SlavetotheMedia

Done.

Hey guys,

I've been a member since the "Building the Bomb" days. I never really participated in the forums much, but I've loved the content the guys always provided me with. My ex and I would always make time on Fridays to watch the Whiskey Media Happy Hour together. I've listened to the bombcast since the site first went up. The one constant you could always count on was Ryan's boisterous laugh brightening up whatever he was a part of. I never met him, but I'm going to miss listening to him. Rest in Peace, good buddy.

yes, you can.  Some of the keys are also pre-binded to actions (ie.  pressing "i" outside of chat opens your inventory screen).

Unfortunately I can't answer that question.  I bought the PS3 version.  It was the only one we had in stock at the time.  Sorry.

Well, today I took the plunge.  Being a huge fan of rhythm games and owning quite a few of them already, I decided to buy one of our stores two copies of Def Jam Rapstar.  I've tried karaoke games in the past and Rap oriented karaoke games as well (Get on da Mic, anyone?).  The problem that I always found with these when it came to 'spitting that skill' was that all their detection was just based upon whether or not you were speaking while the the line should have been said.  They never graded you on whether you were actually saying the correct words or even if you were matching the correct timing.  The lyric detection i can understand, but anyone who listens to any rap at all knows that timing is a key part in the hip-hop experience.  If you don't have good timing, you don't have anything.  This is what made DefJam so interesting to me.  It was a new Hip-Hop based game that promised to fix all of the issues with previous attempts...  Plus the thought of having a DefJam party at my house.  Those are always fun. 
 
First off, the game has a nice, simple interface.  It's easy to navigate and get to what you want.  The game also uses the mic (is it really necessary to say that it's required to play?) to automatically calibrate any lag you have with your TV and sound system.  it's a small but awesome feature that other rhythm games should incorporate. 
 
 I'm happy to say that the game play is sound.  It's been a long time since 'Get on da Mic' and this game is definitely a step in the right direction.  The lyric recognition seems to be a bit off.  There were songs where I didn't practice before hand and the game said i got in the high 80% in lyrics... there was no way that i got 80% on those songs.  However, the beat hit-detection is great.  No longer can you get through songs by just humming at a monotone pitch.  You have to keep with the beat of the original track.
 
The ability to kill the vocal track before the song starts is AWESOME!  You dont have to sing with Kanye if you dont want to.  It's a great touch, especially on tracks with a vocalist who's a different gender than you.  This marks an improvement to modern music games.
 
Unfortunately, in other ways this game is still stuck in 2005.  Unlike other music games, songs have to be unlocked through Career mode.  You cant just hop into Party mode on the first boot up and start rapping along to your favorite tracks, you have to earn that right.  Graphically the game as a whole feels like ti was a project done in someone's spare time.  The menus, while clean and simple, are bland.  There is a generic city scape behind the menus w/ billboards that play videos from songs in the game.  And that would be fine... except it's there throughout the entire game.  Even when going into a song the video doesn't take up the entire screen, so you can still see the cityscape in the background. 
 
Other poor design decisions hold the title back as well.  In career mode, after gaining enough mics (the equivalent of stars in other games) you then have performance songs unlocked.  These are songs which you have to complete to unlock them in other modes as well as other challenges (Like stringing together 50 perfect beats).  The problem is that you cant practice these songs like you can with other songs...Now, believe it or not, I have not actually heard "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy before this game.  I know.  My bad.  So it would be nice if i could practice the song by drilling just the individual verses over verse by verse like can with every other song.  However, since this song is a performance song, i can't do that until beating the song once.  
  
There is simply no need for this. Especially since these songs are all on the same menu. 
 
So far I think Rapstar has potential.  There are some design decisions that hold it back but the actual gameplay is solid.  Buy it if you're into Hip-Hop.  Rent it if you like music games.  Skip it if you dont like either. 
 
Have fun! Be Happy!

GAAAAHHH!!! 
 
Hello, my name is ... well that really doesn't matter.  You can just call me James.  This is the first post on my GiantBomb (ZOMG!) blog. I'll try and keep this updated pretty regularly but I cant really promise anything (I'm pretty spastic).  First a little bit about me and why I'm doing this: 
 
I work at a small locally owned video game retailer in my native land of Iowa.  I will not name them because then you can find me and i don't like new people.  Anyway,  one of the privileges of working there is that i'm able to borrow games for a short period of time.  This allows me to play a large quantity of games, both good and bad.  Up until now I've only shared my honest opinions with my coworkers.  However, I've grown bored of not really doing anything productive in my spare time and thought that this might be a fun way to pass the time. 
 
This blog will consist of  mostly brief thoughts about what i think of a game at a particular moment as i'm playing it.  If i fall in love with the game and play it for long periods of time (like with the recently released Dead Rising 2) I might go in farther in depth and do a straight up review.  Like I said earlier, I'm pretty quick on changing pace with stuff. 
 
That's all for now! Have fun! Be happy!

Black Cowboy Outfit, Black Cowboy Hat, Childrens Hero Mask.  Looks just like the Lone Ranger.  It's sweet.

RockStar has been pretty tight lipped about the multiplayer in RDR.   There's supposed to be an announcement from them concerning the multiplayer aspects during the week of April 5th.

Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Ranger on the NES.  I was 5.  My mom still has a Polaroid of me standing next to the tv as the final screen rolled.