The Kyoto Connection is an Argentine band who create music they describe as “a sweet mix of electronic music with traditional japanese sounds”. A short documentary about the group can be seen on YouTube. This song, “Painting With Lights”, along with their other music, is available for free under Creative Commons at the band’s website TheKyotoConnection.com.

This could be a blessing in disguise for the Witcher franchise. If you’ve checked out our forum lately (hey, check out our forum!) you might have seen that I’ve been playing through The Witcher on PC. As I play I’m trying to evaluate whether or not I think the RPG playing console audience would be receptive. Much of the game is designed with old-school CRPG ideals in mind that console players may not understand. I’ve been afraid that it would flop. It’s unfortunate that it’s been canceled for financial reasons, but still, it may be a good thing for the brand, much as the cancellation of the Xbox 360 version of World in Conflict was.

And it’s no joke. Not just a sampling, it’s the full game soundtrack. Pretty good music here, check it out. I haven’t listened to it all yet, but I’m keeping my ears open for an AudioSurf video candidate. We’ll see.

Yay! If you haven’t checked out Opera lately, you really should. Opera is currently my preferred browser and has been — for the most part — ever since it went ad-supported (don’t worry, that was about 9 years ago – it’s all free now). Version 9 is a thing of beauty and the alpha builds of version 10 are showing promise as well.

Surprise. Now get off Demigod’s back. I mean, the Rook can dish it out, but he can’t take it.

This trailer appeals to my sensibilities. Hard.

This song by Josh Woodward is available for free along with his other music at JoshWoodward.com.

First heard of this band through my favorite podcast Keith and The Girl. This song as well as the album it’s from are both available for free from the band’s website GoMeritGo.com.

Missed one again.

Another jam that’s been on repeat in my head lately.

Missed one.

I purchased Mount & Blade during its Steam sale some weeks ago, but I still haven’t tried it out. So although I still haven’t played any of their games, Paradox is a publisher / development house whose games I’ve kept an eye on. There’s just something about them that screams “PC”.

Tim Schafer spills the beans on his Legend most Brutal. Very disappointed that no PC version was mentioned; Brutal Legend will be Tim’s first game without one — for now, that is. This is a two part interview; the second half is here.

Meta.

Sid Meier’s Pirates! is the 2004 remake of a game by the same name originally released in 1987 for the Commodore 64 during Sid Meier’s tenure at MicroProse. Arriving first on PC, this Firaxis-developed remake of Pirates! was later ported to the Xbox, the PSP and Mac OS X.

Sid Meier’s Pirates! is a genre bender of a game featuring aspects of real time strategy, turn based strategy, simulation, stealth, exploration, adventure, and even some even light role-playing elements. Though Pirates! could be described as an amalgam of “mini-games”, that would be selling it short. There’s more depth to it than that, and everything is tied together nicely by the main character’s objective which is tracking down the evil Marquis de la Montalban who has enslaved his family. Activities such as sword fights, ship-to-ship naval battles, upgrading ships, turn-based land battles, trading with port merchants, capturing cities, and earning fame and fortune surpassing that of nine historical pirates are the locus to reaching this goal.
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