Malik
(1/21/08)
It is officially
cold as hell today. I am on a bit of a break from my day job
today. By "break", I mean that I was hit with a sleet storm
last night and now have a few blocks to drive on an inch of solid
ice before I can get out on the main roads, so I am refusing to go
in to work...
I don't have much to say
today. I am glad that Green Bay lost (serves them right for
ending the Seahawk season) and sad that the Chargers failed (I am
sick of hearing about the all mighty Patriots). The Super Bowl
will probably not interest me much since the Giants are way out
manned on this one. At least there's always hope since the
Giants are damned good on the road.
I also finished Rock
Bands solo guitar career on hard. Green Grass and Flirting
With Disaster are both laid to rest. Now I simply must get my
skills down to beat them on expert. I only have three main
songs in the way of feeling good enough for the Endless Setlist on
expert...those two and Timmy. Considering the challenges that
await me in the solos of Green and Flirting, I may actually try out
practice mode for once. I think I need to try the hammer-on
hell in slower speeds and work up to the real deal while
programming my fingers on how to move in the real deal. At
least I hope that does the job for me. At least I did take on
Train Kept Rolling and beat it...so I'm part way to hammer-on
understanding.
Anyway, it's too damned
cold to type right now (I can't keep my hands from shaking...spell
checking this is not going to be fun...), I'll leave things at this.
Malik |
Malik
(1/22/08)
Things will
probably be short today on this post. On one hand, I'm back at work
(despite my neighborhood still being encased in ice...which is
pretty cool, since winter is usually too damned mild in the Seattle
area). On the other, I'm back at work and people are f$#@ing with
me...a lot.
Anyway, there's a
great
interview at Gamespot with Paul DeGooyer of Harmonix. It's worth
a read for any Rock Band fan. Mainly it covers the success of the
DLC content so far (including over 2.5 million downloads since the
game was released, with only about 1 million copies of Rock Band out
there). There's also some vague hints about what's up with the
albums and that they should be coming along soon...I hope that means
within the next month, or sooner.
Lastly, there's
word in the interview that the 80MP tracks released on Christmas day
(the so-called "emo" set of five songs) will be going up to 160MP at
the end of this month. They might not be the best songs in the
world, but I have to say that the All American Rejects songs and the
one from (cover) The Sounds are both worth a 80MP price tag. 30
Seconds to Mars...well, if you like The Kill then it's worth it.
Attack (also from 30StM) is...errr...garbage. At least on guitar it
sucks.
I'll have some
input tomorrow on them, but the Oasis pack comes out today. It
should be a nice break in the sounds of the songs we've been getting
lately. Plus, it might make for an easier time for people who love
the random set lists (like for the band I have with my
brother...around 25 million fans and growing) and are sick of seeing
Metallica, Flirting With Disaster, and Green Grass come up in too
many sets.
On that note, I'm
now focusing my energy on Flirting With Disaster for my expert
guitar solo career. I have some of the bonus tracks to play, but the
only one that strikes fear in my heart is Timmy. After Flirting
bites the dust, then I have Highway Star (easy as cake if you
remember to save some star power for the solo), and the dreaded
Green Grass...which still gives me nightmares. At least Flirting is
now at 82% for me (then my adrenaline rush sends me into a spirl of
shaking and sweating hands), and I just need to get my timing down
on the final seconds of the solo to be clear of the mess (the rest
of the song after the solo is cake compared to the hammer-on hell of
the solo). At least I know I can beat it with a band...assuming
someone saves star power for the end of my solo.
I am working so
hard on Flirting for more than just bragging rights and the
achievement. My Friday night band is gearing up, eventually, to take
a Saturday for the Endless Setlist. Considering how fun expert
guitar is, I'd hate to play it out on hard (which gets boring until
you hit the hardest of songs). I don't see the rest of the band all
hitting expert, so it's not an achievement thing. I just love
rocking out expert on all but two songs (Green Grass and Timmy), and
don't want to spend five hours bored out of my mind waiting for the
really hard songs to come along. So, I need the get this stuff down
so I can at least get through the worst songs on expert with a
little help from my friends.
Maybe it's time
for me to try the one bit of advice I've seen for Flirting and Green
Grass solos...the solo buttons on the Strat. It might just be the
best option for the constant scale sweeps that hit up the guitarist
in these songs. The only problem is that I need to remember, in the
heat of the moment, to slide my hand into position. However, it
might just be the only hope I have for the hell of the repeated
G-R-Y-R- and R-Y-B-Y- that is Green Grass.
Damn...I love this
game!
Malik |
Malik
(1/23/08)
I downloaded the
new Oasis song pack for Rock Band last night and...well, I feel
pretty favorable about most of the pack. Keep in mind that any of my
"reviews" of the DLC for Rock Band is usually based upon me playing
expert guitar. My drum skills are ass (I have only played through
about 13 songs in the easy solo career and maybe four on medium),
and I don't do the vocal parts since I have too little control of my
voice to keep it fun. Maybe in the future I'll give vocals more of a
shot...but for now, it's just not my thing. Plus I always feel
embarrassed to sing alone, since I never know who will walk in on my
crooning.
The weakest song
of the set is the only one I really knew before the tracks started
to play on my 360. That would be Wonderwall. It is basically a
non-stop progression of the most boring chords I could think of. It
is just O+R to R+B to G+B in a constant rhythm. It's just very
simplistic and very dull. Also, it's primarily machine gunning in
short bursts, which just makes a song that sounds so unique to
what's already in Rock Band feel like one of the low-middle level
(like Day Late, Dollar Short) bonus songs. Still, it's probably an
awesome song for playing in a band set up...assuming you have
friends who are into Oasis.
As for Live
Forever and Don't Look Back in Anger (forgive me if any names are
off...like I hinted at, I don't know shit about Oasis beyond
Wonderwall)...well, I can't really distinguish them. I mean that I
don't know which note chart went with which song since I only played
each one once. However, I can say that I really enjoyed both of
them.
On those two
songs, the note charts are fun and have enough complexity to keep
them entertaining, while being simple enough to not invoke feelings
of pure rage (like you feel from that Tribe song or 3's and
7's...those two give me feelings of rage). Plus, there's a good
amount of what I like to think of as "training for hammer-ons". In
other words, there's a good amount of simple, but not overly simple
hammer-on scales. I'd have to say that of all recent downloads, the
note scales on these two songs rank up their in my top five.
However, let me
make on aspect of the Oasis set clear; it's easy as shit on expert
guitar. If you can pass Enter Sandman on expert (solo), then these
will be a good bit below your level. However, if you're getting
stuck on something like Ballroom Blitz or Electric Version, then
these two will help you recover and give you a nice level of
passable challenge. In fact, the true challenge of these three songs
is more about getting the 5 stars and not about passing the
song...passing is almost assured, but perfection is far from
guaranteed.
Anyway, last night
I gained some fans and lost some fans. Luckily, it was more of a
three steps forward two steps back type of thing. That's because I
learned my rage for the Tribe song's note scales...or should I say
it's "hammer-on hell". At least I'm still rocking out some
previously unfinished random set list venues...always on expert for
the whole band. I love the feeling of not knowing if the game will
be good (maybe some Coheed and Cambria...despite how much I hate
their singer...almost like my feelings on Rush of "good instruments,
annoying singer") or evil (Highway Star)...or pure ass-raping evil
(the game has given my brother and I Blackened to start a random
once per day for the last couple of days).
Anyway, being too
tired to keep my eyes open, I'm calling it quits for today about
now. Also, it's time to see how the people around me can make my
work day as complicated as possible.
Malik |
Malik
(1/24/08)
It's like today is
a blast from the past. First off,
GTA4 has a new release date; April 29th. It's about time we got
a date on this one. While it's quite a bit later than I expected,
I'll be happy. Afterall, next month gives me Lost Odyssey, March is
Smash Brawl, and now April is GTA4 month...even if it's the end of
the month.
I'm just curious
if this worldwide launch will actually work. It seems that any time
a game as ambitious as GTA4 goes worldwide on day one, it turns into
"worldwide in month one" at best.
Also,
the Gizmondo is returning in 2008...supposedly. Why does this
matter? It doesn't. Unless, of course, you like a little humor.
With how badly the
first iteration failed, it's only logical that number two will do
just as badly. Afterall, a new design for the Lynx and the N-Gage
couldn't do anything to save their doomed selves. Afterall,
portables simply are outclassed from day one when Nintendo is on the
job. It may sound like a possibility that the Gizmondo can do well
with the "open source" concept. However, there's been open source
game systems before (or should I say Linux portables...I'm talking
about the GP2X and GP32) and they have been anything but major
successes.
At least it's this
type of news that can bring a smile to my face. Afterall, it's
hilarious to see these handhelds come back to the market with the
intention of succeeded where their past forms have failed in the
highest possible degree. On top of already seeing that something new
cannot take down Nintendo's DS domination, they now have a poor band
name to have to overcome. It's like running uphill...but the hill is
actually a perfectly vertical cliff. Good luck with that one,
Gizmondo.
Malik |
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