Multiple Musings

Lots of random thoughts - and I usually try to keep one post per one topic, but not today.

Beat God of War 1 yesterday (yeah, really late to the party). Awesome game. I've played a couple of "clones" before (Conan for instance). The graphics were amazing for the PS2 and the storyline felt like a Greek tragedy, or something from Greek Myth. It really worked. The gameplay was generally good, with a few annoying jump and balance things that weren't all that fun. Next up Halo 3 (then God of War 2, then likely Star Wars Force Unleashed or Brutal: Legend).

Have been playing a lot of Soul Caliber IV - trying to unlock everything so I can make characters. :). Fun stuff. A while back I got a SFIV pad (not arcade stick) with 6 face buttons and two shoulder buttons, and really really good d-pad (and no analog sticks). I use it for all my fighting games now, and it really helps. I've made some anime characters, comics characters and some other Video Game characters (Chun-li and Bison).

It turns out that I tend to play music games most of the time (no surprise) and play everything else for a couple hours total on the weekends. Works for me.

Speaking of music games, some really cool stuff coming up.
Tomorrow - Guitar Hero 5 - which imports some World Tour on Disc, the WT DLC, and will import Smash hits (with rumors of Metallica, Band Hero and Van Halen). Lots of new challenges, the ability to use your 360 Avatar as your character, and some really nice songs. I can't wait.
A week from that - Beatles: Rock Band. It's the Beatles, what else do I need to say. And they are releasing an album a month for the next three months - Abbey Road, Rubber Soul and Sgt Peppers. Whoo hooo.
Then Brutal Legend in October - an action game spawned from heavy metal aesthetics.
November has both Band Hero and Lego Rock Band - targeting families and kids more than any previous music game has.

Looking forward to some rentals in the next few weeks, will comment on them when I get them.

Now back to banging on my bongo drums.

Games played since last post:
God of War (PS2)
Soul Caliber IV (360)
Zen Pinball (PS3)
Miniputt (PC)
Peggle Nights (PC)
Rock Band 2 (360)
Guitar Hero World Tour (360)
Singstar Queen (PS3)
Orange Box (360)
Little Big Planet (PS3)

About Time

Guitar Hero announced that songs from GH:World Tour and GH:Smash Hits will be exportable to GH:5 and that all but 6 songs of the WT DLC will be compatible with GH:5 (odds are on the Hendrix songs). This is really a great thing for them – it could spur sales of World Tour or Smash Hits to export the songs, and if they keep this up going forward, it means you can have a huge library of songs from GH to play all at once.

Of course, Rock Band did it a year ago. But partisanship aside, I am really happy to see this. I enjoy both franchises (I do prefer Rock Band, but I still really enjoy GH). So to be able to have so many songs on GH is a good thing. And they keep putting one Queen track per game, so if they export, I'll finally be able to do a 6 or 7 song Queen set. :)

Another bit from GH:5 is the ability to play as your Avatar (360) or Mii (Wii). I think this is pretty cool. That will be what I do when I get the game in a few weeks. And some games are having clothes you can buy for your Avatar on the 360, so it would be cool to buy a Rock Band Shirt for my Avatar and play Guitar Hero with it. :)

Back to jumping through holes and ignoring GladOS

Games played since last post:

None (look at the timestamps)

Arrggh

I accidentally deleted about a third of my game saves on the 360.

When I first got the thing, I had my profile, and an online profile. I never used the online profile to play games... until Rock Band, and being able to make pictures on their website, but it had to be keyed to your xbox live gamertag. So I started using that one.

I was playing around with my other profile, and deleted it and the games associated with it. Rumble Roses, Soul Caliber IV, Bioshock, Conan and Portal/Orange Box. I had beat Conan, Bioshock and Portal, and had unlocked a bunch of stuff in the other two. So I will be playing them again... but it should be easier this time. :) I'll wait on Bioshock 'till I am about to get Bioshock II and play them back to back.

But as it is, I'm working on unlocking stuff in SCIV and Rumble Roses and have got halfway through Portal. I am going to finish God of War (the game I am currently working through) before I touch Conan again. That one may come a great deal later.

If I cared about my Gamerscore, that means it would be going way up. But I don't.

So anyway back to jumping through holes and trying to ignore GladOS.

Games Played Since Last Post.
Rumble Roses XX (360)
Peggle (PC)
Rock Band II (360)
Guitar Hero: World Tour (360)
Singstar: Queen (PS3)
Zen Pinball (PS3)