Thanks to Gamespot.com, I was able to get into the exclusive Multiplayer beta test for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. As a fan of the previous Call of Duty games on Xbox 360, I was thrilled to get a token to the Beta test. My thrills did not stop with the code, after the 1GB download from Xbox Live, I was ready to strap on my flack jacket and head into war to fight for my country, which ranged from the US Marine Corp to British S.A.S to Russians to Middle Eastern Soliders.
Gaining experience points is the basis of Call of Duty 4. You get points for completing different objects like killing and opponent or shooting down a helicopter. The more experience points you earn the more you level up, earning you more weapons, features, game modes, perks, and even the ability to customize your soldier/class. I for one have created the Jack Bauer class.
The beta included 3 maps: Overgrown, Vacant, and Crash. Overgrown is takes place in a Russian forest. A lot of this map is open fields, but if you are a sniper there are plenty of good hiding spots, including a barn and some abandoned buildings.
Vacant is another map that takes place in Russia. I happen to always do well in this map so it is my favorite of the Xbox 360 Beta. In this map, you spend most of the time sneaking around an abandoned single story office, but the is an old train yard with empty train cars to hide and attack from.
The last of the maps is Crash, which reminded me of “Black Hawk Down”. This map has everything from roofs to abandoned buildings to a downed helicopter and some open space. This map is a lot of fun to with the different places to hide and attack from.
After experiencing the beta, I know the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is going to be the 2007 Game of the Year. Some might think that it is a bold statement, especially with the much anticipated Halo 3 hitting stores this Tuesday, but after playing in both betas, Call of Duty is going to be the better game. Personally, I can not wait for this November to see the full version of this game.
Rock on, Guitar Hero 2 from Red Octane has finally hit the Xbox 360 and it does not disappoint. For almost two years, only Sony Playstation 2 owners could enjoy the thrill of being on stage in a rock band but now the Xbox 360 world can enjoy the same rush. The great thing about Red Octane’s Xbox 360 version is that it is not just a port of the Playstation 2 version. There is a lot of added features and content for just Xbox 360 users. There are additional songs, downloadable content, and online leaderboards.
For those not familiar with the gaming phenomena the Red Octane has created with the Guitar Hero series, here is how it works. You strap on the Gibson X-plorer guitar, which has a five color fret buttons on the neck, a strumming bar, and whammy bar. The game play is simple in concept and hard to master on the hard difficulty levels. I started on easy and loved every minute of my rise to stardom. On easy, the game only involves 3 of 5 the five color frets, making it very easy to get accustomed to being a Guitar Hero. As you play the game, you will notice that the notes appear as they do on the X-plorer guitar and as the notes pass onscreen you tap the same color buttons on the fret board and strum the guitar. You score points for each correct note and by stringing notes together you create combos and combos lead to multipliers. You also can gain star power by hitting all the correct notes of certain sections of the song and when you fill your star power meter and activate star power, you become the focus of the stage and earn double the points and don’t forget to use your whammy bar for added points.
The rock meter tracks how you are doing in a very simple way, green you are rocking, yellow you could be better, and red, well red means you suck. Too much time in the red and you fail the song.
Career mode is where you will spend hours upon hours rocking out in small high schools gyms till you hit the big time. Career mode is also where you will unlock the massive soundtrack of the game. Oh yeah and as you progress in career mode you will unlock outfits and guitars to enhance your stage persona. But, don’t fret (ha ha guitar pun), if you get stuck on a song, there is a practice mode that allows you to practice whole or part of songs at a speed you are comfortable learning at.
The last part of Red Octane’s Guitar Hero 2 that should be mentioned is the multiplayer mode. There are two types of play, one where you share a song and cooperative. In the first mode you and your partner trade of sections of a song. In cooperative mode, which is much more fun, one player takes lead guitar and the other is base or rhythm guitar.
The only negatives I have about this Red Octane’s rockin’ Guitar Hero 2 is the lack of online play and cost of the downloadable content through the Xbox Marketplace. But I attribute the high cost due to Microsoft and not Red Octane.
So you wanna be a rock superstar? And live large A big house. Five cars, then Red Octane’s Guitar Hero 2 is the game for you.
Below is the track listing in stages and download content thanks to Wikipedia
† - denotes rhythm guitar as alternate instrument for song in co-op mode (all other songs feature bass guitar)
bold denotes song performed by the original artist (all other songs are covers)
italics denotes Xbox 360 exclusive tracks Soundtrack
1. Opening Licks
• "Surrender" – Cheap Trick • "Possum Kingdom" – Toadies • "Heart-Shaped Box" – Nirvana • "Salvation" – Rancid • "Strutter" – Kiss † • "Shout at the Devil" – Mötley Crüe (Encore)
2. Amp-Warmers
• "Mother" – Danzig † • "Life Wasted" – Pearl Jam • "Cherry Pie" – Warrant • "Woman" – Wolfmother • "You Really Got Me" – Van Halen • "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" – Spinal Tap † (Encore)
3. String-Snappers
• "Carry on Wayward Son" – Kansas • "Search and Destroy" – Iggy Pop and the Stooges • "Message in a Bottle" – The Police • "Billion Dollar Babies" – Alice Cooper • "Them Bones" – Alice in Chains • "War Pigs" – Black Sabbath (Encore)
4. Thrash and Burn
• "Monkey Wrench" – Foo Fighters • "Hush" – Deep Purple • "Girlfriend" – Matthew Sweet † • "Who Was in My Room Last Night?" – The Butthole Surfers † • "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'" – The Rolling Stones † • "Sweet Child o' Mine" – Guns N' Roses (Encore)
5. Return of the Shred
• "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo" – Rick Derringer • "Tattooed Love Boys" – The Pretenders • "John the Fisherman" – Primus • "Jessica" – The Allman Brothers Band † • "Bad Reputation" – Thin Lizzy • "Last Child" – Aerosmith † (Encore)
6. Relentless Riffs
• "Crazy on You" – Heart • "Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart" – Stone Temple Pilots • "Dead!" – My Chemical Romance † • "Killing in the Name" – Rage Against the Machine • "Freya" – The Sword • "Stop" – Jane's Addiction (Encore)
7. Furious Fretwork
• "Madhouse" – Anthrax • "The Trooper" – Iron Maiden • "Rock This Town" – Stray Cats • "Laid to Rest" – Lamb of God † • "Psychobilly Freakout" – Reverend Horton Heat • "YYZ" – Rush (Encore)
8. Face-Melters
• "Beast and the Harlot" – Avenged Sevenfold • "Carry Me Home" – The Living End • "Institutionalized" – Suicidal Tendencies † • "Misirlou" – Dick Dale • "Hangar 18" – Megadeth • "Free Bird" – Lynyrd Skynyrd † (Encore)
Downloadable Content
Guitar Hero Track Pack 1 (30.87 MB, 500 MSP) – Released April 11, 2007
o "Bark at the Moon" – Ozzy Osbourne o "Hey You" – The Exies o "Ace of Spades" – Motörhead
Guitar Hero Track Pack 2 (30.64 MB, 500 MSP) – Released April 11, 2007
o "Killer Queen" – Queen o "Take It Off" – The Donnas o "Frankenstein" – The Edgar Winter Group
Guitar Hero Track Pack 3 (32.71 MB, 500 MSP) – Released April 11, 2007
o "Higher Ground" – Red Hot Chili Peppers[4] o "Infected" – Bad Religion o "Stellar" – Incubus
Guitar Hero Track Pack 4 (44.15 MB, 500 MSP) – Released July 11, 2007
o "I Wanna Be Sedated" – The Ramones o "Smoke on the Water" – Deep Purple o "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" – Judas Priest
My Chemical Romance Pack (33.53 MB, 500 MSP) – Released August 14, 2007 o "Famous Last Words" – My Chemical Romance o "Teenagers" – My Chemical Romance o "This Is How I Disappear" – My Chemical Romance
Bonus Songs
All bonus songs are performed by the original artist
• "Raw Dog" – The Last Vegas (Winner of the "Be a Guitar Hero" Contest) • "Arterial Black" – Drist † • "Collide" – Anarchy Club • "Drink Up" – Ounce of Self • "Elephant Bones" – That Handsome Devil • "Fall of Pangea" – Valient Thorr • "FTK" – Vagiant • "Gemini" – Brian Kahanek † • "Laughtrack" – The Acro-brats † • "Less Talk More Rokk" – Freezepop † • "Jordan" – Buckethead • "Kicked to the Curb" – Noble Rot • "Mr. Fix It" – The Amazing Crowns • "The New Black" – Every Time I Die • "One for the Road" – The Breaking Wheel • "Parasite" – The Neighborhoods • "Push Push (Lady Lightning)" – Bang Camaro • "Radium Eyes" – Count Zero • "Red Lottery" – Megasus • "Six" – All That Remains • "Soy Bomb" – Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives † • "The Light That Blinds" – Shadows Fall • "Thunderhorse" – Dethklok • "Trogdor" – Strong Bad † • "X-Stream" – Voivod • "Yes We Can" – Made in Mexico
As a life long baseball fan (GO PHILLIES), who has been playing baseball games since Nintendo Baseball, I was extremely excited when I heard that Wii was going to have its first true baseball game. I had downloaded the demo of The Bigs on Xbox 360 and truly enjoyed it. The bigger than life home runs, the 120 mph fastballs, to the sound of bones breaking when you bean someone, this game was the first non realistic sports title I had played since NBA JAM and NHL OPEN ICE and the folks at 2k7 really did a great job on their second baseball title of season. But, that was the 360 demo version; the Wii version falls short in my estimation. I knew the graphics would not compare to that of the 360, but I did not buy a Wii for its graphics. What I was excited about was the ability to play virtual baseball in my living room and by virtual baseball; I mean swinging my bat (Wii remote) and throwing pitches (Wii remote) just like if I were on the diamond once again. Where this game falls short and becomes a disappointment is the sluggish controls and sometimes unresponsiveness of the Wii remote. The pitching is extremely hard to control, you need twist you had one way and throw forward for one pitch and then turn it the other way for another and despite sitting through the on disk tutorial TWICE, I could not get the pitching down. I chalked this up to just being a part of the learning curve. Well, I said to myself, Tamer, you were never really a pitcher, your strengths were always at the plate, so I stepped up to the plate as the best team in the National League, when not decimated by injuries, the Phillies and had the side struck out, only getting a piece of the ball 3 times. Again, I chalked this up to the learning curve. Next inning, I lead off with the 2006 NL MVP, Ryan Howard and 1-2-3 strikeout, not so unrealistic, but again the side was struck out and I thought to myself, this can not be just me. Well as frustrating as hitting and pitching is, fielding is much worse. I could not make a catch to save my life and forget about throwing to the right base. In the end, I was very disappointed in The Bigs for Wii. What was supposed to be a fun cartoonish larger than life baseball simulation, left this former little leaguer and current coach dejected and frustrated. Hopefully next year’s version will be easier to control and more responsive. But for right now leave the Bigs for Wii on the bench.
