Machaira's Space: Games

A picture is worth a thousand words

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:19:06 GMT

Or a thousand HP in this case:

New Rockband Info?

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 00:37:23 GMT

From the neogaf forums, supposedly in an upcoming Game Informer:

- One disk with 4 separate campaigns. Guitar, Drum, Bass and Vocal. Each can be played on its own from start to finish, in addition, a full band game is designed to allow for one huge co-op playthrough.

- Will feature full support for four player online play on both 360 and PS3. Any combination of on/offline play will work and each player can pick their own difficulty setting.

- Flexible community system will allow you to find bandmates anywhere in the world

- There will be a way for you to share your band's triumphs with the world, but the details are still under wraps.

- Musical fret-boards are now transparent so you can see more of the background visuals. Guitar is on the left side of the screen, Bass on the right and drums down the middle. Vocals scroll from right to left along the top of the screen.

- Guitars and Bass now have 10 frets. 5 for the regular sections of the game and 5 for the newly designated solo sections.

- Whammy bar is back as is the tilt to activate rock band's version of star power

- there is a five way switch on the guitar that allows for 5 different self-applied effects to the sound.

- Singing is now more in depth. There is a phoneme detector that will pick up individual vowels and consonants you say. Build up enough highly judged phrases and you'll be able to sing free-form. If you do well enough in free-form, then you'll trigger the vocalist's version of star power.

- Microphone doubles as a tambourine on many songs to combat super long guitar solos where the singer doesn't have much to do.

- Drums are apparently insane. You use actual sticks and hit one of four colored pads in front of you, in addition to a kick pedal attached to the drumming unit. Drummers will also have the ability to do fills etc. in their own little free-form section, do well and you'll trigger the drummers version of star power.

- If one person fails, the whole band does not fail, their section simply turns gray and they have to sit out the rest of the song unless one your band mates initiates star power, which will bring you back into the fold.

- If all bandmates can reach the end of a song, you'll be greeted with one huge free-form jam session.

- There will be a character creation system, and you can create multiple avatars that play different instruments.

- Four themed clothing stores in addition to licensed guitars and pedals and other rock paraphernalia.

- A full set of mo-cap stage movements have been added for each instrument. You can decide whether your vocalist moves like Axel Rose, or stands his ground like Clapton.

- 40 performance venues planned

- All peripherals will be unique to each platform. This isn't the developer's decision. Apparently MS peripherals require special circuit boards.

- You'll be able to craft your own band logo

- The HUD in the screens isn't final but is a good indication of what you can expect

- 4 songs announced in the article, not sure if this is new or old but whatever.
Weezer - Say It Ain't So - Original Master Track
Black Sabbath - Paranoid - Original Master Track
The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again - Original Master Track
Nirvana - In Bloom - Original Master Track

INSTRUMENT DESCRIPTIONS

Sorry I can't post photos so my descriptions will have to suffice

Guitars/Bass

Guitars are an exact 3/4 replica of a Fender Strat.

Xplorer guitars will work for 360 owners, but you may not be able to pass on all the new stuff this model has.

Five familiar buttons near the top of the neck, five buttons near the body of the guitar. You will use these new buttons during specially designed solo sections using ONLY hammer ons and pull offs, no having to worry about your strum bar. Signature Fender 5-way switch has been added. By shopping at the in game store you'll be able to purchase several virtual effects pedals such as Flange, Wah, Chorus and Echo. These can be applied during your song by setting the 5 way switch to the desired effect.

Microphone

There will eventually be a Rock Band branded Mic

Other USB mics will be supported, but Harmonix will probably NOT allow the use of the 360 headset due to its low fidelity. Mics will be usable as tambourines during certain songs.

That's all for mics!

DRUMS

The picture of the drum peripheral in the mag is not final.

It consists of four pads, a kick pedal and legs for the enire unit to stand on. Think of it as a TV dinner tray stand only cooler

Leftmost pad (red) is your snare drum, everything else doubles as toms and cymbals depending on the song.

A set of real wooden drum sticks will ship with the unit.

A piece of the stand can be taken off so that the unit can sit lower, or on a coffee table.

There is a kick pedal

If you play drums in this game on hard or expert, then you're really playing the drums. Apparently you could sit down at a real set and play the same songs.

If all this is true, OMG!!! I guess we'll find out later this month or next, whenever the issue comes out.

Halo 3 Beta Impressions

Fri, 18 May 2007 14:01:52 GMT

Is it just me or does the Halo 3 beta feel like an expansion pack for Halo 2? At this point it's certainly not an evolutionary step in the series. New gameplay elements, maybe a bit better graphics, some matchmaking system tweaking. If it were a multiplayer only game I certainly couldn't justify spending $60 on it.

I played about a half dozen games and went back to playing Crackdown.

It'll be interesting to see what the achievements are for Halo 3 in any case. :)

Halo 3 Beta

Thu, 17 May 2007 12:53:17 GMT

Well, what'd ya expect this post to be about? :)

You would think the world was ending with the problems the people were having who were expecting to get the beta through Crackdown. I don't know what's wrong with people these days. If you say something is going to be released on a certain day and it doesn't happen at 12:01 a.m. on that day people act likes it's a crime. Get a life people, it's just a freakin' game! :(

For the record, I'm one of the people that got the beta through Crackdown. You know what I did while I was waiting for the beta to become available? I played Crackdown. You see, there was this downloadable content they recently released for the game and another couple hundred points in achievements. Instead of whining about the problems with getting the beta you could have been playing a great game.

While I was waiting for the beta to download I was flipping through TV channels and hit G4. There was a "special" live edition of Attack of the Show just to report on the beta! Good grief, it's like the Apocalypse was happening and everyone had to report on it. They had a poll on the show that asked "Is your opinion of Halo 3 going to change because of the problems with the beta?" and almost 40% said "Yes, it will". WTF?!? The problems with getting the beta had nothing to do with Halo 3 so why would your opinion change because of problems getting the game?!? It's not like you're going to actually have to download the real game through Crackdown! It's unbelieveable to me how stupid people can be and how easily they allow their opinion of something to be affected by something else not even related to it.

A side note - in going through my daily web comics, I came across this one. That's my only problem with online gaming and one of the reasons I rarely play pick-up games. I'd much rather play with people that don't make me want to smack the snot out of them. :(

I'll probably be playing the beta tonight and I'll post some first impressions tomorrow.

Catan

Fri, 04 May 2007 13:49:29 GMT

Man, BHG did a good job on one of the latest Live Arcade games. I've played a half-dozen games so far and it's pretty true to the board game. What's that? You've never heard of the board game? Deprived child-hood, huh? ;) :D

Some of the achievements for the game are going to take some time to get I think. Hopefully some of the people on my Friends list will pick up the game and I'll be able to do some multiplayer (hint, hint). I'm not much for pick-up games as you never know the kind of people that'll be joining.

I highly recommend this game. Pick it up and enjoy (and send me an invite! ;) )

Another Personal Guitar Hero 2 Update

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:11:55 GMT

Finished on Medium with about 1/3 of the songs 5 starred. The ending was cool and funny. I achieved my personal goal and caught up to Miss Cabernet in achievements (of course, I'll never catch up to her gamerscore). I'm close to getting the 200K achievement and should nail it tonight. I need to figure out how to get the guitar finishes that I'm missing for that achievement as I've bought all the ones I can see and didn't get that achievement.

Great game, 5 stars (pun intended )

I need to get a friend to get the game so I can nail the coop achievements.

My Guitar Hero 2 Update

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:29:39 GMT

Well, I spent last night playing GH2 for about 3 hours. Fantastic game! The songlist is fairly diverse, which is nice. I finished all the songs Easy, two of them at 100% and all but 6 with 5 stars. Since I didn't even know some of the songs and didn't practice any of them (until after I'd played them in Career mode), I don't think that's bad for how rusty I am. I nabbed 15 achievements along the way (gotta love the 10 points for letting the credits roll while I did something else :D ).

I'll probably finish off getting 5 stars on the Easy mode, then try my hand at Medium. I practiced 3 songs on Medium and didn't do too bad so I should be able to finish that mode tonight hopefully. Then I'll be able to start buying stuff from the store in the game I'm assuming (and get more achievements!).

Hopefully everyone involved with the game will wise up and make the songs available singly so I can grab some of them.

Guitar Hero 2 Is Mine! :)

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:09:54 GMT

Found a copy at Target of all places. I'd read on the MS MVP newsgroup that some Wal-Marts had copies so I stopped there for lunch. They didn't have it, but there's a Target next door to it and they had a couple copies. I'd played through the first section of songs. 97 & 98%'s on all of them. My timing is a little off. I'll go back through and get 100s on them all later. :)

Halo 3 Beta Date

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 17:59:11 GMT

Yes, it's been announced - May 16 at 5 a.m. Check out Tina's on10.net post. I wonder how many people are going to be calling in sick that day. Of course, I'm going to be the good employee and do my job (unless I get sick that is ;) ).

New Halo 2 Maps

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 20:36:36 GMT

You've probably heard by now, but we're getting 2 new Halo 2 maps that are conversions from the original Halo maps. One is the map EVERYONE has been begging for - Hang 'Em High, renamed to Tombstone and the other is Desolation, the old Derelict map. $4 gets you both of them and they'll be available on the 17th of April. I'll be playing Tombstone that night, you can be sure! :D

You can find pics of them all over, here's one link.

The game that's almost as controversial as "Hot Coffee"

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 18:39:13 GMT

Well, since it's about religion is it any wonder that Left Behind: Eternal Forces has caused more controversy than any game since GTA's "Hot Coffee" mod? What's got me stupified is that most of the outcry is coming from people calling themselves Christians.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6163550.html

Would the people complaining about the violence be so up-in-arms if the game was about Moses and you had to kill all the Egyptians? Or if it were King David and he was slaughtering all the enemies of Israel? Is the problem that it hits too close to home, it doesn't fit their idea of Christianity, or is it something else. It seems these people are taking the gameplay as a statement of personal belief and something that the developer is advocating as what people should be doing, a standard case of not being able to separate a game world from the real world. And here we thought it was just gamers that had a problem with this. The game is about the books, not a statement about what's right and wrong. Get over it and deal with it, I say. If you have a problem with the content of the game, take it up with God as the books are based on events in the Bible.

Some statements by the opponents of the game:

"promotes killing, violence, intolerance, and a hideously false reading of the Bible" - well, gee, doesn't the Bible promote killing, violence, and intolerance too? The Old Testament is full of it. Does David's affair with Bathsheba mean the Bible promotes fornication? Come on, depicting something doesn't mean it's being promoted. How intelligent do you have to be to realize this?

The game teaches players that those who seek peace are with the forces of evil - isn't this exactly what happens in the end times?

Dan 8:23 - And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.
Dan 8:24 - And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
Dan 8:25 - And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify [himself] in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.

This is exactly what the game is saying. One will come promoting peace and will betray that peace, killing many. Christ wins in the end though, so it's all good.

“glorifies religious violence and may harm interfaith relations.” - jihad, anyone? Although supposedly not "official", followers of Islam have often used it in it's combative form as an excuse for "religious violence" and it seems the Quran backs them up. Pot...kettle...black? Tell you what - when people stop blowing things up and killing people in the name of the Islamic God, get back to me. Yes, Christianity has its share of this, but it goes against the teachings of Christ, which means that it's not Christianity. If anything has harmed interfaith relations, this is a good candidate. Also, you might want to Google "Muslim video games" and see what is being offered.

You may not agree with the version of the end times as presented in the Left Behind books, but what makes your version the correct one? Is it possible that you don't have perfect knowledge about what will happen? Because the books are such a success does that make them wrong? Of course not.

I have to wonder if any of the opponents of the game have actually talked to the developers to get copies of the game and check it out for themselves or if they just accepting second or third hand information as fact. Shades of Jack Thompson! Seems at least one Christian organization did the smart thing - http://www.pluggedinonline.com/thisweekonly/a0002989.cfm

"The rock-throwers all had one thing in common—none of them had played the game. Now that it's completed and has been released, we have."

Few things annoy me as much as people who can't let other people have their own opinion. Based on my study of scripture I think the major events depicted in the books are accurate. I could be wrong and that's fine. I don't think God is going to hold it against me and I certainly don't hold it against Christians with differing opinions. Why can't these people do the same? If you think the game is innaccurate why not develop your own version that you believe is? Instead of trying to prove how "holy" or "spiritual" you are by slamming others attempting to promote Christianity, why not work with them? Did these people attempt to contact the developer when the game was announced and they saw what it was? Probably not, as it's much easier to just criticize after the fact, especially since it draws attention to yourself.

Free 360 Oblivion Weapon

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 04:18:30 GMT

From the ElderScrolls.com site:

12.21.06 - DOWNLOAD MEHRUNES' RAZOR FOR FREE ON 360
We’re pleased to announce that we’ve worked with the good folks at Xbox Live to give away one of our most popular downloads for Oblivion – Mehrunes Razor – for a limited period of time. Starting this Friday, Dec. 22, Xbox 360 gamers will be able to download Mehrunes Razor for free. This offer is only for a limited time…from Dec. 22 to Dec. 31. On Monday, Jan. 1 it will go back to its standard price.

In this case, I think you get more than what you paid for.

Defender Disappointment

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 16:13:30 GMT

So I tried out the Defender demo the other day. The game itself is pretty nice, just about what I remember it to be, but the controls felt strange. I found myself turning around when I didn't want to, which led to me dying a lot. Maybe I just haven't given it enough time. I'll probably try it out once or twice more before deciding whether or not to buy it.

Gears of War

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 14:39:46 GMT

So a buddy and I sat down last night and played some GoW. Wow! It's definitely a different experience than your usual shooter. You can't just run and gun (at least I couldn't ). We managed to complete Act 1. I've got a looooong way to go before I'm somewhat competent at it. One thing I found out immediately is to keep an eye on your ammo and become proficient at quick reloading. It really helps out during long firefights. I didn't notice the supposed increase in damage if you do a quick reload but the reduced time was very handy.

I took a look at the Achievements for GoW and my eyes bugged out. I don't think I'll ever complete them all. I've gotten 2 so far in the hour and a half I played. I'm sure someone's probably gotten most of them already though. I'm sure I'll be playing through a couple of times to get as many as I can. Maybe by this weekend I'll attempt to do some multiplayer and see if I can pick up any points for it.

Oh, and the chainsaw - very cool!

My hat's off to the GoW team. Though I've got a couple of issues with it, I think it's a game that will keep me very satisfied until Halo 3 arrives (and maybe even afterwards ).

Guitar Hero 2 Song List

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 14:27:21 GMT

Yeah, this is probably old news to most people, but I finally had time to check some Google links (since most of them I can't get to from work - stupid filter!). From here:

Opening Licks
Danzig--"Mother"
Cheap Trick--"Surrender"
Motley Crue--"Shout at the Devil"
Wolfmother--"Woman"
Encore: Spinal Tap--"Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight"

Amp-Warmers
Kiss--"Strutter"
Nirvana--"Heart-Shaped Box"
Police--"Message in a Bottle"
Van Halen--"You Really Got Me"
Encore: Kansas--"Carry on Wayward Son"

String-Snappers
Alice in Chains--"Them Bones"
Foo Fighters--"Monkey Wrench"
Iggy Pop and the Stooges--"Search and Destroy"
Pretenders--"Tattooed Love Boys"
Encore: Black Sabbath--"War Pigs"

Thrash and Burn
Butthole Surfers--"Who Was in My Room Last Night"
Mathew Sweet--"Girlfriend"
Rolling Stones--"Can't You Hear Me Knockin'"
Warrant--"Cherry Pie"
Encore: Guns N' Roses--Sweet Child O' Mine

Return of the Shred
Primus--"John the Fisherman"
Rage Against the Machine--"Killing in the Name Of"
Sword--"Freya"
Thin Lizzy--"Bad Reputation"
Encore: Aerosmtih--Last Child

Relentless Riffs
Allman Brothers--"Jessica"
Heart--"Crazy on You"
Stone Temple Pilots--"Tripping on a Hole in a Paper Heart"
Stray Cats--"Rock This Town"
Encore: Jane's Addiction--"Stop"

Furious Fretwork
Anthrax--"Madhouse"
Lamb of God--"Laid to Rest"
Living End--"Carry Me Home"
Reverend Horton Heat--"Psychobilly Freakout"
Encore: Rush--"YYZ"

Face-Melters
Avenged Sevenfold--"Beast and the Harlot"
Dick Dale--"Misirlou"
Megadeth--"Hangar 18"
Suicidal Tendencies--"Institutionalized"
Encore: Lynyrd Skynyrd--"Free Bird"

I love that they dropped a Spinal Tap song in there! Very diverse mix of songs, which is pretty cool.

YouTube has some videos of people playing with the preview build (lucky bums!). Here's one.

I can't wait to get this for the 360, although from Game Spot it appears that'll be 2007. :( Of course, once it comes out I'll have to be torn away from the 360, so maybe it's a good thing it won't be out that soon.

New Crysis Pics

Thu, 19 Oct 2006 12:34:42 GMT

Photorealistic gaming is getting closer to a reality. Everyone should be saving now for the mega-system that will be required to actually run the game at a decent frame-rate. :)

http://www.guru3d.com/newsitem.php?id=4466

Neverwinter Nights 2 Gold!

Thu, 19 Oct 2006 00:23:09 GMT

From the Atari NWN2 forums:

"NEW YORK, October 17, 2006 – Atari, Inc (Nasdaq: ATAR) and Obsidian Entertainment today announced that the highly-anticipated Neverwinter Nights™ 2 has gone gold and is on schedule to ship to stores nationwide on October 31 in North America and on November 3 in Europe."

Woohoo! I tried out the multiplayer beta for a day before my laptop's hard drive went up and it was more NWN but better. I went out and bought pre-order from Best Buy and just finished installing the toolset. I'll be playing with it later tonight and expect it to be just as cool as the previous one.