Pause, if not game over.

You may have noticed it's been nearly a 5 months since the last post. Likely that isn't going to change.

I'm not pulling down the blog - I did that once before and regretted it, but I am not likely to post to it again... not for a while anyway (years).

So this is mostly a "it's been fun while it lasted" post.

See ya on the flipside.

Snap Judgment reviews VI : The Undiscovered Country

Lots of Nintendo stuff this time around. Some of these will be more detailed comments on games mentioned in the last post. Note on the Dollar rating - I very rarely buy new games, so I put what I would be willing to pay for it. Anything 30 or higher is a very good game.

First batch - on rails shooters.

House of the Dead 2 & 3: Great game. I love this genre, so I'm a sucker for this kind of thing. Playing arcade mode, and yeah, it felt like an arcade on rails shooter. I got past the first boss, and a little further. Enjoyed the gameplay, the reload mechanics, and the ability to just point and shoot. Zombies are fun to kill. And I can see the difference in graphics for the Wii and the 360/PS3. I don't even have an HD TV at this point, but yeah the Wii is a little lagging. But I knew that going in. 20 dollar game.

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles: Another great one. I've never liked the RE games - I just don't like survival horror. But this is a gun game. Again, I like the reload, and I like the fact I can point and shoot. Multiple weapon types, grenades, story driven collectibles - it is pretty cool. I'm so used to arcade shooters like House of the Dead that the story elements are a pretty cool extra. 25 Dollar game

Fighters:

Bleach: Shattered Blade - this one will take getting used to. An average fighter I think (not knowing the Wii fighters very well), but I love the source material so I am enamored of this game. Doing fighting game on the Wii will tire out my arms. :) And there is a lot to keep track of. Wiimote motion for attacks, Nunchuck joystick to move, buttons for other things, shaking Nunchuck to help energy up for Bankai. Hard for me to keep everything strait. 20 Dollar Game

Super Smash Brothers Brawl - again seems to be average, but fun. 15 Dollar game

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels (and many colons)- I liked this the best of the three, but then again I am a complete Star Wars freak, so a lightsaber fighter is really cool to me. Again will make my arms tired.
30 Dollar game.

The thing I notice about all three - they are very much a "button masher" kind of game - getting exact timing and combos is not as important as shaking the wiimote around. This is fine with me.

Misc:

Rayman Raving Rabbids: Pretty stupid minigame collection. I hated the unlocking approach. This is a party game, and you should be able to get to everything right away. Do not Buy.
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games - decent fun, but again, a party game, and I don't generally play video games that way. Boring for single player. 10 dollar game.
Cooking Mama - World Kitchen: Silly fun. Not something I'd normally buy but worth playing. 5 dollars / Rental.
New Super Mario Brothers Wii - as a huge fan of Super Mario Brothers 3, and Super Mario world (and 2d platformers in general) I loved this game. The multiplayer aspect is pretty cool when played co-op. The wife and I both had fun with it. 30 Dollar game.
F-Zero GX: Everything I wanted it to be. Fzero with better graphics. I loved it, and I love these kind of racing games. 25 Dollar game.
No More Heroes - An over the top action game with funky controls and an average combat system. 10 bucks.

Gotta go, need set up behind the kit and bang some drums.

Games played since last post

Cooking Mama-World Kitchen (Wii)
Star Wars: Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels (Wii)
Rayman Raving Rabbids (Wii)
Cooking Mama - World Kitchen (Wii)
Earth Defense Force 2017 (360)
Plants vs Zombies (PC)
Beatles: Rock Band (360)
Rock Band 2 (360).
Wii Sports (Wii).

After Christmas Report - time to Wii.

As I mentioned in my last post the Wife and I bought a Wii for ourselves for Christmas. We opened our presents on the evening of the 23rd - after I got home from work. I had Christmas Eve off, but have to work Christmas day.

So we had the Wii, a number of Gamecube games, a number of Wii games - along with a number rented from work (I do love my free rentals from Blockbuster); and of course the controllers and memory cards for all the above.

First off the Gamecube games - I really enjoyed the ones I got - Geist, Mega Man Anniversary Collection, and F-Zero GX (F-Zero being one of my favorite SNES games, and one of my favorite games of all time). Decent games, and ones pretty much exclusive to the system. I also got Paper Mario but I haven't played it yet. The wife got a slew of RPGs (6 of 'em) - which was one of the reasons we got the system, so she had access to the GC RPGs she hadn't played.

Now take the title of this blog - Confessions of a Casual Video Gamer, and the fact that Rock Band 2 (and to a lesser extent the various Guitar Hero games) have dominated my video gaming time - you would think that I would have had a Wii already. But to be honest I scoffed at the controllers. The thing is I like "Hardcore" games, I just usually am not good at them. I personally think that the Hardcore/Casual split is mostly illusion. But I do have a particular approach to gaming - I normally can't sit down for hours on end to play - I need smaller chunks that when I was a youth. Then came Rock Band, and Peggle and Plants vs Zombies, and playing older console games on emulator (with save states and such) and I find I am solidly in the so called "casual" zone. And Rock Band really proved to me that non standard controllers can work.

So what Wii games did we play - Wii Sports (of course), Bleach Shattered Blade, New Super Mario Brothers, No More Heroes,Houses of the Dead 2 & 3, Boom Blox and a few others. I find myself really enjoying the approach most of these games have to control - notably the Boom Blox and Wii Sports. They are really a different kind of game than what I am used to (I loved Flower too BTW). I find myself being more active playing them, and really liking the fact I can sit down (or more likely stand up) and play for 5 or 10 minutes.

Another big bonus for the Wii is "light gun" games, especially on rails. I love those games, I've loved them in the arcade, with Duck Hunt, the Menacer (remember that?), and Elemental Gearbolt. But there just aren't that many games for them on standard consoles. The Wii has a ton of them - and don't think for a minute that this fact didn't color my desire for the machine.

It is also interesting to play "standard" games with Wii controls - No More Heroes (an Action Game) and Bleach: Shattered Blade (Fighter) both felt very odd with the control schemes - not necessarily worse, just different.

And the Wife and I played more games together - we do the occasional Lego game together, but we actually played for large chunks of time together. I really like that. I don't care for 1 on 1 competitive games, and I really don't like online, but playing with a loved one in the same room - that has something to recommend it.

So all in all I have really had a blast playing with the Wii. And I think I will keep doing so, for a long time.

Gotta go, need to bowl another line or two.

Games Played since last post:
F-Zero GX (Game Cube)
Geist (Game Cube)
Mega Man Anniversary Collection (Game Cube)
Boom Blox Bash Party (Wii)
No More Heroes (Wii)
House of the Dead 2 & 3 (Wii)
Wii Sports (Wii)
Rayman Raving Rabbids (Wii)
New Super Mario Brothers (Wii)
Bleach: Shattered Blade (Wii)

Digital Christmas

The wife and I have no kids (much to our dismay) so we can spend money on, and spoil, our inner children. :)

So we really only got ourselves one thing this year - a Wii. And accessories, including a Wavebird, Gamecube memory card, and a number of older cheaper games, more GC than Wii but some of each.

The last Nintendo system we owned was a SNES. No N64, no Gamecube. I can play the few 64 games I want to on an emulator, and the Wii played Game Cube games (are you listening Sony, sheesh). So this purchase really is for two generations of games for us; and definitely made the machine purchase follow our "No new console until there are 10 must have games" - even counting GC games as half a game.

I work on Christmas day, so we will be doing our Christmas festivities on the Night of the 23rd, and on Christmas Eve. Yeah.. work. I work part time at Blockbuster... and I get up to 4 game rentals a week. So I will be blowing through our Wii section to check out every game the store has, to see what is worth buying; Did the same thing when we got the PS3 and the 360.

So wish us a Merry Christmas and sore wrists from too much motion control, and I'll have a report of my thoughts in a week or two.

So back to blowing up Covanent and Flood.

Games Played since Last Post:
None (see timestamp)

New Years Resolution

I was reposting some of my blog entries over at my 1up page. And as I looked upon the history of my blog here, I despaired. Last entry months ago, and only 11 this year - that wasn't what I signed up to blog about - silence.

So this is my New Year's resolution - a blog every two week. I'm actually going to try every week, but I know myself, so I will shoot for every other.

So cross your fingers, and hope for my attention, and we'll get this thing back up an running again.

So back to blowing up the Covenant and Flood.

Games played since last post:

Too many to name, but here are some highlights

Plants Vs Zombies (PC)
Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis)
Zelda II (NES)
Rock Band 2 (360)
Lego Rock Band (360)
Guitar Hero 5 (360)
Band Hero (360)
Guitar Hero Van Halen (360)
Little Big Planet (PS3)
Pixeljunk Monsters (PS3)
'Splosion Man (360)

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)

Rock Band Network - possibly the biggest thing in music gaming

Rock Band Network was announced a couple of days ago. It is a service that Harmonix has developed using the X360 Game Creators platform as well as selling the software that HMX uses to chart the songs for the game. Basically it works like this - a band signs up for the Game Creators Club on Xbox live (a 100 dollar a year fee), purchases the software (about $225)

Then artists (or labels) can take the masters, run them through the software, and create note charts, band animations, lighting and what not - pretty much everything HMX does to make a song for the game. They even can make some original animations if they want to.

Then the song is checked for appropriate lyrics (the songs still have to be Teen rated), Copyright stuff, playability. Once the song has gone through this peer review it will be available to purchase in the new "Rock Band Network" store.

Songs can be priced from 50 cents to three dollars, and the owners of the music get 30% of the sale price (which is higher than most digital sales, and much much more than on disc sales).

Harmonix has trained a number of freelancers on the software, and is going to keep doing more "certifications" as well as answer questions about the software or using. Those freelancers can be hired to chart and animate the songs for the artists if they wish, instead of doing it themselves.

"Once we flip on the infrastructure, we can go from a few dozen people capable of doing this work to hundreds of people or more," Harmonix founder/CEO Alex Rigopulos says. "We can ramp up by a factor of 10 or more the rate of production of content."

What this means - Artists can spend about 350 (which is the price for a medium cheap instrument I think, not having priced them), and do a little work and get their song out there to possibly be heard nationally. Labels can make songs to be released for tour dates or CD release dates without having to wait for Harmonix (their staff currently can do about 10 songs a week).

Sub Pop records (Nirvana, White Stripes, L7 in additions to many others) already is planning to use this.

Music Games already have an impact for sales and marketing for music. I think this could be the biggest thing for music games since the genre was invented, and possibly the biggest thing in music since digital distribution. We could have a flood of music coming in through this thing after it settles down, and more freelancers are trained. Lots of possible indie bands getting exposure and lots of mainstream bands getting stuff in the game; there quite a few "X wants to be in Rock Band" threads at the Rock Band forums – and now the artists don't have to wait for Harmonix.

Harmonix have always said they saw Rock Band as a platform – this pretty much proves it.

And as a side note, when asked about the Guitar Hero music creator, one of the guys at Harmonix said they were working on something, but they wouldn't release something half assed. Now we see what it is. And I say WoW.


Further links:

At Gamespot
At 1Up
At Gamespy
At Billboard

Edit (Aug 9th) - I've contacted 4 labels and 5 bands to let them know about this. :)


And now back to singing with Harpy Serenade

Games Played since last post:
Peggle (PC)
Radiant Silvergun (Saturn)
Guitar Hero Smash Hits (360)
Rock Band 2 (360)

Just for fun

I was playing around with the Rock Band Character Creator and I decided to do an adaption of another video game character. Judy Nails from Guitar Hero (notably her GH3 look).

Snap Judgement Reviews V: A new Beginning

Aside: I don't know what I'm going to do when I run out of movie sequel subtitles.

Anyway on to reviews -

I've played a lot of games in the last few months - Blockbuster allows us to rent up to 5 games a week again, and I played a lot of PS3 games right after we got our PS3 - so I'll have a bunch of these in the near future. So on to the games-

Ghostbusters (PS3 or 360)
The visuals and voice acting are excellent - it uses all the original actors, and the models and animations for the characters are excellent. You really feel like you are in a Ghostbusters movie. Gameplay is okay, but not great - you hit a ghost with a proton beam for a while, then use a capture beam for a while then force it into a ghost trap.
Overall a decent game, but not one I'd spend 60 bucks on. Call it a 30 dollar game.

Prototype
Gameplay is great - you can run up and down building, through the city, and combat is run. You can customize between a lot of different types of attacks and powers. You get your memories back by absorbing major NPCs. My only problem is that you slash innocents, and later you use them basically as health packs. As someone who tends to avoid playing bad guys, that is a bit of a problem for me. Also the game is really bloody... the designers really took that "M" rating to heart. Because of the thematic material I'd call this one a 20 buck game.


Motorstorm and Motorstorm Pacific Rift
Possibly the best driving games I've ever played. The two of them have the same basic controls - you drive a bike, an ATV or a big truck around an outdoor course. The graphics are amazing, the driving is loose and really fun, and courses are interesting. These are both highly recomended and they are 40-60 dollar games.

Pure
Yeah more driving. The gameplay is great, and I love the trick system. Choices of vehicles is nifty. However there is one problem with this game and it is in the "Easy should be easy" problems. After you go through the tutorial you have to beat the first track in a certain amount of time to even progress in the game. I tried about 20 times, and couldn't pull it off (on Easy). The game went back to blockbuster and I will never consider buying it. They made the entry level of this game to high for me.
Don't buy it.

Tom Clancy's Vegas Six 2
Pretty decent FPS. It had a realistic/easy toggle, and I took the easy, and it was easy. Pretty fun, and you could choose male or female for your main character. This one is a little above the run of the mill shooter. 20 Dollars for this one.

Later edit - I like the dollar amounts for games - that will be my rating system for games I review - the price point at which I think this game is worth buying. Rating from 0 to 60 dollars.

Back to singing to the tunes of Bjorn and crew.

Games played since last post:
inFAMOUS (PS3)
Ghostbusters (360)
Guitar Hero: Smash Hits (360)
God of War (PS2)
Rock Band 2 (360)

Foot in Mouth

This is a small rant about Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision.

What prompted this was a comment he made a few weeks ago directed towards Sony. He said basically “If the price of the PS3 doesn't come down, we may have to stop making games for it.” I can understand the emotion behind it – I still think the PS3 is overpriced (even though I bought one.. * Sigh *). But just spouting it off in public just seems in poor taste.

This is the same guy who, in an interview, said that Guitar Hero World Tour was the first game where a whole band could play. The interviewer call him on it by saying “I though that was Rock Band.” Kotick hemmed and hawed for a few seconds then went back into his spiel.

He has a history of over exaggeration, lying or just crass behavior.

Back to strumming that guitar and holding the mic high.

Games played since last post:
Rock Band 2 (360)
Prototype (PS3)

Demo Play

Nintendo has patented a new thing for video games that they call demo play. It is an ingame help whose concept I really like. Right now, it is only in the New Super Mario Brothers Wii. It has three levels of help.

1) It runs a little window within the game window showing you what you should be doing – great for a puzzle or platformer thing that you just can't get through.
2) It runs full screen for a while so you can see what you need to do, then lets you play it. A lot like the above.
3) It takes over the games and plays it for you for a while.

I really love the third option. It isn't something I would use that often... but how many games have that one really irritating spot that is so much harder than the rest of the game? Demo play would let play through that, and get on with enjoying the game.

Some people have derided it (the Game Scoop guys in particular). I love the idea – but then beating something hard isn't why I play video games. If implemented on 360 or PS3 I could easily see that it keeps you from getting certain achievement or trophies (and certainly you don't get any while the game plays itself)... but for those of us that don't care about gamerscore or trophy point, it would be a great way to help games.


As a side note, I beat Halo 2 earlier today. Great game – I heard all the hype about them before, but now that I have made my way through Halo and Halo 2 I understand the enthusiasm, these are just fabulous games.

Next on the list (Besides the standby favorites of Rock Band 2 and Little Big Planet) – God of War. The first one. Yeah I've going through and beating all these games that I have but have never finished.

Next up – My views on Mr Foot in Mouth Bobby Kotick.

So back to beating up Olympian Beasts looking for revenge on the Gods.

Games played since last post:
Halo 2 (Xbox)
Little Big Planet (PS3)
God Of War (PS2)
Rock Band 2 (360)

Little Big Planet!!!

Shorter time between posts.. and to think after the last one, I was really planning on going weekly. Maybe this time.

Been playing a lot of Little Big Planet - the game I pretty much bought a PS3 for... well there are others but nothing as big as LBP. I love classic platformers - Sonic and Mario were two of my favorite franchises in the 16 bit and 8 bit eras, respectively. This game is from the same amazing mold of the best of them. I've played for hours on end and have been really enjoying it. I plan on trying to get through it, because once the game is beaten, you can make your own levels (and play levels others have made). I love user generated content... but I am much more of a console guy than a PC one, so I don't see it as much. So the idea behind this is really cool. I also love the community support that Sony is doing - and they had a Kart racer with a really nice track creator that will be out for the PS3 as well.

A lot of the nifty bits about LBP are in that side of. In a platformer, you collect stuff. Coins, Rings, Gems, whathaveyou. In LBP you collect costume pieces to customize your character with, and stickers and other things so that you may put them into levels you create. Nice use of the collection system in the game. And your character Sackboy is completely customizable - you can change the color of his sack, hats, hair, facial hair, shape, clothes.... and they have a lot of options in the game, plus extra DLC (I bought the Street Figther pack so I could be Chun Li if I wanted).



About other games - I've been working my way through Halo 2 - I've got 2 levels left. It's been fun actually beating games. And of course, I am still playing a bunch of Rock Band. And I picked up an SFIV controller (not the arcade stick) so I've been playing that to unlock all the characters.

See you next week, hopefully, when I'll comment on Demo Play.

And now back to blowing up the Flood with my alien allies.

Games played since last post
Rock Band 2 (360)
Little Big Planet (PS3)
Radiant Silvergun (Saturn)
Arkanoid (Arcade on Emu)
Super Breakout (Atari 2600)
Flower (PS3)
Geometry Wars (PS3)
inFAMOUS (PS3)
Halo 2 (Xbox)
Street Fighter IV (360)

Got another one, and a victory.

We got a PS3 last week - graduation money my wife received for finished college from her family. And as we already had purchased her the electronic toy she wanted most for graduation (a eeePC netbook), we used that money for the new system.

So you will be seeing commentary on PS3 game.

I'm going to try and post relatively consistently here - once a week if I can.

This post is mostly a "Hey look at me, I did it!" post.

I "beat" rock band 2.

In the game you have different cities, and each city has some venues to play at. Within each venue there are different setlists - gigs if you will. I played them all. I finished the Rolling Stones Immortal challenge on guitar last night.

There is only one more gig left, but it is an extra. I will play it, but not for a bit - it is the "Endless Setlist" playing all 84 songs in the game in a row at one time. That will take about 7 hours, and I don't have that kind of time to set aside right now.

So what now?

I'm going to be doing it all over again - this time on drums. :)


And now back to jumping around a fabric world collecting stickers and new cutesy body adjustments.

Games played since last post (again way too many to list them all) but highlights include-
Bioshock (360)
Rock Band 2 (360)
Little Big Planet (PS3)
Folklore (PS3)
Fable 1 (Xbox)
Spyro (PS2)
Peggle (PC)
Lips (360)
Singstar (PS3)

Flawless Victory.

Holy Crap - 5 month gap.

Life in those months were decidedly hectic.. something I'll be posting about on my other blog in the next few weeks.

This is just a short little post celebrating the Fighting Season that is upon us.

Soul Caliber 4.
Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe.
Street Fighter IV soon.
Tekken 6 sometime after that.

It's a good time to be a fighting game fan.

Over the last week or so, I beat MK vs DC story mode from both sides, and it was a good story, especially for a fighting game. Being a fan of MK and DC comics this was a must play for me. I really enjoyed it - I am temped to hook the game machine to the computer and record the whole thing (from each side) and then edit it all together into one long movie cutting between the two sides to help tell the whole story. Fun stuff.

If you like MK or DC get it.

Now going back to Running on faith, and trying not to fall off buildings.

Games played since last post
Too many to name, but highlights include

Rock Band 2
Guitar Hero World Tour
Peggle
Peggle Nights
Mirror's Egde
Soul Caliber IV
MK vs DC
Destroy All humans: Path of the Furon.

Rock On!!!!

The long wait is over. Rock Band 2 is mine! I've had it less than a week, and I thought I would share my initial impressions. As a beginning note, my Rock Band 1 disc got a small crack in it about 5 weeks ago. Enough that I didn't want to play it, so for a month I was Rockbandless. So getting Rock Band 2 wasn't just upgrading it was coming back after a month's wait. This will likely color my impressions.

First basic song gameplay. It's pretty much the same. You have notes scrolling down the screen, and you hit the appropriate button, or drumpad, or pitch and you get points. The more points you get the higher your star score is. Pretty simple; it worked for Guitar Hero (which Harmonix the people behind Rock Band invented, before being bought by a rival company), it worked for Rock Band 1 – why change it.

Other gameplay. Nifty Nifty improvements – In RB1 playing solo, you just had a list of songs to beat, in linear fashion. This followed the structure of Guitar Hero as well. However in group play, you had a world tour. You had cities you could play it, and venues within that city. Each song or set of songs within each venue was a gig that you earned fans for playing, as well as stars, as mentioned before. Now this gameplay is there is RB2 for solo play. Now the old linear play is gone... which is a bit of a shame, it made for a great practice list. Other things you can do are challenges, and there are 9 tiers of them (IIRC). You beat a challenge at a lower level, and it unlocks one or more at a higher level. You play completely through a chain of challenges and you win something nifty, like special instruments or special outfits. These challenges change with time. If you download 3 songs from an album you get a “X album” challenge added. These are the two biggest gameplay changes, and for the better.

Now free-play changes to an extent – in RB1 you had access to all the normal songs; there were 14 (again IIRC) that were Boston/Harmonix bands that you could unlock. In RB2, you only start with about 20 songs in free play. The rest have to be unlocked in World Tour or in Challenges. There is one set of challenges (Marathon Challenge) that playing straight through that unlocks all 84 songs.

Speaking of free play, the list of songs has changed a look. There are more ways to sort the music and it scrolls faster. This is necessary. RB 1 had 58 songs, RB 2 has 84 on disc and another 20 that will be coming for free. But wait, there's more! You can put in your RB1 disc, update the game, and pay 5 bucks for and export feature, that rips all but three of your Rock Band games to your hard drive. Yes, the entire game content is exportable to RB 2. The three missing songs were due to licensing problems. So if you have Rock Band, and you buy rock Band 2 you have 139 songs right out of the gate. But wait, there is still more. Harmonix has released downloadable songs every week since Rock Band came out. So if you have been playing RB you likely have some DLC (short for Downloadable Content). Myself, I had 91 (I didn't realize it was that much). So at the point I have RB2, I had 230 songs in the game.

Wow.

And all of this extra music is integrated seamlessly into the game. It changes challenges (see above), any of it can show up on random setlists in Tour mode. They can be picked on normal choose your own sets while Touring.

Lastly there were a lot of minor tweaking – enhancements to the character creation area (not much but some), what your band multiplier is during multiple overdrives is easier to see, a drum trainer, and extra options like a No Fail Mode.

All in all it is a major improvement, not in any one area, but a whole.

Highly recommended.

And now back to strapping on a guitar and rockin' the world.
Games played since last post
Bioshock (360)
Rock Band 2 (360)

Viewing things in a whole new light.

I won my wife a new laptop for school from a sales contest at my second job. She hooked her old monitor up to it for a two monitor experience. She also decided not to use her monitor (as it is a 17") and wanted to use mine (a 15") - as she didn't see the need for the larger regular monitor when she runs two of them. So we swapped.

So all of that was to say I have a new bigger monitor!!! Woohoo!!! I never would have thought that the extra 2" would have made a difference, but they have. It allowed me to move up to the next higher resolution, and keep things roughly where I like them.

And my games look amazing. :)

And now back to creeping through an underwater city killing crazy splicers.

Games played since last post:
None - look at the timestamps. :)

It's all about the Bioshock

Having finished Halo, and taking some time to play a couple of rented game (Too Human and The Darkness), I finally sit down to play the next game I am going to tackle.... at least until Rock Band 2 comes out in a just over a week.

The game is Bioshock.
The setting: a scientists/entrepreneur built a city underwater in 46, inviting all the people he thought would fit into his utopia (a Randian/Nietzschian Utopia I get the feeling). The game is set in 1960, and you are a the survivor of a plane wreck, who made it into the city.

There is a lot of bio-engineering going on – most people in the city are changed and crazy. You end up getting a shot that alters your genetics (giving you the ability to shoot electricity) right away, and you go from there. The visuals of the city are very art deco, and the music is eerie – except when the radio plays music that is in game, like The Blade Runner song, or Lady Day esque God Save The Child.

And that brings up to the little girls. They have some amount of gene material that when you use it, allows you to get more mutated (such as gaining stronger skin for extra health or defense). You can get this stuff two ways – doing a full harvest, which gets you more, but kills the girl, or getting it from her without killing her which gives you less. But one of the mad scientists tells you if you let them live, you will get something special from her. Being the person I am, I'm saving the girls. It was right after killing the “Big Daddy,” a girl's guardian, and getting the prompt on what do do with the girl that “God Saved the Child” plays the first time.

Back when I played Doom the first time (and Heretic to a similar extent), I was completely drawn into the world by the music, the graphics, the atmosphere. I haven't been that drawn into a FPS for a long time. Until now. This game is the most atmospheric game I have played in forever.

I've beat 3 levels of 16, so I'm not that far into it, but I am really really enjoying playing this thing. Amazing.

And now back to creeping through an underwater city killing crazy splicers.

Games played since last post:

Too Human (360)
Half Life (PC)
The Darkness (360)
Pac Man (Arcade on PC with emulator)
Moon Cresta (Arcade on PC with emulator)
Solitaire (PC)

Back in the Saddle again....

Well.....

It's been about 2 months. Wow. I didn't expect to be gone that long. Well, I have returned. And let me explain why, then we'll get to the video games.

The demands on my time have lessened – I've not got any callings in my church right now, the big one I had was reshuffled to someone else, when a member of the group I was in got called to a more important position, and that always means a new group. So I was released. I've successfully limited my time on the internet. I was surfing about 6 boards a day. I've limited that to three, and I limit my time on them. I've stopped working on the RPG game that I have been working on for years (my Fantasy Hero Campaign).

Then there is the big one – the wife arranged to get herself back in school to finish her degree. She is taking 15 credit hours of 300 & 400 level classes, plus working. So she is at school, at work, or working on her homework. So I am now left with extra time, and at odds with my time – this post is being written while she is at class, as a matter of fact.

So what does that mean for this blog – well without the wife around, and more importantly for this subject, without the wife around playing video games on the consoles, I have been keeping myself occupied playing games. So without further ado – my game report.

I decided to finish Conan that I have been playing in fits and starts since I got the machine. Fun game. Enjoyed it, and it was really cool to actually beat a game again. So with that on my mind I decided to beat another one.

I started Halo about a week and a half ago. I beat it yesterday. Really cool game. Great story, great narration, amazing graphics, especially on a last gen machine. I was completely blown away – and the game had an easy mode that was easy enough I could beat it.

So now, I am playing Too Human (a rental through Blockbuster, my second job, so it is free). Level 5, and enjoying it. And just today, while the wife was playing her Digital Devil Summoner (no idea which one), I decided to play a game on the PC I haven't played for a while – Half-Life One. I have Orange Box for the 360, but before I play HL2, I wanted to beat the original. I've cleared the first 2 of 17 levels.

So that is what I am up to. Expect further updates, and reports on progress of games, plus other various and sundry comments on games.

And now back to killing cybernetic Goblins and Trolls, and being visited by the Valkyries way too often.

Games Played Since last post:

Too Many to mention