I fully expected to need to buy a receiver for Xbox instruments, but the confirmation is nice. Still probably going to get a new guitar so I don't have to take up one of the USB ports when playing with other people, though. Now I just wonder if the midi adapter will be compatible for the people using midi guitars (yes, they work for non-pro mode) and electric drums.
I think I should point out that Tom Hardy actually believes that the claims that the film is "feminist propaganda" and that Mad Max is supposed to be "for men" to be completely absurd.
I have respectfully disagree with our Moderator here. Feminism and its relation with mass media is at the heart of the conversation. And you know what I see when anything has feminist themes or could be perceived to have feminist themes, especially when said things are related to geek culture, people always come out of the woodwork to ***** about how feminism is ruining "their" movies/games/etc. Obviously, we're seeing this with Mad Max, but there were shades of it with films like Pacific Rim and games like Mirror's Edge have been criticied purely for having a controversial feminist (namely, Sarkeesian, who's views are completely reasonable, despite her inexplicable reputation as an extremist) being consulted. Anti-feminists and MRAs get upset when feminists are simply involved in the creation of something, regardless of the fact that feminist propaganda is almost completely non-existent.
Emphasis mine. Wow. You're a ****ing idiot if you really believe this. As for Colbert, you are aware that he's a feminist, right?
I still don't believe that's The Joker. I thought he'd look OK in the suit, but he still looks like a My Chemical Romance reject.
1. "Spring Dance" - Korpiklaani: Hey, look, it's the first folk metal band that anyone ever gets into. And for good reason! Korpiklaani is basically music to drink to. They're a good time and always fun to hear. Would love to see them live some time. 2. "The Sunk'n Norwegian (acoustic version)" - Alestorm: When I think of acoustic Alestorm, I would normally expect a flat out sea shanty. This, however? This shows many of the problems I have with Alestorm. This is already a rather meh album that shits itself halfway through (seriously, there's a song on this album called "Wooden Leg" that is basically the band screaming "WOODEN LEG" over and over), but take a boring Alestorm song and take away the fury and power behind it? You get a very boring Alestorm song. If you want Alestorm, go listen to their first two albums and only touch the highlights from Back Through Time and Sunset on the Golden Age. 3. "New Legend" - Galneryus: See my last post about Galneryus, keeping in mind that this song is from One for All, All for One. Pretty much everything I said there applies here, only the singing is better as Yama-B easily blows Sho out of the water. 4 "Sweat" - Tool: It's Tool. I really don't what to say about it. 5 "Fallen Angels" - Dio: If someone gave me a time machine and told me that I could go see one musician live in any time period, I would, without hesitation, say Ronnie James Dio. He may not have invented metal or even laid all of the foundations, but there is a reason Dio is considered the Father of Heavy Metal. His work with Elf and Rainbow are invaluable to the formation of metal and he was one of the most prolific singers in the genre. This song may not be a big hit of his, but it's still Dio and Dio at his average was still better than many bands at their best. 6 "The Theory of Everything, Phase II: Symmetry - XIII: Diagnosis" - Ayreon Here's a weird one for you. I can't really talk about this individually because it's the second part of the second scene, as well as the 13th track on the album. And that makes no sense whatsoever for anyone unfamiliar with Ayreon. Ayreon is less a band and more a progressive metal project conceived by Arjen Anthony Lucassen. Every album is a concept album that normally explores a strange sci-fi storyline that has to do with humankind's future and fish aliens with music that, while mostly sticking to prog metal, touches areas like folk rock or electric rock. It's weird ****. However, two albums don't fit that mold, The Human Equation (which does fit into the greater story... somewhere), which is actually being turned into a stage musical set to premiere in The Netherlands in the fall, and this album, The Theory of Everything, which is, as of this writing, a completely standalone album. It is easier to compare an Ayreon album to something like Jesus Christ Superstar or Les Miserable than almost any other metal album. It's not an album of individual songs, it's a sung-through musical without the stage performance. It's also really ****ing good. Seriously, The Theory of Everything is one of my favorite albums of all time. This album in particular stars Kamelot and Seventh Wonder vocalist Tommy Karevik as "The Prodigy" and features Tarot and Nightwish's Marco Hietala as "The Rival," Lacuna Coil's Christina Scabbia as "The Mother" and Grand Magus's Janne "JB" Christoffersson as "The Teacher," so there's serious vocal talent on display here. The story is about a highly autistic teenager and how the people around him see him, especially after his father starts giving him an experimental drug so he can use his incredible mind. While the cliche of the autistic savant is on display, it's a fascinating and heart wrenching story. I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who enjoys deep, complex music or stage musicals. 7 "Last Five" - Archive: Speaking of weird songs, early Archive is nothing like what I would normally listen to. Hell, even though I love newer Archive, I still don't listen to old Archive that often because I find their prog rock more interesting than their trip hop. This song definitely has shades of both, but is still very much a trip hop song with the rap vocals and dark, minimalist instrumentation. Hip hop fans and prog rock fans interested in trip hop should definitely look into this band as a starting point. 8 "No One Loves Me and Neither Do I" - Them Crooked Vultures: If anyone tries to tell you that 70s style rock is dead, show them Them Crooked Vultures. A superband comprised of Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme, Nirvana and Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl and Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones, Them Crooked Vultures was a surprise. I don't care for most of Dave Grohl's work (can't stand grunge and I am not impressed by Foo Fighters), but I can definitely get into this kind of 70s style hard rock. This isn't the best song on the album, but the album is solid enough that there really isn't a bad song on it anywhere. 9 "Summertime Blues (R30 Live) - Rush: I love Rush. Even their less noteworthy albums (and the album of covers) have great tracks. They're like Queen, good Rush is fantastic, mediocre Rush is great and bad Rush is good. While this song is one of their less noteworthy tracks, the live setting does help as, despite Geddy Lee's range leaving a lot to be desired in the last fifteen years or so, their passion and love of being on stage playing this music just oozes off their live performances. 10 "The Final Sacrifice" - Avantasia: Like with Ayreon, it's not entirely accurate to call Avantasia a band as much as a project, though Tobias Sammet is nowhere near as ambitious as Arjen Lucassen's pinky. But that's alright because Avantasia is a series of mostly great power metal albums. This song is from The Metal Opera Part II, when Sammet was still trying to emulate Rhapsody of Fire's concept cycle, for better or worse. It's not the most noteworthy stuff and The Wicked Trilogy (consisting of The Scarecrow, The Wicked Symphony and Angel of Babylon) is better, it's still a fun listen. Also, Michael Kiske won't stop guesting on Avantasia, despite claiming that he hates metal and wants nothing to do with it. You have no idea.
I swear having The Atom shrink is purely to apologize for turning him into off-brand Iron Man. Also, why White Canary? Her comic counterpart was a one off villain from Birds of Prey intended to be a foil for Black Canary. Why not just use Black Canary? EDIT: Rip Hunter is a supporting character for Booster Gold. If CW makes a Booster Gold show (and it's good,) I will watch it forever.
The Who aren't surprising at all. They're the only band to appear in every main Rock Band game to date. I'm sure Rush would have shared this distinction if "Subdivisions" weren't likely relegated to DLC, probably due to some deal with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.
I like this game! I'm excited to be a part of it: 1: "Poet and the Pendulum" - Nightwish Well, we're off to a GREAT start, aren't we? Not a huge Nightwish fan, but I do like a few of their albums, including this one. Anette is a great rock singer, but not a good fit for power metal. Still, this is a fun, epic track. Also, long. 13 minutes. 2: "Keep Your Dream Alive" - Masterplan What the hell happened to Masterplan? After some pretty solid work with Jorne Lande on Aeronautics and Time to Be King (and a brief time with Mike DiMeo on the boring as hell MK II), they fired him due to him being impossible to reliably keep in touch with, but it was not for the better. Nova Infinitum sucks. The best songs are boring and generic, while the worst is hideously overblown title track that feels like four or five demos got tied together as one "song." This song, luckily, fits the boring category. It doesn't stand out and there's absolutely no life to it. 3: "March of Mephisto" - Kamelot Now that's more like it. Wonderful song. At the time of release, it was Kamelot's heaviest and darkest song. That title was taken by "The Great Pandemonium" and later "Revolution," but "March of Mephisto" is still a fantastic track. It's heavy, grim and, in the context of the album's story being an adaptation of Faust, basically Mephisto (the stand in for Satan) gloating over Ariel (the stand in for Faust) over the success of his plans in the last album, Epica, that culminated in the death of Helena, the one person Ariel loves above anyone else. The solos, both keys and guitar, are great. Roy Khan's vocals are top notch. There's a reason Kamelot closes theirs shows with this song. 4: "Mary-Lou" - Sonata Arctica I wonder if I'll hit something that isn't power metal in this list. I haven't seriously listened to Sonata Arctica in quite a while, with the exception of briefly last year when trying to decide if I should pay to see them live (I kinda regret not going). This song was before they decided they wanted to be a prog metal band, way before. Ecliptica's a rough album. It really sounds like a generic power metal band trying and largely failing to break out of the mold. Even Tony Kakko, who's actually a great singer, is straining on this song, showing his lack of experience. It's not bad, just that Sonata would move on to better things. 5: "Eifursucht" - Rammstein Finally something that isn't power metal. I wonder if when Germans call Rammstein generic, this is the kind of stuff they're taking about. I like the song, but it's easily not one of Rammstein's standout songs. They have a lot of great songs, but this? Eh, I'll take "Du Hast," "Links 2 3 4" or "Amerika" over it anyday. 6: "Hammer to Fall" - Queen Good Queen is fantastic, mediocre Queen is great, bad Queen is good. Queen can do no wrong. This song isn't going to stick out in anyone's heads when they think of Queen, but it's still a fun song. It is Queen, after all. 7: "First Signs" - Children of Nova What ever happened to this band? They released two albums and then fell off the face of the Earth. It was weird. This band is some pretty fun prog rock with lyrics that make no sense unless you're tripping on acid. They took The Mars Volta, added some indie sensibilities and called it a day. If you like complex music, you can't go wrong with this band. If you play Rock Band, their entire first album and a song from their second album are up on the Rock Band Network. 8: "Burn My Heart" - Galneryus Oh, Galneryus, what happened to you? You used to be one of my favorite bands, but then you changed singers and decided to abandon what put you on the map in the first place. What we have is one of the few bands I've heard that I will legitimately call sell-outs. Luckily, this isn't one of their worst songs. It's from probably their last good album. This album has the same problem All for One, One for All did. It's not Galneryus. At least, not mostly. It's a solid power metal album that just frustrates me. It frustrates me because in the same way All for One came off of Beyond the End of Despair, one of my favorite neo-classical metal albums of all time, this came off of Reincarnation, which was a great compromise between where vocalist Yama-B wanted to go and where guitarist Syu wanted to go. Then I think Syu snapped at some point because they've outright abandoned power metal altogether and now play some terrible pop/hard rock hybrid with power metal guitar solos that is just plain terrible. Syu's a great guitarist, but commercial success got in the way of the band and that just hurts. 9: "Metal Meltdown" - Judas Priest A quick history lesson: In the 80s, Judas Priest went through a marketability phase where they tried to be a hair band, resulting in their worst work. Then 1990 came, they saw the writing on the walls and realize that hair metal was going to die. In response, they released Painkiller as if they were apologizing for what they did in the 80s. They dropped their mind blowingly mediocre drummer in favor of Scott Travis, who is easily one of the greatest drummers to ever sit behind a kit. On any other album, "Metal Meltdown" would have probably been the fan favorite, but on Painkiller? It's just there. That's the quality of what we're working with this album. It's not Priest's best, but it's still fantastic. 10: "The Trees" - Rush What do you mean this isn't based on Neil Peart's at the time Objectivist views? In all seriousness, "The Trees" is almost a parody of political lyrics. While I prefer the "Vault" version that made it into Rock Band 2, this song is a staple of Rush's live shows for a reason. It's a great track with the band's signature complexity and Peart's usual mastery of his exploded drum factory.
And Activision's habit of preferring bad popular pop songs over what would actually be fun to play continues. Seriously, Skrillex? At least Fall Out Boy makes some level of sense.
I admit, I do think the romance between Banner and Black Widow (yes, Banner, not Hulk. They're two different characters) is kinda forced, but the amount of people complaining that the writing was sexist makes me scratch my head. Yes, she calls herself a monster, but there's more reason for it than her being sterile. Yes, she is captured by Ultron and relies on the other Avengers to break her out, but she still takes the initiative to alert the Avengers to where she is. Not to mention that no one tries to relegate her to more passive roles and is treated and portrayed as an equal to the other Avengers in both role and skill at kicking Chitauri, HYDRA and Ultron ass. The real sexism around the movie is Marvel and Hasbro's extremely frustrating and constant erasure of Black Widow from the marketing and merchandising for the MCU. Seriously, since Iron Man 2, Marvel and Hasbro have avoided using her for marketing and there's really no excuse for it.
There are two things I don't get about the controls, having played the demo on X1: 1, the lock-on is ****ing weird. 2, If the triggers don't do anything, why are the defend and lock-on buttons on the far more awkward to use bumpers instead of the triggers?
And within 24 hours people were already exploiting the system. Good job, Valve and Bethesda. Good job.
I.... would actually consider picking up a KH3D HD if it included a KHIII demo and was on X1. I ultimately would probably give it a pass since I already have the game on 3DS and it has the proper two stick controls with the Circle Pad Pro and New 3DS, but I would definitely consider it. That said, I would also expect a KH3D HD to be PlayStation exclusive.
I would expect Dragon Quest XI on 3DS, to be honest. They saw some success with Dragon Quest IX on DS and, if I remember correctly, Dragon Quest X (which is apparently coming to 3DS as well) is doing decently. Not to mention the DS ports of the older entries of the series. Also, what would they put in another Kingdom Hearts collection? Obviously KH3D, but what else? The only other thing I could think of is PS4 versions of the existing collections.
I think my point that Square has the option of digital-only releases still stands. This is something that they've never experimented with. Bandai-Namco has seen some success releasing niche Japanese games on PSN. Because of that, we got a release of freaking One Piece: Pirate Warriors of all things! You're very right that there just isn't as strong of a market for JRPGs on Xbox as there is on PlayStation, but there is still a market there for Xbox and I don't see much sense in not at least experimenting with digital releases. As for the Japanese release of FFXV: http://kotaku.com/how-final-fantasy-xvs-combat-works-1686957069 They've released controls information in Japan for the X1 version. I'm not even going to try to say that releasing the game on X1 makes any semblance of sense in Japan.
At the same time, Final Fantasy XIII was released in 2010. The Xbox 360 in 2005. There were four and a half years to build up the market between the release of the 360 and FFXIII. This is not the case with the Xbox One, which only released about a year and a half ago, and Type-0 HD. If we take the timing and the fact that there are twice as many PlayStation 4s in the wild than Xbox Ones, I think the 4:1 split in sales for Type-0 HD makes perfect sense. Square-Enix has stated that Type-0 HD has sold over a million copies. This means that the X1 version of Type-0 HD sold around 20% of the game's sales. This means that the X1 version of the game has most likely sold over 200,000 copies, which is not an insignificant number. I'm also curious what the numbers would look like if we cut out the Japanese numbers again (unless of course, the million sales is only counting the western release, if so, disregard this curiosity) because, let's face it, Xbox will never get a significant market share in Japan. While I get is that there is a much smaller market for Final Fantasy (and JRPGs in general. Tales of Vesperia, Star Ocean: The Last Hope and Lost Odyssey all sold quite poorly on 360, despite being exclusive, at least at the time of release) on Xbox, this doesn't mean that the market is not worth pursuing. I think the best option would be a digital only release for something like Final Fantasy X. Also, Square-Enix has already announced that Kingdom Hearts III will be on PS4 and X1. I think it's quite likely that the X1 version will be canceled in Japan, but like I said, I'm surprised that Final Fantasy XV is getting an X1 release in Japan in the first place. EDIT: Also, I have no access NPD and publishers are not obligated to release numbers and rarely do. I cited VG Chartz because I had no other source to rely on.
The changes are actually exactly what some leaks said Guitar Hero 7 was going to be. They described a switch to guitar-only with a six button guitar and some vague things about music videos. I get the feeling that all they did was take Guitar Hero 7 off the shelf in response to Rock Band 4 being announced. Also, I have a different concern over the FMV thing. Well, two concerns. The first is that we're not getting custom characters, which has always been a pretty big appeal for me for Rock Band and the later Guitar Heroes. The second is, unless the setlist is tiny, I don't see how they can give the illusion of the band playing music just because of disc space. Because the crowd and the rest of the band are supposed to react to how well you're playing, that means there has to be a lot of variation in how the videos can go, which means that more disc space is required. I actually expect the band to not be in sync with the songs because of how unfeasible it would be to do that, which is ridiculously distracting. EDIT: Ok, seeing the footage, the transition between doing good and doing poorly is blatantly obvious. This does address my concern of syncing the band to the music, but my other concerns stand On top of a new concern. Watching the video didn't give me the illusion of playing guitar on stage, it made it look like someone was on stage swinging around a camera.
Hopefully it won't suck as much as the last two games.
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