My love for games 2.0 (04/08/2006 22:47)

I am a gamer. I have always been a gamer. I think I will always be a gamer.

It started on some Atari Home Entertainment System, then the VIC20 (Jetpack 00wned!), then Commodore 64 (too many games to mention), then Atari 520 (Dungeon Master was great!) and the Amiga 500 (You name it!). Then my first PC, then my second PC, and my third, fourth,  fifth and sixth PC.


Incidentally, I don't mind a good party either.
And incidentally, I have plucked a few guitar-strings in my life too, belive it or not. (What is harder to belive is that I am a devil at Karaoke!) Note: This doesn't mean I am such a great singer, it just means I love singing!


An Old Gamer
Recently, people have been trying to tell me that I am getting old, and they are probably right. There are games where my 10 year old daughter kicks my butt nowadays, and my 16 year old brother beats me in just about any game I can think of, damn rascal! However, there is hope. The lord has shown me the way, and planted some really good ideas in some japanese minds a while back, as he invented what I call "Party Games".


Dance 'till you drop
First, we had all the dance-pad games, which are now as numerous as ants in the forest. Try to move your feet onto the pad-buttons as arrow-symbols rain down on the screen, probably in pace with the music. Great exercise, and great fun at parties, specially in multiplayer of course.



Singstar
 Then came Singstar, which is basically Karaoke with a rated score depending on how well you hit the notes and words. Also great fun.


Note: The Singstar games are easier for girls, or men with very high-pitched voices, due to the bigger steps in frequency in the higher tones!
Hah, I bet you didn't know that!


Being old and all that, I was very pleased to see Singstar make an 80s version for us with declining hair-growth.
Dang, it fells good to rock with Joey Tempest and the rest of the bunch :)








Buzz
Then came BUZZ, The Music Quiz, followed by BUZZ, The Big Quiz.
Very popular at parties, these BUZZ's, and just as Singstar came with microphones and Dance Revolution came with a dance-mat, Buzz came with "Gameshow Buzzers" of sorts.

The Music-quiz is much more "party-tuned" than the Big Quiz, so if you only want one, get the Music Quiz. If you do plan a big party though, the Big Quiz can support 8 players if you have enough Buzzers (4 with each game you buy) , allthough the party-mode isn't all that much to brag about.

Oh, and once again, I am made to feel old, as what they refer to as "Old Music" is mostly from the 80ies.... Like that wasn't yesterday??







Guitar Hero
But now, my heart belongs to another little ingenious idea, with a fantastic game and a new little piece of plastic hardware. This hardware is not to step on or sing into, but a wonderful instrument known as a guitar!
Close to it anyway. It doesn't have 6 strings, but 5 "fret-buttons", and in stead of experiencing Bryan Adams "played until your fingers bled" you get to tap on a switch in stead.

It looks a bit silly, with a small plastic guitar, but take it from me, Guitar Hero is meant to be played standing up, headbanging and rocking the heck out of your friends.

This game is actually one of the greater games I have played. This is probably related to my previous attempts of learnign to play the bloody instrument, which was mostly when I was 15 and discovered how a guitar-player got the attention from girls.
Belive me when I say that myth is true....




Anyway, back to the game. Guitar Hero comes with a set of 48 stunning guitar-tunes, from the likes of Queen, Joan Jett (Yes, we love Rock'n Roll!), ZZ Top,  Deep Purple, Sum 41, David Bowie, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Stevie Ray Vaughan to mention a few.

Each song is available in Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert modes, and please trust me when I say that it takes a while before you want to hit the Expert-level.

Allthough being 75% the size (or so) of a normal guitar, it feels strangely good when strapped over the shoulder. The sense of actually playing the songs is extremely powerful and realistic, and this keep us going for hours at the time.
We have also discovered that it mixes very well with beer AND wine, allthough we had to step back down to Easy after a "bit".


I strongly recommend this game to everyone who has a PS2, or do what I did: Buy it just to play Guitar Hero :) (Don't be fooled by the cheap price on it nowadays, when you add the Dance-games, Singstar, Guitar Hero and a good racing game, the money flew faster than my Vic20 jetpack!)