Power Gig: Authentic Guitars for Games
Posted by Alex Lifschitz Categories: Accessories, Features, Music,
Looks like a couple of guitars, right? Look closer.
Closer still. We weren’t at NAMM or anything. See those little colored marks on the fretboard? Yup, those are real, honest-to-god game controllers. These Power Gig guitars were being shown off at the GDC by the fine folks at Seven45 studios. And by “shown off,” we mean they had their employees using them in an enclosure on a TV screen that nobody could see. Great marketing, that.
Apparently, these are real, functioning electric guitars. Between sets of an unseen music and rhythm game being developed by Seven45, the employees would plug the controller into an amp stack and shred for a while. And it sounded good! Oh lord, did it sound good.
Now, we didn’t have a chance to actually use one of these guitars or see the game they were playing (which apparently has Cult of Personality by Living Color as one of the songs), nor did anybody else - this was eyes only for the guitars, and ears-only for the game. We were told that these will, in fact, function as controllers for Rock Band and Guitar Hero, and you’ll play them in much the same fashion (though you can choose whether to pick a string or strum them all). Their proprietary game, though, has a mode that will involve hitting specific strings and notes, like tablature. (One source who saw the game in action voiced some negative opinions, but Seven45 isn’t showing anything else off until E3.)
A similar microphone and drum setup has been announced, but we have yet to see how they will differ from the current stable of music controllers.
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Mafia II: Hands-on impressions
Posted by Alex Lifschitz Categories: Action, Features, PC, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360,
Poor Mafia. When the first game released in 2002, it drew plenty of criticism for being too much in the vein of Grand Theft Auto. The game actually had a flair of its own and a distinct cinematic style, with plenty of interesting moments and glowing reviews. Some moments in particular (notably the one involving crashing a funeral) were altogether more memorable than anything in other open-world games.
Nearly a decade later, 2K Games has decided to bring the series to current-gen consoles with Mafia II. We got a hands-on sneak peak at the game at the GDC. Do your best Marlon Brando impersonation (note: please do not do your best Marlon Brando impersonation) and hit the jump to see how it stacks up to its namesake.
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Hands-On with Sony’s PS3 3D Games
Posted by Alex Lifschitz Categories: Features, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Sony,
3D was a fad that died a well-deserved death during the 90s. Of course, the flame was kept alive by evil, evil hipsters who swapped between polarized lenses and shutter shades for a while, but only recently has it come back in a big way (thanks to new glasses, new technology, and the ability for us as a culture to forgive transgressions for existing as fads before being properly implemented.)
Sony is apparently on board with the 3D revival, and they had a bunch of games and TVs showing off their 3D technology at the GDC. Hit the jump for our hands-on impressions.
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Nintendo DSi XL: Hands on
Posted by Alex Lifschitz Categories: Features, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Portable/Mobile,
You know, when I look at the Nintendo DSi XL, I can’t help but notice the similarity in form factor to Apple‘s iPad (though the DSi XL was released first - thanks for catching that, astute readers!). Nintendo recently announced the US release of the n-th iteration of the DS, now focusing on a bigger screen. Come to think of it, both companies have a penchant for constantly releasing new SKU’s of existing hardware every few months with minor tweaks to inexplicable demand by an attention-deficit public, all while making the people who just bought their newly-outdated hardware feel small and relatively ashamed.
Either way, we got our hands on one at the GDC in San Francisco. Hit the jump for relevant deets.
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