Q3-4 gaming release update. Now with pre-order details!

Since the news of the delay in release of Evolve, announcement of the development of the "old gen." exclusive, Assassin's Creed Rogue, and details emerging regarding various special editions of gaming releases I was already following, here's an updated list of gaming releases I'm looking forward to;

1. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (30 September) - pre-order exclusive: Dark Ranger skin
2. Alien: Isolation (07 October 2014) - Nostromo, and Ripley Editions
3. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (14/ 17 October 2014) - pre-order exclusive: Shock Drop Slaughter Pit challenge map
4. The Evil Within (21 October 2014) - pre-order exclusive: The Fighting Chance Pack
5. Assassin's Creed: Rogue (11 November 2014) - pre-order exclusives: The Ultimate Hunter Pack, and The Siege of Fortde Sable mission, as well as a Collector's Edition
6. Far Cry 4 (18 November 2014) - Limited, Kyrat, and Ultimate Kyrat Editions

I'm already starting to whittle down the list of titles I intend to purchase on, or near the release date. For now these are Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Far Cry 4: Kyrat Edition.* I'm still interested in the other titles, but the pre-order exclusives, or contents of the special editions, at present do not interest me. Now if either the Nostromo or Ripley Editions of Alien Isolation came with a replica Nostromo or Ripley, then I'd be interested. 

The Assassin's Creed: Rogue 'Ultimate Hunter Pack' content does look cool, but will the exclusive black Templar sails really change my gaming experience? I think not, although the additional mission may add an additional few hours of gameplay, so that could make pre-ordering Rogue at least a little more worthwhile than picking it up later. I'll continue to keep an eye on which content the various local retailers will be offering, as I have also seen a 'Commander Pack,' and 'Templar Pack' advertised locally, both of which share items with The Ultimate Hunter Pack. Sadly the Collector's Edition of Rogue does not include a figure of Shay Patrick Cormac, nor does it appear to include any of the item packs, but it does include physical copies of the official soundtrack, an art book, some lithographs, and a fancy box to keep it all in. Oh, and an additional single player mission entitled 'The Armor of Sir Gunn Quest.' I'm not sure these are enough to warrant an additional R300 for the Collector's Edition.

Guess my wallet isn't going to take quite as hard a knock, come October, as I had initially anticipated. Of the four games listed above with October release dates, I'm only actually interested in pre-ordering Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. The others can wait until they receive a price drop, or a 'Game of the Year' edition is announced. This will also mean others will have had time to review these games, allowing me to re-assess if whether I really need them in my collection. This pertains to Alien: Isolation particularly, as even though the information released looks very promising, there is still the abomination that was Aliens: Colonial Marine lurking in the back of many people's memories. 

This leaves only the Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag remake, and Far Cry 4, which I'm not even sure will offer the same experience on older consoles. Perhaps I'll wait until after I've gotten my hands on Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel to decide whether to purchase them, as by then  there should be more than enough fresh information available to help me decide the pros and cons of these releases. 

The physical content of the Kyrat Edition does look pretty sweet though,* and I did have a lot of fun playing Black Flag, so the decision between the two titles will definitely require some thought. Maybe I can use the money I save in October to buy both.

--
* I'm a sucker for collector's editions that include replicas of props from within the game, hence these purchases.

Q3-4 2014 gaming releases

There are quite a few games to be released during the second half of this year, that I'm really looking forward to playing. There are so many in fact that I've forgotten which is coming out when, so I decided to put together this list of release dates for the titles I'm most interested in.

1. Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - Ultimate Evil Edition (19 August 2014)
2. Alien: Isolation (07 October 2014)
3. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (07 October 2014)
4. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (14/ 17 October 2014)
5. Evolve (21 October 2014) (Delayed till February 2015)
6. The Evil Within (21 October 2014)
7. Far Cry 4 (18 November 2014)

My wallet is probably going to take quite a knock in October, although I may pre-order either Alien: Isolation, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, or Evolve a month or two earlier, depending on whether or not there are collector's editions announced. At present Alien: Isolation is the only one of those three titles that does not have some sort of DLC attached to pre-ordering the title.

It will also be interesting to see how the sales of Alien: Isolation/ Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, and Evolve/ The Evil Within will differ from one another as they are being released on the same dates. Given the number of accolades Evolve received at E3 last month, I don't think sales of The Evil Within will be particularly record breaking, despite the two being games in vastly different genres. Evolve's multiplayer aspect will probably be a much bigger draw card than any of single player campaigns of the other games on this list.

At the moment I'm leaning towards getting Alien: Isolation over Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, and Evolve over The Evil Within. This could however change depending how each of these handles on 'old-gen.' consoles, with the exception of Evolve which isn't getting an 'old gen.' release. 

My prediction for how I'll spend the rest of my gaming year is thus;

Today - 19 Aug.: Deadpool, Diablo III, and Rage

20 Aug. - 07 Oct.: Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - Ultimate Evil Edition and Rage

08 Oct. - 17 Oct.: Alien: Isolation

18 Oct. - 21 Oct.: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

22 Oct. - 18 Nov.: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Evolve

19 Nov. - 31 Dec.: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Evolve, and Far Cry 4

Who am I kidding, there is no way I am going to be able to get this much gaming time before the end of the year. With the exception of Deadpool, any one of these games could keep me busy for the rest of the year after its release. At this stage I'd be content with having just enough time to finish the storyline of Diablo III, and possibly the Reaper of Souls expansion too, before the October releases start pouring in. Fitting a weekend in before the end of the month to do nothing but play Deadpool and eat chimichangas, would be nice too.

--Updated 09 August 2014--

Catch the Throne: Game of Thrones inspired mixtape

To promote the next season of Game of Thrones, HBO will be releasing a rap and reggae infused mixtape on Friday. Titled Catch the Throne, the mixtape will be available as a free download streaming over here. Tracks are said to be inspired by the characters and story lines from the first three seasons of the show, ans will feature samples of the series epic theme tune.

Here's a list of the artists confirmed to be contributing their talents to the project:

Wale, Big Boi, Bodega Bamz, Magazeen, Daddy Yankee, Kilo Kish, Dominik Omega, Common, Snow Tha Product, and Dee Goodz. 

While I haven't even heard of a majority of these artists, I'm sure the mixtape will be an interesting listen once it's been released.

-- Updated 10 March 2014 --

Turns out Catch the Throne wont be a available as a free download from Soundcloud, until 11 March.

Vuvuvultures - Deaf epic (Creep remix)

Dazed Digital are streaming the new Vuvuvultures remix by the talented duo Creep. This version of Deaf epic removes the 'happier' sounding instrumental parts, replacing them with atmospheric synths and percussion, giving the song a more brooding undertone. 

I'm really hoping to catch Vuvuvultures at one of their South African gigs in the coming months. I still need to give their album, Push/ Pull a proper listen on something other than my laptop too.

-- Updated 27 January 2014 --

Vuvuvultures have made the Deaf epic (Creep Remix) available as a free download for a limited time. All you have to do is follow this link, and fill in your e-mail.

Stasis is funded!

Stasis, the indie horror game that I posted about a month ago, has been successfully funded over on Kickstarter. This is excellent news for local game developers, as it shows there is interest in the community. The Stasis project has also unveiled several 'stretch goals,' including:

• $ 105 000 - Suicide: Key items can be used on John, CAUTION... may be fatal!
• $ 120 000 - Mark Morgan: An extended Mark Morgan Soundtrack
• $ 140 000 - Cayne Chapter: A prequel chapter of Stasis added to the full game

If you haven't yet, I highly suggest giving the alpha demo a go. It took me a little over an hour and a half to complete, and sets up the story really well. The demo reveals just enough information to pique your interest, and leaves you wanting to know more about the Cayne Corporation and their motives.

It would be great if all these stretch goals could be met, but with only three days to go, I think the 'Cayne Chapter' goal might be just a little out of reach. Let's see what happens during those last three days though.

Queens of the Stone Age release live EP, '...Like Cologne'

Queens of the Stone Age have released an EP via Spotify entitled ...Like Cologne. I Imagine it contains a series of live recordings from the groups recent Cologne show, but I can't be certain since Spotify doesn't work in my region. 

I do however quite like the snot-green* cover. Perhaps Spotify should consider re-branding itself 'Snotify.'

After some scratching around, I was able to find the following video of the band performing The vampyr of time and memory in Cologne, Germany. Perhaps some additional digging will find other treasures...

Queens of the Stone Age - "The Vampyre of Time and Memory" live in Cologne from Matador Records on Vimeo.

--

* snot, as in nasal mucous, as per the second definition on Urban Dictionary.

New Sol Invicto and Okujira tracks

Richie Londres has been a busy guy. On Monday (Sunday if you're part of the Comiti) Londres' project Sol Invicto released another track as part of their Tapes Series. Unlemon was manipulated and recorded live. As Londres described it, "nothing fancy just some noise." 

This morning Londres released a video for the début track from another of his projects, dirty hip hop group featuring Amy Yanick, Okujira. The song is called Black gold, and it reminded me of Saul Williams' work. This might explain the recent Sol Invicto remix of the Williams' track Break last month.

Listen to Seether's Veruca Salt cover

For those of you, who like me, are unable to watch the music video for Seether's new single, the track has now been uploaded to their Soundcloud page.

This is definitely a worthy rendition of the original Veruca Salt song. I'm still intrigued as to see what Seether did for the music video; I'm kind of hoping they did a re-enactment of the Veruca Salt video, but that concept probably wouldn't go down as well today as it did nearly twenty years ago. Either way, a good cover version that definitely makes this compilation quite appealing to add to my collection.

Full album sampler from The Naked and Famous

Listen to snippets from all the tracks from The Naked and Famous' second album, In Rolling Waves.

This sounds like a very strong follow-up to The Naked and Fanous' 2010 debut, Passive Me, Aggressive You. This year is shaping au to be full of incredible releases from both young and old bands.

--Update 12 September 2013--

Link to stream the entire album on this page.

Nine Inch Nails live EP

Trent Reznor and co. have recorded several Nine Inch Nails shows during the band's 2013 tour. Hopefully this means we'll get a concert DVD, or a full live album in a couple of months time. For now though four of the tracks have been compiled into a Live 2013 EP, which is streaming via Spotify. The EP artwork is labelled 'Seed 7,' signifying this as an official promotional release. 

This is only the second 'seed' that has not been made available for free download, the last time being back in 2005, when members of the nin.com community received promotional DVDs in the mail with the words Seed 1 on the back cover.

-- Update 17 September 2013 --

Apparently the EP has disappeared from Spotify, although Rob Sheridan has confirmed that it will be back online again soon. In the mean time, have a look over here.

@heroicraptor So I heard. No idea what happened there but it should be coming back.

— Rob Sheridan (@rob_sheridan) September 12, 2013

Seether covers Verucal Salt's 1994 hit

Seether recently announced a 'best of compilation,' which would include a few surprises and three new tracks. Today the first single, a re-recording the Veruca Salt song that inspired the Seether's name was released. Unfortunately the link to Seether's 'Seether' doesn't work in South Africa (which is pretty lame considering this is where it all started for them), so here's Veruca Salt's original from 1994.

-- Update 16 September 2013 --
Stream Seether's version here (should work everyone, unlike the original video link above).

New ††† - Win†er 20†3

††† have released a second teaser video, with the same visuals as last months video, but different music. This video was released by Sumerian Records, which gives us some information regarding the label ††† have signed to. Noisey interviewed Chino Moreno recently, and he said that the new crosses release was a third EP. The video also has "Win†er 20†3" in the title, with Moreno saying October more specifically in the interview.

Unlike the first teaser video, the track used in this one gives us a brief listen to Moreno's vocals, even if they are a little distorted in the last few seconds of the video. 

-- Update 06 November 2013 --

A video of the song has been released, giving the title as Bitches brew.

††† teaser video

††† are just teasing us now. Here's a short video with no information about any future release, but it does feature some haunting music. Thankfully I've still got Thursday night's Deftones show stuck in my head (I'm busy writing a post about it and sorting through photographs from the evening). 

-- Update 06 November 2013 --

A video of the song has been released, giving the title as Bitches brew.

Crystal Castles - Affection (Mr. Kitty vs Invisibles remix)

Here's a free download of Crystal Castles' Affection remixed by Mr. Kitty and Invisibles.

-- Updated 20:47 CAT 30 July --

The link looks to be working again.

-- Updated 23:24 CAT 29 July --

It appears that Invisibles has removed the track from his Soundcloud page, and deleted the post from his Facebook account. 

'Hesitation Marks' artwork, Part II

Last month I wrote about the album artwork for Nine Inch Nails' album Hesitation Marks. Turns out that that particular cover is for the iTunes deluxe digital version, and that these are the covers for the remaining physical and digital editions of the album. The digital cover is my favourite, but that wont stop me from getting the Deluxe CD edition.

Digital

Standard CD

Deluxe CD

Vinyl

Deftones and Yellowcard in Cape Town

A few weeks after the news that Deftones will be one of the headline acts at Oppikoppi, it has been confirmed that Deftones will perform a show in Cape Town on 8 August. One Night in Cape Town will also feature Yellowcard and other local acts, still to be announced.

I'm still hoping to make it to Oppikoppi: BewilderBeast with Em in August, but if that plan doesn't work out, I'll travel back to Cape Town just to catch Deftones live. I recently saw Chevelle at the Grand West Arena, and while the band themselves put on a spectacular show, the crowd and atmosphere in the venue were a little dull for my liking. I'd much rather try get to the outdoor festival, which should be packed with people in the mood to party and amped for the music. Let's see what happens after I get back from Europe.

Album art revealed for 'Hesitation Marks'

Nine Inch Nails next album, Hesitation Marks, set for release on 3 September is now available for pre-order on nin.com and iTunes. The album will be available on several formats, including digital download, CD, and vinyl. Pre-orders will also get instant access to download the single Came back haunted, which premièred earlier today.

Along with the release of the first single, and the cover art for Hesitation Marks, comes an extensive list of North American tour dates for Tension 2013. 

Now for a look at the Hesitation Marks cover art. My first thoughts were that it was reminiscent of the various artwork from The Downward Spiral era, which isn't a bad first impression considering the artist responsible for those artworks, Russell Mills, is also responsible for this piece.

I really like the choice of colours, and the overall presentation as it's a step away from the Year Zero/ The Slip artwork, suggesting this album is not set in the Year Zero storyline.

I don't like the look of the fragmented NIИ logo, as it doesn't fit in with the gritty texture of the background. Maybe it's not too late to make the logo layer slightly transparent, so that some of the imperfections of Russell Mills' excellent piece of work shows through.

-- 

Update here

Nine Inch Nails: Came back haunted

Why wait until 11:00 AM (PDT), when you can listen to Came back haunted, the first single off Nine Inch Nails' album Hesitation Marks, coming out on 3 September 2013. Came back haunted will be available to download later today on nin.com and iTunes.

There's also a video for Came back haunted

77 mm filters now available from Mount July

There are still eight days left to help fund the production of Mount July's range of multi-coloured camera filters. So far just over 80% of the money needed to support the production costs of the project has been raised. While predictions show that Mount July's project should raise enough to get the first run of filters done, it looks like they're unlikely to reach their stretch goal of US$ 44 000.

Despite the possibility of not reaching the stretch goal, Mount July are still planning to manufacture 77 mm filters. This is most likely as a result of the large number of requests received for filters with a wider diameter than those originally offered. So far no one has pledged money towards either of the 77 mm options available; US$ 50+ for a single filter, US$ 90+ for two filters, or US$ 140+ for all three coloured filters. I'm now unsure whether to get a set of 58 mm filters for the lenses I already own, or if I get a set of 77 mm filters for the lens I want to buy?

For some more photos taken using Mount July filters click here.

Remix Bloc Party's 'Walk on music'

Bloc Party have made the stems available for their track, Walk on music, available for free download. Walk on music was written and recorded by Russell Lissack and Jamie Ellis (Battle), and has been played live at some of Bloc Party's recent shows. A link to download the stems can be found here, just a heads up, the file is 670 MB in size.

-- Updated 29 May 2013 --

I finally managed to download the stems, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it included a WAV file of the original track.