After a 4 year hiatus, nu-metal revolutionaries System of a Down are reuniting at this year's Download 2011 festival. The news comes as a great relief to many of the System of a Down fans that have been closely following the “will they or won't they?” rumors that have been circulating since immediately after the hiatus was initiated.
In the time between the break up and now, most of the members have moved on to various solo and collaborative projects. Lead singer Serj Tankian has had a relatively successful solo career, releasing two albums. Guitarist and backup vocalist Daron Malakian and drummer John Dolmayan went on to form the band Scars on Broadway. The one album they released received a lukewarm critical reception at best. Bassist Shavo Odadjian has done work with the RZA and funk legend, George Clinton.
Based on the wording of the statement issued on System of a Down's official site, it doesn't seem as though the reunion will be anything but temporary at the moment. “We are excited to announce that System will be playing some dates together in 2011,” the band's front page states. All of the dates will take place in between June 2nd and June 19th and will take place in western Europe and Britain with the Download festival at Castle Donington in Britain with Avenged Sevenfold, taking center stage. You can find the specific dates, times, and ticket information over at www.systemofadown.com
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
REVIEW: Serj Tankian - Imperfect Harmonies
For the past few weeks I've been listening to new albums by bands that I listened to incessantly throughout high school. Most of these experiences were disappointing at best. Disturbed's Asylum? Boring. Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns? Losing focus. Mindless Self Indulgence's Heart? Entirely out of tune and overprogrammed. Stone Sour's Audio Secrecy? Generic and safe.
I came into Serj Tankian's Imperfect Harmonies with tempered expectations. After all, he was the lead singer of one of my top 3 bands in high school, System of a Down (SOAD). However, I am pleased to report that he has managed to create a truly interesting and enjoyable record here.
The album ranges from merely competent to truly phenomenal. He takes Elect the Dead and takes it in it's logical direction by focusing more on the use of orchestral sounds and a greater focus on programming throughout. Vocally it is very much like SOAD was; a little out of tune, but harmonically competent. Most songs on the album start slowly and layer on instruments as it progresses. A very well-paced album, as well. The 52 minute album only feels like it takes about 30-40 minutes to listen to.
The best and most consistent aspect of the entire album is undoubtedly the awesome destruction that takes place on the drums in every track. Serj manages to inject an almost unbelievable amount of energy into his songs using drums. Listen to “Borders Are...,” Left of Center,” and “Electron” for some perfect examples.
In summation, if you enjoyed Elect the Dead or any form of melodic/symphonic rock (Apolyptica, you should pick this up. The songs range from hectic and loud (Elecron, Left of Center) to soft and melodic (Deserving?, Peace be Revenged), but overall it is a truly enjoyable record.
I came into Serj Tankian's Imperfect Harmonies with tempered expectations. After all, he was the lead singer of one of my top 3 bands in high school, System of a Down (SOAD). However, I am pleased to report that he has managed to create a truly interesting and enjoyable record here.
The album ranges from merely competent to truly phenomenal. He takes Elect the Dead and takes it in it's logical direction by focusing more on the use of orchestral sounds and a greater focus on programming throughout. Vocally it is very much like SOAD was; a little out of tune, but harmonically competent. Most songs on the album start slowly and layer on instruments as it progresses. A very well-paced album, as well. The 52 minute album only feels like it takes about 30-40 minutes to listen to.
The best and most consistent aspect of the entire album is undoubtedly the awesome destruction that takes place on the drums in every track. Serj manages to inject an almost unbelievable amount of energy into his songs using drums. Listen to “Borders Are...,” Left of Center,” and “Electron” for some perfect examples.
In summation, if you enjoyed Elect the Dead or any form of melodic/symphonic rock (Apolyptica, you should pick this up. The songs range from hectic and loud (Elecron, Left of Center) to soft and melodic (Deserving?, Peace be Revenged), but overall it is a truly enjoyable record.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
REVIEW: Weezer - Hurley
Hey man, do you like Weezer? If so, you'll probably like this album. Pretty much everything you've come to expect from them over the years. Simple instrumentation, sort-of to really dumb lyrics, moderate attempts at genre shifts from one album to the next. One thing I don't get is I why I found this under “indie rock.” While it's certainly more indie than “Raditude” was, by no means does that make this indie. The album is pretty mediocre, with the exception of one song: Time Flies.
Oh, this song. Where do I begin? The whole song is played out of tune and then, on top of that, is distorted to such a degree that the song is completely unlistenable. On top of that, there's a full 25 seconds at the end of the song where there is nothing at all. I was actually getting physically angry about halfway through the track. “How can anyone possibly think this sounds good?” “How could such an abomination be allowed to be commercially produced?” “What the hell were they thinking?” Just a few choice statements that ran through my head throughout the song. Time Flies is the worst thing I've heard in the past 12 months, bar none.
Besides that song, however, the rest of the album is trademark Weezer. Strange dissonance occasionally that can be jarring. A track or two for various commercial radio formats. Save for a few tracks, the whole album just sort of blends together. Brand New World is probably the closest thing to a stand out song on the album. Other than that, you've really heard it all before.
Oh, this song. Where do I begin? The whole song is played out of tune and then, on top of that, is distorted to such a degree that the song is completely unlistenable. On top of that, there's a full 25 seconds at the end of the song where there is nothing at all. I was actually getting physically angry about halfway through the track. “How can anyone possibly think this sounds good?” “How could such an abomination be allowed to be commercially produced?” “What the hell were they thinking?” Just a few choice statements that ran through my head throughout the song. Time Flies is the worst thing I've heard in the past 12 months, bar none.
Besides that song, however, the rest of the album is trademark Weezer. Strange dissonance occasionally that can be jarring. A track or two for various commercial radio formats. Save for a few tracks, the whole album just sort of blends together. Brand New World is probably the closest thing to a stand out song on the album. Other than that, you've really heard it all before.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Linkin Park - A Thousand Suns
Linkin Park's music has been morphing into a pop-rock/soft rock/hip-hop/adult alternative mish-mash for some time. Their latest album, A Thousand Suns, seems to exist to showcase the final stages of this
transformation. This is a textbook case of the cliché "jack of all trades, master of nothing." While all the styles the band plays are executed competently, there is nothing that stands out from the pack. You have your three songs that are tailor made for various formats of radio (hip hop, soft rock, and pop rock), and everything else is just sort of bland and is seemingly just there as filler. The fact that six of the album's fifteen tracks are 30 second long transitional bits (two of those are for the intro) seems to back up that statement.
The lyrics are just the same as they've ever been with Linkin Park. Very moody and angst-ridden lyrics that make you want to lock yourself in your bedroom, apply copious amounts of mascara, and cry yourself to sleep at night.
Vocally it's pretty good. Some interesting stuff with chords and multi-track vocals. However, none of that matters when you notice that all of the vocals are HEAVILY autotuned up and down the album. Also, you can't even hear the instruments on most of the album. Even when you can hear the instruments they've been programmed, quantized, and leveled down so much there's really no point in them being there at all. The album may as well just be "Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda - Occasionally Singing With a Jamaican Accent."
I can't say I can recommend it to anyone who is resistant to modern pop music, like myself (obviously). If you like listening to top 40 hits stations on the radio I can heartily recommend this to you because it is tailor made specifically for your personal enjoyment.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
30 Second Album Review: Stone Sour - Audio Secrecy
Let me preface this by saying that I am a huge fan of Corey Taylor's vocal style. Good register, decent screaming, decent singing. Just soothing to listen to in any capacity. It's a good thing I like his voice because it's the only interesting thing on this whole album. The instrumentation, with the exception of the drums in the intro and chorus of Nylon 6/6, is very simple throughout the album. Whenever there was a guitar solo it oftentimes completely finished before I realized it was supposed to be a solo.
The album sounds like if you added an extra guitar to Daughtry's outfit and replaced him with Corey Taylor. Unfortunately, this leads to fairly generic tracks. Most tracks go a little something like this: acoustic lead in, half band with growly verses, “epic” full band instrumentation with melodic and catchy vox in the chorus, bridge with screaming, repeat the chorus a few times. It gets a little tedious in a 14 track album. At least they try to do interesting things with the chords and key changes, I guess. Musically the album is fine, it's just a bit boring.
The worst track, by far, is Miracles. Seriously the sappiest, most melodramatic emo crap you've ever heard in your life (at least moreso than the usual Stone Sour/Slipknot fare). It was almost unbearable. Definitely drifting more towards pop rock, rather than the pop metal range where they've been sitting since their creation, with this album. The main problem with the album is the overabundance of programming and multi-track vox. It just gives me this feeling that it's all just artificial; its really unsettling.
If you're really into radio rock/metal then give this a shot. Otherwise I can't say I'd recommend it.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Isis - Panopticon/MC Frontalot - Zero Day reviews
Isis - Panopticon
Good music to have on while doing other stuff. Tried to actively listen to it for 4 of the 7 tracks, but wasn't interesting enough to hold my interest any longer than that. I'm sure the 8 minute average track length wasn't helping. Started writing at that point and wrote an article and a half by the time the album finished. So, I can definitively state that Isis increases productivity by 200%.
MC Frontalot - Zero Day
Not metal, I know. Liked his other stuff, saw he had a new album out, had to listen. Hooks are generally catchy as hell; Jacquelyn Hyde, Disaster and Your Friend Wil in particular. John Hodgman has a pretty phenomenal skit performance. Pretty good stuff.
Good music to have on while doing other stuff. Tried to actively listen to it for 4 of the 7 tracks, but wasn't interesting enough to hold my interest any longer than that. I'm sure the 8 minute average track length wasn't helping. Started writing at that point and wrote an article and a half by the time the album finished. So, I can definitively state that Isis increases productivity by 200%.
MC Frontalot - Zero Day
Not metal, I know. Liked his other stuff, saw he had a new album out, had to listen. Hooks are generally catchy as hell; Jacquelyn Hyde, Disaster and Your Friend Wil in particular. John Hodgman has a pretty phenomenal skit performance. Pretty good stuff.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Disturbed - Asylum review.
I have been following Disturbed pretty closely throughout their 10 year careers as one of the top dogs in the nu-metal/modern rock scene. I think that this album is their least interesting or inspired. While the songs have plenty of variation within themselves, I just can't help but feel that they have lost the hunger to push themselves in new directions. Believe, Ten Thousand Fists, and Indestructible were all revelations on their sound; Asylum just sounds like more of the same. You have songs that mainly comprise of staccato growling intertwined with stretches of growl-singing. Nothing that they haven't been doing for the past decade. I honestly could barely tell the difference between tracks 2-6 on the album. If you really, really like Disturbed and just want more of their sound but with different lyrics, then go for it.
Should have an MMA article and a few other album reviews (some stuff that Zune told me I should like, as well as the Scott Pilgrim game soundtrack by Anamanaguchi) up this week.
Should have an MMA article and a few other album reviews (some stuff that Zune told me I should like, as well as the Scott Pilgrim game soundtrack by Anamanaguchi) up this week.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Speed Cameras not a Quick Fix for Budget Woes
Speed cameras are a wonderful concept. They take two photos of your car as you drive past to determine whether or not you're speeding. If you are speeding, the camera recognizes your license plate number and mails a ticket to the address of the offending party. The speeder then mails a check to the police department and learns a valuable lesson in the process, right?
Not necessarily.
The Des Moines city council has approved and is setting up speed cameras on stretches of roads across the city. Each of the speeding tickets issued by the automated system range from $65-85. The city of Des Moines is expected to make at least $100,000 per camera off of the system. However, this number doesn't take into account the amount of people who will refuse to pay their tickets or those who will file appeals because there is no proof that the driver of the car is actually the owner.
The state of Arizona, the first state to implement this kind of system, shut down it's speed camera program last month after nearly 2/3rds of all speeders caught by a similar system never sent the money they had been fined. The state had set up cameras on interstates in addition to residential roads where speeding is likely to occur. Even with the added coverage, the state failed to earn even 1/4th of the $12 million that it was projected to earn in the first year of activity over the entire length of time the program was active.
The state of Minnesota stopped using most of it's red-light cameras (cameras that automatically ticket a driver when their car runs a red light) when a large number of disputes were filed on the grounds that there is no proof that the owner of the car (and the person whose insurance rates the ticket will affect) was the person who committed the traffic violation. In essence, someone could steal your car and go on a high speed joyride through several areas surveyed by these cameras and you'd have a half a dozen tickets in your mailbox and be short a couple hundred dollars in a week or so when the ticket gets sent to you.
Therein lies a third problem with speed cameras: the delay between the time the illegal act is committed and the time the punishment is brought down.
Let's say someone drives through a poorly marked 35 MPH section of road at 50, and has done so consistently on his way home from the graveyard shift at the plant for a few years now. All of a sudden a speed camera is set up on this road without his knowledge. Between the time of the first offense and the time that the notification that he committed an offense has been delivered, he has likely driven through that section of road numerous times. With each ride home from work in that time period, most of his daily pay flies out the window until he receives notification that he had done something wrong.
While sure the couple hundred dollars he'll have to pay will likely get him to change his driving habits, a single $65 fine probably would have sufficed, and if he would have been pulled over and given a ticket, the change could have taken effect immediately and more cheaply for the offender.
The city council of Des Moines' response to these three major problems? “We'll set our profit projections lower”, “deal with the fine within your own home, insurance rates be damned,” and, “...,” respectively.
A total of six states have outright banned speed cameras from their roads: Arizona, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, and West Virginia. However, even as more states and communities are shutting down their cameras, Des Moines and the surrounding area has plans for even more cameras to be put up.
However, after the camera experiment inevitably fails after much controversy there is one golden carrot still hanging in front of law enforcement institutions the world over: Satellite-based speed tracking.
Not necessarily.
The Des Moines city council has approved and is setting up speed cameras on stretches of roads across the city. Each of the speeding tickets issued by the automated system range from $65-85. The city of Des Moines is expected to make at least $100,000 per camera off of the system. However, this number doesn't take into account the amount of people who will refuse to pay their tickets or those who will file appeals because there is no proof that the driver of the car is actually the owner.
The state of Arizona, the first state to implement this kind of system, shut down it's speed camera program last month after nearly 2/3rds of all speeders caught by a similar system never sent the money they had been fined. The state had set up cameras on interstates in addition to residential roads where speeding is likely to occur. Even with the added coverage, the state failed to earn even 1/4th of the $12 million that it was projected to earn in the first year of activity over the entire length of time the program was active.
The state of Minnesota stopped using most of it's red-light cameras (cameras that automatically ticket a driver when their car runs a red light) when a large number of disputes were filed on the grounds that there is no proof that the owner of the car (and the person whose insurance rates the ticket will affect) was the person who committed the traffic violation. In essence, someone could steal your car and go on a high speed joyride through several areas surveyed by these cameras and you'd have a half a dozen tickets in your mailbox and be short a couple hundred dollars in a week or so when the ticket gets sent to you.
Therein lies a third problem with speed cameras: the delay between the time the illegal act is committed and the time the punishment is brought down.
Let's say someone drives through a poorly marked 35 MPH section of road at 50, and has done so consistently on his way home from the graveyard shift at the plant for a few years now. All of a sudden a speed camera is set up on this road without his knowledge. Between the time of the first offense and the time that the notification that he committed an offense has been delivered, he has likely driven through that section of road numerous times. With each ride home from work in that time period, most of his daily pay flies out the window until he receives notification that he had done something wrong.
While sure the couple hundred dollars he'll have to pay will likely get him to change his driving habits, a single $65 fine probably would have sufficed, and if he would have been pulled over and given a ticket, the change could have taken effect immediately and more cheaply for the offender.
The city council of Des Moines' response to these three major problems? “We'll set our profit projections lower”, “deal with the fine within your own home, insurance rates be damned,” and, “...,” respectively.
A total of six states have outright banned speed cameras from their roads: Arizona, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, and West Virginia. However, even as more states and communities are shutting down their cameras, Des Moines and the surrounding area has plans for even more cameras to be put up.
However, after the camera experiment inevitably fails after much controversy there is one golden carrot still hanging in front of law enforcement institutions the world over: Satellite-based speed tracking.
Monday, November 17, 2008
New Beginning
I am going to attempt to get back into blogging and doing newscasts again. However, now I will mainly be posting audio news updates as opposed to text.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
GTA 4 First Impressions.
I've played GTA4 for about 4 hours today and I have to say that it is fantastic so far. For the majority of the time I played the story, and I have to say that you can tell the demeanor and behavior of a character within the first 5 seconds they are on screen. The way characters move on screen is fantastic. People in passing cars turn their heads to watch you beat up a hobo, if you run into someone they pull out their weapon, and groups of people converse and watch as you crash into walls.
Occasionally I would take a break from missions to go careening down the sidewalk to watch ragdolls rocket over the top of my car. If getting giddy while hearing the screams of the innocent crying out over a cocophany of scraping sheet metal, police sirens, and breaking bodies makes me a bad person then call me Adolf Hitler.
Also, I saw the most painful looking thing ever while attempting to wheelie over the tops of cars. At a certain speed motorcycles cannot wheelie. I did not realize this and thought the idea of launching off of the top of a Ferrari at 90 MPH was too awesome to resist. I ended up smashing into a Ferrari at full speed (which the impact itself killed me), the color washed out, the game slowed down as I careened through the sky; but then the game sped up and I watched my helpless corpse smash into an overpass and I heard the unmistakable sound of every bone in the human body breaking simultaneously. This is the one reason that I wish the game had replay capabilities.
All in all, I love the game so far and expect a full review soon.
Occasionally I would take a break from missions to go careening down the sidewalk to watch ragdolls rocket over the top of my car. If getting giddy while hearing the screams of the innocent crying out over a cocophany of scraping sheet metal, police sirens, and breaking bodies makes me a bad person then call me Adolf Hitler.
Also, I saw the most painful looking thing ever while attempting to wheelie over the tops of cars. At a certain speed motorcycles cannot wheelie. I did not realize this and thought the idea of launching off of the top of a Ferrari at 90 MPH was too awesome to resist. I ended up smashing into a Ferrari at full speed (which the impact itself killed me), the color washed out, the game slowed down as I careened through the sky; but then the game sped up and I watched my helpless corpse smash into an overpass and I heard the unmistakable sound of every bone in the human body breaking simultaneously. This is the one reason that I wish the game had replay capabilities.
All in all, I love the game so far and expect a full review soon.
GTA 4!!!
I will be playing GTA4 later this week so expect a review of it by the end of next week. I have been studying my ass off for finals (which are next week) and I haven't really had a lot of time to review or play games.
I should be back playing games and doing news posts regularly in a few weeks.
I should be back playing games and doing news posts regularly in a few weeks.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Review: Ranbow Six: Vegas 2 (Updated)
*online gameplay may have subtle differences*
I was sitting in a friend's room one day and another buddy of mine came in and said, "Hey, wanna come play Vegas 2 with me?" To me the answer was simple, "Most definitely." While I have never really been all too interested in any of the Rainbow Six games that were previously released, I decided to give this game a try. I found myself enthralled in the gameplay mechanics and some unique features, but then all of a sudden the euphoria I was feeling was prematurely aborted.
The co-op storyline lasts all of three and a half hours. While I'm sure that the single player storyline is a bit longer, I don't understand why the co-op game's length was so short. Me and my friend had a great deal of fun with Army of Two (we even played through the game again) and that game took a good 6-7 hours to complete. That's a good length for a co-op experience if the game has enough content and variation in gameplay to fill it. Based on my short time with the game, it definitely could have included a full 6 hour co-op story. Another thing that made me feel unfulfilled was that by the time we had played through the story mode, neither of us had unlocked many guns.
*SPOILER ALERT* THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS. HIGHLIGHT THE DARK TEXT TO READ.
On top of the brevity of the story, the level design and story didn't make a whole lot of sense in some portions. In one level in particular you start off in a library, then you go outside and just across the parking lot there's a residential area. Makes sense to me so far as libraries are often near residential areas. However, here's where things get weird. The residential area turns into a junkyard that is full of broken pieces of neon signs and old structural supports. Then, without going up in altitude, you are on the roofs of buildings and a helicopter comes to pick you up from a heliport. What? Also, the graveness of certain situations are not fully realized it seems. Late in the game it is discovered that your old colleague has betrayed you and the terrorists have the personal information of you and your teammates. this includes address and addresses of immediate family as well as credit card numbers. After the final "Boss fight" though, everything is happy go lucky. You get a promotion and everyone pretends that nothing bad ever happened.
One of the somewhat unique features in Vegas is that when you kill guys you get experience and as you gain levels you unlock new articles of clothing, armor, and camo patterns. You unlock guns by getting kills that are categorized in one of three categories Marksmanship, CQB, and Assault. Marksmanship points are earned by getting kills at long range, getting headshots, or killing running opponents and they unlock sniper rifles and accurate assault rifles. Close Quarters Battle (CQB) points are earned by killing enemies that are up close or that have their backs turned to you and unlocks SMGs and pistols. Assault points are earned by killing enemies with grenades or killing opponents through other objects and these points unlock shotguns and light machine guns. Each action gives a different number of points as well, so in co-op it feels like a competition to see who can do more difficult things. You don't really feel like you're working with the other player as much as you're working against them at some points in the game.
There are also some really weird glitches that I experienced while playing. These may be due to a lack of split-screen optimization, but they are present nonetheless. The first glitch I encountered was one where enemies would glitch to and from cover. For instance, an enemy pokes out from behind cover and I shoot at him with my sniper rifle and he jumps back behind the pillar as the bullet is flying through mid air. This wasn't very prevalent, but it occured a half a dozen times to me over the 3 hour experience. Also, invisible edges of cover that prevented bullets from hitting enemies was a problem.
Second, there was a glitch where the game would freeze if both players turned on nightvision or thermal vision at the same time. This happened numerous times throughout the game and really broke the flow of the game. It basically prevented us from using the "Throw smoke grenade and use thermal vision to see enemies through it" tactic unless we staggered our activation of thermal vision.
Thirdly, there was massive framerate reduction in rooms that had a lot of color in them. When we ran into a room that had multicolored rock climbing walls the framerate chugged down to 20-30 frames per second. Also this same thing occurred in the boss fight of the last level. This made beating the level terribly difficult. Another indication that this game wasn't optimized for split screen play was the fact that anytime the game had a video it wanted to show you, a screen popped out of the upper left hand corner and took up half of player two's screen, thus neutralizing his effectiveness in shooting and seeing where he was going and forcing us to wait until the video was completed. I found this to be very frustrating throughout the game because theres a video shown at nearly every checkpoint.
The game was by no means horrid though, regardless of my gripes with the coding. The weapon customization was fantastic. You can put any scope on any gun with the exception of the 12x scope which is only exclusive to the sniper rifle. The clothing and camo options are pretty fun to fool around with too occasionally. One thing I haven't mentioned yet is the team AI that you are presented with in co-op.
I still don't truly understand this addition in co-op besides the fact that these two yahoos are the only people that can defuse explosives or hack computers. Some of the levels feel very crowded having four guys there cramped against a single entrance to a room. One unique thing is that you can command your team to prepare to enter a room, then you have the option for them to throw a flashbang or frag grenade in the room before they enter. Most of the time this is only useful for distraction or incapacitation purposes because only the AI team have the ability to open doors and throw a grenade in without being noticed. Sometimes though, the AI refuses to enter a room and you end up running in and have to attempt to take out 7 enemies with only you and your friend.
EDIT: In single player these guys are very useful and the AI works better as long as you always have them with you and have a decent semblance of military tactics.
Even though the game experience was greatly compromised for the split screen aspect of this game, it was still time well spent. If only the game was longer, less glitchy, and more comprehensible would it be a truly great co-op experience. As long as you and a friend have coordination and are familiar with tactical shooters, you should enjoy this game.
I give Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (UPDATED w/ SP) 2 1/2 stars out of 5
UPDATE: Single-player also has a few of the glitches above. I got about halfway through the SP game and the game froze as well as the cover issues I stated earlier. The game is also not any longer in the single player and all of the guns of the same type feel exactly the same when you shoot them. I have updated my score to reflect these new discoveries.
I was sitting in a friend's room one day and another buddy of mine came in and said, "Hey, wanna come play Vegas 2 with me?" To me the answer was simple, "Most definitely." While I have never really been all too interested in any of the Rainbow Six games that were previously released, I decided to give this game a try. I found myself enthralled in the gameplay mechanics and some unique features, but then all of a sudden the euphoria I was feeling was prematurely aborted.
The co-op storyline lasts all of three and a half hours. While I'm sure that the single player storyline is a bit longer, I don't understand why the co-op game's length was so short. Me and my friend had a great deal of fun with Army of Two (we even played through the game again) and that game took a good 6-7 hours to complete. That's a good length for a co-op experience if the game has enough content and variation in gameplay to fill it. Based on my short time with the game, it definitely could have included a full 6 hour co-op story. Another thing that made me feel unfulfilled was that by the time we had played through the story mode, neither of us had unlocked many guns.
*SPOILER ALERT* THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS. HIGHLIGHT THE DARK TEXT TO READ.
On top of the brevity of the story, the level design and story didn't make a whole lot of sense in some portions. In one level in particular you start off in a library, then you go outside and just across the parking lot there's a residential area. Makes sense to me so far as libraries are often near residential areas. However, here's where things get weird. The residential area turns into a junkyard that is full of broken pieces of neon signs and old structural supports. Then, without going up in altitude, you are on the roofs of buildings and a helicopter comes to pick you up from a heliport. What? Also, the graveness of certain situations are not fully realized it seems. Late in the game it is discovered that your old colleague has betrayed you and the terrorists have the personal information of you and your teammates. this includes address and addresses of immediate family as well as credit card numbers. After the final "Boss fight" though, everything is happy go lucky. You get a promotion and everyone pretends that nothing bad ever happened.
One of the somewhat unique features in Vegas is that when you kill guys you get experience and as you gain levels you unlock new articles of clothing, armor, and camo patterns. You unlock guns by getting kills that are categorized in one of three categories Marksmanship, CQB, and Assault. Marksmanship points are earned by getting kills at long range, getting headshots, or killing running opponents and they unlock sniper rifles and accurate assault rifles. Close Quarters Battle (CQB) points are earned by killing enemies that are up close or that have their backs turned to you and unlocks SMGs and pistols. Assault points are earned by killing enemies with grenades or killing opponents through other objects and these points unlock shotguns and light machine guns. Each action gives a different number of points as well, so in co-op it feels like a competition to see who can do more difficult things. You don't really feel like you're working with the other player as much as you're working against them at some points in the game.
There are also some really weird glitches that I experienced while playing. These may be due to a lack of split-screen optimization, but they are present nonetheless. The first glitch I encountered was one where enemies would glitch to and from cover. For instance, an enemy pokes out from behind cover and I shoot at him with my sniper rifle and he jumps back behind the pillar as the bullet is flying through mid air. This wasn't very prevalent, but it occured a half a dozen times to me over the 3 hour experience. Also, invisible edges of cover that prevented bullets from hitting enemies was a problem.
Second, there was a glitch where the game would freeze if both players turned on nightvision or thermal vision at the same time. This happened numerous times throughout the game and really broke the flow of the game. It basically prevented us from using the "Throw smoke grenade and use thermal vision to see enemies through it" tactic unless we staggered our activation of thermal vision.
Thirdly, there was massive framerate reduction in rooms that had a lot of color in them. When we ran into a room that had multicolored rock climbing walls the framerate chugged down to 20-30 frames per second. Also this same thing occurred in the boss fight of the last level. This made beating the level terribly difficult. Another indication that this game wasn't optimized for split screen play was the fact that anytime the game had a video it wanted to show you, a screen popped out of the upper left hand corner and took up half of player two's screen, thus neutralizing his effectiveness in shooting and seeing where he was going and forcing us to wait until the video was completed. I found this to be very frustrating throughout the game because theres a video shown at nearly every checkpoint.
The game was by no means horrid though, regardless of my gripes with the coding. The weapon customization was fantastic. You can put any scope on any gun with the exception of the 12x scope which is only exclusive to the sniper rifle. The clothing and camo options are pretty fun to fool around with too occasionally. One thing I haven't mentioned yet is the team AI that you are presented with in co-op.
I still don't truly understand this addition in co-op besides the fact that these two yahoos are the only people that can defuse explosives or hack computers. Some of the levels feel very crowded having four guys there cramped against a single entrance to a room. One unique thing is that you can command your team to prepare to enter a room, then you have the option for them to throw a flashbang or frag grenade in the room before they enter. Most of the time this is only useful for distraction or incapacitation purposes because only the AI team have the ability to open doors and throw a grenade in without being noticed. Sometimes though, the AI refuses to enter a room and you end up running in and have to attempt to take out 7 enemies with only you and your friend.
EDIT: In single player these guys are very useful and the AI works better as long as you always have them with you and have a decent semblance of military tactics.
Even though the game experience was greatly compromised for the split screen aspect of this game, it was still time well spent. If only the game was longer, less glitchy, and more comprehensible would it be a truly great co-op experience. As long as you and a friend have coordination and are familiar with tactical shooters, you should enjoy this game.
I give Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (UPDATED w/ SP) 2 1/2 stars out of 5
UPDATE: Single-player also has a few of the glitches above. I got about halfway through the SP game and the game froze as well as the cover issues I stated earlier. The game is also not any longer in the single player and all of the guns of the same type feel exactly the same when you shoot them. I have updated my score to reflect these new discoveries.
Monday, April 21, 2008
MK Vs. DC and News for the Future.
Sub-Zero V. Katwoman
As most of you who are reading this are probably aware by now, the worlds of Mortal Kombat and DC Comics are colliding. Here's the trailer that was released earlier this week:
The big news about this game is that they are attempting to make it T rated. Although it does look like there will be a decent amount of gore, one can't help but feel like they are selling out their tried and true formula to try and sell the game to a larger audience. To be frank, Mortal Kombat hasn't been relevant for years now and aligning with DC doesn't help all that much.
I personally don't plan on even renting the game because I don't really like fighting games that much. I also never really understood the draw of making games based on comic books or putting comic book characters in games in order to sell more games. I understand that comics are probably a big seller in some parts of the country, but I don't even know of a place that sells comics within a half hour's drive of where I currently live.
It's just a regional thing I'm sure, but the addition of 15 or so comic book characters along with the Mortal Kombat essentials that won't have brutal fatalities just doesn't sound like an intriguing game to me. Unless of course they change their minds on the "T rating" thing and you can cut dudes in half as Batman or blow someones head off with you laser eyes as Superman. Then I may rent the game.
Recent Goings-On in my Life
My apologies for the delay since my last post but I got my gaming PC back from repair on Wednesday of last week and I have been playing some games on that; both new and old. I've been getting back into Company of Heroes and Counter-Strike as well as playing GTA:San Andreas to get into the mood for GTAIV. Also, Nick and I will probably be playing through Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 later this week so expect a review on that soon. My updates will likely be sparse for a while because I have finals in 3 weeks, but after that I will be getting as many reviews up as possible as well as starting to make video reviews which I will post to my youtube channel here.
Also, don't forget to go visit my friend Chris's blog. He will be getting some video reviews up soon, most likely for Ikugara and some other games. If you're into politics and you think that a majority of the people on this planet are terribly stupid, go to my roommate Jeff's blog here and read some of his rants about society and politics.
As most of you who are reading this are probably aware by now, the worlds of Mortal Kombat and DC Comics are colliding. Here's the trailer that was released earlier this week:
The big news about this game is that they are attempting to make it T rated. Although it does look like there will be a decent amount of gore, one can't help but feel like they are selling out their tried and true formula to try and sell the game to a larger audience. To be frank, Mortal Kombat hasn't been relevant for years now and aligning with DC doesn't help all that much.
I personally don't plan on even renting the game because I don't really like fighting games that much. I also never really understood the draw of making games based on comic books or putting comic book characters in games in order to sell more games. I understand that comics are probably a big seller in some parts of the country, but I don't even know of a place that sells comics within a half hour's drive of where I currently live.
It's just a regional thing I'm sure, but the addition of 15 or so comic book characters along with the Mortal Kombat essentials that won't have brutal fatalities just doesn't sound like an intriguing game to me. Unless of course they change their minds on the "T rating" thing and you can cut dudes in half as Batman or blow someones head off with you laser eyes as Superman. Then I may rent the game.
Recent Goings-On in my Life
My apologies for the delay since my last post but I got my gaming PC back from repair on Wednesday of last week and I have been playing some games on that; both new and old. I've been getting back into Company of Heroes and Counter-Strike as well as playing GTA:San Andreas to get into the mood for GTAIV. Also, Nick and I will probably be playing through Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 later this week so expect a review on that soon. My updates will likely be sparse for a while because I have finals in 3 weeks, but after that I will be getting as many reviews up as possible as well as starting to make video reviews which I will post to my youtube channel here.
Also, don't forget to go visit my friend Chris's blog. He will be getting some video reviews up soon, most likely for Ikugara and some other games. If you're into politics and you think that a majority of the people on this planet are terribly stupid, go to my roommate Jeff's blog here and read some of his rants about society and politics.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
SoulEdge, MGS4 Online Beta, and Wii Exclusive RB Songs
The Legend Will Live on Forever
Soul Caluibur 4 will be released on XBox 360 and PS3 this fall, but the 360 has an exclusive download on it's system. That exclusive is the original Soul Calibur that was released for Dreamcast 9 years ago. Not much is currently known about the game in it's current state but it has been confirmed that all of the characters from the original will be included as well as all the levels and features. There will also be online multi-player and online leaderboards.
This is fantastic news to anyone who wants to play the original Soul Calibur, but doesn't want to go rummaging for their old DC and controllers that have been sucked into the quicksand that is in everyone's storage spaces. No word on a release date or price yet, but look for more news here soon.
There is no Antidote for This Snake Bite
If you pre-ordered Metal Gear Solid 4 for PS3, you can go and download the MGS4: Online beta using the key you received when you preordered the game. The 700 MB file requires you to create an account via Konami.com before you can beging shooting others in the face.
Oh, another thing. You can't play it until Monday when the beta officially goes public. Sorry to lead you on like that. My sincerest apologies.
If I had a friend with a PS3 who pre-ordered the game I would be all over this like a fat man on a ham. Unfortunately my friend's and I are cheap. Again, my sincerest apologies.
Rock Band has a Wii Amount of Songs
To make up for the lack of Downloadable Content (DLC)and the delays that were made to the Wii version of Rock Band Harmonix are including some DLC for free on the game and a slick white drum kit. The following songs are going to be included in the soon to be released Wii version.
=-"Dirty Little Secret" -- All American Rejects
=-"Don't Look Back in Anger" -- Oasis
=-"Roam" -- The B52's
=-"Rockaway Beach" -- The Ramones
=-"Roxanne" -- The Police
In my humble opinion, this is a rip-off. I understand that you want free songs and a sweet white drumset, but the game lacks all of the online components that add replayability to the game. I have convinced one of my dorm-mates to get shitloads of DLC and he's just borrowing my copy of Rock Band. The online components help to add new, better songsto your library as well as playing online with and against others and without those features I don't see how the 170 dollar price tag can be justified. The songs that are included aren't even very good when you compare it to the higher quality stuff thats on there like the Grateful Dead Pack, Boston Pack, Harmonix Pack, and Still Alive. If you own a 360 or a PS3, go buy Rock Band for those systems, you get more value for your hard-earned dollar.
Soul Caluibur 4 will be released on XBox 360 and PS3 this fall, but the 360 has an exclusive download on it's system. That exclusive is the original Soul Calibur that was released for Dreamcast 9 years ago. Not much is currently known about the game in it's current state but it has been confirmed that all of the characters from the original will be included as well as all the levels and features. There will also be online multi-player and online leaderboards.
This is fantastic news to anyone who wants to play the original Soul Calibur, but doesn't want to go rummaging for their old DC and controllers that have been sucked into the quicksand that is in everyone's storage spaces. No word on a release date or price yet, but look for more news here soon.
There is no Antidote for This Snake Bite
If you pre-ordered Metal Gear Solid 4 for PS3, you can go and download the MGS4: Online beta using the key you received when you preordered the game. The 700 MB file requires you to create an account via Konami.com before you can beging shooting others in the face.
Oh, another thing. You can't play it until Monday when the beta officially goes public. Sorry to lead you on like that. My sincerest apologies.
If I had a friend with a PS3 who pre-ordered the game I would be all over this like a fat man on a ham. Unfortunately my friend's and I are cheap. Again, my sincerest apologies.
Rock Band has a Wii Amount of Songs
To make up for the lack of Downloadable Content (DLC)and the delays that were made to the Wii version of Rock Band Harmonix are including some DLC for free on the game and a slick white drum kit. The following songs are going to be included in the soon to be released Wii version.
=-"Dirty Little Secret" -- All American Rejects
=-"Don't Look Back in Anger" -- Oasis
=-"Roam" -- The B52's
=-"Rockaway Beach" -- The Ramones
=-"Roxanne" -- The Police
In my humble opinion, this is a rip-off. I understand that you want free songs and a sweet white drumset, but the game lacks all of the online components that add replayability to the game. I have convinced one of my dorm-mates to get shitloads of DLC and he's just borrowing my copy of Rock Band. The online components help to add new, better songsto your library as well as playing online with and against others and without those features I don't see how the 170 dollar price tag can be justified. The songs that are included aren't even very good when you compare it to the higher quality stuff thats on there like the Grateful Dead Pack, Boston Pack, Harmonix Pack, and Still Alive. If you own a 360 or a PS3, go buy Rock Band for those systems, you get more value for your hard-earned dollar.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
DLC Reviews and Homestar Wii.
Review: Rock Band "Harmonix Pack 01"
*This review is based on Guitar, Bass, and Vocals*
Harmonix released a new song pack on Tuesday titled "Harmonix Pack 01." As you probably could have guessed, the pack include songs by artists who have been featured prominently in bonus songs in GH1, GH2, and Rock Band. These songs include "Shake" by Count Zero, "Sprode" by Freezepop, and "Rock Rebellion" by Bang Camaro.
I'll start with the worst song first. "Shake" is not a very good sounding song. The vocalist must be tone deaf. half of the song is this bozo screaming "SHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE" to the tune of the guitar except about 70 cents sharp. The guitar part is alright. It isn't particularly hard. The bass part is easy as sin. This is by far the weakest song of the three and it really sticks out like a sore thumb considering how awesome the other 2 songs are.
"Sprode" is basically what you've come to expect from Freezepop. The vocals are pretty easy, just the same melody every line with different words (including "throw your undies on the stage, no wait you're underage"). The guitar part was cool. Nothing too fantastic about it. The bassline kills babies while they sleep. 90 percent of the song is G, B, G, B, G, B, G, B, G, B, G, B with occasional transitions to R, O, R, O, R, O, R, O. My hand was on fire by the end of this song. That doesn't take away from the fact that the song is awesome, though.
"Rock Rebellion" is by far the best song for people who like listening to rock music. The vocals are basic and easy. Just the basic Bang Camaro fare. The guitar is relatively easy considering how far down on the list it is. The solo is fairly difficult, but nothing too terribly bad. The bassline is the most rocking thing you've ever heard in your life. I can't do it justice in words it's so awesome.
All in all the pack is fantastic. even though one of the songs was a dud, the adage "two out of three ain't bad" definitely applies here. Also, each of the songs only costs a dollar but purchasing the whole pack at once doesn't give you a discount like most of the other packs do. So basically, buy Sprode and Rock Rebellion, but leave Shake on it's own.
I give the DLC 4 stars out of 5
Strong Bad Loves His Wii
The makers of the Sam and Max series are now making a game based on Homestar Runner's angry, violent co-star. Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People will be released on WiiWare this June. There will be episodic content released 5 or 6 times. I'm definitely excited for this. Look for a review of this once it is released.
*This review is based on Guitar, Bass, and Vocals*
Harmonix released a new song pack on Tuesday titled "Harmonix Pack 01." As you probably could have guessed, the pack include songs by artists who have been featured prominently in bonus songs in GH1, GH2, and Rock Band. These songs include "Shake" by Count Zero, "Sprode" by Freezepop, and "Rock Rebellion" by Bang Camaro.
I'll start with the worst song first. "Shake" is not a very good sounding song. The vocalist must be tone deaf. half of the song is this bozo screaming "SHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE" to the tune of the guitar except about 70 cents sharp. The guitar part is alright. It isn't particularly hard. The bass part is easy as sin. This is by far the weakest song of the three and it really sticks out like a sore thumb considering how awesome the other 2 songs are.
"Sprode" is basically what you've come to expect from Freezepop. The vocals are pretty easy, just the same melody every line with different words (including "throw your undies on the stage, no wait you're underage"). The guitar part was cool. Nothing too fantastic about it. The bassline kills babies while they sleep. 90 percent of the song is G, B, G, B, G, B, G, B, G, B, G, B with occasional transitions to R, O, R, O, R, O, R, O. My hand was on fire by the end of this song. That doesn't take away from the fact that the song is awesome, though.
"Rock Rebellion" is by far the best song for people who like listening to rock music. The vocals are basic and easy. Just the basic Bang Camaro fare. The guitar is relatively easy considering how far down on the list it is. The solo is fairly difficult, but nothing too terribly bad. The bassline is the most rocking thing you've ever heard in your life. I can't do it justice in words it's so awesome.
All in all the pack is fantastic. even though one of the songs was a dud, the adage "two out of three ain't bad" definitely applies here. Also, each of the songs only costs a dollar but purchasing the whole pack at once doesn't give you a discount like most of the other packs do. So basically, buy Sprode and Rock Rebellion, but leave Shake on it's own.
I give the DLC 4 stars out of 5
Strong Bad Loves His Wii
The makers of the Sam and Max series are now making a game based on Homestar Runner's angry, violent co-star. Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People will be released on WiiWare this June. There will be episodic content released 5 or 6 times. I'm definitely excited for this. Look for a review of this once it is released.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Uwe Boll Will Stop Making Movies
Sign this petition if you want Uwe to stop making horrible movie adaptations of video games. he says he wont stop until it gets to a million. This is all for now. I'll post other things later.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Review: Army of Two
*This review is based on co-op play only. Single-player play may differ*
If you take Gears of War, mix it with gun customization and throw in a sprinkle of unique features, you get Army of Two. The plot is very much like Hitman: Blood Money where you get sent on a few missions by your employer, and then they turn on you and you need to find out what happened and why. The plot is far more intricate than I initially thought it would have been. It is also executed well, which is a big plus considering how many "unexpected" twists there are. The game is not overly long and it finishes right before the gameplay gets stale.
The one big, unique feature of the game is the aggro system. One person with a big gun shoots a lot and draws the attention of the enemies while the other one sneaks around and shoots them in the side of the head. Most of the levels appear to be designed for this feature to be implemented that way, so sometimes environments feel the same because you use the same strategy consistently. All in all though, the levels are in environments that are unique enough to keep things interesting.
Another unique feature is that you can buy new guns as you progress and customize them to fit your playstyle. The guns are rated in 4 categories: Damage, Accuracy, Ammo, and Aggro. The first three are rather self-explanatory, but aggro is basically the gauge that tells you how quickly you can gain aggro. Some things that attribute to this is mounting a shotgun or grenade launcher to the front of your gun, increasing the barrel size of your gun, pimping out your gun and plating it with gold or silver, or putting a suppressor on to lower aggro.
Every single upgrade drastically effects how the gun works and makes you really feel like the money you spent was worth it and allows players to customize the same gun for completely different tasks. For instance, Aggro guy uses a gold plated M4 with mounted grenade launcher that has 100 round clips and a shield on the front of it while stealth guy uses an M4 with a stock and suppressor the size of the gun itself. Gun customization is implemented well and is something I would like to see in future games.
There are some weird things that happen in the game though. In every firefight there is a moment where you see an enemy is hiding in cover but you can see either the top of their head or their knee poking out from behind cover. However, if you shoot at this exposed part while you are anywhere in a 90 degree cone in front of the enemy, you cannot hit that part of the body. Instead, it looks as if the bullet hits the cover and a puff of white smoke comes out of their leg or head. This gets annoying after you unload an entire clip of Deagle ammo at someone's shins to get no result about a dozen times in the first half of the game.
Also, the third-person viewpoint is very bothersome in some spots. This problem only arises if you are dumb enough to run up to enemies and engage in a close-range firefight instead of just punching them in the face. What happens is that if you are any closer than 10 feet away from a target, all of your bullets go a foot or two to the left of where the reticule is. While this rarely happens, it tends to happen at the most inopportune time. For instance, when you are healing your partner and someone runs up to you, the one getting healed cannot effectively aim and you have to go all the way back to the last checkpoint.
This is another minor gripe I have with the game. The checkpoints in some spots are spread out ridiculously far apart. At some points there are 4 or 5 firefights in between checkpoints, where in others there's simply a hallway to walk through to get another checkpoint. Many fights get very frustrating after beating them and then dying because of an unlucky grenade or a lapse in concentration.
All in all the game is good if you and a shooter-loving friend have 6 hours to kill and you both love gratuitous amounts of violence. Which lucky for me, I have both.
I give Army of Two 3 3/4 out of 5 stars.
If you take Gears of War, mix it with gun customization and throw in a sprinkle of unique features, you get Army of Two. The plot is very much like Hitman: Blood Money where you get sent on a few missions by your employer, and then they turn on you and you need to find out what happened and why. The plot is far more intricate than I initially thought it would have been. It is also executed well, which is a big plus considering how many "unexpected" twists there are. The game is not overly long and it finishes right before the gameplay gets stale.
The one big, unique feature of the game is the aggro system. One person with a big gun shoots a lot and draws the attention of the enemies while the other one sneaks around and shoots them in the side of the head. Most of the levels appear to be designed for this feature to be implemented that way, so sometimes environments feel the same because you use the same strategy consistently. All in all though, the levels are in environments that are unique enough to keep things interesting.
Another unique feature is that you can buy new guns as you progress and customize them to fit your playstyle. The guns are rated in 4 categories: Damage, Accuracy, Ammo, and Aggro. The first three are rather self-explanatory, but aggro is basically the gauge that tells you how quickly you can gain aggro. Some things that attribute to this is mounting a shotgun or grenade launcher to the front of your gun, increasing the barrel size of your gun, pimping out your gun and plating it with gold or silver, or putting a suppressor on to lower aggro.
Every single upgrade drastically effects how the gun works and makes you really feel like the money you spent was worth it and allows players to customize the same gun for completely different tasks. For instance, Aggro guy uses a gold plated M4 with mounted grenade launcher that has 100 round clips and a shield on the front of it while stealth guy uses an M4 with a stock and suppressor the size of the gun itself. Gun customization is implemented well and is something I would like to see in future games.
There are some weird things that happen in the game though. In every firefight there is a moment where you see an enemy is hiding in cover but you can see either the top of their head or their knee poking out from behind cover. However, if you shoot at this exposed part while you are anywhere in a 90 degree cone in front of the enemy, you cannot hit that part of the body. Instead, it looks as if the bullet hits the cover and a puff of white smoke comes out of their leg or head. This gets annoying after you unload an entire clip of Deagle ammo at someone's shins to get no result about a dozen times in the first half of the game.
Also, the third-person viewpoint is very bothersome in some spots. This problem only arises if you are dumb enough to run up to enemies and engage in a close-range firefight instead of just punching them in the face. What happens is that if you are any closer than 10 feet away from a target, all of your bullets go a foot or two to the left of where the reticule is. While this rarely happens, it tends to happen at the most inopportune time. For instance, when you are healing your partner and someone runs up to you, the one getting healed cannot effectively aim and you have to go all the way back to the last checkpoint.
This is another minor gripe I have with the game. The checkpoints in some spots are spread out ridiculously far apart. At some points there are 4 or 5 firefights in between checkpoints, where in others there's simply a hallway to walk through to get another checkpoint. Many fights get very frustrating after beating them and then dying because of an unlucky grenade or a lapse in concentration.
All in all the game is good if you and a shooter-loving friend have 6 hours to kill and you both love gratuitous amounts of violence. Which lucky for me, I have both.
I give Army of Two 3 3/4 out of 5 stars.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Rock Band DLC Review, Dualshock, and Statistics.
"Boston" is Definitely "Still Alive"
*This review is based on guitar part only*
2 Tuesdays ago the Boston 6-pack was released and I must say, all of the songs are pretty damn good. More Than A Feelin' being the easiest of the bunch and Smokin' being the hardest (I'm the only one of my friends to beat it in solo), the rest of the songs are good, but feel the same. The solos and tone of the each song are the only real difference between each song. The chorus and verse of most of the songs are very much the same, but I still enjoy playing them. I'd say that this is a great deal for 10 bucks, and if you're a fan of tricky guitar parts this is s must-buy.
*this review based on Bass, Vocals, and Guitar*
"Still Alive" is a song that is more nostalgic than anything else. None of the parts are very difficult, but it's still a very fun song to play if you have played Portal. If you haven't played portal and like tricky guitar parts or tricky vocal lines, this is not the song for you. However, the song is free(!) and how can you pass up a free DLC?
The TwoShock Three?
The Dualshock 3 is (finally) being shipped worldwide. It should be readily available by the end of the week. The going price is set at $54.99.
For all you PS3 enthusiasts who miss that familiar rumble in your hands when you get shot, punched, or crash your car into a concrete wall, your prayers have finally been answered. However, not all games already out that support the rumble feature. You can look at a complete list of them here. All of the important games seem to have the feature (Burnout Paradise, Devil May Cry 4, Resistance: Fall of Man), so it seems to be a moot point to me that the rumble wouldn't work with some games.
One other thing that pokes me in the ribs with a pointy stick is the fact that the controller costs $54.99(!!!). While this is only $15 more than the wireless 360 controller ($23 more than a wired controller on Amazon), this is the controller that should have come packaged with the PS3 16 months ago. Nintendo sent out their Wii condoms for free because they meant to have them developed by launch day, but didn't get it done in time. This should be the same way. The Six-Axis controller should not be tolerated.
Regardless of the crazy price point, this controller, I hear, is the cat's meow, the bee's knees, the $30 porterhouse of controllers and I'm glad to see it's return.
*I don't even own a PS3, so don't accuse me of trying to get free stuff*
Gaming Population Rises!
It has been reported the NPD Group that 72% of the US populous plays video games, up from 64% last year. Some of the statistics within are somewhat surprising though.
-65% of people who say that they play games online regularly are over the age of 24.
-only 2-3% of console owners own more than one of the three "Next-Gen" game systems.
-90% of gamers who said that they play online regularly play on PC, 19% play on console, and 3% play on phones and other mobile devices.
-It is also stated in the report that, "despite all the buzz in the industry about online gaming, it is still relatively small compared to offline gaming."
Good report overall, and good news for gamers.
*This review is based on guitar part only*
2 Tuesdays ago the Boston 6-pack was released and I must say, all of the songs are pretty damn good. More Than A Feelin' being the easiest of the bunch and Smokin' being the hardest (I'm the only one of my friends to beat it in solo), the rest of the songs are good, but feel the same. The solos and tone of the each song are the only real difference between each song. The chorus and verse of most of the songs are very much the same, but I still enjoy playing them. I'd say that this is a great deal for 10 bucks, and if you're a fan of tricky guitar parts this is s must-buy.
*this review based on Bass, Vocals, and Guitar*
"Still Alive" is a song that is more nostalgic than anything else. None of the parts are very difficult, but it's still a very fun song to play if you have played Portal. If you haven't played portal and like tricky guitar parts or tricky vocal lines, this is not the song for you. However, the song is free(!) and how can you pass up a free DLC?
The TwoShock Three?
The Dualshock 3 is (finally) being shipped worldwide. It should be readily available by the end of the week. The going price is set at $54.99.
For all you PS3 enthusiasts who miss that familiar rumble in your hands when you get shot, punched, or crash your car into a concrete wall, your prayers have finally been answered. However, not all games already out that support the rumble feature. You can look at a complete list of them here. All of the important games seem to have the feature (Burnout Paradise, Devil May Cry 4, Resistance: Fall of Man), so it seems to be a moot point to me that the rumble wouldn't work with some games.
One other thing that pokes me in the ribs with a pointy stick is the fact that the controller costs $54.99(!!!). While this is only $15 more than the wireless 360 controller ($23 more than a wired controller on Amazon), this is the controller that should have come packaged with the PS3 16 months ago. Nintendo sent out their Wii condoms for free because they meant to have them developed by launch day, but didn't get it done in time. This should be the same way. The Six-Axis controller should not be tolerated.
Regardless of the crazy price point, this controller, I hear, is the cat's meow, the bee's knees, the $30 porterhouse of controllers and I'm glad to see it's return.
*I don't even own a PS3, so don't accuse me of trying to get free stuff*
Gaming Population Rises!
It has been reported the NPD Group that 72% of the US populous plays video games, up from 64% last year. Some of the statistics within are somewhat surprising though.
-65% of people who say that they play games online regularly are over the age of 24.
-only 2-3% of console owners own more than one of the three "Next-Gen" game systems.
-90% of gamers who said that they play online regularly play on PC, 19% play on console, and 3% play on phones and other mobile devices.
-It is also stated in the report that, "despite all the buzz in the industry about online gaming, it is still relatively small compared to offline gaming."
Good report overall, and good news for gamers.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
April Fools Day is Afoot.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Big Screen
IGN has released a trailer for the Legend of Zelda theatrical release. It looks alright; they prevent Link from talking for the whole thing, the special effects look like butt, and the acting sounds horrendous.
However, that is where this analysis comes to an end. Because at the end of the trailer it says "Coming out April 1st, 2009." Thus proving (in my mind) that this is an April fools joke and a pretty good one (and probably expensive one) at that. It had me going until I saw the credit page and IGN's logo was on it. Watch the trailer here.
Fake News! How Original!
As I stated in earlier posts of mine, I dislike Gamespot now. However, I just had to go to their site to see what kind of April Fool's day joke they were going to pull. I went to the site and the first thing I saw was "Rock Band PSP!" and I thought, "Wow, what a fail of an April fools joke" so I clicked on it and it took me to the homepage. Needless to say, I was confused. It turns out that the whole front page is an irony-laced jab at game news, fanboys, and the Japanese.
One thing that makes a good April Fools day joke is subtleness. This is one thing that the Gamespot joke lacks. When you type in Gamespot.com, instead of the normal text at the top of the window, it says, "Gamespot April Fools Home Page." As if that wasn't bed enough, when you get to the real front page, the first thing you see in their headline box is "APRIL FOOLS DAY! [...] FOOOOOOOOLED YOU!"
The page is filled with a bunch of failed attempts at irony. the only thing I even found slightly funny was the "User Soapbox" with poilite, eloquent discussion about the console wars. Also the "Hands-On: Xbox 360 Paperweight add-on [...] (Also plays HD-DVDs)" was amusing. However, they're so proud about the fact that they tried so hard to be like The Onion that they put a poll on the page asking "Did you for a moment actually think that this page was real?" with options being, "Pfft, NO! What do you think I am, brain damaged?!," "Yeah. Oh, Gamespot, you're such a card," and "Wait. This is fake?" No buys Gamespot, no buys...
Bikinis and Zombies and Swords. OH MY!
I don't think that this movie trailer is an April Fools day joke, but I found it on the front page of 1up.com and had to post something about it. so... Something.
In Other Stuff!
I now have 2 friends who have blogs that you should go visit. I've got my friends Chris's blog where he reviews games. He just reviewed Super Smash Bros. Brawl for all of you interested in reading that. Also, my friend Jeff has a blog about ridiculous things in society and politics and you can look at that here.
Also, I was at the Hy-Vee earlier in the week and found Jolly Rancher soda. I got the Green Apple, Cherry, and Blue Raspberry flavors and they were all decent. Green Apple tasted like a sub-par green apple soda, Cherry tasted like melted, carbonated icee syrup, and the blue raspberry tasted exactly like blue raspberry jolly ranchers. Blue Raspberry was the real stand out of the bunch, but I'm going to be looking for Jolly Rancher FIRE soda to see what that tastes like.
In Conclusion...
I'll have a quick review of the Boston song pack and Still Alive Rock Band DLC tomorrow along with more delicious news. I'm out.
IGN has released a trailer for the Legend of Zelda theatrical release. It looks alright; they prevent Link from talking for the whole thing, the special effects look like butt, and the acting sounds horrendous.
However, that is where this analysis comes to an end. Because at the end of the trailer it says "Coming out April 1st, 2009." Thus proving (in my mind) that this is an April fools joke and a pretty good one (and probably expensive one) at that. It had me going until I saw the credit page and IGN's logo was on it. Watch the trailer here.
Fake News! How Original!
As I stated in earlier posts of mine, I dislike Gamespot now. However, I just had to go to their site to see what kind of April Fool's day joke they were going to pull. I went to the site and the first thing I saw was "Rock Band PSP!" and I thought, "Wow, what a fail of an April fools joke" so I clicked on it and it took me to the homepage. Needless to say, I was confused. It turns out that the whole front page is an irony-laced jab at game news, fanboys, and the Japanese.
One thing that makes a good April Fools day joke is subtleness. This is one thing that the Gamespot joke lacks. When you type in Gamespot.com, instead of the normal text at the top of the window, it says, "Gamespot April Fools Home Page." As if that wasn't bed enough, when you get to the real front page, the first thing you see in their headline box is "APRIL FOOLS DAY! [...] FOOOOOOOOLED YOU!"
The page is filled with a bunch of failed attempts at irony. the only thing I even found slightly funny was the "User Soapbox" with poilite, eloquent discussion about the console wars. Also the "Hands-On: Xbox 360 Paperweight add-on [...] (Also plays HD-DVDs)" was amusing. However, they're so proud about the fact that they tried so hard to be like The Onion that they put a poll on the page asking "Did you for a moment actually think that this page was real?" with options being, "Pfft, NO! What do you think I am, brain damaged?!," "Yeah. Oh, Gamespot, you're such a card," and "Wait. This is fake?" No buys Gamespot, no buys...
Bikinis and Zombies and Swords. OH MY!
I don't think that this movie trailer is an April Fools day joke, but I found it on the front page of 1up.com and had to post something about it. so... Something.
In Other Stuff!
I now have 2 friends who have blogs that you should go visit. I've got my friends Chris's blog where he reviews games. He just reviewed Super Smash Bros. Brawl for all of you interested in reading that. Also, my friend Jeff has a blog about ridiculous things in society and politics and you can look at that here.
Also, I was at the Hy-Vee earlier in the week and found Jolly Rancher soda. I got the Green Apple, Cherry, and Blue Raspberry flavors and they were all decent. Green Apple tasted like a sub-par green apple soda, Cherry tasted like melted, carbonated icee syrup, and the blue raspberry tasted exactly like blue raspberry jolly ranchers. Blue Raspberry was the real stand out of the bunch, but I'm going to be looking for Jolly Rancher FIRE soda to see what that tastes like.
In Conclusion...
I'll have a quick review of the Boston song pack and Still Alive Rock Band DLC tomorrow along with more delicious news. I'm out.
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