Couple Gaming

So rumors are all the rage this weekend, with two rumors about a new Viva Piñata game, dubbed Viva Piñata - Trouble in Paradise, and Scene it 2.

Obviously this could all be fake, but I wager there is a lot more truth to these rumors then not.  Good news for us here at couple gaming as Viva Piñata was one of our favorite games that the whole family can play, as well as Scene it!

So GTA IV was released last night for most people, and the reports are coming in that various users are getting a frozen screen shortly after starting up the game.  This is affecting both PS3 and XBOX 360 users.  Since we can’t duplicate this problem our selfs may I suggest an off the wall fix for this issue?  Try disconnecting your console from the internet and seeing if that remedies your issue? Its the only thing the two consoles have in common.  I am not saying it will work, but give it a try, I am just trying to help

Burnout has always been a game Ophilye and I could play together and have a good time, so when we heard about Burnout Paradise we were all sorts of excited.   After playing it for 6 hours straight I can tell you that excitement was well founded.  Not only can you play local but you can invite your friends to join you on live, and do a huge amount of challenges, or just go crazy with take downs, and as a bonus, if you have the camera it will take snapshots each time you are taken down, so you can leave a colorful image for your friends to let them know just how you feel.

Burnout also takes good advantage of live by keeping scores on various roadways, fastest speed or most damage caused, My friend and I were both able to get a high score for most damage, but I doubt they will last long once more people pick up this game.

Paradise brings everything that has made the burnout series fun, and just adds to it, meaning if you have liked the others, you will love this one.  See you on the road!

If you were like us, you debated if you would buy Rockband, not only did it come out shortly after Guitar Hero 3, but it also came with a $170 price tag and had some of the same songs as Guitar Hero 3, along with rumors of shortages and bad equipment all over the place.

I will get straight to the point, there were no shortages, still are no shortages and Rock Band is so good, we are going to sell our GH2 and 3, we don’t need or want those games anymore,  thats how good Rock Band is.  Not only does Rock Band introduce the drums and microphone to the game, but they bring you so far into the game, it’s hard not to shout out to the audience who is singing along with you.  To all of us that thought “Oh, I’ll get GH3 OR Rock Band”.. let me just say “JOIN US!  Give up your GH3! You know the songs (and the jump from Medium to Hard) was disappointing.  Give up the ghost, and join us!”

OK, so now that we’ve fully admitted defeat, lets get to the more precise reasons we love this game, and have spent every day since christmas playing it… and converting all of our family & friends to it.

First, the guitar.  OK, so it’s basically Guitar Hero…  Yes, the guitar that it comes with is the suck.  Its fret buttons being flush with the neck are teh suck, and it’s rather flimsy.  We are having to return ours after about 14 hours of play (you can no longer strum down, and the fret buttons are less than satisfactorily responsive.. I promise), but of course the Guitar Hero guitars work with it (Woot!), so keep the GH3 wireless guitar, as that is really the smoothest guitar to date.

Next, the drums. Besides needing a stool the drums are in my opinion the best new instrument, they feel stable, they  respond well (for the most part, as always there is always a time when you know you hit the red and it doesn’t go off) and they make you feel like a key member of the band, yes I think most instruments can, but for me the drums more so.  If I miss a beat, it can easily affect the rest of the band and if I don’t do well it almost always prevents the band from getting 4 - 5 stars.  But if I am doing well everyone seems to have any easier time keeping the rhythm and can get in a groove.

The microphone adds an interesting touch to the band.  While we may have always sung along to Guitar Hero, those of us that knew we were not good singers seem to have a slight advantage here over the vocally-elite (Barring those that have actually taken classes).  You don’t have to be a good singer, but you DO have to control your pitch to play the game.  My 8 year old daughter can sing the right pitch if she knows the song, going up & down where IT wants you to go, not what you remember it doing.. but I have a killer time singing “Black Hole Sun”, as I have never before sung the song the way the game wants me to.  Of course, there are also songs that will kill female vs. male voices: Changing octaves to hit higher/lower notes is something you’re going to want to practice in private a few times before having friends over.  That being said, there are definitely songs that you are going to hit 100% (on easy) the first time through… which is one more thing I should probably touch on.  Difficulty level seems to be determined by how much leeway you have.  You are given phrases, and hitting 80% of the phrase seems good enough for easy… maybe 90% for medium.. etc.  This seems easy enough on “Maps”, or something common, but I could kill the person that invented the “hmmm” parts out of NOWHERE on some of these songs.

We highly suggest trading off occasionally as well.  Everyone is going to have songs that they excel at, and sharing some of the pain of the Metallica songs is really best.

There of course is also a bass player, and you can really feel it in the songs and can almost affect a band as much as the drums, but since this mode was available in Guitar Hero, and hasn’t changed much, most of you will know what  it’s like.

Each instrument is vital to the success of your band, and although some appear to affect the band more then others, they are all key, and if one band members screws up, you can only save them 3 times before the whole band is kicked out.  This brings a nice addition to the multi-play, which in itself is one of the nest aspects of the game, playing locally with 2-4 people or over live is a pleasing experience and makes you want to come back every night and practice.

We are really pleased with the amount of songs in the game, we have played for 4 days straight and haven’t unlocked them all, some of course suck, but overall we enjoy them all.  Also a very nice addition is the customization of your character, each band member can buy clothes, change their hair, buy accessories, new instruments, get tattoos etc, which really makes you want to do better so you can buy more things.

There is so much to Rock Band that we just can’t cover it all, but take our word for it, this is currently the only “Guitar” game you need.  And if you want to join our band, look for “The Ocean Dwellers”  Our band based after Cthulhu.

See you onstage!!!

Last year about this time, Ymiris & I were out shopping for our daughters christmas presents.  She was getting a Wii, so we were going through different games to get her.   The new concept Wii-motes were a scary idea, so we were leary of giving her games that would be too difficult to use or understand.  Ely & I were very much into Avatar: The Last Airbender on Nickelodeon, and figured it may be a good start.  After reading a few bad reviews a week or 2 before Christmas, we hastily took it back and traded it in for Elebits (horrible game, but a good how-do-you-do-this starter).

Now they have a new Avatar game out.   A year and a few bugs later, and I figured they’d have the whole thing down, right?

No.   And because that is such a small word for the magnitude that they’re forcing on you.. I must repeat heartily:  NO.

First, let’s go over the plusses… because otherwise, you’re going to think I hated this game.  You really have to grasp how much I really, REALLY wanted to like it.  I love the cartoon, and really believe it is under appreciated.  The first player plays consistently as Aang, with your 2nd player switching between Katara and Sokka depending on the storyline.  This keeps both players engaged, as you can’t both be Aang (the main character), but still moves along the story.

The story is the entire second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender; traveling to the earth kingdom and such.  This means that your child, or anyone that follows the storyline, is going to feel like they’re watching reruns on NickToons for the most part, with a few “hey, I wonder if they cut this out of the cartoon” parts thrown in for fun.  Of course, they also take out a lot of the story line, so I don’t know if someone that has never watched the cartoon would get as much of a kick out of the stranger things (like pentapox) as the avid watcher.

Now we delve into the negatives.  I tried this game on the Wii, so I can’t speak for the 360 or PS versions, but on the Wii, the special “combo moves” seemed to go off all on their own.  I would be walking down a hall, and suddenly Aang would go into some “bender” mode, where he sat on his air ball, waiting to throw out air at nonexistant people.  Aang did this so often, I started jiggling around the Wiimote, TRYING to make him do it when there were a lot of people, with little success.   When fighting large groups, we had to button mash and shake our hands up and down to try to get it to do all the cool things it did other times for no reason.  Luckily, the battles are easy and button mashing worked just fine to defeat them, but it seemed a sad waste of the Wii’s capabilities.  The bending capabilities to solve puzzles was a nice twist, but again the controls were clunky and there was no ability to move the camera, so multiple times you would jump and move without being able to see your character at all.  This eventually became more than just inconvenient.. down to frustrating and almost infuriating.

The final straw came when we  were told to stand on a runed circle, and two little images came up on how you should move your Wiimote on that circle.  What those pictures really meant is anyones guess… we thought it meant hold your Wiimote up, then put it sideways.  It also didn’t list WHO had to do that, so we both tried repeatedly.  My daughter got her character (Katara) to do SOMETHING on it, but it didn’t cause the puzzle to be solved, and after 20 minutes of both of us standing on that circle and doing everything we could think of, we finally threw up our hands and went to play The Scruffs.

In short, Avatar is still too buggy to play on the Wii.  If you have played this on another system and got it to work properly, we’d love to know what you thought of it.  Otherwise, I’m writing Avatar off as an unplayable game, and sticking with watching it on Nick.

As a final note, because my coworker (who we’ll call PointWhore) pointed this out to me first thing Monday morning, if you play Avatar on the 360, you can get all 1000 points by firing repeatedly at the wall in the very first board.   So for all those of you that connect with PW, that seems as good a reason as any to rent this game.  Just don’t rent it planning on playing past the first 5 minutes.

So, you quit World of Warcraft because you don’t have the time to play, but now you and the SO have nothing else to play together during those last few hours of the night before bed, and the thought of loading up Hellgate London is almost as bad as going back to WoW.  I said almost.

Enter Jewel Quest, available on the DS or XboxLive Arcade.  Jewel quest may sound like just another match the 3 gems puzzle game, but when you first load it up you will realize it’s not.  You have 4 classes to chose from, Druid, Warrior, Wizard and Knight.  Each class has different abilities which may minipulate the gems, cause your foe direct damage, or make them lose a turn.  Your character gains experience and thus levels during each fight, opening new abilities.  You allocate points as you see fit into different areas, which changes things like the amount of mana you gain from a certain color gems, or your luck on gaining a free turn etc.

There is a story line mode and a multiplayer mode, via system link, Live or local.  Ophilye and I were able to spend 4 hours of playing via the local MP option without noticing it, and we hadn’t even touched Story mode, which is actually really fun! The story is good, with real plot twist and turns, and the battles are fun and addicting, as each new foe has different abilities that you need to adjust to and the story keeps you wanting to move forward to find out what happens.

If you ever felt most Live arcade games lacked any real playability, take a look at jewel quest, one of the best games for couple found in the arcade!

First CoD4 and now Portal, you can tell I am a little behind eh?

None the less, I finished portal last night, and I loved that game, I was pretty sad it didn’t have a multi play, but other then that it was one of the best puzzle games I have played, and is one of the most inventive. You acquire a portal gun, that allows you to create an entry portal an and exit portal, which you use to solve various ways of getting out of a room, and they are a ton of different ways! And of course it gets harder and harder as you go, 19 levels in all not including the “extra game”

What made the game was also the robot, who if you defy her you can go and kill her But throught the game she has witty and sarcastic comments for you. and at the end, she sings you a song!! I love the portal song.

Ok ok, enough with the games everyone has played, but I will leave you with the portal song!

 

 Portal Song: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (31)

COD4 has been out for a little while now, but I am never one to really get into the realistic FPS games.  I lean more towards Gears of War and Unreal these days, but I do have a soft spot still for these types of games, as I started my FPS career on the likes of Medal of Honor and Enemy Territory, and I did enjoy the original Call of Duty.

So maybe it was my low expectations of the game that makes me say:  I loved Call of Duty 4.   I mean I really liked it. It’s not the typical run and gun that these games usually are, they make you switch roles, from front line gunner to sniper, all the way to actually being executed via a cut scene as a president.  My favorite role was the sniper hiding in the grass as tanks rolled right next to your head;  the adrenaline was incredible.  There were times that you found yourself holding your breath.

CoD4 has a lot to offer, and although it is a short game at around 9 missions, this isn’t really all that bad.  If it went too long, they would have made you do something you already have done.  It is the originality in every mission that really makes this game.

Also I must say, for those of you playing on the 360, it’s so nice to see all achievements gained via the single player rather than mixed with multiplayer.  This gives those who have the basic live account the ability to gain all the achievements, unlike most other 360 games.  Also as a bonus, watch all the credits and you will get to play one last mission, which I thought very fun.

Multiplayer is the only replayability, so I suggest renting it instead of buying it to finish all the achievements.

There were 52 video games released this week. I’m not kidding. 52!!! how do you know what your friends actually want, and what will get you removed from their 360 friends list?

We’ve done a little research… Try finding one of these when you’re out at the stores at 5am tomorrow. Remember, if it’s “Couple Gaming” approved, you can claim it’s for your friend AND their spouse! One less present to buy!

COUPLE GAMINGS CHRISTMAS WISH LIST

Mario Party DS (DS)

This game looks like it was made for the DS. Sure, Single-player Mario Party isn’t as much fun as with friends, but it has always been a put-down-pick-up-when-bored kind of game… and why else do people have DS’s? But it does offer multiplay with other DS’s, and if you have a friend who has a DS, they don’t need to buy the game to play with you!

Rock Band (All Game Consoles)

See Pre-Review.

Guitar Hero III (All consoles)

If your friends do not have this yet, it is your duty as a friend to give it to them.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat (DS)

OK, so this is traditionally a non-couple-oriented game. But I know FAR too many people that viewed the Fatalities as “easter eggs” and were truly rewarded when viewing the unique way of disemboweling your opponent. Add that feeling to the new puzzle-inclusions, and I’m betting this is going to be enjoyed if both spouses have a DS. It looks like you’re also able to play online wirelessly.. so maybe I’ll have something else to do while I’m cooking…errr.. okay, watching Ymiris cook.

Mario Galaxy (Wii)

It seems everyone has been looking forward to this game; so much so, we’re pretty sure there will be bad reviews for months. Still, it’s worth trying..

Scene It (360)

Just like the normal Scene It that your nephew got you 3 years ago and you played only when they came over, there is now one that comes with cool controllers… so you don’t have to hunt around for the DVD Remote to play. But, no online play.. so if you want to play, make sure they live close, and you like going over there. And that they have a large liquor cabinet…

SimCity Societies (PC)

See Ymiris’ Post

The Orange Box (All Consoles)

Sure, this is mostly non-couple-oriented.. HL2 & Team Fortress 2 definitely can cause one spouse to become bored and nauseous while the other plays… but the Portal inclusion means it’s spouse-approved, with both members trying to solve the puzzles.

Bargain Bin Gifts

If you’re out wandering around and happen to see one of those “buy 3 get 2 free” boxes, shuffle around in them a little. If you see any of the following, snatch it up like a tickle-me-elmo doll & hide it in the bottom of your basket. These ones are pure gold!

Ghost Master (PC)
It’s like the sims, only you’re scaring people. Ahhh, I miss this game so much.

Phoenix Wrights (DS)
I will never have enough of it. NEVER!!!!

Movies (PC)
It’s like the sims, only you create your own movies. I loved the movies I made.. with the fires and the heartache and the horrible acting… back when all I had was a western bar set, and I wrote it myself. I want it back!!!

Alien vs predator (PC)
Even though this is more a single-player game, I remember Ophilye screaming with glee after being killed, and of course vomiting from the motion sickness. Good times! (When is the new one coming out!?)

EQ (PC)
yes I know, its still there, and we can’t go back to it now, but you always remember your first! We fired up EQ II the other day. It just isn’t the same.

Warcraft 2 / Starcraft (PC)
Another first for me, and something I spent many a mountain dew indulged night with!  This is always a good game to network and play for hours.

Ymiris Wish List:

It’s just not a list without Ymiris throwing in things that he’s been investigating.  This won’t get you bonus points as being something both members of a spouse will enjoy, but you will be thought of as someone on top of the latest hotness.

Assassin Creed (360)

Remember how much fun thief was? Well think of it made better and updated graphics! Only thing missing is Multiplay. We used to play theif as a couple way back when, and we’re pretty sure we’ll get the same kick out of this one. *Update*  We’ve now been receiving word that this is nothing like thief… more the openness of GTA, but the feeling of

Mass Effect (360)

It’s out, and if you aren’t playing it maybe you need to buy yourself and early gift eh?  If not, pick it up for a friend and plan on “borrowing it” the day after they beat it.

Spore (PC)

This is on a lot of peoples wish list, but without a release date announced this could be on their list next year as well!

OphilyesWish List

Pfft, if Ymiris is going to have a list, I damn well am!

Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends (DS)

No this game isn’t fun because girls like to cook.. cuz I don’t. It’s fun because.. well.. because it isn’t actually cooking. And because cutting things up is fun. Oh, I’m so ashamed for loving this game… and I know about 5 guys that feel the same way. Which means in about a month, you get to catch your male friends playing it & taunt them mercilessly. Ahhh, now that’s the Christmas present that just keeps on giving.

Childrens Wish List

Games that you buy for your child, but you’re okay playing with them after they go to bed…

Petz 2 games (DS)

Catz, horsez, dogz, and evidently dolphinz now. (DS, Wii)

Clue/Mousetrap/Perfection/Aggravation Compilation (DS)

Build-A-Bear (DS)

Hannah Montana World Tour (Wii) -
Okay, so maybe I want this a little too. Okay, a lot.

What about you? What are you writing to Santa for? What are you getting your friends? What do you miss?

When Guitar Hero III came out, we thought we had a choice to make: GH III or RockBand? GH coming out sooner pretty much sealed it for us (though if I had the choice to make again, I would have skipped GH III).

Saturday, Ymiris & I were out looking for christmas games for our friends when we came across a demo for Rock Band. They had a guitar, a set of “drums”, and a microphone, and it was set up right next to a demo for GHIII. Side-by-side, you can tell they come from the same minds. The graphics are incredibly similar, so much that I would almost call it a Guitar Hero 4. The tabs are a little changed, and the graphics look revamped (almost for the worse), but it’s easy enough to understand if you’ve ever seen GH.

After watching the graphics for a few minutes, we decided to try our hand at it. That’s right, it’s Couple Gaming Band.. with Ymiris on Guitar, and Ophilye on the Drums (I wasn’t about to take up the microphone in the middle of Best Buy) , performing EPIC.. as made famous by Faith No More.

Ymiris picked Medium and picked it up with ease. The guitar from the front looks a little less game-ish; the colors are listed along the side, and the buttons are the entire length of the guitar neck, instead of just buttons sitting on top of it. Ymiris reported immediately that they took a few minutes to get used to, and it wasn’t entirely a pleasurable experience, unlike the new wireless GHIII guitar. But, it wasn’t as sticky as the GHII guitar either.. so I suppose that is a good thing.

I picked Easy for the drums, and quickly realized that the yellow drum was broken, so I could only hit the other 3 notes. I also realized that there was no foot pedal.. but I still did pretty well without those 2 things. It came a lot more naturally than you would think, as I have never played the drums in my life; however, it was also a lot more difficult to keep the beat, at least in that song. There were drum beats where I couldn’t hear any, and it was missing things I thought would be there (it turned out being the base). However, the hardware was incredibly easy to get used to, and spaced apart fairly well.

Instead of just strictly Star Power to boost your collective score, you used something similar to help out your friends when they were sucking it up *cough*ymiris*cough*. The vocals & the drums have no control over when they use their power, but the base & guitar do. (I mean really, what are you going to do, shake the drums up & down to use the power? hehehe.. that would be awesome..)

Lastly.. we must bring up the songs. Now, I personally loved the GH1 songlist, was OK with the GH2 songlist, and despise the GH3 songlist. Don’t get me wrong, Barracuda is good, but when there are only 3 songs you like, they get annoying very quickly. Rock Bands songlist is Much more impressive. NIN, Garbage, the Clash, Soundgarden, Jet? These are bands I WANT to be! And they already have out 10 downloadable packs! granted $.99 - $1.99 per song is an obnoxious price to pay, (C’mon Microsoft. Just because I’ll pay it to have it on my Zune does NOT mean it’s acceptible for a stupid GAME that can’t go ANYWHERE with me!) but at least you’re not paying that amount for songs that already came in another game *cough*GH1*cough*. To get a full list of songs, view Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_son… )

So, as for the answer of GHIII or RB… well.. on our way out of Best Buy, Ymiris & I began discussing things. We’re pretty sure Santa could bring it to us this year, as Ymiris has been an absolute saint. Which, we continued discussing, is good, cuz I’ve been an absolute bitch. Luckily, I have some dirt on Mrs. Clause, so I’m expecting my Acura RDX to be in the driveway by 4 am.

I’m off for now. I need to go brush up on my singing…

“Wait.. they don’t love you like I love you.. maaaaaaaaahaaaahaaahhaaaaaps Wait.. They don’t love you like I love you!”