My Gadget, Game & Gizmo Obsession

Did you get your 3-day pass for PAX East before they sold out this week?  If not, there are still a few single day badges left.  Are you wondering who is going to PAX East?  Go here for a partial list.  Are you wondering what events are going to be at PAX East?  Go here for the up-to-the minute unofficial schedule.

Are you interested in what games are expected to be demoed (and possibly playable) at PAX East?  Now we have a possible list that has been posted on the PAX East forums.  Sure, it’s rumormill at this point, but I’d put it in the very probable category.

The games are listed in order of current release date. Soonest at the top. SOURCE

• 2K Games:
  • Mafia II
  • Spec Ops: The Line
• EA
  • APB
  • Battlefield: Bad Company 2
  • Dante’s Inferno: Trials of St Lucia
  • Skate 3
  • Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11
  • Medal of Honor
  • Crysis 2
  • Dead Space 2
• Harmonix

  • Green Day: Rock Band

• Microsoft
  • Super Street Fighter IV
  • Lost Planet 2
  • Alan Wake
  • Dead Rising 2
  • Fable III
  • Halo Reach
  • Micorsoft Game Room
  • Natal
• Nintendo
  • WarioWare D.I.Y.
  • Monster Hunter Tri
  • Super Meat Boy
  • Sin and Punishment 2
  • Metroid: Other M
  • Epic Mickey
• NVIDIA
  • Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
  • Dark Void
  • Resident Evil 5
  • Alan Wake
  • Crysis 2
• Rockstar Games
  • GTA IV: The Lost and Damned (PS3)
  • GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony (PS3)
  • Red Dead Redemption
  • Max Payne 3
  • Agent
• Sega
  • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Rise From the Ashes
  • Mega Man 10
  • Yakuza 3
  • Iron Man 2
  • Valkyria Chronicles 2
  • After Burner Climax
  • Alpha Protocol
  • Resonance of Fate
• The Behemoth
  • BattleBlock Theater
• Turbine
  • Turbine Next-Gen MMO Project
• Twisted Pixel Games
  • Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley
• Ubisoft
  • Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon 4
  • Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction
  • Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
  • Tom Clancy’s HAWX
• Wizards of the Coast
  • NEW! Dungeons and Dragons on Microsoft Surface!!

Green Day Rock Band

Straight from a post at vg247.com, an interview with Demiurge employee, Adam Rosenfield, spills the beans that Green Day Rock Band has been outsourced from Harmonix (a la Lego Rock Band), and that likely means Harmonix is devoting all its resources to Rock Band 3.

Rosenfield quote from vg247:

“Not included in the announcement was the fact that Demiurge Studios was working on Green Day: Rock Band. And I gotta say, it’s pretty freakin’ awesome working on it. I’d love to tell you more, but NDAs, yada yada yada, so I can’t say much else.”

Demiurge is known to have been involved in developing some of the Rock Band Track Packs, so they aren’t exactly new comers to the Rock Band universe.

Wow, we are already a week into 2010 and I have yet to post My Top Obsessions of 2009. Shame on me, and sorry for the delay. You may remember what my top 7 obsessions from 2008 were.

As we wind up 2010, let me recap on the obsessions that have kept me coming back to the blog. In looking over the past 12 months, I’ll highlight the top ten obsessions that have swallowed up all my free time this past year. I’ll also take a look at what obsessions might be cropping up for 2010.

Here are the obsessions in order of importance to me.

Picture the ball dropping, and countdown on…
10. Rock Band Network.
You may be wondering, why is this at #10 and not higher on the list.  For me, I looked at RBN as a way to get my old bands music (and possible new bands music) into Rock Band. It’s kind of a dream of mine. Then when I got into the RBN beta, I realized (1) I don’t have the free time to do this, (2) I don’t want to free up time to do this. So, RBN, as exciting as it seems to me…has been a pipe dream to me, and my exploration of the tools has been short lived. In 2010, I do expect to take advantage of the grabbing songs from the RBN store, and possibly getting back in the development ring…but, neither is happening yet.

9. New Site Name.
This isn’t exactly a highlight, but it is something that took up part of early 2009.I moved my web site to a new host, and changed the URL. It once was at http://blog.javadevelop.com, which was just a spinoff blog of another site. As this site was growing in popularity, I decided to rename it to http://www.MyGGGo.com, short for My Gadget, Game & Gizmo Obsession. It looks to have been a poor decision, since the site statistics showed my daily visitors went form about 300 to about 30. Ouch, that hurt!  Well, you live and you learn.  I’ve decided to stick with the new name and rebuild. Some of you have stuck around, and I greatly appreciate it. I hope to get the site (now going on its 4th year) back up in readership and commenters throughout 2010.

8. BlackBerry Bold.
It’s funny to see that last year, the BlackBerry Storm made it to my #3 spot, and truly should continue into 2009. Though, in the wee months of 2009 (Fabruary to be exact) the Storm was replaced by the BlackBerry Bold 9000. It wasn’t replaced because I didn’t like it. It was due to the fact that my company was willing to supply me with a BlackBerry and the Storm wasn’t on the “accepted devices” list. With that, I jumped from the Verizon ship onto AT&T and picked up the Bold. It’s really a great phone, though I wish it had a larger touchscreen. It’s got high-resolution, good call quality, and decent email (funny that BlackBerry does not have the best email client of all). It’s even a good media device, which has allowed me to continue my life of mobile convergence (cell phone, calendar, email, music player, GPS, and web all-in-one). The Bold remains my current device, and I am eyeing an upgrade to the Bold 9700 in the coming months. Although, this blog was founded on gadget obsessions,  formerly known as “My Treo Obsession”, I didn’t spend as much time on BlackBerry posts throughout the year.  An interesting statistic, my readership has suffered for that too.  Looks like I need to get back to my gadget roots here.

7. New Music Games
Why do I keep this so general? Well, there were a few music games I picked up this year, and each had something I loved. First, I have to say, I’m disappointed that no Rock Band 3 came out in 2009, but I’m sure it will be stellar when it does. Guitar Hero 5: This is possibly the best party music game of the year. With drop in/drop out play, it’s great for parties. Also, the ability to have 4 players on any instrument is great. Especially at my house right now, where if one person sings, everyone wants to sing; or if one person plays guitar, everyone wants to play guitar. Though the soundtrack didn’t grab me, and all my DLC is on Rock Band, so the game didn’t get much rotation. The Beatles Rock Band: This showed us what Rock Band 3 might be like, with 3 part harmonies. This game is beautiful, we all know enough about it. Guitar Hero Van Halen: This is my favorite music game to play this year. You say. “WHAT?!?!” I love classic Van Halen. Activision, screwed the pooch in it’s implementation of the story and the band, but the songs and charting are fantastic. What’s missing? The same thing as all GH games, DLC. Finally, Lego Rock Band: It’s so much fun to watch the cut scenes, and play Super Easy mode with the little kids. Plus, the import/export of your existing Rock Band library makes this a fun game.  Though, I would have rather seen Rock Band 3 over all of these, it was a decent year of flooded music games.

6. Slacker Radio.
The streaming music service available via web browser, stand alone desktop client, iPhone, BlackBerry, and some select Sony TV’s, has been a staple of mine since I learned of the service in late 2007. With the Slacker Radio application for BlackBerry release on February 2009, it truly became my de facto music source for the entire year.  I use it via my web browser at work. I use it in the car via my BlackBerry plugged into my stereo AUX jack, I use it at home via Berry or computer, and when I travel. I’ve made several custom stations including a Rock Band station that I update regularly with all the songs available for the game. 2010 definitely looks to be a year where Slacker continues to be part of my daily obsessions.

5. Rock Band DLC.
Rock Band 2 came in at #2 on my 2008 list, and I had anticipated that Rock Band 3 would have come out in 2009.  Well it didn’t but guess what did? Over 370 songs available for download into Rock Band. I didn’t play as much as I would have wanted (due to moving and life), but the abundance of weekly DLC from Harmonix has kept this game (Rock Band 2), although now getting a little long in the tooth, from passing away.

4. Drumming Stuff.
This is a continuation from 2008, where drumming made my top list.  This year I successfully built (though not yet completed) a custom electronic drum kit. It’s custom because, I purchased it piece mail via auctions on eBay. A stand here, a pad there, etc. I’ve also used an old “brain” or module (the Yamaha TMX) to connect the kit via MIDI to the Guitar Hero World Tour drum kit.  Now, all my video game drumming takes place on a professional electronic drum kit, instead of the cheap’ish plastic kits that are available for the game.  Due to moving for much of the year, I haven’t used the kit since May, but am in the processes of setting it back up in the new place.  In 2010, I plan to buy some more components to round out the complete pro kit, and write some posts (with photos) on how to build the DIY pro kit.

3. New Music.
Last year, GNR with the release of Chinese Democracy made my top list.  This year, I could put in a single album in the list, though I will span this to cover the few albums that got me a bit obsessed this year. At the top, is Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdown. Sure, it got trashed by the GD purists, but I love it. It’s a great listen, easily digestible, well told story, and similar to their American Idiot album. Next is Dream Theater’s Black Clouds & Silver Linings album. I was hooked pre-release due to my resurgence of interest in the band, thanks to Panic Attack and Constant Motion in Rock Band. The new album is 6 songs, but more than 70 minutes. The songs are extremely long, you do the math.  I mostly appreciate the fact that the album was released with a 3-disc set, containing instrumentals and a bonus disc of covers. We also got 311’s Uplifter this year. It was more of a downer than an uplifting experience, as it was just bland.  But, I did obsess over it, so it makes the list.  Finally, Dave Matthews Band release of The GrooGrux King.  Good old DMB. Nothing exciting, just a good listen. The album came out shortly after the death of saxophonist LeRoi Moore.

2. Prototype.
This game (for PS3 and Xbox 360) got trashed by just about everyone. Worse, it’s near clone, inFamous (for PS3) made it into many pro game journalists top 10 of the year. For me, Prototype was the most played game (excluding rhythm games) for me in 2009. I bought it in July when Amazon had a one-day sale, for $40. It was during a time where I was “without home” and no place to setup my Rock Band lair, so needed something else to pass the gaming time. This game is a sandbox (New York City), much like GTA IV, where you are basically evil and trash anything and everything in your way.  There’s a ridiculous amount of multi button combos, which does take some getting used to. But for me, this 3rd person game has taken more than 40 hours of my year, and I still haven’t finished it or reached 50% of the achievements. It’s not without its issues. (1) There is no Xbox Live component. Which is ok for me, but now that I have played much of the story and some of my friends have picked up the game, we’d really like to play online together. (2) You can’t leave NYC. If you try to cross a bridge or swim away from the island, God sends in an immediate missile strike and you are killed. Towards the end of the game, there is a hint that you get get to a ship, but I haven’t made it yet. (2) There is no DLC. This is a real drag, since the game could really leverage a new downloadable map, possibly some new combos, or something. I would likely pick up DLC if it were ever released. I stand by my words that this is a fun game to play. Find it in the bargain bins and enjoy.

1. You, the readers, and authors.
Thanks for those readers who have stuck around during some transitions of 2009.  Thanks to some of my part-time (and near full-time) authors that write posts.  It’s been another fun year of obsessions, and more to come in 2010. I hope to grow the site in different ways this year. Not yet sure how, since It’s a kinda “fly by the seat of my pants” blog.  I’m happy to see some people taking advantage of the Store offerings we add to various posts (sponsored by Amazon and Google), and just glad to see that people enjoy reading and discussing the same things that I obsess about. Thank you!

With that, we’ve come to the end…

Happy New Year!

Please share your top obsessions in comments below.

Green Day Rock Band

Rumors just started flowing on Twitter and the Rock Band forums about a commercial for the Video Game Awards (VGAs) which air live on the East coast (U.S.) tonight at 8:00. In the commercial, people are saying they saw a new Rock Band game with Green Day avatars in it.  Looking as if Green Day: Rock Band will be announced tonight.

If you have any interest in following this rumor, turn your cable (or satellite) TV to Spike tonight at 8:00 (check your local listings for your local time, as it is delayed 3 hours on the West coast).  Let’s follow this rumor together.

UPDATE:  This just in, here’s a YouTube link to the commercial.  Yup, it’s Green Day, and it’s Rock Band. YouTube Green Day Link Here.

UPDATE2: It’s official, Green Day: Rock Band will be coming to Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii sometime in 2010. All songs will export to Rock Band 2, and all current Green Day DLC will be playable in GD:RB.

Thanks to @S1cKH4nds on Twitter for giving me the heads up.

Late last week, Harmonix also let slip that on 12/15 they will be releasing the second Green Day pack for Rock Band.  The songs included are:

• Green Day - “Christian’s Inferno”
• Green Day – “Last of the American Girls”
• Green Day – “¡Viva La Gloria!”

Some of you will recognize that these tracks are all from their last album, “21st Century Breakdown” which was rated very highly by Shawn.

I really enjoyed the last three songs from Green Day 01, but I’m still wondering whatever happened to the rumors about having their own title?  Remember this little tidbit from an article on 1Up:

When a fan asked the band if they’d considered releasing tracks for Rock Band during yesterday’s Breakfast with Green Day on KROQ, vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong offered a surprisingly candid, “Yeah. We’re doing a whole Green Day Rock Band, uh,” before being cut off by the approving howls of the surrounding crowd.

There is more evidence – if we look back even further to May 17 when “RB Unplugged” was leaked, we have the following quote from Destructoid:

Now, the same people who simply couldn’t help themselves from getting all grabby-grabby on the unauthorized software have dug deep into the game’s files, finding a slew hints at Green Day songs…   …the files appear to make references to the following Green Day tracks: “Welcome to Paradise,” “She’s a Rebel,” “Nice Guys Finish Last,” “Longview,” “Minority,” “Letterbomb,” “American Idiot,” “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” “Jaded,” “Whatsername,” “Walking Contradiction,” “She,” “St. Jimmy,” “Holiday,” “Hitchin’ a Ride,” and “Brain Stew.”

It’s a shame that they have not made a formal announcement, because the band easily has enough material to warrant a release similar to the AC/DC Live disc from last year.  Would the band be satisfied with a game addon like that one?  Hard to say, especially after witnessing the glory that is The Beatles: Rock Band (or the misery that is Guitar Hero: Van Halen).  I’m certain we haven’t seen the last of this group in Rock Band.

One final question.. if the game developers and testers have produced those Green Day songs into playable tracks, even if only for their own amusement, how jealous are you right now?

I’ll keep it simple, I have both their new albums (plus the new Dream Theater, but that’s in a non-mainstream league of its own). This is a sorta mashup review, where I’m going to blast on each album, and choose the victor (in my own opinion) at the end.  If you disagree, comment away below.

Green Day is everything you’d expect from a 2009 Green Day album. Mainstream punk. 21st Century is another end-to-end story, much like American Idiot was. If you listen from beginning to end, it’s telling a story about Christian & Gloria, living in today’s society (or something like that).

Musically, within 10 seconds of any song, you are likely to predict how the entire song will flow, and 9 outta 10 times, you are right.  Oddly, some of the songs are heavily borrowing riffs from earlier Green Day and other artists.  Listen close and you will hear a striking resemblance to Ob-la-di in a song. Overall, the story keeps you wanting to listen to the whole album. I could actually picture this album as the soundtrack to a movie or musical.

My favorite individual tracks are Murder City and Peacemaker.  Murder City most closely resembles the title track to American Idiot (which is a karaoke favorite of mine). Peacemaker has a very different sound, with some fast-paced acoustic guitar and a latin flavored bridge, which is just awesome.  Peacemaker, feels like it belongs in a Tarantino flick.

Now, let’s move on to 311’s Uplifter. Full disclosure, I have been a heavy 311 fan since the Blue album. I saw them live in the late 90’s something like 8 times (Green Day I only saw live once on the Insomniac tour).  Back in the day, I played in a rock-rap band that liked to cover lot’s of 311 songs.  Now that I think about it, I also covered a Green Day song or two.

Back to 311. I will admit that their first four albums (Music, Grassroots, Blue Album, Transistor) are all favorites of mine. If you don’t have them all, think of reggae with hip-hip, a tinge of metal and funk all mixed together.  Better yet, just buy them all and tell me what you think.  Though, after Transistor, I feel 311 has been stuck in a rut. Soundsystem in 1999, From Chaos in 2001, Don’t Tread On Me in 2005,  and now Uplifter just don’t take 311 to any new levels.  Let me take exception, Soundsystem is like an extension of Transistor. It’s very good, and more of the same. The following two albums have a couple decent tracks, but it sounds more like rinse/repeat.

Today, I picked up the Uplifter album and am giving it the first listen as I type. It is like I suspected, but not exactly. It’s not necessarily trying to sound like Transistor. Though, it’s gone more contemporary (soft-rock) with less edge than previous albums. There’s just not enough hip-hop or metal in it for me, which is what I fell in love with 311 to begin with, back in 1995.  Instead of them reinventing themselves over the years, they have just (I hate to say this) watered down their amazing sound with every new album. This album (at first listen) seems like 50% water to 50% 311, just too watered down for me.  I can see it getting rotation on light-rock (or adult contemporary) stations. You know, the stations that ate up “All Mixed Up” and “Amber”.  Both songs are amazing, but I can take one or two of those per album. I want my ass kicked, like “Do You Right”, “Homebrew”, and “Hive” (it’s not ‘95, we still go for the hive).

So, to tally the scores from the judges (i.e. me), Green Day is the unanimous winner, by a technical knockout.  I can’t get enough of 21st Century Breakdown, but don’t see Uplifter getting much rotation in my BlackBerry Bold media player.

Just 20 minutes ago, I was listening to the new Green Day album, 21st Century Breakdown.  It’s typical Green Day and I like it a lot.  Some of the songs I can’t get enough of: Murder City and Peacemaker are my favorites. Remember my earlier post about the Green Day and Rock Band rumor?

Word just came across the wire that we are getting a 3-pack of songs from that album on Rock Band DLC.  It’s coming July 7.  It came in the form of a Harmonix/MTV press release.  Very interesting, since it’s not often that DLC comes in the form of a press release.

“First Green Day DLC Three Pack To Include 21 Guns, Know Your Enemy, East Jesus Nowhere From 21st Century Breakdown on July 7th”

Entire press release here.

Now, I know GD die-hards will be excited about this pack, but casual fans are likely pissed right now learning that there is no Dookie in this pack.  Calm down everyone, no need to hate. Look again at the quote above and the full press release, “First Green Day DLC Three Pack“, which means there is more to come.

Here’s another important part of the press release, “The first selection of Green Day songs to arrive on Rock Band as downloadable content will be a three-pack of songs from their latest release, 21st Century Breakdown on July 7th including: 21 Guns, Know Your Enemy, East Jesus Nowhere. Additional Green Day songs and projects will be announced at a later date.”

So, I’m excited about July 7, and even more excited about what’s coming later.

What about you?

There is now audio on the web, thanks to www.kroq.com. Green Day was in studio and asked about Rock Band. (Listen to part 5, around the 6:45 mark). You’ll hear “Soon…this year soon.”

To make it more interesting, moderators on the Rock Band forums, have shut down a post about this rumor. Hmm, it’s starting to look a bit more legit.

I’m confident that with the previous rumor news and this interview, we will definitely see Green Day on Rock Band before the end of the year. Will it be a full blown Green Day game? Will it be a track pack? Will it be DLC? Dunno. With the rumors of more than a dozen Green Day songs, and Guitar Hero’s success (yes, I said Guitar Hero) selling at retail, I will make a prediction right here and now.

Prediction:
There will be a Green Day track pack sold at retail outlets (possibly Wal-Mart exclusive) of approximately 18 Green Day songs from across their catalog. It will cost $39.99, and be available for all current generation systems (including PS2). It will be playable standalone, with Xbox Live achievements, and run on the Rock Band 2 engine. There will not be Green Day characters in the game, as it will use the standard Rock Band characters. All songs will be importable into Rock Band 1 and 2. Final piece of the prediction, I will be pre-ordering it from whatever retailer gets the exclusive on it.