Music Roundup for 5/21/08

This week is a biggie for the Music Roundup with three albums and more.

I'll start off with a highly anticipated album of mine for the year, which is Usher's Here I Stand. This one is out next week and for Usher, how can he really top his last album, Confessions? That is something tough to pull off especially and his new one is not as good as his previous hit album with all those banging hits from "Yeah," "Burn," and "Confessions Part II." Even though it is not Usher's best, it is still pretty good. Of course, his current hit single, "Love in This Club," is the jam these days and the remix, or Part II, featuring Beyonce and Lil' Wayne is actually better even though I don't know what is the big deal with Weezy and why everyone likes him. I'm currently a fan of the up-tempo stuff in Here I Stand with "This Ain't Sex," "Moving Mountains," "What's Your Name" featuring Will.I.Am, "Best Thing" with the Jiggaman, "Before I Met You," and "What's A Man to Do." I'm not so much on the slow songs yet, but "His Mistakes" is the decent one I like so far. Usher's latest album would likely not have the same success Confessions had with that platinum debut, but it is still pretty good to check this out and not as disappointing as others expected.

Next up this week is We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things by Jason Mraz. Sure, his first two albums had that mainstream appeal, but it is more Jason Mraz and that's fine by me. This is just a chill album to blast because of his style of sound still staying the same. Even though I listened to this one once so far, it is also a recommendable album to check out.

Lastly is Death Cab for Cutie's Narrow Stairs and it has received numerous critical praise. The album definitely lives up to all that praise being more Death Cab with their style of rock. This also is worth a download or purchase.

That's it for the Music Roundup and next month is going to be nuts with albums from Coldplay, Ne-Yo, and N.E.R.D. out at that time, so maybe music will be good again...

Let's do the Warrior Pose!!! (I caved in for Wii Fit)

So I bought Wii Fit today at my nearest GameStop (didn't pre-order it) and let's just say I fell into the mainstream hype. Yeah, this thing is selling bonkers right now at the United States and we have to wait till probably next week for Nintendo to give out sales numbers, which is likely in the millions if they shipped out a lot of them even though there were rumored shortages. With all that coverage in talk shows, advertising in buses, and the above average reviews from some sites, Wii Fit is not that bad.

Keep in mind I only played it for a hour, so I had to try at least one of each activity. So far, I'm digging the strength exercises and yoga for now rather than the mini-games. It does suck I have to play more and more of these activities to unlock the other stuff as in Wii Play, but it seems better this time with the Balance Board. At first, I was skeptical that this thing would work, but it surprisingly does and it is pretty accurate with the balance obviously (I don't know about BMI and weight yet). Sure, you can BS the exercises to a certain point and they do a good job of keeping stats for everything u have done so far. Of course, I don't want to reveal my stats such as BMI and other things, but it does want to motivate u to keep doing this on a consistent basis. I'm not a fan of the mini-games yet since I suck with them and the aerobics, but it does put the Balance Board to good use other than the yoga.

Personally, when I bought Wii Fit, it felt like an impulse buy because of all the mainstream hype and the fact being a first-party game on the Wii. I'm not sure if trading three 360 games (Orange Box, Mass Effect, and DMC4) seemed worth it for this one, but I do see the potential in the Balance Board being a special peripheral while alpha-moms go crazy buying this today and the rest of the week. A review might happen for this one next month since I have to beat GTA4 first (Assault Heroes 2 review is still pending too), if I do write one, expect it before Ninja Gaiden 2's release.

Oh I love Europe!! (This Week's Rock Band DLC Impressions)

Keep in mind I only bought six of the nine songs that are out this week for Rock Band, which are European exclusive tracks slated for the Euro version of the game, but available as DLC here at the States. Here's the rundown of my top 5 picks.... (Only Guitar mostly)

My #1 pick this week is obviously "Hysteria" by Muse because this song is just awesome and the Rock Band charts did live up to its greatness. All instruments provide great fun while playing this song, but good luck on bass, because it is hard (hence the video below) but very fun. I won't mind doing this on vocals since Muse has become one of my favorite bands now. We'll see about that....

My #2 pick is "Rock 'n' Roll Star" by Oasis (chart above) because well it is Oasis for crying out loud. Another great song for RB on guitar especially the final solo that I didn't expect.

My #3 pick this week is quite surprising, which is "New Wave" by Pleymo (chart below). I bought this because this is quite unique to have on Rock Band and Pleymo is like the French version of Limp Bizkit. For vocals, good luck on this one trying to rap this one out.

Juli's "Perfekte Welle" is my #4 pick this week because a female is signing it and I won't mind another one of these songs. Guitar is pretty easy for this one, so buy it for the vocals. It is kind of a chill song to play anyway.

#5 this week is Blur's "Beetlebum" which is a cover, a rarity these days on Rock Band, but it is a Blur song so I bought it. This is also the easiest song on guitar this week as well. Getting Blur on Rock Band reminds me for Harmonix to get their obvious hit "Song 2" soon (music video below to remind u and I don't care if it is only two minutes long). 

Since this post is getting way long with all those YouTube videos, I'll leave out the last song I bought, "Countdown to Insanity" by H-Block X, to be searched elsewhere. That's my top 5 picks for DLC this week for Rock Band and buy Muse's "Hysteria" as soon as possible.

Music Video of the Day (5/19/08) "Violet Hill"

Coldplay's new video for "Violent Hill" is pretty crazy. I have nothing else to say about this now so enjoy it.

We're dropping the deuce..... (Skate 2 Teaser)

Last year was the beginning of a new era in skateboarding games with EA's Skate. An unique control scheme along with the satisfaction of nailing tricks never felt so good, which is why Skate is on my top 10 of my favorite games of 2007. It was inevitable for EA to announce the sequel, Skate 2, because of its success and finally dethroning the Tony Hawk series. Here is the teaser at IGN, which isn't much, but this story they also provided has some details about the storyline being five years later after Skate 1 where the cops have San Vanelona on lockdown of skaters going everywhere and it is up to you, a created skater, (hopefully u can import the same look of your character from the first game) to shake up the city again. No gameplay footage has been revealed yet or any new moves (people want inverts and flatland moves) either. I also hope that multiplayer gets improved with more fun modes (Spot Battle is the one I'm good at and play other than races) as well as the skate. TV options. As long as they don't go Tony Hawk syndrome on us, EA's Skate 2 can be the skateboarding game we have been waiting for even though it seems like it is going more of a storyline direction.

Music Video of the Day (5/16/08) "Everyone Nose"

N.E.R.D's new song is pretty funny and I'm looking forward to their new album, which I don't know when it is coming out (next month?). Look out for cameos from Kanye West, Lindsay Lohan, and more. I should check out that remix soon too.

Expensive Rhythm Games = The Genre's Death Nail

I have been wanting to rant about this since the confirmation of Guitar Hero 4 being a full band game like EA and Harmonix's Rock Band. Today, I finally got my Game Informer issue (pictured above) featuring the first official details and pics of Guitar Hero 4, which is coming out this fall. With Rock Band out, its competitors now want to have a piece of that pie and then nearly ripping off its ideas at the same time. I'll use Konami's recent announcement of their new rhythm game, Rock Revolution, as an example which is also a full band game being a Rock Band wannabe. Yeah, Konami and Benami pretty much started off the rhythm genre with Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Freaks, Drummania, and Beatmania, but returning to the genre is almost like a mistake with only having cover songs while your competition has now master tracks at this point due to their success and putting out another drum kit (pictured below) just to piss off consumers.

Back to Guitar Hero 4, the cover story on Game Informer pretty much announces the full band kit with a new drum kit (with a extra cymbal), a new guitar will likely be revealed at E3, and likely a new mic for vocals. I just don't know if originality would even exist in this genre now since Guitar Hero and Rock Band have taken over while over companies like THQ and Konami struggle to find their own rhythm game to compete. At least what separates Guitar Hero 4 and Rock Band (and maybe its sequel), is the opportunity to create songs. Mentioned in the GI story, Neversoft was aware of the mod community making their own note charts to various songs in the first GH games and wanted to make something that would cater to those peeps who do that. Even though vocals are not happening for these created songs, this could be something big if the competition does not rip it off within a year. Other than Create-A-Rocker, similar to what was seen in Tony Hawk's Create-A-Skater, a Band World Tour style career mode for all instruments (even bass), and a soundtrack of only mastered tracks that are not revealed due to the possibility that the competition will use it their own game, Guitar Hero 4 is looking pretty good so far even though they have to rip off Rock Band in some aspects.

With my thoughts on Guitar Hero 4 out of the way, let's begin the rant about these rhythm games being hella expensive. Assuming the full band bundles for Guitar Hero 4 and Rock Revolution being in the 150 - 200 dollar range when they are released, that is almost like buying a new console at this point if you are buying both (if Rock Band 2 is actually coming out this year with new instruments, this would be worst). I just don't know if the casual audience are ready to shell out more money for new instruments for their specific games. The same question can be raised for the hardcore audience specifically GH and RB fans, are they also willing to waste more money on new instruments? The whole compatibility issue between all these games is just pure BS and sooner or later, these companies have to eventually accept each other's instruments to be worked in the game to make fans happy. Then again, it all comes down to money and with EA and Activision especially, they just want as much of it as possible. If this trend keeps up of multiple full band games with separate band kits, I think this would be the death nail of the rhythm game genre.

Eventually, people like me will get tired of wasting money on more instruments of these full band games just because they want the money and the success that Guitar Hero and Rock Band had. The first Guitar Hero brought me to the rhythm genre and could possibly take me out of it. This is just another reason that gaming is expensive these days and publishers are willing to get back the money they spend on for developers to make these games. I guess I have to stick to one side rather than being on both (referring to Guitar Hero 4 and the inevitable Rock Band 2), but it will likely come down to the soundtrack that will be out on retail and the quality of downloadable content (which Neversoft claimed they will have a better strategy for DLC with GH4). Maybe I should buy a PS3 instead of wasting money on rhythm games this fall.