Demos and Guitar Hero effect

The PSN (US) was graced with a couple of demos of interesting Friday, these being for Ratchet and Clank and Conan.

The Ratchet and Clank demo just goes to show how visually stunning this game is. It’s almost on par with watching a playable Pixar film. What’s more, there is just so much going on in the demo as the city around you is being attacked and is generally falling apart. Admittedly the majority of things are happening in the background and as such you are unable to interact with them, but still the effect is pretty impressive. As far as the gameplay goes, it seems a little busy and cluttered for my taste, certainly not a refined platform game like the best that Mario has to offer, however I can see it appealing to a lot of people.

The Conan demo was a bit of a surprise. I was pretty much expecting it to be rubbish, but actually found that I rather enjoyed it. At its basics, it’s an action game in the same mould as God of War and Heavenly Sword, but at the same time I found it much easier to get a feel for what your doing and most importantly, it is a game where you get nowhere fast unless you block attacks (something which is strangely lacking in most games).

I’ve noticed that since playing Guitar Hero down a friend house (I don’t own it – but plan to get Rock Band when it graces our shores early next year) that I tend to listen to music in greater detail than previously. I can now distinctly make out the different instruments and elements that make up a track, namely lead guitar, bass guitar, drums etc. This is also probably helped further by the fact that I’m currently (very slowly) trying to learn how to play a real guitar.

As a confessed Beatleholic, I must confess that I would love to see some Beatles tracks eventually end up on Rock Band (especially anything from Rubber Soul), which is a possibility since EMI are providing their back catalogue. Although it has to be said that the remaining Beatles have been very cautious when it comes to the distribution of their songs – after all you still can’t but a single Beatles track on itunes, however, I can still dream.

The only problem would be that usually for the Beatles you have the following elements: lead guitar (Harrison), rhythm guitar (Lennon), bass guitar (McCartney), drums (Strarr) and vocals (normally Lennon or McCartney). By my count that’s one Guitar too many for Rock Band!

I also notice that EA has recently acquires Bioware… Does this mean Mass Effect on the PS3 down the line? Only time will tell.

I also confessed that I’m intrigued by the looks of Everyday Shooter. Ars Technica (a great site BTW) has a good look at it here :

Everyday shooter

Not bad for a just a one man team…