Newspaper Page Text
OUT & ABOUT
The Red & Black | Thursday, November 16, 2006 | 3B
Guitar Hero II offers more songs, rock dreams
COURTESY WWW.GRY-ONLINE.PL
A See that glowing meter in the bottom righthand corner?
Players can tilt their guitar vertically when that baby lights
up for bonus points. Think NBA Jam and “He’s on fire!”
By JACE BARTET
For The Red & Black
Red Octane’s “Guitar
Hero II”, the highly anticipat
ed follow-up to last year’s
smash-rock god emulator
“Guitar Hero”, maintains the
core elements of simplistic
fun that made its predeces
sor successful, while adding
key enhancements that allow
for a more engaging and ful
filling experience.
If you’ve been living under
the wrong kind of rock for
the last year (the kind that
does not make a sweet, soul
ful, life-affirming sound),
here’s the skinny on “Guitar
Hero II,” out now for PS2: a
series of color-coded circles
representing the guitar notes
of the popular rock song
scroll down the screen, and
the player’s task is to key in
the corresponding button
sequence on the “Guitar
Hero” controller.
Looking very much like a
toy guitar you might poke
while wasting time at Wal-
Mart, the Guitar Hero con
troller is best played stand
ing up, strapped on like a
real guitar. A toggle switch
on the body simulates the
strings, while five buttons on
the fretboard approximate all
of the chords and blazing
solo action possible.
Naturally, the primary dif
ference between “Guitar
Hero” and “Guitar Hero II” is
the song selection.
Expanding on the number of
songs that you, the bedroom
Guitar Hero of legend, can
master is the main reason for
a second version, and in that
sense ’’Guitar Hero II” is less
a sequel than an expansion,
but a welcome and necessary
one at that.
The song selection is more
varied and interesting this
time around, and if you can’t
find a song in ’’Guitar Hero
II” that you genuinely appre
ciate and enjoy, then you
don’t like rock ‘n’ roll.
There’s the undeniable
proto-punk power of The
Stooges’ “Search and
Destroy,” Megadeth’s heavy
metal classic “Hangar 18,”
the quintessential ’90s pop-
rock of Foo Fighter’s
“Monkey Wrench,” Dick
Dale’s legendary shredding
surf-rocker “Misirlou” (made
famous in “Pulp Fiction”)
and, if you’re really a glutton
for punishment, the ultimate
10-minute rock cliche that is
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird,”
along with 59 other wank-
fests ranging from
Buckethead and Primus to
the Reverend Horton Heat
and The Stray Cats.
However, all is not perfect
within the new set list.
’’Guitar Hero” games are
essentially guitaraoke, and as
with karaoke CDs, the pub
lishers have license to use
the lyrics and notes from a
song but not its original
artist-recorded version (with
the exception of the 24 bonus
songs that must be unlocked,
submitted with full rights by
mostly independent artists).
In the first ’’Guitar Hero,”
this was not really a problem.
The approximations that the
Guitar Hero session musi
cians came up with were gen
erally so faithful to the origi
nal that you never thought
twice about them.
Unfortunately, ’’Guitar
Hero II” boasts some down
right laughable attempts at
recreating the vocals of dis
tinctive artists such as Kurt
Cobain, Zach de la Rocha,
Axl Rose and Ozzy
Osbourne. This seems like a
minor point, but it would
take me weeks of exposure to
keep from cringing at “Kurt
Cobain” and his mangling of
a single word, “cancer,” the
utterance of which jolted me
out of the high-kicking haze
of rock god-dom that I was
otherwise enveloped in by
’’Guitar Hero II.”
Another important addi
tion to the Guitar Hero
model is the introduction of
a practice mode, which corre
sponds nicely with ’’Guitar
Hero IP's significantly
increased difficulty. On the
expert level, songs such as
“Misirlou” and
“Institutionalized” make the
feared “Cowboys From Hell”
and “Bark at the Moon” from
the first ’’Guitar Hero” look
like Ramones songs, but
luckily you now have the abil
ity to enter practice mode
and play significantly slower
versions of any tune that is
giving you trouble.
I found this to be especial
ly interesting because playing
a difficult song slowly and
gradually building up to its
actual speed is the primary
way that most guitar players
go about learning a tricky
part on a real guitar.
Likewise, the easy level is
so tame that it verges on bor
ing, but serves as a gentle
introduction for people that
will need some time getting
used to the often strange
demands of ’’Guitar Hero II”s
interface, which actually
tends to be more oriented
toward visual perception
than aural.
Local real-guitar shred-
master Luke Fields of We
Versus the Shark commented
on this after a perplexing
Guitar Hero II encounter
with The Police’s “Message
in a Bottle.”
“This really doesn’t make
any sense,” he said. “I think
it’s a huge detriment if you
know how to play guitar, or
just music.”
Attempting to follow the
actual rhythm and note
sequence of a song in ’’Guitar
Hero II,” particularly if you
genuinely know how to play
the song, is more likely to
cause errors in the game
than it is to help.
This speaks to the fact
that, if you really wanted to,
you could master ’’Guitar
Hero” with the volume off
entirely. While that wouldn’t
be much fun, it underscores
the fact that the whole
’’Guitar Hero” thing is more a
caricature of what it means
for something to “rock” than
any sort of attempt at an
accurate simulation.
All of the imagery used
within the game — the big
hair, the flames, the devil
horns, the anarchy symbols
— has about as much
authenticity to rock as a
Tofurkey does to
Thanksgiving. However, since
it’s a party-oriented video
game, this is probably a good
thing. It should be impossi
ble to take seriously. The
game’s watered-down inter
pretation of what exactly
“rocks” becomes so
overblown (in new avatars
like Lars Umlaut) that it’s
kind of brilliant.
The other major addition
found in ’’Guitar Hero II” is
the cooperative play inte
grated into the fully
revamped multiplayer mode.
In the previous incarnation,
multiplayer mode was exclu
sively competitive and
involved the trading of notes
between two players. This
was generally agreed to be
both questionable in its fair
ness and ultimately lacklus
ter.
Now one player can take
on the bass lines of a song
while the other plays the gui
tar notes in cooperation for a
unified high score, or the two
can compete in “pro-compet
itive” mode in which both
players play every note of the
song rather than trading off.
Despite my levels of
expertise with both real and
air guitars, make no mistake
about it: I suck at ’’Guitar
Hero II,” much the same as I
did with its predecessor.
However, much the same as
with its predecessor, this
hardly matters against the
fact that it is ridiculously fun.
While it’s true, ironically,
that a person could begin to
develop some proficiency at
real guitar with the amount
of discipline and time needed
to master ’’Guitar Hero II,”
the stakes are much lower in
a video game approximation
of an apocalyptic perform
ance at Stonehenge than in
an actual performance at any
venue in town.
All of my ruminations
about rock “authenticity”
bear little weight on the fact
that ’’Guitar Hero II” is the
ultimate in video game
escapism, delivering a simu
lacrum of success and
achievement in ways that few
other entertainment media
are capable of. If you enjoy
fun, music or both, I advise
you to grab a second guitar
controller, some friends,
some pizza and gather
‘round the altar of ’’Guitar
Hero II” for a worshipful
indulgence in the sacred
pleasure of simply having a
good time.
“Casino Royale”
“Fast Food Nation”
“Happy Feet”
The 21st James Bond film begins
before Bond (played by Daniel Craig,
the sixth actor to portray the agent)
has earned his license to kill. His first 007 mission involves a banker, Le
Chiffre, who serves the world’s leading terrorists. Bond must win a huge
poker game at Casino Royale against Le Chiffre to stop his terrorist acts
- all the while a British Treasury official (Eva Green) is looking over his
shoulder. Soon the two are thrown into many dangerous situations, all
determining Bond’s future. Judi Dench continues her role as M.
Starring: Daniel Craig (2005’s
“The Jacket”), Eva Green (2005’s
“Kingdom of Heaven”) and Judi
Dench (2005’s “Pride and
Prejudice”)
Starring: Greg Kinnear (2003’s
“Stuck on You”), Bruce Willis
(2005’s “Sin City”) and Catalina
Sandino Moreno (2004’s “Maria
Full of Grace”)
Based on Eric Schlosser’s best
selling novel of the same name.
“Fast Food Nation” explores the secret and often disgusting world of
fast food, American cultural imperialism and all of the different people it
affects.
Directed by Richard Linklater (“Dazedand Confused”), the film stars an
array of people including Etan Hawke, Avril Lavigne, Wilmer Valderrama
and Patricia Arquette.
Voices of: Hugh Jackman
(2006’s “X-Men 3”), Robin
Williams (2006's “RV”) and Nicole
Kidman (2003’s “Cold Mountain”)
In the world of Antarctic penguins,
there is a special mating ritual -
singing!
When penguin couple Memphis
(Jackman) ana Norma Jean (Kidman) have baby Mumble (Elijah Wood),
they discover he can’t sing at all.
But to the penguins’ surprise, he can tap dance better than anyone.
Also featuring the voice talents of Brittany Murphy, Anthony LaPaglia
and the late Steve Irwin.
- Compiled by Mandy Rodgers
CLASSIC CITY COMICS & GAMES
axter St.
Shopping Center
★Warhammer™
lectible Card Games
le Top Space
& Fri-Sun 12-6pm
Waterford Place
Condominiums
ENJOY THE CONVENIENCE
OF LIVING DOWNTOWN
NEXT TO UGA!!!
FIATURIN
• 4 BR Luxury Suites
• 2 & 3 Baths
• Townhouses & Flats
• Pool with Sundeck
• Laminated Hardwood
Flooring
• Washer/Dryer in each unit
• All Kitchen Appliances
For Leasing Information Calls
706-353-2977
NOW SHOWING APARTMENTS
FOR FALL 2007
tneAHcuj am
Carriage House Realty Inc.
Paper and pencils
are for losers.
Take our MCAT course and you’ll take ALL
of your practice exams on the computer, not
in paper-and-pencil format.
Many of our competitors can’t say that.
Classes start soon.
800-2Review • PrtncetonReview.com/MCAT
MOAT is a registered trademark of the Association of American Medical Colleges IAAMC). the Princeton Konev and The IVineeton Roiew logo aw trade-
maria of The Princeton Review, Inc., which is not affiliated with Princeton University.