Another Quiet Sunday

Not much except for a visit from the Best Friend who messed around with Rock Band and surprised me by totally nailing the vocals for Radiohead’s Creep. It would seem that all that singing along in the car for years can actually pay off…

Just Another Saturday

Finished an article, played Rock Band.

Still Writing

The last of the GameAxis articles for the month should be done over the weekend. Other than that, it’s business as usual, meaning for Rock Band. Earlier in the day the Wife and were playing what might have been another couple, although towards the end, they went insane and selected Green Grass & High Tides by the Outlaws, which is the Rock Band equivalent of Freebird, and considerably, CONSIDERABLY harder, weighing in at nearly 10 minutes in length with fret work that makes Freebird look like a ham-fisted child trying to thread a needle with mittens on. It was a bit of a surprise, because up until this point, the people we’d been playing with had their guitarist playing entirely on Hard, and I was more than fine with that, until they selected Coheed and Cambria’s Welcome Home and I finally decided to play guitar instead of bass, but on Expert. After that, we jumped straight in Green Grass, and, knowing there was no way in hell I was going to finish this song, I went back to bass. The guitarist took it instead, and then bumped it up to Expert, which was suicidal madness.

In the end, the song was passed, just barely, and only because I started hoarding star power like crazy and constantly deploying it to save the guitarist as she struggled through the incredibly vicious solos in the song. In the beginning it was fine, because the drummer, her partner, was also bailing her out, and the Wife was also doing her part, but when it got to the killer second solo, even the drummer was struggling, the Wife wasn’t singing and thus couldn’t deploy her Star Power, and so it was up to me to keep activating Star Power as quickly as I could get it for the duration of the nearly 5 minute end solo and keep her in the game. In the end, we survived, although after that they kept choosing songs where she kept playing at Expert level and I kept having to bail her out. Eventually they tired themselves out and broke up the session, but at least the Wife got her wish and finally saw the song completed on Expert. Sort of.

Anyone interested in seeing what kind of finger-y insanity is called for with this song can watch this impressive video by someone who plays much better than I currently do, since I still can’t finish this song yet.

More Articles

It’s that time of the month again, as I sweat out some articles for GameAxis, so not much to talk about. Rock Band continues to dominate the TV set on a nightly basis, and it seems we’ve found another pair of folks to play with. They play on Guitar and Drums on Expert, and although none of us is perfect at the instruments, there’s a level of proficiency that gets pretty exhilarating when everyone is jamming together and long streaks of perfect playing start to erupt. In fact, it got to the point where we played one song Coheed & Cambria’s Welcome Home and we actually “gold starred” the damn thing, meaning that everyone was playing nearly perfectly and timed our use of “star power” (dubbed “overdrive” in the game) so well that we crossed the critical 120% threshold that separates a 5-star song from its coveted gold star cousin.

Immediately after there was a request to start an online band, but sadly such a thing isn’t possible on Rock Band just yet, as only “local” bands are allowed, ie, real people in the room with you.

Still it’s nice playing with that pair. The Wife and I enjoy playing online with just about anyone, we’re not one of those types that kick people out just because they want to play guitar or drums on Easy or Medium. But we’ve begun to see certain patterns of behavior emerge in the online community of Rock Band. One of course, is the previously mentioned “when they see a vocalist is a female avatar, they automatically jump to I’m So Sick for a XX chromosomal verification test.” The other is that invariably, nearly every group will select Enter Sandman. Another consistent pattern we’ve been noticing is that people tend to not take failure very well. Rock Band allows people to fail out twice and be rescued by other band-mates, but it always seems like whenever someone fails, they usually leave the group after it happens.

But probably the most interesting behavior we’ve been seeing has been one of skill level. When we get into a group, if the others are playing at Easy or Medium, and we select Expert, quite often, after the song is over, the Leader will either disband the group, or if we’re the lead console, the Easy/Medium players will leave. However, we’ve learned to curb this by waiting a few moments to see what difficulty level the other players choose. And then after they’ve made their choice, we match it. It’s gotten to the point now where it’s pretty easy to recognize an Expert level player, because they’ll wait first to see what skill level the other people choose. If 5 seconds goes by with no one choosing anything, invariably, everyone dives into Expert. It’s an odd sort of culture of players that’s popping up in Rock Band, but it’s a fun one. We just have to get the hang of the etiquette.

Taking It Easy

Mostly just finishing up an article and then cutting down on guitar theatrics in Rock Band as my shoulder continues to ache from constant abuse. I shifted it down a gear to playing Bass and made the horrifying discovery that I’m actually quite good at it. Oh well…

Little Work, Lotta’ Rock Band

We are now getting many invites. People keep asking us to play with them, largely, I suspect, because it’s hard to find people willing to sing and play bass at the Expert level, since nearly everyone wants to play drums and lead guitar. It’s a nice change of pace, although it’s a bit alarming sometimes to see that there seems to be certain cut-offs and elitism already sinking into place. For example, some people that try to play online with others get immediately kicked out of groups the second they choose to play Easy, Medium or Hard. Others who are looking for people to play against in duel or tug of war modes post alarming messages on the forums saying things like “If you’re planning to miss more than one note, don’t bother talking to me.”

It’s things like that that make me glad that Rock Band is a largely cooperative experience. There are already complaints from some about the rampant elitism the Guitar Hero veterans are bringing to the game in the competitive modes, and I really don’t want to take part in that.

Rocking Through The Pain

Did a bit more work, did some shopping at Eaton Centre, and nursed a shoulder that is protesting mightily about yesterday’s abuse, hoping that I would have the good sense to not put the tortured limb through more senseless abuse.

I never was one to listen to common sense though. At the very least, I’ve made more progress in the Hard mode for drums and just barely squeaked through Black Sabbath’s Paranoid. The next tier, however, is a dead end until I get that limb independence thing licked.

Legends Of Rock

In a fit of sheer, stubborn minded stupidity, the Wife and found–after a few days of steady playing in the Band World Tour mode of Rock Band–that we had finally unlocked what could be considered the final stage of the mode, a piece of sadistic insanity the Harmonix developers dubbed the “Endless Setlist.” While it doesn’t actually live up to the name, it certainly feels like as you approach the finish. This is a marathon session of every single song on the disc, bonus songs included, that must be played straight through. Of course, you can pause the game at any time, but there’s no quitting out of it once you start, unless you’re willing to sacrifice the fans you’ve earned ’till this point. So once you commit, you’ve gone past the point of no return.

We looked at that thing, and of course, the immediate question was “Dare we?”

A quick press of the confirmation button later, it was obvious that yes, we dare.

It’s now done. 58 songs. We don’t get any special instruments for this–although after completing the previous induction into the hall of fame, we got glass instruments–but instead, for completing it, we were conferred with “Legendary Status,” which apparently means that we now get differently colored icons compared to most people online, and, far less subtly, when we play online, other people see our character surrounded by a halo of light, as we radiate the Majesty Of Rock that we have earned. Or so I’ve read. I can’t actually confirm this, since it doesn’t show up for us on our console or TV, but from what others have said, they’ve seen other Legendary Stars appear online surrounded by such a glow, so I’m assuming it will be the same for us.

And MAN does my shoulder hurt. It feels like my right arm is going to fall off soon…

In The House

The Best Friend finally threw a house warming party, so we went to that, despite the fact that she actually moved into the place some time in July, and I had previously been there when the place was filled to the brim with boxes. A lot of decent folks in attendance, though I have come to the re-realization that I’m just not the sociable type. Not that I didn’t socialize with the people there, or enjoy some of the conversations that I had there, but seeing just how many friends the Best Friend had accumulated in a few years in Toronto, really drove home the point that I have little interest in actually expanding my own circle of friends. There’s the Wife, some folks in Singapore, and a few hold overs from Highschool and University, and that’s really about it for me, I don’t have any inclination in adding to that. The Best Friend, on the other hand, seems to know dozens upon dozens of people, but then she works in a fairly high profile, creative industry, so this kind of thing is inevitable. When you’re cranky, hermit-like writer that prefers staying at home, playing games and hanging out with an equally anti-social spouse, that tends to keep the danger of new friendships at a relative low.

Oh well, some people just ain’t social butterflies…