Purely Review

I have decided to start reviewing a selection of games that were very close to my heart and indeed still hold that special place; PS1 games. For Years I played my PS1 loving all the wonderful diversity, creativity and downright fun I found in the games before things became too serious, before we lost characters like Daniel Fortesque, Tombi and the Hogs of War to the faceless, emotionless goons that dominate today’s popular market. So now I will begin playing all my old PS1 games and reviewing them at my leisure as keeping a schedule is far too annoying.

Might as well kick off the list with one of my absolute favourites from the PS1 era and that is Medievil developed by SCEE Cambridge back in 1998. An evil Sorcerer named Zarok who was supposedly killed 100 years prior to the game by a brave and valiant knight has somehow returned to the land of Gallowmere and has risen the dead, stolen the sanity of the living and is generally making a big mess of the country. His spell however awoke Sir Daniel Fortesque, the knight who supposedly slew Zarok a century earlier when in actuality he fell in the first charge on Zarok’s army but had his legend created so the King could save face about his “Champion’s” death. So Dan sets off to put Zarok down once and for all, thereby restoring his reputation and allowing him to rest once more.

The plot doesn’t really get much simpler than that but that’s a good thing. It tells us what we need to know and lets us pave our own path throughout the game without tying us up with lengthy plot sequences or ridiculous twists and turns.

Medievil sees you facing off against all manner of undead and demonic foes from zombies to axe wielding villagers to homicidal pumpkin creatures and allows you to counter this with a colourful array of weapons including swords, hammers, bows, your own arm and even turning your foes into chicken drumsticks. Some of the weapons are found in certain levels in the game, and are better at dealing with some foes than others, but others need to be earned from the Hall of Heroes, a gathering place for the spirits of history’s greatest heroes. If you kill enough enemies or vice-versa not kill enough brainwashed citizens then you become eligible to collect the Chalice of Souls which allows you to visit the Hall of Heroes, collect your new item and probably have the piss taken out of you by one of the statues there.

Gameplay is simple, hit things until they die while avoiding being hit by them for most fights although all the bosses usually have an interesting twist during the fight. Health can be regained from fountains and health vials sprawled throughout the level and there is plenty of treasure to be collected for those who look hard enough. This is used to exchange services with some of the many gargoyles present throughout the game. These leering stone faces either fill you in about the local history or sell you provisions such as ammunition, shield repair or return weapons that may have been pinched from you earlier in the game.

The game is rich with lore from the many books found lying around and humour is around every corner in the form of conversations with the gargoyles, heroes and even in missions you undertake. The levels are very varied and you see a change of scenery and enemies every few levels. This added with the large amount of problem solving needed for some puzzles altogether serve to make the game all the more enjoyable. The enemies are nice and varied and often quite humorous from the lumbering, moaning zombies, to the squealing, torch-branding imps. The vast choice of weapons coupled with the large number of zones gives the game a great sense of size and often has you replaying your favourite levels to test out different weapons.

Medievil is a game with few faults and they can be ignored by its outstanding good qualities. It is well paced and sees a nice steady progression of difficulty while never being too horrific but at the same time still remaining relatively simple. Coupled with a wealth of humorous characters, menagerie of enemies and sheer stupid number of weapons the game gives you a great deal of enjoyment from start to finish. All in all a spectacular example of originality and raw fun with Dan himself standing out as a loveable character from the get go. Well worth downloading for your PS3 if you don’t own it already.

Guitar Hero: Metallica

Players: 1-8
Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Playstation 2

So you Australians thought Harmonix was the only music game developer who would delay Australian game releases. Oh no! Two months since Danny has FCed all the songs of Metallica on the first day of release and we finally get to merely practice. Oh well. The wait was worth it.

Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Rob Trujillo are all ready to rock out to some of their greatest hits, some of their lowlights and even a few inspirers and inspirees of their style. Can you, the player, keep up Hammett’s frenetic finger-work, Ulrich’s banging, bashing and bouncing, and Hetfield’s supreme screaming?

The graphics are the same as World Tour’s, but all of the characters, even the random ones, seem a lot more detailed and fine-tuned, at least on the 360 and PS3 versions. This comes at the expense of losing a few characters available from the line-up, but some are now unlockables.

Running on aggression, turns into obsession, cannot kill the battery!

The setlist is probably the best one yet. Metallica is a fun and fast band, so it comes as no surprise that most of their songs are incredibly fun to play. Master of Puppets should be your first stop on guitar, and if you pre-ordered the game, you may get another bass pedal and splitter, so you can try the new Expert+ drums mode. Do it on Battery, I dare you!

The non-Metallica songs range from great (Am I Evil?) to good(Blood and Thunder) to crap(Mother of Mercy) to really weird(No Excuses). Rest assured, the highlights of the setlist all belong to Metallica, and even they have some bad songs. Frantic is rubbish, and so is evrything from the Black Album (bar Enter Sandman).

[Image: guitar-hero-metallica-band-screenshot-big.jpg]
Drain you of your sanity, face the thing that should not be…

All of the songs are unlocked in quickplay from the off, so you might be wondering what the point of the career is. There are plenty of unlockables, including guitars, characters, Metallifacts and videos.

Ah, the Metallifacts. Beat a song in career and you can view the song while numerous facts relating to it and the band pop up in place of the note track. This is tacked on, as there aren’t enough facts to run through all of a song usually.

One other gripe I had is that to get the full game and all of its achievements and trophies, you must buy the Death Magnetic album. Wii and PS2 owners don’t have to worry about this, as they get two more Death Magnetic songs on top of the standard one(All Nightmare Long). 360 and PS3 owners, get ready to shell out. And not in the Ninja Turtles style either.

This really is a solid addition to a solid though uninspiring franchise. As Van Halen was not as influential nor prolific as Metallica, I’m not expecting a lot from that game, but Metallica is a worthy addition to your game collection.

Graphics: 9/10
Setlist: 10/10
Note Tracking: 8.5/10
Extras: 9/10
Length: 8/10

Total: 9/10

Gameplay
Gameplay. Ok well you start of at your hometown just like all the pokemon games, just like diamond and pearl except when you go to choose your starter you dont go to the lake. You go just outside of your town and then dawn will come running with a suitcase. Pokemon Platinum isnt the same as Pokemon Diamond and Pearl but its based on them. Practicly a upgraded version of them. The gym order is different and the puzzles in the gyms and some are much cooler and i would say more creative. The new gym leader order is: Oreburgh Gym with Gymleader Roark, Eterna Gym with Gymleader Gardenia, Hearthome Gym with Gymleader Fantina, Veilstone Gym with Gymleader Maylene, Pastoria Gym with Gymleader Crasher Wake, Canalave Gym with Gymleader Byron, Snowpoint Gym with Gymleader Candice and last of all Sunyshore Gym with Gymleader Volkner.

Oreburgh Gym and Gymleader Roark
The Oreburgh Gym is in fact, unchanged from the ones in Diamond and Pearl version. So it’s still a simple gym after all (well, the first gyms are always the simplest ones).
Roark, the first gymleader to battle. He uses mainly Rock-type Pokemon.

Gardenia, The Eterna Gym Leader
The Eterna Gym has a new puzzle to solve. In order to reach Gardenia, you have to battle each of the trainers in there. The Gym has been redesigned, it now contains four sections with a giant garden clock in the centre, dividing these areas. For each trainer you defeat, the hands of the clock move. Once the clocks hands turn to the north, south, east or west you can then walk onto the clock and progress to other areas of the gym. Gardenia awaits the player in the northern area of the gym.
Gardenia, the second gymleader. She uses Grass-type Pokemon in her battles and could be a little hard if for those who have Piplup as starter.

Hearthome Gym and Gymleader Fantina
With Pokemon Platinum the Hearthome Gym has become a little like the old Dewford Gym. It is very dark so you must get around the gym using a torch. Duskull lamps are used as visible walls, to guide you around. There are other trainers with torches that you need to battle in order to get to Fantina. Fantina, the third gymleader, she was the fifth gymleader in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl!. She uses mainly Ghost-type Pokemon.

Veilstone Gym and Gymleader Maylene
Like Eterna and Hearthome, Veilstone Gym also get an upgrade. Instead of sliding through the gym, you now have to punch (literally) the sandbag in order to create a path to reach Maylene.
Maylene, the fourth gymleader. Despite her small and petite appearance, she packs quite a punch when it comes to fighting. As you see, she uses mainly Fighting-type Pokemon. After you defeat Maylene she will give you the Cobble Badge, Drain Punch, and the can use Fly outside of battles.

Pastoria Gym and Gymleader Crasher Wake
Pastoria Gym hasn’t changed from Diamond and Pearl so you will be playing with the water levels once again in Pastoria Gym. The Pastoria Gym is a big indoor swimming pool made up of three levels and numerous floating platforms with switches built in the bottom that raises and lowers the water level. To get to the Wake you use the switches in a certain order soit makes a path in the the floating platforms.
Crasher Wake is the fifth gymleader uses Water-type Pokemon in his battles. He looks a bit like a WWE wrestler. You end up with the Fen Badge, Brine and are can use Defog outside of battle.

Canalave Gym and Gymleader Byron
Canalave Gym has been changed from Diamond and Pearl. It is a fairly easy gym to do. The Gym is a four-story tall building made up of steel platforms with lifts and metal platforms that move. You must take the elevators in the correct order to reach the fourth floor so you can get to Byron. Even though it is simple, it really uses the 3D engine of Nintendo DS pretty well.
When Byron battles he uses Steel-type Pokemon in his battles. Trainers who defeat him will receive the Mine Badge the Flash Cannon and can use Strength when not battling.

Snowpoint Gym and Gymleader Candice
The Snowpoint Gym is a Gym that is a three-floor ice rink and has slides that connect the different floors and there are snowballs blocking your progress through the Gym. To reach Candice the gym leader you have to slide all around the Gym and destroy the balls of snow blocking the way.
Candice is theseventh gym leader and uses mostly Ice-type Pokemon in her battles. When you defeat her you get an Icicle Badge, Avalanche and you are able to use Rock Climb outside of battle.

Sunyshore Gym an Gymleader Volkner
The Sunyshore Gym is a three room Gym where the main floor is made up of huge, gigantic gears hanging suspended from platforms that are operated by buttons. To get through you need to rotate the platforms in the right order to create a path. A little tricky.
Volkner is the eighth and last Gym Leader. He uses mostly Electric-type Pokemon and is a hard to beat Gym Leader. When you do beat him you get the Beacon Badge, Charge Beam and able to use Waterfall when you are outside of a battle. Watch out for the Pokemon Electivire.

On your pokemon journey when you catch your games legendary on pearl or diamond it has either Dialga or Palkia but on platinum it has the all mighty upgraded version of giratina at the top of mount. cornet at the sky pillar. Which has Dialga and Palkia behind it. The “battle frointier” of platinum is a like emerald it has much more buildings and is way better.

Graphics
The graphics of this game is using the nintendo DS’s full potential this time. The grass, trees, land looks much more realistic but still in a cartoon way. When your in eterna forest you can actually see bundles of light on the ground shining through the top of the forest and it looks soo cool. Also in the battle mode the moves look a bit better too. Overall the graphics for platinum may not be as good as some of the games on the nintendo but it certainly keeps the pokemon tradition!

Sounds
The sounds are the same the sound quality cant really be improoved for the pokemon games but again Nintendo really keeps the tradition of the original pokemon games even in their newest pokemon games which gives it that pokemon feel when you hear the sounds. I do think the noises of the pokemon have improved and the noises of the pokemon moves have also improved alot. Well done Nintendo!

Rating
Gameplay: 10/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sounds: 9/10
Overall Rating: 9.5/10

Platform: DS
Players: 1
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo

Before I begin the review, here’s a disclaimer: this may be a music game, but I will stick to the normal end-of-review format, instead of judging setlist and somesuch. This goes above and beyond Rock Band and Guitar Hero, and is in no way a simulation of any usical instrument. Well, later on you get to play with a guitar. But never mind…..

These bloody music games always get to all the other countries before getting to poor old Australia. Rock Band, Guitar Hero: Metallica, Rock Band 2, Rhythm Tengoku….Maybe it’s beause not a lot of good music’s come out of here, and not a lot goes in except for what comes on our so-called “friendly” radio stations. In any case, Australia is musically cursed.

But I’m ranting on about Australia when I should be talking about Rhythm Heaven. So, yeah, it’s a game on the DS where you poke, prod and flick your trusty stylus about the screen to sing, dance, plant food, play ping-pong, rock, punch, kick and even love! Aww!

It’s all obviously musically oriented. The games mostly involve rapidly tapping and occasionly flicking on cue to fulfill other music cues, such as a snare or crash hit in a rock song, or a loud trumpet blast, or vibrant vocal part. Every different game in Rhythm Heaven manages to almost be completely different, despite only having two or three possible functions for any game.

The game operates on a regular stage system. Beat one game, move on to the next. Beat 4 games,and you’ll get a remix of the past 4 games. Do that to unlock another tier. Pretty simple.

The game is looooong! Just when you think you’re done and the credits start rolling, you get another 4 tiers. After that, you get a Battle of the Bands. When you try to play that, you need to beat the guitar minigames. When you try to unlock those, you realise you need medals. To get medals, you need to do almost perfectly in a game. To get a “Superb” rank, you need to practice. Whew!

When getting your groove on has deadly effects on your spine…

Other extras in the game include the coffee shop, where you can talk to a barista and have him skip tough games for you, listen to music, read a funny letter, or practice the all-important flick. To get the music and funnies, you need to perfect a music game when it tells you to. You have to have gotten a rank of “Superb” first to get the opppurtunity.

Endless games and rhythm toys include punching a bag to create a beat, tapping wine glasses, moving through a dungeon, and more which will spoil the fun if I tell you. To get all of these, you need medals which you get by moving the cursor up a bit…

There are a few points at which this game almost crashes and burns,a dn the most important one is this:when you design a game meant for kids and newbies to music, you don’t make the first game one of the hardest and most unpredictable, and then pretend it never happened by making the next few super-easy. You just don’t.

The other major flaw is that sometimes the game’s flick mechanics become stupis. No. In fact, they are stupid to start with. For a flick to count, you must move the stylus and then take it off the screen. In games about precision, you’ll either time it wrong, or forget to take the pen off, meaning it didn’t happen.

Frustration abound, but you should get this game if you need more music to sink your teeth into. And there’s a lot of music made specifically for long teeth. Which is okay.

Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 10/10
Difficulty: 6/10
Pure Fun: 9/10
Glitch Factor: 8/10
Length: 10/10

Total: 8/10

Guitar Hero
World Tour
Playstation 2 – Playstation 3 – Wii – Xbox 360

Game Specifications
Created By: Budcat Creations
Published By: Activision
Players: 1-4 offline, 8 players online.
Phesphirals: Wireless Guitar, Wireless Drum Kit, Wired Microphone
Genre: Rhythm and Music
Released: November 12th, 2008

new transparent notes are played normally or using the touch-sensitive neck slider

The Good
The list of good features for World Tour is endless but instead of listing them all I’ll state the best features. In World Tour, there are over 85 on-disc tracks with more to download online. That’s a huge increase from previous games such as Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The tracklist contains a selection from the 70′s, 80′s and onwards. Probably the focus of this game is competing with it’s rival Rockband. World Tour gives you the ability to play with three friends in a real time band using another wireless lead or bass guitar, wireless drum kit and microphone. It’s not exactly new but it’s certainly different to the next-door Rockband.

Brand new to the Guitar Hero series is creating your very own rocker. You can customise right down to the types of shoes you wear to how wide your jaw is. There’s a large collection of clothing and a variety of CGI instruments that you can purchase and customise to your liking. What’s also new is song creation. World Tour allows you to create your very own songs using an in-built song creator. It might be complicated at first, but for those want to use it – it’s very advanced because you can create songs using all four instruments.

The Bad
Unfortunately, World Tour’s guitar, drum kit and microphone aren’t available seperately. This might definately be a turn-off for Guitar Hero fans when Rockband instruments can all be purchased individually. World Tour also goes overboard with the “punk rock” theme. The concerts are over-the-top and the menus are overloaded with crazy fonts and flames. Although there are a few mishaps, World Tour has much more good than bad. Let’s get straight into it.

creating your own rocker is fun and very easy

Gameplay Review
The latest release for the Guitar Hero series is great. I’m an old school player so it shows us what can be done with the out-dated Playstation 2. The highlight of this game is the ability for four players to rock at one time. This combines lead guitar, bass guitar, drums and the lead singer into your very own band. Each player contributes to one star power metre, meaning you work as a team to perform or get booed off stage. Much like previous titles, the player must strike the note at the correct time to score points, in order to prevent the crowd from booing him or her off the stage. It’s the standard rhythm game. There’s still the collecting star power that can be used to increase your point multiplier and pull offs and hammer ons. New players now have a beginner mode so World Tour caters for all audiences.

New Controllers
It’s all new with the release of World Tour because Activision presents a new guitar for bass and lead, a brand new drum kit and a voice sensitive USB microphone. All instruments operate nearly identically with the exception of the microphone.

The new guitar is near 20% larger, but it’s not really that noticable. It features the same coloured fret buttons, disconnectable neck and a whammy bar. Due to protests over the small star power button, there are now two easily accessed buttons underneath your hand. There’s also a new directional stick that is used for the new song creator. A new feature is a neck slider that you use to play new transparent notes. You can also use it to strum normal notes and add a “wah” effect instead of using the whammy bar. Although these a small new features, they are rather fun to use in-game and give you extra points when playing. The neck slider is critised for being useless, which is basically true.

Singing is a huge part of a band, so the leader singer has large shoes to fill. Unfortunately with all of the new wireless guitars and drum kit the microphone remains wired. The on-screen highway is now horizontal, overlooking the other players. Players have to sing at the correct pitch in any octave in order to score points. To increase the multiplier, players just need to produce a sound for each word in the song, so it sounds terrible when the lead singer doesn’t know the song and produces a monotonous string of sounds. Star power is activated by a hard tap of the top of the mic or any of the buttons of the controller. It’s a great new mode which resembles to classic Singstar gameplay. Let’s have a look at the drum kit.

A review of the drum kit is coming shortly. Read on…

I’ve browsed the videos at YouTube, and found some that might be of interest to those thinking of purchasing the game…
World Tour Trailer
Ozzy Osbourne on World Tour

making new songs might be time consuming, but worth it in the end

The Tracklist
Beautiful Disaster — 311
The Kill — 30 Seconds to Mars
Too Much Too Young — Airbourne
Ramblin Man — The Allman Brothers Band
Good God — Anouk
Never Too Late — The Answer
One Armed Scissor — At The Drive-In
No Sleep Till Brooklyn — Beastie Boys
Hail to the Freaks — Beatsteaks
Rebel Yell — Billy Idol
Stillborn — Black Label Society
Weapon of Choice — Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Dammit — blink-182
One Way or Another — Blondie
Hollywood Nights — Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
Livin’ On A Prayer — Bon Jovi
Scream Aim Fire — Bullet For My Valentine
Shiver — Coldplay
Up Around The Bend — Creedence Clearwater Revival
Love Removal Machine — The Cult
Feel the Pain — Dinosaur Jr.
Love Me Two Times — The Doors
Pull Me Under — Dream Theater
Hotel California — The Eagles
Aggro — The Enemy
Hey Man, Nice Shot — Filter
Go Your Own Way — Fleetwood Mac
Everlong — Foo Fighters
American Woman — The Guess Who
You’re Gonna Say Yeah! — Hush Puppies
Obstacle 1 — Interpol
Mountain Song — Jane’s Addiction
Purple Haze (Live) — Jimi Hendrix
The Wind Cries Mary — Jimi Hendrix
The Middle — Jimmy Eat World
Satch Boogie — Joe Satriani
Vinternoll2 — Kent
Freak on a Leash — Korn
Our Truth — Lacuna Coil
Are You Gonna Go My Way — Lenny Kravitz
What I’ve Done — Linkin Park
Prisoner of Society — The Living End
La Bamba — Los Lobos
Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast) — Lost Prophets
Sweet Home Alabama (Live) — Lynyrd Skynyrd
L’Via L’Viaquez — Mars Volta
Kick Out The Jams — MC5′s Wayne Kramer
Trapped Under Ice — Metallica
Beat It — Michael Jackson
Float On — Modest Mouse
Overkill — Motörhead
Assassin — Muse
Nuvole e Lenzuola — Negramaro
About a Girl (Unplugged) — Nirvana
Spiderwebs — No Doubt
Soul Doubt — NOFX
Some Might Say — Oasis
Crazy Train — Ozzy Osbourne
Mr. Crowley — Ozzy Osbourne
Misery Business — Paramore
Heartbreaker — Pat Benatar
The One I Love — R.E.M.
Escuela De Calor — Radio Futura
Re-Education Through Labor — Rise Against
Pretty Vacant — Sex Pistols
Lazy Eye — Silversun Pickups
Today — Smashing Pumpkins
Do It Again — Steely Dan
The Joker — Steve Miller Band
Demolition Man (Live) — Sting
Love Spreads — The Stone Roses
Toy Boy — Stuck In The Sound
Santeria — Sublime
Eye of the Tiger — Survivor
B.Y.O.B. — System of a Down
Stranglehold — Ted Nugent
Ted Nugent’s Original Guitar Duel Recording
Monsoon — Tokio Hotel
Parabola — Tool
Schism — Tool
Vicarious — Tool
Antisocial — Trust
Hot For Teacher — Van Halen
On The Road Again — Willie Nelson
Band on the Run — Wings
Zakk Wylde’s Original Guitar Duel Recording
Tracklist courtesy of 1UP.

Other Information
Guitar Hero: World Tour is rated PG in Australia for Course Language and Sexual References. Parently guidance is recommended for those under 15.
Guitar Hero: World Tour has an ESRB rating of Teen.
World Tour currently costs $149.95 for the Guitar Bundle PS2. It costs around $300.00 for the Band Bundle PS2.

Platforms: PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii
Players: 1-8
Publisher: Activision
Developers: Neversoft (PS3,360), Budcat Creations (PS2), Vicarious Visions (Wii).

I’ve had so much anger used against this game. Not just this game and it’s many flaws, but Neversoft, who should stick to skating games (and maybe not even to them), Activision, for replacing EA as a money-spinning cow, and you critics. You praised this game for paltry reasons and so I dislike you. You critics aren’t as bad as Activision, but you damn well almost were.

First, the good. I need to show my partial love to this game.

There are a lot of songs in this game. About 85 tracks, mostly masters, are available to play. Everyone will be able to find their preference in the list.

There are a lot of customization options in the game, with literally hundreds of outrageous and outlandish clothes, tattoos and colours to kit your rocking man and music tools with.

The single player progression system is excellent. You can choose which gigs (sets of songs) you wish to do at any time, with no penalty. It’s still a fairly linear progression, but you son’t have to do every song.

And that’s pretty much it on the good side. I’m not going to hold back. Guitar Hero: World Tour is a bad, bad game!

People say that the customization is incredible in this game. I say it would be incredible if it made any hint of a difference. You see, the animations for any one song are fixed, and so are the predetermined camera angles. What this means is that your performances for one song are all going to look the same.

This gets even worse when a guest takes the stage. Many music greats such as Ozzy Osbourne and The Nuge have been mo-capped for this game, usually just for one song. When you are performing these songs as the guest, you must play as the guest. This is stupid, as it restricts all your true fantasies of YOU performing all these great/crap songs.

The graphics have been touted as great. Yes, they are pretty good on the PS3 and 360, having a cartoony colourful look and running at a smooth 60 frames per second. If you have a PS2 or Wii though, be warned that Activision and Neversoft view you as retards and give you a version of a supposedly great game that treats you as such. The backgrounds are pre-layered rather than feeling truly real, and the character models look tacked on, like some kid’s pop-up storybook. Oh yeah, and it runs at a slow 30 fps. Happy gaming, guys!

We’re gonna rock down to electric avenue…

And then there are tons of small errors that get really annoying. The conversion from GH drums to RB drums is always disastrous. The music studio is tedious. L’via L’viaquez is in the game. The game keeps freezing. If you don’t play on expert, the game treats you with utter contempt. There aren’t enough piercings. The multiplayer story progression is the same as the singleplayer. No one plays Band Vs Band. The downloadable songs all suck. The last song, by Dream Theater, will not match Won’t Get Fooled Again or Free Bird for epic ending songs. The Tool arena really sucks. The Tool songs really suck. Tool really sucks. The drum note tracks are too bloody hard. There are lots of really unknown songs, all of which occur 10% into the game and end at 95%, then start again after a few. And so the list goes on…

Had all you critics bought Rock Band instead, I wouldn’t have to have ranted on like this. But the audience of today think bigger and badder is better, and so followed like unwitting sheep. If Guitar Hero 5 is worse than this (and it may be: it’s setlist is horrible so far!) then this will be undeniable proof that God does not exist.

Graphics: 6/10
Setlist: 5/10
Note Tracking: 3/10
Extras: 4/10
Length: 5/10

Total: 4/10

Platforms: DS, iPhone
Players: 1-2
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Gameloft

Dear Gameloft,

I have recently beaten your game of Guitar Rock Tour, and although I found it a highly polished and enjoyable product, there are some things you should know about this game in order to make your subsequent sequels better. I am a qualified reviewer, so you find that what I have to say can be useful.

First and foremost, your setlist. In case you have forgotten what it is, I will list it below:

Rock You Like a Hurricane – Scorpions
You Really Got Me – The Kinks
Heart-Shaped Box – Nirvana*
Message in a Bottle – The Police
Walk Idiot Walk – The Hives
The River – Good Charlotte
What’s My Age Again? – Blink-182
Smoke on the Water – Deep Purple
Beat It – Michael Jackson
The Great Escape – Boys Like Girls
In the Shadows – The Rasmus
If Everyone Cared – Nickelback
Who Knew – Pink
Underclass Hero – Sum 41
Girlfriend – Avril Lavigne
An Honest Mistake – The Bravery*
Banquet – Bloc Party
Run to the Hills – Iron Maiden*
Heroes – David Bowie*

The number’s a little low, and they’re all cover versions, but I can let that slide. What I can’t let slide is your exclusivity of many of your songs to other versions of the game. You may notice that some of the songs are marked with asterisks. This means that they are not on the DS version, which is obviously the most popular version. Locking out some of your songs on a game like this is criminal.

[Image: guitar-rock-tour.1513003.jpg]
The stagehand should get fired for that!

Your game is pretty good looking, and it definitely felt like effort was out into the backgrounds and character designs. However, your animations were virtually non-existent, and there was no clear singer on stage. It looked as if one of the two guitarists up there had a microphone, but it did not appear as if he was singing into it. The Guitar Hero: On Tour series can manage this, so why can’t this? Also, everyone seems to flail about on their instruments with no co-ordination. Why, many times, they continued to do so after the song finished!

Your base game modes for guitar and drums are pretty good, however there are many areas where they could both be improved. Shall we start with the guitar?

On my touch screen, I have to touch the corresponding fret when it hits the bottom. Okay, Gameloft, I see where you are going and I like it. Not the most original approach, but no one else has used it for a guitar anyway. For chords, I am meant to scroll across the two or three frets quickly. That’s good, but if you had really messed up your note tracking, it would have been a broken mechanic. For hammer-ons or pull-offs, I should drag across quickly to the other frets.

Hmm….See, the hit detection for every fret is too sensetive, and the frets are too close together, so I often hit a fret I didn’t want to or had already hit and had ruined my multiplier. Also, if the HOPO notes were spaced two or more frets away, I couldn’t drag across, because then I would lose, so I would have to lift my stylus first. However, that would decrease my reaction time, so I would miss the note. Do you see where I am going with this?

[Image: guitarrocktour3_410x231.jpg]
Mind you, that’s not a bad job!

The drums, I can see you tried to handle completely differently to the over-complicated guitar. The control input has three actions: one shoulder button for bass kick, one for snare/drum and both together for crash cymbal. Don’t you think that’s a bit simple, Gameloft? It’s so simple, I got 100% on most of my first tries. There were some satisfying rolls and fills, but for the most part, I was not having fun with drums.

The career mode is also terribly linear. Go to locations one by one, do harder songs each time. However, you also commited the greatest sin a music game dev could ever commit; make you repeat songs in a linear structure. How about just adding some more bloody songs?

Though this letter may appear overtly negative, I did have fun Guitar Rock Tour. It’s just that you are a developer known for stupid oversights, and that reputation isn’t going to change unless you do something about.

I hope this reaches you in good standing.

Sincerely
Lowlander2
Gaming Zion Reviewing Department

Graphics: 6/10
Setlist: 7/10
Note Tracking: 7/10
Extras: 6/10
Length: 7/10

Total: 7/10

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, Wii
Players: 1-8
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Neversoft

Oh gee…Here we go…

If you’ve read my GH:WT review, you’ll know the immense hate I had for that game. It was an overrated, overselling load of complete tripe. I vowed to only get the sequels when they were cheap, and never as soon as they came out. Sadly, I pretty much avoided the second rule with Guitar Hero 5. Oddly enough, I’m fairly glad I did.

Unlike the last two main titles in the series, this game’s story is limited and has only two cartoons describing narrative events in the game. This is good, because it did nothing but detract from the band experience last time. You are a band, you play songs, you be number one. Simple.

This installment’s focus is on quickplay functions. Neversoft wants players to jump in and start playing as soon as possible, and this is definitely a good approach. After the short intro cinematic, a random song pops up and starts playing on its own. By hitting your controller’s yellow button, you can start playing at any point in the song after picking a difficulty.

You can also drop out with the Start button. There are also options to change songs, but if you want to do that, you should just use Quickplay itself to pick songs. Still, it’s a good idea and a nice approach, and it’s easy to just set the songs to play and have your own little rock concert
airing at home.

The career mode has been majorly overhauled, and it shows. Songs are separated into tiers based on general band difficulty. Within each venue are songs with either individual chsllenges or band challenges. These challenges’ goals range from gettong high scores, getting star power, note streaks, or ‘tweaking’ the song. Although these challenges are a nice idea, and do give some members of the band time to shine, some challenge parameters are ridiculous. For example, several challenges on guitar require you to hit all notes in a stupidly hard tap section 7 minutes into the song.

[Image: Guitar-Hero-5-5.jpg]
Is this game as Garbage as this singer?

When you’re allowed to pick your own song for these parts, it gets more bearble, but herein lies another caveat; you can’t use any song you want. You must have encountered it in a previous venue to play that song. That means even if you get a song a later venue, you cannot play it in a previous pick-a-song gig. Bummer.

Apart from those tiny flaws, Career is really good. There are a lot of unlockables from the challenges, even though most are for the character creation modes which you might not bother to use. It’s not that character creation is bad, but it is the same as in World Tour. Yes that means that the dreaded scripted animations strike again, although it’s not so bad this time. The drummer, for example, actually hits the drums now. In fact, the drummer animations look better than Rock Band 2′s. That’s something I never saw coming!

In fact, here’s another amazing fact: the game is actually pretty good as a whole. The note tracking is starting to get great, there are fewer interruptions in the gameplay, and the interface is far better than World Tour’s. I’d go and call this one of the greatest music games ever, if it weren’t for one tiny little flaw….

It’s setlist sucks.

Most of the setlist is modern, from the last decade. However, Neversoft have taken the whole modern theme completely overboard, and so half of the songs are from artists no one has heard of. I mean seriously, Sunny Day Real Estate? Gov’t Mule? Darkest Hour? There are a number of great songs on the disc, but you’ll have to really dig for the quality.

Don’t get me wrong. Artists like Rammstein, King Crimson and Stevie Wonder have been long overdue for, and modern artists like Rose Hill Drive and the Derek Trucks band are nice, if niche, inclusions, but a lot of songs are unheard of because they probably suck. That said, the DLC is improving, so who knows? We might get a really good album eventually.

The setlist and lame extras are probably the only things “wrong” with Guitar Hero 5. That said, it’s not quite a triumph. There are several other flaws, such as limited song capability from other games and a few glitches, but these are bearable and avoidable. The game would be the greatest music game…IF the setlist was good. At least Neversoft have something very simple to focus on for next year.

Graphics: 9/10
Setlist: 6/10
Note Tracking: 8.5/10
Extras: 8/10
Length: 8/10

This review is written by a Purely Review member. This review may not be published or copied for commercial use without expressed permission from the author. If you believe this review has been partially or entirely stolen from another source, please contact Purely Review staff.

Total: 8/10

Platforms: PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii
Players: 1-4
Publisher: EA
Developer: Harmonix

I ain’t gonna cut corners. This is the second best music game anyone has ever made, and us Aussies haven’t quite got the best yet. But we will. Oh yes we will, and when we do, Guitar Hero will be a finished franchise. If LEGO and Beatles Rock Band are as good as this, this franchise will also have better spin-offs than Guitar Hero.

Let’s get the bad parts out of the way first, though, so I can spend the rest of the review praising the heck outta this game.

The endless setlist is a bit too long. A good idea, but too long. Some of the note tracks are too easy. Overdrive generally pops up too much, but it also makes the game more fun.

That’s it. Other than those, the game kicks more ass than any other music. I’m not going to outline all of this game’s many pros, because I want all of you to find them out for yourself. But yeah, let’s get down to the main clinchers.

Specifically, the on-disc setlist:

“Are You Gonna Be My Girl”-Jet
“Ballroom Blitz”-Sweet
“Black Hole Sun”-Soundgarden
“Blitzkrieg Bop”-Ramones
“Celebrity Skin”-Hole
“Cherub Rock”-Smashing Pumpkins
“Creep”-Radiohead
“Dani California”-Red Hot Chili Peppers
“Dead on Arrival”-Fall Out Boy
“Detroit Rock City”-Kiss
“Don’t Fear The Reaper”-Blue Öyster Cult
“Electric Version”-The New Pornographers
“Enter Sandman”-Metallica
“Epic”-Faith No More
“Flirtin’ with Disaster”-Molly Hatchet
“Foreplay/Long Time”-Boston
“Gimme Shelter”-The Rolling Stones
“Go with the Flow”-Queens of the Stone Age
“Green Grass and High Tides”-The Outlaws
“Here It Goes Again”-OK Go
“Highway Star”-Deep Purple
“I Think I’m Paranoid”-Garbage
“In Bloom”-Nirvana
“Learn to Fly”-Foo Fighters
“Main Offender”-The Hives
“Maps”-Yeah Yeah Yeahs
“Mississippi Queen”-Mountain
“Next to You”-The Police
“Orange Crush”-R.E.M.
“Paranoid”-Black Sabbath
“Reptilia”-The Strokes
“Run to the Hills”-Iron Maiden
“Sabotage”-Beastie Boys
“Say It Ain’t So”-Weezer
“Should I Stay or Should I Go”-The Clash
“Suffragette City”-David Bowie
“The Hand That Feeds”-Nine Inch Nails
“Tom Sawyer”-Rush
“Train Kept A-Rollin”-Aerosmith
“Vasoline”-Stone Temple Pilots
“Wanted Dead or Alive”-Bon Jovi
“Wave of Mutilation”-Pixies
“Welcome Home”-Coheed and Cambria
“When You Were Young”-The Killers
“Won’t Get Fooled Again”-The Who

Not a lot compared to World Tour, right? Oh, but there’s still some bonus songs in the game.

“29 Fingers”-The Konks
“Blood Doll”-Anarchy Club
“Brainpower”-Freezepop
“Can’t Let Go”-Death of the Cool
“Day Late, Dollar Short”-The Acro-Brats
“I Get By”-Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives
“I’m So Sick”-Flyleaf
“Nightmare”-Crooked X
“Outside”-Tribe
“Pleasure (Pleasure)”-Bang Camaro
“Seven”-Vagiant
“Time We Had”-The Mother Hips
“Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld” Timmy and the Lords
of the Underworld

[Image: rock-band-20071018055644613_screen001.jpg]
….Guitar Hero comes and crashes the party.

Still not big enough for you? Try going online with the game. There are over 500 songs to download, and with 4 different instruments and 4 different difficulties for each, you need not worry about value for money. Some genres of songs are more prominent than others, but a huge list of songs means you won’t be misiing out on getting anything.

Of course, none of it would count if the game’s rhythm mechanics were broken, right? Well, 500 songs means the game has public support, so they must work.

That, and I’ve tried them. They can be too forgiving (the timing window to hit notes is big, meaning you can strum or drum way before you’re meant to) but too forgiving is better than unforgiving right? Right. Solo gameplay is good and all that, but to make the game live up to its name, it needs to be functional in heavy multiplayer.

The band gameplay is balanced, user-friendly and overall feels like a breath of fresh air. It’s the neat touches, like being able to bring back players who have failed, and letting everyone play on different difficulties, that make Rock Band so unique.

It also has an awesome career mode. Or rather, modes.

In single player, progession is linear. Just beat a set of 5 songs to move onto the next. I enjoyed the fact that single player is limited to this, although others may find it a bit frustrating. Fine by me. I can see why. The multiplayer career is awesome.

It behaves like a simulation of an actual rock band, so much so you might just believed you’ve walked onto the set of This Is Spinal Tap. As with all bands, you start in a small town and small arena/bar/basement of you choice, and eventually work your way up to capital gigs, earning realistic goals and staff members along the way. There are a few differnt themed challenges, like genre sets and difficulty sets, along the way, and the fact you have not set order of songs to do just makes it even more realistic.

Character customization is deep as the history of metal band Anvil (another band with a doco). It may initially appear to be more steamlined and have less options than GH:WT, but as I stated in that review, what’s the point if it doesn’t make a difference at all? Thankfully, Rock Band has varying animation sets divided into 4 genres: rock, metal, punk and goth. Even within those sets there are more animations for certain situations.

I could go on, but I’ve said my piece. If you play it in single player, you might not get what the fuss is about. If you’ve been antisocial so far through your life, now’s a good time to stop.

Graphics: 9/10
Setlist: 9/10
Note Tracking: 8/10
Extras: 10/10
Length: 10/10

Total: 10/10