Dare to Play the Game

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. New and improved with more digging than that time I was with this Japanese girl and we had shovels and well I was 5 years old, you can figure out the rest. Anyhow, I am actually in a decent mood for once. A quite jovial mood even… I went up to Denton/DFW this weekend and saw half a dozen friends from college I had not seen and most of which I had not talked to in 8-10 years. It was a fantastic time, we had met up at a pizza place we hanged out from time to time. Great food, great people. I honestly hope to see each and everyone of them again, maybe even in the next 4-6 months, cause 8 years was way too long (me and my silly idiosyncrasies).

We all so heart morgan. A rather charming picture wouldn’t you say? Yeah we have to always start off this party correctly. So I’m still trying to figure out the status of a one morgan webb. No, not marital status…we will forever assume that it is single. No, status on X-Play, is she in, is she out. Is she doing the hula hoop with Chuck Woolery? Questions that keep me up in the middle of the night and away from accredited universities and fortune 500 companies. Really they see this stuff and start to wonder how I continue to function on this planet. But I do…..

IGN’s brothers in arms, TeamXbox, is reporting that RedOctane is set to reveal details on the 360 version of Guitar Hero II Tuesday. According to a press release, which TeamXbox acquired, the 360 version of GH 2 is coming this March and includes more than 70 tracks. Gamers can expect ten 360-exclusive songs to go with the 64 tracks from the PS2 version.

The ten new songs, all of which are unlockable in career mode, are not cheap additions as some might have feared. Among the stellar new tracks are “Billion Dollar Babies” by Alice Cooper, “Dead!” by My Chemical Romance, “Hush” by Deep Purple, “Life Wasted” by Pearl Jam, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Hoochie Koo” by Rick Derringer, “Possum Kingdom” by Toadies, “Salvation” by Rancid and “The Trooper” by Iron Maiden.

While the majority of tracks will be covers, as is the standard for Guitar Hero II, both “Dead!” and “Possum Kingdom” are listed as “master tracks,” meaning they are the original recordings. The final two tracks remain unrevealed, leaving us to hold out hope that Hendrix will make his 360 debut this spring.

Along with a swanky new white guitar and ten bonus tracks, Xbox gamers can enjoy many of the staples of 360 gaming with Guitar Hero II. Achievement points, leaderboards, dashboard themes and picture packs, and downloadable songs are all planned. In fact, RedOctane is planning to have downloadable songs available at launch so that gamers can expand their Guitar Hero playlist immediately. Details on downloadable content is expected in February.

Yipee! Guitar Hero 2 for the 360 seems to be near completion, now just the waiting until March so I can get my hands on it. I finished Guitar Hero 2 for PS2 on medium about a month ago, and will probably play it again before I get this one. Questions that need to be answered though, the price should be somewhere around $80-$100 for the game/guitar combo, anything more than that is ridiculous in my opinion. Also, will the guitar controller be wireless, the only reason I ask this is since I have a premium system, my normal controller is wireless so I’m well used to it. If it isn’t wireless, does that mean it will be USB. This presents a problem to me as well as my xbox 360 is on my plasma, and I’m not sure a normal cord will reach where I sit these days. I hope there will be frequent downloadable content and not charging by the song (packs would be nice of certain artists). This could be a very awesome thing or it could be a very sucky (in wallet & overall concept) one. As long as the price doesn’t get out of hand for the initial put out, I will be reserving this one. Stay tuned.

Sony Ships One Million PS3s

Sony Computer Entertainment America has revealed that in the six weeks after the PlayStation 3’s US launch, the console has been whizzing out factories faster than a five-pint widdle.

*scratches head*, Am I the only one who isn’t buying this? The system or the article for that matter. Okay, there are two scenarios here…one there are a bunch of PS3’s sitting around somewhere that nobody knows about. I’m guessing Peoria, Illnois or in some landfill from the Garden State. Or two; this is total bupkiss and they are sitting in pieces in some factory so they can claim there are a million ps3s out there. Notice, they did not give the figures for sold units. If the 1 million figure is true, I would estimate about 1/3 of them are not sold if not more. Meaning anybody who actually wants one of these should be able to go to their local electronics store and be able to buy one. If you find that to not be true, feel free to write me and I’ll post your letter. Sony loves messing with my mind, seriously.

By the time you read this column, Ms Pac-Man will be available for download on XBOX Live. For the very affordable price of 400 points ($5) you can have this game to play until your heart’s content. There will be leaderboards, 12 achievements (200 points most likely) and play all of the original maps. I don’t think it will be multiplayer but you never know. I did happen to see Rally X pop up a week ago, but that wasn’t exactly a big time release. This however will get a ton of downloads including myself since I have 850 points and no idea what to use it on right now. A very good release for the arcade content section of XBOX 360. It might even be a good review for the site, though I’m not sure if we have ever done digital downloads for reviews. (hey there is a first for everything!).

The classic game that made you smile while your arteries were destined to clog. You were Peter Pepper and you had to run over layers of your burgers to get them to drop and make complete burgers. But in the way were Mr Hot Dog, Mr Pickle and Mr Egg. Luckily you had the pepper spray to ward them off but only in limited quantities. This game was a huge hit and you can still find it today in many arcades that are still around. It was simple but very addictive gameplay. My only question is if this game were to be released today; would it have to cut the fat? That means you Mr. Egg, which incidentally is a popular thing in japan to put on your burger. As if the burger wasn’t enough to kill you, the egg would surely do you in. Mmmmmmm, cholesterol overload. I would like to see this on XBOX Live, that’s for sure. Great game.

PS2

Arthur & The Invisibles

XBox 360

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

DS

Arthur & The Invisibles

GBA

Arthur & The Invisibles

I promised releases would be back to normal this week eh? Oh well, wishful thinking on my part I guess. The Arthur movie comes out this week I think and I’m sure all three of those games will be coming to a $19.99 bin near you. Lost Planet shows promise, but might not get the recognition it deserves since Gears of War, Call of Duty 3, and Rainbow Six Vegas are the hot commodities on the X-BOX 360 until Halo 3 makes it inevitable opening.

Looking around my house, I realize I have a ton of games that I haven’t even broke the packaging seal on my 360 and PS2. I have been playing so much Fable Lost Chapters that I haven’t cracked open games like Gears of War, Burnout Revenge, and Gun (all 360 recent acquisitions). However, of particular interest; a Rogue Galaxy demo was sent to a bunch of us PS2 Underground folks with a cloth map and other merchandising type material. Well, received an email today that read they want us to review it and ten people with the best reviews will get a full copy of the game. Under the official rules, it needs to be 200-400 words but not include any gratuitous depictions of violence or sex and positive depictions of alcohol or tobacco. *looks at his last 5 reviews*, hrmmm, ummm, drugs are bad mmmkay. But some games should include them so you can forget the experience of playing them :). I probably can tone down the review some, but I do want to be creative. I will post the review next week after I finish it, its due on Monday 1/15/07 for those who did not receive the email but received the demo. Review should be submitted to community_support@playstation.sony.com. I hope it doesn’t suck. Take care kids.

As Always,
Kedrix of Aldrianian
(*The Forgotten One*)