After so many months of waiting, PAL regions finally get a copy of Rock Band for XBox 360. After about a month, I’ve finally gotten down to writing this.

I had quite the load of compatibility questions when I bought it, and now that I have a copy, I can finally answer them. It was annoying having to dig for all the information anyway. As is already well known, Guitar Hero XBox 360 guitar controllers do work with Rock Band. Stuff you might have to dig around for? Rock Band PAL works with downloadable content (DLC) from the US. This is great news for people like me who somehow have US XBox Live accounts. Sadly, the PS3 Singstar mics do not work with Rock Band XBox 360. I’m not sure if this is an oversight or there is something stopping them from working on the XBox 360 - but they are not recognised as microphones, so I’m stuck using my XBox 360 headset in my relatively makeshift set up of 2 Guitar Hero Les Paul controllers, 1 Rock Band drum kit and er, a Plantronics headset.

While I did have my complaints about Guitar Hero 2’s set list, my complaints about Rock Band’s set list is minimal. Most of the songs are awesome on any instrument (barring the occasional difficult to sing parts of some songs - although I do suck at singing, so if I’m playing prepare to suffer :P) While the bonus songs are from relatively unknown bands, quite a number of them are good if you give them a chance.

Since both Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band now have respectable track lists, I’m thinking either music companies are more open to the idea of licensing their tracks out to music games - or maybe both have done some degree of research on the music game fanbase. Not to mention, the European version of Rock Band has additional 9 songs which behave like DLC right on the disc.

Of course, in terms of content, the 67 songs on the disc are only the tip of the iceberg. DLC is where the real load of content is. Ever since it’s release in the US, we’ve been seeing at least 3 new songs every week up for download. What does that mean? That means that (at the time of this article) there are 126 songs available for purchase, right now - with another 14 songs to be released on the June 24th (the remainder of the Pixies album Doolittle - Wave of Mutilation is already on the disc). If you were to buy everything, you would effectively have 207 songs to play.

Of course, like every sane person, I choose what I buy - and I’ve bought plenty (for someone who doesn’t even touch the GH3 track packs), among them are the Metallica Pack, Boston Pack, Disturbed Pack, Scene Pack, Jimmy Buffett pack, and many of the singles on the list. The best part is that if you don’t like the whole pack - you’re free to buy just the songs you want. You just happen to get a slight discount if you do buy the whole pack.

While there’s no telling what’s coming next - there’s a lot online if you’re looking for new tracks to play.

There’s no need to talk about the solo tour. In general, there’s two reasons to go there. One - unlock tracks to be played everywhere else before your friends come over. Two - record high scores. The console based quickplay leaderboard (from Guitar Hero) is nonexistent in Rock Band and the only way to keep track is through the solo tour. Needless to say, Rock Band isn’t concerned about how well you are doing compared to everyone else who plays the game on your console.

I won’t talk about Band World Tour, simply because I haven’t gotten much of a chance to play it. The party group I play with is currently more than content quickplaying for now. The small amount of time I’ve spent with it has shown it to be interesting - but I’m not too sure what about it makes it fun.

Of course, with a name like Rock Band, the multiplayer has to be awesome right? It is. Four people - two frantically pressing buttons, one whacking flat pieces of plastic with sticks and another straining their out-of-tune voice (probably just me, actually) to match note tracks that scroll onscreen is awesome.

There’s only one problem with this ideal setup. These four people each will simply look at their own note tracks. Of course, there is a real need for everyone to perform well. Singing is very difficult when you lose the lead guitar to guide you, and keeping rhythm is difficult if your drummer is struggling. However, for the most part, you tend to be too busy looking at your own note track. So busy, you usually don’t notice problems until your friend fails out and call out to you for a save.

Still playing 4 different and integral parts to the song is awesome. When someone misses a note, you know it. If your guitarist is not doing too well, the melody won’t play (instead being replaced by your frantic friend’s random button pressing). When the bassist is struggling, you hear the song becoming a little hollow. When your drummer has no sense of rhythm, you start to rely on the notes running on screen. If your singer is constantly out-of-tune, they eventually fail.

The graphics look a lot sharper than Guitar Hero 3, not to mention some fine touches here and there (the audience chipping in and certain stage animations) give you the feeling that Rock Band wants to immerse you in that world where your virtual performance is being held.

I’m certainly going to say it’s a must-buy if you love music games. The expensive peripherals may be a setback, but the game is good.

Extra notes: Drumming is obviously the star feature of Rock Band, since very little in the way of drumming games has come from anywhere (except Japan). I personally think it’s the best part of the game (evidenced by me hogging the drum controller most of the time). The controller unfortunately, does occasionally feel cheap, not to mention deciding how to sit and where to place the drum pedal is usually a difficult consideration. The biggest hurdle is achieving limb independence - after which nothing in Hard should pose a problem. Some songs in Expert will begin to show you the limitations of the controller - like the slightly flawed foot pedal mechanics, sensitivity to particularly fast drum rolls and so on.

A week ago, I followed Shockrave on his quest for a new printer. He settled for a brother HL2140 from Officeworks - which I think is a decent laser printer. On the other hand, something else caught my eye:

The Energizer USB battery charger. It’s no secret I’m a big fan of Energizer USB rechargable batteries, I have over 16 of them littered all over my apartment in many many devices. It’s a nifty little device that charges battery via USB, and it even works with those USB adapters you may have laying about. While to most people this may not be a big deal, to me it is - when I travel, carrying one USB AC adapter and several USB cables saves a lot of space. (I chose the green coloured one simply because that felt like the most “Energizer Rechargable” brand oriented.)

The cable coils nicely around the device and the USB plug tucks in neatly into a slot built into the charger. Some of you may not value this simple aesthetic yet functional design, but I do.

Fully uncoiled, it looks like this:

Like other Energizer chargers, it supports charging AA and AAA batteries (it actually comes with two 900mAh AAA batteries.

The AAA batteries charge using the familiar fold down piece.

Curious about what it looks like inside underneath the batteries?

This charger can charge just one battery. (Handy for those who use rechargeable in mice like the VX Revolution  that only use one battery.)

Once you’ve loaded the batteries, and closed the cover:

Then, download their software, plug it into the computer and:

(The timer did correct itself to 4 hours after a while. Not sure why it went down all the way to 9 hours 14 minutes.)

I’m not going to lie, it was an impulse buy, and serves little purpose to me now. That being said, if I need to charge only two batteries, this is a lot more convenient than the slightly bulkier travel charger I bring around. It serves its purpose, and like most Energizer chargers, the batteries don’t get as hot as some other chargers do - and if you like having a small USB device that can charge batteries lying somewhere in your room near your computer - don’t hesistate to pick one of these up.

I’m probably among the biggest culprits of being biased. You can probably see it all over my blog. I think.

Why I am biased:
I spare no popular game I don’t like serious criticism. Final Fantasy XII is a good example. I hate the game. I have no idea how it earned so many honours by doing NOTHING well. It wasn’t fun, the story was bad, and it was draggily long. I couldn’t even go past five hours on it. That being said, I could easily and happily play what most review sites call an ‘average’ game - .hack//G.U. I can spend hours on Dynasty Warriors and Ninety-Nine Nights just because I find it fun.

I cannot for the life of me see why people like Zelda. It still hasn’t clicked, and probably never will. Why is it fun? I don’t know. There’s just obviously something I’m just grandly missing. I think I just have this dislike for platformers. Okami didn’t charm me, and neither did Super Mario Galaxy. I know they were good, but not that good. Maybe I’m just too much of an old-school gamer.

Why I might not be as biased:
Even consoles I own don’t escape criticism. I hold no true favouritism over any console just because I own them. I badly want the Wii to crash and burn. I like my PS3 over the XBox 360 because I can run Linux on it. The PSP just beats the DS because the PSP is just that much better of a handheld device. I switched to Windows Mobile because Palm OS was just too archaic for my liking. Just because I own the console doesn’t mean I have any interest in it being successful. It just means I have an interest in games that are already out for it - the GameCube is a good example.

Graphics are nothing to me if there’s no gameplay. Even if I could play Crysis at maximum settings, I’d still give it a 6, at most. Crysis’ level design was poor and the ease at which one could lose their way despite having a minimap was appalling (don’t even get me started on the interface and gameplay). I’ll happily trod through Disgaea and Atelier Iris, and shelf away any of the PS2 Final Fantasy games. I’d play Ninja Gaiden Black while immersing myself in Folklore. Command and Conquer: Red Alert is still fun despite everything looking like sad blocks of pixels now.

Why I might be biased:
Graphics still do matter. Now that UT3 nearly matches the pace I’m used to from Quake 3, it’s probably no turning back. While gameplay occasionally does trump graphics, it’s difficult for me to see myself going back to playing Freecell XP after playing Freecell Vista or Dynasty Warriors 5 after Dynasty Warriors 6.

(I wanted to say more. But writer’s block hit again. Dammit.)

This was due a long time ago. As the demo had already confirmed, DMC4 stays true to the formula in Devil May Cry 3, with numerous boss fights and focus on dealing boatloads of damage while not taking those same boatloads of damage yourself.

Among the most popular (or notorious) features of Devil May Cry 4 is its difficulty, so I’ll be covering that first. It goes without saying that Devil May Cry 4 is significantly easier than DMC3. I’m not sure if it’s because the bosses are easier to kill, the bosses’ attacks are easier to dodge, or because the controls in DMC4 are that much tighter. But, on Devil Hunter (Normal) difficulty, it goes without saying that it’s a lot easier than DMC3’s normal. The fact that four bosses repeat themselves along the way probably doesn’t really help up the difficulty much.

As most reviews have said, the difficulty is kinda like a bell curve. It starts easy, and then gets really difficult (Dante is a b*tch to kill) and then it gets pretty easy again. Do bear in mind however, that part of this is actually attributed in an increase to the player’s own skill and the player character’s repertoire of moves (which you can purchase as well as mix and match along the way). For example, when you fight Berial, Echidna and Bael/Dagon for the last time, it’s as if they became minibosses somewhere along the way. A quick jump back to the beginning of the game confirms that it’s your skill and character that have gotten better, not that the bosses have gotten easier.

That being said, being able to play Devil May Cry 4 depends heavily on the growth of your own skill as well. While I was able to just run through the game without stopping (having played the previous 3 games before - yes, I forced myself to finish DMC2), it’s likely a good number of people will get stuck somewhere. (for example, when the demo came out, a lot of people were whining about how they couldn’t kill Berial)

The graphics look excellent, and it seems we’ve finally come to the point where cinematics of the past (think Final Fantasy VIII) are now completely executable in real-time graphics. Shadows are low quality however (it seems that the game developers and I see eye-to-eye on how shadows aren’t quite that important) and can look rather weird. It’s rarely a problem since you’re usually too busy killing the enemies and watching the green meter on the top right side of the screen (the portion with the combos).

Most people will likely complain about the variety of weapons available to you. The main character, Nero, only uses one sword and one gun (and one arm - come on, you can’t switch arms) throughout the entire game where he is the playable character. When you do get to play Dante, however, you only get a choice of 4 melee weapons and 3 ranged weapons. Not really much of a choice, if you ask me. (Although yes, Pandora is several weapons in one.) Of course, if you recall, this was roughly the kind of armament we saw in the first game - and considering this is kind of a reboot for the series, and the uniqueness of each of the weapons, I’m very very pleased.

While you don’t get to choose which character to play for a given level, each level is designed to cater for the individual characters, and since a good amount of geographical locations are replicated between levels for the two characters, it’s more like getting the choice, just that it’s now compulsory to switch characters during the course of the game.

Since Dante can now switch between the five styles at will - things got a lot more interesting. Three unique weapons, five fighting styles. Dante deals significantly more damage than Nero. You’ll find yourself taking down the four bosses a lot faster than you did with Nero. The downside? Style upgrades are expensive - and you’ll find yourself usually short of Proud Souls to level up everything.

Talking about Proud Souls, I like the new system. It allows to you to reallocate your skills purchases at any time you come into contact with a divinity statue (I still like calling them God of Time statues, actually). If you need to switch out your loadout of skills - you can. Don’t need that Charge Shot for this level? Buy something else. Need to get that Trigger Heart for the boss battle? Disable those unneeded Gather More Orbs and Speed upgrades before the boss battle so you have more Devil Trigger to kick ass with. Some people may dislike it, but I love the new system. (This is especially true for Dante, since you’ll find yourself reallocating Souls between styles often. It’s kinda a different way to force you to stick to more or less one style most of the time.)

While earning Proud Souls is no easy task - you are given the flexibility to grind. That’s right - replay those easier levels to get those Proud Souls you need. When you start over in a new difficulty, your characters stay the same as they were before. Even if they aren’t supposed to have Devil Trigger yet, they do - just like in DMC3. Having problem in a certain level? Get those few extra skills, health bars and DT gauge bars for the additional edge you need against that boss.

The game is now way more accessible to new players and is still filled with what you’ve come to expect of DMC - difficulty that keeps you on alert (although now much easier than DMC3), abilities you have to buy, Devil Trigger and full control of your character - even in the air (even the weak storyline is there XD). I’m extremely satisfied with the game, and it will likely keep me entertained for months to come.

I’d say it’s a must buy if you own either an X360 or PS3. (Note that replay value may be greatly decreased if you do not enjoy repeating levels on higher difficulties or just to get a higher score - which I enjoy immensely. Now that my hands don’t ache as much, off I am to finish off Son of Sparda mode.)

Note: As a hypothetical score, I suppose, with my bias, it deserves a 9.5 out of 10. Why not 10? DMC3’s choice of weapons and characters way outclass this one - but there are very few games that are this addictive to me. If I were in Australia when this came out and it wasn’t so close to Chinese New Year, I would’ve finished it the first day it came in one sitting. (I had to play in three sessions over 2 days due to the circumstances.) There isn’t any other game out there on any of the three new consoles that I can say I would do the same. (Even Call of Duty 4, Halo 3 and Bioshock never reached that level for me.)