The Last Candle

Since it’s late, and I don’t have time to wax on about Shadow of the Colossus or Deus Ex or Opeth, go check out the moblog I’ve been, uh, kind of working on. <p/> (I also expect tomorrow’s post to be very weak, due to being home for about twenty minutes between the hours of 8 AM and 12 PM. But I’m trying, okay?)

So tonight’s update was supposed to be a nice little video from Shadow of the Colossus of the Boy facing off against Colossus #3, but no. Flying elves are to blame. <p/> Instead, I’m going to talk very briefly about Deux Ex. <p/> In the background of playing Yes, That Game these days, I’ve been hitting it off with Deus Ex on the side — the original, of course, and not the maddeningly-disappointing sequel. This will be my fourth run-through of this fine action-adventure-RPG within two years. <p/> See, Deus Ex is called by many to be one of the greatest games ever — a high praise I would easily agree with — but besides being incredibly technically sound, Deus Ex is the only game where I get the urge to play it all over again — all solid 20 hours or so again — just by talking (or writing, as it may be) about it. Or listening to the soundtrack. Or listening to someone else talk about it. When Deus Ex is on the brain, it’s just a matter of time before J.C. Denton goes a-huntin’ once again. <p/> Now, I may not pick the game up instantly after such yearning occasions, but the build-up is surely cumulative. Last week, I started off Monday by listening to a couple tracks from the game’s music: the UNATCO theme or one or two of the great locations themes — a musical change of pace from the usual prog metal (typical) and new age (for the more stressful times). However, the pull was imminent: by the end of Monday, I’d listened to the entire soundtrack (about 40 songs, 2 minutes apiece); Tuesday, I listened to the soundtrack twice more, remembering the sights and sounds of each location theme as it wafted by; and Wednesday brought the re-installation and game launch. <p/> So what is it that gives Deus Ex this draw? It could be one of many soundly-executed facets: engrossing plot and narrative, rich and varied combat (with stealth and brute strength options abound), the multi-pathed, non-linear progression, the highly immersive environments, and so on. <p/> As for me, there are two things in particular that cause me to get in the Deus Ex-ing mood again: the crunchy-crispy walking-on-grass sound, and the Hong Kong marketplace, with all the little shops and crannies and excellent music. Once I get to the point where I need to hear and see those instances again, I’m game-bound. <p/> Particular, perhaps, but I don’t think anyone who’s played Deus Ex would argue against its seductive charms. (And that crunchy grass sound is just so — perfect.)

I had a fine little feature planned for tonight — pictures from the cellphone-cam, including one of the infamous Das Boot drinking receptacle from Ann Arbor’s Heidelberg! Wow! <p/> Unforunately, an hour of my Monday night has now been spent looking for USB cable drivers, roughly an hour that could have been used playing Shadow of the Colossus, so we’re going to Plan B. Plan B will have less appeal to people who find drinking out of a giant plastic boot comical (or enticing!), but Porcupine Tree fans might appreciate it:

The names, starting from the lower-left and headin’ clockwise: John Wesley; Richard Barbieri; Steven Wilson (swoon); Colin Edwin (only slightly discernable from Steven Wilson’s scrawl — it’s in the far upper-left); and Gavin Harrison. <p/> Such an awesome show, too: started off just as I hoped with Open Car, went onto a bunch of old stuff (cuts from Stupid Dream, which Steven said was going to be reissued soon) and some new (Arriving Somewhere But Not Here), and ended the double-encore with Trains. Whew. <p/> My ears didn’t stop ringing for five days after that concert, but getting to shake all of the band members’ hands afterwards was worth at least a little discomfort. <p/> Next stop: Opeth on Thursday night.

Can’t say I was expecting this news in the metal world: Tarja, awesome operatic-styled singer for the group Nightwish, has been kicked out of the band. Wow. <p/> The news was evidently broken to Tarja after the last concert in the Once world tour, delivered to the ex-frontwoman in a letter, written by songwriter Tuomas and now made (somewhat tactlessly) public on the Nightwish web page.

We are involved in an industry where the business-side of things is a necessary evil and something to worry about all the time. We are also a band which has always done music from the heart, because of friendship and the music itself. The mental satisfaction should always be more important than money! Nightwish is a band, its an emotion. <p/> To you, unfortunately, business, money, and things that have nothing to do with those emotions have become much more important. You feel that you have sacrificed yourself and your musical career for Nightwish, rather than thinking what it has given to you. <p/> This attitude was clearly shown to me in the two things you said to me in an airplane in Toronto: �I dont need Nightwish anymore.� and �Remember, Tuomas, that I could leave this band at any time, giving you only one days warning in advance�. <p/> I cant simply write any more songs for you to sing. <p/> You have said yourself that you are merely a �guest musician� in Nightwish. Now that visit ends and we will continue Nightwish with a new female vocalist. Were sure this is an equally big relief to you as it is for us. We have all been feeling bad long enough. </blockquote> Tuomas, the band&#8217;s sole songwriter and lyricist, keyboardist, and the one who put pen to this letter, sure gives it to her easy, aye? Oh, it gets even more brutal: <blockquote> We were never bothered by the fact that you didnt participate in writing/arranging songs, you never in 9 years came to rehearse the songs with us before going to the studio. Not the fact that while on tour you always wanted to fly, separately from us with your husband. Not the fact that you are an undisputable front image of the band. <p/> We accepted and felt ok about everything except greed, underestimating the fans, and breaking promises. It was agreed by the five of us that Nightwish would be the priority in everything that we do during 2004-2005. Still so many things were more important to you. The ultimate example being the already sold-out show in Oslo, which you wanted to cancel because you needed to rehearse for your solo concerts, meet frieds [sic] and go to the movies. <p/> […] <p/> Deep within we dont know which one of you drove us to this point. Somehow Marcelo [Tarja’s husband] has changed you from the lovely girl you were into a diva, who doesnt think or act the way she used to. You are too sure of your irreplaceableness and status. <p/> Its obvious that you blame your stress and misery on us four. And you think we dont respect or listen to you. Belive us; We have always had the uppermost respect towards you as a wonderful vocalist and as a friend. And very often during the past couple of years the plans were made according to your decisions only. You were always the only one who wanted more money from the shows. This �compensation and more money from everything� �attitude is the fact that we are most disappointed of! <p/> We wish that from now on you will listen to your heart instead of Marcelo. Cultural differences combined with greed, opportunism and love is a dangerous combination. Do not wither yourself.

Yikes. Well, now that we’ve got a motive for the break — a particularly damning one — the separation makes a little more sense. Perfect sense, really. <p/> It always seemed that European power metal bands were outside the prima donna attitude that major-label American bands and artists seem to be made of, but sounds like Tarja crossed the line from trying to be someone who likes to be a part of the music from someone who thinks they’re Nightwish personified — a diva, that is. The rest of the band has to decided to not be a part of that ugly pretention, and good for them. <p/> This split is fairly depressing, certainly — I thought Nightwish was just getting better and better, with the most-recent Once being the best cut yet — but I can’t give any quarter a person who get so arrogant that they can’t see their friends and fellows who helped make her what she is. She’s a fantastic, beautiful singer, sure, but if the anecdotes Tuomas mentioned are true, then Nightwish needs to move on without her. <p/> Tuomas, Jukka, Emppu, and Marco will find another gorgeous voice to front the great Nightwish, and they will continue to make some of the best power metal in the world. <p/> A response to the split from Tarja was received at fan site TARJA TURUNEN FAN (it’s in there somewhere embedded in a frame — keep looking):

I don’t have words to express my feelings at the moment. I am devastated. This thing happened in a way that I didn’t have a slight chance to give my opinion about it. I got fired out of a band that represents the last 9 years of my life and I am very sad about it.

Owned. Tarja has a little of my sympathy for being shown the door so publicly and immediately, but from Tuomas’ letter, it sounds like she’s had a hand on the knob for a while. <p/> Let the hunt begin! (And let the singer-search have better, quicker success than the still-singerless Lost Horizon’s search. Still crying over that one.)

Shadow of the Colossus’s success as an amazing, completely enthralling game experience can be best summed up from a comment made by Chris Remo on the Shack:

[Shadow of the Colossus is] really successful at evoking a true epic feeling in a really organic and subtle way, rather than most games which are epic by means of LOTS AND LOTS OF GUYS AND WAR AND A CHORUS OF A THOUSAND SINGERS RIPPING OFF CARMINA BURANA.

He’s absolutely right. Shadow doesn’t try to throw hordes of enemies at the protagonist, or have the player manage lots of little items or leveling up, or spend an hour just leveling up so you can beat a certain boss, or smash open crates for items, or one-liners or teen movies romancin’, or even see much character interaction at all. Nothin’. <p/> Instead, the game’s story is very common (saving the girl), the plot for the entire game (sans ending) is known from the first cutscene (kill the colossi), the main supporting actor is a horse (it does not talk), and there’s only sixteen enemies in the entire 10-12 experience. That’s it. No extra levels, no fighting orcs and spiders. <p/> Yet, even in this apparant lack of modern and common game design devices, Shadow of the Colossus is the most enjoyable, intense, and evocative game I’ve played in many years, possibly ever — Ico included.
<p/> Subtracting Design, applied by Fumito Ueda, creator and driving force behind both Ico and Shadow, and the rest of the SCEI team has turned out to work rather well, I’d say.