Oh, the world warriors!

Enough of this nonsense, on to the backlog!

Frankenstein's monster entices us with his modelling skills.

Aaron

I’ve been on a major Mass Effect 2 bender for the past week and a half. It was time for me to finally finish the review I started back in February, which was a humbler, simpler time. Ah, February of 2010…it feels so long ago. So if you haven’t read the review yet, and you’re into reading about games that are far removed from the normal news cycle, go look at it. Shameless self-promotion isn’t something I do often, so you should all feel privileged.

Outside of gallivanting across the universe with Shepard and Co. (sounds like a wonderful manufacturing company, doesn’t it?), I’ve had a wonderful time playing Splinter Cell: Conviction with my friend Matt. (He asked for a shout-out, so he gets one.) We completed the co-op story on realistic difficulty at 11:30 last night, and the process was extremely fast considering we’ve played a lot of the game lately. The cooperative experience is very satisfying in Conviction. I recommend it.

Nick and I also started Borderlands’ The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned this week. We played only two or so hours of it, but what I’ve seen was refreshing to say the least. As much as we liked Borderlands, we didn’t love it. Our review demonstrates that fact. So it pleases me to discover that Zombie Island has a radically different design palette than the core game because all of the original’s browns and grays are dull and uninteresting.

Oh, I also downloaded the trial for Guild Wars. I don’t know why. There’s a nine-hour limit on it. Aside from timed Xbox Live demos, I don’t think I’ve heard of such a short (read: pointless) length of time for a demo — MMOs generally do a week to 10 day free trial, which is much more fair to the experience.

And…and…a friend gave me a beta key for StarCraft II last night. I’ve installed the program, but have yet to run it. Sunday is when I’m supposed to partake in online combat alongside this friend. We’ll see how bad I suck in 2v2. Details to follow.

PES 2010 not only plays well on the pitch, but gets so many details right off of it.

Doug

Time is on my side this week. I’ve been able to get in a lot of PES 2010 this week — enough to start going through withdrawals whenever I can’t get a hit every four hours — and a bit of Forza Motorsport 3 as well.

I’ve finally wrapped my head around how to play really well in PES, and also how to find what I’m looking for in the menu structure. While I’m glad for the changes Konami’s made to the game, it took a while to dig through and translate things to my existing Winning Eleven/PES vocabulary. Many of the changes have been for the better — the new scouting format is thorough and a great extension of the way one would previously find new players for your team. As well, the creation of a “youth team” to filter regenerated players into your squad is much, much better than trying to look at a “new players” page in WE9. It retains the features PES’ Master League featured in the past, while adding new twists and a fresh coat of paint.

It’s hard to say that Forza 3 is an old friend, but it’s been around since October…which is and isn’t a long time in gaming. Jumping back in to Forza, I rediscovered both how fun the game engine is, how expansive and creative the paint editor allows you to be, and how much fun it can be to race online.

Speaking of racing online, the demo for Activision and Bizarre Creations’ Blur is out on Xbox Live, and it’s really, really damned fun. Think Bizarre’s previous series, Project Gotham Racing, mixed with Mario Kart’s frantic pace and use of weapons. The “boosts” in Blur are a bit less cartoony than the Nintendo series’ shells and banana peels, but just as effective; more importantly you can stock up three of them at once and switch between them at the fly. The game has real cars and glitzy circuits inspired by real locales, but — most importantly — has multiplayer modes hosting up to 10 players to race and talk shit and have fun. I played for an hour or so a couple nights ago with friends, and it was awesome.

Lastly, Nick and I headed in to downtown Portland to play at Ground Kontrol’s Rock Band Tuesday this week, but I think we’ll have more on that at a later time.

T. Hawk finally returns to the series, but it's not as though anyone really missed him. Dude's a jerk.

Nick

I can’t fathom why Blazers fans are still mourning their team’s loss in the first round of the playoffs. Sure, it’s a tragic ending for an underdog team with so much potential, but that’s in the past! Like, several-days-ago past! Everyone should be pumped to the bejesus because, as of this week, Street Fighter season is officially underway. And thanks to a stellar re-balanced reissue in Super Street Fighter IV, the series has never been in finer form. And all you holdouts and naysayers ought to listen up, because there’s never been a better time to dig into one of the deepest and most rewarding fighting games out there.

With its robust matchmaking features and variety of online play modes, Super Street Fighter IV makes it easier than ever to hop online and get your ass thoroughly kicked within seconds. But thanks to a relatively simple moveset with untold layers of depth and a pretty good training mode, you’ll be picking up the nuances of combat after just a few matches. You’ll begin to learn how to read enemies and to get a sense for what moves counter which attacks. And most importantly, you’ll get a sense for what makes a decades-old fighting game still feel so fun and fresh — and if you’re like me, you’ll find the allure hard to resist.

So go grab a copy — it’s a mere $40, after all — and hop on Xbox Live so you and I can throw down on a match or two. Feel free to send any fight requests to whymog; I’m always eager for a match.

I kinda got carried away with Photoshop this week. You see, Rico Rodriguez, the protagonist from the Just Cause games, is chaotically belly-flopping into a child’s sandbox, which serves a visual metaphor for the open-world adventures he stars in. Hence the headline.

With that out of the way, I can tell you this edition of our beloved (by some — maybe our mothers) Backlog pertains to Nick’s first aural experiencing of Axis: Bold as Love, Doug’s dusting off of the old Xbox after his adventures in Asia and my unbelieving satisfaction from playing a ton of Just Cause 2.

Imagine the sound of high-performance machines vying for 1st place while looking at this photo

Doug:

And I thought returning to classes after winter break was hard. Adjusting to being at home in the United States, versus being in various hotels around Asia, has taken some doing — never mind doing it while returning to graduate school classes AND trying to fight jet lag.

I’ve taken a bit of refuge in gaming to relieve stress, and because I hadn’t fired up my Xbox 360 in a month! I spent a little bit of time finding Pocari Sweat and JR East logos on the storefront for my cars in Forza 3, driving around Shinjuku and Shibuya in Project Gotham Racing 4 and worked on my second Mass Effect 2 playthrough for a short time as well.

What took more free time, though, was PES 2010 — I’m fully re-addicted to Konami’s soccer games, and it feels good. Along with that, I spent time on Tuesday playing a bit of Rock Band 2 for the first time in a while. Nick reminded me that a Jimi Hendrix Experience album, Axis: Bold as Love, was being released for the game last week; I haven’t been following RB2′s DLC schedule as much as I had in years past, and haven’t been as excited for new songs since the middle of last summer. It felt really good to hop on, get an invite from Nick to rock, and get some play time in. I’d been thinking about hosting a Rock Band 2 party at some point this spring; that’s definitely going to happen now. (Editor’s note: I’m totally going to be there!)

Artist's interpretation of Hendrix enjoying his music in Rock Band

Nick:

With Final Fantasy XIII and all its broken promises having been returned to the shelf, I’m back to actually having fun with the games I play — fancy that!

My love affair with Just Cause 2 (or, as my girlfriend derisively calls it, “Lost Cause”) continues to burn passionately. It’s just a big, stupid game with more than a few clever ideas and a heart of gold, and I can’t recommend it enough to anyone with an appetite for destruction and a flair for open-ended game mechanics.

In order to make up for the hours of excruciating voice acting and mindless violence that dominate my Just Cause 2 playtime, I’ve been spending a good amount of time playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii co-operatively. Now that we’ve finally beaten the game (which, by the way, featured the most difficult Bowser fight in any Mario game I can think of) we’ve begun the exhausting task of hunting down every single star coin in order to tackle the stages in World 9. It’s a real credit to Nintendo’s ingenuity that I’m still avidly playing a Mario game months after its release.

But the best surprise this week was the latest batch of Rock Band songs, including the entire Jimi Hendrix album Axis: Bold as Love. I’ll be honest — I never knew much about Jimi Hendrix’s music. Other than a handful of songs like “Fire,” “Hey Joe” and his cover of Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower,” the closest I ever got to Hendrix was the time I broke the rules and touched his guitar on display at the Experience Music Project. (Please don’t sue me, Mr. Allen.) I’ve found that playing songs in Rock Band is often one of the best ways to gain an appreciation for an artist, and Axis didn’t disappoint. Doug and I both grabbed the album and played through the vast majority of it, and it hooked me immediately. It’s the rare song collection that speaks for itself, and it’s an infinitely replayable addition to any Rock Band collection — or MP3 library, for that matter. Definitely don’t pass this one up.

Rico does his best flying squirrel impression high above the waters of Panau

Aaron:

I’m a dabbler in the realm of videogames. I dabble. It’s good to keep things varied, in my humble opinion. For example, this week my gaming time has been split between four vastly different games: Final Fantasy XIII, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Pokémon HeartGold and Just Cause 2. The former two games have been discussed at length in previous Backlogs, so I’ll talk about the newcomers.

Pokémon means a lot to me, as far as games go. When Red and Blue first released here in the U.S. in 1998 I was 12, and highly impressionable. My friends and I watched the cartoon, played the games and collected the cards. With the onset of puberty we became a bit more reserved in our enjoyment of the merchandising, but the games continued to hold a lofty place — in my mind at least. The enjoyment of an extremely simple goal, to catch them all, has stayed with me throughout the years, and it’s forced me to buy almost all of the various new games in an attempt to recapture the mystique and newness experienced through the original games. From Gold and Silver to Diamond and Pearl, I’ve bought at least one of the subsequent games, and each time I slip back into the catch-crazed mindset I first felt 12 years ago. The recent release of HeartGold has brought those feelings to the surface again for a sixth time, but each time I arrive in the world of pocket monsters on a quest to defeat a new set of gym leaders, thwart the evil machinations of another group of criminals and capture one more unique cover-photo Pokémon, the thrill of it all diminishes a little bit more. Economics 101 wasn’t lying when it told me all about the law of diminishing returns, though it would probably be unhappy with how I’m using the concept as a metaphor for my wavering commitment to a child’s videogame series.

I love HeartGold (and I prefer Ho-Oh to Lugia [yes, I know their names still]), and though it may be a rehash of a game from 2000, it’s still a rehash of a great game from 2000. The new/old batch of poké-creatures are second only to the original 150 (or 151, depending on which kid in the GameStop you ask) in their design factor. Chikorita, I can assure you, is bad ass. If you fancy yourself even the most fair-weather of Pokémon fans, you should pick up HeartGold or SoulSilver. It’s still great fun, but I can’t help feeling less and less impressed with the formula as the years go by. Maybe it’s time to go all Pepsi on us and try something new, o’ great minds at the Pokémon Company.

Onto the topic of Just Cause 2. Are you readers prepared to read a heaping pile of praise? You should get ready to, right now. All set? Okay.

Just Cause 2 is, as of this writing, my new favorite game of 2010. Forget Mass Effect 2, disregard Final Fantasy XIII, ignore Bayonetta and scoff at God of War III — Just Cause 2 is my kind of game, and I’ll tell you why.

A lot of videogames work hard to fill-in the blanks of your imagination and answer the questions you might have by the time the credits slide down the screen. Developers don’t always intend to make gamers confused by ignoring this one iota of information here or that plot point there; sometimes it simply happens throughout the development process and gamers are left to figure things out themselves on fan fiction sites and hardcore forums in an effort to tie together all of the threads dangling in front of them. So while I’m enthralled by the history and culture of Mass Effect’s universe, and appreciate the great lengths BioWare has gone to cover all of their creation’s bases, I don’t necessarily want the story to be told for me. On occasion I enjoy imagining a narrative and plot structure by myself — personal motivations for my character to do whatever he or she is doing at that point in time.

Left 4 Dead and its sequel are good examples of that self-created narrative because the series’ mythos is so vaguely explained. You’re allowed to decide exactly what type of shady life Nick (the character, not the legal assistant) lead before he was dragged into the zombie apocalypse, or why Bill has what looks like stains of SpaghettiOs on his shirt. The gamer answers the questions of his own accord, and that design strategy pleases me greatly. Which brings me to Just Cause 2, and how it encourages my mind to run wild with imaginative motivations for blowing up helicopters, swimming to an island in the middle of the water and enjoying the beautifully rendered sunrise atop the highest peak in Panau.

Call me a dreamer — or some dude who thinks too hard about his games — but 90 percent of the fun I’ve had in Just Cause 2 has been in exploring the gorgeous landscape of Panau and putting myself into the game — doing what I’d do if I had that much freedom to romp across a series of island paradises as I pleased (and with no possible need for traveler’s checks). I’m not playing as the protagonist Rico on his quest to assassinate a despotic president; the main plot is paper-thin and far too easy to disregard. I’ve instead removed any of the preexisting narrative and simply traversed the 400 square miles of land, sea and air to seek out my own exciting preoccupations.

I wonder how long it would take to grappling-hook climb that mountain? Let’s test it out. Hey, maybe that desolate, unpaved road goes somewhere cool. Nice — I found an ancient native temple with weapon upgrade parts. There’s an entire digital country to explore, and everything I’ve seen in Panau during the past 20 hours (I work fast: I just got it on Wednesday) has kept me wanting to see more. And in all that time, I’ve only completed two of the main missions.

Now, all of this virtual wanderlust wouldn’t be enjoyable if the core mechanics failed to work right, but thankfully Avalanche Studios has made a top-tier game that controls, sounds, looks and performs far above average. Just Cause 2 is exactly why I play games: to explore new and different worlds on my own terms. I of course enjoy the story-heavy linear experience when it’s well done (i.e., BioShock 2, Prince of Persia and Batman: Arkham Asylum), but ever since I played Grand Theft Auto III, and EverQuest shortly thereafter, in 2001, the games that taste sweetest to me are of the sandbox variety. Let me do what I want, and I’ll have a great time.

If Rockstar can hurry up with Red Dead Redemption, 2010 will become one highlight of a year for my sort of games.

Without further ado, onto the Backlog…

Was I the only one whose parents used to grab them by the belt loop back in the day? That's a good way to control somebody. Nice to see Ubisoft (and ACII protagonist Ezio) taking note, too.

Aaron

After my glowing account of Ghostbusters: The Video Game in last week’s backlog, I quickly kicked Slimer and company to the curb after opening the neon green eco-case containing Assassin’s Creed II. For an entire week, Ubisoft’s much-improved sequel has remained in my Xbox 360′s disc drive, lodged in the retracting plastic mouth like a popcorn kernel. However, unlike an actual pesky and potentially gingiva-damaging kernel, Assassin’s Creed II is a-freakin’-mazing, and part of a balanced gaming diet.

This is the game that the first Assassin’s Creed wanted to be, and the team at Ubisoft Montreal worked hard to make it feel that way. They’ve made missions bigger, more fun and decimated any trace of the original’s tedium. Ezio Auditore da Firenze, the protagonist, is a realistic character with a distinct personality and unique motives; he’s a digitized Renaissance ladies’ man that I can’t help but find likable. The weapon selection is genius in its variety and detailed attack animations, and the less blatant aspects, like hiring mercenaries, prostitutes or thieves to distract a city’s hired goons who guard a precious stash of treasure chests, make a memorable impact. Assassin’s Creed II is a game with so many moments I won’t ever forget, and, perhaps unfortunate for other action adventure titles, I’ll be using those to judge future titles’ value. Oh, and I still haven’t finished the game as of this writing.

One complaint, though: Leonardo da Vinci’s flying machine segment. It was pretty lame. Of course that’s my opinion, but really: After all the hype the flying machine garnered back in the spring during the game’s slow unveiling, I was expecting more than an annoying checkpoint-to-checkpoint ordeal via multiple bonfires lit across Venice to help propel your glider back into the air as you float ever closer to your assassination target. The very brief mission played like it was designed by the mentally handicapped cousin of a designer from Pilotwings 64.

Favorite Italian phrase of the week: Requiescat in pace.

Bayonetta, caught in a rare moment of quiet solitude in one of the most crazy action games of the current console generation.

Nick

I’ve been a bit deprived of my regular gaming habits lately, but I have managed to sneak in a bit more time with Dragon Age: Origins and Bayonetta. I still haven’t finished either, but there’s little doubt in my mind that they represent the absolute best in their respective genres.

I’m also only about five songs away from having five-starred every song on expert in DJ Hero, which just goes to show how dangerously addicted I become when a great rhythm game comes along.

Finally, I caught up on some Rock Band songs, including the White Stripes and Paul McCartney packs. Harmonix has maintained a constant stream of great new songs over the last two-plus years. Now, if only Rock Band Network would hurry up and launch…

Holy sideways driving, Batman. 700-plus horsepower Audi Sport Quattros are not exactly easy to control, especially on Forza 3's narrow Amalfi Coast circuit.

Doug

I’m not going to lie: much like Nick, I’ve had very little time to game this week. Having something going every night for school this week has crushed my free time, but I’m really hoping to have some more time to myself next week.

However, I did spend some good time with one of the usual suspects, Forza Motorsport 3, including spending a couple hours on Tuesday night. Friend of the site Peter is far from a diehard racer, but he rented Forza 3 on something of a whim; first he calls to see if it’s something he’d like, then he caught me on Xbox Live and told me he’d just poured three hours into the game…and was loving the experience. We spent some time racing online against the computer for a while, discussing progression from sim-racing newbie to veteran, and Peter left convinced this was a great game. I’m just glad to help!

I’ve also been sneaking in games of the original NBA Jam in the mornings before leaving for class. Inspired by the recent confirmation of the series’ return, I’ve been revisiting the original (as well as the Tournament Edition follow-up that’s basically NBA Jam 1.5), and really trying to break apart what made the game fun. This might pop up later as the center of an editorial, but NBA Jam succeeds so well because it’s such a simple, focused experience — there’s no fat and no unneeded difficulty or complexity. As well, the controls and game engine both feel very taut; the game responds quickly to your inputs and you’re rarely caught fighting the game for control.

Because I need the rest, I’m going to spend the weekend stapled to the couch, so I may very well finally beat Batman: Arkham Asylum, and get to spend some time with other games.

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

With December and its myriad holidays out of the way, everybody’s got something to keep them busy. Doug’s back to work on his master’s program, Aaron has transformed into a job-applying machine, and I’ve thankfully found a job once again. Unfortunately, that means we all have a whole lot less time to be playing games, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to turn a blind eye to our sacred obligation to Silicon Sasquatch. Don’t worry! We’ve got a couple great articles that are almost ready for publication, and we’re anticipating a full run of content next week.

In the meantime, here’s what we’ve been keeping ourselves busy with.

Aaron wouldn't say 'I ain't afraid of no ghosts': he has much less bravado toward specters than you might think.

Aaron:

Now, the game I actually have something say about is Ghostbusters: The Video Game. Maybe it’s because I only paid a meager $12.99 at GameFly’s used game store (with free shipping), but I can’t help but like what I’ve seen. I’m perhaps halfway though the story now, and while the camera and controls are a bit rough around the edges, Ghostbusters is pure fun for fans of the movies. It’s by no means perfect, and that’s fine. The humor is there, the attention to detail in the firehouse headquarters is there, the proton packs are spot-on and the thrill of catching a ghost in a trap still makes me giggle just like my 6-year-old self used to with my toy Nerf proton pack and authentic jumpsuit. Ghostbusters is simple fun layered over a strong IP, and I truly hope Atari gives Terminal Reality another shot in future sequel. Maybe when the third movie finally (maybe) sees release next year, a tie-in game could coincide with the film’s debut.

In case you'd like some added context, here's what's happening. Man on the left: "Colonel! What have you been hiding from me!?" Man in giant robot: "Snaaaaaaaaaaake!"

Doug:

Much like Aaron, I’m just going to list out most of what I played over our holiday break because, being a degenerate graduate student, I had almost nothing productive to do between Thanksgiving and this week, when classes re-started up in earnest. Because that means a lot of time to play games, I’m just going to cut the fat and go list-happy.

I finished Brütal Legend (which seemed like it lost its storytelling steam a bit at the very end) and am close to finishing Batman: Arkham Asylum (trap-laden gargoyles are my kryptonite right now). I almost have what the gentlemen at Giant Bomb would term an “S-rank” (or 1000/1000 achievement score) on Forza Motorsport 3, which I also did a lot of online racing on during the break. I was definitely happy to hit Level 50 in that game and get the last gifted car.

The only game really worth the meagre Xbox Live sale over the holiday break was Marvel vs. Capcom 2, which was marked down to almost 60 percent off the regular list price and is worth every penny. Better than arcade-perfect, with every character unlocked from the start and online multiplayer capable? Yes, please. I also received a kind gift in the form of Shadow Complex, which scratches my Metroid-vania itch in so many ways. Definitely one of the best Xbox 360-only games of last year.

Lastly, my sports game fix has come in two forms — first, as part of multiple trips to downtown Portland old-school arcade Ground Kontrol, I’ve fulfilled my basketball jones by playing a bunch of NBA Jam. Nick and I (and friend of the site Andrew) went to GK on New Year’s Eve, and besides crushing the X-Men 6-player arcade game, the most fun had was running the two-man game with the Blazers on NBA Jam. The other sports game I picked up was, finally, Pro Evo Soccer 2010…which definitely lives up to the expectations I had for it based off my playtime with the demo. It may not be as pretty as FIFA 10, but it provides a much more challenging and fulfilling soccer experience. Crank the difficulty all the way up and enjoy smart AI in a sports game for once.

The story of a witch, her hair, and gratuitous almost-nudity. This is gonna be awkward.

Nick:

As a test to see who’s interested in the blog, I offered up a vote on our Facebook page to ask people which game they’d rather see me purchase and review first: Demon’s Souls or Bayonetta. Although there was support for both, Bayonetta got the nod and I picked up a copy last night. While I’ve only had time to play about ten minutes of the game, those ten minutes were extraordinarily promising. I just hope the game’s rampant, bizarre sexuality doesn’t weird out my friends and loved ones.

The majority of my free time has been spent on — yeah, you guessed it — Dragon Age: Origins. I keep thinking I’m getting close to the end, and then another 15-hour sequence of quests pops up. I’m absolutely enamored with the game, so I think I won’t have any complaints if it turns out the game just never ends.

While our Top 10 Games of 2009 deserve attention for their overall excellence, we can’t neglect this year’s other fantastic games — titles that just missed the final cut. Be it their charm or presentation, our Honorable Mentions were simply hard to forget. We’ve arrived at the final installment in our five-part series with Nick’s list of honorable mentions.

There’s been an ongoing joke about how I was the only person here who played every single game on our top ten list. While it’s a testament to my superhuman persuasive abilities, it also raises some questions about how I spend my time and money. In my defense, this was probably the single best year ever for high-quality games in both the mainstream and the independent scenes.

Below is a list of the few games that couldn’t make the list, either because nobody else at Silicon Sasquatch had played them — or because the poor fools didn’t know what they were missing.

Machinarium

October — Windows, Mac

2009 was the best year for adventure games in a very long time. With Telltale dishing out five episodes of a brand-new Monkey Island series and LucasArts providing a lovingly crafted remake of the classic Secret of Monkey Island, those of us who dream in dialog trees were pleased as punch with the selection on offer this year. The only downside was that most of the games were mere iterations on old franchises and design principles.

Except for Machinarium.

The first full-length game from Czech developer Amanita Design, Machinarium is the story of a little robot and his journey to be reunited with his metallic sweetheart. The game stands out from its peers for a number of reasons — such as the beautiful, stylish artwork and great soundtrack — but what’s most notable is that it manages to tell a story without a single word. Characters communicate with wild gesticulation and cartoon thought bubbles, adding an immense amount of personality to an already charming world. It’s the best adventure game released this year, and it comes with my highest recommendation.

Street Fighter IV

February — Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows

Sakura leaps over a bewildered Ken while a fat child rejoices

I’m what you might call a casual fighting game fan. I know and love the classics like Street Fighter II Turbo, Soul Calibur and Marvel vs. Capcom 2, but I’ve never invested in the time or hardware to rise to a true competitive level. The amount of manual dexterity, patience and practice required to learn how to use a character’s moves wisely is part of a fighting game’s enduring value, but for whatever reason it never clicked with me as a fun way to spend my time.

Street Fighter IV converted me to the world of the hardcore fighter with its fine-tuned roster of exaggerated personalities and remarkably well-paced learning curve. I started out just playing a few versus rounds with friends and playing a few games against the computer, but over time I began to see hints of just how deeply strategic the game could be. Before I knew it, I was spending hours grinding out the challenge modes to master a few of my favorite fighters. As of this writing, I’ve played more than 200 online matches and logged a grand total of 43 hours — and that’s in a game where a round takes just a few seconds!

DJ Hero

October — Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2

I’m a pretty fierce critic of Guitar Hero, and with good reason: Ever since Harmonix and RedOctane/Activision split ways after Guitar Hero 2, the series has failed to even come within reach of its former quality. Iteration after iteration and band-specific spinoff after spinoff, Guitar Hero has all but rendered itself irrelevant.

So you can imagine my surprise when a brand-new Hero game showed up this October and it wound up being excellent. FreeStyleGames managed to launch a new music franchise with all the right ingredients: an excellent soundtrack, a solid and rewarding learning curve and a sturdy, enjoyable turntable controller. The only thing lacking was a more robust interface to help organize gigs and add some weight to the single-player experience. But with a sequel almost certainly on the way, I’m certain FreeStyleGames has great things in the works.

The only downside? Having “Poison” by Bell Biv Devoe permanently lodged in my brain. Actually, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

Assassin’s Creed 2

November — Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

A presto, Ezio

It’s a shame we couldn’t squeeze Assassin’s Creed II into our top ten list. Although I was a huge fan of the original Assassin’s Creed, its repetitive mechanics and somewhat stunted narrative didn’t appeal to everyone. Fortunately, Ubisoft Montreal did the impossible by addressing just about every complaint that was leveled against its predecessor and producing a sequel that appealed both to fans and detractors of the original game.

I rarely take the time to complete 100% of the tasks available in a game anymore, but with its breathtaking, living cities and excellent pacing — a rarity in games with open worlds — I was compelled to find every last feather and treasure box within Renaissance Italy. Fortunately, with more downloadable content on the way, I won’t have to hang up my white cloak and daggers just yet.

Rock Band 2

September…of 2008 — Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2

Just so we’re clear: Rock Band 2 came out in September of 2008. As in, it’s not a game from this year, and it technically has no business being on this list. But thanks to exceptional downloadable song support throughout the year and a patch that offered a number of significant improvements to the core experience, Rock Band 2 was the rare game that only got better with age. And with Rock Band Network launching in just a few weeks, the floodgates show no signs of closing. Based on my experiences participating in the closed Rock Band Network beta, there are a lot of interesting songs in the pipeline that are being peer reviewed and polished to the point where most are indistinguishable in quality from the weekly releases Harmonix has been putting out. It was easily my most-played game of 2009, and it’s all but guaranteed to dominate my living room in 2010.

—

And to round out the list, I’ve included a few games that may not have much enduring value but stand out for providing some truly exceptional moments:

• Windosill – discovering just how much fun a game can be when the player is encouraged to stop and smell the roses
• Bejeweled Blitz — competing in weekly tournaments against friends in sixty-second bursts makes it easily the most addictive experience of the year
• Red Faction: Guerrilla — demolishing an entire military-industrial institution with a single sledgehammer

DJ Hero has a dedicated Flavor Flav button. Well, no; it’s technically a “sample” button that triggers a set of predetermined samples when playing a mix. But unfortunately, the default sample set is the first of two sets of Flavor Flav clips, including the infamous “Yeahhhhh boyyyyyyyeeeee!”

Experts agree that Flavor Flav can present a number of daunting questions that are difficult for a young child’s mind to process. We’re pleased to announce our upcoming parent’s guide to teaching your child the truth about Flavor Flav — and why he isn’t so scary after all.

Unfortunately, we still haven’t figured out how to just make him go away.

Aaron's confronting some tough questions about himself this week. He asked me to make this image link to a, uh, helpful YouTube video. Enjoy.

Aaron:

“Get money, get paid.” It’s a classic pursuit-of-happiness phrase, a self-evident truth we should all adhere to. Without money, we aren’t getting paid, no? And what does one do when this “paid” status is finally reached? I don’t know about you, but in that position I’d feel accomplished and willing to purchase exorbitant varieties of goods. Maybe, once I was “paid,” I could afford to buy contraptions such as a gold-plated PlayStation 3. However, I’m currently not getting money, and as a result I’m not getting paid. So I must use the little resources I have to intelligently scour for deals on games I’m interested in.

The point is, you should see my Google calendar. For the past few months I’ve persistently added upcoming game deals to my calendar, and other things like free Xbox 360 themes and avatar rewards. Websites like Cheap Ass Gamer are excellent tools to help you save cash. Digital distribution services on the PC have shown me throughout 2009 that you should never pay full price for any game, big or small. There have been simply too many noteworthy deals from Steam, Direct 2 Drive and Impulse to list in this backlog.

So, I’ve been playing my old games lately, getting as much mileage out of them as possible while I wait for other titles to drop their price; Modern Warfare 2, Rock Band 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 were my sources of entertainment this past week. All those number twos are starting to look like a math problem by the way: (MW²) x (RB²) x (L4D²) = Enjoyment/Time. Clearly I know nothing about math anymore, but I’m basically implying that the more I play these games — two-thirds of which are still very new — the more I feel I’m getting my money’s worth. And as far as Left 4 Dead 2, Nick and I joined up with two other people for the four pack Steam discount, bringing the grand total of each PC copy to $33.75. Like I said, don’t pay full price for anything, if possible. Oh, and I got Modern Warfare 2 as a gift. So, that doesn’t really count.

The rest of December is looking fantastic for cheap gaming. Christmas gifts are an obvious focus, but soon Direct2Drive’s “24 Days of Christmas” sale (where a new game is on sale for 24 hours each day, and it’s generally 50% off its normal price) will be featuring Torchlight and Machinarium, each for $10. Having played the demos for both, I’m extremely tempted to just pay full price right now so I can satiate my crazed hunger. But, without getting “paid,” I’ll hold out for the $10-per-title sale on D2D. Also, Xbox LIVE Arcade will be briefly dropping the price of Shadow Complex (a game we expertly discussed on a past podcast, if I may be so bold) for a week, from $15 to $10 starting December 21st (or from 1200 to 800). I’ll finally snatch that up too.

In an optimal situation, I wouldn’t hesitate to pay talented developers every penny they deserve, but I’m not in an optimal situation. They’re still getting my money in the end. And that’s better than resorting to pirating, right?

Doug shot a video on his iPhone 3G S of me playing "Groundhog" by Noisia on expert, arguably the toughest song in the game. Not pictured: Me doing pretty terrible after the first thirty seconds.

Doug:

So now that the strange trailing finals week is complete, it’s time to play some damn games.

I paid co-managing editor Nick a visit earlier this week and got to give DJ Hero a try. And I now believe the hype that Nick has been giving it the last few weeks. It’s so easy to dismiss the game — especially given Activision’s recent track record with music games — but it’s actually, from my brief impression, very well thought-out and put together. The aesthetic is interesting and makes sense with the music on tap; the licensed characters spinning records for you look great (especially Daft Punk); and, most importantly, it’s a very fun game to play. Giving the fake wheel of steel a spin on medium, I felt active but not totally overwhelmed at first — there’s a lot going on in the game, but it feels manageable. It scratches the multi-tasking, switch on the fly itch that many other great games get right as well.

DJ Hero feels like the sort of evolution of the Konami Beatmania games that the original Guitar Hero was of Guitar Freaks. Besides lending a more Western touch to the soundtrack (Anglo-American rock for GH, American hip-hop and electronic music for DJH), both games also evolve the core gameplay mechanic while retaining the basic concept — and the difficulty. Watching Nick take a stab at one of the hardest sets in the game on Hard drove in not just how deep the gameplay here can be, but also how fun it is to watch somebody proficient at a music game.

I also FINALLY started up Batman: Arkham Asylum, borrowed from Nick as well given my free time. God is it good; the only real complaint I have is that you can definitely tell it’s an Unreal Engine game — it’s got that ugly plastic doll look to the characters, especially when the camera pulls up close during cinematics. The gameplay…man, I can’t say enough good about it. The controls fall right to hand simply and easily, everything works like it should, and the puzzles and set-pieces the storyline guide you through are interesting and very fun to play. Looking forward to continuing on with the game and seeing what waits later on. What an experience.

Also got more time into NCAA 10, Forza Motorsport 3, and Brütal Legend, the latter of which I’m re-warming up to despite its (numerous) gameplay flaws. Forza 3 saw a DLC pack drop this week, and I feel like a total consumer whore for giving in to temptation….but it’s so good. 11 more cars for the game, including a few more super-advanced racing cars…mmmm. Awesome.

Apparently it's okay to feature a violently racist character in a game so long as she never refers to her scapegoat by the real-world name.

Nick:

I bet you thought I was gonna talk about DJ Hero! Yeah, it’s a blast, and I’m getting close to five-starring every song on expert, but it wasn’t the biggest draw for me this week.

My PlayStation 3 and I haven’t always been on the best of terms. I succumbed to her siren song last summer when the temptation of a Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle and the short-lived ecstasy of being a college graduate motivated me to pick one up and see what this HDMI nonsense was all about. While it has since proved itself to be the absolute best DVD upscaler I’ve ever seen (really — it’s gorgeous), most of the console-exclusive games Sony fans have boasted about have all struck me as lackluster. LittleBigPlanet, though bursting with charm, wasn’t as tight to control or easy to navigate as it should have been; InFamous was a marvelous platformer with an unforgivably terrible story with characters even a mother couldn’t love; and Resistance 2 and Killzone 2 were both gorgeous and perfectly playable, but nowhere near as memorable for me as the Halo or Gears of War franchises.

Somehow, I forgot about Valkyria Chronicles, the much-lauded action-strategy gem that gamers either didn’t play or absolutely fell in love with. It’s even more embarrassing because I’ve owned a copy for almost a year now, but for whatever reason — maybe the stereotypical anime illustrations and voice actors — I never gave it more than an hour of my time. That changed this week when I sat down to give it another shot, and stood up after three hours and four chapters had passed in the game. I’m hooked, without a doubt.

What’s there to say? It’s brilliant. It’s the most creative and purely fun tactical strategy game I’ve played since Advance Wars was released eight years ago. The game flows along seamlessly, despite the relative mediocrity of many of the voice actors and the sometimes-uncomfortable combination of manga-style storytelling with a pseudo-realistic Europe in World War II. If I were to pick one exclusive game to convince somebody why a PlayStation 3 is worth owning — something unique and memorable — Valkyria Chronicles is the one. Sure, Uncharted 2 is an incredible adventure, and the whimsy and charm of Ratchet and Clank is unparalleled, but nothing else out there plays like Valkyria Chronicles. Games this creative and engaging are rare lately, so if it’s within your means to play it, I highly recommend doing so.

Halo 3: ODST has taken its hold on the Silicon Sasquatch staff.

Hoo boy. Time flies when you’re having fu…errr, no…more like time flies when you’ve got real life creeping in. Creeping in just like the clouds do now that it’s officially fall in the Pacific Northwest and the last gasps of summer have gone. Fall also means we’re seeing the beginning of the fall gaming season, and that means a deluge of new titles.

We’ve all been busy this week — and fortunately that’s included time for some gaming. Nick’s been busy with family commitments but has already acquired quite the backlog of games; Aaron’s been playing host for a friend, which entails plenty of rocking out; and Doug has been able to put some time into a few games while staring down the beginning of grad school.

So enough of that waffle; here’s what we’ve been playing.

This is epic, and $5.

Aaron:

What’s happening to me? For the third week in a row I’ve spent a lot of time with Rock Band 2. I blame my most recent affair on the arrival of a dear old friend from Germany. He’s visiting for a month and has gone Rock Band crazy — I’m thinking about taking him to a doctor.

Truly though, it’s been a boring week for diversified gaming choices. I went to a party that included copious amounts of The Beatles: Rock Band. I also tried my hand at Halo 3: ODST‘s Firefight mode, and came away incredibly surprised at how non-Horde mode it felt. Will I buy it? That’s a good question.

However, I do know what I’m one button click away from purchasing: the 2006, Diablo-like PC title Titan Quest and its expansion, Immortal Throne, for the low, low price of $5. Call me crazy (which I undoubtedly am), but I’ve always wanted to give the game a shot, and the entry price is too good to pass up. Thanks, Direct2Drive.

Captain Reynolds would never use a scope.

Nick:

It’s not even Rocktober yet and I’ve already been inundated with a stack of games to play. Sitting on my shelf, in no particular order: Katamari Forever, LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Tales of Monkey Island and Too Human – all games I’ve barely scratched the surface on. But I’ve got a good reason for that!

I’ve officially been caught up in that old familiar animal urge to hop online and bash stoned high-schoolers over the head thanks to Halo 3: ODST. The game has received a lot of flack for not being a “full” Halo game, but considering that it features the most exciting and best-paced campaign of any game in the series, coupled with the most exhilarating multiplayer mode the series has ever played host to — Firefight — there’s no doubt in my mind that this game is up to Bungie’s standards of excellence.

Perhaps the most exciting game I’m playing is Rock Band 2. The long-awaited patch finally hit Xbox 360 copies yesterday, including fixes for velocity sensitivity for Ion drum kits, wireless microphone support, the ability to sort your songs by how many stars you’ve earned — or whether you’ve even played the song at all.

Admittedly, these are probably minor fixes to all but the most dedicated. However, the real bonus is that Rock Band Network‘s audition mode went live, meaning songs can be transferred for testing! I’m a member of the current closed beta, and the process behind revising songs is both laborious and fascinating. I can’t wait to start authoring a few of my own.

Get your motor running.

Doug:

Having my Xbox 360 back has been really refreshing. Being without a next-gen system of my own for a month made me feel very, very disconnected from what was happening in the world of gaming; at the least, I’ve been able to sample demos that have come out recently along with some of the titles of late summer.

Along with the obligatory NCAA Football 10 time, I’ve been able to get some time in on the other football video game, Madden NFL 10. Despite being the same sport, small detail changes — more detailed animations and graphics, rule differences between the NFL and college football, and also artificial intelligence programming — mark a big difference between the two games. Madden at once feels slower and more arcade-y; the passing game relies more on pocket presence than NCAA, and the offense in general relies much more on ball control than in NCAA. It’s definitely a different animal; I’ll have more thoughts and details as I put more time into my online dynasty.

Demos are still going strong for me, too. The PES 2010 demo is engrossing, and the Forza Motorsport 3 demo dropped this week as well. As a big real-life auto racing and racing video game fan, I’ve been looking forward to Forza 3…and it delivers.

The graphics are of course prettier than its predecessor, but it’s the gameplay that really matters — and that shines. A problem with Forza 2 was that cars on street tires, tuned or stock, felt way too slippery; in tuning cars for series with a performance index limit, I would take weight reduction and better tires every time over raw horsepower because the stock tires were that bad. The grip level has increased already for Forza 3.

I can’t comment on some of the added features, like auto-braking, because I’m a racing game vet and only use ABS. I can say, though, that the “rewind” feature — which brings you back a couple of seconds to avoid wrecks or silly mistakes, and is available seemingly at all times — is absolutely wonderful. A problem with Forza 2 (and, honestly, many racing sims) is that idiotic opponent AI would cause messes for you in single-player races that would require a restart; this eliminates that problem single-handedly.

And with my new-found preciousssss — er, iPhone, I’ve been playing a couple of games on the cheap: FlightControl and Peggle. It’s safe to say that I’m pretty well hooked to Peggle now too, even though I feel like I’m way behind the curve discovering that one. Still fun, though.

This, metaphorically, is what the release calendar looks like for the next few months

It’s been a busy week for all of us here at Silicon Sasquatch. Doug’s been camping in the cold-yet-wait-it’s-hot-again Oregon weather, and enjoying the rebirth of his broken Xbox 360; Nick’s been playing through five or so games at once while writing, writing and more writing; I’ve been composing an extremely long review of Batman: Arkham Asylum in addition to enjoying a social life and trying to forge videogame industry public relations contacts.

Oh, and that feeling creeping down the back of your spine and into your pocket to make your wallet tingle with fear? Well, that’s the start of the Great Game Goldrush of 2009 — this previous week had quite the prodigious release schedule. Among the horde of games were NHL 10, NHL2k10, WET, Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, Scribblenauts, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and Need for Speed Shift.

Next week, Halo 3: ODST releases. You can discuss (your praise for or condemnation of) that fact in our comments section.

See what we’ve been up to, game-wise, after the break.

Doesn't it seem more logical to call soccer "football" in the states? This guy is clearly using his foot on a ball.

Doug:

It’s baaaaaaaack! My 360 has risen from its grave and, despite how angry I could get over the fact that this is the third time it’s happened, I don’t care.

I don’t care that I had to re-download everything because of a license transfer, and I don’t care that I had to re-set a ton of console settings; I don’t care about anything else.I have my console back and all is well.

So I’ve started to play some 360 games again — including some demos. I’m glad to have NCAA 10 back to sate my football needs, and I’m going to go get Madden 10 as well to engage in some online shenanigans with friends. I’m also putting money down to reserve my copy of Forza 3 — all the content coming out of Turn 10 looks absolutely awesome, and the game will likely suck my soul away this fall.

Demo-wise, the two titans of soccer gaming put demos up for their new titles on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network this week. PES 2010 is an Xbox Live Gold special for the next week or so, and FIFA 10 is now up as well. FIFA feels good — like an updated version of FIFA 09. It plays well, yes, but the graphics, interface and front-end are all carried over from FIFA 09.

PES 2010, though, is something of a revelation. One of my favorite games is Winning Eleven 9, Konami’s soccer game from the 2005-06 season, and that’s for the deep feature set, huge amount of customization and great gameplay that creates a very different game each time you step on the pitch. The PES games on next-gen consoles, however, have lost that feeling — they’ve been too fast, too arcadey and controlled too loosely to match up to the gains EA has been making with FIFA.

With that knowledge in tow, I stepped back into the stage of history and downloaded PES 2010. Last year’s demo felt seven shades of wrong — it was terrible enough to turn me off of the game for good. 2010, however, feels like a return to PES of old. Despite me fumbling with the controls (FIFA’s are ingrained by now), the game just feels right. Passing the ball around has a heft and weight behind it that feels almost perfect, and the way players interact in the build-up feels much better than FIFA, which can sometimes feel formulaic and stale.

Watch for both soccer games this fall, but I definitely know which one I’ll be scouring over reviews for — and which one’s demo stays on my hard drive.

Speaking of which…anyone want to sell me a 60 gigabyte Xbox 360 hard drive for a song?

The Beatles: Rock Band boasts some inspired artwork that, if you're a fan, will consistently delight

Nick:

Never mind that we’re 40 years late to the party: My friends and I have all been swept up in Beatlemania. Without incriminating myself, I’ve spent enough time with The Beatles: Rock Band to have earned 46 of the game’s 50 achievements — and I’m still having a blast. Meanwhile, I just wrapped up Guitar Hero 5, which will be getting a review soon. And nearly a year after I last played it, I managed to finish off Dead Space. Despite its minor faults, it still stands as an exemplary survival horror game; the fact that it was the first entry in a new franchise is all the more impressive.

With the majority of my backlog polished off, I’ve been able to return to Batman: Arkham Asylum. It’s an extremely rare breed of game in that it only gets better the more I play. It was impressive from the outset, but now that I’m approaching its conclusion I’m prepared to place it on my shortlist for best game of 2009.

I also picked up 5TH Cell’s charming and ambitious Scribblenauts, a game so bursting with ingenuity and cheer that even its horribly imprecise stylus-based control scheme can be overlooked. Frankly, any game that lets you apply shark repellent to yourself to swim unharmed past a shark deserves recognition.

Agents definitely are GO!

Aaron:

Like Nick, I’ve been sucked into the vortex that is Beatlemania. Sure, the band’s music has been on a variety of my playlists for years now — thanks to my eclectic musical upbringing — but I didn’t fully appreciate the band until I received The Beatles: Rock Band in the mail yesterday, and proceeded to beat it in just a few hours. It sounds like overkill, or even tragically short, but the craftsmanship that went into the game is dripping from every pixel. Plus, there’s a lot more to do after finishing “The End.”

It’s readily apparent that Harmonix loved working with such a historic body of work, and I only hope future band-specific rhythm games are a quarter as neat as this one is.

Aside from enjoying the lads from Liverpool, I’ve spent some time becoming reacquainted with my DSi. Here and there I’ll play some Suikoden: Tierkreis (I promise, eventually a review will be written) and Elite Beat Agents. I’m realizing I need to purchase more games for the system, and Scribblenauts seems like a safe bet.

Otherwise it’s been a low-key kind of week for my tastes. A few rounds of Marvel Ultimate Alliance with Nick and some solo singing in Rock Band 2 topped off my free time. I’m hoping that, come October with its influx of amazing-looking titles, I’ll soon be busy playing, writing, reviewing and recording all about videogames when I’m able.

The funk of 40,000 nerds awaits Nick at this year's Penny Arcade Expo. Expect the show floor to look much like this, a scene from the exhibit hall at the 2008 Penny Arcade Expo.

Here we are. The beginning of a three-day holiday weekend, the first day of the Penny Arcade Expo up in Seattle, and time for another week’s worth of gaming recounted in our Backlog. It’s been the calm ahead of the storm here, with Nick preparing for a feast of gaming at PAX, Aaron enjoying some comfort gaming, and Doug preparing to dig into some modern classics.

This is Nick's base of operations from the Bring Your Own Computer room at the Penny Arcade Expo. Updates from the expo and probably some good ol' PC gaming will be happening RIGHT HERE all weekend.

Nick

There hasn’t been much time for gaming this week, but that’s only because I’ve spent most of my time preparing for the Penny Arcade Expo: printing resumes, making business cards, packing up my computer and driving up Interstate 5 to Seattle. I just arrived and set up my computer as a base of operations, and I’m about to head down to the show floor. I’ll be posting when I can, but please follow me on Twitter (@sasquatchgaming) for up-to-the-minute impressions.

Some games I’m looking forward to playing include:

Diablo 3

The Beatles: Rock Band

Brütal Legend

Scribblenauts

Nostalgia

Battlefield Bad Company 2

If you’re at PAX, be sure to say hi!

Aaron informs me that while it's not his best game of Team Fortress 2, he's rather proud of the dominations handed out during this match. Can't say I don't blame him.

Aaron

I’ll have to disappoint everyone this week and confess I spent most of my gaming time playing in two separate three-hour-long Rock Band 2 sessions. Just one of those weeks, I suppose. It’s interesting though considering I’m the least enthusiastic toward the rhythm game genre compared with fellow Sasquatchers Nick and Doug, and yet I spent most of my free gaming time this week playing a title I’m sort of “meh” about. The plot thickens!

Otherwise I perused snippets of Castle Crashers here and Team Fortress 2 there — the general standbys when I need a strong dose of videogame fun. I also tried the exclusive Joker challenge room content for the PlayStation 3 version of Batman: Arkham Asylum, and I have to say to you owners of the Xbox 360 version: you’re not missing much. It’s a cool idea, but the challenge rooms are a hardcore-only affair already, and after playing the game as a nimble martial arts master in a batsuit, playing as the lanky, goofy Joker feels awkward. That’s my take though.

Readers of our site may or may not notice we have a favicon now! Check your address bar for a very small (but very awesome) sasquatch face. It’s not that exciting compared to a full redesign, but hey: I felt giddy about it.

Oh, I almost forgot. Next week brings us The Beatles: Rock Band.

Now that’s a rhythm game I can get back to.

I'm finally going to get around to finishing Shadow of the Colossus off, making me quite possibly the last hardcore gamer in the world to do so.

Doug

While I hate to be a spoil sport and overly sarcastic, I’ve been playing games like Finish My Summer Term Classes and Study For Finals, which I’m sure you’ll recognize as international bestsellers. I’m also partaking in the cult classic Follow Xbox 360 Repair Status Online.

Joking aside, I look forward to the silver lining of my Xbox 360 being sent away — being forced into playing some classics. I set my original Xbox up for the first time in ages, and hope to find time to play Beyond Good and Evil, which I’ve never finished, and NBA Street Vol. 2, which is a great arcade basketball game. Also please note that both of these games are not backwards compatible (*shakes fist angrily at Microsoft*).

Add PS2 classic Shadow of the Colossus to that list and you have the games I want to finish before my 360 returns from beyond the grave.

Of course, The Beatles: Rock Band drops this week, too, and I cannot wait to get my hands on that.

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.