PRINCE OF PERSISTENCE AND OTHER RELATED UPDATES!

Hello Dear Readers,

I hope you are healthy and well, I have finally took the time to write up a quick blog on what's been going on. Well for those that may have read my previous blog, you may remember that I wrote it in some pain, from weird aches to odd bones clicking here and there. I felt pretty terrible and it only got worse until I at to see my Doctor about it on the Friday. He wasn't exactly sure what was causing the pain but I eventually was given some odd looking tablets to take over a couple of week period to see if it improved. Well thankfully it improved pretty quickly, I'm still sore but generally happier then I was last week. Saturday was by far the worst as I was stuck in bed due to the pain. But anyway, I don't want to talk about that all day. Let's talk about Videogames and my persistence to play these instruments of entertainment. 

I'M THE REAL PRINCE...... THE PRINCE OF PERSISTENCE!

Well I still haven't been able to pick up a copy of Prince of Persia for Xbox 360, with what happened last week I wasn't able to obtain a copy through the usual means so I'm hoping to try and purchase one this weekend. This is frustrating as I've been hearing a lot of good things about the reinvention of the PoP series. I like to think I'm a pretty persistent individual but I easily lose patience on matters of life. So there was part of me wondering if I should just leave Prince of Persia until it came down in price or when it was easily avaliable when I went to the shops or my local supermarket (even though I HATE shopping). But if I'm totally honest with you dear reader, I have a deep seeded need for an experience similar to the one I had with Assassins Creed. I could call myself selfish for thinking such a thing, maybe I have expectations that are simply to high. But I did indeed love Assassins Creed greatly and I do hope I can get the same joy from Ubisoft's newest wall-walking franchise. I know a few friends who have been playing it and it's recieved mix views. Some love it while those who throughally enjoyed the Playstation 2 series (the Prince of Persia trilogy before this new Prince of Persia...... I'm confussed to) believe it to be inferior to the trilogy. I'll have to wait and see how I eventually feel about the game. It's odd, some months ago my interest in the game was tiny, though I think that was partly down to the hundreds of triple A titles getting all the media attention at the times.

There does seem a debate concerning the games 'you'll never actually die'' factor. Many have said the games simply to easy and that's probably correct. Elika will save you from falls most of the time and falls are often the biggest concern for a wall jumping prince so it's a fair critisism. But every gamer is different, and every gamer looks for a different experience and joy when they pick up their controller to play a videogame. Some love the competition, some love the felling they obtain from playing while there are those that simply love the overall experience a videogame can offer. I refer back to Assassins Creed, for many it featured repetitive gameplay, broken swordplay and way to many bugs and I can't deny some of those complaints. It did indeed suffer from bugs but in my own personal opinion it didn't suffer from to much repetition. Repetition was caused partly by the gamer playing, the world was so rich in detail and atmosphere that I often found myself walking around a city within the game in joy of what videogames had become, something more special then any movie could compete against. I felt like part of the time and world in which it was set and it goes down as one of my favourite games in existence. So for me the experience of Prince of Persia is what is important so I've often taken some of the reviews hitting around the web with a pinch of salt. Hopefully I'll be able to get a copy this weekend. I've played some amazing games this year but I haven't had that ''WOW, What a total surprise'' experience this year. I had it twice last year with the superb Eternal Sonata and Assassins Creed. So heres hoping.

OTHER UPDATES THAT MAY INTEREST YOU..... IF YOUR BORED THAT IS!

I will be frank with you, at the moment I don't feel that confortable writing this blog. I'm not sure if it's simply the fact that I'm still hurting a little and my mind is still half in the clouds of the British Countryside and also trying to write this blog. So I apologise if this entry seems a little off. But my mind and general thoughts have been a little everywhere this past week as you may expect. So what else is worth talking about: 

I've been Powering Up Forever!
I totally forgot about this game hitting Xbox LIVE, but it cheered me up to see it on sale. This arcade shooter in the same vain as Geometry Wars and all those classic shooters from the arcade days borrows a lot of what we have already seen on LIVE and PSN. But what a great game it is, it doesn't just look great it also plays brilliantly and as that addictive feel to it that saw me play way to many hours of Geometry Wars 2 this year. I started playing at 10pm last night and didn't realise the time until it was 2am. That's the signs of a good arcade game right there folks and I really recommend you try out the trial at least. The game is on sale for 800 Points which doesn't seem bad at all. It's great fun and will last you a good many hours. I will be doing a full review of this in the near future.

Still have the Rock Band 2 addiction!

Yes, I'm still playing way to many hours of Rock Band 2. So many hours that I needed to buy a brand new set of batteries for my Guitar Hero: World Tour guitar. Strangely throughout the weekend I was eager to play Harmonix's latest creation but was in to much disconfort to do so. That made my weekend even worse. I'm not totally sure how big my catalog is now but it's easily over 400 songs. I downloaded the superb No Doubt 'Singles' DLC this week and it is a fantastic package of brilliant and beauitul songs. No Doubt aren't to everyones tastes but they have some great songs that are fun to play on Rock Band. I still have my wish list of DLC though, I would love to see some Bloc Party, Billy Talent and even some My Chemical Romance (and no I'm not a emo, I throughally enjoyed their Guitar Hero 2 Pack a few years ago). Not to mention some more Tinkle Me Pink would be nice. But we have some country next week and who knows after that. I give HMX credit for offering a large amount of variation in the songs avaliable for the game.

Depression, Here, There and Everywhere!!

The world seems in a state of depression at the moment, yes things are bad economically and we are ''apparently'' destroying the world by using motor vehicles and planes. Not to mention the murder of babies, stabbings throughout the World and we are still using plastic bags when we go shopping despite protests against the use of them. But what's with everything being so bad? News coverage is one of the most depressing things to watch on TV at the moment. No longer is it the shout-fest that is Eastenders. Newscasters have a sense of death about them, they may want to look like beautiful models in front of the screen. But really there creations of the devil, just wanting to tell the World how bad today as got compare to yesterday. I have a real problem with watching TV nowadays, I find it to be one of the most boring and dull sources of entertainment ever. I have to admit a love for Radio, digital Radio to be precise and the fantastic classic comedies still found on them. From Hancock's Half Hour to Just a Minute. Many of the comedy shows on Radio were silly and simple but they also remind me of how great comedy can be. Only ten years ago we were filled with so many great comedies from Red Dwarf to The Fast Show. Not to mention the many others. But today TV doesn't want us to laugh to often, because we are all going to hell for destroying the planet...... apparently!!

Well that's it for now, I apologise if the blog seems off or dull. My mind isn't totally focused yet but I wanted to update it nonetheless. Hopefully I'll be more interesting (and cheerful) next time round for you to enjoy. There are many great bloggers on GiantBomb and I enjoy reading many and to be totally honest I don't think I'd want to read this one if I wasn't me. But hopefully the Christmas cheer with hit me soon enough, that or I'll become a humbug like most years. Though my Cousin is due to have her second child anytime soon and I hope that goes all well, though it's a little worrying so near Christmas, means more presents for the child. Which means more cost for me. But hopefully everything will go well and that will cheer me up a little.

 Anyway, Thanks for Reading and Keep Gaming!
Joseph Bayliss (TrueEnglishGent).

I also wanted to mention that I have been considering doing some Video Reviews, I have done this in the past but it's often failed and I think I know why. I have considered doing a test Video Review of a game I'm currently playing and instead of speaking from my mind I shall write down what I'm going to say. This will mean that my speech won't be mumbled and clearer to the listener. I know a few other User Reviewers here on GiantBomb do the same so I'd thought I'd give it ago when I have sometime on my hands. If I don't think it's worthy then I won't put it up but I'm also considering a different video streaming site instead of YouTube who I have had all sorts of problems with recently. But I'll have to wait and see, I think it would be a neat idea though considering often my reviews can be pretty long annd some folk might not be in the mood to read all that. 

Finally I wanted to mention that I'm currently writing up some Game of the Year Candidate Articles, these are basically closer looks at some of the top games we Videogamers have played this year. Now I've already written up two but I'm still unsure if I will be allowed to put them up here on my GiantBomb page as there also appearing on a different site for a good friend of mine. I haven't asked him about it yet but I'm hopeing he will allow it. I will also be doing my own personal GOTY List nearer Christmas Time.

That's all for now and Please Keep Warm!
Joseph Bayliss (TrueEnglishGent).

Mirror's Edge is DICE's latest attempt to convince us gamers that they can actually make a good single player game and aren't just some fantastic multplayer developer loved by most (if not all) PC gamers. This latest attempt offers you the experience of doing some parkour which is a form of free running. It's an odd concept for a game at first sight but it actually works out pretty well. You play as Faith, a beautiful female who excells at Parkour and as become what is known as a Runner in a world heavily controlled by a regime. Information is monitored, news is filtered through a governing system so that the news only reports items of interest that the Government want to be reported in the first place and it's not exactly a fantastic place to live. Yes it may be beautiful to view but deep within the worlds soul lies a dark terrible regime that is hard on anyone who doesn't agree with it's methods. Due to information and communication being heavily monitored and controlled, Runners have appeared whose job it is to transport important packages from one client to another. It may sound pretty complicated but it's not and it's actually one aspect of Mirror's Edge that is honestly quite interesting. It's just sad that we don't see enough of it. Of course being a Runner it means your a wanted feloney and are hunted down whenever you are spotted. It is indeed a interesting world to set a game in, it's just sad that so much of it is affected by 'omg, I want to shoot this disc' moments, Let me explain.

WHO KNEW A CITY COULD BE SO BRIGHT!

One thing that hit's you when you first start playing the single player campaign in Mirror's Edge, is it's overall beauty. This is one stunning game and it uses lighting in a sensible but brilliant way. Areas have a real sense of realism and there are some fantastic views from rooftops as you travel the city. The art style deserved great credit for much of this, things can look a little to familar after a good few hours into the game but you'll still be blown away by the games use of neon lights and sense of inner city environments. There are some clipping issues to be found and at times the environments can be way to bright. The colour white is a very common sight in Mirror's Edge, and at times it can even blind you. I also came across some weird texture issues on white surfaces but they weren't serious game breakers. My main issue with the games choice of colours is that if you have your contrast up to high on your HDTV then you will suffer headaches. Soon after I started playing I needed to turn mine down a little even though it wasn't exactly high in the first place. Something to be weary of. For the most part there is a nice variation in environments though it's clear they all share the same characteristics which in itself is understandable, it being the same city and all. But there enough variation to not make the gamer feel like he/she is playing the same level again and again with just a different layouts.

I think it is also important to mention a issue I noticed while checking out the PS3 version, there is some serious Anti-Aliasing issues affecting the PS3 version of the game. I'm not totally sure why this is but there issues that don't really affect the Xbox 360 version. It's an odd sort of thing but nothing surprising for those who have a PS3. It seems to be a common sight for the PS3 to have odd issues that often don't effect the 360 at all. But it can actually be pretty bad, it's something I noticed when I tried out the Mirror's Edge demo on PSN sometime back. But it's poor to see it in the full retail version of the game aswell. I'm pretty sure this AA issue doesn't affect the PC version but having not played the PC version I can't be 100% sure, but PC games usually have a Anti-Aliasing option avaliable in games. But even with this, it's hard not to fall in love with the games visuals. Everything looks fantastic and the game offers a fantastic sense of height aswell. Extra mention should go to the games soundtrack, which is a nice mix of modern and classic. Most noticeable the games now popular theme song Still Alive.

Being a top a huge skyscrapper actually feels like being a top a skyscrapper in the middle of a city. Again this is partly thanks to the games fantastic art style but it's an important addiction, with Parkour being heavily based on the thrills of free running. What is dissapointing though is the lack of actual adventure, this game seemed so perfect for actual free running just like the extreme sport but there is little if any free roaming for Faith to do. It effects the game heavily in areas, it makes sense that DICE would want gamers to keep to the story on offer but it would have been great to see some form of Grand Theft Auto system in place for us to traverse the actual city and maybe even use the same sort of mission based features found in the GTA series. But no, theres nothing like that in Mirror's Edge and it's one area I found to really harm my experience of the game because at times the experience is simply to linear and doesn't allow the gamer to solve puzzles in there own way. Rather the game almost gives you the answer to a puzzle or two and doesn't allow you to be inventive.

FAITH ISN'T SUPER WOMEN!

It's important to keep in mind that Faith isn't Super Women, yes she can do all that Parkour with great style and grace but when faced with a heavily armed man and a machine gun, then theres a good chance she may die. This is a issue I came across all to often in my time with the game. Mirror's Edge provides pretty simple puzzles that are easily enough to complete but when it comes to combat things get all a little messy. The A.I are simply odd, not odd as in they suddenly jump up and start singing 'Chocolate Rain' but in a 'What the hell' kind of way. At times the A.I can be puzzling in that they can take you down almost instantly as you try to reach and unarm them while at other times you can be standing right in front of them and they'll miss you by miles. This leads to frustrating moments in the game and frustration ruined the experience for me. Some gamers out there might not mind it, but frustration usually means I'm not having fun with a game and all to often I found myself quiting the game to play some Rock Band 2. To be fair there is some satisfaction in taking down an enemy or two and much of the skill to Mirror's Edge is isolating each solider to take them down while not in dangers way of others just waiting to put some led into poor Faith. This frustration will destroy the experience for the less patient, and let me tell you dear readers that you'll need that patience throughout the game.

The actual story on offer in Mirror's Edge is actually quite impressive, it's been done before but it was still somewhat enjoyable and the games anime/cartoon styled cutscenes both look great and offer some nice variation in art style. At times there a breath of fresh air to the actual gameplay. Early on you'll be spending quite a bit of time in elevators as the game loads the next location, now this is fine and even understandable but it still felt odd to me especially considering many of the locations found throughout the game are quite small in size so it was odd to wait ages for the game to actually load. The game could have also done more to offer important information while you wait in the elevators, not to mention the fact that the game doesn't take full advantage of the fantastic city it's set in. It would have been nice to simply see more media related items or more information on the actual city I'm jumping about in. Maybe that wish is just mine but I honestly found the world of Mirror's Edge quite interesting and I would have liked to know even more about it. As for the actual main character Faith, well theres actually a lot to like. She is herself a very likeable character and is almost a Lara Croft of the modern times, except she doesn't have two huge magnums for combat use. Infact going back to the combat in Mirror's Edge, the game deserves some credit for making it clear that Faith isn't to confortable or experienced with using weapons as the actual weapon controls feel awkward. Aiming is a pain but this is forgiven when you take into account that Faith isn't use to using weapons, she is use to using her speed and Parkour skills to either capacitate or flee those attacking her.

Faith controls well though, infact she is very free in her movements and she doesn't require perfect control all the time. She moves with the left analog stick while jumping is done with the LB button on your Xbox 360 controller. To crouch you simply hit the LT button and Faith will crouch or even slide under low objects if in a running motion, As stated previously the controls handle well and they are fun to use, certain sections of the game require a more skillful form of Parkour for instance the double jump which is performed by jumping against/up a wall and then quick presses of the RB button (which turns faith around) and then jumping off the world to grap onto a object a dfistance away from the wall. It sound tricky but it's a pretty simple manoeuvre once practised a little. There are other Parkour tricks that Faith can perform aswell, such as wall running and large falls. The game also rewards you for doing fancy takedowns on soliders, these can vary from simply jumping off a ledge and knocking down a soldier to fancy wall running kicks and slides. There interesting to perform and there is some satisfaction in doing so. Of course theres also achievements to be earned by pulling certain takedowns off, and achievements/trophies make any game better. So Faith performs aswell as you'd expect, but maybe more praise as to be credited here for it's no easy task to pull off and those that say that Mirror's Edge should have been in third person are indeed wrong because actually being part of Faith is what makes the game offer a dedicated representation of virtual Parkour.

SHORT ISN'T ALWAYS A BAD THING!

In a year of gaming filled with 30+ hour titles it's quite nice to play a game that can be completed in a couple of hours. Of course looking at it in a value sort of way, then you may feel ripped off because Mirror's Edge is indeed a short game, there are a few other features of which I will speak more of in a little while, but the length isn't peticularly a bad thing. To many games nowadays take 30+ hours to complete, now this is fine and usually shows good value for your Sterling or Dollar but for many gamers (like myself) most games have a hard time keeping my interest in the world it's set or features it offers. Fallout 3 is a fine example of this, it might offer 30-40 hours of gameplay but it's simply not that interesting of a game to keep me hooked. Anyway, for me Mirror's Edge seemed to offer a reasonable length, yes it's probably not worth the full retail price and would probably make a great rental game but I don't regret paying full whack for it. Partly because it's one of those games you'll end up returning to mainly for the uniquness and thrill it can offer from time to time. There's no game out there like it, yes games have done wall running and Parkour styled gameplay before but view have done it in the first person view and I have to wonder why it's taken this long for it to appear.

As I said there are other features found in Mirror's Edge that do offer a little bit extra longevity such as collectable packages found throughout levels and theres also a time trial mode where you can try and get your best time on a certain level and compete against the rest of the gaming world. Of course the actual competeing isn't anything special, leaderboards simply tell you how your time compared to the rest of the world. There are ghost figures which represent your previous fastest time but this mode is nothing special and although I couldn't see a multplayer mode working in Mirror's Edge, it would have been nice to see some extra puzzles or side missions for us to perform. For some, the length of the time will destroy the experience and if you feel as if you yourself are one such gamer then I recommend you rent the game. But I thought it offered an acceptable length of gameplay. it was actually quite nice to play a game that was pretty short, reviewing games the length of 30 plus hours can be tough and even tougher to play. 

POTENTIAL IS SUCH AN HARD THING TO REACH!

Mirror's Edge shows great potential, the mechanics on offer work perfectly well and are honestly fun from time to time. It's unique and interesting, but it's also such a frustrating experience and will send some gamers over the top with anger and hatred. Certain gameplay choices make sense while other don't. It's DICE's best single player orientated game yet but it's also clear that they haven't got use to offering everything that most gamers expect from a single player game as the lack of freedom destroys the overall package. The game simply feels to linear and doesn't offer enough chances for the gamer to be creative, be it fleeing from some bad guys or solving a puzzle. Parkour is a great concept and it works well in a videogame, mostly due to the solid controls but you can't help but feel as if DICE haven't taken enough advantage of it. A hell of a lot more could be done with both the character of Faith (who is both interesting and likeable) and the overal World the game is set. I already hope a sequel is being talked up, but a sequel which uses the games main positives to full extent. It shouldn't offer such a linear experience and it should allow the gamer to have freedom in a city full of interest and things to use her Parkour skill with. But the lack of such features may heavily affect your view of the game. It's still a lot of fun and easily one of the most interesting titles to hit this year, but it's also one of those games to not reach it's full potential in more ways then one and will be forgotten when compared to most of the triple A titles that have hit our consoles or PC this year.

I said at the beginning of this review that I had a love/hate relationship with Faith, well I think it best to actually state that I have a love/hate relationship with the game set around the character of Faith. The city itself shows real interest but to often those interests are ignored by the game and simply offers a linear path for the gamer to follow. Hopefully these issues can be learnt by DICE and a sequel would fix many if not all of these problems. I do hope we see more of Mirror's Edge partly because I actually think it's got an interest tale to tell us. As I said, more could have been done with the World on offer. It's simple to say that you, dear readers will probably have a love/hate relationship with it to. In that respect it reminded me a lot of Assassins Creed, a title disliked by many and even hated by some, while others loved it greatly. I for one found Assassins Creed to be a perfect gaming package, maybe not in a value sense (with the lack of multiplayer and all) but I got a satisfaction from it that won't easily be forgotten. I can admit that I enjoyed Mirror's Edge, but the overall taste left in my mouth is a mix of satisfaction and frustration. Sadly that frustration is bad enough to lower my overall views of this unique title. You may be different dear readers, but for me Mirror's Edge shows potential, but my lack of patience for it and overall frustration with it's many odd developer choices left me wanting a more well rounded package.

PROS!

- A beautiful artistic colourful style.
- Faith is a very enjoyable and deeply interesting character.
- Controls do a good job of offering both depth and enjoyment.
- A nice soundtrack mixes well with the World in which the game is set.
- Parkour offers a unique form of gameplay.

CONS!

- A.I can be a mix of both stupidity and ruthlessness.
- Single Player Campaign may be to short for some.
- Extra mode doesn't add much to overall experience.

- A very linear campaign.
- Puzzle solving simply isn't that much fun. 
- Overall Gameplay features not used to full potential.

SCORE: 3 STARS OUT OF 5.

 
Reviewed by Joseph Bayliss (TrueEnglishGent).

Some of you might have no idea what I'm talking about, while other who are visitors to the Big British Castle may get it!

and no I'm not mad!

So today saw the launch of Microsoft's new dashboard for it's much loved Xbox 360 console, and like many I was eager to try it out for myself. So I thought it best that I write up a early impressions blog to speak about what I currently think of the new dashboard system now that it's finally with us. For some the NXE came early, with many having the new system for a good week or so now in the beta program. But for most today was the first day we got our sweaty hands on the new look of our Xbox 360 consoles. The launch seemed to go well, although there have been certain sections down and theres a good few error messages to be found but to be totally honest, these things are to be expected when you launch such a huge impacting update. For me personally I did have to go down the Network Settings route to get my system to update, sadly no prompt message appeared when I launched my console but I eventually found a way to get my system to update. So I watched that weird video that made no sense whatsoever and created my avatar. Now I have to admit I have spoke angrily in past blogs about this new feature, but in a strange kind of way I was pleasantly surprised.

Avatars don't seem to make much sense, the only sense I can see is to make more money for Microsoft. They affect nothing and add almost nothing to the experience to be honest. Yet in a odd kind of way they are quite cosmetically pleasing, I was able to get some form of representation in my avatar (named Virtual Joseph for those interested, basically the superhero version of me) and they don't affect your enjoyment of the new system as much as I thought they would. They only appear on around two screens if that, you can of course view your friends avatars on the friends channels and I have to admit they actually kind of do add something to that list. Seeing what games your friends are playing by looking at the box art is also a nice new addition. It's a very clean interface that runs well, of course at the moment there are a couple of issues I have come across. Certain sections of the marketplace took way to long to load and I did come across a issue with the blades while playing some Guitar Hero: World Tour. But nothing that won't be fixed in a few patches or so. 

 

It is also worth stating how much nicer it looks, it's a worthy challenger to the PS3's XMB (Xross Media Bar) now and does indeed look modern on a good HDTV screen. It's also nice how the new update implements your old themes you may have purchased over the years. I loaded up my old football addidas theme and it looked quite good. But of course we will see new themes hit the marketplace in the months to come, they will be move then just generic graphics taking advantage of the newer design of NXE. There is already a Fable 2 theme hitting out 360's for us to enjoy. But it's great credit to Microsoft for keeping the masses happy and allowing us to still have our favourite gamertags or themes. It's important because it still feels like a more personal representation of ourself online then the avatars are at this point in time so it's nice to see that included.

Of course being a so called 'European' we don't get Netflix which is a US only extra (you lucky yanks) but there was some promising news in an interview from Eurogamer where the NXE main developer did confirm that a number of US Microsoft folks had been bought over the pond to work on implementing such services over here for us British and European folks. So the chance of getting it might be a little better then we thought, although of course it won't be Netflix But heres hopeing. At the moment Inside Xbox isn't exactly as we remembered, theres no MrPointyHead at the moment though I'm sure he'll poke his head around sometime next week. There are a hell of a lot of advertisements aswell, now at this moment in time it's not such a big deal but I have a sense that eventually I might get sick of the adverts, I have to wonder how fair it is to advertisement to gamers who already pay a good amount of sterling or dollar for the service each year. Is that even fair? the XMB as little if any advertisements and that's free.

But anyway, now on to the best feature of the NXE. The ability to install games on to your systems Harddrive. Now if your like me and have a large 120GB HDD that cost you a arm and two legs (thanks Microsoft) then you finally have a reason to be pleased you bought it. Now for some small maths, I had 86B of space when I went into the NXE and have since installed Guitar Hero: World Tour and Mirror's Edge. Now I have 74GB which I don't think is bad at all. You could confortable save a good few games on the system and it's worth it. Yes neither Mirror's Edge or World Tour are loading hogs but both have a loading system that frustrates me and I have seen great results. Much better then I was expecting, Mirror's Edge generally loads faster but it's most noticeable in those dull elevator moments when the game is loading a new level. Things are just faster and much more impressive. But the biggest impression came with GH:WT, since installing the game to my system I have seen load times shoot down. While playing a setlist the game only takes around 4-5 seconds to load the second song up, instead of the 15-20 seconds (if not more) that it did before installing. Also worthy of note is how quiet it makes your 360, it's like music to your eager ears. It's so damn quiet and it's great. It's easily the best new feature of the New Xbox Experience.

It's still early days though, but at the moment I'm liking it a lot. Not everything added makes sense and I am worried of them over milking avatars, but theres a lot to like here and it's just such an impressive improvment over the Blade Dashboard system. Things look cleaner, sleeker and fresher. Infact everything looks more.... Microsoft.

Written by Joseph Bayliss (TrueEnglishGent)

NO ROCK BAND, BUT IT CERTAINLY ISN'T NO TRIBUTE BAND!

Guitar Hero, we all have fond memories of our first time hitting those coloured fret buttons to some of our favourite tracks or whamming your way through a song or two. It replaced the good old air guitar and created one of the most successful franchises of gaming history. But it's also gone through quite some changes over the years, not just seeing new developers at the helm but it's also at to see it's younger brother go to stardom with it's weekly downloadable content and band mechanics. It's simply impossible not tot compare Guitar Hero to Rock Band, two games both in the same genre and create by the same developer Harmonix Music Systems. Of course Activition Blizzard now have full control over the Guitar Hero franchise and it's shows in their latest attempts to knock Rock Band off it's throne of the Plastic Rock and Roll Kingdom. For Guitar Hero shows some promise but it's clearly in the shadows of that younger brother Rock Band.

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC

As we all know, when it comes to a title like Guitar Hero or Rock Band. The first thing of great importance is the setlist. It can make or break a game so it's important for developers Neversoft to get a strong setlist that will appeal to as many Plastic Rockers as possible. For the most part World Tour succeed's in doing a very fine job of pleasing as many people as possible, but even with that in mind it's hard to honestly say that the setlist can even compare to what's on offer in Rock Band. Rock Band's weekly DLC as seen it's music catalog confortably rise to over 200 songs and even though Guitar Hero offers an impressive 86 songs on disc and all of them being original master tracks, you can't help but feel that the Guitar Hero franchise is still lagging behind when it comes to both the amount of tunes on offer and the speed their able to provide users with downloadable content. To be fair already a pretty solid amount of songs have become avaliable through DLC since the game hit stores so maybe we will see an improvment on the speed Neversoft can offer DLC. But even with this in mind, I still feel the setlist lacks a lot of the must play tunes that the Rock Band catalog is filled with. There are some genuinely great songs to play such as Purple Haze (LIVE) featuring the one and only Jimi Hendrix and I throughally enjoyed Michael Jackson's Beat It. But the setlist features one to many songs that can only truly be appriated by an older generation. Infact I came across many songs that I had never heard of or weren't that much fun to play anyway. It would have been nice if World Tour featured more bands of the now. Though saying that, I can't help but love playing Band on the Run by The Wings. 

It's hard to review such a setlist because it all depends on personal tastes, theres no way you'd like exactly the same songs I do so I won't be to harsh on the overall setlist on offer in World Tour. It's for you, my dear readers to judge the games music catalog. Sadly there are a few other complaints I have when it actually comes to the music charts for many of the songs, it's odd but there pretty weird from time to time. Certain notes are here or there that make little sense and don't match the actual song and theres even some simply odd moments in the heart of a song that also doesn't match the song your playing. It's not a huge problem, but considering the franchises stunning history when it comes to doing music charts so well, it's disapointing to see such things in many of the 86 Master Tracks. But many of the tunes can simply be both more satisfying and challenging then they are on Rock Band and for that World Tour gets great crediit. One big complaint of many Rock Band users as been aimed towards Harmonix's drive towards the casual user meaning many songs are simply to easy to play or master. It's perfectly clear that World Tour isn't aiming to please the casual videogamer.

YET ANOTHER SET OF PLASTIC INSTRUMENTS

If your anything like me, theres a chance you have a pretty good collection of plastic instrument sitting in your room or apartment. Thankfully for the most part the new Guitar released for World Tour is a welcomed addition to my growing collection. It's easily the best performing guitar to date even if it suffers from having a feature that is almost totally useles to both World Tour or any other music game out there. The strummer feels great, it's clicky and I know that's not everyone's cup of tea but I loved it. It's the biggest Guitar Hero guitar to date and is confortable to use. It's quite an improvement over the one Rock Band provided when that pack launched last year. Sadly one feature that I had all sorts of problems with was the new touchpad controls that are used for both in songs and in the games music studio which I'll get to in a little while. 

The touch pad system is pretty simple, but it's both a pain to use and simply isn't any fun. At least in my experience, but worst of all is that the pad is super sensitive and a spec of dust can set it off as you attempt to five goldstar a song. You can see what happens, it can ruin a combo for you and in my personal opinion I do pray to whatever god I last worshipped that Neversoft don't include it in any future titles because it's a system that totally fails. Though maybe it does have some use in the music studio from time to time. Yes it's true I could have had simply a bad experience with it and some folks out there might be calling it the best innovation in the genre for a good few years. But I honestly thought it had the potential to ruin Guitar Hero: World Tour. Thank god that Neversoft had the sense to allow users to disable the pad when playing songs. The rest of the guitar feels great though, the whammy bar is larger and although it sounds like a mouse is operating it when I use mine, it works well and the larger size definatly helps. The fret buttons are solid and do indeed feel much better then the ones on the Rock Band Guitar. Although I do seem to have a rough green fret but I suspect I could fix that.

Sadly I'm unable to review the drum set in any great detail or the mic for that matter, I have had short spells with them though at a friends house. Thankfully he had a fully working set that are fun to use, though I still say stick with the Rock Band set as you'll probably be playing a hell of a lot more of that game then World Tour, and the World Tour drum set isn't as much fun to use in Rock Band from my experience playing some tracks. Despite this view of mine, I still think it's a fine set and it set up very well. I'm no drummer but there is definatly a more authentic feel to your movement while playing your favourite tracks. It's just frustrating that getting star power isn't as much fun or that fills can sound terrible compared to those on offer in Rock Band. The mic performs perfectly fine athough as a vocalist in Rock Band from time to time, I didn't think it picked up certain notes in my voice aswell as the Rock Band Mic. But the band package still seems a fine set, and there are some seriously impressive innovations bought forward by Neversoft, it's just I still feel happy sticking with the Rock Band band pack for now.

ROCKING AROUND THE WORLD IN IT'S OWN SPECIAL WAY!

The title can be a little misleading as it honestly doesn't feel much like a World Tour, yes there are a good mix of songs from many different countries and many of the arenas help to work that 'World Tour' feeling the game is going for. But honestly there isn't a whole lot different from Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock on offer here and at times it feels a little to much like it. The basic World Tour mode is simply a playthrough of the games setlist either on your own or with a band and it can feel bare and pretty dull to be honest. You earn cash through every song with certain setlists finding you playing an encore at the end possibly with a well known figure of music be it Sting or Ozzy Osbourne to help you rock along. It's still fun but we have seen this all before and considering what Rock Band's own World Tour mode includes, it's a little sad that Neversoft did so little to add to the experience of this mode which could have shown some honest to god potential. It sadly even left me a little bored despite playing some great tracks along the way. Of course many of the other modes on offer are very much the same as what we have seen before. It is nice that we can create a playlist of up to six songs (a feature I believe Rock Band 2 also as) and theres still enough content on offer here to make you feel your sterlings or dollars were well spent. 

Of course you can also choose to create your very own rocker, taking a page out of Rock Band's book. This feature is pretty impressive offering all sorts of body and facial customization tools not to mention Guitar, Bass, Mic and Drum set customization features along the way. Interestingly though, I still found that I was able to create a better representation of myself in Rock Band then in World Tour despite World Tour offering more tools for me to be creative with. But you can still have a lot of fun with all the tools on offer and I honestly throughally enjoyed creating my own guitars or drum sets. Of course many of your old favourite characters make a return from the Guitar Hero franchise but many have seen a lower graphical downgrade to match the look of user created rockers making them both less impressive and simply not as interesting as they were back in Guitar Hero's golden days on the PS2. Performances on stage are great, gone are the stiff ugly animations that Legends of Rock so badly suffered from and in place comes a truly alive performance worthy of challenging Rock Band on screen. Guitarist have some great animations and all the band plays their instruments perfectly to each and every song. Another cool customization feature to your own personal rocker is the abilty to choose what animation your rocker performs both before and after a song. It's a small inclusion and theres not a huge choice of animations on offer, but it's still a welcomed one.

GET CREATIVE, JUST DON'T BREAK ANY COPYRIGHT LAWS!

One of World Tour's much advertised features comes in the form of the Music Studio, as the name suggests it allows you to perform music in a studio. To be precise it actually allows you to create songs that can be played in Guitar Hero: World Tour, just like any of the master tracks on offer. It's an interest feature with a deep learning curve if you've never messed with any music creation tools on PC. Not to mention the fact that using the Guitar to navigate the in depth tools isn't exactly easy. It does feel like more of an experiment then an actual much needed feature. Especially when you look at Rock Band's weekly DLC, there simply doesn't seem much need for it and I actually feel as if it's an attempt to fill Guitar Hero: World Tour's DLC void that might appear in a couple of months time when compared to Rock Band. It's an interesting feature, but it doesn't exactly work as well as it could. Partly down to the sound quality, there are some pretty Ring Tone quality sounds and despite a pretty solid amount of guitar, drums, and keyboard sets to mess around with. To many of them sound as if they belong on a mobile phone. There's simply a to bigger void between the sound quality of the master tracks and the sound quality of the User Created Content for any user created tracks to match that of the on disc tunes. 

There are also other problems to be found with this feature, it features no vocals due to copyright issues and Neversoft have said they will remove any tunes that sound anything like an actual bands song that isn't licensed for Guitar Hero: World Tour. It begs the question why have this feature in the first place if such creative abilities can't be done by it's userbase. But my biggest problem with the Music Studio is that it simply isn't any fun and not worth my time to learn all it's tricks for me to create my poor Ring Tone quality song. I applaud Neversoft for trying something new and fresh but either it needs to be done much better or not done at all. But if this is something that does interest you then best of luck, it seems some folks have been able to master it and have uploaded songs to GHTunes. Guitar Hero's own personal version of Itunes and it's simple but surprisingly fun to use. Songs download pretty quickly and it does a good job of showing you the songs worth downloading. Not to mention the fact that it offers you a preview of that chosen song before you download. 

MORE THEN A TRIBUTE BAND!

Despite Guitar Hero: World Tour failings when compared to Rock Band, it is more then some below average tribute band or just a fill until Rock Band 2 hits Europe this week. It is easily the best Guitar Hero game to date and despite all it's downfalls, it's still a lot of fun offline and online. It's trying to add something new to the music genre, and although it mostly fails in it's attempt I give full credit to Neversoft for having the balls to challenge the Rock Band franchise. The game will sell well that's for sure, but Harmonix were clearly looking to shut out World Tour with there week later launch of Rock Band 2 in Europe. Saying this I will happily come back to play Guitar Hero: World Tour even when I'm busying chewing through songs on Rock Band 2. It still as a charm about it that Rock Band simply doesn't have and maybe theres even some nostagia still deep inside me that dearly loves the Guitar Hero franchise. Despite it being whored out these past few years. The music studio will feel tacky to some while others might even fall in love with it and the new instruments are a mixed bunch. The guitar feels great and is easily one of the best guitars avaliable (just remember to turn off the touch pad) and the drums are an interesting experiment that works well just as long as you have a set that works. The ingame special appearances are a nice touch but they don't add a great deal and the setlist might be a little to old for some to truly enjoy. But the game does feature some fine customizational tools that will please any creative gamer and you'll spend a good few hours messing with creating your very own instruments.