Anime Characters Live

For whatever reason, we finally got around to messing about with Rock Band again (though not in the competitive we want to be #1 on the leaderboards thing again, so much as “Hey, this game is fun to play.”), and while we were at it, we picked up a few tunes including a new song called Monsoon by a German group called Tokio Hotel.

When I first heard the song, I honestly had trouble figuring out whether the singer was male or female. I figured that checking out YouTube would quickly settle the matter. As you can see from the picture of the band on the left, the issue became even further confused.

Wikipedia was once again my friend however, and confirmed that the guy is a guy and is named BILL.

However, taking one look at the fellow in question immediately made the Wife go into Paroxysms of Passion and she immediately declared that, were she younger and single, she would be Totally In Love With This Dude, because of the fact that this is the first time she’s ever seen someone who wasn’t cos-playing actually look like an anime character just freshly stepped off the screen of some game or vicious ninja/vampire fest. In a fit of Separated At Birth, she made the connection between Bill and this guy:

This is Axel, of Kingdom Hearts II fame. Your standard issue, generic, angst-ridden, pretty boy in a trench coat (of sorts) who may seem cruel and evil, but is really just misunderstood, and can open his heart to the right person (of which, of course, most girls fantasize they are in fact that person). Girls. Go figure. All I know is that Axel had an interesting mean streak to him, and he talked up a good fight, but wasn’t really much of a match for a Keyblade wielded by one of Pure Heart And Noble Intentions. Moral ambiguity gets you nowhere in a Disney game and Sora’s inhuman goodness proved that.

Also, here’s the music video in question with the oh so catchy song that we now own for Rock Band. Amazingly, these guys were just playing in town on May 16th. Had we bothered to pick this song up sooner, I’m sure we somehow would’ve ended up checking that performance out.

Level 2 Music

Tonight we went to Sneaky Dee’s in the Annex. It’s the kind of venue that veterans of Guitar Hero and Rock Band would identify as “second level” because it’s a step up from playing in your basement or high school gym, but not as flashy as a more established joint. We went down to check out a new Indie singer The Wife randomly discovered on the internet named Thao Nguyen. She’s essentially what would happen if Bjork were Vietnamese and sang folksy/reggae-ish sort of stuff. It was a pretty good set. The band all played on Expert, hit all their unison phrases and nailed the Big Rock Ending, likely gold starring all their songs. They still need to get more fans and stars before they can play the bigger venues and trade up from a van to a jet, so I don’t think they’re going to be doing their World Tour yet, but all in all, it was a very enjoyable performance.

Afterwards we walked over to a 24 hour eatery known as the Montreal Cafe and had some poutine, onion soup and some smoked meat sandwiches which we couldn’t even touch as a result of the abundance of other food and ended up bringing it home. Unfortunately I can’t figure out a way to work a music videogame metaphor into that, so we’ll just have to leave it at that. I love living in this city…

Concerts For Geeks

Holy crap, that was FUN.

Last night we went to “Video Games Live” a big concert that performs selected tunes from games both past and present. We’d previously been to a much more modest performance in Singapore put out by an Australian group, but this one was epic in scope.

It also helped that this was a North American audience, not a subdued Southeast Asian one, so the house nearly came down when One Winged Angel, aka, “The Final Fantasy VII villain theme” started up as an encore and screaming and cheering went beyond all reason. Of particular note was the amazing 21st century way they audience clamored for said encore; waving their Nintendo DSes, PSPs, and cellular phones in the air, as a post-modern take on the traditional waving of lighters.

I have to admit, I enjoyed this. A LOT. This is probably the only time you will ever have kids willingly pay money to attend a concert performed by classical musicians. I actually got chills down my spine hearing some of these tunes roaring out of the accomplished ministrations of some Toronto Symphony Orchestra alumni. God of War was as bad-ass/majestic as ever, but the show-stopper for me would have to be the theme for Metal Gear Solid. That’s always been an incredibly powerful piece of music, and with a full orchestra and choir blasting it out into Massey Hall was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. It helped immensely that for this younger, ADD-plagued audience, they had a freakin’ huge screen that showed snippets of game play from the games that the music originated from (except for Squenix games, because for some reason, Squenix forbade the use of game imagery). It also helped that they it wasn’t a pure performance of music. Tommy Tallarico, himself a game composer, mixed it up with things like gaming face-offs from people randomly picked from the audience, as well as the inevitable cos-play “cheer for your favorite” selection process.

For a performance that was done almost entirely by a traditional orchestra and choir, they sure managed to keep the whole night ridiculously geeky and hip…

Whoo Hoo More Rush

Working Man was one of the new songs available for purchase today. We also recently found out that–in a situation I never could have imagined when I was living in Edmonton–Rush will be giving a “hometown” concert here in Toronto in a few months.

Wow. Seeing Rush as a “local act.” Never thought I’d be able to do that. Life is weird…

It Rocked & Sucked

It was supposed to be something that was just to get a burning need out of the Wife’s system.  For a few years now she’s had her desire to attend an Oasis concert blunted.  It didn’t help that Singapore was a fairly out of the way place, but even when Oasis did announce a concert there, they cancelled in the wake of the Bali bombings, and the Wife’s front row tickets went to complete waste.

So when the Virgin Music Festival on Centre Island announced that Oasis was going to be headlining, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that we were going to attend.

Things actually started off pretty good.  The ferry ride to Centre Island was pleasant enough, fast and efficient, and the concert itself was pretty good.  What made it even more amazing however, was the violence.  Right in the middle of Morning Glory some guy actually came running out FROM BACK STAGE and pushed guitarist Noel Gallagher down.  Noel hit the floor and the guy immediately turned and went after vocalist/sibiling Liam Gallagher, who somehow manage to dodge  him, and by that point, security had shown up and dragged the guy off, though Liam was sufficiently pissed enough to try and take a swing at the guy and had to be pulled away.

Needless the say, the concert was interrupted, but amazingly, they came back 15 minutes later to finish the concert.  Understandably, there was no encore, probably because they wanted to beat the crap out of the guy in private.

Where the experience becomes horrible was in the going home.  It amazed me when it finally sunk in that a music festival on an island that was playing host to 30, 000 people was only being serviced by TWO FREAKIN’ FERRIES.  Getting off the island actually took longer than the concert did, and it was punctuated by rain which ran contrary to the forecast for clear skies in the evening.  So yes, we stood for hours waiting to get on a boat, and yes, we got soaked because we didn’t bring umbrellas.  While I’m glad that we got to see Oasis perform live, I’m probably never going to attend another major performance on Centre Island again, the logistics of getting off at the end of the show are just too crazy.

Amazingly, someone managed to catch the whole thing on tape and it’s already hit YouTube…

The One To Watch In 2008

There is a new game coming in 2008. Big surprise that. But this is not just any game that is designed to appeal to a traditional gamer-base. No, this game could be something truly special. This game could be brilliant. This game will also likely sell nowhere near the number of copies it deserves. It’s coming to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. It is called Brütal Legend. Why should you care?

Two words. Tim. Schafer.

And now, witness:

The Petty Fanboy Post

I admit it. I know I shouldn’t be enjoying this or taking any satisfaction from it, but I am. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is proving to be not as polished an affair as previous versions. There’s a little voice in my head that is gleefully whooping with joy over the fact that this proves that greed, avarice and an almost total disregard or interest in what you’re doing except for the money, is still no substitute for a genuine love of the art. The skaters that are Neversoft have unleashed their game on the masses and so far the results have not been equal to past efforts.

This is not to say that the game won’t make millions. It will. There’s no doubt in my mind that it will likely be the best-selling game this Christmas when you combine it over all the platforms of PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. But it won’t be as good as it could have been.

The game officially went on sale today, actually. Since then, people have been playing it, and obviously the gaming websites and magazines have had it even longer, and the results are finally starting to come in. The game is good, that’s not because of the new additions, that’s DESPITE them. Essentially, the only thing that keeps Guitar Hero III being fun is all the essential mechanics that were created by Harmonix anyway. All the new stuff retro-fitted onto it have been the negatives in most criticisms.

From a marketing perspective, there’s the little problem of bundles. It would seem that Activision failed to inform the public at large that in addition to the new wireless guitar that was going on sale (which they marketed the hell out of), there would also be bundles packing in the old guitar (which they hadn’t mentioned at all). This can definitely be blamed on the ignorance of people in too much of a hurry to check their purchase, but stores are now experiencing some returns as a result of people thinking they bought the new guitar (believing it to be the ONLY bundle) only to come home and realize this was the same guitar they already had lying around the house. Good job there, Activision…

An additional problem that falls under marketing is the use of advertising. I don’t actually have a problem with this myself, as I think it adds to the flavor of a game in certain ways. When used appropriately. Previous Guitar Hero games have actually had their authenticity enhanced through the presence of actual brand names in the manufacturing of music equipment like DW drums and VHT amplifiers. This makes sense to me. Unfortunately, Activision–perhaps in an attempt to be competitive with their rival–took this to Electronic Arts levels with this latest game, and players can now find themselves performing on a stage courtesy of… Pontiac. And if your playing stinks, then maybe it’s time to freshen it up with a manly smellin’ custom guitar brought to you by Axe Body Spray, so that your axe can also have the Axe Effect. This is about as subtle as Fight Night Round III where the game would boldly announce, “This round has been brought to you by BURGER KING!”

Over on the actual mechanical end of things… Well, the songlist is the songlist. This is strictly a matter of personal taste and can’t be argued. I actually like the songlist a lot. Tons of good stuff here. But one of the biggest mechanical problems seems to be an actual problem of mechanics. It would seem that there are problems with the new guitar that is being released for the game. This is not a big deal for PS2 owners that already have a controller. And it is not a big deal for Xbox 360 owners, who also will likely have an existing guitar. However, for Wii and PS3 owners, this is a VERY big deal. They have no choice but to buy these new, defective guitars simply because they don’t have “legacy controllers” from previous versions to fall back on.

The first and most serious problem seems to be the new construction of the controller. As a new feature for “added convenience” Red Octane has made these new guitars so that the neck can actually snap off from the base for easier storage. Unfortunately for some guitars, this has resulted in some cheap coating or adhesive that’s been applied to the joints where these two points meet, and this has actually interfered with the connection, making it impossible for the controller to be correctly read by the console. Some workarounds for this by desperate gamers have been to take an exacto knife and carefully scrape away at the contact points of the circuits to clean them up and make the proper connection as intended. Except of course that this kind of action voids your warranty, so you’re at risk if you take this course. Others have been having problems with the wireless system reading correctly with their console and there are already angry horror stories on the forums about some people on THEIR THIRD EXCHANGE OF THE DAY with still no luck on getting a functioning controller.

The other problem seems to be one of the buttons. Some people have reported that there seems to be a problem with the green button on the new guitar, in that it doesn’t always seem to know that it’s been pressed. There are already howls of rage on the Guitar Hero forum (or at least there were until it got shut down as the complaints mounted minute by minute) as people discovered that they were now failing songs as a result of the game telling them they were not pressing the button when they damn well knew they were.

This is also compounded by a problem with Star Power. The new guitars are a little too sensitive in the “tilt” department, and there have been reports of star power being engaged without actually tilting the guitar to a fully vertical position. It seem that there are plenty of angles at which Star Power Is A Go, and that’s been interfering with the process of playing for some. Another is a surprise defect in the code of the game itself; lag. Every review of the game from a major website has cited that, regardless of version, when Star Power is kicked in, there’s a small chance that the game will actually begin to slow down, as if the sudden application of Star Power was a surprise the game itself wasn’t expecting, which can cause the frame rate to drop, throwing it momentarily out of synch with the sound, and causing whatever streak you had going to break. Again, this isn’t a big deal for people that aren’t serious about the game, for the “score whore” who is concerned getting 5 stars, or just keeping a good multiplier going and capitalizing on the bonus points from a judicious use of Star Power, this is annoying in the extreme.

And then there is the new “boss battle” system and this is the one that is universally getting picked on by everyone. No one seems to like it, particularly at the Hard and Expert levels, because it now takes the skill out of the game,
and puts advancement squarely in the realm of luck. The boss battles are mandatory for advancing through the game, there’s no way to avoid them. The way they work is much like Tetris, or Puzzle Fighter or any other competitive multi-player game you might have played in the past where players are given “weapons” that can be used to interfere with the progress of the other player. In GHIII, this comes in the form of collecting Star Power and having it converted to a special attack that can do everything from bumping the difficulty up to Expert (if you’re not already playing at that level) to initiating a “lefty flip” (that is reversing the order of the buttons so that left handed people can play the guitar “upside down,” to “breaking a string” so that a button will no longer work until the whammy bar has been jiggled enough to cancel out the effect. At Hard and Expert level, many are complaining that the final boss has an unfair advantage in that he gets his special attacks before you do, and if you don’t get just the right combination of special attacks yourself–which is randomly determined–this is practically a guarantee that you will not win and should simply start again. While I know that there will be a certain competitive mindset that relishes this kind of more traditional “game-y, PvP” experience, I think this pretty much runs counter to the original spirit of the game, and it looks like many people are not liking it.

On top of this, there are problems with the network. This is probably more attributable to “labor pains” since it’s the first day the game is out, but people on both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 have been having enormous trouble getting online to play against each other. In both cases, it’s the same thing; people attempt to connect to the network, get a message indicating that the game is attempting to connect to another player to begin the co-op/versus session, and then a few minutes later the connection just times out.

And of course, there is the “new and improved” hammer on/pull off system, which has made these things easier in one sense. Hammer ons and such are easier to to do now that the timing is less precise, but at the same time, there seems to have been an overall loss in precision generally. Apparently Activision has said that this is a matter that is being looked into and there may be a patch to address it on the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. I have no idea if this will hold true for the PS2 version and if it does, what, if anything, PS2 owners can do about since they can’t just download a patch to correct the problem.

And finally, there is that little matter of over-complicating songs at the higher levels of difficulty simply because Neversoft couldn’t think of any other way to make the songs harder. Most reports agree that the songs at the highest tiers of Hard and Expert are much, MUCH harder than previous games, and that is because the game is asking you to push buttons where there are no notes even being played, and to hit three button chords even though a single note is being played. While no one is going to argue that these will make a song more challenging, you can still make a case for this actually lessening the feel of “playing” the song and merely melting your hands off trying to hit the crazy configurations Neversoft’s team (which was hired for the project, since Neversoft didn’t have any musicians in their company, they had to outsource to “music experts” to generate the note charts for them) dreamed up in order to challenge players.

As a result of the barrage of complaints coming in to the forums for GHIII the forums were actually shut down for a few hours.

There’s a part of me that would like to think that this is simply karma. This is what happens when you take something that began with pure intentions, and try and turn it into a cold, soulless business opportunity with no love for the product, only the profits it can generate.

Of course there’s also a part of me that dearly hopes that Rock Band will not be plagued by these same issues when it finally goes on sale. At this point, while I’m quite happy with the prototype peripherals I’ve gotten a chance to mess with, as GHIII has proven today, there can be quite a bit of variance between carefully constructed prototypes and the final, mass manufactured product. I can only hope that karma works both ways, and if this is the universe trying to punish Neversoft and Activision for trying to kill the spirit of Rock in favor of the lure of Big Money, then that same universe will look kindly on Harmonix for trying to bring the joy of music to the people.

More Rock Band Obsessiveness

Just another Friday, entailing a bit of writing on the novel and starting up more articles for GameAxis, ’cause it’s that time of the month again. Nothing else to talk about except for the fact that Harmonix has now released the full set of songs that will appear on Rock Band. Without further ado, here they are. As usual, anything not in bold denotes a cover, while anything in bold is an original master track.

1960s

• Rolling Stones “Gimme Shelter”

1970s

• Aerosmith “Train Kept a Rollin’”
• The Who “Won’t Get Fooled Again”
• Boston “Foreplay/Long Time”
• Mountain “Mississippi Queen”
• The Police “Next to You”
• David Bowie “Suffragette City”
• Black Sabbath “Paranoid”
• Blue Oyster Cult “Don’t Fear the Reaper”
• The Ramones “Blitzkrieg Bop”
• Deep Purple “Highway Star”
• KISS “Detroit Rock City”
• Molly Hatchet “Flirtin’ With Disaster”
• The Outlaws “Green Grass & High Tides”
• Sweet “Ballroom Blitz”

1980s

• Rush “Tom Sawyer”
• Bon Jovi “Wanted Dead or Alive”
• The Clash “Should I Stay or Should I Go”
• Faith No More “Epic”
• R.E.M. “Orange Crush”
• Iron Maiden “Run to the Hills”

1990s

• Foo Fighters “Learn to Fly”
• Metallica “Enter Sandman”
• Nirvana “In Bloom”
• Stone Temple Pilots “Vasoline”
• Weezer “Say It Ain’t So”
• Smashing Pumpkins “Cherub Rock”
• Radiohead “Creep”
• Beastie Boys “Sabotage”
• Hole “Celebrity Skin”
• Garbage “I Think I’m Paranoid”
• Soundgarden “Black Hole Sun”

2000s

• The Hives “Main Offender”
• Queens of the Stone Age “Go With the Flow”
• The Strokes “Reptilia”
• Jet “Are You Gonna Be My Girl”
• OK Go “Here It Goes Again”
• Nine Inch Nails “The Hand That Feeds”
• Pixies “Wave of Mutilation”
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Maps”
• Red Hot Chili Peppers “Dani California”
• Coheed & Cambria “Welcome Home”
• Fallout Boy “Dead on Arrival”
• The Killers “When You Were Young”
• New Pornographers “Electric Version”

That’s a pretty decent ration. Out of 45 songs, only seven are covers.

Here’s the final list for That Other Music Game. Same deal.

Tier 1:
Foghat – Slow Ride
Poison – Talk Dirty to Me
Pat Benatar – Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Social Distortion – Story of My Life

Encore: Kiss – Rock and Roll All Nite
Co-op Encore: Beastie Boys – Sabotage

Tier 2:
Mountain – Mississippi Queen
Alice Cooper – School’s Out
Cream – Sunshine of Your Life
Heart – Barracuda

Boss: Tom Morello – Guitar Battle
Encore: Rage Against the Machine – Bulls on Parade
Co-op Encore: The Strokes – Reptilia

Tier 3:
The Killers – When You Were Young
AFI – Miss Murder
The Who – The Seeker
Priestess – Lay Down

Encore: Rolling Stones – Paint It Black
Co-op Encore: Red Hot Chili Peppers – Suck My Kiss

Tier 4:
Black Sabbath – Paranoid
The Sex Pistols – Anarchy in the UK
Sonic Youth – Kool Thing
Weezer – My Name Is Jonas

Encore: Pearl Jam – Evenflow
Co-op Encore: Blue Oyster Cult – Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll

Tier 5:
The Dead Kennedy’s – Holiday in Cambodia
Scorpions – Rock You Like a Hurricane
Aerosmith – Same Old Song and Dance
ZZ Top – La Grange

Boss: Slash – Guitar Battle
Encore: Guns N Roses – Welcome to the Jungle
Co-op Encore: Bloc Party – Hellicopter

Tier 6:
Santana – Black Magic Woman
Smashing Pumpkins – Cherub Rock
White Zombie – Black Sunshine
Tenacious D – The Metal

Encore: Stevie Ray Vaughn – Pride and Joy
Co-op Encore: Matchbook Romance – Monsters

Tier 7:
Slipknot – Before I Forget
Disturbed – Stricken
Queens of the Stone Age – 3′s and 7′s
Muse – Knights of Cydonia

Encore: Living Colour – Cult of Personality

Tier 8:
Slayer – Raining Blood
Eric Johnson – Cliffs of Dover
Iron Maiden – Number of the Beast
Metallica – One

Boss: Lou – Guitar Battle
Encore: The Devil Went Down to Georgia

Now we’re looking at a total of 46 songs, with 20 covers and 26 original master tracks. Also, there’s that weird thing there that says co-op encore. This is where you have to start wondering whether or not Neversoft and Activision were on drugs. Co-op encore appears to be exactly what it sounds like; a song that is only playable with someone else. Bizarrely, however, the game has been shipped with co-op quick play strictly ONLINE. Activision/Neversoft somehow figured no one would want to do this with someone at home, and in the wake of the screaming that followed once this news got out, they’re working on a patch that gamers can download to their console that will allow for offline co-op. So far this only applies to the Xbox 360, there’s no word on whether or not a patch will be available for the PS3, Wii, or even what that state of this is like for the PS2. Well done, Activision, goo
d to see you continue your peerless support of this franchise…

This news has pretty much committed me. Steps are now being taken to ensure Rock Band arrives at the doorstep of the In-Laws.

And just to give That Other Music Game a little coverage, here’s a sample of Hit Me With Your Best shot originally by Pat Benatar, with a… how shall I put this… augmented Judy Nails strumming away.

Random Rock Band Stuff

For people that have played the previous Guitar Hero games and know the synth group Freezepop, here’s a surprise. They did a cover of the theme song from Jem. You really don’t need to read anymore. And yes, they will be appearing in Rock Band again.

Who’s The Winner?!

YOU DECIDE!

In this corner, we’ve got the upcoming Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for the Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii:

And in this corner, for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and rumored appearance on the Wii at some unspecified point in time, Rock Band.

On the one hand, Guitar Hero III has scored a major coup in that they have Tenacious D’s The Metal. That song alone may be worth the price of admission for many, and it sure is a big hook for me. However, they also took out Pandora and Clive Winston, a couple of my favorite characters and there’s that worrying report about the ease of the game. And while I appreciate the addition of battling guitarists as a new feature, I don’t know how much I personally would use it and enjoy it as it strikes me as a bit too “video game-y” that you would actually be trying to beat another musician into submission like that. They’ve also included a “note counter” by the score meter that shows you how many notes per row you’re hitting. These additions are the kind of thing that are made by people thinking in terms of GAMES, not music, and it’s clear that the Neversoft team are trying to get Guitar Hero away from just the pure, fun, spirit of playing music and trying to ground it in the score-conscious, achievement oriented culture of gamers. It seems to go against the Spirit Of Rock. Plus, again, it’s made by skaters, not musicians.

Then on the other hand you’ve got the amazing string of good news that just keeps coming for Rock Band. It’s been confirmed that the entire album Who’s Next by the Who is going to be available for downloadable purchase which is an AMAZING coup for the Harmonix crew (GO TEAM!) and the Create-A-Rock-Star mode is a thing of beauty. If you’ve got a half hour with nothing to do, sit yourself down and watch this video, which is of Harmonix showing off Rock Band for Gamespot. I wanted the game before. I’m going to DIE now if I don’t get it.

‘Course I need an Xbox 360 or a PS3 to play it, so I think this video may have just decisively swung me…