I still feel horrible that I snicker any time I read news about the idiocy and shame of Activision and its Guitar Hero license . . .
There was the thing where the Deluxe $240 Version got you ...
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Point One:
Activision announced "Guitar Hero: World Tour" recently. It's the new evolution of the series after "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith" which I expect will suck fairly hard. So like that other game which they don't mention outright, it's designed for band-play with guitar, bass, vocals, and drums. Drums are "the most realistic drums ever" with bass pedal, 3 drum pads and 2 cymbal pads all stacked at a higher height. Also, they're adding a "music composer" thing with it as well. They have a trailer out and everything.
Annnnnnd . . . there's a lot of crazy negative sentiment coming from it, especially at Kotaku, where I read the news.
The general feeling is that they're copying Rock Band in order to compete, people who already have Rock Band don't have the floor space for another gaudy plastic drum kit, no one wants to spend $200 on one more drum pad, Considering how many Guitar Hero games Activision is currently churning out they're now just going through the motions, they've lost their passion for making these games, the name "Guitar Hero" just doesn't make nearly as much sense anymore, the music composer thing is going to be cheap and a little more tacked on than anything else, GH3 ruined the series for a lot of people with a really narrow window for strumming and overly-frustrating finger charts that feel more hard and frustrating for the sake of being hard and frustrating than for feeling like you're playing the song . . . like, very few people are actually excited about this!
Also doesn't help that the "trailer" is the lamest thing ever . . .
I gotta say, I rarely ever play Guitar Hero 3. I'm actually a little sad I bought it now, because the need for a guitar that can play both games is what's been keeping me from having a full Rock Band set with a bassist. Hmm . . . things to think about, I guess . . .
Point Two:
While on the subject of Rock Band . . . my cousin snapped my bass pedal yesterday. It was bound to happen, but it sucks for him that it happened on his shift. In any case, I called EA and they're shipping me a free (eventually) replacement now. Here's hoping this all works out smoothly and quickly so I can know that this won't be hard later in the future . . . y'know, when we break it again . . .
Point Three:
I SAW THE YOSHIDA BROTHERS YESTERDAY!!!
I'll write up a full review later, but I'll just say it was awesome and interesting. For one thing, the theater was filled with old Japanese people - like, until this point I don't think I had ever seen so many Japanese people in Vancouver all in one place before! And they were all here to see the Yoshida Brothers . . . themselves being rock stars disguised as traditional musicians.
Last thing I'll mention here before the main post . . . the atmosphere was very unique. Again, like I said, the theater was filled with old Japanese people. As such, there was not a lot of tapping/bouncing along, very little loud cheering (save for now and then when they played some songs that really cooked). However, when the songs would end, you would get some crazy-thunderous applause from the audience. I know "thunderous applause" is kinda cliche, but seriously! It was the loudest clapping I had ever heard for an audience of 600-650 people. It was nuts.
Writing Bit:
First grammar workshop seems to have taken well over at The Writers Bloc. This pleases me.
Now I need to start having some discussions with a couple other people to start planning out what and how else we play with this bad boy . . .
So that's that.
I feel like there was something else I really wanted to mention, but I can't think of it anymore. Oh! It was probably Indiana Jones 4 . . . yeah, later.
(EDIT: it's 2:06am, and I kept hearing a little repeating something-rather in the house somewhere, like maybe some music or a television show . . . snooped around a little, figured out it was coming from my brother's room.
So yeah. My room's in the basement, his is above mine more or less . . . and I could hear his snoring through the air vents. That's funny, but totally messed up.
