I have been quite busy with family and friends (life outside the internet… scary) and haven’t had a chance to post anything in awhile. But, despite that I have experienced some new things that are worth worth talking touching on briefly. I saw two new movies over the Christmas/New Years season, National Treasure 2 and AVPR. Both of which I can say were not spectacular in anyway, but they were good popcorn flicks. National Treasure followed the same formula of the first movie. However, in this film, Riley, the partner of Nicolas Cage’s character was even funnier than he was in the first and really provided the comic relief. AVPR was what I expected going into the movie, cheesy dialog and gore. But it delivered on what the name implies, Aliens fighting Predators, and plenty of human bystander casualties.

For Christmas my parents got me an awesome CORE-WOrKS EX-S conversion kit. The pieces are huge and the proportions looks so much better than just the plain master grade. This one I will truly try to make my masterpiece. After I finish my Hyaku-Shiki, Zeta 2.0, and CORE-WOrKS Double Zeta.

New Years Eve was a heck of a party over at Nate’s, my co-blogger on Spoylr, house. Friends, alcohol, and Rock Band were present, which in my book is the formula for a good time. The new DLC for Rock Band is pretty good, particularly Limelight by Rush. New Years day I was playing some Mario Galaxy with Nate (who is almost TOO good at collecting star bits) when I decided that my Wii needed something fresh, so we decided to go get Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. I didn’t buy a zapper, but the game is fun without it. Using the Wiimote doesn’t quite capture the feel of a true lightgun shooter like House of the Dead, but it is pretty close. The game doesn’t really need the nunchuck, so perhaps with one of those gun attachments it would be a little better.

Overall it was good holiday season. As a New Year’s resolution I would like to blog more often. Happy New Year everyone from the writer’s of Spoylr.

Is your Rock Band pedal shattered like mine? Want something a little more sturdy that feels just like the real thing? Want your drums to stop sliding across the floor when you use them? Then use the real thing. I will tell you how. This project can cost you anywhere from $2 to $100 depending on what you have already and if you are willing to cannibalize your broken pedal. Do some searching online, you can probably find this stuff for pretty cheap, especially if it is used.

Materials You Will Need

- drum pedal (preferably with a base)
- kick practice pad
- magnet*
- reed relay*
- 3.5mm mono jack*
- 24 gauge copper wire*
- small project enclosure
- electrical tape
- some kind of padding (I used crumpled toilet paper, but cotton balls or whatever soft would work)

*you will not need these if you are willing to take the parts from the pedal that came with Rock Band

Tools

- Philip’s head screw driver
- Soldering iron
- Dremel, drill, or hack saw

Skip this paragraph if you going to use parts from the Rock Band foot pedal. The reed relay has four pins, the two on the sides are useless for are needs, you can been them out of the way or cut them off if you want. The two we need are on the ends. If you don’t have much experience soldering, don’t worry, this isn’t very difficult. If you don’t have ANY experience soldering, I suggest reading how to solder first. Strip about 1/4″ of wire and solder it to one pin on the relay, then the other wire to the other pin. Unscrew the sleeve of the mono jack and slide it over the wires. You should see two tiny holes on the solder points of the mono jack. Strip and loop the wire through the tiny hole and solder. Do the same for the other wire on the opposite contact on the jack. Screw back the sleeve back on the mono jack. This would be a good time to test if your connection. Plug it in to the drums, get to the song selection list and get a magnet in close proximity to the relay. If you wiring is correct the sorting of the list should change.

Next, we will mount the switch in the box. If you want to use the parts from the broken pedal, now would be the time to disassemble the pedal. Pry out the magnet if you don’t have one of you own and unscrew the flat that holds in the reed switch and remove it from the controller. Drill or cut a “U” shape into the side of the project enclosure large enough for the wire to fit through and the lid to close all the way. Then, using your padding, fill the enclosure. If you made your own switch, tie a knot in the wire near the switch so that you cannot pull the wire knot through the “U” shape cut in the box. This will stop the switch from having and stress on it. Grab your electrical tape and attach the switch the the lid of the enclosure. Close the box and screw the lid shut.

Switch Enclosure Mounted to the Foot Pedal

Now is the easy part. Attach your drum pedal to the practice pad. Finding the sweet spot is the hard part. I would suggest taping the magnet to the bottom of your pedal with electrical tape then moving around the box (lid up) the base of the pedal until you find that perfect spot where the bass hit activates just as the hammer hits the practice pad. Tape it to the base with a few pieces of electrical tape and you should be set. This should give you the most legitimate feeling of a real bass drum.

My Setup

OH SNAP!.. or should I say SNAPS?

Your Rock Band foot pedal snaps in three places. This however is only slightly upsetting, more disappointing that EA allowed and Harmonix would allow such shitty hardware to be made. Oh well, it forces me to take the initiative to make one out of a real drum bass pedal, which I wanted to try anyways.

So, recently I decided to play some Mario 2 (aka Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic). I must say, that game is so much fun. Why do people hate it so much? Its got great catchy music and it’s so unique. When else can you pick up vegetables and throw them at things without some farmer trying to shoot you?! NEVER! The only really bad thing about it is the ending. After playing through such a hard game without using warps just to get the the end and find out it was just a dream… screw you Mario… screw you. So anyways, that’s my recent hype about Mario 2. I’m probably going to play some Mario 3 shortly… if only you could save on that game.

I normally get a good kick out of Yahtzee’s reviews on Zero Punctuation even if I don’t always agree with everything he says. But, his review of Assassin’s Creed is dead on in my books (except the part about the combat, I enjoyed it). Watch, laugh, enjoy.

I have a special little place in my heart for Bioware and their games, even if they are Canadians that still can’t grasp that bacon comes in crispy strips (In Canada is a ham sandwich a BLT?). This is because they provided one of the greatest time sinks of my adolescence; Baldur’s Gate. I’m not talking about that Dark Alliance bullshit for the PS2 either, they didn’t make that. No, I am talking about the PC RPGs that I beat as virtually every class, except for the specialty classes. I even beat it as a lute playing pansy bard. I would go over to my friends house almost everyday to just get a taste of the sweet nectar that was Baldur’s Gate, even if I only got to explore one little zone of the massive map that was “The Sword Coast”. Hell, I still have it installed on my laptop to this day. I later played Neverwinter Nights, but never really got into it. Something about it just wasn’t the same.

Then in my senior year of high school a magnificent thing happened. Bioware teamed up with LucasArts to combined my two most cherished childhood pass times: Bioware RPG games and Star Wars. It was a match that could only be made in heaven. The result was the best of both worlds. Knights of the Old Republic was a quality Star Wars game (up until now if it didn’t involve flying a X-Wing it probably blew) that had a intriguing story, superb game mechanics, and open ended moral choices that Bioware was so well known for. I played the hell out of both the first and second K.O.T.O.R. (even though the second was chocked full of glitches mostly because it wasn’t actually made by Bioware). So when Bioware announced a new intellectual property for the XBOX360, Mass Effect, you damn know for sure that I was all over that. This game was surrounded by hype. It has a new Sci-Fi setting, which is extremely easy to make parallels to Star Wars (it’s not even funny). A new 3rd person shooter combat system that is, although cliché, very Gears of War feeling. And a new dialog system that was supposed to be the most fluid of any game ever. But is the game really all it was hyped up to be? That is a tall order to fill. Well allow me to delve into it for you.

Saren, the Darth Vader of Mass Effect (seriously, they are identical)

To be frank, even though it hurts me deeply, NO! It isn’t everything it was cracked up to be. What you get is a basically a prettier K.O.T.O.R. with new alien races and no lightsabers. The goal is the same, save the galaxy from total annihilation. Except instead of the Sith, you have the Geth (seriously… I didn’t even notice how similar they sounded until I just typed that) led by Saren, a rogue Spectre, who is trying to gain infinite power. Sound familiar yet? The Spectres are the protectors of “The Council” made up of the major alien races (Seriously, why don’t you just call the Spectres Jedi?). The Spectres have the freedom to do as they please and handle operations as they see fit. It is your job as the commander of the most advanced space ship in the Alliance military (humans) to stop Saren at all cost by exploring uncharted worlds to find traces of the Geth and investigate unusual activities happening throughout the galaxy.

The light side/dark side mechanic is back, but has been relabeled as Paragon/Renegade respectively. The only difference is it is not a scale. Because Renegade points don’t affect your Paragon rating, you can be the biggest dick in known space to people and be a saint to others and it not effect the opposite whatsoever. This causes making serious moral choices to seem insignificant. Max your Paragon, then go around being the supreme asshole of the universe and you will still be revered. However, this allows you to open every dialog option. While I do understand it removes the pitfall that is cookie cutter Jesus and Hellion archetypes, it causes the game to feel slightly unnatural.

The dialog is probably the biggest let down. There is nothing fancy or innovative about it at all. The options for every conversation might as well be three choices. Do I play the sympathetic stick up his ass, apathetic neutral, or colossal jackass? This is the same type of dialog that wast presented in K.O.T.O.R. arranged in a circular layout. That is not to say it is bad. Forsooth, it is anything but bad. The dialog and NPC interaction is natural and often hilarious (especially the Renegade conversations), but it isn’t revolutionary be any means.

You get three main class options. The Soldier a.k.a. the bullet spraying meat tank. The Engineer, who can hack and sabotage enemy technology. And the Adept, the Force biotic wielding mage type. The biotic can lift, throw, and freeze objects or enemies with his mind. There are also hybrid classes. I played through my first time with a soldier then moved onto the HARDCORE difficulty with an adept. I suggest playing the game with some form of a biotic user. They are way more fun. The combat becomes much more involved when you can toss your enemies around like rag dolls in real time with realistic physics. This can cause some hilarious situations, like pulling all of your enemies into an exploding container with the Singularity ability (its like a mini black hole), then shooting said container causing massive damage.

One issue I have with the combat is that your partners are complete dolts, if you decide to take cover in their predesignated position, they will stand out in the open and receive rocket after blazing rocket to the chin, making no effort to perhaps find a different spot to hide! It normally feel more like I am baby sitting than them having my back. My only other complaint is that enemy turrets and snipers will blast at you from miles away before you even remotely get a chance to spot them. Of course they are out of range of notice for your group, so they will once again stand headstrong rockets to the back of the head with no effort of retaliation.

One last complaint, and it is a big one, but a short one that I will make very clear. I loath the god damned Mako, a hover tank. I rather wring out Shaq’s shorts into my mouth after a game than drive around in that stupid ass vehicle. I love how when I am trying to blow up things with the cannon it will randomly start driving forward, sometimes driving you right off a cliff. Or how it gets stuck on everything and my entire team dies because I can’t get out of it. It is obviously attempting to play something like the Warthog in Halo, but falls flat on its face, it just isn’t fun.

The ending was kind of short (hurray cliff hangers) and lackluster. Why can’t games have real endings anymore? I play a fifteen hour game for a three minute long ending. Yeah, I am talking to you too Bioshock and Assassin’s Creed. It just feels lazy. I want to know what happens to the characters afterwards. I want to see what the ramifications of my choices are. This isn’t directed just at Mass Effect. It just seems that game designers will make open endings now even if their is only a slight hope for a sequel. I want damn closer!

Bottom line, Mass Effect is a good game, but it feels rushed, particularly if you followed the development at all over the past two years. Is it the next best thing since sliced bread? Not at all, but it is one of the better games I have played this year and certainly the best RPG. It offers great replay value and was definitely worth the sixty dollars.

I’m a juke box hero and I’ve got stars in my eyes. Rock Band, by developer Harmonix (Guitar Hero, Karaoke Revolution) is what I consider the true spiritual successor to Guitar Hero II. Forget Guitar Hero III, this monster has it all; drums, bass, guitar, and vocals (and cowbell!). The gameplay is solid (wish I could say the same for the peripherals), a perfect mix of Karaoke Revolution and Guitar Hero with the new drummer mode to tie it all together. The solo career is kind of tired, it has been done three times before. Where the game really shines is as a multiplayer experience, getting the crew together and rocking out in World Tour mode or Band Quickplay.

The World Tour Mode is great fun, you get to name a band, make a logo, and customize your members. The best part is that your friends can make a character on their gamertag (if you didn’t figure it out, this review is for the 360 version) and their characters can play on your console, which sadly is the only way to do World Tour (no online support). This allows your friends characters to earn money (and for them to get precious achievements). This game is all about playing as a group, the achieve five stars in multiplayer you need to work together. This means activating Overdrive (a.k.a. Star Power, which I still find myself saying while playing) together to gain huge multipliers. After playing for almost an entire weekend straight I have learned a few things about playing cooperatively. The drummer is truly the backbone of the band, if he (which would have been me) gets off beat, this can cause the whole band to lose rhythm and play slightly off. Also, the drummer cannot activate Overdrive whenever he pleases, unlike the other members. This can only be done during a drum fill so to get the most out of your Overdrives the drummer needs to watch the other members bars to see when everyone can Overdrive together to get the most out of their power. Another thing is be supportive of your singer, some of the songs are hard or kind of unknown, and sight reading lyrics and pitch is a lot harder than sight reading guitar parts. Also, try not to laugh at the singer, this will make them self conscience and probably sing worse than the may already be doing.

The game play mechanics have not really changed from Guitar Hero to Rock Band, the fret key sequences may be easier in terms of finger dexterity but, the strumming is less forgiving and needs to be far more precise to register. The singing is basically exactly what you would expect from a karaoke game. The drumming is hard. Don’t trust me? Play on hard, for once it is an accurate description. To play on expert you truly need to be an expert and the only people who I have heard of playing on that difficulty so far are real drummers, so yes, the skills of playing the real instrument do transfer for once. Giving all the more reason for the “Why don’t you just play the real thing?” people not to shut the hell up. I have managed to make my way half way through the hard solo career of drummer after a full weeks worth of play. But are you such a rock god that not even expert makes you break a sweat? Think you can play like Geddy Lee of Rush, Sting of The Police, Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, or Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age? Well step up to the mic and try to sing and play guitar or bass at the same time (luckily the tambourine and cowbell parts done by the vocalist do not punish you for not playing them)!

The peripherals are where my problems with this game arise. They feel cheap, like toys, which is pretty much what they are (except for the mic, it is pretty solid and works great). If you already have the game you have probably already experienced the broken down-strum problem on the new Stratocaster guitar, which really sucks. If you are feeling courageous and you are handy with a Phillips-head screwdriver, don’t send it back because they will likely send you another guitar with the same damn problem. There is an easy fix that involves opening the guitar and tightening a loose tension screw and maybe clearing some gloppy hot glue. Sadly, this does not fix the issue some are having with the Overdrive tilt activation. It doesn’t seem to work when you want it too, which is really sad that this thing has so many issues. The new guitar FEELS great, the neck is thin and the frets are nicely placed, with cool high fret buttons that allow you to entirely hammer on solos. There is also a little effects switch, for use during the solos and when Overdrive is active, that is kind of obtrusive and is easily bumped into a different setting. The loss of the clicking sound on the strum bar may bother some at first, but it is a nice change. This, sadly, is counteracted by the loud ass drums. The sticks that it comes with are crap and the pads are very loud, so forget playing the game at a modest volume, because you won’t be able to hear the sounds of the in game drums over the rap tap tapping of the drum pads. The kick pedal also feels very cheap and people have already had numerous accounts of the base of it snapping right in half. You could try to replace it with a real kick pedal if you are willing to drop some extra cash after your $170 investment, but the point is you shouldn’t need to. They say be gentle but that is really hard while playing “Enter Sandman” on hard and you have to pound on the pedal to play fast enough. Some of you will be happy that the Guitar Hero guitars both work with this game (not if you are a Playstation 3 user, sucks to be you). But, to my dismay, does not work the other way around.

Graphically the game is much better than Guitar Hero 3. The models are more stylized and don’t cross that creepy line between artistic and realistic. The band members interact well with the crowd and each other and have far more diverse animations, you even get multiple stage presence styles to choose from when making you character. The one problem however with the graphics and playing this game with four people is that is you don’t have a widescreen large television everything gets very cramped and can be difficult to see your notes. Touching on what I was saying earlier about the drummer being the bands backbone, it is nice that when playing four player, they put the drummer in the middle of the screen, this makes it easy to see how the rest of your band is doing or where their star power Overdrive meter is at.

The bottom line is this is a great party game with a few hardware flaws that can be frustrating. If you are tired of playing nothing but Wii bowling or only being able to have two people on Guitar Hero at a time at your get togethers, this is a great addition to the party game line up.

Done, complete, almost (840/1000 achievement points)… I beat the story line and the majority of the optional missions in Assassin’s Creed last night and I have had a good chance to reflect on this variously received title by Ubisoft after a nights rest and I have to say that it is one heck of a stellar title. I feel that game reviews are often more critical on the more hyped games (except Halo, because we all know it can do no wrong) than others, particularly new intellectual properties like this game. But this game isn’t about those other guys who have their heads up their asses, this is about my experience with Altair.

Let me get the who tech, modern motif of the UI out of the way. Yes, the game has a twist. Yes, you find out what it is right at the beginning. No, I won’t spoil it for you. It works well with the style of the game play and doesn’t clash with the theme of the crusades. You probably have already figured out what it is, it doesn’t take much imagination.

Speaking of lack of imagination, I might as well tell you the few problems I had with this game. Assassin’s Creed is strewn with gaming cliché. One in particular is what I like to call the Metriod complex. The allows you to perform all of your skills then strips you of all of your gear and moves and makes you recover them all throughout the course of the game. A few others are storyline related and I won’t spoil them but you will probably see them coming. Two more clichés are ones that seems to be in every sandbox style game. The first is tiny micro mission, such as running through the city collecting checkpoints within the time limit (I actually enjoyed these alot and wish there were a few more of them to show off how cool the free running is) or saving civilians from being harassed by power tripping city guards (think Ultimate Spiderman). The second is that there are 100 flags in each major city and 100 in the very Shadow of the Colossusy world that connects them (think hidden packages in GTA). The only thing is that you aren’t rewarded for collecting them other than achievements on the 360 and the fun that is the using the magnificant free-running system to get to their slightly out of the way positions.

The controls are fantastic and the combat feels very distinct from the roaming. The controls are setup so when running you don’t have to press the buttons every time you want to jump or swing. This allows you to focus more on your path and less on timing your jumps. The combat controls are also very good, parrying and counters are all extremely fluid with the animation and don’t seem to repeat too often, I was even seeing kills at the end of the game that I hadn’t seen before. The game takes a very Metal Gear approach and by the end of the game you kind of stop worrying about stealth and become a one man stab frenzy murder machine, taking on upwards of twenty guards at once. The fist fighting could have used some work though, but it is rarely used.The AI is pretty impressive and the crowds react pretty realistically. Toss a guard off a high roof and laugh as the crowd below screams and flees to the sight of his dead body splat in the middle of a packed market. The best part of the game is definitely the assassination missions that happen after you have done all of your research. They are each setup very different and provide for a great reward in the form of unique game play that breaks the slightly monotonous research missions.

The graphics are fantastic and the environments are very distinct (except for maybe the architecture). The lighting is spectacular, I really like the sun going behind the clouds effect. The textures are great, these are the graphics I have really come to expect from a next gen game. The depth of field blur in the combat mode is also very cool. I know graphics don’t make the game, but when they are this good, it doesn’t hurt.

The story is very mature and creates some interesting questions for the player, only problem is you won’t get any solid answers for awhile because the game ends in a huge cliffhanger. This is most likely planned to be a trilogy, but the game is still worthwhile to play. Will Assassin’s Creed remain on our mind throughout the holiday season with all the other top tier games coming out too? Maybe not, but it is still fun as hell. Get this game if you enjoyed Prince of Persia or just love some action adventure gaming.

Allow me to apologize right off the bat and inform you that I have yet to even play the multiplayer for this game. I have been extremely busy lately (having Mass Effect early doesn’t help) so it is difficult to justify doing anything else besides work and sleep. I know what you are thinking, I have heard the online play is insanely good and I got into the beta but could never get it to work (I finally got irritated entering the code to download it after the 20th time). But this review isn’t about the multiplayer, it is about the single player campaign, which I have to say is one of the most immersing, intense, cinematic experiences I have ever had while playing a first person shooter. A few quick points of interest: the controls are solid, the graphics are insane, and the AI is the far supreme to other recent titles (I am looking at you Halo), which is to be expected from a Call of Duty title. That said, lets delve into some of the things you may not know about the game.

You play through the game as a few different characters, but mostly as two main characters (I won’t spoil the special character you play as in one of the missions). You start as “Soap” MacTavish, a member of the British SAS, who is stealthy and very precise in executing his missions, he is also an expert sniper (I guess that really depends on your play style though). You also play as Johnson, a member of the United States Marine Corps, who’s missions are more of a run and gun, good ole’ fashion American commando play style littered with massive explosions and destruction. One of the best things about the campaign is the variety of the missions. One of my favorite moments in the game is when you finish a really intense escape and your heart is pounding they switch it up and have you play as the gunner of an AC-130 gunship supporting the characters that you were just playing as. The mission is so relaxed, there is literally no threat to you. The mission is just shooting fish in a barrel and the voice acting of the pilot makes it clear in how sort of apathetic he is to the massive damage you are causing with your 100mm canon. It is also one of the most realistic looking missions in the game, the thermal black and white vision looks just like a clip you could pull up on YouTube. I dont want to spoil anything for you, but the mission “All Ghillied Up” is probably one of the best experiences I have ever had while playing in a video game.

The story telling is also excellent. Unlike, Halo 3, (I didn’t give a shit about the characters. “Did Sarge just die? Whatever, do I shoot more Flood now?”) I actually felt a connection to the characters in this game. The only bad thing is the pace of the missions is kind of thrown off by how hard the game gets and how much you WILL die on the hardened or veteran difficulty. So do yourself a favor and pick normal your first play through, even if they recommend hardened for you after the tutorial. It makes the game flow much better. Then you can always go back and play on the higher difficulties if you are an achievement whore (guilty) or just really enjoy a challenge (because you are a PS3 user and don’t have achievements). One little nitpick is how and the hell do all of the terrorists throw grenades like they have the arm of Brett Favre? I swear three guys can land a stockpile of grenades through a tiny window and blow your ass away. My other nitpick is why doesn’t this game have some sort of cover system yet? Ducking behind dumpsters helps sometimes, but even a weak cover system would be better than nothing. The standing wide out in the open throws off the “tactical” side of the game play just a tad. I don’t feel it hinders the game in any way, but I guess I am spoiled from playing “Gears” and “Vegas”. Bottom line is Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare stands out from the crowd of other stunning FPS’s (Halo 3, Orange Box, Bioshock) with it’s quality story telling, variety, and mind-blowing visuals. This game deserves a spot on any gamers shelf.

Again, McCoy tipped me off of Gamespot’s list from Harmonix. Looks like we’re getting a lot of cool stuff pretty much right after release!

Week of November 20, 2007: (*–asterisk denotes a cover version)
Metallica Pack
“Ride the Lightning”–Metallica
“Blackened”–Metallica
“And Justice for All”–Metallica

The Police Pack
“Can’t Stand Losing You”–The Police
“Synchronicity II”–The Police
“Roxanne”–The Police

Queens of the Stone Age Pack
“3’s and 7’s”–Queens of the Stone Age
“Little Sister”–Queens of the Stone Age
“Sick Sick Sick”–Queens of the Stone Age

Individual Tracks
“Fortunate Son” as made famous by Creedence Clearwater Revival *
“Juke Box Hero” as made famous by Foreigner *
“Bang a Gong (Get It On)” as made famous by T-Rex *
“My Sharona” as made famous by The Knack *
“Cherry Bomb” as made famous by The Runaways *
“Joker & The Thief”–Wolfmother

Week of November 27, 2007
David Bowie Pack
“Moonage Daydream”–David Bowie
“Heroes” as made famous by David Bowie *
“Queen Bitch” as made famous by David Bowie *

Week of December 4, 2007
Black Sabbath Pack
“N.I.B.” as made famous by Black Sabbath *
“Sweet Leaf” as made famous by Black Sabbath *
“War Pigs” as made famous by Black Sabbath *

Week of December 11, 2007
Punk Pack:
“Rockaway Beach”–Ramones
“I Fought the Law”–The Clash
“Ever Fallen In Love” as made famous by Buzzcocks *

Week of December 18, 2007
Individual Tracks
“My Iron Lung”–Radiohead
“Buddy Holly”–Weezer
“Brass in Pocket” as made famous by Pretenders *