12 Responses to “This Week in Games: October 19 – 26”

1. Cary Woodham
   October 19th, 2008 at 7:44 pm

   I’m definitely getting Wii Music this week. I don’t care what they naysayers have to say, I played it at PAX and it seems fun.

   I’ll get Touchmaster 2 when the price goes down on it. –Cary

2. PapaGamer
   October 19th, 2008 at 8:17 pm

   I’m interested in Wii Music and Spider-Man: Web of Shadows; but, I think those will have to go on the Christmas list. With pre-orders already in for LittleBigPlanet (curse you, Sony, for a stupid delay!) and Fallout 3, I’ve got enough to keep me busy until then.

3. Freakhead
   October 20th, 2008 at 7:52 am

   Wii Music for the win. I definitely think some of the gaming press hated the title without really understanding it first. I guess there’s no high scores and no hit this button and this time stuff so they are lost. No blood or gore or tatoos doesn’t help either.

4. Mike Anderson
   October 20th, 2008 at 9:08 am

   I still have a load of stuff pending for Mac & PC … added Brothers in Arms, Mount & Blade, and a couple of others last week to the pile. Already pre-ordered Far Cry 2 but still haven’t finished King’s Bounty … and need to clear room for Falluot 3 next week!

5. croaker
   October 20th, 2008 at 9:54 am

   I’m not sure I understand why Wii Music would be more fun than Rock Band or the Guitar Hero multi-“instrument” games. For me it isn’t he lack of high scores or the like, it’s the lack of any connection to playing/making music. Beyond shaking the Wii remote/nunchuck as if they were maraccas or some similar percussion instrument, where’s the connection? When I’m singing into a microphone, or striking pads with drumsticks, or pressing fret buttons and flicking a strum bar, it feels like I’m really making the music; one that I doubt I’d have holding on to the Wii remote.

   Maybe I’m just haven’t really been introduced to what Wii Music really brings to the table, but it seems like it’s not much more than a glorified version of some of the WarioWare mini games.

   I’ll read whatever you folks write up on it, though. I can always have my mind changed.

   None of the DS games seem that interesting to me, either. I guess I’m really much more interested in next week (Fallout 3) and November (Rise of the Argonauts and Rock Band 2 for the Wii).

   I feel sorry for those folks who only have a PS3 with having to wait until now for Bioshock. It seems unlikely that they haven’t seen plot spoilers by this time. I wonder what the PS3 hacking minigame is like.

6. Freakhead
   October 20th, 2008 at 11:15 am

   I had the opposite perception of Wii Music. IT looks like its more expressive than either RB or GH and thus more like playing a real instrument. 🙂

   RB and GH are mechanical in nature. HIt the right colored button at the right time. More like an old school videogame one that Rain Man might excel at.

7. croaker
   October 20th, 2008 at 1:42 pm

   An anecdote.

   My wife isn’t a gamer. Playing a game is not something that comes to her mind when thinking of something to do for fun. What games she will play, such as Scrabble, she doesn’t play it to win as much as to be filling time and maybe trying to get her kids to be better with words. (Winning at scrabble is much more about numbers than words, but she’ll play it because she sees it as a word game.)

   However, a few weeks ago I decided to pick up Rock Band for the Wii. Pretty much the only other rhythm game we had before that was Elite Beat Agents on the DS. My wife showed *no* interest in EBA, even though there were more than a few songs on it that she would enjoy listening to.

   Anyway, after putting RB’s instruments all together and getting it all plugged in, I started trying it out, and I had a really fun time. Our kids did, too, although more so with my daughter than my platform-gaming son. What was unusual was that my wife enjoyed watching one or more of us playing through the RB songs. Normally she’s more of the “why don’t you go outside and have fun instead?” kind of mom.

   And, within a week or so, she (on her own) decided that she wanted to play. I hadn’t even suggested it to her. We’ve been married for decades now, and I just hadn’t any expectation that she’d be interested.

   Anyway, she has fun with the game, too. Enough so that she even has gone into the practice area to be able to play some songs at higher difficulties. She isn’t motivated at all by the scores; she wants to get better so that she can play the parts that are more like the way the actual musicians would be playing. Now, she apparently has little to no interest in singing, but likes doing the guitar. Maybe this is a reflection on a childhood desire to learn how to play the guitar.

   A week or two ago we happened to visit a mall (pretty unusual for us) and we walking into a GameStop which had a 360 with RB with guitar set up. While I was doing a quick look to see if there was any games that caught my interest, I was surprised to turn and see my wife playing a RB song.

   In public.

   I just cannot fathom that anything like the above would happen with Wii Music. You can’t mentally put yourself into being a member of a band by wiggling or holding Wii remotes or nunchucks.

   But, feel free to convince me otherwise.

8. Freakhead
   October 20th, 2008 at 7:08 pm

   I like how you set that up.

   “I think Game A is completely retarded. Wait, let me share a story about another game, game B. IT moves the earth for my wife. We see stars in our sleep. We have sweet sweet dreams about this game. We worship at its altar. She sneaks out to make sweet love with the game. In public she can’t keep her hands off it.

   Now I cannot fathom for a minute that Game A will trigger anything of this sort of thing in us.

   But, feel free to convince me otherwise. ”

   I guess you’ll never play another game. Everything else will be a letdown. 😉

9. croaker
   October 21st, 2008 at 7:37 am

   Sorry if my story comes off as a put-down of a game that I haven’t played. Since I’ve seen no actual reviews or stories from folks here or elsewhere on how Wii Music actually behaves, I’m going with what I’ve understood it to be.

   I was just trying to describe how, to me, it seems like there’s a big difference in the approaches taken between these two games that are put together in the same gaming category. From what I’ve seen, Wii Music uses your existing generic gaming controllers to simulate the actions of playing instruments and doesn’t reward or penalize your skill at doing so. Rock Band gives you controllers that simulate its specific instruments. It then encourages you to try to get better at using those “instruments” by rewarding and penalizing you for your skill at doing so.

   This seems like a pretty fundamental difference to me, as the latter does a good job of putting you into the experience.

   Before I got Rock Band, I fully expected to have some fun playing the game because I’d seen lots of positive feedback. Otherwise, I’d never have spent $90+ for a video game. What I didn’t expect was that others in my family would have as much fun as they do. So, in a similar fashion, what I’ve been saying, in part, is that although I am skeptical about Wii Music, I’ve still got an open mind on it.

   I know you aren’t trying to be (too) snarky in your reply, but I’m honestly trying to clarify my current thoughts on Wii Music, without going overboard.

10. Freakhead
    October 21st, 2008 at 8:09 am

    RB and GH seem pretty comparable.

    But I think Wii Music is a different take on music games and not just RB for non-gamers so I wouldn’t be so eager to directly compare them.

    I’ll post some thoughts about it when I get my hands on it. I was only sharing my perceptions above as the game is not out yet.

    The ability to control your tempo and the arrangements of tunes are two features that I don’t believe RB or GH have. Those 2 things are the expressive appeal akin to creating real music that caught my interest. It’s a different take.

    From what I’ve read that seems lost on most of the gaming press who immediately dismiss it as RB without plastic instruments for non-gamers and 6 yr olds.

    Maybe I’ll end up agreeing with them, but most of the criticism seems to ignore these things and focuses on its not RB or GH. You can’t fail.

    The reality is you can’t fail in real music. You don’t get a high score in real music. You don’t get a number that spits out at the end of each song saying 95% of the notes hit. The reward is in expressing yourself and being creative and playing something you’ll enjoy. Real music is open to interpretation.

    This is the essence of music that Wii Music looks like it’s trying to capture.

11. GamerDad
    October 24th, 2008 at 9:58 am

    There’s also the cost and equipment issue. I haven’t played it yet, which is a shame, but it looks perfect for a mainstream nongaming family.

    But I think Freakhead nailed the difference. Rock Band is musical, but it’s also like playing Simon.

12. Colleen Hannon
    October 24th, 2008 at 12:10 pm

    Not to derail, but does anyone know where I can find some solid info as to the differences between the 360 version of Eternal Sonata that came out last year and the PS3 version that just came out? I’m trying to figure out if we want to get it or just rent it.