City Levels: The Most Underrated Biome
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.พ. 2024
- What makes city levels so awesome? Kat has the answer.
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Transcript: bit.ly/pixeladay_citylevelstranscript
Special thanks to Tom of the channel Static Canvas for providing his voice: @Buliaros18-Static-Canvas
All footage from Super Mario Odyssey, The Pedestrian and Paradise Killer capped by me, aside from some trailer footage
Music used in this video:
Tostarena: Ruins - Naoto Kubo
Jump Up, Super Star! - Naoto Kubo
Metropolis IntMusic - Mat Clark
New Donk City - Naoto Kubo
Rush Hour - Logan Hayes
Katamari on the Swing - Yuu Miyake and Yoshito Yano
Go! Go! Style - Barry Topping (Epoch)
Clocking In - Logan Hayes
Lemegton Bop - Barry Topping (Epoch)
Leaving - Barry Topping (Epoch)
Headlights on the Shore - Barry Topping (Epoch)
Moon - Logan Hayes
Czar Louie’s Reigna - Logan Hayes - เกม
If you like what I do please consider throwing me a bit of money on Patreon, check out the tiers and benefits here: www.patreon.com/pixeladay
*"Ya like jazz?" intensifies*
BIG Band! Big BAND Man! YEAH
HA
OH YEAH
So I was watching this video of Digital Foundry who found out about a hacked NVidia driver to enable AI-based HDR to older games and they thought "hey, I know exactly the older games to try this on", including Doom 3 and a Half Life HDR demo (of all things). I thought to myself "This is what I love about DF. They can look at a piece of technology even through a window slit and really understand and apply it through the lens of the technical history of the medium".
When I watch your stuff, I get that same vibe but with culture, like "this is what I love about Pixel a day. She can get a sliver of an idea and use her cultural understanding and game history to draw together a theme which I would never have noticed". Really great work.
That's a wonderful comment to receive, you're way too kind. Thanks for taking the time and so glad you like my stuff!
And as if you're a student, you've expressed a great appreciation of her and DF's work
Sometimes you can tell when something is a passion project. This was a wonderful video, thank you.
Thank you for watching! :)
As a kid of small towns and a child of overprotective parents who kept her away from cities i can tell you that for me personally, cities are gorgeous. Especially at night.
The first time I was left on my own in Houston I left my hotel around 1am and just went for a walk, looking at the lit up skyscrapers and empty streets and people working their night-jobs.
My favorite thing to do in GTA4 is to just go for a drive for the entire day and night. Never getting into trouble, obeying traffic. I like to get on google maps street view and "walk" around various cities. It's the best.
In some games i have spent actual hours of real time staring at a distant city on the skybox. My first time in Casino Night Zone in Sonic 2, i died from the timer because i was looking at the background city.
It appears I made this video specifically for you. Thanks for watching!
@@PixelaDay Thank you for making this video! I feel seen by it. I've always loved the idea of aimlessly wandering around cities and always wanted to do it with a friend or family but no one really understands what it is about aimless meandering and getting lost on purpose that i find so appealing. TBH neither do i, it's just an indescribable feeling that i have in my center. One of those emotions that is difficult to put into words.
But now, thanks to you, i have the word that has eluded me for over 40 years: Dérive.
I feel like i have already known about this but you put it into words perfectly. Thanks :)
Watching this video made me feel like I went on a dérive walk myself. You brilliantly captured the gleeful essence of these games and the unique energy city life provides. Thanks for the impeccable vibes and for all the effort into bringing this project to life.
Wow that's a wonderful comment. Thank you so much!!
City levels x Baudelaire x the Situationists - this couldn’t be more up my street (appropriately!). You even squeezed in a derive of your own!
In terms of city levels music, I always think of Spring Yard Zone in the original Sonic.
Never really thought about cities as a biome, really cool perspective incredible video
I don't think I've ever consciously realized how jazzy the music is in music levels. There really is a different energy in these environments that has a special familiar yet exciting draw. I love exploring regular aspects of life in new and unexpected ways. I'm going to be making a new playlist for my walks now using the songs from this video. Thanks so much!
Please include all of Paradise Killer's city pop tracks for maximum pavement pounding... thanks for watching and commenting!
city = jazz will always be my favorite video game genre
This sure is the first time I've seen streets I recognise in a video essay. I love this city it's so pretty. I want to make a game set in Melbourne some day. Perhaps especially after I move country. A retrospective game about a city I once lived in would be lovely I think. I love walking around all the weird side streets in Melbourne and going into buildings I have no reason for. Me and my friend found a rooftop carpark that was empty last week, and we marveled at the unique view of the buildings surrounding us. Some taller, some shorter. A few months before that, we found a way onto actual rooftops near chinatown, we were stepping over radiators and pipes and stuff, it was really cool. Maybe a tad dangerous, but we were being safe.
Yeah, daytime city levels definitely have the vibe of a day off, when you just go out to wander around and maybe do an errand or two but at an hour when normally you'd be at work. It's always a very nice feeling and I cherish those moments 🙂
Well damn, we already have one of the best video essays of the year!
Love the point of how putting on music elevates our experience of walking through city. It's something I've been very much aware of for most of my life, but it's also something I've taken for granted. I've never really reflected on how music can encourage me to change the way I *interact* with a city. Like taking paths I normally wouldn't.
Loved this, one of my favorites from you for sure! My contribution to the music discussion would be Castelia City from Pokemon Black/White, which was the first place in the series to convincingly feel Big City rather than Small Town. And, yes it's brassy and jazzy. Also, thank you for introducing me to the concept of dérive, which is something I've been doing for years without ever knowing there's a name. Whenever I'm in a new city I love going for loooong walks, like 10-15 miles, which a lot of people think is weird but I find so enjoyable, to see a place in its corners and valleys instead of just its landmarks. Well done!
Not weird! Excellent!
Since 2020 I haven't gone a summer without listening to the paradise killer soundtrack, like in the game it's a great comfort in an oppressive landscape and I always feel I can make the best of it and go on a wee ramble.
This was a wonderful video.
I'm gonna write a second comment too cus why not. This is the night time comment.
Back in 2022 I had a bad habit of walking home at 1AM, alone, as a young woman, while drunk. I had a friend who's no longer a friend who i'd go out drinking with, and when the last tram departed without me I would just walk home instead. Very dangerous, so I've stopped, but nothing bad ever happened to me, which has lent these memories a nostalgic beauty. I truly adore the city at night. I like to imagine that light pollution is actually the skyline stealing the stars. They skewer them upon their spires, so that the twinkling happens here on earth all around us. I love the way the lights reflect off of the river, or puddles, or windows. The wary fear I would feel while alone at night during these walks paired with the more fresh night time air made me feel alive. It felt like the whole city was there just for me to observe quietly.
Wonderful video. I liked it a lot.
Amazing!! I feel the same! I get all nostalgic and poetic when a city vibe is just right at night. You stole my heart with this comment
City Levels are "jazz, the good kind" (thats a joke and not a slight but just a reference to how very improvizational experimental jazz is a very acquired taste and I haven't experienced it to know if I love it/hate it, definitely not live, but I'm glad it exists)
Your venturing from Melbourne's CBD to Chinatown reminds me so much of the metropolitan landscape of Singapore, where I used to live for almost 15 years. I live in a smaller town now and I really miss the sense of adventure the city brings. This video is something special
Glad you liked it :)
Gravity Rush 2 has some great cities in it I reckon. They're such a joy to just wander around, and you can hitch a ride on cars and trains and--I'm not really sure what they're called but the carriages... that go up? along like a zip-line? thing? They feel quite tangible as places you could... exist. And the transgressions you can get up to are absolutely brilliant.
14:33 It's funny that a couple weeks ago I attempted to do what would have been a short dérive if I didn't have tasks to do and a heavy bag on my shoulder, so I made all of the mistakes you warn against here.
And despite the weight (physical and metaphorical), I had the feeling I would have enjoyed the dérive for the reason you described... but maybe not to the fullest, because that same city has been occasionally reminding me of systemic problems each day.
Also I need to try The Pedestrian, thanks for showcasing it.
I think you might like the Sim City 3000 soundtrack. The game is 15+ years old (cue “oh GAWD I feel old) but is available on some streaming services.
Fantastic depiction of cities. I lived in Melbourne in 2020 and I absolutely loved it. My dream is someday to come back and live there. The aimless strolling around, the dazzling vistas... Not many videogames capture that. Great video as usual!
Yay, come on back! I'm sure the streets will be fuller than in 2020... XD
I spent my childhood in a rural Louisiana town that had more trees than people. When I was around 13 I moved to Chicago, where I still live 20 years later. I constantly feel pulled in both directions. I don't feel 100% happy in a cabin in the woods but I also don't feel 100% happy here in the big city. Every year when warm summer smells fill the air my brain gets pelted with sense memories of my Louisiana childhood.
The game Flower really spoke to me and it wasn't until I saw this quote by Jenova Chen that I realized why: ""Flower is an interactive poem exploring the tension between urban and nature." The vibrant green valley filled with wind turbines is beautiful in a way I can't even describe.
This was lovely 💜 I didnt expect the music angle but it was a perfect choice!
City levels were always my favourite in any game. This video was made for me 😄
You're welcome! From one city level lover to another
I'm so happy I've found your channel. I love listening to people talk about stuff in games that I don't really think about that often. Thanks for changing the way I think about stuff
When someone says that the vibes are immaculate.... I feel the urge to point them to this video - can't think of a better way to describe my experience watching. This really took me on a ride that is both exuberant, a celebration of cities and what they mean, and thoughtful, an almost meditative enjoyment of exploration and taking it all in. Takes me back to living in a bigger city and going to university, walking to classes, to the coffee shop I worked at, and just wandering around late at night with friends. You've really captured something great with this video essay. Thanks for The Pedestrian shoutout as well! That game nails the romanticized cityscape so, so well.
You're the best, thank you!
I loved the piece you previously did on The Pedestrian, and this expansion on the wonder and joy of simply existing in cities yet again masterfully captures those immaculate *vibes*. While I've had few opportunities to experience these spaces for myself in real life, I savor every moment that I can fully experience the beautiful chaos amidst the mundanity of life, without the goggles of habit and categories. I felt this one so hard.
This comment was so lovely. I'm so glad to hear it hit
You are not alone having cried at that moment in mario Odyssey. It was like a life long celebration culminating at that moment 21:30
A not untimely video, with the recent announcement that Pokemon Legends Z-A will take place entirely in Lumiose City. If the common speculation that it will mirror the real-life Hausmann renovations of nineteenth-century Paris is correct, then it will be a digital impression of the very cityscapes Baudelaire wrote about.
Another wonderful example is the NYC level in Tetris Effect! Man, I remember being absolutely glued to the screen (well, the screen was strapped to my head) and just going into the flow state when I played that bit. Love LOVE the big-band music these levels specialize in.
Oh my god I can't believe you talked about Paradise Killer. Great video all around!
Thank you so much!
Wonderful video! When you were talking about the sense of adventure in city levels, it had me thinking back to Fourside in Earthbound, the scale of the buildings compared to the other towns were nuts, even the multilevel department store! It added to the sense of kids being on an adventure, especially having a museum with cool dinosaur bones to check out.
This video has convinced me to appreciate cities levels more, awesome job!
Thanks for the lovely comment :)
This was amazing. I loved how you demostrated the music of the mario donk theme lined up with the design of the level
I'm really impressed how you both go way further than I expected from the title *and* completely stayed on topic still. That's hard! Almost as hard as recording yourself talking in public, that'd take a lot out of me.
Great video as usual!
Recording on location is a massive, massive pain in the ass. Glad you enjoyed the vid!
"...a feeling of unbearable regret and limitless potential" - god damn, what a line. Fantastic work as always! I think you've beautifully expressed one of the main things that made The Pedestrian so special for me - it's one of the most romantic depictions of urban environments I've ever seen, and it shows off the many diverse facets of its city's character!
Yay, another Pedestrian fan!
Totally worth the journey into the hot Australian sun!
As someone who generally can't stand cities (based on the ones I've visited) I've been looking forward to this and it was so good! I love the final sentiment of human life being the element. Damn!
I'm really glad you brought up psychogeography and 'derivé', neither of which I'd heard of before. One of my favourite trips to London was when we wandered through a pedestrianised area and came across a food and drink festival. I think we may have been car-free that day and had a destination in mind, but we went on foot so we just kind of stumbled into it. There were no vehicles, just lots of space, people sitting around in the sun, eating and drinking good food and chatting, and it was so much more peaceful and relaxing. I'm not used to cities being like that! Maybe it's not cities and their bustle I can't stand, maybe its just vehicles and the effect they have on everything, chopping up spaces and producing so much noise and pollution.
"[cities] offered the necessary variety and sensory stimulation" I think this is more a case of how slowly you go, how closely you look and how keenly you listen: there are whole worlds in the tiniest spaces, whether it's the soft snapping of gorse seeds popping in the sun and the coconut-y aroma of their flowers, or a woodpecker hammering away somewhere in a woodland. I suppose none of that is a swing band though, eh? Hahaha :D I'm with Guy Debord on rain. Most Brit's hate rain but I love it. The patter, the petrichor, the way it clears the air, the reflections in puddles, sploshing around in wellies, fucking rainbows.
One of my favourite pixel artists online is Waneella. You'll probably have seen some of her work on the Steam store page during a festival but she does these wonderful, mostly urban scenes with evocative ambient music by e.sanchillo. They capture these really particular vibes I struggle to find elsewhere, close to the melancholy of Burial's Night Bus and Blade Runner Blues. I adore them www.youtube.com/@waneella/videos
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I want to mention Bernband as well here. That's one of my favourite game cities, as small and weird as it is.
I've not played Paradise Killer yet, but I am familiar with Go!Go!Style which is an absolute banger. That sax. I mentioned it previously with regards to Odyssey's amazing New Donk theme but I'm a sucker for brass so the city biome sound is very much my jam! This video has definitely pushed me to prioritise that!
I also love it when games treat music in a kind of diagetic way where it changes depending on what you're doing or where you are. I hope to play The Pedestrian very soon too!
Wait, did I see some Cappy eyes on the back of one of the little Donk's heads at 11:21?
Your bit on the familiar biome music in games reminded me that Rayman Origins had some of the best tunes that eschewed those expectations:
th-cam.com/video/KIGY62fZgN8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=-V2_y-m9B7opPqEr
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Anyway, brilliant video as always Kat! A pleasure to be supporting you.
A pleasure to have supporters like you! I'm always blown away when people take the time to leave long thoughtful comments. A real pleasure to read. Also - yes, there's a goddamn cappy on that dude's head!! I didn't notice it until I was watching over the footage in editing. I was wondering where the last moon in that section was...
I tell ya, I haven't watched at 1.0x speed in AGES, but this one was well worth it. I loved the "on site" clips -- how you showcased the elements and lifeblood of the city as you discussed them. Wonderful video. (I might have to pick up Paradise Killer!)
Also, I know this isn't an Odyssey commentary, I was recently replaying it and was (again) blown away by the New Donk City Festival. It felt like the climax of the game and, to me, felt all a bit downhill after that point. They blew the most bombastic part of their game at the 60% mark, and ended the game in a quiet, eerie, and lonely biome? Bizarre choices. Hell, 3D World was mid, but even they knew how to stick a landing... f'in BOWSER f'in CARNIVAL, NERDS.
Another fantastic video! I was especially happy with your presentation of The Pedestrian, a game I felt that very deeply and personally understood what it meant to live in a city.
I actually unwittingly had a dérive when I was a teenager. I wanted to explore a specific location of my hometown, but without really taking on a map or cab or anything of the like. So I grabbed a backpack, water, a cap, and went walking. I left home around the morning and just walked through the city. I tried reaching that specific place I wanted visually, but it led me to walk practically the entirety of my small-ish town. I strolled through the rich folks' district, the city center, the greenish areas of town, the poorer neighborhoods. I explored places I didn't even know existed, saw life and activity everywhere. At the end of the day, as night fell, I took a bus to go back home. It was an adventure I still remember very fondly of. I didn't have a smartphone at the time (they weren't too popular back then), but I did write a diary of the things I found noteworthy. The kids playing in the streets; the adults going to and from work near the town hall. The similar-looking houses of the very remote low-income neighborhood, the vibrant colors of the street art, the calm but never-ending buzz of the city life. It gave me a life-long lasting impression that I am indeed part of something greater than myself, something alive. That there is always more to a city than meets the eye: more than just the tourist attractions, the luxurious suburbs, the artificial gardens of the city hall, the downtown shops.
If I may, I'd like to quote that old diary of mine (with some slight grammar and spelling improvements):
"I am now on what I hope will be my last stop. It is 5:35 PM. The sun has already set, and the full moon has taken its place. I've followed the road after the bus station, then climbed up a hill in the middle of nowhere, only to find myself back into civilization. However, from there, I managed to find the path that I believe leads to the mountain.
"After following the railroad, I reached another dead-end, and got stuck again. I am now about to return through where I came from, and probably take a bus home. It's been quite an adventure regardless. I was almost attacked by dogs, haha! [...] Some people are passing by in bicycles; I wonder what they're thinking when they see me sitting on top of a rock, by myself, in the middle of the woods, writing in this notebook. The time to end today's adventure has come, but the adventure as a whole is just getting started."
This is amazing. Thank you for sharing a piece of your adventure. You're a true urban explorer!
"neon smoke, heat rising off pavement, salt on skin, sweat on glass, a feeling of unbearable regret and limitless potential." Oof. I had to pause and let that one wash over me. What a wonderful video. It clearly took a lot of work and I hope it gets the recognition it deserves.
On Baudelaire and his rejection of the Romantic fascination with nature: you reminded me of a quote of his that I love that I'll paste here because I don't know how much circulation his correspondance got in the anglophone world (it's a gold mine for both "someone really should have stopped him" and "this man died way too soon" writings of his anyhow).
"You ask me for verses for your little collection, verses about *Nature* , yes? About the woods, the great oak-trees, greenery, insects - and the sun, no doubt? But you well know that I cannot be moved by the vegetal, and that my soul chafes at this queer new religion, which, to me, will always appear *shocking* to any spiritual being. Never will I believe that "the soul of the Gods resides within plants"; and even if there it did reside, I would remain wholly uninterested and hold my own to a much higher price than that of sanctified vegetables."
Currently stuck at home with Covid, so I can't really go out. But watching this gave me a sense of piece. And I will go on my own little dérive.
Lee Ving was spot on. New York IS alright if you like saxophones.
wonderful video! thanks for actually going out into the city and walking among the people, it made this video all the better.
Good to hear it was appreciated :) It's such a pain to do on-camera filming!
The part at the start, about how zones usually have a certain style of music based on the biome, reminded me of something. The game Bionicle Heroes had typical biomes with the typical music style for them. But one zone was the inside of a big fortress with machinery here and there. What music did they pick for that?
Rock n' roll! xD That zone had the catchiest soundtrack in the game because ot it. Not a city level though. x)
Niceeeee
This was a great video! Both helping me appreciate the design and vibes of city levels a bit more, and by association, real cities themselves! A derive walk does sound like a nice form of, meditation, almost? Great work in any case! ^w^
It's funny, the fast beeping in the background around 16 minutes in (I'm assuming that's the crosswalk 'walk' notification) reminded me of the Hotline Miami soundtrack, which I'm not sure counts as a 'city' game, and is definitely a different vibe to most of these games.
Definitely some vaporwave crossover with Paradise Killer though. Great soundtrack
Brilliant essay, I vibe with the ideas you developed here :D
I wish I had money to spare for patreon right now great stuff!
Shared it on some discord servers.
Thank you, it means so much that you'd take the time to spread the word. tyty
so lucky to share a city w such a great creator!!! lovely to see such a great place in such a wonderful video, well done!
Thank you for the delightful comment :)
Now we need underwater cities for the best of both
XD XD XD
I liked this video a lot! Very glad to have learned about the pedestrians existence, love the visuals of the game!
I suggest giving it a spin some time. It's only like 4 hours long and imo it's best played over the course of a day, so the mood outside your window changes with the game.
I have to admit, I'm not too fond of city levels myself, but when good game design finds its way, even cities can be a delight to be in. Also, anyone remember the 40s new york inspired levels in Bugs Bunny Lost in Time?
Such a weird and sincere video, I love it! Appreciate the uniqueness and honesty of the format and topic!
Paradise Killer mention! Paradise Killer mention!!! aaaaaaaaaa
Thanks for watching! May the silent goat walk with you.
@@PixelaDayAnd may you reach the moon!
Brilliantly put together video. I love the analysis and thought behind "the city level".
And I must say, I loved seeing all the graffiti, the street art, the city construction, and the busy CBD streets. Classic Melbourne 😂
I really loved the pacing and train of thought of this video.
And I feel like my perception of cities has changed after this.
Thank you, keep being awesome! ⭐️
Thank you!!!
I followed the pedestrian’s development on reddit for years, I should finally try it out. Great video!
Ahhh this was beautiful Kat. Love it so much.
Oh hey a Gong Cha, that street looks like it might be Taiwan. I suspect each of the Taiwan's major cities are a great place for a derivé. I guessed the second type of music in Paradise Killer would be more subdued such as blues or a local music, but I guessed wrong. The vaporwave didn't disappoint though. It's distinct, it doesn't try to be louder than daytime, it's alive if not lively. The snippet in this video was enough to give me that out of body/time/space feeling. Good city levels really are a treat. When the game makes you think there's something behind every door and corner, even if you know there can't be that much content, it doesn't matter when it opens up the city for you because at that moment it already feels spectacular. Sometimes a game delivers on the content, or even over-delivers such as Athkala in Baldur's Gate 2. Sometimes it doesn't need to, like Moscow in Metro 2033.
Some of my wandering took me through Chinatown :) Melbourne is awesome
say what you will about cyberpunk 2077 (i know i have) but night city itself is an extraordinary achievement
I love the way you write, and I'm always surprised by the topics you cover.
It may not qualify as a "city" soundtrack, but I was always fascinated by the music of Mirror's Edge.
idk how this is my takeaway, but I think this is why Yokai are so much more pervasive in the zeitgeist than regular old ghosts, especially in more contemporary games. Yokai is that human element meeting the other supernatural elements. Sometimes it is a demonic Oni, and other times it is an umbrella you left behind.
Man I love city levels, maybe it's because it feels so familiar, or maybe it's because unlike most other settings it's manmade. But whether it's bustling and chaotic or quiet and lonely, I've always got a soft spot for them.
I wonder how much of that video game association between jazz and cities we owe to Jerry Martin's soundtracks for SimCity 3000 and SimCity 4. I know that the association probably goes back longer than that, but as a Millennial in his late 30s, I feel like I first really made that connection from hours of playing SC3K when I was a kid. Seeing as a lot of the folks making video games these days are in a similar age bracket to me, I wonder if they also made that same early connection?
Interestingly, I can also hear the same sort of day
ight vibe difference that you get into in the video. SimCity 3000 feels more like a city during the day, especially tracks like "Sim Broadway" and "UpTown Downtown," but SC4 is more of a city at night, with tracks like "By the Bay" and "Epicenter." Admittedly, that may just be me working too hard to make a connection, but it does kind of sum up the lasting impressions that I have from those two soundtracks.
Thanks for your comment! Love to see people making the same connections as I did, but with entirely different games and soundtracks.
I'm too busy watching it right now, but I'm gonna comment to boost the algorithm for you a little.
Thanks for the boost!
It's the least I can do
A great video, as always you deliver!
New quack city from fur fighters has great bgm :)
That leaves out a lot of genres. Cities are an absolute staple of RPGs and FPSs. Neotokyo in particular had almost only levels that took place in a city. The last Deus Ex took place almost entirely in a single city.
The first track that came to my mind though was FITHOS LUSEC WECOS VINOSEC by Nobuo Uematsu, from Final Fantasy VIII, but I guess that's more of a parade music than a city music since the actual theme for Deling city is Under Her Control.
this is such a cool well-made video, the irl city walkthrough was integrated so well 🙏 but dang did it convince me I’ve got some pandemic-induced agoraphobia or something lol 😅
Your videos are also cool and well made!
Another video game song that is fun to listen to while walking aimlessly through a city: “Living in the City” from the game Sonic R. It’s mostly the lyrics that make it so; the music is fun but too fast to be easily walked to.
For an example of a city made music, listen to Astor's Piazzola Libertango. It's the Buenos Aires theme
Paradise Killer mentioned. Upvoted.
Great video. Love The Pedestrian, it's a fantastic game. Still need to play Paradise Killer at some point.
DO IT PLAY PARADISE KILLER
For a moment I was afraid Pixel would talk about Pathologic while searching trashcans for bottles and sewing needles.
Not today
Great video! As a city slickers, I was moved by your insight.
my dog is a ardent proponent of dérive
I love this.
That was really cool and interesting! It's almost philosophical, what a game chooses to say about cities. Thanks for the video!
depends on the city, a beach city like Miami is a completely different thing to the playground maze of Sydney and even more different to the brick and mortar city of London.
Amazing channel
Commenting for algorithm boost
Lovely video
Great job!!! Makes me want to visit Melbourne
Thank you for the boost :) Melbourne's High Street just got named "2024's coolest street" by...someone, somewhere. If that does anything for you
I forget this is a niche channel. How you aren't already at 100k subs is beyond me. Also had one more game I know will be something you fall in love with. Its called Ultros. Came out same weeks as Hell Divers 2 so sadly its currently a hidden gem but deserves recognition just as much as you do.
Love when commenters recommend me things! And thanks for watching
The ultimate City songs is undoubtedly and unequivocally street of rage 🎉
Dammit that's supposed to say "sturdy" backpack
aw yeah, Sax in the City
The goat is back
You're too nice
Perhaps because jazz is one style of music I hate, I never paid attention to it and its relation to city levels. I'll pay more attention inf the future. And I'll pay more attention to the city I live in.
This is great. I would say there is much to recommend more literal depictions of cities as well, like your _Assassin's Creeds_ or _Cyberpunks._ These stunning creations of place are an end in itself all there for you to explore... While you may be right they don't distill the essence of what a city means in quite the same way as these smaller games, they are in their own way artistic re-interpretations, still much smaller in scale and more focused than their real-life counterparts, and their essential city-ness is, I think, found less in their scope and more in the moments you find in them and the overall atmosphere. The neon of Nightcity in the rain is really something, as is retracing the steps of historical figures in Ancient Egyptian Memphis or Luxor, classical Athens or Victorian London.
It's an interesting observation about Jazz being so prevalent in city music. I wonder though what the equivalent is in historical settings. Where does the instrumentation and melody go that is distinct from natural spaces? Seems like it really depends on the era and place. More plucked instruments perhaps, fewer drums?
There is also something very true to city life in the modest village-sized cities you find in other games. Sometimes visually imposing but shown in only a handful of locations like in point & click adventures, or freely explorable but effectively tiny, yet still undeniably _a city_ in contrast to the rest of the world.
Man your traps are off the hook
Omg I can't believe it's noticeable!! Can recommend 8-9 years of intense taiko drumming for anyone aiming for the same
Sorry looking back on it that comment feels super-inappropriate, thanks for taking it in stride.
Excellent video, it was the Baudelaire/Paradise Killer crossover the fans have been begging for from day one.
@@emanuelblake7860Oh no don't apologise, I worked hard for these guns :) Glad to deliver the crossover that I'm sure, um, many people were asking for XD
Nice video
Thanks for show me into words the feelings about cities. I say that indepedent of the gaming stuff,which i believe is important for understanding this video fully, but even so... ❤😊
Lol, agreed. I love city levels, especially destroyed ones in postapo setting (though funnily enough, I don't like postapo games in general, just like ruined cities).
Wonderful little video essay - as always. :) Paradise Killer's city pop soundtrack is, well, KILLER. Another one that is just as nice is Lena Raines Chicory soundtrack. Having found my way to the game's Big City, "Dinners", imagine my joy at this lil ditty, which, mind you, is like a city brass version of the song from The Town of Luncheon in which you start out : th-cam.com/video/saUn86GvbDw/w-d-xo.html
Good luck to everyone with their noble sabotouring, both in and out of "game". I mean don't just walk there like you're some kind of NPC, be the Free Guy of your life, etc. :)
Hell yeah this music rules
Ehy great video, i really appreciate your style and your out of the box thinking, if i can give you a tip that maybe or maybe not could help improve your work, if you are talking to the camera add a bit of movement to your words with your hands or moving towards the camera so that it's more dynamic, obviously i'm no one to say this but maybe could help your work get better!
I like my on-camera performance and don't think it needs more movement for the sake of it, cheers
I have been going through all of your videos and I quite liked them! A common trend however is your sibilant microphone making your voice somewhat painful. I'm listening on calibrated bookshelf speakers in a treated room so it's definitely not something on my end. I would recommend some simple DSP in audacity, also make sure your mic is in a good spot since lav mics are very position and room dependent. If you're not well acquainted with DSP I can send you a filter file and you can check out if it sounds better to you.
Someone else said that a while ago! I tried a de-esser and I honestly couldn't hear the difference, don't know whether it's my ears or my equipment.
@@PixelaDay De-essers are a very roundabout and tedious way of going about this. If you use Audacity to record you can just add a graphic EQ effect. If you're okay with it you could mail me a mp3 fragment of a recording you find sibilant and I could make and mail you a filter file.
MEEEEELLLLLLLBOOOOOOURNNNNNE
You're in Melbourne?? You should do a panel at the next PAX AUS! ❤ …please?
I should look into it!
@@PixelaDay Over the years I've been to a multiple panels where the panelists openly admitted they had been asked at the last minute to do something on that topic. They were always related to some category of representation/"minority" (read: oppression) issue. So it's great when there's more panels presented by people about something they want to say. The panels seem to be finalised pretty late, too.
They also seem to like having local TH-camrs and other media personalities, as well as people from diverse backgrounds
Is there a list of games shown in this video?
Talk about dishonored or prey or really any arkane game