111th POST SPECIAL re-launchesque SPECTACULAR!

It's become painfully obvious over these past few months that with a reader base of about 3 and absolutely no industry connections, posting 'news' on this blog is relatively futile. Obviously some stories will continue to interest me and you can rely on us all for the usual bile and massive bias, but from hereon in, I'm going to make a distinct effort to cover more of what I guess would be referred to as 'videogame culture'. I'll never cover a news story that IGN or Destructoid hasn't already and with my posts becoming less and less frequent, I think it's time to really start making this blog more distinctive and to keep you all coming back for something different.
So, I hope you like it and that for once, I can show you all something new.

Essentially, what I want to show is evidence of something that I've always maintained: gaming is the only truly underdeveloped art form that we have left. Cinema, literature and music have all peaked, and whilst many make the effort to reinterpret past forms in consistently innovative ways, it can all be traced back through a fairly linear path. Videogames have yet to realize their full potential, and no matter how sceptical you are, you would surely find it almost impossible to argue that this current generation of games has not shown us things that years ago we would have never dreamed of. The real beauty of it is that as it continues to evolve, it also goes on to influence other facets of culture. Here are some of my favourites so far.

I'd like to start with a bit of a reminder:
I've harped on about my love for Paul Robertson's films for quite a while now. To me, he is the personification of a generation influenced by the language of video games. His animation style overflows with character and intertextual references to videogaming as a whole. His characters innocuously level up and dish out the kind of super moves that will make Marvel vs. Capcom fans squeal with delight. He has a new film out called Kings of Power 4 Billion% which is incredible. Here's the trailer:



And here's a link to download the whole thing, if you know what's good for ya! http://probertson.livejournal.com/

Next up, a little bit of Chiptune. I have to admit, I've criminally overlooked the whole Chiptune thing for far too long. I guess I've always been reluctant to indulge in any 'scene' because they're just so disposable and you'll always feel dirty and embarrassed when it all blows over and you have to get rid of your ironic fringe. Thankfully, this sort of music seems like it is going from strength to strength. You only have to pay attention to the music in Paul Robertson's films to see how it is being mixed with live instruments to make something different. In the simplest terms, Chiptune describes music created using existing videogame hardware, more often than not, old Gameboys and NES systems. This trailer for a documentary exploring the scene should provide a more than adequate introduction for you. It's called 'Reformat the Planet' and if you want to learn more, get scouring those torrent sites for a download, or start pestering your local arthouse cinema and get them to screen it.



I hope I've at least managed to introduce you to some new things here and I'll be relying on you for feedback when you see me. Just let me know if you like the slight change and encourage me to carry it on. This is just as much an introduction for me as it may be to most of you, but I'm going to do my best to explore more of the culture that videogames has influenced and bring it to you, on here.

Thanks for reading.


The Faux Bot -turn off the lights, and I glow! COD4 No.1 GANGSTA