Hey gamers


I don't have much to say about this one. While I appreciate its greatly reduced length after the slog that was Valhalla, the gorgeous city of Baghdad, and the return to the focus on parkour, stealth, and the Creed, Mirage still feels half baked in its story, characters, structure, combat, and progression. The best thing I can say about Mirage is the historical sites. I imagine, due to its initial development as a DLC to Valhalla, they weren't planning to do a Discovery Tour for Mirage like they did for the prior three AC games, so they put their historical research notes into the game itself. This was a great move, allowing me to absorb myself into the setting even more as I played instead of appreciating the the world after I had already played the game. For real though, If you own Origins, Odyssey, and/or Valhalla and haven't checked out their respective Discovery Tours, I implore you to; well, at least the first two (Valhalla's DT structure is really strange and has some awful text-to-speech dialogue).

Hey gamers


Having completed a full playthrough on drums, two playthroughs on guitar, and a full game FC on bass, I still believe that Guitar Hero: Van Halen is one of the best in the series. I think Van Halen is the quintessential band for the band-centric Guitar Hero games. Eddie's riffs are super fun to play, and so are the drums and bass. I had a blast running through the setlist on each instrument.


The charts are solid for the most part. Most of them, especially VH's songs, are enjoyable, regardless of the instrument. My only gripes are that they tend to go overboard with slides by charting them with tap notes, and a few of the songs with in a triplet swing (Beautiful Girls, Ice Cream Man) are charted as straight 8th/16th notes for drums and bass.


The only other issue I have with this game are the guest act selections. In the other two band-centric Guitar Hero games, the guest acts were artists that inspired the band, were inspired by the band, or just fit the general vibe of the setlist. For example, GH: Aerosmith included The Black Crowes, Cheap Trick, Joan Jett, The Cult, Ted Nugent, etc. GH: Metallica included Motorhead, Slayer, System of a Down, Judas Priest, Alice in Chains, etc. In GH: Van Halen, the guest acts here are just baffling. A few feel like they belong, but 75% of them have no business being here - Weezer, Blink-182, Yellowcard, Killswitch Engage, Fountains of Wayne, Jimmy Eat World, The Offspring, Queens of the Stone Age, Alter Bridge. That being said, the Van Halen setlist is so good that it outshines these other bands.


I'm going to do another full guitar playthrough soon and scrounge up some FCs that I didn't bother with last time. I think that's about it. Great game.


Favourite songs:

- Atomic Punk - Van Halen
- Beautiful Girls - Van Halen
- Double Vision - Foreigner
- Eruption - Van Halen
- Hot for Teacher - Van Halen
- I'm the One - Van Halen
- Ice Cream Man - Van Halen
- Mean Street - Van Halen
- Painkiller - Judas Priest
- Panama - Van Halen
- Runnin' with the Devil - Van Halen
- Semi-Charmed Life - Third Eye Blind
- Somebody Get Me a Doctor - Van Halen
- Space Truckin' - Deep Purple
- Spanish Fly - Van Halen
- You Really Got Me - Van Halen

Hey gamers


I was made aware of Amplitude last year from playing Rock Band 4 as one of the songs on its setlist, Recession, was made for the Amplitude remake. After further research, the original Amplitude is a sequel to Frequency, which are the first two games Harmonix published. Being a nearly lifelong Guitar Hero / Rock Band player, I have a huge amount of respect for Harmonix. This new version of Amplitude had been at the back of my mind ever since, and I decided to give it a go a year later.


The gameplay of Amplitude consists of traveling down lanes that correspond to each aspect of the song (drums, synths, bass, vocals, and guitar). You shoot the gems on the corresponding lane to play that instrument, and if you hit all the gems in a given sequence, the instrument continues playing on its own as its corresponding lane disappears. Several measures later, the instrument fades from the mix and its corresponding lane spawns back. You're essentially building and maintaining the mix of the song through the game. It's a creative idea and one that I enjoyed playing. The electronic setlist works really well for this game, and it's incredibly charming and nostalgic for me. I love the art direction, and the concept album campaign is a cool idea. There is a large learning curve, and I still have a fair way to go to overcoming it. At this point, I can FC most songs on intermediate, I can reliably 2-bar every song on advanced, but I struggle to pass half of them on expert. I think it's safe to say I won't be earning the platinum trophy. I can't believe I'm saying this, but after playing GH/RB for well over a decade, it was oddly enjoyable to be this bad at a rhythm game again.


I do think, however, that this version of Amplitude has two major shortcomings. The first is the lack of standout tracks. I do like the electronic genre of the setlist, but it's not something I could sink my teeth into for hours at a time. I don't see myself coming back to the game to play some of these songs often. Plus, since it's a single genre, the experience feels one-note. With only 30 songs, Amplitude doesn't have the longevity that most GH/RB games do.


The other is that it's incredibly difficult, even impossible in some cases, to maintain your combo due to the many obstructions and distractions it throws at you. You could argue that it's like sight-reading sheet music as you have to look ahead to play properly, but I disagree. It's more like sight-reading sheet music while a cat keeps getting in your way trying to knock the paper off the stand. I can think of a few solutions that would make things so much easier: Colour coordinate the notes depending on which of the three note lanes it belongs to à la GH/RB, have the instrument lanes spawn adjacent to the one you're currently on, don't have the lanes curve as they travel, move the camera further away, zoom out, or lock the camera in place like in the multiplayer mode.


At the very least, Amplitude succeeds the task that many rhythm games strive for: It is made by and for people who have a passion for music, and it will help people appreciate music in a new light. You can clearly experience Harmonix's love of music through this game. Much like how GH/RB inspired many to learn the guitar, bass, drums, and/or singing, myself included, I can easily see someone citing Amplitude as an inspiration for them to pursue sound mixing or beat creation. That's the power of rhythm games, and I feel comfortable with Amplitude being cemented as a worthwhile addition to the genre. I may not love it as much as GH/RB, but I respect what it's doing and I'm glad to have played it.


Favourite songs:

- 2. Wetware - Harmonix
- 3. Dreamer - Harmonix
- 4. Recession - Jeff Allen ft. Noelle LeBlanc and Naoko Takamoto
- 5. Break for Me - James Landino ft. Noelle LeBlanc
- Lights - Wolfgun
- Phantoms - Freezepop