Green Day: Rock Band Review

Title: Green Day: Rock Band
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: Music/Rhythm
Rating: T for Teen
Release Date: June 8, 2010
Publisher: MTV Games
Developer: Harmonix
Website

Rock Band has recently become the standard for music games because of the vast number of songs on the Rock Band Network and the lack of oversaturation like the Guitar Hero games. There have only been a total of 5 Rock Band games, and I think there were at least 5 Guitar Hero games just last year.

Green Day: Rock Band focuses on the career of the genre defining punk rock band, Green Day, who is now in their third decade of rocking. The game centers around three of the group’s best selling albums: Dookie, American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown, with a small mixture of songs from their three most popular albums mixed in. I was upset to see there were no songs from Green Day’s first two albums and no plan to release these songs or any of the absent ones from other albums in the form of downloadable content. It’s unfortunate that some more popular songs were not included, but instead entire albums which include songs most people have never heard, were still available.

I can’t help but compare Rock Band’s Green Day edition to last year’s Beatles edition. And when comparing them, there is no contest. The Beatles version had a lot more polish when it comes to background animations. In GD:RB all you get to see is three different venues with three different versions of the band members, whereas in TB:RB there were shots of in-studio rehearsals, music videos as well as popular venues such as TV shows and concerts. Graphically, GD:RB looks like it is a straight port of RB2 with the members of Green Day pasted into it.

Green Day: Rock Band is available for Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo Wii. The Rock Band series has a stranglehold on the music genre and doesn’t seem to be letting up. By locking down on bands like Green Day and The Beatles, Harmonix has proven they mean business. Green Day: Rock Band may have been a step backwards, but it’s still a solid music game. From a person who grew up in the 90s, has always been a huge fan of Green Day and loves music games, I’m a little disappointed by the lack of visuals, but I still find myself playing this game occasionally on the weekends.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

March 13, 2010

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The Gaming Savant, Ryan Smith

Is Kinect Too Late?

There’s been a lot of animosity coming since E3 toward Microsoft’s Kinect, a peripheral that was highly talked about a year ago. Recently, Xbox Live’s Stephen Tolouse made the statement that hardcore gamers have been wrong for the last 10 years, referring to the surprising success of Nintendo’s Wii. I blame the sudden switch in gamers’ attitudes to the weak performance by Microsoft at E3 this year, taking almost a step back as far as showing off what Kinect can do. With it Microsoft looking to take away Nintendo’s lunch money, it makes me wonder if Kinect is just too late.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT KINECT

One of the criticisms about Kinect is the rumored price of $150 for the unit. A lot of people are commenting that it is too much of a buy in when you can get a Wii for $200 and have everything you need. But the problem the Wii has faced with many gamers is it’s pretty much just a machine for party games. Most people I know who own one have it collecting dust and just get it out whenever a group of people get together. Since the Wii only comes with one controller, you end up having to buy or borrow 3 more. With Motion+, that comes to $70 a bundle, making the cost of the Wii $410 without a new game. So far Kinect has been shown to recognize two players and if it can pull off 4 that’s even better. The potential cost for a new Xbox 360 and Kinect comes to $400. Even if it is only 2 players at a time, it’s still not bad for a system you’ll actually play any other time. If some parent asked me which one I’d recommend for their kid, I’d go with Microsoft based on it being the better value, but that’s partially because I’ve always related the Wii to Apple, being a trendy electronic that’s built on hype. I’m sure they’re finding out now though they’re not invincible.

Another aspect I like about Kinect comes from the buzz around it when it was first announced, the potential. Sure, Skittles didn’t seem like much except fulfilling a secret fantasy to be Mike Tyson and own a tiger, but there’s more to it than that. By recognizing hand gestures and finger movements new doors can be opened up with brand new elements of gameplay. It could be something small like in a game similar to Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time where the player would have to memorize finger placements to play a song, or it can be more involving like dribbling the ball in a basketball game. There’s also the added advantage of returning to my youth and flipping the checkers board when I was going to lose. It gets to a point where a peripherals failure may not be so much on the manufacturer or console as it is developers not leaving their comfort zone to develop new software.

THE HURDLE
Microsoft’s real enemy in all of this has been time. It’s been years since the Wii was released and there have been enough purchased that I’m sure most of the people interested in motion control already have one. Their saving grace is the probability that any Wii that isn’t in a retirement home or bar has another console with it. If they can launch Kinect with a strong line-up of games, then it stands a chance to dethrone Nintendo. They need to stay away from the piles of shovelware that has created 90% of the Wii’s library.

Microsoft may think hardcore gamers have been wrong, but they still need them to succeed. Just look at the sales for non-Nintendo Wii games and you see where the strength of the industry lies.

To read more of Ash’s blog posts check out his full blog @ http://ashchristians.blogspot.com/

Kids Like Collecting Stuff, Right?

Want a cheap way to extend gameplay? Try adding something to collect!

With the recent release of Crackdown 2, with its orb-collecting fun, I thought I’d take some time to talk a bit about collecting in a video game. For some games, it’s a way to add a few more hours for those die-hards out there that have to complete 100% of the game. Other franchises, like Pokemon and its numerous knock-offs, have it at the center of the gameplay. Like an OCD obsession, people getting all of something… so long as that something has value.

Just as it’s rare to find someone collecting Pauly Shore movies, it’s also rare for gamers to complete a collection in a game that isn’t going to reward them. Pokemon offered new abilities with each critter you found, InFamous increased the electricity the character could hold by collecting blast shards, and Crackdown increases gameplay abilities with the orbs collected. Each of these offers some kind of reward for the added effort to play the game, an incentive that could make the game a bit easier as you go on. Other games may use the collections as a way to unlock characters, like Ratchet and Clank, or even vehicles. The point is it in some way changes the gaming experience.

However, there are times when it just feels added on as an afterthought. Prototype offered many challenge missions aside from the plot to keep people entertained, but the added aspect of collecting around the city just seemed so pointless. They amounted to nothing more than something to fill time for the trophy/achievement whores out there. Even the web of conspiracy, with its 100+ people, didn’t offer much of a reward. The point was to absorb the memories of various people around New York City to learn more about the outbreak. What players were given was a shoddy cut-scene of still photos with voice work lasting 30 seconds with no real revelation. Sure, once somebody collected all of them, they could piece it together by replaying the scenes in order, but it didn’t offer anything new that wasn’t part of the overall plot.

What ultimately makes collecting work is the reward. Whether it’s unlocking new areas, completing missions, or added abilities, when collecting works it can add some extra fun to the game. I love messing with the physics of a Spider-Man game, swinging around the city, and it adds to that experience when a game like Web of Shadows adds the collecting to it. Not only does it offer the reward of increased abilities, but it gives me something to do when exploring the city. Collecting is like any other element in game development, it needs to be respected and used properly. It can’t just be added on to any sandbox game without offering some sort of payback. When elements of gameplay aren’t respected, it leads to piles of shovelware like the bullet time games that filled the 2000s, and that’s not a place I want to go back to.

To read more of Ash’s blog posts check out his full blog @ http://ashchristians.blogspot.com/