Battle of the Band Games 2 - Rock Band 3

Alright, given this is part two of two, I will take some liberties and assume you read part one. If you didn't, then your missing an explanation of controls and some of the "same" points between the two games.

Rock Band 3, by default on the disc, has 83 songs. This is only about 7 less than the newest guitar hero, but when you factor in the number of songs that have already appeared in past music games, the number gets cut significantly. This may be good news to some, because they wanted all those songs, but to others not so much.

The controls are the same here (with the exception of less pads on the drum set), and the only difference is how star power is deployed on the drums and vocals. For drums, a "fill" section is added, where you can drum whatever hits your little heart wants, as long as you hit that cymbal at the end in time to activate. For vocals, a psychedelic section appears, indicating that you must scream or otherwise make a loud noise into the mic to activate. Honestly, I personally find it sub par to the free-willed open tactics used in GH, and it makes it less useful in RB3.

One aspect of controls I could not test is the new Pro Mode instruments. Why couldn't I? I'm not rich. The biggest drawback to this game is the new features. For starters, they added a keyboard - although scrolling down the list at minimum one quarter the songs do not have a keyboard part anyways - and of course the new Pro Mode. What a wonderful idea! To have the game basically TEACH you how to play real instruments! Yet... 120 dollars for a pro guitar, and 60 dollars for a cymbal attachment for the drums... it gets pricey - too pricey - rather quick.

The outfit selection is about equal to other RB games, except practically every single piece of clothes and accessories is locked and tied to some achievement, like "complete Road Warrior set list", which is all fine and good until you read that some of the coolest stuff requires you to do Pro Mode, which means shell out all that money for pro instruments.

The band failure is still the same thing - 3 strikes and you fail, as the bar will continually drop regardless what the other band members do.

So what to go with? Again, not that RB3 is a bad game, but if you only had to get one, I would recommend you stick with GH's newest addition. RB3 has plenty of potential for those wanting to get into playing real instruments, but only if you actually have the bankroll to do it.

Battle of the Band Games 1- Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock

Guitar Hero. It's a name most all of us now, and some of us love. For the musically challenged, or people like me who just can't manage the fandangle of so many strings and frets, its a way to feel like your a rocker, without ever having to leave the house. For people that love music and games, its an excuse to hear some of your enjoyed songs while playing a game with reason.

The general format to Guitar Hero hasn't changed much over the years. Notes (circles) come down from the top of the screen, and you hit them in time. If you do well on the "star notes", you build up "star power" that when used enhances your score modifier (or even saves you from an untimely loss). In the case of singing, various formats are available, but most often used is the scrolling style, which displays an actual graph-style bar that you can use to judge if you have to raise or lower your pitch.

Star power is deployed through either a tilt of the controller (guitar), a double cymbal hit (GH 6-part drums), or a simple button press on the controller (vocals). Notes are as simple as hitting whats displayed when it lines up with the bar on the bottom.

The character customization is nearly entirely open from the start, although there are plenty of accessories and outfits to unlock through playing either the story mode or quickplay mode. All instruments can be customized to a righteous amount, although when it comes to the guitars I can see a lot of people going with the more...outlandish 'hero' guitars (such as the bat wing, the battle axe, or even the Frostmourne from World of Warcraft) after they are unlocked.

The story mode goes along the lines of the Deity of rock being beat by some big techno-looking robot, and the characters (many from previous GH games - such as Judy Nails, Pandora, and Axel) must go about reaching enough "power stars" (the measurement of how good you did) to become their inner warrior (pandora turns into a dark elf, judy a winged demon, Axel a mummy) and quest for the Axe of power, to return the Deity to power and defeat the techno-monster. Its cheesy, but plays out exactly like an old metal video, especially the set piece in the background during the final three-song set list, where they battle (lasers from instruments and all) the monster, releasing the Deity who battles it with his axe to the dramatic and awesome sounds of Megadeth.

Each warrior has a special power associated with them as well, from earning 4x star power off of the star power notes, to instant revives should you fail out. These become unlocked for use in some of the quickplay + challenges - a new way of adding replay-ability to the song list. The more stars you get, the higher your "rank", the more stuff you unlock through playing quickplay alone. Challenges range from "get a high score using powers" to "shake the guitar while rocking out in the designated sections".

Multiplayer is there, from quest mode, to competitive showdowns, from a mano a mano all the way up to full band duels. Although I haven't gotten a large chance to check into it, I believe the band fail out has been changed to a format where upon failing, a gauge appears that instructs the player to "win back the crowd!" What this means is you keep playing, and do good, and then you don't fail. It's honestly much more forgiving then the Rock Band 3 strikes your band fails entirely gimmick.

The track list, DLC excluded, comes at a whopping 90 tracks on disc, mostly all of which are new to the genre. Classic hits like Renegade by Styx, or heavy tv style with Bloodlines by Dethklok, or even just stunning hits people have almost been afraid to see such as Steve Vai. With 90 songs, its pretty easy for everyone to find a song they like.

In the battle of the bands, I would say this one wins. Simply put, it's easier to jump into and have fun without buying anything extra (beyond the main set of instruments you need to play of course).

Star Wars: Force Unleashed 2

So yeah... This wasn't what most of us thought of when we heard we where getting a sequel to the hit Force Unleashed. The first game had hours of fun, a long campaign filled with long-to level force powers, combos, and a (bit exaggerated) million costumes to wear for your character. The only thing really wrong was a semi-bad combat camera, repetitive kill keys (Quick Time Events for finishing off a character).

The second one, however, they didn't quite listen to some of the flak they got. They changed the saber crystal system (in most our minds) a step backwards. Instead of having independent color and ability crystals, its all combined, meaning its more a functional choice then an aesthetic choice. Minor gripe really. The kill events are less varied - one event for every type of that bad guy (the past Unleashed had at least two or three per enemy type) that can be killed in such a manner. The bad guys are fewer in type, but more specific in their roles. The only real new force power is Mind Trick - sure, it leads to a few fun moments, but its fundamentally flawed in the fact that whomever you trick seems to be, well, incredibly weaker than their compatriots.

Yeah, the graphics are a step up, especially noticeable on stages like Kamino, where its always raining (when your outdoors anyways). On the flip side of this coin, there are only (IRRC) four stages, and two of them are kamino. This means variety is pretty low.

However, the biggest problem is the overall play time. You're looking at 10 hours on normal mode, and that's if you factor in all the "challenges". Of course, the challenges are the only thing linked to the leaderboards, and their real only purpose is to unlock extras, or costumes, or earn a few XP points to upgrade your force abilities. The hardcore fan will appreciate some of the little voiced-over comics it adds by doing these, as they go into the whole "luke starkiller" storyboards - something I never knew about, but have a decent understanding off thanks to a friend who is big into the Star Wars fiction.

So really, it controls fine, it plays fine, and any problems you may have experienced playing the first are still there. The real set back is a weak playtime amount, and the story itself can seem pretty shabby at times (considering how nicely it wrapped up the first, they did a pretty good job all considering.

Really though, rent this one before you buy it, unless your a real devoted fan, because there isn't much too it.

Tron Controller

File this sexy beauty under AWESOME.



Really though, the video file on this says it all. Rubberized grips on the hand portion, 4 way dpad (as opposed to dpad with directionals). The overall feel is the same as most wired controllers - button sensitivy, stick rotation/sensitivity, button spacing all with no noticeable differances (at least by me). The rubber grips are comfortable, but can attribute to some hand sweating, and I haven't noticed it with any of my other controllers before, but this one has actually rumbled itself off the table during a cutscene before.

The only real negative on this bad boy is (to some) that its wired, and to more of us, that it does not work with generation 1 headsets (the bad boys with the huge plug part that contains also the mute switch on it). This, of course, is no problem to anyone with the newer headsets (either wireless, or containing just the plug at the end), but for those of us who've been around for a while, its troublesome.

Addendum: It's been brought to my attention that thanks to the g2 style mic jack, the controller will probably not work with the controller-plugged keypad either (I don't have one, so I can neither confirm or deny this).