A lot of new CDs have been released since the last update, so trying to work my way through those slowly... Anyway, gonna go through new albums by Stratovarius and Lordi, plus the new Tomb Raider game that rebooted the franchise. So let´s get started:
Nemesis - Stratovarius
I have been listening to Stratovarius for a couple of albums now, since Polaris, and the new album Nemesis is really something new. A fresh wind that brought new life to the band but kept the sound true to the band´s origins. Might be that the new drummer Rolf Pilve had something to do with how the album sounds, who knows? I got the digipack book version of the album with two bonus tracks, and really happy about it.
The whole album sounds more like a whole, and I don´t think there´s a single boring track on the album, which is a first for me with Stratovarius, because I haven´t liked every track off the earlier albums, but they certanly did a good job here. Abandon is a nice opening track, the first single Unbreakable is really catchy and fun, and the power just keeps going. Stand My Ground has an awesome intro on the bass, and Halcyon Days has got me hooked after a few listens to name a few.
The band has definitely outdone themselves on this one, and I couldn´t be happies to go see them live tomorrow at Tavastia.
To Beast Or Not To Beast - Lordi
Lordi´s new album is also something that I looked forward to with interest, because their last album Babez For Breakfast certainly wasn´t a favourite of mine. When I first heard the first single off the album, The Riff, I was instantly hooked. The sound was so fresh, but still the old Lordi that I´ve grown fond of. And Lordi played with his voice, which really made the whole track stand out nicely. When the album was finally released on March 1st, I had to get my hands on it right away, and am not disapointed with it. The new drummer and keybordist have surely dune Lordi a lot of good, bringing in new sounds to the mixer, even though they´re perhaps not as visually fantasic as some earlier members, though still unique. The album is really whole, and doesn´t really have any uninteresting tracks, which I´m really happy about because the album sounds perfect and there isn´t a single track that I´d like to change about it. Even the track Something Wicked This Way Comes, that I was somewhat reserved to after the listen has become better with time, having it´s own charm along with the rest of the tracks. My personal favourite tracks off the album are probably We´re Not Bad For The Kids (We´re Worse), The Riff, and Horrifiction to name a few, though I really like them all. I´m sure very fan of Lordi will like this new album, because it´s got new sounds, but without forgetting the old, and there´s a lot of hooks to catch on it. Couldn´t be happier about it.
Tomb Raider
The new reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise by Square Enix. Where to begin? I was really reserved about this, because it´s a franchise that I like, and all the games released for the PS2 with the exception of Angel of Darkness haven´t been in my liking. The games we´re too easy and I played breezed through them in no time. I just couldn´t find myself touching them again. What I liked about the earlier games of old, were that you had to puzzle together clues to get forward, and it sure as hell wasn´t easy. Took me ages to get through them.
I bought the Collector´s Edition of the game with all the extras, but I´m not 100% happy with it, because the figurine for example is sloppily done with the joints not being coloured as in the picture, and somewhat hastily done overall, but besides that the box and artbook are nice. The book could´ve contained more and been bigger, that would have been nice, but what can you do.
As for the game itself... I´m not really sure what to think about it. Yes, It´s Lara Croft, and she´s vulnerable and soft this time around, plunging into how she became what we know her as: The tough chick who can take take anything from anyone, and doesn´t give a shit about what needs to be done. I miss the old Lara, because she was so much tougher. There might be some continuation to this, I would think, because I doubt Square leaves it at one game, but time will tell. To me the new games was more like Uncharted than a Tomb Raider. Yes, the games looked visually fantastic, but it didn´t stand out at all. It felt like I played Uncharted 2 or 3 all over again, only with a female lead. And is it too much to ask for to get a decent and seriously hard Final Boss battle at the end of the game. When I finally made it to the end, in less than 24 hours after I´d bought the game with probably max 10 hours of gameplay (not sure though), it felt like a letdown when the whole thing was finished. I had a sour taste in my mouth because I had been expecting something very climactic and great at the end, but it just didn´t deliver... As I read in the Finnish game magazine today: Lara has unfortunately been left dragging behind in the game industry. There´s so much survival games out there, and the game mechanics of the new Tomb Raider are exactly like Uncharted with only a few differences. Uncharted is completely linear in story, which thankfully Tomb Raider is not, with a big open world to explore all the time, but the seeking of different items is not so amusing anymore, specially with the hidden tombs giving off a sign and text when you get near saying "Hidden tomb nearby"... Lame, Square, very lame. It really doesn´t have to be that easy!!! I wan´t a real challenge to these games, because there weren´t really any times in the game when I actually had problems with the puzzles, and could breeze through them without much effort.
To sum things up, Tomb Raider is a nice game, that gives some thrills and is visually great, but it just feels somewhat lacking in the end. It´s worth a playthrough, but I doubt it´s anything I´d want to play again for a while because it doesn´t give that much of a challenge. And to put a special enemy right before the final boss that´s harder than the boss itself really feels stupid. I had to take a couple of tries to get the big enemy down, dying a couple of times, but got through the "final boss" in one try without even dying. It was just that easy. If they are going to continue with making Tomb Raider games, I at least hope that they have the decency of putting in a good final boss to the game, giving us a spectacular final battle that won´t be a let down, and a big finisher that gives you a feeling of accomplishement when finished.
