You thought it was over? No, my friends, no. We've barely scratched the surface. Blanka is a bigger asshole than we could have possibly imagined.
Blanka is a Troll - Episode 2 [YouTube]
OverClocked ReMix released the absolutely bonkers five-disc Final Fantasy VI: Balance and Ruin last week, and as good as it is, I imagine a few people went, "That's too much music, dammit!" I'm sure those people would prefer something a little smaller, more focused, and more concentrated.
Mykah's Triple Triad , a new GameChops-published work, popped up yesterday. The 12-track album dishes out electronica remixes of tunes from Final Fantasy VI, VII, and VIII, including Kefka's theme, "J.E.N.O.V.A.," and "Force Your Way." No "Dancing Mad" or "One-Winged Angel" here, but haven't we heard those enough already? Like the Mega Man 2 "Dr. Wily Stage 1" of Final Fantasy music, I swear.
The digital album is $8, but you can score a physical copy for two bucks more. And yes, for the billionth time, the album has been properly licensed. Don't worry about that.
Triple Triad [GameChops]
Yeah, it's a cheesy video but it sure does make me miss when games had live-action cutscenes. Not that I want more games to have live-action stuff again. Oh far from it. I just love watching really bad stuff like this while cringing in my seat.
Anyway, Firefall is now in open beta. It's a free-to-play shooter, go check it out.
When Valve first talked about the most recent Team Fortress 2 update, the focus was placed on two new community maps, "Process" and "Standin." Looking over the extensive patch notes now, however -- they keep going and going -- there's a lot going on here.
Old maps have been revisited, items have been tweaked, and yes, there are now Summer Coolers and Keys to worry about. I'm no expert on the metagame by any means, but many of these changes (50% overheal for the Quick-Fix, I'm looking at you!) sound terrific on paper. This is all going to make for an exciting, crazy time.
Darn it, Team Fortress 2 -- I've started playing you again. And there's no sign that I'll want to stop anytime soon. So long as I don't simultaneously get into Dota 2 , I'll be okay. Wait, I'm screwed.
Move That Update Up! [Team Fortress] [Image source]
The sale of videogame consoles have been banned in China for 13 years now, but it looks like that's all about to change according to South China Morning Post. The catch? Companies like Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft must manufacture the consoles in Shanghai. That plus the culture ministry and other government bodies have final approval over what can be released as to prevent violent or political based content to reach the public because Communism.
Question is, would any of the big three console makers want to invest in opening up a new manufacturing plant just for China? Well with a population of over one billion, I'd say it'd be worth the cost.
China likely to lift foreign game console ban [South China Morning Post, via Kotaku]
The other day, I shared with you all a new Sonic the Hedgehog fan game, Sonic After the Sequel . In particular, I made note of the game's unbelievably amazing OST. We're talking professional grade material here, equaling and possibly surpassing any official Sonic soundtrack. It's that good.
Though I provided a link to the full soundtrack and shared a small handful of tracks from YouTube, I wanted to give you guys a little more. It's a good thing that Falk Au Yeong, one of the game's seven composers, hit me up with a link to a YouTube "Sound Test" of sorts. That should allow you to quickly sample the audio as well as jump right into the full playlist for the extended tracks. And if you want to download the album in mp3 format, hit up either this link or this one.
Oh! And the OST for the game preceding this one, Sonic Before the Sequel, is pretty kickass too. I've embedded a YouTube sampler below along with links to the playlist and mp3 download.
