In-Progress Review - DRAGON AGE: THE VEILGUARD

TL;DR - It’s my favorite one so far, but I have TINY quibbles

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"Dragon Age: The Veilguard" has quickly become my favorite Dragon Age game, almost perfect in my eyes. To explain why, I’ll walk through my thoughts on the earlier games in the series and how they set the stage for what makes *Veilguard* so enjoyable—consider this a kind of “in-progress” review and retrospective.

Starting with *Dragon Age: Origins*, I really enjoyed it, but I found *Dragon Age II* even more engaging. The action-oriented combat in *DA2* was more my style, and I preferred its story, which felt tighter and more like a focused drama, along the lines of *The Sopranos*, compared to *Origins*' epic, *Lord of the Rings* vibe. *Inquisition* didn’t quite hit the mark for me; I loved the characters but eventually lost interest in its structure. Something about it felt tedious to me. 

With *Veilguard*, it feels like BioWare nailed the best elements of the series: fast, satisfying combat, a strong cast of characters, a solid customization system, and incredible voice acting—almost like the latest *God of War* games, which I loved. Some fans miss the personalized continuity of previous world states, but it doesn’t really matter to me since I played through so many different iterations of the world states in earlier games. I don’t personally have a canonical playthrough.  As for criticisms around “cringe” dialogue, the tone for this game is not new for Dragon Age, so I didn’t find it out of place. To be honest, I find it a bit endearing. 

The only minor complaint I have is with the camera, which can be a bit clunky after locking onto enemies. That being said, it’s rare and hasn’t harmed  my enjoyment. Another part of the game I appreciate is how relationships with companions evolve based on your choices. Characters may become “hardened” if certain actions are taken, distancing themselves and losing some abilities, while spending time with them and completing their quests strengthens their bond, letting them unlock new skills. This reminds me of the *Persona* series, blending gameplay with narrative in a really immersive way. If there’s any other complaint, however small, I wish there was a degree 

All in all, this is still an “in-progress” take, and my opinions might shift by the end. For now, though, I’m having a great time with *The Veilguard*.

A Somewhat Coherent Series of Thoughts on Incel Ideology

I think the problem with dealing with incel modes of thinking is they deal in partial truths. This isn't unlike many other regressive and far right leaning ideologies. They point out the few women who are only concerned with the social/economic/physical status of men, actually hate all men, and view themselves as without fault. They then take that seemingly loud minority and frame it as though they represent the whole, preying on the insecurities of a lot of boys, men, and even women. What complicates this further is the additional fact that amongst many left-leaning individuals online (the internet being where most of this incel ideology grows and metastasizes) these very things they call out are present. 

I say this with empathy, though. I imagine the many women who, jokingly or not, say things like "I'll never do 'x,y,z' for a man," or "men are all trash," do so from a place of hurt and these are statements that reflect that as opposed literally beliefs. As far as I can tell, MANY women have been incredibly hurt by the men in their lives. Even if they meet the majority that wouldn't do that, the intensity and frequency of that hurt from before left a mark, and it's one that's hard to erase. That being said, the nuance of human experience and interaction makes this something difficult to parse at times. Sure, I understand much of this kind of talk doesn't actually mean what it's saying in a literal way, as many of the people saying these things have male partners (though that opens the door for the few that really mean what they're saying to say their man is one of, if not the only, "good one"), but without that level understanding due to proximity of relationship (this being the possible origin of much incel thought) it only appears as it does on its face. 

There's a complexity here that I think may be best parsed out on a person-to-person basis. Boys/men making legitimate friendships with girls/women is an obvious first step, but there's a weakness there in the form of how both parties are typically socialized. So, maybe that would be the first area to look. At any rate, the great truth undergirding all of this is no group is a monolith. Painting with broad brushes isn't a particularly great way to engage people emotionally since it disregards the individuality of each person. I'd argue there should be a greater focus on person-to-person interaction and experience, as opposed to assumption. I've found that to be incredibly beneficial in my own communications with everyone. That being said, the one broad brush I'd paint is this: people generally want to be appreciated and want to feel a sense of security, whether they're men or women, or gender fluid. If one approaches their interactions with that in mind, I feel they'd have a lot more success interacting with others. 

Fighting Tales #1: Be Kind to Yourself

 This is a new series I'm starting chronicling my time as a truly try to get into fighting games. I've loved them my whole life, but I've recently realized I know next to nothing about really playing them, aside from a combo or two. So, this journey begins. I'll mostly focus on Street Fighter 5, but some other games may make it in as well. 

I should learn to be kinder to myself. 

So, I’ve got this new arcade stick (Mayflash F300; a stick for people just getting into using them) and I’m trying to use it to up my game with Street Fighter 5…and I’m having difficulties. Even though the very first night I used it I managed to get a win on someone ranked higher than me, the second night it was as though I had no idea what to do. My mind would think things like, "Oh, I should anti-air this jump," or "Yeah, should use a punish on that wiff of theirs," but my hands didn't cooperate. That left me spinning. How could I forget these combos that I've spent hours practicing? How are they all dropping? Is it me? Is it lag? Is it the controller? A combination? I was so frustrated, and honestly felt pretty defeated, heartbroken, and disappointed in myself. Soon, I grew tired and went to bed upset and dejected.

Flash forward to the next morning. I wake up to do my brief combo drills and sparring before work, and find myself in the same rut. Combos dropped, movement stiff, and frustration built. Dipping back into Training Mode revealed something to me.

I simply do no have the muscle memory for the fight stick built in yet. The gamepad (Playstation) has been my controller of choice for most of my life, so there's nearly no thinking needed in my finding the buttons there. I don't even have to think about it. On the other hand, the fighting stick is an entirely different beast altogether.

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A Review of the Mayflash F300

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I have no muscle memory for this thing. My hands have no real built-in ease maneuvering across the face to each button. This created the scenario I faced, one where my hands had no coordination with my mind. One where I could "see" each action I should have taken, but not being able to execute them at all. I had put so much negative energy into myself over these perceived faults on my end, when there was no reason to expect I would perform above mediocre at my level. That's ok. One has to take the time to acknowledge the need for practice with something as skill intensive as fighting games. So, I came up with a plan to both build muscle memory and build skill. To note, this is with my current main, Luke.                                                                                                                                                                            ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

1. Stick to Training mode to prep responses to jump ins by anti-airing, punishing unsafe moves with MP- MP-MP-MP, OR LP-MP-HP

2. Perform drills on all special moves, running each 15-20 times without stopping. If a move is dropped, start the process over.

3. Run the combo trials until able to do at least 50% of them

4. Fight CPU in Versus mode, starting on difficulty 4 and moving up to 6, aiming to get three wins out of 5 on difficulty 6. 

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With this, I think I'll gain a higher degree of mobility on the fight stick. It might take a few weeks to really build it up, though. So with that comes the need for giving myself a little more grace. Considering the fact I've only been seriously digging into a fighting games for a little under two weeks, I can't expect myself to perform at a high level. I need to set realistic expectations for myself.

I need to be kinder to myself. 

 

Media In the Age of Corona: Growing Pains in Art Criticism 3

     As many of us are experiencing a surplus of free time due to Everything Going On, we are consuming many pieces of media that we may have not had time for before. This new way of being has led me to a few thoughts/re-examinations of how I consume what I consume, and my relationship with media in general.

    For one, I feel that I (if not many other people) feel a compulsion to consume as much media/content as possible. I find myself feeling as though I need to watch every new film, listen to every possible album I may enjoy, play every game that may seem to push the medium forward, or binge every new show that may strike my interest. At its worst it, feels like a sickness, or an addiction. Compounded with this is the fact that I've began to take art criticism more seriously for around a decade or so. I've tried to make more of a point to not just interact with media on a visceral but to think about its construction or analyze its themes as well. Add to that the ADDITIONAL fact that I've had a healthy diet of film and game criticism I've been reading during that same decade, which has had a major influence on how I consume and think about art, and how I think it should be discussed.

     All of these issues swirl together and manifest as part of the anxiety that is the background radiation of my life. I have this blog, I have my creative ambitions regarding what I want to talk about, and I have this sense of vague expectations I put upon myself regarding all of these things.

     "I should write a lot more. I have all these thoughts and I should express them."

     "Ok, I'll write an article a week. That should be easy." 
   
     "What do I actually have to contribute to the conversation on this? Is there anything else that should be contributed?"

     "I HAVE to watch/play this thing so I can be part of the conversation."

     In feeling all of this, I feel awash within a sea of choices: choices in what to consume, what to say, and how I feel. Even saying all of this, I don't think I've accurately expressed this feeling. It's an unease. It's a discontent. It's a fear of saying too much and not saying enough. It's the fear that I'm wasting my time and I have nothing to say, or worse, that I'm speaking to hear myself speak.

     I don't know what to do with this. So, I push through. I watch movies, play games, read criticism, keep thinking about the things I'm consuming, and try to do it all in the spirit of wanting to encourage people to think about the art they consume and how they relate to it. I just worry that I'm doing it more for myself than for everyone else.

Twenty hours into Final Fantasy 7 Remake (or A Mixed Bag at Best)

NOTE: THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST 20 HOURS OF "FINAL FANTASY 7 REMAKE" OR AT LEAST UP TO CHAPTER 13    


Part 1: The Road to Remake

     To start, I think some context is needed, as many have no real idea about the fervor around this game. I have no particular attachment to the original Final Fantasy 7. Like many, I played it as teen and enjoyed it, but moved on to the next game. It was nothing more than just another great piece of interactive entertainment that I still enjoy to this day. For some, there was a much stronger connection, and this passion and intensity was seen by the developers and publishers at Square Enix (previously Squaresoft) leading to a few ports of Final Fantasy 7 to PC's and to later PlayStation systems via the digital store. Along with this came a prequel (Crisis Core) for the PSP, a sequel (Dirge of Cerberus) for the PS2, another sequel in the form of a movie (Advent Children), and even appearances in other games (Cloud and Sephiroth are both in the Kingdom Hearts franchise).
     Though many wanted a HD remake of the game (no doubt fueled by a tech demo shown at the 2005 E3) there was denial by many in charge that this was happening. Finally, on June 15, 2010, it was announced that the remake was in development. It was also announced that the game would be in multiple parts, as opposed to recreating the game on a 1:1 basis. There was a split reaction to this, as it was also announced that the game would only cover the initial starting location of the original game, the city of Midgar. This section only took about three to five hours to clear, so the idea of it being stretched into a full-length, 40-plus hour game was a lot for people to swallow. Nevertheless, the game continued in development and was finally released on April 10, 2020.
     I, throughout my observation of the development, had a morbid interest in how this would turn out. Knowing about the intensity around it, would this be a success? Would it be possible to find a fresh take on this well-trod ground that would please both old fans and new? Being (somewhat) in the former category, I had to see this through. I've spent roughly twenty hours now in the new look at an aged game at the time of writing, and I've been fairly mixed on the results. To better organize all of this (as this is my own writing and is for no publication, so there) I've decided to split this into sections. First the good, then the bad, and finally the conclusion.

Part 2: The Good

     For me, the biggest, and most immediate, change from the polygonal and isometric view of the original is how much graphical fidelity there is. Every aspect, from the hair on each character, to the individual fibers of each article of clothing, to even the individual movements of each person are so well-defined as to be almost photo-realistic. That change lends itself to the more emotional moments people may have where, instead of having to infer the intensity of the moment due to how little expression the graphical capabilities of the PS1 allowed, one can see the character feel the emotion. You can see them furrow their brows, or shed a tear.
     There's a certain energy here that I can only describe as "anime-esque," where characters perform absurd acrobatic feats, and have grand gestures and movements that are almost operatic in nature. This is something that occurs a great deal in a number of Japanese RPGs, so it's no surprise it's here as well. The larger point is that I think they all work and all match the level of drama the rest of the game brings.
     On the subject of incredible changes, the renovations to the music is where I would put the most accolades. Nobo Uematsu's compositions, while limited by the hardware and software of the PS1, still stuck out to me and with me to this day. Songs like "Still More Fighting" and "J-E-N-O-V-A" are expanded far beyond their original scope with the help of orchestral arrangements that elevate them to the same level as the graphical achievements. I should admit that my knowledge of music theory isn't deep enough to dig deeply into the mechanics of the score's successes, but I encourage one to listen to the soundtrack to perhaps see what I mean.
     While not exactly in the category of change, certain elements of the original were expanded in ways that lead me to actually feel something for characters and settings that were just hinted at. You get to actually see more of the interior lives of characters like Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie, people who you only got a few lines from in the original. An entire section of the game is spent with the protagonist, Cloud Strife, having what amounts to an extended bonding sequence with the trio. This also leads to an extended "boss fight" with a sword-wielding opponent on a motorcycle. All of this in service of elevating three characters who were formerly elevated extras into fully realized constructions.
     This can also be extended to the whole of Midgar, as instead of loosely sketched environments that were static due to the limitations of the PS1, we have people in the streets talking and actually doing things. The player can see the ramshackle favelas of the undercity as the plates of the top city tower hundreds of feet above, the drunken energy of the red-light-district known as Wall Market, and the dark and polished halls of Shinra Inc. For me, the whole of the city becomes a character far richer than before.
     In addition to the expansions, some story beats were completely rearranged and occur at different points or in slightly different ways. All of this is to great effect, as they find new ways and angles to old ideas. For example, the Wall Market section originally featured a moment that can only be described as "gay panic" within a bath house involving Cloud. In the new version, this is replaced with a rhythm-game based dance sequence all bookended by Cloud being taught about the ways of the Market as well as opening himself up to others. It's brash, and bright, and I love it. The idea that it lets this deadly serious, sulking guy be so broad and flamboyant in the same breath is frankly refreshing.
     One major change that I thought was very interesting was the evacuation of Sector 7. Originally, Shinra Inc destroys the Sector 7 slums in the undercity by causing the top plate to fall on top of it, destroying both. All of this was an attempt to frame the protagonists as to better get to them. In this version, most of the population manages to get out and live on. As small as this may seem, this adds a further element of hope and goes along with the added depth given to the other characters, as you get to meet and know many of the evacuees early in the game. This can have the effect of uniting the cause of the protagonists to what the player is connected to.
     While all of these positives revolve around the story, I would be remiss to forget to mention the joys of the new combat system. At its best, I find it exciting and engaging. The blend of third-person action gameplay, a la Kingdom Hearts, with the need to switch between different characters strategically sells the anime-esque nature of the game. Characters can play off of each other while all getting "big action moments" in the form of Limit Breaks and other special moves. It's fast and definitely requires one to be on their toes in order to take advantage of the openings in combat. This all works for me because it elevates fairly straight-forward turn-based combat into something that (again) matches the level of gravitas of all of the other elements of the game.

Part 2: The Bad

     All of that being said, the combat is where my least liked things lie. The focal point for this feeling is how counterintuitive the camera and lock-on functionality can be during combat.  More often than not, I would find myself left with a camera that would whip around as I tried to adjust to keep the enemy on-screen, or that being locked-on to an enemy leads to my not seeing another enemy's telegraphed attack which obliterates another party-member, or even the environment itself getting in the way of what I can see which leads to everything being this cacophonous mess of translucent bodies and environments, with damage counters appearing and me having to disengage the lock-on and pull back just for it to happen again. Something I learned, too late, was that there were several settings within the game that could be changed to alleviate much of this, but it doesn't merely take it to a more personally preferable place. It made it feel actually functional. The fact that this issue which even the Kingdom Hearts games didn't really have occur here is a bit puzzling to me. 
     In addition to this, I found that the real use of party members I didn't control was mostly to try to get the attention of the other enemies or the boss monster, as they use no special abilities that may actually be useful unless you make them by taking control. In the worst moments, the boss monster would only attack the character I'm currently controlling, the character who most likely had the specific materia equipped to handle the particular weakness of the enemy at hand. There is the bizarre push and pull, sometimes from battle to battle, where things would work perfectly then completely fall apart as two characters would be inflicting a good bit of damage to an enemy and pulling its attention, only to lose that attention as I switch to the designated healer in the distance who attacked one time to build up the energy to cast a healing spell. It was hard to know how much damage was needed to really pull that attention.
     Both of these things tend to happen at the same time in the very worst moments. It's beyond me that there's no way to pre-program some behavior for the characters you aren't controlling in combat like FF12. By having this, you could avoid these moments where the speed and intensity of the combat works against you due to the camera obscuring some important information, leading a character getting wiped out by something that wasn't even visible. Characters could automatically respond to certain situations. You would still need to jump in sometimes if a party member becomes incapacitated, but it makes it feel as though you're actually on a team, which would compliment all of the narrative strides the game makes.
      On that same note, I have to comment on how little I like how some of the boss fights fall into the category of being "bullet sponges," or enemies that aren't really difficult due to strategy but due to the fact that they have an incredible amount of armor or health. I find these to be incredibly tedious and complete buzzkills compared to how fantastic I find the monster designs to be. A good example of this is the final fight you face in the colosseum in Wall Market. Very few attacks hurt it, and most of the time is spent avoiding its attacks and hitting it when it actually is vulnerable. While there's some reading you need to do of its attack patterns, it's fairly simple and is more a matter of how quickly you can dodge and switch back and forth between your two characters. In short, it's a long waiting game, because once you know what its weakness is, due to acquiring the Assess materia early on, you just hit it with the corresponding spell or abilities and run around.
     Sadly, this disappointment stretched to even some of the expanded areas, where it seems things were added just to extend this to around 40 hours as opposed to 20. Sequences like the sewer escape post Wall Market, the Train Graveyard after that, and the collapsed highway are moments that were just a few screens in the original that were stretched out with no real value added. The same effect could have been given with shorter moments. In the sewer escape and collapsed highway, puzzles were added for padding, and they ultimately felt pretty tedious as opposed to challenging or even interesting. They boiled down to: walk up, push a button/move a lever, proceed. I wouldn't call that very engaging. 
     The very worst part of these moments is the Train Graveyard, which adds in a small sub-plot of a specter that kidnaps children and keeps their souls as well as a somewhat friendly ghost that kind of aids your party in getting back to sector 7. The problem is that this adds nothing, and is connected to nothing. It's just a moment full of the same combat issues I had before. It's almost the platonic ideal of all of the issues I have with this game. It'd be one thing if it expanded something that was previously established, or was used as part of the reconfiguration of the story, but it isn't. The cinematics are nice, but it's to the effect of nothing. 

Part 4: Conclusions

     If I had to describe my time with the first 20-or-so hours with one word, it would be: Mixed. There's so much here that made a big positive impact on me, so the negatives being so large is just an incredible let-down. The big bright spot is that there seem to be some very interesting narrative directions this could be going. The question is, will the narrative and mechanical sore spots keep me from enjoying this as much as I want to? On some level, I thought to myself, "Perhaps I'm being too hard on this, and much of this is user error or my nitpicking a bit too much." Then, I would keep playing and be reminded of just how frustrating these negatives were, at one point threatening to overshadow the positives in my mind. There are a few things I didn't mention, like the barely-there side quests (aka run around the same spaces to fight one thing), or the real crawl that the act of locomotion can be. I can only hope that things pick up, so that I don't come out of this completely bummed out. 

Side Quests and the Abuse of Player Agency

I'd say the main issue I have with the vast majority games released these days is that they want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to be these monumental narrative achievements, but also are loaded with a load of optional objectives that don't really add much besides something else to do.

I think this creates a dissonance you don't really see until you look at it. Then, it's glaring.

In every videogame, the player is essentially "role-playing" as the avatar on screen. It's in the name, avatar. Traditional narratives have characters do things for specific reasons emotionally. It's what's meant by "character motivation."

The obvious issue with narrative in games is that the player may not have the same motivation that the story implies for the avatar. If I don't care that there's a civil war going on between the two factions in The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, it will be difficult to get me to care about large parts of the the various narrative elements.

On the subject of Skyrim, it's one of the best examples I can think of a game's bloat of optional objectives crippling it's narrative pursuits. Skyrim is absolutely loaded with quests. Every square mile of the map is full of a number of activities that are in no way needed to progress through the main narrative, but are advertised as being something to do.

Pursuing a few of these quests after progressing through the main narrative for a bit reveals the issue: when the fate of the world is on the line, and every minute needs to be invested in saving it, why would the player-character stop to find someone's dog in a cave or investigate some random tower for rumors of a cult?

All of this seems to suggest that a great deal of games are focused on goal of giving people as much to do as possible over a focused experience. It's as though they learned the wrong lessons from realizing that the greatest strength of the medium is the fact that the observer can interceed into the narrative.

One game that I think works as a positive example of this would be The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. While it doesn't totally escape the aforementioned negative designs, the vast majority of the activities the player can engage in fit the motivations of the avatar.

From the beginning, you are told that you CAN go straight to the final area after reaching a certain point, but you're advised against it as it would be certain death (It's doable, but it's incredibly difficult). Instead, it's suggested that you proceed to various points in the world to make this final confrontation less punishing.

While doing this, the player is also given advice on how to restore the avatar back to the physical status they were before their pre-game coma. This provides a number of optional activities, but each one is something that fits what the character would want and benefits the player. I think that kind of unity of motivations leads a player to care more about the whole of the experience.

Ultimately, I'm not against optional activities in games. I'm against those that serve no purpose but to serve as filler. All that does is weaken any narrative that already exists. Why provide the player number of things to do that don't contribute to the story? It seems less like effective use of player agency, and more like abuse of it.

Five Albums I Loved in 2017

Something that has been somewhat obligatory for many movie/culture review outlets is the end of the year/best of the year list, where the "best" things from the year are ranked or merely recalled. Even though I've been writing on this blog for at least three years, I have yet to actually make on for myself.

To start, if I were going to compile some sort of end-of-the-year list, I certainly wouldn't rank anything on some arbitrary scale of ascending or descending value. That always struck me as kind of a waste of time, seeing that my favorites are in this constant state of flux. So, instead, I'll opt to simply list five things I watched/played/listened to that really stood out to me. This one will focus on albums I enjoyed.

Before, I do that, I'm going to have to clarify a few things first. For one, not all of the things I'm going to speak on actually came out in 2017. Some came out in 2016. Some came out even earlier than that. The second thing is that they are listed in no particular order. I'm literally just coming up with a list. At any rate, let's begin.

1.) Big Fish Theory - an album by Vince Staples

For the most part, I find mainstream hip hop to be lackluster. A seemingly endless stream of people imitating the same lyrical structures and melodic textures won't do more than leave me a little lethargic. Thankfully, I came across Vince Staples and his 2017 LP, Big Fish Theory. While being similar to much of the Top 20 crop of hip hop, Staples seems uninterested in staying in one lane, as he pulls from EDM, Grime, Noise, and a variety of other genres for his sonic layers. He also has a self awareness and introspection that I wish existed more in the more popular songs of our day. Some stand out songs include "Love Can Be", "Yeah Right", and "Bag Bak."

2.) Poppy.Computer - an album by Poppy

Few artists have the visual flair of Poppy. That's how many got to first know her, via her cryptic YouTube videos. Directed by her producer, Titanic Sinclair, these served to also be many people's introduction to her music, a sort of blend of J-Pop and American Pop sensibilities, with EDM and chiptune elements added in. Her first full length album, Poppy.Computer, is much more focused than her EP, Bubblebath, and leans even more into her thematic explorations of fame, the internet, and how tech effects us as humans. At first those themes may not seem apparent, but that's only due to her childlike cyberwitch aesthetic. Stand out songs include "Software Upgrade", "Interweb", and "Pop Music."

3.) The Most Hated - an EP by Polyphia 

Leaning into their pop influences, the virtuoso progressive metal/djent musicians of Poplyphia crafted an album that seemed to take the ostentatious noodling of their genre of origin and blend it perfectly with the syncopated vibe of trap music. The end result is something that I listened to on repeat for no less than two months. More impressive than just the music itself is viewing video of their live performances of these songs, as they find a way to make it all work in concert. Stand out songs include "Goose", "40oz", and "Icronic."

4.) OK Computer - an album by Radiohead  

I'm shocked it took me this long to listen to this one. As they are apt to do, the sad boys of found a way to the core of my anxieties and musical interests to craft an album that manages to be some combination of memorable, melancholy, and humorous. Poking and prying at the various monotonous actions taken on a day to day basis, along with the various barely there anxieties of modern life is a great way to get me to love whatever piece of art one makes. Stand out songs include "Airbag", "Paranoid Android", and "Karma Police."

 5.) Ctrl - an album by SZA

With melodies and samples taken from and inspired by neo-soul and trap music, along with her cashmere-like vocals and extremely personal lyrics, SZA's first LP is like a warm blanket for my ears. The production is so sumptuous, velvety, and all other adjectives for extremely good. Hold on, there are others: it's like chocolate ice cream on a hot day; it's like sheets fresh out the dryer on a cold day; it's like a strong hug from an old friend I haven't seen in years. Needless to say, I loved it. Stand out songs included "Supermodel", "Go Gina", and "Prom."