If you’re around New York City next Wednesday, April 11, stop by Virgin Megastore in Times Square. Microsoft is hosting a Guitar Hero II competition, where five lucky contestants will be able to battle it out to get to play “Strutter” with one and only Gene Simmons of KISS. Don’t go jumping around just yet, the contestants have already been selected.

The event runs from 12:30-2:30pm EST. I’ll be there with bells on (not really you freaks). I’ll make sure to take lots of pictures to show everyone. If anyone in the area will be going, leave some comments.

Expect Gene Simmons to market the hell out of himself at every turn, cause that’s how he rolls.

I think everyone can agree that the original Super Mario Brothers for the NES is one of the greatest platformers ever. I still play it for fun every once in a while. Nintendo is paying homage to one of my favorite boards in the game, World 1-2, by having it recreated exactly in Super Paper Mario. This time, you get to see it in a whole new light, as you can switch your views. Looks absolutely amazing! I can see Super Paper Mario taking up just as much of my time as Guitar Hero…

I spent a whole lot of time yesterday with Guitar Hero II on my Xbox 360. Enough time that the 360 was crying, and my fiance was yelling to make it stop. I have to say, I absolutely love this game!

The graphics aren’t the strong suit here. And let’s face it, they don’t need to be. They do look worlds better than the PS2 version, but you honestly hardly ever look at the graphics when you’re playing. You just don’t have the time. You’re one focus is that fretboard in the middle scrolling your notes to play.

The sound is fantastic. Having the game in 5.1 Surround Sound is great too, with the crowd cheering behind you and such. The soundtrack is terrific. I’ve unlocked a good portion of the songs and can’t wait to play some of the others.

What else can you say about the gameplay… it’s spot on. The guitar controller feels great in your hands. There have been some reports of bad whammy bars on the guitars, but I don’t see that on the one I have. I also played a bit with the standard Xbox 360 controller so I could rock out to some co-op gameplay. I can’t justify spending another $60 on a guitar for the occasions when friends are over. I can deal with the controller. Surprisingly, the controller is very easy to use. The notes are mapped to the shoulder buttons, triggers, and A button, with no strumming required. I think the no strumming part is what makes it easier. Not sure I would recommend using the controller for lead guitar on Medium difficulty or higher. Hitting the notes fast might be tough, since you can’t use any hammer-ons or pull-offs.

Overall, I give the game a 9.5 out of 10. One of my favorites so far this year. I still semi-suck at this game, but I’ve gotten a lot better. I average 95% or more on Medium difficulty now. I thought it would come easier, since I’ve been playing guitar for over 10 years, but no

If you think you’re good at Guitar Hero II, you’re not. You know who is, this fucking guy. Check this out. I’ll never be able to touch this…

So I picked up Guitar Hero II this morning for 360. I’d only played drunk at friends houses before on PS2. All I can say is, this game is FUN. With a capital UN. Yeah, that didn’t make much sense.

Anyway, the graphics are pretty in 1080p, but nothing to write home about. The guitar controller is nice and feels comfortable in your hands. I suck horribly right now at the game, so I need to go put more practice in. I wish there was online co-op for this game. I though the lag would have to be non-existent though.

I’ll have a bigger review coming once I spend some more time with the game and start getting better.

If jamming out with Guitar Hero in your living room isn’t enough for you, you now get a chance to head bang with your friends in your living room. Today, EA, MTV, and Harmonix announced Rock Band for the PS3 and Xbox 360 this holiday season.

Not only do you get to jam with 2 guitars (lead and rhythm), but also a bass and drum kit. Did we mention you get microphones too? Consider this game to be Guitar Hero + SingStar + Drum Hero, and factor in your insane abilities to mess the songs up beyond recognition, and you’ve got yourself a record contract in the making.

What I think is great is how many record labels are contributing original music recording to the game. The major publishers are EMI Music, Hollywood Records, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group’s Universal Music Enterprises and Warner Music Group’s Rhino Entertainment.

Sounds interested. I can only imagine how much this thing is going to cost with all that hardware, considering a wired guitar for Xbox 360 is $60.

Red Octane confirmed the date today for the 360 version of Guitar Hero II: April 3, 2007. Giddy up! If you preorder from their website, they’ll throw in a free gig bag for the guitar. Also to note, you get free shipping and no sales tax from their site, so line up people.

Unfortunately, Microsoft wouldn’t let Red Octane make a wireless guitar for the 360. That would have been killer.

I’ve been wanting this game for a while, and have passed on the PS2 version since the guitar won’t currently work on the PS3 (I have no room left in my entertainment center to hook the PS2 back up). Hopefully there isn’t a ton of nickel and diming going on with downloads from the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Drunk Pandas

So now that 2006 has come to an end, I figure it’s time to pick my game of the year. This year was a tough pick. There’s 4 games all close to that number 1 spot. You’ve got Zelda for Wii, Guitar Hero 2 for PS2, and Final Fantasy XII for PS2 that all came close, but just didn’t cut it. So my winner for the 2006 Game of the Year is Gears of War for the Xbox 360. This game lived up to the hype machine that was created around it. The graphics, gameplay, and story are all amazing. Kudos to Cliffy B and the team at Epic for creating such a great game! Hopefully the trilogy rumors prove to be true.

Hopefully next year PS3 will have some better showings and even come close to the top of the list, as well as PSP and DS (which both had some damn good titles this year).

Jmel

I would have to say that my most enjoyable gaming this year has come with Gears of War. The commercial that came out built up the hype, then I got to go to the event in Chapel Hill, and play the game. I knew at that moment, it was going to be a hot seller. It’s the only game I’ve ever gone back to play a 2nd time or more (I’m on my 3rd time now). The game is not without its flaws, (still voice problems when joining an in session game online) but for the most part it is everything that a next gen game for the 360 should be. The cooperative play, the basic yet fun tactics. It’s just a fun game all around. My runner-ups would be Oblivion which easily defined the bar for the first half of the year, and also oddly, Test Drive Unlimited, which really gives people a peek at what racing games can evolve to in the coming years.

StevenSteel

Although I am limited in the amount of systems I have played, I think Oblivion is by far the game of the year. Even after beating the game and finishing all the achievements, I continue to play the game, download content and extra missions, and hack away at the numerous skill parts for each character. For me in 2006, Oblivion occupied most of my time and kept me glued to the graphics and game play features. Not to take anything away from GOW, because it does have amazing graphics and online features, I just don’t think it has the depth and overall features of Oblivion. I can only hope Elder Scrolls V will be even more in depth and make each time playing the game with a different character just as exciting as the first. I would say my view is skewed though, since I am not a huge fan of online play, I prefer to just sit down and play a game at my own leisure. Purchasing a PS3 is in my near future and hopefully will be able to add more titles to my arsenal.

Taz8080

This year had quite a full lineup for almost every system, the top 4 that stick out in my head overall are Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Gears of War, Rainbow Six Vegas and Dead Rising. I played these all on e the 360 and saw the difference and elevation of game play to the next generation console. I have logged quite a few hours in each and enjoyed them all but I will break down my choice as follow: Rainbow Six Vegas and Marvel ultimate Alliance are great titles that provide good old fashioned online gaming and coop with your buddies. Both titles build off of their predecessors extremely well but in essence are rehashes of older iterations, to me the GOTY has to be original. That leaves Dead Rising and Gears of War, both awesome games that were innovative and tough, while providing a fresh new gaming experience and really puling you into their story. For me this is a tough choice and I would love to go against Gears to be different, but it just provided the full package, I think if Dead Rising would have given me online options I would pick it hands down. My GOTY pick would have to be Gears it lived up to it’s hyped up billing, sorry Dead Rising, but if ripping a man in half with a chainsaw is wrong… I just don’t want to be right.