There is no denying that music-based video-games have been booming in the past few years. The amount the genre has evolved from titles such as Space Channel 5 on the Sega Dreamcast to the staples of Rock Band and Guitar Hero has been moving ahead in leaps and bounds. But with so many additions, expansions, franchises, and peripherals out there, lounge rooms across the globe have come cluttered and confused.
With bands signing exclusivity deals with different franchises, those who take their virtual rocking out seriously are going to want to own all the franchises they can get, the problem you may find is you are parting out your hard earned cash for the sake of rocking out to only a handful of songs.
Harmonix have taken a step to keep consumers happy with their extensive Downloadable Content, offering over 500 tracks, all working with all versions of their franchise. The Guitar Hero franchise has taken a similar step, offering 30 or so tracks off their Guitar Hero: World Tour disc to work with the upcoming Guitar Hero 5.
It’s the exclusivity that is dividing the market. On one hand you have Guitar Hero Aerosmith, Metallica, Smash Hits, Van Halen and on the other you have Rock Band Beatles - so many discs, so many songs, so much choice, but more importantly, so expensive, especially in today's economic climate.
Each new addition to the series (RB1, RB2, GH3, GHWT, GH5) brings with it new peripherals, always slightly better than the previous set, which has many households owning up to 5 guitar controllers and three sets of drums, just to keep up to date.
And with other franchises climbing out of the woodwork such as Band Hero, Guitar Revolution, Lego Rock Band, DJ Hero many people are seriously asking themselves if it’s worth it.
Hamonix and EA are really pushing Rock Band as the biggest title of the bunch, throwing a campaign across the United States which has local bars having Rock Band nights. It's a good idea that promotes the game to a crowd that normally wouldn't have that much to do with gaming. It get's everyone involved, shows that it's a fun experience that can be enjoyed by everyone, and in turn will most likely generate more sales for their product. There were similar evening hosted across pubs and clubs in Australia promoting Guitar Hero 3 that pitted the best players in the country to get the highest scores on the hardest songs. It was successful, but it was only the Guitar Hero afficinados who got in on the action.
With Christmas fast approaching, and two huge titles dropping very soon in Rock Band: Beatles and Guitar Hero 5 with DJ Hero just around the corner, the war will be back on for who can move the most units under those Christmas trees for 2009.
Is the Music Game Genre over-saturated? Is interest slowly dying out from the casual crowd that once got it booming? Ideally we’d love to see one giant DLC store where you could buy any song you like, let it run on any game you own, and just rock out at your own pleasure....but we’d also like a magical gnome here at the office, both ideas are never going to happen....
11/09/2009
Nintendo E3 2009 Wrap
Nintendo and Sony headlined the busiest day of E3 this year, with back to back keynotes that were sure to keep us entertained on E3 2009 Day 2.
Nintendo started proceedings with a bang. After a slight delay Cammie Dunaway kicked things off with a Mario montage, leading in to the announcement of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The all new 4 player Super Mario title was demonstrated on stage and will certainly please Nintendo fans of old.
Unfortunately the excitement level dropped directly after as Cammie went on to announce the leaked Pre-E3 Wii Fit Plus - a game that is heading in a 'new direction' and would help people "create a specific workout program that's perfect" for them. Cammie showed off a range of new minigames, including skateboarding and barrel jumping, which finally puts the gamer in Mario's shoes.
Reggie then came on stage to start talking about 'innovation' and went into a promotion for Wii MotionPlus and Wii Sports Resort, two items that were announced at E3 last year. Nintendo's Bill Trinen showed us that Wii Sports Resort will begin with skydiving, and then gave us a look at the very interesting archery and basketball games. Reggie reminded us that third party developers are making use of Wii MotionPlus, including EA with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 & Grand Slam Tennis and Sega with Virtua Tennis 2009.
Reggie dropped an interesting statistic by claiming that more 3rd party games were sold on the Wii and DS than any other platforms. Wow! He used Square Enix as an example of upcoming RPGs by showing off a trailer for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearer and Kingdom Hears 358/2 Days. Continuing the RPG trend Reggie discussed how Bowser sucks, and this time he literally means it. In Mario & Luigi RPG: Bowser's Inside Story the famous brothers have been shrunk and find themselves inside their nemesis!
The biggest under the radar announcement was that of Golden Sun DS. After a 6 year absence one of the best RPGs of the GBA era is back, and deserved way more excitement than it got.
Cammie replaced the Nintendo of America President on stage to announce Woman's Murder Club, an interactive book for the Nintendo DS. This is all about 'taking risks' and trying new things. It's definitely an interesting concept, and one we'll see more of if it turns out to be a success. Continuing with the DS content she announced COP: The Recruit. An open-world third-person urban crime game, Cop puts players behind the wheel, and on foot, as a street racer who's faced with the choice of returning to his criminal ways, or helping the police. The action packed trailer looked like GTA meets Driver mixed in with some Anime style cutscenes.
The DSi has some interesting unique features, including the ability to download content and 'applications' from an online store. In keeping with this theme Nintendo announced that it is developing a system for users to be able to share DSi pictures on the World Wide Web. Users will be able to take pictures with their DSi and then directly upload them to their Facebook page straight from their DSi console. WarioWare DIY is another DSi exclusive title and will allow players to create their own microgames, using features such as the DSi camera, then send them to their friends locally via Wi-Fi.
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata came on stage and confused everyone. He gave an extremely long, seemingly unnecessary speech, about Nintendo attempting to increase its audience. He said there are three active groups - those who actively play, those who never play and those who might. If gaming is to grow, it must come from the "maybe" group. There are 295 Million people in Japan, Europe and the US actively playing games. Then there's another 145 Million who say they might be involved in games. He continued to discuss non-gamers for quite a while and it seemed as if he didn't really have a point.
Eventually Iwata announced the Wii Vitality Sensor - a device the plugs into the bottom of your Wii Remote and receives information about your heart rate by being attached to your finger.
Super Mario Galaxy 2 was announced to the surprise of many since a new Mario title was announced at the start of the show. Check out the trailer to see Mario running around the spherical world, this time with the help of Yoshi. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the first true sequel to a 3D Mario title, and the first time two 3D Mario adventures will appear on the same console.
Reggie reads the blogs. He knows we want more mature titles from third party developers. So, he decided to show us three games on the horizon that fit this description, and one of those games was Dead Space Extraction.
Nintendo started the show with a surprise, and ended it with a massive shock, by announcing that they were teaming up with Team Ninja to bring Metroid: Other M to the Nintendo Wii. It's Metroid like you've never seen it before, and as Reggie says, it takes a name you know well and turns it into something new. The game is due out next year and features a mix of 1st and 3rd person gameplay. With that Nintendo concluded their Keynote for E3 2009.
Later in the day, at their roundtable discussion, Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that a new Wii Zelda title is in development. Don't expect it until 2010 at the very earliest and reports that we won't see it again until next E3 suggest it may be further away than that.
Sony E3 2009 Wrap
The morning continued with Sony's Conference starting at 4am local time. Jack Tretton started proceedings by thanking everyone for coming and stated that they won't be "out done" by anyone. He discussed the success of the PS2 and that Sony was the first company to have 3 successful consoles in the industry at the same time along side the PS3 and PSP. inFamous is just one of 35 titles to come exclusively to the PlayStation 3 in 2009 and looks set to further increase the 13 million PS3 that have already been sold worldwide.
Sony played montages of various upcoming games throughout the entire keynote. Out of all the videos the show early in the piece Heavy Rain received the biggest applause.
The PSP was a major player in the keynote as Sony officially announced "the worst kept secret of E3" the PSP Go. They also confirmed that the new iteration of the handheld wouldn't make the PSP-3000 or UMD obsolete and that they intended to continue to support both in the future, even after the PSP GO is released.
Sony did have a surprise or two in store for us, however, by bringing out Kojima to announce Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for PSP. It is set 10 years after the events of MGS3: Snake Eater and is said to be a true sequel to that title. The game is set in 1974, where a powerful group takes over Costa Rica.
Gran Turismo PSP kept the good news coming for PSP fans as it was announced along side the PSP Go and showcased with an impressive trailer. There will be over 800 cars, 35 tracks and 60 layouts of those tracks. The game will also run at 60 fps. It will be a launch title along side the PSP Go.
Finally Agent was announced exclusively for the PlayStation 3. "We have always enjoyed making action games, and with Agent we are making what we believe will be the ultimate action game," said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. We didn't get any images or footage but nobody is going to complain about an exclusive game from Rockstar.
Sony dropped a bombshell during their E3 2009 keynote speech when they announced Final Fantasy XIV Online exclusively for the PS3 and PC. A small trailer was shown, although no gameplay was in the trailer. The response to the announcement was one of amazement, as the audience at the keynote didn't quite know how to react to it.
In keeping with the FF theme Sony revealed that Final Fantasy VII is going to be released on the PS Store for download.
The biggest shock of the morning came when Sony announced their new motion controller for the PS3. While the controller was still in the form of an early prototype it worked in a similar way to the Wii Remote. However, with the aid of a camera it appeared to detect movement better than the current Wii Remote. Dr. Richard Marx, creator of the EyeToy, demoed the controller on stage, showing off its real-time movement and how precise it is with the gamer’s swings. We'll post the video of the demonstration shortly.
Sony also announced Mod Nation Racers - a community and creative-focused title from developer United Front Games. The title will be a kart racing title, allowing you to generate your own characters and build your own karts.
Another PS3 exclusive, God of War III will be hitting shelves during March 2010. It just snuck in towards the end of the conference and we're glad it did with a trailer. The gameplay is just as we expect it to be - gory, violent and action-packed! The environments look stunning and the enemies just as massive and aggressive as we remember from the first two mind-blowing titles. And with that Sony Concluded their Keynote.
03/06/2009
It's back, bigger, badder, and better than ever before. E3 is here on our doorsteps, the biggest gaming exhibition the world has ever seen, which is constantly the event when all the juiciest content is revealed. What are my predictions for this years E3 Expo?
Xbox 360
When looking on the boards there hasn't been that much talk of great, exclusive content coming out for the Xbox 360 in the next twelve months. Microsoft will be showing us more of Halo: ODST which was a given, but other than the staple cross platform titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and the like, information on exclusives are lacking.
Epic could be set to release information on a either some serious DLC for Gears of War 2 or possibly the expansion with a new title in the series, but this is purely speculation.
There has been a lot of talk about some type of motion sensing device for the Xbox 360 for a number of months now, and with increasing leaks of "information" it is likely that IF such a device is in the works, we are going to see it at E3.
I think E3 will spell out the fate of the Xbox 360. IF there is a lack of content, I feel we will get an announcement by the years end of a new console coming out in the next twelve months. The Xbox 360 has been in our houses for quite some time now, and has almost reached the pinnacle of it's potential. E3 could be the clue that tells us if a new console is closer than we expected.
Wii
Ahh the Nintendo Wii, the little console that could. It's dominance in sales since it's release is impressive, but is let down by it's lack of decent games. Once again, not much is on the cards for Nintendo, and in true Reggie style, I think we will get some corkers announced at E3.
First of all The Conduit will be high on the lists, to continue the hype train as it inches closer and closer towards release. Top this off with Motion Plus and of course a more in-depth look at Wii Sports Resort we will get a taste of what we can get our hands on very soon.
With the release of the DSi we can expect some big titles coming out along with a spiel on the DSi Ware titles. Nintendo should also be ready to unveil a storage solution for the Wii, it's been a hot topic for an eternity, and E3 would be the perfect time to address it.
Mature gaming is going to be high on the list, and we will see a bunch of info on the new Resident Evil title and of course Dead Space Extraction
Purely speculation but I have a feeling we will see one of the big Nintendo franchises with a new title on the Wii, I'd be leaning towards a new Legend of Zelda title.
PS3
Killzone 2 is out, Infamous is on the way, what is next for the big black box from Sony? Uncharted 2 will surely be on display, along with God Of War III and I'd be leaning towards getting some more info on Gran Turismo 5.
Sony has a really good chance at domination in 2009, and E3 is going to be make or break it for the console, especially IF Microsoft announce a new Xbox coming to the streets in the next twelve months.
Heavy Rain will steal the show this year, it's been sitting there with some teasers every now and then, and it would be a perfect setting for David Cage to show the world exactly how far his team have pushed the PS3. It could be the underground title that really propels the PS3 to greatness
Heller's Wish List
*Alan Wake
*Sadness
*Max Payne 3
*New Valve Title
*LA Noir
15/05/2009
Today is my 22nd birthday, and while I feel a little older, I also feel like this is going to be a good year. So instead of my usual quirky desk pictures I decided to take on of my ACTUAL desk at home. You can see a 2008 iMac sitting there, 3gb of RAM and a 2.4gbz Intel Processor. This is my primary computer since I got it in September 2008. Next to it is the screen of my gaming rig, a filthy AMD X2 Athlon 6000+ with 4gb of DDR 2 RAM, with 2x 8600GTs running SLI. It's rocking Windows 7 and it get's all my gaming needs done, but could do with some new graphics cards.
Well now onto what's been hot on my radar this past week. With Dead Space out of the way I've really been sinking my teeth into Resident Evil 5 and while it's very different from past entries into the franchise, it inspired me to write an article on the origins of Survival Horror, where it's been and where it's headed. Check it out over here
Vin Diesel has crept onto my Xbox 360 for a few hours this week with Wheelman. It's a what you see is what you get, and chances are you won't like what you see. Tano has done a featured review which you can see here
The Godfather II has been taking up most of my time this week. It's harbors some very interesting gameplay mechanics, and while lacking overall polish, if you can get past the graphics and sub-par AI is a half decent play. I'll most likely play the whole way through but you can make your own judgements when the featured review launches towards the end of the week :)
What have you guys been playing?
08/04/2009
Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the year that is 2009! I trust you have all had a great Christmas and New Years, full of food, family, and hopefully you all got the games you were hoping for.
So what is currently sitting on Heller's Desk for the first week of 2009? Nintendo WiFi ISSUES! Animal Crossing - Let's Go To The City has made its way across my desk this week, and to tell you the truth I'm a little addicted. I find myself picking it up at least once a day for about 30 mins, which is about all you need to be content with this title. I never played the DS or GC versions, so I'm not experience the monsoon of nostalgia (or the hit of "this is EXACTLY the same") that some users are experiencing. WHAT I AM seeing is a multitude of Nintendo WFC issues with this title. Continual dropouts have been occurring, and it seems that everyone is plagued with the issue. Online is what makes this game fun! Nintendo need to seriously work this out! Otherwise I'd give this game a big thumbs up!
Dead Space is still loading off my Xbox Hard-Drive and I am absolutely loving it! Games don't scare me, and movies very rarely scare me, but I am crapping my proverbial pants when I play Dead Space! I've never played a game that catches the atmosphere as well as EA's new title. The lighting, the shadows and the stellar sound all add to the scariest experience I've ever had in an interactive medium EVER!
Wario: The Shake Dimension also is sitting on my desk. MyWii has had a feature review of this game for a while, and I gotta say I'm impressed. If you are a fan of the old school platformers, and want to see top notch graphical presentation with a WACKY world, you will LOVE this game! Unfortunately it's not in 16:9 so you are stuck with some annoying borders, but you will learn to deal with that. It's also worth pointing out that the 2 best games to use the Wiimotes gestures have both been Wario games....
I've also got some time with my PC this week and I've been playing some Team Fortress 2 online. For those who played the Xbox version and now aren't keen on trying the PC, I beg you to reconsider. The PC version is AMAZING and feels totally different to its Xbox Counterpart. Also STEAM are having a sale until Midnight today (2nd of Jan) where you can pick it up for the low price of $9.95.
Also I have been playing through Telltale's Sam and Max Season 1. I am a huge fan of Sam and Max Hit The Road, an oldschool point and click adventure which is right up there with my favourite games of all time, easily in the top 5. Telltale have captured the energy of that game, and transferred it into top notch episodic content that is relevant today. You can download Episode 3 for free off STEAM so if you want to give it a go, I'd definitely recommend it!
As you can see, I'm still catching up on some of the great gaming that was in 2008, but what am I looking forward to in 2009?
Skate 2 - Xbox 360
Resident Evil 5 - Xbox 360
Killzone 2- PS3
Heavy Rain - PS3
Bioshock 2 - Xbox 360
No More Heroes 2 - Nintendo Wii
Uncharted 2 - PS3
What is tickling your fancy for 2009? What games did you get for Christmas that you are playing through right now?
02/01/2009