Anyway, you can see some of the close-ups HERE.

I’ll post some sort of musically relevant track to this post when I’m at home…

The Rapture – Whoo! Alright – Yeah… Uh Huh (VBR)

It’s got Tron references, Streets Of Rage/side-scroll beat ‘em up/16-bit video game inspirations and of course features current dubstep darlings Nero. Fair amount of win! Seeing these guys play up in Sydney over the new year still brings a smile to my dial…

Directed by Moon Runners and shot on a Canon 7D for you HD video SLR geeks out there.

Treyarch’s productions for the Call of Duty franchise haven’t been as nearly !337 as Infinity Ward and their skillfully done Modern Warfare editions… I mean… how many times can you do a WWII game before they all start feeling exactly the same? With this updated story… high-tech weaponry and hopefully some good writing and voice acting we’ll see some pwnage in terms of awesome videogamery!

Yeah, it’s pretty sweet but oh lordy! The tie-in video game… Think a mash-up of all your all time favourite 8- and 16-bit side scrolling beat ‘em ups:

Geekin’ bad…

Written & Directed by : Patrick Jean
Director of Photograhy : Matias Boucard
SFX by: Patrick Jean and guests
Produced by: One More Production

So yeah, this is a ridiculously awesome pixel art video from fresh-faced director Jérémie Perin. Ah the memories of playing Maniac Mansion/Sam & Max/Day Of The Tentacle or any of the LucasArts based point-and-clicks of the 90s come flooding back after seeing this vid.

Note: I’m gonna have to slap a NSFW tag on this one too as it’s just a tad racy.  It really makes  that other pixel art vid look kinda lame… So, without further ado, here’s the video:

In you’re wondering, the track itself appears as a part of Soulwax’s Part Of NYE Never Dies Mix of last year which you can find a link and tracklisting to just below. Oh yeah, the record label suits have also been kind enough to offer the Alex Gopher remix which’ll feature on the “Truckers Delight EP” as a free download also. How awesome is that?

Flairs – Truckers Delight (Alex Gopher Remix)

MixMag Presents: Soulwax – Part Of NYE Never Dies Mix

Tracklisting:

01. The Chemical Brothers – Hey Boy, Hey Girl (Soulwax Remix Edit)
02. Zombie Nation – Forza
03. Tame Impala – Half Full Glass Of Wine
04. Tiga – Mind Dimension 2 (Ghent Version)
05. Mr. Oizo – Pourriture 7 (Soulwax Edit)
06. Esser – Headlock
07. In Flagranti – Business Acumen
08. Flairs – Truckers Delight
09. MGMT – Kids (Soulwax Remix)
10. Das Pop – Fool For Love
11. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik – Feurprobe (Rory Phillips Remix)
12. Mickey Moonlight – Interplanetary Melodies
13. Late Of The Pier – Random Firl
14. Ali Renault – Our World Is

As the Autumn (Spring for us folks under the equator) season rolls up, it’s the time many of us couch potato athletes get psyched to see what EA has done over the year to our favourite gaming franchises – Madden, NBA Live, NHL and FIFA. Sure I could talk about gameplay features and whatnot but I won’t because that’s what Google and game review sites are for… What i am gonna get my music nerd on is what’s gonna feature in the soundtracks. After all, you’re gonna be sitting through an entire year with the game so one would hope the music isn’t going to get too repetitive. Anyway without further ado here’s your 2010 lineup:

MADDEN NFL 10
Madden this year has gone a little left of field here with classics that includes Black Sabbath, 2Pac, Iron Maiden, Kid Rock, Nirvana, Public Enemy, System Of A Down and Rage Against The Machine; combined with stuff by bands Airbourne, Mastodon, and Killswitch Engage. As far as I can tell, the Cypress Hill track featured is a new one.

• 2Pac – Can’t C Me
• Airbourne – Heads Are Gonna Roll
• Alice In Chains – Them Bones
• B.o.B – Created A Monster
• Bang Camaro – Revolution
• Beastie Boys – Sabotage
• Black Sabbath – Paranoid
• Cypress Hill – Get ‘Em Up
• Helmet – Unsung
• Iron Maiden – Aces High
• Judas Priest – Painkiller
• Kid Rock – I Am The Bullgod
• Killswitch Engage – Reckoning
• Korn – Blind
• Mastodon – Divinations
• Nas feat. Puff Daddy – Hate Me Now
• Nirvana – Breed
• Pantera – Walk
• Public Enemy – Shut Em Down
• Rage Against The Machine – Guerrilla Radio
• Set Your Goals – Gaia Bleeds (Make Way for Man)
• Slipknot – Duality
• System Of A Down – Sugar
• The Vanity Plan – Before I Die
• Young Dre The Truth – Cheah Beah

NBA LIVE 10
One thing that that the NBA Live soundtrack that has made it different from the other EA Sports game is the fact that many of the tracks features are usually exclusive remix/edits made specifically for the game. For 2010 this is no different with about 80% of the stuff being reworks. This year see reinvented classics from Afrika Bambaataa, Dead Prez and Snoop Dogg.

• 88 Keys feat. Colin Munroe – Wake Up Call
• Afrika Bambaataa feat. Why G, Mickey Factz &The Fort Knox Five – Zulu! (We Don’t Stop Yawl)
• B.o.B. – Champion
• Beastie Boys – Pop Your Balloon
• David Banner & GQ – S.P.I.T.
• De La Soul – La La La
• Dead Prez – Still Bigga Than
• Embassy Music Board – Overtime
• Grand Puba – Get It
• Laza – Crank It Up
• Matt & Kim feat. De La Soul – Daylight (Troublemaker Remix)
• Matt & Kim – Daylight
• Mick Boogie feat. Kidz In The Hall, Donnis & Daytona – Class Of Our Own
• Mickey Factz & B.o.B. – Mind Got Blown
• Mos Def feat. Talib Kweli – History
• Murs feat. Kurupt & Jay Rock – We Ballin’
• Pete Rock – When I Need It
• Reflection Eternal – Get Lite
• Rye Rye feat. Busy Signal – Get Like This
• Snoop Dogg – Lodi Dodi (LIVE 10)
• Wale feat. Jazmine Sullivan – World Tour
• Wyclef Jean feat. Haitian Fresh – Ballin’
• Xzibit feat. BJ The Chicago Kid & Poo Bear – Fanatic
• Young Dre The Truth & 2Pac feat. BJ The Chicago Kid – All Eyez On Me (The Truth)
• Zion I – Go Hard

NHL 10
It’s not suprising really that NHL 10 is boasting a line-up of metal, indie-punk and rapcore. Seriously, though Nickelback?! That’s definitely gonna get removed off my list when I get the game…

• Alexisonfire – Young Cardinals
• Cancer Bats – Deathsmarch
• CKY – Hellions On Parade
• Disco Ensemble – Golden Years
• Drangonforce – Heroes Of Our Time
• Eagles Of Death Metal – Anything ‘Cept The Truth
• Earl Greyhound – Oye Vaya
• Green Day – Know Your Enemy
• Megadeth – Peace Sells
• Metalkpretty – Wake Up! Wake Up!
• Ministry & Co-Conspirators – Keys To The City (Chicago Blackhawks Theme Song)
• MxPx – Kids In America
• Nickelback – Burn It To The Ground
• Papa Roach – Into The Light
• Priestess – Raccoon Eyes
• Rancid – The Bravest Kids
• Scorpions – Rock You Like A Hurricane
• Thousand Foot Krutch – Fire It Up

FIFA 10
It only makes sense that the soundtrack for the world game featured a global feel to it. Nice work with Children Collide and the Temper Trap on making the cut. Speaking of cut it’s great to see our Kiwi neighbours get some representation with Cut Off Your Hands. Apart from that I’m a big fan of the inclusions of Buraka Som Sistema, Crookers, Dananananaykroyd, Datarock, Major Lazer,  Passion Pit and Peter Bjorn and John to the soundtrack.

• Adiam Dymott – Miss You (Sweden)
• Afrobots – Favela Rock (Brazil)
• Alex Metric – Head Straight (England)
• Auletta – Meine Stadt (Germany)
• Balkan Beat Box feat. Tomer Yosef and Saz – Ramallah-Tel Aviv (Israel)
• BLK JKS – Lakeside (South Africa)
• Bomba Estéreo – Fuego (Mexico)
• The BPA feat. Ashley Beedle – Should I Stay Or Should I Blow (England)
• Buraka Som Sistema feat. Pongolove – Kalemba (Wegue – Wegue) (Portugal)
• CasioKids – Fot I Hose (Norway)
• Children Collide – Skeleton Dance (Australia)
• Crookers feat. The Very Best, Two Fingers & Marina Gasolina – Birthday Bash (Italy)
• Cut Off Your Hands – Happy As Can Be (New Zealand)
• Dananananaykroyd – Black Wax (Scotland)
• Datarock – Give It Up (Norway)
• Fabri Fibra – Donna Famosa (Italy)
• Fidel Nadal – International Love (Argentina)
• Los Fabulosos Cadillacs – La Luz Del Ritmo (Argentina)
• Macaco – Hacen Falta Dos (Spain)
• Major Lazer – Hold The Line (USA)
• Marcio Local – Soul Do Samba (Brazil)
• Matt & Kim – Daylight (Troublemaker Remix feat. De La Soul) (USA)
• Metric – Gold Guns Girls (Canada)
• Mexican Institute Of Sound – Alocatel (Mexico)
• Nneka – Kangpe (Nigeria)
• Passion Pit – Moth’s Wings (USA)
• Peter Bjorn And John – Nothing To Worry About (Sweden)
• Pint Shot Riot – Not Thinking Straight (England)
• Playing For Change – War / No More Trouble (WORLD)
• Rocky Dawuni – Download The Revolution (Ghana)
• Röyksopp – It’s What I Want (Norway)
• Soshy – Dorothy (France)
• The Answering Machine – It’s Over! It’s Over! It’s Over! (England)
• The Enemy UK – Be Somebody (England)
• The Temper Trap – Science of Fear (Australia)
• Tommy Sparks – She’s Got Me Dancing (England)
• The Whitest Boy Alive – 1517 (Germany)
• Wyclef Jean – MVP Kompa (Haiti)
• Zap Mama – Vibrations (Belgium)

I’ve gotta say I’m pretty stoked to see the number of Aussie artists/bands making it into a few soundtracks. Mad props to this achievement considering there’s a gonna be millions of gamers snapping up these games once they’re released later this year and the amount of exposure they’re gonna potentially get is bloody fantastic.

Assassin’s Creed 1 was the videogaming story of Altair, a member of a guild of honourable contracted killers who operated throughout history and were the thorns in the sides of their enemies the Knights Templar, who if you are familiar with your medieval history… or Dan Brown novels and conspiracy theory… currently have a shady hand in everything from corporations, global finance and governments, somewhat like the Masons or other shady brotherhood style cult.

The story starts at the time of the First Crusade (or Second or Third I cant remember) with Altair given missions to assassinate members of both sides – the European and the Muslim armies to restore balance to the force (I am mixing sci-fi metaphors but you get what I’m trying to say, without doing my research properly).

What I LOVE about richly detailed video games such as this is the depth to which they incorporate history… it is reminiscent of Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings and it’s depiction of the rise of empires throughout history, and the speed of Aztec falcon warriors who could run as fast as horses… these awesome video games SURE AS HELL beat sitting in history classes in high school sleeping with my head on the table leaving a pool of drool from my open mouth.

Anyways the much anticipated sequel, Assassin’s Creed 2, set in Venice (La Serenissima) Italy during the time of The Renaissance is available for pre-order and is within my video-gaming ass’s reach and I cannot wait to continue the story of the Assassin’s Guild and The Shady Templars! I think you can visit your local boutique video gaming boutique store (probably EB) to preorder a pretty awesome looking pack that includes toys and metal cases and an illustrated book and other shit. But I probably wont because it’s pretty expensive.

Check out the graphically mind boggling movie style trailer… are they actors in costume, completely CGI or some combination of the two?? Also the protagonist assassin now has gunpowder powered weapons!

Also check out my other mate’s blogs
Ash: http://www.pixelrobot.com/blog
Carey: http://www.brokenlense.com/
Rollerboy: http://www.rollerboypodcast.com/

Here’s the Bag Raiders video for the single “Shooting Stars”. Now the nerd in me sees that perhaps inspiration has been taken a bit from classics such as TRON, Another World, A Perfect Circle’s “3 Libras” video (so hot… fuckin’ amazing song too) Lawnmower Man, ummm… that’s it for now…

Good on ‘em too for promoting car surfing, a well and truly battler in the 21st century extreme sports arena! Train surfing?! Pfffft! That’s so 20th century…

Pfft… Like that’s ever gonna happen… Anyway, courtesy of the nifty hands of Agent Melon, here’s  Nintendo’s trio of female royalty get a punk makeover.

Now to wait for this to become Ladyhawke’s second album cover art…

An interesting article from the NY Post regarding Wacko Jacko’s upcoming auction, April 22nd to April 25th for those playing at home. Apparently over $2 million USD has been spent to recreate Neverland at this auction event with a measly target of $20 million to be raised. Spare change really…

Reading on I do feel a bit bad for Wacko since a lot of the items haven’t been cleared by Jacko to sell and may have sentimental value.  Awww… I’m sure he won’t miss his Afterburner, T2 or Simpsons arcade machines. Fark!? The guy has at least 3 of them while browsing through the 900 page auction catalogue… That’s right, 900 pages. Wait, there’s a full-sized Lego Darth Vader?! LEGO?! VADER?!

LEGO DARTH VADER!!! ***Plus cameo appearance by Boba Fett***

I’m wondering if Jacko was actually a bit of a nerd also with all his movie collectibles. Oh well, whatever gets those kids through the gate…

Anyway, click HERE to read the full NY Post story and HERE for the awesome Julien’s Auction 5-volume, 900 page catalogue of the upcoming auction.

Thanks to Hall-E for forwarding the article. Always on the pulse for thing music!