So here I am, playing "Colony of Birchmen" by Mastodon, on expert. I managed to get 97% despite having a yellow pad that's broken in half and a bass pedal that's held together with packaging tape. Huzzah!
In other news, I bought some Rock Band DLC today, including the album "Moving Pictures" by Rush, and some System of a Down songs -- Toxicity being totally awesome. Oh yeah. And Dead Space. got that there game. Make sure you check out my other video below, I don't want this to overshadow it or anything. That's about it. Later. 4 Comments
So this is basically a video, about Street Fighter. More specifically, Street Fighter III. Even more specifically, 3rd Strike. Yet more specific perhaps, since it's focused on Akuma. You don't have to take any knowledge away from this video to enjoy it, the video literally took me months to finish. Hope you like it.
So I was rendering out some video footage today, and since the estimated time was about two hours, I decided I'd go over to the local Wal-Mart and take a stroll around. I walk straight to the electronics section as most of us 22 year-old males do, and to my surprise I see Guitar Hero: World Tour set up with two new guitars and the drumkit, minus the foot pedal. So these dudes are playing it and the guy playing guitar looks like the lead singer of In Flames, which was weird. But anyway.
Holy plastic drums, Batman!I was wondering about that bass pedal, but apparantly if you don't have it plugged in it just hits the bass notes automatically. Now, I don't know if scores would go online if you chose this method, because honestly -- I could play any drum song in the world if I didn't have to use the foot pedal. Not exactly fair. So I'm about to play drums but a Wal-Mart associate who was apparantly "differently able" came up next to me and wanted to play them. So I say ok, I grab a guitar, and I set it up for him since he doesn't exactly know what he's doing. I put it on beginner for him, and apparantly that is the equivilant of no-fail mode, except it's a step easier than easy, as a colorful line appears on screen and you can hit whichever notes you choose. The guitar feels amazingly sturdy, the stum bar has the fantastic clicking you'd expect, and I didn't try the touch pad because the chords in "Eye of the Tiger" were somehow incredibly hard for me. Maybe the fret buttons were a bit thinner, and it was throwing me off.
So after getting that guy out of my sights I could finally grab hold of the Guitar Hero drum sticks, inconveinently tethered to the drumkit itself, making it hard to hold the sticks in a normal manner. But I made due, and at the beginning of the song, I'm doing my silly random drum fill stuff, and I immediately notice how responsive the drum pads are. They feel AMAZING! they have supurb rebound, are velocity sensitive, an just feel real real solid. They're also a ton quieter than the Rock Band drums, as they have a dense rubber material over each drum, and the cymbals are made out of that completely.
So during playing, I noticed my combo breaking pretty frequently, which could be the result of HDTV lag issues, combined with the fact that kids had been bashing on the cymbals all day before I got there. The yellow and orange (both cymbals) seemed to miss the most, the drum pads themselves felt pretty spot-on. Yeah, I guess I should talk about the cymbals. So if you've played a lot of Rock Band drums, you're initially going to be a bit startled by these drums -- as I was. There's only three drum pads, and the two dedicated cymbals hang above them. The yellow is between the red and blue drum, and the orange is between the blue and green drum. My mind kept going into "Rock Band mode" when I'd see notes run down the screen, and when I'd see a blue, I'd hit green. Then when I'd see orange, I'd hit blue. Then when I'd see blue, I'd hit orange. This was mind-boggling, but after a couple songs I was 5-starring every song availible from the offset, expert of course. The blue pad is still a problem because when I see it, I'm puzzled. I'm thinking that under my hands there are only four drums, and the drum in the middle is just not there in my head. but other than that, they feel amazing.
I don't know if I'd pick this kit up, because I'd probably be playing Rock Band 2 with them, and hitting the yellow cymbal only to hear a rack tom sound, would be pretty strange. But if you're thinking of picking up GH:WT, you're probably going to be pretty pleased with Red Octane's work on these instruments. So I continued to play, and then seen my friend working there, at which point he came over to the game and we jammed for a good 45 minutes, before getting some Subway. Overall, hanging out at Wal-Mart -- pretty sweet.
So with nothing really to do other than edit a video that I've been putting off, I decided to pop Burnout Paradise back in, and check out the new content available for it. So yeah, they have bikes now, and a day-to-night cycle. They have 38 new events that are bike specific, 19 for day and 19 for night. Along with all that, there's new freeburn challenges to compete in and both day and night road rules for the bikes. I completed the bike stuff 100% in one sitting or so, and I have to say that I'm re-stoked about Burnout.
Wicked Sick.The bikes have no boost, but you never feel like you need it, they're just incredibly fast. You start out with two bikes, and you unlock two more as you complete more stuff. The handling is really fantastic and I sort of prefer it to the madness that is driving a car in Burnout. Not that that's bad, but there's just such a heavy reliance on drifting for the cars, that makes me think of other games that have drifting in it, like Outrun. It seems fun until you barrel around a blind corner and smack into oncoming traffic. But anyways. The bikes are just different enough from the cars, but you do a lot of the same easing off the accelerator around a corner, then punching it while feathering the brake when you hit the apex of a turn. It's just that you don't slide around like a bar of soap like you would with an actual car.
The environments also lend themselves better to bikes, as you don't get caught on geometry on the sides of alleys or buildings nearly as often. The shortcuts felt very dangerous in a car, as you'd often just catch a glimpse of them and attempt to turn into one, only to run right into a median -- with bikes however, you're of much smaller stature and can navigate these situations more easily, and do some neat slaloming between oncoming traffic, that is until some madman decides to swerve from the opposing lanes right into your bike. I'll never understand that philosophy that exists in all driving games with traffic.
So my only gripe with this, is that no one plays Burnout. No one on my friends list, anyway. I had completed ALL the bike's road rules before anyone else even attempted one road. I know my gold account has expired and what have you, but I'm still pumped about playing this game. If there's something to get me to renew, it would be a sudden influx of friends playing the game -- BECAUSE IT'S HELLA FUN. But whatever, I just feel like I'm part of some exclusive club of awesome, and you're all not invited.
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The title of this video may not appear to make any sense, since this is just a playthrough of Rainbow Six for the PS1, but it will all become clear towards the end of the video. Enjoy!
It happens to the best of us. Eventually the Rock Band pedal will give out. If you've played on any real sort of bass pedal, you can understand. Heel up, heel down, heel-toe, all of these things. Don't expect the rock band pedal to be anything like a real bass pedal, however. You'd think it would happen from all that Battery, Peace Sells, Ride The Lightning, that I was playing. Nope. Float On. A Modest Mouse song. The very last note in the song, immediately after I achieved the Gold Stars. Carelessly, I play my drums in fanfare like I usually do after I complete a song, hit the bass pedal a couple times, and with a simple flick of the heel, I snap the pedal completely in half. Fantastic.
This combined with the fact that My Xbox Live Gold subscription ended today, and you have a pretty sweet day, if I say so myself. I have to think of a remedy for this pedal, and in the longer term -- buy a new one. I guess I'll save up for the Destroyer Pedal...might as well.
Here I am, playing some Mega Man 9 (demo) for you. I would have been more frustrated, but I've already played the demo three times before -- so I had a little practice.
In other news, I opened a seller account on Amazon. So now I can get rid of those extra games that I have no real use for. Already made two sales, I should at least be able to scrounge up enough money for Fallout 3, and some Rock Band DLC. My current "wish list" is pretty extensive, however (important ones in yellow):
Angels & Airwaves
"It Hurts" -- 160
At The Gates
"Blinded By Fear" -- 160
Avenged Sevenfold
"Critical Acclaim" -- 160
Blink-182
"All The Small Things" -- 160
Blondie
"Call Me" -- 160
Boston
"More Than A Feeling" -- 160
Die Toten hosen
"Hier Kommt Alex" -- 160
Faith No More
"We Care A lot" -- 160
Free
"All Right Now" -- 160
Motley Crue
"Saints of Los Angeles" -- 160
Offspring
"Self Esteem" -- 160
The Police
"Message in a Bottle" -- 160
Rush
Moving Pictures (Album) -- 880 1. Tom Sawyer 2. Red Barchetta 3. YYZ 4. Limelight 5. The Camera Eye 6. Witch Hunt (Part III of Fear) 7. Vital Signs
Static-X
"Push It" -- 160
System of a Down
"BYOB" -- 160 "Toxicity" -- 160
Yeah Yeah Yeah's
"Date With the Night" -- 160
Roadrunner Records
Pack 01 -- 800 1. Airbourne "Runnin' Wild" 2. Devildriver "Clouds Over California" 3. Dream Theater "Constant Motion" 4. Killswitch Engage "My Curse" 5. Machine Head "Aesthetics of Hate" 6. Megadeth "Sleepwalker" 6 Comments
So I can finally record game footage. In commemoration of this event, I've made a video of me playing the drums for "Chop Suey!" in Rock Band 2, on expert. Enjoy!
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