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[2 Minute Review] The Beatles: Rock Band

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Do you want to know a secret?

 

We all live in a yellow submarine

DO: The Beatles meet Rock Band. Simple.

TYPE: While my plastic guitar gently weeps

PLATFORM: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PlayStation 3, and Wii

PRICE: $60

MEAT: If you’ve played Rock Band almost nothing has changed except the difficulty has been lowered a notch for almost all the songs. The technicality of the songs was much simpler then, but, of course, the songs are accessibe by almost anyone. It’s awesome to the see the evolution of their music as you play each venue they play or as you sit with them in the studio. The dreamscapes (what goes on in the background in the latter half of the game because the group didn’t tour) are so amazing that they can be distracting at first.

beatle_rock_band1252344947

PERKS: style and presentation are top-notch; enough for hardcore Beatles fans; engaging and interesting enough for people familiar with the group; catchy tunes, interesting rewards; a music game that’s accessible for mom and dad; fun with a little help from your friends; 45 songs is just enough for one group; vocal harmonization; got my wife to play late into the evening three days straight

SCREAMS: to have Hey Jude and Let It Be; you’re not really playing a specific character; to have a little more depth; 45 songs is not enough for one game; $60 may be too much for some. The Beatles are the taxmen;

VERDICT: He buys her diamond rings you know. She said so. Im in love with her and I feel fine. I was not a Beatle fan, but the prospect of playing a Rock Band game where I knew at least ten of the songs intrigued me. After one week, I’ve become a fan. I guess the game worked. The title oozes style and substance. A non-fan may not see the substance, but I found the pictures, trivia, group dynamics, and all the history to be very interesting. I think what the game does very well is show how the group was innovative with almost everything they did up until the end. The evolution in their style of music, clothes, and even hair were indicative of the times. I was born in the late 70’s and I guess the biggest compliment I can give this game is that I understand the era in which they played a little better and it’s getting better all the time.

Should I?

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marvel-civil-war1

I’m thinking of picking up Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 today. I was just planning on trading in some old games that I don’t play anymore to get it. Now, I already have plenty of games to play (can you ever have too many? I say yes, but that will be for another post) and yet I feel like I should pick this game up.

1) I loved the first game in the series (No, I will not marry it Tony.) and I even bought the superhero/villian DLC for it.

2) The graphics look amazing, especially when compared with the first game.

Thor shows Deadpool and Storm how its done.
Thor shows Deadpool and Storm how it's done.

No comparsion
Not even close.

Oh and I need to add that Deadpool looked awesome in this video clip. The animation is fluid and looks really good.

3) FUSION! HAAAaaa…wait wrong universe.

The fusions seem like they are crazy powerful. However, I’ve heard there are some fusion moves that are very simple. The best description of those that I’ve read comes from ign.com, “Meanwhile, a guided fusion puts you in the driver’s seat as you run around clearing clocks — like when Wolverine and Captain America run around side by side mowing bad guys down. With the exception of the jogging attacks like that Cap/Wolvie one, Fusions are pretty cool.”

Now, most aren’t simple like that but they do add a more co-operative feel to the game. Having four people playing together and everyone combining differently to do powerful attacks seems like it would keep things fun.

I’ve read the game is only about 10.5 hrs to complete, but I don’t even remember how many times I’ve played through the first one. I don’t think the game length with be a problem. There is also the new conversations where you chose your response from either aggressive, diplomatic, or defensive. They all happen with an emotionless face of your character as the backdrop. That doesn’t deter me from getting the game, but if it happens every time there is dialogue then it might old real quick.

I’m actually leaning towards getting this(if you couldn’t tell). I would just like to see what the rest of you think about it. Leave a comment.

Cast Off Your Dream: Re-Volt

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Does the Dreamcast have enough voltage to play a racer? We find out in Day 6 of our salute to influential or fun games on the beloved console.

I may get some flak for this recommendation but Re-Volt is a fun game to play. It didn’t feature stellar graphics, an amazing soundtrack, or audio effects. It wasn’t even a system exclusive as it appears on PCs and every major console at the time.

revoltDC1 What the game did offer was incredibly fun four player split-screen play. It did this well before the latest two iterations of Mario Kart.

Take the original NES title RC Pro Am and let the wild and crazy (and now defunct) developers at Acclaim redo it and this is what you get. Basically, you race an RC car across tracks made out of household objects and you’re the first to cross the finish line. Along the way, players may come across some voltage icons to run over that would dish out random weapons.

Personally, it wasn’t that fun to play alone, but this may have been one of the first games I played in a party setting and had a blast. Hence, my first party game.

The game is still available for all those old systems, and it can easily be found for the Dreamcast. However, the PC version is now considered to be abandonware and it can be found doing a simple Google search.

Cast Off Your Dream: Resident Evil Code: Veronica

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The search for a missing brother and then the search for a missing sister dominates our title for Day 5 of influential Dreamcast games. Oh, and there’s a virus that makes things interesting. T-virus.

I’m going to share a personal opinion with you right up front. Resident Evil Code: Veronica is the second greatest Resident Evil game behind Resident Evil 4. Well, now you know where I stand.

resicvx_004-largeThe game starts with Claire Redfield looking for her brother Chris on an island owned by the Umbrella Corporation, and—I really don’t want to spoil anything if you’ve not played this game because it has possibly the best story of all the RE games. However, she does find Chris, but then Chris looses her and zombie hilarity ensues throughout the entire game. Even though RE4 had some of the creepiest characters, hands down Veronica is the scariest game. I don’t think I’ve ever jumped so much while playing a game.

This title featured rotating camera angles that greatly enhanced the cinematic thrills. It was no slouch in the graphics department either. If you’ve been reading the previous posts this is starting to become clichéd, but once again a developer was pushing the limit visually and aesthetically, and Capcom utilized the console to some of its best potential early in the console’s life.

This is one of those rare games that is must play. If you’ve not, you are in luck. It’s easy to find for the Dreamcast (the original and an enhanced version—Veronica X), but ports are also available on the PS2 and is easy to find for the Gamecube (Think Wii. Although the ‘cube version is the lowest reviewed of the three.) However, of all the older RE games, it holds up pretty well.

Trust me on this. Play it.

Cast Off Your Dream: Soulcalibur

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Did the soul burn better at home than the arcade? We take a slice out of day 4 at our look of Dreamcast games to find out.

Following behind Sonic Adventure, Soulcalibur is the second best-selling game on the Dreamcast. A launch title, the game featured improved graphics, sound, and new modes over the arcade port. A launch title, it was the one game that sold consistently throughout the console’s lifespan.

Soul_Calibur_DC There were a couple of innovative features put into this fighting game. The player had a wider range of movement that gave the gamer a sense of real 3D. It also allowed players to “buffer” their moves.  You could basically plan out an attack while performing a defense, for instance.

The best feature I like was the ability for the winning player to keep performing moves on their opponent after they were K.O.’d. Being able to taunt with repeated kicks to the other person on the couch is a nice touch.

The game received near perfect scores and is considered by some to be one of the greatest games of all time. I wouldn’t take it that far, but it is one of best fighting games I’ve played (and I’m not a big fan of fighting games).

It’s spawned a slew of sequels but none have really attained to the status of the original title. If you’re itching to play it can be found on Xbox Live Arcade but a huge drawback is the lack of online play. There was a little HD updating and some basic leaderboards, but it’s not been well received because of this. However, being one of the most prolific titles on the Dreamcast it can still be found rather easily.

Nightmare was awesome. “Nightmare was seriously wounded, but the soul still burns.”

Cast Off Your Dream: Jet Grind Radio

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Day 3 in our look at excellent Dreamcast games has all to do with a game of tag—with innovation.

When most gamers think cel-shading the first game that comes to mind is Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. However, Jet Grind Radio (Jet Set Radio sans North America) had that beat (pun intended) by almost four years. The visuals pioneered the use of cel-shaded graphics using a colorful pallet and a color style and that’s been rarely seen in games since.

img_8 You play as a character named Beat who must perform stunts across a J-Pop city and recruit a gang of people to help him in his quest to “tag” the city with graffiti. Once an area is conquered and tagged, the rival gang would secede the area over to Beat. While all this is going on, the player has to escape rival gangs and the city’s police. Although the controls were simplistic the first few hours of the gameplay were brutal to most gamers. Once that learning curve was over it was smooth sailing. A lot of joy was had in performing a fluid motion of tricks.

 

Featuring a wide range of music from J-Pop, hip hop, dance, and a sprinkle of futuristic jazz there was an ever changing variety of up-tempo tunes to listen to. The metallic sound effects seemed to match the look and style of play.

It seems as if Jet Grind Radio was to go the way of the Dreamcast—innovative and way ahead of its time. Like most of the titles we’ve featured it’s achieved a cult status. However—and here may be some good news—Sega  has recently renewed some legal rights to the game and it’s been rumored that the game may show up on XBLA or PSN.

This game can be easily found online at an affordable price. Definitely one to add to a collection.

Cast Off Your Dream: Crazy Taxi

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Hey, hey, hey! It’s time to make some crazy money? Are ya ready? Here we go! It’s day 2 of our homage to the Dreamcast.

Released almost right after the launch of the Dreamcast console, developer Hitmaker had a hit on their hands with Crazy Taxi.

Who’d ever thought driving a taxi would be a blast? This game is all about style. Basically you pick up fares and get your customer to their destination as fast as possible. The catch? They tip you better the crazier you drive. This is a game all about stunts. The more you perform, the better your reward. The trade off is that you still have to deliver your fare in a certain period of time. This was an ingenious way to get you to memorize the layout of the city.

 

In regards to the city, this was one of the first games to have prominent in-game advertising. You’ll make deliveries to Pizza Huts (think about that one), Tower Records (uh, I guess the advertising didn’t work), Levi’s stores, and a couple of other restaurant and clothing stores.

Featuring unprecedented graphics for it’s time, this is one of those early titles where gamers preferred the console port to the arcade. See, arcades were where you went for the power. However, the Dreamcast delivered that with Crazy Taxi.

With lightning fast gameplay, excellent audio, and a great soundtrack featuring songs by Bad Religion and The Offspring, Crazy Taxi went on to become one of the few surefire hits on the Dreamcast. It spawned a sequel for the console that added a few twists on the gameplay and had a different soundtrack, but it didn’t really achieve the notoriety of the first.

It’s the original title that most gamers prefer. Because of it’s status, it’s one of the easier games to find on the system, but it can also be found on every other major system at that time.

If it was an XBLA or PSN title it would be a best-seller.

Weekend Gaming

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I missed the Weekend Gaming post for last week, which is unfortunate since hopefully most people had a nice long 3-day weekend. So what’s on tap for gaming for everyone this weekend?

After I finished Fallout 3 a few weeks ago, I decided to hit the backlog of games I’ve had piling up for some time now. I’ve been touring the 2007 greatest hits, finally finishing Bioshock and then starting Mass Effect over from the beginning.

It turns out that I stopped playing Bioshock about 30 minutes from the end, so that one was easily to cross of the list. What was surprising to me was how easily I remembered the controls. The ending didn’t make as much sense as I hoped it would, as I was two years removed from the story. I still enjoyed that game thoroughly. I started Mass Effect over from the beginning because I forgot everything about that game. I’m about ten hours in and really enjoying it. I just wish there weren’t so many friggin elevators.

So I’ll be spending my time on Mass Effect this weekend, with a little Fight Night Round 4 sprinkled in. Oh, and there’s a little football game tomorrow evening. If you’re a college football fan, you probably heard mention of it.

What about you?

Cast Off Your Dream: Rez

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I kick off day 1 remembering Dreamcast games that were the most fun to play. Some may not have been critically acclaimed or best sellers, but hey, this is my list. Enjoy it.

Um…yeah. Rez.

rez_2_2 Back in 2002 I had come across a game for my PlayStation 2 called Rez. Its weird main character and trippy visuals instantly turned me off. Little did I know at the time that it was also available for the Dreamcast.

Fast-forward to 2008 and this little game shows up on Xbox Live Arcade with widescreen support and HD visuals for $10. By this time I had been full of Geometry Wars, Lumines and games like Warning Forever. Trippy visuals were ok. Plus, a certain somebody who specializes in obscure games would not stop raving about the original. I figured why not.

Absolutely amazing—and mesmerizing. I’ll be honest and say I’ve never played the Dreamcast version of Rez, but if this was close in 2001-2002 to the same game I played in 2008, then this game was completely ahead of it’s time.

Rez is a rail shooter where the main character floats in a form of cyberspace. He then locks on targets—up to eight at a time I believe and fires away. It gets to be a little harder than it sounds.

Rez_ingame Speaking of, the sound is key to this game. The music and effects pulse in rhythm to the shots and what is happening on screen. The PS2 version of the game came with a device called the Trance Vibrator. It would pulse in conjunction with the game. It was meant to be put in a pocket or sat on, but, well, this is a family-friendly site. I’ll stop there.

As a result of playing the game many people described having a form of synesthesia, basically crazy reactions to the game whether by sight, sound, or touch.

Because of it’s cult status, the Dreamcast version is incredibly hard to find. Well, that and it only had a Japanese and European release on the console. However, this is one of the few games that appeared on the system that can be revisited at an affordable price and enhanced for current generation game play.

You can even use up to four Xbox 360 controllers as trance vibrators.

Let Kurt Be Kurt

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It’s appears that the attorney for Courtney Love and two former Nirvana band members are calling for Kurt Cobain’s likeness in Guitar Hero 5 to be used only for his songs. They’re sighting a “breach of likeness.” After LOL’ing on that comment, I’d have to agree with them. It’s kind of creepy seeing Cobain sing “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting.”