Guitar Hero 3: Mini Review

Guitar Hero 3 in the next installment of a very successful game once known as Simon says (just kidding...sort of). This next installment finally brings multi-player to a game that should have had in version 2 and now has boss battles. Alright here goes the rant so fan-boys avert your eyes or just skip down to the end of the post.

First off, Boss battles! Seriously this is the new innovation in Guitar Hero? Having players face off against legends and pretend to have that kind of skill? The reason why their legends is because no one else has that kind of skill. Now personally I think the game concept of a boss battle is over played and really should be put to rest with only a handful of exceptions (God of War comes to mind). The rest of the games out there could do just fine with out it. The song sets are a bit inconsistent in tempo and don't really keep up the same kind of energy. I thought I was going to fall a sleep after playing through the first couple of sets, sure there are a couple of very good songs in the early sets, but the rest of the songs seem to drag on. My next issue is the same issue I had with the second installment the wide spread in difficulties, transitioning from easy to medium takes a good amount of time if you haven't played before. And transitioning from anything from pretty much any level to the next is just painful (I had a metaphor for this but I'll spare you the gruesome details). My last complaint is actually pretty small, the integration of online multi-player is great but should have been in Guitar Hero 2. Now I haven't really had a chance to mess with it too much so the multi-player portion of this review doesn't exist.

Alright now on to what I like, the game is finally out on all consoles including the Wii, I just wished that some one would have done more with its motion sensors ( I really wanted to see my guitarist swing his guitar around). This in my opinion is version of the game has the strongest song line up with music from The Killers, Rage Against the Machine, Guns 'n Roses, and other big name bands. Overall the game hasn't gone away from its original winning formula, which is make gamers feel like actual rock stars. I'm pretty sure the only other way to enhance this experience is to have a groupie sold with each copy of the game (drug addiction and other rock cliches sold separately). Bottom line is the game is still fun and has tons of replay ability. So if you're a fan of the series or think you would be go pick this one up otherwise see if you can go over to a friends hows and rock out on their system.

Zero Punctuation: Super Paper Mario

Yahtzee is at it again, this time he's got an Italian plumber in his sights

Zero Punctuation: The Orange Box

It's been a while since I've picked up Half Life 2 but it was a great game when I last played it so when orange box was announced I was pretty exited. However, since I'm no pundit (at least I'm pretty sure I'm not) let's see what does Yahtzee has to say.

Random Video of the Day: Halo The Future of Gaming

An interesting look at a post-Halo world.

Why Vista matters

With Windows Vista coming under critical fire, most would ask why would Microsoft push this monster on the computing world. Especially if the majority of the current computer specifications can't meet the minimum hardware requirements. Though its hard to argue against the performance issue, it is something that will go away over time. The big reason for pushing Vista has very little to do with the consumers but more so the developers.

For years Microsoft has been trying to fade out their Win32 API, this API is one of the most powerful API's on Windows and is also one of the biggest problems. In fact a great deal of the security related problems were related to the Win32 API's design, it wasn't design with Security in mind. So with Vista Microsoft is trying harder to branch away from this API and it seems that they're trying to replace it with their .NET framework. All of this is an effort to move more developers into the managed code philosophy. They've event extended it providing more media focused interface layers that are meant to provide the ground work for future third party applications. This is why Microsoft wants Vista out there but it seems that their commitment to managed code is starting to bite them where it counts. Even though there is a lot they can improve on and maybe .NET is not the answer for Win32. The idea of going into a completely "managed" environment, is very compelling and definitely reason enough to push out Vista to the world.

There are lots of reasons to move to managed environment most of which is to reduce (if not eliminate) problems such as memory leaks and pointer problems. The only thing that gets sacrificed is the unlimited access to everything, which isn't entirely a bad thing. That being said, there is also the possibility of introducing the ability to have your code be more portable, since managed code is interpreted it can (theoretically) be but on a different platform and run with out having to recode. So in theory Microsoft is creating a tremendously powerful platform for developers, as long as they can get Vista into the hands of users. Unfortunately its the users that will have to sufferer through this performance issue transition.

Zero Punctuation:Tabula Rasa

I've never heard of Tabula Rasa, but it sounds like just another MMORPG. However it never hurts to hear a Zero Punctuation review about a game that's not even out yet.

Random Video of the Day: Red vs Blue in Halo 3

It seems the guys over at Rooster Teeth (Better known for their Red vs Blue series) got a little cameo in Halo 3. It is the awesome and of course it's funny.

Retrospective on the Halo Series

In the last few weeks Halo mania has engulfed the gaming world so much so that it has broke records and also seem to have marked the end of an era between Bungie and Microsoft. Now that the Halo trilogy has concluded it seems that a little look back at the series shows how far the series has come.

The original Halo was an anomaly in the ranks of console shooters, it was one of maybe a handful FPS games that really worked on the console platform. This very notion would set the tempo for the future of console gaming. It created a large expansive world that tied into a nice tight story line and also included a localized multi player. Well it seems that Halo came just at the right time and caught on to mainstream audiences becoming one of the big reasons to own an Xbox. There was very little missing from the original Halo which seemed to put a lot of pressure on Bungie Studios (developer of the Halo series).

With Halo 2 the story continued from the story arc of the original creating a larger story "universe" that also introduced an additional character. However, Halo 2 did a lot more than expand the Halo Universe it pushed the limits of Xbox console with its rendering engine and introduced a feature many fans of the series have been waiting for online multi-player. The online multi-player aspect of Halo 2, seemed to give Halo 2 infinite replay ability. However, Halo 2 didn't inherit all the positive aspects of the original. The level design though graphically impressive seem uninspired and very closed off, this was almost a complete 180 from the wide expansive level designs of the first. The second major flaw of the second installment was the story not so much that the story was bad, just that it didn't really end. The ending for Halo 2 is considered to be one of the most frustrating moments of the franchise. With a story line that needed closure a Halo 3 was inevitable.

Halo 3's launched has over shadowed it predecessors release by putting up sales numbers that are normally synonymous with Hollywood block buster records. The game itself added a flurry of new features that enhance the game play. The newer Xbox 360 has allowed Bungie to enhance their game engine that blows away their previous attempts. The game itself completes the small amount of story left that seems to take a bit away from expectations. However, like the second installment Bungie was able to future enhance the multi-player aspect. Halo 3 seems to have a lot more influences from the first game but seems to fall short in delivering the complete experience. In the end Halo 3 will be well received by fans and its publisher (Microsoft).

However, one can only wonder what could have been. The franchises few deficiencies seems like they should have been avoidable. The faults in the campaign in the second and third installment seem to be related to time. If Halo 2's campaign level design was designed similarly to the third or even the first installment, it would have been a much richer game experience. While the third installment seemed to improve on the level design it seemed to have half a campaign, the story flows very well but is almost excessively short. So much so that is feels like the missing ending from Halo 2. In hindsight Bungie should have made the Halo multi-player portions a spin off as stand alone game. This probably wouldn't have put up the same kind of sales numbers but would have given them a lot more time to work out the kinks with the story line and delay it long enough to take advantage of the newer Xbox 360 hardware. After which a sequel to multi-player spin off could be made to take advantage of the new game engine. It's purely speculation but conceivably the end result would have been a nearly flawless game franchise.

Zero Punctuation: Halo 3

After putting in my two cents about Halo 3, it's only fair to hear what good old Yahtzee has to say about it. Needless to say if you're a Halo fanatic, you may want to sit this one out. Otherwise, get ready for the usual entertaining rant.

iPhone the end of Apple?

In recent weeks Apple's gone from gadget golden child to the top of the technology hipster hit list. Why you ask? Mostly due to the fact that in recent weeks it has done the one thing that no one really expected from Apple, they showed disregard for they're fans. What seemed like a simple software update to their popular iPhone line has "bricked" all unlocked iPhones to a non-phone like state. So now that Apple has tarnished their reputation, the question is have they gone too far? The whole thing seems a bit overly dramatic I know but the out cry can't be ignored and could be the point in which the Mac faithful begin to question the big fruit?

Obviously Apple won't fall over night but the companies image isn't invulnerable to heavy criticism. The mystic of Apple is one thing the company can't afford to loose at the moment. It's iPod line is mainstream but they're still dealing with a growing product line with the iPhone and bad press is really what they don't need with an upcoming European launch. So unless his Jobbiness pulls out another apology with a fix or the community cracks it again. Expect the out cry to only get louder at a time where Apple's iPhone is losing its luster, could this mean the end of Apple?

UPDATE: It seems you just can't keep a good community down, the iBrick is a phone once again. It seems that if Apple really wants a closed system, they'll be dealing with a software arms race.