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The Road to Mel is Paved with Games 4:18

By melcene April 18, 2011 14 Comments

Not a whole lot of gaming this week, I must admit. The week has been a mashup of lots of things. But I'll start with the Gaming first!

Guitar Hero Franchise

Over the weekend, Game Informer reported that the Guitar Hero franchise announced that after the April DLC tracks, the franchise will be going on a hiatus "until further notice." This didn't bode too well for the franchise, which we already knew was dying. But I thought they would at least keep up DLC longer. However, after looking into things a bit, I found that last week Activision also made an announcement to assure people that although the franchise is going on hiatus, that doesn't mean they're done. They're simply "not making a new one for the next year, that's all." So... interesting news. Unfortunately, the damage has already been done and I'm not sure that giving people a year's break will make them crave Guitar Hero any more than they do now.

Fight Night Champion (spoilers ahead)

So I didn't play this, but I actually watched my husband play it quite a bit over the weekend. If I remember correctly, this is EA's first sports game to be rated M, and it was done so with good reason. Overall the themes and language are definitely adult.

Champion Mode, which is the story mode, was actually quite amazing. While the Fight Night games were often simply a story of your fighter's rise to championship, this story was more than that. Your fighter, Andre Bishop, is training with and being managed by your dad's old trainer, Gus. Gus is doing well with Bishop, and Bishop has started his pro career after winning a gold-medal as an amateur Olympic boxer. Promoter Diaw McQueen has taken notice of Bishop's talent, and wants it. Bishop is happy with Gus though, and basically tells McQueen to jump off a cliff. McQueen doesn't like that too much, and not too long later, Bishop finds himself in prison (where the game's story actually starts before the flashback). Bishop makes a name for himself as a fighter in prison, and eventually gets back into the ring after his time served. The rest I shall leave to the player to learn.

The control scheme for this Fight Night is different than it has been in the past, which may throw some people off. The right control stick will throw punches now, and moving around the ring is part of your combos now. Also, during story mode, there is very little actual training, and basically no stat training. You're thrown directly into the fights and expected to learn along the way. Some of the story mode fights also must be completed in a particular manner. For example, in one fight, you may have to fight with one hand only. It should be no surprise to learn that the graphics in this game are also spectacular. The Fight Night games simply look better and better with each iteration, and each iteration still looks good. I haven't gotten to check out the other modes yet, but so far, the game is a must-have for Fight Night fans.

Penny Arcade Expo

Just realized I need to add this in here because it's totally video-game related! PAX is the only convention I truly give a shit about. And although PAX Prime 2011 is still over four months away, I'm already feeling the excitement. Last week I booked a room for the Saturday night of the convention at the Seattle Sheraton, and bought 3-day passes for me and the hubby and a couple Friday passes for our kid and housemate. I realize E3 is still the big one for gamers, but PAX is one that us regular gamers actually get to go to! Also, it's local (only one block away from where I work)!

Other Entertainment

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a very good book, part of quite an interesting series. I'm on the 2nd book of the series right now. My daughter had originally got The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for herself, but it was too slow of a starter for her. I'm kind of glad she decided not to read it, as some of the sex crimes that are discussed are something she can live without reading. I've yet to see the movie for the first book

HBO's Game of Thrones premiered last night. It should be no surprise, given that it's an HBO series, that there were lots of boobs in the episode, and some straight-up, no-doubt-about-it fucking. But for anyone who's read the books, the show follows them quite well so far. I'm still not terribly keen on Lena Headey as a blonde, but at least she's a good actress.

FOX's Fringe kicked off it's season finale countdown on Friday night with an episode that can simply be described as trippy. From Fringe to the Matrix to a comic to zombies, with entering someone's mind and LSD and trying to download a consciousness to a computer. Leave it to Fringe.

Other News

In other news... I found out on Friday that I've been accepted into Seattle University's School of Law. There are two main reasons this is a big deal. First, it was the only school I applied to. I don't believe in putting all my eggs in one basket, but it's the only school that offers night classes so I can continue to work. Second, I knew that my GPA and LSAT scores were good, but not spectacular, and the more that time passed without hearing anything, the more concerned I was that I would have to reapply next year. But I'm in, and if all goes according to plan, I'll start classes this June and graduate in 2015. Exciting! And stressful!

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