What would Jaina Proudmoore say?
Two signs of the Apocalypse: (1) I made a hunter in World of Warcraft. I haven't played it much, though. (2) I played a video game that wasn't World of Warcraft.
I was interested in Guitar Hero when I first heard about it, before it came out. Then I saw the box in the store, and thought it was kind of expensive. When I was working in Bellevue for WizKids, I saw the guitar controller hanging on a coat tree. A couple of folks were gonna play after work, and did I want to go see. I did, and it was awfully cool. I loved the way that the band members acted, rocking out when you were good and glaring at you when you were bad. The interface was funky and neat too. They offered a controller to me, and I politely declined.
Have you ever been insanely interested in something and terrfied to touch it? Somehow believing it would take control of your free will?
Me and LWC made a stop at Best Buy and on an end cap, there was that little plastic SG again. I looked at the screen and "I Love Rock and Roll" was selected. Love that song. I paused but did not touch it.
LWC came back, and I said, "Here's that Guitar Hero thing, I'll show you how it works." Or something like that. So I put on the strap, and about halfway through the song a shock runs through me and my lizard hindbrain says things like BUY NEED HAVE GET MUST DO. That's how mine talks to me, anyway.
We shut up the lizard until we got to Cool Stuff (used game store) and saved about ten bucks. Then I politely waited until Wednesday before I began playing. First I thought it was kinda hard, but then I got the hang of it. "Sharp Dressed Man" confused me the first time on Medium, but the second time I relaxed and got it. I even did well on the songs I had barely heard before.
I could not resist buying the double-necked guitar with my first $850 (where is the five-necked Cheap Trick model?). I hated it when I played well and my toon burned the big Gibson. Gibsons are cool, but I'm praying for Fenders for the next game.
I have a psychedlic Firebird now. Ooh, I made it to Ziggy Stardust! I had that moment when you're playing when you want to yell out, I'M PLAYING ZIGGY FUCKING STARDUST! I got 93% my first try, God that was awesome.
This is not the end of Warcraft for me, not by a long shot. It's just for taking an occasional break. It's nice to know that I found a game to play when I'm not playing the game I play.
Labels:
BUY NEED HAVE GET MUST DO,
games,
music,
warcraft
3 comments:
My beliefs on Guitar Hero, including a connection most might not have made...
I think it seems pretty obvious that this should have happened at some point. With the DDR craze, it was just begging to be done. However, I believe that Red Octane, or whomever's been trying to do it, doubted the feasibility of getting people to shell out 100 bucks for game and controller.
And then...Steel Battalion.
For those who don't know Steel Battalion is a mech warfare game, which would run you about 300 bucks, because it came with a massively garish control set up that only worked for that game. While driving sims have come packed with wheels for a while, those wheels could play any number of driving games.
Steel Battalion's success (though modest) led to things like Donkey Conga, and eventually, Guitar Hero. Finally someone decided they could get people to buy the guitar, and they put it out.
It's kinda hastily done, though. The song selection is good, but not as good as it, perhaps, should have been. There aren't many songs (DDR games have *way* more), and the song selection (which is half no-name independant bands) could have covered more labeled music.
But, the people who did the picking did well, the only thing that's missing, really, is a country song, which doesn't necessarily fit the electric guitar feel. From Hendrix and Vaughn to Joan Jett and Sum 41, there's a good eclectic mix of song stylings there, with a range of difficulty even on real guitar. But a lot of it seems to be "music we had the money for."
Like the DDR games, I expect the licensed music to be much better in GH2, because they don't have to redo the engine, they can sink their entire, larger budget into licensing songs. There's already a couple of songs released, though not really a long list:
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=64350
Side note, those who have it, and feel like buying a Game Shark, there's a song you can't access in any other way, called "Trippolette," authored by a tester of the game. It was removed because it didn't represent the feel of the game, but the song is still on the disc. More info here:
http://trippolette.iscool.net/
Note that the guy who wrote the song, as well as designed the note pattern for the song, can only get an 88% on it on Expert. wtf?
Disagree (with respect). Samba De Amigo (Dreamcast) was really the START of insanely expensive peripherials you JUST GOTTA GET (and it was a music/rhythm based game, too).
Still, the XBOX is far more popular than Dreamcast was, so Samba may have been first, but SB really proved the idea (besides, the Maracas were "only" $100, $300 REALLY says something).
I would also have to disagree with you Kindralas. I have been following the Japanese "Bemani" movement for many years... and these games have been popular over there and selling like crazy. Guitar Freaks is the version of Guitar Hero that is available there (but lesser in my mind because of both the song selection and the fact that GF only has three fret buttons). Guitar Hero was something I was hoping would come to the US for years. I got tried of trying to get the Japanese only versions (Which I did for DDR and ParaParaParadise and am still trying for Keyboardmania). Out here in Seattle there is an Arcade that has all three "instument" Bemani games hooked up together so three people can play together. GF, KM, and DrumMania.
So, I think they were just waiting to see how the American DDR releases would do before trying the other tried-and-true Japanese releases here.
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