Lamp, broken circa 1988

Part of the reason I love post-punk so much is because some of those bands were so ahead of everything that it felt like they had every great rock idea possible, and then everyone just gave up trying to top it. Gang of Four was definitely one of those bands, and Andy Gill's playing is a HUGE part of that. His guitar sounded like glass shattering and it was the perfect compliment for That Rhythm Section. They damn near stole the entirety of Urgh! A Music War with this performance of "He'd Send In The Army." One of my friends said he played guitar here the same way that the first Godzilla feels. RIP.

KENTUCKY ROUTE ZERO [4] I am writing this as I am still processing Act 5, because I feel I will need to do that for quite some time. What I can say in this waiting period is that, having taken the day off to play through the entirety of it again, it is an outstanding achievement in narrative for video games, and even as it takes time for me to sit with Act 5 and "What It All Meant," every moment I remembered as being impactful in the prior 6 years (I came in on Act 3 in 2014), and it adds up to one of the first great tragedies in this medium. The only reason I would say you shouldn't play it is if you get irrationally angry at reading, to the point where you endanger yourself or others. I recommend it to literally everyone else.

And just what are you trying to say about my man Kotoshogiku?! In seriousness, I feel for Goeido. It felt like he was always Kadoban for the last few years. His records were only rarely impressive, with the weird statistical anomaly of only reaching over 12 wins a single time (his Zensho Yusho). But then, you have to consider that his time at the top was shared with the ascent of the Mongolian Yokozuna, and that when he wasn't fighting them he was fighting the absolute best of the best. His average records spoke to something tragic- that this was the peak of his ability, that Ozeki was his highest possible rank, and that as a yokozuna the demands for his retirement would have followed basically immediately. Better to be a long lasting ozeki than a short-lived yokozuna. So now demoted, and faced with the difficult 10-5 task going into his home territory, I understand completely why he'd call it a career. The retirement of Goeido also really cements that we are about to live through a complete changing of the guard. The odds that Hakuho and Kakuryu wrestle into 2021 are zero: Hakuho intends to retire after the Olympics, and who can say what Kakuryu's future holds given his last three tournaments ending in kyujo. Makuuchi is going to look very different by the time winter rolls around again.

Ring King is doublebooked and since I won the golden ticket of pointing that out uhhhhhh what about gran turismo or forza

Hey, it's entirely possible that the Tool record could have gone like the At The Drive-In record went two years ago, where the very thought of it made me so nervous to hear it because of my own expectations and past experiences that I just decided "there's no way I will listen to this cuz I cant stand the disappointment." Only when ATDI got suggested for this, and I ended up listening to it, it was pretty good! That could have happened with Tool this year, but now we'll never know. So I guess I win. And now, here's my own top ten records of 2019 that aren't my own album, Complicator: 1. "Guns" by Quelle Chris (RIP The original beat on Box of Wheaties) 2. "The Same But By Different Means" by Yves Jarvis (Slaughterhouse Five but it's funk & easy listening) 3. "IGOR" by Tyler the Creator (masterpiece) 4. "When I Get Home" by Solange 5. "Sonic Citadel" by Lightning Bolt (Noise Dad Rock) 6. "Caligula" by Lingua Ignota (Chorale & metal but about abuse instead of mythology) 7. "Bandana" by Freddie Gibbs & Madlib (cocaine rap excellence) 8. "Eton Alive" by Sleaford Mods (More Mods) 9. "My Star" by The Hecks (Calgary Rock + New Wave) 10. "Braindrops" by Tropical Fuck Storm (desolation funk rock with my 2nd favorite guitarist/1st favorite singer) Honorable Mentions: all the Griselda releases (especially Hitler Wears Hermes 7), Purple Mountains, Richard Dawson, Fat White Family

Thank you again for humoring this creative exercise. It means a lot to me, especially that it's so well received. I hope we can continue to do this for years to come. Also, I'll be posting my own top ten in this thread in a few days for anyone who may happen to be curious. Also, thanks for not making me listen to that Tool record, for now I never will and shall be better for it. "When I Get Home" by Solange "Purple Mountains" by Purple Mountains "The Baneful Choir" by Teitanblood "Hidden History of the Human Race" by Blood incantation "Animated Violence Mild" by Blanck Mass "Cuz I Love You" by Lizzo "Deceiver" by DIIV" "i,i" by Bon Iver "Bible Songs 1" by The Austerity Program "Jade Bird" by Jade Bird I know nothing about Blood Incantation. Like several metal bands in my life, I only looked them up in the preparation of the christmas drive playlist for the trip my brother and I take. I tend to choose the shortest song for the mix, and that happens to be the intro song here, but hand to god I remember nothing about it. Google says it’s a death metal band. When I was having my metal phase it was mostly death and thrash, so lets see how we do!

I would say by the nature of this being a wrestling forum, I would be okay with not allowing the wrestling games in the tournament, because I think there's an inherent bias there. Also there's something about putting, say, the SvR series next to these other games that feels... off. EDIT: Also I ran this list by my brother who is WAY INTO SPORTS GAMES and is like unsure where we're coming down on racing games, specifically the DIRT franchise. I'll stand up for it if no one else will but yeah. Racing games seems like a slippery slope in general, because if Racing Games are in then F-Zero has to be in. Maybe we make that a motorsport thing where it's like gotta be a physically possible sport?

The penultimate! "When I Get Home" by Solange "Purple Mountains" by Purple Mountains "The Baneful Choir" by Teitanblood "Animated Violence Mild" by Blanck Mass "Cuz I Love You" by Lizzo "Deceiver" by DIIV" "i,i" by Bon Iver "Bible Songs 1" by The Austerity Program "Jade Bird" by Jade Bird I know Blanck Mass, kind of. I definitely listened to their prior record a single time. I know they're built out of some other act I should know about. I'm doing my googles... okay it's one of the Fuck Buttons guys. Alright. Anyways, I tried that record because I'm a Sacred Bones Record fanboy and thought it was OK and didn't keep it or buy it. I remember the intro of it very well because it starts with just a big loud sound blast, but past that, nothing. And now, the second Blanck Mass record (that i've heard, there may be more records of this and i dont know about em).

Oh, the skate franchise is a must. Skate 2 is an answer I'd accept for Best Game Of That Generation

Two left! "When I Get Home" by Solange "Purple Mountains" by Purple Mountains "The Baneful Choir" by Teitanblood "Cuz I Love You" by Lizzo "Deceiver" by DIIV" "i,i" by Bon Iver "Bible Songs 1" by The Austerity Program "Jade Bird" by Jade Bird I know who Bon Iver is. I'll keep this brief: I liked For Emma, I hated the self-titled at first, I LOVED 22 A Million so much that I went back to the self-titled and ended up liking it, and I've already listened to this record once and ended up feeling like it was the middle point between the self-titled and 22 A Million, and maybe if they'd come out in that order people would be less mad at 22 A Million, but maybe that would've been a less exciting record in general. So! Time for listen #2.

I think I was supposed to put this up yesterday? Eh, it'll be fine. "When I Get Home" by Solange "Purple Mountains" by Purple Mountains "The Baneful Choir" by Teitanblood "Cuz I Love You" by Lizzo "Deceiver" by DIIV" "Bible Songs 1" by The Austerity Program "Jade Bird" by Jade Bird My googles of Teitanblood have only caused me to learn one thing: I am not sure I know what “extreme metal” signifies. My hope is that it’s metal but more extreme. My fear is that it’s metal but for people who drink energy drinks and use “tite” in their texts. I’m pretty sure it’s the first one. This week I’ve been listening to pretty much exclusively banda and dark industrial, so I think I’m in a good enough mindset. Here we go!

the obvious series that are still missing are Fight Night and the Backyard Sports games oh and Sensible Soccer I'd also put a vote up for Virtua Tennis for the Dreamcast A better question is, does the Mario stuff count? And also relatedly, Hot Shots/Everybody's Golf?

Alright so I'm gonna try to bust out the rest of these in the next week because i'm gonna be busy starting on the 20th. Something like one every other day is the plan. 1. "When I Get Home" by Solange 2. "Purple Mountains" by Purple Mountains 3. "Cuz I Love You" by Lizzo 4. "Deceiver" by DIIV" 5. "Bible Songs 1" by The Austerity Program 6. "Jade Bird" by Jade Bird Okay, so, I remember the existence of the band DIIV, because they were in the pitchfork news cycle a LOT, and I remember there was some kind of controversy around them a few years ago. I listened to their first album, I dont remember anything on it, positive or negative. Although, to be fair, if I thought something positive about it then it would probably be in my music library, and it isn’t. Regardless, that was almost a decade ago, so lets see how I feel about DIIV in 2020.

New record on Valentine's Day (the same day my other front runner for Album of the Year is out, Cindy Lee's "What's Tonight To Eternity")

Kentucky Route Zero TV Edition appears to be on its way to release. They have a hotline you can call (1-858-WHEN-KRZ) that for the past few months has only had a single option on the menu, to let you hear a cute message saying that it's in development and you can call whenever you want to be assured it's still in development. That message changed this weekend: now when you hit that option on the menu, you're put on hold for thousands of minutes that add up to Tuesday 1PM EST. There's no way to know if that's an announcement of a release date or a sudden release of the game, but either way, I am vibrating with anticipation, and my personal Game of the Year campaign is already done.

Alright, we're locked in now. Thanks again to everyone that contributes to this, I appreciate having the chance to talk about records at length because it helps me refine my own songwriting process. Entertaining y'all makes me better at my passion. It's a blessing to have this. "well maybe if you wrote good songs you'd entertain people" alright jeff ross, cool it. 1. "When I Get Home" by Solange 2. "Purple Mountains" by Purple Mountains 3. "Cuz I Love You" by Lizzo 4. "Bible Songs 1" by The Austerity Program 5. "Jade Bird" by Jade Bird I’m going to keep this one short: I have little exposure to David Berman’s catalog, and this record was the soundtrack to some of the most horrifying shit I’d ever went through. I don’t mind listening to it a second time, but, I’m not sure what all I’m going to be able to say about it. I’m definitely not going to talk about the lyrics at length because David Berman is known for his lyrics and rightly so- they’re all amazing on this record.

I LOVE IT A LOT. It's lovely to play a murder mystery game that's free of condemning people over laws or anything. High recommendation.

fwiw the exclusivity is up, it's just not going to be on consoles until it's out of Early Access

HADES [4] While my memory isn't good enough to say how far back this statement would have to cover to be true, I will say that Hades is the best action game I can remember having played for quite some time. It's an isometric rougelike from the Bastion & Transistor team and that's enough to know how good it it is, because it's got all their hallmarks: it plays great, the concept is great, the art is great, the music is great, and the writing is great. It's in early access right now though, so that's the only strike against it- it does not have all of the things they're going to put in it. Otherwise, fabulous. GTFO [4] Speaking of Great Early Access Games with Some Severe Caveats, GTFO! Basically, the original Payday devs made a heist game that replaces all the Heat references with Aliens references. The conceit is, the players are assuming the role of convicts who have been conscripted of retrieving technology from a space mine where the corporation Dug Too Deep. It is exactly as gritty and tense as that sounds. The MAJOR, MAJOR problem is that there is currently no matchmaking in the game whatsoever. You have to either have a Premade 4, or, go onto the GTFO Discord and find people looking to play. So, more than Hades, wait on this one. I'm lucky enough to have four friends equally interested in the game. If you don't, give it a year or so before you pay for it, or go for it if you absolutely have to play Steal The Stuff From The Freaks.

LAST CALL TODAY IS THE LAST DAY FOR SUBMISSIONS

homie i make noise rock

I shall remind ye a final time on New Year's Day, but, the cutoff date for submissions is New Year's Day. also because I've already heard the purple mountains record a few times and I'm not listening to that until a few days after New Year's, when partying no longer feels appropriate. 1. "When I Get Home" by Solange 2. "Cuz I Love You" by Lizzo 3. "Bible Songs 1" by The Austerity Program 4. "Jade Bird" by Jade Bird I do not know anything about The Austerity Program. My requisite googles told me they’re a two piece noise rock band formed in the 90s, and two of my favorite bands are exactly that set up (Lightning Bolt & The Body). So, odds are decent I enjoy this. That’s as much as I cared to look up. Appropriately short intro for short album. Here we go!

Don't have a review up yet but I just thought I'd come in here and remind y'all that the cutoff date for submissions is New Year's Day.

https://www.spike-chunsoft.com/news/fire-pro-wrestling-world-2020-roadmap/ Fire Pro Wrestling World's 2020 Development Roadmap. tl;dr: Takayama Charity DLC #2 in January (TAKAYAMANIA rings, logos, edit parts) Additional Wrestler DLC also in January (no details offered) Suda 51 Scenario in February Part Creator and Move Creator in Spring So this looks like the end of active development for Fire Pro World, but jesus, what a thing to end with.