Annoying Things Muscians Need to Stop Doing

 Here is a list of the most annoying things bands and record labels regularly do.  Some of them are directly in the music while others are just aesthetic or "other" nuisances. 

1- Bonus Tracks Mixed In With the Album

 We've all bought an album from one of our favorite bands and taken it home to listen.  After about 10 tracks you begin to hear obnoxious half-finished studio doodles.  What happened?  That was a bonus track.

Bands and record labels like to place bonus tracks (usually either live takes or songs that weren't good enough for the actual album) at the end of the CD to encourage you to buy it (again).  They believe that you'll say "Oh, look, there's more songs from my favorite band!  I have to hear this."  The vast majority of the songs are so bad that you instantly realize why they weren't placed on the album.  If you have an extra-scum-bag label/band they'll even give you "alternate takes" or live versions of the songs that are already on the album.  Yes, they just gave you two slightly different versions of the same exact thing. 

How to fix it: Stop adding the songs on at the end of the album and start adding them on an optional bonus 2nd  disk.  This way you can add in more than the normal 1-3 tracks, giving the "fans" more studio-doodles and outtakes to listen to.

                           Screenshot taken from Wikipedia.org  - Pictured: One of the few bands that doesn't give you go-nowhere early-takes as bonus tracks.

2 - "Hidden" Tracks

 Okay, so you just finished listening to your first Nirvana album.  You go to the bathroom to wash your hands for dinner.  After about 30 seconds you hear a horrible screeching noise coming out of the CD player.  You run into the room only to realize you left the CD player on.

What happened? That was a hidden track.  "Hidden Tracks" are another way bands can sneak extra material at you without you even wanting it.  Hidden tracks are almost always hidden after about 5-10 minutes of silence at the end of the last song on the album.  This means that when you rip the songs onto your computer you're going to have to download (and learn to use) an audio program so that you can separate the song you want and the song you don't.  

You could always sacrifice your scrobbles and just not listen to the second half of the song, but no-one wants to do that.  Or you could just skip the final song all-together, but that's no fun.  If the band is very slimy (Or more "artistic"), then they'll add in about 10 minutes of humming noises (Example: Meshuggah's Elastic) making it impossible for you to separate the songs or even skip the "nearly-silent" part.

Most "Hidden" tracks are either the hardest, fastest or heaviest song on the album, ones that the bands were too afraid to put with the rest of the songs, or weird-pointless studio-wrecks, usually compilations of edited voices, percussion and cricket-noises.  

How to fix it:  Don't do it.


3 - Interludes

 Who hasn't bought an artist's studio-release expecting the 12 song titles to mean that there are actually 12 songs on the album, only to find out that at least one of them is a boring attempt for the musician to be "deep" and "meaningful"?

Defining what is an interlude is fairly difficult.  Google dictionary defines it as 4 "a piece of music that is played between other pieces of music" and 5 "a temporary amusement or entertainment that contrasts what goes before or after it."

Not all interludes are bad; Opeth and 2000s Radiohead have been fairly successful with them. Tool, otherwise known as "the band of a million interludes and intros," have not been as successful.  Their album "Ænima" is famous for having six interludes and only nine real songs.  These include, but are not restricted to, "A man reading a cooking recipe in German with a dark near-industrial beat in the background" and "Weird studio noises that sound like someone falling in space or playing around with the radio".

This includes hip-hop and rap's "Skits" (basically audio-action clips that are supposed to introduce you to a story).  Making a hip-hop album that is 22 tracks and only 10 real songs is difficult to listen to (And not in the artistic "Listen to it twice" way).  Don't do it.

Short-piano interludes seem to work as long as you don't add "I'm recording this in the back of a moving car on a cassette-player during the rain poetry" in the background. 

Interludes usually disrupt the flow of the album.  They usually lose any entertainment-value they had by the second and third listens.  Interludes are like cut-scenes in video games; they should be shippable after the first play-through.  They usually are (I'm sure someone has stuck one right in the middle of a song, but I can't think an example) but that doesn't change the fact that they are terrible pieces of "art" that ruin the album, provide nothing to the atmosphere and often turn-off potential fans.  

How to fix it: Before releasing an album filled with chopped-up vocals of poetry being read on the beach, have other people listen to it.  Aside from fanboys, most people dislike them. 

Checklist (If it has any of these, delete it):

1. Does not provide to atmosphere
2. More than one per five songs (Every six songs can have one interlude) - Not recommended
3. Poetry being read in the back of the car
4. "Creepy" noises
5. Studio-created noises that sound like you put the radio between two stations during a tornado
6. Clips of people talking
7. Anything over four minutes (This, of course, depends on what you're doing).  
8. Readings of literature
9. Poetry of any kind
10. Voices of any kind (Though, this is subjective)
11. Tracks that disrupt the flow of the album
12. Things that sound like they're spinning or falling
13. Things that you think sound "cool"
14. Things that the rest of the band thinks sounds "Cool"
15. In the middle of a song
16. Directly before songs of completely different moods (This one can be maneuvered by intelligent song-writing, AKA a good intro). 
17. Repetitive tracks (Even short ones)
18. Non-musical studio sounds (People laughing, chairs-creaking). 
19. Ten second bursts of horns or saxophones, as if we'd never heard the instrument before.
20. Covers of classical music
21. Weather Sounds
22. Things being played backwards (Treefingers, Radiohead, is a good counter-example). 
23. Things that sound like the Residents
24. Clips from live shows or interviews
25. Tracks with "Silly" names.
26. "Funny" tracks

How to fix it: Stop.

4 - Greatest Hits

Sometimes bands feel the need attract large amounts of new fans without actually doing anything.  This is called be "attention deprived", or just "desperate for money" (Either develop some real talent or get a job).  Either way, you have to be pretty pathetic to do it. 

Bands release greatest hits, but it usually the record label who starts it.  One thing you will notice is that after the band is retired/dead the record label starts milking their brand name for everything it is worth. 

                                                  Sadly, scenes like this aren't rare.

Greatest Hits are bad because they compromise the art of the album (as in the way it was originally intended to be; without those annoying interludes to add to the atmosphere, or the song-transitions), they usually only have "popular songs" rather than actually good songs (As in, the ones that are the easiest to listen to are the most popular, usually), they usually have "live cuts" and "Alternate takes" of classic songs and they are hardly ever over 12 tracks.  Then, on top of all that, they charge full CD price.

How to fix it:  Don't do it.  And if you are forced to, give as many songs as is possible to fit on one or two CDs and don't give worthless "alternate" versions. 


5 - Excessively Long Songs

We've all heard songs that start off great but just keep going and going until you are thoroughly bored and want to leave.  Many bands feel the need to do this.  Apparently, writing long songs shows how talented a composer you are.  It also shows you can't even proof-listen to your own material.  Writing a four minute song and stringing it out to 8 minutes isn't fun.  It may be fun to play, I don't play an instrument, I wouldn't know, but as a listener I can tell you: It isn't fun to listen to.  Even the Beatle's "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" didn't turn out well. 

I'm not saying all long songs are bad; not at all.  I'm not saying that we should all have short attention-spans and listen to standard-song-structure music.  I'm just saying that three minute songs shouldn't be stretched out into an eight minute songs.  Genres like jazz, ambient, progressive, drone and atmospheric genres regularly produce 15 minute+ songs that are highly enjoyable. Even some bands that play shorter-song genres can occasionally make a quality longer-song, it just isn't very often. 

Riffs get boring after a few minutes.  Choruses get boring after being played more than once or twice (especially the "two liners" that play two or three times in the chorus alone, amounting to nearly 10 plays of the chorus per listen to song).  Guitar solos aren't exciting after the 1:30 mark. 

Rather than being the "Fifteen minute epic" you thought it would be, it will end up being the song the listener chooses to skip every single time they listen to the album. 

How to fix it:  You have nothing to prove.  Writing a ten minute song proves nothing.  Take the best material and condense it into something that people beyond the makers can enjoy. 

6 -Bands that Refuse to Retire

Sometimes a band will release consecutive five star albums that go on to be classics.  After a few years they start to get older and less creative, tensions build up in the band and the quality of their music output decreases.  After one or two "bad" albums they say "Hey, we had a good run, we're going to have a farewell tour and then we'll retire", either that or they break up on the spot.  Other bands, usually ones who care more for money (from touring and merchandise), refuse to retire or even admit that the quality of their music has changed.  Twenty years after their first "tired" album they are still releasing new music every other year.  It sounds the same on every single release to the point that they've just created a formula for making their own music. 

This sounds like a rare occurrence only pulled off by the dirtiest of all the scum bags, but in reality it is very common.  Now for a short list of bands who have done this:

AC/DC
The Rolling Stones
Metallica
U2
Guns N' Roses
Van Halen
Iron Maiden
Pearl Jam
Alice in Chains
Judas Priest
The Cure
Genesis
Rush (Yes, I went there)
Weezer
Pink Floyd (Denial doesn't get us anywhere)
Nas

                                                                           Guilty.
And even if they don't retire, just stop releasing albums.  It isn't nearly as bad to tour and play shows for new fans if you don't constantly tarnish your reputation by releasing dull-pastiches of your former self every three-five years in a cheap-attempt to get more money (and 12 year old fan girls).

The difference between AC/DC and Tom Waits is that Tom Waits changes his sound drastically on virtually every single album, never releasing the thing twice while AC/DC has been making the same album over and over again since the 70s (Even after their lead singer, and the main talent of the band, died).  

How to fix it: As a wise man once said "Disband and do something creative".

Minecraft Screenshots 1

Inspired by the news of new updates to Minecraft, I have decided to upload a few screenshots I took during the game.  There are some of the creations I have crafted in Minecraft throughout the last year.  These are mostly construction ideas and building ideas for homes that I thought of and tried to create in Minecraft but failed.  

 This is a shot of a log-house (wood) I built inside a protective cobblestone dome.

 A normally ugly feature, this dirt bridge is aesthetically pleasing at night.

 A stone stronghold made during Creative mode.

 A path cut through the forest outside my first house.

 A view from on top of my mountain house.

 The other side.

 A large mining site that was abandoned because of lava.

 A large stairway that leads to the mine above.

 A shot of water at night. 

Bioshock - Great Atmosphere, Boring Gameplay

I'm one of the few people who didn't but Bioshock back in 2007 and 2008 when it was still Bioshock (Before we had to differentiate from the sequel).  I just now purchased the game on Steam because of a $5 sale (I also bought the sequel and Borderlands, but that's for another day).

My main attraction to the game, the reason I bought a four year old game, was the scenery, atmosphere and story (What I'd heard of, that is).  The idea of a city built underwater intrigued me.  Now, after having played the game, I believe that the atmosphere/scenery/setting is the best part of the game.  The under water city is beautiful.  Rapture, the city, has been, for the most part, torn apart by the Splicers.  Rapture is filled with malevolent characters (From Splicers to Big Daddys to security sentries) who want nothing but to kill you . 

As you can see from these screenshots, Rapture is a beautiful thing to look at, even though it has been destroyed through years of fighting. 

Now for the rest of the game, the part I enjoy less. At the start of the game you are escaping a crashed plane, you go straight down into rapture and from there on, you spend most of the game fighting your way through rooms to other rooms to finish missions that you started in other rooms.  For the duration of the first 3-4 levels, you spend the majority of the time completing tasks for characters you've never spoken to (One of them speaks into your ear, giving you instructions).

The actual combat portion of the game, which is what you'll be doing 90% of the time, is broken up into two sections.  The first section is the weapons.  You have your typical pistol, machine gun, melee weapon and a few others (nothing very interesting).  The second section is the plasmids.  You've probably seen a trailer of the player shooting lightning from his hand, striking a pool of water and frying up bad guys (splicers).  This is a plasmid.  Plasmids have their own ammo-like bar that must be recharged (taking all the fun out of it).  You are only given a certain number of slots that can hold plasmids at a time (At the start of the game you can only hold three).  This is a serious limitation.   It slows down the game to change and replace your super-powers.

After you learn how to strike your opponent with lightning, then switch to your shotgun/machine gun and finish them off, fighting goes from an interactive experience to a robotic, lifeless task you must do for every room.  Every room.  Even the areas you have already cleared will be refilled with splicers on your return, guaranteeing you that you'll have to fight more and more and more.  The only way to get a pause is to, literally, pause the game (either that or just stand around the recently conquered areas, gazing at the beauty of the ocean through the virtual windows).

Graphics:  7/10
The magnificent world of Bioshock is the only thing that kept me going.  I've played plenty of good games, games that I actually wanted to play the next level, games that I wanted to see what would happen next, what new door or power I would unlock.  This wasn't one.  The well crafted and curious city of Rapture was the only reason I didn't email Gabe Newell demanding a refund (We all know that wouldn't have worked).  

Now, beyond the artwork and the creativity of the world, a lot of the world seems more than a little bit to be made out of boxes.  Look at the pictures of the guns and close-up objects below.  Everything is clunky.  The guns look like the kind of thing you'd make in Adobe and post to your Twitter account before deleting (Maybe that was an exaggeration). 

Gameplay:  1.5/10
I've seen worse, but this is just about the most generic game (That lumps it in with the tons of others that have no creativity at all; the game studios that have dozens of employees but not one thinking mind among them), in terms of combat and interaction, that I've ever played.  The movement is clunky and awkward.  I guess the idea was to appear to be realistic (but when you're shooting lightning from your finger tip, that doesn't make sense). 

Story:  4/10
After the initial arrival in Rapture, you spend most of the game trying to figure out what happened.  If you fail to pick up a journal, or listen to it, then you've just missed a vital piece of the story.  Throughout most of the game it is just "go find X".  If this was a homework assignment we'd call it "Busy work".  The story never really picks up.

Other: 
None: This game offers no real bonus features.






Overall:  5/10
What originally seemed like a prospect for a very enjoyable play through turned out to be a "Force yourself to play, you already payed for it" kind of experience.  This game did nothing for me.  The only redeeming quality was the ever-interesting city of Rapture.  I couldn't even bring myself to finish playing the game.

The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

The Smile Sessions is a Beach Boys album that was recorded in the 60s after Pet Sounds but never finished or released in full until now, 2011.  The project was never completed because the band's main songwriter, Brian Wilson, went crazy. 

Before I start I need to say that I didn't listen to the entirety of the tracks.  After the album finishes (the first 19 songs) there are several CDs worth of studio outtakes and other not-completed material that I am not interested in hearing.  

The Smile Sessions is about average length (48 minutes) but five of the 19 main tracks are under two minutes long.  Most of the songs transition well with a great flow, especially towards the beginning where some of the tracks feel like they were made to be next to each other.  The instrumentation is of the same quality as Pet Sounds.  Brian Wilson's distinct falsetto vocals and vocal harmonies are present, creating entertaining, lovable melodies for most of the songs.  The tracks have many layers of instruments, vocals and other sounds, making for interesting and rewarding re-listens.  The songs are well produced and sound crisp. 

 Much of what made Pet Sounds an amazing album is present on Smile, only some of the tracks feel unfinished.  The songs are solid and stand up well in re-listens.  I would recommend this album to anyone who enjoys the 1960s Beach Boys, especially for fans of Pet Sounds. The Beach Boys have not disappointed (Well, maybe a 40 year wait would count as a disappointment) me with this release. 

Track Highlights: Our Prayer, Gee, My Only Sunshine, Look (Song for Children), Child is the Father of Man, Surf's Up and Good Vibrations.

                                7/10

Animals As Leaders (2009)

"Animals As Leaders" is an American Djent and Instrumental Metal artist.   The group was formed and is run by guitar virtuoso Tosin Abasi.  "Djent" is a new genre of heavy metal music combining 'Math Metal' and 'Progressive Metal' (It's shorter than saying "Second Wave of Progressive Metal").  While "Djent" is the easiest way to tag Animals as Leaders, this album spans many genres and styles, some of them not as familiar to me.  There are obvious Jazz influences, some use of the acoustic guitar, and the occasional electronic beat or synthesizer.

The Album Cover

The album has no real drummer or bassist; Tosin Abasi plays the bass guitar and the drums were programmed by Misha Mansoor (Periphery guitarist), the only other person to record on the album (Misha is also credited for the electronic parts and engineering). The songs are all instrumentals built around and to show off Tosin Abasi's technical prowess and virtuosity on the guitar. The percussion sounds exactly what you would expect from programmed drums; a very mechanical, fake feeling.  Most of the songs feature a short intro that differs from the rest of the track.  None of the songs sound the same or even that similar.  With the lack of vocals the songs also have a slight-lack of emotion.  It should be noted that the percussion is much more dynamic towards the end of the album. 


The first time I heard the record it was a little overwhelming; I thought all the songs went on for too long or just weren't that well written.  Upon each further listen I raised my score of the album to where it is now.  


1 - Tempting Time -                             8.5/10
2 - Soraya -                                         7.5/10
3 - Thourougly At Home -                     7/10
4 - On Impulse -                                  7.25/10
5 - Tessitura -                                        7/10
6 - Behaving Badly -                            8.5/10
7 - The Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing -    6.5/10
8 - CAFO -                                          7/10
9 - Inamorata -                                    7.5/10
10 - Point to Point -                            7.5/10
11 - Modern Meat -                            7.5/10
12 - Song of Solomon -                       8/10


After listening to this album there are two things you have to admit about it:
1 - He's an amazing and talented guitarist
2 - One instrument isn't everything

The majority of this album manages to escape the usual pitfalls of the genre, solo guitar artists and instrumentals. I'm confident Animals as Leaders have a bright future in the world of heavy metal.

          70/100

Exuma - Exuma (1970)

     Exuma is the recording name for 'Macfarlane Gregory Anthony Mackey', a 70s freak-folk artist from the Bahamas.  The first album, self titled as "Exuma", was released on Mercury Records in 1970.  Exuma never broke into the mainstream or anywhere near there.  Exuma have under 10,000 listeners on Last.fm.

      I saw the album cover near the top of a list on Rateyourmusic a few weeks ago.  I found the cover quite interesting.  It eventually lured me into actually listening to the album.  Exuma's music can best be described with tags such as "Caribbean Folk", "Freak Folk", and possibly some 'soul', and other Caribbean influences (Reggae).  The songs are all very emotion and cathartic.  The album's lyrical topics include 'voodoo', 'zombies', 'demons' and other dark spirit related concepts.

      The album starts off with dark ambient noises; an animal howling then the sound of frogs and bugs in the night;  accurately foreshadowing the overall feel of the album.  The first three songs are linked together in that they have a dark overall sound, feature multiple singers and have prominently featured guitar.  Macfarlane has a fairly scratchy voice that, when contrasted with the smoother voice of the other singers, sounds amazing.  Exuma have several background singers adding emphasis to certain lyrics and to the overall feel of the songs.  The second track features dark, apocalyptic lyrics and overall feel.

"You won't go to heaven
You won't go to hell
You'll remain in your graves
with the stench and the smell"

(I used http://www.songmeanings.net/ for the lyrics)

          The first and second songs have minimal percussion while the third and fourth are led by a powerful drum beat.  "Mama Loi, Papa Loi" continues with the dark lyrics and imagery of the first two songs while being led by a deep percussive beat.  The fourth song, "Junkanoo", marks the beginning of the change.  Junkanoo is the first and only instrumental of the album being entirely percussion.  Junkanoo sounds like something you would hear at a carnival.  Junkanoo wears out its welcome, ending nearly a minute after it becomes boring.  The fifth song, "Seance in the Sixth Fret", is the most boring track of the album, over seven minutes long.  The song features a long (1:00) intro, some spoken word vocals and almost in-audible guitar.  Like the rest of the album, track five tries to maintain some sort of dark, spiritual atmosphere, but unlike the rest of the album, it falls apart, feeling incredibly forced and cheesy.  

      The last two songs, "You Don't Know What's Going On" and "The Vision" are very unalike.  "You Don't Know What's Going On" is the second (Junkanoo) 'happy' song on the album, much more upbeat and with optimistic lyrics.  "You Don't..." has a powerful anthem of a chorus.  The final track, "The Vision", continues in the vain of the first three songs: dark and mythical.  Track seven is also the longest on the album.

      Overall, Exuma's self titled album ("Exuma", 1970) is an enjoyable listen.  Exuma focuses on topics such as "Voodoo" and "spirits" delivering the lyrics through a wide range of genre influences.  Aside from the easily forgettable "Seance In the Sixth Fret", this approach holds up well, offering an enjoyable and memorable listen.


Album Artwork - 7.5/10

1 - Exuma, the Obeah Man -  7.5/10

2 - Dambala - 8/10

3 - Mama Loi, Papa Loi - 8.5/10

4 - Junkanoo - 7/10

5 - Seance In the Sixth Fret - 4/10

6 - You Don't Know What's Going On - 7.5/10

7 - The Vision - 7.5/10

                                               7.5/10

Minecraft (BETA) Review

           

     
                Minecraft is a open sandbox game with no goal and no end.  The worlds of Minecraft are randomly generated and are endless (They generate as you go).  Each level has a unique "seed" which can be used to generate the same world twice (Or share with the community).   There is no goal for the game.  Nothing happens when you die; you just respawn.  The game is dictated by the never ending day/night cycle.  During the day the sun shines down on your world (Obviously) until the end of the day when the sun goes down and is replaced by the moon (Obviously).  In the darkness malevolent monsters spawn: Zombies, Spiders, Creepers and skeletons.  The closest resemblance of a 'goal' this game has is to survive the night and even then some people will get satisfaction out of watching themselves be brutally ravaged by spiders and skeletons.

Here is an example of a randomly generated world (In the rain).  The wooden platform I am on is my house, something I made (Not randomly generated).  

       You start the game with nothing.  Some people will spawn in the middle of a desert while others will spawn in the middle of the forest, some may even be in a cave.  Where you spawn can either increase difficulty or make the first few days a breeze.  Like I mentioned above, there is no real goal in the game.  When you first spawn you can wander off exploring or drown yourself, but let's assume you want to survive the night.  Your first goal will be to make a workbench.  To do that you need logs.  You punch a block in the tree to acquire wooden logs.  The logs are placed in the crafting square to create planks.  The wooden planks can be used in your crafting table to create a workbench.  (Shown just below)

    The crafting table is your key to the game.  It can be used to create everything you need to survive.  Now you can use this to create the tools you will need (or want): the pickax, the ax, the hoe, the shovel and the sword.  You'll want to gather coal to create torches (The light emitted from the torches prevents monsters ("Mobs") from spawning where they cover) and more wood or stone to create a shelter.  I won't ruin everything for you (That's YouTube's job).  This is what I constructed after a day's work (Actually it was two game days, but you get the idea).

    Now that you have a basic place to stay during the night, you can expand your house, search for resources in the caves (likely) found below, start a farm, build a monument, create a city, construct a death trap for mobs or just explore the world.


   Now Minecraft is still in 'Beta' mode (The full game isn't released yet).  Notch (The designer of the game) releases updates about every month or so.  The updates vary from entirely new worlds (The Nether, a fiery lava land) to new colors of wool that you'll find on your sheep to fixes for the bugs and glitches these updates create.  The game has a multi-player mode.  Multi-player in Minecraft is much like single player except there are more people.  Multiplayer allows you to build stuff or go on adventures with your friends. I find that multiplayer (Like in a lot of cases) is much more fun than single player.   Multiplayer has "Give codes" (/give x y).  You type these into the chat to receive items.  Some people consider this cheating while others consider it saving time (Who is really going to go and get 200 cobblestone just to patch up a hole in the wall?).

        This is a creeper.  He is your new worst enemy.  This is why you need a shelter at night.  This is why you don't go outside during the night until you have you're house secure (And even then it's dangerous).

Thankfully he didn't get anything important.

         Fire is your other worst enemy.  Be very careful when using lava near wood.  Someone (We still don't know who) made a mistake and ended up burning down our entire cave.

And below (here) is a cut-through of our house (After we repaired the damage).

     

        There are different animals: wolves (Which can be tamed), sheep (wool), cows (Leather), pigs (Meat), and chickens for feathers.  If you search deep enough you will find squids living under the ocean.  The squids provide ink sacs (For dying things).  Dirt, stone, cobblestone, sand, sandstone, gravel, the occasional clay block, ice-block, obsidian and the rare moss-stone are the major blocks for building with.  There are a few man-made blocks such as the "brick".  

     Redstone is basically the Minecraft-equivalent of wires or electricity.  Redstone can be used to make doors open by themselves or to make floors fall, dropping the victim into a fatal pit.  Redstone can be used to create things as complicated as clocks or working rail-systems that transport you through your mines.  Redstone is fairly complicated to use.

      The game's graphics are obviously very 'different'.  Most modern games have crystal clear shimmering graphics that want top pop out of the screen.  Minecraft looks like a game from 10 years ago.  The game is mainly made by one guy (Notch).  While the graphics aren't impressive at all they somehow manage to be fun to look at.   Taking a few steps back and looking at your creations is one of the most satisfying things I've ever done in a video game.  

   It should also be mentioned that the game is very light on the computer.  It has minimal system requirements and doesn't even require a full installation as the game runs from a Java platform. 

     Water and lava work in strange ways.  They use a source block which sends out lava/water in all possible directions.  Gardens are fun to make and maintain.  I still remember the very first tree-garden I ever made.  This, of course, was before I realized that trees don't need water to grow (In this game). 

This isn't mine but how I wish it was. 

        In the end, Minecraft's open world and sandbox-ness are its own downfall.  Like I said before, the world gets bigger as you go to knew areas.  After you have played the game for a few hours (Or days) this stops being "More new exciting places to explore" and becomes "Another cave to waste torches on and die in just trying to find supplies I need to make my hotel no one will use" or "Another mountain to cross before the ocean".   Notch has improved the game a lot in the last six months by adding new biomes to the game (New terrains).  The easily noticeable ones are "Ocean", "Island", "Desert", "Tundra/Snow", "Forest", "Swamp" and "grassy plains".  

       Once you've built a few nice mansions or a long cart track or a huge hotel you start to realize "No one's ever going to use this stuff" and the game quickly becomes much less entertaining.  If you can't make it with 4x4 blocks then (With the exception of Redstone) you can't make it.  Things like cart-tracks (rails) take large amounts of resources (Six iron bars for 16 rails).  Gathering resources can be very time consuming and fun-killing.  

       

      Much like in Garry's Mod there will always be people saying "The game is only limited by your own creativity" but let's be honest here; every game gets boring eventually.  Creating something as big as Rapture (From Bioshock) are possible but take literally hundreds of hours and large groups of people.  You can't just sit down and create a city, it takes tons of time.  Layer after layer of block being placed for only a few moments of satisfaction before realizing that it's just a video game.

Once again, this is not my creation.  I'm not that good of an architect.

   Replay-ability: 8.5/10

   Notch is constantly adding new things to the game and you will always want to come back and make something even if it isn't as big and shinny as the castle you made during the first few days of playing.  

    Gameplay: 8.5/10

    Surviving the first night on a new level is always an amazing experience.  Creating structures and exploring exciting new lands is very entertaining.  Cave exploration is entertaining.  The only thing keeping this from getting a higher score is the monotony of it all; the mining through 100s of blocks just to find diamond or iron.  Multiplayer is amazing.  

    Sound:  8/10

    C418 has created a very interesting ambient set of tracks for this game.  Music isn't always playing; it sort of randomly goes on and off; but when it is you can really appreciate the atmospheric beauty of it all.  The soundtracks make you feel very alone in the (Minecraft) world.  The other sounds; The first time you hear water after being in a cave for an hour, the sound of yourself burning in lava after opening the wrong tunnel; are all well done.  

      Features/Other: 7.5/10

      Multiplayer is always a blast.  Custom servers are even better (Because of mods that dramatically change the game).  The world "seed" is helpful but doesn't make any huge changes.  User made texture packs can give the game a whole new look, you can change the difficulty (To remove monsters) and there are tons of fan-made custom maps on fan-forums (Some of them are amazing).

    Graphics: 6/10

    The low point of the game.  I really don't know what to say.  Would the game be as amazing if the graphics were crystal clear?  Maybe not.  Maybe it is the dull graphics that keep you focused on the actual game rather than the shimmering water.  But really, they're not that bad.  When you stand right up next to something (Cobblestone) it is almost painful to look at, but when you take a step back everything looks nice.  

     Overall: 

     On one hand I feel like I'm overrating this; giving an indie-game made by one person a near-perfect score; while on the other hand I feel confident about this score.  Minecraft is available for about $20, a great price for any game and a ridiculous price for a game containing this many hours of entertainment.  A ticket to a Rush concert is $80-$160, a full priced video game is $60, a new album on iTunes is $10, a new album is $12 at a store, a hard back book is $10-$25.  I believe that this game is an amazing deal.  

    9/10

   I have mentioned this several times, but the game isn't in it's full release yet; more stuff will be added. I may come back and change my score for the better or the worse.