The Top Ten Songs of Fallout: New Vegas

Well the reviews are in, and it looks like the general consensus is that the latest non-sequel to the hit Fallout 3 is as great as the original, bugs and all, but instead of writing another tedious review of the game, I want to spotlight one of the artistic decisions that, in my opinion, sets this game apart from your average role playing game: the music. So here's a list that's part countdown - and part history lesson, my ten favorite songs of Fallout: New Vegas!

10: "Love me as though there were no tomorrow" Nat King Cole

If it weren't for the obvious irony of the title it probably wouldn't have made the list. Its the sappiest shit I've heard in a long time, though I generally dig the Nats. For a guy who was said to smoke at least three packs of menthol's before a performance, he did have a voice.

The legendary Nat King Cole.....and his cigarette.

9: "Its a Sin to Tell a Lie" The Ink Spots

The Ink Spots were one of several vocal groups that laid the foundation for the way todays Pop and R 'n B is put together lyrically. Verse ,chorus ,verse, spoken word, chorus and done.  Its one of the slowest rap songs ever written, and they're great. Who didn't like "I don't Want to Set the World on Fire" ?

8: "Heartaches by the Numbers" Guy Mitchell
Talk about the blues. A three time divorce' and cancer survivor, the man was familiar with heartache, just look at the titles of some of his hits: "Knee Deep in the Blues", "My Heart Cries for You" and "Singing the Blues" and of course the track that puts him on this list. Its the perfect tune for a lonely night of  Whiskey, Vodka and Nuka-Cola.

Drinking..........again?

7: "Blue Moon" Frank Sinatra
The man needs no introduction, and the song is a standard that's been covered by artists from Billie Holiday to Phish. The doo-wop version of this classic track stands as the more popular version, but nobody sang it quite like the Chairman of the Board.

6: "Somethings Gotta Give" Bing Crosby
From a historical perspective, Crosby was the predecessor of singers like Dean Martin and Sinatra, but Crosby's influence went further than just the music - he was the first to prerecord his radio show in an era where pretty much all radio was broadcast live. In 1947 he took it one step further, donating $50,000 to Ampex, a recording company that had begun experimenting with reel-to-reel tape recording. Were it not for him, where would the holotape be today?

5: "Hangover Heart" Hank Thompson
"Too much wine from the bottle makes you feel bad the next day, but take another drink and that feeling goes away". Now that my friends is some real Honky Tonk wisdom, and good advice if you want remain a straight shooter in the virtual Mojave desert.

I'm just a Honky Tonk, man.

4: "Ain't That a Kick in the Head" Dean Martin
The title of New Vegas' first mission (with the 'kick' actually referring to a shot in the face), and a spot in several recent TV ads, its one of those big band productions that just makes you want to light up a cigar and grab a Cognac. Martin was not only a popular singer, but a star on television, stage and motion pictures, and of course a member of the famous Rat Pack.

Now that's a kick in the head!

 3: "Jingle, Jangle, Jingle" Kay Keyser
Anyone who's seen the E3 2010 New Vegas trailer knows this one, and it epitomizes the games twisted humor. There's just something about the happy-go-lucky sound of 40's and 50's music, combined with the dismal 'reality' of a post apocalyptic America that fills the game with moments of irony, comedy and sometimes melancholy.

2: "Big Iron" Marty Robbins

Before gangsta' rap, there was outlaw country, and this track in particular is a reminder that bullets flew on the west side way before there was a city of Compton. Robbins was talking about gun shooting and getting shot before Vanilla Ice had to lie about it for street cred, and nothing's better than capping a gang of raiders to this tune.

1: "Johnny Guitar" Peggy Lee 
If you've never heard of her you still probably know her. With hits like 'Fever' and 'Why Don't You Do Right?" (also featured in the New Vegas soundtrack) she's a certified classic singer and songwriter, and pretty easy on the eyes I must say. She's a perfect match for New Vegas. Case in point: There's a quest early in the game that involves a sheriff who's been killed by a pack of escaped inmates, and it's up to the player to find a man (or machine) to take over for the fallen lawman. If you explore the town you'll eventually come across the scene of the crime and discover the dead sheriff laying in bed with his wife who was also killed. Whether it was random or scripted, the ballad was playing when I walked in and it was eerie, and beautiful, at the same time.

Peggy Lee

The reach of Halo.

Bungie has compiled some pretty interesting stats on the first week of gameplay for their blockbuster swan song Halo: Reach, and the numbers are staggering. According to their online stat trackers, by 1:30 pm on launch day (9/14) the game had already registered more users online than the entire first week of Halo 3's launch. That may also be due to the fact that there are simply much more Xbox360 owners today than there were when Halo 3 was released back in September '07, but impressive nonetheless.

On top of that, of the 70 million + games that have been played in that week, Bungie claims that over 5,901 man-years have been spent playing Reach online.
That's over 51 million hours!
In one week!

"Halo: Reach...into your wallet"

Apparently the people at Bungie do very detailed tracking of their games, compiling data as trivial as the amount of shots fired, among other things, and a friend of mine who picked the game up at a midnight launch told me that same afternoon that he and his brother had actually beaten the game that morning......on legendary mode (that's hard mode for everybody else), so given the intense fanaticism surrounding the game I'm not entirely surprised.

But, damn...... !

Bioshock Infinite: Trouble in the district of Columbia.

The current hysteria surrounding the US immigration policy, or lack thereof, seemed to reach new heights this year after Arizona put its now infamous "may I see your papers" law on the books, and the issue has already made it into movies such as the Robert Rodriguez 'mexploitation' flick Machete, so I must assume that the team at Irrational Games, creators of the incredible first-person adventure Bioshock, had an ear to the street when they began work on the game formerly known as "Project Icarus"

This week saw the release of gameplay footage from that project, and the news that it's indeed the pseudo-sequel to Bioshock 2-Bioshock Infinite.

Yes, it's awesome.

The opening scene is a brave one for a video game, depicting images of racial caricatures cowering beneath a triumphant George Washington with the ten commandments in his right hand, the Liberty bell in his left and the words: "It is our holy duty to guard against the foreign hordes"
As the games protagonist moves further into the mysterious city of Columbia, more protests signs read: "They'll take your gun.They'll take your wife.They'll take your business.They'll take your life."

With some politicians flirting with the idea of repealing the 14th Amendment, the line reads like a picket sign from an over enthusiastic Tea Party protester and it seems that the city of Columbia is dealing with the aftermath of some type of civil unrest pitting the isolationists against those pursuing a more open society.

Born on the 4th of July 2: Dead on the 5th of July

The theme in Infinite, just like the first two Bioshocks, is some aspect of American exceptionalism gone mad.
Where the first two installments saw Rapture as a metaphor for the height (or depth) of free market capitalism, Infinite's Columbia is looking like a twisted representation of American superiority, and of course its military dominance, depicted in a graphical style reminiscent of 19th century America.

Lead artist Shawn Robertson, speaking in an interview for GameInformer magazine explained that, "when you're trying to build a city in the sky, you need to have some grounding elements to it to make it feel realistic. "I feel like pulling from real history-but not sticking to it- gives you another grounding point."

In other words, anyone who still thinks gaming is a total escape from the issues happening in the real world, well,  it's time to find a new past time.