Rock Band Bar Nights
I’ve heard rumblings about this for a while now, but it looks like it’s official: Harmonix is bringing Rock Band to pubs and bars. They’re calling it—wait for it—Rock Band Bar Nights. Maybe it’s not the most compelling branding, but it does have a sort of Soviet industrial efficiency to it. And come on, this is from a developer who called their rock band simulation game “Rock Band” (possibly because “Music Game” wasn’t able to be trademarked?).
image © HotHardware.com
No, no, no… I kid the Rock Band. I’m only miffed because I’d been thinking about buying a PA and a projector and trying to do something similar myself. I think it’s an amazing idea and long overdue. There are going to be over a thousand songs available for the game by the end of the year, so there’s no shortage of content. Gamers who have honed their skills in their living room can come on out and show off their mad rocking skills to an audience that will actually appreciate them. And it should help the DJ (RBJ?) run through the list of sign-ups four times faster than a traditional karaoke joint.
It also has the capacity to be four times as brutal to the listener if a band of drunks fumbles their way through the song… unless No Fail mode is turned off. Then, instead of listening to some dude slur his way through “Baby Got Back,” the entire band fails out thirty seconds into the song, to howls of delight from the crowd. Of course, this infringes on my jointly held patent for Gong Show Karaoke (© Leaf Standard and Bryan Stratton), but I’m willing to let that slide, because I’m lazy and would rather let someone else do all of the hard work.
Rock Band DLC 9/1
More Rock Band DLC awesomeness on tap for next Tuesday:
- Avenged Sevenfold – “Bat Country”
- The Jam – “A Town Called Malice”
- The Jam – “Going Underground”
- Oasis – “Supersonic” (Live)
- Rage Against the Machine – “Guerilla Radio”
- Talking Heads – “And She Was”
- Talking Heads – “Crosseyed & Painless”
- Talking Heads – “Girlfriend is Better”
- Talking Heads – “Once in a Lifetime”
- Talking Heads – “Take Me to the River”
image © Bryan Stratton
Video Game Cupcake Roundup
I’m pretty sure that these have been around the internets for a while, but they’re new to me. Courtesy of Boing Boing:
- image © Boing Boing/Omar
Pac-Man cake with cupcake ghosts
image © Boing Boing/knightPhlight
Legend of Zelda’s Link executed in cupcake pixel-art
image © Boing Boing/Hello Naomi
Retro-gamer cupcakes OM NOM NOM NOM
(Thanks to Sara for discovering these.)
Kurt Cobain: Guitar Hero
Much as I love my music games, this just seems so wrong. Courtney Love, Dave Grohl: I furrow my brow in your direction.
image © Activision
Console Price Cut Roundup
The worst-kept secret in gaming has just been confirmed: The Xbox 360 is getting a long-anticipated price cut as of this Friday. The no-hard-drive Arcade version remains at $200, but the 120 GB Elite (with HDMI output) drops $100, from $400 to $300. The Pro, which sports a 60 GB HD and component A/V, goes from $300 to $250, but as soon as the existing stock is depleted, that model is being phased out.
image © Engadget
This, of course, is in response to the recently-released PS3 Slim, the skinny, $300 version of Sony’s Blu-Ray player. Rumor has it that it also plays games. I’m afraid Sony has an uphill climb ahead of them if they truly want to compete with the 360, but at least they’ve now got a decent ad campaign, instead of something designed to confuse and horrify you.
image © Engadget
The Nintendo Wii has remained at $249 since its launch, and as of April of this year, Nintendo was still denying that any price cuts were imminent. But with the X360 Pro dropping to the Wii’s price point and the full-featured PS3 Slim and X360 SKUs moving into the Wii’s neighborhood, it’s hard to believe that we won’t see a $50 price cut before the holiday season begins in earnest.
Bat-Hell Has Frozen Over
Reviewers are going nuts for Batman: Arkham Asylum, saying that it’s one of the best third-person action-adventure games ever. Glad to see that after more than two decades of trying and about 20 different attempts, Bats finally got himself into a quality video game.
So there you go, kids. If you set your mind to it, you can accomplish anything that you want in life—provided that you’re phenomenally wealthy, in peak physical condition and one of the smartest people on the planet.
image © GameSpot
Sony Courts iPhone Devs
Some notes about the approval process for PSP Mini games, from Pocket Gamer:
There is “no requirement for content approval” apparently.
Games will however go through a shortened quality assurance process to make sure they work properly on the various PSP hardware.
Significantly, this process is labelled as being “transparent, trackable and predictable”, with developers setting their own release dates.
This suggests Sony has learnt from Apple’s approval process for the App Store, which is regarded as being neither transparent, trackable or predictable.
image © casualgaming.biz
I find the “no requirement for content approval” extremely dubious. Is Sony really going to let Mini developers churn out porn apps for its handheld console and sell them through the PlayStation Store?
Also, isn’t this the same company that routinely releases new PSP firmware to shut down the homebrew community and has devised some of the most destructive copy protection malware in history? Are we really supposed to believe that they’re suddenly a friend of the little developer?
Plus, the install bases for the PSP and the iPhone/iPod Touch are just about dead even, despite the fact that the iPhone has been on the market for a significantly smaller time frame. If Sony really wants to start poaching disgruntled iPhone app developers, they’d better hope that the imminent release of the PSP Go exceeds all expectations, and that recent accounts of Apple reforming its approval process are bunk.
Shadow Complex
Last entry of the day. My friend Christian wrote a simply amazing piece for Gamasutra.com on whether or not progressive-minded gamers should consider boycotting Shadow Complex, a game based on concepts from author Orson Scott Card, who is an active campaigner against gay rights.
From the article:
While I feel passionately about the issue — it’s a matter of public record on my personal blog, Twitter, and Facebook, which are all read by members of the industry — it has nothing to do with “The Art & Business of Making Games”, which is Gamasutra’s mission and motto.
What does, however, is an examination of a boycott of a game, arising because some members of the gaming community feel strongly that one of the creative talents behind it is too strongly linked to a political cause.
My delight at reading such a thoughtful piece of true gaming journalism is equalled only by my disappointment that it’s such an exception to the rule. Hopefully the games biz will continue to grow and mature to the point where that’s no longer the case.
Rock Band DLC 8/25
Next Tuesday’s list of downloadable content for Rock Band is a good one:
Tracks available on Xbox 360 (Aug. 25) and PLAYSTATION 3 system (Aug. 27):
• Billy Idol – “Mony Mony”
• Billy Idol – “Rebel Yell”
• Fleetwood Mac – “Don’t Stop”
• Fleetwood Mac – “World Turning”
• Jet – “She’s a Genius”
• Tom Petty – “I Won’t Back Down”
• Tom Petty – “Runnin’ Down a Dream”
image © Bryan Stratton
“Of Course Green Koopa Troopas Walk Off Cliffs!”
Some Friday video game hilarity for your viewing pleasure:
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