The game allows players to perform in virtual bands by providing up to four players with the ability to play three different peripherals modeled after music instruments (a guitar peripheral for lead guitar and bass guitar gameplay, a drum peripheral, and a microphone). These peripherals are used to simulate the playing of rock music by hitting scrolling notes on-screen. In addition to the 84 songs included on the game disc and 20 free downloadable songs, hundreds of additional downloadable songs are being released for the Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation 3 versions; all of these songs, existing and future, are compatible with all Rock Band titles. Rock Band 2 features improved drum and guitar controllers, while supporting older controllers, as well. New features include a “Drum Trainer” mode, a “Battle of the Bands” mode, online capabilities for “World Tour” mode, and merchandising opportunities for the players’ virtual bands.

Upon release, Rock Band 2 received very positive reviews from critics, while selling 363,000 copies in the first two weeks.

Gameplay

The core gameplay in Rock Band 2 is mostly unchanged from the original Rock Band. Players use peripherals modeled after musical instruments to simulate the performance of rock music. Players must play these instruments in time with musical “notes” as they scroll towards them on the screen. Rock Band 2 offers single-player and multiplayer gameplay for lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, and vocals, allowing for any combination of parts to play as a band.

During song performances, the game displays up to three tracks of vertically scrolling colored music notes, one section each for lead guitar, drums, and bass. The colored notes on-screen correspond to buttons on the guitar and drum peripherals. Along the top of the screen is the vocals display, which scrolls horizontally. The lyrics display beneath green bars, which represent the pitch of the individual vocal elements. The remainder of the screen is used to display the band’s virtual characters as they perform in concert.

During cooperative play as a band, all players earn points towards a common score, though score multipliers and “Overdrive” are tracked separately for each player. Overdrive is individually collected by players during select portions of a song by successfully playing all white notes (or yellow notes for vocals) within that section (or by using the guitar controller’s whammy bar during white sustained notes). Once a player’s Energy Meter is filled halfway, they can deploy their Overdrive, resulting in the “Band Meter” (which tracks how well each player is doing) changing more dramatically. This allows players to strategically use Overdrive to raise the Band Meter and pass portions of a song they otherwise might have failed. Overdrive can be used to activate score multipliers, which vary based on a player’s note streak. Players can deploy Overdrive independently of each other, as well as collect additional Overdrive while it is deployed and draining.

Each band member can choose the difficulty at which they play (spanning Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert). If a player does not play well enough and falls to the bottom of the Band Meter, they will fail out of the song and their instrument will be muted from the audio mix. However, any active player can activate their Overdrive to bring failed players back into the song, “saving” the band member. However, a band member can only be saved twice; after the third failure, they cannot be brought back for that song. Failed players continuously drag the band’s Band Meter down until they are saved. If the player is not saved before the Band Meter reaches the bottom, the band fails the song. Players can earn Overdrive bonuses from “Unison Phrases” and extra points from a “Big Rock Ending.”

Instrument peripherals

All of the original Rock Band peripherals are compatible with Rock Band 2 for the same console. Similarly, the newly designed peripherals for Rock Band 2 are backwards compatible with the original Rock Band.

The game features special Rock Band 2-branded guitar controllers modeled after the Fender Stratocaster. The guitar is nearly identical to the original Rock Band Stratocaster in terms of gameplay. The colored fret buttons corresponding to on-screen notes must be held while the strum bar is pressed. The Stratocaster controller has five additional fret buttons of smaller size located higher up the guitar neck, allowing for notes to be played as finger tapping during solos. The controller also features an effects pickup switch that can toggle between five different effects. Overdrive for guitarists can be deployed by holding the controller in a vertical position or pressing the “Select/Back” button. Improvements to the new guitar include a more reliable strum bar and Overdrive accelerometer, a self-timing calibration, and quieter fret buttons. The bass drum pedal from the drum set can also be used with the guitar to activate Overdrive mode.

The bundled drum controller is also similar to the one featured in the original Rock Band. It features four rubber drum pads and a kick pedal. The pads have colored rings around the edges that correspond to the notes on-screen. The kick pedal simulates the bass drum, with on-screen notes represented as orange horizontal lines. To use the drum controller, players must strike the pads with the included authentic drum sticks and/or press the kick pedal in time with the scrolling notes on-screen. Drummers can improvise in special “freestyle drum fill” sections of songs, indicated by the columns for each note turning a solid color. Overdrive for drummers can be deployed by hitting the crash cymbal (green note for right-handed configuration) that appears directly after a freestyle drum fill. New improvements include velocity-sensitive drum pads (the force of the drum hits will dictate the in-game volume) with more rebound and less noise, a metal-reinforced kick pedal, expansion plugs for separately-sold cymbals manufactured by Mad Catz, and wireless capabilities.

Rock Band 2’s USB microphone instrument is identical to the microphone from the original game. Singers are judged by pitch, or during “talking parts”, their ability to enunciate spoken vocals. The phoneme detection system used for atonal vocal parts has been completely replaced with a new, more lenient engine, and songs imported from Rock Band and pre-existing downloadable content will be converted to use the new phoneme system. Some sections without vocals will display circle notes, allowing for the microphone to be used as a tambourine and cowbell by tapping it or making vocal cues. Overdrive for singers can be deployed by singing in freestyle vocal sections of songs, denoted by yellow artwork in the background of the vocals interface.

Harmonix and MTV Games will also be providing limited edition instruments, including an authentic Fender Squier Stratocaster guitar and Precision Bass retrofitted with the game’s input controls by Mad Catz. Additionally, Ion Audio is selling a “Premium Drum Kit” that not only works within Rock Band 2, but can also be expanded into an electronic drum kit through the purchase of a separately-sold drum brain. The “Premium Drum Kit” features four drum pads, two cymbal pads (with the option of a third), and a bass pedal.

The Rock Band 2 peripherals and Guitar Hero: World Tour peripherals are cross-compatible with other music games on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Sony originally announced that instrument peripherals would be universally compatible on the PlayStation 3; and on November 24, 2008 a patch was released to allow the Guitar Hero: World Tour drums to be properly recognized by Rock Band 2. Microsoft has also stated that instruments on the Xbox 360 will be compatible between the two games, as well as Rock Revolution. The Wii edition of Rock Band 2 is compatible with the Wii drums and guitar for Rock Band and Guitar Hero World Tour as well as the guitar for Guitar Hero III. Rock Band 2 drum and guitar peripherals do not work with Wii Guitar Hero games, however, the microphone does. The GHWT drums on Rock Band 2 will not use the orange cymbal, however on the Wii version, the orange cymbal can be used as blue.

More Information

• Developer(s)  Harmonix (Xbox 360/PS3)
• Pi Studios (PS2/Wii)
• Publisher(s)  MTV Games
• Distributor(s)  EA Distribution
• Designer(s)  Dan Teasdale, Sylvain Dubrofsky, Casey Malone
• Platform(s)  Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2
• Release date(s)  Xbox 360, NA September 14, 2008, EU November 21, 2008, PlayStation 3, NA October 19, 2008, EU February 5, 2009, PlayStation 2, NA December 18, 2008, Wii, NA December 18, 2008,
• Genre(s)  Music, Simulation
• Mode(s)  Single player, multiplayer

Links

• Official Rock Band 2 website
• “Rock Band Live Tour” website

For the Wii, Nintendo has only two releases planned, both remakes of GameCube games designed to support the Wii Remote’s motion-sensing capabilities. The self-explanatory New Play Control Mario Power Tennis and New Play Control Pikmin will both launch in March.

Nintendo’s DS lineup is a little more robust, spearheaded by the March 22 launch of Pokemon Platinum. Platinum reuses characters and settings from Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl in a franchise tradition dating back to Pokemon Yellow for the original Game Boy, a pseudosequel that incorporated elements of the previously released Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue.

Beyond Diamond, Nintendo has two more DS games planned through March. Up first will be Personal Trainer: Math on January 12, an arithmetic addition to the practical game series that started with Personal Trainer: Cooking. Those looking for something a little more gamey can try Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon on February 16. The latest release in the turn-based strategy series will be a remake of the original NES Fire Emblem (which never made it to North America), with new touch-screen controls.

Wii

• Disney Sing It: High School Musical 3: Senior Year (Disney Interactive Studios)–Winter
• Neighborhood Games (THQ)–January 5
• Paws & Claws Pet Resort (THQ)–January 5
• Fishing Master World Tour (Hudson)–January 6
• Deer Drive (Mastiff)–January 20
• SimAnimals (Electronic Arts)–January 27
• Coraline (D3Publisher)–January
• Escape the Museum (Majesco)–January
• Word Jong Party (Destineer)–January
• NASCAR Kart Racing (Electronic Arts)–February 10
• Brave: A Warrior’s Tale (Southpeak)–February 17
• Little King’s Story (Marvelous)–February 17
• Roogoo Twisted Towers (Southpeak)–February 17
• Battle Rage (Destineer)–February
• Cradle of Rome (Destineer)–February
• House of the Dead: Overkill (Sega)–February
• Onechanbara Bikini Zombie Slayers (D3Publisher)–February
• Puzzle Challenges and More! (Crave)–February
• Solitaire & Mahjong (Crave)–February
• Tenchu: Shadow Assassins (Ubisoft)–February
• Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball (Southpeak)–March 17
• Monsters vs. Aliens (Activision)–March 24
• Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars Director’s Cut (Ubisoft)–March
• Burger Island (Destineer)–March
• Cate West: The Vanishing Files (Destineer)–March
• Crayola Colorful World (Crave)–March
• DanceDanceRevolution Disney Grooves (Konami)–March
• Madworld (Sega)–March
• Major Minor’s Majestic March (Majesco)–March
• Monster Pals (Crave)–March
• New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis (Nintendo)–March
• New Play Control! Pikmin (Nintendo)–March
• Play the World (Dreamcatcher)–March
• Rune Factory Frontier (Marvelous)–March
• Sonic and the Black Knight (Sega)–March
• We Ski & Snowboard (Namco Bandai)–March
• Super Pick Ups (XS Games)–Q1
• Trivial Pursuit (Electronic Arts)–Early spring
• Marble Saga Kororinpa (Hudson)–Spring

Nintendo DS

• Phineas and Ferb (Disney Interactive Studios)–Winter
• Paws & Claws Pampered Pets (THQ)–January 5
• Big Bang Mini (Southpeak)–January 6
• Retro Game Challenge (XSEED)–January 6
• Personal Trainer: Math (Nintendo)–January 12
• Moon (Mastiff)–January 13
• World Championship Games (The Game Factory)–January 19
• SimAnimals (Electronic Arts)–January 27
• Coraline (D3Publisher)–January
• Drivers’ Ed Portable (Dreamcatcher)–January
• Inkheart (Dreamcatcher)–January
• Jake Power Fireman (Ubisoft)–January
• Jake Power Policeman (Ubisoft)–January
• Learn Math (Dreamcatcher)–January
• Monster Band (Dreamcatcher)–January
• Powerbike (Majesco)–January
• USA Today Puzzle Craze (Destineer)–January
• Wonder World Amusement Park (Majesco)–January
• My World, My Way (Atlus)–February 3
• Legacy of Ys: Books I & II (Atlus)–February 10
• Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (Nintendo)–February 16
• Brave: Shaman’s Challenge (Southpeak)–February 17
• Jagged Alliance (Empire Interactive)–February 17
• My Fashion Studio Paris Collection (Ubisoft)–February 17
• Roogoo Attack (Southpeak)–February 17
• Avalon Code (Marvelous)–February
• Imagine Cheerleader (Ubisoft)–February
• Imagine Family Doctor (Ubisoft)–February
• JoJo’s Fashion Show (Ubisoft)–February
• Music Star: Pop Star (Dreamcatcher)–February
• My DoItAll (Tomy)–February
• My Personal Diary (Dreamcatcher)–February
• Petz Horseshoe Ranch (Ubisoft)–February
• Zoo Quest (Dreamcatcher)–February
• American Popstar – Road to Celebrity (Gameloft)–March 9
• Animal Planet (Activision)–March 10
• Chicken Hunter Star Karts (MumboJumbo)–March 10
• Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (Rockstar Games)–March 17
• Trackmania DS (Atlus)–March 17
• Pokemon Platinum (Nintendo)–March 22
• American Popstar – Road to Celebrity (Ubisoft)–March 24
• Monsters vs. Aliens (Activision)–March 24
• Pimp My Ride 2 (Activision)–March 24
• Broken Sword: Shadows of the Templars Director’s Cut (Ubisoft)–March
• DinoPets (Destineer)–March
• Dreamer: Top Model (Dreamcatcher)–March
• Flower, Sun, and Rain (Marvelous)–March
• Hot n’ Cold (Majesco)–March
• Imagine Ice Champions (Ubisoft)–March
• Jake Power Handyman (Ubisoft)–March
• Learn Chess (Dreamcatcher)–March
• Matchstick (Dreamcatcher)–March
• Monster Pals (Crave)–March
• Paint by DS (Dreamcatcher)–March
• Sarah: Keeper of the Unicorn (Dreamcatcher)–March
• Zubo (Electronic Arts)–March
• Elebits: The Adventures of Kai and Zero (Konami)–Q1
• Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure (Electronic Arts)–Q1
• Litlle Magician’s Magic Adventure (Konami)–Q1
• Our House (Majesco)–Q1
• Puzzle Quest: Galactrix (D3Publisher)–Q1
• Suikoden Tierkreis (Konami)–Q1
• Dragon Master (Dreamcatcher)–April
• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (Square Enix)–Spring

Wii Release Dates

DS Release Dates

There is a limit to whatever and how much you can do, because they don’t want you to play the entire game and realize there is nothing to look forward to in the full version. The game will be made available for download at Criterion’s website as well as EA’s home page, but CG will also be handing out millions of discs to fans to install on their PCs. Also the game doesn’t need the disc to work, because CG encourages you to pass the disc on to friends once you’re done. The disc also has an upgrade store feature which allows you to buy the full version once you’re ready to. The game features its regular features, both single and multiplayer.

The Demo will feature the combination of Burnout itself, the Cagney Update, Bikes Update and the upcoming Party Pack.

Get Even falls somewhere between overhead shooter and real-time strategy, as you’re not actually firing at the various structures and enemies that cross your path – rather, you’re instructing the iconic pixels to take down whichever target you specify with the Wii Remote pointer. Those little buggers can be killed in action, so you’ll need to occasionally shake the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to generate more, or unleash a screen-clearing special attack, which also replenishes your forces.

Each stage has a singular objective (destroy specific buildings, abduct all the cows, etc), and rather than assign your UFO a health meter, any hits taken simply deduct from the running timer (which doesn’t often provide a ton of wiggle room as it is).

The missions play out in an expectedly frantic manner, as you must find a balance between zipping toward the indicated objectives and downing enough extra buildings, turrets, and tanks to accumulate precious bonus seconds to stay afloat. So while Get Even’s a relatively simple experience, it’s not mindless – when I botched a stage, it was typically not a matter of bad luck or cheap foes, just poor strategy on my part.

Get Even’s cities are simple and fairly nondescript, but the game strikes a smart presentational tone, juxtaposing serious-sounding tunes with the obviously bizarre happenings, not to mention visual words of praise (“Cool!”) and amusing human radio transmissions (“Our forces are not equipped to take on 2D targets!”). Frustratingly, it comes at a higher cost than expected, as the initial $5 purchase delivers but a single three-stage mission (about 15 minutes of play).

You’ll have to shell out $5 apiece for the three additional mission packs (two complete missions apiece) to near the two-hour mark, but the immediate existence of such add-ons makes the original seem like a glorified trial – not to mention an exploitation of WiiWare’s simplistic, demo-free structure. That’ll understandably be a hurdle for some, but it’s a shame, as Get Even’s high concentration of amusing (and plain ol’ fun) action might entrance even those unaware of its storied roots — if only for a bit.

We’ve had a lot of fun putting the Trophy challenges together, and we reckon that we’ve got a good selection for Blast Factor fans of all abilities. Watch out though, there are a couple that are going to be a challenge to even the most hardcore of Blast Factor players!

We’ve added 25 Trophies in total across the original game and the 2 expansion packs, with around 15 Trophies in Blast Factor: Basic Research and its 90+ levels, and 10 Trophies split between the Multiplayer expansion and Advanced Research with its addition of 80+ levels and Hybrid mode.

We’ve also added rumble support for the DualShock 3 Controller for that extra tactile goodness. All existing versions of Blast Factor will get automatically patched when you start the game, so you won’t even need to download the new version from the store.

And yes, this update is FREE! So if you own Blast Factor, and any of its expansions, all you need to do is fire it up! If you don’t have the game yet, you can get the base game for $9.99, or for $12.99 you can get a bundle including both add-ons!

However, the title was actually renamed Aquanaut’s Holiday and released in Japan as a Blu-ray only title this September. Yes, September; three months ago. And if you can believe it, the game already supports the English language in the Asian release.

Just like Afrika, Sony Japan don’t think the title will be saleable across the water, even despite the intrigue and interest displayed after early PS3 press conferences. You’d think Sony would support their own in-house developers.

Perhaps it will be left to the National Geographic to release it for PlayStation 3 gamers worldwide.

The upcoming Big Surf Island update for the ball-out racer was previously touted as free content, like previous DLC packages, but Criterion has confirmed that it will instead be “premium paid-for content”.

It didn’t reveal a price, but to be fair the update looks bloody brilliant so we wouldn’t mind handing over a few quid.

Along with a few brilliant screenshots, Criterion justifies the charge in saying: “We never expected to create anything this ambitious for the island, but as it progressed we got more and more excited about what it could become.”

It added: “Big Surf is the culmination of everything we learned creating Paradise City, and we want it to bring you a truly spectacular new experience – the highlight of a year of incredible premium content.

“We appreciate the support we know you guys will give us for our paid content. We think it’s worth it.”

New shots of the island are below, and you can read more about the new setting on the official site.

The full version of the game was released on September 4, 2008, in Australia and the Nordic region, but Australian stores prematurely broke the street date on September 2, 2008. The game was released September 5, 2008 in Europe, Japan, South America and New Zealand, and was released on September 7, 2008 in North America and Asia Pacific territories. Spore is also available for direct download from Electronic Arts. A special edition of the game, Spore: Galactic Edition, additionally includes a “Making of Spore” DVD video, “How to Build a Better Being” DVD video by National Geographic Channel, “The Art of Spore” hardback mini-book, a fold-out Spore poster and a 97-page Galactic Handbook published by Prima Games.

Development

The name Spore was originally a working title, suggested by developer Ocean Quigley, for the game which was first referred to by the general public as Sim Everything. Even though Sim Everything was a first choice name for Wright, the title Spore stuck. Wright added it also freed him from the preconceptions another Sim title would have brought, saying “…Not putting ‘Sim’ in front of it was very refreshing to me. It feels like it wants to be breaking out into a completely different thing than what Sim was.”

Civilization IV lead designer Soren Johnson joined EA Maxis to work on Spore.

Genre

Spore does not fall neatly into any single video game genre. While the game’s creators and several media sources described it in 2006 as a god game, other journalists have described it as a real-time strategy game and life simulation game. The game is made up of several phases of gameplay that draw on a multitude of games, and thus a multitude of traditional genres.

Gameplay

Coined Creatiolutionism, the game allows the player to develop a species from a microscopic organism to its evolution into a complex animal, its emergence as a social, intelligent being, to its mastery of the planet and then finally to its ascension into space, where it interacts with alien species across the galaxy. Throughout the game, the player’s perspective and species change dramatically.

The game is broken up into distinct yet consistent, dependent “phases”. The outcome of one phase affects the initial conditions facing the player in the next. Each phase exhibits its own style of play, and has been described by the developers as ten times more complicated than its preceding phase. While players are able to spend as much time as they prefer in each, it is possible to accelerate or skip phases altogether. Some phases feature optional missions; when the player completes a mission, they are granted a bonus, such as a new ability.

If all of a player’s creations are completely destroyed at some point, then that player’s species will be respawned at its home base.

Unlike many other Maxis games, Spore has a primary win condition which is obtained by reaching a quasar placed in the center of the galaxy, and facing a large NPC race. However, the player may continue to play after the goal has been achieved.

Links:

• More on Spore (2008 video game)
• Official Spore website