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I bought the new Guitar Hero 5 because I needed a new fake plastic guitar and Activision’s guitars are the best that are not outrageously expensive . The Rock Band guitars I just can’t stand. So as I was going to buy a guitar from them, I thought I might as well get a (couple of) cheap game(s) with it. At first, I really liked what they did with GH5, especially when compared to the mediocre World Tour. The party mode, for example, is a very nice idea: the game acts as a media player and plays songs on its own; but you can jump in at any time and start to play any instrument. Being able to play any instrument in any number is also a nice touch, seeing as few people like to sing in public, but most are not afraid of the guitar or drum set. I also...
The Maw is a charming and seriously fun game that is going to make you smile from start to finish. Puzzle Quest is one of those “just one more” time sinks. The improbable mix of puzzle gaming and RPG is just awesome. The sequel, Galactrix , is pretty good too (but quite buggy, you might want to wait for a patch or at least regularly copy your game save). Portal is simply the best game ever, at least for me. Portal proves once more that the simplest ideas can be the deepest and does so with amazing grace and mastery of the art of video games. Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie were two of the best N64 games, maybe on par with Super Mario but with that unique Rare sense of humour. Cloning Clyde : smart and funny. What are your favorite XBLA games?...
Yesterday, I bought Flower for the PS3 and played it through in one sitting (the game is really short but still, couldn’t get my hands off the controller once I started). This game is one of the best things I’ve seen in gaming this year. It’s beautiful, poetic, more contemplative experience than game. There is not the shadow of a doubt that this thing is art. What really interested me was the way it tells a story without a word. I’m convinced that the acceptance of video games (or any medium) as art is conditioned by its ability to find storytelling methods that are unique to it and that are impossible to reproduce outside of it. Flower is one of those games that do exactly that. There are many things I dislike about the PS3, but one has to...
Seadragon.embed("500px", "500px", "http://photozoom.mslivelabs.com/DZ/100/0/Image/Col/zece309bc8c7f465fbca8087784612173/ffbbd46b-305f-4b8e-a745-522d1aa49b2f.xml", 4000, 4000, 256, 1, "jpg"); Lionhead recently published a high resolution map of Albion (the world of Fable II in case you’re not into games). The map is pretty nice and very detailed. It’s a huge image (45.8MB, 16 megapixels) that they built for people to print and hang on their walls. When I saw that, I immediately thought how great this would work with Deep Zoom and SeaDragon Ajax . Of course, once we have virtually infinite zooming abilities, it would be even better if the map zoomed into detailed sub-maps of the various cities of Albion...
In this post , the Penny Arcade guys make the point that beyond instrument capability, what we really need is song compatibility between the two. Beyond the licensing nightmare that would probably represent for both games publishers, this resonated really well for me. Here’s why and why it makes perfectly good business sense below the apparent “yeah, right, you wish” appearances. Guitar Hero -and Rock Band even more so- are the ultimate party games. I can’t seem to go to a party these days that doesn’t have a Rock Band game running. Perfect fun. Now here’s the reason why I’ll probably pass on the next Guitar Hero: there can be only one. What are the chances that in the middle of the party, somebody will say “I want to play song X, let’s swap...
I really, really like a good puzzle game . So when I saw Braid announced and read the raving critics , I was quite sure this was a game for me. I really wanted to like it. Then I downloaded the trial version... and pretty much hated it. So here are some critic's citations and how they resonated for me: It's beautiful Well, excuse me but I find it ugly. To me, it looks like a Van Gogh wannabe under acid had tried to redesign Mario . But that's fine, even though I would have appreciated a saturation setting in the menu, I can love an unaesthetic, tacky game if it works well. Tight controls Sure, the time control works well and is quite instinctive to use, but the rest felt amateurish to me, shareware-like. And the moving jumps are...
Ever since it came out, it seems like Wii Play has been somewhere on top of sales charts and even managed to be the #2 top-seller of 2007 in the US . Let's be clear about this: even if it looks like a good deal, being only $10 above the price of a standalone Wiimote , it really isn't. It would be a good deal *if* Wii Play itself was worth $10, which it isn't by a very large margin (i.e. at least $10). As a matter of facts, if you gave me $10 to play this thing (which I refuse to call a game), I would decline. And I want the fifteen minutes I spent trying to play it back. The only person in the family who found this of any interest was my daughter but that's probably because she was 3 years old at the time. By buying this, you're...
Here's how to build an instrument set with two guitars/basses, a drum set and a mike that will work for Guitar Hero and Rock Band . The first thing you need to know is that the Rock Band Fender Stratocaster guitar sucks . Here's why: The fret buttons and strum bar are way too soft. It's generally unresponsive and imprecise: it will miss notes that you definitely hit right. Star power / overdrive is difficult to trigger when sitting. You don't need the additional 5 fret buttons and effects switch. The strum bar has a kind of cylindrical tip that will hurt your thumb. I's not wireless. It doesn't work in Guitar Hero . Of course, there are things to like about it. It's been modeled after one of the most aesthetically pleasing real guitars, I like...
What a great time to be a gamer. It seems like there is no end in sight to that steady stream of excellent games. We already got Bioshock , Halo 3 , the Orange Box , Guitar Hero III , and we're waiting for Rock Band , Mass Effect , all before Christmas. What we lack is time to play them all. This is one that won't take too long. So I'm seeing this through our arbitrary prism of Seven Deadly Sins of Game Design ... Checkpoints : the game automatically saves whenever you do something significant. Essentially, you never need to worry about saving. But you can if you want. Anytime. Perfect. Boss fights : there is one, and it's fun and balanced enough that you can reasonably beat it on your first try (I did). Perfect. Mini-games : there are none...
The guitar Harmonix chose for the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II is not exactly my favorite guitar . The Gibson X-plorer just reminds me too much of german hard - rockers from the eighties ... and mullets . Harmonix' plastic rendition of the guitar doesn't look any better than the original of course, and white doesn't help. I've seen things at Toys'R'Us that look less toy-like . I can't do much about the shape but seeing that I had already done a red paint job on my faceplate a while ago, I thought that at least the color had to change. Here's what it looks like now: So how do you make one of these then? Well, here's how. First, here's what you'll need: A respirator. Don't even think about doing that job without one. That paint is really...
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