I Beat LBP

Yeah, I beat LittleBIGPlanet. It wasn't all that hard, the story mode is only about 8 hours long. I've been playing user-created levels for a while, and I found what is now one of my favorite levels, purely for originality: a working Pac-Man level. It's absolutely fantastic. I'm also hoping to write a review on LBP soon, so keep an eye out for that.

I've got to get in the bed now. I've been up for 22 hours and I'm freaking tired.

EDIT: OH FUCKING SHIT NANO STARTS TOMORROW OH SHIT I HAVE NOTHING PLANNED

Review: Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS)

The Guitar Hero games on consoles have always been hit, both critically and commercially. Guitar Hero: On Tour for the Nintendo DS was a little different. Some reviewers loved it, some didn't like it very much, but nevertheless it sold over 300,000 units in the first week. In my opinion, it's a decent start for the franchise in it's transition to handhelds.

First, let's talk about the hardware. Guitar Hero: On Tour comes with the Guitar Hero Guitar Grip peripheral which plugs into the DS' GBA slot. It also comes with a cool guitar pick-shaped stylus which fits into a convenient slot on the Grip. I don't know if they still come with this, but when I got my copy of the game (I got it within the first week it was released), it came with a really cool Guitar Hero Collectible Harmonica. Seriously.

I hear a lot of people get cramps in their hands from the Grip, but I never had that problem. My problem was that my wrist started to get stiff after a while, but that's to be expected I guess. Another problem that a lot of people (including me) have is that, especially in the faster songs, everything can get too hectic and the Grip can slide out of the GBA slot, thus ending the game and forcing you to reboot your DS. It doesn't happen too often, but it happens more than it should. The last major control problem is on the faster songs when you have to strum a ton of notes really fast, the touch screen can be quite unresponsive.

The first thing you'll notice about the Grip is that it only has 4 buttons, as opposed to the regular 5 buttons on the console versions. This may sound like a bad thing, but take it from me, 4 buttons is plenty. If there were 5 buttons, not only would you be straining your had to reach all of them (either that or the buttons would have to be smaller, and they're already hard enough to hit as it is), but it would just be chaotic.

Now, for the software. This definitely feels like a Guitar Hero game. It may not always feel responsive and the Grip may be a little different than what most people are used to, but the gameplay is totally Guitar Hero, and it is a mobile version worthy of the Guitar Hero name.

The Set List in On Tour isn't quite as strong as it could be, though. There are only 26 songs total (only one of those is an unlockable song), and several of the songs are a little unorthodox by typical Guitar Hero standards (This Love by Maroon 5 and Stray Cat Strut by Stray Cats stand out a little), but there are some decent songs in there. All songs, however are brought down a notch by bad audio quality. Maybe the developers ran out of room on the DS card and had to compress everything, I don't know. I just know that the audio quality could have been a lot better.

As you know if you've played any other Guitar Hero games, to initiate Star Power, you either hit Select on the Guitar, or just tilt the neck up. Since neither the DS nor the Grip has an accelerometer and it would be near impossible to hit Select in the middle of a song, the developers decided to remedy this by forcing you to blow (or you can do what it says to do in the tutorial and yell "ROCK OUT!") into the microphone. This is both awkward and occasionally ineffective.

On Tour also has a few characters returning from previous GH games, and a couple of new characters, too. The game also features Local Mulitplayer, but seeing as I never go anywhere and know no-one, I have yet to test this.

So, Guitar Hero: On Tour is not a perfect game. Far from it. It's not a terrible game, but it definitely could have been better. It is no Guitar Hero III replacement, but it's not a bad mobile version, as long as it's not played for too long at a time (for both your wrist and/or hands, and your sanity), and it get a little repetitive. 3 out of 5.

Fallout 3 and LittleBIGPlanet Both Totally Rock

LittleBIGPlanet finally came in the mail today, and it's even better than the Beta was. Fallout 3 is still freaking awesome, too. In fact, I got several screenshots of the game (Click to enlarge (That's what she said)):

This is (probably) the first town you will find after leaving Vault 101, Megaton:


This is what I can only imagine is a horribly mutated cow, called a Brahmin:


I went in the women's restroom in Megaton to see if I could find anything worth stealing. This was all I found. Why are women's restrooms always so much fancier?


And then I took a couple of landscape shots for scale. If you look really hard (That's what she said), you can see what I think are the remains of the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument (the game takes place in and just outside of a post-apocalyptic Washington DC):

So Overwhelmed

I just realized that NaNo starts in like 4 days...and I have NOTHING planned. I don't think I'll be able to make a single story stretch out to 50k words, so I may just write several short stories. I don't know.

I bought Fallout 3 today, and so far, this game fucking rocks. I haven't played much of it, because one of my friends started talking to me, but what I did play was great.

5 A.M. Ramblings

Oh God, I'm so freaking tired. I've been up since like, noon, and I've been trying to sleep for at least two hours. Nothing worth watching comes on TV on the weekends, so my DVR is empty. I could play a game, but that would keep me up. I have a lasagna TV dinner in the microwave right now. Why the hell do I have to stir the pasta and the sauce separately? Okay, the microwave is dinging and I'm uber-tired, so I need to go.

[Untitled]

Man, there are so many games coming out (or have already come out, or were supposed to have come out. I'm looking at you, LBP) that I really want. I started playing Fable (the first one) recently. I've had the game for months, I tried to play it once, but was put off by it's really long "tutorial" type of thing (it's probably an hour or so before you actually get to play the game), but I'm really liking it this time through. Anyway, there's several games that I can think of right off the top of my head (Fallout 3, LittleBIGPlanet, Fable 2, Left 4 Dead, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Guitar Hero: World Tour, etc.), but I don't know how I can scrape up enough money to get them (have enough for LBP (I have it preordered) and Fallout 3, and possibly another, but I still need to start spending my money better).

I also have several game reviews in the works, so keep an eye out.

Strange AIM Messages and General Bullshittery

I don't normally get random AIM or Skype messages, and when I do, it's usually just an ad or something, so I respond with "Fuck off" or "Go Fuck yourself" or something like that. Today was a little different. I got the strangest message I've ever gotten.

OppositeCoho is offline and will receive your IMs when signing back in.
OppositeCoho (5:01:03 PM): Ever watched a marmot bite a lamb to death while blindfolded? No? Well, you're sure in for a treat!
OppositeCoho signed off at 10:47:34 AM.
[My AIM username] (10:50:18 AM): What the hell is a Marmot?
[My AIM username] (10:50:31 AM): But I don't really care
[My AIM username] (10:50:53 AM): Seeing lambs get bitten to death by anything is pretty kickass

Then, I tried to look at one of my buddies info. She didn't have any, but there was a GoogleAd on the page, and I don't think I've ever read so much bullshittery:


EDIT: I just saw another ad saying the Britney Spears has an IQ of 137...now THAT is true bullshittery.