Rock Band, and TF2 Screenshots!

First and foremost, I hope that everyone's Thanksgiving was a pleasant one. I will let you know how mine was when it is finally finished. To my knowledge, I have at least one more dinner to attend. For a man that's not overly fond of turkey, I sure do seem to eat a lot of it.

Now, on to other matters!

Wednesday night was one of despair, delight, and delirium: despair at my friend Casey's loss, delight at the generosity shown by our friends, and delirium in the form of Rock Band.

First, the good about this game. It's a blast. I mean, really. The comedic value alone makes it worth every penny. I imagine that, as a solo effort, this game would bore me to tears. As a collective, this game is amusing on a level that I find difficult to express. I garnered a sadistic glee in the musical antics of our troop as we blundered our way through songs. I am not unashamed to crow my 100% on the vocals to Cherub Rock, and Casey earned himself a similar score for Radiohead's Creep. I'm pretty sure Bobby nailed at least one song, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was...I was too enraptured by Kev's frantic attempts at drumming, not unlike a certain Muppet we all know and love.

As for the bad...well. As I said, playing this game alone sounds about as much fun as a self-inflicted root canal. Besides that, the only thing I can think of is the guitar. When I first held it, I was very impressed. It feels like a real guitar. This impression was quickly proven unwarranted once the game started, and for one simple reason: the fucking strum bar. Unlike a Guitar Hero guitar, the strum bar on this device does not click when you hit it. Not only that, you practically need to hit the damn thing with a hammer to make it register at times...if it registers at all. I was not the only person having this problem, as DJ went through almost a whole song with none of his notes being recognized. RJ and Casey mocked both him and me for our troubles, attributing them to "human error", but I noticed that they avoided that particular guitar at all costs, preferring instead to use the Guitar Hero model.

Even so, the guitar segments themselves seemed in need of a little tweaking on the software side as well (everyone who played guitar of either model was heard to utter "What the hell?!" at least once), and they are far from challenging at any rate. I was blazing through some songs on Expert difficulty, and I can barely stumble my way through the easiest songs on Hard in Guitar Hero III.

So the good: awesome party game. The bad: fucked up guitars. Overall, I give it a Positive first impression!

In other news, I scratched Wednesday's Team Fortress 2 itch long and hard. Here are some screenshots for your enjoyment!

(Please let me know if this slideshow doesn't work, so that I can set up a direct link!)

In closing, this is truly strange.

That's it for now. Peace!