I just turned Guitar Hero II back in to the GameSpot library (a little late) and had a few thoughts I wanted to share having put a ton of time into it:

Leaderboards rock
I didn't think they would add much to the experience, but leaderboards are a great addition. On several occasions I found myself staying up later than I should so that I could pass a friend on the leaderboards. I think it's kind of weak that some people have more points on a song after playing it on medium than I do after beating it on hard, but hey, it's a small gripe.

Alex is a Guitar Hero God
Before I knew any better I told Alex that I would have a higher score than him on a song. That was before I went online and found he was ranked six-hundred-something in the world. Dude is good.

The track list is still pretty weak
I love Pearl Jam more than any other band, but Life Wasted? Really? That's not even the best Guitar Hero-****song on that album--nowhere close. If you have to go with something off of the new album, Severed Hand would have been awesome. It seems like every time they struck gold with a song they struck out somewhere else. Possum Kingdom was great addition; Hush wasn't. From the original tracks, I liked a lot of the artists, but question some of the song choices. Heart Shaped Box was a great song, but not a great Guitar Hero Song. I know Harmonix liked to be all cool and whatnot with their song choices, but how can you not go with Walk This Way for the Aerosmith song? At least it wasn't the song from Armageddon. I understand that a lot of people enjoy harder music than myself, but I thought there was too much emphasis placed on it, and the game really got tedious near the end. There were some songs in the first Guitar Hero that I didn't like a whole lot, but there weren't any that I really hated. In GHII There are songs that I can honestly say that I hate. There were plenty of songs that I really loved in Guitar Hero, and there are some songs I love in GHII, but there aren't as many.

I don't care about practice mode
This really surprised me. I worked really hard to perfect my skills in the first game and I frequently lamented the lack of a practice mode. Now that it's here I never use it. I think it's probably because of the (in my opinion) somewhat crappy track list. I have no desire to practice songs that I actively hate so I just play the ones I like over and over again.

Downloadable songs = ripoff
I don't even know the exact amount of money they're charging for these things, but the songs are way overpriced. If you're going to bundle songs together, at least make them reasonably priced. As it stands now you're asking someone to possibly pay for a song they don't like and you're asking them to pay a lot for it.

The new guitar is nice
I really wish it was wireless, but all things considered the Xbox 360 guitar feels sturdier and is more comfortable to play.

I guess that's about it. There wasn't really a reason for this post--I just wanted to share my thoughts on the game.

*I forgot to mention that I love the bonus song Gemini. It's a blast to play and reminds me a lot of Gibb Droll, a kind-of well known guitarist who has been around for quite some time. Anyway, it's a great song. 

Get to know the people that bring you all of the great content on GameSpot in a regular series of short and lighthearted gaming-related interviews.

Episode XVI: Jody Robinson

The latest Getting To Know GameSpot has arrived, and it features none other than Jody Robinson, a community manager here at GameSpot. She does a lot of work with the forums and our tournaments, but most importantly (to me at least) she keeps a big ol' dish of candy on her desk, which means I can just stop by and trick-or-treat any time. Awesome!

Jody might look all sweet and innocent, but that doesn't mean you'd want to take her on in a first-person shooter on the PC--she's got some skills. Watch this week's video to find out where she got those skills, why she's embarrassed to play a puzzle game, and what she does to people who think she shouldn't be playing "boys games" because she's a girl.

The next episode will feature Phil Elliott, one of the editors at GameSpot UK. They just moved into a brand new office, so maybe they'll hook us up with a tour. I don't know about you, but I'm interested in seeing how they do things on the other side of the pond.

Thank you for all the comments and the great feedback for my Behind the Spot video. Knowing that so many people enjoyed it really made the hard work worth it. Sadly, I was unable to host a downloadable version here on the site.

As always, thanks for watching!

When people think of On the Spot they probably think of Rich, Jeff, and Ryan having a blast on camera, in-depth unstructured demos, and interesting video highlights from around the world of games. But there's a lot more to On the Spot than what you see on camera, and that's what I tried to capture with Behind the Spot, a behind-the-scenes look into the work that goes into making On the Spot the great show that it is.

I'm working on uploading a high-quality version of the video for those of you who have trouble with the video player or just want to have a version to watch over and over again. I'll update here if and when I'm able to do so.

As always, thanks for watching!

*Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about Getting To Know with Jody--it'll be right here on the Soapbox next Friday.

Get to know the people that bring you all of the great content on GameSpot in a regular series of short and lighthearted gaming-related interviews.

Episode XV: Brad Shoemaker

I've got one of the greatest jobs in the world, but sometimes it's difficult to not get jealous of the previews guys. A few months ago I was slogging my way through three(!) versions of Spyro trying not to fall asleep and Brad's sitting next to me with an early build of Guitar Hero II. Just the other day Brad and Brian were comparing notes on how their interviews with Megatron and Optimus Prime went. Yep, sometimes (but not always) the previews guys have got it made.

If you've been curious to find out more about the man behind so many of GameSpot's in-depth previews, now's your chance. I pulled Brad away from his shiny new TV just long enough to find out how he spent his most recent vacation, his reputation for being bad at games, and his addiction to World of Warcraft.

I've got my On The Spot behind-the-scenes video on tap for next week, and Getting To Know will return in two weeks with Jody Robinson, one of the unsung heroes who makes sure GameSpot's online community is one big happy family. As always, thanks for watching!

The calender says that Spring started a few weeks ago, but for many sports fans, today is the first day of Spring. That's right, it's baseball's opening day (I don't count yesterday). Every team is in first place and each player is looking forward to what they hope will be a career year. Well, maybe not Prior and Wood-I think they're just hoping that their arms don't fall off. For Cubs fans like me, it's the start of another run at ending the championship drought that now extends almost 100 years. Hopefully this is the year.

Now that I'm all responsible with a job and all I can't watch as much baseball as I used to, but I did just subscribe to the MLB.tv video service that will let me watch most of the Cubs' (and everyone else's) games. Hopefully I can keep that on in the background and still get some work done. If the Cubs play as poorly as they did today that won't be a problem. They're losing 5-1 right now, and I'm multitasking like a champ.

Brian, Tim Tracy, Rich, Tim Surrette, and I are all excited about opening day 2007. Anyone else?

Fun Fact: I took this picture and caught the foul ball.

I've never really understood the whole "system wars" thing. I know why some people choose to support one console over another, but I've never understood why they would get into insane arguments about which console is better, especially on message boards. It's fine to talk to your buddies about why you like console A more than console B, but spending countless hours trading insults with someone you've never met because they happen to own a different console? That's taking the whole "loyalty" thing to the extreme.

Or at least that was the extreme.

Last week, Capcom announced that Devil May Cry 4, which was once a PlayStation 3 exclusive, will be heading to the Xbox 360 as well as the PS3. Now, more people can play the game, and Capcom can make more money. Everybody wins, right?

Not everybody.

PlayStation 3 fanboys were all sorts of upset. Why? They lost some precious ammo in the "Our system has X number of exclusive games" argument. But that's just fanboys being fanboys; here's where it gets nutty. For reasons that I have yet to understand, some people were so upset by this announcement that they organized an online petition to whine about it. More than 11,000 nutjobs signed their names to the following:

We (The people that have signed this petition) feel very left out in your decision to make Devil May Cry 4 a Multi-Platform title, and hereby agree to boycott your sale of Capcom affiliated games. This is due to your decision to turn your back on your most faithful gaming company. For years we have enjoyed games, we have reaped the benefits of your committment [sic] to Sony. We find it absolutely demoralizing for not only the gamers, but also Sony itself. We want you to know that will not, and should not stand for your actions, and therefore withold [sic] our option of buying your product.

Let's take a look at why this is insane, one sentence at a time:

We (The people that have signed this petition) feel very left out in your decision to make Devil May Cry 4 a Multi-Platform title, and hereby agree to boycott your sale of Capcom affiliated games

First of all, thanks for clarifying who "we" is. I'm sure Capcom never could have figured out that "we" refers to the people that signed the petition. Second, you shouldn't feel left out. You don't work for Capcom, and chances are pretty good that none of you own Capcom stock. Capcom doesn't need to run their business decisions by you. As for the boycott? You're idiots.

This is due to your decision to turn your back on your most faithful gaming company.

No, this is due to "you" (the people that signed this petition) having way too much time on your hands. I'd comment about the "most faithful gaming company" part, but to be honest, I can't even hazard a guess as to what that really means.

For years we have enjoyed games, we have reaped the benefits of your committment to Sony.

I've got good news for you: You'll continue to enjoy games AND you'll still get to do so while playing a Sony console. Your ability to enjoy Devil May Cry 4 on the PS3 is not affected IN ANY WAY. I'm going to let you in on a little secret about Capcom's "committment" to Sony. Resident Evil 4 was on the GameCube first; Lost Planet and Dead Rising were Xbox 360 exclusives; Phoenix Wright is only available on the Nintendo DS; the list goes on and on. This "committment" is all in your minds.

We find it absolutely demoralizing for not only the gamers, but also Sony itself.

Gamers, at least ones with common sense, aren't demoralized at all. See, more people get to play the game now. Gamers like playing games. You're probably right, though; Sony's most likely a bit bummed out about the news.

We want you to know that will not, and should not stand for your actions, and therefore withold [sic] our option of buying your product.

I'll ignore the omitted "we" that renders the first half of this sentence meaningless. Let me get this straight. Because Capcom is now releasing the game on another system in addition to the PlayStation 3, you won't buy the game, even though it's still coming out on the PlayStation 3? Capcom should leave money on the table? That's a good idea! Maybe they'll take such a loss on DMC 4 that they'll never make another Devil May Cry game! Wouldn't it be great if people lost jobs because the game underperformed? That would be sweet!

Capcom's Christian Svensson was the lucky person tapped with responding to this nonsense. He said, "We are certainly moved that people are so passionate about our products that they would go to such extremes. At the same time we feel that allowing more people access to our content pleases far more people than it displeases (after all, we're not denying DMC4 to anyone that was already going to get it). It really is the best decision for the company and for consumers." As you can see, Christian was much more diplomatic than I was. Sadly, he's got to tread lightly around these zealots or else they might start a petition to have him fired for being insensitive to their very sensitive feelings. Fortunately for me, I'm free to tell them just how I feel.