On the Subject of Licensed Music as it Applies to Puzzle Games

Much ado was made of the whole licensed music 'feature' in Lumines 2, mostly in the negative, with comments to the effect of "Gwen Stefani can kiss my ass" being the usual. Now, having experienced it, I can't find any real fault apart from liking or disliking a particular song. Quite simply, did DDR suddenly start sucking the moment they used licensed tracks instead of the disposable custom J-Pop of the earlier games? Certainly not.

360: The Return

So at last my 360 has returned, now sans 3 blinking red lights of death. I took some time out of my busy (Burning) Crusade to take the girl for a spin and try and catch up with some of the games I had missed along the way.

First, I loaded up the Crackdown demo, I had heard entirely too many things about this game for me to not load it up. Crackdown seems to be the middle-ground that joins the sandbox style hero games that have come around (Incredible Hulk, and Spider-Man 2) with the GTA clone. Run around, leap tall buildings, commandeer cars (for the greater good), hurl heavy things at the bad guys, etc. The demo didn't give me much of a feel for the narrative (here's to hoping that there actually is one), but the actual combat and aiming systems are solid, so I think this one is at the very least, a rental.

Speaking of Rentals, Tony Hawk's Project 8 arrived from Gamefly during my 360's hiatus. So far it seems to be your average, run of the mill Tony Hawk experience, albeit with a seamless branching world, but i've yet to see if this will be put to good use. Mechanically, there's one rather large edition, the 'nail the trick' mode, which goes into slight slow motion and zooms in on your feet during kick tricks. while in NtT mode, your analog sticks control your feet and you can use them to kick and spin the board around under you in a technically realistic manner. So far its looking pretty damn good and is a huge improvement over the american wasteland games.

Still going...

It's been about a week since my 360 went to the blinking circle of light in the sky and still no box from MS, I'm attributing that to the holidays and whatnot and as promised, I've been dedicating my time to other gaming endeavors, such as the recent influx of DS games on my lap and of course, Xenosaga 3.

In addition I've been futzing with Windows Vista, and despite extreme driver immaturity, I'm really digging the overall experience so far.

Massive Damage

Now, I'll admit to being a bit of a PS3 Hater, partially because I don't like the idea of using a console as a conduit for promoting a form of media, partially because I despise the Sony Arrogance^tm. But I still believed that no matter what they did, they would certainly sell as many PS3s as they could jam in a store, that the endless lines of Playstation Drones would buy and buy till their wallets bled.

But that was not the case.

I keep hearing stories of people passing up PS3s, walking right by hawking salesmen in favor of 360s and (if they can get them) Wiis

Gonna go eat some crow now.

Blinking Red Lights

I haven't really put much of a dent in my Christmas batch just yet. This can likely be attributed to chronic lack of focus on my part, as I'm alternating between six or so games. However, there's one recent development will be limiting some of my distractions...

my 360 is dead.

Yeah, that's right, I've received the three red lights that signify the demise of a 360 console. It was a good run, and thankfully, with the 360 warranties extended to one year, I'm covered for repair. However, I will still be sans-360 for at least two weeks or so.

I must use this time wisely!