Archive for July, 2009
SquatchCast: Now on iTunes!
Jul 28th
We’re pleased to announce that the Silicon Sasquatch podcast (irksomely referred to around these parts as the SquatchCast) is now available for your downloading and subscribing pleasure through the iTunes Music Store. For a one-time price of nothing, every podcast we produce will download straight to your computer and mp3 player of choice.
In other podcast news: We’re set to record episode 2 tonight, and with any luck it’ll be posted sometime on Wednesday.
Please give it a listen and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from some of you; for all we know, nobody else besides us ever reads the site, so even just a “hello” would work wonders for our self-esteem.
Introducing SquatchCast – the Silicon Sasquatch podcast!
Jul 25th
Hey gang!
At long last, we’re ready to unveil the latest branch of the Silicon Sasquatch media empire: The Silicon Sasquatch Podcast! Or, as I’ve taken to calling it, the SquatchCast. Each episode seeks to address one major theme or issue related to video games. Our mission is to deliver a podcast that’s engaging, thought-provoking and entertaining.
What you shouldn’t expect from the podcast:
- Everybody being drunk
- Fart noises
- Long, rambling discussions about what games everyone is playing
This week’s episode is titled The Day the Music Died: Has the rhythm game bubble finally burst? We discuss the future of big-name franchises like Guitar Hero and Rock Band and debate whether the writing’s on the wall or they’re just warming up.
We’re looking to deliver new episodes on a weekly basis, so be sure to subscribe with your RSS or podcast aggregator of your choice!
Enough Is Enough: How to sell (and cope with the loss of) your old, boring games
Jul 20th
Look at it. Isn’t it just lovely?
It’s mine, you know. I just ordered it off Amazon for less than a hundred bucks! And it’s listed for two hundred ninety-nine dollars and ninety-nine cents. But thanks to some astute deal-watching over at Cheap Ass Gamer, I got wind of an offer I couldn’t pass up: By trading in $50 worth of used games to Amazon.com’s Trade-In store, your next video game or video-game accessory (that part’s crucial) purchase will be 50% off. The ION Drum Rocker is probably the most expensive game accessory Amazon offers, and it’s one I’ve been dying to own ever since I first played one almost a year ago.
I didn’t waste any time. Within minutes I was tossing games into piles, not unlike how a monkey organizes its feces — “Must Keep,” “Should Probably Keep So Friends Will Admire Me” and “I’m Not Sure Why I’ve Got This but Maybe It’s Good.” A few quick price checks later and I knew I had more than enough games I could part with to make the deal.
It should have been a no-brainer. But I hesitated, and guilt washed over me.
I couldn’t help but feel that, by completing this heinous ritual, I was splitting my soul into several discrete fragments that forged horcruxes and ensured my immortality. But, well, come on — just look at this drum kit. Who cares about that preserving-one’s-humanity nonsense?
Rock Band Network: You say you want a revolution…
Jul 19th
Anyone who owns the rights to a song and has the master recordings in their possession can put a song up for sale in Rock Band.
Starting this year, musicians will be able to chart their own songs in Rock Band and sell them to other players. (Read Harmonix’s press release here.)
I’ll give you a second to process that.
In my opinion, this is the biggest gaming news story of the year.
There’s not much else that needs to be said, really, but I wanted to weigh in with this: With Rock Band Network, Rock Band has become the most significant gaming platform for user-generated creative content.
This glowing post might seem a little ironic, seeing as it follows my earlier (and final) pep talk I could muster for the Guitar Hero franchise. After all, GHTunes amounted to little more than a distraction with its frustrating sequencing mechanics and limited MIDI instrumentation.
What Harmonix is on the brink of creating is something as significant as Napster or iTunes were to music — and to the music industry. With tools available to anyone with a hundred bucks to cover the XNA Creators Club fee and the ability to chart notes in a MIDI application, Rock Band Network is truly an open marketplace. And thanks to the buffer of a required peer-review process before songs are greenlit, bands of all genres and sizes can stand to benefit from intimate exposure thanks to the engaging, hands-on nature of Rock Band.
With this step, Rock Band truly has come into its own as a legitimate platform – just as it aspired to be from the beginning – and not just a game with a mere six hundred downloadable songs.
Guitar Hero 5: Same As It Ever Was?
Jul 14th
Unassuming box art adorns the latest Guitar Hero reprisal. Are we due for some pleasant surprises, or is what we're seeing just what we'll get this September?
I always feel a little guilty for chastising Neversoft’s decisions in guiding the Guitar Hero franchise since it picked up the reins in 2007. It’s almost certain the studio has been under a lot of pressure for years from publisher Activision’s growing dependence on expanding and exploiting franchises at a fever pitch — just look at the decline in quality as the Tony Hawk franchise relentlessly iterated upon itself.
So try to imagine how Neversoft’s staff must have felt when Activision dumped what was arguably the biggest name in gaming fresh into its lap and demanded the biggest, best sequel to be built from scratch in less than a year. That’s probably more or less what happened when Harmonix and Activision/Red Octane parted ways in late 2006.
That’s no mean feat, especially when you consider that Neversoft also had to compete against the Guitar Hero series’ originator, Harmonix, and its debut of the genre-expanding Rock Band franchise. Yet despite better name recognition, higher sales numbers and a marketing campaign to rival MTV/Harmonix’s own, it all comes down to this: Neversoft’s Guitar Hero games just aren’t as good as the Guitar Heros and Rock Bands that Harmonix put out.
We haven’t forgotten you
Jul 13th
Dear Readers,
I want to apologize. It’s been weeks since we’ve written anything, and you’re probably in the dark as to why.
Well, the short version is we’re all in pretty time-consuming situations of our own:
- Doug just started graduate school,
- Nick’s working full-time and trying his hardest to get into the gaming industry,
- and Aaron’s on the cusp of moving to Portland to begin his job search anew
Those are the excuses we’ve got, anyway. And while they really do account for a significant part of the site’s stagnation, there’s more to it than that.
We’ve lost sight of our purpose in blogging here. We set out to do something different from every other gaming blog we knew and loved (or acknowledged and hated, occasionally) and instead we ended up resorting to the same routine — churning out lengthy, comprehensive (and sometimes terribly boring) reviews of games and almost-daily news regurgitations that fell short of the high standards of informed opinion, polish and sharp analysis we’d hoped to deliver. Basically, we were overwhelmed by the workload and the mundane nature of the process, and we knew we needed to evolve the site or we’d all burn out.
So we’ve been taking a little time to do our own things, and I’ve been thinking about how to reboot the whole thing.
We’re not there quite yet, but I hope that if you’ve stuck with us this far, you’re not about to give up yet.
In the meantime, please subscribe to our RSS feed so you’ll be informed the second we get our act together.
And one last thing: We really want to know what you think of the work we’ve done so far. Anything you love or hate, things you’d like to see more or less of, suggestions, anything — please drop us a line. You can comment on this post, send us a direct message on Twitter, or email any of us — our addresses are just our first name at siliconsasquatch dot com.
Thanks again! We hope to be back and doing what we love to do soon.
Cheers,
Nick