Baggas' Blog

You’d have to have been living under a rock for the past few years, or be totally oblivious to the world of gaming, to not have some awareness of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band phenomenon. These games have achieved massive sales and a wide following. Initially they were primarily guitar based, but now the genre has expanded to include drumming, singing (?dancing), and even DJ’ing.

Obviously as far as games go they are very popular and fun for many people. But do they have any musical merit? Should musicians see them as a positive thing, negative, or indifferent? My own experience with these games began a couple of years ago with Guitar Hero II on the Xbox 360 (complete with plastic wired Gibson Explorer shaped guitar controller). I thought it was good but didn’t find it something I was motivated to come back to again and again. Recently I revisited the music game genre when Santa brought us a couple of the RockBand games for Christmas – we got Lego RockBand (which is great for kids) and The Beatles RockBand (great for me as I’m a massive Beatles fan) complete with wireless Hofner Bass controller, drums, and microphone. I’m not going to comment on these games specifically other than saying that I think the Lego game is a huge improvement to make these games more accessible to younger players. Previous games were/are just a bit too tricky for most kids below the age of around 10 to get into. This game adds a “Super Easy” mode which requires only a basic idea of rhythm and not the co-ordination skills usually involved in these games. The narrative is fun (like all the Lego computer games) and the song selection is good, truly making it a game the whole family can enjoy together. I hope future editions of RockBand and Guitar Hero will include a similar Super Easy mode for the little ones.

As for The Beatles’ game, it’s a great snapshot of the career of this great band. Musically and visually it’s excellent, though technically a little more challenging than the Lego game so not ideal for kiddies. The wireless Hofner bass controller is a beautiful thing – very high quality construction which doesn’t have the cheap plastic feel of my old guitar hero controller. And in case you were wondering it can be used for guitar and bass play – the controls are just the same.

Ok, enough about the games themselves… what about their musical merit?

My view is that these games are a good thing. If nothing else they challenge people’s timing and rhythm, improve co-ordination and possibly even their sense of pitch. The guitar play obviously doesn’t truly replicate a real guitar, with buttons instead of strings, however the finger movements, and the right-left hand co-ordination are important skills to develop in playing real guitar. You’re never going to be able to jump right from playing this game to playing a 6 string like Van Halen, but it might give you a little bit of an advantage in learning compared to a complete novice.

Drumming is probably one step even more realistic than guitar playing – it’s similar to having an electric drum kit – the physical movements of hitting the pads,  and using the kick pedal are pretty much the same as the real thing. My Beatles drum kit even came with real wooden sticks. I’m not a drummer but my feeling is that playing RockBand drums would give you a decent intro and a huge head-start for learning the real thing. Starting with the easy levels and moving through to expert would be a great way to develop pretty good rhythm skills.

And singing is well, singing. There’s nothing fake about singing into a microphone and hearing your voice back through speakers. And in many ways this is better than singing in the shower or singing along to a CD in your car because the visual cues in the game help with timing and pitch. I haven’t played any of the dedicated singing games (like Singstar or Lips) but the singing feature in RockBand itself is pretty cool. The Beatles game even allows you to sing harmonies and use multiple microphones. Not quite like having a singing teacher in your living room but still pretty good.

Beyond those technical skills I think these games offer two more things – music appreciation and inspiration. The repertoire of songs in these games is a great way of exposing younger generations to classic rock and pop music. My boys have been enjoying classic tracks from artists like Queen, Bon Jovi, Tom Petty, David Bowie, Bryan Adams and heaps more – even the Ghostbusters theme! (who knew that song had such cool guitar riffs?!? – see below) – and of course no one should be ignorant of the Beatles!

Secondly if playing these games inspires a few people to take up a real instrument themself, or gives them a bit of confidence that they might be able to, then surely that’s a good thing too!

Rock On!

There is some evidence that playing some Wii games does give you a moderate workout (see here).

However I’d like to see more study on the issue – specifically does playing Guitar Hero make you a better guitar player? I’m sure there’d be no shortage of volunteers to take part in this sort of research…

Thought I’d mention a nifty piece of Mac OS software I’ve been using. Read on if you have a Mac and either an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3… if you don’t have those you might as well save time and stop reading this now!…

Right, now that we’ve got rid of those non-Mac and non-Gaming console people we can continue with Rivet. This program basically enables your connected games console to access your music, video, and photo libraries on your mac. These consoles talk nicely to Windows out of the box but unfortunately they are not designed with Mac OS in mind. Rivet takes care of this smoothly and easily. Set it to load when your Mac starts-up and it just sits in the menu bar. There are no extra steps – right away I was able to browse and play my media content from my Mac on the Xbox 360 and PS3**. It’s very handy if you have a large collection of video files (home movies, TV shows, movies, whatever) as they can be immediately accessed and played on the console. Podcasts (video and audio) are handled as well, and all your iTunes playlists show up too. This last feature is very useful at this time of the year so I can pump my gigabytes of Christmas Mp3s ‘all through the house’

So if you have a Mac and a console download the trial version of Rivet and give it a go.. there’s a good chance that, like me, you’ll soon be going back for the full version too.

** Yes, I now have both consoles. I was in the market for a Bluray player and was soon convinced (despite my initial hesitation) that a PS3 was the way to go.. As far as gaming consoles go I still like the Xbox better – the interface is nicer and easier to navigate, and there is a better and easier to find selection of downloadable demos which the kids like playing. The Xbox360 interface has been hugely improved over the last year or so and the new avatar section is really good. I believe it’s due for another big update any day now as well…

I can’t really contrast the actual games though as I haven’t played much on the Ps-3 – my feeling is that the graphics and games are comparable. I did enjoy stuffing around with this funny game called Little Big Planet on the Ps3 last night. Oh and it has this interesting feature called Playstation Home which is similar to Second Life.. something to explore when I’m bored… but mostly the PS3 has become our home theatre media hub – great for playing Blurays, DVDs, and streaming videos and music (via Rivet). One big plus is it’s a lot quieter than the Xbox which makes it better for that application.  So there’s my haphazrd initial review of the PS3

*** Hey, and if you know me and have an xbox 360 or  PS3 let me know who you are and maybe we can add each other as ‘friends’ Presently I have no PS3 friends and only some random people on Xbox that I played a game against like once a few years ago, so having some people that I actually know would be cool. (here ends the pathetic appeal for friends..lol)

Went and saw the 4th instalment in this series yesterday with my brothers and dad. Don’t have time to write a full review but my advice is that if you even mildly enjoyed the other movies, you should definitely go see this one. It recaptures the whole vibe and feel of the series well, and the storyline and action sequences are what we should expect from the team of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. They include plenty of in-jokes and references to their other movies – and not just the Indiana Jones ones – even Close Encounters and Star Wars get a look in. Harrison Ford does well, slipping back into the character like into a comfortable old suit. And they manage his advancing age very smoothly – at no point does the age factor seem stupid or unbelievable.  So go see it – a  fun and nostalgic way to spend a couple of hours.

Now we’re just waiting for the Lego Indiana Jones computer game to be released. Owen especially can’t wait to see that one…

Out of Ur : The Passion of the Heist

Lot of buzz at the moment about the newly released video game Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV), which looks like it will be the biggest game release of all time, and probably one of the biggest media releases ever, with sales in the same league as the takings of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters. And the reviews of the game have been extremely positive, some even going as far as to compare it favourably with The Godfather. And I’m not immune to this – I must confess I’ve been tempted to get the game for my Xbox360 and give it a go myself, despite never being much of a hard core gamer and definitely not having the time to do so.

Now those two words “confess” and “tempted” should be read in a biblical sense, well at least if according to this article and some of the comments. In it, the writer confesses his previous forays into the GTA series playing the GTA : Vice City game :

I had no problem preaching on Sunday morning (in real life, of course) and selling drugs from the back of an ice cream truck (in Vice City, of course) on Sunday afternoon.

It’s all reasonably tongue in cheek but he does try and raise the question seriously as to whether playing these sort of games is an appropriate activity for Christians, and whether the church should respond in some kind of fashion similar to the response to the Da Vinci Code or Harry Potter, both of which have spawned a panopoly of Christian books (in my opinion a massively overblown response). He also raises the question as to whether all this virtual killing and vice is a sin in the same way that Jesus equates having anger or lust in your mind with the real thing in Matthew 5:21-30.

Interesting questions, which I guess parallel in some ways the broader argument in society about whether violent video games lead to violent behaviours (an argument I’ve never found especially convincing). The replies in the blog comments are also quite fascinating. Several commenters conclude that playing games like this is most definitely a serious sin, and one even suggests we should pray for those who play GTA IV. But another commenter makes a cutting remark about Christians making a fuss about a violent video game whilst being unconcerned about a war in Iraq which has killed over 500, 000 real people (particularly aimed at the American church I think).

As for me I’m still in limbo on the subject. Is this sort of thing a sin? maybe. But I don’t think killing pretend people in a computer game is a direct equivalent of Jesus’ comments in Matthew 5 :

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgement. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement. ” Matt 5:21-22 (ESV) [+/-]Matthew 5:21-22 [21]"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' [22]But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire. (ESV)
.

Maybe this partly applies here, but I think the main issue in Jesus’ comment here is the breaking of relationships – being angry with your brother (whether a literal family member or a fellow Christian or simply a fellow human). Pretending to kill a purely fictional character in a computer game is much less serious – actually if that’s a sin then deriving pleasure from a violent movie or book is possibly worse, since these have depictions of actual people rather than virtual ones.

I’d be interested to hear what others think. But in my mind at least the jury is still out. Will I play the game? maybe… But I’ll confess it’s not a feeling of guilt or conscience stopping me, but simply my lack of time and having too many other priorities.

As I mentioned yesterday, I had to rebuild my PC this week, which included a clean install of Vista and all my other software. So here’s my list of some essential programs for Windows. Anyone have any other suggestions they would add to this list?

• Mozilla Firefox
• Mozilla Thunderbird (email)
• Office
• Google Picasa (photos)
• Exact Audio Copy (CD ripper) with LAME (MP3 encoder)
• Tag & Rename (MP3 tagger)
• iTunes & Quicktime

This next one is not essential, but I wanted to test out a game on the new PC and ended up downloading Trackmania Nations Forever. This has to be one of the best free games in history – basically it’s a racing game with a range of extreme tracks and online racing – all for free. I enjoyed the previous version of this game but it wouldn’t run on Vista so it’s nice to have an updated version that works. If you like racing games or just want something to help you waste a few minutes then definitely download this game. Here’s a YouTube trailer for it…

Monkey Island (series) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Monkey Island is the collective name given to a series of four graphical adventure games produced and published by LucasArts, originally known as LucasFilm Games through the development of the first two games in the series. The games follow the misadventures of the hapless Guybrush Threepwood as he struggles to become the most notorious pirate in the Caribbean, defeat the plans of the evil undead pirate LeChuck and win the heart of governor Elaine Marley. Each game’s plot usually involves the mysterious Monkey Island and its impenetrable secrets.   [..read more.. ]

As I discussed in a couple of previous posts, I recently had to send my Xbox 360 console in to Microsoft to get repaired under warranty due to a disastrous crash. So far my dealings with them have been relatively smooth and pain free.

Well I’m pleased to report what is hopefully the conclusion to the saga. On Friday the Xbox was delivered, 5 days after we received the email saying it had been dispatched. It came in a box well wrapped with foam holders, and a letter and feedback survey. Also, pleasingly, they included a card with a code for a free 1 month’s subscription to Xbox Live, which if nothing else makes up for the time I lost while the Xbox was away being repaired.

But most importantly, did it work? So far I’m pleased with the performance. When I plugged it in, the Xbox worked right away, all the old settings were retrieved from the hard drive and we haven’t had a game freeze or hang so far. Also, Windows Media Center performance is much better and smoother than it was before so it seems like the fix has made a real difference. The only thing that seems slightly unusual  is that the power button doesn’t seem as physically responsive as it was previously, and also one of the wireless controllers is not connectin, but I think that’s just because it needs new batteries.

So overall, I’ll give Microsoft full marks. Smooth, painless and relatively quick service. Thus far at least, I am a satisfied customer.

I had meant to make this a little series about my dealings with Microsoft to get my Xbox 360 repaired, but the last two weeks have been so busy I haven’t had time to blog about it. Anyway, here’s the gist of what has happened so far :

Firstly, see Part 1 for details of what went wrong with my Xbox in the first place…

After I realised it was still under warranty I phoned up Microsoft service Australia that Monday 14th May. The service guy, who had an American (? Fillipino) accent was very helpful and promptly emailed me out some shipping instructions with a reply paid address to send the Xbox back to. Later that day I also received another email from Microsoft with the cryptic comment :

????? Xbox ????????????????????????????????????????????

????????????????

Now that was a bit strange but otherwise my Microsoft dealings to this point were pretty smooth. No long waiting on-hold, and a very helpful guy on the other end of the phone. The next challenge was to find a box to fit my Xbox 360 console into. Reading on some web forums it seems that Microsoft’s US service department actually send customers a box out in which to send their Xbox back in. Unfortunately their Aussie counterparts don’t do the same thing. They were very explicit that I was not to send it back using the original box, so I had to go hunting for an appropriate sized box. As I was so busy this took me several days. I couldn’t find any at home or work – none of my large collection of Amazon boxes were the right size. Eventually I found a “gift box” at the post office that was a near perfect fit, for about $5, complete with nice coloured lines. I did take a picture of it for this blog post but it’s on my PC at home and a photo of a coloured box is not the most exciting thing in the world so you’ll just have to imagine it.

Anyway, I finally posted in on Friday 18th of May. Didn’t hear a thing until the 25th, when I got an email saying they have recieved it (complete with cryptic message like the one above) and then today I got another email (and another weird message) saying they had shipped it back and I should receive it in 2-5 days. They also provided me with a shipping tracking number but no link for tracking it. I did, however, like this line from the email “Thank you for your patience and get ready to get back into the action!”

So in general, Microsoft have done reasonably well so far. I will let you know when I get the console back and most importantly, how well it works…

There’s some big corporations that people just love to hate. For example in Australia the number 1 culprit is probably Telstra, and maybe the big banks (although I must say my bank NAB are always fantastic! Hope they take note of this free publicity when I hit them for another big loan in a couple of weeks…)

But on a worldwide scale there is no company that people love to loathe more than computer giant Microsoft. Bill Gates, his company and it’s products are the object of more scorn and criticism than most other companies put together. Now let me just say that I’m not an obsessive Microsoft hater – I like Bill Gates, especially in view of his philanthrophy, and I generally like Microsoft products. So it is with an open mind that I commence this series of blog posts.

The story begins a month or longer ago when Owen began to notice that the XBox 360 games console (made by Microsoft, in case you didn’t know or weren’t at our church quiz nite on Saturday) was occaisionally freezing up whilst playing his favourite game Lego Star Wars II. I also noticed that the performance of the Xbox media center was getting worse and worse, freezing more and more often. Usually these problems could be fixed by restarting the Xbox, which was a hassle but I wasn’t too bothered.

Until one day the Xbox 360 stopped working entirely – nothing came up on the screen and 3 red lights surrounded the power button on the console. I googled this problem and found that it is ominously referred to as the Red Ring of Death. After further hunting I was able to press various buttons to get an exact error code from the sequence of lights – 0102. Sadly this is a code which means there is an unknown error and the console does not know what is wrong. I found various bizarre solutions on the web including blasting compressed air through the system and adding strategic bits of foam inside but was not brave enough to try them.

Fortunately, after being too busy to do anything about it for a week or two I checked on Sunday to discover that it is still under Warranty and even better, I was able to find the receipt. So yesterday I commenced dealings with Microsoft to try and get this baby fixed or replaced … it will be very interesting to see how this company peforms… more about that in Part 2….

I’m not normally not much of a gamer, but in the last week I’ve discovered a great free game which you can get from TrackmaniaNations.com (I actually found it on a CD that came with a recent computer mag) It’s basically a formula 1 style car racing game in which you compete online against racers from around the world, the trick being that the tracks are more like something you would find in a toy racing set, with tracks going high up above the ground, loop the loops, jumps and plenty of other challenging features. As well as online racing it also has a range of “training” tracks so you can hone your skills. The graphics and sound are brilliant for a free game. I’ve had a great time playing this game with Owen watching and helping over the last week or so, though I think the boys get more fun out of it when I crash spectacularly than when I do well. Anyway check it out. Warning though, it’s addictive….

[click the images above for screenshots ... or for more cool screenshots go here]