Games I'm playing.....Part 3

Scene it? LCA
I'm a great fan of Friends, the series, you know the show with Chandler, Joey, Ross, Monica, Phoebe, Rachel and Central Perk? (That question was rhetorical - but seriously if you don't know what I am talking about: kill yourself, slowly). I purchased the full series on DVD a good couple of years ago and my significant other (from now on referred to as Brenda - no it's not her real name - a round of high fives to the person who can correctly name the columnist and author whose wife he also christened Brenda and to whom this is a mini tribute) and I have made a ritual of watching it from beginning to end, rinse and repeat. We are on about the 7th rerun and it just gets funnier each damn time! So by now you're probably wondering why I'm rambling on and what the hell Friends has to do with Scene It: LCA besides the obvious. Well, if you are a Friends aficionado like myself you will be well aware of Monica's ..erm competitive streak. Here is a perfect example, where Monica turned Joey and Chandlers game of catch into some sort of freakish exercise in endurance straight out of a Chinese torture manual:


Now, my Brenda makes Monica look like the Dalai Lama of competitive restraint. Absolutely everything is dealt with in terms of who's better at it. Hell, even when it's just the two of us having to go somewhere by car, she still shouts 'Shotgun!' as she bounds towards it like some rabid animal. Often, I'm tempted to just get into the back and wait for the penny to drop but I fear I may still be the loser. It's got to the extent that when watching a film together the person who can correctly shout the production company's name before it's logo fully reveals itself is proclaimed winner of 'the movie'. I put the blame squarely on her for forcing me into a reclusive life of video games and skin the shade of see-through!


Scene It? LCA has made my life worse. It's horribly addictive quiz-show gameplay was an instant hit with Brenda. I think it might also have something to do with the fact that it comes with projectiles in the form of buzzers. You get 4, yes four, buzzers in the box, batteries included. They are comfortable, small and light, obviously they are only held in one hand, and are connected to your 360 through a supplied IR USB device. The really grand thing about this is that four people can play which makes it a whole lot of fun. It's the perfect antidote to boardgames for those of us who are sick of losing those rediculously small Trivial Pursuit wedges. Most importantly, this game has another trick up it's sleeve when it comes to comparing it to traditional boardgames - access to Live! Surely the developers will make use of this to keep the game fresh by updating it's content in line with recent movie releases! It is also a great way to get your non-gaming friends involved in your hobby (I know how frustrating it is when visitors intrude on your gaming time) as it revolves around entertainment that everyone is familiar with - the movies.

Off the bat, if there are more than two people playing, first use an ordinary 360 controller to create the extra profiles needed on your 360. This will save you a lot of time, as trying to do it with the buzzers is an exercise in frustration. Once thats done, hook up the buzzers and get started. There are three options, Short Play, Long Play and Party Game or something along that line. We generally opt for the Short Play as it tends to make the games a lot closer score wise and builds the tension for a smashing finale. The only difference between Long and Short Play is the amount of questions in each stage by the way. The Party Game basically just runs through each quiz without an eventual winner, either that or it goes on forever and we've never got to the end of it!

The idea of bringing a movie based quiz to gaming is one that has always appealed to me - the fact that you could bring actual scenes from a movie into the gameplay was enough motivation for me to get this. (Incidentally, this was another second hand purchase from the marketplace on www.xbox-360.co.za/forum) In this area the game doesn't disappoint, although I do find the audio in some of the scenes a tad soft. The game uses movies from all era's which does add a level of difficulty but not to the extent that you'll feel out of depth. Questions based on a played scene range from the names of the actors, questions on the dialogue and even questions about the props in the scene.

There are numerous other quizzes:

Picture Puzzle
See's contestants trying to identify the actor whose picture is jumbled up into tiny pieces and displayed in a random order.

Name the Movie Anagram
Obviously the name of a movie with the letters in random order.

Identify the movie from a sketch
A sketch is drawn in staggered stages from abstract to obvious against a timer with contestants picking a movie which corresponds with the drawing.

Timeline
Correctly place the shown movies chronologically according to the year of their release. This one is very tricky!

There are quite a few other types but I am sure you get the idea. There is a time limit and points are awarded on a sliding scale obviously the quicker you correctly answer the higher your points tally. At the end of each round the points are tallied up and bonus points are awarded for certain milestones for instance: quickest answer, most correct answers in a round, correctly answering all the questions in a particular quizz etc etc. Many of the achievements in the game are based around similar milestones.

It certainly is a great way to spend a few hours, it's fun, competitive and right up my poor Brenda's alley - she's already done the victory dance and the my-head-meets-her buzzer dance too many times to mention.

-RE: Gamer

Games I'm playing.....Part 2

Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock
Damn I love to air guitar. I've been doing it since my shower voice turned out to be crap, so it's been ages. In fact my air guitar marathons are right up there with some of the best things I'm able to do.
I got into the Guitar Hero franchise when I saw the guitar from GH2 at a Hi-Fi Corp store about a year and a bit ago. Yeah of course I'd heard about it but I'd never actually seen it in action. I was sold immediately, or at least a copy of the game was when I picked up one second hand on our local Xbox 360 forum [http://www.xbox-360.co.za/forum]. I've been jamming on and off since I got the game. That is the great thing about Guitar Hero, its replayability. I mean even if you clocked it, got all the achievements, you'll still come back to solo a couple of the rock anthems over and over again. This is a series that can keep itself fresh through enough DLC.

As soon as I heard GH3 was available locally I made plans to get it. The planning was centrally about how to raise the money. It's expensive at anything from R750 - R850, but totally worth it - it comes with the coolest game peripheral known to man - The Les Paul Guitar - and it's wireless to boot! The guitar comes with a couple of stickers so you can personalise the bad boy to your liking too. I used all the stickers barring one. The glaring differences between the Les Paul guitar and GH2 guitar go beyond the look to the feel. The Les Paul's whammy bar is longer and the fret buttons feel like they are spaced slightly further apart (they aren't) and the strum bar is longer. Generally the Les Paul feels less like a toy.

I started off on easy as I had learnt very quickly playing GH2 that my ring and my small finger belong to somebody else as soon as I give them orders. They persist in either working at the same time or not at all - I am hoping this sorts itself out with enough practise. The game really eases you into it with the first couple of songs. The notes don't come to quickly and before long you will be thrashing away like a spaced-out rocker, or maybe that's just me. There are some great songs to play, my favourites so far has been Cherub Rock by the Smashing Pumpkins and Paint it Black by the Rolling Stones. Given that I am only half way through (about 26 songs) the easy campaign, there's a lot more of that coolness coming. If you feel like practising you can select Quick Play which will let you sharpen up without advancing through the campaign. You can also play your downloaded songs there which is obviously a great feature. New song packs are available online from the Xbox Marketplace - a song pack consists of 3 songs and will set you back 500 points. Single songs cost 200 points, so the value is definitely with the 3 song packs. At this stage there is no word on DLC for the PS3 version of the game but I can't see them taking their time with this.


One thing I didn't get a chance to do when GH2 was still in vogue was to try out the multi-player. Now that I have two guitars (the GH2 edition is fully compatible) I am going to be battling it out with my wor... I mean better half. (I'm so gonna get my ass kicked!) I have managed to come across the battle portion of the game during my single player campaign and it is fantastic. The screen has two scrolling channels next to each other, one yours and one for you opponent. In battle mode the notes contain 'attacks' which if you hit can be used on your opponent to make them mess up. The challenge is hitting your notes and then tilting your controlling sending your attack to your opponent - you've got to make him fail the song to be declared the winner.

This game is seriously addictive. Once you start playing it is so hard to stop, especially once you've mastered the basics - and you will - in no time you'll be showing off to all and sundry. It's such a simple yet amazingly gratifying concept, cracking a hard song for the first time will see you jumping with glee (don't let the frowns of your onlookers put you off). Just keep yourself in check, although smashing your guitar looks cool, you haven't really sold the CD's to replace your Les Paul at whim!

-RE: Gamer