News & Reviews – Page 4 – Oddball Update

Oddball Review: The Beatles in Mono

January 1, 2011October 26, 2011 Pooch

Readers of this site may remember a while back when I lambasted the Beatles and Apple Corps over the (what I saw as) ridiculous price points of the remastered Beatles catalogue. Looking back, perhaps I should have titled that post “I’ll Give You My Money…But Not Right Now” or “Wait a While, and You’ll Eventually Have My Money.”

Oddball Review: Blade Kitten

October 15, 2010October 9, 2012 Chief Oddball 5 Comments

Lately, it’s seemed like the name of this blog — and my nickname “Chief Oddball”, even — has become almost a misnomer. For what, exactly, is so odd about most of the stuff I post these days? Just this evening, my wife was saying that I don’t write anywhere near as many rants, tirades or random goofiness about my life as I used to a few years ago.

Always Bet On Duke.

September 4, 2010July 27, 2012 Chief Oddball 1 Comment

The unthinkable has finally happened. Duke Nukem Forever, 13 years in the making, butt-end of every “vaporware” joke on the Internet for at least the last eight of those 13, is really on its way. It was revealed, resurrected from the ashes of 3D Realms’ demise, this past Friday at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in Seattle.

Oddball Review: Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

August 23, 2010September 28, 2011 Chief Oddball

When I first heard about Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, the new Xbox Live Arcade title from Crystal Dynamics, I didn’t think it was going to be that good. Although my enjoyment of the Tomb Raider franchise is well documented — with one exception — this isn’t technically a Tomb Raider game.

Retro Gaming Anniversary: Star Wars: KOTOR

July 15, 2010October 7, 2011 Chief Oddball 3 Comments

Seven years ago today — July 15th, 2003 — Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was released for the original Xbox console. Now, I normally don’t go around spouting off release dates of games; I happened to run across this one a couple days ago only because I am once again playing this game.

Oddball Review: Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)

July 9, 2010September 29, 2011 Chief Oddball

Oh boy. I may have taken this Tomb Raider thing a little too far. See, it was the first film being played at a friend’s house last weekend that made me decide to pick up Tomb Raider: Underworld (reviewed here) for my Xbox 360.

Oddball Review: Tomb Raider Underworld (Xbox 360)

July 7, 2010September 25, 2011 Chief Oddball 4 Comments

I haven’t done a review in a while. Sadly, since the rise of the HD era, all of my vintage video capture equipment is no longer sufficient for the purpose of grabbing screenshots of high-res video games and Blu-ray movies. Nevertheless, I’ve been spending far too much time consuming media and far too little actually producing anything of value, even a schlocky video game review on a blog that no one reads.

SHO-CO-REVIEW 16: Romances sans paroles

June 11, 2010October 9, 2011 Pooch

Released on July 15, 2009, Romances sans paroles~bande originale du film~ is the soundtrack album to the documentary film about Shoko Suzuki, entitled Mugonka~Romances sans paroles~. The album was released on Shoko’s own label, Bearforest Records (which is actually her second private record label; two previous releases — Love is a sweet harmony and Absolutely Alone in Kyoto Jittoku — were released on Shoko’s Angel Records label) and was preceded by a single, “I’ll Get What I Want (Chou Tsuyoko na Onna)” (which is the theme song for Mugonka).

SHO-CO-REVIEW 15: Sweet Serenity

May 21, 2010November 4, 2011 Pooch

Released September 10, 2008, Sweet Serenity was Shoko Suzuki’s 20th anniversary album. Also, for the first time since Love, painful love in 2000, Shoko released an album distributed by a major record label — Sony Music Direct, a subsidiary of Sony (with whom Shoko began her career under), released the record as (presumably) part of a one-off deal (seeing as how every Shoko release since then has been an indies release).

SHO-CO-REVIEW 14: Suzuki Syoko

May 4, 2010October 7, 2011 Pooch

Shoko Suzuki’s self-titled album, released on January 25, 2006, was her first studio album in over five years (Love, painful love was released in September 2000), and her first studio album as an indies artist. The music within is often a bit more abstract than what she had released in the past, perhaps owing in part to her association with the experimental rock band (and then-labelmates) ROVO, which is lead by former Boredoms guitarist Seiichi Yamamoto (Yamamoto doesn’t appear on this album, but he does show up on Shoko’s next album).

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