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My copy of Rockband arrived yesterday and I tore into the box with much vigor. What seemed like 3 hours later I was still tearing into the box but the vigor was all gone. As a guy who took a course in package design on the way to getting his BFA, I feel comfortable telling you that, in my opinion, the person or persons responsible for designing how the various items were packed into the Rockband box should be fired. Or worse... they should be made to go to people's houses and unpack Rockband for them.



So, after wrestling with the various boxes, ridiculous amounts of tape, twist ties, and instruction leaflets (each taped into their own little baggies), I was finally able to lay eyes on the much anticipated, at least in this house, Fender Stratocaster controller. Initial impression, good. That impression waned. Where I like the new larger size guitar, the plastic of the guitar's neck just feels cheap. And where I adore the new, easier-to-grab, non-clicking strum bar, the clicking fret buttons drive me insane. Now, I don't mind the buttons being flush with the fretboard. That's pretty cool in my opinion. But, I can't help feeling that I would like to have a bit more of an indicator nub on the yellow button so that I can work my hands back into position. I also love the look of the body, but there are problems here as well. In its top most position the effects pickup switch hits my pinky while I'm strumming and really gets in the way when I'm trying to use the whammy bar. Finally, I think I've been babied by GH3's Les Paul. It's wireless. Rockband's Fender is not. And where the mic cable seems to be a mile long, the cord for the guitar feels entirely too short.



On to the drum kit. This unit is nifty, but a few changes would have made it AWESOME. For my money, a cup to hold the drumsticks would have made a huge impact on my "putting it away" impression. I also would really have liked to seen some forward thinking on the item where the drum kit served as the usb hub. I love the "floating" pad design of the drum heads. But, when I sat at the drums, I really wanted them to surround me some more. If I could just move the pedal (which seems a little too tight) forward a bit, I could accomplish that feeling. Please note: I am NOT a drummer. So folks with real kits are probably mocking me as they read this.



As far as the game itself goes, the UI navigation is NOT great. As a matter of fact it's pretty much shamed by the ease-of-use of GH3's UI. The songs are nice, but seem to have been over simplified at least while playing the guitar. I had to turn off easy because I was nodding off. And Medium didn't catch my attention over much. I'm thinking I might have to move to Hard just to see some challenge in the game play. Before you say "Well, Woody it's because you're too good at the other guitar games" I assure you this is not the case. I am mediocre at best. I have a bad case of fumble fingers. I just don't process the notes fast enough. Anyway, I don't mind that the scrolling on-screen fretboard has been "cleaned up", but someone needs to be smacked for making hammer-on/pull-off notes a touch smaller rather than finding a more intuitive way of indicating that you can ho/po the note. And bleaching out the color of Starpower Overdrive building notes, meh. That and sustained notes could have been handled better as well. These issues aren't as apparent in the Drummer mode. Maybe that's part of the point, to unify the bars visually as much as possible. **shrugs** I just don't know. I haven't played the game with a full band yet. I really DO like how they show your progress toward 5 starring songs though. That's a cool new addition.



I have not, for the sake of the ears of Taks and Ash, tried the singing portion of the game... yet. So I can not comment on that aspect of the gameplay.



Ultimately I think I'm going to get over being too picky and really enjoy the game. At the moment I'm convinced that I built Rockband up in my mind so much that it's virtually impossible for it to have met my expectations. Once that fades I should really be able to get into the meat of the game and gameplay itself. Who knows, Harmonix may offer downloadable options to change the look and feel of the UI and some of the gameplay/graphical elements. But, I honestly don't think there's any hope for the game's packaging. And, until someone posts a fret button mod to quite them down, I'll probably be playing the game with my Les Paul.



I'd give the game, so far a 8 on a 10 point scale. Some minor corrections to graphics and hardware would make it a 9.5 easy.



And just in case any Harmonix folks happen to read this writeup, let me end with a bit of begging:

PLEASE change the blurred crowds in the lead-in to the songs. My eyes try to bring them into focus and it gives me a colossal headache.



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by: Woody Hearn - owner/cartoonist

Thursday, November 22nd, 2007

Taks has put together a page that contains all the important and pertinent details surrounding the soon-to-be second generation of GU.


You will find information about the upcoming Baby Shower which all GU Readers are welcome to attend. There will be a virtual connection via video and audio and chat going throughout the Baby Shower festivities.


So, check it out and when there are more details to be added, we'll be sure to let you know.

As I mentioned right before I left for ConnectiCon, there are going to be a few new GU products showing up in the coming weeks. The first is the new GU "Rising Sun" shirt that the Ted Standup wears.



The folks at ZeStuff made the shirt happen for us last minute in time for our ConnectiCon booth. We'd like to repay their efforts by encouraging you to go buy the Rising Sun shirt and then hopefully picking up some other geek gear from the ZeStuff store.



There are regular shirts ($17.95) and womens fitted shirts ($18.95) available.



We will be working with ZeStuff to provide GU merchandising we've never offered before... such as toys and books. So, please help make a good impression. **grins**

The folks at Blizzard have invited us out to BlizzCon '07. Now, they don't have us slated for any panels or a booth. So, I can only imagine that some big announcement will come out of the event. Though I guess there's always the possibility that they just want to enjoy the pleasure of our company.



We leave for the con August 2nd and return August 5th. Until then you can find us in-game on Doomhammer.



For the Horde!

Winners have 7 days from the end of auction to respond to the e-mails we have sent. If you are a winning bidder and have not received an e-mail, please contact us as soon as possible.

Taks and I were invited to NetDevil's new offices to celebrate their 10 year anniversary and get an introduction to their upcoming projects Jumpgate Evolution, Warmonger, and Lego Universe.



The event played host to a wealth of staff, friends, family, press, community, and so on. For we attendees, NetDevil, with assistance from the fine folks at Kohnke, provided food, the musical stylining of the company's in-house band "The Deviled Eggs", and a gaming tournament (called June Nad-ness) which spanned games on all platforms even giving a nod to tabletop and board games. After a brief message from the NetDevil execs Scott Brown, Peter Grundy, and Ryan Seabury, the press broke off to get demos of upcoming projects:



Jumpgate Evolution is the graphical retooling of NetDevil's space-based flight simulator/MMOG. The game doesn't currently have a huge following as their publisher 3DO tanked right as the game, limiting the games publicity. But, NetDevil has remained dedicated to the title and now with "Evolution" they are making sweeping graphical improvements to the game to bring it into visual realm of the current market without greatly increasing the systems requirements. "Evolution" is currently accepting beta invites and as far as I can tell no one will be turned away. You can sign up here: http://www.jumpgate-evolution.com



Warmonger is a post-apocalyptic, sci-fi FPS that builds on the direction of Auto Assault in that just about anything you see in the game world is destructible to the point that it must be factored into individual strategy. cover and concealment only last so long before it's destroyed by enemy fire. In essence no where is safe. It's a new level of immersize involvement that could well change how we play first person shooter games.



And that leaves Lego Universe. Not much information is available here as it's still very early in the development process. But a few demo movies seemed to show that NetDevil is keen to maintain the family-friendly sense of humor evident in previous Lego titles. The game seems to incorporate elements from many of the Lego Themes. It was unclear if the game would include elements from the Star Wars or Batman sub-sets. For issues surrounding licensing... I doubt it.



NetDevil gave us a wealth of assets via the press kit that I'll be posting shortly, including the Lego demo movies I mentioned above. I'd also like to encourage you guys to visit the NetDevil site. They're big on community, and like to include fans in the process.

An "About" section has been added to the site to detail aspects of GU that have typically just been pieces of information stored in my head. As the Wikipedia article was developed, deleted, restructured, and editted again by strict Wikipedia volunteer editors, I saw the need to maintain similar information on my own site withough having to worry about the strictures of what I believe to be a broken system.



So, now the information has been gathered and made available. It borrows largely from the wikipedia article; but, is likely to remain more up-to-date and accurate than the Wikipedia article can be. A link to the "About" section (as well as a link to the GU Terms of Use) can be found at the bottom of every page.



To visit the About page: Click Here!

UPDATE: Mom's goal has been met and surpassed. But, if some of you would like to continue to donate, that would be perfectly fine. Please find the link below.



ANOTHER UPDATE: The race has taken place and Mom was sucessful in walking over 10 miles! She did many many laps and wanted to thank everyone who donated, and helped her surpass her goal and raise $491 for the American Cancer Society! Thanks guys!



I was talking to my mom recently and she mentioned this yearly walk she does to benefit Cancer Research. She asked if I would mention it here on the site. Here's the message she asked me to pass on:






Mom's donation goal is $300. Hopefully we can reach that in short order. To sponsor her "Relay for Life" walk you can donate via the Kintera.org website here:

Christine Greene's Relay for Life Donation Page



NOTE: If you use the donation form rather than donating online, please be sure to make the check out to "the American Cancer Society" and put the name "Christine Greene" on the memo line. Thanks for your help folks!


Donation Meter: Goal Met & Exceeded

As per yesterday's comic:

Last friday Taks let me know that someone had slipped us a glass of "GU Water" (which forum goers believe contains baby producing properties). So, come this Thanksgiving, the second generation of GU will be delivered forth to moon the gaming industry and gurgle unintelligible quips about about weak game play and clunky ineffectual graphics.



I have no idea how this will impact the flow of the comics beyond today's strip. Obviously, we'll keep you posted. But, as to whether there will be a brat appearing in the strip... I just don't know. We'll sell that bridge when we get to it.



That being said...

I thank all of you in advance for the kind words I'm sure will follow. Taks and I appreciate it! Now stop hovering, I have to figure out how to convert my toy room into a nursery.

I mentioned earlier that I was interested in the idea of taking the comics off of the front page and putting the associated writeup in its place. I have since decided to shelf that idea. But, I'd already produced the code; so, I figured "what the hell" and put it in place about a week ago. I also added the code to the bottom of the archive pages.



At the bottom of each entry you'll find a "discuss" link which takes you to the full writeup in the forums, followed by the number of replies that currently exist in that thread. Participate as the mood strikes you.

I've been working on adding keywords to the nearly 1400 comics currently in the GU Archives for a long time now. Descriptions, text, and relevant associations of each strip have been added to every comic in the archives.



I'm certain over the coming weeks the interface will be streamlined and simplified. Please bear with me. So many people have been asking for this for so long, and didn't seem to be satisfied by title and game reference search I've had up for quite some time now. So, I hope you guys get a kick out of it. It was a LOT of work.



Any of the following links will work:

http://search.gucomics.com

http://www.gucomics.com/search/

http://www.gucomics.com/archives/search.php



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After having an issue with Photoshop earlier today (delaying the final color version of the comic) I made the black and white artwork available for anyone who wanted to have a go at coloring it.



You can grab the artwork here:

8 Million Subscribers




Here's the original post:



An hour from being finished with today's strip, Photoshop CS crashed and took all of my work with it.



I'd like to say this is the first time this has happened, but it would be an outright lie. Photoshop 7 did this to me quite a bit. CS does it too but far less often. Just far enough apart for me to get out of the habit of saving every 5 minutes. But when it goes, it goes hardcore, taking all of my workarea settings with it.



And that's what happened here, everything gone, leaving me with nothing excet a headache and a deep seated need for violence. It is EXACTLY times like this when I feel like 8 hours of work every day on the comic are not worth the other 8 hours a day spent scrounging for donations and advertisers. And, I garauntee you, if there was another program out there that can do what photoshop does that had proven itself more stable... I'd never touch another Adobe product out of spite.



So... the comic is going to be really late as I have to completely recolor it. Until then repeat after me:

Bite My Crank Adobe Photoshop CS. Bite it hard.



If you'd like to give coloring it yourself a go: Feel Free.



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