Support Rock Vibe on Kickstarter!
Rock Vibe is basically Rock Band for the blind. A player attaches peripherals to her/his arms, and the devices vibrate when the player needs to strike a corresponding note. It’s a brilliant way to make a modern video game playable for the visually impaired.
The creators of Rock Vibe need money to get this project off the ground, as building hardware isn’t exactly a cheap endeavor. So far they’ve raised about $15,000 on Kickstarter (an incredibly cool crowd-funding site, if you haven’t seen it). Unfortunately they have not yet reached their goal of $32,000, and they only have three days left.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that one of the creators of Rock Vibe is a woman named Rupinder Dhillon who is the sister of a good friend. That doesn’t take away from how cool her project is. Hardware/ software combinations like Rock Vibe will help blind gamers now, but I have no doubt that their concept has the potential to heighten the gaming experiences of sighted gamers in the future.
Hitting the Orange Button: Improving Your Guitar Hero Skills
Two things to keep in mind before we begin:
- Real guitars and plastic game controllers that look kind of like guitars are two completely different things. Just because you are good at one, doesn’t mean you will be good at the other. Guitar Hero & Rock Band are games, have fun with them. If you’re an amazing guitarist, don’t bitch to your friends, “If this were a real guitar… blah, blah, blah.” No one likes to play with a whiner.
- There are no cheat codes, or magical things you can do to improve your plastic guitar chops (or real guitar for that matter). If you want to get better, practice.
(Mine isn't)
With that in mind, here are some tips to improve your Guitar Hero & Rock Band skills:
Calibrate:
Not all gaming consoles, televisions, and sound systems are connected equally. In most games, shows, and movies the fractions of a second that they are off are completely irrelevant. However, songs on expert move really quickly, and a fraction of a second can make or break your timing.
The solution is simple, tweak the calibration settings until you are comfortable. This can be a slow process, but it’s worth the time once you get it right.
Controller:
Don’t buy a crappy third party controller, they almost always suck. Get yourself an official controller.
I prefer using a Guitar Hero controller as opposed to a Rock Band controller because I only want to learn one. Guitar Hero controllers work on Rock Band, but Rock Band controllers don’t work on Guitar Hero.
Focus Your Eyes:
Those note patterns run really quickly. You need to learn to focus on the notes, and blur out the rest of the game. The pretty graphics can serve as a distraction.
As you become a better player, the distractions will be less significant. The better you become the slower the notes will seem to move. It’s an odd phenomenon, but I promise it’s true.
Hammer-On & Pull-Off:
Learn them, and use them. If you don’t know what they are, go play through the tutorial.
Don’t Strum What You Can’t Play:
Guitar Hero notes are like SAT questions. Strumming the wrong notes is worse than not strumming at all. If you find a passage of notes where you can’t get anything right, let them go without strumming at all. The meter will fall, but not nearly as fast as it would if you were strumming sour notes.
Similarly, if you find yourself behind or ahead of the beat, and you are consistently strumming the wrong notes, stop and let a few notes go by, then start again.
Use Your Pinky:
The muscles that control your pinky finger are small, and considerably weaker than the rest of your hand. You have to exercise it to gain the control, stamina, and dexterity that you will require. You need to practice using your pinky (this is also true for playing a real guitar as well).
Move Your Hand:
A lot of players try to keep their hand in place on the controller’s neck, and just stretch either their index or pinky finger to hit the notes. This is a royal pain, and isn’t a great technique.
So much of playing Expert is finger placement. Learn to move your hand along the neck. The movements should be small. Use the ridge on the yellow button for Guitar Hero controllers, or the dots on the Rock Band controllers to orient yourself.
When you play chords or a string of notes, make sure you are using a comfortable hand position.
If you reach a point where you are comfortable using all of your fingers, and can freely move your hand without getting lost, you will be “5 starring” a lot of songs on expert.
Happy strumming.
Pink Floyd Rock Band? It Could Happen
It seems that the members of Pink Floyd are considering a music game. After seeing the loving care that the Beatles received in Beatles Rock Band (review coming really soon), I can’t think of a band that is better suited for the same treatment.
The stages would be freaking awesome. The music is incredible (and far more difficult than the Beatles), and that solo on Comfortably Numb… ooo the solo on Comfortably Numb. I’m in love with this idea already. I hope it happens.
So many great albums!
The Song Remains the Same
As you may know, I like Guitar Hero. It’s a fun game, but the Guitar Hero/ Rock Band franchises are getting played out.
Yesterday marked the formal announcement of Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, Guitar Hero: Van Halen, and DJ Hero.
You can add that to Rock Band The Beatles and Lego Rock Band – yes, you read that last one correctly, and no, it is not a typo.
Here’s the thing… Guitar Hero was hugely innovative (emphasis on “was”). It is still a fun game and franchise, but there are too many versions and I know I am getting tired of it.
There better be something special about each of these games. Now, I am not just going to point out flaws without offering solutions, so I come bearing ideas.
Rock Band The Beatles
This game can be bold and different!
As the game progresses, the audience should become so loud that you cannot hear the music over the screaming crowd.
The band’s score should be completely unaffected by the performance of the drummer.
If you are playing at home, you should also put fourth a serious effort to dislike at least one of other person in the band.
Lego Rock Band
The Lego series of games is strikingly good, but I think we can all agree that this game has no right to exist. Spicing it up is a must.
I think that the Lego band should be playing in dangerous locations. If the band fails a song, they are destroyed. Here are a few examples.
- The stage is a dog bowl. If you fail, a bulldog eats the little guys.
- The band is playing in a microwave. Failure turns on the microwave and everyone into little puddles. FATALITY!
- Something with firecrackers.
Guitar Hero 5 & Band Hero
I’ve got nothing. I hope they continue to improve the experience and pick good songs. Making both of these feels unnecessary.
Guitar Hero: Van Halen
The game must find a way to foster conflict between the guitarist and vocalist, ultimately forcing the band to change vocalists between sets. Prior to the last set, the bass player get’s the boot and is replaced with the guitarist’s son.
On a side note, I like Van Halen in small doses. I am also not so big on tapping. This game would have to come with an incredible track list for me to buy it.
DJ Hero
Oh boy! This game had better be magical.
I am looking into the future, and future me HATES everything about this game, from the stupid controller, to the repetitive clubbing music that will make me want to vomit.
And I thought a plastic guitar was stupid
I hope they do something cool with this, but the concept seems derivative and boring.
Digital Beatlemania
The Beatles are finally getting remastered. Digital quality versions of the legendary band’s albums are going to make their way to store shelves on September 9th (the same day that Rock Band: The Beatles will be released).
This is long overdue.
However, you shouldn’t expect to see the Beatles on iTunes or any other legal online music distributor which is pathetic because I can say with absolute certainty that the remastered albums will be available for illegal download on September 9th if they aren’t leaked even earlier.
That’s all for tonight. I have an absurdly early flight home from Arizona in the morning. Until next-time.
Guitar Hero: Metallica Reviewed
I just spent a few hours giving the brand new Guitar Hero: Metallica (GHM) a test drive and I can confidently make two conclusions:
- It’s fun
- It’s hard as hell
Let’s be clear, if you don’t like Guitar Hero or Metallica, this game is not for you.
The Good
Learning from the deficiencies of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (which was still a good game), GHM starts off on career mode with two killer Metallica classics, For Whom the Bell Tolls & The Unforgivien.
I honestly can’t think of a better opening track for this game than For Whom the Bell Tolls. I’m not ashamed to admit that I got really into playing that song.
At the end of each song, the standard “You Rock” screen features the fist from the cover of St. Anger (2003) in a fun animation. I think that the cover of St. Anger is the only cool part of the whole album, so thumbs up on using it well.
The graphics and character models are far superior to anything we have seen in previous music games. The band’s movements and facial expressions are spot on thanks to some great motion capture and rendering work.
The sound quality is also out of this world on most of the tracks. I love the mixes in this game.
It also has some amazing songs.
From the Metallica library:
For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Unforgivien, Fade to Black, Battery, Creeping Death, Disposable Heroes, Enter Sandman, Fuel, Hit the Lights, Master of Puppets, Nothing Else Matters, No Leaf Clover, One, Orion, Sad But True, Seek & Destroy, Welcome Home (Sanatarium), Wherever I May Roam, and Whiplash are all incredible songs.
GHM also includes a number of other songs from bands that either inspired or were inspired by Metallica. Some of the ones that really stand out to me are:
Thin Lizzy’s The Boys Are Back in Town, Mastodon’s Blood and Thunder, Queen’s Stone Cold Crazy, and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Tuesday’s Gone (which always reminds me of the movie Happy Gilmore).
As I mentioned from the beginning, this game is tough. Far harder than any other Guitar Hero or Rock Band game that has preceded it – It is the nature of the source material. Metal is fast and intricate. The difficulty is refreshing as there must be countless Guitar Hero fans who can breeze through 90% of the songs on expert without putting in much effort (That’s how I felt playing Guitar Hero World Tour). The guitar parts in GHM are rediculous, especially the Kirk Hammett shred solos – I love playing shred solos in Guitar Hero!
If the guitar is difficult, the drums are %&^*ing insane! I feel like playing with the second kick pedal that is required for Expert +mode would be fun if I was coordinated enough to do it.
The Not So Good
Almost no downloadable content. The only downloadable content that works or will work for GHM is the Death Magnetic (2008) album. It’s nice, but that album is not their best work.
I also feel like there were some classic songs that really should be in the game:
Looking at the tracks that were selected from Metallica’s first album Kill ‘em All, they only included songs that are credited to living and current members of the band. This leaves out classics like The Four Horsemen and Cliff Burton’s elongated bass solo (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth.
Other songs that are conspicuously missing are: Ride the Lightning, The Call of Ktulu (like The Four Horsemen, writing credit goes to Dave Mustaine of Megadeth), …And Justice for All, Bleeding Me, and Hero of the Day (I love the version from S&M). The absence of these songs isn’t a deal-breaker by any stretch of the imagination, but they are sorely missed (Especially The Call of Ktulu & (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth).
I have one final gripe about gameplay.
In Guitar Hero World Tour, the feature of holding lower notes while playing higher notes was introduced. I’m not crazy about all of the applications of this feature. For instance, on the song Nothing Else Matters, the opening riff is a series of open notes. Playing it on a real guitar is a no brainer. Playing it in Guitar Hero, while not difficult, isn’t very easy. A similar problem arrises in the opening riff of Fade to Black. The riff is a heck of a lot harder to play in Guitar Hero than it is on guitar because of this awkward game feature that doesn’t feel necessary or make much sense. I recognize that Guitar Hero and playing guitar have very little to do with one another, but the feature itself just doesn’t make sense to me.
The Roundup
This is a good game. Not perfect… but how many games are?
If you like Guitar Hero and Metallica – Buy it.
If you like Guitar Hero but find the previous installments too easy – Buy it.
… and when you play, play it loud.
"The Unforgiven"
5 Steps of Guitar Hero Addiction
If you’ve ever seen someone play Guitar Hero, you’ve probably had the same five step reaction that everyone has:
- First you think the person with the plastic guitar in their hands is a total dumb-ass. You look at the brightly colored buttons and think, “I would never be caught dead playing that. It doesn’t even look fun,”
- Then you stand there watching because the music is good, and there is something about the game, and the idiot playing it that keeps your attention in some strange way that you cannot explain.
- Soon you find yourself thinking, “That can’t be too hard. I bet I could play that.”
- Next thing you know, you’re the dumb-ass with the plastic guitar in your hands.
- Shortly after you find that you are hesitant to give the plastic guitar back to your friend.
Why is it so much fun to jump around with a fake guitar in your hands?
It’s not really different from any other video game experience. If you have a desire to race cars, play professional football, blast out a crazy solo in a gigantic arena, shoot Germans on the beaches of Normandy, dogfight over the pacific, or slaughter aliens in a far away galaxy, video games let you do that. It’s just good escapism.
It’s also a great, nonviolent, accessible game for everyone. Female, male, young, or old; there are songs for everyone.
Anyone who has ever played guitar (for real) and tried out Guitar Hero knows that they don’t have much in common, but that’s not the point. They are two different skills serving different purposes. A lot of musicians don’t quite get that. I know some great guitarists who get so pissed off that they aren’t good at Guitar Hero (and some great Guitar Hero players who absolutely suck at playing guitar).
I play guitar and I play Guitar Hero. Nine times out of ten, I will pick my real guitar, but every once in a while I need to escape to my magical video game land where a packed arena is cheering for me as I play Free Bird.
My Halloween Costume (2008)
