and after the relative slow speeds of Super Mario Kart, this game was exhilarating.

But those speeds also invoked my girlfriends motion-sickness, and mine started brewing aswell, so we turned it off fairly quickly.

 

Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting

Street Fighter II Turbo Hyper Fighting

Like racing-games, I was never that into fighting-games.

My girlfriend used to play Mortal Kombat 2 and 3, but the lack of finishers (Fatalities, Friendships and Babalities) made Street Fighter less fun for her.

Needless to say, she kicked my ass!

We had some fun with the game before we quickly checked this off aswell, which means that I only have 45 games left on the list!

 

Gaming Backlog Countdown: 50!

/ SindrElf / 10 Comments

transistor thimbleweed park doom bioshock 2 minerva's den pixel pigeon brothers sisters

Back in April I wrote a post listing my backlog of 54 games I need to play before I feel like I can buy any more games.

I have since managed to make a little dent in my pile, and I decided to chronicle my journey to the bottom of it.

 

DOOM

doom 2016

I already wrote a full post in which I covered DOOM 2016 pretty extensively, but it still bears saying how absolutely amazing this game is!

Here’s hoping that the sequel can live up to this awesomeness.

 

Bioshock 2: Minerva’s Den

Minerva’s Den

I never played the downloadable content for Bioshock 2 when it first came out, but I’m glad I went back to play this seven-year old DLC, as ‘Minerva’s Den’ is a marvel in gameplay and environmental storytelling.

The DLC takes place in the central computing of the failed underwater utopian city of Rapture, and you have to face the mechanical marvels and horrific people that were spawned there.

 

Thimbleweed Park

Thimbleweed Park

This point-and-click adventure game from 2017 was designed by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, legends who defined the genre in the 80s and 90s with classics like ‘Maniac Mansion’ and ‘The Secret of Monkey Island’.

Point-and-click adventure games have long been declared dead by the big game industry, despite indie titles of the genre generally selling well.

So I am glad that this game was successfully funded on Kickstarter, as the charm and pixel-art of these kinds of games always gets me in a good mood.

This particular game is filled with meta-jokes, references and clever puzzles, a welcome reprieve from the wast majority of action-focused games.

 

Transistor

Transistor

This cyberpunk game is a mix between an action beat-em-up and a turn-based strategy game, as you can at any time pause the combat to plan out the actions of the main character, who will then quickly dispose of your foes before you regain control of her in real-time.

But the game is also a tragic love story between a woman with no voice and a man with no body, who’s consciousness now inhabits the titular Transistor, a giant electric sword.

 

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And now I only have fifty games to go!