An Update On My Rock Band Project

I just wanted to give you guys a quick update on my Rock Band project.

As you may remember, I set out to play old Rock Band and Guitar Hero games to try to investigate what features worked, what features didn't, and what felt lacking in each iteration, to try to determine what the next Rock Band game (assuming there is one) ought to have in order to be successful. I've played Rock Band, Rock Band 2, and Lego Rock Band so far, and I've taken a good number of notes on each of them. None of them was perfect, but each brought a feature or features to the table that elevated the fun you can have in playing the game.

I've still got a ways to go, as I haven't delved into the Guitar Hero titles yet, and there are a lot of them. I also technically own Rock Revolution, which I've never played, as it was widely panned (I got it as part of a buy one, get one free offer along with Crackdown, which was fun). But, if I'm hoping to get a full picture of what works and what doesn't, I should probably at least play a little of RR to see what it's all about. You never know; it could have the one feature that ties everything together.

Initially I was going to make a separate post for each game I played, but there isn't enough different between all the games for that to be beneficial. You'd end up getting bored from reading a lot of the same stuff, and I don't want that. Instead, I'll combine all of my findings into one or two posts, and then at some point after that, offer up my complete plan for Rock Band 4...or maybe Rock B4nd, depending on how hip I want to go.

It'll be ready when it's ready.

Games, and Real Life Achievements

A few weeks ago, as a result of several discussions with Chip, I decided since I spend a decent amount of time worried about accumulating Xbox Achievements, maybe I should incorporate that concept into my everyday life. It'll give me something to blog about, and, perhaps more importantly, it'll give me a reason to do things that are achievement-worthy. My trip to Atlantic City this past weekend gave me a couple opportunities...

• "Lost" more than thirty minutes due to heavy partying.

Yes, the trip was interesting and eventful. What's unfortunate, though, is that from hearing about all of my comments and antics, it sounds like I was near the top of my game with regards to humor. It would've been nice to have firsthand memories of that debauchery. Also I seem to have burnt my tongue at some point during the night, and I've been dealing with that for a few days, so I must have burnt it pretty damn good.

In pretty much unrelated news, I love games. Mostly video, but board games can be fun as well. I've got one of each variety that I'd like to talk about today, and both of which I recommend fully.

Agricola

Allegedly, it's pronounced ah-GRI-ko-lah, but I will continue to pronounce it as if it were a farm soda. No matter how you say it, the game is seriously fun.

The basic premise of Agricola is that you're a farmer trying to make a living through the acquisition and development of farmland and livestock. The goal is to, at the end of the game, have the most complete, successful, and diverse farm in the game. The availability of resources and your opponents' actions play a heavy role in determining what your strategy ought to be. It's got a fairly low amount of luck involved, which is right up my alley (those of you familiar with my opinion on using kickers in fantasy football know that I don't like luck).

Most importantly, perhaps, is that I'm not terrible at the game. In fact, just last weekend...

• Won a game of Agricola
  

League of Legends

League of Legends is based on the very popular Warcraft III custom map called Defense of the Ancients, or DotA for short. The basic premise is similar to Warcraft III, where two armies clash, each with the intent of destroying the opposing army's base. In this game, though, the two armies are controlled by artificial intelligence. Each player controls a "champion" unit on one of the two sides, with special abilities that he or she can use to turn the tide of the battle.

This new game is good, but it seems that the balance could be improved, and that the heroes could have a little more variety. Virtually every hero has a stunning attack and a nuke, and none of the heroes have any sort of unit summons. The game shouldn't be focused so dramatically on hero-killing, and I'm hopeful that through various future updates, the designers will provide a more unique experience with each champion.

I have no achievement associated with this game, as I haven't really done very well thus far. Whatever, suck on it.

Games For Sale or Trade

I'm clearing out some of my personal inventory of older games, and passing the savings on to yooooooou!

The following Xbox and PlayStation 2 games are up for grabs. I'd like some money for them, but I'm open to interesting trades as well. I'm not looking for huge money or big trades, but I'm much more interested in moving many/all of the games rather than individual games. We'll say $5 for any single game, with dramatic decreases for each additional game.

Xbox
Battlefield 2
Call of Duty 2
College Hoops 2k6
Freedom Fighters
Jaws Unleashed
Madden '08
NBA 2K5
NBA 2k6
NBA Live '07
NCAA Football '08
NHL 2K7
Scarface: The World Is Yours
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

Playstation 2
Dynasty Warriors 3: Xtreme Legends
Gran Turismo 3: A-spec
Gran Turismo 4
The Getaway
Tony Hawk's Underground
Tony Hawk's Underground 2
Winning Eleven 8

I'll update the list as people lay claim to games. I'll also be posting one of these for movies in the next few weeks.

HaloCountry

Since HaloNation seems to escape us with every attempt, we are making a solid attempt to get people together for HaloCountry.

What is HaloCountry? Getting together a serious group of people online for some Halo2 custom games.

Leave Saturday evening, November 3rd open for some serious Halo2 online gaming with some great company.

Contact Joe Mattingly or myself (or respond to this blog) if you have any questions

FIFA 2006

I've played FIFA '07. I've watched it played. I appreciate that the graphics are very impressive. It's got a lot of nice features, and I'm sure it's enjoyable for those who've decided to make the switch, or for whom the 2007 version is their first soccer game.

But for me, it comes up short in enough key areas to prevent me from spending the money to get the new version. The manager mode offers far fewer teams and leagues to choose from, when part of the fun of '06 was being able to join all sorts of obscure leagues and bring the very worst teams to international dominance. Since when is it a good idea to reduce the complexity of a game in its next iteration? Also in the manager mode, the roster limitations aren't designated graphically. So when you're deciding whether to pursue someone in the transfer market or putting a player out there for transfer, you are held to some obscure number of required active players (which by the way seems to change depending on your league), not represented anywhere in the game that I can find. Thanks a lot, EA.

So you can take your FIFA '07. I'm riding '06 into the grave, me and 1 FC Saarbrucken. Me and Hadji and El Idrissi.

Chip, you were right the whole time. FIFA '06! FIFA '06! FIFA '06!