So I bought Guitar Hero: Aerosmith today and Expert is already done in 3 hours (hence the title). I only 3 starred 1 song while 5 starring the majority of the songs (there are 31 in the Career excluding the bonus songs). Even on Expert, it is perhaps the easiest GH game difficulty wise (Even "Train Kept A Rollin" was not a problem I thought it would be). Of course playing a GH or RB game for 3 hours straight does kick in the fatigue with my hands, but I might as well finish it fast and I did. Some songs seem fun and longer than I thought like the Aerosmith lineup. Even the non-Aerosmith songs seem okay (STP, Ted Nugent, etc). At least the achievements are easier (career achievements stack) this time around as if Neversoft learned their lesson about those crazy GH3 achievements. A little lame is buying everything from the shop requiring a playthrough of all difficulties getting every character, song, guitar, etc.). Keep in mind I haven't messed around with anything else other than career mode (Online and co-op mostly) so expect a review of this later this week here.
This is new footage of the multiplayer in Gears 2 that is in the 360 version of Unreal Tournament 3 (I should buy that game...). The Epic go more in detail about the new modes (Meatflag, Wingman (2 on 2 I think), and Guardian), new maps, weapons, and executions in this sequel. As mentioned earlier in the post regarding the 1up interview, I'm excited for the new changes for Gears 2 MP fixing what plagued Gears 1's MP so I can't wait till November. Hopefully I can get better with the long-range weapons like the Longshot, Torque Bow, and Hammer of Dawn because I didn't use them that much when I played Gears 1 MP. Then again, using grenades as wall mines is going to be pretty nuts as well as the portable cover. I'm ready to go for another all-day stretch of the campaign like I did with Gears 1 (Normal) to get it over with quickly, then play MP on November.
I woke up and the inevitable was anounnced after weeks of speculation of teased images on Blizzard's website. So Diablo III is finally announced at their Paris event and the PC folks are getting crazy. As if WOW (World of Warcraft) and Starcraft II are enough, Diablo III completes the trifecta of Blizzard games and it is about damn time (like that SC2 dude said). Of course, not being a PC player myself, I never got into the Diablo games, but I respected its greatness as another of the great PC franchises Blizzard has put out. With Starcraft II supposedly coming this December or early next year, expect Diablo III to have a late 2009 or even a 2010 release.
The game industry has gone bonkers with Mega Man 9, a Castlevania fighting game, and this announced in the past week which is pretty crazy.
Jabbawockeez have been everywhere ever since their Season 1 win on ABDC. They have been performing shows left and right ranging from some Asian award show, a Laker game, and even Regis & Kelly. Here's their recent shows that I can remember.
They appear in the end of Ne-Yo's "Closer" performance during the BET Awards. Yes, this song is sick, but even though the Jabba cameo is short, short and sweet is good enough. Jabba also performed at 105.9 FM's Powerhouse 2008 recently too.
Here's the new Danny Yankee video for "Pose" which features the masked men doing their thing. This song is not that bad I guess.
Seriously, I need to buy a Jabba mask and shirt soon.
Last night's episode of America's Best Dance Crew was pretty good. All crews did equally well as in the music video challenge and it was a narrow margin how my top 8 was picked. The right team did get eliminated, but let's recap the episode in the order of the crews' performances (Photos from MTV.com).
SuperCrew (My #1 pick) started it off and did Chris Brown's "Run It." I was a little worried that they won't do as well in this challenge, but they still put out a great performance and of course they had to include their b-boy stuff in the routine. Even though last week's was better for them, this one is not that bad.
Fanny Pak was next and delivered another great performance with Gwen Stefani's "Wind It Up." It is nice that their style is still implemented in this song while having fun trying to do the crazy moves (The flare and the knee thing in the video). They're still top 5 for me.
Supreme Soul are back in the hunt after their disappointing performance last week. They did Omarion's "Touch" and nailed it pretty well. It was one of the standout performances this week even though I mentioned earlier everyone did equally well.
Phresh Select was next and they did Chris Brown's "Gimme That." This performance wasn't that bad as the boys executed the video routine better than I thought. At least they are one of the consistent crews so far.
A.S.I.I.D. did Ciara's "Like A Boy" and nailed that routine too. Even though the ladies kind of stripped in the end (I don't know why), the moves in the video were executed well (The Ciara float and the crotch grab as examples). They are still a top contender for me.
So Real Crew's performance of Usher's "Love in This Club" was good and also sloppy a bit. It was very noticeable during their performance that they messed up considering they deliver clean performances most of the time. The dance number was great, but the execution was a little off like the judges said.
Xtreme Dance Force were saved by America's votes this week (Why????) as they did Mario's "Let Me Love You." This performance was okay and at least better than last week, but I expect them to be bottom 2 next week and hopefully eliminated as well (I hate these guys...).
Boogie Bots were in the bottom 2 this week (America saved XDF = I still don't know why) as they did B2K's "Bump Bump Bump." They were definitely better than last week and as the judges said, they had fun doing it including the lady parts from the video. Hopefully they're not bottom 2 next week, but I have a feeling they will be thanks to the voting.
Sass x7 are eliminated this week and good thing because their performance of Britney's "I'm A Slave for U" was bad, but better than last week at least. They did the video parts slower than the video itself as the judges noticed. At least they got the outfits right, but it wasn't enough and they were glad they made it this far.
Well, that was the episode for this week and let's do my rankings of the crews.
SuperCrew
Supreme Soul
So Real Crew
A.S.I.I.D.
Fanny Pak
Boogie Bots
Phresh Select
Xtreme Dance Force
I forgot what next week's challenge is (Something related to dance hits through the years), but hopefully XDF is gone next week (At least Sass x7 is out now).
Mega Man 9 is official and surprisingly only confirmed for WiiWare for now (No PSN or XBLA versions??). If this stays WiiWare, this could be the service's biggest game in terms of hype and excitement (Nintendo finally doing something right??). Capcom has been the ambassador in terms of Japanese publishers for downloadable games and their first WiiWare game could be really big. Honestly, I'm not that a fan of the Mega Man games, but respect its legacy (not its downfall in recent years). This could be the official rebirth of the franchise that is good compared to how other developers ruin old school franchises (I'm looking at you Sega for Sonic even though Sonic Unleashed is okay so far). Thanks to fansite, Mega Man Network, (not the GBA series of games), they were able to reveal some scans of the game. Yes, this one is staying 8-bit and hopefully it will be awesome (For more, check the link above).
I have been messing around with the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Online Beta ever since it came out yesterday and it is pretty good despite its issues and limited options available. Capcom's purpose for this beta is to test the netcode and so far it is way better than the netcode in Street Fighter II HF on XBLA. Most of my matches have minimal lag compared to the matches during the hot stretch of HF sessions back in Summer 2006 being laggy throughout. Of course, connection plays a factor to the whole thing and usually I would rather have no Internet browsers up and running when I play this online (Having FireFox 3 open does cause some lag on my part). At least this beta can also be played locally rather than just online as I use it for practice mode. The big problem with this beta so far is the game freezing when trying to join matches. Apparently, the selection of matches when searching via custom match or quick match are a little old, which is one reason the lock ups happen and u have to restart your 360. The solution for me is just creating matches and hopefully people join up. I have been playing ranked matches, but I'll eventually check out the quarter match and tournament options.
Ryu and Ken are the only two characters available for this beta with Ryu's stage being the only stage there. Sure, u can still browse through the character selections to check out the other art for them, but the shotos are the stars of this beta. For Ryu and Ken players, this beta will be played throughout its 2 month period trying to mess around with their remixed versions. Ryu's key addition is the Fake Hakouken (same motion but short kick instead of any punch) which can trick up an opponent if used correctly. Other than that, Ryu is pretty much the same with his arsenal of moves with the Shinkuu Hadouken as his super (Doing it online may cause it to lag). Ken, on the other hand, is significantly improved over his SSFIIT version and maybe a bit broken (hence the video below). Sirlin did mention that the Shoryuken (Dragon Punch) juggle will be toned down damage wise and maybe not be in the final game at all. Then again, doing SRK juggles is pretty cool when timed perfectly, but I can understand how cheap it its and getting it on the receiving end against opponents. His super is still the same and his special kicks have new movements (Hadouken motion, any kick, etc.), which sets up easy combos. Plus, Hurricane Kicks for both Ryu and Ken have increased in movement (Ryu's RH Hurricane Kick takes the whole screen while Ken's is faster than what it used to be). Just for the fun of DP juggles, I usually use Ken online (I'll go back to Ryu when I get tired of him).
With the full game hopefully coming out this fall, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is still one of my most anticipated games this year because its Street Fighter for crying out loud and the new graphics and art Udon has added is pretty good (screw the haters who complain every day about Chun Li's thighs or Guile not looking right). The new music I think is done by OC Remix folks, which is cool and I'm anticipating new remixes for the other stages. Other than the remixed mode, the original ST is still playable, old graphics and all, in the final game if the "HD Remix" is not your thing. I'll conclude with this video of Ken's SRK juggle courtesy of YouTube user CigarBob (check out his other HD Remix Beta videos especially matches with the mastermind of this remix, David Sirlin).
So I bought Guitar Hero: Aerosmith today and Expert is already done in 3 hours (hence the title). I only 3 starred 1 song while 5 starring the majority of the songs (there are 31 in the Career excluding the bonus songs). Even on Expert, it is perhaps the easiest GH game difficulty wise (Even "Train Kept A Rollin" was not a problem I thought it would be). Of course playing a GH or RB game for 3 hours straight does kick in the fatigue with my hands, but I might as well finish it fast and I did. Some songs seem fun and longer than I thought like the Aerosmith lineup. Even the non-Aerosmith songs seem okay (STP, Ted Nugent, etc). At least the achievements are easier (career achievements stack) this time around as if Neversoft learned their lesson about those crazy GH3 achievements. A little lame is buying everything from the shop requiring a playthrough of all difficulties getting every character, song, guitar, etc.). Keep in mind I haven't messed around with anything else other than career mode (Online and co-op mostly) so expect a review of this later this week here.
