Quick Look: Amplitude

This game is so much fun! Had a blast yesterday.

I'm glad there was a demo for this, I kind of like the gameplay, but those three demo songs do absolutely nothing for me, which is a real shame for a music game.

Yes, the beast is back.

So i looked up Break Up In A Small Town and i was like, "hmm, ok."

I kind of wish this game had better music. I backed this on Kickstarter and it barely made it so I guess it came down to a money thing more than anything else.

Drake sucks.

I played a bit of the demo last night and next thing I knew I'd spent half an hour replaying the same track over and over again in pursuit of the perfect run. Even though the DS4 triggers aren't well suited to the game, and the somewhat underwhelming soundtrack it just proves that the core of Amplitude is as good as it ever was.

I have to admit to not liking the Harmonix-produced tracks immediately, but the moment I unlocked Phantoms I was reminded just how much fun the game is with the right songs. I hope it does well so we can get a few more DLC tracks of that calibre.

They keep dropping hints for that Anime podcast! I BELIEVE.

Alex doing a QL for a Harmonix game? I feel a conflict of interest! (which he mentions right at the start lol)

Damn, Alex plays better while talking on expert than i do on normal difficulty.

Edit: @austin_walker with the DJ Professor K avatar! I've had Pots as my PSN avatar for years.

The PS3 version is not out yet, apparently, which I found out after a couple hours of fooling around with my old PS3 trying to get it up and running again.

No Steam?

You mention that the DS4 triggers aren't well suited for the game; is there any gameplay-related reason not to use the face buttons for hitting the notes? I found myself very quickly switching to using Square for left, Triangle for center, and Circle for right. I'm an admitted total novice at this particular series, though I did play a LOT of Rock Band Blitz a few years back. I just wonder if there's some more advanced techniques or something that I'm not aware of that might make using the face buttons a sub-optimal method.

This looks rad. Shame I don't have a PS4.

For me, it's purely muscle memory from playing far too much of the original Amplitude (even as recently as two weeks ago). I should also mention that I leapt in at Expert mode immediately after the tutorial, and at the higher difficulties it's beneficial to have both hands working on the note blasting. I have a feeling that I'll have to learn a different scheme with this game, incorporating at least one of the face buttons.

So was whitey ford 15 years head of his time?

I backed this Kickstarter to a level which offered me 2 weeks of 'early access'. The game is out now, and I still don't have a working code. The one they sent just gives an error. It sounds like a lot of people outside of the US have the same problem.

Thanks guys, now I gotta marathon Cowboy Bebop again and put the soundtrack on loop.

music on this ql could've been a little bit louder.

Giant Beast: Chopped and/or Screwed.

That last track sold it for me. I'm on board. Hopefully there are more songs that fit the gameplay well.

Yeah, I can definitely see how it could quickly become a situation where you'd want both hands on the notes; that was definitely the case with Rock Band Blitz pretty much from the jump, but that was made a bit more intuitive in that you only had left and right notes; the center note here makes the situation quite a bit more complex.

I'm afraid that the higher I climb on the difficulty ladder in this game, the more I might suffer from the habits and control preferences I've developed on the lower ones, but I guess that just comes with the territory with these sorts of games.

Why do they call the beeps and bloops in electronic music "instruments?"

They're nothing like the real instruments normal, cool people play and listen to.

I somehow got sold on this game from that skullsgirls track!

Wait, what? Where did this come from? This literally released out of nowhere. Kickstarter feels like it was only months ago. And then Barkerville was born.

OK, Dan.

I haven't played this game yet, watching this video it looks to me it hithces up like a motherfucker? They are really low but frequent hitches on the track swithces/completitions when an effect is triggered and the track disintegrates? Or is it just the video?

I have to say, love Vinny and Austin's "super polite" DJs.

"C'mon guys, Vinny is really good at this!"

"5...4...3... oh wait hold on messed it up... 5...4....3..."

OH MY GOD

@quipido: I never noticed anything like that in my time with it.

All those John Drake scores though.

You know, with this QL and the last couple podcasts, I think GB East could do pretty well if they set up a small film production company...

Very glad to see a quick look of this this morning. I've been playing this for a week or so now and fucking love it. I'm really, really hoping they do some DLC but according to the official twitter account there's no current plans. So if y'all like it and want more let 'em know...

ALEX RIPPIN' IT UP LIKE A GODDAMN SAVANT.

So i don't understand the mechanics of the game. Alex mentioned he played with the bumpers and a trigger ? bumpers = change lane , trigger = shoot?

How do you choose if you shoot left, right or in the middle? or is it always firing the right gun as long as you tap the trigger on the beat?

I might buy this just for that Necrodancer song.

It's a shame the music doesn't seem to be as varied as the original Amplitude. Frequency was always great due to Fear Factory, though.

@onemanarmyy It's L1 for the left note, R1 for the right note and R2 for the middle

Can the next GBE Playdate be Alex playing this for 3 hours?

How the hell do i keep my combo up when switching lanes?

@please_love_me: and you switch lanes with the analog stick or something? Or is that automatic?

Gotta say I love the RGB-split visual effect in all it's incarnations. More futuristic games need RGB-splitting.

What a fun quick look.

With the default control config, the right analog stick will make you move you to the nearest active lane in whichever direction you push, so you skip over any empty lanes automatically. This is pretty necessary to use in order to keep combos up when the notes on the next lane start right at the beginning of the measure.

Oh hey i have a code for this somewhere.

I go and fund drake and pope's DREAMS and then they up and leave :(

Laughed 2 hard at Big Sean being the Drake of Drake.

(It's J. Cole though, don't even front.)

This game looks neat but maaaan would I not want to play with the bumpers & triggers.

Edit: Austin why didn't you pick the ship named "Twista".

Edit 2: THE SONG FROM THE MAN IN CRYPT OF THE NECRODANCEEEER!!!

Wait, really? That's a huge bummer. That seems like it'd remove almost all of the strategy of making sure to play the songs in ways that allow you to keep combos flowing. Routing that stuff out was a huge part of the score chase in the original two games. Automating that seems like a really terrible idea for a game that appeals to basically nobody but fans of the series. You'll still have to route out the best way to get powerups and tracks that are worth the most points, but that's still incredibly disappointing to me. Plus it felt so good when you could manage to quickly switch over a few lanes and keep a combo going.

If you're holding the controller in a normal manner, using the face buttons gives you one finger (your thumb) available for hitting notes. If you're using the triggers you have a discrete finger at the ready for everything coming your way. Just using your thumb might cut it for easier difficulties, but it'll hold you back when things start to get crazy. While you could probably manage to get more fingers onto the face buttons, sort of like Vinny did in this Quick Look, you end up having to hold the controller in an uncomfortable way that might also limit your ability to quickly switch tracks.

On the subject of the triggers being suboptimal, a lot of people even in the days of the triggerless PS2 controller have used the L1/R1/O configuration for playing these games. Hands seem to be wired in such ways that it's a little easier to alternate between thumb and index finger than they are index and middle finger, so it allows for a little more dexterity maybe? I've never entirely wrapped my head around that way of playing, but I probably will for this game because of the trigger not being so good for accurate presses.

(I also want to try what playing this game is like on a fight stick)

I would totally hire DJ Malpractice

If this was on 3DS I'd be all over it.

Look at that professional Vinny photo.

Man the last five minutes of this with the polite DJs is GOLD!

Whenever I watch anyone decent at rhythm games play them, it's like watching someone perform magic. How the hell does anyone play these games? How does rhythm?