Lazy Weekend
It's Monday and I'm at work, completely exhausted and falling asleep at my desk from a weekend of doing nothing. Yeah, I'm feeling a bit guilty about it, but it was fun nonetheless. Haven't had a weekend in a while where I just slept late, vegged on the couch, hung out with friends and just indulged myself. Actually, come to think of it, I should do that more often.
After work on Friday I saw Zathura, the new film by Jon Favreau based on the children's book by Chris Van Allsburg. Aside from cursory glances of Zathura and Jumanji (Zathura's the sequel) at bookstores, I'm not familiar with the book series, but I can tell you I enjoyed this movie much more than the Robin Williams flick. The story has the same basic concept as Jumanji in that a couple of kids find a board game that, upon playing, becomes real. In Jumanji, a jungle comes to life around the kids, in Zathura, the game players (bickering brothers) are transported, along with their house, to outer space. The brothers then have to figure out how to get back home which involves playing the game until someone wins. Unfortunately, playing the game means solving life-threatening puzzles like avoiding meteor showers, insane robots and boy-eating, reptilian aliens. I like that there is a sense of danger and menace throughout the movie; that Favreau isn't afraid of giving younger audience members nightmares about being stalked in an alien ship or issues around being abandoned (or wished out of existence, actually) by one's brother. The movie's pace is quick and the acting by the kids isn't too annoying, something I'm always fearful of when children must carry movies. I thought Dax Shepard (of Punk'd fame) was surprisingly good in the part of the Astronaut, grounding the character by playing it seriously and not going for the laughs. Anyway, I'd recommend it. Not a must-see but a may-see.
When I got home from Zathura around 11:30pm that night was when the trouble started. As anyone who has been to any gaming-related websites recently knows, the latest rhythm-game title from Harmonix, Guitar Hero, was recently released to rave-reviews. Well, my roommate Michael, not really a gamer apart from his one-time obsession with Burnout 3 : Takedown for the XBOX, had played Guitar Hero at a friend's house earlier in the week and desperately had to own it. I made attempts to buy it from two Best Buys and a Fry's, only to find it sold out everywhere. On Friday however, Michael had better luck at the Best Buy in WeHo. Unfortunately, he had to abandon the guitar controllers (yes, the game comes with near full size guitar controllers) and game discs at our apartment, unopened, before running off to do his play, leaving me in the enviable position of clearing space on my memory card and giving the game a go before he got home. Needless to say, the game rocks and my weekend was ruined. Both Michael and I have completed the game on the "easy" mode, which unlocks other modes, including four more difficulty settings and a store where you can buy more songs, guitars, guitar skins, musicians (I'm saving up virtual money to buy the Grim Reaper rocker) and documentaries, among other things. Here's how the gameplay goes: the guitar controller has five, color coded "fret" buttons along the neck of the guitar-shaped controller, and a "flipper" at the other end where normally you would strum the strings, plus a conveniently located whammy bar. On screen, you must match the virtual notes, corresponding to the frets on the guitar controller, 
as they fall from the top, strumming the flipper when the notes pass over a designated point. This is all done to match the music that is playing while a concert is going on in the background of the game. It's very much in the vein of other rhythm titles such as Dance Dance Revolution, only done with a guitar instead of dancing on a pad. The whammy bar is used on sustained notes and you get bonus points for using it. Oh yeah, I forgot about the tilt sensor which is activated when you accumulate "star power" which is released when you go totally rock star by tilting the guitar 90 degrees for some extra points and works to thrill the audience (if the audience loses interest, it's game over). It all gets very intense as the notes fall faster, and the arrangement becomes more complicated as the game goes on. On easy mode, only the first three frets are used for the most part, but as you up the difficulty mode, the number of frets and "chords" goes up. The game must be played to get an understanding of how addicting and fun it really is. As with most rhythm games, the song selection is crucial to the enjoyment of the title and Guitar Hero doesn't disappoint. It has a good range of modern (Franz Ferdinand, Sum 41) and classic music (Ozzy, Bowie, Queen) and unlockable tracks by bands I'm not familiar with (Graveyard BBQ? Shaimus?) but they're all pretty rockin' and fun to play so far. The single player career mode is adequate, and has you leading a musician's life, going from venue to venue and raising money to spend on more 
features to spice up the game, but where the game really shines is in its multiplayer mode. Here, you and a friend (Michael had to buy two copies of the game to get the two controllers) play cooperatively on a song, but you won't be playing the exact same notes, you actually play the song together, trading notes and solos as the song progresses. The audience reaction to how well each of you play determines the winner. My only complaint is that one wrong note can cost you the lead, and its impossible to catch up, due to the way multipliers in the game work. It's a fair system, but it's easy to just give up once you make a small error. Anyway, it's a great party game and easy for anyone to pick up and play. Even non gamers will find it rocks (see The Heat's blog for her experience with it when I coerced her into coming over on Saturday to try it)!
Saturday evening I tore myself away from Guitar Hero long enough to go over the hill into the Valley to work on the 60 comic with John Keating and to play some Hold 'Em on his sweet new poker table. Well, 
we didn't work on the comic too much, but we did have some good Fish 'N Chips and beer at the local British Pub, Robin Hood's with our friend (and John's roommate), Tim Trobec. Later, we had a great time playing poker and drinking with some other friends who showed up. 
Between tournaments, we all sang Counting Crows' "Mr. Jones" to Laura Reatherford's baby, Emma, with Mr. Keating on acoustic guitar (a real guitar!). A good time was had by all, with John winning the first tourney and me winning the second (my first win!) and Mitch taking second both times. I got home around 1 (1:30?) that night to find Michael playing Guitar Hero, so of course, I had to join in. Not sure what time I finally got some Zs.Sunday I woke up, and immediately stumbled into the living room and grasped the guitar controller and powered on the PS2, only stopping later that evening to drive to my parent's house for some salmon and a roast my dad had cooked using his new smoker. He had put some honey on the smoked salmon which made it unbelievably tasty. Yum. After dinner it was back to my apartment to find Michael on the geetar again, so of course, I plugged in my controller for a jam session.
Yes, it was a lazy weekend and I'm paying for it here at work due to the late nights but it was totally worth it.
4 Comments:
Must...play...guitar...hero...
And I'm so proud of my jefbot for taking a tournament win. My little boys all grows up!
Quit it! How am I ever suppose to catch up to your mad guitar skills if you're playing 24/7?
And I want to know what you had in your hand when I short circuited for a hand:(!
you both are gonna hafta come over for a jam session soon!!!
oh, and all i had was an ace high in my hand during your 'short circuit'... heh, heh.
That kills me, dude. Never again!
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