October 26, 2010
There are a lot of things that feel the same now as they did five years ago when Rock Band 3 released. Especially when it comes to Rock Band 4 for 'current gen' consoles. There's lots of self-created hype, with a lot of things just missing... Or this time, to some extent in some ways shown as wrong already. This time, we do have last time to compare it to. It might not be all that wonderful a feeling to anyone involved. Although in the world at large, and for new players in this sub-world, most people likely don't have any idea about any of this in the slightest. Perhaps it doesn't matter then except to a few.
I myself would like to see Harmonix succeed here, but they seem to be their own worst enemy sometimes. Plus no one person or any group of wishes is going to sell a large number of copies of anything, especially in the face of all the game and life competition. RB4 isn't even out yet, and they've already started talking about what great things they'll add with their first update in December. If the game was really ready to release we ponder, one might think these sorts of things with any high demand would already be present. They've also created a "street team" of 500 players (who host parties to play, and otherwise do a lot of things no casual player does, and certainly no non-gamer does) by bribing them with a free "band in a box" set to promote the game... promote it to people who already play it? Maybe that's a good demographic to target, to get sales and preorders going. Or maybe it just makes them look desperate a month before release.
We've already talked about their initial failure to provide a game-only preorder out of the gate, which reasons seem obvious already. Your old instruments won't work if they're not wireless. If certain information is correct, many users don't have wireless instruments at all, and those that do have some, they don't work because wireless instruments aren't as hardy or just don't have the longevity wired ones do. If you do have wireless instruments, you likely got them for RB3 one imagines, maybe those work.
On the other hand, there's a 'last-gen' console sitting here, and some total of 20 or so ish games that go with it. They all work with all the instruments. So if you want to fire up some tracks and watch the game highways, all those songs can be played right now. Nothing to buy, nothing to worry about for compatibility. Just older, sure. Not as much broadcast yourself on the old consoles as the new (at least not without specific extra external hardware) or a number of other things. But it all works, and it works now.
Last time, five years ago, we gave Harmonix the benefit of the doubt at what appeared to be a rather hit-or-miss marketing style, a lack of solid information, failures to answer most things about "later" and a half-hearted or lack of promotion of the most enticing and exciting features. All coupled with a shortage of peripherals. Not that we should blame anyone for not wanting to produce a large number of peripherals that might not sell. Yet when you produce them anyway even after the buzz fails to materialize, and you've cut the price of the game to $20, and MIDI guitars (Fender Strat guitar and controller or yourock or the mustang semi-guitar) are often essentially nowhere to be seen, and many people are only interested because they can hook up their edrums / vdrums / acoustic drums with MIDI triggers. I wonder how much Fender and Mad Catz and the parent companies ate on these peripherals anyway (mini wireless keyboard, standard plastic instruments).
Whatever actually happened last time? Last time, many of us chalked this all up to being sold by Viacom / MTV games, and the general stagnation of the game genre, and forces beyond game creator control. The market. The peripheral makers. The game publisher. The churn, and supposed publisher demands to release a game that pretty clearly wasn't itself fully ready (much less the peripherals), and a lack of demand such as show by Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock sales. That must be the reason for the situation, we said, cut them slack we justified.
And yet here five years later, there's a lot of the same, when it seems all choices are in the hands of Harmonix. Which very much makes it seem like they are their own problem. Although many of the constraints on what can be done are in the consoles, true, but inconsistencies between the Xbox 360 and One and PS 3 and 4 have been known (internally and externally in various ways) for quite a while. If you know the wired instruments (including the MIDI Pro Adapter) won't work, and you don't think they can or you don't plan to try or you'll look into it in a few months or years? Whose fault is that then.
So let's see what we have. Your old instruments have to be wireless (and if you have a One you need an adapter, which they've discounted even though you can't get one yet). None of your wired items will work, except the mic (but they've got a way better one now of course). There is no support for any of the "Pro Instruments" (guitars and keyboards). There's no support for any advanced drum kits without the MPA or if the set is compatible with the One or PS4 and how many of them that are compatible are there? Nobody much is saying. Maybe there's none to talk about.
There's other news all on Harmonix. The availability of whatever other hardware may or may not be available, that's next year. Support for whatever might be supported, that might get worked on later. Next year sometime maybe. They have little solid information, except we do have what happened last time.
It's almost sad, it's at least a little infuriating, it's seemingly business as usual. If most everyone that knows anything about it is doing what we are, it's a failure. When will anyone know? Maybe everyone knows already, but in a month, and in the three or so months after, the proof will out. By next year we'll know.
Wait 'till next year, it'll all be okay. Whichever way that is.
Sunday, September 27, 2015
Saturday, September 12, 2015
Misc.
I hadn't decided what to write about next, so I figured why not a few paragraphs about some things that might not need an entire post each. I don't know if this needs to be done, but I felt like it. So about like usual.
----
There's a recent bunch of stories about a clerk pushing back at the law you might have seen a bit of here and there. Not too surprising, just as a couple of Supreme Court justices said or suggested in Obergefell v. Hodges (PDF of actual decision) That there would be people that "fought back" in both legal and illegal ways, in some form of what might be refereed to as civil disobedience. See, The Court realizes that just because they decide something, not everyone is going to agree, not everyone is going to follow, and that they don't suddenly change social opinions developed over time in an instant. That even SCOTUS can't determine how people think or react, especially when they judicially change the definition of a social term. (As they also mention in the arguments and decision)
This is all rife with heavy strong honest opinion about what is right and what is fair and what is equal. It's unknown if anyone is in the wrong here, but there are plenty of things wrong with a lot of their methods. Strong opinions on personal matters that are nobody's business but the participants, but also have an impact of some sort on society. Social rules that societies make for themselves, ach, it gives me a headache..
The story is in general quite boring -- unless you yourself are on one of the two sides or are otherwise emotionally attached to the story and on which side. Or have taken the time to go to the place and demonstrate one way or another. However, one of the interesting things is watching "the sides" react to each other, where the intolerance and hyperbole and frenetic actions go both directions and none of those smack dab in the middle see it in themselves, probably. Good old American anger at what other people think and do when the ugly unfair idiots don't agree with the way somebody else sees it.
Of course, one thing that is true is that even with the decision by SCOTUS, the laws themselves in the various states and localities haven't yet been rewritten to take into account what was decided. The Court has spoken, the legislatures haven't yet reacted. It's going to take a while until nobody can fail to follow what was held: That the States must "...license a marriage between two people of the same sex and .... recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-State." The fact is that the laws themselves don't yet by and large (well, universally nation-wide) reflect this interpretation of the 14th Amendment.
Wait a few generations, it'll be fine.
----
There's a person (some people) on YouTube making a lot of videos about (against? I can't quite decide) the game Destiny. I find it rather odd that they (the videos) exist as they do, with the content that they have. After all, if you are watching the vids, you likely have the game and have been playing it, which also likely means you'll continue playing and buying things for it, or you've decided on your own it's too much work and you're not going to continue. Too much work, as in grinding for materials, leveling up, improving weapons and armor. As in finding raid teams, strike teams, and so on. Or maybe you just play it and don't worry about such things, who's to say.
On the flip side of that, if you don't play Destiny or aren't a gamer, you likely have never seen the vids or didn't bother watching them because they were of no interest to you. The crux of the vids is something like that the content being sold (the DLC, DownLoadable Conent, extra material) costs money, and that the material has been on the disc already, or that all that's being added is fluff. Character dances, emotes, shading, capes, and so on. Certainly cosmetic things aren't important (stat-wise) , but are important in that people buy them. Important to seller and buyer even if not to those that are neither. Clever marketing might infinitely help sell but doesn't force the purchase of, things are worth what a willing buyer will pay, and so on. But for those familiar with the game, they know these things. For those not as familiar, they play and don't care enough to look into it or don't care enough to think about it, or just don't play to begin with.
The shorter version of the cause behind the effects is, as I understand it, a great number of the creative team (including key people and/or visionaries) left or were fired before the game came out. Before it was finished. And so much of what was supposed to be extra great about the game went away too. Or they simply overreached their capacities, regardless if that was due to the structure of Bungie or the demands of Activision or the timing of when the game needed to be released for economic purposes. One probably can't argue the commercials are awesome even if the gameplay itself isn't so much.
The vids are (to me) even more rambling than my own writing is, pretty similar between the vids and their content and context, and mostly don't have much of a point. They're set almost always against a backdrop of the game being played in Multiplayer, but without the gameplay being linked to what's being said, just a backdrop. I don't even know if they're stock or a montage of the best sessions, or if the gameplay is actual player against low level bots, or if somebody's purposely letting others dominate them along with flairful editing. Plus I've never been able to finish watching any of them, it just loses purpose and interest and I have played the game. I wouldn't imagine non-gamers would even bother glancing at them.
Anyway, if you haven't seen them and want to, just search on Bing or Yahoo or Google or whatever for something like youtube don't buy destiny or youtube destiny ripoff That will also find you text articles on the subject on the first page of results along with a smattering of these types of vids. Odds are though you've watched them or you don't care to. Still, the vids explain it all in ways nobody can, just if you look at them, be aware of what you are seeing is usually pretty slanted one way or the other. (There's some sort of agenda there.)
---
Speaking of games, the rest of this year and next, depending on what schedules might get moved or not, is looking busy. Here's a short list (not necessarily in order though; and certainly not everying or equally as awaited). They represent a lot of material. Halo Guardians (Halo 5), Fallout 4, Quantum Break, Crackdown 3, Star Wars Battlefront, Fable Legends, Call of Duty Black Ops 3, The Division, Doom, Dishonored 2, Gears of War 4, Uncharted 4, Final Fantasy XV, Mirrors Edge Catalyst.
No, I'm not planning on playing all of them nor on release.
----
A game I didn't mention is Rockband 4. This is the first redone "plastic instruments" game for this generation of consoles.
Yes, there is also Guitar Hero Live, but it uses a fully new controller and method of playing (a new thing to learn how to do) and has another way of getting new songs that's interesting looking. It's not vocals or drums or even as far as I know bass guitar. So not really so much a continuation but a new style.
As far as "RB4" though, when RB3 came out for the last generation of consoles, there were a lot of mistakes that I chalked up to the impending selling of everything by Viacom/MTV games and all that churn. For example the lack of promotion and availability of the pro instruments. Followed by the rapid price drop of the game itself
Well things started out badly for the new version too -- and Harmonix owns itself now. It feels much the same way it did before though. The word was the oldinstruments controllers would work, but the initial preorders were only for packages that included new controllers, you couldn't just preorder the game. You had to get a "guitar" or "drums/mic/guitar" with it. Well, okay, it's more like "sort of" or "pretty much" drums because you actually have to play them, but that's not the point, it's that you couldn't get just the game.
Well that's changed, you can get the game alone via preorder. With the PS4 that's it, but with the XB One, it costs more ($80 versus $60) because you need an adapter to use the old controllers. Which isn't exactly quite true, because what they mean (and which explains no game-only preorder) is wireless controllers.
That's great, not, because of all the things I have (including the MIDI adapter for the drums/guitar/keyboard) are wired. Except okay, there are two Guitar Hero wireless guitars (GH Aerosmith and World Tour) but of course they don't fully work. (The detachable necks don't last very long.) There's also the wireless GHWT drums, which I suppose is okay for those willing to settle for it, assuming that works. Even though it's not a mainstream more like a real set of drums set of drums. (Three pads and two cymbals in close proximity, and support for two bass pedals). For everyone with edrums/vdrums that use the MIDI adapter, and for those with IONS, and everyone with wired guitars, the word is that they're not supporting them at release. In general, that appears to be not quite true, as it doesn't seem "at release" is going to be changed to ever. No news is bad news. That is, if something's not happening, it's more likely it will never happen. Even if that's not the case, the odds are, especially if things go like they did last time. The only thing that might change that is that if any interest in the game is from those with real instruments (essentially drums only) and perhaps that's why there was the addition of game-only preorders and some other actions to generate some buzz. I'm imaging though the numbers aren't very good, but also wonder if the other numbers are enough to force anything to happen. That's all exceptionally vague. And if you don't play probably not understandable on an deep level.
Anyway, if you want to sing you're golden though, because all the existing wired mics (which are of course not controllers at all) are supported as is. Allegedly. Of course, the old mics don't have the new features (the new features that make the process smooth and more like singing I could suppose) just like the new guitar controller automatically adjusts the lag and is more reliable for launching double points.
All in all then, this is something to watch, because lots of people just aren't going to get the game if they can't use their still working existing controllers or if they can't use their drums. Will that matter? I don't think anyone knows, but I think Harmonix is quite worried they've focused on the wrong demographic and worried people will think they've been trying to hide that customer aspect.
-----
One of my earlier posts was quite a bit a lot about vaping. I failed to mention that I have "eliquid" available. Cheap. These are 20 ml bottles, so double the size of the more commonly found 10 ml. They predominantly vegetable glycerin, so they're pretty thick; some prefer this, some don't. There's a choice of six water-based (no sugar, no oil, etc) flavors. Some of the flavors are more intense than others. The flavors are apple, menthol, cherry, vanilla, cocoa and champagne. Which is also pretty much the order of "how strong". The menthol is kind of more like minty and the champagne more like a tuity-fruity. But these are the flavors I use so they're the ones I have.
The ones with 0 are essentially 100% VG (the flavoring is absorbed, but you could say 90 VG 10 Flavor/water) and are $2.50 each.
The ones with 10 are essentially 80% VG and 20% PG (or 70VG/10FW/20PG) and are $3.00 each.
-----
What else is there. The start of some kind of election seems to be winding up I guess, but everying that's talking is pretty boring when they're not being annoying. I can't see voting for any of them, but I supposed someone will.
----
There's a recent bunch of stories about a clerk pushing back at the law you might have seen a bit of here and there. Not too surprising, just as a couple of Supreme Court justices said or suggested in Obergefell v. Hodges (PDF of actual decision) That there would be people that "fought back" in both legal and illegal ways, in some form of what might be refereed to as civil disobedience. See, The Court realizes that just because they decide something, not everyone is going to agree, not everyone is going to follow, and that they don't suddenly change social opinions developed over time in an instant. That even SCOTUS can't determine how people think or react, especially when they judicially change the definition of a social term. (As they also mention in the arguments and decision)
This is all rife with heavy strong honest opinion about what is right and what is fair and what is equal. It's unknown if anyone is in the wrong here, but there are plenty of things wrong with a lot of their methods. Strong opinions on personal matters that are nobody's business but the participants, but also have an impact of some sort on society. Social rules that societies make for themselves, ach, it gives me a headache..
The story is in general quite boring -- unless you yourself are on one of the two sides or are otherwise emotionally attached to the story and on which side. Or have taken the time to go to the place and demonstrate one way or another. However, one of the interesting things is watching "the sides" react to each other, where the intolerance and hyperbole and frenetic actions go both directions and none of those smack dab in the middle see it in themselves, probably. Good old American anger at what other people think and do when the ugly unfair idiots don't agree with the way somebody else sees it.
Of course, one thing that is true is that even with the decision by SCOTUS, the laws themselves in the various states and localities haven't yet been rewritten to take into account what was decided. The Court has spoken, the legislatures haven't yet reacted. It's going to take a while until nobody can fail to follow what was held: That the States must "...license a marriage between two people of the same sex and .... recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-State." The fact is that the laws themselves don't yet by and large (well, universally nation-wide) reflect this interpretation of the 14th Amendment.
Wait a few generations, it'll be fine.
----
There's a person (some people) on YouTube making a lot of videos about (against? I can't quite decide) the game Destiny. I find it rather odd that they (the videos) exist as they do, with the content that they have. After all, if you are watching the vids, you likely have the game and have been playing it, which also likely means you'll continue playing and buying things for it, or you've decided on your own it's too much work and you're not going to continue. Too much work, as in grinding for materials, leveling up, improving weapons and armor. As in finding raid teams, strike teams, and so on. Or maybe you just play it and don't worry about such things, who's to say.
On the flip side of that, if you don't play Destiny or aren't a gamer, you likely have never seen the vids or didn't bother watching them because they were of no interest to you. The crux of the vids is something like that the content being sold (the DLC, DownLoadable Conent, extra material) costs money, and that the material has been on the disc already, or that all that's being added is fluff. Character dances, emotes, shading, capes, and so on. Certainly cosmetic things aren't important (stat-wise) , but are important in that people buy them. Important to seller and buyer even if not to those that are neither. Clever marketing might infinitely help sell but doesn't force the purchase of, things are worth what a willing buyer will pay, and so on. But for those familiar with the game, they know these things. For those not as familiar, they play and don't care enough to look into it or don't care enough to think about it, or just don't play to begin with.
The shorter version of the cause behind the effects is, as I understand it, a great number of the creative team (including key people and/or visionaries) left or were fired before the game came out. Before it was finished. And so much of what was supposed to be extra great about the game went away too. Or they simply overreached their capacities, regardless if that was due to the structure of Bungie or the demands of Activision or the timing of when the game needed to be released for economic purposes. One probably can't argue the commercials are awesome even if the gameplay itself isn't so much.
The vids are (to me) even more rambling than my own writing is, pretty similar between the vids and their content and context, and mostly don't have much of a point. They're set almost always against a backdrop of the game being played in Multiplayer, but without the gameplay being linked to what's being said, just a backdrop. I don't even know if they're stock or a montage of the best sessions, or if the gameplay is actual player against low level bots, or if somebody's purposely letting others dominate them along with flairful editing. Plus I've never been able to finish watching any of them, it just loses purpose and interest and I have played the game. I wouldn't imagine non-gamers would even bother glancing at them.
Anyway, if you haven't seen them and want to, just search on Bing or Yahoo or Google or whatever for something like youtube don't buy destiny or youtube destiny ripoff That will also find you text articles on the subject on the first page of results along with a smattering of these types of vids. Odds are though you've watched them or you don't care to. Still, the vids explain it all in ways nobody can, just if you look at them, be aware of what you are seeing is usually pretty slanted one way or the other. (There's some sort of agenda there.)
---
Speaking of games, the rest of this year and next, depending on what schedules might get moved or not, is looking busy. Here's a short list (not necessarily in order though; and certainly not everying or equally as awaited). They represent a lot of material. Halo Guardians (Halo 5), Fallout 4, Quantum Break, Crackdown 3, Star Wars Battlefront, Fable Legends, Call of Duty Black Ops 3, The Division, Doom, Dishonored 2, Gears of War 4, Uncharted 4, Final Fantasy XV, Mirrors Edge Catalyst.
No, I'm not planning on playing all of them nor on release.
----
A game I didn't mention is Rockband 4. This is the first redone "plastic instruments" game for this generation of consoles.
Yes, there is also Guitar Hero Live, but it uses a fully new controller and method of playing (a new thing to learn how to do) and has another way of getting new songs that's interesting looking. It's not vocals or drums or even as far as I know bass guitar. So not really so much a continuation but a new style.
As far as "RB4" though, when RB3 came out for the last generation of consoles, there were a lot of mistakes that I chalked up to the impending selling of everything by Viacom/MTV games and all that churn. For example the lack of promotion and availability of the pro instruments. Followed by the rapid price drop of the game itself
Well things started out badly for the new version too -- and Harmonix owns itself now. It feels much the same way it did before though. The word was the old
Well that's changed, you can get the game alone via preorder. With the PS4 that's it, but with the XB One, it costs more ($80 versus $60) because you need an adapter to use the old controllers. Which isn't exactly quite true, because what they mean (and which explains no game-only preorder) is wireless controllers.
That's great, not, because of all the things I have (including the MIDI adapter for the drums/guitar/keyboard) are wired. Except okay, there are two Guitar Hero wireless guitars (GH Aerosmith and World Tour) but of course they don't fully work. (The detachable necks don't last very long.) There's also the wireless GHWT drums, which I suppose is okay for those willing to settle for it, assuming that works. Even though it's not a mainstream more like a real set of drums set of drums. (Three pads and two cymbals in close proximity, and support for two bass pedals). For everyone with edrums/vdrums that use the MIDI adapter, and for those with IONS, and everyone with wired guitars, the word is that they're not supporting them at release. In general, that appears to be not quite true, as it doesn't seem "at release" is going to be changed to ever. No news is bad news. That is, if something's not happening, it's more likely it will never happen. Even if that's not the case, the odds are, especially if things go like they did last time. The only thing that might change that is that if any interest in the game is from those with real instruments (essentially drums only) and perhaps that's why there was the addition of game-only preorders and some other actions to generate some buzz. I'm imaging though the numbers aren't very good, but also wonder if the other numbers are enough to force anything to happen. That's all exceptionally vague. And if you don't play probably not understandable on an deep level.
Anyway, if you want to sing you're golden though, because all the existing wired mics (which are of course not controllers at all) are supported as is. Allegedly. Of course, the old mics don't have the new features (the new features that make the process smooth and more like singing I could suppose) just like the new guitar controller automatically adjusts the lag and is more reliable for launching double points.
All in all then, this is something to watch, because lots of people just aren't going to get the game if they can't use their still working existing controllers or if they can't use their drums. Will that matter? I don't think anyone knows, but I think Harmonix is quite worried they've focused on the wrong demographic and worried people will think they've been trying to hide that customer aspect.
-----
One of my earlier posts was quite a bit a lot about vaping. I failed to mention that I have "eliquid" available. Cheap. These are 20 ml bottles, so double the size of the more commonly found 10 ml. They predominantly vegetable glycerin, so they're pretty thick; some prefer this, some don't. There's a choice of six water-based (no sugar, no oil, etc) flavors. Some of the flavors are more intense than others. The flavors are apple, menthol, cherry, vanilla, cocoa and champagne. Which is also pretty much the order of "how strong". The menthol is kind of more like minty and the champagne more like a tuity-fruity. But these are the flavors I use so they're the ones I have.
The ones with 0 are essentially 100% VG (the flavoring is absorbed, but you could say 90 VG 10 Flavor/water) and are $2.50 each.
The ones with 10 are essentially 80% VG and 20% PG (or 70VG/10FW/20PG) and are $3.00 each.
-----
What else is there. The start of some kind of election seems to be winding up I guess, but everying that's talking is pretty boring when they're not being annoying. I can't see voting for any of them, but I supposed someone will.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)