Having moved from playing Guitar Hero in shops, to playing it at a friend’s house, I’m a step closer to buying it (the main issue being that I don’t own a console to play it on).

It’s always been a puzzle to me why there have been so few (if any) U2 songs in the games. So I went to google.

Turns out there is a rumour of a Guitar Hero “U2 Version”.

After reading through February’s EGM, I noticed a little tidbit about a rumored Guitar Hero sequel featuring a band that “rocks in mysterious ways”. Give up?

Think 1991. Think Achtung Baby. It can only be U2.

EGM was right about Guitar Hero Rock the 80s, so Guitar Hero U2 Edition might really be in the works. If there’s been one band that I’ve been waiting to see in Guitar Hero (or Rock Band) it is hands down, U2.

This made my heart beat a little faster. If this happened, it would totally be a system seller for me. Bring it on.

Posted in Gaming, Life's happenings, Pete's Wish List | | 6 Comments »

Science Fiction came another step Closer to Science Fact today, as a teenager with an implant in his head (directly on his brain) was able to play Space Invaders by simply imagining the movements.

Awesome…but also somewhat freaky. I’m imagining the implant from the matrix, though in a wireless world you surely wouldn’t need to stick a plug into your head.

I’ve always imagined the pinnacle of the gaming experience being when you could switch off consciously, and play games or watch movies in an entirely virtual reality.

It may happen in my lifetime.

Bring it on.

Posted in Gaming, Pete's Wish List, Tech | | No Comments »

Occasionally something sparks an interest in my mind, I end up reading a series of tangental articles and get up to my neck in technical details I don’t really care about.

This adventure started with a friend informing me that his Dad had bought a slightly cheaper video card since he was “waiting for the directx 10 cards”.

My first stop was this article which is about Vista and is probably worth reading from the start if you’ve got the time.

Basically what I got from this article is that directx 10, now knows as Direct3D 10 or D3D10, is only going to be available on Vista and is going to take gaming forward hugely (if we’re to believe them).

So, I need to get Vista. It’s apparently coming out in January 2007, and may cost US$99 for an upgrade from XP to the Vista Home Edition.

What was really interesting (though somewhat poorly written) was this forum thread.

Basically, D3D10 cards aren’t out yet. Neither is Vista, neither is the D3D10. However there is a horrible web of interaction that makes buying a gaming computer in the next few months a bit of a gamble.

If you want to play with D3D10, you must have Vista AND a D3D10 card.

If you have Vista but only a DirectX 9 card (even the most expensive cards out today), then it’ll only ever run DirectX 9. You’ll be stuck at this level forever.

If you have XP and a D3D10 card (which you won’t but is a common future-state amongst purchasers) you’re still screwed, since Microsoft won’t be releasing an XP patch to make D3D10 work (hence making you buy Vista).

So the answer most people are coming to is that either you hold off and buy Vista and the first D3D10 card off the rank come January, or you buy something to tide you over until the new cards are all out, and prices have dropped a bit, essentially what my friend’s Dad did.

So what am I going to do? With far more important decisions regarding the next six-twelve months to be made, I doubt upgrading my video card will enter into it, but come Christmas 2007, Vista and an Nvidia 8900 GTX may be on my list.

Posted in Gaming, Pete's Wish List, Tech | | 3 Comments »

On Thursday last week I finally completed, the mammoth download of the Company of Heroes demo.

On Friday I was ‘working from home’ and ‘in between’ ‘work’ I played through the tutorials and single player campaign of the demo.

Now, I’m not going to do a full review, since these sort of reviews are somewhat prevalent.

So why is this post here? Simply to provide the world with the thoughts of another lowly schmuck, an ordinary kiwi gamer with an ordinary unbiased view of the gaming world.

Having said this, I have to enthusiastically say exactly the same thing as all those reviews. This game is simply outstanding.

Want some screenshots?

For the first time in the last six months or so that I have been seriously watching the gaming scene, I am having to resist the temptation to pay the $99 List Price for this RTS.

Forced to quantify why I love this game so much, I would have to list a few things:

• I don’t want to discount the effect of knowing that everyone was already raving about the game
• The graphics are beautiful
• Camera control is very well done. I’m pleased to see that complete maneuverability now seems to be the standard for new RTS games
• Sounds, voice acting and interactivity between squads and the user are solid
• The units you can create, the buildings, the defences and everything in between are very well designed, and can only be described as nearly perfect
• Single player campaign, single player campaign, single player campaign! For too long, I’ve been playing games that understood their popularity to be exclusively based on multiplayer modes. I cried out for well written, story based single player campaigns. I believe I’ve found it in COH.

So, the plan is that all around New Zealand huge throngs of people are picking the game up at retail. They’ll play through the single player in the weeks ahead, and then chuck it on trademe. So in six to eight weeks hopefully I should be able to pick it up for about $60. And hopefully by then I’ll have my extra gig of ram, so it’ll be all good.

Posted in Gaming, Pete's Wish List | | 1 Comment »