It is time now for the second wave of '08/'09 reviews with today's column covering video games.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (2008, Xbox 360)

There was quite a bit of hype surrounding this game when it came out. It was supposed to be a Star Wars IP that the world hadn't seen since Shadows of the Empire. Did it live up to the hype? Depends on who you ask. I didn't buy it until recently, but I definitely had fun playing it. That said, there were also many points where I was frustrated out of my mind to the point of controller throwing (something I've not done in years). Some of this was due to faulty game mechanics, but mostly my own incompetence. Sadly, the game is fairly repetitive in terms of combat and I found myself relying on Force lightning to handily finish off every enemy I came across. There are plenty of options for combat such as push and choke and, of course, your lightsaber, but none of these were as handy or wholly satisfying as lightning. Oh, and for all the hype about Euphoria, never once did I see a stormtrooper grab another in mid air. 7/10

2007 was, indeed, a monumental year in gaming. So many triple A titles, ninety-nine percent of which were released in the holiday season making it very expensive for those who wanted to stay on top. Today I'm going to take a look back at gaming in 2007 (the games I have played, at least).

[header]Wii[/header]

Wario Ware: Smooth Moves

This was my first foray into the world that is Wario Ware and, as such, cannot compare it to previous entries in the series. For the uninformed, Wario Ware is a collection of micro games, meaning each little game has one goal and you have about five (or less) seconds to complete said goal. The folks at Nintendo got incredibly inventive and this game shows off the abilities of the Wiimote excellently. As far as looks go there isn't anything jaw dropping, but the art direction can be hilarious at times and it certainly fits in with the zany, face paced style of the game. I only wish there were some better multiplayer options especially since this is a great party game (especially when over zealous players put their hand through a ceiling fan).

8/10 Stars

Super Paper Mario

Previous entries in the Paper Mario series have been more RPGish in that battles were turn based and you traversed the world in three dimensions. Super Paper Mario takes a more unique approach, cleverly blending old school platforming with RPG elements. There is, of course, the flip element to the game which makes you look at everything in a whole new perspective (forgive the pun). About the only caveat to this game would be the mansion level, but the clever puzzles mixed with awesome writing make this a must have game for the Wii.

8/10 Stars

Super Mario Galaxy

I will admit, I do not own this nor have I played it much. However, in my time with it I can see how it has gotten such high praise. The visuals alone are simply beautiful, I'd say the best looking of any game made this year. The music is a joy to listen to with many motifs going back to the days of Mario 3 and some Mario 64 selections as well. Most of it is orchestrated which makes it all the better. The best thing is, these are only the icing on an extremely delicious cake. The game play is simply fantastic. Gravity plays a huge role in the mechanics of this game and you had best be keeping that in mind whilst traversing the spherical levels. There's really not much to say about this game aside from that it's everything a Mario game should be.

10/10 Stars

[header]Xbox 360[/header]

Crackdown

This is probably the must underrated game of the year. If you bought this game just for the Halo 3 beta, raise your hand. (raises hand) If that's the only reason you bought this game and never even played it, then you should be ashamed of yourself. I was originally going to pass on Crackdown and the Halo 3 beta, but after playing the demo I realized that it (Crackdown) was a really cool game. I've never played a sandbox game before and just the ability to go wherever and do whatever I wanted was awesome enough. Throw in being able to leap tall buildings in a single bound and run faster than your mom and you've got one sweet game. The ending does suck, but story isn't the most prominent aspect so I'll let it slide. I spent many a good hour with this game.

7/10 Stars

Eternal Sonata

Eternal Sonata was supposed to be the Final Fantasy for Xbox 360, at least in my eyes. It was simply gorgeous and it had an awesome battle system, however it is missing the one crucial element that a good RPG needs: story. I haven't played very far into this game because, quite frankly, I don't care about the characters. In games such as Final Fantasy VI or X there was enough story to keep me going to find out what happened. The problem with ES is that no real story has been setup after a few hours of play. There's been a little bit of character exposition, but not much compelling me to play through.

6/10 Stars

Halo 3

By far the most hyped game of the year, luckily it delivers. There really isn't much of a difference from the previous games, but enough of an evolution for me to say that it is the best looking, best playing Halo out there. Multiplayer still rocks, they brought back the assault rifle, and the addition of multiplayer match replays is very sweet. If you are a 360 owner and haven't bought this yet, you need to do some deep soul searching and then go and buy it.

8/10 Stars

Rock Band

Rock Band, aka Drum Hero or the Real Guitar Hero III, is by far the best rhythm game ever. Guitar Hero was awesome, but there's not much room left for innovation in that game outside of new songs. I don't know if this is what Harmonix was thinking or not, but they definitely upped the ante with Rock Band. Guitar is more or less the same, same for vocals if you've played Sing Star or Karaoke Revolution, but the drums is an entirely different beast. Getting all your limbs to work separately from each other can be a challenge, albeit a very satisfying one once you get the hang of it. In terms of song selection, there should be something for everyone especially with new downloadable tracks coming every week. The only thing about Rock Band is that, as the name suggests, you really have to play it with other people. Playing the solo tour is fun and all, but the multiplayer is where it's at. Paying attention to our band mates and saving them (or vice versa) adds an extra element to the game. The most awesome part, though, is when your singer can't sing. It can be hilarious and horrible... all at the same time.

10/10 Stars

[header]Nintendo DS[/header]

Phoenix Wright: Justice for All

The Phoenix Wright series was already fairly well established by the time I got to it. I originally a half ass purchase as a game to play on my flight to Orlando in May. It turned out to be one of the best things I bought this year. Phoenix Wright was like an interactive Encyclopedia Brown story, only with killing and stuff. The stories are so intriguing that it is hard to put them down, and when you do finish you are saddened because the awesome ride you were just on ended. Graphically there's not much to see, though the artwork is nice. If you're into thinking type games you should definitely pick this one up.

9/10 Stars

The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass

Zelda's first foray onto the Nintendo DS brought some radical changes to gameplay; namely, a game controlled entirely by the stylus. As bad as that may seem it works amazingly well. The game's visuals and sound are near identical to its predecessor, the Wind Waker. Despite all this, I felt the game was somewhat lacking and felt very scaled down. Granted, this is a protable release and the target audience was newcomers, but it still took away some of that Zelda feel. However, they still could've made some better music for the dungeons.

7/10 Stars

[header]Portal[/header]

Just yesterday I picked up a copy of the Orange Box. Five games for fifty dollars is simply too good of a deal to pass up. At this point in time I have only installed/played/completed Portal. Portal is, by far, one of the most awesome games I've played in some time. The concept is insanely clever and forces you to think in a vastly different way. The writing is top notch and there were several things that I laughed out loud at. My only problem is that the game was far too short. I completed it in a few hours. Luckily there are advanced maps to complete yet and hopefully some stuff made by the community that I can get later.

9/10 Stars

If I had to pick one of these as my number one game of 2007 I would have to go with Rock Band. The drums are simply awesome and having a whole bunch of people doing co-op play makes for an awesome time. I would have to say Mario Galaxy would come in at a close second. It's awesome on too many fronts not to give honorable mention.

Well, there you have it. 2008 alredy looks to be promising with Brawl coming up right off the bat. Hopefully we'll see the same amount o quality games, but maybe released over a longer period of time. Happy New Year and keep gaming.

This will be my final dealing witht the Rock Band drums on Windows. In the last post I said I was going to make a GlovePIE script, but it seems I have been beaten to the punch. You'll find the script in the description of the linked video and I can confirm that it works with the 360 drum kit.

Here's a simple little program I whipped up to use the Rock Bad drums as a MIDI controller. I'll have a video up sometime later. NOTE - You'll need the .NET 2.0 Framework.

Note: I'm not providing any support for this program. It's up for those who want a MIDI solution.

Download

EDIT: Since it appears my program is complete crap, I now redirect you to somebody who's developed a much better piece of software (and probably spent much longer than fifteen minutes developing it). Enjoy!

Everything I had posted here before is now outdated (and more than likely was when I came up with this). The latest Xinput driver from Microsoft supports the Harmonix controllers out of the box (people who think I'm fake probably already had this). You can get the 32-bit version here and the 64-bit version here.

Be sure to check out Andrew Rudson's Drum Machine

Answers to common questions:

Does this work for PS2 or PS3 controllers?

No. This driver is for Xbox 360 compliant controllers. Seeing as I don't have either of those, I don't know their level of support.

Do the Xbox 360 work on the PS3/PS2 version (or vica versa)

More than likely not, but once again I don't have anything to test it out with.

You're not a hacker. I plugged mine in and it just worked.

Not really a question, but:

A) I had old drivers when I did this (Nov '07). The old drivers didn't support anything outside of Microsoft Xbox 360 controllers. The newer drivers have been rewritten to support third party contrllers.

B) Hacker is (or was) a synonym for programmer, so once again, you're wrong.

I have a problem with my computer. Can you fix it?

Being a full-time college student I don't have time to attend to every little problem. There's an internet full of willing people who are much smarter than I and have far more time.

No time? But you made this! You obviously have no life!

I made this in half an hour (video included). And it was over Thanksgiving break at that. You, my fine sir, troll the internet telling people they have no life when it is in fact you that have no life. Seriously, go and get yourself a girlfriend. Once again, you lose.

Okay, enough poking fun at people. I hope this brings all the confusion and chaos to a close.

Must post. Must get awful picture off the front page!

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before that I'm eagerly awaiting Eternal Sonata, the RPG making its way towards Xbox 360 sometime in September. Actually, it was a (if not the) primary reason I bought the console in the first place. Halo is good and all, but my heart lies with RPGs and other story type games (i.e. Pheonix Wright).

So, anyways, I'd heard from a fairly reliable source that the latest Xbox magazine had a demo disc with ES on it. Almost immediately I went out and purchased a copy (I wasn't the only one). But, with these thing rarely is the pot of gold so easily obtained. Nay, the bastard disc wouldn't load. Well, it would but it would only give me small nuggets of which I hungered for only to choke mere mintes (or less) into said meal. I was pissed.

Lucky for me I went back an reread the news post for the comic I referenced up above and it held a small morsel of hope. An obscure reference to something about boiling discs to resurrect them from DVD hell. I didn't really expect much but I needed to play this demo (and I didn't really want to be gypped out of $8.99). So I nuked some water in the microwave and slipped the disc in. Much to my surprise all problems were erased and I was one with the game... until the demo ended.

As for the game itself it is pure joy encapsulated inside a stream of binary ones and zeros. The artwork is fantastic, the gameplay is solid. I'm hoping that the same will be said for the story as there isn't much sampling of that but from what I've seem I think all will be well. It'll definitely be worth my sixty clams and will get me through the couple of weeks between when I move in and school starts.

Well, I think that was sufficient enough to get the evil off the front page. At least the initial load, that is. I would be careful about how far and how fast you scroll down the page.

Today is my second day of being unemployed. It's a somewhat bittersweet feeling. It's awesome not to have to have the nightmares of work hanging over my head, but on the flipside I won't be able to hang around with all the pals I made over the last year and a half. Not to mention the seemingly endless supply of money is non-existant now. Oh well.

What really sucks, though, is the fact that I've been sick the last several days. Actually it's more allergies than anything else. I blame the rotting vegitation due to receeding flood waters.

I recently finished Crackdown. It's an awesome game but the ending really, really sucks. It sucked so bad I haven't played it since. Originally I bought Crackdown for the Halo 3 beta (which I never really played much) but the main game is still pretty sweet. I probably will start working on Final Fantasy XII again or maybe Halo 2. Come to think of it I haven't even finished Halo 1. Oh, Xbox 360 extended warranty ftw! I'm no longer paranoid about using it.

Well, I have an important nap I have to take, so later!

I'm sure you've noticed the archives bar over there so I will swiftly move on to a cooler topic.

As the title suggests I own an Xbox 360. Now I can proudly call myself a Wii60 person. I've been wanting one for a while mainyl for the Halo series but also it's extensive online cataloge of awesomeness. For instance I can download HD quality Headlines clips... FREE! It freakin' owns. The only thing that's going to come back to haunt me some day is the small hard drive. I could've bought an Elite but I got a Premium instead. I stupid. I own Crackdown and Halo 2. I was originally just going to rent Crackdown (for the H3 beta of course) but I tried the demo and was like "Hey, this isn't a bad game" so I bought it. Of course, I haven't necessarily been playing these games. No, I've been playing Phoenic Wright 1. It still kicks ass. In fact I'd go so far as to say that case number four was my favorite yet.

Well, I could go on about such things for a long time, but I think I shall get soome sleep.

Because I work at Wal-Mart now I get to witness all sorts of interesting things: people putting peanuts (yes, the food) on layaway, burly guys throwing canning jars all over the place, etc. etc. But yesterday was probably the most interesting, if not incredibly stupid, thing I've seen yet: people waiting hours and hours to get their hands on a freakin' game system. Not only that but they would pull pillows and blankets off the shelves to lay on... and then we gave them free soda and cookies! But anyways, I was also able to see the supply before just about anybody else in the store (working so near the security cage ihas it's nice points ;-)).

Ah, but anyways. I did get my paycheck on Thursday. Because it only counted towards a week and a half it was $190 as opposed to the post-$200 figures I was figuring. But now I'm going to be working close to 35-39 hours a week so that number should be close to doubling by next payday.

I also got my extra 10% Christmas discount with that paycheck. Stinky thing is it had to be used before December 4th. So I went ahead and stuffed my laptop on layaway. It has to be out by the 15th (though I may be able to get that changed) but I think that since I'm working the longer hours I will be able to pay the thing off and maybe even have a little extra left.

Well, I guess I should wrap this up. I hope everybody out there has a good Thanksgiving! :-D