Video Games Live CD Coming October 15th

Having seen Video Games Live in June, I have to say that a CD of their medleys is a MUST buy. I'll definitely be getting it, no question about that. Here's a press release:

EMI Classics has collaborated with Video Games Live and IMG Artists to release an album celebrating some of the best known, most popular video game music of all time. Video Games Live: Greatest Hits – Volume One highlights some of the best show segments exclusively created and uniquely arranged with the original composers, most of which have previously never been released. The album is available from 15th October 2007.

Video Games Live: Greatest Hits – Volume One includes medleys from some of the biggest games ever released, including Zelda, Mario, Halo, Warcraft, Sonic, Tron, Myst, Civilization IV and Final Fantasy. The anthology CD was compiled by renowned video game composers and Video Games Live co-creators Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall. The album features the Slovak National Orchestra as well as the Crouch End Chorus and the “Video Game Pianist” - Martin Leung. The album was mixed and recorded at the world famous Abbey Road recording studios in London.

The album release coincides with the Video Games Live event on October 19 at the Nokia Theatre during the EForAll Expo in Los Angeles and on 22nd October as the opening event of the London Games Festival where it will be performed by members of the Philharmonia Orchestra at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

The album is the first global campaign of its kind, linked to the Video Games Live events planned in North America, Europe and Asia over the coming months and aims to appeal to a broad audience of gamers, non-gamers and music lovers of all kinds.

Music in the interactive entertainment industry has come far in the past 35 years, from beeps and electrical impulses to early digital synthesis and sampling to pre-recorded soundtracks. As the games themselves have become more sophisticated, so has the music that drives them and a generation of composers are devoting their energies to writing for the video game medium.

Video Games Live is the largest and most successful video game concert in the world, having already been performed around the globe to over 100,000 people. The debut performance took place on July 6th, 2005 at the world famous Hollywood Bowl with the LA Philharmonic. Over 11,000 people attended making it the biggest video game concert in the world. Video Games Live followed with the first ever game concert performances in countries such as Brazil, New Zealand, Spain, Canada and England.

The spectacular visuals, lighting effects and interactivity have drawn audiences worldwide with multi-thousand venue seats selling out in hours or days of being announced. Confirming their growing popularity and the increased demand, Video Games Live in partnership with IMG Artists (Europe and Asia) and the William Morris Agency (USA) will host the event from over 21 locations around the world from Munich to Manchester, Indiana to Milan.

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6/30 Thought of the Day: Impressions of Video Games Live

So, I told you I would write out a report on Video Games Live. Well, I am. And it's going to be really long. I'm warning you now. What is contained in this report is pure awesomeness. Let me begin. I went down to Video Games Live with my friends, Andrew and Justin. Neither of them are hardcore gamers, but they have played a few games. Anyways, we get there and there's a mass of people waiting to get inside. There are a few things to do there so we walk around. I see a group of people wearing the overclocked remix shirt, so I thought they must be from the awesome site, Overclocked Remix (www.ocremix.org). I went up to them and asked if they were from the site, and they were all like possibly. I then told them it was a great site and gave them a thumbs up and then went back to my friends. It was cool meeting them, though it would have been much better if I could have met the crew from Go Nintendo, who will be there tonight. Oh well.

Anyways, they had Space Invader going on a big screen and anyone could play (though there was a long line). I think they had a prize for the high scorer. They also had a Guitar Hero II competition two floors up. We went inside after a while and before the concert started, they brought out the Top 10 costume contestants. The Top 3 was a little girl dressed as Zelda, a guy dressed as a L-shaped Tetris block, and a guy as Megaman. The Tetris guy won, which I agreed with. Then, they played this video of a guy in a pacman suit being chased by guys in ghost suits in the middle of a city. It was hilarious. If I can find it on youtube, I'll post it for you guys. Oh, and I bought a poster for Video Games Live for $10.

Anyways, now the concert actually starts. First up was a medley of classic arcade games, that included pong, frogger, and loads more. The music went well with the video and I enjoyed it. Oh, and please note that for the rest of the report, I am guessing the order of the songs. I don't remember the exact order. I believe the second song was from Metal Gear Solid. Hideo Kojima, the creator of Metal Gear Solid, came up on screen for a short intro and then the music/video began. During the song, a guy in a black suit holding a gun, with an exclamation mark on top of his head (probably something that happens in the game to show an enemy), came out on stage. Soon after, a guy in a crate came on stage (Snake) and moved around a little. It was pretty entertaining.

Then they played music from the game Myst. I had never heard of it so was interested in seeing what it was all about, but I couldn't tell from the video. It was kind of weird, but the music was good. I believe Tron was in the first half as well. They played music from Tron and it was pretty cool. It really went with the video well and I enjoyed that performance. Advent Rising was another thing they played. There were 3 movements to it I believe. The first was slow, the second was fast, and the third was about medium. I enjoyed all 3 movements and it went with the video really well. The only thing that I thought was odd was the third movement's video. I couldn't really tell what was going on all the time.

They also had music from God of War and Civilization IV. Both of them were really good. The videos were really interesting and made me want to see more. The music was captivating and really awesome. I loved the action music played for those songs. And last but not least for the first half was The Legend of Zelda. When I saw Koji Kondo come on screen for an intro, I knew it was either Mario or Zelda. Either way, I was excited. The Legend of Zelda music was my favorite of the night. It was AMAZING. The music sounded so good with the orchestra and it was awesome hearing it on stage. The video took scenes from all of the Legend of Zelda games, including Twilight Princess, which was great. I especially loved when the orchestra played a slow theme and suddenly started building up into the main theme once again. The video went so well with the music at that part especially. After it ended, they had a screen up that said loading Act II, which was pretty funny.

So, after me and my friends walked around for a minute or two, we went back in. I heard some of the people working there saying they were running late and may have to cut a song. Unfortunately, I realized afterwards that they did, and more than just one song cut. Anyways, they played stuff from World of Warcraft, and since I haven't played it, I didn't recognize any of it, but the music was great. They did Medal of Honor as well, but instead of using game footage, they used real footage of World War II, which was touching and the music went really well with the footage of the War.

They then brought out a guy named Martin Leung. You may have heard of him as the Video Game Pianist, or maybe as the Blindfolded Pianist. I'm sure many of you have seen him in action, blindfolded, playing the Super Mario Bros. theme on YouTube. Well, he was there to perform, not blindfolded though, a medley of Final Fantasy music. I didn't recognize the music, but it was amazing. Parts of performance looked like someone hit fast forward on their remote. His hands moved so fast and he jumped a few times in his chair. He was really into the music and it made the performance so much better. It was one of the highlights of the show.

Then they played music from Kingdom Hearts. I was excited, but then they said that they weren't allowed to use footage from the game, so they used footage from Disney movies. It was still good, but it wasn't the same. Either way, the music was awesome. They played the main theme and I love that music. It was definitely my 4th favorite from the show. My 2nd and 3rd favorites were at the end of the show, though not the very last one (I'll get to that song later). Koji Kondo appeared on screen again, and I knew it was Mario time.

This performance was awesome! They used stuff from every Mario game I could think of, except Super Mario Galaxy (though they showed a few seconds from something that kind of looked like it, so I could be wrong). The music was awesome and of course, went really well with the video. I loved the part where they played the underworld theme and they showed scenes of Wario and Waluigi and of Mario swinging Bowser around. It was great. After Mario, they said we had time for one more song and the audience, me included, screamed out Halo. Even though I'm a Nintendo fanboy, I love the Halo music and the games are actually quite fun. So, they played Halo music and it was great. I really liked the main theme part of course and it sounds good. Then the video stopped for a second and another video started, which was a teaser for Halo 3. The music continued and it ended in a big finish that sounded awesome.

But it wasn't over just yet. They told us that if wanted an encore, we had to wave our cellphones, DS's, PSP's, and such around. We did, and instead of an encore, they treated us to a new song. This was the last performance, and it didn't go so well. I'll explain in a second. They said these few things to get us going: "The company is Square-Enix. The composer is Nobuo Uematsu. The game is Final Fantasy VII. The song is One Winged Angel" and they started... or not. They were having technical difficulties with the video. So, they just started playing the music. I enjoyed the music, but it wasn't the same without the video, which sucked, but oh well. And that was the end of the concert.

I just now realized at home that we didn't hear music from Sonic, Castlevania, the Tom Clancy series, the Lucasarts Medley, and more. My guess is that we weren't supposed to hear those. I think they switch it up every concert and they sometimes play different songs. They couldn't have skipped that many songs. So, all in all, I really, really enjoyed it and would love to go see it again. My favorite was The Legend of Zelda Medley, which was pure awesomeness.Everything about Video Games Live, the video and the music and the lights, they all just fit perfectly together. The orchestra sounded amazing throughout the night. I was so glad I could go and I'm glad I made that decision. It's well worth it. And now to go on YouTube and watch videos of it because I just haven't had enough.

I'm back!

Just popping in to say that I have returned. Video Games Live was AMAZING! I'll tell you all about it in detail tomorrow, don't worry. Right now, I need some sleep. Peace.

On to Video Games Live!

Well, I'm off to Video Games Live with my friends, Andrew and Justin. I'll report later on the concert.

6/27 Thought of the Day: The Appeal of Wii

So, I had my graduation party on Sunday and I thought I should post about what we did, which was play Wii. I had one or two people that have played games before and a few that really weren't gamers at all. The first two people arrived, Ashley and Andrew, and we played some Wii Sports Tennis. It was me vs. Ashley and Andrew and I won, but after a while, it became hard to win. They both caught on quickly and I even had to take on some power serves from Ashley. We then transitioned into Wii Sports Golf. At first, it was fun, but by the third and final hole, we were all getting bored. I think I even heard Ashley say that she has to go soon or something like that. The party was turning into a disaster.

But then, two more friends, Justin and Amanda, showed up, and so did the pizza. We went and ate pizza and snacks, and while we were doing so, another friend named Tiffany showed up. After we ate, we all went back down to the basement where I had my Wii hooked up to a projector and sound system. We started to play Wii Play, but it turns out that I had to unlock the games (It was the first time I put it in Wii) so we stopped playing after one or two games.

We decided to play Mario Kart 64, and this is where the fun started. We switched off playing since there were now 6 of us. Ashley was the only one that played this a lot when she was young and thus, tended to win whenever she played, unless I played. My friend Justin who isn't a gamer, usually ended up in second place, which was pretty funny. All in all, this game really was fun to play and it showed everyone how great the Virtual Console part of Wii was. While playing Mario Kart 64, my friend Lindsey showed up (she had work earlier) and when asked to play Mario Kart 64, she declined by saying she isn't a gamer. I was determined for Wii's motion control to win her over and win everyone else over, so we started to play Wii Sports Bowling.

It was like magic. Everyone figured out the controls right away and it was a fun game. Even Lindsey, the non-gamer, really liked Wii Sports Bowling and everyone remarked that it was great that it came with Wii. A little while later, Amanda said that she had to go. Justin, who is her boyfriend, asked her why since he had to give her a ride. Amanda promised she would go to someone else's party too, so she had to leave early and I heard Justin say that he wanted to stay and play Wii. Eventually, we decided to have cake and then they left and we went back down and continued Wii Sports Bowling.

All in all, Wii was a hit. It was appealing to both gamers and non-gamers alike and I'm glad I had it set up for my friends to play. So yup, that's it. Oh yea, just so you know, the plan was to go with Justin and Andrew to Video Games Live, but Justin is unable to take off work. So, Justin is giving his ticked to our other friend Jason, who is very much a gamer (He registered on the forums under the name DDRFlip) and he will be going with me and Andrew. I'll definitely be writing up a long thing about that concert because I just know it's going to be amazing. And that's all. Peace.

Video Games Live, Here I Come!

I'm so excited! My parents said that I could go to Video Games Live this friday, June 29th! I just have to plan some stuff with my friends and it'll be set in stone. I can't wait! I'll try to take my video camera and/or digital camera so I can make a nice report on it when I get back. In the meantime, I'm going to listen to some songs from the games that I don't know too well in the concert. Woot!

Video Games Live coming to DVD and CD soon!

That is the announcement trailer for Video Games Live on DVD and CD. Before I post the press release, I would just like to mention (though I did before) that I MIGHT be going to Video Games Live either on June 29th or 30th. It's up to my parents to decide. My mom says yes, my dad says no, and the final decision will probably be made by Saturday because I need to buy tickets if I'm going. Anyways, here is the press release:

Los Angeles, CA - Video Games Live, The #1 video game touring concert in the world, announced today that they will be releasing a DVD & CD from their award-winning sold out performances recorded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil last year.

“Since we started Video Games Live over 5 years ago we’ve always received at least a few e-mails and letters each week asking if and when a
DVD and CD would be available,” said Tommy Tallarico, co-creator of Video Games Live and longtime video game composer. “We’re finally proud to announce the first ever live game concert DVD and CD available in the U.S. and throughout the world.” Co-creator Jack Wall added “The shows in Brazil were absolutely amazing. The crowds were unbelievable and the energy level was second to none.”

Recently, Video Games Live was the recipient of the “Special Breakthrough Achievement Award” at the 3rd Annual Gameworld Awards for their performances in Brazil last November.

The Brazilian shows were sponsored by the biggest corporations in all of Latin America including oil company Petrobras as well as UOL, the principle Latin American internet online provider. Intel, the world’s largest semiconductor company were the title sponsors along with media partner Futuro Publishing which helped to make the initial groundbreaking tour a national success. Adding to the already powerful line-up of supporters were the Brazilian Government and the Ministry of Culture, whose commitment to the Video Games Live project speaks volumes for VGL’s relevance, significance and future presence in Brazil.

The highly prestigious Petrobras Sinfônica Orchestra performed in some of the highest regarded venues in all of Brazil.

Video Games Live is currently planning its return tour to Brazil for September, 2007. Exact DVD & CD release dates, pricing and ordering to be announced in August.

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Classic Controller Goodness: 6/20 Thought of the Day

Today, I bought a Classic Controller for Wii, and I must say, I'm really happy I did. It's awesome! I tried it with a few of my VC games and I'm loving it. It feels really light and comfortable. It's a great controller. I played Super Mario Bros. with it and it felt great. I think the two biggest games that were impacted by the use of the Classic Controller were StarFox 64 and Mario Kart 64.

Both of those games were easier when played with the classic controller. Mario Kart 64 felt so smooth in playing and StarFox 64 was much easier to play thanks to the controller layout. All in all, I'm glad I purchased it. Oh, and one more interesting tidbit that I noticed. You can move around the cursor on the Wii Menu and select things with the Classic Controller. I didn't know you could do that, so that was an added bonus.

So, I highly recommend getting one if you don't have one already. VC games are much better with them and you can even use them for some Wii games, like Brawl. And lastly, I wanted to mention something completely unrelated to the Classic Controller. I MIGHT be going to Video Games Live. More details on that later.