Slapdash reviews4/5/2023 ![]() Bland, colorless buildings frame the environment as a poorly animated character runs forward along concrete platforms that exhibit little texture or variation. Within minutes of hitting start, you’re in the first of many wave-based fights that last too long. The first few minutes of gameplay offer an ample illustration of Rise of the Dark Spark’s most potent problems. The Transformers franchise doesn’t exactly live and die by great storytelling, so the narrative missteps could be forgiven if the action held up. Two sections starring the movie characters bookend a larger middle section set on the Transformers’ home planet, but the occasional moments that nod to the broader lore are ruined because the fundamental crossover concept is so ill-advised. The story sees the Autobots and Decepticons competing over a MacGuffin called the Dark Spark. It’s kind of like doing a crossover episode of the 1978 Battlestar Galactica with the 2004 version. There may have been a time that this new Transformers game was planned as another installment in the Cybertron series, but has since been co-opted as a movie-tie in, even though they’re different versions of the same story. ![]() It isn’t entertaining, doesn’t remain true to either of the disparate storylines (which should never have been linked), and can’t overcome technical performance issues. Activision and Edge of Reality have squandered the good will established by High Moon Studios’ strong Transformers Cybertron games, releasing a product that fails on several fundamental levels. Unfortunately, those emotions are anger and disappointment. Shouse had a sixth sense for pop melody that made the audience work to retrieve the perfect pop pearl that lay inside cracked new rockers like "Black Fuel Incinerator" and "Get Outta That Spaceship and Fight Like a Man.To give credit where it’s due, Rise of the Dark Spark elicits some genuine emotion from this Transformers fan. The guitars were dipped deep in the blues tradition of their hometown and the rhythm section often took detours into jazz. Beneath the fuzz and the clatter, the secrets of the band's underground allure lay intact. The Grifters, who are unpredictable live, shambled only to a point on Saturday. In other words, it was a good night for the band. The Grifters not only changed the tunes but also the words on their best known discordant rockers, "She Blows Blasts of Static" and "Soda Pop." During duets, the guitarists Dave Shouse and Scott Taylor didn't sing together they simply sang at the same time. The band itself was in beautiful disarray: no instrument responded on cue and few notes were in place. The guitars and bass clanged stridently against one another, chasing after impossible harmonies. When the Grifters performed on Saturday night at CBGB, they sounded as if they had tuned their instruments after drinking themselves silly. But this is part of the Grifters' appeal: they are sloppy but artfully so. They are one of the few alternative rock bands that has retrogressed over the years: between their first album and their third, the sound fidelity actually worsens. Although the Memphis quartet has been together nearly five years, the Grifters pride themselves on not sounding together. It's not just in their lyrics about automobile collisions ("Corolla Hoist") and drunken mishaps ("Just Passing Out"). The Grifters' music is predicated on the accidental.
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