08
Dec
What do we have in store for you today? Best XBLA/PSN title, best music game, and best multiplayer game. Bet you’ll be surprised who wins that one!
Posts Tagged ‘Guitar Hero’
14
Jul
Everyone knows Rock Band is a huge hit, but what else appeals to non-gamers?
Last week I started the conversation about the types of games non-gamers (specifically, wives and girlfriends) could enjoy or at least tolerate. After laying out some general principles and looking at some broad areas of gaming, this week I’ll be narrowing my focus and talking about some specific genres that might appeal to non-gamers. I’ve organized the games from most appealing to least, in general. As always, your mileage may vary, and I’d love to hear others’ ideas as well!
26
Feb
Band Hero still has the elements that made Guitar Hero 5 enjoyable, but with a more female friendly soundtrack.
I think I’m pretty much done with Band Hero on the 360, so I’m ready to share my review. For those that don’t know, Band Hero was released by Activision last November and is basically Guitar Hero but with a more family friendly and female friendly tracklist. The game is headlined by Taylor Swift as a playable character, and is pretty much a carbon copy of Guitar Hero 5′s engine and features except for its Achievement design and tracklist. I never got around to reviewing Guitar Hero 5, so please consider this review as one that is most likely applicable to both games – they really just come down to whether you like the tracklist of either game.
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21
Jan
Interested in DJ Hero? cmfl3x thinks it’s an itch worth scratching
This one’s gonna be a tough one. On the one hand, DJ Hero has innovative gameplay, a great tracklist, a well built peripheral, and a lot of small, but cool features, that really help make it a solid package. On the other hand, it’s done horribly in sales, is hampered by an insane difficulty curve, and is published by Activision, the evil empire of gaming right now. So do I review the game based on my personal experience, or do I need to take into account all the other factors? I’m not totally sure, but we’ll find out together after the jump…
13
Jan
DJ Hero brings new innovations in musical gameplay, but are they any good?
DJ Hero was a game that was released this past holiday season and apparently it “bombed” in sales (based on initial sales estimates that Activision had). At first I didn’t quite understand why, since the reviews had been pretty good for it. Once Amazon put it on sale for $70, I figured I would take the plunge in the name of the blog and let you guys know how it played. Unfortunately, cmfl3x also got it as a present, so I guess I didn’t need to take the plunge after all. He’s played a lot more into it than me, but we’ve agreed that I will give my initial impressions of the game as I am not enjoying it as much as I had hoped. He, being the more music game-inclined player between the two of us, will give a full review sometime afterwards.
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09
Dec
One of the Xbox 360′s strongest features compared to other consoles is its multiplayer gameplay, which can probably be attributed to the Live infrastructure. It is thus not surprisingly to see strong multiplayer games on this system. For today’s awards, I will be discussing the best multiplayer games released this year, and the one better than the rest.
I will also be discussing the best new IP and best sequel of the year. It’s good to see that in 2009, there were nearly an equal number of good new IPs and sequels. The moment we begin seeing only sequels releasing and new IPs no longer developed is the moment the game industry stops advancing. It’s easy to support sequels since you know what you’re getting yourself into, but this year was perhaps the year with the largest number of development studios shutting down. Continue to take a chance by supporting new IPs – the developers need this type of support to stay in business and come up with new and exciting games to push our industry forward!
08
Dec
Rounding out our main categories, today we will be looking at Best Action/Adventure, Music, Real-Time Strategy and XBLA games. Looking at the list of titles from this year, there were a surprising number of good action/adventure games out this year, and even though neither of us owns a PS3, you can’t talk about action/adventure in 2009 without mentioning Uncharted 2. I’m glad I didn’t have to nominate that game though, since that would probably have made for some tough decisions. Music games, on the other hand, seemed to take a step backwards, or maybe we are just getting sick of them. Meanwhile, Live Arcade continues to put out good titles worth taking a look at.
02
Dec
With Band Hero and LEGO Rock Band recently released, I picked up Band Hero to play with my family this holiday season and am even looking at LEGO Rock Band since both have several “family friendly” recognizable songs. But then I was trying to understand how the importing works for all these music games and it was somewhat of a headache since there’s over a dozen of them out now. Well, as I went through figuring them out, I decided to write up a guide at the same time, so those of you that are curious about how exporting works for all the Rock Band and Guitar Hero games can now learn from what I just learned. However, please keep in mind that I’m talking about these games specifically from a 360/PS3 perspective – Wii owners may find even more limitations in place since I don’t know much about the Wii versions. I believe the Wii Rock Band universe does not support any sort of exporting but the Wii Guitar Hero universe follows the same limitations as the 360 & PS3 versions.
16
Oct
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.
13
Oct
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!
