Music and gaming are enjoying a strong synergy in 2008 that could be witnessed nearly everywhere at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle 2008 this past weekend. We spent three days there collecting video, pictures, playing games and rocking out to video game music, most of which I’ll be sharing at VTOReality.com. Here I’ll try to give a brief overview of what we experienced.

I’ve attended dozens of concerts but experienced a first at PAX 2008 being able to see a couple bands perform video game songs live. The OneUps opened the Friday Night concert at PAX and were impressive. No singing but plenty of six-string bass, violin, drums and guitars.

The OneUps were so impressive that we went to see the bassist, Mustin, the next day and bought both their CDs (Volume 1 and Volume 2). 

Also signed up for their MySpace page (warning: sound onload). The only other videogame-related music I remember buying has been Buckner & Garcia’s Pac Man Fever.

Our sons entered the Guitar Hero tournament on Saturday and the youngest was eliminated in the first round. Our 17 year old son made it to the final 8 in the tournament. They also did the Soul Calibur IV tournament earlier in the day and were both eliminated in the first round.

We performed as a Rock Band both on the show floor and in the after hours Rock Band event Friday Night. Didn’t wait in line to play Guitar Hero World, but that booth was very active throughout PAX.

Also got to check out the Wii Music drums where you play with the balance board and drumming into thin air with the Wiimote and nunchuk. On the way to lunch away from PAX we stopped by Gameworks (conveniently located a block away) which had the first guitar game by Konami called GuitarFreaks and DrumFreaks (although this one was out of service).

Back to the show floor and one of the 10 spotlighted PAX games for the Xbox 360 live arcade was called AudioSurf. This games looked a little bit like the old Atari puzzler Klax and sounded like a full-on music game.

AudioSurf’s description from the PAX guide:

"Ride your music. Audiosurf is a music-adapting puzzle racer where you use your own music to create your own experience. The shape, the speed, and the mood of each ride is determined by the song you choose."

It seemed like at almost every turn at PAX there was some kind of music videogame being demoed or played. Did I mention the Sony booth where Singstar contests were happening? Or how about the Intel Booth where you could play against a ringer to win a PC version of Guitar Hero?

Music games are everywhere and I love it. Forget the RIAA missteps and DRM issues, there continues to be a huge opportunity for bands to have their music heard and purchased in the videogames area.

For as long as Microsoft has charged $49.99 a year for Xbox Live Gold subscription, we’ve seen people saying it should be free.

I’ve had a few discussions with non-Xbox Live gaming friends who think Microsoft is being greedy by charging. Don Reisinger at CNET news is among the latest to complain:

So what does Microsoft need to do to right the ship and really turn things around? Announce that all Xbox Live memberships will be free and all gamers can play online without a hitch. It’s radical, for sure, but it’s the best move Microsoft can make right now.

The "best move Microsoft can make" … really?

And turn what things around anyway? Sales results in relation to Xbox Live tell a mixed story at best. The link Mr. Reisinger provides to Gamespot as evidence of sales slumps offers the following quote: "While Microsoft roundly thumped Sony in software sales." Huh?

Just recently the Xbox 360 bested the PS3 in Japan in weekly sales for the first time ever. Again, looking at the Gamespot link, the system sales for the PS3 and Xbox 360 are about the same with the Nintendo DS and Wii way ahead of both systems.

What about hot games like Soul Calibur IV? The Xbox 360 sold 218,900 while the PS3 sold 155,800. What was the #1 selling game? Not Wii Fit, surprisingly, which clocked in at #2 with 369,600, it was NCAA Football 09 for, you guessed it Don, Xbox 360. The PS3 version sold 242,500.

These numbers between the PS3 and Xbox 360 from an Xbox Live standpoint would mean more if there were an equal number of systems in circulation. As it stands, one can’t say that more of the same game was sold on the PS3 because gamers could use network play for free. I don’t know if/when the PS3 sales will catch up as they are still sluggish for a system that offers something the Xbox 360 doesn’t: built-in Blu-ray player and better hardware durability.

No, they aren’t "basically the same" online gaming experience
Mr. Reisinger needs to go back and spend more time comparing and evaluating the game libraries with networked gameplay for each of the three systems and revisit what he wrote. He couldn’t be any more wrong about them being "basically the same."

We own all three game systems (3 working Xbox 360s 1 working Xbox 360 Elite, 1 Wii, 1 PS3) and the Wii from a networked gaming experience is easily the worst, very little in the way of being able to play networked games with your friends. The Mii system, although typical Nintendo cutesy comes up short. I am puzzled why Nintendo hasn’t stepped up their network play games strategy. They could kick both Sony and Microsoft’s butts — if only they’d try harder.

The Wii needs more game titles with network play. They are slowly adding more networked game titles, but if you follow the history they didn’t see online network gameplay as that important, and their lackluster networked game library shows this weakness. The Wii didn’t get the hit game Rock Band until recently and last time I checked you couldn’t buy individual Rock Band songs through the Wii network. You can do that on both the Xbox 360 and PS3. Basically the same as the Xbox 360 and PS3? No way.

The Playstation Network, also free, is definitely gaining ground on Xbox Live, but there are still too few games that offer networked gameplay and they need more classic arcade ports. My favorite shooter on the PS3 is the gorgeous game, Super Stardust HD. If you have a PS3 and don’t have this game, stop reading and go buy it now. Sony released a $4.99 upgrade for the game recently, but we still can’t play co-op over the network. Major bummer.

At the same time, the PS3 does have some really fun games that are network playable. Their network strategy is a lot better than the Wii. I also like the fact that they built in a web browser and use it effectively throughout their system. My biggest complaints with the Playstation Store are inventory and to a lesser degree organization. I’m hopeful when HOME hits this will creatively solve the organization part, but games are still coming a little too slowly. More great games = more players = stronger network.

And where are all the cool old school arcade titles? In the Xbox Live Arcade. It’s one of the major differences for Xbox Live over the other two. The Wii store allows buying old NES, SNES, N-64, NEO-GEO, Sega, etc games and you can get a few arcade titles like Q-bert, Sprint and Joust in the Playstation store, but one only has to surf the Xbox Live Arcade library for 30 seconds to realize how much deeper and broader the Xbox Live Arcade titles are comparatively. No competition.

On the Xbox 360, although I don’t have an accurate count, there seems to be hundreds of games, including the aforementioned diverse lineup of arcade games that allow networked play with voice chat. It’s more the exception, than the rule, that an Xbox 360 version of a game does not come with some sort of networked play or at the least an active leaderboard. And the Xbox Live blade is a much better UI than the Wii and I like it better than the Playstation Store which sends me through too many submenus. I don’t want to click forever to find out what games I don’t already own.

Some of the comparisons I made between the networks are admittedly subjective, but the body of evidence suggests that there is no way these three networks are basically the same. I didn’t follow

How Microsoft could make Xbox Gold more valuable
In our household of five we currently have *4* Xbox Live Gold subscriptions and sure, I’d love to have that extra $200 a year, but I’d rather see the Gold membership give us more perks for the paid memberships than going completely free with heavier ad saturation.

Give Gold Members added perks like the following:

• one free arcade game a month or quarter as part of my Gold subscription and/or a certain number of free Microsoft points so I can spend them on songs from Zune Marketplace, arcade games, whatever
• free Creators Club, none of that $99 a year extra garbage
• HD video rentals at the same price as standard definition. And offer a 1080p option, I can get those through DISH, why can’t I get them through Xbox Live?
• the ability to turn off and/or customize blade advertisements. The Xbox Live blade has gotten increasingly worse with ads. Sure, they are targeted mostly to promoting content available in Xbox Live and I can understand the need for ads with the free Silver membership, but I’m getting more annoyed by them as a Gold subscriber
• let us have a freaking web browser! This should be free to both silver and gold level, but if they want to give additional perks to Gold, then maybe it could be a more powerful web browser that is integrated with special features for some games.

The Xbox Live Silver subscription has always been free, but gamers quickly learn that for online networked play you need a Gold subscription.

Silver should have free networked gameplay
Being able to play with as many friends as you can, the global arcade if you will, is the best part of online gaming. Comparing scores is alright, but being able to play co-op with a friend across the globe and kick butt on the videogame bad guys is where the real fun is at.

In that spirit, I actually agree with Don and Alfred at Zune Max that Microsoft should make online networked play free for Silver members. I still very much disagree that they should completely do away with the paid Gold subscriptions. It’s not a bad model to charge for subscriptions. Just make sure the paid subscription has worthwhile features. I think Microsoft could stand tweaking the Gold subscription a bit and would definitely deal a blow to the PS3 if they made online networked play free for Silver members. Will they? Time will tell.

Rock Band 2 is coming this September and CNET shared the complete tracklist of 84 songs which, if you don’t want to completely spoil the surprise, don’t follow that link.

A few of my favorites include a track of the upcoming Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy album (when will this album be released?) and:

The Who "Pinball Wizard"
Judas Priest "Painkiller"
AC/DC "Let There Be Rock"
Bad Company "Shooting Star"
Fleetwood Mac "Go Your Own Way"
Ratt "Round and Round"
The Guess Who "American Woman"

Rock Band is also releasing a feature that will allow 4 on 4 battle of the bands over Xbox Live. Oh yeah, bring it.

One of my earlier requests was that artists would be releasing complete albums for play in Rock Band and/or Guitar Hero the same time their new albums came out. Motley Crue (Saints of Los Angeles review) and Judas Priest (Nostradamus review) both missed out with their new releases, but Metallica will answer the call and release the complete album of Death Magnetic, due out in the Fall on Guitar Hero. I keep writing this is a huge opportunity for bands and clearly some are seeing this with comments from Metallica like (emphasis mine):

We are so psyched that we’ll be the first out of the gate with this simultaneous release . . . who knows, maybe a few years from now this will be the norm when your favorite band’s new record comes out.

Amen. This is shaping up to be an awesome — and spendy — second half of the year for music video games with sequels for both Rock Band and Guitar Hero, not to mention drums and vocals being added to Guitar Hero. Guitar Hero is also going to have a way for gamers to create and share their own songs.  Start saving those pennies now.

There is a real sport called Chess Boxing. Yes, really:

Stripped to the waist, wearing towels around their shoulders and headphones playing the lulling sound of a moving train to drown out the baying crowd, the men played for four minutes.
Then off came their reading glasses and on went the gloves and the mouthguards.

The game can end in a checkmate or knockout, this is great. I’d rather watch this then UFC. Now just think of your favorite boxers and chess players. The two don’t fit.

What other good sports mashups would work? Baseball Poker? How about Soccer Monopoly? Hockey Pai-Gow?

It’s no secret that I’ve been a huge fan of the various fake music games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. This weekend we took some time to purchase and review the two most current offerings in the Guitar Hero franchise: Guitar Hero On Tour Nintendo DS ($49.99) and Guitar Hero Aerosmith ($99 at Wal-Mart) for the Xbox 360.

Guitar Hero On Tour Nintendo DS
Guitar Hero On Tour has an interesting, but uncomfortable glove-like control pad that literally wraps around the DS. When I saw a demo of it online a couple months back (sorry, can’t remember what the publication was to link), I didn’t think it would be as uncomfortable to hold and play. It is. I felt uncomfortable with it after playing a couple songs. Carpal Guitar Hero Tunnel syndrome anyone?

It was a nice touch to include an adapter for the game that fit those of us with the older style Nintendo DS. Just have to unscrew a couple flat-head screws and pop out the control circuit, then put in the replacement one. Takes a couple minutes.

The game itself has an already lampooned mechanism for activating star power: either yell something into the microphone or blow in it. If you blow in it or yell at it you look equally foolish. Why didn’t they include some picture of an amp or something to knock over on the right screen? Who wants to give their Nintendo DS a blowjob?

The pick is the one part that feels good in the hand but no so much with the back and forth motion on the virtual guitar displayed on the touch screen. To whammy you just move the pick in a similar motion over the whammy bar. It’s not nearly as satisfying as using the whammy bar on the full size game.

I give high marks for effort and am glad to see something on the DS for portable rocking out, but I’m not sure we’ll be taking this game many places because it is awkward and not as much fun to play as the full-size version.

Also, my son pointed out that if you have longer fingers like him, it’s a little more tricky. And there are only four buttons instead of five (no orange button), which is another knock for hardcore Guitar Hero players. Guitar Hero fans will buy this, heck, you probably have, but I wouldn’t recommend for non diehards. Grade: C-

Guitar Hero Aerosmith
The first thing to disappoint is that the game wasn’t available separately at Wal-Mart. Maybe other stores are selling the game elsewhere, but Wal-Mart was forcing their shoppers to buy the Aerosmith guitar bundle which cost $99.87 or some weird penny price like that. I thought about hitting Best Buy or Circuit City to see if it was the same deal there but it was a hot day yesterday and I didn’t want to spend it shopping.

According to Amazon, the game sold separately won’t be available until tomorrow, Tuesday July 1, 2008. So for two days of impatience, we’re paying. We should have waited. Oh well. I don’t blame them for releasing the game this way, so the review score doesn’t reflect this annoyance.

Since we bought the package to get to the game, I’m not going to review the guitar itself. It’s essentially the same Guitar Hero III guitar controller, as best as I can tell. We left it in the package. Might be handy to have an extra axe in case the others go down and when you figure they are selling the guitars standalone for $59, it’s actually a deal buying the package.

Guitar Hero Aerosmith takes the player through the career of Aerosmith and boasts some 25 tracks from the band’s extensive music library. It’s nice hearing and being able to play along with great songs like “Kings and Queens” and more well-known songs like “Sweet Emotion” but if you aren’t an Aerosmith fan be warned: you will likely be disappointed.

I don’t know why anybody would buy a game with Aerosmith music if they didn’t like Aerosmith, but if that fits you, then I’d pass. If you are a Guitar Hero collector, as I said above, you probably already were waiting in line Sunday morning at 12:01am. That wasn’t us. We went Sunday afternoon.

Mad props for another Guitar Hero game, but we didn’t see that much new here to warrant a completely new game. Why not just release Aerosmith song paks? I know, I know, there’s an Aerosmith storyline that goes with the game, it’s not just the songs, but at the end of the day — and the career mode — you’re left with replay value being the songs themselves. I’d rather have paid $30-40 for the songs than $100 for the game and extra controller, but that’s just me.

I’m not at expert skill level at these games and tend to play and be challenged by the ‘hard’ difficulty for most of these type games. I don’t have enough time to practice and get as good at these games as I’d like. I’d rather use this time playing real music instruments. At the same time, I do enjoy them and think they offer a huge benefit to the struggling music business.

My middle son and younger son are both experts at these games and were able to beat both Guitar Hero on Tour for the Nintendo DS and Guitar Hero Aerosmith at expert difficulty in a few hours. Aerosmith has 31 base songs (with 9+ more unlockable) and Guitar Hero On Tour has 25 (not sure how many more unlockables). None of the songs, according to our sons were extraordinarily difficult. Nothing that matches “Through The Fire and Flames.” This was a letdown for them. They were hoping for something to shred and more challenging.

As the one who purchased the games, I was disappointed there wasn’t more challenge as well. Why not throw in some speed death metal tracks just to keep the replay factor high for players like them?

Here’s an idea — and missed opportunity — release each new version with new types of game controllers. Don’t have just another guitar, have it be one that has special effects that the other doesn’t have. That’s not my idea, BTW, Activision competitor Rock Band is planning to do just that by promising new type instruments (keyboard, maybe?). Oh yeah, sign me up.

My son who beat it on expert (pictured above), said Guitar Hero Aerosmith is “ok.” The time to beat this on the expert setting, was much too easy (for him). Therefore, at least in our household, I don’t see this one having very much replay value, so I’m marking down for that. Just being a new Guitar Hero game isn’t enough when one can buy new songs online every week. Nobody in our family are huge Aerosmith fans, but the music selection is good. Not sure I’d want to emulate Joe Perry though. Grade: C+

Our weekend was active, how was yours?

On Saturday I went to the first Podcamp Seattle and learned about the service Twemes. A number of Podcamp Seattle attendees were using Twitter messages and the tag #podcampseattle (pictured) through Twitter to create an IRC-like experience.

You can tag any message in twitter with the # in front of the keyword and then follow along on Twemes. There wasn’t an official IRC room for podcamp, at least that I saw, which would have been nice. I attended the introduction to podcasting and Twitter 101 talks in the morning. Brought my HD camera and captured 3 of the 4 sessions I attended from beginning to end. I put the camera on a tripod this time around so no shaky hand syndrome.

Not enough podcasters at Podcamp
Had lunch with Stuart Maxell, Leif Hansen and Rob Greenlee at a local teriyaki restaurant. Stuart said he reads MakeYouGoHmm (thanks!).

I was a little disappointed that there weren’t more actual podcasters at an event called Podcamp.

After the event on the way to our cars I mentioned to Leif and Rob that the event seemed more geared to social networking and marketing. Not that this is bad, but not quite what I expected as far as who would be attending. I realize that the attendees are what make an unconference so I’m partly to blame for not getting more involved.

After lunch I did pipe up during Rob’s session on Advanced Podcasting and say a few words about how I felt my Zune podcast work was more about being a podcast promoter rather than being an ‘editor’ of podcast submissions. Also gave out my Zune email address if any of the podcasters in attendance needed help with their Zune podcast submissions. As of this writing, I’ve had one email thanking me for the offer.

There is a local Seattle podcaster meetup that I need to try and get to in the next few months and introduce myself to podcasters there and let folks now I’d like to help them if I can with their Zune Marketplace podcast submissions.

21 is the magic number
On Sunday my wife and I went to Hoquiam for some prospective business. Afterwards on Sunday we drove 15 minutes to the Quinalt casino and check out the speed limit sign on the driveway to the casino which is right on the beach.

First time I’ve ever seen a 21 MPH sign. Clever casino marketing, eh?

We had a nice lunch with the ocean in the distance and a live pianist in the background. We then proceeded to lose $40 rather quickly in their casino and then came home. The casino was pretty dead for a Sunday at lunch time. Rising gas prices have to be hurting their business.

Due to conflicting events our band wasn’t able to jam on Sunday night, but we’ll be back at it this coming Sunday. I’m planning on taking my HD camera to our next session and trying to catch some footage to bring back to the blog if the group is up to it, anyway.

George Carlin moves along
Sad to see comedian George Carlin has passed away at 71. Feel like I should post those seven dirty words that he was famous for outlining, but will save your eyes and ears in this post.

Being a videoblog/podcast host is a transitory profession. Don’t sign any long leases.

Remember Amanda Congdon who had a popular gig at Rocketboom and then went onto presumably bigger, better things at ABC, only to last less than a year. Enter example two, Veronica Belmont, the initial video host of Jason Calacanis’ current video brainchild: Mahalo Daily. Belmont ditched Mahalo Daily awhile back and is starting June 5 as the new videoblog host for Qore, a paid subscription-based videoblog show which sounds to me like paying to watch commercials for games on the Sony Playstaton 3.

In fairness, let’s review what the official PS3 blog says will be part of the Qore subscription:

Qore has been developed to give PS3 users early access to game related content at a level of quality, interactivity and depth. Everything is filmed in HD. Qore will feature exclusive news, developer interviews, in-depth game previews and behind-the-scenes looks at PlayStation games and special access to game demos, special beta invitations, game add-ons and other downloadable game-related content.

Calacanis was smart enough not to charge viewers for his paid advertorial for Mahalo, what is Sony smoking? Why are they are charging for “special access” to game demos? Some commenters on the PS3 blog post are rightfully complaining while at least one commenter says this is in line with print game magazines which charge too much for information you can usually find on the web already. Nevermind that many of these print game mags are struggling to stay afloat. This is 2008, not 1998.

Shooting the video in all HD is smart and the game add-on part might be worth paying for if they are giving away songs to games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero but my guess is most of these add-ons will be lame things like different characters or backgrounds. Yeah, yeah, maybe it will be only [sarcasm] $24.99 a year for a Qore subscription of 13 episodes, but I’m skeptical that it will be worth $2.99 (single episode price) per episode. For Sony’s and fellow gamer’s sake I hope I’m wrong. I will happily buy in if they put some good exclusive add-on content in there.

Let me throw Sony a bone. Get us access to HOME — for free. Quit delaying and give us more games in the Playstation store. I’ve only been saying this since launch day and doubt any gamers will disagree. Sony could have bought Atari (ATAR stock had been floundering) dirt cheap and put all of their games in the PlayStation store and didn’t do it. No, instead they want to charge us for the privilege of being teased about some bright gaming future (Look at what’s coming in months … years). Advice to Belmont: don’t put all your eggs in the Qore basket. As popular as the Wii is (where can one buy Wii Fit at anyway? Sold out everywhere), she would have been better doing a Nintendo Wii show — perhaps an exercise show to go along with Wii Fit — that was offered for the special price of — drumroll please — free. Strike that, horny gamers would pay $2.99 to see a good looking girl doing Wii Fit workouts.

Come on, Sony. Really.

Yesterday our Zoom cable modem crapped out at home and it was no April Fool’s joke. Last night we went to Best Buy and picked up a new modem and upgraded our router to the D-Link Xtreme N Gaming Router which promises to prioritize gaming traffic.

Replacing the cable modem was as easy as unplugging the old, plugging in the new Motorola modem and calling Comcast to register the modem. I spent more time on hold waiting for the Comcast customer service rep (10 minutes) than actually hooking up the hardware. Once Comcast registered the MAC ID on their end, internet quickly returned.

Comcast also pitched me on a free 90 day trial of 8Mbps down 2Mbps up connection. At the end of the 90 days it will cost $10/month more if we don’t cancel. I said sure, uncap that badboy. Thinking back to the dial-up modem days, internet speed is the new drug.

According to data at speedtest.net it looks like Comcast is the top dog for bandwidth in our area:

Next, I put in the CD that came with the D-Link DGL-4500 and followed the wizard. It helped me setup wireless security and configure the modem with no manual intervention. Five minutes later, I asked our sons to give the new connection a whirl. Had lag improved? They said they noticed an improvement.

This morning I quizzed them again and they said it was “better.” I probably won’t enough time to test the gaming until this coming weekend. It’s no rush, we have 89 more days.

The DGL-4500 comes with a Y! Desktop Widget for real time network monitoring as well as offers a bright blue readable digital display on the router which they call a “network activity display screen.” The Widget doesn’t show anything that isn’t already available from the web interface (by accessing 192.168.0.1) so not sure if it’s worth the additional CPU overhead.

We paid $179.99 + tax at Best Buy. After some extended use, I’ll either write a detailed review of our findings or share feedback in updates to this post.

Good stuff on the horizon for Blu-ray fans as some much needed web-interactive features will become available.

The downloadable content will range from bonus movie scenes and trailers to "interactive movie-based games."

"With Blu-ray established as the high-definition optical disc standard, more consumers are ready to jump in and take advantage of everything the format offers," said Scott A. Steinberg, vice president of product marketing, in a statement.

Interactive movie-based games? Like Dragon’s Lair? Or how about a version of the upcoming Indiana Jones where you control Indy through perilous situations? One wrong move and Indy’s toast. I’m just dreaming aloud here, so don’t get too excited.

While this might work with action movies, it won’t work well with romance flicks. Or maybe it would? Oh boy, I better stop the brain before I get into trouble.

Sure, football season is over and it’s time to welcome the baseball season, but here’s a neat soda marketing idea. Check out the Jones Soda Seahawks edition:

Jone Soda doesn’t stop there, you can get custom pictures on a bottle of soda — great gift idea — by visiting myjones.com. Now you can make your own Mariners Jones Soda edition with shots of your friends, family or you at Safeco field.

How are the Mariners going to do in 2008? With spring training starting to wrap up, I’m excited. They’ve added some good pitching this year, but I’m still a little worried about the offense. Prediction? They’ll win at least 90 games this year. Go Mariners!

Oh, and for those Jones fans who still have Seahawks fever, see this page.