Post by funkdiggity on Sept 6, 2009 19:27:16 GMT -5
All in all a good week. Let's jump right in:
First up is Bat Country. Avenged Sevenfold is one of those bands who I find ridiculous on all sorts of different levels, and yet their charts always end up becoming favorites of mine. Bat Country continues that trend. The bass didn't do a whole lot for me on this one. There was nothing wrong with it, there just wasn't anything great about it. Guitar though, was awesome. Tack wrote this off as just a bunch of alt strumming, which is valid, but it ignores just how much there is to do on this song beyond that. There's quite a bit of variety in this chart, along with a really fun solo. Its not the toughest solo I've ever played, but it does get kind of nasty for a few seconds. The drums are great too. Again, lots of different types of patterns to play here. The song also includes a disco beat section that's all kinds of annoying. It isn't hard at all, its just every so often you have to do a two handed hit while keeping the rhythm on the red pads constant. Its tougher than you might think. Overall another great track from Avenged Sevenfold.
The Jam tracks struck me as being a little tricky, though still lots of fun overall. The guitar charts on both feature a lot of switching between various triple power chords, down to doubles, and sometimes you're supposed to be alt strumming in the midst of all that. Bass isn't anywhere near as bad, and is actually pretty fun on Town Called Malice. Going Underground is one of those drum charts that makes your right arm want to fall off, but Town Called Malice more than makes up for it with an extremely enjoyable beat.
Up next is Guerrilla Radio. I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, the drum chart is FANTASTIC. Its fast, its complicated, but not too complicated, and there's enough change up to keep it from getting boring, even if it is repetitive. Bass is OK, though there's a lot of stop/start charting here, and I always find that kind of thing dull to play. Guitar is lacking, to put it bluntly. You're basically playing two riffs in this song, and even the solo is just a variation on the primary riff. There's just not a lot to do here. I think this is the kind of song that shows off the shortcomings in guitar controllers. The guitar part in this song is awesome. But it isn't awesome because of the riff itself, in fact the riff is about as generic as you can get. The guitar part is awesome because of all the effects Tom Morello uses when he plays guitar. Music games don't really have an effective way to chart that sort of thing though, so you're stuck just pounding out the notes themselves, and as I said before, there's not enough going on there to make this an interesting experience on guitar. Which is all my long winded way of saying, the drum chart rocks, the guitar chart sucks. The song kicks ass though.
Supersonic is a bizarre song choice to me. Why was this one picked for the game? Is Supersonic one of Oasis's bigger songs in the UK? It certainly isn't here. The guitar chart is fantastic, with a really outstanding solo. The bass and drums are nothing special though, which really surprises me since Oasis has made for some of my favorite charts on all instruments in the past. An obscure song that only plays well on one instrument. Why was this chosen over so many better Oasis songs? Why can't I have F**king In The Bushes on Rock Band? For that matter why I can't I have some genuine Britpop in this game? WTF HMX?!?!?!?
Finally we have the Talking Heads pack. Tack compared these songs to the Weezer material. Which is makes sense with drums and bass for the most part (though the last couple of minutes of bass on Girlfriend Is Better are epic, and Once In A Lifetime has a pretty great drum chart), but kind of makes me wonder if he played the guitar at all
There's some wakachiwaka stuff on Girlfriend Is Better that I think casual guitar players are going to be tripped up by. The same goes for the rhythm guitar sections of Once In A Lifetime. And I can't think of any Weezer guitar solo that plays like the solos in Girlfriend or Cross Eyed. These tracks aren't perfect (personally I think Cross Eyed could have been improved infinitely if you'd gotten to play the rhythm guitar as well as the lead, and I would have liked another song on the pack featuring an Adrian Belew guitar solo), and Talking Heads probably isn't for everybody, but for fans of the band they will be extremely fun.
Best song of the week is tough to call for me. Bat Country is pretty outstanding, but the difficulty might discourage casual players. Town Called Malice is a great song, and the charts are all above average, but I wouldn't call them amazing or anything. Girlfriend Is Better was probably my favorite of the Talking Heads tracks, with a fun guitar chart, a crazy sounding solo, a bass chart that REALLY picks up near the end, and a drum chart that's pretty much a textbook example of making an extremely minimal beat that's actually quite fun to play. I'd probably say this one is the best of the bunch, now that I really think about it.
First up is Bat Country. Avenged Sevenfold is one of those bands who I find ridiculous on all sorts of different levels, and yet their charts always end up becoming favorites of mine. Bat Country continues that trend. The bass didn't do a whole lot for me on this one. There was nothing wrong with it, there just wasn't anything great about it. Guitar though, was awesome. Tack wrote this off as just a bunch of alt strumming, which is valid, but it ignores just how much there is to do on this song beyond that. There's quite a bit of variety in this chart, along with a really fun solo. Its not the toughest solo I've ever played, but it does get kind of nasty for a few seconds. The drums are great too. Again, lots of different types of patterns to play here. The song also includes a disco beat section that's all kinds of annoying. It isn't hard at all, its just every so often you have to do a two handed hit while keeping the rhythm on the red pads constant. Its tougher than you might think. Overall another great track from Avenged Sevenfold.
The Jam tracks struck me as being a little tricky, though still lots of fun overall. The guitar charts on both feature a lot of switching between various triple power chords, down to doubles, and sometimes you're supposed to be alt strumming in the midst of all that. Bass isn't anywhere near as bad, and is actually pretty fun on Town Called Malice. Going Underground is one of those drum charts that makes your right arm want to fall off, but Town Called Malice more than makes up for it with an extremely enjoyable beat.
Up next is Guerrilla Radio. I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, the drum chart is FANTASTIC. Its fast, its complicated, but not too complicated, and there's enough change up to keep it from getting boring, even if it is repetitive. Bass is OK, though there's a lot of stop/start charting here, and I always find that kind of thing dull to play. Guitar is lacking, to put it bluntly. You're basically playing two riffs in this song, and even the solo is just a variation on the primary riff. There's just not a lot to do here. I think this is the kind of song that shows off the shortcomings in guitar controllers. The guitar part in this song is awesome. But it isn't awesome because of the riff itself, in fact the riff is about as generic as you can get. The guitar part is awesome because of all the effects Tom Morello uses when he plays guitar. Music games don't really have an effective way to chart that sort of thing though, so you're stuck just pounding out the notes themselves, and as I said before, there's not enough going on there to make this an interesting experience on guitar. Which is all my long winded way of saying, the drum chart rocks, the guitar chart sucks. The song kicks ass though.
Supersonic is a bizarre song choice to me. Why was this one picked for the game? Is Supersonic one of Oasis's bigger songs in the UK? It certainly isn't here. The guitar chart is fantastic, with a really outstanding solo. The bass and drums are nothing special though, which really surprises me since Oasis has made for some of my favorite charts on all instruments in the past. An obscure song that only plays well on one instrument. Why was this chosen over so many better Oasis songs? Why can't I have F**king In The Bushes on Rock Band? For that matter why I can't I have some genuine Britpop in this game? WTF HMX?!?!?!?
Finally we have the Talking Heads pack. Tack compared these songs to the Weezer material. Which is makes sense with drums and bass for the most part (though the last couple of minutes of bass on Girlfriend Is Better are epic, and Once In A Lifetime has a pretty great drum chart), but kind of makes me wonder if he played the guitar at all
There's some wakachiwaka stuff on Girlfriend Is Better that I think casual guitar players are going to be tripped up by. The same goes for the rhythm guitar sections of Once In A Lifetime. And I can't think of any Weezer guitar solo that plays like the solos in Girlfriend or Cross Eyed. These tracks aren't perfect (personally I think Cross Eyed could have been improved infinitely if you'd gotten to play the rhythm guitar as well as the lead, and I would have liked another song on the pack featuring an Adrian Belew guitar solo), and Talking Heads probably isn't for everybody, but for fans of the band they will be extremely fun. Best song of the week is tough to call for me. Bat Country is pretty outstanding, but the difficulty might discourage casual players. Town Called Malice is a great song, and the charts are all above average, but I wouldn't call them amazing or anything. Girlfriend Is Better was probably my favorite of the Talking Heads tracks, with a fun guitar chart, a crazy sounding solo, a bass chart that REALLY picks up near the end, and a drum chart that's pretty much a textbook example of making an extremely minimal beat that's actually quite fun to play. I'd probably say this one is the best of the bunch, now that I really think about it.