Geek vs Life

Just read this over on Joystiq, apparently, you will be able to join in on the action right in the middle of a song in Guitar Hero 5 (Guitar Hero World Tour 2). No more waiting for the song to end if you just walked in, just pick up your axe and play. Also having one of those days when everyone wants to play guitar? No problem. You can play any instrument, at any time. Talk about flexibility.

What about the music? First is a list of confirmed songs:

• A Perfect Circle – “Judith”
• Band Of Horses – “Cigarettes, Wedding Bands”
• Beastie Boys – “Gratitude”
• Beck – “Gamma Ray”
• Billy Squier – “Lonely Is The Night”
• Blink 182 – “The Rock Show”
• Blur – “Song 2″
• Bob Dylan – “All Along The Watchtower”
• Children Of Bodom – “Done With Everything, Die For Nothing”
• Coldplay – “In My Place”
• Darkest Hour – “Demon(s)”
• David Bowie – “Fame”
• Deep Purple – “Woman From Tokyo (‘99 Remix)”
• Elliott Smith – “L.A.”
• Iggy Pop – “Lust For Life (Live)”
• Jeff Beck – “Scatterbrain (Live)”
• John Mellencamp – “Hurts So Good”
• Johnny Cash – “Ring of Fire”
• Kings Of Leon – “Sex On Fire”
• Queen and David Bowie – “Under Pressure”
• Queens Of The Stone Age – “Make It Wit Chu”
• Rose Hill Drive – “Sneak Out”
• Santana – “No One To Depend On (Live)”
• Stevie Wonder – “Superstition”
• The Bronx – “Six Days A Week”
• The Rolling Stones – “Sympathy for the Devil”
• The White Stripes – “Blue Orchid”
• Thrice – “Deadbolt”
• Tom Petty – “Runnin’ Down A Dream”
• Vampire Weekend – “A-Punk”
• Wolfmother – “Back Round”
• Elton John – “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting”

Now here is a list of “not officially announced but mostly rumoured” songs that was put together again by the folks at Joystiq:

1. 3 Doors Down – “Kryptonite”
2. A Perfect Circle – “Judith”
3. AFI – “Medicate”
4. Arctic Monkeys – “Brianstorm”
5. Attack! Attack! UK – “You and Me”
6. Band Of Horses – “Cigarettes, Wedding Bands”
7. Beastie Boys – “Gratitude”
8. Beck – “Gamma Ray”
9. Billy Idol – “Dancing with Myself”
10. Billy Squier – “Lonely is the Night”
11. Blink-182 – “The Rock Show”
12. Blur – “Song 2″
13. Bob Dylan – “All Along the Watchtower”
14. Bon Jovi – “You Give Love A Bad Name”
15. Brand New – “Sowing Season”
16. Bush – “Comedown”
17. Children Of Bodom – “Done With Everything, Die For Nothing”
18. Coldplay – “In My Place”
19. Darker My Love – “Blue Day”
20. Darkest Hour – “Demon(s)”
21. David Bowie – “Fame”
22. Deep Purple – “Woman From Tokyo (‘99 Remix)”
23. Dire Straits – “Sultans of Swing”
24. Duran Duran – “Hungry Like The Wolf”
25. Eagles Of Death Metal – “Wannabe in L.A.”
26. Elliott Smith – “L.A.”
27. Elton John – “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting”
28. Face To Face – “Disconnected”
29. Garbage – “Only Happy When It Rains”
30. Gorillaz – “Feel Good Inc.”
31. Gov’t Mule – “Streamline Woman”
32. Grand Funk Railroad – “We’re an American Band”
33. Iggy Pop – “Lust For Life”
34. Iron Maiden – “2 Minutes to Midnight”
35. Jeff Beck – “Scatterbrain”
36. Jimmy Eat World – “Bleed American”
37. John Mellencamp – “Hurts So Good”
38. Johnny Cash – “Ring of Fire”
39. Kaiser Chiefs – “Never Miss a Beat”
40. King Crimson – “21st Century Schizoid Man”
41. Kings Of Leon – “Sex on Fire”
42. Kiss – “Shout it Out Loud”
43. Love and Rockets – “Mirror People”
44. Megadeth – “Sweating Bullets”
45. Motley Crue – “Looks That Kill”
46. Muse – “Plug in Baby”
47. My Morning Jacket – “One Big Holiday”
48. Nirvana – “Lithium”
49. Nirvana – “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
50. No Doubt – “Ex-Girlfriend”
51. Peter Frampton – “Do You Feel Like We Do (Live)”
52. Public Enemy Featuring Zakk Wylde – “Bring the Noise 20xx”
53. Queen & David Bowie – “Under Pressure”
54. Queens Of The Stone Age – “Make it With Chu”
55. Rammstein – “Du Hast”
56. Rose Hill Drive – “Sneak Out”
57. Rush – “The Spirit of Radio (Live, 2008)”
58. Santana – “No One To Depend On (Live)”
59. Scars On Broadway – “They Say”
60. Screaming Trees – “Nearly Lost You”
61. Smashing Pumpkins – “Bullet With Butterfly Wings”
62. Sonic Youth – “Incinerate”
63. Spacehog – “In the Meantime”
64. Stevie Wonder – “Superstition”
65. Sublime – “What I Got”
66. Sunny Day Real Estate – “Seven”
67. T. Rex – “20th Century Boy”
68. The Bronx – “Six Days a Week”
69. The Derek Trucks Band – “Younk Funk”
70. The Duke Spirit – “Send a Little Love Token”
71. The Killers – “All the Pretty Faces”
72. The Police – “So Lonely”
73. The Raconteurs – “Steady As She Goes”
74. The Rolling Stones – “Sympathy for the Devil”
75. The Sword – “Maiden, Mother & Crone”
76. The White Stripes – “Blue Orchid”
77. Thin Lizzy – “Jailbreak”
78. Thrice – “Deadbolt”
79. Tom Petty – “Runnin’ Down a Dream”
80. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “American Girl”
81. TV On The Radio – “Wolf Like Me”
82. Vampire Weekend – “A-Punk”
83. Weezer – “Why Bother?”
84. Wild Cherry – “Play That Funky Music”
85. Wolfmother – “Back Round”

White Stripes, Kings of Leon and Gorillaz? I might actually have to buy Guitar Hero 5. Crap.

After teasing zombie fans with images of Dead Rising 2 at E3, MTV Multiplayer posted that the game will not be shown till the Tokyo Game Show, according to Chris Kramer, Senior Director of Communications at Capcom.

“You’re gonna be seeing ‘Dead Rising 2′ next at Tokyo Game Show. ‘Lost Planet 2′ will have all new stuff at Tokyo Game Show, and also a couple new titles from us, as well as updates of the stuff we showed at E3.”

That sadly means that fans on this side of the Pacific will be left hungry for brains for a few more months since the game will most likely be absent from both the Penny Arcade Expo and Games Con.

On a side note, I would like to speculate that Capcom doesn’t want to show it’s game in Valve’s backyard, home of Left 4 Dead, the new zombie king.

I’ll be honest, when writing a review for any Dynasty Warriors game, it would be simpler to cut a past a previous post and change a few details to make it fresh again. That’s basically what Koei does after all. The differences between the 5th and 6th incarnation of the Dynasty Warriors: Empires series is negligible at best. Does it mean that it’s a terrible game? Far from it. According to Raptr, I have been playing the game for about 20 hours… seems about right.

For those unfamiliar with the series, here’s a quick rundown: DW takes place in ancient China during the Three Kingdom period which extends from approximately 184 to 280 M.E. The three kingdoms in question are Wu, Shu and Wei. The regular game is pure hack and slash with a back drop of history added in between fights to make it seem to have an ultimate goal. Kill, run, kill, run, kill the enemy leader and move on to the next map. That’s it.

Empires on the other hand, gives you more control over the course of events. You start off as a vagrant, looking to either become an officer for a settled ruler, or overthrow him and claim his territory of your own. While you make your decision on which land you will conquer, the option to do mercenary missions are available to you. The ultimate goal is to conquer all neighboring territories, then the country itself. Empires gives you more freedom to a certain extent. The open ended storyline allows you to forge your own path, unless you are an officer, where you are at the whims of your ruler. That is until you choose to dethrone him or defect to another one.

This game is very much a love or hate type of game. You either love it to death and play for hours on end, or you don’t want to touch it with a ten foot pole. Some people call the game too repetitive, and honestly that’s quite true. And we’re not only talking repetitive in one game, the franchise is repetitive as a whole. All that really changes are the level designs and graphics. Press X half a dozen times to attack, sprinkle in a few Y’s to charge attack and when in need press B to launch a musou attack (DW magic attack) that will knockdown most opponents. Repeat until victory is achieved. Does that make it a bad? No, not at all.

The game takes all it’s importance when you get your two player game on. I like to call this game the perfect “girlfriend game.” Where your girl can grab a controller, follow next to you and hack and slash her way to giddy. There’s no blood, so the gore factor is nil. Controls are relatively simple so there’s no need to be an veteran gamer to make your way through the game. Careful when she starts getting the hang of it, then you’ll be fighting over who gets to kill the final level boss.

Pros for the game are the addition of character creation, improved graphics and better looking maps. Another welcomed addition is the aforementioned mercenary missions which act as side quests, giving you sometimes attack bonuses or new characters which you can later “befriend.”

As my fiancee will attest to, the game lack in second player achievements on the Xbox 360. As she so rightfully claims, she killed her fair share of enemy troops, why can’t she reap the rewards as well? The game does get very repetitive after a few hours of continuous game play. DW5E had more options when it came to politics, allowing you to reward the people, tax them and form alliances with your neighbors. Something which is missing in here. I wished that the makers would have had an “import character information” feature, allowing me to transfer my saved files from DW6 into DW6E. That way, Icould play with my level 50 Zhou Yu while taking over China.

All in all, for me at least, the game is worth it. Not only is it the premier hack and slash game on the market, it’s a bonding tool for me and my fiancee. Despite the fact that she has now started to out hack and slash me. I need more musou.

When I sat down to play Red Faction: Guerrilla, I made myself a promise. No matter how badthey were, the graphics would not be an issue in the review. Trade-offs show up in every game on the market and with highly destructible environments, graphics will always suffer.

Disclaimers aside, Red Faction has reared its head with its newest title. In a series of surprises, you’re thrown back onto Mars as a demolitions expert (surprise!) named Alec Mason who, after an unfortunate event, takes up his obligatory hammer and joins the Red Faction (surprise!).  Mayhem ensues as you fulfill the dictum of your new rebel buddies: absolute destruction of personal property that isn’t yours.

In the initial few missions, the physics engine revved into high gear and stayed there as debris flew across the screen in a mad show of force. The threadbare plot kept me convinced that sheer pandemonium was a great way to start an uprising and didn’t really get in the way during the play-through. With decent controls, expect for the wonky weapons switchover system, navigating around the sandbox world and firing at baddies works out pretty well. It’s easy to get lost in the weapons fire and explosions however, which makes it hard to tell friend from foe in the midst of trouble.

Side missions in this game serve as enjoyment and ways to unlock more weaponry, but most of what they do is try and taunt you. Taunt you relentlessly as you draw fastidious diagrams of building structures cursing yourself for not being an engineering student at MIT. Sometimes it’s a roll of the dice to get an acceptable result. After four failed attempts at one particularly rough destructive mission, I had a sudden flashback of Crackdown. The same over the shoulder camera, ninja-spawning enemies, and even the same quest narrator (no really, it is) have been polished off and ported to the PS3.

The online multiplayer aspect hasn’t quite taken off the ground yet, but it looks promising once some more DLC is released in the future. For example, the wrecking crew option, where you compete against friends to take down buildings faster and better, has a certain awesome quality to it except that like the main game, the physics engine picks and chooses what buildings fall.

I think this game can best be described as a giant stress release ball. Like after a long day of dealing with angry customers or being in a poor work environment where acting out is frowned upon. This game  is a great way to blow off some steam using explosives. Unless you are on the verge of actually napalming your place of business, this should stay a rental game.

Okay, so this meeting in the door. Apparently they’ve got some sort of “school club” where they fight “shadows” during the “Dark Hour” with our “personas” (trust me, it wouldn’t make sense to you if I tried to explain it). They let me join their “club”, and gave me a fake gun to shoot myself in the head with. Then I heard a weird voice and saw a tarot card, and was told that I apparently established the “Fool” Social Link. Went to bed after the meeting, and that kid from before was in my room during the Dark Hour. He said something about “the end” coming, and then disappeared.

Came downstairs the evening on the 19th, and Akihiko introduced us to… Junpei? Apparently he’s “one of us” and is gonna live in the dorm, too.  Akihiko was all excited, ‘cuz apparently we’re goin somewhere called “Tartarus” tomorrow. The Chairman’ll give us the details, apparently.

During lunch on the 20th, Mitsuru came into our classroom and told us to meet in the lounge after school. At the meeting, we were told we would be going to Tartarus, and Mitsuru and Akihiko lead us… to school? However, as soon as the Dark Hour hit, our school turned into… wow, that thing is CRAZY! Our school is some huge creepy tower! We got inside, and I was apparently nominated as leader, but before we could go up the stairs, I saw a weird door. Hey, it’s the Velvet Room. Nice, easy access. Mitsuru only let us explore the first floor, though. I was kinda disappointed, because of how pathetically easy it was. We cleared the floor and went back downstairs. Mitsuru congratulated it, then I heard that voice again. Aparently I’m at rank 2 of “The Fool” now.

Tuesday morning, met Kenji, a classmate of mine, before going to morning assembly. Mitsuru spoke, but a lot of it went over my head. Okay, most of it. During classes later, I SOOOO wanted to fall asleep, but I actually stayed awake. Somehow. Not sure how. Didn’t have anything to do after school, so I wandered around. Got outside, and saw Akihiko, who told me and Junpei to meet him at the police station in the mall. Okay, I guess. We got there, and apparently one of the cops is willing to sell us weapons. That’s useful. So’s the 5,000 yen Akihiko gave us. Decided to go to Tartarus that night, and got up to the fifth floor.

Met up with Kenji again before school, and after school, he invited me out to ramen. We hung out, then I heard that voice again, saying that I’d established the “Magician” Social Link.

On Thursday, I decided to join the kendo team. I heard that voice again, telling me I’d established the “Chariot” Social Link. Decided to go to Tartarus that night, even though it was just me and Junpei. Junpei and I explored up to floor 10, then went back to the dorm.

At lunch on Friday, Kenji and Kazushi (from the kendo team) both asked me to hang out after school. I really wanna work hard for the team, so I opted to go to practice. Chatted with Kazushi a bit after practice, and that voice told me that “The Chariot” was now to rank 2. I offered to walk Yuko, the team manager, home, but she declined, so I went home on my own. Yukari was up to it, so we went to Tartarus again. Made it up to floor 14, but since Yukari was tired, we didn’t fight the strong shadow there, and went back instead.

Heard that a new bookstore was opening on Saturday, so I checked it out after school. The old couple that runs it seemed nice, but the man kept talking about some persimmon tree at school. I went out and looked at it, and then took the couple a leaf I’d picked up from the ground. We chatted for a while, then that voice told me I’d established the “Hierophant” Social Link.

Week End’s Social Links:

Fool Rank 2 (Automatic)
Magician Rank 1
Hierophant Rank 1
Chariot Rank 2