Other Games

So, just saw on Engadget that Mad Catz is gonna take an actual real electric guitar and turn it into a Rock Band 2 controller for PS3 and Xbox 360. So, real guitar, real size, real weight… except, you know, it’s still a fake guitar. Now, I’m really confused. Okay, you take a REAL GUITAR and make a FAKE GUITAR from it. Isn’t that… insane… a little? Now you know what would be awesome… if it still could be used as a regular guitar – SIMULTANEOUSLY…

I wonder how I ever thought I would get out of buying Rock Band 2. No such luck. That set list ROCKS. Reserve my copy now, I guess….

Project Powder, the online snowboarding sim, ended their closed beta test yesterday. They sent around a survey asking what we liked and didn’t like about the game. My likes: The game is fast, furious and fun. It is extremely deep and values skill and fast thinking, something alien to MMOs that try to level the playing field for everyone. Some races where decided in the last 0.05 seconds. Yes, the last five hundredth of a second. You have to juggle the positions of nearby players, the tricks you need to line up, the course itself, how to position for any short cuts, a whether to bump that curve for some quick air and maybe a speed burst on landing, or to just hunker down and stay in the groove. ...

I’m not being snide or dismissive when I say I am still waiting for a reason to buy a PS3 as a game machine, as opposed to a media hub, a job it does admirably but no better so than others you could make. I’m just saying that the Xbox 360, so far, does the business of games, better. I could be changing my mind. While browsing through game trailers on PSN this weekend, I stumbled across one called simply, Valkyrie. At first I didn’t know if I wasn’t watching a new Miyazaki movie, aside from its lack of flying things.* That same sort of attention to detail, the same sort of pastel watercolors style that is Miyazaki himself and is seen all the time in his concept art. This was an anime I wanted to see. I have the trailer below – the version I saw was exactly the same, except with all the Japanese removed (and nothing added). ...

With the original Neopets founders talking up their new company and their new game, I decided to go back and check out how my Xweetok was doing in the older game. Hungry and dying. Poor Spitefur. I’d been ignoring her since I won Shapeshifter last April. That triumph was my final goal in Neopets, and I had no reason to go on… and yet this morning found me walking through Neopia again, looking at the sights, browsing the games, and oh dear, who IS that Ixi in the corner? With that game of hers? ...

Over at DS Fanboy, they have an article hinting that Chrono Trigger – one of the SNES’ best RPGs – could be making the jump to the Nintendo DS. This would be fantastic. Especially if they don’t repeat the mistakes of the FF3 port. Having to zoom in and out all the time combined with unreadably (to me) small text made that game frustrating instead of enjoyable. I have to admit I would be far more excited if they announced Chrono Trigger for the Wii Virtual Console. ...

I haven’t really looked at the stats for this blog since I started working at Massively. I took a peek and hey, there are still four to five hundred people coming by daily at almost ten thousand visitors in the month of June! Love you all!!! It’s always fun to check out what people are searching for that brings them to this site. And buried in there was about half a dozen requests from people who want to know how to throw a snowball in Project Powder. ...

We knew it was coming, and it’s here. Rock Band 2 will be out in September for the Xbox 360 and somewhat later for the PS3. Rock Band DLC will work with Rock Band 2, and vice versa. The old instruments will work, but the new ones will be better (it will be tough to be worse than the original guitar, at least for the 360). Having abandoned my Xbox 360 Rock Band to my son, I’d love to pick up the stuff again anew for the PS3. Problem is, the drum set for Guitar Hero World Tour looks better and they have a generally nicer feature set. ...

I almost – ALMOST – bought Guitar Hero: Aerosmith this weekend, for the PS3. And I probably would have, if I’d gone there Sunday instead of Saturday. Games for the PS3 are $60, the new price point, and I’d have had to buy a guitar controller for the PS3 as well. I have two guitar controllers for the Xbox 360 and two more for the PS2. My desire to invest in more guitar controllers is precisely zero. ...

New outfit :) And halfway through level 6. Experience is slowing down, and it seems that only finishing in first place really moves the experience bar much. The only way forward is to start using level 2+ tricks, which confer an experience bonus. And the only way to do THAT is to complete the level 2 licenses, which require doing a fast series of tricks and reaching the end of the course in 36 seconds. I haven’t managed to earn any level 2 tricks. Usually I am just a second or two behind. I need more speed. And to get THAT – I need to craft enhancements. ...