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Online security and You.... must read for many online gamers

Casual Raiding in WoW? Part 3

Casual Raiding in WoW? Part 2

Casual Raiding in WoW? Part 1

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September 2008

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Well, I've had some....real life issues...lately. Hence the huge pause in writing up new posts. But, I've got a few good things to post now! 1- New job coming for me. Starting Sept I start at a new place of employment, so some time should get freed up. 2- The Wrath of the Lich King cinema...

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Two now in less than a month...and nationwide no less... Nintendo is launching another Pokemon event in the US during the next two weekends! Gamestop and presumably EBGames as well is setting up Wonderspots this weekend for Deoxys in Diamond and Pearl. The weekend for them begins today. I...

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EBGamestop is running a game sale that started earlier this week for a number of stores. (It offically runs from the 6th - 12th. You can find quite a few steals if you try. Guild Wars only true expansion pack for example, is 15 dollars. (normally 40) Tabula Rasa is 15 dollars for the normal, 30...

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Many RPG fans out there would scoff without trying it, but the Pokemon series has actually been a pretty good way to waste time in the past. The frustrating thing is trying to fill that Pokedex though. Mostly, because Nintendo isn't exactly forthcoming in details about events, or they just don't hav...

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Since Adobe released an update (link here) I figured I'd post this up in the hopes of keeping people secure. I'm sure with online gaming being so large, and virtual money being sold using real money, keyloggers and such will definatly appear through this method. In a nutshell, the Flash player ma...

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Ubisoft has revealed that its upcoming Shaun White Snowboarding will use the balance board accessory, almost with the Wiimote when it launches this year. The balance board will be used for controlling direction while the mote will control tricks. A few other games have been noted as supporting...

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The Xbox Marketplace updated with some info for those who would like to check it out First is Atari's Warlords, with a new look! For those who may not have tried it in the past, its essentially a 4 player pong match. OnlineOffline mutliplayer modes and only 5 dollars. (400 points) Not too shab...

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Our kid has been really good lately, so we decided to reward her with a video game. Every time we go into Best Buy she runs right for Mario Kart's Wii Wheel, so I figured it'd be a good thing to pick. If you've played Mario Kart at all on the other consoles, then you know something along the line...

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I'm almost done GTA IV, probably get the chance to do that this weekend, then I'll give my final impressions on it. For now though, I figured I'd post up a quick update on my experiences so far with the Fit. So, how bout OUCH Its not that bad, unless you've largely been out of shape for ...

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The Fit was released last night at midnight for sales in normal retail. I note normal retail, because Nintendo's own stores have been allowed to sell it since Monday. As my post from last week mentioned, this was anticipated to be somewhat hard to find. This would, as I found out last night, depe...

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Game Spot (Click the link next to the title) has up an article detailing info on new info for Guitar Hero 4. Previous announcements indicate Activision trying to move in the direction Harmonix (The original GH creators) already has, vocals and drums. The drum from GH4 though will detect various leve...

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I tend to pick up consoles as quickly as I can. Either launch day, or soon after depending on how finances are and if the console seems worthwhile. Why then have I avoided the PS3 There's been a few reasons that I'll share here, and please, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on a point. I'd lo...

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I talked bout the Wii Fit in my last post, and decided to pick one up for my family. I was planning on just getting one for now to see if we use it and figured pre-ordering would be the way to go with one week before it ships. Apparently, this was a bad idea. For those who don't know, the Fit is...

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One thing I seehear quite often as a parent of a young child is how I should have my child avoid a variety of things. Usually, these are things many adults and teens find to be fun. Various movies, TV shows and everyone's favorite whipping horse Games. While I was growing up, explicit lyrics in...

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Rock Band 2 launches	Wrath of the Lich King	Another pokemon event!
Decent game sale this week	Pokemon event this weekend! Get your Darkrai!	Adobe Flash...get yours fixed NOW.
Wii fit balance board to not be a one trick pony!	Warlords and Sudoku coming to Live tomorrow!	Mario Kart Wii
Wii Fit Update	Wii Fit released to normal retail	Guitar Hero 4 to feature custom tracks
Why I don't own a PS3	Wii Fit...sold out?	Family friendly gaming

Rock Band 2 launches

September 15th 2008 20:17

MTV and Harmonix released what is supposed to be the last Rock Band game to hit.

Originally, we were told they hoped to release only one Rock Band, but a bunch of the features in the game did not ship as they wanted and could not/would not be patched. (World Tour mode for example was....rigid...in what you could do with it and no online) It was a great game IMO, but obviously had its flaws.

Rock Band 2, with a few exceptions, is really looking to be the epitome of what they wanted.

First off, there is no longer the single tour mode as you know it. Quick play is there, but Single Tour is not. Why? Its been rolled into World Tour. That's right, you can now roll up your own one man band. (The game fills in others for you, or you can have others join/leave at any time.)

You're not even forced to stay within one band, even if the creator of another!

Basically, what the above does is break it from its Guitar Hero roots, a very important distinction IMO. Yes, Harmonix started the GH series, but thats now Neversoft's beast. Neversoft has had to imitate Harmonix all along the way so far as well. (And it shows) Even when GH: World Tour hits later this year, they will again be following Harmonix as they are making it an entire band as well. So Harmonix's distancing will just how much more polish they have.

The World Tour mode's only real flaw for many, is that you need to go through it to unlock songs for Quick Play. Its a nagging point, but a decent one none the less due to people wanting to play in a party situation. I really want to jump on Harmonix for this issue, but....

They also made this game incredibly packed with songs. First off, if you have the original Rock Band, for 400 live points (5 dollars) and 1.5 gb of HD space you get the entire original RB tracks minus 3. (Enter Sandman and two covers: Run to the Hills and Paranoid) If you've downloaded any songs for RB1 they also are applied to the game. (No other game has done either of these two things on a console.) You can still hit the store in game and get the older content if you have not either!

MTV has promised any future songs will work in both games as well.

So what does RB2 bring over the original next to the World Tour Online? (Which is huge btw)

Various graphical upgrades, interesting/funny side quests while working on World Tour, "managers/roadies/street teams" etc that can help you with World Tour in various aspects. (making more money, making more fans, opening venues, making more money in place of fans (aka- selling out) etc.

Graphical upgrades sometimes also come with the side quests! One example would be a film student approached my band to make a video when we set up to do a 3 song mystery setlist. They wanted to shoot it in a 60s style vid. We agreed, they randomly gave us one song, and it looked as if we were in an old 60s video. Basicaly colored filters galore, peace signs, swirls, etc. When we finished the song, the original set was still to be done, and we had a new spot show up in the venue showing that we had done the music video, presumably so we could redo it for a higher star count if need be.

There are various ladders in game, as well as challenges and battle of the bands. I've not touched many of these yet, so I don't really know what they do.

Other notable changes are things such as automatic video and audio lag calibration if you have the RB2 Strat. This one is wireless, and apparantly has a microphone embedded so it can pick up the drum beat from the audio source and therefore tell the game the latency. They also have included a variety of cheats and a "no fail" mode for people to play through. (Great for my 6 yr old!) This game also features many more female leads (or female friendly leads)

All in all, the game is definatly worth its purchase price. To make it even sweeter, the 82 songs on the disk will become 102 shortly as Harmonix promised another 20 they couldn't fit on the final disk at the time, for free!

Have to give it 4.5 out of 5. Its not perfect, and I don't think any music games will ever be "perfect" but it really strives to be.

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Rock Band 2 launches