Geekanerd: PS3

Showing posts with label PS3. Show all posts

Showing posts with label PS3. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Guitar Hero IV is Rock Band... +?

It may not come as a surprise to anyone, but in an effort to not be outdone by Rock Band, the next edition of Guitar Hero will be pumping up its features big time. Among these additions (as described in the latest issue of Game Informer and on IGN) are the inclusion of drums and vocals in the mix, a "new input mechanic" for the guitar, and a "Studio Mode" for creating new songs or jamming over old ones.

The drums features three regular pads and two raised wedge-shaped cymbal pads. All of them (as well as the pedal) are pressure sensitive, so the game knows exactly how hard you're hitting them. Activision claims the drums are built to be less noisy and more sturdy than the Rock Band drums, and I'm inclined to believe them 'cause those RB drums are rickety crickety. (UPDATE: There's a picture of the drums after the jump!) No word on what the guitar's "new input mechanic" that will "impact the way you play GH in the future" might be. If it's anything like the solo buttons or effects switch on the Rock Band guitar, color me unimpressed.

Hit the jump for info about the Studio Mode, where you'll get to make music and share it with the world!

Details are still scant in regards to the Studio Mode, but what we know is this:

You can jam over existing songs with any instrument.
You can use the instruments to create a new song by laying down rhythm, lead, melody, bass, and drum tracks. No vocals.
You will be able to share the songs you've created online. Only five at first, but if they're rated well you might get permission to upload more.

Call me cynical, but are people really going to be able to create music worth listening to with a five-button guitar? The inclusion of vocals would make it an awesome YouTube-y experience, but without it you'll just be listening to a string of guitar and drum samples. Much cooler would be the ability to import your own pre-recorded songs and assign Guitar Hero tablature to them, but I guess it would be tough to regulate copyrighted content.

UPDATE: Someone at Destructoid has posted a scan of the drums!

These look pretty great and all, but can anyone really justify having two fake drumsets in their house?

Friday, February 15, 2008

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Announced

There have been rumors and rumblings, but this morning Activision officially announced Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. Says frontman Steven "Big Mouth Bass" Tyler:

"Any band that can go from 'Don't Want to Miss A Thing' (Aerosmith's #1 smash hit) to the ass-kicking 'Sweet Emotion' to the cheekiness of 'Love in an Elevator,' to the classic ballad 'Dream On' shows why Activision chose us to headline this game based on the diversity of the Aerosmith catalog. Not only is songwriting a bitch, but then it goes and has puppies."

The setup seems to be a quest through the band's life, from infancy to superstardom to has-been. You'll be playing songs from Aerosmith and "celebrated artists that the band has either performed with or has been inspired by in some way." Is it just me, or does it all seem a little too... restricting? Swapping from Guitar Hero 2 to Rock the 80s to play a few songs was obnoxious enough, swapping from Guitar Hero 3 to play a bunch of Aerosmith songs? I just don't see it happening. Why isn't this a downloadable expansion that adds the songs to your GH3 playlist and an "Aerosmith Story Mode" to the main menu? Now THAT would be awesome.

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will be coming to PS3, XBox 360, Wii, and PS2 this June.
You can get a taste of the action by downloading "Dream On" for Guitar Hero 3 for free on XBox Live and the Playstation Store this weekend.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Enhance Your Rock Band Experience

So you've got Rock Band, and you're saying to yourself "Man, this is fun and all, but I really feel like if I spent some more money I would be having an even better time." And you're right! There's a bevy of fun Rock Band doodads to blow money on. The first and most exciting is what is simulated in the picture above... A Rock Band Light and Smoke Stage Show Kit! No joke, read all about it over at Destructoid. It won't be out until July, but you can bet with a price tag of 100 smax it'll be worth the wait!

Hit the jump for more fun Rock Band accessories...

Sound-Dampening Drum Pads
One of the big complaints with Rock Band out of the box is how much of a racket those little plastic drum pads make. It's not so bad when you have the luxury of cranking the music so high it drowns out the noise, but some people have neighbors. Enter the sound-dampening drum pad mod, available in DIY ($27 for supplies) and BIY (Buy-It-Yourself, $27.99) varieties. Do they work? Well, check out this video of them in action:

So yeah, they work. Be warned, however, they begin to show damage pretty quick. Mine aren't falling apart or anything, but they definitely aren't as pretty as the ones in the picture.

Drum Bag
If you're planning on taking your show on the road, or (ha) storing your drums away, you may want to get your hands on this official Rock Band Drum Bag. It's going for $50 at the Rock Band Store.

Mic Stand

Anyone who has tried to sing and play guitar or drums at the same time using the Xbox 360 headset knows how crappy the sounds quality is with that thing. Dropping $13 (at Guitar Center, among other places) on an actual mic stand for your USB microphone is a solid investment. It'll also open up a bunch of new "stage business" possibilities. Which in turn will open up a bunch of new "property destruction" possibilities.

Have I missed anything crucial? Let me know in the comments.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Darth Vader and Yoda Join the Cast of Soul Calibur IV

The Soul Calibur franchise has seen it's fair share of stunt casting over the years, with appearances by Spawn, Link and others. But this may take the cake, as the PS3 and XBox 360 versions of Soul Calibur IV will star Darth Vader and Yoda... Respectively. That's right, each system gets one lightsaber duelist. There will be no Jedi vs. Sith action. However, I'd put money on the characters showing up for purchase on XBox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Network. How much is your geekdom worth?

Monday, December 03, 2007

Review: Guitar Hero 3

We here at Geekanerd have been huge fans of the Guitar Hero franchise since that fateful day I walked into a Best Buy and gave it a whirl at a demo station. After plowing through three GH games (including the 80s Edition), is their still room in our hearts to be impressed by the series? Well, we've played it thoroughly on both the Wii and PS2, so hit the jump for our full review.

The Good:

It's more Guitar Hero. Seriously, I still enjoy playing the first one immensely, so all Red Octane really needed to do to get me to like this game is not mess with the formula and give me new songs to play. And they've done this. There are a few gameplay differences, most of which I like or at least don't mind. Most notable is the fact that the window for hitting a note is significantly wider. My first time playing I was blazing through strings of hammer-ons and pull-offs that I know I'd never get through in the previous games. Some have grumbled that this cheapens the experience, but it makes me feel like a rockstar so I say it's awesome.

A lot of people have made a fuss about how the game is more difficult than the previous iterations, but I honestly didn't notice too much of a leap, other than that the "First Tier" songs aren't necessarily any easier than the second, third, or fourth tier. There was certainly a larger disparity between the difficulties of GH1 and GH2.

The new guitar controller is really great. It feels much more solid than the old ones, and while the ability to swap out the faceplates and take the neck off are features I'll probably never use, I guess it's nice to know I could if I wanted. Having had time with this guitar and the Rock Band guitar, I'd have to say this one feels MUCH better, even if it doesn't look quite as cool.

The Co-Op Career is a very welcome addition, and making some tracks with especially great bass lines exclusive to that mode makes it seem like more than an afterthought.

Finishing off the Good List is the fact that a lot of the tracks in the game are original recordings. No longer do we have to sit through cringe-worthy covers of songs we love. Jamming to authentic masters immediately crowns this game as the King of the Guitar Hero hill.

The Bad

Unfortunately the game is not without its flaws. The most egregious of these is a severe case of devolving character design. The first Guitar Hero introduced a handful of unique and well-designed characters, but this game takes those, dips them in a vat of blandjuice and gives them all a $50 Hot Topic gift certificate to dress themselves. In the dark. Add a robot (who can relate to a ROBOT?! Especially one so distinctly uncool...) and some really really ugly "Legends of Rock" and you get a character selection screen that's not even worth looking at. The non-player characters suffer as well, most notably the drummer, who looks like he's an animatronic transplanted from a 50s era Disney ride. Ugh.

Another problem is the introduction of the Boss Battles. While the actual battle songs written specifically for the game are fun (why can't we play them in Face-Off mode??!?), the Battle mechanic is seriously half-baked. Every power-up interferes with the fun of playing a song, and most are way too powerful. Getting hit with just about anything in the final battle with the devil will just plain kill you. It's no fun, it feels cheap and unbalanced, and I don't like it no matter what you say.

The Eh...

The online play on the Wii is a mixed bag. We rarely had trouble finding someone to play against, but we've only gotten through one full session without our opponent dropping out when they were losing. Not really the game's fault, but still extremely frustrating. The matching system could also stand to be a bit more intuitive. That being said, the community that's growing at GuitarHero.com shows a lot of promise, with leaderboards and tournament scheduling.

I also have mixed feelings about the added Wiimote functionality. As you can see from the pic at the top of the post, the Wii guitar has a slot for the Wiimote to fit snugly. While there it makes a missed note "twang" sound effect, and vibrates to the beat when you have star power. These features, especially the sound bit, are things I really like in theory but distract me a bit in actual gameplay situations. I'm sure I'll eventually get used to it, but my initial impression was not a good one.

The Verdict:

Friday, November 02, 2007

Video: Things To Do With The Playstation Eye

This video shows some of the fun little games and stuff you'll be able to play once the Playstation Eye comes out for your PS3. I've gotta say, some of these (like the ball rolling one) look like a whole lot of fun. While I don't think it'll convince me to run out and drop a month's rent on a PS3, creative (and beautiful!) diversions like this and Little Big Planet sure do tempt me. I could definitely see leaving that first app (a music creator/visualizer, like Electroplankton) on at a party and just having people casually and at times unintentionally manipulate it.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Guitar Hero 3 Makes a Shredder Out of "Devil Went Down to Georgia"

The Devil Went Down to Georgia has been on the Guitar Hero III playlist for a little while now, and if you're familiar with the song you'll get a kick out of what they've done with it. It's the final song in the game, and seeing as how some song tiers culminate in a boss battle with a rock icon (Slash, Bret Michaels, etc) and this song is about a musical showdown with the Devil... Do you see where I'm going here? It seems that Satan, the muse of all rock music, is the final boss of Guitar Hero III. They're calling him "Lou," as in "Lou Cifer," but make no mistake it is the Dark One. And good luck, the song has been turned into a truly hellish shredder:

Hit the jump for the full tracklist.

Tier 1:
Foghat - Slow Ride
Poison - Talk Dirty to Me
Pat Benatar - Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Social Distortion - Story of My Life

Encore: Kiss - Rock and Roll All Nite
Co-op Encore: Beastie Boys - Sabotage

Tier 2:
Mountain - Mississippi Queen
Alice Cooper - School's Out
Cream - Sunshine of Your Life
Heart - Barracuda

Boss: Tom Morello - Guitar Battle
Encore: Rage Against the Machine - Bulls on Parade
Co-op Encore: The Strokes - Reptilia

Tier 3:
The Killers - When You Were Young
AFI - Miss Murder
The Who - The Seeker
Priestess - Lay Down

Encore: Rolling Stones - Paint It Black
Co-op Encore: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Suck My Kiss

Tier 4:
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
The Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK
Sonic Youth - Kool Thing
Weezer - My Name Is Jonas

Encore: Pearl Jam - Evenflow
Co-op Encore: Blue Oyster Cult - Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll

Tier 5:
The Dead Kennedy's - Holiday in Cambodia
Scorpions - Rock You Like a Hurricane
Aerosmith - Same Old Song and Dance
ZZ Top - La Grange

Boss: Slash - Guitar Battle
Encore: Guns N Roses - Welcome to the Jungle
Co-op Encore: Bloc Party - Hellicopter

Tier 6:
Santana - Black Magic Woman
Smashing Pumpkins - Cherub Rock
White Zombie - Black Sunshine
Tenacious D - The Metal

Encore: Stevie Ray Vaughn - Pride and Joy
Co-op Encore: Matchbook Romance - Monsters

Tier 7:
Slipknot - Before I Forget
Disturbed - Stricken
Queens of the Stone Age - 3's and 7's
Muse - Knights of Cydonia

Encore: Living Colour - Cult of Personality

Tier 8:
Slayer - Raining Blood
Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover
Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast
Metallica - One

Boss: Lou - Guitar Battle
Encore: The Devil Went Down to Georgia

Bonus Tracks:

An Endless Sporadic - Impulse
Backyard Babies - Minus Celsius
Bret Michaels Band - Go That Far
Die Toten Hosen - Hier Kommit Alex
Dragonforce - Through the Fire and the Flames
Fall of Troy - FCP Remix
Gallows - In the Belly of a Shark
The Hellacopters - I'm in the Band
Heroes del Silencio - Avalancha
In Flames - Take This Life
Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby
Killswitch Engage - My Curse
LA Slum Lords - Down N Dirty
Lacuna Coil - Closer
Lions - Metal Heavy Lady
NAAST - Mauvis Garcon
Prototype - The Way It Ends
Revolverhead - Generation Rock
Rise Against - Prayer of the Refugee
Scouts of St. Sebastian - In Love
Senses Fail - Can't Be Saved
The Sleeping - Don't Hold Back
The Stone Roses - She Bangs the Drums
Superbus - Radio Song

Thursday, October 18, 2007

New Video: Bionic Commando Trailer

Bionic Commando, the NES sidescroller with grappling hook arm action, is finally back, coming to the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. While twenty years ago your hook extended just enough to get you up to the platform right above you, now it turns you into Spider-Man, swinging around a post-apocalyptic city like you were born in the sky. Oh, and do you recognize that voice? Sure enough, it's Mike Patton of Mr. Bungle/Faith No More/Lovage fame!

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Geekanerd Investigation:
Which System Has the Best Games?

The Wii and PS3 are nearing their one-year anniversaries, and the Xbox 360 is coming up on it's second. They've all had some time to roll out great games, but which system has been rolling out the most? Commence Investigation!

The Ten Best-Reviewed "New Gen" Games
The system listed is for the highest reviewed version, additional systems are in parentheses
1. Bioshock - 360 (PC)
2. Zelda: Twilight Princess - Wii (GameCube)
3. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - 360 (PS3, PC)
4. Halo 3 - 360
5. Gears of War - 360 (PC)
6. Guitar Hero II - 360 (PS2)
7. Resident Evil 4 - Wii (PS2, GameCube)
8. Metroid Prime 3 - Wii
8. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - 360 (PC, Xbox, PS2)
10. Call of Duty 2 - 360 (PC)

What does it all mean?! Hit the jump for analysis...

Using the above list, the Great Game Count for each system runs like this:

Xbox 360 - 7
Wii - 3
PS3 - 1

The 360 has a pretty sizable lead here, with twice as many AAA games as the Wii, and just forget about the PS3. Something else to take note of, though, is that most of these games are available on multiple platforms. Which begs the question, what is the best system for exclusive content you can't get anywhere else? A new list!

The Ten Best-Reviewed Exclusive Games
1. Halo 3 - 360
2. Metroid Prime 3 - Wii
3. Forza Motorsport 2 - 360
4. Project Gotham Racing 3 - 360
5. Resistance: Fall of Man - PS3
5. Project Gotham Racing 4 - 360
7. Ninja Gaiden Sigma - PS3
8. Dead or Alive 4 - 360
9. Super Paper Mario - Wii
10. Dead Rising - 360

TOTALS:
Xbox 360 - 6
PS3 - 2
Wii - 2

Ooh, you thought that was gonna be a Wii coup, didn't you? Quite the opposite, the Wii merely tied the mangy PS3. Well, that list is almost entirely sequels, and Nintendo is all about the Wii being a "new way to play," so let's look at the category that they'll surely trump:

Ten Best-Reviewed Non-Sequel Exclusives
1. Resistance: Fall of Man - PS3
2. Dead Rising - 360
3. Viva Pinata - 360
4. Crackdown - 360
5. Motorstorm - PS3
6. Saint's Row - 360
7. Heavenly Sword - PS3
8. Kameo - 360
9. Eternal Sonata - 360
10. Blue Dragon - 360

TOTALS:
Xbox 360 - 7
PS3 - 3
Wii - 0

Say what!? All that talk about shaking things up and Nintendo couldn't come up with a single well-reviewed original game? Their best is Wii Sports, which ends up coming in at number 12. I might have to think about getting one uh them 360 things. Might. It has a sizable head start for sure, we'll see if Nintendo and Sony can step it up going into their second year.

All lists compiled using review scores from Game Rankings.
Thanks to intendo editor Rollin for wising me to the fact that Warhawk for PS3 is a sequel.

Friday, October 05, 2007

You've Already Won Me Over, Simpsons Game

I've made some slightly disparaging observations about this game in the past, but the time has come where I'll admit I might have to one day eat my shoe. Every piece of gameplay I see gets me a little more interested, from the stuff above to the GTA parody and original 2D animation after the jump. I realize now that they are calling it simply The Simpsons Game without any subtitle to suggest that it is indeed the ultimate game for the franchise. And when the visuals, voices, and jokes are right out of the show, how could it not be? Well, bad gameplay could kill it, but let's think nice thoughts.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

September 26, 2007 is OFFICIALLY Guitar Hero Day in NYC

Today at the Guitar Hero III Launch event New York City announced that September 26, 2007 is officially Guitar Hero Day! That's RedOctane President Kai Huang on the left there, with Krusty Krusterson from the city on the right presenting the official Proclamation. Oh, and Living Color.

We'll have some video of the presentation up later, as well as a Guitar Hero III deathmatch showdown between Geekanerd and Destructoid. You won't wanna miss it.

UPDATE: Our first delicious morsel of GHIII video can be found here.

Full press release after the jump.

SEPTEMBER 26, 2007 DECLARED GUITAR HERO DAY IN NEW YORK CITY

City Official to Read Proclamation, Eager Fans Set To Storm the Streets of New York, Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock To Be Debuted at Digital Life

Santa Monica, CA - September 26, 2007 -- Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), publisher of the wildly popular Guitar Hero® franchise and the City of New York are proud to proclaim September 26, 2007 "Guitar Hero® Day" in New York City. Fans are ready to rock the streets of Manhattan as thousands are expected to gather in celebration of the day, with guitar controllers in hand. This proclamation is one of many Guitar Hero events taking place in New York City this week, heading into the launch of the highly anticipated Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Rock Band Will Feature Head to Head Drumming Action!

Your first thought after starting this video should be: "Head to head drummer action? Awesome!"

Your second thought should be: "Wow, imagine have TWO drum kits in my apartment!"

Your third thought should be: "Hmm... Where would I put them?"

And your fourth and final thought while watching this video should be: "Oh man, it's the f-ing Pixies!!! Alright!"

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty Video

Don't be turned off by the really bad name or the fact that it's another WWII FPS (if I were you I would have stopped reading right then, but trust me), Turning Point: Fall of Liberty looks to have a pretty cool premise. Set in an alternate reality 1953 New York, Germans have invaded the Eastern U.S. and are wreaking some serious havoc with a massive airborne blitzkrieg including planes crashing into buildings (still cringe-worthy) and everyone's favorite aircraft that only caught on in alternate realities, zeppelins! You play not a soldier but a concerned citizen who takes it upon himself to repel the invading forces. What excites me is running around the city I live in (circa 1953) while it's getting blown to pieces. And saving it. Which is actually a recurring fantasy of mine. That, and raiding tombs.

Via Kotaku.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Trailer

This appears to be the Star Wars game to rule all Star Wars games. The intro to this trailer takes the "size matters not" adage to a new ridiculous(ly cool) extreme. The focus of the game appears to be using force powers to take out enemies, where most past Star Wars action games have focused on blasterplay and saberdueling. What I don't get is if the main character in this is a light-sider or dark-sider. He's got all the telltale signs of the Sith: dark clothes, red saber, force lightning... And we hear Darth Vader rasp "You have done well, my apprentice," so it would seem we will be playing as Vader's apprentice. BUT, the whole trailer he's killing Stormtroopers and Tie Fighters and such. I'm very confused, and crazily excited!

Thursday, July 12, 2007

E3: Insane Media Overload Day 2

Welcome to Day 2 of our coverage of everybody else's coverage of E3. Starting off, we've got a trailer for the hotly anticipated Super Mario Galaxy:

If you're in the mood for something a little more... intimate... Check out this developer talking us through a particularBEE neat level:

Hit the jump for the new Simpsons game, some Halo 3 action, a Wii trivia game called Smarty Pants, a new LittleBigPlanet video, a cheesy but thrilling Rock Band performance of Bowie's "Suffragette City", and more Metroid Prime 3.

Here's the Simpsons game:

It sure looks good, but I have to wonder: why are most Simpsons games about fighting? There's rarely any fights on the show, so it seems incongruous that that would be the go-to genre for Simpsons video game developers. Why not an adventure game that has you actually progressing through a hilarious Simpsons story, or a Bully-style sandbox game where you run around Springfield pranking people and carrying out specific missions for people? That being said, this game sho is pretty. Also keep an eye out for Matt Groening himself as the end boss, as reported by Eurogamer.

Here's Halo 3 in action:

Pretty.

And now Smarty Pants:

It's hard to tell if this will be fun or not. The only thing I do know is those chaps playing are grating. I like something as simple as the hand-raising motion to "get called on." I hope the emphasis is on trivia and not those little epileptic minigames they do a couple times.

If yesterday left you wanting more, here is the full LittleBigPlanet trailer:

From start to finish, some good (if silly) players running through a Rock Band song:

Yesterday's trailer was a little dry, but it's fun to watch this game developer walk us through a Metroid Prime 3 level:

This is the first time I noticed how good the game looks. It sure moves well, and has a lot of nice art direction touches.

Rock Band Official Site Launches, We Bring You The Song List

As if we don't keep you posted on all the hot Rock Band news, they've launched their official site and it's full of goodies. Among them is the current song list, which I'm gonna give you right after the jump.

The Who "Won't Get Fooled Again"
Mountain "Mississippi Queen"*
David Bowie "Suffragette City"
Black Sabbath "Paranoid" *
Blue Oyster Cult "Don't Fear the Reaper"
The Ramones "Rockaway Beach"
Rush "Tom Sawyer" *
Bon Jovi "Wanted Dead or Alive"
Nirvana "In Bloom"
Stone Temple Pilots "Vasoline"
Weezer "Say It Ain't So"
Foo Fighters "Learn to Fly"
Metallica "Enter Sandman"
The Hives "Main Offender"
The Strokes "Reptilia"
Queens of the Stone Age "Go With the Flow"

* Indicates a cover song, all other songs are original masters!

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Buncha Guitar Hero 3 Stuff

So there's a buncha new deets on the next Guitar Hero game. First off we have the official trailer, which reveals some songs we can expect and also (unless I'm the only one that didn't know this) that the third Guitar Hero will have the subtitle "Legends of Rock." I suppose this makes sense because you can play as Slash, but I have to wonder if more real life guitarists are in the wings waiting to be revealed. It does say "LegendS", after all. I call Clapton. I can assume AHR has dibs on Santana.

Hit the jump for some pics of the new guitar and a video of the updated multiplayer face-off.

Gaming Age has pics of all the guitars, but I'm just gonna post the Wii one because a) I'm a Nintendo slut, and 2) It's the only one that has any sort of newsworthy modification.

That's right, like many suspected, the Wiimote will fit snugly into the body of the guitar. Hopefully they'll use this for some cool Wii features, like 1:1 guitar mapping ala the pre-swing baseball bat in Wii Sports. It doesn't seem to me like that would be too tough to implement, and it would definitely encourage some righteous shredding action.

Now the real question is... In the face of Rock Band, is anyone really pumped about this game? Harmonix is off the franchise, and it's already clear Activision has made some dubious decisions in their absence, like the addition of annoying power-ups to an already solid multiplayer mode:

I'm sure you will be able to turn some of this off, but doesn't its mere existence speak to a disconnect between Activision's vision (...) and what gamers want? Or is it just me that would prefer to play the damn song without worrying about my board shaking and my buttons not working and all that other jazz? Regardless, the game is coming. And I'll play it. Because I love me some GH.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Rock Band Details Emerge