I know it’s no Forza or Gran Turismo, but it’s definitely not a Burnout title either. It’s more PGR4 than Motorstorm, but it’s still its own distinct title in middling ground. Unfortunately, this time it’s not middle enough.

There was a brief period before and after Need for Speed: Most Wanted in which the franchise had racing games with no police involved. If your most iconic title is called Hot Pursuit 2, here’s a hot tip: don’t drop the cops. Thankfully, the chases are back into the formula, and they’re done fantastically to nobody’s surprise. But the one thing fans of the series gained from the enforcers’ reprieve was a very determined focus on the actual driving and racing aspects (these somehow came to light as important parts of a racing game in which you drive cars). Undercover is a pleasing amalgamation of all previous entries into the Need for Speed family. The police have returned in full force, but at the same time, you are benefiting from the police-free titles like ProStreet and Underground, as well as Carbon, which had police, but sucked anyway. The point is, car customization is fantastic, controls are pretty straightforward (it’s hard to fuck up a good thing when it works across the board, but somebody always manages it), and the new driving engine is designed to let you pull off cool maneuvers, but it still handles your individual cars very well and as realistically as I imagine it ever should.

There’s really not much to complain about here. The plot, while ending on a kind of wait, what note is actually pretty good. A lot of people hear the basic synopsis and say something snarky and mildly retarded about the similarity to The Fast and the Furious. Good one. Yeah, you play as an FBI agent trying to uncover some racers who decided to step up their game and commit more serious crimes, which explains why you have to be in just as much danger from the police as any other racer (you are undercover, after all). The gameplay actually requires this plot and vice versa: in order to have someone to race with, you have to prove your worth. In order to prove your worth, you must “dog” some “bacon” and prove you’re not a cop yourself. To engage police in chases and escape, there must be an open game world in which to drive. In other words, while there isn’t anything to do outside of the events that progress the plot (in the form of a leveling system accompanying each race’s payout), the open road has merit just in its necessity to police chases, which are relevant to the storyline.

As I said, though, the benefits of the police-free games are here, but there is nothing beside the reintegration of pursuing squad cars to offset these perks from the “simulator” side. This game needs more “arcade.” It has a handful of cars that can only be described as “totally badass,” and each of them takes physical damage, but this has no actual effect on the performance of the vehicle, thank the gods. That is indeed “arcade.” However, in some instances, you can completely total the car, smashing it so hard that the game just says “wow, you fucked up hard, start over.” Where is my Burnout-style exploding shattering shrapnel storm of wreckage and former bits of vehicle? If you’re going to go all out and tell me my car is so screwed it can’t even drive, I think we deserve a little more than just seeing the car in the same state as it was after bumping into one million things very lightly, rather than one thing at one million miles an hour. When I smash a cruiser out of commission, I want to see it sawed in half like that poor son of a bitch in The Matrix Reloaded that got nailed by those ghost twins’ huge truck. What I don’t want is to see just another cruiser slam into park with minor cosmetic issues.

Critics and designers and fans have all touted and hailed Undercover as a return to form, but I only see baby steps from there. I see a necessary piece of the franchise being returned to its rightful place and done very well, but at the same time, it’s hard to call that progression. Yes, the game brings together the worlds of its prequels and does everything either well or very well, but it lacks that joie de vivre found in its most beloved predecessors. I thoroughly enjoyed the game from start to finish, and I had several “oh damn yes” moments, whether it was by myself or racing online with and against my friends, but occasionally pumping my fist in the air or telling an AI driver to go fuck himself as I blur past him isn’t quite worth an A+ around here. When the Need for Speed games embrace their full potential, I’ll be waiting with open arms, but for now, this is just good; an upgrade for anyone who already enjoyed the series’ previous entries.

Rock Band 2 forces its players to enjoy the experience the designers intended, and it comes off better for it. With the first game, I had a few characters (enough for each instrument to be played in Career) and breezed through the setlist. In this game, you make a band, and then make a character, and that band, no matter its makeup, goes through World Tour mode in order to unlock all of the songs. You must play in different cities and venues and complete various challenges to unlock different cities with different songs, etc etc.

Rock Band 2 is a solid game, and from what I hear, the peripherals are all improved as well. I know the drums are better, but I’ve yet to even see, let alone play with, the new guitar. Harmonix definitely had its end-users in mind when creating every aspect of Rock Band 2. They know their game is a fun band-like experience now in World Tour mode, but even Quickplay has its improvements. Players creating their own setlists and turning on ‘no fail’ mode is pretty much guaranteeing the game’s success at a party.

I’m glad to say that this game is even better than the first. Rock Band was fun, but it definitely had its fair share of requested fixes and additions, and Harmonix has listened to their fans and done what was asked of them, which is a great thing to say of any development team. With the sequel, we are not just paying for a chunk of songs at a time, but all of the little details that make exporting the first game in order to be played via the Rock Band 2 disc totally worthwhile.

Pandemic have managed to cultivate an entire sub-genre with their successful Mercenaries franchise. It isn’t a sandbox, because that has walls. This game is much more open, giving you more capability for imagination and ingenuity. It allows you to tackle situations in so many different ways, using such a huge variety of tactics and strategies that no two play sessions will be the same. Mercenaries 2 is more than a box of sand, it’s the whole damn beach.

Beaches are just one thing you will be seeing a lot of in the lush and vibrant Venezuela presented in the game. There are geopolitical machinations, evil bad guys in white linen suits, backstabbing and revenge, enough one-liners and kiss-off lines to fuel a dozen B-movies, and plenty of twists and turns as you rampage all over South America wreaking havoc and chaos. Featuring neatly rendered cut scenes and plenty of radio conversations, it provides a brisk pace to ferry you from one side of the country to another, creating pockets of action and drama as you go.

But in that respect, Mercenaries 2 is a precision guided bomb, focusing on one very specific aspect of game design and leaving many others by the wayside. If you expect high quality narrative or even a coherency of plot, then look elsewhere, because story isn’t a high priority here. It is just context for your actions, in many ways simply explaining why the developer wants to give you this fancy new playground in which to mess around in.

Well what is this x-factor that the game can deliver that nothing else can? It satisfies a primitive urge ingrained in our minds over millennia, a rush of adrenaline and endorphins that can only be achieved under special circumstances. Simply put, Mercenaries 2 lets you blow things up over and over again, and it never gets old. It is the most basic of design choices, allowing the player to demolish everything, and on paper seems simple. But in practice achieving such a lofty goal is a monumental achievement. Everything can be destroyed in this game. And I do mean everything. Every building, every skyscraper, shack, warehouse, bunker, treetop high-hide, oil tanker, industrial refinery, etc. The jungle itself can be razed to the ground if you so wish. You can detonate, demolish and destroy to your heart’s content.

The genius of this doesn’t become immediately apparent until you play a few hours of the game. In fact, because this is such a detraction from standard game design, you will often find yourself incredulous that you really can level every building, sometimes assuming that it isn’t interactive or is a fixed position, and finding often by accident that it isn’t. Following a slow burn introduction that allows you a taste of the weaponry to come, you fight your way to the center of an island and rescue an HVT, or high value target. This mechanic is repeated often throughout the game and is the evolution of the deck of cards featured in the previous iteration. If you extract an HVT in a chopper alive, you get paid double, and in Mercs 2, money is everything. With it, you can purchase weapons, vehicles (including everything from motorboats to attack helicopters), and airstrikes.

From a lowly cluster bomb which can pepper a small area with light shrapnel, to 10,000lb fuel air burst devices; endlessly satisfying to use, you can call them in using several methods. Once you recruit a jet pilot in the early parts of the game, he can deliver most of the advanced bombs to the battlefield immediately, using smoke canisters or electronic beacons. Even the method of delivery allows you to be creative, positioning a bunker buster so that it pierces through two buildings at once, or placing a cruise missile strike in the basement of a parkade so that it takes out the foundations. Attaching a beacon to a vehicle will home-in the strike on that position, allowing for surprise attacks or the destruction of moving targets. These aren’t tools of destruction, they are toys.

The inclusion of an oil supply resource system means that each time you call in an air strike, it uses a set amount of oil, which you collect by stealing supply drums, tankers and storage containers secluded all around the world. This means that you can only go for a certain amount of time in the field before you run out of oil, making stocking up before missions essential. Upgrades to your oil supply cap can be purchased from various factions when you become friendly with them, making your combat effectiveness more potent. This creates an impulse pacing to the game, making each mission a battle of attrition between the enemy and your own supplies, creating tension and superb action as you make each bomb count.

The factions are where the meat of the game lies. Starting off, you are introduced to two rivals, the UP, or United Petroleum forces, mercenary groups and insufferable capitalists trying to protect their exploitation of the Venezuelan people, and the PLAV, or People’s Liberation Army of Venezuela, rebel fighters based in the Amazon jungle fighting the former for control of their country. Both give you missions to attack the other and you must choose which one to really support, because keeping all factions happy is a tough job. And there are plenty of them, including Rastafarian pirates, loyalist Venezuelan military, and foreign powers looking to get their hands into the situation. Each one has unique vehicles and weaponry you can purchase from them, making your choice of faction support affect your battlefield abilities. For example, the PLAV sell the powerful Daisy Cutter bomb, allowing for imprecise destruction, but the UP forces have many more support abilities, strafing runs and transport helicopters. Each one is unique and features a plentiful supply of missions and challenges for you to do for cash and rewards, which is often simply capturing an outpost of the enemy, killing everyone inside.

When you enter an enemy base and start wrecking stuff, you won’t immediately lose favor with that faction unless they call in your actions to their superiors on the radio. You have a few seconds to incapacitate the person calling you in before they send reinforcements. This creates a frantic highpoint to an assault, as you dash across the camp to bludgeon a lone soldier to death before he can finish dialing 1-800 HELP US. Or you can just drop a bunker buster on his head, leveling the tent he is in, the surrounding tents, and half the hillside they sit upon.

Really, that is what Mercs 2 is about. Freedom to approach a situation any way you like. You can go in stealthy and plant C4 charges all around a camp, then exfiltrate with a bang, or you can just nuke the site from orbit, just to be safe. No really, you literally can deploy nuclear weapons on the battlefield. Sure, the whole country will be pissed off at you, but in Mercs 2, you have the means, the motivation and the money to take them head on. World in Flames is not just a catchy subtitle, it is an accurate description of what this game is like. You can and will destroy everything, the whole time laughing with glee as you create new and incredible ways to scorch the Earth.

That’s about where the negatives end, though. Bangai-O Spirits is 2D shooting at or near its best. It’s a pure, smooth combination of simple mechanics that work perfectly together. It feels like they weren’t just conceptualized, but realized first, and then came the level design. Your different offensive abilities (like bullets that bounce off walls, and ones that can shoot through two enemies instead of one), defensive abilities (like a bat that deflects projectiles if you time it correctly and the shield that protects one side of your body of your choice for the entirety of a level), special abilities (like freezing enemies, or reflecting attacks from all directions at once), and all the different types of AI harmonize beautifully.

Then the level design comes in. There are over 160 stages - some straight action, some puzzle (even without a single enemy), and many somewhere in between. They feel like proof-of-concept for the gameplay, and I don’t mean that in a chastising way, I mean it in the same way Super Mario 64 is a proof-of-concept for 3D games and the analogue stick. They’re also inspiration for the level editor, which has got to be one of the most intuitive and flexible ever in a game. “Little Bangai-O Planet,” as it’s been called by fans, is a bit of a stretch, but once you’re good enough to not die within five seconds of starting half the stages, it steals the show. Especially since you can share stages datacassette-style. Watching a video of a stage on YouTube and then downloading it from an mp3 file in its description is a wonderful convenience.

Bangai-O Spirits is undeniable if you don’t have any sort of prejudice against the genre you can’t get over, and if you’re patient with it. It’s a refreshingly hard game - one of few, actually, that doesn’t put me to sleep after an afternoon of NES games kicking my ass. So it’s fun, challenging, great in a group setting, and it fosters creativity. It’s the best handheld release in years.

Like its titular and unseen antagonist, Alone in the Dark is the virtual father of lies. There are good ideas here; fresh, new ideas that in a better game would have been noted for their potential and stolen later. For example, inventory space is at a premium; there is no magic backpack to hold every item in the game all at once. Storage is limited to what can fit in the players jacket, but this is where it loses all credibility: the jacket can hold four wine bottles, a gun, a flashlight, several boxes of ammo, a lighter, bandages, batteries and a quest item that cannot be dropped. It was a good idea, but implemented in a way that was frankly silly - the portable hole backpack was replaced by a clown car coat.

Even Alone in the Dark’s best idea serves only to focus the player on the game’s other glaring problems. I understand that not everyone has several hours a night to spend on a game. I admit that not everyone is either patient or stubborn enough to force through a game just to see how it ends, and Alone in the Dark tries to remedy this. Most chapters and sections can simply be skipped via the DVD like pause menu. A few of the last sections are not available right away, but can be unlocked relatively quickly. It sounds like a good idea - a concession to the casual gamer - but in reality it is nothing more then a stopgap solution to the game being at best unevenly paced and at worst just unplayable in places. If every level was worth playing, or at the very least relevant to the story in some way, there would be no reason to skip it. Giving me the option to jump to the end of a $60 game because I don’t have the time to play it (or because I can’t get past something) does not replace making the whole $60 game worth playing. I find it insulting that instead of fixing problems, the game simply gives me the option to skip them. If I skipped every problem, I would have been done in a half an hour.

Apart from these new and wasted ideas, there is very little good to talk about. Of course the game controls poorly, it’s survival horror on the level of Resident Evil and Silent Hill, games that controlled just as poorly two hardware generations ago and have since made a successful effort to improve themselves. At least they had the common sense not to force the player into a car for extended periods of time. Alone in the Dark features scripted chase sequences that border on Stuntman difficulty without including any sort of checkpoints. Each is an exercise of trial and error, except sometimes the error is not even the player’s fault. Example: the first chase ends in a building that has no apparent exits. The first time I got there, I followed along with what I thought made sense and crashed my taxi through a widow, only to clip through the building and fall into nothing. After twenty minutes of trying new things I realized that my first idea was right, but that the rest of the level hadn’t loaded before I plummeted to my death. I had to break the window, then hit the breaks and wait for the game to catch up. This was not good sign.

I am at a loss as to what happened with Alone in the Dark. It takes new ideas and breaks them, manages to get even the most established clichés wrong, and is buggy and unfinished to boot. There is nothing to salvage here. Even the end, a face to face confrontation with Satan himself, is boring. How do you make an encounter with the prince of darkness boring and uneventful? Alone in the Dark should not have been released; not even more development time, the supposed panacea for bad games, would have saved it. It would have been a better idea to take what good ideas it had and give them to more talented people while scrapping the rest. All this game did was make an Uwe Boll movie look good by comparison, and I didn’t think that was even a possibility.

It would seem that Activision actually listened to at least one major complaint about Guitar Hero 3: the boss battles were out of place and far too difficult. There is still one boss battle here, this time with Joe ‘Fucking’ Perry (no, they don’t call him that, but it would have been awesome if they did), and it is nowhere near as sadistic as Lou was. It shows up quite late in the game, in the middle of the last set, and then it’s done. It still doesn’t quite fit, but at least it isn’t very hard to get past. It took me months to get past Lou on Hard, and when it happened, it was quite by chance, and I have never felt the need to do it again. At least I have a fighting chance to beat Joe Perry on Expert without growing extra fingers.

The note charts also feel less ridiculous this time, though that may have something to do with the limited set list, which thankfully avoids any of the super cheesy Cryin’ / Amazin’ / Crazy / Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing sound-alike power ballads. Without gushing (and yes, I do like Aerosmith, but screw you), Joe Perry has a very distinctive style. The songs featuring him on guitar in either Rock Band or Guitar Hero 3 always felt a little different, but at least consistent with each other. There is an odd, off-beat, bluesy rhythm to his solos, and once I figured that out, they became much easier. I have yet to go back and try anything on expert, and I will probably hurt myself doing so, but again, it feels like I have a decent shot, which is more than I can say for the last two groups of songs in Guitar Hero 3. I’m looking at you, Raining Blood. I hate you.

If they made the game easier, so be it. I have no problem with that. There is a fine line between challenge and frustration that Guitar Hero 3 jumped across and ran far away from; Guitar Hero: Aerosmith took a few welcome steps back from that. My only real complaints have nothing to do with the music itself, but with what a missed opportunity this is to really showcase a band and its history. For a group that has been around as long as Aerosmith, there just isn’t a whole lot of them here. There are short interviews between tiers that look like they were recorded with a cell phone, and that’s it. No music videos, no stills, no record covers, nothing. They even used the same character models for the band members for every venue, despite tracing the entire history of the band. I know the band spent most of their early years in a drug-induced haze, but they still shouldn’t look that wrinkly in the 1970’s. There is definitely potential here, but if this is to be the first in a series of artist-themed Guitar Hero games, they need to spend more time on the extras to make it worth the $60 ticket price.

Let’s start with the basics. Rock Band is comprised of four parts: guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. The guitar and bass parts work pretty much exactly as they do in the Guitar Hero series. You’ll have your fair share of notes, held notes, chords, and hammer ons/pull offs. The drums are a little bit tricky in the sense that they consist of four drum pads and a pedal, making the learning curve fairly steep. And last but not least (at least for me) are the vocals, which are unlike anything else in the game. The vocals chart scrolls horizontally across the screen from left to right, with the words at the bottom and their respective pitch bars, which you have to hit, above the lyrics. The higher the pitch bar, the higher you have to sing. Sometimes the words will still scroll across the screen without pitch bars, meaning it is a “talky part” and solely based on syllable recognition.

This all seems pretty straightforward so far, and it is. That is the beauty of this game. All four instruments combine to form a seamless multiplayer experience that is unmatched by any other out there. In other words, this game is not about graphics or even gameplay. It’s about creating an environment that allows you maximize the amount of fun you’d have with three other friends.

In this sense, Harmonix actually succeeds in the part where most developers have trouble: it innovates, and not through a gameplay feature or storytelling or art style, but on an emotional level. This game evolves the video game into not only a more accessible format, but something we’ve never even seen before.

Therefore, I can’t really give a technical review of this game. Of course, there are many problems. The hammer-ons/pull-offs are hard to tell apart, the Band World Tour mode is random and frustrating, the guitar note charts are fairly bland, the guitar isn’t very comfortable, the load times are pretty bad, bass is always the bitch instrument, I can’t fucking sing like Julian Casablancas, and Guitar Hero III is definitely the better single player game, but none of these things really have a significant effect on the what truly matters: the experience.

Of course, there will always be the most obvious criticism of “Why don’t you just start a real band instead?” Well, without going into the very heavy financial and emotional commitment to actually do this, that question can be answered very easily. Rock Band isn’t about starting a band, it’s about having fun with your friends. And while starting an actual band is no doubt the bigger achievement, the overall experience will probably not provide the casual, yet colossal fun that Rock Band does.

But FIFA 08 is just another game in a line of successes for EA, after both skate and Madden both being excellent games, this latest iteration of the ludicrously popular football (if anyone says soccer I swear…) franchise that has been around since the mid-nineties.

The game is fun to play. For the longest time, the series fell back upon the lucrative licenses EA have for all major leagues and teams. But now the gameplay is superb. Player movement is fluid; the animations are both realistic and functional. The controls work well to convey a sense of momentum which has long been missing from football games. The ball now hits players, and players now have weight and energy. This makes crunching tackles even more brutal.

Passing is simple; performing the basics is also nailed down. No longer are there problems with heading the ball, or interceptions. It all just works. So much so that you hardly notice it and focus more on the prestige moves, like flicks and tricks, long balls and outrageous shots.

You can play against the capable AI, which still feels a little cheap at times but certainly puts up a good fair fight, but you can also play against other people in an incredible amount of ways. Local games are of course a lock, but the game features online leagues, multiplayer modes of all kinds, tournaments, specialty leagues and all kinds of custom-made matches between exorbitant amounts of teams.

The staples of the series are also all present; repetitive commentary, awful set piece mechanics (making free kicks and corners less viable than throw-ins) and horrible menu music. The game also has a disgustingly large amount of modeled players that, for the first time in a long time, actually look like real human beings and not wax-work horrors. The breadth of teams available is more than you would expect, even though the majority of people will still play their favorite team.

But overall, FIFA 08, like Madden 08, improves on all of the problems of the previous game and throws in some surprises of its own. It is an exciting and enjoyable game to play, and should not be considered anything less than the definitive football game out at the moment. Overall, it is an excellent game for sports fans and another franchise saved by EA. Highly recommended.

Forget for a moment that GH3 was built from the ground up by a different developer – what could have been done to make this series any less of an obvious cash cow? Every facet of the game could remain the same, with the only change being the songs, and people would still be flocking to stores to get it – myself included. There are only so many ways to rock out in a video game, most of which we’ve already experienced and loved. A few modes and features have been added to deter people from thinking that this is the same game that it always has been. For those that fancy to play the game by themselves, you can expect the same career mode, with the added feature of the guitar battles. While this is fun when playing against a friend, it’s more of a nuisance in single player.

One of the most noticeable changes in GH3’s gameplay is the margin of error you’re given. You have a slightly longer amount of time to hit each note than you did in either GH1 or GH2. This doesn’t necessarily make the playing of ordinary notes any easier, but hammer-ons and pull-offs can be performed in a much more forgiving manner. When it comes to the expert difficulty, a lot of the note changes are pretty ridiculous and will rekindle memories of frustration that drive you to better your performances.

GH3 is definitely a game to be played with a buddy at your side. The co-op career is an excellent addition and has some stellar songs that can’t be played in single player, which is fine if you’re not a social outcast, but otherwise, it’s almost cruel.

A good many of these songs are master tracks this time around, which does make the experience so much better than the sometimes sub-par covers. As well, the track list is probably the best yet – I can’t help but strut around the room and wail on my guitar. I still feel like a guitar hero.

I feel guilty buying a new game for full price when the only thing that really matters can be dealt with through DLC, or retail on a disc for a much more reasonable price. GH1 brought the innovation, GH2 brought it into the spotlight, and GH3 has more or less made it mainstream, with in-game advertisements and all. The only reason to buy this game is for the songs and the fact that it’s so ridiculously fun to play them. Nothing else matters.

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.