9 By the time Bungie began work on Halo 3: ODST, they had been producing Halo-based content for almost 10 years and the window of their continued devotion to their IP was beginning to slip. They went out with a big bang the following year with what I still consider to be the pinnacle of…
This week’s Burnes’ Turns is easily the longest as I included an entire album in addition to four other songs I’ve enjoyed throughout the week thus far. There isn’t really much of a common threat this week except that I think every single one is great. “11 p.m.” – Kazumi Totaka, Asuka Ohta There are times…
***** There have been many so-called “revolutionaries” across music history, but none, I would argue, more prolific than Bob Dylan. His early Folk albums were classics, no doubt, but when he plugged in and alienated his musically conservative fans, he opened the door to a new world of influence. Highway 61 Revisited, the first of Bob Dylan’s…
Thanks to Rolling Stone and WWE (an odd combination to be sure), this week was largely about the ’60s, which is pretty much indisputably the best decade for music in our country’s history. However, it’s the much newer “Sirens” and “Piano Man” that are old to me, presenting an interesting dichotomy for my picks for…
9.5 After completing Halo: Combat Evolved, I was left with many more mixed feelings than when I finished Halo: Reach. Though the gameplay in Combat Evolved was tight, the level design left a lot to be desired, the story was largely bland, and I often lost track of what exactly I was supposed to be…
9.5 Revolutionary. It’s a word that is thrown around way too much, but it’s also the very definition of what Halo: Combat Evolved was to the gaming world as a whole upon its release in 2001. Before Halo, First Person Shooters were, at best, a niche genre of videogames in a market dominated by platforming…
The brand split was a good idea in theory, but in execution has left a lot to be desired. WWE’s roster probably wasn’t quite deep enough to warrant it, especially considering WWE’s rather atrocious booking of its stars, but I will say that RAW has fared better in contracting star power. I expect this show…
B+ There was a golden triangle of influence in the mid-’60s as The Beatles began their transition from Pop superstars to Psychadelic weirdos changing music forever in the process. It began with Rubber Soul which blew the minds of pretty much everybody who heard it in 1965, not the least of which was Brian Wilson, the…
9.75 When I woke up two days ago, I had never experienced a Halo game. That’s not entirely true; over a decade ago I had played the original with Matthew Fisher, one of my best friends at the time, who had an XBOX (I didn’t), but I didn’t accomplish much besides adding my own plasma…
As to be expected, this week’s picks draw heavily from Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, but there’s also a piano piece that defined my Summer, and one of my Top 2 picks for Best Song of 2015. “Dancing Queen” – ABBA Everybody knows this song, but I guess I just hadn’t listened…
The Soundtrack Online 