section by: Justin Clark and SCOTT!
EA/Harmonix
360, PS3, Wii
6/8
MSRP: $59.99; $49.99 Wii
CLICK TO BUY FROM AMAZON!
I’m not against a Green Day Rock Band game. The band’s been around long enough and left enough fuckawful punk bands in their wake to have earned that level of status, and hey, any move that results in Harmonix getting more money to do what they do best is fine by me. And oh yes, this game will sell. I’m almost certain I would be one of the people buying a copy if the game didn’t just pretend Kerplunk didn’t happen, or the band’s “growing up” period (Nimrod and Warning) wasn’t marginalized to the point of irrelevance. It’d be like Beatles Rock Band being comprised of Magical Mystery Tour and Let It Be and nothing else. Wait…..I’d still buy that. Never mind.
360, PS3, Wii
6/8
MSRP: $59.99, $49.99 Wii
CLICK TO BUY FROM AMAZON!
There is nothing this game can provide for me that this has not already. But if realistic, no-nonsense golf is your deal, this is pretty much the only game in town, so, have at it.
METAL GEAR SOLID: PEACE WALKER
Konami
PSP
6/8
MSRP: $39.99
MGS 4 drained the last drop of Give A Fuck I had for this series, but in this ever increasing failurepile, MGS 3 is still the closest to actually resembling a game that you can play. Peace Walker is a direct sequel, and takes many of its story cues from that game, which already puts it on higher ground than most of the things that have happened since MGS2. On top of that, though, the second half actually tells the story to take a bit of a hike as the game focuses on–are you sitting down?–GAMEPLAY. Remember that? That thing in video games where people aren’t talking and you can move around and do stuff? I missed that.
MEGA MAN: ZERO COLLECTION
Capcom
DS
6/8
MSRP: $29.99
Before Mega Man 9 and 10, I’d have been all over this. Now….well, it’s still a collection of the best, most ball-bustingly difficult platformers ever. We’re just not begging for them like a dog for table scraps anymore.
OOOOHH: ON THE DLC TIP
EARTHWORM JIM HD
Gameloft
Xbox Live
6/9
800 MS pts
It’s one of the greatest, most innovative platformers ever made, redrawn from scratch in HD, with all the additional content from the superior but criminally underplayed Sega CD port (although nobody’s mentioned if thats where they’re getting the remixed soundtrack from, or if they got Tommy Tallerico to take another swipe at it), plus 3 brand new levels, including one which pits Jim against Keyboard Cat, and 4-player co-op. Aside from a bit of iffy voice acting from the recently released trailer (I’ve never supported this need of the series to take away Jim’s redneck accent), everything that we ever loved about the game is here.
Yes, I will think of less of you as a person for not downloading this.
ROCK BAND TUESDAY
Deftones Pack 01 ($5.49/440 MS pts)
• Cherry Waves
• Hole In The Earth
• Minerva
Boys Like Girls – The Great Escape
Crown of Thorns – Rock Ready
$1.99/160 MS pts per track
Just like the Pantera pack two weeks ago: Right band, wrong album(s). But unlike the Great Southern Trendkill, these aren’t even any particular display of talent from anyone in that band. They’re not bad songs, but they’re probably the most boring to play compared to just about anything else in their discography. There may have to be some mild rioting if Deftones Pack 2 comes around without My Own Summer in it.
As for the other two? Boys Like Girls is generic, whiny pop rock at its most annoying, Crown Of Thorns at least gets points for looking like the people at every goth club I’ve ever been in, while sounding like every strip club I’ve ever been in. Instead of getting goth strippers, we get basically a black Motley Crue. Um…..hooray?