At the Game Developer's Choice Awards at GDC, I heard about a little game called Audiosurf. In the craziness that was GDC, I found myself too busy to play the demo. Recently, I read on a game blog about how Audiosurf was available via Steam. Now that there was a demo, and I had no more excuses. It was time to give this award-winning independent game a try.

Audiosurf may be a rhythm game, but it's quite different from Guitar Hero or Rock Band. The layout does look similar to Guitar Hero from the screenshots; however, the gameplay itself is quite different. Songs you choose (from music files on your computer) are mapped into something resembling a racetrack. Blocks are places across the lanes, and they can vary in color (depending on the mode). There were a few different modes to play, including dodging certain color blocks and collecting other color blocks.

I found the game to be slightly difficult at first. I didn't quite understand how I was supposed to stack matching color blocks into columns that moved with me, and how to strategize to get maximum points. Sometimes, the columns would fill too quickly on the fast parts or they wouldn't clear matching colors out fast enough, so I would lose points. However, there were some nice touches in the mechanics, such as having the gray blocks (which don't match with anything) clear out automatically, reducing the punishment. Also, there were power-ups and other details that made the game more complex.

The mechanics encouraged skilled play, and I could tell just from the short demo that the game had a nicely scaled degree of complexity. I tried to choose a wide variety of songs during my demo. I absolutely loved the idea of using music I know and love (avoiding difficulties that arise from unfamiliarity with some songs in games such as Guitar Hero). However, this freedom also means that the level of difficulty can vary greatly between songs. Even if I'm familiar with a song, it may have portions that are just too fast for me to handle.

Audiosurf requires different skills than many mainstream rhythm games on the market. It's mainly a matter of timing. I really enjoyed being able to pick my own songs, meaning I never had to play one that I didn't like. Audiosurf may not have had the budget of games like Guitar Hero, but it is certainly a fun rhythm game and a neat way to appreciate your favorite music.  

Rock Band seemed like a neat idea ever since I heard about it, and I enjoyed my first brief experience with it. I liked the concept of being able to assemble your own band. Whether you play alone or with others, you can gain a new appreciation for music by focusing on an instrument you don’t normally listen to, especially bass and drums.

I don’t own Rock Band (and probably won’t for a while due to limited space), but I do enjoy playing it. I have found that it’s fun to play with one other person, but the more people, the better. I like being able to cheer my friends on and work together as a team of four. It’s unique to have a game these days that allows for up to four players in a co-op mode.

When I was playing in a group of three, I often ended up singing vocals. The vocal part is really strange because all you have to do is match the tone. It doesn’t make a difference what words you sing. Songs can be really hard if you’ve never heard them before, but the lax policy (just tone-matching) makes it easier. For drums, it seemed that many songs had similar patterns that would repeat. Even if there were a few tricky parts involving the pedal, the pattern would greatly reduce the difficulty. The guitar part was fun, but my other friends often played it since they were better at it from playing Guitar Hero. It tended to hurt my hand (likely due to inefficient techniques) and tended to be finicky. The guitar controller looks cooler than that for Guitar Hero, but the well-known fact that they break easily greatly detracts from the aesthetic improvements.

The game itself it structured in a fun way, especially with the customizable characters. I enjoyed creating an avatar that looks like an improved version of myself. However, the game doesn’t allow you to switch your character to a different instrument. This was annoying because the people I played with often rotated instruments, so I felt silly playing as an avatar that looked like my friend while the “me” avatar was busy on another part.

I have enjoyed playing Rock Band, and I’d like to play it more. It seems best played with a group of people, so the best gameplay sessions take a little coordination. No matter how much fun I have though, I don’t think I’ll ever forget the silliness of the concept. Rock Band is a game that takes the “be a rock star” fad that began with Guitar Hero even further, but it’s ok to enjoy it as long as you remember that it’s just a game.  

I often see enormous tents and displays on campus. I usually pay little attention, as they often involve free energy drinks or activists. Fortunately, the semi parked on campus last Friday was promoting the game Rock Band. I made an exception and decided to check out the tour bus.

I spent about two hours on the Rock Band tour bus, which had been opened up to form a little stage. The time passed much more quickly when I ran into some friends. I had been playing drums, and I was happy to do so. I have spent some time with Guitar Hero, and the guitar on Rock Band seemed like the same thing. I wanted to try out the “new” instruments. I was surprised to find that there was little demand for the drums, but they were quite fun to play.

Virtual drums are rather interesting. I had thought that it would be like a practice pad, with one or two round circles to hit. Instead, the controller is structured more like a drum set, with four small circles in an arc and a foot pedal. The easy drum difficulty rarely use the foot petal, but the later difficulties become increasingly complicated (as expected). Hitting the different color-coded circles isn’t too difficult, but many people (including myself) seemed to have a lot more trouble when the foot pedal was involved. As a former flutist in high school band and orchestra, I got used to tapping my foot to the beat. I had to switch feet to tap my left foot, as the right foot controlled the pedal. When one foot is tapping and the other has to push a pedal down at certain timed cues, it becomes rather complicated. Fortunately, I played mostly on easy and medium difficulties, so it was manageable.

One of the most fun components of the Rock Band tour was the recording portion. It wasn't a part of the normal game, but was meant as a promotion on the tour. In order to get a free t-shirt, you had to play for a camera. This video is then posted online and eventually feeds into a contest. I ended up with random people, so I never expected to be any good. However, the fact that you get to see yourself on the internet in a silly little video is quite a novelty. I had a lot of fun playing on stage and rocking out in that geeky gamer way. My video is posted below.

After visiting the Rock Band tour bus, I am no closer to buying the game than I was before. I did learn that it is a lot of fun with a group of people that you know, and it can make you feel like a rock star with a little imagination.

See Video Below:

Or click the link here: My Rock Band Video  

It was a lovely night in here in LA. I was about to go to bed, as I had to wake up early to get to my QA job the next day. I walked out to say goodnight to my roommates, who just happened to be having a lot of fun playing the incredibly popular Guitar Hero II.

"You want to play?" one of my roommates asked. I refused at first, but he persisted.

"Maybe just one song," I said.

I slung the small plastic guitar around my shoulders and instantly felt cooler. I selected a moderately easy song and began to play. I could probably count the number of times I’d played that game on one hand, but something about this night was different. I quickly got the hang of the controls and the song began to sound like it should. My roommates cheered me on. The percentage of notes I hit was consistently improving as one song turned into two, then three, then more. I finally pulled myself away and I went to bed, excited from newfound ability to 'play guitar'.

I had never been strongly attracted to Guitar Hero before. My sister had it and would play it in our house, so I had complete access to the game. I like rhythm games, but this one was pretty loud and hurt my fingers. However, that night made me realize that Guitar Hero can be addicting. You can have literally no knowledge of music and suddenly you can "play" a song. The game is structured so that you feel like you can play just as well as the real rock stars without actually doing all the work.

In a way, Guitar Hero feeds off your ego. Simply by having the word 'hero' in the title, it implies that you have done something great and possibly extraordinary. Within a few hours, you can develop the necessary skills to play harder and harder songs in the game, catapulting you to star status in an incredibly small amount of time.

I spent seven years of my life as a dedicated classical musician. I practiced one to two hours almost every day. Practicing is not at all glamorous. Music requires some of the most intense dedication of any career. With an instrument like the flute, taking just one day off can mean a huge difference in tone for the next one or two days. In some ways, Guitar Hero is almost a cheaters’ method of playing music; it feeds off nearly instant gratification and the satisfaction of playing beloved tunes. In real music, you can play songs you know and love, but it takes a lot of hard work to get there.

While I hesitate to say that I disapprove of Guitar Hero II, I find it hard to love a game that ignores the dedication it takes to become a great musician. I think this game can be a lot of fun, as long as people remember the difference between pressing buttons on a controller and genuinely playing music.  

Playing games all day and getting paid for it seems like a dream come true. Working in video game quality assurance, however, is a different matter. While my QA summer job means that I am testing games all day on the Wii, Xbox 360, or PS2, it is not the dream many would imagine. I play one game almost exclusively during my 40-hour week.

While I am not allowed to reveal details about the title I test, I can admit that it can be beaten almost twice in one day. I do enjoy this game, but continually beating it can take some of the fun out of it. Fortunately, I was placed on this title earlier in the testing process so I have been able to watch it improve. One of the most rewarding parts of my job is reporting a bug and seeing it get fixed. In a small way, I can have a direct impact on making the game better.

One of the strangest things about testing is how you can literally do the same thing every day. When I come home, I can list the same accomplishments (beating the game, collecting all the special items, etc.). What separates the days from each other are the experiences that are generated from gameplay, most prominent in multiplayer testing. Even if I find a seemingly fantastic bug one day, I find that nothing compares to the human element in multiplayer testing.

The addition of only one person can make all the difference. The other player can reveal a new play style, making me more aware of the ingrained habits that limit my ability to test the game for the many different types of players who will play the game. It took me over a month before I was shown a small area that I had never known existed. What was common to the other player was a new discovery to me in the game I thought I knew like the back of my own hand.

After being hired as a tester, I began to fear that this job would forever take the fun away from games for me. I once heard an experienced tester explaining how he had crashed nearly every commercial game he had ever played, including Guitar Hero. While my experience as a tester would only last three months, I still feared that I would become bitter toward games, which are inevitably flawed. Like humans, games are never perfect, and the constant pressure of budgets means that many games are released before they are fully ready.

Now that I have spent a few weeks as a tester, I am happy to find that I still love games. Unfortunately, my desire to play console games has diminished greatly, due to my desire to save the strain on my hands and avoid the monotony of doing something that might feel like my job. I get paid to play parts over and over even if they’re frustrating, and I have no desire to experience similar frustrations at home with other games without getting compensated. Fortunately, my DS still feels like an entirely different experience (as it is a portable console) and I have found that I am still excited to play it once in a while. I only hope that I will still feel that way after several more weeks of testing.