I find that often times what draws me to a game is not the same thing that draws my girlfriend. Headshots, zombies and gore may not strike my girlfriend as particularly engaging BUT that won't stop her from spending hours customizing her mercenary's mask, much to my chagrin... I found this video of the Fable series creator Peter Molyneux's new game, Milo. Built to take full advantage of the Xbox's new camera, Kinect, which allows players to interact with their games in much the same way as the Wii (but arguably in a much more interesting way), Milo follows the story of a young boy who has recently moved to a new town and is having problems adjusting. You essentially play as a figment of Milo's imagination, there to aid him in his troubles.
Most of this is explained in the video, but what really got my attention was the different ways men and women interacted with Milo. This video is a demo of the first ten minutes of the game, to which Molyneux is giving a presentation. Most of the video is regarding the game itself but Molyneux speaks, at times, about the different interactions men and women have with Milo. Very interesting. I'm done repeating the words men, women, different, interesting and Milo. Here's the video:
I always get excited when I find games that look like they'll further the acceptance of gaming as a culture. This one looks like a contender to me. What's a game that you see as a vehicle for mass acceptance? Why?
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Other Things Rock Beats Besides Scissors
Ok! As fun as art house, thinking man's, puzzle games are, ENOUGH! I feel saturated by all one of those games I've focused on. Time to move onto something a bit more accessible.
Why Can't We Be Friends?:
Rock Band, Rock Band 2, The Beatles: Rock Band and Green Day: Rock Band
Did I just blow your mind? Yeah, I'm writing about four games but they're all part of the same series AND most of the songs from each game can be played on the other games. The beauty of this game is you don't use a regular (read: boring!) controller to play. There's a guitar controller to play guitar, a microphone to sing, a bass guitar to play bass and drum peripherals for... well, yeah, drums. A team of four can play through a career or just pick up and play in Quick Play songs. The Beatles and Green Day are more specialized games (obviously), so if you buy these ones you're getting a very specific sound. Green Day consists of Dookie, American Idiot and, their new album, 21st Century Breakdown, along with 8 other hits. The Beatles features a broader range of songs from their whole career with three downloadable albums: Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Rubber Soul. One nice feature on these games that isn't on either Rock Band 1 or 2 (though will be available in the upcoming third entry) is three part harmonies. In Green Day, the harmonies are fun and easy to jump into so it's possible to play an instrument on an easier difficulty and sing back up with your friends. The Beatles are a little more complex and require a lot of concentration. But if you can sing and play that game, more power to you. Rock Band (1 & 2) features 56 and 84 songs (respectively) on the disc and over 1,500 songs to download. If you can't find a band you don't like on their service you probably listen to yodeling and you have NO business playing this game. They have songs from the sixties and songs that haven't even come out yet (bands have been known to release singles and entire albums ahead of time on Rock Band or day and date with their albums). Every genre of rock music you'd want: rock, metal, prog rock, alt. rock, punk, country, emo, blues, jam bands, even ska! They've also got entire albums of certain bands including Rush, The Who, No Doubt, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Iron Maiden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, and there's even a strong rumor that Metallica's Puppet Master will show up soon. There are several difficulty levels to ease players in as well as a no fail mode, which is fairly self explanatory. There are also a lot of peripherals you can buy if you really want to get into the game including cymbals for the drums, a specialized bass guitar that allows two finger up strumming and a fog and light machine that replicates a staged show. I own all of these and can GUARANTEE their awesomeness! This game is great for groups because 4 players (up to 6 on The Beatles and Green Day) can play together and with the huge song list there's bound to be songs, artists, or entire albums you love to hear and are even more fun to play. There's also a real sense of teamwork as you can all activate Overdrive simultaneously to get a big score multiplier or use your overdrive to save a band mate who missed too many notes and got kicked off stage. Also, each instrument has its own role: the guitar has solos, the drums have fills you can improvise on and solos, the bass gives you a 6x multiplier as the supporting instrument and vocals allow you to add any kind of rock growls you want between lyrics. Honestly, why are you still reading this? Buy it now. Buy it NOW!!
Here's Welcome Home by Coheed & Cambria on Rock Band 2:
American Idiot on Green Day: Rock Band (The "Woo"s are the singer activating Overdrive):
And Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) on The Beatles: Rock Band:
The dlc is so numerous I can't link all of it. I CAN, however, link you to list a of all the officially available artists and a list of the (mostly) indie bands that put themselves on Rock Band with a few exceptions like Third Eye Blind and Steve Vai. There's also a demo of Green Day: Rock Band available on Marketplace if you're interested.
Why Can't We Be Friends?:
Rock Band, Rock Band 2, The Beatles: Rock Band and Green Day: Rock Band
Did I just blow your mind? Yeah, I'm writing about four games but they're all part of the same series AND most of the songs from each game can be played on the other games. The beauty of this game is you don't use a regular (read: boring!) controller to play. There's a guitar controller to play guitar, a microphone to sing, a bass guitar to play bass and drum peripherals for... well, yeah, drums. A team of four can play through a career or just pick up and play in Quick Play songs. The Beatles and Green Day are more specialized games (obviously), so if you buy these ones you're getting a very specific sound. Green Day consists of Dookie, American Idiot and, their new album, 21st Century Breakdown, along with 8 other hits. The Beatles features a broader range of songs from their whole career with three downloadable albums: Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Rubber Soul. One nice feature on these games that isn't on either Rock Band 1 or 2 (though will be available in the upcoming third entry) is three part harmonies. In Green Day, the harmonies are fun and easy to jump into so it's possible to play an instrument on an easier difficulty and sing back up with your friends. The Beatles are a little more complex and require a lot of concentration. But if you can sing and play that game, more power to you. Rock Band (1 & 2) features 56 and 84 songs (respectively) on the disc and over 1,500 songs to download. If you can't find a band you don't like on their service you probably listen to yodeling and you have NO business playing this game. They have songs from the sixties and songs that haven't even come out yet (bands have been known to release singles and entire albums ahead of time on Rock Band or day and date with their albums). Every genre of rock music you'd want: rock, metal, prog rock, alt. rock, punk, country, emo, blues, jam bands, even ska! They've also got entire albums of certain bands including Rush, The Who, No Doubt, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Iron Maiden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, and there's even a strong rumor that Metallica's Puppet Master will show up soon. There are several difficulty levels to ease players in as well as a no fail mode, which is fairly self explanatory. There are also a lot of peripherals you can buy if you really want to get into the game including cymbals for the drums, a specialized bass guitar that allows two finger up strumming and a fog and light machine that replicates a staged show. I own all of these and can GUARANTEE their awesomeness! This game is great for groups because 4 players (up to 6 on The Beatles and Green Day) can play together and with the huge song list there's bound to be songs, artists, or entire albums you love to hear and are even more fun to play. There's also a real sense of teamwork as you can all activate Overdrive simultaneously to get a big score multiplier or use your overdrive to save a band mate who missed too many notes and got kicked off stage. Also, each instrument has its own role: the guitar has solos, the drums have fills you can improvise on and solos, the bass gives you a 6x multiplier as the supporting instrument and vocals allow you to add any kind of rock growls you want between lyrics. Honestly, why are you still reading this? Buy it now. Buy it NOW!!
Here's Welcome Home by Coheed & Cambria on Rock Band 2:
American Idiot on Green Day: Rock Band (The "Woo"s are the singer activating Overdrive):
And Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) on The Beatles: Rock Band:
The dlc is so numerous I can't link all of it. I CAN, however, link you to list a of all the officially available artists and a list of the (mostly) indie bands that put themselves on Rock Band with a few exceptions like Third Eye Blind and Steve Vai. There's also a demo of Green Day: Rock Band available on Marketplace if you're interested.
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