Guitar Hero Live.
Thereās a version in Argos. Two game guitars. 30 notes.
Brilliant, too. Six buttons on three frets. An actual game changer.
Yesterday marked the beginning of my xmas holidays (perks of not actually taking your leave throughout the year). It was spent mostly being hungover (work do on Thurs) and playing Super Mario Run.
Itās really interesting to see Nintendo branch out from their own hardware. Iām really pleased to see that this is also a proper mobile game too. Itās not, as some have done, a half-arsed port hoping to cash in on an iconic IP. Thereās undoubtedly been some serious effort and some real effort to design a game that works on mobile devices.
Itās also a pretty ballsy move pricing the full game at Ā£7.99. Intrigued to see how that works out, and whether there can be a way for more premium games to carve out a niche in the F2P mobile market.
Iām enjoying the game itself. Thereās loads of Nintendo nostalgia in there, aside from just the clunky and slightly annoying UX and the ridiculously convoluted way of adding friends.
The shift to the game being an auto-runner is interesting too. It does, initially, feel counter-intuitive for a Mario game and does impact on the core level design as well. It takes some getting used to, and you do need to let go of the idea of āgoing backā and collecting all the coins on a level (itās not possible to collect _ all _ coins in one go).
I do like the way they have tried to eek out as much gameplay from their levels as possible. Using the pink, purple, and black coins as targets for each level pushes you to play the level in an entirely different way - depending on which targets you are shooting for. In the case of black coins, there are subtle but significant changes to the level design (placement of mystery boxes etc). Iām currently ācompletingā each level before moving onto the next - though given the placement of some of the coins, Iām not sure how long I will keep that up. Some are devilishly hard, and require insanely precise timing to be reached, and using your bubble wonāt help as you need an enemy to be in exactly the right spot to be able to reach them.
The levels are generally shorter than you may expect from a Mario game, and the timer can sometimes feel harsh (I canāt really remember feeling a time pressure on Mario games in the way I do with this one). But, considering this is a Mobile game, it does make sense for the device.
Havenāt really played the pvp yet, want to master the single player before giving that a go. Overall though, I am pretty impressed. It certainly wonāt sully the Mario brand, and gives cause for cautious optimism for the subsequent Nintendo Mobile games that are to be released next year.
Christ, to think I doubted Nintendo? Completely sold on the Switch (having been somewhat sceptical) and now loving this. Good job, guys.
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My interest is piquedā¦tell me more. Can singing be involved?
Juvenile Unit #2 and I have been playing it. It has been critically very well received, and having played some sessions (and learning guitar myself, glacially) I can see why it has got the praise.
Bit of Guitar Hero history. The series started with Harmonix as developers. Gamer geeks like me knew them for Frequency, but particularly Amplitude. Ant is also a fan. A few games in, and they do the offs to create Rock Band. Guitar Hero continues under Activision but with different devs.
We fell for Rock Band big time. We got the band in a box edition for the XBox 360 (still do somewhere in the garage). It is good, but at the same time, itās rare that you get a full band together, even when youāve designed your family unit to be amenable to four player games. Some bastard canāt sing. Some bastard canāt drum. Youāve got a left handed freak as your eldest daughter. Considerations! 
Both games guitars were pretty much interchangeble as well. Five fret buttons. Easy difficulty only employs the first three, Medium the first four, anything beyond that the whole five - as a general rule. If you wanted to play those games at a higher level, those games were asking you to be good at sliding up and down the neck of a guitar.
Guitar Hero Live is different. Three frets. Six buttons. The black notes have to be hit on the upper part of the fret. The white notes need to be hit on the lower part of the fret. Barre chords involve holding down the whole fret. Open strums involve no fret holding at all. Thereās no neck sliding; you can keep your fingers in place if you want to, but this game asks you to do work within those frets. Switching from high to low is a common challenge, but they also get to mixing it up so that you have to hold bottom and top on different notes, like holding a high string and a low string.
Donāt get me wrong. Youāll never learn to play guitar with this. Go to Rocksmith for that. And in deference to Goatboy, no itās not real. The fun that Juvy #2 and I had very much was though.
One last thing, and I realise that this is a long post, but Iāve got to mention it. Two main modes, GH Live and GH TV. Live is full FMW where you get on stage, and your band react to how well youāre playing. GH TV is basically MTV you play along to with your fake plastic instruments, with the actual music videos streamed to your console. Thereās loads of pop included too, and I saw how engaged Juvy #2 was with it compared to say, Rock Band and a couple of other older games.
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And yes, you can plug a mike in and sing.
Hmmmā¦sounds like a Christmas present to the family (myself). Certainly for Ā£30.
Sorry, Pap, one last pesterā¦microphone asideā¦am I getting everything I need for that 30 quid?
Aye, game and two guitars.
Get the special edition. In Argos at the 30 notes.
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Got myself a copy of Pokemon moon, as a treat for braving Westfield on Friday, on crutches.
No, I am not ashamed. Yes, I am enjoying it very much so far. Granted Iām only a couple of hours deep, but it has everything you want from a Pokemon game, and theyāve actually had a stab at improving both the UX and UI. Which pleases the utterly boring game geek, who should probably give himself time off from thinking about those things anyway.
trying to keep myself away from the steam sales too.
Started playing The Last of Us on PS4, itās pretty immersive.
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Wish I could play it for the first time again.
Somehow, it manages to be totally engrossing, despite the writing being pretty clichƩd. The voice acting is brilliant, the game is totally solid and the soundtrack is stunning.
Strong top 10 contender for me, cannot wait for the next installment.
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Wish I could forget that Iāve played it, just so I could play through it again anew. Never been so emotionally invested in video game characters before.
I sold my PS3 and and havenāt played it before so am new to the game. But itās really impressive so far, just one hour in 
Been going old school. Brought my arcade joysticks down. My nieces, six and four, have been playing Gauntlet all night. My fifty something uncle demanded a game of Defender and got owned by it 
Firewatch. Bit too stylised for my liking. Enjoying the solitude though (if not the creeping paranoia). Well worth a tenner
Still emulatinā
PC Engine and Megadrive mostly. I am having a lot of fun with some games that they really donāt make the likes of anymore, mostly Naxatās Pinball Crush series.
Got Ratchet & Clank in the sale and have been playing that a lot. Truly gorgeous looking game, and a great deal of fun.
Iāve installed Lakka onto a Raspberry Pi3, turning it into a retro games console. I got a PiBow case as well, so it really looks the part. I shall name it the papstation!
Anyways, Iāve got some fairly heavy news for most fans of eighties and nineties consoles. You, like me, probably never got to play your games properly. We were victims of competing international TV standards. The Americans had NTSC, lower resolution but faster framerate. We had PAL, higher resolution, lower framerate.
The unfortunate reality for us PAL gamers were black borders on the screen and games running roughly 17% slower.
Iāve been playing Super Mario World as it was meant to be played. Full screen and full speed. Itās a thing of beauty. Replay the classics as they were meant to be played. Youāll be amazed at the difference.
The original. I remember playing this first time around, now playing this on my iPad. Love it.
As mentioned in the Goaty Gadgets thread, been playing 7 Days to Die, scoping out the game for multiplayer sessions with Young Adult #2. I keep getting eaten by zombies. I havenāt contrived a way to get past day two yet. Iām loving it regardless.