smowton (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} smowton) wrote,@ 2008-12-31 11:29:00 |
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Christmas
Blegh. Well that was the worst Christmas in living memory.
Mainly this is because I caught the fairly-minor-flu or pretty-monstrous-cold or really-pitiful-ebola on Christmas Eve, and so spent all of the time between then and the 28th craving an environment heated to 40 celcius. Except the times when the fever went the other way, when it was all about living in the fridge. Either way I couldn't be arsed to move off the sofa and actually gain access to the volcano / refrigerator, so I guess it doesn't matter.
This aside, presenty goodness was awesome -- I've got a couple of classic PC games courtesy of Yahtzee's ranting (specifically Psychonauts and Sands of Time), and some interesting reading for once, as my dad discovered the "customers who bought this..." field on Amazon :) Also got a nice dressing gown, so I can stop scarring my housemates' precious eyes at 8am as I sprint showerwards wearing only a bath towel.
Most fun thing has been my little sister's shiny copy of Guitar Hero World Tour, which I've been hastily thrashing my way through since the death wore off. In summary:
* The GHWT drum set is cooler than its Rock Band companion, and velocity sensitive drums (also present on RB2's kit) make for better drum fills.
* Rock Band is better designed. Period. Example: the meter showing everyone's relative success or failure is evident in RB, unreadable in GHWT. Another example: if someone fails in RB, you can save them with star power; in GHWT the song suddenly ends and everyone looks around accusingly to figure out who buggered up, as you don't know in advance due to the aformentioned sucky interface.
* Both GHWT and RB2 are watering the quality of the music down something awful this time around. They're both boasting 85 or so songs, compared to 45 or so last time. This all sounds good until you notice that both RB1 and GH3 had a further 20-25 "bonus songs," i.e. songs of dubious quality they didn't want to inflict on the main setlist.
These "bonuses" have vanished for both RB2 and GHWT, meaning the shit has been mixed in with the good stuff. In some cases actual specific songs which had been excluded from the main setlist previously are in, such as Tokio Hotel's dull and droning Monsoon, which was a "bonus" in RB1 and now a main track in GHWT. Similarly the thoroughly mediocre Lacuna Coil was demoted to "bonus" status in GH3, but appears twice in the main setlist this time. I don't mind too much with the dodgy metal that prevades, but the rubbish new indie stuff is stultifying, and has to be played to unlock the proper stuff.
Finally, it's new years' tonight. Unfortunately, all of the 3 people I still keep in touch with from school times have gone back home, so for the first time in about 5 years it's time for the depressing new years' mainstay: Jools Holland with the family. Fuck yeah...
Blegh. Well that was the worst Christmas in living memory.
Mainly this is because I caught the fairly-minor-flu or pretty-monstrous-cold or really-pitiful-ebola on Christmas Eve, and so spent all of the time between then and the 28th craving an environment heated to 40 celcius. Except the times when the fever went the other way, when it was all about living in the fridge. Either way I couldn't be arsed to move off the sofa and actually gain access to the volcano / refrigerator, so I guess it doesn't matter.
This aside, presenty goodness was awesome -- I've got a couple of classic PC games courtesy of Yahtzee's ranting (specifically Psychonauts and Sands of Time), and some interesting reading for once, as my dad discovered the "customers who bought this..." field on Amazon :) Also got a nice dressing gown, so I can stop scarring my housemates' precious eyes at 8am as I sprint showerwards wearing only a bath towel.
Most fun thing has been my little sister's shiny copy of Guitar Hero World Tour, which I've been hastily thrashing my way through since the death wore off. In summary:
* The GHWT drum set is cooler than its Rock Band companion, and velocity sensitive drums (also present on RB2's kit) make for better drum fills.
* Rock Band is better designed. Period. Example: the meter showing everyone's relative success or failure is evident in RB, unreadable in GHWT. Another example: if someone fails in RB, you can save them with star power; in GHWT the song suddenly ends and everyone looks around accusingly to figure out who buggered up, as you don't know in advance due to the aformentioned sucky interface.
* Both GHWT and RB2 are watering the quality of the music down something awful this time around. They're both boasting 85 or so songs, compared to 45 or so last time. This all sounds good until you notice that both RB1 and GH3 had a further 20-25 "bonus songs," i.e. songs of dubious quality they didn't want to inflict on the main setlist.
These "bonuses" have vanished for both RB2 and GHWT, meaning the shit has been mixed in with the good stuff. In some cases actual specific songs which had been excluded from the main setlist previously are in, such as Tokio Hotel's dull and droning Monsoon, which was a "bonus" in RB1 and now a main track in GHWT. Similarly the thoroughly mediocre Lacuna Coil was demoted to "bonus" status in GH3, but appears twice in the main setlist this time. I don't mind too much with the dodgy metal that prevades, but the rubbish new indie stuff is stultifying, and has to be played to unlock the proper stuff.
Finally, it's new years' tonight. Unfortunately, all of the 3 people I still keep in touch with from school times have gone back home, so for the first time in about 5 years it's time for the depressing new years' mainstay: Jools Holland with the family. Fuck yeah...
