Sideshow & Syrana

I find it sort of funny that I ended up purchasing Activision’s latest Guitar Hero release, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, the day before they killed the series. Now, personally, I’ve always been more of a Rock Band fan. The Rock Band series always seemed to be more about the music and interacting with the music, rather than trying to destroy an evil boss or seeing how fast you could shred.

The main reason we tend to steer towards Rock Band is the massive song library. Just including the four exportable Rock Band games we have; Rock Band (58), Rock Band 2 (84), Rock Band 3 (83) and Lego Rock Band (45), that’s 270 songs (plus or minus a few that were not licensed to export). Not included is Beatles: Rock Band since those songs can’t be exported and we didn’t buy Green Day: Rock Band. Then you add all of the normal Rock Band DLC (1,220) and the new Rock Band Network DLC (977), that’s 2,197 more songs to pick from. We have somewhere around 700 songs in our library.

Up until this point, I only thought Guitar Hero had two decent releases: Guitar Hero II and Guitar Hero: Metallica. GH II because it was the one that we first bought. It was the game that “redefined” the music game genre. GH:Metallica because of the amazing job they did on it and the amount of detail that was put into it. It does help that I’ve been a lifelong Metallica fan, which helped me notice some of the great detail, but even to an outsider, it’s still a very well-done game.

Rush's 2112 Stage

Warriors of Rock is probably up there with those two. Granted, the theme of the game and weak plotline are pretty silly at times, but you know this going into a Guitar Hero game. While it had some pretty good song selections, I did find some of the songs boring and not very fun to play. What really sold me on the game is the inclusion of Rush’s “2112.” The way that they implemented it into the game made it feel really epic and the narrations by the members of Rush was a nice touch. That’s the type of song that Guitar Hero was made for, full of fantasy and very epic.

The final battle was neat, too, due to the fact that you needed to put together your two bands from the eight characters (each with different power-ups) to try to take down the main boss. My only gripe, while I am a Megadeth fan, is that all of the songs were Megadeth songs. I do agree with some of the critics when they said “with so many of the more iconic rock songs having already been used in previous Guitar Hero and Rock Band games developers are forced to use ever more obscure songs and/or acts” [The Metro]

All in all, it’s a decent game. Along with the ability to export songs from previous GH games (surprisingly including Guitar Hero: Metallica), it does give you a decent song library. If you can find it on the cheap (I think it was $20 used at Amazon) go pick it up.

A zombie shirt maybe? Or something else funny or offensive?

This one is perfect for Syrana, don’t you think?

Enter the giveaway Syrana is running over at the baby blog!

Throughout my years of gaming (and movie watching), I’ve always enjoyed the music that doesn’t get a lot of attention. Usually the music is just the background while you play or watch, so a lot of people don’t pay attention to it.

In the last few years, I started paying more attention to movie and game music. With the new consoles and more powerful computers, they’ve been able to make much stronger music, though I do enjoy some MIDI and 8-bit beeps and boops, too. Fortunately, it has also been brought into the mainstream with  shows like Videos Games Live.

I was able to hear the WoW music more in-depth after Syrana bought the Collector’s Edition of WotLK. We actually used to use that CD when we fell asleep. We also now have the original soundtrack and the Burning Crusade soundtrack, plus she plans on getting the Cataclysm CE once she has time to play again. I really enjoy a few songs from the soundtracks. (continue reading…)

I’m posting this since it’s been rolling around in my head and getting it typed out helps me collect it all in one place. Plus, I should probably talk about these metal guys before more of them die off (Rest in Peace.)

Throughout my music listening career, I’ve never been much of a drummer fan. I’ve always noticed it. It’s there. I just didn’t think twice about it. Then, once we had ownership of Rock Band, I decided to see how bad I was at the drums. It turns out I was very bad..at first. Once I got into it and once I learned how to control each limb on it’s own, it became really fun. I’m still no expert and you could argue that they’re not real drums; I definitely have more rhythm than I had a year ago. There is no doubt about that. One thing the game does teach is rhythm and limb independence.

Once that happened, I started hearing music in a brand new way. Now I can hear the drums and each and every note. I can now pick out the bass drum and other drums. Music that I haven’t listened to in long time suddenly becomes new to me. I have much more respect for a lot of the drummers I listen to. I find myself reading more articles on metal drummers and watching them more in concerts. I still have no idea about the ins-and-outs of a drum kit, but I’d love to learn. If money and floor space were no object (sadly, they are) I’d love to get a drum kit and learn. Fortunately, my current Rock Band drum kit can also work as a pretty decent electronic drum kit, so I do have that going for me.

I thought I’d brain dump my favorite metal drummers (in no particular order) and maybe, hopefully open up others to their style and talent.
(continue reading…)

Ronnie James Dio

Rest in Peace (and Metal) – 1942-2010

I’m not sure how many of you check out Cracked on a regular basis, but I find a lot of there stuff hilarious.  Today, I have to share this article with you because it will make you laugh, facepalm, and say “wtf” all at the same time.

So, if you need a good laugh from witty words and visual gags, you need to check out 15 Unintentionally Perverted Toys for Kids.  I’m not sure if I could rate it as SFW or NSFW to be honest.  I guess it depends how much your coworkers might be bothered by pictures  of phallic children’s toys.

As quoted from the beginning of the article:

Toys are carefully planned investments that companies spend countless hours developing in the hopes that children will use them to foster memories that they’ll cherish for a lifetime.

But sometimes, they just end up looking like dongs.

I enjoy music, as most of you know, so I thought I’d post a song everyday during the week using my Blip.fm station and tweet it at the same time (if you wanted to follow at home.) Every week, I’ll recap my choices and write a little blurb about them.

This week I am trying a new site for playing the songs called “Grooveshark.” It also allows me to use a website widget that should let you listen to the song right on our site instead of requiring you to click a link. Let me know how it works. Unfortunately, there is no volume control on the widget, so just an FYI.

Check this tag for my other “Songs of the Week” posts.

Hopefully, it’s a good chance to hear some new music (or old music) and get my take on it. I do tend to lean towards Heavy Metal and Hard Rock, so most songs will probably be in that general area, but I will veer from time to time. I know music is very much like religion and politics, so I’m not pushing anything onto you. If you don’t like something, I respect that. But, if you do, I’m more than happy to get you more info on it, just let me know.

Most entries will have a Wikipedia and Last.FM link at the end for you to get more information and listen to other songs at your leisure.

(continue reading…)

I enjoy music, as most of you know, so I thought I’d post a song everyday during the week using my Blip.fm station and tweet it at the same time (if you wanted to follow at home.) Every week, I’ll recap my choices and write a little blurb about them.

Check this tag for my other “Songs of the Week” posts.

Hopefully, it’s a good chance to hear some new music (or old music) and get my take on it. I do tend to lean towards Heavy Metal and Hard Rock, so most songs will probably be in that general area, but I will veer from time to time. I know music is very much like religion and politics, so I’m not pushing anything onto you. If you don’t like something, I respect that. But, if you do, I’m more than happy to get you more info on it, just let me know.

Most entries will have a Wikipedia and Last.FM link at the end for you to get more information and listen to other songs at your leisure.

(continue reading…)

This week’s theme is newer/underground bands. They may not all be completely unknown or new, but they are probably new to a lot of people. Hope to spread the word.

Check this tag for my other “Songs of the Week” posts.

I enjoy music, as most of you know, so I thought I’d post a song everyday during the week using my Blip.fm station and tweet it at the same time (if you wanted to follow at home.) Every week, I’ll recap my choices and write a little blurb about them.

Hopefully, it’s a good chance to hear some new music (or old music) and get my take on it. I do tend to lean towards Heavy Metal and Hard Rock, so most songs will probably be in that general area, but I will veer from time to time. I know music is very much like religion and politics, so I’m not pushing anything onto you. If you don’t like something, I respect that. But, if you do, I’m more than happy to get you more info on it, just let me know.

Most entries will have a Wikipedia and Last.FM link at the end for you to get more information and listen to other songs at your leisure.

(continue reading…)

Check this tag for my other “Songs of the Week” posts.

I enjoy music, as most of you know, so I thought I’d post a song everyday during the week using my Blip.fm station and tweet it at the same time (if you wanted to follow at home.) Every week, I’ll recap my choices and write a little blurb about them.

Hopefully, it’s a good chance to hear some new music (or old music) and get my take on it. I do tend to lean towards Heavy Metal and Hard Rock, so most songs will probably be in that general area, but I will veer from time to time. I know music is very much like religion and politics, so I’m not pushing anything onto you. If you don’t like something, I respect that. But, if you do, I’m more than happy to get you more info on it, just let me know.

Most entries will have a Wikipedia and Last.FM link at the end for you to get more information and listen to other songs at your leisure.

(continue reading…)