RAWK

Man, I have a loooooooong way to go. I Have finally acquired The Music Game Of 2006, Guitar Hero 2. As to be expected, once I got home, I threw that mother straight into the ol’ PS2 (It doesn’t seem to be a bad copy. Yet.) and started shredding away. Not wanting to burst into a humiliated puddle of shamed suckiness, I played it safe and went into Hard Mode rather than Expert. I guess all those months of practicing on Bark At The Moon and Cowboys From Hell paid off, because I managed to get through it without failing a single song. I didn’t “5-star” every song (The game rates your performance from 1-5 “stars”, with a 3 being the minimum required to pass a song) I managed to scrape through with a majority of 4 stars, and a few 3 and 5 stars here and there. However, it’s already becoming quickly apparent to me that the Expert tier is going to make men weep. Even at Hard it was… well, hard. After cruising through the earlier tiers only using Star Power (a feature that increases the score of every successful note and keeps you in the “green” on a meter that rates your performance) to boost my score in previous sections, I actually found myself leaning on it just to not fail a song. I was expecting Misirlou (the Pulp Fiction theme, as it’s probably more familiar to some of you) to kick my ass, and it did, though I didn’t fail it as I’d been expecting.

So far these are some of the highlights of the game for me…

Encores: This ROCKS. There’s just something deeply gratifying about nailing that last song on the set, and then having everyone scream out for more, and you give it to them.

Sweet Child O’ Mine: I was expecting to feel some strange, inexplicable feeling of nostalgic emotion, perhaps a twinge of 90′s Rock, and by God, I did. As soon as I started playing this song, there was an irrational surge of happiness that just tore through my system and a huge grin appeared on my face as I played the song. Definitely one of the setpiece jewels in the crown of music for Guitar Hero 2.

Girlfriend: Oh my God! MATTHEW SWEET! The song is just damn fun!

Message In A Bottle: I thought this was an incredibly bizarre choice until I actually played it. The bouncy melody is incredibly fun and infectious to play and now I’m a convert. It does belong on this game.

Freebird: The dreaded 9 minute song that was actually a joke reference in Guitar Hero 1 is now here and holy crap is that every a test of your stamina. Towards the end I was missing notes I shouldn’t just because my joints were sore and not moving as fast as they should have, though that could also be attributed to the fact that I’d just played 39 other songs previous to it. But still, when you actually HEAR the audience screaming “FREEEEBIIIIIIIIIIIRD! WE WANT FREEBIRD!” and you actually play it… My God, you really DO feel like a rock star. Red Octane has done the unlikely and made you feel even more Rock God-ish than Guitar Hero 1 did.

Now all I have to do is get myself ready for the pain that will be trying to survive these songs on Expert Mode. I expect that’ll keep me occupied for the rest of the year. Hanger 18 by Megadeth looks like it’s going to be an uphill battle all the way.

And in other news, I can now officially announce that The Wife has gotten herself an artist’s agent. She is now represented by the Lemonade Agency. In practical terms, this means that in the not too distant future, it may be possible to find book and CD covers by her. She’d gotten the announcement that the agency accepted her a few weeks ago, but she didn’t want to let any word get out until she had actual proof in the form of her work up on the website.

And now that I have thoroughly ruined my finger joints for the remainder of the evening, I’m going to go back to Final Fantasy XII for a bit. That, at least, isn’t going to make me go through a three minute guitar solo.

I Am Officially Married To A Canadian Permanent Resident

So the Wife got a notice that a piece of registered mail had arrived for her and was sitting at the post office. We went in today to get it and saw that big “Canada” font on the official looking brown envelope. After opening it, it was revealed that Canadian immigration now requires a few more documents for confirmation and they will issue her Permanent Residency visa.

So it looks like it’s now time for us to start seriously thinking about the move over, calling up various international movers, settling the discussion once and for all about Vancouver or Halifax (still haven’t made our minds up) and start the process of closing things down here. MAN am I ever glad we didn’t go looking for a new apartment to live in now…

So it looks like 2007 will be the year I go home with foreign bride in tow, except that she’s more talented than I am and has a better head for business.

Whoo. I’m goin’ home!

Ack, Busy Again

Just when I thought I’d cleared out my weekend for 48 Hours Of Rock (Guitar Hero 2 is arriving on these shores the day after tomorrow) I get hit with more work on scripts.

The video game documentary is now moving onto its fourth draft, and this, hopefully, will be the last since they need to start shooting next week. So much for burning through Final Fantasy XII and Guitar Hero 2 for a few days.

Also, I have been tasked to review a new music game called Elite Beat Agents for the DS which has already enjoyed an earlier Japanese release and has now been localized for Westerners. They ditched the old songs–which as far as I can tell where all J-Pop–and replaced them with hilarious selections like September by Earth, Wind & Fire, YMCA by the Village People and even Material Girl by Madonna. A cursory playthrough reveals that this may, in fact, be the funniest game released on the DS to date, but it’s definitely got a western sensibility to it that may not carry over very well with die-hard Japanese loving gamers of Singapore. The game is based around the eponymous agents, who run around cheerleading peopkl through their various challenges and giving the will and spirit Through The Power Of Music to succeed. Few people here can relate to the travails of a baby sitter in love with a jock football player, or a washed up batter trying to reclaim his former glory and get back into baseball. But it’s just ridiculously fun to play, though you’ll probably need headphones and monitor yourself in public to keep from tapping your foot to the rhythm or grinning like an idiot for no apparent reason at the onscreen hi-jinks.

Sick Day

Which meant nursing a slightly queasy stomach and whoooooole lotta’ Final Fantasy XII. Fortunately the Wife has also been diligent about grinding so things are shaping up quite nicely and the characters in the game are now usually going into boss fights with some seriously unfair advantages. Just the way I like it…

I Think I’m Sick

Been nauseous since late afternoon and I have no idea why. It may have been some bad salmon, but if so, it’s a pretty mild reaction since there’s no pain, and no actual throwing up, just the threat of throwing up. EXTREMELY annoying, and keeping me pretty much laid up in bed.

Scripts Finished

At least until the next round. Which leaves more room for Final Fantasy XII. The Wife has already taken a liking to it, and is happily grinding away, raising the levels of the characters even when I’m not playing, thus keeping things progressing at an extremely rapid pace.

It’s Official

Final Fantasy XII is indeed an excellent game. Not perfect, and there ‘s some major ripping off of Star Wars going on… I mean, come on, kid growing up in an occupied desert region? Rogue with a heart of cold and his exotic sidekick ( this time a hot bunny girl rather than a Wookie, I see this as an improvement) cooling down in a tavern, with a price on his head being pursued by bounty hunters? A beautiful princess at the head of the resistance against an evil empire with a chief enforcer who is dressed from head to toe in armor? DOES ANYONE NOT SEE THE SIMILIARTIES?!

And now the latest plot development is that the kid hero is tasked with seeking out a wise sage in the desert… Geez, I don’t suppose this guy will reveal the kid’s destiny and send him on a mission that could very well strike a blow for freedom and give the rebel a chance to retaliate against the empire…

Why Square-Enix Are Pop Culture Geniuses

So I just picked this up today, the last mammoth RPG from “Squenix” to grace the Playstation 2. Dubbed, Final Fantasy XII, this monster is one of the last of the “epic, AAA” RPGs left to play on the little black box and I’m looking forward to getting deep into it. Of course, one of the other reasons the game is so cool is because of Fran, the girl on the left. What other people except the Japanese, and what other industry except gaming, would ever think it’s cool to have a tanned, warrior bunny girl in lingerie in a major role for an epic story? Only in games could bunny girls go from irrelevant but incredibly hot sex objects to vital, dangerous but incredibly hot sex objects that you can interact with.

I’d Forgotten To Mention This, But…

So I DID finally get around to reading the trade paperback of Identity Crisis.

Yup, it made me cry.

But I thought the ending was kind of cheap. A shock for shock’s sake.

Blogger’s Working Again! Whee!

I seem to occasionally go through these stretches where even though I can write and save posts, Blogger won’t actually let me publish them. The last four days was another one of those stretches. Bah.

Not that I have anything particularly interesting to say today either. I still need to finish off another script, have an article for Maxim coming up, and there are a bunch of games that are going to be needing reviews. Plus Bully is IMMENSELY fun and there’s Guitar Hero and FFXII on the horizon.

Yes, I admit it. I am sad. But I am a sad person that is enjoying himself quite a bit, so I can live with my state of pathos rather than enjoy some virtuous, highly respectable misery.