Good evening (depending on when you are reading this) again from London as I inform my loyal viewers of what is currently happening in the gaming world. Today, I will review "Rock Band" and talk about who won the Video Game Awards.

Rock band was published on the Xbox 360, PS2 (surprisingly) and PS3 in America last October by EA Games and will be released for European customers in the First Quarter of 2008. For those similarly disappointed with this delayed release date for Europe, "Wikepedia" stated that this was because localised content will be issued for Europe both online and on the Rock Band disc, which is good news I guess. To introduce this game to those unfamiliar to it, Rock Band is a combination of Guitar Hero and Singstar to create a rhythmic game, where you can choose to 'play' the part of a band member i.e. you can sing, play guitar or the drums. Frankly, that is awesome. To give you a general rating of the game, GameSpot gave deservedly it 9.0/10 and IGN, 9.4/10.

Firstly, there are some major differences between Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Whilst "Star Power" has been replaced by "Overdrive" (basically, you amount points to activate this mode for a short period of time where you do not lose points for missing notes), there are other large differences. Solo sections have their own individual percentage scores and the game is considered easier than Guitar Hero. Although IGN claimed that this made the solo career worse than Guitar Hero, stating it was mainly a "party game", 'Video Game Outsiders' said that the single player was actually better than that in Guitar Hero. Much of the guitar playing is the same as Guitar Hero, despite 'Hammer-Ons' and 'Pull-Offs' being introduced into Rock Band, which of course is a nice move towards realistic play-style (for people unaware of guitar techniques, 'Pull-Offs' and Hammer-Ons' are where you do not hit a string, but merely press on the frets). The Rock Band Guitar itself is different from the Guitar Hero version, although GameSpot claimed that it is in no way better or worse. For example, the strummer does not click when you move it and the fret buttons are "less forgiving in terms of timing in solos and other, tougher sections" [GameSpot], which does not mean anything to me, but maybe it does for some.

For the singing section, you have to match the rhythm and lyrics displayed on screen while matching the pitch of a meter, which moves up and down. There are "yellow sections" where you are just encouraged to "make some noise", engaging the "Overdrive". Also, there are periods where the player can tap the microphone to create a tambourine effect. According to GameSpot, the only criticism is the demanding nature of the higher difficulties, which strain you to reach the desired pitch and rhythm. Apparently these can be different from the real songs too. In my opinion, the singing would be good fun as long as you know the song. If you do not, then there can be no criticism of Rock Band, but only your music knowledge.

Finally, GameSpot describes the drums as "easily the most intense and enjoyable instrument of the bunch", with the set given to you being very close to that in real life. GameSpot stated that on the higher difficulties, a successful player could play a reasonable rhythm on the real instrument! The kit itself consists of colour-coded pads and a kick-pedal. As with the guitar, notes and colours are displayed on screen, which you have to match. "Xbox live's Major nelson" was describing how difficult thus actually is - I can imagine myself that it would be immensely fun and hard.

The greatest reason to love Rock Band is naturally the co-op play. Although each instrument individually is, as expected, fun,a group of friends playing together is an unparalleled experience. Personally, it cannot supply the same emotion as playing together in a real band as I do, but the nature of the games system allows a simpler style to be achieved with people who do not either own an instrument or wish to play whilst being geographically remote. The entire concept is just amazing. The Rock Band Tour mode is a great experience too, despite not being available across the Internet (a huge shame). You can progress with your band, from the tiniest club to become huge rockstars. Fans sing along to your band, your name is displayed in huge letters across the stage. The addictiveness of progressing and amassing more fans is a huge appeal. I mentioned that a band cannot play the Tour Mode over Xbox Live, but you can choose to play single songs together for fun and naturally, high scores. With the danger of this becoming repetitive, Harmonix and MTV have scheduled weekly song packs (at a cheaper price to Guitar Hero) that will be available as downloadable content. I will definitely be purchasing this game when it is released for my region early next year and I would recommend you do too if you like rhythmic games and have a few friends who would gladly join you in playing this great game. The game is a huge investment though, the price of all equipment amassing to £80-90, although I think that that is reasonably cheap. Here are the links to the GameSpot and IGN reviews.

As my small news section this week, I am happy to say that Bioshock was awarded Spike TV's Video Game Awards 'Game of the Year' and 'Best Xbox 360 Game'! I have not completed Bioshock yet, but I am well on the way to, and I would certainly support this choice; the graphics are astounding and the character of Rapture is simply camptured perfectly. Every place you visit and every person you kill, you can see their past. I hope that I will complete it in time for Christmas, or else it shall be banished to the gloom of my cupboard, looking sadly out as I play Call of Duty 4... and it does not deserve to be. To see full details of the awards given, visit this link.

I would like to leave you, giving mention to an excellent service called "Last.FM". In short, it is a website and a program which you can download fore free, which allows the user to type in a band that they like and return to them a 'radio station' of songs by that artist as well as similar bands that you may like. As well as this, "Last.FM" 'scrobbles' what you have listened to and uploads it onto your online profile so others can see what your taste in music is allowing you to network that way. I highly recommend it. Have a great week.