Cloudy With a Chance of Gaming -- 2/13/2011

JJWeatherman

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Edited By JJWeatherman

Off He Goes
As a few of you already know, I’ve decided to start up my own weekly blog. Don't worry though Video_Game_King, you're still the king of blogs. Sunday seemed like a good day to post these, so here it is! It will be about not only the games I’m playing, but noteworthy things happening in the game industry, as well as my occasional personal thoughts regarding a variety of things. I like to write, but I almost never find time to actually do it. It’s my hope that this weekly blog will interest and entertain both myself, as well as some of you guys.

Last thing: There’s a secret relationship between my section titles. I’m challenging you, dear readers, to figure out what that relationship is. First one to figure it out earns an always-elusive internet cookie.

Severed Hand

After seeing Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 on the latest free Happy Hour, I recalled that I still hadn’t beaten the original Rearmed. I’ve decided to get back into that the last few days. I’m sure my relationship with the series isn’t too uncommon. I never played the original. In fact, I’d never even heard of it until Rearmed was released. Don’t blame me, I was born three years after it initially launched. After some excitement built around Rearmed, I decided to just buy it. I took a leap of faith, and it paid off. My initial thought was that it was a damn hard game. I really liked the swinging mechanic though; it feels so right as I'm grappling my way through levels. I eventually got stuck on a tough level and gave up after playing a few challenge rooms. Well, I’m back, baby. I couldn't tell you how, but after all of this time away, I’m way better at the game now. I've been blowing through both story levels and challenge rooms. As I scrolled through the intimidating list of challenge rooms, I was noting the amount of deaths stat for each challenge in the right corner. There was one challenge that I’d apparently tried like 150 times, and passed 0. The second I booted that challenge up, I just thought “Oh yeah! Oh fuck.” To be honest, it’s not even close to the hardest challenge, but something about it was extremely difficult for me. Anyway, I jumped back into this, my nemesis challenge. What took me over 150 tries just to give up previously, I was able to beat in about ten minutes and a handful of attempts. OK Bionic Commando, you’re awesome again. I’ve been playing through some more story levels, and I expect to beat it sometime soon. I have just a few areas left unvisited. Maybe after beating this one, I could justify the purchase of numero two. I think I'd still enjoy it despite Jeff's relatively harsh words regarding certain aspects.

Rearviewmirror

I received Forza Motorsport 3 on December 25th, 2009, and dammit I’m still playing it. I actually just checked my play times a couple of days ago, and I’ve put over 100 hours into driving alone. That’s not counting the hours I’ve spent doing things like paint, browse the storefront, test drive, etc. All this game time put in over all of this real time, and somehow I’m still only sitting at around 90% completion. If you haven’t played it, you probably are unaware that there’s one achievement that requires you to win every race in the game, thus earning gold in all events. This is a hefty task that I am yet to complete. So here I am, 2011, and I’m still plugging away and winning race after race. I must have this godforsaken achievement! Podcasts are my only solace as I win, win, and win some more. By the way, my thanks go out to ZanzibarBreeze for creating those awesome Hotspot compilations. I’ve been listening to those as I race recently, and enjoying them.

Anyway, the worst part of all of this is that it’s depriving me of multiplayer racing. Sure I suck when racing other people, but I still find it enjoyable. The thing is though, I made this deal with myself when I first got the game that I’d beat every single player race before venturing into multiplayer. I have no idea why I decided on that; maybe I thought it would be easy. I've actually tried the multiplayer out a couple of times. It seems cool. It’s a racing game with freakin’ playlists. I just keep telling myself though, “Go back and get that achievement first!” And so I do. Don’t get me wrong, I do find the single player to be fun. It’s just when you’re racing so many events back to back, it tends to feel awfully grindy. Forza 4 could definitely benefit from an even greater selection of tracks, a day/night option, and maybe even some light weather variations. Besides, what wouldn’t benefit from more weather? That was pretty lame.

This achievement is now officially holding me up from playing other games. I’m going after this thing in high gear. I should have it by next week assuming I remain in high gear, but I wouldn’t be surprised if my metaphorical transmission gives out a bit.

Parting Ways

It’s never a good thing when lots of people lose their jobs, especially in an industry that I love. Both Harmonix and Neversoft have taken hits recently. Due to dwindling popularity of the rhythm game genre, Activision strait-up canned their whole Guitar Hero lineup (among other franchises). As mean as this may sound: Thank god Guitar Hero is over! I feel bad about all the cool people at Neversoft, but man this was a long time coming. I’m sure most of you already know that Harmonix was responsible for the Guitar Hero series through number two, but the IP was sold to Activision who developed number three all of the way through Warriors of Rock. This allowed Harmonix to move on and chase bigger and better ideas. Harmonix then created Rock Band, and my life has been complete ever since. People have been saying the rhythm game genre is dying for years, but the Harmonix and Activision restructurings make it seem all-too-real.

Pro Keys may be this genre's final innovation

It’s sad seeing these games further slip away year after year. Heck, I can still recall when Guitar Hero 3 was so popular, my entire family decided that we would have a Guitar Hero tournament after Thanksgiving dinner. We went out and bought the game and an extra guitar controller. I was tasked with unlocking every song in the game as quickly as possible so that we could have the largest selection. Of course I could have just entered a cheat, but my parents didn’t know that. I sat there on the couch and played Guitar Hero 3 all god damn day--just doing my part. Fast-forward a bit to Rock Band’s release. This time, the family brought the game over; probably for some other holiday, but I don’t remember. Drunken people singing Bon Jovi became the entertainment of the evening, and my love of playing fake drums had been born. Jump to current day though, and it’s mostly me playing Rock Band 3 alone. Sometimes a friend will play, or I’ll jump online, but for the most part I play alone. This doesn’t really bother me. What bothers me is knowing that the dwindling popularity will eventually lead to the death of the genre, and the inability to play, even alone. The previously mentioned restructuring is a step in that direction, and it’s hard to accept.

Why do I even like these games so much? I really don’t know why they click with me. I guess it’s like any other game, really; I simply enjoy the thrill of doing well. I like that the reward is immediate too. Nailing a long and complicated HOPO section and hearing the music play out as intended without those awful missed note sounds, is all the reward I need. This is probably the reason I enjoy the drums the most. It’s the most physically taxing instrument of the bunch, and that makes that feeling of success extra rewarding after nailing a long drum roll spanning the entire kit. At times, you’re hitting those pads and cymbals so hard, but at the same time, you’re doing it with an elegance and a strict sense of timing and rhythm. It’s just an incredible feeling when you know you’re not only doing all of that, but doing it extremely well.

This went in a direction that I hadn’t necessarily anticipated, but it’s all good. Best of luck to everyone affected by the layoffs and restructuring happening at Activision and Harmonix. You guys were at the forefront of an awesome era in video games. Hopefully it’s not over quite yet.

The End

I don’t want this to sound like some lame award acceptance speech or anything, but I just want to thank the people that encouraged me to stop being lazy and write more. Those kind people being: Gamer_152, CrazyManAndy, Abyssfull, Jambones, Dalai, RecSpec, dankempster, eroticfishcake, EuanDewar, Pyromaster222, PixelPrinny, Underachiever007, and thedj93. Thanks to Hockeymask27 as well, for the incredibly corny title. I kid, it’s the perfect amount of corn. It’s actually clever on several levels that I won’t get into.

That’s all for this week, folks. I hope you enjoyed my rambling, because I enjoyed putting it all together. Hopefully this blog can live a long and prosperous life. Come back next Sunday for another weather report!

<3
--JJWeatherman

13 years ago

JJWeatherman

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#1 Edited By JJWeatherman

Off He Goes
As a few of you already know, I’ve decided to start up my own weekly blog. Don't worry though Video_Game_King, you're still the king of blogs. Sunday seemed like a good day to post these, so here it is! It will be about not only the games I’m playing, but noteworthy things happening in the game industry, as well as my occasional personal thoughts regarding a variety of things. I like to write, but I almost never find time to actually do it. It’s my hope that this weekly blog will interest and entertain both myself, as well as some of you guys.

Last thing: There’s a secret relationship between my section titles. I’m challenging you, dear readers, to figure out what that relationship is. First one to figure it out earns an always-elusive internet cookie.

Severed Hand

After seeing Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 on the latest free Happy Hour, I recalled that I still hadn’t beaten the original Rearmed. I’ve decided to get back into that the last few days. I’m sure my relationship with the series isn’t too uncommon. I never played the original. In fact, I’d never even heard of it until Rearmed was released. Don’t blame me, I was born three years after it initially launched. After some excitement built around Rearmed, I decided to just buy it. I took a leap of faith, and it paid off. My initial thought was that it was a damn hard game. I really liked the swinging mechanic though; it feels so right as I'm grappling my way through levels. I eventually got stuck on a tough level and gave up after playing a few challenge rooms. Well, I’m back, baby. I couldn't tell you how, but after all of this time away, I’m way better at the game now. I've been blowing through both story levels and challenge rooms. As I scrolled through the intimidating list of challenge rooms, I was noting the amount of deaths stat for each challenge in the right corner. There was one challenge that I’d apparently tried like 150 times, and passed 0. The second I booted that challenge up, I just thought “Oh yeah! Oh fuck.” To be honest, it’s not even close to the hardest challenge, but something about it was extremely difficult for me. Anyway, I jumped back into this, my nemesis challenge. What took me over 150 tries just to give up previously, I was able to beat in about ten minutes and a handful of attempts. OK Bionic Commando, you’re awesome again. I’ve been playing through some more story levels, and I expect to beat it sometime soon. I have just a few areas left unvisited. Maybe after beating this one, I could justify the purchase of numero two. I think I'd still enjoy it despite Jeff's relatively harsh words regarding certain aspects.

Rearviewmirror

I received Forza Motorsport 3 on December 25th, 2009, and dammit I’m still playing it. I actually just checked my play times a couple of days ago, and I’ve put over 100 hours into driving alone. That’s not counting the hours I’ve spent doing things like paint, browse the storefront, test drive, etc. All this game time put in over all of this real time, and somehow I’m still only sitting at around 90% completion. If you haven’t played it, you probably are unaware that there’s one achievement that requires you to win every race in the game, thus earning gold in all events. This is a hefty task that I am yet to complete. So here I am, 2011, and I’m still plugging away and winning race after race. I must have this godforsaken achievement! Podcasts are my only solace as I win, win, and win some more. By the way, my thanks go out to ZanzibarBreeze for creating those awesome Hotspot compilations. I’ve been listening to those as I race recently, and enjoying them.

Anyway, the worst part of all of this is that it’s depriving me of multiplayer racing. Sure I suck when racing other people, but I still find it enjoyable. The thing is though, I made this deal with myself when I first got the game that I’d beat every single player race before venturing into multiplayer. I have no idea why I decided on that; maybe I thought it would be easy. I've actually tried the multiplayer out a couple of times. It seems cool. It’s a racing game with freakin’ playlists. I just keep telling myself though, “Go back and get that achievement first!” And so I do. Don’t get me wrong, I do find the single player to be fun. It’s just when you’re racing so many events back to back, it tends to feel awfully grindy. Forza 4 could definitely benefit from an even greater selection of tracks, a day/night option, and maybe even some light weather variations. Besides, what wouldn’t benefit from more weather? That was pretty lame.

This achievement is now officially holding me up from playing other games. I’m going after this thing in high gear. I should have it by next week assuming I remain in high gear, but I wouldn’t be surprised if my metaphorical transmission gives out a bit.

Parting Ways

It’s never a good thing when lots of people lose their jobs, especially in an industry that I love. Both Harmonix and Neversoft have taken hits recently. Due to dwindling popularity of the rhythm game genre, Activision strait-up canned their whole Guitar Hero lineup (among other franchises). As mean as this may sound: Thank god Guitar Hero is over! I feel bad about all the cool people at Neversoft, but man this was a long time coming. I’m sure most of you already know that Harmonix was responsible for the Guitar Hero series through number two, but the IP was sold to Activision who developed number three all of the way through Warriors of Rock. This allowed Harmonix to move on and chase bigger and better ideas. Harmonix then created Rock Band, and my life has been complete ever since. People have been saying the rhythm game genre is dying for years, but the Harmonix and Activision restructurings make it seem all-too-real.

It’s sad seeing these games further slip away year after year. Heck, I can still recall when Guitar Hero 3 was so popular, my entire family decided that we would have a Guitar Hero tournament after Thanksgiving dinner. We went out and bought the game and an extra guitar controller. I was tasked with unlocking every song in the game as quickly as possible so that we could have the largest selection. Of course I could have just entered a cheat, but my parents didn’t know that. I sat there on the couch and played Guitar Hero 3 all god damn day--just doing my part. Fast-forward a bit to Rock Band’s release. This time, the family brought the game over; probably for some other holiday, but I don’t remember. Drunken people singing Bon Jovi became the entertainment of the evening, and my love of playing fake drums had been born. Jump to current day though, and it’s mostly me playing Rock Band 3 alone. Sometimes a friend will play, or I’ll jump online, but for the most part I play alone. This doesn’t really bother me. What bothers me is knowing that the dwindling popularity will eventually lead to the death of the genre, and the inability to play, even alone. The previously mentioned restructuring is a step in that direction, and it’s hard to accept.

Why do I even like these games so much? I really don’t know why they click with me. I guess it’s like any other game, really; I simply enjoy the thrill of doing well. I like that the reward is immediate too. Nailing a long and complicated HOPO section and hearing the music play out as intended without those awful missed note sounds, is all the reward I need. This is probably the reason I enjoy the drums the most. It’s the most physically taxing instrument of the bunch, and that makes that feeling of success extra rewarding after nailing a long drum roll spanning the entire kit. At times, you’re hitting those pads and cymbals so hard, but at the same time, you’re doing it with an elegance and a strict sense of timing and rhythm. It’s just an incredible feeling when you know you’re not only doing all of that, but doing it extremely well.

This went in a direction that I hadn’t necessarily anticipated, but it’s all good. Best of luck to everyone affected by the layoffs and restructuring happening at Activision and Harmonix. You guys were at the forefront of an awesome era in video games. Hopefully it’s not over quite yet.

The End

I don’t want this to sound like some lame award acceptance speech or anything, but I just want to thank the people that encouraged me to stop being lazy and write more. Those kind people being: Gamer_152, CrazyManAndy, Abyssfull, Jambones, Dalai, RecSpec, dankempster, eroticfishcake, EuanDewar, Pyromaster222, PixelPrinny, Underachiever007, and thedj93. Thanks to Hockeymask27 as well, for the incredibly corny title. I kid, it’s the perfect amount of corn. It’s actually clever on several levels that I won’t get into.

That’s all for this week, folks. I hope you enjoyed my rambling, because I enjoyed putting it all together. Hopefully this blog can live a long and prosperous life. Come back next Sunday for another weather report!

<3
--JJWeatherman

13 years ago

mylifeforAiur

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#2 Edited By mylifeforAiur

Sometimes I wish I liked racing games more >_>

13 years ago

danielkempster

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#3 Edited By danielkempster

I spy Pearl Jam references, JJ ;)

:O And a mention! I feel honoured and humbled.

Forza Motorsport 3 is indeed one huge game. I've totted up around 20 hours since I bought it at the end of last year, and I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface. I love the new approach to Career Mode too, which feels very refreshing after years of browsing event lists in Gran Turismo and the first two Forzas. As somebody who loves playing racing sims but isn't too heavily invested in the world of automobiles, I've been really impressed by that game's accessibility as well. Being able to auto-upgrade my cars to keep them competitive without investing tens of hours into the game's incredibly deep tuning options is a godsend. One thing I'd like to see in Forza 4 is an auto-downgrade option for cars you've already upgraded, though - after automatically souping up an MX-5 for a class C race, it's annoying having to manually remove all those new parts to return to class E. A small complaint, and one born from laziness, but one that I would personally find very useful.

Glad to see you decided to do this, by the way. I look forward to future instalments :)

13 years ago

SMTDante89

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#4 Edited By SMTDante89

Good read. It's always nice to read about what the community thinks about recent going-ons in the industry. Like some will say and what I'm sure others will say, glad you decided to start writing weekly blogs.

13 years ago

JJWeatherman

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#5 Edited By JJWeatherman

@mylifeforAiur said:

" Sometimes I wish I liked racing games more >_> "

They're the perfect way to live out a fantasy that will most likely never come to pass. Forza 3 is especially great with all of its community and creation options. I've spent hours upon hours in Forza 2 and 3 just creating designs for my cars.

@dankempster said:

" I spy Pearl Jam references, JJ ;) ... "

You're a quick one.

Btw, I think if you select an event in Forza 3 and one of your cars is upgraded too far to enter, you can select it and it will auto-downgrade to fit the race. I'm 90% sure anyway. I'll double check next time I play.

@SMTDante89 said:

" Good read. It's always nice to read about what the community thinks about recent going-ons in the industry. Like some will say and what I'm sure others will say, glad you decided to start writing weekly blogs. "

Thanks for the kind words, and I'll be sure to keep talking about current gaming events (maybe without losing focus next time). I may also have to talk about the Portland Trail Blazers from time to time. =P

13 years ago

sameeeeam

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#6 Edited By sameeeeam

I too have a copy of Forza 3 lying around the house that was handed over to me on the Christmas of 2009. Crazy thing is, it's still unopened, even though I absolutely loved Forza 2. I think the problem is that Forza 2 was such a huge time sink for me - I put in around 70 hours of race time in it - and I really can't afford to invest that much time into a game anymore.

The Neversoft and Harmonix stories made me pretty sad as well. I hope this means that Neversoft will perhaps be able to move on to newer and better things, and that the end of Guitar Hero will make the market a little easier for Harmonix.

Also, that is indeed the right amount of corn for a blog title.

This was a good read, so keep it up!

13 years ago

JJWeatherman

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#7 Edited By JJWeatherman

@Underachiever007: If you don't plan on going for that last achievement, then you could just pop it in and play casually for a bit. MAybe just jump strait into multiplayer. They seriously have a crazy playlist setup that makes it easy to jump into all kinds of weird race types.

13 years ago

EuanDewar

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#8 Edited By EuanDewar

Aha yes, I knew this would be awesome if you went through with it! Great blog and a nice little reflection in there about the slowly dwindling lifespan of the music genre, they kind of can't really go anywhere apart from just continually puttting out DLC and I really hope Harmonix don't go the way of Neversoft. I get the feeling they have the talent that they could so something interesting in other spaces.

Anyways nice first crack at it and now that you have written this one, you have to do one every sunday! Muahahahaha!

13 years ago

Ramone

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#9 Edited By Ramone

Great blog. Keep up the good work duder.

13 years ago

Little_Socrates

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#10 Edited By Little_Socrates

Nice Pearl Jam section titles, I caught on at Rearviewmirror.

I haven't played any of these games other than the music titles, but it sounds like we're both junkies of that genre. I think Harmonix still has a lot of innovation to go. Rock Band 3 is the best party game version of Rock Band we could ask for, but, as you said, that's really not how people play Rock Band anymore. Whenever we do want to play that way, we're going to be throwing in Rock Band 3. But I think there's still a lot of room for making Rock Band feel less like a party game and more like a video game. A couple years ago, Game Informer ran an article about different design leads would take a genre in a new direction. The designer who they had talk about Rock Band discussed fleshing out the career mode into an actual game rather than just a song progression.

He talked about how bands that play the same genre all the time would garner specific types of fans, and deciding what to do with your hotel room would change how your fans (and the media) perceive you. If you destroy it, you'd get "rebel" points (or something along those lines), and while your middle-aged housewife fan group would probably go down drastically, the teenagers would eat that shit up. If you took a groupie (or six) back to the hotel room, you'd gain sex appeal, but you might lose points in some other field. And what about having sex with groupies? Maybe you got her pregnant. Do you tell her to take care of it herself, or do you stay with your child? If you decide to marry her, do you tour less, or just let them stay at your magnificent Bel Air home?

The solo career mode would also focus more on your relationship with your bandmates, mostly so that it could be a more difficult decision when a record producer offers you a contract if you're willing to drop that drummer of yours. They could include this in a cooperative career; after all, they do have solo star tracking, and it would probably be a simple task to program the game so that it recognizes a player who holds the group back. I don't think that adds to the experience in any positive way, but it would certainly be clever.

I think the last point of interest would be an actual end-game. Does your band focus on album releases to create an everlasting legacy, or do they play live shows into retirement? Do they break up before that opportunity arises? Does your drug-addled bassist with suicidal tendencies crack under the pressure of playing the Rolling Stone Hall of Fame show and commit suicide before the final show? And if so, do you get another bassist? What about all the other bands on the market? Maybe you could get that guy from The Speaking Jalapeños to take his position...

All of this adds to the experience through immersion. We've spent so long with these games that we've stopped calling them music games and are calling them "fake plastic instruments" games. No music game has done this stuff yet, but adding a sense of weight to your decisions, a sense of the world surrounding your band, and adding an actual relationship to your fans (fans being a number and nothing more is kind of wack) would (I'm certain) convert a legion of people opposed to the genre because "there's an actual game in there now."

Just my thoughts on how to further innovate. Otherwise, they should probably pump out a lot of unique band games like The Beatles Rock Band. Pink Floyd has enough visual iconography that they could be a successful title, and U2 has a diverse enough body of work.

13 years ago

pweidman

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#11 Edited By pweidman

I totally relate to the grind of winning all the event races in Forza 3. I'm still working on it as well. At 95% or so, so it's not far off. Just want to have them done before Forza 4. And then the only achieve left will be the fucking drift for a million points(or however many..it's outrageous)...I have no idea how I'll ever do that. Anyway it's fun to chip away at. Every week night I start with it after work, and play a few events, always switching when the tedium starts. God I love that game.

Oh and JJ, the online portion is just ok, and really only fun with a room of friends....at least imo. I've heard some of the worst filthy raging in public rooms in the Forza mp ever on XBL. People just tend to take it too seriously, and the online performance is a very noticable drop-off. Comparing lap records w/friends is the most fun. That and tuning and setting up for those times is the sweet spot of the Forza experience.

13 years ago

CaptainTightPants

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#12 Edited By CaptainTightPants

My sister lent Forza 3 to her boyfriend and ever since then all I have heard is how amazing and addicting it is. Dammit this isn't helping >_>
Good Blog though :P

I have to agree with your thoughts on the Rhythm game genre. I did personally get tired of Guitar Hero, and think it should take a break. Rock Band however, has allowed for some fantastic and fun experiences with friends. I do hope it comes back stronger than before.

13 years ago

Jambones

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#13 Edited By Jambones

@JJWeatherman: Great blog. It's kind of ironic that you thanked me for encouraging you to write as I sit here encourage by you to write as well :-)

Rearmed is rough. Almost everything about that game seemed like a challenge. Don't get me wrong, I dig it, the music especially, but it's a game that requires ample dedication. I think I only ever got three of the achievements, and after reading the descriptions of the others I just had to say no.

I got the Gold achievement for Forza earlier this year and it was pretty satisfying, and I hadn't played the online at all really: I guess the gear-heads were just a little too intimidating and I didn't want to get chewed out, but it turns out that most of my friends list is now made up of some great people who just enjoy racing. All I did was try to race clean and not get in anyone's way and it worked out :)

If you're ever up for some racing don't hesitate to ask. I'll probably only be working on my Wyld Stallyns car anyway. ;-)

@pweidman: Fujimi Kaido + Mitsubishi Time Attack HKS + Hand Brake = success. At least, that's how I did it. It just took a couple of steady runs to get it.

A good read, Mr. Weatherman. I'm looking forward to reading more.

13 years ago

PixelPrinny

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#14 Edited By PixelPrinny

OMG The third letter of each of your title, when combined, spells a naught word! I bet that wasn't even intended!

Do you play Forza with a steering wheel or a controller? And did 3 have any extra tracks as DLC? If not, would 4 benefit from such a thing? I wonder... did you actually go back and check your titles to see if they did spell out a word? Anyways~

Your recounting of the life and times of music games is similar to how DDR was with my friends and I, I miss those days. They were simpler times, better times. Ahh well. I wonder what will be the next type of game to pick up the musical genre torch and become a big phenomenon and how long it'll be till such a thing happens. Dance Central type games, maybe? I dunno... Guess we'll just hafta wait and see.

Woo namedrop! I feel so special. Well-done rambling :) Welcome to the wacky world of weekly blogging! I'm looking forward to your next one :)

13 years ago

MikkaQ

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#15 Edited By MikkaQ

This is a good blog, keep it up.

I've beent thinking about doing a blog myself, but I still need to figure out a schtick/find a less busy period in my life to start these. Though I have some unpublished Luchazine articles I have handy, if I ever run out of time one week.

You're really making me want to continue racing in Forza 3. I started playing maybe 9-10 months ago, bought a wheel 2 months ago, and have been making more progress with the wheel and Forza 3 than I ever did in Forza 1 and 2, It adds a whole bunch of depth to the experience.

Now with the wheel, I can play with practically no assists on, but with the controller I needed quite a few. Now all I have to get used to is manually shifting (which I think I'll never figure out), and getting rid of ABS. But I love my anti-lock brakes, and it's not like it's an unrealistic feature to have in a car, unlike say... braking assist? I remember when I turned that off. I thought I was doing so well, then I realized I haven't even started the game yet, really. You make a lot of money without the assists though.

And you should play online! I used to do GB's Forza 3 race right, run by PseG, and they're pretty cool guys, though pretty set in their traditions. And they all have DLC I don't. You can spend another 70$ easy on Forza's DLC. Though for a DeLorean, it's mighty tempting!

13 years ago

iam3green

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#16 Edited By iam3green

@JJWeatherman: i know what you mean. just to tell you once you get that 6th year achievement you could pick what races you want. someone told me that here. i got the achievement recently. it took a while to do that. i think that if i knew that a while ago i could have beat forza 3 a while ago. i got to year 14, just keep on doing the same races.

13 years ago

hockeymask27

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#17 Edited By hockeymask27

Great blog. Look forward to more.

13 years ago

MisterMouse

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#18 Edited By MisterMouse

Good first Blog Post for Cloud With a Chance of Gaming, was a very good read and as I was reading your thoughts about the music rhythm genre kind of dying it brought back a whole variety of experiences I had with the rhythm genre starting with Beatmania which I had a blast playing, and then moving on to playing rockband or guitar hero with friends. Kind of unfortunately to see if fall of like it has.

13 years ago

bonbolapti

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#19 Edited By bonbolapti

The more other people do these, THE MORE WE CAN OVER THROW THE VGK AND STEAL ALL OF HIS FOLLOWERRSSSSSS

right? Keep it up, I say! I encourage writing.

13 years ago

BraveToaster

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#20 Edited By BraveToaster

Awesome blog title.

13 years ago

ArbitraryWater

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#21 Edited By ArbitraryWater

I see that more and more people are doing this bloggerizing thing. I need to step up my game if I want to stay relevant, being Giant Bomb's #2 source for all things old game related. This week: Temple of Elemental Evil. Next Week: Boobies.

13 years ago

TaliciaDragonsong

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#22 Edited By TaliciaDragonsong

I like the banner!

13 years ago

Claude

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#23 Edited By Claude

Nice blog JJ. I never got into the music rhythm game genre. Maybe they'll reboot it one day and then I'll be there.

13 years ago

Yummylee

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#24 Edited By Yummylee

I'm not interested at all in any of those games D=.. but still glad to see you got this bloggage train a-rolling!

13 years ago

JustinSane311

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#25 Edited By JustinSane311

First off I just want to say Great Blog!

I doubt that the music rhythm genre will completely die down, Yes its popularity has dropped but Harmonix will continue to innovate in future titles and continue to support their products with weekly DLC. Rock Band is still my go to game whenever people come over, everyone always seems to have a great time banging on those plastic instruments and a growing music library always encourages play.

Maybe Activisons ending of the Guitar Hero franchise is the best thing to happen to the genre since the market won't be flooded with music games anymore.

13 years ago

JJWeatherman

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#26 Edited By JJWeatherman

@Little_Socrates: Those are certainly some interesting ideas for a change of direction in rhythm games. It's hard picturing all of those systems managed with the limited controls of a guitar controller for example, but maybe it could work. It would be a much darker tone for sure. That could be interesting. And for your last last point: Rock Band: Pearl Jam. I'm just sayin' :P

@Jambones said:

"@pweidman: Fujimi Kaido + Mitsubishi Time Attack HKS + Hand Brake = success. At least, that's how I did it. It just took a couple of steady runs to get it. "

To add to this, I believe I downloaded a tuning setup from the storefront which made it easier to complete that achievement. I'm far from the best tuner, so I'm thankful for the ability to share those with other racers.

@PixelPrinny: I do have the Microsoft wheel, and I usually use it. Occasionally I'll be switching over from another game and just continue to use the controller. Forza 3 does have a couple of DLC tracks, but I'm not sure they integrate into the career races. More DLC tracks for Forza 4 would be great, but I'd like to see more packed on-disc as well. Also, the game doesn't always get the most out of the tracks that are already there. Maybe it's that I'm racing similar events a bunch, but it seems like I'm getting the same tracks over and over, and missing out of others. And yes, you made me check those titles. =P

@bonbolapti said:

" The more other people do these, THE MORE WE CAN OVER THROW THE VGK AND STEAL ALL OF HIS FOLLOWERRSSSSSS right? Keep it up, I say! I encourage writing. "

Viva la revolution! :)

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

" I like the banner! "

Thanks. It took me much longer than it probably should have.

----

Thanks for all the compliments, everyone. It's good to see.

13 years ago

gamer_152

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#27 Edited By gamer_152 Moderator

Cool blog JJ and thanks for the mention. Keep on truckin'.

13 years ago

Severed Hand

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