Another year, another Guitar Hero. I recently invested in World Tour (just the guitar - holding off on the drums until later), and what better way to tell y'all about it than in a "Darth Plays" entry. This'll be a long one - I have a lot to say about the game. Let's begin:

*(During band intro) Is this some clarification that Clarinet Hero is coming? I hope not....
*Our default band name is Teddy Bears on Fire? I mean, every other band in this game gets a cool name - Nirvana, Paramore, Steely Dan...
*(when a song appears that none of us have heard on ) WHAT? (also because I was singing during this time - NOT a good sign...)
*We've been five starring sets left and right. ON MEDIUM. This never would have happened in GH3. Perhaps having a bassist and a singer helps.
*(while singing) AIR! NEED AIR!
*(at results screen) Ok, you two did so much better than me because playing a fake instrument is easier than SINGING.
*(again, at results screen) I got paid to sing? This has JUST become instantly more rewarding than Singstar.
*(during character creation)...My character looks kinda like Dave Navarro (Jane's Addiction guitarist) if he was born in the South. I don't know if that's incredibly stupid or incredibly awesome.
*(again, during character creation) I have the ability to create a ninja. A guitar playin', drum smackin', vocal blastin' ninja. For all the games short comings, this has more than made up for it. Ditto the gorilla.
*Oh sweet! Billy Corgan! I love the Smas...WHAT THE HELL IS HE WEARING!? He looks like a bloody alien! (No, really, he DOES.)
*WHY IS THERE SO MUCH EMO? JESUS CHRIST...
*I have to pay money to play sets? This better be worth it.
*(during Tool set). WHAT. THE. HELL. IS. THIS. There's no band, there's no crowd, there's no fireworks...it's an EYE staring at me. And other stuff. I'm sure that I haven't been taking any form of recreation drugs, but this is scaring the crap out of me. Awesome, but scary.
*(during Ted Nugent intro). My guy is just standing there. Doing nothing. I can relate though - when a dude just rocks up riding a bull, points the end of his guitar at the camera and shoots it like a gun (complete with SOUND EFFECT), I'd just stand there too.
*(while Hayley Williams sings) I do not believe that Miss Williams is in the business of Misery. I am rather enjoying myself playing this song.
*(noticing adverts) Chicken does not improve my guitar playing, nor does it improve my singing. Sorry KFC. You have failed.
*(magazine cover shows Ozzy telling us "It's frightening just how much I like this band") No Ozzy, you doing a bloody "RAWR" pose is frightening.
*(while Crazy Train is being played - the singer starts smiling) Oh god...that smile is freaking disturbing. And I've played Earthbound.
*(while Ozzy sings) Hearing Ozzy sing La Bamba and B.Y.O.B is truly worth the price of admission.
*(during endgame). I'm playing lead guitar in a band comprised of Ozzie Osbourne, Travis Barker, Sting and myself. Awesome, though I need to replace two of those musicians, and I'll be good.
*(Load Screen says "Tip: Move away from the mic to breathe in) Heh. Old as hell, but funny. At least it isn't a Rickroll...
*(During GH Tunes) Huh. Stairway. Heard about this song (downloads it and starts to play - Never Want To Give You Up starts playing). Oh jesus....that's clever.

So yeah, that's GHWT in a nutshell. The game is definitely good - but it does feel REALLY similar to Guitar Hero 3. Thankfully the game is made MUCH easier, and the ability to play five career modes (band, lead guitar, bass guitar, vocals & drums) is nice. The song list isn't too bad - all the old stuff is fantastic, with a few exceptions, (the Doors song could've been a better pick), but the stuff from 1990-2008? It's ok. They range from good songs (Modest Mouses' Float On, Smashing Pumpkins Today) to horrible (the Dinosaur Jr song, Korn and just about everything else).

I wish I'd picked up the complete bundle, but I didn't want another mic (I'm using Singstar mics), and I wanted to wait until the drums were fixed up properly before I made the plunge. Still, with reports that a new drum kit will be coming with GH: Metallica (with two bass drums - and hopefully improved), I guess that's the one to pick up when it gets released sometime next year.

Later

Since January 1st 2008, the following has happened to me:

*I directly started one podcast (the Level 3 Podcast), and helped to kick start another one (the Pressroom Podcast).

*Since starting both podcasts – I have learnt that in order to have the best possible podcast, you actually need to spend some money in order to have a decent (and smooth) recording process. That is, of course, if you're recording the conversation via the internet. When you're right next to one another, all that goes away – all you need to make sure is if your microphones are working or how the battery life is fairing.

*Helping to set up the Press Room podcast was also interesting – as I wanted to try go for a more...international podcast. We've achieved that – hell, we've even had people from three different continents contribute to a podcast at the exact same time, which was extremely awesome. What was not awesome though, was setting up a podcast. Time zones are a pain in the arse...

*Directly following the worst semester I've experienced at Uni (save for one class), the following semester was by far the most enjoyable I've experienced – and I achieved my best results for that semester....save for one class. Though that was my fault.

*Starting up the Level 3 forums was also something cool. In the space of six months, we expanded from 11 members to over 150. Granted, most of them don't post, but it's great to see that we've gotten a good community. The IRC chat has almost become a staple of the forums, and always worth checking out [/plug].

*In the space of a single day I met many people that I have so much respect for. These include: Will (and about five of the other writers) from Aussie Nintendo, Matt and Yug from Australian Gamer, Yahtzee Croshaw, Nate Burr (Blunty3000) and Noah Antwiler (creator of The Spoony Experiment) Needless to say, I slept well that night.

*While we're on the topic, kicking Matt & Yug's arses at game trivia was cool. Doing it in front of a live audience (who were mostly ZP/AG fans and AG staffers), awesome enough. Kinda embarrassing myself in front of Yahtzee and said audience? Priceless.

*Interviewing the PR heads of Nintendo Australia and EB Games Australia. Interviewing them was cool enough. The mere fact that we interviewed them with Singstar mics? Even better. I'd have taken a picture if Heather (Nintendo head) wasn't so adamant about not being caught with a Singstar mic. Maybe we should have brought the Guitar Hero mic....

*I finally caved in and bought Guitar Hero. Granted, it was last years version, but hey, when the bundle is LESS then $100, that's a bloody hard deal to say no to. Recently, I also picked up WT and am currently waiting for my five free songs. Over the course of 2009, I'll be hopefully picking up a drum set and Rock Band 2 – before it officially gets announced here. After the stupidly long wait that Australia had to suffer, they're not getting a cent of my money. RB1 will be mainly for the DLC.

So yeah, that's 2008 in a brief nushell. It was a good year, well for me anyway. Sure, there were things like the Global Economic Crisis (which I can imagine will be something to really worry about next year), but I don't believe now is the time for looking at the negative.

See y'all in 2009. I'm off to go play some LBP...

I'm known for blogging at least once a week - and having something to talk about. This time, I don't have anything worthwhile to talk about. I've got something planned, but I'm a bit behind on that, and I want to wait until next week. It's actually kinda relevant anyway for next week moreso than this week.

Anyway, just wanted to take the time out and say merry christmas (or happy whatever you celebrate), and have a safe holiday.

Laters.

And so, the celebrations end. But let's close off not with a whimper, but with a bang.

12. Street Fighter IV (Capcom/Dimps - Arcade)

The idea of this list was for two reasons. One was to do a "GOTY" blog, and since it's close to Christmas, have it be useful as a sort of purchasing guide. Street Fighter IV is not I'd expect to be purchased by anyone reading this, I mean, we're talking about an arcade game here. However, it fits the other criteria to a T. It's a fantastic game – and shows why Capcom are still the kings of 2D fighters.

The first thing that strikes you about Street Fighter IV is the visuals. In still images, it leaves a lot to be desired, and the actual visuals on the characters even more so. All those goes out the window when the game is in motion. The game looks absolutely stunning, jaw-dropping...however you want to describe what good graphics look like. The action is fluid and doesn't miss a beat.

Gameplay wise – it plays a hell of a lot like traditional Street Fighter. There's no stupidly over the top moves or air guarding/throwing here. It's straight up SF. The game just feels right also. It's hard to really describe, but when you play...everything feels like it should. Ryu or Sagat don't control like schizophrenic, coke-addicted versions of the Flash, nor does Blanka or Chun-Li feel like bloated overweight blobs (no, E.Honda doesn't count).

The one thing that's really disappointing about the game is that it feels like a gigantic throwback to Street Fighter 2 – this is including setting the game prior to Street Fighter 3 (and after 2), having all twelve World Warriors as playable, and all the returning characters for the home release? Either SF2 New Challengers or characters from Street Fighter Alpha. Not that this is a bad thing. Street Fighter II is a good game. However, is there really a need to be reminded that SF2 was so good, and that it's Capcom's most profitable and popular game ever? I'm half expecting in the home release that remixes of characters SF2 themes as unlockables, or more throwbacks. It's even more disappointing that Capcom isn't acknowledging the fact that they created the greatest fighting game ever made (3rd Strike), yet refuse to believe it exists.

Overall, SF4 is a fitting return to a series long dormant. It's definitely one of the best games of the year, and when it gets released to home consoles next February, expect to see more and more people digging it. Granted, I'd have loved it for some more 3S love - but when it's a brand new SF game, and it's this good...then you can't really argue.

11. The World Ends With You (Square-Enix/Jupiter - DS)

Ever since merging with Enix, Square have practically sold out. Instead of being the company known for Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger and some interesting little side projects (such as Shump Einhander, fighter Tobal and stuff like Final Fantasy Tactics and Front Mission), they're basically now the Dragon Quest and FF company. So when something like The World Ends With You comes along – it's a refreshing change of pace...and more.

It's refreshing in that it's not like your standard RPG. It takes place in modern day Shibuya (a suburb of Japan – home to a very famous scramble crossing that no doubt you've seen before), and places a focus on elements that most people wouldn't even consider for an RPG. For instance, clothing plays a big part in the game – as does the brands of clothing and pins that you wear (said pins give you differing powers to fight monsters). Different brands are popular in different areas of Shibuya – and gives you bonuses if you have the coolest outfit at the moment (well, coolest brand anyway). However, by continuously fighting monsters, you can make a brand that's not popular at all into the most popular brand in that area – and get the bonuses.

Speaking of combat, it too is really unique. The action takes place across both screens – and you control both characters at the same time, in real time. The bottom screen is controlled via the stylus, while the top screen is controlled via the D-Pad. Both characters have different stylus gestures (based on the pins currently equipped) and different commands with the D-Pad to learn. This system may seem confusing at first, and it does take a little getting used to, but you can always leave one character as being automated, so you can focus on playing the game more. Best of all, NO RANDOM BATTLES. And if you want to fight more enemies than just the one group – that's also easy to do.

That being said, it's still not an entirely perfect experience. There are two major problems with the game – the fact that you have to unlock key gameplay elements and the dialogue. The gameplay elements in question include difficulty settings, the ability to retry battles, the ability to skip dialogue scenes that you've already seen and more. It doesn't feel right – I mean, you shouldn't have to unlock that kind of thing. And then the dialogue. Not that what's being said is bad, or the story is bad, but the fact that there's too much of it. Literally – you walk into an area, and you'll get hit with a LONG and unskippable dialogue scene. Get killed and need to restart? Then you'll get to see that dialogue scene again, and YOU STILL CAN'T SKIP IT.

But despite these two flaws, TEWEY is easily of the best games to be released this year. It's extremely refreshing, has a fantastic visual **** some excellent music (that you can buy in-game), a great battles system and plenty of cool ideas. If you want a DS RPG that's not set in medieval times and is not named Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest – then pick up TEWEY.

10. Valkyria Chronicles (Sega - Playstation3)

Back in 2000, when Sega were at their creative peak, they released an RPG known as Skies of Arcadia – which is regarded as one of the best console JRPG's of all time. It was released on two of the most underappreciated systems of all time – the Dreamcast and the Gamecube, and yet everyone who played it fell in love with it.

Fast forward eight years. Sega haven't made a great RPG in a LONG time. Their attempts at a new Phantasy Star Online failed miserably, the Shining Force games sucked (except the GBA remake of the original game). They finally decide to get back the Skies team and get them to work on a new game. The result? One of the most original and fun Strategy RPG's in recent times.

The game takes place in an alternate history WW2 – where the Axis-like Empire invades the country of Gallia to take control of their stock of ragnite ore, which can be used as a powerful fuel. You take control of a series of Gallian nationalists – dedicated to fighting off the invasion of the Empire. Yes, it's silly, but hey, at least you're not shooting Nazi's in Normandy.

What makes the game extremely unique, aside from its stunning graphics (no really – THIS is how a RPG should look in this day and age) is the gameplay engine. As mentioned before, the game's a strategy RPG, but not in the traditional sense. You have a number of moves per round, but you can pick ANY unit to use. So essentially, for one entire round, you could use just one unit.

It gets better. Once you pick a unit, you're not consigned to a grid and a limited amount of spaces to move in. You have complete control over a character, the only limitation is a time bar that decreases as you move your character. From there, you can move them about, take a shot and more. It feels fresh, especially if you're used to something like Final Fantasy Tactics or Fire Emblem or Disgaea.

Anyone with an interest in something a little different should check out Valkyria. It's not for everyone, but if you're the kind of person who digs anime, digs SRPG's or wants to try out something fresh that's not space marine or plastic guitar related, you could certainly do worse than Valkyria.

On the home stretch now!

9. Far Cry 2 (PC/PS3/360 - Ubisoft)

Console gamers may never have heard of it, but S.T.A.L.K.E.R – Shadow of Chernobyl is one of the best PC games ever released in the past decade. Developed for over five years, the game was the first ever open world FPS, with a unique setting (an alternate Russia where the Chernobyl incident happened a second time) and an increased focus on realism (as in guns jam, movement slows whenever you get damaged too badly). It's an acquired taste, but Far Cry 2 helps to bring this genre to a massive audience and does a fantastic job to boot.

Instead of being a direct follow up to Crytek's 2004 game, the Ubisoft Montreal helmed project is a complete polar opposite to the original game. Here, you play as one of nine mercenaries sent to a remote part of Africa that's currently engulfed in a civil war. Your task? To take out the arms dealer known as the Jackal – the one who's been keeping the conflict going. Once you GET into Africa though, do things go pear shaped quickly.

The best way to describe Far Cry 2 is an open-world FPS with some RPG elements. The open world part comes in the form of you choosing how you want to get to locations in the world, as well as what missions you want to do and who you associate with. The FPS part is self explanatory. The RPG element comes in the friend system. The eight other characters that you didn't pick become characters in the world that your mercenary associates with. Each have different abilities (such as weapon modification, getting you out of a tight spot etc.), and you better make sure you treat them right. Why? Because if they die at ANY point during the game, that's it. They're gone. And they sure as hell ain't coming back. What's worse is the ability to decide their fate. You can either leave them to die, save them, or shoot them. The latter is extremely excruciating and almost tear jerking in a way.

What's interesting about the gameplay is the pacing and the emphasis on tactical warfare. Don't go expecting Halo/Call of Duty-esque, run and gun without a care in the world type combat here. Expect a much slower, more methodical type of game. Cover is a necessity, and gun jams are frequent. As well as this, the game also has a unique fire mechanism in place. You can set the world alight, and use this to your advantage. Or just use the flamethrower that you very conveniently get at the start of a game as a nice "SCREW YOU" weapon, when all else fails.

The experience isn't entirely perfect though. For instance, enemies take far too much damage than they should, and sometimes the random enemy encounters can be a hassle. But otherwise – Far Cry 2 isn't like any console FPS out there, and NEEDS to be experienced. Some might not gravitate towards the more methodical and slower paced combat, but if you're missing that, then just replace this entry with Call of Duty: World at War or if you're the kinda that hates WW2 games, Modern Warfare.

When the news first broke about the 'Nintendo Experience' – I can honestly say I was surprised. Nintendo Australia actually trying something like the Nintendo World Store in the US. Granted, that's not exactly what the NE is, but it's still a nice first step. It's the first of it's kinda in Australia, and great to see it debut right here in Melbourne.

The extent of my experiences with the Nintendo experience range from attending a party prior (thanks to Will from Aussie Nintendo) and actually showing up on Day 1. The party itself was kinda cool – I mean, being one of the first in a brand new gaming retail endeavour, and the first in Australia? You can't say no to that. But otherwise – unless if you were one of the VIP entrants (that weren't media or an executive in some way), you didn't really get much out of it. It was also really easy to tell who was whom. The executives were obvious in their suits. The media and VIP guests were easily recognizable in their casual clothes. The cosplayers were also easily recognizable in their cosplays.

Yes. I'm serious about that.

Aside from that, props to Nintendo for giving the VIP winners a copy of Animal Crossing: Let's Go To The City. And with the Wii Speak peripheral also! Say what you will about Animal Crossing, it's still pretty cool of Nintendo to actually give away a $130 bundle. Here's hoping they weren't planning to transfer their DS characters over...

The next day was the official launch of the store, and my god was it insane. I got there at around 10am (some of the forumites and I had agreed to do some shopping), and already there was a decent queue. When I came back around 10:30, the line had doubled. When I returned at 11:50am to do a podcast, they had only let in 100 people into the actual store. And there was an even bigger line outside. I'd liken it to something like a midnight launch to an upcoming videogame. Personally, I'd never experienced something quite like this.

And then people were being let in...

It was probably a smart idea for Nintendo to advertise the fact that the first 100 entrants to the Experience got a Wii or DS game (the visitors weren't given a choice). It definitely attracted a hell of a lot of people – which is easily what Nintendo wanted. I honestly bet that they weren't expecting THAT much of a turn out - just for people to get a copy of Wii Music or a Petz game. But wow, were people happy to get a copy of said game. I've heard stories about people getting there at MIDNIGHT for this. Hell, two of the forumites from the Level 3 boards got there are 8:30 in the morning for this. I guess you really can't argue with the power of a free game – even if it is a bloody Petz game.

The real reason that Jason and I were there was to record a podcast. It was an interesting scenario, because this was only our second live interview based podcast (our first being the eGames one), and everything just fell into place. Really, the only interviews that we had established beforehand were with Kristy and Sandra – the Daisy and Peach cosplayers (who were big Level 3 fans). Everything just fell into place.

By far the most interesting interviews that we did were with Heather Murphy (the head of Public Relations for Nintendo AU) and Debra Mitchell (the head of Public Relations for EB Games Australia). What made this interview interesting was the method we recorded in. You see – we had decided early on that it was going to be really difficult to record using the in-built mic on a Mac Book Pro. I mean, you try doing that. So we decided to bring some mics. Jason couldn't find his Guitar Hero World Tour mic, and we had no other USB mics on us, so I decided to bring my Singstar mics.

When we got the mics out, this made Heather extremely adamant not to be seen with them. I mean, YOU try explaining to the head of Nintendo PR that the only way that we can interview you and get your voice correct is by using microphones branded by one of your competitors. After explaining to Heather and Debra that it was only audio – there wouldn't be any video/imagery taken, did the interview commence. As a joke, I tried to take a picture – but she didn't see that as a joke. Though Jason did pass off the whole Singstar thing as a joke, which was kinda cool.

Interviewing Kristy and Sandra was also rad. What struck me about the girls were just how hardcore they were into Nintendo and Japanese culture. Example – I took a picture of them, and for some stupid reason, shouted out "Very Kawaii" (Japanese for cute). Their respose? "KAWAII DESU NE!" (or something to that effect, I can't recall precisely). But just how hardcore Nintenphiles these girls were just completely stunned me. For instance, Alioth (one of the Level 3 fourmites) had brought in a Game Boy Advance SP with the Game Boy Camera add-on. Kristy noticed this, and responded that she actually had the Game Boy Printer companion add-on WITH HER. Then both Sandra and Krirsty also brought up how awesome "Dot Matrix" was – which was how the original Game Boy displayed colours. That I can remember vividly.

Otherwise, it was an interesting experience (god, I should really stop using that term). Meeting up with all these people and having a podcast that just fell into place (so to speak), was something awesome. With plans for Nintendo to potentially open up more of these stores in other EB's in Victoria (and eventually other states), there really does seem to be no stopping Nintendo. It seems like the start of a beautiful friendship....

Images of the Party

Images of the Opening

I had originally planned another piece of writing - specifically focusing on the Nintendo Experience in Melbourne. However, I'm really behind on that, and I'll be (hopefully) posting that tomorrow. Instead, I'm going to post something here that's a little different to what I normally do.

So (finally) Playstation Home launched into Open Beta. After messing about for about ten minutes, an idea came to me about how I could use the client. So I grabbed a camera...and well, take a gander for yourself. Bare with me, the camera wasn't very good (2.0MP), and this was something that I had thought of very quickly, so the shots aren't exactly perfect.

With that said:

(NOTE: You don't want to know how long it took me to take this photo).

So yeah, that's my little experiement there. I'd love to add more, but there's too many bloody people on the servers, and I can't connect at the moment, limiting the amount of photos I can take. I guess it's kinda to be expected...but realistically, you'd have THOUGHT Sony would have considered this beforehand.

There's also a reason why I picked a curly moustache. It's a forum meme we have going on in the Level 3 fourms.

And yes, Galea1337 is my PSN ID.

NEXT TIME ON ADVENTURES IN HOME:

Christ that movie sucked.

Game #8 - Audiosurf (Dylan Fitterer/Invisible Handle - Steam)

If for one thing, 2008 has shown that there's no stopping the downloadable game juggernaut. We saw the release of games such as Braid, Rez HD, PixelJunk Eden, Wipeout HD – hell, even Burnout Paradise become a downloadable game! But Steam has such an advantage over PSN and XBLA, for the sheer factor of it being the first big downloadable channel, and the fact that there's so much stuff on offer, and it all works. Audiosurf is such an example.

There really isn't much to Audiosurf. You ride down a highway of coloured notes, avoiding grey notes, while collecting different combinations of coloured notes. There's also no goal either – just get the highest score possible. You can compare scores with your friends, which is always cool. And there's even achievements!

But I've forgotten to mention the key aspect of the game. You use your own music to generate the highway to play on. And it supports a variety of formats – excluding DRM'd songs (so no, you can't play that Nirvana cover of Bowie's Man Who Sold the World that you bought from iTunes). The way that this works is that if it's a slower song (such as say, Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb), then the level becomes easier – if not slightly longer. If you pick a faster song (such as say, Jump Around by House of Pain), then you'd better have the reflexes of a ninja as you collect notes.

The fun in the game is seeing which songs are fun to play – as well as comparing scores to your friends. It sounds really silly, but is compelling stuff. It's definitely worth checking out, you won't need a super computer to run the game, but you will need a good amount of music to get the full experience out of the game. And trust me, it's worth it.