Guitar Hero III and Rock Band face off in marketplace
If the executives at Hasbro had thought to put Simon's colored buttons on the neck of a guitar, they would surely have enough money by now to build a toy store on the outer rings of Saturn. In the mere two years since its debut, the Guitar Hero franchise has sold a mind-pretzling 14 million units in North America, which amounts to over a billion dollars in revenue (and that's not counting the money they've made from selling five million downloadable tracks for Guitar Hero III). Question: How many more times will I use the suffix "-illion" in this news... read more
MTV launches Rhythm Game Track Finder
What did you receive this holiday season? Was it Guitar Hero 3, or perhaps you received a whole Rock Band set? Or both, and you've got the old Guitar Hero games as well. Which game has the Weezer track your looking for, and which Guitar Hero edition was it that had "Free Bird" so you can earnestly bust it out when that one irritating friend yells out his hackneyed request? (The answer, by the way, is Guitar Hero 2). To help out all of you guitar heroes and rock band, erm, members, MTV has released the Rhythm Game Track Finder.... read more
Blu-ray to PSP movie transfers soon a reality
Not that it's impossible to do this now by hacking the firmware on an old PSP and using some serious compression tools, but Sony announced this week at CES that they'd be making an official, and easy-to-use, way of bringing Blu-ray films to your PlayStation Portable. Now that a few days have gone by, they've laid out the details as to what's involved. Gizmodo reports that the films will be about one gigabyte, standard-definition files optimized for the PSP. They should take only 3-5 minutes to download via USB to the Memory Stick Duo from a PS3. Best of all,... read more
History Channeled
In the late 1990s, when Steven Spielberg began working on World War II shooter Medal Of Honor, he and the game’s developer, Dreamworks Interactive, contracted veteran Marine captain Dale Dye—who’d also consulted on Saving Private Ryan—to make sure the game was historically accurate. But while finding someone so knowledgeable about World War II is relatively easy (Tom Brokaw probably has a couple of Greatest Generation vets chilling in his living room this very second), locating someone well versed in the Third Crusade—which occurred from 1189 to 1192 A.D.—is somewhat trickier. read more
Zack & Wiki: Quest For Barbaros' Treasure
A gigantic-hat-wearing chocoholic pirate boy and a golden monkey that levitates with a helicopter propeller are on a quest to recover the gilded body parts of Barbaros, a famous pirate... read more
The Orange Box
Every moment you’re playing, a video game asks the question: What do you see? Half-Life 2: Episode Two, one of three new games in The Orange Box, is masterful both for what it shows you, and for what it hides... read more
Silent Hill: Origins
While most games crib from genre hits like Star Wars and Aliens, Silent Hill’s creators haven’t been shy about their devotion to David Lynch... read more
Signs of Life 2007 : Best Games
Wherein Paste's joystick junkies pick their favorite gaming experiences of 2007. From dystopian undersea epics to golden limb-hunting puzzle adventures, it was a fine year in the constant evolution of video games. One thing's for sure: they're not just for kids anymore... read more
Guitar Hero III shreds through consumers' wallets
Okay, so maybe we're featured in it. That minor conflict of interest won't prevent Paste from keeping its readers abreast with all things Guitar Hero III. The latest good news for GHIII: according to Variety, the game raked in $100 million in its first week of sales. How much of that will Paste see? None. But one thing's for sure - this is one best-seller that everyone in the Paste offices can get behind (unlike certain others). The Variety article also mentions that these mighty sales could impact the fortunes of the rival Rock Band video game, which was created... read more
Complicated Games
As we learned all the way back to Pong, it’s easier to hook a player with points and tactics than with an emotionally compelling story. Games are inherently a sandbox, and your actions are desensitized by their lack of real-life consequences... read more
BioShock
I played BioShock for the first time late at night. Sitting in my living room with the lights turned off. Somehow I’d managed to block out the game’s interminable pre-release hype... read more
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Thinking back to the original two-dimensional Metroid on the Famicom and NES, it’s breathtaking to see how this alien-zapping, pirate-thwarting, space-crawling series has evolved... read more
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
To sell out, or not to sell out? Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock asks the eternal question with pierced tongue wedged firmly in cheek... read more
Paste and Guitar Hero: together at last
Guitar Hero III is finally out and the Paste staff can't stop moshing with excitement. Partly because Red Octane included Tenacious D's riff-a-licious song "The Metal," which makes a cogent argument for metal's continued supremacy. And partly because when you finish certain songs, the score screen features your character making an appearance on the cover of some magazine called Paste. OH WAIT THAT'S US HOLY CRAP! Related links: Poll: What song would you like to play in Guitar Hero? Axe of Heroism: Guitar Hero II GuitarHero.com Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.... read more
The Axeman Cometh: Guitar Hero III in stores this weekend
Every rock critic is a failed rock musician. This is not a general tendency; this is an ironclad rule we're talking about, here. So you can perhaps fathom why we at Paste are all such Guitar Hero junkies. Hell, we wouldn't even be putting out a magazine if we could actually get our copy of Guitar Hero II to play on the TV in the office lounge. Nowhere else can one find such an authentic rock guitar experience... at least without, you know, actually learning how to play the guitar and starting a band. It's not as easy as Art... read more
Writers Guild to recognize game writers
The Writers Guild of America announced its first Videogame Writing Award, "to encourage storytelling excellence in videogames, to improve the status of writers, and to begin to encourage uniform standards." The first award will be given at the 2008 Writers Guild Awards on Saturday, February 9, 2008. “Videogames are written and many are written very well. By recognizing the skill and craft of videogame writing, the Writers Guilds intend to raise the profile of these writers so that they can get WGA contracts and benefits for this work. We aim, we shoot, we score,” commented WGAW President and ex-Futurama writer... read more
What's Up, Chief?
Some games aspire to new experiences, new ways of thinking and new ways of bending your mind. But how many games can say they’re a new national sport? read more
Price and date announced for Rock Band
Rock Band, Harmonix's game designed to kick the crap out of its earlier creation Guitar Hero, has finally been given a release date and price. While earlier guesses had been at about the $200 range, Rock Band is actually set at $170 on next-gen consoles and will ship on November 23 according to Wired News. A PS2 skew of the game will also be out a bit later on December 10 for $160, though probably lacking the online functionality of its next-gen cousins. Rock Band is the first game developed by Harmonix after its old publisher, Red Octane, took over... read more
Heeeeello Halo!
I consider myself a pretty hardcore gamer. I’ve got multiple consoles and at least one handheld and stacks of games cluttering one corner of my living room. I regularly light incense and bow prostrate before the guy who came up with the idea of an Italian plumber jumping on turtles in a toadstool kingdom (mushrooms indeed!). Even still, for the past several years Halo was something that other people stayed up all night playing. I had my precious RPGs and Action Adventures—my Final Fantasys, my Zeldas, my Elder Scrollses—and decided I had no interest in first-person shooters. However, after recently... read more
The New York Times Crosswords
When I was younger and even more pretentious, I loved crossword puzzles... read more
The 20 Best Gadgets of the Decade…
The 17 Best Romantic Comedies This Decade
The 50 Best Albums of the Decade…
The 25 Best Movie Performances of the…
The 20 Best Live Acts of the…
Kim Taylor - Days Like this
Gregory Alan Isakov - The Moon Song
Patrick Watson - Man Like You
Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard
Punch Brothers - Punch Brothers at CMJ
David Bazan - Hard To Be
Anya Marina - Whatever You Like
