Rock Band: I tried out Guitar Hero a while ago and I was rather unimpressed. The game was too far removed from actually playing guitar and I really didn't get on well with it. But I still wanted to try Rock Band. Mostly, I just wanted a chance to try out the vocal section as well as the drums. I must say, the vocal section is lots of fun and I really enjoyed it. Although, I did find it difficult with songs I didn't know well (or even ones I did but didn't know the lyrics to, such as Welcome Home by Coheed & Cambria). The addition of the tamborine (or cowbell on (Don't fear) The reaper) was interesting. On some songs it was good, whereas others it just felt really out of place. I had another attempt at the guitar/bass and found it to be a lot more usable than when I first tried it. As for the drums, I found them to be pretty horrible. Being an actual drummer, I just didn't get on with the layout of the "drum kit". It also didn't help that what I was meant to play was nothing like what I would actually play to any of the songs. Maybe with practice, I'd get on with it more, but for now it just makes me feel stupid. Overall, the game is definitely great as a group game, especially if you just set it on the lower levels and worry more about having fun than accuracy.
Thursday 17 July 2008
I've got a fever...
Rock Band: I tried out Guitar Hero a while ago and I was rather unimpressed. The game was too far removed from actually playing guitar and I really didn't get on well with it. But I still wanted to try Rock Band. Mostly, I just wanted a chance to try out the vocal section as well as the drums. I must say, the vocal section is lots of fun and I really enjoyed it. Although, I did find it difficult with songs I didn't know well (or even ones I did but didn't know the lyrics to, such as Welcome Home by Coheed & Cambria). The addition of the tamborine (or cowbell on (Don't fear) The reaper) was interesting. On some songs it was good, whereas others it just felt really out of place. I had another attempt at the guitar/bass and found it to be a lot more usable than when I first tried it. As for the drums, I found them to be pretty horrible. Being an actual drummer, I just didn't get on with the layout of the "drum kit". It also didn't help that what I was meant to play was nothing like what I would actually play to any of the songs. Maybe with practice, I'd get on with it more, but for now it just makes me feel stupid. Overall, the game is definitely great as a group game, especially if you just set it on the lower levels and worry more about having fun than accuracy.
Tuesday 8 July 2008
Mod me up
I've always enjoyed the customisable elements of games. Often I'll find myself enjoying building my own character a lot more than I do the actual game! Some games take it even further and you enter the wonderful world of modding. My first introduction to modding was through my favourite game, Total Annihilation. There's all kinds of mods available for TA, including things like fan-built units and maps, but the one that really got me was Warhammer TA. Back in the day before Dawn Of war existed there wasn't really a good Warhammer game, so Warhammer TA was a great stop-gap. It allowed you to use the Warhammer units but in a game that had great gameplay and mechanics.
Sticking with Total Annihilation, the world of modding has now brought about Spring. Spring is basically a total recreation of the original TA but in a fully 3D environment. This means that you once again get to use the great gameplay elements but it updates the parts of the game that have now become dated. It's also opened the door for even more mods along the lines of Warhammer TA as the code is now open source, so even more of the fundamentals of the game can be changed.
So, what's the appeal of modding? From a player perspective, it allows you to manipulate the game to do what you want with it. It allows you to be creative and play with game elements that are personal to you. From a game designer perspective, it allows you to prolong the lifespan of your game and to add functionality without any cost to you (and sometimes it can even help you make money).
Modding is becoming an essential part of many modern games. Whether in its simplest form of character creation (such as in an MMO like World Of Warcraft) or allowing the use of user-created maps. Some mods work on the game's mechanics and gameplay in order to make the game behave the way they want (such as Project Reality for Battlefield 2). There's even games like LittleBigPlanet where the entire point of the game is modification, with the completion of levels allowing access to new elements that can be used in the level designer. Or there's things like the Spore Creature Creator which has been released separately ahead of the actual game itself. The implementation of hard drives in consoles is now allowing modding to happen on console games with things such as downloadable content, etc.
The world of modding can make great games better or at least great for longer. They can make them more challenging or simply more surreal and humorous. They also allow fans to give something back to a game (and possibly community) they love.
Sticking with Total Annihilation, the world of modding has now brought about Spring. Spring is basically a total recreation of the original TA but in a fully 3D environment. This means that you once again get to use the great gameplay elements but it updates the parts of the game that have now become dated. It's also opened the door for even more mods along the lines of Warhammer TA as the code is now open source, so even more of the fundamentals of the game can be changed.
So, what's the appeal of modding? From a player perspective, it allows you to manipulate the game to do what you want with it. It allows you to be creative and play with game elements that are personal to you. From a game designer perspective, it allows you to prolong the lifespan of your game and to add functionality without any cost to you (and sometimes it can even help you make money).
Modding is becoming an essential part of many modern games. Whether in its simplest form of character creation (such as in an MMO like World Of Warcraft) or allowing the use of user-created maps. Some mods work on the game's mechanics and gameplay in order to make the game behave the way they want (such as Project Reality for Battlefield 2). There's even games like LittleBigPlanet where the entire point of the game is modification, with the completion of levels allowing access to new elements that can be used in the level designer. Or there's things like the Spore Creature Creator which has been released separately ahead of the actual game itself. The implementation of hard drives in consoles is now allowing modding to happen on console games with things such as downloadable content, etc.
The world of modding can make great games better or at least great for longer. They can make them more challenging or simply more surreal and humorous. They also allow fans to give something back to a game (and possibly community) they love.
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