In the past few days, Bungie made an update on Halo 3. One of the changes they had made was the level called “Snowbound”. Now, there has always been troubles with this map. The first version they had a shogun and camoflauge on one side of the map while the other side had overshield and make a mad dash to the convenant sniper. Well, the shogun with camoflauge proved to be too powerful of a combination for the lucky team that would spawn on that side so they took out the shogun and replaced camoflauge with the overshield for the second version.

For this third version, now called “Boundless” Bungie took out the two main entrance shield doors along with the ice tunnels’ and added the Battle Rifle opposite to the Convenant Carbine for the spawning points. I have found that this gives more power to the Ghost vehicle and makes it easier to ambush those who would hide in the two buildings. This also decreases the power of the mauler since one can’t camp at the shield door entrances as much, which is unfortunate because that is one of my favorite weapons. However, the changes increases the range of the grenades, another added frustrating element. Nothing pisses me off more than dying from a random grenade chucked from the far end of another room.

Boundless definitely forces team games to work together or fail apart. The several Team Slayer games I have played of the updated map seem to have a huge gap between the winner’s score and the loser’s, and I ended up on both sides. Also, Boundless has become more of a long range map dueling between convenant carbines, battle rifles, needlers, convenant sniper, and those goddamn random grenades.

In my opinion, Snowbound was never really a balanced map and Boundless hasn’t changed much of that. Ephitaph, Narrows, Construct, and Guardian are more balanced maps, which enable players to combat short, middle, or long ranges in a variety of combination with a better success rate.

Juno Reactor Gods & Monsters

• 1. Inca Steppa
• 2. Tokyo Dub
• 3. Las Vegas Future Past
• 4. Mind of the Free
• 5. Immaculate Crucufuxion
• 6. City of the Sinful
• 7. Tanta Pena
• 8. The Perfect Crime (Superman)
• 9. Pretty Girl

 

I have been a long time fan of Juno Reactor and I know who they were before the Matrix Reloaded & the Animatrix gave them a popularity boost. I loved every album they have produced; Shango, Bible of Dreams, Transmissions, Beyond the Infinite, Odyssey 1992-2002, and even their CD singles- and I could listen to their songs on repeat with no problem. Although, “Masters of the Universe” is one I could live without since it seems to be everyone’s favorite and ONLY song they know by Juno Reactor. (Shango & Bible of Dreams are my personal favorites, followed very closely by Transmissions & Beyond the Infinite)

So, naturally, when I learned that they had released a new album, “Gods & Monsters”, this year, I jumped on it like white on rice. I was so excited to receive it in the mail and squealed over the spiffy-ness of the title. Without giving it a second thought I popped that baby in the computer flipping through the pages of the album artwork (I’ve always been a sucker for album art). Well, before the first song came on, I already noticed a huge difference about this album… there were lyrics listed and not just short lyrics like “God is God” or “Where’s my Samurai”, but whole paragraphs!

Well, being the devoted fan that I am, I pay it no mind and listen to the first track, “Inca Steppa” (Oh, by the way, Juno Reactor you mispelled “Inca” in your lyrics with “Inna”). I immediately take a trip down memory lane of 90’s Goa, even the repeated chorus didn’t bother me because the instrumental beated and pounded like the good old Juno Reactor.

So, I move on to “Tokyo Dub”… and realize it’s the same singer from the first track. Juno Reactor has always been good on providing a variety of voices; Pistolero, Badimo, and Masters of the Universe all have singing, but they each have a unique tone and style of music, but here with “Tokyo Dub” it is the same singer and guess what?! The singer was horrible and ruined the background music! Thanks for giving me Cheerios and Toasty-O’s, you bastard! So, take away the lyrics and you get something decent from this song.

After that horrifying experience, I quickly skip to the next song, “Las Vegas Future Past”, the one of only three tracks without lyrics. That’s right 60% of this album has singing, are you scared yet? Back to the subject at hand, it has a Las Vegas sound to it, but the occassional trumpets and the saxophone throw me off. Perhaps, I can let this one slide since the Goa beats give this song a chance for redemption. Urk! There’s goes that hint of jazz again! I bought a Goa album, not a jazz!

Moving on… oh MY GOD!! Not moving on, frickin’ “Mind of the Free” is a compilation of Jazz meets Slow Goa… with SINGING! With that goddamn singer again! Skip! SKIP!

Oh, oh, that’s so much better. Immaculate Cruxificion… the second track without singing, now this sounds like the Juno Reactor I know and love. It starts you off nice with soft beats then even gives a nice peak with a set of drums and an electric guitar sounds.

Too bad the next track, “City of the Sinful” has lyrics with guess who? The same damn singer! Oh, wait, I forgot, there’s a little bit a variety here with some Beastie Boys robotic voices and Linkin’ Park rapping chorus parts! What the hell, Juno Reactor?! Budget Slash?! And you know what, this track could have sailed all on its own!

And sadly, we come to the last song without lyrics… “Tanta Penna”. Which sounds like a mix of ”God is God” and “Masters of the Universe” with a little Middle Eastern instrumental. Not bad, but not great either. I’d give it a B- and I’d say either this song or Inca Steppa are the best songs out of this album.

Okay… WHO HIRED DAVID BOWIE FOR THE LAST TWO TRACKS?! Oh, I’m sorry, who hired Ben Watkins?! The last two tracks, “The Perfect Crime” and “Pretty Girl” don’t even sound Goa, Techno, or Juno Reactor, but a “Goth Wannabe Hot Topic Reject”! And the CD ends on this note! You know, I’m not even wasting my time wrote about these two songs separately because THEY SUCK!

So, to summarize, listen to the free audio samples from cduniverse.com (and take a wild guess as to why it’s on sale!) to see if its even worth your time and if you find yourself clinging to the past (like me), hide it away in the darkest part of the basement of your computer… right next to the other things you’re embarrassed about. For me, it’s right next to the Yaoi Porn and Red VS Blue episodes.