Seeing tattoos like this makes me wonder if there’s some user-friendly shortcut filter in Photoshop I’m not aware of, whereby people can make vector images look like actual tattoos with minimal effort. Because if not, that means someone spent entirely too much time in Adobeland for the purpose of a bad joke.
Or worse, that someone — out there somewhere — actually did this dumb shit to themselves.
[Via Lamebook]
Do you like the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, or Led Zeppelin? Me? Sometimes, but new artists are making new music. Try that out. Wait, that’s a whole different rant, and not at all related to videogames. What is related is that members of all three bands have dropped hate on the music video games that we play so much. Here’s what they’ve been quoted as saying:
"It encourages kids not to learn, that’s the trouble…. It makes less and less people dedicated to really get down and learn an instrument. I think is a pity so I’m not really keen on that kind of stuff." — Bill Wyman, The Rolling Stones
"It irritates me having watched my kids do it – if they spent as much time practicing the guitar as learning how to press the buttons they’d be damn good by now." — Nick Mason, Pink Floyd
Stupid, I know. They’re missing the point. Don’t even get me started on Jimmy Page said (after the jump). That’s like plumbers not liking Super Mario Bros. The people playing Madden don’t really think they’re playing football. There’s fair reasons to not like these music games, but the whole "it’s not real" angle isn’t one of them.
"After first saying there was no way that Led Zeppelin would ever put out a similar version of Rock Band: "Obviously, there have been overtures made to Led Zeppelin, but if you start with the first track on the first album, ‘Good Times Bad Times,’ and you think of the drum part that John Bonham did there, how many drummers in the world can actually play that, let alone dabble on a Christmas morning?" — Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin
At a recent Guitar Hero 5 launch even in Italy, 594 people showed up to participate in a non-stop 24-hour long jam session.
Utilizing the game’s hop-in/hop-out feature, Italy bested competition from competitors in other European countries, including Paris and Stockholm. This 594 plastic instrument love-fest is a world record, as documented by the Guiness Book of World Records, who has been documenting all kinds of random videogame crap as of late.
Full disclosure: The largest group of people I had playing Guitar Hero 5 for our review was… four. At least now the bar has been set for when I review Guitar Hero 6 next fall.
NPD Group’s Anita Frazier has cast a grim outlook on the formerly booming music game market, revealing that sales are down 46% from last year. Although things are bleak, it’s not all bad, since music games are still top sellers and the recent release of The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5 may re-energize things.
"While sales of this genre are down 46% year-to-date," explains Frazier, "unit sales are down much less because lower prices are playing into the dollar sales decline. It’s still the third best-selling genre for the year after General Action and Multiple/Other Sports (where Wii Fit resides)."
Given the saturation of the music game genre, it’s hardly surprising that sales are down. Evil publisher Activision releases several Guitar Hero games a year, and then there’s Rock Band, SingStar, and plenty of bottom-shelf "me too" games that aren’t important enough to be mentioned. We simply don’t need all these plastic peripheral music games, and even of the ones we do need, there are too many spin-offs and sequels.
I hope the industry cools its jets before the bottom falls out of the whole thing. The mainstream market has a ridiculous tolerance for things, but there is always a breaking point.
Despite the fact that Activision was able to get Kurt Cobain into Guitar Hero 5 and release the game with no problems whatsoever, new rumblings from Courtney Love’s bloodstained lair seem to suggest that she is furious over the dead Nirvana star’s inclusion in the game, and may very well seek legal action.
"For the record this Guitar Hero sh*t is breach of contract on a Bullys part and there will be a proper addressing of this and retraction," Twittered the maniac in one of her less typo-ridden updates. "WE are going to sue the sh*t out of ACtivision we being the Trust the Estate the LLC the various LLCs Cobain Enterprises."
Quite why Love is freaking out remains unclear, although her portrayal of Activision as a bunch of "bullies" seem to suggest that she believes she was coerced or otherwise forced into allowing Cobain’s blasphemous-for-some inclusion in GH5. We’ll be sniffing around Activision to try and find out, although so far the publisher is remaining tight-lipped. Unlike Love, who is remaining fish-lipped.
Frankly though, I don’t know who to root for in this debacle. Activision is an evil publisher that threatens to ruin the industry, while Love is an evil harbinger who threatens to ruin my ears with her singing. Whoever wins, we lose, but the fight’s going to be funny while it lasts.
What Love should do is murder these "bullies" and put shotguns under their chins with fake suicide notes attached. I heard that works quite well.
If you’re really hardcore about Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and are always on the go, you might like the NEXiLUX (Meximelt?) Mini Guitar. This is a retractable, packable stick guitar that works on the PS2, PS3, and Wii for both of the above listed guitar games.
The Mini Guitar should be available in the next two weeks. No price or exact release date was given, though we do know that it is offered in both black and white. The video shows how the whoel thing is put together. You can cram a Wii Remote in the back of the unit, and the wireless adapter/dongle is also shown off.
This looks to be quite a bit more handy than toting a full-sized Rock Band or Guitar Hero guitar on-the-go. Of course, those serious about the game would have to see how well the controls function. Is this something you’d consider using?
We’ve been blasted with Muramasa: The Demon Blade for months, which is a good thing as I probably wouldn’t have gotten interested in the game otherwise. It looks like a blast and the kind of game the Wii needs more of.
Other than that, I look forward to giving Section 8 a run through. Oh, and Guitar Hero 5 is a biggie this week. RED BLUE GREEN YELLOW ORANGE YEAH!
What’s looking sw33t to you all this week, Dtoiders? The jump contains the full list of releases and trailers for most of the games.
XBLA: Defense Grid: The Awakening
X360: Pinball Hall of Fame – The Williams Collection, Mini Ninjas, Guitar Hero 5, Section 8, Gears of War 2 Game Of The Year Edition
PS3: Pinball Hall of Fame – The Williams Collection, Mini Ninjas, Guitar Hero 5, NBA 2K10: Draft Combine
DS: Emergency Room: Real Life Rescues, Mini Ninjas
Wii: Cruise Ship Vacation Games, Mini Ninjas, Guitar Hero 5, Muramasa: The Demon Blade
PS2: Guitar Hero 5
PC: Mini Ninjas, Section 8, Champions Online
PSP: SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny
Releasing 08/31:
Pinball Hall of Fame – The Williams Collection (X360, PS3)
Releasing 09/01:
Mini Ninjas (Wii, PS3, DS, PC, X360)
Guitar Hero 5 (X360, PS3, Wii, PS2)
Section 8 (X360, PC)
SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny (PSP)
Gears of War 2 Game Of The Year Edition (X360)
Releasing 09/02:
Defense Grid: The Awakening (XBLA)
Releasing 09/03:
Fate/Unlimited Codes (PSP)
NBA 2K10: Draft Combine (PS3)
Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii)
Releasing 09/04:
Champions Online (PC)
Musicians angry over the existence of Guitar Hero and Rock Band often feel better about themselves by claiming that fans of the games should "learn to play a real instrument." However, Harmonix has said that those musicians are missing the point of the games, and possess a narrow perspective.
"I think they’re missing the point. I think that they don’t understand why it’s a phenomenon," explains John Drake. "From my perspective, anything that gets kids interested in music and gets kids playing music in their house that isn’t an MP3 they stole off the Internet, is a good thing.
"Anything that’s making money for music and making music relevant to kids again is a good thing. I think they think that we prefer people playing plastic guitars over real guitars, and that couldn’t be farther from the truth. We would love nothing more than for every kid that buys Beatles: Rock Band in September to immediately ask for a real guitar for Christmas because they’re inspired."
Personally, I feel that a guitarist telling someone to learn a real guitar instead of playing Rock Band is akin to a soldier telling someone to shoot real people instead of play an FPS. Some people just don’t want to do the real thing, and that’s why videogames are so popular.
It always amuses me when real musicians act threatened by a piece of plastic with squeaky buttons on it. Until people can take turns playing a real guitar when drunk and still have fun, music games have their definite place.
Hey, you remember those really annoying Risky Business commercials that Activision was overusing for Guitar Hero World Tour? Well, they’re back for Guitar Hero 5! This time, they feature not one, not two, not three, but ten Playboy Playmates as well as the king himself, Hugh Hefner.
Man, what the hell are these girls doing? They’re not even looking at a TV while playing. The two girls at the end aren’t even hitting the strum button! Watch for yourself after the break.
On a related note, I wonder how much ass Hugh has gotten in his life. It’s got to be in the thousands.
[Via GoNintendo]
