Listening to: Owl City album "Ocean Eyes
"
This weekend my roommate and I moved from a 5th floor walkup to a 4th floor walkup. That totals probably tens of thousands of stairs - 8 hours of the best Stair Master workout anyone could ever ask for. Luckily we have many great friends and family that were able to help us, otherwise we would NEVER have gotten it done in one day! Thanks guys, we love you!
Anyway, since that's over I now have had the opportunity to get excited again about the Green Day Rock Band
game coming out on June 8. I just today got an amazing deal on a used xbox 360 and bundle off craigslist (I won't lie, the whole reason I got this system is just so I can play Beatles
and Green Day Rock Band). It's gotten me thinking about music in video games in general, so I did a little research to find out more.
Video games have come a long way since the primitive simplicity of such games as Pong
, and the musical contribution to the games has kept in line with these advancements. In the days of Pong, technological restraints limited every aspect of a game’s presentation. Today’s games have extraordinarily dramatic, complex and sophisticated music accompanying the action on screen, even with full soundtracks similar to those in movies.
"This weekend my roommate and I moved from a 5th floor walkup to a 4th floor walkup. That totals probably tens of thousands of stairs - 8 hours of the best Stair Master workout anyone could ever ask for. Luckily we have many great friends and family that were able to help us, otherwise we would NEVER have gotten it done in one day! Thanks guys, we love you!
Anyway, since that's over I now have had the opportunity to get excited again about the Green Day Rock Band
game coming out on June 8. I just today got an amazing deal on a used xbox 360 and bundle off craigslist (I won't lie, the whole reason I got this system is just so I can play Beatles and Green Day Rock Band). It's gotten me thinking about music in video games in general, so I did a little research to find out more.Video games have come a long way since the primitive simplicity of such games as Pong
, and the musical contribution to the games has kept in line with these advancements. In the days of Pong, technological restraints limited every aspect of a game’s presentation. Today’s games have extraordinarily dramatic, complex and sophisticated music accompanying the action on screen, even with full soundtracks similar to those in movies.Aside from those amazing Final Fantasy soundtracks, where music is just one piece of the aesthetically beautiful and complex puzzle, music has become the center of attention (yay) and is now the game itself. Who remembers Harmonix's first major games FreQuency
(2001) and Amplitude 
(2003)?! They paved the way for Rock Band
and Guitar Hero
everyone knows today.Note: These games are great way to find new (to you) bands! Amplitude first introduced me to the awesome electropop band Freezepop and Guitar Hero 2
introduced me to the Boston band (my hometown) Bang Camaro - Love them both!!There have been an incredible number of expansion and spin-off games of the original Guitar Hero and Rock Band, even a Lego version. Haven't played it but I can only imagine it must be awesome/hilarious/adorable.
I'm most interested in the band-centric games like Guitar Hero's Aerosmith
and Metallica 
games, and Rock Band's Beatles and Green Day versions. If the advent of the Green Day game has convinced ME to shell out a couple hundred bucks for the whole kit and kaboodle, I'm sure I'm not the only Green Day fan that is doing something similar.These games have the ability to turn music fans into video game fans, as well as introduce new bands to video gamers! Great cross-pollination. I hope more bands jump on board. Bands I'd love to see: Incubus, Madonna, Nirvana, Moby, The Police, Journey, Radiohead, Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder and Queen!!
What bands do you want to see made into a Rock Band game?!
*~*~*~*~*
"I'd rather be a musician than a rock star" - George Harrison
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