I'm sorry about the lack of posts last week. I was on a break, but I will try to get back into the schedule again. This post will be quick because there isn't much to say about Star Wars: The Force Unleashed beside the disappointment.
At the first announcement of the game, I was greatly excited and started to anticipate the game greatly. With each new tech demo, I was awed further. But what goes up must come down. The game with all the potential, immense force powers and cool universe, becomes a big disappointment. While, I dislike bashing a developer who spends hours upon hours constructing the game to it's perfection, this game cannot be viewed highly. First, I was disappointed to learn of the lack of on line play or any multilayer for that matter, limiting replay ability. 1 Second, while playing the demo, I learned about the annoyance of the controls. Such as it is hard to choose which object you want to force grab. Also, I felt the hardest part of the game wasn't the AI but the fact that I kept falling off the ledge in the game. But, it isn't all bad. The story is viewed as "moving" and "intense" by Gamespot. 2 Some people believe that this story should have been the new Star Wars film instead of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Some speculation points to The Forced Unleashed as the next Star Wars film in the series. 3 In the story you take the role of Darth Vader's secret apprentice, Starkiller during the story arc between Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Starkiller's duty is to hunt and rid of the remaining Jedi after Emperor Palpatine orders to kill them. 4 Overall the game is seen as disappoint, the gamers still hope for a KOTOR 3. Until then we may not get a deserving Star Wars game. I advise a rent for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed or at least wait until the price drops significantly.
Well it is this time of year again. No not Christmas, or Easter just yet (but maybe big name stores think so already), but instead it is the beginning of television prime-time season. Some television shows have already started such as J.J. Abram's Fringe. Other shows will premiering very soon. Due to the writer's strike a couple months ago, television shows had a rough and abrupt ending for such shows as Heroes. This caused unpleasant seasons of shows in many critic's eyes. But, fear not the writers have recovered from this toll of a strike and now have been working non-stop on these new seasons. I have started watching J.J. Abrams' Fringe mainly because I enjoy the television show Lost and J.J. Abrams' is the original mind behind Lost. Fringe is an O.K. 'TV' show compared to Lost. But this post is not about Fringe or about my like or dislike of Fringe and J.J Abrams. I have written this post to inform the reader of many of the great shows premiering that I plan to watch. Fringe is shown Tuesdays at 8 PM. This week premiering on FX is It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia on Thursday at 10 PM with two new back to back episodes. Next week is a slew of premiers by NBC. On Monday at 9 PM Heroes returns. On Thursday 'Comedy Night Done Right' returns with two new one hour episodes of My Name is Earl and The Office. The week after that, the week of the 28th of September, Chuck returns at 8 PM on Monday September 29 on NBC. Saturday Night Live (SNL) has already returned to it's late night Saturday shift with Michael Phelps hosting the first episode. SNL will soon premiere Thursday episodes starting Thursday October 9th on NBC at 9:30. Last but not least, 30 Rock will premiere on NBC October 30th at 9:30 PM. Be sure to check out all the great shows these television stations have to offer. You can catch up on your favorite shows at either their official website or their portal at . Enjoy your fall television season!
As seen in the Rock Band 2's opening cinematic the big draw to the hotly anticipated sequel is 'Battle of the Bands.' In the original Rock Band, the players could form a band and "rock the world" by forming a band with, but not all necessarily needed, a bassist, a drummer, a singer, and a lead guitarist. The only showing of the players' skills were displayed via leaderboards. Now in Rock Band 2 the 'gamers' can take their skills and put it to the test against other Rock Band players. This improvement is nice but the problem arises that the player cannot quickly get a battle set up, but instead the battle of the bands consists of bands posting scores and trying to better each other. 1 The battle of the bands mode is not wasted, but instead a great way to avoid the annoyance of waiting for the other band to play their 'gig' then you play your 'gig' and so on. While adding a mode (Battle of the Bands) Rock Band 2 drops single-player career mode and replaces it with a single player Band World Tour. If you have not played the original, Band World Tour mode allows you and a few buddies to join up and start and band, obtain fans, and as the slogan goes, 'rock the world.'Though I feel this drop of career mode was not a disappoint because the player is not required to always have multiple people to play Rock Band. For music games the biggest concern is music, "Oh, I am going to buy Rock Band because it has Tom Sawyer..." Two series, Guitar Hero and Rock Band (with the addition of Konami's Rock Revolution this year) have been competing for the music game consumer's money. The consumer mainly wants a music game with good music. Harmonix's Rock Band 2 has almost eliminated this complaint. Rock Band has a lot of tracks. With the 84 tracks in Rock Band 2's disc alone sums up to more music than in any of the Guitar Hero games. Also the consumer can transfer 55 of the 59 tracks from the original Rock Band to Rock Band 2 for a measly price of $5 or 400 Microsoft Points for the license charge. 2 Not included in the transfer is the hard rock or metal songs such as Metallica’s Enter Sandman, Tokio Hotel’s Through the Monsoon, Black Sabbath’s Paranoid and Iron maiden’s Run to the Hills. But, did I mention the Downloadable Content (DLC) that not only works on Rock Band but works on Rock Band 2 as well? Harmonix promises to have over 500 tracks including Rock Band 1, 2, and DLC by the end of the year. 3 Currently Harmonix has over 200 songs readily available. This slew of Rock Band tracks almost eliminates the complaints. Whatever the consumer wants in a song may eventually show up as a DLC or in a future Rock Band game. A list of the songs available can be viewed at IGN. Maybe after the music in a music game the consumer looks at the instruments. The instruments of Rock Band 2 are the same as Rock Band, but they are much sturdier and are wireless. Harmonix hopes that the problems will not arise with the equipment like last year when much of the equipment, the drums and guitar, was sent to Harmonix to be fixed. The guitar features a better strum bar, but is still a similar guitar to last year's guitar. 4 The Guitar The drum set is similar as well, the pedal is reinforced so the pedal does not break, the drums are not as loud as the first, and the drums are velocity sensitive (the sound is louder or softer depending on how hard the player hits the drum). 5 *Image not created by me
The consumer can purchase a premium Ion drum set for $300, but I will not go into that set because it is not the official drum set of Rock Band 2. 5 The game is very similar to the original in terms of game play. Some of the graphics are different and there have been some additions to Band World Tour such as making a music video and hiring managers. But, as the old saying goes, "If it ain't broke don't fix it." Rock Band 2 is spectacular, they have added one small feature that really is important, being able to play with friends in the same band over live in 'Band World Tour.' I have purchased this game already, have already put hours into my band (The Bandanna Banditos), and got a free t-shirt (Hooray!). I did avoid the premium pack of all the instruments, because I already have the Rock Band instruments. The Guitar Hero: World Tour instruments look more appealing to me. I give this game a water concentration of 90! Harmonix delivers rock god powers a second time!
By the way, my favorite song is Charlene (I'm Right Behind You) by Stephen and the Colberts it is currently a free DLC.
Sorry I am late writing a post on Rock Band 2. Tomorrow, I will write an extensive post on Rock Band 2. I was too busy enjoying Rock Band 2 today that I was unable to get around to write a post. Sorry. But I will leave you with this:
1 Have you ever stopped and thought about death? Have you ever wondered about your time? Most people do not think about death or rarely contemplate the thought of death. But, before I get too far into this let me back up a minute. Early this week I learned about the activation of a machine called the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This machine's purpose was to re-enact the conditions after the 'Big Bang.' Many people feared that the activation of this machine would cause the end of the world. Fear not, fellow readers, the world did not end. The machine, activated early this morning (September 10, 2008 EST), was a success. While no new information about the conditions after the 'Big Bang' have arisen yet, we are glad to know that having the LHC on will not end the world!2 We can continue on our lives, never thinking about death again...(December 21 2012)
While I have not personally played Spore yet, I have been reading up on the game for some time now. The game was announced a few years ago at the 2005 E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) 1, and has been delayed a few times. After the few delays, spore was finally released today 09/07/08. Spore had high expectations, because of the company creating it, Maxis. Maxis is known for it's highly successful series The Sims, and The Sims 2. The Spore Creature Creator was released a few weeks ago and was received highly. But, with such high expectations the game can be a disappointment easily. Overall at metacritic, a site where the average of critic reviews of media products are shown, has high scores for the game. Although the score is not as great as expected. Over at IGN Spore receives an 8.8 out of 10. IGN says however that Spore does not have much depth and is more tuned toward "Rookie" gamers. At Gamespot Spore receives an 8.0 out of 10. Gamespot, like IGN, says how the game is not as deep as expected. Also Gamespot spots that the individual gameplay elements are extremely simple and early stages are not very engaging. I can look beyond these flaws because Spore offers so much more with the creative elements. Spore offers brillant customization design at many stages in the game. Spore allows creation of your creature, your transportation, and more. I plan to pick up the game this week. Spore costs $50, plays on the PC and the Mac, and is rated E+10 for Comic Mischief and Mild Cartoon Violence. 2
The Guitar
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