“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.
Latest Feature: Impulse Buyer
Can Stardock break into the marketplace, and will it help reduce piracy?
COLUMNS
Neversoft Entertainment ⋅
Activision ⋅
Music / Rhythm ⋅
By Jim Canapa on July 1, 2008 in PS2, PS3, wii, xbox 360
For the Aeromsith fans under 40. All three of them.
You would think that a review of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith would be as simple as asking the player two questions. One; did you like Guitar Hero 3, and two; do you like Aerosmith, and perhaps three; are you offended by Steven Tyler’s massive virtual pie hole? Thankfully, there is just a little more to it than that. Liking, or at least tolerating Aerosmith is still a requirement, but there have been a few subtle changes since the last game, and all of them for the better.
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.
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.
Morrowind really helped pull itself head and shoulders above the crowd by developing a realistically complicated world in such an unfamiliar setting that its players can’t help but explore every nook and cranny, finding new reasons to love it every time they play.
“Gaming’s 20 Greatest Challenges” at Edge
Colin Campbell doing what he does best. I can’t imagine coming up with this list, not to mention writing as smartly and concisely about them all. The one problem here is that he doesn’t always offer a solution to these problems, but it’s still important either way.
“THE ACTION BUTTON DOT NET MANIFESTO: A LIST OF THE TWENTY-FIVE BEST GAMES OF ALL-TIME” at Action Button
They’ve been teasing it for months, but finally here it is. Twenty-five full reviews. It’s a lot, so they’re releasing them three at a time twice a week. The three up now are all good examples of why Tim Rogers is important to the topic of this column.