Tuesday November 25th 2008, 2:46 pm
Filed under: Rock Band
Reports are that the Soundgarden tracks promised for this week have hit XBL but cannot yet be downloaded. HMX assures us they have “their best monkeys and ninjas” working on the problem. I haven’t played the Malmsteen yet, and probably never will (I don’t want to ruin the game for myself out of frustration) but I’ve played through the The Killers pack. Mr. Brightside was a challenging disapointment, and Smile Like You Mean It was nothing special. Odly, the lesser known new song Spaceman was the standout. Also, Lamb of God.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have taken to modded Guitar Hero controller which, together with a modified version of the game, has been found to be an excellent rehab tool recent amputees with short attention spans…
Inspired by Wii-hab, Armiger and colleague Jacob Vogelstein borrowed a colleague’s copy of Guitar Hero and attacked the controller with a soldering iron. They rewired the standard guitar-shaped controller to take instructions from the VIE.
Next they substituted muscle contractions for button presses. In particular, they had to rejigger the inputs. Two-handed gamers normally play by using one hand to press colored “fret” buttons to correspond to the correct notes while using the other hand to push a “strum” button in time with the note. Onscreen, these same five colored buttons scroll down the display in time with the notes the players are supposed to hit. To correctly play a note, the player must press the right color fret button and the strum button with the opposite hand.
Friday November 21st 2008, 1:33 pm
Filed under: Rock Band
Holy crap. Jesus Christ Pose… how was this song not on my mind radar for essential RB DLC. HMX, I bow to you. (I’ll bow again if you manage to get My Wave in at some point.) The Killers should be great voxtar material and Malmsteen/Lamb of God should make the metal heads happy. There’s something for everyone next week!
Friday November 14th 2008, 4:05 pm
Filed under: Rock Band
It will be punk Tuesday on November 18th, as Harmonix has announced two 3-packs from two classic punk bands, the Dead Kennedy’s and Mission of Burma. And if that doesn’t float your boat, there’s always the “Century Media Girls of Metal” pack, which features no less than two tracks from the poor man’s Evanescence - Lacuna Coil. Oh, and there’s a single on the way too, from Crooked-X.
Women in gaming have had a rough go thus far. Sexism is rampant, all but marketing divisions are male dominated, and developers can’t seem wrap their heads around how to cater to the fairer sex without patronizing them at the same time. Not helping matters is Grace Kim - who made waves last month as a former Activision employee who posed for Playboy with Rock Band instruments - seen in a new G4TV video below, completely failing at every element of GH:WT whilst “reviewing” it (read: trashing it). If you need a quick laugh, just click play.
The next time I play WT drums I think I’m going to do it in 4-inch stiletto heels too. You know, just for the extra challenge.
Friday November 14th 2008, 2:01 am
Filed under: Guitar Hero
Hot off the heels of the death of drummer Mitch Mitchell, the last of the original members of the Jimmy Hendrix Experience, Activision has released a (previously announced) 3-pack of classic Hendrix DLC for Guitar Hero: World Tour. When it comes to regular DLC releases Rock Band has far outpaced the GH series for the past year, but since the release of WT Neversoft has really stepped up it’s game, making available a planned 29 DLC tracks in its first 4 weeks of release (RB had 24 tracks available in the same release window).
The Hendrix tracks contain two studio recordings, If 6 Was 9 and Little Wing, as well as Fire from Hendrix’s legendary performance at Woodstock. Expert guitar chart vids are below courtesy of YouTuber KlotePinoGH. Looks fun…
Thursday November 13th 2008, 7:58 am
Filed under: Random
This isn’t really music game related, but should be noted by any fan of rock music in general - young and old. Mitch Mitchell, who played drums for the legendary Jimmy Hendrix Experience, was found dead in a Portland hotel room yesterday at age 61. Everyone knows the name Hendrix, too few knew the name Mitchell. Mitch’s unique fusion of styles and impeccable timing was the beat track to Jimmy’s freestyle guitar shredding. He gave Hendrix’s sound a balance. A weight that brought it above shear stage wankery.
Tuesday November 11th 2008, 10:18 pm
Filed under: Rock Band
I’ve played through this album twice now, once on RB2, once on RB1 (don’t ask). I love it. Favorite voxtar DLC album evar. Even Monkey Wrench, whose riff frustrates the hell out of me, is perfection. Watch the expert guitar chart vids below (Npeaen delivers again), then go get this album!
Edit: Full bass charts here (courtesy of S1ckH4nds) and full drums/vocals charts are here (courtesy of nivlac). Seriously, go get this.
