Comments on: Maybe Old Media Deserves to Die

By: Gab

Gab — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:40:08 +0000

You know, I tried playing GTA I and II and couldn’t get into either all that much. Which I find strange, since I love zombie and other mission-oriented-type games so much. I mean, I could play through all of a Resident Evil game in one sitting, and I could do mission after mission after mission of Bond, but I got sick of GTA after the first few tasks. All are violent, but different kinds, I guess, aye? Anyway, I assume you’d say GTA IV is the best of the series and thus better than the first one?

By: lee

lee — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:02:43 +0000

“So here’s another question, and it only proves my ignorance with All Things Guitar Hero: Why “GT:A”? As in why a “T” instead of an “H”?”

No, that only proves my ignorance at spelling, and the fact that I’ve been playing Grand Theft Auto (GTA) waaaay too much these days.

You know what’s the opposite of phoning it in? Grand Theft Auto IV.

By: Gab

Gab — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 05:32:05 +0000

So Joe the Plumber is out. Drats.

By: Swirthe

Swirthe — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:44:25 +0000

I second Francis Hwang’s nomination, as long as the award is going to the man who gave Bono a column rather than Bono himself.
The article may be awful, but not necessarily “phoned in”, unlike choosing someone like Bono to write a column rather than finding an actual journalist or writer who have experience in writing something like this and can come up with something worth reading.

By: Gab

Gab — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 07:57:22 +0000

Heh, I guess you just take your Guitar Hero games a wee bit more seriously than I do. Granted, I don’t help *run* a website with “overthinking” in its name- I just frequent (i.e. stalk) it. I’ve only played Guitar Hero on Wii, myself, and I guess I’ll admit the Aerosmith one seemed like a bad knock-off, but I didn’t take it quite as personal. I usually just play to have a good time with my siblings and friends, not to get a good score- so my little sister (13) and I usually end up effing around with it, since she’s the one kicking ass in Expert and I’m still getting the occasional 60% in some spots on Easy- in “TTFAF,” as you put it, she’ll press buttons as I “strum” (meaning wiggle the whatchamacallit back and forth really fast without paying much attention) for example, and we call “Star Power” “Doing the Thing” (“I did the Thing, Sis, I did the Thing!” “You did the Thing!”). That’s probably insulting to you.

So here’s another question, and it only proves my ignorance with All Things Guitar Hero: Why “GT:A”? As in why a “T” instead of an “H”?

By: lee

lee — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 03:19:58 +0000

Gab, have you played Guitar Hero III? GT:A isn’t terrible, but I do have beef with it (the Wii version at least, can’t speak for other platforms). Warning, Guitar Hero III spoilers (can there even be such a thing?).

-Too many recycled elements from GTIII: sure there were plenty of new songs and locations, but the main (non-Aerosmith) characters were all the same from GTIII, just with different outfits.

-Half the songs of GT:III. Too many were mediocre Aerosmith tunes.

-Overall sloppiness, including some terrible looking crowd graphics.

Perhaps the worst thing about this game though, is a small yet important detail that the designers must have overlooked.

You know how at the end of GT:III, how you unlock “Through the Fire and Flames” after the final guitar battle? While the song loads, the message “Good luck” appears on the screen. It’s the only time such a message appears in the whole game, and it’s the perfect short, ominous message to set the stage for the impossible impossibleness that is “TTFAF.”

Now, when the same thing happens in GT:A, after finishing the career mode, the bonus song loads, and once again, “Good luck” shows up on the screen. My palms were sweating. My heart was beating in anticipation. What could it be?

Well, it was a lame, slow Aerosmith song that was not difficult to beat AT ALL. After beating the song and overcoming my disbelief, I looked up anticlimax in the dictionary, and I saw the last five minutes of my life replayed.

This is all to say that Activision really phoned in GT:A and that they might be deserving of the Roger Cohen Golden Telephone award.

By: Gab

Gab — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:51:57 +0000

Are you saying the Aerosmith version of Guitar Hero is bad, Lee? I happen to like it.

By: lee

lee — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:56:20 +0000

I nominate Activision for Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. If you’ve played Guitar Hero III and the Aerosmith version, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

By: Francis Hwang

Francis Hwang — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:54:52 +0000

This was before the Roger Cohen awfulness, but maybe Bono’s column could be the 2nd recipient of the Roger Cohen Golden Phone?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/opinion/11bono.html

I *defy* you to explain to me what the hell the point of Bono’s column is.

By: fenzel

fenzel — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:20:44 +0000

The phone needs Roger Cohen’s name or face on it so that we remember that every time we award it to someone.