Sorry for not posting these sooner. My Internet Service Provider was having technical difficulties yesterday and I couldn’t get online.
I’ll start with Konami, who will be giving us Silent Hill: Homecoming this fall for Xbox360 and PS3. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the next installment in this gloriously deranged and creepy series, and this edition looks like it could very well be even better than the others. The camera and controls are greatly improved, favorite enemies will be making return appearances, and new enemies look amazing. This will definitely be one game to look forward to this fall. Another reason I was interested in the Konami press event was that I wanted to hear more about Rock Revolution, a music-based game featuring a band experience that has gotten little coverage in the gaming press and has really stayed in the shadow of the Rock Band and Guitar Hero series’. So, I thought, surely Konami, the publisher responsible for the game, will shed a lot of light on it and tell us why we need to buy this music game in addition to or instead of the big boys. Well, they really dropped the ball on this one. To present the game, first they had an indie band perform a cover version of a Ramones song, on real instruments, not on the game controllers. (Relevance???) Then the song was repeated on the game’s drum kit and guitar (or are they even unique to the game? Guitar sure looked like a Guitar Hero III guitar to me). The drum kit was set on the stage back facing the audience and camera, so we really couldn’t see what they looked like. No one sang, and from what I’ve read in previews, singing is not a feature of the game (even though the same folks gave us Karaoke Revolution: American Idol???). No one spoke about the instrument controllers, or playlist of music. (Although, I read in a preview ALL of the songs are covers). They did announce that the game would be featured on Linkin Park’s concert tour. So as far as the Rock Revolution presentation goes: the bad news is Konami really had nothing good to say about the game or why we should buy it. The good news is, we won’t have to worry about where we’re going to get the money for it after we shell out for Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour, and we also won’t have to worry about storage for a 3rd drum kit.
The most enticing parts of the Activision event involved Call of Duty World at War and Guitar Hero World Tour. The next installment of the Call of Duty series looks great, will feature online or split screen co-op, and will feature the voice acting of Keifer Sutherland (woo-hoo!). Now we know what he’s been up to while 24 was on hiatus this year due to the writers’ strike. I’ll have to admit, what I did hear of him didn’t exactly sound like he stretched the limits of his acting ability, and it was admitedly a little ho-hum. But it was just a clip from the gameplay, and I think it’s still awesome that they’ve got him on the game. One more thing about Call of Duty World at War is that this time around the game will still take place during World War II, but it will be in the Pacific theater this time with different locations and enemies. I was concerned when I heard Treyarch was taking us back to World War II after InfinityWard gave us modern warfare, but it’s a relief to at least know we won’t be fighting the Nazis again in Europe again. That has been so overdone in games and it wouldn’t break my heart one bit if I never saw another game like it again. As for Guitar Hero World Tour, we already know quite a lot about the game, but I was no less excited hearing about it again. The music “studio” or creator looks complicated but also like it could be a lot of fun if you’re willing to put in the time to make sense of it, especially since you can create ANY genre of music with it. There are samples from all kinds of genres available on it. The drum kit looks fantastic, with 2 raised cymbals and more “bouncy” drum pads, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. The guitar had some new features that looked like a little too much to me and overly complex, but maybe I’ll change my mind and find out it’s not as daunting as it looks when I try it out. No complete playlist has been announced, but they did announce that Metallica’s new album will be available for download, in it’s entirety, on the same day it releases is record stores. Also that there will be a pack of R.E.M. tracks available for download before the album even hits store shelves. This is exciting, and an indication that more of the music industry is recognizing the advantage of making their music, including their new music, available in games. Maybe it will lead to us seeing more great bands in the future who were previously nonexistent in music games. I also wanted to quickly note that a new James Bond game is coming out, Quantum of Solace, to coincide with the release of the movie this fall. It looked pretty good, and is at least worth looking for more press on in the future. I wouldn’t call it a “must play” at this point, maybe a “must watch”.
So to wrap things up both the Activision and Konami press conferences were mixed bags, each with some good and some bad. More good on the Activision front, although they definitely had a couple of real duds on there also, in particular the new Spider Man game that was painful to watch it looked so unpolished.
