The three stages of Rock Band: Play a few songs on the Solo Tour, realize the game is pretty easy. Play with the drums. Sing to the world that you’re a creep, a weirdo, a cowboy with a six-string on your back, are drinking Stevens and wearing the dress you slept in. Second stage: Get some friends, and rock out until the neighbors complain. Drop the crummy van for a rusty bus, then finally a jet and see the world. You’re rock gods. ...
I checked the Buzzkillaz gamer score last night on Xbox Live and… well, we’re lacking. It showed that we’d unlocked everything up to the tour jet, but all those solo achievements were missing, since we’ve been playing it in band mode since we got it. I’m nothing if not dutiful, so I took up guitar and prepared to shred through the solo guitar track (but before this, I put two layers of blankets beneath the drum kit, though I didn’t have the nerve to play them… it was after Heroes, so pretty late). I was plinking along on hard through the songs I’d played a dozen times on drums, but it was boring. Rock Band songs are pretty boring solo all around, so far… or maybe it’s just because I played them so much. ...
Woke up early this morning due to the time change, so I thought I’d correct my Weighted Companion Cube model… here it is, rendered with radiosity (realistic lighting) in Povray. Experimenting with lighting, texture maps and bump maps (the wood floor is from a picture I snapped with my digital camera. I used GIMP to normalize it.)
We got a little closer to being the most famous fake cover band in our living room yesterday when we finally bought an Xbox 360 so we could run Rock Band when it comes out in a couple of weeks (and, we also pre-ordered the game itself). Right up to the end, we weren’t sure if we were going to go with the Xbox or the PS3. I was kinda leaning toward the PS3 when I saw a nice demo of Ratchet and Clank at the store, but their ending of support for PS2 compatibility on their cheaper models sealed the deal. So we became a PS2/Xbox 360 family (and the Wii went into a box until I can get one of those switchers running. Ever since we got Hot Shots Tennis for the PS2, we haven’t touched the Wii). ...
There’s times when everyone says you’ll like something, and that it’s great, but then you think it can’t be that great, that in fact it probably sucks, like a fast food joint you’ve never heard of. And then whenever anyone mentions it, you think, “meh, it sucks.” And then you start hating it, and hating the mention of it, and everyone is saying random things like “the cake is a lie” and chuckle, and you think it’s stupid, and the games you like are way better and not as common and stupid and also the people who play those kinds of games are jerks. And then years later you play it and say, hey, this game was actually good, why didn’t I play it back when? ...
Dear Mom and Dad; How are you guys doing? I miss you all so much. I hope Cousin Mark’s hair is growing back; in the dark, he could have been the cat! You just don’t know! And please put a flower on the cat’s grave for me. We just had our midterms today, and they were SO TOUGH! But those books I stole borrowed from the library in Bruma really did the trick. Where would we be without Teacher’s Editions! ...
I moved to Leyawiin, in Oblivion. Bought a house. It’s a rat-trap. I keep it dark because any candle could burn the whole place down. Most nights, I sit and wait for television to be invented, but sometimes I wander about. I made the clothes of everyone at a swank dinner party disappear. That was pretty funny. Laughed all the way to jail for that one. I think the Countess may someday forgive me, but I’m not holding my breath. ...
Yes, and my apologies to my friends in EQ1, EQ2 and WoW, but I have been Obliviated. I went to Fry’s for a coax cable, got involved in a little Guitar Hero dueling, and bought Oblivion. Yes, I know it’s popular and everyone is playing it… and for once, I wanted to be part of something everyone else was doing. I wanted to be Pepsi. I spent half an hour bumping into walls and knocking food to the floor (which somewhat distracted the rats which kept tracking me) before I got my bearings. I haven’t seen an interface for a PC game so obviously meant for a console since… FFXI, I guess. I should probably dig out the PC Gamepad I used for FFXI. ...
My Internet connection went out unexpectedly last night. Rather than stare forlornly at the router all night, I decided to be productive. Put together that lamp I bought. Did the dishes. Unpacked some more boxes. Complained to my cat that even though we sleep together, he’s not my type… Er… never mind about that one… I fired up Neverwinter Nights. I haven’t been playing a whole lot of that since I moved, so I’d forgotten where I saved last. ...
I took my fictional metal band, Death 2 U, on stage last night. Packed stadium. Roaring crowd. Wetting-their-pants crazy to see us, just last week an unknown band playing in someone’s basement, cover Queens of the Stone Age’s “No One Knows”. No one knew how nervous we were. This song is HARD. Even on “Medium”. I love Guitar Hero to death, but as this TeleFragged review points out, it doesn’t teach you much about playing a real guitar. But it gives you a helluva impression about how much work really goes into songs that don’t sound like they have anything going for them at all. ...