2008
11
Entertainment
g u ita r Hero has audiences begging for encore
_ A dam H olmes ______________
Staff Reporter
The pounding beat of
music erupts. Screams fill the
room. Hearts thump with
energy. All of this is the result
of one lone musician/ armed
only with a guitar.
Is this skilled musician a
famous rock star from AC/
DC, Van Halen or Guns &
Roses? No, this is a teenager
whose weapon is a guitar
with the only objective being
to rock in the video game
"Guitar Hero."
The basic gameplay of
"Guitar Hero" is simple:
using a special guitar shaped
controller, your goal is to rock
on to famous rock and roll
songs from the 1960s through
today. The controller (which
comes in two different guitar
models: the Gibson SG and
the Gibson X-Plorer) has five
different colored buttons at
the end of the guitar neck and
a strum bar near the bottom
of the controller.
"I like "Guitar Hero"
because it lets me pretend
to be a rock star. And no
one makes fun of me," Jon
Binswanger, junior, said.
Sim ilar to the previous
music game series "Dance,
Dance, Revolution," this
game is rhythm-based. After
choosing a song to jam along
ith, an extended guitar neck
and five keys in rows will
appear on the screen. The
keys are the same colors as
the buttons on the controller.
"Guitar Hero" made
its debut performance in
November 2005 with the first
game, "Guitar Hero," for the
Playstation 2 game console.
The game surprised many
m
people with its innovative
gameplay and its use of a
guitar shaped controller
instead of the standard
console .controller.
Selling nearly 1.5 million
David Stocker, senior, jams to
video game "Guitar Hero."
Photo by
copies in the first year, its
com pany Harmonix Music
Systems, released "Guitar
Hero" II in 2006 for the
Playstation 2, and later for
the Xbox 360. Since then,
two more games have been
released, entitled "Guitar
Hero": Rocks the 80s and
"Guitar Hero IH: Legends of
Rock," with Legends of Rock
released in October 2007
and available for Playstation
2, Playstation 3, Xbox 360,
Nintendo W ii, PC, and Mac.
When the game starts,
different colored markers
(also known as keys) will
travel down the screen as the
music progresses. The goal is
to hit the button of the same
color on the screen, while
at the same time hitting the
strum bar. This w ill strike a
note on the screen. Different
combinations of keys w ill
appear as the game moves
along, that correspond to the
notes in the song, making
the game more of a
challenge.
In order to
measure how well
you rock, there
is a "rock meter."
If you are simply
amazing, you are
in the green. If you
are so-so, you will
be in the middle at
yellow. If you are
failing miserably,
you'll be at red,
and if you are not
careful, you might
hit zero, and the
game w ill be over.
During some of
the popular the songs, different
keys w ill appear
Malia Chong that are outlined
with glowing stars.
If the player can successfully
score a certain number of
these notes, the "Star Power
Meter" w ill be filled. By
accomplishing this task, the
player w ill score double
points until the meter runs
out.
In addition, the controller
is equipped with a whammy
bar for the more skilled
players. By using this device,
you can score extra points
and give the song a more
electric feeling. By the end of
the song, it w ill show how
many points you earned. The
more points you earn, the
more your audience w ill love
you.
"Guitar Hero" is unique
because it doesn't follow
McCarthy delivers another classic
S arah C hicoine
co-Editor-in-Chief
First of all, I dare not
Romanticize my reasoning for
reading what is sure to become
a contemporary classic. For
an AP English project, I had
to choose a contemporary
novelist. I gave the list of
suggested authors to my dad
and asked which one was
easiest and which I'd enjoy the
most.
My dad suggested "All the
Pretty Horses" by Cormac
McCarthy. Well, if Matt Damon
liked it enough to make a
movie, it had to be good
enough for me, right? But in a
state of procrastination, I had
not yet gotten the novel half a
week before we were supposed
to be done reading (Sorry, Mr.
West!). So I started reading
"No Country for Old Men,"
merely because it was the only
McCarthy book I could find.
As I started to read, I was
pleasantly surprised. With
an unknown first person
narrator and changing point-
of-view, McCarthy is a true
contemporary with influences
from Modernist writers like
William Faulkner.
The novel throws the reader
into the plot line by graphically
describing a gruesome murder
within the first few pages.
In the words of my doctor,
Chigurh, the antagonist and
mass murder, is a real bad guy.
His murders are countless,
ruthless and continuous
throughout the novel.
After being introduced
to Chigurh, the story jumps
to introduce protagonist
Llewelyn Moss. While hunting,
Moss finds a drug deal gone
very wrong, a truck full of
cocaine, dead bodies, guns
and lots of money. Tempted by
greed, Moss takes the money
and starts the "cat and mouse
game" for his life.
Set between the borders
of Texas and Mexico as most
McCarthy novels are, this 1980
western follows Moss and
Chigurh. However, a simple
game of chase would be far
too simple for McCarthy. The
novel is told through different
points-of-view and is laced
with the first person narrative,
of a local sheriff, Bell, who
is also looking for Moss and
Chigurh.
The details and different
ways McCarthy adds to the
storyline are far too many and
too complicated to explain. -
For this reason, I am unsure
how the movie will be able to
do justice to such an intricate,
yet straightforward story. I am
still anticipating seeing how
they incorporate the differing
view-points within a film
context which is already out
in theaters. However, since I
enjoyed the novels innovative
techniques and captivating
plotline.
the traditional video game
dynamics. It is one of the
few games that combines
a popular interest in rock
music, and allows you to
play these famous rock songs
without actually learning
how to play the guitar.
Instead, it gives people the
look and feeling about what
playing the guitar in a real
"Rock Band" is like.
"If people spent half as
much time actually learning
how to play the guitar instead
of playing that game, they
would be skilled musicians,"
Cameron Frank, junior, said.
Some people may notice
that this game is sim ilar
to a recent game released
called "Rock Band." These
games are produced by
the same company and are
also musical based, but
"Rock Band" has more of
an emphasis on a band as a
whole performs, and gives
you ti\e option of playing
instruments other than the
guitar.
"Guitar Hero" remains a
popular video game among
gamers, and its popularity
is increasing. Two more
"Guitar Hero" additions will
soon be released, one for the
standard gaming consoles,
and a special version for the
Nintendo DS. Only time will
tell how much longer this
game w ill remain cool.
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