|
All news is attributed to the source from which it was received so that readers may judge the validity of the statements for themselves.
Have Joan Jett news to report? Email us at jettfc@aol.com, and please include the source of the information so it can be validated.
You too can be a rock 'n' roll star
thanks to Guitar Hero video game
from: www3.cjad.com
(CP) - Josh Holmes played the game so much, his wife made him give it away for a week just to take a break. David Wu calls it his current favourite.
They are just two of Guitar Hero's legion of fans, but their appreciation speaks volumes since they make video games for a living - and Guitar Hero isn't one of theirs. "Guitar Hero is the coolest game I've seen in years," said Holmes, vice-president and studio general manager of Vancouver's Propaganda Games.
"Really funny, really good," echoed Wu, president of Toronto's Pseudo Interactive. "I like games like that, that just kind of change things, come out with a totally new paradigm."
Developed by Harmonix of Cambridge, Mass., and published by California-based RedOctane for PlayStation 2, Guitar Hero comes with a guitar-shaped controller and aims to provide "all the thrill and excitement of being a rock star without leaving your home."
The game is easy to pick up and hard to put down - Holmes says he played it for eight hours straight in one session.
The 70-centimetre-long controller features five coloured buttons on the frets, a strum bar in the centre and a whammy bar for bending notes.
In the game's career mode, you choose a character and try to move from playing in your basement to entertaining thousands in stadiums.
As the animated band takes stage on the screen, a graphic in the middle displays coloured buttons that correspond to those on the frets.
If a green comes up, you hold down the green button and press the strum bar to play the note. The rest of the song unfolds via a sequence of coloured buttons.
Hit the note on time and you trigger the sound. Flub it and the song suffers. On long notes, you can tweak the sound with the whammy bar.
You are scored on how many notes you hit on time. A meter also serves as a quick guide to how you are doing. Stay in the red and the song may be followed by boos and a ticket out of the band. Keep it green and you're rocking the joint.
Certain notes count for more. Hit those and your score rockets. The controller comes with a tilt sensor, which allows you to score extra by playing with the guitar in a vertical position.
The only thing missing is the arms reaching up to touch you on stage.
"It embodies making you feel like you are the lead guitarist in that song," John Tam, RedOctane's producer on Guitar Hero, said in an interview.
"You are the rock star. You feel like you are playing electric guitar."
It makes for a special and social game. Everyone can take a turn rocking with Guitar Hero.
Some gamers have customized their controllers with stickers and other decorations. RedOctane thought of that, including a sticker sheet in the game box.
One woodworker built his own Flying V wood guitar and embedded the Guitar Hero electronics into it, Tam said.
RedOctane has done plenty to enrich the world of Guitar Hero. It signed a deal with Gibson to feature its guitars in the game. And it offered a special cherry guitar controller, which has all but sold out.
RedOctane also held a contest, asking garage bands to submit songs, with the winner included in the game. That honour went to the Graveyard BBQ, a band from Waltham, Mass., and their song Cheat on the Church.
The career mode ramps up the difficulty, while allowing you to rock out to more than 30 songs from the likes of Boston, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Ramones, Franz Ferdinand, David Bowie, Sum 41 and Ozzy Osbourne.
Start off in the easy mode and you will just use three fret buttons. Early on in your career, JOAN JETT's I Love Rock 'N' Roll seems a breeze.
"It's so easy," Tam said. "You see them (the notes) coming and you can feel it."
Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water is another satisfying watershed song, especially when you are in the groove and the notes come naturally.
It gets more difficult later on. Try your hand at Cream's Crossroads and Motorhead's Ace of Spades and rock 'n' roll seems a far harder way to make a living.
Tam, 36, says the goal was to keep challenging gamers to get better, while keeping their interest.
Harmonix is a veteran developer of music and rhythm games, including Amplitude, Frequency and Karaoke Revolution.
RedOctane started in 1999 as an online video game rental service. After branching out into online rentals of Japanese anime DVDs, the company started looking at importing games. One popular import turned out to be Dance Dance Revolution, a Konami music game that features a dance pad.
RedOctane started selling the dance pads, then moved into producing them itself. One thing led to another and the company decided to get into video game publishing.
Its first title was In the Groove, a PlayStation 2 version of an arcade dance game. From there, RedOctane looked to develop its own game, which ultimately became Guitar Hero.
It was a high-risk gamble. Peripheral and music games traditionally have not been blockbusters.
Plus, because of the controller, Guitar Hero is more expensive than normal titles (retailing for around $85 in Canada). It is more complicated to produce and more awkward to ship and stock because of the size of the box.
"We haven't produced as many units as we wish we could, mainly because of the fact you have to make this guitar," Tam explained.
"Our supply has not filled the demand that's out there," he added. "And that's amazing for us."
Finding the game can be difficult. But Guitar Hero has had no problem winning kudos.
In February, Guitar Hero won five awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, a non-profit member organization of more than 5,500 companies in the software industry.
It was honoured for outstanding innovation in gaming, soundtrack, game play engineering, game design and family game of the year. Only God of War won more awards.
|
| |
This Week:
No shows scheduled this week.
Click on the LIVE DATES link for upcoming shows |
Item Of The Month:
|
