Couple Gaming

So everyone is wondering if Guitar Hero: World Tour is just a Rock Band rip off, and to be honest I can’t answer that fully, however it does appear that if it is a copy of Rock Band, they obviously did some good improvments to it.

The most obvious improvement is in the drums, not only did they add two elevated wedges that serve as a high-hat and a cymbal but it is also wireless! That’s right now the only thing wired in the whole set is the mic, which if you have seen pictures of my setup is a welcome change, as I hate having all those wires strung across the room,  hopefully someone will make a wireless mic soon.

Besides that there is also some good game play additions, like the ability to make your own songs in the Music Studio, which allows you to record four tracks: Lead, Rhythm, Bass, and Drums, and I hear this goes in much further than most of us will use, but people like Lunchb0x will love.  Also the customization is said to be very in depth, so much so that you can create your own tattoo and design your own band logos, etc.  Unlike Rock Band where you can only select from pre-created ones, granted they did offer a lot.  And there is one other addition that I think was a good thing to do, and that is the beginner mode, which is just strumming, which will let your younger kids enjoy the game a lot more.

So even though at first I had written off Guitar Hero: World Tour as just a wanna be Rock Band, and I still believe they are stealing the idea, it does look like they are bringing some good things to the table.  I guess the only left is to see what Rock Band 2 brings when it gets close to release and decide from there, either way it looks like we all win in this competition, just pick the one that best suits what you are looking for, that or buy a bigger garage to rock out with all of them!

For those of you like me who think Spore just can’t get here soon enough, I have good news! The Spore Creator Creator Demo is out NOW and the full version is released tomorrow June 18th. You can download the demo on many sites, but we also will provide it for you, feel free to download it from us HERE.

Now if you don’t know what Spore is, or for that matter Spore: Creator Creator let me briefly enlighten you. Spore is a SIM game designed to start you out as a single cell organism and let you evolve all the way to exploring different solar systems, not only that, but YOU get to create you’re organism and watch it evolve, control how it evolves and so on. I am literally just skimming over the details, if you want all the good info I would suggest getting it directly from the source.

If you had any doubts if Spore: Creature Creator is worth the current $9.99 digital download price, let me say in my opinion it is well worth it, today alone both Ophilye and I have wasted 3 hours and had to give up due to time constraints and wanting to get this posted, you can be sure we will be back at it tomorrow. What’s the point of this if Spore includes it at release? Simple, it’s a jump start at the game, anything you create can be imported into the full version of Spore. Not only that, but this is the best way to see the basics of Spore and if it would be worth your money, and from what I have seen it is and then some.

You can buy Spore: Creature Creator directly from EA HERE

Want to see what we created? Feel free to visit my youtube page for all of our creations, and I have included both Ophilyes and my first creatures below for you amusement.

Want to share you creature with us? Post it on our forums or link it in a comment! We would LOVE to see them!

The God of War series is one of my all times favorites, and that isn’t much of a surprise considering how much I love all types of Mythology.  So when I heard the newest edition of the series was going to be released ONLY on the PSP I was really disappointed, I mean how can you take such an epic, bigger then life game and shrink it down to a small hand held and still make it as good as the two previous games?  I also knew at that point I would finally give in and get a PSP, not only for God of War, but also for the Aliens vs Predator game (which I have yet to find!)

Let me say, I am not disappointed, God of War: Chains of Olympus brings more of the same that I have come to love from the series, and even though it is on a hand held console, the controls are almost, if not identical, to the PS2 versions of the series, and the game play still makes you feel like you’re in a very large world, with magical elements all around.  I don’t want to go into the story line, because that really makes the game, but lets say they just made a new one over all for this title rather then continuing the story from the other two games.

If you have been debating picking up the PSP now is the time in my opinion, for this game is one of many great titles out for it the hand held and if you’re of God of War fan is a must in my book.

First of all.. isn’t that the best title ever? I mean, if you’re going to take a web cartoon with the dark humor that we have all come to know and love and turn it into an episodic game, one that is likely going to be torn apart by every review site and game company PA has ripped apart, it really requires that kind of a title.

If you don’t know Penny Arcade, you probably should start before you play. It’s not that you need to know any of the last 10 years of comics, or the characters and their interactions, but you won’t have the amazement that some of us have when Tycho & Gabe helped us through the hard times, showed us to be different, explained lifes mysteries, On top of that, to understand that they run Childs Play, a company that raises money, via various means, to buy games & consoles for childrens hospitals.

OK, back on track…

PA: E1 allows you to create your own 60s cartoon character, who is then swept up into saving the town from robot fruit-fuckers, hobos, barbershop quartets, and mimes.  That alone is rather humorous, but the writing and response choices are worth the gameplay alone.  My daughter and I were both laughing until tears streamed down our cheeks during one fabulous response (ok, we may have been on sugar highs, but still) and it got a guffaw out of Ymiris & I a number of times.  The writing is obviously the same as Penny-Arcade.com, so if the above comics do turn you off, you will want to look closely at the game play to see if it is something you are looking for.

The gameplay follows a turn-based RPG, complete with nerdy dice roll, and “ok, this character do this now, and wait for this character and that one” continuity, which overall we neglect here at CoupleGaming, mostly because brainiac or fast-paced games seem to be our forte.  That being said, after this game I feel I may be greatly neglecting a genre.  This game shows some of the best parts of TBGs:  a need to plan ahead, as well as reflexes based on past experience with specific characters.   (Yes, you do need to remember to block or you are going to keep dying *cough* Squidpunch *cough*)

The length of the game, about 8 hours of gameplay if you take your time, makes it worth the $20, and the acheivements aren’t too difficult, nor too redundant.   Ymiris & I both played through it, some of it with our 8-year old watching (but don’t be mistaken, you should play through it and then decide if it is suitable for your child), and enjoyed it for the most part.  Your spouses playing style may kill ya’ (BLOCK! OK now your green is up. .Do Green! DO IT!! Use your Orange! Why haven’t you used your Invisible Box? What?? The Cat?? Are you serious?!?!1!1) but it’s a good paced learning curve for your non-gaming spouse to give it a try (before you).

As I stated before, you do not have to know Penny-Arcade to enjoy this game; Ymiris played this entire game and enjoyed a lot of the quips and characters, but I’m fairly sure I enjoyed the nuances and the writing style, knowing what I was in for.

So.. Yes.. I suggest PAE1 for all couple gamers.. it’s on DLCA for XBOX 360 as well as downloadable for the PC (so I am told).

Now to sit back and wait for PAE2…

Well it’s that time of year again, and the madden gods must be appeased. So we all know that EA has the NFL license and we all fear one year the maddens will suck so bad that we won’t have a good football game, but from what I can tell via the rumors from EA and the videos going around the net, this isn’t a year we have to worry!! I know me and my friends have been trying to get a League going over the years, but it proved to be pretty difficult, but not this year as you can play a whole season in maddens!!!

I don’t want to re write the story that so many have already done, so I will just link you over to some pretty good detail at gamespot

Also here is a good video on the comparison to Madden 08

I am always intrigued by DS games with non-mario-looking graphics, so when the 10-foot posters started going up for Professor Layton and the Curious Village, I was definitely intrigued.

Unfortunately, I then followed up the intrigue by checking out Nintendo.coms response to intrigued viewers.. where Nintendo failed miserably.  For whatever reason, they decided to use a brain-age-like puzzle for their web page to show people what the game was like.

So.. I’m here to tell you that if you were turned off by Nintendo.. Try Again!!

I’ve been addicted.. no.. Obsessed with Professor Layton for the last 2 weeks.  Yes, it is a puzzle game, and a little bit brain-age-ey.  However, the puzzles are redeemed by not only not being repetitive, but having a reason beyond “because it’s there” to solve it! The game is propelled by interesting characters, fabulous sub-plot mysteries, and even mini-movies to propel it!

You play as Professor Layton and his side-kick, invited into a city to find a Golden Apple for a client.  This city is full of characters that enjoy giving you puzzles.. and for every one you solve, you get a piece of a different puzzle or mystery.

The puzzles are a wide variety of common puzzles (the water jug puzzle from “Die Hard” is in there), as well as new ones (Anyone enjoy the Chocolate-text-message puzzle?).  They are written to appeal to a wealth of different thinking, from out-of-the-box to math nerds (like me), and are usually just fun to solve.  The puzzles can be amazingly difficult, and there is no “just tell me the answer” button.  There are “clue coins” to use on hints, which are found via a further click-randomly-to-find  game, but the hints are useless over half the time.

The mysteries are really solved for you if you solve so many puzzles, but for the most part, they are easy to solve before the plot catches up.

As a Couple Gaming choice, I vote a definite yes.  Sure, the greatest part of the game (the plot & mysteries) are single player, but many of the puzzles require a lot of thinking, and it is fun to get your spouse involved on the ones you’re stuck on.  Just don’t beat your spouse with the closest blunt object when they solve something you couldn’t;  assume they’re cheating.

So it’s offical that there is a Viva Pinata 2, there are some screen shots floating around the web

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/16472/Viva-Piata-2-Trouble-in-Paradise-Screenshots/

http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/photos/viva-pinata-trouble-in-paradise/

there isn’t a lot of details yet, maybe after today? But the most important thing about the game that I have heard is that you can now co-op play, I am still undecided if thats good or bad, since I love co-op but I am not sure how much help I need planting things…you tell me.

Ohh and now some vide game play of viva Pinata trouble in pardise

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!

There’s a new free-roaming game coming,”Mirrors Edge”. After reading the the games site faq, it sounds like something gaming couples would really enjoy:

“Well, this is very much Faith’s story so lets talk about her. She is not a typical video game heroine. She does not have superpowers or magic or even carry a weapon of her own. She is an “ordinary” person put into extraordinary circumstances - and it is how she reacts to that situation that makes her a hero. In the same way Ellen Ripley was just a Warrant Officer on a mining ship in Alien or John McClean was “just” a cop in Die Hard (at least the first one). Faith does not ask for this or seek it – but she does not back down when her family and her life is threatened”

But it’s the new Teaser video that gets your heart pumping…

Mmmm… Yummy.

It looks like the people who brought you the Carmen Electra Pole Dancing Kit are shopping around for someone to help make them a “Wii Pole Dancing” game. That’s right, Wii sucks you in with Hannah Montana.. feeds on you with “How to be an expert food-eater” and is now at “Be a better stripper”.

“Peekaboo will be all about fun and fitness for a new generation. Peekaboo wants to make the fitness benefits of aerobic pole dancing accessible to millions of Wii users. The goal is to encourage men and women of all shapes and sizes to improve their pole dancing skills while having fun, toning up and burning calories. Ultimately Peekaboo and AT New Media want to do for pole dancing what ‘Guitar Hero‘ did for rock n roll!”

OK, I understand that pole dancing is the new Pilates, and that the Wii is seriously trying to be the “console for ALL family members;” that aside, I’m not sure this is going to go over well. I’m just picturing hanging upside down, hugging a pole with my thighs, trying not to get a major head injury, on Level 8, and wondering… where do they plan to put the controller?

And to pre-empt the media: is this a gateway game to GTA X: Hooker Fever?