First Thoughts.

Like any great idea in history, there may well be multiple ideas and tech based on the idea. Ubisioft’s Rocksmith is about to have some competition when it comes implementing real guitars in a learning style game dealing with kick butt rocking music.

This one is coming from Developers Realta Entertainment Group and is called BandFuse:  Rock Legends.

The folks at Realta Entertainment Group must have some serious backing since they are having musical artists not only make appearances in the game, but you get some guitar tutelage from non-other than Slash himself. The game is being publish by Mastiff

From the footage we have seen, we will hold onto our thoughts because some of the footage seen of the game could be early stages. We will say we are a bit interested on how the in game concert video footage will play out as you play. It looked a little cheesy in the small clip we have seen so far, so it may have lacked polish just yet. It would be an interesting rush to be playing along and almost feel like you are part of a concert.  This can back fire very easily if not implemented well. We will be doing a full write up review on its release.

Another interesting thing we have seen is that the interface is using what looks like guitar tablature, so if you can read tablature…you will be right at home. If not, I guess you will be learning with the help of BadFuse: Rock Legends.

The title is starting to sound like something to be excited about; press communications from the companies have promised some tantalizing tasty tunes for this title. The more we know the more we are looking foreward to doing the full review for the Xbox 360 version of this title.

Word is the greats Zakk Wylde and Nancy Wilson are now also part of the upcoming videogame music title, BandFuse: Rock Legends. 

Jason Hook and Zoltan Bathory from the band Five Finger Death Punch assist players with the games features.

Now here are a few points we are interested in here.  BandFuse: Rock Legends of course connects real guitars to the game console. Now get this…right on launch it also connects bass and microphones. So yes folks get ready to also get your friend to get vocal or yourself.

Some of the set lists we know of are looking very musically tasty indeed.

•             “You Oughta Know” (Alanis Morissette)

•             “Jessica” (The Allman Brothers Band)

•             “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” (Fall Out Boy)

•             “Hemorrhage” (Fuel)

•             “Barracuda” (Heart)

•             “Drive” (Incubus)

•             “I’m Broken” (Pantera)

•             “Jessie’s Girl” (Rick Springfield)

•             “Limelight” (Rush)

•             “Should I Stay or Should I Go” (The Clash)

•             “Stellar Revival” (The Crazy Ones)

•             “Roundabout” (Yes)

•             “No Rain” (Blind Melon)

•             “Godzilla” (Blue Oyster Cult)

•             “Yellow” (Coldplay)

•             “The Bleeding” (Five Finger Death Punch)

•             “Breaking the Law” (Judas Priest)

•             “Cult of Personality” (Living Colour)

•             “Sweet Home Alabama” (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

•             “Harder to Breathe” (Maroon 5)

•             “Alive” (Pearl Jam)

•             “Back From Cali” (Slash)

•             “Reptilia” (The Strokes)

Nice cross section of songs, the title promises a wide range and it seem they may well deliver…from punk to funk and rock to metal. Though to really make more of an impact, the set list of songs on release needs to come up in number significantly in this writer’s humble opinion.

Hmmm maybe this writer will finally see some Styx and Hall & Oates in the mix… who knows? One can hope.  What is clear is that the time of the plastic toy guitar is well and over.

BandFuse: Rock Legends will be coming to game consoles early in 2013.

Have fun, play games…rock on!

Edwin Millheim

Impulse Gamer

Fans who pre-order Football Manager 2013 to be rewarded with access to a fully-playable Beta version of the game roughly two weeks before launch

September 28^th 2012

Sports Interactive and SEGA, the developer and publisher behind the best-selling Football Manager series, are pleased to announce the release date for this year’s game. Football Manager 2013 will be released across the world on Friday, November 2^nd.

And for those fans who can’t wait until then, there’s even better news. Anyone who pre-orders this year’s game through a participating retail partner will be rewarded with something almost priceless… early access to a fully-playable version of the game.

Any fan who pre-orders (or pre-purchases) Football Manager 2013 – either boxed or as a digital download – will receive a unique code giving access to a pre-release, single-player ‘Beta’ version of the game around 14 days prior to the official launch date.

“Our fans are very good at letting us know what they want and the one thing that’s consistently at the top of their wish list is an earlier release date,” says Sports Interactive’s Studio Director Miles Jacobson. “While we can’t, strictly speaking, offer them exactly what they want, this Beta version is the next best thing… a fully playable Football Manager they can get their hands on around two weeks before the finished game hits the streets.”

The Beta version of Football Manager 13 will give access to most of the forthcoming game’s features, including the all-new Football Manager Classic mode and the short-term Challenges (for more information, go to www.footballmanager.com/features).

The Beta version will remain fully functional until Monday, November 5^th, after which it will no longer be playable. However, the Beta version’s saved games will be fully compatible with the final release, so none of the player’s progress over the pre-release period will be lost.

Football Manager 2013 will be published by SEGA for Windows PC and Mac on November 2^nd 2012. Further information on the game’s new and enhanced features is currently being unveiled in a series of video blogs which can be viewed on the official website, www.footballmanager.com.

The most anticipated game of the year and the most ambitious Call of Duty® game ever, Call of Duty®: Black Ops II will hit shelves worldwide on November 13^th. Rooted in near-future fiction, Call of Duty: Black Ops II multiplayer will introduce players to some of the most cutting-edge weaponry and equipment that 2025 will have to offer.

MULTIPLAYER

ALL-NEW SCORE STREAKS: Scorestreaks reward players for helping their team win the game: capturing flags, defending your teammate with an Assault Shield, getting kills and assists are all examples of actions that help your team win and thus give you score. Each action has a different value and can influence the theater of operations:

UPGRADED WEAPONS, ATTACHMENTS AND EQUIPMENT: Near-future warfare means upgrades in technology that soldiers will use in the field. Additionally, weapon perks are now built into the attachments:

• Assault Shield – Create and move portable cover
• Target Finder – Easy identification of friend or foe
• Millimeter Wave Scanner – New optic that shows stationary (non-moving) targets at close range and through surfaces
• Dual Band Scope – Shows any object that generates heat, allowing for more precision in long-range shooting
• Shock Charge – Non-lethal thrown device that electrocutes and stuns enemies that come near it
• Laser Sight – Both visualized on the gun and seen by the weapon’s owner and other players – you immediately understand the capabilities of this perk and the player that’s got it.

eSPORTS – A huge inspiration for the team and a core pillar to the multiplayer agenda, Call of Duty: Black Ops II introduces Live Streaming and Shoutcasting, taking the competitive spirit of Call of Duty and elevating it to a spectator sport, while providing the tools to beam compelling gameplay to the world.

CODCASTING – The caster is a specialized spectator who takes on the role of color commentator for any recorded game video, providing play-by-play coverage of the action. There are a variety of shoutcaster-specific features built into the game:

• Picture-in-Picture – This view shows a list of everyone in the game, their current score streak, and their status.
• Map View – This view shows both sides of the battle from a top-down perspective in an easy-to-read 2d graphic.
• Score Panel – Similar to what currently exists in professional sports, this view shows the big picture of overall team scores and objective information.
• Name Plate – Similar to the name on a player’s jersey, easily identify the player being spotlighted.
• Listen In – Drop in/out of player conversations and listen to the action as it happens.

LIVE STREAMING – To make competitive gaming not only fun to play but also fun to watch, Treyarch has made it possible to live stream from inside the game. Players only need an internet connection with the required minimum amount of upstream bandwidth and a copy of the game.

LEAGUE PLAY – Competition is fun at any level, which is why Treyarch has introduced Leagues, offering skill-based matchmaking and seasonal ladders. Play a small number of matches to get your skill rating, and from there, you’ll be placed into a division with players of similar skill. Keep winning and you’ll move up in rank – steady progress will move you up the ladder and into upper divisions. Skill-based matchmaking ensures that you are challenged but not out-gunned.

Game Modes – Call of Duty: Black Ops II brings back fan-favorite modes, while introducing a number of enhancements that provide players with the opportunity to define the gameplay experience. All of the objective-based modes are now round-based. (For example, in Domination, players will switch sides so that you have to attack and defend the objectives.) Call of Duty: Black Ops II enables three game modes to play in Multiteam mode: Team Death Match, Hardpoint and Kill Confirmed.

Hardpoint is a new game mode inspired by those traditional King of the Hill style modes, where teams are battling for map control.

Custom Games – Play with up to six teams and 18 players. All game modes, and all variants of game modes, including Hardcore, Multiteam, and Party games are available for players to be able to customize. While League Play fulfills the promise of making gameplay fun at any level, custom games ensure that it’s fun in a different way – because you get to define the parameters. Players can:

• Change the default classes available in their Custom classes.
• Decide if they want players to be able to use their Custom Classes, or just the defaults they designed.
• Add bots to almost all game modes.
• Restrict the content that is available. For example, you can banish certain attachments or Perks from being available.
• Re-design the Pick 10 as a pick 3 up to pick 17.

Party Games – Formerly known as Wager Matches in Call of Duty®: Black Ops, Sharpshooter, Gun Game, One in the Chamber and Sticks & Stones all make their return. These “just for fun” modes don’t use Create-a-Class or Scorestreak systems. However – unlike the previous title’s Wager Matches – players will earn XP and can even rank up the normal progression as you would with traditional game modes.

Combat Training – Evolved further, Combat Training is now integrated into the main game, offering three playlists for players:

• Bootcamp: Players rank up from 1-10 and give full XP for doing so. Bootcamp is Team Deathmatch only with a combination of 3 human players and 3 bots on their team, versus another team of 3 humans and 3 bots. It’s an excellent way to try and get the hang of MP with a lot less pressure.
• Objective: A combination of humans-and-bots versus another team of humans-and-bots, in a mix of objective-based modes where you can play beyond level 10 and earn ½ XP.
• Bot Stomp: Play in an effort to demolish the other AI-filled team to practice up or just have a good time. XP is not rewarded in this humans-versus-bots mode of play, but it is a great way to practice up, level up skills, learn maps and modes and still get the multiplayer game experience.

Challenges – Encourages and rewards players for branching out and experiencing game content, always providing a new goal around every turn, as well as bragging rights for those that achieve them. With thousands of Challenges to complete, it is the way for players to unlock cosmetic content and a way to define the player persona in the world of online play.

• Weapon Camos: Every weapon in the game (including launchers, knives and Assault Shields) can be camouflaged.
• Reticles: All of the major scopes in the game have their own set of Challenges. Completing those Challenges allow players to customize the reticle used on the attachment, showing people how far you’ve progressed and enhancing the player’s online persona.
• Playercard: It’s like your own Call of Duty: Black Ops II business card: it possesses your name and consists of an emblem (made by the player), background (unlockable), clan tag, matchmaking level of a player and current League Play rank.

Theater – Provides players with a set of features, serving as both a production tool, but also a research and training tool.

• Social: Utilizing a robust system of bookmarks and content tagged with meta-data (game mode, time/date stamps, score, captures and defends,) Theater makes finding content easier by providing visibility into the “Recently Shared” listing of films and screens from among the entire community, or the “Activity Feed” of just your friends. There is also an Up/Down voting system for films and screenshots that lets fan favorites rise to the top.
• Highlight Reel: Not everyone has hours to spend in the Theater to make movies, so it has been simplified to a one-touch button experience: at the press of a button, the game will do all the work, creating a highlight reel on the fly. Players can customize settings to expand/simplify the contents of a film. Once created, players can edit further, or simply save it and be done.
• CODcast: A special type of Theater mode, players can CODcast previously-recorded games providing the opportunity to practice casting games, or even create a video-on-demand series, or even a training tool to study up on strategies/tactics.
• New Features:Theater brings with it:
  • Clip Count: Players can store up to 20 clips.
  • “Merge Clips:” If players make a film with all 20 clips and then merge them together, it becomes one big clip
  • “Attach to Object:” Players can attach the camera to objects in the world including many Scorestreaks like the Dragonfire or RCDX

Prestige – Returning with 55 levels with 10 levels of Prestige, Call of Duty: Black Ops II does not “wipe the slate clean” and require players to start over at each Prestige – instead, it continues a player’s level progression. Weapon XP and/or earned attachments are not reset, nor are Challenges – anything earned stays unlocked for continued use.

• Prestige – Awards: Upon achieving Prestige status, players receive a “Prestige Token,” which is a special type of Unlock token allowing players to unlock whatever they want – forever. That includes things for which players haven’t reached the level requirement. Achieving Prestige brings a few rewards to use such as the ability to take an extra Create-a-Class slot (up to 5 total), the ability to reset stats entirely, or secure a “refund.” (A refund returns all of the unlock tokens spent so far and relocks the content.) Players can then choose to unlock a different set of items than the ones previously selected.

MULTIPLAYER MAPS: In the gameplay rotation:

• Aftermath: Ruins of downtown Los Angeles after a drone attack.
• Cargo: In the docks of Singapore, where cargo containers are constantly moving and changing the shape of cover in the map center.
• Turbine: Set in a wind farm in the desert plains of Yemen, Turbine is a large, open map, with the ability to climb on everything.
• Yemen: Urban street fight with tight alleyways and lots of changing elevation to the battle.
• Overflow: Great Urban engagements in the flood littered streets of Peshawar, Pakistan.
• Express: Los Angeles bullet train station with good long to medium engagements up and down the train tracks.
• Hijacked: Luxurious super yacht with frantic, yet controlled close quarters engagements.

MP TECHNOLOGY WITH ZOMBIES: Call of Duty: Black Ops II features new and extensive stat tracking as well as leaderboards for bragging rights. A new skill-based matchmaking system will allow players of the same ability to take on the horrors of the night in public game modes. For players that are looking for an extra challenge, Zombies features custom games: Headshots only, higher starting rounds, and a toggling of extra items are all available.

DEVELOPER: Treyarch

PUBLISHER: Activision Publishing, Inc.

RELEASE DATE: November 13, 2012 (global)

PLATFORMS: Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION® 3 computer entertainment system, Windows® PC, Wii U from Nintendo

ACB Rating: MA15+ (Strong Violence)