Gaming Addict

Guitar Hero 5’s final track list has been announced.  The game will include 85 brand new tracks for the series with bands ranging from Coldplay, to Children Of Bodom, spanning the entire rock spectrum of musical tastes.  Most of these sound pretty fun, and seem like no brainers for Guitar Hero to have included previously, but better late than never I guess.

Also announced was the ability to play as your Xbox avatar in the 360 version of Guitar Hero 5.  That’s pretty cool I guess.  I’m just happy something is coming in the pipeline to make avatars actually useful, instead of lame useless pieces of personalization that have an incredibly underwhelming amount of customization options.  

 At any rate, here are the songs to be included in Guitar Hero 5:

• 3 Doors Down - “Kryptonite”
• Arctic Monkeys - “Brianstorm”
• Blink-182 - “The Rock Show”
• Dire Straits - “Sultans Of Swing”
• Jimmy Eat World - “Bleed American”
• Johnny Cash - “Ring Of Fire”
• Megadeth - “Sweating Bullets”
• Mötley Crüe - “Looks That Kill”
• Muse - “Plug In Baby”
• Nirvana - “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
• Queen & David Bowie - “Under Pressure”
• Stevie Wonder - “Superstition”
• The Killers - “All The Pretty Faces”
• The Raconteurs - “Steady As She Goes”
• TV On The Radio - “Wolf Like Me”
• A Perfect Circle - “Judith”
• AFI - “Medicate”
• Attack! Attack! UK - “You And Me”
• Band Of Horses - “Cigarettes, Wedding Bands”
• Beastie Boys - “Gratitude”
• Beck - “Gamma Ray”
• Billy Idol - “Dancing With Myself”
• Billy Squier - “Lonely Is The Night”
• Blur - “Song 2”
• Bob Dylan - “All Along The Watchtower”
• Bon Jovi - “You Give Love A Bad Name”
• Brand New - “Sowing Season (Yeah)”
• The Bronx - “Six Days A Week”
• Bush - “Comedown”
• Children Of Bodom - “Done With Everything, Die For Nothing”
• Coldplay - “In My Place”
• Darker My Love - “Blue Day”
• Darkest Hour - “Demon(s)”
• David Bowie - “Fame”
• Deep Purple - “Woman From Tokyo (’99 Remix)”
• The Derek Trucks Band - “Younk Funk”
• The Duke Spirit - “Send A Little Love Token”
• Duran Duran - “Hungry Like The Wolf”
• Eagles Of Death Metal - “Wannabe In L.A.”
• Elliott Smith - “L.A.”
• Elton John - “Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)”
• Face To Face - “Disconnected”
• Garbage - “Only Happy When It Rains”
• Gorillaz - “Feel Good Inc.”
• Gov’t Mule - “Streamline Woman”
• Grand Funk Railroad - “We’re An American Band”
• Iggy Pop - “Lust For Life (Live)”
• Iron Maiden - “2 Minutes To Midnight”
• Jeff Beck - “Scatterbrain (Live)”
• John Mellencamp - “Hurts So Good”
• Kaiser Chiefs - “Never Miss A Beat”
• King Crimson - “21st Century Schizoid Man”
• Kings Of Leon - “Sex On Fire”
• Kiss - “Shout It Out Loud”
• Love and Rockets - “Mirror People”
• My Morning Jacket - “One Big Holiday”
• Nirvana - “Lithium (Live)”
• No Doubt - “Ex-Girlfriend”
• Peter Frampton - “Do You Feel Like We Do? (Live)”
• The Police - “So Lonely”
• Public Enemy Featuring Zakk Wylde - “Bring the Noise 20XX”
• Queens Of The Stone Age - “Make It Wit Chu”
• Rammstein – “Du Hast”
• The Rolling Stones - “Sympathy For The Devil”
• Rose Hill Drive - “Sneak Out”
• Rush - “The Spirit Of Radio (Live)”
• Santana - “No One To Depend On (Live)”
• Scars On Broadway - “They Say”
• Screaming Trees - “Nearly Lost You”
• Smashing Pumpkins - “Bullet With Butterfly Wings”
• Sonic Youth - “Incinerate”
• Spacehog - “In The Meantime”
• Sublime - “What I Got”
• Sunny Day Real Estate - “Seven”
• T. Rex - “20th Century Boy”
• The Sword - “Maiden, Mother & Crone”
• Thin Lizzy - “Jailbreak”
• Thrice - “Deadbolt”
• Tom Petty - “Runnin’ Down A Dream”
• Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - “American Girl”
• Vampire Weekend - “A-Punk”
• Weezer - “Why Bother?”
• The White Stripes - “Blue Orchid”
• Wild Cherry - “Play That Funky Music”
• Wolfmother - “Back Round”

Sega has officially announced that Yakuza 3 will not be coming to America, and that has a number of fans, myself included, a little upset.  Essentially set to be GTA Japan, although promising a deeper more involved character driven experience, Yakuza 3 looks like it’s going to be a freaking awesome game, that nobody outside of Japan will be able to play.  Apparently SEGA has made the decision due to the under performance of Yakuza 2 in America, the game apparently only sold upwards of 40,000 copies, which is well under the amount they were obviously hoping for.  In these harsh economic times, I guess SEGA just isn’t in the mood to take a risk by trying to reinvigorate the Yakuza franchise in other countries with a spotty track record.  

That bothers me, because instead of an awesome game that’s supposed to far surpass just how good Yakuza 2 was,  SEGA will probably release 500 more horrible Sonic The Hedgehog games.  Seriously, let the blue hedgehog die, he’s done enough for one little animal’s lifetime.  Let us remember Sonic for the days when the game didn’t suck hard like the 3D Sonic games of the modern age.  Just let him go, and start bringing in good franchises that with the right marketing, could stand the test of time, like Yakuza.  If only more people were aware, perhaps the series could flourish.

I say give it a shot, because I desperately want to play Yakuza 3. 

I really don’t like the iPhone “classics” releases that have been going on lately, mostly because of design and price.  The latest of which, Space Invaders, is real disappointment, considering the price point of $4.99 for a game you’ve played to death.  But oh, this is the revamped Space Invaders, like you’ve never seen it before, where it’s the same game but with crazy colors and music and touch control.  Not to mention new enemy types that are exact clones of the zillion Space Invaders game clones that have been played to death. 

But with that price tag you do get the ability to pick your favorite music and play to that, opposed to the game included in Space Invaders. 

But I don’t know, I feel completely uninterested, when you have a $4.99 price tag for something that’s just been done to death, I just don’t think that’s right.  Especially when the game doesn’t really introduce anything new.  And I’m really getting tired of there being so many classic games available for iPhone with obnoxious price tags.  Like $9.99 for Wolfenstein, or $4.99 for Sonic The Hedgehog.  I would love to have mobile Sonic, but I’m not going to pay 5 for a game that took zero development effort, and that I’ve played through more times than I can count.  

All of these are $1 efforts max, and I’d appreciate if Apple stopped overcharging.  But then Apple is known for charging too much for practically everything, so I guess some things will never change.  

Well Resident Evil 4 has launched for iPhone, and it’s horrifically bad.  A title that could have really helped the iPhone’s bid to make itself into a gaming platform all it’s own, really fell completely flat, which is sad because Resident Evil 4 is the best RE game ever.  I’m disappointed to see it gutted in this way.  We all knew the graphics would suffer, obviously, and that’s not my main problem.  Well actually graphics are a problem when you lose track of enemies because they are so poorly rendered you lose them in the poorly rendered backgrounds.  

But the main problem here is that some of RE 4’s best bits have been scrapped to help the game confine to the iPhone’s restrictions, and what you receive is an incomplete compilation of Resident Evil 4 sequences, complete with horrific controls that will have you dead more times than you would like.  Seriously, iPhone controls are typically bad for games like this, but I think Resident Evil 4 took them to a whole new level.  What you really have here is an ugly, shoddy, uncontrollable mobile experience that will set you back $7.99 for the privilege of buying a digital product bearing the Resident Evil name.

I think Left 4 Dead 2 is getting a little out of control with their zombie enemy types.  I really think that they’re stretching the concept a little bit too far with the ridiculous scenarios that are being revealed.  Yesterday it was announced that L4D2 would have a section that took place in a swamp type area, located in the south, which would feature what Valve call “mud men”.   Apparently mud men are swamp zombies that crawl on all fours, very quickly, through the swamp to the point you can only spot them when they’re already upon you.

And now, Valve has announced that you’ll have to deal with zombies wearing full riot gear.  Apparently quite a few S.W.A.T. teams were caught out in the zombie apocalypse, and you’ll have to carefully dispatch them, working around the fact that they have bullet proof armor and bullet proof helmets on.  The bulletproof zombies are made all the more difficult by the fact that they can only be dispatched by shooting them in the back, so you’ll have to find a way to make it behind them, without being killed.  

I like ramped up difficulty, but not ramped up because of enemies that are much more unfair.  Gears of War had it perfect and is the example of how to change difficulty settings the right way.  Your enemies aren’t physically stronger, but rather act more intelligently, and aim better forcing you to act more intelligently.  Why not that sort of an option, instead of just making enemies that either require more damage to take down, or put unfair restrictions on how you can kill them?

Microsoft has revealed that there is an anime in production based upon the Halo universe.  While we may not get a Halo movie anytime soon, apparently we’ll have a DVD/Blu-Ray anime release to whet our appetites.  The disc will include seven animated shorts centering around characters and events within the Halo universe’s storyline, from the games and beyond.  I’d imagine altogether the shorts will equal about the runtime of your average full length feature film.

Microsoft is planning on releasing the disc for retail in early 2010, and will also offer a preview of every short via Xbox Live sometime beforehand.  

I guess I’m fairly excited, I do love me some Halo…but I don’t know how it’s going to translate into an anime.  All I can picture is how horrific the first Star Wars: Clone Wars Cartoon Network cartoon was…and then how incredibly horrific the following series of computer animated Clone Wars cartoons were.  I really would like that to not happen with Halo, and I hope they stay away from the goofiness that could be found with the Covenant grunts.  I really don’t want another badass Sci-Fi series turned into a lame goofy kids show.  There’s no more Battlestar Galactica to quench my science fiction geek thirst, so I’m really hoping I don’t have one less franchise to follow.

A new game has been announced for Xbox Live Arcade, South Park Let’s Go Tower Defense Play!, to be released on October 7th 2009.  I’m completely ecstatically excited for this game, not only because I’m a South Park fan, but because I’m willing to forget all the South Park gaming atrocities of the past, and give them a clean slate.  Let’s Go Tower Defense Play!, sounds intriguing if not just for the name which makes me recall the episode from a couple years ago where the boys were playing with ninja weapons, turning the show into an absolutely hilarious anime parody.  

 LGTDP will feature all four of South Park’s star boys, Cartman, Kyle, Stan and Kenny, as playable characters.  Each will have their own strengths and weaknesses based upon actual show lore.  The game will also allow you to do special attacks keeping with the themes of South Park, such as the ability to set hippies on fire.

Holy crap I can’t wait, especially if they keep a more of a flash animation style for the game, which will be more true and accurate to South Park’s animation style, opposed to the awful three dimensional attempts of games past.  Although I will say I was completely entertained by Chef’s Luv Shack on Dreamcast…yes it was a horrible game, but I think it had it’s moments. 

My first question when I heard about Twisted Pixel’s new game ‘Splosion Man was, can this possibly compare to how awesome an Xbox Live Arcade effort The Maw became?  So far the answer looks like it could be a resounding yes.  ‘Splosion Man is a 2D platformer, in which you play as a flaming Elmo from Sesame Street look-a-like, who’s just escaped from the confinement cage you were placed in by the crazed scientists inhabiting the laboratory from you which you intend to escape.  As eluded to in the title, ‘Splosion Man is all about explosions.  Your weapon to defeat your foes is your ability to make yourself explode, which you can do three times before you lose your ‘charge’ and are forced to run around as basically an ember until you relight.

This sounds just wacky enough to be really cool as an Xbox Live Arcade game.  Considering the level of zaniness that’s going to be prevalent, I’m most definitely interested.  Especially considering the little touches, such as instead of including blood, when an enemy has been wounded they will bleed t-bone steaks and spare ribs pour out of the wound.  And your whole goal is just to defeat the scientists and blow up everything in sight in your quest to escape the 50 levels you’ll traverse. 

‘Splosion Man isn’t without it’s boss battles as well, which will be a nice change of pace, if not a little on the hardcore difficult side.  One that’s been revealed is an effeminate giant robot, who will shoot rockets that you’ll have to deflect with your powers of ‘Splosion, and will also shoot lasers out of it’s eyes that provide one hit kills.  Meaning you’ll probably be restarting an awful lot.

All in all though, ‘Splosion Man looks pretty awesome up to this point, and well worth 800ms points for the privilege of playing when the game releases.  

The World of Warcraft community is alive and speculating today after Blizzard revealed via a test patch  four new masks that you’ll be able to acquire and wear with the Halloween seasonal update.  Clearly the masks depict what looks like both male and female versions of Goblins and Worgen, leaving many to speculate that these are two new races set to be introduced by Blizzard at the upcoming BlizzCon convention.  Although I highly doubt that Blizzard wouldn’t have been more tight lipped about this, I have to say, bringing in more playable races would be pretty awesome.

Give the Horde a counter to the annoyingly small and lame Gnomes with Goblins, and give the Alliance it’s first set of a really sinister looking race with the Worgen.  Or at least that’s the way I would hope it would play out, because the Alliance doesn’t need two annoyingly small races.  Even though Worgen for Horde seems much more logical.  

But then all of this is purely speculation, and as said before, I just don’t think Blizzard would let something this big slip out in such a fashion.   Seems to me an announcement as big as two new races being brought into World of Warcraft would be a highly guarded secret, opposed to something that could be so easily revealed as through a patch.  

I think videogame special editions are beginning to get out of control.  I remember a few years ago when a special edition amounted to just an extra disc, usually just a DVD, featuring some behind the scenes video recorded during the making of said game.  But now having started with Halo 3’s Legendary edition, overpriced and featuring a replica of Master Chief’s Spartan helmet to house the game case, I think publishers are taking things a bit too far.  So I really think Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s Prestige edition is a little out of control.  Priced at $150, and featuring not only the game, but also a working pair of night vision goggles, as well as a human head shaped display for your goggles.  Really?

That seems a bit excessive, just like the crazy Fallout 3 special editions that involved any manner of extra crap you’ll never need or use.  But then I guess the people willing to shell out the $150 are plenty willing to find a use for night vision goggles, or are likely to have a shelf somewhere that will stand as a fitting area to display their prize.  I just don’t understand paying that much for extras you don’t need or are unlikely to use.

But could be worse.  I could be living in Britain where the inflated price of videogames puts Modern Warfare 2’s regular addition at $90 after currency conversion.  And French gamers are gouged even worse, as their copies of Modern Warfare 2 will run at almost $100.