AlexMax
09-06-2002, 10:07 PM
Anyhow, the PS2 broadband adapter is fine, but the disc that came with it renovated my brain. It contained a video for Tony Hawk 4, which was a delight, and it showed me what I knew was possible - while it is sure to have the great multiplayer games that are so delectable in earlier iterations, the possibilities of multiplayer skateparks as (essentially) a new sort of non-combat social space online is intriguing to me. So yes, cool, but it didn't exactly cocoon me in light until I emerged as an astral being. No, that was the multiplayer demo of Frequency.
And I feel like a fuckhead, because you guys have been saying "Frequency Frequency Frequency," and I've been looking at screenshots and saying, "What is this, Tempest? Fuck you." I don't know shit, and it's an oversight like this one that makes me really think about what I'm doing here. I suppose it did come out around Thanksgiving last year, which sort of explains it, because there is about a week there where I enter a sort of torpor and only respond to Turkey, which I have capitalized to indicate its primacy over all birds. There's also the possibility that it seems like a revelation to me because I make music, I use the term loosely of course, but beyond just being an amusing rhythm game it essentially makes your PS2 an instrument. Yes, the sounds it plays are samples from other songs, but it is not difficult to imagine notes mapped to buttons. It not difficult to imagine a Playstation 2 (or whatever) on stage next to something with strings on it.
I goofed around with the regular game mode, and it's great. It just is. If you are down with with the rhythm genre, you probably already have it, because it's a hallmark title - the game is practically a year old now, I'm freaking out about it long after sensible people have already purchased it and traded it in. But the Game mode isn't the real attraction here - any song you have unlocked in the game becomes available in the realtime Remix mode, which gives you access to the samples and so forth that constitute a given track. I've had the ability to remix shit before, this isn't the first application to confer that mystical power. But to place the ability squarely in a videogame interface got me thinking - the gamepad as an instrument. Composition as a toy? I don't know. The whole thing strikes me as life-affirming. Frequency is worthwhile just for its interesting visualization of ethereal audio concepts.
As a point in the continuum that redefines "instrument," it's almost overwhelming.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php3?date=2002-09-02
Still playing a lot of Frequency as you might expect, epiphany and all, but I unlocked a song on the first stage by a band called Freezepop that I like a lot. They have a few tracks on their own site, as well as MP3 Dot Com - it's goofy, feel-good synthesizer pop that operates on the brain like a serotonin reuptake inhibitor.
(on their latest news)
Frequency. It's a highly addictive drug if you can get it past your goddamn thick heads that a music game can posssibly be good. (This wasn't pointed at anyone in particular... ^_^)
And I feel like a fuckhead, because you guys have been saying "Frequency Frequency Frequency," and I've been looking at screenshots and saying, "What is this, Tempest? Fuck you." I don't know shit, and it's an oversight like this one that makes me really think about what I'm doing here. I suppose it did come out around Thanksgiving last year, which sort of explains it, because there is about a week there where I enter a sort of torpor and only respond to Turkey, which I have capitalized to indicate its primacy over all birds. There's also the possibility that it seems like a revelation to me because I make music, I use the term loosely of course, but beyond just being an amusing rhythm game it essentially makes your PS2 an instrument. Yes, the sounds it plays are samples from other songs, but it is not difficult to imagine notes mapped to buttons. It not difficult to imagine a Playstation 2 (or whatever) on stage next to something with strings on it.
I goofed around with the regular game mode, and it's great. It just is. If you are down with with the rhythm genre, you probably already have it, because it's a hallmark title - the game is practically a year old now, I'm freaking out about it long after sensible people have already purchased it and traded it in. But the Game mode isn't the real attraction here - any song you have unlocked in the game becomes available in the realtime Remix mode, which gives you access to the samples and so forth that constitute a given track. I've had the ability to remix shit before, this isn't the first application to confer that mystical power. But to place the ability squarely in a videogame interface got me thinking - the gamepad as an instrument. Composition as a toy? I don't know. The whole thing strikes me as life-affirming. Frequency is worthwhile just for its interesting visualization of ethereal audio concepts.
As a point in the continuum that redefines "instrument," it's almost overwhelming.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php3?date=2002-09-02
Still playing a lot of Frequency as you might expect, epiphany and all, but I unlocked a song on the first stage by a band called Freezepop that I like a lot. They have a few tracks on their own site, as well as MP3 Dot Com - it's goofy, feel-good synthesizer pop that operates on the brain like a serotonin reuptake inhibitor.
(on their latest news)
Frequency. It's a highly addictive drug if you can get it past your goddamn thick heads that a music game can posssibly be good. (This wasn't pointed at anyone in particular... ^_^)