Contents R U K U S
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14 Kasey Hill
May/June Cover Model 20 questions with Kasey
Photography by OG foto Hair and Make-up by Kasey Hill
On The Cover Photo by OG foto
On The Back Cover Photo by OG foto
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All Access
The Latest Albums Reviewed Albums Reviewed: J. Cole KOD
By Silas Valentino
Bazzi Cosmic
By Silas Valentino
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All Access Spotlight
Artists/Bands Featured: Ghost Prequelle Shinedown Attention Attention Jonathan Davis Black Labyrinth By Samuel Wendel
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Pit Pass
Get In The Driver’s Seat Featured Event: Formula Drift, Round 2 Orlando, FL
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Contents R U K U S
M a y / J u n e
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On Grid
10 questions in 10 minutes Featured Driver: Dean Kearney Exclusive interview with the Formula Drift Pro 1 Driver
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Game On
The Latest Games Reviewed Games Reviewed: Super Mega Baseball 2 By Jesse Seilhan
Vampyr
By Joshua David Anderson
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Game On Spotlight Games Featured: Hitman 2 Destiny 2: Forsaken Octopath Traveler By Jesse Seilhan
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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Andrew Gates All Access Editor
Silas Valentino Games Editor
Jesse Seilhan Art Director
Andrew Gates All Access Contributors
Silas Valentino & Samuel Wendel Pit Pass Contributors
Andrew Gates & Greg Emmerson Game On Contributors
Jesse Seilhan & Joshua David Anderson Contributing Photographers
OG foto, Andrew Gates & Rupa Begum Social Media Guru
Rupa Begum Contributing Make-up Artist
Kasey Hill
Contributing Hair Stylist
Kasey Hill Advertising
Andrew Gates
info@RUKUSmag.com Mailing Address
RUKUS MAGAZINE 3115 e. Olive st. #42153 Las Vegas, NV 89116
Copyright Š 2008-2018 RUKUS, LLC. All Rights Reserved! May/June 2018 issue, Volume 10, Number 3. ISSN 2161-4369 (print) ISSN 2161-4377 (online) Visit https://www.RUKUSmag.com for more images and content.
KOD or DOA
Words by Silas Valentino
Before hearing a lick of J. Cole’s fifth studio album listeners are first greeted by its varicolored and gripping album cover artwork: an illustration of Cole donning a crown and adorned in a king’s cloak. Concealed within his plush robe are multiple children’s faces, some in the act of abusing drugs while others have begun to decay into skulls. A line of text declares: “This album is in no way intended to glorify addiction.” Across 12 tracks that dare to stare down hip hop’s allegiance with narcotics, his thesis is soundly defended, as is the bejeweled crown that sits perched on top of his head. Since appearing on the scene in 2007 with his mixtape The Come Up, J. Cole has fashioned himself as a loner among the hip hop elite who doesn’t shy from tackling prickly themes like depression and addiction in his music. He’s brandished himself as a lone wolf by releasing hugely successful albums that forgo the assistance of guest features to reach the top of the charts. With his latest effort, he continues to brandish these loner qualities - minus the addition of his alter ego kiLL edward who appears on a pair of tracks - and the result is J. Cole at his finest: pensive, authentic and critical of his world at large. “Intro” and several other tracks contain samples of jazz songs from the likes of Norman Connors, Ahmad Jamal and Blue Note label guitarist Kenny Burrell. Sometimes the snippets create a somber tempo like the lonely trumpets in “Intro” or they’ve been utterly reinterpreted by Cole (who produced a majority of the album) into sounding entirely new, like the high-pitched guitar in “Photograph.” Cole revealed KOD is an acronym with three meanings: “Kids on Drugs” or “King OverDosed” or “Kill Our Demons” - listener’s choice for which one resonates with you. Addiction is a prevailing theme on KOD and he takes aim at a generation of mumble rappers like Lil Pump and Smokepurpp who glorify drug use. “Wow, niggas been crampin’ my style/Blowin’ my high, they want a reply/The number one question is, ‘How?’” he begins in the title track, seeming like an elder statesmen reaching out with a helping hand within an industry that harvests young guns. (Smokepurpp apparently declined such advice and led a “Fuck J. Cole” chant at a show in Atlanta following the album’s release.) Another issue Cole uses for lyrical target practice is the American tax system which he rails against in the song “BRACKETS.” Beginning with a silly sample of Richard Pryor joking on having financial success to the disbelief of his father, the song quickly loses its comedic appeal with Cole questioning the nature of our government and the way it mishandles our money. With lyrical imagery and a thorny prose he positions his cannon to the top tier: “Better that than letting whack congressman I’ve never seen/Dictate where my money go, straight into the palms of some/Money-hungry company that make guns that circulate the country/And then wind up in my hood, making bloody clothes.” But the prevailing issue circling around Cole’s mind since his last album in 2016 is drug abuse and he rallies for cleaner living in the standout track “Friends.” “I wrote this shit to talk about the word addiction/To my niggas… I hope you listening… and…, I hope you listening,” he raps and manipulates a pitch over each name leaving listeners to guess who the three people he lists are meant to be. (Cole’s brother Zach appeared in a YouTube video that analyzes each track and some have speculated that the way he reacted when listening to this moment indicates he’s one of the three.) To be king means you not only provide for but also protect your people. J. Cole does just that in KOD where he advises his family, friends and fans to renounce drugs amid jazz samples and beatbox rhythms. Nancy Reagan wouldn’t dare embrace hip hop but it’s her loss because drug abstinence has never sounded so effective and demanding as it does with KOD.
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Cuttin’ Cookies
Words by Silas Valentino
Bazzi has a formula and damned if he’s going to tamper with it. Keep the melodies front and center, don’t stray far from the electronic keyboard and drumbeat combo and for the love of God never let a song break three minutes in length. It’s a simple method and hundreds of millions of streams later he proves it’s a successful one - but like the fleeting melodies he crafts or the short songs he sings, does the Bazzi formula translate into something sustainable or is this just another quick-burn click in the age of six-second videos? A year ago most of the adult world was unaware of Bazzi, born Andrew Bazzi from just-outside Detroit, Michigan. He was a Vine (R.I.P.) celebrity who had the bygone social media’s premier “featured track” in 2015 with his song “Bring Me Home.” Vine was the perfect medium to illustrate Bazzi’s talents with its ephemeral beauty and tawdry aesthetic. Then in July 2017 while swimming and smoking by the pool, a melody popped into Bazzi’s head: a descending nine-beat staccato ear worm that instantly connected and as he told Rolling Stone last month, he knew immediately it’d be a hit. What would follow - “Mine” - was indeed a smash, racking up millions of listens between streaming services and even sparking a fad on Snapchat that uses the “Be Mine” filter to let users highly a loved one. Less than a year later Bazzi has a multi-platinum single, a Top 20 album and a slot as the opener for Camila Cabello’s debut tour. Not bad for a 20-year-old kid from Michigan who idolized Justin Bieber. In interviews, Bazzi admits he intentionally keeps his songs short to encourage listeners to hear the whole production. Cosmic barely breaks 42 minutes in length but offers 16 tracks - the longest, “Beautiful”, clocks in at 2:58. The brevity of Bazzi allows for the hits to leave listeners craving more while letting the clunkers pass by quickly; however, Cosmic is more blackhole than star-shining hits. The record opens with “Dreams” which fits well in the trap-soul epoch of the moment. Armed with a falsetto croon and a delivery that suggests a possible Caribbean accent (something he lacks in conversation), Bazzi sings about his usual topic: women and eye balls. “I had a dream about you last night/Your eyes were shining so bright/Those lips and that bittersweet smile,” he sings with such conviction you’re left assuming it was a pretty slick dream. Bazzi’s appeal lies not so much in his originality, rather, in his way of mixing his influences into his own music. “Myself” sounds like a cross between NSYNC’s thumping boy-beat bounce and the unexpected thrash of AWOLNATION’s “Sail” while the melody in “Mirror” is a dead-on cousin of Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again” but with soulful Seventies-era piano sensitivity. His talent is easily recognizable since he wrote these songs himself and self-released his album (along with the juggernaut Atlantic Records) but innovation isn’t a trait of Bazzi’s, at least not before he reaches the legal drinking age. Cosmic closes with “Somebody” where Bazzi sums up his first two decades of existence and personal credo: “Bad vibes, I just block them out/Michigan where I was poppin’ out/Now I’m in the Hills and I’m poppin’ now/I can’t take my eyes/Take them off this life.” It’s quite the statement for a young man just entering the unforgiving world of pop music but Bazzi’s bravado suggests he’s going out blazing, thinking solely of his dashing and fleeting present, and not of his star’s inevitable crash landing.
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instagram.com/thebandghost
Words by Samuel Wendel
Ghost, Prequelle
Still fresh off winning a Grammy in 2016, Swedish heavy metal band Ghost return with a new album that adds to their strangely endearing musical mythology. The band is possessed with a love of theatrical gimmicks (notably a love of costumes) but their dark, propulsive music is anything but. Prequelle delivers a heady dose of hooky hard rock that shows reverence to classic heavy metal bands, but while adding nice pop flourishes when appropriate. That’s what Prequelle boils down to: a band that’s found a sweet spot between metal muscle and art pop theatrics. They’re as strange as ever, with the theme of this album apparently the Black Plague, but the lyrics are elevated by plenty of razorsharp licks and roaring harmonies that would make Ozzy proud. Overall, the atmosphere permeating this album is weird, but oddly catchy. A couple songs drag here and there, but at the end of the day it should be a strong addition to their discography — a gimmick that works more often than not. Standout tracks include: “See the Light,” “Rats” and “Faith.”
Shinedown, Attention Attention
instagram.com/shinedown
Post-grunge torchbearers Shinedown return for another stab at radio glory on their sixth album Attention Attention. Their latest repackages their classic sound, but with a new layer of polished pop sheen. At a foundational level, the tracks populating Attention Attention don’t radically subvert the sound the group honed during their rock radio reign more than a decade ago — it’s a collection of propulsive anthems that call back to their earliest work, but they still make a noticeable effort to update their sound where they can. That mostly means they add some bells and whistles from the prevailing alt-rock trends (for instance the electro-tinged anthems of Imagine Dragons, Muse etc.). Yet, there are treats for long-time fans, like the track “Monsters,” a song that could have been written during the George W. Bush administration. Overall, it’s a coursecorrect from some of their more recent albums, and one that should please early fans and record execs alike. Standout tracks include “Devil,” “The Human Radio,” “Brilliant” and “Pyro.” instagram.com/officialjonathandavis
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Jonathan Davis, Black Labyrinth
Pass the popKorn, the frontman of one of nu-metal’s biggest acts has released his long-awaited solo album — and there’s plenty to dig into. Korn vocalist Jonathan Davis’ Black Labyrinth offers more than a couple eye-opening moments. His signature radio-ready growl remains largely unchanged, but his solo album samples a curious mix of genres, including some that most Korn fans probably don’t dial up on Spotify all that often. Black Labyrinth finds Davis exploring world music instrumentation, including sounds and sonic textures from the Middle East, India and beyond. Case in point: there are sitars. Not everything works, but his experimentations are mostly a welcome development. Still, it’s not the second coming of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Davis brings in new sounds, but a fair amount of the album finds him returning to tried and true stomping grounds — which is where he ultimately finds his groove. All things considered, it makes for an interesting listen. Some tracks may turn off purist Korn fans, while others will sound like a breath of fresh air. Standout tracks: “Final Days,” “Everyone” and “Please Tell Me.”
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Kasey Hill K
Photography by OG foto Makeup & hair by Kasey Hill
asey Hill is a beautiful blonde, blue eyed Australian model who is now residing in Las Vegas, Nevada. She first started her modeling career three years ago, and since then has grown her name and brand within the industry. She has worked with many photographers, and has enjoyed traveling the world while working on her modeling career; gracing covers, and shooting in exotic locations around the globe. Kasey has been based in the USA for the past few months, and has settled into her new surroundings, making Las Vegas her home. Hill has a lot of upcoming projects in the works, as well as some exciting things that will make you want to keep an eye on this stunning beauty.
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Photography by Leon Ortiz Make-up & hair by Andrew St. Pierre
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20 QUESTIONS 1.What’s your Ethnicity? I’m Australian, but my background is Finnish. 2.What’s your zodiac sign? Libra. 3.Where are you from originally? Port Macquarie, Australia. 4.What did you like most about growing up in Port Macquarie? Definitely the beach. 5.What kind of mischief did you get into while growing up? Oh a lot, I’m was always up to something. [laughs] 6.If you could have a super power, what would it be and why? Mind reader, Because it would be so cool to know what people are thinking. 7.What’s your favorite hobby and why? Traveling, I love seeing new places; exploring, and new adventures.
13.What’s your favorite body part on yourself? Ahh, boobs... I love me some boobs. 14.What do you look for in a guy? Tall, dark, and handsome. [laughs] But seriously...that is exactly what I look for, although personality-wise; I look for a kind, funny, loving, and caring man. 15.What’s the first thing you notice about a guy? His Height. 16.What’s your ideal first date? Something really relaxing, and fun. Nothing too romantic or with a forced feeling. 17.What turns you on? Confident guys turn me on. 18.What turns you off? The “know it all” guys. 19.What’s your biggest pet peeve? People that do good deeds, and have the need to tell everyone about it. 20.Who’s your celebrity crush? Eminem..... always Eminem.
RM
8.What’s your guilty pleasure? Binge watching different TV series’ for days on end while eating everything I should not be eating. 9.Who do you admire and why? I admire my family, they are amazing. 10.If you could change one thing in the world what would it be and why? Hmm. Well that’s a hard one... there are a lot of things that need changing in this world, but it would be happiness for everyone, no sadness ever.
STATS: Birthday:
September 27
11.What’s one of your personal goals? Just to be happy, and to always do, and live my life for the now.
Height:
5’7”
Weight:
117lb
12.What do guys compliment you on the most? The most... eyes or legs. [laughs]
Measurements:
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It’s a Mystery
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2018 FORMULA DRIFT ORLANDO VICTORY CLAIMED BY CHRIS FORSBERG Photography by Andrew Gates Words by Greg Emmerson
The 2018 Formula DRIFT championship swapped the tight Streets of Long Beach for round two at Orlando Speed World this weekend. And the drama began early with an incident in practice that saw Chelsea DeNofa (USA) hit the wall in his BC Racing / Nitto Tire Ford Performance Mustang RTR. He was avoiding an accident on the track but was unable to avoid the wall. Following frantic work by his team, DeNofa made it to qualifying and scored 87 points on his first run. However, he was unable to complete his second run after the team discovered a more serious mechanical issue and withdrew the car. With his competitive weekend over, Chelsea joined the Formula DRIFT / AEM Halftime Show with Maximum Driftcast as a co-host and was able to give his personal perspective on the track and the unfolding action. For the drivers who remained, it was a very tight qualifying session. The top drivers were separated by a couple of points as each had to perform at their very best to gain an advantage in the heats. An interesting pattern emerged in qualifying that was established by Piotr Wiecek (Poland), who won the final round of the 2017 season and qualified first for the 2018 opener. That round would subsequently be won by Fredric Aasbo (Norway), who qualified first for Orlando. Aasbo’s results, both on the Streets of Long Beach and his Orlando qualifying performance, are particularly impressive because he’s driving the brand new Rockstar Energy Drink / Nexen Tire Toyota Corolla. And despite his 2015 Champion status, few people expected him to emerge so strong. A typically modest driver suggested the new car had similarities to his previous mount, but that doesn’t fully explain the achievement. “We’ve been working really hard to improve our qualifying performance,” Aasbo explained immediately after the session ended. “It’s been a long time since we qualified first, and to do that with a 99-point run says a lot about the level of the competition in the series – you have to put in an almost perfect drive to climb to the top. So we’re stoked with the result and really excited for tomorrow’s competition.” Aasbo’s qualifying position gained him a bye in the Top 32 run offs, meaning his first competitive drive would be against Matt Vankirk (USA) in his Driftmatic Nissan 240SX. Aasbo would get the judge’s decision and advance to meet Ken Gushi (Japan) in his GPP / Toyota Racing Falken 86, who had to beat Daijiro Yoshihara (Japan) in his Turn 14 Distribution / Falken Tire Subaru BRZ in the previous round. Aasbo’s progress would be halted in the Final Four, when he came up against eventual winner, Chris Forsberg (USA) in his NOS Energy Drink Nissan 370Z on Nexen Tires. However, Fredric wasn’t going down without a fight. The first two runs were too close to call for the judges and the crowd called for “One More Time.” On the second attempt, Forsberg was able to claim victory and head to the final, leaving Aasbo in third by virtue of his qualifying position. Forsberg had to fight hard to reach the final, first vanquishing
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Vaughn Gittin Jr (USA) in his Monster Energy / Nitto Tire Ford Mustang RTR in the Top 32. That put him against Jhonnattan Castro (Dominican Republic) in his GPP / Toyota Racing Falken 86 in the next round, before meeting the on-form Piotr Wiecek in his Worthouse / Falken Tire / Nissan Silvia S15. Wiecek had qualified first on the Streets of Long Beach and took third place on the podium. He’d also scored a double win at the non-championship Motegi Super DRIFT Challenge the following weekend during the Grand Prix of Long Beach. Yet despite his momentum, Wiecek succumbed to Forsberg, who headed to the final against Wiecek’s teammate and 2017 FD Champion, James Deane (Ireland). To reach the final, Deane qualified in second place in his Worthouse / Falken Tire / Nissan Silvia S15, scoring an impressive 97 points to challenge Aasbo for top honors. He also got a bye run in the Top 32 and would beat Forrest Wang (USA) in his Vapetasia / Achilles Radial / NRG Innovations Nissan S15 in the Top 16. The Top 8 saw Aurimas “Odi” Bakchis (Lithuania) swept aside in his Falken Tires / Maxxoil / Drifz Wheels Nissan S14. Deane’s Quarter Final was against Ryan Tuerck (USA) in the Ryan Tuerck Racing / Gumout / Black Magic / Nexen Tire Toyota 86. It was a hardfought battle but Deane was too strong. Despite losing in the final to Forsberg, Deane was delighted with the result. “I had so much fun leading every run on this track, but Chris Forsberg was killing it all weekend. He definitely deserved the win although it was unfortunate that my power steering failed on the second run. We hit the wall on the first corner pretty badly, so we’ve got to work hard for the next event but bring on Atlanta!” Chris Forsberg was extremely excited by his victory: “It feels great to get be on the top step of the podium this early in the season. I have to thank my team for working with me to completely rebuild the car through the off-season. It’s now the best car I’ve ever had. The power and grip it generates is incredible, and I cannot wait for Atlanta!”
Round three in Atlanta, GA takes place on May 11-12, and Formula DRIFT president, Jim Liaw, was very happy with how things were progressing: “The south-east region is so strong for FD as the audience continues to grow. We had great weather this weekend, which brought out the fans who were treated to some exceptionally close competition. We knew it would be a great weekend when qualifying was producing almost flawless runs. So many of the drivers are on top of their game right now but we’ll have to see how they do with the quick turnaround to Atlanta in two weeks.”
Visit formulad.com for event details, ticket purchases, driver profiles and Livestream information. Visit RUKUSmag.com for more images from the event.
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WINNING STARTS IN THE GARAGE All The Horsepower In The World Won’t Get You To The Finish Line If Your Electrical System Is Not Up To The Job. Stacey David Trusts Painless To Deliver Professional Quality And American Made Dependability Every Time.
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Exclusive interview with Formula Drift Pro 1 Driver
Dean Kearney Photography by Andrew Gates
RUKUS MAGAZINE: Who is Dean Kearney? DEAN KEARNEY: Who is Dean Kearney, that’s a good question. I’m a 29 year old guy from Ireland and spending probably 75% of my time in the states at the moment that’s chasin’ my dream and driving fast cars and loving every minute of it. RM: What do you do for work? DK: This is work, this is what we do, actually we travel around the country, and we run obviously the Formula D National Championship is the backbone of our program, it’s the bread and butter end of it, I’d say. And then we do a lot of international events; Goodwood Festival of Speed, and Gatebil, and some other stuff in Ireland called IDC, and those kind of events, but yeah, this is what we do as a living, literally enough. RM: How did you discover drifting? DK: How did I discover drifting…um they held a drift event in Ireland, I think back in 2004, it’s actually a friend of mine now that held the first ever event by the name of Richie Lavin, held an event after seeing all these Option DVDs out of Japan and everyone was like kinda hyped on drifting, so he threw an event and everybody showed up with their street cars, like showed up like on the same size tires with no spare tires, nothing at all, and started doing what they called drifting at the time, I would call it more like donuts or power sliding now, but I attended that event with my older brother and saw it and was like man, this is cool, like this is really cool. So, that was kind of it for like 5 or 6 months, and it was gone quiet, and then a guy by the name of Graham McNamara started up something called D1IRL which turned into Prodrift, and actually became IDC after that, they started holding events and after attending probably two or three events we decided that we would show up and compete and showed up and loved it and just kinda went from there… snowballed. RM: What was your first impression? DK: My first impression of drifting was, it was cool obviously, I was fifteen years old so I couldn’t get a driver’s license, but we were probably drifting a while before that, we were driving cars around the farmer’s farmyard. I know it sounds pretty safe, and I probably shouldn’t really be saying it, but that’s what we were doing from ages of probably 12 to 16 or 17, actually when we got our driver’s license. So, we were drifting then and had a good idea of actual car control at that stage, and, so when there was a sport all of a sudden evolving called drifting, it was like, hey man, I want to take part in this it looks fun. RM: Tell us about your car. DK: Yeah, this is my 002 chassis. It’s a car that’s been in the making for quite a while actually and it is twin turbo V10 8.3L with direct port nitrous. Has a Speedway quick-change and Samsonas six-speed sequential. We dyno’d it before we came here last week, we don’t actually have a proper figure on the power yet, because at 3000 RPM it made 900 HP/ 875 ft lb. torque with no nitrous and then shut down the dyno. We don’t have a proper figure, but doing all the math and the estimation of it and stuff how it is before the nitrous at the moment, we’re talking around 1250-1300 horsepower.
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RM: When did you know you wanted to be a professional drifter? DK: I wouldn’t say there was a time I ever decided that I wanted to be a professional drifter, I think as a kid being a boy into cars I always had this what I would have considered a fairytale kind of a dream of being a professional racing driver, so I never thought it was a real life option. We start doing drifting and the sport, I suppose we were lucky we were there when the sport started kind of getting bigger and we just had to ride the curve with it. And it was probably 2008-2009 when we started to realize, like hey, this is actually real life and we can actually make this happen if we all work on it and pull in the same direction we can turn it into a living, so probably around that time ’08-’09. RM: Tell us about the moment you won your FD license; Feeling? Where? When? DK: When I got my Formula D license, I was in the runnings to have a spot at the Red Bull Drifting World Championships in ’08 and they were giving out 2 licenses in Europe at the time. It was James Deane got one another good friend of mine, Eric O’sullivan actually got the second one and I was in third place, we miss out barely. But, we came over from Ireland a big gang of us came over to support these guys and whatever, we landed here in November 2008 saw the event then I was in the paddock maybe 10 minutes and I decided this is it, I’m coming here next year, that’s it, and speaking away with all my friends they like you’re crazy, it’s a massive step and I was like, I’m telling ya, this is where we’re coming. So, we came out we done Irwindale 2009 after winning the Prodrift European Championship at the time and that gave us our license, so that’s where it started from.
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RM: Did you ever imagine yourself being in the sport for this long? DK: Yes, I definitely thought I would be in drifting for… I don’t see a timeline, cause it’s not a sport you have to be super fit or whatever… it is good, and obviously it does help. But, age in this sport doesn’t really matter and the older I know you get, you mature as a driver and you start actually learning more. So, you see people like Vaughn, and Chris that are like five, six, I don’t know eight years older than me, maybe. And they’re like… they get better every year, they’re like fine wine or whatever, they just get stronger and stronger every year. So, I don‘t see a time limit in drifting, but I know I’m going to be sticking around for definitely a couple more years at least. RM: What does life look like after drifting? DK: I will consider myself to always be involved someway in motorsports on what level I don’t really know, I’d like to maybe own a team and have maybe two or three drivers driving under me and be able to share obviously my knowledge with them and what it took to come up along the ranks and building a team. But, I do have a massive interest in construction as well, actually, it’s definitely a passion of mine that’s what my family over home do is construction, so that’s probably something I will dabble in at some stage in my life.
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RM: If you hadn’t discovered drifting what might you be doing? DK: Probably working a 9-5 job in construction, maybe. No… I would have… I was always keen on WRC stage rally, that kind of stuff, so that was always my first goal, and passion was that kind of level. Getting involved like in rallying at a 1600 level and try and actually work up from there. But, as everyone knows rallying is super expensive, and very difficult in National Championships if you were to try and get any financial support to try and do it on a professional level, so I maybe would’ve dabbled around in rallying on kind of a more grassroots kind of a level, maybe. RM: Anyone out there you’d like to thank? DK: There are so many sponsors, and partners, and friends, and family that were involved in this program, so I don’t have all night just to be naming them all out, but they’ve all been a massive influence on the program, they’ve helped out so much. There’s guys obviously like Bryan Bridges, and Alex, and Brandon, and Dan and my little brother Emmet himself who’s been hands-on with the program from the very start and helped to actually make this car, so they’ve been a fantastic edition and they’ve like all the way through [from the beginning]. Yeah, I definitely like to say thanks to them. I like obviously to say thanks to Oracle Lighting, Achilles Radial, 360 Wraps, Ravenol, Link, HPS… there’s so many sponsors, I’m going to let somebody out, so, yeah I’d just like to thank obviously all the sponsors. RM
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May/June 2018 â&#x20AC;¢
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Confident guys turn me on.
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RUKUS â&#x20AC;¢ May/June 2018
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May/June 2018 â&#x20AC;¢
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Home Run King
Words by Jesse Seilhan
There are a few constants in life: death, taxes, and annual sports video games. Football has Madden, soccer has FIFA, hockey has the EA NHL series, and baseball, up until recently, only had the excellent MLB The Show, exclusive to the Playstation console. But a few years ago, a new contender came to the plate and surprised us. Super Mega Baseball looked cartoony, but had a slick presentation and realistic sim engine driving the whole experience. But sequels can be an instant improvement (with the right focus) and Metalhead Software is back to show that baseball games can ditch the official license and still provide a good time. Before we talk about the improvements, the blueprint is solid. The team at Metalhead didn’t have to tweak too much to make a good thing even better, as their first game was exceptional and fans simply wanted more of the same. Pitching feels tighter than ever, the hitting window is precise but fair, and the fielding almost always get you where you want to be. You still have to balance that contact and power on both sides of the plate and a mistimed swing will turn your homer into a giant whiff. But the big changes come from the modes and outside-the-field experience, something the game needed after a bare bones initial release. First up is customization. Managerial types are going to spend a ton of time not swinging a bat, as you can build a team from scratch this year. There are enough visual options to make just about anyone you want, deck them with whatever stats you like, and add them to either a new team or an existing one. So much like the way wrestling games had a ton of longevity by letting people create wrestlers not present in the game, SMB2 doesn’t have any licensed characters, so you can make all of your favorite players, give them the exact stats you want, and even give the pitchers the exact pitches you know they excel at. Create a new logo, uniforms, and even the league structure itself with a host of powerful editing tools built just for the most controlling, er, detailed managers among you. But what are you going to do with your new team? For the first time ever, you can take them online and compete against the rest of the world. Sadly, you can’t text your buddy across town and beat them up through 9 innings, as there isn’t a friends mode. You will be paired with a random opponent, but you can have your buddy come over, hop on your couch, and grab another controller to help you defeat your cross-town rivals. There is also a tournament mode if you’re down to play for a long time, both offline and online. You can take your battles to all new stadiums with new lighting, new character models, and a new user interface that make swingin, pitching, throwing, and scoring so much easier. Returning from last year is the Ego system, probably the best way to handle difficulty any game has ever attempted. Most games give you only a few options somewhere between Rookie and All-Star, as has been tradition since the earliest of PC games. But SMB2 has a sliding scale, from 1 to triple digits, with each number ratcheting up the difficulty ever so slightly. So while an ego of 20 is quite easier than one of 50, but 20 to 22 isn’t felt too much. What this does is create an onramp to higher-tier play, as you can crack that next double digit ceiling a few games at a time, as you sharpen your skills against ever-increasingly difficult teams. Ultimately, you get to find your sweet spot instead of bouncing between way too easy and impossible, which most traditional difficulty structures force you into. While most baseball games come out in the spring to really capitalize on baseball fever, SMB2 was unfortunately pushed back for some final tuning and polish. Luckily, the game is much better for it and will last us through this season and the next, with a robust customization mode that can account for any trades, new players, and, hell, even a new team, division, or conference, should the MLB completely restructure at any time. While you can’t hit homers with your favorite Dodger or Yankee, you can play the most technically solid and fun baseball game on the market in Super Mega Baseball 2. Pick it up and you won’t need anything else for months.
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RUKUS â&#x20AC;¢ May/June 2018
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DRINK RESPONSIBLY
Words by Joshua David Anderson
One of the best things about video games is the sheer variety of games that can exist. Sure, there is disproportionate amount of games where you are a generic soldier running down a hallway shooting the opposing force, but there are plenty of strange, unique titles that attempt to do things differently. Vampyr, from Dontnod Entertainment, is one of the latter games. With its strange combination of Action RPG and British turn-of-the-century hospital drama, the real question is whether Vampyr can stick the landing. Taking place in post World War 1 London, Vampyr tells the story of Jonathan Reid, a military doctor trying to help out a district of London beset by an outbreak of the Spanish flu. Helping to cure patients and help relieve the beleaguered citizens, Reid must also face strange goings on in the night, nefarious criminals, and religious fanatics all vying for control of the city. If that isn’t enough to deal with, Jonathan Reid has to deal with the fact that he has recently been turned into a vampire and has to drink human blood to survive. That last part really complicates things. The dialogue and leveling system is where Vampyr really tries some new ideas, and some of it really shines. A huge part of the game is simply getting to know the characters in the game. Outside of random enemies, there aren’t generic NPCs filling the town. Rather, the districts are filled with specific, named characters all with complicated backstories and interwoven histories. Developers Dontnod have some experience with well written characters, with their previous game Life is Strange, and that pedigree is on display here as well. Every NPC you meet is full of interesting quirks and story, with almost no character fitting neatly into an archetype. Getting to know the characters and finding out their secrets is half the fun of the game. However, getting to know the people of London can be a double edged sword. Remember, Reid is a vampire, and you need to eat people to survive. Every single character in the game can be killed, with each one affecting the district in different ways, most of them always surprising. Additionally, you can elect to eat no one, but you make the game harder, as drinking the blood of a citizen gives you experience points, which you use to fuel you vampiric powers in combat. This is one of the most unique parts of Vampyr: playing the heroic good guy is absolutely harder than simply chowing down. However, the only way to get the most out of killing an NPC for experience is to fill out their history and learn all their secrets. In order to be a powerful evil vampire, you have to absolutely get to know your victims. This is a smart choice, as it causes even the most hardened of bloodsucker to have to think about who they kill. With the dialogue and story being a high point, combat is where the game suffers a bit. It certainly isn’t bad by any stretch, taking cues from Dark Souls and Bloodborne with a stamina system and lock on combat that feels familiar. You also have vampire powers that are fueled by blood that are very powerful and make you feel a step above the enemies you are fighting. As simple as the combat can feel, it does elicit a raw thrill every time you knock an enemy down and bite them to refill your blood meter. You also have melee weapons to upgrade and firearms to use, but those feel pedestrian next to your vampire claws or shooting a spear made out of blood from your hands. Vampyr certainly isn’t perfect. The game makes a big point of telling the player that your choices will always have consequences, and the game doesn’t let you out of that either with a single save system that auto saves after everything you do. It is exciting when you make a choice and things in the game happen that you did not expect, like in real life. It is much more annoying when you choose a dialogue choice that causes you to fail getting a secret out of an NPC for no real shown reason. Both of these things happen in Vampyr. You can also try and eat the person you think is most expedible to a district only to find out they were key to some side quest, but honestly that actually helps make the decision have more weight. In all, Vampyr is a unique game that feels like it belongs to another generation, when weird, medium budget games were much more common, and developers took more risks with mechanics. Not everything works out, but the story and the atmosphere make Vampyr worth checking out.
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May/June 2018 •
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Words by Jesse Seilhan
Hitman 2
Our favorite game of 2016 went through some ups and downs, as Square Enix decided not to stick around, leaving developer IO Interactive holding the bag going into the sequel. All is well, as they are back bigger than ever with Hitman 2, a much larger game that is ditching the episodic gameplay but still throwing in all of the elusive targets and add-ons the first game featured. Agent 47 is back and murdering is still afoot, this time with more costumes, weapons, and targets than ever before. Our first glimpse thus far has only been around an F1-style race in Miami, complete with pit crew access perfect for planting a bomb in the tire. Be sure to pick it up in November and pre-ordering today gets you into a sniping mini-game right away!
Destiny 2: Forsaken
Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been a long, strange journey for Destiny as a franchise, mostly due to the stumbles Destiny 2 decided to roll out with. Two DLC expansions have hit thus far and did little to satisfy the current players and even less to bring those turned off back into the fold. Forsaken is going a little harder in the end-game direction, redoing the weapon system and allowing any player to use any weapon in any slot. Light level increase and raid expansion is of course included, but the new PVP/PVE game mode Gambit might be the actual new adventure people flock to. This mode sees a fireteam fighting waves of enemies and storing their fallen motes, until a portal opens up that lets you invade another fireteamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s battleground, where you will team up with the enemies to hunt down guardians. First team to 75 motes banked will summon a big boss that needs to be slayed to win, but time will tell if this new bag of tricks gets D2 out of the dirt.
Octopath Traveler
Named such for the eight playable characters, Octopath Traveler is trying to connect gamers to the RPGs of yore while still advancing the genre. While not a new task, it has always proved difficult for the devs that have given it a shot. But the classic sprite-style 16-bit art style looks gorgeous, blending the world of Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy Tactics, and more, all while delivering readable text, a smooth translation, and a tight turn-based fighting style. This game is all about forming your party, as you begin your journey with one of the eight heroes and collect more along the way. The demo currently out on the Switch eShop does carry its data over to the full game, so download today to get a head start!
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