Soma - Video Game Review

An emotional experience filled with horror similar in the vein of The Last Of Us.

Title: Soma 
Genre: Psychological horror
Platform: Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, Playstation 4
Developer: Frictional Games (Amnesia and Penumbra series) 
Good for gamers who: Are really into story, and is more into puzzles rather than combat.
Bad for those who: Are into more combat-filled gameplay, and are not into puzzles, or games where you can't at least fight back.
Rating: 8/10.

In 2015, protagonist Simon Jarett gets in a car crash in Toronto, Canada, that leaves him with severe brain damage. Because of his injuries, he agrees to a brain scan. While in that process, he passes out and wakes up in the year 2104, in a research facilty deep in the sea. A year before his awakening, a comet crashed into Earth. Humanity is in ruins. You seem alone in this world, but there are robots driven mad or monsters found in this post-apocalyptic Earth. You can't even fight back against these threats. Gameplay plays from a first-person perspective, and there is no combat whatsoever. You can only hide and run away. You can also possibly distract with thrown items. And enemies don't straight up kill you once you're caught. You lose some health, and you can stick your arms in these (what TFS Krillin calls "robot buttholes"), to restore your health.

Throughout the game, you have several decisions that seem bad regardless of what decision you actually make. You can leave the robot to get killed by the monsters or you can at points, kill them yourself. The problems I see with these is, they actually don't affect the story in the end. But I don't think that was point. The point was, these robots are essentially humans downloaded into the robot. You have to decide if you can kill a machine who really believes they're human. Do you believe they're actually human? It's definitely a very emotional experience that will definitely deliver some scares along the way, though the story may run a little long at 10+ hours. Definitely recommended.

Miranda Cosgrove - Sparks Fly: Album Review

The Nickelodeon actress gives us one of the best pop albums to come out in 2010, and the best of what teen pop has to offer. 

Genre: Pop/Teen pop/Pop rock

Best songs: "Disgusting", "Kissin U", "Hey You", "Adored"

Worst songs: "Oh Oh"

Rating: 9/10

If you see the score, this will probably be one of my most biased reviews I’ve ever done. I will probably overrate this. I was raised on Nickelodeon, and I’ll admit, I had a crush on Miranda Cosgrove from the younger girl during her Drake & Josh days, to iCarly, and even to the woman she is today. I mean, she always had the charisma, the looks, and cute, albeit, more immature of a persona. I even attended a concert and met her. So yeah, celebrity crush territory. You were warned.

Now, while she got bigger push for her music than her fellow Nickelodeon stars like Drake Bell and Victoria Justice, she still didn’t do stellar. This album debuted at #8 on the Billboard 200, with 36,000 copies. While it sold more than Drake Bell’s It’s Only Time (23,000) in its debut week, the latter album eventually sold more, even with her hit songs like “Kissin U” and “About You Now” (the former of which was certified Gold). Now, this album was a guilty pleasure for me as a kid. I couldn’t admit to people I was listening to the iCarly starlet. It was girly pop music. But, listening to it today, I can appreciate it more.

But enough background, let’s get into the actual album and while critics underrated it, I’m going to give it a fair shake. Let’s start with Miranda herself, who, on the verge of her 17th birthday, sounds great on this album, and makes up for her limited range, with tons of charisma and presence on the microphone. The album opens up with the lead single, “Kissin U” (one of the two songs Cosgrove wrote), which basically tells of how Cosgrove feels when kissing a boy. Simple premise, but it doesn’t come off as sensual or sexual in any fashion, it’s cute, and actually appropriate for the demographic, which is why it works. The second song is “BAM”, which has a very EDM feel, but at the same time I had a feeling of pop rock. Another love song, and how much she loves this guy. Again, simple, but that’s what pop is for. Now, we get the best single on the album, the Kesha-penned “Disgusting”, which was left off her debut album Animal. It definitely sounds like a Kesha track, something Cosgrove does on her later EP High Maintenance, with the song “Dancing Crazy”. This song has a different take on hating that she loves him. Another EDM sound with the bass, and has a good hook that doesn’t heavily emphasize the percussion. And I can’t help not liking it, especially with how cute she sounds on the bridge leading up to the final chorus. Then we get to “Shakespeare” which is a very pop rock track which names drops Jeff Buckley of all people, who died when Miranda was only four. What follows up, is the amazing, feel good ballad, “Hey You”, which is telling a friend or lover that she sees that person in the best ways, and “if you would only see yourself the way you see everyone else” and thinking it’s wrong for them to be “hiding in the background thinking you’re not pretty”. Which, I have personal reason to love this track that I won’t get into, just that it makes me feel good about myself. We also have the Avirl Lavigne-penned “Daydream”, another pop rock song that fits very well with Miranda and this album. The two other tracks I’d like to talk about on the positive side (since this is getting long), are “Adored” and “Brand New You”. “Brand New You” plays a similar theme to Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable”, telling the guy she can find someone just like him, even with the same anatomy, talking like them, walking like them, etc. It shows a different side to her, a stronger side. Now, “Adored”, Miranda also wrote, which is telling the guy to show her that she’s “adored”, not just saying “I love you”, but showing that he loves her.

And now, we have to get into the negative side. “Oh Oh” reminds me of Ariana Grande’s “Focus”. Annoying male vocals that ruin the song. Yeah, it shows the stronger, and more mature side of her. Her vocals sounds slightly attitude filled, which I actually don’t like her voice that way. She fits better with softer sounds. “I look so hot, the boys forgot that after N comes O”. Great, now I’m thinking of Meghan Trainor’s “No”. Also, I wish they had Miranda wrote more tracks. She’s like Hilary Duff, a very strong songwriter. I’d like to see return to music. Like I said, one of the best pop records of 2010, and the best of the teen pop genre.

Nick Jonas - Last Year Was Complicated: Album Review

The pop singer faces an identity crisis with his third studio album.

Genre: Pop/R&B

Best songs: "Chainsaw", "Close" (ft. Tove Lo), "Under You"

Worst songs: "Good Girls" (ft. Big Sean), "Bacon" (ft. Ty Dolla $ign)

Rating: 6/10

If we say for the sake of this review, that the Jonas Brothers are a boy band, we've had plenty of artists break from their vocal groups to make great music, and successful music, too. We have Justin Timberlake, Robbie Williams, Paul McCartney, and others. And then we have Nick Jonas, who hasn't had massive success, and his music was never exactly stellar.

I assume he called this Last Year Was Complicated for two reasons: his relationship problems and because he didn’t release a full studio album last year (he re-released his self-titled second album from 2014), and that he was planning to release albums every year like he’s Assassin’s Creed or Call of Duty. So, if we take these assumptions, how did it turn out?

Well, not that great. The album opens with “Voodoo”, a very dull track, that isn’t impressive vocally, instrumentally, or lyrically. Sure, his falsetto is pretty good like usual, but it’s not pronounced here. And the basic drums machine and synth infused chorus just don’t do it for me. And the pitch-shifting at points in the song just urk me. Then we get the EDM-filled “Champagne Problems” (Side note: What is up with all the songs called “Champagne Problems” this year?). It’s a pretty decent track I’d say, though it’s better as a background track, and you just drown out the lyrics (like most of Justin Bieber’s Purpose). What follows is great. We first get the lead single, “Close”, which features vocals from Swedish singer Tove Lo, who also co-wrote the track. The steel drums sound great, and Jonas and Tove Lo have amazing chemistry. Lyrically, it’s nice too. A song about wanting to be closer to your lover, because why wouldn’t you? After, maybe being “close” didn’t work for them, because we get the breakup song, “Chainsaw”, which is the album’s follow up to “Close” as a single. It’s a deeply personal track telling of Jonas after the breakup, and taking out his anger on anything that reminds him of his ex.

A lot of the middle of this album seems pointless to be here, almost filler. “Touch” is an acoustic track for the most part, and allows Jonas vocals to shine, but it does sometimes sound difficult to understand him, and “touching you with no hands” sounds more disturbing than sexy. Then we get “Bacon” featuring Ty Dolla $ign, which I already get low expectations when I see Ty Dolla $ign as a feature. He’s becoming one of those rappers who will feature with anyone, seems like they have a spinning wheel they throw darts to tell which rapper is going on the next pop song. And “One thing I love more than being with you is date night”... what? And his extended “ohh ohh ohh” makes him sound like Rich Homie Quan. That aside, the rapper is tolerable I suppose (granted he compares a woman to Bacon), certainly better than what we get from Big Sean on “Good Girls”. Also, who believes Jonas wants “Good Girls”? Not me.

Look, he seems really, “bipolar” on this album, all over the place, and sorry, I can’t recommend it, maybe to only Nick Jonas fans. 6/10.