Gears of War 3: The biggest launch this year.

THE BUZZ: Online sales-tracking website VGChartz is proclaiming that in its first week of release, Gears of War 3 has sold over 3 million copies. If true, this would not only be a 50% increase from the sales of Gears of War 2, but would mean that Gears 3 outsold the first-week sales of both previous Gears of War titles combined.

This would also put Gears of War 3 as the biggest launch of 2011—above previous top seller Pokemon Black & White—and would chart it as the 6th biggest Xbox 360 launch of all time worldwide (behind Grand Theft Auto IV).

EGM’s TAKE: VGChartz isn’t always known as the most reliable sales-tracking outfit out there, but it wouldn’t be surprising if their numbers on this one turn out be true. Back in May, Gears of War 3 had already hit 1+ million pre-orders, and there are no doubt more gamers out there who purchase games without pre-ordering versus those who do.

Source: VGChartz

This is really unsurprising. I've yet to get all the way through the story but the game is good. Chest high walls are go as this cover based shooter reaches Epic new heights.

Metal Hammer » Blog Archive » EXCLUSIVE: New Evanescence Track Streaming On Metal Hammer!

I fail to see the point in Amy Lee continuing to produce the same limpid crap that has been every single one of her efforts since Fallen.
And that was a long time ago.

Perhaps she has some misguided sense of self entitlement ("I am a musician! Honest!") that continues to drive her to churn out this bland crap. Their sound (Back when it was good) has since been improved tenfold by We Are The Fallen. This band was basically a big "fuck you" to Amy Lee after her endless histrionics caused all the decent musicians in her once-great band to scarper... and then form a better band with that same gloriously miserable sound and a far superior vocalist.

Vitriol aside, Amy Lee fails to impress with these lacklustre, derivative singles. I'll still give the self titled album a listen - old habits die hard, and Evanescence was a childhood band almost as essential as Nirvana for me - but I will do so in the same way you approach cleaning up after your dog. You know it's going to be warm shit, but someone has to pick it up.

-L

Music, music, and more music.

The past couple of months have seen album after album of awesome new music from several artists old and new. Metal mainstays such as Mastodon, Trivium, Alice Cooper and Dream Theater have dominated the Autumn releases, but one album has erupted above the rest in my estimation. Machine Head - Unto the Locust.

After 2007's The Blackening, I seriously doubted anything Robb Flynn could do would hook me as much as the vicious riffs of Wolves, the vengeful Aesthetics of Hate, or the incredibly intelligent Halo's blistering solo and passionate anti-religious lyrics. I was wrong. This album is a whole new step for the band - violent but thoughtful, sometimes obscure, but always visceral and charged from start to finish. This album comes with my utmost recommendation - a deeper review soon. 

-Laurence