Nov 03, 2:30 pm
What’s cooler than a night dedicated to playing all the latest kick arse games? Playing kick arse games set to the beat of kick arse music, of course!
Yep, it was the second year running for Fuse, Ubisoft’s gaming and music extravaganza. You may recall Frag Dolls attended last year. The venue may have changed - from Newbury Racecourse to the rather-more-accessible Shepherds Bush Empire in London - but the concept was all the same. Loads of games and loads of music. Throw in a Battle of the Bands (the winners earning a contract with Visible Noise), a £1,000 team tournament on Rainbow Six: Vegas and J-rockers Dir En Grey for the headline act, and you’ve got one hell of a Friday night!
Personally I admire Ubisoft’s determination to try something different. Though the (rather excellent) Video Games Live also mixes music with gaming, Fuse is an altogether different kettle of fish. Can music lovers and gamers truly live side-by-side, arm-in-arm? Just how many lovers of third person shooters AND Japanese rockers with crazy hair can there be? However, almost everyone I spoke to during the course of the evening seemed to be having a great time - not to mention Relentless Limits, winner of the Vegas tourney and Lioness, winner of Battle of the Bands (well done guys!) The quality of competitors, both gamers and musicians, was incredibly high. And as a reminder of the euphoria emanating from the attendees, I have a strange “EEEEEEEEE” noise in my ears from all hysterical screaming Dir En Grey fans. Kakkoii desuuuuuuu!!!!
It was great to meet up with my fellow Fraggy sisters Sarin and Kitt (who both did an excellent job interviewing both the bands and the clans, may I add!), but by the end of the night my feet were hurting and my ears were ringing. It was time for me to go home.
I really hope Fuse does well for itself. It’s genuinely trying to do something outside the mould, and I commend it for that. Whether it succeeded in entirely paving over the cracks between music fans and gamers may still be up for debate. However, if I have anything to do with it, I’ll be back next year for Fuse 08. Until then, don’t forget to check out our gallery for Fraggy photos from the evening.
