It took me by surprise when I found out that the first Wednesday after the summer of XBLA would have three releases instead of one. I was only surprised until I played them; only one of the three is worth looking at. In the never ending quest to charge money for things that are free (and possibly better) elsewhere comes Gin Rummy.
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Players: 1-2
Publisher: RedOctane / Activision
Developer: Harmonix
Genre: Music
Review By: Michael Fox
“It’s definitely more than just mashing five buttons in a pre-determined sequence. Much more.”
As of late (within the last couple of years), we’ve begun to see a few developers that have attempted to redefine several aspects of video games. This is good and all, but it really only provides a linear progression of the industry, which you’ll find can be fairly predictable. I love it when I can look forward to a game for a few months, reading about the newly released details every few weeks, with the anticipation building exponentially. Even better is being caught off guard by an unforseen game — there’s no hype or expectations, allowing us to accept the game for what it is. I remember the very moment when I was doing research on the launch games that would be coming out with the Xbox, reading about this game called Halo. A lot of gamers didn’t see it coming and look what happened. But what I’m getting at is Guitar Hero. Not only did it break the mold of what we expect from video games, but it came out of the dark.
Harmonix didn’t muddle around with their concept of playing guitar through a video game — you select your lead guitarist, costume, guitar, venue, and play the hell out of your set. However, this review is not about Guitar Hero, but Guitar Hero II.
At first, I was skeptical as to how Guitar Hero II could improve what Guitar Hero had previously done without exacerbating things too much. To be honest, nothing really changed at all. There are more songs, the added encore to each set list, and the difficulty of the game has increased noticeably. This is partly due to the new song selection, but the songs are still generally harder to complete. You’ll struggle through most of medium, hate the world while playing through hard, and wish you were never born once you’ve made it to the later half of expert. If you haven’t played Guitar Hero before going into Guitar Hero II, you’ll spend a lot of time becoming even half-way decent at the game, and you’re still going to suck. Basically, this game requires commitment, like a real guitar.
This brings me to the next point; you’ll be pestered by all sorts of people, asking you why you don’t just take up real guitar. You can then proceed to tell them to go fuck themselves. If you’re able to play Freebird after just a few weeks of playing guitar, then you’re some sort of god; otherwise, we have Guitar Hero II to allow you to live out your dreams. Now, I can’t make a direct comparison of how you feel when playing a real guitar to Guitar Hero II, but I can say that I feel cool as hell when I nail Carry on Wayward Son and I can’t help but make gestures like a real rocker. It’s definitely more than just mashing five buttons in a pre-determined sequence. Much more.
I’ve already mentioned that Guitar Hero II is harder than Guitar Hero, but does this make it better? Well, that’s subjective, but it made me want to get better and be able to play a song without error, and it’s hard for a game to do that to me. Guitar Hero II has a far superior song selection over Guitar Hero, with several songs that are, simply put, epic. I’ve never been a fan of Guns & Roses, but playing Sweet Child o’ Mine is indescribable. Other songs will deliver the same sensation and will leave you wanting more, such as YYZ and Can’t You Hear Me Knocking. You’re sure to have hours of fun while playing by yourself, but Harmonix decided to add in co-op multiplayer, opening a whole new dimension to the gameplay. While you play lead guitar, you buddy will stand right next to you, playing either rhythm guitar or bass guitar. The two of you will feel as if you’re the founding members of the next great band — can anyone say Rock Band?
I’m not going to babble on about what emotions will emerge as you play through the selection of classic songs in Guitar Hero II. What you need to know is that it is better than Guitar Hero and fully worth the purchase. The addition of co-op alone will provide reason enough to make some friends, just so you can invite them over.
Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II, along with similar games to come, are very important to the future of gaming. When you play one of your mother’s favourite songs for her, without flaw, she’ll be impressed as to how you did that. She may even want to try it — and this is when you know a game is successful, when it has mass appeal to gamers as well as their mothers. Now you’ve distracted her enough that she won’t be nagging you to stop playing GTA3 while writing letters to Rockstar about how they’ve become a plague on society. To see a game like this make it in the industry will be a signal to other developers, telling them that the juice is definitely worth the squeeze. Making a game that essentially forces you to buy a peripheral when you could be buying another game instead is a bold move, and that’s why we don’t see it very often. However, Harmonix made it work so well that you’ll smack your friend for even doubting your taste in video games. Even if you don’t like this game, there’s no denying its innovation, which is what any developer wants for their game.
“Steps Toward an Elitist Critic Future” at Rock Paper Shotgun
I went into this article expecting the “elitist critic future” to be presented as a negative thing, but no. Kieron Gillen is openly admitting here that he likes it. I think he’s buying into the idea that games need what you could call “indie cred” (not his words) to be worthwhile. I love Earth Defense Force 2017, but no, Kieron, it’s not better than Gears of War.
Lower the price of the hard drive, Microsoft. I want to give you more money, all you have to do is let me.
“EA Partners Is A Murderers’ Row - Who’s NOT On This List?” at MTV Multiplayer
This is a good bit of investigative reporting from Stephen Totilo. With last Thursday’s announcements by Electronic Arts of deals with Grasshopper Manufacture and Epic Games, they now have at least half a dozen major partners, and that’s not counting the smaller companies they have outright purchased over the last couple years.
I have become amazed at what XBLA has done in the past few weeks. It started with Geometry Wars 2, a game Jim Canapa described perfectly in the previous column (he should know, since his high scores are far better than mine). Bionic Commando, another great game I will go into detail about later, was the most recent addition. But in the middle was Braid, the first game to ever cause an internal conflict for me.