Old Games: Encyclopedia Bombastica: Amplitude

@Pepsiman said:

@MasturbatingestBear said:

@MrOldboy said:

I was hoping this feature would be, at least for the time being, Jeff's little thing. Having other members of the staff doing this feature feels weird since Jeff seems to be starting much earlier in game history.

Jeff has sort of chosen to pick games that he thinks people should know about and that are probably unknown to a lot of the GB audience. Amplitude is well known whether those who think its a tiny cult game want to think so or not.

I really like the idea of this feature, I just don't want it to get watered down with a lot more recent well known games instead of highlighting the lost games of yesterday.

This game really truly isn't as big as you for some reason think it is.

Indeed. If it seems bigger, it's probably because of the Internet being a natural echochamber for getting the word out about stuff and making opinions seem more widespread and louder than they possibly are. Frequency and Amplitude show up often enough in online discussions and they were critical darlings in their heyday, but it's not like they were a cultural phenomenon or anything.

Plus, given that Alex, you know, actually worked at Harmonix, I would suspect he'd have a little insight into how well the game did financially or at least have access to the people who would know that.

That was what I was trying to say though. I never said it sold a ton or that everyone played it at the time, but people know of the game. Especially the GB community which these videos are produced for. Because of the internet Amplitude has become very well known due to Harmonix's success after the fact. This game isn't lost by any means is what I was trying to get accross. It is known, it is talked about, a lot of people on GB in particular know of the game and what it is. I'd rather see this game featured in another way than this, that's all. For this I'd like to see the games that the staff thinks we're sort of "lost" and that the GB community should know about.

You can make the argument that Alex's nasaly voice and bad humor makes this unwatchable, but c'mon. It’s different when it’s a woman, this is over the line, and genetics should have known better.

Alex, I'd love to see you talk about vib ribbon.

The game audio should've been turned up a bit more. I know that Alex wants to talk, but we should be able to hear what the song is without needing to mention it over and over again.

Wow. All of my nostalgia. I can't believe I'm seeing anyone talk about Amplitude, but I couldn't be happier.

Back in my day, we didn't have big plastic guitars for our rhythm games! We used the shoulder triggers and we liked it!

I bought those games!

@Gaspar said:

@Alex I found bands!

Also: Rivers Cuomo is in his 40s and has hilarious problems, cool current rock acts that I could rattle off all days are alive and well (if not dominating the Top 40), and Quarashi is cool / the song you're thinking of is "Mr. Jinx".

That is the worst song I have ever heard.

"There aren't bands anymore" is the LOONIEST thing I've ever heard Alex Navarro say.

I say that with love, incase Alex is offended.

I like that Encyclopedia Bombastica entries cover both older games that were before my time as well as more recent games that I might have missed. Keep 'em coming!

See, the thing is, it's natural for us to love the music of our high school days and spend the rest of our lives seeking that same kind of music out (whatever it might be), and finding new music to be comparatively not as good.

Every generation is doomed to go through this because it's actually really really hard to remain interested in pop culture when you find yourself more and more alienated from it as the years go by. By the time you hit 30 the genres of music you used to love in HS will have changed into something unrecognisable, and the musicians you used to love will all have retired or started to lose their edge.

It's not about being lame, it's natural, and it's going to happen to you guys too!!! *points*

@CrashTanuki said:

The game audio should've been turned up a bit more. I know that Alex wants to talk, but we should be able to hear what the song is without needing to mention it over and over again.

Might cause some issues if played in Youtube, what with possible copyright infringements and all.

I remember reading about Frequency and Amplitude, yet have never played those games in my life. Now I think I know where Rock Band Blitz and Unplugged got their major gameplay influences from.

There are plenty of bands today. That seems like a really peculiar sentiment to me.

And man, I guess my idea of 80s bands is kind of skewed, but I don't think of much of anything like what Alex talks about when I think of 80s bands. I think of stuff like The Smiths, Violent Femmes, R.E.M., Dinosaur Jr., The Replacements, Husker Dü, Black Flag, Pixies, Big Black, The Jesus Lizard, etc. Not so much the all the stuff riding the synth fad.

Anyway, I loved the Frequency and Amplitude series. They had pretty poor soundtracks, though. The electronic stuff was usually semi-decent, but all the "rock" stuff in Amplitude was garbage (not intended—honest!). I occasionally try to go back to those games but can't quite get past playing crap like Christian rock superstars P.O.D. and that god-awful Weezer song and such. Though I feel like tormenting myself with those final couple songs now...

I would not be able to talk and play this game at the same time. impressive that Alex can.

the there not being any bands thing refers to there not being many popular new bands anymore. I'm sure Alex knows full well that there are tons of awesome underground bands. During the mid-nineties, the popularity of alternative rock took a nosedive, and all there was in the mainstream was godawful pop music. Then nu metal and goth metal came along, and while they were also pretty terrible, they were my gateway to learning about better rock/metal music in the underground. These days, there's not even that. All the bands are underground.

Unless if you already know about it, or know a guy who knows about it, and you have a really open mind, you're not going to listen to good modern rock or metal in this day and age.

Then again I mostly listen to black and doom metal and noise and drone rock, so my opinion might not count for much

GTA comment hilarious.

Old man Alex complains about music today.

We're just witnessing the fall of rock as a major form of music (at least in the USA). Big band didn't last forever, crooner types didn't last forever, etc. Rock has just seemingly run it's course as a dominant form of music.

There are still tons of bands out there, you just don't see them filling the billboard charts anymore. Hip-Hop has taken up plenty of space, but really everything is just a pure pop variant these days.

Thanks Alex. I remember seeing this game when it came out. Seems alright for the ps2 Era. I'm not so fond of the box art tough.

Oh good god I fucking needed this.