The "teh_chris Best of 2011" Post

Happy New Year

2012, here we come.

About a month late, I'd like to wish my readers (whoever they are) a Happy New Year. Hopefully, 2012 will be an excellent year for Traditionally Virtual, what with different things happening on the virtual and non-virtual gaming fronts, as well as in the music industry. For now, I'd like to briefly give my picks for Album of the Year 2011.

Album of the Year 2011

2011 was not bad, as far as new music releases. Here is my personal top 5 for 2011:

 

AOTY 2011: Syven - Aikaintaite

This five-track, dark ambient work was my Album of the Year for 2011. Released late in the year, Syven's Aikaintaite is an exploration into dark, heavy, and even primordial music, featuring the Finnish kantele, one of my favorite instruments of all time. An excellent album to throw in if you just want to relax and contemplate life's mysteries.

Puscifer - Conditions of My Parole

The new Puscifer album, Conditions of My Parole, was what I thought would be my AOTY, instead dropped to the number 2 slot for the year. You can read my thoughts about this album here.

Nightwish - Imaginaerum

Nightwish's Imaginaerum is supposed to be a supplement to their similarly titled film that tells the story of a conductor who's on his deathbed, remembering the good old days. The movie itself is supposed to premiere this year. We'll see how good it is when it does get released. As for the album, it's excellent. I'm starting to get used to Anette Olzon's voice since Dark Passion Play, and I hope the band continues with this as time goes on.

Iced Earth - Dystopia

After what I felt was an abject failure in "The Crucible of Man", Iced Earth managed to redeem themselves in their new album, Dystopia. Featuring Stu Block on vocals, this album has the fire that made Iced Earth great back during the "Dark Saga" days. I highly recommend "Anthem", it's an excellent track.

Opeth - Heritage

Rounding out this top five is Opeth's newest release, entitled Heritage. Featuring all clean vocals by Mikael Åkerfeldt, I enjoyed this album greatly. Go and listen to it to really understand what I mean.

Anyways, time to look forward, and see what 2012 has to offer us.

GSC Game World Closes Doors?

Dead? Seriously?

A troubling bit of information hits me right as I begin finals week for my university classes. Apparently, Ukrainian based GSC Game World has been abruptly shut down today, and all of its employees have been let go.

Sadly, this appears to be not rumor, but truth, as posted by Joe Mullin, GSC's social media manager.

GSC themselves have not commented on the issue, but will do so on Monday, according to their own official twitter.

When more information becomes available, it will be reported here for the readership to view on their own.

Happy Thanksgiving! (Day 2 Steam Sales)

Happy Thanksgiving!

From all of me here at Traditionally Virtual, Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy your flying turducken, your turbaconducken, or even your turbaconepicentipede on this fine day.

Now, as I said yesterday, the Steam Autumn Sale has begun, and here's today's list of featured sales:

*Monkey Island Special Edition Bundle -66% ~$5.25
*Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 Platinum -66% ~$10.25
*Total War Mega Pack (Medieval II Gold, Rome Complete, Empire Complete, Napoleon Imperial w/DLC) -75% ~$12.50
*Fallout: New Vegas -75% ~$5
*Sniper: Ghost Warrior -80% ~$6
*Rift -75% ~$7.50
*VVVVVV -75% ~$1.25
*Zeno Clash -75% ~$3.75
*L.A. Noire Complete -50% ~$25
And the 3 Franchise sales:
*Two Worlds II -66% (If you're into that thing.)
*Operation Flashpoint -75%
-Dragon Rising ~$3.75
-Red River ~ $11.25
*Red Orchestra -50%
-Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 ~$5
-Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad ~$20

Happy Spending and Happy Thanksgiving!

Steam Fall Sales Have Begun

I love these dudes. Seriously. They're adorable.

In the interest of always being ahead of everyone ever when it comes to holiday sales, the fine folks at VALVe have begun their "Autumn Sale" over at the usual place. And as usual, they have a rotating list of major sales plastered on the top half of their splash page; this list rotates at around 8 AM GMT-10, and are the best deals for the day if you're looking for something cheap to pick up. On top of this, many publisher's catalogs are also hugely discounted for those looking for that special something from their favorite dev team or something.

The current games on the featured list are (with the discount and price rounded up):
-Dejobaan Collection -50% ~$10
-Renegade Ops -50% ~$8
-Oddworld: The Oddboxx -75% ~$4
-Test Drive Unlimited 2 -75% ~$5
-Sam & Max Complete -75% ~$12.50
-Duke Nukem Forever -66% ~$7
-Risen -50% ~$15
-Orcs Must Die! -75% ~$4
-Portal 2 -66% ~$10.25
-Call of Duty: Black Ops -50% ~$30
and the two franchise sales:
-Mass Effect -75%
ME 1 and 2 for $5
ME2 Digital Deluxe Edition for $7.50
-Men of War -75%
Men of War ~$3.75
Men of War: Assault Squad ~$8.75
Men of War: Red Tide ~$6.25
Men of War: Vietnam ~$8.75
Men of War: Complete (Includes the above, also has various DLCs not listed) for ~$19

Happy Spending!
New posts featuring the new sales will be up as the lists are updated.

The Many Forms of Metal

 I got a chuckle out of this, found here. It relates the common genres of metal to your fairy tale story of the knight saving the princess from a dragon.

*POWER METAL
The protagonist arrives riding a white unicorn, escapes from the dragon, saves the princess and makes love to her in an enchanted forest.

* THRASH METAL
The protagonist arrives, fights the dragon, saves the princess and fucks her.

* HEAVY METAL
The protagonist arrives on a Harley, kills the dragon, drinks a few beers and fucks the princess.

* FOLK METAL
The protagonist arrives with some friends playing accordions, violins, flutes and many more weird instruments, the dragon falls asleep (because of all the dancing). Then all leave........ without the princess.

* VIKING METAL
The protagonist arrives in a ship, kills the dragon with his mighty axe, skins the dragon and eats it, rapes the princess to death, steals her belongings and burns the castle before leaving.

* DEATH METAL
The protagonist arrives, kills the dragon, fucks the princess and kills her, then leaves.

* BLACK METAL
The protagonist IS the dragon, dwells in the heart of the night with in a castle full of hellhounds and eternal flames. He kills the sassy knight, fucks the noble steed and sacrifices the princess to Satan.

* GORE METAL
The protagonist arrives, kills the dragon and spreads his guts in front of the castle, fucks the princess and kills her. Then he fucks the dead body again, slashes her belly and eats her guts. Then he fucks the carcass for the third time, burns the corpse and fucks it for the last time.

* DOOM METAL
The protagonist arrives, sees the size of the dragon and thinks he could never beat him, then he gets depressed and commits suicide. The dragon eats his body and the princess as dessert. That's the end of the sad story.

* PROGRESSIVE METAL
The protagonist arrives with a guitar and plays a solo of 26 minutes. The dragon kills himself out of boredom. The protagonist arrives to the princess' bedroom, plays another solo with all the techniques and tunes he learned in the last year of the conservatory. The princess escapes looking for the 'HEAVY METAL' protagonist.

* GLAM METAL
The protagonist arrives, the dragon laughs at the guy's appearance and lets him enter. He steals the princess' make up and tries to paint the castle in a beautiful pink colour.

* NU METAL
The protagonist arrives in a run down Honda Civic and attempts to fight the dragon but he burns to death when his moronic baggy clothes catch fire.

Conditions of My Parole? More like Winditions of My Parole.

This album could just about be my AoTY 2011.

So, here we are. In the interest of not studying for a Japanese exam tomorrow, I have instead decided to write a little blurb on the new Puscifer album, entitled, "Conditions of My Parole".

Now, while I've enjoyed pretty much everything in the Tool and A Perfect Circle discographies, and when I heard about Maynard James Keenan's solo project I took a listen to his first album, "V is for Vagina". Personally, I felt that album was lacking that usual MJK flair, and I didn't like it all that much. With that mindset, I dug into this new release.

Holy crap.

Jesus H. Christ, this album is incredible.

From Tiny Monsters, the opener, I could instantly see this was going to be different from the first full length. Then I came across Green Valley. At that point, I was hooked. I continued through, enjoying Man Overboard, Toma, and the title track, Conditions of My Parole with that same feeling I had when I first discovered Tool some ten odd years ago. Finally with the last second of Tumbleweed tumbling by, I felt drained. I hadn't had an album do that to me since Agalloch's "Marrow of the Spirit" released last year. Now, some 200+ odd scrobbles on my Last.fm later, I can confidently recommend this album to anyone, it's that good.

And on that note, I'm off to sleep. Exams be damned.

Changin' Things About Stuff

Hit me up on last.fm
http://www.last.fm/user/DivNecZL

In the interest of continuing this blag, and so as to find more stuff to write about, I have decided to add music to the list of topics I discuss on this blog. I figure writing about albums I enjoy might help breathe new life into this thing, since I've had writer's block for some time now. When I listen to a new (to me) album that's worth talking about, I'll throw it up here for your perusal.

Also: note the new box in the sidebar listing the last 5 new albums I've listened to. Pretty neat, I'd think.



Hopefully this means I'll write more QUALITY content for you, the readership.

Cheers,

The Management.