Games Workshop once again proves what the setting they’ve nutured for 20+ years means to them now.

I’ll think about posting a rant about this horseshit later.

The weekend was highlighted dominated by the guys playing the shit out of trying Rock Band for the first time, including the elusive Teddy. Naturally, the mechanics of the game came naturally to my only slightly musically obsessed inclined brother. Naturally.

More surprising was how easily the others took to the experience. Tyler picked up on the drums faster than I did. Allister was not only willing to sing, but dove into it with fervour and gusto. As of last night Matt has finished the core songs of the Easy Solo Career and helped get “Walkman Tuner Override” a freakin’ private plane. It’s every bit and more the hit I was hoping it would be.

I like the idea of this.

Last night I tried drums on Rock Band and was pleasantly surprised. Both with my own skill and the difficulty. While my calf only had the mass and strength for about three songs Easy actually still managed to be easy. I can see how the drums are intimidating, though.

Guitar involves holding fret buttons down, then strumming when the marker comes up. Easy guitar only uses three frets, so the left (or in Tyler’s case, right) pinky can wither for all it matters. Medium uses four buttons, but after a bit of physio it’s not so bad. Hard and Expert use all five frets, so you’ll actually have to move your hand a bit. I can manage “Should I Stay or Should I Go” on Hard, proving how accessible Rock Band is. I couldn’t play even one Hard song on Guitar Hero.

The drums use all five “buttons” from the get go: Four pads and the bass pedal. On Easy it doesn’t require one’s limbs to be independent yet, which is a plus. However, the rythm you’re matching with appears to based more on the tempo of the song and the “spirit” of the beat or fill. Similarly with the guitar on Easy, it struck me that it was more important to wacth the game and know the BPM of the track than to hear the guitar part. The farther up the difficulty ladder one climbs, the less this is necessary. I believe Teddy and myself found Guitar Hero a little more intuitive on Medium for the same reason.

As an aside: I went a little farther into the singing and am starting to think it’s harder than the others for me. While I’ve accepted that my singing voice sounds like a kitchen shelf breaking, it’s getting the pitch the game wants right. The words go by like an old follow the dot movie, with a green pitch bar above them. The idea is to sing at the pitch as indicated by a little arrow. On a 42″ LCD at 1080p it’s a pain to see the little nuances of that bar, so I can only imagine what a practical gamer with a regular TV sees. What didn’t help is I chose a female avatar for my singer, which means I hear my voice coming from a cute redhead in a short kilt-shirt. It’s weird but I’m 10 songs in and won’t back out now. I did manage to sing falsetto for the first time in my life while performing “Creep” by Radiohead.

I’m start to feel the Rock Band experience even when I’m not playing now. My feet hurt because they’re not used to being stood on for 6 hours without shoes. The palm pad under my left index finger is sore from resting on the neck. The meat on my upper right forearm has a bruise from the edge of the body of the guitar; See, I’m fat, so the guitar sticks out and my strumming arm has to go out before reaching down to the strum bar. My lungs even felt a little strained from having to really get filled for a couple of the songs I sang. And I’ve already mentioned my calf. While it’s not gym, I think I might be getting some kind of a working from this. I feel great.

CP24 was running live coverage of the funeral for the seven Bathurst High School Students that died tragically in a highway accident last week. It was one of their friends fondly recalling a few descriptive anecdotes of those they’ve lost. What struck me was the genuine display of humanity from Ann Rohmer after returning to the newsroom. Fighting back tears, she praised the speakers for keeping their composure, then went on to lose the battle with her own emotions as she reported on fallen soldier, Trooper Richard Renaud, 26, of Alma Que., our most recent loss in Afghanistan.

If it were anyone but Ms. Rohmer I’d call them crocodile tears, but I watched her for years on Breakfast Television as a kid and now as the daytime anchorwoman for CP24. I’m pretty sure that was honest, as she’s always been a believable person on television and not some carefully crafted “personality” like most journalists. It is reassuring to see there’s something human in a newsroom, even if it was fleeting.

Okay, so I was able to create a Rock Band but unable to Tour; That needs at least a second bandmate. I also found out the name “Black Market Babies” gets flagged as “not really classy” and therefore won’t get posted on the Rock Band Leaderboards. Who knew?

I decided to rip off my far more musically cultured brother and go with “Walkman Tuner Override.” I went with Override instead of Overdrive so all three words were changed.

I might also go with “Guards Amongst Men.”

Get Rock Band. I was a big fan of Guitar Heroes 1 and 2 but heard 3 was a bit of a step down for the franchise. See, while I enjoy Guitar Hero, I also suck at it and can’t get past Medium. The idea of an even more difficult version give me the heebie-jeebies.

Rock Band is more approachable, handing out rewards and even *gasp* X-Box Live Achievements for finishing Easy songs. It even gives you money for swag if you repeat a song, regardless of whether your follow-up is worse than the last. My biggest problem right now is having shelled out $190 for the full kit, the Guys are wimping out leaving me with no Band with which to Rock. It’s kinda sad to watch a bunch of single, near-30 D&D geeks try to get dignified. Seriously, the group that had to almost wrestle me to watch Dude, Where’s My Car? in the theatre are now above Rock Band…

As of this writing, I’ve finished the Easy songs on guitar and have started with the singing, just so I can take the most frightening part on of the game if need be. Truth be told, with enough volume you almost can’t hear yourself anyways. And they do such a good job conveying the energy of a live show (the crowd sings along convincingly) you get too into it to care about your singing voice. Thankfully, I’ve no complaints about the track list so far. Where I was expecting obscure tunes for the opening sets they had “Mississippi Queen” by Mountain and Weezer. And it’s only gone up from there.

This has potential.

Here’s to 2008 being a good one!