One of the main reasons I haven’t put out many updates in the last week or so was due to being in Canberra for Phenomenon. Overall, I had a good time. As usual, the con was held at Daramalan College, which was close to the amenities of Dickson shops and all the takeaway Asian you can stomach, and the classrooms with ceiling heaters that made some sessions seem as though they were set in ovens.
Click over for a review of the games we played.
I know that people probably say that every year, but I’m excited. Between Monkey Island, MGS5, Dragon Age and others, I ‘m cautiously optimistic about what’s coming.
I can’t compete with the regular gaming sites, and I’m far too busy to even aggregate everything interesting into one place, so you’ll just have to go check out the usual suspects.
In the meantime, checkout these screens from The Beatles: Rock Band
Wired.com is running an essay on the music industry’s beef with music simulation games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero. In some ways, it’s like listening to a broken record: old business hasn’t anticipated how the times are a-changin’ and starts whining about not having a big enough cut of the proceeds.
They’ve done it with Apple and the ITMS, they’re doing illegal things to hinder file swapping, and they’re doing very little to be innovative and stay ahead of the game. What they don’t seem to realise is that if they weren’t stuck in this orthodoxy of the plastic disc, they could be inventing new distribution channels like games and ringtones and online file distribution.
One fact jumped straight off my monitor and burned into my brain when I read the article:
Music games are proven earners—Aerosmith has reportedly earned more from Guitar Hero : Aerosmith than from any single album in the band’s history.
Wow! Aerosmith is one of the biggest rock bands in history, and they make more money off a game? It’s obvious this could be used as a fantastic promotional tool, but it can also help revitalise bands.
Due to the last couple years of music games, I’ve (re)discovered music and bands I haven’t given a thought to in over a decade. I’ve spent money on them. Even if the label gets a relatively small cut from the game, it gets much more from my track purchase.
I would hate to be working for such an introverted, conservative company. It would frustrate me to think that my employer behaved like a spoiled brat who wanted credit every time somebody came up with a better idea.
Originally, I was going to play and review Fallout 3. Then Flip started it while I watched and realised that it was just Oblivion with guns. So I figured why not just play that and hit the two main expansions. So I’ve spent the last week making a new character (a Mage) and levelling him up a bit (he’s now the head of the mage’s guild). And now I’m spent.
I got home after work last night with no desire to hit The Shivering Isles or even Fallout 3. I will get there, but I’ve run out of steam for the moment.
Instead, I turned back to Rock Band. It’s good for a quick pick-up game and we’re slowly garnering more songs for it. I’m picking up some tracks that were on Guitar Hero 2 & 3. The note tracking is different (and generally easier), but I’m also getting them for the other instruments. In particular, I like singing them.
Anyway, now that things are a little quiet on the release front, I’m starting to look at slightly newer games. Speaking to nobody recently, I’ve been convinced to try the revisioned Prince of Persia. Though it probably could have been done under a different title, I’ll survive. It looks like fun.
On the weekend, I invited a bunch of people over for a Rock Band party. While the main aim of the event was to have fun and play the game as a group, I was also interested to see how it would all perform in a group of mixed skill levels, musical taste, and musical ability.
Overall, it was a pretty good success. Everybody had some form of experience with either musical performance or rhythm games or both (well, almost everybody). That meant we were all able to jump in straight away and play the songs we wanted to.