I Have Seen The Face Of Music Games

And it is Rock Band. My God, a leaked video of an early prototype for this game got out onto Youtube and when I watched it, I just about died. This is the ULTIMATE party game, there simply will be no other alternative if you settle for nothing but the best. This particular video shows off Welcome to the Jungle by Guns n’ Roses, though Harmonix has already stressed that even that song itself is not yet locked down for definite inclusion in the final game. The video shows four people rocking out, with THREE of the usual meters, plus another at the top of the screen that runs the length. The first meter is lead guitar, the center meter is drums and the right meter is bass guitar, with the upper bar being for the singer.

MUST. GET. THIS. GAME…

For All The Best Friends Out There

I was having a talk with the neighbor downstairs where we kind of touched in the idea of the support role that many earnest, male best friends play for fabulous women they know who wish they could date someone like said Best Friend but will have absolutely nothing to do with the factory original model sitting right in front of them that seem to bring them the solace and healing their lousy boyfriends don’t. So here’s one from Rick Ocasek for all those poor bastards out there. I feel for ya’ man, and believe me, for many years, I was so there…

The Bloor & Queen Street Saturday. Again.

Yet another Saturday descends, and we have now officially turned Queen Street West and Bloor Street into our weekend haunts as we made our way out of the Annex to venture down into the bowels of downtown once more. One of the things I’m quickly beginning to appreciate about these downtown jaunts is just how much easier it is to actually endure them; a typical weekend in Singapore was an ordeal for me because I would be sweating buckets about 2 minutes after stepping outside into that tropical heat and humidity. So while I was fine as soon as we got into the air conditioned protection of a shopping mall, getting from once place to another was not actually that pleasant an afternoon walk down the streets with all that equatorial heat. Here, I no longer fear the sun, I actually look forward to it as it warms up the air somewhat.

But first, the stuff.

Just before we left, I found this sitting in the mail today. This is another one of those DVDs I’ve been meaning to get for-freakin’-ever but never did, simply because even though it was perfectly legal in Singapore, there was simply not enough demand for it.

Then again, a director talking about Hollywood in as caustic a manner as possible is not exactly the Singaporean idea of entertainment, so I can see why the retailers there would wisely decide that this wouldn’t sell like hotcakes and never bother to order it. Thanks to the miracle of “gently used copies” on eBay, It’s now mine. I’ve already watched one of the highlights of this DVD on the internet (namely, Smith’s gutbustingly funny recollection of his work on the next Superman movie) so I’m really looking forward to hearing what he has to say on various other topics. He is, after all, the poster boy for the Geek Gone Good.

Queen Street West basically belongs to the Wife. That’s really more her town, because there are three art stores there, all of which she frequents for very, very specific things. One store is her canvas store, the other is her pencil and equipment store, and another is her paper store. The only thing Queen Street West really holds for me is the Silver Snail, but then my geek concerns are highly focused. Still it was a good run, especially since one art store in particular has a game geek and the Wife had to patiently endure me sidelining the geek in question while we discussed the merits of the Playstation 3 versus the Nintendo Wii. After that, it was a street car ride back up to Bloor, and a quick visit to Suspect Video for more odd films, and final run into Korea Town for more of them whacky Asian grocery products you can’t get in normal stores here, but find in abundance at the typical Cold Storage grocery store in Singapore. On the other hand, I can finally buy Hickory Sticks and Corn Chips here again, something I was deprived of for over 10 years in Singapore.

On a totally unrelated note, I continue to bang my head against the brick wall of sonic insanity that is Psychobilly Freakout by Reverend Horton Heat on the Expert level of Guitar Hero 2. My inconsistency with this song is really starting to annoy me, and remind me greatly of my struggle to beat Cowboys From Hell by Pantera on the original Guitar Hero. Mostly this is simply because I’m not practicing enough and still insist on jumping straight into the song and trying to just play the damn thing. I find myself going through bizarre cycles of getting shut out, 30 seconds into the songs UTTERLY MAD intro, and then suddenly fluking it out and getting 80+% into the song before finally flunking out. This is EXACTLY what happened to me in Cowboys From Hell, so I suspect that it’ll take a lot less time to actually pass this damn song if I’d just buckle down and use that practice mode since That’s What It’s There For. Although I’m a bit confused as to how Harmonix arranged these songs, because as far as I can tell, I can actually pass the encore song, YYZ by Rush with relative ease.

Oh well, I should get back to writing more of that darn novel.

And at some point over the week, you can look forward to not one, but two, count ‘em TWO commentaries on a Japanese Giant Monster Movie featuring the creature to the left.

Yep, it’s a giant turtle. With rocket legs.

But we’ll get to that when we get to it…

Game Tunes! Japanese Girls! Super Cute Violin Go Go Go!

The girl on the left, believe it or not, is an enormously talented violinist by the name of Ayako Ishikawa. But tonight all that dozens of heavy set geeks thought as they drooled over her was “Gee… I wish that super cute violinist was my girlfriend because I love all things Japanese, which she most definitely is!”

Recently I wrote an article for GameAxis that briefly covered the history of video game music and included a bit about a group that was coming down to Singapore from Australia. They’re called Eminence, and they’re a bunch of classically trained musicians who got fed up with traditional orchestral music being considered “real music” and game music being considered… not music. Super Cute Ayako was one of the more recent additions to the troupe. As a result of me writing said article, I managed to score some tickets for The Wife and I, since the organizers seemed extremely happy that someone actually wrote an article with a fair amount of confidence and knowledge of the field, and I even got a thank you on the back of the program along with the GameAxis editors.

It was a freakish experience, but very, very cool. The first thing that immediately struck me as bizzare was the fact that there wasn’t a musician on the stage over the age of 35. And the same went for the 98% of the audience. Of course, the other freaky thing was when they started to perform. This wasn’t a full orchestra, it was an ensemble of two violinists, a pianist, a drummer and guitarist, along with Yasunori Mitsuda, a notable Japanese game composer who played on a very old looking Greek, mandolin-ish type instrument.

As soon as they songs started up, it was very strange for me. I think this is the first time I’ve kind of been “touched” in a way during a concert. I’ve been to plenty of concerts with some incredibly talented musicians and the music has always been soaring and amazing and inspiring. But this is the first time I’ve heard the music and thought to myself “I know that… I grew up with that music as a kid…” and it went to some other part of my brain that traditional classical music doesn’t go and gave me a shiver. As stupid as it sounds, just hearing the themes of Chrono Cross or Xenosaga being played out immediately set off images in my head of those games, those moments and I got genuine chills from the recognition. Also, according to The Wife’s theory, the fact that two immensely talented violinists didn’t help matters, because she believes that the sound of a live violin being played goes directly to the “Emo Lobe” of the brain and pretty much makes you want to cry whether you want to or not. Something about the particular frequency it resonates at.

All I know for sure is that the performance was a LOT of fun. I hope in Toronto the Play! Video Game Symphony Orchestra will show up again (they already played there in September) and bring the full sonic assault of stuff like Final Fantasy and Halo out in force. ‘Cause I have to admit, it was very cool but very bizarre to be hearing classical music, get really excited about it, and then afterwards get the kind of applause and hooting and hollering normally associated with a rock concert. Positively surreal, man. But fun!

I Have Now Learned Two Things From Guitar Hero 2

Dave Mustaine has more talent than I ever, EVER gave him credit for, because Hanger 18 is one HELL of a song.

Buckethead is the only musician I’ve ever heard, with whom I could very well believe that he struck a deal with Satan himself to attain the level of skill he has.

It’s Official

I God Damn LOVE the practice mode in Guitar Hero 2.

Screw YOU, Freya, ’cause you are DONE, and all it cost me was a few hours of practice and the use of my right hand for an evening…

Damn You, The Sword…

Well, that didn’t take very long. After cruising through the Hard Mode of Guitar Hero 2, I finally got my ass soundly, decisively trounced, kicked and otherwise handed back to me. The band? The Sword. The song? Freya. There’s a bridge between the second and third verses that goes into an insanely long series of repetitions. I think I find it stupefying or something, because my alertness and dexerity just drop somewhere about half-way through it and I just can’t keep the rhythm going despite the fact that it’s just the same series of notes over and over again. Somehow, my brain actually has an easier time with changing melodies than it does with repeating ones. Thank GOD for that practice mode, because I can already see some minor improvement, though it’ll be a few days or even weeks yet before I can get past that song and the one that comes after it. Expert finally lay the musical beat down on me half-way through. I managed to squeak through 22 of 40 songs before I just finally wasn’t good enough to keep up anymore…

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.

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.

The Bodycount

After the two meetings today (The second of which lasting nearly four hours) the total damage is one script requiring a rearranging of elements by tomorrow morning. The computer documentary script to have a first draft ready by Saturday morning, and two more scripts for the travel show done by Monday morning.

On top of all this, I made the incredibly self-destructive decision to buy this month’s issue of Official Playstation Magazine, since it had a demo of four playable songs from Guitar Hero 2, provided you have the guitar controller required. Motley Crue’s Shout at the Devil, Van Halen’s cover of You Really Got Me, Kiss’s Strutter and Rush’s YYZ in that order. Despite the fact that I should be working to get those scripts out of the way, I’ve already successfully completed all of those songs on expert and am losing on a debate with myself on why I shouldn’t go back and just try to “5 star” them rather than work on those scripts.

Sigh…