Busy Week and a horrible scanner.

Busy Week, and A Horrible Scanner
Normally, I'd say these words more carefully, but I had to say this to Binkie today: "If this works, I'll marry you." As all two of my regular readers know, I've been having scanner issues that hinder my art. Quite simply, it scans so brightly that I don't have the texture on the paper I need to work in photoshop. So, while taking her new Schnauzer, Barnaby, out for his walk, we we're talking about it, and she said "If you had a filter or something to put over the picture, so that it isn't bleached..."

It dawned on me. I had tracing paper. We came back in, I hooked up my scanner, scanned the picture with tracing paper over it, and it nearly worked. I have to make the lines a bit darker, but other than that, it worked perfectly. Never has anyone I dated been as smart and inspiring as Binkie, and I can't be happier. Even if our new "game" keeps on getting screwed up by outside forces.

In other news, I've been busy. School is one thing, but I have an offer to consider. The Army Reserves are offering me this: Wright Patt for a year, non-deployable, fix my knee, and tuition reimbursement. I've talked to my parents, Bink, Jim and his girlfriend, Heather, and even Patty, and they all think this is a good deal. Unfortunately, they were supposed to call Wednesday, but they didn't, so I have to call them Monday, as well as cook for Binkie's birthday after school. I've also been working on scripting (and drawing), and reviewing stuff.

Yesterday, though, Bink and I took a break from "work" and finally watched the Director's cut of "Watchmen," which I'll be watching again with the guys this weekend (no, I won't get tired of it. It's that good of a movie). I have one gripe: THE DAMN SEX SCENE IS STILL TOO LONG. Other than that, amazing. The scene with a certain character's death is magnificent (and better than the book's version because he fights back), and it doesn't feel like three hours. To top it off, it came in a Rorschach mask.

Anyway, off to do more stuff. I'll post soon... hopefully.

A first in a mini-series: Guitar Hero: World Tour. Part one: Guitar

I will start off by saying this: Neversoft... play Rock Band for Pete's sake! Let me go off onto a tangent here.

Rock Band did the band mechanic right, but Rock Band 2 perfected it. Before this becomes a fanboy rant, I don't mean that in the way it looks. I mean the game as a package. Instead of pumping out game after game, Harmonix made the second game as an "updated) version of Rock Band, improving the flaws, and even transferring some (most) of the songs. Instead of making sequel after sequel (The Beatles: Rock Band not withstanding), the made DLC, saw what else could be done (the harmony parts, a music creator that allows VOCALS), they announced that they're making patches that will allow this. No need for a new game every year, just keep it updated with new mechanics and songs to keep the game fresh.

That's the problem with Guitar Hero now. Instead of updating the game, Activision and Neversoft make new ones every year (making three at the same time this year!), and the quality of the games are completely lacking. I can tell this in two ways with the guitar in Guitar Hero.

Firstly, the songs that were in Rock Band are tracked exactly the same as they are in Rock Band. I let "Lazy Eye" by the Silversun Pickups slide due to it having rapid notes, but "The Kill" by 30 Seconds to Mars? Now, yes I know that the fingering isn't going to change, but I'm also talking about the slider bar. The songs that are also on Rock Band don't use it, with the excepting of "Lazy Eye," which uses it absolutely wrong. The slider is used for two things: sliding notes and "tap" notes (or "empty strums"), neither of which "Lazy Eye" has! Most of the time, the transparent tap and slider notes are used as substitutes for hammer-ons, or as other instruments (i.e. the organ in "Mr. Crowley"). I'm assuming that's for points, but it seems lazy, which I can relate to, because it's so fun to relate (ten points for anyone who gets that joke).

On top of that, the slider is absolutely useless in the first place. Its a simple mechanic: slide from one note to the next. But, if you're going from Green to Blue, it detects the Red and Yellow, and ruins your streak. And to tap notes, you have to have the notes held down on the fret buttons that you're tapping on the slider. Why? You might as well strum anyway. It seems like a waste of time to even have the slider.

Secondly, the song selection and tracking. The selection is great (mostly), but why are the notes track to the point where someone on a Medium level has a hard time playing a song on the Easy level? I'll let "Hot for Teacher," (the hardest song in the game) slide on this, because that is a pain. But I did better on that than a Bullet for my Valentine song. Why? Because, A) the overuse of hammer-ons and pull offs, B) the slider mechanic is finicky and overused in the later tracks, and C) after Beginner, the notes are laid out on Expert difficulty minus the Blue and Orange frets, depending on what level you're on. So, essentially, you rapid strums while changing notes, constantly on an early level. On a track that should be: Green (beat) Red (beat) Red (beat) Green (beat) yellow (Beat) Blue, its GreenRedRedRedGreenYellowYellowGreenBlue, but twice as fast. Now, try that with CHORDS. How could this have been fixed? By taking time to do it right and re-tracking the songs for each level. Like the first two Guitar Hero games did. Like ROCK BAND does.

It isn't a complete waste, though. Neversoft has done something with it that I like. At times in songs, guitar players will do a slow strum on a chord. They'll strum on the first fret and hammer on a bit later on to the second fret and so forth. It's clever, and sounds natural. It actually amazes me that Harmonix hasn't done this yet (to my knowledge).

This is not to say that the game is horrible, though. Its good, but the overflow of mechanics and the speed the game was put through to be released has started to show. But, the difficulty of some of the songs and where they're placed is bizarre to say the least. On solo mode, the difficulty of the songs vary from instrument to instrument. So, on guitar, a hard guitar song would be later, but if that same song was on vocals and easier, it'd be earlier on vocals. "Hot for Teacher" is in the second to last level. The last songs you play are incredibly easy in comparison. Not only does that not make sense, but its also very badly placed. The credit song ( like "Through The Fire and the Flames" in GHIII) is "Pull Me Under" by Dream Theater. The name of the band set off a red light ("Panic Attack" and "Constant Motion" are pains in RB). I passed with a 98%. I'm not that good at the game (according to Bullet for my Valentine which I got my lowest rating of 84%). It's that easy of a song. It should be in the Middle tiers.

This is only a part of the review, peoples. I have Bass, Drums, Vocals, and over all game to get through. Now, while it looks like I'm bashing the guitar, I can't say much else. Other than the flaws I listed, and the benefit, it plays like Guitar Hero. It just needs tweaked... and tuned.