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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 26, 2000)
Limp Bizkit keeps on rollin’ out ear candv ■The sometime punk band branches out into Paul Simon and Elliott Smith territory Limp Bizkit ‘Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water’ ★★★★☆ By Bryan Dixon Oregon Daily Emerald In the midst of all the recent releas es from the pop industry and teenage love ballads provided by Britney Spears and 98 Degrees, a familiar voice is breaking through the air waves, swooping in and shoving fam ily values and boy-band wholesome ness into the back seat and knocking them on their pubescent tushes. Whenever there’s a need to get into a brawl, tune out girlfriends, bosses or the rest of society, tuning into Limp Bizkit’s new release “Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog-Flavored Water” is your best bet. Awkward title? Sure. 75 minutes of tasty tracks? Guaranteed. If you’re looking for sonic-speed ear candy capable of blowing out your eardrums, Bizkit serves up a heap ing spoonful. The band’s follow-up to 1999’s “Significant Other” delivers an al bum full of testosterone-driven, purely adrenalized tracks. This male machismo attitude is epito mized in the track “Full Nelson” (mirroring their earlier single “Break Stuff”). Bizkit’s song “Hot Dog” (which deserves some type of award for the most times the F-word appears in a song) is indicative of what vocalist Fred Durst has to say and sets the tone for the rest of the album. Imme diately following is Durst’s anthem for teenage/20-something angst on “My Generation.” While there is little or no evolu tion or departure from “Signifi cant,” Bizkit is still able to deliver a swarm of memorable and catchy tunes that are sure to get your blood pumping. As the saying goes, why change horses midstream? Once again, Durst tries to get deep on some of the slower, I-attempted-a ballad songs such as “The One” and “Hold On.” While these tracks are very thoughtful and personable, they unfortunately do not stand out as well as the other “love” songs. However, Bizkit is able to in tricately blend their styles of extreme rock with their you-pissed-me-off-and now-I’m-leaving ballads to produce “My Way” and “Boiler.” “My Way” shows great simi larities to “No Sex,” from “Significant,” and is likely to be one of their next singles. Despite the album’s sat uration with pent-up rage finally getting released, it’s also quite fun; dumb fun, fun nonethe less. In his lyrics, Durst pokes fun at critics and what people have to say about him and even ad dresses his al 1 ege d rela tionship with pop sensation Christi na Aguilera in “Livin’ it Up.” The two even performed a portion of the song as a “duet” on the MTV 2000 Video Music Awards. (Ms. Aguilera, bless your heart for the cute attempt at try ing to be more grunge oriented; it did n’t go unnoticed, but please leave the rocking-out to the professionals.) If you’re the type who’s apprehen sive to buy a CD without hearing much of the content, then you’re in luck. Although the LP was released Oct. 17, the album already boasts three successful “Take a Look Around (Theme from “My Generation,” and “Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle).” So, in stead of having to deal with the whole awkward first-date scenario, it’s more like starting off on the third of fourth date. The one thing missing that would help bring this album full-cir cle, though, would have been to in clude the song “Crushed,” which was featured on the “End of Days” soundtrack. A key ingredient in making a Limp Bizkit album is to throw in a mixture of other artists. Stone Tem ple Pilots’ Scott Weiland, Method Man and Redman are all veterans of making Bizkit cameos, and they re turn in this brand new rock-meets rap endeavor. Added to the guest list this time around are rappers DMX, contributing to “Rollin’ (Ur ban Assault Vehicle),” and Xzibit, providing lyrics on the hip-hop track “Getcha Groove On.” And to bring another familiar voice to the album, lyrics from Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer” were borrowed for the song “Hot Dog.” Another element not to be ex eluded in the success of this al bum is the rest of the band. Gui tarist Wes Borland provides excellent riffs and creates unique, atmospheric sounds that mirror the emotional level of each song. Drummer John Otto, bassist Sam Rivers and former House of Pain member D.J. Lethal round out the quintet, providing excellent craftsmanship in their blend of subtle melodies with the spastic fits that drive the choruses. Even though “Starfish” may be a carbon copy of “Significant Oth er,” it’s a cool album, just like its predecessor, and is worthy of being a permanent fixture in your CD changer. As actor/comedian Ben Stiller says on the final track, “Outro,” “When you’re limpin’ with the Bizk it, you’re talkin’ about the major grooves in rock and roll. Who else could take rap, hip-hop, thrash-punk metal, ... throw it in a can, spin it around and come out with some thing that wasn’t fertil izer?” Latest Bond game delivers thrills but lacks in some key areas ■The new 007 is sure to leave players mostly satisfied but could improve on multiplayer ‘The World is Not Enough’ Nintendo 64 By Josh Ryneal Oregon Daily Emerald Electronic Arts, developer of the newest video game in the Bond franchise, “The World is Not Enough,” had its hands full trying to build the perfect Bond game. Rare, the developer behind the smash hits “GoldenEye” and the non-Bond-related “Perfect Dark,” pioneered the Nintendo 64 first-per son shooters and created the multi player option that hooked gamers throughout the nation. Rare gave away the license to the James Bond franchise, disappointing those who were awaiting a bang-up Bond sequel from the acknowledged leader in shooters. Electronic Arts, the developer that had put out a dis mal “Tomorrow Never Dies” adapta tion for the Sony Playstation, took control of the franchise, and specula tion was that Rare had passed by a perfect opportunity to develop “The World is Not Enough.” Electronic Arts was determined to prove the doubters wrong and surpass the original success of “GoldenEye.” The question on gamers’ minds was: Can it match Rare’s efforts and put out a game worthy of “GoldenEye’s” mantle? Well, Electronic Arts certainly had a lot to live up to. With “The World Is Not Enough,” it faced the almost-in surmountable task of beating Rare at its own game. And it almost pulls it off. “The World Is Not Enough” takes everything from “GoldenEye” and expands it thoroughly. Graphics are improved, the artificial intelligence of the enemies is better, and the mis sions are more satisfying. Even more so than “Perfect Dark,” which was basically all about blowing stuff up and calling it a “mission.” Granted, “The World is Not Enough” has plenty of bullets and explosions too, but players will find that the missions are much more de tailed and fun to play. Blowing stuff up is still a major part of the game play here (you are James Bond, after all), but it also involves elements of stealth, subterfuge and rescue. As the difficulty level increases, more mission objectives appear to give this game a lot of replay value. Electronic Arts and its partner, Euro com Software, made a huge effort to make this game satisfying to “Gold enEye” fans. It features 40-odd gadg ets and weapons, all of which are ex tremely enjoyable to use, and the graphics, while a little grainy, are ex cellent and help the game follow the plot of the movie faithfully. Bond must complete a number of levels that range from average to just plain eye-popping. In one level, Bond must evade helicopters equipped with huge chainsaws while blasting enemies. Bond also must chase terror ists through the streets of Istanbul, neutralize enemies in the depths of the London subway system and swim through a sunken submarine to stop a nuclear explosion (which could have easily been terribly botched, but Elec tronic Arts pulls it off). Electronic Arts did an excellent job with the level de sign, even surpassing “Perfect Dark” in certain respects. Electronic Arts also had to come up with an entirely new game en gine, and it did a bang-up job. Level textures and physics are dead on, and enemies react differently to gun shots in different areas. Shoot one in the leg, and he’ll hop on one foot, but shoot him in the chest with a shotgun and he’ll fly backward as if he were hit with a cannonball. Killing enemies, the bread and butter of games like this, is so satis tying and life-like that you may start considering yourself mentally un balanced. But what about the real issue that concerns die-hard shooter fans: the multiplayer game? This is the fea ture that will make or break this game for Rare fans, and “The World is Not Enough” just can’t stand up to Rare’s mastery of it. This is not to say that the game’s multiplayer is bad; it’s just not up to the impossibly high standards of “Perfect Dark.” The computer-con trolled enemies are not as smart, the game doesn't save your ranking or Courtesy of Nintendo statistics as does “Perfect Dark” and the pace is not as fast. Aside from that, playing this with a few friends will make you forget “GoldenEye” but make you long for Rare’s masterpiece. Electronic Arts has done a great job with the Bond license. The single player missions are a blast, better than “Perfect Dark,” and will keep gamers engrossed for weeks. The multiplayer leaves a little to be desired, but not everyone can hit a home run the first time at bat. “The World is Not Enough” doesn’t surpass the incredi bly high standard set by Rare, but it’s a great purchase for fans of their games.
