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Guitar Hero - Do The Zzzzz.....
Hello! Few bits today. General Smashing pumpkins love-in, games and demos of this week, plus a little bit on rhythm action games. Lots of fun, I'm sure you'll agree.
Smashing Pumpkins - Genius, or Idiocy?
Anyone who knows me knows this - I LOVE the Smashing Pumpkins. Oddly, as I write this, I'm wearing my black t shirt with a silver "ZERO" across my chest. Stylish. However as much of a fan of the band I am, I have to admit that sometimes, it's a case of Billy Corgan going all arty-farty nonsense on you. Let me explain...
For every song like Bodies, Ava Adore or Cherub Rock, there is a song like Pistachio Medley. From a purely mad fan view, it's nice to hear bits of songs that were thrown around as ideas in the studio. Cool. However, making it into a 13 or something minute long epic is a bit WTF for me. This webcomic explains it better than I ever could - linkylink.
And for every mad solo, comes an endless droning mess, for example, turning Heavy Metal Machine, already a repetitive song, into a live 10 minute guitar fuzz, whirr and konk extravaganza left the crowd actually complaining and yawning around me while I watched them play Reading Festival 2007. A far cry from the atmosphere when the camera zoomed in on the full moon, and they played Tonight Tonight.
A great band, but full of weirdness. Also, do check out Billy the Egomaniac, tis cool and more people should know about it. Linky
Games and stuff of this week
This is a pretty short section this time. Why? I've been playing stuff I've already covered! Finally got Persona 3:FES, and dented into that by 40 hours. Watched most of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (Series one), and just got MGS3 to play. But here comes the interesting bits.
MGS4 is sweet. It's totally different from what I was expecting though. No spoilers guys, and I only played the first 5 hours anyway. But the combat, and way you move is so... different! It's hard to think of sneaking in a battlefield, where instinct says "This is game. Pull out gun. Shoot them all!" but doing that will swiftly leave you with a superbly epic "Snake? SNAAAAAKE!" screen.
Theres over shoulder aiming, and LOADS of guns, and familliar CQC, and it just feels different to playing, say, MGS2. SO different. Maybe that'll change as the game proceeds into more corridorey territory, who knows?
Also, got the demo of Tales of Vesperia. And instantly became angry. Here I was, downloading a Japanese demo, expecting Japanese RPG demo to be in Japanese. Right?
Wrong. It's in full English, with the aid of voice acting 'talent'. So why isn't this on the EU Marketplace? Oh yeah, it'd probably piss us off further, because even though America gets this game in a month and a bit's time, we don't see it til the mysteriously vague as fuck "2009".
Excuse me, why? It's shoddy these days Namco, very shoddy, and if you think I'll be buying it brand new, forget it. I think gamers need to vote with their wallets more, If you don't like the way it's done, regardless of the end-product, buy it second-hand. It's why I refuse to buy brand new peripherals, they just cost far too much in most cases. £20 for a remote control that doesn't work if it's having an off day, or you don't use it precisely 2 metres away, at a perfect angle? No thanks!
Anyway, enough ranting, onto -
Rhythm Action-Blues
Why? Why am I so disenchanted with Western rhythm action games? Don't get me wrong, Rock Band was great, but it failed to keep my interest once I had finished it, even with it's impressive DLC library. So why is that? After all, I played DJMax Portable 2 on my PSP for about 3 months - solid. Lets compare.
See, I think one aspect of it boils down to difficulty. Where games like GH and RB guide you along on a soft feathered pillow, trying not to upset you, Japanese games take command. Easy mode in DJMax Portable 2 was do-able, yes. To a certain point. Then you needed learning time, and far more learning time than Guitar Hero has ever involved at it's peak.
It could well be a limitation made by it's genre, as there is only so much you can do with 5 buttons and a strum bar, but DDR, DJMax, even Taijko no Tatsuijin manage to have a greater degree of depth to them, some even including challenge modes to unlock even more songs than the already impressive roster has to offer.
I think even more of it is to do with the West's inability to accept a music game without music they actually know in the game. One of the reasons all Eastern games that do make it here (DDR, and Taiko 'Drum Master' included) feature crap songs that completely don't fit, as a way of buying in us Westerners.
So, my advice if you REALLY love these sort of games, and want more of a challenge, and more music than the now 'traditional' games have to offer? Import some crazy hard goodness. You won't regret it.
To show the skill involved, here is a song from DJ max portable 2, on 5 button mode, that took me around 2 months in order to get a % in the high 90's. Linkaaage. Interesting fact - I've scored a higher percentage than this guy, and I've never 100& max combo'd this song. How? A lot of JP style games rank closeness on timing, unlike GH's hit or miss the note approach. Though he got 100%, he may have got a lot of 'good' notes instead of 'great' meaning his timing was off.
Sorry for lack of images. I'm sleepy. I might add them later. Laters, it's MGS3 time!
Smashing Pumpkins - Genius, or Idiocy?
Anyone who knows me knows this - I LOVE the Smashing Pumpkins. Oddly, as I write this, I'm wearing my black t shirt with a silver "ZERO" across my chest. Stylish. However as much of a fan of the band I am, I have to admit that sometimes, it's a case of Billy Corgan going all arty-farty nonsense on you. Let me explain...
For every song like Bodies, Ava Adore or Cherub Rock, there is a song like Pistachio Medley. From a purely mad fan view, it's nice to hear bits of songs that were thrown around as ideas in the studio. Cool. However, making it into a 13 or something minute long epic is a bit WTF for me. This webcomic explains it better than I ever could - linkylink.
And for every mad solo, comes an endless droning mess, for example, turning Heavy Metal Machine, already a repetitive song, into a live 10 minute guitar fuzz, whirr and konk extravaganza left the crowd actually complaining and yawning around me while I watched them play Reading Festival 2007. A far cry from the atmosphere when the camera zoomed in on the full moon, and they played Tonight Tonight.
A great band, but full of weirdness. Also, do check out Billy the Egomaniac, tis cool and more people should know about it. Linky
Games and stuff of this week
This is a pretty short section this time. Why? I've been playing stuff I've already covered! Finally got Persona 3:FES, and dented into that by 40 hours. Watched most of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (Series one), and just got MGS3 to play. But here comes the interesting bits.
MGS4 is sweet. It's totally different from what I was expecting though. No spoilers guys, and I only played the first 5 hours anyway. But the combat, and way you move is so... different! It's hard to think of sneaking in a battlefield, where instinct says "This is game. Pull out gun. Shoot them all!" but doing that will swiftly leave you with a superbly epic "Snake? SNAAAAAKE!" screen.
Theres over shoulder aiming, and LOADS of guns, and familliar CQC, and it just feels different to playing, say, MGS2. SO different. Maybe that'll change as the game proceeds into more corridorey territory, who knows?
Also, got the demo of Tales of Vesperia. And instantly became angry. Here I was, downloading a Japanese demo, expecting Japanese RPG demo to be in Japanese. Right?
Wrong. It's in full English, with the aid of voice acting 'talent'. So why isn't this on the EU Marketplace? Oh yeah, it'd probably piss us off further, because even though America gets this game in a month and a bit's time, we don't see it til the mysteriously vague as fuck "2009".
Excuse me, why? It's shoddy these days Namco, very shoddy, and if you think I'll be buying it brand new, forget it. I think gamers need to vote with their wallets more, If you don't like the way it's done, regardless of the end-product, buy it second-hand. It's why I refuse to buy brand new peripherals, they just cost far too much in most cases. £20 for a remote control that doesn't work if it's having an off day, or you don't use it precisely 2 metres away, at a perfect angle? No thanks!
Anyway, enough ranting, onto -
Rhythm Action-Blues
Why? Why am I so disenchanted with Western rhythm action games? Don't get me wrong, Rock Band was great, but it failed to keep my interest once I had finished it, even with it's impressive DLC library. So why is that? After all, I played DJMax Portable 2 on my PSP for about 3 months - solid. Lets compare.
See, I think one aspect of it boils down to difficulty. Where games like GH and RB guide you along on a soft feathered pillow, trying not to upset you, Japanese games take command. Easy mode in DJMax Portable 2 was do-able, yes. To a certain point. Then you needed learning time, and far more learning time than Guitar Hero has ever involved at it's peak.
It could well be a limitation made by it's genre, as there is only so much you can do with 5 buttons and a strum bar, but DDR, DJMax, even Taijko no Tatsuijin manage to have a greater degree of depth to them, some even including challenge modes to unlock even more songs than the already impressive roster has to offer.
I think even more of it is to do with the West's inability to accept a music game without music they actually know in the game. One of the reasons all Eastern games that do make it here (DDR, and Taiko 'Drum Master' included) feature crap songs that completely don't fit, as a way of buying in us Westerners.
So, my advice if you REALLY love these sort of games, and want more of a challenge, and more music than the now 'traditional' games have to offer? Import some crazy hard goodness. You won't regret it.
To show the skill involved, here is a song from DJ max portable 2, on 5 button mode, that took me around 2 months in order to get a % in the high 90's. Linkaaage. Interesting fact - I've scored a higher percentage than this guy, and I've never 100& max combo'd this song. How? A lot of JP style games rank closeness on timing, unlike GH's hit or miss the note approach. Though he got 100%, he may have got a lot of 'good' notes instead of 'great' meaning his timing was off.
Sorry for lack of images. I'm sleepy. I might add them later. Laters, it's MGS3 time!
I suppose I'd better do an update!
Yessir! Here I am, in Swindon, now with internet & all mod cons! The blog is go again :)
So, lets do the usual, talk about fun stuff, then I have a few up-n-coming projects that I need to talk about too!
So, lets start with an anime show!
Soul Eater
Soul eater is a kind of kooky show, that shares a similar theme to Bleach. The story revolves around a group of young kids as they try to graduate Shinigami academy, and turn their weapons into deathscythes. Everyone works as a team, in a weapon/master combo, all overseen by the Shinigami himself.
It's a fun show, with great action sequences, nice attitudes to the characters and a pretty stylistic design point. Also, the comedy value of Black Star and his er, 'big'-ness is always fun to watch! :D
It's a new show for this season, currently at ep 10, and being a squeenix anime show, expect this to run for 52 episodes. Something I'm quite pleased about!
I will be interested to see if the pace of the show can indeed keep up through.
Next, I've been doing some gaming too, and I have 2 things to talk about with you!
Metal Gear Solid 2 - Substance
Ooohhh, betcha thought that was going to say 4, no? Indeed, the reason this appears here is purely because of 4. Allow me to explain...
See, having just moved house, I am poor, and PS3 being what it is, I hadn't bought one yet, why did I need to? Except I do now, MGS4.
It was then I realised. I'd only played the original PSX Metal Gear Solid game. Not any of the others, so I went down to CEX and picked up MGS2:Substance on the Xbox for a bargainous fiver.
Now, I loaded the game, and instantly I was taken aback, the xbox version has framerate issues DURING THE INTRO! Indeed, this reappears during cutscenes throughout the game, which was slightly upsetting, seeing as the Xbox was the more powerful console of the time. It smacks of a shoddy port.
But, I thoroughly enjoyed the first section of the game, it was just like old times, sneaking around with Snake, crazy plot points, a good gaming experience. Then it stops. Enter Raiden.
Yes, I know you've probably heard all this before, and I usually don't object to playing as a new character, I didn't mind going Arbiter in Halo, however There was something different about it this time.
Mostly, the fact that Snake was onboard the whole way! Now come on, wouldn't it have been more fun to control Snake as 'Pliskin' doing super secret DOUBLE undercover mega stealth? I think it would have. Either way though, I'm finding the game enjoyable so far! I'm right in the thick of boss battles, so may be approaching the finishline! I'd certainly reccomend playing this before 4, as from what I've seen, you're gonna need to know a lot before you'll understand a single thing that's going on in 4.
Next, more Rock Band. I have it. It's awesome. Nuff said.
Lastly, I do have a project coming up that I'll be plugging a bit here. Not sure if anyone reading this has seen it, but I really enjoyed watching GameTrailer's retrospective series for Final Fantasy, Zelda and MGS, even though I know most things about said series already. It's spurred me on to make my own!
The first one will be Sonic the Hedgehog and will be covering (almost) all of the games in the 8-bit and 16-bit era, including showing off some beta and unreleased code you may not have seen before, that proves very interesting indeed!
It should (fingers crossed) be here sometime before the weekend (even tonight if I get bored enough) so stay tuned!
~~GV
So, lets do the usual, talk about fun stuff, then I have a few up-n-coming projects that I need to talk about too!
So, lets start with an anime show!
Soul Eater
Soul eater is a kind of kooky show, that shares a similar theme to Bleach. The story revolves around a group of young kids as they try to graduate Shinigami academy, and turn their weapons into deathscythes. Everyone works as a team, in a weapon/master combo, all overseen by the Shinigami himself.
It's a fun show, with great action sequences, nice attitudes to the characters and a pretty stylistic design point. Also, the comedy value of Black Star and his er, 'big'-ness is always fun to watch! :D
It's a new show for this season, currently at ep 10, and being a squeenix anime show, expect this to run for 52 episodes. Something I'm quite pleased about!
I will be interested to see if the pace of the show can indeed keep up through.
Next, I've been doing some gaming too, and I have 2 things to talk about with you!
Metal Gear Solid 2 - Substance
Ooohhh, betcha thought that was going to say 4, no? Indeed, the reason this appears here is purely because of 4. Allow me to explain...
See, having just moved house, I am poor, and PS3 being what it is, I hadn't bought one yet, why did I need to? Except I do now, MGS4.
It was then I realised. I'd only played the original PSX Metal Gear Solid game. Not any of the others, so I went down to CEX and picked up MGS2:Substance on the Xbox for a bargainous fiver.
Now, I loaded the game, and instantly I was taken aback, the xbox version has framerate issues DURING THE INTRO! Indeed, this reappears during cutscenes throughout the game, which was slightly upsetting, seeing as the Xbox was the more powerful console of the time. It smacks of a shoddy port.
But, I thoroughly enjoyed the first section of the game, it was just like old times, sneaking around with Snake, crazy plot points, a good gaming experience. Then it stops. Enter Raiden.
Yes, I know you've probably heard all this before, and I usually don't object to playing as a new character, I didn't mind going Arbiter in Halo, however There was something different about it this time.
Mostly, the fact that Snake was onboard the whole way! Now come on, wouldn't it have been more fun to control Snake as 'Pliskin' doing super secret DOUBLE undercover mega stealth? I think it would have. Either way though, I'm finding the game enjoyable so far! I'm right in the thick of boss battles, so may be approaching the finishline! I'd certainly reccomend playing this before 4, as from what I've seen, you're gonna need to know a lot before you'll understand a single thing that's going on in 4.
Next, more Rock Band. I have it. It's awesome. Nuff said.
Lastly, I do have a project coming up that I'll be plugging a bit here. Not sure if anyone reading this has seen it, but I really enjoyed watching GameTrailer's retrospective series for Final Fantasy, Zelda and MGS, even though I know most things about said series already. It's spurred me on to make my own!
The first one will be Sonic the Hedgehog and will be covering (almost) all of the games in the 8-bit and 16-bit era, including showing off some beta and unreleased code you may not have seen before, that proves very interesting indeed!
It should (fingers crossed) be here sometime before the weekend (even tonight if I get bored enough) so stay tuned!
~~GV
An introduction by an idiot.
So, GViper here, the idiot of the blog. Hiya.
This is a blog of mine, where you can keep update with me, simply put. Some of you know me as GViper, some of you might know me as Kieran - 22 - temporary worker in Reading, Berkshire.
Either way, you can hear what I'm up to, what randomness I can find on the internet to amuse you, and more importantly, impressions on the games I've been playing this week.
Hope you'll stick around -
~~GV
This is a blog of mine, where you can keep update with me, simply put. Some of you know me as GViper, some of you might know me as Kieran - 22 - temporary worker in Reading, Berkshire.
Either way, you can hear what I'm up to, what randomness I can find on the internet to amuse you, and more importantly, impressions on the games I've been playing this week.
Hope you'll stick around -
~~GV