Leveling Down

I received my free copy of Guitar Hero Van Halen in the mail this past weekend, so I decided to give it a try. The first thing that I sadly discovered was that the game shipped in a little cardboard sleeve, with no instruction manual or anything. It also wasn’t so nice to see “FOR PROMOTION ONLY NOT FOR RESALE” slapped across the sleeve and disc – but hey, the game works and I guess that’s what really matters. Apparently this game isn’t going to sit in a box in my 360 collection on the shelf.

Anyway, let me first say that I don’t even know any Van Halen songs at all. With my teenage years in the ’90s, I was raised on alternative rock like Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, and Green Day so I was either not even born yet or still an infant when Van Halen was putting out hits. What actually drew me in to wanting to play this game was not even Van Halen, but the guest artist songs on Guitar Hero: Van Halen.

And you know what’s surprising? Guitar Hero Van Halen has a tracklist consisting of more songs I’ve enjoyed than any other music game released so far except perhaps Guitar Hero 2. While everyone’s musical tastes are different, I’m pleased that I can play stuff like Fountains of Wayne’s “Stacy’s Mom”, Third Eye Blind’s “Semi-Charmed Life”, and Blink-182′s “First Date”. And then there’s other bands I recognize as well, such as Foo Fighters, Weezer, Jimmy Eat World, and The Offspring. Of course, when Band Hero and Lego Rock Band come out, those will probably have tracklists I find even more enjoyable than Guitar Hero Van Halen since they will be more pop oriented. But in any case, my point is, unlike Guitar Hero 5′s terrible setlist (for me at least), I actually want to play through Guitar Hero Van Halen to hear all the songs. I’ve even found some Van Halen songs I enjoyed, so that was a bonus.

Surprisingly, Guitar Hero Van Halen does sport a dated interface and doesn’t have the “advances” that Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero 5 have implemented. In fact, it feels like I’m back to playing Guitar Hero 2 again, and to be honest, I’m actually happy with that. The game is simple to play – I go through career mode and choose whatever difficulty I want to play, earn money from each song, and just progress along. It’s the formula I enjoyed in the earlier Guitar Hero iterations, until Neversoft went all crazy and started making it more and more complicated. I still believe that Guitar Hero should just focus on guitar, and leave it at that. While Guitar Hero Van Halen does allow for drums and mic, the game still feels more guitar oriented, which is what more serious Guitar Hero fans desire. I’m not sure if I can be considered a serious Guitar Hero fan or not since I only play on Hard difficulty, but I’m certainly pleased with the way the game turned out.

It’s strange but while Guitar Hero 5 sports several improvements to the series, I’m enjoying Guitar Hero Van Halen a lot more. So far I find not only Guitar Hero Van Halen’s setlist more enjoyable to play than Guitar Hero 5, but the charting seems to be better thought out too. I wonder if the development teams behind Guitar Hero 5 and Guitar Hero Van Halen were different – I wouldn’t be surprised if they were. It just goes to show you – even if a music game is easier to pickup and play and has more features, the music is ultimately what keeps you playing. If you didn’t already get this game free with your Guitar Hero 5 purchase, I’d recommend waiting it out anyway before it goes on sale. With the plethora of music games out now and continuing to be released, there’s no reason to buy one of these games on day 1 at $60 when they drop to less than half price within a year.

I love achievements. Even though my wife says the greatest achievement I have ever unlocked is “most hours spent in front of glowing screens” (that was for Vidmaster: Endure in Halo 3: ODST), I still really enjoy trying to “achieve” these meaningless rewards. It makes me wonder though, have achievements changed how I play games, or was it me who changed?

An example: in Left 4 Dead, once I finished the Expert campaigns, the game began to be less fun. It was okay to run through a campaign, but with no sound effect at the end of the tunnel, I found it less exciting. Same with ODST and the Firefight maps: will I ever go back and play them after I’ve unlocked the achievements? Firefight is a mode I could potentially have seen myself playing endlessly, but I know that thanks to the achievements, I’m not really gonna want to go back after I finish the 200Ks. If those achievements didn’t exist though, I might just keep playing to keep trying to beat my top score. But since achievements arbitrarily define these “top scores” in a lot of games, it takes away my inner desire to beat myself because I know what mark I have to get to to prove to the world my skill.

When I was a younger gamer, I just use to play games over and over because I loved them. I must have beaten Super Mario Bros. 3 like 6 or 7 times, and gotten to the last stage a bunch of other times as well. I used to race against the computer in Mario Kart 64 just for fun (though some of the shenaningans the computer pulled in 150cc drove me nuts), and I even played through the original Halo multiple times just for fun. Nowadays I can’t see myself doing that anymore. It’s partly because I don’t have the time, but it’s also because once I get all the achievements I want, I don’t have the motivation to play anymore. The only exception is multiplayer games I love: Halo 3 and Modern Warfare took up hours and hours of my life and I never really wanted to stop.

I guess in a way achievements made it easier to fit my gaming habits into my changing life habits. Now that I have goals in games to strive for, I can budget out the amount of time I’ll need to play, and that way I can balance my time better. It’s not as “pure” as when I was a kid, but let’s face it: I’m not a kid anymore, and I have responsibilities that are much more important than beating games 50 times. Instead, I can just focus on the achievement for beating a game twice and then go to bed!

Recently, some kid sent me a voice message on Xbox Live. I had never heard of the person before, and because it was a voice message instead of a typed message, I suspected it would be a heckler. And sure enough, when I listened to the message, it was!

I couldn’t quite make it out, but the message went something like:

“You have no life. You have like 46 games with like a thousand freaking gamerscore. Get a life man! I don’t even have that much and people are telling me to get a life. This is sad!”

What compels someone to do that? You see someone with a gamerscore you consider “too high”, and instead of going about your merry way, you get consumed with enough rage that you have to let the person know you don’t approve of what he’s doing? It’s not like an anonymous message either – I checked the profile of the person that sent me the message and he’s some kid that pretty much primarily plays Halo 3.

Is it insecurity? Maybe since other people have already told him to “get a life” he needs to pass it on to someone he thinks he can step on to feel better about himself. From looking at his gamertag, he puts his location as “Where i destroyed u”. So he must be competitive or something if he’s “talking trash” in his profile. But since I enjoy completing my games and he either doesn’t or can’t, he needs to actually reach out and express to me that he’s not a fan of me playing games.

Does he feel that much better after sending a message to a stranger and then going back to play Halo 3, forgetting all about that incident? Maybe he found my gamertag from checking a recently played with list for one of his friends, in the single online Halo 3 multiplayer match I played recently. This really isn’t helping the stereotype of the typical Halo 3 player: obnoxiously ignorant (yet sometimes ridiculously skilled) adolescents. If I continued to stick around and play Halo 3 multiplayer, I’d probably be getting more of these types of messages.

Thankfully, these type of kids aren’t as prevalent in Call of Duty 4. If I do see him in Modern Warfare 2 though, let’s just say I will have to teach him some manners.

Will this three pieced singer be gracing my TV screen next month?

Every bone in my alternative, grunge-loving, rock and roll body (aka my childhood) finds the upcoming casual-friendly Lego Rock Band and Band Hero games kind of gross. Taylor Swift? Janet Jackson? BRYAN ADAMS? These are the artists being rolled out for Lego Rock Band (Harmonix) and Band Hero (Activision) in the two companies’ latest attempt to cash in on the music game craze. Yet, the older, more mature, and lamer side of me is intrigued by both these games.

Harmonix’s game I’m sure will be made with the high standards all the Rock Band games have had (although I’m not sure how Lego David Bowie and Lego Iggy Pop are going to look different), and there are a lot of catchy tunes on there, including the aforementioned Bryan Adams “Summer of 69′”, Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin”, and the one song I would like to play: Europe’s “The Final Countdown”. Band Hero counters with The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ “The Impression that I Get”, Carl Douglas’ “Kung Fu Fighting”, and the CTY classic “American Pie”, by Don McLean.

These games and their tracklists present me with two dilemmas:

1) I would feel like a corporate sellout playing these songs. At the same time, pop songs are so catchy and they seem like they would be genuinely fun to play, especially with friends or my wife.

2) I really shouldn’t be spending any more money on music games. There are tracks on both discs that I would love to try out, but I can’t shell out $120 on more music games, especially when I’m still planning on picking up Guitar Hero 5 eventually! This is getting out of hand.

In the end, I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I don’t even need reviews, I’m pretty sure both games will be much of the same. If I had tweenage kids it probably would be a no-brainer, and I think a lot of families will have fun with these games, but as a solo act…I might have to pass………or not. Bah!

I sat down and tried playing through the first level of Dead Space Extraction just to see how it was, and the best thing I can say about it is that I didn’t want to stop playing it. In fact, I ended up playing through all ten levels in two days, which goes to show you that it is an enjoyable game – especially for Dead Space fans. In contrast, I’ve played through a few levels of Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, and even though I’m a Resident Evil fan, I just found RE: UC to be too boring and never could force myself to get through it.

Dead Space: Extraction has many positive things going for it: an interesting prequel storyline that can be appreciated by those new to Dead Space, but even more appreciated by fans of the original game. Even though stuff can be hard to make out that’s far away at times, the graphics seem to be as good as what the Wii can handle. The sound, dialogue, and music are top notch. There is tons of spoken dialogue, and there are even audio files that you find that get played out of the Wii-mote itself, which is a nice touch. Part of me feels like the amount of effort put into the audio was to makeup for the “weaker” video presentation that the Wii is hampered by.

Finally, the best thing going for it is that the game works as an on-rails shooter. Visceral Games, the developer of both Dead Space and Dead Space: Extraction, manage to preserve the enjoyment of the interesting weapons and dismemberment of enemy limbs from the 360 game to the Wii game. I felt like practically very little of the gameplay was lost: I still grew worried as enemy aliens lurked closer, I still had to aim for limbs to slow enemies down, and I still had to effectively manage my reloading in the middle of being swarmed. The sense of fear present in the original was captured marvelously in the Wii game, and what I can say is that fans of Dead Space will enjoy Dead Space: Extraction. And who would have thought, but the Flamethrower is actually awesome in this Wii game!

However, there are some glaring negatives that make me cringe. Each of the ten levels is about 30 minutes long, and while that sounds decent for an “on-rails” shooter, Dead Space: Extraction is the first on-rails shooter I’ve played where practically half of each level is really just unskippable cutscenes and dialogue. Thus, it’s more of a “story-based” on-rails shooter, which doesn’t lend itself well to replay value at all. The first time through is amazing, but you’ll never want to go through again. There is a challenge mode that gets unlocked later that pits you against waves of enemies with no storyline whatsoever, but without any sort of online leaderboard, there’s no real incentive to go through it. And I don’t know how else to put it but say that the game is buggy. I’ve had to reset a couple of times when playing the game just because an enemy gets trapped behind an object or wall, and since you can’t kill it, you can’t progress through the game.

I enjoyed the game a lot as a Dead Space fan, but it’s not a game that should be in your collection as it’s short and lacks any sort of replay value. Dead Space fans should rent it, while others can probably pass. It was a delightful 5 hour ride, but it’s over so quickly that I can’t recommend paying $50 for it.

I decided to drop the PSP from this article because, frankly, I know nothing about it. For the record I’d be interested in WTF and the Metal Gear games on that system and that’s about it.

The Wii and DS operate in a completely different stratosphere when compared to the 360 and PS3. Yes, the PS3 price drop has helped a lot, especially in Japan, but Nintendo’s consoles just appeal to such a wide variety of gamers (young and old, casual and hardcore, male and female) that it’s tough to break down what really sells systems. But hey, I’ll give it a shot.

Nintendo Wii

System Seller: Wii anything
I was tempted to put the Wii itself as its own system seller, because that’s pretty much true. The Wii moves so many units because of all they hype generated around it. People gravitate to all the “Wii” games, Wii Fit sells a lot of systems, but many people are just content getting the Wii for Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort. Even Wii Play sells tons of units, although that isn’t really a system seller as much as it is something that people pick up when they get a Wii (for the extra controller or whatever). The Wii, unlike any other gaming system, sells to the average consumer with its accessibility, which is why it is destroying the competition.

Must Haves: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime: Trilogy, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Brothers: Brawl, Wii Sports: Resort (or equivalent)
The sad thing about this list is that two of the games came out around launch (Trilogy is all the Metroid Prime games with the new Wii controls though, so I guess it’s technically new) and Galaxy came out like 2 years ago. For serious gamers, there’s not a lot to offer on the Wii, especially 3rd party content. That being said, Zelda and Mario, like all Nintendo first party games, are excellent, and Metroid Prime is one of my favorite video game series ever. Metroid also uses the controller very effectively and is the best first person experience I’ve had on the Wii. I threw Wii Sports: Resort on there because if you own a Wii it’s almost mandatory that you own a good party game, but really there are a lot of choices out there: Boom Blox is pretty fun - you could even get away with a game like Warioware: Smooth Moves, and of course almost everyone owns Mario Kart (just check the NPDs). Thankfully, Nintendo is releasing a couple of new Mario games this year and next, so hopefully there will be a reason for me to dust off my Wii soon.

Upcoming: New Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Galaxy 2, Wii Fit Plus

Nintendo DS

System Seller: Pokemon (kids), Brain Age (adults)
It’s no surprise that the average owner of a handheld console is much younger than the average owner of a home console. What better way to keep the kids occupied on long car trips than have them “catch them all”? I played Pokemon on the GBA, and it was a surprisingly deep game, and according to reviews the DS versions are still decent. Regardless, Pokemon probably sells the most DSes to kids, whereas older adults, including very old adults (like my parents) like the DS for games like Brain Age, simple brain exercises that people like to play to keep themselves young. If you’re old, you buy the DS, if you’re young, you buy the DS. No wonder it’s sold the most units in the current generation.

Must Haves: Square-Enix RPGs, Professor Layton series, Phoenix Wright series, Elite Beat Agents (Ouendan in Japan)
The crazy thing about the Nintendo DS is that there is something for everyone. For the most part, the “casual” stuff sells systems, and that’s what a lot of people focus on. But if you like old-school RPGs, there are the re-releases of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, for people who like puzzles, there is Professor Layton, Phoenix Wright tickles one’s adventure fancy, and Elite Beat Agents is for rhythm game fanatics. And if none of those genres floats your boat, there are legions of other game types out there (I’m sure I’ve forgotten a bunch of excellent games). As espion4ge has stated elsewhere, the DS really is one of the best values in gaming and a great investment for any gamer, especially if you’re on the go. If you spend time shopping with your wife (check), take public transportation (check), or like to play games before you drop off to sleep (now outlawed in my household), the DS is a great buy. Just do yourself a favor and go with the Lite over the DSi, so you’ll save yourself some money.

Upcoming: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Ace Attorney: Miles Edgeworth

So that’s my take on the best games out there for the current systems. Of course, most of it is based around my preferences, so I’d love to hear what games you all love to play on your systems! Especially if it’s the PSP…haha.

I’ve spent most of my time on the 360 the last couple of weeks playing Halo 3: ODST, but what I’m starting to notice is that unlike on the Halo 3: ODST release day when practically everyone online on my friends list was playing it, like no one is playing it now.

The game sold very well, but does it have legs? It’s looking like perhaps not. Almost none of my friends are playing Halo 3 multiplayer either – even with ODST containing all the multiplayer maps. It just goes to show you, maybe people are just playing through the campaign and that’s it. If you were interested in Halo 3 multiplayer, you were already playing it – seems like ODST is not going to be the catalyst.

I tried getting back into Halo 3 after playing through ODST, but it just feels different after playing ODST. Several thoughts popped through my head as I played Halo 3 online: “Battle rifle? Where’s my magnum?” “Why am I jumping so high?” “Why do my grenades have a terrible throwing arc?” “Why can I only hold 2 of each grenade type?” And finally, “Why does this guy keep tea-bagging me?” Those were all the questions I asked myself as I played Halo 3 online, and decided, it’s not worth getting back into. I’d rather get back into Call of Duty 4 to prepare for Modern Warfare 2.

I think Halo 3: ODST would really have legs if there was matchmaking for it or even simple rooms that people hosted and others could join. It’s ridiculous how we have to go through friends lists and custom gaming groups just to find players that not only want to play Firefight, but are looking to play the same Firefight maps we do. Now there’s a bunch of people on these “Firefight” friends lists I have that may want to play Firefight, but are instead playing other games because they don’t want to sit at the Halo 3 ODST menu and wait for invites all day. It’s truly annoying that I have to deal with messaging them in other games to see if they want to switch to play Firefight.

Stat tracking for Firefight matches is awesome on bungie.net, but Bungie, why did you put all this effort into stats and totally botch the multiplayer implementation of Firefight? One player drops and the match is over? I played on a level for over 3 hours and was about to get the Endure Achievement before one player dropped and it all was for nothing. And why not allow for friends to join a Firefight match that’s already started because there’s already a limited number of lives? And of course, the biggest question to boggle my mind is that even without matchmaking, why not at least provide us a way to play online by creating rooms so the public can join?! Was it that difficult to add Firefight as a selectable matchmaking mode in Halo 3′s multiplayer, but only joinable for owners of ODST? These types of questions really irked me and make me wonder how a company like Bungie can do such an awesome job with the multiplayer of Halo 3 but do such a terrible one with ODST. And maybe because of it, that’s why the game just doesn’t have legs.

Jack Black still has some acting chops left in him

I’ve expounded on my love of Monkey Island and Full Throttle in previous posts, so it’s with optimism I downloaded the demo for Brutal Legend, made by the same Tim Schafer that made those two games. Schafer has long been famous for making critically acclaimed games that sold terribly at retail - Psychonauts being the prime example. Activision did not have much faith in Brutal Legend either, so they shed it during the Vivendi merger and EA picked it up. Will Schafer finally score a hit with critics AND the mass audience? We’ll find out “Rocktober” 13th, but before then I was curious so I checked out the demo.

Brutal Legend is an action adventure game with a twist: it’s a heavy metal epic. The game stars Jack Black as Eddie Riggs, a roadie who gets drawn into some sort of heavy metal world. The demo is pretty short, so it’s tough to get a feel for the game, but I was just playing to see how the presentation was.

Simple stuff first, the gameplay is pretty standard fare for a 3D action adventure, except you can’t jump. The A button swings your axe (a literal one) while the X button plays your axe (the guitar one) which essentially casts magic spells. There is also a Guitar-heroish type mechanic where you “play a solo” by hitting buttons rhythmically which can unleash spells as well. The gameplay is passable – it has the potential to get as deep as Batman but also could just end up being super shallow. We’ll see about that.

What I really wanted to see was whether the game was funny and how Jack Black did as the lead. Firstly, when the demo started, I was struck by the graphics and the presentation. There are metal songs playing throughout, and behind them the graphics and art style really are quite impressive. There is a great opening cut scene, and Jack Black (who I’ve gotten sick of on film) lends the proper tone and attitude to Eddie Riggs’ character. I love the look and feel of the game and the “trailer” at the end of it makes me excited to see what else it has to offer. It also has that touch of Tim Schafer flair, style, and humor that I remember from Full Throttle (a biker gang epic), so I can see how this game can really work.

Will I be buying this game on launch day? Probably not. But pending reviews, Brutal Legend definitely is on my wish list. Here’s hoping Tim Schafer finally pulls it off.

The Crash Course campaign was just released for Left 4 Dead on the PC and 360 last week. While the PC version of Crash Course is free, Microsoft has forced Valve to charge $7 for it on the 360 – an odd price for 360 DLC since most tend to be either $5 or $10. The pricing makes sense if you were to consider the $60 initial price tag for the game – each of the 4 campaigns was basically $15, and since Crash Course is half the length of one of the 4 campaigns, $7 is about right. Unfortunately, the retail price of the game today is $30, so $7 for half a campaign seems a bit steep, especially when considering that PC owners get it for free. Owning both the PC and 360 versions myself, I decided to give the free PC version a try.

The Crash Course campaign can be played in co-op, Survival, or Versus, but it’s the Versus aspect of Crash Course that was the primary instigator for its release. Since the “Crash Course” campaign is only half the length of the other campaigns (2 parts instead of 4), players can play a versus game in half an hour instead of the usual 1 hour where they may not have enough time.

Left 4 Dead’s never been much about story, but Crash Course takes place after the “No Mercy” campaign since the level begins with Bill, Louis, Francis, and Zoe standing next to a crashed helicopter. The four characters also have new lines, which not only add more to their beloved personalities but help guide players in the right direction through the campaign.

The campaign is indeed short, but it’s still very enjoyable. I actually have very little to say about it aside from the fact that it feels like a natural addition to the original campaigns. The Left 4 Dead formula works, and while some have complained about Left 4 Dead 2 simply being a cash grab since it’s coming out so soon after the original, I can’t imagine people not having fun with it once it comes out. Crash Course gives us something new to briefly play around in if you can’t wait until Left 4 Dead 2′s release next month. For fans of the 360 game that want more, it really just comes down to whether or not you’re willing to pay for it. It certainly helps that there are extra Achievements with the DLC, but it’s still a burn that PC gamers get it for free.

Maybe somewhat old news for those of you that are fighting game fans, but I think it’s worth mentioning anyway.

Here are notes on it to consider:

- Eight additional characters including T. Hawk, Dee Jay, and a new characted named Juri
- Balance changes for existing characters (most likely Sagat will get nerfed)
- Improved online experience (could that mean quarter matches?)
- Retail release, but not full priced ($39.99 price point?)
- Bonus for those that hold onto original Street Fighter IV disc (alternate costumes is my guess)
- Not being released for arcades

I’m actually somewhat excited about this, since I may get back into Street Fighter with the hope that one of these eight new characters will be up my alley. I am surprised though that this is not coming out for arcades. There were already several console-only characters in the release of the original Street Fighter IV back in February so an arcade release of Super Street Fighter IV would have brought both the console and arcade versions back to parity. Instead, now we have the original Street Fighter IV in the arcades, but a suped up version for consoles with nearly double the characters as the arcade version and balance changes as well. Is Capcom really telling us that we shouldn’t be playing fighting games competitively in arcades anymore, but on consoles?