Recently in Tim C. Category

I try to be impartial.  I really do.  Times come, however, when I just have to rage against certain organizations. My school is quite often the target of my wrath.  Today it's Electronic Arts.  Destroyer of games.  Ruiner of developers.  Greedy bastards of the Apocalypse.  I hate EA with more passion than ought to be legal.  I've felt that way for years.  This seething rage is nothing new for me.

When it was announced that Harmonix would be releasing Rock Band under the EA banner I cried.  It broke my heart.  How could Rock Band possibly come out to the accolades it deserved when EA was behind it.  While Rock Band is a lot better than I expected, no major bugs and very good on the DLC, it has major issues with the instruments.  To be specific the guitar is a bloody steaming pile of crap.  The drums have issues, but I'm willing to attribute more of that to users than to shoddy quality on the instruments.

The guitar breaks if you look at it.  Most of the complaints coming out are the that the guitar stops down strumming.  This is what happened to me, and this is what pushes to me to write this article.

A few days after I purchased the game stories were already circulating about faulty guitars.  I continued playing with mine since it was working fine, or so I thought.  I started missing more notes and chalked it up to the Strat being different from GH3's Les Paul that I was used to.  In hindsight what was happening was the down strum was slowly going away.  I missed notes cause the guitar wasn't registering my down strum.  To compensate I would naturally strum a little harder without realizing it.  Eventually I couldn't strum down hard enough for it register consistently enough to play.  This was within a week of purchase.

I put in a trouble ticket at EA's support website, giving them game, system, and needed instrument.  I wasn't overly concerned since I still had the Les Paul and it worked with Rock Band.  Besides I still had drums and vocals to play through.  No big.

On December 4th I got an email informing me that they didn't know what I needed.  grrrrrrrrr  So I updated my trouble ticket and replied to the email.  I was assured that my RMA would be processed immediately, and apologies were made.  Still no big.  I had the Les Paul and the X-Plorer so I had enough for a full band for family and friends to play.

Over the holidays I was really too busy to check in and I assumed my replacement was on it's way.  With the shortage of instruments and all the reports of dead guitars I figured it would be a couple weeks before I got mine.  No big.

I checked in yesterday to see what the hold up was, over a month with nothing was stretching it for me, only to find that my RMA had been canceled.  WTF?  Canceled?  I hit the roof.  I mean went abso-freakin-lutely ballistic for a few minutes.  I don't get visibly mad often, but when I do WW2 Hiroshima is a safer place to be than in my presence.  They don't know I have 2 GH guitars so to them I've been unable to play 1/3 of the game for over a month.  Now I'm of the school that being professional and courteous often yields better results than flying of the handle so I waited until I had calmed down a bit to send off my response.  It was then worded in such a way that I was courteous, but they knew I was nearing the end of my patience.  I still haven't heard back from them and it's been over their self-imposed 24 hour reply window.

I'm quickly running out of patience with EA, and I didn't really have much to begin with.  At this point I can only hope Spore dies a quiet death on the back burner.  I don't even want to know what it would be like once EA had their shot at removing all the life from it.  Better to have it aborted early, than still born.

Why does Microsoft make it so hard to find some stuff on XBLM?

I'm down at Sharon's and since she has a better Internet connection than my download-quota-restricted, uber-lagged satellite connection at the house I tend to save my 'iffy' downloads and browsing for when I'm down here.  I was having trouble sleeping the other night and got up to play a little Portal and Mass Effect.  I can't play games as soon as I get out of bed, so I was just nosing around the XBLM to see what I may have missed while I woke up enough to focus on the games.  I happened to catch a banner promoting content for one of my favorite bands, Dream Theater, so I clicked on it and saw several free videos, a free theme, and free GamerPics.  (Due to Rock Band and my new found interest in drums, that's their drummer Mike Portnoy that I'm using now)

When Sharon got up I wanted to show it to her, since she is a DT fan too.  I headed straight to the Music Videos section and didn't see anything.  So I started scouring the entire menu system for it.  It was nowhere to be found.  I eventually saw the banner again and got to it that way, but it doesn't seem to be accessible any other way.

I don't expect to see Major Nelson publish about every little thing that hits the marketplace, there is just too much stuff for that to be reasonable.  MS has done a decent job of reorganizing and cross linking content so that it is more accessible lately. It would be nice, however, if stuff like this was obtainable just by surfing around the menus.  What happens when this current batch of banners rotates out?  Is it just going to disappear?  Just how lucky was I that I couldn't sleep that night?

It's not just me, although this is an extreme case.  I've seen comments galore on Nelson's blog about stuff being difficult to find.  Sometimes it's just new stuff that doesn't get put in the 'New Release' section right away, but a lot of times it's just general stuff that isn't found in any menu.  It happens often enough that I have a hard time believing it's simply an oversight every time.  I have no problems if the content is time limited, but I think they ought to tag it as such.  That way when I see it I would understand why it may not be pushed to the full menu system.

It just makes me wonder what other content I may have missed, from just not knowing about it.

I'm not trying to turn this into a politically charged site.  That's not what pM is about.  It is important, however, that we as gamers, are aware of what is affecting us and the games we love.  For that reason, I'm going to take a quick minute and point you to a website I found today.  Video Game Voters Network is a site dedicated to keeping government regulations from interfering with the gaming industry.  Everyone should stay informed, but it's especially important for those of us that are registered voters as we have a direct say in who we put in office.  This can have a drastic impact on what kind of legislation gets passed.

Don't let government decide what we can and cannot play.  Let your voices be heard.

NOTE:  The site deals strictly with the US, but information is power so all should be aware what is going on and what is being done to fight it.  You never know when your Big Brother will decide that you can't think for yourself.

For the past couple of months, I've noticed a trend.  I'm not sure if it says more about me or the people that I'm observing.  I never noticed it before, but games like Guitar Hero (GH) and Rock Band (RB)are really making it noticeable.

I enjoy playing GH and RB a lot.  It's less about the competition of it and more that I just like the way the games play.  It's just fun.  Because of this I have a tendency to gravitate to the displays of them in stores.  I like to watch other people play and if it's not busy I like to show off a bit.

What I've noticed is everybody elses complete lack of ability to play these games.  I'm not the best of players, but I understand the concept behind Guitar Hero; you pick up the control, fret the note and strum to make it play.  I've seen guitarists in my life, so even if I didn't play a little bit of real guitar I would instantly grasp the concept.  I have yet to see somebody that has never played the game pick it up and start playing correctly.  I'm not talking playing well, I'm talking people can't even grasp the concept of fretting the notes and strumming at the same time.

I've seen people strum without fretting.  I've seen people fret without strumming.  Have these people never seen a guitar.  No concerts?  No music videos?  No friends or family who plays?  No music education in school?  It's not advanced concepts we are talking it's the very basics.  How can somebody be so clueless to not even understand the concept even once it is explained to them?

What brings this to mind now is that it is Thanksgiving, and that means my family was over and they played Rock Band with me.  But first let's go back to Easter when Guitar Hero 2 was out for the 360.  My cousin, a fairly good guitar player tried to play and didn't understand the concepts.  These people aren't gamers, but I figured a guitar player would understand he had to fret the note and strum to play.  I can allow a bit of learning and figuring out WHEN to strum based on the note chart scrolling, but not even getting the concept?  Dubya Tea Eff?

The drums caused them no end of troubles tonight, but I can allow for that.  The drums are the hardest part of RB to get started with.  There is no limited note charts for lower difficulty, you use all the pads and the kick pedal even on Easy.  BUT, they did understand the whole drum concept (actually having any rhythm whatsoever is another story altogether) so I know they are familiar with music of some type.  So why is the guitar part so hard to get?

Is it just me?  I jumped right in and started playing.  Sharon can verify, she was there the first time I played GH1.  She saw me pass the first song I ever played.  I hit clinkers and failed my share of songs when I was getting started, but I inherently knew to fret the note and strum the bar.  I even understood the concept of WHEN to strum the notes.  I knew what to do and all I had to do was get better at it.  Why do others have a terribly hard time understanding this concept.  More people would probably love the games if they could understand the mechanics of it, but they get frustrated and self conscious in front of a display demo and then walk away without a clue of how fun it actually is.

So my question to you,  readers and fellow gamers.  Is it just me?  If you have played either game, did you you struggle with the basic concepts?  I have a tendency to overestimate peoples abilities based on my own, and I really want to know if I'm doing it again because I just can't believe the human race is as clueless as it looks to me most of the time.  (It's not just GH and RB either, there are many reason why I feel this way.)

This originally started out to be a column questioning a commercial I've been seeing lately, but as I thought about it I decided that maybe it wasn't by itself.  It's part of a trend by Sony, and it seems like they may finally be starting to do things right.

All of us remember the arrogance of Sony when they declared that "the High Def generation begins when we say it begins".  This attitude carried throughout the launch and most of the first year of the PS3's life.  It seemed Sony had blown so much smoke up their own asses, they believed they were untouchable.  With them pushing Blu-Ray down peoples throat in a desperate attempt to finally win a format war the gaming capabilities were all but left behind in the marketing blitz.  Many gamers, began to feel they had been forgotten by Sony.  They began to see the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player, that just happened to play games on ocassion.

The first year of life seemed to prove that maybe this was the case.  For months, Sony fanboys screamed "just wait for X game", but when X game finally came it was just a steaming pile.  These cries eventually degenerated into "just wait for the good games".  10 months later many people are still waiting for a consistant stream of good games to come while those gamers exclusively loyal to Sony watch gamers on the XBox 360 enjoy top notch title after top notch title.  Even the humble Wii, derided by some as a Gamecube with a gimmick, is doing significantly better than the PS3.

Finally, it seems that Sony may be actively trying to turn that corner and get the gamers back on their side.  A price reduction has recently come through, bringing the price of the lowest SKU down to within the 360's price point though you do have to give up PS2 Backward Compatibility and opt for a smaller hard drive (it's still twice the size of the standard hard drive on the 360) if you want this package.  This has helped sales a bit and will continue to do so through the holiday season as the high price of the original package kept many from throwing down the money.

In addition, the games finally seem to be starting to trickle out.  Granted most of the games on the horizon are multi-platform, but there are good ones on the shelf now and more to come.  Exclusive games seem to be the thorn in Sony's side at the moment.  There just aren't many exclusive games left that would cause on-the-fence gamers to swing into Sony's camp over the competitors.

Of note to mention, though, is the recent commercial for The Simpsons video game.  While this game is multiplatform, the commercial starts with the familiar PS logo.  The fine print on the closing shot shows logos for the other systems it is out for, but it goes by fast enough that casual viewers may miss it.  Then it dissolves to a visual of the PS3 with the "Play Beyond" slogan leaving that the last thing in your mind.  Granted, The Simpsons game will never sell as many systems as Halo, Metal Gear, or Zelda games, but it could help to sway those all important on-the-fence gamers that haven't bought a system yet.  This isn't the first game commerical I've seen this happen on, but it is the one I keep seeing repeatedly.  That's a good move, Sony.

I'm not sure what the future holds for Sony.  There is no doubt anymore that the hardware is good tech.  It is capable of a lot more than what it has been getting, both in content and respect.   Are these new maneuvers enough for Sony to start to pull itself up this late in the game?  Only time will tell.

In part 1, I prepped the plastic and got it ready to be painted.  Part 2 had me priming the plastic, drawing the flame design on paper, and laying down the backing color paint.  Part 3 I finally started painted the design on it.  Finally, the faceplate is done.  It's been an interesting week.  It's not exactly as great as I had hoped, but it was first time doing it.  Maybe I'll do another and make it better.  I have a better idea, what not to do now.

Let's get right to it.  Follow the jump to see the finished piece.

In part 1, I prepped the plastic and got it ready to be painted.  Part 2 had me priming the plastic, drawing the flame design on paper, and laying down the backing color paint.  Now we have gotten all the boring preparatory work and get to the meat of this project.  In this installment I'll mask off and paint the first layer of the design.

Follow the jump to see the faceplate starting to shape up nicely.

Part 1 had me prepping the faceplate for painting.  This installment has me priming and laying down the base color coat.  In addition I'll create the preliminary drawings for the design.  It's starting to come together nicely and I'm getting excited about how it's going to turn out.

Follow the jump for Part 2.

For months I've been talking about disassembling one of my Guitar Hero guitars and giving it a custom paint job.  Unfortunately, while I'm very good at taking things apart, I'm not so hot when it comes to getting them back together in working order.  Being unsure what I would find inside the little plastic bugger, and money definitely being an issue, I opted to keep them in working order but boring looking.  Now that I have the Les Paul with Guitar Hero 3 and it's nifty little removable faceplate I am finally going to create my very own custom axe.  Being a big Sex Pistols fan I immediately snatched up the Sex Pistols faceplate that Best Buy had, leaving me with a shiny blank faceplate to play with.  Perfect! 

Now let's get to the business of creating my masterpiece.  Follow the jump to get to it.